Hi, I’m Lize Kergonan and today I’m telling you the story of Pol de Léon, who is also known as Saint Paul « Aurelian ». Not to be confused with Saint Paul of the New Testament. Ours was born at the end of the fifth century, in Wales. At that time, « la Bretagne » was the Great Britain of today; and present-day Brittany was Armorican « Bretagne ». Why did a Welsh monk have a town named after him in Finistère and why has his cult been celebrated there to this day? That’s what I’m going to tell you.
His father’s name was Porphius Aurelianus, hence Saint Paul Aurelian’s nickname, Paulus Aurelianus. Obviously, it doesn’t sound very Welsh. This was because the troops of the Roman Empire had left the island not long ago and the well-to-do families liked to keep their Latin name and preserve the form of culture that went with it. His parents were wealthy enough to send him to school. At first, his father wanted an heir to succeed him, but Pol knew right away that it was God he was interested in. His father tried to steer him towards military studies… with no more success. Eventually Porphius accepted his son’s vocation – perhaps Pol somewhat threatened him with God’s vengeance if he persisted – so Pol went to the monastery of Saint Illtud.
FYI, I think it should be pronounced « Isstid » in Welsh, but it is Frenchified as « Iltud », just as his monastery LlannIlltud would be pronounced « san isstid ». If any Welsh specialists would like to leave a message in the comments, I would be very grateful. I’ll tell you more about Illtud later. A rather peculiar saint who had at first dropped out of school, entered King Arthur’s service as a knight, married, and finally, after a strong penance inflicted by an abbot, begged his forgiveness, abandoned Arthur, knighthood and wife, then resumed religious studies.
Finally, he trained many of the monks and abbots who founded monasteries in Armorica and supervised the groups of Welsh migrants who came to settle there in the sixth century. I will dedicate an episode to him after the saints of Tro Breiz and after our dear Saint Anne. You can see on the map of Wales where LlanIlltud, now Llantwit Major, is located. Among Pol’s companions were St. David, St. Samson, St. Gildas, who evidently were no holier than he was at the time. Pol loved meditation, prayer, theology… and miracles!
An example of a miracle: the room where Father Illtud taught was so close to the shore that at high tide, the water would enter and wet the students’ feet, sometimes even forcing them to decamp. Pol and his comrades went to their master and suggested to him, since he seemed to have good relations with God, to beg him to deliver them from the importunities of the sea. Saint Illtud took them to the church to pray, and then they all walked voluntarily behind the abbot towards the sea. Illtud brandished a stick in the face of the waves, and the waves, as if afraid of receiving a bad blow, retreated before the valiant troops. So much so that the sea ended up leaving a large strip of land dry, and the abbot ordered it, in a tone that could not bear contradiction, never to return to disturb the study of these holy little children placed under his stewardship. Which it did! And since then, the sea has always observed these injunctions.
Today, we fear the erosion of our coasts, submersion waves, rising sea levels, and climate change. But have we thought of asking Saint Illtud to threaten the sea with a good blow of the stick if it does not cease to annoy us? On the land left by the sea, Illtud sowed wheat. When it was ripe, the students were asked to take turns standing guard in the field to scare away the seagulls that wanted to feast on it. But one night when Pol was on duty, he fell asleep. And the birds ate the wheat. For two days he did not dare to appear before the abbot. On the third day, while he was chatting with his comrades, the gulls returned. Then he said, « My brethren, let us pray to God that he will punish these birds that steal our wheat. » And so they did. Then they surrounded them and led them to the monastery like a flock of sheep.
Pol said to his master, « Here are the thieves of our corn. I’ll let you punish them as you see fit. Illtud, who did not know how to confess the birds, gave them absolution and his blessing without hearing them, on the presumption of good faith. They flew out to sea and never returned. So, when the seagulls swoop down and steal your kids’ kouign-amann on the Breton coast, instead of moaning and calling them dirty beasts, get the whole family on their knees and pray! Wherever you are! Then surround the birds and take them to the nearest cathedral or monastery for a trained priest to bless them, they won’t bother you anymore.
