Saint Albin of Angers

The history of his life does not provide us with details regarding the early years of his profession and priesthood; it is content to tell us that the rare examples of his virtue led to his election as abbot of that monastery at the age of twenty-five, though others say thirty-five (504), and that he conducted himself in this new office with such prudence that, by uniting severity with gentleness, he finally restored regular discipline to the highest degree one could wish for the glory of that holy house. His first historian, Saint Fortunatus, compares the state of the monastery under this admirable master to a delightful garden embellished by the most sweet, varied, and ravishing flowers of spring.

But God, who did not wish for such a brilliant light to remain any longer in a cloister, ordained by His Providence that, having exercised this office for another twenty-five years, he should be raised by his merits to a more eminent degree to enlighten the whole Church. The city of Angers, after the death of Adulphe, the eleventh known bishop of that see, requested Aubin t o suc Aubin Bishop of Angers, traveling companion of Lubin. ceed him. He initially resisted his election strongly, excusing himself on the grounds of his incapacity, which he claimed was very great; but seeing that it was the will of God, he finally accepted this heavy burden (529).

The bishops of the province who had been able to appreciate his talent, character, and virtue applauded the choice of the people and the Angevin clergy. But no one felt more joy than Sa int Melaine, bishop of Rennes. saint Melaine, évêque de Rennes Bishop of Rennes, friend and compatriot of Saint Aubin. This pontiff was, in the 6th century, the light of Western Gaul and one of the greatest prelates of his time. He was a friend, compatriot, and perhaps a relative of Saint Aubin. It is likely that it was he who conferred episcopal consecration upon him; he was accompanied on this occasion by three other prelates who were also friends of our Saint: they were Saint Laud of Coutances, Saint Victor II of Le Mans, and Saint Marc of Nantes. The holy friends parted after celebrating the holy mysteries one last time in a crypt venerated ever since, located in the basilica later known as Notre-Dame de la Charité or Ronceray. Of these five bishops, the first to descend into the tomb was Saint Melaine. Warned by an angel, Saint Aubin and the bishops of Le Mans and Nantes went to assist him on his deathbed and celebrate his funeral.

Let us now follow Saint Aubin, having become bishop, in the laborious exercises of his private life.

The fruit of the grace working within him was such that the city of Angers appeared entirely different from what it was before his promotion to this bishopric; this new prelate was not content to preach only on the most solemn feasts; he did not let a day pass without teaching his people, whether in public or in private, holding as a constant maxim that the soul has no less need of daily refreshment than the body has of its ordinary food.

He took admirable care of the poor of his diocese; he visited the sick, consoled the afflicted, and relieved with all his power the widows whom he knew to be burdened with a large number of children.

But another class of the unfortunate fixed his attention above all: these were the wretched Christians who had fallen into slavery following the barbarian invasions, and who were very numerous at that time. Saint Aubin employed, to ransom those of his diocese, all the resources that the goods of his church, his own savings, and the liberality of pious souls could provide him. He thus restored to liberty a great number of the inhabitants of Anjou. Saint Aubin preceded Saint Vincent de Paul by eleven centuries in this admirable apostolate.

To the grace of charity, the Blessed one added that of miracles. Let us first cite a fact that depicts the customs of the 6th century. There was in the village of Douillé, near Angers, a young and noble lady named Etheria, whose extraordinary beauty had excited the lust of King Chi ldebert. Immed roi Childebert King of the Franks who supported the saint. iately, upon his order, she was seized and kept under guard.

Saint Aubin had such pity for her that he went himself to the prison and had her released by the authority given to him by his office and the reputation of his holiness. A reckless soldier tried to oppose him and vomited a thousand insults against him; but he only had to blow into the face of this insolent man, and he fell stone dead at his feet.

The prince, terrified by this manifestation of the wrath of God, consented to abandon his plans regarding Etheria and asked only for monetary compensation. The generous prelate took it upon himself to pay this ransom, too happy to contribute in this way to the preservation of the virtue of others.

But if a single breath of Saint Aubin was powerful enough on this occasion to take the life of one who was unworthy of it, his word was no less strong in other circumstances to restore it to those who had lost it through no fault of their own; this is what happened to a young child named Alabaude, from the town of Géné, near Segré, whom he resurrected by the power of his prayers. In a word, one would have said that his power extended to the point of making death and life coexist: for, one of his servants having died in Vannes in his absence, when they wanted to carry him to the earth, his body, as if it had been animated, remained completely immobile, until the holy prelate, having arrived at the place and having given him his blessing, allowed himself to be carried away quite easily.

We do not speak of his other wonders and the miraculous healings he performed: he restored sight to five blind people and the use of their limbs to several paralytics, among others to a lady of Angers named Grata. God had given him a very particular power for the deliverance of prisoners.

