ON ST. BLEVILEGUET, BISHOP OF VANNES IN LESSER BRITAIN,
TENTH CENTURY
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY
Blevilegnetus, bishop of Vannes. (S.)
BY C. D. S.
[1] Bleviléguet, honoured with ecclesiastical cult, Bleviléguet or Blevilegnet Commonly Blinlivet., bishop of Vannes, is numbered among the saints by one martyrologist alone, Claude Chastelain, in his Universal Martyrology at 7 November. Yet that he was honoured at the end of the eleventh century with a cult legitimate for those times is gathered from his elogium, which we present a little below from the rhythmic Chronicle written at that period by a certain monk of Saint-Julien of Tours [According to the edition given about fifty years ago by A. Salmon, Recueil des chroniques de Touraine (1854), pp. 239–41.]: from which, namely, it is established both that he was celebrated for the fame of his excellent virtue and miracles and that his sepulchre was held in particular honour. Other arguments on this matter, however, we cannot bring forward [There are kept in our library the Proper Offices of the saints of the diocese of Vannes, published in the years 1630, 1652 and 1757, and the Ordo for reciting the divine office for the year 1850 and for the year 1867. But in none of these little books does the name of Bleviléguet appear.]. And what led Chastelain to bind the memory of Bleviléguet to 7 November I have not been able to divine.
[2] at least at the end of the eleventh century, We have said that the Chronicle of Saint-Julien was written at the end of the eleventh century (or the beginning of the twelfth). This is indeed gathered from the very elogium of St. Bleviléguet, where the writer professes himself a contemporary of Morvan, bishop of Vannes Verses 15, 16.; who held the see of Vannes at that time Cf. Gall. christ., vol. XIV, p. 924.. But the palaeographical features of the manuscript in which the Chronicle is read, and the style of writing which the author uses, also plainly show that period Cf. A. Salmon, op. cit., p. LXII..
[3] from a catalogue of the bishops of Vannes copied in the twelfth century Besides the Chronicle, Blinlivet is also mentioned by a certain ancient catalogue of the bishops of Vannes [Edited from a manuscript of the twelfth century by the distinguished L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, vol. II, p. 371; earlier, in part, by Tresvaux, L'Église de Bretagne (1839), p. 151. Cf. Gall. christ., vol. cit., p. 922.] and, which is the third mention of him in the documents of the Middle Ages, the charter by which, about the middle of the tenth century, Alan Barbetorte is said to have given the priory of Saint-Médard to the monastery of Landévennec,
and to which, among the witnesses, Bishop Blenliuett is read to have subscribed [A. de la Borderie, Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Landevenec, Première livraison (Rennes, 1888), p. 157.]. But it must be observed that those Landévennec charters are very suspect on more than one count, and therefore little trust is to be placed in their authority.
[4] He is gathered to have sat in the tenth century. Yet that Bleviléguet flourished about the middle of the tenth century is gathered with sufficient certainty from the fact that in the catalogue of the bishops of Vannes Cited above, no. 3. he is indicated as having sat second after Bilius, and to have had as successors, third, Orscant, fourth, Judicael, fifth, Budic, seventh, Morvan. Now in other documents there are read to have been bishops of Vannes Bilius in the year 892 and the year 913 L. Duchesne, vol. cit., p. 376., Auriscandus in the year 971 and the year 990, Judicael in the year 992 and the year 1032, Budic in the year 1066 and the year 1082, Morvan in the year 1089 and the year 1117 Ibid., pp. 372–73.. All of which indeed agree excellently with one another and with the succession of bishops indicated in the catalogue.
[5] He was not bishop of Quimper. But it seems very strange that that most learned, but perhaps not always so accurate, historiographer of Brittany, Hyacinthe Morice, or he who, after Morice's death, published the second volume of the History of Brittany, Charles Taillandier, in the list of the bishops and abbots of Brittany which is subjoined at the end of this second volume, although he records Blenlivet among the bishops of Vannes and says that he subscribed the Landévennec charter indicated above [Morice and Taillandier, Histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne, vol. II (1756), supplem. p. XXXI.], nevertheless also reckons him among the bishops of Quimper and reports that he subscribed that Landévennec charter under this title [Tresvaux followed Morice in affirming both mutually contradictory things (L'Église de Bretagne, pp. 155, 114).], when in truth in the copy of the charter published by Morice himself Preuves de l'Histoire de Bretagne, vol. I, p. 345. the name of Bleviléguet is not read among the witnesses, and in the more accurate edition of Arthur de la Borderie his see is not indicated Cf. above, end of no. 3.. Deservedly, therefore, Barthélemy Hauréau excluded Bleviléguet from the series of the bishops of Quimper Gall. christ., vol. XIV, p. 874..
