Cassian

ON ST. CASSIAN, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,

AT AUTUN IN GAUL.

Fourth century.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Cassian, Bishop and Confessor, at Autun in Gaul (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

§ I. The true and celebrated cult of the Saint, his miracles and translations.

We undertake to set forth St. Cassian from those things which are certain and undoubted, Concerning the Saint's cemetery intending afterward to examine those which, from I know not what Life, embellished in wondrous ways more than five centuries after his death, have not a little exercised the wits of the learned. We bring forward St. Gregory of Tours, and Constantius in the Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre, as most approved authors, and the ancient Martyrologies as witnesses of the most celebrated sanctity of the Bishop of Autun, and of his cult most fully received in the Church. Let him whom we praised first be heard, the man of Tours, On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 73, describing that cemetery there, most celebrated in his age by an almost daily miracle. He so named it, he says, a "cemetery" at the city of Autun in the Gallic tongue, because there the corpses of many men were buried: among which, that there are the tombs of certain faithful and of souls worthy of God, the frequent mystery of hidden psalm-singing teaches; since very often they appear to many, rendering in the very proclamation of their voices the due act of thanksgiving to almighty God. For I have heard that two of the inhabitants of the place, when they were disposing to go around the holy places for the sake of prayer, heard in the basilica of St. Stephen, which is joined to this cemetery, the sound of psalm-singing: and marveling at the sweetness of the measure, they approach the door of the church, supposing that vigils were being celebrated by certain religious. But entering, and giving themselves for a very long time to prayer, they rise up, and behold the choir of psalm-singers; and they see that nothing shines through the church, but that all things shine by their own brightness; but of the persons they recognize absolutely none.

[22] But how many or what kind of Saints were buried in that cemetery, Gregory of Tours narrates wonders, neither Gregory himself nor other historians reveal; for the rest, that he of whom we here speak must without doubt be numbered among them as the chief, the same bishop of Tours expressly states in the next chapter, 74, being now a witness not only from hearing but from sight, continuing thus: In this cemetery I saw the tomb of blessed Cassian, a great priest, scraped by many sick persons, so that at that time it was thought almost pierced through. For the sick are washed with this dust; but at once they feel the greatness of its power. Who would not at once gather from this how widespread in that age was the esteem for St. Cassian's merits in all that region and the surrounding ones; how great a multitude of the sick flowed thither from every side; how many and how great miracles were wrought there? Here is something quite unusual from the Acts of the great St. Germanus, just praised, published by us not long ago in volume VII of July, book 2, chapter 1, number 64, page 217.

[3] There Constantius leads St. Germanus on pilgrimage to the territory of Autun: In it St. Germanus speaks with Cassian: Who, while he went about the places of the Saints after his custom, at length came to the tomb of the holy pontiff Cassian: in which the divine power so appeared that on the Parian stone a contrasting color expressed a cross, and a distinct variegation showed the saving sign. When most holy Germanus had beheld this, prayers being poured out to Christ after his custom, he says: What are you doing here, glorious brother? And he at once from the tomb, in the hearing of all who were present, said: I enjoy a sweet quiet in peace, and await the coming of the Redeemer. To whom Germanus said with an answering voice of speech: Rest in Christ for a long time, brother: but that we may deserve to obtain the singing of the divine trumpet, and the sound of the longed-for blast, and the joys of the sacred resurrection, intercede the more attentively both for us and for this people with our Lord Jesus Christ.

[4] Signs so astonishing could not fail to spread St. Cassian's fame through all Gaul, he is wondrously celebrated in the Martyrologies. nay, through the whole Catholic world; whence it is by no means surprising that thereafter his celebrated name passed into most of the Martyrologies. And all the Hieronymian ones indeed expressly record him on this day. In the Epternach one it is announced: At Autun,

of Cassian, bishop: in the rest, The birthday of St. Cassian, bishop; which very words Ado and Notker use; in Usuard the only difference, and that a slight one, is that for "Saint" he writes "blessed." With these the metrical Martyrologist Wandelbert of the same time plainly agrees; so that it is quite remarkable that no memory of him is found in Raban's Martyrology. But this above all I wish observed here, that none of the cited Martyrologists adorned St. Cassian with even the briefest eulogy; so that to me at least this is an undoubted argument that in the whole ninth century there existed no Life from which anything at all could be recorded concerning his Egyptian fatherland, his deeds there in the pretended bishopric of Orta, or the pilgrimage he undertook into the Gauls.