Several criminals, detained in the tower of Angers, begged the Saint to be willing to intercede with the judge for their deliverance; his charity made him undertake it very willingly; but the judge, inclined to severity, having refused him this grace, the bishop simply said that God would not be so inexorable, and that one had to address Him. Indeed, having persevered in prayer until the middle of the night, a large stone detached itself from the wall and gave passage to the prisoners; they immediately came to find the Saint who was praying in the church of Saint-Maurille, and, prostrating themselves at his feet, promised him not to return to their former crimes. But one should not be surprised that Saint Aubin thus prevailed over a man clothed in a body, since his power extended even over spirits: for the demon having placed himself in the eye of a woman he possessed, which made her face monstrous, so swollen was that eye, Saint Aubin conjured him for some time, and, having forbidden him, in the name of Jesus Christ, to harm this servant of God, he drove him out shamefully, and the woman was delivered.

These brilliant virtues of our Saint, accompanied and supported by so many miracles, easily carried his name into all parts of the Frankish kingdom. King Child ebert, eldest son of the great Clovis, had s Le roi Childebert, fils aîné du grand Clovis King of the Franks who supported the saint. uch great veneration for this illustrious prelate that he went to meet him when he came to Paris; and the Saint, making good use of the influence he had with the king, as a precious talent that God placed in his hands, procured the meeting of the third Council of Orléa ns, where, to root out abus troisième concile d'Orléans Council held in 540 addressing ecclesiastical discipline and morality. es that had crept into France, several points of great importance were decided: among others, that Jews who mocked the Christian ceremonies practiced by the Church during Holy Week would be confined to their homes from Holy Thursday until Monday of the feast of the Agape; that concubinary priests would be excommunicated, and, if they persisted in their evil life, that they would be degraded and confined in a monastery; that marriages between relatives would be null, and that those who contracted them would be struck with anathema.

Saint Aubin made himself such a zealous observer of all these articles, particularly the last one, that he had no regard for either the status of the persons or the damages that might arise from it. And, as once certain bishops, cowardly complacent toward a lord who had contracted marriage with one of his relatives, and had fallen for that reason under the anathema, wanted to force Saint Aubin to absolve him and to send him eulogies (these were blessed things that bishops formerly sent as a sign of union and benevolence), this generous Prelate replied to them with a spirit full of zeal: "You want to force me to subscribe to this absolution; but God is powerful enough to support the cause whose defense you refuse to take up." Indeed, this excommunicated man was struck with sudden death before receiving the eulogies.

Nevertheless, the Saint, fearing that he had not shown enough firmness and energy towards his fellow bishops, went to the city of Arles to consult Saint Caesar ius, and to l saint Césaire Abbot of Lérins and later Bishop of Arles, mentor to Siffrein. earn from him what he must do to expiate this fault of which he judged himself guilty. We do not know what advice he received from the holy archbishop; but we see, subsequently, that regret and sadness, joined to the fatigues of a journey of three hundred leagues, carried him from this life immediately after his return to Angers, at the age of seventy, according to the calculation of Father Albert le Grand, of Morlay, in his History of the Saints of Brittany. Others give him eighty; but this diversity comes only from the fact that some make him an abbot at the age of thirty-five and others at twenty-five. He had happily governed his bishopric for the space of twenty-one years and six months, and he died on the first of March, towards the middle of the 6th century, leaving behind him an eternal memory of his virtues, and immense regret to all his people for losing such a good father and such a worthy prelate.

## CULT OF SAINT AUBIN. — PILGRIMAGE OF MOESLAIN

His body was solemnly interred in a chapel of the church of Saint-Maurille, his predecessor on the see of Angers. Some time later, Saint Germain, Bishop of Paris, being in Angers with other bishops of the province, they resolved to remove him from that place and transport him to a church newly erected in his honor. But, as they had great difficulty in accomplishing this, because the sepulcher was extremely narrow, three stones detaching themselves of their own accord facilitated the means: everything resounded with the praises and hymns that were sung to the Creator, who showed Himself admirable in His Saints. He was carried with the general joy of the whole city of Angers to this new church. This translation was famous for several miracles that took place there: three paralytics were perfectly healed, and two blind men, having asked to be placed in the shadow of the holy body, received there the full enjoyment of light.

This first translation took place on June 30, 556: a feast was established to recall this memorable event. Soon after, a monastery rose near the church that possessed the precious remains of the holy bishop: the church and the abbey exchanged their primitive name for that of Saint-Aubin.

Few Saints have performed as many miracles during their life and after their death. In the middle of the 12th century, the city of Guérande, in Brittany, was delivered from the Norman invasion by the intercession of Saint Aubin: he was solemnly proclaimed the principal patron of the Breton city.

