Saturday, May 10, 2014
Mary the Mother of Jesus Miracles_BLay Saints 
 Miracles
100   200   300   400   500   600   700    800   900   1000    1100   1200   1300   1400  1500  1600  1700  1800   1900  
   600 May 11 Asaph of Wales founded the church of Llanasa in Flintshire favorite pupil of Saint David  virtues and
          miracles
    600 May 16 St. Honoratus of Amiens Bishop of Amiens, France Many miracles were reported at his shrine
    601 Saint Dometian, Jan 10  Bishop of Melitene Armenia glorified by God with miracles
   603 February 17 St. Fintan Abbot St. Columba disciple clairvoyance prophecies miracles very austere penances
   604 Saint Augustine was from Italy, and a disciple of St Felix, Bishop of Messana  first Archbishop of Canterbury a
          wonderworker
 
604 Saint Gregory Dialogus granted a vision of the Lord Himself Pope of Rome used inheritance to establish 6
      monasteries
 Romæ sancti Gregórii Primi, Papæ, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris exímii; qui, ob res præcláræ
      gestas atque Anglos ad Christi fidem convérsos, Magnus est dictus et Anglórum Apóstolus appellátus.

   622 St. Molua educated at Bangor under Saint Comgall  founded over 100 monasteries in Ireland Abbot (AC);
          distinguished himself by miracles
    610 April 22 Saint Vitalius, a monk of the monastery of St Seridus, arrived in Alexandria when St John the Merciful
         (November 12) was Patriarch of Alexandria.

   610 Mar 05 St. Virgilius of Arles Archbishop many miracle worker
   610 St. Drostan Irish born abbot disciple of St. Columba. Drostan a member of the royal Cosgrach family of Ireland
          first abbot of Deer in Aberdeenshire, Scotland  miracles were attributed to him
   610 June 07 Colman (Mocholmoc) of Dromore first abbot of Muckmore, County Antrim many miracles bishop
         teacher of Saint Finnian of Clonard B (AC)
995 {610} February 26 St. Victor Hermit recluse in the area of Arcissur-Aube many miracles
 In território Archiacénsi, in Gállia, sancti Victóris Confessóris, cujus laudes sanctus Bernárdus conscrípsit.
      In the province of Champagne in France, St. Victor, confessor, about whom eulogies have been written by St. Bernard.

   613 April 22 St. Theodore of Sykeon (Galatia) Abbot bishop cured a royal prince of leprosy gifts of prophecy and
         miracles  bestowed on him by God
7th v. Saint Patapius  born Thebes into  pious Christian family gift of healing, help all needy; holy relics found
          incorrupt to the present day
7th v. May 10 St. Cataldus Bishop of Taranto an Irish churchman; Apud Taréntum sancti Catáldi Epíscopi, miráculis
          clari. At Taranto, St. Cataldus, a bishop renowned for miracles.
7th v. Jan 05 Saint Phosterius the Hermit led an ascetical life on a lofty mountain, where he was fed by an angel. He
          brought many back to the Church from the heresy of Iconoclasm by his miracles and saintly life.

7th v. Our Holy Father Constantine of Synnada; famed for his fasting and for his many miracles;
         
Commemorated December 26 in the Orthodox
7th v. Our Holy Father Constantine of Synnada; famed for his fasting and for his many miracles;
616 ST LICINIUS, OR LESIN, BISHOP OF ANGERS by the example of his severe and holy life and by miracles which
       were wrought through him he succeeded in winning the hearts of the most hardened and in making daily
       conquests of souls for God.

    619 St. Lawrence of Canterbury Benedictine Archbishop scourged by St. Peter physical scars
    620 St. Basolus hermit miracles worker
   
621 St Malo cousin to Saints Samson and Maglorius all the time that cloak lay there, there fall no rain upon it
   
622 April 01 St. Walericus Benedictine founder missionary abbot under St. Columbanus; His time was entirely
            occupied with preaching, prayer, reading, and manual labor; miracles

    625 March 29 Eustace of Luxeuil monk favorite disciple of Saint Columbanus humility continual prayer fasting
           miracles (RM)
    626 St. Aidan Monastic & Church founder bishop miracle worker great charity kindness to animals
    625 Deicolus, Abbot known for the peace and joy radiated from his soul miracles spring
    625 St Gaugericus, Or Gery, Bishop Of Cambrai ; native of Yvoi, a small town in the Ardennes, at Yvoi a leper was
          healed by being baptized by him; bishopric of Trier, coming to Yvoi, was much delighted with the sanctity and
          talents of St Gëry, and ordained him deacon (but not till he knew the whole psalter by heart, says his
          biographer); from that moment the saint redoubled his fervour in good works, and applied himself with zeal to
         the functions of his sacred ministry, especially to the instruction of the faithful
 
625 St Salvius, Or Sauve, Bishop Of Amiens
 Ambiáni, in Gállia, sancti Sálvii, Epíscopi et Mártyris.       At Amiens in France, St. Salvius, bishop and martyr.
FAMOUS for miracles, Salvius succeeded Ado in the see of Amiens and flourished in the reign of Theodoric II.
  625 St. Ursicinus Irish missionary and disciple of St. Columbanus; revered for his holiness and miracles;
  627 St. Attalas Abbot miracles foe of Arians companion of St. Columban
  633 St. Finbar founded monastery developed into city of Cork Many extravagant miracles
 
633 St. Solemnius, bishop of Chartres At Blois in France, , renowned for miracles. sept 25
  636 St. Isidore of Seville Doctor of the Church In a unique move, he made sure that all branches of knowledge
          including the arts and medicine were taught in the seminaries

  637 May 14 St. Carthach the Younger Irish hermit and bishop; sanctity and miracles of Carthach, wrote a rule for the
        monastery in metrical verse, a document that is extant
also called Carthage, Cuda, or Mochuda.
  639 St. Romanus of Rouen Bishop of Rouen miracles
  640 December 01 St. Eligius priest generous in spirit Patron of metalworkers a considerable number of miracles
  640 Aug 19 St. Bertulf Abbot famous for miracles
  643 St. Vulphy Hermit and miracle worker also called Vulflagius
  645 St. Monon Scottish pilgrim martyred Ardennes France hermit tomb - many miracles
  649-655 Pope St. Martin I Nov 12 April 12  defender of the faith; buried in Our Lady church of called Blachernæ near Cherson
  647 St. Goeric Bishop successor of St. Arnulf at Metz  went blind cured miraculously  
  648 January 16 St. Fursey Irish monastic founder brother of Sts. Foillan and Ulan Visions and scars of Hell-Fire
         intense ecstasies
  649 March 30 St. John Climacus Abbot of Sinai, so called “Climacus” from the title of his famous book, The Climax,
         or The Ladder of Perfection;
extraordinary grace of healing the spiritual disorders of souls.
  649 February 08 St. Paul of Verdun  Hermit bishop headmaster in the monastery school
  650 May 15 Saint Dymphna Many miracles have taken place at her shrine on the spot where  buried in Gheel,
        Belgium Patron of suffering for  nervous &  mental affictions
 
 
651 August 20 St  Oswin, Martyr;  a monastery at Gilling; incursion prayers over the body of St Oswin, whose shrine
         was made  illustrious by miracles, was translated to Tynemouth

   652 February 02 St. Adalbald of Ostrevant Noble martyr Many miracles were recorded at his tomb
   
649-655 Pope St. Martin I defender of the faith; buried in the church of Our Lady, called Blachernæ, near Cherson
   656 June 10 St Ithamar, Bishop Of Rochester; reputation for miracles
   659 March 17 St. Gertrude of Nivelles Benedictine abbess mystic gifted with visions
   
660 March 14 St. Boniface Curitan  ardent zeal for the salvation of souls Evangelist to the Picts and Scots; many
        miracles to his intercession after his death

   660 January 01 St. Clarus Abbot  numerous miracles  patron of tailors   
   661 February 23 St. Boswell Abbot of Melrose, Englan sublime virtues gift of prophecy
   667 St. Ildephonsus Archbishop Blessed Virgin devotion Our Lady's appearance present him with a chalice prolific
          writer

    668 May 02 St. Waldebert Benedictine aristocrat Frankish knight then hermit abbot helped St. Salaberga to found
          her famed convent at Laon:
Sometimes listed as Walbert and Gaubert. numerous miracles attributed to the saint.
   668 March 19 St. Adrian Martyr disciple of St. Landoald after their deaths became renowned for their miracles
 
  668 March 19 St. Landoald Roman priest Missionary to Belgium and northeastern France with Amantius his deacon
          after their deaths became renowned for their miracles.

   669 St. Jodoc (Josse) Confessor honoree by miracles both before and after his death
    669 St Serenidus & Serenus Benedictine hermits known for miracles ending plague drought
   669 St. Jodoc (Josse) Confessor honoree by miracles before and after his death
   670 St. Theodard Bishop and martyr confiscatory policies of King Childeric II after death renowned for miracles.
   670 St. Maxellendis   Nov 13 Virgin martyr Caudry restored sight to her murderer
   670 St. Fiacre Abbot; hermit; cured all manner of diseases; Patron of Gardeners and Cab-drivers
   670 September 09 St. Omer 595 Benedictine bishop miracle worker
   672 March 19 St. Lactali Abbot founder disciple of St. Comgall in Ireland miracles cures paralytics -- mentally ill
  
675 St. Faro Bishop of Meaux France, Oct 28; brother of Sts. Chainoaldus and Burgundofara; also called Pharo;  he restored sight to a blind man by conferring on him the sacrament of Confirmation, wrought several other miracles.
   676 jan 25 ST PRAEJECTUS, or PRIX, BISHOP OF CLERMONT, MARTYR; many miracles immediately afterwards were recorded at his tomb
 Arvérnis, in Gállia, sanctórum Præjécti Epíscopi, et Amaríni, Abbátis Cloroangiénsis; qui ambo a procéribus ejúsdem urbis passi sunt.
       In the Auvergne in France, the Saints Praejectus, bishop, and Amarinus, abbot of Doroang, who were murdered by the leading men of that city.

678 Arbogast of Strasbourg B many miracles ascribed famed for humility and wisdom (RM)
Argentoráti sancti Arbogásti Epíscopi, miráculis clari.
At Strasbourg, St. Arbogast, a bishop, renowned for miracles.
678 St Ethelburga (Æthelburh) of Barking attested by miracles V (AC)
   678 January 19 St. Nathalan Hermit bishop of Tullicht, best known for his miracles
   679 Saint Etheldreda (Audrey); heaven sent 7 day high tide--body found incorrupt founded the great abbey of Ely,
          where lived austere life

   680 St. Adamnan of Coldingham  pilgrim priest Confessor gift of prophecy
  
681 St. Hospitius of Cap-Saint-Hospice Hermit blessed with the gifts of prophecy and miracle (RM)
681  Jan 10 Pope St. Agatho  678-681 a holy death, concluded a life remarkable for sanctity and learning.
   
683 Pope St. Leo II At Rome, in the Vatican basilica, to whom God miraculously restored his eyes and his tongue
         after they had been torn out by impious men. June 12
  
685 Aug 20 St Philibert, Abbot; founder; miracles
 
 686 Erconwald of London founded a monastery at Chertsey in Surrey convent at Barking in Essex invoked against
         gout OSB B
(also known as Erkenwald) Born in East Anglia; died in London, c. 686; second feast day on April 30.
   686 May 02 St. Ultan Benedictine abbot founder chaplain to St Gertrude's nuns escaped Mercians  by supernatural revelation he knew of the death of St Foillan, who was murdered by robbers in the forest of Seneffe, and he foretold to St Gertrude, at her request, the day of her own death. He said that St Patrick was preparing to welcome her, and in point of fact she died on March 17.
   687 St. Cuthbert biographer, Saint Bede missionary hermit gifted with the ability to prophesy vision of angels
           conducting the soul of Saint Aidan to heaven body incorrupt for several centuries
  688 April 09 St. Waldetrudis ist Patronin von Mons 7 saints in family renowned for 
        holiness and miracles.

   686-693 April 30 Erconwald of London bishop miracles at grave were reported (until the 16th century) miracles
           recorded touching his couch OSB B (RM)

   690 St. Ywi Benedictine monk and hermit at Lindisfarne Abbey ministry of miraculous healing
   
691 St. Begga daughter of Pepin of Landen mayor of the palace and St. Itta.
 Andániæ, apud Septem Ecclésias, in Bélgio, beátæ Beggæ Víduæ, quæ fuit soror sanctæ Gertrúdis.
     At Andenne, at the Seven Churches, blessed Begga, widow, the sister of St. Gertrude.

   693 St. Florentius of Strasbourg Irish bishop curing the blind and deaf
    695 St. Fara Burgundofara (Fara) convent Abbess 37 yrs Many English princess-nuns and nun-saints were trained under her, including Saints Gibitrudis, Sethrida, Ethelburga, Ercongotha, Hildelid, Sisetrudis, Hercantrudis, and others miracles after death:
   695 St. Angadresma French abbess leprosy (dissapeared) miracle worker many miracles
  
695 St. Aquilinus of Evreux served Clovis II 40 years; hermit; blind bishop giving alms;  his zeal, which God
         approved by the gift of miracles B (RM)

   695 April 02 St. Fara Burgundofara (Fara) convent Abbess 37 yrs Many English princess-nuns and nun-saints were
        trained under her, including Saints Gibitrudis, Sethrida, Ethelburga, Ercongotha, Hildelid, Sisetrudis,
        Hercantrudis, and others miracles after death:

   699 St. Claud in the twelfth century body discovered incorrupt miraculous cures took place

600 Asaph of Wales founded the church of Llanasa in Flintshire favorite pupil of Saint David  virtues and miracles B (RM)
feast day formerly on May 1. The small town of Saint Asaph in northern Wales was once the scene of a busy and thriving monastery of Llanelwy founded by Saint Kentigern of Scotland by the riverside. Kentigern was probably built it after returning from a visit to Saint David. With him was Asaph, his favorite pupil, whom he left behind at Llanelwy as abbot to consolidate his work. Others say that it was Saint Asaph who founded the abbey after having been trained by Kentigern--the truth is shrouded by time. There is, however, certainty that Saint Asaph founded the church of Llanasa in Flintshire.
An interesting account exists of Llanelwy's establishment. "There were assembled in this monastery no fewer than 995 brethren, who all lived under monastic discipline, serving God in great continence." A third of these, who were illiterate, tilled the ground and herded the cattle; a third were occupied with domestic tasks inside the monastery; and the remainder, who were educated men, said the daily offices and performed other religious duties.
A distinctive feature was its unbroken continuity of worship, for, like the Sleepless Ones, the monks of Llanelwy divided themselves into groups and maintained an unceasing vigil. "When one company had finished the divine service in the church, another presently entered, and began it anew; and these having ended, a third immediately succeeded them." So that by this means prayer was offered up in the church without intermission, and the praises of God were ever in their mouths."
Among them, we are told, "was one named Asaph, more particularly illustrious for his descent and his beauty, who from his childhood shone forth brightly, both with virtues and miracles. He daily endeavored to imitate his master, Saint Kentigern, in all sanctity and abstinence; and to him the man of God bore ever a special affection, insomuch that to his prudence he committed the care of the monastery." A later medieval writer penned about Asaph's "charm of manners, grace of body, holiness of heart, and witness of miracles." Still little is actually known about him.
The story has been handed down to us that one bitter night in winter when Kentigern, as was his custom, had been standing in the cold river reciting from the Psalter, and had crawled back to his cell, frozen and exhausted, Asaph ran to fetch hot coals to warm him. Finding no pan, however, and being in great haste, fearing that the shivering abbot might die, he raked the glowing coals into the skirt of his monk's habit, and ran with them, at great risk and discomfort, and cast them on the hearth of the saint.
That story is typical of his spirit, for he was devoted both to his master and to the welfare of his monks. We are not surprised that Kentigern, with every confidence, left the monastery in his care. Under Asaph's leadership it flourished, and when Asaph was made bishop, it became the seat of his diocese. The goodness of one man spread and infected many others with holiness, including many of his kinsmen, e.g., Deiniol (September 11) and Tysilo (November 8). Today on the banks of the River Elwy stands the cathedral that bears his name (Attwater, Benedictines, Gill).
600 St. Honoratus of Amiens Bishop of Amiens, France Many miracles were reported at his shrine.
Ambiáni, in Gállia, sancti Honoráti Epíscopi.
    At Amiens in France, St. Honoratus, bishop.
600 ST HONORATUS, BISHOP OF AMIENS
THE famous Faubourg and Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris derive their name from St Honoratus who was bishop of Amiens at the close of the sixth century. History has little to tell us about him except that he was born at Port-le-Grand in the diocese of Amiens where he also died, and that he elevated the relics of SS. Fuscianus, Victoricus and Gentianus, which a priest called Lupicinus had discovered after they had been forgotten for three hundred years. The cultus of St Honoratus received a great impetus and became widespread in France in consequence of a number of remarkable cures which followed the elevation of his own body in 1060, and which were attributed to his agency. In 1204 Reynold Cherez and his wife Sybil placed under his patronage the church they built in Paris. Nearly a hundred years later another bishop of Amiens, William of Macon, dedicated in honour of his saintly predecessor the charterhouse he was building at Abbeville. St Honoratus is generally regarded in France as the patron of bakers, confectioners, corn chandlers and of all trades that deal with flour, and his appropriate emblem in art is a baker’s peel.

The materials for this history, printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, are altogether late and unreliable. See, however, Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. iii, p. 125 and H. Josse, La Légende de S. Honoré (1879
patron of bakers of holy wafers and others, confectioners, candle-makers, florists, flour merchants, oil refiners, and pastry chefs
also called Honore The Rue Saint Honore in Paris was named after him. Honoratus was born in Port le Grand.

Honoratus (Honorius) of Amiens B (RM) Born at Port-le-Grand (Porthieu) near Amiens, France; died there c. 600. Saint Honoratus was bishop of Amiens. He had a widespread cultus in France following reports of numerous miracles when his body was exhumed in 1060. The Faubourg church, built by a gentleman named Renaud Cherins, and rue Saint-Honoré in Paris are named after Saint Honoratus.
He is also the patron of a chartreuse at Abbeville, which was founded in 1306 (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Husenbeth). In art, Saint Honoratus is a bishop with three Hosts on a baker's shovel. Sometimes he may be shown with a large Host or with a hand reaching down from heaven to give him bread for the Mass (Roeder). He is the patron of bakers of holy wafers and others, confectioners, candle-makers, florists, flour merchants, oil refiners, and pastry chefs (Delaney, Roeder).


601 Saint Dometian, Bishop of Melitene Armenia glorified by God with miracles.
was born and lived during the sixth century, in the time of the emperor Justin the Younger. He was married, widowed, thereafter a monk and lived a strict and holy life.
At thirty years of age he was chosen bishop of the city of Melitene (in Armenia). Wise and zealous in questions of faith, strong in word and deed, St Dometian quickly gained fame as a good and dedicated pastor. More than once he carried out government commissions in Persia to avoid conflict with the Greeks. Beloved by all, St Dometian often received rich gifts, which he distributed to the poor. Both during his life and after his death in 601, St Dometian was glorified by God with miracles.
7th v. Saint Patapius was born at Thebes into a piousChristian family gift of healing, began to help all the needy holy relics are found incorrupt to the present day
Reaching the age of maturity, he scorned the vanities of the world and so went into the Egyptian desert where he became known for his ascetic deeds.

Though he wished to dwell in silence, people began to come to him for advice.

He went eventually to Constantinople, where he obtained a cell at the city wall, near the Blachernae church. But here, too, he quickly became known. The sick began to throng about, and he having been vouchsafed the gift of healing, began to help all the needy.

After a life adorned with virtue and miracles, St Patapius fell asleep in the Lord and was buried in the church of St John the Baptist.

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
The image of God, was faithfully preserved in you, O Father. For you took up the Cross and followed Christ. By Your actions you taught us to look beyond the flesh for it passes, rather to be concerned about the soul which is immortal. Wherefore, O Holy Patapius, your soul rejoices with the angels.
Kontakion in the Third Tone
Having found thy Church to be a place of spiritual healing, all the people flock with haste thereto, O Saint, and they ask thee to bestow the ready healing of their diseases and forgiveness of the sins they wrought in their lifetime; O Patapius most righteous, in every need, thou art the protector of all.
Reading:
This Saint was from the Thebaid of Egypt and struggled many years in the wilderness. He departed for Constantinople, and having performed many miracles and healings, he reposed in peace in a mountain cave on the Gulf of Corinth, where his holy relics are found incorrupt to the present day.

St. Patapius A seventh century Egyptian hermit He was originally from Egypt but journeyed to Constantinople lived as a hermit. Patapius especially revered in the Eastern Churches.

7th v. Our Holy Father Constantine of Synnada; famed for his fasting and for his many miracles; Commemorated December 26 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion From the Prologue He was a Jew who came to the Christian faith. When the Cross was made on his head at his baptism, it remained visible there till his death in Constantinople in the seventh century. He is famed for his fasting and for his many miracles. For seven years before his death, he foretold the day of it.
St. Constantine, is honoured by the Greek Church 26 December.
Synnada
Titular metropolis in Phrygia Salutaris. Synnada is said to have been founded by Acamas who went to Phrygia after the Trojan war and took some Macedonian colonists. The consul Manlius Vulso passed through that city on his expeditions against the Galatians. It was situated in the south-eastern part of Eastern Phrygia, or Parorea, thus named because it extended to the foot of the mountains of Pisidia. After having belonged to the kingdom of the Attali, it became the capital of a district of the province of Asia, except on two occasions during the last century of the Republic when it was temporarily attached to Cilicia. Under these two regimes Synnada was the centre of an important conventus juridicus, or judicial centre; it was to preside at this assembly that Cicero stopped at Synnada on his way from Ephesus to Cilicia and on his return. Although small, the city was celebrated throughout the empire on account of the trade in marble which came from the quarries of the neighbouring city of Dacimium. Under Diocletian at the time of the creation of Phrygia Pacatiana, Synnada, at the intersection of two great roads, became the metropolis. On its coins, which disappear after the reign of Gallienus, its inhabitants call themselves Dorians and Ionians. Today it is the city of Schifout Kassaba, situated five hours south of Afoun Kara Hissar, vilayet of Broussa.

603 St. Fintan Abbot St. Columba disciple clairvoyance prophecies miracles very austere penances
In monastério Cluain-ednechénsi, in Hibérnia, sancti Fintáni, Presbyteri et Abbátis.
In the monastery of Cluainedhech in Ireland, St. Fintan, abbot.
Fintan was a hermit in Clonenagh, Leix, Ireland. When disciples gathered around his hermitage he became their abbot.
A wonder worker, Fintan was known for clairvoyance, prophecies, and miracles. He also performed very austere penances.

Fintan of Clonenagh, Abbot (RM) Born in Leinster; died 603. A disciple of Saint Columba (or according to Montague, Saint David), Fintan led the life of a hermit at Clonenagh in Leix. Soon numerous disciples, including Saint Comgal, attached themselves to him, and he became their abbot.
Such was the austerity of the life led at Clonenagh that neighboring monasteries protested. Fintan himself was reputed to live on a diet of barley bread and clayey water; however, he established a less strict rule for some neighboring monks.
One day some soldiers brought the severed heads of their enemies to the monastery. Fintan had these buried in the monks cemetery hoping that by the Judgment Day they would have benefitted from the prayers of generations of monks: "since the principal part of their bodies rest here, we hope they will find mercy."
Fintan's feast is celebrated throughout Ireland (Benedictines, Farmer, Husenbeth, Montague).
604 Saint Gregory Dialogus granted a vision of the Lord Himself Pope of Rome used inheritance to establish 6 monasteries
 Romæ sancti Gregórii Primi, Papæ, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris exímii; qui, ob res præcláræ gestas atque Anglos ad Christi fidem convérsos, Magnus est dictus et Anglórum Apóstolus appellátus.
      At Rome, St. Gregory, pope and eminent doctor of the Church, who on account of his illustrious deeds and the conversion of the English to the faith of Christ, was surnamed the Great, and called the Apostle of England.
Born in Rome around the year 540. His grandfather was Pope Felix, and his mother Sylvia (November 4) and aunts Tarsilla and Emiliana were also numbered among the saints by the Roman Church. Having received a most excellent secular education, he attained high government positions.
 
604 ST GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
POPE GREGORY I, most justly called “the Great”, and the first pope who had been a monk, was elected to the apostolic chair when Italy was in a terrible condition after the struggle between the Ostrogoths and the Emperor Justinian, which ended with the defeat and death of Totila in 5562. The state of Rome itself was deplorable: it had been sacked four times within a century and a half, and conquered four times in twenty years, but no one restored the damage done by pillage, fire and earthquake. St Gregory, writing about 593, says: “We see what has become of her who once appeared the mistress of the world. She is broken by all she has suffered from immense and manifold misfortunes. . . . Ruins upon ruins everywhere! . . . Where is the senate? Where are the people?
We, the few who are left, are menaced every day by the sword and innumerable trials…Deserted Rome is in flames: her buildings also.”
The saint’s family, one of the few patrician families left in the city, was distinguished also for its piety, having given to the Church two popes, Agapitus I and Felix III, Gregory’s great-great-grandfather. Little is known of Gordian, Gregory’s father except that he was a regionarius—whatever that might be—and that he owned large estates in Sicily as well as a house on the Coelian Hill; his wife Silvia is named as a saint in the Roman Martyrology. Gregory appears to have received the best education obtainable at that time in Rome, and to have taken up the career of a public official. In 568 a fresh calamity fell upon Italy in the form of the first Lombard invasion, and three years later the barbarian horde came alarmingly near Rome. At that time of panic Gregory probably showed something of the wisdom and energy which distinguished him later, for at the age of about thirty we find him exercising the highest civil office in Rome—that of prefect of the city. In that capacity he gained the respect arid esteem of the Romans and developed an appreciation of order in the administration of affairs which he retained throughout his life.
Faithfully and honourably though Gregory fulfilled his duties, he had long been feeling the call to a higher vocation, and at length he resolved to retire from the world and to devote himself to the service of God alone. He was one of the richest men in Rome, but he gave up all, retiring into his own house on the Clivus Scauri, which he turned into a monastery and which he placed under the patronage of St Andrew and in the charge of a monk called Valentius, of whom Gregory writes that he was “the superior of my monastery and of myself”. The few years the saint spent in this seclusion were the happiest of his life—~although his excessive fasting brought on gastric troubles and sowed the seeds of the painful infirmity which tormented him for the rest of his life.
It was not likely that a man of St Gregory’s talents and prestige would be left long in obscurity at such a time, and we find him ordained seventh deacon of the Roman church, and then sent as papal apocrisiarius or ambassador at the Byzantine court. The contrast between the magnificence of Constantinople and the miserable condition of Rome could not fail to impress the saint, but he found the etiquette of the court wearisome and the intrigues revolting. He had the great disadvantage of knowing no Greek, and more and more he lived a monastic life with! several of the monks of St Andrew’s who had accompanied . him. In Constantinople he met St Leander, Bishop of Seville, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship, and at whose request he began a commentary on the Book of Job which he afterwards finished at Rome and which is generally known as his Moralia. Most of the dates in St Gregory’s life are uncertain, but it was probably about the beginning of the year 586 that he was recalled to Rome by Pelagius IL He immediately settled down again, deacon of Rome though he was, in his monastery of St Andrew, of which he soon became abbot; and it seems that it is to this period we must refer the celebrated story told by the Venerable Bede on the strength of an old English tradition.
St Gregory, it appears, was one day walking through the market when he noticed three golden-haired, fair-complexioned boys exposed for sale and inquired their nationality. “They are Angles or Angli”, was the reply. “They are well named,” said the saint, “for they have angelic faces and it becomes such to be companions with the angels in heaven.” Learning that they were pagans, he asked what province they came from. “Deira.”—“De ira!” exclaimed St Gregory. “Yes, verily they shall be saved from God’s ire and called to the mercy of Christ. What is the name of the king of that country?”—“Aella.”—“Then must Alleluia be sung in Aella’s land.” So greatly was he impressed by their beauty and by pity for their ignorance of Christ that he resolved to preach the gospel himself in Britain, and started off with several of his monks. However, when the people of Rome heard of their departure they raised such an outcry that Pope Pelagius sent envoys to recall them to Rome.
The whole episode has been declared apocryphal by modern historians on the ground of the flimsiness of the evidence. They also point out that Gregory never alludes to the incident, and moreover that even in his most informal writings he never indulges in puns. On the other hand, the first part of the story—the scene in the market-place—may easily be true: men sometimes pun in familiar conversation who would abstain from the practice when writing. Also it might plausibly be urged that St Gregory’s admiration for the fair complexion and hair of the English lads, while natural enough in an Italian, is not the sort of trait which it would have occurred to a northern scribe to invent; while finally there can be no dispute that Gregory later on was deeply interested in St Augustine’s mission, however it came about.
The trental of Masses or Gregorian Masses for the Dead are also connected in origin with this period. Justus, one of his monks, being ill, acknowledged to having three golden crowns hidden away, and the abbot sternly forbade the brethren to have any communication with him or to visit him on his death-bed. Upon his death he was excluded from the monks’ burial ground and was interred under a dunghill, the pieces of gold being buried with him. Nevertheless, as he died penitent, the abbot ordered that Mass should be offered for thirty days for the repose of his soul, and we have St Gregory’s own testimony that at the close of that time the dead man’s soul appeared to Copiosus, his natural brother, assuring him that he had been in torments but was now released.
A terrible inundation of the Tiber was followed by another and an exceptionally severe outbreak of the plague: Rome was again decimated, and in January 590 Pelagius died of the dread disease. The people unanimously chose Gregory as the new pope, and to obtain by penitence the cessation of the plague he ordered a great processional litany through the streets of Rome. From seven churches in the city proceeded seven columns of people, who met at St Mary Major. St Gregory of Tours, after the report of one who was present, describes it: “The procession ordered for Wednesday took place on three successive days the columns proceeded through the streets chanting ‘Kyrie eleison’ while the plague was still raging; and as they walked people were seen falling and dying about them. Gregory inspired these poor people with courage, for he did not cease preaching and wished that prayer should be made continually.”
The faith of the people was rewarded by the speedy diminution and cessation of the plague, as we learn from contemporary writers, but no early historian mentions the appearance of the Archangel Michael sheathing his sword on the summit of Hadrian’s mausoleum during the passing of the procession. This legend, which subsequently gained great credence, accounts for the figure of the angel which now surmounts the ancient pile and for the name of Sant’ Angelo which the castle has borne since the tenth century. Although St Gregory had thus been publicly devoting himself to the help of his fellow-citizens, his inclinations still lay in the direction of the contemplative life, and he had no intention of becoming pope if he could avoid it: he had written to the Emperor Maurice, begging him not to confirm the election; but, as we are told by Gregory of Tours, “while he was preparing to run away and hide himself; he was seized and carried off to the basilica of St Peter, and there, having been consecrated to the pontifical office, was given as pope to the city”. This took place on September 3, 590.
A correspondence with John, Archbishop of Ravenna, who had modestly censured him for trying to avoid office, led to Gregory’s writing the Regula Pastoralis, a book on the office of a bishop. In it he regards the bishop as first and foremost a physician of souls whose chief duties are preaching and the enforcement of discipline. The work met with immediate success, and the Emperor Maurice had it translated into Greek by Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch. Later St Augustine took it to England, where 300 years later it was translated by King Alfred, and at the councils summoned by Charlemagne the study of the book was enjoined on all bishops, who were to have a copy delivered to them at their consecration. For hundreds of years Gregory’s ideals were those of the clergy of the West and “formed the bishops who have made modern nations”. To the twofold duty of enforcing discipline and of preaching the pope set himself vigorously from the moment of his assuming office. He promptly and publicly deposed the Archdeacon Laurence, the most important ecclesiastic in Rome, “on account of his pride and misdemeanors, about which we think it our duty to keep silence”, says an old chronicle; he appointed a vice-dominus to look after the secular affairs of the papal household, he enacted that only clerics should be attached to the service of the pope, he forbade the exaction of fees for burial in churches, for ordinations, or for the conferring of the pallium, and he prohibited deacons from conducting the sung part of the Mass lest they should be chosen for their voices rather than for their character. In the matter of preaching, St Gregory was no less zealous: it was the great work he did for the churches of Rome. He liked to preach during Mass and preferred to choose as his subject the gospel for the day. We still possess a number of these homilies, which are popular and eloquent they always end with a moral lesson which each one is to apply to himself.
In his instructions to his vicar in Sicily and to the overseers of his patrimony generally, Gregory constantly urged liberal treatment of his vassals and farmers and ordered that money should be advanced to those in difficulties. He was indeed an ideal papal landlord; his tenants were flourishing and content, and yet money flowed into the treasury. After his death he was blamed for the empty coffers left to his successors, but his huge charities—which took almost the form of state relief—must have saved multitudes from starvation in that distressful period. Large sums were spent in ransoming captives from the Lombards, and we find him commending the bishop of Fano for breaking up and selling church plate for that object and advising another prelate to do the same. In view of a threatened corn shortage he filled the granaries of Rome, and a regular list was kept of the poor to whom grants were periodically made. Cases of “decayed gentlewomen” seem to have received special consideration. St Gregory’s sense of justice showed itself also in his enlightened treatment of the Jews, whom he would not allow to be oppressed or deprived of their synagogues. He declared that they must not be coerced but must be won by meekness, and charity, and when the Jews of Cagliari in Sardinia complained that their synagogue had been seized by a converted Jew who had turned it into a church, he ordered the building to be restored to its former owners.
From the very outset of his pontificate the saint was called upon to face the aggressions of the Lombards, who from Pavia, Spoleto and Benevento made incursions into other parts of Italy. No help was obtainable from Constantinople or from the exarch at Ravenna, and it fell upon Gregory, the one strong man, not only to organize the defences of Rome, but also to lend assistance to other cities. When in 593 Agilulf with a Lombard army appeared before the walls of Rome and general panic ensued, it was not the military or the civil prefect but the Vicar of Christ who went out to interview the Lombard king. Quite as much by his personality and prestige as by the promise of an annual tribute Gregory induced him to withdraw his army and leave the city in peace. For nine years he strove in vain to bring about a settlement between the Byzantine emperor and the Lombards; Gregory then proceeded on his own account to negotiate a treaty with King Agilulf, obtaining a special truce for Rome and the surrounding districts. Anticipating a few years we may add that Gregory’s last days were cheered by news of the re-establishment of peace.
It must have been a relief to the saint to turn his thoughts sometimes from the busy world to his writings. Towards the end of 593 he published his celebrated Dialogues—one of the most popular hooks of the middle ages. It is a collection of tales of visions, prophecies and miracles gathered from oral tradition and designed to form a sort of picture of Italian efforts after holiness. His stories were obtained from people still living who, in many cases, claimed to be eye-witnesses of the
events recorded. St Gregory’s methods were not critical, and the reader today must often feel misgivings as to the trustworthiness of his informants. Modern writers have wondered whether the Dialogues could have been the work of anyone so well balanced as St Gregory, but the evidence in favour of his authorship seems conclusive; and we must remember that it was a credulous age and that anything unusual was at once put down to supernatural agency.

Of all his religious work in the West that which lay closest to Gregory’s heart was the conversion of England, and the success which crowned his efforts in that direction was to him—as it necessarily is to Englishmen—the greatest triumph of his life. Whatever may be the truth of the Angles and Angels story, it seems most probable that the first move in regard to the sending of a mission came from England itself. This is the inference to be drawn from two letters of St Gregory still preserved. Writing to the French Kings Thierry and Theodebert he says:

News has reached us that the nation of the Angli greatly desires to be converted to the faith, but that the bishops in their vicinity pay no heed (to their pious wish) and refuse to second it by sending preachers.” He writes to Brunhilda in almost exactly the same terms. The bishops alluded to are most probably the bishops of northern France—not the British (“Welsh”) or Scottish bishops. In this difficulty the pope’s first action was to order the purchase of some English slaves, boys of about seventeen or eighteen, in order to educate them in a monastery for the service of God. Still, it was not to them that he intended primarily to entrust the work of conversion. From his own monastery of St Andrew he selected a band of forty missionaries whom he sent forth under the leadership of Augustine. It is not necessary to retell here the further history of that mission, already dealt with on May 26. Well may we say with the Venerable Bede: “If Gregory be not an apostle to others, he is one to us, for we are the seal of his apostleship in the Lord.”

During nearly the whole of his pontificate St Gregory was engaged in conflicts with Constantinople—sometimes with the emperor, sometimes with the patriarch, occasionally with both. He protested constantly against the exactions of Byzantine officials whose pitiless extortions reduced the Italian country people to despair, and remonstrated with the emperor against an imperial edict which prohibited soldiers from becoming monks. With John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople, he had an acrimonious correspondence over the title of Oecumenical or Universal which that hierarch had assumed. It only meant the general or superior authority of one archbishop over many, but the use of the title Oecumenical Patriarch seemed to savour of arrogance, and Gregory resented it. For his own part, though one of the most strenuous upholders of the papal dignity, he preferred to call himself by the proudly humble title of Servus servorum Dei—Servant of the servants of God— a title still retained by his successors. In 602 the Emperor Maurice was dethroned by a military revolt under Phocas, who murdered the old emperor and his whole family in the most brutal fashion. The writing of a tardy but rather painfully diplo­matic letter to this cruel usurper is the only act which has exposed the pope to hostile criticism. The letter consists mainly of hopes that peace is now assured; in the in­terest of his defenceless people Gregory could not afford to launch denunciations.

Into the thirteen years of his pontificate Gregory had crowded the work of a lifetime. His deacon Peter declared that he never rested, and he certainly did not spare himself, though he suffered from chronic gastritis and was a martyr to gout. He became reduced almost to a skeleton, and the sands of life were running low, yet he dictated letters and looked after the affairs of the Church to the very end.

Almost his last action was to send a warm winter cloak to a poor bishop who suffered from the cold. Gregory was buried in St Peter’s, and as the epitaph on his tomb expresses it, “after having conformed all his actions to his doctrines, the great consul of God went to enjoy eternal triumphs.”

St Gregory has been credited with the compilation of the Antiphonary, the revision and reatrangement of the system of church music, the foundation of the famous Roman schola cantorum, and the composition of several well-known hymns. These claims have been contested, though he certainly had considerable effect on the Roman liturgy. But his true work lies in other directions. He is venerated as the fourth doctor of the Latin church, in which capacity he may be said to have popularized St Augustine and to have given clear expression to certain religious doctrines which had not previously been perfectly defined. For several centuries his was the last word on theology, though he was a popular preacher, catechist and moralist rather than a theologian. Perhaps his chief work was in strengthening the position of the Roman see. As the Anglican Milman writes in his History of Latin Christianity: “It is impossible to conceive what would have been the confusion, the lawlessness, the chaotic state of the middle ages without the medieval papacy ; and of the medieval papacy, the real father is Gregory the Great.” Not without reason did the Church bestow upon him that seldom granted title of Magnus, “the Great”.

As stated above, King Alfred the Great had a translation made of St Gregory’s Regula Pastoralis, and presented a copy to each of his bishops. This he equipped with both a preface and an epilogue written by himself, and he also prefixed some Anglo-Saxon verses, of which the following prose translation may give an idea:

This message Augustine brought over the salt sea from the south to the islanders, as the pope of Rome, the Lord’s champion, ha& formerly decreed it. The wise Gregory was versed in many true doctrines through the wisdom of his mind, his hoard of studious thoughts. For he gained over most of mankind to the guardian of Heaven [St Peter], he the best of Romans, wisest of men, most gloriously famous. Afterwards King Alfred translated every word of me into English and sent me to his scribes south an4 north; ordered more such to be brought to him after the exemplar, that he might send them to his bishops, for some of them needed it who knew little Latin.

St Gregory’s own letters and writings are the most reliable source of information for the history of his life, but in addition to these we have a short Latin biography by a monk of Whitby which probably dates from the early years of the eighth century, another by Paul the Deacon late in the same century, and a third by John the Deacon, between 872 and 882. We have also valuable notices in Gregory of Tours, Bede and other historians, and especially in the Liber Pontificalis. For the letters of St Gregory the edition of P. Ewald and L. M. Hartmann in MGH should of course be consulted. A valuable modern life in brief compass is that of Mgr Batiffol in the series “Les Saints” (Eng. trans., 1929). See also the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. ii; Mann, Lives of the Popes vol. i; Snow, Life of St Gregory the Great Niche and Martin, Histoire de l’Eglise, vol. v (1938) and amongst Anglican writers the very careful work of Dr J. H. Dudden, St Gregory the Great (1905) but the literature of the subject is, of course, vast. See the bibliographies in DAC. and DTC.

Leading a God-pleasing life, he yearned for monasticism with all his soul. After the death of his father, St Gregory used his inheritance to establish six monasteries. At Rome he founded a monastery dedicated to the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, where he received monastic tonsure.

Later, on a commission of Pope Pelagius II, St Gregory lived for a while in Constantinople. There he wrote his Commentary on the Book of Job.

