ON ST. GOBRIAN OR GIBRIAN, BISHOP OF VANNES IN LESSER BRITAIN,
AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME
CommentaryGibrian or Gobrian, bishop of Vannes, in Armorican Brittany. (S.)
BY C. D. S.
[1] [St. Gobrian, known only from calendars no older than the fifteenth century and a writer of the sixteenth century] In the Calendar of the abbey of St. Méen of the fifteenth century and in the Calendar of the breviary of Dol printed in the year 1519 [Ed. in Lobineau, Vies des saints de Bretagne, App. pp. 1, 3; ed. Tresvaux (Paris, 1836), vol. I, pp. XXIX, XXIII.], at the 3rd of November there is announced the commemoration of Gobrian the bishop; and likewise in the Calendar of the old breviary of Saint-Brieuc In Lobineau, App. p. 2; ed. Tresvaux, vol. I, p. XXX.: Gobrian, bishop of Vannes. At the same day the same bishop is marked in Châtelain and in the martyrology of Paris published by order of Card. de Noailles in the last century, where he is called Gibrian.
Furthermore no writer is found who expressed anything more distinct about this saint, older than Robert Ceneau (Cenau), bishop of Avranches. He, however, relates only this Histor. Gallic. (Paris, 1557, fol.), p. 178.: To him (Paternus, first bishop of Vannes) there soon succeeded Gobrian, the second bishop after the first, famous in race, more famous in life, most famous for the abundance of his miracles. For he cured without any trouble all who met him, everywhere, suffering from the sacred fire. Thence it followed that, as those suffering from this kind of sickness flowed to him in crowds from every side, that holy bishop was compelled to withdraw from the city, lest namely the city itself be infected by the contagion of the sick. So that gentle bishop, wishing to yield to the fury of those in tumult, that he might not set himself against a torrent, withdrew to a solitary place, practicing the anchoretic life, beyond the river which that people calls the Oudum. And there, after many labors of cold, hunger and vigils endured, he closed the course of his life with the wished-for and long-desired end, himself desiring with Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ.
[2] and in the lessons A longer history of St. Gobrian is given by the Proper of the Saints of the diocese of Vannes printed in the year 1630, where at the 10th of November is read: On the feast of St. Gobrian, Bishop and Confessor, semidouble, was on the 3rd of this month… Fourth lesson. Gobrian, illustrious in birth, in Lesser Britain, stood out as more famous for uprightness of conduct and holiness of life. Having cultivated his unformed years with liberal disciplines, he afterward applied himself to the meditation of heavenly things and to the reading of the oracles of sacred letters. Whence, moved by distaste for earthly things, he gave himself wholly to divine worship, spent whole nights in prayers, by frequent fasts and a daily hair shirt subdued his body and repressed the wantonness of the flesh, that his mind, more free, might attend to divine things. — Fifth lesson. Having obtained a prebendal benefice in the church of Vannes, he displayed so many kinds of virtues that, the bishop of that city having died, he was with the great zeal of all put in his place; and as he shrank from so great a burden, he was brought unwilling and resisting to the altar, and a few days later was consecrated in the city of Dol. In discharging this office, both by preaching and by spending his wealth, he proved himself a true pastor. — Sixth lesson. When there had come to him a certain man afflicted with the disease that is called the pustule, otherwise the sacred fire, the saint, looking at him, said: In the name of Jesus Christ rise up healthy. And rising up he at once began to walk unharmed. As the fame of this miracle spread from day to day, a great number of men flowed together into the city from all sides; and those suffering from various kinds of diseases, but most of all from the pustule, recovered at the prayers of Gobrian: so that he went out of the city, lest, the air being infected by the stench of the sick, a most evil plague should spread abroad, and he went on to a certain place divinely shown to him near the river named Oust, about two miles distant from the castle of Josselin. There he had a chapel built, where he healed the sick who came to him. At last, illustrious in the glory of so many miracles, on the third day before the Nones of November he died in the Lord.
