Saint Eligius

Eligius was born in Chaptelat, near Limoges, in 588, into a humble family. He learned goldsmithing from the moneyer Abbo, and that craft changed his life. Tradition says that Chlothar II commissioned a throne from him, handing him the gold it required, and that with that gold Eligius made two. The king was so struck by his skill and his honesty that he named him court goldsmith and master of the mint. He became one of the most influential men in the Merovingian kingdom, adviser to Dagobert I, and all the while he kept working: the sacred vessels and furnishings of Notre-Dame and Saint-Denis are attributed to him, and the coins he signed are still kept in museums — he’s one of the very few craftsmen of the early Middle Ages whose name we know, because he put it on his work. With the money he earned he ransomed slaves. He bought them by the hundreds, at the markets, to set them free. In 641 he left the court and became bishop of Noyon, going out to preach among the Frisians and the Flemish. He died in Noyon on December 1, 660. He is the patron saint of goldsmiths, blacksmiths, farriers and — by extension — mechanics and gas station attendants. In many Italian cities they called him Sant’Alò, or San Lo, from a contraction of the French name Éloi. If your name is Eligius, today is your name day.