OMNIUM SANCTORUM HIBERNIAE

Category: Irish saints in Europe

  • Saint Madelberta of Maubeuge, September 7

    September 7 is the feastday of a Belgian saint, allegedly of Irish extraction, Madelberta, abbess of Maubeuge. She is one of an extraordinary family of saints whom Canon O’Hanlon is only too happy to claim for Ireland. The account below has been abridged from Volume 9 of his Lives of the Irish Saints, but whether this saint and her kindred ever had an Irish connection is another matter entirely. Her name is not found in any of our native calendars but obviously occurs in the continental ones, which Canon O’Hanlon lists. He also cites a list of Irish saints compiled by Convaeus, which I think is a reference to a seventeenth-century Irish-born Jesuit, Richard Conway (Richardus Convaeus), who was involved with the Irish colleges in Spain.

    ST. MADELBERGA, MEDALBERTA, AMALBERTE, OR MADELBERTA, ABBESS, AT MAUBEUGE, BELGIUM.
    [SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES.]

    ALTHOUGH the place of this holy virgin’s nativity has not been distinctly ascertained; yet, she has been classed among our Irish Saints, because her religious father is held to have sought from Ireland the shores of France, where he was renowned as a warrior, and where he attained the distinction of being known as Count of Hannonia, or Hainault, in reward for his services, as also because with his religious wife, Waldetrude, he visited Ireland, on a mission entrusted to him, by Dagobert I., King of France. Moreover, on her father’s side, St. Madelberta. had Irish blood in her veins, and doubtless she inherited many of those happy dispositions, that rendered her worthy to rank with so many other members of a truly noble and holy family.

    …St. Madelberga or Madelberta was the daughter of Saints Maelceadar or Vincentius and Waldetrude. Their children were Landric or Landry, afterwards Bishop of Meaux, or of Metz, Aldetrude, and Malberta, their daughters, and Dentelin, who was the youngest of that family. Surrounded by such a happy circle, we can scarcely wonder, that Madelberta, or Amalberte—as she is also called—grew up in the most happy dispositions. Born—as seems most probable —a short time before the death of Dagobert I., King of France, which happened about A.D. 638; from childhood, Madelberta loved to pray constantly, and to profit by the teaching and example of her holy parents. It has been thought by some, that she and her sister Aldetrudis had been twins, and born about the year 637; or if they were born at different periods, one saw the light about A.D. 636, and the other A.D. 637. Her aunt, St. Aldegundis, who could not have been many years older, was the first foundress of a convent at Malbod, also known as Maubeuge. It was then a solitary place, on the River Sambre; and, it is now a town and canton of France, in the Department of the North. There she had built three churches, on the death of her parents. One of those was dedicated in honour of the Queen of Angels; another to honour St. Quintin, Martyr; and the third was dedicated to the chiefs of the Apostles, Saints Peter and Paul. Her sister Waldetrude retired from the world, having collected around her a fervent and religious community. At that time, Aldegonde was placed under her charge, at the age of eleven years, by Bertilia, as seems likely for purposes of religious and secular instruction; the younger children of Waldetrude remaining in care of their maternal aunt. The parents of Aldegonde withdrew their daughter after a brief sojourn in the monastery, fearing that she also should take the veil, and because they had intended her to marry a man of rank -equal to their own. However, their efforts were unavailing; for she soon took an opportunity to escape from the paternal mansion, and while still very young, she had found that place of solitude, where her religious house was afterwards established.

    Meanwhile, Aldetrude and Madelberta felt a growing desire to consecrate their lives solely to the service of Christ. At an early age, they had been consigned by their pious mother to the convent founded at Maubeuge, where they were placed for education and direction under their aunt. Thus, it may be said, that almost from their cradle, they were familiarised with all the monastic rules and practices. Being—as supposed—the youngest of the daughters of St. Mauger or Vincent, and Vaudrue, or Waldetrude, Madelberta sought a retreat from the world with St. Aldegonde; while it would seem, that her sister Aldetrude also devoted herself to a religious life, in the same monastery. There indeed was a union of souls engaged in all the practical virtues of their state. Their chastity and humility were exercised with vigils and largesses to the poor. From St. Amand and other holy bishops, they heard frequent exhortations, and were comforted against the trials and temptations, which fail not to test the fortitude of even the most virtuous persons. On one of those occasions, while our saint was in great distress, bright rays of light came through the windows of her oratory, and seemed to cover her, as if the Divine influence had been poured on her for a protection from the snares of the enemy.

