Benedict I of Embrun

Benedict I (Benoît I) was archbishop of Embrun, in France, from about 900 or not later than 908, and was killed at Embrun in 916 or around 930. He is a locally venerated saint in the diocese of Embrun. Our sources give no Orthodox act of canonization, so we call him a local saint of the undivided Church in the West.

The lists of the heads of the see of Embrun show that here he was successor of Archbishop Arnaud and place his consecration in 900. However, some historians consider that Arnaud is the same as an abbot of the same name of the monastery of Saint-⁠Bernard de Romans, mentioned in several charters and dead between 905 and November 908. In a document of 912 the head of the archdiocese of Embrun is named as a certain Theodulf, of whom nothing else is known.

Benedict's episcopate fell in one of the hardest periods in the history of the archdiocese of Embrun. At that time the Saracens, entrenched at Fraxinet, renewed their raids on the lands of Provence. Many cities there were plundered or burned by them, many Christians were killed or taken captive. Above all the rich monasteries of Provence suffered from the raids of the Muslims. During one of these invasions, the Moors besieged well-⁠fortified Embrun, under the protection of whose walls the inhabitants of Saint-⁠Jean-⁠de-⁠Maurienne had fled with their bishop, Saint Odilard. The Muslims' attempts to take the city by storm ended without result, but thanks to a few traitors who opened one of the gates at night, the Saracens managed to enter the city. In the slaughter made by the Muslims most of the inhabitants perished. Benedict and Odilard were cut down with an axe while praying, right in the cathedral. The Moors seized rich booty, part of which went to those who opened the gates. The same traitors, envying the wealth of the Church of Embrun, burned the archiepiscopal archive, destroying all the documents which attested the rights of the archdiocese to its lands and property. For some years the Saracens held the city: they made a mosque in the cathedral and left Embrun only after destroying it completely.

The traditions of the archdiocese of Embrun testify that Archbishop Benedict was later numbered among the martyrs, but do not say when his commemoration was kept. They place his death in 916 and the election of his successor, Saint Liberalis, in 920. But several historical sources have reached us showing that Odilard of Maurienne was still alive in 927. On the basis of these data modern historians consider that the capture of Embrun by the Muslims dates later than 916, perhaps around 930.