ON SAINT PALLADIUS,
BISHOP OF AUXERRE IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR 661.
CommentaryPalladius, Bishop of Auxerre in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 0000
BY G. H.
The episcopal city of Auxerre in ancient Gaul, on the river Yonne, set in the Duchy of Burgundy and neighboring the region of Vastinio or Gâtinais, celebrates on this day the feast of St. Palladius, formerly its Bishop: as the ancient Breviaries of the church of Auxerre testify to us, of which we have various. But in these it is prescribed that the whole Office, from the first Vespers to the second, is to be recited from the Common of a Confessor Bishop. Cult in ancient Breviaries. Some Acts of this Bishop are contained in the History of the Bishops of Auxerre, brought to light by the labor and study of Philippe Labbe in the first volume of the New Library of Manuscript Books. In it, chapter 20, are published the Acts of St. Desiderius his predecessor, to be illustrated on October 27: where St. Desiderius is said to have given to the monastery and basilica of St. Germain, and to the basilica of St. Germain, by the hands of Palladius then a Priest, and of the basilica of Dom Germanus the Abbot, afterwards his successor in the Episcopate, The Abbot acquires various goods from St. Desiderius, to have given Orgiacum and Marciacum with all their integrity pertaining to him, and likewise Nantilla and Pociacum with all the buildings, servants, vines, new plantings, and all their appurtenances. St. Desiderius is reported to have departed this life in the year 633, he succeeds him, said on October 27; and St. Palladius to have succeeded him, at least at the beginning of the following year; concerning whom these things are read in the mentioned History, chapter 21.
[2] "Palladius sat twenty-six years and three months. For he was in the times of King Dagobert, with Deusdedit, Boniface, Honorius, Severinus, John and Theodore ruling at the city of Rome. This one was a strenuous man, and in the times of Dom Desiderius his predecessor, Abbot of the monastery of St. Germain. After whose departure, because he was a wise, generous, and merciful man, he was elected Bishop by all the people. Having received the priesthood, he gave himself entirely to ecclesiastical disciplines. For he enriched the basilica of St. Stephen with many and very great offerings; He enriches the church of St. Stephen, for he made two Crosses of the purest gold, which he also offered: and also many vessels of silver for the altar, which have remained preserved in the treasuries of the same church down to our age: these we have seen marked with his name. He also made the monastery of St. Julian the Martyr, He builds the monastery of St. Julian, where he built another basilica, which he dedicated in honor of the holy Mother of God Mary: which monastery he established as a monastery of Virgins: which before him, constructed within the walls of the city in a small enclosure, is most certain to have been of men. For he also raised that monastery with very great buildings, and girded it about with a wall: and (because all the Churches of Auxerre were subject to his authority) he enriched it copiously both from the estates of St. Stephen and from those of St. Germain. He also built a basilica near the walls of the city, in honor of St. Eusebius, Bishop and Martyr of Vercelli; The basilica of St. Eusebius, whose vault on the Eastern side
he adorned and dedicated at once with mosaic and gold, and enlarged it with various gifts: which also he established to be of monks, and of St. Germain, and girded it about with a wall. He also made a basilica of St. Germain in the district of Auxerre, in a place called Vercisus; which he adorned with a noble vault of mosaic and gold. He also established that every year, on the feast of St. Germain, which is celebrated on the day of the Kalends of October, after the celebration of Masses had been completed, He promotes his worship, out of love and reverence for so great a Prelate, the Canons of the basilica of St. Stephen should receive a hundred solidi from the hand of the Bishop; so that with more cheerful spirits it might please them, in the recurring times of the same festivity, to celebrate joys. He died moreover on the 4th day before the Ides of April, He dies on April 10. and was buried in the basilica of St. Eusebius, which he himself, as we have said, had constructed in his time. And the Episcopate was vacant for ten days."
[3] Thus far the previously cited History of the Bishops of Auxerre, in which the following chapter treats of St. Vigilius, successor of St. Palladius, St. Vigilius succeeds: who, by the order of Waraton, Mayor of the Palace, is reported to have suffered martyrdom in the Cotia forest: therefore in the year of Christ 682, as is clear from the renewed Dagobertine chronology. And yet in the said History he is said to have sat only twenty-five years and five months: which if joined with the twenty-six years and three months which are attributed to the See of St. Palladius, make only fifty-one years and eight months: so that, from the year 623 (at the beginning of which St. Palladius was created Bishop) up to the year 682 (when St. Vigilius was slain) at least 59 years must be interposed. Whence it follows, that either some Bishop is to be placed between these two, whose name has fallen out, or more years are to be attributed to these or to one of them. Charles le Cointe, in his Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, judges whether St. Palladius sat 42 years, that St. Palladius lived up to the fifth year of the reign of Clotaire III—he should rather have said the first, which is with us the year 661—and consequently sat 33 years, and then 25 years would remain to Vigilius, as required in his Life. Of the same St. Palladius treat Demochares, Chenu, Claudius Robertus, and the Sainte-Marthe brothers in their Catalogues of the Bishops of Auxerre, but they touch briefly on his deeds, which Saussay, in his Gallican Martyrology, sets forth with a longer encomium, which we subjoin, and is of this sort.
[4] "At Auxerre, of St. Palladius, Bishop and Confessor, who from Abbot of St. Germain, where he had shown examples and instances of holier discipline, succeeded St. Desiderius in the Episcopate on account of his excellent gifts; as soon as he began his Pontificate, he made a beginning from the uprooting of vices, whose most foul stain he would abolish from his sheep: He cultivates the diocese, nor did he allow himself any part of rest, from fully vindicating the rights of the divine law and sacred polity. So that a strenuous cultivator and asserter of piety might propagate this study to the other peoples of Gaul, he was present at Councils gathered at Reims, under Sonantius Metropolitan of Second Belgica, as well as at Châlon, He is present at Councils, under Gaudericus Primate of Celtic Lyons, to which by his presence and wisdom he brought much distinction. Hence turning all his care to the worship of his Church, he restored the sacred buildings to their former or even greater splendor by his solicitude: he built the church of St. Gervase in the town of Varziacum, and that of St. Julian the Martyr not far from the city, and that of St. Eusebius in the very bosom of the Episcopate. And when he was daily enlarging the beauty of the house of God with pious and distinguished works, at length from the labors and waves of the present life (which in his long Pontificate he often endured, He is buried in the church of St. Eusebius. but always surpassed), arriving at the most desired port of eternal rest, he was buried in the very basilica of St. Eusebius which he had built; where by sacred anniversaries his merits are honored by the inhabitants, and he himself imparts the desired protection to suppliants."
[5] When the said Councils were held. Thus Saussay. The Synod of Reims of 41 Bishops, at which Flodoard in book 2 of the History of Reims, chapter 5, testifies that Palladius was present, was held in the year 624 or at the beginning of the following, as we have accurately deduced in our Dissertation on the Three Dagoberts, Kings of the Franks, book 4, chapter 1, where we also show that the other Synod of Châlon, at which St. Palladius was present, was held around the year 650. The same St. Palladius Ferrarius inscribed in the General Catalogue, and Menardus in the Monastic Martyrology, but on the preceding day. Whether however the said monks of Auxerre at that time had a rule and norm of living proper to themselves, or rather common with some others, and of what kind, is not clear.