Malo (saint)

The Holy Machutus or Malo (also Maclou or Maclovius ) was born about 520 in Wales Gwent, now known as Monmouth in Monmouthshire and died about 620 in the French Archingeay near the present-day Saintes in the Charente -Maritime.

Life and work

Machutus comes from an aristocratic family. He was taught and baptized by the Holy Brendan in the Christian faith. After that, he was a monk at the Abbey of Llancarrven (Wales). Presumably he was also ordained a priest there. His episcopal ordination took place probably in South Wales or - according to another source - in Tours instead. According to legend, he was one of the Companions of Saint Brendan on his missionary journey ( navigatio Brendani ) in Brittany.

After Machutus had placed himself near the present-day Saint- Malo in the service of the venerable hermit Aaron, who died in 543 ( or 544), he was (first? ) Bishop of Aleth, a Gallo-Roman settlement on a peninsula that the today 's St. Servan was upstream of Saint- Malo. The bishop committed to continue as a Christian missionary in Brittany. Opponents superseded it one day from there, but soon retrieved by his followers back to Saint -Malo. But with age, he retired to the village in the diocese of Saintes Archambiac to spend the rest of his life in prayer and penance. His date of death is November 15th of the year 618, 620 or 622

The feast of the Holy Machutus is therefore 15 November.

Patron saint

He is the patron saint against paralysis, weakness of the limbs, gout, nerve diseases and all diseases of children.

The city of Saint -Malo on the Brittany coast bears the name of this saint.

In the former abbey church of St. Vitus in high - Elten ( Emmerich ) is a stone representation of the Machutus developed in the early 20th century with a handicapped child to a place of pilgrimage for the disabled. The sculpture was reshaped according to research by a Jesuit from an unknown stonemason from a statue of Mary with baby Jesus.