Silvester

ON SAINT SILVESTER,

ABBOT OF RÉOME IN GAUL.

ABOUT THE YEAR 575.

Silvester, Abbot of Réome in Gaul (St.)

BY G. H.

Réome, by some Reomagus and Reomus, is a very ancient monastery, in the diocese of Langres and the Duchy of Burgundy and the Jurisdiction of Alise, Location of the Monastery of Réome, between the Serein and the Amantion, not far from the town of Avallon, which was built by St. John on his ancestral land in the time of the Emperor Valentinian III, whence it is now commonly called the Monastery of St. John, as has been told at length in his Life on January 28. St. Silvester the successor of St. John, the first Abbot. His disciple and successor in the abbatial governance was St. Silvester: some notice of whom, or compendium of his deeds, was sent to us by Pierre-François Chifflet, taken from manuscript codices of the monasteries of Acintinum and Montieramey, of the Cistercian Order in the diocese of Besançon: which same compendium or epitome of the Life was published by Pierre Roverius in his Réome illuminated, and is as follows.

[2] After the death of the most glorious Lord John, there was substituted in his place as Abbot one Silvester by name, whom he himself, while still living, had commanded to preside over the company of the Brethren. Who, walking in the footsteps of his Master both in the form of religion and in the keeping of the Rule, loved by the Kings Chlothar and Childebert, flourished for a long time. He was beloved by the most Christian Kings of the Franks, Chlothar and Childebert, for the merits of his sanctity. But of miracles performed by him we read no more except of only one Cleric, whom the contraction of the sinews and the weakness of the hands had rendered utterly incapable: who was brought to the venerable Silvester by the help of a carriage, and was anointed by him with the liquid of sanctified oil: soon all the contraction of the sinews and the bending of the hams was straightened, and the soles of his feet were made firm, and he was restored to health: He heals a Cleric crippled in his feet but as for the weakness of his hands, he afterwards merited to be cured by blessed Germanus, Bishop of the city of Paris, as is written in the Acts of the aforesaid Blessed Germanus. Therefore the venerable Silvester rested on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of May: dying on April 15: and was buried in the church of St. John; our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

[3] The said miracle performed by St. Silvester is described by Venantius Fortunatus in the Life of St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris, to be presented on May 28, which is thus: A certain Cleric, from near the monastery of Blessed Silvester at Tonnerre, when on the Lord's day (as we say) by custom he had been stitching leggings, it is mentioned in the Life of St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris: incurred debility of hands and feet. But through Blessed Silvester he recovered the office of his steps: then admonished by a dream, he made his way to St. Germanus at Paris, seeking the remaining part of his health: by whom being questioned, he confessed the cause of his fault. Then the Saint commanded it to be cried through the people, that no one should rashly work on the Lord's day: and on the fifth day having passed, with oil poured over, his palm was raised, and so he was dismissed home with freedom to go. So that account. Tornodorum, commonly Tonnerre, is the head of a County, once tributary to Burgundy together with the Sens district, in which it is inserted, and to whose jurisdiction Réome is said once to have been subject. Moreover, St. Germanus presided over the Church of Paris from about the year 556 until the year 576.

[4] and in a diploma of Chlothar I, King of the Franks Roverius, mentioned before, page 71, adds a precept of Chlothar I, King of the Franks, granted to this St. Silvester: which, although we consider it by no means genuine, we nevertheless wish to transfer here, as a document of ancient possession by no means to be rejected. It is as follows: Chlothar, King of the Franks, illustrious man, to all Bishops, Abbots, and illustrious men, magnificent Dukes, Counts, Stewards, Vicars, Grafions, Centenaries, or all your juniors, both present and future. If to the petitions of Priests, which pertain to the advantage of the Churches, we lend a hearing with a devout mind, we trust to have from this Jesus Christ as the rewarder of all good things. Therefore let it be known to all, that our father of divine memory, Clovis, received the monastery of our Lord John from his own gift under his immunity, held and honored it, and left it to his successor Kings by hereditary precept. So also we receive and recall the venerable Silvester, Abbot of that place and disciple and successor of the Lord John, confirming those granted by Clovis I our family's special Patron and Intercessor, under our and our successor Kings' immunity and defense, decreeing that always, under us and our successor Kings, both the Abbot and the monks, and all who for that house of God or for that Abbot seem to belong or for the remainder ought to be, shall always remain, and from their own shall appoint an Abbot: and no inquiries shall we or public Judges make from that place or from the lords of that monastery. And the expenses which our father provided to the monks for clothing, shoeing, and food, and assigning expenses we likewise, and our successor Kings, from our chamber or fiscal revenues, shall liberally confer on Abbot Silvester and his monks and successors, that for us and our progenitor and kingdom they may continually entreat the Lord. in the 5th year of the reign ✠ Mark of the illustrious King Chlothar. I, N., brought, offered, and subscribed. Given on the 8th day before the Kalends of May, in the 5th year of our reign, done at Soissons.

