Saint Cagnoald

It was difficult for Cagnoald, enveloped, so to speak, in this atmosphere of holiness, not to be initiated early into the practice of virtues. Thus, from his youth, he acquired a taste for holy things. The nascent school of Luxeuil was already casting a great radiance: Cagneric resolved to send his son there as soon as he was of age to begin his education. There, the discip le of Co Colomban Founder of the Abbey of Luxeuil and friend of Saint Nicetius. lumbanus found a crowd of young people from the most noble families: Acharius, Ragnacharius, Donatus, Agilus, his relative, and many others with whom he vied in efforts of virtue and science.

It appears that Cagnoald knew how to distinguish himself in this elite group, f or Saint Colum saint Colomban Founder of the Abbey of Luxeuil and friend of Saint Nicetius. banus conceived a particular friendship for him. We read in the Life of Saint Faron that he called him the child devoted to God. He also wished for him to be raised to the priesthood: an honor quite rare at that time within monasteries. He even attached him to his person in the capacity of minister. This was the name given to the religious specifically charged with serving the abbot and accompanying him on his excursions. This office procured for Cagnoald the signal honor of seeing Columbanus more closely, of being, in a way, the confidant of all his secrets, and the necessary witness to the favors with which heaven showered him. It is presumed that it was shortly after 590 that Cagnoald entered Luxeuil, that is to say, at the very moment of the monastery's foundation.

When Saint Columbanus, around the year 610, was forced to flee before the wrath of King Thierry King of Burgundy, grandson of Brunhilda, admonished by Columbanus for his morals. Theuderic, Cagnoald could not accompany him; for the holy abbot had been forbidden to take with him any religious other than those who were of Irish or Breton origin. The prince's henchmen were forced to use violence to prevent the desolate disciples from following their master; and, long after the departure of Columbanus, no monk could yet leave the monastery with impunity, so great was the hatred with which Theuderic pursued the noble exile! It was only at the prayer of Saint Agilus, and thanks to a miracle, that this severe prohibition was lifted. Cagnoald hastened to seize the opportunity to rejoin his master.

Theuderic's order had been that Columbanus should be taken back to Ireland; but Heaven opposed the execution of this plan. The Abbot of Luxeuil then thought of going to Theudebert, King of Austrasia, and his path lay through the Brie region. Now, the lord Cagneric lived at Pipisnium, near Meaux. Columbanus came to see him there, and was received with the honors due to his holiness. It appears that he spent some time there; Cagneric even wished to send away the guards that Clotaire had given him to escort him to Metz: in the hope, says the historian, of keeping him longer, in order to benefit himself, and to allow his whole family to benefit from the examples and lessons of the man of God. It was then that Columbanus blessed Burgundofara, still a child, and consecrated her to God. One may without implausibility suppose that Cagnoald reunited there with his much-missed master, and accompanied Saint Eustasius on the journey he made there. We read, in fact, in the Life of Saint Eustasius, that this Saint went twice to Cagneric's; which allows one to conjecture that it was there that he rejoined Columbanus. In any case, we see Cagnoald following Saint Columbanus to Bregenz, sharing his hardships, especially devoted to his service, and imitating the virtues of which he contemplated in him such a perfect model. He was a witness to the miracle by which God came to the aid of the distress of the pious colony; he ate of those miraculous birds whose flavor, according to Saint Eustasius, surpassed the most delicate fare on the tables of kings. Moreover, he himself became the instrument of divine power, in a circumstance that the monk Jonas recounts in these terms:

"At the time when Columbanus, having retired into solitude beneath a rock, was consuming his body with fasts and had no other food than wild fruits, a bear came to wreak havoc in the forest and began to devour and knock down all the fruits in its path. When the hour of the meal approached, Columbanus sent his minister Cagnoald to fetch the usual provisions. The latter obeyed; but, seeing the ravages caused by the bear, he returned in haste to inform his father. Columbanus ordered him to return and to divide the share between the bear and himself. Cagnoald, without hesitation, returned, took a stick, traced a line of demarcation, and commanded the bear, in the name of the man of God, to respect these limits. A prodigious thing: continues the historian, the animal, obeying, dared not infringe upon the prohibition and contented itself with the share assigned to it as long as the holy abbot remained in that place."

In 612, when Theuderic defeated his brother Theudebert near Tolbiac, Cagnoald was still with Saint Columbanus, as evidenced by the following account told by the same historian: "At that time, the man of God inhabited the desert and was content with the service of a single minister. At the hour when the battle of Tolbiac began, the Saint was reading while seated on a tree trunk; suddenly, sleep overcame him, and he saw what was happening between the two kings. Having immediately awakened, he called his minister, told him of the bloody combat being waged between the princes, and lamented with a sigh the quantity of blood that was to be shed there. The minister said to him, in a fit of boldness: 'O my father! Support King Theudebert with your prayers, so that he may triumph over our common enemy Theuderic.' Columbanus replied: 'The advice you give me is as foolish as it is irreligious. It is not thus that the Lord understands it, who commands us to pray for our enemies. It is for the just Judge to decide between the two kings.' Cagnoald, having later inquired about the day and hour of the battle of Tolbiac, confirmed the accuracy of the revelation made to Columbanus."

