Saint Mellon (Melaine) of Cardiff

Finally, God chose him Himself in an extraordinary and miraculous way to be Bishop of Rouen . One Rouen Norman city where Simeon stayed and founded a monastery. day, as he was celebrating the divine mysteries, an angel appeared to him at the right side of the altar, and, presenting him with a pastoral staff, declared that God destined him to carry the Gospel to the city of Rouen. The Pope himself saw this heavenly spirit, and, unable to doubt the choice that divine Wisdom had made of his priest, he ordained him bishop and sent him on a mission to Neustria, which has since been called Normandy. His journey was marked by several miracles which stemmed from the fact that his spirit was always united to God through prayer, and that he held such reverence for His divine presence that he would bend his knees three hundred times night and day. While passing through Auxerre, he met a poor carpenter named Lupille, who had split his foot with an axe blow; he took pity on him, and by touching him only with his pastoral staff, he restored him to perfect health. This miracle was the cause of the conversion of this craftsman and several other people who were witnesses to it. He was then presented with blind and paralyzed people whom he healed through his prayers and by the invocation of the name of Jesus Christ; and some of those whom he favored with this grace embraced Christianity with such courage that they sealed with their blood the faith they held in their hearts.

When our Saint was near Rouen, the demon tried, through great threats, to prevent him from entering; but he mocked his fury, and, having chased him away by the all-powerful sign of the cross, he went to that city, of which the Son of God and his vicar had established him as prince and pastor. He first delivered a possessed man named Theodore, son of Basin, one of the noblest in the land, whom neither ropes nor chains could restrain; he restored several sick people to health, and, as he was preaching before an extraordinary crowd of people, a young man named Précordius, wh o had clim Précordius A young man resurrected by Saint Mellon in Rouen. bed onto a roof to hear him more conveniently, having unfortunately fallen and been killed by this fall, he immediately restored his life. This miracle served for the conversion of several thousands of people, and the resurrected man himself, who received baptism and was later ordained a priest, became a great preacher of the Gospel and greatly advanced the kingdom of Jesus Christ by the strength of his word and the holiness of his examples. Our Saint later chose the place where he had performed this miracle to build a church in honor of the most holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin, and it is believed that this is the one which, after several additions and embellishments, became the cathedral. From there, he went to a suburb where the idol Roth, which gave the name Rothomagus to this city, gave false oracles and was worshipped by the people, along with those of Diana and Venus. He found there a priest named Selidio n, who, Sélidion Pagan priest converted after the expulsion of a demon. through an abominable superstition, offered him incense and victims. "Why," he said to him, "do you thus deceive the world? Do you not know that this idol is not the true God, creator of heaven and earth; He whose power formed us, whose wisdom governs us, and whose goodness prepares for us a blessed and immortal life if we are faithful to his service?" Then, to convince all those present of the impiety of their worship, he commanded the demon to come out of the statue in the figure that was proper to him. This command filled this wretched spirit with horror: he let out great cries through the mouth of the idol, and, nevertheless, being forced to obey, he came out of it in the form of an ugly monkey and placed himself in this state on the altar. Then Mellon, addressing the priest again, said to him: "Look, wretch, look at your God; see how good he looks to deserve sacrifices and to be called a divinity!" This reproach covered him with shame, and, at that very hour, leaving the temple, he went to hang himself and thus end his sacrilegious life. Meanwhile, the Saint commanded the demon to overturn his altars himself and to cast himself into hell: which he did with great howls. Such a miraculous event converted almost all the people; and there were few of those present who did not ask for Baptism. The Saint received them as catechumens; and, having purified this temple through the exorcisms of the Church, he erected an altar there to the true God, under the name of Saint-Sauveur. This church is now that of Saint-Lô, and it took this name because in 912 the body of this blessed bishop of Coutances, with that of Saint Romphaire, was transferred there under Rollo, Duke of Normandy. One sees in front of it a founta in, called the Fountain Rollon, duc de Normandie First Duke of Normandy. of the Impure, because in the time of paganism the worshippers of Venus washed themselves there.