[3] of the breviaries Entirely the same lessons, with the same title set in front concerning the feast day being put off from the 3rd to the 10th of November, are in the Proper of Vannes of the year 1652. But in the Proper which almost a whole century later, namely in the year 1757, was committed to print, at a time when, as it seemed to men of that age, the rite of the divine office in the liturgical books of the several churches was ordered more elegantly and accurately than in the older breviaries [Cf. Tresvaux, Notice sur les anciens bréviaires et Propres de Bretagne, op. cit., vol. I, p. XXV.], new lessons on St. Gobrian were composed at the 10th of November, increased by not a few things, and not only was mention of the translation from the 3rd of the same month suppressed in the title of the office, but also, what is more grave, in the very text of the last lesson the tenth day was substituted for the third before the Nones, which was read in the older ones. Here are these new lessons for you. Lesson IV. Gobrian was born about the year six hundred and sixty of noble stock in the territory of Vannes. Having reached the age mature for taking up a state of life, he understood himself to be called by God to the clerical state. From then on he turned all his study to the sacred books and sacred theology. That he might apply himself wholly to this, he betook himself to the monastery of Rhuys, to hear one of the religious learnedly explaining the sacred letters there. In this literary and religious retreat he advanced as much in the growth of evangelical perfection as in learning. Having completed the course of studies, he received the priesthood, and shortly afterward was added as a canon to the chapter of Vannes. Lesson V. Burning daily more with fervor of spirit, he scarcely relaxed his mind from prayer, but usually spent the night in it. Keeping his hair shirt on day and night, with vigils and fasting he afflicted his body continually. Living most sparingly, whatever he withdrew from himself he poured out on the poor. He was so attached to his cell and to solitude that, living in the city as if in the desert, he came forth in public only to choir and to the duties of charity. In celebrating he was generally bathed in tears. Having gained among all the reputation of sanctity by so many and such great virtues, he is elected by unanimous vote to replace Morvan or Maurice, the first of this name, and, however resisting the election, being brought to Dol, he is consecrated twenty-fourth bishop of Vannes. Lesson VI. Raised to the episcopal ministry, more rigid still toward himself, more austere in his diet, made more lavish toward the poor, he at once began to grow famous for miracles. For the disease then creeping abroad, which was called the sacred fire, he wonderfully extinguished in all who flowed together to him. Having most holily discharged the episcopate for seventeen years, a worthy successor being put in his place, to give his leisure to God alone and to salvation, he withdrew to a desert place two miles distant from the castle of Josselin. A chapel being built there, by continual contemplation of heavenly things and affliction of his body he prepared himself for death over the space of eight years. Foreknowing its approach, he called for the presence of his successor. Having received from him most piously the sacraments, on the tenth day of November, in the year seven hundred and thirty-five, he fell asleep in the Lord. Given burial in his chapel, where while still living he had had his tomb dug, he became widely known for very many miracles after his death.
[4] of the more recent ones, The authors of these lessons indicated them as excerpted from Robert Ceneau, Bishop of Avranches, De re Gallica. How truly this was said the prudent reader will readily judge by recalling what we copied above from Robert concerning Gobrian Num. 1.. It is far more probable, however, that whatever is related in those lessons has been taken from the Lives of the Saints of Brittany of Albert Le Grand, first published in the year 1636, or from the second or third edition of the same work, which were published in the years 1659 and 1680, where however the death day of St. Gobrian is not marked, which it seems to be feared that the reformers of the breviary decided at their own discretion to have been the 10th of November, that it might now agree with the day of celebration of the feast in the diocese of Vannes. Furthermore Le Grand cites as the sources he used the breviaries of Vannes and the Proper of the Saints of the diocese of Rennes at the 16th of November, the manuscript legendaries of Nantes, and the writings of Robert Ceneau De re Gallica, of Benedict Gonon De Vitis PP. Occid., and the catalogues of the bishops of Vannes of Augustine du Pas, Claude Robert and John Chenu [Les Vies des saints de la Bretagne-Armorique (ed. D. L. Miorcec de Kerdanet, Brest-Paris, 1837), p. 722.]. Now in those last three scarcely anything is found except the bare name of Gobrian; Gonon, however, copied what is read in Robert Ceneau; the Proper of Rennes published in the year 1620, which we have before our eyes, has nothing at all about St. Gobrian. There remain therefore only the legendaries of Nantes, and whether they contained anything except what Robert Ceneau or the Proper of Vannes of the years 1620 and 1652 reported, or of what authority they were, is still unknown.
