ST. LO. IN LATIN LAUDUS, BISHOP OF COUTANCES IN NORMANDY

HE was descended from a noble family in the same diocess of which he became afterward bishop, and was consecrated by St. Gildard or Godard, archbishop of Rouen and metropolitan of Neustria, about the year 528. A little after his consecration, he applied to St. Melanius of Rennes for instructions to advance the glory of God. He was present at the second, third, and fifth councils of Orleans, and by proxy at the fourth council of the same city. It was he who performed the funeral ceremony of St. Paternus or Pair, bishop of Avranches. It is said, that succeeding to the family estate, he enriched his diocess and endowed it with the lands of Briovere (now St. Lo), Courci, Trielli, &c. It is also asserted that the castle of Briovere was his family seat, and that for this reason in the fifth council of Orleans he signs himself not Lo of Coutances, but Lo of Briovere.* The holy bishop governed his diocess with equal zeal and virtue till the year 568, when he went to receive the reward of his labors in heaven. Romachaire, one of his priests, succeeded him. He was an Englishman born, and for piety and learning esteemed one of the first men of his age. The incursions of the Normans caused the relics of St. Lo to be translated to Thouars in Poitou, in the ninth century. His feast, which is celebrated this day at Coutances, is of the first class, with an octave. It is inserted in the Roman Martyrology on the 22d of September. There is a town in Normandy which bears the saint’s name, and a parochial church at Rouen dedicated under his invocation. See the acts of the saints: l’Abrégé de la Vie des Evêques de Coutances by Rouault, Coutances, 1742, in 12mo. Trigan, Hist. Eccles. de Normand. pp. 94, 128, et. 458.