After the death of Pope Pelagius, St Gregory was chosen to the Roman See. For seven months he would not consent to accept this service, considering himself unworthy.
He finally accepted consecration only after the persistent entreaties of the clergy and flock.

Wisely leading the Church, St Gregory worked tirelessly in propagating the Word of God. St Gregory compiled the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the Latin language, which before him was known only in the verbal tradition. Affirmed by the Sixth Ecumenical Council, this liturgical service was accepted by all the Orthodox Church.
He zealously struggled against the Donatist heresy; he also converted the inhabitants of Brittany pagans and Goths, adhering to the Arian heresy to the True Faith.
St Gregory has left behind numerous written works. After the appearance of his book, DIALOGUES CONCERNING THE LIFE AND MIRACLES OF THE ITALIAN FATHERS (DIALOGI DE VITA ET MIRACULIS PATRUM ITALIORUM), the saint was called "Dialogus." His PASTORAL RULE (or LIBER REGULAE PASTORALIS) was well-known. In this work, St Gregory describes the model of the true pastor. His letters (848), dealing with moral guidance, have also survived.
St Gregory headed the Church for thirteen years, ministering to all the needs of his flock. He was characterized by an extraordinary love of poverty, for which he was granted a vision of the Lord Himself.

Pope St Gregory the Great, as he is known, died in the year 604, and his relics rest in the cathedral of the holy Apostle Peter in the Vatican.

Orthodoxe und Evangelische Kirche: 12. März  Katholische und Anglikanische Kirche: 3. September
Gregor von Rom

Ikonenzentrum Saweljew Gregor wurde um 540 in einer sehr reichen, dem Hochadel angehörenden römischen Familie geboren. Schon als junger Mann wurde er Präfekt von Rom. Als er feststellte, daß ihn die umfangreiche Arbeit von seiner Hingabe an Gott abhielt, legte er mit 35 Jahren sein Amt nieder und wandelte seinen Grundbesitz in Klöster um. Aus dem Palast seines Vaters wurde das Andreaskloster, in dem er selber mit Freunden nach der Regel Benedikts lebte. Papst Pelagius II. ernannte ihn zum Gesandten in Byzanz. Nachdem Pelagius 590 starb, wurde Gregor gegen seinen Willen zum Bischof von Rom berufen. Gregor ordnete die Finanzen der Kirche neu. Die erzielten Einnahmen retteten die Kirche und die Stadt in Zeiten des Hungers und der Pest und ermöglichten Tributzahlungen an die Langobarden.

Gregor war sicher einer der größten Päpste des ersten christlichen Jahrtausends. Er ordnete die Kirche und ihre Finanzen und verschaffte ihr durch seine Diplomatie weltliches Ansehen. Er erneuerte auch die Liturgie, übertrug die Kirchenmusik an geschulte Chöre und bevorzugte den einstimmigen Gesang ohne Instrumente. Hieraus entstand die Form des gregorianischen Chorals.

Die Zukunft der Kirche sah Gregor bei den im Norden lebenden Völkern. 596 sandte er deshalb 36 Mönche mit ihrem Abt Augustinus als Missionare nach England. Schon fünf Jahre später konnte er zwei Bistümer einrichten. Gregor nannte sich auch als erster Papst "Diener der Diener Gottes". Er starb am 12. März 604 in Rom.

Der Titel Dialogus, den Gregor in dere orthodoxen Kirche trägt, entstand nach dem Erscheinen seines Werkes "Dialogi de vita et miraculis patrum Italiorum"

1295 wurde ihm der Titel eines Kirchenlehrers verliehen. Wegen seiner großen Gelehrsamkeit wurde er zum Patron des Schulwesens, der Lehrer, Studenten und Schüler. In den Schulen wurde lange Zeit am 12. März ein Schülerfesttag gefeiert, an dem die Rollen der Schüler und Lehrer getauscht wurden. Dieser Tag wurde auch in evangelischen Gebieten noch gefeiert. Bei der Kalenderreform wurde sein Gedenktag in der katholischen Kirche aus der Fastenzeit auf den Tag seiner Papstweihe verlegt.

604 Saint Augustine was from Italy, and a disciple of St Felix, Bishop of Messana  first Archbishop of Canterbury a wonderworker
St. Augustine, bishop Cantuáriæ, in Anglia, natális sancti Augustíni, Epíscopi et Confessóris; qui, una cum áliis, a beáto Gregório Papa missus, genti Anglórum sacrum Christi Evangélium prædicávit., ibíque, virtútibus et miráculis gloriósus, obdormívit in Dómino.  Ejus tamen festívitas quinto Kaléndas Júnii recólitur.
         At Canterbury in England, St. Augustine, bishop, who was sent there with others by blessed Pope Gregory, and who preached the Gospel of Christ to the English nation.  Celebrated for virtues and miracles, he went peacefully to his rest in the Lord.  The 28th of May is observed as his feast.
St Gregory Dialogus (March12) chose him to lead a mission of forty monks to evangelize the people of Britain. They arrived at Ebbsfleet (on the isle of Thanet) in Kent in 597.

King Ethelbert, whose Frankish wife Bertha was a Christian, welcomed them. They were allowed to base their mission at the ancient church of St Martin in Canterbury, which was restored for their use. This church had been built during the Roman occupation of Britain, and the queen often went there to pray. At first, the king was reluctant to give up his pagan beliefs, but he promised not to harm them, and to supply them with whatever they needed. He also promised that he would not prevent them from preaching Christianity. St Augustine later converted the king to Christianity, along with thousands of his subjects. The holy right-believing King Ethelbert is commemorated on February 25.

Bede says that St Augustine was consecrated as Archbishop of Britain by Archbishop Etherius of Arles (others say that it was his successor St Virgilius of Arles [March 5] who consecrated St Augustine). Returning to Britain, he threw himself into the work of evangelizing the country with renewed zeal. St Augustine built Christ Church, predecessor of the present cathedral at Canterbury, and consecrated it on June 9, 603 (according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). He also founded the monastery of Sts Peter and Paul east of the city. Here St Augustine, the Archbishops of Canterbury, and the Kings of Kent were buried. The monastery, now in ruins, was later known as St Augustine's Monastery.

The saint was instrumental in founding the dioceses of Rochester and London. In 604 he consecrated St Justus (November 10) and St Mellitu s (April 24) as bishops for those Sees. St Augustine also helped the king draft the earliest Anglo-Saxon laws, and founded a school in Canterbury.

Saint Augustine was not completely successful in all his efforts, however. He was not able to achieve unity with the already existing Christian communities who followed Celtic practices. He met with some of their bishops to urge them to abandon their Celtic traditions and to accept the Roman practices. He invited them to cooperate with him in evangelizing the country, but they refused to give up their ancient traditions. . Before meeting with St Augustine in 603, the Celtic bishops asked a holy hermit whether or not to accept Augustine as their leader. The hermit replied, "If he rises to greet you, then accept him. If he remains seated, then he is arrogant and unfit to be your leader, and you should reject him." Unfortunately, St Augustine did not rise to greet them. Perhaps St Augustine was, to some degree, a bit tactless and too insistent on conformity to Roman customs. On the other hand, Celtic resentment against Roman authority also contributed to the stormy relationship.

Known in his lifetime as a wonderworker, St Augustine fell asleep in the Lord on May 26, 604. He was laid to rest at the entrance of the unfinished church of Sts Peter and Paul. When the church was dedicated in 613, his holy relics were placed inside. An epitaph was composed for his tomb. In part, it reads: "Here lies the Lord Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, sent here by blessed Gregory, bishop of the city of Rome, who with the help of God, and aided by miracles, guided King Ethelbert and his people from the worship of idols to the Faith of Christ."
St Bede (May 27) gives detailed information about St Augustine's mission to Britain in his HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND PEOPLE (Book I, 23-33. Book II, 1-3).
622 Molua educated at Bangor under Saint Comgall  founded over 100 monasteries in Ireland Abbot (AC); distinguished himself by miracles
(also known as Lua, Da Lua, Luanus, Lugid, Lughaidh)
Born in Limerick; died August 4. Saint Molua was educated at Bangor under Saint Comgall and was known as a monk, hermit and builder. As Saint Bernard assures us, Molua founded over 100 monasteries in Ireland, including that of Killaloe (County Clare) and Cluain-Fearta Molua, on the borders of Ossory and Queen's County in Leinster. Saint Molua prescribes a most austere monastic rule that was long observed in Ireland. It enjoined the strictest silence and recollection, and forbade women from approaching the church of the monks.
   Despite his strict observance of the monastic discipline, he was a man of great tenderness to both man and beast. His principal disciple was Saint Flannan, who succeeded him in the governance of Killaloe. Molua's oratory on Friars' Island, a few hundred yards from the cathedral, was re-erected before the area was submerged by the Shannon hydro-electric works in 1929 (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth)
.

608 ST MOLUA, OR LUGHAIDH, ABBOT
MOLUA (Lugaid and other forms) was the son of Carthach, of the Hy Fidhgente of Limerick county, and his mother came from Ossory. When a lad he was employed as a herdboy till, as his late vita tells us, having distinguished himself by miracles, he was sent to be a monk under St Comgall at Bangor. He was ordained priest and in time sent by his abbot to establish monasteries elsewhere. The most im­portant of them was at Clonfertmulloe, now called Kyle, in the Slievebloom mountains between Leix and Offaly, which had a very large community. He is said to have gone to Rome (“Unless I see Rome I shall soon die”), and taken the opportunity to submit to Pope St Gregory the Great the rule he had drawn up for his monasteries; it was, like all Celtic monastic rules, extremely arduous and the pope said of it that, “The holy man who drew up this rule has laid a hedge round his family which reaches to Heaven”. On his death-bed St Molua addressed his monks and said, “Dearest brethren, cultivate your land industriously, that you may have a sufficiency of food, drink and clothing; for where there is sufficient, there is stability; where is stability, there is true religion; and the end of true religion is life everlasting”: “Rerum Novarum” and “ Quadragesimo anno” in a nut-shell. Molua, we are told, never killed any living thing, and when he died the birds wept.

There is some confusion between this Molua and other saints of the same name. Killaloe (Cill da Lua) may get its name from this Molua or from another who was called “the Leper”, or they may both be the same person.

There are three Latin recensions of the Life of St Molua; one has been printed in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. i; another in De Smedt’s edition of the Codex Salmanticensis, and the third by C. Plummer in VSH., vol. ii, pp. 206—225. A. P. Forbes in KSS. (pp. 409—411) repudiates any identity between St Moloc (June 25) and St Molua.
610 Saint Vitalius, a monk of the monastery of St Seridus, arrived in Alexandria when St John the Merciful (November 12) was Patriarch of Alexandria.    John_the_Merciful_by_Titian many miraculous healings over his grave;
Vitalius, monk at Gaza. He lived under the abbot Serid(i)on near Gaza. Vitalius went to Alexandria, he was then about sixty years. John the Almoner was at that time bishop of Alexandria (610-619). Vitalius feigned a licentious life and he visited the house of the harlots to convert them. After his death in Alexandria, his innocence was proved; and his accuser converted and entered the monastery at Gaza under the abbot Serid(i)on, and he occupied the cell that was once occupied by Vitalius. The feast of Vitalius is on Jan 11 in the Greek synaxaria.

When he was sixty years old, undertook an extraordinary task: he wrote down from memory the names of all the prostitutes of Alexandria and he began to pray for them. He worked from morning to evening, earning twelve copper coins each day. In the evening the saint bought a single bean, which he ate after sunset. Then he would give the rest of the money to one of the harlots, whom he visited at night and said, "I beg you, take this money and do not sin with anyone tonight." Then he stayed with the harlot in her room. While she slept, the Elder spent the whole night at prayer, reading the Psalms, and quietly left in the morning.

He did this each day, visiting all the harlots in turn, and he made them promise to keep the purpose of his visit secret. The people of Alexandria, not knowing the truth, became indignant over the the monk's behavior, and they reviled him. However, he meekly endured their scorn, and he only asked that they not judge others.

The holy prayers of St Vitalius saved many fallen women. Some of them went to a monastery, others got married, and others found respectable work. But they were forbidden to tell anyone the reason why they had changed their life, and thereby stop the abuse heaped upon St Vitalius. They were bound by an oath they had made to the saint. When of the woman began to break her oath and stood up to defend the saint, she fell into a demonic frenzy. After this, the people of Alexandria had no doubt concerning the sinfulness of the monk.

Certain of the clergy, scandalized by the behavior of St Vitalius, reported him to the holy Patriarch John the Merciful. But the Patriarch did not believe the informers and he said, "Cease to judge, especially monks. Don't you know what happened at the First Council of Nicea? Some of the bishops and the clergy brought letters of denunciation against each other to the emperor St Constantine the Great (May 21). He commanded that a burning candle be brought, and not even reading the letters, he burned them and said, "If I had seen with my own eyes a bishop sinning, or a priest, or a monk, then I would have veiled such with his garb, so that no one might see his sin." Thus the wise hierarch shamed the calumniators.
St Vitalius continued on with his difficult exploit: appearing himself before people under the guise of a sinner and a prodigal, he led the prodigal to repentance.

One time, emerging from an house of ill repute, the monk encountered a young man going there -- a prodigal fellow, who with an insult struck him on the cheek and cried out, that the monk was a disgrace to the Name of Christ. The monk answered him: "Believe me, that after me, humble man that I be, thou also shalt receive such a blow on the cheek, that will have all Alexandria thronging to thine cry".
A certain while afterwards St Vitalius settled into a small cell and in it at night he died. At that very hour a terrifying demon appeared before the youth who had struck the saint, and the demon struck the youth on the cheek and cried out: "Here is a knock from St Vitalius." The youth went into a demonic madness. In a frenzy he thrashed about on the ground, tore the clothing from himself and howled so loudly, that a multitude of people gathered.
When the youth finally came to his senses after several hours, he then rushed off to the cell of the monk, calling out: "Have mercy on me, O servant of God, for I have sinned against thee." At the door of the cell he came fully to his senses and he told those gathered there about his former encounter with St Vitalius. Then the youth knocked on the door of the cell, but he received no answer. When they broke in the door, they then saw, that the monk was dead, on his knees before an icon. In his hand was a scroll with the words: "Men of Alexandria, judge not beforehand, til cometh the Lord, the Righteous Judge".

At this moment there came up the demon-possessed woman, punished by the monk for wanting to violate the secret of his exploit. Having touched the body of the saint, she was healed and told the people about everything that had happened with her.
When the women who had been saved by St Vitalius learned about his death, they gathered together and told everyone about the virtues and mercy of the saint.

St John the Merciful also rejoiced, in that he had not believed the calumniators, and that a righteous man had not been condemned. And then together with the throng of repentant women, converted by St Vitalius, the holy Patriarch solemnly conveyed his remains throughout all the city and gave them reverent burial. And from that time many of the Alexandria people made themselves a promise to judge no one.

Our Holy Father, the Monk Vitalis  April 22)  SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
In the time of Patriarch John the Merciful a young monk appeared, who, as soon as he arrived, compiled a list of all the prostitutes in Alexandria. His way of asceticism was exceptional and singular. During the day he hired himself out for the heaviest work, and at night he went into the brothels, gave the money he had earned to some prostitute and shut himself in her room with her for the whole night. As soon as he had shut the door, Vitalis begged the woman to lie down and sleep, while he spent the entire night in a corner of the room in prayer to God for that sinner. So he kept the sinner from sinning even for one night. The second night he would go to another, the third to another, and so on in order until he had gone through them all, then he went back to the one with whom he had started. By his counsel, many of these sinners left their foul calling; some married, others went to a monastery and others began some honest work for payment. All these women were forbidden by Vitalis to say why he came to them. As a result, he became a scandal to the whole of Alexandria. People reviled him in the streets, spat on him and buffeted him. But he bore it all patiently, revealing his good works to the Lord but concealing them from men. When he died, all became known about him. There began to be many miraculous healings over his grave; people came from various places, bringing their sick to it. Spat on by men, he was and is glorified by the all-seeing God. 
610 St. Virgilius of Arles Archbishop many miracle worker
A native of Gascony, France, he studied on the island of Lerins, off the French coast near Cannes, eventually serving as abbot of the monastery there.

He Iater was abbot of St. Symphorien in Autun and archbishop of Aries, also serving as apostolic vicar to King Childebert II (r. 575-595). He probably consecrated St. Augustine as archbishop of Canterbury and was responsible for founding churches in Arles.
Virgilius was also rebuked by Pope St. Gregory I the Great (r. 590-604) for permitting the forced conversion of Jews. He was also a wonder worker, credited with many miracles.
610 Colman (Mocholmoc) of Dromore first abbot of Muckmore, County Antrim many miracles to the bishop teacher of Saint Finnian of Clonard B (AC)
Born at Argyll, c. 516; cultus approved in 1903; he has a second feast on October 27. If you are confused by the many saints named Colman, join the club: there are 126 Irish saints bearing that illustrious name. Today's saint was the first abbot of Muckmore, County Antrim, then chosen as the abbot-founder and bishop of Dromore in County Down. He is said to have been the teacher of Saint Finnian of Clonard. Jocelin, in his life of Saint Patrick, tells us that Colman's virtue was foretold by Patrick. His legend ascribes many miracles to the bishop.
This Colman is titular saint of at least one church in Scotland, Inis Mo-Cholmaig, and one in Wales, Llangolman (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth, Montague).
610 St. Drostan Irish born abbot disciple of St. Columba. Drostan was a member of the royal Cosgrach family of Ireland first abbot of Deer in Aberdeenshire, Scotland  miracles were attributed to him
He is considered an apostle to Scotland. He ended his days near Glenesk, Angus, and a well is associated with him at Aberdour.

ALL that is known of this saint is found in the old Aberdeen Breviary and in the "Book of Deer ", and there are discrepancies between the two sources. 
He was of blood royal in Ireland, of the family of Cosgrach, and followed the religious life under St Columba.  When a foundation was made at Deer in Aberdeenshire, Drostan was the first abbot.  It is also said he went to Glenesk in Angus and lived there as a hermit; his holiness and kindness to the needy were noised about the countryside and miracles were attributed to him.   After his death his body was transferred to a shrine at Aberdour, and his feast is still kept in the dioceses of Aberdeen and Argyll on this day.
  See the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. ill; Forbes, KSS., pp. 326-327; DCB., vol. i, p. 907. The "Book of Deer ", believed to date from the close of the ninth century, was printed by the Spalding Club in 1869.
995 {610} St. Victor Hermit recluse in the area of Arcissur-Aube many miracles.
 In território Archiacénsi, in Gállia, sancti Victóris Confessóris, cujus laudes sanctus Bernárdus conscrípsit.
      In the province of Champagne in France, St. Victor, confessor, about whom eulogies have been written by St. Bernard.
 in Champagne, France, he was much venerated by the Benedictines of Montiramey who asked St. Bernard of Clairvaux to compose a hymn in Victor's honor.

610 ST VICTOR THE HERMIT God glorified him by graces and miracles, but the greatest wonder of all seems to have been the powerful example of his life, which brought about the conversion of many sinners

ST BERNARD in his sermons has left us two panegyrics of the priest and hermit St Victor, or Vittré, of Arcis-sur-Aube in Champagne. He says: “Now in Heaven, he beholds God clearly revealed, but not forgetting us though swallowed up in joy. It is not a land of oblivion in which Victor dwells. Heaven does not harden or narrow hearts, but it makes them more tender and compassionate; it does not distract minds or alienate them from us; it does not diminish but increases affection and charity; it augments capacity for pity. The angels, although they behold the face of their Father, visit us and come continually to our assistance: and shall those now forget us who were once amongst us and who formerly suffered what they see us to be undergoing now? No: I know the just await me until Thou render to me my reward. Victor is not like Pharaoh’s cupbearer who could forget his fellow captive. He has not so put on the stole of glory himself as to lay aside his pity or the remembrance of our misery.”

St Victor, born in the diocese of Troyes, was a saint from his cradle, and in his youth prayer, fasting and almsgiving were his delight. He received holy orders, but the love of heavenly contemplation being always the chief inclination of his soul, he preferred solitude to the life entailed by the care of souls. In this the Holy Ghost was his director, and he lived in such continual union with God through prayer and contemplation that he seemed raised above the ordinary conditions of this mortal life. God glorified him by graces and miracles, but the greatest wonder of all seems to have been the powerful example of his life, which brought about the conversion of many sinners. He lived a solitary life at Arcis, near Plancy-sur-Aube. His remains were translated to the Benedictine monastery of Montiéramey, and at the request of the monks St Bernard drew up an office of St Victor with a hymn of his own composition.

See the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. iii. We know practically nothing of St Victor from any authentic source. St Bernard seems simply to have made himself the mouthpiece of vague local tradition.

Victor the Hermit (RM) (also known as Vittre) Born in Troyes, Champagne, France; 7th century. Born of noble parents, Saint Victor was educated under strict discipline in learning and piety. He was one of those rare creatures that was a saint from his cradle. In his youth, prayer, fasting, and alms- giving were his chief delights.
After embracing the priesthood, the love of heavenly contemplation was so alluring that he preferred retirement to the care of souls. This appears to have been God's will for him. He lived in continual communion with God and God glorified him by many miracles, but the greatest appears to be the powerful example of his life.
Victor's feast was celebrated by the Benedictines of Montiramy at whose request Saint Bernard wrote two pious panegyrics
{ Greek meaning a speech "fit for a general assembly" (panegyris)} about Victor (Ep. 312, vet. ed. seu 398, nov. edit.), including: "Now placed in heaven, he beholds God clearly, revealed to him, swallowed up in joy, but not forgetting us. It is not the land of oblivion in which Victor dwells. Heaven does not harden or straiten hearts but makes them more tender and compassionate; it does not distract minds, nor alienate them from us; it does not diminish, but it increases affection and charity; it augments bowels of pity. The angels, although they behold the face of their Father, visit, run, and continually assist us; and shall they now forget us who were once among us, and who once suffered themselves what they see us at present labor under? No: 'I know the just expect me till you render to me my reward.'
"Victor is not like that cup-bearer of Pharaoh, who could forget his fellow-captive. He has not so put on the stole of glory himself as to lay aside his pity, or the remembrance of our misery" (Sermon, 2).
Saint Victor died at Saturniac, now called Saint-Vittre, in the diocese of Troyes. A church was built over his tomb but in 837 his relics were translated to the neighboring monastery of Montier-Ramoy, or Montirame (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

610  ST VICTOR THE HERMIT
ST BERNARD in his sermons has left us two panegyrics of the priest and hermit St Victor, or Vittré, of Arcis-sur-Aube in Champagne. He says: “Now in Heaven, he beholds God clearly revealed, but not forgetting us though swallowed up in joy. It is not a land of oblivion in which Victor dwells. Heaven does not harden or narrow hearts, but it makes them more tender and compassionate; it does not distract minds or alienate them from us; it does not diminish but increases affection and charity; it augments capacity for pity. The angels, although they behold the face of their Father, visit us and come continually to our assistance: and shall those now forget us who were once amongst us and who formerly suffered what they see us to be undergoing now? No: I know the just await me until Thou render to me my reward. Victor is not like Pharaoh’s cupbearer who could forget his fellow captive. He has not so put on the stole of glory himself as to lay aside his pity or the remembrance of our misery.”

St Victor, born in the diocese of Troyes, was a saint from his cradle, and in his youth prayer, fasting and almsgiving were his delight. He received holy orders, but the love of heavenly contemplation being always the chief inclination of his soul, he preferred solitude to the life entailed by the care of souls. In this the Holy Ghost was his director, and he lived in such continual union with God through prayer and contemplation that he seemed raised above the ordinary conditions of this mortal life. God glorified him by graces and miracles, but the greatest wonder of all seems to have been the powerful example of his life, which brought about the conversion of many sinners. He lived a solitary life at Arcis, near Plancy-sur-Aube. His remains were translated to the Benedictine monastery of Montiéramey, and at the request of the monks St Bernard drew up an office of St Victor with a hymn of his own composition.

See the Acta Sanctorum, February, vol. iii. We know practically nothing of St Victor from any authentic source. St Bernard seems simply to have made himself the mouthpiece of vague local tradition.    
613 St. Theodore of Sykeon (Galatia) Abbot bishop cured a royal prince of leprosy gifts of prophecy and miracles bestowed on him by God
Anastasiópoli, in Galátia, sancti Theodóri Epíscopi, miráculis clari.         At Anastasiopolis in Galatia, St. Theodore, a bishop well known for his miracles.
A native of Sykeon, in Galatia, Asia Minor, he was the son of a Byzantine imperial messenger and possibly of a prostitute. Entering a monastery in Jerusalem, he served there for many years until becoming abbot of a number of monastic institutions. He predicted the rise of Emperor Maurice and cured a royal prince of leprosy. About 590, he was appointed bishop of Anastasiopol in Galatia.

Theodore of Sykeon (Sikion) B (RM) (also known as Theodore of Sikion) Born in Sykeon, Galatia, Asia Minor; died April 22, 613. The beginning of Theodore's life was infortuitous: He was the bastard child of a girl named Mary who, with her sister, kept an inn at the village of Sykeon. They prostituted themselves to their customers. His father was a circus artist, who specialized in acrobatic camel- riding and had nothing to do with his son. Perhaps his mother was a nominal Christian--she had her son baptized.
When Theodore was only six, Mary wanted him to enter the service of the emperor. She prepared for him a gold belt and expensive clothing to make him presentable at court. Then Saint George (303 1/14 helpers) appeared to her in a dream and she abandoned this plan. Instead she arranged for Theodore's education with a local teacher.
About this time, the inn was transformed by the arrival of an elderly man, named Stephen, whose cooking transformed the inn into a place renowned for its cuisine. Thus, the women were able to forego prostitution as an additional source of income.
Even as a child, Theodore showed a propensity for holiness, which was encouraged by Stephen and heightened following his recovery from a near fatal attack of the bubonic plague. Theodore would skip dinner, depriving himself of nourishment, in order to spend the time in church praying at the shrine of Saint George. He would shut himself up in the cellar or in a cave under a disused chapel at Arkea, about eight miles from home. Later his mother married a prominent businessman of Ankara and left him with his grandmother and aunt, whom as a young man he converted to better ways.
Theodore himself became a monk when on a visit to Jerusalem. Reputedly at the age of 18, he was ordained to the priesthood by his own bishop. Theodore exercised considerable influence, perhaps because of the gifts of prophecy and miracles bestowed on him by God. It is said that he grew suspicious of a finely wrought chalice that turned out to have been made from a prostitute's chamber pot. As a priest-monk he led an austere life: He lived on vegetables, fasted frequently, and wore an iron girdle. When he settled in Mossyna, he helped in the treatment of girls believed to be troubled by unclean spirits.
Strangely, it is recorded that he requested that he be placed in a wooden cage from Christmas to Palm Sunday. Later, he moved into an iron cage suspended on the face of the rock in mid-air above his cave. As a penance he wore an iron breastplate (perhaps in remembrance of his favorite Saint George?) and iron rings for his hands and feet and an iron collar and belt. As is recorded of many Irish saints and desert Fathers, Saint Theodore is said to have been familiar with wild animals--even bears and wolves.
He founded monasteries in his own country and governed the one in his native town, although he frequently retired to a remote and secluded cell because his hermitage, transformed by many visitors seeking his counsel and disciples, had become a complex of buildings including a large church, monastery, and guest house.
In spite of his strong objection, about 590, Theodore was elected bishop of Anastasiopolis, not far from Turkey's capital of Ankara, and consecrated by Archbishop Paul of Ankara.

His episcopate was marked by a long series of miracles. An African monk, Antiochus, who came to see Theodore on behalf of a town pillaged by barbarians describes the saint: "He had eyebrows that met each other . . . was about a hundred years old, the hair of his head was as white as wool and hung down to his loins; so too did his beard, and his nails were very long. It was about sixty years since he had touched wine or oil, thirty since he had tasted bread. His food was uncooked vegetables with salt and vinegar; his drink water." Theodore helped Antiochus with his mission and consulted him about the possibility of resigning his episcopate.
Theodore wanted to resign because competing demands on his time-- governing his abbey and diocese--left too little time for prayer. Often his prayers were interrupted to settle disputes or deal with administrative details. The final straw was civil unrest in the villages that belonged to the Church and were entrusted to laymen who oppressed the villagers. Theodore was accused by one of them, Theodosius, with instigating the peasants to revolt. Theodosius finally kicked away the chair on which the bishop was sitting and knocked him on his back.
After 10 years Theodore resigned this office and retired to Saint Michael at Acrena (Akreina) near Pidrum (Tchardak) and Heliopolis. He visited his patron Emperor Maurice at Constantinople and healing one of the princes of a skin disease (leprosy or elephantiasis?). The emperor and empress invited him to their table. There it was decided that all the monasteries should have the power of sanctuary and that the appointment of abbots should be in the jurisdiction of the patriarch rather than the local bishops. Returning to his oratory, he lived as a monk again and continued to work miracles until his death at Sykeon. He was also a great promoter of the cultus of Saint George.
A long vita of Saint Theodore was written by one of his disciples; it is mostly a record of healings of the sick and the possessed and other marvels attributed to this holy man, and of anecdotes illustrating the virtues of his character. He seems to have become a physician and had the gift of reconciling married couples which led to barren wives having children. It does, however, provide a lively picture of life in Asia Minor just before the Arab occupation. Theodore's relics were translated to Constantinople (Attwater, Benedictines, Dawes, Farmer, Walsh).

616 ST LICINIUS, OR LESIN, BISHOP OF ANGERS by the example of his severe and holy life and by miracles which were wrought through him he succeeded in winning the hearts of the most hardened and in making daily conquests of souls for God.

Licinius was born of a family closely allied to the French kings about the year 540. He grew up a handsome youth with charming manners and high principles, and when he was twenty his father took him to the court of his cousin, King Clotaire I. Here he signalized himself by his valour, by his chivalrous qualities and even more by his piety, for he fulfilled his Christian duties with exactitude and fervour. Fasting and prayer were constant practices with him and his heart was always upraised to God. King Chilperic was greatly attached to him and made him count of Anjou. Overruled by the wishes of his friends, he consented to take a wife, but his betrothed was seized with leprosy on the eve of the marriage. Licinius was so much affected by this that he resolved to carry out a design he had formerly entertained of entirely renouncing the world. This he did in 580; he became a priest and entered a religious community, where he led a very austere life.

When Audouin, Bishop of Angers, died, the people, remembering the equity and the clemency with which Licinius had ruled them when he was civil governor, clamoured to have him return as their pastor. The clergy seconded their appeal, and Licinius accepted, though unwillingly. Thereafter his time and his substance were devoted to feeding the hungry, comforting and releasing prisoners, and curing the souls and bodies of his people. Although he was careful to keep discipline in his diocese, he was more inclined to indulgence than to rigour, imitating the tenderness which our Lord Jesus Christ showed to sinners, By his strong and persuasive eloquence, by the example of his severe and holy life and by miracles which were wrought through him he succeeded in winning the hearts of the most hardened and in making daily conquests of souls for God. He renewed his own spirit of devotion by frequent periods of recollection and desired to lay down his bishopric so as to retire into solitude. The bishops of the province refused to listen to such a proposal, and Licinius therefore submitted to their will, spending the rest of his life in the service of his flock, although, in his later years, he suffered from continual infirmities.

The Life of St Licinius (BHL., n. 4957) cannot deserve confidence, for the author pretends to be almost a contemporary but it is certain that he did not write until more than a hundred years afterwards. The more favourable views expressed in-a paper by J. Demarteau in Mélanges Godefroid Kurth are criticized in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxviii (5909), p. 106. There is, however, no reason to doubt the existence of St Licinius or his episcopate or the reverence in which he was held. Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux (vol. ii, p. 354), while treating the life as a very suspicious document, points out that a letter was written to Licinius in 601 by Pope Gregory the Great and that he is also mentioned in the will of St Bertram, Bishop of Le Mans, which is dated March 27, 616.

619 St. Lawrence of Canterbury Benedictine Archbishop scourged by St. Peter physical scars
England, sent there by Pope St. Gregory I the Great. A Benedictine, Lawrence accompanied St. Augustine to Canterbury in 597 and succeeded him as archbishop in 604.
When the Britons lapsed into pagan customs, Lawrence planned to return to France, but in a dream he was rebuked by St. Peter for abandoning his flock. He remained in his see and converted the local ruler King Edbald to the faith. He died in Canterbury on February 2. Lawrence is commemorated in the Irish Stowe Missal and is reported to have been scourged by St. Peter in his dream, carrying the physical scars on his back.
620 St. Basolus hermit miracles worker born in Limoges, France, around 555.
In território Rheménsi natális sancti Básoli Confessóris.    In the district of Rheims, the birthday of St. Basolus, confessor.
He became a monk in Reims, and then entered a hermitage. Basolus spent forty years on a hill overlooking Reims. Also called BasIe, the saintly hermit was known for miracles.
Basolus of Verzy, Hermit (RM) (also known as Basle) Born in Limoges, c. 555; died c. 620. Basle was a soldier before becoming a monk at Verzy, near Rheims. Then for forty years he lived as a hermit near the tomb of Saint Remy on top of a hill overlooking the city, where Saint Sindulf became one of his disciples. He was celebrated as a miracle worker (Attwater 2, Benedictines, Coulson, Encyclopedia).
621 Malo cousin to Saints Samson and Maglorius all the time that cloak lay there, there fall no rain upon it B (RM)
Apud Arcum, in território Santonénsi, natális sancti Machúti, Aleténsis in Gállia Epíscopi; qui, in Anglia natus, a primævo ætátis suæ tirocínio miráculis emícuit.
    At Archingeay, in the neighbourhood of Saintes, the birthday of St. Malo, bishop of Aleth, in France.  He was born in England and from his earliest years was famed for his miracles.
(also known as Maclovius, Maclou, Mahou or wrongly Machutus)
Born in England or southwest Wales; died on November 15, 621; feast of his translation is July 11. Saint Malo is said to have been cousin to Saints Samson and Maglorius. While he was still a youth, Malo was sent to Ireland for his education in virtue and the humanities, and may have been a disciple of Saint Brendan. After his priestly ordination, Malo was elected to a bishopric but declined the dignity, retiring to Brittany to become its apostle. The port of Saint-Malo takes its name from this Malo, who ministered and made foundations from the islet in the estuary of the Rance or from the neighboring Aleth (Saint-Servan) in Brittany. About 541, Malo was consecrated bishop of Aleth. He is said to have been driven from his see by his enemies and to have settled at Saintes, but he was later recalled by a deputation of his people. He died at Archingeay near Saintes before he could return to Aleth.
The feast of Saint Malo was celebrated in England, especially in southern monasteries and in the Sarum calendar, as well as in Brittany. Farmer claims that his cultus was encouraged by the bishops of Winchester because the Latin word for Gwent closely resembles that for Wincester. For this reason his relics were claimed by Bath and other churches; however, the majority were translated from Saintes and Aleth to Saint-Malo in Brittany (Attwater, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
A primitive vita, now lost, provided the basis for two less reliable ones in the 9th century. These later biographies depict a rugged man of truth, who sang psalms in a loud voice as he travelled throughout the countryside on horseback. Often he found himself "shaking the dust from his feet" after making enemies, as well as friends, in a district.
The life of Saint Malo, written five centuries after his death by a quiet scholar named Sigebert of Gembloux, includes this story of Saint Malo and the Wren.
"And another miracle he wrought like to this, worthy of record for its compassion alone. He was a follower of Paul the Apostle, whose own hands supplied his wants if aught were lacking; and when he had leisure from his task of preaching the Gospel, he kept himself by the work of his hands. One day he was busy with the brethren in the vineyard, pruning the vines, and for better speed in his work took off his cloak and laid it out of sight. When his work was done and he came to take his cloak, he found that he small bird whom common folk call a wren had laid an egg on it. And knowing that God's care is not far from the birds, since not one of them falls on the ground without the Father, he let his cloak lie there, till the eggs were hatched and the wren brought out her brood. And this was the marvel, that all the time that cloak lay there, there fall no rain upon it. And whoever came to hear of it, they glorified the power of God, and they praised God's own pity in man" (Sigebert).
7th v. St. Malo Welsh bishop missionary to Brittany
France. He is also called Machutis and Maclou. Malo was born near Llancarfan, Wales, and became a monk under St. Brendan, going with him to Brittany. He founded a center at Aleth, now called Saint-Malo. Pagan opposition forced him and his fellow monks to move to Saintes, France, where regarded as a bishop. Malo was recalled to Aleth but died on the way.
ST   MALO, BISHOP      
MACHUTUS, Maclovius, Maclou (and other forms) is best known to English-speaking people, by association with the Breton port, as Malo.     Medieval hagiographers say that he was born in South Wales, near Llancarfan, and was educated in the monastery there.  When he grew up his parents wanted him to leave the monks, but he refused and, after hiding for a time in one of the islands of the Severn Sea, he was ordained priest and determined to leave Britain, perhaps on account of the great pestilence in the middle of the sixth century.  He landed in Brittany, and began to evangelize the neighbourhood of Aleth (Saint-Servan), having his headquarters on an island where now stands the town of Saint-Malo.
  He built churches and made monastic settlements, tried to protect the weak from the violence of the local chiefs, and made many converts; as he rode from place to place on his missionary journeys he recited psalms in a loud voice.    But St Malo made enemies as well as converts, and after the death of the chief who had first persecuted and then protected him, and whom Malo is said to have converted, they began to get the upper hand.  St Malo decided to leave; and, going on board ship with thirty-three monks, he solemnly anathematized the malcontents and sailed off down the coast.  He settled near Saintes and stayed there for some years until a deputation from Aleth came and asked him to return: his flock was suffering from a bad drought, which was attributed to their treatment of their bishop.  He visited them as requested, and immediately on his arrival there was a heavy fall of rain.   Malo, however, did not stay at Aleth long; he set out again for Saintes, but died just before he arrived there.
  In the Lives of St Malo there is narrated a number of stories and miracles of a highly unconvincing kind.  In particular it is stated that he emulated St Brerndan in his fabulous voyages of quest for the Isle of the Blessed, and celebrated Easter on the back of a whale.
There are four or five medieval lives of St Malo duly enumerated in BHL., nn. 5116-5124. The best known is that attributed to the deacon Bili, who wrote in the latter part of the ninth century.  There probably was a primitive life which has perished, from which the Bili version and the anonymous text (BHL. 5117) have both been elaborated. The texts may be conveniently consulted in Plaine and La Borderie, Deux vies inédites de S. Malo (1884). The matter is too complicated to discuss here, but see especially F. Lot, Mélanges &histoire bretonne (1907) pp. 97-206   Duine, Memento, pp. 53-57; Duchesne in the Revue Celtique, vol. xi (1890), pp.  1-22  Poncelet in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xxiv (1905), pp. 483-486.
622 St. Walericus Benedictine founder missionary abbot under St. Columbanus His time was entirely occupied with preaching, prayer, reading, and manual labor miracles
also called Valery. He served under St. Columbanus at the famed monastery of Luxeuil, in France, and was the founder of the monastic community of Leuconay, on the Somme River.
620 ST WALARICUS, or VALÉRY, Abbot
ST WALARICUS or Valéry, whose body William the Conqueror caused to be publicly exposed that the saint might obtain a favourable wind for his English expedition, was born in a humble home in the Auvergne. Somehow he learned to read, and he is said to have procured a psalter, the contents of which he committed to memory while tending sheep. His uncle one day took him to visit the monastery of Autumo, but when the time came for returning, the boy insisted upon staying behind; so there he was allowed to remain and to continue his education, though it is doubtful whether he ever took the habit there.
Some years later he left to enter the abbey of St Germanus near Auxerre, but his sojourn does not seem to have been a protracted one. It was not unusual in those days for monks voluntarily to go from one monastery to another; some indeed were vagrants by nature who could never settle anywhere, but many of them were men striving after perfection, who were only eager to find a director capable of assisting them to attain their goal. Of this number was Walaricus. The renown of St Columban and of the life led by his followers at Luxeuil determined him to seek out the great Irishman and to place himself under his rule. With him went his friend Bobo, a nobleman who had been converted by him and who had abandoned his possessions to join him. At Luxeuil, where they found the leader and the spiritual life they sought, they settled down happily. To Walaricus fell the duty of cultivating part of the garden. The flourishing condition of his allotment, when the rest of the estate was being devoured by insects, was regarded as miraculous, and is said to have induced St Columban, who already had a high opinion of him, to profess him after an unusually short novitiate.
When King Theodoric expelled the abbot from his monastery, allowing only the Irish and the Bretons to accompany him, Walaricus, not wishing to remain on at Luxeuil without St Columban, obtained leave to join a monk called Waldolanus, who was about to start on a mission of evangelization. Receiving permission to settle in Neustria, they preached freely to the people, and Walaricus’s eloquence and miracles gained many converts. It was not long, however, before he began to feel again the call to retire from the world, but this time he thought it his vocation to be a hermit. By the advice of Bishop Berchundus he chose a solitary spot near the sea, at the mouth of the river Somme, where he proposed to live in solitude but he could not remain hidden. Disciples discovered him and cells sprang up around, which developed into the celebrated abbey of Leuconaus. St Walaricus would occasionally issue forth to preach missions in the countryside, and so successful were his efforts that he is said to have evangelized not only what is now known as the Pas-de-Calais, but the whole eastern shore of the English Channel.
Tall and ascetic-looking, the holy man was noted for his singular gentleness which tempered the stern Rule of St Columban with excellent results. Animals were attracted to him: birds perched on his shoulders and ate from his hand, and often the good abbot would gently warn off an intruding visitor with the words, “Do let these innocent creatures eat their meal in peace”.
After ruling his monastery for six years or more, St Walaricus passed to his rest about the year 620. Numerous miracles reported after his death quickly spread his cultus, at least two French towns, St-Valéry-sur-Somme and St-Valéry-en-Caux, being named after him. King Richard Coeur-de-Lion transferred his relics to the latter town, which is in Normandy, but they were afterwards restored to St-Valéry sur-Somme, on the site of the abbey of Leuconaus.

