Saint Romanus of Rouen

As soon as he arrived in Rouen, he worked to banish all remnants of paganism from it. He destroyed various temples where Apollo, Venus, and Mercury were worshipped. He enlightened many idolaters with the pure light of the Gospel and so refined the morals of the Christians that they made the pagans desire to unite with them to form but one flock under the guidance of such a good shepherd. His miracles contributed not a little to making his exhortations and preachings effective. The Se ine had La Seine River flowing through Rouen, miraculously calmed by the saint. overflowed so furiously that it threatened the entire city of Rouen with a flood and general ruin: the inhabitants took refuge on the mountains; Romain returned promptly from the court, where the affairs of his diocese had compelled him to travel, and he miraculously confined the river within its banks by merely presenting himself before it with his cross and placing his feet in the water. On a Holy Saturday, while he was performing the ceremony of the blessing of the fonts, the minister who was bringing the vial of Holy Chrism dropped it and broke it, so that all the Chrism was spilled. The Saint was not at all astonished: he offered his prayer, gathered the pieces of the vial, and rejoined them perfectly so that it did not appear that it had been broken; then he presented the opening to the place where the precious liquid had been spilled, and, to the great astonishment of all the spectators, it was seen to rise back into it, even though the ground was already soaked with it.

But what made Saint Romain so renowned throughout France is the victory he won in Rouen over a horrible dragon of a figure hitherto unknown, which devoured men and animals, caused the ships passing on the river to perish, and caused general desolation throughout the country. He resolved to attack this monster himself even in its stronghold; and, as there was no one who would follow him, he had himself accompanied by a murderer, who, being already condemned to death, could not have avoided it otherwise. It is said that he also took a thief with him, but that fear soon made him take flight. With this escort, he went to the dragon's cave; there, having armed himself only with the sign of the cross, he threw his stole around its neck to hold it. The murderer seized it immediately by his order and dragged it without resistance, with this single stole, to the middle of the city, where it was consumed in a pyre whose ashes were then thrown into the river. All the people gave a thousand blessings to their pastor for having so happily delivered them from this public enemy; then, in this common joy, the criminal was absolved of all his crimes and set at liberty. The holy prelate withdrew to offer a sacrifice of praise to the divine Majesty for such a great benefit.

The news of this wonder having immediately spread everywhere, Kin g Dagobert w roi Dagobert King of the Franks petitioned by Sulpicius to annul a tax. ished to be informed by the bishop himself who had been its author; he therefore called him to his court, and learned all the circumstances from his own mouth; then, so that the memory of it might never be lost, he gave the Chapter of the Cathedral of Rouen the power to release every year, in perpetuity, a homicide held in the prisons, on the day of the Ascension of Our Lord, the day on which this prodigy had occurred, in a general procession, with the beautiful ceremonies of which the description will be found in the 'Normandie chrétienne'. Several of our kings have confirmed this privilege and it has remained so inviolable that neither the Norman dukes, who became masters of Rouen, nor the kings of England, who were its lords for a long time, nor the kings of France, who finally reunited it to their domain, have ever abolish ed it. It is said pape Grégoire XIII Pope who confirmed the Congregation of the Oratory in 1575. that Pope Gregory XIII wrote a letter to the canons of Rouen, dated July 23rd and in the ninth year of his pontificate, in favor of a man named Jean du Plessis, to pray them to grant him the enjoyment of this privilege; this was done every year until the end of the last century.

All these wonders were authentic testimonies to the admirable holiness of Romain. Thus his life was a perfect example of all virtues. He often spent entire nights in prayer. He celebrated the divine Mysteries every day with a fervor and devotion that communicated itself to all those present; he afflicted his flesh with continual austerities; he was the father of the poor and the refuge of the unfortunate; he was in every place in his diocese to banish vice and make virtue reign there. He repressed with a rigor mixed with clemency those whom he found at fault and whose correction he hoped for. He was terrible to the impious and the obstinate and prevented them from being contagious among his flock. Finally, he made his diocese like an earthly paradise worthy of being one day transported to heaven. His greatest triumph was the demolition of the great Roman amphitheater which, in the war, had served as

A castrum for defense, in times of peace it had witnessed the games of the stage, and which was then nothing more than a den of superstitions and the receptacle of the crudest pleasures.

When he had thus fulfilled all the duties of a good shepherd, God made known to him in an extraordinary manner the approach of his death. While he was celebrating the Mass of the Ascension, he was caught up in ecstasy and lifted from the ground; then, at the same time, a globe of fire appeared above his head from which issued a celestial hand that gave him its blessing and received the host he was offering to the eternal Father; he also heard a voice that said to him: "Take courage, my servant, in a few days you will receive the reward due to your merits, and you will be placed among the holy priests of the kingdom of my Father." After the sacrifice, learning that three of his canons had shared in this vision, he strictly forbade them to say anything about it during his lifetime. It was on this same day, and during the celebration of this Mass, that he instituted the familiar instruction co mmonl Prône Popular religious instruction whose institution is attributed to Saint Romanus. y called the Prône. It is not that before this prelates and priests did not take care to instruct the people and teach them the essential points of Christian doctrine; but it was probably our Saint who established that these instructions should be given in the middle of the Mass, so that everyone would be obliged to attend, or who reduced them to a more popular and intelligible form: it is for these reasons that the institution of the Prône is attributed to him.

Following this revelation, he established a foundation at his church for the assistance of the poor, gave the rest of his goods to hospitals, and withdrew for some time into solitude to prepare for his final hour. His death, the day of which he predicted to his clergy and his people, occurred on October 23, 639.

He is represented: 1st, dragging behind him a chained dragon as a trophy of his victory; 2nd, standing, holding a long double-barred cross.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.] Saint Romain was buried in the underground chapel or crypt of the church of Saint-Godard where his precious remains rested until 1836. At that time, they were transferred to a chapel built under his invocation near the cathedral, and on June 17, 1880, placed in a shrine adorned with gold plates and precious stones, and carried by Archbishop Guillaume Bonne-Âme into the cathedral itself. Since then, the gold was removed from this shrine during a great famine to help the poor who were dying of hunger; but Archbishop Rotrou de Beaumont le Roger had a shrine made even richer than the first and the body of the Saint was enclosed within it. This shrine, known by the name of the Fierté of Saint Romain, was burned in 1562 by Fierté de saint Romain Shrine containing the saint's relics, used for the privilege of releasing prisoners. the Calvinists. In 1776, havi ng been jud Calvinistes Religious group that destroyed the saint's relics in 1567. ged unsuitable, it was replaced by the one called the shrine of all the Saints, because it contained a large quantity of relics. This copper shrine, of enormous weight and marvelous workmanship, appears to date back to the beginning of the 14th century. It is this one that is preserved and which was lifted by the prisoners, from 1776 to 1790, the time at which the privilege the chapter had of releasing prisoners on Ascension Day disappeared. Formerly the fierté or shrine of Saint Romain was carried in procession, like the other shrines, during the Rogations, etc.; but today this shrine has disappeared, and there is no longer even a procession on Ascension Day, other than the ordinary procession of the feast. The tomb of Saint Romain, which has today become a relic, forms the high altar of the church dedicated to him in Rouen since 1802. It is a trough of red marble, probably taken from the quarries of Thorigny, in Calvados.

The name of this illustrious Pontiff still appeared in the Confiteor, in the diocese of Rouen, in 1767. His feast was a holiday there on October 3; but a mandate from Mgr de la Rochefoucauld, archbishop of Rouen, dated May 17, 1762, moved it to the third Sunday of October, the day on which his feast is still celebrated today. Propre de Rouen; La Seine-Inférieure, by M. l'abbé Cochet; Local notes provided by M. l'abbé Langlois, honorary canon of Rouen. — Cf. La France Pontificale, by Fisquet; and la Normandie chrétienne.