Hello, it’s Lize. Here I am, at the end of my Tro Breiz, the tour of the seven Breton bishoprics. For this last episode, it is Saint Corentin who welcomes us to his town of Quimper. To see videos on the other Breton founding saints, you can click on the playlist that appears. I admit that I see with a touch of nostalgia the spiers of the beautiful Cornish cathedral, after this year-long companionship with Saint Pol de Léon, Saint Tugdual de Tréguier, Saint Brieuc, Saint Malo d’Aleth, Saint Samson de Dol and Saint Patern de Vannes. Corentin closes the loop, the magic circle of our sometimes historic, often very legendary saints. Hagiographic sources, that is to say the texts which recount the lives of the saints, are few in number concerning Corentin and often inconsistent from the point of view of chronology. But, if you wish, let us slip into the fiction maintained by generations of monks, abbots and priests, piously received by as many generations of parishioners filled with respectful affection for their patron saint.
Besides, I read the Warning to the Reader of Albert the Great, which begins with “To my friend reader”, but in view of the sequel, I will no longer criticize Albert. Here are some passages : “My style is simple and historical, as much as the subject allows.
If it does not seem elegant enough to you, I will say as an excuse that French is foreign to me,
being […] a native of Morlaix, a town located in the heart of Lower Brittany, whose natural langage is Breton. » […] Further : “Finally, as a final opinion, I will tell you that in this century there are strange and poorly made minds, to whom nothing pleases, whatever perfection there may be ; critical and envious minds, who find, as the saying goes, to mow on an egg. » […] And he continues : «I absolutely forbid the reading of this book to atheists, to libertines, to the indifferent, to the heretics, and to those smug people who, measuring the power of God at the foot of their clumsy brains, mock the marvels that He has wrought by his servants, and believe nothing that passes the height of their weak understandings, wanting to captivate faith under the laws of reason. » […] Wow ! Someone must have upset him ! I had already pointed this out to you in other videos, it’s not a good idea to bother Bretons.
So, let us rather be carried by the flow of the legend, that of the sea as it rises and falls in the Odet river, the “ria” or “aber” of the Odet.
For this video, I rely mainly on the Lives of the Saints of Brittany by Albert the Great and on the Unpublished Life of Saint Corentin, an ancient text found and published by Dom François Plaine.
You see, on the map, that Quimper is located at the tip of the Armorican peninsula. Downstream is the port of Locmaria, today a district of Quimper.
Archaeological excavations attest to the existence of Locmaria from the Gallo-Roman era. This is where Corentin was born according to Albert the Great around 375 AD, or around 460 according to Dom Plaine.
His parents were Christians, they educated him in the Christian faith. We have no further information about his childhood. At a very young age, Corentin decided to devote himself to God, he became a hermit in the forest of Plomodiern, near Ménez-Hom.
Miracle break : fish episode. You may have noticed that Saint Corentin is often depicted with a fish at his feet or in his arms. This comes from a miracle attributed to him : while he was a hermit in the forest and lived in the greatest austerity, Corentin lived on little. A piece of bread sometimes begged and some herbs and wild roots suited him very well. Now, in a magic fountain near his hut there was a fish. Okay the AI image generator has gone crazy. Act like nothing, don’t pay it any attention, it will get bored. In the meantime, I continue the story. Here is what is written in the Life of Saint Corentin from the 9th century : Now, he soon noticed in the fountain where he daily drew the water he needed, a fish which seemed to come to meet him, as if God had ordered him to do so, a fish which seemed to seek his caresses and put itself at his service. This is why the holy man […] took the habit, when coming to draw water at mealtime, of cutting a slice from the fish which was offered to the knife with so much generosity. He then cooked this slice and ate it while blessing God. This story is a bit gory, isn’t it ? The little fish kindly approaches asking for caresses and the man takes out his big knife and cuts a slice for his dinner ! This is a good story to dissuade small children from approaching people they don’t know ! But when he returned the next day, he found the fish as fresh and as whole as if nothing had happened to it. […] It is enough to say that, by a special favor from God, Saint Corentin had at his command a fish which provided him with his daily food and nevertheless always remained whole and free from lesions.
It reminds me of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes in the Gospels. And what follows,
with King Gradlon, is even closer to the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves.
Well, I changed AI, but it’s not getting better ! One day, during a hunting trip near Plomodiern, the King of Cornwall got lost with his troop in the forest. They arrive by chance near Corentin’s hermitage and as they are all very hungry after their day spent on horseback, they ask Corentin if he would have anything to eat. Corentin replies that he has his fish and shows them the magic fountain. Everyone laughs, does he think he is going to feed the troops with this poor little fish ? And of course, when Corentin cuts a slice and gives it to the king’s cook to cook, there is enough to satisfy all the soldiers because the portions are renewed endlessly. Gradlon and his troop are amazed by this miracle, Corentin immediately goes up a notch in their esteem.
So Gradlon hastened to prostrate himself at the feet of the man of God, to surround him with
marks of the deepest veneration and to donate to him forever his palace, the adjacent lands, the forests and all that he owned in this locality.