    For a long time, the holy Abbess Aldegonde ruled over her community, on the banks of the Sambre. She was favoured in an eminent degree with the gift of fervent prayer, and with many revelations. Under such a superioress, we may well suppose, her nieces were schooled in all the virtues and discipline of their religious state. The closing years of Aldegonde were a continual martyrdom for a cancer in the right breast was the cause of intense pain. This she bore, not only with exemplary patience, but with rejoicing that she was deemed worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. When her term on earth was arrived, a globe of fire was seen coming from Heaven and settling over the house, in which her spirit so happily departed, and as generally supposed on the 30th of January, A.D. 684. We have already seen, the parents of St. Madelberta separated by mutual consent to spend the rest of their days in religious retirement, about the year 653; Madelgarius, or Vincent, to take up his abode in that monastery he had previously founded, at Hautmont, near Maubeuge, on the River Sambre, and his wife Waldetrude, or Vaudru, at Castrilocus, or Castrilos, subsequently designated Mons, in the year 656. The Blessed Aldetrudis, or Adeltrude, succeeded her aunt in the government of this religious establishment. For twelve years she presided over it with great virtue and wisdom, when she was also called away to taste the fruits of life everlasting, about the year 696.

    After the death of her sainted sister, Madelberta was selected to govern the monastery. Nor was she less careful to set an excellent example to the nuns under her charge, and to foster the good seed already sown, so that daily were pious females brought to the sanctuary, and directed by her in the paths that led to Heaven. She ruled over her religious community for the term of nine years. Madelberta had thus become the third abbess of Malbod, and now in turn she was called to receive the eternal reward. In the most admirable sentiments of piety she died about the year 684, or 685 according to some writers. However, more recent and exact researches, by Carolus le Cointe and others, have ascertained by certain historic comparisons of data that her life had been prolonged to about A.D. 705. Her body was deposited in the Church of St. Peter, the Apostle, with solemn funeral rites; a great number of priests with the religious entoning the psalms and canticles appropriate for the occasion.

    Soon after the Saint’s death, a remarkable miracle took place, which soon caused the people of all that surrounding country to venerate her as their special patroness. A very religious man, living near Maubeuge, had a deafness in the right ear, and he had often prayed to God for the gift of sound hearing. One night in his sleep, a voice came to him, saying: “Arise, go to the monastery of Maubeuge and to the Church of St. Peter, where the body of St. Madelberte, Virgin, reposes, and there you shall be healed at her tomb.” When morning had come, he arose and hastened to the monastery as directed. He assisted at Mass with profound devotion, offering up his prayers most fervently. Suddenly, when the priest commenced chaunting the Gospel, the man had an extraordinary sensation. His limbs began to tremble, his face grew pale, and some aqueous humour distilled from the ear affected. At the same moment, he felt relieved from his infirmity, which never afterwards returned. Another miracle is recorded regarding a certain girl, whose lower limbs had been crooked and paralysed from the time of birth; but her parents had brought her to the tomb of our saint, where she was suddenly restored to their use. At the time of the evening office, she was seen by the nuns, walking through the middle of the Church, and giving thanks to God. This caused great rejoicing and admiration to all who had known her previous condition, and who had witnessed her perfect restoration. These are only a few of those miracles, which were wrought, at the place of her first sepulture.

