ST MERIADEC, BISHOP OF VANNES, CONFESSOR

WHILE he lived in the world, he employed the revenue of a great estate of which he was master, in charitable works, and at length stripped himself of it principally in favor of the poor. From that time he lived a recluse in a desert place, a mile from the castle of Pontivi in the viscounty of Rohan, in Brittany. The viscount himself visited the saint, and had the greatest veneration for his sanctity.* The canons and people of Vannes, seconded by the bishops of the province, compelled him much against his will to fill the episcopal see of that city. With this dignity his charity to the poor received a great increase; for he looked upon himself by that sacred character as it were anointed the father and comforter of all the distressed. Under his episcopal ornaments he wore a rough hair shirt, and had no better covering to his bed than sackcloth. The legend and ancient lessons of Treguir place his death in 1302. In the old Breviary of Nantes, in that of Vannes, &c., an office is appointed in his honor on the 7th of June. He is titular saint of the chapel of the castle of Pontivi, and of several others in Brittany. See Henschenius, t. 2, Junij, p. 36, and Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, p. 242.