ON ST. RONANUS, BISHOP, HERMIT IN ARMORICAN BRITAIN.
6TH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY. Concerning his age, Life, and relics.
Ronanus, Bishop, Hermit in Armorican Britain (St.)
G. H.
S. Ronan, an inhabitant of Gallican or Armorican Britain, lived in its lower region; but first on the shores of Léon, by the British Ocean, having been driven there from Ireland. The episcopal city of this region is called St. Paul of Léon, commonly Sint Pol de Leon, He lived in the dioceses of Léon from its first bishop Paul, whose various Acts we illustrated on the 12th of March. From there S. Ronan migrated to the Nemean Forest of Cornouaille, and there spent the rest of his life. Cornouaille is situated on the bay of the Armorican Ocean, and of Quimper: whose episcopal city is Corisopitum of the Curiosolitæ, commonly called Kemper-Corentin, from its first bishop and chief patron S. Corentin, whose Acts will be given on the 12th of December, his birthday. In this city and diocese, on these Kalends of June, the feast of S. Ronan, Bishop and Confessor, is celebrated under a double rite: from whose ancient Breviary among us we give some Acts, formerly accustomed to be recited at Matins, The Acts are given from this man's Breviary, which also were long ago submitted by Peter Bernard, a Priest of our Society. We have besides the Proper of the Saints of the Church of Quimper, printed in the year 1642, in which on these same Kalends, under a double rite, Ronan is honored, and the Lessons of the second Nocturn are from the same Life, but more abridged: but toward the end, what was lacking in the former, some things are related about his death and Relics. But from the cited Breviary of Quimper, and another of Léon, which we do not have, Albert le Grand published in French the Life of S. Ronan among the Lives of the Saints of Armorican Britain, from which we observe some things below and in the Annotations. along with the Life written about him by Albert le Grand. And he indeed in the title calls him only an Anchorite, but in the very account of the Life also a Priest. Meanwhile, except for the Lessons of the second Nocturn, everything is prescribed to be recited in the Ecclesiastical Office from the Common of a Confessor Bishop, and the Prayer is: Hear, we beseech you, O Lord, our prayers, which we offer on the solemnity of B. Ronan your Confessor and Bishop, etc.; but in the third Nocturn is read the Homily on the Gospel, Watch, for you know not, etc., from the Common.
[2] Concerning the time in which S. Ronan lived, these things are held. Below in the Life he is visited by Grallon, King of the Britons, of whom we treated at greater length on the 3rd of March, He lived under King Grallon at the Life of S. Winwaloe the Abbot, who in the monastery of Landévennec built by himself is said to have received Grallon, King of Cornouaille or of the western Cornovii, coming to him of his own accord; and we have shown that this Winwaloe flourished in the sixth century of Christ, and we judge the same must be said of S. Ronan. But as Bertrand d'Argentré in book 1 of the History of Britain, chapter 22, in the 6th century. and following him Albert le Grand wished, namely that the said Grallon or Gradlon died in the year four hundred and five, and was then buried in the monastery of Landévennec, and that SS. Winwaloe and Ronan flourished under him before that, we sufficiently refuted at the Life of the said Winwaloe, to which we refer the Reader.
[3] Peter Bernard, in the Life submitted to us, had added that a whole rib of S. Ronan is preserved in the Cathedral: His chief Chapel, and so in the Proper of the Saints of the said Cathedral of Quimper his Sacred Relics are said to have been brought into the Cathedral Church. But Albert le Grand adds that his body was at first buried in the hermitage; then in the course of time a small town on the summit of Mount S. Ronan was named from his name, in the native Armorican tongue, Loc-Ronan-cout-Nevent, which means "the dwelling of Ronan": where, by the ancient Princes, that his memory might be celebrated there, a beautiful chapel was built and endowed, frequented by pilgrims of all that Britain, to honor duly his Relics, enclosed in a splendidly adorned coffer, Relics, the remaining part of which is preserved in the Cathedral Church of Quimper. Moreover in the said hermitage of S. Ronan afterward several Hermits dwelt, of hermits; who were illustrious for sanctity of life: among whom was Robert, consecrated Bishop of Quimper in the year 1102, whom the Sammarthani mention among the Bishops of his Church, by whom he is called the 19th Bishop, a Hermit at Locinian, and by him the Cathedral Church was restored, when it had fallen down through age; a procession every seven years: and he paid the debt of nature in the year 1130. Finally, as is still read in Albert, every seven years a solemn procession is instituted on these Kalends of June, with the sacred Relics of S. Ronan, placed on a splendidly adorned bier, and carried around his mountains: to which procession a very great multitude of people from the whole region runs. Also through the said Britain several chapels are dedicated to S. Ronan, other chapels. among which there is one said to be among the people of Léon, called Loc-Ronan-arfrancq, where there is a royal enclosure, and there is a parish sacred to S. Ronan, called Renan.
[4] Another Ronan distinct from him in England. The Venerable Bede, in book 3 of the English History, chapter 25, relates that Ronan Sixtus, in the Synod of Whitby held in the year 664, strenuously defended the Catholic observance of Easter against Bishop Finan. Colgan, on the 8th of January, at the Life of S. Finan in the Notes, number 6, says that he is honored in Armorican Britain on the first of June; on which day he intended to give his Life from the Breviary of Quimper. But in this there is nothing similar: and this one was plainly a whole century younger than the S. Ronan of whom we treat here. We treated of Ronan the Scot on the 6th of February, among the Omitted.
LIFE From the Breviary of Quimper.
Ronan, Bishop, Hermit in Armorican Britain (S.)
