ST MELANIUS OF RENNES, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR - 6 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 6th of January

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SAINT MELANIUS OF RENNES, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR

Saint Melanius [Melaine] was a native of Placs or Plets, in the diocese of Vannes in Brittany, and had served God with great fervour in a monastery for some years, when, upon the death of St Amandus, bishop of Rennes, he was compelled by the clergy and people to fill that see, though his humility made great opposition. 

HIS VIRTUE WAS GREATLY ENHANCED BY A SINCERE HUMILITY

His virtue was chiefly enhanced by a sincere humility, and a spirit of continual prayer. The author of his life tells us, that he raised one that was dead to life, and performed many other miracles. King Clovis, after his conversion, held him in great veneration. The almost entire extirpation of idolatry in the diocese of Rennes was the fruit of our saint’s zeal. 

HE WAS BURIED AT RENNES

He died in a monastery which he had built at Placs, the place of his nativity, according to Dom Morice, in 490. He was buried at Rennes, where his feast is kept on November 6. In the Roman Martyrology he is commemorated on January 6. St Gregory of Tours mentions a stately church erected over his tomb. Solomon, sovereign prince of Brittany, in 840, founded a monastery under his invocation, which still subsists in the suburbs of Rennes, of the Benedictine order.

Source: Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Melanius 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.