ON ST. MUMMOLUS, ABBOT AND CONF.,
At Bordeaux in Gaul.
Seventh century.
CommentaryMummolus, abbot and confessor, at Bordeaux in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Concerning this Saint's cult rather than concerning the deeds of his life we must here treat, He enjoys an ancient cult, since Mabillon confesses, in century 2 of the Saints of his Order, page 674, that few things are held ascertained concerning the deeds of St. Mummolus, abbot of Fleury: so that one would have to doubt even about the name from the Martyrologies, some writing Mummolus, others Mommuralus, others Mommolenus or Mommolinus, were it not that the added dignity of abbot of Fleury abundantly teaches that the discourse is of one and the same man. Although he flourished in the seventh century, yet among the classic Martyrologists he is not known; among the supplements of Usuard, Bellinus first placed him, announcing him in this manner in his second edition: At Bordeaux, the deposition of Mommuralus, abbot of the monastery of Fleury, which in just so many words Molanus transcribed in his earlier edition, in others correcting the name thus: At Bordeaux, the deposition of Mommolus, abbot of the monastery of Fleury, in which manner also it is expressed in the ancient Martyrology of Fleury in Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, volume 1, page 546, although in the manuscript Breviary of the monastery of the Holy Cross, where the Saint's sepulcher and relics are shown, he is venerated under the name of St. Mummolenus (commonly Mommolin), on the testimony again of Mabillon in the Acts, page 676, number 7.
[2] and that at Bordeaux a very solemn one. In the same place in the following number there is reported his faulty epitaph, most deservedly corrected and restored by the praised Mabillon, from which the Chronologer of Bordeaux, Darnal, on page 10 of his work in good faith wrote that the Saint lived three hundred and seventy years, where most probably one must read "about seventy years." The same Chronologer could testify more certainly that his memory is recalled every year on this day in the monastery of the Holy Cross, which Mabillon thus reports, page 678, number 12: St. Mummolus is venerated and frequented on the sixth of the Ides of August and for eight continuous days by the people of Bordeaux with great devotion, and is said rather often to heal aching heads. His memory is recorded in the very ancient Martyrology of Fleury, written in the year 1087, on the sixth of the Kalends of August, and indeed by the original hand, in this manner: Of Mummolus the abbot, which in the more ancient Martyrology is inscribed by a more recent hand. His relics are preserved in our monastery of the Holy Cross at Bordeaux in a marble monument, resting on columns likewise of marble, and clothed with a gilded wooden case, besides one arm which is enclosed in a silver shrine.
[3] The things which are recorded there and in the Annals concerning the beginnings of the monastery of Fleury do not pertain here, Was he the first abbot of Fleury? nor the explanation of the exchange made with the king, by which an estate was obtained from Leodebaud, abbot at St. Anianus's, where the monastery of Fleury might be founded: let it suffice us to pursue the Saint's cult, that disputation also being passed over, whether he was truly the first, or only the second abbot of that monastery. Mabillon, now cited more than once, in volume 1 of the Annals, page 380, says that Rigomarus was appointed the first abbot, and, when he died after five years, Mummolus. But Menard in his observation on the Martyrology of the Order on this day thus roundly pronounces: St. Mummolus was the first abbot of the monastery of Fleury, who, as had been divinely revealed to him, sent St. Aigulphus his disciple to Monte Cassino, that he might carry away thence to Fleury the relics of our holy Father Benedict, and buried them honorably in the place shown him by God, as Adrevald teaches in the book on the translation of the body of St. Benedict. Afterward he made a pilgrimage into farthest Spain, bound by a vow, to the sepulcher of St. James. Returning thence he came to Bordeaux; and there in the monastery of the Holy Cross rendered up his spirit to his creator, as dom Jean d'Arnal, a monk of the same place, reports in the Life which he composed concerning St. Mummolus.
