Ch. Cuissard (ed.), «Vie de saint Paul de Léon en Bretagne», Revue Celtique 5 (1881–83), pp. 417–460 — the Life of St Paul Aurelian of Léon (d. c. 573) by the priest-monk Wrmonoc of Landévennec, written 884; the principal source for Breton Christianity of the sixth century. Translated into modern British English.

Here Begins the Preface to the Life of St Paul Aurelian, Who Is Venerated on the Fourth of the Ides of March. #

¹ Since I find in the writings or monuments of the venerable fathers who went before us to the heavenly kingdoms that the masters of various provinces commended to the pages of books the contests of the holy martyrs and the lives of confessors — that as by their example those who should come after might suffice for a law; nor do I see only those venerable fathers of holy mother Church to have flourished with such industry, but even — what is unholy to say — certain poets sang in songs the phantasmata of the gentiles’ sacrilegious superstition coloured with the dye of worldly wisdom, and thereafter I find they wrote down in charters a false-speaking composition of such matter, as if thereby to satisfy their superfluous vanity — why should not I also, delivered from the Scyllæan shipwreck of those same poets and strengthened by the living aid of the aforementioned fathers, undertake to bring forth into the middle certain vital aliments bearing wholesome medicine to the infirmity of those present — that is, by describing in pages the renowned deeds of St Paul Aurelian, to consult the salvation of all who would be animated by his examples to will to be saved?

² His deeds, although they seem to have flourished more lucidly than of old by our construction, augmented by labour — yet whoever would rewrite them in ancient charters, I shall not seem to forbid. But this I earnestly beg of him in all ways, whoever he be: let him not reckon me blameworthy, as one who dared to coin new things after the old, while he has it in his power either to choose mine if they seem to have any savour for him, or to spurn them if, filled with delicious feasts, he will not taste them. For let him know that these are offered by me to be eaten not by the ungrateful but the benevolent, not the proud but the humble, not the delicate but the poor: for a poor banqueter seeks poor banqueters. Under a poor man’s roof it is unlawful for the delicate to enter. Whoever therefore, content with the slender refection of our poverty, would enter the common table, let him devotedly taste our provisions. And hereafter, when the poor are filled, they shall praise the Lord who gave me to prepare such a feast.

³ Your poor Paul’s life, therefore — described by the striving of my littleness — receive, most pious father Hinworet, yet not to be neglected by you amid the banquets of the episcopal throne. For it shall be no small supplement to the resources of your wit. But thanks be to God who granted me to bring such a work, however digested, to its end. That I should dare it, the zeal of my teacher Wrdisten animated me — who in describing the acts of his Winwaloe and my saint built a wondrous work of books. Under which abbot I, a priest and monk named Wrmonoc, painted this work in the regular monastery of the same saint. Protected by their wings together, I expect to be defended from the mad teeth of the envious who, flattering me present yet derogating absent, cease not to speak false things of me. But their detraction shall be the purgation of my sins.

⁴ Let this work, consummated in the year eight hundred and eighty-four from the Lord’s Incarnation, have such a prologue.

One. Of the origin of St Paul. #

¹ The same holy Paul, surnamed Aurelian, son of a certain count named Perphirius — a man most excellent in worldly dignity — was born in a province called in the language of the British people Penn Ohen, because a certain part of it is an island (in Latin it is called “ox-head”), which merited this name, as it seems to us, because in ancient times the head of an ox was adored as a god by the inhabitants of that country, after the example of other gentiles worshipping the elements of the world in like manner. From the first flower of his age, loosing no reins of wantonness upon his soul in the warmth of will, but constraining his bounds within the cloisters of his mind by the walls of gravity, he resolved to keep a life untouched by all the stains of this life, pleasing to God and men.

² We read that he, born of the noblest worldly stock, had eight brethren sprung of one parentage in the same region which in their language is called Brehant Dincat (“the throat of the battle-receptacle”), nobly and well nurtured; with whom, himself being joined to the complement of the number, they denote the nine orders of angelic spirits, and three sisters likened to the form of the holy Trinity ruling the three kinds of wisdom, divine and human. Of the names of these, save two of the brethren and of the third sister, we know not — the one brother being called Notolius and the other Potolius, and that sister Sitofolla — the others having been emptied from the treasury of memory either through the deformity of so long a time, or because of the distance of so great a space of sea and lands between our region and theirs, names never heard among us.

³ The holy Paul, therefore, still a tender boy growing in the members of a pure age, inspired by the fiery breath of the Holy Spirit, and as it were already drenched in his breast with the fragrant dew of that Spirit, addressed his father with most humble words — that he would hand him over to be imbued with the sacred studies of the holy scriptures to some master burning after the manner of a lamp and giving light to others, that is, one who could take care of his own and others’ salvation. But the father, hoping he would possess his paternal inheritances after him, and thinking a crop of grandsons would flower from his loins to follow the talents of his ancestors, denied it many times — until at last, overcome by the boy’s frequent prayers and petitioned by many crowds of friends, he gave his assent. And rejoicing now in such a contest, and rebuking himself that he had wished to resist his son’s will — no, the Lord’s, in whose omnipotence all things are contained — he sowed such words suppliantly into the Lord’s ears, saying thus: “O Lord God, almighty King, under whose nod all things are contained and ruled, I render You gracious thanks, who have deigned to elect to serve Your name a man sprung from my root, who by the intercession of his prayer might plead for me and for his own against misfortunes, and succour our cause in our country’s afflictions.” And it happened by the disposing providence of God that he utterly abandoned all hope of the paternal inheritance which might sometime profit him in the world: for he thought not of the things of the world but of God; seeking not wife, not sons of the flesh, not riches, not worldly honour, but despising the vainglory of this world, he resolved to devote himself to God the Creator and render himself a burnt offering on the altar of His praise.

Two. How he was instructed in divine letters with Illtud. #

¹ There was moreover a certain island called Pyrus, situated on the borders of the Demetian country, in which lived one Illtud — a man noble by birth and very distinguished in knowledge of the holy scriptures — walking in the steps of morals according to the truth of the Christian religion along the path which leads, though narrow, happily to the threshold of life, never declining to right or left even in adulterous thought by the way which winds miserably to the halls of death. For from his infancy he spent days and nights among others — disciples of the sacred faith, seen to be devoted to reading, most wisely instructed in the disciplines of scripture — as a kind of dawn of the same faith, or one of the stars great enough to illuminate a part of the world, daily doing great damage to the devil in God’s service of wisdom and furnishing innumerable increments to God. Meanwhile, when through all the island of Britain happy fame spoke of his repute, and his rumours scattered far and wide into the ears of all on silvered wings, and from every region of the island troops hastened to him to drink the sacred streams of doctrine from his mouth — infused by God’s gift through the Holy Spirit into the breasts of the thirsty — the boy already named was handed over by his parents to that master’s school. And he, elegantly planting in the garden of his breast all the figures of the elements assigned him by the master with his name on the tablet — as it were under the riding of a single day — ceased not to commend to memory all the words of holy scripture handed down to him by him. And at once, under a small revolution of time, learning from the same teacher the whole library of the Old and New Testament with its expositions, and plucking certain flowers among the wicker of the sacred scripture — as it were, very many libelli of the venerable holy fathers — wonderfully propped on the wings of the two commandments in which the whole Law and the prophets hang, he ascended to the summits of perfection, resplendent alike with the trophies of doctrine and of merits, coloured with the electrum of hope, faith, and charity. In the divine laws and virtues therefore — how great and of what manner he was before God and men in miracles — I shall endeavour to open in the following discourses, from what has been handed down in writings or the monuments of the foregoing fathers, if God permit, Himself inspiring me abundantly through the Holy Spirit co-equal to Him, proceeding from Himself and the Son, and with them governing all things in like principality. For who could worthily express in letters the greatness of his instruction in holy things? How greatly did he surpass in the searching of testimonies — in the solving of anything hidden, or the exposition of understanding — so that he deservedly overcame all, both those who had begun to flower with him and almost those who had gone before, with a like victory?

Three. What manner of fellow-disciples he had in the school, and of the miracle wrought with their knowledge in the master. #

¹ With the same Illtud there seemed to be very many noble men, lofty in sagacity of virtue and doctrine, as masters of truth and justice and of the Christian religion, as we have said — God granting. But of these, four whose names we shall take care to assign were more eminent than the rest, having as it were primacy over the others by the master’s command, and shone forth like so many suns glittering among the other stars with ruddy splendour — pre-eminent with the eye-sparks of signs and virtues and the clear lessons of the three kinds of wisdom. Holy Paul, I say — of whose life and virtues this work is woven — which he accomplished in that place now called his monastery or town, set in the northern part of the Domnonian country upon the western sea, up to his death; and which he ceases not to accomplish daily even to this day after his going out from the body.

² And holy Devius — who was surnamed Aquaticus because, on account of the most close conversation of his life in Christ and the firmest hope of retribution for his labour from God the judge, he lived on bread and water.

³ And Samson, the holy pontiff, confessor by merits, whose deeds and insignia are held in a book written of him in prose — so that scarce any of the saints after our Lord Jesus Christ is found who could nearly equal him in holy manners; of whom, as is said elsewhere, I think it better to be silent than to write little.

⁴ And also holy Gildas — whose sagacity of wit, industry in reading, and skill in the sacred canonical books that artfully composed book declares which they call the Ormesta of Britain; in which, writing of the same island’s situation and miseries, he argues well and subtly with great attestation, inserting into his own words prophetic oracles — discolorations, as it were, after the manner of a leopard — very fitting to reprove or rather admonish his deeds where it seemed congruent to him.

⁵ But before we begin to disembowel the virtues of the same Paul of whom our discourse treats — that he may glitter as a candle set on a candlestick to all established in the bosom of mother Church — it does not irk, but delights, to insert in this place one work and a wondrous sign in which these four disciples, with their master, are found, God granting, to have been conscients and helpers.

