His new dignity made no alteration in his manners. He never wore the orarium, a kind of stole then used by bishops, nor other clothes than his usual coarse garb, which was the same in winter and summer. He went sometimes barefoot; he never undressed to take rest, and always rose for prayer before the midnight office. It was only when ill that he suffered a little wine to be mingled with the water, which he drank; and he never could be prevailed upon to eat flesh-meat.

His modesty, meekness and humility gained him the affections of all, even of an ambitious deacon Felix, who had opposed his election and whom the saint treated with cordial charity. His love of retirement induced him to build a monastery near his house at Ruspe; but before the building could be completed, orders were issued from King Thrasi­mund for his banishment to Sardinia, with others, to the number of sixty orthodox bishops.

Fulgentius, though the youngest of the band, was their oracle when in doubt and their tongue and pen upon all occasions. Pope St Symmachus, out of his fatherly charity, every year sent provisions in money and clothes to these champions of Christ. A letter of this pope to them is still extant, in which he en­courages and comforts them; and it was at the same time that he sent them certain relics of SS. Nazarius and Romanus, “that the example and patronage (patrocinia),” as he expresses it,” of those generous soldiers of Christ might animate the confessors to fight valiantly the battles of the Lord”.

St Fulgentius with some companions converted a house at Cagliari into a monastery, which immediately became the resort of all in affliction and of all who sought counsel. In this retirement the saint composed many learned treatises for the instruction of the faithful in Africa. King Thrasimund, hearing that he was their principal support and advocate, sent for him. The Arian king then drew up a set of objections, to which he required his answer; the saint complied with the demand: and this is supposed to be his book entitled An Answer to Ten Objections. The king admired his humility and learning, and the orthodox triumphed in the advantage their cause gained by this rejoinder. To prevent the same effect a second time, the king, when he sent him new objections, ordered them to be only read to him. Fulgentius refused to give answers in writing unless he was allowed to take a copy of them. He addressed, however, to the king an ample and modest con­futation of Arianism, which we have under the title of his Three Books to King Thrasimund, The prince was pleased with the work, and granted him permission to reside at Carthage till, upon repeated complaints from the Arian bishops of the success of his preaching, he was sent back to Sardinia in 520. Being ready to go aboard the ship, he said to a Catholic whom he saw weeping, “ Grieve not; I shall shortly return, and we shall see the true faith of Christ flourish again in this kingdom with full liberty; but divulge not this secret to any.”

The event confirmed the truth of the prediction. His humility concealed the multiplicity of miracles that he wrought; and he was wont to say, “A person may be endowed with the gift of miracles, and yet may lose his soul. Miracles insure not salvation; they may indeed procure esteem and applause; but what will it avail a man to be esteemed on earth and afterwards be delivered up to torments?”

Having returned to Cagliari, he erected a new monastery near that city, and was careful to supply his monks with all necessaries, especially in sickness; but would not suffer them to ask for anything, alleging that “We ought to receive all things as from the hand of God, with resignation and gratitude”.

King Thrasimund died in 523, having nominated Hilderic his successor, and in Africa the professors of the true faith called home their pastors. The ship, which brought them back, was received at Carthage with great demonstrations of joy, more particularly when Fulgentius appeared on the upper-deck of the vessel. The confessors went straight to the church of St Agileus to return thanks to God; on their way, being surprised by a sudden storm, the people, to show their singular regard for Fulgentius, made a kind of umbrella over his head with their cloaks to defend him from the downpour.

The saint hastened to Ruspe and immediately set about reforming abuses that had crept in during the seventy years of perse­cution; but this reformation was carried on with a sweetness that won sooner or later the hearts of the most obdurate. St Fulgentius had a wonderful gift of oratory; and Boniface, Archbishop of Carthage, never heard him without tears, thanking God for having given so great a pastor to His Church.

About a year before his death, Fulgentius retired into a monastery on the little island called Circinia to prepare himself for his passage to eternity. The impor­tunities of his flock, however, recalled him to Ruspe a little before the end. He bore the pain of his last illness with admirable patience, having this prayer almost always upon his lips: “Lord, grant me patience now, and hereafter mercy and pardon.” The physicians advised him to take baths, to whom he answered, “Can baths make a mortal man escape death, when his life has reached its term?”

Summoning his clergy and monks, who were all in tears, he begged their forgiveness if he had ever offended any one of them; he comforted them, gave them some moving instructions, and calmly breathed forth his soul in the year 533, of his age the sixty-fifth, on January 1, on which day his name occurs in many calendars. In some few churches his feast is kept on May 16, perhaps the day on which his relics were translated, about 714, to Bourges, in France, where they were destroyed in the Revolution. The veneration for his virtues was such that he was interred within the church, contrary to the law and custom of that age, as is remarked by the author of his life. St Fulgentius had chosen the great St Augustine for his model; and as a true disciple, imitated him in his conduct, faithfully imbibing his spirit and expounding his doctrine.

