Avitus of Périgord

Avitus of Périgord (Avit) is said to have been born around 487 at Lanquais and to have died in 570 in a hermitage he built west of Saint-⁠Avit-⁠Sénieur; the Russian source gives his death in 518 or 570. His life is written in a hagiographic text of the 11th century. He was a Gallo-⁠Roman and is said to have served in the army of the Visigoth Alaric II; after Alaric's defeat by Clovis at Vouillé, in 507, he was taken prisoner and brought to Paris. The legend says he was converted to Christianity by Clotilde. A second version of the life shows him in the service of Clovis, leaving the army in the war with the Visigoths.

Freed after twelve years (according to the Russian source by ransom), he became a hermit in his homeland, in a cave in the valley at the foot of the hill of Dauriac, near a village whose inhabitants had remained very pagan. He built a chapel dedicated to the Mother of God, Notre-⁠Dame-⁠du-⁠Val, west of Saint-⁠Avit-⁠Sénieur, where he was buried. Many of the villagers abandoned paganism. He is commemorated on 22 March (the Russian source also gives 17 June), in the Western calendar (new style). Venerated locally, as a saint of the undivided Church.