    St. Hubert, who had succeeded St. Lambert as Bishop of Maestricht, removed the episcopal see in 721 to Liege, of which city he then became the first bishop. To honour his martyred predecessor, he had built a stately church, which he designated the cathedral, and thither he conveyed the relics of St. Lambert. He is still venerated as chief patron of Liege. Until the year 722, the relics of St. Madelbert reposed at Maubeuge. The fame of her sanctity and miracles was so great, that about the same time, St. Hubert had her body transported to Liege, with solemn ceremonies. Having encased her relics in a shrine, in which were also enclosed the relics of St. Theodard, they were placed in the cathedral church. There several miracles were afterwards wrought through our saint’s intercession. During the middle ages, likewise, frequent broils arose among the powerful and opulent families that disturbed the peace of Liege; when public prayers and visitations to the shrines of the local patrons took place, to avert those disorders. On such occasions, the relics were exhibited for veneration to the faithful. In the year 1489, those relics were well preserved, when a commission had been appointed to examine into their state. On the 14th of April, with solemn religious ceremonies, a number of representative ecclesiastics, deputed by the Dean and Chapter of Liege Cathedral, began the work of examination, which was continued on the 18th and 19th of the same month. In that compartment, in which the remains of St. Magdelberta reposed, they found her bones, with her hood and veil, as also a black cincture remarkably wrought; moreover, they saw her robe and another veil, with two large portions of her habit, and two small scissors, which she was doubtless accustomed to use, together with some other ornaments—whether belonging to her or placed there by others is not known. After this examination, the inner and outer coverings were locked, when the keys were placed in the sacristy of the church, and in an upper drawer, which was lettered Mechlinia.

    The name of this holy virgin is to be found in a great number of calendars and martyrologies. Although not contained in the oldest versions of Ado and Usuard; yet, from her own time has Madalberta been venerated in the Low Countries, and mentioned in various additions to Usuard. At the 7th of September, she is recorded in the Florarian Manuscript, by Castellan, by Canisius, by Saussay, and in the Parisian Martyrology. Besides these, Arnold Wion, Menard, Dorgan, Bucelin, Molanus, Miraeus, Constantine Ghinius, Arturus, and a host of other hagiographers, have inserted the name and festival of this holy virgin in their writings. On the 7th of September, she was venerated at Malbod, according to the list of Irish saints compiled by Convaeus.

    …In a Breviary of Liege, printed a.d. 1514, at Paris, there is a Duplex Office, as also in the edition of 1520, there printed. All the parts are from the common office of a virgin, except the nine Lessons—comprising her Life, as found in [her] ancient anonymous Acts—and the Prayer, which may thus be translated from the Latin:—”O God, the Creator of innocence and the lover of charity, who hath translated to Heaven on this day, thy beatified virgin Madelberta, grant to us Thy servants celebrating her sacred festival pardon of our sins through her pious intercession.”

    …In the Low Countries, they represent St. Madelbert in a group, with her father, St. Vincent of Soignies, and her mother St. Waldetrude, St. Aldetrude her sister, as also her brothers, St. Landry, Bishop of Meaux, and St. Dentlin.

    Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Minnborinus, Abbot of Cologne, July 18

    As an interesting contrast to Saint Cobhthach, Abbot of Kildare, whom we met on this day last year, July 18 is also the feast of a tenth-century Irish Abbot of Saint Martin’s Monastery in Cologne, Germany. Saint Martin’s was one of the Schottenklöster or Irish monasteries which flourished for many centuries after the golden age of the Irish peregrini in Europe. Canon O’Hanlon is not able to tell us a great deal of the specifics of this abbot’s life but does put the times in which he flourished into context:

    Minnborinus, Abbot of St. Martin’s Monastery, Cologne. [Tenth Century]

    It seems very probable, that the present holy man was born in Ireland, about or a little later than the beginning of the tenth century. The form of his name is an unusual one in our early Annals, but it may have been somewhat transformed when he went to the Continent. Where he had been educated has not transpired, nor when he left the shores of Ireland. In his early days, however, the country had been woefully harassed by the Danes and other Northmen, so that it is not unlikely, many Irishmen betook themselves to more distant countries, where greater protection had been afforded than could be enjoyed at home. The city of Cologne, on the left bank of the Rhine—at first known as Ara Ubiorum —had been founded by Claudia Agrippina Augusta, wife of the Emperor Claudius, in the first century of the Christian era; and, in succeeding ages the church was well established there, with numerous pious votaries. Several fine churches were erected in it, and other religious institutions. It suffered greatly during the ravages of Attila and the Huns, in the fifth century. Especially after the apostolate of St. Boniface in Germany, the church was placed on a secure foundation in Cologne. It was erected at first into an episcopal See, and afterwards it became the See of an archbishop, who possessed very extensive powers during the middle ages. This city became likewise a great emporium of commerce, and there ships sailing Up and down the Rhine reached the most distant countries of the known world. On account of the power, influence, and numbers of its clergy, as also owing to the variety of its churches, chapels, monasteries, nunneries, and relics, Cologne has been styled “the Rome of Germany.”…

