Quirillus

ON SAINT QUIRILLUS,

BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT ON THE MAAS IN BELGIUM.

Quirillus, Bishop of Maastricht on the Maas (Saint)

G. H.

[1] The Church of Maastricht on the Maas, dedicated to Saint Servatius (who transferred the Episcopal See from Tongres to that city), celebrates the solemnity of all his holy Pontiffs with a double rite on March 6, Memory of the holy Bishops of Maastricht on February 6 as we then broadly deduced among the Pretermitted and those put off to other days, when we assigned to each his own proper day, and among others to Saint Quirillus this April 30: when these things are read in the Ms. Florarium of the Saints: "At upper Maastricht the deposition of Saint Quirillus, 16th Bishop of Tongres and 6th of Maastricht, who after two years, in which he had begun to rule the Church, rested in peace, in the year of salvation 539." Saint Quirillus separately April 30 But that he flourished and died in the preceding century we have shown in our Diatribe on the Bishops of Maastricht on the Maas, chapter 2.

[2] In the Belgic Chronicle (because all the Bishops from Saint Maternus are surveyed in one tenor, and although in it the See is said to have been translated from Tongres to Maastricht, yet as if they pertained to each See, so also the Tongrese name is attributed to them) is said similarly as in the Florarium Saint Quirillus 16, Bishop of Tongres and 6 of Maastricht. April 29 On the day before this or the third of the Kalends of May Saussay in the Supplement of the Gallican Martyrology has these things: "At Maastricht on the Maas the deposition of Saint Quirillus, Bishop and Confessor, illustrious for the gifts of divine grace and the merits of justice."

[3] February 17 and November 14. On the same day he is inscribed in the General Catalogue of Ferrarius. But in a certain recent writing of the Carthusians of Brussels his birthday is referred to February 17 and his translation to November 14.

ON SAINTS JOHN, DESIDERIUS, FLAVIUS, BISHOPS AND DESIDERATUS PRIEST.

AT CHALON IN GAUL.

CENTURIES V AND VI

John, Bishop, at Chalon in Gaul (Saint)

Desiderius, Bishop, at Chalon in Gaul (Saint)

Flavius, Bishop, at Chalon in Gaul (Saint)

Desideratus, Priest, at Chalon in Gaul (Saint)

By D. P.

[1] Treating of Saint Agricola, Bishop of Chalon, on March 17, we had to give the whole finding of him (which he had in common with Saints Silvester his predecessor, and Lupus his successor, though mediate), as it existed in the Ms. Legendary of that Church; and at the same time we learned how the Roman Pontiff John VIII returning from the Council held at Troyes, John and Flavius are thought canonized by Pope John, in the year 878 passed through there; and that the most blessed Confessors of God, aforenamed, should thereafter be held in veneration, and the days of their glorious passing celebrated festively, he enjoined by Apostolic authority. The same is believed to have established about Saints John and Flavius, at least to be commemorated in common: for that their feast is commonly held on the last day of April, Claudius Perrius our man testified to us by letter written at Dijon in the year 1653. Saussay adds in the supplement of the Gallican Martyrology on April 30, that the Pontiff ordered the sacred bones of the same to be raised to perpetual cult: which we would wish to be supported by the authority of others also.

[2] who in the year 878 was present at the Translation of Saint Desideratus, It is more certain that the same Bishop Gerbold, who took care to have the bodies of the three already-named holy Bishops Silvester, Agricola, and Lupus sought and elevated, burned with equal desire to find the body of Blessed Desideratus the Priest: about whom in Saint Gregory of Tours in the book Of the Glory of the Confessors chapter 86 he had read these things: "There was also in this city of Chalon Desideratus the Priest, whom I saw in the monastery of Gurthon, a man magnificent in sanctity, who often imposed an end by praying to those laboring with chill and with tooth pain and other diseases: for he was also everywhere a recluse, that is, he did not go out from his little cell: but he who wished saw him in the cell. praised by Saint Gregory of Tours, This man, as we have said, illustrious for exceptional virtues, shone in the world. Hearing this the blessed Bishop Agricola sent his Archdeacon, to bring the Blessed to the cemetery of the city: but with the monks resisting, he did not fulfill what had been commanded. After this the Priest, having built a suburban Hospital of lepers, with the citizens and all the Clergy gathered together, translated the blessed body into its basilica, and buried it with the greatest zeal in the basilica above-named: who manifests himself now with great virtues to live with Christ."

