Machutus

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Brendan the Traveler (front) with his companions.
Statue of St. Machutus in the church village of Escharen in North Brabant (Netherlands)
Prayer sheet from St. Vitus, Hoch-Elten (1950s (?))

Saint Machutus or Malo (also Maclou or Maclovius ) was born around 520 in Gwent , Welsh , today's Monmouth in Monmouthshire , and died around 620 in Archingeay, France, near today's Saintes in the Charente-Maritime department .

Live and act

Machutus comes from a noble family. He was taught the Christian faith and baptized through Saint Brendan . Afterwards he was a monk in the Abbey of Llancarrven (Wales). Presumably he was ordained a priest there too. His episcopal ordination probably took place in south Wales or - according to another source - in Tours. According to a legend, he was one of the companions of St. Brendan on his missionary journey (navigatio Brendani) to Brittany.

After Machutus had placed himself in the service of the venerable hermit Aaron, who died in 543 (or 544) near today's Saint-Malo , he became (first?) Bishop of Aleth , a Gallo-Roman settlement on a peninsula belonging to the today's district of St. Servan was upstream of Saint-Malo. The bishop continued to work as a Christian missionary in Brittany. One day, however, he was ousted from there by opponents, but soon brought back to Saint-Malo by his supporters. However, in old age he retired to the village of Archambiac in the diocese of Saintes to spend the rest of his life in prayer and penance. The day of his death is November 15 of the year 618, 620 or 622.

The feast day of Saint Machutus is therefore November 15th.

Patron saint

He is considered the patron saint against paralysis, weakness of the limbs, gout, nervous diseases and all diseases of children.

The town of Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast bears the name of this saint.

In the former abbey church of St. Vitus in Hoch-Elten (Emmerich), a stone representation of Machutus with a disabled child developed into a place of pilgrimage for the disabled at the beginning of the 20th century. After research by a Jesuit, the sculpture was reshaped by an unknown stonemason from a statue of Mary with the baby Jesus.

literature

Web links

Commons : Machutus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Book illustration Manuscriptum translationis germanicae Cod. Pal. Germ. 60, fol. 179v, published around 1460 (Augsburg University Library)
  2. ↑ Inside page with continuation of the litany also scanned
  3. ↑ Pilgrimage indulgence slip for Pope Benidict XV. (sic!) of April 16, 1920
  4. ↑ Information board in the St. Vitus church in Hoch-Elten
personal data
SURNAME Machutus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Malo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Welsh-Breton saint
DATE OF BIRTH at 520
PLACE OF BIRTH Gwent, now Monmouth , Wales
DATE OF DEATH around 620
Place of death near Saintes , Archingeay, France