    …It seems most likely, that Minnborinus professed the religious life in Cologne, or at some place near it, after the middle of the tenth century. We have not been able, however, to ascertain such particulars. Ebergerus, who was then Archbishop of Cologne, bestowed the monastery of St. Martin in that city, for use of the Scots, as the Irish were then called, in 975. On the site, which was originally an Island on the River Rhine, a church had been built, but this has long disappeared. In its place arose the Gross St. Martin, which was dedicated A.D. 1172, but its lofty tower was not added, until the beginning of the fifteenth century. The lines of that church assume the form of a Greek cross. The first abbot placed over the first monastery here founded was Minnborinus, a Scot, i.e., an Irishman, and he was chosen for the position, on account of his eminent piety and character. The holy Minnborinus presided happily over St. Martin’s house twelve years. He died on 15th Kal., Aug. A.D. 986. He was succeeded by his countryman Kilian, an Irish Scot, who ruled over that establishment as Abbot for sixteen years, when he departed this life on 19th of the January Kalends, A.D. 1003. Afterwards, the supply of Irish inmates seems to have declined. In consequence of misconceiving the historic name Scotia— as formerly solely applicable to Ireland—this house and its possessions had been surrendered in the middle ages to a community of Scotch Benedictines. The interior of the fine church there was modernized in 1790, and the place is still one of special interest and curiosity for most Irish and Scottish Catholic tourists.Content Copyright © Omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae 2012-2015. All rights reserved.

  • Saint Cathaldus of Taranto, May 10

    May 10 is one of the feastdays of an Irish saint whose memory is still very much cherished in Italy, Saint Cathal (Cathaldus) of Taranto. Patrick Montague, author of The Saints and Martyrs of Ireland, records in the preface to his book how he first encountered this Irish saint:

    In early summer of 1944, I arrived in Taranto, Italy, as a Staff Officer of the Eighth Army. The next morning, I was urgently summoned to assist an American soldier who had driven his jeep into the path of a procession of Italians who were celebrating the Feast of their local saint. Since nobody was hurt, the situation was quickly adjusted. I was able to deal with it in Italian, aided by the presence of a local priest. Between us we calmed the excited people and rescued the soldier from his awkward predicament.

    In conversation later, the priest informed me that the Saint was Cathaldo, and it was common knowledge that he was Irish. I wondered at the time whether this unusual fact was so well-known in Ireland. In the years which followed, I have often pondered on the strange anomaly that the memory of Irish exiles like Cathal, or Cathaldo, of Taranto, can inspire public holidays and gatherings of the faithful all over Europe, and receive no more than a brief reference in works of scholarship in Ireland.

    Below is an abridged version of a paper by Father J. F. Hogan from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, which contains a useful summary of the main points from the mass of traditions surrounding Saint Cathaldus. The article begins with an account of the founding of the city of Taranto but I have omitted this and the concluding paragraphs on its later history in order to concentrate on the details of its patron’s life. Saint Cathal’s story is certainly not a dull one, he is associated with the monastery of Lismore but leaves the scholar’s life for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and ends up in Taranto following a shipwreck:

    ST. CATHALDUS OF TARANTO

    …A tradition of immemorial standing seems to ascribe the first conversion of Tarentum to St. Peter and his disciple and companion, St. Mark. Seeing that it is held by many writers that St. Peter paid two visits to Rome, during the second of which he suffered martyrdom, it is natural enough to suppose that, on his way to or from the East, he may have passed through Tarentum, and have preached the good tidings of Christianity to its people. However this may be, it is certain that the seeds of Christian life did not take deep root there on its first sowing, and that in the political turmoil which followed the transfer of the seat of Empire to Constantinople, its young shoots were almost completely smothered. In these disturbances Tarentum passed from Romans to Greeks, and from Greeks to Romans. It was handed about to all kinds of freebooters. For a time it was held by Belisarius for Justinian; then it was occupied by Totila and his Goths. These in their turn were expelled by the Imperial arms, and the citadel was held for the empire until the arrival of the Longobardi, whose commander, Romoald (Duke of Beneventum) got possession of the town and province.

