Donan

ON SAINT DONAN,

ABBOT IN SCOTLAND.

11TH CENTURY.

Donan, Abbot in Scotland (St.)

G. H.

[1] The Breviary printed at Edinburgh, the royal city of Scotland, in the year 1509, for the use of the Church of Aberdeen and the rest of Scotland, leads us into the most certain cult and veneration of St. Donan the Abbot in Scotland, when on April 17 it prescribes that at Matins there be nine lessons from the Common of one Confessor and Abbot, Sacred cult in the Aberdeen Breviary and this in the church dedicated to him, when it falls within the Passion of the Lord; but if after Easter, let there be only three lessons of him, with the regimen of the choir of the Paschal time. Everything from the Common, with the following oration: "Almighty and eternal God, because we raise our souls to thee, forget the offences of our youth, we beseech thee, by the intercession of Blessed Donan thy Confessor and Abbot; deign to pardon clemently the things we have negligently done amiss." In the title he is said to have lived under King Machabius in the year 640, or rather 1046 or thereabouts.

[2] Encomium from Camerarius David Camerarius composed this encomium for him in his Scottish Menology: "St. Donan, Abbot of Tangland, who in the religious palaestra had so much advanced in the school of Christ in a brief space of time, and had so ardently run the way of Christ, that he left his equals at a long interval behind him in the heap of all virtues; he submitted himself to all, and thought himself blessed if he were despised by all; nor was any voice sweeter to his ears than one chiding and reprehending; and far more ardently St. Donan thirsted for insults and ignominies than others for glory and the honor of their name. In the subduing and mortifying of the body, there was no end with Donan. And as he was of weak health, even in those very sicknesses, in which the mind of the sick is wont to be more broken, he both kept constancy and equanimity of mind always in such a way, that he was not broken by the inconveniences of a more bitter illness, nor did he desert the accustomed duties of piety and devotion. Donan the Saint was held in high esteem for the ornaments of his virtues by Duncan, King of the Scots, who, by the example of Saint Donan, is said to have been of wonderful mildness of mind, and most ready to forgive. Donan the Saint departed to the heavens in the year of Christ 1044. Concerning him see the Regius Calendar and others."

[3] From the same cited Regius Calendar, and Dempster Thomas Dempster has this in his Scottish Menology: "Of Donan the Abbot in Achterles, whose staff carried around cured any sickness." The same Dempster in book 4 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, number 377, has this: "St. Donan the Abbot, in that golden age of the Saints, shone with incomparable sanctity of life; the staff the heretics destroyed, which carried around used to cure fever and jaundice. He lived in the year 640. He is venerated on April 17, Scottish Breviary. Patron in Achterles, the Barony of Thomas Dempster, whose holy Relics were elevated on April 18, and the fair is frequented all through that tract." So Dempster, with a little index of the books published by him, which, as spurious, we omit. Ferrarius in the general Catalogue celebrates the same Donan, and in the Notes cites some things from Dempster.

[4] Time of his life Thus the said authors. The aforementioned King Machabius, by others Machabaeus, is set by John Leslie as having reigned from the year 1046 to the year 1061 of the same century. There succeeded Malcolm III, Donald VI, then Duncan I from 1093 to 1109, with whom Camerarius says St. Donan was held in great esteem. But these things are far from the year 640, which Dempster took from a corrupt impression of the Breviary. Whether he was pleasing to Duncan as already King, or rather as still a youth (which last would be more fitting to the earlier relation), we leave to the reader's judgment.

ON BLESSED GERVIN,

ABBOT OF OUDENBURG IN FLANDERS.

IN THE YEAR 1117.

Gervin, Abbot of Oudenburg, in Flanders (Bl.)

BY G. H.

Oudenburg, a town of Flanders not far from Ostend, about whose antiquity, what is scattered by various writers, collected, may be read in Antonius Sanderus, volume 1 of Flanders Illustrated, page 316 and following. Among the illustrious preachers of the divine word it venerates St. Ursmar, Bishop and Abbot of Lobbes, whose Acts we illustrate on the following day, April 18. There is in the same place a Benedictine monastery, Ancient Acts lost fitted for the uses of monks by St. Arnulph Bishop of Soissons (as will be said on August 16 at his Life); to whom succeeded another Arnulph, the nephew of the said Saint by his sister, who died in the year 1095. To him was substituted Gervin, of whom we here treat; and we were very solicitous to obtain the ancient records of him, written by Hariulph his successor, but in vain: although every diligence was applied by Ignatius de Meyer, a priest of our Society, who lives at Bruges, a city sufficiently nearby. We therefore give what is had in John Molanus in the Natales Sanctorum of Belgium on this April 17 under this title.

