Eligius (French Éloi) was apprenticed as a boy to a goldsmith in Limoges, where he showed extraordinary skill. Royal master of the mint under the Frankish kings Clotaire II and Dagobert I, he made many of the finest objects of Merovingian goldsmithing — including reliquaries that still survive — and was renowned for honest work in an age of widespread debasement of coin.
He used his vast wealth from the royal mint to ransom Christian slaves brought to the Frankish markets — many of them captives from the Slavic lands — buying entire shiploads at once and freeing them. After Dagobert's death (639) he resigned the mint, was ordained, and was elected bishop of Noyon-Tournai. He evangelized the still-pagan Flemish coast for nineteen years, founding churches and schools throughout his diocese.
His Life by St. Audoin (Ouen) of Rouen, his close friend, is one of the great Merovingian biographies. He is the patron saint of every working metal trade — goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, farriers, coin-makers — and his feast on December 1 is observed in every smithy in traditional Catholic Europe.