Winwaloe

ON SAINT WINWALOE, ABBOT OF LANDEVENNEC IN BRITTANY,

SIXTH CENTURY.

Preliminary Commentary.

Winwaloe, Abbot of Landevennec in Brittany (Saint)

§ I. The Life of Saint Winwaloe Written by Several Authors. His Era.

[1] Landevennec, or Landenech, a most ancient monastery in Lower Brittany in Armorica, is situated in the inner harbor of Brest, which harbor some consider the most convenient and capacious in all of Europe, across from the trading town of Brest toward Quimper, in whose diocese that monastery is contained, The name of Saint Winwaloe variously written. and it venerates with celebrated worship its founder and first Abbot, Saint Winwaloe, who is also called by others Guingaloeus, Winnaualoeus, Winwalocus, Winnualocus, Vinnauinlocus, Wingalocus, Wingalotus, Wynolatus, and even Winebaldus; and by another name, as Molanus and Ussher report, Galnutius.

[2] The Acts of this Saint exist both in printed form and extracted from various manuscript codices. Three printed Lives; but omitted here: Laurentius Surius from ancient manuscripts, but with the style altered and indeed in several passages paraphrased,

published very illustrious Acts, everywhere praised and copied by others. Similar to these are those found in an ancient Breviary of Quimper, divided into nine Lessons to be recited at Matins, considerably condensed, yet different in some things inserted from elsewhere. A third set of Acts can be read in John Capgrave's New Legend of the Saints of England, published at London in the year 1516. A triple set from manuscripts is given. Omitting these, we give hitherto unpublished Acts, and in first place from the manuscript codex of the monastery of Canons Regular of Rouge-Cloître in Brabant near Brussels. These Acts agree most closely with those already published by Surius, as we have said. In second place are published those preserved in the ancient codices of the monastery of Marchiennes on the river Scarpe and of Montreuil in the Abbey of Saint Saulve, written to be read as an exhortation on the solemnity of Saint Winwaloe; which we had decided to omit, but because they are quite brief and have their own proper erudition, we did not wish to deprive the reader of them. In third place we publish what was sent to us from Brittany by Jacques Bernard, a priest of the Society of Jesus, whom we knew when he was residing in Belgium some time ago. These are cited by the writers of Brittany and seem to have been composed in the very monastery of Landevennec. That the Appendix added to these Acts is the fabrication of an imprudent writer will be established below. In fourth place could be counted what we had transcribed from the manuscript codex of Saint Savior of Utrecht, Other manuscripts omitted. condensed from others and especially from Capgrave, which we omit. Others exist in the manuscript Proper Offices of the monastery of Blandin, in which there is a Prologue on the Imitation of the Saints, and then follows a part of the Life condensed from those which we give in first place from the manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloître. Some manuscript Acts also exist in the monastery of Anchin, as well as in the Cottonian Library in London, which Ussher, in his Antiquities of the British Churches, chapter 12, page 421, asserts were composed by an ancient Armorican writer; from these we shall shortly give some extracts. Malebranche also in book 2 on the Morini, chapter 3, asserts that some parchments on his Life exist at Montreuil, about which we shall treat in the following section.

[3] As to the time in which Saint Winwaloe lived, there is no slight controversy. In the Acts to be published shortly in first place and those published by Surius, only two chronological indicators are given. Saint Winwaloe is instructed by an appearing Saint Patrick, The first of which is also contained in Lives II and III and in the Breviary of Quimper: namely, that when Saint Winwaloe was still a young man living under his Master or Abbot Budoc, as he is called in the later Acts, Saint Patrick was flourishing, "the supreme glory of the Church of Christ and the splendid light of all Ireland, with the most sweet fragrance of his holiness spread everywhere"; and that Saint Winwaloe desired to go to him, to draw moral instruction for his way of life from his most holy teaching. But he was instructed by Saint Patrick appearing to him as to what he should do. Then Saint Winwaloe, having taken eleven disciples, withdrew to an island, and after a stay of three years came to Landevennec and began to lay the foundations of that monastery. Jocelin also treats of the same apparition of Saint Patrick in his Life. Saint Patrick died in the year 476 and flourished most especially from the year 458, when he established the church and metropolitan see of Armagh; from whose dedication he began to hold Synods annually. So this apparition seems to have occurred after that time, and indeed around the year 475, around the year 475, as will be derived below from the age of Saint Winwaloe.

[4] The second chronological indicator is read in the first Life and in Surius in this manner at the end: "He died on the fifth of the Nones of March, in the first week of the Lenten fast, he died in the sixth century at the fourth hour of the Sabbath." Given this, for the third of March to fall on a Saturday, the Dominical Letter G is necessarily required. Second, for the third of March to coincide with a Saturday in the first week of Lent, it is necessary that the beginning of Lent, or Ash Wednesday, fell on February 28, and Easter on April 15; which in the fifth century occurred in the years 423 and 434 after 400, but not again for the rest of that century. But in the year 507, with the cycle of the Sun 12 and of the Moon 14; then in the year 518, with the cycle of the Sun 23 and of the Moon 6; and again in the year 529, with the cycle of the Sun 12 and of the Moon 4. Hence, since from what we shall shortly say, Saint Winwaloe seems to have been born around the year 455, his death could have fallen in one of the said years; and he may have departed this life at an age greater than fifty, sixty, or seventy. In Life II he is said to have died "old and full of days." In Life III from the British manuscript and in that which is in the Cottonian Library, we judge that an error crept in when it says he died "on the fifth of the Nones of March, on the fourth day of the week Wednesday of the first week of the Lenten fast," since he should rather have said "on the first day of the Lenten fast." From this, however, Ussher supposes that his death should be referred to the year 504, when Easter fell on April 18. But granted that the fourth day of the week after the first Sunday of Lent is understood, the years to be assigned to the death of Saint Winwaloe would be either 510, 521, or finally 532, in which Easter was celebrated on April 11 and Ash Wednesday on February 24.

[5] A third chronological indicator can be derived from the departure of the father of Saint Winwaloe from the island of Britain to the Armorican regions: after the arrival of his father in Armorica: for this is said to have occurred on account of a plague spreading widely and the violence of invading enemies, as is read below in Life III from the British manuscript, and is explained more clearly in the manuscript Life held in the Cottonian Library of an ancient Armorican writer, from whose preface Ussher published the following: "The offspring of the Britons was brought across to this land on this side of the British sea, born around the year 455. at the time when the barbarous nation of the Saxons (long fierce in arms, indiscriminate in their customs) took possession of the maternal soil. Then the dear offspring shut itself up in this bay, where, exhausted by great labors, it sat down for a time, quiet without war." Thus far that passage. That barbarous nation of the Saxons began around the year 450 to prevail in Britain and subject it to themselves; so that either then or certainly in the years immediately following, Fracanus, cousin of Cotonius the British King, seems to have departed for Armorica, and Saint Winwaloe was born afterward, perhaps around the year 455. Einhard in his Annals of the Deeds of Charlemagne, on the occasion of the army which Charles in the year 786 decided to send into Cismaritan Brittany, adds: "For when the island of Britain had been invaded by the Angles and Saxons, from what time was that Brittany so called? a great part of its inhabitants, crossing the sea, occupied the regions of the Veneti and the Coriosolites in the remotest borders of Gaul." The city of the Coriosolites is Quimper, in whose diocese we have already said the monastery of Landevennec of Saint Winwaloe existed. That the Britons themselves called the region they had occupied Letavia is reported by the ancient author, chapter 3, of the Life of Saint Gildas the Wise, Abbot, which we illustrated under January 29: "It is called Letavia from the British Llyda, which means shore. But afterward it was called Brittany from its new inhabitants." Thus the Saxon Poet, when he had explained what we adduced from Einhard, added these lines:

"The fields nearest to the waves of the Ocean he saw and seized, In which lands he dwells to this day, Giving the sole indication of his ancient homeland by its name."

In a historical fragment from an ancient parchment of the monastery of Fleury published by Pierre Pithou, page 412 of part 2, the Britons driven from the island of Britain by the Saxons are said to have claimed the same region they now inhabit and called it Brittany after their own people, whereas it was previously called the Horn of Gaul. From this name the Bishop of Quimper is still called Bishop of Cornouaille. But Cotonius, Fracanus's cousin, who was then living in Britain, could have been one of the ancestors of one of the five Kings to whom Saint Gildas wrote his book On the Ruin of Britain; we treated of these in section 1 before the Life of Saint Gildas.

[6] Another chronological indicator should be derived from the King whom Saint Winwaloe received when he came voluntarily to him and instructed with pious admonitions, if any certain knowledge about him could be had. He received King Gradlon in his monastery of Landevennec, Our first Acts and those published by Surius are silent about the name. In the second Life he is called Gradlon; in the Breviary of Quimper, Grallon, King of Cornwall; in the third Life from the British manuscript, Gradlon, King of the Western Cornubians. In the Appendix to this Life the following is compiled: "The wonderful gifts of Gradlon to Saint Winwaloe are recounted, which the same King bestowed upon him: for he gave countless tribes and estates, both for his own soul and for the soul of his most beloved son Rivelen, after whose death he himself died, and for his others. Hepunon, son of Rivelen and Ruantes, gave the church to Saint Winwaloe. Done in the castle of Montreuil on a Sunday in the cloister of Saint Winwaloe. The three sons of Catnaglus, formerly robbers, converted through the virtue of Saint Winwaloe, now live among the heavenly ones, and therefore delivered their inheritance to the Saint as an eternal inheritance. I, King Gradlon, affirm this." About these converted robbers, the Life treats below at number 18. But the compiler continues: "In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 900, Alan, Duke of the Britons, gave the monastery of Saint Medard to Abbot John of Saint Winwaloe, and land four miles in length and two in width." Then under a new title, "On Those Who Merited to Enjoy the Colloquy of the Saint," the following is thus delivered: "I, King Gradlon, came to Landevennec to Saint Winwaloe in the year of the Lord 400, Indiction 10, Concurrent 7, and the feast of Easter on the eighth before the Kalends of April... And these are excerpts from the endowments given to Saint Winwaloe." But in what century were they ultimately excerpted? Five hundred years separates the donation of Duke Alan from that intruded year 400, whose manner of dating from the birth of Christ only began in Gaul three hundred years later. Furthermore, in the year 400, a leap year, with the cycle of the Moon 2, of the Sun 17, and Dominical Letters A G, around the year 490, Easter was celebrated on the very Kalends of April. Why not rather, with the matter well considered, did he write the year 490, when with Concurrent 7 the feast of Easter fell on the eighth before the Kalends of April, with the cycle of the Moon 16, of the Sun 23, Dominical Letter G, and Indiction 13—around which time we clearly judge King Gradlon of the Western Cornubians to have lived.

[7] Meanwhile the historians of Armorican Brittany, Bertrand d'Argentré, Pierre Baud, and Albert le Grand, entangle all the chronology with similar tales. The tales of certain writers are rejected. Albert in his Catalogue of Kings and Dukes of Brittany establishes that Fracanus, father of Saint Winwaloe, was Chancellor of King Conan Meriadec, who died in the year 388, and that he was appointed Governor of the Léon region. But since Conan had come from Britain, why not after the year 450, as is evident from what has been said? King Grallon is substituted for King Conan, and under him the said Chancellor and before him Saint Gildas the Wise, Abbot

of Rhuys; and Grallon is said to have died in the year 405 and been buried in the monastery of Landevennec which he founded. But what kind of confusion of events and times is this! For, as we have clearly demonstrated in the Life of Saint Gildas, he was born in the year 493, wrote his book On the Ruin of Britain in the year 543, and was a companion in studies of Saint Samson, whom we shall shortly say also flourished in this sixth century. Meanwhile, in the Breviary of the Church of Nantes, it is said that Grallon, who ruled the entire province of Armorica, built a monastery on the island of Rhuys for Gildas himself and his companions—as if there had been several kings named Grallon over nearly two centuries. An epitaph of King Grallon is also produced, as if affixed to his tomb in the abbey of Landevennec; Robert Denyau asserts in his Rollo the Norman-Breton, chapter 5, that this is a fabrication of Bertrand d'Argentré, where he calls d'Argentré an imprudent historian, an impostor, and the ringleader of lies. But setting aside invectives, we know that the histories of these Bretons in that antiquity of times deserve little trust where they do not agree with other histories. Similar are the things read among them about Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Corentin, Bishop of Quimper, as if they had lived with Saint Winwaloe at the end of the fourth century; since mention of them is made in none of the Acts of Saint Winwaloe, we reject these as mere inventions.

§ II. The Veneration of Saint Winwaloe. Translation of Relics to Ghent and Montreuil. Another Younger Winwaloe.

[8] The sacred cult of Saint Winwaloe is well established from the various Acts mentioned, Inscribed in Martyrologies on March 2 and 3. and although in all of them he is said to have died on the fifth of the Nones of March, nevertheless he is inscribed on the day before, or March 2, in manuscript Martyrologies of considerable antiquity—the Utrecht Martyrology of the Church of Saint Mary and the Trier one of Saint Martin—in these words: "At Ghent, of Winnualoe, or Vinnowalocus, Confessor." He is assigned to Ghent because his body is said to have been brought to the monastery of Blandin, as will shortly be said. But he is inscribed on March 3, and more correctly, in the most ancient manuscript Martyrology of Centula, or Saint-Riquier, in these words: "In Lesser Brittany, the deposition of Saint Wingalocus the Abbot." Molanus in the Supplement to Usuard: "At Blandin, of Winwalocus the Abbot," and the same Molanus more fully in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, Miraeus in the Belgian Calendar, Galesin, Felici, Canisius, and others. Likewise the author of the English Martyrology, and more fully Andrew du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology. By Hermann Greven in the Supplement to Usuard he is listed under both this and the preceding day.

