He was a child of prayer, and was born about the year 496, of
noble parentage, in that part of South Wales which is now called
Glamorganshire, then in the country of the Demetes, upon the borders
of the Wenetes, who inhabited the province called by the Britons
Guent, now Monmouthshire. At seven years of age he was put under
the care of St. Iltutus, a very learned abbot in Glamorganshire,
and having made great progress in learning and virtue, was ordained
priest by Saint Dubritius, bishop of Caërleon. In 512 he passed
into a neighboring island; where he led an eremitical life, as did
several others, under the direction of St. Piro, a holy priest. By
an order of SS. Dubritius and Iltutus he paid a visit to his aged
father who lay dangerously ill. The saint restored him by his prayers
to his health, and converted him, and his whole numerous family,
including his uncles, cousins, and brothers, whom he placed in
several monasteries, but his father and an uncle in his own community
of hermits. In 516 he made a voyage into Ireland, to animate himself
to fervor by the example and instructions of many illustrious saints
who flourished there, and after his return shut himself up in a
cave in a wilderness. In 520 St. Dubritius called him to a synod at
Caërleon, and in it ordained him bishop without being fixed in any
particular see. St. Sampson continued his former austere manner of
life, abstaining wholly from flesh, sometimes eating only once in two
or three days, and often passing the whole night in prayer standing,
though sometimes when he watched the night, he took a little rest,
leaning his head against a wall. To gain souls to God by the exercise
of the ministry with which he saw himself intrusted, he passed
over into Brittany in France, with his father and his cousin St.
Magloire, and was followed by St. Maclou or Malo, another cousin. St.
Sampson there converted many idolaters, raised a dead man to life,
and wrought many other miracles. He founded a great abbey, which he
called Dole,[331] and fixed there the episcopal see which was before
subject to Quidalet, now St. Malo’s. This see of Dole long enjoyed a
metropolitical jurisdiction over all the bishops of Brittany.[332]
He subscribed to the second council of Paris, held in 557, in the
manner following, “I Sampson, a sinner, bishop, have consented and
subscribed.” He used to have a cross carried before him, as is the
custom of archbishops at present. He died about the year 564. A
considerable part of his relics was translated to Paris, with those
of St. Magliore and St. Maclou, in the tenth century, for fear of the
inroads of the Normans. See his life in Mabillon, Act. Bened. t. 1,
p. 176, and Solier the Bollandist, t. 6, Jul. p. 568.