CONCERNING ST. ALBINUS, BISHOP OF ANGERS IN GAUL,
ABOUT THE YEAR 549.
Preliminary Commentary.
St. Albinus, Bishop of Angers in Gaul.
Section I. The age, birthday, and monastic life of St. Albinus.
[1] St. Albinus is written to have been the eleventh Bishop of the Church of Angers. Claude Robert makes him the twelfth: for he places Nefingus, or Nefindus, who lived in the tenth century, between Saints Maurilius and Renatus, St. Albinus, Bishop of Angers, as does also Jean Chenut, for whom nevertheless even so St. Albinus is only the eleventh, with Thalassius omitted, who was ordained at the Synod of Angers in the year 453. Demochares and the Sammarthani make St. Albinus the tenth, having struck out Auxilius, of whom mention is made in the Life of St. Firminus, Bishop of Amiens and Martyr, on September 25, with these words: Afterward, therefore, crossing the river Loire, he was detained by Auxilius, Bishop of the city of Angers, for a year and three months in the work of preaching. Perhaps they read: "for the assistance of the Bishop." So indeed has the manuscript of the Church of Saint-Omer, and the manuscripts of Sainte-Marie de Bonfons. The Trier manuscript: "for the assistance of the city of Angers with the Bishop." Bosquet has only: "for the assistance of the city of Angers for a year and three months." And that reading is perhaps most to be approved. For what is it otherwise to be "detained by a Bishop," when it would seem one should say "detained with a Bishop"? But Jean Chenut and Claude Robert, and Saussay in the Gallic Martyrology, acknowledge Auxilius as a Bishop of Angers. The origins of many churches of Gaul are obscure, as we have often warned, and the catalogues of bishops are not written with sufficient fidelity and accuracy. However the number and series of the predecessors of St. Albinus may have stood, he himself has obtained for already eleven hundred years public veneration in the Church of Angers: venerated from ancient times, in whose Breviary a double office is decreed for him; in several dioceses of Armorican Brittany, whence he originated, a semi-double, as at Vannes, Rennes, etc.; likewise double in the Archbishopric of Gniezno in Poland — whether perhaps on account of some relics of his translated there, or for some other reason, I have not discovered. The name of St. Albinus is inscribed in very many Martyrologies, even the most ancient: thus at the end of the Martyrology of St. Jerome printed at Paris, and of our manuscript and the Lucca one, it is read appended: In the city of Angers, the burial of St. Albinus, Bishop and Confessor. It is also in the last place in the manuscripts of Rheinau, St. Ulrich at Augsburg, the Paris Labbé, Monte Cassino, the Queen of Sweden's (which Lucas Holstenius used in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology), the Vallicella of the Congregation of the Oratory at Rome, and various others. inscribed in the Martyrologies, on March 1, Rabanus and the manuscript of the monastery of St. Maximin have Albinus alone. The genuine Bede is lacking, but several manuscripts bearing the names of Bede and Ado record him and add: whose life, full of virtues and miracles, shone forth. Usuard and the Roman Martyrology: At Angers, of St. Albinus, Bishop and Confessor, a man of most distinguished virtue and sanctity. Wandelbert the monk in his metrical Martyrology, dedicated to the Emperor Lothair, son of Louis the Pious, over eight hundred years ago, mentions him thus:
Donatus holds the Kalends of March, and Albinus.
Certain more recent authors compose a long account of him: Saussay, Ghinius, elsewhere on the 2nd, Galesinius, Canisius. And the last records him again on March 2, perhaps because the Canons Regular of the Congregation of the Holy Savior, Order of St. Augustine, since the feast of St. Herculanus, Bishop and Martyr of Perugia, occupies the Kalends, celebrate him on the following day.
[2] The Acts below, number 2, have it that St. Albinus placed himself under the discipline of the monastery of Tincillac. Hence the same controversy is raised concerning his monastic state as we said above
as we have already said, between the year 547, in which Albinus subscribed through Abbot Sapaudus to the fifth Council of Orléans on the 5th before the Kalends of November, and the year 551, in which his successor Eutropius is said to have dedicated the monastery of Glanfeuil, St. Albinus died on the Kalends of March, perhaps in the year 548 or 549, or even 550; and since he sat for twenty years and six months, it is necessary that he was admitted to the pontifical dignity in the year 529 or 528, therefore a monk before 500, or even in the preceding year, at the beginning of August, when the Rule and institute of St. Benedict was still unknown in Gaul, having finally been brought there in the year 543 by St. Maurus: so that St. Albinus could not have embraced that rule in the monastery of Tincillac long before the year 500.
Section II. The miracles and translations of St. Albinus.
[5] Gregory of Tours, a contemporary of Fortunatus, in his book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 96, narrates certain miracles of St. Albinus that were passed over by the latter, or, as is more likely, performed after that Life was published, in these words: Albinus the Confessor, moreover, whose Life has recently been written by the Priest Fortunatus, also obtains, by his merits being bestowed, that his miracles be displayed at his tomb. The day of the feast was at hand, A paralytic divinely forewarned, on which a paralytic, feeble in all his limbs, carried on a wagon, was sitting before the glass apse within which the holy remains are enclosed. Given over to sleep, he saw a man coming to him and saying: How long will you drowse, and not desire to become well? He said: If only I might deserve to become well! And the man said to him: When you hear the signal sounding for the course of the Third Hour, rise immediately and enter the basilica to which you came. For it will happen Saints Albinus and Martin invisibly entering the temple, that at that very hour Blessed Martin with his kinsman Albinus shall enter the basilica, and after a prayer has been made, shall proceed to Tours for his solemnity. If you are present at that moment, you shall be made well. Without delay, when the signal was given, he approached the tomb of the Saint: and when the clergy had begun to sing the praise of the Davidic psalm, a sweet fragrance being diffused, a fragrance of sweetness came into the basilica of the Saint, and he was raised up with straightened feet, unharmed: he is healed: which was seen not by a few but by very many, as a foster-daughter of that region testifies. So also at the village of Crouy, a woman blind from birth, invoking the name of the Saint, a blind woman invoking him is given sight, was given sight on that very day. So says Gregory of Tours. That St. Albinus pursues from heaven the injuries inflicted on monasteries or sacred places is declared below on March 25 in the Life of St. Hermeland, Abbot of Aindre.
