(8TH CENT.)
[Belgian Martyrologies. S. Landoald is venerated especially at Ghent.
Also Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. The translation of S. Landoald
is commemorated on Dec. 1st, and the elevation on June 13th. The
original Acts were lost in 954, and by order of Notker, B. of Liege,
new ones were compiled in 981, by one Herdger, abbot of Lobie, who
died 1007.]
S. Amandus having resigned the see of Maestricht into the hands of
S. Remacle, to resume his first vocation of mission work in the Low
Countries, went to Rome to obtain the approval of his design by pope
Martin. The pope not only approved of it, but gave him Landoald, a
priest of the Roman Church, of Lombard family, to accompany and assist
him in his work. S. Amandus was also joined by the deacon Amantius.
They left Rome, and after visiting some of the monasteries of France,
arrived in the country between the Meuse and the Scheldt, where S.
Remacle met S. Amandus, and persuaded him to allow him to keep Landoald
with him to assist him in the work of evangelising his diocese.
Landoald had a large field for the exercise of his zeal in the diocese
of Maestricht, only partially converted to the faith. A rich man named
Aper gave him a piece of land at Wintershoven, on the river Herck, to
the west of Maestricht, where he built a church, which he dedicated to
S. Peter, in 659. Landoald continued his labours under S. Theodard, the
successor of S. Remacle, making Wintershoven his head-quarters, and
sending from time to time one of his little community to Maestricht to
beg. One of his disciples, Adrian by name, was returning from his quest
of alms, when he was waylaid by some robbers, and murdered. S. Landoald
did not long survive him, and there is reason to believe that he died
before S. Lambert succeeded, in the see of Maestricht, to S. Theodard,
who was martyred in 668. He was buried in the church of Wintershoven,
but his body was taken up in 735, and transported into Maestricht, but
from fear of the Normans it was concealed, and taken up again along
with the bodies of S. Amantius and S. Adrian, by Euraculus, bishop of
Liége, but they were claimed by the monks of S. Bavo, at Ghent, who
were proprietors of Wintershoven, and the bodies were translated to
Ghent in 980.