CONCERNING ST. ARCADIUS,
ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES IN GAUL.
545.
COLLECTION
On the ancient cult, age & deeds.
Arcadius, conf., archbishop of Bourges (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Among the prelates of Bourges, concerning which city it has more than once been said elsewhere, Praised in the ancient records, however celebrated St. Arcadius may be, nevertheless he has been passed over by most of our Classical Martyrologists; distinctly, however, marked in the ancient codices, which we judge by no means to be set below those Classical ones. And, in the first place, in the most ancient Hieronymian of Lucca or Fontanelle, toward the end of the tablet, this announcement is read added: In Gaul, in the city of Bourges, of the blessed bishop Archadius. The more ancient Epternach, by the scribe's fault, forms the name Sersadus, nor much better the Corbie Arecladus. From the adjuncts it is most manifest that the same St. Arcadius is everywhere indicated, just as also in the lesser Hieronymians, the Reichenau, Augsburg & Labbeanus, in which he is marked with these words: Bourges, of Archadius the bishop: the codex of the Queen of Sweden with a few more words: In the Gauls, in the city of Bourges, the deposition of the blessed bishop Archadius. Further, that that addition to the text of the Hieronymians is most ancient, Notker proves, using almost the same words which we gave in the first place; so that it is not necessary here to summon other aids or testimonies from the more recent Martyrologists, our Florarium Ms., the Lübeck-Cologne edition, Grevenus, Maurolyco, Ferrarius, Castellanus, or others of that kind.
[2] A brief elogium was composed for him by Claudius Robertus in his Gallia Christiana, also by Saussay. where this is the chief thing, that his memory is observed on the Kalends of August in the Breviary of Bourges; but let a double feast be made in the church of St. Ursinus, where he lies. These same things the Sammarthani have, who transcribed Claudius, with this difference, that these place the Saint in the order 19th, he in the 21st: but concerning these below, from the more recent edition of the Benedictines; here we shall give place to Saussay, whose is this not inelegant oration: At Bourges, of St. Arcadius bishop & confessor, who, after St. Honoratus taking up the helm of this metropolitan see, with great brightness of sanctity & the assiduous watches of pastoral vigilance, enlarged the honors of the pontifical office; & as a master of sanctity instructed some Saints, among whom shone forth especially St. Patroclus the abbot, whom on account of the merits of his virtues he advanced to the honor of the diaconate. Then, among the stars of Gaul, he was present, a radiance of virtues, at the synod of Orleans; & at last, the course of mortality being finished, he set forth to the rewards of eternal life: buried in the church of St. Ursinus, he was glorified with heavenly insignia.
[3] Concerning the age it is disputed. Concerning the Saint's age, or concerning the ordering of the series of the bishops of Bourges, however much I have sought, I have not found what to determine. I have already said that he is marked by some in the order 19th, by others 20th, by others 21st, but in the Patriarchium of Bourges by the monks of Saint-Sulpice, 22nd; concerning which it will be permitted to dispute to those who shall undertake to restore the intricate chronology, which how difficult it is, the praised monk of Saint-Sulpice frankly confesses, when he says that nothing but the names of the pontiffs is for the most part found: whence you understand at once how great concord there can be in determining the age of the Saint. Claudius Robertus & all the rest admit that he was present at the third council of Orleans; but he places it in the year 540, & says he sat 29 years; but the Sammarthani better connect that council of Orleans with the year 538, thus contracting the time of the episcopate, so that he could have sat only about nine years. But, on the contrary, the author of the Patriarchium contracts the whole duration to only five years, namely from the year 540 to 545. But how shall anyone reconcile this with his subscription, as already bishop, in the said council of Orleans in the year 538? Everywhere it is slippery, everywhere are ruts, from which no one easily extricates himself. Whether Cointius has accomplished this happily enough, there is reason for me greatly to doubt; but indeed, to settle that controversy here there is neither leisure nor need: let us hear what the recent editors of the Gallia Christiana have adduced from St. Gregory of Tours.
