Footnotes: 1. It is proved by Leland in his Itinerary, published by Hearne, (t. 3, p. 4,) that the ancestors of St. Albinus of Angers came from Great Britain, and that two branches of his family flourished long after, one in Cornwall, the other in Somersetshire.
ST. MONAN, IN SCOTLAND, M.
ST. ADRIAN, bishop of St. Andrews, trained up this holy man from his childhood, and when he had ordained him priest, and long employed him in the service of his own church, sent him to preach the gospel in the isle of May, lying to the bay of Forth. The saint exterminated superst.i.tion and many other crimes and abuses, and having settled the churches of that island in good order, pa.s.sed into the county of Fife, and was there martyred; being slain with above 6000 other Christians, by an army of infidels who ravaged that country in 874. His relics were held in great veneration at Innerny, in Fifeshire, the place of his martyrdom, and were famous for miracles. King David II. having himself experienced the effect of his powerful intercession with G.o.d, rebuilt his church at Innerny of stone, to a stately manner, and founded a college of canons to serve it. See King"s calendar, and the ma.n.u.script life of this martyr in the Scottish college at Paris and the Breviary of Aberdeen.
{496}
MARCH II.
MARTYRS UNDER THE LOMBARDS.
From St. Gregory, Dial. l. 3, c. 26, 27. t. 2, p. 337.
SIXTH AGE.
THE Lombards, a barbarous idolatrous nation which swarmed out of Scandinavia and Pomerania, settled first in the counties now called Austria and Bavaria; and a few years after, about the middle of the sixth century, broke into the north of Italy. In their ravages about the year 597, they attempted to compel forty husbandmen, whom they had made captives, to eat meats which had been offered to idols. The faithful servants of Christ constantly refusing to comply, were all ma.s.sacred.
Such meats might, in some circ.u.mstances, have been eaten without sin, but not when this was exacted out of a motive of superst.i.tion. The same barbarians endeavored to oblige another company of captives to adore the head of a goat, which was their favorite idol, and about which they walked, singing, and bending their knees before it; but the Christians chose rather to die than purchase their lives by offending G.o.d. They are said to have been about four hundred in number. St. Gregory the Great mentions, that these poor countrymen had prepared themselves for the glorious crown of martyrdom, by lives employed in the exercises of devotion and voluntary penance, and by patience in bearing afflictions; also, that they had the heroic courage to suffer joyfully the most cruel torments and death, rather than offend G.o.d by sin, because his love reigned in their hearts. "True love," says St. Peter Chrysologus,[1]
"makes a soul courageous and undaunted; it even finds nothing hard, nothing bitter, nothing grievous; it braves dangers, smiles at death, conquers all things." If we ask our own hearts, if we examine our lives by this test, whether we have yet begun to love G.o.d, we shall have reason to be confounded, and to tremble at our remissness and sloth. We suffer much for the world, and we count labor light, that we may attain to the gratification of our avarice, ambition, or other pa.s.sion in its service, yet we have not fervor to undertake any thing to save our souls, or to crucify our pa.s.sions. Here penance, watchfulness over ourselves, or the least restraint, seems intolerable. Let us begin sincerely to study to die to ourselves, to disengage our hearts from all inordinate love of creatures, to raise ourselves above the slavery of the senses, above the appet.i.tes of the flesh and all temporal interest; and in order to excite ourselves to love G.o.d with fervor, let us seriously consider what G.o.d, infinite in goodness and in all perfections, and whose love for us is eternal and immense, deserves at our hands; what the joys of heaven are, how much we ought to do for such a bliss, and what Christ has done to purchase it for us, and to testify the excess of his love; also what the martyrs have suffered for his sake, and to attain to the happiness of reigning eternally with him. Let us animate ourselves with their fervor: "Let us love Christ as they did," said St. Jerom to the virgin Eustochium, "and every thing that now appears difficult, will become easy to us." To find this {497} hidden treasure of divine love we must seek it earnestly; we must sell all things, that is, renounce in spirit all earthly objects; we must dig a deep foundation of sincere humility in the very centre of our nothingness, and must without ceasing beg this most precious of all gifts, crying out to G.o.d in the vehement desire of our hearts. Lord, when shall I love thee!
