Guethenoc

ON ST. GUETHENOC, CONFESSOR, IN ARMORICAN BRITTANY,

IN THE SIXTH CENTURY?

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Guethenoc, confessor in Armorican Brittany. (S.)

BY C. D. S.

[1] [The ancient cult of St. Guethenoc is probably shown by litanies of the eleventh century] How ancient the cult of St. Guethenoc (commonly Venec) is may be gathered from the fact that his name appears in the litanies of the saints of Armorican Brittany which are read in a certain codex of the eleventh century Revue celtique, vol. III (1876), p. 449., if indeed our saint is judged to be signified there by the invocation of St. Goudnon. With this opinion, indeed, neither our colleague V. De Buck Act. SS., Oct. vol. XI, p. 686 B. nor the distinguished J. Loth Revue celtique, XI (1890), p. 143. agreed, who thought that by the name Goudnon in those litanies was designated St. Guesnoveus (commonly Gouesnon), bishop of Léon, who in the Life of St. Paul of Léon is also called Woednovius, and who by another name was called Towoedocus Revue celtique, vol. V (1881–1883), p. 437; Anal. Boll., vol. I, p. 234.. But could it not be judged more probable that under that name Goudnon our St. Guethenoc lies hidden? For the name seems no less akin to the name of Guethenoc than to that of Guesnoveus, and in the litanies it is placed immediately before, with nothing between, the invocation of St. Winwaloe, who was Guethenoc's younger brother. That the Woednovius who is named in the Life of Paul of Léon is the same as St. Guesnoveus is supposed altogether gratuitously, and the text of the Life rather contradicts this conjecture: for in this passage the presbyters who were in Paul's company are listed, and of these the author of the Life says that only the names were known, but by no means their deeds, whereas the British traditions are not so silent about St. Guesnoveus.

[2] and certainly the calendars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the calendar which is prefixed to a certain manuscript missal of Saint-Malo of the fifteenth century, there is noted at the 5th of July: Translatio sci Iacuti et Guethenoci Translation of St. Jacut and Guethenoc [F. Duine, Bréviaires et missels des églises et abbayes bretonnes de France antérieurs au XVIIe siècle (Rennes, 1906), p. 79.], and likewise in another calendar, printed at the head of the breviary of Saint-Malo published in the year 1537, at the same day: Transla. f. Iacuti Guedhenoci Translation of St. Jacut and Guedhenoc Ibid., p. 73.. But besides these no martyrology older than the seventeenth century, as it seems, has preserved the memory of Guethenoc. We have, however, a history of his life and of that of his brother Jacut, which we found written in the codex of the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris lat. 5296, of the thirteenth century, as it seemed to us, but, according to the distinguished A. de la Borderie, most certainly of the twelfth, and which, hitherto unpublished except for a small part excerpted from it by the same [Les deux SS. Caradec (Paris, 1883), pp. 23–28 (= Mélanges historiques, littéraires, bibliographiques, publiés par la Société des Bibliophiles Bretons, vol. II, pp. 201–209).], we recently made public Catal. Lat. Paris., vol. I, pp. 578–85.. Who the writer of that Life was, or at what time and place and with what aids he put it together, is altogether hidden from us. I would indeed readily believe that the writer was a monk of the convent of Saint-Jacut, yet this is nowhere expressly indicated in the Life. This much is clear from its preface, namely that the Life was written some time after the incursions of the Northmen into Brittany Life, no. 1. Add no. 19., that is, after the ninth century Cf. A. de la Borderie, Hist. de Bretagne, vol. II..

[3] His Life and that of St. Jacut was written before the thirteenth century, But the author himself also indicated that he had had before his eyes the Life of St. Winwaloe [Published in Anal. Boll., vol. VII (1888), pp. 172–249. Cf. the prolegomenon to this edition, ibid., p. 167 ff.] Life of SS. Jacut and Guethenoc, no. 2., and it is easily clear that this Life of St. Winwaloe not only was almost the only source available to him from which he drew his composition on SS. Jacut and Guethenoc, at least as regards its earlier part (for the later part, in which the miracles of the saints after death are recounted, he could have put together from the traditions of the monastery of Saint-Jacut), but also that it was altogether adapted by him to the same saints, the names being changed. For whatever he relates of the twin saints is read in the Life of St. Winwaloe too, not only what is narrated of their fatherland and race and the fortunes of their parents,

but also, except one, all the miracles, namely those which in the Life of St. Winwaloe are attributed to Winwaloe, in the other to SS. Jacut and Guethenoc We shall indicate each more distinctly below in the annotations to the Life.. it is manifestly mendacious. Hence, finally, it is now gathered with sufficient certainty how falsely the author affirms that he copied what was contained about the history of the twin saints in a little book found among his (Jacut's) most sacred bones, enclosed in deerskin, in which both the origin of his lineage and the course of his life are found written Life, no. 1, middle., and which he presently indicates was altogether distinct from the Life of Winwaloe Life, no. 2, end..

