Saint Kilian of Aubigny

This young religious, the example of the community, had nothing more at heart than the practice of humility. He had understood that it is both the foundation and the guardian of the other virtues. To be all things to all men without affectation, to distinguish himself in nothing from his brothers, but to give value to ordinary actions and common exercises through the most sublime motives; to watch with the greatest attention over all his steps, to invoke without ceasing the wisdom from above so that it might lead him in the career he was beginning to pursue: such was the constant study of this true disciple of Jesus Christ. Gentleness, a Saint has gracefully said, is born of humility like a flower from its stem; the gentleness of Kilien, while procuring for himself an unalterable peace, made him lovable to his brothers, whose hearts he possessed. His charity loved to show itself in those thousand details of religious life, where a kind word, a friendly look, a fraternal assistance, do so much good to the soul and help it wonderfully to bear with joy the yoke of the Lord. He possessed to a high degree all the other virtues that make Saints, and to speak only of his chastity, it was always without clouds; nothing in the course of his long life could tarnish its brilliance.

To the practice of virtues, this perfect religious knew how to join application to the duties of his state. Perfecting thus the studies of his early education, he developed his talents, and God blessing a work undertaken for His greater glory, Kilien became very well-versed in letters. The superiors of our Saint believed they should have a subject who promised so much and was their consolation pass through all the degrees of the clergy; from the lower orders he was raised to the sacred orders and promoted to the priesthood. The various exercises of the cloister where he distinguished himself served him as steps to ascend to the superiority. In this high post, one sees him follow with a brand new zeal the exercises of the religious life; indebted to all for his time and his care, he becomes by his solicitude of every moment the living image of the heavenly Father. "His virtue, which took on a new brilliance in this first elevation," say the historians of his life, "had nothing austere about it; on his face was painted the joy of a good conscience; gentle and affable to others, he was hard and severe only to himself; and by this amiable air which bodes so well for virtue, he attracted others much better to the love of duty than by that hard and imperious air which too often revolts or discourages."

The new superior was not content with lavishing his care on those who had placed him at their head; his fervent charity led him to extend them far beyond the enclosure of his monastery. He used his leisure time by visiting the families who lived around him, and taking advantage of the influence that his new position gave him, he announced the word of God there with the authority of an apostle and the tenderness of a father.

The bishop of the place having died, eyes were cast upon the abbot of the monastery to replace him. The assembled clergy and people chose him with a unanimous voice and brought him the decree of election, imploring him to accept it. However, Kilian excused himself; he pushed away the honor bestowed upon him; but it was in vain: the election being based on the excellence of his morals and his eminent holiness, they persisted in their choice and declared to him that they would have no other pastor but him. Kilian received this decision with sorrow and accompanied a timid acquiescence with his tears. He finally yielded; he dared not disobey those who represented God to him, fearing to go against His will clearly manifested by the unanimity of the votes. What we look upon only as an honor, the new bishop viewed as a heavy burden. With his eyes closed to the prerogatives of the episcopacy, he saw only its charges; a crowd of difficult duties to fulfill presented themselves to his mind, and the light from above revealing to him the vanity of the distinctions and preeminences attached to his position, he could only tremble, thinking that a bishop is an advanced sentinel of the house of the Lord, charged with watching day and night, at the peril of his life, over the defense of the Christian people.