I love them, these 9th century monks, they think you can’t spot them with their big hooves ! “give it to him forever…” Ah, they don’t want us to come and quibble with their lands and their wealth. They put the little sentence discreetly in the caption, and there it is, it’s written so it’s true. And the first one to argue will go to hell, or God will send him a tough angel ! The scheme worked until 1789, after that, less so.
But one of the soldiers wants to check if the fish is really magical. He also cuts a slice… Some have said that this indelicate character came from the Pays du Léon. But hey, Cornouaillais and Leonards never missed an opportunity to accuse each other of all crimes. We’re not going to get involved, they’d come together to come down on us. In any case, the miracle does not happen, the fish is mutilated, it will die. Corentin asks God for help and heals the fish. Then he orders it to leave the place so as to no longer fear people’s curiosity. This is why the magic fish is no longer visible in the Saint-Corentin fountain in Plomodiern. This time, the legend is clearly imitating the episode of the New Testament… or rather of episodes. Because while preparing this video, I discovered something I didn’t know : Jesus multiplied the loaves twice ! I thought I had received a fairly complete Catholic education, well not at all ! For those who did not go to catechism, I will briefly tell you the story : little by little, a crowd gathered to follow Jesus everywhere and see him heal the sick. But after a while, they all find themselves in a desert place with nothing to eat. Impossible to send them home, they would not have the strength to travel the distance. The apostles are very confused. Then Jesus asks, “What do we have that could be eaten ?” » “Well, there’s a guy who still has five buns and two fish…” “Bring me all that !” » said Jesus. He looks up to heaven, gives thanks, blesses the baskets and sends the disciples distribute food to the crowd. And no matter how much they give, give, give again, the baskets are never empty. At the end, when everyone is full, Jesus says “Bring back the remaining pieces, we don’t waste the food !” » Ah well, that’s for sure, don’t waste it ! And they collect twelve full baskets ! Although, says Saint Matthew, chapter 14, verses 14 to 21 “Those who ate were about five thousand men, excluding women and children. » Um… why don’t women count ? I thought that was the whole story. No way ! Chapter 15, verses 32 to 38, it starts again. This time with seven loaves and a few fish and at the end they collect seven full baskets. Now, Matthew repeats, “those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides the women and children. » “Besides” yourself, Matthew ! It is not only Saint Matthew who recounts this affair, the other evangelists too.
If you are interested and you don’t have a Bible at home, go to Wikipedia, search for «Multiplication_of_pains », you will find the details.
Later, it was Saint Patern and Saint Malo, or Melaine depending on the version, who visited Corentin in his hermitage. Here again, Corentin must find a way to feed them. It only has a little flour. He can cook pancakes. Some claim that he multiplied the pancakes ! Don’t overdo it, Quimper people ! Multiplicating pancakes ! 🙂 I’ll let you admire the work of Chat GPT and DALL-E, who are definitely in great shape at the moment. But let’s get back to Patern and Malo’s visit. The truth, fact checked, is that Corentin goes to draw water from the fountain and that on his return he discovers eels in the bucket and that the water has been changed into wine. With this he can cook a good dish for his guests and serve them excellent wine. Everyone was happy, except the eels, but they were so drunk from their stay in the bucket that they didn’t notice anything. And once again, admire the works of Chat GPT «en verve ! » Fortunately, I am finishing my tour of the Breton founding saints with Corentin, because this story is starting to go in all directions.
If you are interested in the technique of transforming water into wine, refer to the Wedding at Cana in the Gospel according to Saint John, chapter 2, verses 1 to 11.
Second miracle break : Corentin, when he became a hermit, was young. Not far from his hermitage, in the forest of Névet, another hermit had withdrawn from the world. He was very old and his name was Primel. Corentin came to see him from time to time, they had become friends, they liked to discuss theology for entire nights. One morning, at dawn, Primel wanted to prepare a hot drink for his friend, but he had no more water in his cabin. He takes a bucket and goes to the source. Time passes. At the end of the morning, while the sun was high in the sky, there is Primel coming back, climbing the hill, out of breath, limping, sweating…
Corentin is a little ashamed of having let him make the journey at his age instead of giving him a hand.
So, to make amends, he takes his stick, plants it not far from Primel’s hut and… have you guessed ? Yes, a spring springs up there. Wow, the AI pushed the quantity of water a bit but that seems to please Primel. So much for miracles.
No dragons, no witches for Corentin. You will note that neither Patern nor Corentin made dragons disappear into the waves, unlike the saints of the north coast.
I conclude that the dragons prefer the cooler water of the English Channel. They don’t like it on the south coast. You know that in Brittany when we say “the south coast”, you should not imagine the Mediterranean coast and its coves but the south “of Armorica”, the Atlantic Ocean and its rocks. In any case, dragons don’t like hanging out there. Were they afraid of being swept away by the Gulf Stream ? Or, let our wild imagination run wild, perhaps the saints of Leon and Domnonée, who came originally from Wales, had imported their legends ? While Patern and Corentin, who were there before the arrival of the Bretons, had not even imagined that pagans could be converted with stories of dragons. I don’t know ! I’ll let you think about it until the next video on the rest of Corentin’s life. Kenavo !
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