[3] We have shown that Saint Agricola died in the year of the Christian Era 580, and died about the year 570, when Gregory of Tours, not yet forty, was about his eighth year in the Episcopate, which he did not hold beyond the year 594. From which you may gather that Blessed Desideratus, who was known to Gregory while he lived, departed from the living not many years before Blessed Agricola, and perhaps about the year 570 the body was dug up and translated. Nor can we doubt that in the aforesaid suburban church of lepers (which is called, not without hyperbole, "basilica" by Gregory), and already anciently venerated on April 30. his feast was celebrated annually, either that on which he died, or on which he was translated. And that this was April 30 is the more readily to be believed, because no indication of any other day is found in the monuments of the Church of Chalon. For if the Birthdays of the others, equally sought by Gerbold, on which they are still venerated, were not hidden, although their bodies were; why shall we think

that the day of this one, whose Translation had been so solemn, to be held festively, would not have been most well-known from that time; even after it began to be unknown, in what place of the said church precisely the deposited treasure of the Saint should be sought. But since the author adds nothing more about his revelation than that he says he has undertaken to narrate it, as also of the others, again in the prologue, we judge therefore that something is lacking in the Ms. which would have explained it to us.

[4] Concerning the other two if the Pontiff established If the other holy Bishops whom we have named in the title, John, Desiderius, and Flavius, had from antiquity their cult in the Church of Chalon; we do not doubt but that each would even now be venerated on his own day: now what the cause was that their memory was placed on the last day of April, is not easy to divine. This day meanwhile the aforesaid Church of Chalon, as Saussay testifies, honors as the day of the Canonization of her holy Bishops. This cannot be understood of that which the present Pontiff did at Chalon. For since he did not return here before September, and departed from Gaul before December, it cannot be imagined that in April he did or established anything at Troyes about the honor of these. It is more probable therefore that Bishop Gerbold, animated by the success and fruit of the aforenoted findings and translations, so that with the other holy Bishops they might be venerated on one day; continued the work happily begun, by investigating the bodies of the holy Bishops of the city, so that with their mausoleums known and opened, greater devotion of veneration might inflame the peoples. But with these three found, as we have premised, none of whom had any cult among the people, though they were commonly held Saints (as almost all the first Bishops of the ancient Churches), the Pontiff consulted whether he could also propose these to be venerated by the people: but he so approved the usage of calling them Saints, that yet he wished nothing new to be introduced, with no Acts of their life extant, no evidence of ancient or new miracles impelling to decree a proper feast for them; he did this after leaving Gaul. but judged it more advisable that one common festivity be held for them as for the other holy Bishops, to which April 30 was elected, perhaps the day on which then also equally was celebrated the festivity of one of those found, namely Saint Desideratus the Priest. And these conjectures can be confirmed from the aforecited history of the elevation of Saint Agricola and his companions, which, unless it had been written before the bodies of these others were sought, and after the Pontiff had departed from Chalon, would also have made mention of them.

[5] These things being so premised, we set about to investigate concerning each of those proposed in the title, at what time they sat and died, or anything further, after the course of so many centuries, about their deeds can be known. And first indeed about Saint John we have a distinguished letter of Sidonius Apollinaris, which full of commendation of his virtues, is extant written to Domnulus thus in book 4 of his Letters, no. 25: "I cannot delay from quickly sharing with you by the communion of great joy: namely, to you desiring to know what our Father in Christ and at the same time Pontiff Patiens, having gone to Chalon, when the people of Chalon were dissenting about the election of their Bishop in the manner of religion, in the manner of his constancy did. When he had come to the above-written town, with the College of the Provincial Priests partly going before, partly accompanying him (namely, that some supreme Bishop should be ordained for the municipality, whose Church's discipline was tottering, after the younger Bishop Paul had departed and died), various wills of the townsmen received the Pontifical counsel, and also those private pursuits which always overturn the public good, which a certain triumvirate of competitors had kindled, of whom this one was belching out the ancient prerogative of his birth, the others destitute of the gift of morals: this one was being brought forth through parasitic applauses, obtained by the support of the kitchens, with Apician applauses: this one, if he should obtain the votive summit, had promised by tacit compact to his applauders that the ecclesiastical properties would be for them as prey.