[6] Other miracles wrought at the tomb of St. Albinus after the year of Christ 1000 Other miracles of St. Albinus, we copied from the codex of Nicolas Belfort, a Canon Regular in the monastery of St. John the Baptist, called de Vineis, near the city of Soissons. They were committed to writing by a monk of the abbey of St. Albinus at Angers, under Abbot Walter, as the author testifies in chapter 2, number 11, in these words: And although I heard the things I write from the Lord Walter, by a monk of Angers, an eyewitness of some, then Dean of the monastery, now Abbot (who especially urged me to commit these things to my pen) and from many others who were present at the miracle, etc. And a little before, speaking of Girmund, who was healed there from paralysis by the aid of St. Albinus: Whom I, he says, although a monk only in appearance, saw as a monk. At what time Walter governed the monastery of St. Albinus (which in the year of Christ 966 had been given to monks after the Canons were ejected) is evident from the Chronicles of the same monastery published by our Philip Labbé. For they have under the year 1036: written before the year 1055: Walter was ordained Abbot. Then under 1055: Abbot Walter died on the 4th before the Kalends of January. The same writer relates that the last miracle he narrates occurred one after the year 1060, in the time when the venerable Abbot Othbrannus administered the abbey of St. Albinus, Bishop of Angers. Concerning whom the same Chronicles under the year of Christ 1060: Abbot Theodoric died on the 7th before the Kalends of January. Abbot Otbrannus was ordained on the 12th before the Kalends of April. In the year 1081 Bishop Eusebius and Abbot Otbrannus died. Perhaps, however, that last miracle was added by someone else; certainly a monk of the same abbey, who writes at the end: The monks arrive together at the cry of the mute man speaking. After, therefore, that mute man, now speaking, narrated everything to us (for I too, although unworthy, was present at so wonderful a miracle), understanding the mercy of God, who was forewarning us by one man's example to be cautious against evil, we extolled His great deeds with sweet hymns.
[7] With what concourse of peoples and with what celebration the feast of St. Albinus was observed in his time, the same writer declares in chapter 2, numbers 8 and 19. The feast of St. Albinus formerly famous: This religious custom had indeed grown up from ancient times. For Fortunatus in book 11 of his poems, number 27, testifies that he was drawn to the feasts of St. Albinus when he had come to the monastery of Tincillac: Fortunatus invited to it by Bishop Domitianus,
Hence, he says, the holy Bishop Domitianus carried me away, Drawing me to the joyful feasts of holy Albinus.
At which passage a conjecture wonderfully deceived our Christopher Brower, not the one of Châlons, when he writes: Moreover, from the mention of Blessed Domitianus, it appears that he traveled in Champagne; for that Bishop, distinguished for his virtue, had his See at Châlons: and it is easy to conjecture from this that so difficult a voyage befell Fortunatus on the river Marne, beside which Domitianus lived. For how could St. Domitianus of Châlons have invited, or even drawn, Fortunatus to the feasts of St. Albinus, since he was a companion of St. Memmius, several centuries before Fortunatus, and St. Albinus himself, whom Brower recognizes as this Bishop of Angers?
[8] Several Translations of St. Albinus are recorded by writers. The first, arranged by his successor Eutropius himself, Translation of St. Albinus before the year 555, graced by St. Germanus of Paris and other comprovincial Bishops,
the martyrdom of St. Alban, who at Verulamium in Britain, in the time of Diocletian, offering himself in place of a cleric whom he had received as a guest, was beheaded after scourging and bitter torments: although no mention of Britain or the city of Verulamium is made in those Lessons. Now this much is established: it was also a customary practice from ancient times that Albinus should be said for Albanus, which perhaps also happened to Dinamius.
[10] Of the Albinuses, however, who are properly called by this name, the most famous is the one of whom we treat here, the Bishop of Angers, to whom very many chapels, churches, and monasteries are dedicated throughout all Gaul: St. Albinus of Angers is Patron in many places. whom towns publicly venerate as their Patron, such as Guérande in the diocese of Nantes, about which more below in the Miracles; and another in the diocese of Rennes, which Paul Emile and others call the Shrine of St. Albinus, situated almost on the borders of the region of Le Mans: not far from which, between the rivers Vilaine and Couesnon, that great battle was fought in the year 1488, on the 5th before the Kalends of August, a Monday, as Jean du Tillet and Argentré noted, in which the Bretons were defeated by La Trémoille, commander of the forces of Charles VIII, King of France, and the Duke of Orléans, Charles's brother-in-law, was captured — who afterward became King Louis XII. That battle is still celebrated in the writings and speeches of the French under the name of St. Albinus, commonly called "la bataille de Saint-Aubin." Many villages also, especially in the same Armorican Brittany and in the Angevin region, take their name from St. Albinus.
[11] Baronius honorably mentions St. Albinus and recites certain things from his Acts Several writers treat of him. in volume 7 of the Annals under the year 540, number 30. Peter de Natalibus, Bishop of Equilio, treats of the same in book 3, chapter 164. Arnold Wion erred from a lapse of memory when in book 3 of the Lignum Vitae under this day he wrote: Mombritius has the same Life of Albinus written by Fortunatus the Priest in volume 2 of the Saints. For he does not have it, nor, if he had it, would he have relegated it to the second volume, since he arranged the Lives in alphabetical order, and the first in the second volume is that of St. Hermes the Martyr. Concerning St. Alban, the Martyr of Verulamium in Britain, Mombritius reports a few things in volume 1, folio 33. Augustine du Paz in the Genealogical History of the illustrious families of Brittany, pages 266 and following, mentions St. Albinus and reports that the inhabitants of the diocese of Vannes affirm he was born of the family of Spineto, in the parish of Languidic, or Land-Guidic, on the bank of the river Blavet, half a league from the town of Hennebont. Albert, cited above, establishes two Gallic leagues between Hennebont and Land-Guidic, and the Map of Brittany seems to support this. Argentré, cited above, also treats of St. Albinus, and is to be cited again in the Notes on chapter 3 of the Miracles.
LIFE
by Fortunatus the Priest,
from three manuscripts and Surius.
St. Albinus, Bishop of Angers in Gaul.
BHL Number: 0234a
By Fortunatus, from manuscripts.
PROLOGUE OF THE AUTHOR.
