Maglorius

ON ST. MAGLORIUS, BISHOP OF DOL IN ARMORICA,

PROBABLY ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF THE VIITH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Maglorius, confessor, bishop, in Armorica. (S.)

BY J. V. H.

§ I. Eulogies of the saint in the sacred calendars and a synopsis of his life; his birthplace; the chronology of his life.

The holiness of St. Maglorius, bishop of Dol, the Roman Martyrology celebrates under this day in these words: In Lesser Britain, the passing of St. Maglorius the bishop, The memory of St. Maglorius in the sacred calendars: whose body rests at Paris. Which eulogy has been drawn from the Usuardine Auctaria (for Usuard himself has nothing of the holy prelate): and especially from the earlier edition of Muneratus, of the year 1490, which has almost the same, namely: On the same day in Britain, the passing of Blessed Maglorius, bishop and Confessor; but in the other edition, of the year 1536, it adds: Whose body is honoured and venerated in the monastery of St. Maglorius, in the city of Paris Cfr Soller. Mart. Usuardi. Præf. pag. XXXXVI.. The Adonian Auctarium has fuller things, showing a synopsis of his life. In Hither Britain in the region of Doninonia, the birthday of St. Maglorius, a most excellent Confessor, after Samson in the archprelacy of the Church of Dol, shining before the world with innumerable miracles. Then, having left the episcopate and worldly dignity, governing for many courses of years the monarchy of very many monasteries, he lived monastically. Dwelling there angelically in an earthly body, restoring lepers and the deaf and innumerable blind to their former health, in the name of God he raised three dead men. At length, worn with heavy old age, loosed by a precious death, he sought the heavens free on the VIII of the kalends of November. Greven also, in his Usuard, published in the years 1515 and 1521 Cfr Soller. Mart. Usuardi, Præf. pag. XXXXVIII., has stitched on a rather prolix encomium of St. Maglorius: In Britain, he says, the passing of St. Maglorius, bishop of Dol and Confessor. Who, succeeding blessed Samson, when he was held famous in life and signs, was warned by an Angel to seek the solitary life; and when, obeying the heavenly nod, he had spent many years in this purpose, renowned for miracles, on the vigil of Easter he learned, an Angel announcing it, that his death was imminent, and from the same he visibly received viaticum. From that day, therefore, until the day of his calling, unless an unavoidable cause interrupted, he ever repeated this verse in his mouth: “One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” PS. XXVI, 4.

[2] his Life written by an anonymous author: The Life of St. Maglorius was edited by Mabillon in the first volume of the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict Sæc. I, pag. 223.; and the authors of the Literary History of France mark it with the blackest pebble Hist. lit. de la Fr. tom. VI, pag. 540., as being stuffed with prodigies and old wives' fables, and written more for exercising the pen than for instructing posterity: although older than the Xth century, since in it there is not even a word touching the two translations of his body, of which the latter was celebrated in the Xth century, or in the reign of Lothaire and his son Louis, with the favour of Hugh, afterwards king. But, as the praised writers have it, nothing can be deduced from such silence, since the biographer sins in every respect. This critique seems to me more severe than is right. Certainly very many miracles are reported by the biographer in Mabillon, among which, that a small knife thrown into the sea the day before was found on the following day in the belly of a fish: this indeed sounds somewhat childish, since an implement so common and ordinary does not seem to need restoring by a stupendous prodigy. Let it be ascribed to a miracle rather than to fortune: I see in the narrative an exaggeration, native to simple men, by no means a voluntary fiction. Moreover we have among our papers, from a manuscript of the monastery of Rouge-Cloître, the same Life, but without those miracles which give the critics a scruple: but, if you look at the sequence of the narrative and the very expressions, like the Mabillonian in all things: whence it may be that what abounds in the latter are additions stitched on to the earlier and purer Life. Lest, however, we defraud the reader of that narrative of miracles which sometimes adorns popular legends, we shall give the Mabillonian text entire; in such a way however that we enclose its supplements in brackets: by which means both texts, with the variant readings noted in the margin according to our custom, can with easy trouble be had pure. What in the Bollandian manuscript departs from the Mabillonian copy we mark with the letter B. Besides this Life we have before us the writings of the Armorican hagiographers, Albert Le Grand of Morlaix (Morlaix), of the Order of Preachers, and of Guy Lobineau, a Benedictine: the former was published with new care in the year 1837 by Daniel Miorcec, jurist; while the latter, much corrected and enlarged,

was published by the kindly patron of our work, the Rev. Canon Tresvaux, in the year 1836. We have besides the general hagiographies and the historians who have treated more accurately of the Gallic and English Church. We shall use these literary aids to illustrate the Acts of St. Maglorius.

[3] born in Greater Britain, The biographer at num. 1 says that St. Maglorius sprang from parts across the sea: by which words Albert Le Grand is refuted, who assigns Armorica itself, and indeed a place situated in the territory of the Veneti, as the native soil of the holy prelate Vies des SS. de Bretagne, pag. 652.. For whether we attend to his kinship with St. Samson, or to his instruction under the mastership of Iltut, it is made sufficiently manifest that he was born in parts across the sea, or in Greater Britain. And indeed that St. Samson was ordained bishop in that region, before he crossed into the Gauls, is not disputed. But it is debated whether he occupied the metropolis of Menevia, or of St. David's, or the see of York, or finally, bound to no definite Church, was ordained a regionary bishop by St. Dubricius of Llandaff: but the different opinions nevertheless converge in this, that they designate Greater Britain as the fatherland of St. Samson. Since, moreover, according to the biographer, num. 1, both St. Maglorius and his kinsman St. Samson had as their common master in the liberal arts and in the divine oracles Blessed Heltut or Iltut, who founded his school in South Wales, in a place still called Llan Illtyd and notable for his sepulchre Carlisle. Topograph. Dictionnary of Wales, vo Llan-Illtyd: from this it is made probable that both Saints sprang from Wales. Which is confirmed to the extent that St. Samson exercised the episcopal ministry in the same Wales, which according to the custom of the other Churches was generally entrusted to countrymen.

[4] after the beginning of the VIth century, As regards the chronology, our predecessors have already mentioned several times that it is wrapped in thick darkness; for which reason they judged that those monuments are chiefly to be selected which, if they do not dispel all the gloom, are nevertheless certain, and lead to a right chronology Act. SS. tom. VI Jul., pag. 568.. Three things occur to us which shed some light on the deeds of St. Maglorius, and which compel us to retract the opinion of our John Sollerius and of other recent writers: since we cannot reconcile it with these certain monuments. These are, first of all, the discipleship of both Saints Samson and Maglorius under Iltut; then the subscription of St. Samson in the third council of Paris in the common year 557; and finally the donation of Childebert II, king of the Franks, made to St. Samson. If we weigh these three things, it will become manifest that the life of St. Samson is to be prolonged until after the year 585: and hence that St. Maglorius could have lived to the beginning of the seventh century. Recent writers generally set the end of the life of St. Samson in the year of Christ 565 Ibid. l. c., and make St. Maglorius survive him by ten or twenty years; so that our Saint would have died in the year 575 or 585 Tresvaux. Vies des SS. de Bret. tom. I, pag. 346.. Baronius in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology sets the year of the Saint's death at 620; Albert Le Grand, at 617 Vies des SS. de Bret. pag. 657.. I for my part, not capable of so great accuracy, prefer to assign the beginning of the seventh century, in a broad sense, as the end of life of our Saint. And now we come to set out the weight of reasons that prove this opinion.

[5] as from the mastership of St. Iltut I have said that the first chronological point is constituted by the discipleship under Blessed Iltut: for if the flourishing age of that man is placed at the beginning of the sixth century, it will follow that St. Samson was born some years after the beginning of the century. And indeed Iltut is said to have served for some years as a soldier under King Arthur, and, at the urging of St. Cadoc Act. SS. tom. II Januar. pag. 604., to have embraced the monastic life and finally to have established a school: although so many fables are narrated of King Arthur that some have judged that he never existed; yet sounder critics, especially after the discovery of his tomb in the monastery of Glastonbury, altogether affirm both that Arthur king of the Britons lived and that he held the kingdom at the beginning of the sixth century [Alford. Anual. Eccles. ad an. 508 § IX. Du Chesne. Hist. d'Anglet. tom. I. pag. 185. Larrey. Hist. d'Anglet. tom. I, pag. 108.]. Now St. Samson was younger than Blessed Iltut by many years: for in his contemporary Life he is said at five years old to have been handed over to the master Iltut, who was already held to be the most skilled of all the Britons in Holy Scripture and philosophy Act. SS. tom. VI Jul. pag. 575.: Whence it is probably concluded that the birth of Samson belongs to the sixth century when somewhat advanced. Now St. Maglorius was probably younger than St. Samson: for when the latter was already a bishop, Maglorius was still a deacon; and on his death he succeeded him in the episcopate: for which reason I judge that St. Maglorius was born some years after St. Samson; yet not many. For they were cousins, begotten of two brothers and two sisters. The kinship is shown by the writer of the Life of St. Samson, who professes that he reports what he heard from an old man of eighty, instructed by the Saint's cousin Ibid. pag. 573.: To Ammon, he says Ibid. pag. 574., the father of the same St. Samson, there was a brother Umbrafel, and likewise to Anna, the mother of the same Saint, there was a sister, Afrella by name: both good brothers, both good sisters, being begotten of good parents. And the younger brother of Ammon, Umbrafel, by the advice and order of their parents, took to wife the sister of the above-mentioned Anna, Afrella: and this Afrella also was younger than her above-mentioned sister. After no great time, as they lived together according to their dignity in peace, this Afrella conceived and bore a son. But what need is there to prolong the matter? She had three sons before her sister: while Anna herself was now by all her neighbours and acquaintances thought to be as it were cast off and barren. There is then explained the prodigious birth of St. Samson. Because we judge St. Maglorius to be younger than St. Samson, it is clear that he was not one of those three sons whom Afrella bore before the birth of St. Samson, but at the same time that he was not many years younger. For that reason, since St. Samson seems to have been born when the sixth century was somewhat advanced, for example about the year of Christ 520, I believe that about the year 525 is to be set as the birth year of St. Maglorius.

[6] from the episcopate of St. Samson, The second chronological point we place in the subscription of the third council of Paris, celebrated in the year 557, in which he is read to have subscribed in these words: Samson, bishop, a sinner, I have consented and subscribed Labbe, tom. V Conc. col. 818.. At that time, therefore, St. Samson, and consequently his cousin and companion in pilgrimage, St. Maglorius, were staying in Armorica, and exercising the sacred ministry: which altogether agrees with the time of the birth of both: for then St. Samson would have numbered about XXXVII years, St. Maglorius XXXII. That St. Samson in the said synod writes himself simply bishop, with no mention made of the Church of Dol, is not surprising; since only in the ninth century, as we shall show below, was the see of Dol erected with its own diocese. Although the reasoning of our Sollerius, who says that from the omitted mention of the church of Dol it is clear that St. Samson was merely a regionary or apostolic bishop Act. SS tom. VI Jul. pag. 569., I should not easily admit. For fifteen bishops took part in the third council of Paris, among whom only four added the name of their see to their subscription; yet it cannot therefore be inferred from the silence of the other eleven that they had no see of their own: and certainly the subscriber Germanus was then occupying the see of Paris, Euphronius that of Tours, and most of the others their own sees, as the observations subjoined to the text of Labbe show. In the Monastery of Dol sat SS. Samson and Maglorius, bishops not so much of a territory as of their nation, as we shall explain below, which had fled from Britain into Armorica.

[7] and especially We come to the third and at the same time chief chronological point, the donation of Childebert, king of the Franks, made to St. Samson. But at the very threshold a difficulty occurs, namely to which Childebert, the First or the Second of that name (for the Third, who began to reign in the year 695, cannot be in question) the donation is to be ascribed. Most hagiographers pronounce Childebert I to be the patron of St. Samson. And indeed St. Samson knew Childebert I, who died in the year 558, seeing that in the year 557 he was present and subscribed at the council of Paris; and to that extent the age of the holy bishop could be reconciled with that Childebert. But if, through the action of Childebert, king of the Franks, and with the support of Samson, Judual recovered the principality of Armorica, this can be no other than Childebert, the Second of that name. Of which assertion the chief reason is this. Rival, who, having overcome the Frisians and Goths, occupied Armorica, was desired to be seen by Clotaire I, king of the Franks, and he received him at Paris. Now Judual, as we shall see below, restored to the kingdom by Childebert, was descended in the fourth generation from Rival: from which it follows that Judual, the great-great-grandson of Rival, each of whose ascendants had reigned in his order, could not have been helped by Childebert I, the brother of Clotaire, in recovering his ancestral principality. It remains, then, that this recovery be referred to Childebert II. That our affirmation rests on its documents must now be shown. First of all the chronicle of Saint-Brieuc reports the following Morice. Mém. pour servir à l'hist. de Bretagne, tom. I, pag. 15. King Rival with his Armorican and Island Britons advanced with an armed force against the Goths, and without pity cut them to pieces, both in pitched battles and elsewhere where he could find them… Clotaire, at that time king of the Gauls, hearing of the coming of Rival to Britain, the destruction of the Frisians and Goths and the recovery of the Armorican kingdom accomplished by him, greatly desired to see King Rival, and to have his friendship and alliance. Through his solemn envoys he begged him to come to him at Paris in safety. Rival, having first held mature deliberation on this with his comrades, and trusting in the credentials of the messengers and the letter of King Clotaire, came to Paris with a great and notable retinue, and showed reverence to King Clotaire, as was fitting. Clotaire, greatly rejoicing at the arrival of King Rival himself, received him honourably in royal manner, as he knew how. Then after many conversations held between them, they made mutual alliances with one another, and offered many gifts on each side. These things done, King Rival returned with joy to his kingdom, and governed his country in tranquillity as long as he lived.

