ON ST. AUREMUNDUS, ABBOT OF MARIACUM, AMONG THE PICTONES IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR 600.
Account from the Acta of the Saints of the Benedictine Order.
Auremundus, Abbot of Mariacum, among the Pictones in Gaul (S.)
J. B. S.
A Saint elsewhere unknown was suggested to us by the first century of the Acta of the Order of St. Benedict, where it is thus read of him in the prefixed Calendar of the Saints: In the monastery of Mariacum among the Pictones, St. Auremundus the abbot, disciple of St. Junianus, He is noted in the Martyrology of Castellanus. abbot of Mariacum; so that it seems it cannot be doubted that he is there held for a Saint, and is venerated this day separately from his master St. Junianus, as Castellanus confirms in the Universal Martyrology, announcing among the Saints of France in the second place: At Maire-l'Évêque (which he explains as Mariacum-Episcopale) near Poitiers, St. Auremundus the abbot, disciple and successor of St. Junianus. On the XIII of August the Acts of this Saint will come to be illustrated, from which alone a few things are known which pertain to St. Auremundus, which we here describe from the cited volume 1, where at page 313 it is said that he was the spiritual son of St. Junianus, his inseparable companion, minister, and disciple, who after his death brought to the knowledge of many the things which his master, filled with the spirit of prophecy, had foretold as absent and future. Then, a mighty famine being narrated, which throughout the whole
region had prevailed, at number 13 the brief history of St. Auremundus is subjoined:
[2] At that time, therefore, a certain woman, driven by need, His mother, pregnant and suffering from want and compelled by the sickness of famine, before the oratory where the venerable man Junianus, prostrate, was pouring forth prayers to the Lord, began to weep with a great wailing, and with what cries she could she cried aloud, saying: Man of God, help me. Moved by these words, the man of God poured forth prayers to God the more intently with tears. Rising, when his prayer was finished, he calls his minister, saying to him: Go, son, inquire what that poor little woman wants, and if thou art able in anything, help her. And when thou hast heard her, report to me what her clamor and wailing mean. And when the boy had swiftly fulfilled his orders, he reported to the Father, saying: She is a poor little woman, who lacks even bread, and has not the means to buy it. Which having heard, he ordered her to stand in his presence, asking with cheerful countenance and fatherly affection why she wept with so great wailing and disturbed him with her cries. But she answered: Truly, servant of God and priest, know that I am in peril of famine. Bread is lacking, there is no buying, the famine grows stronger daily, and behold, being with child, I die. For which cause I have come to thy clemency, that if thou shalt snatch me from the peril of famine, I may be thy handmaid forever, and the son whom I bear in my womb thy everlasting servant. When I have reared him, I would offer him to thy hands and appoint him to serve continually: only help me, that I perish not.
[3] is liberally helped by St. Junianus, Hearing these things, the most blessed Junianus, smiling, said: Indeed I knew, before the boy called thee, that thou wast both laboring with famine and bearing in thy womb a son, whom I know to be my future successor. Take from our hand a little gift of gold, and as thou wilt, buy thyself food, that thou perish not of famine, and when the boy is born, guard him with all vigilance. Beware lest thou practice upon him any pollutions of enchantment or diabolical persuasion: but when he has grown up, bring him to me; for I will receive him from the sacred font of baptism, and instruct him in letters, and appoint him my successor; foretelling to thee that, the coming year, an abundance of crops will overflow in this region, and by no means shall anyone perish of famine from it. And that woman, receiving the gold from the hand of the holy man, returning to her house rejoicing as much over the gift as also over the abundance of the coming year, bought food, and tempered the want of famine, and reared her son with all care according to the admonitions of the man of God. And when she had brought him to the age of boyhood, she offered him to the sight of the holy man, who, according to the precept of our Savior, initiated him at the sacred fonts with his own hands. For he received him from most holy baptism, and gained a spiritual son.
[4] He called him Pure Gold, for this reason, as it were bought with gold, to whom she offers her son, afterward to be his successor. because he had given gold to the mother, whereby she might rear that son; and he trained him as a household servant peculiarly his own, and instructed him in letters. Who, by the granting of divine clemency, perfectly attained the knowledge of the Scriptures, and, according to the prophecy of the man of God, attained the priestly honor. For a long time he lived blamelessly with that spiritual father, and obeyed him in all things. And after his death he became his successor, a man of great virtue and holiness, inasmuch as he had been instructed by so great and such a man, whom with all earnestness he followed both in doctrines and in examples. The writer of the life of St. Junianus, Vulsinus Boëtius, Bishop of Poitiers, then testifies that, on the narration of St. Auremundus, more of the miracles of St. Junianus became known; because, he says, he lived a long time after his death, and guarded the flock committed to him without reproach. What things were done by him one by one, and in what year he attained the reward of his merits, I have not hitherto found consigned to writing.