[5] Thus far that diploma of Chlothar I, of whatever kind, in which is also cited another precept of his father Clovis, plainly of the same character, in Roverius page 28 and following. What is to be judged concerning both, and by what arguments each can be detected as spurious, appears from the prior commentary to this second volume: among the Austrasians, yet we do not plainly reject it, because such diplomas, although they are not truly of those Kings whose names they bear, but written from the usage of a far later age, have nevertheless a foundation in the true donations of those Kings, on account of an ancient tradition concerning the time and author of the same not to be disputed. We judge that the monastery of Réome truly was under the kingdom of Metz, afterwards called of the Austrasians, under the Kings Theoderic, Theodebert, and Theodebald, and when this last had died in the year 555, came into the hands of Chlothar I, then made King of the Austrasians, and so the fifth year of his reign of the Austrasians is to be reckoned the year of Christ 559, or at least the following year 560. Of Christ 559. We have said in his Life that St. John the Abbot died about the year 545, when St. Silvester succeeded him, but how long he presided is not clear. He succeeded St. John about 545, He had as successor Mummolus, made from Abbot of Réome Bishop of Langres in the year 580, when the kingdom of the Austrasians after the death of Chlothar I had come into the power of Sigebert I, and this also having died in the year 576, into the hands of Childebert, up to whose time St. Silvester must necessarily be said to have lived, if, as is said above in the Epitome of the Life, he was beloved by him for the merit of his sanctity: unless here for Childebert there seems to need substituting,

his father Sigibert himself, since his son Childebert scarcely completed one lustrum of age (as Gregory of Tours witnesses in book 5 of the History of the Franks, chapter 1) began to reign, dying some time before the year 580. and so could not have judged the merit of his sanctity. But St. Silvester died before the year 580, though for how long cannot be known.

[6] On account of this now said merit of sanctity, the name of St. Silvester is inscribed in many ancient Fasti of various Churches, His memory inscribed in the sacred Fasti, namely of Reims in the church of Sts. Timothy and Apollinaris, of Centula in St. Richarius, of Liège in St. Lambert's, and another in St. Lawrence's under the name of Ado, and in ours under the name of Bede, of Brussels in St. Gudula's under the name of Usuard, also in the manuscript Florarium of the Saints, and in other manuscripts. The same name was inscribed in the Auctarium of Usuard by Greven and Molanus, and following them Canisius in the German Martyrology: in all of which with the same phrase of few words it is said that in the monastery of Réome is the birthday of St. Silvester, the disciple of St. John the Confessor. But Saussay with the longest encomium, but such as could almost be said of Abbots generally, adorns him with these words: In Burgundy in the monastery of Réome in the diocese of Langres, Also in the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay. of St. Silvester the Confessor, disciple and successor of Blessed John, man of God, first Abbot of this place. He, when he had scarcely passed from the years of youth, loathing present things by divine inspiration, and panting with all his heart for heaven, entered on the novitiate of religion under the discipline of that holy Father: under whom making great progress in the virtues, he gradually transferred into himself his very acts of sanctity; thus, when he was called to the supernal seats, being held worthy to fulfill his office, he governed that monastery with the same spirit and equal virtue, and moreover greatly enlarged and enriched the company of the sacred assembly with a more numerous throng, and with the more abundant splendor of religious institutions, and with the fame of his own name and the accumulation of his merits: and so, having happily run the course of holy conversation, he earned the most blessed fellowship of that Citizen of heaven whose manners in the flesh he had imitated, in the supernal fatherland. So Saussay: who, not sufficiently mindful of himself, celebrates him again, but with a shorter encomium, in the supplement for this day.

[7] Trithemius is commonly thought to treat of this Saint in book 3, On Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter 275. and in the tablets of the Benedictine Order. "Silvester," he says, "a monk of Noyon, a man of great humility and obedience, who like a shining mirror full of all virtues among the Brothers, strengthened many by his holy example in the love of God. His deeds are on record: whose feast is celebrated on the 15th day before the Kalends of May." By the example of Trithemius on April 17 is celebrated in the manuscript Antwerp Calendar of the Benedictine Order, St. Silvester, monk of the monastery of Noviagenum. But Wion, citing Trithemius, refers him to April 15 with these words: In the monastery of Réome, of St. Silvester, monk, disciple of St. John the Confessor. Dorganius, Menardus, and Bucelinus followed. Charles le Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks wonders on the year 572, no. 6, why he is called by them only a monk, not an Abbot, and why he is ascribed to the Order of St. Benedict, since St. John founded the monastery of Réome before the name of St. Benedict was heard in the Gauls.