⁶ On a certain day therefore, when these had been gathered together — for the place in which they used to dwell, which they now call Illtud’s monastery, being eaten away by the sea breaking its bounds on every side, was very narrow and destitute of earthly inheritance — having taken counsel among themselves, they approached their master unanimously and implored him to pray the Lord by prayer to amplify the space of their however small place, the sea receding. And he, hearing these things brought forth from their mouth, bade them pray one by one with him — that, as it were the more secretly, they might effect this, that not only by his merits but also by theirs God would deign to give this gift to His servants. And he, persisting alone in prayer, commemorated such things with a most humble voice, saying: “O Lord God, almighty King, who when in the beginning you had made heaven and earth — not as some say, by a new will ascending in Your mind, but by Your divine providence disposing — in the first week of the world and on the first day therein made light which You called day, and on the second poised the firmament in the middle of the waters — the humours themselves and the earth with the higher heaven and the angelic nature which should praise You God its creator in spiritual songs being created before the beginning of the six days; who on the third day, the waters being gathered into one prison which had covered all things, commanded the dry land to appear, and, gathered into one, called them seas; who on the fourth did enrich the clustered firmament of heaven with stars; who on the fifth created swimming and flying animals from one and the same element; and on the sixth formed the terrestrial animals and man himself, the first-formed Adam, from whose side — he himself not perceiving — taking one rib, You formed it into a woman and did raise up Eve the mother of mortals: to us, Your servants though unworthy, praying, deign to add the space of this place, that the sea, made from nothing by You in the beginning among the other elements, may by Your command return again into the abyss and flow back into its channel, and never dare approach our border.” And he, his prayer completed, his disciples accompanying him to the sea, walked along the shores — for the sea had already shut itself into its channel. For as much as the tide, that is the approach, used to cover the shore and land, so much the more broadly it had been custom, receding — that is for eight stades, which is a thousand paces or a little more — to drain and lay bore the same shore. Coming then, he made a furrow with the point of his staff which he bore in his right hand, dividing and separating the shore from the sea — binding the sea with a firmest law that it should never cause the fosse he made to be passed further, and it kept the law even to this day and never suffered it to be transgressed. And the master gave thanks to God for this gift given through them — reckoning the sign to their merits rather than his own, they contradicting by saying: “No, but we confess this sign was obtained by your virtue rather than ours.” And such a contest was between them as we have heard was once made between holy Benedict and his disciple named Maurus at the rescue of a brother sinking in the river — which whoever would know more fully will easily find in the book written of the same man’s life.

⁷ And that very land, which we said was snatched from the sea’s tides, remained very fertile for the work of agriculture of the master’s monastery, and ceases not to fructify from itself a great crop of wheat every year even to this day without any intermission.

Four. How he drove birds like sheep to the folds. #

¹ Now therefore, God aiding, the time begins to ripen when the yellowing crops must be reaped — at which the grains of the yellow harvest, which up to the day of its translation to the threshing-floor had ceaselessly borne the heats of the improvident noxious clouds and the malign rains of the north winds, the chaffs of the envious being reduced to the bottom of the flames in the great hunger of cybori burning like Luperci — I shall store the deeds and renowned miracles of Paul, shining before the divine and human countenance in two garners distinguished within and without with variety of gems, that is, in so many books imitating the love of God and neighbour in which the old and the new commandment is fulfilled.

² Not long after, therefore, when by the aforementioned father it had been enjoined on the same four disciples that each on his day should take charge of that wheat-harvest now beginning to ripen — on account of the innumerable kinds of sea-birds devouring the crops and herbs of the said field almost to their consummation by their multitude — and that he should lead it to the garner day by day as it yellowed, it happened that on the day which fell by order to Paul in the guard of the harvest, those noxious birds wrought great devastation on the crop, he himself not perceiving, so that scarce empty ears remained, the grains utterly consumed by the birds’ beaks. What shall I say? Shall I impute this to his negligence? Or shall I confess it happened rather that his virtue — still unknown to men — might become known far and wide to all, the torch not set under a bushel but shining on high? I confess indeed that this was done by the dispensing providence of God, that God might show forth the merits of His servant. And he, confounded by the exceeding shame of his negligence and greatly terrified for fear of the master, appeared not before his eyes that day and the following night, but persisting apart in prayer in a certain place; and not presenting himself to human faces, panting, he demanded of God in converse the retribution of his injuries and bewailed in flowing streams of tears the fault of his carelessness. And on the following day after so tearful and mournful a lament — the dark shadows of the withdrawn black night beginning little by little to grow thin, and the sun sprinkling abundantly its flame-vomiting globes of light over the lands as it ran through the eastern Ocean on Indian horses — he rose from the place where he had lain in prayer, trusting in God’s aid; and looking round about the places, he saw that very field in which the wheat-crop had been reaped the day before beset by innumerable bands of birds of various kind but the same greed of rapacity, swarming over it as in a kind of malign fraternity of liperi. And calling his fellow-disciples together — the master being absent — he said to them: “Come with me; for I purpose, if God deign to grant it through your petition — who said, “Whatever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you” — to lead the malign birds which yesterday, as you know, devoured our master’s harvest and almost consumed it to destruction, in captivity to the place of our dwelling, running with equal celerity in the gathering of one faggot, and to shut them in the prison of one ergastulum, that afterwards the master may make them pay what penalty of their crime he shall choose.” They therefore, obeying his commands, drove the flocks of birds — like flocks of bleating sheep bending their steps to the wonted folds — agitating them without any ambiguity even within the monastery’s cloisters, and compelled them to the house. And these followed from behind the aerial herds walking by land, little by little hastening, and the beaked troops were driven along the ways. And when they came to the doors, at once the spacious fold was filled with captives; the whole prison chattered with the great groaning of plaintive voices resounding in the air, and the whole rang with various fibres of organs. And the master, when he heard these things from those who reported, came quickly and was present among the disciples who were there to see the spectacle; and all the brethren being gathered with their master — who inquired what this might be and wondered, for he had heard unknown voices — Paul said with a humble voice: “This battle-line of birds which you see shut in the prison — which devoured the harvest committed by you to my guard — is now held captive by God’s gift, nor shall go from there, if you so will, until it render all the committed debt to the uttermost farthing.”

³ And when the old man had heard these things benignly and wondrously brought forth from his mouth, prostrating his whole body prone on the ground, both he and all the disciples as with one mouth sang a song in praise of God — who had deigned to work such a virtue through him still standing in boyish age — saying:

Elegiac Verses. #

¹ You, God, author of the human race, we bless, who through Paul give mercy to us.
You, ruling the laws above the summits of heaven, now also in the world the work of Your servant paints.
To whom the clattering army obeys with dense wings, who so encloses the untamed birds like sheep.
Reigning by word in the heavens, Love bending all things — deign also to cherish us here perpetually.
O begetter, bid solaces be restored to Your faithful nurslings, gifts made firm through Your servant.
And you, beloved Paul, sacred one of the Lord, cease not to adorn the flock set for You with threefold garlands.
May the serpent not be able, by winking out venoms, to turn the learned-speaking servants of the Lord.
But the Spirit sent down from heaven, breathing sevenfold flames upon Your saints, draw near.
And may it ever abide in the temple of our heart, and may kindly faith flower in the bosom of our heart.
When fate shall have taken the soul from the body, may we deserve ever to enjoy the joyful pastures with the Lord.

Five. Of his familiar converse with the master. #

¹ The song therefore being finished, while he still laboured at the raising of all those lying prostrate on the ground with the master — for he rebuked them for adoring him — shaken with great grief of heart at his brethren, and entreating them not to ascribe this deed to his own merits but rather to theirs and chiefly the master’s, although it had been accomplished through him; and begging the master that both the shown thing and the birds — lest they be found a testimony of the virtue already wrought upon him before all who flocked together from everywhere to this spectacle — be loosed from the prison and dismissed to their own places. The master said to him: “Do not, dearest brother, do not be afflicted with grief, do not be cast down in soul. Beware lest the talent which you have deserved to receive from God through the virtue of humility be buried under the heap of the adverse earth. For by no means, the Gospel teaching us, was he crowned who had not expended the money received from his lord in the practice of money-changers, but bore it back to him who had given it, almost consumed by gnawing rust and without profit; no, we have heard he was cast into outer darkness, feet bound in fetters with hands. And again: we read that a lamp set under a bushel pours not forth globes of flame from itself, but rather — because it had no reciprocation of air — is extinguished and darkened, its eyes hidden by the smoke of its malign deposition; and so it comes to pass that what is reckoned the virtue of edification is turned into the vice of dissipation. But if this which was granted you, though least, you shall have gained with great usury toward Him who gave you when you had not, and you believe you could gain this which you have acquired from Him, He irrigating from above — for the gift depends not on the will of him through whom it is imparted, whether to himself admonishing himself and afterwards living well, or to others by example that they may edify themselves by seeing it in good work, in whatever manner it is shown — greater things shall be furnished you by Him.” And when he had spoken these and very many other things — now rebuking him why he strove to hide the grace of God kindled and diffused in him not only for his own merit but for the care of others, now offering him consolation lest he be too straitened with grief (for this, the masters said, is most fitting to every teacher, to have the pious affection of a father) — the master said: “Not only this which you ask, that the birds be dismissed to their marine habitations without any hurt, I grant and permit — for it is written, “render not evil for evil” — but also this monastery in which you have well and incomparably learned the doctrine of the divine scripture, me teaching, no God sweetly irrigating in your heart, I offer to you and to those after you who shall be inebriated by the streams of wisdom flowing from the doors of your heart, in perpetual possession. For I trust in the Lord that He will furnish me a fit place in which I may serve Him for the remnant of my age.” And Paul, when he had heard these things benignly brought forth from his mouth, all his body’s limbs being quickly prostrated on the ground at the master’s feet, rendered him this most gracious answer, saying: “O Lord God almighty, who created all things from nothing when they were not, who founded all the beauty of heaven and earth by Your word, who dispensest all things you have formed by wondrous reason, who governest the laws of the ages from the world’s beginning, who, abiding stable in Your eternity, give all things to move, who lay in the bosom all the necessaries of human life for all who ask of You with right faith — Himself give you, who have willed to show such benignity about me, the reward prepared for the just from the world’s foundation, in the day when unforeseen death shall send the lot dividing the immortal soul and the mortal body. This therefore which you have said of the captives I receive rejoicing, and for such a gift I render you gracious thanks; but your monastery be your for ever. For if I, master, had wished to possess inheritances — deceitful treasures of this world daily passing away like the water of a torrent tending from the mountain’s brow to the depths, and like the day which the west intercepts as night breaks in, hastening day by day to its end, treasures transitory and sometime to perish with the world itself — would it not seem better and far more laudable to be detained in the paternal kingdoms by hereditary right than to beg to be bent amid strangers while I had utterly abandoned mine of my own will’s incitement? No, we shall have them more commodiously and far more richly set in the citadel of heaven, if, renouncing what we possess, we strive with God’s help to persevere in good works to the end.” And at last, such an assertion of words being finished between them — the disciples hearing and marvelling at the depth of so renowned a wit — and the captives which the prison had bound being freely dismissed to the shore-dwellings of the sea-waves, they blessed God who ceases not daily to do great and wondrous signs by the hands of His servants.

