MGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum V (1910), ed. B. Krusch & W. Levison — translated from the Latin. The file contains the editor’s critical preface, Donatus’s prologue, the table of 28 chapters, and the complete Life.

The editor’s preface #

Within the city of Nantes — where in 610 Columbanus lodged when being carried back into exile to Ireland — the river Loire embraces three islands, of which one bore the name Antrum and the other, lesser one Antriginum. On the former, Pascharius bishop of Nantes founded a monastery, petitioning Lambert, second abbot of Fontenelle (about 673), for monks; that monastery had arisen in the time of Audoin bishop of Rouen through its founder Wandregisel, united with Bobbio — a splendid patron of the Columbanians. Lambert set Ermenland, a Fontenelle monk, as first abbot over Antrum, while Pascharius by his gift decreed that after the venerable father Ermenland’s departure all the dwellers of that place should institute rectors for themselves out of the monastery of Fontenelle for all succeeding times. Pascharius’s own charter has perished, but the biographer of Ansbert (about 800) asserts that this constitution is most plainly confirmed by charters preserved at Fontenelle, and I have no doubt of his good faith, since the Fontenelle monks held the same right in the Fleury monastery which Pippin had handed over to them at the beginning of the eighth century. How long the monastery of Antrum remained under Fontenelle’s sway is uncertain, save that we may conclude from the silence of the author of the Vita Ansberti that this condition no longer persisted in Charlemagne’s age; for while he cited charters “still” kept at Fontenelle, he shrewdly passed over the reasons standing between them. That foreign abbots afterwards obtained the monastery is confirmed even by a donation granted in 840 to the monastery of Redon, to which Haeltrocon, abbot of Antrum, subscribed — a name to be referred to British origin, the neighbouring Britons being then established under the leader Nominoë, who soon after restored liberty to his nation and enlarged its bounds.

There stood basilicas of the apostles in the monastery — both Peter’s and another of Paul’s, to which an oratory of Wandregisel is annexed; and Ermenland in his old age is said to have built an oratory of the martyr Leodegar, then of most recent memory. On the neighbouring isle of Antriginum there were an ancient oratory dedicated to Martin and another to Annianus. Cells also belonged to the monastery, such as Oglanda or Oglenda, situated in the Constantine district, and Creon and Colon, Aquitanian cells governed by a monk of Antrum. Further, the villa of Cranna in the Oxime district, Cludion near it, and the estate of Pauliac not far from the monastery are mentioned — so that the congregation’s possessions stretched through the districts bordering Brittany, from the Cotentin peninsula across the Loire.

The monastery of Antrum suffered the violence of the Northmen along with very many other monasteries. When the enemy drew near in 843 the monks withdrew into the city of Nantes with the monastery’s treasure, yet did not enjoy the protection they hoped for; for the Northmen burst in while they fled together with bishop Gunhard and a multitude of the people into the basilica of Peter and Paul — the unarmed crowd was slaughtered there, the rest led away into captivity. Having depopulated the city, the enemy returned and on 29 June came to the monastery of Antrum in boats, ravaged it, and burnt it. The body of Ermenland left behind was translated from there in 869.

The author of the Life of Ermenland composed it long after the saint’s death, if not enrolled in the monastery of Antrum itself, at least as a neighbour who had stayed some while in the community at the brothers’ request. For although he must have written the Life before 843, when the monastery was destroyed — the biographer of Condede had already pillaged it — yet the translation made by abbot David “very many” years after Ermenland’s death he had not only not seen himself, but was instructed about the miracles wrought thereafter “by the relation of the elders,” although monks were then still alive who had been present at that translation. I therefore assign him to the late eighth or early ninth century. When he asserts that Ermenland’s holy conversation, shining in more recent time, is still retained in the memory of many minds, there is no reason to suppose the author was thinking of things known by sight rather than by hearing.

Although he did not openly prefix his name to the little work, he betrayed it beyond doubt by playing upon words — as my colleague B. Krusch rightly pointed out to me when I hesitated. For since the author, trusting in the mercy of the Thunderer alone, undertook to insert into the parchment deeds “given by Himself — he too a given one (donatus),” the words “I too, a given one” would be insufficiently clear and perhaps foisted in, had not his name been Donatus. The same name belonged in the same age also to that author who between 784 and 791, at the bidding of Angilramn archbishop of Metz, composed the Life of Trudo; and there are reasons persuading that both Lives should be attributed to the same man. For since Donatus is called “slight and the last of exiles” in the prologue of the Vita Trudonis, such a word may readily refer to an author who had previously — if not been born, at least stayed — in the western region near the British bounds; nor may anyone perchance conjecture it happened by chance that the most ancient and far best codex of the Life of Ermenland (1) takes its origin from the very city of Metz, at whose pontiff’s command Donatus undertook to narrate Trudo’s deeds. Both authors extend few matters drawn from charters into a long narration in a similar manner, so that the usual charter-style shines out here and there among the words of the account; both in the prologue imitated the same saying of Sedulius; and as bishop Pascharius at Ermenland’s coming uttered the verse of Psalm 132:1, so Remaclus is said to have used the same words at Trudo’s arrival. Yet a grave reason stands against our thinking of one and the same author: the peculiar diction of Ermenland’s biographer, distinguished both by certain rarer words frequently used and by many clauses shaped on the model of Gregory the Great — in which matters the author of the Vita Trudonis does not agree with the other. It seems rather that two men called by the same name are in question than one author — unless perhaps the difference is somehow excused by a longer interval of time.

However that may be, our Donatus set forth Ermenland’s deeds in a sufficiently prolix narration. Certain things he had learnt from the brothers’ report — fables of no moment mixed with distinct events, such as the little vessel kept at Antrum and the “flask” hanging in the cell of Oglanda. In the author’s day the rule of Benedict flourished in the monastery, so that he celebrated Ermenland as a kind of new Benedict and described monastic affairs on that rule’s pattern. He had moreover read Gregory’s Dialogues, from where not only Gregorian phrases are frequently detected in him, but even whole miracles marvellously agree with the Gregorian ones; and even what he related of Agatheus, the count usurping the episcopate both of Nantes and of Rennes — confirmed in a way by the catalogue of the bishops of Nantes — he embellished with certain words which Gregory had referred to King Totila.

His good faith is suspect: above all he laboured to show the monastery had been royal, abusing Ermenland’s history in the same way the monks of St Gall fabricated the Life of St Gall. For on his own testimony, when bishop Pascharius’s envoys begged abbot Lambert to send monks to found the community, Lambert imposed the condition that the bishop should not leave the monastery “under the dominion of his successor” but should commit it “to be guarded by royal hands” and obtain the king’s precept on the matter. Similarly the bishop, when Ermenland arrived at Nantes, “author and founder” of the work, promised he would commit the cell to be built, with all its possessions, “to the royal dominion,” and bring it about that the brethren should obtain the king’s fitting precept. Lastly, coming with his canons to dedicate the built monastery, Pascharius by the granted privilege decreed that none of his successors should attempt to usurp anything of that monastery or of the goods which he or others, pricked by divine love, had handed over there for lights or for the brethren’s sustenance, under pretext of dominion. Then, journeying with Ermenland to the royal hall, he handed the monastery over to King Childebert to be guarded; who gave a precept concerning the community and its goods, that no dominion of any power should presume to bring any disquiet upon the monks established in it, but that, relying on perpetual royal defence, they should freely entreat Christ’s clemency for themselves and for the peace of his whole realm without anyone’s hindrance.

The passages cited, and others like them, altogether savour of charter-language, and there is no doubt the author relied, in describing the monastery’s origin, on the charters he himself mentioned — namely the privilege of the diocesan bishop Pascharius and the charter of King Childebert, which are said to have been granted to the community scarce built. But since the monastery’s origins coincide with the rule of Lambert abbot of Fontenelle (about 673), as both our author and Ansbert’s biographer testify, it could not be that King Childebert III (694/5–711), many years later, took the nascent congregation under royal defence — and so the diploma employed by the author and attributed to the king must be held a pious forgery, doubtless fabricated by monks litigating with the bishop of Nantes over liberty; whose “dominion” and “domination” they utterly rejected, as is understood from Donatus’s words, since he was not a little zealous in celebrating the king’s precept.

Nor did the men of Antrum seem less to have rejected the mother Fontenelle’s rule. For while mention is made of the episcopal privilege, Donatus passed over in silence Pascharius’s constitution for instituting abbots from Fontenelle’s number — of which Ansbert’s biographer told — and that this was done deliberately is to be concluded from what he narrated of the elections of the abbots of Antrum. Ermenland on his own testimony was set over the daughter congregation by Lambert, and the Fontenelle monks did not thereafter intervene; but when aged Ermenland resigned the dignity “by the king’s leave,” the brethren elected Adalfred as abbot, “the royal precept assenting”; and upon his death after unjust rule, Ermenland at the monks’ request substituted his disciple Donatus. So in the appointing of abbots the author vindicated a certain authority to the king alone — by which reckoning too the monastery would seem royal, Fontenelle’s right being neglected.

Lastly the person must be mentioned whom Donatus attributes to abbot Adalfred — depicting a man “who turned the right of fatherhood into the tyranny of cruelty,” while, neglecting useful business, he cared for vanities, built himself a superfluous hall, yet withdrew necessary food from the brethren and ordered them struck with most savage lashes. From his wretched death the successors could be warned to learn justice; and as the rest of the Life, so this little tale may readily be believed to have been committed to letters by Donatus “at the brothers’ request.” The little work is therefore to be counted among those Lives from which not so much the saints’ deeds are learnt as the zeal and wishes of posterity.

Usuard seems to have read the Life, noting on 25 March: “In the island of Antrum, St Hermelandus the abbot, whose glorious conversation is commended by the celebration of miracles.” The same Life was also at hand for the authors of the Vita Condedi and of the catalogue of abbots of St Florentius.

Manuscripts. 1) The Metz codex no. 652 (G. 86), once “from the monastery of St Arnulf,” consists of several parts written in different centuries, of which the V. Ermenlandi (fol. 61–125) is ninth century — save that fol. 125 was written by an eleventh-century hand, other things being erased. 2a) Paris no. 5279 (Colbert 280), twelfth/thirteenth century, fol. 116v–125v. 2b) Montpellier H no. 1, early thirteenth century, once of St Mary of Clairvaux, vol. V, fol. 171v–179v. 2c) Paris no. 5297, thirteenth century, fol. 152v–159v. 2d) Auxerre no. 127 (114), twelfth century, from the Pontigny library, fol. 197v–205v. 2e) Paris no. 5318 (Bigot 171), twelfth century, fol. 294–295v, ends mutilated at ch. 3: munera sua fundentibus ut piscatoribus. 3a) Paris no. 12600, eleventh century, once of Claudius Menard, then of St-Germain-des-Prés, fol. 179v–201v. 3b) St Gall no. 577, tenth century, pp. 5–45, beginning mutilated at the eighth title of the chapter wish; after p. 16 a leaf is lost. 3b*) Brussels no. 3183, tenth century, once of the Bollandist museum, fol. 114–131v — copied from 3b. 3c) Avranches no. 167, thirteenth century, from Mont-Saint-Michel, fol. 97–101v, lacking the earlier part (begins ch. 9). 3d) Paris no. 5359 (Bigot 173), eleventh century, once of Fécamp, fol. 114–123v, ending mutilated in ch. 26. Further codices are named: Brussels no. 3439 (seventeenth century, containing the Life and an epitome drawn from the Utrecht manuscript of St Salvator); Le Havre no. 332 (the “Greater Chronicle of Fontenelle,” seventeenth century, copied from Surius’s edition as B. Krusch found on inspection); Paris nos. 5349, 5352, 16732, 17004, doubtless of family 2; Paris Chesne collection no. 38; Rouen nos. 1416 and 1989 (once of Loches).

Codex 1 excels in age and authority alike; and since the other books descend from another exemplar, it alone in not a few places has preserved the genuine reading — which concerns chiefly certain words familiar to the author, considering his style: ubertim (“abundantly”), obtentu (“for the sake of”), necessitudo (“need”), crastina (“the next day”), submissus (“humble”), for which the inferior copies substitute commoner words. The scribe of 1 preserved the author’s primitive diction, while the other scribes slurred words the author had used too frequently or too rarely. Its excellence is further confirmed by the Vita Condedi, whose author in the early ninth century pillaged the slightly older Vita Ermenlandi — codex 1 agreeing with it where families 2 and 3 diverge. These things being so, the excellent book 1 was not to be departed from save very rarely. In orthography too codex 3a most often agrees with the ancient 1 — e.g. obtimatus, aliquot tempus, rennuens, adleta, teoricae, adprobans, adlocuti, ortaretur, abuisse, residisset, necglectis, actenus, reliquid — which variants I have mostly not admitted to the apparatus, following 1.

Codex 3b* W. Arndt compared for me; 1, 2a, 3a, b B. Krusch collated, who also transcribed specimens of 2c, e, 3d; book 2d was examined by J. Fassbinder; books 2b, 3c and again 1 I inspected myself. Of these, codex 3b* was used only where 3b failed, nor have I noted the peculiar readings of 3c save very rarely.

Editions. Laurentius Surius, De probatis sanctorum historiis II (Cologne 1571, pp. 373–383), first drew forth the text from a codex seemingly like 1, but did not keep the author’s words intact — “since whoever he was used a style little pleasing, F. Laurentius Surius rendered it somewhat more in the Latin manner, mostly paraphrastically, sometimes more strictly.” Charles Le Cointe, Annales ecclesiastici Francorum III–IV (1668–70), published fragments of the genuine text excerpted from codex 3a. The whole Life was first edited by Godefridus Henschenius and Daniel Papebrochius, Acta sanctorum Martii III (Antwerp 1668, pp. 576–586), using codices our 3b*, Val-de-Lumière (family 2), Rouge-Cloître (descended from 1), and an epitome drawn from the Utrecht codex of St Salvator. Johannes Mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, saec. III, pars 1 (Paris 1672, pp. 383–403), used both the Bollandist edition and codex 3a. Fragments of this edition were repeated by Martin Bouquet, Recueil des historiens des Gaules III (1741), and Hyacinthe Morice, Mémoires pour servir de preuves à l’histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Bretagne I (1742).

— B. Krusch.

Here begins the Prologue of the Life of the most blessed Ermenland, abbot and confessor #

Since the holy mother Church has advisedly ordained that the memories of eminent fathers — who, by the preventing grace of divine largesse, rejoiced to have won the palm in wrestling with the serpent both while they still used the light granted to mortals and, after the triumphant issue of their agony, doubt not to enjoy for ever the far better light of the uncircumscribed deity — should be set forth for all posterity to profit, not in polished speeches with the dye of secular eloquence, to which not the least part of flattery is ascribed, but rather in a simple series of narration: to all who think soundly it is plain that, though the happy birth of that age severed them from mortals’ sight by bearing them to heaven, they are yet represented to the faithful’s gaze by frequent recitation of reading — so that, striving with all endeavour to imitate their brave deeds, men may be enriched with virtues, and by the things they cannot imitate be the more truly grounded in humility — it is plain, I say, that all led by this affection and laboriously writing the deeds of the saints win a reward, while the negligent can by no means be free of fault for their silence. Animated by this long meditation, and chiefly at the brothers’ request, when I resolved to commit to writing and hand down to pages certain things which I had learnt by sight and by the brothers’ relation from the virtues of the blessed confessor Ermenland — who, coming from the shores of Germany, shone forth in our bounds, flowering with virtues, a new Benedict, so to speak — I was hindered by the objection of two considerations: lest either some temerity be ascribed to a sluggish pen — in that I, possessing no prerogative of knowledge, should undertake to write so great a father’s deeds in plebeian speech — or lest, while I myself am swept along every byway on a mournful path, I should negligently try to show others for imitation the way of the most holy man who never slipped from the straight track. But as the tide of double fear rolled on, committing the weary limbs of this work’s despair to idle rest as though prostrate on the ground, at length, spurred by the brothers’ request, for the sake of obedience — destitute of the help of all my powers, trusting in the mercy of the Thunderer alone — I undertook to insert into the parchments things given by Himself, I too a given one. As though with knees fixed to the ground, I entreat all who shall bend their sacred gaze to read this little work in graciousness of humility, not to deem the brave deeds of the aforementioned father less worthy of highest praise because of the unadorned telling; but let them deign to remember the dull editor of this work, that he may merit to obtain from the loving Judge pardon of sins and the everlasting crown — that they too may deserve to be enriched with eternal glory, Christ bestowing it, in reward for their prayers of mercy.

Here ends the prologue.

Here begin the chapters of the Life of the blessed Ermenland, confessor #

1. Of his birth and royal service, and of his conversion and conversation. — 2. Of his coming into the Nantes country. — 3. Of the discovery of the isle of Antrum. — 4. Of the building of the monastery. — 5. Of the vision of the soul of abbot Maurontius. — 6. Of the wine increased in the vessel by his sign. — 7. Of the caterpillars put to flight by his merit. — 8. Of the fish drawn out of the Loire’s depth by his power, wherewith all his congregation was refreshed. — 9. Of the lamp kindled by his sign. — 10. Of the whiteness of the path by which he walked. — 11. Of the wine abundantly poured forth, increased by his merit. — 12. Of the theft which the thief could not conceal in his presence, and of the oxen snatched by another thief. — 13. Of the wine overflowing in Agatheus’s hand at his sign. — 14. Of the soul of a certain brother in the cell of Creon seen by him in spirit. — 15. Of the cell in which he shut himself for love of the contemplative life, and of the death of abbot Adalfred. — 16. Of abbot Donatus, whom he chose for his successor in the governance. — 17. Of his death foretold to the brethren, and of his falling asleep in Christ. — 18. Of the translation of his body, and of the fragrance of odour from the tomb. — 19. Of the use of his feet recovered at his sepulchre by one enfeebled. — 20. Of the lame man healed at his sepulchre. — 21. Of the healing of a deaf-mute. — 22. Of a certain man who had unjustly taken away his monastery’s goods. — 23. Of the flail sticking to a man’s hand and loosed at his sepulchre. — 24. Likewise of the healing of a deaf-mute. — 25. Likewise of another lame man. — 26. Likewise of the lame Leutbert. — 27. Of Aldefred, blind from birth, enlightened. — 28. Of the paralytic healed.

Here end the chapters.

Here begins the Life of the venerable Ermenland, distinguished by virtues, abbot and founder of the monastery called Antrum in the Nantes country, girded all about by the river Loire #

1. When the necks of many kings throughout the whole round world had now been bowed beneath the yoke of the Christian religion, and the faith of the holy Church — the murk of errors driven off and shining with the light of evangelical truth — enjoyed tranquil peace in all the dominion of Chlothar king of the Franks, the venerable Ermenland, possessing the beginning of a genuine birth from the most noble parents among the dwellers of Noviomagus, came forth into temporal light, destined to enjoy the eternal. This most blessed offspring of noble progenitors, reared on rich fare and hedged about — as is custom — with the affection due to a noble stock’s illustrious child, was by the provision of such great nobility handed over to teachers of letters to be imbued for his advancement. Having learnt beyond all his coeval companions to the full, transcending all boyish petulance by the gravity of his manners, he yielded assent to no concupiscence or enticing pleasure. Crushing the wantonness of the flesh with the spirit’s ardour, he preferred nobility of soul to nobility of flesh — so that in the very schools, consecrated by integrity of mind, the radiant boy was held wonderful by all.

Now his parents, seeing him largely instructed in the doctrines of letters and apt for royal service, taking him from the schools brought him into the royal hall and commended him to the king of the Franks with great honour to do service — that through the path of this service he might attain the honour due to his progenitors. But the man of God Ermenland, postponing all the summit and glory of this world to Christ’s love, yearned more to deserve by the toils of the fleeting world the just’s lasting joys than to endure through the world’s transitory glory the eternal torments of the unjust. For his holy desire was far sundered from his parents’ will: what they tried to do for the glory of his dignity, he judged would be done to the loss of his salvation, recalling the apostle’s sentence: No man that wars for God entangls himself with secular business (2 Tim. 2:4). And had he not seemed a gainsayer of the same apostle’s sentence whereby he says Children, obey your parents (Eph. 6:1), they could in no wise have persuaded him, bent upon heavenly things, to take up earthly service. But taking care lest he be contrary in anything to wholesome admonitions, and considering that he had not yet attained the faculty of his own will, he received the military habit in outward show, constrained in body — him whom he strove to flee by hiding in his mind. Truly with the Lord protecting him, dwelling in the royal hall, he was at once made a perfect soldier out of a recruit, so that he turned the heart of the king and of all the nobles into love of himself by the grace of his comeliness — so far that the king, embracing him with exceeding love, appointed him dispenser of his drink and chief of the cupbearers, though he refused.

When for some time, pleasing all, he prudently fulfilled the committed ministry, at the persuasion of his parents and friends he betrothed the daughter of a certain most noble nobleman, which he would by no means have accepted; and he even appointed the day on which he should join her to himself in wedlock — he who strove with his mind’s whole effort to shake his neck free not only from the conjugal bond but from every act of the world, that he might submit it to Christ’s gentle yoke. For he was not an unmindful hearer of the Lord’s monitions whereby He wholesomely provides for the human race, saying: He who leaves not father or mother, brothers or sisters, wife or children, lands and all things for My name, is not worthy of Me (Matt. 19:29; 10:37), and: Who will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me (Matt. 16:24); but as a choice executor of the work, holding more closely in his inmost heart what he had heard with the body’s ear, he took care to fulfil it in deed according to the faculty of his powers. Trusting in the divine breath, spurning all the world’s delights, leaving his betrothed, refusing wedlock — naked of earthly deeds, he seized Christ’s naked cross, an athlete of Christ about to contend against spiritual wickedness (cf. Eph. 6:12), and undertook the royal road to be followed with feet shod by evangelical doctrines.

Fearing lest the tumult of worldlings should hinder his purpose if he lingered longer in the crowds of people, he approached the king’s presence and humbly petitioned that the royal clemency would give him leave to hand himself over to a regular community to serve Christ, leaving palatine service. Now the king, embracing him with the greatest love, would not let him to be severed from him and therefore resisted his prayers exceedingly, persuading him not to desert his fellowship in so green and flourishing an age. And though he vexed his mind long with such persuasions, yet he could not change his holy purpose. The blessed man persisting in prayers, at last the loving prince’s clemency, suffused with the fear of the Lord, benignly granted the leave which it had long denied him.

The most blessed Ermenland himself, going forth from the palace with the blessing of king and nobles, reached with swift course the monastery of Fontenelle, where the venerable Lambert presided as father over the regular monks. For he sought conversion in the aforementioned community, and obtained from that abbot and all the brethren the effect of his prayers. Proved after the manner of the monastic life in the novices’ cell, he was found so perfect that by the integrity of his conversation he was shown by clearest tokens not only to equal but even to surpass not merely the neophytes but also those who in long old age had worn out all their body’s vigour under the habit of perfection in the contemplative life. His regular probation being fulfilled in the novices’ cell, he confirmed the vow of perfection by sacred promise; and at last, spurning all the world’s pomps, hedged by the defence of his fellow-soldiers, a manly wrestler pursuing the course of all virtues, yielding in nothing even for a little to the devil’s persuasions — no, in the very outset he crushed the old serpent’s head. For as many temptations as he devised to thrust upon him, so many triumphs did the man of the Lord take from him in exultation. For he was illustrious in charity, devout in faith, sure in hope, gentle in patience, foremost in obedience, assiduous in prayer, discreet in abstinence, strenuous in vigils, and so adorned with all virtues that among his fellow-soldiers he shone conspicuous as the morning star brighter than other stars by the ray of his virtues.

Which the venerable abbot Lambert perceiving with sagacious gaze, loved him whom he had received for training in discipleship, venerating him as a master for the comeliness of his virtues. Moreover, judging him worthy of the sacred altars, he had him ordained priest for himself by the bishop of that district — thinking it meet that so illustrious and holy a man should exercise the office of consecrating the most sacred body and blood of Christ, who, drawn as a most precious pearl from the dunghill of the secular habit by the Lord, placed among the celibate companions in the monastery, shone more brightly for all than a lamp upon the candlestick in pursuit of the contemplative life. Ordained, he flourished in such affection for this office that, while he daily offered devotedly to God the oblation, by the maceration of his body he himself became a living sacrifice to God (cf. Rom. 12:1).

2. At the time, then, when the aforementioned man of the Lord Ermenland flourished in the community with such virtue, Pascharius bishop of Nantes, of pious memory, bound by pastoral care, ruled the church. On a certain day, while he refreshed with the dainties of the heavenly life the flock committed to him in the twofold habit of the ecclesiastical order — namely of clergy and laity, bound together by the bond of highest charity — according to the convenience of each degree, and discoursed in celebrated eloquence what befitted each order, he made mention also of the third order, namely of monks, which till then was accounted all but unknown to the dwellers of the Ocean’s western shore, and showed it more perfect than the rest from the voice of Truth itself saying: If you will be perfect, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come, follow Me (Matt. 19:21). At once all, animated by the divine breath, besought their pontiff with submissive voices — him burning more than all with the ardour of this desire — that he would deign to seek out men of this order wherever, who should exercise this life of perfection on their estate, if a fitting place were found. For they confessed they trusted so much in the Lord’s goodness that, if men of this life lived among them, though there be few to imitate them, yet they could profit all the natives of that land by interceding for them.

The same bishop, perceiving that his own heart and the people’s had, God breathing upon it, one will’s effect upon this matter, did not delay to hear them; no, joyfully assenting to their prayers, he sent active envoys early to the venerable abbot Lambert, who then governed the monastery of Fontenelle under the holy habit of the monastic life, entreating through them his holiness that by his largesse his and the people’s desire should obtain the effect of their vows. They, furnished with their pontiff’s blessing and gone forth from him, quickly reached the sacred monastery of Fontenelle, the Lord leading their way. And when they had been kindly received by the brethren and presented to the venerable Lambert, by their father’s precept they addressed him in such words: “Pascharius the pontiff, an exceeding lover of your holiness, burning with sacred devotion and stirred by the petitions of all the people committed to him, desires with fervent longing that monks should hold the regular life in his diocese — he preparing them a place — for an example to the profit of holy Church and the perpetual praise of God. Learning moreover, as the fame of your holiness flies far and wide, that your congregation shines in the comeliness of this religion above the rest, he prays that your holy largesse send him most religious monks, who know best how to keep this life and hand it on to others — that he may be able through them to fulfil what he desires.”

When Lambert perceived that God’s priest with the people committed to him burned with such devotion, he first rendered highest thanks to the almighty and undivided Trinity; then, calling the blessed monk Ermenland, he bade the venerable Pascharius’s petition be set forth again before him, and at last gave answer in this wise: “The vows, dearest sons, of bishop Pascharius and his holy flock are manifestly fragrant of most holy devotion, as divinely inspired; and therefore, that I may deserve to be partaker of so great a vow — though I be deprived of a great comfort — I would study to fulfil the petition asked of our littleness through this dearest brother Ermenland, other brethren being sent with him, if I knew most surely that the community were so established by him that the brethren set therein for future times should be troubled by no man’s vexation, so far as it can be avoided by him. For the life of our habit requires the highest quiet, and no less suffers great loss when it intently contemplates heavenly things, if it be called away from gazing on the things above by the quarrels of the wicked. If then he shall build a community on his church’s estate in which these we send and others divinely inspired and converted from the world by their example may dwell — in his own times perchance they will enjoy the wished-for peace; but after his death, if he leaves that community under his successor’s dominion, they will be troubled with great disquietudes at the prompting of wicked men’s greed, as we have learnt has been done in some communities — so that necessity will compel them to go out from there and wander astray on every side. On me indeed, if it so befall — who send the monks committed there — much peril will weigh, and no increase of reward to them. But if in view of eternal retribution he desires to build a monastery, I exhort that he commit it to be guarded by royal hands, and that the king’s clemency deign to make such a precept that no other power, stirred by a malign spirit — every occasion of dominion being removed — may dare to inflict annoyance on those dwelling in it; that, defended by the royal guard, they may freely intercede with Christ’s clemency for the perpetual peace of him and of his whole realm, the wicked’s impulsion being removed.” “Do not, do not hesitate with such suspicions, father,” they said; “for you may most surely trust in the goodness of our father Pascharius, since at your mouth’s command he will fulfil all the cause of this work, the Lord helping.”

Then, confirmed by the envoys’ pledges, he said to the blessed Ermenland: “Trusting exceedingly in your religion, dearest brother — although I doubt not that your bodily absence will be the greatest loss to me — I will to send you to the venerable Pascharius with twelve brethren, over whom I shall constitute you father in my stead, that at your dictation of discipline he may build the monastery as he wishes. Yet I shall attempt nothing herein without your decision, but commit all the cause of this business to your prudent judgement.” “No, I beseech you, my father,” said he, “deign not to elicit our will upon this, which for Christ I have handed over to your disposal; but wherever you send me, most gladly — as though it were divinely enjoined me — I shall strive to go; only let the Lord’s will and your be done.” Then the same father, filled with joy, congratulating his illustrious obedience, said: “Go to, my son, seize as Christ’s soldier the prosperous journey, take up the laudable work, whereby you and many others may deserve to enter the kingdom of heaven!” When he had exhorted him and the others he sent with him in such speeches — and chiefly that they should hold the holy rule in manly keeping — rushing with tears into mutual embraces, giving each the kiss of peace, they dismissed them, praying that all would be prosperous for them, saying: “May the grace of the highest Trinity go with you, and prosperously direct all the works of your hands, and deign with perennial keeping to guard and preserve the place of your habitation for the salvation of many souls!”

They, having asked and abundantly received the blessing, journeying with the aforementioned bishop’s envoys, hastened to present themselves to his face, praying that Christ would grant them the solace of accomplishing the enjoined work — and so, the Lord leading, they came as far as Nantes. Then the blessed Ermenland with his companions entered the basilica of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul for prayer’s sake. Now the venerable bishop, hearing they had come, exulting with ineffable joy, said: “The Lord has remembered me, that He should deign to fulfil the vow of my desire!” And meeting them in the aforementioned church’s doors, he said to the blessed Ermenland: “Blessed be the Lord who sent you! At your entrance He has deigned today to fulfil what He said by the mouth of the blessed David to be good and pleasant — making brethren dwell together in one” (Ps. 132:1). And when he had blithely shown hospitality to him and all his, receiving them as angels, and had set forth all his desire to his ears, the blessed Ermenland recited before him what his father had laid before the bishop’s envoys and their answer, and at last subjoined: “And now, if your holiness will comply with my father’s counsel, we shall strive — as the Lord shall grant our littleness — to accomplish whatever you command. But if anything else please your fatherhood, we shall return to our father according to his precept, our charity unbroken.” “None more than I, dearest brother,” said he, “desires to establish the perfection of this work in perpetual firmness — I who am seen to be its author and founder; and therefore according to your suggestion and your father’s and our envoys’ pledge, not only shall I commit you with the cell we dispose to build, with all the goods I shall settle there for the sustenance of the brethren dwelling therein after canonical authority, to the royal dominion, and cause him to hold his precept for you — but also whatever advantage and utility for that place’s perpetual quiet I shall be able to treat with you, I shall most gladly take care to fulfil. Do you weigh with prudent counsel how the things I desire may duly be accomplished.” The blessed Ermenland, knowing the pontiff’s mind void of the heat of avarice, humbly addressed him: “May the Lord, who was the inspirer of this vow, grant that it be accomplished according to your heart and confirm your counsel for good (cf. Ps. 19:6). But I, having taken the earnest of your blessing, shall endeavour to make known to your most sacred ears tomorrow whatever of this I can treat with the Lord’s will.”

3. And when on the second day the dawn was suffusing the lands with new light, the blessed Ermenland, the office of matin praise fulfilled, came to bishop Pascharius and said to him: “Bid a little boat be prepared for us, in which with my companions rowing through the channel of the Loire we may survey all its shores as far as the places by the sea. And if a fit place be not found where a community may be built, then we shall go about on right and left in all your dominion until we find a suitable site for building a monastery.” “You will not need, as I think,” said the same pontiff, “to be wearied as far as the places by the sea; for there are certain isles three miles distant from this city, girded by the waters of this river, which even thrice in the revolution of day and night the sea-wave visits all round and neglects not. Which is agitated with so great a tide of its vigour that beyond this city, seven miles toward the eastern quarter, the Loire turning its stroke backward spreads the force of its inundation abundantly. But of what inward fertility or of what magnitude those isles are, the occupation of pastoral care has not permitted me to scan. Which when your sagacious prudence shall have more diligently surveyed, let it not delay to report to me how they stand, if in any of them a fitting place for building a monastery be found.” Saying this, he also bade the ship be prepared the more speedily. Which the man of the Lord Ermenland entering, said: “Bestower of all good things, who did prepare a way for Your people in the Red Sea whereby they should come to the land of promise (cf. Exod. 14), grant me, Lord, Your servant, to proceed by a straight way, that I may come by a right journey to the place which you have deigned to prepare for Your servants to dwell — a place whereby they may deserve to come not to an earthly but to a heavenly promise of eternal felicity!” The sailors, rowing briskly, came to one of the isles which surpasses the others about it in its magnitude.

Then going out of the ship he began to enquire of its extent, and found its length measured twenty-four stades. Which isle, set in the middle of others girding it on every side from the four quarters of heaven, is lifted aloft on a high ridge, mountainous through the middle of its length; it looks down upon all the inundations of the Loire flowing out abundantly at times from the east, and the spring tides which the Ocean sea belches from the west twice in each year. Which spring tides sometimes cover for a moment the other isles set in east, west and north — revering only the isle set to the south of this one for the sublimity of its mount — and therefore it offers places safe in itself for habitation and provides most ample space for vineyards and also orchards and meadows round about. For no man weighed down by the mass of bodily frailty can enter into it without naval carriage, nor into any of those surrounding it on every side. For it is thickened with the shadiness of woods, for which cause, and for certain hidden places in it, the man of God called it Antrum (“the Cave”). But the southern one also, which though lesser in extent differs from it in no way of appearance, he called Antriginum (Indret). For he found in it an oratory in a very small basilica of the most blessed confessor Martin. And there were very many herdsmen of cattle in that isle, feeding their flocks on the abundance of its most generous pasture. It pours forth for fishermen about it so very great plenty of fish from the Loire and the sea — very many of every kind pouring out their gifts there in ordered succession at appointed times — that it would seem incredible to fishermen sounding the depths of other rivers had they not learnt it by sight. Therefore the voices of the crowd do not resound in it, but only the melodies of various birds are heard about it, among which the harping swans pour forth sweet modulations of song; for it keeps in itself such silence of quiet that it seems utterly to take away all desire of the hermit life from those desiring the anchoretic life.

And when the man of the Lord Ermenland had learnt all these things partly by sight, partly by the report of neighbours, rejoicing in the Lord he said: “Blessed be Your name, holy and glorious Trinity, for ever, who have deigned to show me Your servant a place more precious and fitter than all the communities in which it has befallen my littleness to be! And now, Lord, I beseech You that You deign to be the builder and the perpetual guard of this place’s construction for ever and ever.” Then returning quickly to bishop Pascharius, he said: “I confess in truth, never have I saw so fair a place so suited to the monastic life as it has befallen me to find today in the two isles I surveyed.” And when he had recounted to him in order all he had found, the same bishop, rejoicing in the Lord, said: “Blessed be you of the Lord, and blessed be the Lord who sent you — who in His great mercy showed you a worthy place in which I may find the effect of my vow for the perpetual salvation of souls!” All that day then, conferring with each other in what tenor they should accomplish the disposed work and exhorting one another with mutual spiritual speeches, after sweet colloquies of eternal life, consulting human frailty they took food. Then at last, after the praises with the Lord’s blessing withdrawing to the rest of their beds, giving little indulgence to sleep, they passed the remaining space of night sleepless in God’s praises.

4. Coming together then on the following day, the blessed Ermenland said to the venerable bishop Pascharius: “Since the Lord has deigned to show me a most beautiful place in which the things we desired may be accomplished, I will not weave delays, but with your blessing I will return there quickly — that, fortified by your help and others’, I may begin to build the fabric of the monastery, Christ favouring.” And he: “May the Creator of all, who deigned to bestow on Solomon a prudent heart for building a house worthy of His name, give you grace and blessing, and deign to direct all your works according to His will! The expenses then, as need shall demand — since they are at hand — I shall not neglect to minister, and our workmen with you shall accomplish what you shall bid.” Then binding themselves in mutual embraces, they gave each other the kiss of peace; and so the blessed Ermenland returned to the beloved isle. When he had entered it, choosing the place in which the monastery should more suitably be built, he began to lay the foundations of houses sufficient for the brethren’s necessities, and completed in a short time, the Lord protecting him, two churches — one in honour of the blessed apostle Peter, the other in honour of the blessed apostle Paul — with all the cloisters of the monastery.

And when he had the more quickly consummated his work, increased by the help of very many inhabitants of that land, the same bishop coming there to the dedication with his canons, by all’s consent made a privilege for the blessed Ermenland and his monks of that monastery, as he had first promised: that none of his successors should attempt to usurp anything of that monastery or of the goods which he or others, pricked by divine love, had handed over there for lights or for the brethren’s sustenance, under occasion of dominion. And then at last, taking the blessed Ermenland with him to the royal hall, he delivered him to King Childebert’s hands, with the monastery and the monks of it, to be guarded. For the sake of eternal retribution the same king of the Franks then made his precept to the blessed Ermenland concerning that monastery and its goods: that no dominion of any power should presume to bring any disquiet upon the monks established in it, but that, relying on perpetual royal defence, they should freely entreat Christ’s clemency for themselves and for the peace of his whole realm without anyone’s hindrance.

Then the man of the Lord, honoured with the king’s friendship, returned to the monastery. From that time many converted from the world began to give themselves to regular disciplines in his community, and others hastened to offer their offspring to God in the same place. To all of whom the blessed Ermenland laudably handed on the discipline of the contemplative life by word and deed, until Christ’s flock there grew great in virtues and in number — who lived so perfectly under so great a father that the fame of their holiness flew far and wide, and in their works all who heard magnified God their Father in heaven.

5. On a certain night, while the same most blessed Ermenland remained sleepless in the oratory as was his custom, keeping vigil through the night in the basilica of the blessed apostle Peter for the sake of attaining to the contemplation of the heavenly kingdom, he saw the most blessed soul of the venerable abbot Maurontius of the monastery of St Florentius called Glanna — sundered thirty miles from his community — loosed from the bond of the body, borne by angels to the ethereal throne. When he had gazed upon it long, he gave the sign and, the brethren being gathered into one, charged them with the highest affection of charity to commend that one’s departure to the Lord in prayer. They indeed fulfilling the holy father’s commands in ready obedience, poured forth prayers abundantly to God for the soul of the aforementioned Maurontius. Yet all began to wonder how the man of the Lord could have seen his soul loosed from the body’s bond, since the monasteries were sundered from each other by so great an interval of lands. But lest any doubt should remain in their minds, they disposed on the following day to send an investigator there who should enquire more diligently into the cause of this matter. The brethren of the aforementioned monastery of St Florentius, however, took away the labour of their sending by coming first — they who announced their bereavement by father Maurontius’s death. Now the brethren, suffering with them with the great affection of soul due to those in grief, bore them encouragements of consolation, and began anew to enquire of the hour of their father’s departure. For at the same hour and moment they learnt by their relation that he had migrated — at which the blessed Ermenland had pointed out his death to his brethren.

6. On a certain day, while the holy man was accomplishing a necessary journey with some brethren through the district of Nantes, it befell that Arnald — wealthy beyond measure by the world’s dignity, hedged by a wedge of retainers — came to meet him. And the man of the Lord, instructing him long with spiritual speeches out of the authority of the divine scriptures, after the word of teaching said to a certain brother: “Since we have ministered spiritual drink to this illustrious man according to the capacity of our understanding, charity suggesting, let us nevertheless take bodily refreshment together.” He answered that no more wine was at hand save in a very small vessel hanging at the saddle, holding little more than a hemina of wine. But he bade it be brought — the man of God trusting, full of His faith who distributing five loaves among five thousand men increased them; for by divine power, after all were abundantly refreshed, far more of the remnants remained than had been the whole weight before the apostles’ distribution into the crowds. The sign of the cross impressed and uttered, the man of the Lord bade it be distributed to the aforementioned Arnald with all his retinue. And when he had distributed to all and all drank, he distributing, single full cups with thanksgiving — yet the wine grew in distribution by so great a priest’s merit out of so very small a vessel. The same vessel is kept in his monastery in testimony of this miracle. No faithful man, as I think, doubts that in this miracle he imitated the virtue of Elijah; for as he, the majesty’s name invoked, made oil, so this man made wine increase in the vessel through the power of Christ’s cross.

7. Sitting then once beneath a certain tree beside the oratory of the blessed martyr Leodegar in his community, the blessed Ermenland was reading with wonted attention. Now the caterpillars which were ravaging that same tree’s leaves and fruit fell frequently upon the book in which he was reading and cast hindrance upon his reading — which he, being most gentle, bore most patiently. A certain brother, perceiving this, began to tread them underfoot. But he forbade him, saying: “No, please, brother, attempt not to remove the things which are inflicted by divine judgement.” The divine power also deigned to reward his patience, taking them away the following night — they that had devoured the aforementioned tree with long corruption — so that none of them remained. For in this also he seems joined to Moses’ virtue: as through his prayers the Lord rescued the sacrilegious nation of the Egyptians from the devastation of this pest, so through this man’s merit the aforementioned tree was freed.

8. It was the same servant of God’s custom, at the quadragesimal season — to avoid the throng of very many citizens who flocked from every side to his monastery with oblations for the sake of visiting him and his brethren — to seek Antriginum and there with few brethren to macerate his body with exceeding contrition of abstinence, that he might deserve to be offered a most acceptable sacrifice to God at the paschal solemnity. Now it befell on a certain day that, wearied with the instance of vigils and prayers, walking for refreshment to take the air and having sat down awhile upon the shore, someone said that the bishop of Nantes had a certain fish which is commonly called naupreda. To whom God’s priest Ermenland said: “What has this to do with the matter, brother? Is the Almighty’s hand enfeebled, that He cannot bestow on us, when He will, a fish of this kind, as on him?” The man of the Lord had not yet completed these words — and lo! by divine power a fish of this sort, drawn from the Loire’s depth, rearing itself in mid-river and swimming with swift course upon the waves of the waters, lay before the holy man’s feet on the dry sand. Then, knowing the gift divinely bestowed on him, he bade it with thanksgiving be lifted, saying to one of the brethren: “Take this, son, and divide it into three parts, of which one being kept for our refreshment, let the other two be sent to the brethren at the monastery.” When this was done, a wondrous thing at once followed. For by so great a man’s merit all the brethren — both those present with him and those who had remained at the monastery, whose number was not small — were so filled from so small a fish as though a multitude of fishes had been distributed to them. For it is plain of whose love this man was full — of His, doubtless, who fed five thousand men in a desert place with five loaves and two fishes; hedged by His protection, from a little fish he sated the holy congregation of his monastery.

9. This man of the Lord also, provident with highest discretion, so weighed the care of himself and of those committed to him in equal balance that he neither wholly neglected to minister the brethren’s necessities for his own keeping, nor again neglected to keep watch over himself with circumspection for the earthly stipends wherewith the brethren were sustained. For ministering the brethren’s necessities providently in the daytime hours, and giving a little indulgence to sleep in the night hours — more from the debt of human necessity than from love of even modest repose — turning the rest of the night’s space to the acquisition of contemplation, with all the effort of his mind he watched heavenly things in prayer and psalmody. On a certain night, while for prayer’s sake he solicitously went round the basilicas of his community, in one of them he bade a certain brother recover the extinguished light; and while he bore it with him, a blast of wind blowing, the lamp in the brother’s hand went out. And when the same brother began to go in haste to kindle it again, the man of the Lord beckoned him to stand still, and stretching forth his hand uttered the sign of the cross and — Christ helping — restored the light lost out of the murk of darkness. For afterwards, a fiercer blast of wind assailing, the divinely given light, roofed by the defence of no shelter, was borne unextinguished and whole to the place where it was being carried.

10. Now the man of the Lord, advancing to higher things by continual studies of virtue, strove daily to acquire the cleanness of purity. When on a certain night in Antriginum — where he used to be macerated by the rigour of abstinence in the quadragesimal season — he was walking in the oratory of St Annianus, the path by which he trod was suddenly made whiter than the rest of the pavement; and the place where he used to pray constantly is so sprinkled with such whiteness that even now it is liquidly apparent to all entering there with what cleanness of prayer the most holy confessor’s breast was clarified.

11. In the western parts the fame of his holiness, spreading far and wide, had grown, nor disdained to visit even the northern regions. For on a certain day, when in the Constantine district he was inspecting the monastery’s affairs for need’s sake, a certain noble man of that province, Launus by name, invited the man of the Lord with his disciples to dine. But he, being gentle in soul, affable in speech, serene in countenance, refusing not his petition, entered his house, the blessing given. In that region indeed wine is scarcely produced, and therefore the aforementioned Launus had little more wine than in one small vessel holding, as I think, four metretae. He indeed, rejoicing that he had deserved to receive God’s man into his house, calling together crowds of friends, cheerfully bade it be distributed abundantly to all out of that same wine, with the poor and pilgrims coming in besides. By the wondrous dispensation of the Almighty — all drinking abundantly — the wine so grew in that vessel that, overflowing for its own diminution, it refilled the now almost emptied little vessel. But this matter, covered by silence that day, was the next day so divulged through all that region that all dwelling there came to know that this man was of such great holiness that if anyone should bestow anything of his substance upon him for a blessing’s sake, he would incur no loss of diminution — no, would gain the increase of profit even in the present life, the eternal reward being safe. The man of the Lord then after the refection returned to his own house, which is in the villa called Oglanda.

Now Launus the next day asked his wife whether even a little wine remained, wherewith something might be sent to the man of God for the blessing. She, having looked more diligently into the aforementioned vessel, found that no diminution but a fullness of increase had accrued — which she hastened to report to her husband. Then the aforementioned Launus with oblations offered to the holy man a blessing of that same wine, and showed how great grace the Lord had repaid him through his merits. Hearing which, the man of the Lord — void of flatteries — bade him hide it in silence, saying: “Do not, please, reckon this miracle to my merits — it is what the Lord has deigned to confer on your generosity for the bestowing upon the poor.” But Launus on the contrary said this was done for the merit of his virtue alone, and confessed he had had no part in the deed. There arose between them a friendly contention of mutual humility; but to all the faithful it is plainly apparent that this miracle was wrought by the holy priest’s merit, because he had clung with his whole heart to Him who at Cana of Galilee turned water into wine.

12. The enemy hostile to all good men, astutely striving to oppose the snares of deceit, when he saw the man of God prevailing in virtues and could not shake his mind into any pit of deception by any instinct of temptation even for a little, began to stir up the annoyance of disquiet for the man of God through whom he could — men fenced with no authority of reason — that if he could not utterly overturn the house firmly founded upon the rock, he might reckon this alone gain to himself, if he could perturb it even for a moment. For on a certain day, instigated by the crime of cupidity, a certain rustic cut off the little flask from the man of God’s saddle and took it away, and cast it into his bosom. At once divine vengeance followed — which therefore scourges present deeds that it may free from future ones: the same rustic, straitened with pains as though burnt with fires, wailing began to cry aloud, saying: “Succour me, holy Ermenland, for I pay inestimable penalties for the little I tried to steal from you!” And saying this, he cast forth the hidden theft from his bosom into the middle — which remains to this day in testimony, hanging in the oratory of the blessed apostle Peter in the cell of Oglanda, where this was done. Now the man of the Lord loosed by prayer him whom the crime had bound, and refreshing him with satiety of food, and warning him to yield no further assent to the seducer’s persuasions, let him go away free.

Another thief again, corrupted by the same spirit of avarice, stole by theft the oxen which used to draw the carts laden with timber for the man of God’s uses. The man of the Lord, understanding himself destitute of his animals’ service by the enemy’s deceit and bearing the loss patiently, ran to the wonted arms of prayer and entreated the Lord that the aforementioned animals be restored to him. The force of his prayer could obtain this with God: that the same thief, striving to lead them into far regions through the whole night, wearied, should in the morning before the man of God’s doors restore the same oxen he was striving to take away. The man of the Lord received back exulting what the malign one had attempted to snatch, the Lord restoring it; and gently addressing the thief, rendered him the grace of humanity for his offence of theft — warning him above all to be subject no further to the fraudulent enemy’s persuasions, lest he incur public judgements here and be burned with eternal flames — and so, admonishing him, let him depart free.

13. In the holy man’s times there was a certain illustrious man named Agatheus, count of the two cities of Nantes and Rennes, usurping the place of the episcopate in the aforementioned cities. He approached the isle of Antrum for prayer’s sake and to speak with the man of God, and was kindly received by him. Prayer being ended, rebuking him for his deeds and instructing him with holy admonitions, Ermenland exhorted him to seize the path of a better life. After the words of preaching, showing him the grace of humanity, he led him with himself into the refectory and bade a cup of neat wine be given him. When he had drunk half of it and wished to return the cup to the brother bearing it, God’s priest exhorted him to drink yet more, and raising his right hand again impressed a second time the sign of the cross upon the aforementioned cup. Scarce had he withdrawn his hand — and lo! the cup was suddenly so filled that the wine, abundantly overflowing from it, was poured over the aforementioned man’s arms. Then the said Agatheus, judging himself unworthy of so great a priest’s company, fell most swiftly trembling at his feet, beseeching him to intercede for his errors. So also by the outward miracle he was compelled to acknowledge the sanctity of his soul concerning which, infidel, he had doubted before. And since that man was hitherto carried along with ill-ordered manners, the sentence of the holy man was fulfilled in him who said: Signs are given not to believers but to unbelievers (1 Cor. 14:22). For it is plain that the miracle was driven on by God’s providence that the brutish mind — which was not warmed by the fire of preaching — might be compelled even by the miracle’s stroke with the anxiety of fear to give heed to amendment. For from that time he appeared less cruel.

14. When at a certain time the same father was going round his monastery’s affairs for utility’s sake, he came to the villa of Pauliac. And when he had disposed all things according to the measure of just need, the day declining to evening, committing himself to the wonted exercises of vigils, meditating divine things with the ardour of contemplation, he passed the night sleepless. And as he long persisted in the battle-line of contemplation, lifting the heart’s eyes on high, he saw in the parts of Aquitaine, in his cell — which had been handed over to him by the grant of charters, called Creon, eighty miles distant from that place — the soul of a certain venerable monk, who had been instructed in his teachings and set there by him to watch over that cell and the other called Colon, migrating from the body and, upborne by the angels’ guard, penetrate the heavenly places. He himself, the sign at once struck, announced to the brethren gone away with him that one’s death and warned them to commend his departure to the Lord in prayer. The brethren then, credulous of his sanctity, fulfilled the commands; yet certain of the boys said the man of the Lord — now worn out with long old age — was raving, mocking him. But he, cleaving to the Lord, could even contemplate by the same spirit whereby he had been able to see the soul loosed from the body’s bonds far away away — penetrating not only the boys’ words but their thoughts. For meeting their diffidence he affirmed most certainly that the aforementioned brother’s soul, loosed from human things, had attained holy rest in Christ’s kingdom. Which afterwards the messengers — announcing the aforementioned brother’s death from the same cell — declared to be true, and said he had died at the same hour and articulation of time at which the holy Ermenland had pointed out his departure to the brethren.

15. The blessed Ermenland then, amid the necessary administrations of care for the brethren committed to him, ceased not nevertheless to augment his own studies — whereby he might merit eternal rewards — by daily advances in virtue. It pleased him not, as is the custom of certain veterans who more remissly consult the weakness of senile age, to live; but with the increase of time he strove to add to the rigour of his conversation whatever he could of virtue. He reckoned it no small loss if daily he did not join something of virtue to his exercises. For when he had come to old age, he built a small oratory in honour of the holy martyr Leodegar beside the monastery’s doors facing east, in which — the government of pastoral care being left, which he had long held not by ambition’s pride but for need’s sake — giving the brethren leave to substitute a vicar father in his place, he from then on shut himself away, that, stripped not only of all superfluous but even of just care of need so far as human frailty allowed, he might be free in contemplative studies for the Lord alone. Leaving then the monastery’s care by the king’s leave, yet not without the brethren’s grief — who long lamented his withdrawal — shutting himself with four brethren favouring the same vow in the aforementioned cell, he served heavenly contemplations. Now the brethren elected for themselves an abbot named Adalfred, the royal precept assenting — at whose election the blessed Ermenland, yielding to the divine indication, would not be present. The aforementioned Adalfred then, deceived by the malign spirit, turned the right of fatherhood into the tyranny of cruelty. For he began, leaving his own and the brethren’s necessities, to be occupied with superfluous business and — driven back from inner things by just judgement — to pursue only outward things, wandering astray. He began then to build himself a hall, not content with necessaries; no, by the pride of wantonness he tried to transgress the fitting measure. Which the blessed Ermenland perceiving, while he rebuked him for very many of his errors, said among other things: “What is this, brother, that neglecting the profits of souls and the brethren’s necessities you are occupied with superfluous things? Do not the houses built here for you and the brethren seem sufficient for dwelling? Attend to my words in all things: be content with these, for you shall not build in this place again!” Now the man of the Lord said this, breathed upon by the prophetic spirit, knowing the divine vengeance imminent which should set a term to his iniquities in that same year. But the aforementioned Adalfred, blinded in mind, spurned the man of God’s words, despising them. For cruelly afflicting the brethren with poverty of food, he ordered that the appointed sustenance be withdrawn even from those who were with the holy Ermenland.

On a certain day also, when he ordered one of those whom the blessed Ermenland had taught for God under the equal governance of discipline to be struck with most savage lashes as he used to do to the rest — the pains pressing, he who was being beaten was compelled to call upon the blessed Ermenland, saying: “Father Ermenland, therefore have you deigned to leave us living?” The wretched Adalfred, bidding him be tortured the more, said: “The Ermenland you invock will not lend you the help of defence!” And when at last, afflicted with stripes, he had escaped, coming with swift course before the doors of the cell where the man of the Lord was intent on heavenly contemplation, clinging to the earth he said wailing: “Alas, my lord Ermenland, what of our iniquity have you found, that you should desert us under the yoke of such cruelty? Would that dire death would withdraw us from human things, lest we be afflicted by so great a tyrant’s evils!” Those also who were with him began to make known to the man of the Lord with what poverty of hunger he afflicted the brethren. Then the man of the Lord, groaning deeply, said: “Be silent, brethren, be silent; yet know that his destruction hastens most swiftly — to his contumacious life not even one month’s space shall be granted.” Which is shown to have been spoken by the prophetic spirit. For on the third day the same wretched Adalfred saw in a vision himself struck with the blessed Ermenland’s staff, rebuking him for the perversity of his disobedience; and awakening he began to be tortured as though burnt with fires, and so — damned with eternal death — the wretch suddenly lost his life together with his governance by God’s judgement. And the brethren, at holy Ermenland’s admonition, committed his corpse to burial as it deserved.

16. After the death of abbot Adalfred the brethren, gathered together, besought the blessed Ermenland with submissive prayers, saying: “We pray your holiness, most benign father — since you have preferred to leave us desolate by your presence — that you let us not to stray as once in the abbot’s election; but choose for us a father worthy of God, who can teach us the Lord’s way after your example.” Moved then by their prayers, he bade one of the brethren be summoned whom he himself had nurtured in good works, instructing him in divine disciplines — named Donatus. Him, ordaining abbot with all’s will and setting him over the brethren, he taught how he should show himself solicitous and prompt in ministering things spiritual and temporal. And he, following his master’s admonitions, trusting in Christ’s help and upheld by his master’s intercession, full of humility and the grace of charity, laudably ruled the monastery all the days of his life. But this he obtained by the merit of him by whose election he was set over them.

17. Thus far we have set down in writing the virtues which the Lord deigned to work through the just man — many things passed over, few recorded; now I shall undertake to write of his death, whereby he entered the gate of the heavenly kingdom. After he had caused very many to be converted from their depravities to Christ’s faith; after, shut up in his cell for many days, free for God alone, he had by his prayers restored pristine health to many sick flocking from every side to the fame of his sanctity — when now his laudable old age shone with such grace of virtues that nothing could be believed added to his perfection — by the prophetic spirit wherewith he used to foresee many future things, foreknowing also his own sacred death, he foretold certain days before to the brethren the sure day of his migration. For the brethren, often informed of his prophecy, gave sure faith to the servant of God’s words. On the day on which he had foretold the dissolution of his body, gathered into one they besought his holiness that, as on earth he had been their master of justice, so in heaven he would deign to be their perpetual patron of intercession. And when he had admonished them all, man by man, to persevere in the holy purpose — arming himself with the sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood, weary with the length of old age, his limbs’ frame outstretched — commending his spirit to the Lord he sent it forth; and so, his disciples weeping, the angels singing with the choirs of virgins — in whose fellowship he had remained virgin in mind and body — glad, as though sleeping in slumber, amid the words of prayer the most blessed confessor of Christ, leaving his lifeless body in the middle of the brethren, as unharmed by death’s pain as he had been a stranger to lust’s contagion, migrated to Christ, with whom crowned with perpetual glory he exults for ever and ever. Amen.

18. The holy man’s funeral being reverently completed by the brethren, they committed his holy members to burial with due honour in the basilica of the blessed apostle Paul beside the oratory of St Wandregisel in the southern apse. For the Lord, to show how great was the grace of His love in the blessed Ermenland, deigned to work the medicine of salvation at his sepulchre for many labouring under the wasting of various sicknesses. Now after he had shone there with signs of virtues for very many years, a voice came on a certain night to the venerable Sadrevert, a monk of that monastery, saying: “Go, when you have risen tomorrow, and tell your abbot to transfer the body of the blessed confessor Ermenland from the oratory of St Wandregisel into the basilica of the blessed apostle Peter and lay it there beside the high altar with the highest honour.” The father of that monastery, hearing such a message from a man whom for his sanctity’s merit he loved with exceeding love, filled with exceeding joy, lifting the most blessed confessor’s members with the tomb in which they lay amid the praises of hymns, bore them with the brethren where it had been enjoined him. The choirs of the psalm-singers going before with censers and lamps, they went round the monastery’s cloisters with the precious treasure they bore. And when they had come before the refectory door, the bier on which the most blessed confessor’s body was borne began to grow heavy between the bearers’ hands, as though loaded with immense masses of stone — so that, sunk to the ground, it could be lifted not only not by them but not even by all who stood round about in attendance. Then all turned into the amazement of stupor, began to enquire what the blessed confessor wished to show by this deed, praying the Lord that the translation to the prepared place be no longer delayed. Prayer completed, the venerable abbot David said: “Since the office of Masses is now completed, I judge that the most blessed father Ermenland, with the foresight of his wonted piety, wishes us to enter the refectory, that for the labour of his conveyance and for the veneration of his sanctity we may each drink the cup of the chalice.” When this had been done and they began with their hands to handle the sarcophagus — all the heaviness of weight being laid aside — lifting it they bore it with such speed into the basilica of the blessed apostle Peter as though it had never before been carried by few with so little labour.

And while the devout brotherhood of all the monks bore the holy members to be committed to solemn burial — all feeling it light for love of bearing it — they came to the destined place, and there according to the revelation divinely made they laid the holy body with praises of hymns: whose solemn pledge the basilica of the isle of Antrum, consecrated in honour of the blessed apostle Peter, deserved to embrace. A wondrous thing was made manifest there on the third day after the deposition of the holy members in the urn prepared by the workmen’s diligence for this very purpose. For so great a fragrance of wonderful odour, exceeding the nectar of all spices, emanated from that holy confessor’s sepulchre that first the whole basilica was sprinkled with that odour, and then it filled the entire monastery so that all the dwellers of that place, filled from it, persisted in continual hours even to the eighth day. For all who were then present there — who still use the light given to mortals — testify that they could never take into their smell an odour of such sweetness and suavity anywhere.

19. The blessed Ermenland’s body being buried in the oratory of the holy apostle Peter which he himself had built, it shines even to this day with miracles of virtues for many, as often as the faith of the petitioners requires — of which some things, as I have learnt by the relation of the elders, seem to me rightly to be inserted in this page. A certain lame boy named Domonus, since he lacked the use of his feet — so that he crawled on his hands, being unable on his feet — seeking the most holy confessor’s tomb, entreated him to have mercy on him. He, with manifold prayers, spreading his orison, clinging to the level of the pavement, deserved by divine regard through the holy confessor’s merit to receive the soundness of his pristine state. And so exulting in the health regained, in the sight of all he returned to his own, sound and whole.

20. Another man, lame likewise, named Flodulf, was admonished in a vision at Rome by the blessed apostle Peter to seek out the isle of Antrum, three miles distant from the city of Nantes, where the blessed confessor Ermenland’s body was laid — that at his sepulchre he might receive health through his intercession. And he, carried by the aid of religious men to the most blessed confessor’s memorial as he had been admonished, began with assiduous frequency to betake himself to his holy thresholds for the restoring of his body’s use. Not long after, the blessed confessor interceding, he was so healed that no part of bodily health seemed lacking to him. And so, leaping up suddenly on his own feet, he returned from the holy confessor’s tomb — he who had often been borne there on others’ hands. For which cause we think he was sent there by the blessed apostle: that it might shine far and wide how much the holy confessor’s intercession avails with the Creator of all in obtaining the healings of the weak.

21. There was also a certain deaf-mute named Domician, who from birth had wholly lacked the use of tongue and ears. But while he sought through various places the sustenance wherewith to be sustained by public begging, it befell that he came to the most holy confessor’s monastery. He, when as usual he had been led by a certain monk who received incoming pilgrims to the blessed confessor’s memorial — when he had entered his thresholds and poured forth prayer for his salvation from the heart alone, wherein alone he had sense, since with his tongue he could not — by the blessed confessor’s prayers, his tongue loosed and his ears opened, he deserved at once both to speak and to receive hearing. For it is not doubtful that this man’s merit avails much with the almighty Lord, by whose prayers it is certain it was wrought that the creature which had remained imperfect by the privation of two senses should by the Creator’s pity be formed to its full state.

