ON SAINT ABRUNCULUS, OR APRUNCULUS, Confessor and Bishop of Trier.
IN THE YEAR 532,
CommentaryAbrunculus or Aprunculus, Bishop of Trier (Saint)
G. H.
[1] Christoph Brower, in the fifth book of the Antiquities and Annals of Trier near the end, has this in no. 137, at the year 528: "Vibicius, Pontiff of the people of Trier, leaving the earth, increased the number of the Heavenly Ones on the fifth of November. In his place the old lists of Bishops place Aprunculus as the Bishop: of which name several Bishops flourished in Gaul." Then in no. 140 at the year 532,
"Aprunculus," he says, "when on the 22nd of April, dies about the year 532, which day he has assigned to him in the calendars, had departed into eternal light, a council was held for substituting a new Pontiff." Which Saint Gregory of Tours in the Lives of the Fathers, in the eulogy of Saint Gallus, after reporting the death of Saint Quintianus, Bishop of the Arverni, whose natal day falls on November 13, thus explains: "Then also Aprunculus, Bishop of the people of Trier, departed: and the clergy of that city, gathering before King Theodoric, asked for Saint Gallus as Bishop: to whom he said, 'Depart and seek another: for I have Gallus the Deacon destined elsewhere.' Then choosing Saint Nicetius, they received him as Bishop." Thus there. Saint Gallus is venerated, afterwards Bishop of the Arverni, on the Kalends of July; and Saint Nicetius on December 5.
[2] Doctor John Enen, in the Medulla of the Deeds of Trier, book 3 title 2 on the Collegiate Church of Saint Paulinus, Bishop and Martyr of Trier, writes this. buried in the church of St. Paulinus, "There, almost beneath the altar of Saint Clement, Pope and Martyr, at the front of the choir (which Pope Leo IX distinguished with special prerogatives and indulgences), three most holy men, Archbishops of Trier, rest: Bonosius, Leguntius, Abrunculus." So in the said booklet printed in the year 1517. We have another ancient booklet on the Relics and Indulgences of the Collegiate Church of Saint Paulinus, in which these things are reported: "Abrunculus, the nourishing 46th Prelate of Trier, successor of Saint Vibicius the Archbishop, formerly Abbot of the monastery of the Divine Maximin, beneath the altar of the most holy Martyr of Christ Clement the Pope, Relics translated to Sprengersbach. on the left of blessed Leguntius, lies buried; but only in part. For the principal members of his body have been translated from there to the monastery which is commonly called Sprengerszebach: which do not cease to declare Abrunculus triumphing in heaven, by various signs and virtues. Holy Abrunculus, while still leading a mortal life, renounced the world and its pomps: he did not, as human frailty usually does, walk through the precipices of vices; but torn away from this wicked age in mind and act, like a carbuncle shining at night, and like the sun glowing in the morning, so was his most holy life. He is stripped of the flesh on the tenth day before the Kalends of May." Thus there. His epitaph, set on the altar of Saint Clement, is of this kind: "Here lies of holy memory Abrunculus, Archbishop of this holy See, died April 22. the day of whose burial is observed on the 10th day before the Kalends of May." And on the contrary in the MS. Florarium of the Saints on this day is said: "The Translation of Saint Abrunculus, Archbishop and Confessor of Trier." In the Martyrology of Cologne and Lübeck printed in the year 1490 the following is read: "At Trier, of Saint Abrunculus, Bishop and Confessor, who now rests in the monastery which is called Sprenckghersbach." Which nearly the same is read in Molanus in his additions to Usuard; in Canisius, his epitaph in the German Martyrology, and in Ferrarius in his general Catalogue. Saussay in the supplement of the Gallican Martyrology on February 22 has this: "At Trier, the revealing of Saint Aprunculus the Bishop; who when after death he shone with miracles, translated from the church of Saint Paulinus, memory in the Calendars. where he had been buried, to the Springeburian monastery, enlarged the indications of his glory. He is venerated with principal honor on April 22": on which day however the same Saussay does not mention him. also February 22. But on the said February 22 he is celebrated in the Catalogue of Ferrarius.
[3] In the Additions made by the Carthusians of Brussels to Grevenus, on February 16 is reported Saint Apponoculus, Bishop of Trier, Confessor, whether the same as Saint Apponoculus whom we there said was unknown to us, unless he is Saint Aprunculus or Abrunculus. Brower in the cited book 5 no. 139 on this controversy has this: "Behold, Aprunculus and Aponoculus come together: whom indeed I had very often imbibed not to be different, moved both by the twin similarity of the letters, and by the ready availability of such corruption: but because some of the tablets nevertheless retained the name of Aponoculus, I chose to hold my ground, and not to plead the case through, until some clearer testimony or proof should shine from elsewhere." We too have transcribed, from an old MS. codex of the Most Serene Christina Queen of Sweden, the names of the Pontiffs of the city of Trier, where those which pertain here are enumerated in this order: "Vibicius, Abrunculus, Rusticus, Aponoculus, Nicetius." Claudius Robertus in his Gallia Christiana placed in the place of Aponoculus an Aprunculus II, whom the Sainte-Marthes omitted; and they make Saint Nicetius successor of Rusticus; which we disprove from Gregory of Tours. Brower places Rusticus after Saint Nicetius, which the Acts of Saint Goar by Wandelbert Abbot of Prüm, to be illustrated on July 6, plainly require. Rusticus himself has ecclesiastical cult on October 14, and Vibicius on November 5. But on the above-mentioned Bonosius and Leguntius we treated on February 17 and 19.
[4] Some relics in Helmwardeshausen, We similarly have a MS. History of the Translation of Saint Modoald, Archbishop of Trier, to be given on May 12: in which also is treated of the holy Relics of blessed Auctor and of Saints Abrunculus and Bonosius, Archbishops, translated in the year 1107 under Archbishop Bruno to the monastery of Helmwardeshausen, situated in the diocese of Paderborn. But of the relics of Saint Abrunculus there were the jawbones with the teeth, of blessed Auctor the head, and of Saint Bonosius the arm; which are, together with the Relics of Saint Modoald, enclosed in an ark, and deposited with decent reverence above the altar of the Mother of God Mary, and by the venerable Tietmar, sixth Abbot of Helmwardeshausen. Moreover the above-mentioned Sts. Abrunculus and Bonosius are Patrons of the collegiate Church of Bruchsal, once the Benedictine monastery of Odenheim, Patronage in Bruchsal as Johann Gamans, one of our own, a man very diligent in observing such matters, taught us in his letters. Philip Scouville also, an apostolic man of our Society, and a most zealous preacher of the divine word and propagator of Christian doctrine throughout the Luxembourg territory and neighboring dioceses, in his notes had annotated and Itzig. that in Itzig also Saint Abrunculus is venerated as Patron with a solemn feast.