ON SS. BENEDICT OF MACERAC AND AVENIA: BENEDICT, CONFESSOR AND ABBOT, AND HIS SISTER AVENIA, AT MACERAC IN BRITTANY,
BEFORE THE YEAR 850.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Benedict, abbot, at Macerac in Brittany. (S.)
Avenia, his sister, at Macerac in Brittany. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
Sole §. The feast, name, pilgrimage, eremitical life at Macerac, translation to Redon, dispersal of the relics. Of Alan, bishop of Nantes.
At the 1st day of October Ménard in the Benedictine Martyrology, Bucelin in the Menology, Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology and Castellan in the Universal one made mention of St. Benedict, confessor in the region of Armorica, Writers who have mentioned him. because he died on that day; wherefore our predecessors also made mention of him on that day; but among those passed over or referred to other days, since they had understood that he was venerated not on the 1st but on the 22nd of October, namely on account of a translation made some time after his death. They put off, therefore, speaking of him until this day, awaiting meanwhile better documents. But this expectation was in vain; whence nothing remains but that we present some sylloge or other: in which matter Albert le Grand long ago went before us, following the legendaries of Redon (Redon) and of Macerac (Macerac); then Lobineau, calling almost everything into doubt; the Reverend D. Tresvaux and the celebrated man Miorcec de Kerdanet, the former the more recent editor of Lobineau, the latter of Albert le Grand, and finally the Reverend D. Garaby, the most recent hagiographer of Brittany: which three last have restored the old traditions.
[2] He came from the East with companions; And in fact there is no reason why we should reject them. For that Benedict is a Latin name, and does not seem possible to have been given to a man who is said to have been born at Patras in Greece, nor accordingly is it credible that St. Benedict was a native of Greece, is a less firm argumentation than Lobineau thought; since it can easily happen, as the Reverend D. Tresvaux Les Vies des Saints de Bretagne, vol. II, page 259. and after him the celebrated man Miorcec [Vies des Saints de la Bretagne-Armorique, by Albert-le-Grand, with notes, etc. page 641.] noticed, that, leaving his country, he left also his Greek name; and indeed in the Lives of many Saints who went into foreign regions we detect this custom. But not only on this head, but on another ground (when it is a question of Greek and Latin names) the principle is frail by which one determines a man's country from his name: for as westerners rather often have the more illustrious Greek names, so easterners also have more celebrated Latin names: which things need not be explained at length.
[3] which was done by many other saints; The pilgrimage from the East and the long stay in the West also displease some. But this is by no means singular Compare Tresvaux, vol. II, page 259.: was not St. Theodore, in the 7th century archbishop of Canterbury, a Greek by nation? Was not St. Cungar, at the beginning of the 8th century a hermit in England, born at Constantinople? St. James of Saxeau, who flourished in the middle of the 9th century among the Bituriges, was he not of the order of St. Basil? St. Gregory, hermit of Pithiviers in Gaul, was he not formerly bishop of Nicopolis? St. Macarius, who died at Ghent, was he not archbishop of the Armenians at Antioch in Syria? And finally St. Simeon, whom Mantua venerates, the other of the same name the recluse of Trier, and also blessed Engelmar of Passau, three Armenians; likewise St. Jorius, bishop of Mount Sinai, did not all these, no otherwise than SS. Gregory and Macarius, come from the East into these parts about the year 1000? And so, as formerly the Latins went towards the East to lead the ascetic life more easily, so afterwards for the same cause the Orientals came rather often into the West, or rather that spiritual or monastic intercourse lasted until the 11th century, of which I remember having written elsewhere [Examen hist. et canon. de regul. et sæcul. cleric. juribus et officiis, page 159, 160 and 161.] after Poussines or Holstenius and Mabillon.