From the very first day of his episcopacy, our Saint believed himself held even more strictly to devote himself to the rigorous exercises of mortification. Wishing to resemble perfectly the divine Shepherd of souls, he worked anew to renounce himself, to carry his cross. Taking upon himself the sins of his people, he chastised his innocent body. To the word that touches hearts, he joined the strength of example, which alone draws them. His flock was composed of good and just faithful who had to be led to perfection, and of sinners who had to be brought to a state of justice. The good shepherd worked for both with equal patience; he took care not to be discouraged either by the impenitence of the latter or the lukewarmness of the former. Always inaccessible to the ill-temper that spoils everything, he tolerated the bad among the good, the lukewarm among the perfect. If he had the happiness of converting them all or making them all perfect, he would do more than the Savior; he was content to imitate His patience and long-suffering, hoping that the holy word would one day produce its fruit in the indocile hearts. Placed on an episcopal seat, Kilian had not forgotten his monastery. His religious formed the elite of his flock, and he was attached to them by bonds too strong to leave them entirely. It was, moreover, a need and a happiness for him to go there to resume the exercises of religious life; it was also there that for the first time the halo of holiness was to surround his head. In the monastery, everything was done in common. Everyone, without the leader exempting himself from anything, performed the office assigned to him; they went thus from one to the other in turn. One day, therefore, when the prelate was occupied in the bakery, a fire suddenly broke out. The flames having reached the bread intended for the meal of the religious, the Saint rushed with confidence into the midst of the flames, extinguished the fire without any trace of burning, and provided his children on the very spot with bread that did not feel the effects of the fire at all.

This double miracle was the reward for his virtue; but it made too much noise for the happiness of those who were its object. The blessings of his disciples and the praises of his flock troubled the holy bishop. Fearing to succumb to the attacks of vanity, he tore himself away from his monastery and his see to limit himself to the functions of a simple apostolic bishop. He traveled through Ireland as an unknown apostle; under a modest habit consistent with his former state, he announced the kingdom of God in the cities. He found all his consolation in visiting temples and tombs famous for the gathering of the faithful. Hospitals were also honored by his presence; he loved to discover there the hidden treasure of his tenderness for the suffering members of Jesus Christ. It was especially in these asylums of misfortune that one saw him display both his piety toward God and his love for the poor; nothing then escaped his religious charity. He knew how to place a word of edification everywhere, and he did so with a timeliness that justifies the proverb: "A good word is worth more than the richest gift." Thus, the divine word, so well announced and so well supported by the best example, bore fruit in an astonishing way in all the places where he passed. But what gave him complete authority were the healings that God, at the prayer of his servant, deigned to perform on the infirm of every kind.

Witnesses to such virtue, and filled with such benefits, the populations ran in crowds in the wake of the wonder-worker. All with a loud voice blessed the helpful Providence that made appear in their midst a Saint so powerful in works and in words. At this new assault delivered against his modesty, once again he took the resolution to avoid the combat, to leave a homeland that honored him too much for his liking. Neither the tears of his compatriots nor the affection he felt for them could delay for a single instant the execution of his new resolution. He escaped from his homeland and, an unknown pilgrim, crossed the sea that separates his island from the continent. Pressed by the desires of his heart and by the spirit of God that filled him, our voluntary exile went to Rome Birthplace of Maximian. Rome to venerate the tombs of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and to honor Jesus Christ in the person of his representative on earth. No place seemed to him more suitable for sanctifying himself than the city of Rome. Everything he saw there led him to the tenderest piety: religion, surrounded by the greatest pomp, showed all the beauty of its ceremonies; the edifying examples of the apostles and martyrs who had sealed with their blood the faith they announced, retraced in so many illustrious monuments, struck him as vividly as if they had been new. These powerful motives determined him to remain there and to ask that he be associated with the religious of the monastery of foreigners.

When his noble extraction, his quality as a bishop, and the praiseworthy motives that had led him to renounce the world and the episcopate were known, it was judged that such a useful acquisition should not be neglected; Kilian, incorporated into the monastery, resumed the life that his episcopate, his evangelical journeys, and his pilgrimage had slightly interrupted. The monastery church was under the invocation of Saint Peter; he applied himself to the service of God there for more than eleven years. The Rule followed there was that of Saint Benedict. Kilian studied with zeal this masterpiece of discretion, wisdom, and piety; he applied himself to observing its prescriptions with the greatest punctuality.

