ON ST. Oudoceus
Year 564.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. The birth of St. Oudoceus, his sacred cult, his holiness, the time of his life and death.
Oudoceus, Bishop of Llandaff in England (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
There is no reason why I should here trace higher the primitive nomenclature of Llandaff in England, or bring forward a description of it. Both Bolland briefly furnished in the Preliminary Commentary on St. Teilo, on the 9th of February. Very sparingly indeed and meagerly, in commending to posterity the affairs of St. Oudoceus or Eudoceus, Of St. Oudoceus did the industry of the ancient writers labor. I have scarcely been able to find anything written concerning him except a few fragments, which, briefly sampled, will somehow illustrate our matter. Let the beginning be taken from his genealogical stemma.
[2] Who was the father of St. Oudoceus, who the mother, who and how many his own brothers, appears clearly from the Register of Llandaff, his parents and brothers. in Ussher, page 561, exceedingly ancient, where it is read: There was a man Budic, son of Cybsdan, born of Cornwall, who came into the region of Dyfed in the time of Aircol Laubir, king of the same kingdom, with his fleet, expelled from his own country. Who, while he tarried in the country, took to himself a wife by name Anaumed, daughter of Ensic (but her mother was Guenhaf, daughter of Linonui), of whom Anaumed were born to him Ismael and Tyfei the martyr lying at Pennalum. Who, while he tarried in the country, legates being sent to him from his native region of Cornwall, that without delay he should come with his whole family, and with the aid of the Britons, to receive the kingdom of the Armorican people:
[3] Their king being dead, they wished to receive him, born of the royal progeny. Counsel being taken by them, with one mouth, the legation being heard and accepted, he affectionately received his pregnant wife with his whole family, and landed with his fleet in the country, and reigned throughout all the Armorican land, and in his time so long enduring as far as the Alps. And his wife bore a son by name Oudoceus, whom, after the time of his maturity, he sent to the study of letters, as he had promised to St. Teilo before in Britain, that if he should have a son, he would commend him to God, as he had commended both his brothers, whom we mentioned above.
[4] That sacred honors were paid to him, we have from a most ancient manuscript, Sacred cult and one published among the British Councils, of the Church of Llandaff, in Spelman, volume 1, page 62, in these words: After these things the King … sought pardon from St. Oudoceus at Llandaff. In another synod of Llandaff, ibid. page 63, the following are read: It is to be intimated, that St. Oudoceus, etc. Likewise: To God, to the saints Teilo, Dubricius, Oudoceus, etc. Ibid. in synod 3, page 64: St. Oudoceus, a Bishop of most famous life, of Llandaff, passed over to the Lord. Finally: He gave to God and to SS. Dubricius, Teilo, and Oudoceus. The same we have from a brief life in Capgrave, to be given by us a little later. The same John Godwin published in the book which he entitled On the Bishops of Llandaff, where he condensed into a summary certain things concerning our St. Oudoceus: and he places him in the third place among the bishops of Llandaff, after Dubricius, who was the first, and Teilo, who was the second. There succeeded him Teilo, he says, Oudoceus, son of Budic, king of Armorican Britain, and of Anaumed, who was the sister of St. Teilo, his predecessor. Elected by the consent of the prince, the nobles, and all the people, he was consecrated at Dorobernia (which is now Canterbury) by the archbishop there. Returning thence, he is received by King Maurice, together with the queen, the nobles, the clergy, and a huge number of the people, going forth to meet him, and leading him into the church in solemn procession. He immediately obtained many privileges for his see from the said king, and, having died, is numbered among the saints.
[5] The English Martyrology published by Wilson announces the festive memory of St. Oudoceus in these words, and from the English Martyrologies. which from the English I render into Latin: On the same day at Llandaff in the county of Glamorgan in Wales, the deposition of St. Oudoceus, bishop and confessor, son of Budic, king of Brittany, who, having set out to St. Teilo, his uncle, then Bishop of Llandaff, succeeded him in his function, and was ordained the third bishop of the same see, where in all sanctity of life he ended his blessed life about the year 600, and was buried at Llandaff. The Salisbury English Martyrology, printed at London in the year 1525, by the author Richard Whitford, of which we have a manuscript copy, weaves a brief elogium of St. Oudoceus, which in Latin thus sounds: At Llandaff in Wales, the feast of St. Oudoceus, a Bishop of great sanctity, and of many miracles, among which this is notable, that when he ought to drink, and a cup was lacking to him, he formed into the shape of a cup the butter set before him, and drank from it, which afterward so persevered, that it appeared wholly golden. And even now it so appears, and is there preserved as a sacred relic, etc. Concerning this miracle mention is made in the life. Noted too is the public veneration of our Saint by Ferrarius: In England, he says, of St. Oudochus, bishop of Llandaff.
