St. Amand is popularly regarded as the "Apostle of Belgium and northern France," and the Merovingian prototype of monk/bishop/missionary. The Vita Amandi prima ( VA1 ) portrays St. Amand as a tireless proselytizer, a miles Christi who established monasteries as missionary outposts with the full support of the Frankish church and king. The foundation of St. Amand at Elnone, one of the earliest Merovingian royal endowments, claimed the double legacy of the saint's human remains and a hagiographic tradition which depicted the saint's retirement and death at this favoured monastery. This thesis examines the hagiographic representation of St. Amand as a missionary in the VA1 and how this representation was, in fact, rewritten from an earlier source to promote the secular and spiritual interests of Elnone in the early ninth century. Through a close reading and an analysis of the narrative structure, the VA1 is shown to be a vita of considerable hagiographic richness, thus contributing, at least in part, to its pre-eminence as the authoritative life of the important saint for centuries to come.