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October 19 · —

St. Ethbin

St. Ethbin

Traditional feast

October 19
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

Not verified yet

Represents

Feast

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints

Ethbin came from a noble British family and was sent to France to be educated under his countryman St Samson, bishop of Dol. As a deacon he heard the Gospel words 'Every one of you that does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple' (Luke 14:33) and resolved to leave the world.

In 554 he entered the abbey of Taurac under a holy monk named Guignole. About 560 the community was scattered by an invasion of the Franks. He then went to Ireland and lived for twenty years in a cell he built in a forest, known for his austerity and, Butler says, his miracles. He died at eighty-three on 19 October, toward the end of the sixth century, according to Butler.

Early life

The book says little or nothing about early life. This is how the account begins.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 0 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Keep their day. Remember them on October 19 with a short prayer, and ask for their help.

Read more

The full original · 0 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Gallican Martyrologies. Authority: - A Life, at wha date written cannot be decided.] S. Ethbin was the son of Eutius and Eula, a noble pair in Brittany. His father died when he was aged fifteen, and his mother then took the veil, and confided her son to S. Samson of Dol, who ordained him. Ethbin afterwards became a monk and disciple of S. Winwaloe at Tauriac, who is not to be confounded with S. Winwaloe of Llandevenec. He was privileged to see his master perform a very nasty but notable miracle, without his stomach being turned.1 When Tauriac was destroyed by the Franks, S. Ethbin went to Ireland, and there died, but whereabouts does not appear.

Feast days

Feast: October 19

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Ethbin's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on October 19
J

St. James

October 19 · Feast
V

Sts. Varus and Others

October 19 · Martyrs
F

St. Frideswide

October 19 · Virgin
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.