ST MERIADEC, BISHOP OF VANNES, CONFESSOR - 7 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 7th of June

ST MERIADEC, BISHOP OF VANNES, CONFESSOR 

Whilst Saint Meriadec [Meriadoc] lived in the world, he employed the revenue of a great estate of which he was master, in charitable works, and at length stripped himself of it principally in favour of the poor. 

IN THE WILDERNESS

From that time he lived a recluse in a desert place, a mile from the castle of Pontivi in the viscounty of Rohan in Brittany. The viscount himself visited the saint, and had the greatest veneration for his sanctity. 

THE FATHER OF ALL THE DISTRESSED

The canons and people of Vannes, seconded by the bishops of the province, compelled him much against his will to fill the episcopal see of that city. With this dignity his charity to the poor received a great increase; for he looked upon himself by that sacred character as it were anointed the father and comforter of all the distressed. Under his episcopal ornaments he wore a rough hair shirt, and had no better covering to his bed than sackcloth. 

HIS HOLY DEATH

The legend and ancient lessons of Treguir place his death in 1302. In the old Breviary of Nantes, in that of Vannes, etc., an office is appointed in his honour on the 7th of June. He is titular saint of the chapel of the castle of Pontivi, and of several others in Brittany. 

NOTE:

The age in which St Meriadec lived: The title of Viscounts of Rohan in Brittany was not known before the twelfth century. That derives its chief honour from the marriage of the Viscount John II with Mary, daughter of Francis I duke of Brittany, and his wife Isabel Stuart, daughter of James I king of Scotland, in 1445. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)