We are told that a life of St Walaricus was written by Raginbertus, who became abbot of Leuconaus not long after the death of the saint. It was formerly believed that this docu­ment was preserved in substance by a later writer, who re-edited it in a new setting and in a more correct style. Bruno Krusch, however, seems to have proved that this later life dates only from the eleventh century and is a fabrication which borrows freely from other hagio­graphical materials which have nothing to do with St Walaricus. See MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iv, pp. 157—175 where a more critical text than that of the Bollandists and Mabillon may also be found. For some criticisms of B. Krusch’s edition see Wattenbach Levison, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter Vorzeit und Karolinger, vol. (1952),
Walaricus of Leucone, Abbot (RM) (also known as Valéry, Walericus) Born in Auvergne, France; died in Leucone, Picardy, France, on December 12, c. 622; feast of his translation is December 12.
Valéry discovered Benedictine life at Issoire, developed it at Auxerre, fructified it at Luxeuil under Saint Columbanus, and multiplied it with missionary work at Leuconnais (Leuconay), in the Somme region of northern France.

Born into a peasant family in the Auvergne, Valéry tended his father's sheep in his childhood, which gave him plenty of time to develop his prayer life. Out of an ardent desire to grow in spiritual knowledge, he learned to read at an early age and memorized the Psalter. Dissatisfied with his life as a shepherd, he took the monastic habit in the neighboring monastery of St. Antony's at Autumo.

His fervor from the first day of monastic life led him to live the rule perfectly. Sincere humility permitted him to meekly and cheerfully subjected himself to everyone. Seeking a stricter rule, he migrated to the more austere monastery of St. Germanus, where he was received by Bishop Saint Anacharius of Auxerre. He was drawn to Luxeuil by the reputation of the penitential lives of its monks and the spiritual wisdom of Saint Columbanus. There he spent many years, always esteeming himself an unprofitable servant and a slothful monk, who stood in need of the severest and harshest rules and superiors. Next to sin, he dreaded nothing so much as the applause of men or a reputation of sanctity. At Luxeuil he also distinguished himself as a horticulturalist--the preservation of his fruit and vegetables against the ravages of insects that destroyed most other crops was considered miraculous.

When Saint Columbanus was banished from Luxeuil by King Theodoric, the monastery was placed in Valéry's hands until he was sent by Saint Eustasius with his fellow-monk Waldolanus to preach the Gospel in Neustria. There King Clotaire II gave them the territory of Leucone in Picardy, near the mouth of the river Somme. In 611, with the permission of Bishop Bertard of Amiens, they built a chapel and two cells. Saint Valéry by his preaching and the example of his virtue, converted many and attracted fervent disciples with whom he laid the foundation of a monastery.

His fasts he sometimes prolonged for six days, eating only on the Sunday; and he used no other bed than twigs laid on the floor. His time was entirely occupied with preaching, prayer, reading, and manual labor. By this he earned something for the relief of the poor, and he often repeated to others, "The more cheerfully we give to those who are in distress, the more readily will God give us what we ask of him."

When Valéry died, cures were claimed at his tomb and a cultus developed, which eventually spread to England during the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror exposed Valéry's relics for public veneration. He was invoked for a favorable wind for the expedition in 1066, which sailed from Saint-Valéry

Valéry is honored at Chester Abbey in England and in France, where a famous monastery arose from his cells. His vita was carefully written in 660, by Raimbert, second abbot of Leucone after him. King Richard the Lion Hearted had his relics restored to Saint-Valéry-en-Caux; however, his original abbey later recovered them. Two towns in the Somme district are called Saint- Valéry after him, and there are several dedications to him in England as well (Attwater2, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
625 St Gaugericus, Or Gery, Bishop Of Cambrai ; native of Yvoi, a small town in the Ardennes, at Yvoi a leper was healed by being baptized by him; bishopric of Trier, coming to Yvoi, was much delighted with the sanctity and talents of St Gëry, and ordained him deacon (but not till he knew the whole psalter by heart, says his biographer); from that moment the saint redoubled his fervour in good works, and applied himself with zeal to the functions of his sacred ministry, especially to the instruction of the faithful
St Gaugericijs, in French, Géry, was a native of Yvoi, a small town in the Ardennes.   During an episcopal visitation, St Magnericus, the successor of St Nicetas in the bishopric of Trier, coming to Yvoi, was much delighted with the sanctity and talents of St Gëry, and ordained him deacon (but not till he knew the whole psalter by heart, says his biographer); from that moment the saint redoubled his fervour in good works, and applied himself with zeal to the functions of his sacred ministry, especially to the instruction of the faithful.
  The reputation of his virtue and learning raised him to the episcopal chair of Cambrai, and  the saint devoted his episcopate to the rooting out of the paganism which was by no means dead in his diocese. At Cambrai he founded a monastery, called by him after St Médard, and to him is popularly attributed the foundation of the city of Brussels, for he is said to have built a chapel on an island in the Senne (now Place Saint-Géry) around which a village grew up.  Among other miracles recounted of him, it is related that at Yvoi a leper was healed by being baptized by him: which aptly represented the interior cleansing of the soul from sin.  Si Géry was called to rest after occupying his see for thirty-nine years, about the year 625, and was buried in the church which he had built in honour of St Médard, on a hill outside Cambrai.
The oldest life of St Gery was printed in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. vii (1888), pp. 388-398.  Since then it has been re-edited by Bruno Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iii, pp. 652-658.  It seems to have been written about fifty or sixty years after the death of the saint, and is in very barbarous Latin.  Cf. the Nenes Archiv, vol. xvi (1891), pp. 227 seq.; and E. de Moreau, Histoire de l'Eglise en Belgique, t. 1(1945), pp. 60-63.
625 Deicolus, Abbot known for the peace and joy radiated from his soul miracles spring (RM)
(also known as Deel, Deicola, Deicuil, Delle, Desle, Dichul, Dicuil)
Born in Leinster, Ireland, c. 530; died in Lure (diocese of Besançon), France, c. 625.
Deicolus, the elder brother of Saint Gall, was one of the 12 disciples of Saint Columbanus who accompanied him to France in 576 and helped to found the great abbey of Luxeuil. Deicolus worked with Columbanus in Austrasia and Burgundy. Though life was not easy, Deicolus was known for the peace and joy that radiated from his soul and could be seen on his face. Columbanus once asked him, "Why are you always smiling?" He simply answered, "Because no one can take God from me."

When Columbanus was expelled by Thierry in 610, Deicolus succumbed to fatigue just a few miles from Luxeuil. Columbanus blessed the monk who was unable to accompany him into exile because of his age. Deicolus wandered a bit in the forest region. When he became thirsty with no water in sight, he knelt down in prayer. Miraculously, a spring gushed forth under his walking sticke. He settled where the water arose at Lure (Lutra) in the Vosges.

But the spring is not the only miracle attributed to Deicolus. The pastor of the nearby chapel of Saint Martin objected to the saint coming there each night to pray. He was troubled by the stranger for whom "doors opened without keys." Soon, however, a community gathered around the ancient monk. King Clothaire provided funds for the monastery he founded on the site. There Deicolus retired to live as a hermit until his death.

His lonely mountain cell was the beginning of the city of Lure in northeastern France. The abbots of Lure were made princes of the Holy Roman Empire more than 1,000 years later. Deicolus's cultus is still strong around Lure, where even at the end of the 19th century children's clothes were washed in the spring because it was reputed to cure childhood illnesses. Deicolus teaches us that joyful souls delight the Lord and others (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, D'Arcy, Daniel-Rops, Delaney, Dubois, Encyclopedia, Gougaud, McCarthy, Montague, Tommasini, Walsh).

Saint Deicolus is pictured as a hermit. A wild boar hunted by King Clothair takes refuge at his feet. Sometimes there is a ray of light on him (Roeder).
625 Eustace of Luxeuil monk favorite disciple of Saint Columbanus humility continual prayer fasting miracles (RM)
 In monastério Luxoviénsi, in Gállia, deposítio sancti Eustásii Abbátis, qui sancti Columbáni discípulus et ferme sexcentórum Monachórum Pater fuit; ac, vitæ sanctitáte conspícuus, étiam miráculis cláruit.
       In the monastery of Luxeuil, the death of Abbot St. Eustasius, a disciple of St. Columban, who had under his guidance nearly six hundred monks.  Eminent in sanctity, he was also renowned for miracles.
(also known as Eustasius) Saint Eustace was a favorite disciple and monk of Saint Columbanus, whom he succeeded as second abbot of Luxeuil in 611. He ruled over about 600 monks. During his abbacy the monastery was a veritable seminary for bishops and saints, perhaps because of the example he gave by his own humility, continual prayer, and fasting (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

Saint Eustace de Luxeuil, Abbot.
(Eustasius)
Saint Eustace was one of the disciples and preferred monks of saint Columban (November 23), with whom it will succèdera like second abbot of Luxeuil into 611. He will have to direct about 600 monks. During its ministry of abbot, the monastery will become a true seminar & seedbeds of bishops and saints, perhaps because of the example which it gave by his own humility, its continual prayer, and its fasts (Benedictines, Husenbeth).

Saint Eustathius the Confessor, Bishop of Bithynia, was already at the beginning of his spiritual struggle a pious monk, meek and wise, filled with great faith and love for his neighbor. For his virtuous life he was made bishop of the city of Bithynia (a Roman province in northwest Asia Minor) and for many years he guided his flock, giving them an example of virtuous life and perfection.

During the Iconoclast heresy, St Eustathius boldly came out against the heretics and defended the veneration of holy icons. Iconoclasts denounced him to the emperor, and the saint suffered imprisonment and fierce beatings. Finally, they deprived St Eustathius of his See and sent him to prison.

The holy confessor died in exile during the ninth century, after suffering insults, deprivation, hunger, and want for three years.

SAINT EUSTASE - ABBÉ ET CONFESSEUR DE LUXEUIL (+ 625)
1. VIE. - Eustase ou Eustaise (latin Eustasius, Austasius) naquit en Bourgogne; il était par sa mère neveu de Miget, évêque de Langres. On a pensé qu'il avait peut-être suivi la carrière des armes cependant il alla de bonne heure se placer sous la conduite de Colomban à Luxeuil. Il y fut bientôt établi chef des écoles et paraît avoir suivi quelque temps Colomban dans son exil.
Vers la fin de 616, on le vit reparaître à Luxeuil en qualité d'abbé. On ignore comment il parvint ainsi à prendre la succession de Colomban, si ce fut par ordre de celui-ci ou par le suffrage des moines. Jonas s'est contenté de dire qu'Eustase était à Brégentz au moment de la pluie de cailles et que plus tard il fut envoyé par Clotaire II à Bobbio en qualité d'abbé de Luxeuil pour ramener Colomban en Gaule. Mais celui-ci était bien décidé à ne pas sortir de sa retraite : il remit à son disciple une lettre dans laquelle il remerciait Clotaire de sa proposition et le priait d'accorder ses faveurs à l'abbaye de Luxeuil. Le roi permit aux religieux d'étendre leurs domaines témoignant, ainsi de ses dispositions. Le retour d'Eustase fut marqué par un premier miracle en faveur de sainte Fare alors aveugle : il lui rendit la vue.
Rentré à Luxeuil, Eustase en repartit bientôt pour aller évangéliser les infidèles de la région. Accompagné de saint Aile, il se rendit chez les Warasques sur les bords du Doubs, peuple en partie idolâtre et en partie hérétique. Il convertit leur chef Isérius, détermina Randone, belle-soeur de celui-ci, à aller fonder le monastère de Cusance. Il passa ensuite chez les Boïens (la Bavière des temps actuels) y laissa des hommes capables de continuer l'oeuvre de conversion commencée par lui, puis rentra avec Aile à Luxeuil. A Meuse en Bassigny, il rendit la vue à Salaberge, fille de Gondoin son hôte, puis guérit Aile d'une fièvre violente. A Luxeuil, il travailla à maintenir la discipline et à former des religieux qui devaient devenir des évêques, des fondateurs et abbés de monastères, comme Cagnoald, Achaire, Amé, Romaric, Omer, Mommolin, Walbert, etc.
Jonas a raconté avec d'amples détails le départ et le schisme d'Agrestin. Celui-ci, ancien notaire du roi Thierry II, était entré à Luxeuil, après avoir distribué tous ses biens aux pauvres : se croyant une vocation d'apôtre, il avait demandé à Eustase d'être compris dans le nombre des missionnaires envoyés aux infidèles. Eustase refusa et Agrestin quitta le monastère pour se rendre à Aquilée, où il fut entraîné dans l'hérésie des "Trois-Chapitres". Ensuite il osa revenir à Luxeuil pour essayer de gagner Eustase. Honteusement chassé, Agrestin tenta de circonvenir Clotaire. Mais celui-ci, toujours plein de vénération pour Colomban, convoqua un concile à Mâcon. Agrestin y parut pour critiquer la règle de Colomban. Eustase fit une réponse très éloquente et prononça un discours vigoureux dont Jonas a conservé la teneur : "Si vous persistez à combattre nos institutions, concluait Eustase s'adressant à Agrestin, je vous cite dans l'année même au tribunal de Dieu; vous défendrez votre cause contre Colomban, ou plutôt vous recevrez votre sentence du juste juge dont vous calomniez le serviteur."
Le concile approuva la règle de Colomban : Eustase, poussé par sa grande charité, donna le baiser de paix à Agrestin et à ses partisans. Tout semblait terminé, mais Agrestin renouvela bientôt ses attaques contre Luxeuil, fit de vaines tentatives pour gagner sainte Fare. Il ressentit bientôt l'effet des menaces prononcées par Eustase; avant la fin de l'année, il périt misérablement frappé par la main d'un de ses esclaves. Amé qui lui avait témoigné quelque bienveillance regretta son erreur, Romane se soumit aussi sans tarder. Eustase, à qui revenait l'honneur de ce triomphe, reprit en paix le gouvernement de son abbaye; il y fit prospérer les études, augmenta le temporel, fonda plusieurs maisons nouvelles qu'il plaça sous la règle de Colomban. Une vision miraculeuse l'avertit de sa fin et lui laissa le choix entre quarante jours de lente agonie ou trente jours de cruelles souffrances, il préféra la maladie la plus douloureuse pour aller jouir pius tôt de la céleste récompense (625).
    Sur cette date, il y a quelques dissidences. Les bollandistes dans la vie de saint Gall marquent 627. J. Havet, Questions mérovingiennes, est pour 629; Perny fait vivre Eustase jusqu'en 649. D'après H. Baumont, Étude historique sur l'abbaye de Luxeuil, toutes les histoires manuscrites placent la mort en 625.
    II. CULTE. - La fête de saint Eustase fut fixée au 29 mars, on ne sait pour quelle raison: c'est la date où le nom est marqué dans les martyrologes d'Adon, d'Usuard, et dans le martyrologe romain. Certains martyrologes bénédictins ont inscrit le nom au 11 octobre parce quelques-uns ont cru que c'était le jour de la mort : il se peut que ce fut un jour de translation. Le corps fut déposé dans l'abbaye de Luxeuil et on croit qu'il y était encore au 10ième siècle. A une date que l'on ignore, il fut transféré au couvent des bénédictines de Vergaville en Lorraine : il disparut en 1670.
    Bibl. - La vie a été écrite par Jonas de Bobbio, contemporain du saint. On la trouve dans Mabillon, Acta sanctorum O. S. B., t. 2, p. 116; dans Acta sanctorum, 29 mars, avec commentaire de Henschenius; dans P. L., t. 87, col. 1045; dans Monum. Germ. hist.. - B. Krusch, Script. rer. meroving., t. 4, p. 119. - C. Perny, La vie de saint Eustase, 2e abbé de Luxeuil et patron de l'abbaye de Vergaville, Metz, 1649. - A. Pidoux, Les saints de Franche-Comté, 2 vol., Lons-le-Saulnier, 1908.

SAINT EUSTASE - ABBOT AND CONFESSOR OF LUXEUIL (+ 625)
1. LIFE. - Eustase or Eustaise (Latin Eustasius, Austasius) was born in Burgundy; it was by his mother nephew of Miget, bishop of Langres. It was thought that it had perhaps followed the military career however it went early to be placed under the control of Colomban at Luxeuil. It was soon established there chief of the schools and appears to have followed some Colomban time in its exile.
Towards the end of 616, one saw it reappearing in Luxeuil in the capacity as abbot. One is unaware of how it thus managed to take the succession of Colomban, if it were by order of this one or the vote of the monks. Jonas was satisfied to say that Eustase was in Brégentz at the time of the ruail rain and that later it was sent by Clotaire II to Bobbio in the capacity as abbot of Luxeuil to bring back Colomban in Gaule. But this one was well decided not to leave its retirement: he gave to his disciple a letter in which he thanked Clotaire for his proposal and requested it to grant its favours to the abbey of Luxeuil. The king allowed the monks to extend their fields testifying, thus of his provisions. The return of Eustase was marked by a first miracle in favour of holy Fare then plugs: it returned the sight to him.
Returned in Luxeuil, Eustase set out again about it soon to go évangéliser the inaccurate ones of the area. Accompanied by saint Wing, it went to Warasques on the edges of Doubs, partly populates idolâtre and partly heretic. It converts their Isérius chief, determined Randone, sister-in-law of this one, with going to found the monastery of Cusance. It passed then to Boïens (Bavaria of current times) there left men able to continue the work of conversion started with him, then returned with Aile in Luxeuil. To Meuse in Bassigny, it returned the sight in Salaberge, girl of Gondoin her host, then cures Aile of a violent fever. In Luxeuil, it worked to maintain the discipline and to form of the monks who were to become bishops, founders and abbots of monasteries, like Cagnoald, Achaire, Amé, Romaric, Omer, Mommolin, Walbert, etc
Jonas told with full details the departure and the schism of Agrestin. This one, former notary of the king Thierry II, had entered in Luxeuil, after having distributed all its goods to the poor: believing a vocation of apostle, it had asked Eustase to be included/understood in the number of the missionaries sent to the inaccurate ones. Eustase refused and Agrestin left the monastery to go to Aquilée, where it was involved in the heresy of the “Three-Chapters”. Then it dared to return in Luxeuil to try to gain Eustase. Shamefully driven out, Agrestin tried to thwart Clotaire. But this one, always full with veneration for Colomban, convened a council with Mâcon. Agrestin appeared to with it to criticize the rule of Colomban. Eustase made a very eloquent answer and made a vigorous speech whose Jonas preserved the content: “If you persist in fighting our institutions, concluded Eustase being addressed to Agrestin, I quote you in the year even with the court of God; you will defend your cause against Colomban, or rather you will receive your sentence of the right judge of which you calumniate the servant.”
The council approved the rule of Colomban: Eustase, pushed by its great charity, gave the kiss of peace to Agrestin and its partisans. All seemed finished, but Agrestin renewed soon its attacks against Luxeuil, made vain attempts to gain holy Fare. It felt soon the effect of the threats pronounced by Eustase; before the end of the year, it perishes misérablement struck by the hand of one of its slaves. Amé which had testified some benevolence to him regretted its error, Romane was also subjected without delaying. Eustase, with which returned the honor of this triumph, took again in peace the government of its abbey; it there made thrive the studies, increased the temporal one, founded several new houses which it placed under the rule of Colomban. A miraculous vision informs it its end and left him the choice between forty days of slow anguish or thirty days of cruel sufferings, it preferred the most painful disease to go to enjoy early pius the celestial reward (625).
Sur cette date, il y a quelques dissidences. Les bollandistes dans la vie de saint Gall marquent 627. J. Havet, Questions mérovingiennes, est pour 629; Perny fait vivre Eustase jusqu'en 649. D'après H. Baumont, Étude historique sur l'abbaye de Luxeuil, toutes les histoires manuscrites placent la mort en 625.
    II. CULTE. - La fête de saint Eustase fut fixée au 29 mars, on ne sait pour quelle raison: c'est la date où le nom est marqué dans les martyrologes d'Adon, d'Usuard, et dans le martyrologe romain. Certains martyrologes bénédictins ont inscrit le nom au 11 octobre parce quelques-uns ont cru que c'était le jour de la mort : il se peut que ce fut un jour de translation. Le corps fut déposé dans l'abbaye de Luxeuil et on croit qu'il y était encore au 10ième siècle. A une date que l'on ignore, il fut transféré au couvent des bénédictines de Vergaville en Lorraine : il disparut en 1670.
    Bibl. - La vie a été écrite par Jonas de Bobbio, contemporain du saint. On la trouve dans Mabillon, Acta sanctorum O. S. B., t. 2, p. 116; dans Acta sanctorum, 29 mars, avec commentaire de Henschenius; dans P. L., t. 87, col. 1045; dans Monum. Germ. hist.. - B. Krusch, Script. rer. meroving., t. 4, p. 119. - C. Perny, La vie de saint Eustase, 2e abbé de Luxeuil et patron de l'abbaye de Vergaville, Metz, 1649. - A. Pidoux, Les saints de Franche-Comté, 2 vol., Lons-le-Saulnier, 1908.
625 St Salvius, Or Sauve, Bishop Of Amiens.  
 Ambiáni, in Gállia, sancti Sálvii, Epíscopi et Mártyris.       At Amiens in France, St. Salvius, bishop and martyr.
FAMOUS for miracles, Salvius succeeded Ado in the see of Amiens and flourished in the reign of Theodoric II. His relics formerly were venerated at Montreuil in Picardy, in the Benedictine abbey which bore his name, whither they were translated from the cathedral of Amiens several years after his death, as is related in his anonymous life, a worthless compilation, largely borrowed, as Duchesne points out, from the account given of another St Salvius, of Albi, by Gregory of Tours. A relic of Salvius was formerly kept in the cathedral of Canterbury. This saint must not be confounded with St Salvius of Albi, nor with the martyr of this name in Africa, on whose festival St Augustine delivered a sermon. St Salvius is styled martyr in the Roman Martyrology, but for this, as Father Bollandus himself noted nearly three centuries ago, there is no foundation.
See Acta Sanctorum for January 11; Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux Corblet, Hagiographie d’Amiens, vol. iii, pp. 463 seq.
625 St. Ursicinus Irish missionary and disciple of St. Columbanus
625 ST URSICINUS, ABBOT; revered for his holiness and miracles;
THE Swiss town of Saint-Ursanne, on the Doubs at the foot of Mont Terrible, has its name from Ursicinus (or Ursinus), a disciple of St Columban. He was one of the monks who left Luxeuil and joined their abbot at Metz after he had been driven from his monastery. Like St Gall and others, St Ursicinus settled down in what is now Switzerland, formed a small community which he governed according to the Rule of St Columban followed at Luxeuil, and preached the gospel to the pagans of the neighbourhood. St Ursicinus died some time before the middle of the seventh century, revered for his holiness and miracles. Two other saints of this name are commemorated this month. On the 1st the Roman Martyrology has a bishop of Brescia, of whom nothing is known except that he took part in the Council of Sardica in 347; and on the 14th a sixth-century bishop is venerated at Cahors.
Not much that is certain is known of St Ursicinus. The short text printed in Trouillat, Monuments de l’évêché de Bâle, vol. i, pp. 40—44, is only a compendium of an eleventh-century life and quite unreliable. See, however, Chèvre, Histoire de Saint-Ursanne (1891). The cult of St Ursicinus is attested by some early church dedications. In DCB. vol., iv, p. 1070, he is described as an “Irish monk”, but Dom Gougaud does not mention him in his Saints irlandais hors d’Irlande (1937). On the other hand the mention of a bell that purports to be a relic of St Ursicinus, see Stückelberg, Geschichte der Reliquien in der Schweiz (1908) is perhaps suggestive of an Irish origin. See also the brief mention of St Ursanne in Mgr Besson, Nos origines chrétiennes: Etude sur la Suisse romande (1921).  
At the monastery of Luxeuil, France. he accompanied St. Columbanus into exile (c. 610) after the abbot was banished from Burgundy, journeying with him to Switzerland and founding the monastery of St. Ursanne. Ursicinus used the community as the base for his missionary efforts among the local pagan tribes of the Alamanni.
627 St. Attalas Abbot miracles foe of Arians companion of St. Columban
 In monastério Bobiénsi sancti Attalæ Abbátis, miráculis clari.
       In the monastery of Bobbio, St. Attala, abbot, renowned for his miracles.

Born in Burgundy, France, he studied under Bishop Aregius of Gap. He became a monk at Lérins but then went to Luxeuil, where St. Columban taught him a strict rule of religious life. Attalas served as Columban's companion when the Irish saint went to Bobbio, in Italy, and founded a monastery there on lands donated by King Agilulf of the Lombards. In 615 St. Columban died, and Attalas succeeded him as abbot. Attalas was a foe of the heretical Arians. lie was also noted for performing miracles. His tomb Is in Bobbio, beside the shrine of St. Columban.

627 ST ATTALAS, ABBOT

ST ATTALAS, a Burgundian, spent his youth with Aregius, Bishop of Gap, to whom his parents had confided him. There he received excellent instruction in letters, but found that he was not making sufficient spiritual progress. He therefore made his way to the monastery of Lérins, where he entered, but later resolved to seek a stricter community. At the celebrated monastery of Luxeuil, which St Columban had founded on the site of the old Roman town of Luxovium, he found all the austerity he desired, and of all the pious band Attalas was perhaps the one most after Columban’s heart he recognized in him a kindred spirit and took special pains to lead him on to perfection. When the holy abbot and his Irish companions were exiled from France by Theodoric, King of Austrasia, whom he had boldly rebuked for his vices, Columban took Attalas with him on his travels, which ended in Lombardy, when Agilulf, King of the Lombards, gave him land for the founda­tion of a monastery at Bobbio, a lonely spot in the Apennines. St Columban was seventy years of age at the time; and as he only lived one year after the foundation of Bobbio much of the credit for the establishment and prestige of the great monas­tery is certainly due to Attalas, who succeeded him as abbot in 615. The new superior bad many difficulties with which to contend, the chief of which was disloyalty amongst his brethren. Once the authority of St Columban was removed, they murmured against the severity of the rule and broke out into rebellion.

Like St Columban, Attalas contended strenuously against Arianism, which was rife in the districts about Milan. He was endowed with the power of healing, and Jonas the Scot, who wrote his life, was eye-witness of some of the cures which he effected. Fifty days before his death, St Attalas was divinely warned to get ready for a long journey. Doubtful whether this meant an expedition to foreign parts or the passage to eternity, the abbot put everything in order in the monastery and prepared himself for a voyage. Falling ill with fever he realized that the warning referred to death, and when the disease increased, he asked to be laid outside the door of his cell, beside which stood a cross which he always touched on leaving or returning to. it. As he wished to be alone for a while, all withdrew except St Blimond (afterwards abbot of Saint-Valery), who remained near at hand in case St Attalas might require assistance. The dying man besought mercy of God with many tears, and then he saw Heaven unveiled, and contemplated it for several hours. Afterwards he recalled his monks and bade them carry him back to his cell. The following day he rendered up his soul to his Creator, and was buried at Bobbio beside his master Columban. The body of St Bertulf was afterwards placed in the same tomb and the three holy men were venerated together.

See Mabillon, vol. ii, pp. 115—118. The short contemporary biography of St Attalas by his disciple Jonas is also printed by the Bollandists (March, vol. ii) and by Migne, PL., vol. lxxxvii, cc. 1055—1062. But the best edition/is by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iv, pp. 113—119.
Attalas of Bobbio, Abbot (RM) Born in Burgundy, France.
Saint Attalas was educated under Bishop Aregius of Gap, professed himself a monk at Lérins, but followed Saint Columbanus to Luxeuil in search of a stricter rule. When the Irish missionaries were expelled from France because Columbanus decried Austrasian King Theodoric for keeping concubines, Attalas went with the Irish saint to Bobbio, Italy. He helped Columbanus build the abbey in Bobbio on land granted them by the Lombard King Agilulf and succeeded him as abbot in 615.
It was during Attalas's abbacy that most of the monks stood out against the severity of the Columbanian Rule. Attalas was, like Columbanus, a vigorous opponent of Arianism and was known for the miracles he performed. He died at Bobbio and was buried there in the same tomb as his predecessor (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Montague). Saint Attalas is portrayed in art as an abbot near a mill with his staff in hand. He may also have a chair near him or be shown with Saint Columbanus (Roeder). He is venerated at Lérins and Luxeuil (Roeder).

626 St. Aidan Monastic & Church founder bishop miracle worker great charity kindness to animals
known for his kindness to animals. Known as Edan, Modoc, and Maedoc in some records, Aidan was born in Connaught, Ireland. Tradition states that his birth was heralded by signs and omens, and he showed evidence of piety as a small child. Educated at Leinster, Aidan went to St. David monastery in Wales. He remained there for several years, studying Scriptures, and his presence saved St. David from disaster. Saxon war parties attacked the monastery during Aidan's stay, and he supposedly repelled them miraculously. In time, Aidan returned to Ireland, founding a monastery in Ferns, in Wexford. He became the bishop of the region as well. His miracles brought many to the Church. Aidan is represented in religious art with a stag. He is reported to have made a beautiful stag invisible to save it from hounds.

Aidan of Ferns B (AC) (also known as Aedan, Aedh, Maedoc-Edan, Moedoc, Mogue) Born in Connaught, Ireland.
"Give as if every pasture in the mountains of Ireland belonged to you." --Saint Aidan 626.

The Irish Saint Aidan loved animals. His fellow Irishmen were fond of hunting. Aidan so protected them that his emblem in art is a stag. Legend has it that as he sat reading in Connaught, a desperate stag took refuge with him in the hope of escaping pursuing hounds.
Aidan by a miracle made the stag invisible, and the hounds ran off.
There were several Irish saints named Aidan but this one seems to have been the most important. As a youth he spent some time in Leinster but, 'desirous of becoming learned in holy Scripture,' Aidan went to Wales to study under Saint David (Dewi) at Menevia in Pembrokeshire for several years. His only difference from his fellow monks is that he brought his own beer from his native land.

The inspiration of Saint David caused him to return to Ireland with several other monks to built his own monastery at Ferns, County Wexford, on land given to him by Prince Brandrub (Brandubh) of Leinster together with the banquet halls and champions' quarters of the royal seat of Fearna. He also founded monasteries at Drumlane and Rossinver, which disputed Ferns' claim to his burial site. In addition to abbeys, Aidan is credited with founding about 30 churches in Ireland. One source claims that Aidan became the first bishop of Ferns (which is not that unlikely because many abbots were treated as bishops during the period), which displaced Sletty of Fiach as the bishop's seat.

Later in life he returned to Saint David's for a time, and it is said that Saint David died in the arms of Aidan. Welsh tradition maintains that Aidan succeeded David as abbot of Menevia, and on that basis Wales later claimed jurisdiction over Ferns because a Welsh abbot founded it. In fact, in Wales they regard Aidan as a native and provide him with a geneaology that includes Welsh nobility. There his great reputation for charity still survives, for he taught his monks to give their last bits of food to those in need.

The written vitae of Saint Aidan are composed mostly of miracles attributed to him. His is attributed with astonishing feats of austerity, such as fasting on barley bread and water for seven years, as well as reciting 500 Psalms daily. An odd tale is related in another. Some spurious beggars hid their clothes, donned rags, and then begged for alms. Knowing what they had done, Aidan gave their clothes to the poor and sent the impostors away with neither their clothing nor alms.
636 St. Isidore of Seville Doctor of the Church In a unique move, he made sure that all branches of knowledge including the arts and medicine were taught in the seminaries
 Híspali, in Hispánia, sancti Isidóri Epíscopi, Confessóris et Ecclésiæ Doctóris, sanctitáte et doctrína conspícui; qui zelo cathólicæ fidei et ecclesiásticæ observántia disciplinæ Hispánias illustrávit.
       At Seville in Spain, St. Isidore, bishop, confessor, and doctor of the Church.  He was conspicuous for sanctity and learning, and had brightened all Spain by his zeal for the Catholic faith and his observance of Church discipline.

The more we are afflicted in this world, the greater is our assurance in the next;
the more we sorrow in the present, the greater will be our joy in the future.
- St. Isidore of Seville

Isidore was literally born into a family of saints in sixth century Spain. Two of his brothers, Leander and Fulgentius, and one of his sisters, Florentina, are revered as saints in Spain.
It was also a family of leaders and strong minds with Leander and Fulgentius serving as bishops and Florentina as abbess.

This didn't make life easier for Isidore.

636 ST ISIDORE, BISHOP OF SEVILLE, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH
IT was said of St Isidore by his disciple and friend St Braulio that he appeared to have been specially raised up by God to stem the current of barbarism and ferocity which everywhere followed the arms of the Goths who had settled in Spain. His father, Severian, who came from Cartagena, was probably of Roman origin, but he was closely connected with the Visigothic kings. Two of St Isidore’s brothers, Leander, who was greatly his senior, and Fulgentius, became, like himself, saints as well as bishops, and of his sisters one was St Florentina, abbess of many convents. Isidore’s education was entrusted to his brother Leander, who seems to have been a somewhat severe master. Once, the story runs, the little lad ran away to escape from his brother’s castigations and from lessons which he found difficulty in remembering; and though he returned, with a new determination, after looking at the holes worn in rock by the continual dripping of water, even then, we are told, Leander found it desirable to shut him up in a cell to prevent him from straying: but that may only mean that he sent him to complete his education in a monastery.
<>The system, whatever it may have been, at any rate had good results, for Isidore became the most learned man of his age and, what is even more remarkable in the circumstances, an ardent educationist. Although it is almost certain that he never was a monk, he had a great love for the religious orders, and at their request drew up a code of rules for them which bore his name and was generally followed throughout Spain. In it he insists that no distinction must be made in monasteries between freemen and bondmen—all of them are equal in the sight of God. It seems probable that he assisted St Leander in ruling the diocese of Seville, and then succeeded to it after his brother’s death. During the thirty-seven years of his episcopate, which extended through the reigns of six kings, he completed the work begun by St Leander of converting the Visigoths from Arianism to Catholicism. He also continued his brother’s practice of settling the discipline of the Spanish church in councils, the arrangement and organization of which were largely due to Leander and Isidore. As models of representative government these synods have attracted the favourable notice of those interested in the origins of the modern parliamentary system.

St Isidore presided over the second Council of Seville in 619 and again over the fourth Council of Toledo in 633, where he was given precedence over the archbishop of Toledo on the ground of his exceptional merit as the greatest teacher in Spain. Many of the enactments of the council emanated from St Isidore himself, notably the decree that a seminary or cathedral school should be established in every diocese. The aged prelate’s educational scheme was extraordinarily wide and progressive far from desiring a mere counterpart of the conventional classical curriculum, his system embraced every known branch of knowledge. The liberal arts, medicine, and law were to be taught as well as Hebrew and Greek; and Aristotle was studied in the Spanish schools long before he was reintroduced by the Arabs.
 St Isidore seems to have foreseen that unity of religion and a comprehensive educational system would weld together the heterogeneous elements which threatened to disintegrate his country, and it was mainly thanks to him that Spain was a centre of culture when the rest of Europe seemed to be lapsing into barbarism.
 His crowning contribution to education was the compilation of a sort of encyclopedia, called the Etymologies or Origins, which gathered into compact form all the knowledge of his age. He has sometimes been called “The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages”, and until almost the middle of the sixteenth century this work remained a favourite text-book.
 St Isidore was a voluminous writer, his earlier works including a dictionary of synonyms, a treatise on astronomy and physical geography, a summary of the principal events of the world from the creation, a biography of illustrious men, a book of Old and New Testament worthies, his rules for monks, extensive theological and ecclesiastical works, and the history of the Goths, Vandals and Suevi. Of all these writings the most valuable to us at the present day is undoubtedly his history of the Goths, which is our only source of information for one period of Visigothic history. Another great service which St Isidore rendered to the church in Spain was the completion of the Mozarabic missal and breviary which St Leander had begun to adapt for the use of the Goths from the earlier Spanish liturgy.
 Although he lived to be almost eighty years of age, the holy bishop would remit none of his austere practices, even after his health had begun to break down. During the last six months of his life, he increased his charities to such an extent that from morning to night his house was crowded by all the poor of the countryside. When he felt that his end was drawing near, he invited two bishops to come to see him. In their company he went to the church where one of them covered him with sackcloth, while the other put ashes upon his head. Thus clad in the habit of penance, he raised his hands towards Heaven, praying earnestly and aloud for the forgiveness of his sins. Afterwards he received viaticum, commended himself to the prayers of those present, forgave his debtors, exhorted the people to charity, and distributed to the poor the rest of his possessions. He then returned to his house where he shortly afterwards peacefully departed this life.
St Isidore was declared a doctor of the Church in 1722, and he is named in the canon of the Mozarabic Mass still in use at Toledo. Some notes on St Isidore was one of the works on which the Venerable Bede was engaged just before his death.
No very satisfactory early materials exist for a biography of St Isidore. We have an account of his death by Redemptus and a panegyric by his disciple Braulio, but the life attributed to Luke, Bishop of Tuy, is a poor affair, and, being compiled many hundred years after the saint’s death, is quite unreliable. It is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. i. For a full bibliography and for further details of his life and work, see DTC., vol. viii, cc. 98.—111 and P. Séjourné, St Isidore de Seville (1929). A Miscellanea Isidoriana, in several languages, was published in Rome in 1936.

To the contrary, Leander may have been holy in many ways, but his treatment of his little brother shocked many even at the time. Leander, who was much older than Isidore, took over Isidore's education and his pedagogical theory involved force and punishment. We know from Isidore's later accomplishments that he was intelligent and hard-working so it is hard to understand why Leander thought abuse would work instead of patience.
One day, the young boy couldn't take any more. Frustrated by his inability to learn as fast as his brother wanted and hurt by his brother's treatment, Isidore ran away. But though he could escape his brother's hand and words, he couldn't escape his own feeling of failure and rejection. When he finally let the outside world catch his attention, he noticed water dripping on the rock near where he sat. The drops of water that fell repeatedly carried no force and seemed to have no effect on the solid stone. And yet he saw that over time, the water drops had worn holes in the rock.
Isidore realized that if he kept working at his studies, his seemingly small efforts would eventually pay off in great learning. He also may have hoped that his efforts would also wear down the rock of his brother's heart.  When he returned home, however, his brother in exasperation confined him to a cell (probably in a monastery) to complete his studies, not believing that he wouldn't run away again.  Either there must have been a loving side to this relationship or Isidore was remarkably forgiving even for a saint, because later he would work side by side with his brother and after Leander's death, Isidore would complete many of the projects he began including a missal and breviary.

In a time where it's fashionable to blame the past for our present and future problems, Isidore was able to separate the abusive way he was taught from the joy of learning.
He didn't run from learning after he left his brother but embraced education and made it his life's work. Isidore rose above his past to become known as the greatest teacher in Spain. His love of learning made him promote the establishment of a seminary in every diocese of Spain. He didn't limit his own studies and didn't want others to as well. In a unique move, he made sure that all branches of knowledge including the arts and medicine were taught in the seminaries.

His encyclopedia of knowledge, the Etymologies, was a popular textbook for nine centuries. He also wrote books on grammar, astronomy, geography, history, and biography as well as theology.

When the Arabs brought study of Aristotle back to Europe, this was nothing new to Spain because Isidore's open mind had already reintroduced the philosopher to students there.
As bishop of Seville for 37 years, succeeding Leander, he set a model for representative government in Europe.
Under his direction, and perhaps remembering the tyrannies of his brother, he rejected autocratic decision- making and organized synods to discuss government of the Spanish Church.
Still trying to wear away rock with water, he helped convert the barbarian Visigoths from Arianism to Christianity. He lived until almost 80. As he was dying his house was filled with crowds of poor he was giving aid and alms to. One of his last acts was to give all his possessions to the poor. When he died in 636, this Doctor of the Church had done more than his brother had ever hoped; the light of his learning caught fire in Spanish minds and held back the Dark Ages of barbarism from Spain. But even greater than his outstanding mind must have been the genius of his heart that allowed him to see beyond rejection and discouragement to joy and possibility.