[5] Many false things are attributed to Florus, That Life was seen by him who was published under the false name of Florus by our Predecessors before volume II of March, since he so confidently proclaims many things about him which will be shown below to be doubtful, inept, and false. Hear the first specimens of fables published in the Martyrologies and other briefer legendaries. Thus it is read there: On the same day, the birthday of St. Cassian, bishop and confessor: who, instructed in heavenly disciplines by Theon the martyr, was ordained bishop in a city of the Egyptians called Orta; in which, when he was building a church, blessed Lawrence the martyr appeared to him, and admonished him to dedicate it to his own name. Then, by divine revelation, entering the Gauls, and approaching the city of Autun with his companions, he was honorably received by St. Simplicius, bishop of that same city, and, the priesthood having been administered by St. Simplicius, and he having died, St. Cassian was appointed bishop in his place, where he both shone with many miracles and rested in peace. There follows the address of St. Germanus, and the translation of the sacred body made to Saint-Quentin.

[6] things quite similar are handed down by Vincent of Beauvais, Plainly similar to these are the things which from the same source Vincent of Beauvais hands down, book 20, chapter 12; St. Antoninus, part two, title XI, chapter 17, §4; the bishop of Equilio, book 7, chapter 27; and others from them. For a second specimen let the words of St. Antoninus of this sort suffice: But this Cassian, born of a noble family at Alexandria, trained in the divine letters by St. Zeno, bishop of that same city, worshipped God from infancy; and forsaking all things for Christ, he built in the city of Orta a church in honor of St. Lawrence, as he had been taught by him in a vision. Then the emperor Jovinian, who succeeded Julian the apostate, fearing God, chose him, with the people acclaiming, as bishop in the city of Orta. But when he had ruled it for some time in all holiness, bidding farewell to all, he left all things, and with a few clerics undertook a pilgrimage: and entering the sea, he sailed to Marseilles: and thence, the persecution of heretics and pagans raging, he came to Autun, gladly received by St. Simplicius the bishop. And remaining with him for three years, afterward, Simplicius passing to the Lord, all the clergy and people chose Cassian himself as bishop there; on whom the Lord deigned to confer such great grace that he constantly showed miracles through him, conferring sight on the blind, hearing on the deaf, and soundness on the weak. And twenty years being completed in the said bishopric, he passed to the Lord Jesus Christ, in the glory of the resurrection with the other Saints.

[7] nor is Saussay without his blemish. Nor indeed must Saussay be passed over here, praising St. Cassian in more than one place. And first indeed concerning his conveyance and reposition he speaks thus at the I of January: At Laon, the conveyance and reposition of the sacred bodies of blessed Quintinus the martyr and of St. Cassian the bishop, which, having been carried thither once and again on account of the incursion of the Normans, were at length brought back thence to their proper place, Saint-Quentin. Concerning the deposition of the same pledges he treats on the XIV of November, which things indeed are tolerable; but the things which he records on the IX of February, and the prolix announcement of this day, are nothing but more ornate derivations of what we have already said, so that they may be dispensed with without any offense. More pleasing is what he has at the XVII of July from the Martyrology of St. Savinus in Lavedan, page 1249: On the same day, the arrival of the body of St. Cassian, bishop, in the church of blessed Quintinus the martyr, gloriously shining with signs and powers of miracles. Briefly, but smacking of the aforesaid Life, Maurolycus thus marked the Saint's birthday: At Autun, of St. Cassian, bishop, trained by Zeno, bishop of Alexandria.

[8] And all these things confirm the Saint's cult as ancient, celebrated, and constant. How certain the cult is, To which may be added both proper Masses and special Offices, customarily celebrated both at Autun and at Saint-Quentin, which nevertheless we do not report here, because they are infected with many fabulous things taken from the aforesaid Life, which we have promised presently to discuss; here we pursue only what is certain; to which must altogether be joined also the few things that are recorded of his almost innumerable miracles from the very ancient codex of the distinguished Claude Joly, Canon of Paris, transcribed by Papebroch, chiefly on the occasion of the translation made from the Aedui to Saint-Quentin, concerning which and the rest Molanus also speaks in his notes to the second edition of Usuard of the year 1573, writing thus: Cassian is mentioned by the man of Tours, On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 74. A Life is had in Manuscript in eighteen chapters. Likewise a translation in 17 chapters, made in the year 840, from the borders of the Aedui to ours (of the Viromandui), and miracles, partly beheld by our own eyes, says the author, partly learned by the report of those who were often able to be present.

