Gervold

Saint Gervold (also called Girowald, Gerwald or Gerbaud) was a monk, an envoy of Charlemagne, bishop of Évreux around 785 and abbot of Saint-⁠Wandrille of Fontenelle from 787. He reposed in 806 or 807. He is said to have come from a noble family, had a beautiful voice and knew the art of singing. He was the uncle of Saint Ansegisus, whom he tonsured as a monk around 795 and took to the court of Charlemagne at Aix-⁠la-⁠Chapelle, where Ansegisus supervised the royal works.

Charlemagne entrusted him with diplomatic missions: to the Breton chief Anowarith, who held the Cotentin and the island of Jersey, and to Offa, king of Mercia, to negotiate the marriage of their children. He was also in charge of collecting customs duties in the ports and markets between Rouen and Quentovic. At the request of his mother, Charlemagne appointed him bishop of Évreux in 785, but he soon left the see to become a monk again at Saint-⁠Wandrille de Fontenelle. When Witlaic died on 22 September 787, he succeeded him as abbot.

At Fontenelle he established a famous school, enriched the library and developed singing, arithmetic and the art of the copyists. In his time the monk Hardouin († 811), a recluse in the hermitage of Saint-⁠Saturnin, copied the manuscripts brought from Rome, wrote the life of Saint Wulfram and taught calligraphy and arithmetic to young children. He rebuilt the infirmary, the kitchens, the heated room and other parts of the abbey; his nephew Ansegisus continued the work. At Fontenelle he was commemorated on 1 July, and the Orthodox calendar commemorates him on 14 June, as a saint of the West before the Great Schism (a saint of the undivided Church), by the New Calendar.