Six. Of the thought which stole into his heart that he should go to the desert of the wilderness. #

¹ After these things, while he tarried with the master for a momentary space of time, on a certain night when he had given his limbs, wearied with labour, to modest rest, this thought clove to his mind: that he should penetrate the deserts of the wilderness and there, sequestered from the company of worldly life, lead a pious and immaculate, excellent life known to God alone — and the more he became a stranger to the men of the world, the more he deserved to be near to God and His angels through speculation alone, that is, through divine contemplation. Thinking that prophetic saying spoken simply of himself according to the history: “I have fled far off and remained in solitude”; and again: “I am become like a pelican of the wilderness.” And this latter he wished to understand according to the spiritual sense of the sublimer intelligences, saying it pertained to those hermits alone who, leaving the world’s company, torment their body with most strict affliction for the fear of God — after the example of that eminent father Anthony, who first, entering the strictest habitation of the wilderness, taught Christ’s followers to seek through the woods the squalid fields of places wherein they might gather contemplative fruits and study to serve the one Lord there with pious service. And again the same saint considered that God in the Gospel, when Martha labouring with pious solicitude in the ministry of the Lord and His apostles demanded help from her sister for so great a service, said: “Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her” — teaching that the highest good is placed not in active work, though laudable and abounding in many fruits of a copious harvest, but in her contemplation, which is truly simple and one. And therefore He pronounced that one most precious good alone was needful to the highest perfection. And when the light of the coming day shone forth, he speedily caused all these things, thought and recalled to memory from the beginning of the thought, to be indicated to his master. And he, after he had kept silence a little while, returned him this answer, most benignly saying: “This, O dearest brother, we must observe above all: that there are three beginnings of our thoughts — from God, from the devil, and from ourselves. But to speak few of many: from God they arise when He deigns to visit the habitation of our heart with the infusion of the Holy Spirit, admonishing us to strive with all zeal to a sublimer state of good action, and converting our intention to better acts and to His will — as now, it seems to you, and as is most manifestly and truly plain to all, He has deigned to kindle these things in you, the Holy Spirit working it.

² “From the devil moreover the crop of thoughts is born when they strive to subvert us both by the delectation of vices and by hidden snares, showing evils deceitfully with subtlest craft, or when he transforms himself into an angel of light. From ourselves moreover they arise when we naturally recall to memory the things we do or have done or have heard. Of which the psalmist, turning the gaze of his heart to the deeds of foregoing ages past: “I have thought,” says he, “on the days of old and had the eternal years in mind.” And: “I meditated in the night with my heart.” And again: “God knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain.”

³ “This threefold reason therefore we must ever observe, and examine with subtle discretion all the thoughts which arise in our flesh — investigating their origins and causes and first authors, that we may consider how we ought to comport ourselves toward them according to the merit of those who suggest them. And this we shall be able to fulfil if we do the apostle’s saying: “Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they be of God.” And I have said these things that I might plainly show that this very thought which the nail of good suasion has carved into the recesses of your mind is a divine suggestion, not feigned. But this must be begged of you in all ways, dearest son and beloved of God: that He who admonishes these things to be fulfilled by you in work may Himself bestow on you the gift of perseverance in good work. For everyone ought, with God’s help, to study that, when he knows himself called to God’s worship, he temper the measure of his conversion according to the sublimity of His precepts. For it will profit no one to have begun sublimely if he show not also an end consubstantial with the beginning. And therefore let him who hastens to stretch his steps to the citadel of perfection make himself no end of perfecting, fix no terminus of acquiring — since he hears it said to him: “Prepare your way in the going out.” And again it is said elsewhere by the voice of truth: “He who perseveres to the end, he shall be saved.”

Seven. Of his fasting in the wilderness and what manner of food he used. #

¹ When therefore the master had finished speaking these and other like things, wishing to confirm the saint’s purpose — peaceful words and the kiss and a blessing and licence to depart being given mutually — on the following day Paul, being in the sixteenth year of his age, went out from the master; and, filled with love of God and hatred of evil according to the psalmist’s saying “You that love the Lord, hate evil,” sought the seclusion of a certain desert place adjoining his father’s boundaries. And there he built certain habitations and a little oratory which they now call by the name of his brethren, adorned with many buildings, whose names we have already prefixed in this little work. And in the same place, receiving the degree of the priesthood from a bishop, and twelve priests being gathered with him who were willing to be subject to his commands in every monastic work according to the most right authority of the canonical rule — though desirous — he remained for some time. And he, giving himself to divine reading and meditation or prayer, used to afflict his body with a two-day or often three-day fast on account of the basest motions of his still-youthful age to be suppressed. And his body was refreshed by such a crucifixion of continued fasting — with barley bread measured in the balance, and dry salt, and water sometimes mixed in a chalice for dipping that bread, and a few little fishes for all the luxury of royal dishes. And we read that he took into use no fat of stew save only what we have said. And the flesh of any quadruped or even bird he utterly never touched in eating, lest he be made like those to whom the apostle directs a reprobate sentence of derision, “whose god is their belly” — but reckoning that saying of the same apostle spoken to himself, “and make not provision for the flesh in its desires,” he took this alone of food which he needed for the sole necessity of the human condition. And wine and every kind of drink which inebriates and vexes the state of the mind with gnawing madness — save what is accustomed to be consecrated in the chalice for the celebration of the Mass — he never drank but shunned like the venom of a viper’s kind. And of water he tasted only so much as he foresaw could suffice to repel the necessity of hard thirst.

Eight. How he stayed with king Mark. #

¹ Meanwhile, when these and many other good works were being done in him, God’s grace cooperating, his fame flew to the ears of king Mark, whom they call by another name Quonomorius. Who at that time, ruling the walls of his sceptre under a most ample boundary, was held a great man of imperial power and most mighty — so that four tongues of various nations were subject to his one empire. The aforementioned king therefore, the foundation of his faith still wavering here and there at that time for its newness, wishing to build perfectly and solidly to one chamber of perpetual firmness, sent to all the chief men of his kingdom and caused them to be convoked into one place, and opened to them the purpose of his counsel, and said that his thought was this: since they had himself, God disposing, as duke and prince of earthly power, they should cause to be summoned a priest named Paul, whom he knew to be most approved in zeal for good life and learning — who with their king might be to them a leader and standard-bearer of the heavenly militia, and from whose hand the king and all the people might solemnly taste the communion of the Lord’s body and blood after the celebration of the Masses. And when these things brought forth from his mouth had pleased them all, they marvelling and saying that such a counsel-thought had been sent from above into the king’s heart by the overshadowing Holy Spirit, the king’s word was directed to Paul: that he should come to do the things said and honour the king’s command by example — otherwise, if he should least fulfil the king’s word of his own will’s incitement, the king would send those who would compel him unwilling. Paul therefore, committing all things concerning himself to God’s nod and governance — although he had many things which could be cast up in controversy by resistance, yet fearing to break the bond of that saying in which it is written “he who resists the power resists God” — being summoned by the whole people unanimously and by the king with great reverence, admonished by the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, came with his twelve priests accompanying him, most prompt in every good work, imitating the example of the twelve apostles following Christ their master in order and in act, to the place which in their language is called Villa Bannhedos, where now the same king’s bones rest awaiting the day of resurrection. And in the same place, teaching the king and all the people the rights of the most Christian religion both by preaching and by furnishing the example of good operation, he was conversant for some little time, and showed how he held both the active and contemplative life in himself and taught others who would, how they ought to hold them. And in a certain process of time, while he still laboured in the same ministry, Mark — seeing him filled with so great grace of God — both by himself and through the princes who assisted him, many times besought him to receive the pontificate of his region; which was to him a cause of departing rather than a subsistence of remaining — so that he is said to have declared he would rather set out to an alien land, sailing the seas, than undertake the care of the pontificate.

