Foillan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Ireland |
| Died | seventh century Sonian Forest, Belgium |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Feast | 31 October (Diocese of Namur); 5 November (Dioceses of Mechelen and Tournai) |
| Attributes | Represented with a crown at his feet to show that he despised the honours of the world |
| Patronage | Fosses; truss-makers, dentists, surgeons, and children's nurses. |
Saint Foillan (Faélán, Faolán, Foélán, French: Feuillen) is an Irish saint of the seventh century.
Foillan was the brother of Saints Ultan and Fursey. He is described as the 'uterine brother' of Fursa, meaning that they had the same mother but not the same father. [1] Certain Latin Lives of Foillan therefore incorporate the Fursa ancestry into Foillan's origins: his mother is stated to have been Gelges, the Christian daughter of 'Aed Finn' (possibly meaning Áed mac Echach), King of Connacht. [2] Fursey's father is stated to be Fintan son of Finlog (though whether of Momonia or of Mag Murthemni, the Bollandist editor finds the sources not in agreement).
Foillan, probably in company with Ultan, went with his brother Fursa when the latter retired to a lonely island, escaping from the multitudes who gathered around him, some of whom harboured ill-feeling towards him. From there, around 633, Fursa went through British territory to the Kingdom of East Anglia with a group of followers including Foillan and Ultan and priests named Gobán and Dicuill. There they were received kindly by King Sigeberht of East Anglia, who gave Fursa the site of a Roman shore-fort at a place called Cnobheresburg, to build a monastery. The monastery was built at the site usually identified as Burgh Castle or Gariannonum (formerly in Suffolk, now Norfolk), and it flourished between c. 634 and c. 650. The earliest source for Fursa and Foillan in East Anglia is the Vita Sancti Fursei: [3] this was the primary source quoted by the Venerable Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum of 731. [4]
Seized again with the desire for solitude, about 643 Fursa left the monastery of Cnobheresburg in the care of Foillan, while he (Fursa) went off to find his brother Ultan, who had previously gone to live in the East Anglian wilderness as a hermit: Fursa and Ultan lived together for a year in austerity and prayer. [5] At the end of the year Fursa, seeing that East Anglia and the monastery were threatened by hostile invasions, decided to take his leave of East Anglia, and went into Gaul leaving Foillan now fully in charge of the monastery.
The Catholic Encyclopedia states that Fursa made a return visit to the brethren in East Anglia c. 650. This is derived from the Virtutes Fursei, [6] which states that Fursa decided that he would return to visit his brothers, and set out to do so, but then adds that he died on the journey at his estate at Macerias (Mézerolles in Ponthieu), so in fact did not reach them. Neither the early Transitus Fursei nor Bede have the story.
Around 651 there was (as Fursa had foreseen) a disastrous assault on East Anglia by Penda, the Mercian king. King Anna of East Anglia was put to flight, and the monastery of Cnobheresburg fell into the hands of the enemies. It was pillaged, and its superior, Foillan, barely escaped death. He hastened to ransom the captive monks, recovered the relics, put the holy books and objects of veneration on board ship, and departed for Péronne in Frankish Neustria, where his brother Fursa was buried. [7]
He and his companions were well received at Péronne by Erchinoald, Mayor of the Palace, who with King Clovis II had previously befriended Fursa. But soon, turning against these visitors, that nobleman expelled Foillan and his companions from Péronne, and they went to Nivelles, where they were made welcome by (Saint) Itta (also called Iduberg) and her daughter (Saint) Gertrude, and their protector (Gertrude's brother) Grimoald I. [8] Itta and Gertrude, wife and daughter of Duke Pepin I respectively, were the foundresses of the Nivelles monastery in Belgium.