During the eleven years he spent in the monastery, our religious had the satisfaction of seeing and conversing many times wit h Pope Honori pape Honorius Pope who received Kilian in Rome. us, who, charmed to verify for himself the advantageous testimony that had been given to him, always gave him a distinguished welcome and ordered his religious to have for the bishop of Ireland all the considerations due to his birth and rank. But the holy man only wanted to be noticed by a greater exactitude in observing all the points of the Rule. Thus our Saint, while working on his perfection, edified his brothers, earned the esteem of his superiors, and attracted the admiration of the Romans. But he was not to remain in Italy forever: God had designs for him that He did not want to reveal to him except little by little; He was preparing him, in this holy retreat, to carry His name to a nation that did not know it enough.

Kilian had often heard of Saint Faron, Bishop of M saint Faron Bishop of Meaux and mentor to Saint Hildevert. eaux, and of a holy man, one of his relatives, who had left the world many years before and had retired to this beneficent prelate. He felt a keen desire to go and find them to serve God in their company with greater perfection and recollection. After taking leave of the Holy Father and his friends, Kilian therefore headed towards France, leaving behind him traces of his zeal, his mercy, and his fervor. Arriving at the monastery of Sainte-Croix, it was there that he formed such a close friendship with Saint Faron that they were regarded as two true brothers, and they called each other by that sweet name. Kilian resumed the ordinary rhythm of religious life there. He only left the monastery to go and hide in the forest of Fordille. In both places he encouraged himself, sometimes with Saint Faron, sometimes with Saint Fiacre, to walk in the ways of God. Kilian, upon returni saint Fiacre Irish hermit in France, companion of Saint Kilian. ng to his retreat, found a new joy in practicing there, under Abbot Elie, all the exercises of the cloister.

It was a way of life whose attraction always followed him: there, mingled with the other religious, he took pleasure in hiding from the crowd whose praises were importunate to him; he placed his happiness in lowering himself to the vilest ministries and in enjoying the conversation of Him whose delights are to be with such children of men. Divine Providence destined this fervent religious for occupations if not more useful and more sublime, at least more in keeping with his vocation. The virtuous pilgrim would have liked to spend the rest of his days at the monastery of Sainte-Croix; but he was not made for the cloister alone; he was not to spend his days in pious pilgrimages. The Holy Spirit had prepared him in the calm of retreat to work with success for the salvation of others; it is time for him to resume the functions of the episcopate that his humility had forced him to interrupt, and to make the talents that heaven had bestowed upon him only for this purpose benefit the good of the people.

Saint Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras, jealous of neglecting no part of his people, addressed himself to the holiest bishops and asked them for some apostolic men whom he could have work under him. Kilien was therefore invited, in the most pressing manner, to go and attempt the labors of the apostolate in Art ois. B Artois Main region of evangelization. ut it was necessary to return to the charge several times: letters, prayers, exhortations, everything was put to use. Saint Faron, to whom our pious solitary could refuse nothing, finally prevailed, after he had declared to him that such was the will of God for him, that he could not without sin oppose it any longer and would render an account to the sovereign Judge of the buried talent. Kilien submitted and prepared to leave. From Fordille, he went to take leave of Saint Faron and receive his final instructions.

Count Eulfes was then in the Soissonnais, where he possessed a very beautiful estate and a pleasure house bathed by the river Aisne. Our traveler, knowing that he was there with all his family, made his way in that direction. Divine Providence, which had its designs, permitted the count to be absent when Kilien presented himself at the castle to speak to the master. The count's wife considered this stranger, and, for we know not what feeling of distrust, did not offer him entry. However, Kilien, tired from a long journey, asked her for the grace of refreshment. "I have nothing to give you to drink," the countess replied dryly; and upon further insistence: "If you are thirsty, the river is near you, go and quench your thirst there at your ease," she added with disdain. To these cold and harsh words, there was no other response than these few words: "May it be done, Madame, as you have said." And immediately the servant of God, so as not to irritate the bad mood of this woman too much, withdrew to the side.

