Ouen lived in the 7th century in what is now France. Because of connections Ouen’s father had, Ouen ended up in the court of King Clotaire II. While as a youth at Clotaire’s court, Ouen met and became immediate, fast friends with another youth named Eloi. By means of their mutual friendship, they “conceived a great contempt for the world, and both resolved to devote themselves to the service of God.”

It is worth noting here that Butler, writing in the 18th century, did not use the word “contempt” to mean that Ouen and Eloi regarded those around them as contemptible, worthless, or in any way “less” than they were. It is perhaps more useful here to think of “contempt” in the judicial sense, as in “contempt of court.” What Butler is explaining is that these two young men worked hard–and encouraged one another–not to recognize the authority of the world, or to take their marching orders from the world as such. They are like persons in a courtroom who refuse to bow to the rule of the presiding judge, and who are thus found to be “in contempt.”

It is unquestionably no small task to wean oneself from the world’s standards and rules. Thank goodness that Ouen had a friend as devoted as Eloi to assist in this arduous process! Just try to consider what this means. In King James-ese, Jesus declares:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. [Gospel According to Matthew 6:24]

As an important note, “mammon” is untranslated Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke) for the personification of wealth or riches. This is the core of what Ouen committed himself to taking seriously (with the help of Eloi): choosing to un-learn all that he had been taught by the social, political, familial, economic (and even religious!) forces in his life–to refuse to accept their “rightness” and, in practice, to be “in contempt of” the authority of money and fame and success and honor and status and popularity–and their attendant security (the promise of “mammon”–in his life. Try letting that sink in. Wow.

This commitment enabled Ouen to be effective and memorable, precisely because it removed any power (i.e. authority) that concerns about these other matters could potentially wield over him and the life decisions that he made.

This is Christianity in its raw form. This is why Christians can flourish in (or be even more misled) by community. Ave Ouen!