Menulphus
Menulphus ( French Saint-Menoux ) is a French saint of the 6th or 7th century who was venerated in both Brittany and Auvergne . He belongs distantly to the circle of the popular or fictional saints of Brittany.
Life
All information about the person of St. Menulphus have legendary features to the highest degree. Some consider him to be British or Irish, who is said to have come to Brittany at the time of the Merovingian king Childebert I (r. 511–558); he went to Quimper , where St. Corentinus , whose existence and dates of life are also uncertain, have offered the office of bishop, which he is said to have rejected. According to another tradition, he accepted the office and thus became Corentin's successor. He performed many miracles on a pilgrimage to Rome. On the way back he stopped in the Auvergne in Mailly-sur-Rose to rest; later he decided to stay there and lead a life of prayer and meditation. The pious and miraculous hermit began to be worshiped by the people of the region.
It is reported that he placed under his personal protection a mentally retarded young man named Blaise , who was exposed to the ridicule and scorn of the people; However, the latter could not pronounce the name Menulphus , so that it gradually became Menoux . After his death Blaise - without knowing the finality of the death - kept watch at the coffin of his carer and spoke to him through a hole in the outer wall of the wooden sarcophagus. The local priest later had a stone sarcophagus made with holes so that Blaise could continue to communicate with his patron.
Adoration
According to many miracle reports, around the year 1000 the Bishop of Bourges had the sarcophagus moved to another place where a church was built in honor and in memory of the saint - this is equated with the former abbey church of Saint-Menoux in the north of Auvergne, where the veneration of the saint in the Middle Ages took on supra-regional proportions. A stone sarcophagus ( débredinoire ) with a semicircular side opening and two smaller four-passages can still be seen there today; the bones of the saint - apart from a few fragments of bones - disappeared during the French Revolution .
Menulphus is hardly venerated in Brittany; only a few place names could remind of him. The town of Saint-Menoux in Auvergne experienced a heyday in the Middle Ages due to the many people who made pilgrimages to the tomb of the saint. Even today, mentally retarded children are sometimes led to his sarcophagus in order to receive healing or alleviation of their ailments there - despite the lack of relics.
The feast day of St. Menulphus is July 12th.
presentation
Representations of Menulphus are hardly known; the few that exist show him in the bishop's robe.
literature
- Erwan Vallerie: Menulfus est de retour. in: Bulletin de la société archéologique du Finistère , Volume CXXVII, 1998.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Menulphus |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Saint-Menoux |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French saint |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 6th century or 7th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | 6th century or 7th century |