(A.D. 573.)
[Venerated in Brittany, in the Churches of Léon, Nantes, &c., and
introduced into later Martyrologies. Authority:--A life written by
Worwonock, monk of Landevenec, in the 9th cent., but rewritten, or
added to, in the following century by an anonymous monk of the abbey
of Feury.]
Paul, son of a Welsh prince, was a disciple of S. Iltut, along with
S. Samson and Gildas. At the age of sixteen he left his master, and
retired across the sea into a solitary place among his Brittany moors,
where he erected an oratory and a cell. In course of time, other young
men, seeking like himself a better country than earth, congregated
about him, and he became their superior. He received priest's orders
along with twelve of his companions. Near his congregation lived a
prince named Mark, who invited him to come into his territory, and
instruct his people in the Word of God. He accordingly went with his
twelve priests to Vannes, and was well received by the king. After
he had spent some time in that country, he felt a desire to go into
solitude once more. Therefore he went before the king and asked him to
let him depart, and to give him a bell; "For at that time," says the
chronicler, "it was customary for kings to have seven bells rung before
they sat down to meat." Mark, however, refused to give him the bell,
being vexed that Paul should leave him. So the holy man went his way
without it. And before he took boat to depart, he visited his sister,
who lived in solitude with some other holy women on a little island in
the Morbihan. And when all was ready for his departure, and the boat
was on the shore, he said, "Sister, I must depart." Then she wept, and
entreated him to tarry four days. And as he saw her tears, he consented
to remain three days. Then, when he was about to depart, she said, "I
know, my brother, that thou art powerful with God. Therefore I pray
thee grant me my request." And he said, "Say on." Then she said, "This
island is small and incommodious for landing, being violently beaten by
the angry surge. Pray to the Lord that he extend it a little, with a
gentle shore, into the sea."
"Ah, my sister!" exclaimed the holy man, "thou hast asked what is
beyond my strength. But let us together beseech the Lord to be
gracious, and grant thee thy desire." So they both kneeled down and
prayed. Then the sea began to retreat, and leave smooth yellow sands,
where all had been blue water before. So the nuns hasted and ran and
told the brother and sister, and they rose, and went down to the sea,
and stepped on the newly recovered land. And now follows a part of the
legend which has evidently sprung up among the peasants of the Morbihan
to explain the existence of the Druidical circles and avenues in the
islet. The story goes on to tell that the sister gathered pebbles and
laid them round the land laid bare, and strewed them down the road she
and her brother had taken. And lo! these pebbles grew into tall pillars
of rude rock, and the avenue is to this day called the road of S. Paul.
Then Paul stepped into his boat, followed by his disciples, and they
rowed to the island of Ouessant, and the port where they disembarked
was called Portus-boum, and at the present day is Paimbœuf. Then
Paul tarried there many years till God called him to work again. And
he took boat and went ashore and travelled through Brittany, till he
came to Count Withur, a good man and lord of the country under king
Childebert. And Paul settled in the island of Batz, which was off the
coast, near the small town encompassed with mud walls, which has since
gone by his name. And there he found wild bees in a hollow tree, and
they were swarming, so he gathered the swarm and set them in a hive,
and taught the people how to get honey. He also found a wild sow with
its litter, and patted her gently, and she became tame. Her descendants
remained at Léon for many generations, and were regarded as royal
beasts. Probably this legend points to S. Paul having taught the people
to keep pigs.
One day Paul was with the count Withur, when a fisherman brought the
count a bell he had picked up on the shore; Withur gave it to S. Paul,
who smiled and said that though king Mark had refused him a bell, yet
now God had sent him one, after many years of waiting and wishing for
it.
"That bell," says the historian, "has received from the people a
special name, on account of its colour and shape, for it is green and
oblong." S. Paul erected a church at Léon, and was appointed its first
bishop. Withur could only obtain his consecration by having recourse
to an artifice, for he knew that Paul could not be persuaded to accept
the dignity. He gave him a letter to king Childebert, and entreated
him to take it in person to the king, as it contained matter of urgent
importance. Paul, full of simplicity, and eager to oblige his friend,
hasted to court. And when the king broke the seal and opened the
letter, he read that Withur had sent Paul to be ordained bishop, and
invested with the see of Léon. Then Childebert caught a staff from a
prelate who stood by him, and said, "Receive the pastoral dignity, to
discharge thy office for the good of many souls," and he called three
bishops to him to ordain Paul. Then the holy man wept, and implored the
king to desist, but Childebert turned a deaf ear to his entreaties,
and had him consecrated, and then sent him back to Léon, where he was
received with the liveliest demonstrations of joy. He built a monastery
on the isle of Batz, and filled it with monks, and thither he retired
whenever he could escape from the business of his see. He lived to a
very advanced age, and laying aside his episcopal government, ordained
three of his disciples in succession to it, and survived two of them.
His body reposed in his cathedral church, but his relics were dispersed
by the Huguenots in the religious wars of the 16th century.
In art he is represented either (1) with a bell, or (2) with a cruse of
water and a loaf of bread, as he lived on nothing else, or (3) driving
a dragon into the sea, to signify that he expelled the Druidical
superstition out of Brittany.