Saint Ernee and his companions

Ernée is clearly designated by the oldest historians as the leader of this pious troop. It also appears from the same monuments that Bishop Inno cent gave them a l'évêque Innocent Bishop of Le Mans who ordained Constantianus. favorable welcome, and that his reputation for holiness, and the marked protection he showed for the monastic order, contributed to attracting them to his diocese. The prelate, knowing the regions that could best meet their purpose, and where they could at the same time be useful through the work of preaching, designated for them the Passais, a country newly reunited with the Church of Le Mans, through the suppression of the Church of the Diablintes. Innocent even conferred the priesthood upon a great number of these solitaries.

Ernée settled in the part of this solitude that presented more fertile soil, and which was known by the name of Celsiacus (Ceaucé) Celsiacus (Ceaucé) Site of the foundation of the monastery of Saint Ernée. . Alnée established his cell at some distance from that of his friend. Ernée first built an oratory which he dedicated to Saint Martin; then he had a monastery raised around it where he soon had the consolation of seeing up to thirty monks, living in perfect observance of the rules he had prescribed, and in admirable fervor.

The humble cloister built by Saint Ernée had already been in existence for many years when it received within its walls a guest whose passage was to leave long-lasting memories. It was in the year 56 0; Clota Clotaire King of the Franks who supported the foundation of the monastery. ire, then king of all Gaul, had seen his son Chramne revolt against him for the second time, and this young prince was supported in his rebellion by the leader of the Kimris of Lower Brittany, Conomor. The Frankish king had resolved to crush this revolt by force of arms, and he was advancing at the head of his soldiers when he learned that there was in the country he was crossing an abbot and a community who enjoyed a great reputation for holiness. The march of his army led him near the monastery; he resolved to visit it. Ernée, warned of this plan, went to meet the monarch with all his religious, and they received him in their cloister with the chants of the Church, as was the custom for receiving kings when they visited the servants of God.

The abbot offered the king and his retinue refreshments; but as wine was not in abundance in the monastery, God deigned by a miracle to come to the aid of His servants, and nothing was lacking in this regard for the needs of Clotaire and those who accompanied him. Ernée predicted to the king his victory over the rebels and contributed through his prayers to obtaining for him a complete triumph.

In return for the hospitality he had received, Clotaire made considerable gifts to the abbey of Ceaulcé and enriched it with several estates; for, says the historian of our Saint, this king loved the servants of God and desired to extend the power and greatness of the Church; thus, in his time and under his brother Childebert, one saw a great number of monasteries and hospitals built. The king's protection was for the monastery of Ceaulcé the source of another advantage; the holy house found itself from then on more independent in its existence.

Ernée continued to provide examples of every virtue; he was especially admired for his abstinence, his vigils, his spirit of prayer, and his love and generosity toward the poor. Often, for his only nourishment, he was content with bread and water, and gave the rest of his meal to the indigent. Often, too, he would take this modest repast on the bare ground, so as to enjoy for longer the communion with God and the angels in prayer. So many merits were rewarded with the gift of miracles.

One day, while he was at work with the brothers, some distance from the monastery, a woman brought him her child who was mute, and said to him in a tearful tone: "Servant of God, I had a vision last night, and I saw a friend of God who told me to bring this child to you, and that you would restore to him the use of speech." The Saint, quite astonished at this speech, said to her: "O good sister, it will be the Lord who heals him, and not I, a sinful man. Go then and pray for this child in the church, and make an offering; as soon as I have returned from work, I will pray on my part for this intention." The woman did as the man of God had told her, and he himself, as soon as he had returned, began to pray with the community; he anointed the child's lips with holy oil, and he did not cease his prayer throughout the night, until the next day when he had finally obtained the grace he was imploring.

Shortly after, an elderly man, who had lost his sight, was brought to the man of God. Ernée touched him with his saliva, anointed him also with holy oil, then invoked over him the name of Jesus Christ, and the blind man instantly recovered his sight.

Later, one of the religious of the monastery fell into such a grave illness that he seemed near his last breath; the other brothers all rushed to help him with their prayers, and at the same moment, news of the religious's imminent death was brought to Ernée: "The Lord can restore this brother to us," the abbot said to the monk who was speaking to him, "He can ensure that we do not have to mourn his loss, but that we may still be comforted by him." Then he added: "Go quickly; command this brother, in the name of obedience, not to leave us before I am present." — "My father," said the messenger, "if you do not hasten to come, you will no longer find him alive; for I myself no longer hope to see him living." Ernée said to him: "Go, and do what I command you; in the meantime, I am going to sing Mass, and after the office is finished, I will follow you to bring the divine communion to this brother." The man of God accomplished everything he had just said, and, as soon as the office was finished, he brought to the dying religious, to strengthen him, the body and blood of the Savior. Immediately the dying man, already deprived of speech and unable to breathe, found himself restored to a perfect state of health. He lived for a long time afterward, and he himself recounted the miracle to the historian of the holy abbot.

