ON SAINT TETRICUS,
Martyr and Bishop of Auxerre.
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 8th CENTURY.
CommentaryTetricus, Martyr, Bishop of Auxerre (St.)
BHL Number: 0000
G. H.
[1] Auxerre, the ancient city of Gaul, included in the Duchy of Burgundy, is illustrated by various and distinguished men inscribed in the register of the Blessed: for whose ecclesiastical veneration the proper Breviaries prescribe their own days, of which we have various, printed after the year of Christ 1500. In all these the cult of Saint Tetricus, Bishop of Auxerre and Martyr, is indicated on this day April 12, The veneration of Saint Tetricus on April 12. and all things to be done are prescribed from the Common of one Martyr; at Matins indeed six Lessons are recited from the Common, as we have said, of one Martyr, and the three last from the exposition of the Gospel pertaining to the day. We on the authority of these Breviaries have put off to this day to insert his memory into this work, although in more recent Martyrologies he is referred to March 16 or 18, March 16 and 18. as we noted on those days among those Passed Over. Moreover, to March 16 he is referred by Menard, Saussay, and Bucelinus, as also in the Gallia Christiana of Claude Robert and the Sammarthans, by whom he is said on the said day to have been killed. But the one who wrote before all these, John Chenu, asserts that he ended his life by martyrdom on the 15th day before the Kalends of April, on which day Galesinius, Canisius, and Ferrarius referred him. Some Acts of this Saint have been written in the Chronicle of Robert the monk of Auxerre, with no mention made of the day of death. But he is handed down on the 15th day before the Kalends of April, or March 18, Acts. in the History of the Bishops of Auxerre, published by Philippe Labbe in volume 1 of the New Library of Manuscript Books: from which we subjoin the Acts of his life and martyrdom, which are of this sort.
[2] "Treticus or Tetricus sat fifteen years, three months. He was in the times of the Roman Prelates Leo, Benedict, John, Conon, Sergius, under Childebert the younger, King of the Franks, who was called the Just. A most mild man and adorned with all goodness, for also before the Episcopate he was Abbot of the monastery of Saint Germain, in which office being placed he showed himself such and so great, Abbot of Saint Germain, that he was deservedly frequented by all with the highest zeal: for he was generous, pious, chaste, and merciful. Therefore God favoring, all the people from the least to the greatest, moved by divine inspiration, chose him into the Order of Pontiffs: and so drawn from the basilica of Saint Germain, He is ordained Bishop, was elected as a Pontiff worthy of God and ordained a Priest. For he began, as soon as the priesthood was received, to insist upon preaching, and to spiritually instruct the Church committed to him by God. This blessed man, in the first year of his ordination, holding a Council, determined in what manner the Abbots or Archpresbyters in the church of Saint Stephen should perform the divine office. And he so ordained, that on the Kalends of January the first week the basilica of Saint Germain should serve, he gathers a Synod, the second week the basilica of Saint Amator, the third week the basilica of Saint Peter, the fourth week the basilica of the monastery of Saint Julian. And so in order through the remaining months.
[3] "This constitution being strengthened, he determined that the Abbot Presbyters with the clergy, meeting together to perform the above-written office, he orders the divine office, should receive from the Lord's cellar through the Oeconomus of the church a sufficient stipend. But if they come late or appear negligently, they should abstain from wine for forty days. But the Vicedomnus or Cellarer, if in anything they should withhold what they should by right administer, being confined in the monastery, for half a year content with bread and water, should pay the due penance. Therefore this blessed Bishop allotted a villa called Maximiacus, situated in the district of Sens, which had come to him by inheritance from his parents, he donates a villa to the Church of Saint Stephen, with its buildings, slaves, vineyards, woods, and all its appurtenances, to the basilica of Saint Stephen, over which he presided by God's authority, to have. Moreover, his life's course being happily completed, by a certain
one, at the instigation of the devil, as is reported, his Archdeacon, by name Regenfred, while he was resting on a bench loosed in sleep, having been struck with a sword, he ended his life by martyrdom on the 15th day before the Kalends of April, and was buried with the highest devotion of the faithful in the basilica of Saint Eusebius the Martyr. For concerning the same Regenfred it is published by ancient tradition, that as soon as he went out of the house in which he had killed his Pontiff, suddenly snatched by a whirlwind he appeared nowhere. But the city was without a Bishop for three years. he is crowned with martyrdom: For from the bench upon which he was killed, many, on account of the toothache, by the merit of the holy man obtained a remedy. But also in the same place, on account of the memory and reverence of the Martyr, by his successors an oratory was built in his name, which up to now is venerated and worshipped by the devotion of the faithful. An oratory is erected to him. There are still to this day tablets of the same bench, denoting his martyrdom."
[4] Thus far the Acts, extracted from the History of the Bishops of Auxerre: an epitome of which is contained, with the same words often preserved, in the Chronicle of the monk of Auxerre. The predecessor of Saint Tetricus was Scopilio, who is said to have sat 8 years, under King Theoderic, who died in the year 693; to whom succeeded his son Chlodoveus III, and when he died in the year 698, his brother Childebert the younger; who is thought by some to have ruled with his brother, and survived until the year 711. Time of the See and of the martyrdom. The Roman Pontiffs indicated above, Leo, Benedict, John, and Conon, were from the year 683 to the year 687, from which time Pope Sergius sat until the year 710. Under him Saint Tetricus seems to have suffered martyrdom at the beginning of the 8th century. Mabillon assigns the year 709.