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Charlotte de Ferré présentée par saint Lézin,
vitrail, La Chapelle-Janson (Ille-et-Vilaine), église Saint Lézin
Saint Lézin
Évêque
d'Angers (6ème s.)
Il fut d'abord le
connétable du roi Clotaire, puis gouverneur des provinces armoricaines. Il vint
habiter à Angers qui en était alors la capitale. Il remplit toutes ces
fonctions avec conscience, habileté et honnêteté. Puis, un beau jour, il
changea d'orientation et se retira pour devenir moine dans l'abbaye de
Châlonne. C'est là qu'à la mort de l'évêque d'Angers, les angevins se souvenant
de lui, le tirent du monastère et l'élisent pour être leur évêque. Il mit au
service de l'Église les qualités dont il avait fait la preuve durant son
gouvernement civil.
Une localité perpétue sa mémoire: Saint Lézin-49120.
Un internaute nous écrit:
"D'après l'abbé Louis Tardif, auteur de 'Saint Lézin, évêque
d'Angers', ce saint a vécu au VIe siècle et non au VIIe. Il serait né entre 530
et 540.
J'habite St-Lézin et je connais l'histoire du Saint patron de mon village,
dont les habitants sont les Liciniens (du latin Licinius)"
Au 1er novembre au martyrologe romain: À Angers, vers 606, saint Lézin,
évêque, à qui le pape saint Grégoire le Grand recommanda les moines romains qui
gagnaient l’Angleterre.
Martyrologe
romain
Licinius of Angers B (RM)
(also known as Lesin, Lucinus)
Born c. 540; died c. 618; feast day formerly November 1. When Licinus was about
20, he was sent to the court of his cousin King Clotaire I. His prudence and
valor distinguished him both in the court and in the army, and he carried out
all his Christian duties with diligently. Fasting and prayer were familiar to
him, and his heart was always raised to God. After King Chilperic made him
count of Anjou, about 578, Licinus consented to take a wife. On their wedding
day, the lady contracted leprosy. He immediately decided to renounce the world
and entered holy orders two years later.
Licinus found true
joy within a community of ecclesiastics, engaging in the exercises of piety,
austere penance, and meditaton on the holy scriptures. The people, clergy, and
the court of Clotaire II all concurred that Licinus should assume the
episcopacy of Angers when Bishop Audouin died. Overcoming his own humility, he
was consecrated by Saint Gregory of Tours.
As bishop, his time
and his substance were divided in feeding the hungry, comforting and releasing
prisoners, and curing the bodies and souls of his people. Though he was careful
to keep up exact discipline in his diocese, he was more inclined to indulgence
than rigor, in imitation of the tenderness which Jesus Christ showed for
sinners. He won souls, not simply by strong preaching, but more through an
exemplary life, miracles, and daily prayer for the souls in his care. He longed
for greater solitude, and tried to resign his bishopric, but his priests,
people, and fellow bishops refused to entertain such a thought. So he spent the
rest of his life tending his flock--doing God's will and not his own. His
patience was perfected by continual infirmities in his last years.
Licinus was buried
in the monastery church of St. John Baptist, which he had founded for his
frequent retreats. It is now a collegiate church, and enriched with his relics.
At Angers he is commemorated on June 8 (the day of his consecration) and on
June 21 when his relics were translated or taken up, 1169, in the time of Henry
II, king of England, count of Anjou. His vita, based on the testimony of his
disciples, was written soon after his death; and again by Marbodius, archdeacon
of Angers, afterwards bishop of Rennes, both in Bollandus (Benedictines, Encyclopedia
(Nov.), Husenbeth).
February 13
St. Licinius, Bishop of Angers, Confessor
[Called by the French Lesin.] HE was born of a noble family,
allied to the kings of France, about the year 540. He was applied to learning
as soon as he was capable of instruction, and sent to the court of King
Clotaire I. (whose cousin he was) being about twenty years of age. He signalized
himself by his prudence and valour both in the court and in the army, and
acquitted himself of all Christian duties with extraordinary exactitude and
fervour. Fasting and prayer were familiar to him, and his heart was always
raised to God. King Chilperic made him count or governor of Anjou, and being
overcome by the importunities of his friends, the saint consented to take a
wife about the year 578. But the lady was struck with a leprosy on the morning
before it was to be solemnized. This accident so strongly affected Liciuius,
that he resolved to carry into immediate execution a design he had long
entertained of entirely renouncing the world. This he did in 580, and leaving
all things to follow Jesus Christ, he entered himself among the clergy, and hiding
himself from the world in a community of ecclesiastics, found no pleasure but
in the exercises of piety and the most austere penance, and in meditating on
the holy scriptures. Audouin, the fourteenth bishop of Angers, dying towards
the year 600, the people remembering the equity and mildness with which
Licinius had governed them, rather as their father than as a judge or master,
demanded him for their pastor. The voice of the clergy seconded that of the
people, and the concurrence of the court of Clotaire II. in his minority, under
the regency of his mother Fredegonda, overcame all the opposition his humility
could make. His time and his substance were divided in feeding the hungry,
comforting and releasing prisoners, and curing the bodies and souls of his
people. Though he was careful to keep up exact discipline in his diocess, he
was more inclined to indulgence than rigour, in imitation of the tenderness
which Jesus Christ showed for sinners. Strong and persuasive eloquence, the
more forcible argument of his severe and exemplary life, and God himself
speaking by miracles, qualified him to gain the hearts of the most hardened,
and make daily conquests of souls to Christ. He renewed the spirit of devotion
and penance by frequent retreats, and desired earnestly to resign his
bishopric, and hide himself in some solitude: but the bishops of the province,
whose consent he asked, refusing to listen to such a proposal, he submitted,
and continued to spend the remainder of his life in the service of his flock.
His patience was perfected by continual infirmities in his last years, and he
finished his sacrifice about the year 618, in the sixty-fifth of his age. He
was buried in the church of St. John Baptist, which he had founded, with a
monastery, which he designed for his retreat. It is now a collegiate church,
and enriched with the treasure of his relics. His memory was publicly honoured
in the seventh age: the 1st of November was the day of his festival, though he
is now mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on the 13th of February. At Angers he
is commemorated on the 8th of June, which seems to have been the day of his
consecration, and on the 21st of June, when his relics were translated or taken
up, 1169, in the time of Henry II. king of England, count of Anjou. See his
life, written from the relation of his disciples soon after his death; and
again by Marbodius, archdeacon of Angers, afterwards bishop of Rennes, both in
Bollandus
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume II: February. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Saint Licinius
Also known as
- Lesin
Profile
Born to the French
nobility. Monk. Bishop
of Angers, France
in 586,
consecrated by Saint Gregory
of Tours.
- c.616