[4] But neither from the Life of St. Winwaloe The Life of SS. Jacut and Guethenoc found in the Paris codex must therefore be judged of no authority, except, as regards some things, of the same authority as the Life of St. Winwaloe. But how much authority is to be attributed to this one itself, which Wurdestin wrote a little after the year 870 Cf. Anal. Boll., VII, p. 168, toward the middle., is not yet established by any sufficiently certain indications. From this single document, however, we know whatever is related, by those who have treated the history of Lesser Britain of that age, about Winwaloe and his brothers, about Fragan their father and St. Budoc their master, and about Gradlon, king or duke of Brittany Most recently, A. de la Borderie, Hist. de Bretagne, vol. I, p. 293 ff.. All these things, therefore, are no more certain than the authority of the writer of the Life of St. Winwaloe, which itself is not yet sufficiently certain.

[5] at what time the three holy brothers lived But even if it be granted that the writer of the Life of St. Winwaloe was truthful in every respect, the controversy that has arisen among learned men is not yet resolved on a question of chief importance in the present matter, namely whether Winwaloe, and consequently Jacut, Guethenoc, Budoc, Fragan and Gradlon, flourished at the end of the fifth century or in the eighth or the beginning of the ninth. The former opinion, after many others, was keenly defended by A. de la Borderie [Annales de Bretagne publiées par la Faculté des lettres de Rennes, vol. IV (1888–89), p. 308 ff.], relying on the words of Wurdestin in which he indicates that Fracan migrated to Armorica at the time when the barbarous race of the Saxons possessed the mother soil Life of Winwaloe, book I, c. 1, end., that is, as de la Borderie interpreted it, when the Anglo-Saxons invaded the island of Britain, while meanwhile, a foul plague having suddenly arisen, the bodies of the wretched people who dwelt in the ancestral countryside were laid low in crowds and without number and pitiably without burial Ibid.. Now that the island of Britain was desolated by a horrible pestilence and that at the same time the Anglo-Saxons occupied that region a little after the middle of the fifth century is narrated by Gildas the Wise and the Saxon Chronicle. At that time, therefore, that is about the year 460, Fracan would have to be said to have landed in Armorica with his wife and two sons, Jacut or Jacob and Guethenoc Ibid., c. 2..

[6] according to the different opinions Another argument for that opinion is taken from the narration of the apparition of St. Patrick recorded in the same Life Book I, c. 19.. For although the beginning of this narration raises some difficulty, where Patrick seems to be indicated as already dead, yet from what follows it appears sufficiently that it was in Winwaloe's mind to visit Patrick while he was still among the living Cf. Anal. Boll., vol. VII, pp. 206–207, note., and in that very beginning Patrick is indicated to have illuminated the churches of Ireland not long before, which certainly could not rightly be said of a space of more than three centuries.

[7] of different men, On the other hand, from another chapter of the Life of St. Winwaloe, where the eminent saint Tutualus the monk is said to have preceded him in order of time Life of Winw., book II, c. 19., the distinguished men A. Ramé [Rapport sur le Cartulaire de Landevenec, in Bulletin du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, section d'histoire, year 1882, p. 433.] and H. d'Arbois de Jubainville [In the preface to the Cartulary of Landévennec in Mélanges historiques (among the Documents inédits sur l'histoire de France), vol. V (1886), pp. 547–49.] gathered that Winwaloe lived after the times of King Childebert, whether the first of this name, who reigned from the year 511 to the year 558, or the third (A.D. 695–711): for that Tugdual, abbot and bishop of Tréguier, is read to have been a contemporary of King Childebert. But also some documents which are read in the Cartulary of Landévennec, written in the eleventh century, expressly indicate that Winwaloe was a contemporary of the Emperor Charlemagne H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, loc. cit., p. 547., and consequently flourished after the middle of the eighth century. One may easily suspect, indeed, that not all these documents are authentic; but from them it is at least gathered that in the traditions of Landévennec in the eleventh century no such great antiquity was asserted for the age of Winwaloe.

[8] is not sufficiently certain. The distinguished de la Borderie strove to refute these arguments [Les trois Vies anciennes de saint Tudual (1887), pp. 112–14; Annales de Bretagne, vol. cit., pp. 323–28.]. And to the first he replies by contending that this chapter of the Life of Winwaloe in which mention is made of Tudual did not exist in Wurdestin's original composition, but was added to the Life in the twelfth century by an anonymous monk: which he promised he would demonstrate in his Preface to the Cartulary of Landévennec; but this preface, which in the year 1887 he affirmed was already in the press, never came out into public light. Besides, he asserted that the Tudual mentioned in the Life of Winwaloe could by no means be thought the same as Tugdual, abbot and bishop of Tréguier, and this for a manifold reason. For: a) that Tudual is distinguished only with the title of monk, not of abbot and bishop; b) he is celebrated at the end of the cited chapter among the four pillars by which the fatherland of Cornouaille stands out, whereas Tugdual of Tréguier cultivated only Domnonée with apostolic labor; c) the miracle by which in the same chapter that Tudual the monk is narrated to have been chiefly made illustrious is not read in the Life of St. Tugdual of Tréguier. Whence it is finally concluded that in this passage it is not a question of Tugdual, abbot of Tréguier, but of a certain other who is commonly called St. Tudi, no less celebrated once, although now the memory of his deeds is altogether abolished. The arguments taken from the charters of Landévennec he says he would carefully weigh when he came to editing the other part of the Cartulary of Landévennec (for he had published the one earlier part, which presents the Life of St. Winwaloe) Annales de Bretagne, vol. cit., p. 328.. But he did not keep faith with this promise either.