Foillan seems to have been a bishop. [9] He was therefore of great assistance in the organisation of worship, and the holy books and relics which he brought were great treasures for St. Itta and St. Gertrude. As the monastery of Nivelles was under Irish discipline, the companions of Foillan were well received and lived side by side with the holy women, occupying themselves with the details of worship under the general direction of the abbess. [10]
Through the liberality of Itta, Foillan was enabled to build a monastery at Fosses-la-Ville, not far from Nivelles, in the province of Namur. After the death of Itta in 652, Foillan came one day to Nivelles and sang Mass, on the eve of the feast of Saint Quentin. The ceremony being finished, he resumed his journey, doubtless undertaken in the interests of his monastery. In the Sonian Forest the saint and his companions fell into a trap set by bandits who inhabited the dense forest. They were slain, stripped, and their bodies concealed. Foillan's head, still speaking prayers, was thrown into a nearby pigsty. The bodies were recovered by St. Gertrude, and when she had taken some relics of the saint, his body was borne to the monastery of Fosses-la-Ville, where it was buried about 655. [11]
Foillan was one of the numerous Irish missionaries who, in the course of the seventh century, evangelised in Neustria, bringing thither the liturgy and sacred vessels, founding prosperous monasteries, and sharing considerably in the propagation of the faith in these countries. Owing to the friendship which united him with Erchinoald, Mayor of the Palace (who, however, expelled him from Lagny), and with the members of Pepin's family, Foillan played a significant part in Frankish ecclesiastical history, as shown by his share in the direction of Nivelles and by the foundation of the monastery of Fosses-la-Ville.
It is not surprising, therefore, that he should be honoured and venerated both at Nivelles and Fosses-la-Ville and to find at Le Roeulx (Belgium) a monastery bearing his name. As late as the twelfth century the veneration in which he was held inspired Philippe de Harvengt, Abbot of Bonne-Esperance, to compose a lengthy biography of the saint. He is the patron of Fosses, near Charleroi. In the Diocese of Namur his feast is celebrated on 31 October, in the Diocese of Mechelen and Diocese of Tournai on 5 November.
There are several Latin Lives of Foillan of varying authority, reproduced by the Society of Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum . [12] Around 1100 Hillinus, a deacon and cantor of the church of Fosses, wrote a metrical life of Foillan for his master Sigebert, the patron of Fosses. [13] Soon afterwards, between 1102 and 1112, Hillinus also wrote a prose In Miraculis Sancti Foyllani Martyris, a book of the miracles associated with St. Foillan at Fosse. [14]
According to Gratten Flood, "About the year 653, St. Gertrude, of Brabant, (daughter of Pepin, Mayor of the Palace), abbess of Nivelle, in Brabant, sent for St. Foillan and St. Ultan, brothers of our celebrated St. Fursey (Patron of Perrone), to teach psalmody to her nuns. These two Irish monks complied with her request, and built an adjoining monastery at Fosse, in the diocese of Liege." (* A History of Irish Music, p. 12, William H. Gratten Flood, Dublin, 1906.)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Aimoin of Fleury was a medieval French monk and chronicler active in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. He was born at Villefranche-de-Longchat, in Southwestern France, about 960. Early in his life he entered the monastery of Fleury, where he became a monk and then passed the greater part of his life. Between c. 980 and 985 Aimoin wrote about Saint Benedict in the Abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire. His chief work is the Historia Francorum, or Libri V. de Gestis Francorum, which deals with the history of the Franks from the earliest times to 653, and was continued by other writers until the middle of the 12th century. It was much in vogue during the Middle Ages, but its historical value is now regarded as slight. It was edited in the 19th century by G. Waitz and published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores, Band xxvi.
Ebroin was the Frankish mayor of the palace of Neustria on two occasions; firstly from 658 to his deposition in 673 and secondly from 675 to his death in 680 or 681. In a violent and despotic career, he strove to impose the authority of Neustria, which was under his control, over Burgundy and Austrasia.
Germain was the bishop of Paris and is venerated as a saint in both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. According to an early biography, he was known as Germain d'Autun, rendered in modern times as the "Father of the Poor".
