Saint Phal

Providence has miraculous ways for the men it destines for great things, and it was no small matter to work then to form modern societies, to implant Christianity within them as the infallible seed of their civilization. God was therefore pleased once again to manifest His designs upon a corner of the world by revealing to one of His servants the captivity of the young patrician.

An old solitary, named Aventinus, after having been cellarer to Camelius, Bishop of Troyes, had hidden himself two leagues south of that city, on an island formed by the windings of the Seine and the Oze. Surrounded by numerous disciples, whose religious life he directed, he had founded a monastery there, later famous under the name of Isles-Aumont, and applied himself to the practice of the most austere virtues. One day, while he was at prayer, he was warned in a vision that a young man named Fidolus would soon arrive near th e conve Fidolus Monk and saint whose cult is centered on Troyes and Poitou. nt, brought as a captive from his country; that he should redeem him and receive him among his brothers to embrace the common life. Aventinus was still absorbed in these thoughts when suddenly a troop of young prisoners passed before the door of his cell. It was the elite of the Auvergne youth, victims of war, who were being led through Champagne according to the whim of those who had purchased them. The abbot hastened to find out if there was anyone among them named Fidolus, and, upon the assurance that they would not refuse him the young cleric if he wished to redeem him on that basis, Aventinus gave twelve gold pieces for him, and the poor slave became his spiritual son. The latter did not delay in revealing what a treasure of holiness was concealed in his soul, already experienced in the things of God. Thus, Aventinus regarded him less as a disciple than as a master; so much so that, having had him honored with the priestly character, he entrusted him with the office of provost or prior, thereby raising him to the highest dignity in the monastery after his own. The Saint only perfected himself in discharging these grave obligations, and gave more and more the example of regularity in an equal love of work and penance. Such conduct could only increase the respect and confidence of his brothers, and they gave him a testimony of it that was as striking as it was unanimous.

Aventin had grown old. Fearful before the approach of the judgments of God and the responsibility of his conscience, he wished to unburden himself by leaving the cares of pastoral vigilance, and when he announced this firm determination to the community, he found only one voice calling to the government he was abandoning the holy man upon whom he had himself fixed his choice. It was not without long resistance that Phal consented to take up the burden; but this very humility became a guarantee that God would help him to bear it. He made the proof of it last as long as his life; and while his spiritual father finished his own in a closer solitude, where the village of Saint-Aventin soon after arose, Saint Phal, continuing his own sanctification in that of others, arrived at the end of his career, which he completed on May 16, around the year 540, after more than thirty years spent in the monastic life. According to the dates that seem preferable, he must have barely reached his sixtieth year. His holy, humble, and mortified life had earned him the gift of miracles in this world and heaven in the other. Miracles, he performed without number: he restored sight to two blind men by making the sign of the cross over them; through a three-day prayer, he healed a frail child by the name of Octavian; he also restored he alth to Octavien Antipope supported by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. a man sick with rabies who was tearing himself with his teeth.