[9] Below in Life III from the British manuscript, book 2, number 9, it is said that the Emperor Louis in the year 818 fixed his camp in the province of Brittany When Landevennec was handed over to the Benedictines in the year 818, and directed mandates to Abbot Matinon of the monastery of Landevennec, that they should follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, which was possible and praiseworthy, and that they should similarly conform with the Church regarding the tonsure according to the prescribed fashion. And it is added: "In this same aforementioned year the Rule of Saint Benedict began to be observed in that same monastery." About Armorican Brittany being subdued by Louis the Pious in the said year 818, Einhard treats in his Annals, as does the contemporary author of his Life, who writes under the preceding year 817: "The same Emperor appointed Abbot Benedict and with him monks of vigorous life in all things, who, going and returning through all the monasteries of monks, should hand down to all monasteries, both of men and of holy women, the unchangeable manner of living according to the Rule of Saint Benedict." Thus far that passage, which we expounded more fully on February 12, in the Life of Saint Benedict, Abbot of Aniane and Inde, whom the Emperor Louis placed in charge of this reform. These monks seem to have observed until then the ancient manner of living which they had brought from Britain. Meanwhile, after the Benedictines acquired those monasteries for their Order, they seem to have simultaneously accepted the obligation of venerating the earlier Saints who had a public cult in those monasteries. Hence Wion in the Monastic Martyrology relates this on this day: "At Ghent, in the monastery of Blandin, of Saint Winwalocus, Abbot, a Briton of admirable holiness." venerated by them. Ménard, Dorgan, and more fully Bucelin followed. Bucelin again refers to him from Andreas of Bamberg under the name of Saint Winolatus the Abbot. Likewise a Benedictine manuscript Calendar: "On the same day, of Saint Winolatus, Abbot and monk of Cluny." Should we perhaps read "of Taurac," where a younger Winwaloe was a monk, about whom below? We shall shortly show that the Acts have been conflated from various sources into one. He is called Winebaldus the Abbot in a manuscript Florarium. Ghinius also lists him in the Birthdays of the Saints of the Canons.

[10] In Life III from the British manuscript, the Translation from the smaller church to the larger one is said to have been made on the fourth before the Kalends of May; Translated to the new church on April 28, on which day his solemnity is celebrated, lest the time of Lent be hindered. The former church was a wooden one built by the Saint himself; whose bones, says the author of Life II, "now transported with great honor, are contained in the larger church." The celebration of this Translation is indicated on April 28 in the mentioned manuscript Martyrology of Centula in these words: "On the same day, the Translation of Saint Wingalocus the Abbot." His memory is observed on the same day in our ancient manuscript under the name of Bede. But afterward, as Molanus reports in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, on March 3, on the occasion of the Norman persecution, which also raged among the Bretons, the relics of the body were carried off to Gaul and on account of the Norman depredation to Ghent. and afterward translated to Ghent, to the monastery of Saint Peter, which is on Mount Blandin. Whence on the Kalends of August is annually read: "At Blandin, the Translation of Saint Winwaloe the Abbot." Thus Molanus. In the same way Miraeus in the Belgian Calendar: "His relics," he says, "when the Normans were raging through Brittany, were first carried to Gaul and thence to Ghent, to the Benedictine monastery of Saint Peter at Blandin; the commemoration of this Translation is made there each year." And du Saussay, having narrated his life and death, adds: "His sacred body, honorably buried by the ministry of his disciples, was then, on account of the miracles by which it was shining, raised from the ground and treated with the veneration that was fitting; afterward, when the Normans were plundering Gaul, it was first transported into interior Gaul, and finally to Belgium, and deposited at Ghent in the Benedictine monastery of Saint Peter at Blandin with the highest honor; where the festive memory of the same is celebrated on the Kalends of August, the day on which this last translation occurred." August 1. Again on August 1 this Translation is celebrated by du Saussay, Molanus in the Supplement to Usuard, Canisius, and others; as we also saw above that he was assigned to Ghent in the ancient manuscript Martyrologies of Utrecht and Trier. The monks of Blandin themselves also venerate Winwaloe on March 3 with a double office with twelve Lessons at Matins, and make a commemoration of him at both Vespers on the Kalends of August. Hence under a new title on the same Kalends, the Benedictines—Wion, Ménard, Dorgan, and Bucelin—inscribed him in their Martyrologies. In the Monasticon Anglicanum, page 6, it is said of Saint Winwaloe that one bone from his arm was formerly preserved in the monastery of Glastonbury.

[11] Acts cited by Malebranche of a certain Winwaloe. We have relegated to this place what we said was adduced about Saint Winwaloe by Jacques Malebranche, citing Surius and the manuscript parchments of Montreuil: and first, that this Saint lived in Greater Britain when he was instructed by the appearing Saint Patrick; then, having received eleven disciples from a certain Irish Master, he led an anchoritic life on a small island of England; and finally, with the Ocean providing a way, he came to Armorican Brittany, where then Ethbin, having first used the dwelling of the great Bishop Samson and having been clothed as a monk by Abbot Saint Similian, joined himself to him in the monastery of Taurac, in which Saint Winwaloe, his age declining into heavy old age, died in the year 482, buried at Taurac; which monastery, when the Franks devastated Lesser Brittany, was destroyed, but the tomb of Winwaloe was preserved. Ethbin then lived and died in the forest of Nechtan in Ireland. Having related these and other things about the body of both being translated to Montreuil, he adds: "Although the dwellings of each were separated by the sea for some time, nevertheless God willed that the relics of those who had almost one mind and piety should again be joined together: whose body is at Montreuil, for when enemies were plundering Ireland, Ethbin was joined to the burial mound of Winwaloe across the sea; and again, when Lesser Brittany was ablaze with the fires of the Normans, the bier of the two was translated to Montreuil, so that the town, notably fortified on a rock, might give safe shelter from the injuries of enemies. Their bodies persist there to the present day in a wooden chest covered with rich silver. They also display a chasuble, alb, and stole of the same Saint Winwaloe, and a church dedicated to him: and a church dedicated to his name is reverently worshipped. In French they pronounce it Saint Waloy." The Annals of Flanders mention that Winwaloe was also kept for some time at Blandin. "And let these things be said to sharpen the spirits of pilgrims." Thus Malebranche, who presents himself as a guide for pilgrims. The Saint Winwaloe of whom we here treat was born in Armorican Brittany and is not known to have ever left it; and many islands adhere to it, in one of which he lived for three years, having earlier been cultivated in sacred exercises under Budoc, and afterward lived as Abbot until his death in the monastery of Landevennec which he had built; his body was brought to Ghent, as has been said above from various sources.

[12] Because of Malebranche's confusion, a scruple arose whether perhaps the Winwaloe to be assigned to the people of Montreuil might be Wenialus the Priest, or Guenoilus, reported in a fragment of the History of France by François Duchesne, in volume 3 of the Writers of French History, published from the manuscript codices of Loisel and of the Parisian monastery of Saint Magloire, to whose church, on account of the devastation of the Normans, these relics of Saints are listed as having been exported from Brittany and other places, page 344, or is he Wenialus or Guenailus? and placed there with worthy honor: "Namely, the body of Blessed Samson, Archbishop of Dol; of Magloire, Archbishop of the same see; of Machutus the Bishop; of Senator the Bishop; of Leonorius the Bishop; of Wenialus the Priest. Relics of Vriomaglus and Corentin; of Leutherius the Bishop; of Levianus the Bishop; of Ciferianus the Bishop. Parts of the bodies of the precious Melorius and Tremorus; relics of this and others brought to Paris: of Wiunganton the Abbot; of Scophilus the Abbot. Parts of the bodies of Paternus and Scabilio. A tooth of Saint Budoc... When peace was flourishing and thriving throughout all of Gaul and Normandy, some of those who had come from the Brittanies to Paris, by a divine sign, as we believe, taking with them the bodies of the Saints which they had brought there—namely of the beloved Samson and of Blessed Leonorius and also of Saint Guenailus and certain other Saints—some of them decided to return to their homeland, and taken away: and some to migrate to other places in Gaul. When this was announced to the Duke, although he bore it with difficulty, nevertheless not wishing to use force against them, after retaining certain limbs of the Saints, he permitted them to depart. Those who departed—some sought the castle of Corbeil, others Beaumont, where they also rested; others went to other places in Gaul. But the caretakers of the body of Saint Samson, because they wished to return to Brittany, with the greater part of the body retained and the other part with the head being conceded, to return

he conceded. Thus far that passage. The Duke mentioned is Hugh Capet, afterward assumed as King of the Franks in the year 987. Let what is narrated by Malebranche in book 6 on the Morini, chapter 22, be compared with what has been said: "Among the Morini," he says, "Montreuil, or Monstrolium, became quite wealthy with treasures of this kind. Already some time before, from the Armorican Bretons, it had received the bodies of Saints Corentin, Bishop of Quimper (about whom we treated at the year 388) and Conogan, also Bishop there in the year 686, as well as the casket of Saint Machutus, containing four very large bones with his head. From the same Armoricans also came another bier covered with silver, containing the bodies of Saints Winwaloe and Ethbin, Bishops." Behold, in both accounts the relics of Saints Corentin and Machutus, or Maclovius, Bishops, are mentioned. Nevertheless the body of Saint Wenialus, or Guenailus, cannot be considered as having been translated to Montreuil, since it is held in the town of Corbeil in the territory of Damois, in a church dedicated to him. He is venerated there on November 3, and Saint Ethbin on October 19, on which day Surius published his Life, but with the style polished throughout, which we have from two manuscripts in unaltered form.

[13] In this Life it is said that after his father's death, when he was fifteen years old, Winwaloe was the companion of Saint Ethbin, he was brought by his mother to Saint Samson, Bishop of Dol, who dedicated her to God by giving her the sacred veil and enrolled her son Ethbin as a cleric by shaving the hair of his head; and he remained with the blessed Samson for some days—or rather, as is read in Capgrave, for some years; and Le Grand adds that he was consecrated a Deacon by him. Then, as the manuscript Acts have, under Abbot Saint Similian in the monastery of Taurac, he left everything and came to Abbot Saint Similian and received the monastic habit from his hand in the monastery called Taurac. Le Grand adds that this monastery was situated in the diocese of Dol. In the same monastery (as the manuscript Acts have) there dwelt Winwaloe, a priest and monk, a man of great holiness, who, drawing the blessed man to himself and seeing from afar that he was illuminated by heavenly grace, loved him as a father loves a son. It was the custom of the blessed Winwaloe to visit the church situated one mile from the monastery and there to offer the sacrifice by the Abbot's command. In this customary visitation he associated Ethbin with himself, the distinguished young Deacon, so that, as a worthy priest, he might be supported by a worthy Deacon. until the devastation of this place by the Franks, Christ then appeared to them in the form of a leper; and after this is related, it is added: "Returning thence to the monastery, they made this known to no one, but persevered in the habit of prayer they had begun until the devastation of that same church. For the Franks, coming upon them, devastated that church and all of Brittany. Then the blessed Ethbin, fleeing to Ireland, in the forest called Nechtan, as a poor pilgrim built a hut and erected a church in honor of Saint Silvanus the Martyr, in which he constantly served his Lord as a good servant." Thus far that passage—with no word added to indicate what happened to Winwaloe after the monastery of Taurac was devastated by the Franks, who very often led their armies into this Brittany. Albert le Grand assigns the year 599 to this devastation, namely two hundred years later than he himself had established that Saint Winwaloe, who is venerated on this day, began the monastery of Landevennec. But in the said year 599, Childebert II, under whom he writes that war was waged, was not alive, having died three years before. Gregory of Tours, who was then living, around the year 565, writes in book 5 of his History of the Franks, chapter 3, that in the third year of Childebert and the seventeenth of Chilperic and Guntram, which is the year of Christ 564, war was begun against the Bretons; and in chapter 30 he asserts that in the following year Duke Doppolen was sent against the Bretons and oppressed some places in Brittany with sword and fire. The same war was then continued or resumed, so that the monastery of Taurac seems to have been devastated around those times. The era of Saint Samson, Bishop of Dol, agrees, especially if he subscribed to the Third Council of Paris in the year 557. He is venerated on July 28, when many disputed matters concerning him will need to be discussed; we touched on some things on February 9, in the Life of Saint Teilo, Bishop of Llandaff.

[14] Therefore, if trust is given to these Acts, this companion of Saint Ethbin is a different Saint Winwaloe from the Abbot of whom we are now treating, distinct from the earlier Winwaloe, distinguished namely by the time in which he lived, the place where he spent his life, and also by the Abbot and companion under whom and with whom he was a monk. Since these considerations were not weighed, they were rashly conflated into one in John Capgrave's Legend of the Saints of England and in the manuscript Life of Utrecht, while the apparition of Christ in the form of a leper is applied to Saint Winwaloe, Abbot of Landevennec; indeed, in Capgrave he is even said to have died at Taurac. The same things are sewn together in the Appendix to the Life from the British manuscript, where however part of the deeds of Saint Ethbin is applied to a certain Saint Idiunet, elsewhere completely unknown. Inscribed in the Martyrology under November 27. In the manuscript Calendar of the Order of Saint Benedict under November 23, the following is read: "Of Saint Wingalotus, monk and disciple of Abbot Saint Similian in the monastery of Taurac." This is to be understood of the younger Winwaloe, companion of Saint Ethbin. Trithemius also treats of the same in book 3 of Illustrious Men of the Order of Saint Benedict, chapter 43, in these words: "Wingualocus, priest, reported by Trithemius, monk and disciple of the blessed Abbot Similian in the monastery of Taurac, about whom we have already spoken, a man of most holy life, merited to see the Lord Jesus in the form of a poor leper; and when he touched the leper's nostrils with his own mouth, he immediately recognized the one he had received, from whom he was worthy to hear: 'You were not ashamed of me, my servant, in my miseries; nor shall I be ashamed of you in the kingdom of my Father. Your inheritance is with me.' He flourished in the year of the Lord 580." Then in the following chapter he treats of the monk Saint Ethbin, whom he reports was the minister of the aforesaid priest Wingualocus and flourished in the year 610. But in chapters 41 and 42 before, he had treated of Saint Samson the Bishop and Saint Similian, Abbot of the monastery of Taurac, and adds that both flourished in the year 600. All of which indicate that the subject there is the younger Winwaloe, companion of Saint Ethbin in the monastery of Taurac, which is also called Caurac, Thaurocanum, and Caurocanum. Abbot Saint Similian is venerated on June 16.

