Saint Guenael

The fervor of the young novice only increased from day to day, and surpassed, in all the practices of religion, the most perfect and faithful religious of the community. The love of purity suggested to him a singular practice. When the brothers were asleep, he would go and plunge into the water during the coldest nights of the year, and would remain there until he had recited the seven penitential Psalms. After the death of Saint Guénolé, who had chosen him as his successor, he was named abbot; he sought to turn this burden away from himself by alleging his youth, his lack of experience, and his incapacity; but no one believed him, and he found himself, despite all his resistance, at the head of the community. His profound humility never allowed him to view this dignity as anything other than a burden, which obliged him to become the servant of all the others, and from then on he considered himself only as a public victim, always ready to immolate himself for the benefit of his brothers.

He exercised his office for seven years, after which he traveled, accompanied by eleven of his religiou s, to Hi Hibernie Place of intellectual and spiritual formation for saints. bernia, where he had the consolation of abolishing the remnants of pagan superstitions and reforming several monasteries and oratories. After a stay of some years in that country, he returned to Armorica. Having spent some time in his abbey of Landevenec, where he became an example to all through his regularity, obedience, and humility, he withdrew to another part of Cornouaille, where he found a great number of solitaries with whom he wished to spend the rest of his life. Upon leaving that region, he went to the coun try of Vannes, pays de Vannes Birthplace of Saint Emilion. where, as the day approached on which he was to render his soul to God, he prepared himself through the continual practice of prayer, and having assembled his disciples, he addressed to them a vivid and pathetic exhortation on the punctual observance of the Rule and the faithful practice of virtue. At the earnest prayer of his disciples, he named his successor before dying, then rendered his soul to his Creator, on November 3, around the year 518.

The body of Saint Guenaël was carried to Van Vannes Birthplace of Saint Emilion. nes and buried in the cathedral church, where one can still see his tomb and an altar that bears his name. In 966, his relics were removed from Brittany for fear of the Danes, carried to Paris to the church of Saint-Barthélemy, and subsequently deposited at th e castl Corbeil Site of the transfer of relics in the 10th century. e of Corbeil, where a church was built in his honor. These precious relics were enclosed in a shrine placed above the high altar of the church that bore the Saint's name; however, they were lost during the Revolutio n, and the Révolution Period during which the saint's relics were hidden and lost. church no longer exists.

He is depicted causing a spring to gush forth: this is likely to recall that he put an end to Celtic superstitions by diverting the ancient cult of springs toward some Christian practice. He is the patron of Landevenec, Corbeil, and Vannes.

Excerpt from the Lives of the Saints of Brittany, by Dom Lobineau Dom Lobineau Hagiographer and historian of Brittany. .