Aigulphus of Lérins

Saint Aigulphus of Lérins, venerable martyr (Aigulphe, Aygulf or Ayoul), was born around 630 at Blois, of humble but pious parents, and died a martyr around 675 or 676 on the island of Capraia. He was abbot of the monastery of Lérins. He is venerated as a saint in the Western Church and remembered on 3 September in the Western calendar.

At about twenty he became a monk at the monastery of Fleury (Saint-⁠Benoît-⁠sur-⁠Loire), immediately after its foundation in 651. The legend says that he took part in the transfer of the relics of Saint Benedict from Monte Cassino to Fleury, but the Bollandists regard this as only a legend. Around 661 he was sent by King Clothar III to reform the monastery of Lérins, where he introduced the mixed rule of the monastery of Fleury.

As abbot of Lérins he died a martyr. Around 675 the monks Arcadius and Columbus, with the help of Bishop Mummolus of Uzès, rebelled against him, imprisoned him, cut out his tongue and put out his eyes. Finally they handed him over, with thirty-⁠three other monks, to pirates, who killed them on the island of Capraia.