[4] he is received by Alan, bishop of Nantes; The name of Alan, bishop of Nantes, who received St. Benedict most kindly when he came with his companions, displeases the same critics: for none comes among the bishops of Nantes who was called Alan. But since that name is not read in the legendary of Redon, as will appear below, this proof presses us little; yet I should not wish on that account to strike that name out of Albert le Grand, who also used the legendary of Macerac, since it is most probable that at the beginning of the 9th century a bishop by the name of Alan, or Almamus or Almanus, sat at Nantes, who did good to St. Benedict. In very truth Castellan, in the universal Martyrology at the 14th day of September, determining that Odilard, prelate of Nantes, died in the year 814, creates a difficulty: namely, the coming of St. Benedict is attached not only to the times of Bishop Alan, but also of the emperor Charles the Great, who died at the beginning of the year 814. Which knot is rather to be cut than untied; since nothing seems to compel Tresvaux, l'Église de Bretagne, page 61. the putting off of Odilard's death until the year 814; and so the Reverend D. Garaby marks his death Vies des Bienheureux et des Saints de Bretagne, page 214. and the beginning of St. Alan's episcopate Ibid. page 438. in the year 804; the reception of St. Benedict, Albert le Grand going before Works cited above, page 641., in the year 812 Garaby, page 24.; and the death of Alan in the year 816 Ibid. in the place cited.. These things indeed are said by way of conjecture; yet they flow, and remove the difficulty.
[5] he does not seem to have been That St. Benedict lived in the solitude of Macerac at the confluence of the river Vindana (Vilaine) and the stream Don (Don) does not seem to be doubted. But was he a monk of Redon? Albert le Grand, and according to him the Most Reverend DD. Tresvaux and Garaby, so narrate his life that they seem altogether to exclude his monkhood at Redon. On the contrary Ménard Martyrol. Bened. observ. book III, page 711.: "They believe
the monks of Redon that he was an ascetic of their monastery: which is not incredible. For it could have happened that this St. Benedict, attracted by the fame of the holy abbot Convoion, who in the time of Louis the Pious built the monastery of Redon, betook himself to that monastery and resided there some years, that he might learn the manner of living of the abbot and of the brethren who then dwelt there." The same is asserted in a Ms. note of Du Chesne attached to a copy of the legend of Redon which is with me.
[6] a monk of Redon; But this, if not incredible, as Ménard says, is certainly little credible. For, unless this opinion were more recent, how would it have been omitted in the Legendary or Ordinary of Redon as well as in that of Macerac? Then, in the Life of St. Convoion [In Morice, Mém. p. s. de pr. à l'hist. de Bretagne, vol. I, col. 242 and following, and in others.] his chief disciples are recounted: how was St. Benedict omitted? Thirdly, he died at Macerac and lay buried there for some time; whence the deeds of St. Benedict would have to be arranged thus: namely, that he came into Brittany before the year 814, and presided over his companions at Macerac until after the year 832, in which St. Convoion gave a beginning to the monastery of Redon; and that then, leaving his companions, he subjected himself to the discipline of St. Convoion; but some while after returned to Macerac, and there at last departed from the living. These things certainly, without a surety, are little credible. But let us turn the pen elsewhere.
[7] he is related to have died before the year 850; Albert le Grand writes that in the middle of the night between the 29th and 50th of September these words sounded in the ears of St. Benedict: Well done, good servant, etc.; then that Christ appeared to him, to show him the glory prepared for him and the graces which would await those who should venerate the place of his burial: these things certainly from the Legendary of Macerac, as being absent from that of Redon. The blessed man rendered his soul to God on the 1st day of October; but in what year is passed over in silence in the Redon codex; Albert le Grand and the Reverend D. Garaby have 845; the Reverend D. Tresvaux seems to doubt, judging perhaps that this year was marked by Albert as a conjecture; for my part I do not oppose it, trusting no more the year 782, in which Albert represents St. Benedict to have come into the light.
