Saint Meneleus (or Mauvier, Menele, Meneve, Menevius, Ménélée; died 720) was a French monk who founded the
Menat Abbey
Menat Abbey () is an abbey located in the village of Menat, Puy-de-Dôme, in the heart of the Sioule valley.
It is one of the oldest monastic foundations in Auvergne.
History
Ruined, it was rebuilt and reformed at the end of the 7th century b ...
.
12th-century sources
According to the 12th-century ''Vita Menelei'' and ''Vita S. Theofredi'', Meneleus was descended from the Roman emperor
Heraclius
Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas.
Heraclius's reign was ...
.
He fled from home to avoid a marriage and met Theofredus, abbot of Saint-Chaffre.
Meneleus entered this monastery and was trained by the abbot for several years.
An angel then directed him to return to the spot where he had met Theofredus, where he fell asleep below an oak.
The angel reappeared and told him to build a monastery on the spot, which became Menat Abbey.
His female relatives could not live without him, and after a desperate search found him at Menat.
A ''cella'' was built for them away, with the church of Sainte-Marie of
Lisseul.
Monks of Ramsgate accounts
The monks of
St Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate
St Augustine's Abbey or Ramsgate Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey in Ramsgate. It was built in 1860 by Augustus Pugin and is a Grade II listed building. It was the first Benedictine monastery to be built in England since the Reformation. In ...
wrote in their ''Book of Saints'' (1921),
Butler's account
The hagiographer
Alban Butler
Alban Butler (13 October 171015 May 1773) was an English Roman Catholic priest and hagiography, hagiographer. Born in Northamptonshire, he studied at the English College, in Douai, Douay, France where he later taught philosophy and theology. He s ...
(1710–1773) wrote in his ''Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints'' under April 12,
References
Sources
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8th-century Frankish saints
720 deaths