[4] What Life of St. Mummolus Menard here obtrudes on us, who could sufficiently conjecture, after those things which we said above from Mabillon concerning his little-ascertained affairs? Returning from St. James's he dies at Bordeaux. Certainly fabulous is the pilgrimage to the sepulcher of St. James which is built up in the cited Chronicle and here, for the century in which the Saint lived, the seventh, and any others whatsoever asserted elsewhere before the ninth century, all of which you will find rejected in the Commentary on the Acts of St. James, the XXV of July, volume VI of that month, from page 32; so that others more rightly judge that the Saint set out to Bordeaux to propagate his Benedictine Order, and perhaps to found that very monastery of the Holy Cross in which he closed his last day about the year 679, and was thereafter religiously venerated there, as we have already sufficiently noted. There is adduced in the Annals, volume 1, page 546, a little more distinctly the testimony of the ancient Martyrology of Fleury, in which it is thus read: The sixth of the Ides of August, at Bordeaux, the deposition of St. Mummolus the abbot. The Annalist further adds: on which day in that city, as we have already reported from the Acts, as also among the men of Fleury, his memory is festively celebrated. And these things do not permit doubt concerning the ancient and constant veneration exhibited to St. Mummolus.
[5] [He is praised because he took care that the body of St. Benedict be carried into Gaul.] The chief memorable deed of St. Mummolus which has come down to us is that which we have already touched upon from Menard, and which is narrated a little more distinctly in the cited Annals, page 428: namely the translation of the body of St. Benedict into Gaul procured by him in the year 653 while he governed the monastery of Fleury: Who, being assiduous in the reading of the sacred books, when he was diligently unrolling the books of the Dialogues written by Blessed Gregory, Pope, lamented the destruction of the monastery of Cassino, overthrown by the Lombards, chiefly for this cause, that beneath those ruins the sacred body of the most blessed Father lay buried and neglected. At length there came upon his mind an impressed thought, that he should dig out so great a treasure from those ruins and transfer it to his own monastery. No one seemed to him more fit for this work than Aigulphus the monk. The Life of this Saint also is extant in the said volume 2, page 658, in which at number 6 Adrevald pursues the matter, saying: If anyone more scrupulously desires to know the discernment of this deed, he will be able to learn it by the reading of the little book composed on this matter. Nor is it to be fetched from far, since it is had in the same volume so often cited from page 337; which matter can also be read more briefly in Le Bosc in the Library of Fleury, chapter 11, page 28.
[6] The rest in the eulogy of Saussay. In few words Saussay has embraced all that can be said concerning St. Mummolus, in his eulogy, which deserves at last to be transcribed here: At Bordeaux, the deposition of holy Mummolus, first abbot of Fleury and confessor. He, when Leodebod, abbot of St. Anianus of Orleans, a man of much piety, built a basilica on the Loire in honor of the most holy Mother of God and of Peter, prince of the Apostles, was shining with the marks of an admirable sanctity. On account of which, being reverently summoned by Leodebod himself, he was there set as abbot over the ascetics whom he had gathered, not a few; and by his happy government brought so great honor to the new religious company coming together, that by his holy institutions and examples he advanced it to the reputation of the ancient monasteries which still retained the ancient glories of piety. And that he might support it with the protections of the Patriarch of the religious, he sent Aigulphus his most beloved disciple, afterward his successor and a martyr, not without divine inspiration, to Cassino to bring the most sacred relics of holy Benedict, lying in neglect, and, having obtained his wishes, he received the same with befitting veneration, and placed them with due cult in the sanctuary of Fleury, where hitherto they rest. After these things the man of God, out of zeal for increasing piety, proceeded to Bordeaux, where, while he devoted himself to the gains of souls, being sufficiently enriched with the interest of his talents, the Lord inviting him to the reward, by a happy closing he ended the course of his holy manner of life. But, being buried in the church of the Holy Cross, he wrought magnificent marvels, by which, as he powerfully aided the people, so also he procured an everlasting veneration for his memory.