St. Landry (Landericus)

Landry, a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Novalese, Italy, served as a parish priest in the French villages of Lanslevillard and Bonneval. He traversed both villages to tend to his parishioners, consoling the suffering and reconciling enemies. In Bonneval, Landry encountered obstinate sinners who, despite all his efforts to win them back to the practice of their faith, stubbornly clung to their vices. Some of these were so enraged by Landry's priestly admonitions that they ambushed him and threw him to his death in the Arc River. It was then that the church bells in the village of Lanslevillard began to ring miraculously on their own. As the people gathered to learn what was happening, they witnessed another prodigy. The church's processional cross was seen advancing on its own toward the village gate, as if carried by an invisible bearer. Thereupon the villagers, led by a priest, followed the cross as it continued down a path toward the Arc River. The cross came to a stop near a riverside cavern, inside of which the people discovered the body of their martyred pastor.