Saint Ronan

Overcome with weariness and dying of hunger, he went to ask for hospitality from a good peasant who received him very charitably and was even so touched by the intentions of Saint Ronan that he asked to come and see him sometimes. But the peasant's wife found that her husband was prolonging his visits to the hermitage too much: she went to find Saint Ronan and vomited against him all the insults that her fury suggested to her, to avenge the alleged harm he was doing to her household by distracting her husband from his work.

The patience and silence of Saint Ronan only irritated the bile of this furious woman more and more; she entered into a kind of rage against the servant of God and spread the rumor in the neighborhood that he was a magician, and that he wanted to corrupt her husband to teach him this diabolical art. Her calumnies made an impression on some coarse people who began to look at Saint Ronan only with horror. But Keba n (th Keban A peasant's wife, the main antagonist and slanderer of Ronan. is is the name of this wretched woman), seeing that the most reasonable people continued to honor Saint Ronan, and destroyed the atrocious calumnies she was publishing against him, thought of one of the blackest pieces of wickedness. She hid in a chest a daughter she had, aged four to five years, and complained to everyone that Ronan, transforming himself, when he wanted, into a beast, and running through the country, was the wolf that had devoured the livestock that had been lost, and that she, more unfortunate than the others, because she was the most hated by him, had lost her only daughter, whom this abominable man had devoured. Having become more brazen, when she noticed that people were moved by her speeches, she first went to the Saint's hermitage, with several other women, to ask him for her daughter with frightful howls; and then, followed by the same company, whose presence animated her, she had the impudence to go to Quimper to throw herself at th e feet of K roi Grallon Sovereign of Cornouaille who judged Saint Ronan. ing Grallon, and ask him for justice against Renan, who had devoured her child, and made her husband a sorcerer like him. She shed so many tears and her transports were so violent that it was difficult not to be seduced by her words, and not to believe that it was nature itself that was speaking.

Grallon was deceived by it, as were most of the lords of his court; and, horrified by such an enormous crime, he immediately sent for Saint Ronan, who came at once. Grallon, giving way to the impetuosity of his passion and consulting only the harshness of his zeal, did not wish to take the trouble to investigate the accusation. "I have," he said, "two furious mastiffs that will let me know if this man is innocent; let them be unleashed against him, and let the holiness of his life save him, if he is not guilty." The dogs rushed at Ronan to devour him. The Saint, raising his hand and making the sign of the cross, said: "May the Lord stop you." Immediately, both of them, softened, came to fawn upon and caress Ronan; which made Grallon return to his senses. He recognized the fault that his haste had caused him to commit and gave Ronan every opportunity to justify himself.

He did so, because the glory of God was at stake, and publicly uncovered the wickedness of Keban. He said where she had hidden her daughter, and warned at the same time that she had died there, for not having had free breath. The matter was found to be true by the officers whom the prince sent to the scene, and Keban could not have avoided being stoned or burned on the spot, so great was the public indignation against her, had not the charity of Ronan delivered her from the peril. He did even more, according to the Legend, and to take revenge as a true Christian, by rendering good for evil, he resurrected, in the presence of everyone, the daughter of his enemy.

The rest of the history of Saint Ronan has remained in the shadows. His body was buried at the site of his second hermitage, which took the name of Loc-Renan-Ar-Coat-Nevent. The piety of the Count of Cornouaille later erected a very beautiful church there: the devotion and the gathering of the people formed a considerable village around it. A portion of his relics remained for a long time in this church, which now possesses only two of his ribs; but the most significant portion was later transferred to the ca cathédrale de Quimper City where King Grallon resided and where the relics were transferred. thedral of Quimper, which lost them durin Révolution Period during which the saint's relics were hidden and lost. g the Revolution. Several great miracles are reported to have occurred at his tomb and in Quimper. Besides the two villages of Saint-Ronan, in the dioceses of Léon and Quimper, there is also in that of Saint-Brieuc the parish of Lan-Renan, which is now called Laurenan.

The church of Loc-Renan-Ar-Coat-Nevent still contains the tomb of the Saint. It is made of Kersanton stone and consists of a massive slab, upon which lies the recumbent statue of Saint Ro saint Ronan Hermit of Irish origin who lived in Brittany in the 6th century. nan, depicted in episcopal vestments, with a mitre on his head and a crozier in his left hand; he tramples under his feet a monstrous animal, an emblem of paganism, the remnants of which he helped to extirpate in these regions.

Lives of the Saints o f Brittany, Dom Lubineau Hagiographer and historian of Brittany, author of the source. by Dom Lubineau.