ON SS. GUESNOVEUS AND COMPANIONS: GUESNOVEUS, TUGDONIUS, MAJANUS, AND TUGDONIA, HERMITS IN ARMORICAN BRITTANY,
IN THE LATER 6TH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Guesnoveus, confessor and bishop of Léon in Armorican Brittany. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
Sole §. Historical sources. The arrival of the Saints in Armorican Brittany; their monastic life, not lacking in prodigies.
Armorican Brittany, which is also called Lesser, a land fertile in saints, lets almost no days pass [The sources in which the deeds of St. Guesnoveus and his companions are contained, both ancient,] on which it does not set forth for the veneration of the faithful some one of its compatriots. Today it exhibits St. Guesnoveus, called by Ingomar [In Miorcec de Kerdanet, Vies des Saints de la Bretagne-Armorique, by Alb. Le Grand, p. 659, note 1.] Goednonus, by the chronographer of Saint-Brieuc [In D. Morice, Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l'Histoire de Bretagne, vol. I, col. 16.] Goneznonus, in the Litanies of the parish of St. Bechet * In Miorcec, Vies etc., p. 300. Guednovus, in the calendar of the old Breviary of Léon In Tresvaux, Vies des Saints de Bretagne, vol. I, p. XXXI. Goeznoveus, and in the Breviary of Dol In Miorcec, Vies etc., p. 659., published in the year 1770, Goeznovaeus; but commonly saint Goueno and saint Goueznou. Although he flourished in the 7th, or rather in the later 6th, century, it is not known that his Life was written by anyone before the beginning of the 11th century, in which William, presbyter and chaplain of Eudo, bishop of Léon, wrote it divided into nine lessons; to which he added rhythms and other things of which a solemn ecclesiastical office is accustomed to consist. This he dedicated to his bishop in the year 1019, the twenty-fourth of his episcopate Ibid., p. 664.; whence it is understood that Eudo was promoted to the see of Léon in the year 995. His name was passed over by the V. V.
Tresvaux L'Église de Bretagne depuis ses commencements jusqu'à nos jours, p. 196. in the catalogue of the bishops of Léon; but this was done by inadvertence, since elsewhere Vies des Saints de Bretagne, vol. I, p. 143. he openly relates that he sat at Léon at the beginning of the 11th century. The distinguished man Hauréau Gallia Christiana, vol. XIV, col. 975. would have Eudo struck out of the series of the bishops of Léon, because he was introduced into it from slight testimony; but this censure is too severe, since Albert Le Grand (whom one may call more credulous than is just, but by no means lying) relates in several places that he most certainly handled the Life of St. Guesnoveus dedicated in the year 1019 to bishop Eudo. The same, cut short, but also distributed in nine lessons, that same Albert found in the old Breviary of Léon; and likewise in the manuscript Legendaries of the cathedral church of Léon and of the parish of Blessed Mary of Le Folgoët, situated in the same former diocese Le Grand, Vies des Saints etc., p. 664, edit. Miorcec.. That the writing of William has been lost Lobineau and the V. V. Tresvaux teach Vie des Saints de Bretagne, vol. I, p. 143.; wherefore I took pains that I might at least obtain a copy of the old lessons; which I at last found at Paris in the imperial library, in the codex marked Blancs-Manteaux, num. 38; in which nothing is contained but lessons or Lives of the saints of Armorican Brittany, copied a century ago. But although it is noted in manifest letters that they are old lessons of Léon, yet they are altogether different from the particles which Miorcec de Kerdanet recites. Wherefore, since they are so rare that I have tried in vain to receive them from Lesser Brittany, I shall see that they are printed at the end of this commentary; but in the commentary itself I shall insert those parts which Miorcec has already used.
[2] Then the more recent ones are laid open. Who moreover are to be my chief guides, receive at the same time. In the first place comes Albert Le Grand and he who can no longer be torn away from him, Daniel Louis Miorcec de Kerdanet. Albert gave the Life of the blessed man, following the writings of William the chaplain, whom I indicated a little before; and at the end he added the more recent fortunes of the cult. But the distinguished man Miorcec made Albert's composition much better, adding, as I have just warned, in the annotations the principal passages of the lessons of Léon and illustrating many things most diligently. Second comes Lobineau, or he who with repeated care published his Lives of the Armorican saints, the V. V. Tresvaux, canon of Paris. The writing of Albert gave them light, which it seemed to them should be contracted and corrected in a few places. Third for me is Gilles Déric, who brought the Ecclesiastical History of Lesser Brittany from the first century to the tenth. In the fourth place I have used the Lives of the saints of Brittany, which the V. V. de Garaby published at Saint-Brieuc in the year 1839. In the Lives of the saints of Brest, which I think came to light in the last century, there exists also a Life of St. Guesnoveus: but I profess that I have lacked this. When in the year 1736 the proper Offices of Léon were renewed, the lessons of the most holy man were also changed; new ones were also made when in the year 1770 the office of St. Guesnoveus was introduced into the Proper of the saints of Dol; and the same was done when the birthday of St. Guesnoveus was admitted among the feasts of Saint-Brieuc. In the century just past, lessons were also inserted in the new Breviary of Quimper * and preserved in the new proper Offices of the saints of the same diocese, which the Right Rev. Lord J. M. Graveran had published in the year 1852. Of all these I have before me only these last, awaiting in vain some hagiological aids from Lesser Brittany.