[9] I am much mistaken, or he who accurately gathered those miracles of St. Cassian is himself the very one who so patched together his Life out of I know not what petty traditions — doubtful, as I was saying, inept, and false — that everywhere the most open falsities, anachronisms, and other things of this sort lie plain even to a novice in history, which take away credit from the whole history. Doubtless a Life of some sort was needed, lest a Saint most illustrious for so many wonderful and astonishing things should seem unknown, as you will find noted six hundred times in our work — so much so that even the Acts of those Martyrs were fabricated or borrowed from others who, anonymous and quite unknown from the Roman crypts, had become famous somewhere for their miracles. Not the same is the case with the signs of which the writer could produce eyewitnesses and bear testimony from his own sight, which accordingly we shall deservedly review from the Jolian codex just praised. To which we shall subjoin the exaltation of the sacred body with the holy Quintinus and Victoricus, from the appendix of Hemeré's "Saint-Quentin Vindicated," and the other translations made on account of the fatal times of the Normans, so that nothing may be lacking for the proof of a cult at once most ancient and most constant. Add that a parish church dedicated to his sacred name still persists today in the village of Savigny near Beaune in the duchy of Burgundy.

§ II. The Saint's fatherland, age, deeds outside Gaul, arrival among the Aedui — all uncertain.

His fatherland is fabled to be Alexandria, We here treat only of those things which in the Life already cited more than once were ineptly handed down, and no less unskillfully combined. From the beginning alone you will at once know what must be judged of the rest of the web. The prologue is so conceived that, without a word changed, it could be fitted to the histories of any Saints whatever as well as to this one. Here now is the opening of the Life from the Codex of Prat, marked 807, collated with several others to be cited below: Therefore the most blessed Cassian was sprung of noble and wealthy parents of the city of Alexandria. For from his first age he continually commended himself to God with a devoted mind. But holy Zonis the bishop, rearing him, instructed him in divine teachings and in the doctrine of the Gospels, the apostolic teaching abiding in himself. At that time in all Alexandria the heathenism of the pagans held sway. And there had been before an emperor named Julian, a persecutor of Christians, and he slew many Saints for the name of Christ. But the venerable Cassian, not fearing the persecution, giving himself constantly to prayer and vigils, was loving God with all his heart and with all his strength. And while with fervent mind he was imploring the aid of many holy Martyrs, he associated himself with the fellowship of St. Hilarinus.

[11] and there Theon as bishop: St. Cassian's fatherland is sought quite gratuitously at Alexandria; where I should no more believe him born or trained than that Zonis or Zeno or Theon was bishop of that city, and suffered martyrdom under Julian, as is afterward narrated; all which things are merely fabricated. I have long since reviewed the bishops or patriarchs of Alexandria in such a way that in this part at least credit can safely be given me; but that Zeno was bishop there is as false as what is most false. A Martyr of that name with companions I gave on the XV of July; but he is no more known to have been St. Cassian's instructor than St. Hilarinus the martyr, of whom it was treated on the XVI of July, could have been his companion; to say nothing of the fact that in those very Acts it is asserted that that Zeno was buried by St. Cassian on the day before the Kalends of May. The times of Julian the apostate, never seen by St. Cassian, are most badly brought in here: the things which can truly be proclaimed of our Saint must be fetched not from apocrypha of that kind, but from St. Gregory of Tours, on whose authority we shall give below the series of the prelates of Autun, whence it will most certainly appear that St. Cassian by no means prolonged his life to the reign of Jovian, nay most probably not beyond the year 340; so that thence it must necessarily follow that all the things which the writer invents at number 3 concerning the bishopric of Orta are empty — to which Jovian himself is supposed to have raised the Saint, and which he is supposed to have deserted, impelled by the desire of obtaining martyrdom in the Gauls, while the whole Church was enjoying the deepest peace.

