Penguin Island | Page 4

life, and he hoped peacefully to
reach his terrestrial end in the midst of his spiritual brethren, when he
knew by a certain sign that the Divine wisdom had decided otherwise,
and that the Lord was calling him to less peaceful but not less
meritorious labours.

II. THE APOSTOLICAL VOCATION OF SAINT MAEL
One day as he walked in meditation to the furthest point of a tranquil
beach, for which rocks jutting out into the sea formed a rugged dam, he

saw a trough of stone which floated like a boat upon the waters.
It was in a vessel similar to this that St. Guirec, the great St. Columba,
and so many holy men from Scotland and from Ireland had gone forth
to evangelize Armorica. More recently still, St. Avoye having come
from England, ascended the river Auray in a mortar made of
rose-coloured granite into which children were afterwards placed in
order to make them strong; St. Vouga passed from Hibernia to
Cornwall on a rock whose fragments, preserved at Penmarch, will cure
of fever such pilgrims as place these splinters on their heads. St.
Samson entered the Bay of St. Michael's Mount in a granite vessel
which will one day be called St. Samson's basin. It is because of these
facts that when he saw the stone trough the holy Mael understood that
the Lord intended him for the apostolate of the pagans who still
peopled the coast and the Breton islands.
He handed his ashen staff to the holy Budoc, thus investing him with
the government of the monastery. Then, furnished with bread, a barrel
of fresh water, and the book of the Holy Gospels, he entered the stone
trough which carried him gently to the island of Hoedic.
This island is perpetually buffeted by the winds. In it some poor men
fished among the clefts of the rocks and labouriously cultivated
vegetables in gardens full of sand and pebbles that were sheltered from
the wind by walls of barren stone and hedges of tamarisk. A beautiful
fig-tree raised itself in a hollow of the island and thrust forth its
branches far and wide. The inhabitants of the island used to worship it.
And the holy Mael said to them: "You worship this tree because it is
beautiful. Therefore you are capable of feeling beauty. Now I come to
reveal to you the hidden beauty." And he taught them the Gospel. And
after having instructed them, he baptized them with salt and water.
The islands of Morbihan were more numerous in those times than they
are to-day. For since then many have been swallowed up by the sea. St.
Mael evangelized sixty of them. Then in his granite trough he ascended
the river Auray. And after sailing for three hours he landed before a
Roman house. A thin column of smoke went up from the roof. The

holy man crossed the threshold on which there was a mosaic
representing a dog with its hind legs outstretched and its lips drawn
back. He was welcomed by an old couple, Marcus Combabus and
Valeria Moerens, who lived there on the products of their lands. There
was a portico round the interior court the columns of which were
painted red, half their height upwards from the base. A fountain made
of shells stood against the wall and under the portico there rose an altar
with a niche in which the master of the house had placed some little
idols made of baked earth and whitened with whitewash. Some
represented winged children, others Apollo or Mercury, and several
were in the form of a naked woman twisting her hair. But the holy
Mael, observing those figures, discovered among them the image of a
young mother holding a child upon her knees.
Immediately pointing to that image he said:
"That is the Virgin, the mother of God. The poet Virgil foretold her in
Sibylline verses before she was born and, in angelical tones he sang
Jam redit et virgo. Throughout heathendom prophetic figures of her
have been made, like that which you, O Marcus, have placed upon this
altar. And without doubt it is she who has protected your modest
household. Thus it is that those who faithfully observe the natural law
prepare themselves for the knowledge of revealed truths."
Marcus Combabus and Valeria Moerens, having been instructed by this
speech, were converted to the Christian faith. They received baptism
together with their young freedwoman, Caelia Avitella, who was dearer
to them than the light of their eyes. All their tenants renounced
paganism and were baptized on the same day.
Marcus Combabus, Valeria Moerens, and Caelia Avitella led
thenceforth a life full of merit. They died in the Lord and were admitted
into the canon of the saints.
For thirty-seven years longer the