Footnotes: 1. St. Peter Chrysol. Serm. 4.
ST. CEADA OR CHAD, B.C.
HE was brother to St. Cedd, bishop of London, and the two holy priests Celin and Cymbel, and had his education in the monastery of Lindisfarne, under St. Aidan. For his greater improvement in sacred letters and divine contemplation he pa.s.sed into Ireland, and spent a considerable time in the company of St. Egbert, till he was called back by his brother St. Cedd to a.s.sist him in settling the monastery of Lestingay, which he had founded in the mountains of the Deiri, that is, the Woulds of Yorkshire. St. Cedd being made bishop of London, or of the East Saxons, left to him the entire government of this house. Oswi having yielded up Bernicia, or the northern part of his kingdom, to his son Alcfrid, this prince sent St. Wilfrid into France, that he might be consecrated to the bishopric of the Northumbrian kingdom, or of York; but he stayed so long abroad that Oswi himself nominated St. Chad to that dignity, who was ordained by Wini, bishop of Winchester, a.s.sisted by two British prelates, in 666. Bede a.s.sures us that he zealously devoted himself to all the laborious functions of his charge, visiting his diocese on foot, preaching the gospel, and seeking out the poorest and most abandoned persons to instruct and comfort, in the meanest cottages, and in the fields. When St. Theodorus, archbishop of Canterbury, arrived in England, in his general visitation of all the English churches, he adjudged the see of York to St. Wilfrid. St. Chad made him this answer: "If you judge that I have not duly received the episcopal ordination, I willingly resign this charge, having never thought myself worthy of it: but which, however unworthy, I submitted to undertake in obedience." The archbishop was charmed with his candor and humility, would not admit his abdication, but supplied certain rites which he judged defective in his ordination: and St. Chad, leaving the see of York, retired to his monastery of Lestingay, but was not suffered to bury himself long in that solitude. Jaruman, bishop of the Mercians, dying, St. Chad was called upon to take upon him the charge of that most extensive diocese.[1] He was the fifth bishop of the Mercians, and first fixed that see at Litchfield, so called from a great number of martyrs slain and buried there under Maximia.n.u.s Herculeus; the name signifying the field of carca.s.ses. Hence this city bears for its arms a landscape, covered with the bodies of martyrs. St. Theodorus considering St. Chad"s old age, and the great extent of his diocese, absolutely forbade him to make his visitations on foot, as he used to do at York. When the laborious duties of his charge allowed him to retire, he enjoyed G.o.d in solitude with seven or eight monks, whom he had settled in a place near his cathedral. Here he gained new strength and fresh graces for the discharge of his functions; he was so strongly affected with the fear of the divine judgments, that as often as it thundered he went to the church and prayed prostrate all the time the storm continued, in remembrance of the dreadful day in which Christ will come to judge the world. By the bounty of king Wulfere, he founded a monastery at a place called Barrow, in the province {498} of Lindsay, (in the northern part of Lincolnshire,) where the footsteps of the regular life begun by him remained to the time of Bede. Carte conjectures that the foundation of the great monastery of Bardney, in the same province, was begun by him.
