ST. ELOY, BISHOP OF NOYON.

I.

BETWEEN St. Eloy and St. Facius, both silversmiths, we chose the latter, not because the former would not have afforded us many things to admire and imitate, but because St. Facius never gave up his trade, whilst the other was elevated for his virtues to the high dignity of bishop. However, as many guilds of silversmiths venerate St. Eloy as patron, we will here give a compendium

of his life.

St. Eloy was the son of Euquerius and Terrigia, and was born in Chatelac, two leagues from Limoges, about the year 588. Educated in the holy fear of God, he was apprenticed to Abdon, a silversmith and coiner of Limoges, where from his application and natural smartness, he made rapid progress in his trade. His talents and disposition, and above all his virtues, gained for him the esteem of all who knew him. He was remarkable for his candour, frankness, and modesty, which were conspicuous in a young man gifted with great facility in expressing himself with clearness and elegance, and a more than ordinary smartness in all the labours of his art. A fervent Christian, he not only fulfilled his civil and religious duties, but went to hear the divine word and attended the ceremonies of the Church. When he had served his apprenticeship, he went on some business to Paris, where he became acquainted with Bobo, treasurer to Clotilde II. By his virtue and modesty he soon gained his affection and that of other nobles and

plebeians. The prince, struck by the praises he heard. of the young silversmith, entrusted to him the making of a seat or throne which should be a monument of his royal magnificence. With the gold and precious stones given him our artist made two thrones, adorned with all the qualities required. The king was highly pleased as well at the fineness and beauty of the work as by the virtue and probity of the workman, and appointed him director of the mint. Not content with giving him this proof of esteem, the monarch gave him apartments in the palace, and consulted him on grave affairs of state. But these distinctions and marks of appreciation did not prevent him from following his trade. He dedicated himself with special pleasure to the making and adornment of reliquaries of saints. He ornamented with regal magnificence the tombs of St. Martin of Tours, and St. Dionysius, Bishop of Paris. It was he made the reliquaries of St. Quintin, of SS. Crispin and Crispiniau, of St. Lucian, of St. Pintus, of St. Germain of Paris, of St. Severinus, of St. Genevieve and others, in which he displayed delicacy of execution and good taste.

But neither the coining of money, nor the chiselling of precious ornaments interfered with his pious exercises. Whilst busy at work he had a book open beside him, that he might, without loss of time, instruct himself in the divine law by turning his eyes to it now and then. His room was full of pious books, among which the Sacred Scriptures held the first and principal place. He spent the greater part of his leisure time in perusing them. Not honours, nor flattery, nor the corruption usual in the courts of kings, infected the pure heart of our artisan, but rather made him conceive a greater contempt for the goods of earth, and induced him to lead a more austere and penitent life to save himself from the vices by which he was surrounded. He did, indeed, appear in court in rich dresses of silk, then very rare,

with a cloak bordered with gold and a cincture covered with precious stones; but under these garments he usually wore a rough hair-shirt. This, however, did not appear to him sufficient, and he made up his mind to renounce all and give himself without reserve to his Lord God. For this purpose he made a general confession of his whole life, as the beginning of his new resolutions; he distributed among the poor the best things he had, and put on cheap clothes, using sometimes a common cord for cincture. The king occasionally presented him with garments, but the saint transformed them into alms, which he gave to the needy. His charity and disinterestedness were unbounded. He was followed by troops of beggars; and he consoled all, and sent none away empty handed. Every day he gave some of them their dinner in his own house, and he himself served them at table, and dined off what they left as if he were a servant. Though he himself did not use fleshmeat, he yet prepared dishes of veal for his indigent guests, who were so dear to him.

II.

He frequently fasted two or three consecutive days; and sometimes when dinner hour came, and he had nothing else to give, divided the whole of his meal among the poor, trusting that Divine Providence would not fail him. He acted in the same way when any opportunity of redeeming captives turned up. He specially redeemed Saxon slaves, who in certain places were sold in droves. Once under his control he gave them full liberty to return to their own country, to remain in his service, or to retire to a monastery. Several of his servants or those redeemed by him flourished in virtue and sanctity.

Besides these works of mercy, which formed his delight, he displayed great zeal in burying the bodies of malefactors condemned to capital punishment.

It may be said his prayer was continual. He had many relics, before which he prayed long on his knees, or spent the time in spiritual reading. If the monarch happened to summon him while engaged in prayer, the saint, considering that the king of heaven and earth was before all the kings in the world, continued his orisons, and did not rise till he had completed his task. One of his pious practices was to chant the divine office with his workmen and servants. When leaving or entering the house, when beginning or ending any work, he armed himself with the sign of the cross and with prayer. And in all these practices there was nothing forced or unnatural, but everything was done with simplicity, devotion, and recollection. And all this was the more remarkable in this courtier as he was a very handsome man. He was tall and elegant, with a majestic head, a healthy colour, and hair naturally curled. Candour and prudence were depicted on his countenance, and his look was the expression of the peace which reigned in his heart. With his innocence and virtue he acquired much more influence with the king than other courtiers with their flattery and intrigues,

He had the same influence with Dagobert, son and successor to Clotaire, who died in 628; but he never availed himself of it except to inspire the monarch with sentiments of justice, clemency, and religion. He told him the truth, but not offensively; he spoke to him with freedom, but with respect. The corrupt and envious courtiers who found in the silversmith's virtue and constant reprehension of their vices, and in his prudence and discretion a powerful obstacle in carrying out their palace intrigues, tried by calumny to blast his reputation and put between him and the prince; but their fraud

and lies only served to add new lustre to the servant of God's integrity, and procure for him more solid veneration in Dagobert's mind. He loaded Eloy with gifts, but did not thereby make him richer, for as soon as he received one he employed it in the alleviation of the poor or in the foundation of some pious establishment. He founded the abbey of Solinac, where more than one hundred monks sang the divine praises while working with their hands in different occupations. Having received from King Dagobert the gift of a house in Paris, he established and endowed a convent, in which up to three hundred nuns lived under the direction of St. Aura. When finishing this convent, Eloy remarked that he had taken a foot of ground more than the king had given him. Grieving over this involuntary incident, he threw himself at the prince's feet, and implored pardon for his crime, as he called it. The monarch, charmed by such rectitude of conscience, doubled his first gift, and when Eloy had retired he said to the bystanders: "See how faithful and exact are those who follow Jesus Christ. My officers and ministers rob me of whole towns if they can, whilst Eloy trembles for having inculpably taken an inch of ground which did not belong to him."

III.

Such was the confidence which the king had in his director of the Mint, that irritated by the frequent incursions made by the Bretons on his vassals, he thought no one more suitable to put an end to them than our saint. The fortunate issue of the commission justified the sovereign's confidence. Eloy, by his zeal and pru