[6] For the rest, that St. Oudoceus shone with the excellent gifts of holiness and doctrine, Sanctity. and touched St. Teilo by the nearest bond of consanguinity, inasmuch as he was his nephew by a sister, is gathered from the aforesaid Register in Ussher, page 562: And St. Oudoceus, he says, nephew of St. Teilo by a sister, from infancy began to be enriched with knowledge and eloquence, insomuch that he excelled his contemporaries, and likewise his companions, in morals and sanctity. And after an immense time there came the yellow pestilence through greater Britain. And on that occasion the aforesaid author says that St. Teilo went with his clerics and people to Cornwall, which afterward was called Cerniu-Budic, and there he found his nephew Oudoceus, a man distinguished and gentle and skilled in both laws, like a candle upon a candlestick.
[7] Furthermore, that the same Oudoceus was a disciple of the aforesaid St. Teilo, and then his successor in the bearing of the sacred mitres, and disciple. is concluded from the Register of Llandaff so often mentioned, page 560: To this Teilo came together the disciples who had been of the Blessed Dubricius, Lunapejus, Gurmaët, Cynmur, Toulidauc, Luhil, Fidelis, Hismael, Tyshei, Oudoceus, and many other disciples, that they might imitate him in morals and doctrine. These things concerning his discipline under the Blessed Teilo. The nearest conjunction of blood between the two is again proved from the same Register, page 562: And after the time of his conversation, he says, St. Teilo, archbishop of Llandaff, of the church of St. Peter the Apostle, returned to his native soil with his nephew accompanying him, who grew so much in goodness and knowledge, that by the election of clergy and people he succeeds him in the episcopate of the church of Llandaff.
[8] In what age St. Oudoceus lived is given to be understood from the British councils in the aforesaid Henry Spelman, The time of his life where there is set forth from a most ancient manuscript of the church of Llandaff, a synod of Llandaff about the year of the Lord 560, convoked by Oudoceus, third Bishop of Llandaff, in which Maurice, king of Glamorgan, is excommunicated for the treacherous slaying of Cinetu. In the same place there are to be found two other synods of Llandaff, convoked under the presidency of the praised Bishop. The one is preceded by that title: Another synod of Llandaff by the aforesaid Oudoceus (third bishop of Llandaff) held at the Podum of the valley of Carban, for the absolution of King Morcant. To the third is prefixed the following title: The third synod under Oudoceus, third bishop of Llandaff, gathered from the mouth of the Guy, as far as the mouth of the Tivy, at Llandaff, in which Guidnert, slaying in the cause of the kingdom, was excommunicated. These things from Spelman, who cites the words of both synods, in the British Councils collected and published by him, which there is no reason here to transcribe entire at length.
[9] These things being set down, it is manifestly drawn out that St. Oudoceus did not depart from among the living before the year 560, and of his death since about that year he exercised, as we have said, episcopal jurisdiction, bound homicidal and treacherous kings with the bond of excommunication; to the penitent and to those coming to their senses granted the pardon of crimes which they demanded, and admitted them into the former communion and society of the Church. Nay indeed, he had not yet departed from life two years after the said time, as is established from the first synod cited, in which the cause of King Maurice was treated: And King Maurice with his whole region remained for the space of two years and more under the same excommunication. After these things the King could not endure so great an excommunication enduring so long, seeing the perdition of his soul and the damnation of his kingdom, and sought pardon from St. Oudoceus at Llandaff, and with poured-out tears and inclined head, and before three abbots, Bishop Oudoceus imposed upon him the yoke of penance according to the manner of the quality and quantity, enjoining him to make amends before God and the church of Llandaff in three ways, namely by fasting, and prayer, and almsgiving.
[10] But now from the third synod of Llandaff it is there sufficiently manifestly established, it is determined, that the aforesaid Bishop died in the fourth year after the same synod was celebrated, and so, since it was held about the year 560, that St. Oudoceus died about the year 564. Which I thus show, taking the words of the often-mentioned synod: Guidnert killed his brother Merchion .. and .. was excommunicated by the blessed Oudoceus, and by the synod gathered from the mouth of the Guy as far as the mouth of the Tivy at Llandaff, and so he remained, the crosses being laid down to the ground, and the cymbals likewise turned over, for three years under the same excommunication, and wholly, without any communion of Christians. The three years being ended, he sought pardon from the blessed Oudoceus …. After these things … because he had not yet completed the year which he had promised in exile, nor had finished it, he would not absolve him, but rather he should be under the same excommunication, the first yoke of penance not being kept by him. He remaining in the same transgression and excommunication, before the end of the year St. Oudoceus, a Bishop of most famous life, at Llandaff passed over to the Lord. To whom succeeded Bertguinus, etc.