§ III. Other Records Concerning Saint Winwaloe, Transmitted from Montreuil.

[15] With these things prepared for press, we received various documents sent to us from Montreuil in the years 1664 and the following by the distinguished Jacques de Boues, Pastor of the Parish Church of Saint Winwaloe at Montreuil and Canon of the Collegiate Church of Saint Firmin the Martyr in the same city; who noted regarding two instruments concerning the Translation of the body of Saint Winwaloe that they were plainly authentic, drawn from the book of immunities of the Abbey of Saint Saulve. One of these is contained on folio 200 in these words: "Since the memory of past deeds often serves, and the recollection of all past things, as the long spaces of time pass by, falls from the minds of men; therefore I, Samicus, The body of Saint Winwaloe brought to Montreuil, humble minister of the church of the blessed Winwaloe of Montreuil, taking care lest anyone, perhaps seduced by wicked counsel, should presume to appropriate for himself what was not his own, have taken care to declare to the knowledge of future persons reading and hearing this document, how the body of the blessed Winwaloe was brought to Montreuil by a certain Bishop named Clement by whom? and a certain Abbot named Benedict and certain other monks, clerics, and laymen, who were fleeing on account of the terror of the Normans devastating the land of Lesser Brittany and wishing to carry it to Greater Britain—inasmuch as they were entirely devoted to his service; and Helgold, who was then Count, received by Helgold, receiving him honorably, detained him more honorably, etc. This was done in the monastery of Saint Winwaloe at the castle of Montreuil, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1000, Indiction 8 (rather 13), in the third year of King Robert's reign. The mark of Count Alulf, who ordered this charter to be made and signed it with his own hand. The mark of Abbot Rameric and of many others." In another instrument the following pertinent matters are read: "In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. I, Henry, by the grace of God King of the Franks, since the fruit of the original virtue, namely charity, stands out among the other virtues... We further enjoin, confirming what was bestowed by the first founders of the place, namely by Count Helgold, who, receiving Saint Winwaloe, recently brought from the regions of Brittany on account of fear of the pirates, with hospitality, liberality, and munificence, in the time of Louis the Stammerer, in the time of the Emperor Louis, son of Charles the Bald, gave to him first of all, etc." This Louis is King Louis the Stammerer—not, as others also call him, Emperor, but, as it seems should be read, son of the Emperor Charles the Bald; who, when Charles died in the year 877, was crowned King and perished in the third year after his father's death, in the year of Christ 879. From which the time of the reception of the relics is established.

[16] From the archive of the same monastery the following instrument was sent to us concerning the renewal of the reliquary chest, in these words: "To all who shall inspect the present letters, Peter, by the grace of God and of the holy Apostolic See, Bishop of Amiens, everlasting greeting in the Lord and faith in the present matters. translated into a new chest We make known that while exercising the office of visitation in the church of the monastery of Saint Saulve of Montreuil, of the Order of Saint Benedict in our diocese, among other things we saw and touched the body of Saint Winwaloe, Confessor and Abbot, deposited from the most ancient times in a certain chest which, on account of its antiquity, was greatly deteriorating. Wherefore also, at the supplication and request of the venerable Father William, Abbot, and the religious of the said monastery of Saint Saulve, and also in the presence of others, both clergy and people of the same town, appearing before us in a copious multitude for this purpose, with nearly all the people of the said town assisting, solemnly and honorably and devoutly, after the celebration of Mass celebrated by us, we removed the same body of the blessed Winwaloe from the said old chest and placed it in a new wooden chest, respectable and notable, and caused it to be really enclosed therein; with an ancient inscription, in which old chest there were slips of paper written in ancient script, containing the following words: 'Relics of Saint Winwaloe, Confessor and Abbot.' And when these things were completed, the venerable and religious Master Pierre Legier, Professor of Sacred Scripture, of the Order of Hermit Friars of Saint Augustine of the convent of Amiens, and recently Provincial of the said Order for the province of France, proposed the word of the Lord, narrating and proclaiming the life, virtues, and merits of the same Saint, to the praise of God and the commendation of the same Saint and of the entire heavenly court; which we certify to all and each whom it concerns by the tenor of the present letters, and in testimony of this matter we have caused the present letters to be made and to be strengthened with our seal together with the manual sign of Master Pierre du Mas, Canon of our Church of Amiens, our Secretary subscribed. Given and done in the aforesaid place, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1490 (rather 1495), on the fourteenth day of the month of May, in the year 1495, in the Pontificate of the most holy in Christ

Father and Lord, the Lord Alexander, by divine providence Pope, the sixth of that name, in his third year. In the presence of the venerable Fathers: William de la Passure, of the said monastery of Saint Saulve; Adrian, of Saint-Josse-sur-Mer, in our diocese, of the said Order of Saint Benedict; Jean de Alonquiller, of the diocese of Thérouanne, of the Cistercian Order—Abbots; Jacqueline de Pardieu, Abbess of the monastery of Saint Austreberta of the said place of Montreuil, of the said Order of Saint Benedict; and many others.

[17] Some relics in the parish church: There is a part of the bones of Saint Winwaloe in the parish church dedicated under his name at Montreuil; from which part, when it was extracted from the old chest to be inserted into the new one, a small particle was taken by the above-mentioned Pastor, Jacques de Boues, and transmitted to us at Antwerp. Another sacred gift was added by the Reverend Placidus du Pire, priest and Treasurer or Guardian of the Relics of the monastery of Saint Saulve, namely a particle of the chasuble of Saint Winwaloe; a particle of him and of the chasuble transmitted to Antwerp, whose form they sent painted, according to which it appears in the ancient fashion like a round tunic. And regarding it, this remarkable thing is indicated: that although for so many centuries, and having been kept with little care, it is each year on March 3 presented to the whole world for kissing, and is very frequently handled by hands, being shown to arriving pilgrims, nevertheless it persists, still of vivid and bright color such as appears in pearls, so clean and whole the brilliance of the chasuble that it has contracted no stain, not even in that part on which kisses are customarily fixed, and has suffered no tear except one or two in the front part, which can hardly be perceived by the eyes. With the chasuble, an alb is preserved, and of the alb, woven from cotton linen, which by ancient tradition Saint Winwaloe is believed to have used in the sacrifice of the Mass. This alb, in the part where it descends under the armpits on both sides, is wrinkled or striped; and in this too it is remarkable that, having been touched, displayed, handled so many times over so many centuries, and kept in a damp place with the chasuble, never cleaned, it perseveres decently clean and uncorrupted. That Saint Winwaloe was of tall stature is shown both by his sacred bones and by the amplitude of the said alb; and indeed the measurement of both this and the chasuble, transmitted to us, demonstrates their length. The most ancient paintings and statues represent Saint Winwaloe holding the abbatial staff in his left hand, in his right a small bell, and below it fish, as if leaping from the waters at its sound. That small bell of Saint Winwaloe, as it is commonly called, The small bell of Saint Winwaloe. is still held in veneration by the people; we received it painted from there in that size, shape, and iron color tending to black in which it is found, just as also the aforementioned chasuble and the likeness of Saint Winwaloe himself.

[18] The Ecclesiastical Office is celebrated three times at Montreuil for Saint Winwaloe: first on this March 3, on his deposition; the feast is celebrated three times: second on April 28, on the Translation to the new church of Landevennec, which we treated above; and finally on the third Sunday of the month of July, on the Reposition, when a solemn office is performed under the rite of a great double, and all the antiphons and responsories are proper, found in the old parchment Antiphonary, which we also received transcribed from there; as also the eight Lessons that were customarily recited at Matins during the Octave of the same Saint, transmitted to us from ancient manuscripts, collected together with other parts from various damaged Acts. All of which inspire great confidence, so that we are led to the opinion that the body of Saint Winwaloe was formerly translated to Montreuil, how the dispute with the monks of Blandin might be resolved, and is still preserved there, and that only some of his relics were brought to Ghent; which will need to be said below under March 20, concerning Saint Wulfran, Archbishop of Sens. If, however, the Life of Saint Ethbin can be understood as referring to the second Winwaloe, it seems safe to say that the body of one or the other was formerly translated to Ghent.

LIFE

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT OF ROUGE-CLOITRE.

Winwaloe, Abbot of Landevennec in Brittany (Saint)

BHL Number: 8961

From manuscripts.

PROLOGUE.

[1] About to speak the praise of God, following the example of the Psalmist, we ask Him to open our lips; since we desire to commend the great deeds magnificently performed through the blessed Winwaloe; but this is not a matter of human ability but of divine power. For what refinement of human knowledge can explain The author implores the grace of the Holy Spirit. what divinity has worked through him? For the weakness of human knowledge is overcome by so great a subject matter. But while wretched human frailty and ignorance fails to understand what the power and wisdom of God understands, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding must be besought, so that what His own power accomplished through His Saint, He may deign to reveal through us to His faithful.

CHAPTER I.

Birth, Studies, Miracles Performed in Adolescence.

[2] There is a kingdom under the western clime of the world, very opulent, called by the famous name of Brittany. Here in those days there shone forth a venerable man, deservedly to be extolled everywhere among all peoples with the celebrated proclamation of praises, named Winwaloe, Saint Winwaloe, a Briton, of royal stock, who, drawing the vein of nobility from a royal stock, was distinguished by his birth from parents who were righteous before God and believers in the Christian faith. Already in his tender years, declining the allurements of the world and drawing his spirit toward God alone, the ardor of heavenly desire had inflamed him toward the school of divine service; whence he also began to urge his carnal parents with constant prayers that he might deserve to be sent, he seeks to be imbued with divine learning: to be formed in the study of sacred letters, to a certain servant of God. But his father refused and was more inclined to arm him with worldly pleasure. Then the boy of pious disposition, devoting himself to God, to whom he always wholly aspired, was more attentively seeking His help in this matter; and the Lord heard him as he prayed and brought the desire of his holy petition to fulfillment in this manner. On a certain day, it pleased his illustrious father to go where he knew his flocks were grazing in the green pastures. And when they had arrived there, behold, the hand of the Lord was upon him. For suddenly the sky thundered over him with a terrible crash, and suddenly the excessive splendor of lightning so surrounded him that, struck with terrible horror and astonishment, he fell to the ground half-dead. Enclosed therefore in such great distress, he understood that the son, his father terrified by heavenly threats, whom he had striven to entangle in the bonds of the world, was being demanded by God, and suddenly he cried out: "O Lord, almighty King, against whose just will it is good for no one to resist! I know that on account of the son whom, devoted to you, I resolved to destine for the world, I am subjected to this punishment: behold, I devote him to you; I reconsign what is yours to you; moreover, I faithfully enroll in your service both his elder brothers also." And so it was done he obtains permission: that what he had previously not allowed to be done for even one, this he afterward devoutly resolved in his heart should be done equally for all three.

[3] After a period of seven days had passed, about to satisfy both the divine command and the dear will of his child, he proceeded to go with his son to be formed in heavenly studies to a certain man of God, who was then seen as the foundation of the faith and the pillar of the Church. As they were making their journey, the world was suddenly so stirred by a whirlwind of storms that you would have marveled at the serenity of the day being changed, as it were, into nocturnal darkness. And when excessive fear seized the old man as he complained about these things, the child Winwaloe, with a calm and joyful spirit, said to him: "Do not be afraid, most sweet father. Is it difficult for Him who created all things from nothing, who painted the sky with stars, he calms the storm with prayers: who clothed the earth with flowers and set a boundary for the sea, to bring this disturbance of the air also into tranquility? Therefore, since all things are possible to one who believes, let us faithfully ask of Him, and the light of His grace will shine upon us." And when prayer was made, by the grace of God the sudden storm was so replaced by calm and the horrible night was so banished by serenity that not even any little cloud obscured the face of the sky. Seeing which, the companions of the journey most devoutly gave thanks and praises. At length, therefore, they arrived, with God accompanying them, at the holy man to whom they were heading. A conversation arose between the elders, and a discussion developed about the things that had happened on the way. That great servant of God marveled, he is handed over to a Master for instruction and the sweet child was ordered to be brought into their midst; and when he was brought, he prostrated himself entirely on the ground, and God reigning in so great a Father was adored. The venerable Father, silently contemplating through the spirit that the grace of God was powerful in the boy, addressed his father, saying: "This son of yours, surpassing his years in his character, whom the grace of God portends will be profitable for the eternal salvation of very many—you see him as a boy in age, but I perceive him as a perfect man in mind." With these and similar things spoken by the holy man in praise of the boy, the father poured forth the joy of his heart in the Lord; and strengthened by the blessing of the man of God and accompanied by the grace of God, having left his son under the yoke of Christ and the mastery of the Holy Spirit, he returned to his home joyful and exultant. But the venerable boy, embracing a spiritual parent in place of a carnal one, undertook under him the school not only of letters but also of virtues; where, filled with the grace of God, by the light, as it were, of a single day, quick in learning: he comprehended with a lively mind and the receptive chamber of his heart all the figures and sounds of the alphabet in order, and it came about that in the very years of his adolescence, as a learned scribe, he penetrated every secret of the ecclesiastical library.