There is a trustworthy biography of this saint, written by a contemporary, whom many believe to have been his disciple, Fulgentius Ferrandus. It has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, January 1, and elsewhere. See the important work of G. G. Lapeyre, St Fulgence de Ruspe (1929), which includes the vita in a separate volume. For an account of the theo­logical and controversial writings of St Fulgentius reference may be made to Bardenhewer’s Patrology, pp. 616—618 in the English translation (1908) or to DTC., vol. vi, cc. 968 seq. See also Abbot Chapman in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. vi, pp. 316—317; and Dr H. R. Reynolds in DCB., vol. ii, pp. 576—583 .

It was the month of December and the ground was hard with frost, but the tree under which John was seated was blossoming like a lily. Some passing huntsmen asked him whence he came and what he was doing there. The holy man told them his whole history and they were filled with astonishment—especially at his clothes, the like of which they had never seen. “Please do not hurt me, my sons“, said John, “for I have come here in the service of God.” But the request was un­necessary, as they had already noticed the tree which was blossoming and recognized that the Lord was with him. Far from wishing to do him harm they were eager to announce his arrival to the bishop of Spoleto, who hurried out to greet him and found him praying under the tree. They wept for joy when they met, and all who were present gave glory to God. In that place John built his monastery, and there he lived until forty-four years later, when he fell asleep in peace and was buried with hymns and songs.

Pursuing their journey, they landed at some unidentified place where the local chieftain, named Conan, was converted from paganism by Brieuc’s miracles. This, however, was not their final destination, and they sailed on to a little estuary on the coast of Brittany near Tréguier, where they settled and built a monastery, of which St Brieuc became abbot. A flourishing and fervent community was formed, but before long news came of a grievous pestilence which was devastating his native land. His family implored him to visit them once again, and he, though very reluctantly, yielded to their entreaties, leaving his nephew, St Tugdual, to rule the abbey in his absence. His parents were consoled, and the pestilence was arrested by his prayers, but he would not consent to abide with them long. He was gladly welcomed back in Brittany, where he determined to found another monastery in a different part of the country. It is said that eighty-four volunteers accompanied him, who all travelled by sea, and, finding a suitable spot with a good water supply, proceeded to encamp and make themselves at home. The ruler of the district, Rigual, was at first infuriated by this invasion, but falling ill himself he was cured by St Brieuc. Having further discovered that he was a blood relation he became his warm friend and patron.
   We are told, however, that Brieuc, after the founda­tion of the new abbey on the lands which the chieftain bestowed, assisted Rigual on his death-bed, and himself, to the great sorrow of his brethren, passed away shortly after. He is said to have been then one hundred years old. All this is supposed to have happened on the site of the present cathedral and town of Saint-Brieuc, but in the middle of the ninth century the saint’s remains, for fear of the Norman marauders, were translated to Angers. In 1210 a portion of the relics was given back by the monks of Angers, and they are preserved in the cathedral to this day. It is possible that St Brieuc was a missionary bishop, but the see which bears his name was not formed until many centuries later.

6^th v. ST ILLTUD, OR ILLTYD, ABBOT; a disciple of St Germanus (of Auxerre), who ordained him priest, and that he presided over the monastic  school at Llantwit in Glamorgan much stress is laid on his learning and wisdom “This Illtud was the most learned of all the Britons both in the Old Testament and the New, and in all kinds of philosophy—poetry and rhetoric, grammar and arithmetic…were I to begin to relate all his wondrous works I should be led to excess”.

THE first information we have about IlItud, one of the most celebrated of the Welsh saints, is in the perhaps early seventh-century Life of St Samson. Here it is said that he was a disciple of St Germanus (of Auxerre), who ordained him priest, and that he presided over the monastic school at Llantwit in Glamorgan much stress is laid on his learning and wisdom “This Illtud was the most learned of all the Britons both in the Old Testament and the New, and in all kinds of philosophy—poetry and rhetoric, grammar and arithmetic…were I to begin to relate all his wondrous works I should be led to excess”. There are further references in the ninth-century Life of St Paul Aurelian there it is stated that the saint’s monastery was established on a certain island “within the borders of Dyfed, called Pyr”, which is usually identified with Caldey, off Tenby. This statement has given rise to the baseless conjecture that there was an original Llanilltud on Caldey, and that a later and bigger foundation in Glamorgan was distinguished from it as Llanilltud Fawr, that is “the Great”. Illtud is said to have increased the size of this “very limited area hemmed in by the sea”, at the suggestion of his pupils Paul, David, Samson, and Gildas.*{*Little credence can be attached to the statement that St David was a pupil of St IlItud: cf. A. W. Wade-Evans, Life of St David, p. 73. The same scholar sought to identify the insula with Manorbier on the mainland of Pembrokeshire (Notes and Queries, 1950).}