The Saint's wish was followed by its effect. He had barely left the castle when the count returned after having indulged in the pleasures of the hunt. He asked for a drink, and the cupbearer replied that the barrels were entirely empty. Great surprise throughout the castle! Astonished and confused, the wife kept a gloomy and accusatory silence. Eulfes, who could not believe what was being reported to him, verified it for himself. He questioned, but nothing was answered that satisfied him. But in the conversation, one of his men, pressed by his master's questions, said to him: "No one has entered your cellars in your absence; only, a stranger presented himself in the courtyard, a priest or religious, whom Madame harshly turned away."

Eulfes knew enough, he had guessed: this stranger was the Irish bishop he was waiting for with impatience; these empty barrels were the punishment for the refusal given to the holy man. At that very hour, he set out in search of Kilien and found him a short distance from the castle. The Saints take revenge, but they take revenge nobly and above all in a Christian manner. Following the example of the Savior, he prayed for the one who had treated him with so little charity. The count offered him a thousand excuses, urged him to follow him, and begged him to put an end to the trouble that reigned in his house.

Kilien, who had already forgiven with all his soul, followed the count. After giving his blessing to this desolate house and addressing a fervent prayer to heaven, the barrels were miraculously filled, and everything was restored to its former state. The countess then threw herself at the feet of the Saint; thanks were given to heaven, and the power of the God whom Kilien adored was admired. Eulfes, embracing him with the greatest transports of joy, made him promise to stay a few days with him, in order to complete, through his instructions, the great work he had just begun with a striking prodigy. After a short stay in this castle, where joy was seen to succeed dark sadness, and the most gracious welcome to follow outrageous proceedings, and where one could admire how Providence knew how to arrange all things to achieve its adorable ends, Kilien left the banks of the Aisne and advanced toward the residence of Saint Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai and Arras.

After a short stay with the holy prelate, Kilian takes the road to Arras; there he receives the final advice of the spiritual authority on everything concerning the evangelical career he is about to enter, and proceeds with out del Aubigny Center of the apostolate of Kilian and the site of his burial. ay to Aubigny. This is the land that the Lord shows him; he desires it as the place of his rest after so many distant journeys. Kilian, impatiently awaited, is received at the castle of Bourbon by Eulfes and his wife with great joy. He is a friend, he is a father; he is even more, he is a savior.

The count possessed considerable property at Aubigny: among these goods, there was one separated from all others, between the castle and the location, cut in two and watered by the Scarpe; land convenient either for building a church or for erecting some buildings with everything that can make them useful. The count and the countess resolved to donate it to the holy missionary, as much to discharge their debt to him as to attach him to them without return; they offer him this inheritance and beg him to accept it for the benefit of his mission. Nothing could have been more pleasing to the man of God: this concession, by enabling him to receive disciples and co-workers, also gave him the means to undertake everything for this part of the territory of the Atrebates that had been assigned to him. He therefore runs immediately toward the place that has just been ceded to him, with an ardor mixed with joy; he measures its entire extent, examines all its parts. But what caused him as much joy as surprise was to discover an oratory there.

Immediately the holy preacher forms the plan to build a church there of a size proportionate to the number of inhabitants he must instruct. To begin this work, he needs help; Eulfes and his wife provide it to him, and soon, thanks to their liberality, the edifice is completed; buildings are added to serve as housing for the holy bishop and his clergy. It is said that during the time of this construction, the thirsty workers had recourse to Saint Kilian; he, whose soul was so sensitive to the ills of his brothers, could not see without pity the suffering of those who were working on the house of God. He prayed with confidence to Him who promised to reward a cup of cold water given in His name; a fountain immediately gushed forth at the place where he was prostrate. This fountain is still called the Fountain of Saint Kilian.

