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St. Vedast, Bishop of Arras
(Dutch VAAST; English FOSTER or GASTON)
V/VI Centuries
A native of western
France, he is
best-known as the catechist of
Clovis, King of the Franks. Ordained at
Toul, Vedast met
Clovis when the king required a learned man to accompany him to Rheims
after the battle
of Tolbiac (496);
upon their
arrival, Clovis recommended his companion to
Archbishop Remigius, who
was to baptize
the king after his wife, Clotilde
had converted him to Christianity. The two
clerics
evangelized the Franks, and in 499,
Vedast was
named bishop of Arras and Cambrai, dioceses that had returned to
paganism after the raids
of Attila. During his forty-year tenure, Vedast restored the faith of
his people and the
churches in which they worshipped.
Karen Rae Keck
- ABOUT:
-
Alcuin:
Life of St. Vedastus:
Describes the conversion of King Clovis to
Orthodoxy.
Lasnier translation, 1996. Alcuin, the author of the life,
although pre-Schism,
held some views later rejected by the Orthodox; however
St. Foster himself is considered an Orthodox saint.
--- University of Kansas
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