Isidor von Sevilla  Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 4. April
Isidor wurde um 560 in Cartagena (Spanien) geboren. Seine Familie wurde von den byzantinischen Behörden aus Cartagena ausgewiesen und zog in das westgotische Sevilla. Isidors Eltern starben früh und Isidor wurde von seinem Bruder Leander erzogen. Leander wurde Erzbischof von Sevilla (Gedenktag 13.3.), seine Schwester Florentina wurde Nonne (Gedenktag 20.6.) und sein Bruder Fulgentius Bischof von Astigi. Auch Isidor wurde Priester und nach dem Tod seines Bruders Erzbischof von Sevilla. Er förderte besonders die Ausbildung, auch in den weltlichen Wissenschaften und gründete mehrere Schulen, die er mit reichhaltigen Bibliotheken ausstattete. Isidor schrieb zahlreiche wichtige Werke, weshalb er auch der letzte Kirchenvater des Abendlandes genannt wird. Isidor starb am 4.4.636 in Sevilla. Seine Reliquien befinden sich in der Isidorkirche in Leon. Isidor wurde 1598 heiliggesprochen und 1722 zum Kirchenlehrer ernannt.

Isidore of Seville B, Doctor (RM) Born at Cartagena, Spain, c. 560; died in Seville, Spain, in April 4, 636; canonized by Pope Clement VIII in 1598; and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Innocent XIII in 1722.
Saint Isidore was born into a noble Hispano-Roman family, which also produced SS. Leander, Fulgentius, and Florentina. Their father was Severian, a Roman from Cartagena, who was closely connected to the Visigothic kings. Though Isidore became one of the most erudite men of his age, as a boy he hated his studies, perhaps because his elder brother, Saint Leander, who taught him, was a strict task master.

It is probably that Isidore assisted Leander in governing his diocese, because, in 601, Saint Isidore succeeded his brother Leander to the archiepiscopal see of Seville. During his long episcopate, Isidore strengthened the Spanish church by organizing councils, establishing schools and religious houses, and continuing to turn the Visigoths from Arianism. He presided over the Council of Seville in 619 and that of Toledo in 633, where he was given precedence over the archbishop of Toledo on the ground of his exceptional merit as the greatest teacher in Spain. Aware of the great boon of education, Isidore insisted that a cathedral school should be established in every diocese in Spain-- centuries before Charlemagne issued a similar decree. He thought that students should be taught law and medicine, Hebrew and Greek, as well as the classics. These schools were similar to contemporary seminaries.
For centuries Isidore was known as 'the schoolmaster of the middle ages,' because he wrote a 20-volume Etymologies or Origins, an encyclopedia of everything that was known in 7th century Europe. His Chronica Majora summarized all the events in the world from creation to his own time drawn from other church historians but with the addition of Spanish history. Another book completed Saint Jerome's work of biographies of every great man and woman mentioned in the Bible plus those of many Spanish notables. His history of the Goths and Vandals is very valuable today. He also wrote new rules for monasteries, including one that bears his name and was generally followed throughout Spain, and books about astronomy, geography, and theology.

While not an original or critical thinker, Saint Isidore's works were highly influential in the middle ages as demonstrated by the very large number of manuscripts of his writings. Dante mentions him in the Paradiso (x, 130), in the company of the Venerable Bede and the Scottish Richard of Saint-Victor. In fact, at the time of his death, Bede was working on a translation of extracts from Isidore's book On the wonders of nature (De natura rerum).

Isidore longed to convert the Spanish Goths, who were Arians. He rewrote the liturgies and breviaries of the Church for their use (known as the Mozarabic Rite, which had been began by Leander), and never wearied of preaching and teaching those in error during his 37 years as archbishop. He also sought to convert the local Jews, but by highly questionable methods. This extraordinary man loved to give to the poor, and towards the end of his life scarcely anyone could get into his house in Seville, crowded as it was with beggars and the unfortunate from the surrounding countryside.
When he felt that death was near, he invited two bishops to visit. Together they went to the church where one of them covered him with sackcloth and the other put ashes upon his head. Thus clad in the habit of a penitent, he raised his hands to heaven and prayed earnestly for forgiveness. Then he received the viaticum, asked for the prayers of those present, forgave those who had sinned against him, exhorted all to charity, bequeathed his earthly possessions to the poor, and gave up his soul to God.
The archbishop of Seville was considered the most learned man of his century. Not only for the reason that the Church was able to proclaim him Doctor a short time after his death, or because he is the author of the Etymologies, but because knowledge permeated his whole being. The nexus of sanctity and learning gladdens this heart. Learning did not turn Saint Isidore away from sanctity. Indeed, it was sanctity that surely made such a learned man of him. The saint, possessed by God, is full of gifts of the Holy Spirit; and learning is one of them. This learning, the true science which contains all other sciences, favors new discoveries and multiplies it in every domain that is approached.
Saints are most exclusively the savants of God and their private works are no less important. And savants are a type of saint because any discovery discloses something of God. The philosopher as well as the painter, the seeker as well as the poet, is a savant.
Recall another Spanish saint, John of the Cross, whose works nearly brought a contemporary philosopher to the edges of sanctity. The bird in Braque's last painting is a figure of grace. This revelation leads me to believe that the patient hand that was the means of painting could not have been anything other than that of a man on the way to sanctity. One can paint birds without making them suggest such a presence as Braque's painting does. This presence is not that of the artist, he has absolutely effaced himself; it is the presence of that which finally transcends him, the presence of God.
The most learned persons have perceived the richness, the 'odor' of sanctity. Our age may see it flower; how could it have a taste for anything else after having plumbed the depths of nothingness and despair, if, of course, it still wants something to which it can aspire. Our generation needs something solid, substantial. It is dying of weariness and thirst.

A life-giving stream is still running, all we need to do is bend down to drink it in order to renew the ancient gestures and enter humbly, without hesitation or compromise, into that which does not go out of fashion and does not age: into this Church in which today we pray to Saint Isidore, who is the patron of savants. Saint Isidore, pray for us and for them (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Walsh).

In art, Saint Isidore is an old bishop with a prince at his feet. At times he may be depicted (1) with pen and book (often his Etymologia); (2) with a beehive or bees (rare, but symbolizes oratorical eloquence); or (3) with his brothers and sister, SS. Leander, Fulgentius, and Florentina (Roeder).

April 4, St. Isidore of Seville (560?-636)   The 76 years of Isidore's life were a time of conflict and growth for the Church in Spain.  Visigoths had invaded the land a century and a half earlier and shortly before Isidore's birth they set up their own capital. They were Arians—Christians who said Christ was not God.  Thus Spain was split in two: One people (Catholic Romans) struggled with another (Arian Goths).  Isidore reunited Spain, making it a center of culture and learning, a teacher and guide for other European countries whose culture was also threatened by barbarian invaders.
Born in Cartagena of a family that included three other saints, he was educated (severely) by his elder brother, whom he succeeded as bishop of Seville.
An amazingly learned man, he was sometimes called "The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages" because the encyclopedia he wrote was used as a textbook for nine centuries. He required seminaries to be built in every diocese, wrote a Rule for religious orders and founded schools that taught every branch of learning. Isidore wrote numerous books, including a dictionary, an encyclopedia, a history of Goths and a history of the world—beginning with creation! He completed the Mozarabic liturgy, which is still in use in Toledo, Spain.

For all these reasons Isidore (as well as several other saints) has been suggested as patron of the Internet.  He continued his austerities even as he approached 80. During the last six months of his life, he increased his charities so much that his house was crowded from morning till night with the poor of the countryside.
Comment:  Our country can well use Isidore's spirit of combining learning and holiness. Loving, understanding knowledge can heal and bring a broken people back together. We are not barbarians like the invaders of Isidore's Spain. But people who are swamped by riches and overwhelmed by scientific and technological advances can lose much of their understanding love for one another. So vast was Isidore's knowledge that some moderns have proposed him as the patron of Internet users.
633 St. Finbar founded monastery developed into city of Cork Many extravagant miracles.
He was the son of an artisan and a lady of the Irish royal court. Born in Connaught, Ireland, and baptized Lochan, he was educated at Kilmacahil, Kilkenny, where the monks named him Fionnbharr (white head) because of his light hair; he is also known as Bairre and Barr. He went on pilgrimage to Rome with some of the monks, visiting St. David in Wales on the way back. Supposedly, on another visit to Rome the Pope wanted to consecrate him a bishop but was deterred by a vision, notifying the pope that God had reserved that honor to Himself, and Finbar was consecrated from heaven and then returned to Ireland.  At any rate, he may have preached in Scotland, definitely did in southern Ireland, lived as a hermit on a small island at Lough Eiroe, and then, on the river Lee, founded a monastery that developed into the city of Cork, of which he was the first bishop. His monastery became famous in southern Ireland and attracted numerous disciples. Many extravagant miracles are attributed to him, and supposedly, the sun did not set for two weeks after he died at Cloyne about the year 633.
  Blesis, in Gállia, sancti Solémnii, Epíscopus Carnuténsis, miráculis clari.
    633 At Blois in France, St. Solemnius, bishop of Chartres, renowned for miracles.
637 St. Carthach the Younger Irish hermit and bishop; sanctity and miracles of Carthach, wrote a rule for the monastery in metrical verse, a document that is extant also called Carthage, Cuda, or Mochuda.
637 ST CARTHAGE, CARTHACH, OR MOCHUDA, Bishop
ST CARTHACH appears to have adopted the name of his master, St Carthach the Elder, who for his part called his disciple Mochuda, “my Cuda”—Cuda being presumably the younger man’s actual name.
   A native of Castlemaine in Kerry, he is said to have been employed as a swineherd for his father, when he came under the care of St Carthach the Elder, from whom he received his monastic training, and by whom he was afterwards ordained priest. About the year 590, he went to live as a hermit at a place called Kiltulagh, but the jealousy of two neighbouring bishops caused him to withdraw, and he spent a year at Bangor under the direction of St Comgall. He then visited other monasteries, and by the advice of St Colman Elo, with whom he made some stay, he decided to establish himself at Rahan in Offaly. There, about the year 595, he founded a monastery in which he gradually assembled (it is said) over eight hundred monks. For these disciples he drew up a rule which is still extant, and remains one of the great treasures of the Irish Church. It is in the form of a metrical poem, 420 to 580 lines long, and is divided into nine sections; but the form in which it has survived cannot possibly go back to the seventh century.
   The monks, who lived almost entirely on the vegetables they cultivated themselves, led a most austere life, not unlike that afterwards adopted by the Cistercians. Among them were a number of Britons, two of whom, thinking it was time they had a new abbot, attempted to drown their holy founder in the river Cloddagh.

Besides having charge of this monastery, St Carthach seems to have been bishop over the Fircall district; but after forty years of existence there the settlement at Rahan came to an end. The abbot-bishop and his monks were expelled by the chieftain Blathmac through considerations of local politics, not uninfluenced by neighbouring monasteries jealous of the prosperity and repute of Rahan.
At Easter 635 St Carthach led his community out to seek a new home. After some wandering, the great party arrived at the banks of the river Blackwater, where the prince of the Decies gave them a tract of land for a new monastery. St Carthach remained with them for two years, laying the foundation for the great abbey and school of Lismore, which was to become famous throughout Christendom. But he found the noise of the building operations so troublesome that he had to with­draw to a cave in the glen called Mochuda’s Inch. He died on May 14, 637.

St Carthach is regarded as the founder of the episcopal see of Lismore, which was united to that of Waterford in 1363. From the lustre shed upon it by the sanctity and miracles of Carthach, Lismore came to be regarded in after-ages as a holy city—a reputation well sustained by its great school and monastery. Thither flocked from all parts of Ireland and England crowds of eager young students, and many older men who desired to end their days within its hallowed walls. The saint’s feast is kept throughout Ireland.
Materials for the life of St Carthach are relatively speaking abundant. There are two Latin lives, both of which are printed in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii, while the longer has been re-edited by C. Plummer in his VSH., vol. i, pp. 170—199. There is also an Irish life (not a direct translation of either of these) which may be found in Plummer’s Bethada Náem nÉrenn, vol. i, pp. 295—299, with an English translation in vol. ii. The Rule mentioned above has been printed with an English translation in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 4th ser., vol. xxvii (1950), pp. 495—557, and elsewhere. See also Kenney, Sources for the Early History of Ireland, vol. i, pp. 473—475, and especially Plummer’s preface to VSH., pp. lxv—lxviii. There is a very useful book by a Cistercian, Fr Carthage, The Story of St Carthage (1937).
Originally a swineherd, Carthach was ordained and then became a hermit about 590 in Kiltulagh and then in Bangor, under St. Comgall.(Born in Ulster, Ireland, c. 517; died at Bangor, Ireland, in 603)
Carthach traveled to Offaly, where he founded a monastery, ruling more than eight hundred monks. He wrote a rule for the monastery in metrical verse, a document that is extant. He is believed to have served as the bishop of Fircall until he and his monks were expelled by some local lord. Carthach founded another monastery at Lismore on the banks of the Blackwater, and lived in a nearby cave. He died on May 14.

Carthage the Younger, Abbot (AC) (also known as Carthach, Mochuda) Born at Castlemaine, Kerry, Ireland; died near Lismore, Ireland, on May 14, c. 637; cultus confirmed in 1903. This swineherd was probably named Cuda. He became a disciple of Saint Carthach the Elder (c.540 )who ordained him and from whom he took his name. About 590, he became a hermit at Kiltlaugh and then at Bangor under Saint Comgall.

After visiting several monasteries, Carthage settled for a time at Rahan in Offaly, and then in 595 he founded a monastery there and ruled over 800 monks, two of whom were Britons who tried to drown him because they felt it was time for the monastery to have a new abbot. Carthage wrote a rule in metrical verse, a later version of which still exists. He also was probably a bishop at Fircall.

After 40 years, the foundation provoked the jealousy of monasteries on adjacent lands, and Carthage and his monks were driven away by Blathmac, a local ruler. He led his monks to the banks of the Blackwater and founded a new monastery at Lismore, where he survived long enough to give his monks a firm foundation to what was to become one of the most famous of all Irish monastic schools. One of its students was Saint Cathal, who was elected bishop of Taranto, Italy, during his return from the Holy Land.

Saint Carthage was exceptionally strict about the holding of property; at Rathan he would not allow the community to have horses or oxen to help in the tillage. Nevertheless, the Lismore Crozier is a treasured item of Irish art--now residing in the National Museum at Dublin. The saint retired to a cave near Lismore where he spent his last years as a hermit (Attwater, Benedictines, Carthage, Delaney, Montague).

  639 St. Romanus of Rouen Bishop of Rouen miracles.
Rotómagi sancti Románi Epíscopi.    At Rouen, Bishop St. Romanus.

Not much that is certainly authentic is known of this bishop. His father, alleged to be a convert of St Remigius, was born of a Frankish family, and Romanus was placed young in the court of Clotaire II. Upon the death of Hidulf, c. 630, he was chosen bishop of Rouen. The remains of idolatry exercised his zeal; he converted the unbelievers and is said to have destroyed the remains of a temple of Venus. Amongst many miracles it is related that, the Seine having overflowed the city, the saint knelt to pray on the side of the water, with a crucifix in his hand, whereupon the floods retired gently within the banks of the river.

The name of St Romanus is famous in France on account of a privilege, which the metropolitical chapter of Rouen exercised until the Revolution, of releasing in his honour a prisoner under sentence of death every year on the feast of the Ascension of our Lord. The chapter sent notice to the parlement of Rouen two months before to stop the execution of criminals till that time; and on that day chose the prisoner who, being first condemned to death, was then set at liberty to assist in carrying the shrine of St Romanus in the great procession. He heard two exhortations and then was told that in honour of St Romanus he was pardoned. The legend is that this privilege took its rise from St Romanus killing a great serpent, called Gargouille, with the assistance of a murderer whom he took out of his dungeon. No traces of this story are found in any life of this saint or in any writings before the end of the fourteenth century; the deliverance of the condemned criminal was perhaps intended for a symbol of the redemption of mankind through Christ. The custom was called Privilège de la Fierte or of the Châsse de St Romain. St Romanus died about the year 640.
There are several short lives of St Romanus, but not of a date that would lend them any historical value. The texts for the most part are printed or summarized in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. x, but a useful note upon the lives and their authors is available in Vacandard, Vie de St Ouen (1902), pp. 356—358. Other references to St Romain occur passim in the text. See also Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. ii, p. 207 and L. Pillon in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. xxx (1903), pp. 441—454.
He owed his elevation to the bishopric to the patronage of the Frankish king Clotaire II in whose court Romanus had grown up. As bishop, he worked to extirpate all lingering paganism, and per­sonally tore down a temple to Venus. He also cared for condemned prisoners. Romanus was famous for performing miracles.
640 St. Eligius priest generous in spirit Patron of metalworkers a considerable number of miracles
Noviómi, in Bélgio, sancti Elígii Epíscopi, cujus vitam admirándam múltiplex signórum númerus comméndat.
    At Noyon in Belgium, St. Eligius, bishop, whose life is rendered illustrious by a considerable number of miracles.

660 ST ELIGLUS, OR ELOI, BISHOP OF NOYON

THE name of Eligius, and those of his father, Eucherius, and his mother, Terrigia, show him to have been of Roman Gaulish extraction. He was born at Chaptelat, near Limoges, about the year 588, the son of an artisan. His father, seeing in due course that the boy had a remarkable talent for engraving and smithing, placed him with a goldsmith named Abbo, who was master of the mint at Limoges. When the time of his apprenticeship was finished Eligius went into France, that  is, across the Loire, and became known to Bobbo, treasurer to Clotaire II at Paris. This king gave Eligius an order to make him a chair of state, adorned with gold and precious stones. Out of the materials furnished he made two such thrones instead of one. Clotaire admired the skill and honesty of the workman, and finding that he was a man of parts and intelligence took him into his household and made him master of the mint. His name is still to be seen on several gold coins struck at Paris and Marseilles in the reigns of Dagobert I and his son, Clovis II.

    His vita states that among other works the reliquaries of St Martin at Tours, of St Dionysius at Saint-Denis, of St Quintinus, SS Crispin and Crispinian at Soissons, St Lucian, St Germanus of Paris, St Genevieve, and others, were made by Eligius. His skill as a workman, his official position and the friendship of the king soon made him a person of consideration. He did not let the corruption of a court infect his soul or impair his virtue, but he conformed to his state and was magnificently dressed, sometimes wearing nothing but silk (a rare material in France in those days), his clothes embroidered with gold and adorned with precious stones. But he also gave large sums in alms. When a stranger asked for his house he was told, "Go to such a street, and it's where you see a crowd of poor people".
    A curious incident occurred when Clotaire tendered him the oath of allegiance. Eligius having a scruple lest this would be to swear without sufficient necessity, or fearing what he might be called upon to do or approve, excused himself with an obstinacy which for some time displeased the king. Still he persisted in his resolution and repeated his excuses as often as the king pressed him. Clotaire, at length perceiving that the motive of his reluctance was really a tenderness of conscience, assured him that his conscientious spirit was a more secure pledge of fidelity than the oaths of others. St Eligius ransomed a number of slaves, some of whom remained in his service and were his faithful assistants throughout his life. One of them, a Saxon named Tillo, is numbered among the saints and commemorated on January 7; he was first among the seven disciples of St Eligius who followed him from the workshop to the évêché. At the court he sought the company of such men as Sulpicius, Bertharius, Desiderius and his brother, Rusticus, and in particular Audoenus, all of who became not only bishops but saints as well. Of these Audoenus (St Ouen) must have been a boy when St Eligius first knew him; to him was long attributed the authorship of the Vita Eligii, which is now commonly regarded as the work of a later monk of Noyon. By it St Eligius is described as having been at this time, "tall, with a fresh complexion, his hair and beard curling without artifice; his hands were shapely and long-fingered, his face full of angelic kindness and its expression grave and unaffected".
   King Clotaire's regard for and trust in Eligius was shared by his son, Dagobert I, though, like many monarchs, he valued and took the advice of a holy man more willingly in public than in private affairs. He gave to the saint the estate of Solignac in his native Limousin for the foundation of a monastery, which in 632 was peopled with monks who followed the Rules of St Columban and St Benedict combined. These, under the eye of their founder, became noted for their good work in various arts.* {*The original charter of Solignac is preserved in the archives of Limoges. It is signed by, among others, Eligius, Adeodatus of Macon, Lupus of Limoges, Audoenus and Vincent the least of all the deacons of Christ".}

    Dagobert also gave to St Eligius a house at Paris, which he converted into a nunnery and placed under the direction of St Aurea. Eligius asked for an additional piece of land to complete the buildings, and it was granted him. But he found that he had somewhat exceeded the measure of the land which had been specified. Upon which he immediately went to the king and asked his pardon. Dagobert, surprised at his careful honesty, said to his courtiers, "Some of my officers do not scruple to rob me of whole estates ; whereas Eligius is afraid of having one inch of ground which is not his". So trustworthy a man was valuable as an ambassador, and Dagobert is said to have sent him to treat with Judicael, the prince of the turbulent Bretons.
    St Eligius was chosen to be bishop of Noyon and Tournai, at the same time as his friend St Audoenus was made bishop of Rouen. They were consecrated together in the year 641. Eligius proved as good a bishop as he had been layman, and his pastoral solicitude, zeal and watchfulness were most admirable. Soon he turned his thoughts to the conversion of the infidels, who were a large majority in the Tournai part of his diocese, and a great part of Flanders was chiefly indebted to St Eligius for receiving the gospel. He preached in the territories of Antwerp, Ghent and Courtrai, and the inhabitants, who were as untamed as wild beasts, reviled him as a foreigner, "a Roman"; yet he persevered. He took care of their sick, protected them from oppression, and employed every means that charity could suggest to overcome their obstinacy. The barbarians were gradually softened, and some were converted; every year at Easter he baptized those whom he had brought to the knowledge of God during the twelve preceding months. The author of the Life tells us that St Eligius preached to the people every Sunday and feast-day and instructed them with indefatigable zeal; an abstract is given of several of his discourses united in one, by which it appears that he often borrowed whole passages from the sermons of St Caesarius of Arles. It would perhaps be more correct to say that the writer of the Life has borrowed from St Caesarius, though there are similar borrowings in the sixteen homilies attributed to St Eligius. One of these may possibly be authentic, a very interesting discourse in which the preacher warns his hearers against superstitions and pagan practices observances of January 1 and also of June 24 are mentioned, work must not be abstained from out of respect for Thursday (dies Jovis) or May month, charms, biblical and other, fortune-telling, watching the omens, and many other superstitions (some of them still used in Great Britain today) are forbidden. In their place he urges prayer, the partaking of the body and blood of Christ, anointing in time of sickness, and the sign of the cross, with the recitation of the creed and the Lord's Prayer.
   At Noyon St Eligius established a house of nuns, to govern which he fetched his protégée, St Godeberta, from Paris, and one of monks, outside the city on the road to Soissons. He was very active in promoting the cultus of local saints, and it was during his episcopate that several of the reliquaries mentioned above were made, either by himself or under his direction. He took a leading part in the ecclesiastical life of his day, and for a short time immediately before his death was a valued counsellor of the queen-regent, St Bathildis. His biographer gives several illustrations of the regard which she had for him, and they had in common not only political views but also a deep solicitude for slaves (she had been carried off from England and sold when a child). The effect of this is seen at the Council of Chalon (c. 647), which forbade their sale out of the kingdom and decreed that they must be free to rest on Sundays and holidays. The only certainly authentic writing of St Eligius is a charming letter to his friend St Desiderius of Cahors.
"Remember your Eligius", he says in the course of it, " 0 my Desiderius, who art dear to me as mine own self, when your soul pours itself out in prayer to the Lord...I greet you with all my heart and the most sincere affection. Our faithful companion, Dado, greets you also.” Dado is St Audoenus. When he had governed his flock nineteen years Eligius was visited with a foresight of his death, and foretold it to his clergy. Falling ill of a fever, he on the sixth day called together his household and took leave of them. They all burst into tears and he was not able to refrain from weeping with them; he commended them to God, and died a few hours later, on December 1, 66o. At the news of his sickness St Bathildis set out from Paris, but arrived only the morning after his death. She had preparations made for carrying the body to her monastery at Chelles. Others were anxious that it should be taken to Paris, but the people of Noyon so strenuously opposed it that the remains of their pastor were left with them. They were afterwards translated into the cathedral, where a great part of them remain. St Eligius was for long one of the most popular saints of France, and his feast was universal in north-western Europe during the later middle ages. In addition to being the patron saint of all kinds of smiths and metalworkers, he is invoked by farriers and on behalf of horses: this on account of legendary tales about horses that have become attached to his name. He practised his art all his life, and a number of existing “pieces” are attributed to him.
Of all the Merovingian saints, the history of St Eloi possibly brings us most nearly into touch with Christian practice at that period. It is therefore not surprising that his life has given rise to a relatively abundant literature. Everything centers round the Vita S. Eligii, an unusually lengthy document, of which, as stated above, St Ouen is the reputed author. The best text is that edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. iv, pp. 635—742 it is also to be found in Migne, PL., vol. lxxxvii, cc. 477—658. It seems certain that St Ouen did write some account of his friend, but the life now preserved to us was compiled at Noyon a half-century or more later and though it probably incorporates a good deal of what St Ouen wrote, it has been recast and supplemented in many places. An excellent account of St Eligius is given by E. Vacandard in DTC., vol. iv, cc. 2340—2350, and there are several articles of the same author bearing on the subject, notably in the Revue des questions historiques for 1898 and 1899, where the question of the authenticity of the homilies attributed to the saint is very fully discussed. See also Van der Essen, Etude critique sur les saints merovingiens (1904), pp. 324—336 H. Timerding, Die christ. Frühzeit Deutschlands, vol. i (1929), pp. 125—149; S. R. Maitland, The Dark Ages (1889), pp. 101—140; and P. Parsy, Saint Eloi (1904) in the series “Les Saints”. In the long article by H. Leclercq in DAC., vol. iv, cc. 2674—2687, a detailed account is given of the different works of art attributed to the saint’s craftsmanship. On “missionary sermons” and the homiletic influence of St Caesarius, see W. Levison, England and the Continent...(1946), appendix x, pp. 302-314, “Venus, a Man”.
Eligius (also known as Eloi) was born around 590 near Limoges in France. He became an extremely skillful metalsmith and was appointed master of the mint under King Clotaire II of Paris. Eligius developed a close friendship with the King and his reputation as an outstanding metalsmith became widespread. With his fame came fortune.
Eligius was very generous to the poor, ransomed many slaves, and built several churches and a monastery at Solignac. He also erected a major convent in Paris with property he received from Clotaire's son, King Dagobert I. In 629, Eligius was appointed Dagobert's first counselor. Later, on a mission for Dagobert, he persuaded the Breton King Judicael, to accept the authority of Dagobert.
Eligius later fulfilled his desire to serve God as a priest, after being ordained in 640. Then he was made bishop of Noyon and Tournai. His apostolic zeal led him to preach in Flanders, especially Antwerp, Ghent, and Courtai where he made many converts. Eligius died on December 1, around 660, at Noyon. He is the patron of metalworkers.
The use of one's talents and wealth for the welfare of humanity is a very true reflection of the image of God. In the case of St. Eligius, he was so well liked that he attracted many to Christ. His example should encourage us to be generous in spirit and kind and happy in demeanor.

640 St. Bertulf Abbot famous for miracles.
Successor of St. Attala. Bertulf, or Bertuiph, was a Frank who was professed as a monk in the abbey of Luxeuil, France, by St. Eustace. He became the abbot of Bobbio, Italy, following St. Attala's death in 627. Bertulf obtained exemption for this monastery from episcopal jurisdiction from Pope Honorius I; the first such case in history. This stemmed from his dispute with a local bishop, Probus. Bertuif was famous for miracles
.
643 St. Vulphy Hermit and miracle worker also called Vulflagius
Originally from Rue, near Abbeville, France. Vulphy was married but received his wife's permission to become a priest. He gave up an active life after a pilgrimage to become a hermit.
643 St. Vulphy Hermit and miracle worker also called Vulflagius
643 ST VULFLAGIUS, OR WULPHY
IN his early youth, St Vulflagius married and settled down in his native town of Rue, a little place near Abbeville. There he led so exemplary a life with his wife and three daughters that his fellow citizens upon the death of their priest elected him to be their pastor. Accordingly, with the consent of his wife, Vulflagius received ordination from St Richarius (Riquier). After a time, however, acting against his conscience, he resumed relations with his wife, to whom he was greatly attached. [* It must be remembered that at this date celibacy in the priesthood, though recommended, was not of general obligation.]
This he soon regretted and as part of his expiation undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. When he returned he still regarded himself as unworthy to act as a shepherd to others. Accordingly he withdrew to a lonely place where he lived as a hermit. He was greatly tempted to abandon his solitude, but stood firm and was rewarded by the gifts of wisdom and of miracles. Men resorted to him from near and far to profit by his instructions and to be healed of their diseases. He died probably about 643. His relics were translated in the ninth century to Montreuil-sur-Mer and are still venerated there.
There is very little serious evidence for the story of St Wulphy (whose name is written in many different ways), but there can be no question that a vigorous cult was paid to him at Montreuil. The old legend will be found recounted in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. ii. See Braquehay, Le Culte de S. Wulphy (1896), and Corblet, Hagiographie d'Amiens (1874), vol. iv, pp. 96-106. Wulphy seems to be identical with, or to have been confused with, St Walfroy. See Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xvii (1898), p. 307, and xxi, p. 43.
Originally from Rue, near Abbeville, France. Vulphy was married but received his wife's permission to become a priest. He gave up an active life after a pilgrimage to become a hermit.  Vulflagius of Abbeville, Hermit (AC) (also known as Vulphy, Wulfalgius, Wulphy) Died c. 643. Though married, Vulflagius was chosen to be priest of a parish at Rue, near Abbeville. He later made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and ended his life as a hermit. His memory is greatly venerated at Montreuil-sur-Mer (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
649-655 Pope St. Martin I defender of the faith; buried in the church of Our Lady, called Blachernæ, near Cherson
Sancti Martíni Primi, Papæ et Mártyris, cujus dies natális sextodécimo Kaléndas Octóbris recensétur.
    The Feast of St. Martin I, pope and martyr, whose birthday is mentioned on the 16th day of September.

Many miracles are related wrought by St Martin in life and after death;
Pope St. Martin I of noble birth, great student, commanding intelligence, profound learning, great charity to the poor Saint Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome native of the Tuscany convened Lateran Council at Rome condemn Monothelite heresy;
Last martyred Pope.
655 Martin I, Pope died in the Crimea great intellect and charity the last pope to die a martyr M (RM)
Born in Todi in Umbria, Italy; died in the Crimea, September 16, 655; feast day was previously November 12 (November 10 in York); the Eastern Church celebrates his feast on September 20.

655 Pope St. Martin I defender of the faith; buried in the church of Our Lady, called Blachernæ, near Cherson, many miracles are related wrought by St Martin in life and after death
Martyr, born at Todi on the Tiber, son of Fabricius; elected Pope at Rome, 21 July, 649, to succeed Theodore I; died at Cherson in the present peninsulas of Krym, 16 Sept., 655, after a reign of 6 years, one month and twenty six days, having ordained eleven priests, five deacons and thirty-three bishops. 5 July is the date commonly given for his election, but 21 July (given by Lobkowitz, "Statistik der Papste" Freiburg, 1905) seems to correspond better with the date of his death and reign (Duchesne "Lib. Pont.", I, 336); his feast is on 12 November.The Greeks honor him on 13 April and 15 September, the Muscovites on 14 April. In the hymns of the Office the Greeks style him infallibilis fidei magister because he was the successor of St. Peter in the See of Rome (Nilles, "Calendarium Manuale", Innsbruck, 1896, I, 336).

Martin, one of the noblest figures in a long line of Roman pontiffs (Hodgkin, "Italy", VI, 268) was, according to his biographer Theodore (Mai, "Spicil. Rom.", IV 293) of noble birth, a great student, of commanding intelligence, of profound learning, and of great charity to the poor. Piazza, II 45 7 states that he belonged to the order of St. Basil. He governed the Church at a time when the leaders of the Monothelite heresy, supported by the emperor, were making most strenuous efforts to spread their tenets in the East and West. Pope Theodore had sent Martin as apocrysiary to Constantinople to make arrangements for canonical deposition of the heretical patriarch, Pyrrhus. After his election, Martin had himself consecrated without waiting for the imperial confirmation, and soon called a council in the Lateran at which one hundred and five bishops met. Five sessions were held on 5, 8, 17, 119 and 31 Oct., 649 (Hefele, "Conciliengeschichte", III, 190). The "Ecthesis" of Heraclius and the "Typus" of Constans II were rejected; nominal excommunication was passed against Sergius, Pyrrus, and Paul of Constantinople, Cyrus of Alexandria and Theodore of Phran in Arabia; twenty canons were enacted defining the Catholic doctrine on the two wills of Christ. The decrees signed by the pope and the assembled bishops were sent to the other bishops and the faithful of the world together with an encyclical of Martin. The Acts with a Greek translation were also sent to the Emperor Constans II.


The pope appointed John, Bishop of Philadelphia, as his vicar in the East with necessary instructions and full authority . Bishop Paul of Thessalonica refused to recall his heretical letters previously sent to Rome and added others,—he was, therefore, formally excommunicated and deposed. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Paul, had urged the emperor to use drastic means to force the pope and the Western Bishops at least to subscribe to the "Typus". The emperor sent Olympius as exarch to Italy, where he arrived while the council was still in session. Olympius tried to create a faction among the fathers to favor the views of the emperor, but without success. Then upon pretense of reconciliation he wished to receive Holy Communion from the hands of the pontiff with the intention of slaying him. But Divine Providence protected the pope, and Olympius left Rome to fight against the Saracens in Sicily and died there. Constans II thwarted in his plans, sent as exarch Theodore Calliopas with orders to bring Martin to Constantinople. Calliopas arrived in Rome, 15 June, 653, and, entering the Lateran Basilica two days later, informed the clergy that Martin had been deposed as an unworthy intruder, that he must be brought to Constantinople and that another was to be chosen in his place. The pope, wishing to avoid the shedding of human blood, forbade resistance and declared himself willing to be brought before the emperor. The saintly prisoner, accompanied by only a few attendants, and suffering much from bodily ailments and privations, arrived at Constantinople on 17 Sept., 653 or 654, having landed nowhere except the island of Naxos. The letters of the pope seem to indicate he was kept at Naxos for a year. Jaffe, n. 1608, and Ewald, n 2079, consider the annum fecimus an interpolation and would allow only a very short stop at Naxos, which granted the pope an opportunity to enjoy a bath. Duchesne, "Lib. Pont.", I, 336 can see no reason for abandoning the original account; Hefele,"Conciliengeschichte" III, 212, held the same view (see "Zeitschr. für Kath. Theol.", 1892, XVI, 375).

From Abydos messengers were sent to the imperial city to announce the arrival of the prisoner who was branded as a heretic and rebel, an enemy of God and of the State. Upon his arrival in Constantinople Martin was left for several hours on deck exposed to the jests and insults of a curious crowd of spectators. Towards evening he was brought to a prison called Prandearia and kept in close and cruel confinement for ninety-three days, suffering from hunger, cold and thirst. All this did not break his energy and on 19 December he was brought before the assembled senate where the imperial treasurer acted as judge. Various political charges were made, but the true and only charge was the pope's refusal to sign the "Typus". He was then carried to an open space in full view of the emperor and of a large crowd of people. These were asked to pass anathema upon the pope to which but few responded. Numberless indignities were heaped upon him, he was stripped of nearly all his clothing, loaded with chains, dragged through the streets of the city and then again thrown into the prison of Diomede, where he remained for eighty five days. Perhaps influenced by the death of Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, Constans did not sentence the pope to death, but to exile. He was put on board a ship, 26 March, 654 (655) and arrived at his destination on 15 May. Cherson was at the time suffering from a great famine. The venerable pontiff here passed the remaining days of his life. He was buried in the church of Our Lady, called Blachernæ, near Cherson, and many miracles are related as wrought by St Martin in life and after death. The greater part of his relics are said to have been transferred to Rome, where they repose in the church of San Martino ai Monti. Of his letters seventeen are extant in P.L., LXXXVII, 119.

656 ST MARTIN I, POPE AND MARTYR
ST MARTIN was a native of Todi in Umbria, renowned among the clergy of Rome for his learning and holiness. Whilst he was deacon he was sent by Pope Theodore I as apocrisiarius or nuncio to Constantinople, and upon the death of Theodore Martin himself was elected pope in July 649.  In the October following he held a council at the Lateran against Monothelism (the denial that Christ had a human will), in which the orthodox doctrine of the two wills was affirmed and the leaders of the heresy anathematized.  Two imperial edicts, the
Ekthesis of Heraclius and the Typos of Constans, were likewise censured: the first because it contained an exposition of faith entirely favourable to the monothelites, the second because it was a formulary by which silence was imposed on both parties and it was forbidden to mention either one or two wills and energies in Christ. 
  
The Lord, said the Lateran fathers, has commanded us to shun evil and do good, but not to reject the good with the evil. We are not to deny at the  same time both error and truth”.-which sounds like a reference to Pope Honorius I, though he is not mentioned. These decrees were published throughout the West, Martin invoking the energy of the bishops of Africa, Spain and England for the putting down of Monothelism, and in the East he appointed a vicar to enforce the synodal decisions in the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem.
  The emperor, Constans II, was infuriated. He had already sent an exarch to Rome who had failed in his mission of sowing dissension among the bishops at the synod, and he now sent another, Theodore Kalliopes, with orders to bring the pope to Constantinople.   Martin, who was sick, took refuge in the Lateran basilica, where he was lying on a couch in front of the altar when Kalliopes and his soldiers broke in; he refused to make any resistance, and was taken secretly out of Rome to be put on board ship at Porto. The voyage was long and Martin suffered greatly from dysentery. He arrived in Constantinople in the autumn of 653 and was there left in jail for three months; he wrote in a letter : 
I have not been allowed to wash, even in cold water, for forty-seven days.  I am wasted away and frozen through, and have had no respite from dysentery...The food that is given me makes me feel sick.  I hope that God, who knows all things, will bring my persecutors to repentance after He will have taken me out of this world .
    The pope was eventually arraigned before the senate on a charge of treason and condemned unheard (His real offence, as St Martin pointed out to his accusers, was his refusal to sign the theological
Typos); then, after shameful public indignities and ill-treatment, which aroused indignation of the people, he was returned to prison for another three months. His life, however, was spared (at the intercession of the dying patriarch Paul) and in April 654 he was taken into exile at Kherson in the Crimea. From there St Martin wrote an account of the famine, his own difficulty in getting food, the barbarism of the inhabitants, and the neglect with which he was treated.
    
I am surprised at the indifference of all those who, though they once knew me, have now so entirely forgotten me that they do not even seem to know whether I am in the world. I wonder still more at those who belong to the church of St Peter for the little concern they show for one of their body.  If  that church has no money, it wants not corn, oil or other provisions out of which they might send us a small supply.  What fear has seized all these men that it hinders them from fulfilling the commands of God in relieving the distressed? Have I appeared such an enemy to the whole Church, or to them in particular ?
    However, I pray God, by the intercession of St Peter, to preserve them steadfast and immovable in the orthodox faith.
    As to this wretched body, God will have care of it. He is at hand; why should I trouble myself? I hope in His mercy that He
    will not prolong my course.

   St Martin was not disappointed in his hope, for he died perhaps about two years later, the last of the popes so far to be venerated as a martyr. His feast is celebrated in the West on November 12 and in the East on various dates, the Byzantine liturgy acclaiming him as a glorious defender of the true faith and an  ornament of the divine see of Peter. A contemporary wrote of Pope St Martin I as being a man of great intelligence, learning and charity.
For sources we have in this case the letters of the pope, though these have not always come to us in a very satisfactory form. There is also a contemporary account in the Liber Pontificalis-see Duchesne's edition, vol. i, pp. 336 seq. with his admirable notes-and the Commemoratio, a narrative written by an ecclesiastic who had accompanied St Martin In his exile. This, with the letters, maybe found in Migne, PL., vols, lxxxvii and cxxix. The Life of St Eligius by St Ouen, and the Greek biography of St Maximus the Confessor, supply some further details. From these materials Mgr Mann compiled a tolerably complete history of the pontificate Lives of the Popes, vol. i. pt 1, pp. 385-405. But since he wrote in 1902 other valuable contributions have been made to the subject, notably the publication by Fr P. Peeters in the Anaecta Bollandiana vol. 1i (1933), pp. 225-262, of a previously unknown Greek life of St Martin. See also R. Devreesse, La Vie de St Maxime le Confesseur, in Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xlvi (1928), pp. 5-49, and in vol. liii (1935), pp. 49 seq. W.Peita in the Historischesjahrbuch, vol. xxxviii (1917), pp. 213-236 and 428-458 Duchesne, L'Église au VIeme siècle (1925), pp. 445-453; E. Amann in DTC,, vol. x, cc. 182-194, etc.
Martin became a deacon in Rome. He displayed a great intellect and charity, was sent by Pope Theodore I as nuncio (apocrisiarius) to Constantinople, and was elected pope in 649 to succeed Theodore I. At once, he convened the council at the Lateran that condemned Monothelitism (the denial that Christ had a human will), the Typos--the edict of the reigning Emperor Constans II, which favored it, and Heraclius's Ekethesis. Although he was supported by the bishops of Africa, England, and Spain, the imperial wrath fell upon the pontiff who was arrested by Constans and taken to Constantinople in 653.
He had taken refuge in the Lateran, but the officers broke in to capture him. His own letters give an account of how his health broke down under the long voyage and a three-month imprisonment on the island of Naxos en route. He writes: "For forty-seven days, I have not been given water to wash in. I am frozen through and wasting away with dysentery. The food I get makes me vomit. But God sees all things and I trust in Him."
He was so ill when he arrived in Constantinople that he had to be carried to jail on a stretcher. He was tried for treason, although he was clearly being incarcerated for not accepting the Typos. He was condemned to death during his trial without being able to speak in his own defense. He was insulted publicly, flogged, and imprisoned.