[4] At the same time, that same spiritual Father had it in his heart to visit a certain place for the purpose of prayer. The boy of the Lord, Winwaloe, was left in the monastery with the disciples entrusted to God by the departing Master, and established by pious admonition in Christ, as in a harbor, against the shipwreck of their slippery age. Since they, as is the manner of tender age, utterly neglected their Father's admonitions and on a certain day, indulging in boyish play, ran about through the fields, one of them by an accident was punished with a broken leg. Then there arose among the company a fear mixed with sorrow: fear indeed on account of the neglected command of the absent Master, and sorrow on account of the danger of a brother's death. Amid these things, the pious Father Winwaloe was present, and indicating silence with his hand, he said: "My brothers and fathers, do not be troubled, but turn to God with your whole heart, so that the virtue of prayer may obtain the health which useless grief refuses. For it is not doubtful that the fracture of one limb can be restored by the healing of Him by whose power individual limbs are known to have been joined together within a mother's womb." With all who stood by moved to compunction by this admonition and intent upon prayer poured forth to God, he himself alone, with eyes and hands raised to heaven, besought the divine mercy with these prayers: "Lord Jesus Christ, by prayers and the sign of the Cross he heals the broken leg: who restored the world, broken by the tree of concupiscence, by the remedy of the tree of life, on which you also gave a taste of eternal salvation to those who hunger for you; O Lord, who gave sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hands to the maimed, cleanliness to the lepers, and even recalled the dead to life, have mercy on the prayers which we pour forth, so that by your invisible

healing, former health may be restored to this brother of ours. Then, having signed the place of the wound on every side with the sign of the Crucified Son of God, he grasped his right hand and said in a clear voice: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, arise and give thanks to God." At this voice he immediately rose so sound that not even a trace of any injury was left in the place; and although he begged that this sign be hidden for the sake of humility, the majesty of God placed it in the sun and allowed it to shine before all.

[5] Now this young soldier of Christ had an immense compassion and dejection of spirit over the poverty of the poor and the public begging of mendicants. For he frequently poured forth the weeping of his heart with tears and sighs from his inmost breast over them; and when there were no material gifts to be distributed for bodily use, he bestowed upon them the consolation of their souls with the honeyed sweetness of heavenly speech. But as he was doing this according to his usual custom, a certain person, from whom he should have profited, wasted away with the disease of envy, and did not fear to lacerate the Saint of God with insults. But he, distinguished by the virtue of patience, gave blessing for insults and returned thanks. Then by divine inspiration there came to his memory from the Acts of the Apostles how the blessed Peter gladdened a begging lame man not with gold, not with silver, but with the power of God and the firmness of his steps. Acts 3 And confident in God, he drew a blind man apart from the midst of the suffering, and thus prayed to the Lord: "Jesus, Son of David, open, I beseech you, these eyes covered with darkness, so that this beggar, beholding the signs of your great deeds, may with joy magnify you as glorious in your creatures." Then with pious hands, touching the orbs of both eyes on the forehead he gives sight to a blind man: and anointing them with the spittle of his mouth, he said in a clear voice: "I address you with the apostolic sentence: Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have, this I give to you: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, let these eyes be opened." And more quickly than words, they opened and saw the light of heaven with clear sight, not without the admiration of many who, with pious affection, rejoiced together with God, who was glorifying His Saint with wonders.

[6] Let new and astonishing miracles follow, so that thanksgiving to God and honor and glory to His Saint may increase. This athlete of God had an only sister, still in the house of their parents, a virgin and a very tender girl. One day, while she was engaged in childish play with girls of the same age, one of the domestic geese, attacking her, snatched and swallowed the jewel-like humor of her maiden eye, torn from her snowy brow. Immediately a dire pain began to torment her and cruelly exhaust her toward death. Her parents, admitting absolutely no consolation, were weeping for her as though she were dead. The most merciful God, having compassion on these things, made known to Winwaloe through a vision by His Angel both the grief of the parents and the danger of the sister's lost eye. He restores to his sister her plucked-out eye, He pointed out the bird by a sign of elegant distinction, and showed that the eye, kept safe by heavenly protection, was hidden within its entrails. He moreover told and carefully instructed the manner of the cure. He was commanded by the divine edict to go, so that health might be restored to the Virgin and gladness to the parents. Without delay, rising by night according to the command of the Lord, with the grace of God as companion, he came to his family; whom, as was said, he found sorrowful but left joyful. Therefore, when the flock of domestic birds was gathered together, by the sign he had received from the Angel he recognized the guilty one of whom we speak and selected it for himself separately. Soon, with a knife applied, it was divided and eviscerated; and when the intestines were opened, behold, the eye presented itself, by the power of God not only unharmed but entirely translucent with gem-like clarity. The servant of God, taking it with thanksgiving, placed it in its socket, to the wonder of all, and restored the face of his virgin sister to its former beauty; and he returned the bird to its flock whole, as if it had been in no way harmed. Who there was not astonished at the praise of God? At length, having accomplished everything for which he had come at God's command through the Angel, bidding farewell to his parents, he returned to the place of his beloved habitation with an angelic escort.

CHAPTER II.

The Instruction of Others. Miracles. Admonitions Given by Saint Patrick Appearing. Life Spent on an Island.

[7] Meanwhile the renowned young soldier had begun to have disciples and to open to them the secrets of sacred letters. On a certain day, when some questions had been resolved as usual, one of the listeners, placing himself apart, began to revolve in his mind with a lively intelligence the things that had been explained by the master. Meanwhile, overcome by labor, He teaches others, he committed his relaxed limbs to a welcome sleep and relieved his weary mind with the vapor of slumber; and behold, a serpent, emerging from its own hiding place, struck the sleeping man on the foot with a venomous bite and, retreating to its den, left its lethal poison in the wound. Immediately the venom began to creep through his limbs and to threaten sudden destruction as his limbs swelled. And when, released from sleep but bound by the poison, he awoke, he understood that unless heavenly healing came to his aid, his last hour was already pressing upon him. What was he to do, who was utterly ignorant of the cause of so great a misfortune? At length, finding salutary counsel, full of faith, he approached his teacher Winwaloe and begged with great lamentation that a span of life be granted him from the Lord through his pious prayers. The heavenly physician, extending his hand to the man lying on the ground and raising him to his feet, arrived, with Christ leading, at the place By the sign of the Cross he kills the serpent, where he had suffered the serpent's bite; where the servant of the Lord, prostrating himself in prayer, merited from God the grace and power by which he might both destroy the one that had struck and heal the one who was struck. Then, calling out with a loud voice to the serpent, he commanded it to appear before him; and behold, it was immediately present, horrible with scales and threatening a blow with its three-forked tongue. But the athlete of God, extending his right hand toward it, raised the Cross of the Lord and brandished the sign of life for its destruction. Pierced by such a lance through the hand of the man of God, it immediately burst apart and ceased to harm others. and with blessed oil drives out the poison: Then Saint Winwaloe, mixing water with oil consecrated by his blessing, gave drink to the sick man entrusted to him, and as with a life-giving draught extinguished in him all the poison. You could see his limbs become thin, be adorned with their former appearance, and be cherished with greater health. Then the holy man, entreated by his father and other faithful, having poured forth prayer to God, merited to obtain that afterward nothing of the serpent kind was ever seen in that same region. Even if one was brought from elsewhere, even for the testing of what is said, it immediately breathed out its pestiferous breath as if pierced by a trident. For all these things, let there be honor to the immortal God, who, having become mortal for us, works such things through mortals for the salvation of mortals.

[8] The wonders of God follow, to be assigned by the pen to divine praise. A certain shepherd was keeping watch over his flock, when in the silence of the dead of night, a sudden whirlwind and darkness of the air, together with the crash of thunder and the flash of lightning descending upon him, nearly rendered him senseless; the sheep were scattered in every direction, and wolves gathered around him in the form of a circle on all sides. When, with the return of serenity, he came to himself, he was horrified at the troop of wolves surrounding him and cried out with a loud voice: "Winwaloe, servant of God, invoked by a shepherd surrounded by wolves, be present to me now in so great a peril." The voice had not yet fallen silent when behold, he seemed to be present, and indeed until the dawn of light he drove away the beasts thirsting for the blood of the poor man with a light rod as with a staff; and when they were wearied by the power of God alone, the shepherd, having suffered no losses, appearing, he frees him, gathered his flock together and, marking them for custody, sought the monastery in which the same Winwaloe had spent that very night in celebrated vigils in the praise of God. When the shepherd narrated such great benefits, the holy man, guarding against human favor, imposed silence on him regarding this and shut himself up hidden in his cell. But the shepherd, paying due thanks to almighty God, and at the same time he was in the monastery: was clearly revealing to all what God had deigned to work in him through His Saint. In this miracle it is greatly to be marveled at, and left to the understanding of the prudent, how the same one person was seen both in the field and in the monastery at one and the same hour. We believe this is known to God alone, and to whomever He wills to reveal it, for He who is almighty is able to accomplish whatever pleases His goodness, as it seems fitting to His omnipotence.

[9] Nor should it be passed over in silence how he recalled a dead man to life. It is the custom of worldly pageantry to present various kinds of games as a spectacle. Whence it happened in those same days that the father of Saint Winwaloe, together with the Duke of the same kingdom, had appointed a suitable day on which, for the entertainment of mortals, their horses, released in a race across the fields, would compete to outrun one another over the measured course. And so the day agreed upon by both sides came, and behold, the whole city rushed to the spectacle. A grand display of horses and riders was produced, carefully arranged in the open fields. Noble youths mounted the horses by leaping, and at the signal the reins were loosened; the horses flew, and all, although following with applause and favor, were doubtful about the outcome of the victory. At last, a fortunate success would have nourished the horse of the father of the blessed Winwaloe, which was outrunning all the others, in first place, had not sudden death snatched away the young man, namely its rider, a most pleasing youth in the flower of his age and the title of his nobility. For, unable to bear the force of the galloping horse, he fell among very sharp rocks and died; and joy was turned to mourning—to be changed again, by God's ordering, into joy. The parents wept, he recalls a dead man to life: lifting the shattered limbs on their shoulders and preparing them for funeral rites; and behold, as if sent by God, the blessed Winwaloe was unexpectedly present. He had compassion on those who mourned, condescended to those who grieved, but they conceived hope and consolation from his presence. When he saw their faith, touching the dead man with his right hand, he said: "Young man, the Lord Jesus Christ raises you up, who created you when you did not exist and redeemed you with His precious blood." At this voice, as if roused from a deep sleep, he rose not only alive again but so sound and strong that his limbs, disjointed by the most severe fall, were subject to absolutely no pain. All who were present began to sound forth great praises to almighty God and to give great thanks, who through Saint Winwaloe had raised up joy for His people by so celebrated and astounding a miracle.

[10] In those days, Saint Patrick was flourishing, the supreme glory of the Church of Christ and the splendid star of all Ireland; proposing to make a pilgrimage to Saint Patrick, with the most sweet fragrance of his virtues spread everywhere, the servant of the Lord, Winwaloe, was greatly refreshed, and desired with all eagerness to go to him, to draw moral instruction for his way of life from his most holy teaching. While he was thinking these things, behold, the same Saint Patrick was present to him in a vision, angelic in countenance, his head crowned with a golden diadem, he is visited by Patrick appearing to him: and said to him by name: "Behold, I am Patrick, whom you are eager to visit: do not therefore on my account cross so many seas

you would cross so many seas and traverse so many expanses of land with futile labor; the God common to us all has sent me, so that, having obtained your wish, you may be satisfied with my appearance and enjoy my conversation." Consoling him with gentle speech and persuading him to embrace not himself but Christ, who is present everywhere in His people, as the teacher of life, he foretold that he would be a leader of spiritual warfare, he is taught what he must do: and instructed him with salutary counsel as to what would advance him in this; he also persuaded him to seek from his Master fellow servants of the divine service and to search out with them another place to dwell.

[11] When at length the vision, as pleasant as it was, was removed along with the sleep, he immediately approached the cell he receives from his Master eleven disciples: in which the Father of the monastery was devoting himself to divine meditation and contemplation. When he disclosed to him the secret of the vision with a humble account, the old man, becoming cheerful, said: "You have been glorified, my son, with a divine visitation and revelation." And delaying not at all, as if he had received a command from heaven, he assigned eleven disciples to him, most ready in the exercise of the work of God. Kissing them and shedding tears amid embraces, he bade them farewell and, giving a blessing over them, said: "Farewell, dearest sons, and may you merit to have God as the guide of your journey; and when you shall be partakers of the kingdom of God, I beg you to remember me before Christ."

[12] The blessed Winwaloe therefore departed, ignorant indeed of the journey he was to take he lives for three years on the island of Theopia: but not unaware of the confidence to be raised to God; and by His guidance he was carried to an island called Theopia, where for three years he lived with his companions in anchoritic rigor. But since he deemed that place unfit for human habitation, both on account of the most atrocious whirlwind of storms and also the disadvantage of its barrenness, he poured forth prayers to God for a more suitable place; and because he had committed his hope to God alone, a place divinely provided for him was designated, by God's revelation, across the sea. Striking the sea with his staff, he crosses with his companions on dry feet. But since he lacked a fragile vessel for transport by nature, he was prevented from crossing. But confidence was at hand, relying on divine mercy; whence, by the remarkable miracle of the Old Testament, by which God willed to be glorified in dividing the Red Sea, he himself also merited to be honored by God. Therefore, having first offered prayer, the man of God said to the Brothers: "Take courage, dearest ones, and founded in the firmness of faith, as you shall see me do, follow me, each holding the right hand of the one before him, and let each man's footstep touch the footstep of the one going ahead." And when he invoked the name of the Lord, he struck the sea with his pastoral staff and made it passable. Therefore, with the men's right hands clasped in one another's according to the agreement, with him walking in the lead, he crossed the sea on dry feet, the waters on either side parting at the command of the servants of Christ and raising themselves heavenward like walls. And as they walked through the midst of the dry sea, they blessed the Lord and with devout minds chanted the hymn of the three youths. O God, praiseworthy in this working of powers!

CHAPTER III.

Sacred Exercise: Miracles: Death.

