Biography
Godard of Rouen
About Godard of Rouen
Godard served as bishop of Rouen in the early sixth century. His participation in the Council of Orléans in 511 is preserved in its subscription lists. One manuscript’s list names Gildaredus as bishop of the metropolitan church of Rouen; another gives the form Geldaredus. These records provide a firm point in a life otherwise known largely through later accounts.
The later stories connected him closely with Medard of Noyon, sometimes presenting them as twin brothers. V. S. Yarnykh’s scholarly account identifies the surviving life of Godard and the account of his relics’ removal as tenth-century texts. It cautions that material from Medard’s life supplied episodes for Godard’s story. Their supposed shared chronology cannot be treated as an established account of two lives.
His death is placed between the council of 511 and the appearance of his successor at the council of 538. This interval does not establish an exact year. The same scholarly account dates the removal of his relics to Saint-Médard at Soissons to 838–841.
In Rouen, the church that bears his name preserves the tradition of his burial in a small chapel originally dedicated to Mary. The parish history records that the dedication survived the departure of his relics. It also makes clear that the church now standing is much later than Godard: its rebuilding began toward the end of the fifteenth century, and its tower was added in 1612. The building belongs to the long history of his remembrance, rather than to his own episcopate.
The French Catholic calendar Nominis commemorates Godard locally on June 8 and preserves Gildard as another form of his name.
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