[8] from the genealogy of the princes At what time in the reign of Clotaire this meeting of the kings took place I should not easily define. Although it seems to have happened then, when Clotaire alone, Childebert I having died, and accordingly

in the year 558, ruled over the Franks, for before that time the city of Paris, where the kings met, did not belong to the inheritance of Childebert I: indeed, perhaps this happened after the year 560, namely when Conober, king of the Britons, had been killed, who had favoured the party of Chramn, the rebellious son of Clotaire, and a new kingdom had been set up, which, as the Chronicle of Saint-Brieuc reports, fell to Rival. But even if this royal meeting belongs to the first years of his reign, which began on the death of Clovis I, in the year 511: yet by no means can it be that Childebert I, with the assistance of St. Samson, could have restored to the kingdom Judual, the great-great-grandson of Rival. That Judual is distant by the fourth generation from Rival, the ally of Clotaire I, the Chronicle of Saint-Brieuc relates in these words Ibid. l. c.: This Rival begot two sons, whom he named Deroch and Caburius (first generation). Deroch, the first-born, succeeded in the kingdom after the death of his father, and begot a son named Riatam, who indeed succeeded his father in the kingdom of Britain; (second generation) and begot one son, named Jonas; (third generation). Jonas, after Riatan his father had entered on the way of all flesh, succeeded in the paternal kingdom, and handled it peaceably. This Jonas begot Judual; (fourth generation) and afterwards Jonas, a regal prince, was killed by a certain tyrant, named Conomer or Comor the accursed. Then Judual, son and heir of the slain Jonas, was led captive and fugitive to the palace of the king of France, from where through the merits of blessed Samson, archprelate of the Britons, divine grace disposing it, he was freed.

[9] of Armorica, The same things are reported in the Genealogy of St. Winoc, which Joseph Ghesquiere omitted in the Commentary on the Acts of the same Saint, as not of sufficiently approved credit: yet he judges that he sprang from the stock of Rival Act. SS. Belg. tom. VI, pag. 391.. This genealogy, moreover, brings forward the same generations Morice, Mém. tom. I, col. 211.: Riwal begot a son, named Deroch, Deroch begot Riatham, and Riatha begot Jonas, and Jonas Judwal, Judwal begot Juthæl, and Juthæl begot St. Judicatulus, king, and St. Judoc and St. Winoch. Granted that the genealogist erred in saying that St. Winnoc, about eighty years younger than Judicael, was his brother, whereas he was rather his son Tresvaux. Les SS. de Bret. tom. II, pag. 190.: yet certainly the genealogy is consistent with itself in ascending from Judicael to Rival, and thus it is confirmed that Judual was in the fourth generation from Rival. Moreover we have from Fredegar that Judicael in the year 635 promised subjection to King Dagobert Migne. Patrol. tom. LXXI, col. 655.. And he was grandson of Judual through his father, as we see; so that between grandfather and grandson, or through two generations, from the year 590 to 635, forty-five years intervened: and the same Judual, distant by four generations from Rival, would have been helped by Childebert I, brother of Clotaire I, who himself, as we have shown above, had struck an alliance with Rival his great-great-grandfather, and thus four generations of princes of Britain would have flowed by between the year 511, in which Clotaire and Childebert began to reign, and the year 558, in which, Childebert having died, Clotaire brought all the Gauls under his rule. But if St. Samson, with the assent of Childebert II, freed Judual, and experienced the king as beneficent to him, then everything proceeds more conveniently. To these things let there be added the age of Iltut, of which we have treated above, belonging to the sixth century, and everyone will easily persuade himself that the Childebert dealt with in both Lives of SS. Samson and Maglorius is the Second of that name.

[10] which extends the episcopate of St. Samson Childebert the Second, five years old in the year 575, after the slaying of his father Sigebert, snatched from slaughter by Duke Gundobald, as Gregory of Tours testifies, book V, chap 1 Migne. Patrol. tom. LXXI, col. 316., was established as king of Austrasia: and then in the year 585, adopted as a son by Guntram, king of the Burgundians and of Armorica, because the latter lacked children, he obtained a part at least of the Armorican diocese, namely Tours, as the praised Gregory of Tours has it, book IX, chap. 20 Ibid. col. 498., the rule being divided with Guntram, in the year 587. If, then, St. Samson dealt with King Childebert, it is necessary that his episcopate should be prolonged beyond the year of Christ 587, in which Childebert first ruled in Armorica. That he did deal with him the most ancient monuments show: first of all the contemporary Life of St. Samson, which reports the following Act. SS. tom. VI Jul. pag. 585 et seqq.: One thing, however, very great and most wonderful, which the Lord did through him in Europe, I think should not be passed over in silence. For when he had found all the regions in the greatest sorrow, and had diligently inquired of them the cause; they tell him that an unjust and violent foreign judge had come over them, and had given over to death their prince, Jonas by name, holding their land by hereditary right, through wicked gifts wickedly given into the hand of the king, and especially of his evil queen, and had also given his son Judual to captivity and death, but they affirmed that he was still living. St. Samson, hearing these things, moved with mercy by God's dispensation, set out in haste to go to King Hildebert * on behalf of Judual, Christ ever accompanying him in all things. And when the courtiers denied that Judual was still living, the Saint terrified them by various prodigies, and at length obtained what he asked. Then, says the biographer, fear and huge amazement seized all, so that no one dared any further to offend him even in the least thing. When St. Samson therefore wished to go back to Britain with Judual, and the king gladly granted it, and arranged to build him a magnificent monastery … with the king's help, Samson and Judual returned to their place. Finally the Saint, Samson, was so honourably received by the above-mentioned King Hildebert that he gave him whatever he wished not only generously, but also gladly, and without any delay.

[11] up to the last part of the VIth century, Our biographer testifies the same at num. 3: Samson, bidding farewell to his people, withdrew from there together with Blessed Maglorius and a college of certain clerics as well as laymen, and in order to preach to the people of the same language, dwelling in the West, he crossed the sea, hastening to the bounds of the territory of Dol; where, having received from the most vigorous King Childebert of the Franks the government of the archprelacy, his celebrated name shone forth not only there, but also through the whole region of the Britons or far and wide about it. The Chronicle of Saint-Brieuc reports similar things. After the death, it says Morice. Mém. tom. I, col. 15., of Jonas, Comor, led by pestilent cupidity, assumed the government of the kingdom to himself, as prince, though a false one, and occupied the greater part of the country… At that time Blessed Samson came into Lesser Britain, and built a metropolitan church in the place which is called Dol, and founded it with the help of Childebert, king of the Franks. For Childebert, being a most cunning man, strove with all his strength to place Britain under his dominion, as in fact, for a space of fourteen years, through Comor his prefect and lieutenant in Britain, he did place it… At length Blessed Samson, after many pains, labours, perils and troubles obtained the freedom of Judual from Childebert and arrived in Britain with Prince Judual. These documents altogether conspire to designate Childebert as the defender of Prince Judual, who we have shown above is the second of that name. From these things, then, it follows that the episcopate of St. Samson is to be extended at least from the year 557, in which he took part in the third council of Paris, to about the year 590. From which chronology we can in some way deduce the age of St. Maglorius: for being some years younger than St. Samson, as we saw at num. 4, he succeeded him about the year 590. After some time spent in the care of the Church of Dol, he withdrew into the solitude of the island of Sark. And indeed the proper office of Dol, cited by Albert Le Grand Vies des SS. de Bret. pag. 653., has: Having spent three years in these (pontifical) offices, since he could not bear the wars and dissensions of the Armorican counts breaking out afresh, and panting for a quieter life, he also seemed to himself to be divinely warned that he should withdraw into solitude. Of these wars Fredegar treats under the year 594, saying Migne. Patrol. tom. LXXI, col. 615.: The armies of the Franks and Britons, fighting one another, are both butchered excessively by the sword. And this war, which is referred to the second year of Childebert from the death of Guntram, will have been waged not without dissensions among the Armorican princes, some of whom favoured Comor the usurper, others Judual the lawful chieftain. And in such a way both the time of the episcopate and the cause of the withdrawal of St. Maglorius are explained.

[12] follows necessarily: Although the examples of his masters and contemporaries could also have called our holy prelate to pursue the solitary life. For quite frequently holy men, after they had almost exhausted their bodily strength in caring for the salvation of others, exchanged the active life for the leisure of holy contemplation. Thus Blessed Iltut, the preceptor of St. Maglorius, leaving the monastery in which he directed a most celebrated school, hid himself in the wilderness Butler. Vies des SS. VI Nov.: St. Dubricius, having abdicated the see of Menevia, sought refuge in Bardsey, called the Island of the Saints Cambden. Brit. tom. II, pag. 554. Butler, XIV Nov.: Cadoc similarly, who urged a severer life on Blessed Iltut, as an old man inhabited the solitude of Wedon Act. SS. tom. I Januar. pag. 602.: St. Paul Aurelian, after founding the Church of Léon (St-Pol-de-Leon), wished to end his life in solitude on an island of the Armorican sea, Batz by name Tresvaux. Vies des SS. tom. I, pag. 286.. So far, then, as the things we have set forth are true, the renunciation of the episcopate and the withdrawal into the solitude of Sark seem to be placed in the year 594; namely into that island which lies midway between the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, and which today retains the name Sark: for which reason those writers are to be corrected who say that the monastery erected by St. Maglorius was established on Jersey. How much time he spent in the solitude of Sark, however, and accordingly in what year the holy bishop died, is very uncertain. Yet if we consider the sequence of his monastic life; namely the swelling fame of his sanctity, which, as the Life has it, num. 8, attracted so great a concourse of men that the Saint meditated flight; then the prodigious healing of Count Loiescon, who conferred a great territory for the sustenance of the monks; finally the exchange of the same territory, as being less fertile, and the subsequent donation, as the Life reports, num. 12; if moreover we weigh that these things happened successively; we easily perceive that some space of years, at least a decade, is required for doing all these things. Whence, holding to the chronology set in order by us, we judge that St. Maglorius died after the beginning of the seventh century, which time we have noted at the head of this Commentary. To sum up, then, the whole Maglorian chronology, we judge that St. Maglorius

was born about the year of Christ 525, crossed into the Gauls with St. Samson about the year 555, succeeded him about the year 590 and finally departed this life as an octogenarian about the year 605. I know that I am bringing forward much that is contrary to the opinion of the learned; for which reason I do not dare to bring forward a certain judgment; which moreover can be revised, when the Acts of St. Iltut at the VIth of November, of St. Dubricius at the XIVth of November, and especially of St. Budoc at the XIXth of November shall come to be illustrated.

[13] and from this the rest of the chronology is to be ordered. Although John Mabillon reported the Life of St. Maglorius in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, he nevertheless does not count him among the genuine, as he puts it, disciples of St. Benedict; since he does not mark his name with an asterisk. And this indeed rightly: for, as he was being numbered by some in the Benedictine Order; what Rule, says our Sollerius in the Acts of St. Samson, num. 9 Act. SS. tom. VI Jul. pag. 569., St. Samson professed before his episcopate, which he then held through the whole course of his life, or prescribed to his disciples in his monasteries … it is given to understand from his Acts, namely that which he had drawn in in Britain under the discipline of St. Iltut. Whether St. Samson, then, was of the Benedictine institute you will gather from what Bolland noted on St. Gildas at the XXIXth of January in a question altogether similar, § V of his preceding Commentary, num. 45 Ibid. tom. II Januar. pag. 957.. This at any rate is certain, that the monastery of St. Iltut neither was nor could have been of the Order of St. Benedict, when St. Samson was trained in piety in it, towards the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century, since that Order was not yet founded, nor had it spread before the year 540 into Gaul, much less into Cambria. That he changed in Gaul itself the institute of life assumed from his tender years, so as to profess in his old age another very recent one, I seek a suitable witness who can urge this. It is clear, moreover, that all these things, if you perhaps delete the mention of old age, exactly fit St. Maglorius; who too will not have turned aside from the path of his predecessor and master: especially if it is also noted that the Benedictine institution, begun in the Gauls while both Saints were living, probably did not please the British men, as it savoured of something Gallican, from which because of the swelling controversies they shrank overmuch.

[14] Similarly to St. Samson, Finally it can be asked whether both St. Samson and his successor St. Maglorius ever held the see of Dol. A contemporary British Chronicle teaches that Nomenoe, prince of Lesser Britain, in the ninth century first founded three bishoprics, of Dol, Saint-Brieuc (Saint-Brieuc) and Tréguier (Treguier). Nomenoe, it says Bouquet, tom. VII, pag. 50., diminishing the dioceses of the expelled bishops, namely in the monastery of Dol, which at that time was of the diocese of Dialetensis (Aletensis), and in the monastery of St. Brieuc and of St. Tutual Pabut, set up three usurping bishops. Him indeed who was bishop at Dol he made higher, and metropolitan of all the bishops of that region, the province of Tours being cut off. If these things are true, it follows that neither St. Samson, nor St. Maglorius, nor their successors down to the ninth century, were truly bishops of Dol: and in fact in the Life of St. Samson, written by a near contemporary, at the XXVIIIth day of July, it is nowhere said that he established an episcopal see, but simply that he founded a monastery. But on the other side there is a constant tradition, which the Catalogues of bishops have received, that SS. Samson, Maglorius and Budoc occupied the episcopal see at Dol: so that it would seem rash to me to deny to these Saints the quality of bishops of Dol.