[13] The holy Winwaloe, therefore, greeting the hospitable land as he entered it, was delighted with great joy at having found the dwelling place prepared for him from heaven. It was pleasant with welcome beauty, adorned with a variety of flowers, overflowing with an abundance of shoots and fruits. Dedicated to the Lord's encampments, the authority proceeding from the mouth of the man of God had made it utterly inaccessible to the female sex. Striking the earth with his staff, he draws forth a spring: When they suffered from a scarcity of water, the holy man, with eyes and hands raised to heaven, offered a prayer to God. Then with the staff with which he had divided the sea, he marked the dust of the earth, and thus produced a most limpid spring with open veins.

[14] At the same time, on a certain night, having entered the oratory, he was spending the night in holy prayers, according to his distinguished custom. But the cunning enemy, driven by jealousy over his worthy devotion to God, strove to be equally vigilant against him; whence, transforming himself into a terrible monster, he was directing certain threats and horrors against him. For he was entirely as if covered in soot, now assuming the forms of birds, now of serpents, now of beasts and sea creatures; he puts to flight the demon appearing in various forms: sometimes raising himself to the clouds, sometimes casting himself into the dust. But seeing that the soldier of Christ would not yield to so many phantasms but persisted all the more in his purpose, he attempted to overthrow him with detestable insults. But with the blessed Winwaloe chanting psalms and opposing to him the testimonies of the Scriptures with the most victorious banner of the Lord's agony, the enemy vanished like a thin shadow and left behind a most grievous stench, the mark of his own foulness. Thus he often foiled his deceits and assigned the palm of victory to Christ the King.

[15] It is fitting to interpose among these miracles a few things about the quality and austerity of his manner of life, so that those who hear may have edification from their consideration. For this venerable Father was angelic in appearance, adorned with all virtues, toward himself, his neighbors, and God: bright in speech, unfailing in the work of God, whole in mind and body, brilliant in genius, great in counsel, Catholic in faith, most patient in hope, perfect in the love of God and neighbor, intent upon prayers day and night. From the twentieth year of his age he was never seen sitting in the church until the day of his death; never loosened by vain joy or cast down by sadness; always affable to all, benevolent toward everyone in all things; dwelling indeed on earth in body, but in heavenly things in mind. When he chanted psalms, in prayer, either with hands extended to heaven or with knees bent on the ground, or fixed and immovable in one place, he chanted. After saying the Psalter, he satisfied God with a hundred genuflections by day and a hundred equally by night. in clothing, Instead of a woolen or linen garment, he wore goatskins; instead of feathers or bedding, he used the bark of trees. His soft seat was sand mixed with pebbles. in food; The bread he ate daily, of equal weight, was indeed of barley and mixed with ashes; his pottage was made from a little barley meal and a small amount of vegetables. On Saturday and Sunday he ate fish and cheese. During the days of Lent he ate twice a week; wine and every kind of intoxicating drink he considered poison. Therefore, let these few things out of many suffice concerning the quality of his manner of life.

[16] Indeed, the blind, the deaf, the lame, he heals very many sick: lepers, paralytics, and those afflicted with various diseases flocked to him from every quarter; and all returned home healed, with God providing the cure. Already his name had shone throughout the entire dominion of the Britons; already he began to be honored by all as an Angel. The King of the province also, having heard of so many distinguished miracles and so many merits of piety concerning him, laid aside his diadem and purple and presented himself before his eyes in humble garb. Approaching him with royal reverence, he prostrated his entire body in the presence of the King, [He receives the King who comes of his own accord and instructs him with pious admonitions:] and humbly besought him to merit being aided by God through his prayers. The holy man, raising him from the ground and engaging him in most familiar conversation, began to urge upon him contempt of the world and the desire for the heavenly kingdom. He also taught him how to dedicate both himself and his entire kingdom to the kingdom of Christ; he carefully instructed him how to purchase an eternal and heavenly dominion with temporal authority. The King, cheered by these and similar life-giving admonitions and strengthened by the priestly blessing, as if entirely changed into another man, was received back into his palace.

[17] Let us speak still more of the great deeds of God performed through the blessed Winwaloe by the finger of God. There was a mother of a family in the vicinity, worn by a grave illness even unto death, whose son was being educated under the instruction of the man of God himself in the monastery. Impelled by maternal devotion, the son strove to relieve her by his visit. But as he was about to go, he received from his Master blessed water and confidently approached his ailing mother. With blessed water given to a disciple, he recalls a dead woman to life. But she had already died and been led away to places of punishment, as a divine revelation made known to the holy man while he was intent upon his prayers. Friends stood around the lifeless corpse, weeping and preparing the funeral rites. But the boy, coming and still hoping that the one already dead was living, sprinkled her with the sanctified water and said in a clear voice: "May our Lord Jesus Christ heal you, in whose name my Master works so many remedies of healing upon the sick." At this voice, she rose as if roused from sleep, and as if returning from labor, drenched in a great sweat, she sat up in her bed. Immediately all who were present fell prostrate on their faces and magnificently praised God, who was glorifying His Saint with so great a miracle. When asked by her family how she had been brought back, she said that she had been surrounded by a wedge of demons, and with hands and feet also bound, had been led by them all the way to places of punishment. Amid these things, Saint Winwaloe had come to meet them and rebuked the phalanx of demons with these words: "What presumption is this of yours, that you should subject one who is under my authority to your dominion?" At once all were dismayed and terrified by this authority, and left me to the man of God, through whom these limbs received me back alive. Glory to the conqueror of death, triumphing in His Winwaloe with such signs and wonders.

[18] In that same province there were three thieves, infesting the entire surrounding region with nocturnal plunder and thefts, who had rampaged with such madness that they even entered by an act of malice the place divinely and wonderfully provided by God for His Saints. Three thieves, plundering the granaries of the monastery, Coming first in the silence of the dead of night, they found the granary of the monastery open and bright as if with sunlight; whence, encouraging one another mutually to the crime, they said: "Perhaps what we are doing pleases God; otherwise, how would this light shine upon us? How would this closed door, secured with bolts, open of its own accord?" This was done divinely, it is certain, so that an occasion might arise for a miracle by which God was to be glorified through His Saint. They filled their sacks to the brim. Behold, all these things were divinely revealed to the blessed Winwaloe and reported by him to the Brothers. While they were praying, God's vengeance soon clung to the wretched thieves. By prayer, though absent, he renders them immovable, For the hip of the first of them was dislocated beneath his burden, and he was pressed down by the weight and thrown to the ground. The second stuck fast with immovable feet, like an immovable statue. The third, assaulted by sudden blindness, was made a wanderer by the darkness. In the morning the Brothers went out with the venerable Father to visit the public enemies as if they were sick or committed to prison. He rebukes and reforms them. The blessed Winwaloe, terrifying them with the anathema of so great a sacrilege and also rebuking them with holy reproof, freed their souls from error and their bodies from the anxiety of imminent peril.

[19] In those same days he also saw heaven opened and Angels descending and ascending above him; He sees heaven opened and Angels. he also saw an Angel of God coming to him with excessive splendor and sweetness of fragrance and speaking to him with the most friendly affability about the most happy deposition and venerable assumption of certain of his Brothers and fellow servants. Great indeed are these things and to be perpetually assigned to the great deeds of Christ.

[20] At that same time, a certain most noble mother of a family was struck with sudden blindness. Being a most prudent woman, A blind matron, she gave thanks to God for her loss of sight, persevering unceasingly in fasts of two and three days, in psalms and prayers, in almsgiving and good works. Nor was such great devotion defrauded of the reward of the divine recompense: devoted to piety and almsgiving, for behold, in a dream an Angel of the Lord appeared to her with a great light and said: "Your alms and prayers stand before the divine sight and win propitiation for you; therefore, rising at dawn, present yourself to Father Winwaloe, and from him you shall be endowed with the light of heaven." Sent to him by the Angel's admonition, The illustrious matron did not delay to obey the divine command. For when day was restored to the earth, with an escort of her sons and a large retinue of her household, she came to the holy man of God. When she disclosed to him the divine oracle and sought from him the light of heaven, the holy man said: "May the faith that shines forth in you drive away this blindness." he illuminates her: And touching with his right hand the orbs of her two eyes, he said: "Most gracious Jesus, who adorned the heavens with light, irradiate these eyes with Your splendor." The Divinity heard him immediately, and to her who sat in darkness, brightness was restored.

[21] Behold, these deeds were gloriously accomplished, as has been said, by the finger of God, by which both God was glorified in His Winwaloe, and Winwaloe was glorified in his God. Forewarned by an Angel of the hour of his death, Now therefore both place and time demand that we deliver to the ears of the faithful the account of his holy passing. On the night, therefore, that preceded the most sacred day of his departure, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared in a vision, saying: "Well done, Winwaloe, servant of God, for now all the inhabitants of heaven claim you as their fellow citizen; for today you shall pass to Christ, and as a veteran comrade you shall be joined to our fellowship." When the holy man awoke, he gathered the company of the Brothers together, made known the heavenly oracle, and commended the hour of his departure to their intercessions, worthy as they were of God. And when with tearful lamentations they inquired about his successor in the sacred governance, he designates a successor: he appointed a Pastor for them from their own number and commended him with the sheep entrusted to him to the supreme Pastor. When the third hour of the day had now arrived, vested in his priestly insignia, he offered the living sacrifice of the heavenly oblation; where, having exchanged the kiss of the Lord's peace with his disciples, having celebrated Mass, and refreshed by the life-giving banquet of the Lamb of God, just as he still stood at the sacred altar, his soul, touched by no pain of the flesh, he dies at the altar, he breathed forth into the hands of his Creator. And his body indeed received honorable burial through the ministration of his disciples, but his soul, borne aloft by the service of Angels, entered the hall of the heavenly kingdom, where it enjoys the crown bestowed by Christ and rejoices without end in the sight of God. He died indeed on the fifth day before the Nones of March, in the first week of the Lenten fast, 3 March, the first Saturday of Lent, at the fourth hour of Saturday, at which hour Christ, redeeming the world, was fixed to the cross; to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, praise, and honor, power and might, for ever and ever, Amen.

ANOTHER LIFE

from the manuscripts of Marchiennes and Montreuil.

Winwaloe, Abbot of Landevennec in Armorican Brittany (Saint)

BHL Number: 8962

[1] To set forth for you, dearest Brothers, the celebration of this day, to which the merits of the venerable Saint Winwaloe bear witness as worthy of our veneration, no small hindrance has been presented to us, not only by the smallness of our own talent, but also by the unfamiliarity of the subject itself. For it is an arduous task to excerpt a few things from many, and especially for those of lesser learning to wish to embrace in so brief a discourse everything that could scarcely be set forth in a more extended work by wiser men. But with you aiding us in prayers to God, who makes the tongues of infants eloquent, we trust that we shall be aided by Him whose deeds we strive to explain.

[2] We therefore undertake, with God as our guide, the beginning of our discourse: how the father of this most holy man, named Fracanus, and his mother, named Alba, surnamed Trimammis because she had three breasts, when they already had two sons, named Guethnoc and Jacob, The parents and brothers of Saint Winwaloe: earnestly sought with assiduous prayers that a third son be given to them, who would be the heir of the family estate. And they were heard by the Lord, who never rejects the prayers of those who trust in Him. For the mother, rejoicing that she had conceived, informed her husband, who likewise rejoiced. When the time of the pregnancy was completed, they named their newborn son by the illustrious name of Winwaloe.

[3] He, soon breathed upon by the Spirit of God, as soon as he was able to speak, preferred to be instructed in divine disciplines. But his father, opposing his will and desiring to keep him with himself, was terrified by a divine thunderclap and was compelled to offer his two other sons together with him in the service of God. Without delay, on the eighth day after that terrible vision, he devotes himself to studies: traveling to a certain Teacher named Budoc, he commended the boy to him for instruction. This Budoc himself at that time appeared to be the most famous of all, not only in examples but also in teaching. When he saw the boy, conspicuous in countenance, distinguished in form, and mature in manners, he adopted him to remain with him as a son. Immediately the child, eager to learn, in the space of a single day mastered all the letters of the Latin language, destined to be henceforth an avid student of the Holy Scriptures. With the progress of time, as he advanced not so much in years as in merits, these were the first marks of his virtues.

[4] For on a certain day, when the aforesaid Master had gone to a certain place for the sake of prayer, one of the boys, while he scorned the elder's command, was afflicted with the agony of a broken leg. He heals a fellow student's broken leg: Immediately the laughter of those at play was turned into mourning, and those who had been dancing in the Master's absence were tormented by fear of the coming correction. When Saint Winwaloe saw them distressed, he exhorted them to place their hope in God. They, obedient to his instructions, gave themselves to prayer. When the prayer was completed, Saint Winwaloe marked the place of the wound with the sign of the Cross, and holding the boy's hand, said: "Arise, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Immediately the boy was made as sound as if he had suffered no injury at all.

[5] Again, on a certain day, when he grieved over the poverty of the poor and had nothing himself to give them except a word of consolation, a certain man, struck by envy, passing by said mockingly: He restores sight to a blind man, "Why do you not give alms to the needy?" But Saint Winwaloe, not at all disturbed by this, drew a certain blind man from the crowd and led him to a more secluded place. And when he had prayed for a little while, he said: "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, arise quickly, seeing." And he indeed, his eyes being opened at once, who had been led by a guide going before him, returned directing himself. When the elder and his disciples heard these things, they gave thanks to God, who had conferred such grace upon Saint Winwaloe. And on account of this he was called a disciple of Saint Patrick.

[6] He is reported to have performed yet another miracle. For his own sister, named Creiruia, still a little child, is said to have lost an eye when a goose pulled it out. Admonished by an Angel to visit his sister by healing her, as soon as he entered the house, an eye torn out from his sister: he ordered the flock of geese to be gathered together into one place. With the Holy Spirit revealing it, he pointed out to those who did not know it the goose that had inflicted the injury, and opening its crop, he received with his most holy hands the eye of his sister. Then in a wondrous manner, unheard of in any age before or after, restoring the eye to the face and the crop to the bird, and blessing both with the sign of the Cross, he returned them to their former health. And from this one deed, two miracles were accomplished.