BHL Number: 7337
Saint Ronan, sprung from the Irish region a, and in his boyhood handed over by his parents to the studies of letters, Ordained Bishop in Ireland, drank in the streams of heavenly doctrines with a thirsting heart, a boy beyond reproach: but what he read and learned, he wisely understood, and committed to his mind by memory. He had daily the utmost vigilance, untiringly exercising himself in the commands of God. Then, with the merits of virtues supporting him, raised by the grace of God up to the Pontifical throne b, he, an excellent Teacher, scattered the knowledge of good work among the people committed to him. He, in the days of his Priesthood, was found just, pleasing to God, through the grace of the Holy Spirit guarding him, in all the justifications of the Lord. Luke 9:23 But afterward, turning over in his mind that saying of the Gospel, He who wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me, and, Everyone who has left house, or brothers and sisters, or father and mother, or wife or children, or fields for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess eternal life; Matt. 19:29 he crosses over into Armorica, to the people of Léon having alike abandoned his homeland, friends, and paternal possessions, having crossed the Ocean he was brought into Britain; and having landed on the shores of Léon, he remained there, persisting in the service of God day and night. But while the man of God was tarrying in the aforesaid region, he began to become known to the people by frequent miracles, which the Lord worked through him continually. For by praying he restored sight to the blind, health to the sick; he cast out demons from possessed bodies: he shines with miracles. whence a frequent multitude of people came daily to him, to entreat help in their distresses, who, having obtained their welfare, returned to their own with joy.
[2] But the man of God, knowing that there, according to the precept of the Apostle, he migrates into the Nemean Forest of Cornouaille: he could not have leisure for prayer without interruption, on account of the multitude of people coming to him; desiring to penetrate the more remote places of the desert, with an Angel of God accompanying, he came in Cornouaille as far as a great forest, by name Nemean c: near which forest there was a certain man, a most special worshiper of the Christian faith above all dwelling there: to whose house when the holy man had come, he was received by him into hospitality with a cheerful countenance. But when he had stayed several days in the house of the aforesaid countryman, he was asked by his host to tell him whence he came or whither he was heading. To whom S. Ronan said: I indeed am by race a Scot, by nation from beyond the sea, having of my own will made myself destitute of all things that were my father's, for the love of him who for our sake by gratuitous piety was made destitute; into this exile I came of my own accord, leaving lesser things, and certain to receive greater things from him on the day of recompense. But after the course of a few days had elapsed, the often-mentioned holy man began to build a certain oratory, in which he might be continually free for prayer, his host himself supplying him aid. he builds an oratory: This oratory was built next to the Nemean forest, namely a grove once exceedingly large, and a fertile lair of wild beasts: in which place the holy man devoted himself to the service of the Lord, persisting frequently in prayer and fasting.
[3] But meanwhile, as the little span of time passed by, a happy knowledge of the holy man arose throughout the aforesaid region, by the indication of his holy work, which reached even to the notice of the highest Prince; he is visited by the King and others: for a city set upon a mountain could not be hidden for long. Whence it came about that d Grallon, King of the Britons, who at that time held the monarchy of that people, came right up to him with willing mind for the sake of conversation with him. And when he had observed from S. Ronan whence and why he had come to these parts: having received a blessing from him, he returned to his own affairs. Meanwhile the multitude of the common people began to frequent the oratory of the holy man, he is harassed by his host's wife and with longing mind to seek his honey-flowing conversation. But above all the aforesaid host gaped after his discourses; for he often remained with him the whole day unfed: about which his wife, badly anxious, began to provoke him, calling him forgetful of her. Sometimes she ran angrily to the man of God, and charged him that her husband was deserting her: whom the Saint, as he was wont, soothed with pious words. But on a certain day, when the holy man was standing before the door, he saw a wolf carrying a sheep in its mouth, he frees sheep from the wolf: and hastening to the forest: and relying on heavenly help, he commanded it to release the seized sheep: and faster than said the wolf released the sheep. Nor only once or twice or thrice was this done by him, but even as often as a similar thing happened in all that neighborhood.
[4] the same feigning that her daughter was devoured by the Saint On a certain day that most wicked woman, named Queban, had put her five-year-old daughter in a chest, giving her bread with milk lest she should cry: who, strangled at the first bite, expired. Meanwhile running through the whole vicinity to seek her daughter, whom she had put in the chest, she pretended that she was lost; and burst forth before the little cell of the holy man, crying out thus: Biform portent, devourer of men and seducer; was it too little for you to have snatched my husband from me, unless besides you should also devour my daughter. Then the holy man, looking at her, said: O woman, why do you assert that I, a confessor of the Christian faith, am the devourer of your daughter? She nonetheless went to the aforesaid King Grallon and asserted that Ronan was the devourer not only of cattle, but also of men and especially of her daughter. But the King, unwilling to leave this undiscussed, he himself meanwhile raises her who was truly dead. sent a messenger to the holy man of God; who caused him to come to him. Meanwhile, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, it became plainly known to the Saint of God what she had done concerning the daughter of Queban, and where she had hidden her, and what had happened to her. e Which the holy man, in the sight of the King and all who were present, truthfully narrated, as it had happened. Therefore very many run to the house of the woman, and found the daughter dead in the chest; for which reason they wished to overwhelm Queban with stones, because she had presumed to feign so nefarious a reproach against the holy man of God: from whose hands the man of God, shaking off the stones, restrained their anger; and a prayer having been made, raised the daughter of Queban. Who, when afterwards he had most holily rested in Christ, his sacred Relics were brought into the Church of Quimper.