Wulmar

Saint Wulmar (Ulmar, Vilmar or Volmar) was a priest, hermit and then abbot in northern France, founder of the monastery of Samer near Boulogne, later called Saint-⁠Vulmaire. He reposed in the year 689.

He was born near Boulogne in Picardy, according to Baring-⁠Gould the son of the Frankish nobleman Vulbert. He married, but was forcibly separated from his wife: the girl had been promised in childhood to another, who complained to the king of the Franks, and the king ordered the separation and gave her to the first suitor. Wulmar then turned his back on the world and entered the Benedictine abbey of Hautmont in Hainault, where he was a lay brother and was set to look after cows. He was ordained priest but chose to live alone in the oak forest. It is said that he hid for three days in a hollow oak at Caëstre to avoid unwelcome honors; in images he is shown as a hermit in a tree, receiving bread from a peasant. For many years he lived in the Eeken forest, then, being discovered, returned to his birthplace and built a hermitage near Samer. As disciples of both sexes gathered around him, he built two houses: Samer, which stood until the French Revolution, and a convent at Wierre-⁠aux-⁠Bois, a mile from his own. In 688 Caedwalla, king of the West Saxons, passing that way on his journey to be baptized, gave the abbey an alms. His relics were taken to Boulogne and then to the abbey of Saint Peter at Ghent. He is commemorated on 20 July as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.