Æthelhere was King of East Anglia from 653 or 654 until his death. He was a member of the ruling Wuffingas dynasty and one of three sons of Eni to rule East Anglia as Christian kings. He was a nephew of Rædwald, who was the first of the Wuffingas of which more than a name is known.
Anna was king of East Anglia from the early 640s until his death. He was a member of the Wuffingas family, the ruling dynasty of the East Angles, and one of the three sons of Eni who ruled the kingdom of East Anglia, succeeding some time after Ecgric was killed in battle by Penda of Mercia. Anna was praised by Bede for his devotion to Christianity and was renowned for the saintliness of his family: his son Jurmin and all his daughters – Seaxburh, Æthelthryth, Æthelburh and possibly a fourth, Wihtburh – were canonised.
Amandus, commonly called Saint Amand, was a bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht and one of the catholic missionaries of Flanders. He is venerated as a saint, particularly in France and Belgium.
Saint Begga was the daughter of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, and his wife Itta of Metz. She is also the grandmother of Charles Martel, who is the grandfather of Charlemagne.
Ado was a Frankish churchman and writer. He served as the archbishop of Vienne from 850 until his death and is venerated as a saint. His writings include hagiography and historiography.
Gertrude of Nivelles, OSB was a seventh-century abbess who, with her mother Itta, founded the Abbey of Nivelles, now in Belgium. She is venerated in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions.
May 1 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - May 3
Péronne is a commune of the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. It is the former site of the Péronne monastery, founded by the Anglo-Saxon Eorcenwald. Its site became the resting place for St. Fursa, celebrated by the famous English historian Bede. The monastery was popular with Irish monks, among them Cellanus, whose letters to Aldhelm the Bishop of Sherborne survive. So renowned was Péronne for Irish monks that the monastery became known as Perrona Scottorum. The monastery was destroyed in a Viking raid in 880. It is close to where the 1916, first 1918 and second 1918 Battles of the Somme took place during the First World War. The Museum of the Great War is located in the château.
The Chronicle of Fredegar is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century.
Ultan was an Irish monk who later became an abbot. He was the brother of Saints Fursey and Foillan. He was a member of Fursey's mission from Ireland to East Anglia in c. 633, and lived there both as a monastic probationary and later alone as an anchorite. In c. 651 he accompanied his brother Foillan to Nivelles in Merovingian Gaul where they continued their monastic life together.
Itta of Metz, O.S.B. was the wife of Pepin of Landen, Mayor of the Palace of the Kingdom of Austrasia. After his death, she founded the Abbey of Nivelles, where she became a Colombanian nun along with her daughter, Gertrude of Nivelles. Both are honored as saints by the Catholic Church.
Sigeberht of East Anglia, was a saint and a king of East Anglia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the first English king to receive a Christian baptism and education before his succession and the first to abdicate in order to enter the monastic life. The principal source for Sigeberht is Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which was completed in the 730s.
Saint Fursey was an Irish monk who did much to establish Christianity throughout the British Isles and particularly in East Anglia. He reportedly experienced angelic visions of the afterlife. Fursey is one of the Four Comely Saints.
Æthelwold, also known as Æthelwald or Æþelwald, was a 7th-century king of East Anglia, the long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, which ruled East Anglia from their regio at Rendlesham. The two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Sutton Hoo, the monastery at Iken, the East Anglian see at Dommoc and the emerging port of Ipswich were all in the vicinity of Rendlesham.
Eigil was the fourth abbot of Fulda. He was the nephew and biographer of the abbey's founder and first abbot Saint Sturm. We know about Eigil primarily from the Latin Life that the monk and teacher of Fulda, Candidus Bruun composed about him after his death.
Cnobheresburg was a castrum in East Anglia, where in about 630 the first Irish monastery in southern England was founded by Saint Fursey, as part of the Hiberno-Scottish mission described by Bede.
October 30 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - November 1