[5] his age Albert had indicated the year of the death of St. Gobrian in his Life to be the year of Christ 762 Ibid., p. 721., afterward however in the Catalogue of the bishops of Vannes he corrected this opinion and attached that death to the year 725, for which the Proper of Vannes of the year 1757 substituted the year 735. Lobineau, however Les Vies des saints de Bretagne, p. 218., judged that Gobrian flourished only in the twelfth century, both because he thought there was no talk of the sacred fire among older writers, and because Morvan, whom he is said to have succeeded, was still ruling the church of Vannes in the year 1118 Cf. Gall. Christ., vol. XIV, p. 924.. But the former of these reasons is certainly not valid: for the annals of Flodoard report that the sacred fire raged in the year 945 M. G., vol. III, p. 393., and in the year 1089 the Annals of Liège Ibid., vol. IV, p. 29. and the Chronicle of Sigebert of Gembloux Ibid., vol. VI, p. 366.. To the other the patrons of Albert Le Grand and the lessons of Vannes will readily reply, by supposing that besides that Morvan who occupied the see of Vannes in the twelfth century, there was an earlier one of this name who was placed over the same at the beginning of the eighth.
[6] still uncertain. For the rest a valid refutation of Lobineau's opinion is afforded by the catalogue of the bishops of Vannes, which the distinguished Louis Duchesne published from the Cartulary of Quimperlé written in that very twelfth century Les anciens catalogues épiscopaux de la province de Tours (Paris, 1890), p. 76., and in which the name of Gobrian is marked neither after Morvan nor in any other place. If he had presided over the church of Vannes in the twelfth century, he would most certainly not have been passed over. But from the omission of this name in that document it cannot be justly concluded that Gobrian is by no means to be reckoned among the bishops of Vannes, since the most learned editor could cite no less than eight or nine bishops, who are proved from certain documents to have occupied the see of Vannes in the sixth and ninth centuries, and whose names are not read in the same catalogue. — But also what credit Robert Ceneau deserves, a writer of the middle of the sixteenth century, when he asserts that St. Gobrian sat first after St. Paternus, that is, a little after the middle of the sixth century Cf. above, num. 1., no old document supporting him, I would not dare to pronounce.
[7] Of his relics A very elegant chapel in which the sacred remains of Gobrian were laid and his head is still preserved exists, says Tresvaux, in a hamlet belonging to the parish of Saint-Servant, a league distant from Josselin, which village venerates him as patron [Tresvaux, vol. II, p. 230; cf. Rosenzweig, Répertoire archéologique du département du Morbihan, p. 249.]; but by a letter of one of the priests who now serve the sacred ministry in the village of Saint-Servant, transmitted to us while we were committing these things to the press, we are taught that neither are any relics of St. Gobrian now preserved there, and that the ancient chapel adorned with the name and effigy of the same saint, where until the year 1743 it was customary to celebrate Mass, had been wholly demolished already before the year 1750. — A second chapel of St. Gobrian still surviving is indicated in the village
of Camors, in the diocese of Vannes [Rosenzweig, op. cit., p. 249. On certain popular fables concerning St. Gobrian see Henr. du Noday (Vte) in the periodical Revue de Bretagne et de Vendée, vol. VII (1860), p. 393 ff.].
[8] and cult. His memory was formerly observed each year with a solemn office in the dioceses of Dol, Saint-Brieuc and Vannes and in the monasteries of Saint-Melaine, Saint-Méen and Saint-Gildas, but now in the diocese of Vannes alone Tresvaux, loc. cit., on the 10th of November, with double rite Ordo divini officii in dioecesi Venetensi for the year 1854, p. 81..