Ortaire of Landelles

Saint Ortaire of Landelles was born around 482 at Le Dézert, in the diocese of Coutances, and died on 15 April 580. He was a Norman monk of the early Middle Ages and a preacher in the Cotentin and the Aron country, a contemporary of Saint Vigor of Bayeux and Saint Benedict. He is recognized as a saint in the Western Church and remembered on 15 April.

According to tradition he came from a noble Gallo-⁠Roman family. While still young he gave himself to penance, with long fasts, poor clothing, a hair shirt, barley bread and spring water, and his charity to the poor was unfailing. At twelve he left his family to become a monk. His superior charged him with founding a monastery in the forest of Andaine, whence the hermitage of Bézier. Local tradition says that Saint Radegund visited him around 555.

He then returned as a hermit to Beaumesnil, to a cave near the monastery. His hagiographers tell that he had a vision of the death of the abbot of Landelles and went to his funeral. He was chosen as abbot, but withdrew to the cave of Malloué. In the forest of Andaine he found a miraculous spring, and the news of his healings spread.