St. Guislain, Abbot


THE NAME of St. Guislain is famous in the lives of St. Amand, St. Aubert, and St. Aldegondes. Having led some time an eremitical life in a forest in Haynault, upon the river Haysne, for the benefit of many who desired to serve God under his direction, he founded there a monastery in 651, in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul, which he governed with great sanctity and prudence thirty-six years, under the rule of St. Basil, or of the eastern monks. By his exhortations two holy and illustrious sisters renounced the world,—St. Vaudru, who, in 656, erected a monastery at a place called, from a certain camp, Castri Locus, now Mons,—and St. Aldegondes, who erected a double monastery, which gave rise to the town of Maubeuge. St. Guislain died on the 9th of October, in 681, and is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology. His monastery, which was long called The Cell, exchanged the rule of Regular Canons to receive from St. Gerard that of St. Bennet, in 930. The little town which arose in the same place is a strong fortress. The lives of St. Guislain are all modern. See Fleury, l. 39. n. 30.	1