    It must be acknowledged that such stormy conditions of life were not very favourable to the spread of Christianity. No wonder, therefore, that little trace should have been found of the Christian settlement that had once been established at Tarentum when St. Cathaldus first appeared within its walls.

    That St. Cathaldus was a native of Ireland, is a fact which cannot be seriously questioned. Indeed it is not denied by anybody worthy of a moment’s notice. It has been the constant tradition of the Church of Tarentum; and in every history of the city or of its apostle that is of Italian origin, there is but one voice as to the country from which St. Cathaldus came. The most valuable biography of the saint which we possess was written in the seventeenth century by an Italian Franciscan named Bartolomeo Moroni. As this work professes to be based on very ancient codices and manuscripts of the Church of Taranto, we must conclude that it contains a good deal that is accurate and trustworthy, whilst a very cursory examination is sufficient to convince us that fable and fiction have entered not a little into its composition. It tells us, at all events, that Cathaldus was a native of Ireland; that he was born at a place called Rachau according to some, at Cathandum according to others; that as a happy augury of his future mission to the half Greek, half Italian city of Taranto, his father’s name was Euchus, and his mother’s Achlena or Athena.

    A good deal of discussion has been indulged in as to the identity of his birthplace. The general opinion seems to be that Rachau was the place from which he took his title as bishop, and that Cathandum was the place of his birth. This Cathandum is supposed to be identified either with ”Ballycahill,” in the Ormond district of North Tipperary, and in the diocese of Killaloe, or with a place of the same name not far from Thurles, in the diocese of Cashel. As for Rachau, it is believed to be intended either for Rahan in the King’s Co., where St. Carthage had his famous monastery, and where he ruled as a bishop before his expulsion by the Hy Niall of Meath, or for one of the numerous places called Rath in the immediate neighbourhood of Lismore; or, finally, as Lanigan thinks probable, the place now called Shanraghan in Southern Tipperary and on the confines of Waterford. It is distinctly stated that the place was, at all events, in the province of Munster, and not far from Lismore. Nothing more precise can be laid down with certainty.

    What does not, however, admit of the slightest doubt, is the fact that St. Cathaldus was surrounded by spiritual and religious influences of a very special kind from his infancy upwards. These influences found in his soul a most sympathetic response, and when they had lifted the thoughts and aspirations of this fair youth above earthly things, he was sent by his parents to the neighbouring school of Lismore. This school, although it had been established only for a very short time, had already acquired widespread fame, and had attracted students from all parts of England and Scotland, and from several continental countries besides.

    What a busy place this famous southern university must have been in the days of its prosperity! When we read the account of it that has come down to us, glorified though it may be, and exaggerated, as no doubt it is, by the imaginations of its admirers, writing, some of them, centuries after its decay, and seeing it chiefly through the scholars and apostles that it produced, we cannot help being struck by the features of resemblance, and yet the strong contrast, it presents with those Grecian cities that, in far-off times, gathered to their academies and their market-places the elite of the world orators, poets, artists, grammarians, philosophers, all who valued culture or knew the price of intellectual superiority. Lismore had no spacious halls, no classic colonnades, no statues, or fountains, or stately temples. Its houses of residence were of the simplest and most primitive description, and its halls were in keeping with these, mere wooden structures, intended only to shut off the elements, but without any claim or pretence to artistic design. And yet Lismore had something more valuable than the attractions of either architecture or luxury. It possessed that which has ever proved the magnet of the philosopher and the theologian truth, namely, and truth illumined by the halo of religion. It sheltered also in its humble halls whatever knowledge remained in a barbarous age of those rules of art that had already shed such lustre on Greece and Rome, or had been fostered in Ireland itself according to principles and a system of native conception. Hence it drew around it a crowd of foreigners Saxons and Britons, Franks and Teutons, Sicambrians and Helvetians, Arvernians and Bohemians:

