St. Landelin

Building a community where people could actually live the Gospel.

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June 15 · Abbot

St. Landelin

St. Landelin

Building a community where people could actually live the Gospel.

Traditional feast

June 15
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

June 15
Secondary source · Wikipedia

Represents

Abbot

Their story

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

Landelin was born of a noble family at Vaux near Bapaume in 623 and was educated by St Aubert, bishop of Cambrai. Led on by flattering relatives, he drifted into a life of pleasure and then of serious wrongdoing. The sudden death of a companion terrified him. He went back to Aubert, who had never stopped praying for him, and threw himself at his feet.

Aubert placed him in a strict monastery to do penance. He later made him deacon and, at thirty, priest. Landelin asked to weep for his sins in solitude and settled at Laubach, now Lobes, on the Sambre. Followers gathered, and the great abbey of Lobes grew up about 654. Feeling unworthy to rule it, he left his disciple St Ursmar in charge.

He went on to found Aine and, with his companions Adelin and Domitian, the abbey of Crespin in a forest between Mons and Valenciennes, which he finally had to govern himself. He died on sackcloth and ashes in 686.

Struggles & surrender

What they wrestled with, and how they gave it to God

  • A youth gone astray ·
    Butler says that, led on by the flattery and example of relatives, he slid from a life of pleasure into serious disorders, until a companion's sudden death frightened him into returning to St Aubert and years of penance.

Early life

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

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Learn from the kind of life it was. Building a community where people could actually live the Gospel.

Keep their day. Remember them on June 15 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, Belgian, and Gallican Martyrologies. Authority *An ancient life of uncertain date; also the life of S. Authbert, written by S. Fulbert.] Landelin was born of noble Frank parents, in the reign of Dagobert, between Bapaume and Cambrai, in a village called Vaux. His education was confided to S. Autbert, who endeavoured to instil the maxims of religion into the heart of the youth. But carried away by his youthful passions, and the example of his family, he left the bishop, and lived a wild and dissolute life. The sudden death of a comrade startled him, and he went to S. Autbert, and begged to be admitted as his disciple in the monastic life. S. Autbert sent him into the solitude of Lambach, there to bewail his past sins, and learn to discipline his body. He was afterwards much sought as a guide to souls, and he founded the monastery of Lobes, then those of Aune and of Waster. He judged himself unworthy to rule these monasteries, and gave them over to the guidance of his disciples, Ursmar and Odo; then, accompanied by S. Adeline and S. Domitian, he penetrated into the vast forest which stretched between Mons and Valenciennes, and choosing a spot, where afterwards rose the abbey of Crespin, built cabins of boughs. Gradually his retreat became known, and disciples assembled around him. He issued from his solitude at intervals to preach to the villagers around, and to instruct them in the truths of the Christian faith.

Feast days

Feast: June 15

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

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

Also on June 15
Sts. Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia

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St. Dulas

June 15 · Martyr
St. Vougas

St. Vougas

June 15 · Feast
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

Image: Landelin (Abbaye d'Aulnes).JPG · Grentidez · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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.

Image: Grentidez, Wikimedia Commons (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.