[3] A good summary of them in the recent lessons of Quimper. That the reader may understand in a few words the principal deeds of St. Guesnoveus, it will help to have surveyed with the eyes the latest lessons of Quimper. "Lesson IV. Guesnoveus, born of freeborn parents in Great Britain, leaving his homeland, at length settled in a certain wood at the fourth milestone from Brest, that, unknown to all, he might the more freely apply himself to the labours of penance. Yet this burning lamp did not lie hidden too long under a bushel. For Conomorus, count of the coast of Léon, having reached the oratory of Guesnoveus while hunting, and having diligently inquired into his name, homeland and manner of life, on his return to his people quickly made public the sanctity of the man, which he had clearly perceived. Lesson V. When afterwards many sought to devote themselves to God under the discipline of Guesnoveus, he, complying with their wishes, gave a place and sufficient estates for founding a monastery and for sustaining the disciples with their master. While Guesnoveus presided over them, he held nothing more important than to remove every suspicion from their chastity. Whence not even approach to the very ample enclosures of the monastery was in any way permitted to women. Lesson VI. Then, elected bishop by the wishes of all, as the old tradition of Léon reports, he led the flock of the Lord with the highest vigilance and tenderest solicitude into the pastures of salvation; until, having set out for the territory of Quimperlé, to visit a holy abbot by name Corbasius, mortally injured by an unlucky accident, he there most piously died on the eighth before the Kalends of November. Where the monastery of the blessed prelate stood, there is now seen a parish church, celebrated by his name and patronage, which boasts that it still possesses a small portion of his relics."
[4] [St. Guesnoveus, having passed over from insular Britain to Armorica with his father St. Tugdonius and with his siblings SS. Majanus and Tugdonia, chooses a seat for himself in the diocese of Léon;] Those things agree sufficiently with the narrative of Albert Le Grand and with the old Proper of Léon, and they contain all that seems able to be approved. Further, that the blessed man was from Great Britain by home, which Lobineau thought should be omitted, is asserted in that Proper in these words: "Goeznovaeus, sprung from pious parents in Great Britain." Albert relates that his parents were of moderate fortune; on the contrary Lobineau that they were conspicuous for nobility, since in the Proper of Dol and the old one of Léon he is said to have sprung from the more free race of the Britons; the Proper of Dol, then, relying on the old one of Léon, by no means departs from the older monuments. "Bereft of his mother as a boy," so the old Proper of Léon continues, "he followed his father Tugdonius as far as Lesser (Britain), together with his brother Majanus and his sister Tugdonia": whence gather that it is wrongly affirmed by Lobineau that this kindred of St. Guesnoveus is established by no ancient monument and rests on tradition alone, seeing that among ancient documents the old Office of Léon is certainly to be counted. The most holy family is related to have landed at the city of the Ossimorenses. To what place that appellation agrees is very ambiguous. The whole northern tract of Armorican Brittany, namely, seems to have been once occupied by the Osismii and to have been called Ocismor by the Britons who came; and so several towns and also villages were named cities of the Ossimorenses: certainly in the monuments of the middle age, wherever civitas Ossimorensis is read, it seems that it can by no means be understood of the same seat [Compare Valesius, Notitia Galliarum, p. 395; Walckenaer, Géographie ancienne des Gaules, vol. I, p. 379 and following.]. It was thought right, then, by Albert and Lobineau to interpret it here as Brest, on account of the distance of four miles from the parish of St. Guesnoveus; which place in every age was an excellent harbour, but yet became a castle and then a city much later. "Their means being first paid out to the poor," so one reads in the old Office of Léon, "they were separated from one another into various parts of the solitude, that they might the more freely serve Christ"; making illustrious with the fame of their virtues the tract which lies between Brest, Landerneau and Lesneven in the province of Finistère. And indeed St. Majanus withdrew to a place which from his name was called Loc-Majan, that is place or seat of Majanus, situated in the parish of Plouguin by the shore of the sea; where there is seen a beautiful oratory, long ago dedicated to him