[12] as also the Saint's bishopric of Orta And so it must altogether be confessed that a bishopric of Orta, or Orcum, or, if you will, Orthosia, is not to be found and never was in the whole region of Egypt, and that this must most certainly be reckoned among the mere fictions of that writer. But indeed how it could have come into Raphael of Volterra's mind, by any sufficient reason, to deduce thence that St. Cassian was bishop, if not of Orta in Egypt, at least of a city of the same name in Italy, I do not know. For the rest, he is the first of all who, about the end of the fifteenth century or the beginning of the following one, inserted this at his own pleasure into his Urban Commentaries, which he could find nowhere either in Vincent of Beauvais, or St. Antoninus, or the bishop of Equilio, or any other I know of; so that accordingly he drew it out by his own force from nothing but apocryphal Acts or eulogies, on page 162 of my copy, where, treating of various Cassians, he proclaims this of ours in exactly this manner: Another, an Alexandrian, coming into Italy under Jovian, built a church at Orte (namely an Egyptian pilgrim), of which also he was chosen prelate. Thence, on pilgrimage, he came to Autun, and succeeded in the prelacy of that city Simplicius, a holy man.

[13] These things Ughelli eagerly snatched up in his Italia

Sacra, wrongly found in Italy by Ughelli. that the number of the bishops of Orte in Italy might be increased by so venerable a name, mingling in many things from apocryphal Acts and from elsewhere, which from what has been said and what remains to be said it is most evident collapse entirely. Yet it will be useful to set down his hallucinations here. Here is the text: St. Cassian of Alexandria, an Egyptian by family, coming into Italy under the emperor Jovinian, was made bishop of Orte in the year 363, and built a church sacred to St. Lawrence, as Volaterranus relates in the Anthropology, and it is extant in St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence. Which authors record that this Saint withdrew into the Gauls for the sake of pilgrimage, and there was substituted as bishop of Autun in the place of St. Simplicius; to me they seem plainly to invert the times, since, if this Cassian was first bishop of Orte, and afterward of Autun, it does not cohere that he presided over the church of Orte in the year 363, as the monuments of that church have; for Simplicius, bishop of Autun, died in the year 349, and Cassian was substituted for him, who governed that church most holily for 20 years, as the most learned Claude Robert reports in his Gallia Christiana. Wherefore it will be necessary to assert that Cassian presided over the church of Orte before the year 363, which could have happened in the year 340. Let these things suffice; let us go on to sift the Acts.

[14] Toward the end of number 3 the scrupulous fabricator of the Life, I suppose, The feigned ordination was unwilling that St. Cassian be ordained by any other than a prelate of the same name, summoned for that purpose from Asia by the emperor Jovian, as though in Egypt there were none to discharge that office: By another blessed Cassian also of the same name, from the region of Asia, St. Cassian the bishop was ordained and blessed. There follow virtues and excellent works worthy of the Saint; but at number 5 he trifles after his usual manner, when he says that St. Zeno's body was given to burial by St. Cassian in a basilica and near the bodies of holy Martyrs, whose eighteen names he recites from memory, and all of them priests indeed, except one deacon only. Let us hear the names, true or dislocated: Secundianus, Felix, Terentius, Victor, Redutus; likewise Victor, Colusus, Duddeus, Fortunius, Spenetius, Aphrodisius, Julius, Emeritus, Honorius, Salvanus, Saturnus, Dorigianus, priests; Roricianus, deacon. Further, whence these names could have been fetched I do not sufficiently understand: if you sift all the Egyptian records, scarcely three will occur which can be brought back to Alexandria or to Egypt. But seventeen priests with a deacon placed together in one and the same basilica — I ask to whom this can be rendered even merely probable, so that here the fable-monger must have been forgetful of himself.