[15] without a definite territory, of the Britons living in Armorica, I for my part judge both to be true: namely that these Saints, adorned with the episcopal dignity, resided in their monastery of Dol, and ruled the refugee Britons, the other peoples being left to their own bishop: so that their jurisdiction reached not so much some defined territory, as their own nation, variously scattered among the Armoricans. Which our biographer also openly teaches, num. 3, saying that St. Samson crossed the sea to preach to the people of the same language, dwelling in the west. Certainly the Britons, whether Transmarine or Cismarine, were most tenacious of their manners and rites, and in what concerns religion they so shrank from foreigners that, as Bede testifies, book I, chap. 22 Migne, Patrol. tom. XCV, col. 52., they never committed the word of the faith by preaching to the nation of the Saxons or Angles, who inhabited Britain with them. But, Bede continues, the divine goodness did not however forsake its people, whom it foreknew; indeed it destined for the said nation much worthier heralds of the truth, through whom it should believe. Namely St. Gregory the Great sent into Britain SS. Augustine and his companions, who converted the nation of the Angles to the true faith: and Augustine was ordained archbishop for the nation, as Bede says, book I, chap. 27 Ibid. col. 57., of the Angles. But the same Augustine wished the condition of the British Church to be preserved intact. Because, he said Ibid. col. 83., in many things indeed you act contrary to our custom, indeed to that of the universal Church: and yet if in these three things you will obey me, that you celebrate Easter at its proper time; that you complete the ministry of baptizing, by which we are reborn to God, according to the custom of the holy Roman Church; that you preach to the nation of the Angles together with us; all the rest that you do, though contrary to our manners, we will tolerate with equanimity. He left the Christian Britons, then, to be ruled by their own pastors, not laying aside the hope that, when both peoples had grown together into one nation, the ecclesiastical hierarchy too would be brought to unity.

[16] the rest remaining under their own bishop, And in a similar manner I believe that a British hierarchy was established in Armorica for the Britons. In the preceding Commentary to the Acts of St. Ursula and her companions it was shown, §§ XIII and XIV Act. SS. tom. IX Octob. pag. 107 et seqq., that there were frequent migrations of Britons into Armorica, especially from the year 511 to the year 558, Ibid. pag. 111. which agrees excellently with the arrival of St. Samson in Gaul, which is to be placed within that time Cfr ibid. tom. VI Jul. pag. 569.: namely at the time when a great multitude of Britons, newly arrived there, required the ministry of a bishop; which moreover had already been the practice about fifty years before, when Mansuetus, bishop of the Britons, was present and subscribed at the council of Tours 1, celebrated in the year 461 Labbe, tom. V Conc. col. 1049.. Nor does this appear to have offended the Gallican bishops: but they wished that such foreign bishops should be subject to the metropolitan; and for this reason there was drawn up canon 9 of the council of Tours 11, celebrated in the year 567, by which it is decreed that there are in Armorica British and Roman or Gallican bishops, and they make no objection to the ordination of British bishops, provided it be done with the will of the metropolitan Ibid. col. 834.. Which St. Gregory the Great also decreed, being asked by St. Augustine, as Bede reports, book I, chap. 27 Migne. Patrol. tom. XCV, col. 61., how he should deal with the bishops of the Gauls and Britains, he answered that no authority was given to St. Augustine over the bishops of the Gauls … but all the bishops of the Britains were entrusted to St. Augustine, that the unlearned might be taught, the weak strengthened by persuasion, the perverse corrected by authority. But this very freedom claimed from the metropolitan authority of the bishop of Tours stirred up long-lasting controversies in the following centuries, which were finally settled by Innocent III, in the year 1199. Some image of such a condition, moreover, is shown by certain cities, where there are various bishops for peoples of various rites: Thus at Lemberg in Polish Galicia there is a Latin archbishop for Latins, a Ruthenian for Ruthenians, and for Armenians an Armenian.

[17] he was bishop. In Armorica, moreover, the British bishops, attached rather to their fellow tribesmen than to a definite territory, remained in the same state until the ninth century, when Nomenoe, aspiring to the Armorican kingdom, disgusted also at the fidelity which the Gallican bishops kept inviolate to the kings of the Franks, by cunning deceived and expelled them, and, as a Fragment of contemporary British History has it D. Bouquet. tom. VII, pag. 50., not only set up others in their places, but, diminishing their dioceses, instituted three usurping bishops; the metropolitan right of all Armorica being transferred also to the bishop of Dol. All these things being done with fraud and the cupidity of great pride, summoning all these bishops, unjustly set up and invaders of the holy Church of God, to this monastery of Dol, he had himself irreverently anointed king. From these things it may be deduced that Nomenoe, in order to pave the way to the kingdom, which he hoped to obtain especially from his Britons, wished no other bishops within Armorica than Britons, by whose work he trusted that the kingdom would be secured to him; and so these bishops, wandering with their countrymen without a definite territory, he established in defined parishes or dioceses; in which manner he could be called the founder of new Churches: and since already in the fifth century there were bishops for the Britons without a determined territory in Armorica, at length in the ninth century, by the action of Nomenoe, the episcopal sees were fixed. In this manner the tradition of the Armorican Churches is reconciled with the constitution of Nomenoe. Whence Armorica rightly claims for itself SS. Samson, Maglorius, and its other fathers in the faith and patrons. Having unravelled these perplexities as best we could, we weigh the cult of St. Maglorius and the various translations of his body.

* Childebert

§ II. Various translations of the sacred body.

The body, at first buried on the island of Sark, After the death of St. Maglorius his body was laid in his monastery of Sark, and preserved there by his disciples until the year of Christ 849, when it was brought into Armorica by order of Nomenoe. John Mabillon narrates the event in his Annals, book XXXVIII, §78 Annal. tom. II, pag. 639. Edit. Lucens.: Although Nomenoe, duke of Britain, is ill spoken of for having more than once aspired to tyranny, he was nevertheless not wholly devoid of piety. For to him, besides his beneficence towards the monks of Redon (Redon), is attributed the founding of the monastery of Léhon, situated near Dinan. They narrate the fact thus. When Nomenoe was engaged in hunting, he came upon a certain deserted place at La Rance, where six solitaries had fixed their seat. Asked by him what they were doing, they answer that they are at leisure for God alone, and pray for the salvation of the prince and the happy state of the country: moreover, being destitute of all revenue, they ask this one thing, that he would give them some space of little land, however small, to live on. The prince not only assented to the petition, but also undertook that a monastery should be built, provided they had the body of some Saint. Without delay Condan the monk was sent to the island of Jersey to obtain the Relics of St. Maglorius the bishop, resting there. The Relics being obtained, Nomenoe fulfilled his promise, founded the monastery, and endowed it liberally. Perhaps he who first presided over the monks left the place because of certain quarrels of the monks, and sought retirement, one

to be at leisure for God. From this a contention arose among the brothers about the primacy. Then one of them, Britocus by name, sprung from noble parents in the world, a man of great strictness and religion, went to the holy place of Redon, declaring that the brothers of Léhon had resolved to lead a regular life after the example of the monks of Redon. Received by the father of the monastery and the brothers with the utmost charity, he happened to fall into a serious illness, and at length happily departed from this world, to reign perpetually with Christ, having first had Saints Martin, Hilary, Samson and Marcellinus as witnesses and helpers of his agony. These things from the Acts of St. Convoion the abbot.

[19] carried across to the monastery of Léhon, We have reported these things somewhat at length from Mabillon, because they indicate at the same time the beginnings and subsequent fortune of the monastery of Léhon, in which the body of St. Maglorius was preserved for more than a hundred years. When the praised Mabillon adds at the end that he has brought these things forward from the Acts of St. Convoion, this is to be understood of the dissension of the brothers of Léhon; for they make no mention of the translation of the body of St. Maglorius. For the rest, of St. Convoion, abbot of Redon, we shall also have to treat in our work at the day on which he is venerated, the XXVIIIth of December: he who desires to know more of the holy abbot may go to the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, edited by Mabillon Sæc IV, Part. II, pag. 216.. Further, the monastery of Léhon, when about the end of the Xth century it lay desolate, through the action of Robert, king of France, was granted by Count Berengar, as the Acts of the translation to be published below have it, num. 5, to the Maglorian monks of Paris, and was restored by their work. But almost two centuries later, about the year 1174, the monks of Léhon refused to be subject to the abbot of St. Maglorius of Paris and wished to create their own abbot. The controversy was at length settled by arbiters: namely, that the monastery of Léhon with all its appurtenances should pass into the proper and perpetual right of Marmoutier (Marmoutier), and thus, freed from the ownership and subjection of St. Maglorius of Paris, should remain for ever with Marmoutier. In compensation for which Marmoutier gave to the Maglorians three cells, situated in the territory of Paris [Gall. Christ. tom. VII. col. 313. Cfr Morice. Preuv. de l'hist. de Bret. tom. I, col. 687 et seq.]. The conventual priory having been extinguished at the end of the century just past, it is today a succursal church in the district of Dinan (Dinan), of the diocese of Saint-Brieuc, whereas formerly it belonged to the Church of Saint-Malo (St Malo).

[20] through fear of war The cause, moreover, of transferring the body of St. Maglorius from the monastery of Léhon was the war which laid waste all Armorica. Namely Richard I, duke of Normandy, having overcome Theobald, count of Chartres and Blois, fearing that the count, supported by the help of other princes and especially of the king of France, would renew the war, called in the Danes to his aid. These, as a Fragment of Frankish History has it D. Bouquet, tom. X, pag. 213., with Olaf of the Norwegians as leader, who afterwards, having been made a Christian, departed to God with martyrdom, and Lacinus of the Swedes, as princes, came down to the neighbouring shores of the Britons … From there the barbarians, advancing further, besiege the fortress of Dol, and having taken it burn it with fire, and kill its inhabitants with Solomon the advocate of the place. Then indeed Salvator, bishop of Aleth, taking with him the body of St. Malo, fled to the monastery of Léhon, and warned by a heavenly vision, as is read in the History of the translation to be published below, num. 1, resolved to withdraw to parts of the Gauls. And so, taking the pledges of many Saints, which had been carried there from all sides by the hands of the faithful, and the sacred books and bells of the church itself, and other ecclesiastical utensils, they go out as exiles from their territory; they had already passed the bounds of their country, when the ministers of Dol and of the Church of Bayeux also attached themselves to their retinue. On this occasion, then, the bodies of many Saints were carried from Armorica to Paris. Among these Saints is counted also St. Maglorius, of whom our chief discourse is. Some bones, however, were carried to Dol, as is shown by a letter of Theobald of Amiens, archbishop of Rouen, which Dom Hyacinth Morice has preserved for us in his Armorican Monuments Mém. pour servir à l'hist. de la Bret. tom. I, col. 849.. In it, moreover, Philip de Columbiis is said to have had certain Relics of the Church of Dol, which he himself in the time of the war held between John, king of England, of formerly pious memory, and the Britons, had violently snatched from the hands of the routiers, who in the overthrow and burning of the Church of Dol had carried them away from it by violence, namely of the bones and body of Blessed Samson, of his pallium, and of the bones of Blessed Maglorius. Which Relics Archbishop Theobald ordered to be returned to John the bishop and the chapter of Dol. The letter was written in the month of January of the year 1222, or rather of the year 1223: for Theobald himself was first elected on the XVIIIth day of May, and consecrated on the IVth of September Gall. Christ. tom. XI, col. 60.: while the year began either from Easter or from the day of the Annunciation. The translation to Paris Mabillon places under the year 979 Annal. tom. III, pag. 609.: whether this is rightly determined must be inquired into.

[21] in the Xth century This first of all is certain, that the bodies of St. Maglorius and of others were carried to Paris when the Danes were laying waste all Armorica. The Danes, says the History of the translation, num. 1, covered the surface of the land like locusts … Whose bestial fury the excellent prelate of the city of Aleth, Salvator by name … Having taken up the body of the most blessed Malo, his predecessor, he made for the monastery of Léhon in swift course: and from there he carried the pledges of the Saints to Paris. The reckoning of the time of such a translation, therefore, is to be sought from the Danish devastation. Now we have from the Annals of Flodoard under the year 962 that Theobald of Chartres, overcome by Richard, duke of Normandy, and slipping away in flight, fled to the king of France and was kindly received Migne. Patrol. tom. CXXXV, col. 483.. The duke therefore seeing, these are the words of William of Jumièges D. Bouquet, tom. VIII, pag. 268., the efforts of the king, of such great frauds, impending over him, and the counts of the Franks raging with one accord against him, sends envoys to Harald, king of the Danes, and commands him to come swiftly to his aid and to crush the Franks to the ground with a multitude of pagans. The king not only joyfully received his envoys, but also sent them back to the duke enriched with very great gifts, and promised that he would very swiftly send him help. The preparation being made, they burst forth from their ships, and destructively burn the whole country round about. Then men are dragged off with women chained together, villages are plundered, cities made desolate, fortresses overthrown, and the land is reduced to a wilderness. From these things we have that when Theobald was overcome in the year 962, Richard feared for himself, and called the Danes to his aid; who in the same or the following year 963 put in at Normandy. And when they were laying everything waste, then Salvator, bishop of Aleth, fled with the pledges of the Saints into inner Gaul, which I think happened in the same or the following year. For, on the testimony of a contemporary, Dudo, dean of Saint-Quentin, book III of the Deeds of the dukes of Normandy Migne. Patrol. tom. CXLI, col. 737., for almost a whole lustre the Danish calamity afflicted Gaul; peace was reconciled through the action of the bishop of Chartres. From these things it is sufficiently evident that the translation of St. Maglorius and others was wrongly put off by Mabillon as far as the year 979.