The only life we have of St IlItud himself is a Latin composition dating from about 1140. This tells us that his father was a Briton who lived in Letavia with his wife; it has been suggested that Letavia here really means a district in central Brecknock rather than Brittany. When he grew up Illtud went by water to visit “his cousin King Arthur”, and married a lady called Trynihid. Leaving Arthur, he entered the military service of a chieftain in Glamorgan, whence he is sometimes called IlItud the Knight. The story goes that he was startled into taking up the monastic life by a hunting accident in which some of his friends lost their lives, and that he was recommended to leave the world by St Cadoc (who was hardly born at this time). Illtud went to live with Trynihid in a reed hut by the river Nadafan, but was warned by an angel, in peculiar circumstances, to leave his wife. This he did, very roughly, early in the morning, and went to St Dubricius to receive the tonsure of a monk. Then he made his abode by a stream called the Hodnant, and lived austerely there as a solitary until disciples began to flock around. They flourished materially and spiritually, their land was good and they worked hard, and St Illtud’s monastery became the first great monastic school of Wales, known as Llanilltud Fawr (now Llantwit Major in Glamorgan).

Once Trynihid came to see her husband, whom she found working in the fields, but he was offended and would not speak to her (The narrator here attributes a similar discourtesy to Almighty God). When Illtud was driven from his monastery by the oppression of a local chieftain he had to take refuge for a time in a cave by the river Ewenny, where he was fed from Heaven their lands were threatened by the collapse of the sea-wall, which the monks built up again, but finally it had to be made good miraculously by the saint. He is said to have gone with corn-ships to relieve a famine in Brittany, and places and churches bearing his name are found there as well as many in Wales. Illtud was honoured as having introduced to his monks, and so to the people, an improved method of ploughing. The life is largely taken up with anecdotes of wonders, which provoked Dom Serenus Cressy in the seventeenth century to complain of “fables and unsavoury miracles”, when he met them in Capgrave’s Nova legenda Angliae. It states that in his old age Illtud again crossed the sea, and died at Dol; but the Life of Samson gives a moving account of his last days at Llantwit.

6th v. ST MANECHILDIS, VIRGIN 

SIGMARUS, comes in the Perthois, and his wife had seven daughters, all of whom are venerated as saints in different parts of Champagne; they were Lintrudis, Amata (Amée), Pusinna, Hoildis, Francula, Libergis and Manechildis (Méné­hould), who was the youngest. They all received the veil of consecrated virgins from St Alpinus, Bishop of Chalons, and Manechildis in particular gave herself to all sorts of spiritual and temporal good works she would accompany her father on his visits to Château-sur-Aisne (now called Sainte-Ménéhould), one of the places in his jurisdiction, in order to tend the sick of that place. On the Côte-à-Vignes is a spring said to have been produced miraculously by the saint to quench the thirst of the people who came to her in large numbers when she was at her cell on the side of the mountain. After the death of her parents St Manechildis left her home and sisters to live as a solitary at Bienville on the Marne, and here she died amid the lamentations of the poor and sick whom she had tended.

512 St. Genevieve Paris averted Attila scourge by fasting and prayer

   The arrival of St Germanus at Paris, probably on his second journey to Britain, for some time silenced her calumniators; but it was not long before the storm broke out anew. Her enemies were fully determined to discredit and even to drown her, when the archdeacon of Auxerre arrived with eulogiae, blessed bread, sent her by St Germanus as a testimony of his particular esteem and a token of communion. This seems to have happened whilst Germanus was absent in Italy in 448. The tribute thus paid her converted the prejudices of her calumniators into veneration for the remainder of her life.

The Franks had at this time gained possession of the better part of Gaul, and Childeric, their king, took Paris. During the long blockade of that city, the citizens being reduced to extremities by famine, St Genevieve, as the author of her life relates, went out at the head of a company who were sent to procure provisions, and brought back from Arcis-sur-Aube and Troyes several boats laden with corn. Childeric, when he had made himself master of Paris, though always a pagan, respected St Genevieve, and upon her intercession spared the lives of many prisoners and did other generous acts. She also awakened the zeal of many persons to build a church in honour of St Dionysius of Paris, which King Dagobert I afterwards rebuilt with a monastery in 629. St Genevieve likewise undertook many pilgrimages, in company with other maidens, to the shrine of St Martin at Tours, and the reputation of her holiness is said to have been so great that her fame even reached St Simeon Stylites in Syria.

   King Clovis, who embraced the faith in 496, often listened with deference to St Genevieve, and more than once granted liberty to captives at her request. Upon the report of the march of Attila with his army of Huns the Parisians were preparing to abandon their city, but St Genevieve, like a Christian Judith or Esther, encouraged them to avert the scourge by fasting and prayer. Many of her own sex passed whole days with her in prayer in the bap­tistery; from whence the particular devotion to St Genevieve, formerly practised at S.-Jean-le-Rond, the ancient public baptistery of the church of Paris, seems to have taken rise. She assured the people of the protection of Heaven, and though she was treated by many as an impostor, the event verified the prediction, for the barbarous invader suddenly changed the course of his march.

   Our author attributes to St Genevieve the first suggestion of the church, which Clovis began to build in honour of SS. Peter and Paul, in deference to the wishes of his wife, St Clotilda, in which church the body of St Genevieve herself was enshrined after her death about the year 500.

