Foillan

Infobox Saint
name= Saint Foillan
birth_date=
death_date=seventh century
feast_day= 31 October (Diocese of Namur); November 5 (Dioceses of Mechlin and Tournai)
venerated_in= Roman Catholic Church


imagesize= 150px
caption=
birth_place= Ireland
death_place= Sonian Forest, Belgium
titles=
beatified_date=
beatified_place=
beatified_by=
canonized_date=
canonized_place=
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attributes=Represented with a crown at his feet to show that he despised the honours of the world
patronage=Fosses; truss-makers, dentists, surgeons, and children's nurses.
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=

Saint Foillan ("Faelan, Faolan, Foelan, Foalan"; _fr. Feuillien) is an Irish saint of the seventh century.

Family

Foillan was the brother of Saints Ultan and Fursey: he is described as the 'uterine brother' of Fursey, meaning that they had the same mother but not the same father. [Bruno Krusch (Ed.), 'Additamentum Niuialense de Fuilano', "Monumenta Germaniae Historica", SRM IV, (Hannover 1902), p. 449-451.] Certain latin "Lives" of Foillan therefore incorporate the Fursey ancestry into Foillan's origins: his mother is stated to have been Gelges, christian daughter of 'Aed-Finn' (possibly meaning Áed mac Echach), King of Connacht. [Société des Bollandistes, "Acta Sanctorum", October XIII, (1883), Section 'De Patria et Genere S. Foillani, pp. 375-376.] Fursey's father is stated to be Fintan son of Finlog (though whether of Momonia or of Magmurthemne, the Bollandist editor finds the sources not in agreement).

Mission to East Anglia

Foillan, probably in company with Ultan, went with his brother Fursey when the latter, escaping from multitudes who gathered around him, some of whom harboured ill-feeling towards him, retired to a lonely island. From there, in around 633, Fursey went with a group of followers including Foillan and Ultan and priests named Gobàn and Dicuill, through British territory to the Kingdom of East Anglia. There they were received kindly by King Sigeberht of East Anglia, who gave to Fursey the site of a Roman shore-fort at a place called "Cnobheresburg", for the purposes of building a monastery. The monastery was built, at the site usually identified as Burgh Castle or Gariannonum (formerly in Suffolk, now Norfolk), and it flourished between c. 634 and c. 650. The earliest source for Fursey and Foillan in East Anglia is the "Vita Sancti Fursei": [Bruno Krusch (Ed.), 'Vita Sancti Fursei', "Monumenta Germaniae Historica", SRM IV, (Hannover 1902), p. 434-440 (visions omitted). cf. Oliver Rackham, "Transitus Sancti Fursei" (Fursey Pilgrims, Norwich 2007) contains the full text including visions.] this was the primary source quoted by the Venerable Bede in his "Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum" of 731. [B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Eds), "Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People", 269-277 (HE III.19) and see note 2 p.268.]

Abbot of Cnoberesburg

Seized again with the desire for solitude, in c. 643 Fursey left the monastery in the care of Foillan while he went off to live as a solitary hermit with Ultan, who had gone into the wilderness previously. ["Transitus Sancti Fursei": Bede, HE III.18] At the end of the year Fursey, seeing that East Anglia and the monastery were threatened by hostile invasions, decided to take his leave of East Anglia, and went into Gaul leaving Foillan now fully in charge of the monastery.

The "Catholic Encyclopedia" states that Fursey made a return visit to the brethren in East Anglia c. 650. This is derived from the "Virtutes Fursei", [Bruno Krusch (Ed.), 'Virtutes Sancti Fursei', "Monumenta Germaniae Historica", SRM IV, (Hannover 1902), p. 440-449, at p. 445 (Chapter 14): cf. Rackham (Ed.), 2007, 64.] which states that Fursey decided that he would return to visit his brothers, and set out to do so, but then adds that he died on the journey at his estate at "Macerias" (Mézerolles in Ponthieu), so in fact did not reach them. Neither the early "Transitus Fursei" nor "Bede" have the story.

In c. 651 there was (as Fursey had foreseen) a disastrous assault on East Anglia by Penda, the Mercian king. King Anna of East Anglia was put to flight, and the monastery of Cnobheresburg fell into the hand of the enemies. It was pillaged, and its superior, Foillan, barely escaped death. He hastened to ransom the captive monks, recovered the relics, put the holy books and objects of veneration on board ship, and departed for Péronne in Frankish Neustria, where his brother Fursey was buried. [The story of Anna's exile, and of Foillan's escape from East Anglia and his coming to Nivelles is told in the Nivelles "Additamentum" (Krusch, Ed. 1902).]