[7] Nor should I pass over Tethgonus, who, recently wounded in the foot by a serpent, would have died forthwith, with death imminent, had not divine power come to his aid. He heals one wounded by a serpent: For when he realized that he was gravely ill, he cried out to Saint Winwaloe to have mercy on him. Without delay, sprinkled with water and blessed oil by him, he vomited out the venom that had spread through his body and was made well, as if he had suffered no harm. The serpent, moreover, driven out of its hole where it had hidden by the adjuration of the holy man, burst apart when the sign of the Cross was raised. Nor was that kind of viper seen in that place thereafter.

[8] At the same time also a very great deed was done. For when his father Fracanus and Rauualus, Duke of Domnonea, stood by as their horses were given free rein in a race, to see which of them was the swifter, a certain boy named Mael, son of Conomael, he raises one from the dead: who was riding Fracanus's horse, falling in a remarkable accident among the sharpest rocks, perished. Gathering his limbs, which had been torn apart in various directions, into a single cloak, and fitting them to their proper joints as best they could, they placed them ready for burial. While all who had assembled for this spectacle were grieving over what had happened, Saint Winwaloe arrived. Then his father Fracanus and all who stood by cried out with tearful voice: "O Saint Winwaloe, if you can do anything, help us, have mercy on us." But he, bidding them withdraw from the midst for a little while, and holding the right hand of the dead man, said to him in the sight of all who were present: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, arise." And he immediately at this voice, as if waking from a deep sleep, was raised and stood up, looking upon those who looked at him. Then the clamor of the mingled multitude was the single voice of all, declaring that Saint Winwaloe was most manifestly and truly a friend of God.

[9] Because of these and other manifest merits, he desired to visit Saint Patrick. But Patrick, in a vision of the night, addressed him with the sweetest speech instructed by Saint Patrick appearing to him, he dwells on an island: and taught him all things that he ought to do. He, relating everything in order to his Master and bidding farewell to him and the Brothers, who were greatly saddened by his departure, taking the road toward Domnonea together with eleven Brothers joined to him, was carried to the island of Topepigia, and there he remained for three years. Across from that island there was a certain wooded valley, surrounded by forests, trees, and the sea; but the sea lay between, having as it were two miles across. When three years had therefore been completed there, together with the Brothers who earnestly requested it, approaching the shore, he struck the sea with the point of his staff. And immediately, in a wondrous manner, the sea dividing itself provided a path for those walking through it. Saint Winwaloe, therefore, and his Brothers together, surrounded by the sea on either side, he crosses the sea on dry feet: walking on dry feet through the deep, sang the ancient canticle of Moses.

[10] But when they arrived there and that place delighted them for habitation, water was entirely lacking. But Saint Winwaloe, seeing that they had labored on account of the scarcity of water, he draws forth a spring: kneeling in prayer and striking the earth with the point of his staff, caused a copious amount of water to flow forth. And the Brothers, seeing the spring bubbling with waters, gave thanks to God. But the ancient enemy of the human race, envious of all goodness, transforming himself into every kind of monster, he puts the devil to flight: appeared terrifyingly to the holy man at prayer; but vanquished by him, leaving behind the stench of his own baseness, he departed with all his foulness.

[11] Gradlonus himself, at that time a King who conducted the affairs of his kingdom with a fierce spirit, sought to be edified by the admonitions of this most holy man. He instructs King Gradlonus: Thereafter, having become milder, with pardon obtained for his guilt and enriched by the blessing of this man, he both held his earthly kingdom most piously and merited to attain the fellowship of the servants of God.

[12] A certain matron, the mother of one of his disciples named Hriocus, had fallen ill. When the son heard this, with blessed water he raises a dead woman: he wished to visit his mother, and carrying with him water blessed by his Master, he found her already dead for two days. But as soon as she was sprinkled by her son with the blessed water and the name of Saint Winwaloe was invoked, she was raised to life.

[13] Another woman who had suffered blindness of the eyes he illuminates a blind woman: had spent all her substance on physicians. But when this availed nothing, forewarned by an Angel to seek out Saint Winwaloe, she was restored to her former health.

[14] Likewise, three sons of Cathmaglus, practicing robbery on all sides, invaded the granary of the holy man, but not without retribution. He converts three thieves: For one of them, left in the ship, was deprived of his sight; another, with his thigh broken, was pressed down under his burden; the third, standing immovable, was unable to move from the spot. Saint Winwaloe healed them with a single word and made them laborers in the heavenly vineyard.

[15] But as the time of his summons from the body drew near, it was made known to him by an Angel on that final night forewarned of death, he exhorts his own: that on the following day he was to be loosed from the body and to be with Christ. Then he himself, rising from midnight until the third hour of the day, did not cease to console his Brothers with divine words, drawing the more deeply from the streams of heavenly doctrine the nearer he was about to see God in reality. Then indeed the sorrow and grief of all was the single voice of those saying: "Why do you desert us, Father, or to whom do you commend us in our desolation? Behold, the enemy like a roaring lion seeks whom he may devour. Who, in the absence of the shepherd, will defend the weak sheep from the bites of wolves?" As they thus wailed, he is said to have wept, moved by compassion. But as the third hour of the day drew near, he vested himself in the sacred garments; and having celebrated Mass and given communion to all, with hands raised to heaven he said: "Lord Jesus Christ, Good Shepherd, he celebrates Mass: to whose service I have devoted myself from my earliest age, I commend to You the sheep whom You redeemed with Your precious blood and entrusted to me to guard until now, that, rescued from all the snares of the crafty enemy, You may deign to strengthen them against his machinations."

[16] Having said these things, standing before the altar, supported by the arms of two monks, he dies on 3 March: he delivered his most holy soul to Jesus Christ. For in that hour, the right hand of the Lord, extended through the summit of the church from above, was seen to hang down, evidently to receive his spirit. An angelic host also accompanied him, his soul is led to heaven by Christ and the Angels: and for such a comrade, as if for a pearl lifted from the dung, praising the Lord, they resounded in the sweetest voice, and the less they were heard the higher they were raised toward heaven. On the fifth day before the Nones of March, therefore, Saint Winwaloe died in peace. The older Fathers, deferring his feast day until the fourth day before the Kalends of May, lest the Lenten fast be violated, decreed by wiser counsel that it be celebrated among the Paschal feasts. He was buried in the wooden church which he himself had ordered to be built with praiseworthy workmanship. His body is transferred to the greater church: His bones, now transported with great honor, are kept in the greater church. Saint Winwaloe, indeed, old and full of days, as free from pain as he was whole from corruption, an unconquered soldier of Christ, triumphing over the world with its filth, merited to receive the crown of glory from the hand of the Lord.

[17] This is Saint Winwaloe, the chosen Virgin of God, an excellent Priest, a glorious Confessor, Catholic in faith, most patient in hope, overflowing in charity, fortified by the rigor of abstinence: a pillar of the Church, a burning candle of life, a lover of the heavenly fatherland, and beyond the measure of almost all Peroration. who then and now were leading the common life, filled with the love of God and neighbor; an eminent Father of monks, a Virgin among the choirs of Virgins. May we have him as our patron and defender, and as mediator between us and God, so that walking by his examples and uplifted by his merits, we may be able to attain the heavenly kingdom, through the grant of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God, for infinite ages of ages. Amen.

THIRD LIFE

By the monk Gurdestinus

From an Armorican manuscript.

Winwaloe, Abbot of Landevennec in Armorican Brittany (Saint)

BHL Number: 8964

By Gurdestinus. From manuscripts.

BOOK I.

Birth, education, monastic life under Abbot Budoc. Various miracles.

[1] The island of Britain abounded generously in all good things, so long as it served God; but upon its entire region, making bad use of its good things, a pestilence was sent by God. The abundance of things was the cause of evils: for from abundance, luxury and all other vices hateful to God sprang up in it and grew to the utmost. And this did not long remain unavenged by divine scourges on account of its sins: On account of pestilence and hostile invasion, for it was assailed either by the incursions of enemies, or by famine, pestilence, and diseases, with God exacting vengeance. At length, on account of the plague of a pestilence raging far and wide and also the violence of invading enemies, the inhabitants were compelled, and especially the nobles, to seek foreign lands.

[2] A most illustrious man on the aforesaid island, Fracanus, cousin of Catonius, King of Britain, after the pattern of Abraham, Fracanus comes from Britain to Armorica: at that time when the pestilence was raging, went forth from his land and from his kindred, with his twin-born sons Guethenocus and Jacobus, and with his wife who was called Alba. Having therefore embarked upon a vessel, he made for Armorica, where at that time a profound peace was thought to prevail. And at length, having crossed the British sea, he put in happily at the port called Brahecus at about the second hour with his company. There he found a certain estate thickly enclosed by forests and brambles, which was made fertile by the flooding of a river whose name is Sanguis; he began to inhabit this place, safe from diseases.

[3] A third son, expressing the pattern of the holy and supreme Trinity, was desired by Fracanus, as if it were entirely too little to have only two sons. There Saint Winwaloe is born: The woman felt a child in her womb. The birthday arrived, which was brighter than all days for the western Armoricans. The boy who was born was called Guingaloe, who in the course of time, as soon as he began to speak, accustomed himself wonderfully to the praise of God and even as a very young child desired to be among the celibates. He asked his father to be entrusted to a certain spiritual Master, by whom he might be more fully instructed in the sacred letters. The father refused, because he wished him to flourish in the world. He asks to be instructed in sacred letters: But on a certain day, Fracanus, while he was pasturing his flock (for this was formerly the custom, even among the most noble), was terrified by a fearful flashing and lightning from the sky and fell to the ground half-dead; there, to Christ appearing to him in light, he offered a prayer in which he would offer himself entirely, like the Apostle Paul, and all his own from the heart, and especially his Guingaloe.

[4] Fracanus returned home and reported everything to his wife. Without delay, by prayers he calms a storm: eight days later, he went with his boy to the angelic Master named Budoc, who was distinguished equally for piety and integrity and for knowledge of letters, to whom he would commit his son for instruction. But while they were going to the island called Laurea, a storm arose at sea. The father was shaken with fear; the son, exulting, said to his father: "Father, are you afraid?" Then he composed for his father a prayer about firm faith in God, from which immediately, to Fracanus's wonder, the most serene day dawned.

[5] They therefore arrived happily at the desired island, on which the father immediately approached the aforesaid Teacher, he is entrusted to a Master: setting forth the reason for his journey, that he might deliver the boy into his hands to be formed in pious and good studies. The Teacher ordered the little one to be brought, who approached him, his whole body prostrate and humble on the ground. The Teacher, perceiving that he was already shining with the divine Spirit in his soul, thus addressed the father: "The boy whom you commend to me I see surpassing his age in character; in a child's form I behold an aged man; a child in innocence, chastity, and purity, yet already skillfully instructed by divine wisdom alone in the sagacity of mind." These things accomplished, the father, having received a blessing from the man of God, departed in the morning and returned home. The little boy was not saddened by his departure, and on that very day he learned to read all the Latin letters; he learns his letters, then in a short time he became an outstanding and eager investigator of the Holy Scriptures.

[6] Here he first learned the method of living well, whose pattern he considered to be seeking the royal road by which one goes to God; and piety: which pattern he endeavored to find depicted and expressed in the Scriptures. But he became not merely a hearer of the law, but also a doer. He read or prayed constantly; indeed, scarcely had he reached adulthood when he afflicted his body with fasts of two and often three days. devoted to fasting:

[7] It happened that the spiritual Father went away to a certain place to pray, leaving his disciples on the island and forbidding them to engage in any immoderate play. Yet they played contrary to the Master's command, and while they were running about more freely over the level ground, one of them, God willing to reveal the glory of Guingaloe, broke his leg from a fall, a broken leg, and the grief of all his companions followed upon him. While they did not know what to do, but were only reckoning by their own experience how great a thing it was to spurn the admonitions of their elders, behold, immediately Guingaloe, moved by the Holy Spirit, looking upon his companions afflicted with sorrow, gave them an address, having called for silence, in which he exhorted them to pray to God by prayer, and to have faith in God, who could restore and repair the limbs of the sick boy. While all prayed, he himself raised his eyes and hands to heaven, and immediately, the prayer completed, he approached the boy, and marking the place of the wound with the Cross of Christ, he said: "Arise, in the name of Jesus Christ." And he, immediately hearing the voice of the servant of God, made well and the sign of the Cross he heals: as if he had suffered no harm, rose up with no trace of the injury remaining. At length (as he was striving to pursue true humility and to imitate it in the Lord Jesus) he commanded his Brothers not to reveal this miracle to anyone -- accomplished through the grace of God, not

through himself -- revealed; for he always wished to remain hidden. Nevertheless the elder himself, upon his return, learned of it and rejoiced that these works were being done through the hand of a single youth, and he gave thanks to God together with his pupils.

[8] That spiritual Father exercised his disciples in mental prayer, he acquires the grace of mental prayer: and taught each one to pray separately, knowing that one might be hindered by the impropriety of another, and knowing likewise that mental prayer, which takes place in the hidden chamber of the heart with the sound of the voice silent, is true and genuine prayer. From this came the beginning for Blessed Guingaloe, from which he was at length advanced to the supreme gift of singular and almost divine meditation.

[9] With wisdom running ahead of his age in the still tender boy, and with the grace of the divine Spirit growing, he nourished the poor whom he found with bodily food, even beyond his ability, and also with divine nourishment; for he was mindful of that saying: "What you did for one of the least of mine, you did for me." Matt. 25:40 For immediately when the poor cried out seeking help, merciful toward the poor: the boy ran swiftly to render aid; and since he had nothing with which to sustain their want and beggary in material terms, he deplored their indigence with the most abundant tears; he uplifted their spirits with the hope of eternal recompense, recalling to them the Gospel: "Blessed are you who now weep and hunger." Luke 6:21 Concerning him, Clement, the servant of Christ, sang: for since he did not have earthly treasures, he bestowed heavenly ones.

