Chaffre

Chaffre (Théofrède, Theofredus of Orange) was abbot of the monastery of Saint-⁠Pierre du Monastier, in the Velay in France, and received the crown of martyrdom at the hands of the Saracens. He is patron of the town of Le Monastier-⁠sur-⁠Gazeille in the Haute-⁠Loire. He is venerated in the Western Church and commemorated on 18 November (according to some sources on 19 October).

Legend says he was born into a well-⁠off Gallo-⁠Roman family of Orange, son of Leufroy, prefect of the city, and nephew of Eudes, the first abbot of the monastery, a former archdeacon of Saint-⁠Paul-⁠Trois-⁠Châteaux and monk of Lérins. Eudes had been named abbot when Count Calmin of Auvergne founded the monastery on his lands in the Velay, in 680. Chaffre entered it as a monk and was entrusted with outside affairs. Observing the rule faithfully, he received and strengthened the future abbot of Menat, Saint Menelaus. The chronicler Louis Bulteau, cited by Mabillon, says he allowed women, who could not enter the monastery church, to come to its door to receive instruction in salvation. He cared for the monks like a father.

At the death of Eudes he became the second abbot. The account tells that, during a Saracen raid, he ordered the monks to hide in the forest while he remained alone in the monastery, prostrate in the church. The Moors beat him cruelly and left him dying, preparing to celebrate a ritual feast the next day. On that day he spoke against their idolatry and was struck again on the head. A storm then arose which put the attackers to flight, so that they could not burn the monastery. He died a few days later, on 19 October 728. A variant says he came from Troyes and was killed by the still pagan local people. The account is largely legendary: the death at Saracen hands seems an echo of the struggles of the time of the advance from Al-⁠Andalus, and the saint is often associated with Chiaffredo of Piedmont.