In the course of ages, three other translations of the body of Saint Aubin took place, all of which were celebrated in a special manner. The Anglican Church still makes memory of the first, on June 17, in its heretical liturgy.

There are some relics of the holy bishop of Angers at Louvencourt in Amiens, at Plessier-Rozainvillers, and at Saint-Aubin-Rivière.

Saint Aubin was one of those extraordinary men whose influence crossed the borders of the province that witnessed his brilliant life. A large number of churches, before the Revolution, made memory of him, at least twice a year, on July 1 and March 1. His name was known in the universe and his cult spread in all the kingdoms of Europe. France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and even Poland have especially honored his memory. All martyrologies make mention of him, and his name is inscribed in the oldest known litanies. It would be too long to enumerate the parishes of the various dioceses of France that are still today under the patronage of Saint-Aubin: in Anjou alone, there are more than twenty-five.

Let us, however, grant a mention to the pilgrimage of Saint-Aubin at Moeslain. Moeslain is a small village of a little more than two hundred inhabitants, loca ted one Moeslain Village in the Haute-Marne department possessing a relic and a pilgrimage site. kilometer from Saint-Dizier, in the Haute-Marne, on the road to Vassy. The origin of the devotion to Saint Aubin in this locality dates back to the year 1190, the time when a bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, who had come from the monastery of Saint-Aubin d'Angers, donated a finger of the Saint's hand to the parish of Moeslain. This relic has escaped the disasters of revolutions, and three times a year, on March 1, Easter Monday, and Whit Monday, numerous pilgrims go to venerate it in the modest sanctuary of the village. Not far from the chapel of Saint-Aubin of Moeslain, there is a fountain of living water, an object of the confidence of the local inhabitants and even of foreigners: this spring has never dried up, even during the strongest droughts.

This fountain of Saint-Aubin is not the only one dedicated to him: there is another in a village in the Aisne department that bears the name of our Saint, even more remarkable for the effects it produces. The mothers of this latter parish assure that, generally, their sick children experience an extraordinary agitation, a prelude to their healing, at the moment when their swaddling clothes are dipped in the fountain.

One admires in the chapel of Moeslain a statue of Saint Aubin which, in the judgment of artists, is a masterpiece: it is made of stone and all of one block; it is attributed to Ligier Richier, the renowned author of the tomb of Saint-Niblet.

May we be permitted to offer to the piety of the numerous devotees of Saint Aubin the invocation that serves as a preface, on the day of his feast, in a 10th-century manuscript missal preserved at the library of Angers:

"Eternal God, deliver us from the chains that hold our souls captive; we beseech You through Our Lord Jesus Christ who gave to His Church, in the person of the blessed pontiff Aubin, a model as accomplished as it is admirable. The Catholic Church, spread over all points of the globe, glories and rejoices in the excellent works and the life so worthy of praise of this faithful servant. His glorious death and his triumphant entry into the heavens are today the subject of the divine harmonies of the nine choirs of blessed spirits.

"Permit us, therefore, to unite ourselves to these innumerable concerts and to raise our hearts to You, O our God and our reward for eternity! Amen."

His life was first written by a holy priest, Fortunatus, who was extremely devoted to him: it is found in Surius. Saint Gregory of Tours, the venerable Bede, and Usuard also make honorable memory of him; the Roman martyrology names him on the 1st day of March. At this point, Baronius remarks that Saint Aubin lived in the time of Childebert, King of France, and that he attended the third Council of Orleans, celebrated in the year 540 of our saint: and that then Abbot Trillione was mistaken when, speaking of Saint Aubin of Angers, in his third book of Illustrious Men of the Order of Saint Benedict, he places him in the year 720. The same Baronius also remarks that there is another Saint Aubin, much older than this one, in whose honor Saint Maximus, Bishop of Riez, in Provence, had a church built, and who could well be Saint Aubin VIII, Bishop of Châlons, of whom it is spoken in the Acts of Saint Lupus, Archbishop of Troyes. There is also a third Saint Aubin, Archbishop of Lyon, later than ours, and who is marked in the Melesian Tables, on September 17; — there is a fourth. It is Aubin or Albin of Embrun, whose life we are giving today: it seems more probable to us that it is in honor of Saint Albin of Embrun that Saint Maximus had a church raised.

We have consulted, to complete this life of Saint Aubin: Les Vies des saints Personnages de l'Anjou, by Dom Charmard, Paris, 1863; — les Vies des Saints de Bretagne, by Dom Labineau, Paris, 1876; — les Annales hagiologiques de France, vol. VII; — Saint Aubin, by Father Mazelin; — les Caractéristiques by Father Cahier, not to mention common sources.