Audomar

Audomar, commonly known as Saint Omer, was a seventh-century bishop who evangelized the Morini in northern Gaul. Traditional accounts place his birth about 595 into a distinguished family of Coutances in Neustria, corresponding to present-day Normandy in France. After the death of his parents, whom he had supported in their old age, he entered the Abbey of Luxeuil in the Vosges. There, under Abbot Eustace, successor of the Irish founder Columbanus, he became a monk and was formed in the ascetic and missionary ideals of that community.

Around 637, King Dagobert I appointed Audomar bishop of Thérouanne on the recommendation of Saint Acharius of Noyon. The diocese covered the land of the Morini in what is now the Pas-de-Calais, a region where pagan customs still persisted among much of the rural population and where organized Christian life was weak. Audomar devoted himself to preaching, baptism, and the establishment of churches. He used monastic foundations as centers of pastoral care in a territory that required sustained missionary work.

To assist him he brought monks from Luxeuil, including Bertin, Mommolin, and Ebertram. A local convert named Adroald donated an estate at Sithiu, where they founded a monastery originally dedicated to Saint Peter. That house later became known as the Abbey of Saint-Bertin. Settlement around the monastery and a nearby church of Our Lady grew into the town of Saint-Omer, which took its name from the bishop. These foundations helped root Christianity in the region and shaped its later medieval religious and urban landscape.

In old age Audomar became blind, though tradition holds that he continued to carry out his episcopal duties. He died about 670 and was buried at the monastery of Sithiu. Veneration of him arose in the region soon afterward. His feast is kept on 9 September. He is the patron of the city of Saint-Omer and has long been invoked by those suffering from ailments of the eyes. The abbey and the town that grew from his work remained important centers in Flanders and Artois for centuries.