St. Clarus, Martyr


THIS saint was an Englishman by birth, of very noble extraction, was ordained priest, and leaving his own country led many years an angelical life in the county of Vexin in France. He often preached the truths of salvation to the inhabitants, and died a martyr of chastity, being murdered by two ruffians, employed by an impious and lewd lady of quality, about the year 894. He is named in the Roman and Gallican Martyrologies, and honoured with singular veneration in the diocess of Rouen, Beauvais, and Paris. The village where he suffered martyrdom, situate upon the river Epte (which separates the Norman and French Vexins) nine leagues from Pontoise, and twelve from Rouen, bears his name, and is become a considerable town by the devotion of the people to this saint. His rich shrine is resorted to by crowds of pilgrims, who also visit a hermitage which stands upon the spot which was watered with his blood near the town. Another town in the diocess of Coutances in Normandy, which is said also to have been sanctified by his dwelling there before he retired to the Epte, is called by his name St. Clair. See his acts in Capgrave; Saussaye: Moutier, Neustria pia; and Trigan, Hist. Eccles. de Norm. t. 2, p. 201.	1