22. A certain man, corrupted by the pest of cupidity, named Eurefred, attempted to abstract from the holy confessor’s goods the villa called Cranna in the Oxime district. But soon, rebuked in a dream by the holy confessor Albinus, he received from him a sentence of excommunication of this kind: that he should take no food or drink until, coming to the blessed Ermenland’s sepulchre, he should restore with satisfaction the goods he was striving to take from him. He, awakening, fearfully recalling the sentence of his rebuke, mounted his horse at daybreak and so came speedily to the villa of that monastery called Cludion. Finding there a monk of that monastery named Edramnus, at once showing him the cause of his affliction, he begged that he would deign to accompany him to the blessed confessor’s tomb. When he had obtained the promise of performance from him by his prayers, persuaded by him he tried nevertheless to take some food and drink. But when he put bread in his mouth he could by no means swallow it; no, he vomited forth the food before all, with the blood which he had presumed to violate. Then, the journey begun, he came quickly to the monastery with the aforementioned monk and soon approached the blessed Ermenland’s sepulchre to obtain his remedy. When he had given himself to prayer there, he restored the villa he had taken; and that he might deserve to receive health, he endowed the monastery from his goods and estates. And when, making public satisfaction, he had made public the crime of his deed, he did penance for the crime committed; and so, refreshed there with drink and food, he returned to his own house unharmed by the blessed confessor’s prayers.

23. A certain rustic named Sicbald, receiving a flail on the Lord’s day of the holy resurrection, rashly entered the threshing-floor to thresh the grain; but divine vengeance rendered his presumption a worthy penalty. For at once the flail stuck to his hand and — the joints of his limbs being loosed — it shook his head and arms and other members atrociously. For he could by no effort contain himself from this disquiet, but was horribly shaken without respiration by the trembling of his members. When he had come to Tours, by the blessed Martin’s intercession the flail fell out of his hand, but his trembling members still paid the penalty of the former agitation. Now on the following night, still remaining in the same place, he was admonished in a dream by St Martin that, if he wished to be absolved from the charge of his penalty, he should go to the isle of Antrum — that by the blessed confessor Ermenland’s prayers he might deserve to receive the constancy of his pristine state. Trusting then in the most blessed Martin’s promises, he approached Antrum in haste and, prostrate at the holy Ermenland’s tomb, entreated the holy confessor for the grace of recovering health; who soon deigned to assent to his prayers. For while the brethren sang the evening office, there appeared to the trembling man an elder clad in a white stole, comely with decorous grey hair, and beckoned him to come to him. He, lifting his eyes and seeing him who called him, wished to go swiftly but soon fell among the choirs of the singers, and there bent long over prayer; and a little after stretched his hand to the brethren, and so was raised from the pavement whole. He is now restored by the blessed confessor’s prayers to his pristine health, and no trace of his former deformity remained in him. Then, openly narrating in order to all all that had befallen him, praising the Lord he returned whole to his own.

24. A certain youth named Aclibald, mute and deaf, coming to the blessed confessor’s tomb, begged his aid from his inmost heart’s affection for restoring to him the use of tongue and ears. When he had poured forth prayers long, clinging to the pavement at his memorial, he deserved both to receive the hearing of his ears and the use of his tongue. And so, fortified by the holy confessor’s prayers, he departed whole, magnifying the holy confessor’s merits.

25. There was a certain boy Bertfred, infirm from birth, whom his carnal father brought down to the monastery of St Ermenland for the sake of his salvation. And when he set him before his sepulchre, the confessor’s aid restored the step which the human condition had taken away; and so walking is restored to the lame man who had been deprived of the use of his feet from the very cradle — and he who had been borne to his sepulchre by others’ help, the blessed confessor interceding, returned to his own by the strength of his own step.

26. Another lame man again, Leutbert by name, coming to the blessed man’s sepulchre, begged the suffrages of health; and prostrate there he persisted assiduous in prayer so long until, the blessed confessor interceding, he deserved to obtain pristine health from Christ. And so, the effect of soundness attending, he who had come infirm returned whole to his own, giving thanks for the benefit of health conferred on him.

27. By the relation of many monks of that monastery — who saw the man himself and the time when he was healed, in which the sign I narrate was wrought — I have learnt this. There was a certain man named Aldefred, now eighty years old, blind and lame from his egress from the maternal womb, who for the acquiring of his body’s health approached the glorious sepulchre at Rome of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. And while he lingered there long, sure of obtaining health by the blessed apostle’s clement grace, the blessed apostle deigned to appear to him in person, saying: “Go to Tours, and there by St Martin’s prayers you shall receive the health of feet and hands; from there enter the isle of Antrum, and at the sepulchre of the confessor St Ermenland you shall deserve to receive the light of your eyes as well.” He, borne down by the help of good men, came to the most blessed Martin’s church; and soon falling to the ground in the grace of prayer, his thumbs which had cleaved to his breast and his feet which from birth had adhered to his buttocks — the blessed Martin interceding — were loosed, receiving all soundness. And then at last he came with swift course to St Ermenland’s monastery. When he had long bent over prayer in that monastery, the blessed confessor of God Ermenland appeared to him, holding his chin with his hand, and set his sacred thumbs upon his eyes, saying: “In the name of the holy and single and undivided Trinity, let your eyes be opened, and receive the light untasted hitherto!” And at once awakening, his eyes were opened, and he saw the backward parts of him who healed him glittering like lightning, as he himself confessed. Who the next day — the gore which had flowed out from the rupture of his eyelids washed away — wondered before all with sound eyes at the almighty Maker’s creatures which he had not seen before. It is therefore certain that the blessed apostle sent him to the holy confessors to be healed — him whom he could most quickly have cured by himself, whose shadow is read to have once healed all the sick it touched — that it might be manifest to all the faithful how much their intercession avails with the Creator of all for obtaining the sick’s health when they ask in faith. Now he who had been healed, keeping the integrity of virginity, remained laudably in the same monastery of the blessed Ermenland, exercised in great studies of prayers and vigils, until the day of his death on which he paid the debt of all flesh.

28. A certain paralytic named Arnold laboured under a grave sickness for seven revolutions of years, so that he was borne on a pallet on others’ hands, lacking the use of all his members like an extinct corpse, his head alone living. When he had been carried to the blessed Ermenland’s monastery by those bearing him and laid at his feet beside the sepulchre where the holy members were laid — and the brethren began the evening office with the antiphon fitting the day of that confessor’s translation, which falls within the paschal feasts: Alleluia, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures for ever (Ps. 105) — he saw the blessed Ermenland enter through the window. Who, striking his head and reins with the staff he bore in his hand, said: “In the name of Jesus Christ the Almighty Son, be healed and rise up strong!” Then for the first time, stretching his long-feeble members and crying with loud voices, he rose and, taking two tapers in his hands, leaping passed through the middle of the singing choirs. For all the days of his life he enjoyed the soundness received, and carrying himself by his own body’s vigour went where he would — he who had been brought there by others’ help.

These and many other things which would be sufficiently profitable to be inserted in this work for the faithful’s edification I have learnt by the narration of many monks of the same monastery who survive to this day; but, few things being written, I have passed over many for brevity’s sake. And since the life of virtues precedes the signs of miracles — because the former shows not power but works it, while these show but do not make — more things of the holy father’s virtues of manners would seem to need writing for the imitation of many, save that his holy conversation, shining in more recent time, is still retained in the memory of many minds. For what can I say of his virtue of chastity — who, remaining unpolluted from birth by lust’s contagion, deserved to receive virginity’s crown? What can I recount of his worthy faith — who, rescuing all whom he could from various errors, brought them to the Catholic faith? What can I intimate of his hope — who for love of eternal things contemned all temporal prosperities abundantly flowing to him? What may I signify of his fullest charity — whose study it ever was to seek not his own but others’ good, that very many might through his exercise obtain eternal life? What shall I set forth of his abstinence — who, to exercise it in utter rigour, leaving the brethren in the monastery, going to Antriginum, lived there most of all in the time of fasts? What shall I unfold of the cleanness of his prayer — who by his own footmarks rendered the path by which he walked to prayer, and the station on which he used to bend in prayer, white as snow? What shall I report of the praise of his vigils — in which persisting continually he deserved, illumined by the Holy Spirit, to see souls migrating from the body far away? What shall I tell of his humility and contemplation — who, that he might acquire it more perfectly, relinquished the honour of his prelacy and, that he might cleave more perfectly to it, shutting himself in a very small cell, remained enclosed until the day of his calling to heavenly glory? What can I say of his special obedience — who, obeying his abbot and leaving his own soil, remained an exile in a far region all the days of his life? How shall I make known his patience — who, trusting in the amplitude of charity, not only rendered not evil for evil (cf. Rom. 12:17) but bestowed on all his persecutors what good he could? Adorned with these flowers of virtues, the most blessed confessor of Christ Ermenland lived to himself in the world for reward, to his disciples for example; on behalf of whom, migrating to Christ on the eighth of the Kalends of April, he deserved to receive the crown of eternal glory.

I entreat with humble prayer all who read the holy man’s life to deign in their prayers to remember the intercession of the most sluggish writer, in prospect of eternal reward — that, the blessed confessor Ermenland interceding, they may deserve to enjoy eternal life with him.

Here ends the Life of the most blessed Ermenland.