Saint Maudez

Having been raised to the priesthood, after having studied with the intention of sanctifying himself, he preached in the states and at the court of his father with zeal and success. Subsequently, he left e verything Armorique Place of Guigner's first exile. to come and hide in Armorica, and landed in a port near Dol (Ille-et-Vilaine). His first care was to visit the holy and numerous communities that were there; he went to Tréguier (Côtes-du-Nord) , where Saint saint Tugduald Breton saint who welcomed Maudez to Tréguier. Tugdual (November 30) welcomed him with kindness, admitted him into his monastery, and charged him with the care of announcing the word of God to the people, a function which Maudez discharged with zeal.

After traveling through the country, he returned to Tréguier and placed himself under the guidance of Saint Ruellin (February 28), who was then governing the monastery. He spent some time there, but his attraction to the solitary life determined him to withdraw into a hermitage. He settled in a very isolated plac e which Lanmodez Site of the hermitage founded by the saint. is called by his name "Lanmodez" (Côtes-du-Nord, arrondissement of Lannion, canton of Lézardieux), that is to say "territory of Maudez". He led an entirely angelic life there, always occupied with God and almost forgetting that he had a body.

Finally, wishing to flee the applause and avoid the importunity of the people who, from all sides, resorted to his charity, which was fruitful in miracles for the healing of their illnesses, he crossed the arm of the sea that lies between the l'île qu'on nomme aujourd'hui Saint-Maudez Island where the saint retreated and performed miracles. mainland and the island that is today called Saint-Maudez, and rendered this island habitable by his prayer, from the uninhabitable state it is said to have been in before, because of an innumerable multitude of reptiles that infested it. This was not the only extraordinary grace he obtained from heaven.

The lord, who had given him this island, had two sons, one of whom killed the other while playing. The Saint, having begun to pray, obtained the resurrection of this young man, whom he returned alive to his father. He built an oratory near a cave, which served as his dwelling, and one can still see a large stone that is called Guele-san-Maudez, "bed of Saint Maudez". It was in this place that he spent the rest of his days and that he ended his holy career (8th century).

The cult of Saint Maudez was once very popular in the dioceses of Tréguier, Dol, Léon, Quimper, Bourges, and Orléans. As for his relics, as the Normans were ravaging the surroundings of Tréguier in 878, the body of Saint Maudez, initially buried in his oratory by his two disciples Bothmaël and Tudy, was taken out of Brittany and deposited in the church of Bourges, where it remaine d, for Bourges City where Leopardin received his episcopal blessing. the most part, until the time of the Calvinist ravages. The Count of Penthièvre, founder of the abbey of Beauport (of the Premonstratensian Order, in the dio cese of Saint-Brie Ordre de Prémontré Religious order to which Father Aubertin, the saint's biographer, belonged. uc), later obtained the head of this Saint from the Church of Bourges and enriched a new abbey with it, from where it was taken to the church of Piouszec (Côtes-du-Nord), which preserves it now. There were other churches that possessed his relics, among others that of the abbey of Sainte-Marie de Pain-Pont (Panis Pons, Order of Saint Augustine), in the current diocese of Rennes. The old cathedral of Tréguier also has a quite considerable portion of them.

In addition to the bed of Saint Maudez, one can still see, on the island bearing his name, his cell, built in a round shape like a tower, with two floors, which is called Forn-Maudez. There was formerly in the region of Dinan (Côtes-du-Nord), quite near Corseul, a rather beautiful church dedicated to this Saint. One can see nearby some vestiges of a cloister, and the bas-relief figures around the cemetery cross lead us to believe that there was a commandery of the Knights Templar in this place.

In the 9th or 10th century, Breton monks brought some of the relics of Saint Maudez to Paris, and they built there, very close to Vincennes, under his invocation, a chapel, which subsequently became a priory dependent on the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Magloire in Paris. One still preserves in this chapel, which has become a succursal church since the Revolution, a bone from an arm of Saint Maudez. A great crowd used to gather there on May 14, the day on which the translation of this relic was celebrated. This devotion to the Saint has not entirely ceased: people go to Saint-Mandé (Seine) to obtain the Saint-Mandé Place of devotion near Paris associated with the saint's relics. healing of children suffering from rickets; the patronal feast is celebrated solemnly in this church on the Sunday closest to November 18.

Drawing inspiration from the circumstances of his life, Saint Maudez can be represented: 1st with a crown at his feet, to signify that he knew how to despise the pleasures of the court; 2nd on a boat that carries him from Ireland to Armorica; 3rd having at his side the harmful reptiles from which he was able to rid the region; 4th resurrecting a dead person.

Taken from the Life of the Saints of Brittany, by Dom Lobineau and Tresvaux.