Saint Momble of Ireland

Saint Elig Saint Éloi Founder of the monastery and spiritual advisor to Saint Aurea. ius, informed of the incomparable merits of our blessed confessor, wished to have him in his diocese of Noyon, to spread there the seed of the Gospel; he ordained him priest and commanded him to work on all sides to clear the field of the Lord. Momble, to discharge this mission, built himself a small hermitage at Condren, two lea Condren Site of the hermitage, death, and initial burial place of the saint. gues from Chauny, from where he went from village to village to combat vice, explain the law of God, enlighten the ignorant, and reconcile the penitent. The miracles he performed incessantly gave great weight to his preaching and caused sinners to be obliged to yield to the force of his remonstrances.

However, after the death of the abbot of Lagny, all the religious of that house, who remembered the edifying life of Saint Momble, unanimously elected him as their abbot and sent for him to be taken from his solitude to be placed in the chair of Saint Foursy saint Foursy Traveling companion of Blitaire in Gaul. . It was only after great resistance that he yielded to their desires. This new dignity did not change him in the least. He maintained the same poverty in his clothing, the same abstinence in his food, the same assiduity in prayer, and the same contempt for all earthly things. He also worked in this monastery with an intrepid courage to maintain the regular observance that Saint Foursy had established there, and which some young religious, who loved their freedom too much, could not bear the yoke of. This firmness drew complaints and murmurs upon him. Obliged to leave his prelacy and return to the hermitage of Condren, which he had already sanctified by his prayers and his tears, he was followed there by some religious, passionate in their love for solitude, and he gathered there a small number of other disciples with whom he lived in marvelous fervor. His time was divided between the exercises of the contemplative life and the duties of Christian charity. He conversed with God like Moses, and he fought like Joshua against the enemies of his people; he spent the night at the foot of the altars and dedicated the day to preaching, spiritual conferences, and the important work of the sanctification of souls.

Moreover, he had extreme charity for the poor and for all kinds of afflicted people. He received pilgrims, clothed those who were naked, gave bread to those who were hungry, consoled those he saw in desolation; in a word, he made himself all things to all men, in order to win them all. God highlighted this charity through several miracles. Momble healed an infinity of sick people, either by the sign of the cross, or by anointing them with holy oil, or by conferring upon them the sacrament of Extreme Unction. He also restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the use of limbs to the crippled and the paralyzed, the cleanliness of the body to lepers, and life to the dead. In all these wonders, which continually drew upon him the praises and applause of the people, he always maintained a very profound humility. The greater he appeared in the eyes of men, the more he annihilated himself within and desired to be hidden. His continuous occupations did not make him lose the love of retreat and silence, and, in the fatigues of his travels and his sermons, he was no less austere and penitent than in the rest of his cell.

Finally, it pleased God to reward his labors with a precious death, which was but a passage to the happiness of eternity. This was on November 18, towards the end of the 8th century.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

His disciples buried his body in his oratory of Condren, and not at Lagny, as Du Saussay wrote in his martyrology; the ancient lessons of his office and the old manuscripts of his life leave no doubt on this subject.

So many miracles occurred at his tomb that, as this place was too narrow to receive the faithful who flocked there, it was decided that he would be transported to the village parish, dedicated under the name of Saint-Pierre. This translation took place in the time of Emperor Louis the Pious, by Ekart or Fricard, Bishop of Noyon, accompanied by Altihgaire, whom some identify as the parish priest of Chauny, and others as Bishop of Cambrai and Lord of Condren. At the opening of the sepulcher, they found the holy body entirely intact, although he had been dead for about one hundred and fifty years. Since then, a portion of this precious relic having been given to the religious of Saint-Éloi-Fontaine, in Picardy, the other Chauny Town where a portion of the relics was transferred. was transferred to Chauny, in the main church, dedicated in honor of Our Lady, which took Saint Momble as its patron for this reason. Thus, it celebrates his office on this day with an octave; and, on August 29, it celebrates the solemnity of his translation.

The Calvinists, Les Calvinistes Religious group that destroyed the saint's relics in 1567. having made themselves masters of Chauny in 1567, pulled these sacred remains from their reliquaries and reduced them to dust, which they cast to the wind, except for the head, which has remained at this church as a great treasure.

This life has been drawn from the lessons of the office of Saint Momble and from the manuscripts of Saint-Corneille, of Compiègne, of Lagny-sur-Marne, and of Saint-Éloi -Fontain Mabillon Benedictine monk and historian, author of the Annales benedictinae. e. The Rev. Fr. Mabillon also speaks of him in his Volume II of the Saints of the Order of Saint Benedict.