Saint Angilram—also known as Angilramn, Enguerrand, or Angelramme—was born of noble Austrasian lineage and early destined for the Church. He received instruction at Gorze under the monk Nargaudus, then entered monastic life first at Saint-Avold and later in the Vosges monastery of Senones (Séerne). Local tradition holds that he was a nephew of Saint Chrodegang of Metz.
After a vacancy of more than two years following Chrodegang's death, King Pepin the Short had him named bishop of Metz. He was elected in 768 and consecrated on 25 September 768. He also became abbot of Senones and later held the abbacies of Sint-Truiden and, from 788, Chiemsee. As bishop he consecrated the church of Lorsch Abbey, cared for the canons of Metz by amending the Rule of Chrodegang, and with royal help began to adorn the tomb of Saint Nabor at Saint-Avold. He promoted the Messine chant developed under his predecessor, helping replace older Gallican practice with a Roman-oriented liturgy that would flower into Gregorian chant. He established a scriptorium at the cathedral of Metz and commissioned a corrected single-volume Vulgate—the earliest known Carolingian pandect Bible—later lost in 1944 though photographs survive.
From the early 780s Angilram stood among Charlemagne's most intimate counselors. The king obtained from Pope Hadrian I a dispensation freeing him from the ordinary duty of residence so that he might remain permanently at court as confessor and advisor; he frequently accompanied the sovereign on military campaigns. In 784 he succeeded Fulrad as royal archchaplain, overseeing the chapel clergy and the ecclesiastical business of the palace. By about 787–788 he received the personal honorary title of archbishop "of the holy palace," though Metz itself was not raised to metropolitan rank. Paul the Deacon, whom he charged to write the Deeds of the Bishops of Metz, called him "a very gentle man and distinguished by holiness." Alcuin of York held him in warm reverence and later composed his epitaph.
In the early 780s he supplied Paul the Deacon with materials for the Gesta episcoporum Mettensium, completed by 784, which also honored the Carolingian line through Saint Arnulf of Metz. He added three paragraphs to Chrodegang's Rule, introducing the Octave of Pentecost as a second Pasch and allowing the clergy of Saint Stephen modest use of meat on those holy days unless bound by penance or personal resolve. The oldest form of the Ordines Romani has been attributed to his circle. The so-called Capitula Angilramni, long linked with his name, are a later Pseudo-Isidorian forgery and not his work.
In 788, after the fall of Duke Tassilo of Bavaria, Charlemagne entrusted the distant Bavarian monastery of Chiemsee to Metz under Angilram's care. In 791 the bishop accompanied the king on the campaign against the Avars. At Regensburg he prepared, at the royal request, the collection of papal letters known as the Codex epistolaris Carolinus. On the return journey he died—sources give 26 October 791, some 23 or 25 October—perhaps worn by the hardships of war, in the region of present-day Hungary. Tradition relates that his body was carried many hundreds of kilometers back to the abbey of his youth at Saint-Avold and buried in the church he had caused to be built on the site of the later abbey church of Saint-Nabor. The see of Metz then remained vacant for many years.
The Church venerates him as a saint; his memory is kept about 25 October (also 28 October in some notices).
May Saint Angilram obtain for us a gentle fidelity in the service of God and neighbor, and let us imitate today his care for sacred worship and the Word of God.