[9] On the convent founded by SS. Jacut and Guethenoc. The convent founded by the holy brothers Chap. 12 of the Life to be published below. they report to be the same that was afterwards called Saint-Jacut-de-l'Île-de-la-Mer, situated in the northern and western part of the diocese of Saint-Malo, and which is first found mentioned under this name, or, what is the same, under the name of St. Jacob, at the year 1008 in a certain Chronicle In Morice, Preuves de l'histoire de Bretagne, I, 358. and again a little later, namely in the year 1020, in a charter of donation In Mabillon, Annal. Bened., book LIV, c. 80 (vol. IV, p. 269)., which was subscribed by the same abbot Hinguethen who is named in the Chronicle [On the history of the convent of Saint-Jacut see J. Geslin de Bourgogne and A. de Barthélemy, Anciens évêchés de Bretagne. Diocèse de Saint-Brieuc, vol. VI (1864), p. 251 ff.].

[10] Their translation was formerly celebrated on the 4th of July. Of the cult of St. Guethenoc, besides the mention in the ancient litanies and calendars Above, nos. 1, 2., we read only this noted, namely in the History of the convent of Saint-Jacut written in French about the middle of the seventeenth century by Noël Mars, a Benedictine of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, and still unpublished [Cf. J. Geslin and A. de Barthélemy, Anciens diocèses de Bretagne, vol. cit., p. 251.]: C'estoit la coustume du temps passé que tous les prieurs des prieurés de ce monastère devoient se trouver le 4 juillet à Saint-Jagu pour y célébrer la feste de la translation de saints Jagu et Guethenoc son frère et pour assister au chapitre général qui se célébroit le 5e juillet, jour de leur feste [It was the custom in time past that all the priors of the priories of this monastery had to be at Saint-Jagu on the 4th of July to celebrate there the feast of the translation of Saints Jagu and Guethenoc his brother and to attend the general chapter which was held on the 5th of July, the day of their feast] Ibid., p. 266..

[11] Some villages marked with the name of Guethenoc. Finally, some have judged that the villages which are today called Langueux and Trégueux, situated not far from the town of Saint-Brieuc, received their name from our Guethenoc, supposing that they were formerly designated by the names Land-Guethenoci and Tref-Guethenoci Ibid., vol. II, p. 271.. But A. de la Borderie flatly denies that names of this kind are found anywhere in any ancient document, and says that they were invented by more recent writers and that this opinion of theirs rests on no probable reason Hist. de Bretagne, vol. I, p. 206, note..

LIFE OF SS. GUETHENOC AND JACUT

Guethenoc, confessor in Armorican Brittany. (S.)

Edited from the Paris codex 5296. Cf. Prelim. Comm., no. 2.

Here begins the Life of blessed Jacob or Jacut, confessor, which is recalled annually on the same day.

[1] Since we cannot attain to how great the merits of the saints are in heaven, we ought nevertheless not to keep silent about the miracles by which they shone on earth, so far as it has been permitted us to know them by true experience, as the psalmist David says: I have not concealed your mercy and your truth from a great assembly. Psalm 39:11. But how the certainty of this little work we have undertaken came to our knowledge we wish to make known to the faithful for this purpose, lest they think it either fictitious on our part or related from an improbable rumor, and, doubtful about the origin of the material, believe the order of our account the less. The Life of St. Jacut was found with his bones. In the time, then, of the piratical persecution which blazed up against Lesser Britain, when the Norman pirates were laying everything waste and no reverence was kept for sanctuaries, the ministers of the churches, with the bodies of the saints whose patronage they enjoyed, sought refuge in tracts of land further removed from the neighborhood of the sea. Hence it happened that in the place into which the body of the most blessed confessor Jacob was carried, there was found among his most sacred bones, enclosed in deerskin, a little book in which both the origin of his lineage and the course of his life are found written Cf. Prelim. Comm., no. 3.. And though this little book was rotten from excessive age and decayed on the outside at the margin of the page, yet by divine keeping the writing was so preserved within that nothing of the matter was diminished, nothing of the sense

should remain confused. We therefore, according to our small measure, have taken care to set forth the truth found there, if not in the same words, yet with the same meanings, and to change the tepidness of the words, simply set down, into a more fitting and lucid style. Nor in the manner in which that one said: I remember the measures, if I could keep the words, but so that nothing superfluous be mixed in with the integrity of the matter, nothing be mutilated as imperfect. The testimony of the little document found in so very precious a treasure, then, begins thus.

