7th century – c. 655
Irish missionary bishop, brother of St. Fursey; evangelized in Francia and founded the abbey of Fosses under the patronage of Sts. Itta and Gertrude of Nivelles; slain by brigands in the Soignes forest.
The Holy Hieromartyr Foillan, Bishop and Abbot of Fosses
Foillan of Fosses was a seventh-century Irish missionary who appears to have held episcopal rank and who carried the monastic and evangelical labors of the Irish church into the Frankish kingdoms. He was a brother of Saint Fursey and Saint Ultan, and shared with them in the founding of a monastery in East Anglia before crossing to the continent.
After the East Anglian mission was overrun in war, Foillan brought its rescued relics and books to Neustria and then to Nivelles, where Saints Itta and Gertrude received him. Under their patronage he founded the abbey of Fosses (Fosses-la-Ville) and served as abbot and chaplain to Gertrude's community, teaching psalmody and organizing worship.
He was ambushed and slain by brigands in the Sonian (Soignes) forest around 655 while returning from Nivelles, and is venerated as a martyr. His body was recovered by Saint Gertrude and buried at Fosses, where his memory was long honored.
Foillan was born in Ireland in the early seventh century. The sources describe him as the uterine brother of Saint Fursey (Fursa) — that is, sharing the same mother while having a different father — and as a brother of Saint Ultan.
Their mother was Gelges, a Christian woman said to be the daughter of Áed Finn, who is possibly identified as a king of Connacht. The three brothers are remembered together as figures of the Irish missionary tradition.
Around 630 to 633 Foillan accompanied his brothers to the Kingdom of East Anglia. King Sigeberht granted them a former Roman shore-fort called Cnobheresburg, generally identified with Burgh Castle in Norfolk (also given as Gariannonum), near Yarmouth. The monastery established there flourished roughly between 634 and 650.
When Fursey withdrew to seek solitude, around 643, Foillan assumed leadership of Cnobheresburg and served as its abbot. In 651, King Penda of Mercia launched a devastating assault on East Anglia and the monastery was pillaged. Foillan narrowly escaped; he worked to ransom captured monks and to secure the community's relics and sacred books before leaving for Francia.
Foillan first came to Péronne in Neustria, where he was received by Erchinoald, Mayor of the Palace, but was afterward expelled. He then traveled to Nivelles in Brabant, where Saint Itta and her daughter Saint Gertrude — foundresses of the monastery of Nivelles — welcomed him and his companions. Gertrude's brother Grimoald also served as their protector.
Apparently holding episcopal rank, Foillan proved instrumental in organizing worship at Nivelles, and the books and relics he had brought from East Anglia became treasured resources for the community. Around 653 Gertrude asked Foillan and Ultan to teach psalmody to her nuns.
With Itta's support, Foillan established a monastery at Fosses (Fosses-la-Ville), near Nivelles in the present province of Namur, where he served as abbot and chaplain to Gertrude's community and preached through the surrounding Brabant region. A monastery at Le Roeulx in Belgium also bore his name.
After the death of Itta in 652, Foillan came to Nivelles to celebrate Mass on the eve of the feast of Saint Quentin. During his return journey through the Sonian Forest, he and his companions were ambushed by brigands who inhabited the dense woodland, and all were killed; their bodies were concealed and stripped.
By hagiographic tradition, Foillan's severed head continued to speak prayers and was cast into a nearby pigsty. Saint Gertrude recovered his remains — by the accounts about three months later, around 655 — and his body was buried at the monastery of Fosses-la-Ville. He is counted a martyr for his death at the hands of the brigands.
Foillan was greatly honored at both Nivelles and Fosses-la-Ville. His feast is kept on October 31 in the Diocese of Namur, and on November 5 in the Dioceses of Mechelen and Tournai. He is venerated in both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.
His is a pre-Congregation veneration; the sources record no formal act of glorification. Multiple Latin Lives preserve his memory, gathered by the Bollandists.
Foillan's body was buried at the abbey of Fosses-la-Ville, which became a principal center of his cult. He is honored as patron of Fosses and of Nivelles in Belgium, and of Burgh Castle Abbey in England.
Historically Documented: Around 1100 Hillinus, a deacon and cantor of Fosses, composed a metrical life of the saint, and between 1102 and 1112 he wrote a prose work, 'In Miraculis Sancti Foyllani Martyris', documenting miracles attributed to him. A further twelfth-century account was written by Philippe de Harvengt.
Traditional Accounts: Hagiographic tradition relates that after Foillan was slain in the Sonian Forest, his severed head continued to recite prayers and was thrown into a pigsty, and that Saint Gertrude was led to recover his hidden remains.
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