Opportuna of Montreuil

Venerable Opportuna of Montreuil was a Frankish Benedictine nun and abbess, who died on 22 April 770, the day on which she is remembered. Her life, the “Vita et miracula Sanctae Opportunae,” was written a century after her death, around 885-888, by Adalhelm, bishop of Séez, who believed he owed his life and his see to Opportuna.

While she was still young, Opportuna became a nun at the convent called the Monasteriolum, near Almenêches, where her cousin Lantildis was abbess. She took the veil from her brother, Chrodegang (Godegrand), the bishop of Séez. Although Montreuil was only three miles from Séez, Chrodegang was murdered on the way while going to visit his sister. The murder had been planned by Chrodobert, a powerful relative to whom he had entrusted the administration of his diocese during his seven years' absence at Rome, and took place on 3 September 769. Opportuna foresaw her brother's death in a vision but could do nothing; afterwards she buried him in her own convent. Later she succeeded her cousin as abbess. In this office she was described as “a true mother to all her nuns,” correcting their faults with words, not blows. According to some sources she died after a brief illness, compounded by grief for her brother's death, on 22 April 770.

Like all Carolingian saints, her sanctity was not expressed in extraordinary deeds during her life: she worked no miracles while she lived. The account of miracles at her tomb reminded those who read or heard it that the abbess remained present in her former precincts, extending her protection to her flock. Her life says that a peasant once stole a donkey from the convent and refused to acknowledge his crime. Opportuna turned the matter over to God, and the next day the peasant's field was sown with salt. The repentant peasant both returned the donkey and gave the nuns the field.

Though she was not recorded in the martyrologies, the veneration of Saint Opportuna has always flourished locally, as patroness of Almenêches and among the patrons of Paris. In the time of Charles the Bald a Viking attack destroyed the monasteries of Montreuil and Almenêches, and her relics were moved to the priory at Moussy (Val-⁠d'Oise), then to Senlis. In 1374 her right arm and ribs were brought to a small church in Paris, Notre-⁠Dame-⁠des-⁠Bois. Most of her head remains at Moussy, while her right arm and part of her head are at Almenêches; the jaw is at the priory of L'Isle-⁠Adam. The shrine in Paris was once carried together with the relics of Saints Honoratus and Genevieve. She is often shown with the abbess's staff, holding a reliquary; sometimes with the Mother of God at her deathbed or as a princess with a basket of cherries and a fleur-⁠de-⁠lys.