Laud of Coutances

Saint Laud of Coutances (Lauto, Lô) was the fifth bishop of Coutances in Normandy and shepherded his flock for forty years, from 528 to 568. He was born in the sixth century at Courcy near Coutances. The town of Briovère, linked with the saint, took his name and is now called Saint-⁠Lô.

He took part in a gathering of bishops at Angers in 529 or 530. He is invoked as a healer, especially for eye diseases and blindness, and the spring at Courcy dedicated to him is a place of pilgrimage. In England only two churches, at Sherington and at Mabe in Cornwall, bear his name. The French calendar commemorates him on 21 September and the Roman on 22; he is commemorated on 22 September, as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.