At Péronne and Nivelles

He and his companions were well received at Péronne by Erchinoald, Mayor of the Palace, who with King Clovis II had previously befriended Fursey. But soon, turning against these visitors, that nobleman expelled Foillan and his companions from Péronne, and they went to Nivelles, where they were made welcome by (Saint) Itta (also called Iduberg) and her daughter (Saint) Gertrude, and their protector (Gertrude's brother) Grimoald I. [Source: Nivelles "Additamentum".] Itta and Gertrude, wife and daughter of Duke Pepin I, were the foundresses of the Nivelles monastery in the Sonian Forest, an outlier of the great Silva Carbonaria.

Foillan, like many other Irish monks who went to the Continent in the seventh century, was invested with episcopal dignity,fact|date=May 2008 having possibly been a monastic bishop at Cnoberesburg. [This is a speculation by the "Catholic Encyclopedia".] He was therefore of great assistance in the organization of worship, and the holy books and relics which he brought were great treasures for St. Itta and St. Gertrude. As the monastery of Nivelles was under Irish discipline, the companions of Foillan were well received and lived side by side with the holy women, occupying themselves with the details of worship under the general direction of the abbess.fact|date=May 2008

Foundation of Fosses, and martyrdom

Through the liberality of Itta, Foillan was enabled to build a monastery at Fosses-la-Ville, not far from Nivelles, in the province of Namur. After the death of Itta in 652, Foillan came one day to Nivelles and sang Mass, on the eve of the feast of Saint Quentin. The ceremony being finished, he resumed his journey, doubtless undertaken in the interests of his monastery. In the Sonian Forest the saint and his companions fell into a trap set by bandits who inhabited the dense forest. They were slain, stripped, and their bodies concealed. Foillan's head, still speaking prayers, was thrown into a nearby pigsty. But the bodies were recovered by St. Gertrude, and when she had taken some relics of the saint his body was borne to the monastery of Fosses-la-Ville, where it was buried about 655. [The information in this paragraph is mostly repeated by the "Catholic Encyclopedia" from the "Nivelles Additamentum".]

Veneration

Foillan was one of the numerous Irish travellers who in the course of the seventh century evangelized in Neustria, bringing thither the liturgy and sacred vessels, founding prosperous monasteries, and sharing considerably in the propagation of the faith in these countries. Owing to the friendship which united him with Erchinoald, Mayor of the Palace (who, however, expelled him from Lagny), and with the members of Pepin's family, Foillan played a significant part in Frankish ecclesiastical history, as shown by his share in the direction of Nivelles and by the foundation of the monastery of Fosses-la-Ville.

It is not surprising, therefore, that he should be honoured and venerated both at Nivelles and Fosses-la-Ville and to find at Le Roeulx (Belgium) a monastery bearing his name. As late as the twelfth century the veneration in which he was held inspired Philippe de Harvengt, Abbot of Bonne-Esperance, to compose a lengthy biography of the saint. He is the patron of Fosses, near Charleroi. In the Diocese of Namur his feast is celebrated on 31 October, in the Diocese of Mechlin and Diocese of Tournai on 5 November.

There are several latin "Lives" of Foillan, of varying authority, reproduced by the Society of Bollandists in the "Acta Sanctorum". [Société des Bollandistes, "Acta Sanctorum", October Vol XIII, p. 370 ff.] In around 1100 Hillinus, a deacon and cantor of the church of Fosse, wrote a metrical life of Foillan for his master the patron of Fosse, named Sigebert: [Bollandists, "Acta Sanctorum", October Vol XIII, pp 395-408.] soon afterwards, between 1102 and 1112, Hillinus also wrote a prose "In Miraculis Sancti Foyllani Martyris", a book of the miracles associated with St Foillan at Fosse. [See p. 924, in 'Ex Miraculis S. Foillani Auct Hillino Cantore Fossensi', Ed. O. Holder-Egger, in G. H. Pertz (Ed.), "Monumenta Germaniae Historica" Vol. XV part II (Supplementa tomorum I-XII, Pt 2), Vitae Aliaeque Historiae Minores, pp. 924-928.]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1031.htm Saints Index: Foillan]
* [http://www.catholic-forum.com/saintS/saintf60.htm Patron Saints: Foillan]
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_%281913%29/St._Foillan Foillan] at the Catholic Encyclopedia