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The Lives of the Saints Volume 1 - St. Patrick's Basilica

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www.freecatholicebooks.com<br />

being consumed by fire, <strong>St</strong>. Eugendus rebuilt it <strong>of</strong> stone; and also near<br />

<strong>the</strong> oratory, which <strong>St</strong>. Romanus had built, erected a handsome church in<br />

honor <strong>of</strong> SS. Peter, Paul, and Andrew, enriched with precious relics. His<br />

prayer was almost continual, and his devotion so tender, that <strong>the</strong><br />

hearing {072} <strong>of</strong> a pious word was sufficient visibly to inflame his<br />

soil, and to throw him sometimes into raptures even in public, and at<br />

table. His ardent sighs to be united with his God, were most vehement<br />

during his last illness. Having called <strong>the</strong> priest among his brethren, to<br />

whom he had enjoined <strong>the</strong> <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> anointing <strong>the</strong> sick, he caused him to<br />

anoint his breast according to <strong>the</strong> custom, says <strong>the</strong> author <strong>of</strong> his life,<br />

and he brea<strong>the</strong>d forth his happy soul five days after, about <strong>the</strong> year<br />

510, and <strong>of</strong> his age sixty-one.[1] <strong>The</strong> great abbey <strong>of</strong> Condate, in<br />

Franche-comté, seven leagues from Geneva, on mount Jura, or Mont-jou,<br />

received from this saint <strong>the</strong> name <strong>of</strong> <strong>St</strong>. Oyend; till in <strong>the</strong> thirteenth<br />

century it exchanged it for that <strong>of</strong> <strong>St</strong>. Claude; who having resigned <strong>the</strong><br />

bishopric <strong>of</strong> Besanzon, which see he had governed seven years in great<br />

sanctity, lived fifty-five years abbot <strong>of</strong> this house, a perfect copy <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> virtues <strong>of</strong> <strong>St</strong>. Oyend, and died in 581. He is honored on <strong>the</strong> 6th <strong>of</strong><br />

June. His body remains entire to this day; and his shrine is <strong>the</strong> most<br />

celebrated place <strong>of</strong> resort for pilgrims in all France.[2] See <strong>the</strong> life<br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>St</strong>. Oyend by a disciple, in Bollandus and Mabillon. Add <strong>the</strong> remarks<br />

<strong>of</strong> Rivet. His. Liter. T. 3, p. 60.<br />

Footnotes:<br />

1. <strong>The</strong> history <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> first Abbots <strong>of</strong> Condate, compiled, according to<br />

F. Chifflet, in 1252, mentions translation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> relics <strong>of</strong> <strong>St</strong>.<br />

Eugendus, when <strong>the</strong>y were enshrined in <strong>the</strong> same Church <strong>of</strong> <strong>St</strong>. Peter,<br />

which had been made with great solemnity, at which this author had<br />

assisted, and <strong>of</strong> which he testifies that he had already wrote <strong>the</strong><br />

history here quoted. F. Chifflet regrets <strong>the</strong> loss <strong>of</strong> this piece, and<br />

adds that <strong>the</strong> girdle <strong>of</strong> <strong>St</strong>. Eugendus, made <strong>of</strong> white lea<strong>the</strong>r, two<br />

fingers broad, has been <strong>the</strong> instrument <strong>of</strong> miraculous cures, and that<br />

in 1601 Petronilla Birod, a Calvinist woman in that neighborhood,<br />

was converted to <strong>the</strong> Catholic faith, with her husband and whole<br />

family, having been suddenly freed from imminent danger <strong>of</strong> death and<br />

child-bearing, and safely delivered by <strong>the</strong> application <strong>of</strong> this<br />

relic.<br />

2. <strong>The</strong> rich abbey <strong>of</strong> <strong>St</strong>. Claude gave rise to a considerable town built<br />

about it, which was made an episcopal see by pope Benedict XIV., in<br />

1743: who, secularizing <strong>the</strong> monastery, converted it into a<br />

ca<strong>the</strong>dral. <strong>The</strong> canons, to gain admittance, must give pro<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

nobility for sixteen degrees, eight paternal and as many maternal.<br />

<strong>St</strong>. Romanus was buried at Beaume, <strong>St</strong>. Lucinius at Leu{}nne, and <strong>St</strong>.<br />

Oyend at Condate: whence this last place for several ages bore his<br />

name.

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