Bercharius

Who they were

Bercharius, of a distinguished Aquitanian family, was taught by St Nivard of Reims and became a monk at Luxeuil. He persuaded Nivard to found the abbey of Hautvillers and became its first abbot, and founded two more monasteries, for men and for women.

Stabbed at night by a monk he had rebuked, he spoke no word of complaint, urged his murderer to repentance, and died two days later on 28 March 696: a martyr, the Catholic Encyclopedia says, not for the Faith but for charity and justice.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

An abbot who forgave the man who killed him.