Miorcec, Vies etc., p. 659, note 5.. St. Tugdonia entered a monastery of girls in the district of Lower Léon, which St. Paul, bishop of Léon, is said to have once founded in the town of Loc-Ronan ar Fanq, now called St-Ronan. St. Tugdonius died at Guypavas, where he obtained a little cell and oratory Ibid., note 1.. "Not far from there Goeznovaeus," these are again the words of the Office of Léon, "built an oratory in a certain wood, which is also called his penitentiary." There still survives in the neighbourhood of the parish of St. Guesnoveus a field called the wood , and beyond this field near a stream a place whose common name is Peniti; as elsewhere on the bounds of the same diocese of Léon there was once seen the Penity of St. Paul, bishop of Léon Lobineau and Tresvaux, Vies des Saints etc., vol. I, p. 287.. The chapel of the Penitentiary of St. Guesnoveus is now destroyed, nor does any trace survive except a flat and nearly round rock, on which, when a procession is made in suppliant rite, the antiphon is sung: Sacerdos et pontifex Miorcec, p. 659, note 2.. Le Grand affirms that Land was the former name of this place; but Lan or Llan is a sacred building. Because the cell of St. Guesnoveus stood near a little stream in a wood, and Goed is wood to the Britons and ow a stream, Gilles Déric gathered from this Histoire ecclésiastique de Bretagne, vol. I, p. 427 and 428. that the present parish of St. Guesnoveus does not owe its name to the venerable man, but rather that the saint himself was so surnamed from the place of his dwelling; and thus that by Langoueznou was first signified a monastery in a wood near a stream, which was afterwards understood as the monastery of the abbot in the wood near the stream: which kind of etymology, in which the books of Déric abound, since it is not approved by the Bretons themselves, is not even to be examined. That wood the same historian contends was very wide, and indeed extended as far as Coatmel, Guiprouvel, Millisac, Guyler, Coetodon, Guipavas and Beuzic, since Coat or Coet and Guï signify forest, Beu birch and Lis stream: but what geographer would rely on such things, unless other indications were present? This alone suffices for us to know, that Lan-Gouznou is situated four miles from Brest toward the sea bay of the harbour of Abbrevrak.
[5] Where he admits disciples, from Conomorus the Accursed lands, While the blessed man was staying there, macerating his body with fasts and nourishing his mind by prayer to God, he was visited by a British magnate. "It happened however afterwards," are the words of the Office of Léon, "that Count Comorus, exercising hunting at some time in that same wood full of wild beasts, reaching his anachoretic little cell, and having diligently inquired into his name, homeland and manner of life, venerated him exceedingly." As Miorcec shrewdly remarks Lobineau and Tresvaux, Vies des Saints etc., vol. I, p. 287, note 3., Comorus or Conomorus is not a proper name, but a common one, con-mawr, that is great count: for the epithet mawr greatly pleased the Britons, which they commonly applied to extolling and amplifying men, even when there was no reason but the splendour of a vain name; and nothing was more common than the title con-mawr,
especially because they were forbidden to be called kings by the king of the Franks. Yet the Comorus who appears here is known from other sources as well, and is exceedingly notorious among the British hagiographers, surnamed the Plague, the Accursed, and other terms of abuse. He lived, that is, in the sixth century, and perished by a dreadful death in the year 560. It may indeed be argued, in truth, that since he was by far the most celebrated of the name and continually on the lips of the people, whatever was told of a Comorus visiting St. Gueznoveus and heaping generous gifts upon him was transferred to him, although he had long since died when St. Guesnoveus first came into those parts: for the common people are not much concerned with chronology; and that this opinion passed in the fourteenth century into the Chronicle of Saint-Brieuc, where he is addressed in this language — D. Morice, Mémoires de Bretagne, tom. I, col. 16.: Although he was a man of the worst character, he nevertheless granted and gave very many possessions and franchises to the religious man Saint Goueznonus and to his church, situated in the territory of Ossimor. Following this conjecture, Albert Le Grand decided that not Comorus the Plague was to be understood, but his son; but, as we shall say at the end, unless we wish to throw everything into confusion, so that there is no longer any place on which to plant our foot, this opinion must be said to conflict with the order of the times.
