to the Abbey of Yvern so that he might there study both sacred and
profane learning. At the age of fourteen he renounced his patrimony and
took a vow to serve the Lord. His time was divided, according to the
rule, between the singing of hymns, the study of grammar, and the
meditation of eternal truths.

A celestial perfume soon disclosed the virtues of the monk throughout
the cloister, and when the blessed Gal, the Abbot of Yvern, departed
from this world into the next, young Mael succeeded him in the
government of the monastery. He established therein a school, an
infirmary, a guest-house, a forge, work-shops of all kinds, and sheds
for building ships, and he compelled the monks to till the lands in the
neighbourhood. With his own hands he cultivated the garden of the Abbey,
he worked in metals, he instructed the novices, and his life was gently
gliding along like a stream that reflects the heaven and fertilizes the
fields.

At the close of the day this servant of God was accustomed to seat
himself on the cliff, in the place that is to-day still called St.
Mael's chair. At his feet the rocks bristling with green seaweed and
tawny wrack seemed like black dragons as they faced the foam of the
waves with their monstrous breasts. He watched the sun descending into
the ocean like a red Host whose glorious blood gave a purple tone to the
clouds and to the summits of the waves. And the holy man saw in this the
image of the mystery of the Cross, by which the divine blood has clothed
the earth with a royal purple. In the offing a line of dark blue marked
the shores of the island of Gad, where St. Bridget, who had been given
the veil by St. Malo, ruled over a convent of women.

Now Bridget, knowing the merits of the venerable Mael, begged from