Porcarius II,A. C. Cooper-Marsdin, ''The History of the Islands of the Lerins: The Monastery, Saints and Theologians of S. Honorat'' (Cambridge University Press, 1913), p. 42. in French Porchaire II or Porcaire II (died c. 732), was a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , found ...

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

who governed the

Abbey of Lérins An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

at a time when the monastery included over 500 monks. According to tradition, around the year 732, Porcarius was warned by an

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inc ...

in a vision that the abbey was about to be attacked by barbarians. Immediately, the abbot heeded the warning and sent off to safety by ship all the young students at the abbey and 36 of the younger monks. When the ship left fully loaded, he set about preparing the rest of the community for death and prayed with them for courage. The community was attacked by the

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia P ...

s, probably

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct o ...

from Spain or

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

, and were massacred, except four who were taken into slavery. Their feast day is celebrated in the Diocese of Fréjus on 12 August.

References

External links

Saint Porcarius and Companions
730s deaths 8th-century Frankish saints Angelic visionaries Benedictine abbots Benedictine martyrs Benedictine saints Christian saints killed by Muslims Frankish Benedictines Year of birth unknown {{France-saint-stub