Nine. That he left his native soil according to the Gospel’s command. #

¹ Meanwhile, while his purpose was being disquieted by these and very many other studies, such a thought entered his fervent mind, fluctuating with solicitude for the salvation of souls: that, following the holy Gospel’s command to the letter, he should utterly leave the soil of his fathers and set out for the region of a foreign nation — where the event of the sea-waves, uncertain, should carry him under God’s leading — where, unknown to any save God alone, he might lead an excellent life the more fervently and instantly. Bound by this sole scruple, lest he be blamed for the vice of unstableness in migrating from place to place — until, after a little space of time, an angel sent from the ethereal stars brought such answers to him in dreams, saying: that it behoved him not to tarry longer there, but to set out for the place which the Lord would sometime give him after the sea’s crossing, in which he could be kept, living piously and immaculately according to the purpose of his profession; and that he should not doubt that God was with him in all the things he had disposed to be done. And he, at once awaking, satisfied with such a vision, gave thanks to God — who, as He was present to the two disciples speaking of Him in the way, is ever present to give counsel to all who desire to fulfil His command. And on the following day he related the vision into the king’s ears through the nobles who clove familiarly to him, petitioning that licence to depart with his blessing be given him. For he declared he could not defer the angel’s answer, lest he should feel Him harsher afterwards who had been gentler in admonishing, if he were found disobedient. At last therefore the man, many chief men interceding for him with the king, receiving licence to go out, asked this last gift of the king as it were for a blessing: that since seven bells surpassed the rest in excellence — at whose signal those custom by royal custom to sit down at table all assembled in order — the king would order one of them to be given to the same venerable man; but the king, greatly indignant at his departure, was little willing to grant it. And this was done by God’s disposing — that the Lord, effector of signs and wonders, should more potently and wonderfully furnish that same bell to His desiring servant, though the prince was unwilling; as will be shown in what follows when we come in order to the place, how he was able to obtain it.

² St Paul therefore, rejoicing to pursue his long-desired journey, committing all things concerning himself to God’s power and governance, at once began to approach the path of the journey — not only to traverse it with the steps of his feet but to run it with the manners of good life; and at length came with prosperous course to the house of his sister — described by name in the same work — who lived in the uttermost bounds of that country, that is, on the shore of the British sea. And there, with the same holy virgin dedicated to God, he lodged as an honourable guest until all the things which seemed needful for the use of sailing were prepared.

Ten. Of his sister’s possession which was amplified through his prayer, the sea receding. #

¹ On a certain day therefore, when almost all the ship’s rigging being prepared in the same lodging the boat stood drawn to anchor on the shore, it befell that the aforementioned venerable man, the day of his sailing approaching, was present with his aforementioned sister in a certain place nearby for prayer’s sake. And the prayer being finished, more prolix words of discourse sprang up between them; and the aforementioned woman, much depressed with grief for her brother’s imminent departure, attacked him with such words of beseeching prayer amid tears: that if he must altogether depart, he would at least remain with her for the space of the briefest time — one week — deferring his course. For she declared that many ship’s instruments were still wanting, so that he might tarry the longer with her in supplying these. But he, unshaken in heart by such speech, said he could not be deferred beyond the next day at the most — to the third day it was not possible — lest he seem to deny even his sister’s prayers. And she, seeing this could not be obtained of him, the tempests of her plaints and tears breaking out from her inmost breast, could scarce again sound such words into his ears through sobs and sighs alike, saying: “Paul, my dearest brother and beloved of God, if you have resolved this same sentence in your mind — to leave not only your fatherland and parents, brethren and sisters, kinsmen and neighbours, and your whole progeny — deign at least, I beseech you, to bestow on us and the inhabitants of this place one monument of your goodness and virtue, in which we may ever have venerable mention of your name, and which may confer no small profit and tribute to future posterity. For I am not ignorant that you follow the Lord’s command so efficaciously in all things, and therefore whatever you shall ask of Him He will unhesitatingly grant you.” He to this: “Dearest sister, in this also I have undertaken your prayers, if however it be within our powers to fulfil it; but if this seem to exceed our strength, we must beg the supplement of efficiency from Him who grants petitions to those who rightly ask, in the things wherein we are still weaker. You therefore speak out plainly what you have conceived in mind, and delay not.” And she, rejoicing in such an answer, brought forth not things which seemed to pertain to herself alone for the expenditure of avarice, but which could confer a perpetual benefit on the inhabitants and a wonder to be wondered at by ages, saying: “This place, most benign brother, in which you have now deigned to receive hospitality for the hour — as it is remote from the company of worldly men, so is it found most apt for him who would serve God; but it is constrained on one side by evil co-heirs, and on the other by the sea-waves devastating its borders, and is greatly secluded from earthly inheritance and held narrow for the work of agriculture. But I know most certainly and most firmly believe that, the insolence of the sea receding through your prayer, the aforementioned Almighty will deign to enlarge the space of our however-small place, you invoking and beseeching Him together.” And he, as soon as he heard these things brought forth from her mouth, fleeing to the most faithful bosom of prayer, bade her pray separately with him — that God might deign to give this gift not only through himself but also through her prayer to the handmaid beseeching. And he, prostrate alone in prayer, about to pave heaven with the keys of that prayer and address the Lord with present voice, thus began the words he was to utter: “O Lord God, almighty King, creator of great wonders, wonderful and more wonderful than the wonders you do make, laudable in creation and more laudable in essence — who said to Your disciples, “If you keep my commandments, the signs which I do shall do, and greater than these shall you do”: I beseech You that You look not on my sins but succour the faith of Your handmaid asking You from the heart; and command the space of this place for which she prays to be increased, and that this sea which devastates these borders flow back into its channel and never more be able to destroy this territory.” And he, such a prayer completed — his sister and his disciples accompanying him to the sea, for the sea had already begun to flow back to its channel — set his steps traversing the shores. For as much as the tide, that is the approach, used to cover the shore and land, so much the more broadly it had been custom, receding — that is for eight stades, which is a thousand paces or a little more — to drain and lay bore the same shore. And while they traversed the same shore, Paul said: “Fill, O sister, both your hands with the pebbles of this shore, and set them one by one, an interval being made, in the border of sea and shore, midway on either side.” She obeying, he and his disciples following the sea from behind as it receded, they came to the uttermost recession of that deep. And all of them bending their knees to the Lord in prayer on the margin of the channel, Paul, as if speaking to the sea, said: “These little stones which I have commanded to be set in your borders, I designate to be for a sign of an everlasting covenant between me and you — that you should never transgress them henceforth nor devastate our territories by bursting in.” And so it was done that from that day forward the aforementioned deep kept that covenant, bound as it were by a perpetual law, and never violated it by any irruption of broken covenant even to this day.

² And when they returned blessing God with joy, they saw the pebbles which the same Sitofolla had cast with her own hands turned into stone columns of wondrous magnitude — which remain so to this day in testimony of his virtue. A wondrous thing indeed and greatly to be wondered: that when one thing was asked, it was returned doubled — that if the absent should not believe one witness, the knowing might adduce another. And the aforementioned shore which the drained sea had left remained fruitful of all seeds for the agricultural work of the aforementioned woman’s monastery. And the way where they traversed the circuit of that shore, passing midway between the aforementioned columns, is called by those beyond the sea “Paul’s path.” But since I have now, in describing by what beginnings from earliest age and then to youth this venerable man began to lead his life, laid as it were the broader foundation of my poverty’s building, let this be the end of this little volume — that afterwards, from the point at which he proceeded across the British sea to the Armorican region, with what virtues he shone and in what contests he strove up to the day of his death, describing in a more compendious course, we may take up the beginning of another following volume.

The Text of the First Book Ends. the Second Begins. #

Eleven. That, embarking on a ship, he was borne first of all with his company to the island of Ushant. #

¹ His fatherland and all his kindred therefore being abandoned — after the arduous labours of the stricter life, after innumerable nights exhausted by the insistence of continual vigils, after long fasts conscious of hunger and thirst, after many miracles acquired by the sweat of such works — the aforementioned venerable man Paul, prevented by the love of the heavenly kingdom, about to set out for the region where the wind as governor called his course under God’s leading, boarded a vessel not wanting in all the rigging which seemed to pertain to the use of sailing, in which he might voyage with his company; and at length with all his companions — that is, twelve priests and as many most noble men of the lay order joined to him by affinity of kinship (of whom some were nephews, some cousins), besides sufficient servants — was borne over the British deep in a prosperous course, the west wind favouring, to a certain island called by its own name Ossa [Ushant], situated opposite the Armorican region at a distance of sixteen miles or more. And finding a station in the uttermost part of the same island, in the place called Portus Boum [“oxen-harbour”], the same saint, going out of the ship with his company, at once searched out the whole island. And having traversed the whole island, he found a certain estate which they call Harundinetum [“the reed-bed”], very rich by the inundation of a certain spring of most limpid water — but made far richer by the same man’s blessing — which, belching from the veins of the abyss, ran down with a hoarse murmur through the gentle breezes and, offering a persuadable sleep of sweet slumber in its reposing banks, watered the whole surface of the place with fecund greenness. There therefore, led by the place’s amenity and the love of good land alike, and fatigued by the great labour of the hard journey, the aforementioned man at last rested; and in the same place, a little oratory with a stone altar and other huts being built for common use, he remained for some little time. And of the priests whom we have learned were in the same Paul’s company, whether by writing or report, we have judged their names ought to be written down in this place. Whose number — Quonoco being adjoined (whom others call, with an addition after the manner of the transmarine nation, Toquonoc), who himself also by Paul’s command bore the magisterial office among the others on account of his life’s merit and the doctrine of wisdom, and one deacon named Decanus — is most manifestly agreed to have been fourteen. The first of these was Iahoevius, then Tigernmaglus — who both also, while the same Paul was alive, discharged the episcopal office, as will be shown in what follows if God permit. Then Toseocus who was called by the surname Siteredus, and Woednovius who was named by another name Towoedocus, and Gellocus, and also Bretowennus and Boius; then Winniavus and Lowenanus, and also Toetheus who is also Tochicus, and Chielus, and Hercanus who was called by another name Herculanus. Of these, though perished antiquity has taken from us, or the evil torpor of negligence, sloth’s brother, has envied us, by what eye-sparks of virtues they shone — yet it has pleased us to illuminate this same work with their names as with so many pearls; since we know them both to have memorials and basilicas built in their honours, and to be of great merit with the Lord.

Twelve. Of his coming to the country of Ach. #

¹ Meanwhile some little time flowed by; and the same venerable man Paul daily offered suppliant prayers to God in prayer, that He who had first admonished him by His angel to leave his fatherland would again show him by the same angel whether he ought to remain still in that place, or whether God was preparing for His servant to go out to another place. On a certain night therefore, when he had given his limbs, wearied with fasting and prayer, a little modest rest, the angel of the Lord brought such answers in a dream, saying: “The King of heaven and earth Himself sends me to you from bright Olympus and bids me bear such mandates to you through the airs. What do you build here? or in so narrow a space of land beaten on every side by marine waves, why do you spend leisure? Not here is your seat. Not here your place of rest. Another glad land, rejoicing, awaits you. Another place desires you desiring. For in that land is a great people to be taught by you, to believe through you, to be saved by you, to be glorified through you henceforth and for ever; and over as many as you shall convert to the way of truth while you are in this life, you shall have principality in the future. Delay not to go hence — the Lord is with you. He Himself as a going-before guide shall lead you to the place prepared for you by Himself, in which you must rest. Only hold this henceforth.” And he, at once awaking and giving thanks to God, bade his companions be gathered to him, and related to them the vision; he enjoined them to prepare arms and renew whatever in the ship’s tackle was to be changed. And they at once obeyed his commands, and quicker than the word the ship stood on the shore furnished with its tackle. And he, entering the ship with his company — now taking the helm as steersman, now turning the horns of the sailyards — cleft the deep seas, the brine foaming, chanting hymns and praises to God; and at length turning the prow to the shore in a steady course, he first approached a certain rock which the neighbours call by its own name Amachdu, adjoining a certain island which itself is called Mediona. Then, a calm port being found in the same rock, the ship was fixed at anchor. And he, all his companions being set ashore from the ship, entered the land; and taking all with him, surveying the country to which he had come, he arrived at a certain plebs of the Ach country which they call by the ancient name Telmedovia. That country is a certain part of the Domnonian land situated toward the west. And in the plebs we have spoken of he found a certain estate which is now, by God’s gift, a perpetual oblation to the same saint — so that it is called one of the hundred tribes which he has, as will be shown in what follows. And in that estate he found a certain place most clear and sweet by the lavish effusion of a certain most limpid spring. That place is now called Villa Petri — who, as is said, was his cousin. There at last, giving thanks to God, a little oratory and little habitations being built, he lived a few days with his company.

Thirteen. Of his monastery built in the plebs of Telmedovia. #

¹ And while he tarried in the same place, certain of his company, traversing the aforementioned tribe round about, built themselves various habitations in more secluded places. One of these who had withdrawn into remoter parts was named Junehinus — who, on account of the straitness of a stricter life and the voluntary habitation of remote solitude, was called “monk” by all. He, having surveyed the same estate, found a certain spring, translucent among the finest and whitest interjacent sands, surrounded by densest woods and a great forest; by whose infusion a diverted rill rendered the whole place round about a sweetest song with sounding murmur. And there, made gladder by the amenity of the place and the sweetness of the spring, he began to dwell in a little hut he had built. But the ancient enemy of the human race, ever preparing to inflict loss on the builders of good work, raised up an enemy unforeseen against the prepared work. For a certain buffalo, which used to come daily to the spring from the neighbouring woods and fat pastures — filling the gluttony of its wild belly — to quench its thirst with a draught of the stream, came, all fleeing before it for fear according to custom, and razed the whole structure of the little building to the ground, trampling and scattering it everywhere with feet and horns; and at once wandering back to its camp with horrible-sounding lowing. But God’s servant, foreseeing that to be the enemy’s work, yielded not to the adversary but set himself against the enemy by restoring the work. Again the second day the aforementioned animal came and destroyed all that had been restored; on the third and fourth day it did the like with one and the same delusion. And the labour between God’s servant and his enemy was equal, but the study dissimilar: the one built, the other destroyed; the one restored, the other razed. And the aforementioned Junehinus took care to report this to his master, asking him to come himself and repel the dire enemy’s adversity. And he, satisfying his petition, came to the aforementioned place; and when he saw the amenity of that place, greatly pleasing to him: “Dearest brother Junehinus,” said he, “this place, if it please you, shall be mine — and let mine be yours.” And he: “Most benign master, all things that are mine or can be are yours, and mine are yours. Your will is to be obeyed in all things.” And Paul: “No, not mine but rather God’s will is to be obeyed.” And he: “True; but I am not ignorant that your will does not differ from God’s. And therefore all the words of your mouth, as God’s commands, are to be fulfilled.” Meanwhile while they talked together, the aforementioned wild beast came up after its manner. And at once, when it saw Paul coming from far away standing before the hut’s door, already again restored, trembling and afraid it advanced. And prostrate before his feet three times, its head humbled to the earth, it bent its knees as if about to implore pardon of him for its committed crime — and as if it had been taught in that work from former years. But the holy man, nothing delaying, gave pardon to it making satisfaction before him, saying: “I forgive you; go in peace — but beware you never come here again at any time.” And it, again inclining its head and as it were bidding farewell, returned to its own and hid itself in the hidden places of the woods — so that afterwards it is not said to have been seen there at all.

² That pest therefore being driven away, the saint, left in the same place — the others tarrying round about here and there — blessed the place and the spring; and at once an oratory and a little cell being built, he remained there for some space of time. This is the place which is now called the monastery — or by the vulgar name Lanna Pauli — in the plebs of Telmedovia, where his innumerable benefits are furnished even to this day to all who rightly ask in faith.

Fourteen. Of his journey to the Plebs Lapidea. #

¹ Not long after, again admonished by the angel of the Lord, he determined in mind to visit the duke and prince of that region to which he had come, wherever he might find him — to inquire by what manners and laws the country was governed — and to seek some more secret place in which, sequestered from the fellowships of worldly men, he might the more readily and instantly persist in the service of God alone, his former place being left to some of his company. He arose therefore, about to make the journey, he and his company together, and they came to the plebs which its inhabitants call by its own name Lapidea, situated in the uttermost part of the Leon country on the shore of the British sea — to the place which is called in it Villa Wormawi. And at last, weary and fatigued with the journey, he sat there. And his disciples, almost consumed with excessive weariness, traversing the woods round about, sought water nearby. And not finding it, they returned at once to him, pressing the necessity of their thirst with the murmur of a plaintive voice, and crying that unless he soon succoured their necessity they would sooner depart this life. And he, smitten by their plaintive voices, fleeing to the ever-most-secure bosom of secret prayer, thus besought God invoking: “O Lord Jesus Christ, who did command Your servant Moses to strike with the rod — which had first been turned into a serpent and had crossed the marble bosoms of the wavy sea — the stony flint of the arid rock, that copious streams of limpid water might flow for Your people marching through the pathless ways of the vast wilderness to the land of promise and greatly languishing for want of water, so that the multitude of people and of beasts might drink and the rancour of the murmurers cease: deign, I pray, to grant from the belly of this hard earth, pierced by the point of the same staff, a spring of sweetest water to this littlest flock, from which they may quench their pestilent thirst.” And when he had said this, he struck the earth with the point of his staff three times in various places; and at once, three clods being dug out in the same places, suddenly so many most copious springs burst forth that they could not only allay the flaming thirst, but even rout the perpetual hunger of the neighbouring sea by their supplement as the coeval troops pressed to the shore in multitudes.

² And the disciples, considering this so-great miracle, humbly and marvelling what manner of man this was — for the Lord’s hand was with him — gave thanks to God chanting hymns and praises, who ceases not daily to work great and wondrous signs by the hands of His servants: whose hand, if the petitioner’s faith waver not, is ever present and ready to bestow; who knows not only to grant what is asked of the petitioner but is accustomed to confer yet ampler things. An example is at hand: the holy man, about to pray, begs one spring to be granted to his company — but God’s piety has learned ever to furnish greater things than are asked, since He who had been asked to give one gift from His own denied not to confer three together; and in this more wonderful: because those which were then given to repel the importunate darts of dire thirst are now held insignia for driving away the sicknesses of various diseases. For by the washing of the aforementioned springs many weak and sick, held by whatever disease, are restored to health, beseeching the Lord through the same saint’s intercession.

Fifteen. Of the finding of the town. #

¹ Meanwhile, while they gave their limbs, wearied by the labour of so great a journey, to a modest rest in the same aforementioned place, a certain little man came up by God’s disposition; and first inquiring of them of what family he was, then by what prince the region was ruled and by what laws it was possessed, and afterwards being asked concerning the showing of a certain very secret place most fitting for one wishing to persist in God’s service — he, humbly inclining his head and giving thanks to God that he had deserved to have converse with such men: “I,” said he, looking toward Paul, “O dearest servant of God, am fed among the other herdsmen of a certain most Christian man named Withur, feeding swine. By whose dominion this same region is ruled under the Christian religion by the prescription of the lord emperor Philibert. If you would see his face, I shall be the guide of your journey; and the place also which you seek, most pleasing to you in the position of its situation, I shall show, if it please. And lest I seem to you as it were to lie falsely and deceive you as ignorant — tarry not here; only follow me and I shall fulfil my promises.” St Paul therefore, taking the journey with the same herdsman as guide, went by the public way which leads from the church-place of the aforementioned plebs to the sun’s setting, and came to the town which is now called by his name. And entering the gate of the aforementioned town — which is now built with nobler structure toward its western part — at once finding a not-little spring, most limpid, he blessed it, the sign of the cross being raised in the name of the holy Trinity; by whose frequent most sacred infusion many weak and sick held by various kinds of diseases are restored to pristine health. And the town at that time was circumsed round about by earthen walls built in ancient time with wondrous loftiness; but now it is found fortified in great part with stone walls built to a higher elevation. Which place, as it were an island on every side save the southern part, is embraced round about by the British sea bent in the manner of a bow when it stretches most, by its flexuous and sinuous tract — a place, I say, most seemly and pleasant, whose face looking south lies open conspicuous to all the sun’s rays from rising to setting. And of what manner of inhabitants St Paul found in that place, it will not be absurd if I designate in this place.

² For to him searching the castle within, a wild sow is seen to have been found with her young hanging about her teats sucking milk — which, caressed by his hand together with her young, was so tamed, all right of ancient wildness being expelled, as if she had been domestic from former years. From which and her progeny an innumerable crop of swine of the royal kind was begotten for many years after.

³ A beehive also he found in a certain tree’s hollow, filled so abundantly with honey and bees that from it, distributed into many, innumerable hives are said to have been filled; at which finding he also, rejoicing, rendered thanks to God for such gifts and blessed the Lord, the giver of all good things.

⁴ Nor is it to be concealed what it seemed he did concerning the beasts found there. For a bear which used to devastate the neighbouring regions and fill its belly’s gluttony — when it was seen by him, fled trembling; and at once, not far from the town — that is, in the territory which in the inhabitants’ language is called Brochana — falling into a certain pit dug with wondrous depth, disposed by the Lord, as I truly reckon, for such a beast, it fell, and breaking its neck ended its pestilent life. And a buffalo also, seen there, he expelled — an interdict being set on it by him — that it should never dwell in those regions but migrate to other places. It is, as many affirm, the same one which, as we have related in the same work, he had driven out of a certain other place. How admirable are the works of your virtue, holy Paul — casting out prudently those things which you knew could confer not only no good but much evil on the human race, but receiving diligently those which you did not doubt could confer not only no evil but much good on man, if he used them well. And other monsters of various kind, signs of diabolical servitude which had abounded there of old — as soon as they saw him they went into flight, and were never afterwards seen there. Which place, all the wicked things being driven back by him, he consecrated and blessed, salt and holy water being sprinkled within and without round about it with praises and hymns — that where sin had abounded, there grace might superabound, our Lord Jesus Christ furnishing it, to whom be honour and empire for ever and ever. Amen.

Sixteen. Of his journey to the island of Batz. #

¹ And when the saint pursued his journey, led by the same aforementioned herdsman, to a certain island called by its own name Battha in the neighbours’ language — situated four miles or more distant from the aforementioned castle toward the north, in which the count whom they sought was custom frequently to dwell for avoiding the disquietudes and tumults of men (for he himself also, greatly endowed in the divine scriptures and most wondrously skilled in the art of writing, therefore wished to be in such a place where he could the more freely and loosedly give himself to meditating and writing on the divine scriptures) — it befell that he met three blind men coming toward him, led now straight in the way, now wandering through various places by a certain little boy as it were for sport’s sake. And they, when they heard the sound of him passing with his company, cried as with one mouth, saying: “If there be gifts at hand in the passing prince and his company to be bestowed, we pray, pity our need.” And St Paul, moved with mercy over them and bending his knees to God in prayer, said to them: “Such a gift as you ask we have not now at hand; but may God deign to render you the gift which shall be more profitable to you.” And approaching them he said again: “May He who opened the eyes of the blind crying to Him, ‘Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us,’ open your eyes.” And at once, the point of his staff being put in, he not only drove the scales of bodily blindness from them but also restored the inner lights of their hearts, suffused with the darkness of sin, with ruddy sight — so that afterwards, doing better things, they should follow God with all their might.

² Again, a small space of the same journey being traversed, he found two others whose tongue’s plectrum had lost the office of speech — but their hand was a sign for asking something. Pitying their need likewise, he restored their tongues to speaking, and taught them to speak thereafter things which would please God. Again, a small interval being made, while he pursued the same journey, by chance four paralytics were being borne on pallets — who, when they saw him passing with his company, begged him to have mercy on them. And he, not unmindful of the words of the blessed apostle Peter who healed the lame man lying in Solomon’s porch, excusing himself that he had not gold and silver: “Silver and gold,” said he, “have I none; but what I have, this I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazars, arise and walk.” And at once they arose and walked — not only in the steps of their feet but of their morals also. And all these aforementioned weak ones, now made whole, were forbidden by him to tell these deeds to any man. But they, going away, divulged him through that whole region.

Seventeen. Of his entrance into the same island. #

¹ And St Paul and his company, after the crossing of a certain ford which lay between — to which the name “Golban the ferryman” is given — entering the island, came to the place which even to this day they call by its own name Secretum. In whose habitations they found the aforementioned Withur just now finishing the four books of the holy Gospel which he himself had transcribed in pages. And when the aforementioned count and holy Paul were recognised of each other by mutual inspection, they greeted one another mutually; and the fountains of tears being poured from their eyes for joy as they stood a long while, clasping fraternal necks, at last, sufficiently sated with the kiss of charity, they sat down. For a duplicated kinship held them: for they were cousins by the bond of carnal origin, but brethren in the spiritual kinship which is in Christ, joined by the glue of religious charity. Meanwhile, while they talked together and asked of one another how great and what manner of things had befallen each since they had been parted from one another, and came to the place where the same saint related how he had been able to be torn from king Mark — mention of the discourse glided in of how the bell had been asked of that king from among those he had in surplus, yet not obtained. And see, at once in that very discourse, he to whom the care of keeping the fish-hut was committed came laden in both hands: for in one he bore a pike of wondrous magnitude, in the other a most wonderful bell whose ring, pierced and gnawed round by the sea’s blood-suckers, was full. And the count, seeing such a gift, gave thanks to the Lord — reckoning it nevertheless given not to his own but to Paul’s merits (though he gainsaid), in whose coming it had been given — saying: “Brother Paul, until you cam here this sea rendered me no such fish, nor did the fisher ever bring a bell from the sea-hut.” And Paul, when he had heard its sound with great admiration, the count bidding it be struck, his lips loosed with joy, smiled steadfastly. And the count to him: “Dearest brother, why do you laugh?” And he: “The bell which I see made me laugh; for this is in truth what I once asked of my prince Mark when I departed from him — of which the order of our discourse was speaking a while ago. And therefore I give thanks to my God, by whose power all things He wills are given to whom He wills, when and how He wills. Nor can anyone receive anything good or evil unless He give or permit — He who holds under His hand all things He created for that which He willed. And we ourselves are His creature: for He, as the prophet says, made us and not we ourselves. And therefore whatever we shall ask of Him is not to be asked of any other — who sees with the eyes of His majesty all things needful to us even before we ask. But if the things asked of Him seem to be delayed, this is to be reckoned not to our ruin but to our advantage: for the things which were asked of Him are delayed by Him for no other cause than that they may be restored the more wonderfully and perfectly — if our patience at least prove long-suffering, knocking perseveringly. As is now manifestly true of this bell without any doubt. For I believe I can perceive this gift through you, God who remitted it to you disposing — the more acceptably and preciously in that we know it was sent not by any other but by Himself alone.”

² And the count already named, graciously receiving these and other like words brought forth from his mouth, said to him: “Paul, dearest brother, what man is found so foolish and stolid as to will to loose what God has disposed — while no one at all can resist His will? For all things are set in His sway, and He distributes them severally when He wills.”

³ And when he had said this, taking the aforementioned bell he handed it to the same saint, consecrated in perpetual donation, saying: “What God has remitted to you, receive graciously; for the gift is owed you by right — a gift which we know was transmitted to you by God, though given through us.” And he, receiving and giving thanks to God, blessed the count for such a gift. This is that same bell which is called among all the Lati peoples by the known name “the tawny” — that is, hirglas — by whose working, though the same saint’s merits being invoked, we have heard not only many maladies put to flight but even, in a certain place, a certain dead man revived by its touch, those who had seen attesting.

Eighteen. Of the expulsion of a certain serpent found in the same island. #

¹ After these and very many other commemorated colloquies of most familiar discourse between them, the aforementioned Withur narrated to him with great contrition of heart concerning a certain serpent whose poisonous importunity vindicated the eastern part of the same island in great measure — whose tyrannical cruelty, said he, could scarcely be stayed daily by two human corpses and as many of oxen, nor appeased at all. “For often I and my boys with me, going forth in arms to assail such a beast, could not only not wound it in anything, but even, many being slain by it, scarce a few of us escaped. For such is the nature of that serpent that, though it seem to lack feet, yet it is so furnished with the ribs and scales which it has disposed in like manner from the top of its throat to the bottom of its belly that it rests on the scales as on claws and the ribs as on legs. For not as the worm, whose spine has no rigour and which unfolds its motion by contracting the parts of its little body stretched out in a straight line and stretching the contracted — but by alternate efforts it carries round its sinuous sides, so that it stretches through the outer rigid curvature of the spine the array of ribs, while by nature it fixes the claws of the scales upright at the top. And doing this in turn and swiftly, it not only glides over planes but even mounts convexities, furnished with as many feet as ribs. And therefore, javelins profiting nothing on its back and every blow of weapons vain — which glide through the horrid lattice of scales as through the slanting tortoise of shields — wondrously they not only do not wound the body but are repelled by the body itself. Moreover it has caused a great multitude to be crushed by bite, trampled by onset, and even breathed out by pestiferous breath. Which, when it has heard the sound of anyone, it superposes its swollen necks — the noxious gullet of its pestiferous head opened, moreover its cruel eyes of venomous envy expanded — on an eminent millstone-rock more eminent at the head, those watching it from far away by the tortuous sinuosity of its hinder parts; for it is of wondrous magnitude, so that from the place of its head to the uttermost places of its viperous tail there seems to be a space of a hundred and twenty feet or more. But these things concerning the same serpent, brought forth by the aforementioned prince — lest they should come to any doubting man for incredulity — let him see with his own eyes, as I myself, doubting before but now affirming, have surveyed with mine; for the place in which the hidden habitation of its whole body stood contains a modius and a half of barley-seed — which in that island abounds greatly, or more — the husbandmen attesting.” And St Paul, hearing these things of the serpent, unhesitatingly rising from the place of his session said: “I will go myself to see — since the decrees of such a beast are to be extirpated rather than planted. For the serpent’s head must be bruised speedily. Only furnish me a guide for the journey.” And the prince gainsaying — protesting with an oath that he should not see such a beast, lest he perish by a like death as the rest — he declared that he would neither eat bread nor taste water with him until he himself were either vanquished by so horrible a phantasm of diabolical fraud or rather vindicated himself, and freed God’s peoples from under the yoke of the death-bearing prince. And when he had said this — all who were present accompanying him though unwilling, yet desiring to see what he would do — he came to the place where the island dragon sat outside the bounds of its own patrimony.

