ON ST. CONSTANTINE, OR CONSTANTIUS,
Bishop of Gap in Gaul.
6th CENTURY.
CommentaryConstantinus, or Constantius, Bishop of Gap, in Gaul (St.)
G. H.
Vapingum, or Vapincum (Gap), is an ancient Episcopal city of the second Narbonensian province, inasmuch as it is under the metropolitan of Aix, though in the Dauphiné and under the Parliament of Grenoble, situated at the Cottian Alps. In this city there is on this day a celebrated cult of Saint Constantine or Constantius the Bishop, cult in the ancient Fasti. whose Acts we hardly doubt once existed, because in the most ancient copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology his memory is inserted, with nearly the same words everywhere: "In the city of Gap, the deposition of Saint Constantine the Bishop." Similar things are read in other ancient manuscript fasti, likewise in Usuard, Bellinus, Maurolycus, Felicius, Galesinius, Canisius. And the present-day Roman Martyrology agrees, in which these things are held: "At the town of Gap, Saint Constantine, Bishop and Confessor." Elogium of Saussay Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology adorns him with this elogium: "In the second Narbonensian province, in the city of Gap, Saint Constantius, Bishop and Confessor, who under Pope Symmachus and Clovis, first Christian King of the Franks, first in that city, which he subdued wholly to Christ, held the Pontificate: and flourished with the excellence of heavenly wisdom and innocence of morals: he passed his life with the highest religion: and thus paving for himself the entrance to the eternal kingdom, from the pastoral watchtower was raised to the citadel of beatitude. Whose name remained in blessing among the inhabitants, and obtained perpetual veneration on account of the accumulation of merits and the benefits of his working." So Saussay, who, with only the phrasing of the words changed, has a family of various Bishops. discussed Meanwhile the Sammarthans in Gallia Christiana do not establish Constantius as the first Bishop of Gap: but from ancient monuments of that Church and public manuscripts, they place a certain Saint Demetrius first, and perhaps several others preceded Constantius in that see, whose names and acts have perished. Whether he was also Bishop in the times of Pope Symmachus and of Clovis, King of the Franks, He subscribed to the Council of Épaone in the year 517 is altogether uncertain. After the death of both he subscribed to the Council of Épaone, held under Agapitus the Vir Clarissimus as Consul, in the year of Christ 517, under Sigismund, King of the Burgundians: under whose, not under that of the Frankish Kings, Constantius was then living with the other Bishops who took part in the said Council. We have treated at length of the place of that Council and of the other circumstances on February 5 in the Life of Saint Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, by whom Saint Sigismund had been converted to the Catholic faith. There were present at Épaone twenty-four Bishops, and among them only the eighteenth subscribes as "Constantius, in the name of Christ Bishop of the city of Gap," so that he does not seem to have lived a very long time in episcopal dignity. whether also at Carpentras in the year 527 Afterwards, in the year 527 under Athalaric, King of the Ostrogoths, the Council of Carpentras was held, at which some Constantius subscribed: whom Sirmond in both Indexes conjectures to have been the same Bishop of Gap; but because the place is not added in the Council, this is altogether uncertain. Much less pleasing is the conjecture of Baronius, who under the year 441, no. 15, when he treats of the first Council of Orange, writes these things: "There is also a celebrated memory among the other Fathers who were present at this Council, of Constantine, Bishop of the Church of Gap, marked in the Ecclesiastical tables: not at Orange in the year 441. for that he was illustrious in sanctity, his natal day is found annually in the Catholic Church on the day before the Ides of April: whom we know also to have been present at the Gallican Council from the Synodal letter not the Synodal letter to Saint Leo the Pope. written to Saint Leo, Roman Pontiff." Baronius repeats the same things in the Notes on April 12. Some Constantine the Bishop, third among sixteen Bishops in the said Council of Orange; and in the cited Synodal letter, among forty-two and almost different from the earlier ones, subscribes in the fourth place: and also some Constantius. But as long as no cities are noted, it is rash to insert any of them into the catalog of the Bishops of Gap; and much
more to say he is the same one who took part in the Council of Épaone, in the year 517 quite recently ordained, as we have indicated above; for otherwise it would be necessary that one and the same Constantius held that rank for almost seventy years. About the one who was at Épaone in the year already indicated, we know nothing else than that he has veneration in his own Church, and that to him succeeded Saints Tigris and Remedius, of whom we treated on February 3, then Vellesius, who took part in the sixth Council of Orléans, which we think was celebrated in the year 547. Petrus de Natalibus in Book 11 of the Catalogue, chapter 130, no. 118, has these things: "Constantine the Bishop of the town of Gap is illustrious on the day before the Ides of April": which is a slight difference of one day: but for the Ides themselves stands the consensus of others.