[1] I remember, Apostolic man, when I had come to present myself to your view at the city which you govern with Christ as your guide, that among the other counsels of your maturity, which you seemed to pour forth upon me like a torrent from a rich mind, you also briefly made mention of the most sacred man, the Lord Albinus the Bishop. At the request of Bishop Domitianus. For since his life is proved to flower with imperishable merits, inscribed in heavenly books, you commanded that for the edification of the people also it should be established and fixed in human documents: intending to provide for the peoples with a twofold benefit, so that in him they might find things to admire and to venerate, and in themselves they might see what each one should wisely amend: that is, while they learned so many things to be proclaimed in one man, they should not delay in cutting away their own faults in themselves, so that the unique account of the blessed man might become the public remedy of the hearers. But perceiving that memories, rapidly fleeting from the world, are stolen away, I fear to bind in letters, carelessly, certain things about the Life of the most Holy One that will quickly slip away; and that they could not easily be taken back into the mind if once they should begin to be withdrawn as the forgetfulness of time encroached. A certain instigator of this matter, faithfully narrated to him by his attendant, carrying out the commands of Your Blessedness, demanded from me that I should consent to this: adding that the things which he himself had discovered about the deeds of the holy man according to the truth, I, with him informing me, should without doubt make public. Heaping up a greater mass of complaints in this, because the aforesaid man had done things secretly, yet worthy of narration, for the investigation of truth; but he had not been able to reach each particular of his deeds, and admitted that he had forgotten some of the things he knew. In those things which he does remember, however, without any ambiguity he brought to us by his testimony a people in agreement, since certainly it is not permitted to doubt the past deeds of one who works daily more glorious things in each case. And I congratulated the one about to report, because from your nurturing such a man had grown up, who would set forth the matter enjoined upon him so vigorously, and would also offer something of his own for the sake of elegance, and not inappropriately: indeed, if he wished, he could himself explain what he had sought from elsewhere. Since whatever will be said about him is imputed to your praises: because it is the merit of the master that is the praise of the disciple, and in the skill of the minister are the ornaments of the Bishop. Although I, conscious of my smallness, trembled to undertake this — I who truly knew that this ought to be entrusted to those who are exercised in talent, eloquent in speech, devoted in service, proven in style: his own inadequacy excused, who are rich in sense, torrential on the wheel of the tongue, swift in service, brilliant in song — since before your skill the very eloquence of Cicero, I suspect, would scarcely run securely, and one who at Rome before Caesar would speak freely,
who was resisting him, might be subdued; and whence he alone might afflict himself, he might come to the aid of all with the greatest hope? For Blessed Albinus was small in obeying, mature in trampling upon vices: so that in the very apprenticeship of his youth(f) he was already an example of old age, having only this in common with man, that he was born; but everything that he lived he wished to be Christ's; not lending his eye to pleasure, nor his ear to mockery, and other virtues: nor his mind to frivolity; always governing himself by the anchor of gravity. He conducted himself within the enclosure of the monastery in such a way that even when he sometimes went out in public, he was always enclosed within the prison of his own heart; nor did he set before himself anything else to look upon outside himself than Christ, whom as a faithful bearer he carried in his breast.
[3] Occupied therefore in these pursuits, he reached such a brilliance of life he becomes renowned for miracles, that the Lord of the world testified to his devout service through miracles. For when he was still a young boy, traveling through the countryside on his Abbot's business, stopping at a certain person's house, so violent a storm thundered and so great a deluge of rain poured down that the house itself was not protected by its own roof. When therefore, because of the greatness of the rain, the cottage was as good as an open field, and all who were held in that lodging were drenched, untouched by rain: the rain alone was afraid to touch Blessed Albinus at that time; because where it felt the flame of faith, lest it do injury, each drop turned itself aside. When this was discovered, the sanctity of conscience,(g) which had been concealed by years, became known through merits, because in the flower of his youth the fragrance of virtue was breathed forth.
[4] Then, as the heavenly gifts increased with age, at about thirty-five years of age he was chosen as ruler and pious pastor of the monastery: he becomes Abbot: for by his own splendor he had drawn the dignity to himself. Meanwhile, under the master's discipline, the order of the congregation flourished, where by strict severity the license of sinning had perished. The zeal of piety burned, the harmony of psalmody exulted, the ray of obedience flashed among the Brothers, and the adornment of holy charity excelled: because just as he was anxious to eradicate vices, so he was circumspect in implanting heavenly gifts. In which office of Abbot he happily governed the congregation committed to him for twenty-five years.
Notes:
(a) Concerning the Veneti, the people of lower Brittany, and their power among the Armoricans, Caesar may be consulted, and among more recent authors Papirius Masso in his Antiquities of Gaul. The Veneti in Armorica. The principal city, distinguished by its bishopric, is called Vannes in French.
(b) Albert le Grand in the Lives of the Saints of Armorica writes that he was descended from a family called de Spineto-Forti.
(c) Two manuscripts: fleeing.
(d) Surius: delight.
(e) Others read Tintillacensi; Equilinus Tinilacensi; Surius and others Cincillacensi; the Offices of the Canons Regular, lesson 4, Cincilacensi; Trithemius Timlacensi; Tincillac monastery. Vincent of Beauvais, book 23, chapter 14, and St. Antoninus, part 2, title 14, chapter 2, section 1, Obiallacensi. This place is that mentioned by the same Fortunatus in book 11 of his poems, number 27, about his journey: "I am carried from there to the Tincillac place." Brower published: "Then to the Illac place," and confesses in his Notes that the variety of reading is remarkable: he himself would prefer "Then to the Dullac place," because obviously mention is made here in number 9 of the village of Dullac. He cites three old books, however, which have Tincillacensi. That this place was not far from Angers, Fortunatus shows in the following couplet, writing thus:
Hence the holy Bishop Domitianus carried me away, Drawing me to the joyful feasts of holy Albinus.
Concerning this couplet, see above, section 2, number 13.
(f) The manuscript of St. Maximin: "among the youths"; the other two: "youthful."
(g) Surius: "the consciousness of sanctity."
CHAPTER II.
St. Albinus is honored by King Childebert and by many miracles from God.
[5] And because the fame of so great a merit did not lie hidden and buried, but flying through all things on fortunate wings took possession of everything, it happened that the city of Angers(a) was stripped of the governance of its Pastor. Then by the unanimity of the whole people, then Bishop: while he resisted in the zeal of humility, he was concordantly elected to the pontifical degree, with Christ leading. Having obtained the honor of the priesthood that was owed, he so distinguished himself in almsgiving to the poor, in the defense of citizens, in the visitation of the sick, and in the redemption of captives, that the blessed activity of one man became the general salvation; by which pursuits the heavenly virtues bore fruit in him.
