Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/July 18 2007

Arnulf of Metz (August 13, 582 – August 16, 640) was a Frankish noble who had great influence in the Merovingian kingdoms as a bishop and was later canonized as a saint. He is also known by his anglicized name, Arnold. Arnulf of Metz is one of several saints who may be known as Saint Arnold[1].

He was born near Nancy. Arnulf gave distinguished service at the Austrasian court under Theudebert II (595-612). At the age of thirty he wanted to retire from public life. Instead, in 614, he was made bishop of Metz, even though he was still a layman at the time. In 613, Arnulf and Pippin of Landen, led the opposition of Frankish nobles to Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia. The revolt led to her overthrow, torture, and eventual execution, and the subsequent reunification of Frankish lands under Clotaire II, the dowager queen's nephew.

From 623 (with Pippin of Landen, then the Mayor of the Palace), Arnulf was an adviser to Dagobert I. He retired in 627 to a mountain site in the Vosges, to implement his lifelong resolution to become a hermit. His friend Romaric had preceded him to the mountains and had already established the monastery of Remiremont there. Arnulf settled there, and remained there until his death twelve years later.

While Arnulf is recognised as one of the earliest documented ancestors of Charlemagne, to which the Carolingians themselves traced their ancestry, and thereby of most modern European royal families, Arnulf's own parentage is both uncertain and undocumented. Some have claimed that Arnulf's father was Arnoldus (c.535–600), and that his mother was Ada of Swabia. This Arnoldus is sometimes said to be the son of Ausbert, the Senator of Moselle and Bertha of Kent, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris. Others, professing to quote Frankish legends, make Arnulf the son of Bodegisel. Still others have claimed that Arnulf's mother was Bertha, Princess of Paris (539–640).

Attributes: with a rake in hand
Patronage: Beer brewing
Prayer: