Saint Evodius

At the age of fifteen, he testified to his parents that the commitments of the world, and especially those of arms and the court, seemed unbearable to him, and that his inclination drew him to the ecclesiastical state. They had set their sights elsewhere, having no doubt that he would become a great man of war or of State if he gave himself to the service of the prince; but, as they had the fear of God, and regarded His will as an inviolable rule for their actions, they did not wish to oppose the movements that He placed by His grace in the heart of their son. He therefore received the clerical tonsure and donned the garments appropriate to the condition he had chosen. Shortly after, he was provided with a canonry in the cathedral church of Rouen, where he traveled with diligence to fulfill the obligations of this holy profession. His angelic beauty, his grave and majestic bearing, the cheerfulness and serenity of his face, but above all his honesty, modesty, and chastity, immediately won him the friendship of everyone. He had none of the frivolities or impetuosity of youth. He was often seen in the churches; he attended the divine offices, both by day and by night, with a fervor and presence of mind that served as an example to the elders of that Chapter. Outside of this time, he occupied himself with all sorts of good works, that is to say, the study of the holy scriptures, the meditation of divine truths, the relief of the poor and the afflicted, the visiting of prisons and hospitals, and pious pilgrimages to honor the relics and the memory of the servants of God.

While he was perfuming the whole city of Rouen with a life so pure and edifying, the see of this metropolis became vacant upon the death of Flavien, whom some authors consider the fifteenth bishop. It was then the clergy and the people who chose their prelates, although the king's approval was necessary. The election on this occasion was not hesitant: there was no one, neither among the ecclesiastics nor among the laity, who did not ask for Yved as pastor; everyone believed that the happiness of the diocese depended on such a judicious and equitable choice. Clota ire I, who w Clotaire Ier King of the Franks who supported the foundation of the monastery. as reigning at the time, consented to this election, being well informed of the wisdom and fidelity of the holy Canon. One cannot express the joy and acclamations of the whole great city when the new prelate made his first entry: the praises given to him were not studied, but came from the filial heart that all his diocesans had for him. His conduct did not deceive their expectations. He had been an excellent canon, he was an even better bishop. His new dignity served as a spur to drive him with more force than ever to the practice of all virtues. The great affairs, which are inseparable from a prelacy as considerable as that of Archbishop of Rouen, did not prevent him from continuing his assiduity to the divine offices. He even redoubled his prayers, his alms, his fasts, and his other exercises of devotion. He lacked nothing of what can be required of a good pastor; he instructed his people by his preaching, he consoled them by his visits, he relieved them by his charities, he defended them by his power, he obtained for them the graces and blessings of heaven by his tears, and he corrected them by his wise reprimands: thus he had the consolation of always having docile sheep, and of sowing in good soil, which returned with advantage the fruits of what he had cast there by his word.

God, to whom his humility was supremely pleasing, soon enhanced his virtues with several miracles; he gave the power of speech to a man born mute by anointing his tongue with a drop of holy chrism and making the sign of the cross over him. When a fire threatened the entire city with a general conflagration, because the houses were made only of wood, he suddenly stopped it through his prayer and another sign of the cross: a feat he could not keep secret, because at the very moment he extended his hand, the flame was seen to extinguish and turn into thick smoke. He was so formidable to the demon that he drove it from the bodies of the possessed by his blessing alone, without needing to lay his hands upon their heads. Sometimes he even compelled this infernal spirit to abandon them by imprinting this salutary sign upon them with the tip of his pastoral staff. Everything he had worn or touched became miraculous and effected supernatural healings: even the straw taken from his bed often restored all kinds of sick people to health. He gave alms abundantly to the poor; but, however little he gave them, it profited them much more than what they received from the charity of others, because it was divinely multiplied in their purses or their satchels, to make known to them the merit and holiness of their benefactor.

Although this great man was desired in all parts of France, where his reputation spread in a short time, he nevertheless did not leave his diocese, being well persuaded that residence is necessary for the pastor to know his sheep and to provide a suitable remedy for their needs. But, as his flock was not entirely contained within Rouen, and he had a great number of sheep in the parishes of the countryside and other towns, he faithfully fulfilled the obligation of making his visitations there, without relying on his vicars general and archdeacons, and his care in this function was not only to reform the parish priests and clergy and to correct the abuses that can slip into their ministry; but also to instruct the poor peasants, to instill piety in the most limited minds, to exhort them to penance and a good life, to confer upon them the sacrament of Confirmation, and to console, strengthen, and relieve them in their ills, both bodily and spiritual.

It was in this work that he met the end of his life: for having traveled to Andelys, seven leagues from Rouen, he fell ill with a fever there, and foresaw that he Andelys Place of the saint's death. was going to pass from this life to a better one. The principal members of the clergy of Rouen, having been warned, came to find him to have the happiness of hearing his final instructions. He received the Sacraments in their presence, and, having had them approach his bed, along with the common people who could find a place in the room, he gave them a most fatherly exhortation and explained to them how important it is to anticipate the moment of death through serious penance and a life worthy of the august quality of Christians and children of God. After this final testimony of his love, he peacefully rendered his spirit to Our Lord, to receive the reward for his labors and his faithful administration: which happened on July 8, 550, as recounted by Farin, prior of Notre-Dame du Val, in his 'Normandie chrétienne'. He says that he had been bishop for fifteen years, having succeeded Flavien in the year 535; but, as Flavien subscribed to the fourth Council of Orléans, held only in 541, one cannot place the election of Saint Yved before this time, and it is necessary either that he was bishop for less than fifteen years, or that he passed after 550: which is not unreasonable, provided that one does not advance it until the year 557, the time at which Saint Pretextatus, his successor, subscribed to the third Council of Paris.

The monk of Saint-Évroult gives a very beautiful eulogy of Saint Évode, saying that this pious b Le moine de Saint-Évroult Principal monastery founded by the saint. ishop made himself notable by his eloquence and his courage; by the purity of his morals; by his prudence, his piety, and his modesty:

*Eloquio plenus sanctus successit Evodius* *Fortis et innocens, prudens, plus atque modestus.*

The body of our blessed Prelate was carried back with great solemnity to Rouen, to be buried there in his cathedral. Upon his entry, the doors of the public prison opened, and thirty criminals, whose chains miraculously broke, were delivered. Other miracles also took place in the church: it was noted that four blind men and eighteen lame men were healed.

## CULT AND RELICS.

Under the second race of our kings, the Normans having descended into the land of Neustria, and sparing neither the living, nor the sepulchers of the dead, nor the relics of the greatest servants of God, whose religion they had not yet embraced, the sacred remains of Saint Yved were saved from their hands and transferred to the town of Braisne, on the Vesle river, in the dio cese of Soissons ville de Braisne Place of transfer and preservation of the saint's relics. . They were deposited in the collegiate church of the castle. Later, in 1130, André de Baudiment, having become lord of Braisne, and his wife, Agnès de Champagne, resolved to build, to house the body of Saint Yved, a more vast and majestic sanctuary.

In 1153, a confraternity of Saint Yved was established, composed of the most notable bourgeois of the region. They alone possessed the right to lower the Saint's reliquary. In 1844, Mgr de Simony, Bishop of Soissons, re-established this confraternity.

The church of Saint-Yved, closed during the Revolution, was on the point of being demolished. Restored in 1828, it was not returned to worship until 1837.

From the middle of the 9th century until the French Revolution, and from the Revolution until today, the relics of Saint Yved or Evodius have always remained in Braisne. The current church, begun in 1180 and completed in 1216, was built only to deposit the body of Saint Yved or Evodius more honorably; and indeed, in that same year 1216, the Archbishop of Reims, Albéric, and Haymard of Provins, Bishop of Soissons, solemnly transported the chest containing the body of Saint Yved from the old church to the new one. — In 1244, Gérard, abbot of the monastery of Braisne, placed the body in a new reliquary, in the presence of the Bishop of Soissons, Raoul, and the Bishop of Laon, Garnier. — His veneration for this holy relic was so great that the church, although dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was from then on called the church of Saint-Yved. — In 1650, the sacred edifice was invaded by soldiers; but they respected the reliquary of the blessed Archbishop of Rouen. D. Martène attended, in 1718, the procession where the reliquary of Saint Yved was carried. Bago, Abbot of Estival, attested in 1734 that the body of Saint Yved was revered in Braisne. Several elderly people still living in Braisne attest to having always seen, before the Revolution, this reliquary venerated by all the faithful. — It was a masterpiece of sculpture and goldsmithing. It was made of gilded silver, one meter and sixty centimeters long, and surmounted by an elegant turret. The walls were divided into small niches, each adorned with vermeil statuettes. In the middle niche was the statuette of Saint Yved. This reliquary was placed at the back of the apse and above the high altar. It was there that the revolutionaries came to take it to drag it through the streets of Braisne. They broke it under a large gate, at the corner of the Rue du Mortroy, and the debris was sent to the Mint. Several faithful hastened to quickly collect some of the holy bones and handed them over to Abbé Maugras, who was then fulfilling the duties of parish priest. M. Maugras transmitted them to M. Sober, the first parish priest-dean of Braisne after the Concordat. His successor, M. Petit de Reimpré, after a serious investigation, had their authenticity recognized by M. Leblanc de Beaulieu, Bishop of Soissons (1813), who called a doctor to identify the preserved bones. The prelate took a portion for his cathedral where they are part of the church's treasury. — On October 16 and 17, 1865, the Archbishop of Rouen, Cardinal de Bonnechose, after havi ng been preceded by tw cardinal de Bonnechose Archbishop of Rouen who recovered a portion of the relics in 1865. o magnificent shrines that the metropolitan church of Rouen offered to the church of Braisne, came to solemnly receive the portion of the relics of Saint Yved or Evodius that the Bishop of Soissons and the parish priest of Braisne agreed to relinquish, that is to say, an iliac bone, an entire femur, two-thirds of a humerus, and two fragments of the skull. — The church of Braisne still keeps from Saint Yved a fragment of a humerus, an entire femur, an entire iliac bone, two pieces of the skull, and five small bones from the hands and feet.

Acta Sanctorum; Notes provided by M. Henri Congnet, dean of the chapter of the cathedral of Soissons.