[6] [designated in a scarcely credible manner, he receives, and miraculously discovers a spring;] But whoever that count may finally have been, when he had learned from St. Guesnoveus the plan of his life and the wishes of the disciples who were hastening to him, he offered him as much land as he could surround with a raised bank within a fixed hour, so that he might build a monastery there. On the appointed day, as the Lessons of Léon continue, having summoned his brother Majanus, as Albert Le Grand would have it, he marks the ground with a fork; and it miraculously rises up into a double bank on either side, by which the donated field is divided from the rest to the present day. But I fear that these things are of the same kind as those read in other less approved records about the separating and safeguarding of monasteries' possessions, and seem to have arisen from veneration alone: of which sort are the things related about the foundation of the monastery of Thanet in England, marked out by the course of a hind Acta SS., t. VIII Octobris, p. 93.; likewise those set out about the beginnings of Fontenelle in this very volume in the commentary on St. Childemarca; and similarly what you have in the Life of St. Golvinus, bishop of Léon, about the Menehi Sant Goulven, or sacred precinct of St. Golvinus Ap. Legrand, Vie des saints de la Bretagne-Armorique, p. 347.. That field of St. Guesnoveus was reported to have extended four stadia in length and as many in breadth Lobineau et Tresvaux, Vie des saints de Bretagne, t. II, p. 144., so that the whole circuit was sixteen stadia, or 2880 metres: but it is now the common opinion of the local inhabitants that it was a league and a half, or 6674 metres Miorcec, ap. Le Grand., p. 660, not. 2.. Miorcec reconciles these with one another in this way: that the shorter space, traces of which still appear to the south of the church, was the enclosure of the monastery, while the larger was the boundary of the fields, distinguished by no marks. And that enclosure was once held in such reverence that it was considered to enjoy the right of asylum, violators being quite often slain by sudden death Le Grand, p. 660.. The monastic buildings were constructed at the expense of Comorus himself according to the design of St. Majanus, as is read in an ancient Breton poem Ib., not. 5.. Meanwhile, as we are taught by the Lessons of Léon, the holy man Guesnoveus was instructing in the most holy disciplines not a few young men who, out of zeal for Christian virtue, had placed themselves under his discipline. And when he was suffering from a scarcity of water, needed both for the use of the monastery and for that of the workmen, he dug to a depth of two feet at a place divinely shown to him: there he came upon a spring abundant in water, of whose benefit he thereafter made use. That water was once received in a basin of the most beautiful stone, which is sung in the Breton poem to have been procured by St. Majanus: of this basin nothing now exists, but the spring continues to pour out its waters Ib., p. 661, not. 1.. An ebony tree too must have stood there, since Le Grand relates that that tree was planted by St. Guesnoveus and watered by channels drawn from the spring.
[7] St. Hoarzonus is reported to have consecrated the monastery; When the monastery was finished, as the Lessons of Léon continue, its church, which is now a parish church, was duly dedicated by St. Hoarzonus, then bishop of Léon. Here we first come upon the most intricate controversy about the ancient bishops of Léon. Hauréau would have this name struck from their list Gallia Christiana, t. XIV, col 975., since it is too doubtful; on the other hand, de Garaby asserts that this saint sat in that see from the year 635 to 650 Vie des bienheureux et des saints de Bretagne, p. 314.. With him the v. v. Tresvaux very nearly agrees L'Église de Bretagne, p. 194.. I would neither deny this, nor stubbornly affirm it, not being sufficiently equipped with the aid of probable documents: I know this one thing, that in the Cartulary of Landévennec, written at the beginning of the eleventh century, there occurs a cloister of Saint Huardon D. Morice, Mémoires, etc., t. I, col. 179., by which name that same St. Hoarzonus is doubtless designated; and that in the Proper of Léon, in the Lessons on St. Hervæus the exorcist, one reads Miorcec, ap. Le Grand, p. 317, n. 2.: When he was meditating retirement, he was co-opted into the clergy by Saint Hoardonus the bishop on account of the bright marks of divine grace, and, because from a feeling of humility he refused a higher grade, he was ordained exorcist. This testimony would be beyond all exception, if it did not rest on a record of the end of the thirteenth century Ib., p. 322, not. 2., namely the Acts of St. Hervæus, which are by no means approved Lobineau, Vie des saints de Bretagne, t. I, p. 264.; nevertheless no prudent person will deny that it has some force to persuade that St. Huardon or Hoarzonus was a bishop.