The miracles which were performed there from the time of her burial rendered this church famous over all France, so that at length it began to be known by her name. The fabric, however, fell into decay, and a new church was begun in 1764. This has long been secularized and, under the name of the Pantheon, is now used as a national mausoleum.

The city of Paris has frequently received sensible proofs of the divine protection, through St Genevieve’s intercession. The most famous instance is that called the miracle des Ardents, or of the burning fever. In 1129 a disease, apparently poisoning by ergot, swept off in a short time many thous and persons, nor could the art of physicians afford any relief. Stephen, Bishop of Paris, with the clergy and people, implored the divine mercy by fasting and sup­plications. Yet the epidemic did not abate till the shrine of St Genevieve was carried in a solemn procession to the cathedral. Many sick persons were cured by touching the shrine, and of all who then were suffering from the disease in the whole town only three died, and no others fell ill. Pope Innocent II, coming to Paris the year following, after due investigation ordered an annual festival in commemoration of the miracle on November 26, which is still kept in Paris. It was formerly the custom, in extraordinary public calamities, to carry the shrine of St Genevieve in procession to the cathedral. The greater part of the relics of the saint were destroyed or pillaged at the French Revolution.

The ancient life of St Geneviève from which most of the above account is derived, and which purports to have been written by a contemporary eighteen years after the saint’s death, has been the subject of keen controversy. There are three principal recensions of it, known respectively as the A, B and C texts. Text A has been edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iii (1896). Text B is printed in the very valuable essay of C. Kohler, Ètude critique sur le texte de la vie latine de Sainte Geneviève (1881), and Text C may be found in the Teubner edition of the Vita Sanctae Genovefae, edited by C. Künstle in 1910. Al­though Text C has in its favour the authority of the oldest manuscripts (eighth century), the priority of that recension is by no means generally admitted. But the more important controversy is that regarding the authenticity of the life itself. Bruno Krusch declares it to be a forgery, and that the author, instead of being a contemporary as he pretends, did not compile the life until more than 250 years later, towards the close of the eighth century. It is impossible here to do more than mention the acrimonious discussion to which Krusch’s pronouncement has given rise. It must be sufficient to say that his views have by no means carried with them the support of the majority of competent critics. Such scholars as Mgr Duchesne, Prof. G. Kurth, C. Künstle and A. Poncelet strenuously maintain that the life was really written by a contemporary, and that, so far as regards the substance of its contents, it is trustworthy. Readers will find an excellent summary of all that is really known about St Genevieve in H. Lesêtre, Ste Geneviève (in the series “Les Saints”), and in the essay of E. Vacandard, Études de critique, vol. iv, pp. 67—124, and 255—266. For a charming popular account of the saint, see M. Reynès-Monlaur, Ste Geneviève (1924). A story in the life tells how the devil, when St Geneviève went to pray in the church at night, blew out her candle to frighten her. She is, therefore, often represented in art with a candle. Sometimes the devil and a pair of bellows are also depicted beside her.  

520 ST ANTONY OF LÉRINS In the monastery of Lérins in France, St. Anthony, a monk famed for his miracles.
 In monastério Lirinénsi, in Gállia, sancti Antónii Mónachi, miráculis clari.
       In the monastery of Lérins in France, St. Anthony, a monk famed for his miracles.

HE was born at Valeria in Lower Pannonia during the time of the barbarian in­vasions, and his father dying when he was eight years old he was entrusted to the care of St Severinus, the intrepid apostle of Noricum. Antony probably lived with him in the monastery he had founded at Faviana, and as a boy saw Odoacer go by on his triumphant march to Rome.

Severinus died about 482 and Antony was then taken charge of by his uncle Constantius, Bishop of Lorch in Bavaria. He became a monk, and withdrew from Noricum into Italy with the other Romans in 488. He was then about twenty. He made his way to the neighbourhood of Lake Como, and there attached himself to a priest named Marius, who directed a number of disciples there. Marius conceived a great admiration for Antony and wanted him to be ordained priest and share in his work but Antony’s vocation was for the solitary life and, leaving Marius, he joined two hermits near the tomb of St Felix at the other end of the lake. Here he lived in a cave, spending his time in prayer, study and cultivating his garden, but frequent visitors distracted him. A murderer, hiding from justice, simulated devotion and attached himself to Antony as a disciple, but the saint “read his soul”, exposed his impos­ture, and the man fled. Antony had to go also, for this incident made him better known than ever. At last, despairing of finding complete solitude and fearing the respect he received would make him vain, he passed over the Alps into southern Gaul and became a monk at Lérins. St Antony died there revered for his virtues and miracles. St Ennodius of Pavia wrote his life.

Little is known to us of this Antony beyond what Ennodius has recorded in the life referred to. It has been edited in the Vienna Corpus Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, vol. vi, pp. 383—393 in MGH., Auctores antiquissimi, vol. vii, pp. 185—190 and in Migne, FL., vol. lxiii, cc. 239—246. See also DHG., vol. iii, c. 739.

