Saint of the Day – 29 November – Saint Hardoin (Died 650) Bishop of St Pol de-Leon, in Brittany, France. Born in the British Isles and died in c650 in his Diocese in Brittany. Patronages – Landerneau, France and of sailors (this latter patronage due to the tradition that St Hardoin travelled to Brittany in a stone boat from the British Isles). Also known as – Hardouin… Harduinus…Hoardon… Hoardonus…Hoarzon… and more.
In Landerneau, the Town of which he is the Patron Saint, a 17th Century Statue depicts Hardoin dressed as a Bishop, with Miter and Crozier, in the act of blessing.
The Episcopal Registers of the Diocese were completed much after his time and are, therefore, unreliable but in the 17th Century, there was no hesitation in specifying that Hardoin was the 8th Bishop of Léon, “elected in the year 635 under Pope Honorius I, Emperor Heraclius and King Hoël III of Brittany” and that he “died in the year 650.”
He did not have the honour of having his ‘Vita’ recorded and appears only in the legendary and recent Vitae of St Herveus and St Goeznoveus. In the first, Hardoin, protector and friend of St Herveus, labouriously and slowly leads the blind bard to the Council of Breton Bishops gathered on the summit of Menez Bré, to condemn the famous tyrant Conomor, who had killed his wife, St Tryphina and his son, St Tremor.
Returning from the Council, Herveus asked Hardoin to pray to God that he too might contemplate the wonders of eaven, despite his blind eyes. After three days of fasting and prayer, both saw the heavens open and they contemplated the Choirs of Angels and Saints, whom St Herveus recognised as they passed by, to the sound of an enchanting melody. When they intoned the canticle Cantemus Domino, Heaven closed again, but Hardoin struggled to return to earth. When he became ill, he summoned Abbot St Goeznoveus to assist him and administer the last Sacraments and chose him as his successor.
While it is not possible to document anything about the Episcopate and the era of Hardoin, it must be recognised that the cult is ancient and that he is invoked in the ancient Breton Litanies of the 9th Century under the names of Hoierdonus and Hoardonus.
AnaStpaul 