Saint Constantin
Roi
et martyr en Ecosse (✝ v. 576)
Son histoire a sans
aucun doute quelques fondements historiques, même si elle a été grandement
améliorée par des légendes. Roi de Cornouailles, il mena tout d'abord une vie
déréglée. Puis il se retira dans le Pays de Galles et en Irlande pour faire
pénitence. Il se rendit enfin en Écosse pour en être le missionnaire et c'est
là qu'il fut tué par des pirates.
En Écosse, au VIe siècle, saint Constantin, roi, qui aurait été
disciple de saint Colomba
et martyr.
Martyrologe
romain
Saint
Constantin de Cornouailles, Higougène martyr ( 566 ou 588)
Notre Père saint Constantin fut, selon une tradition, le neveu du
célèbre roi Arthur, à qui ce dernier légua sa couronne, quand il fut
mortellement blessé.
Selon une autre tradition, il fut un roi de Cornouailles, qui abandonna son
royaume et devint moine dans la cellule de Saint David. Puis, partant pour un
autre pays, il y construisit un monastère.
Les traditions les plus importantes le concernant viennent d'Écosse. Elles
affirment qu'il était le fils de Paterne, roi de Cornouailles, et qu’il épousa
la fille du roi de Bretagne. Mais elle mourut, et lui, se lamentant sur sa mort
et refusant d'être consolé, transmis son royaume à son fils, et dit adieu à
tous, quitta son royaume et passa en Irlande.
Arrivant à un certain monastère, pendant sept ans, il travailla humblement transportant
du grain au moulin du monastère et depuis celui-ci. Un jour, il était assis
dans le moulin et il se dit: "Suis-je Constantin, roi de Cornouailles,
dont la tête a si souvent porté le heaume et son corps la cuirasse? Non !"
Un homme qui se cachait dans le moulin et qui l’entendit rapporta la chose à
l'higoumène.
[L'higoumène] l’a ensuite emmené loin du moulin, a fait son éducation, et l'a
élevé à la prêtrise. Peu de temps après, il quitta le monastère et se rendit
auprès de saint Columba, et après cela, il fut envoyé par saint Kentigern,
évêque de Glasgow, prêcher la Parole de Dieu dans le Galloway, dans le
sud-ouest de l'Ecosse. Là, il fut élu higoumène d'un monastère, où il vécut une
vie sainte jusqu'à la vieillesse.
Selon une autre tradition, il fonda un monastère à Govan sur la Clyde.
Dans son extrême vieillesse, saint Constantin priait Dieu de lui donner une
mort de martyr, et il entendit une voix du Ciel disant qu'il en serait ainsi
qu’il l'avait demandé.
Puis il alla prêcher la parole de Dieu dans tout le pays, et arriva
finalement à l'île de Kintyre. Là, quelques hommes mauvais le suivirent, et,
s'approchant de son assistant, ils lui coupèrent la main. Le saint le guérit
immédiatement en le touchant.
Puis ces hommes vils firent pleuvoir les coups sur le saint, lui coupèrent le
bras, et le laissèrent pour mort. Appelant à lui les frères, le saint les
réconforta par des paroles spirituelles. Puis il s'endormit en leur présence.
Selon la tradition écossaise, saint Constantin a été martyrisé, en 576, et
selon la tradition irlandaise en 588.
Sa fête est au 9 mars au Pays de Galles et de Cornouailles, au 11 mars en
Ecosse et au 18 Mars en Irlande.
Version française Claude Lopez-Ginisty
d'après
Constantine of Scotland M
(AC)
Died 576; feast in Cornwall and Wales is March 9. King Constantine of Cornwall
is reputed to have been married to the daughter of the king of Brittany and to
have led a life full of vice and greed until he was led to conversion by Saint
Petroc. Upon the death of his wife, he is said to have ceded his throne to his
son in order to become a penitent monk at St. Mochuda Monastery at Rahan,
Ireland. He performed menial tasks at the monastery, then studied for the
priesthood and was ordained. Constantine became a missionary to the Picts in
Scotland under Saint Columba and then Saint Kentigern, preached in Galloway,
and founded and became abbot of a monastery at Govan near the River Clyde. In
his old age, on his way to Kintyre, he was attacked by pirates who cut off his
right arm, and he bled to death. He is regarded as Scotland's first martyr,
although his story is often contradictory and unreliable. It is probable that
the Scottish martyr is not the same person as the British king. There are two
places in Cornwall called Constantine: one on the Helford River and the other
near Padstow. The church on the first site was the larger and survived as a
monastery until the 11th century. He was also patron of the Devon churches of
Milton Abbot and Dunsford (Benedictines, Delaney, Farmer, Husenbeth).
