cus Combabus and Valeria Moerens, having been instructed by this
speech, were converted to the Christian faith. They received baptism
together with their young freedwoman, Caelia Avitella, who was dearer to
them than the light of their eyes. All their tenants renounced paganism
and were baptized on the same day.

Marcus Combabus, Valeria Moerens, and Caelia Avitella led thenceforth
a life full of merit. They died in the Lord and were admitted into the
canon of the saints.

For thirty-seven years longer the blessed Mael evangelized the pagans
of the inner lands. He built two hundred and eighteen chapels and
seventy-four abbeys.

Now on a certain day in the city of Vannes, when he was preaching the
Gospel, he learned that the monks of Yvern had in his absence declined
from the rule of St. Gal. Immediately, with the zeal of a hen who
gathers her brood, he repaired to his erring children. He was then
towards the end of his ninety-seventh year; his figure was bent, but his
arms were still strong, and his speech was poured forth abundantly like
winter snow in the depths of the valleys.

Abbot Budoc restored the ashen staff to St. Mael and informed him of
the unhappy state into which the Abbey had fallen. The monks were in
disagreement as to the date an which the festival of Easter ought to
be celebrated. Some held for the Roman calendar, others for the Greek
calendar, and the horrors of a chronological schism distracted the
monastery.

There also prevailed another cause of disorder. The nuns of the island
of Gad, sadly fallen from their former virtue, continually came in boats
to the coast of Yvern. The monks received them in the guesthouse and
from this there arose scandals which filled pious souls with desolation.

Having finished his faithful report, Abbot Budoc concluded in these
terms:

"Since the coming of these nuns the innocence and peace of the monks are
at an end."

"I readily believe it," answered the blessed Mael. "For woman is a
cleverly constructed snare by which we are taken even before we suspect
the trap. Alas! the delightful attraction of these creatures is exerted
with even greater force from a distance than when they are close at
hand. The less they satisfy desire the more they inspire it. This is the
reason why a poet wrote this verse to one of them:

'When present I avoid thee, but when away I find thee.'

"Thus we see, my son, that the blandishments of carnal love have more
power over hermi