523 ST. SIGISMUND

No sooner had the deed been perpetrated than Sigismund came to his senses and was overpowered with horror and remorse. Perhaps the greatest service Sigismund rendered to the Church was the virtual refounding of the monastery of St Maurice at Agaunum in the present canton of Valais; he endowed it liberally and, in order that the laus perennis, the unbroken chant, should be celebrated within its walls, he brought to it monks from Lérins, Gigny, Ile-Barbe and Condat.* * The law perennis was an arrangement in certain religious houses by which the praises of God never ceased. Relays of monks or nuns were so timed to succeed each other that the chanting of the divine office went on night and day without intermission; this was only practicable where communities contained an unusually large number of members. The practice seems to have been of eastern origin, but it found much favour in houses in which the Celtic traditions were strong, and it was also particularly associated with Agaunum. In the course of centuries this observance died out everywhere. Cf. St Alexander Akimetes (January 15).]

When the church was dedicated St Avitus preached a sermon of which fragments are still preserved.

Sigismund in his repentance had prayed that God would punish him in this life, and his prayer was granted. The three kings of France, sons of Clovis, declared war against him with the avowed intention of avenging their maternal grandfather, Chilperic, whom Sigismund’s father had put to death, and of con­quering Burgundy. Sigismund, after he had been defeated in battle, escaped in the direction of Agaunum. For a time he lived as a hermit in the vicinity of St Maurice, but eventually he was captured and taken to Orleans. There he was put to death by King Clodomir, in spite of the remonstrances of St Avitus. His body was thrown into a well, from which it was recovered, and his relics are now preserved at Prague in Bohemia. St Sigismund is not only named in the Roman Martyrology but is even called a martyr.

There is a Passio Sancti Sigismundi which is a valuable historical document compiled by a monk of Agaunum. It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. i, but more critically edited by Bruno Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. ii, pp. 333—340. We also learn something from Gregory of Tours, both in his Historia Francorum, bk. iii, and in his De Gloria Martyrum, ch. 74. A full bibliography is available in H. Leclercq’s article on Agaunum in the DAC., vol. i, cc. 850—871, and in Hefele-Leclercq, Histoire des Conciles, vol. ii, pp. 1017—1022 and pp. 1031—1042.

All that we know concerning St Mars is found in the Vitae Patrum of St Gregory of Tours, ch. xiv; and see the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. ii.

530  St. Remigius or Remi, Bishop of Rheims extraordinary gift of miracles.
Sancti Remígii, Epíscopi Rheménsis et Confessóris, qui Idibus Januárii obdormívit in Dómino, sed hac die, ob Translatiónem córporis ejus, potíssimum cólitur.
    St. Remigius, bishop of Rheims and confessor, who fell asleep in the Lord on the 13th of January, but is commemorated on this day because of the translation of his body.

530 ST REMIGHIS, OR REMI, BISHOP OF RHEIMS

It is said that Clovis, during his return from this expedition, passed by Toul, and there took with him St Vedast, that he might be instructed by him in the faith during his journey. But Queen St Clotildis was not trusting to any enthusiasm of victory, and sent for St Remigius, telling him to touch the heart of the king while he was well disposed. When Clovis saw her he cried out, “Clovis has vanquished the Alemanni and you have triumphed over Clovis. What you have so much at heart is done.” The queen answered, “To the God of hosts is the glory of both these triumphs due”.
  Clovis suggested that perhaps the people would not be willing to forsake their gods, but said he would speak to them according to the bishop’s instructions. He assembled the chiefs and warriors, but they prevented his speaking, and cried out, “We abjure mortal gods, and are ready to follow the immortal God whom Remigius preaches”. St Remigius and St Vedast therefore instructed and prepared them for baptism. To strike the senses of barbarous people and impress their minds, Queen Clotildis took care that the streets from the palace to the church should be adorned with hangings, and that the church and baptistery should be lighted with a great number of candles and scented with incense. Catechumens marched in procession, carrying crosses, and singing the litany; St Remigius conducted the king by the hand, followed by the queen and the people. At the font the bishop is said to have addressed Clovis in words that are memorable, if not actually pronounced: “Humble yourself, Sicambrian! Worship what you have burned, and burn what you have worshipped!” Words which may be emphatically addressed to every penitent, to express the change of heart and conduct that is required of him.

St Remigius afterwards baptized the king’s two sisters and three thousand men of his army, as well as women and children, with the help of the other bishops and priests present. Hincmar of Rheims, who wrote a Life of St Remigius in the ninth century, is the first to mention a legend that at the baptism of Clovis the chrism for the anointing was found to be missing, whereupon St Remigius prayed and a dove appeared from the heavens, bearing in its beak an ampulla of chrism. A phial of oil, fabled to be the same, was preserved at the abbey of Saint-Remi and used in the consecration of the kings of France until Charles X in 1825. It was broken up at the Revolution, but a piece of La Sainte Ampoule and its contents were saved and are kept in Rheims Cathedral. St Remigius is also supposed to have conferred on Clovis the power of touching for the “king’s evil” (scrofula), which was exercised by the kings of France at their coronation, again up to Charles X. This power was confirmed by the relics of St Marculf, who died about 538.

