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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > F > St. Foillan


ST. FOILLAN

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(Irish FAELAN, FAOLAN, FOELAN, FOALAN.)

Represented in iconography with a crown at his feet to show that he despised the
honours of the world. He was born in Ireland early in the seventh century and
was the brother of Saints Ultan and Fursey, the latter a famous missionary who
preached the Faith to the Irish, the Anglo-saxons, and the Franks. Foillan,
probably in company with Ultan, went with his brother Fursey when the latter,
fleeing from his country then devastated by foreign invaders, retired to a
lonely islands. Fursey soon went among the Anglo Saxons and built a monastery at
Burgh Castle (Cnoberesburg) in Suffolk, between 634 and 650.

Seized again with the desire for solitude, Fursey left the monastery in the care
of Foillan, who remained at the head of the community, and had the happiness of
once more seeing his brother Fursey, who, having since gone to the kingdom of
the Franks, came to visit him about 650. Soon a disastrous war broke out between
Penda, the Mercian chief, and Ana, King of the Eastern Anglo-Saxons. Ana having
been put to flight, the monastery of Cnoberesburg 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 the country of the
Franks, where his brother Fursey was buried. He and his companions were well
received at Péronne by Erconwald, Mayor of the Palace. But soon, for some
unknown reason, Foillan and his companions left Péronne and went to Nivelles, a
monastery founded by St. Ita and St. Gertrude, wife and daughter of Duke Pepin
I.



Foillan, like so many other Irishmen who went to the Continent in the seventh
century, was invested with episcopal dignity, having doubtless been a monastic
bishop at Cnoberesburg. 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. Ita 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. Through the liberality of Ita, Foillan was
enabled to build a monastery at Fosses, not far from Nivelles, in the province
of Namur. After the death of Ita in 652, Foillan came one day to Nivelles and
sang Mass, on the eve of the feast of St-Quentin. The ceremony being finished,
he resumed his journey, doubtless undertaken in the interests of his monastery.
In the forest of Senege the saint and his companions fell into a trap set by
bandits who inhabited that solitude. They were slain, stripped, and their bodies
concealed. But they were recovered by St. Gertrude, and when she had taken some
relics of the saint his body was borne to the monastery of Fosses, where it was
buried about 655.

Foillan was one of the numerous Irish travellers who in the course of the
seventh century evangelized Belgium, 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 Erconwald, Mayor of the Palace, and with the members of Pepin's
family, Foillan played a preponderant part in Frankish ecclesiastical history,
as shown by his share in the direction of Nivelles and by the foundation of the
monastery of Fosses. It is not surprising, therefore, that he should be honoured
and venerated both at Nivelles and Fosses 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 Le Harvengt, Abbot of Bonne-Espérance, to
compose a lengthy biography of the saint. He is the patron of Fosses, near
Charieroi. In the Diocese of Namur his feast is celebrated on 31 October, in the
Dioceses of Mechlin and Tournai on 5 November.




ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Van der Essen, L. (1909). St. Foillan. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06123c.htm

MLA citation. Van der Essen, Léon. "St. Foillan." The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06123c.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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