ST VANDRILLE, ABBOT - 22 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 22nd of July

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SAINT VANDRILLE, ABBOT

Saint Vandrille (Vandregisil, Wandregisilus, Wandregisel, Wando) in his youth was made count of the palace under Dagobert I. To retrieve himself from the dissipation and other ill effects, of which hurry and much conversation with the world are dangerous occasions, he frequently retired into his closet, and there conversed much with God by devout prayer, and with himself by serious consideration on his own duties, condition, and spiritual miseries. 

In compliance with the will of his parents he took to wife a virtuous and noble lady; but, on the very day of his marriage, obtained her consent that they should both consecrate their virginity to God, which they did by a mutual vow on the same day. 

HE TOOK THE MONASTIC HABIT AT MONTFAUCON

Vandrille, in 629, took the monastic habit at Montfaucon, in Champagne, an abbey then lately founded by St Baudri. He afterwards built a monastery called Elisang. He took a journey to Bobio and to Rome. After his return into France, he spent ten years in the monastery of Romans, on the Isere. Afterwards, with the blessing of his abbot, he repaired to St Ouen, archbishop of Rouen, by whom he was some time after ordained priest. 

HE FOUNDED THE FAMOUS MONASTERY OF FONTENELLES

In 648 the saint founded the famous monastery of Fontenelles, five leagues below Rouen, in which he in a short time saw himself at the head of three hundred monks. 

HIS LIFE WAS ALWAYS MOST AUSTERE

His life was always most austere; he slept little, was clad in sackcloth, and was most scrupulously exact in all the exercises of the monastic rule, in which, he was well assured, the sanctification of his state consisted. 

He died on July 22, 666, being ninety-six years old. His body was translated to Ghent in 944. It was lost in the persecution of the Calvinists in 1578; just his two arms could be retrieved. 

From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints - 📷 Abbey Saint Vandrille

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Vandrille may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.