Victory having delivered all the states of Theodebert to Theuderic, Columbanus was forced to leave for Italy. It was then that Cagnoald parted from him, no doubt by his counsel: Columbanus perhaps foresaw the designs of Providence for his faithful minister. Having returned to Luxeuil with Saint Eustasius, Cagnoald resumed the exercises of the cenobitic life there. History is silent about him again, until the day when his sister Burgondofara, fulfilling the prediction of Saint Columbanus, thought to lay the foundations of her monastery of Eboriac. To assist herself in this great undertaking, she asked Saint Eustasius for two of his monks, and the latter sent her his own brother Cagnoald, and another religious of great virtue, Walbert, who powerfully assisted Burgondofara in her enterprise. They established the Rul e of Saint Columbanus a Règle de Saint-Colomban Ancient rule followed by the monastery before the Benedictine reform. t Eboriac, and the marvelous success that marked the beginning of this monastery proves what blessing God attaches to the works of His Saints.

Cagnoald was still occupied with this work when the see of Lao n be Laon Location of Gelduin's first monastery. came vacant upon the death of Richebert, and he was designated to fill it. It was in vain that, out of humility, he strove to turn this burden away from his shoulders. The unanimous insistence of the people and the clergy triumphed over his resistance. Lecointe and Cl. Robert date this event to the year 619; the Sainte-Marthe brothers, to the year 623. This latter date seems more likely to us, because of the age of Burgondofara, who, being still a child in 610 when Saint Columbanus blessed her, must nevertheless have reached at least the age of twenty when she founded her monastery.

Nothing is known of the acts that marked the episcopate of Saint Cagnoald. We only see him, in 625, attending the Coun cil of Reims, wh concile de Reims Ecclesiastical assembly in which Sulpicius participated in 625. ose decrees he signed, in the company of thirty-nine pontiffs, among others Saint Donatus, Bishop of Besançon, who had been raised with him at Luxeuil; Saint Sulpicius, Bishop of Bourges; Palladius, Bishop of Auxerre; Saint Ansericus, Bishop of Soissons; Saint Bertrand, Bishop of Cambrai; Haduin, Bishop of Le Mans; Saint Arnulf, Bishop of Metz, etc. The canons drawn up in this council are twenty-five in number.

Furthermore, we know that he fulfilled his duties in such a way as to attract universal esteem. His entirely apostolic life, his consummate prudence, his gentleness, his piety, his charity, especially towards the poor and the sick, won him the affection and veneration of all his people.

On November 22, 631, we see him again subscribing, in the company of several bishops and other important figures, the act by which Saint Eligius, still a lay man, endow saint Eloi Founder of the monastery and spiritual advisor to Saint Aurea. ed the monastery he founded at Solignac, near Limoges, under the Rule of Saint Columbanus.

It is believed that Saint Cagnoald died on August 23 of the following year, 632, as seems to be indicated by a letter from Saint Paul, Bishop of Verdun, to Saint Didier, Bishop of Cahors, in which these words are read: "You should know that Chainoald has just paid his tribute to humanity, struck by sudden death." However, as it is not certain that this letter was written in 632, some authors have believed they could push back the death of Saint Cagnoald to 633. D. Lelong attributes it to the year 638. The authors of the Gallia christiana even place it in 640. We leave this point for criticism to clarify. As for the nature of his death, it appears that it was apoplexy. He was struck by it in the midst of his brothe abbaye de Saint-Vincent Monastery where Cagnoald lived and was buried. rs, the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Vincent, an illustrious monastery founded by Queen Brunhilda around the year 585. It was there that the Saint lived, devoted to all the exercises of monastic life, following the custom of the holy bishops of that era.

He is represented in a group with Saint Faron, Bishop of Meaux, and Saint Fare, his sister. One sometimes sees a bear near him: we have given the reason for this characteristic in his life.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

Saint Cagnoald was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Vincent, under the second arch of the choir. His body remained in the ground until the time of Abbot Hugues, who, having restored the choir of the church, discovered this precious treasure there in 1196. He had it raised from the ground and placed in a shrine which was broken by the English.

In the first half of the 16th century, Abbot Simon de La Porte had the head of Saint Cagnoald placed in a large silver vase, and the other bones in a wooden shrine, which was renewed in 1643, under the episcopate of Philibert de Brichanteau, Bishop of Laon. During this translation, the gentlemen of the chapter obtained permission to keep an entire femur for their cathedral.

In 1623, the religious of Faremoutier requested and obtained from the abbot of the monastery of Saint-Vincent some of his relics.

During the plague that ravaged the city of Laon in 1628, the devotion of the people toward Saint Cagnoald manifested itself in an extraordinary way; his shrine, exposed at the cathedral, was constantly surrounded by a large number of the faithful. At the end of eight days, the scourge had entirely ceased its ravages. Several times the people of Laon had experienced the effects of the power of their Saint before God: and, in case of an epidemic, his shrine was their best resource.

But it was not without extreme precautions that the religious of Saint-Vincent consented to temporarily part with this precious deposit. They required a guarantee of the promise, signed by the leaders of the city and the clergy, that the shrine would be returned to them within the agreed time, intact and whole, just as it had been entrusted to them; such was the great devotion of the people then to the mortal remains of the friends of God!

They also kept at Saint-Vincent the pastoral staff of Saint Cagnoald, in gilded silver, in the marvelous virtue of which pregnant women had great confidence.

All these relics disappeared during the French Revolution; the Abbey of Saint-Vincent was partially demolished by purchasers of national property. What remains of its ancient buildings, and the beautiful gardens that surround them, was purchased in 1860 by the religious of the Society of Jesus, who established there their third-year novitiate for those of their own who are preparing to pronounce their final vows. Their stay in this ancient and famous abbey will serve to revive the faith in a city that has lost part of its luster by losing its bishops.

Excerpt from the Life of the Saints of Franche-Comté, and Notes provided by M. Henri Congnet, Canon of Soissons.