[22] they were carried across to Paris: The intention of the refugees who had carried the sacred pledges from Armorica to Paris was to carry them back to their own places when the war was settled. When peace, says the History of the translation, num. 4, was thriving and flourishing in all Gaul and Normandy, some of those who had come from Britain to Paris, … resolved to go back to their country, others to migrate to other places of Gaul. When this had been announced to the duke, although he took it ill, yet not wishing to use force on them, he retained certain members of the Saints and permitted them to go away… The duke, moreover, enlarged the church of Blessed Bartholomew, which seemed made illustrious by the Relics of so many Saints, and he afterwards had it dedicated in honour of the aforesaid Apostle and of the most blessed Maglorius…; in which also he established monks to perform the divine office… To the same church he offered great gifts, and possessions and estates, which he ordered to be recorded and confirmed under the name of King Lothaire and Louis, and arranged to be secured with the royal seal. The royal precept, among many others, was edited by Michael Felibien, a Maurist Benedictine, in his History of the city of Paris Hist. de la ville de Paris. tom. III, pag. 39.. This church of St. Bartholomew was situated on the island of the Seine, which was the beginning of the modern city Cfr Mappam topograph. Paris sous Philippe-le-Bel.. Duke Hugh, afterwards king and head of the Capetian stock, had given among other things to the Maglorian monks the chapel of St. George, situated outside the city on the Saint-Denis road, which was destined for the burial of the monks, and which two monks inhabited. But when in the lapse of time the place was too narrow, the monks resolved in the year 1138 to build a new monastery in the suburb at the place of St. George, already named from St. Maglorius, the Relics of the same St. Maglorius and of other Saints being translated there. The basilica of St. Bartholomew was thereafter a parish, over the government of which a presbyter was set; in such a way however that one of the monks was left there with the title of prior, and under that name obtained many rights [Cfr Chastelain. Martyrol. Univ. pag. 804. Du Bois. Hist. Eccles. Paris, tom. I. pag. 530.]. Then in the year 1315 the body of St. Maglorius was translated with solemn rite from a wooden into a silver case: which pomp is described at large in a French poem, which may be read in Claude Chastelain Mart. Univ. pag. 805..

[23] and there, a monastery being erected, preserved A new change befell the church of Saint-Magloire when, at the petition of Charles IX, Pius IV, by a bull given on the kalends of September 1564, the title of abbot being extinguished, united it in perpetuity to the episcopal mensa of Paris: so that the bishops of Paris may in the said monastery do and exercise each and every thing that belongs to the office of a professed and blessed abbot, in all things and through all things, just as if, regular profession having been made, they had been canonically instituted abbots of the same monastery, the license of no one being at all required for this. The perpetual commendam imposed on the monastery paved the way for new vicissitudes. For Catherine de' Medici, accustomed to spend the holier days among the penitent girls, having established a palace for herself near the monastery of St. Maglorius, wished the said girls, who professed the Rule of St. Augustine, to be transferred into it. The monks of Saint-Magloire therefore had to migrate once again; and in exchange for the monastery to be yielded to the penitent girls there was given the hospital house of St. James of the High Pass (St-Jacques-du-Haut-pas) with certain adjacent houses and gardens. All these things were sanctioned by royal authority in the year 1572 Felibien. Hist. de la ville de Paris, tom. III, pag. 674., in which also the Relics of the Saints were translated: whence the church of St. James, its title being changed, received its name from St. Maglorius. And when the parishioners burdened the monks because of the double office

parochial and monastic, to be carried out in the same building and often at the same hours, a new church was built, to serve the uses of the parishioners alone Felibien. tom. III, pag. 711.. But such changes, mutilations and controversies gradually relaxed regular discipline; so that the bishop of Paris, Peter de Gondi, in order to reform them, had to call on the civil magistrate Ibid. tom. II, pag. 1115.. Nevertheless, the number of monks constantly decreasing, Henry de Gondi, likewise bishop of Paris, resolved to erect the monastery of Saint-Magloire into a seminary of clerics, and to place the fathers of Bérulle's Oratory over its government; which he obtained on the condition that provision should be made for the monks of a fixed and settled pension, by which 414 French livres should be paid annually to each [Ibid. tom. IV, pag. 61. Lebeuf. Hist. du dioc. de Paris, tom. I, pag. 150. Cfr Mart. Univ. pag. 815.]. In such a condition the church and Relics of St. Maglorius lasted until the end of the century just past.

[24] until the end of the XVIIIth century, when again For then, when everything in France was being turned upside down, the institute of Saint-Magloire also came near to ruin. And indeed Gilbert Tournaire, superior of the house of Bérulle's Oratory, who had sworn the oath of faith to the schism, or, as it is commonly called, the civil constitution of the clergy, and by this security had been able to remain at St. Maglorius for some time, fearing lest, all Christian worship being abolished, the sacred pledges should be profaned, in the year 1793, with the assistance of a lay brother of the same Oratory, secretly committed them to the earth. But in the year 1797, the persecution ceasing for a little, the Relics of SS. Maglorius and others were again dug up by the same lay brother, and were laid under the high altar of St. James of the High Pass, but mixed together: and a document of this translation was drawn up L'Ami de la Relig. num. 2559, tom. LXXXVII, pag. 37.; which was communicated to us by the present parish priest, the Rev. L. Debeauvais, to whom we give the thanks we owe. For when on the XXIVth day of April of the year 1835 the high altar of St. James was being restored, workmen found under it two wooden cases, in great part eaten away, in which there were human bones, one of which had inscribed on it, SANCTUS VICTOR, and a document, by which the bones of SS. Samson, Maglorius and others were said to be contained in those cases. The parish priest, being informed, ordered them to be put away in a safe place, and reported to the archbishop of Paris what had taken place: and he delegated his two vicars, the Rev. Messrs Tresvaux and Quintin, to institute a canonical inquiry and report to him. And so on the XVIIth day of August 1835 the said vicars general, joining to themselves the physician Dr. Descuret, came to the church of St. James: and the cases being opened, the physician declared, first of all that the bones had been damaged both by age and by rust and by frequent translation: then that these bones had belonged to eighteen persons of various ages, so that some indicated infants, others septuagenarians. Then the same physician arranged the bones, as they lay before him, seventy-six, according to their colour, hardness, thickness, weight and proportion, and indicated that of them nineteen were of a man over sixty, and of a stature of five feet; five, of a man over seventy, of a stature of five feet, and three or four inches; two, of a septuagenarian man, of almost five feet; two, of a man of sixty or sixty-five years, of ordinary stature; finally the remaining thirty-eight, of fourteen different persons, among whom one small infant, one adolescent of about sixteen years, while the rest were of mature and aged years.

[25] found and duly recognized After this the delegated vicars subjected to examination the twofold document enclosed in the cases, of which the one was reduced to powder at a light touch, the other, somewhat sounder, offered the reader the following: “The bones, enclosed in these cases and laid up under this altar, are Relics of St. Samson, St. Maglorius and others, translated from the church of this name (St. Maglorius) beside the church of St. James of the High Pass, as is read in the present Breviary of Paris at the XXVIIth day of July and the XXIVth of October.” The document was drawn up on the IXth day of September 1797, and signed Duval, first minister or parish priest, Collette the elder and Collette the younger, procurators of the temporal affairs of the said parish. The document and the cases were secured with a seal, showing the interlaced letters IC. Finally the signatures of both Collettes were recognized by their sons and grandsons. Among the sacred pledges preserved in such a way are numbered, as the History of the translation has it, num. 3, Relics of eighteen Saints, among whom twelve were bishops, two Martyrs and four abbots. The bishops are SS. Samson, Maglorius and Budoc of Dol, Malo and Ciferian of Aleth, Senator and Paternus of Avranches, Brieuc, founder of the church of Saint-Brieuc, Corentin of Quimper, Leonarius, Lothiern or Lencern and Livian, regionary bishops: the two Martyrs, Melor, a youth of about sixteen years, and Temorius, an infant: the abbots, Wenalis (Gueneau), Winganton (Guinganthon), Scofilus (Escuiphle) and Scubilio. Although the document of the delegated vicars attests that relics of eighteen bodies were found, it however lists only seventeen names, omitting namely St. Budoc, whose tooth was carried from Armorica with the other Relics: on the other hand the document says that St. Candidus, of the senior centurions of the Theban legion, was preserved among the Maglorians, and accordingly that his Relics were laid up at St. James's. And certainly if, besides teeth, bones of eighteen persons were found, there is no doubt that St. Candidus the Theban is to be counted with the seventeen others. This one thing, then, remains to be said, that the tooth of St. Budoc was lost through confusion or negligence.

[26] was put away in the church of St. James. After this report of the vicars, which we have abridged, the archbishop of Paris issued the following mandate: Hyacinth Louis de Quelen, by the mercy of God and the grace of the holy apostolic See archbishop etc. Having heard the report of the promoter, the name of God being invoked, we have commanded and do command the following: 1° The Relics recently found under the high altar of the parish church of St. James of the High Pass are recognized as authentic, in so far as they are the same which before the abolition of Catholic worship, in the years 1793 and 1794, were exposed to public veneration in the chapel of the seminary of St. Maglorius. 2° The said Relics shall be exposed to the public veneration of the faithful in the parish church of St. James of the High Pass, and for that reason shall be enclosed in one case, and distributed in five classes, as is contained in the report made on the XVIIth of August last; with this inscription: RELICS OF THE SAINTS MAGLORIUS, SAMSON AND LEUTHERNUS, BISHOPS, WIGANTO AND SCOPHILUS, ABBOTS, AND OF VERY MANY OTHER SAINTS. 3° On Sunday the XXVth of this month in the said church of St. James there shall be solemnly celebrated the office of St. Maglorius with a commemoration of very many Saints. On the occasion of this happy discovery there shall be celebrated an eight-day festival, which shall begin at midday on the XXIVth and be closed at midday on the XXXIst. We grant an indulgence of XL days to those duly disposed who shall have visited the sacred Relics within the eight days. On Sunday the XXVth the office shall be closed with the Ambrosian hymn. 4° The anniversary day of the discovery of the sacred Relics shall in perpetuity be celebrated every year in the church of St. James on the Sunday next to the XXIVth day of October under the greater solemn rite F… 7° We command that the document of inquiry and the report of the promoter be deposited for preservation in our secretariat, and that a transcript of the said documents, together with our present mandate, be enclosed in the case of St. Maglorius. Given at Paris under the sign and seal and the subscription of the secretary of our archbishopric, on the XIIIth day of October 1835. † Hyacinth, archbishop of Paris. By mandate of the most illustrious lord archbishop of Paris, Molinier, canon and secretary. The house of Saint-Magloire is today a school for the deaf-mute, and the chapel has been assigned to the Calvinist sect.

[27] Whether at Urano in a monastery of the Camaldolese Here we might close our Commentary, were we not prevented by the tradition of the monastery of Urano, which claims for itself either the entire body or at least a great part of it of SS. Samson and Maglorius. Urano is a monastery of the Camaldolese Order, near Bertinoro, an episcopal city under the metropolis of Ravenna, which even in the lifetime of St. Romuald seems to have been already assigned to his disciples Mittarelli. Annal. Camald. tom. I App. col. 98.. In this monastery, moreover, are said to be preserved the Bones of the holy bishops Maglorius and Paschasius. For in the episcopal archive of Bertinoro the following memorial is read Ibid. tom. VII, pag. 317.: The bones of the holy bishops Maglorius and Paschasius, which were laid up in a small sepulchre under the principal altar of the abbey of Urano, were placed with the greatest veneration in a raised and ample sarcophagus above the said altar in the years of the Lord MCCCCLXXXII, on the XXVth day of August, in the time of the pontificate of Sixtus IV, Supreme Pontiff, and in the time of the most reverend Baptista Zeno, presbyter Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and bishop of Tusculum and perpetual commendatory of the present abbey of St. Mary of Urano. At what time or in what way these Relics came to the monastery of Urano is altogether unknown. And from this fables have arisen. Namely a certain German, by nation an Englishman, by profession a Camaldolese, staying in the monastery of Urano, desiring to see again his brothers, living in Britain and lords of several lands and towns, having obtained leave, went into Britain at the time when Henry VIII, king of England, falling away from the faith, was profaning churches and trampling on sacred Relics. And so with the help of his brothers he secretly took up the three bodies of the bishops, namely of Samson, Maglorius and Paschasius, and carried them with him into Italy. And when the monk German had put in at Venice, he informed the abbot of Urano; from whom he received the command to carry the sacred pledges first to Ravenna, where he should procure a coffer of most shining alabaster, and then to the abbey of Urano. He did as he was ordered. But when afterwards the whole monastery, and in it all the writings, perished in a fire, the letters testifying to the truth and the translation of the Relics likewise perished Annal. Camald. tom. VII, pag. 317.. These things Innocent Tantardinus relates, who flourished in the XVIIth century. The narrative does not need much refutation. Certainly long before Henry VIII, who flourished in the sixteenth century, the Relics of St. Maglorius were preserved at Urano, as is established from the document of translation which we have reported: moreover nothing occurs to suggest that they were ever carried into England Cfr Act. SS. tom. VI Jul. pag. 593..

[28] the body of St. Maglorius is preserved, is inquired into: But although the origin of the Relics is fabulous, as the people of Urano themselves admit, yet the cult and veneration of them remained. For in the year 1540, on the XIIth day of December, the marble sarcophagus was transferred from the right chapel to the left of the church of Urano; on which occasion the sepulchre was opened, in which there was found one head with certain bones, and not many, of Saints Maglorius and Paschasius,… and one lead plate, on which are written the words written below: HERE ARE THE BODIES OF SAINTS MAGLORIUS AND PASCHASIUS Ibid. tom. VIII, pag. 78.. From this document it may be deduced that the head found in the sepulchre does not certainly belong to St. Maglorius, but to one or other

Saint: then, although they are simply said to be the bodies of SS. Maglorius and Paschasius in that place, it is clear from the document itself that not many bones were found. In the year 1588, the old church of Urano threatening ruin, a new one was consecrated with solemn rite, and into it in the year 1594 the Relics were again translated, or, as the Camaldolese Annals have it Ibid. pag. 149., three bodies of the saints Maglorius, Paschasius and Sampson: whence it is evident that the treasure of Urano had increased by the body of St. Samson, without any indication at all of when or how the body of St. Samson joined the other remains. Finally, as the Camaldolese Annals have it Ibid. pag. 210., Relics of the head of St. Maglorius the bishop were by Michael Leonardellio of Cesena, abbot of Classe, after the sacred rites had been performed, deposited from the abbey of Urano in the year 1604, on the IIIrd day of June, in the church of the convent of St. Maglorius at Faenza, and placed in a silver head, which, for piety's sake, Victoria Rondanina, a nun of the same asceterium, had made at her own expense.