After having consecrated his church and placed it under the invocation of Saint Sulpice, patron of the old oratory, to whom he associates Saint Brice, Kilian works in earnest to make his new parishioners, from the fishermen and superstitious people they were, into instructed and disciplined Christians. He soon reformed the abuses, dissipated the prejudices, repressed the disorders, unfortunate fruits of the remoteness and the scarcity of pastors, inevitable consequences of the frequent wars and the mutual jealousy of those who governed the kingdom: in a word, by his care, by his zeal, religion reappeared at Aubigny in its original purity. Meanwhile, a small clergy is formed; the sound of his reputation could not fail to attract disciples to him, eager to share in his labors.

As soon as Kilian had formed his community and strengthened the empire of religion in the chief town of his apostolate, he undertook, in the vicinity of Aubigny and as far as the borders of the diocese of Amiens and that of Boulogne (towards the southwest of Arras), those famous missions where, through powerful exhortations and miraculous works, he recalled to the purity of the faith and the holiness of the Christian life peoples once again buried in the darkness of death. His first care was to remove from the field of the Father of the family the tares sown by the enemy man; he uprooted and destroyed the ever-reviving remnants of ancient paganism. His virtues, his talents, and his miracles formed around him a numerous and brilliant procession that made him terrible to impiety. Thus, the demon tried to resist him face-to-face by too often arming against him apostles of error, ancient druids, who, without daring to show themselves openly, still maintained many rebels in infidelity through muffled insinuations. But God came more than once visibly to the aid of his minister, confirming by striking wonders the doctrine he preached.

It was in this vast field, the greater part of which produced only briars and thorns, that Kilian developed the talents of nature and the gifts of grace that God had bestowed upon him; it was there that he made all the lights shine, that he deployed all the riches received for the benefit of his neighbor; it was there that for thirty years one could see the tireless missionary working for the salvation of souls. If he had difficulty in this incessant work, he also had the consolation of reaping in joy what he had sown in tears, and it can be said that the Lord made him taste all the sweetness attached to deserved success. From time to time, Kilian interrupted his missions: rest is necessary for apostles as it is for the peoples they evangelize. Upon returning to Aubigny, it was with holy gladness that he reunited with those of his children whom he left there to serve the church and the parish of Saint-Sulpice. In the calm of retreat, at set hours, he sang with them the praises of the Lord.

Kilian, similar to the just man of Scripture, who rises from virtue to virtue until, like the sun, he has reached his noon, constantly showed the docile Atrebates, with ever-new perfection, the virtues that had marked his episcopate in Ireland: an amenity of manners, an affability, a persuasive eloquence that was all the more insinuating as it was accompanied by more amiable forms; add to this exterior, which disposes one in favor of the truths he announces, more solid virtues: an entire devotion to the interests of the poor, a true pity that led him to seek all means to relieve indigence. When he had exhausted his resources, he would call upon the purses of his generous friends and, through innocent industries, ensure abundant aid for the unfortunate. In a word, his commiseration did not know our frivolous excuses, and, with all due respect to the prudent of the century, he did not count the cost of misery and knew how to go as far as profusion. With the help of these virtues that religion consecrated, it is therefore not surprising that Kilian succeeded in the conversion of the inhabitants of Artois, that he brought them to come and learn the truths of salvation, to feed on the bread of life.

Years had long since diminished Kilian's strength; but he, remembering the words of Saint Paul, ran in the evangelical career with a youthful ardor. He had, it is true, destroyed, dissipated, and almost annihilated idolatry; but the work of God requiring no respite, it was necessary to constantly perfect the work begun on ruins, to constantly enlighten minds and regulate morals. Until his last breath, Kilian would fight ignorance and disorder; but also, at the hour of death, he would be able to present with confidence the fruit of his labors.

Towards the end of his life, overwhelmed by infirmities and feeling his strength betray his courage, our holy missionary was often forced to divide his time between the arduous duties of the apostolate and the peaceful exercises of meditation. When he resided in Aubigny, he was a true religious under a bishop's habit; he led a life there that resembled more the life of celestial virtues than that of a weak mortal. Often, withdrawn to a secluded place, he gave himself over to the sweetness of contemplation; but when his health allowed him to resume the course of his missions, he was a completely different man: an apostle full of zeal, a prophet full of fire, who, forgetting his white hair, gave himself over to all that is the duty of a good pastor and a fervent missionary.

