Wasnon of Condé

About Wasnon of Condé

Wasnon is remembered at Condé, where the medieval history of the bishops of Cambrai describes him as a pilgrim who died and was buried at the religious community dedicated to Mary.

His surviving record does not establish a detailed biography. The Bollandist review found no Life of his own and rejected an account borrowed from William of York. It also questioned the later claim that Wasnon was a bishop, since the older notices did not give him that title. Even his association with Vincent Madelgaire offered no secure chronology.

The evidence is clearer for his later veneration. A letter of Archbishop Louis de Berlaymont, reproduced in the Bollandist review, records the placement of relics attributed to Wasnon and other saints in new containers in 1586. It reports that the relics had been found scattered after the church was plundered six years earlier. This documents the community’s care for its sacred remains rather than supplying missing details of his life.

The Cambrai diocese likewise acknowledges that no authentic documents allow his life to be reconstructed. Its present calendar commemorates him on October 3.

His name remains visible in Condé’s parish church. The foundation stone for its reconstruction was laid in 1751, under the direction of Pierre Contant d’Ivry, and work was completed in 1756. The building gives a lasting local setting to the memory of a saint whose personal history remains largely unknown.