During the long years that Ernée directed the abbey of Ceaucé, he was not content to instruct and direct his religious; he also announced the Gospel throughout the region. Furthermore, in order to make all the monks of his monastery capable of preaching the word of God, he applied them to the study of letters. Carrying his charity even further, he admitted into his cloistral school clerics and men belonging to different classes of secular life, which indicates that there were, among the monks of this monastery, skilled and renowned masters.

Finally, at a very advanced age, and under the episcopate of Saint Dom nole, Ernée Abbot and founder of the monastery of Ceaucé in the 6th century. Ernée died in his monastery, on the fifth of the ides of August, around the year 560. God reserved for his servant a sweet consolation at this supreme moment; he sent to all the religious, to the disciples of his school, and to several priests, the revelation of this imminent death. All hastened to be witnesses of the passing of the holy Abbot, and attended his funeral, which was remarkable above all for the miracles that took place there. Two blind men recovered their sight, and four other infirm persons were healed. For a long time these wonders continued in the church of Saint-Georges where the body of Ernée rested, in the village of Ceaucé. The monastery did not cease to be a beacon of light for several centuries, and subsisted until the invasions of the Normans. At that time, the relics of our Saint were transferred to Notre-Dame de Beaune City of birth and ministry of the saint in Burgundy. the church of Notre-Dame de Beaune, in the diocese of Dijon.

Saint Alnée Saint Alnée Companion of Saint Ernée and founder of a monastery dedicated to Saint Peter. , a companion of Saint Ernée, was also a native of Aquitaine; he came to the diocese of Le Mans to seek a retreat suitable for the desire he felt to live unknown to the world and to devote himself to the conversion of the infidels. He accompanied Saint Ernée and Saint Bohamad, for all three had the same purpose. They were followed by a fairly large number of people desirous of monastic perfection; this allowed Alnée to build a monastery immediately. This cloister was in the territory of Ceaulcé, near that of Saint Ernée, and dedicated under the patronage of Saint Peter.

Alnée applied himself with his monks to cultivating the fallow lands that surrounded the monastery, and he did not neglect the preaching of Christian truths to the neighboring populations. Soon the fame of his virtues and those of his religious attracted new disciples, eager to receive his lessons and live under his guidance. One even saw, a remarkable thing at that time, priests leaving a freer life to submit to the observances of the regular life in the monastery of Saint Alnée. Several wealthy people distributed their goods to the poor and came to shut themselves away with the servants of God.

Clotaire, returning from the expedition in which he had extinguished the rebellion of Chramne in the blood of that guilty prince, passed near the monastery of Alnée. The holy Abbot made it a duty to go and present eulogies to the monarch. As he was taking off the monastic mantle he wore on his shoulders and presenting it to one of the assistants so that he might hold it for a moment, the latter pretended to extend his hand to receive it, but acted in such a way as to let it fall to the ground. This deceitful hand was suddenly struck with paralysis and deprived of all movement. By a new prodigy, a ray of sunlight supported the garment so that it would not touch the ground. This miracle lasted long enough to be seen and admired by the king and his entire court, so that the esteem in which the holy Abbot was already held became even greater, and he could only withdraw after having been showered with honors and gifts by the monarch and all the great men who surrounded him.

Other prodigies of the holy Abbot are recounted, the narrative of which can serve to initiate the reader into the ecclesiastical and monastic customs and usages of that time. One night, at the moment when Alnée was entering the oratory with the community to sing the Vigils, the light that always illuminated this holy place was found to be extinguished. The Abbot prostrated himself and prayed; the brothers, however, hastened to look for light, but it was in vain; not a spark of fire was found in the house. The hour of the office was passing, and the holy man, occupied with his prayer, did not notice it. Some of the brothers, seeing this delay, warned the Abbot; immediately he rose, made the sign of the cross over a candle, and the light suddenly relit in the sight of all the monks.

A man who lived in the neighborhood of the monastery, and who was named Bondus, hastening to arrive at the basilica on a day when the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady was being celebrated, did not see, in the rapidity of his course, a well that was before his steps, and he fell into it. The neighbors pulled him out promptly, but he was already dead. It was announced to the Saint how this man had met his death in the eagerness with which he was going to the monastery to attend the divine service: this news saddened him significantly and he ordered that the corpse be brought to him. He touched it and anointed it with blessed oil, then he began to pray with the whole community, and continued his prayer for a long time; finally, in the presence of all the spectators, the dead man returned to life.

A man called Anserius had been ill for many years, and all human remedies remained useless. Having been presented to Alnée, the latter prayed for him, anointed him with blessed oil, and he recovered his health. Later, a young girl possessed by the demon was brought to him, and he healed her as well by praying for her. Many other prodigies performed by the Servant of God were also recounted, but the details have not come down to us.

This holy Abbot died on September 11 and was buried by his disciples and his monks with many honors in the cell he had inhabited. Numerous and striking miracles occurred at his tomb, according to his historian who appears to have been one of his disciples, for there was a school for the study of letters in the monastery of Saint Alnée.