[8] [by whom St. Guesnoveus is said to have been summoned to Legio or Léon. But he returns here to the monastery, from which he altogether keeps women away. A lying woman punished by the loss of her cheeses.] And if St. Hoarzonus had dealings with St. Guesnoveus, it is no wonder that, as is read again in the Lessons of Léon, in view of his merits he not long afterwards co-opted him into the number of the canons, indeed of the presbyters, of his cathedral, so that he might make use of his counsel. But, seized by a vehement longing for his former solitude, he obtained by repeated entreaties leave to return to his monastery. There he was a most vigilant guardian of his own chastity and that of his disciples, as is related continuously in those same Lessons. For he so abhorred above all the company and familiarity of women that he did not in any way permit them even access to the enclosures of his cœnobium, a limit being fixed, namely a huge stone, beyond which it was not lawful to advance. When a certain rather impudent woman mocked this law and did not respect the barrier set for her sex, she fell down in sudden death. Nor indeed was it dealt with more gently in the case of another, who did not herself dare to set foot beyond it, but laughingly pushed her companion there when she was thinking of nothing of the kind. The chastisement of another woman, but pertaining to a different kind of thing, is then related in the Breton poem and also by Albert Le Grand: namely, that the holy man was accustomed, while the monastery was being built, to go around the neighbouring farms in order to beg food for the workmen; and that once he asked a farmer's wife for cheese (or rather curdled milk, since the Britons formerly in the island and now in Armorica have an aversion to cheese, which they call rotten butter Miorcec, ap. Le Grand, p. 661, not. 2.); that the woman answered that she had none; to which the holy man replied: "Beyond your meaning you have spoken rightly: you have none;" and indeed, when a little later she looked into the chest, she found all the forms of milk turned into stones, such as are seen everywhere on the seashore; that, terrified, she brought them to the blessed abbot, asking pardon, and did not return home before she had received his blessing. The stones were long preserved in the church of St. Guesnoveus; since their origin was uncertain, these things were told about them Le Grand, Vie, etc., p. 661 et 662.. The same stones also lay for some years on the farmstead of Kergroas; beyond which there was also to be seen a hollow * called Gouélé-San-Gouënou, or bed of St. Guesnoveus Miorcec, ib., p. 662, not 1.: I should suppose that it was his former tomb. For the six fragments of another stone, set into the pavement of the church of St. Guesnoveus, which de Freminville supposed to be the remains of the most holy man's sarcophagus Antiq. du Finisterre, part. II, p. 248., were taken from the monument of William de Touronce, formerly rector or parish priest there Le Grand, p. 663, not. 2..
[9] St. Guesnoveus is said to have been made bishop of Léon; While the most holy abbot was flourishing in the fame of his virtues, they will have it that St. Hoarzonus or Huardonus, of whom we spoke above, died, and that he was elected in his place. Whence these words occur in the Lessons of Léon: Drawn away from his most beloved solitude, the hermit, elected pontiff, thereafter so put on episcopal ways that with singular skill, learning, vigilance, integrity, and piety he ruled the flock entrusted to him for many years; where the question about the first bishops of Léon returns once more. The more recent continuator of Gallia Christiana, in agreement with Morice, refuses to receive the holy man into their list, because firm proof is lacking; and certainly there are no acts that command belief; and Albert Le Grand even declares Ib., p. 664. that he found the name of St. Guesnoveus in no catalogues of the bishops of Léon except in the manuscript catalogue of the priory of Loc Christi an Iselvez and in another of Roland Poullpiguet, canon of Léon. Nevertheless I will profess that, as I have shown a ready willingness to admit St. Hoarzonus to the episcopal order, I think no otherwise about St. Guesnoveus. For in the first place everyone agrees that bishops sat there before the times of St. Guesnoveus; why then would the see have been vacant? And if it was not vacant, where are the names of the successors? Why should those names not be received which, although not drawn from contemporary sources, are nevertheless celebrated from ancient times with episcopal praise? But the documents are more recent, since they scarcely reach back to the eleventh century. But is it not altogether probable that the ancient catalogues of bishops, or at least those names of bishops which were honoured with public cult, were then well known? And indeed, if the diptychs of other churches were to be sifted with the same severity, gaps and lacunæ will have to be introduced everywhere. Nevertheless there is a certain difference, which it does not seem right to conceal. For the ancient Britons did not have only one bishop in each diocese; but, the apostolic custom of creating regional bishops having been extended, bishops were made here and there without a see, often dependent on an abbot, so that (just as now in one monastery a number of presbyters are subject to a superior) then many
bishops were sometimes subject; or the abbot himself was marked with the episcopal character; moreover, as Lobineau gathered from the Acts of St. Samson Vie des saints, t. I, p. 219., titular bishops were not usually consecrated among the Britons unless two assistants without title or see were ordained at the same time: from which it may be seen how great an abundance of bishops there was there. Wherefore it may be that St. Guesnoveus was a bishop, and yet did not occupy the see of Léon or any other. So it is: nevertheless at least so much authority must be granted to the ancient tradition of Léon that it should not be overturned by conjectures and suspicions alone; and in an obscure matter there is no need of more words.
[10] [who is killed by the malicious fall of a hammer in the monastery of St. Corbasius. Relics brought partly to Léon, partly to Lan-Goeznou.] Next, as Le Grand relates (following William the old biographer), and the Breton Poem and also Lobineau agree, when, accompanied by his brother St. Majanus, he was visiting the abbot St. Corbasius, who was building the monastery of Quimperlé, he came little by little to praising his own ascetery, especially the choir of the church, which, as we noted, had been designed by St. Majanus. The architect of St. Corbasius, interpreting this as an insult to himself, let fall a hammer from the high roof, as if inadvertently, but on purpose; so that, falling on the head of St. Guesnoveus, it crushed his neck and brain. The holy man sank to the ground, and, understanding that death was at hand, directed that no inquiry should be made into the slayer; and fortified with the last sacraments, he gave back his soul to God on the 25th day of October. He was solemnly buried by St. Corbasius and his monks, who feared that the clergy of Léon might oppose it. But when the tomb was shortly honoured by the glory of miracles, the holy body was exhumed and carried into the sanctuary. At this translation St. Majanus, being present, asked for some bones as a favour to the people of Léon; these prayers are said to have been of no use, until St. Corbasius said that he consented, provided that the petitioner himself could distinguish those bones among the other relics of the treasury: that St. Majanus then gave himself to prayer; that about midnight his blessed brother appeared to him, advising that it was pleasing to him that his relics should be carried back to his own diocese; that the next day, after the mysteries of the Mass had been celebrated, St. Majanus withdrew into the sanctuary; and that as he prayed before the manifold relics, all the bones of the holy man, even the head, leapt of their own accord into a linen cloth which he had brought with him for gathering the relics; that part was deposited by him at Lan-Goeznou, or the monastery of St. Guesnoveus, and the remaining bones in the cathedral church of Léon. If the miracle, which does not stand on sufficiently good authority, is left out, the rest can easily be accepted. The deeds of St. Corbasius have become known from no other record, yet Garaby nevertheless celebrates him in the supplement of the Lives of the saints of Armorican Brittany at the 19th day of March: on which day, however, he lacks public cult.
[11] [In two parishes, called by his name, he is venerated with the same rites on the feast of the Ascension.] Now there are two parishes in those parts which take their name from St. Guesnoveus: one in the diocese of Saint-Brieuc, two leagues from Moncontour, called Saint-Gouéno, the other in the diocese of Léon and already well enough known by the name Gouesnou or Goueznou, with the epithet saint omitted: which omission is by no means rare in Breton place-names. Those parishes must be distinguished chiefly for this reason, that what belongs to the one seems to be transferred to the other. In the first place each had some of the relics of St. Guesnoveus. For, as is read in the Proper of Dol, part of his relics are contained in a parish church of the diocese of Saint-Brieuc, now famous for his name and patronage. But in the parish of St. Guesnoveus in Léon, which succeeded to the former monastery, the head was preserved in a silver pyx, and separately an arm, likewise adorned with silver. But at the beginning of the overturning of the French state the silver was melted down and converted to profane uses; the head was laid among other skulls of the anatomical theatre of Brest, where a number of persons still related in the year 1837 that they had seen it and had noticed the wound, as Miorcec testifies Ap. Le Grand, p. 664.; so that now only a finger survives there, enclosed in silver. But those two parishes had in common not only that they were called by the same name and possessed relics of the patron; but this also, that, to use nearly the words of the Lessons of Léon, in both places the devout pledge of the relics was honoured every year with triumphal pomp on the very day of the Lord's Ascension by the humble bearing of the nobles and the devotion of the people. That is, in both places two nobles, vested in surplices, with bare heads, carried around the relics of the holy man on a very beautiful bier; pious men unfurled crosses and banners, and a huge multitude followed Le Grand et Miorcec, p. 664.. Since this procession took place on the feast of the Lord's Ascension, and still takes place, it seems at its first beginnings to have been a banal procession: of which institution I remember speaking elsewhere Acta SS., t. X Octobris, p. 861.. And in the parish of St. Guesnoveus of the diocese of Léon, where this very route is kept which is reported to have been the miraculous boundary of the possessions, there was formerly always such ardour that, whatever the weather, the procession had to be made: so that, when once the clergy declared that they were altogether prevented by the inclemency of the weather, the inhabitants nevertheless made the customary circuit: whence a spreading tree, under which they stood, still keeps the name ar Vezen Voulous Miorcec, ap. Le Grand, p. 664, not. 4.. Moreover, among the nobles who put their shoulders under the sacred burden, Albert Le Grand reckons Charles of Blois in the year 1342, John V in the year 1417, and Prince Peter in the year 1455 with his paternal uncle Arthur, constable of France. Le Grand affirms that these distinguished testimonies of piety were given in the diocese of Léon, and Lobineau and Tresvaux do not dissent; but Miorcec hints that he has fallen into error, and that these things were done in the parish of St. Guesnoveus of the diocese of Saint-Brieuc; I would not resist this, especially because Albert does not seem to have known this parish, and would therefore the more easily have referred to the former what concerned this one. I will add finally that in the town of Saint-Brieuc there are a square and a public fountain called Saint-Gouénou after his name Ib., not. 2.; probably because a small chapel in his honour once rose there Cfr. Lobineau et Tresvaux, t. II, p. 146..
[12] The cult of SS. Tugdonius, Majanus, and Tugdonia. Since there will be no further opportune place in our Work to speak of St. Tugdonius, who is reported to have been the father of St. Guesnoveus, and of SS. Majanus and Tugdonia, of whom the former is held to be his brother and the latter his sister, it has seemed good to set out here a few things about their cult. In the forest of Guypavas or Guipavas there are still to be seen ruins and old walls, which on Cassini's topographical maps are called St. Tudon and are reported to have been the remains of the cell and oratory of St. Tugdonius; this space, surrounded by a ditch, is about thirty square paces. Here every year on the feast of the Ascension comes a line of processioners, setting out from the parish of St. Guesnoveus; to the same place are then carried, from the parish of Guypavas, alternately the relics of St. Peter and St. Paul; a station and solemn prayer are made there Garaby, Vies des bienheureux etc. pag. 453 et seqq.. Rather more has become known about St. Majanus, whom the Bretons, omitting mo, the British and Irish mark of affection, call Vajan Vide Carmen britannicum ap. Le Grand et Miorcec, p. 659 et seqq.. I would not, however, repeat what we briefly said above about his architectural knowledge and other praises, and what Le Grand and Miorcec set out more fully; nor yet what is read of him in the Life of St. Hervæus, which may be seen in our Work at the 17th day of June Acta SS. t. III Junii, p. 369.; but I have resolved to confine myself to his cult alone. In the first place the church of Loc-Majan keeps his name; next, in Plouguin (canton of Ploudalmezeau), from before the memory of men there exists under his patronage a small chapel, which was sold off while impiety was running riot in France at the end of the last century; it was then neglected, so that in the year 1823 it was falling to ruin: but afterwards, namely when it was bought back, it was carefully restored. Before these things took place, two small chapels stood next to each other in the parish cemetery, one sacred to the name of St. Anne, the other to that of St. Majanus; these were then reduced to one under the common title of SS. Anne and Majanus. The holy man is shown there in abbatial dress, and his feast is celebrated on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity after the example of many banal processions. He is much invoked by the sick suffering in the head, and benefits are obtained daily: wherefore the innumerable pilgrims who gather there are accustomed to wash their heads with water drawn from the spring into a stone channel Cfr Garaby, pag. 464.. I find nothing about the public veneration of St. Tugdonia.
[13] But why did we indicate at the beginning that blessed Guesnoveus and his companions lived in the later sixth century? They all seem to have lived in the later sixth century. For here too the water sticks fast. If you listen to Le Grand, St. Guesnoveus, aged eighteen, will have come into Armorican Brittany about the year 630; St. Hoarzonus will have dedicated his monastery in the year 642, and will have associated him with the clergy of Léon three years later; finally in the year 650 St. Guesnoveus will have been created bishop of Léon, and will have been wretchedly slaughtered in the year 675. From this order of times and events Garabay did not depart; nor did Lobineau and Tresvaux have anything better to substitute. Deric, on the contrary, thought Histoire ecclesiastique de Bretagne, t. I, p. 427 et 428. that the holy man lived a whole century earlier. For he seemed to himself to see that the years had been assigned by Albert Le Grand not from the authority of manuscript codices, but from his own ingenuity and from conjecture of whatever kind; next, that many with whom St. Guesnoveus is reported to have associated lived in the sixth century. Among them comes first St. Hervæus, into whose Acts St. Majanus, as an illustrious contemporary abbot, is much mingled Ap. Le Grand, p. 319., and also St. Guesnoveus Ib. pag. cit., his name slightly twisted into Grednou and Gredeou Cfr Lobineau et Tresvaux, t. I, p. 267., but more recently wrongly changed into Geduinus or Gedovinus Acta SS., t. III, p. 369, ex Le Grand, p. 219., which is the name of another saint Miorcec, ap. Le Grand, p. 319, not. 1.: and that St. Hervæus departed to a better life on the 22nd day of June in the year 568 Lobineau et Tresvaux, t. I, p. 267.; next, that the Comorus by whom St. Guesnoveus was treated with so much munificence was not the son of the more celebrated Comorus, as we have already seen that Le Grand decided according to his own bent, but Comorus the Accursed himself, very well known from the Acts of St. Samson; and that this man met a dreadful death about the middle of the sixth century; and that there favour moreover
the age of St. Hoarzonus or Huardonus, since he advanced St. Hervæus to the order and office of exorcist; so that St. Guesnoveus cannot be drawn down to the seventh century without St. Hervæus following; and also St. Samson, who nevertheless subscribed the Third Council of Paris in the year 557: for that there were two Saints Samson is a new conjecture of Deric, supported by no ancient documents at all. All the circumstances therefore seem to conspire to the conclusion that St. Guesnoveus flourished in the later sixth century, and not in the seventh. Taken singly these indeed have less weight, inasmuch as they are drawn from writings not altogether good; but the argument is derived not from the force of each one, but from the agreement of them all. I have omitted that St. Guesnoveus is called by the venerable Garaby Vie des bienheureux, etc., p. 454. the godfather and tutor of St. Judicaël, king of Brittany, who was born about the year 590 Lobineau et Tresvaux, t. II, p. 95.; since this rests on no foundation, except that in his Acts Ib. pag. cit. St. Judicaël is reported to have been baptized by a presbyter named Guodeno.
Annotations* St-Vougay
* Quimper
* le bois
* hâvre
* auge
ACTS OF ST. GUESNOVEUS
From the old Lessons of Léon.
Guesnoveus, confessor and bishop of Léon in Armorican Brittany. (S.)
BHL Number: 3609
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
[St. Guesnoveus, living a solitary life in the diocese of Léon, is visited by Comorus;] Lesson I. Blessed Goeznoveus, born of the freer class of the Britons, after the death of his father built an oratory in a certain grove beside a certain stream in a place which was then called Landa a, four thousand paces distant from the city of the Occismi b; which oratory is today called the Penilitium * of St. Goeznoveus c. Lesson II. Now there was at that time Count Commorus d, holding temporal dominion in the territory of the Occismi, who from a love of hunting delighted in frequenting Landa and the grove in which the saint lay hidden, on account of the abundance of wild beasts that was to be found there. Count Comorus therefore, having heard the fame of the holy man, was made a sharer in his prayer by devout supplication and by benefaction. Lesson III. For when the man of God Goeznoveus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, desired to build a monastery for God and for his ministers, whom he proposed to establish in it, the same Comorus both granted a place sufficiently suitable and spacious for the monastery, and paid for the greatest part of the expense of building the monastery; and further assigned to him, for the support of the ministers of God, all the land round about, namely as much as the saint himself could go around in a continuous journey, a certain quantity of time being appointed for this.
[2] [who, marvelling at his holiness, grants him a great circuit of fields, in a miraculous manner] Lesson IV. Blessed Goeznoveus, therefore, manfully pressing on with divine works, humble and modest in every action, long-suffering in the want of temporal things, ever abounding in the bowels of charity, sparing to himself, generous to others, and distinguished in every uprightness of conduct, taming the flesh by thirst, hunger, continual labour, and continual vigils, reconciling God to himself and to others by devout prayers, was loved by all who knew him by sight or by hearsay. Lesson V. But that miracle must not be passed over in silence which the Lord deigned to work in order to declare the merit of his servant. A day was appointed on which the saint was to go around the land; and an hour was fixed, beyond which he could acquire no land for his monastery. The man of God therefore goes out of the cloister, holding in his hand a two-forked staff, by whose forked head the very earth was marked behind the footsteps of the holy man. Lesson VI. And when he had proceeded about the space of one stadium toward the north, he turned his step to the east, and proceeded, not turning aside to the right or to the left, up to the place which is called Head of the Grove, and there, making as it were a corner, he directed himself in a straight course to the south.
[3] designated. How the blessed man provided for the workmen. Lesson VII. And when he had traversed about four stadia, making a second corner, he turned aside to the right and proceeded to the west for about four stadia; and there, marking a third corner, he returns toward the regions of the north, making a journey of about four stadia, and there he fixed the fourth corner, and turned back again to the east, wishing to reach the place from which he had begun to start his circuit. Lesson VIII. Behold a thing greater than all human credulity and reason, were it not for faith and * by divine miracle, exceeding all reason. Wherever the servant of God walked after he had moved his foot from the cloister, the earth was raised up on his right and on his left. And a double earthen bank rose up, to such a height that it could serve cities or castles as a rampart and a defence against enemies e. Lesson IX. Blessed Goeznoveus, therefore, at the time when the workmen were pressing on with the work, in his own person begged alms through the neighbouring houses for the refreshment of the workmen, who, after their manner, many times demanded to be refreshed beyond the means of the holy man f.
ANNOTATIONS.
* Pœnititium.
* sit?