[6] He heals a contracted hand by the sign of the Cross: Therefore in the city of Angers, when a certain woman named Grata met him — ungrateful, however, because of the disability of a contracted hand, with the sinews growing numb — he made the sign of the Cross over the infirm right hand. Thereupon a living warmth first infused itself into the hand that had been nearly dead. Likewise on the following day, in the same place, she presented herself to be signed by him. When this was done, the veins began to recognize their own courses. And on the third day, when he impressed the seal of the Cross upon her, immediately the threads of the dried-up fingers loosened, and having recovered their function, the woman signed herself with her right hand, revived in the name of Christ.
[7] On a certain occasion, when he had come in passing to the village of Gégine, hearing from the parents that a young man named Alabaudus,(b) who had already lost the gift of life, was being mourned with extreme lamentation for his death, he raises a dead man by his prayers: he hastened to the spot and prostrated himself in prayer that he might raise the dead to life. Bending over him, he prayed for a long time: and while the Priest lay pale in the dust, the vitality of the soul reddened in the body, until, with heaven having been knocked upon and the netherworld opened, the youth was recalled from death and the Priest from prayer.
[8] Then, when he had visited the monastery of Assay with fatherly solicitude, a certain blind man, already illuminated by faith, cried out that he might come to his aid. Imposing upon him the medicine of the holy Cross, it was as swift to receive the light he illuminates three blind men by the sign of the Cross: as it had been to seek it. Likewise at Angers, when a certain Maurilius, his eyes being closed, begged that his light be restored to him, then the Pontiff, turning to his familiar weapons, immediately extending the venerable sign over his eyelids, the Cross, penetrating the darkness like a most powerful catapult, brought light in after it for the blind man. Likewise, when Marcellinus, having spent about ten years in the cloud of blindness, was brought and came to the blessed Pontiff, when he himself extended the sign of the adorable Cross over his eyes, immediately, with blood bursting forth and the darkness put to flight, the light entered.
[9] That notable deed must also be recounted by us. When the illustrious Ætheria he frees a captive woman, was held under siege by the custody of soldiers in the village of Dullac, by royal command pursuing her, then the holy Pastor, coming to the aid of the endangered sheep, entered alone so that he would be recognized by no one. Seeing him, the weeping woman, embracing his feet, clung to him. Then the insane audacity of the wretched guard, while wanting to tear her away like a wolf from the shepherd's garment, inflicted injury upon the holy man. Then, breathing into his face, by breathing upon the wicked guard, he kills him, the violator of the Priest was punished with swift death. From this, with terror pressing upon them, the rest showed reverence to the Pontiff, and the punishment of one made the others free from guilt. Nor did he depart from the woman until, having given a price to the King, he himself freed her: and so in one moment there was both safety for the suppliant and death for the presumptuous one.
[10] Nor indeed is this to be omitted, which is worthy of being committed to memory.(c) To the village called Albinia, he heals a blind and demoniac man by his prayers: the holy Father came with the zeal of pious devotion. Where, when a certain blind man begged help of mercy from him, the same began to be tormented with bodily affliction by the harassment of a demon, by which he had long since been captured. Then in prayer, to which he always devoted himself with holy intention of mind, he also prostrated his body, and restored the captive man's former light to his eyes, and put to flight the plague of the unclean spirit. O ineffable grace of piety! From which, while only sustenance is sought, a threefold remedy is obtained: he fed the needy with food, gifted the blinded with sight, and restored the captive to freedom.
[11] Likewise, when he was going to King Childebert at Paris, it was reported to the Pontiff that the King was going to leave the city the next day for the purpose of hunting, and he sent word that he considered himself worthy of being waited for. But because bodily infirmity hindered Blessed Albinus, the aforesaid King hastened to come to his presence: and as long as he went along the road that led to the Priest, he proceeded successfully. But when he came to a certain crossroad and wished to turn aside elsewhere, he is visited by the King, his horse, as if it were a molten piece of metal, could not move a step. The King therefore, suspecting the fault was more of the horse than of the cause, had another saddled for him. the horses being unable to turn another way: But when he tried to urge it along the same road, as if impeded by a wall, though spurred, it could not go. Understanding therefore that it had profited nothing to have changed the vehicle unless he also changed his course, he began to learn from the horse what man was doing wrong, and human understanding grasped what the beast was correcting:(d) and turning it onto the road that led to the Priest, it began to run to the Pontiff with such eagerness as if, snatched from a ditch, it had reached the smooth level of a soft field.
Notes:
(a) Manuscripts: Angers.
(b) So three manuscripts. Surius: Malabandum.
(c) This miracle is absent from three manuscripts.
(d) The manuscript of Saint-Omer: "turned onto the road."
CHAPTER III.
Other miracles of St. Albinus, his death, and translation.
[12] It is worth telling a living story about a certain corpse. When the Apostolic man himself had come to the city of Vannes,(a) one of his attendants, a young man already converted, whom he loved more closely because of the quality of his character, having died and been buried at that place, he renders a boy's body immovable, after a year he was calling his little body back home with psalmody. Then, while he was delayed for this reason, the servants wanted to move the body before the Priest should arrive: but it became so heavy that they would sooner have been able to seize the limbs of a giant then he commands it to be moved. than to lift the boyish body, while the cadaver of the unburied one seemed already to be weighed down by marble; nor could even horses advance their step, as if his dust had generated chains upon them of its own accord, until the Bishop, returning, released by prayer those whom a silent voice had transfixed.
[13] This miracle too is no less to be proclaimed: when in the monastery of Tincillac a monk named Genomerus(b) was captive of the light of his eyes, he illuminates a blind man by the sign of the Cross: and years long past had been traversed in one night of blindness, he asked that the sign of the Cross be made for him by the most holy man Albinus. When this was done, the splendor of living light entered, and with the darkness put to flight, the sun shone as if upon a stranger.
[14] This too is a venerable lesson among the rest. When in the city of Angers a tower adjoining the gate had been made into a prison for the condemned, as Blessed Albinus was passing by, a clamor arose from the voices of those enclosed within. Then he approached the Judge as an intercessor he opens a prison for captives by his prayers: to release them from custody for the sake of piety. When the Judge put this off with a deaf ear, the Pontiff, turning to God with a faithful petition, made his request with so familiar a voice that in the place where the Saint poured out his prayer, a stone block of wondrous size leaping out became an entrance through the gate for the prisoners: because before his prayer, the stone could not maintain its solidity. From there they went out, like the living from a tomb, and in the basilica of St. Maurilius,(c) giving thanks to the Lord Albinus, they prostrated themselves at his feet, because he had caused those suspected of death to return to safety.
