71. SAINTMELOR,MARTYR-PRINCE OF BRITTANY
St. Melor (Mylor) was the son of Melianus, Duke of Cornouaille in Brittany (North-Western France) and his British wife Aurilla. In his time there was a drought in the land, and no rain fell for seven years. At length, in the seventh year a council of nobles was held to determine what to do. At this council Melianus» brother Rivoldus killed his brother and began to reign in his stead. Moreover, he took away Melianus» seven-year-old son Melor, intending to kill him, too. A Council of Bishops taking place in Gobroidus in Cornouaille besought Rivoldus that the prince should not be killed, but that only his right hand and left foot should be cut off.
Their prayer was answered, and the young prince grew up with a silver hand and a bronze foot. He lived in a monastery and read the Holy Scriptures until his fourteenth year. Then, one summer, the abbot gathered some nuts and presented them to the boy as to his lord. He took them in his silver hand, which miraculously began to turn into a real hand. One day the holy prince took a stone and threw it one hundred yards away. It fell upon a very hard rock and stuck fast in it as if it were soft wax. When he came to the rock to draw out the stone, a living spring gushed out of the rock.
News of this miracle quickly spread, to the consternation of Rivoldus. He then bribed Melor's guardian Cerialtanus to kill the boy. Cerialtanus went home and told his wife all that Rivoldus had promised him. She said: «Go and confirm the bargain and get as good a deal as possible.» Cerialtanus then went to Rivoldus and stayed with him for a week. Meanwhile, Melor's nurse fled with her ward to Count Commorus, who lived in a castle in Beuzit, near Lanmeur. The count and his family rejoiced and offered to give Melor his castle and see to his upbringing until he came of age.
Rivoldus then summoned Cerialtanus and sent him off to kill Melor in accordance with their bargain. Cerialtanus and his son Justanus arrived at the castle where Melor was staying. «When Blessed Melor saw his guardian, he embraced him as if he were his father, and rejoiced greatly, and trusting them entirely he wished to sleep in the same bed with them. But his nurse, who suspected their malice and foresaw what would happen, forbad him to do so, and renewed her prohibition the next day. But the third night the pious and simple-minded boy earnestly asked leave, and his nurse affectionately kissing him said: "Go, I commend you to the power of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, and may Almighty God do whatever is pleasing to Him concerning you.» When night was come, the pious and innocent boy lay down to rest between them. But they, when all men slept, turned upon him in the silence of the night and slew him like an unresisting lamb, and cut off his head and departed.»
However, as Justanus was carrying the head of the martyr, at the bidding of his father, along the wall of the castle, by the just providence of God «he fell from the
wall and broke his neck and died. But the martyr's nurse, coming to the house in which the body was lying, saw both the angels of God and lamps shining with Divine splendour. Cerialtanus took the head and fled.»
Coming to a place called Lanneanou, fainting through bodily weakness and the pangs of conscience, and almost dead with extreme thirst, Cerialtanus said: «Woe is me, most miserable of all men, and worthy of every pain and torment! What shall I do? For, afflicted with parching thirst, I am fainting and dying.» When he had repeated these words many times, the martyr's head burst out into human language and said: «Cerialtanus, fix the staff you are carrying firmly in the ground, and you will see a fountain of water rise suddenly from the earth, from which you will be amply refreshed and escape the danger of dying from thirst to which you are now exposed.» Cerialtanus fixed his staff in the ground, where it took root and was turned into a beautiful tree with branches and fruit. And from its root there sprang a fountain of water. Refreshed by drinking from it, Cerialtanus brought the head to Rivoldus, who received it with joy and said: «Arise, go to the top of the mountain and I will gladly give you all the lands you can see from there.» He went up the mountain, and just as he was about to look round at his new possessions, his eyes fell out and he died, and «his flesh melted like wax at the presence of fire».
Meanwhile, Count Commorus and his wife heard of the martyrdom. Sorrowing greatly, they came to bury him. And they buried him in the house in which he had been martyred. However, the next day the martyr's body was found on the ground outside his tomb. They buried the body in three different places, but the same thing happened each time. Then, after taking advice, they put the holy body onto a cart to which two untamed bulls had been attached, and let it go in whichever direction the power of God willed to direct it. And lo! The bulls, suddenly become tame, carried the body to a place called Guimaec, near Vannes, and stood still. The people tried to move the cart, but it would not move. So they buried the holy body there.
Many miracles were wrought at that place: the blind received their sight, the lame walked and the sick were restored to health. Rivoldus touched the decapitated head and died three days later. The head was then buried with the body by the bishops and clergy.
Many years later, in the early tenth century, the relics of the holy martyr were brought to Amesbury in England. When the clergy were about to leave the monastery with the relics, they found that they could not be moved from the altar, but stuck to it as if glued to it. To relieve their distress, the abbess gave them a generous monetary compensation; but the relics of the martyr remained in his adopted country.
Once some evil men came into the church and stole the shrine with the holy relics. Stripping off the plates of gold and silver with which it was encased, they threw away the chest containing the relics into a cave. However, at dawn the next day a priest saw a radiant column of light rising from the cave. Going to the place, he found the shrine and took it back to the church.
Again, St. Melor appeared one night to the sacristan and said: «Godric, get up quickly, the roof of the church is full of gaping cracks, it is shaking, and menaces instant ruin.» After repeating the warning the next night, he appeared to him again on the third night and said: «Godric, rise at once, take the images and ornaments of the altar with you and get out of the church as quickly as possible; for you are undoubtedly in danger of death.» And when he had left the church, the whole roof fell in behind him.
St. Melor died in about 544, at the age of fourteen. His feastday is October 1.
Holy Martyr-Prince Melor, pray to God for us!
(Sources: G.H. Doble, The Saints of Cornwall, Truro, 1964, volume 3, pp. 20–52; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1978, p. 288)