Saint Serenic

When our two holy brothers reached manhood, they understood more and more the necessity of giving themselves without reserve to God. These words of the Gospel made the deepest impression upon them: "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me!". An angel appeared to each of the two brothers during a night devoted to prayer, and came to confirm them in their plans for renunciation. He declared to them that the will of God called them first to Rome; that they must bid an eternal farewell to their loved ones and their homeland; that their sacrifice must be complete and absolute; that they would have some time to spend in the Basilica of Saint Peter, occupied solely with divine service, fasts, vigils, psalmodies, and other exercises practiced by the religious who served that sanctuary. At that time, the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles, as well as several of the principal churches of Rome, were served by the children of Saint Benedict. Sérénic a nd Séréné understood im enfants de saint Benoît Religious order occupying the monastery of Honnecourt. mediately that heaven was calling them to walk the path that the great patriarch of Monte Cassino had traced for his disciples. As soon as they knew with certainty the designs of God for them, they hastened to respond, left everything, and promptly set out for Rome. Upon their arrival in the holy city, they were well received by the Pope and the community of monks of the Vatican. They happily received the humble habit of Saint Benedict, and applied themselves with fervor to the practice of all observances. Far from slowing down with time, their zeal always took on new growth. For several years, they constantly vied with the holiest monks of the community in the practice of fasts, vigils, and prayers; in a word, they were perfect disciples of Saint Benedict. Touched by the efforts that Sérénic and Séréné, still so young, were making with such generosity to advance on the narrow path that leads to life, and by their patience, their humility, their sobriety, and their other virtues, all the monks of the Vatican looked upon them as their models. Not content with vain admiration, they strove to imitate them, and loudly proclaimed their merits. Informed of the qualities of these two brothers, the Sovereign Pontiff wished to associate them with the arduous cares of his ministry, and created them cardinal-deacons. Although the external honors attached to the cardinalate have received notable developments since the 7th century, it is certain nonetheless that from that time on, he who was raised to this dignity held the first rank in the clergy of the Roman Church, and consequently in the entire Christian universe.

Saint Serenic and Saint Serene did not long enjoy the high dignity that their virtues had earned them, without understanding the new perils to which it exposed them. Although they made every effort to avoid the marks of respect given to them on all sides, they feared that vainglory might insensibly slip into their hearts. The presence of danger awakened in them a greater vigilance and made them redouble their prayers. Finally, an angel appeared to Serenic at night and said to him: "Why do you give yourself over to anxiety, Serenic? Pursue the fulfillment of the design that made you abandon your father, your mother, and your possessions. The Lord does not want you to remain any longer in this place; but He commands you to reach a more distant land." Having thus received the warning from the angel, Serenic and Serene promptly prepared to leave Rome. They crossed almost all of Italy, ran great dangers in passing the Alps, and arrived in the southern provinces of Gaul. As they were uncertain of the place where they should settle, they traveled through several regions of this vast territory. The lands of western Gaul were famous above all for the tombs of Saint Martin, in Tours, and of Saint Julian, in Le Mans. Other privileged sanctuaries still attracted crowds of pilgrims: thus, in the diocese of Le Mans alone, the cathedral church, dedicated for more than a hundred years to Saint Gervase and Saint Protase, had become the place where the miraculous power of these two athletes of Christ shone with the greatest splendor on this side of the Alps. For more than a century, moreover, and especially since the episcopate of Saint Innocent (532-543), the diocese of Le Mans had become like the Thebaid of Gaul.

