ON ST. AUSPICIUS, BISHOP
OF APTA JULIA, IN THE PROVINCE OF GAUL.
CommentaryAuspicius, bishop of Apta Julia in the Province of Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Apta Julia (commonly Apt), an episcopal city under the metropolitan of Aix, was once so described by us on 14 May, Concerning this Saint most things are obscure tom. III, page 185, that nothing remains here to be said about it. But they proclaim St. Auspicius its first prelate and apostle, concerning whom monuments are altogether to be wished for, which would too opportunely support the Aptensian traditions. For what we disputed concerning this Saint's namesake Auspicius, bishop of Trier, on 8 July, could nearly be referred hither, chiefly on this title, that there we confessed nearly everything doubtful, nor do we experience more certain the things which are circulated on this day concerning St. Auspicius of Apt; so that thou canst settle nothing certain either about his age, or his deeds, or his manner of death; nay thou mayest almost doubt whether he was truly the first bishop of Apt: but his memory in the sacred Fasti is so little famous, that Ferrari first made mention of him on this day, adducing his wonted sources, namely the Aptensian tablets and the diocesan Breviary, from which, unless I am mistaken, the Sammarthani drew their material in the Gallia Christiana,
when they write about St. Auspicius in such a way that they seem to have confused two Auspiciuses into one. For if he truly was bishop of Apt who is mentioned in the Acts of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, long will the Aptensians sweat to exhibit a continuous series of their ancient bishops, so that in this part the opinion of Castellanus pleases more, who thinks that St. Auspicius of Apt must be thrown back to the end of the fourth century, from which time the remaining bishops succeed in order.
[2] Let us here first hear what is handed down by the praised Sammarthani: then those which pertain to his lineage, St. Auspicius, first bishop of Apt, is said to have been of the senatorial order among the Roman citizens, and the tutor of Flavia Domitilla, niece of the emperor Domitian: he was in the faith a disciple of the holy Nereus and Achilleus, from the Roman Breviary 12 May, whose bodies being buried, he is reported to have preached the Gospel of Christ at Apta Julia; who at last sealed by martyrdom the faith which he had promulgated, as the Aptensian Breviary has. Thou seest, I think, that all things are here so connected, that that Auspicius mentioned in the Roman Breviary and in the Acts, disciple of the holy Nereus and Achilleus, but tutor of holy Flavia Domitilla, was the very same first bishop of Apt; which is by no means probable to have been able to be kept silent by Ado, when in his Martyrology on the said 12 May he added this most express clause, omitted by Usuard: Whose bodies Auspicius their disciple carried off, the nourisher of the holy virgin Domitilla, whom also, placed in a little boat, he brought, and buried in the estate of Domitilla, in the sandy crypt, on the Ardeatine Way, one mile and a half from the wall of the City. Could a more opportune place be offered, that the Aptensian apostolate of that Auspicius might at least remotely be insinuated?
[3] If in Ado's age, I say, that history had been received at Apt, then those which pertain to his age and see; which is today recited in the Aptensian Offices, it is in no way probable that the holy Viennese, a Bishop in the neighboring region, would have been ignorant of it, who meanwhile does not seem even to have thought of it, so that accordingly that combination must be judged much later than Ado, or the ninth century; whence thou mayest easily settle its value. Add that in no classical Martyrologies, not even in the Supplements of Usuard, is Auspicius of Apt anywhere known, first marked in Ferrari's general Catalogue, as we have already abundantly said. But what antiquity the Aptensian Breviary savors of, it will be difficult to show: to us no edition older than the year 1532 is known. What Saussay thought must be settled concerning the Aptensian traditions, thou wilt sufficiently understand from his eulogy, in which this too displeases, that with no previous authority of any weight he roundly names the times of Marcus Aurelius, which seem no more able to be reconciled with the Aptensian tradition, than the Saint himself to be joined with the already-mentioned holy martyrs Nereus, Achilleus, and Flavia Domitilla. Saussay too proclaims him a martyr; which I shall readily concede to him, provided it may be safely supposed that he lived in the time of the persecutions; in which without doubt the already-praised opinion of Castellanus will seem preferable.
[4] the solution of which is not easily to be sought either from Saussay Lo now the words of Saussay from his Supplement for this day, page 1154: At Apta Julia in the Phocensian Province, of St. Auspicius, first bishop of that see and martyr. Who, the emperor Marcus Aurelius raging against the worshippers of the Christian religion, but chiefly against the pastors; yet intrepidly advanced the mystery of the faith, and there (when round about so bloody a butchery was open) gathered the Lord's fold, fixed his watchtower, undertook and fulfilled all the duties of a strenuous and vigilant shepherd. Nor did he cease from the gains of souls, until, surrounded by the truculent wolves, in hatred of so faithful and strenuous a guardianship of the flock of Christ, torn to pieces by them, he happily expired, and by the purpled triumph which he carried back from this last contest, entering the hall of the supernal king, received the earned crown of perennial glory. How little all these things cohere with the above-cited lessons of the Aptensian Breviaries, thou wilt at once perceive, if thou comparest them, even with a light eye, with this oration.
[5] nor easily to be recovered from others. Thou hearest here an encomium which could be fitted very conveniently to nearly all the bishops of the first centuries of the Church; so that the above-praised Sammarthani may be understood to have favored the Aptensian traditions more: yet not so that he dared to tread in their footsteps who laboriously prepared the more recent edition of the Gallia Christiana, the distinguished Denis de Sainte-Marthe, contracting the matter in such a way, that whatever is thorny he leaves to others to inquire and discuss; which certainly was plainly obvious to us too, as being more solicitous about the cult than about composing the age or the deeds, which occur mostly uncertain and entangled, even in the Aptensian Offices themselves, while the lessons of the older Breviary of the year 1532 differ much from those which the Aptensian Proper of the year 1664 exhibits, the writers on both sides luxuriating somewhat. Our Longueval saw those Lessons, I think, in his new History of the Gallican Church tom. 1, page 82, speaking of St. Auspicius of Apt thus with us, so as not to deny that he can be called the first bishop of Apt; yet subjoining that it could not hitherto be solidly enough proved that he is the very same who is commemorated in the Acts of Sts. Nereus and Achilleus; which we too readily confess. Moreover, other things which pertain to St. Auspicius, by reason of the body of St. Anne, mother of the Deipara, thou hast discussed in the Commentary on St. Anne herself on the 26th day of the preceding month, §9, from page 252.