eagues from Brest, on the opposite side of the bay.
Grallo, count of Cornouailles, in which province this abbey is situated,
in the diocese of Quimper-Corentin, gave the lands, and was at the
expense of the foundation of this famous monastery. St. Winwaloe, from
the time he left his father's house, never wore any other garments but
what were made of the skins of goats, and under these a hair shirt; day
and night, winter and summer, his clothing was the same. In his
monastery neither wheat-bread nor wine was used, but for the holy
sacrifice of the mass. No other drink was allowed to the community but
water, which was sometimes boiled with a small decoction of certain wild
herbs. The monks ate only coarse barley-bread, boiled herbs and roots,
or barley-meal and herbs mixed, except on Saturdays and Sundays, on
which {505} they were allowed cheese and shellfish, but of these the
saint never tasted himself. His coarse barley-bread he always mingled
with ashes, and their quantity he doubled in Lent, though even then it
must have been very small, only to serve for mortification, and an
emblem of penance. In Lent he took his refreshment only twice a week;
his bed was composed of the rough bark of trees or of sand, with a stone
for his pillow. From the relaxation in the rule of abstinence on
Saturdays, it is evident that this monastic rule, which was the same in
substance with that received in other British, Scottish; and Irish
monasteries, was chiefly borrowed from Oriental rules, Saturday being a
fast-day according to the discipline of the Roman church. This rule was
observed at Landevenech, till Louis le Debonnaire, for the sake of
uniformity, caused that of St. Benedict to be introduced there in 818.
This house was adopted into the congregation of St. Maur, in 1636. St.
Winwaloe was sensible that the spirit of prayer is the soul of a
religious state, and the comfort and support of all those who are
engaged in it: as to himself, his prayer, either mental or vocal, was
almost continual, and so fervent, that he seemed to forget that he lived
in a mortal body. From twenty years of age, till his death he never sat
in the church, but always prayed either kneeling or standing unmoved, in
the same posture, with his hands lifted up to heaven, and his whole
exterior bespoke the profound veneration with which he was penetrated.
He died on the 3d of March, about the year 529, in a very advanced age.
His body was buried in his own church,