It was in the solitude of the Charnie that the angel of the Lord led Séréné and Sérénic. It is certain that towards the middle of the 7th century, when our two holy monks came to live in the diocese of Le Mans, the forest of Charnie offered deep solitudes, where numerous anchorites lived in silence and retreat, practicing all the works of the most rigorous asceticism. This was what Saint Séréné and his brother were seeking. It appears, however, according to fairly plausible traditions, that they first lived for some time in the place where the town of Château-Gontier is now. It was then an important land that belonged to the monks of Bazouges. Our two brothers could have lived there in peace, if, for a reason unknown to us, they had not soon left the diocese of Angers to come and live in that of Le Mans. They fixed their dwelling near the village of Saulges. The hut that had served a s their Saulges Hermitage site of Saint Serenus. asylum on the farm of the monks of Bazouges remained in veneration; later it was converted into a chapel where the piety of Christians implored the help of Saint Séréné until the first years of the 19th century. The proximity of this village brought frequent visits to our two monks. This concourse singularly tired Sérénic, whose soul was enamored with love for contemplation. God used this attraction to lead the holy anchorite into a neighboring diocese; for He did not want these two torches to be exclusively reserved for enlightening Maine. Sérénic therefore began to take a dislike to a place that seemed to him too provided with all the comforts of life, and above all too frequented; and he did not delay in opening up to his brother, manifesting to him the desire he felt to advance more deeply into the desert. Never until this day had these two brothers separated from one another. But the will of God required a new sacrifice; they offered it generously and without any delay. It was not, however, without shedding many tears that Sérénic and Séréné parted. After this separation, Saint Sérénic advanced towards the country of Hyesmes, and chose for his stay a very deserted place, situated on the bank of the Sarthe river, surrounded by rocks, and which could only be approached by a narrow path. In this retreat, he was followed only by a young child named Flavart, whom he had adopted at the baptismal font, and who had attached himself to him with entire devoti Flavart Disciple and spiritual son of Saint Serenicus. on. He greeted the angel of this solitude, and blessed a thousand times his celestial guide, who had invisibly brought him into a desert where nothing would disturb him anymore in his commerce with God. After having prayed for a long time with his forehead against the ground, at the moment he raised his head, he perceived near him a fountain that had just miraculously gushed from the previously arid soil, and which, since that day, has not ceased to flow. The prodigy did not stop at this first mark of divine protection; for, in order to prove more and more the merits of his servant, God gave this water the power to heal the sick. Some time later, Sérénic wanting to cross the river, and not having a boat, found himself very embarrassed; he resorted to prayer, then he made the sign of the cross over the water, which divided in two and left a free passage. The young Flavart, who was following his master, surprised and as if beside himself at such a prodigy, let fall into the riverbed the book he was carrying. His astonishment was such that he had no consciousness of the accident that had just happened to him; but when he had recovered from his first emotion, he recognized the loss he had made, and began to look at Sérénic with a pale and decomposed face. The Saint asked him where this alteration in his features came from; Flavart, falling at his feet, confessed to him trembling the fault he had committed. His master raised him with kindness, and reassured him fully by telling him that one day this book would be returned to him. Indeed, six years later, this book was pulled from the river as healthy as if the water had not touched it. This manuscript was still kept in the ninth century in the basilica built by Sérénic; and the author of his life affirms having seen it bearing no stain. His prayer was so fervent that he was not content with reciting the office of each day prescribed by Saint Benedict and Saint Columbanus; but he also added the office according to the rite of the Roman Church. However, such a great light could not remain hidden from the eyes of everyone for long; the rumor of the holy life of Sérénic moved the populations of the neighborhood; it then spread even further, and people came in crowds to visit the holy hermit and recommend themselves to his prayers.

Among those who frequented the cell of Sérénic most assiduously, there were souls gifted with a stronger aspiration towards the things of heaven; they proposed to follow such beautiful examples, and begged the man of God to take them under his guidance. In a short time the number of disciples who gathered to live under his direction increased prodigiously; and one soon counted up to one hundred and forty monks ranged under his discipline. He took particular care to regulate and have piously executed those long psalmodies which are the first duty and the greatest joy of monastic life, and which, in the sentiment of the Saints, stop plagues and bring down abundant graces upon the earth. Sérénic had not wanted to be raised to the priesthood; but he fulfilled his duties as a deacon every day in the church of his monastery. Our holy abbot had begun to build a vast basilica that he proposed to dedicate under the patronage of Saint Martin; but he was forestalled by death, which took him from this world on May 7th. He was at a very advanced age, and had announced to his monks the time and circumstances of his passing.