[6] "When the holy Patiens and the holy Euphronius saw this, Saints Patiens and Euphronius, who held the rigor and firmness of an older sentence, beyond hatred and favor of the first; counsel being first shared with the Co-bishops secretly rather than openly, the uproar of the raging crowd having been brought forth and despised; hands being suddenly cast, seizing, and thinking and suspecting nothing less than what was being done, Saint John, a man notable for honesty and meekness (a Lector here first, and so a minister of the altar and that from infancy, after, by the progress of labors and times Archdeacon, in which grade or ministry he was long retained because of his diligence, and could not long be augmented in dignity, lest he be freed from power) yet this man, now a Priest of the second Order, they unexpectedly consecrate John, amid the dissonant voices of the parties, which were delaying to praise the one not ambitious, but dared not blame the praiseworthy, with the factious stupefied, with the wicked blushing, with the good acclaiming, with none crying against, they consecrated him their colleague. Now therefore if the Jura monasteries now release you, into which you are wont willingly to ascend, you are now preluding to heavenly and supernal habitations, it is fitting that you rejoice concerning the common Fathers or Patrons, either because of the concord thus sensing, or because of the sentence thus concording. Exult also in the name of him whom they created, with Euphronius as witness, Patiens by hand, both by judgment: in which Euphronius did what befitted not only his old age, but also the longevity of his dignity: Patiens also did, a man equal even to the greatest praises, what was enough fitting to do for a person, who is the head of our city through the Priesthood, of your province through the city."

[7] held as a Saint even from death. Behold how while the Bishops are still living, they are called "holy," as now "Most Reverend" and "Most Illustrious": to which title if the acts of their life corresponded, it was preserved for their very names even after death: which in the following centuries was held as, so to speak, popular canonization; nor is it easy always to discern those thus enrolled among Saints from others, whose sanctity, attested by more eminent virtues and more frequent and illustrious miracles, merited that special and to be attributed by the public judgment of the Church cult of annual festivity; since many things in this kind instituted and observed by the ancestors have by the negligence of posterity come into disuse and oblivion, as is clear from so many whose once most well-known fame of sanctity, but by the lapse of times utterly faded, we cause to revive in this our work, by bringing to light so many ancient and undoubted monuments. and that about the year 470. The Sammarthani judge that the aforenoted Letter was written about the year 470: certainly Sidonius was not yet promoted to the Pontificate of Arverni when he wrote, to which he ascended in the year 472; Patiens presided over the Metropolis of Lyons; Euphronius, whose long-lived dignity is commended, before the year 452, it is uncertain how long, had obtained that grade, as is clear from the Chronicle of Idatius.

[8] John being dead, Saint Silvester succeeded, Saint Silvester succeeded John, to be commemorated on November 20, and known from the subscriptions of the Council of Epaone celebrated in the year 516, and also from Gregory of Tours's book On the Glory of the Confessors chapter 85. Whether Saint Desiderius succeeded him immediately or mediately I cannot define; Saint Desiderius his name has fallen from the catalogues, but has been preserved in the Life of Saint Arigius Bishop of Vapincum, to be given on May 1, of whose parents it is said, that "they offered to God their firstborn son, when he had passed his second year of nativity, and before the altar of Saint Vincent Blessed Desiderius Bishop of Chalon received him with joy and baptized him, and showed him, and with the boy consenting taught him the norm of learning." But Blessed Arigius under King Gontrand subscribed to the Second Council of Valence, in the year of Christ 584 already Bishop, and went on living beyond 601, so that his baptism seems to be set at the 30th or 40th year of the sixth century. There are those who substitute Saint Desideratus for Desiderius: not Desideratus, but if by that name they understand the one whom the Sammarthani think succeeded Saint Gratus, they err vehemently. For he, surnamed Dido, was not only not a Saint (as being defiled with the foulest sacrilege in the death of Saint Leodegar), but was not even a Bishop, and it is only written in the Life of the aforesaid Saint Leodegar that "he once had the principate of Chalon," surely secular, as his colleague in crime and in the rectorate of the palace "Bobo … had the city of Valence in his Lordship," whom no one therefore has dreamed of mingling with the Bishops of Valence.

