StAdjGB

Saint Adjutor, Patron saint of Vernon and of bargemen, swimmers and yatchmen (Feast day : April 30th)

Talking about Saint Adjutor requires a permanent to and fro movement between history and legend.

Adjutor was the son of Jean (= John), Count of Vernon, and of Rosamonde of Blaru, a village in the vicinity of Vernon. There were three brothers in the family. One of them, Mathew remained in Vernon and inherited his father's possessions. Another, Richard, went over to England with the Duke of Normandy, William [said the Conqueror, later King William I of England], took part in the battle of Hastings, settled in England and is the founder of the English branch of the Vernon family.
Some information about the English branch of the family
Adjutor, the third son, was born in Vernon around 1060 - 1070 and was educated by Bernard, first abbot of Thyron au Perche Abbey (who was beatified later). He left for the Holy Land during the First Crusade (1095) where he fought with courage and ... this is the end of the historic figure. We can now have a look at the legendary hero.
One day, near Antioch, Adjutor and his men fell into an ambush where 1,500 enemies were waiting for them. He prayed Saint Madeleine, promised to have a chapel built that would be dedicated to her and to give large parts of his possessions to Thyron au Perche Abbey. Hardly had he finished his prayer when a terrible storm frightened the Saracens away so that Adjutor was able to defeat them.
He went on fighting seventeen years, but one day, God let him fall into the hands of the Infidels. It was certainly to try his faith, which did not falter, so that his jailers "irritated by his calm and his courage, [...] doubled his chains already quite heavy and threw him into a smaller and darker jail."

One night, saint Madeleine and Bernard (the Abbot of Thyron au Perche Abbey, but not a saint yet) mysteriously appeared in his cell and, as the legend says, "still weighted by his chains, lifted him in an extremely swift flight, from Jerusalem to Vernon-sur-Seine in one night".
From then on, he lived as a monk in the chapel he had built (now the site of Château de la Madeleine), as he had promised seventeen years earlier. He led a very religious life, helping the poor, caring for the sick and he also performed several miracles.

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A modern statue of Saint Adjutor shows him as a monk with a shield in the right hand and chains in the left one.

Among the many miracles that he is said to have worked, the best known concerns the river Seine and here we can leave the legendary hero and go back into history for a minute.
Like every untamed river, the Seine was dangerous because of shallows, eddies and whirlpools. One such dangerous place was located near Vernon, where rocks in the river created eddies: Mathew of Vernon had the rocks destroyed and removed (or at least those rocks that could be removed considering the technical means that existed at the time) so as to try and improve the traffic.
Let us turn back to Adjutor's legend.

Having heard of the death of several men who had drowned in the eddies and whirlpools near his monastery, Adjutor, together with Hughes, Archbishop of Rouen, took place in a small boat and rowed to the dangerous spot. (It is said that the Archbishop was feeling quite uncomfortable!) After saying prayers and sprinkling the river with holy water, Adjutor threw into the water the chains he had worn while a prisoner and, miraculously, the eddies and whirlpools disappeared and the water was quiet.

It is therefore no wonder if, in addition to being the patron of Vernon, Adjutor is also the patron saint of bargemen, swimmers and yachtsmen.

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The painting, by Devos, a local late 19th c. artist, is no masterpiece, but at least it depicts the miracle, with the Archbishop praying and Adjutor throwing his chains into the water.

The modern window evokes the miracle with the blue of the water at the bottom, the yellow of the rowing boat, and, at the top, several chain links (in the yellow part).

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