Let us return to Saint Séréné Brother of Serenicus, hermit at Saulges and wonderworker. Séréné whom we left at Saulges. It is usually only after the laborious exercises of a long penance that the purified soul receives the supernatural gifts that complete its intimate union with God. It happened thus for Séréné: after the harsh labors of the active life and the expiations of the purgative life, he began to enjoy the most extraordinary heavenly favors. His communion with God became more intimate; frequent raptures and ecstasies raised him above the senses; inspirations from heaven brought him knowledge superior to the lights acquired through study and the natural penetration of the mind. Often, when after prolonged fasts and austere penances he remained as if devoid of strength, the angels came to visit him; they appeared to him in sensible forms and conversed with him. The Savior himself did not disdain to let the soul of his faithful servant taste the charms of his presence, and gave him a foretaste of heavenly happiness. Séréné also received the gift of penetrating the secret of hearts and discovering the state of the conscience of those who approached him. Often he revealed to the people who consulted him faults they had committed many years before, and which had even faded from their memory: thus, the most audacious spirit would not have dared to utter a lie in his presence. Such eminent virtues could not remain hidden for long from the faithful of the neighborhood, who were the first to visit Séréné in his solitude; but soon after, others came from more distant lands. Many of those who visited him thus offered him gifts; he received them so as not to afflict them by his refusals and not to deprive these people of the merit of almsgiving; but he distributed everything to the poor who also came to his cell and were always well received there. Sinners who had plunged into crime often came to him, whose hearts were wracked with remorse and whose souls were given over to despair: Séréné received them with a particular affability, showered them with so many consolations, and offered them such powerful motives for hope that they only returned after having purified their conscience, and after the joy of a spirit at rest had taken the place of the agitation and sadness, the fatal consequences of sin. Several times also he saw people divided by violent hatreds, and he had a particular grace for reconciling them; he never let them leave him before they had sworn to each other an inviolable friendship. Thus shone the pious solitary of the banks of the Erve, like a luminous morning star, an astral body of peace and love to lead the Christian people on the path of salvation. He who had abandoned father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all hope here below, soon became the head of a numerous family, that is to say, of all the poor and all the afflicted. This holy fatherhood manifested itself in a striking manner in a circumstance mournful for Maine and all of France. Saint Bathilde, who governed the kingdom of France for some years in the name of her minor children, and with the advice of Saint Léger, Bishop of Autun, let the Church and the populations taste days of happiness and prosperity. But a faction of discontented lords watered the regent queen with bitterness. Bathilde, exposed to the hatred of the great and disgusted by the inertia of the people, descended from the throne and shut herself up in the abbey of Chelles. There, under the humble habit of Saint Benedict, which she had always cherished, she lived less powerful, but happier; a cowardly envy took the scepter from her; a late recognition consecrated her glory. Ebroin, mayor of the palace, had placed himself at the head of the lords who were enemies of Bathilde and Saint Léger. He used his power with the cruelty of a tyrant; and everything was delivered to anxiety and trouble in the State. His audacity in despising all laws awakened the wrath of the lords; he was overthrown and shut up in the abbey of Luxeuil. But three years later, a new revolution provided Ebroin with the means to seize authority again and begin his violence anew. Childeric II (670-673), forgetting the holy examples with which his childhood had been surrounded, abandoned himself to shameful passions, and drew upon himself the hatred and contempt of everyone. The barons formed a conspiracy against him; they surprised him in a forest where he was hunting, and massacred him. Upon returning to Paris, they surrounded the palace, broke down the doors, and put to death the queen, who was pregnant, along with the eldest of her children. When the news of the king's death was known, say the chroniclers of the time, the men who had been banished by his order returned without fear; their vengeances produced such great discord in the kingdom that it was believed the Antichrist was about to appear. In the province of Maine, these factions bloodied the cities, the castles, and the countryside; and the people, reduced to despair, no longer knew any restraint.

To the evils caused by armed rivalries were added other sorrows. The abandoned fields produced nothing at the time of the harvest; the militias had destroyed even the hopes; moreover, God, who wished to punish his people for the crimes they had committed, had refused the fields the rain that fertilizes them: the famine was extreme. Privations of all kinds gave rise to one of those diseases frequent at that time, and which the annalists as well as the people designate by the name of plague. The contagion was so malignant that one caught the evil by speaking, by breathing; not only did man communicate the plague to his fellow man, but it even reached the animals. All work was suspended; everyone walked isolated, and saw in every passerby a plague victim, and consequently a mortal enemy. Often those who carried a corpse to the tomb did not return to their home, and one saw more than once the gravedigger fall dead and occupy the place he was preparing for another. Overwhelmed by the present, threatened for the future, the strongest souls were seized by death or despair. The corpses of the deceased were not always covered with earth, and the morbid emanations that exhaled from them would have been enough on their own to depopulate the cities and the countryside.

