Above:  Gaul in 628 Common Era

SAINT AUBERT OF CAMBRAI (DIED CIRCA 609)

Roman Catholic Bishop

His feast transferred from December 13

mentor of

SAINT LANDELINUS OF VAUX (CIRCA 625-686)

Roman Catholic Abbot

His feast = June 15

mentor of

SAINTS DOMITIAN AND HADELIN OF LOBBES (DIED CIRCA 686)

Roman Catholic Monks

Their feast = June 15

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SAINT URSMAR OF LOBBES (CIRCA 640-713)

Roman Catholic Abbot and Missionary Bishop

His feast transferred from April 19

mentor of

SAINT DODO OF LOBBES (DIED 750)

Roman Catholic Monk

His feast transferred from October 1

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Connections between and among saints interest me.  Thus I produce posts such as this one:  accounts of saints with official feast days transferred.  This is my calendar of saints, so I can put anybody on any date I see fit.  And telling stories together makes more sense to me than telling them separately.

Today’s chain of saints begins with Aubert of Cambrai (died 609).  We know little about him, a situation familiar to those who read extensively about pre-Congregation saints.  It seems that St. Aubert became Bishop of Cambrai sometime before 532 and that he helped many people pursue monastic life.  And we know that he educated St. Landelinus of Vaux (625-686).

We know more about St. Landelinus.  He was Frankish, being born in Vaux, Francia.  He joined a criminal gang near Lobbes at age 18.  The saint repented of that life after the death of a fellow gang member.  St. Landelinus, desiring solitude, became a hermit at Lobbes.  Yet a community grew up around him, so he founded a monastery there in 654.  St. Ursmar of Lobbes (circa 640-713) served as the first abbot.  He was a missionary bishop who engaged in evangelization in Flanders.  And the abbot mentored one St. Dodo of Lobbes (died 750), a monk about whom we know little else except that he lived at Lobbes and had a reputation for sanctity.

St. Landelinus kept seeking solitude in one place then in another yet attracting successive communities around him and founding new monasteries.  So it was that he and St. Ursmar cofounded abbeys at Aulne (656) and Wallens-en-Faigne (657).  And, in 670, he founded his fourth and final monastery at Crespin, serving as its first abbot until he died.

St. Landelinus had at least two disciples who became saints.  We know little else of Domitian and Hadelin of Lobbes (died circa 686) other than that they were friends and monks at Lobbes.

St. Landelinus is the central figure in this story.  Yet he is not the original one; St. Aubert of Cambrai is.  The surviving facts are sketchy, but I imagine that St. Aubert’s teachings helped bring St. Landelinus back to the path of righteousness.  St. Landelinus abandoned them for a time, but the influence of his old teacher never left him entirely.  And that influence, transmitted through the pupil, reached others, some of whose names we know.

I find the desire for solitude which St. Landelinus exhibited understandable and appealing; I identify with it.  And I hope that the saint, at long last, found what he needed and craved–solitude with God.  May each of us be so fortunate.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 15, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE FIRST U.S. PRESBYTERIAN BOOK OF COMMON WORSHIP, 1906

THE FEAST OF CAROLINE CHISHOLM, HUMANITARIAN

THE FEAST OF PIRIPI TAUMATA-A-KURA, ANGLICAN MISSIONARY

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O God, by whose grace your servants

Saint Aubert of Cambrai,

Saint Landelinus of Vaux,

Saint Domitian of Lobbes,

Saint Hadelin of Lobbes, and

Saint Dodo of Lobbes,

kindled with the flame of your love,

became a bright and shining light in your Church:

Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline,

and walk before you as children of light;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Acts 2:42-47a

Psalm 133 or 34:1-8 or 119:161-168

2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Matthew 6:24-33

—Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), page 723