dimanche 17 mai 2015

Saint MADRON (MADEN, MADERN) de CORNWALL, ermite et confesseur


Madron Baptistry (Cornwall, U.K.) viewed from the north-west

Saint Madron

Ermite (+ v. 545)

Maden ou Madern.

Selon la légende, cet anglais aurait été ermite en Cornouailles où quelques églises portent son nom ainsi qu'une source (Madron's well)

Voir aussi la commune de Saint-Maden 22350:

En ce qui concerne le vieux Saint Breton 'St Maden', les spécialistes et historiens donnent deux versions:

- Assimilation à St Maudan, ce qui constitue la même origine que la paroisse de Plumaudan.

- Saint-Maden signifiant 'Mon Homme' selon le Pouillé de Tours, Province ecclésiastique dont faisait partie Saint-Maden à cette époque, et qui précise que Saint-Maden est serviteur de Saint-Goulven, un saint venu d’Écosse au VIIe Siècle.


Basin in the south-western corner of Madron Baptistry (Cornwall, U.K.)



Madron of Cornwall, Hermit (AC)

(also known as Maden, Madern)

Died near Land's End, Cornwall, c. 545. Saint Madron, a hermit in Brittany of Cornish descent, is the patron of many churches, including the site of his hermitage at Saint Madern's Well in Cornwall and two parishes in Saint-Malo. Many miracles are ascribed to Saint Madron, including one experienced, investigated, and attested to by the Protestant bishop of Exeter, Dr. Joseph Hall, a strong opponent of Catholicism who wrote Dissuasive from popery to W. D.. In On the invisible world he wrote of the miraculous cure at Saint Madern's Well:

"The commerce that we have with the good spirits is not now discerned by the eye, but is, like themselves, spiritual. Yet not so, but that even in bodily occasions we have many times insensible helps from them; in such manner as that by the effects we can boldly say: Here hath been an angel, though we see him not. Of this kind was that (no less than miraculous) cure which at Saint Madern's in Cornwall was wrought upon a poor cripple, John Trelille, whereof (besides the attestation of many hundreds of neighbors) I took a strict and personal examination in that last visitation which I either did or ever shall hold. This man, that for sixteen years together was fain to walk upon his hands, by reason of the close contraction of the sinews of his legs (upon three admonitions in a dream to wash in that well), was suddenly so restored to his limbs, that I saw him able to walk and get his own maintenance. I found here was neither art nor collusion: the thing done, the author invisible."

Another writer of the same period gives a fuller account of the same miraculous cure:

"I will relate one miracle more done in our own country, to the great wonder of the neighboring inhabitants, but a few years ago, viz., about the year 1640. The process of the business was told the king when at Oxford, which he caused to be further examined. It was this: a certain boy of twelve years old, called John Trelille, in the county of Cornwall, not far from the Land's End, as they were playing at football, snatching up the ball ran away with it; whereupon a girl in anger struck him with a thick stick on the backbone, and so bruised or broke it, that for sixteen years after he was forced to go creeping on the ground.

"In this condition he arrived to the twenty-eighth year of his age, when he dreamed that if he did but bathe in Saint Madern's well, or in the stream running from it, he should recover his former strength and health. This is a place in Cornwall from the remains of ancient devotion still frequented by Protestants on the Thursdays in May, and especially on the feast of Corpus Christi; near to which well is a chapel dedicated to Saint Madern, where is yet an altar, and right against it a grassy hillock (made every year anew by the country people) which they call Saint Madern's bed. The chapel-roof is quite decayed; but a kind of thorn of itself shooting forth of the old walls, so extends its boughs that it covers the whole chapel, and supplies as it were a roof.

"On a Thursday in May, assisted by one Periman his neighbor, entertaining great hopes from his dream, thither he crept, and lying before the altar, and praying very fervently that he might regain his health and the strength of his limbs, he washed his whole body in the stream that flowed from the well, and ran through the chapel: after which, having slept about an hour and a half on Saint Madern's bed, through the extremity of pain he felt in his nerves and arteries, he began to cry out, and his companion helping and lifting him up, he perceived his hams and joints somewhat extended, and himself become stronger, insomuch, that partly with his feet, partly with his hands, he went much more erect than before.