[15] He drives out a demon by the sign of the Cross: Likewise, when a certain woman, seized by an evil spirit, presented herself to the most blessed man Albinus, crying out and wailing, immediately the adversary himself gathered himself above her eye in the likeness of a blood blister. Then the Pontiff, making the sign of the holy Cross, rebuked him, saying: Enemy, the eye which you did not give, you shall not be able to take away. Immediately from that collection, in the likeness of a phlebotomy, blood burst forth subtly. As it flowed, without injury to the eye, the unclean enemy vanished, and the girl, unharmed, escaped at the command of the sign of the Cross.
[16] But this example of magnanimity is also considered opportune to be explained: that in the business of God there was with him no personal regard for any Kings or powerful men. For to seek the fullness of heavenly grace, condemning the rights of the execrable union of incestuous marriages, an irreproachable imitator of Blessed John — what he endured, no one could worthily explain. Indeed, he desired to become a Martyr, if the hand of a striker had not been lacking. He excommunicates those joined in incestuous marriages, But without doubt he merited the palm of martyrdom, who did not conceal the wishes of his desire. Whence, besides other labors, also running about through synods(d) frequently convened for this very cause, he was at last compelled by the injunction of very many Bishops, and by the force of the Brothers, to absolve the persons he had excommunicated. And when he was asked to sign the blessed bread(e) which the other Bishops, directing it to the person suspended from communion, had blessed, he said to the priestly council: Even if I am compelled to sign at your command, while you refuse to defend the cause of God, He Himself is powerful to avenge it. Which done, before the excommunicated person received his blessed bread, she expired;(f) compelled to absolve, he predicts they will be divinely punished: and before the bearer arrived, the word of the Priest prevailed. He also went to the Blessed Caesarius,(g) Bishop of Arles, to consult him about the same cause.
[17] But since we cannot recount each of his deeds, let it suffice to have said a few out of many. That testimony also of the most Blessed One, living after death, we believe necessary to be explained above the rest. Because although his body was held shut in a tomb, nevertheless the reward of the just soul abounded in fruit. Therefore when St. Germanus,(h) Bishop of Paris, and the comprovincial bishops, and his successor(i) the Pontiff, and the people wished devoutly to transfer the remains of St. Albinus to a new basilica, his body is translated by St. Germanus, not without miracles: and because of the narrowness of the cell in which he had been interred, no means was given of extracting the sacred body; while all were hesitating and uncertain what to do, the virtue of the most blessed man interposed itself as mediatrix amid the popular concerns. For while all were waiting and deliberating nothing, suddenly, by divine command, the wall of the cell at his feet having been split, three stones fell from the eastern side — a sign given, evidently, showing through what place he ordered himself to be able to be brought out.
[18] Three paralytics healed: Meanwhile, when an opening had been made and the holy sepulcher proceeded forth amid the harmonious singing of the chanters, from the place through which it was brought out, openly three paralytics, long since despaired of, were restored to health, and sinews that had been dead learned to be revivified by the merits of the buried man of God. Two blind men illuminated. And immediately two blind men were likewise illuminated, at last receiving the light of day from the shadow of the deceased: recognizing assuredly that by his aid they could obtain light, by whose power a wall could be pierced with a window. By these and the infinite miracles that followed, even if the members of the supreme Pontiff lie in their tomb, nevertheless through the grace of the Creator, the merits of the Confessor live for all eternity.
[19] He therefore, adorned with venerable flowers by a heavenly gift, governing the pinnacle of the pontificate for twenty years and six(k) months with regular ecclesiastical discipline, He lived eighty years. in the eightieth year of his life, happily fulfilling that prophetic word along with the heights of blessedness among the mighty, sent forth his soul most dear to God — snatched from the world, destined to remain with Christ — to heaven on the Kalends of March, with the Angels applauding, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen.
Notes:
(a) The manuscript of St. Maximin: Venetis. Aud.: Venetus, as before Parisius.
(b) Surius: Gennomerus. Morlaix: Germomerus.
(c) St. Maurilius, or Maurilio, as he is here called, Bishop of Angers, is venerated on September 13.
(d) In many Gallic synods of that age, incestuous unions were condemned, and specifically at the Third Council of Orléans, at which St. Albinus was present in the year 535, the 26th year of King Childebert.
(e) We said on January 6, page 331, in connection with chapter 4 of the Life of St. Melanius, note 9, that "eulogiae" are bread or other foods which were customarily sent as a mark of blessing, Eulogiae. or given after Masses, as a sign of communion and charity. Thus in number 21 there: After the celebration of Mass, before they departed from one another, the blessed Pontiff gave them blessed bread in charity, with the grace of God and his blessing. Similarly on January 4 in the Life of St. Rigobert, Bishop of Rheims, chapter 2, number 7: He went to Pippin the Mayor of the Palace, father of Charles surnamed Martel, and sent ahead his blessed bread to him as he returned from the hunt which he had exercised shortly before. In the Life of St. Genovefa on January 3, chapter 3, number 11, page 139, where the Archdeacon of Auxerre speaks thus: And behold, I present the blessed bread sent to her by St. Germanus. In the Rule of the monastery of St. Caesaria, January 12, section 4, number 25: Yet out of affection for parents, to the knowledge of whomever, if she wishes to send some blessed bread, let her suggest it to the Mother. Elsewhere this word is often found in our work with a similar meaning.
(f) Saussay does not seem to have correctly understood this passage in his Martyrology, where he expounds and amplifies it thus: Whence, when he was compelled to absolve certain persons whom he had excommunicated, he is read to have responded to the Bishops (among whom he sat not once in sacred assemblies) in this manner: If I am compelled to subscribe to your wishes, while you neglect to defend the cause of God, He Himself is powerful to avenge it. And soon, consumed more by zeal than oppressed by illness, Did St. Albinus die of zeal? he departed from life before he would subscribe to the unjust demand, beautifully following in the footsteps of the Martyrs: for since he was unable to shed his blood for God, he poured out his very soul; and consumed by the hunger and thirst of justice, he expired in so great a fervor of piety; on account of which, blessed in heaven, he afterward shone gloriously in his tomb. Fortunatus does not say that Albinus himself expired before he could subscribe to the Bishops' demand; but rather that the very
was wrought in our time, and which I know is very well known to those who were present by sight. Nevertheless, I did not greatly care to set forth by name those from whose account I learned this: because all the citizens of Angers are witnesses of this event, as will be evident from the narration of the deed. In the suburb of Angers, therefore, a certain faithful man Girmund, a pious man, goes to St. Martin, named Girmund, was living with his wife, not a possessor of great substance, yet having of his own right enough to satisfy nature; and, what is more praiseworthy in Christ, he abounded in gentleness of spirit, stability of true faith, and pure simplicity. It once came into his mind that, according to the custom of the whole region, he should visit the holy tomb of Blessed Martin.(b) He does not seek temporal things: When he arrived there, he did not ask for the prosperity of this world or a long life, but for pardon of past negligences, a good departure from impending dangers, and caution against future ones, so that he might deserve to reach a good consummation in Christ.