[10] We ought not to wonder if at such an age Guingaloe dared to strengthen others with his speech and to instruct them; for the example is set forth in the boy Daniel, he instructs others: filled with the spirit of prophecy, so that though a boy he might judge the aged priests; and in Jeremiah, who was sent by God as a boy to speak whatever He had commanded; and it is said to Timothy: "Let no one despise your youth." 1 Tim. 4:12 But nevertheless, let no one presume that it is permitted to him at a weaker age to undertake public instruction and preaching of others, because he sees a boy exercising them. For what we know about the use of doctrine and discipline is entirely different from what we know about miracles. Concerning this, Moses admonishes us allegorically: "You shall not plow with the firstborn of the ox." Deut. 15:19 Plowing with the firstborn of the ox is good work toward one's neighbor undertaken in the earliest times of our weak age. From this, therefore, we who are younger and more tender must refrain: we must not plow, and the plowshare of our tongue must not dare to break open the soil of another's heart.

[11] Let us return to the history and pursue what we have begun. On a certain day, while Guingaloe was feeding the poor and with copious tears raising them to heavenly things, a certain Brother from among the students passed nearby, who, led by the malice of envy, was ill-disposed toward the Saint of God, because he himself could not do such things as the other was doing; for the envious man wastes away at that from which the good man profits. to an envious mocker He therefore mocked the Saint, reproaching him for wasting his time with so ignoble a crowd of poor people, whom he was feeding with the smoke of empty words, he responds modestly: as if feigning mercy, the affection for which he did not have in his heart. He called him wretched, powerless, vain, proud, a deluder of the poor, and so forth. To him Guingaloe with a glad and smiling face responded to the insult: "Blessed are you, dearest Brother, because, as was fitting, you have brought forth fitting testimonies concerning me. While the eyes of all are closed who praise a bruised reed, yours alone are well and truly open, you who were able to judge these things so rightly." This he said to him, who departed more full of fury and envy and more intoxicated than before. Then Guingaloe, taking hold of a certain blind man, led him into a more secluded place, away from witnesses, and when he had thus prayed: "Lord, who healed those crying out to You, Son of David, have mercy on us; heal, Lord Jesus Christ, the eyes of this Brother who trusts in You." Opening his eyes with his own hands and spitting into them, he said: "Silver and gold I do not have; what I have, this I give to you: in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, arise, seeing." He illuminates a blind man: He who had been blind arose and saw, and immediately, with no one leading him, ran joyfully to the gate. But the elder Master of the Brothers, running thither, drawn now by the public report, said to the man: "Who opened your eyes?" "I was a beggar," he said, "and blind, hoping in the midst of the poor for something from passersby. One person drew me aside, not seeing, and when I thought I would receive alms from him, he led me to a secret place; and when he had excused himself as not having the money of this world, he gave me this better gift: the light of my eyes." The elder said: "Who is he?" "Such a one as him," said the beggar, "I do not see among you." And the elder: "Could you recognize him if he were present among the rest?" "Yes, my Lord," he said. The elder therefore ordered all the students to be present at once. And when the beggar came to Saint Guingaloe, he exclaimed: "This is the one who healed me." And the Master and the disciples alike, prostrate on the ground, stirred by the divine Spirit, sang in one voice to nearly the likeness of this meter, saying:

Let us sing to the Saint, let us sing to Guingaloe; Let sweet praise resound to the Lord through His servant. Nourishing Father, guardian of the Brothers for so long a time, Be ever present everywhere as the patron of your flock. Grant that your company may abide in its own fold, Gather, O Saint, those who cling to your admonitions. Suffer not, we beseech, the dire streams of stagnant Avernus To touch your servants with their Lethean waters. O nourishing light to your own, bright hope, and great power, Why do you hide from us wretched ones your will? You who are known to be a disciple of Saint Patrick, Ever keep entreating Christ on our behalf. Through you, Christ becomes our rest and our substance: All of us, praying continually, seek this. In you is sure salvation; through you may strength be restored To us, unworthy as we are, however small.

[12] Then he forbade the Brothers to adore him, since he judged himself unworthy of this honor, and ascribed the whole matter not to his own merits on account of excessive humility he is corrected: but to those of his companions and of his Master. He was therefore on this account entirely pressed with grief of heart within; wherefore his Master admonished him not to let his spirit be too greatly bent, because it often happens that what is thought to be the virtue of humility, if it is too much relaxed, turns into the vice of tepidity. He then admonished him to take care that his path, like a shining light, might advance and grow unto the perfect day.

[13] This virtue also, which I consider no small one, I shall not neglect to make known to your blessedness. While his only sister Chreirbria was playing as a little girl with other girls, a gander rushed at her as she passed by. Drawing itself up proudly, it snatched, plucked out, and swallowed her eye with its root. The most beautiful girl, now without her comeliness, deprived of her eye, drenched in flowing blood, returned to her parents, whose wretched state was met with the immense grief of her parents as they inquired how this had happened. But the girl did not know, because the bird had flown at her so swiftly and struck her so that it could scarcely be identified. While these things were being discussed, an Angel of the Lord appeared at night in a dream to Blessed Guingaloe, saying: the eye torn out by a goose from his sister, "Holy one of God, arise, hasten, run to your parents. Today your only sister has lost an eye when a male goose pulled it out, and they do not know whence this happened or for what reason; for it is hidden in the crop of the goose. You will see and single out that bird, standing out above the others, and disemboweling it you will recover the eye of your sister, and you will place it whole in its former seat." Then the servant of the Lord, certain of the Angel's words, went forth promptly to carry out all that was commanded. admonished by an Angel. He came to his parents, consumed with grief over their daughter who was nearly dying. He inquired into the cause of their sorrow, and at length ordered the flock of geese to be gathered; he seized the one standing out above the rest and disemboweled it, and drew forth his sister's eye whole from its crop, and replaced it in its place with an act of thanksgiving to God. The bird suffered no injury from this: unharmed, as if handled by no one, he restores it: stepping proudly and exulting, singing with outstretched neck, it went to its companion birds. The parents rejoiced, saying: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And Guingaloe himself without delay ran back to his own.

[14] A certain disciple named Tethganus gave himself to sleep in a little field, so that afterward he might more easily commit to memory what he had recited before falling asleep. A serpent, bursting from its hiding place, struck him lethally in the foot as he slept; then it withdrew to its lair. He, awakened and swelling all over with venom, about to heal one lethally wounded by a serpent, betook himself to his Master, not knowing the cause of his ailment. Guingaloe, indeed, seeing in the swollen and inflamed limbs the trace of venom, and his pupil lying on the ground as if breathing out his soul, his limbs dissolving from the poison, received him in a fatherly embrace with his arms; and smiling and jesting that he had received this harm while sleeping, contrary to the prohibition, from an enemy of that kind, and raising him up by the hand, he said: "Come and show me the place where anxious sleep seized you." He, though with difficulty, went to the place and showed it to the holy man of God, who, prostrating himself on the ground and exploring the spots with his staff, found a certain fissure where the serpent was hiding. Finding it, he cried out thus: With the sign of the Cross he destroys the serpent: "Whatever death-bearing seed you are, lurking in this hole, burst forth, come out, learn the power of Jesus Christ and the trophies of His Cross." At the hearing of Christ's name, the serpent immediately emerged from the hiding places of the earth with swelling neck; and at once, when the banner of the Cross was raised by the hand of the saint, it perished. Then the man of God asked for water, which he mixed with oil and gave to the sick man to drink; this weakened the power of the venom and with blessed oil he expels the poison: and restored the infirm man to his former health, for which they gave thanks to God. When he heard of this, his father Fracanus ran to Guingaloe and asked that a serpent might never be born in the region of Breona, which was formerly called Laurea; and this was accomplished through his prayers. If a serpent is brought there, it hisses as if pierced by a trident and immediately stretches itself out to die.

[15] A certain shepherd named Guedmonus, tending his flock through the pastures under Duke Quonetethus, was struck by a sudden storm and, unable to endure the frequent flashes of lightning, appearing to a shepherd, he drives off wolves: lay prostrate on the ground, his sheep scattered. But at night, when the fear had diminished, he raised his head from the earth and saw himself surrounded by wolves gathered for his destruction. Pressed by necessity, he invoked Saint Guingaloe, who was immediately present. For he saw him driving back the wolves with his staff, until, as day turned, the terror dispelled, he vanished. Then the shepherd, rising, gathered together his scattered sheep; wherefore he visited the Saint to give him thanks, and when he related everything to him, the Saint was confounded, not wishing that praise to be attributed to himself.

[16] On a certain day a dispute arose between Fracanus and Rivalus, Duke of Domnonea, over their horses. They therefore appointed a day for a horse race, in which the swiftest horse of all, which belonged to Fracanus, threw its rider upon the rocks, killing him from the grievous impact. His name was Maglus, son of Conomaglus, Fracanus's foster-father. The accident caused sorrow to all.

At length the dead man was about to be carried to the tomb. Yet some said that he would come back to life he raises a dead man: if Christ's servant Guingaloe were present. He was immediately at hand, by the will of God, and seeing all mourning around the dead man, he said: "Stand back, for this man is not dead but sleeps." And seizing the right hand of the deceased, he said: "The Lord Jesus Christ, who fashioned you when you did not exist, let Him raise you; for nothing is impossible for Him." He arose immediately, as if roused from a deep sleep, and, restored to himself, gave thanks to God.

[17] Saint Patrick had illuminated all the churches of Ireland with his holiness. Saint Guingaloe therefore wished to run in the fragrance of his ointments, and it came into his mind to visit the sacred places of Saint Patrick. by Saint Patrick appearing to him And already in the morning he was about to set out for the Scots with merchants, when there appeared to him in the night a certain splendid man of angelic bearing, as if wearing a crown on his head: "Let it not be your great concern," he said, "to swim across seas and traverse such expanses of land. I myself am here, Patrick, whom you desire to visit. Do not trouble yourself; do not seek in a foreign land what you have in your own. But go, seek a place in which you may establish a permanent seat with companions whom your Master will give you as fitting. he is taught what he must do: The habitation of the land of Armorica will suffice for you. Go, therefore, and let the memory of me, but what is more, of Christ, never depart from your heart, wherever in the world you may at last live with your own." Having said these things, he quickly vanished from his eyes.

[18] Guingaloe went to the chamber of his Teacher, intending to relate everything that had been seen by him. Having therefore humbly venerated him, as was the custom, he set forth everything in order. Then the elder said to him: "Are you now satisfied with this theft of yours?" "What theft?" he replied. Then the elder said: "Of wanting to visit Saint Patrick, without your indicating the matter to anyone at all." He said: "I am satisfied." Then the elder said: "Fulfill the divine command," he receives companions, and since God so willed, he said, dissolving into tears, that he would give him as companions the same men whom God Himself had given him as disciples, men especially after his own heart. As he was now saying through tears: "After you, wretch that I am, I know not whether to choose death or life. Happy the land that will receive you, servants of God; unhappy the land that, having nourished you as a mother, is bereft of you." And having embraced them all, he said amid mutual kisses: "Farewell, and have peace." He admonished them all to devote themselves zealously to the works of virtue and piety and permission to depart. that they had learned under his teaching; that they should not admit vagabond men into their fellowship, men who carry out no good work except through hypocrisy. Then at last he gave the final farewell to his dearest companions and pupils, with many tears and prayers that, when any one of them should begin to reign with Christ, he might remember him.

BOOK II.

A three-year stay on the island. The monastery of Landevennec constructed. A life lived in holiness. Miracles.

[1] On the following day, therefore, with his eleven companions, having thus received the blessing from his Master, Guingaloe departed, He departs with his companions: ignorant of where he should turn; yet relying on the help of God, he committed all things to His will and judgment. Thus the Blessed one set forth. On the journey they warmed and refreshed one another with pious conversations about God; above all, the Saint earnestly commended to his companions to beware of the wiles of the devil, whether he be hard or soft, rough or gentle, that they might fight against him most vigilantly.

[2] Passing westward through the cantons of Domnonea and surveying the borders of the Cornubians, he at length took lodging with his companions on the island of Topspigia. The place was most harsh, exposed to every wind, suitable for no human habitation; he dwells on the island for three years: there, having built huts with an oratory and having planted a small garden for growing vegetables, they remained for three years. But afterward, on account of the savagery of the storms raging there and the force of the winds that disturbed nearly everything, the Brothers began to grow sorrowful that they remained there any longer. But Saint Guingaloe himself, lest he be faulted with the vice of wandering, most gently restrained the Brothers' desire to migrate to another place, until the migration should please God. It was the custom of the Saint and his companions dwelling together there that, when all the hours of each synaxis were completed, they would pray to God that one of them, whomever God Himself should wish, might be taken from this wretched life, who might be an intercessor before God in heaven on behalf of all his Brothers; but God did not assent to their prayers.

[3] On a certain day, when they had assembled on the accustomed hill set apart for prayer, from which they could survey a place that was at first glance far more suitable for habitation, a stronger desire and longing for it was kindled in their hearts. But between that place and themselves lay the open sea, and a river above breaking into the sea. Wherefore, falling to their knees and prostrate on the ground, they all besought Christ that, if He would deign to be the author of their plan and the guide of their way, He would show them a most clear sign of His will. Having offered this prayer, they proceeded to the shore, on dry feet he crosses the sea: and when the holy servant of God Guingaloe had struck it with the point of his staff, they grasped one another and held hands, with one going before and the others following in order. The way lay open for them, dry and free, through the parted sea receding on either side, with the river above holding back its waters, so that they might cross on dry foot. Then, like Moses and the children of Israel, they sang a canticle to God, saying to the likeness of meter:

With tuneful voice let us sing canticles to Christ most high, Who causes the great sea to open for us. Now let all the works of the Lord bless the Lord, Sing with continual praises from on high, etc.