St. Chad governed his diocese of Litchfield, two years and a half, and died in the great pestilence on the 2d of March, in 673. Bede gives the following relation of his pa.s.sage. "Among the eight monks whom he kept with him at Litchfield, was one Owini, who came with queen Ethelred, commonly called St. Audry, from the province of the East Angles, and was her major-domo, and the first officer of her court, till quitting the world, clad in a mean garment, and carrying an axe and a hatchet in his hand, he went to the monastery of Lestingay, signifying that he came to work, and not to be idle; which he made good by his behavior in the monastic state. This monk declared, that he one day heard a joyful melody of some persons sweetly singing, which descended from heaven into the bishop"s oratory, filled the same for about half an hour, then mounted again to heaven. After this, the bishop opening his window, and seeing him at his work, bade him call the other seven brethren. When the eight monks were entered his oratory, he exhorted them to preserve peace and religiously observe the rules of regular discipline; adding, that the amiable guest who was wont to visit their brethren, had vouchsafed to come to him that day, and to call him out of this world. Wherefore he earnestly recommended his pa.s.sage to their prayers, and pressed them to prepare for their own, the hour of which is uncertain, by watching, prayer, and good works." The bishop fell presently into a languishing distemper, which daily increased, till, on the seventh day, having received the body and blood of our Lord, he departed to bliss, to which he was invited by the happy soul of his brother St. Cedd, and a company of angels with heavenly music. He was buried in the church of St. Mary, in Litchfield; but his body was soon after removed to that of St. Peter, in both places honored by miraculous cures, as Bede mentions. His relics were afterwards translated into the great church which was built in 1148, under the invocation of the B. Virgin and St. Chad, which is now the cathedral, and they remained them till the change of religion. See Bede, l. 3, c. 28, l. 4, c. 2 and 3.
Footnotes: 1. The first bishop of the Mercians was Diuma, a Scot; the second, Keollach, of the same nation: the third, Trumhere, who had been abbot of Gethling in the kingdom of the Northumbrians: the fourth Jaruruan.
ST. SIMPLICIUS, POPE, C.
HE was the ornament of the Roman clergy under SS. Leo and Hilarius, and succeeded the latter in the pontificate in 497. He was raised by G.o.d to comfort and support his church amidst the greatest storms. All the provinces of the Western empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the hands of barbarians, infected for the greatest part with idolatry or Arianism. The ten last emperors, during twenty years, were rather shadows of power than sovereigns, and in the eighth year of the pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners.
Salvian, a learned priest of Ma.r.s.eilles in 440, wrote an elegant book On Divine Providence, in which he shows that these calamities were a just chastis.e.m.e.nt of the sins of the Christians; saying, that if the Goths were perfidious, and the Saxons cruel, they were however both remarkable for their chast.i.ty; as the Franks were for humanity, though addicted to lying: and that though these barbarians were impious, they had not so perfect a knowledge of sin, nor consequently were so criminal as those whom G.o.d chastised by them. The disorders of the Roman state paved the way for this revolution. Excessive taxes were levied in the most arbitrary ways. The governors oppressed the people at discretion, and many were obliged to take shelter among the barbarians: for the Bagaude, {499} Franks, Huns, Vandals, and Goths raised no taxes upon their subjects: on which account nations once conquered by them were afraid of falling again under the Roman yoke, preferring what was called slavery, to the empty name of liberty. Italy, by oppressions and the ravages of barbarians, was left almost a desert without inhabitants; and the imperial armies consisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of auxiliaries, as the Suevi, Alans, Heruli, Goths, and others. Those soon saw their masters were in their power. The Heruli demanded one third of the lands of Italy, and, upon refusal, chose for their leader Odoacer, one of the lowest extraction, but a tall, resolute, and intrepid man, then an officer in the guards, and an Arian heretic, who was proclaimed king at Rome in 476. He put to death Orestes, who was regent of the empire for his son Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the imperial throne. The young prince had only reigned eight months, and his great beauty is the only thing mentioned of him. Odoacer spared his life, and appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and permitted him to live at full liberty near Naples. Pope Simplicius was wholly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians. The East gave his zeal no less employment and concern. Zeno, son and successor to Leo the Thracian, favored the Eutychians. Basiliscus his admiral, who, on expelling him, usurped the imperial throne in 476, and held it two years, was a most furious stickler for that heresy. Zeno was no Catholic, though not a stanch Eutychian: and having recovered the empire, published, in 482, his famous decree of union, called the Henoticon, which explained the faith ambiguously, neither admitting nor condemning the council of Chalcedon. Peter Cnapheus, (that is, the Dyer,) a violent Eutychian, was made by the heretics patriarch of Antioch; and Peter Mongus, one of the most profligate of men, that of Alexandria. This latter published the Henoticon, but expressly refused to anathematize the council of Chalcedon; on which account the rigid Eutychians separated themselves from his communion, and were called Acephali, or, without a head. Acacias, the patriarch of Constantinople, received the sentence of St. Simplicius against Cnapheus, but supported Mongus against him and the Catholic church, promoted the Henoticon, and was a notorious changeling, double-dealer, and artful hypocrite, who often made religion serve his own private ends. St. Simplicius at length discovered his artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy faith which he saw betrayed on every side, while the patriarchal sees of Alexandria and Antioch were occupied by furious wolves, and there was not one Catholic king in the whole world. The emperor measured every thing by his pa.s.sions and human views. St. Simplicius having sat fifteen years, eleven months, and six days, went to receive the reward of his labors, in 483. He was buried in St. Peter"s on the 2d of March. See his letters: also the historians Evagrius, Theophanes, Liberatus, and amongst the moderns, Baronius, Henschenius, Ceillier, t. 15, p. 123.