[2] [Guethenoc and Jacut, twin brothers, by their father Fragan, together with their younger brother Winwaloe] There was in the western parts of the British territory a certain wealthy man, most renowned among his fellow villagers, Fragan by name, having a wife equal to him, called in the native tongue Guen, which in Latin sounds Candida. To them the divine loving-kindness granted an offspring of three sons; of whom the mother's womb poured forth two twins into the light, and afterwards brought forth the third, younger than these two. Of the twins, one was Guethenoc, the other Jacob; but the third was named Wingualoe Cf. Life of Winwaloe (Anal. Boll., vol. VII, p. 172 ff.), book I, cc. 2, 3.. They, persevering in their boyish years with wonderful innocence, in youth with flourishing virtue, in old age with firm constancy, held throughout the whole course of their life nothing at all more worthless than earthly possession, nothing ever dearer than God. But since the lamp of such most illustrious men could not lie hidden from the world, the virtues of Wingualoe having been described most fully and most truthfully by those on whom that charge was laid, we have undertaken to touch on a few of the innumerable deeds of the twins: not because they were unequal to him in working, but because we were unequal to the others in describing their works.

[3] given over to the discipline of St. Budoc, The most blessed confessors, then, imitating the apostolic life in name and zeal, deserved to cleave to the merits of the apostles in the same measure as they did not depart from their footsteps. Nobly born, indeed, and regenerated in Christ, and brought up by most wealthy parents, keeping the honorable form of their birth, they sought a more honorable one of morals. For adorning the rights of boyhood with maturity and tempering maturity with innocence, they seemed both simple in countenance and old men in speech. While still of tender age they are given over to the discipline of letters; but they attained it as if they were taught not by the mastership of human industry but by the breath of the Holy Spirit. Their master, a most famous and most learned man, Budoc by name, had bound himself to them with as much love as he perceived the boys to flourish in the exercises of the virtues. Nor could the harvest of the good crop be hidden any longer, which eternal Wisdom had ordained to bear fruit in their minds. For in the very beginnings of their boyhood it appeared how gloriously divine grace willed to exalt them among their contemporaries Cf. Life of Winw. I, 4–6..

[4] they restore sight to a certain poor blind man; For one day, when the boyish swarm of the crowd of scholars, having received leave to walk abroad, as it were to refresh their minds, was going out of doors, while the others played and were intent on different things, as each one's mind was, it happened that our twins too went out among the rest and, going out, met a poor blind man. He, in his usual way, as necessity pressed, was importuning the passers-by with a clamorous voice to receive alms. The aforesaid brothers, looking at him with dovelike simplicity as they were, and approaching him as though breathed upon by the same affection, the one of them anointing his eyes with his spittle, the other making the sign of the cross over them, in place of a wage gave back sight to him who cried out. But at once, lest they be recognized and caught as having done this, they flee and betake themselves very swiftly within the hiding-places of the cloisters. But what did it avail to hide a light which no hiding-places can darken? For he who had been blind went rejoicing and, exulting, praised his illuminators with what loudness of voice he could. Their companions, then, astonished at the greatness of the miracle, having returned to the master from the unexpected spectacle, he himself began to inquire which of them it was to whom it had been granted to do so wonderful a work. And he to whom sight had been restored, being brought into their midst and recognizing his benefactors, began to say: "These are they through whom divine grace has deigned to heal me." The modest boys were both unwilling to confess, and not at all daring to deny the truth, they were convicted of having perpetrated so holy a robbery. This done, made not prouder but humbler, they seek to be cast down with all the abasement they can Cf. Life of Winw., I, 11..

[5] they flourish with the praise of all virtues. Then, passing into the years of youth and now stronger and stronger, they so dispose themselves to cast off all the delight of the world that the prince of the world could find no approach for seducing them. Assiduous in fasts, intent on vigils, given to prayers, loving the pursuit of all virtues and fleeing the fame of virtues as if it were poison, they strove to perform the works of mercy in such a way that towards the poor they appeared grudging in words, and by giving alms secretly were felt to be most generous. But for the edification of others the divine goodness did not permit so great a light to be put under a bushel.

[6] Jacut heals a leper with a kiss. For one day, while Jacob, going out for some reason that had arisen, was making his way alone, it happened that a certain leper, coming and following behind his back, asked him to bestow alms on him. And he, looking around and seeing no one besides himself and the poor man, since he did not fear the presence of anyone seeing him, in giving the alms kisses the hand of the one receiving. Touched by this holy kiss, the leper was immediately cleansed of all contagion of leprosy [This one miracle, common enough, especially in the Lives of the British saints, our writer related besides the miracles which are attributed to St. Winwaloe in his Life.]. Not knowing how to conceal his benefit, he began to cry out through the streets that Jacob had been the cause of his cleansing. Rumor flies round about, than which no flying thing is swifter, and willy-nilly the young man was caught as having committed a theft of this kind. Do not fear, servant of God, do not fear popular praise. For you have, after God, as judge a conscience pure of every blemish of vanity, untouched by every arrogance of pride, uncorrupted by the torches of envy. You have nothing to fear from the favors of the world, you whom chaste love holds fast in the charity of Christ.

[7] Having become monks, So much, however, did he fear the rumor spread through the neighborhood that he, whom a holy life had kept before, fled across with his brother Guethnoc to the monastic habit. Behold, both having become monks and having undertaken a harsher life, they rejoice that they have escaped, as they think, the shifting game of public action and passed into the asylum of contemplation. Now a rougher garment and harsher food, namely a hair shirt binding the loins and for feasts the roots of herbs, show that the athletes of God inhabit the earth only in the flesh and dwell in the heavens in spirit. But the more they labor to cast themselves down, the more abundantly it befalls them to grow bright. For they who thought they were estranging themselves from human praises shine with very frequent miracles.

