CONCERNING ST. EHOARNUS, HERMIT AND MARTYR, IN BRITTANY (ARMORICA).
CIRCA THE YEAR 1020.
CommentaryEhoarnus, Hermit and Martyr in Brittany (Armorica) (Saint)
G.H.
[1] Between the Nannetes and the Curiosolites, peoples of Armorican Brittany, are the Veneti, among whom, on the left bank of the river Blavet, stands the monastery of St. Gildas, which is commonly called St. Gildas de Rhuys -- otherwise Rivense, Ripense, Ruyense, Ruitiense, or Reum-visii -- In the monastery of St. Gildas, as we said on January 29, in the Life of St. Gildas the Wise, Abbot and founder of this monastery, constructed in the sixth century of Christ, but destroyed by the Normans in the time of Duke Alan I, who ruled from 894 to 907. The author of the Life of St. Gildas narrates in chapter 6, number 35, that the monk Felix was sent in the year 1008 by Abbot Goscelin of Fleury to Count Geoffrey, for the purpose of restoring the monasteries of Brittany. Then, in number 38, he writes that sixteen years later, restored around the year 1024, namely in 1024, he returned to the monastery of Fleury, but was sent back again and at last began to restore the monastery of St. Gildas. At which time St. Ehoarnus was slain there, as the same writer narrates in chapter 7, number 40:
[2] "There was in that same place at that time a certain servant of God, St. Ehoarnus was slain by a robber, leading a solitary life, named Ehoarn. Robbers, falling upon him by night, dragged him from the dwelling attached to the church. And a certain one of them, surnamed Leopardus, seizing an axe, dashed out his brains upon the threshold of the church. He was immediately seized by a demon immediately possessed by a demon, and fell to the ground; and when he had risen, snatching a knife, he wounded himself in the chest; and had he not been quickly restrained by his companions, and driven mad, he would have killed himself. Bound therefore by them, he returned home, but never afterward recovered his senses. For we ourselves saw him for twenty years wearing no covering at all -- no tunic, no shirt, no footwear -- and wandering naked for twenty years, but going about naked in a wondrous manner both summer and winter. If anyone out of pity offered him some garment, if he chanced to be sitting under a tree or in any place, he would not depart until he had completely torn that garment to pieces. And if it was woolen or linen, he would unravel it on the spot; but if it was of leather, he would likewise reduce it to nothing. And so, as we said, going about naked for many years, he endured both the immense heat of summer and the intolerable cold of winter, both indoors and out."
[3] These are the words of the author of the Life of St. Gildas, who testifies to having been an eyewitness of the punishment inflicted upon that robber. He is venerated on February 11, Saussay inscribed this Ehoarnus in his Gallican Martyrology on February 11 with these words: "In the territory of Vannes, in the monastery of St. Gildas, the birthday of St. Ehoarnus, hermit and martyr, there slain by robbers." Hugo Menard, in the Benedictine Martyrology, has the following on the same day: And is regarded as a Martyr, "In the monastery of St. Gildas of the diocese of Vannes, Blessed Ehoarnus, hermit and martyr." In the diocese of Constance among the Swabians in Germany, St. Meinrad the hermit, slain by robbers, is venerated on January 21 with the ecclesiastical office customarily performed for a single martyr, as St. Meinrad, slain in a similar manner, as the tables of the Roman Martyrology celebrate him in these words; on which day we gave his Life and treated of the Translation of relics and the canonization performed by Pope Benedict IX.