[5] On the next day, however, while making his way home on his return, the day being already half spent, fatigued both by bodily weariness and especially by heaviness of spirit, he turned aside a little from the road, and lying down on the ground, fell asleep. After sleep, however, he was so destitute of bodily strength seized by paralysis, that he could proceed nowhere, and at last, with great labor, by rolling for a long time upon the ground, he barely crawled to the road. Lying there therefore, he cried out with heart and mouth to God, who is a helper in opportunities in tribulation, yet with what patience he could, giving thanks to the divine mercy he gives thanks to God: that He deigned to visit him with His chastisement. For he had heard that whom the Lord loves He corrects, and scourges every son whom He receives. Heb. 12:6 The pious Creator, therefore, does not long desert one hoping in Him under the scourge without consolation. For while the sick man hesitated, not knowing what divine providence would dispose concerning him, he saw horsemen coming from afar along the road on which he lay. There was indeed a certain citizen of Angers who was taking that road by which the sick man wished to go. Who immediately, having compassion on him, had him lifted onto a horse by his men (for he knew him well) and thus brought him to the castle of Belgiacum; from there he was carried to his own home on a donkey, he lies bedridden for a full year: where he lay bedridden as a paralytic for an entire year.
[6] When the year had ended and his small substance was consumed, relying not so much on health as compelled by necessity, he attempted to rise from his bed. By the working of divine grace, he had felt a little that his right hand with his foot was beginning to grow warm again to its former vigor, while the left side of his body nevertheless remained weak as it was. leaning on crutches he visits sacred places: In such chastisement meanwhile being placed, he sought the supports of staffs; propped up by which, he first began to visit the churches and neighboring monasteries of the city; yet he most frequently visited the threshold of Blessed Albinus, both for the bodily sustenance which he received from the alms of the monastery, and because he hoped that through the intercession of the holy Confessor he would obtain salvation of both soul and body. Finally, having sold his small furniture, he bought a donkey on which to be carried, traveling around to the thresholds of the Saints; carried by a donkey, he makes a pilgrimage to Rome: and at last he went to Rome with his faithful wife to implore the aid of the blessed Apostles.
[7] As he was returning from there, a certain noble and devout woman received him as a guest at the city of Lucca;(c) and having observed the man's gentleness, she begged him to remain with her, promising that she would minister to him in all things as long as he lived, on his return he is received at Lucca by a pious woman who wishes to keep him: just as to her own father. To whom he, giving thanks to God that He was mindful of him, gladly consented for the time being; but after fifteen days had passed, certain new suggestions persuading him to return to his homeland began to disturb him. These he at first rejected from his mind, reasoning against himself: but by divine instinct, Wretched me, he said, who in my homeland will serve the needs of my infirmity so well? I will not leave here; I will await here the day of my death. But afterward, while sleeping, he seemed to see the person of a certain man of great authority, then by an express warning he is ordered to return to Angers, who first gently said to him: Depart from here,
[12] Nor indeed was the land of the holy Bishop's birth immune from the munificence of his virtues. For in the territory of Vannes there is a certain village situated on the shore of the ocean sea, which in the Breton language they call Guérande,(a) The inhabitants of the village of Guérande very populous on account of its great commerce in salt. Whose inhabitants venerate the holy Confessor with holy love, and honor him after Christ with wonderful veneration: which is proved by the magnificent basilica built there in his honor through their own zeal. At the port of this village at a certain time a very large fleet of armed ships arrived, carrying northern pirates whom we are accustomed to call Normans. terrified by the sudden arrival of the Normans, A savage and excessively cruel race of men, always thirsting to shed human blood and coveting others' goods, to capture youths and virgins, and to slaughter the elderly without any mercy. By their unexpected arrival, therefore, all the inhabitants of that land were so terrified that they had no idea whatsoever what to do or where to turn. For they had no forces to resist, and no means of flight except by leaving behind their little ones with their wives and all their possessions. they invoke their Patron St. Albinus: Nevertheless, summoning one another by the blast of trumpets, they all fled to the church of Blessed Albinus with great vows: weeping, they called upon Albinus as their helper, Albinus as their advocate, Albinus as their leader and standard-bearer.
[13] While they were in such turmoil of trepidation, a certain courtly man, venerable in his bright appearance, known to none of them, appeared in the guise of a soldier, surrounded by gleaming arms, roused to hope by an unknown soldier, who, rebuking their slowness, said: O lazy ones, and of little faith, why do you hesitate to enter battle with a people that lives without God? Is it impossible for Christ the Lord to triumph either with many or with few? Especially since Blessed Albinus has long been present waiting, ready to give you aid. Remember David: an unarmed boy struck down the giant Goliath, terrible to all, with a single stone. Having said this, all, inflamed in spirit, engaged with the enemies, they attack the barbarians, who were already at hand, prepared to overrun everything, and certain that they would plunder, kill, and consign everything to fire. But the small flock of St. Albinus made an assault upon the enemy: and although few against many, unarmed against the armed, untrained against those accustomed to battles, relying not on their own strength but on God's, they struck down the hostile ranks. Without delay, the pirates, feeling that God was fighting, not men, turned to flight, leaving many of their corpses on the shore, and put them to flight, with many slain, and more swiftly than they had come, they reached their ships, nor dared any longer to invade those lands.
[14] with none of their own lost, With the Saint helping, therefore, after the enemies were defeated and put to flight, when they inquired and perceived that in so great a battle not only had none of their own perished, but not one had even been wounded, they recognized that only that unknown soldier, who had been their encourager, was missing from their number. At which event, made very grieved and sad (for they suspected he had been killed, since he had leaped upon the enemy ranks ahead of all), they carefully searched all the bodies of the dead and they judge that soldier to have been an Angel. so that they might honor him at least with burial. But since he was not found at all, there was no longer any doubt to anyone that it had been an angelic power, sent by the Lord to aid his devout people. And these things having been so prosperously accomplished, all ran with joy to the basilica of the holy Confessor, paying their vows with the sacrifice of praise.