[8] [they free by prayer from danger one of their companions, almost killed by the bite of a serpent,] For not long after, when they went out with the cenobites of their own monastery to reap a little harvest, a serpent lay hidden among the very sheaves and bit one of the brethren unaware of the danger. The deadly poison began to spread through his limbs, and nothing else was seen in him but the image of death. But the brothers born of one womb, united by a mother's charity, girded to give aid in every need, hasten there as quickly as possible and forestall the places of the spreading poison with holy water; and having made a prayer and imprinted the image of the life-giving cross upon them, they render safe and sound him whom a little before the others thought was soon to be buried Cf. L. W., I, 15.. This done, all began to bless the divine power which had deigned to prepare such physicians for them.

[9] and a blind woman In the territory neighboring them too there was a certain widow who, worn down as much by long sickness as by grief, had become blind. But having heard of so many signs of miracles, she had herself brought into the presence of the holy brothers, and rolling at their feet, hastened to call upon their help. But as soon as she touched the feet of the saints lightly with her forehead, more quickly than can be told she rose up given sight Cf. L. W., II, 27..

[10] and many others What were the languishing and all the sick of various kinds through that whole region to do? Those who are strong on their feet hasten to run; those who cannot walk have themselves carried on carts to the patronage of the saints. There, with the highest loving-kindness, so many gifts of miracles were shown as no eloquence can tell: for as it was impossible to perceive them one by one, so it is impossible to narrate them one by one. The blind, indeed, go away from there seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking, lepers cleansed, paralytics cured, and whoever had come with entire faith did not return empty of the hope of his petition.

[11] [Seeking solitude, they cross an inlet of the sea dry-shod and by prayer obtain a spring of water.] But when the fellow soldiers of Christ see themselves constrained to so great a necessity, they burn with desire to flee Cf. L. W., II, 1–3.. There was, indeed, a place not much removed from the monastery, but shut in by the ebbing flood of the depth of the sea and in no way naturally to be approached without a ship. Out of weariness of their irksome dwelling they take the road to it and come to the shore of the aforesaid flood. What were they to do, when there was no ship, no means of crossing? With bent knees and outstretched heart they pour out prayers to the Savior. As they rise from the dust, in the Mosaic fashion the water itself divides and opens a dry way through the midst for the holy travelers; but when they reach land from the other bank, the waves themselves, seeking again their natural course, come together Cf. L. W., II, 4.. Then, arriving at the place which they had desired, they find it in every way pleasing except for a lack of waters, of which there is no spring or sweet stream. Compelled, then, by so great a necessity, they run back to their accustomed weapons, and hurling the javelins of prayers into heaven, they who water Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father with their tears very easily obtain a spring of waters Cf. L. W. II, 7..

[12] They found a monastery, soon with a number of monks The holy men, therefore, delighted by the convenience of the place and its solitary inaccessibility, now resting for a little time from the onrush of the tumultuous populace, did not give their time to idleness, but sustain their bodily life by the labor of their hands and refresh their spirits with the sweetness of heavenly banquets. They spend the nights in divine praises and the days in holy works. They found a monastery and seek out round about men of like life, whom they might make citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem; and now more and more they are eager to call souls back from errors rather than to restore the languishing limbs of the sick to bodily strength. Success, therefore, attends their holy desire, and so great a multitude of monks grows there that the rule over subjects becomes necessary for both; and they who until then had lived without paternal rule now become parents by the election of their subjects. Eloquent in speech, glorious in work, humble in rule, they became all things to all men that they might gain all, and so that they ought truly to be called of the faithful

servants of the servants, they were set up as it were as two gates of paradise.

[13] and celebrated for holiness. What monk ever heard of their way of life and did not seek their familiarity? For the examples of their life and teaching abounded so much that from all the convents built round about them on every side men came eagerly and chose abbots for themselves from that primitive throng of elders. If an episcopal place lacked a pastor, a bishop was sought from there. The fame of their virtues gives forth its fragrance; all run to the delight of the odor. Whence in the Song of Songs: We run after the odor of your ointments; the maidens have loved you exceedingly. Song 1:3, 2.. For the maidens are the souls of the faithful who, imitators of the holy fathers, draw from their examples the ointments of good works. So great a harvest, then, watered by heavenly showers, builds very many monasteries and gathered very many colleges of convents. But as they were brothers of one womb, so they decreed that all their things should be held in common. Hence also some places which were built by them in the peace of the Church have kept their name from their names to this day. Hence too in the district of Bagassinus there still survives a most ancient church, venerable as the burial-place of many saints, which from their memory is named At the Two Twins. But, the faults of the inhabitants demanding it, they left great and numerous traces of their power which have been reduced to the solitude of a desert.

