Saint Bavo

Saint Bavo
Saint Bavo with falcon and sword, by Geertgen tot Sint Jans, late 15th century
Born	622 Hesbaye, Brabant
Died	653
Venerated in	Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church
Feast	October 1
Attributes	Greaves, other military or aristocratic garb, falcon, sword
Patronage	Ghent; Haarlem; Lauwe

Saint Bavo of Ghent (also known as Bavon, Allowin, Bavonius, and Baaf) (622–659) is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox saint.

Bavo was born near Liège, to a Frankish noble family that gave him the name Allowin. His father was Pippin of Landen, the Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia.

A wild, young aristocrat of Brabant, he contracted a beneficial marriage, and had a daughter through it. He was a soldier, who led an undisciplined and disorderly life. Shortly after the death of his wife Bavo decided to reform after hearing a sermon preached by Saint Amand. Struck by the sermon, which was on the emptiness of material things, Bavo was converted to Christianity at Amand's convent.

For some time thereafter, Bavo joined Amand in the latter's missionary travels throughout France and Flanders. On one occasion, Bavo met a man whom he had sold into slavery years before. Wishing to atone for his earlier deed, Bavo had the man lead him by chain to the town jail. Bavo built an abbey on his grounds and became a monk. He distributed his belongings to the poor and lived as a recluse, first in a hollow tree and later in a cell in the forest by the Abbey.

He died at the Abbey in Ghent, in what is today Belgium.

Bavo is the patron saint of Ghent and Lauwe in Belgium, and Haarlem in the Netherlands. His feast in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church is October 1.