[15] In the time when the venerable Abbot Othbrannus(c) administered the abbey of St. Albinus, Bishop of Angers, God, having compassion on human miseries, proving that He condemns the indiscriminate rashness of oaths and the horror of swearing, terrified others through the peril of one of them, and through his consolation in turn consoled the rest. For on a certain day, which the ancient pagans dedicated to Mercury, a certain youth named Fulco, son of a certain soldier named Theodoric, from the castle called Camilliacus,(d) had gone to Thouarcé(e) (that is the name of the neighboring village) with other men and pack animals, to carry out his father's command. When the pack animals were loaded with the grain for which they had gone to carry it, while they were returning, it happened to the same Fulco that while he tried to raise up a shifting bundle on his donkey, he suffered great pain in a wound which someone had recently cruelly inflicted on his hand. cursing harm on another and swearing by St. Albinus, Wherefore, angered at his malefactor, though absent, while he wished to call down upon him in revenge the punishment of the evil deed and to express the agitation of his mind by an oath on the precious Albinus, after he rashly swore by the Saint, before he could form the intended words of his agitation, he suddenly became mute. he becomes mute: While his companions sought the cause of his silence and could extract nothing but tears and certain gestures, they brought him to his father.
[16] Not much later, when the fame of such an event had been spread throughout the whole neighborhood, the parents formed a plan that consolation for the boy should be sought through the intercession of him by whose offense he had lost his speech. The father therefore, taking friends with him, sent his son to Angers and commended him to the prayers of the monks who served Blessed Albinus. he is brought to the tomb of St. Albinus, The Abbot and monks received him and with humble prayers offered him to God and St. Albinus, and enjoining on him devout perseverance as he was prostrated before that most sacred body, they left him there alone, and closing the doors of the sanctuary upon him (for
and it was uprooted by a certain peasant: who, when he had lightly seized it on his back and carried it to the edge and boundaries of the same Church land, set the tree down there, slightly tired. When he tried again to carry it further beyond, that tyrant with each of his servants was unable to carry it because of its excessive weight; and having left it there, a parish Clerk of that Church carried it alone back to its original place — the same tree that the tyrant himself with all his men had been unable to move.
[4] So far the Breviary. From which it seems clearly to be gathered that in whichever church St. Marnanus was first entombed, in that same one his remaining relics were preserved, and his head was accustomed to be washed in water, which was then efficacious for the cure of diseases. But in which province of Scotland the place called Aberkerdor, or Aberkerdour, watered by the Duvern river, may be found, I have not yet been able to ascertain. David Camerarius, book 3, On the Piety of the Scots, whether he died in Annandale, writes that St. Marnanus, after various labors undertaken in the Scottish Church, died in Annandale, a province of Scotland near England, and presently adds: Moray had the head of St. Marnanus, was his head preserved in Moray? which was customarily carried about with the greatest pomp and honor (especially with the noble and ancient tribe of the Inneses accompanying, who bore the most tender affection toward Marnanus) to beseech God for fine weather. But Moray, commonly called Murray, is far distant from Annandale, beyond the Caledonian forest. We are easily led, however, to believe that he was buried in that province or another nearby, since the name Inverness, of a once powerful fortress in that region, is in some way related to the river Duvern, by which the Church of Aberkerdour is said to have been protected and enclosed, and also to the river Findhorn. Although beyond those shores there is also the river Earn, which flows into the Tay estuary: whether the same may be the Duvern is not easy for outsiders to divine. The same Camerarius mentions the Church of Aberkerdour; but I am not sure whether he does not make it distinct from the place of burial and the place that preserved the head, although he acknowledges it as famous for his relics. There exists, he says, the Church of Aberkerdour, watered by the river Duvern, famous in the name of Marnanus, for pilgrims going to the sacred relics of Marnanus there. pilgrimage to his relics.
[5] Concerning the age and deeds of St. Marnanus we have found nothing certain thus far. For we cannot fully approve what the same Camerarius writes He is said to have obtained a victory for King Aidan in these words: St. Marnanus, Bishop and Confessor, under whose leadership and counsel Aidan, the 48th King of the Scots, not without a miracle, won a victory over Ceolwulf, King of the East Saxons, and Ethelfrith, King of Northumbria. For King Aidan being terrified by the unexpected multitude of the infidel Saxons, the Scots had already nearly lost heart, when the holy Marnanus exhorted the soldiers, struck with fear, to place all their hope in Christ the Lord, the God of armies, and with their foreheads fortified by the saving sign of the Cross, fearless, calling upon Jesus Christ, to charge against the enemy. It was done as Marnanus had commanded: and with such spirit they rushed upon the enemy (fortified by the sign of the Cross and calling upon Christ Jesus) that they wrought great slaughter, with Ceolwulf and Vitellius, leaders of the Saxons, being slain, and the rest turned to flight. This victory was to be attributed to the banner of the Cross and to the prayers of Saints Columba (who, though at the greatest distance on the island of Iona, also announced it with a prophetic spirit) and Marnanus — this was the one voice of all. as also St. Columba: This author seems to follow the Scottish historians Hector Boece, John Leslie, and George Buchanan, who however do not mention St. Marnanus, and make many errors while recounting the various wars of King Aidan against Ethelfrith, King of Northumbria, but not against King Ethelfrith, stirred up by the Northumbrian himself, when Bede seems to recognize only one, and that one initiated by Aidan himself. For thus he writes in book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, chapter 34: In these times the most brave and most glory-seeking King Ethelfrith ruled over the kingdom of the Northumbrians, who more than all the other English Primates laid waste the nation of the Britons... Whence Edan, King of the Scots who inhabit Britain, moved by his successes, came against him with an immense and strong army, but was defeated and fled with a few. Indeed, in the most famous place called Degsastan (that is, by whom Aidan was defeated in the year 603 the stone of Degsa), almost his entire army was slain. In which battle also Theobald, brother of Ethelfrith, was killed together with all the army which he himself led. Which war Ethelfrith completed in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 603, the eleventh year of his reign, which he held for twenty-four years; moreover, in the first year of Phocas, who then held the pinnacle of the Roman government. Nor from that time did any of the Kings of the Scots dare to come into Britain in battle against the English nation even to this day. So says Bede. But if Ethelfrith had provoked that war, why did he not use the victory and invade Aidan's kingdom? And how could St. Columba then have directed his prayers for the Scots, when he had died six years earlier? For as Bede testifies, book 3, chapter 4, St. Columba came from Ireland to Britain in the year 565, six years after the death of St. Columba, and died after about thirty-two years from the time when he went to Britain to preach.
