Aimo of Toul

Saint Aimo of Toul—also called Amon, Aimon, Amand, and kindred names—is remembered as the second recorded bishop of Toul in Lorraine. He succeeded Saint Mansuy (Mansuetus), of whom he is said to have been a disciple, and held the see from around the year 375 until his death. The date of his death is uncertain: some place it about 423, while other traditions allow a later date. His successor was Bishop Alchas.

Little is preserved of ordinary administrative detail, yet the Church has always honored him as a holy pastor. Tradition presents him as a man of penitence who often withdrew from the city into solitude. In the forest of the Saintois he used a cave with adjoining cells for his priests—associated with Favières and with a hermitage that bore his name near Saulxerotte. There, tradition says, he himself dedicated a hermitage-chapel to the Virgin Mary; his relics were long believed to rest in that place, once known as the hamlet of Saint-Amon. The cave is described as some twenty-five meters deep and three or four meters high. In iconography he appears in episcopal vestments; a well or spring is given as his attribute, recalling both spiritual refreshment and the tradition that under his ministry nearly all the people of Toul received holy baptism from his hands. He is said to have been buried beside his predecessor Saint Mansuy.

A well-known legend places him in the turmoil after the defeat of Attila the Hun at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (Châlons) in 451. Fleeing the devastating retreat of the barbarian forces from Toul, the bishop found his road blocked by a rock. Tradition relates that the rock opened and then closed over him, hiding him from his pursuers. The spot—a small rise overlooking the village of Goviller—is still called the Bois d'Anon, "Amon's wood."

Devotion to him continued in the diocese. He was declared a saint by the Catholic Church; his feast was kept in the ritual of Toul on 23 October, and after 1955 his memory is observed at Nancy and Toul on 25 October. His portrait may be seen in the apse of Toul Cathedral. In 1836 the Collegiate Church of Saint-Gengoult in Toul was reported to preserve several portions of his clothing and hair-shirt, kept with many bones in an old wooden casket in the tomb of the high altar.

May Saint Aimo of Toul obtain for us a spirit of penitence and steadfast trust in God's protection, and help us practice today the quiet fidelity of prayer amid trial.