Saint Senoch was born about 536 at Tiffauges (ancient Teoffalgia) in Poitou among the Taifals. He remained there until the age of twenty. Converted to Christianity by Saint Martin of Vertou, he withdrew into Touraine to live as a hermit. There he exercised a gift of healing among the blind, the mute, and the paralyzed, and he worked to free slaves.
Near Tours, under Bishop Euphronius who was renewing the spiritual life of the diocese, Senoch established a monastery among Roman ruins, arranging an oratory in the remains. The bishop consecrated the altar, placed relics there, and conferred the diaconate upon him. The settlement later took the name Saint-Senoch. Senoch became famous for severe austerities: long vigils, prayer, charity toward servants, and enclosure in a space so narrow—about four feet—that he could scarcely move the lower half of his body. This life of penance drew the love and veneration of many people. He knew both Saint Euphronius and his successor, Saint Gregory of Tours.
He once returned to Tiffauges to visit his parents and to heal his fellow countrymen, but he met with failure and was driven away with stones. Returning to Tours, he asked pardon for the sin of vanity and chose a still stricter life of mortification and humility in his monastery as reparation.
In 576, at about forty years of age, a slight fever confined him to bed for three days; he died in Touraine among his brethren. Tradition holds that his soul was seen ascending to heaven. In the ninth century his relics were carried away from the Loire region to escape Norman invaders; after various halts they reached Sassenay in Burgundy, where a popular pilgrimage arose, especially for the healing of sick children.
May Saint Senoch obtain for us the grace of humble penance and steadfast enclosure of heart in the love of God.
