Hello,
Today we discuss the life of Patern of Vannes. Or not ! I mean, he’s the first founding saint of the Tro Breiz that I have almost nothing to say about. What little is found about him rarely stands up to cursory study or is disputed by historians.
In this no man’s land, we can save an approximate date, that of the Council of Vannes which consecrated him bishop – 465 – and a range of dates – his death, between 490 and 511 AD On the other hand, everyone agrees that his surname is Gallo-Roman, therefore not Breton, perhaps Armorican. Some try to make up for it by attributing to him a Breton mother, Guen. However, who really believes it ? We do have a Vita Sancti Paterni but it seems rather borrowed from that of a Welsh saint, Padarn, who would have nothing to do with the diocese of Vannes, and from Saint Patern d’Avranches who lived clearly later.
Frankly, I expected more information. We always place Patern on the same pedestal as the six other saints of the Tro Breiz : Pol, Tugdual, Brieuc, Malo, Samson and Corentin, and in the end we have fewer sources on him than on Saint Méen, for example, who is not part of the Tro Breiz since he did not found a bishopric.
Okay, but let’s not despair. We already have a clue : his name is Gallo-Roman, he was in Vannes around 465 and he died at the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century. Which made him one of the first founders of bishoprics in Armorica. I say Armorique because Vannes only became Breton when Waroch invested it in 578, long after the death of Patern.
Great ! We are therefore talking about a Breton saint who was not Breton, founder of a Breton bishopric, who was not yet Breton. But then why is Vannes, the Gallo-Roman, included in the Tro Breiz, this tour of Brittany which carefully left Rennes and Nantes aside, because they were Gallo-Roman ? Well, if you want to follow me in absurd reasoning and look at the map, you will note that if we eliminate Vannes, the poor pilgrims leaving Dol would have had to walk directly towards Quimper, in an endless stage, through woods and forests, and we would hardly have talked about a tour of Brittany. At most a “croissant”. Ah, no, that’s not possible ! No croissant ! No foreign pastries ! For us, it’s the Kouign Amann and… it’s… round ! With all scientific rigor, we therefore conclude that it is thanks to Kouign Amann that Patern is honored as a Breton founding saint ! More seriously, we will remember that the Tro Breiz was created at a later period (according to historians around the 9th century at the earliest), when Vannes was indisputably part of Brittany, and all it needed was a founding bishop who would be bretonized if necessary.
So, let’s start with the legend as passed down to us by Albert the Great.
We know that this very dear Albert was yoyoing when he wrote The Lives of the Saints of Armoric Brittany in 1637. But that’s all we have to start our story. And let us not denigrate our Dominican brother who took the trouble to collect, from parish to parish, these traditional stories passed down through the generations. He received tribute from the historian Joël Cornette, for whom this book served “for several centuries, as a Bible and an alphabet book under many Breton roofs : he is indeed the main person responsible for fixing the legendary Breton hagiographic… until today ! » So, with the university backing, let’s not shy away from our pleasure and enter into the Life of Patern, according to Albert Le Grand and Arthur Le Moyne de La Borderie. Patern was born in Brittany Armorique to wealthy and virtuous parents. His father’s name was Petranus, he was from Poitiers. Having come to settle in Brittany, he married a virtuous girl named Jullitte Guenn. They have a child, Patern, whom they dedicate to God. Thereupon Petranus leaves the mother and child «to better and more freely devote himself to the service of God », crosses the sea to Ireland where he becomes a monk. They did not yet know the pretext for urgently purchasing cigarettes to get out of the marital home. Where we see with respect that Jullitte Guenn was a saint is that she didn’t take it badly at all. She bravely raised the baby-saint “by making him suck piety, devotion and the fear of God with his milk”. Miracle break. One day as she was preparing to sew a garment for her child, she was called for another task. She placed the fabrics on the window and left the room. A kite which was fluttering by, seized it and filled its nest with it. After a year, the kite is dislodged and people find the fabrics at the bottom of the nest, as beautiful and whole as if it had just been bought from the merchant. Point. Perhaps there is a symbolic meaning that escapes me. Jullitte Guen does everything she can to ensure that her son does well in his studies and he rises to the occasion.
One day however, like any child in his situation, he asks who his father is and why he is not there. His mother replies that he has gone to Ireland to serve God, that he fasts, prays, watches, meditates, sleeps on a simple pallet and devotes himself to praising the Lord day and night.
Immediately the kid proclaims : “So what ? What better condition could I choose than that which my father chose ? Certainly, my mother, I will also be religious or die in pain. » Jullitte is a saint so she approves of the little one’s vocation and encourages him. A less saintly mother would have retorted : “Please keep it civil, and now go clean your room.” Patern grows up, he only thinks of one thing, becoming a monk. Then he goes to find Abbot Generosus who governs a large number of monks in the monastery of Saint Gildas de Rhuys, which did not exist, neither Gildas nor the monastery, since Saint Gildas would have been born between 490 and 504, right in the estimated dates of Patern’s death.
