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S. AUGULUS, Bishop, Martyr

AUGULUS, Bishop of London and Martyr, is in the Roman Martyrology, that of Usuardus, those also of Rhabanus Maurus, Wandelbert of Prum, Ado of Vienne, the thirteenth century Martyrology of Christchurch, Canterbury, Arundel MS., No. 60, also a martyrology written. between 1220 and 1224, MS. Reg. 2, A. xiii, etc.1

Nothing whatever is, however, known of him. The day is February 7. Whytford in his Martiloge gives on that day, "In brytayne at august the feest of saynt Agge a martyr and a bysshop"; also Nicolas Roscarrock.

S. AUSTELL, Monk, Confessor

AUSTELL was a disciple of Mevan or Mewan, and accompanied him. and S. Samson from South Wales. When Samson made a foundation at Golant near Fowey, previous to crossing into Armorica, Austell must have been there as well, for he planted his llan where stands now the beautiful church that bears his name, and hard by that of his master. On the tower he is represented as a hermit or pilgrim with staff and beads, on the right hand of the Saviour, and on the left is S. Samson habited as Archbishop of Dol, in pall with archiepiscopal crozier.

Austell followed Mewan and Samson to Brittany. Mewan was sent by Samson with a message across the forest of Bracilien to Vannes, and on the way Mewan made friends with a settler from Britain, who persuaded him to found a llan near his place, and promised him all his territory on his death. This was the origin of the famous abbey of S. Méen.

When Mewan was dying Austell stood by with streaming eyes, the aged abbot bade him cease weeping, and not be discouraged, as he would follow him in seven days. Accordingly, seven days after, Austell was found dead in his bed.

The brethren knowing the friendship of long standing that existed between the two, resolved to lay Austell by his abbot.

On opening the stone coffin, they found that the dead man, whom · they had laid on his back with folded hands over his breast, had moved on one side so as to allow space for his faithful companion. S. Austell's 1 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, etc., i, Appendix B., p. 27, et seq.

day is June 28.

"Septimo-die, quod est quarto kalendas Julii—in pace obdormiens requievit." 1

Trésveaux in his additions to Lobineau gives the fifteenth century Calendar of S. Méen, and this has the commemoration as on the Vth calends, or June 27.2

3

Gaultier du Mottay quoting the same authority gives June 29.3 Clearly both have misread the original.

S. Austell (Austolus) does not seem to have founded any churches in Brittany; he was content to be eclipsed by the greater luminary, S. Mevan. But in Cornwall he has a church of great beauty.

According to Sir Harris Nicolas, the Feast of S. Austell was formerly kept on Trinity Sunday, but Nicolas Roscarrock, a better authority because he wrote in or about 1610, and was a Cornish man, says that the Feast was kept on Thursday in Whitsun Week. There is no separate Life of this Saint; all we know of him is from the Life of S. Mevan or Mewan. This has been published by Dom Plaine. It is subsequent to the tenth century, and is contained in the Analecta Bollandiana, tome iii (1884), and is from a MS. that belonged to the Abbey of S. Méen, but is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris.

The death of S. Austell took place about 627.

Nicolas Roscarrock from local tradition says that "S. Austell and S. Meven were great friends, whose parishes joyne."

S. AVIA, see S. EWE

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S. BACH

BACH AB CARWED or Carwyd was the founder of Eglwys Fach, if the story be true," as the compiler of the alphabetical catalogue in the Myvyrian Archaiology adds, the more obvious signification of the name being the "small church." The parish is situated partly in Denbighshire and partly in Carnarvonshire, and the church is now given as dedicated to S. Martin. Bach's name does not occur in any of the Iolo MSS. lists. Rees 5 places him in the second half of the seventh

1 Vita Sti. Mevenni, ed. Plaine, p. 16.

2 Vies des Saints de Bretagne (ed. 1836), tome i, p. xxviii.

3 "

Essai d'Iconographie Bretonne," in Bulletin de la Société Polym. des Côtes du Nord, tome iii, 1857-6. Calendar, p. 353; also p. 127.

4 P. 419.

5 Welsh Saints, p. 306.

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