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 honor 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, 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,1. 39, n. 30.