    “Undique conveniunt proceres quos dulce trahebat
    Discendi studium, major num cognita virtus
    An laudata foret. Celeres vastissima Rheni
    Jam vada Teutonici, jam deseruere Sicambri.
    Mittit ah extreme gelidos Aquilone Boemos
    Albis, et Arverni coeunt, Batavique frequentes,
    Et quicumque colunt alta sub rupe Gebennas.
    Non omnes prospectat Arar, Rhodanique fluenta
    Helvetios; multos desiderat ultima Thule.
    Certatim hi properant, diverse tramite ad urbem
    Lesmoriam, juvenis primes ubi transigit annos.” 1

    1 These lines are taken from a metrical Life of St. Cathaldus, entitled Cathaldiados, which was composed by Bonaventure Moroni, brother of Bartolomeo, the author of the prose Life. See Ussher’s Antiquitates, page 895.

    At Lismore Cathaldus edified his brethren by his extraordinary piety as well as by his great love of study. In due time he passed from the student’s bench to the master’s chair, and whilst he taught in the schools, he was not unmindful of the world’s needs. He raised a church at Lismore to the glory of God and the perpetual memory of His Virgin Mother. Frequent miracles bore testimony at this period to the interior sanctity of the young professor. So great was the admiration of the people for him that one of the princes in the neighbourhood grew jealous of his influence, and denounced him to the King of Munster as a magician, who aimed at subverting established authority and setting up his own in its place. The King accordingly sent his fleet to Lismore, where Cathaldus was taken prisoner and confined in a dungeon until some favourable opportunity should offer to have him conveyed into perpetual exile. The King, however, soon found what a mistake he had committed, and, instead of banishing Cathaldus, he offered him the territory of Rachau, which belonged to Meltridis, the Prince who had denounced him, and who was now overtaken by death in the midst of his intrigues. Cathaldus refused the temporal honours which the King was anxious to confer upon him, and proclaimed that he vowed his life to religion, and sought no other honours. He was, therefore, raised to the episcopate, and constituted the chief spiritual ruler of the extensive territory of the deceased Meltridis, whose tanist rights were made over on the church.

    After Cathaldus had ruled the see of Rachau for some years, he resolved to set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He committed the care of his diocese to his neighbouring bishops, and set sail, without any retinue, for the Holy Land. It is probable that he was accompanied by his brother, Donatus, who afterwards became Bishop of Lupiae, now Lecce, in Calabria. In due course he reached his destination, and had the supreme happiness of kneeling at the great sepulchre, or as Tasso expresses it: “D’adorar la Gran Tomba e sciorre il voto.”

    With all the love and reverence of a pilgrim he sought out the holy places that had been sanctified by the presence of his Heavenly Master ; and so great was his joy to live in these solitudes, and dwell on the mysteries of man’s salvation, amidst the very scenes in which it had been accomplished, that he earnestly desired and prayed to be relieved of his episcopal burden, and allowed to live and die in the desert in which our Lord had fasted, or in some one of the retreats that had been made sacred for ever by His earthly presence. Whilst engaged in earnest prayer on these thoughts, his soul was invaded by a supernatural light, which made clear to him that Providence had other designs about him. He accordingly started on the journey that Heaven had marked out for him; and, having been shipwrecked in the Gulf of Taranto, he was cast ashore not far from the city of which he was to become the apostle and the bishop. The cave in which he first took refuge is still to be seen in the neighbourhood of Otranto, not far from the point of the Japygian promontory.

    The shipwrecked pilgrim, henceforward an apostle, soon made his way to the eastern gate of Tarentum. At the entrance of the city a blind man was to be seen, asking for assistance from those who passed by. His condition was symbolical of the darkness that prevailed within. Cathaldus addressed him, spoke to him of Christ and of the Blessed Trinity, and, as he found him amenable to Christian teaching, he instructed him in the mysteries of salvation; and whilst he imparted to him the light of grace through the Sacrament of Baptism he restored to him the light of natural vision through that supernatural power that had been vouchsafed to him. This whole circumstance was regarded as a happy omen, and as a symbol of the change to be wrought by the apostle within the city.

