AFTER the death of the two brothers, St. Romanus and St. Lupicinus, the
holy founders of the abbey of Condate, under whose discipline he had
been educated from seven years of age, he was first coadjutor to
Minausius, their immediate successor, and soon after, upon his demise,
abbot of that famous monastery. His life was most austere, his clothes
being sackcloth, and the same in summer as in winter. He took only one
small refection in the day, which was usually after sunset. He inured
himself to cold and all mortifications; and was so dead to himself, as
to seem incapable of betraying the least emotion of anger. His
countenance was always cheerful; yet he never laughed. By meekness he
overcame all injuries, was well skilled in Greek and Latin, and in the
holy scriptures, and a great promoter of the sacred studies in his
monastery. No importunities could prevail upon him to consent to be
ordained priest. In the lives of the first abbots of Condate, of which a
MS. copy is preserved in the Jesuit's library in the college of
Clermont, at Paris, enriched with MS. notes by F. Chifflet, it is
mentioned, that the monastery which was built by St. Romanus, of timber,
being consumed by fire, St. Eugendus rebuilt it of stone; and also near
the oratory, which St. Romanus had built, erected a handsome church in
honor of SS. Peter, Paul, and Andrew, enriched with precious relics. His
prayer was almost continual, and his devotion so tender, that the
hearing {072} of a pious word was sufficient visibly to inflame his
soil, and to throw him sometimes into raptures even in public, and at
table. His ardent sighs to be united with his God, were most vehement
during his last illness. Having called the priest among his brethren, to
whom he had enjoined the office of anointing the sick, he caused him to
anoint his breast according to the custom, says the author of his life,
and he breathed forth his happy soul five days after, about the year
510, and of his age sixty-one.[1] The great abbey of Condate, in
Franche-comte, seven leagues from Geneva, on mount Jura, or Mont-jou,
received from this saint the name of St. Oyend; till in the thirteenth
century it exchanged it for that of St. Claude; who having resigned the
bishopric of Besanzon, which see he had governed seven years in great
sanctity, lived fifty-five years abbot of this house, a perfect copy of
the virtues of St. Oyend, and died in 581. He is honored on the 6th of
June. His body remains entire to this day; and his shrine is the most
celebrated place of resort for pilgrims in all France.[2] See the life
of St. Oyend by a disciple, in Bollandus and Mabillon. Add the remarks
of Rivet. His. Liter. T. 3, p. 60.
Footnotes:
1. The history of the first Abbots of Condate, compiled, according to
F. Chifflet, in 1252, mentions translation of the relics of St.
Eugendus, when they were enshrined in the same Church of St. Peter,
which had been made with great solemnity, at which this author had
assisted, and of which he testifies that he had already wrote the
history here quoted. F. Chifflet regrets the loss of this piece, and
adds that the girdle of St. Eugendus, made of white leather, two
fingers broad, has been the instrument of miraculous cures, and that
in 1601 Petronilla Birod, a Calvinist woman in that neighborhood,
was converted to the Catholic faith, with her husband and whole
family, having been suddenly freed from imminent danger of death and
child-bearing, and safely delivered by the application of this
relic.
2. The rich abbey of St. Claude gave rise to a considerable town built
about it, which was made an episcopal see by pope Benedict XIV., in
1743: who, secularizing the monastery, converted it into a
cathedral. The canons, to gain admittance, must give proof of their
nobility for sixteen degrees, eight paternal and as many maternal.
St. Romanus was buried at Beaume, St. Lucinius at Leu{}nne, and St.
Oyend at Condate: whence this last place for several ages bore his
name.