² And it, when it heard the tumult of those coming from far away, at once after its custom — as a soldier arming himself for battle — superposed its serpentine head on the aforementioned stone as on a shield’s rim. But as soon as it perceived Paul coming upon it with impetus like a stronger soldier, turning its eyes that shun the light, it sought hiding-places as if to conceal itself.

³ And the saint, mindful of the divine utterance where it is said “You shall tread upon serpents and scorpions,” rebuked it, threatening over it with these words: “What do you build here, sower of a pestilent and malign crop? Why have you willed to vindicate these seats not your own for your uses? So he whose likeness you bear once said: “I will sit in the mount of the testament in the sides of the north; I will ascend into heaven; I will be like the Most High’ — but made worse by his own striving, he was sunk and hurled headlong into hell, where like kingdoms await you. There the paternal inheritance demands you as its future heir: to whom else is the tribute of the patrimonial revenue owed by right? Why then have you presumed to break the bounds of our right? For Eve was deceived by you, blandishing, the deceiver of the first-formed Adam, for deceiving: we are the second Adam, who taught us truly and wisely to beware the darts of your malign emission; or if you have reckoned you can do the like, you know not that they who promise themselves great things are quickly cast down. Be not slothful therefore to lay down your tumours and learn Christ’s trophies. For truly, as one said, great things fall, the inflated burst, the swollen are crushed.”

⁴ And when he had said this, binding the stole wherewith he was clad about its nefarious neck and gripping the stem of his staff driven into the knotty ligature as a rope in his hands, he proceeded by the way which leads to the northern part of the island, the same serpent following him even to the sea. And standing on the border of sea and shore, commanding, he said: “Serpentine cruelty, before you are plunged into the deceitful charybdis of the cerulean sea, stretch forth the necks of your spotted Gorgon-throat and let me to receive my own garments.” And at once it obeying his command, he, receiving his garment, gave it licence to depart — an interdict being set on it that it should never approach any regions of Christians, but hasten to the inaccessible places of the desert sea, where it might expiate the crimes of its presumption and excessive boastfulness, spoiled of the fillets of its tyranny, consumed by famine, thirst and grief.

⁵ And they who had come to see that spectacle, astounded at so great a miracle — a common act of thanksgiving being made to God, by whose largesse from above the same saint had obtained even to command serpents — rejoicing that they had been freed from great dangers, returned home. After these things the same saint sat down with his company in the house of the aforementioned count, and sitting they took the solemn feast prepared for them. And an act of thanksgiving being made to God after the wonted manner, the aforementioned count consecrated to the same saint in perpetual oblation — for the habitation of the heavenly kingdom — the same island rescued, its malign inhabitant being driven out, and the before-mentioned town, and the Gospel written by him, together with the bell already given him, with the inscription of a title — all tribute of the earthly principality being erased from those same possessions for ever.

⁶ St Paul therefore, the blessing being chanted, gave thanks to God and to Withur, the giver of that gift; and remaining both in the same island and in the town, persevering in God’s service days and nights, he remained until his death. And Withur, these things being left to his cousin, migrated by the same saint’s blessing to other neighbouring mansions of his kingdom.

Nineteen. How he undertook the bishopric at king Philibert’s command. #

¹ At the same time, therefore, when the same saint in those aforementioned habitations — his deliberation at last, sought with great labour for many years before, being fulfilled — was using, as it were a certain artificer with all the instruments of his workshop prepared before him, the things he had obtained at will, namely that, fulfilling the apostle’s chief command where he says “pray without ceasing,” he might give himself ever to prayer so far as is possible to a man still dwelling in the body — yet with all the supplements of good works adjoined to that prayer as it were certain insignia where the place, interlucent, demanded to be enclosed; lest in such an instrument one opening being carelessly left by interruptions, idleness and its sister sloth — torpor, their faithful brother — or some other noxious pest should burst in like sudden enemies. When therefore the industry of prayer being set first as the corner-stone of the first foundation — on account of the continuation of two- or three-day fasts with the meditation of the divine scriptures, and on account of the wondrous exercise of vigils continued indefatigably days and nights, and in the same on account of the ineffable custody of his humility and patience with the purity of heart and body, unlulling — he seemed now to shine like a certain most splendid torch which could put to flight all the darkness of the western part of the Domnonian country, so that the Lord’s saying might be borne to none in doubt, “He was a burning and a shining light” — it seemed good to all the peoples of the aforementioned region gathered from every side that, since the country to which he had come was almost destitute of the whole Christian religion, they should all with their duke Withur approach and implore that most venerable man that, receiving the degree of the pontificate, he would convert them all from their errors to the way of truth and faithfully teach them the manners of the true and pious religion and restore the rights of all priesthood and clergy: since they judged him worthy of that office by the doctrine of wisdom and merit of life by the judgement of all. But this their intention would have been frustrated in vain unless the count alone, prevented by better counsel, had himself come to the saint and — as it were feigning other things from others — circumvented him by another approach, whom he knew, often assailed in that office, had not only given no assent but even wished rather to be a pilgrim than a bishop. Coming therefore to Paul on this account, he worshipped prostrate on the ground before him and opened the cause of his necessity, saying: “From the time, holy Paul of God, that king Philibert handed over this region to me to rule under the condition of his power, on account of our carelessness or the indigence of legates and the difficulty of the journey — malign men or even beasts and serpents lying in wait in the desert regions shuddering — we have had no converse between us, even by mutual embassage. Therefore, having much doubt for many causes which we could not define by ourselves, we believed your benevolence was to be approached for all things: that you would succour our necessity herein, if any grace before you or respect of any prefixed friendship remain to us — namely, that you should go to the aforementioned king bearing this writing-tablet of our embassy in your hands, in which the causes written by me are contained and enclosed with the seal of his ring given me by himself as it were for a sign — which I wished to send so, as knowing the custom of the people to whom you will go, more secretly. For quickly, when he sees it, the king will perceive his own signets. And do you strive to report back what he shall remit to us, whether dictating or writing. And all the necessaries of your journey in provisions and servants shall be furnished by me. Only delay not to return assent to our petition.” O blessed simplicity which deceives no one and can not be deceived by any other! But you, Paul, art not deceived herein. Now a priest, you shall go to the king — from whom returning, you shall come back, though unwilling, with a better gift. To whom shall I compare you in this contest, most meek one? Shall I call you like the madman who carries in his hands the rope wherewith he is bound? God forbid. For you bear not that wherewith you shall be bound, but that wherewith you are accustomed to loose others. For the letter which he bore in his hands contained these words:

² To the king: “When you receive this letter, my lord king, know that I have sent to you this man of God, named Paul, that you should ordain him bishop for us, though unwilling. For often assailed in this office, he has denied he would accept the episcopate — though we know him worthy above all of our age for this ministry both by the doctrine of wisdom and merit of life.”

³ These and things like these the letters contained, concerning his deeds to be examined to the king. And Paul, obeying his commands — twelve priests being taken with him, besides sufficient servants, trusting in God’s aid — set out to go. After great sweats and the difficult labours of a long pilgrimage for very many days and nights, at last, wearied, he came to the city of Paris — in whose palace at that time king Philibert gave laws and rights to the peoples; where, O holy Dionysius, a great flock of monks and many of the Frankish people invoke you for their help through the ages.

⁴ And St Paul, when he had entered to the king and worshipped prostrate before him after the manner of greeting, humbly — inclining his head — handed the king the aforementioned writing-tablet. And the king, his own coin’s seal being unclosed and the letters which the same tome contained being perused, looking toward Paul, said: “Paul, most beloved of God, why have you willed to bury the talent deposited with you under the heap of earth, like one greedy of another’s right? Was it not better that it should be rendered to the money-changers for cultivation, and assigned to its lord the more cumulatively and perfectly? Why have you striven to cast the sweet yoke of the Lord from your neck and His light burden from your shoulder like one of the wild animals? Think you that they alone who, having no care of others, strive to turn all they have to the uses of their own avarice, shall have place of excuse in the day of judgement? Mark and see that not only they are to be damned to punishment who pluck the rights of others, but even they who, moved by no need of their neighbours, strive to deflect all their own to themselves alone with voluptuous mind, are to be punished with the fire of perpetual gehenna.” And the saint, unconscious of what vice of such deposit and avarice he was being accused, prostrating himself on the ground to beg pardon, promised to make satisfaction in all things if such things were more plainly revealed there. Philibert therefore, raising him from the ground: “Receive,” said he, “the episcopal degree so often pressed on you, by whose ministry you can profit the salvation of very many.” And the saint at last, the king commanding that three bishops be brought into the middle who would consecrate him to that degree, with tears flowing with sobs down his face — unable to gainsay — received what he willed not.

