After the death of the two brothers, Saint Romanus and Saint Lupicinus, the holy founders of the abbey of Condate, under whose discipline he had been educated from seven years of age, he was first coadjutor to Minausius, their immediate successor, and soon after, upon his demise, abbot of that famous monastery. His life was most austere, his clothes being sackcloth, and the same in summer as in winter. He took only one small refection in the day, which was usually after sunset. He inured himself to cold and all mortifications; and was so dead to himself, as to seem incapable of betraying the least emotion of anger. His countenance was always cheerful; yet he never laughed. By meekness he overcame all injuries, was well skilled in Greek and Latin, and in the holy scriptures, and a great promoter of the sacred studies in his monastery. No importunities could prevail upon him to consent to be ordained priest. In the lives of the first abbots of Condate, of which a manuscript copy is preserved in the Jesuit's library in the college of Clermont, at Paris, enriched with manuscript notes by Father Chifflet, it is mentioned, that the monastery which was built by Saint Romanus, of timber, being consumed by fire, Saint Eugendus rebuilt it of stone; and also near the oratory, which Saint Romanus had built, erected a handsome church in honor of Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and Saint Andrew, enriched with precious relics. His prayer was almost continual, and his devotion so tender, that the hearing of a pious word was sufficient visibly to inflame his soil, and to throw him sometimes into raptures even in public, and at table. His ardent sighs to be united with his God, were most vehement during his last illness. Having called the priest among his brethren, to whom he had enjoined the office of anointing the sick, he caused him to anoint his breast according to the custom, says the author of his life, and he breathed forth his happy soul five days after, about the year 510, and of his age sixty-one.[1] The great abbey of Condate, in Franche-comte, seven leagues from Geneva, on mount Jura, or Mont-jou, received from this saint the name of Saint Oyend; till in the thirteenth century it exchanged it for that of Saint Claude; who having resigned the bishopric of Besanzon, which see he had governed seven years in great sanctity, lived fifty-five years abbot of this house, a perfect copy of the virtues of Saint Oyend, and died in 581. He is honored on the 6th of June. His body remains entire to this day; and his shrine is the most celebrated place of resort for pilgrims in all France.[2]
Footnotes1. The history of the first Abbots of Condate, compiled, according to Father Chifflet, in 1252, mentions translation of the relics of Saint Eugendus, when they were enshrined in the same Church of Saint Peter, which had been made with great solemnity, at which this author had assisted, and of which he testifies that he had already wrote the history here quoted. Father Chifflet regrets the loss of this piece, and adds that the girdle of Saint Eugendus, made of white leather, two fingers broad, has been the instrument of miraculous cures, and that in 1601 Petronilla Birod, a Calvinist woman in that neighborhood, was converted to the Catholic faith, with her husband and whole family, having been suddenly freed from imminent danger of death and child-bearing, and safely delivered by the application of this relic.
2. The rich abbey of Saint Claude gave rise to a considerable town built about it, which was made an episcopal see by Pope Benedict XIV, in 1743 who, secularizing the monastery, converted it into a cathedral. The canons, to gain admittance, must give proof of their nobility for sixteen degrees, eight paternal and as many maternal. Saint Romanus was buried at Beaume, Saint Lucinius at Leuonne, and Saint Oyend at Condate, whence this last place for several ages bore his name.
- Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