[4] When the hymn was said, they entered a certain wood at the edge of the shore. Then, surveying the valley, they found a certain estate in the middle, enclosed as it were by hills and forests armed on both sides, and bounded on one side by the sea and a river. The place was most pleasant, untouched by any wind except the eastern, like a certain paradise conspicuous at the rising of the sun. First bursting forth each year into flowers and shoots, he occupies a place suitable for a monastery: and last losing its leaves, the place was destined and prepared by God for His servants -- a garden adorned with every color of flowers, but destined to be far more illustrious later from the sweet fragrance of the bodies of the saints resting there, which on account of their multitude can scarcely be numbered by anyone. This was the privilege of this place: that from the time it was first held by the Saints of God, by a law established by Saint Guingaloe, the entrance of women never violated it. Here, therefore, they began to settle, where the Brothers gave themselves immediately to labor, while Guingaloe their leader devoted himself intently to prayer.

[5] When on a certain day the Brothers were wearied because water had to be sought from afar -- for the place was rather dry, being sandy -- Guingaloe therefore sent them all to fetch water, he brings forth a spring: and remaining alone, he prayed thus: "Lord Jesus Christ, who commanded the dry rock to produce water for Your thirsting people in the desert, You who are the fount of life, deign to open a spring of water for this small flock of monks, from which they may quench their thirst in this place." Then with the point of his staff he traced the outline of the spring in the shape of a circle, from which water soon flowed forth most copiously. The Brothers, returning, gave thanks to God, marveling that the ancient miracles were being renewed.

[6] At night, as Guingaloe prayed, there appeared a shapeless, hideous, enormous monster -- a sort of figure horribly fashioned of iron and soot, covered with feathers, most swift with wings, with hairy limbs, he puts the devil to flight: but with iron hairs. Now it rolled a hundred fiery eyes, now it bore a single one before its forehead, now none. Its neck was stretched out like the length of the tallest linden tree. This monster, equipped with wondrous arts of harming, attempted to distract the Saint from his prayer even the slightest bit. But the Saint ignored it the whole night, saying nothing; and at last he rebuked the demon in its own form, that it had been condemned to the depths and thrust down forever on account of its pride. At length, vanquished, it departed and exhaled a foul odor in the chamber. Brother Tethgonus heard these things and partly saw them, and reported them to the rest.

[7] From that year he was never seen sitting in the church; never cast down by sadness, nor dissolved by joy; never mocking others, constant in the exercise of virtues not angry at anyone, not turbulent. He never displayed any arrogance, never adopted any pride in his manners, although he surpassed all others in every gift of grace. Even at such an age, he was affable and benevolent toward all, angelic in appearance, polished in speech, pure and whole in body, most intensely devoted to prayer. and in prayer: Three times daily he chanted fifty Psalms, now in the form of the Cross, now with bent knees.

[8] From the day he began to build his place, he was never clothed in a linen or woolen garment; he was covered only with goatskins. On a feather bed, or one spread with garments or straw, in clothing, in bed, he never from that day lay down; but for the briefest sleep he was accustomed to use the shells of nuts in place of feathers. Instead of painted tapestries, he delighted in sand mixed with pebbles. Instead of silk or fine linen pillows, he raised his head and braced his feet on two stones placed on either side. What more? His garment at night was always the same as it had been during the day. He did not eat wheaten bread; he ate a small amount of barley bread mixed with ashes in equal weight. bread mixed with ashes, In Lent, however, he abstained from food for two or three days at a time, and put more ash than barley in his bread, mindful of him who ate ashes as though they were bread. His choice dish was a pottage of barley and vegetables. He used no fat and did not touch meat. He also used a small amount of cheese on Saturday and Sunday, and other foods, and on the same day took a few small fish in memory of the glorious Resurrection of Christ. Does not the true and genuine image of Saint John the Baptist shine forth in the Saint?

[9] He took no liquor of the grape, nor of honey, nor of milk, nor of ale. His drink consisted of a great quantity of water and some juices of wild apples. All were ignorant of the use of wine, and this law shone in that monastery from the time when Gradlonus, called the Great, held the scepter of Brittany, until the year of the Emperor Louis V, and the drink of cider, of the Lord's Incarnation 818. On account of the infirmities of the Brothers, who could scarcely live in such austerity, the same Emperor, which endured until the year 818 while

he had pitched camp in the same province of Brittany beside the river Elegium, near the forest called Brisiaci, he directed these commands in his own hand to Matinonochus, Abbot of the monastery of Landewinoch: namely, that they should follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, which was practicable and worthy of praise; and received the Rule of Saint Benedict: and that they should likewise conform with the Church regarding the tonsure according to the prescribed manner, concerning which matters he appended his signature to the letter that was sent. In this same aforesaid year, the Rule of Saint Benedict began to be observed in the same monastery.

[10] The fame of the Saint reached Gradlonus, King of the western Cornubians, the glorious victor over the Normans, who, after conquering the hostile nations, had subdued their leaders to himself. He receives King Gradlonus: He was seized with the desire to visit Saint Guingaloe, to whom he immediately set out. And as soon as he came to him, he greeted him reverently and as a suppliant, prostrate on the ground and trembling, and offered him whatever he wished from his treasures and riches. The Saint, raising him from the ground with his own hand, addressed him and exhorted him to despise the riches of this world and to seek the heavenly ones, which he himself promised he would do.

[11] While the other Brothers labored, he alone prayed and chanted Psalms. He shines with miracles: At the end of each Psalter, he made a hundred genuflections during the day and as many during each night. At that time many blind, deaf, leprous, lame, paralytic, and possessed persons, and those afflicted with every other kind of infirmity and weakness, were brought to him, and all were healed; whence the fame of his miracles spread far and wide throughout all of Brittany.

[12] It was reported to Saint Riochus, a disciple of Saint Guingaloe, that his mother was ill. When he learned this, he desired to visit her and received permission from the Father to do so, through Saint Riochus he raises a dead woman with water blessed by himself: who nevertheless, by divine revelation, knew that she had already died. He went nevertheless, having received blessed water from the Saint, and approaching his mother and thinking she was alive, he sprinkled her with that water and said: "The Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name my Master has worked many miracles, may He deign to heal you." But all derided him, knowing that she was dead. Yet she arose as if from a deep sleep, wiping away the sweat, and sat up upon her bed. At this, those who had mocked the Saint, prostrate on the ground, said: "Truly that man is near to God, through whose invocation his disciple, though absent, has wrought this miracle." And the woman related that certain dark little men had dragged her, bound, through rough roads and were about to drag her to harsher places, had they not been terrified by the voice of Guingaloe and, unable to resist his authority, released her and left her to this man of God. She, at last restored to her body, changed her life for the better.

[13] A certain Catmaglus had three wicked sons, plunderers of others' property. Thinking that all treasures were hidden with the Saint, thieves about to carry off barley, they invaded the enclosure of the monastery by boat at night. There they found nothing but barley in the granary. As they entered, a light shone upon them as if of the sun, whence they said among themselves: "If it displeased God what we are doing, this light would not be afforded to us." They therefore resolved to fill their sacks with barley, because they did not wish to return empty-handed. It was the middle of the night. Saint Guingaloe was keeping vigil with his own in the basilica, and he warned them to see to it that no harm was done to the property of the monastery. "For some men," he said, "have invaded the granary; but let them do it, for God will convert their hearts." And thus he ordered them to pray by prayer he renders them immovable: while the wretches were plundering the monastery's goods. But the hand of the avenging God soon pursued them. For the first of them, going out with the barley, fell to the ground with a broken hip; the second, with feet fixed so that he could be moved neither this way nor that, stuck fast in the ground like a planted tree; the third was struck with blindness as he ran about at the doors of the monastery; the fourth, in the skiff, suddenly went mad, calling out to his companions to come; but they kept a deep and sorrowful silence out of fear and pain.

[14] The aforesaid Saint of God narrated these things to his Brothers by the prophetic Spirit after the first hour past midnight, yet mindful of that saying: "I will strike and I will heal" Deut. 32:39; and although the Brothers were reluctant, he prayed for the wretched thieves and, wishing to succor them in their pitiable plight, began to hasten with the Brothers to them, having offered a prayer. When the Saint and his Brothers appeared through the darkness to the robbers themselves, having rebuked them, he frees them by prayer, grief seized their hearts, as they expected nothing but death. But contrary to their expectation, having inquired into the cause of their danger and rebuking them, because it would have been more fitting to ask for something from the Brothers' labor than to steal, he freed them, saying: "May Jesus Christ, who bound you, release you from this affliction." And immediately they were freed from every bodily affliction, he dismisses them with their burdens and converts them: and were dismissed with all their burdens, with the admonition that if they should want anything in the future, they should ask. They were entirely converted to God.

[15] In the place where they were, they could not die, although they were growing older. Having therefore consulted Saint Guingaloe about these matters, they moved to another place toward the east. Many times it was heard from the holy men that they had seen heaven opened above that former place, to the extent of the space of ground it occupied, and that Angels had been seen there ascending and descending, and that heavenly music had been heard there -- not only during the lifetime of Saint Guingaloe, but also long after his death. He is warned by an Angel of his own death and that of his own: In the second place, therefore, on a certain night, an Angel of the Lord appeared to Saint Guingaloe as he prayed, foretelling that his blessed end was approaching, and that after him his own companions also would be led into those heavenly regions that were being opened to them. When these tidings were received by the Saint joyfully and with gladness, the Angel flew away to heaven. From that time onward the elder Brothers, who were the first, began to be taken by the Lord, so that those who excelled in age were always taken first; nor did one of lesser age ever precede one of greater age. This order was long maintained, until it was at length changed by the will of God, lest sloth should arise in the Brothers who were of lesser age.

[16] A certain mother of a family, by the will of God, was struck with sudden blindness; yet she gave thanks to God for this, as if for a special gift. She consoled herself with these three things: fasts of two or three days, prayer, and almsgiving, pouring out her wealth upon the poor. God repaid her: a blind woman sent to him by an Angel, he illuminates: for at night, when she had given herself to sleep after many vigils, an Angel of the Lord appeared to her, shining in a great light, saying: "Your fasts, prayers, and alms have been acceptable before the Lord; your prayer has been heard; you have obtained mercy. Go therefore; when the first light comes, rise and go to Saint Guingaloe, and from him you shall receive your sight." She therefore arose and went to the Saint at first dawn and told him everything she had seen and heard from the Angel of the Lord. To her the Saint replied: "The Lord Jesus Christ can grant this to you, if faith is applied." And he touched her eyes, saying: "May He who fashioned them deign to heal them." And her eyes were opened, and she went away magnifying God in His saint.

[17] The last day of life was drawing near for Blessed Guingaloe, when an Angel appeared to him in a dream, addressing him most kindly and saying most sweetly: "Guingaloe, venerable brother, the inhabitants of heaven claim you as their fellow citizen. Set your house in order, therefore, because you will soon be freed from this contest and labor." The Angel fled from his sight, warned by an Angel of death, he who had presented himself to be seen, as splendid as the sun and with a rosy countenance. He reported these things to his Brothers, who both rejoiced and wept at the same time, saying: "To whom do you commend us, beloved Father?" "Choose for yourselves as pastor," he said, "one who will be as sweet as honey he exhorts his own: and as bitter as wormwood." And he said: "Prepare yourselves today, because after Mass, at about the sixth hour of the day, I shall depart to my Jesus." Then he exhorted them with his final admonitions at the signal of the third hour. When it was heard, he said: "Arise, let us pray. Behold, the hour of most serene rest draws near for this old man, now in his dotage. Behold, the gates of heaven are thrown open; the trophies of Christ Jesus gleam; the camps shine. Do not, therefore, my Brothers, seek peace in the world; but may the peace that united and established the hearts of the Apostles in faith also strengthen you." Having said these things, He celebrates Mass: vested in the sacred garments, he celebrated Mass. When it was completed, refreshed with the nourishment of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, standing before the altar between two Brothers, supported on either side, chanting psalms together with his own while angelic choirs stood by, he dies without pain: he returned his holy soul to God on the fifth day before the Nones of March, the fourth day of the week in the first week of Lent, without any pain. He was buried with reverence by the Brothers with hymns and canticles. His translation from the lesser building to the greater church was made on the fourth day before the Kalends of May, on which day his solemnity is celebrated, so that the time of Lent may not be impeded.

[18] Among the other miracles both of the holy Patron and of the blessed soldier of Christ, this is wonderful to relate: A certain boy, while in summer he was driving his father's flock through the pastures, by God's will, fearful thunders occurred. The boy fled to a tree, which, however, being struck by lightning, hurled the boy to the ground. His parents found him pitifully dead. Invoked, he raises a dead boy: Alas, how great the misery of the father! How great the grief of the mother! How great that of the brothers! Lifting up the boy, they returned home and cried out to Saint Guingaloe, vowing to God that if the Lord should visit them through him, they would give Him their son as a servant. Already for a second day they had lain around the body, and now, their limbs exhausted, they could scarcely stand on their feet, when behold, first a certain vein beneath the throat of the dead boy was perceived to move, which they touched and found warm. A cry arose from the parents, saying: "May the pious Guingaloe be present, and make us, long sorrowful, joyful with his remedy." The boy opened his eyes and, forgetful of his being crushed at the tree and of his sleep, revived in health. William Rehuen and his wife, for the healing of their son, gave the land in Pen-gilli to Saint Guingaloe, free from every obligation, and from each household one distinguished gift, on the feast of the same Saint.

[19] And here is the end of those things which we have collected briefly and compendiously concerning Saint Guingaloe, Whence the author received these things. from a certain old manuscript codex that treats of his Life more at length, certain expressions of which we have also employed here. These things were transcribed and arranged in order by me, albeit thinly and drily and even badly, yet well enough, because they proceeded from me out of a good spirit and piety toward the most glorious Saint of God, Guingaloe.