February 6
Amand is honored as a saint, most particularly in France and Belgium. Against the wishes of his family, he became a monk around age 20. In time, he sought out more solitude and became a hermit for fifteen years, living on bread and water.
Amand made a pilgrimage to Rome, and there he was ordained a missionary bishop for Flanders (northern Belgium). At first, he had little success and suffered persecution and hardships. This changed when he brought a hanged criminal back to life. The attitude of the people changed, and Amand made many converts. He founded a monastery where he served as abbot for four years.
Unfortunately, Amand angered the King of the Franks, Dagobert I, by encouraging him to amend his life. Dagobert expelled Amand, who went to Gascony. Amand went on to help Gertrude of Nivelles and her mother to found the famous monastery of Nivelles, now in Belgium. This abbey eventually became a double monastery of both monks and nuns, living in separate areas. It was suppressed when the French army invaded Belgium in 1794. The church was gutted by bombs from the Germans in World War II but has been restored.
The people of the Basque Country begged Amand to visit them, even though he had been rejected on his first missionary journey there. He then returned to Belgium to found several more monasteries with the help of King Dagobert (who had once expelled Amand from his kingdom). Amand died in Elnone Abbey near Tournai, Belgium, at the age of 90. In Saint Amand’s day, founding a monastery was founding an outpost of civilization. Monasteries were magnets for education, agriculture, and hospitality. Monks made their own wine and beer, which they shared with guests. Monasteries offered lodging to travelers. This monastic reputation for hospitality may be the reason that Saint Amand, who founded so many monasteries, is the patron of winemakers, beer brewers, innkeepers, and bartenders.