Saint Pient

A great event marked his episcopate, and he had the good fortune to play a major part in it. We speak of the establishment of the monastery of Sainte-Croix, which Sa int Radegund was sainte Badegonde Queen of the Franks and founder of the Sainte-Croix monastery in Poitiers. founding in Poitiers. These houses of prayer bring too much glory to God and joy to priests for Saint Pient not to have given them his full devotion. Happily seconded by Eustropius, governor of Poitou for King Clotaire, he entered i roi Clotaire King of the Franks who supported the foundation of the monastery. nto the intentions of this prince, by hastening the completion of the holy dwelling over which the pious queen was watching, and which was favored by the royal generosity of her husband.

These cares of the prelate inspired in Radegund a gratitude that she showed him all her life, and Saint Grego ry of Tours, who wrote saint Grégoire de Tours Historian and bishop, primary source for the narrative. the history of this time, of which he was almost a contemporary, reports several traits that prove how much she always wished to remain towards him, with her sisters, in a filial dependence. She loved to entrust him with abundant alms for his poor and his churches. It was also she who provided him with the loaves of pure fine flour that she made for the service of the altar.

Everything that remains to us of the life of Saint Pient attests to his zeal for the regularity of episcopal life and the fulfillment of his duties. Constantly applied to the good of his flock, he visited it with solicitude, however vast the territory of the diocese of Poitiers may have been at that time, which extended from the Ocean to the borders of Touraine, Berry, and Limousin.

Once, while sailing toward the region of the island of Maillezais, he was shipwrecked with the sailors who were guiding his journey; several of them perished there. The Saint only escaped death in this circumstance to go and suc cumb Melle Site of the foundation of a sanctuary in honor of the saint. at Melle, a small town in lower Poitou, which was receiving his visit perhaps during this same pastoral journey. It is believed that this was around the year 564. What is certain is that it must have been after 561, the date of the death of Clotaire I, since he died after this prince; and before 567, since Charibert, who succeeded the latter on the throne of France and reigned for only six years, placed Pascontius II after Saint Pient on the see of Poitiers.

From time immemorial, the feast of Saint Pient has been celebrated on March 13, which is the day of his death. His name was placed between Saint Anthème and Saint Fortunat in the litanies of Poitiers, and the oldest liturgy of this diocese consecrates his memory. But his cult has nowhere retained as much celebr ity as Maillé Principal place of worship where the saint is said to have vowed to build a chapel. in Maillé, the chief town of a parish near Maillezais. It is there that the Saint had been cast by the storm during the shipwreck of which we have spoken. Local tradition recounts that Pient had promised God in this peril to build a sacred monument at the very place where he would land, if His Providence deigned to save him. This vow was fulfilled, and it is this same chapel whose last traces have disappeared, but which, having long borne his name, was for more than ten centuries, on March 13 of each year, the meeting place of countless pilgrims. The small monument having been ruined, the devotion was transferred to the parish church of Maillé, and it is there that it still exists in its entirety in the confidence of the people who come there seeking the healing of ear ailments and deafness. Notes communicated to Canon Auber, historiographer of Poitiers, by Abbé Bourguy, professor at the major seminary of Luçon, and transmitted to the latter by the parish priest of Maillé.