Psalmodius

Saint Psalmodius (also called Psalmet, Sauman or Saumay) was a hermit in Gaul in the seventh century. He is believed to have come from a noble family of Scotia (Ireland) and to have been a disciple of Saint Brendan as a boy. His earlier Celtic name is unknown; he received the name Psalmodius because he loved to sing psalms.

The story tells that as a boy, while playing with his friends, he fell asleep on a raft on a beach, and the waves carried him out to sea for three days. Encircled by the waters, he prayed, and God raised an island so that he would not drown. The monk Gaufredus (Geoffroi) of the abbey of Saint-⁠Martial at Limoges wrote a life of him and counts him a contemporary of Saint Gregory the Great. According to this Life, Brendan persuaded him to go with him to Gaul and, around 630, they reached Saintonge, where Saint Leontius, bishop of Saintes, received them. Psalmodius became Leontius's disciple, who advised him to take up a life of solitude and contemplation. He became a hermit in a small cell in the forest of Grigeas, in the Limousin, near Eymoutiers.

Many miracles are attributed to him: he is said to have had power over wild beasts and demons, to have restored sight to a blind woman and to have healed the daughter of the duke of Aquitaine, bitten by a viper. Once a wolf ate the donkey that carried his burdens, and the saint ordered the wolf to take its place. He is said to have reposed on the ides of June, the year being unknown. He was buried on the banks of the river Vienne; a church was built over his tomb and later a monastery, whose name, "ayen-⁠moutiers", gave the place its name, Eymoutiers. His relics were placed in a silver shrine in the collegiate church of the monastery. An old breviary of the diocese of Limoges has him on 13 June, and the Orthodox calendar commemorates him on 14 June, as a saint of the West before the Great Schism (a saint of the undivided Church), by the New Calendar.