The intercession of the dying Patriarch Paul of Constantinople saved his life, but he was exiled to Kherson in the Crimea.

From exile he wrote of the bad treatment he received and berated the Romans for forgetting him while he had prayed steadily for their faith to remain in tact. It is likely that he died of starvation. He was the last pope to die a martyr. He is portrayed in art vested as a pope, holding money (alms); or with geese around him (possibly a confusion with Saint Martin of Tours); or seen through prison bars (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, White).
645 St. Monon Scottish pilgrim martyred Ardennes France hermit tomb site of many miracles
in that area. Monon was murdered at Nassogne, in Luxembourg, by a group of unrepentant sinners.

Mono (Monon) of Scotland M (AC). Mono was an Irish monk or Scottish pilgrim who crossed over to the continent and lived as a hermit in the Ardennes, where he is highly venerated by the people. He was murdered in his cell at Nassogne (Nassau), in Belgian Luxemburg by some robber whom he had reproved. His tomb in the village at a place now encompassed by Saint Hubert's abbey was the site of many miracles. There is a church near Saint Andrew's in Scotland dedicated to him called Monon's Kirk. In 1920, Cardinal Mercier of Belgium told the persecuted bishops of Ireland, "For long have the eyes of Belgian Catholics turned towards Ireland full of admiration and gratitude. Is it not the first pioneers of Christian civilization that Belgium herself owes in large degree the grace, greatest of all graces, of belonging to Christ? The names of Irish missionaries who in the Merovingian epoch evangelized the north of France, Saint Columban, Saint Foillan, Saints Monon and Eton, Saint Lievan [Lebwin], the bishops Saint Wiro and Saint Plechelm and their deacon Saint Odger, Saint Fredegand finally, and many other have remained popular among us. More than 30 Belgian churches are dedicated to saints from your island" (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Encyclopedia, Fitzpatrick, Husenbeth, Kenney).
647 St. Goeric Bishop and successor of St. Arnulf at Metz  went blind and was cured miraculously
France. He is sometimes called Abbo or Goericus. He was supposedly a courtier at the court of King Dagobert, who went blind and was cured miraculously. He then became a priest and bishop and founded a convent.
649 St. John Climacus Abbot of Sinai, so called “Climacus” from the title of his famous book, The Climax, or The Ladder of Perfection; miracles
also known as John Scholasticus. He was a Syrian or a Palestinian who started his eremitical life at sixteen, living for many years as a hermit on Sinai. He then went to Thale. Revered also as a scriptural scholar, he authored The Ladder of Perfection to provide a comprehensive treatise on the ideal of Christian perfection and the virtues and vices of the monastic life. Composed in thirty chapters, it was intended to correspond to the age of Christ at the time of his baptism by John the Baptist. John was elected abbot of the monks of Mt. Sinai at the age of seventy He died there on March 30.

John Climacus, Abbot (RM)(also known as John Scholasticus) Born in Syria or Palestine; died on Mount Sinai on March 30, c. 650 (many older scholars place his death as early as 600).

"God does not insist or desire that we should mourn in agony of heart; rather, it is His wish that out of love for Him we should rejoice with laughter in our soul. Take away sin and tears become superfluous; where there is no bruise, no ointment is required. Before the fall Adam shed no tears, and in the same way there will be no more tears after the resurrection from the dead when sin has been destroyed. For pain, sorrow, and lamentation will then have fled away."

A learned Syrian abbot and spiritual director, Saint John authored The Ladder to Paradise or Ladder of Perfection, from which he acquires the appellation, "Climacus," which is Greek for "ladder." John's early life is hidden in obscurity. Farmer says that he was married and became a monk at the death of his wife.
He joined the monastery of Mount Sinai when he was only 16. His novitiate was spent in a hermitage near the monastery under the discipline of Martyrius. By silence, he learned to curb the insolent need to discuss everything, an ordinary vice in learned men, but usually a mark of pride and self-sufficiency. Instead he adopted humility and obedience, and never contradicted or disputed with anyone. After four years of training with the ancient anchorite, he was professed.

From the age of 35, after the death of Martyrius, John spent many years as a hermit at Thole at the foot of Mount Sinai, where he studied the Scriptures and the lives of the Fathers of the Church. He practiced the normal austerities of the desert monks: frequent fasting, nights of prayer, and abstinence from meat and fish. He is another of the saints who exhibited the gift of tears. Because he became a popular spiritual advisor, who was especially known for his ability to comfort the distraught, he often sought solitude in a nearby cave. When some who were jealous of his gifts accused him of spending too much time in vain discourse, he kept complete silence for a year until the accusers begged him to resume giving counsel. He went to the monastery only to celebrate the Eucharist with his brother monks on Saturdays and Sundays.

When he was about 70, he was elected abbot of the monks of Mount Sinai over his objections. Soon after his election, there was a severe draught in Palestine. The people beseeched him to storms the gates of heaven in intercession for rain. He earnestly begged God on their behalf and it immediately began to rain. John's contemporary, Pope Saint Gregory the Great wrote to the holy abbot asking his prayers, and sent him beds, other furniture, and money for his hospital near Mount Sinai for pilgrims. He governed the monastery until four years before his death in his hermitage on Mount Sinai.

At the request of the abbot of Raithu, John wrote his masterpiece, which uses the vehicle of a spiritual ladder with thirty rungs--one for each year of Christ's earthly life until His baptism--to discuss monastic spirituality and the pursuit of apartheia (passive disinterestedness), which was regarded as a perfect state. This work was enormously popular during the Middle Ages and was published in English in 1959 under the title The ladder of divine ascent. The book was the source of the Byzantine iconographic theme of the ladder to heaven, which is seen at Mount Athos and elsewhere.

In describing a monastery of 330 monks, which he had visited near Alexandria, Egypt, John mentions one of the principal citizens of that city, named Isidore, who, petitioning to be admitted into the house, said to the abbot: "As iron is in the hands of the smith, so am I in your hands." The abbot ordered him to remain outside the gate and to prostrate himself at the feet of every passerby, by, begging their prayers for his soul struck with a leprosy. Thus, he passed seven years in profound humility and patience. He told Saint John that during the first year he always considered himself as a slave condemned for his sins, and sustained violent conflicts. The second year he passed in tranquillity and confidence; and the third with relish and pleasure in his humiliations. So great was his virtue, that the abbot determined to present him to the bishop in order to be promoted to the priesthood, but the humility of the holy penitent prevented it--he begged respite and died within 10 days.

John also admired the cook of this community, who seemed always recollected, and generally bathed in tears amidst his continual occupation. When asked how he nourished so perfect a spirit of compunction in the midst of his busy work, the cook replied that, in serving the monks, he considered that he was serving not men but God in his servants. Additionally, the fire that always burned before his eyes reminded him of that fire which will burn souls for all eternity.
Here are some of the spiritual maxims from Saint John's book:
"Rule you own heart as a king rules over his kingdom, but be subject above all to the supreme ruler, God Himself."
"A person is at the beginning of a prayer when he succeeds in removing distractions which at the beginning beset him. He is at the middle of the prayer when the mind concentrates only on what he is meditating and contemplating. He reaches the end when, with the Lord, the prayer enraptures him."
"Without weapons there is no way of killing wild animals. Without humility there is no way of conquering anger."
"It is not without risk that one climbs up a defective ladder. And so with honor, praise, and precedence which are all dangerous for humility."
"In an instant many are pardoned for their mistakes, but no one, in a moment's time, acquires calmness of the soul which requires much time, much trouble and a great deal of help from God."
"The one who is dead can no longer walk. The one who despairs can no longer be saved."
"A small fire is enough to burn down an entire forest; a little hole may destroy an entire building."
"Just as clouds hide the sun so bad thoughts cast shadows over the soul."
"Birds which are too heavy cannot fly very high. The same is true of those who mistreat their bodies."
"A dried-up puddle is of no use for the pigs and a dried up body is of no use to the devils."
"A tool which is in good condition may sharpen one which is not in good condition, and a fervent brother may save the person who is only lukewarm about his faith."
"The one who says he has faith and continues to go against it resembles a face without eyes" (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
Inevitably, Saint John is portrayed in art as an abbot carrying a ladder or having a vision of monks climbing one (Roeder).

Saint John of the Ladder is honored by Holy Church as a great ascetic and author of the renowned spiritual book called THE LADDER, from which he is also called "of the Ladder" (Climacus).

There is almost no information about St John's origins. One tradition suggests that he was born in Constantinople around the year 570, and was the son of Sts Xenophon and Maria (January 26).
John went to Sinai when he was sixteen, submitting to Abba Martyrius as his instructor and guide. After four years, St John was tonsured as a monk. Abba Strategios, who was present at St John's tonsure, predicted that he would become a great luminary in the Church of Christ.  For nineteen years St John progressed in monasticism in obedience to his spiritual Father. After the death of Abba Martyrius, St John embarked on a solitary life, settling in a wild place called Thola, where he spent forty years laboring in silence, fasting, prayer, and tears of penitence.

It is not by chance that in THE LADDER St John speaks about tears of repentance: "Just as fire burns and destroys the wood, so pure tears wash away every impurity, both external and internal." His holy prayer was strong and efficacious, as may be seen from an example from the life of the God-pleasing saint.
St John had a disciple named Moses.
Once, the saint ordered his disciple to bring dung to fertilize the vegetable garden. When he had fulfilled the obedience, Moses lay down to rest under the shade of a large rock, because of the scorching heat of summer. St John was in his cell in a light sleep. Suddenly, a man of remarkable appearance appeared to him and awakened the holy ascetic, reproaching him, "John, why do you sleep so heedlessly, when Moses is in danger?"  St John immediately woke up and began to pray for his disciple. When Moses returned in the evening, St John asked whether any sort of misfortune had befallen him.  The monk replied, "A large rock would have fallen on me as I slept beneath it at noon, but I left that place because I thought I heard you calling me." St John did not tell his disciple of his vision, but gave thanks to God.

St John ate the food which is permitted by the monastic rule, but only in moderation. He did not sleep very much, only enough to keep up his strength, so that he would not ruin his mind by unceasing vigil. "I do not fast excessively," he said of himself, "nor do I give myself over to intense all-night vigil, nor lay upon the ground, but I restrain myself..., and the Lord soon saved me."
The following example of St John's humility is noteworthy.
Gifted with discernment, and attaining wisdom through spiritual experience, he lovingly received all who came to him and guided them to salvation. One day some envious monks reproached him for being too talkative, and so St John kept silence for a whole year. The monks realized their error, and they went to the ascetic and begged him not to deprive them of the spiritual profit of his conversation.

Concealing his ascetic deeds from others, St John sometimes withdrew into a cave, but reports of his holiness spread far beyond the vicinity. Visitors from all walks of life came to him, desiring to hear his words of edification and salvation. After forty years of solitary asceticism, he was chosen as igumen of Sinai when he was seventy-five. St John governed the holy monastery for four years. Toward the end of his life, the Lord granted him the gifts of clairvoyance and wonderworking.

At the request of St John, igumen of the Raithu monastery (Commemorated on Cheesefare Saturday), he wrote the incomparable LADDER, a book of instruction for monks who wished to attain spiritual perfection.  Knowing of the wisdom and spiritual gifts of St John of Sinai, the igumen of Raithu requested him to write down whatever was necessary for the salvation of those in the monastic life. Such a book would be "a ladder fixed on the earth" (Gen. 28:12), leading people to the gates of Heaven.

St John felt that such a task was beyond his ability, yet out of obedience he fulfilled the request. The saint called his work THE LADDER, for the book is "a fixed ladder leading from earthly things to the Holy of Holies...." The thirty steps of spiritual perfection correspond to the thirty years of the Lord's age. When we have completed these thirty steps, we will find ourselves with the righteous and will not stumble. THE LADDER begins with renunciation of the world, and ends with God, Who is love (1 John 4:8).

Although the book was written for monks, any Christian living in the world will find it an unerring guide for ascending to God, and a support in the spiritual life. Sts Theodore the Studite (November 11 and January 26), Sergius of Radonezh (September 25 and July 5), Joseph of Volokolamsk (September 9 and October 18), and others relied on THE LADDER as an important guide to salvation. 
The twenty-second step of THE LADDER deals with various forms of vainglory. St John writes: "When I fast, I am vainglorious; and when I permit myself food in order to conceal my fasting from others I am again vainglorious about my prudence. When I dress in fine clothing, I am vanquished by vanity, and if I put on drab clothing, again I am overcome by vanity. If I speak, vainglory defeats me. If I wish to keep silence, I am again given over to it. Wherever this thorn comes up, it stands with its points upright.
A vain person seems to honor God, but strives to please men rather than God.
People of lofty spirit bear insult placidly and willingly, but only the holy and righteous may hear praise without harm.
When you hear that your neighbor or friend has slandered you behind your back, or even to your face, praise and love him.
It is not the one who reproaches himself who shows humility, for who will not put up with himself? It is the one who is slandered by another, yet continues to show love for him.
Whoever is proud of his natural gifts, intelligence, learning, skill in reading, clear enunciation, and other similar qualities, which are acquired without much labor, will never obtain supernatural gifts. Whoever is not faithful in small things (Luke 16:10), is also unfaithful in large things, and is vainglorous.

It often happens that God humbles the vainglorious, sending a sudden misfortune. If prayer does not destroy a proud thought, we bring to mind the departure of the soul from this life. And if this does not help, let us fear the shame which follows dishonor. "For whoever humbles himself shall be exalted, and whoever exalts himself shall be humbled" (Luke 14:11). When those who praise us, or rather seduce us, start to praise us, let us recall our many sins, then we shall find that we are not worthy of what they say or do to honor us."

In THE LADDER St John describes the ascent toward spiritual perfection, which is essential for anyone who wishes to save his soul. It is a written account of his thoughts, based on the collected wisdom of many wise ascetics, and on his own spiritual experience. The book is a great help on the path to truth and virtue.
The steps of THE LADDER proceed gradually from strength to strength on the path of perfection. The summit is not reached suddenly, but gradually, as the Savior says: "The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force" (Mt.11:12).
St John is also commemorated on the fourth Sunday of Great Lent.
669  St. Jodoc (Josse) Confessor honoree by miracles both before and after his death.
Those Britons who, flying from the swords of the English-Saxons, settled in Armorica in Gaul, upon the ruins of the Roman empire in those parts formed themselves into a little state on that coast till they were obliged to receive the laws of the French. Judicaël, commonly called Giguel. eldest son of Juthaël, became king of Brittany about the year 630. This prince soon after renounced this perishable crown to labor more securely for the acquisition of an incorruptible one, and retired into the monastery of St. Meen, in the diocese of St. Malo, where he lived in so great sanctity as to be honored after his death with the title of the Blessed Judicaël. When he resigned the crown be offered it to his younger brother Jodoc, called by the French Josse But Jodoc had the same inclinations with his elder brother However, to consult the divine will, he shut himself up for eight days in the monastery of Lammamiont, in which he had been brought up, and prayed night and day with many tears that God would direct him to undertake what was most agreeable to him, and most conducive to his divine honor and his own sanctification. He put an end to his deliberation by receiving the clerical tonsure at the hands of the bishop of Avranches, and joined a company of eleven pilgrims who purposed to go to Rome. They went first to Paris, and thence into Picardy in 636, where Jodoc was prevailed upon by Haymo, duke of Ponchieu, to fix upon an estate of his, which was at a sufficient distance from his own country, and secure from the honors which there waited for him.

   Being promoted to priest's orders, he served the duke's chapel seven years, then retired with one only disciple named Vurmare, into a woody solitude at Ray, where he found a small spot of ground proper for tillage, watered by the river Authie. The duke built them a chapel and cells, in which the hermits lived, gaining by the tillage of this land their slender subsistence and an overplus for the poor. Their exercises were austere penance, prayer, and contemplation. After eight years thus spent here they removed to Runiac, now called Villers-saint-Josse, near the mouth of the river Canche, where they built a chapel of wood in honor of St. Martin. In this place they continued the same manner of life for thirteen years; when Jodoc having been bit by an adder, they again changed their quarters, the good duke who continued their constant protector, having built them a hermitage, with two chapels of wood, in honor of SS. Peter and Paul.
  The servants of God kept constant enclosure, except that out of devotion to the princes of the apostles, and to the holy martyrs, they made a penitential pilgrimage to Rome in 665. At their return to Runinc they found their hermitage enlarged and adorned, and a beautiful church of stone, which the good duke had erected in memory of St. Martin, and on which he settled a competent estate. The duke met them in person on the road, and conducted them to their habitation.
   Jodoc finished here his penitential course in 669, and was honoree by miracles both before and after his death. Winoc and Arnoc, two nephews of the saint, inherited his hermitage, which became a famous monastery, and was one of those which Charlemagne first bestowed on Alcuir in 792. It stands near the sea, in the diocese of Amiens, follows the order of St. Bennet, and the abbot enjoys the privileges of count. It is called St. Josse-sur-mer. St. Jodoc is mentioned on this day in the Roman Martyrology. See the life of this saint written in the eighth century; Cave thinks about the year 710. It is published with learned notes by Mabillon, Act Ben. t. 2, p. 566 Gall. Chr. Nov. t. 10, pp. 1289, 1290.
650 Saint Dymphna Many miracles have taken place at her shrine on the spot where she was buried in Gheel, Belgium Patron of those suffering for nervous and mental affictions
650? SS. DYMPNA AND GEREBERNUS, MARTYRS
IN the town of Gheel, twenty-five miles from Antwerp, great honour is paid to St Dympna, whose body, and that of St Gerebernus, buried in two ancient marble sarcophagi, were there discovered, or rediscovered, in the thirteenth century.
         Widespread interest was taken in them because the elevation of the relics of St Dympna was followed, it is alleged, by the restoration to normal health of a number of epileptics, lunatics and persons under malign influence who visited her shrine.
         Ever since then she has been regarded as the patroness of the insane, and the inhabitants of Gheel have been distinguished by the kindly provision they have made for those so afflicted. As early as the close of the thirteenth century an infirmary was built for their accommodation and at the present time the town possesses a first-class state sanatorium for the care and supervision of mental defectives, the greater number of whom lead contented and useful lives as boarders in the homes of farmers or other local residents, whom they assist by their labour and whose family life they share. The body of St Dympna is preserved in a silver reliquary in the church which bears her name. Only the head of St Gerebernus now rests there, his other remains having been removed to Sonsbeck in the diocese of Münster.
           The true history of these saints is probably lost, but popular belief, reaching back to the date of the finding of their relics, has attached to them a story which, with local variations, is to be found in the folk-lore of many European countries.
         Briefly summarized, it runs as follows. Dympna was the daughter of a pagan Irish, British or Armorican king and of a Christian princess who died when their child was very young, though not before she had been instructed in the Christian faith and baptized. As she grew up, her extraordinary resemblance to her dead mother whom he had idolized awakened an unlawful passion in her father. Consequently, by the advice of St Gerebernus, her confessor, she fled from home to avoid further danger. Accompanied by the priest and attended by the court jester and his wife, she embarked in a ship which conveyed them to Antwerp. From thence they made their way south-east, through a tract of wild forest country, until they reached a little oratory dedicated to St Martin and built on a site now covered by the town of Gheel. Here they settled, intending to live as solitaries. In the meantime, however, Dympna’s father had started in pursuit and in due time arrived at Antwerp, from whence he sent out spies who discovered the refuge of the fugitives. The clue by which they were traced was the use of strange coins similar to those which the spies themselves proffered in payment. Coming upon them unawares, the king first tried by cajolery to persuade his daughter to return with him. She refused, and as she was supported by St Gerebemus, the tyrant ordered his attendants to kill them both. The men promptly despatched the priest, but hesitated to attack the princess. Thereupon the unnatural father struck off his daughter’s head with his own sword. The bodies of the saints, which were left exposed on the ground, were afterwards buried by angelic or human hands in the place where they had perished.
          This story is treated by Delehaye in his Légendes Hagiographiques (Eng. trans., pp. g,
          105, 107) as an almost typical example of the infiltrations of folklore into hagiography. The
          text of the legend is in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. iii. See further Van der Essen,
          Étude critique sui les Vies des Saints méroving., pp. 313—320 Künstle, Ikonographie, vol. ii,
          pp. 190—192 and Janssens, Gheel in Beeld en Schrift (1903). An interesting feature in the
          case is the fact that lunatics who go to Gheel to be healed are made to pass through an archway
          immediately underneath the shrine of the saint. One finds many early examples, even at
          Jerusalem itself, in which the squeezing through some narrow aperture is believed to be a
          condition for obtaining special favour. Dympna is not to -be identified with the Irish St
          Damhnait (Damnat of Tedavnet), but her feast is observed throughout Ireland.

Dymphna was fourteen when her mother died. Damon is said to have been afflicted with a mental illness, brought on by his grief. He sent messengers throughout his town and other lands to find some woman of noble birth, resembling his wife, who would be willing to marry him. When none could be found, his evil advisers told him to marry his own daughter. Dymphna fled from her castle together with Saint Gerebran, her confessor and two other friends. Damon found them in Belgium. He gave orders that the priest's head be cut off. Then Damon tried to persuade his daughter to return to Ireland with him. When she refused, he drew his sword and struck off her head.
She was then only fifteen years of age. Dymphna received the crown of martyrdom in defense of her purity about the year 620. She is the patron of those suffering from nervous and mental afflictions. Many miracles have taken place at her shrine, built on the spot where she was buried in Gheel, Belgium.

Prayer: Hear us, O God, Our Saviour, as we honor Saint Dymphna, patron of those afflicted with mental and emotional illness. Help us to be inspired by her example and comforted by her merciful help. Amen.

Dympna of Gheel VM (RM) (also known as Dymphna, Dympne) Died c. 650. Variations of the legend of Saint Dympna are to be found in the folklore of many European countries. In fact, it is a classic example of a folktale adapted as the life-story of a saint. In the early 13th century, the bones of an unknown man and woman were discovered at Gheel near Antwerp, Belgium. The name Dympna was found on a brick with the two ancient, marble coffins and may have been taken as a variation on the name Saint Damhnait (Damhnade).

    Dympna is said to have been the daughter of a pagan Irish (from Monaghan?), British, or Amorican king and a Christian princess who died when she was very young, but who had baptized her daughter. As Dympna grew into a young woman, her uncanny resemblance to her dead mother aroused an incestuous passion in her father.

On the advice of her confessor, Saint Gerebernus, Dympna fled from home. Accompanied by Gerebernus and attended by the court jester and his wife, she took a ship to Antwerp. She then travelled through wild forest country until she reached a small oratory dedicated to Saint Martin on the site of the present-day town of Gheel (25 miles from Antwerp). The group settled there to live as hermits and during the several months before they were found, Dympna gained a reputation for holiness because of her devotion to the poor and suffering.
Dympna's father had pursued her to Antwerp, and he sent spies who found them by tracing their use of foreign coins. The king tried to persuade her to return, but when she refused, the king ordered that she and Gerebernus be killed. The king's men killed the priest and their companions but hesitated to kill Dympna. The king himself struck off her head with his sword. The bodies were left on the ground. They were buried by angelic or human hands on the site where they had perished.

The whole story gripped the imagination of the entire countryside especially because, according to tradition, lunatics were cured at her grave. Great interest in her cultus was renewed and spread when the translation of the relics of Dympna was followed by the cures of a number of epileptics, lunatics, and persons under evil influences who had visited the shrine. Thus, in the 13th century, a bishop of Cambrai, faced with the growing veneration of Dympna and increasing interest in mental illness, arranged for her biography to be written by a man named Pierre who collected the oral tradition. Ever since, she has been regarded as the patroness of the mentally ill.

Under her patronage, the inhabitants of Gheel have been known for the care they have given to those with mental illnesses. By the close of the 13th century, an infirmary was built. Today the town possesses a first-class sanatorium, one of the largest and most efficient colonies for the mentally ill in the world. It was one of the first to initiate a program through which patients live normal and useful lives in the homes of farmers or local residents, whom they assist in their labor and whose family life they share. The strength of Dympna's cultus is evidenced by this compassionate work of the people of Gheel for the mentally ill at a time when they were universally neglected or treated with hostility.

The body of Dympna is preserved in a silver reliquary in the church bearing her name. Only the head of Gerebernus rests there, the remains have been removed to Sonsbeck in the diocese of Muenster. Three churches in Belgium have altars dedicated to her (Attwater, Benedictines, D'Arcy, Delaney, Farmer, Kenney, Montague, O'Hanlon, White).

From Stories of the Saints by Kate Bolin
    In art, Saint Dympna is a crowned maiden with a sword and the devil on a chain. Sometimes she may be shown (1) kneeling before her confessor, Saint Gerebernus, (2) kneeling at Mass while her father murders the priest Gerebernus (Roeder), (3) praying in a cloud surrounded by a group of lunatics bound with golden chains, or (4) being beheaded by the king (White). The more common image now seen of Saint Dympna (shown here and in a larger size), clearly illustrates that she is a virgin (lily) and Irish (note the shamrock on the book). For an interesting image that has larger cultural implications, see La Cadena--El Hogar.

Dympna is invoked against insanity, mental illness of all types, asylums for the mentally ill, nurses of the mentally ill, sleepwalking, epilepsy, and demoniac possession (Roeder). A lovely set of nine prayers to Saint Dymphna are worth studying.
Her feast day is kept in Ireland and Gheel. In the United States, her cultus centers on her shrine in Massillon, Ohio, which is next to one of the most modern hospitals in the world. The Franciscan Mission Associates in America conduct a world-wide correspondence in her name to fund their activities for the poor and suffering, especially in Central America (Montague).
648 St. Fursey Irish monastic founder brother of Sts. Foillan and Ulan  intense ecstasies praised by St. Bede.
648 St. Fursey Irish monastic founder brother of Sts. Foillan and Ulan intense ecstasies -- praised by St. Bede.
 In castro cui nomen Macériæ, ad Altéjam flúvium, in Gállia, sancti Furséi Confessóris; cujus corpus ad monastérium Perónæ póstmodum translátum est.
       At Froheins, in the diocese of Amiens in France, St. Fursey, confessor, whose body was afterwards transferred to the monastery of Peronne.

648 ST FURSEY, ABBOT
THERE are few of the early Irish saints whose lives are better known to us than that of St Fursey (Fursa). He seems to have been born near Lough Corrib—possibly upon the island of Inisquin itself. Though conflicting accounts are given of his parentage, he was certainly of noble birth, but, as we are told, he was more noble by virtue than by blood. His gifts of person and mind are dilated on by his biographer, but in order to equip himself better in sacred learning he left his home and his own people, and eventually erected a monastery at Rathmat (? Killursa), which was thronged by recruits from all parts of Ireland.

After a time, returning home to his family, he experienced the first of some wonderful ecstasies, which being detailed by his biographer and recounted after­wards by such writers as Bede and Aelfric, became famous throughout the Christian world. During these trances his body seems to have remained motionless in a cataleptic seizure, and his brethren, believing him to be dead, made preparations for his burial. The principal subject of these visions was the effort of the powers of evil to claim the soul of the Christian as it quits the body on its passage to another life: A fierce struggle is depicted, in which the angels engage in conflict with the demons, refuting their arguments, and rescuing the soul from the flames with which it is threatened. In one particular vision we are told that St Fursey was lifted up on high and was ordered by the angels who conducted him to look back upon the world. Whereupon, casting his eyes downward, he saw as it were a dark and gloomy valley far beneath. Around this were four great fires kindled in the air, separate one from the other, and the angel told him that these four fires would consume all the world, and burn the souls of those men who through their misdeeds had made void the confession and promise of their baptism. The first fire, it was explained, will burn the souls of those who are forsworn and untruthful; the second, those who give themselves up to greed; the third, those who stir up strife and discord; the fourth, those who think it no crime to deceive and defraud the helpless. Then the fires seemed all to coalesce and to threaten him with destruc­tion, so that he cried out in alarm. But the angel answered, “That which you did not kindle shall not burn within you, for though this appears to be a terrible and great fire, yet it tries every man according to the merits of his works”.

Bede, after giving a long summary of these visions, writes “An elderly brother of our monastery is still living who is wont to narrate how a very truthful and religious man told him that he had seen Fursey himself in the province of the East Angles, and heard these visions from his own lips; adding, that though it was most sharp winter weather and a hard frost, and this man was sitting in a thin garment when he related it, yet he sweated as if it had been the greatest heat of summer, either through the panic of fear which the memory called up, or through excess of spiritual consolation”.

This is certainly a very remarkable tribute to the vividness of St Fursey’s descriptions. One other curious detail in connection with the visions is the statement that the saint, having jostled against a condemned soul, carried the brand-mark of that contact upon his shoulder and cheek until the day of his death.

After twelve years of preaching in Ireland, St Fursey came with his brothers, St Foillan and St Ultan, to England, and settled for a while in East Anglia, where he was cordially welcomed by King Sigebert, who gave him land to build a monas­tery, probably at Burgh Castle, near Yarmouth. This migration must have taken place after the year 630; but somewhere between 640 and 644 the Irish monk determined to cross over to Gaul. Establishing himself in Neustria, he was honourably received by Clovis II. He built a monastery at Lagny, but died, when on a journey, shortly afterwards, probably in 648. His remains were transferred to Péronne. The feast of St Fursey is celebrated throughout Ireland and also in the diocese of Northampton.

See the Acta Sanctorum for January 16; Plummer’s edition of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii, pp. 169—174; M. Stokes, Three Months in the Forests of France, pp. 134—177 Moran, Irish Saints in Great Britain, p. 315 Healy, Ireland’s Ancient Schools, p. 266; Gougaud, Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity, and Christianity in Celtic Lands Grützmacher in Zeitschrift Kirchengesch., vol xix (1898), pp. 190—196.
Fursey was born on the island of Inisguia en Lough Carri, Ire­land, as a noble. He founded Rathmat Abbey, now probably Killursa. In 630 Fursey and his friends went to East Anglia, England, where he founded a monastery near Ugremouth on land donated by King Sigebert. In his later years, Fursey went to France to build a monastery at Lagny, near Paris, France.
He was buried in Picardy. St. Bede and others wrote about Fursey’s intense ecstasies.
St. Fursey - Catholic Encyclopedia on CD-ROM $29.95

An Abbot of Lagny, near Paris, d. 16 Jan., about 650. He was the son of Fintan, son of Finloga, prince of South Muster, and Gelgesia, daughter of Aedhfinn, prince of Hy-Briuin in Connaught. He was born probably amongst the Hy-Bruin, and was baptized by St. Brendan the Traveller, his father's uncle, who then ruled a monastery in the Island of Oirbsen, now called Inisquin in Lough Corrib. He was educated by St. Brendan's monks, and when of proper age he embraced the religious life in the same monastery under the Abbot St. Meldan, his "soul-friend" (anam-chura).

His great sanctity was early discerned, and there is a legend that here, through his prayers, twin children of a chieftain related to King Brendinus were raised from the dead.

After some years he founded a monastery at Rathmat on the shore of Lough Corrib which Colgan identifies as Killursa, in the deanery of Annadown. Aspirants came in numbers to place themselves under his rule, but he wished to secure also some of his relatives for the new monastery. For this purpose he set out with some monks for Munster, but on coming near his father's home he was seized with an apparently mortal illness. He fell into a trance from the ninth hour of the day to cock-crow, and while in this state was favoured with the first of the ecstatic visions which have rendered him famous in medieval literature.

In this vision were revealed to him the state of man in sin, the beauty of virtue. He heard the angelic choirs singing "the saints shall go from virtue to virtue, the God of Gods will appear in Sion". An injunction was laid on him by the two angels who restored him to the body to become a more zealous labour in the harvest of the Lord. Again on the third night following, the ecstasy was renewed. He was rapt aloft by three angels who contended six times with demons for his soul. He saw the fires of hell, the strife of demons, and then heard the angel hosts sing in four choirs "Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts". Among the spirits of the just made perfect he recognized Sts. Meldan and Beoan.

They entertained him with much spiritual instruction concerning the duties of ecclesiastics and monks, the dreadful effects of pride and disobedience, the heinousness of spiritual and internal sins. They also predicted famine and pestilence. As he returned through the fire the demon hurled a tortured sinner at him, burning him, and the angel of the Lord said to him: "because thou didst receive the mantle of this man when dying in his sin the fire consuming him hath scarred thy body also." The body of Fursey bore the mark ever after.

His brothers Foillan and Ultan then joined the community at Rathmat, but Fursey seems to have renounced the administration of that monastery and to have devoted himself to preaching throughout the land, frequetly exorcising evil spirits. Exactly twelve months afterwards he was favoured with a third vision. The angel remained with him a whole day, instructed him for his preaching, and prescribed for him twelve years of apostolic labour.

This he faithfully fulfilled in Ireland, and then stripping himself of all earthly goods he retired for a time to a small island in the ocean. Then he went with his brothers and other monks, bringing with him the relics of Sts. Meldan and Beoan, through Britain (Wales) to East Anglia where he was honourably received by King Sigebert in 633. The latter gave him a tract of land at Cnobheresburg on which he built a monastery within the enclosure of a Roman fort--Burghcastle in Suffolk--surrounded by woods and overlooking the sea. Here he laboured for some years converting the Picts and Saxons. He also received King Sigebert into the religious state. Three miracles are recorded of his life in this monastery.
Again he retired for one year to live with Ultan the life of an anchorite.

When war threatened East Anglia, Fursey, disbanding his monks until quieter times should come, sailed with his brothers and six other monks to Gaul. He arrived in Normandy in 648. Passing through Ponthieu, in a village near Mézerolles he found grief and lamendation on all sides, for the only son of Duke Hayson, the Lord of that country, lay dead. At the prayer of Fursey the boy was restored.

Pursuing his journey to Neustria he cured many infirmities on the way, by miracles he converted a robber and his family, who attacked the monks in the wood near Corbie, and also the inhospitable worldling Ermelinda, who had refused to harbour the weary travellers.

His fame preceded him to Péronne, where he was joyfully received by Erkinoald, and through his prayers obtained the reprive of six criminals. He was offered any site in the king's dominions for a monastery. He selected Latiniacum (Lagny), close to Chelles and about six miles from Paris, a spot beside the Marne, covered with shady woods and abounding in fruitful vineyards. Here he built his monastery and three chapels, one dedicated to the Saviour, one to St. Peter, and the third, an unpretending structure, afterwards dedicated to St. Fursey himself. Many of his countrymen were attracted to his rule at Lagny, among them Emilian, Eloquius, Mombulus, Adalgisius, Etto, Bertuin, Fredegand, Lactan, Malguil.

Having certain premonitions of his end, he set out to visit his brothers Foillan and Ultan who had by this time recruited the scattered monks of Cnobheresburg and re-established that monastery but his last illness struck him down in the very village in which his prayer had restored Duke Haymon's son to life. The village was thence-forward called Forsheim, that is, the house of Fursey.

In accordance with his own wish his remains were brought to Péronne, many prodigies attending their transmission,and deposited in the portico of the church of St. Peter to which he had consigned the relics of Sts. Meldan and Beoan. His body lay unburied there for thirty days pending the dedication of the church, visited by pilgrims from all parts, incorrupt and exhaling a sweet odour. It was then deposited near the altar. Four years later, on 9 February, the remains were translated with great solemnity by St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon, and Cuthbert, Bishop of Cambrai, to a chapel specially built for them to the east of the altar. In the "Annals of the Four Masters", Péronne is called Cathair Fursa.

In art St. Fursey is represented with two oxen at his feet in commemoration of the prodigy by which, according to legend, Erkinoald's claim to his body was made good; or he is represented striking water from the soil at Lagny with the point of his staff; or beholding a vision of angels, or gazing at the flames of purgatory and hell. It is disputed whether he was a bishop; he may have been a chorepiscopus. A litany attributed to him is among the manuscripts in Trinity College Dublin.
An Irish prophecy is attributed to him by Harris.
651 St  Oswin, Martyr;  a monastery at Gilling; incursion prayers over the body of St Oswin, whose shrine was made illustrious by miracles, was translated to Tynemouth
When his father Osric, King of Deira, was killed by the British Cadwallon in 633, the young Oswin was taken into Wessex for safety, where he was baptized and educated; but after the death of the great prince St Oswald in 642 he returned to the north and took possession of his kingdom. He governed it with virtue, prudence and prosperity.
  The Venerable Bede relates how, having rebuked St Aidan for giving away to a beggar a horse the king had given him, Oswin accepted Aidan's correction and apologized. Whereupon Aidan said to his attendants in the Irish language, which the king and his courtiers did not understand, that he was assured so humble and so good a king would not live long, because the nation was not worthy of such a ruler. His prediction was soon verified.
 Oswin incurred the jealousy of his cousin Oswy, King of Bernicia, the two felt out, and Oswy declared a state of open warfare. Oswin, seeing his own weakness and being desirous to spare human blood (or, as St Bede says, from simple prudence, but doubtless for both considerations), dismissed his forces at a place called Wilfaresdon, near Catterick.  Attended with one faithful he retired to Gilling, near Richmond in Yorkshire, which estate he had lately bestowed on one Hunwald.
  Oswy ordered his reeve, Ethelwin, to find Oswin and kill him. Hunwald treacherously betrayed his guest; Oswin and his thegn were slain together, and buried at Gilling.
  Queen Eanfleda, daughter to St Edwin and wife of Oswy, founded a monastery at Gilling, in which prayers might be ever offered up for both kings.  It was afterwards destroyed by the Danes, before whose incursions the body of St Oswin, whose shrine was made illustrious by miracles, was translated to Tynemouth.  Here it was lost sight of during the Danish troubles, but in 1065 a monk of Tynemouth discovered it in consequence of a vision, and it was accordingly enshrined again in the year 1100.
We know little of St Oswin beyond what is told us in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, bk iii, ch 14. There is, however, a twelfth-century life with two homilies and some liturgical matter. This has been used by Plummer in his notes to Bede. See also Stanton's Menology, pp. 401-403 .
649 St. Paul of Verdun  Hermit bishop headmaster in the monastery school
 Virodúni, in Gállia, sancti Pauli Epíscopi, miraculórum dono illústris.
       At Verdun in France, St. Paul, a bishop renowned for his miracles.
Paul was originally a courtier who departed the secular life and became a hermit near Trier, Germany After a number of years he entered the monastery of Tholey and became the headmaster in the monastery school. He was named the bishop of Verdun about 630 by King Dagobert.
652 St. Adalbald of Ostrevant Noble martyr Many miracles were recorded at his tomb
Faced some of the most vicious in-laws ever recorded.
652 ST ADALBALD OF OSTREVANT, MARTYR
ADALBALD was a grandson of the St Gertrude who founded the monastery of Hamage, and his father, who died early, was called Rigomer; one of his brothers married St Bertha who, upon becoming a widow, built the monastery of Blangy in Artois and retired there. St Amand was in close touch with the whole family. Adalbald was much at the court of Dagobert I, and would appear to have been the ideal of a young Christian noble. He took part in several expeditions to quell the insurgent Gascons, and whilst he was in Gascony he formed a friendship with a nobleman called Ernold, the hand of whose daughter Rictrudis he obtained in marriage. The wedding did not please some of the bride’s Gascon kinsfolk, but it turned out very happily. Both husband and wife spent much time in visiting the sick, relieving the poor and even in trying to convert criminals. Moreover, they brought up their children, Mauront, Eusebia, Clotsindis and Adalsindis to follow in their footsteps, and all four were venerated as saints.
           After some years Adalbald was recalled to Gascony, but when he had reached the vicinity of Périgueux he was attacked unawares by some of his wife’s relations, who were burning to satisfy their hatred, and he succumbed. Rictrudis was overcome with grief, but managed to get possession of her husband’s body, which was buried with due honours. Miracles were said to be worked at his tomb and his cultus grew both in his own country and in the Périgord. Adalbald was accounted a martyr, because in those days the title was given to all saintly persons who died a violent death. Possibly too the motive of religion was not altogether absent in a land where there were still many pagans. His bones rested at first in the monastery of Elnone, and afterwards his head was taken to Douay—so at least we learn from an ancient manuscript of the church of St Amé, where there used to be a chapel dedicated in honour of St Mauront and his parents. Their statues were long exhibited for public veneration—St Adalhald in a robe covered with lilies and holding a book, St Rictrudis in the Benedictine habit and holding the abbey of Marchiennes, and St Mauront between them, a sceptre in his right hand and towers in his left.
        
