ON ST. MEDULPHUS, HERMIT IN AUVERGNE.
From the Ecclesiastical Office.
CommentaryMedulphus, Hermit in Auvergne (St.)
G. H.
Jean Molanus, in the second edition of his Additions to Usuard, The sacred cult. sets forth this Saint to us thus: In Auvergne, of St. Medulphus the Confessor, a man of great sanctity. Molanus being cited, Galesini inscribed the same in his Martyrology, and by the example of both Ferrari in the general Catalogue. But Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, for "Confessor," wrote "Monk," in this manner: In Auvergne, of St. Medulphus the Monk, a man of great sanctity: who, insisting on the contemplation of heavenly things, ended his life in a blessed confession. Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menology, the same words transcribed from Saussay, tries to persuade that he was of his own Order.
[2] Jacques Branche, in the treatise on the Lives of the Saints of Auvergne and Velay, The Ecclesiastical Office. confers something more of light, when he asserts first, that in the Church of Clermont on this first day of June, the feast of St. Medulphus is celebrated with an Ecclesiastical Office: second, that St. Medulphus is called in French Saint Mion, and that under this name a parish exists, distant four leagues from the city of Clermont, in the district of Limagne and Vaux. But that the church of this parish dedicated to Medulphus, and formerly subject to the presentation of the Abbot of Menat of the Benedictine Order; a church and parish, and this he says is established from the Bulls of Paschal II and Alexander III the Roman Pontiffs; but at this time it is attributed to the Canons of Arthonne; but the Body rests in the Church of Menat. The Acts from the Lessons. These things about the cult from Branche and others Henschenius had cited; adding about the life and rendering into Latin, what the same Branche had written in French, the Lessons of the Clermont Breviary being cited, which we do not have. But this defect, after the death of Henschenius, was supplied to us in the year 1688 by Pierre Allemand, Rector of our College of Clermont, asked by letter, the very Lessons which were lacking to us being written out, and most kindly transmitted to Antwerp, in this tenor:
[3] Nobly born a boy, The venerable Confessor of Christ Medulphus, born of noble stock and blood in Auvergne of Christian parents; from a tender age, the faith and grace which he had received in baptism he so cultivated, that he easily surpassed his contemporaries in religion and piety. Him, grown up, God endowed with such great supernatural gifts; that by the opinion of all, he keeps silence and fasts. he was held the prince of the religious men of his time. He joined days to nights in prayer, and nights to days in fasting; from which Angelic exercise, that he might not be diverted, he faithfully observed silence, even from boyhood, by an unusual custom of tender infancy.
[4] His parents, that they might keep the friendship of neighbors and kinsmen after the custom of the country, refusing meat at a banquet celebrating a solemn banquet; he refused to eat the meats well cooked and seasoned, and pleasing to the palate: not that he believed them abominable, but that, concupiscence subdued, he might more attentively and chastely cling to God. Him his parents, kinsmen, and the other guests make nothing of, and hold in mockery, as if in the winter time, all things stiff with frost, he hoped that fish should be set before him in the mountains of Auvergne: a fish is brought by a miracle: by which Medulphus, in no way moved, persisted in his praiseworthy custom. Behold, in the midst of the banquet the water fails, a servant is sent to the fountain, to draw with a bucket. Wonderful to say! A fish of very great size crept into it; which would suffice splendidly for the food of Medulphus a whole day.
[5] he passes to the solitary life, Returning from the Fountain, the servant poured out the fish with the water. The guests, wondering at the providence of God; and what abstinence of Medulphus they had mocked, held in great honor. He, all worldly enticements abandoned, making nothing of the heights of earthly dignity; following the habit and life of the Anchorites, hidden in the hermitage of Thiers among the people of Auvergne, dedicated himself wholly to God. Eager for the works of virtue, from prayer and the other offices of religion, and dies holily. he nowhere in his whole course of life relaxed his mind: renowned for frequent miracles, in great sanctity on the Kalends of June he rendered his soul to God. His Relics the monastery of Menat preserves in caskets.
[6] So the Lessons composed for the second Nocturn, and these (as it appears) not very ancient. To these I would add only this, that the hermitage of Thiers, which the Saint inhabited, is to be found in the vicinity of the town, which is called by Gregory of Tours Thigernum, by others Thiernum, and commonly Thiers, on the river Durolle; perhaps in that place, The place of his exercise and cult: which at the second league from there even today holds the name of "Cella," and is distant from Clermont 10, from Menat 14 leagues; for that is a mountainous and wooded region. But Menat itself, a monastery founded by St. Menelaus in the times of Brunhilde, and restored by Louis the Pious under the observance of the Benedictine Rule, toward the borders of the Bourbon tract, lies near the river commonly called Sioule: where, as also through the rest of the diocese, with the premised Lessons, this proper Prayer too is used. We beseech, omnipotent God, that thy people serving thee with all their heart, by the intercession of Blessed Madulphus thy Confessor, may continually deserve both thy benefits and peace. Through our Lord &c.
[7] The above-praised Bouche, having related the miracle about the fish which the Lessons have, adds also this; namely from popular tradition or old pictures, whence also the former things are had: for nothing seems anciently to have been written. At another time the horse of a certain neighbor, fallen into rabies, seemed to breathe flames from its eyes and nostrils, A raging horse tamed by the sign of the Cross. and ran so terribly, that no one dared to approach it. This St. Medulphus, the sign of the holy Cross made, seized; and rendered it so quiet, that without any danger a little boy dared to mount it.