From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

May 17th =E2=80=93 St. Madron of Cornwall, Hermit
=C2 (Also known as Maden, Madern)

Died near Land's End, Cornwall, c. 545. Saint Madron, a hermit in
Brittany of Cornish descent, is the patron of many churches, including
the site of his hermitage at Saint Madern's Well in Cornwall and two
parishes in Saint-Malo. Many miracles are ascribed to Saint Madron,
including one experienced, investigated, and attested to by the
Protestant bishop of Exeter, Dr. Joseph Hall, a strong opponent of
Catholicism who wrote =E2=80=9CDissuasive from Popery=E2=80=9D to W. D. In = =E2=80=9COn the
Invisible World=E2=80=9D he wrote of the miraculous cure at Saint Madern's Well:

"The commerce that we have with the good spirits is not now discerned
by the eye, but is, like themselves, spiritual. Yet not so, but that
even in bodily occasions we have many times insensible helps from
them; in such manner as that by the effects we can boldly say: Here
hath been an angel, though we see him not. Of this kind was that (no
less than miraculous) cure which at Saint Madern's in Cornwall was
wrought upon a poor cripple, John Trelille, whereof (besides the
attestation of many hundreds of neighbors) I took a strict and
personal examination in that last visitation which I either did or
ever shall hold. This man, that for 16 years together was fain to walk
upon his hands, by reason of the close contraction of the sinews of
his legs (upon three admonitions in a dream to wash in that well), was
suddenly so restored to his limbs, that I saw him able to walk and get
his own maintenance. I found here was neither art nor collusion: the
thing done, the author invisible."

Another writer of the same period gives a fuller account of the same
miraculous cure:

"I will relate one miracle more done in our own country, to the great
wonder of the neighboring inhabitants, but a few years ago, viz.,
about the year 1640. The process of the business was told the king
when at Oxford, which he caused to be further examined. It was this: a
certain boy of 12 years old, called John Trelille, in the county of
Cornwall, not far from the Land's End, as they were playing at
football, snatching up the ball ran away with it; whereupon a girl in
anger struck him with a thick stick on the backbone, and so bruised or
broke it, that for 16 years after he was forced to go creeping on the
ground. "In this condition he arrived to the twenty-eighth year of his
age, when he dreamed that if he did but bathe in Saint Madern's well,
or in the stream running from it, he should recover his former
strength and health. This is a place in Cornwall from the remains of
ancient devotion still frequented by Protestants on the Thursdays in
May, and especially on the feast of Corpus Christi; near to which well
is a chapel dedicated to Saint Madern, where is yet an altar, and
right against it a grassy hillock (made every year anew by the country
people) which they call Saint Madern's bed. The chapel-roof is quite
decayed; but a kind of thorn of itself shooting forth of the old
walls, so extends its boughs that it covers the whole chapel, and
supplies as it were a roof.

"On a Thursday in May, assisted by one Periman his neighbor,
entertaining great hopes from his dream, thither he crept, and lying
before the altar, and praying very fervently that he might regain his
health and the strength of his limbs, he washed his whole body in the
stream that flowed from the well, and ran through the chapel: after
which, having slept about an hour and a half on Saint Madern's bed,
through the extremity of pain he felt in his nerves and arteries, he
began to cry out, and his companion helping and lifting him up, he
perceived his hams and joints somewhat extended, and himself become
stronger, insomuch, that partly with his feet, partly with his hands,
he went much more erect than before.

"Before the following Thursday he got two crutches, resting on which
he could make shift to walk, which before he could not do. And coming
to the chapel as before, after having bathed himself he slept on the
same bed, and awaking found himself much stronger and more upright;
and so leaving one crutch in the chapel, he went home with the other.

"The third Thursday he returned to the chapel. and bathed as before,
slept, and when he awoke rose up quite cured; yea, grew so strong,
that he wrought day-labor among other hired servants; and four years
after listed himself a soldier in the kings army, where he behaved
himself with great stoutness, both of mind and body at length, in
1644, he was slain at Lime in Dorsetshire."

The author emphasizes notice that Thursday and Friday were the days
chosen out of devotion to the blessed Eucharist and the Passion of
Christ.

This well-attested miracle aroused interest in Saint Madron, but still
little is known about the saint except for the dedications in Cornwall
and Brittany. He has been identified as Saint Medran, the disciple of
Saint Kieran, the Welsh Saint Padarn, or a local man that accompanied
Saint Tudwal to Brittany (Attwater2, Benedictines, Coulson,
Husenbeth).


Saint Quote:
Christ made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue. I
belong to Him whom the angels serve.
--Saint Agnes of Rome

Bible Quote:
=C2 Dead flies cause the oil of the perfumer to send forth an evil odor;
so doth a little folly outweigh wisdom and honor.=C2 [Ecc 10:1 ]


<><><><>
Mary, I Beg You
By St Anselm (1033-1109)
Magnificent Doctor

Mary, I beg you,
by that grace through which
the Lord is with you
and you will to be with him,
let your mercy be with me.
Let love for you always be with me,
and the care for me be always with you.
Let the cry of my need,
as long as it persists,
be with you,
and the care of your goodness,
as long as I need it,
be with me.
Let joy in your blessedness
be always with me,
and compassion for my wretchedness,
where I need it,
be with you.
Amen

--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)