In the year 611, Pope Boniface IV sent the monk Walaric (or Walaricus) on a mission to evangelize the mouth of the Somme river. He founded the abbey of Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, also known as Leuconay, and radiated throughout Neustria (Normandy, Picardy, and Paris). Numerous testimonies about his miracles on the sick made him a subject of veneration. William the Conqueror deposited one of Walaric's relics in Saint-Valery-en-Caux in the Seine-Maritime department and took the rest to England. He was recognized as a saint in 1598 under the name Valery of Leuconay.