The miracles of the saint The legend tells of numerous miraclous actions that the anachorite made before the eyes of his contempories. It can be said that it was the longing to believe in the magic of the faithful, or maybe not. It can be seen that the true reasons for being near the the anachorite and to see with your own eyes what actually appeared immense. At his side so many people came to meet, that the saint had to build store houses to look after them. On one occasion, the carpenters observed that one of the planks they had cut for the building was too short and couldn´t be rectified, therefore they couldn´t continue. Before the workers were discouraged, Millán replied with good humour that he was sure that their had not been in vain. The carpenters in obedience relocated the plank in the same place and to their amazement saw that it had grown to adapt itself for the work. In the place where it was placed San Millán made a sign that until today it can be seen in one side of the pilasters of the monastery of Suso. It´s the oldest relic in the monastery.

The life and miracles of San Millán as described on the ivory panels that decorated the ark of his relics.

So great was his fame of holiness, that crowds would come to see how he converted a sixth of wine from the provisions to give to all those present. Apart from multiplying food etc. On one occasion he cured a lady who was crippled, upon kissing his staff she walked away normally.

Millán had a horse with which could save time on the distances between the villages, but one day, two thieves, Sempronio and Toribio stole the animal and fled away furtively. A few days later they had to return repentantly and handback the animal to it´s rightful owner because the two of them had been struck completely blind.

His miracles made popular and other hermits wanted to have him as a father or master. They lived isolated in caves, but formed a community and worked as a community following the same rules and celebrated mass and psalms.

The miracles and popularity of San Millán drew a number of faithful that followed in his footsteps: they were hermits that shared the work and followed the samr rules.

Glory after the death

His death, at 101 years of age was the completion of a prophecy that he himself made one year previously, but his mortal remains were laid to rest in the floor of the oratory, where they continued to draw christian on-lookers. Still miracles happen around his remains, by the fact that before the fall of the Gothic kingdom, nearly all the Catholic churches in Spain celebrated the feast of the glorious riojan and the people proclaimed him patron of Spain: he was considered a saint. Later the monks elected another guide and the life of those hermits continued besides the sepulchre of San Millán, in Suso: his memory continued to live amongst the people of La Rioja, but also his devotion reached to Navarra and Castile.

The successors and first disciples of San Millán (the hermits of Cogolla) continued until at least the year 651, at the tomb of the saint. The hermitism went with the passing of the time a phenomenom extened in Visigothic Spain. Some twenty four years after the reconquering of the lands of the Ebro Valley (first third of the 10th century) together with the tomb of the saint a community of monks and their abbot lived in Cogolla.

Later on in the year 1030, the King of Navarra, Sancho·III the Mayor, put the relics in a beautiful ark of silver with the aim that the remains be venerated with the highest sumptuousness possible. The son of the monarch, the King don Garcia, wanted in the year 1053, to enrich the monastery at Santa Maria in Najera with these relics. He started a procession in order to transfer the mortal remains of San Millán. When the ark arrived at the lowest point in the valley, the oxen that were drawing the cart stopped dead in their tracks and nobody could drive them a step further, this was interpreted by the King as sign from the saint: that his will was to stay in that exact same spot. For this reason he ordered that the monastery of San Millán be built in that same place: Yuso (below). In the monastery lived and generations of Benedictine monks and Augustine friars, both originally from the valley and Basques, Castilleons, Navarros and others.