Saint Monegundis

Near her cell was a small garden, in which she would sometimes walk to give some respite to her mind, which she kept always applied to God. One day when she had entered it to take a little air, a woman, who caught sight of her, stopping to observe her with too much curiosity, was struck at that very moment with blindness. She recognized well that this misfortune had happened to her as a punishment for her fault: she came to find the Saint, and, exposing her disgrace to her, she implored her to obtain mercy for her. Monegonde, touched with compassion, immediately began to pray, saying: "Woe to me, vile creature and poor sinner! must this woman have lost her sight on my account!" This short prayer, which came from a deep humility, immediately penetrated the heavens: for no sooner had Monegonde finished it, than, making the sign of the cross over this poor woman, she restored her sight.

This miracle, which was followed by several others, soon attracted to her cell a great concourse of people who came to implore the assistance of her prayers: which obliged her to think of another retreat. As she had enclosed herself only to flee more surely the honors of the world and to lead a hidden life, seeing herself exposed in her little hermitage to the visits of creatures, she left her homeland, her family, her husband, and all her acquaintances, and went to the tomb of the great Saint Martin, in Tours, where she en closed herself in grand saint Martin Spiritual model for Aquilin. anot her c Tours Place of retirement for Clotilde near the tomb of Saint Martin. ell. But honor, which is no less stubborn in following those who flee it than in moving away from those who are greedy for it, never left her, neither on her journey nor during her stay: for she healed several sick people everywhere by the virtue of her prayer, which she founded only on the knowledge of her unworthiness; these great miracles did not fail to make her eminent holiness shine forth on all sides. The reputation of it even reached Chartres: which caused her husband to go find her Chartres Episcopal city of the saint. in Tours, and bring her back to her first cell. However, shortly after, whether her husband had died or whether he gave his consent, she left him a second time to return to that of Tours, where she spent the rest of her days peacefully in fasts, vigils, and prayers, and without any commerce with people of the world. Her charity, nevertheless, being unable to be enclosed in her heart, she received into her company some pious girls who were attracted to solitude: with them she performed all her spiritual exercises, so that, working together in the practice of virtue, they might make themselves more pleasing to Jesus Christ.

We shall not report here in detail the great number of miracles that God performed through her intercession; it is enough to say in general that she healed a very great number of the sick with a little saliva; that she purified persons covered in ulcers, and that, by the sign of the cross, she delivered the possessed, restored health to the dying, gave the use of limbs to the paralyzed, and sight to the blind. God having thus rewarded the piety of Monégonde in this life with the gift of miracles, He called her to Himself to crown her incomparable virtue even more fully in heaven. Her pious companions, seeing that this final hour was near, said to her, all dissolving in tears: "Are you abandoning us entirely? Remember that you are our mother, and that it is you who gathered us here to serve God; tell us then to whom you entrust us after your death, we who are your dear daughters." — "If peace reigns among you," she said to them, "and if you continue to work for your sanctification, God Himself will be your protector, and you will have for the pastor of your souls the great Saint Martin, bishop of your city. I will not distance myself from you either; but as soon as you call upon me for help, I will be found in the midst of your charity." — "The sick," the holy maidens replied, "will not fail to come, according to their custom, to ask for your blessing; what shall we do when we no longer have you? Do you wish for them to return from here without any relief, after having received so many graces here through your intercession? We beseech you to bless at least a little salt and oil, so that, by applying them to them, they may always feel the effects of your intercession." Monégonde could not refuse them what they wished, and this was the last action of her life; for, after this blessing, she died in peace, on the second day of July, in the sixth century of the Church. The things she had blessed served thereafter for the healing of an infinity of sick people.

Her body was buried in that same cell which she had sanctified by her tears, her prayers, and her penances, and her tomb was honored with several great miracles which Saint Gregory of Tours reports, and of some of which he assures having been a witness. We shall content ourselves with one, which shows the profound humility of our Saint even after her death. A blind man had himself led to her sepulcher, where, after a long prayer to obtain his healing, he was overcome by sleep: then Saint Monégonde appeared to him and told him that, without daring to compare herself to the Saints, she was currently obtaining for him the use of one of his eyes; but that, for the other, he must go to the sepulcher of the great Sa saint Martin Spiritual model for Aquilin. int Martin, and that he would be perfectly healed there. Indeed, upon waking, the blind man found himself healed of one eye, and having promptly gone to the tomb of Saint Martin, he received the use of the other there: we see by this that God is pleased that we have recourse to some particular Saint, to obtain, through their means, the relief that we ask for. The diocese of Tours no longer possesses any relics of Saint Monégonde. In 1562, the Protestants, masters of the city, pillaged the churches and burned the bodies of the Saints. That of Saint Monég onde, kept at Saint-P Saint-Pierre-Puellier Site where the saint's relics are preserved in Tours. ierre-Puellier, in the Saint-Martin district, was not spared. The cult of Saint Monégonde has not perished in this diocese. In the old Breviary, her feast was celebrated on July 2, at least as a memorial and by the recitation of a ninth lesson. Since the adoption of the Roman liturgy, this feast, moved from July 2, is fixed in the proper calendar on the 7th of the same month, under the double rite: three lessons are devoted to her legend.

Saint Monegund is depicted: 1° receiving her food through a window of her cell; 2° blessing, on her deathbed, a vessel of oil and a supply of salt which subsequently became the instrument of numerous healings.

We have drawn the life of this illustrious woman from what Saint Gre gory of Tours reports i saint Grégoire de Tours Historian and bishop, primary source for the narrative. n his books on the Life of the Fathers and the Glory of the Confessors: it is from this source that Trit hemius, Trithème Hagiographic author who utilized the sources of Gregory of Tours. Surius, and all the others have drawn.