[6] A certain all too rash interpretation of his name. There is no need to dwell on discussing the etymology which M. Déric assigned to the name of Bleviléguet Histoire ecclésiastique de Bretagne, 2nd ed., vol. II (1847), p. 506, note, as though made up of the Breton words bleve or leve (revenue of an estate), li (lord), gueth (rich), whence it would signify a lord rich in estates; and he thought this derivation was confirmed by the verse of the elogium Verse 54. where Bleviléguet is said to have been made poor from rich.
COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE OF ST. BLEVILEGUET
From the rhythmic Chronicle of Saint-Julien of Tours. Cf. Preliminary Commentary, no. 1.
Blevilegnetus, bishop of Vannes. (S.)
[1] Bleviléguet, bishop of Vannes Apart from th〈ese re〉lics [Namely those which, in the preceding verses, the writer narrated had long been so hidden that they were thought lost, and had been found in his own time.]
And many others,
We have the precious
Bodies of confessors,
The memory of a few of whom
Must be commended by us.
To the praise, therefore, of God
And the honour of this place,
Though of each but little,
Yet a little must be touched upon.
But first of the bishop
Of Vannes, Bleviliguet.
[2] seventh before Morvan. He was of the people of Vannes
The bishop, and the splendour of bishops,
Of whom Bishop Morvan Cf. above, Preliminary Commentary, no. 2.
Spoke thus with us:
"I am," he said, "the seventh from him [Mabillon (Act. SS. O. S. B., saec. V, p. 134) thinks that all that follows, up to v. 51, was said to the writer by Morvan; the latest editor, A. Salmon, however, only what is read from v. 17 to v. 39. We have judged that the writer speaks in his own name from v. 18.]."
Who, as we have truly learned,
Was a most holy bishop.
[3] At his command the frogs are restrained from making too great a din. In whose praise
We have this miracle.
When in a certain estate of his
The bishop had lain down,
And, the frogs disturbing him,
He could not rest,
He commands his servant
To command them
That they should be at rest
So that he himself might rest.
At whose command
Presently all the chattering
Of them all fell silent [On little tales of this kind cf. H. Delehaye, Les légendes hagiographiques, 2nd ed. (1906), p. 39.].
He, when afterwards he had returned
And remembered the silence of the frogs,
At once orders the servant to go back
And command the frogs
To sing in their accustomed manner.
He, when he ought to have said:
"Sing," in the plural,
Brought out in Breton:
"Ratichant," in the singular.
And from that day,
Although many thousands of frogs
Are seen there,
Yet never there
Does any sing but one.
This is known to all the natives
And the neighbours.
It is therefore most certain
That this man was most holy,
As much through the life he led
As through the works he did.
[4] He puts to flight a demon lurking in the guise of a servant. Of him we also tell this,
Which we have often heard,
That at the castle of Lusdi, a demon
Serving as a servant,
But preparing on the morrow
To kill his master with water,
He recognized and put to flight,
And saved the master Cf. above, p. 373, Life of St. Leopardus c. 7..
[5] At the end of his life he becomes a monk. This bishop of such great merit,
Of so immense a renown,
Made poor from rich
And a monk from a bishop [Chastelain says that he was made a monk in the monastery of Quimperlé; but from what source the learned man drew this is unknown to us.],
Beneath the tunic of poverty
Was a pattern of honour.
Through the course of this life
He so ran to the prize
That he rejoiced to be given
The denarius rendered to him.
[6] His body is kept in the monastery of Saint-Julien of Tours. As we believe, before God
We have him as advocate.
Whose body in a sepulchre,
Placed in the arch of the crypt,
Rests with honour,
As his honour demands.