Angilram of Metz

Angilram of Metz (Angilramn, Enguerrand) was bishop of Metz from 768 to 791 and archchaplain of King Charlemagne from 784 to 791. He reposed in October 791, and in the Western Church he is commemorated on 25 October.

He was of noble Austrasian stock and succeeded Chrodegang in the see of Metz, being elected in 768 after a two-⁠year vacancy and consecrated on 25 September 768. According to local tradition he was Chrodegang's nephew. He had been a monk of the abbey of Saint-⁠Avold. He received from the pope the title of archbishop, and Charlemagne obtained for him a papal dispensation to remain permanently at court as confessor and advisor. In 784 he succeeded Fulrad as archchaplain, responsible for all the clergy of the court and for the services of the chapel, and he accompanied the king on campaigns. He also headed the abbeys of Senones, Chiemsee and Sint-⁠Truiden.

He was a man of letters: he asked Paul the Deacon to write the history of the bishops of Metz (Gesta episcoporum Mettensium), founded a scriptorium at the cathedral of Metz, produced a corrected edition of the Vulgate, the earliest Carolingian single-⁠volume Bible (lost in 1944 but preserved in photographs), and added three paragraphs to the Rule of Chrodegang, among them the celebration of the Octave of Pentecost. The earliest form of the collection Ordines Romani is also attributed to him. At Regensburg he prepared, at the king's request, the collection of royal letters called the Codex Carolinus. He took part in the Avar campaign of 791 and died on the return journey on 26 October 791, perhaps from the strain of the campaign; other sources give 23 or 25 October. Alcuin of York wrote his epitaph.