May 17th - St. Madron of Cornwall, Hermit (AC)
(Also known as Maden, Madern)
Died near Land's End, Cornwall, c. 545. Saint Madron, a hermit in Brittany
of
Cornish descent, is the patron of many churches, including the site of his
hermitage at Saint Madern's Well in Cornwall and two parishes in
Saint-Malo.
Many miracles are ascribed to Saint Madron, including one experienced,
investigated, and attested to by the Protestant bishop of Exeter, Dr.
Joseph
Hall, a strong opponent of Catholicism who wrote "Dissuasive from Popery"
to
W.
D. In "On the Invisible World" he wrote of the miraculous cure at Saint
Madern's
Well:
"The commerce that we have with the good spirits is not now discerned by
the
eye, but is, like themselves, spiritual. Yet not so, but that even in
bodily
occasions we have many times insensible helps from them; in such manner as
that
by the effects we can boldly say: Here hath been an angel, though we see
him
not. Of this kind was that (no less than miraculous) cure which at Saint
Madern's in Cornwall was wrought upon a poor cripple, John Trelille,
whereof
(besides the attestation of many hundreds of neighbors) I took a strict
and
personal examination in that last visitation which I either did or ever
shall
hold. This man, that for sixteen years together was fain to walk upon his
hands,
by reason of the close contraction of the sinews of his legs (upon three
admonitions in a dream to wash in that well), was suddenly so restored to
his
limbs, that I saw him able to walk and get his own maintenance. I found
here
was
neither art nor collusion: the thing done, the author invisible."
Another writer of the same period gives a fuller account of the same
miraculous
cure:
"I will relate one miracle more done in our own country, to the great
wonder
of
the neighboring inhabitants, but a few years ago, viz., about the year
1640.
The
process of the business was told the king when at Oxford, which he caused
to
be
further examined. It was this: a certain boy of twelve years old, called
John
Trelille, in the county of Cornwall, not far from the Land's End, as they
were
playing at football, snatching up the ball ran away with it; whereupon a
girl in
anger struck him with a thick stick on the backbone, and so bruised or
broke
it,
that for sixteen years after he was forced to go creeping on the ground.
"In
this condition he arrived to the twenty-eighth year of his age, when he
dreamed
that if he did but bathe in Saint Madern's well, or in the stream running
from
it, he should recover his former strength and health. This is a place in
Cornwall from the remains of ancient devotion still frequented by
Protestants on
the Thursdays in May, and especially on the feast of Corpus Christi; near
to
which well is a chapel dedicated to Saint Madern, where is yet an altar,
and
right against it a grassy hillock (made every year anew by the country
people)
which they call Saint Madern's bed. The chapel-roof is quite decayed; but
a
kind
of thorn of itself shooting forth of the old walls, so extends its boughs
that
it covers the whole chapel, and supplies as it were a roof.
"On a Thursday in May, assisted by one Periman his neighbor, entertaining
great
hopes from his dream, thither he crept, and lying before the altar, and
praying
very fervently that he might regain his health and the strength of his
limbs, he
washed his whole body in the stream that flowed from the well, and ran
through
the chapel: after which, having slept about an hour and a half on Saint
Madern's
bed, through the extremity of pain he felt in his nerves and arteries, he
began
to cry out, and his companion helping and lifting him up, he perceived his
hams
and joints somewhat extended, and himself become stronger, insomuch, that
partly
with his feet, partly with his hands, he went much more erect than before.
"Before the following Thursday he got two crutches, resting on which he
could
make ****ft to walk, which before he could not do. And coming to the chapel
as
before, after having bathed himself he slept on the same bed, and awaking
found
himself much stronger and more upright; and so leaving one crutch in the
chapel,
he went home with the other.
"The third Thursday he returned to the chapel. and bathed as before,
slept,
and
when he awoke rose up quite cured; yea, grew so strong, that he wrought
day-labor among other hired servants; and four years after listed himself
a
soldier in the kings army, where he behaved himself with great stoutness,
both
of mind and body at length, in 1644, he was slain at Lime in Dorset****re."
The author emphasizes notice that Thursday and Friday were the days chosen
out
of devotion to the blessed Eucharist and the Passion of Christ.
This well-attested miracle aroused interest in Saint Madron, but still
little is
known about the saint except for the dedications in Cornwall and Brittany.
He
has been identified as Saint Medran, the disciple of Saint Kieran, the
Welsh
Saint Padarn, or a local man that accompanied Saint Tudwal to Brittany
(Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, Husenbeth).
From:
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0517.shtml
Saint Quote:
Consider seriously how quickly people change, and how little trust is to
be
had
in them; and hold fast to God, who does not change.
--St. Teresa of Avila
Bible Quote
4 And eating together with them, he commanded them, that they should not
depart
from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father, which you
have
heard (saith he) by my mouth. 5 For John indeed baptized with water, but
you
shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. (Acts 1:4-5)
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Sanctification of Every Week through Devotions:
Sunday to the Holy Trinity
Monday to the Holy Ghost and the Holy Souls in Purgatory
Tuesday to the Holy Angels
Wednesday to St. Joseph
Thursday to the Blessed Sacrament
Friday to the Passion of our Lord, and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Saturday to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The following prayers should be said after every Mass, alone, or as a
group:
Hail, Holy Queen...
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary...
God, our refuge and our strength...
St. Michael...
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! (Thrice)
Imprimatur: +John Farley, Archbishop of New York, Sept 19, 1908.
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