[8] [about half a century after, when King Alan had given Macerac to the monks of Redon for the health of his son,] The Legendary of Redon represents that St. Benedict rested at Macerac some years; probably until the parish or little plebs of Macerac came into the hands of the monks of Redon; which appears to have been done in the year 897. The Cartulary of Redon In Morice, Mém. p. s. de pr. à l'hist. de Bretagne, vol. I, col. 331 and 332. has a brief history of this tradition. Namely Alan, duke or king of Brittany, understanding that his son Gueroc was very near death, went to Fulcherius, abbot of St. Saviour of Redon, and into his hand offered to God in perpetuity, by the sleeve, the little plebs or estates of Marzac and Macerac. Returning home, Fulcherius placed the sleeve upon the altar, and all the monks, falling on their faces, asked of God that Gueroc might be restored to health. "Then in a wonderful manner all who had come together, watching what would happen, as soon as they heard the bells sounding in the monastery, while the monks were pouring forth prayer, saw the boy already dripping with sweat, and much better; and so, his pains being loosed, he was restored to health. This was done on the 6th of the Ides of November, on the 3rd feria, the moon XI *, in the year of the incarnation of the Lord DCCCLXXXVIII," rather DCCCLXXXXVII.
[9] his body is translated to Redon; but Macerac keeps his patronage and sepulchre; Further, when the little plebs of Macerac was in the hands of the monks of Redon, nothing was readier than that they should take care to have the body of St. Benedict translated thence into their abbey; for it is little credible that the body of St. Benedict was translated to Redon before the year 868, or the death of St. Convoion, as the Reverend D. Tresvaux would have it L'Église de Bretagne, page 444.. The title of St. Benedict remained to the church of Macerac; as we have from the diploma of Quiriacus, bishop of Nantes, by which in the year 1062 many rights of the churches of Nantes and Redon are defined, and in which these words also are read Morice, vol. I, col. 417.: "We grant also the sacrilege which belongs to us of certain churches, namely of the church of St. Saviour of Moja and the church of St. Martin of Marciacum and the church of St. Benedict of Macerac, in such manner that what his men shall have perpetrated among themselves shall belong to the abbot and his church; but what the same men shall have done with others, half * of this sacrilege shall belong to the same abbot, the rest shall be in our lordship." The body of St. Benedict being translated, the sepulchre was nevertheless kept at Macerac; which still subsists, although at the end of the last century, while impiety raged in France, it was violated Tresvaux, Vies des SS. vol. II, page 260; Miorcec, page 642, note 1..
[10] the last fates of the relics at Redon At Redon the remains of St. Benedict were enclosed in a bier, not in a sepulchre; wherefore they did not perish when in the year 1784 a fire took away the whole temple of Redon, the choir alone being saved. This, however, was soon restored and is now parochial Tresvaux, l'Église de Bretagne, page 443., but widowed of its pledges. For in the year 1793 a certain monk of Redon, following the example of his prior, who had been enrolled in the national assemblies and intruded at Loudéac, had so sent a notice of divorce to piety that he joined himself to the sacrilegious robbers who plundered the church and dispersed the sacred relics Tresvaux, Vies des Saints, vol. II, page 287.. Then perished the pious bones of St. Convoion, perished those of St. Benedict Ibid. page 260. and of other Saints.
[11] Relics given in the year 1615 to the church of Macerac, Nevertheless, by the providence of God it came about that the sacred remains of St. Benedict and of his sister St. Avenia were not altogether taken away from the earth. In the year 1615 the monks of Redon had been asked for some relics of these saints by the citizens of Macerac, and had gladly granted them. These still exist, as from the following monuments, which we owe to the kindness of the Reverend D. Richard, vicar of Nantes. The former we make Latin from the French in this manner: "The humble claustral prior and religious of the abbey and monastery of St. Saviour of Redon to all who shall see these presents, perpetual greeting in the Lord. We make known that on this twenty-eighth day of September of the year one thousand six hundred and fifteen we were asked in writing by the venerable rector, priest, and the parishioners of Macerac, that for the reasons contained in the petition we would grant them out of charity some relics of the bones of St. Benedict of Macerac and of his sister St. Avenia, long since translated and preserved in this monastery, that they might carry them into their church and there honour and venerate them as the ancient patrons of the said place of Macerac; to hearing which prayers, as pious and just, we were favourably inclined, both for the said reasons, and also because the priory of the said place of Macerac is a dependent member of the said abbey, and for the greater exaltation of the honour of God and of the saints and the greater spiritual fruit of each of the catholic faithful; wherefore we have given and delivered into the hands of the said rector, priest, and parishioners of Macerac, namely one of the vertebræ and a lesser rib of the said St. Benedict of Macerac, and a small portion of the skull with a tooth of St. Avenia his sister; which relics we certify to be of the said saints, as we have found and learned both from the monuments of our archives and from the writings found in the bier and reliquary case in which the rest of the bones and relics of the said saints and of others are kept. In faith of which we have signed the present testimony, that it may serve them wherever they shall have need, on the day and year as above, and have affixed to it the greater and lesser seal of our chapter for the greater confirmation and firmness of the present letters." It was signed: "F. de la Regneraye, prior. A. de la Haye, subprior. Claude de Bruc, F. P. Ernault, scribe of the chapter of Redon."