The clergy and the people went to throw themselves at the feet of the Bishop of Le Mans, Saint Béraire, and begged him to seek a remedy for their evils. The prelate ordered a three-day fast, with processions and solemn masses of expiation. On the third day, it was revealed to a monk, a man of eminent pi ety, that the saint Béraire Bishop of Le Mans who sought the help of Saint Serenus against the plague. country would be delivered from the misfortunes under which it groaned by the merits and prayers of Saint Séréné. This religious hastened to make known to the bishop what heaven had revealed to him. Béraire took with him the most venerable men of his clergy, and went in all haste to the desert of Saulges. The man of God received the holy bishop with profound respect; they embraced with tender affection, and the prelate asked the solitary to speak to him in secret. When everyone had retired, Saint Béraire explained to Séréné the motive that had led him to his hermitage; he showed him that he had acted only by the order of God, and conjured him to exert himself as soon as possible to put an end to the evils that were overwhelming the people. The humility of Séréné refused to believe that such an important work was reserved for him; and he protested that he was unworthy to undertake it. Béraire insisted, affirmed to him that God had made his will known on this subject, and that if he did not obey, he would make himself guilty and would answer for the loss of the people. Immediately, Saint Séréné began to pray: he fasted, kept vigil, shed a torrent of tears; heaven finally allowed itself to be swayed: for "the assiduous prayer of the just is all-powerful." Sudden rains chased the pestilential influences from the air; they disposed the earth at the same time for the coming harvest, so that the abundance succeeding the past famine made people forget the previous privations and miseries. Such a striking prodigy gave Séréné a high influence; he used it to lead the leaders of the different factions to concord. The most inveterate animosities fell at the word of the man of God; and the country was indebted to him for the peace of which it had been deprived for so long.

Touched by the wonders that Serenus had just performed, Saint Berarius wished to compel him to accept the dignity of archdeacon of Le Mans. This dignity was very considerable, and the first in the diocese after the episcopate. Serenus declined these functions, and showed the bishop that, having the honor of being a cardinal-deacon of the Roman Church, he should not degenerate by accepting a dignity in an inferior Church. The miraculous power of the hermit of the Erve manifested itself every day through new prodigies. The sequence that was sung on the day of his feast affirms that he cured a man of a deadly virus by the sign of the cross. By the same means, he cured several blind people; and even in our days, many invoke him effectively for infirmities affecting the sight. For many years, Serenus had worked with tireless courage to enrich himself each day with new merits before God. Under the frosts of age, one noticed in him the same ardor for the austerities of penance and the labors of his ministry. But the hour of rest had arrived: he understood this as soon as he was struck by illness. After giving his final instructions to his disciples, Serenus received the body of the Savior with extraordinary fervor; and his soul, adorned with innocence and merits, flew to heaven. It was the 21st of July, around the year 680. At the very moment his soul detached from his body, the crowd that had gathered around him heard in the air the songs of angels and the sweet chords of a celestial melody. Many also felt the impression of a perfume superior to all those that men can compose. At the funeral, the multitude was so considerable that one would have said the entire province had rushed there; and all wept for him as the father of the fatherland, says his old historian. He was buried in a church, and his tomb immediately became a very frequented place of pilgrimage and the theater of countless miracles.

