On the Zealous Amendment of our Life (I)

On the Zealous Amendment of our Life (I)

Be watchful (2 Tim. 4:5) and diligent in the service of God, and
frequently consider why you are come here, and why you have renounced
the world. Was it not that you might live to God, and become a
spiritual man? Endeavour, then, to make progress, and you will soon
receive the reward of your labours; then neither fear nor sorrow will
be able to trouble you. Labour for a short while now, and you will
find great peace of soul, and everlasting joy. If you remain faithful
in all your doings, be sure that God will be faithful and generous in
rewarding you (Ecclus 51:30). Keep a firm hope that you will win the
victor's crown; but do not be over confident, lest you become indolent
and self satisfied.
--Thomas =C3=A0 Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch 25

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
December 9th =E2=80=93 St. Budoc, of Beuzec, Abbot
6th v.

THE legend of St.Budoc is a characteristic example of romantic and
extravagant medieval Celtic hagiography. It is first found complete
only in the late Middle Ages, in the Chronicle of Saint-Brieuc,
compiled some time before 1420.

Once upon some unspecified time there was a king in Go=C3=ABllo (Tr=C3=A9gu=
ier
in Brittany) who married the beautiful daughter of the king of Brest;
her name was Azenor. One day her father while hunting was bitten by a
snake, which seized hold of his arm and would not let go. Whereupon
Azenor, who was present, smeared her breast with milk and aromatic oil
and so enticed the snake off her father on to herself; but to get rid
of it she had to cut away her own breast together with the snake, and
throw them into a fire. God recognized her daughterly piety, healed
the wound, and gave her a breast of gold. This aggravated the ill-will
of her already jealous stepmother, who accused her of being unfaithful
to her husband, the king of Go=C3=ABllo, whereupon Azenor was put into a
cask and thrown into the sea. She prayed to God and St. Brigid, and an
angel came with food for her and when she gave birth to a boy St.
Brigid herself was the midwife. This child was Budoc, and when his
mother had made the sign of the cross over him, he opened his mouth
and said, =E2=80=9CDo not be afraid, for God is with us=E2=80=9D.

After Azenor had thus lived for five months in the cask, it was washed
up on the shore of Waterford harbour and found by a peasant. He hoped
it was full of wine, and was about to tap it when a child=E2=80=99s voice f=
rom
within warned him to be careful for there was a baby inside who wanted
baptism. The frightened fellow ran off to a neighbouring monastery and
fetched the abbot, who opened the cask and released Azenor and her
child. The next day he was baptized and named, in Brezoneg, Beuzec,
because he was saved from drowning.

The monks educated him and his royal mother took in washing.
Meanwhile, the wicked stepmother died, confessing in her last moments
that she had falsely accused Azenor, and the distracted king of Go=C3=ABllo
did not rest till he had found his wife and son. But he died in
Ireland and Azenor soon followed him to the grave. Budoc, however,
grew up to be abbot of the monastery, and the people called him to be
both bishop and prince over them.

After two years he tired of his hard task and, not being able to get a
boat, he set out for Brittany in a stone trough or coffin. In this he
landed safely near Brest, and eventually came to Dol, where St.
Maglorius who wanted a bishop to take his own place welcomed him.
Budoc filled that office for twenty years, died and was buried at Dol:
=E2=80=9Can angelic minister, very learned, conspicuous for virtue, whom al=
l
the people of that time looked on as a support of the faith and a most
firm pillar of the Church.=E2=80=9D

There was a cultus of a saint, or saints, named Beuzec (Budoc) in the
north and west of Brittany, and there was a St. Budoc who was a bishop
at Dol; but he can hardly have been the same who was the master of St.
Winwaloe on the Isle Lavret near Br=C3=A9hat. In Britain his cultus was
found in Devon and Cornwall, and the tradition at Budock, near
Falmouth, was that he was a hermit who had come to that parish from
Ireland. But his name is not Irish. It is possible that he came from
Pembrokeshire, where he was formerly honoured at and around Steynton.
There was a church of St. Budoc at Oxford at the time of the Conquest.
It may be noted that the proximity of the island monasteries of Beuzec
and Maudez near Paimpol in Brittany is repeated in the closeness of
Budock to Saint Mawes in Cornwall.

It seems to be altogether a matter of speculation whether there were
one or several St. Budocs. The best attempt to deal with the problem
is no doubt that of Canon Doble in his =E2=80=9CCornish Saints=E2=80=9D ser=
ies (no. 3,
2nd ed., 1937). But see also F. Duine, Memento, pp. 65-66, and LBS.,
vol. i, pp. 328-330.


Saint Quote:
As the Lord knows for what we all are adapted, He gives to all their
positions as He sees to be most for His glory, for their salvation,
and the good of their neighbors.  Our mistake, then, is in not
submitting ourselves totally to whatever He wishes to do with us.
--St. Teresa

Bible Quote:
 What man of you that hath an hundred sheep: and if he shall lose one
of them, doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after
that which was lost, until he find it? 5 And when he hath found it,
lay it upon his shoulders, rejoicing:   (Luke 15:4-5)


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Pious Invocations

Eternal rest give to them, O Lord;
R. And let perpetual light shine upon them.

My Jesus, mercy

My sweetest Jesus, be not my Judge, but my Saviour!

O Sweetest Heart of Jesus, I implore, that I may love Thee ever more and mo=
re!

Sweet heart of Mary, be my salvation

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Jesus! Mary! Joseph

Divine Heart of Jesus, convert sinners, save the dying, deliver the
holy souls from purgatory!