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Icon of St. Laudus (Lo),
Bishop of Coutances
Feast:
Sept. 21
St.
Laudus was descended from a noble family and was consecrated by St.
Gildard or Godard, archbishop of Rouen and metropolitan of Neustria,
about the year 528. A little after his consecration, he applied to St.
Melanius of Rennes for instructions to advance the glory of God. He was
present at the second, third, and fifth councils of Orleans, and by
proxy at the fourth council of the same city. It was he who performed
the funeral of St. Paternus or Pair, bishop of Avranches. It is said,
that succeeding to the family estate, he enriched his diocese and
endowed it with the lands of Briovere, (now S.-Lo,) Courci, Trielli,
etc. It is also asserted that the castle of Briovere was his family
seat, and that for this reason in the fifth council of Orleans he signs
himself not Lo of Coutances, but Lo of Briovere. This holy bishop
governed his diocese with equanimity, zeal, and virtue till the year
568, when he went to receive the reward of his labours from Christ in
the heavens. Romachaire, one of his priests, succeeded him. He was an
Englishman born, and for piety and learning esteemed one of the first
men of his age. The incursions of the Normans caused the relics of St.
Lo to be translated to Thouars in Poitou, in the 9th century. His
commemoration was preserved in the Sarum Use of the Roman rite and kept
as a great feast at Coutances, with an octave. Somehow the feast was
inserted into the Roman Martyrology on the 22nd of September. There is
a town in Normandy which bears the saint’s name, and a parish church at
Rouen dedicated under his invocation. Holy Father Laudus, pray to God
for
us!
Icon:
by the hand of Georges Farias.
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