Amand of Elnone

Aquitanian by birth, Amand received from the pope the mission of evangelising the still pagan peoples of northern Gaul, and spent sixty years crossing Flanders, Hainaut and the Scheldt valley. His plain speaking cost him exile: he had rebuked King Dagobert for his conduct. He founded Elnone — today Saint-Amand-les-Eaux —, Saint Peter's at Ghent and some twenty other houses, and bought back children sold as slaves in order to raise them. His patronage of winegrowers and brewers comes from those regions he christianised, where more was brewed than harvested from vines.