Poppo of Deinze

Saint Poppo of Stavelot
Abbot of Stavelot-Malmedy
Born	977 Deinze, now in Belgium
Died	25 January 1048 Marchiennes, now in France
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church
Major shrine	Stavelot
Feast	25 January

Saint Poppo (Deinze, 977 – Marchiennes, 25 January 1048) was a knight of noble descent who turned to a monastic life experiencing a spiritual conversion. He became one of the best known abbots of Stavelot and was one of the first recorded Flemish pilgrims to the Holy Land. Liturgically he is commemorated on 25 January.

The Vita Popponis, the biography of Poppo, was written shortly after his death by the monk Onulf and the abbot Everhelm of the abbey of Hautmont. According this source, Poppo belonged to a noble family of Flanders; his parents being Tizekinus and Adalwif. About the year 1000 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with two companions. Soon after this he also went to Rome. He was about to marry a lady of noble family, when a miraculous experience made him to end his military career. Late at night, a flame burst came out of the sky and kept his lance radiating. He believed this to be an illumination of the Holy Spirit, and soon after, he decided to enter the monastery of Saint Thierry at Rheims (1005).

In about 1008 Abbot Richard of Saint Vannes at Verdun, a reformer of monasteries, took Poppo to his monastery. Richard made Poppo prior of St. Vaast in Arras, in the Diocese of Cambrai, in about 1013. Here Poppo proved to be the right man for the position, reclaiming the monastery's lands from vassals and securing the possession of the monastery by deeds. Before 1016 he was appointed to the same position at Vasloges (Beloacum, Beaulieu) in the Diocese of Verdun.

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