[14] They bring wonderfully present help to sailors in peril at sea. This too we think should not be omitted, that both, while still placed in one location in life, already appeared elsewhere when called upon in dangers. For in a certain storm, when sailors had been caught at sea, the winds rising and the gales clashing on every side, and were calling upon the saints, known to them from familiarity, behold, the one of them appears standing on the stern, the other on the prow, and each handles the tackle of the ship as though concerned, exhorting the fearful not to fear, because they will soon come into the haven of calm. The thing follows the promise, and, snatched from shipwreck, they enjoy a safe anchorage Cf. L. W., I, 16..

[15] Gradlon, duke of Brittany, visits them, and St. Patrick appears to them. At that time Duke Gradolon held the government of Brittany and St. Patrick was shining in Scotia with the fullest virtue. Of these, Gradolon showed his presence to our saints, and admonished by their most eloquent preaching, humbling his head to the ground, he promised that he would thereafter hold a more upright life and lay aside the savage cruelty with which he had previously burned Cf. L. W., II, 15–17.. St. Patrick, most splendid, appeared to them in the night, and having exhorted them to carry out the purpose they had begun, prophesied that crowns equal to his own crown had been prepared for them in the heavenly region Cf. L. W., I, 19..

[16] The writer puts an end to his little work. Our twins, then, of whom we have spoken, adorned with twin charity, now known by land and sea and most famous even to the stars, had as many gifts of heavenly deeds as moments of life, especially since their living is nothing else than to cleave to the uncircumscribed Spirit, as Scripture says: He who cleaves to God is one spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:17. And therefore we do not pursue their deeds further, because if we strove to touch on them fully, we should be proved not to have tasted even the first-fruits of what is to be said. Let us therefore put an end to the little work undertaken for them, and let us pray that they may be intercessors for us, so that they who snatched shipwrecked men who cried out to them into the haven of calm may snatch us from superfluity of speaking and of sinning into the haven of truth and charity, by the gift of Truth itself A more recent hand adds in the margin: Amen dico., to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, is honor and glory for ages of ages. Amen.

[17] Miracles performed by the saints after death. In that little description which we have composed of the life of the twin confessors, namely Guethenoc and Jacob, we have touched on a few miracles which they performed while weighed down by the flesh, many and incomprehensible ones being passed over. But about those which, already received into heaven, the more freely as they clove more closely to God, they showed in those places in which their patronage was venerated, it seems injurious to be altogether silent, especially since they were shown for this reason, that they might both bear witness to them when they had been taken from the world, and that all the faithful, the miracles being recited, might become more spirited for imitating them. For the recorded examples of the saints show nothing else than certain footprints leading towards them.

[18] A certain man is healed of a troublesome deformity of the mouth. It came about, then, at one time, that to the oratory of the aforesaid confessors, namely that which had been dedicated to both and in which each had his own altar as it were his own, there came a certain deformed sick man, in whom between the very teeth a large bone had grown, descending as it were in a line from the nose, and gradually increasing itself, it made a most hideous snout for the wretch, which indeed was thick outside but inside so very sharp that it continually split the wretch's tongue and saliva mixed with blood flowed down from every part of his mouth. Through the trouble of so great a defect, then, he could neither speak nor eat, except that he got down something soft put in by hand, and that mixed with blood. Condemned, then, by this horrible disease, running about through the oratory and throwing himself before each altar, what he could not with words he begged with a mournful mind. But one night a certain most splendid man appeared to him, and striking him with his foot, said: "Why do you run about through the separate altars and divide us from our unity? Rise, and throw yourself down in the middle of the space between both altars, and there, calling upon us together, you will obtain what you wish." He quickly rose and placed himself in a spot distant by an equal space from either altar. And soon the promised medicine was present to him. For that bone fell, torn out, from his mouth, a natural tooth equal to the rest being at once restored in its place. Having received, then, health from the defect, he receives the ability to speak and to eat, and was so restored to wholeness as if there had never been there the wound of deformity. The healed man, then, began to bless the almighty grace and to magnify the loving-kindness of the saints with what clamor he could, and to prove the truth of the matter he always carried with him the bone that had been torn out.

[19] [Often calamities of various kinds were driven away by the intercession of the saints.] This too we think should not be omitted, that the brethren of the monastery to which the relics of the aforesaid saints were brought from the devastation of Brittany In the village of Landoac or Landour? Cf. below, c. 20, middle and end. had so great confidence in them that against the onset of every adversity they did not hesitate to implore help from them. For if at any time, through continued clearness of the air, as is wont to happen, the earth grew hard with dryness, the pledges of the saints being carried in procession, they at once obtained the tempering of rain. But if on the other hand the outpouring of rain was overabundant, by the same medicine the clearness of the air returned. And if mortality among men or pestilence among cattle or the burning of fire or any other misfortune of any kind threatened, the afflicted paid vows to the aforesaid saints, and obtained the desires of their vows.