## CULT OF SAINT SERENUS AND SAINT SERENIC.

Saint Milchart, bishop of Séez, completed the construction of the church that Saint Serenic had begun, and performed its consecration. The body of Saint Serenic was transferred there and buried under the high altar. Less than two centuries after his happy passing, the number of miracles performed by our holy abbot was so great, and the devotion of the people for the thaumaturge so fervent, that the basilica had ceased to bear the name of Saint-Martin and was no longer known by any name other than Saint-Serenic. The parish of the diocese of Séez, on which the monastery founded by Saint Serenic was located, has recognized him as its patron for more than eight centuries. Likewise, the parish of Saint-Cénerin, near Bonnétable, often named in ancient titles Saint-Cénerin and Saint-Céneric, has honored him at all times as its protector before God. An ancient tradition holds that the blessed anchorite lived for some time on its territory, and that the monks he had established there gave rise to the priory that flourished there for several centuries. At the time of the Norman invasions, around the year 910, the relics of Saint Serenic were transported to Château-Thierry, in Champagne. They were kept there fo r a long time i Château-Thierry Place of the translation of the relics of Saint Serenicus. n the church of the Château-Fort; but this church having been destroyed, the relics of the Saint were transported to the church of Saint-Crépin, the main parish of the city. People came especially to Château-Thierry to invoke Saint Serenic against fever. It was the devotion of the city and the whole country, just as that of Saint Genevieve was the devotion of Paris. "Unfortunately," wrote M. Besson, parish priest and archpriest of Château-Thierry, to us on November 13, 1858, "at the time of the Revolution of 1793, the magnificent reliquary that contained these relics was broken, the bones thrown here and there in the church, then a frightful theater of profanation and destruction. Pious faithful collected some fragments of these precious relics, such as an arm bone, a rib, etc. An authentic act was drawn up on this subject, and these relics are now kept in our parish church, in a small reliquary. The feast of the Saint is no longer celebrated; only, on the day of the feast, May 8, the relics are exposed, without any ceremony, in the middle of the church, to respond to the devotion of the faithful from the neighboring countryside, who come to venerate them, and they are left exposed for eight days."

It is held by tradition that the first burial of Saint Serenus took place in the chapel that still bears his name, in the town of Saulges. It is said that he gathered the people and his disciples there to give them his instructions. These memories recommend this building to the piety of the faithful, which nevertheless retains no architectural character capable of determining its age; the upper part of the building even appears to have been rebuilt at a time that cannot be very distant.

After the death of Saint Serenus, his venerable remains therefore rested for some time in the church where his disciples had buried them. But, around the first years of the 13th century, the lordship of the parish of Saulges was given to the bishop of Angers. This prelate proposed to the bishop of Le Mans to make an exchange with a land that the latter possessed in the diocese of Angers and which was called Vicus episcopi, Ville-l'Évêque, four leagues from the capital of Anjou. Before the conclusion of the treaty, the bishop of Angers had the relics of Saint Serenus transported to his episcopal city. In the 9th century, the monk who wrote the account of the actions of Saint Serenus affirmed that one could still see the remains of his tomb in the church where he had been buried. Thus, from the 8th century, the town of Saulges was deprived of the relics of its holy protector; but the veneration for the illustrious hermit was not diminished: the whole country was filled with the memory of his prodigies. It is likely that the disciples of Serenus immediately formed a monastery to practice the rules he had given them. From the 7th century, the blessed Méroie established his dwelling in the monastery known as Saint-Pierre, at Saulges. This monastery succumbed, with a large number of other sanctuaries, during the storms of the 9th century, through the ravages of the Normans, or through internal wars. However, the church of Saint-Pierre, at Saulges, still existed in the time of the bishop of Le Mans, Vulgrin (1055-1064). It was then that Guy of Saulges, with the assent of Hugh, lord of Sillé-le-Guillaume, his suzerain, re-established the monastery. Since the fatal wars of the 15th century, there is no longer a priory or religious at Saulges to welcome pilgrims: and yet a great number still visit this sanctuary each year, in which the power of Saint Serenus does not cease to shine. The place of the pilgrimage is at a certain distance from the town of Saulges, at the bottom of one of the most graceful valleys, on the left bank of the Erve, which flows full to the brim, and is quite wide at this point, being held back by the causeway of a mill, a few steps below. A few years ago, the statue of the Saint, which is only a modest wooden figure, rested under a simple roof threatening ruin. In 1849, the parish of Saulges and the Marquis Henri de la Rochelambert had this sanctuary repaired with taste and solidity. A little later, in 1858, the Marquis de la Rochelambert, the Marquise de la Rochelambert, M. Adrien de Monfrand, and Mme de Monfrand gave the property of this sanctuary and the surrounding land to the parish fabric of Saulges. The statue of Saint Serenus rests in a niche made in the wall. Below, one reads an inscription that recalls the main actions of the blessed one. Under the feet of the thaumaturge springs a source of living water that goes to lose itself in the Erve. It is customary for pilgrims, after having said their prayers, to approach this source and drink a few drops of water. Many, having come to ask for the healing of some illness, wash with the water of the source the part of their body where the pain is located, and in recent years (1850-1868) several cures have been seen due to this act of piety. Finally, a large number of pious visitors are accustomed to taking home a bottle of this water as a souvenir and a token of the protection of the tutelary saint of the region.

