BL. MACCALLINUS, ABBOT - 21 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 21st of January

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. MACCALLINUS, ABBOT  

Blessed Maccallinus is also called Makkalinus, Makalinus, Maccalanus, Malcallinus, Malcallanus, Malacanus, Macclani in the old chronicles, all names which designate his homeland - Ireland - and mean "Son of Chilian" or "Kalan". 

THE FIRST ABBOT OF ST MICHAEL'S MONASTERY

After he had prayed at the tomb of St Fursaeus, he took the habit of Gorze. About A.D. 946 he became the first abbot of St Michael at Hirson (Hierso) on the Oise (Aisia) in French Belgium, bishopric of Laon (Laudunum), which had been founded by the childless Count Eilbert of Aldenardum and his wife Herisindis.

Later, in the city of Laon, he re-established the dilapidated monastery of St Vincent (first foundation around 580). For that purpose he had arrived there in A.D. 961 in the company of twelve friars of St Michael.

HE ARRIVED AT ST VINCENT'S MONASTERY

He was also the head of the Vasour Abbey (Valciodorum) on the Meuse, which is also known under the names of vallis decova, Wasor, Vaulsoir, Walcourt, Valencourt and is in the bishopric of Namur. 

A MIX-UP BY SOME CHRONICLERS

Since this blessed is also called "vir Dei" by the chroniclers, some writers of legends, e.g. Ferrarius, have erroneously read Virduni and made him abbot of St Michael in Verdun. 

LITTLE BUT SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION

We have little but significant information about Bl. Maccallinus' work as abbot. His main principle was to exercise utmost vigilance over himself, which is the surest way of justly and wisely presiding over all those under him. What he said and did he commended to the Lord, and he prayed incessantly for his spiritual family, that the evil enemy might not harm them. Hating this temporal life as directed by the Lord, he found eternal life, to which he was called on January 21, 978 (not 990, as some writers claim). 

AT FIRST, HE WAS BURIED IN THE ABBEY CHURCH

He was buried in the abbey church. For fear of desecration by hostile forces his relics were buried in the earth around 1659 and have not been found since. (Gall. Chr. l. c. 600. Cf. also III. 569 to 571 and Kelly, pp. 59 and 60.) His successor at Vasour was St Cadron. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)