ST. MARNAN, B.C.
To his holy prayers Aidan, king of the Scots, ascribed a wonderful victory which he gained over Ethelfrid, the pagan king of the Northumbrian English; and by his councils Eugenius IV., who succeeded his father Aidan in the kingdom soon after this battle, treated all the prisoners with the utmost humanity and generosity, by which they were gained to the Christian faith. The Northumbrian princes, Oswald and Oswi, were instructed in our holy religion, and grounded in its spirit by St. Marnan, {500} who died in Annandale in the year 620. His head was kept with singular devotion at Moravia, and was carried in processions attended by the whole clan of the Innis"s, which from the earliest times was much devoted to this saint. See the Breviary of Aberdeen, Buchanan, l. 5, in Aidano et Eugenio Regibus, and MS. Memoirs in the Scottish college at Paris. St. Marnan is t.i.tular saint of the church of Aberkerdure upon the river Duvern, formerly much frequented out of devotion to his relics kept there.
ST. CHARLES THE GOOD, EARL OF FLANDERS, M.
HE was the son of St. Canutus, king of Denmark, and of Alice of Flanders, who, after the death of his father, carried him, then an infant, into Flanders, in 1086. His cousin-german Baldwin the Seventh, earl of Flanders, dying without issue in 1119, left him his heir by will, on account of his extraordinary valor and merit. The young earl was a perfect model of all virtues, especially devotion, charity, and humility. Among his friends and courtiers, he loved those best who admonished him of his faults the most freely. He frequently exhausted his treasury on the poor, and often gave the clothes off his back to be sold for their relief. He served them with his own hands, and distributed clothes and bread to them in all places where he came. It was observed that in Ipres he gave away, in one day, no less than seven thousand eight hundred loaves. He took care for their sake to keep the price of corn and provisions always low, and he made wholesome laws to protect them from the oppressions of the great. This exasperated Bertulf, who had tyrannically usurped the provostship of St. Donatian"s in Bruges, to which dignity was annexed the chancellorship of Flanders, and his wicked relations, the great oppressors of their country. In this horrible conspiracy they were joined by Erembald, castellan or chief magistrate of the territory of Bruges, with his five sons, provoked against their sovereign because he had repressed their unjust violences against the n.o.ble family De Straten. The holy earl went every morning barefoot to perform his devotions early before the altar of the Blessed Virgin in St. Donatian"s church. Going thither one day, he was informed of a conspiracy, but answered; "We are always surrounded by dangers, but we belong to G.o.d. If it be his will, can we die in a better cause than that of justice and truth?" While he was reciting the penitential psalms before the altar, the conspirators rushing in, his head was cloven by Fromold Borchard, nephew to Bertulf, in 1124. He was buried in St.
