ON ST. TENENANUS OR TINIDORUS,
BISHOP OF LÉON AND CONFESSOR,
in Armorican Britain.
Perhaps the VI century.
CommentaryTenenanus, Bishop of Léon in Armorican Britain (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR I. B. S.
The laborious collector of the Saints of Lesser Britain, Albert le Grand of Montrelais, of whose worth and merits it has often been said elsewhere, most recently at Thivisiau of Dol on the XIII of this month, and expressly in the Commentary on the Acts of St. Golvenus on the first day of the month; Of the Saint's cult it is sufficiently established; the great collector, I say, this XVI July, from I know not what monuments, put together in his manner a Life of St. Tenenanus, from which to have culled summarily some few points, or rather to have refuted them, will be the whole that can be attributed by us to that writer in this place. This the very old Calendar of the church of Léon most certainly persuades, that Tenenanus is venerated by the Armorican Britons as truly a Saint, although he seems altogether to have escaped the diligence of Saussay. Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology announces him in few words on this day: At Léon in Britain, of St. Tenenanus, bishop of that city. Cointe had gone before in the Annals, where at the year 635 number 13 he thus writes: "Tinidorus or Tenenanus, bishop of Léon, migrated to God on the XVII Kalends of August, on which day his memory is celebrated"; for the rest sending us to the Armorica Sancta, namely the work of the praised Albert, whom, in reference to chronology, he followed with, so to speak, closed eyes. Colgan likewise held Tenenanus for a saint, noting a few things in the observations on the Life of St. Joavus on the day II March, but which both drew entirely from Albert alone, the rest of the series of the Life being wholly neglected, which it will be enough for us to have related from the lessons of the Breviary of Léon.
[2] Sufficiently, I say, since I have thus far vainly attempted to ascertain anything certain concerning St. Tenenanus from elsewhere; but of his deeds nothing certain survives: so that now I would not candidly pronounce that the very lessons coalesced from mere and pure popular traditions, as he ingenuously confessed by whose benevolence they were described and transmitted to me. The mind of Lobineau concerning the Saint and his succession in the episcopate of Léon I clearly explained in the aforesaid Commentary on St. Golvenus, whose words, there translated from French into Latin, it will not irk me to repeat. Thus he concerning the Saint of whom we treat: "St. Tenenanus or Tinidor, sprung from the island of Britain, had been initiated into the priesthood before he crossed into Armorica. He lived there long unknown in the woods near the place where afterward Landerneau was founded: at last he was drawn from his solitude, that he might be raised to the chair of Léon after Cetomerinus." In these things there is nothing concerning Ireland and his primacy there, nothing of the frequented court of the king of the Britons, or the countess of Arundel, nothing of the many perils on account of the elegance of his countenance, nothing of the obtained deformity, and other things of that kind, which to review I forbear. Nor did Chenu, Claude Robert, or the Sammarthani acknowledge, to say it once for all, either his name among the Bishops of Léon, or his true age, much less his deeds, in the Catalogues of that church, above whom it is not permitted me here to be wise, until more approved monuments be supplied from elsewhere. Have now the aforesaid lessons, received not long ago from Britain, to which I have nothing to add.
[3] not even from the Lessons of the Breviary, On the feast of St. Tenenanus, bishop and confessor of Léon. Lesson I. Tenenanus, born of parents illustrious in race and faith in the lands beyond the sea, heard as a boy Caradoc, famous for sanctity and doctrine: in whose school he in a short time so profited that both in knowledge and in the glory of merits he far surpassed his coevals; nevertheless the most holy discipline of Christ, much more illustrious than the vain documents of philosophy. The course of studies being completed, having entered the court of the king of Britain, according to the wish of his parents, he turned upon himself the eyes and admiration of all: and since he was notable in form and in the excellence of his whole body, that he might avoid the importunate vexations toward matrimony of a certain noble maiden by whom he was doted upon, and might keep unimpaired the chastity which he had vowed to Christ, at a glorious interest, he obtained by prayers as it were the deformity of a leper. Afterward, a bath being prepared for this, and by the medical hand of Caradoc, he wonderfully recovered his former state. As a young man he held nothing more important than that he should support the chastity he had generously asserted against the assaults of the flesh with continual abstinence, corroborate it with alms and prayer, confirm it with modesty and honesty; the poor and unknown, by word and example, he taught the way of salvation, which that
he might do, he drew apt passages and texts for it from the sacred Scriptures. Let us note in passing that St. Caradoc, whose Life you have on XIII April, died in the year 1124, and yet here, if it please the powers above, he is the master of our St. Tenenanus, about four centuries before he was born. Let us proceed:
[4] which is clear enough, Lesson II. Made thence a presbyter, the enticements of the world being altogether renounced, he devoted himself wholly to Christ in a more special manner, given up to the ecclesiastical Offices with unwearied labor. Which while he executed with a more attentive mind, he was ordered by an angel to cross over into Armorica, to administer the see over which blessed Paul Aurelian had lately presided. And without delay, Tenenanus, obedient to the word, his affairs being settled, with some companions, having passed over the British sea in a happy voyage, put in at the bay of Brest, situated in the soil of Léon: thence, following by divine will the bank of the river Elorn, which leads to Landerneau, he leaps into a most dense wood, not without great joy and fruit of those who received him: for the inhabitants of the place, hidden in the place on account of the frequent incursions of the Danes, and not therefore very solicitous about the exercises of the Christian religion, he recalled to the institute of a holier life, two oratories being built there at a convenient distance, which thenceforth glory in the title of parish churches, and himself the patron of one of them. Much is to be pardoned to the writer of these lessons, when, probably in the sixth century, he records the Danes (otherwise the Normans) invading Lesser Britain, whom it is established infested those shores much later: but let them be whatever other pirates, in these things we shall not so greatly labor. Behold now the third lesson.
[5] Lesson III. In these the holy man preached the Gospel, and put together from popular traditions. performed the dread mysteries of the altar, administered the Sacraments, and paid the sacred Office to the Lord with his people; nay even refreshed the faithful with a temporal benefit. For when those barbarians once strove to plunder the sacred treasury, an army of soldiers from on high appearing by divine power, he put them to flight by his prayers, and deterred them from attempting similar things thereafter, a deliverer of his country. These things conciliated to Tenenanus the admiration and love of all, whence, St. Golvinus being called at that time to the eternal reward, by the common suffrage of the clergy of Léon, and the desire of the people, he was elected bishop, and duly substituted in his place by the then Metropolitan of Dol. Then, that he might fulfill all the parts of a perfect pastor, it was his one care to make frequent visitations of his diocese, to correct morals, to raise up the ruined and half-burned churches, to set worthy rectors over the parish churches. At last, famous for miracles, he fell asleep in the Lord about the year of salvation six hundred and thirty-five, having obtained his sepulcher in his cathedral. Whether he was the successor or predecessor of St. Golvinus or Golvenus, of whom we have already spoken, there is no one who can thus far define with sufficient certainty, nor do we, in so great a confusion of matters, undertake to examine or determine other things.