Saint Eligius and King Dagobert

The son of a goldsmith, Gourmont drew on his family background for this roundel showing the patron saint of goldsmiths, Eligius, and the king he frequently advised. Eligius, his halo encircling his head, busily hammers out a golden disc on an anvil while his assistant mans the bellows. Dagobert, wearing a slender crown that Eligius may himself have wrought, gestures from the throne. The king was said to have valued the saint’s opinion over that of court nobles. Eligius was a famous goldsmith to Clothar II and to his successor, Dagobert I, before becoming a priest. For this reason, he was to become the patron saint of goldsmiths, blacksmiths, and farriers. Although Eligius (or Eloi) was a saint from ancient times, his cult attained its widest popularity in the later Middle Ages.