Christopher"s church at Bruges, not in that of St. Donatian, as Pantoppidan proves. Borchard was broke alive on the wheel, and Bertulf was hung on a rack at Ipres, and exposed on it to be torn by furious dogs, and at length was stoned to death by beggars while he remained on that engine. St. Charles"s shrine was placed by an order of Charles Philip Rodoan, fourth bishop of Bruges, in 1606, in the chapel of the blessed Virgin, and ever since the year 1610 a high ma.s.s in honor of the Trinity is sung on his festival. See the life of this good earl by Walter, archdeacon of Terouenne, and more fully by Gualbert, syndic of Bruges, and by aelnoth a monk of Canterbury and Danish missionary at that time. See also Mola.n.u.s and Miraeus in their martyrologies; Henschenius, p. 158; Robertus de Monte a Append, ad. Chronicon Sigeberti ad an. 1127; Jac. Maierus, Annal. Flandriae, l. 4, pp. 45, 46. Likewise Ericus Pantoppida.n.u.s in his Gesta Danorum extra Daniam. Hafniae, 1740 t. 2, sec.
1, c. 5, sec. 32, p. 398.
{501}
ST. JOAVAN, OR JOEVIN, B.C.
This saint was a fervent disciple of St. Paul of Leon, in Great Britain, his own country, accompanied him into Armorica, led an anch.o.r.etical life near him in the country of Ack, and afterwards in the isle of Baz. That great saint chose him coadjutor in his bishopric, when he retired a little before his death. St. Joavan survived him only one year. He is t.i.tular saint of two parish churches in the diocese of St. Paul of Leon, &c. See Lobineau, Vies des Saints de la Bretagne, p. 71, from the breviary and tradition of that church, though the life of St. Jovian, copied by Albert the Great. &c., deserves no regard.
MARCH III.
ST. CUNEGUNDES, EMPRESS.
From her life written by a canon of Bamberg, about the year 1152: also the Dissertation of Henschenius, p. 267.
A.D. 1040.
ST. CUNEGUNDES was the daughter of Sigefride, the first count of Luxemburgh, and Hadeswige his pious wife. They instilled into her from her cradle the most tender sentiments of piety, and married her to St.
Henry, duke of Bavaria, who, upon the death of the emperor Otho III., was chosen king of the Romans, and crowned at Mentz on the 6th of June, 1002. She was crowned at Paderborn on St. Laurence"s day, on which occasion she made great presents to the churches of that city. In the year 1014 she went with her husband to Rome, and received the imperial crown with him from the hands of Pope Benedict VIII. She had, by St.
Henry"s consent before her marriage, made a vow of virginity.
Calumniators afterwards accused her to him of freedoms with other men.
The holy empress, to remove the scandal of such a slander, trusting in G.o.d the protector of innocence, in proof of hers, walked over red-hot ploughshares without being hurt. The emperor condemned his too scrupulous fears and credulity, and made her ample amends. They lived from that time in the strictest union of hearts conspiring to promote in every thing G.o.d"s honor, and the advancement of piety.
Going once to make a retreat in Hesse, she fell dangerously ill, and made a vow to found a monastery, if she recovered, in a place then called Capungen, now Kaffungen, near Ca.s.sel, in the diocese of Paderborn, which she executed in a stately manner, and gave it to nuns of the Order of St. Benedict. Before it was finished St. Henry died, in 1024. She earnestly recommended his soul to the prayers of others, especially to her dear nuns, and expressed her longing desire of joining them. She had already exhausted her treasures and her patrimony in founding bishoprics and monasteries, and in relieving the poor. Whatever was rich or magnificent she thought better suited churches than her palace. She had therefore little now left to give. {502} But still thirsting to embrace perfect evangelical poverty, and to renounce all to serve G.o.d without obstacle, on the anniversary day of her busband"s death, 1025, she a.s.sembled a great number of prelates to the dedication of her church of Kaffungen; and after the gospel was sung at ma.s.s, offered on the altar a piece of the true cross, and then put off her imperial robes, and clothed herself with a poor habit: her hair was cut off, and the bishop put on her a veil, and a ring as the pledge of her fidelity to her heavenly spouse. After she was consecrated to G.o.d in religion, she seemed entirely to forget that she had been empress, and behaved as the last in the house, being persuaded that she was so before G.o.d. She feared nothing more than what ever could bring to her mind the remembrance of her former dignity. She prayed and read much, worked with her hands, abhorred the least appearance of worldly nicety, and took a singular pleasure in visiting and comforting the sick. Thus she pa.s.sed the fifteen last years of her life, never suffering the least preference to be given her above anyone in the community. Her mortifications at length reduced her to a very weak condition, and brought on her last sickness. Her monastery and the whole city of Ca.s.sel were grievously afflicted at the thought of their approaching loss; she alone appeared without concern, lying on a coa.r.s.e hair-cloth, ready to give up the ghost, while the prayers of the agonizing were read by her side.