[20] A certain Caradoc, a man of most wicked life, [This chapter, as we have said, was published by the distinguished A. de la Borderie in the little work which he entitled Les deux saints Caradec. Hence it has seemed good to copy out here in summary some of his annotations as well.] This too ought not to escape the memory of the faithful, which is said to have happened in the neighborhood of the territory which is called Of the Waters ["En breton Poudour, littéralement le pays de l'Eau (Pou, pays, dour, eau). Ce nom de Poudour, quelquefois altéré en Poudouvre, se trouve dans les chartes des XIIe et XIIIe siècles, appliqué à une seigneurie féodale et à une circonscription ecclésiastique, débornées l'une et l'autre par la mer au nord, la Rance à l'est, l'Arguenon à l'ouest, qui s'appelaient la vicomté et le doyenné de Poudour… Voir D. Morice, Preuves de l'histoire de Bretagne, t. I, col. 701, 839, 964 et Geslin et de Barthélemy, Anciens évêchés de Bretagne, t. III, p. 72 et 162; IV, p. 360, 368, 369, 415." [In Breton Poudour, literally the country of the Water (Pou, country, dour, water). This name Poudour, sometimes altered to Poudouvre, is found in the charters of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, applied to a feudal lordship and to an ecclesiastical district, bounded both of them by the sea on the north, the Rance on the east, the Arguenon on the west, which were called the viscounty and the deanery of Poudour… See D. Morice, Preuves de l'histoire de Bretagne, vol. I, col. 701, 839, 964, and Geslin and de Barthélemy, Anciens évêchés de Bretagne, vol. III, pp. 72 and 162; IV, pp. 360, 368, 369, 415.] A. de la Borderie, Les deux saints Caradec, pp. 28–29.], because it is girded by two rivers, [after his death he was snatched by the saints from the hands of demons and restored to life, and then became a monk.] namely the Rinetius and the Arganona ["La Rance et l'Arguenon. Rinetius nous semble être une faute pour Rinctius… Dans les Évêchés de Bretagne de MM. Geslin et de Barthélemy, le titre le plus ancien où ce cours d'eau soit nommé est de 1231 (t. III, p. 74); il y a dans ce même tome trois autres mentions des années 1251, 1256, 1272 (p. 115, 125, 271). Le nom de la rivière figure dans tous ces textes sous la forme française Arguenon." [The Rance and the Arguenon. Rinetius seems to us to be a mistake for Rinctius… In the Évêchés de Bretagne of MM. Geslin and de Barthélemy, the oldest title in which this watercourse is named is of 1231 (vol. III, p. 74); there are in this same volume three other mentions, of the years 1251, 1256, 1272 (pp. 115, 125, 271). The name of the river appears in all these texts in the French form Arguenon.] Ibid., p. 29, note 2.]. For there is said to have lived there a poor young man, Caradoc by name, slippery in words, filthy in life, and so estranged from all temperance of morals that he would very often have run off into madness had not the scarcity of means held him back somewhat. For there seemed to be nothing of frugality, nothing of usefulness in him, except that with the one little boat which he had he was accustomed, for the sake of gain, to carry pilgrims coming to the oratory of the saints across the river Arganona. Meanwhile it happened that a certain pilgrim, knocking at the door of the little house of that hateful man, asked that it be opened to him. He, coming to meet him furious, as he always was, asked what he wanted. The pilgrim answers that he wished to cross to the monastery of Landoac ["On écrit habituellement Landoar ou Landouar; mais la Vie manuscrite de S. Jacut et de S. Guéthenoc, qui répète ce nom trois ou quatre fois, porte toujours Landoac, et il est bon de remarquer que c'est le plus ancien texte où figure ce nom." [It is usually written Landoar or Landouar; but the manuscript Life of St. Jacut and of St. Guéthenoc, which repeats this name three or four times, always has Landoac, and it is well to note that this is the oldest text in which this name appears.] Ibid., note 3.], for so the island was called, adding that for the love of God he should take him across the river. And he said: "If you have something to offer, do not delay to show it, for I am not accustomed to do such work for nothing." The traveler denies that he has anything at all except a worn little tunic, and that if he gave that he would necessarily remain naked. He presses with prayers, persuades with tears, and with very frequent sobs begs him to have compassion on his poverty. At length, overcome by the persistence of the one asking, he took him into the little boat, and leaving the shore, slipping out into the river, began to sail. And soon, a wind rising against him, you would have believed that the whole water was being stirred up from the bottom, and that, the gales pressing on, the little boat would either be thrown back to the shore or swallowed up by the seething flood. But the boatman, with his usual obstinacy, swears that he will be overcome neither by wind nor by storm until he sets the pilgrim whom he had taken on board on the other bank. And so he accomplished as he had resolved, and, the man having been set on land, he returned struggling through the midst of the storm.