[29] What is to be thought, moreover, of the Relics of Urano is not easy to say, since their origin, or rather of some African Martyr of the same name: and hence the causes and circumstances of the translation, are unknown. Yet I should not wish to deny their truth. For, as we have seen, the bones of St. Maglorius at Urano are not many; and whether the head found in the sepulchre belongs to St. Maglorius rather than to St. Paschasius is not established; although when it was later translated to the convent of Faenza it received its name from St. Maglorius. Further, already under the year 1253 the convent of Faenza took its beginning under the name of St. Maglorius, first a dwelling of men, afterwards of nuns Ibid. tom. V, pag. 16.: and in the Acts of the general chapter celebrated at Faenza in the year 1338 the said convent is called the cell of St. Maglorius of the city of Faenza Ibid. tom. VI append. col. 303.: from which it is given to understand that the cult of the holy prelate is most ancient in these parts of Italy. Nevertheless it may be, since another Martyr of the same name is venerated in Italy, that the whole history has grown out of the similarity of the name: namely that to Maglorius, a Martyr of Tivoli, of whom very little is known, the deeds of our prelate have been attributed. Certainly Peter de Natalibus in his Catalogue of Saints, book IX, chap. 104, and after him Philip Ferrarius at this day in the Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, commemorate Majorus, by which name our bishop too comes in the same place. Of this Martyr the cited Peter de Natalibus has the following: Majorus the Martyr, slave of a well-born and noble man of the city of Tivoli, suffered in the Vandal persecution under King Huneric. He first, beaten with almost innumerable clubs, raised by frequent pulleys, sometimes let go with a swift stroke, fell upon stones and flints; and moreover rubbed in many wounds with stones: when now his entrails had been bared of the skin, and he appeared the more constant at each thing, he was finally slain with the sword, and buried at the same city.

[30] although this too is not without its difficulty: How much truth there is in this narrative is clear from the fact that the martyrdom has been brought over from Africa and the city of Tuburbo to Italy and the city of Tibur. For Victor of Vita relates the same almost word for word, book V, chap. 2, in the following manner Migne. Patrol. tom. LVIII, col. 242.: A slave also of the greater city of Tuburbo, a well-born and noble man, who can set forth what punishments he bore for Christ? Who after the blows of innumerable clubs, raised by frequent pulleys, as he hung throughout the whole city, lifting him on high, with a swift stroke, the hempen ropes being let go again, coming down with the weight of his body on the flints of the streets, fell like a stone upon stones. Moreover he was often dragged and rubbed with the sharpest stones, so that, the skin being separated, you might see the hides of his body hanging from his sides and back and belly. This man already in the times of Geiseric had borne things not very dissimilar, lest he should reveal the secrets of a certain friend of his; how much more now would he keep the sacraments of his faith? And if he freely showed faith faithfully to a man, how much did he owe to him who is to pay a reward for faith? The beginning of this text seems dislocated, since others read: A slave also of the city of Tuburbo, Majorus, of a well-born and noble man etc. From which reading we easily come to the fictitious Tiburtine Malorius. This Confessor Baronius brought into the Roman Martyrology at the VIIth day of December, at which we shall have to treat of him. Let us observe this however, that Victor does not say that he died under his punishments, and so it could have been that his body, entombed in Italy, was at some time carried to the monastery of Urano. On which occasion Ruinart skilfully remarks in his commentary on the History of the Vandal Persecution, chap. VI, num. 19 Migne. Patrol. tom. LVIII, col. 388.: From this and other similar passages we can understand in what way authors of this kind, sometimes from a light conjecture, have assigned Martyrs to foreign places or times, mixing true with false, so as to make their conjectures more probable. Hence histories are thrown into confusion, and the deeds of Martyrs, which otherwise were more sincere, lose their authority. I greatly fear that something similar has happened with the St. Maglorius of Urano. Yet I do not wish to deny that some bones of St. Maglorius could have come to the monastery of Urano.

[31] An inscription of Urano in honour of St. Maglorius. However that may be, the monks of Urano persevered in honouring the memory of St. Maglorius of Dol. Gabriel Maria Guastuccius in the year 1772 had the documents of the various translations brought to one of our predecessors, and they have been preserved up to now in the library of Brussels under num. 8,920; the chief ones we have brought forward from the Camaldolese Annals. In place of a finishing touch we subjoin an inscription, by which it is signified that in the year 1736 too the Relics were laid up more honourably. It is as follows:

THE BONES

OF MAGLORIUS OF DOL AND PASCHASIUS OF VIENNE

SAINTS, BISHOPS IN GAUL

WHICH FROM LESSER BRITAIN

TO THE ANCIENT ABBEY CHURCH OF URANO

WERE FORMERLY BROUGHT BY GERMAN, A CAMALDOLESE MONK

AND IN AN AMPLE SARCOPHAGUS ABOVE THE HIGH ALTAR

WERE LAID UP IN THE YEAR M. CCCC. LXXXII

ANGELO PERUCCI, BISHOP OF SARSINA

BY APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY

AND WITH JOHN ANDREW CALIGARI, BISHOP OF BERTINORO

SECRETARY OF POPE CLEMENT VIII

PERMITTING IT

INTO THIS CHURCH WITH SOLEMN CULT

TRANSLATED IN THE YEAR M. D. XCII

AND WHICH

JOHN BAPTIST MISSIROLI, BISHOP OF BERTINORO

AND VITALIS ASCEVOLINI, ABBOT OF URANO

ADORNED WITH SACRED INFULAE

HAVING RECOGNIZED THEM IN THE PRECEDING YEAR

AND IN A CYPRESS CASE WELL SECURED

THE PEOPLE FLOCKING FROM ALL SIDES TO THEIR PATRONS

MOST DEVOUTLY CARRIED THROUGH THE NEARER SUBURBS.

A. M. DCC. V

THE MONKS OF URANO

FROM THIS PLACE UNDER THE HIGH ALTAR MORE HONOURABLY P. C.

IN THE YEAR M. DCC. XXXVI

LIFE OF ST. MAGLORIUS, BISHOP

From Mabillon's Acts of the Saints of St. Benedict,

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,

Collated with the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître.

Maglorius, confessor, bishop, in Armorica. (S.)

BHL Number: 5144

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

CHAPTER I.

The country and parents of the Saint; as deacon he crosses into Armorica with St. Samson; he succeeds him; he abdicates the episcopate, and builds a monastery on the island of Sark, in which he lives holily.

The country and parents of Maglorius. The man of the Lord of magnificent sanctity, Maglorius, sprang from parts across the sea, drawing his origin from the stock of the nations of the Britains. Maglorius, moreover, can by interpretation be called great in glory ^a. And deservedly he shines with such a name, which he acquired by work. He also drew the beauty of the flesh from the height of lofty blood: whose noteworthy father was called Umbrafel *, and his mother Affrella. He was also a sharer in the illustrious kinship of the holy and most blessed Samson ^b. Both of whom, having the rule of the monastic religion, were most assiduously taught both the liberal arts and the divine oracles by a certain disciple of the excellent Germanus, prelate of the Church of Auxerre, named Heltut ^c. Which prelate Germanus had formerly gone to the above-mentioned nation of the Britons to pierce the deceit of the wicked dogma of the heretics, which had by then so sprouted in it. For they taught that children procreated of baptized fathers and mothers could be saved without the grace of baptism, though the Lord says: Unless a man be reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Joan. III, 5. Which error being suppressed by the prerogative of the catholic faith, he returned to his own see. After whose departure, in the progress of time, the aforesaid most blessed Samson, because he had always been devoted to divine worship and given to the highest religion, was acclaimed worthy of the honour by the clergy and people of the same nation, and was elected by all to rule the flock of the Lord by pontifical prelacy, and, the company of bishops being assembled, according to the institution of the holy Fathers he was raised on high to the throne of the archprelacy, although unwillingly ^d.

[2] Maglorius is ordained deacon by St. Samson: When now, by the grace of the Lord, having taken up the care of the pastoral burden, he presided over the same people, he imposed on the most holy man Maglorius, whom he saw persisting in honourable manners, namely in fasts, vigils and continual prayers, in the generosity of alms, indeed also in the observance of holy chastity, the office of the diaconate for bringing to the table of the Lord and dispensing the consecration of his life-giving Body and Blood, and showed him the reverence of pious devotion for the merit of his sanctity: and over his people he established him as dispenser to distribute to it in due time the measure of the divine word. With which people the same confessor of Christ, persisting long and through the nights, shone with innumerable examples and teachings, and also miracles.

[3] He crosses into Armorica with the same; At length, some years having run their course, touched by heavenly dew, not unmindful of the words of the Lord saying: Going through the whole world teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Matth. XXVIII. bidding farewell to his people, he withdrew from there together with Blessed Maglorius and a college of certain clerics as well as laymen, and in order to preach to the people of the same language, dwelling in the West ^e, he crossed the sea, hastening to the bounds of the territory of Dol ^f. Where, having received from the most vigorous King Childebert of the Franks ^g the government of the archprelacy, his celebrated name shone forth not only there, but also through the whole region of the Britons or far and wide about it, so that he worked many more and greater miracles than before, as is read in his deeds. Why do we seem to linger longer? what and how great things he did both on the earlier shores where they stayed across the sea and among the peoples dwelling in the west can by no means be comprised in a written statement.

[4] who, near death, designates him as his successor: [Having meanwhile now let these things go, let us pass on to the glorious end of the holy Confessor himself.] He, having completed a course of many years, in which to live was ever Christ to him, and the end gave the beginning of living, when now, falling on his bed, he laboured under the force of fevers, and already felt death near at hand, ordered the Blessed Maglorius, long since mentioned above, together with the brothers of his Church, to come to him. When they had been summoned, he told them that the dissolution of his body was imminent. Looking towards Blessed

Maglorius with * the brothers he said to him: Know, dearest brother, that after the loosing of my flesh you will take up the pastoral mastership in this Church, over which I have presided until now. Therefore I desire to urge you that in the worship and purpose of holy love, as you have begun, you may be seen more and more to burn thereafter; and that the light which you have deserved to receive from the Lord you do not hide under a bushel, according to the voice of the Lord, but set it upon a lampstand, that those who are in the house of the Lord may see: in which indeed I have hitherto laboured, as I could, by the ordering of the Lord's own goodness. And be watchful and solicitous over the sheepfolds of the Lord's flock now entrusted to you, that you may deserve to hear from the Lord himself, the rewarder of all good things, with the same in heaven: “Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you before the foundation of the world.” Matth. XXV, 34. Then St. Maglorius and all who were present there, when they heard him say that he was near to undergoing the loss of death, said with wailing and great weeping: Why, father, do you forsake us? or why do you abandon us? To whom he said: Do not act thus, brothers: do not be saddened, for as Elijah left behind him a good disciple, namely Elisha: so I too leave to you, given by God, Maglorius, who from his earliest age has been illustrious for manifestations of the highest religion and holy working, as your surviving minister. After this speech the same, receiving the holy of holies in the presence of all, in order to receive the crown of justice which had been laid up for him, went on clean to the starry dwellings, where he rejoices, to live with the Lord without end. The most blessed Maglorius, then, after the departure of the most glorious Confessor of Christ, Samson, according to his word raised to the pontifical honour of the Church of Dol, obtained the government; where, helped by the clemency of the same Christ, who gives much and does not reproach, and ever bestows good things, he worked signs of great miracles, as the Lord says to the disciples: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven; Matth. V, 16. [^h of which miracles the beginnings were of this kind.

[5] How he learned his letters. When Blessed Maglorius was passing through his boyish age, he was handed over by his parents to be taught in a school. There was in him from heaven so great a grace for learning, that all his fellow pupils, who sat at this instruction with equal desire and equal affection, he excelled in the sense of many-sided capacity, by the characters inserted on his tablet. Whence he made not only his master, but also certain others who heard of it, wonder. It happened, moreover, that when one day he was asked by the master to render his lesson, there was found on his tablet a larger insertion of letters than he himself had written out. When the same master found this, and hesitated about it, he hid it in silence within the secret places of his heart, until he should learn by experiment whether the matter stood so or not. And at once taking the tablet again, he set out the lesson for the boy, as he had been accustomed before, in the same measure, and hid it in a certain chamber, the door being closed and carefully locked ⁱ. And on the morrow, seeking it again, he found three times more of writing than he himself had inserted, by an angelic hand. And when he had now discovered the matter so evidently arranged, he resolved to proclaim to all openly the power of the Lord (which it is fitting to reveal). Whence all who were present, congratulating this boy with the highest eagerness, gave manifold praises to the Lord with one voice, who deigns to impart the abundant gift of his grace not only to the great, but also to little ones. And they foretold that in succeeding times he would obtain a habit of wonderful sanctity and would do great signs, which the outcome afterwards proved. Turning our minds now to the merits of this most holy Confessor, with all the strivings of our hearts let us recall today his glorious solemnity, and implore his patronage with pious prayers: for he is so worthy to be venerated and praised, who deserved to have such and so great a preceptor and master.]