After ten years spent in Llanilltud, Pol grew tired of hearing the young monks bawling at mass from dawn until the middle of the night, and he felt an immense need for solitude. Illtud saw this as a call from the Divine and allowed him to found a hermitage on a land belonging to his father. This was in the year 507. Pol built a small chapel and thirteen cells for himself and the twelve classmates who followed him. They lived in prayer and the austerity befitting hermits, drank only water – no wine or beer – and fed on bread and a little salt. At Sunday dinner, they ate a few vegetables and a little fish, never any meat.
In 514, the bishop of Caer Gwinntguic, (now Winchester) consecrated them priests. Pol was twenty-two years old.
It was at this time that Conomor, also known as King Mark of Cornwall (yes, the one of Tristan and Isolde, the king with the horse’s ears) resolved to convert to Christianity. We don’t know why. But as he had heard of Pol from the people of the neighbourhood, he invited him and his companions to his castle to be taught catechism and baptized with all his court. Pol would have preferred to stay quiet in the woods, but the idea of converting all those pagan souls was too tempting.
When everyone was baptized, King Mark wanted to give him the office of bishop of Cornwall. But Pol had no desire to find himself at odds with those kings and ministers who saw religion only as a means of asserting their power and who would use it for political purposes. Since it is not easy to say « no » to an irascible king, he asked God for his advice. After a night spent in prayer, an angel came to tell him that he should not return to the hermitage but leave with his companions for another destination. When Pol asked him which one, the angel replied that he would see! Obviously, there was no way to argue, it was a question of faith, of trust in the omnipotence of God! Strengthened by God’s support, Pol told Mark that he was leaving. The latter sulked a little and, to show his displeasure, refused to give him a small bell that Pol would have liked to take with him to animate his next place of prayer.
They left. They didn’t know where to go, so they let themselves be carried away by the first idea that presented itself: Pol was very keen to see his sister, the abbess of a monastery of nuns near the sea. They spent three pleasant days together. As he was preparing to set sail again, on a day of high tide, the sea invaded several rooms of the monastery. Then? Guess? Yes, of course: Pol had learned the technique from Abbot Illtud, and armed with his stick, followed by his twelve confreres, he walked against the waves and ordered them to retreat. As at Llanilltud, the waves were afraid of receiving a bad blow and took refuge pitifully four thousand paces from the monastery.
Then Pol told his sister and nuns to mark out the land with small pebbles, which he immediately transformed into large rocks that have since resisted the fury of the waters. He kept only a small access to the shore to embark with his companions and since then, this passage has been called Hent-Sant-Pol, i.e. « the path to Saint-Pol ». I searched on the internet where Hent-Sant-Pol was and couldn’t find anything. But… I have total confidence in Albert the Great who mentions this place in his book « The Lives of the Saints of Brittany Armorica ». An edition is available for free on Gallica, I put the link below the video. After that, Pol tenderly embraced his sister, blessed the nuns and so the small group left Cornwall, heading for Brittany. Some say that the Breton saints crossed the English Channel in stone troughs, but as far as Pol was concerned, a boat did the trick perfectly.
They landed in 517 at Ushant, an island dear to the Bretons, situated in the Atlantic Ocean, seven leagues from the coast of Bas-Léon. They built a new hermitage, a chapel and thirteen cells, and began their life as monks: prayers, chants, austerities of all kinds. This went on for six months, until God sent the angel back and informed Pol that this was not their destination and that they should re-embark. Pol remarked that He (with a capital h) could have said it earlier, before he built the hermitage, but again, God was not open to discussion. At least they had left a lasting mark on their stay since the main town of Ushant is called Lampaul! So they set off again on their boats, sailing along the coast of Léon from west to east to the port of Kernic in the parish of Plounevez.
The place was quiet and pleasant – well, « quiet », it was already a Breton climate! – and they were about to build a monastery there, when Pol received a new message: it was not their destination yet. The monks marched, marched to an oppidum which later took the name of Kastell-Paol, before becoming the town of Saint-Pol-de-Léon. Since God’s directions were not the most accurate, when they came across a shepherd, they saw it as a sign of Providence and asked him who was running this country. He replied that it was Count Withur, who resided on the island of Batz, opposite Roscoff.
Pol was led thither, and, in order that there might be no ambiguity as to his person and his powers, on the way he restored sight to three blind men by touching them with his stick, and speech to two dumb men with a simple blessing.
We’ll get back to Pol’s adventures in a future episode.
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