⁵ And what gifts were handed to him by the king after such a promotion is known to all by writing and report. For from the two countries of Ach and Léon, a hundred tribes in number, the same king consecrated them to the same saint with the inscription of a title in perpetual diocese for the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom — all royal tribute being erased from those same tribes for ever, as if they had been translated from earth to heaven; which we have willed not to insert in this place because they are held inscribed by name and circuits in other very many charters deposited to the same saint’s head. And in all the places in which, departing from the king, he should wish to rest each night until he returned to his own see, a perpetual honour was held for him and his. And Paul, receiving these things graciously, gave thanks to God, and many colloquies being held between them, he bade the king farewell, licence to return being accepted.

⁶ This is that Philibert whom we now ever invoke for our help in the number of our saints on account of his life’s merit. After these things Paul, returning to his own, discharged the episcopal office for very many times, and wrought in the same bishopric very many virtues, God aiding — which if we would run through in order, neither tongue suffices for speaking nor hand for writing.

Twenty. Of the ordination of bishops while he yet lived. #

¹ The temples built of old in the worship of demons being destroyed, he commanded various churches and monasteries round about, dedicated to the divine cult, to be built — in which he constituted ministries of clerics who would show the rite of divine worship to the peoples. And some indeed, willing, he gently and benignly persuaded; but others, unwilling, he corrected by severely chastising; and at last he converted all to the unity of the true faith. And those whose hearts preaching could not soften, he met their hardness with signs and virtues, and what he preached in words he foreshowed to them in deed. When therefore the whole church throughout the region sang in unison like a certain organ instructed with the concord of all melody by the institution of good works, he himself, already worn out with old age, constituted one of his disciples named Jahoevius to discharge the episcopal office for him. To him ministering for one year and at once sleeping in Christ, he substituted another of his own — him who was called Tigernomaglus — who also himself, serving in the same ministry for a year and a day, slept in the Lord. These being translated from this life, the saint again served his own office for a little interval — until again it seemed good to him to constitute a certain one of his own called Cetomerinus in the episcopal seat to minister for him. And on the day of his ordination, what miracle befell is not to be omitted in this place. For on that same day Iudwalus, surnamed Candidus, a most noble duke of a great part of the Domnonian country — who also was said to be holy Samson’s cousin — had come to see Paul in the flesh and commend himself to his prayer. In whose presence at once Paul wondrously expelled the densest blindness from the eyes of a certain blind man miserably crying “Have mercy on me, Paul, have mercy on me.” And Iudwalus, seeing such a miracle, handed over to the same saint that territory which we now call “Paul’s” — under consecration in perpetual oblation for the redemption of his soul. And he himself returned to his own with the same saint’s blessing.

² And St Paul, the pontifical seat being left to the aforementioned Cetomerinus, migrated to the island of Batz, his own habitation — where he is said to have spent many periods of decrepit age with a most numerous flock of monks living regularly under his magisterial discipline; so that, from excessive old age, his flesh being consumed, only skin and bones dried by the fire of divine love seemed to remain — and you would see the sun’s rays shine through his palms as through most limpid glass. That this is so, that body still untouched and incorrupt shows: since in the same form in which it flourished when the soul was loosed from it, it so awaits the proof of the divine judgement and the day of resurrection. And the oldest old men related that he had almost four hundred years or more of age in the flesh. And in this last age some said there was in him so much given to prayer that through it the grace of prophecy lived in him.

Here ends the life of holy Paul Aurelian of Domnonia.

Twenty-One. That by the spirit of prophecy he foretold things to come. #

¹ It is also to be known that the same saint lacked not the grace of prophecy among the other gifts of the Holy Spirit. For while he lived in the same island — the episcopal office being left — spending his labour on prayer alone, as I have already said, he foretold to the peoples dwelling nearby many of the things which would come in the near future, admonished by the Spirit; and warned them to beware whenever the enemy’s sword or the earth’s barrenness or diversity of diseases or some other pest should threaten — that they should beseech God with alms and prayers, that He might avert the imminent peril from them. He also foretold, long before, many things which would happen after his departure. And because there would be a great contention between the monks of his island and the clergy of the town with their bishop concerning his body, he forewarned how that contest would be overtaken by peace; and he declared that Northmen would sometime come to the same island who would devastate it utterly and destroy all its building to the ground, both carrying off and burning. Which has truly and without any doubt already come to pass, as all know. From that time even to this day the same barbarians cease not to devastate that island with frequent irruptions and plunder whatever they find in it; nor will they cease unless God help. But may God, who saves all who come to Him and wills that none perish, deign to snatch, defend and save us from their malign snares. Amen.

Twenty-Two. Of his death — how his soul was translated. #

¹ Some days before his going out, the time of his departure from the body was revealed to him by the angel of the Lord. For on a certain night, when the failing old man had given his members, spent with age, to modest rest in the cell constituted for this — that, as it were recreated anew by this, he might accomplish his wonted work — an angel was seen in sleep to descend to him from the supernal halls, surrounded with ruddy light. Whose splendour sufficed to put to flight the darkness not only of his little cell but of the whole world, like a most splendid sun. Who bore such words to the old man, saying: “Holy one of God, the King of the heavens, creator of earth, maker of the angelic order and redeemer of men, sends me shining to you from the starry city. Your day is at hand — for now your reward is to be recompensed by God. The heaven-dwellers demand you also as fellow-citizen and guest. The most glorious choir of saints expects you, a most excellent soldier, to be placed in supernal felicity. Now the door of the heavenly kingdom lies open to you, that you may enter as victor the eternal tabernacles. This very day, indeed, await your glad going-out, and that last day itself. The Lord Himself, thronged with the innumerable army of the angelic host and the squadrons of saints chanting celestial organs, comes gloriously to meet you — to render you, an old man now failing, a worthy reward and furnish you merited honours.” And at once, these things said, he ascended into the ethereal halls. But the light which had been emitted with him from heaven remained, and from then on, through every night until his death, ceased not to illuminate the aforementioned cell with its light-shedding dew as with the light of great lamps.

² St Paul therefore, at once as the next day’s light shone forth, his disciples being gathered from every side, declared to them the last day of his departure from the body; and commanded that his body, when he had breathed out his spirit, should be carried to the monastery set in the field which is now called his town, and be buried there after the wonted manner — lest, if it were left in the island, all who should come to visit his relics, shut out by the strait, should suffer wrong. Yet he knew what manner of war they would wage over such a body. Then even to the last hour he ceased not to instruct them with divine reading and open to them certain mystical spiritual instruments such as they had never heard from anyone by day. And by night he pressed upon prayer after his custom. And the hour of his going-out being imminent — a great company of monks and his clerics standing round about him — he said: “My little sons, see, the last hour is at hand. See, I now see what I have loved; I now see what I have desired. I now contemplate the companies of heaven-dwellers coming with their King; they now desire to hold me in their embraces.”

³ At these words of his, all lifted up their voice with great weeping, saying: “What shall we do, most clement father? Where shall we go, or to whom do you commend us?” And he said to them: “Do not, dearest ones, do not weep, do not mourn; you are not left as orphans. You have with you a shepherd most approved in every work of the Lord, and other men instructed in all spiritual doctrine. You know also by what example I have confirmed you and with what instrument I have taught you. What you have heard from me and seen in me — think these things, do these things, teach these also to others. See, I have taught you all things.” And when he had said this, receiving the sacraments of the Lord’s body and blood, he lifted up his hand to bless them, saying: “The blessing of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit descend upon you.” And they all answered: “Amen.” And after this, in the sight of all, without any pain of dissolution of members, amid the very choirs of angels and saints which he saw, he rendered his soul to You, Lord Jesus Christ, its own giver — immaculate from all carnal pollution — and at once fell asleep in the Lord. On the fourth of the Ides of March therefore the holy Paul, the excellent pontiff in peace, a man greatly venerable, died; and, confessor and virgin alike in merits, merited to enter heaven rejoicing, to reign with God.

Twenty-Three. Of the happy contention of the monks and clergy concerning his body. #

¹ He therefore sleeping in Christ, a contention arose concerning his body between the monks of the island and the priests of the town — in the place which is now called Signaculum (Aroedma) — as to which of the two companies it should belong by right. The townsmen said: “He was our bishop; with us he restored many weak and sick to health; with us he enriched the blind with light, the maimed with hands, the lame with steps. And what more? He is ours, ours he shall be — for that he was conversant with you was by our benefit; and at the last he so commended that his body be buried with us.” But the islanders on the contrary answered, saying: “Do not contradict us about his virtues: for he healed more in beginning and end than while he served the episcopate in the middle among you. And what more wonderful did he do than what he did with us concerning the serpent? We know indeed that he was once your bishop; but he came to us, and left you, and at the last chose us — with whom, dead, he slept in Christ. And what need of the jettison of many words? To you living still in the world he left possessions; to us he gave himself. Divide the possessions among you. Leave us, dead in Christ, at least the dead man.” These and things like these they contended. And Cetomerinus, knowing what had been commended to him by the same saint on this account, set two waggons with as many oxen yoked under each — so constituted and joined together that one of them should go to the island and the other to the town; and the bier on which the body lay in the balance being set between them equally poised, the saint alone would choose with which of the two he would go. What follows is greatly to be wondered. For each troop reckoned that deposit was on its own waggon, concerning which it had before been going to wage war; and so, following various ways, they had various solaces. For the islanders, frustrated of their hope, when they came home found nothing but the waggon; but, God’s divine grace disposing — praises and hymns being chanted before it — his body came to the town; where, honourably buried, it rests in peace, and where through the same saint’s merit very many benefits are furnished even to this day to all invoking God in truth — and shall be while this world stands — our Lord Jesus Christ furnishing, to whom be with the Father and the Holy Spirit perennial honour and unfailing empire through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

Here Ends the Life of St Paul Aurelius of Domnonia, Who Is Venerated on the Fourth of the Ides of March. #

Hexameter verses. #

¹ The life of the most holy Paul has been described in order — which, Hinworet, I have written for your faithful nurslings.
At whose bidding, you faithful who stand — now at last, venerable brethren, hold your vows,
and rejoice, brethren, in the trophies of our own saint.