Saint Magloire of Dol

As soon as he reached the age fixed by the Canons, he entered Holy Orders and was ordained a priest. His life was in conformity with his dignity; he was sober, chaste, modest, patient, restrained in his speech, fervent in prayer, and full of zeal to procure the salvation of his neighbor. Saint Samson, seeing him so perfect, brought him with him to Brittany and made him abbot of the monastery of Lanmeur; af ter Dol Episcopal see and central monastery in the life of the saint. wards, having been made bishop of Dol, upon the erection of that city into a bishopric, he gave him the conduct of his abbey of Dol. Magloire governed this house for fifty-two years with marvelous prudence and holiness. He instructed his religious more by his examples than by his words; his gentleness won them over, his severity restrained them. They walked with great strides toward perfection, under a guide so enlightened and so generous. Saint Samson having died, he was elected bishop in his place. He resisted this election for some time; but, learning that it had been made according to the desire of his predecessor, he yielded to the will of God, which was manifested to him by the choice of such a judicious man; however, he held the see for only two or three years, because, seeing himself already broken by old age and more than seventy years old, he did so much through his prayers and tears before God, that an angel came to bring him, on behalf of God, permission to retire into solitude. He also had his resignation accepted by his clerg y and his p saint Budoc Successor of Magloire at the abbey and bishopric of Dol. eople; and leaving them as pastor Saint Budoc, whom he had made his successor in the abbey of Dol, and who was currently his vicar-general, he chose for his dwelling a rather remote marsh by the sea; he built there an oratory and a few cells, as much for himself as for a small number of religious, who wished to remain in his company.

He had chosen this desert rather than his monasteries of Dol or Lanmeur, to be more solitary and less exposed to the visits of worldly people, but he found there what he wished to avoid; for, the reputation of his holiness spreading everywhere, the sick came to his hermitage to be healed; the possessed, to obtain their deliverance; the afflicted, to find in his conversation the consolation they needed; and all sorts of people, to receive through his instructions the lights necessary for them to conduct themselves well. Many even brought him gifts to make his solitude more bearable; he accepted them only to distribute them to the poor and the unfortunate who had recourse to him. This great concourse displeased him, and, unable to bear it any longer, he conceived the plan of leaving this hermitage and retiring further away; but Saint Budoc, whom he consulted on a matter of such importance, dissuaded him, pointing out to him very wisely that, not being in the world for himself alone, he should not refuse his assistance to so many souls who found near him the remedy for their ills and consolation in their sorrows. Our Saint was so humble and so little attached to his own judgment, that he deferred without difficulty to the advice of this great servant of God. But divine Providence soon gave him the opportunity to do what he desired; for Count Loïescon, one of the greatest lords of the Dol region, having been healed by his prayers of a leprosy that had been gnawing at him for seven years, gave him, to build a monastery, half of the island of Jersey, which was part of his domain. The divis ion was made; île de Jersey Island where the saint founded his abbey after his resignation. one half remained with the count, and the other half was intended for the foundation of an abbey; but, by a great miracle, as soon as this division was made, all the game, birds, and fish, which made the wealth of this island, abandoned the count's side and moved to that of the religious. The countess, to whom this donation had not pleased, found herself more troubled by this accident, and she finally persuaded the count, her husband, to change lots and take for himself the one he had given to the religious. He did so to please her; but he could not prevent the effects of God's liberality towards his servants: indeed, these animals then left the side where they had retreated and passed into the one that had been given to Saint Magloire. Loïescon saw well, by this prodigy, that God did not want his gift to be halved. Thus, without listening to his wife's complaints, he abandoned the whole island to the disposal of the Saint.

Magloire built a monastery there and assembled sixty-two religious, with whom he spent the rest of his life in marvelous holiness. He ate only barley bread and drank only water; a few vegetables on weekdays, and some small fish without seasoning on feast days and Sundays, made up his entire diet. He took nothing at all on Wednesdays and Fridays, in honor of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. His clothes were clean, but very poor, and he always wore a hair shirt or cilice on his flesh. He remained in prayer on the seashore until Matins, and when they rang, he went there first of all, to be an example to his brethren. After Matins, he took a very light rest and, early in the morning, he rose and made his preparations for Mass. He preserved his virginity inviolably until death; and for this he avoided as much as possible conversation with women, and even with the most virtuous. His charity for his neighbor was extreme. He received others with all kinds of kindness, gave abundant alms to the poor, and performed great miracles for the relief of the unfortunate; among others, he resurrected the convent's servant, who had drowned while fishing in the sea for the sustenance of the religious.

An angel warned him twice of the time of his passing; he prepared for it with great fervor and an admirable redoubling of all his devotional exercises; around October 15 of the year 586, the same angel honored him with a visit, and gave him, with his own hand, the adorable body of Our Lord Jesus Christ as Viaticum. From that time on, he would no longer leave his church, and he repeated incessantly this verse of David: "One thing I have asked of the Lord, and this I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." Finally, having given his blessing to his religious, he died in their arms, assisted by Saint Budoc, on October 24 of the same year.

He is represented: 1st standing, crowned by an angel; 2nd leaving the episcopate to live in solitude.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

The body of Saint Magloire was buried in his church, and, shortly after, raised from the earth and exposed to the veneration of the faithful, because of the great miracles that were performed through his intercession.

Subsequently, King Nominoe had it transported to the priory of Lehon-sur-Rance, near Dinan, which he had founded with great magnificence, and it remained there for one hundred and sixteen years, namely: from the year 857 until 973; at that time, Salvator, B ishop Paris Place of birth, ministry, and death of the saint. of Saint-Malo, brought it to Paris, for fear of the Normans who were ravaging all of Brittany.

It was first deposited in the royal chapel of the palace, which became the parish of Sa int-Barthelemy, Hugues le Grand Count of Paris who received relics and founded a Benedictine monastery. and Prince Hugh the Great, Count of Paris, received it there with extraordinary devotion. He founded near this chapel a monastery of religious of the Order of Saint Benedict, in honor of Saint Bartholomew and of the same Saint Magloire, and, in the act of its foundation, he calls him arch-prelate of Brittany.

In the year 1138, the religious left this place, which was too narrow, and moved to the Rue Saint-Denis, into a chapel of Saint-Georges, which belonged to them, and where their cemetery was located, along with the body of the holy prelate: this new monastery was called Saint-Magloire.

Finally, in 1572, they ceded this house as well to the Filles-Pénitentes, at the request of Queen Catherine de' Medici, and went to establish themselves in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, near the parish of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas. But as their greatest treasure was the venerable shrine of this most miraculous Saint, they transported it with them. Later, this church was given to the Fathers of the Oratory, who established a seminary there.

The body of Saint Magloire was kept there intact, with the exception of an arm and a rib which were in the cathedral of Dol, and some other bones that could be seen at the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris and with the Filles-Pénitentes of whom we spoke above. The holy body had been enclosed châsse d'argent Relics of the saint kept in Paris, hidden during the Revolution. in a silver shrine since 1318.

In 1791, Father Toumaire, superior of the house of Saint-Magloire, having had the misfortune to apostatize, ordered a lay brother to bury all the relics that were in the church in the seminary garden. This operation took place in 1793. But, in 1797, the Catholic religion having enjoyed some freedom until 18 Fructidor, the same brother indicated the place where he had deposited them. They were then exhumed and placed in the base of the high altar of the church of Saint-Jacques-du-Haut- Pas, neighboring that of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas Parisian church where the relics currently rest. Saint-Magloire. They remained there until 1833, at which time they were removed from the box that contained them to be enclosed in a beautiful gilded wooden reliquary.

It has not been possible to recognize to which Saints each part of these precious remains belonged, because the four-year stay in the ground had destroyed the inscriptions and titles; but there is no doubt about their authenticity, which must have been recognized by the Archbishop of Paris.

As for the church of Saint-Magloire, it was destroyed, and the seminary buildings became the school for the deaf and mute.

The memory of Saint Magloire is marked in the Roman Martyrology.

Surius has given us his life, drawn from an ancient manuscript, and Fr. Albert le Grand has composed a new one, extracted from various authors, in his History of the Saints of Brittany. — Cf. Lives of the Saints of Brittany, by Dom Lainducau.