Baring-Gould’s sources: Rennes Sacred Kalendar of 1627, as a double, and Ferrarius. Authority: — The Life in the lections of the Rennes Breviary; and mention by Flodoard.] Moderan, also called Moran, was son of the Count of Tomacis. He was destined for the Church, and brought up by Desiderius, Bishop of Rennes. The story goes, that his father went to Britain, and there fell desperately in love with a young and noble maiden. He determined to marry her, and remain the rest of his days in her native island. But the night before the marriage Moderan appeared to his father, and gave him so severe a lecture on his conduct, and on the immorality of persuading a maiden to marriage when his wife was alive, that the count ran away from his intended bride and sneaked back abashed to Brittany. He probably hoped that no news of his adventure would reach Tomacis and the ears of his wife. But he was undeceived: his son had revealed his father’s delinquency, and his life thenceforth at Tomacis was not altogether a peaceful one. In the reign of Chilperic, about 703, Moderan was made Bishop of Rennes. Amelo, Count of Rennes, was a thorn in his side, vexing the Church with his exactions and violence, and Moderan, either to escape these annoyances, or from motives of piety, resolved on absenting himself from his see for a while, on the plea of a pilgrimage to Rome. He passed [Oct. n.

…through Rheims, where the treasurer of the church gratified him with some choice relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] — a portion of the stole, horsehair shirt, and handkerchief of S. Remigius [bishop of Reims who baptized Clovis, king of the Franks]. He continued his route to Rome, and crossed Monte Bardone, one of the Apennines near Parma. There he made the vow that, should he reach Rome in safety, he would spend the rest of his days on this charming spot. As the major portion of his journey and most of its perils were passed, it is pretty clear that he made up his mind to remain there, and not return to the dull flat country of Rennes, and the vexations of an insolent count. On his way back from Rome, having happily accomplished his journey in safety, he found that his legs inexorably refused to move into the plain below the mountains, and only when he communicated to his companions his intention of settling there did they regain their flexibility and power of locomotion. He seems to have reconsidered the matter, and seen that it was absolutely necessary for him to return to Rennes and formally resign his bishopric. This he therefore did. He gave up his office into the hands of his grand vicar, Aunscand, who was consecrated in his room, and then he hastened back to Monte Bardone, and built on its slopes a monastery called Berzetto. He died there about the year 730, and was buried on the left hand of the altar.

Flodoard gives another version of the story. Moderan forgot his relics, and left them hanging on the branches of a leafy oak. On his road he remembered them, and sent back a clerk named Wulfhad for them; but the clerk could not reach them, for the bough lifted them into the air, high over his head. The bishop then returned, but he could not recover his relics till he had made a vow to leave a portion of them there in a little chapel dedicated to S. Abundius. Luitprand, King of the Lombards [a Germanic people who ruled much of Italy from 568 to 774], hearing of the miracle, gave him lands on Monte Bardone in honour of S. Remigius. oct. »*.) SS. Nunilo and Alodia. — S.Donatus. 575 A thigh-bone was brought from Italy to the cathedral of Rennes in 1845, and was solemnly translated on