Saint Blimond

Whatever may be the case regarding this hybrid etymology, Blimond, believing he could never sufficiently acknowledge the signal favor he had been the object of, other than by consecrating to the service of the altars that same health he had just miraculously received, resolved to become a religious under the wise guidance of Saint Valery, so that, through the beautiful instructions of such a great man, he might preserve his soul from spiritual maladies, just as he had been delivered, through the merits of the same saint, from such a strange bodily infirmity; his parents, whatever tenderness they may have had for him, being unable to oppose such a pious design, willingly left him in the hands of his benefactor, and according to an ancient tradition fixed their residence at Gouy, near Saigneville. They established, in a neighboring plain, five farmhouses which soon gave birth to a village later called by the name of Saint-Blimond. The grateful disciple made such progress in the school of Saint Valery that he became the example of the monastery. This is why it is not surprising if, after the death of the abbot, Blimond was elected by the votes of all the religious to succeed him. 622.

However, he could not govern this holy community for long; for, from the following year, Scandinavian pirates came to devastate our maritime regions; the religious were forced to abandon Picardy, where the armies were causing the greatest disorder, and to go and ask for temporary hospitality from other, less exposed abbeys. Thus, the holy abbot, seeing that his monastery was entirely dispersing without being able to provide a remedy, resolved to take refuge himself in that of Bobbio, in the Milanese region; he undoubtedly decided on this choice by presuming a favorable welcome from Abbot Attala, who had been a disci ple of Sain abbé Attale Abbot of Bobbio and friend of Saint Blimond. t Columbanus, at the same time as Saint Valery, at the Abbey of Luxeuil. He was certain, moreover abbaye de Luxeuil Abbey founded by Saint Columbanus and blessed by Saint Nicetius. , to meet compatriots there; for Burgundians flocked to this community, as well as Irish, Frankish, Italian, and Lombard monks. Saint Attala, who was then governing this house, received him with great charity, delighted to possess such a servant of God, and persuaded that the virtues of this Saint would contribute not a little to increasing the fervor of his religious. Blimond, having spent a few years in this place in the exercises of rigorous penance, believed he should return to France, where he learned that the troubles had ceased. He communicated his plan to Abbot Attala; the holy old man, unable to resolve to deprive himself of a person with whom he had contracted a close friendship, and whose merit was perfectly known to him, strove to delay this painful departure; but one day as he was going to the church, leaning on the arm of Blimond, he saw Saint Valery appear, all radiant with glory, and found himself so relieved of his infirmities that he believed himself transported through the air toward the place where he was going. The gratitude he felt for Saint Valery did not allow him to oppose Blimond's project any longer; but God did not take away from him the consolation he so greatly desired, of feeling his eyes closed by the holy abbot of Leuconaus. A few days later, Attala, seeing his end approaching, had himself transported out of his cell to venerate the cross that sanctified its entrance. There, in the presence of Blimond, who never left him, he saw the sky open to let him glimpse the place he was to occupy there the following day. Saint Attala died on March 10 of the year 627. Blimond, after having rendered him the honors of burial, left immediately for Picardy; he found there only a monastery in ruins; it was only with difficulty that he could recognize, all covered with brambles and thistles, the tomb of Saint Valery. Near there he built a cell to spend the rest of his life in solitude. However, he could not prevent the fame of his miracles, his austerities, and his virtues from soon attracting numerous disciples to him, and most of the former monks of Leuconaus returned to place themselves under the direction of their former abbot.

A new monastery was needed. "Saint Blimond obtained from Ki ng Clotaire II, roi Clotaire II King of Neustria and later sole King of the Franks, protector of Columbanus after his exile. around the year 628, permission to build a vast abbey and to erect a church under the invocation of Saint Valery. These constructions were two kilometers away from the village of Saint-Blimond, on the current road to Lanchères. The elders of the region still remember this location named the Plaine d'Argent, situated near a wood that was cleared around 1852. These constructions were destroyed in the 10th century by the ravages of the Normans; Hugh Capet had this abbey rebuilt at the place where the circumvallations of what is called, today, in Saint-Valery, the City, are dug.

Dagobert I , in the yea Dagobert Ier King of the Franks petitioned by Sulpicius to annul a tax. r 636, granted Blimond the domain of Routiauville.

After having firmly established regular discipline in his cloister, he began with truly apostolic zeal to work for the ruin of idolatry, which still infested some places in Picardy; assisted by his disciples, who spread throughout the province for the execution of such a generous design, he finished exterminating the remainder of the idols, overturned their altars, and converted those who still worshipped them by making them know Jesus Christ as the true God and Redeemer; it was to the point that we can, with justice, consider him an apostle of this country, since it was through his care that the worship of false gods was entirely banished from it.

He continued in his new duties the austere life he had undertaken upon leaving Bobbio; in his extreme mortification, he drank only water and ate only after sunset; he allowed himself only five hours of sleep on branches spread out in his cell. With unlimited trust in God, he would reply, when reproached for giving too much to the poor, that the more one strips oneself in their favor, the more one has the right to count on the generosity of Providence.

Saint Blimond happily ended his days with a death precious before God, on January 3, 650, after having had the consolation of seeing the construction of his monastery and his church completed. He was buried, it is said, in the chapel of Saint-Valery, which was later replaced by the sanctuary that one sees today not far from the enclosure of the former abbey. His relics, preserved to this day, were verified in 1651, and transferred in 1791 to the village of Saint-Blimond, where they were recognized in 1856 by Mgr Boudinet. The parish church of Saint-Valery, as well as Notre-Dame d'Amiens, possess some bones of Saint Blimond.

The memory of this Saint, as we have already said, is very famous in the Vimeux region.

Saint Blimond is the patron of the village of the same name and the third pays de Vimeux A region of Picardy where the cult of the saint is very prominent. titular of the parish church of Saint-Valery. The abbey of Saint-Valery celebrated under the double rite, on January 3, the deposition of Saint Valery, and on August 31 the elevation of his body. The monastery of Corbie dedicated a single feast to him, on February 28. The breviaries of M. de la Motte and Mgr Mioland contain the simple office of Saint Blimond, on November 26. There is no mention of him in the current proper of the diocese of Amiens. The patronal feast is celebrated, for Saint Blimond and Saint Valery, on the Sunday following August 31.

The Benedictine Martyrology makes a very honorable mention of him, as do the Martyrologies of Bucelin, of Hugues Ménard who wrote his life, of Du Saussay, etc.

Bollandus speaks of him in the first volume of January, and the Rev. Fathers Do m Luc d'Achéri an Dom Jean Mahillon Benedictine monk and historian, author of the Annales benedictinae. d Dom Jean Mabillon have given us very learned notices of him in the second century of the Saints of the Order of Saint Benedict.

Bollandus inserted on January 3rd a very short *Life of Saint Blimond*, by an anonymous monk; Mr. Ch. Barthélémy published the translation of it in his *Annales Angiologiques*, vol. VIII. Some information on Saint Blimond can be found in the *Acts of Saint Valery*, written by the monk Rabubert (Mabillon, *Act. SS. sec. II*, p. 16), and in those of Saint Attala, Abbot of Bobbio, written by the monk Jonas (*Ibid.*, p. 126).

H. Arthur Demarey possesses a manuscript life of Saint Blimond, which he had the kindness to lend us. It is a completely modern and more than mediocre amplification of the passages of the *Acts of Saint Valery* which concern his disciple.

(Abbé CORBLET.)