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St. Lebuin of Deventer
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Saints and feasts
St. Lebuin of Deventer
Patron of Daventer, Confessor
Lebuin was an English missionary associated with Utrecht and Deventer. Butler remembers his preaching, the rebuilding of his church after its destruction and his veneration as Deventer’s patron.
The reading
ⓘ Butler source
Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume XI (November), Thomas Richardson and Son, Derby, for the Catholic Book Society, 1846; November 12, “Saint Lebwin, Patron of Daventer, Confessor,” pp. 277-280.
Lebuin, called Lebwin or Liafwin in Butler, was an English Saxon priest who went to preach in the region served from Utrecht. St. Gregory of Utrecht received him and sent him with Marcellin into the country around the IJssel. His work became especially associated with Deventer.
Butler describes the building of a chapel and the opposition that accompanied the mission. The traditional life also tells of Lebuin entering a Saxon assembly with a cross and a book of the Gospels. When some wished to kill him, another participant argued that a messenger claiming to speak for God should receive a hearing. This episode is preserved as part of the account Butler follows.
Later conflict brought the destruction of the church at Deventer. Lebuin returned to rebuild it and continued his work there. He died before the end of the eighth century and was buried in his church. Butler names him as patron of Deventer, where a later collegiate church maintained his remembrance.
Historical note
An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 sources. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.
The Saxon assembly episode is presented as part of the traditional life. The notice’s precise mission dates are not asserted.
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