Aymard was elected the third abbot of Cluny in 942 — succeeding St. Odo. For seventeen years (942–959) he governed the growing Cluniac monastic federation, consolidating the reform that Berno and Odo had established and expanding the number of Cluniac affiliated houses.
In 959 Aymard was afflicted with sudden blindness — and rather than continuing as governing abbot despite the infirmity, he undertook the humble step of appointing his disciple St. Maieul (Maiolus) as his successor while he was still alive — retiring into the simple life of a blind monk at Cluny for the remaining six years of his life.
The example of Aymard's voluntary abdication for the good of the community — one of the earliest documented monastic-religious abdications in Catholic history — established the pattern of graceful religious-leadership transition that would shape the Catholic monastic tradition.
He died at Cluny on October 5, 965, having served (first as governing abbot for 17 years, then as blind retired abbot for 6 years) for 23 years in total at Cluny — the humble link between the Berno-Odo founding-generation and the Maieul-Odilo expansion-generation of the Cluniac monastic reform.