"Before the following Thursday he got two crutches, resting on which he could make shift to walk, which before he could not do. And coming to the chapel as before, after having bathed himself he slept on the same bed, and awaking found himself much stronger and more upright; and so leaving one crutch in the chapel, he went home with the other.

"The third Thursday he returned to the chapel. and bathed as before, slept, and when he awoke rose up quite cured; yea, grew so strong, that he wrought day-labor among other hired servants; and four years after listed himself a soldier in the kings army, where he behaved himself with great stoutness, both of mind and body at length, in 1644, he was slain at Lime in Dorsetshire."

The author emphasizes notice that Thursday and Friday were the days chosen out of devotion to the blessed Eucharist and the Passion of Christ.

This well-attested miracle aroused interest in Saint Madron, but still little is known about the saint except for the dedications in Cornwall and Brittany. He has been identified as Saint Medran, the disciple of Saint Kieran, the Welsh Saint Padarn, or a local man when accompanied Saint Tudwal to Brittany (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson, Husenbeth).

SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0517.shtml


The altar stone at the eastern end of Madron Baptistry (Cornwall, U.K.)

May 17

St. Maden, or Madern, Confessor

HONOURED in Brittany, where he is patron of a parish in the diocess of St. Malo: and probably of another in the same diocess, called Plu-Mauden, as F. Lobineau takes notice. 1 His name was also in the highest veneration in Cornwall, where he lived and died in a hermitage near the Land’s-end, where a chapel which bore his name was long famous for pilgrimages and miracles.

Among the miracles ascribed to St. Madern, that which follows was attested by Dr. Joseph Hall, the Protestant bishop of Exeter, who in his last visitation of this diocess before he was translated to the see of Norwich in 1641, made a juridical and strict inquiry into all the circumstances of this fact, and authentically declared the evidence of the miracle to be incontestable. The strong prejudices and inveterate hatred against the Catholic religion, which he discovers in his Dissuasive from Popery to W. D. revolted, (viz. a late convert to the Catholic faith) and in many other parts of his voluminous writings, and of which the history of his whole life is a constant proof, render his testimony the more unexceptionable. In his treatise On the Invisible World, 2 he speaks of a miraculous cure wrought at St. Madern’s well, in the following words: “The commerce that we have with good spirits is not now discerned by the eye, but is, like themselves, spiritual. Yet not so, but that even in bodily occasions we have many times insensible helps from them; in such manner as that by the effects we can boldly say: Here hath been an angel, though we see him not. Of this kind was that (no less than miraculous) cure which at St. Madern’s in Cornwall was wrought upon a poor cripple, John Trelille, whereof (besides the attestation of many hundreds of neighbours) I took a strict and personal examination in that last visitation which I either did or ever shall behold. This man, that for sixteen years together was fain to walk upon his hands, by reason of the close contraction of the sinews of his legs, (upon three admonitions in a dream to wash in that well,) was suddenly so restored to his limbs, that I saw him able to walk and get his own maintenance. I found here was neither art nor collusion: the thing done, the author invisible.”