It doesn’t matter, he nevertheless becomes the steward of the monastery of Saint-Gildas for three years, to the great satisfaction of everyone. In his duties at the monastery, Patern had to meet people outside but, aware according to the words of the prophet that the eyes are the doors through which death enters the soul, he never looked a human in the eyes, and even less a woman. He subdued… his flesh by dint of harsh and strong austerities, ate only dry bread, drank only water, and even then without excess, and he only added a few vegetables and a little salt on feast days. To make sure he didn’t enjoy life joyfully, he wore a hair shirt, a sort of goat’s hair shirt that scratched atrociously, under a dress that he never changed, any more than his hooded cape, a sign of humility of religious people. Obviously, a monk who stinks of goats and old foxes is less likely to be solicited by female advances. He did not dress any warmer in winter than in summer, he slept directly on the flagstones or on some fagot. So much so that after a few months he was nothing but skin and bones.
Then he took to the sea in the company of abbots Cuvilan, Coatman and Tété-cho to found a monastery on the other side of the Channel. When everything was in order, he appointed a Superior to manage the establishment and left for Hybernia, that is to say in Ireland where he visited his father who was actually there. Now at that time two kings were clashing in Ireland. During the same night, an angel appeared to them ordering them to call on a monk named Patern. Which they did. Patern appeased them, pacified them, reconciled them, returned to kiss his father and returned across the sea to return to his monastery in Great Britain, which we can assume was in Wales, which allows us to return to the life of Saint Paternus of Wales, of whom we saw at the beginning of this video that he had nothing to do in this story, given that he was born in 482, i.e. a a good sixty years probably after our Patern de Vannes. It doesn’t matter.
Patern notes that everything went well without him at the monastery, and he creates two or three more.
Miracle break. A king of Wales, Maëlgun, wanted to seize the riches of a monastery of Patern. Going to war against another king, he sent two of his soldiers to give Patern a chest filled with moss and gravel, specifying that it was a treasure to be kept in a safe place. Back from war, Maëlgun demands his treasure. When the king’s soldiers open the chest, they find only moss and gravel. Maëlgun accuses Patern of having stolen his property and demands compensation. Patern affirms that this is not the case and since it is word against word he appeals to God, his guarantor, and proposes to submit, with the king’s envoys who accuse him, to the test of boiling water. It was a simple way to resolve conflicts, water was boiled in a large cauldron, the opposing parties dipped an arm, whoever survived told the truth. Patern won the match hands down (!), which was white and cold as snow while the others, as soon as their forearms wereimmersed in the water, fell dead.
Their souls in the form of crows flew to the bed of the river, which to this day is called by the name of one of them, Graban. The villain king falls ill, becomes blind, asks forgiveness from Patern who heals him. To be forgiven, the king gives a beautiful expanse of land to the monastery.
It was then that Saint David, also living in Wales, received a visit from an angel who told him to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with Patern and Thuriau. What they did ! Miracle break. During their journey, they knew how to speak the barbarian langages of the countries they crossed without having learned them, as easily as Breton, Albert specifies, and as Patern did not speak Breton at all, this is plausible, at least as far as he is concerned.
When they arrive at their destination, the Patriarch of Jerusalem is ordered by an angel to welcome them, lay hands on them and authorize them to preach the Gospel. Which he does. In addition, he gives Patern an ivory crosier and a beautiful “seamless” tunic, because he guess that Patern will become a bishop. Then he sends them home to preach.
Afterwards, the chronology becomes difficult to follow. King Arthur absolutely wants to steal his beautiful Jerusalem tunic from Patern, but Patern says “Let the earth swallow him up !” » Which it did !
It swallows him up to the throat ! Arthur repents, sings the praises of God and Patern, the earth spits him out. So it was thanks to Patern that King Arthur became a good Christian king.
Later, the Count of Vannes, Caradoc, decided to cross the Channel to seize overseas Cornwall, he met Patern and decided to bring him back to Vannes to make him his bishop. All this around the year 587, a good half-century after Patern’s death.
It doesn’t matter !
While our saint is installed in Vannes, he has a sort of disagreement with Samson of Dol to whom he refuses to submit. Albert explains to us that Samson brought together in a synod the seven bishops of Tro Breiz, some of whom lived in the 5th century, others in the 6th, and even for Malo until the beginning of the 7th… while the bishops of Rennes and Nantes did not participate because they were Gallo-Roman and dependent on the Metropolitan of Tours. OK, we are in the middle of the historical dispute over the bishopric of Dol, sometimes called the “Breton schism” which wanted to be a Breton metropolis independent of that of Tours. I do not dwell on it, I just remember the political intention of Albert the Great to subsequently integrate the bishopric of Patern into the group of bishops of Welsh origin.
I was getting involved in a matter that was too complicated and would bore you, but here is Saint Anne who will help me out ! Patern…Santez Anna, for you.
I am withdrawing and letting you attend their discussion.
Patern. – Hello to you, Anna, welcome home, to your Vannes lands.
They hug each other.
Anna. – Ah, Patern, how nice I am to see you !
Patern. – Me too, Anna, I was told you were coming. Were you held up on the way ?
Anna. – Well, crossing such a dense forest exposes you to minor hassles. I had to make a few wizards and korrigans understand that I was not a good subject of amusement for them.
