Merolle

Merolle (Mérolle) was bishop of Le Mans from 772 to 785 and is venerated as a saint in the Western Church. He had been a priest of the abbey of Évron and chorbishop of Saulges in the time of Charlemagne, assisting Bishop Gauziolène of Le Mans (725 to 753 and 763 to 770).

According to the Actus pontificum Cenomannis, the abbey of Évron gave him, in 761, as chorbishop to the church of Le Mans. He was ordained by three bishops and received as title and residence the canonical market town of Saulges. Gauziolène was succeeded by Hoding, who after two years passed to Beauvais, and in 772 Merolle was sent to Charlemagne to ask for a bishop for Le Mans. Angilram, archchaplain of the court, knowing that he had been ordained by three bishops and finding in him all the qualities required for reorganizing the diocese, recommended him to the king. Merolle returned to Le Mans as titular bishop. Charlemagne visited him and ordered all goods alienated after the death of their holders to be returned to the power of the Church. Several monasteries and some villages, among them Mayenne and Céaucé, were returned at once. Around 774 he received from Charlemagne the right to mint coins. He was buried at Le Mans, in the church of the apostles, where Bishop Victeur already lay.

The author of the account of him had no written documents, so the account is not entirely exact: it gives him thirty years of rule, though it cannot have been more than twenty-⁠five, since in 786 he already had a successor. The title of chorbishop does not appear in any official act of his.