Another writer, a curious searcher into nature, and of great learning, who lived in that country about the same time, gives a fuller account of the same miraculous cure, as follows: 3 “I will relate one miracle more done in our own country, to the great wonder of the neighbouring inhabitants, but a few years ago, viz. about the year 1640. The process of the business was told the king when at Oxford, which he caused to be further examined. It was this:—A certain boy of twelve years old, called John Trelille, in the county of Cornwall, not far from the Land’s-end, as they were playing at foot-ball, snatching up the ball ran away with it; whereupon a girl in anger struck him with a thick stick on the back-bone, and so bruised or broke it, that for sixteen years after he was forced to go creeping on the ground. In this condition he arrived to the twenty-eighth year of his age, when he dreamed that if he did but bathe in St. Madern’s well, or in the stream running from it, he should recover his former strength and health. This is a place in Cornwall from the remains of ancient devotion still frequented by Protestants on the Thursdays in May, and especially on the feast of Corpus Christi; near to which well is a chapel dedicated to St. Madern, where is yet in altar, and right against it a grassy hillock (made every year anew by the country people) which they call St. Madern’s bed. The chapel roof is quite decayed; but a kind of thorn of itself shooting forth of the old walls, so extends its boughs that it covers the whole chapel, and supplies as it were a root. On a Thursday in May, assisted by one Periman his neighbour, entertaining great hopes from his dream, thither he crept, and lying before the altar, and praying very fervently that he might regain his health and the strength of his limbs, he washed his whole body in the stream that flowed from the well, and ran through the chapel: after which having slept about an hour and a half on St. Madern’s bed, through the extremity of pain he felt in his nerves and arteries, he began to cry out, and his companion helping and lifting him up, he perceived his hams and joints somewhat extended, and himself become stronger, insomuch, that partly with his feet, partly with his hands, he went much more erect than before. Before the following Thursday he got two crutches, resting on which he could make a shift to walk, which before he could not do. And coming to the chapel as before, after having bathed himself he slept on the same bed, and awaking found himself much stronger and more upright; and so leaving one crutch in the chapel, he went home with the other. The third Thursday he returned to the chapel, and bathed as before, slept, and when he awoke rose up quite cured; yea grew so strong, that he wrought day-labour among other hired servants; and four years after enlisted himself a soldier in the king’s army, where he behaved himself with great stoutness, both of mind and body: at length in 1644 he was slain at Lime in Dorsetshire.” The author takes notice that Thursday and Friday were the days chosen out of devotion to the Blessed Eucharist and the Passion of Christ.

Note 1. Hist. des Saints de la Bretagne, p. 11. [back]

Note 2. Bb. Hall on the Invis. World, l. 1, sect. 8. [back]

Note 3. Ex R. P. Francisci Conventr. Paralipom. Philosoph. c. 4, p. 68. Referam adhuc unum miraculum in patrâ nostrâ paucis abhinc annis, &c. [back]

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73).  Volume V: May. The Lives of the Saints.  1866.

SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/5/173.html


Boswarthen Cross - an ancient wayside cross, near Madron (Cornwall, U.K.)


Saint Madron of Cornwall

Also known as
  • Maden
  • Madern
  • Maderne
  • Madon
  • Medron
Profile

Monk and hermit. Cures worked at Saint Madron’s Church, Cornwall, England. Honoured in Brittany. Like many holy people of the time, there is a well that is considered “his”, and is noted for its healing powers. Tradition says that you ask for healing from some ill, then leave a piece of cloth from your clothing at the well; as the cloth deteriorates, the illness dissipates.

Born

SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/saint-madron-of-cornwall/

The church of St Maddern or Madernus at Madron. Madron parish church is the mother church of Penzance. Until the middle of the C19th the whole of Penzance was within Madron Parish. The importance of the church is reflected in the numerous impressive tombstones and vaults within the churchyard - see 1416730 and 1416720.


St. Madron of Cornwall, Hermit

(Maden, Madern)

Died near Land's End, Cornwall, c. 545. Saint Madron, a hermit in Brittany of Cornish descent, is the patron of many churches, including the site of his hermitage at Saint Madern's Well in Cornwall and two parishes in Saint-Malo. Many miracles are ascribed to Saint Madron, but still little is known about the saint except for the dedications in Cornwall and Brittany. He has been identified as Saint Medran (f.d. July 7), the disciple of Saint Kieran (f.d. March 5), the Welsh Saint Padarn (f.d. April 16), or a local man who accompanied Saint Tudwal (f.d. December 1) to Brittany (Attwater2BenedictinesCoulsonHusenbeth).

Troparion of St Madern tone 2

Out of pagan darkness in the land of Cornwall/ thou didst shine as a witness to Christ./ Holy hermit Madern, entreat Him/ that the light thou didst kindle may ever shine in our hearts.

SOURCE : http://celticsaints.org/2014/0517a.html

Voir aussi : http://vingoe.name/madron_well.htm