Ansbert of Rouen

Ansbert (died ), sometimes called Ansbert of Chaussy, was a Frankish monk, abbot and bishop of Rouen, today regarded as a saint in the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church.

Early life Ansbert was born at Chaussy-sur-Epte, a village in the Norman historical area known as the Vexin. He was born to a noble family, and was highly educated. He had a significant professional career, and is said to have served as a senior member of the court of the Merovingian king, Clotaire III. As such, he was both chancellor and referendary.

Ansbert was engaged to be married to another future saint, Angadrisma. Her father, said to have been another of Clotaire's chancellors, a disfiguring malady which only disappeared when she joined a convent.

Religious vocation In 673, the same year Clotaire died, Ansbert renounced his secular pursuits and became a monk of the Benedictine order. Six years later, he was elevated to abbot of his monastery, the illustrious Fontenelle Abbey. He followed two other saints in that office: Wandrille, the abbey's founder and first abbot, and Lambert, the second abbot, who vacated the office when he was named bishop of Lyon. Under his leadership, Fontenelle prospered. His enterprises included a great expansion and refinement of the abbey's library,

During his time as abbot, Ansbert served as the confessor to King Theodoric III.

Despite his high office and eminent reputation, Ansbert was removed from the bishopric around the year 690. By "a false accusation",

Legacy The 12th-century chronicler Ordericus Vitalis relays a tale in which it was said that Ansbert's remains were desecrated and dispersed by soldiers of Hugh the Great. He asserts that the bones in question belonged to a different Ansbert, and that those of the saint were, at the time of his writing, still preserved safely at Fontenelle Abbey. The 18th-century author Alban Butler, however, states that the remains were at some point transferred to St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent, where they were destroyed by Calvinists in 1578. Saint Ansbert's own annual feast day is 9 February.