St Remigius, whom St Gregory of Tours refers to as “a man of great learning, fond of rhetorical studies,
and equal in his holiness to St Silvester”, died about the year 530.

The great apostle of the Franks, and was illustrious for his learning, sanctity and miracles, which in his episcopacy of seventy and more years, rendered his name famous in the church. As a boy he made great progress in learning, and in the opinion of St. Sidonius Apollinaris, who was acquainted with him in the earlier part of his life, he became the most eloquent person in that age. When only twenty-two, too young to be a priest, much less a bishop, he was chosen in 459 to fill the vacant See of Rheims. But he was ordained and consecrated in spite of his youth, and amply made up for lack of experience by his fervor and energy.  Under the protection of King Clovis, who was baptized by Remigius, St. Remigius spread the gospel of Christ among the Franks, in which work God endowed him with an extraordinary gift of miracles. The bishops who were assembled in a conference that was held at Lyons against the Arians in his time, declared they were stirred to exert their zeal in defense of the Catholic Faith by the example of Remigius, "who", say they, "has everywhere destroyed the altars of the idols by a multitude of miracles and signs." St. Remigius, whom St. Gregory of Tours refers to as "a man of great learning, fond of rhetorical studies, and equal in his holiness to St. Silvester", died about the year 530.

530 ST MELAINE, BISHOP OF RENNES;  the author of his life tells us that he performed many miracles; played a leading part in drawing up the canons of the Council of Orleans in 511; King Clovis after his conversion held him in great esteem.

MELAINE (Melanius) was a native of Placet in the parish of Brain, in Brittany. He had served God with great fervour in a monastery for some years when, upon the death of St Amand, Bishop of Rennes, he was constrained by the clergy and people to fill that see. As a bishop he played a leading part in drawing up the canons of the Council of Orleans in 511 (see Neues Archiv, xiv, 50), and with others wrote a letter of rebuke to two Breton priests who were wandering from place to place and behaving very irregularly. A sincere humility, and a spirit of continual prayer chiefly enhanced his virtue, and the author of his life tells us that he performed many miracles. King Clovis after his conversion held him in great esteem. St Melaine died in a monastery, which he had built at Placet, some time before 549. He was buried at Rennes, where his feast is kept to-day, as it was formerly at Mullion in Cornwall, where he had come to be regarded as the local patron, supplanting an earlier St Mollien or Moellien. He must not be confused with the St Mellon venerated in Normandy, who gave his name to Saint Mellons between Newport and Cardiff.

539 ST GREGORY, Bishop of Langres miracles recorded after death he seemed to give the preference to captives who had been arrested by the officers of human justice.
 Apud Língonas, in Gállia, sancti Gregórii Epíscopi, miráculis clari.
       At Langres in France, St. Gregory, a bishop renowned for miracles.

THIS saint is welt known to us from the writings of St Gregory of Tours, who was his great-grandson. Of very distinguished birth, he for forty years governed the district of Autun as count (comes), administering justice equitably but sternly. It was only late in life, after the death of his wife Armentaria that he turned from the world and gave himself unreservedly to God.

The clergy and people then elected him bishop of Langres, and for the rest of his days he showed an admirable example of devotion to his pastoral duties.

   His abstemious­ness in food and drink, which he was ingenious in concealing from the knowledge of others, was remarkable, and he often gave the hours of the night to prayer, frequenting especially the baptistery of Dijon, in which town he commonly lived. There the saints came to visit him and join him in chanting the praises of God in particular St Benignus, the apostle of Burgundy, whose cultus he had at first neglected, after some words of fatherly rebuke directed him to restore his dilapidated shrine, which has ever since been so famous in Dijon. It was here that Gregory himself, who died at Langres in 539, was brought to be buried in accordance with his own desire. His epitaph, composed by Venantius Fortunatus, suggests that any severity he had displayed as a secular ruler was expiated by the tender charity he showed to all in his last years. Even in the miracles recorded after death he seemed to give the preference to captives who had been arrested by the officers of human justice.

The biography of St John of Reomay has been edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iii, pp. 502—517. As Krusch has shown in his article “Zwei Heiligenleben des Jonas von Sosa”, in the Mittheilungen of the Austrian Historical Society, vol. xiv, pp.385 seq., the texts previously edited have no value. The author of the vita was Jonas of Susa, and not a contemporary.