Patern. – (he laughs) Of course they didn’t know who they were dealing with !
Anna. – Now they know. So, what’s up, my Patern ? Your Bretons and your Gallos still get along well ?
Patern. – It’s okay, they mixed well !
Anna. – On the way I talked with a scholar who told me about you. So, you’re not Breton ?
Patern. – Well, no. I was appointed bishop before the arrival in Vannes of Caradoc, the leader of the first Breton colonies, I think.
Anna. – You don’t have any specific memories, either ? The other saints told me that their memory depends on the books dedicated to them several centuries later, is that the same for you ?
Patern. – Eh, yes ! I lived in the fifth century, you know. It’s very long ago !
Anna. – In any case, you are appreciated as a great negotiator.
Patern. – That’s what they say. I was probably lucky. When Caradoc arrived and approached Vannes around 470, I asked to meet him. He told me that he and his troops were not coming to pillage and destroy but were looking for land to settle with their families. And there was available land. We couldn’t avoid some tensions sometimes, the newcomers were rather brawling but I explained to the Veneti that it was rather a chance, because they would defend the country against the attackers coming from the sea.
Anna. – The Veneti, were they the inhabitants of the country before the arrival of the Bretons ?
Patern. – Yes, that’s it, they generally lived in today’s Morbihan.
Anna. – And the Bretons were content with the part west of Vannes ?
Patern. – This is what I negotiated. With Caradoc, we were both Christians, it was easier.
Anna. – Was everyone Christian ?
Patern. – Anna, I see you coming ! Of course there were still many pagans on both sides and I had been placed there precisely to Christianize them. Caradoc accepted this distribution. Thus, Vannes and the entire eastern part of the region remained Gallo-Roman. This allowed me to maintain my bishopric under the authority of the Bishop of Tours. As well as Nantes and Rennes.
Anna. – Who joined the Franks a little later.
Patern. – Yes, when the Franks extended their territory, they considered the Armorican peninsula to be part of it. Clovis converted to Christianity, we were able to find common ground.
Anna. – Some say that you participated in his conversion.
Patern. – Again, it’s possible. As we do not know precisely the date of Clovis’s baptism and even less that of my death… in any case, we agree on the influence of Melaine with the Merovingian. If I did it, my life will have been useful, I thank my creator for giving me the ability to make the Bretons, the Gallo-Romans and the Franks live in peace.
Anna. – You are a good guy, my Patern. When I see people like you, I understand why the world hasn’t been destroyed a thousand times over. But tell me, were you in on the action when the Bretons attacked the countries of Rennes and Nantes ? What is this harvest story ?
(Patern is laughing.)
Patern. – No, it’s not from my time, it’s later, with Waroch. These Bretons are crazy, they have invaded the Pays Nantais and all they have found to do is harvest their vines and steal their wine !
Anna. – I recognize my Bretons there ! Ah, the scoundrels ! I can imagine them ! After all that, did you end your life peacefully in Vannes, among your parishioners ?
Patern. – Well no, I had to leave the city and retire to Gaul.
Anna. – (she laughs) You got fired !
Patern. Somehow. I no longer really know which of my parishioners or my hierarchy accused me of weakness… It seems that people are tired of living in peace, tolerance bores them. During a synod with bishops and monks, I no longer felt in my place : prohibitions were increased, excommunications were made, physical punishments were imposed… I felt tired and my presence only aroused their insolence, I wanted to live in peace.
Anna. – But you still put a curse on them before leaving !
Patern. – No, not at all ! I just left. And it was well after my death that a continuous three-year drought plagued the country. The locals imagined that I was unhappy because they had not supported me through the ordeal. But it was just a drought due to the weather : it was not raining. So they thought that if they brought back my relics, they would be forgiven.
Anna. – And it rained.
Patern. – Well, yes. It always ends up raining.
Anna. – And since then, you have been the holy attendant of the rain. My poor Patern, the other saints throw dragons into the sea, stop plague epidemics by their will, kill witches, say mass on the back of a whale and you… you bring back the rain… in Brittany… you don’t take real chances !
Patern. – I know it lacks panache.
Anna. – And it is your relics which produce these beautiful miracles ?
Patern. – Yes, they take them out, then go in a procession and it rains !
(They laugh.)
Anna. Cool ! Where are your relics, Paternus Pluvius ?
Patern. – There is part of it in the cathedral and others in a bust of me in the Saint-Patern church. But you know, what matters is the message of Christ, not old bones, which sometimes aren’t even human.
Anna. – Wouahhh… I’m not surprised some people felt uneasy with you ! I definitely love you very much, my Patern. Okay, I’m going to go take a look at these relics.
Patern. – Do you continue your Tro Breiz then ? Aren’t you making the detour to Ste Anne d’Auray ?
Anna. – I could make an appearance there… but there are already too many people at my July procession. They are forced to put up barriers to contain the crowd. I preferred it when my statue left the church carried on the shoulders of men, among the pilgrims, who touched its golden base. It felt like caresses to me ! Or tickling ! (They laugh.) Chao Paternus Pluvius, see you again !
Patern. – Chao Anna !
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