On Blessed Gervin, second Abbot in Oudenburg.

From the Book of Obits, and the Life written by Hariulph his successor.

[2] Encomium of his life from Molanus "On the 15th day before the Kalends of May, died the Lord Gervin, formerly the second Abbot of the monastery at Oudenburg. He was a Fleming by nation, of moderate birth; twice from ardor of faith he went to Jerusalem; he visited Rome and other holy places. And when his relatives and kinsmen did not rightly understand his innocent and pious life, he withdrew to the monastery of St. Winoc, where he ascended to the grade of the Presbyterate under the Bishop of Thérouanne. He also implored the help of St. Nicholas, when merchants had transferred him to Bari. He dwelt in the forest of the Abbot of Corbie, then as a recluse under the basilica of St. Peter at Oudenburg, because that place was illustrious for signs of miracles through the dignity of St. Peter. Afterwards he fixed his seat near Mount Cassel, until he was elected Abbot by the Brethren of Oudenburg, who had known his life in holy actions. To whom at last, being elected, he yielded, receiving the blessing at Ghent from Lambert, Bishop of Tournai. He often healed the possessed and lunatics; in prophecy he was famous. For forty years he abstained from flesh and fat. He did not allow gifts of the powerful, who prevailed by iniquity, to be accepted. For the rest, preferring the solitary life to the Abbatial, having resigned the latter, he returned to this, by withdrawing into Waes to the forest of Cosfort, where he built a little church: near which he died in the year 1117. Which things all would be unknown to us, unless there were extant to William Archbishop of Canterbury the dialogues of Hariulph on the Miracles of St. Peter the Apostle at Oudenburg, and on the Life of Gervin his predecessor."

[3] memory in other calendars This is Molanus, whom Miraeus in the Belgian Fasti describes, Antonius Sanderus in the Hagiology of Flanders, first printed at Antwerp in the year 1625, then reprinted at Lille in the year 1639; Ferrarius in the general Catalogue; Hugo Menardus and Gabriel Bucelinus in the Benedictine Martyrologies; Baldwin Willot in the Belgian Martyrology published in French, who copied the encomium of Menardus, as it is had in the calendars in these words: "In Waes, the forest of Cosfort, the deposition of Blessed Gervin, Abbot of Oudenburg. The rest Menardus has in book 2 of the Observations." There was published at Cologne in the year 1660 the Life of Blessed Gervin, Confessor and Abbot of the monastery of Oudenburg in Flanders, of the Order of St. Benedict, collected and edited by Friar Gervin Oeckhoven of Cologne, of the Order of the Friars Hermits of St. Augustine, a Presbyter, Some Life published at Cologne to the Most Distinguished man Lord Gervin Meinersthagen, Doctor of Both Laws and primary Professor of the same in the Alma University of the Ubii, also Syndic of the free and Imperial city of Cologne. So on the title page; then is subjoined an image with this inscription: "St. Gervin Abbot of Oudenburg, a Fleming, for 40 years abstained from flesh, healed the possessed and lunatics, withdrew into Waes to the forest of Cosfort; there he died in the year 1117, on April 17." In tracing out his Life, the author has many digressions, and adds that in the monastery of St. Winoc, where he professed the monastic life, his effigy is extant with a radiant head, and that he is held there, as also at Oudenburg, as a Saint or Blessed, and this title is safely accorded him; and he concludes with a prayer to Blessed Gervin in this manner: "We pray thee, Lord God, almighty Father, receive the prayer of thy servants, that, recalling the memory of Blessed Gervin, by his merits and intercession, we may be freed from all adversities in the body, and cleansed from wicked thoughts in the mind. Through our Lord," etc. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology places him among the Saints in these words: "On the same day, in the monastery of Oudenburg, the deposition of Saint Gervin, second Abbot and Confessor of the same place, a man most famous for the example of a religious life and for the spirit of prophecy." The Reverend Lord Amandus Belver, a Benedictine Religious in the Abbey of St. Winoc, sent us from his own Benedictine Memorial written an encomium of his, with this beginning: "Blessed Gervin of Cassel, born in a common place, in his youth twice set out to Rome and Jerusalem for the sake of devotion." The rest, contained in the encomium of Molanus, we omit.