St. Constantine, Martyr
HE is said to have been a British king, who, after the death of his
queen, resigned the crown to his son, and became a monk in the monastery of St.
David. It is added that he afterwards went into North Britain, and joined St.
Columba in preaching the gospel amongst the Picts, who then inhabited a great
part of what is now called Scotland. He founded a monastery at Govane, near the
river, Cluyd, converted all the land of Cantire to the faith of Christ, and
died a martyr by the hands of infidels, towards the end of the sixth century.
He was buried in his monastery of Govane, and divers churches were erected in
Scotland under his invocation. But it seems most probable that the Scottish
martyr is not the same person with the British king. Colgan supposes him to have
been an Irish monk who had lived in the community of St. Carthag, at Rathane. 1
Note 1. See the MS. Lives of Scottish Saints, compiled by a
Jesuit, who was nephew of Bishop Lesley, kept in the Scottish College at Paris.
Several Scottish historians give the title of saint to Constantine III. king of
the Scots, who, forsaking his crown and the world, entered himself amongst the
Culdees, or religious men of St. Andrew’s, in 946. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
III: March. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Saint Constantine of
Cornwall
Profile
Born a Cornish prince, the son of King Paternus. After a life of vice, Constantine had
a conversion experience, repented his sins, and studied the faith in Wales and Ireland. Missionary to the Scottish Picts.
Worked with Saint
Columbanus. Abbot
of a monastery at Govan. Two places in Cornwall are named for him. Considered by some
sources to be Scotland‘s first martyr.
Constantine of Scotland
Feast day: March 11
King & Martyr
He died in 576. Constantine
was a king of Cornwall , the son of Padeon,
whose conversion probably dates from a confrontation with St. Petroc who was
sheltering a stag which had taken refuge with him from Constantine
This conversation was reported to the abbot who took
him into the community and after a while he was ordained priest. He had spent
seven years at the abbey before he was recognised and by now he was quite an
old man, but he desired to visit Iona and set
off with the blessing of the abbot. St. Columba received him kindly and sent
him on to Sr. Kentigern, whom he may have met when he was at Menevia. While
visiting Glasgow he stayed for some time with
St. Mirren at Paisley and the two became great friends so that Constantine church
of St. Constantine
After St. Constantine had founded his monastery at
Govan he still felt impelled to preach the Faith of Christ to the heathen and
he went to Kintyre with a party of his monks. There, by Campbeltown Loch a
party of robbers came upon him and hacked him and his one attendant to pieces.
The ruins of a church at Kilchouslan are supposed to mark the spot where the
first of the martyrs of Scotland
Troparion of St Constantine Tone 5
Grieving at the loss of thy young spouse,/ thou didst
renounce the world, O Martyr Constantine,/ but seeing thy humility God called
thee to leave thy solitude and serve Him as a priest./ Following thy example,/
we pray for grace to see that we must serve God as He wills/ and not as we
desire,/ that we may be found worthy of His great mercy.
Kontakion of St Constantine Tone 4
Thou wast born to be King of Cornwall,/ O Martyr
Constantine,/ and who could have foreseen that thou wouldst become the first
hieromartyr of Scotland./ As we sing thy praises, O Saint,/ we acknowledge the
folly of preferring human plans to the will of our God.
Margaret Haig and the Orthodox Youth Festival List
MARTYR CONSTANTINE OF CORNWALL
Celebrated March
9 in Wales and Cornwall, March 11 in Scotland and March 18 in Ireland.
Our
holy Father Constantine was, according to one tradition, the nephew of the
famous King Arthur, to whom the latter bequeathed his crown when he was
mortally wounded.
According to another, he was a king of Cornwall who abandoned his kingdom
and became a monk in St. David's cell. Then, leaving for another land, he built
a monastery there.
The fullest traditions concerning him come from Scotland. They state that
he was the son of Paternus, king of Cornwall, and married the daughter of the
king of Brittany. But she died, and he, grieving over her death and refusing to
be comforted, delivered his kingdom to his son, and bidding farewell to all,
left his kingdom and crossed over to Ireland.