[6] He is warned from heaven to abdicate his prelacy: When therefore the glorious Confessor of Christ Maglorius by a contest of the highest devotion held the lofty citadel of the archbishopric , in which (as has been premised) he shone splendidly with notable teachings as well as examples, and moreover miracles; one night an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in sleep, saying: Hitherto indeed, Maglorius, you have lived in public dwelling for ruling the flock of the Lord under the government of the episcopate, but now, that with a single eye, your whole body being full of light, you may be able more freely to celebrate the unwearied praises of the Lord, go out from here, and set out for certain hiding-places of a more remote place, leading a solitary life. But this place, in which you have until now fought the good fight and been eager to profit the Lord's flock, know to be destined by God for the glory of St. Samson your predecessor. But for you your almighty God has specially prepared another place, in which, as a good shepherd governing your own sheep under the monastic religion, you will deserve to be raised on high by innumerable miracles. In the morning , then, the Confessor of Christ, greatly wondering at the vision, awakened from sleep, said: I give thanks to you, Lord, who by the salutary addresses of your holy Angel have deigned, by the suggestion of your goodness, to make known to your unworthy servant those things which long before I had desired in mind with burning longing, that I might strive to carry them out in work ^k.

[7] He set Budoc over the Church of Dol: And at once he began silently to search in the root of his heart to whom he should leave the flocks once entrusted to him to feed, and what parts he should choose for dwelling, as he had learned from the angelic words. When he hesitated among these things, it came to his memory that his dwelling could be made in a certain land which King Raddual * ^l had once given in augmentation of his episcopate. Having thus reviewed these things with himself, not long afterwards he consecrated a certain man, named Budoc, whom he knew to have lived holily and religiously with him from the rudiments of his earliest age, as bishop of the Church of Dol in the order of his own place.

[8] he withdraws into solitude, where many visit him; This man having been made over to this church as pastor, St. Maglorius strove to go to the land mentioned above, which he had arranged, bidding farewell both to clergy and people. At whose departure how great was the grief of all, how great the voice of those lamenting there, is impossible to narrate with the tongue. Entering it, he burned so much the more fervently in the cultivation of divine love, namely in most frequent manifestations of fasts and vigils and prayers, that he as it were breathed out his spirit for a little, and could scarcely be caught by anyone by the very hearing of the ear. For indeed, as the fame of the same holy man, travelling hither and thither, grew frequent, some from various regions having various ailments, namely the blind, the lame, lepers, and those possessed by demons, flocked to him to be healed. For many applauded to visit his presence, that they might hear his wisdom, by which they could obtain the remedies of their salvation. Very many also offered him no small little gifts of treasures, namely of gold and silver and other presents, as though in thanksgiving: but he, setting small store by them as dung, at once paid them out to the needy, widows, orphans, captives, those labouring under the want of hunger.

[9] he meditates withdrawing from the crowd, And when all persevered in these gifts, and an immense concourse of peoples encircled him, he began to be saddened, saying to himself: Woe is me! What has it profited to forsake my own and seek what is another's, where much more the gathering of a plebeian covering and a most monstrous amplification of riches abounds upon me? For whereas long ago I thought that I was being stripped of the desires of this world, I now begin to be clothed with them the more. Or when I had no share in earthly things, alas! I have been made rich. As he turned such things over with himself and was straitened by huge anxiety, it came into his mind to order the aforesaid whom he had ordained bishop to come into his presence, and to him he at once directed a messenger. The bishop , then, already mentioned, breaking off the little delays of the hours, very swiftly came to meet him. To whom Blessed Maglorius, with face bathed in tears, reported what and how great things he had suffered from the multitude of the common people. Whereupon he at once added: Know for certain that I shall go out from here promptly, and set out for a place where no traces of man exist. The same bishop, seeing him vehemently given over to sadness, drew out a certain silence, to take on the compassion of his grief.

[10] he is urged by St. Budoc to give his time to the salvation of his neighbour; But after a certain course of hours had intervened, he now began to speak with him in sweet converse, saying: I know, Lord, that because of the stirring of the peoples flocking to you, who for the hope of salvation beg suffrages from your merit, you are being undermined by strong fatigue. For I have heard that you have the will to withdraw from here, and to seek abrupt places. But if you strive to carry this out, father, great care must be taken lest, while you withdraw from the poor of Christ the wheat of spiritual nourishment, by which it is theirs to live, you fall into the snare of any danger. For it is better to gather the sheep of the Lord than to scatter them: it is better to heal the contrite of heart than to abandon the sick. Formerly you laboured at your own harvest, but now resolve to carry this out, as a good shepherd, at another's and an abundant one, that you may bring both with you to the barn of Christ and possess double from these. In which you have been made an imitator of Christ himself, who to his people, namely the Jewish people, first by himself and afterwards by the Apostles to the Gentiles, implanted his doctrine. You ought therefore to look on the annoyances of these peoples, stirred up around you, as a light burden; Matth. IX, 12 which will also be recompensed to you with a great reward. Which, as is by no means hidden from you, Christ our Lord himself, when he rested in the bosom of the Father, betook himself to this world to heal the ailments of the sick. Whence he himself says: Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. Luc. V, 31. Whom also he did not shun, but mercifully resolved to give his soul for them. For hence the same in a certain gospel from the book of Isaiah says of himself: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, he has sent me to evangelize the poor: to heal the contrite of heart, to preach remission to captives, sight to the blind, to set the contracted free in remission, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of retribution. Luc. IV, 18. St. Maglorius of the Lord gladly listened to these most salutary warnings of his, remembering the words of the Lord, with which he says to the Apostles: He who hears you, hears me, and he who despises you, despises me. Luc. X. 16.

[11] he heals a leprous count. It happened, not long after the often-mentioned bishop had returned to his own, that a certain count, named Loiescon, thickly beset with the wealth of riches, but for seven years a leper; and who had spent much substance on physicians, but could be cured by none; who also, living on a certain island situated in a bay of the sea, when he heard the most celebrated fame of the most holy man Maglorius, spread far hither and thither, came as a suppliant to him with certain of those attending him, and showing the swollen putrefaction of his sores, by which he was heavily held, falling at his feet begging,

that he would have pity on him. Looking at him he said: What do you seek? Or what is your request in coming to me? The sick man answered him: That, relying on the sacred help of your prayers, I may deserve to be cleansed of the leprosy which you see. St. Maglorius said: How can it be, since I am unclean in mind and you unclean in body, that I, unclean, should be able to cure the unclean? Then Blessed Maglorius enjoined on him a three days' fast, which he himself piously carried out with certain priests and Levites and likewise devout men accustomed to serve Christ the Lord. This done, with the supplication of litanies he ordered him to be placed in a bathing-tub. Laying his hands on him, with eyes raised to heaven, he said: Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, who through the prophet cleansed Naaman from his leprosy in the river Jordan, and came down from on high to the lowest places to save sinners; who also at the end of the age in the aforesaid river Jordan washed away the crimes of the human race through the laver of your baptism, the head of the ancient enemy being crushed there, and mercifully cut away the misdeeds of Mary Magdalen; not in our justifications, but in your many mercies, I beg, Lord, that you deign to cleanse from the leprosy which he has this man, who has come seeking me for your clemency, to the praise and glory of your name, that all who see may glorify you With these words, Blessed Maglorius touching his whole body with his hand , not only did the leprosy depart from him, but not even a scar anywhere * appeared on him; but his flesh became as the flesh of a little child. How much then those who saw and heard said of this most swift and admirable cleansing it is not in our power to unfold.

[12] He receives an estate offered by the count. After the cleansing of this leprosy the aforesaid Count Loiescon, prostrate at the feet of St. Maglorius, gave praises with tearful affection to the Lord and to him for so great a gift received. The same count was, as has been said above, enriched with abundant things, namely gold and silver, male and female slaves, beasts of burden also and various cattle and vines, and moreover possessions of the best lands. The extent of his lands, situated scattered in certain places, was contained in a threefold division: of which one division, not whole, but half, the same count conferred as a gift on Blessed Maglorius: which the blessed Confessor did not refuse to receive and to place under his dominion. These divisions of lands too were customarily frequented by an abundant multitude of birds, which were of wonderful size and beautiful ^m: there was also a huge catch of fish swarming most vehemently in the bay of the sea over against them. It happened, moreover, that when Blessed Maglorius had entered the portion of his half, which the count had given him, all the mass of birds and likewise fish which was in the other half, the count's, took fright as though terrified, and took to flight, and made for the part of St. Maglorius, offering to his presence, as to their Lord, the homage of due service. The wife of the same count, taking this matter ill, persuaded him to claim that part for himself by taking it, and to pay over to Blessed Maglorius that which he was holding bereft of both kinds. Her husband, at once taking up her wicked suggestion, resolved to carry out what he ought not. This controversy of wicked exchange being done, suddenly the same half of the count's land, which he had greedily snatched away from St. Maglorius, was made a stranger to birds and fish alike. All of the aforesaid kind, of infinite multitude, as though by a mutual counsel entered into, at once returned to their lord Maglorius. For which reason the same count, led by penitence within himself because he had acted thus, granted both lands to St. Maglorius to be held perpetually, that is, the half which he held and that which he had given. This being conferred on him, troops of birds and fish filled the whole land of both parts, as they had been accustomed before. This matter thus arranged became known and was received with wonder not only by those who dwelt around the sea, but also in the far-reaching * spaces of the lands.

[13] he built a monastery for LXII monks, In which place indeed the same most blessed man Maglorius, living under the habit of holy conversation, which he bore in his mind like hidden treasures, and always showed outwardly for the example of men, built a church, and there placed a college of sixty-two monks, whom he instructed by the teaching of his life, to fulfil the office of due service to God and his Saints ⁿ. There also what and how great things he did and taught, as has been related above, by what virtues he shone, no human comprehension, but he who numbers the sparkling stars knows. Of his most holy conversation we wish to intermingle something briefly. First of all there shone forth in him the light not only of the highest chastity, but also of virginity from his mother's womb. He took barley bread also, and the cheaper kinds of pulse, and sparingly, for food; and on the fourth and sixth days of the week he kept himself away from the sustenance of all food. Which observance of fasting he fulfilled on the fourth day of the week, because on it the sacrilegious and guilty Jews made the bloody * pact to give over to death the Lord their author ^o: and on the sixth day of the week, because what they had conceived in their heart they on this day completed in work, fixing him to the cross. His body was continually covered with a hair shirt: in outward garments also neither of many cheap kinds, nor precious, but moderate, [lest perhaps he should be flattered by the fomentations of human praises, which is the mousetrap of eternal damnation, he was clothed.]

[14] his virtues: After, by the angelic suggestion, he had departed from the citadel of his own see, namely of the Church of Dol, and had sought deserted places, he drank neither wine nor strong drink; and finally he used a very few small fishes only on sacred solemnities, which he reckoned choice delicacies, being compelled by the religious monks contemplating God in their life. The watches of the night, when the brothers gave themselves to sleep, secluded from them in a hidden retirement, he spent wakeful and sleepless on the brink of the bed of the sea until the celebration of matins. The reception of hospitality * he freely showed not only to the needy, but also to very many others who had come to him out of need for this thing, as it is written: For God loves a cheerful giver. II. Cor. IX, 7. Why do we seem to linger longer? All the virtues which Paul the Apostle, the vessel of election, enumerates seemed to be applied to him: that is, charity, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, goodness, kindness, faith, modesty, continence, and, as has been said, chastity.

ANNOTATIONS.

k. According to

the chronology which we have set in order at num. 12, these things happened about the year of Christ 594: from which also the episcopate of St. Budoc must begin.

* B. Umrafel

* coram

* B. archiepiscopi

* B. omits mane

* B. Nidivolus

* B. et

* B. adds Budocum

* B. ordinarat

* adds B. Budocus

* B. adds Qui vivis et regnas etc.

* B. tangendo

* B. usquam

* B. longinquis

* B. sanguinis

* B. Hospitalitate

CHAPTER II.

Various miracles; his death.

He calls back to life a fisherman swallowed by the waves: [It is pleasing still to touch summarily on something in this place of certain of his miracles, apart from his admirable life, which he added to those mentioned above ^a. One day, when at dawn nets were being cast into the sea by some of the servants who served him, to refresh in some way the bodies of the monks with fish, it happened that one of them by a sudden mischance was swallowed up by the same. Whose violent death by no means escaped the blessed man, who soon, weeping and wailing, affirmed that he was guilty of the death of this man. Whence with unwearied entreaties the whole day, the monks being gathered around him, throwing himself before the holy altar in the church, he cried out to the Lord, that his fury should not be angered against him over the death of the man hurled down. And as the day drew to evening, when the sun had now set, bringing with him the same monks, with the chanting of psalms and litanies he made for the shore of the sea over against them, and stretched himself on the ground, and with tears poured forth he looked to heaven, and implored the clemency of the Lord that the flooding torrent of the sea would give him back at least the dead man. This prayer being finished, the swollen sea, at the Lord's order, by the prayers of the holy Confessor, vomited out on the shores, in the manner of Jonah the prophet, alive, the man whom it had swallowed and had before held fixed in death. Over whom, namely restored to life, when he knew that the grace of the Lord was with him, and that he had not spurned his prayers, he then offered to the Lord the sacred libations of the divine gift, and resolved to vow to him that thereafter, because of the fall of the man once dead, he would taste no offspring of fishes.

