Saint Armel

One of the principal and most renowned of those who flourished at that time in Armorica was Saint Armel. He w saint Armel 6th-century Breton abbot and confessor, founder of monasteries. as born in 482, of noble parents, in Great Britain; bu t the names of Grande-Bretagne Birthplace of the saint. his father and mother, and that of the province of the island where he was born, are unknown. His early years were spent in study; and as most of the masters who instructed the Breton youth were holy religious who took incomparably more care to raise them in piety than in human letters, which they did not neglect nonetheless, the young Armel, who had a clear and penetrating mind and an excellent nature, soon surpassed his companions in science and piety. He applied himself so carefully to both, and made such admirable progress day by day, that it is said that, while still only a young schoolboy, he was already regarded by others as a master and as a saint; and he became even more respectable to them when one of them, who had a very violent fever and was currently in the tremors of an attack, having imagined that Armel's cloak would heal him, had no sooner put it on his shoulders than he was delivered from his illness.

Armel, meditating one day on the passage of the Gospel where Our Lord says that no one can be his true disciple if he does not renounce all earthly things, took this commandment literally, and, without delving into the fact that it is more for the heart than for external things, he believed that a purely interior detachment was not enough for anyone who would want to be a perfect disciple, and that it was necessary to effectively leave all things to attach oneself only to Jesus Christ. He therefore immediately took the resolution to leave his homeland, his parents, his goods, his hopes, to go to Armorica, which could give rise to the inference that he was from Cambria or Cornwall, since it was not the Saxons who forced him to leave his country and come to seek another establishment. His zeal inspired the same sentiments in those of his companions who imitated him most closely, and in a man of high quality, named Carencinal Carencinal Noble companion of Saint Armel and relative of Saint Paul of Léon. , a relative of Saint Paul, bishop of Léon, and who possessed great wealth.

Having embarked with this chosen troop, he came to land in the country of Ack, in the diocese of Léon, where, having advanced inland, he built an oratory and small cells. He lived with his companions in great austerity and continuous application to the service of God. Time has changed the state of this place, and this first monastery is today a parish called Plou-Arzel, from the name of th e Saint. ( Plou-Arzel Site of the first monastery founded by Armel in Léon. Which is, as far as the name is concerned, the same thing as Plou-Armel, for the letter l easily changes into z in the Breton language.)

It must be believed that the life which Saint Armel and his companions, who had chosen him as their abbot, led in this wilderness was most edifying, and that the miracles of the servant of God were quite fre quent, since Childebert, Childebert, roi de France King of the Franks who supported the saint. King of France, was informed of the extraordinary merit of the holy religious of this community, and of the wonders that God performed through their abbot, even though they were hidden at the furthest extremities of his states and on the edge of the sea. This great reputation was the reason that this monarch, whom the original legend praises, in this encounter, for his great piety and his magnificence toward the churches, commanded these pious solitaries to come and find him. Persuaded that to obey kings is to obey God Himself, they all went to the court with Armel. They remained there for several months, as penitent as they were in their solitude itself; but finally, as the court was not a place suitable for persons of their character and way of life, they soon asked the king for permission to withdraw. He had recognized, through the conversations he had often had with them, that they breathed only for solitude, and had the kindness, in dismissing them, to grant each of them lands to build a hermitage, with the consent of their abbot, so that they returned to Plou-Arzel.

Saint Armel was the only one who could not obtain from the king permission to return to solitude; for Childebert, who had recognized his great prudence and who found such benefit in his counsel, felt great pain in separating from him, and whatever aversion the Saint had for the life of the court, he was obliged to grant so many repeated delays to the affectionate prayers of the prince that he remained six whole years with him without being able to recover his freedom. The court, far from corrupting him by its examples and maxims, profited from the long stay he made there; but finally Childebert, fearing to offend God by keeping Armel longer against his inclination, dared no longer oppose such repeated requests, and consented to the desire of the holy abbot; but as he only lost him with regret, he presented him, upon his departure, with a fairly large expanse of uncultivated and deserted land, in a district half as far from Paris as the Leon region, in order to be able to learn, more often and with ease, of his news. This land was in the country of Rennes, on the river Seiche, in a place that is called today Saint-Armel-des-Boschaux Saint-Armel des Boschaux Site of the second monastic foundation near Rennes. . Armel built a monastery there which was the reason that this place bore for a long time the name of Moustier.

When Saint Armel arrived in the Rennes region, it is said that he caused a spring to gush forth in a village deprived of water. As soon as he had established his dwelling in this district, he lived there in an even more perfect manner, and in continuous application to God. His frequent miracles soon made him known to everyone, which provided him with many opportunities to exercise his charity and patience. Fearing, however, and fleeing from praise and applause, he went to visit his former disciples in the various solitudes where they had spread, and, finding with sorrow that there were still idolaters in several places in the countryside, he brought the light of the Gospel there through his preaching with such success that he had the consolation of converting an infinite number of people to the faith. It was in this way that he triumphed over the infernal serpent, and to represent this kind of victory he is depi cted w dragon Symbol of the saint's victory over paganism or evil. ith a dragon that he holds bound with his stole: for as for that great serpent which devastated the country, so it is said, and which he dragged to the summit of Mount Saint-Armel, from where he commanded it to throw itself into the Seiche river, this is undoubtedly a pure fiction of the ordinary style of most writers of legends.

The lessons of the proper office of Saint Armel, in the ancient breviary of Léon, state that he performed an infinity of other miracles, some of which are reported therein. Finally, this faithful servant of God died in his monastery on August 16, after having celebrated Holy Mass there and having predicted, long before, the day and hour of his death. His body was buried in that very place, and his tomb is still shown there today. His relics are kept in the parish church of Ploërmel. Expose d to pro Ploërmel Town of which Saint Armel is the patron and where his relics rest. fanation during the Revolution, they we re collect Révolution Period during which the saint's relics were hidden and lost. ed by a woman who kept them with care and returned them when the Revolution had ceased. His memory is very famous in the province. Besides an infinity of chapels in his name, and the churches, now parish churches, of his two monasteries, the town of Ploërmel, in the ancient diocese of Saint-Malo and today of Vannes, named, in the titles of Redon, for more than eight hundred years, Plebs-Armel, recognizes and honors him as its special patron, and its main church is dedicated to him. The ancient breviaries of Rennes, of Léon, of Saint-Brieuc, mark the feast of Saint Armel on August 16, with nine lessons. The Proper of Vannes, printed in 1660, joins Saint Armel with Saint Roch. The ancient breviary of the abbey of Saint-Méen, giving the first place to Saint Arnoul, bishop, on August 16, only makes a commemoration of Saint Armel. The ancient breviary of the abbey of Saint-Melaine also marks the same rite for this Saint. The church of Nantes also indicates the feast of this Saint on August 16. Excerpt from the Lives of the Saints of Brittany, by Dom Lobineau, Benedictine of the Congregation of Saint-Maur. New edition, revised, corrected and augmented by Abbé Tresvaux, canon, vicar general and official of Paris, volume 1.