547 ST BENEDICT, ABBOT, PATRIARCH OF WESTERN MONKS

It is probable that Benedict, who was now in middle age, again spent some time as a hermit; but disciples soon flocked to Monte Cassino too. Profiting no doubt by the experience gained at Subiaco, he no longer placed them in separate houses but gathered them together in one establishment, ruled over by a prior and deans under his general supervision. It almost immediately became necessary to add guest-chambers, for Monte Cassino, unlike Subiaco, was easily accessible from Rome and Capua. Not only laymen but dignitaries of the Church came to confer with the holy founder, whose reputation for sanctity, wisdom and miracles became widespread. It is almost certainly at this period that he composed his Rule, of which St Gregory says that in it may be understood “all his manner of life and discipline, for the holy man could not possibly teach otherwise than he lived”. Though it was primarily intended for the monks at Monte Cassino, yet, as Abbot Chapman has pointed out, there is something in favour of the view that it was written at the desire of Pope St Hormisdas for all monks of the West. It is ad dressed to all those who, renouncing their own will, take upon them “the strong and bright armour of obedience to fight under the Lord Christ, our true king”, and it prescribes a life of liturgical prayer, study (“sacred reading”) and work, lived socially in a community under one common father. Then and for long afterwards a monk was but rarely in holy orders, and there is no evidence that St Benedict himself was ever a priest. He sought to provide a school for the Lord’s service” intended for beginners, and the asceticism of the rule is notably moderate. Self-chosen and abnormal austerities were not encouraged, and when a hermit, occupying a cave near Monte Cassino, chained his foot to the rock, Benedict sent him a message, saying, “If you are truly a servant of God, chain not yourself with a chain of iron but with the chain of Christ”.

The great vision, when Benedict saw as in one sunbeam the whole world in the light of God, sums up the inspiration of his life and rule.

The holy abbot, far from confining his ministrations to those who would follow his rule, extended his solicitude to the population of the surrounding country: he cured their sick, relieved the distressed, distributed alms and food to the poor, and is said to have raised the dead on more than one occasion. While Campania was suffering from a severe famine he gave away all the provisions in the abbey, with the exception of five loaves. “You have not enough to-day”, he said to his monks, marking their dismay, “but to-morrow you will have too much”. The following morning two hundred bushels of flour were laid by an unknown hand at the monastery gate. Other instances have been handed down in illustration of St Benedict’s prophetic powers, to which was added ability to read men’s thoughts. A nobleman he had converted once found him in tears and inquired the cause of his grief. The abbot replied, “This monastery which I have built and all that I have prepared for my brethren has been delivered up to the heathen by a sentence of the Almighty. Scarcely have I been able to obtain mercy for their lives.” The prophecy was verified some forty years later, when the abbey of Monte Cassino was destroyed by the Lombards.

When Totila the Goth was making a triumphal progress through central Italy, he conceived a wish to visit St Benedict, of whom he had heard much. He there­fore sent word of his coming to the abbot, who replied that he would see him. To discover whether the saint really possessed the powers attributed to him, Totila ordered Riggo, the captain of his guard, to don his own purple robes, and sent him, with the three counts who usually attended the king, to Monte Cassino. The impersonation did not deceive St Benedict, who greeted Riggo with the words, “My son, take off what you are wearing; it is not yours”. His visitor withdrew in haste to tell his master that he had been detected. Then Totila came himself to the man of God and, we are told, was so much awed that he fell prostrate. But Benedict, raising him from the ground, rebuked him for his evil deeds, and foretold in a few words all that should befall him. Thereupon the king craved his prayers and departed, but from that time he was less cruel. This interview took place in 542, and St Benedict can hardly have lived long enough to see the complete fulfil­ment of his own prophecy.

The great saint who had foretold so many other things was also forewarned of his own approaching death. He notified it to his disciples and six days before the end bade them dig his grave. As soon as this had been done he was stricken with fever, and on the last day he received the Body and Blood of the Lord. Then, while the loving hands of the brethren were supporting his weak limbs, he uttered a few final words of prayer and died—standing on his feet in the chapel, with his hands uplifted towards heaven. He was buried beside St Scholastica his sister, on the site of the altar of Apollo which he had cast down.

After sundry misadventures Lubin settled down for five years in an abbey near Lyons, until in a war between the Franks and the Burgundians the monastery was raided and the monks took to flight, only Lubin and an old man remaining behind. The raiders, who were intent on plunder, tried to discover from the old man where the treasures were concealed, and he referred them to St Lubin. As they could obtain no information from him they had recourse to torture—fastening a cord round his head and tightening it. After this they tied his feet and dipped him, head first, into the river, but failing to make him divulge anything they eventually left him for dead. He recovered, however, and with two companions returned to Le Perche where St Avitus received him into his monastery. After the death of St Avitus, Lubin again lived the life of a hermit. Bishop Aetherius of Chartres nominated him abbot of Brou and raised him to the priesthood. He seems to have found his responsibilities too onerous and longed to lay down office and become a simple monk at Lérins, but St Caesarius, to whom his own bishop sent him for advice, told him to go back to Brou and not to leave his people like sheep with­out a shepherd. He obeyed, but soon after his return was promoted to succeed Aetherius as bishop of Chartres. He brought about various reforms and con­tinued to be very famous for his miracles. He took part in the Fifth Council of Orleans and in the Second Council of Paris, dying on March 14, about 558 after a long illness.

The ancient Life of St Leobinus has been edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Auct. Antiquiss., vol. iv, part 2, pp. 73—82, as an appendix to the works of Venantius Fortunatus, who was at one time believed to have been the author. Fr A. Poncelet considers that the biography in its present form cannot be older than the middle of the ninth century. See the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiv (1905), pp. 25—31, and p. 82. Cf. Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. ii, p. 422, and the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii.

