ON STS. PEREGRINUS, MACHORATUS, AND VIVENTIANUS, MARTYRS,
among the people of Le Mans in Gaul.
Sixth Century.
CommentaryPeregrinus, Martyr, at Le Mans (St.)
Machoratus, Martyr, at Le Mans (St.)
Viventianus, Martyr, at Le Mans (St.)
J. B. S.
Saussay was the first to supply knowledge of these three holy Martyrs at this day in his supplement to the Gallican Martyrology, in precisely these words: Marked by Saussay On the same day, the passion of the holy monks and martyrs Peregrinus, Machoratus, and Viventianus, Spaniards, who, for the defense of their sister Flaminea, a virgin consecrated to Christ, were slain in Gaul by her ravisher in the time of Clovis, king of the Franks. And this is a sufficiently astonishing announcement, taken from Gonon's Lives of the Fathers of the West, book 4, page 258; which Tamayo eagerly seized upon and inserted in his Spanish Martyrology, dressed up in this fashion: In Gaul, of Sts. Peregrinus, Machoratus, and Viventianus, Spanish martyrs, who, monks by profession, kindled with zeal for the faith and for their virgin sister devoted to God, who had been carried off by a certain sacrilegious Gaul, compelled by anxiety for her restoration, made for Gaul, found her captor, and proposed that their sister should be ransomed by prayers and by a price: but, butchered by the savage man, they earned unfading crowns by martyrdom.
[2] That Saussay here went before Tamayo is manifest, Tamayo found and embellished them. even from his letter to the latter adduced among the annotations, where in a more verbose discourse he attempts to explain away certain difficulties objected to him, which I have not thought worth the trouble to adduce here, since
what seems chiefly to be inquired is whether those three holy Martyrs were truly Spaniards by race, or rather Goths, or perhaps Gauls of Narbonne; the solution of which laborious question among those men I readily leave to others to settle, as also the rest, of no greater moment to our purpose; being more concerned about the true cult of these Saints among the people of Le Mans than about the whole entangled history, especially since the authority of both the Martyrologists already praised wavers in many things, unless it be propped up from elsewhere — which here is certainly very difficult, since, as I have already said, all the Martyrologies and sacred calendars, even the more recent ones, are silent, with the single exception of Castellanus, to be reported below, when we shall have adduced the foundation of the whole matter, namely the lessons themselves of the Breviary of Le Mans, from the work of Gonon praised above.
[3] A brief history from Gonon In the times of Clovis the renowned king, while he himself with his army, namely of the Franks and others, was hastening into the parts of Spain against the king of the Goths: in that same province three noble brothers, namely Peregrinus, Machoratus, and Viventianus, adorned with the Christian summit, and established in a monastery under a holy rule, were leading the monastic order and the religious life. They had also a full sister, exceedingly comely in appearance, and devoted to God in all holy religion, named Flaminea. And so it happened that, while those armies were divided to plunder that land and were laying it waste, they led away into Frankland the same Flaminea, consecrated to God, with several others.
Then her brothers Peregrinus, Machoratus, and Viventianus, grieving much for the loss of their sister, came into Frankland, searching round about where they might be able to find her. At length they found her with one of the plunderers, who had carried her off, and they asserted that she was their sister. He, on the contrary, denying it and saying that they were ravishers and spies, at length destroyed them with rash cruelty; and thus they passed over to the Lord, to whom be honor and glory for ages of ages. Amen.
[4] I confess indeed that there is no lack in that brief compendium of things needing explanation, not sufficiently explained by Corvaisier; to be seen in Tamayo, so that accordingly it is by no means necessary to spend labor on them here, and much less on unraveling those things which Corvaisier, and after him Bondonnet, have wrapped up with more detail out of some Chartulary or Legend or other; as may be seen in the former, where he treats of bishop Principius from page 108, entangling the story, doubtful in itself, in such a way that he introduces a certain duke Emolamus, and his son Baymerus, in whose power the said St. Flaminea is supposed to have been, and by whose command Peregrinus was straightway slain, and Machoratus pierced with not a few wounds; but Viventianus fled, and thereafter became a cobbler so skilled and elegant that he incurred the envy of others of the same craft, to such a degree that one of them, inflamed with excessive jealousy, cruelly slew him while he was working near a certain spring, his sacred body being hidden there; which, various signs appearing, was found, and raised up by the faithful, and honored with a notable church built over it, until the Norman ravages, when it was translated to Blois, where in the church of the abbey of St. Launomarus it is venerated with perpetual veneration, the spring itself also being famous for many miracles: of which, whether any account has been taken, is quite unknown to me.
[5] and less still by those who ought to have taught us. And these things indeed Corvaisier hands down concerning St. Viventianus from his Chartulary, in which without doubt he found nothing noted about the burial of the two other sacred bodies; which I have not been able to find elsewhere either up to now, so that accordingly recourse had to be had to Le Mans, that I might be made more certain about their present-day festival, the place of their deposition, and their cult, in no way doubting that I should obtain at least some answer to my questions. But since I have waited for this in vain for two whole years and more, it remained that on the authority of the Breviary reported above I should assign the Saints their due place in this our work; relying also on the trustworthiness of Castellanus, who marks them all together on this same day: Among the people of Le Mans, of the holy martyrs Macoratus, Peregrinus, and Viventianus.