Sabine Baring-Gould - The Lives of the Saints, Volume III (of 16) - March

He opened many fountains in dry places, healed many brackish streams, raised many dead to life, and had many visions of God and of Angels. In one of these visions he was warned that he should depart, March 1st. Thenceforth he was more zealous in the discharge of his duty: on the Sunday before his death he preached a sermon to the assembled people, and after consecrating and receiving the Lord's Body, he was seized with a sudden pain: then turning to the people he said, "Brethren, persevere in the things which ye have heard of me: on the third day hence I go the way of my fathers." On that day, while the clergy were singing the Matin Office, he had a vision of his Lord; then, exulting in spirit, he exclaimed, "Raise me after Thee." With these words he breathed his last.

He was canonized by Pope Callixtus II., A.D. 1120; who is also said to have granted an indulgence to all those who made a pilgrimage to his shrine. Three kings of England – William the Conqueror, Henry II., and Edward I. – are said to have undertaken the journey, which when twice repeated was deemed equal to one pilgrimage to Rome; whence arose this saying: —

"Roma semel quantum, dat bis Menevia tantum."

A noble English matron, Elswida, in the reign of Edgar, transferred his relics, probably in 964, from S. David's to Glastonbury.

S. David's plain but empty shrine stands now in the choir of S. David's Cathedral to the north of Edward Tudor's altar tomb.

[S. Albinus seems to have enjoyed an amount of popularity as a saint which it is difficult to account for. Besides receiving great veneration at Angers, where his feast is a double, and in Brittany, where it is a semi-double, in Gnesen, in Poland, it was observed as a double. His name appears in most Martyrologies, as those of Usuardus, Hrabanus, Wandelbert, &c. Authority: – His life written by Fortunatus, a priest, his contemporary.]

S. Albinus, or S. Aubin , as he is called in France, belonged to an ancient family at Vannes, in Brittany. He embraced the religious life in the abbey of Cincillac, called afterwards Tintillant, near Angers. At the age of thirty-five, in the year 504, he was chosen abbot, and twenty-five years afterwards, bishop of Angers. In the 3rd Council of Orleans, in 538, he caused the thirtieth canon of the Epaone to be revived, which declared excommunication to those who contracted marriage within the first or second degree of consanguinity. His life is singularly devoid of incident which could mark it off from that of many another abbot and bishop, and it is therefore difficult to account for his undoubted popularity in France in ancient times.

[Ado, Usuardus, Molanus, Belgian, and Cologne Martyrologies, Gallican and Roman Martyrologies. Authorities: – Bede, lib. V. C. 12; and the life of S. Willibrod. There exists a forged life of S. Swibert, under the name of Marcellinus, which was composed in the 15th century, and which is undeserving of attention. S. Swibert is called the Elder to distinguish him from S. Swibert, B. of Verden, in Westphalia, in 807. (April 30); there was also another Swibert about 750, abbot in Cumberland, mentioned by Bede. Many writers have confounded together S. Swibert the Elder, and S. Swibert the Younger.]

S. Swibert was a Northumbrian monk who had been trained under S. Egbert, whom he accompanied to Ireland. Egbert desired greatly the conversion of Friesland, but was unable himself to attempt it, and his zeal communicated itself to his disciple Swibert, and when S. Willibrord sailed in 690 for that country, Swibert, at Egbert's desire, accompanied him. They landed at the mouth of the Rhine, at Katwyck, and Willibrord established his head quarters at Utrecht. Two years before, Pepin l'Herstall had conquered Radbod, king of Frisia, and had obliged him to ask peace, and abandon to the mayor of the palace his most important possessions, amongst others the whole basin between the Meuse and the Rhine, where stand now the town of Leyden, Delft, Gouda, Brill, and Dortrecht, as well as the city of Utrecht.

Finding it difficult to make headway against the superstitions of paganism, Willibrord appealed to the authority of Pepin, who sent Willibrord to Rome to receive mission and benediction for his work from the Holy See. On his return, success declared for the apostles, and four years after, Pepin sent Willibrord again to Rome with letters praying the pope to ordain him bishop to the nation he had converted. Pope Sergius consecrated him in 696, and Willibrord fixed his see at Utrecht, of which he was the first bishop. In the meantime, Swibert had been labouring in Hither Friesland, or the southern part of Holland, the northern part of Brabant, and the counties of Guelders and Cleves, with great success. In 697, Swibert was in England, probably in quest of fellow-helpers for the harvest, for the fields were white thereto, and he received episcopal consecration from the hands of S. Wilfred of York, then in banishment from his see. Swibert, invested with this sacred character, returned to his flock, and committing them to the care of S. Willibrord, penetrated further up the Rhine, and preached to the Boructarii, a people living below Cologne, with success. But the Saxons invading the country, swept away his work, and he retired into the islet of Kaiserwerth in the Rhine, which Pepin had given him, where he founded a monastery, which flourished for many ages, till it was converted into a collegiate church of secular canons.

His relics were found in 1626, at Kaiserwerth, in a silver shrine, and there are preserved and venerated.

[Aberdeen Breviary.]

S. Adrian, bishop of S. Andrews, trained the holy man from his childhood, and appointed him to be his archdeacon. He afterwards sent him to preach the Gospel in the island of May, at the mouth of the Frith of Forth; he then went into Fife. The Church suffered severely from the incursions of the Northmen who ravaged the coasts, burning churches and monasteries, robbing them of their sacred vessels, and carrying off the unfortunate people captive. S. Monan is said by Butler to have been martyred by these invaders, but this is inaccurate. There is no evidence that he died any other than a peaceful death. He was buried at Inverny.

[Gallican Martyrology; on this day at Bayonne. By Saussaye and Ferrarius on March 3rd. Authority: – Two lives of no great antiquity, one written shortly after 1293.]

Leo, Gervase, and Philip, were the three sons of pious parents in the North of France; Leo was elected to be archbishop of Rouen, but resigned his government of the diocese into the hands of vicars, and betook himself with his two brothers to Bayonne, where Christianity had made but small progress, much heathen superstition remained, and a colony of Moors had settled there. He was well received, and succeeded in making many converts, but was killed by some pirates who had lived in the town, but had been ejected by the citizens on account of their nefarious deeds. According to the legend, a spring of water bubbled up where S. Leo fell, and he arose and carried his head to the place where he had last been preaching.

He is represented in Art, at Bayonne, where he is greatly venerated, as a bishop, holding his head in his hands.

[Spanish and Benedictine Martyrologies. Office with twelve lections in the Coimbra Breviary. His translation is observed on Sept. 1st. Authority: – A life by Brother Stephen of Cella-nuova, about 1180.]