This saint was a contemporary of St Gregory, Bishop of Tours, who knew him personally and wrote about him. Senoch (Senou) was born of barbarian parents in Poitou, and having been converted to Christ left his home with the intention of becoming a hermit.  He wandered into Touraine, and found there a suitable place, where is now the village of Saint-Senou.  He installed himself in some ruins, with the stones of which he built a dwelling for himself and a small chapel. Three disciples joined Senoch, but he preferred to be quite alone and spent most of his time shut up in his own cell.  Austerities of the new hermit earned him a great reputation for sanctity, and many visitors came to the place who insisted on making offerings, which St Senoch devoted to the relief of needy people.

When the bishop St Euphronius died in 573 Senoch went to Tours to pay his respects to his successor, St Gregory, with whom he exchanged the kiss of brother­hood and then returned quietly to his cell.  But soon after he made another journey, to visit his friends and relatives at home, and met with such signs of respect and veneration while he was away that he caste back rather proud of himself.

Gregory noticed this and rebuked him sharply, reminding him of the words of St Paul, that he would glory in nothing but his infirmities in order that the power of Christ might dwell in him.  Senoch humbly accepted the reprimand and agreed no longer to withdraw himself entirely from the company of his brethren. St Gregory narrates a number of miracles of healing vouchsafed by God at the prayer of St Senoch, who died in his arms. The bishop officiated at his funeral, for which an immense crowd gathered, and when he celebrated the Mass of the month’s mind a paralytic was cured at St Senoch’s grave.

580 St Martin, or Mark: St Gregory says that many of his friends knew Martin personally and had been present at his miracles, and that he had heard much of him from his predecessor, Pope Pelagius II.

The Roman Martyrology today mentions Mark, a solitary in Campania, and refers to his famous deeds chronicled by St Gregory the Great, who, however, calls him Martin.  In his Dialogues St Gregory says that many of his friends knew Martin personally and had been present at his miracles, and that he had heard much of him from his predecessor, Pope Pelagius II.  He lived alone in a small cave on Mount Marsicus (Mondragone), and after miraculously overcoming the lack of water had for three years the daily company of the Devil, in the form of a serpent (“his old friend”). When he first took up his quarters in the cave the hermit fastened one end of a chain to his ankle and the other to the rock, so that he could not wander wantonly from his habitation. Word of this came to St Benedict at Monte Cassino (where Martin is said to have been a monk), and he sent a message in which the authentic voice of Benedict can be heard speaking: “If you are God’s servant, let yourself be held by the chain of Christ, not by any chain of iron.”

St Martin accordingly loosed himself and later gave the chain to his followers when they complained that the bucket rope of the well kept on breaking. There was a great rock overhanging Martin’s cave and his neighbours were much afraid that it would fall and crush him. Therefore one Mascator came with a number of people and offered to remove it. Martin refused to budge from the cave while it was done, telling them nevertheless to do whatever they thought necessary, and they set to work in fear and trembling with him inside. But when the rock was loosed it bounced harmlessly over the cave and rolled safely down the mountainside.

ST AGERICUS was born at or near Verdun, perhaps at Harville, about the year 521. He became one of the clergy of the church of SS Peter and Paul at Verdun, and when he was thirty-three was appointed bishop of that city in succession to St Desiderius. He was visited there by St Gregory of Tours and St Venantius Fortunatus, both of whom write in his praise: “The poor receive relief, the despairing hope, the naked clothing; whatever you have, all have”, says Fortuna­tus.
     St Agericus enjoyed the favour also of King Sigebert I, whose son, Childebert, he baptized, and counseled after he came to the throne. But he was not able to obtain mercy for Bertefroi and other revolting nobles who came to him for sanctuary and protection. Bertefroi was murdered in the bishop’s own chapel by the royal officers. A more pleasing association between Agericus and Childebert was when the whole of the court was billeted on the bishop; there were so many of them and they were so thirsty that the supply of drink was stretched to its limit. St Agericus had the last cask of wine set in the hall, blessed it, and it proved to have a miraculous and never-ending flow. Another miracle attributed to him was the delivery of a condemned malefactor at Laon, for whom he obtained pardon. St Agericus died in 588, it is said of a broken heart because he had failed to save Bertefroi. He was buried in the church of SS Andrew and Martin which he had built at Verdun. Here an abbey was established early in the eleventh century and dedicated in his honour.

Besides the information furnished by St Gregory of Tours and St Venantius Fortunatus, Hugh of Flavigny in his chronicle has gathered up the data scattered in these same sources and produced some sort of biography (see Migne, PL., vol. cliv, cc. 126—131). Two Latin lives of late date are printed in the Bollandist Catalogus cod. hagiog. Lat. Bib. Nat. Paris, vol. i, pp. 479—482 and vol. iii, pp. 78-92 neither, however, contains any material of value. See also DHG., vol. i, cc. 1223—1224.