Eligius of Noyon

Born around 588 at Chaptelat near Limoges into a Gallo-Roman family, he trained as a goldsmith and a striker of coins. His skill brought him to court: Chlothar II commissioned a golden throne and received two seats from gold sufficient for only one, which earned the craftsman the office of royal moneyer — coins bearing his signature survive. Dagobert I made him treasurer and counsellor; he spent his fortune buying slaves out of the markets and founding monasteries, at Solignac and then in Paris. On the king's death he left the court, was ordained priest, and in 641 became bishop of Noyon and Tournai. He gave the last twenty years of his life to evangelising Flanders and Frisia, then still largely pagan. He died at Noyon on 1 December 660. The goldsmith outlived the bishop in memory: blacksmiths, farriers, locksmiths, clockmakers and saddlers took him as their patron, and the metal guilds carried his feast down to the present day.