As soon as the city of Angers had enriched itself with the precious relics of Saint Serenus, i t vene Angers Location of the foundation of a second monastery. rated them most particularly. A prebend of the cathedral bore the name of Saint Serenus; and an altar was erected early in his honor. From the 9th century, the feast of this Saint was celebrated; and it is his first historian who affirms it in the most positive way. This same feast is indicated in the missal of Angers, printed in 1498: it is double with five copes; there is a proper mass with a sequence; which was only granted, in the customs of the time, to patrons and principal saints. In the litanies of the ritual, published by Henri Armand, reprinted under Jean de Vaugirand, and in use until 1828, Saint Serenus is invoked with Saint Anthony, Saint Denis, Saint Bernard, and Saint Dominic. Saint Serenus, or Céréné, is of the double rite, with a proper prayer and lessons, since the adoption of the Roman (1st Sunday of Advent, 1858), by virtue of the approval of the S.C. of Rites, dated June 17, 1851. One no longer makes a memorial of Saint Serenus (or Céréné, vulgarly Célérin, in the country of Maine), as was done formerly from time immemorial. — The altar of Saint Serenus no longer exists. — There is no longer a pilgrimage in his honor at the cathedral.

The confidence that the people of Angers placed in Saint Serenus appears above all in the cult they rendered to his relics. His reliquary was solemnly carried in the processions of Palm Sunday, Saint Mark, the Rogations, on Ascension Day, and on July 21, the feast of our Saint. These processions were very solemn; great pomp was displayed, and they went all around the city. The parish priests of Sainte-Croix, Saint-Évroult, and Saint-Aignan, and one of the chaplains of the Chapter in charge of the custody of the relics, enjoyed the privilege of carrying the reliquary on their shoulders. If any solemn procession was extraordinarily indicated, it was still the reliquary of Saint Serenus that was carried. When a contagious disease afflicted the country, the reliquary of Saint Serenus was brought down and transported to one of the churches of the city. This reliquary, mentioned in all the inventories, notably in that of March 18, 1421 (property of M. Joubert, canon, custodian), disappeared during the Revolution, and its bones, mixed with those found in the violated tombs, were buried pell-mell in a place now unknown in the cathedral. In 1601, 1782, and 1786, the bishop of Angers, the dean, and the canons opened the reliquary to give relics to the parishes of Saulges, Sablé, and Le Plessis-Grammoire, which had insistently requested them.

The parish of Chemiré-sur-Sarthe honors Saint Serenus with a particular cult. When the body of the servant of God was transferred from Saulges to Angers, tradition says, the procession that carried it made a station in the village, at the place called today the chapel of Saint-Séréné or of the Frogs. Shortly after this event, this chapel was built in honor of the holy cardinal; people suffering from gout went there frequently to be relieved of their ailment, until the end of the 18th century. We read, says D. Piolin, in the Memoirs of Joseph Grandet: "There is at Château-Gontier a cemetery named the Martray, where there is a small chapel of Saint Serenus, which is claimed to have been formerly the place where the Saint had retired in solitude, and where every year a kind of miracle occurs in a fountain whose waters begin to flow on the eve of the feast (of the patron saint), whatever drought there may be in the country, and continues to flow for fifteen days." Since the bad days of the Revolution, the chapel of Saint-Séréné, on the mound of the Martray, no longer exists; but one can still see several sections of wall, and next to it, one can still distinguish the place where the dwelling of the holy cardinal was. Many people in the country have forgotten his name, but have not ceased to honor him under the generic title of the Holy Hermit; others call him Saint Générin. The chapel was formerly very venerated and the goal of numerous pilgrimages; but, even before 1792, mass was no longer said there and one no longer went there in procession. One saw two statues there: one of the Blessed Virgin, and the other of Saint Serenus in cardinal's costume. The crowd of pilgrims was always more considerable on July 21 of each year. The false doctrines advocated by the 18th century could not slow the piety of the inhabitants of Château-Gontier and the neighboring region for the holy hermit who had sanctified these places; even in our days, not a week passes without pious Christians coming to draw water from the fountain; and these fervent pilgrims often come from distant regions. It is especially in favor of people suffering from eye diseases or weakness of sight that Saint Serenus manifests his power with the help of this water. It is undoubtedly to be regretted that the municipality of Château-Gontier, shortly after 1838, thought it necessary to divert the course of this fountain, which until then was located near the chapel; but one must be grateful to it for having preserved the name of Saint-Séréné for the neighboring boulevard.

