Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Benedictine Martyrologies, but some on May 4th, or April 14th. Authority: — A life written by Nalgod, his disciple. Majolus in French is Mayeul. ] S. Majolus was born about the year 906, of a wealthy family at Valenzola, in the diocese of Riez. But having lost all his family possessions through the incursions of the Saracens and Huns, he retired to Macon to his uncle Berno, bishop of that city, who constituted him his archdeacon. He afterwards became monk at Cluny, under the abbot Aymard.
The aged Aymard, oppressed with years, was at length obliged to surrender the government of the abbey into the hands of S. Majolus (948). But the old man in the infirmary, having one day fancied a bit of cheese, and ordered ineffectually that it should be brought to him, took it into his head that he was neglected, and he suddenly resumed his authority, and put Majolus to penance. In fact the old man had asked for his piece of cheese when the monks were at dinner, and the serving brothers had their hands full of work, so that it was impossible to attend to his caprice at that moment. However, Aymard, finding that he was really unable to dp the work required of an abbot, and satisfied that Majolus was not really neglectful of him, and desirous of usurping his dignity, returned to inaction, and on his death Majolus was elected abbot. On his way to Rome, a monk who was accompanying him, disobeyed him in an important matter, and afterwards apologized and asked pardon. “And set me a penance for my fault,” he asked. “Are you in earnest, my son?” asked the abbot. “ I am,” answered the monk. “ Then,” said Majolus, “Go and kiss yon poor leper.” The monk went at once to the leper and embraced him. The obedient kiss healed the leper.
On his way back from Rome, as he crossed the S. Bernard, Majolus was taken by the Saracens [medieval Christian name for Arab and Muslim peoples] and imprisoned at Pont-Oursier, on the Dranse above Martigny. Seeing a Saracen about to cleave the head of one of his companions with his scimitar, Majolus sprang forward, and caught the blow on his arm. He saved the life of his comrade, but long suffered from the wound, and bore the scar to his dying day. He was shut up in a cave, and the only book he had to while away the tedious hours of captivity was a treatise on the Assumption of the Virgin, falsely attributed to S. Jerome [translator of the Bible into Latin (d. 420)]. This interested S. Majolus so much that he prayed he might be released before the feast of the [May xi.
Assumption. His prayer was heard, he was ransomed by the monks of Cluny for a thousand pounds of silver. When the Holy See was vacant in 974, the emperor Otho II [German king and emperor, co-ruler with his father Otto I from 967 and sole ruler 973–983]. endeavoured to persuade S. Majolus to accept the papacy, but he steadfastly refused the proffered honour. In 991, feeling that his powers were exhausted, he chose S. Odilo (Jan 1) to be his successor, and he was unanimously elected by the brethren.
Majolus died on the nth May, 994, on Friday the morrow of the Ascension, and was buried in the church of S. Peter at Cluny. His body was translated in 1096, by Pope Urban II. to Souvigny, and again under Honorius IV. in 1286. The relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of S. Majolus were burnt at the French Revolution, and all that remains of him at Souvigny is a comb.
