He was by birth a noble English Saxon, but born in the southern
part of Scotland; for Lothian and the rest of the Lowlands as far
as Edinburgh Frith belonged for several ages to the Northumbrian
English. Having received holy orders in his own country he made
a pilgrimage to Rome, whence he returned home enriched with holy
relics. Some time after, in company with the holy bishop St. Wiro,
and St. Otger a deacon, he passed into those parts of Lower Germany
which had not then received the light of faith. Having obtained the
protection of Pepin, mayor of the palace in Austrasia, he converted
the country now called Guelderland, Cleves, Juliers, and several
neighboring provinces lying chiefly between the Rhine, the Wahal, and
the Meuse. When he had planted the gospel there with great success
he retired to St. Peter’s Mount near Ruremund, but continued to
make frequent missions among the remaining infidels. Prince Pepin,
who though he had formerly fallen into adultery, led afterward a
penitential and Christian holy life, went every year from his castle
of Herstal to confess his sins to his holy pastor after the death
of St. Wiro, which the author of St. Plechelm’s life relates in the
following words.[167] “Pepin, the king of the French (that is, mayor
with royal authority), had him in great veneration, and every year,
in the beginning of Lent, having laid aside his purple, went from his
palace barefoot to the said mount of Peter where the saint lived,
and took his advice how he ought to govern his kingdom according to
the holy will and law of God, and by what means he might promote the
faith of Christ and every advantage of virtue. There also having
made the confession of his sins to the high priest of the Lord, and
received penance, he washed away with his tears the offences which
through human frailty he had contracted.” F. Bosch, the Bollandist,
observes, this prince must have been Pepin, surnamed of Herstal, or
the Fat, who, though he never enjoyed the title of king, reigned
in Austrasia with regal power, and with equal piety and valor. He
died in 714, in the castle of Jopil on the Meuse, near Liege, which
was his paternal estate, St. Pepin of Landen his grandfather being
son of Carloman, the first mayor of his family, grandson of Charles
count of Hesbay near Liege, the descendant of Ferreol, formerly
præfectus-prætorio of the Gauls. St. Plechelm survived Pepin of
Herstel seventeen years, is called by Bollandus bishop of Oldenzel
and Ruremund, and died on the 15th of July, 732. He was buried in
our lady’s chapel in the church, on the mountain of St. Peter, now
called of St. Odilia, near Ruremund. His relics were honored with
many miracles. The principal portion of them is now possessed by the
collegiate church of Oldenzel, in the province of Over-Yssel, part at
Ruremund. His name is famous in the Belgic and other Martyrologies.
His ancient life testifies that he was ordained bishop in his own
country before he undertook a missionary life. Bede, in the year
731, mentions Pechthelm, who having been formerly a disciple of St.
Aldhelm, in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, returning to his own
country was ordained bishop to preach the gospel with more authority.
He afterward fixed his see at Candida Casa, now a parliamentary town
of Galloway in Scotland, called Whitehorn. The Bollandists in several
parts of their work contend this Pechthelm to have been a different
person from St. Plechelm, whom Stilting demonstrates to have been at
Mount St. Peter, whilst the other, somewhat elder according to Bede,
was in North-Britain at Candida Casa; though Antony Pagi[168] and the
author of Batavia Sacra endeavor to prove him, against F. Bosch and
his colleagues, to have been the same. See his authentic life with
the remarks of Bollandus and his colleagues, Julij, t. 4, p. 58, and
Batavia Sacra, p. 50.[169]