SAINT FINGEN OF METZ

Fingen of Metz,
 Died. 1005.

Feast Day: February 5
Saint Fingen, a celebrated Irish abbot, migrated to the kingdom of Lothaire, where he acquired a reputation for restoring old abbeys. One of them, Saint Symphorien's, was given over to him about 991 by Bishop Saint Adalbero and an Irish community. At the insistence of the dowager Empress Saint Adelaide, Pope John XVII issued a charter that declared that only Irish monks would administer the abbey as long as they could be found. She obtained a similar charter from Otto III in 992. Fingen's final job, with the help of seven of his Irish monks, was the restoration of Saint-Vannes in Verdun. By 1001, Saint-Vannes was attracting distinguished applicants, such as Blessed Frederick of Arras, count of Verdun, and his friend Blessed Richard, dean of the diocese of Rheims, who later became abbot of Saint- Vannes. Fingen's relics can be found in Saint-Clement's Church in Metz, where the necrology highly praises him