[9] Saint Agricola Saint Agricola succeeded Saint Desiderius, perhaps immediately, since, as already indicated above, he did not live beyond the year 580. The successor of Agricola, Saint Flavius, Saint Flavius, in the very beginnings of his Pontificate subscribed to the First Council of Mâcon, celebrated in the year 582, as has been shown in the previous Commentary to the Acts of Saint Gontrand the King no. 8, March 28. Saint Gregory of Tours book 5 of the History of the Franks asserts that he was Referendary of the said King Gontrand, before he was created Bishop: we can believe that he was no small aid to the same in founding and fittingly ordering the Monastery of Saint Marcellus of Chalon: for this in the 24th year of that King, the year of Christ 584, was done, and in the following year at the Second Council of Mâcon, to which again Flavius subscribed, it was confirmed. The same Flavius (which is held from the Acts of Saint Gervasius the Martyr, to be given on July 6) built and endowed the Monastery of Blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles, who founded the monastery of Saint Peter. certainly under the same Rule of Agaune, under which that of Saint Marcellus had been built; which afterwards worn down by many calamities, Bishop Gerbold above-mentioned restored and attributed to the Benedictine Order.

[10] The same Acts of Saint Gervasius, written, as it appears, in the 7th century, name Lupus the Bishop as the successor of Saint Flavius, Saint Lupus. whose feast is held January 27, when we treat of him and gave his Life; we are to give on October 8 the Life of Saint Gratus, who after Gilderinus was the next to be substituted to Saint Lupus. To the said Life of Saint Gratus in the Legendary of Chalon, I know not who added this fragment: Saint Gratus, "Of this, namely Saint Gratus, and of the other Fathers and likewise Pontiffs of the Church of Chalon, Flavius, Tranquillus, Desiderius, John, Silvester, Agricola, Lupus, Veranus, Pope John determined that the natal days and annual solemnities be celebrated, and in the series of Saints of the Martyrology their names by memorial deeds; while staying at Chalon twenty days, with the Venerable Pontiff Gilbald, while he was returning from the consecration made by him of Louis the Stammerer, most glorious King of the Franks." How great a confusion of times in a few lines! whether among those omitted there is some Veranus, how disturbed the order of the Bishops there surveyed! Of Silvester, Agricola, and Lupus only, he who described the thing done in his own time made mention. Whether some Veranus ever presided over the Church of Chalon, is doubted: for the one who in Gregory of Tours book 8 chapter 31 is read to have gone as legate to Gontrand, "Veranus Cabillonensis," without doubt (as Sirmond rightly observed) was of Cavaillon, easily, because of the great similarity of the names, turned into "Cabillonensis" by the error of the copyists; since at that same time no other bore this title than Saint Flavius aforementioned.

[11] Tranquillus we have not found in the See of Chalon, nor in any other of similar name. or Tranquillus? But because

the catalogue of the Bishops of Chalon is very imperfect; and not only between Saints Silvester and Agricola, as we have said, one or several intermediate ones are missing; but also because after Saint Gratus, who is read to have subscribed to the Council of Chalon in the year 650, there is an interval of almost a whole century between him and Hubert, to be found in the year 779 (which could not be filled by the two added to that interval from mere conjecture, Antestius and Amblacus), therefore we are not unwilling to say that it could have happened that a Veranus and a Tranquillus presided over the Church of Chalon. But to build upon so infirm a foundation the cult of Saints who perhaps never existed, is far from our plan. And so we refer them to the class of the Pretermitted, until another teaches more certain things. For the authority of Saussay, with the others omitted, joining Tranquillus to John and Flavius, is small with us: greater is that of the Propers of the Chalon Church, printed at Lyon in the year 1620, in which is prescribed on April 30 the feast "of Saints Silvester, John, Agricola, Flavius, Veranus, Gratus, Lupus, Tranquillus, and Desiderius, Bishops of Chalon, and of Desideratus the Priest": and three Lessons are added for the second Nocturn, embracing the sum of what has been said hitherto, as if the Pontiff, being at Chalon, had canonized them, which we rejected above: nothing else concerning them occurs to us to be noted at present.