Perceiving they were preparing a cloth fringed with gold to cover her corpse after her death, she changed color and ordered it to be taken away; nor could she be at rest till she was promised she should be buried as a poor religious in her habit. She died on the 3d of March, 1040. Her body was carried to Bamberg, and buried near that of her husband. The greatest part of her relics still remains in the same church. She was solemnly canonized by Innocent III. in 1200. The author of her life relates many miracles wrought at the tomb, or by the intercession of this holy virgin and widow.
Few arrive at any degree of perfection amongst those who aspire after virtue, because many behave as if they placed it barely in multiplying exercises of piety and good works. This costs little to self-love, which it rather feeds by entertaining a secret vanity, or self-complacency, in those who are not very careful in watching over their hearts. It is a common thing to see persons who have pa.s.sed forty or fifty years in the constant practice of penance and all religious exercises, and the use of the most holy sacraments, still subject to habitual imperfections, and venial disorders, incompatible with a state of sanct.i.ty or perfection.
They give marks of sudden resentment, if they happen to be rebuked or despised: are greedy of the esteem of others, take a secret satisfaction in applause, love too much their own ease and conveniences, and seek those things which flatter self-love. How much are these souls their own enemies by not giving themselves to G.o.d without reserve, and taking a firm resolution to labor diligently in watching over themselves, and cutting off all irregular attachments, and purifying their hearts! The neglect of this fosters many habitual little disorders and venial sins, which incredibly obstruct the work of our sanctification, and the advancement of the kingdom of divine grace in our souls. These little enemies wilfully caressed, weaken our good desires, defile even our spiritual actions with a thousand imperfections, and stop the abundant effusion with which the Holy Ghost is infinitely desirous to communicate himself to our souls, and to fill them with his light, grace, peace, and holy joy. The saints, by the victory over themselves, and by making it their princ.i.p.al study to live in the most perfect disengagement and purity of heart, offered to G.o.d, even in their smallest actions, pure and full sacrifices of love, praise, and obedience. If we desire to cultivate this purity of heart, we {503} must carefully endeavor to discover the imperfections and disorders of their souls, especially such as are habitual, and strenuously labor to root them out. Secondly, we must keep our senses under a strict guard, and accustom them to restraint by frequent denials. Thirdly, we must live as much as may be in a habit of recollection, and the practice of the divine presence, and, after any dissipating affairs, return eagerly to close retirement for some short time. Fourthly, we must, with perfect simplicity, lay open our whole interior to our spiritual director, and be most solicitous to do this, with particular candor and courage, in things in which we are tempted to use any kind of duplicity or dissimulation.
Lastly, we must propose to ourselves, in all our thoughts and actions, the most perfect accomplishment of the will of G.o.d, and study to square our whole lives by this great rule, watching in all we do with particular care against motives of vanity, pride, sensuality, interest, and aversions, the great enemies to purity of intention.
SS. MARINUS AND ASTERIUS, OR ASTYRIUS, 1131.
