many saints, became often the
theatre of enormous scandals, and has now, for many ages, been enslaved
to the most impious and gross superstitions. So many flourishing
churches in the East which were planted by the labors of the chiefest
among the apostles, watered with the blood of innumerable glorious
martyrs, illustrated with the bright light of the Ignatiuses, the
Polycarps, the Basils, the Ephrems, and the Chrysostoms, blessed by the
example and supported by the prayers of legions of eminent saints, are
fallen a prey to almost universal vice and infidelity. With what floods
of tears can we sufficiently bewail so grievous a misfortune, and
implore the divine mercy in behalf of so many souls! How ought we to be
alarmed at the consideration of so many dreadful examples of God's
inscrutable judgments, and tremble for ourselves! _Let him who stands
beware lest he fall_. _Hold fast what thou hast_, says the oracle of the
Holy Ghost to every one of us, _lest another bear away thy crown_.

{440}

SS. GERMAN, ABBOT OF GRANFEL,

AND RANDAUT, OR RANDOALD, MARTYRS.

From their acts, written by the priest Babolen in the same age, in
Bollandus, Le Cointe, ad an. 662. Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Occid. l. 3, c.
44, p. 661.

ABOUT THE YEAR 666.

ST. GERMAN, or GERMANUS, was son of a rich senator of Triers, and
brought up from the cradle under the care of Modoald, bishop of Triers.
At seventeen years of age, he gave all he could dispose of to the poor,
and with Modoald's consent applied himself to St. Arnoul, who having
resigned his dignities of bishop of Metz, and minister of state under
Dagobert, then led an eremitical life in a desert in Lorrain, near
Romberg, or Remiremont. That great saint, charmed with the innocence and
fervor of the tender young nobleman, received him in the most
affectionate manner, and gave him the monastic tonsure. Under such a
master the holy youth made great progress in a spiritual life, and after
some time, having engaged a younger brother, called Numerian, to forsake
the world, he went with him to Romberg, or the monastery of St. Romaric,
a prince of royal blood, who, resigning the first dignity and rank which
he enjoyed in the court of king Theodebert, had founded in his own
castle, in concert with his friend St. Arnoul, a double house, one
larger for nuns, the other less for monks; both known since under the
name of Remiremont, situated on a part of Mount Vosge. St. Romaric died
in 653, and is nam