Coming to a certain monastery, for seven years he worked humbly carrying
grain to and from the monastery mill. One day he was sitting in the mill and
said to himself; "Am I Constantine, king of Cornwall, whose head has so
often worn the helmet and his body the breastplate? No, I am not." A man
who was hiding in the mill overheard this and reported it to the abbot.
He then took him away from the mill, educated him, and raised him to the
priesthood. Soon after this, he left the monastery and went to St. Columba; and
afterwards he was sent by St. Kentigern, the bishop of Glasgow, to preach the
word of God in Galloway, in South-West Scotland. There he was elected abbot of
a monastery, where he lived a holy life until old age. According to another
tradition, he founded a monastery at Govan on the Clyde. In his extreme old
age, St. Constantine prayed God to give him a martyr's death, and he heard a
voice from heaven saying that it should be as he had asked. Then he went
preaching the word of God throughout the land, and came eventually to the
island of Kintyre. There some evil men followed him, and, coming up to his
attendant, they cut off his hand. The saint immediately healed him with a
touch.
Then the evil men showered blows upon the saint, cut off his arm, and left
him for dead. Calling the brethren to him, the saint comforted them with
spiritual words. Then he fell asleep in their presence.
St. Constantine was martyred, according to the Scottish tradition, in 576,
and according to the Irish tradition in 588; and his feastday is March 9 in
Wales and Cornwall, March 11 in Scotland and March 18 in Ireland.
Holy Martyr Constantine, Pray To God For Us!
By Vladimir
Moss. Posted with permission.
San Costantino
Re e martire
Cornovaglia, 520 circa –
Kintyre, Scozia, 9 maggio 576
Vissuto
nel VI secolo, fu re dell’attuale Cornovaglia. Il primo periodo della sua vita
fu a quanto si racconta “scellerato”. Sacrilego e pluriassassino, si sarebbe
separato dalla moglie, figlia del re di Bretagna Armoricana, per essere più
libero. Convertitosi al cristianesimo, cambiò radicalmente vita, abbandonò il
trono e si ritirò in un monastero irlandese. Dopo sette di vita vissuta in
austerità e penitenza, studiando le scritture, fu consacrato sacerdote e
invitato in Scozia sotto la direzione di San Columba, per evangelizzare le
popolazioni indigene. Lì fu martirizzato da fanatici pagani. La sua vita ci
testimonia quale sia la potenza del Vangelo di Cristo che può portare
cambiamenti radicali nella vita dell’uomo.
Etimologia:
Costantino = che ha fermezza, tenace, dal latino
Emblema: Corona,
Palma
Martirologio
Romano: In Scozia, san Costantino, re, discepolo di san Colomba e martire.
In data
odierna la Chiesa Cattolica festeggia il re San Costantino (Costentyn in
cornico, Custennin in gallese, Constantinus in latino e Constantine in
inglese), che coronò la sua travagliatissima esistenza con la corona del
martirio, grazie alla quale il suo nome emerse dalle fitte nebbie medievali per
imporsi alla devozione dei cristiani, in particolar modo nell’arcipelago
britannico. Questo santo non va confuso con il celeberrimo imperatore,
anch’egli venerato come santo specialmente dalle Chiese Orientali, sia
cattoliche che ortodosse, e festeggiato al 21 maggio.
Tutto ciò che sappiamo di certo su sul santo di oggi è costituito dalle
informazioni tramandate da Gildas, che ebbe a definirlo “cucciolo tirannico
dell’impura leonessa di Damonia”. Si presuppone che in questo caso per Dumnonia
si intenda la regione sud-occidentale dell’Inghilterra, cioè pressapoco la
Cornovaglia, piuttosto che l’omonimo regno sviluppatosi nell’odierna Scozia.
Costantino, nato verso il 520, ascese probabilmente al trono nel 537 dopo la
morte di suo padre Cado. Gildas narra come il primo periodo della sua vita fu a
dir poco “scellerato” e lo critica anche per aver ripudiato sua moglie, figlia
del sovrano bretone Armoricana, allo scopo di commettere indisturbato parecchi
adulteri. Inoltre, dopo aver giurato di voler fare la pace con i suoi nemici,
si travestì da abate, entrò nel santuario dove questi si trovavano e li uccise
spietatamente ai piedi dell’altare.