           Our information is mainly derived from Huebald’s Life of St Rictrudis (Acta Sanctorum,
         May. vol. iii) and cf. Biogaphie nationale (de Belgique), vol. i, pp. 18—21 and L. van der
         Essen,
É
tude sur les Vitae des saints mérov. . . . (1907), pp. 260—267.
Adalbald was the son or grandson of St. Gertrude of Hamage and was born in Flanders. He was a nobleman at the court of Dagobert I of France. Going to Gascony, in France, to put down a local rebellion, he met a noblewoman, Rictrudis, daughter of Ernold. He married Rictrudis despite the objections of her relatives who resented his military activities in her region. Both Adalbald and Rictrudis dedicated themselves to acts of mercy and to religious projects. Adalbald then returned to Gascony only to face his in-laws who killed him. Many miracles were recorded at his tomb, and Adalbald was named a martyr.

Adalbald of Ostrevant M (AC)(also known as Adelbaldus) Born in Flanders. Adalbald kept very good company. He was the grandson of Saint Gertrude of Hamage, son of Rigomer, friend of Saint Amandus, spouse of Saint Rictrudis, father of Saints Mauront, Eusebia, Clotsindis, and Adalsindis. He met his Gascon wife, with whom he lived in great holiness and happiness, during his service at the court of Dagobert I for whom he fought in Gascony. The family devoted itself to pious works. Sixteen years after their wedding, Adalbald was slain by family members of Ricturdis who disapproved of the marriage. It was a political martyrdom but he was soon after venerated as a saint (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, Encyclopedia).
656 St Ithamar, Bishop Of Rochester; reputation for miracles.
St Ithamar has a special claim upon our interest, because he was the first English­man to occupy an English bishopric. Unfortunately, we know very little about him. St Honorius, archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated him to the see of Rochester after the death of St Paulinus, and Bede tells us that “though he was a man of Kent, yet in piety as well as in learning he was the equal of his prede­cessors, St Justus and St Paulinus, both of whom had been Italian missionaries under St Augustine. In 655 St Ithamar consecrated a fellow-countryman---­Frithona or Deusdedit—to be archbishop of Canterbury. His death appears to have taken place the following year. On account of his reputation for miracles, several churches were dedicated in his honour, and his relics were enshrined in 1100.

The very little we know about St Ithamar is derived almost wholly from Bede’s Ecclesias­tical History; see C. Plummer’s edition, and the notes. There is a considerable catalogue (compiled in the twelfth century) of miracles wrought at his shrine; the full text has never been edited, but the Bollandists, in Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. ii, have printed a compendium which had been incorporated by Capgrave. See T. D. Hardy, Catalogue of Materials for British History (Rolls Series), vol. i, pp. 251—252.

659 St. Gertrude of Nivelles Benedictine abbess mystic gifted with visions
daughter of Blessed Pepin of Landen and Blessed Itta of Ida. Itta founded Nivelles Abbey and installed Gertrude as abbess in 639. Gertrude was a mystic, gifted with visions.
She befriended the Irish saints Foillian and Ultan. Gertrude is a patroness of travelers and gardeners.
659 St. Gertrude of Nivelles Benedictine abbess mystic gifted with visions
 Nivigéllæ, in Brabántia, sanctæ Gertrúdis Vírginis, quæ claríssimo genere orta, despíciens mundum et toto vitæ suæ cursu in ómnibus sanctitátis offíciis se exércens, Christum sponsum in cælis habére méruit.
       At Nivelle in Brabant, St. Gertrude, a virgin of noble birth.  Because she despised the world, and during her whole life practised all kinds of good works, she deserved to have Christ for her spouse in heaven.
Daughter of Blessed Pepin of Landen and Blessed Itta of Ida. Itta founded Nivelles Abbey and installed Gertrude as abbess in 639. Gertrude was a mystic, gifted with visions.  She befriended the Irish saints Foillian and Ultan. Gertrude is a patroness of travelers and gardeners.

659 ST GERTRUDE OF NIVELLES, VIRGIN
ST GERTRUDE, the younger daughter of Bd Pepin of Landen and of Bd Itta, Ida or Iduberga, was born at Landen in 626. She had a brother, Grimoald, who suc­ceeded his father, and a sister, St Begga, who married the son of St Arnulf of Metz. Gertrude was brought up carefully by her parents, who fostered her naturally religious disposition. When she was about ten years old, her father gave a feast at which he entertained King Dagobert and the chief nobles of Austrasia. One of these lords asked the monarch to bestow the hand of Gertrude on his son, who was present. Dagobert, no doubt thinking to please the little girl, sent for her and, pointing to the handsome young man in his brave attire, asked the child if she would like him for a husband. To his surprise Gertrude answered that she would never take him or any earthly bridegroom, as she wished to have Jesus Christ as her only lord and master. No one seems to have thought of overruling the girl’s deter­mination, which was indeed applauded by the king and the assembly.

Upon being left a widow, Bd Itta consulted St Amand, Bishop of Maestricht, as to how she and her daughter could best serve God, and by his advice began to build a double monastery at Nivelles. Lest any attempt should be made to interfere with Ger­trude’s vocation, her mother herself cut off her hair, shaving her head to the shape of a monk’s tonsure. As soon as the new foundation was ready both mother and daughter entered it, but Itta insisted upon making Gertrude superior, while she herself served under her daughter, though assisting her from time to time with her advice. The young abbess proved herself fully equal to the position. She won the respect not only of her nuns but of the many pilgrims of distinction who visited the house. Amongst the latter were St Foillan and St Ultan on their way from Rome to Péronne, where their brother St Fursey was buried. St Gertrude gave them land at Fosses on which to build a monastery and a hospice. Foillan became its abbot, but Ultan and some others were retained at Nivelles (according to Irish writers) in order to instruct the community in psalmody.

Bd Itta died in 652, and St Gertrude, feeling the charge of so large an establish­ment, committed much of the external administration to others. This gave her more time for the study of the Holy Scriptures and enabled her to add to her mortifications. So severely did she treat her body that by the time she was thirty she was worn out by fasting and want of sleep, and felt compelled to resign in favour of her niece Wulfetrudis, whom she had trained, but who was only twenty years old. The saint now began to prepare for death by increasing her devotions and disci­plines. Her biographer relates that once, when she was praying in church, a globe as of fire appeared above her head and lit up the building for half an hour.

Holy though she was, when the time of her departure approached she was afraid because of her unworthiness, and sent to ask St Ultan at Fosses whether he had had any revelation with regard to her. The holy man sent back word that she would die the following day while Mass was being celebrated, but that she need have no fear, for St Patrick with many angels and saints was waiting to receive her soul. St Gertrude rejoiced at the message, and on March 17, while the priest was saying the prayers before the preface, she rendered up her soul to God. In compliance with her wish she was buried in her hair-shirt without shroud or winding-sheet, and her head was wrapped in a worn-out veil which had been discarded by a passing nun.

St Gertrude has always been regarded as a patroness of travellers, probably owing to her care for pilgrims and to a miraculous rescue at sea of some of her monks who invoked her name in great peril. Before starting on a journey it was once the custom to drink a stirrup-cup to her honour, arid a special goblet, of old used for the purpose, is preserved at Nivelles with her relics, She came to be regarded also as a patroness of souls who, on a three days’ journey to the next world before the particular judgement, were popularly supposed to lodge the first night with St Gertrude and the second night with St Michael. The most constant emblem with which St Gertrude (who was widely invoked and a very popular saint in Belgium and the Netherlands for many centuries) is associated is a mouse. One or more mice are usually depicted climbing up her crozier or playing about her distaff. No really satisfactory explanation of this symbolism has ever been given, though many suggestions have been made—for example, that while Gertrude was spinning, the Devil in the form of a mouse used to gnaw her thread in order to provoke her to lose her temper. In any case she was specially invoked against mice and rats, and as late as 1822, when there was a plague of field-mice in the country districts of the Lower Rhine, a band of peasants brought an offering to a shrine of the saint at Cologne in the form of gold and silver mice. There may also have been some underlying transference to her of traits derived from the Freya or other pagan myths. St Gertrude is further invoked for good quarters on a journey and for gardens. Fine weather on her feast day is regarded as a favourable omen, and this day is treated in some districts as marking the beginning of the season of out-door garden work.

There is an early Latin Life of St Gertrude (which has been critically edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. ii, pp. 447—474), as well as a number of other documents of which details will be found in the BHL., nn. 3490—3504. See also Mabillon and the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum. A full account of the folk lore connected with St Gertrude of Nivelles is provided in Bächtold-Stäubli, Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (1927), vol. iii, cc. 699—786, with a comprehensive bibliography and cf. Kunstle, Ikonographie der Heiligen, pp. 280—281. See also A, F. Stocq, Vie critique de ste Gertrude . . . (1031).
Gertrude of Nivelles, OSB Abbess (RM) Born at Landen in 626; died at Nivelles in 659. Saint Gertrude was the younger daughter of Blessed Pepin of Landen and Blessed Itta. Her sister Begga is also numbered among the saints.
At an early age she devoted herself to the religious life.
On the death of Pepin in 639 and on the advice of Saint Amand of Maastricht, Itta built a double monastery at Nivelles, where both mother and daughter retired. Gertrude was appointed abbess when she was judged old enough (about age 20). Although she was still very young, she discharged her responsibilities well with her mother's assistance. Gertrude was known for her hospitality pilgrims and her encouragement of and generous benefactions to the Irish missionary monks. She gave land to Saint Foillan, brother of Saint Fursey, on which he built the monastery of Fosses. She also helped the Irish Saint Ultan in his evangelizing efforts.

At age 30 (656), Gertrude resigned her office in favor of her niece, Saint Wilfetrudis, because she was weakened by her many austerities. She spent the rest of her days studying Scripture and doing penances. Gertrude is another of the medieval mystics who was gifted with visions, and like Saint Catherine of Siena died at the significant age of 33--the age of Our Lord at His death. The cultus of Saint Gertrude became widely spread in the Lowlands, neighboring countries, and England. A considerable body of folklore gathered around her name. Saint Gertrude is named in Saint Bede's martyrology (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer).

In art Gertrude is an abbess with mice (representing the souls in purgatory to whom she had a great devotion) running up her pastoral staff. Sometimes she is shown (1) holding a large mouse; (2) spinning or holding a distaff; or (3) with a cat near her (Roeder). As late as 1822, offerings of gold and silver mice were left at her shrine in Cologne (Farmer).

Saint Gertrude is the patron saint of gardeners because fine weather on her feast day meant it was time to begin spring planting. Her patronage of travellers comes from her hospitality toward them (Delaney). Pilgrims used to drink a stirrup-cup in her honor before setting out. As an extension, she was also invoked as a patroness of those who had recently died, who were popularly supposed to experience a three-day journey to the next world. It was supposed that they spent the first night under the care of Gertrude, and the second under Saint Michael the Archangel. She is invoked against rats and mice (Farmer).
660 St. Clarus Abbot  numerous miracles  patron of tailors
Clarus was born near Vienne, Dauphine', France. He became a monk at St. Ferreol Abbey and later was spiritual director of St. Blandina Convent, where his mother and sister were nuns. In time he became Abbot of St. Marcellus monastery at Vienne and lived there until his death on January 1. He is reputed to have performed numerous miracles, and his cult was confirmed in 1903 by Pope Pius X. He is the patron of tailors.

660 ST CLARUS, ABBOT; many marvellous stories of the miracles he worked, *{* It is perhaps desirable to remind the reader once for all that only Almighty God can do miracles. The use of the above and similar expressions is permissible by custom, but in fact God does the miracle through the agency or at the intercession of the saint concerned.}
ST CLARUS, whose name was given him in his youth from his “brightness”, not so much in human learning as in his perception of the things of God, is believed made abbot of the monastery of St Marcellus at Vienne in Dauphiné, early in the seventh century. A Latin life, which must be more than a hundred years later in date, relates many marvellous stories of the miracles he worked, *{* It is perhaps desirable to remind the reader once for all that only Almighty God can do miracles. The use of the above and similar expressions is permissible by custom, but in fact God does the miracle through the agency or at the intercession of the saint concerned.} but it is probably trustworthy when it tells us that Clarus was first a monk in the abbey of St Ferréol, that he was highly esteemed by Cadeoldus, Archbishop of Vienne, that he was made spiritual director of the convent of St Blandina, where his own mother and other widows took the veil, and that he ended his days (January 1, c. 660) as abbot of St Marcellus. His cultus was confirmed in 1903.
See Acta Sanctorum, January 1, and M. Blanc, Vie et culte de S. Clair (2 vols., 1898).
 661 St. Boswell Abbot of Melrose, England  sublime virtues gift of prophecy.
664 ST BOISIL, OR BOSWELL, ABBOT OF MELROSE
THE famous abbey of Melrose, which at first followed the Rule of St Columba but afterwards the Cistercian, was situated on the river Tweed in a great forest which, in the seventh century, was included in the kingdom of Northumbria.
Boisil, who would appear to have been trained in his youth by St Aidan, was a priest and monk of Melrose under St Eata, whom he succeeded as abbot there. Bede says that he was a man of sublime virtue richly endowed with the prophetic spirit, and his contemporaries were greatly impressed with his powers of prevision, as well as by his profound knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. His fame determined St Cuthbert to go to Melrose rather than to Lindisfarne to be trained, and in later years Cuthbert often confessed how much he owed to the teaching and example of his spiritual master. When Cuthbert first arrived at Melrose and was dismounting from his horse, Boisil said to the bystanders, “Behold a servant of God”, and Cuthbert afterwards declared that the holy abbot had foretold to him the chief events of his afterlife. He loved to repeat the names of the Blessed Trinity, and had a special veneration for the holy name of Jesus, which he pronounced with such devotion as moved the hearts of all who heard him. Boisil made frequent excursions into the villages to preach to the poor and to bring back erring souls to the paths of truth and light.
     Three years beforehand he foretold the great pestilence of 664, adding that he himself would die of the Yellow Plague, but that Eata would survive it. St Cuthbert first contracted the malady, and no sooner had he recovered than Boisil said to him, “You see, brother, that God has delivered you from this illness, and you will not get it again, nor will you die at present, but since my own death is at hand learn of me as long as I shall be able to teach you—which will not be more than seven days.”—“And what will be best for me to read that may be finished in seven days?” asked St Cuthbert. “The Gospel of St John. I have a copy in ten sheets which we will finish in that time”—for they were only seeking to read it devotionally, Bede tells us and not to treat of profound questions. It came to pass as he foretold that at the end of seven days Boisil was taken ill and passed away in great jubilation on account of his earnest wish to be with Christ. He had always had a great love for the Gospel of St John, reading from it every day, for which purpose he divided it into seven portions. St Cuthbert inherited this devotion from him, and a Latin copy of St John’s Gospel, now preserved at Stonyhurst College, was found in his tomb. After his death St Boisil appeared to a follower of St Egbert and told him that it was not God’s will that Egbert should go as a missionary to Germany, but that he was to labour amongst the children of Columba in Iona. In the eleventh century the relics of St Boisil were translated to Durham.
         Our chief authority is Bede, who speaks of St Boisil both in his Ecclesiastical History
         and in his Life of St Cuthbert. Saint Boswell’s, Roxburghshire, takes its name from him
         and a church at Lessuden in the same county is dedicated to him. See also the Acta
         Sanctorum, January, vol. iii. It is by no means clear why Butler notices St Boisil on this day.
         The Bollandists treat of him on January 23 and March 20. From certain late Durham
         calendars he would seem to have been commemorated there on July 7 or 8, as Stanton,
         Menology
, points out, pp. 318, 658, and September 9 is also said to have been his date.

Also called Boisil. Boswell trained as a monk under St. Aidan. As abbot, Boswell served as a biblical scholar. He was given a gift of prophecy and was known for his preaching, and he trained Sts. Cuthbert and Eghert. Boswell died of the plague.

Boisil (Boswell) of Melrose, Abbot (AC) Died c. 664. Saint Boisil was the prior of the famous abbey of Melrose (Mailross), situated on the Tweed River in a great forest in Northumberland, while Saint Eata was abbot. Both were English youths trained in monasticism by Saint Aidan.
Saint Bede says that Boisil was a man of sublime virtues, imbued with a prophetic spirit. His eminent sanctity drew Saint Cuthbert to Melrose rather than to Lindisfarne in his youth. It was from Boisil that Cuthbert learned the sacred scriptures and virtue.

Saint Boisil had the holy names of the adorable Trinity ever on his lips. He repeated the name Jesus Christ with a wonderful sentiment of devotion, and often with such an abundance of tears that others would weep with him. With tender affection he would frequently say, "How good a Jesus we have!" At the first sight of Saint Cuthbert, Boisil said to bystanders, "Behold a servant of God!"

Bede produces the testimony of Saint Cuthbert, who declared that Boisil foretold to him the chief things that afterwards happened to him. Three years beforehand he foretold of the great pestilence of 664, and that he himself should die of it, but that Eata the abbot should survive.

In addition to continually instructing his brothers in religion, Boisil made frequent excursions into the villages to preach to the poor, and to bring straying souls on to the paths of truth and life. He was also known for his aid to the poor.

Again, Boisil told Cuthbert, recovering from the plague, "You see, brother, that God has delivered you from this disease, nor shall you ever feel it again, nor die at this time; but my death being at hand, neglect not to learn something from me so long as I shall be able to teach you, which will be no more than seven days." So Cuthbert asked, "And what will be best for me to read which may be finished in seven days." To which Boisil replied, "The Gospel of Saint John, which we may in that time read over, and confer upon as much as shall be necessary."

Having accomplished the reading in seven days, the man of God, Boisil, became ill and died in extraordinary jubilation of soul, out of his earnest desire to be with Christ.

During his life he repeatedly instructed his brothers, "That they would never cease giving thanks to God for the gift of their religious vocation; that they would always watch over themselves against self-love and all attachment to their own will and private judgment, as against their capital enemy; that they would converse assiduously with God by interior prayer, and labor continually to attain to the most perfect purity of heart, this being the true and short road to the perfection of Christian virtue."

Bede relates that Saint Boisil continued after his death to interest himself particularly in obtaining divine mercy and grace for his country and his friends. He appeared twice to one of his disciples, giving him a charge to assure Saint Egbert, who had been hindered from preaching the Gospel in Germany, that God commanded him to repair the monasteries of Saint Columba on Iona and in the Orkneys, and to instruct them in the right manner of celebrating Easter.

The relics of Boisil were translated to Durham, and deposited near those of his disciple, Saint Cuthbert, in 1030 (Benedictines, Delaney, Husenbeth).

660 St. Boniface Curitan  ardent zeal for the salvation of souls Evangelist to the Picts and Scots; many miracles to his intercession after his death
Probably a Roman by birth, Boniface was the bishop of Ross, England. He introduced Roman observances into the British territories and founded a vast number of parishes. 

Boniface Curitan of Ross B (AC) (also known as Boniface Kyrin or Boniface Kyrstin) Born in Rome, Italy; died at Rosmark, Scotland, c. 630. An ardent zeal for the salvation of souls took Saint Boniface from the comforts of his Italian homeland to the less hospitable land of the Scots and Picts. Near the mouth of the Tees, where he landed, he built a church under the invocation of St. Peter, another at Tellein, three miles from Alect, and a third at Restennet. This last was served by a famous monastery of Augustinian canons regular, when religious houses were abolished in Scotland. Boniface evangelized the provinces of Angus, Marris, Buchan, Elgin, Murray, and Ross, and introduced Roman discipline and liturgical observances as opposed to the Celtic usages. After being consecrated bishop of Ross, Boniface filled the county with oratories and churches, and by planted the faith in the hearts of many. He was buried at Rosmark. The Aberdeen Breviary noted that he founded 150 churches and oratories in Scotland, and ascribes many miracles to his intercession after his death (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).

667 St. Ildephonsus Archbishop Blessed Virgin devotion Our Lady's appearance present him with a chalice prolific writer
St. Ildephonsus is highly regarded in Spain and closely associated with devotion to the Blessed Virgin which he fostered by his famous work concerning her perpetual virginity. Born around 607, Ildephonsus came from a noble family and was probably a pupil of St. Isidore of Seville. While still quite young, he entered the Benedictine monastery of Agalia near Toledo and went on to become its Abbot. In that capacity he attended the Councils of Toledo in 653 and 655.

In 657 the clergy and people elected this holy man to succeed his uncle, St. Eugenius, as Archbishop of Toledo. He performed his episcopal duties with diligence and sanctity until his death in 667. This saint was a favorite subject for medieval artists, especially in connection with the legend of Our Lady's appearance to present him with a chalice. St. Ildephonsus was a prolific writer, but unfortunately only four of his works have survived. Among these are the one already mentioned and an important document of the history of the Spanish Church during the first two-thirds of the seventh century, entitled Concerning Famous Men.
668 St. Waldebert Benedictine aristocrat Frankish knight then hermit abbot helped St. Salaberga to found her famed convent at Laon: Sometimes listed as Walbert and Gaubert. numerous miracles attributed to the saint.
665 ST WALDEBERT, ABBOT
AMONGST the successors of St Columban in the monastery of Luxeuil the most famous during his life and the most revered after his death was St Waldebert (Walbert, Gaubert), the third abbot. This is partly due to the fact that his long rule coincided with the most glorious period of the abbey’s history and partly to the numerous miracles attributed to the saint. Objects he had touched—notably his wooden drinking bowl—were long venerated for their healing properties, and in the tenth century Anso, a Luxeuil monk, wrote a book about the wonders the saint had wrought.
Waldebert was a young Frankish nobleman, who in military attire appeared at Luxeuil to ask admittance of the abbot, St Eustace, and when he laid aside his weapons to receive the habit they were suspended from the roof of the church, where they remained for centuries. He proved so exemplary a monk that he obtained permission to lead the eremitic life about three miles from the abbey. After the death of St Eustace and the refusal of St Gall to become his successor, the brethren chose St Waldebert as their superior. For forty years he ruled them wisely and well. Under his government the Rule of St Columban was superseded by that of St Benedict, and he obtained for Luxeuil from Pope John IV the privilege, already conceded to Lérins and Agaunum, of being free from episcopal control. He had bestowed his own estates upon the abbey, which was also enriched during his lifetime by many benefactions. Such assistance was indeed needed, because Luxeuil itself could not contain or support all who sought to enter it; parties of monks were continually being sent out from it to found fresh houses in other parts of France. Even over nunneries St Waldebert was called to exercise control, and it was with his help that St Salaberga founded her great convent at Laon. The holy abbot died about the year 665.
An account of the life and miracles of St Waldebert was written 300 years after his death by Abbot Anso; this has been printed by Mabillon, and in the Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. i. See also J. B. Clerc, Ermitage et vie de S. Valbert (1861); H. Baumont, Etude historique sur Luxeuil (1896); J. Poinsotte. Les Abbé, de Luxeuil (1900).

Born a Frankish nobleman, he gave up the aristocratic and aristocrat life to enter the monastery of Luxeuil, France. There he lived as a hermit for a time, but after the death of Abbot St. Eustace he was elected abbot in 628. As head of the monastery for some forty years, he was responsible for ending adherence to the rule of St Columban and instituting the rule of St Benedict. He also won freedom for the community from episcopal jurisdiction, promoted a generous building program, and brought Luxeuil to the height of its influence and glory in the West. Waldebert also helped St. Salaberga to found her famed convent at Laon.

Waldebert of Luxeuil, OSB Abbot (RM) also known as Walbert, Gaubert
Died c. 665-668. Saint Waldebert was a Frankish knight, who found more nobility in serving God than in service to an earthly king in the army.
He became a monk at Luxeuil and donated all his wealth to the monastery. He was permitted to live as a hermit under the rule of the abbey until the death of Saint Eustace(Died 625), when he was elected to be its third abbot. About two years after becoming abbot in 628, he introduced the Benedictine Rule. During his forty-year abbacy, the monastery, founded by Saint Columbanus(Born in West Leinster, Ireland, 530-543; died November 23, 615), reached the peak of its religious and cultural influence. He secured from Pope John IV the abbey's freedom from episcopal control. Waldebert also helped Saint Salaberga (September 22 665) found her great convent at Laon (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, Delaney).

668 St. Adrian Martyr disciple of St. Landoald after their deaths became renowned for their miracles
 Gandávi, in Flándria, sanctórum Landoáldi, Presbyteri Románi, et Amántii Diáconi; qui, a sancto Martíno Papa ad prædicándum Evangélium missi, ambo apostólicum sibi commíssum opus fidéliter implevérunt, ac multis post óbitum sunt illustráti miráculis.
      At Ghent in Flanders, Saints Landoald, a Roman priest, and the deacon Amantius, who were sent to preach the Gospel by Pope St. Martin.  They faithfully fulfilled this apostolic appointment, and after their deaths became renowned for their miracles.
He was begging for alms when set upon by thieves and slain near Maastricht, Netherlands.

Adrian of Maestricht M (AC) Saint Adrian disciple of Saint Landoald was murdered by robbers while begging alms for his community near Maestricht, and afterwards locally venerated as a martyr (Attwater2, Benedictines).
668 St. Landoald Roman priest Missionary to Belgium and northeastern France with Amantius his deacon after their deaths became renowned for their miracles.
 Gandávi, in Flándria, sanctórum Landoáldi, Presbyteri Románi, et Amántii Diáconi; qui, a sancto Martíno Papa ad prædicándum Evangélium missi, ambo apostólicum sibi commíssum opus fidéliter implevérunt, ac multis post óbitum sunt illustráti miráculis.
668  SS. LANDOALD AND HIS COMPANIONS
FOR the life of St Landoald and his companions we have only a very untrustworthy biography written in 981, three hundred years after their death, to replace their original acts said to have been lost in 954. When St Amand decided to resign the see of Maestricht, in order to resume work as a missionary bishop in the provinces which are now Holland and Belgium, he went to Rome to obtain the pope’s sanction. St Martin I not only signified his warm approval, but selected several companions to assist him, in his labours. Of these the principal was Landoald, a priest of the Roman church who came of a Lombard family and was filled with missionary zeal. A deacon, St Amantius, and nine other persons completed the party, which included St Adeltrudis, St Bavo’s daughter, and St Vindiciana, Landoald’s sister. They reached the territory between the Meuse and the Scheldt, and here Landoald remained, at the request of St Remaclus. He found a wide scope for his energies in the huge diocese of Maestricht, the country having been only partly evangelized and the people still addicted to gross superstitions and vices.
At Wintershoven, on the river Herck, Landoald made his headquarters, and there he built a church which St Remaclus dedicated about the year 659. Childeric II, King of Austrasia, made Maestricht one of his residences, and there he became interested in the little community at Wintershoven, to whose support he contributed.
    It was necessary to send a messenger from time to time to receive the royal gifts, and one of St Landoald’s disciples, Adrian by name, was deputed for that purpose. Returning from one of these expeditions, he was attacked and murdered by thieves, and was honoured as a martyr. St Landoald did not long survive his disciple, and is thought to have died before St Lambert succeeded to the see of Maestricht after the murder of St Theodard. He was buried in the church of Wintershoven, but his body was several times moved, eventually to Ghent in 980. There is said to have been another translation of part of the relics back to Wintershoven in 1624, which seems to have been the occasion for the fabrication of other spurious documents.
         See the Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. iii; Analecta Bollandiana,vol. iv (1885), pp. 196—198,
         and vol. xxvii (1908), p. 475. See also Pirenne in Biographie natiunale (de Belgique), vol. xi,
         pp. 256—257 Balau, Sources de l‘histoire de Liege, pp. 135—139, but especially Holder-Egger
         in the Aufsä
tze an Georg Waltz gewidmet, pp. 622—665, and L. Van der Essen, Saints
         Mérovingiens
, pp. 357—368.

       At Ghent in Flanders, Saints Landoald, a Roman priest, and the deacon Amantius, who were sent to preach the Gospel by Pope St. Martin.  They faithfully fulfilled this apostolic appointment, and after their deaths became renowned for their miracles.
Landoald was a Lombard, and was ordained a priest in Rome. Pope St. Martin I sent Landoald with St. Amand to the missions, and Landoald built a church in Wintershaven, Belgium.

Landoald, Amantius & Comps. (RM) Died c. 668. Landoald is said to have been a Roman priest and Amantius, his deacon. They were sent by the pope to evangelize what is now the Maestricht region of Belgium and northeastern France. Landoald founded a church at Wintershoven (Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
669  St. Jodoc (Josse) Confessor honoree by miracles both before and after his death
Those Britons who, flying from the swords of the English-Saxons, settled in Armorica in Gaul, upon the ruins of the Roman empire in those parts formed themselves into a little state on that coast till they were obliged to receive the laws of the French. Judicaël, commonly called Giguel. eldest son of Juthaël, became king of Brittany about the year 630. This prince soon after renounced this perishable crown to labor more securely for the acquisition of an incorruptible one, and retired into the monastery of St. Meen, in the diocese of St. Malo, where he lived in so great sanctity as to be honored after his death with the title of the Blessed Judicaël. When he resigned the crown be offered it to his younger brother Jodoc, called by the French Josse But Jodoc had the same inclinations with his elder brother However, to consult the divine will, he shut himself up for eight days in the monastery of Lammamiont, in which he had been brought up, and prayed night and day with many tears that God would direct him to undertake what was most agreeable to him, and most conducive to his divine honor and his own sanctification. He put an end to his deliberation by receiving the clerical tonsure at the hands of the bishop of Avranches, and joined a company of eleven pilgrims who purposed to go to Rome. They went first to Paris, and thence into Picardy in 636, where Jodoc was prevailed upon by Haymo, duke of Ponchieu, to fix upon an estate of his, which was at a sufficient distance from his own country, and secure from the honors which there waited for him Being promoted to priest's orders, he served the duke's chapel seven years, then retired with one only disciple named Vurmare, into a woody solitude at Ray, where he found a small spot of ground proper for tillage, watered by the river Authie. The duke built them a chapel and cells, in which the hermits lived, gaining by the tillage of this land their slender subsistence and an overplus for the poor. Their exercises were austere penance, prayer, and contemplation. After eight years thus spent here they removed to Runiac, now called Villers-saint-Josse, near the mouth of the river Canche, where they built a chapel of wood in honor of St. Martin. In this place they continued the same manner of life for thirteen years; when Jodoc having been bit by an adder, they again changed their quarters, the good duke who continued their constant protector, having built them a hermitage, with two chapels of wood, in honor of SS. Peter and Paul. The servants of God kept constant enclosure, except that out of devotion to the princes of the apostles, and to the holy martyrs, they made a penitential pilgrimage to Rome in 665. At their return to Runinc they found their hermitage enlarged and adorned, and a beautiful church of stone, which the good duke had erected in memory of St. Martin, and on which he settled a competent estate. The duke met them in person on the road, and conducted them to their habitation. Jodoc finished here his penitential course in 669, and was honoree by miracles both before and after his death. Winoc and Arnoc, two nephews of the saint, inherited his hermitage, which became a famous monastery, and was one of those which Charlemagne first bestowed on Alcuir in 792. It stands near the sea, in the diocese of Amiens, follows the order of St. Bennet, and the abbot enjoys the privileges of count. It is called St. Josse-sur-mer. St. Jodoc is mentioned on this day in the Roman Martyrology. See the life of this saint written in the eighth century; Cave thinks about the year 710. It is published with learned notes by Mabillon, Act Ben. t. 2, p. 566 Gall. Chr. Nov. t. 10, pp. 1289, 1290.
669 St. Serenidus & Serenus Benedictine hermits known for his miracles, including ending a plague and a drought
They were members of a noble family in Spoleto who entered the Benedictines and became hermits in France, in the Charnie Forest. Serenus remained a hermit until his death and was known for his miracles, including ending a plague and a drought. Serenicus eventually served as head of the community of followers who had gathered under his spiritual guidance near the Sarthe River, following the Benedictine rule.
670 St. Theodard Bishop and martyr confiscatory policies of King Childeric II after his death was renowned for the gift of miracles.
 Leódii, in Bélgio, sancti Theodárdi, Epíscopi et Mártyris; qui ánimam suam pósuit pro óvibus suis, et miraculórum signis post mortem illúxit.
    At Liege in Belgium, St. Theodard, bishop and martyr, who laid down his life for his flock, and after his death was renowned for the gift of miracles.

A disciple of St. Remaclus in the Benedictine abbey of Malniely. Stavelot, Belgium, he succeeded him as abbot in 635, receiving appointment as bishop of Maastricht, Netherlands, in 662. He was murdered by a band of robbers in the forest of Bienwald, near Speyer, Germany, while on his way to defend the rights of the Church against the harsh confiscatory policies of King Childeric II (r. 662-675) of Austrasia
.

670  ST THEODARD, BISHOP OF MAESTRICHT

ST THEODARD was an energetic bishop of Tongres-Maestricht and a man of cheerful and sympathetic disposition, but little of interest is told of his life except his manner of leaving it. Some unscrupulous nobles having taken possession of lands which rightly belonged to his church, he made up his mind to go personally to Childeric II of Austrasia to ask that justice might be done. While passing through the forest of Bienwald near Speyer he was set upon by robbers and killed. His biographer informs us that St Theodard made a long speech to his murderers, to which they replied with a quotation from Horace. As his death was occasioned by a journey undertaken in defence of the rights of the Church he was venerated as a martyr, and his successor, St Lambert, translated his body to the church of Liege. The Roman Martyrology, too, speaks of St Theodard as a martyr “who lay down his life for his sheep and after his death was resplendent with significant miracles”.
There is an anonymous life written in the eighth century, and another, of later date, perhaps by Heriger, Abbot of Lobbes. The former is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iii. See also G. Kurth, Étude critique sur St Lambert (1876), pp. 67 Seq., and L. van der Essen, Étude critique . . . (1907), pp. 135—143.
670 St. Fiacre; Abbot; hermit; cured all manner of diseases;  Patron of Gardeners and Cab-drivers
St. Fiacre (Fiachra) is not mentioned in the earlier Irish calendars, but it is said that he was born in Ireland and that he sailed over into France in quest of closer solitude, in which he might devote himself to God, unknown to the world. He arrived at Meaux, where Saint Faro, who was the bishop of that city, gave him a solitary dwelling in a forest which was his own patrimony, called Breuil, in the province of Brie. There is a legend that St. Faro offered him as much land as he could turn up in a day, and that St. Fiacre, instead of driving his furrow with a plough, turned the top of the soil with the point of his staff. The anchorite cleared the ground of trees and briers, made himself a cell with a garden, built an oratory in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and made a hospice for travelers which developed into the village of Saint-Fiacre in Seine-et-Marne.
Many resorted to him for advice, and the poor, for relief. His charity moved him to attend cheerfully those that came to consult him; and in his hospice he entertained all comers, serving them with his own hands, and sometimes miraculously restored to health those that were sick. He never allowed any woman to enter the enclosure of his hermitage, and Saint Fiacre extended the prohibition even to his chapel; several rather ill-natured legends profess to account for it. Others tell us that those who attempted to transgress, were punished by visible judgements, and that, for example, in 1620 a lady of Paris, who claimed to be above this rule, going into the oratory, became distracted upon the spot and never recovered her senses; whereas Anne of Austria, Queen of France, was content to offer up her prayers outside the door, amongst the other pilgrims.

The fame of Saint Fiacre's miracles of healing continued after his death and crowds visited his shrine for centuries. Mgr. Seguier, Bishop of Meaux in 1649, and John de Chatillon, Count of Blois, gave testimony of their own relief. Anne of Austr ia attributed to the meditation of this saint, the recovery of Louis XIII at Lyons, where he had been dangerously ill; in thanksgiving for which she made, on foot, a pilgrimage to the shrine in 1641. She also sent to his shrine, a token in acknowledgement of his intervention in the birth of her son, Louis XIV. Before that king underwent a severe operation, Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, began a novena of prayers at Saint-Fiacre to ask the divine blessing. His relics at Meaux are still resorted to, and he is invoked against all sorts of physical ills, including venereal disease. He is also a patron saint of gardeners and of cab-drivers of Paris. French cabs are called fiacres because the first establishment to let coaches on hire, in the middle of the seventeenth century, was in the Rue Saint-Martin, near the hotel Saint-Fiacre, in Paris. Saint Fiacre's feast is kept in some dioceses of France, and throughout Ireland on this date. Many miracles were claimed through his working the land and interceding for others.
 There is a Latin life of some length printed in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. vi, but it is difficult to judge of its historical value. See also Gougaud, Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity, pp. 135—137; L. Pfleger in Zeitschrift f. die Geschichte des Oberrheins (1918), pp. 153—173; J. F. Kenney, Sources . . . Ireland, vol. i, p. 493; and Bächtold-Stäubli, Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, vol. iii.
St. Fiacre Catholic Encyclopedia
Abbot, born in Ireland about the end of the sixth century; died 18 August, 670. Having been ordained priest, he retired to a hermitage on the banks of the Nore of which the townland Kilfiachra, or Kilfera, County Kilkenny, still preserves the memory. Disciples flocked to him, but, desirous of greater solitude, he left his native land and arrived, in 628, at Meaux, where St. Faro then held episcopal sway. He was generously received by Faro, whose kindly feelings were engaged to the Irish monk for blessings which he and his father's house had received from the Irish missionary Columbanus. Faro granted him out of his own patrimony a site at Brogillum (Breuil) surrounded by forests. Here Fiacre built an oratory in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a hospice in which he received strangers, and a cell in which he himself lived apart. He lived a life of great mortification, in prayer, fast, vigil, and the manual labour of the garden. Disciples gathered around him and soon formed a monastery. There is a legend that St. Faro allowed him as much land as he might surround in one day with a furrow; that Fiacre turned up the earth with the point of his crosier, and that an officious woman hastened to tell Faro that he was being beguiled; that Faro coming to the wood recognized that the wonderworker was a man of God and sought his blessing, and that Fiacre henceforth excluded women, on pain of severe bodily infirmity, from the precincts of his monastery. In reality, the exclusion of women was a common rule in the Irish foundations. His fame for miracles was widespread. He cured all manner of diseases by laying on his hands; blindness, polypus, fevers are mentioned, and especially a tumour or fistula since called "le fic de S. Fiacre".

His remains were interred in the church at Breuil, where his sanctity was soon attested by the numerous cures wrought at his tomb. Many churches and oratories have been dedicated to him throughout France. His shrine at Breuil is still a resort for pilgrims with bodily ailments. In 1234 his remains were placed in a shrine by Pierre, Bishop of Meaux, his arm being encased in a separate reliquary. In 1479 the relics of Sts. Fiacre and Kilian were placed in a silver shrine, which was removed in 1568 to the cathedral church at Meaux for safety from the destructive fanaticism of the Calvinists. In 1617 the Bishop of Meaux gave part of the saint's body to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and in 1637 the shrine was again opened and part of the vertebrae given to Cardinal Richelieu. A mystery play of the fifteenth century celebrates St. Fiacre's life and miracles. St. John of Matha, Louis XIII, and Anne of Austria were among his most famous clients. He is the patron of gardeners. The French cab derives its name from him. The Hôtel de St-Fiacre, in the Rue St-Martin, Paris, in the middle of the seventeenth century first let these coaches on hire. The sign of the inn was an image of the saint, and the coaches in time came to be called by his name. His feast is kept on the 30th of August.
670 St. Omer 595 Benedictine bishop miracle worker
670 ST AUDOMARUS, OR OMER, BISHOP OF THEROUANNE
         The name of St Audomarus is more familiar to English readers in its French form of Omer, on account of the famous penal-times Jesuit college in the then episcopal city of Saint—Omer a college which afterwards came into the hands of the secular clergy, over which Alban Butler presided for a time, and at which he died.
The place of Omer’s birth was not far from Coutances. The thoughts of his parents were wholly taken up in him, and his education was their chief care. He made the most happy progress, and his father upon the death of his wife accompanied his son to the monastery of Luxeuil. St Eustace, who had succeeded St Columban, the founder, in the government of that house, received them kindly, and they made their religious profession together. The humility, obedience, devotion and purity of manners which shone forth in Omer distinguished him among his brethren even in that house of saints. After some twenty years from his becoming a monk, Thérouanne, the capital of the Morini, stood in need of a zealous pastor; that country, which contained what is now called the Pas-de-Calais, was overrun with vice and error, so that King Dagobert was looking for a person well qualified to establish the faith and practice of the gospel in that district. St Omer was pointed out as capable for this arduous employment, and proposed to the king by St Achaire, Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, so about 637 Omer, who had been happy and content in his retreat, was suddenly called on to leave his solitude. Upon receiving the command, he cried out, “How great is the difference between the secure harbour in which I now enjoy calm, and that tempestuous ocean into which I am pushed, against my will and destitute of experience.”
            The first undertaking of his pastoral care was to re-establish the faith in its purity among the few Christians he found, whose reformation was a task no less difficult than the conversion of idolaters. Yet such was the success of his labours that he left his diocese almost equal to those that were most flourishing in France.
          His sermons were full of a fire which could scarcely be resisted, but his exemplary life preached still more powerfully ; for it encouraged others to spend themselves freely in feeding the poor, comforting the sick, reconciling enemies, and serving everyone without any other view than that of their salvation and the glory of Cod.
          This was the character of the holy bishop and his fellow labourers who were employed under his direction. The chief among these were St Mommolinus, St Bertrand, and St Bertinus, monks whom St Omer invited to his assistance from Luxeuil, and whose association with him has been related in the life of the third-named on the 5th of this month. St Omer founded with them the monastery of Sithiu, which became one of the greatest seminaries of sacred learning in France.
          The lives of St Omer recount a number of not very convincing miracles attributed to him. In his old age he was blind some years before his death, but that infliction made no abatement in his pastoral concern for his flock. The third and least reliable biography says that when St Aubert, Bishop of Arras, translated the relics of St Vedast to the monastery which he had built in his honour, St Omer was present and recovered his sight for a short time on that occasion. St Omer died probably soon after 670.
         The least unsatisfactory Life of St Omer is that already referred to in the bibliographical
         note to St Bertinus, on September 5. The edition of that text by W. Levison, there spoken
         of, is accompanied by a discussion of the relations between the different lives printed in the
         Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. iii.