Saint Bohamad (Bohamadus) very probably established his small mon astery in the Saint Bohamad Companion of Ernée, founder of a monastery near Domfront. neighborhood of Saint Ernée and Saint Alnée, in the Passais, near the source of the Beaudonet stream, but ancient monuments do not give us certainty in this regard. In the monastery was a religious man tormented for several years by a continuous fever; Bohamad restored his health by anointing him with blessed oil. By the virtue of the sign of the cross, he healed an old man who had lost the use of a hand, and a woman who suffered from a contraction of nerves in her arms and legs.

A wealthy woman of high position, who for a long time had experienced the most acute pains, was delivered from them by the prayers of the Saint. To show him her gratitude and veneration, she entrusted her son to him, begging him to have him educated in the school of his monastery. The disciple soon became the imitator of his master's virtues; after having tasted the sweetness of contemplation, he no longer wished to consent to leave it for the enjoyments that the world offered him. He survived the holy Abbot, who died on August 5, around the year 550.

It is still believed that the place where Saint Bohamad established his monastery can be recognized; it is designated by a parish church and a town that took its place after it had been destroyed by the peoples of the North; it is today Saint-Bomer, near Domfront.

Saint Front Saint Front First bishop of Périgueux, object of the devotion of Astier. chose at the same time his retreat in the solitudes of the Passais. This anchorite, born in the vicinity of Trier towards the end of the 5th century, abandoned his family and his homeland while still young, and retired to the Abbey of Micy. After having practiced the religious virtues there for some time under the guidance of Saint Maximin, the desire for contemplation made him yearn for the eremitic life. He communicated his thought to a religious of the same monastery named Gallus, who is commonly called Saint Gault. Divine grace had placed the same dispositions in the heart of this religious, who, not content with approving his design, declared to him that he would join him to imitate him.

The two Saints obtained permission from Maximin to retire into the desert, and they headed towards Maine, upon the news they were given that the bishop Saint Innocent liked to see the solitudes and forests of his diocese populated by monks.

The two religious first presented themselves to Saint Innocent, and with his approval they established their dwellings in two regions of the diocese far from one another. Gault fixed his residence in the forest of Concise, near the place where the city of Laval was later built; Front chose the solitudes of the Passais. His cell was situated on a high rock above a vast forest, and bathed by a small river named today the Varenne; it is on this same mound that one sees in our days the city of Domfront, which was formed ar ound the Domfront Town near the saint's place of retreat and an administrative center during the Revolution. oratory of our holy anchorite, and which still bears his name.

Saint Front was not, like most of the other solitaries of whom we have spoken until now, the father of a new monastery; after having built with his own hands a small cell and an oratory, he devoted himself entirely to contemplation there. However, he did not fail to go out from time to time to evangelize the neighboring populations, and to teach them to know Jesus Christ. He found many idolaters there, and converted a good number of them. He destroyed a temple dedicated to Ceres, performed several miracles that the legendaries have not reported in detail, and died the death of the just towards the middle of the 6th century. He was buried in an oratory that he had built below the rock of Saint-Vincent.

Saint Gault or Gal, the friend, the confidant, and the companion of Saint Front, was also born in the vicinity of Trier, towards the end of the 5th century, to a family distinguished by its piety. He had serious inclinations early on, and was moved by grace to renounce the world, to occupy himself only with the things of eternity. Having embraced the monastic life in the Abbey of Micy, he showed himself there to be a constant observer of the rule, and was an object of edification for all his brothers. But after having been tested for a long time in the exercises of the cloistered life, according to the doctrine of the holy Fathers, he asked Saint Maximin for the grace to move to the desert. The great abbot of Micy permitted him to follow his desire, and Gault left with his blessing.

The new anchorite therefore came to the diocese of Le Mans, and fixed his dwelling near the forest of Concise, then much more extensive than it is today, in a country almost entirely deserted. The detailed account of the actions of the Servant of God has not reached us; we only know that he distinguished himself by the holiness of his life and by a great number of miracles. His death occurred around the year 530, a few years after that of Saint Innocent.

At the same period, the virtues and wonders of a holy hermit named Brice (Brictius), who inhabited the solitudes of the Passais, were admired. He too had first led the cenobitic life in the abbey of Micy, and the love of contemplation had led him to seek a deeper retreat. He followed Saint Avitus and Saint Calais when they left the Orléanais abbey, and came to establish his cell at a small distance from that which Saint Front had already inhabited for some years. One sees today, at the same place where the hermitage of Saint Brice was, a town and a church that bear his name and recognize him as their patron. This parish is now in the diocese of Séez. There is also in the diocese of Le Mans another parish that bears the same name and honors the same patron. In this solitude, Brice led a truly angelic life, and, despite his austerities, he reached an extreme old age; for he died towards the end of the 6th century.

Taken from the History of the Church of Le Mans, by Dom Piolin.