ST. MARINUS was a person remarkable both for his wealth and family at Caesarea in Palestine, about the year 272, and was in course to succeed to the place of a centurion, which was vacant, and about to obtain it; when another came up and said, that according to the laws Marinus could not have that post, on account of his being a Christian. Achaeus, the governor of Palestine, asked Marinus if he was a Christian; who answered in the affirmative: whereupon the judge gave him three hours s.p.a.ce to consider whether he would abide by his answer, or recall it. Theotecnus, the bishop of that city, being informed of the affair, came to him, when withdrawn from the tribunal, and taking him by the hand led him to the church. Here, pointing to the sword which he wore, and then to a book of the gospels, asked him which of the two he made his option. Marinus, in answer to the query, without the least hesitation, stretched out his right hand, and laid hold of the sacred book. "Adhere steadfastly then to G.o.d," says the bishop, "and he will strengthen you, and you shall obtain what you have chosen. Depart in peace." Being summoned again before the judge, he professed his faith with greater resolution and alacrity than before, and was immediately led away just as he was, and beheaded. St. Asterius, or Astyrius, a Roman senator, in great favor with the emperor, and well known to all on account of his high birth and great estate, being present at the martyrdom of St. Marinus, though he was richly dressed, took away the dead body on his shoulders, and having sumptuously adorned it, gave it a decent burial. Thus far the acts in Ruinart. Rufinus adds, that he was beheaded for this action. See Eus.
Hist. l. 7, c. 15, 16, 17.
SS. EMETERIUS, &c., MM.
COMMONLY CALLED MADIR, AND CHELIDONIUS
THEY were soldiers of distinguished merit in the Roman army in Spain, and suffered martyrdom at Calahorra, but it is not known in what persecution. Their courage and cheerfulness seemed to increase with their sharpest torments, and to them fires and swords seemed sweet and agreeable. Prudemius says, that the persecutors burned the acts of their martyrdom, envying us the history of so glorious a triumph. He adds, that their festival was kept in Spain with great devotion by all ranks of people; that strangers {504} came in devout pilgrimages to visit their relics, praying to these patrons of the world; and that none poured forth their pure prayers to them who were not heard and their tears dried up: "For," says he, "they immediately hear every pet.i.tion, and carry it to the ear of the eternal king." See Prudentius, de Coro, hymn 1.
ST. WINWALOE, OF WINWALOC, ABBOT.
FRAGAN or Fracan, father of this saint, was nearly related to Cathoun, one of the kings or princes of Wales, and had by his wife Gwen three sons, Guethenoc, Jacut, and Winwaloe, whom they bound themselves by vow to consecrate to G.o.d from his birth, because he was their third son. The invasions of the Saxons, and the storms which soon after overwhelmed his own country, obliged him to seek a harbor in which he might serve G.o.d in peace. Riwal had retired a little before, with many others, from Wales into Armorica, and had been there kindly received; several Britons, who had followed the tyrant Maximus, having settled in that country long before. Fragan therefore transported his whole family, about the middle of the fifth century, and fixed his habitation at a place called from him to this day, Ploufragan, situated on the river Gouct, which ancient British and Gaulish word signifies blood. All accounts of our saint agree that his two elder brothers were born in Great Britain, but some place the birth of St. Winwaloe, and of his sister Creirvie, much younger than him, in Armorica. The pious parents brought up their children in the fear of G.o.d, but out of fondness delayed to place Winwaloe in a monastery, till he was now grown up. At length, touched by G.o.d, the father conducted him to the monastery of St. Budoc, in the isle of Laurels,[1] now called Isleverte, or Green Island, not far from the isle of Brehat. St. Budoc was an abbot in Great Britain, eminent for piety and learning, and flying from the swords of the Saxons, took refuge among his countrymen in Armorica, and in this little island a.s.sembled several monks, and opened a famous school for youth. Under his discipline Winwaloe made such progress, that the holy abbot appointed him superior over eleven monks, whom he sent to lay the foundation of a new monastery. They travelled through Domnonea, or the northern coast of Brittany, and finding a desert island near the mouth of the river Aven, now called Chateaulin, they built themselves several little huts or cells. From these holy inhabitants the name of Tibidy, that is, House of Prayers, was given to that island, which it still retains. This place is exposed to so violent winds and storms, that after three years St.
Winwaloe and his community abandoned it, and built themselves a monastery on the continent, in a valley sheltered from the winds, called Landevenech, three leagues from Brest, on the opposite side of the bay.