    A parallel has sometimes been drawn between the condition of Taranto, when St. Cathaldus first entered its gates, with that of Athens when it was first visited by St. Paul. The parallel holds good in some respects, but not in all. Taranto was, to all intents and purposes, as deeply plunged in paganism as Athens was. There was scarcely a vestige left of the early religious settlement that had been made there by St. Peter and St. Mark, or by whoever had preached the Gospel to its people in early times. Paganism reigned supreme; but, in so far as it constituted a religion at all, it was paganism in its most corrupt and repellent form. The days of Archytas and of Pythagoras were now left far behind. The artistic splendour which had never entirely disappeared from Athens, had long since vanished from Taranto. There was no culture now, but ignorance and barbarism, the result of centuries of war and strife. With minds thus steeped in ignorance, with hearts corrupted by licence and perverted by superstition, the people of this neglected city did not offer a very encouraging prospect to the new missionary who appeared amongst them. His success, nevertheless, was greater than that of St. Paul at the capital of Greece. He won his way to the hearts of the people by his eloquence, his zeal, his power of working miracles; and when the prejudice entertained against his person and speech was once removed, the divine origin of the Gospel that he preached was acknowledged readily enough. We have, unfortunately, but very meager details as to the methods of his apostolate; but we are assured, at all events, that they were so effective as to win over the whole city in a few years. Certain it is that Cathaldus was acknowledged without dispute, during his own lifetime, as Bishop of Tarentum, and that he has ever since been revered as the founder of the Tarentine Church and the patron saint of the converted city.

    It is said that when the saint felt that his death was at hand, he called around him his priests and deacons and the chief men of the city, and earnestly exhorted them to remain faithful to his teaching.

    “I know [he said], that when I am gone dreadful and relentless enemies shall rise up against you, and endeavour, by heretical sophistry, to tear asunder the members of the Catholic Church, and lead astray the flock which I brought together with such pains. Against these enemies of your faith and of the Christian religion, I entreat you to strengthen the minds of the people by your own firmness, ever mindful of my labours and vigils.”

    The remains of the holy Bishop were committed, at his own request, to their native earth in his Cathedral Church. They were enclosed in a marble tomb, portion of which is still preserved. For some time the exact position of this tomb was unknown, but when Archbishop Drogonus of Tarentum was restoring the cathedral, in the eleventh century, the tomb was discovered. It was opened by the Archbishop, and the body of the saint was found well preserved. A golden cross had been attached to the body of the saint at the time of his burial. This also was discovered, and found to bear upon it the name of Cathaldus. The relics of the saint were then encased and preserved in the high altar of the cathedral. During the pontificate of Eugenius III they were transferred to a beautiful silver shrine adorned with gems and precious stones. A silver statue of Cathaldus was also cast, and erected in the church. These and many other memorials of the saint are still to be seen, and are held in great veneration by the people of Taranto.

    The miracles attributed to the saints of the Church are often spoken of with derision by those who regard themselves as the children of light. These, whilst they minister to their own vanity, and fancy that nature has taken them specially into her confidence, revealing her inmost secrets to their ardent gaze, sometimes succeed in deceiving others: but they deceive themselves more than all. Indeed it is almost impossible to conceive how those early saints could have succeeded in winning over to Christianity, in the space of a few years, whole cities and districts that had hitherto been steeped in vice and superstition, without the power of working miracles. When that power is once granted, the explanation of wholesale conversion becomes easy and plain. Something is necessary to strike and astonish the multitude, and when wonder and alarm have become general, half the battle is already gained.

    That St. Cathaldus possessed this power in a high degree, is testified not only in the records of his life, but still more authentically in the wholesale nature of the conversions that he wrought, and the unfading memory he left impressed on the city to which he ministered. The veneration for Cathaldus was not confined to Tarentum alone. It spread far and wide through Italy, Greece, and the Ionian islands. The village of Castello San Cataldo on the Ionian coast, midway between Brindisi and Otranto, perpetuates his name. Chapels dedicated to the saint, or statues erected in his honour, may be seen in many of the neighbouring towns of Calabria. The Cathedral of Taranto itself is, however, his greatest monument…

    J. F. HOGAN

    Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume XVII (1896), 403-416.

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