Although Saint Kilian felt his strength diminishing, he never wanted to consent to diminish his ordinary austerities, his prayers, and the instructions with which he nourished the inhabitants of Aubigny. Thus, nothing seemed to announce to the outside world a man broken by old age; and this apostolic courage caused him to be regarded as a Saint and led the peoples he evangelized to give him the title of Saint.

However, he had reached the days of extreme old age; his head, whitened by years and labors, leaned weakly on his chest, where a heart inflamed with the love of God and men beat more than ever. Following the example of Saint Amand, he finished his earthly pilgrimage in peace in the midst of his children. Every day he gave them, through his conduct, the most admirable examples of religious life, and all the words that came out of his mouth became for them a pressing exhortation to piety.

Death, which Kilian awaited from day to day, found him in the midst of his disciples and his parishioners whom he had gathered around his bed. He expired after having given them the most sensitive marks of the zeal and apostolic spirit that animated him, in the midst of his evangelical functions which he had never believed he should interrupt. It was November 13, 670.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

Saint Kilian was buried in the church of Aubigny, near the tomb of Count Eulfe. The cult and the homage with which the Church surrounds the memory of the Saints date back to the very day of his death. Miracles multiplied at his tomb, people hastened to celebrate the day that began his triumph and his felicity, and his feast became a great solemnity.

In the 8th century, his body was raised from the ground and enclosed in a shrine. In 1130, Robert I, Bishop of Arras, had the place of the Saint's first burial covered with a rich carpet and respectfully replaced his shrine in a niche intended for it above the high altar. In the course of the same year, Robert had the tomb of Saint Kilian dug and searched, in which was found a small box containing some relics of Saint Sulpice, Bishop of Bayonne, and Saint Brice, Bishop of Tours, with a piece of the True Cross. After having opened the shrine, he enclosed these relics in it and replaced them with pomp in the niche intended for them.

In 1131, the secular canons known as Saint-Kilian were replaced by religious from Mont-Saint-Éloi. In 1214, in a war between Philip Augustus and the Count of Flanders, the church of Aubigny was burned. Re-established later, it was placed under the protection of Saint Kilian, Saint Sulpice, and Saint Brice. In that same century, a distribution of the Saint's relics was made in favor of the hermitage or priory of Saint-Fiacre, in the diocese of Meaux. They were placed in a wooden shrine, next to the one that contained the relics of the holy hermit. On June 6, 1478, they were both placed in a silver shrine.

Today, the relics are still in Meaux in the shrine of Saint Fiacre; but they are mixed and confused with the relics of Saint Fiacre and ot her S Meaux Episcopal see of Saint Hildevert. aints whose names were no longer legible when the relics were removed from a small garden adjoining the chapter where they had been hidden during the Revolution of 1793.

In Aubigny, the custom was to take down the shrine of Saint Kilian and carry it in procession on the day of his feast. Two religious from Saint-Éloi were deputed for this purpose. Such was the cult of Saint Kilian in Aubigny when the Revolution of 1789 broke out. The relics of the Saint were first sent away by the monks from the fury of the revolutionaries. The priory of Aubigny having been suppressed, some inhabitants resolved to save their treasure from the reach of profanations. On September 1, 1805, the shrine containing the Saint's relics was solemnly replaced in the parish church of Aubigny, in the presence of the Bishop of Arras. On June 9, 1854, a piece of the Saint's bones was granted to the parish of Warlincourt. Placed in a medallion at the bottom of the bust of Saint Kilian, it is constantly exposed to the veneration of the faithful on the altar of the patron saint.

We have used, to compose this biography, the History of the Saint, by M. A. Cuvillier.