Grallo, count of Cornouailles, in which province this abbey is situated, in the diocese of Quimper-Corentin, gave the lands, and was at the expense of the foundation of this famous monastery. St. Winwaloe, from the time he left his father"s house, never wore any other garments but what were made of the skins of goats, and under these a hair shirt; day and night, winter and summer, his clothing was the same. In his monastery neither wheat-bread nor wine was used, but for the holy sacrifice of the ma.s.s. No other drink was allowed to the community but water, which was sometimes boiled with a small decoction of certain wild herbs. The monks ate only coa.r.s.e barley-bread, boiled herbs and roots, or barley-meal and herbs mixed, except on Sat.u.r.days and Sundays, on which {505} they were allowed cheese and sh.e.l.lfish, but of these the saint never tasted himself. His coa.r.s.e barley-bread he always mingled with ashes, and their quant.i.ty he doubled in Lent, though even then it must have been very small, only to serve for mortification, and an emblem of penance. In Lent he took his refreshment only twice a week; his bed was composed of the rough bark of trees or of sand, with a stone for his pillow. From the relaxation in the rule of abstinence on Sat.u.r.days, it is evident that this monastic rule, which was the same in substance with that received in other British, Scottish; and Irish monasteries, was chiefly borrowed from Oriental rules, Sat.u.r.day being a fast-day according to the discipline of the Roman church. This rule was observed at Landevenech, till Louis le Debonnaire, for the sake of uniformity, caused that of St. Benedict to be introduced there in 818.
This house was adopted into the congregation of St. Maur, in 1636. St.
Winwaloe was sensible that the spirit of prayer is the soul of a religious state, and the comfort and support of all those who are engaged in it: as to himself, his prayer, either mental or vocal, was almost continual, and so fervent, that he seemed to forget that he lived in a mortal body. From twenty years of age, till his death he never sat in the church, but always prayed either kneeling or standing unmoved, in the same posture, with his hands lifted up to heaven, and his whole exterior bespoke the profound veneration with which he was penetrated.
He died on the 3d of March, about the year 529, in a very advanced age.
His body was buried in his own church, which he had built of wood, on the spot upon which the abbatial house now stands. These relics were translated into the new church when it was built, but during the ravages of the Normans they were removed to several places in France, and at length into Flanders. At present the chief portions are preserved at Saint Peter"s, at Blaudinberg, at Ghent, and at Montreuil in Lower Picardy, of which he is t.i.tular patron. In Picardy, he is commonly called St. Vignevaley, and more commonly Walovay; in Brittany, Guignole, or more frequently Vennole; in other parts of France, Guingalois; in England, Winwaloe or Winwaloc. His name occurs in the English litany of the seventh age, published by Mabillon.[2] He is t.i.tular saint of St.
Guingualoe, a priory at Chateau du Loir, dependent on Marmoutier at Tours, and of several churches and parishes in France. His father, St.
Fragan, is t.i.tular saint of a parish in the diocese of St. Brieuc, called Plou-Fragan, of which he is said to have been lord, and of another in the diocese of Leon, called St. Frogan; also, St. Gwen his mother, of one in the same diocese called Ploe-Gwen, and of another in that of Quimper. In France she is usually called St. Blanche, the British word Gwen signifying Blanche or White. His brothers are honored in Brittany, St. Guethenoc, on the 5th of November, and St. Jacut or James, on the 8th of February and the 3d of March; the latter is patron of the abbey of St. Jagu, in the diocese of Dol. St. Balay, or Valay, chief patron of the parish of Plou-balai, in the diocese of St. Malo, and a St. Martin, are styled disciples of St. Winwaloe, and before their monastic profession were lords of Rosmeur, and Ros-madeuc. Some other disciples of our saint are placed in the calendars of several churches in Brittany, as St. Guenhael his successor, St. Idunet or Yonnet, St.
Dei, &c. See the ancient life of St. Winwaloe, the first of the three given by Bollandus and Henschenius; that in Surius and Cressy not being genuine. See also Baillet and Lobineau, Lives of the Saints of Brittany, pp. 43 and 48.
Footnotes: 1. Laureaca.
2. Mabil. in a.n.a.lect.