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Bavo

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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ST. (whose propel name was Allovin), the patron saint of Ghent, in Flanders, and of Haarlem. in Holland, was born about 589. Upon the death of his wife, he was brought to repentance through the preaching of St. Amandus. Bavo confessed to him his sins, sold all his goods and gave to the poor. Returning to St. Amandus at Ghent, he retired into the monastery which that saint had lately founded there in honor of St. Peter. After a time, he was admitted to the clerical office; and, being attached to the person of St. Amandus, benefited by his example and instructions, After visiting the most celebrated monasteries of France, he resolved upon his return to Ghent to endeavor to unite the austerity of the life of an anchorite to the observation of a conventual rule. A huge, hollow beechtree formed his cell, which, after a time, he exchanged for a little hut in the forest of Malmedun, near Ghent; and again for the monastery of St. Peter, where he lived in total seclusion, practising the most unheardof mortifications. He died Oct. 1, 653, or thereabouts. Many miracles are recounted as having been worked at his tomb in the Abbey Church of St. Peter, which monastery was subsequently called by the name of St. Bavo, and secularized in 1537. In 1540, when the Church of St; Bavo was converted into a citadel, the new canons were transferred to the parish Church of St. John, which was, in 1559, erected into a cathedral, and called thenceforwards the Cathedral of St. Bavo. The name of this saint occurs on 1 Oct. in martyrologies as ancient as the 9th century. See Acta SS. April, 1, 874; May, 2, 494; Baillet, Oct. 3, 15; Butler, vol. 10.