Anche il cavaliere arturiano Sir Costantino, che secondo l’“Historia Regum
Britanniae” di Goffredo di Monmouth successe a re Artù sul trono di trono di
Britannia, si sarebbe travestito da vescovo ed avrebbe ucciso in una chiesa i
due figli di Mordred, con cui era in conflitto. Per tale motivo questa figura
leggendaria a giudizio di alcuni potrebbe essere basata su quella storica di
Costantino di Dumnonia.
Non pochi nobili personaggi in quell’area e nel medesimo periodo portano il
nome di Costantino, fattore che rende ardua una netta distinzione fra di essi.
Pare comunque cosa certa che il Costantino venerato come santo sarebbe quello
convertitosi al cristianesimo grazie ad un incontro con San Petroc, anch’egli
di nobile estrazione, dando così tangibile testimonianza della potenza del
Vangelo di Cristo che può portare cambiamenti radicali nella vita di ogni uomo,
anche del più accanito peccatore. In seguito alla
conversione, morta la giovane moglie, abdicò in favore del figlio Bledric per
dedicarsi alla vita religiosa.
Fondò chiese, attraversò il canale di Bristol e visse molti anni come monaco in
Irlanda, cimentandosi nell’ascesi e nello studio delle Sacre Scritture,
ricevendo addirittura dopo la dovuta preparazione l’ordinazione presbiterale.
Si ritirò in eremitaggio a Costyneston (Cosmeston), nei pressi di Cardiff, e fu
anche discepolo di San Columba di Iona e di San Kentingern. Spinto da questi grandi santi si
spinse verso nord, ove fondò il monastero di Govan, ne divenne primo abate ed
intraprese l’evangelizzazione dei Pitti, popolazione indigena dell’odierna
Scozia. Fu in questo periodo e grazie al suo apostolato che tale paese si
convertì al cristianesimo, assumendo il nome di “Scotia”.
Costantino, apostolo della Scozia, era destinato ad essere il primo martire a
spargere il proprio sangue su quella terra per la sua fede nel Vangelo che
andava predicando sulle pubbliche piazze: il 9 maggio 576 a Kintyre, infatti,
fu trucidato da alcuni pagani fanatici e le rovine di un’antica chiesa a
Kilchouslan segnano ancora oggi il luogo ove con ogni probabilità il santo
spirò. Le sue spoglie mortali, ritrovate dai suoi discepoli, vennero traslate a
Govon nella chiesa che prese a portare il suo nome. Nacque così una forte
venerazione nei suoi confronti, che perdura sino ai giorni nostri.
La festa di San Costantino è celebrata il 9 marzo in Galles e Cornovaglia, l’11
marzo in Scozia ed il 18 marzo in Irlanda, anche se il Martyrologium Romanum lo
commemora solamente in data odierna. E’ possibile, a seconda
delle fonti, trovare questo santo citato come San Costantino di Cornovaglia,
San Costantino di Dumnonia o San Costantino di Scozia. Tuttavia non va confuso,
oltre che con il celebre imperatore, anche con altri santi sovrani vissuti in
seguito sempre in Gran Bretagna e comunque non censiti dalla Bibliotheca
Sanctorum: San Costantino re di Strathclyde, San Costantino I re di Scozia e
San Costantino II re di Scozia.
PREGHIERE ORTODOSSE IN ONORE DI SAN COSTANTINO
Tropario
Rattristato per la perdita della tua giovane sposa,
tu hai rinunciato al mondo , o martire Costantino,
ma vedendo la tua umiltà
Dio ti ha chiamato a lasciare la tua solitudine
e servirlo come sacerdote.
Seguendo il tuo esempio,
noi preghiamo di avere la grazia di capire
che dobbiamo servire Dio secondo la sua volontà
e non come desideriamo,
per essere riconosciuti degni della sua misericordia.
Kondakion
Tu nascesti per esssere re di Cornovaglia,
o martire Costantino,
e chi avrebbe potuto prevedere
che tu saresti diventato il primo martire di Scozia.
Cantando le tue lodi, o santo martire,
noi riconosciamo la vanitàdi preferire
i progetti umani alla volontà del nostro Dio.
Autore: Fabio
Arduino
