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The first of the two books of the Life of Saint Éloi is a biography of a leading dignitary of the Merovingian court. Its author, the bishop Saint Ouen, serves as a unique witness of the implementation of a social policy under Kings Clothair and Dagobert. This policy, inspired principally by Éloi, was characterised by the massive redemption of men enslaved by war and civil law convictions and by their social reinsertion with the status of freedmen, material assistance and frequent despatch to a monastery. From this perspective, the foundation of the monastery of Solignac by Éloi served as a model for many others. Other forms of social assistance included the distribution to the socially precarious of royal funds, lent in gold to Éloi himself and which his mint transformed into gold coins. The life of Éloi reveals the existence of these materials which were often in contradition with the usual conventions of hagiographic discourse.
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