Saint of the Day Online - St Marculf

Saint of the Day for Monday, May 1st, 2017

St Marculf is also known as Marcoul. He was born at Bayeux, Gaul, at noble parents. He was ordained when he was thirty and did missionary work at Coutances. Desirous of living as a hermit, he was granted land by king Childebert at Nanteuil. He attracted numerous disciples and built a monastery, of which he was abbot. It became a great pilgrimage center after his death on May 1. St. Marculf was regarded as a patron who cured skin diseases, and as late as 1680, sufferers made pilgrimages to his shrine at Nanteuil and bathed in the springs connected with the church. His feast day is May 1.

He died on May 1, 558, in the Îles Saint-Marcouf off the east coast of the Cotentin Peninsula. His relics were transferred to the abbey of Corbény in Champagne, where they played a part in the coronation ceremonies of kings of France, crowned at Reims, and the tradition of royal touch.

The traditional power ascribed to French and English kings to cure scrofula (the king's Evil) by the laying on of hands derives from the efficacy of the relics of Marcouf, according to the chronicle of Joan of Arc.