[16] he vows to God abstinence from fish; When the revolution of seven days had passed, as in his accustomed manner he was celebrating sacred vigils in the night hours, the Angel of the Lord again appeared to him, saying: Eat of the small fishes, which you were before accustomed to eat, and which you have cast off by your vow, very few. Where he also added: Spurning the other devices by which the race of fishes is known to be netted, command one of your servants to go to the deep sea, and to take the first fish that he finds, and to cut off the little fins of its tail with iron, and holding a hook in his hand to throw it into this. This, then, shall be a sign to him, that as often as he finds the same fish, the fishing shall cease. Which fishing also, as is evidently shown, according to the angelic saying, drew out so long a length of hours, until the same fish was again removed from the waters. For the greater the gathering of men around the blessed man, the longer the hiding of the fish was held; and the smaller their number, the briefer was the stay of the same fish. This fish, moreover, to speak in jest, is found a faithful servant of his Lord: who when, according to the quantity and necessary hunger of the above-mentioned men, he collects his companions for the same Lord, that he may lack none of them, what else does he pay than the fit homage of due service? and when the same, at the first appearance, at the order of the Saint, is sent down into the waters and returns to the troops of his companions, what else, as we might say, does he do than as it were discreetly call together what and how many of them should come to the table of his Lord, and by calling together invite them? To whom after the invitation and to the finding of them he too goes last: as if speaking to them he should say: If you, not obeying me, refuse to go out from here, at least look upon the sign of the cutting which I have received from the Lord.

[17] iron thrown into the sea is wonderfully found: Having been entertained by these words too, let us return to the first fishing: which, during the life of the Confessor himself, kept the same manner, as it has been set out, without changing, without intermission. After whose glorious departure, as it is said, it restored the ancient manner to all those skilled in the fisherman's art who searched for it, and denied this one too. In which fishing, what we forgot before, it happened at a certain time that the servant who customarily drew fish from the waters and brought them to the table, when he was once setting a hook for them for fishing, and holding in his hand an iron, which in the common word is called a little knife, threw both in there. At which he began to be greatly saddened. Which was soon reported by certain persons to the notice of the holy man. On hearing this he ordered him to be summoned to him. To whom he said: Do not be constrained by any trouble, for tomorrow you will find it. Whence the servant, because he had thrown it into the deep abyss of the sea, reckoned his words ravings, and believed that all that the Confessor had said to him was impossible. But when, according to custom, on the turning orbit of the day he sought the usual catch of fish, and caught them and brought them back to the house; at once Blessed Maglorius, looking at some of them, understood by heavenly inspiration which of them it was by which that iron was retained. Touching it with his staff, he said to the servant hesitating over this: Gut this fish, for in it the iron which you lost will be found for you. Which thing, as the Saint, foreknowing the future, had prophesied, was publicly found, and the doubt of the servant given over to oblivion. At which all greatly wondered who heard of this and many other things that he did, which also cannot be comprised in books. For who can worthily venerate Blessed Maglorius, when not only men but also irrational creation, namely according to the thunder of the psalmist saying: Ps. VIII, 9. The birds of the sky, the fishes of the sea, who walk the paths of the sea, while they follow his footsteps, and while they themselves wonderfully prepare food for eating, obey his command? For who can duly praise him, at whose voice the sea trembled, and gave back alive on the shore to the same most blessed Confessor the man whose life it had once taken away? Whence let praise and glory be to Christ the Lord, who works all things in all.

[18] He brings aid in spiritual and bodily famine: The signs of other miracles too, which the immensity of divine goodness willed through the same archprelate to emerge on the earth as with a certain radiance, I think should not be passed over in slow torpor of silence. Therefore, most beloved brothers, since time and the matter require that a truthful discourse should take its beginning, the few things of the sea of his virtues which I have reached through the report of certain religious men, as divine bounty shall supply strength to my inexperience, climbing into a little boat, I shall not delay to set forth briefly in humble style. And so, when the winged fame of the aforesaid man Maglorius had begun in swift flight to traverse the regions and cities situated far and wide about both brinks of the bed of the sea; Britain, a region formerly fertile, began to be most vehemently pressed by the bitterness of a dire famine, the furrows refusing to give back the seeds entrusted to them. And when the famine grew exceedingly, and no commerce could be found among the neighbours by which the famine could be removed, many of the nobles, struck by the novelty of the dire pestilence, leaving their paternal grandeurs, in order to escape the shameful peril of famine, began to go in troops to the presence of the blessed man. And when they anxiously sought bodily food from the most blessed man, he, more solicitous for the gain of souls, the reward of eternal life, if they repented of their past vices, with paternal

affection promised. For the aforesaid man, among the other virtues in which he stood over others, was sufficiently imbued with literary studies. Therefore the learned-speaking man, from the Old and the New, as a learned scribe, teaching with authority, first instructed their minds in knowledge with divine helps, then sustained the bodily frailty of the flesh with necessary foods: and thus, refreshed by the twofold nourishment, with unwearied prayers and assiduous voices they gave innumerable thanks to God almighty, who by his ineffable counsel had in modern times put in place a man of so great knowledge, desiring to lie hidden for himself and God, both to preside over his household and to come to the aid of their need ^b.

[19] he comforts the brothers disturbed about the want of the monastery: Meanwhile, while these things were being done at Sark, because of the multitude flocking there the great store of the monastery seemed to be consumed in a short space. Over which the steward and the dean, grieving for the monastery with the consent of the brothers, one day, the morning course being finished, undertook with mournful voice to intimate to the blessed man, saying: Holy father, the most devoted flock of the fold entrusted to you, who under your rule, bearing the yoke of Christ, live monastically, seek from you counsel for living, humbly intimating to your notice that the gifts of Ceres and also of Bacchus are now failing in this monastery. Hearing this, the most blessed man, cast down by no sorrow, inquires with shrewd investigation what mind the brothers had or what they resolved should be done. Then the steward with the dean of the monastery brought in that the will of the brothers was this, that, a few remaining with him, the other brothers, having received his leave, in order to rescue their needy life from the peril of famine, should go to distant regions, and when the famine was quieted and life preserved, should at some time return unharmed to the same father, to serve as soldiers of Christ. St. Maglorius, hearing of the dispersal of the brothers, drawing long sighs from the depths of his breast, with sobbing shaking him and tears arising, was for a little time silent. But when the time of tears had passed, recovering himself he answered with prophetic and evangelical voice: O brothers of least faith, why are you so fearful? Is not God able to prepare a table in the desert? Who in ancient times satisfied an enormous troop of men with angelic food? Who preserved their garments, through five-yearly courses gliding by eight times, entire from all age? Who ordered a dry and very hard rock to pour forth most abundant waters, that the people and the beasts might drink? Surely the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it is read: Christ was the bread, Christ the rock, Christ in the waves, who with five loaves and twin fishes satisfied five thousand besides mothers and infants, has powerfully worked all these things.

[20] he prodigiously feeds all. Meanwhile, as the holy man wished to prolong such speech, the hour of dinner came. And when he had been asked by the steward who would dine with him, he is said to have answered with cheerful countenance: Infants sucking the breast, the beardless boy, the adolescent rejoicing in his first down, youths in their prime, doting old men, the stranger as well as the native, let them with all confidence, none forbidding, hurrying come to our poor table. But behold, while we have tried to show what the wonderful charity and affability of the holy man towards all was, we have strayed somewhat, by a turned-aside path, from the order of our narrative. Therefore we must return by a straight path to the sequence of the same narrative. The banquet being finished, after hunger was removed by feasting, some of the monks in their accustomed manner made for secret retreats for the sake of praying or reading or even resting, but others, each as was enjoined on him, for various tasks. Then the little monks, born of noble lineage, who were held within the cloisters of the monastery by the rigour of discipline, prostrate on the ground, embraced the feet of St. Maglorius, saying: Most blessed father, permit us to go to the port and shore, that the chatter of our voices may not take away sleep from the monks resting, and that reading in a loud voice we may be able more securely to commit our lessons to memory. The holy man, gladly receiving this petition, said: In the name of Jesus Christ, who did not suffer little ones coming to him to be saddened even a little, go on with all sobriety, doing nothing childishly: to return again unharmed to the monastery at the proper time. And they, having received the blessing and leave of the most blessed man, made cheerful beyond what can be believed, went down with unstumbling foot by the sloping and rocky sides of the mountain to the maritime places, which by the Greek word are called ἀκτη.

[21] Maglorius saves the younger monks, in peril in a ship without oarsmen: By chance at the extremity of the shore, where no heat of the sea could reach, the height of the brink standing in the way, there was a ship, worn out, and long neglected, the fastening of whose joints seemed now to be consumed by rot and putrefaction. The little ones, seeing it, for it was sitting in a safe place from the approach of the sea, entered it in childish manner, to play or to read. And when they ran about the great ship hither and thither, for by its size it could have been called a trireme, without a prow, until they came to the stern, reading or playing, an incredible tide suddenly came up ^c, and very swiftly carried the little ones with the ship. And when the little ones, in a fearful navigation, and one unusual since Peter the Apostle (for the ship was led by no oarsman), had passed as it were the middle of the sea, they began to call upon St. Maglorius with plaintive voices. And when they wept with great wailing, St. Maglorius, moved by their tears, appeared to them as if bodily, and having consoled their sadness in a paternal manner, and steering the ship with his staff, brought them, as it seemed to them, by the divine nod, safe and unharmed to the edge of the other bank.

[22] the inhabitants contending about this, the matter is brought to the king: But meanwhile the inhabitants of the coast, seeing a ship of so great a size, struck with inestimable joy, supposing that they were to acquire various wares brought in the usual manner to a foreign shore, ran in troops to meet them with an incredible weight of gold and silver. And when with grim eyes they gazed on the ship of wonderful size, devoid of all merchandise, and, what you would dread the more, destitute of the help of a captain and of all naval equipment, the occasion being seized, no slight altercation arose among the people, some asserting that this was a diabolical phantasm, others contradicting that they were divine wonders, and they contended among themselves with obstinate spirit. It gave no small wonder to the people that in the same ship no sails, no stern-ornament, not even the supports of a foresail, and, to conclude the epilogue briefly, no naval equipment appeared. And when they were held by such obstinacy, and neither side believed the other, it seemed good by a higher counsel to direct truthful messengers to the royal highness, that he should not delay to come with men of the highest skill to settle so great a dispute and so unexpected a spectacle. Which was so done. The king, when he had heard, greatly wondering, with the utmost haste, an army being assembled, went to the shore to see a miracle of this kind. And when he had looked on the ship, furnished with no equipment, and the little ones as it were half-men, he first ordered royal seats to be made for him in a higher place, then commanded the little ones to be summoned before the presence of the whole senate. Then the little ones, standing before the king undaunted, being questioned through an interpreter on what occasion this so remarkable a thing had arisen; first of the famine constraining the land and of the holy man, living on Sark with his monks, and of their navigation, supported by the presence of St. Maglorius, they reported all in order.

[23] the king sends the ship back to Maglorius, furnished with corn and wealth; And so the king, having heard of the fame of the most blessed man, as they say, almost weeping, grieved greatly that a man of so great sanctity and powerful in so great virtues had until now been hidden from him. At length, using the counsel of his elders and especially of the bishops, understanding that the ship had been destined to him by a divine impulse, that the want of the holy man might be supplied by royal abundance, he commanded the same ship to be loaded from bottom to top with corn and flour, garments and wool and all good things; moreover he also sent over an unknown weight of gold and silver to St. Maglorius with sealed letters, in which letters it was inserted that every year he should send to the king diligent men, skilled in navigation, who should receive from the royal treasury all things necessary for the brothers, and bring them to the monastery; in such a way however that their care should be perpetually watchful for the safety of the king and the stability of the kingdom and the absolution of sins. The ship being filled with so great an abundance, lest, overcome by so great a burden, it should succumb, they urged the king to seek out most zealously most vigorous men, skilled in navigation, who should present the same ship with so great provisions ^d unharmed to Blessed Maglorius. Hearing this, the king, using the counsel of his elders and especially of the bishops, is said to have wisely answered: If by divine power it touched the port of our shore, with no one leading it, without any phantasm, we believe with sound faith that to the same port from which it departed, by the same power by which it was carried, it will soon return. Which was so done. For, the royal speech being finished, the zephyr, taking up the craft, fearing neither the headlong south-wester contending with the north winds, nor the sad Hyades, nor the rage of the south wind, nor the bright stars of Helen's brother, brought back the same ship, cleaving the watery waves, to the same port from which it had departed, on the third day's return, unharmed with the little ones, to the wonder of all and with huge alacrity. Meanwhile, the little ones reciting the benefits of God towards them, and attesting how St. Maglorius had appeared to them in going and in returning, steering the ship with his staff, the whole island together with the monks in incredible gladness poured forth tears for joy.

[24] which by a new prodigy are carried to the monastery: Then the steward, the bishop ordering him to lighten the ship, went to the shore, a wagon being loaded, he took with him six yoke of oxen to draw the wagon. But, as the wonders of God ever grow towards the pious and subject, from one miracle there arises another. For when they had begun to drive the wagon down the slopes of the mountain, they met in the middle of the road a certain obstacle, holding back the turning of the wheels in the manner of a drag. And when the herdsmen pushed the wagon with great effort, and wounds unjustly inflicted struck the ribs of the oxen, the ten foremost being loosed, the rolling wagon with the two oxen clinging to the pole went down as far as the ship. And when those who were present, almost weeping, followed the wagon, they could detect no fracture of the wagon, no injury to the oxen, and they announced to the bishop what had happened. And he, giving immense thanks to God almighty, said: Do not be saddened in spirit; the ancient enemy, wasting with envy, while he desires to conquer, conquered by the power of Jesus Christ succumbs. But go rather to the ship and load the wagon better, and neglecting the ten, command those two oxen who escaped, that the wagon with double load be brought back to the monastery by their carrying without any hindrance. And they, setting out, loading the wagon, driving the oxen, came unharmed, God leading them, to the cloisters of the monastery.

[25] A dumb girl, by St. Maglorius, resisting in vain, These things being thus dismissed, let us briefly pursue other miracles of the same man. At the same moment of time also, at which Sark was held celebrated for the miracles and virtues of Blessed Maglorius, the island of Bissargia, neighbouring the same Sark, rich in wealth and crops, was held by hereditary right by a certain noble man, who was called Nivo ^e. Which aforesaid man, although he turned his land, as they say, with almost a hundred ploughs, the courses of the sea

accustomed to furrow with innumerable keels; yet he laboured under one misfortune. For lacking male offspring he was keeping his rich estate, not without great sorrow, for another's heir. He happened to have an only daughter, now marriageable and praiseworthy for exceeding beauty: but because, fortune being envious, she was destitute of the office of the tongue, although she was noble, she was sought by none of the suitors under the name of dowry. One day her father, about to ask on behalf of his daughter, came to St. Maglorius, promising great benefits, if the girl, the holy man bringing help, should be restored to health. Then St. Maglorius, humbly excusing himself, answered, saying: Son, do not be troublesome to me; for what you ask is not in our frailty. For when we ourselves are held by some infirmity, we are uncertain whether we shall be snatched away by sudden death, the thread of the Fates being broken, and lose life, or whether once more, the suffering being finished, revived, at God's order, we shall return to life. We therefore who lack power over our own body, how can we expel from another's the plagues permitted by God? With these and other arguments desiring to repel the man from him, he urged him to return home, and very swiftly to bestow an abundance of alms for the health of his daughter on God almighty, who opens and no one closes, closes and no one opens. On hearing this, knowing that his prayers to St. Maglorius had availed nothing, made sad, he returned home, and went over everything in order to his wife.

[26] at the prayers of her parents, she is cured On hearing this the woman was silent for a little while. But after she perceived that her husband had been cheered in his troubled heart, she approached him with familiar words, saying: Lord, what will riches, which must at some time perish, profit us after death, if, bereft of children, we leave no traces of posterity? I therefore urge that the money together with the land itself be divided into three parts, and that, two parts being reserved for our own need, the third be offered without any delay for the health of the girl to God almighty and St. Maglorius. When her speech had pleased in the eyes of all, the division of land and money being made, bringing the girl with them, they went one day to St. Maglorius. And when they had found the holy man praying within his chamber, offering together the land with the money, they began tirelessly to ask for the health of their daughter. The holy man, humbly spurning their petition or donation, asserted with obstinate spirit that this business was beyond his strength. At length, compelled by the brothers, looking also upon the faith and devotion of the girl's parents, prostrate on the ground together with all who were present, tears breaking forth abundantly, he poured out a very long prayer. And when he had risen from prayer, he took the liquid of most sacred oil, and put it into the mouth of the girl with blessed water, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, who, pitying the human condition, coming down from the paternal bosom, have brought man, deceived by diabolical fraud, back to his proper dignity by your own blood, cast behind your back the sins which we have contracted by our frailty, and, clemently assenting to the faith of those standing by, and especially to the devotion of the girl's parents, in pity loose the bond of her tongue, that the posterity to be born of her may bless the holy name of your glory for ever and ever. At this voice of the most blessed Maglorius, all answering, amen, the bonds of her tongue, slow of speech, being broken, her mouth was at once opened, and in the manner of Zachary the Prophet, returning to her own with her parents, she spoke rightly, blessing God.]

[27] St. Maglorius is warned by an Angel of his impending death; After St. Maglorius, by innumerable claims of signs and miracles, like the lamp of Phœbus, had illumined not only Sark, but also the other provinces about both brinks of the sea, enlightened also by heavenly revelation, he foreknew long before that his death was impending. For on the vigil of the most holy paschal festival, as in his accustomed manner he was keeping watch in the church through the night, an Angel of the Lord, shining with exceeding beauty, (before his face) stood by, and with familiar words admonished him, saying: St. Maglorius, do what you are doing, work what you are working, and know that your name is written in the roll of the heavenly soldiery. For it has pleased the Most High, whose precepts you have faithfully obeyed from your earliest age, to restore to you the worthy reward of your contest in the heavenly court. On hearing this, St. Maglorius, glad of the promise, uncertain of the vision, lest an angel of Satan should transform himself into an angel of light, prolonged his prayer a very long time. The prayer being finished, the Angel of the Lord, desiring to render St. Maglorius certain of the vision, repeated the same speech twice and thrice, saying: St. Maglorius, do not be doubtful of this angelic vision: for as I am an assiduous minister of the supreme truth, so our embassy is free of all falsity. Most truly therefore (and without any phantasm, sent from the stars, true things to you) I report, that shortly, the fleshly contest being finished, received with victory and triumph over the enemy of the human race into the starry senate, you will possess the unfailing glory of the divine majesty among the heavenly troops without end. Then St. Maglorius, stripped of all doubt, made firm by the angelic address, answered, saying: If you have been sent by my Lord Jesus Christ, as you assert, I beg you to bless me with your most abundant blessings in his name, before you withdraw. The Angel of the Lord humbly answered in turn: How can I bless you, who are blessed, and will be blessed, by him from whom all things are blessed? Then mutually saluting and blessing one another, the Angel with great brightness made for the heights; while St. Maglorius spent a wakeful night, as he had begun.

[28] and he dies piously. A few days having passed, the same Angel, shining with exceeding splendour, appeared to St. Maglorius, saying: St. Maglorius, all doubt being put aside, be secure about your death: for garlands crown some with thirtyfold adornments; and some with the doubled honour of the number sixty obtain the rewards of second * chastity; but you, because of the integrity of your body and your preserved virginity, a sacred crown, heaped with hundredfold fruit, will adorn among the virginal choirs. With these words, being about to die shortly, he visibly received viaticum from the hand of the Angel. From that day, then, greatly solicitous about his death, unless an unavoidable cause profitable to many had arisen, until the day of his calling, ever repeating this little verse in his mouth: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, Psal. XXVI, 4. he was never seen to withdraw from the church. Afterwards, the course of his fleeting life being finished, when it pleased him whom he had served from the beginning, bidding farewell to the brothers, breathing out his soul amid words of holy exhortation, by a happy transmigration on the ninth of the kalends of November he came to Christ. May the glorious intercession of him whose death is precious before God obtain for us pardon of sins, of God who lives and reigns through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* B. coruscus

* B. the parenthesis is wanting

* B. omits the parenthesis

* B. indefectitiam

* B. fœcundæ

TRANSLATION OF ST. MAGLORIUS AND OTHERS TO PARIS

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

From volume III of the Annals of the Order of St. Benedict Pag. 666..

Maglorius, confessor, bishop, in Armorica. (S.)

BHL Number: 5147

BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.

The Danes laying waste the western shore of Gaul, The Danes covered the surface of the land like locusts, nor was it easy for any man to hinder them ^a. Whose bestial fury the excellent prelate of the city of Aleth, Salvator by name ^b, since among others he distrusted that he could endure it with no help, having taken up the body of the most blessed Malo, his predecessor ^c, made for the monastery of Léhon in swift course ^d. There indeed many ministers of the sacred order, terrified by the crash of this disaster, had already flocked together; because that place was not only especially powerful for its pleasantness, but also by the munificence of ancient kings appeared nobler than the rest for its abundance of great estates, most of all since for the increase of its beauty it retained, buried with it, the venerable body of the most holy archprelate Maglorius ^e. The devout flock of monks there, then, a most vigorous man, Junanus by name, administering the pastoral care, as it served the eternal king in unwearied watches, is said to have been divinely forewarned that, the time of persecution pressing, it should withdraw to parts of the Gauls, where it might deserve to enjoy tranquil peace and most secure rest. For which reason, the venerable bishop Salvator urging them, taking the pledges of many Saints, which had been carried there from all sides by the hands of the faithful, and the sacred books and bells of the church itself, and other ecclesiastical utensils, they go out as exiles from their territory.

[2] The Relics of the Saints to Paris They had already passed the bounds of their country, when the ministers of the Church of Dol and of Bayeux attached themselves to their retinue, bringing with them the venerable limbs of the holy patriarch Samson, and also of the glorious bishop Senator, and of the holy pontiffs Paternus and Scubilio ^f, to wander together long and much through foreign and unknown places. But while this most bitter war lasted for three years, Count Richard called in the Danes, Alamanni and Deirans to his aid. And since Gaul was being shaken by various troubles from their attacks, the venerable bishop Salvator, a few faithful being joined with him, because of the threatening rage of the barbarians went to Paris, a noble and most strongly fortified city. Having entered it, when, as is the custom of that nation, they sympathized with their desolation with sweetest affection, their want by the charity of certain faithful

was sufficiently and abundantly supplied. Then, having stayed there for some time, when they saw the savagery of the pagans raging more frequently against the Christians, all hope of returning to their country being cut off, by the provident dispensation of the Ruler and Creator of all they chose that they should by no means go away further without themselves, if, by the favour of divinity, from the prince of the city himself, namely Hugh, duke of the Franks ^g, a place should be granted for worthily placing the bodies of such great ones. Counsel having been taken, they went to the duke himself, then staying in the city, bringing with them the ashes of certain Saints.

[3] are translated, and by the favour of Hugh, duke of the Franks, But when the conversation with the duke was being put off for a very long time, they happened to lay down the mass of the holy bodies on a table, awaiting the arrival of the prince. Meanwhile, the hour of dinner being imminent, when he who presided over the chief meals had entered the hall to attend to the banquet, he came to the men of God, where they were sitting, and striking with the rod which he carried in his hand upon the bodies of the Saints, he warned them with insolent words to go out. Nor did the enormity of so great a crime go unpunished. Instantly, therefore, he is seized by a demon, and, running hither and thither in a raging frenzy, is atrociously tormented. And while some are beaten by him with his fists, others treated with various insults, a huge tumult arises through the royal hall, and for this reason the demoniac is put in bonds: the bodies of the Saints are venerated by all: and the novelty of so great a prodigy reaches the ears of the prince, who at once, driven by exceeding terror, soon goes forward with his men to the bodies of the Saints, and prostrate on the ground before them prays with humble devotion, that what had been done should not be reckoned to him as a sin, they interceding with the Lord. Taken up from there by Hugh himself, that most vigorous duke, the sacred limbs of the Saints were carried into the church which had been built in antiquity by the munificence of kings, and consecrated in honour of the Blessed Apostle Bartholomew, in which an order of canons celebrated the divine office; and they were placed there on the sixteenth of the kalends of November with worthy honour: namely the body of Blessed Samson, archprelate of Dol, of Maglorius, archprelate of the same, of Malo, bishop, of Senator, bishop, of Leonarius, bishop, of Wenalis, priest, Relics of Briomaglus and Corentin, of Lencern, bishop, of Levian, bishop, of Ciferian, bishop; a part of the precious bodies of Malorius and Tremorius, of Winganton, abbot, of Scofilus, abbot; a part of the bodies of Paternus and Scubilio; a tooth of St. Budoc ^h.

[4] There were moreover in the same church Relics and bodies of other Saints; in the church of St. Bartholomew which had previously been brought by the hands both of kings and of the faithful, as to a royal chapel. Peace therefore thriving and flourishing in all Gaul and Normandy, some of those who had come from Britain to Paris, by the divine nod, as we believe, taking the bodies of the Saints which they had brought with them there, namely of holy Samson and Blessed Leonarius, and also St. Wenalis, and certain other Saints, some of them resolved to go back to their country, others to migrate to other places of Gaul. When this had been announced to the duke, although he took it ill, yet not wishing to use force on them, he retained certain members of the Saints and permitted them to go away. Withdrawing, some made for the fortress of Corbeil ⁱ, others for Beaumont [k], where they also rested: others too went away to other places of Gaul. But the keepers of the holy body of Samson, because they wished to return to Britain, the greatest part of the holy body itself being retained, and the other part with the head being granted, he permitted to go back. Going away, when they were making their way through the city of Orléans, held in that city by certain troubles, they stayed long and much ^l. The duke, moreover, enlarged the church of Blessed Bartholomew, which seemed made illustrious by the Relics of so many Saints; and he afterwards had it dedicated in honour of the aforesaid Apostle and of the most blessed Maglorius, because * Blessed Samson had deserved to be raised to the archprelacy of Dol: in which also he established monks to perform the divine office; over whom he established by both royal and priestly authority that an abbot from their own congregation should always preside. He also, with his venerable wife, Adelaide by name, daughter of the count of Poitou, of the progeny of Charlemagne, offered to the same church great gifts, and possessions and estates, which he ordered to be recorded and confirmed under the name of King Lothaire and Louis, and arranged to be secured with the royal seal ^m.

[5] they are honourably laid up, of the Order of St. Benedict. Under King Robert, however, son of the said duke, the count of the Britons, Berengar by name, came to Paris to see the same prince and to offer military service. Hearing this, the monks of the church of Saints Bartholomew and Maglorius the Confessor went to the king of that city, asking him by his prayers to obtain from the aforesaid count that the church of the most blessed Maglorius, situated in the district of Léhon, which by the frequent attacks of the wicked seemed reduced to desertion, might be granted with its appurtenances to the church of Blessed Bartholomew and Maglorius: for assuredly it was fitting that, as this one seemed made illustrious by the bodily presence of the holy Confessor himself, so the church of Léhon itself, which sadly lacked the bodily presence of so great a patron, should not be refused perpetual subjection to the same church of Paris. The aforesaid count, therefore, giving assent to the pious petition both of the king and of the monks, kindly granted the church of Léhon itself, which had been consecrated in honour of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and of Blessed Maglorius, to the aforenamed church, situated in the city of Paris, with its possessions, and he himself also afterwards enlarged it with most generous estates by his own donation. Six monks were directed there by the venerable Harduin, who at that time presided as abbot over the congregation of Paris, to bring the monastery of Léhon itself back to its former construction: so that the servants of God there, living monastically, secular pomp being removed, might busy themselves in leading a celibate life. The aforesaid monks, fulfilling the orders of the father, because of the multitude of those building there for the pleasantness of the place * it was the more quickly renewed in its former state.

ANNOTATIONS.

is established from two surviving diplomas, by which he confers some things, and confirms the properties given by himself and his father D. Bouquet. Rec. tom. X, pag. 574 et 575..

* Post?

* confluentium?