The town of Sablé professes a traditional veneration for Saint Séréné, which certainly dates back to high antiquity. In 1782, with the episcopal see vacant, it petitioned the Chapter of Angers to grant it relics of this Saint. The canons received its request favorably. On July 12 of the following year, Henri Hanoche, doctor of theology, pastor of Notre-Dame de Sablé and rural dean, obtained from François-Gaspard de Jouffroy-Goussaux, Bishop of Le Mans, permission to hold a solemn reception for the relics of Saint Séréné; to celebrate the annual feast of this Saint with the major solemn rite on the Sunday closest to July 21, and to perform a solemn procession through the streets of the town on that day, carrying the holy relics; and finally, to honor Saint Séréné as a secondary patron of the parish. Despite the ravages of the Revolution, the church of Sablé still possesses two fragments of the bones of Saint Séréné, which were authentically recognized on July 22, 1839, by Mgr Jean-Baptiste Bouvier, Bishop of Le Mans. Thanks to the pious zeal of M. Louis Couret, former pastor of Sablé, these holy relics rest in a beautiful reliquary, acquired in 1856. On this occasion, the parish of Saulges, which no longer possessed any relics of the servant of God, its protector, was fortunate enough to obtain a small fragment of one of his bones.

As early as 1685, Robert Dodard, bachelor of theology and pastor of the parish of Saint-Séréné (Céceré), near Montafra, obtained from the Chapter of Angers and Bishop Henri Arnaud a rib of the holy anchorite. The request of Robert Dodard notes that many pilgrims traveled each year to the church of Saint-Séréné to implore the blessed patron. The translation was carried out with the greatest pomp. Although profaned by revolutionary impiety, the precious relic was collected by the pastor Michel-François Leduc, a confessor of the faith during the persecution. Recognized by the diocesan authority, this relic is still exposed to the veneration of the faithful. A new church has just been built in honor of Saint Séréné, and our Holy Father Pope Pius IX, formerly Archbishop of Spoleto, the homeland of our Saints, deigned to bless the first stone himself.

As a result of one or another of these donations, the cathedral of Angers has come back into possession of some portions of the relics of Saint Séréné, and even of Saint Sérénic, and by an ordinance of Mgr Angevault, September 27, 1859, these relics, following the ancient custom, are carried in the processions of Saint Mark and the Rogations. M. l'abbé Barbier, then reliquary guardian, in submitting to His Grace the ordinance he signed on this subject, undoubtedly forgot to make the same request for the day of the Ascension of Our Lord, so that the ancient custom is only half restored.

The feast of Saint Séréné was not celebrated throughout the diocese of Le Mans before the year 1748; Charles de Froullay, who then introduced a new liturgy, had it entered there as a simple memorial.

In the new proper of the diocese of Le Mans, it was not deemed appropriate to keep the feast of this illustrious solitary; but the church of Laval was happily inspired to dedicate a double feast to him. Finally, the church of Séez, which, from time immemorial, celebrates the feast of Saint Sérénic on May 11, as can be seen from the missal and breviary of 1496 and subsequent years, makes mention of the solitary of the Erve as a powerful and glorious friend of God, in the lessons of the office dedicated to his illustrious brother Saint Sérénic.

Vie de saint Séréné et le Pèlerinage de Saulges, by the R. P. Dom Paul Piolin, Benedictine of the Congregation of France, 2nd edition; Angers, in-52, 1805. — A.A. SS. for May 7; Dom Piolin, Histoire du diocèse du Mans, t. 167. — M. Husson, honorary canon and pastor-archpriest of Château-Thierry, by his letter dated November 15, 1858, kindly provided us with information on the cult and relics of Saint Sérénic.