[4] Arcadius is known to us from the third council of Orleans of the year 538, Gregory of Tours makes mention of him. to which he subscribed & at which he was present. That he began his episcopate in the year 536, Carolus Cointius teaches. Gregory of Tours makes mention of him, On the life of the Fathers chapter 9, where there is treatment of Patroclus, who, fleeing the world, "went to Arcadius bishop of the city of Bourges, & asked that the hair of his head be shorn for him, & that he be enrolled in the order of the clerics"; which Arcadius granted him, the order of the diaconate also being conferred a little after. Probianus the presbyter subscribed the fourth council of Orleans "sent by the lord Arcadius the bishop"; namely of Bourges; for Probianus was a presbyter of his church, who after about 14 years was created archbishop of the same church. And lo, another knot, while the beginnings of St. Desideratus, successor of St. Arcadius, seem to be fitted with Cointius to the year 541, but his death to 550, which necessarily, Probianus following; lest otherwise a vacancy of the see of four years be gratuitously constructed; nevertheless they contend that between the death of St. Arcadius & the beginnings of St. Probianus about 14 years intervened. I would rather conjecture that St. Arcadius died in the year 545, whereby it would come about that the nine years of the Sammarthani would be vindicated for him. For the rest, from all these thorny & entangled things nothing solid can be drawn, I see by experience; as neither from the elogium itself of the monk of Saint-Sulpice, which here, in the utter penury of other monuments, is subjoined.
[5] Twenty-second presided St. Archadius, a man remarkably venerable both for nobility A little more at length & for sanctity. He was present at the third council of Orleans, which, among the beginnings of the same pontificate, namely in the 26th year of the reign of Childebert the elder, on the fourth day before the Nones of March, was celebrated. He proceeds to enumerate all the holy prelates who were present at the said council, & what things were decreed in it; then, returning to St. Arcadius: For the rest, he says, let the discourse now run back thither whence it began. The admirable conversation, then, & sincerity of life of our most holy & most blessed father Archadius, while it illustrated all Gaul with surpassing splendor, so much indeed that by his example he invited the affection of the whole people to the love of God, & many, for the sake of the culture of the divine service, having utterly forsworn the conversation of the world, flocked together in equal throngs to that same holy Man, whom they had known most excellently to shine incomparably with apostolic perfection, as to an asylum of morals; among the rest the blessed Patroclus, a man of vast merit, founder of the monastery of Colombier, in adolescence, lest he should be compelled by his widowed mother to take a wife, secretly slipping away, fled for refuge to the loftiness of this kindly Prelate. By whom benignly received, & courteously & most humanely treated, having taken the ordination of the diaconate, he was seen to shine forth, after his example, with such precious & such fragrant ornaments of virtues, that through him, while still acting under the tutelage of the holy pontiff Archadius, great miracles were very frequently wrought. Whence, if so great & such a one is reported to have been the disciple, how great & of what kind, I ask, is the teacher & master of him to be esteemed, namely the most blessed patriarch Arcadius, from whom Patroclus drew those rudiments of spiritual exercise, whence he might advance?
[6] The elogium from the Patriarchium. But—which I say with grief—the illustriously performed deeds of our elders, which otherwise would have profited posterity much, antiquity, not without gross negligence, has covered with its silence. Since indeed we for the most part find nothing but the names of our pontiffs; whom, nevertheless, it is agreed to be worthy, by the probity of their morals & singular wisdom, that they should seem to merit the memory of posterity. But the same glorious pontiff Archadius, after he had ruled the church of Bourges five years, withdrawn from this life, on the Kalends of August happily migrated to Christ. Whose most sacred body, with the honor of due veneration, was given to burial in the basilica of St. Symphorianus the martyr; where even now it gloriously rests, beside the body of St. Ursinus, the first bishop of the same city of Bourges. Which church was once constructed by the same divine Ursinus, Gregory of Tours attests, in chapter 80 of the book On the glory of the confessors. But the same place, both by the right of antiquity & by the presence of many Saints there lying, is seen to be venerable & most fitted to devotion. There at that time the monastic order most flourishingly thrived; but afterward, the world growing old, &, according to the sentence of our Lord Jesus Christ, charity growing cold in men, there the fervor of holy religion grew tepid, & a college of secular canons (lest so venerable a place should be utterly destitute of ministers of the divine worship) was instituted. But the same holy prelate Archadius flourished from the year 540 to the year 545, in the times of Pope Vigilius, of the emperor Justinian, while there reigned in France Chlothar I, Childebert, & Theudebert.