 Also called Audomarus, he was born in the region surrounding Constance, France, and, upon the death of his parents, he entered the monastery of Luxeuil under St. Eustace. In 637, after twenty years in the community, he was named bishop of Therouanne, and implemented numerous reforms for the diocese including caring for the sick and poor. He was assisted in his work by monks from Luxeuil and founded the monastery of Sithiu, which gained prominence as one of the religious centers of France.
It was around Sithiu’s monastery that the town of Saint Omer developed.
Audomarus (Omer) of Thérouanne, OSB B (RM) Born in Coutances, France, c. 595; died September 9, c. 670. Saint Omer was the only son of wealthy and noble parents, Friulph and Domitilla, whose only thoughts were for the benefit of their son-- both secular and spiritual. Upon the death of Domitilla, Friulph sold his estate, and distributed the entire proceeds among the poor. Thereafter, Friulph and Omer were welcomed by Abbot Saint Eustasius to Luxeuil monastery near Besançon, where they were both professed.
Omer was distinguished by his humility, obedience, and devotion. Within a short time his reputation for sanctity became widely known. After spending more than 20 years at Luxeuil, Saint Omer was nominated by Bishop Saint Acharius of Noyon-Tournai and appointed by King Dagobert to be bishop of Thérouanne, a diocese sadly in need of evangelization than then encompassed the Pas-de-Calais and Flanders. The choice was applauded by the king, bishops, and nobility, but not by Saint Omer.

Upon receiving notification, he cried out: "How great is the difference between the secure harbor in which I now enjoy a sweet calm, and that tempestuous ocean into which I am pushed, against my will, and destitute of experience!" Without listening to his humble objections, the deputies presented him to the bishops, who consecrated him at the end of 637.

Saint Omer succeeded in making inroads with the Morini, where others before him had failed or been stopped: Saints Fuscian, Victoricus, and Gentian as well as Quintinus had brought the Gospel to them but were martyred; Saint Victricius of Rouen had worked among them but lacked enough pastors during the incursions of the barbarians to keep the people from falling back into heathenism; and in the 6th century, Saint Remigius sent Antimund and Adelbert to evangelize them. The work of completing the conversion of the Morini was left to Saint Omer.

He began this task as always--with prayer--and completed it by dedicating himself totally to the mission. He destroyed pagan idols and temples and patiently instructed the people. His first priority was to bolster the faith of the few Christians that he found. His own zeal, piety, and good works drew others to the faith, as did his eloquent preaching that emphasized disinterested service and reconciliation. He also enlisted the service of other holy monks from Luxeuil, including Saints Mommolinus, Bertrand, and Bertin. They literally covered the district with abbeys that served as centers for their missionary activities. Omer himself was the co-founder of Sithiu (Sithin), around which grew the town now known as Saint-Omer.

The author of his life recounts many miracles performed by Omer. In his old age he was blind (from at least 663), but that did not stop him from tending to his flock. When Bishop Saint Aubert of Arras-Cambrai translated the relics of Saint Redact in 667 from the cathedral to the monastery which he had built in his honor, Saint Omer assisted and recovered his sight for a short time on that occasion. His body was buried by Saint Bertin at our Lady's church, which is now the cathedral (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Husenbeth).

In art, Saint Omer is portrayed by a stream in episcopal vestments holding a bunch of grapes. At his feet, a man saved from drowning and a casket of relics. He may also be shown with Saint Bertin (Roeder). He is venerated at Saint Omer (Sithiu) and Luxeuil (Roeder).
672 St. Lactali Abbot founder disciple of St. Comgall in Ireland miracles include cures of paralytics and mentally ill
Lactan was from County Cork and was educated in Bangor by Sts. Comgall and Molua. He became the abbot-founder of Achadh-Ur Abbey at Freshford, Kilkenny.

Lactan of Freshford, Abbot (AC) (also known as Lactinus) Born near Cork, Ireland; Saint Lactan was educated at Bangor under Saints Comgall and Molua (Luanis or Lugid). Saint Comgall sent him to be abbot-founder of Achadh-Ur, now Freshford, in Kilkenny. He is credited with many miracles, including cures of paralytics and the mentally ill (Benedictines, Montague).
670 St. Maxellendis Virgin martyr Caudry restored sight to her murderer.
670 St Maxellendis, Virgin And Martyr
The diocese of Cambrai observes today the feast of St Maxellendis, the maiden daughter of the noble Humolin and Ameltrudis of the town of Caudry. Many young men, among whom her parents favoured a certain Harduin of Solesmes, sought her hand in marriage but Maxellendis said she did not wish to be married. When her father pointed out that God could be served well in the married state and that many saints had been wives as well, she asked for time to think it over. During the night she dreamed that an angel confirmed her resolution, and the next day she told Humolin that she was quite determined to take no other bridegroom but Christ. But her parents were equally determined that she should be the bride of Harduin, and when preparations for the wedding were going forward Maxellendis fled from the house. She took refuge with her nurse near Cateau­-Cambrésis, but her hiding-place was discovered and Harduin and his friends broke into the house. Maxellendis could not be seen anywhere, but in ransacking the place a large clothes-chest was thrown open, and the girl found therein. Disre­garding her cries and struggles they carried her off, but she broke loose and tried to run away, so that Harduin in his anger drew his sword and struck her with such force that she was killed on the spot. The men ran away in horror, all except Harduin himself, who was seized with blindness. St Maxellendis was buried in a neighbouring church, where she was the occasion of many marvels, so that St Vindician, Bishop of Cambrai, about the year 673 translated her body solemnly to Caudry. On this occasion the repentant Harduin asked to be led out to meet the procession. When he was brought near the coffin he fell on his knees, loudly accusing himself of his crime and asking God for pardon: and at once his sight was restored.  

The passio of the saint has been printed in Ghesquière, Acta Sanctorum Belgii, vol. iii, pp. 580—589. The details are quite untrustworthy, but there were translations of her relics and an active cultus, especially at Cambrai where the greater part were eventually enshrined. See C. J. Destombes, Vies des Saints de Cambrai et Arras (1887), vol. iv, pp. 177—187. 

675 St. Faro Bishop of Meaux France, brother of Sts. Chainoaldus and Burgundofara; also called Pharo;  he restored sight to a blind man by conferring on him the sacrament of Confirmation, and wrought several other miracles.
672 ST FARO, Bishop of MEAUX
THE eminent sanctity of St Faro, one of the first known bishops of Meaux, has rendered his name the most illustrious of all the prelates of this see who are mentioned in the calendars of the Church. He was the brother of St Chainoaldus of Laon and of St Burgundofara, first abbess of Faremoutier, and spent his youth in the court of King Theodebert II of Austrasia.
   Later he married, and passed to the court of Clotaire II. When that prince, provoked at the insolent speeches of certain Saxon ambassadors, had cast them into prison and sworn he would put them to death, St Faro prevailed on him by a stratagem to pardon them. The life that he led was most edifying and holy, and when he was about thirty-five years old he determined, if his wife would agree, to enter the ecclesiastical state. Blidechild was of the same disposition, and she retired to a place upon one of her own estates, where some years after she died, having persuaded her husband to persevere in his new vocation, which for a time he had wished to abandon and return to her.
St Faro received the tonsure among the clergy of Meaux, which episcopal see becoming vacant.
He was chosen to fill it, about the year 628. Under Dagobert I he became chancellor, and used his influence with his prince to protect the innocent, the orphan and the widow, and to relieve all that were in distress.
    The holy prelate laboured for souls with unwearied zeal and attention, and promoted conversion of those who had not yet forsaken idolatry. The author of his life tells us that he restored sight to a blind man by conferring on him the sacrament of Confirmation, and wrought several other miracles.
    Soon after Faro’s episcopal consecration St Fiacre arrived at Meaux, and the bishop gave to Fiacre some land of his own patrimony at Breuil for a hermitage. He founded in the suburbs of Meaux the monastery of the Holy Cross, which later bore his name. St Faro placed in it monks of St Columban from Luxeuil. In 668 he gave hospitality to St Adrian, later of Canterbury, on his way to England.
    The Life of St Faro, which was written 200 years after his death by another bishop of Meaux, Hildegar, is of no great historical value. It has been critically edited after Mabillon by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. v, pp. 171—206. This text is undoubtedly the original of the shorter narrative printed in the Acta Sanctorum. There is reference in Hildegar’s compilation to a ballad which, we are told, was sung by the people in commemora­tion of Clotaire’s victory over the Saxons, and which is known as the “Cantilène de St Faron”. As a supposed specimen of the early Romance language it has given rise to a considerable literature, of which a full account, with bibliography, may be found in DAC., vol. v, CC. 1114—1124. With regard to St Faro, see Beaumier-Besse, Abbayes et prieurés de France, vol. i, pp. 304 seq. Duchesne, Fastes Episcopaux, vol. ii, p. 477 and in H. M. Delsart, Sainte Fare (1911).

He was raised in the court of King Thibert of Austrasia and married Blidechild. He also served King Clotaire II but then became a monk when Bhidechild entered a nunnery. In 628, he was named a bishop, then became chancellor to King Dagobert I of the Franks.
676 ST PRAEJECTUS, or PRIX, BISHOP OF CLERMONT, MARTYR; many miracles immediately afterwards were recorded at his tomb
 Arvérnis, in Gállia, sanctórum Præjécti Epíscopi, et Amaríni, Abbátis Cloroangiénsis; qui ambo a procéribus ejúsdem urbis passi sunt.
       In the Auvergne in France, the Saints Praejectus, bishop, and Amarinus, abbot of Doroang, who were murdered by the leading men of that city.
THE episcopal see of Auvergne in the early days was honoured with many holy bishops, of whom the Christian poet, St Sidonius Apollinaris, was one of the most famous. Later on the title of bishops of Auvergne was changed into that of Clermont, from the city of this name. St Praejectus (called in France variously Priest, Prest, Preils and Prix) was a native of Auvergne, trained up in the service of the Church under the care of St Genesius, Bishop of Auvergne, well skilled in plainsong, in Holy Scripture and church history. About the year 666 he was called by the voice of the people, seconded by Childeric II, King of Austrasia, to the episcopal dignity, upon the death of Felix, Bishop of Auvergne.
Partly by his own ample patrimony, and partly through the liberality of Genesius, Count of Auvergne, he was enabled to found several monasteries, churches and hospitals; so that distressed persons in his extensive diocese were provided for, and a spirit of religious fervour reigned. This was the fruit of the unwearied zeal, assiduous exhortations and admirable example of the holy prelate, whose learning, eloquence and piety are greatly extolled by his contemporary biographer. Praejectus restored to health St Amarin, the abbot of a monastery in the Vosges, who was afterwards his companion in martyrdom.
As the result of an alleged outrage by Hector, the Patricius of Marseilles—an incident very differently recounted by writers of different sympathies—Hector, after a visit to court, was arrested and executed by Childeric’s orders. One Agritius, imputing his death to the complaints carried to the king by St Praejectus, thought to avenge him by organizing a conspiracy against him. With twenty armed men he met the bishop as he returned from court at Volvic, two leagues from Clermont, and first slew the abbot St Amarin, whom the assassins mistook for the bishop. St Praejectus, perceiving their design, courageously stepped forward, and was stabbed by a Saxon named Radbert. The saint, receiving this wound, said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, for they know not what they do”. Another of the assassins clove his head with a sword, and scattered his brains. This happened in 676, on January 25. The veneration Gallican churches paid to the memory of this martyr began from the time of his death, and many miracles immediately afterwards were recorded at his tomb.
The text of the Life of St Praejectus has in modern times been edited and carefully annotated by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. v, pp. 212—248. Krusch is of opinion that, though the author does not seem to have known the saint personally, he was a contemporary, and probably a monk of Volvic in Puy-de-Dome. It is one of the most trustworthy and interesting of Merovingian hagiographical documents. The greater part of the relics of St Praejectus were afterwards translated to the abbey of Flavigny in Burgundy. See also Acta Sanctorum for January 25; and Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. ii, pp. 37—38.  
678 Arbogast of Strasbourg B many miracles ascribed famed for humility and wisdom (RM)
Argentoráti sancti Arbogásti Epíscopi, miráculis clari.
At Strasbourg, St. Arbogast, a bishop, renowned for miracles.

This Frankish bishop has been claimed, as to his origin, by both Scotland and Ireland, but it appears that he belonged to Aquitaine, whence he went into Alsace and lived as a hermit in a wood.  He came to the notice of a King Dagobert when his son while hunting was seemingly killed by a wild boar, his recovery being attributed to the prayers of the holy man (but other accounts put this event during his episcopate). The king made Arbogast bishop of Strasburg, and he devoted himself wholeheartedly to governing his flock in apostolic humility, and asked that after his death he might be buried on the side of a hill where only felons were laid.  This was done, and a church built over the place.  Great uncertainty exists about this saint, the facts of whose life have been lost in a confusion of stories.
A life of the saint, attributed to one of his successors, Uto III, is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, July, vol. v.  Though late and legendary it seems to be based on some historical tradition.  See R. Forrer, Strasbourg-Argentorate, t. ii (1927), pp. 748 seq.; A. Postina, S. Arbogast (1928); and M. Barth, Der h. Arbogast (1940).
St. Arbogast (Gaelic Arascach).
St. Arbogast has been claimed as a native of Scotland, but this is owing to a misunderstanding of the name "Scotia", which until late in the Middle Ages really meant Ireland. He flourished about the middle of the seventh century. Leaving Ireland, as so many other missionaries had done, he settled as a hermit in a German forest, and then proceeded to Alsace, where his real name, Arascach, was changed to Arbogast. This change of name was owing to the difficulty expdrienced by foreigners in pronouncing Irish Christian names; thus it is that Moengal, Maelmaedhog, Cellach, Gillaisu, Gilla in Coimded, Tuathal, and Arascach were respectively transformed into Marcellus, Malachy, Gall, Gelasius, Germanus, Tutilo, and Arbogast. St. Arbogast found a warm friend in King Dagobert II of Austrasia, who had been educated at Slane, in Meath, in Ireland, and was restored to his kingdom on the demise of King Childeric II. Monstrelet authenticates the story of King Dagobert in Ireland; and the royal exile naturally fled to Slane in order to be under the ægis of the Ard-Righ (High-King) of Ireland, at Tara. On Dagobert's accession to the throne of Austrasia, Arbogast was appointed Bishop of Strasburg, and was famed for sanctity and miracles. It is related that the Irish saint raised to life Dagobert's son, who had been killed by a fall from his horse. St. Arbogast died in 678, and, at his own special request, was buried on the side of a mountain, here only malefactors were interred. The site of his burial was subsequently deemed suitable for a church. He is commemorated 21 July.

Born in Aquitaine, France.  Although the Irish and Scottish both claim Arbogast as their own, the 13th-century Chronicle of Sens by Richer and the Life of Saint Florentius, his successor, strongly support the claim of Scotland. His acta, however, tell us that Arbogast was born of a noble family in Aquitaine, France.
His vita, attributed to Bishop Utone of Strasbourg (died 965), tells us that Arbogast was living as a recluse in the Sacred Forest (Heiligesforst or Haguenau) of Alsace when King Dagobert took an interest in him. The holy hermit was often called to court to share his wisdom with the king, who, about 630, forced on Arbogast the see of Strasbourg. Shortly after his consecration, Arbogast raised Dagobert's son Sigebert to life when he had been killed by a fall from his horse. Although many other miracles are ascribed to the saint, he was famed for humility and wisdom.
Because of the king's affection for the bishop, the see was endowed with several large estates, including Rufach and the old royal palace of Isenburg. Arbogast founded or endowed several monasteries, including Surbourg, Shutteran, and possibly Ebersheimmünster (although Saint Odilia's father, Adalric, and Bishop Saint Deodatus of Nevers are the principal founders of this last one).
Apparently Saint Arbogast retired before his death, because the year before Dagobert offered the see of Strasbourg to Saint Wilfrid, who was on his way to Rome to challenge the division of his see. When Wilfrid declined, Saint Florentius was consecrated.  At Arbogast's request, he was interred on a mountain in the place set apart for the burial of criminals. The church of Saint Michael was built over his tomb and Saint Arbogast's Abbey rose nearby. His second successor translated his body with honor into the abbey church. A church was built in his honor in 1069, but it was destroyed by the Protestants in 1530. His relics were scattered during the Thirty Years War (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer, Husenbeth).
In art, Saint Arbogast is a bishop walking dryshod over a river, sometimes with Saint Sebastian (Roeder).
He is the patron of Strasbourg, but his feast is also kept in several Swiss cantons (Farmer).

678 St. Nathalan Hermit bishop of Tullicht, best known for his miracles.
A Scot born to a noble family near Aberdeen, he became a hermit and performed miracles during a famine. Later he became a bishop, and during one visit to Rome was consecrated by the Holy Father. He returned to Tullicht, where he built churches and conducted missionary activities.

ST NATHALAN, BISHOP (A.D. 678)
THE curiously extravagant legend of St Nathalan, whose cult was confirmed by Pope Leo XIII in 1898, and whose feast is now kept at Aberdeen on January 19, cannot be better given than in the words of the Aberdeen breviary:
“ Nathalan is believed to have been born in the northern parts of the Scotti, in ancient times, at Tullicht in the diocese of Aberdeen; a man of great sanctity, who, after he had come to man’s estate and been imbued with the liberal arts, devoted himself and his wholly to divine contemplation. And when he learned that amongst the works of man’s hands the cultivation of the soil approached nearest to divine contemplation, though educated in a noble family with his own hands he practised the lowly art of tilling the fields, abandoning all other occupations that his mind might never be sullied by the impure solicitations of the flesh. Meanwhile, as he warred against the Devil and the perishing world, a terrible famine broke out among his neighbours, relations and friends, so that almost the whole people were in danger of perishing by hunger. But God’s saint, Nathalan, moved by the greatest pity, distributed all his grain and whatever else he had, for the name of Christ, to the poor; but when the time of spring came, when all green things are committed to the bowels of the earth, not having aught to sow in the land which he cultivated, by divine revelation he ordered it all to be strewn and sown with sand, from which sand thus sown a great crop of all kinds of grain grew up and was greatly multiplied.
           “But in the time of harvest, when many people of both sexes were collected by him to gather in the crop, there came a tempest of rain and a whirlwind, so that these husbandmen and women were forced to abstain from labour. Therefore he, excited by anger, along with the other reapers murmured a little against God but on the tempest abating, feeling that he had offended Him, in a spirit of penance he bound his right hand to his leg with an iron lock and key, and forthwith threw the key into the river Dee, making a solemn vow that he would never unlock it until he had visited the thresholds of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul; which actually took place.
          “Having entered the City, approaching in meditation the monuments of the saints which are there on every side, and bewailing his sin, he worshipped the Creator whom he had heretofore offended. As he went through the chief places of the city he met a naked boy carrying a little fish for sale, which he purchased at a low price. By the divine power he found in its belly the key, unrusted, which he had flung into the Dee, and with it he opened the lock upon his leg. But the Supreme Pontiff, informed of this mighty wonder, summoned him as a man of superior holiness into his presence, and made him, in spite of his reluctance, a bishop. Rendering himself dear to all in Rome where he practised divine contemplation for many years, Nathalan, not forgetful even to extreme old age of his native soil, by permission of the Roman pontiff returned to that part of Scotland whence he sprang. Having built the churches of Tullicht, Bothelin and Colle at his own expense, he dedicated them to Almighty God, and they still exist in these provinces, dedicated in his honour. After many remarkable miracles blessed Nathalan, full of the grace of God, on the 6th of the Ides of January (January 8) commended his soul to our Lord, and went up into Heaven on high; and being buried with great veneration at Tullicht, he affords health to the sick who piously come to invoke his aid.”
           St Nathalan is commemorated in the Irish martyrologies, e.g. those of Oengus and
         Gorman. See KSS., pp. 417—419; and LIS., vol. i, pp.121 seq
.
678 Ethelburga (Æthelburh) of Barking attested by miracles V (AC)

678 St Ethelburga, Abbess Of Barking, Virgin
Ethelburga is said to have been born at Stallington in Lindsey, and she was the sister of St Erconwald, of whom it is said they were “bound together by a common love, one in heart and one in soul”. Fired doubtless by the example of her brother, St Ethelburga determined to become a nun, and nothing could shake her resolution,  for the world loses all its influence upon a mind which is wholly taken up with the great truths of faith and eternal salvation.
Erconwald, before he became bishop of London, founded a monastery at Chertsey and another for both monks and nuns at Barking in Essex. Over this he set Ethelburga as abbess, and as she and her sisters were quite inexperienced, St Hildelitha was fetched from a French abbey to train her. We are told there was somewhat of a competition in austerity between the two saints, and Ethelburga, when the rule of the house was entrusted to her, by her example and spirit sweetly led on all the other nuns in the path of virtue and Christian perfection.
“She behaved in all respects as became the sister of such a brother, living according to the rule, devoutly and orderly, providing for those under her, as was also manifested by heavenly miracles”, of which St Bede relates several.
   When an epidemic carried off some of the monks they were buried in the ground adjoining the church, and a discussion arose among the nuns as to where they should be buried when their time came, in the same part of the churchyard or another part. They could come to no decision, till one morning after Matins they were praying by the graves of the dead brothers, when suddenly a great light (which from Bede’s description would certainly seem to have been summer lightning) fell first upon them and then upon another side of the church; which light they understood “was intended to show the place in which their bodies were to rest and await the day of resurrection”. St Bede tells a touching story of a little boy of three years old, who was being brought up in the monastery and who died calling for one of the nuns, Edith, who shortly followed him; and of another nun who, dying at midnight, asked for the candle to be put out, exclaiming, “I know you think I am mad, but I am not. I see this room so filled with light that your candle there looks dark to me.” And when they left it, she said, “Very well; let it burn. But it is not my light, for my light will come to me at daybreak.” And at the dawn she died.
   St Ethelburga’s approaching end was foreseen in a vision by a nun called Theorigitha, who for nine years had been an invalid; and Ethelburga’s life “is known to have been such that no person who knew her ought to question but that the heavenly kingdom was opened to her directly as she left this world”, says Bede. Three years later Theorigitha herself was dying, and had lost the use of her tongue. Suddenly she spoke and said, “Your coming is a great joy to me. You are welcome,” and began to talk with an invisible person about how much longer she had to live. The bystanders asked whom she was talking to, and were told, “With my most dear mother, Ethelburga”. The feast of St Ethelburga is observed in the diocese of Brentwood.
There does not seem much to add to the account given in Bede, Historia ecclesiastica. bk iv (see Plummer’s edition and notes); but the Bollandists have reprinted the short bio­graphy of Capgrave. Traces of liturgical cultus, survive both in medieval calendars (noted in Stanton, Menology, p. 486), and in certain antiphons, etc. (Hardy, Materials, vol. i, p. 385). For the life by Goscelin of Canterbury in the Gotha MS., see Analecta Bollandiana, vol. lviii (1940), p. 101.
Born at Stallington, Lindsey, England; died at Barking, England, 678; feast day formerly October 11; feasts of her translations on March 7, May 4, and September 23 at Barking.
The histories of the various saints named Ethelburga are confused almost beyond my ability to sort them one from another. Two, including today's saint, are said to have been the daughters of King Anna of the East Angles and died within 20 years of one another.

Not enough is known about Saint Ethelburga's life to make it remarkable to commemorate it more than a thousand years after her death except that she hailed from one of those incredibly holy families. Her eldest sister Saint Sexburga, married King Erconbert of Kent and greatly influenced her husband to order the complete abandonment and destruction of idols throughout his kingdom. He issued an order that everyone should observe the Lenten fasts.

Her sister Queen Saint Etheldreda was abbess of Ely. Her youngest sister, Saint Withburga, took the veil after Anna died in battle and live mostly in the convent she founded at Dereham. Her brother Erconwald, who later became bishop of London, founded monasteries at Chertsey, which he governed, and at Barking, over which he placed his sister Ethelburga. A late tradition notes that Erconwald invited Saint Hildelith to leave Chelles in France and serve as prioress at Barking in Essex. She was placed in the difficult position of teaching Saint Ethelburga the observance of monastic traditions while remaining in a subordinate role. Eventually Ethelburga learned and governed alone as a great abbess.

The Venerable Bede wrote that "she showed herself in every way worthy of her brother, in holiness of life and constant solicitude for those under her care, attested by miracles from above." He then relates several unusual events that occurred shortly before the death of Ethelburga, including the death of a three-year-old boy after calling out the name Edith three times, and the cure of Saint Tortgith of paralysis after a vision of Ethelburga (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Farmer).

In art, Saint Ethelburga is depicted as an abbess holding Barking Abbey. Sometimes she is shown with Saint Erconwald, her brother, or with Saint Hildelith, who trained her (Roeder)
.
679 Saint Ethelreda (Audrey) heaven sent seven day high tide founded the great abbey of Ely, where she lived an austere life body was found incorrupt
In monastério Elyénsi, in Británnia, sanctæ Ediltrúdis, Regínæ et Vírginis, quæ sanctitáte et miráculis clara migrávit ad Dóminum.  Ipsíus autem corpus, úndecim post annis, invéntum est incorrúptum.
    In England, in the monastery of Ely, St. Etheldreda, queen and virgin, who departed for heaven with a great renown for sanctity and miracles.  Her body was found without corruption eleven years afterwards. {and 500 years later still incorrupt}
{see history of Saint Etheldreda's Church in London:  Ely Productions circa 1992 Video by Father Kit Cunningham }

Around 640, there was an English princess named Ethelreda, but she was known as Audrey. She married once, but was widowed after three years, and it was said that the marriage was never consummated. She had taken a perpetual vow of virginity, but married again, this time for reasons of state. Her young husband soon grew tired of living as brother and sister and began to make advances on her. She continually refused. He eventually attempted to bribe the local bishop, Saint Wilfrid of York, to release Audrey from her vows.

Saint Wilfrid refused, and helped Audrey escape. She fled south, with her husband following. They reached a promontory known as Colbert's Head, where a heaven sent seven day high tide separated the two. Eventually, Audrey's husband left and married someone more willing, while Audrey took the veil, and founded the great abbey of Ely, where she lived an austere life. She eventually died of an enormous and unsightly tumor on her neck, which she gratefully accepted as Divine retribution for all the necklaces she had worn in her early years. Throughout the Middle Ages, a festival, "Saint Audrey's Fair", was held at Ely on her feast day. The exceptional shodiness of the merchandise, especially the neckerchiefs, contributed to the English language the word "tawdry", a corruption of "Saint Audrey: " she died of the plague.
According the Saint Bede, when her tomb was opened by her sister Saint Sexburga, her successor as abbess at Ely Abbey, ten (or 16) years after her death, her body was found incorrupt and the tumor had healed
680 St. Adamnan of Coldingham  pilgrim priest Confessor gift of prophecy
who was born in Ireland and undertook a series of penitential pilgrimages. Adamnan arrived on the southwest coast of Scotland where he met St. Ebba at the Monastery of Coldingham. He became a monk in this monastery and lived a life of severe austerity. Adamnan was noted for the gift of prophecy until his death.

Adamnan of Coldingham, OSB, Monk (AC) cultus confirmed by Pope Leo XIII in 1897. Saint Adamnan was an Irish pilgrim priest who became a monk at the double monastery of Coldingham near Berwick, Scotland, which was ruled by the abbess-founder, Saint Ebba.  He should not be confused with the Adamnan who wrote the biography of Saint Columba of Iona.

Today's Adamnan established a reputation for his extreme austerity and the rigor with which he kept the Rule, which went beyond even that of traditional Irish monasticism. He was a very serious man, who criticized those whose actions he saw as frivolous. In a vision he learned that the monastery would be destroyed by fire because of "senseless gossip and fivolities." For this reason he insisted that monastic discipline be maintained more stringently. This omen unsettled the abbess, who was reassured by Adamnan that the event would not occur in her lifetime. Unfortunately, despite her personal holiness and renewed efforts to enforce the rule, Saint Ebba was not a gifted administrator. After her death the fervor of the community declined again and was destroyed in 683, shortly after Adamnan's death (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, D'Arcy, Montague, Montalembert)
681 Hospitius of Cap-Saint-Hospice Hermit blessed with the gifts of prophecy and miracle (RM)
Níciæ, apud Varum flúvium, sancti Hospítii Confessóris, abstinéntiæ virtúte ac prophetíæ spíritu insígnis.
    At Nice in France, St. Hospitius, confessor, distinguished by the virtue of abstinence and the spirit of prophecy.

Died c. 580 (or 681?). The hermit Saint Hospitius lived at a place now named after him: Cap-Saint-Hospice, between Villefranca and Banlieu. He girded himself with an iron chain, lived only on bread and dates, and was blessed with the gifts of prophecy and miracles. His relics were translated to Lérins on May 21, the day on which his feast is now celebrated. Saint Gregory of Tours includes Hospitius in his writings (Benedictines, Husenbeth).
683 Pope St. Leo II eyes tongue restored.
Romæ, in Basílica Vaticána, sancti Leónis Papæ Tértii, cui erútos ab ímpiis óculos et præcísam linguam Deus mirabíliter restítuit.
   
Pope St. Leo II At Rome, in the Vatican basilica, , to whom God miraculously restored his eyes and his tongue after they had been torn out by impious men.
Pope St. Leo II, to whom God miraculously restored his eyes and his tongue after they had been torn out by impious men. 
He succeeded St. Agatho as Pope in 681 and confirmed the findings of the sixth general council which had condemned Monotheism.
685 St Philibert, Abbot; founder; miracles.
In Hério ínsula sancti Philibérti Abbátis.    In the island of Hermoutier, St. Philibert, abbot.
He was born about 608 in Gascony.  His father, Philibaud, having received holy orders, was made bishop of Aire, and the young Philibert was educated under the eyes of his father, who sent him to the court of Dagobert I.  Here the example and instructions of the chancellor, St Ouen, made so deep an impression on him that at the age of twenty years he took the habit in the abbey of Rebais, founded by Ouen.  He was appointed successor to St Aile in the government of this house, but left it on finding some of the monks refractory, and his own inability through inexperience to deal with them.
  After having visited many monasteries to study various observances, he retired into Neustria, where Clovis II gave him ground in the forest of Jumièges.  Here he founded a monastery in 654, and the community of Jumièges increased in a short time to a large number of monks.  He also built a monastery for women, at Pavilly. St Philibert, having some business at the court, boldly reproached Ebroin, mayor of the palace, for his many acts of injustice. This brought on him the vengeance of that minister, who slandered him to St Ouen; in consequence Philibert was imprisoned for a time at Rouen and obliged to quit Jumiêges.
 The saint then retired to Poitiers, and afterward to the little island of Herio, on the coast of Poitou, where he founded a monastery later called Noirmoutier.  He likewise founded the priory of Quincay, near Poitiers, the government of which he gave to St Achard, whom he afterwards made abbot of JumiIges.  These he peopled with monks from his first foundation.  He had a further responsibility put upon him when Ansoald, Bishop of Poitiers, founded a monastery at Luçon, which he put under the supervision of St Philibert, who was remembered for his concern for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the lay neighbours of his various houses.
There is an early life of St Philibert which has been printed both by Mabillon and in the Acta Sanctorum, August, vol. iv.  But the best text and the most valuable contribution to the subject is that of R. Poupardin, Monuments de l'histoire des abbayes de Saint-Philibert (1905), which contains a discussion of the authorship and recensions of the life, as well as the record of the miracles of St Philibert, and much supplementary matter.
686 Erconwald of London founded a monastery at Chertsey in Surrey convent at Barking in Essex invoked against gout OSB B (also known as Erkenwald) Born in East Anglia; died in London, c. 686; second feast day on April 30.

686 ST ERCONWALD, BISHOP OF LONDON
ST ERCONWALD is said to have been the son of the East Anglian prince Anna. He left his own country for the kingdom of the East Saxons, where he spent his fortune in founding two monasteries, the one for men at Chertsey in Surrey, and the other for women at Barking in Essex. Over the latter he set his sister St Ethelburga, and over the former he himself ruled as abbot until 675, when St Theodore consecrated him bishop of London. During the eleven years that he presided over the see, he did much to increase the buildings and repute of St Paul’s, his cathedral church.  Bede says that God honoured Erconwald with miracles, and that even in his own day healing properties were attributed to the litter in which the holy bishop had been carried when he was ill. His feast is still observed in the dioceses of West­minster, Brentwood and (on May 11) Southwark.

Our most reliable authority is Bede, Eccl. History, iv, 6 ; but some further information may be gleaned from charters and other sources. See DCB., vol. ii, pp. 177—179 ; DNB., vol. xvii, p. 390; and Stanton’s Menology, pp. 187 and 189, and supplement.

In 675, Saint Theodore of Canterbury (Theodore, 7th Archbishop of Canterbury, b. at Tarsus in Cilicia about 602; d. at Canterbury 19 September, 690) appointed Erconwald bishop of the East Saxons with his see in London. His shrine in Saint Paul's Cathedral was a much visited pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages, but little is known of his life except that he founded a monastery at Chertsey in Surrey and a convent at Barking in Essex.
He appointed his sister, Ethelburga (Died c. 647), abbess of the latter, while he governed the former.
Erconwald took some part int he reconciliation of Saint Theodore with Saint Wilfrid (Born in Ripon, Northumbria, 634; died at Oundle, in 709) (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia).
Erconwald is portrayed in art as a bishop in a small 'chariot' (the Saxon equivalent of a bath chair) in which he travelled because of his gout. Sometimes there is a woman touching it or he may be shown with Saint Ethelburga of Barking (Roeder). Erconwald is invoked against gout (Roeder).

686 St. Ultan Benedictine abbot founder chaplain to St Gertrude's nuns escaped Mercians  by supernatural revelation he knew of the death of St Foillan, who was murdered by robbers in the forest of Seneffe, and he foretold to St Gertrude, at her request, the day of her own death. He said that St Patrick was preparing to welcome her, and in point of fact she died on March 17.

686 ST ULTAN, ABBOT by supernatural revelation he knew of the death of St Foillan, who was murdered by robbers in the forest of Seneffe, and he foretold to St Gertrude, at her request, the day of her own death. He said that St Patrick was preparing to welcome her, and in point of fact she died on March 17.
ST ULTAN (or Ultain) and his more celebrated brothers, St Fursey and St Foillan, were Irish monks who crossed over to East Anglia, where they founded the abbey of Burgh Castle, near Yarmouth, on territory bestowed upon them by King Sigebert or Sigebert I. In consequence of raids by the Mercians, St Fursey went to France, where he died. When St Foillan and St Ultan visited their brother’s tomb at Péronne on their way back from a pilgrimage to Rome, they were warmly welcomed by Bd Itta and St Gertrude at Nivelles, who offered them land at Fosses on which to build a monastery and a hospice for strangers. Ultan became the abbot of Fosses. We are told that by supernatural revelation he knew of the death of St Foillan, who was murdered by robbers in the forest of Seneffe, and he foretold to St Gertrude, at her request, the day of her own death. He said that St Patrick was preparing to welcome her, and in point of fact she died on March 17. St Ultan later became abbot of, and died at, Péronne, but his relics were subsequently translated to Fosses.

The brother of St Fursey(Born in Ireland; died in Belgium, c. 655) and St Foillan(Born Island of Inisquin(?), Lough Corri, Ireland; died in France c. 648), he followed them into the monastic life, entering the community of monks at Burgh Castle, near yarmouth, East Anglia, England. He subsequently went to France to escape the predations of the Mercians and was greeted with enthusiasm by St. Gertrude of Nivelles(Born at Landen in 626; died at Nivelles in 659). After serving as chaplain to Gertrude's nuns, be became the founding abbot of Fosses Monastery on land given to him by Blessed Ita(Died 652)and daughter St Gertrude. He also ruled Peronne.

Ultan of Péronne, OSB Abbot B (AC) (also known as Ultan of Fosse)
Died at Péronne, c. 686. Ultan, an Irish monk like his brothers Saints Fursey and Foillan, went with them on a missionary journey to East Anglia. There, with Fursey, he founded a monastery in Burgh Castle, a Roman fort near Yarmouth, but later migrated to France after a pilgrimage to Rome. There he administered the Abbey of Saint-Quentin, which had been built for Fursey. Then he escaped the raiding Mercians by moving into Belgium.

His brother Foillan built and became abbot of Fosses Monastery on land given to him by Blessed Itta and her daughter Saint Gertrude of Nivelles. During this time Ultan was chaplain to Gertrude's convent and taught them liturgy, Scripture, and chant. Ultan later succeeded his brother Fursey in ministering to pilgrims as abbot of Fosses.

He inherited Foillan's abbacy at Péronne, where he died. Foillan's official feast day is the date of Ultan's vision of his martyrdom, although his relics were not recovered for about two months thereafter. Ultan is mentioned in the vita of Saint Amatus, who had been unjustly banished by Theodoric: "Amatus found refuge in Fursey's monastery at Péronne of which Ultan was abbot at the time and rejoiced in the tranquility of his retirement."

Ultan was buried in Fosses Abbey, which became a celebrated Irish monastery, as did Péronne. A chapel dedicated to Saint Brigid of Kildare(Born at Faughart? (near Dundalk) or Uinmeras (near Kildare), Louth, Ireland, c. 450; died at Kildare, Ireland, c. 525) overlooks the town of Fosses (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, D'Arcy, Daniel-Rops, Delaney, Fitzpatrick, Gougaud, Montague, Tommasini).
687 St. Cuthbert biographer, Saint Bede missionary hermit gifted with the ability to prophesy vision of angels conducting the soul of Saint Aidan to heaven body incorrupt for several centuries
 In Británnia deposítio sancti Cuthbérti, Epíscopi Lindisfarnénsis, qui, a puerítia ad óbitum usque, sanctis opéribus et miraculórum signis effúlsit.
       In England, the death of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, who from his childhood until his death was renowned for good works and miracles.
Cuthbert was thought by some to be Irish and by others, a Scot. Bede, the noted historian, says he was a Briton (not: see below).

Orphaned when a young child, he was a shepherd for a time, possibly fought against the Mercians, and became a monk at Melrose Abbey. In 661, he accompanied St. Eata to Ripon Abbey, which the abbot of Melrose had built, but returned to Melrose the following year when King Alcfrid turned the abbey over to St. Wilfrid, and then became Prior of Melrose.
Cuthbert engaged in missionary work and when St. Colman refused to accept the decision of the Council of Whitby in favor of the Roman liturgical practices and immigrated with most of the monks of Lindisfarn to Ireland, St. Eata was appointed bishop in his place and named Cuthbert Prior of Lindisfarn.
He resumed his missionary activities and attracted huge crowds until he received his abbot's permission to live as a hermit, at first on a nearby island and then in 676, at one of the Farnes Islands near Bamborough. Against his will, he was elected bishop of Hexham in 685, arranged with St. Eata to swap Sees, and became bishop of  Lindisfarn but without the monastery. He spent the last two years of his life administering his See, caring for the sick of the plague that dessimated his diocese, working numerous miracles of healing, and gifted with the ability to prophesy. He died at Lindisfarn.

Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, OSB B (RM) Born in Northumbria, England (?) or Ireland, c. 634; died on Inner Farne in March 20, 687; feast of his translation to Durham, September 4.  Saint Cuthbert is possibly the most venerated saint in England, especially in the northern part of the country, where he was a very active missionary. Yet his real nationality is debated. His biographer, Saint Bede, did not specify it. Of course, the English claim him, but so do the Scottish.

There is a good likelihood the he was an Irishman named Mulloche, great-grandson of the High King Muircertagh of Ireland because, according to Moran citing documents in Durham Cathedral, the rood screen bore the inscription: "Saint Cuthbert, Patron of Church, City and Liberty of Durham, an Irishman by birth of royal parentage who was led by God's Providence to England." The cathedral's stained glass windows, which had been registered but destroyed during the reign of Henry VI, depicted the saint's life begin with his birth "at Kells" in Meath. This fact is corroborated by an ancient manuscript viewed by Alban Butler at Cottonian Library. One tradition relates that his mother, the Irish princess Saba, set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, left Cuthbert in the care of Kenswith, and died in Rome.