[12] by the bishops of Nantes rather often On the reverse side, so the Reverend D. Richard continues, the following is written: "We, Charles, by the grace of God and of the holy apostolic see bishop of Nantes, having seen the testimonial letters of the reverend fathers of the abbey of Redon written on the other side, in which they profess themselves to have liberally granted the same relics of blessed Benedict and of the divine Advenia to the parishioners of Masseracq asking for them, grant licence to the rector of the same parish to set forth these very relics to the people to be venerated and honoured in that manner and religion in which mother church is wont. Given at Nantes on the twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and fifteen." It was signed: "Charles, bishop of Nantes."
[13] and also recently recognized. "The church of Macerac," adds the Reverend D. Richard, "still possesses the same relics. The reliquary case is a silver ark, twenty-seven hundredths of a metre long, eleven wide and ten high. The upper part is closed with glass, so that the bones can be inspected. The box is divided within into two compartments; of which the greater contains the relics of St. Benedict, the lesser those of his sister St. Avenia. The Reverend D. de Hervé, bishop of Nantes, inspected and approved the testimonial letters on the 12th day of July in the year 1840, while he was visiting this part of his diocese. And I myself, vicar general, when I was companion to the Reverend D. Jaquemet, bishop of Nantes, as he visited his diocese, examined the box with much care on the 27th day of June of the year 1855."
[14] [The feast of St. Benedict at Macerac, at Redon and in the whole diocese of Nantes.] That the feast of St. Benedict was kept at Macerac and at Redon on the 22nd day of October has already been said. I have at hand the Proper of the Saints of the diocese of Nantes of the year 1782; there is no memory of St. Benedict in it: and indeed the Reverend D. Tresvaux, and the celebrated man Miorcec who follows him, note that in the old Propers there is silence about him; and that therefore that feast was first introduced into the whole diocese of Nantes by the Illustrious Charles Eutrope de la Laurencie, bishop of Nantes, in the year 1790. Of distinguishing St. Benedict of Macerac from his namesake of Quinçay it will be spoken on the next following day. It remains that in this place we now for the first time bring to light the lesson copied from the old Ordinary of Redon, such as our predecessors received it from volume II of Du Chesne's Ms. Collectanea, with this heading: "Of St. Benedict of Macerac. — This following lesson alone restores the memory and mind, expressed in these words." The same was a light to Ménard; but he often changed the words.
Annotations* IX
* the half
SHORT LIFE OF ST. BENEDICT OF MACERAC, FROM THE OLD ORDINARY OF REDON.
Benedict, abbot, at Macerac in Brittany. (S.)
Avenia, his sister, at Macerac in Brittany. (S.)
BHL Number: 1164
The pilgrimage, eremitical life and translation of St. Benedict. Benedict a, confessor of the Lord, born at Patras, a city of Greece b, of the order of senators, leaving his dignity, his processions * and his country for Christ c,
together with his sister d and nine companions of the same vow e, crossed over into Armorican Brittany, Charles the Great being emperor f. When he had cultivated for many years his solitude chosen at Macerac in the diocese of Nantes h, at length, of great age, illustrious for miracles and holiness, on the Kalends of October he rendered his soul to God the creator: whose body was then at last religiously buried in the same place in the oratory built by himself: whence, some years having intervened, it was translated with great exultation to Redon on the eleventh of the Kalends of November i.
ANNOTATIONS.
* possessions