As the number of Christians increased at every moment through these wonders and others like them, and since these churches were not sufficient to contain all these faithful, the holy prelate had a third one built in honor of Saint Clement; it remained a parish church until 1254: it was given to the friars of Saint Francis by Odon, Archbishop of Rouen. Among the sacred temples built by Saint Mellon, one also includes Notre-Dame-la-Ronde and Saint-Godard, although the latter only took this name after the death of this blessed prelate. This great progress of religion was the fruit of the zeal and holiness of Mellon. He wore an iron chain around his loins that cut deep into his flesh; he slept only while seated and fully clothed; he ate only vegetables and barley bread; he prayed continually, and his heart was filled with the flames of charity toward God and toward his neighbor. One day, while he was celebrating Mass, a globe of fire was seen above his head, the light of which surpassed that of the sun.

Finally, after having administered his pastoral office for nearly fifty years, wishing to prepare himself for death, he retired to a very solitary vill age named Héricourt Place of the saint's retreat and death. Héricourt, nine leagues from the city, to occupy himself only with the contemplation of eternal goods. After some time, he received through the mouth of an angel the happy news that his departure was near; and, having fallen ill, after having exhorted and consoled his clergy and his people, who often came to visit him, he rendered his spirit to God, to be crowned with His glory, on October 22, 311; he was already an octogenarian. Saint Mellon is represented: 1st, overturning the idol that the inhabitants of Rouen worshipped; 2nd, receiving the pastoral staff from the hand of an angel.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

His body was buried in the place where the church of Saint-Gervais now stands; and one can still see his mausoleum, with an altar where Mass is said every day; but, in 880, the fear of the Danes caused it to be t ransport Pontoise Site of the translation of relics in the 9th century. ed to Pontoise, where, in the year 1296, a collegiate church was built in his honor, and his holy bones were then raised from the ear th and placed in châsse précieuse Relics of the saint kept in Pontoise and subsequently lost. a precious reliquary by Guillaume de Flavacourt, Archbishop of Rouen, and Hugues, Bishop of Bethlehem. They were preserved there preciously until the first Revolution.

At that sad time, the relics were stripped of their reliquary and secretly deposited in the attic of a sworn priest. When the Terror began again, the poor priest was afraid that the presence of these relics, if they were to be discovered, would become a capital charge against him; he instructed his beadle to go and bury them in a corner of the cemetery of the Saint-Maclou parish.

After the storm, the same priest resumed the administration of the only church that had remained standing, that of Saint-Maclou. As for the relics, they were lost beyond recovery. The cemetery that had received them was moved outside the city; all the bodies, after a certain time, were exhumed and these holy relics were probably mingled with them. In this way, the body of Saint Mellon was lost, as well as that of Saint Gauthier, abbot of a convent in Pontoise, and notable parts of the body of Saint Maclou. The church of Saint-Maclou now possesses only insignificant fragments of all these precious deposits.

At the foot of the Pyval, on the edge of the main road leading from Yvetot to Cany, between Gréaume and the church, one can see a fountain famous in the region under the name of Saint-Mellon's Fountain. It is placed in the shade of tall poplars and hidden under a masonry vault adorned with heavily mutilated bas-reliefs. These sculptures, already worn in 1780, represented some of the memorable actions of the holy bishop's life. It is at this mysterious and venerable source, still called the Little Saint-Mellon, that the Saint baptized, according to tradition.

This venerated source attracts numerous pilgrims to Héricourt every day; but it is especially at Pentecost, a baptismal feast, that people come to immerse sick children there. Everything there is full of the memory of Saint Mellon, and some give the name of this Saint's garden to the Pyval hill, at the foot of which the fountain flows and whose flattened terracing takes the shape of an amphitheater.

The church of Saint-Denis or Saint-Mellon of Héricourt possesses relics of Saint Mellon. His reliquary is solemnly brought down on Whit Monday and carried in procession to the fountain. All year round, candles are burned there and gospels are recited.

We have completed this biography with notes provided by M. Drion, honorary canon, parish priest of Saint-Maclou in Pontoise, and by Abbé Cochet of Rouen.