Thus, Cuthbert, like David, was a shepherd boy on the hills above Leader Water or the valley of the Tweed. Of unknown parentage, he was reared in the Scottish lowlands by a poor widow named Kenswith, and was a cripple because of an abscess on the knee made worse by an attempted cure. But despite this disability he was boisterous and high-spirited, and so physically strong that after he became a monk, on a visit to the monastery at Coldingham, he spent a whole night upon the shore in prayer, and strode into the cold sea praising God.

According to one of Saint Bede's two vitae of the saint, when Cuthbert was about 15, he had a vision of angels conducting the soul of Saint Aidan to heaven. Later, while still a youth, he became a monk under Saint Eata at Melrose Abbey on the Tweed River. The prior of Melrose, Saint Boisil, taught Cuthbert Scripture and the pattern of a devout life. Cuthbert went with Eata to the newly-founded abbey of Ripon in 661 as guest steward. He returned to Melrose, still just a mission station of log shanties, when King Alcfrid turned Ripon over to Saint Wilfrid. It was from Melrose that Cuthbert began his missionary efforts throughout Northumbria.

Cuthbert attended Boisil when the latter contracted the plague. The book of the Scriptures from which he read the Gospel of John to the dying prior was laid on the altar at Durham in the 13th century on Saint Cuthbert's feast. Thus, in 664, Cuthbert became prior of Melrose at the death of Boisil. Soon thereafter Cuthbert fell deathly ill with the same epidemic. Upon hearing that the brethren had prayed throughout the night for his recovery, he called for his staff, dressed, and undertook his duties (but he never fully recovered his health thereafter).

In 664, when Saint Colman refused to accept the decision of the Synod of Whitby in favor of Roman liturgical custom and migrated to Ireland with his monks, Saint Tuda was consecrated bishop in his place, while Eata was named abbot and Cuthbert prior of Lindisfarne, a small island joined to the coast at low tide. From Lindisfarne Cuthbert extended his work southward to the people of Northumberland and Durham.

Afterwards Cuthbert was made abbot of Lindisfarne, where he grew to love the wild rocks and sea, and where the birds and beasts came at his call. Then for eight years beginning in 676, Cuthbert followed his solitary nature by removing himself to the solitude of the isolated, infertile island of Farne, where it was believed that he was fed by the angels. There built an oratory and a cell with only a single small window for communication with the outside world. But he was still sought after, and twice the king of Northumberland implored him to accept election as bishop of Hexham, to which he finally agreed in 684, though unwillingly and with tears.

Almost immediately Cuthbert exchanged his see with Eata for that of Lindisfarne, which Cuthbert preferred. Thus, on Easter Sunday 685, Cuthbert was consecrated bishop of Lindisfarne by Saint Theodore archbishop of Canterbury, with six bishops in attendance at York. For two years Cuthbert was bishop of Lindisfarne, still maintaining his frugal ways and "first doing himself what he taught others." He administered his see, cared for the sick of the plague that decimated his see, distributed alms liberally, and worked so many miracles of healing that he was known in his lifetime as the "Wonder-Worker of Britain." Then at Christmas in 686, in failing health and knowing that his end was near, he resigned his office and retired again to his island cell; but though seriously ill and suffering intensely, he refused all aid, allowing none to nurse him, and finished his course alone.

In the very act of lifting his hands in prayer "his soul sped its way to the joys of the heavenly kingdom." News of his death was flashed by lantern to the watchers at Lindisfarne. Bede reports: "As the tiny gleam flashed over the dark reach of sea, and the watchman hurried with his news into the church, the brethren of the Holy Island were singing the words of the Psalmist: "Thou hast cast us out and scattered us abroad . . . Thou hast shown thy people heavy things."

He was buried at Lindisfarne, where they remained incorrupt for several centuries, but after the Viking raids began his remains wandered with the displaced monks for about 100 years until they were translated to Durham cathedral in 1104. Until its desecration under Henry VIII, his shrine at Durham was one of the most frequented places of pilgrimage for the power of healing that Cuthbert possessed during his lifetime lived on after him. The bones discovered in 1827 beneath the site of the medieval shrine are probably his. He is said to have had supernatural gifts of healing and insight, and people thronged to consult him, so that he became known as the wonder-worker of Britain. He had great qualities as a preacher, and made many missionary journeys. Bede wrote that "Cuthbert was so great a speaker and had such a light in his angelic face. He also had such a love for proclaiming his good news, that none hid their innermost secrets from him." Year after year, on horseback and on foot, he ventured into the remotest territories between Berwick and Galloway. He built the first oratory at Dull, Scotland, with a large stone cross before it and a little cell for himself. Here a monastery arose that became Saint Andrew's University.

His task was not easy, for he lived in an area of vast solitude, of wild moors and sedgy marshes crossed only by boggy tracts, with widely scattered groups of huts and hovels inhabited by a wild and heathen peasantry full of fears and superstitions and haunted by terror of pagan gods. His days were filled with incessant activity in an attempt to keep the spirit of Christianity alive and each night he kept vigil with God.

But unlike the Celtic missionaries, he spoke their language and knew their ways, for he had lived like them in a peasant's home. Once, when a snowstorm drove his boat onto the coast of Fife, he cried to his companions in the storm: "The snow closes the road along the shore; the storm bars our way over the sea. But there is still the way of Heaven that lies open."

Cuthbert was the Apostle of the Lowlands, renowned for his vigor and good-humor; he outstripped his fellow monks in visiting the loneliest and most dangerous outposts from cottage to cottage from Berwick to Solway Firth to bring the Good News of Christ. Selflessly he entered the houses of those stricken by the plague. And he was the most lovable of saints. His patience and humility persuaded the reluctant monks of Lindisfarne to adopt the Benedictine Rule.

He is especially appealing to us today because he was a keenly observant man, interested in the ways of birds and beasts. In fact, the Farne Islands, which served as a hermitage to the monks of Durham, are now a bird and wildlife sanctuary appropriately under the protection of Cuthbert. In his own time he was famed as a worker of miracles in God's name. On one occasion he healed a woman's dying baby with a kiss.
Tiny seashells found only on his Farne Island are traditionally called Saint Cuthbert's Beads, and are said by sailors to have been made by him. This tradition is incorporated in Sir Walter Scott's Marmion.

The ample sources for his life and character show a man of extraordinary charm and practical ability, who attracted people deeply by the beauty of holiness.

His cultus is recalled in places names, such as Kirkcudbright (Galloway), Cotherstone (Yorkshire), Cubert (Cornwall), and more than 135 church dedications in England as well as an additional 17 in Scotland. A chapel in the crypt of Fulda was dedicated to him at its consecration (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Colgrave, D'Arcy, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Fitzpatrick, Gill, Montague, Montalembert2, Moran, Skene, Tabor, Webb).

The following legends about Saint Cuthbert reveal as much about their author, the Venerable Bede as they do about Saint Cuthbert. Though they repeat in detail some of what is outlined above, they show the historian's care to note source and authority and show his quick eye that observes nature in detail. The complete biography can be found at the Medieval Sourcebook.

"One day as he rode his solitary way about the third hour after sunrise, he came by chance upon a hamlet a spear's cast from the track, and turned off the road to it. The woman of the house that he went into was the pious mother of a family, and he was anxious to rest there a little while, and to ask some provision for the horse that carried him rather than for himself, for it was the oncoming of winter.
"The woman brought him kindly in, and was earnest with him that he would let her get ready a meal, for his own comfort, but the man of God denied her. 'I must not eat yet,' said he, 'because today is a fast.' It was indeed Friday when the faithful for the most part prolong their fast until the third hour before sunset, for reverence of the Lord's Passion.

"The woman, full of hospitable zeal, insisted. 'See now,' said she, 'the road that you are going, you will find never a clachan or a single house upon it, and indeed you have a long way yet before you, and you will not be at the end of it before sundown. So do, I ask you, take some food before you go, or you will have to keep your fast the whole day, and maybe even till the morrow.' But though she pressed him hard, devotion to his religion overcame her entreating, and he went through the day fasting, until evening.

"But as twilight fell and he began to see that he could not come to the end of the journey he had planned that day, and that there was no human habitation near where he could stay the night, suddenly as he rode he saw close by a huddle of shepherds' huts, built ramshackle for the summer, and now lying open and deserted.

"Thither he went in search of shelter, tethered his horse to the inside wall, gathered up a bundle of hay that the wind had torn from the thatch, and set it before him for fodder. Himself had begun to say his hours, when suddenly in the midst of his chanting of the Psalms he saw his horse rear up his head and begin cropping the thatch of the hovel and dragging it down, and in the middle of the falling thatch came tumbling a linen cloth lapped up; curious to know what it might be, he finished his prayer, came up and found wrapped in the linen cloth a piece of loaf still hot, and meat, enough for one man's meal.
"And chanting his thanks for heaven's grace, 'I thank God,' said he, 'Who has stooped to make a feast for me that was fasting for love of His Passion, and for my comrade.' So he divided the piece of loaf that he had found and gave half to the horse, and the rest he kept for himself to eat, and from that day he was the readier to fasting because he understood that the meal had been prepared for him in the solitude by His gift Who of old fed Elijah the solitary in like fashion by the birds, when there was no man near to minister to him; Whose eyes are on them that fear Him and that hope in His mercy, that He will snatch their souls from death and cherish them in their hunger.
"And this story I had from a brother of our monastery which is at the mouth of the river Wear, a priest, Ingwald by name, who has the grace of his great age rather to contemplate things eternal with a pure heart than things temporal with the eyes of earth; and he said that he had it from Cuthbert himself, the time that he was bishop."

And a second story recorded by Bede:  "It was his way for the most part to wander in those places and to preach in those remote hamlets, perched on steep rugged mountain sides, where other men would have a dread of going, and whose poverty and rude ignorance gave no welcome to any scholar. . . . Often for a whole week, sometimes for two or three, and even for a full month, he would not return home, but would abide in the mountains, and call these simple folk to heavenly things by his word and his ways. . . ."
[He was, moreover, easily entreated, and came to stay at the abbey of Coldingham on a cliff above the sea.]
"As was his habit, at night while other men took their rest, he would go out to pray; and after long vigils kept far into the night, he would come home when the hour of common prayer drew near. One night, a brother of this same monastery saw him go silently out, and stealthily followed on his track, to see where he was going or what he would do.
"And so he went out from the monastery and, his spy following him went down to the sea, above which the monastery was built; and wading into the depths till the waves swelled up to his neck and arms, kept his vigil through the dark with chanting voiced like the sea. As the twilight of dawn drew near, he waded back up the beach, and kneeling there, again began to pray; and as he prayed, straight from the depths of the sea came two four-footed beasts which are called by the common people otters.
"These, prostrate before him on the sand, began to busy themselves warming his feet with pantings, and trying to dry them with their fur; and when this good office was rendered, and they had his benediction, they slipped back again beneath their native waters. He himself returned home, and sang the hymns of the office with the brethren at the appointed hour. But the brother who had stood watching him from the cliffs was seized with such panic that he could hardly make his way home, tottering on his feet; and early in the morning came to him and fell at his feet, begging forgiveness with his tears for his foolish attempt, never doubting but that his behavior of the nights was known and discovered.
"To whom Cuthbert: 'What ails you, my brother? What have you done? Have you been out and about to try to come at the truth of this night wandering of mine? I forgive you, on this one condition: That you promise to tell no man what you saw, until my death.' . . . And the promise given, he blessed the brother and absolved him alike of the fault and the annoyance his foolish boldness had given: The brother kept silence on the piece of valor that he had seen, until after the Saint's death, when he took pains to tell it to many"

Bede relates another story:  After many years at Lindisfarne Abbey, Cuthbert set out to become a hermit on an island called Farne, which unlike Lindisfarne, "which twice a day by the upswelling of the ocean tide...becomes an island, and twice a day, its shore again bared by the tide outgoing, is restored to its neighbor the land...No man, before God's servant Cuthbert, had been able to make his dwelling here alone, for the phantoms of demons that haunted it; but at the coming of Christ's soldier, armed with the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, the fiery darts of the wicked fell quenched, and the foul Enemy himself, with all his satellite mob, was put to flight."

Cuthbert built himself a cell on the island by cutting away the living rock of a cave. He constructed a wall out of rough boulders and turf. Some of the boulders were so large that "one would hardly think four men could lift them, and yet he is known to have carried them thither with angelic help and set them into the wall. He had two houses in his enclosure, one an oratory, the other a dwelling place...At the harbor of the island was a larger house in which the brethren when they came to visit him could be received and take their rest..."

At first he accepted bread from Lindisfarne, "but after a while he felt it was more fit that he should live by the work of his own hand, after the example of the Fathers. So he asked them to bring him tools to dig the ground with, and wheat to sow; but the grain that he had sown in spring showed no sign of a crop even by the middle of the summer. So when the brethren as usual were visiting him the man of God said, 'It may be the nature of the soil, or it may be it is not the will of God that any wheat should grow for me in this place: So bring me, I pray you, barley, and perhaps I may raise some harvest from it. But if God will give it no increase, it would be better for me to go back to the community than be supported here on other men's labors.'

"They brought him the barley, and he committed it to the ground, far past the time of sowing, and past all hope of springing: and soon there appeared an abundant crop. When it began to ripen, then came the birds, and its was who among them should devour the most. So up comes God's good servant, as he would afterwards tell--for many a time, with his benign and joyous regard, he would tell in company some of the things that he himself had won by faith, and so strengthen the faith of his hearers--'And why,' says he, 'are you touching a crop you did not sow? Or is it, maybe, that you have more need of it than I? If you have God's leave, do what He allows you: but if not, be off, and do no more damage to what is not your own.' He spoke, and at the first word of command, the birds were off in a body and come what might for ever after they contained themselves from any trespass on his harvests. . . .
"And here might be told a miracle done by the blessed Cuthbert in the fashion of the aforesaid Father, Benedict, wherein the obedience and humility of the birds put to shame the obstinacy and arrogance of men. Upon that island for a great while back a pair of ravens had made their dwelling: And one day at their nesting time the man of God spied them tearing with their beaks at the thatch on the brethren's hospice of which I have spoken, and carrying off pieces of it in their bills to build their nest.
"He thrust at them gently with his hand, and bade them give over this damage to the brethren. And when they scoffed at his command, 'In the name of Jesus Christ,' said he, 'be off with you as quick as ye may, and never more presume to abide in the place which ye have spoiled.' And scarcely had he spoken, when they flew dismally away.
"But toward the end of the third day, one of the two came back, and finding Christ's servant busy digging, comes with his wings lamentably trailing and his head bowed to his feet, and his voice low and humble, and begs pardon with such signs as he might: which the good father well understanding, gives him permission to return.
"As for the other, leave once obtained, he straight off goes to fetch his mae, and with no tarrying, back they both come, and carrying along with them a suitable present, no less than a good- sized hunk of hog's lard such as one greases axles with: Many a time thereafter the man of God would show it the brethren who came to see him, and would offer it to grease their shoes, and he would urge on them how obedient and humble men should be, when the proudest of birds made haste with prayers and lamentation and presents to atone for the insult he had given to man. And so, for an example of reformed life to men, these did abide for many years thereafter on that same island, and built their nest, nor ever wrought annoyance upon any" (Bede).

In art, Saint Cuthbert is dressed in episcopal vestments bearing the crowned head of Saint Oswald (Seal of Lindisfarne). At times he may be shown (1) with pillars of light above him; (2) with swans tending him; (3) as a hermit with a tau staff being fed by an eagle; (4) rebuking crows; (5) rebuilding a hut and driving out devils; (6) praying by the sea; (7) with a Benedictine monk kissing his feet; (8) when his incorrupt body was found with a chalice on his breast (Roeder); or (9) tended by sea otters, which signifies either his living in the midst of waters, or alludes to a legend. It is said that one night as he lay on the cold shore, exhausted from his penances, two otters revived his numb limbs by licking them (Tabor). There is a stained-glass icon of Cuthbert in York Minster from the late Middle Ages, as well as paintings on the backs of the stalls at Carlisle cathedral (Farmer).
The shrine of Saint Cuthbert is at Durham, but he is also venerated at Ripon and Melrose. His feast is still kept at Meath, Saint Andrews, and the northern dioceses of England (Attwater2). He is the patron of shepherds and seafarers, and invoked against the plague (Roeder). His patronage of sailors was the result of his appearance in the midst of violent storms at sea, wearing his mitre, as late as the 12th century. He is said to have used his crozier sometimes as an oar and at other times as a helm to save the struggling sailors from shipwreck. He is also said to have appeared to King Alfred, the conquering Canute the Dane, William the Conqueror, and others at critical moments. Thus, until the time of Henry VIII, soldiers marched under a sacred standard containing the corporal Cuthbert had used at Mass (D'Arcy).
688 St. Waldetrudis ist Patronin von Mons 7 saints in family renowned for holiness and miracles.
Móntibus, in Hannónia, beátæ Waldetrúdis, vitæ sanctimónia et miráculis claræ.
    At Mons in Hainaut, blessed Waltrude, renowned for holiness and miracles.
Also known as Waltrude or Waudru, she was the daughter of Saints Walbert and Bertilia and sister of St. Aldegunus of Maubeuge. Marrying St. Vincent Madelgarius, she became the mother of saints Landericus, Madalberta, Adeltrudis, and Dentelin. When her husband chose to become a  monk about 643 in the monastery of Hautrnont, France, he had founded, she established a convent at Chateaulieu, around which grew up the town of Mons, Belgium.

688  Waltraud  Orthodoxe und Katholische Kirche: 9. April
Waltraud (Waldetrudis = kraftvolle Herrscherin oder starke Göttliche) stammte aus einem adligen Geschlecht. Ihre Mutter Bertila (Berthild) wurde ebenso als Heilige verehrt wie ihre Schwester Adelgundis (Gedenktag 30.1.), die das Kloster Maubeuge gründete. Waltraud heiratete den Grafen des Hennegau Vinzenz Madelgar (Gedenktag 14.7.) und gebar 4 Kinder, von denen drei (Landicus, Madelberta und Adeltrud) ebenfalls Heilige wurden. Ihr Ehemann und ihre Kinder gingen auf ihren Wunsch in Klöster, sie selber erbaute das Kloster Mons in Castrilocus und wurde dessen Äbtissin. Sie starb am 9.4. um das Jahr 688 und wurde in der Kathedrale von Mons bestattet. Waltraud ist Patronin von Mons.

Waldetrudis of Mons, OSB Widow (RM) (also known as Vaudru, Waltrude, Waudru)  Died April 9, c. 686-688. The family of Saint Waudru, patroness of Mons (Belgium), was amazingly holy, too. Both her parents (Walbert and Bertille) and her sister (Aldegund) were canonized. Her four children were also declared saints (Landericus, Dentelin, Aldetrude, and Madelberte) and so was her husband (Madelgaire).
Madelgaire was the count of Hennegau (Hainault), and one of the courtiers of King Dagobert I. After their children were born both he and Waudru longed to live lives totally devoted to meditation and prayer. He retired to an abbey he had founded at Haumont near Maubeuge, where he took the name Vincent. For two additional years, Waudru remained in the world, devoting herself to the care of the poor and the sick under the direction of Saint Gislenus.
After Madelgaire's death, Waudru received the religious veil from Saint Autbert in 656, built a tiny home for herself near Castriloc (Châteaulieu), and, giving away her possessions, lived there alone. Though she clung to her solitude, her great wisdom and piety meant that countless men and women pressed on her for advice. Eventually Waudru had so many followers that she was obliged to found her own convent at Châteaulieu. She dedicated this convent to the Mother of Jesus, and around it grew the present town of Mons. By the time of Waudru's death she had become famous not only for her charity but also for her miraculous powers of healing, her patience in the face of trials, continual fasting, and prayer. Her relics are considered the most precious treasure of the church that bears her name in Mons (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth, Walsh).
In art, Saint Waudru is depicted protecting her children under her mantle, offering her husband a crucifix, and refusing a crown of roses (Roeder). She is venerated in Mons (Roeder).
690 St. Ywi Benedictine monk and hermit at Lindisfarne Abbey ministry of miraculous healing
Ywi (d.c. 690) + , England. He was ordained a deacon by St. Cuthbert. When Ywi died as a hermit, his relics were enshrined at Wilton, near Salisbury.
IWI Also known as Iwigius; Ywi
Profile Monk. Deacon. Spiritual student of Saint Cuthbert at Lindisfarne. Following the Irish ideal of an exile for Christ, he took ship without bothering to ask its destination, planning to evangelize where it landed. It turned out to be Brittany, where he lived as a hermit and followed a ministry of miraculous healing.

About 250 years later a group of Breton monks carrying the relics of Ivi arrived at Wilton abbey in southwest England. When they were ready to leave they found they could not move the relics; they had found a home at the abbey altar, and the monks were forced to leave them behind. Born 7th v Northumbria, England Died 6 October  natural causes; relics at Wilton Abbey
691 St. Begga daughter of Pepin of Landen mayor of the palace and St. Itta.
 Andániæ, apud Septem Ecclésias, in Bélgio, beátæ Beggæ Víduæ, quæ fuit soror sanctæ Gertrúdis.
     At Andenne, at the Seven Churches, blessed Begga, widow, the sister of St. Gertrude.
693 ST BEGGA, WIDOW
PEPIN of Landen, mayor of the palace to three Frankish kings, and himself commonly called Blessed, was married to a saint, Bd Itta or Ida, and two of their three children figure in the Roman Martyrology: St Gertrude of Nivelles and her elder sister, St Begga. Gertrude refused to marry and was an abbess soon after she was twenty, but Begga married Ansegisilus, son of St Arnulf of Metz, and spent practically the whole of her long life as a nobleman’s wife “in the world”. Of this union was born Pepin of Herstal, the founder of the Carlovingian dynasty in France. After the death of her husband, St Begga in 691 built at Andenne on the Meuse seven chapels representing the Seven Churches of Rome, around a central church, and in connection therewith she established a convent and colonized it with nuns from her long-dead sister’s abbey at Nivelles. It afterwards became a house of canonesses and the Lateran canons regular commemorate St Begga as belonging to their order. She is also venerated by the Béguines of Belgium as their patroness, but the common statement that she founded them is a mistake due to the similarity of the names. St Begga died abbess of Andenne and was buried there.
A life of St Begga, together with some collections of miracles, has been printed in Ghesquière, Acta Sanctorum Belgii, vol. v (1789), pp. 70—125 it is of little historical value. See also Berlière, Monasticon Belge, vol. i, pp. 66—63 and DHG., vol. ii, cc. 1559— 1560. There can he little doubt that the word beguinae, which we first meet about the year 1200 and which, as stated above, has nothing to do with St Begga, was originally a term of reproach used of the Albigensians: see the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, vol. i, cc. 1341-1342.
She married Ansegilius, son of St. Arnulf of Metz, and their son was Pepin of Herstal, founder of the Carolingian dynasty of rulers in France. On the death of her husband in the year 691, she built a church and convent at Andenne on the Meuse River and died there. Her feast day is December 17th.
686-693 Erconwald of London bishop miracles at grave were reported (until the 16th century) miracles recorded touching his couch OSB B (RM)
Londíni, in Anglia, sancti Erconváldi Epíscopi, qui multis miráculis cláruit.
    At London in England, St. Erkenwald, a bishop celebrated for many miracles.
(also known as Erkenwald) Born in East Anglia; died at Barking, April 30, c. 686-693; second feast day on May 13.
Erconwald is reputed to have been of royal blood, son of Annas or Offa. In 675, Saint Theodore of Canterbury appointed Erconwald bishop of the East Saxons with his see in London and extending over Essex and Middlesex. His episcopate was the most important in that diocese between that of Saint Mellitus(624) and Saint Dunstan(909- 988).

His shrine in Saint Paul's Cathedral was a much visited pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages, where miracles were reported until the 16th century, but little is known of his life except that he founded a monastery at Chertsey in Surrey, which he governed, and a convent at Barking in Essex to which he appointed as abbess his sister, Ethelburga(647).
Erconwald took some part in the reconciliation of Saint Theodore with Saint Wilfrid (634-709).
In Saint Bede's (673-735) time, miracles were recorded as a result of touching the couch used by Erconwald in his later years. At his death, Erconwald's relics were claimed by Barking, Chertsey, and London; he was finally buried in Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, which he had enlarged. The relics escaped the fire of 1087 and were placed in the crypt. November 14, 1148, they were translated to a new shrine behind the high altar, from where they were again moved on February 1, 1326 (Attwater, Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Farmer)
Erconwald is portrayed in art as a bishop in a small 'chariot' (the Saxon equivalent of a bath chair) in which he travelled because of his gout. Sometimes there is a woman touching it or he may be shown with Saint Ethelburga of Barking (Roeder).
 Erconwald is invoked against gout (Roeder).
693 St. Florentius of Strasbourg Irish bishop curing the blind and deaf.
Argentoráti sancti Floréntii Epíscopi.    At Strasbourg, St. Florentius, bishop.
of Strasbourg, France. He went to Alsace and there he became a hermit on Mount Ringelberg. After curing the blind and deaf daughter of St. King Dagobert II, he had the king’s patronage in founding a monastery. He was appointed the bishop of Strasbourg and founded St. Thomas Monastery, mostly staffed by Irish.
7th v. ST FLORENTIUS, BISHOP OF STRASBURG
ST FLORENTIUS is said to have been an Irishman, who came to Alsace (of which he is venerated as an apostle) and settled as a hermit in a valley at the foot of the Ringelberg. From thence he preached to the neighbouring people, and, having healed King Dagobert’s daughter, who was a blind-mute, the king enabled him to found a monastery near by, at Haslach. After he had become bishop, about 678, many Irish monks and others came to St Florentius at Strasburg. For these he built a house outside the walls, dedicated in honour of St Thomas the Apostle, which became a monastery under the Irish rule and later a collegiate chapter of canons.

The twelfth-century Life of St Florentius, which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, November, vol. iii, with a full discussion of the difficulties involved, is of no historical value. The date of the saint’s death, whether towards the close of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century must be left quite indeterminate. As Dom Gougaud makes no mention of Florentius either in his Gaelic Pioneers of Christianity (1923) or in his Saints irlandais hors d’Irlande (1936) it may be assumed that he discredits the saint’s supposed Irish origin. See also Duchesne, Fastes Épiscopaux, vol. iii, p. 171; and M. Barth, Der hi. Florentius von Strassburg (1952).
695 St. Fara Burgundofara (Fara) convent Abbess 37 yrs Many English princess-nuns and nun-saints were trained under her, including Saints Gibitrudis, Sethrida, Ethelburga, Ercongotha, Hildelid, Sisetrudis, Hercantrudis, and others miracles after death:
 Eboríaci, in território Meldénsi, sanctæ Burgundofáræ, étiam Faræ nómine appellátæ, Abbatíssæ et Vírginis.
      At Faremoutiers, in the district of Meaux, St. Burgundofara, also known as St. Fara, abbess and virgin.
restoration of sight to Dame Charlotte le Bret

657 ST BURGUNDOFARA, or FARE, VIRGIN
AMONGST the courtiers of King Theodebert II one of the foremost was Count Agneric, three of whose children were destined to be honoured by the Church. They were St Cagnoald of Laon, St Faro of Meaux, and a daughter called Burgundofara (“Fare” in France) who as a child had received a blessing from St Columban when he was a guest at Agneric’s house. The girl was resolved to lead the religious life, but she had to face opposition and even persecution from her father, who wished to bestow her in marriage. The struggle caused her health to give way and she suffered from a prolonged malady which was cured by St Eustace. Even then the count did not at once surrender; but eventually Burgundofara had her way, and her father became so reconciled to her vocation that he built for her a convent which he richly endowed. Of this house, young as she was, she became abbess—in accordance with the custom of the time—and throughout the thirty-seven years of her rule she proved herself a capable and saintly superior. The convent, which in its early days kept the Rule of St Columban, was known by the name of Evoriacum, but after the death of St Burgundofara it was renamed in her honour and developed into the celebrated Benedictine abbey of Faremoutiers.

There are early materials for the life of this saint, particularly an account of the wonderful works wrought at Faremoutiers, written by Abbot Jonas of Bobbio. It is printed by Mabillon in the Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., and has been more recently edited by B. Krusch in MGI-I., Scriptores Merov., vol. iv. St Fare is also mentioned by Bede, Hist. Eccles., iii, ch. 8. Prob­ably this reference by the great English writer, coupled with some confusion between Eboracum (York) and Evoriacum, led to the extraordinary blunder in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology which stated that St Burgundofara died in England. An admirable modern account is that of H. M. Delsart, Sainte Fare, sa vie et son culte (1911).
Daughter of Count Agneric, courtier of King Theodebert II. She refused her father's demands that she marry, and became Abbess of a convent she convinced him to build, and ruled for thirty-seven years. Named Evoriacum, the convent was renamed for her after her death, and in time became the famous Benedictine Abbey of Faremoutiers. She is also known as Fare.

Burgundofara, OSB Abbess V (RM) (also known as Fare, Fara) Born near Meaux; died at Faremoutiers in Brie, France, on April 3, c. 655-657. Sister of Saint Cagnoald, Saint Faro, and Saint Agnetrudis, Fare had been blessed by Saint Columbanus in her infancy during his stay with the family on his way into exile from Luxeuil. Some chroniclers say she was 10 or 15 at the time Columbanus consecrated her to God in a particular manner.
She developed a religious vocation early in spite of the fierce opposition of her father, Count Agneric, one of the principal courtiers of King Theodebert II. He arranged an honorable match for his daughter, which so upset her that she became mortally ill. Still Agneric demanded that she marry.

When Saint Eustace was returning to the court with her brother Cagnoald from his embassy to Columbanus, he stayed in the home of Agneric. Fare disclosed to him her vocation. Eustace told her father that Fare was deathly ill because he opposed her pious inclinations. The saintly man prostrated himself for a time in prayer, rose, and made the sign of the cross upon Fare's eyes. Immediately her health was restored.

Eustace asked her mother, Leodegonda, to prepare Fare to receive the veil when he returned to court. As soon as the saint left, Agneric again began to harass his daughter. She sought sanctuary in the church when he threatened to kill her if she did not comply with this wishes. Eustace returned and reconciled father and daughter. He then arranged for Fare to be professed before Bishop Gondoald of Meaux in 614.

A year or two later, Fare convinced her father to build her a double monastery, originally named Brige (Brie, which is Celtic for "bridge") or Evoriacum, now called Faremoutiers (Fare's monastery). The chronicler Jonas, a monk in that abbey, wrote about many of the holy people he knew there, including Saint Cagnoald and Saint Walbert.

Although Fare was still very young, she was appointed its first abbess and governed the monastery under the Rule of Saint Columbanus for 37 years. The rule was severe. The use of wine and milk was forbidden (at least during penitential seasons). The inhabitants confessed three times each day to encourage a habitual watchfulness for the attainment of purity of heart. Masses were said daily in the monastery for 30 days for the soul of those religious who died.

Fare was apparently an excellent directress of souls. Many English princess-nuns and nun-saints were trained under her, including Saints Gibitrudis, Sethrida, Ethelburga, Ercongotha, Hildelid, Sisetrudis, Hercantrudis, and others. Once when her younger brother, Saint Faro, was visiting, he was so moved by her heavenly discourses that he resigned the great offices which he held at court, persuaded his fiancé to become a nun, and took the clerical tonsure. After he succeeded Gondoald as bishop, Faro supported his sister against attempts to mitigate the severity of the Rule.

A reference is made to Fare by Bede led long afterwards to the mistaken idea that she died in England; however, she died at Faremoutiers after a painful, lingering illness. Her will bequeathed some of her lands to her siblings, but the rest to the monastery, includng her lands at Champeaux on which a monastery was later erected.

Fare's relics were enshrined in 695 and many miracles were attributed to her intercession. Among them is the restoration of sight to Dame Charlotte le Bret, daughter to the first president and treasurer-general of finance in the district of Paris. At the age of seven (1602), her left eye was put out. She became a nun at Faremoutiers in 1609 and lost the sight in her remaining eye in 1617 due to an irreversible eye disease. Because she suffered terrible pain in her eyes and the adjacent nerves, remedies were applied to destroy all feeling in the area. In 1622, she kissed one of the exposed bones of Saint Fare and touched it to both eyes. She had feeling again. Upon repeating the action, her sight was restored--instantly and perfectly. Physicians and witnesses testified in writing to her state before and after this miracle, which was certified as such be Bishop John de Vieupont of Meaux on December 9, 1622.

The affidavit of the abbess, Frances de la Chastre, and the community also mentioned two other miraculous cures of palsy and rheumatism. Other miracles wrought at the intercession of Saint Fare are recorded by Carcat and du Plessis (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).

Saint Burgundofara is depicted in art as an abbess with an ear of corn. Sometimes she may be shown in the scene where Saint Columbanus blesses a child (Roeder). She is honored especially in France and Sicily (Husenbeth).
695 St. Angadresma French abbess leprosy (dissapeared) miracle worker many miracles

ST ANGADRISMA,
ANGADRISMA (Angadréme) was brought up under the eye of St Omer, in whose diocese of Thérouanne she lived, and of her cousin St Lambert of Lyons, then a monk at Fontenelle. It was probably his influence and example that helped her to her resolution to become a nun, although her father had promised her in marriage to St Ansbert, the young lord of Chaussy. It is said that Angadrisma asked God to make her so physically repulsive as to put marriage out of the question, and that she was accordingly visited with leprosy. Be that as it may, Ansbert married someone else (later in life he was abbot of Fontenelle and then bishop of Rouen) and Angadrisma received the religious habit from the hands of St Ouen, on which occasion her disease disappeared, leaving her more beautiful than ever. She was an exemplary nun in the convent assigned to her, and was later transferred to a Benedictine monastery called Oroër near Beauvais, of which she became abbess. The prudence of her direction and holiness of life were rewarded by the gift of miracles, in one of which she is said to have stopped an outbreak of fire which threatened to devastate the whole house, by opposing to it the relics of St Ebrulfus, founder of the monastery. She died when over eighty years of age.

In the notice of this saint which appears in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. vi, the text of the Latin life from which Mabillon quoted (vol. ii, pp. 1016-1018) has not been printed at length. See also the Vita Ansberti in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. v ; Vacandard, Vie de S. Ouen, pp. 191, 192, 204; and, for further references, DHG., vol. iii, cc. 3-4.
Angadresma was born in 615 and was educated by St. Omer. Her cousin, who aided in her training, was St Iaambert. Angadresma was betrothed to St. Ansbert of Chausey but prayed to be allowed a religious vocation. She contracted leprosy, and Ansbert married another. The disease disappeared after the ceremony when she entered a monastery and was received there by St. Ouen. Angadresma became the abbess of a Benedictine monastery, Arver, near Beauvais, France. She is reported to have performed many miracles.
695 Aquilinus of Evreux served Clovis II 40 years; hermit; blind bishop giving alms;  his zeal, which God approved by the gift of miracles B (RM)
Ebróicis, in Gállia, sancti Aquilíni, Epíscopi et Confessóris.    At Evreux in France, St. Aquilinus, bishop and confessor.

695 St Aquilinus, Bishop of Evreux; his zeal, which God approved by the gift of miracles
Like many other Frankish saints of the Merovingian era, Aquilinus spent years in courts and camps before entering the clerical state and attaining the episcopate. He was a native of Bayeux, born there about the year 620. He fought in the wars of Clovis II, and on returning from a campaign against the Visigoths met his wife at Chartres. They there determined to devote the rest of their days to the direct service of God and His poor, he being then about forty years old. They went to Evreux, where they lived quietly for ten years when, on the death of St Aeternus, St Aquilinus was considered the most worthy to succeed to the see.
  He was frightened of the distractions inseparable from the episcopate and sought to live rather as a hermit than a bishop.  He had a cell built near to his cathedral, whither he retired whenever opportunity offered to spend long hours in prayer and penance on behalf of the flock which he had been called on to govern. During his last years St Aquilinus was deprived of his sight, but it made no difference to his zeal, which God approved by the gift of miracles.

There is a late biography, which is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. viii. See also Mesnel, Les saints du diocese d’ Évreux, part v (1916); and Duchesne, Pastes Épiscopaux, vol. ii, p. 227.
Born in Bayeux, France, c. 620. Saint Aquilinus served Clovis II for 40 years. Upon returning from the war against the Visigoths, he and his wife retired to Evreux to devote themselves to works of charity. Although Aquilinus was consecrated bishop of the city when his virtue became known, he managed to continue his life as a hermit while fulfilling the duties of this office. In art, Aquilinus is portrayed as a blind bishop giving alms (Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Roeder)
A military man who served King Clovis II. Aquilinus was born about 620 in Bayeux, France, and became a soldier, serving for forty years in the military. In 660, he returned to Chartres, in France, and married. He and his wife moved to Evreux and worked for the poor and suffering. In 670, Aquilinus was named bishop of Evreux, but he lived as a hermit most of the time.
699 St. Claud in the twelfth century body discovered incorrupt miraculous cures took place.
St. Claud is said to have been born in Franche-Comte', of a senatorial family, and after his ordination he became one of the clergy of Besancon. According to the generally accepted tradition, he retired twelve years later to the monastery of Condate, or, as it is now called, Saint-Claude, in the Jura mountains, where he lived a most holy and austere life. Raised to the position of Abbot, he introduced or enforced the Rule of St. Benedict and restored the monastic buildings. In 685 he was chosen Bishop of Besancon.
He was, by all accounts, already an old man and most unwilling to accept the dignity. Nevertheless, he ruled the diocese wisely and well for seven years. He then resigned and went back to Condate, the direction of which he had retained during his episcopate. He died in 699, at a very advanced age. Another tradition represents St. Claud as having remained a secular priest until his elevation to the episcopate, and only to have retired to the monastery after vacating his office.
The cultus of St. Claud became widespread in the twelfth century when his body was discovered to be incorrupt. His burial place was for centuries a favorite place of pilgrimage at which miraculous cures took place. The cultus of St. Claud became widespread in the twelfth century when his body was discovered to be incorrupt. His burial place was for centuries a favorite place of pilgrimage at which
miraculous cures took place.
7th v. St. Cataldus Bishop of Taranto an Irish churchman.
Apud Taréntum sancti Catáldi Epíscopi, miráculis clari.     At Taranto, St. Cataldus, a bishop renowned for miracles.
 
7th century, in southern Italy, an Irish churchman. He was born in Munster, Ireland, and became a student and then headmaster of Lismore, the monastic school in his home region. On return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was elected to the see of Taranto. He is patron of Taranto.

Catald of Taranto B (RM) (also known as Cataldus, Cathaluds, Cattaldo, Cathal) Born in Munster, Ireland, 7th century. Saint Cataldus was a pupil, then the headmaster of the monastic school of Lismore in Waterford after the death of its founder, Saint Carthage(Born at Castlemaine, Kerry, Ireland; died near Lismore, Ireland, on May 14, c. 637;) Upon his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was shipwrecked at Taranto in southern Italy and chosen by the people as their bishop. He is the titular of Taranto's cathedral and the principal patron of the diocese. This epitaph if given under an image of Saint Catald in Rome:

Me tulit Hiberne, Solyme traxere, Tarentum Nunc tenet: huic ritus, dogmata, jura dedi.
Which has been loosely translated as: Hibernia gave me birth: thence wafted over, I sought the sacred Solymean shore. To thee Tarentum, holy rites I gave, Precept divine; and thou to me a grave.

It is odd that an Irishman, should be so honored throughout Italy, Malta, and France, but have almost no recognition in his homeland. His Irish origins were discovered only two or three centuries after his death, when his relic were recovered during the renovation of the cathedral of Taranto. A small golden cross, of 7th- or 8th- century Irish workmanship, was with the relics. Further investigations identified him with Cathal, the teacher of Lismore.

Veneration to Catald spread, especially in southern Italy, after the May 10, 1017, translation of his relics when the cathedral was being rebuilt following its destruction at the hands of Saracens in 927. Four remarkable cures occurred as the relics were moved to the new cathedral. When his coffin was open at that time, a pastoral staff of Irish workmanship was found with the inscription Cathaldus Rachau. There is a town of San Cataldo in Sicily and another on the southeast coast of Italy (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Farmer, Husenbeth, Kenney, Montague, Neeson, Tommasini).
Saint Catald is depicted in art as an early Christian bishop with a miter and pallium in a 12th century mosaic at Palermo (Roeder). He is the subject of a painting on the 8th pillar of the nave on the left in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem (D'Arcy, Montague). There are also 12th-century mosaics in Palermo and Monreale depicting the saint (Farmer). Catald is invoked against plagues, drought, and storms (Farmer).
7th v. Saint Phosterius the Hermit led an ascetical life on a lofty mountain, where he was fed by an angel. He brought many back to the Church from the heresy of Iconoclasm by his miracles and saintly life.
Tradition teaches that Saint Phosterius the Hermit dwelt on a high mountain most likely in the wilderness of modern day Turkey.  He is said to have been fed by an angel which serves as a testament to his holiness.  Phosterius gained renown amongst his contemporaries during the Iconoclastic Controversy in the seventh century. Due to the testimony to the truth of the Christian faith given by the witness of his holy life many people left the heresy of Iconoclasm.
Saint Phosterius is commemorated 5 January in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches.