ON ST. GURLOESIUS, ABBOT OF THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT, IN THE MONASTERY OF QUIMPERLÉ IN LESSER BRITAIN,
In the year MLVII.
COLLECTION.
Knowledge of the place, the Saint's prefecture, its time, and his worship.
Gurloesius, abbot, of the Order of St. Benedict, in the monastery of Quimperlé in Lesser Britain (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
The Sammarthani, in tome 4 of Gallia
Christiana, page 551, thus describe the place of this monastery: Knowledge of this monastery, The city of lower Armorica, Kemperlegium (commonly Kemperle), built between two rivers, namely the Ellé and the Isole.., in which is a monastery of the Order of St. Benedict of the diocese of Quimper. Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the same Order, century VI, part 2, page 107 and following, gathered various things concerning this holy Abbot, and on the same occasion treats of the beginnings and restoration of the said monastery: The monastery, he says, of the holy Cross of Quimperlé, which many will have to have existed for many past centuries, everyone acknowledges to have been repaired and newly built at the beginning of this eleventh century. Concerning its first foundation, which is wont to be carried back to the sixth century, nothing certain is established, except that Guthiern, or Gurchiern, who is said to have been the first to preside over that place, is even now reviewed among the Saints who are patrons of the place: but his Acts are utterly unknown, or certainly such as do not deserve to see the light. That a church was dedicated under his name in the year MLXXXIX by Benedict, bishop of Quimper, we learn from the Chronicle of Quimperlé, which was published by that most distinguished man Stephen Baluze in tome 1 of the Miscellanea, page 520. About the same time the relics of that same Saint are said to have been found "together with a part of the head of holy Guemnoloeus, and the relics of Paulennanus, and Symphorianus, and Tenenanus, and Guedianus, and Guenhaelus, and Idinaelus, and of others." Which Saints are almost all unknown. Thus Mabillon.
[2] He then writes of the repair of the monastery of Quimperlé made in the XI century, its restoration, the etymology; the Saint's prefecture in it; and of its author Alan. But why the name of the holy Cross was given to the monastery, he records to have come about from this, that that Alan had been freed from a most grievous disease with which he had been afflicted by the power of the holy cross, whose appearance he had seen in sleep. And presently the same author brings forward an instrument from the brief history of the praised monastery by Gurherden, a monk of Quimperlé, which seems to him to have been written in the XII century; where also the gifts are recorded which were granted to that same monastery. And so the first to bear the prefecture in it was our Saint, as Mabillon narrates from the said instrument in these words: To preside therefore over this monastery, a man of the highest honorableness and discipline, holy Gurloesius, was chosen from the monastery of holy Salvator, Cantuvallon abbot of that place and the brethren assenting, and being briskly present at his appointment. Whom, being offered to him, the aforesaid Count (Alan), receiving him with ineffable exultation, in the presence of Orscand the bishop his brother and of the nobles of Cornugallia, gave him, as he had conceived in mind, the whole island of Guedel &c.
[3] its beginning, In what year St. Gurloesius's appointment took place the Chronicle of Quimperlé in Baluze, cited above, page 521, reports. For it has these words at the year 1029: The monastery of the holy Cross of Quimperlé is built by Alan count of Cornugallia, and there Guorloesius is blessed as abbot by Orscand the bishop. With this Chronicle, as Mabillon testifies at page 109, Gurherden agrees in the date which he subjoins to the donations made by Alan. Although in this he gravely erred, that he joined this year, and likewise the XII Indiction, and Robert's reign, with the pontificate of Leo IX. Orscand or Auriscand is said to have been consecrated bishop of Quimper in the year 1022, and to have died in the year 1074, in Albert le Grand of Morlaix in the Work On the Saints of Armoric Britain, or in the Catalogue of the bishops of Quimper which is appended to that same Work, page 172; but in Gallia Christiana, tome 2, folio 551, it is written that he consecrated .. the church of St. Guthiern about MLXIV, in which year he departed from human things. Which year is true, or whether neither, we leave to be examined by the authors of the new edition of Gallia Christiana. Concerning the monastery of holy Salvator, or of Rothanum, commonly Redon or Rhedon, in the diocese of Vannes, and its abbot, of whom mention was made above, the Sammarthani in Gallia Christiana, tome 4, from page 798, and the Benedictine Annals, tome 4, page 510, and tome 2, page 543, may be consulted.
[4] and its end: Further, to return to St. Gurloesius, Mabillon in the Acts which we designated above, page 109, confesses that it is unascertained by him what he did, apart from the sanctity of his life and the miracles by which he shone. Both are proved, first and briefly, from the Chronicle of Quimperlé, which was cited before, page 522: MLVII. The passing of holy Guorloesius, abbot of the monastery of the holy Cross of Quimperlé. Secondly from Gurherden, whom Mabillon in the same place recites as thus writing of him: Holy Gurloesius therefore, being the first abbot of the church of the holy Cross, governed it for twenty-five years in quiet and good peace, through whom in his life God showed many miracles, and now also in death more are declared by daily use. But that it was not permitted him to learn more of this Man's deeds than the following things, which he relates from Gurherden, the same founder of the Acts affirms; whom, treating of the fellowship entered upon, as the same Annalist premises, between the men of Redon and those of Quimperlé, which Hervey abbot of Redon in the following century tried to violate, he thus recites: But it must be known that Catuvallon, abbot of holy Salvator, was a coadjutor of the foundation of the church of the holy Cross. For he sent his own Prior, holy Gurloesius, to the Count as abbot. Who also gave them the brotherhood which he received from the abbot and brethren in life and in death: which pact is to this day kept in writing between both.
[5] The holy Abbot's death-year we have just marked from the praised Chronicle of Quimperlé. his death-year: But some difficulty presented itself to Mabillon concerning the years of his prefecture, which he thus proposes and solves: Yet Gurherden allows Gurloesius only twenty-five years of rule. But between the year XXIII (rather XXIX), in which Gurloesius is said to have been established abbot, and the year MLVII, twenty-eight years intervene. But this difficulty will make no trouble, if Gurloesius be said to have abdicated the governance of the monastery three years before his death, that he might more freely be at leisure for God: which that it was done by him we conjecture from this, that John and some of his next successors did the same, as is easily gathered from the praised Chronicle.
[6] It remains that we prove the man's public worship from time immemorial before the decree of Pope Urban VIII. veneration First, his sacred body was elevated in the year 1083, as the Chronicle reports which we have already alleged so often, and which at that year has thus, page 523: The body of blessed Guorloesius is raised from the tomb. Add from Mabillon that the matter happened at the time in which Benedict, brother of Count Hoel, from a monk of Landévennec at once abbot of Quimperlé and bishop of Nantes, was in office. At this solemnity Count Hoel himself is said to have been present with his two sons, Alan and Mathias. Secondly, concerning Gurloesius's being reckoned in the number of the dwellers in heaven there was indeed action; but whether, and what, was accomplished in this matter is hidden, Mabillon testifying: Nay, he says, that Benedict earnestly begged a solemn canonization of holy Gurloesius from the Roman Pontiff we learn from a fragment of Urban II's epistle given to him, in which the Pontiff answers that he cannot perform it unless there be present suitable witnesses who may bear testimony concerning the life and miracles of the Saint whose canonization is asked. "Further," says the Pontiff, "as to what thou hast sought of a judgment from our authority concerning the celebration of blessed Gurloesius, it could not be granted with the same ease. For no one of the Saints ought to be mingled with the canons unless there be present witnesses who may attest with their own eyes the miracles seen of him, and unless it be confirmed by the common assent of a plenary synod." What was done in this matter is unascertained by us. Thus he. It is useful here to observe that our Saint, the cause of his solemn canonization not yet begun, is named by the praised Pontiff with the title of blessed.
[7] public. Thirdly, the worship of blessed Gurloesius, as Mabillon affirms, was not intermitted among the Bretons, and chiefly in the monastery of Quimperlé, and perseveres celebrated to this day. His tomb, rising above the ground, is beheld in a special chapel, with his effigy, which represents him adorned with priestly vestments. But the sacred bones of the blessed Abbot, together with the other relics of the patrons of the place, laid in cases, are celebrated with the greatest concourse of the faithful, most of all on the XXX day of August, on which is his solemn festivity. Deservedly therefore Castellan, in the Supplement to his Universal Martyrology, on this day, page 703, announces St. Garloesius, commonly S. Urloux, as he calls him in Latin and in French.