[11] As for the time which St. Oudoceus spent in the episcopate, and of the episcopate. John Bolland has these things to the present purpose in the Preliminary Commentary on St. Teilo, on the 9th of February. We judge it more probable that St. Teilo died a little before the year of Christ 560, and this from those things which will afterward be said concerning the age of Maglocun, and will appear more clearly from others. Harpsfield writes that he flourished about the year 540. Jerome Porter, that he died in the year 563. Since therefore, according to the opinion of Bolland, St. Teilo, the predecessor of St. Oudoceus in the episcopate, more probably departed from life a little before the year of Christ 560, and we have now already proved that St. Oudoceus died about the year of Christ 564, the determination of the time is easy for the reader, which this last one spent in the dignity of the sacred mitres, the Bollandian opinion standing concerning the death of St. Teilo now set forth. It is settled therefore from what has been said, that about the year 560 St. Oudoceus inflicted the ecclesiastical penalties of which we have spoken above; after a triennium was completed, namely 563, he removed them; and finally, before the end of the following year 564, he departed from life; which I had intended to prove.
[12] There are not lacking those who think that St. Oudoceus departed from life later, The refuted opinion namely toward the beginning of the seventh century, relying especially on this foundation, that he is said to have been consecrated by the archbishop of Dorobernia, who cannot be understood as different from St. Augustine the Apostle of the English. which thinks that Oudoceus But now since the latter first came into England in the year 596, and by him, as those authors contend, St. Oudoceus was initiated into the sacred mitres, they are of the opinion that they cannot assign a more convenient reckoning of time to his ordination. But against them make those things which we have produced hitherto from the British councils. Then, that King Budic, father of St. Oudoceus, was much more ancient, as far as the beginning the writers of Armorican affairs relate, than that, after the year 600 at last the said St. Oudoceus, promoted to the episcopate, disjoined by great intervals of time from the year of death which we have fixed above, should have ceased to live. Concerning which matter consult the Preliminary Commentary on the life of St. Teilo, who, as we have already said, immediately preceded St. Oudoceus in the episcopate of Llandaff, in volume 2 of February, folio 304, number 9.
[13] The learned reader will find there, some things being interposed, of the 7th century the ingenious conjecture of Bolland, by which he opines that St. Oudoceus was not initiated by St. Augustine, bishop of Dorovernia or Canterbury, but by some other bishop, of Canterbury indeed, but then, on account of the tyranny of the English, expelled from his ancestral sees, an exile and outcast, dwelling in Cambria, who, although he had been expelled from the possession of the episcopate of Dorovernia, nonetheless no less constantly retained the hope of recovering his former dignity, to have lived on. together with the name. But I have no mind to dwell more at length on these things, especially since they have both been treated, and can be seen elsewhere. It occurs to marvel that no mention is made of St. Oudoceus by Albert of Morlaix in his book On the Armorican Saints; although he is said to have been, and in truth, as we have related above, was the son of Budic, king of Armorica. These few things, which I have found here and there among the writers concerning our Saint, I have thought should be represented to the reader. It is to be lamented that there are not extant more monuments left concerning this most worthy Bishop, and transmitted to the memory of posterity, besides the very brief summary of his life, which I subjoin.
LIFE BY AN UNCERTAIN AUTHOR. From the legend of the Saints of England in Capgrave.
Oudoceus, Bishop of Llandaff in England (S.)
BHL Number: 6409
St. Oudoceus, the servant of Christ, from infancy given to good and holy merits, assiduous in fasts, He visits the thresholds of the Apostles; vigils, and prayers for the eternal reward, the thresholds of Blessed Peter the Apostle being visited, went to the place of St. David a, and thence turning aside through the church of St. b Teilo, took with him certain relics there acquired; robbers hostile to him are punished. and when, set on the journey, he met robbers, and they, hoping that he had an abundance of treasure, wished to plunder him, they incurred blindness, and, repenting, by the prayer of Oudoceus received the sight of their eyes. But while the holy Bishop was making his journey with his companions, certain women washing butter, he asked that water be handed to him from a vessel. But they, ironically, answered that they had no other vessel but butter.
[2] From butter he makes a golden bell. But the Bishop, the butter being received from them, and a bell being formed in the manner of a little handbell, drank thence, and it remained in such a form, namely golden, insomuch that to those seeing it, it appears to be of the purest gold, and from that day it is preserved in the church of Llandaff as a testimony of the miracle. A certain king, when in hunting he was pursuing a stag, and the stag fled for refuge to the Saint's cloak, The munificence of the king toward him. the king, seeing the miracle with his hunters, humbly sought pardon from the servant of God, and granted him the whole territory. At length the man of God c, the pastoral care being laid down, built a monastery beside the water, by name d Wye; and a great throng of brethren being gathered, He becomes a monk; in great abstinence and sanctity of life, leading his life through many years, he showed to the brethren the examples of virtues and of all holiness until death. he dies. Now he departed to Christ on the sixth of the Nones of July.