But when he had now reached land, vomiting blood from the excessive presumption of his labor, he was ruptured and fell sick, and death followed the sickness. He, as he afterwards very often recounted, having gone out of the body, was at once seized by most foul spirits, from whose nostrils a fiery stench and from whose hands an intolerable heat came forth and tormented him intolerably. While they cackled to one another and exulted as over the spoils of victory, he was carried to the shore of a pitch-black river, where an image more terrible than those known had already come, bringing a skiff to the bank, whose oars being plunged in the river, fiery sparks leapt back from the rebounding waves as they rowed. As they were hastening to put the wretch down into it, suddenly there appeared opposite them two most splendid old men of the greatest boldness, who, snatching him from the hands of the adversaries, said: "Let him go, most shameless ones, and depart empty, for you have dared to invade what was not yours." But they, terrified, said: "Do you not call your master a just judge? And what justice is this, when he who from boyhood has been made over to our mastership, given to our disciplines, exercised in our works, is today unjustly taken away from us?" The old men on the other hand say: "But what justice would that be, if he who gave himself to death for love of us should remain yours? Is it not written that the end of the commandment is charity? 1 Timothy 1:5." This said, the malignant spirits departed, uttering most foul wailings. But the most loving old men, carrying the freed man back between them, deliberated thus with one another: "It is right that he be given back to the body and, as time shall demand, be left to his own choice, so that whatever is to be purged in him may be blotted out of his own accord." Meanwhile the body lies lifeless and it was resolved to hand it over to burial, when, the spirit returning, he came to life again and did not delay to narrate what had befallen him. Then, as long as he was permitted to live, he was a monk in the monastery of Landoac and under the patronage of the confessors who had raised him up. He also very often repeated to the brethren of the same place: "O if ever I come into that fragrance and into that sweetness which I had when I was shaken out of the hands of the enemies!" In such a way, then, he who had been snatched from the jaws of hell changed his life and earned glory ["Les moines de Saint-Jacut ont toujours vu sans difficulté, dans S. Corradec le passeur, le patron du prieuré de Saint-Cadreux, dépendant de leur abbaye et situé en la paroisse de Ploubalai. Mais ils savaient fort mal son histoire, à en juger par la version qu'on en trouve dans la vie de saint Jacut, ajoutée à la troisième édition des Vies des saints de Bretagne d'Albert le Grand [Rennes, Vatar, 1680, p. 758: you may see this narration transcribed, op. cit., p. 30, note 5] et attribuée à un religieux anonyme de la Congrégation de Saint-Maur, qui est probablement dom Noël Mars. Ce bon père, — un grand chercheur, voire un érudit auquel l'histoire de nos vieilles abbayes doit beaucoup, — aura dans sa candeur jugé scandaleux, dangereux même, d'admettre qu'un saint pût commencer par un sacripant; de la meilleure foi du monde, il a complètement dénaturé la curieuse figure du passeur de l'Arguenon. — Si celui-ci est incontestablement le patron de Saint-Cadreuc, il doit être aussi celui de Saint-Careuc, car la flexion du nom est la même et cette paroisse n'est pas à une grande distance de Saint-Jacut. Pour les églises et chapelles plus éloignées, la présomption nous semble être en faveur du premier saint Caradec." [The monks of Saint-Jacut always saw without difficulty, in St. Corradec the ferryman, the patron of the priory of Saint-Cadreux, dependent on their abbey and situated in the parish of Ploubalai. But they knew his history very badly, to judge by the version of it found in the life of St. Jacut added to the third edition of the Lives of the Saints of Brittany of Albert le Grand, and attributed to an anonymous religious of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, who is probably Dom Noël Mars. This good father — a great researcher, indeed a scholar to whom the history of our old abbeys owes much — will in his candor have judged it scandalous, even dangerous, to admit that a saint could begin as a scoundrel; in the best faith in the world, he completely distorted the curious figure of the ferryman of the Arguenon. — If he is incontestably the patron of Saint-Cadreuc, he must also be that of Saint-Careuc, for the inflection of the name is the same and this parish is not at a great distance from Saint-Jacut. For the more distant churches and chapels, the presumption seems to us to be in favor of the first St. Caradec.] Ibid., pp. 10–11. It must be noted, however, that this former Caradoc is known to us only through the lessons of a certain breviary of the church of Léon printed at Paris in the year 1516 (ibid., p. 7), and the other only from this Life of SS. Jacut and Guethenoc; and that it is shown by no argument from elsewhere that the churches and chapels which are reported to have chosen St. Caradoc as patron (ibid., p. 5) invoked one or the other of these and not a third or even (for a certain third St. Caradoc is venerated who led an eremitical life in Wales, on whom Act. SS., at 13 April, vol. II, p. 150) a fourth still unknown, just as both the Caradocs whom A. de la Borderie brought forward in the little work often cited were unknown until now.]. But you, faithful of Christ, you, I say, I call upon, to the remembrance of so great a miracle … There follows a rather lengthy pious exhortation, which we omit..

[21] A blind man is healed by St. Guethenoc appearing to him by night. Having digressed a little from the narration for the sake of admonition, we must add to the foregoing a miracle which is recorded to have been done in the monastery of Landoac. For when a certain blind man had come to that place to receive alms, he was both refreshed with food and received into lodging. As he slept on the following night, a man of venerable white hair and most serene countenance appeared to him and began to chastise him, that he should amend himself from his frivolous morals and dishonorable life, because that was the certain occasion for which he had been blinded. And to him, inquiring who it was that gave him so salutary a counsel, he said: "I am Guithenoc, who with my brother Jacob hold the patronage of this place." Then the blind man with all devotion said: "As a suppliant, my lord, I promise you both that the disposition of my mind is henceforth to be changed and the assiduous service of my body." What more? Rising in the morning from his little bed, he drank in the light which for a long time he had felt was inaccessible to him. He then remained in his vow and finished the monastic life in the same place.

Here ends the Life of blessed Jacob or Jacut, confessor.