[6] But the Scottish writers wonderfully confuse these matters: some say Aidan died one year before St. Columba; others that, having heard of the latter's passing, he was seized more by grief than by disease, and soon died. So says Hector. Buchanan subscribes to this, yet admits that Aidan was afflicted with a defeat, but in the eleventh year after that victory, likewise in Northumbria,
founded by St. Karilephus on the river called Anisola, where many springs bubble up with cold waters, as is found in the Life of that Saint on the Kalends of July. Papirius Masso in his description of Gaul by rivers calls it the Ainsula. St. Sivard, Abbot of the monastery of Anisola. In French the river is called Anisle, and the monastery St. Calais or Calais, from St. Karilephus himself, about whom more fully elsewhere. The Abbot here in the century after Karilephus was St. Sivard, called by others Civardus, Sevardius, or Sevardus. We found his manuscript Life both at Paris in the monastery of St. Victor and at Sens in the Cathedral Church, and we collated it with the one inserted in the third edition of Surius. It was written by a contemporary author, apparently a monk at the same place. For in number 1 he says thus: Concerning a certain servant of God, our Father Sivard, the Life written by a contemporary, an outstanding Priest. And a little later: For in our own time this holy offspring existed among us. Then in number 2: whose holy and most honorable way of life from his youth we knew very well.
[2] St. Sivard died, moreover, as is said in number 7, in the eighth year of the reign of the Lord King Theodoric. Not Theodoric I, King of Austrasia, son of Clovis I. For he died in the year 533, before perhaps St. Karilephus built the monastery of Anisola: he died in the 8th year of Theodoric, son of Clovis II. nor did the people of Le Mans pertain to him, but to his brother Childebert, who for the foundation of that monastery granted as much land as the Saint could travel around in one day while riding a donkey. Nor did Sivard die in the eighth year of Theodoric, King of Burgundy, as Wion and Gabriel Bucelin supposed, who nevertheless wrongly believed that the eighth year of the same King corresponded to the year of Christ 608, since he succeeded his father Childebert in the kingdom of Burgundy in the year 596: who, however, had no jurisdiction over Le Mans, since these were under the rule of Clothar II — although for a short time Theodoric and Theudebert held that dominion and other territories seized from Clothar, but were soon forced to restore them, so that it is not probable that this writer would have borrowed his time marker from the unjust kingdom of a usurper. The Theodoric, therefore, in whose eighth year St. Sivard departed this life, was the son of Clovis II, who after the murder of his brother Childeric recovered the kingdom in the summer of the year 679, and from the beginning held Neustria and within it Le Mans, and upon the death of Dagobert II obtained the entire monarchy of the Franks. His eighth year, therefore, began from the year 686, of Christ 687, and on the following Kalends of March, in the year 687, St. Sivard died.
[3] His name is inscribed under this day in the Martyrologies — the common Roman one, and those of Peter Galesinius and of Molanus's appendix to Usuard; also in the Ephemerides of Constantius Felicius, inscribed in the Martyrologies on March 1, and the Gallic Martyrology of Saussay; likewise in the monastic ones of Arnold Wion, Hugh Menard, Benedict Dorganius, and Gabriel Bucelin. The same, as previously said, is elsewhere written as Senardus, Sevardus, and Sevardius. So the Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490
in the midst of them the holy soul of the Lord Sivard shone with excessive brightness: and the two Apostles seemed to be holding each of his hands. And he is reported to have said to him: Brother, I give thanks to Christ, who has deigned to receive me now into His rest. Behold, I go with my Lords here present. But you, carry the blessed bread which I have prepared to my sister and her sisters. O true Priest, who even after his passing did not forget brotherly love, but more and more the fervor of the fullest charity always blazed in him. For faith and hope cease at some point in the saints, and only the flame of piety grows in them after death. So also it clearly appeared in the revelation of this Saint. Behold, among the Apostles that Saint was seen, who through the purity of chastity, the works of the fullest charity, the restraint of mortification, and the perfection of patience, is rightly believed to have attained Apostolic merits — among those in whose midst he appeared illustrious at the end, and by whom he was led into the heavenly homeland, to the greatest crown of glory. Behold with what reward that good servant is honored and set over many things, who was found faithful over a few things. Truly indeed this venerable Father always persevered with the Brothers, and did not cease to exhort them even to the end, and admonishing while consoling, that they should persevere continually in the holy order and remain in the praises of God.
[7] He receives death peacefully and devoutly. And when he knew his end was near, he was not greatly saddened but prayed soberly: and placing his holy limbs on the bed, he fell asleep quietly in peace. And indeed in the eighth year of the reign of the Lord King Theodoric, on the Kalends of March, he laid down the burden of his flesh, and was received with the holy Angels into the heavenly seat, and rests with our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he truly loved, to whom is glory, honor, and power for ever and ever, Amen.
Notes:
(a) So the manuscripts. But Surius: "to all."
(b) In the Sens manuscript: "the usefulness of instruction." Perhaps more correctly: "of usefulness and instruction."
(c) The same: "of the holy Church."
(d) Corvaisier writes that St. Tunbius built a certain church in the village of Diablenticum, which seems to be the same as this parish of Deablentica: for so the manuscripts read, although Surius read Deableutica. The village of Diablenticum: The same Corvaisier, having diligently examined the catalogues of all the parishes and abbeys of the district of Le Mans, says he could not determine what that village of Diablenticum was. Meanwhile, in the Life of St. Domnolus, Bishop of Le Mans, in Surius on May 16, we read: The villa of Tridens, situated in the district of Diablintica. So that one can scarcely doubt that a name long since known to Caesar is signified here, which in the more corrected reading of Fulvius Ursinus is given as Diablintes, where commonly Diablintres: the same as the Diablindi of Pliny, the Diaulitae of Ptolemy.
(e) In Surius: Sigirannus.
(f) The Sens manuscript adds: "to follow."
(g) Surius: "he taught."
(h) The Sens manuscript: "paternal."
(i) From this it is gathered that St. Sigirannus, the father of St. Sivard, was also Abbot of Anisola, who is recorded by Saussay under December 4.