[15] There follows, no less ornate, amid complaints, mourning, and lamentations, as also the abdication. St. Cassian's abdication of the see of Orte itself, for the sake of imitating St. Zeno; namely that the crown of martyrdom, which he could not obtain in Egypt while Jovian reigned, he might obtain in the Gauls, as though some other persecutor of Christians reigned there at that time. But our biographer was unwilling that the holy Bishop should set out unaccompanied; for he joined to him two priests, Domitian and Didymus; two deacons, Orion and another named Neones; and three lectors, by these names, Basamon, Heron, and Honorius; and four subdeacons, Ingenianus, Justus, Simplex, and Mansuetus: you would say the orator had known them all by face, and was describing some illustrious prelate of the Franks of his own time proceeding with courtly array to some singular solemnity. And the blessed Pontiff went out hastening on the journey begun on the day before the Kalends of April, making the journey in six months, that is, down to the Kalends of October. What could be noted more accurately? So as to inquire out a harbor of Africa, whence he might sail for Marseilles. The rest I do not pursue, whose chief points will be confuted in the following paragraph.

§ III. St. Cassian's succession in the bishopric of Autun, and his Acts.

Whom he succeeded at Autun, In describing this, just as in the rest, the unskilled biographer shamefully hallucinates, when he leads St. Cassian to the Aedui in the time of St. Simplicius, whom he must have preceded by many years. Here are his words at number 10: But it was announced to St. Simplicius the bishop that a man of God named Cassian had come from the East from overseas: which being heard, the venerable pontiff received him with great veneration, with hymns and songs. Further, below at number 11 he continues thus: And St. Cassian was with him for three years. After this blessed Simplicius died on the VIII of the Kalends of July, and blessed Cassian buried him with praises in the cemetery which is in sight of that city: who, offering the oblation each day, sacrificed the sacrifice to God for him unto eternal memorial. But after one year all the clergy and all the people, both rich and poor, with one accordant voice appointed St. Cassian to the apostolic dignity of the holy church. On whom the Lord Jesus Christ deigned to confer such grace that he constantly showed miracles through him… And blessed Cassian the bishop completed twenty years ruling the church, and passed to the Lord.

[17] not to be sought from the Life From that whole Life, such as we have just described, that nothing certain can be drawn out, I think has already been sufficiently shown, except a shred rightly taken from the deeds of St. Germanus by Constantius. Nor is his bishopric of Autun in any way to be doubted, not so much from that Life as from those things which St. Gregory of Tours, praised above, hands down, On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 75, defining St. Cassian's age and succession so most expressly that I can by no means assent to Ruinart, the latest editor of his works, when he frames his note in this fashion: We have in ancient Manuscript codices a Life of St. Cassian, described in prose and in verse, in which Egimonius is said to have succeeded Rheticius, and Simplicius him. But Cassian, born in Egypt and there made bishop of Orte in the time of the emperor Jovian, having left his see, came into the Gauls, where he was received by Simplicius, bishop of Autun, and succeeded him; he died as the 4th century was declining. Whence this Gregory seems to need emendation, who places Cassian before Egemonius and Simplicius. And indeed Simplicius is reckoned among the bishops who in the year 346 are said to have been present at the council of Cologne against Euphrates, bishop of that city; and accordingly he was sitting before Cassian's arrival, who in Jovian's time, that is, in the year 363, was made bishop. If, however, anyone shall prefer to reform Cassian's Life from Gregory, I shall not resist.

[18] but from Gregory of Tours Rightly this indeed, and so plainly did his fellow-workers, the illustrators of the latest edition of Gallia Christiana, reform it, in volume 4, column 328, where, these words of St. Gregory being reported: Him (Rheticius) Cassian, whom we mentioned above, succeeded. After him Egemonius took the chair of the pontificate. On his death, Blessed Simplicius is set over that same church — then they immediately subjoin: To Gregory adhere, and pronounce that one must undoubtedly adhere, the Sammarthani brothers and Tillemont; both because the supreme authority of Gregory, the father of our history, among all the French, demands the greatest credit from us; and because that Life of Cassian deserves none. It is indeed cited by Molanus in the 2nd edition of his annotations to Usuard, at the V of August: it is extant also in the Manuscript codex of St. Michael of Beauvais: finally, the Martyrology of St. Savinus in the diocese of Tarbes also asserts that Cassian was St. Simplicius' successor. But all these are of no weight. For Cassian's Life, on which they rest, is stuffed with so many trifles and improbable things that it deserves no credit at all, and takes it away entirely from its followers. Further, they inculcate the same in column 331: in Cassian's Life there are so many blemishes, so many falsehoods alien to the manners of those times, and so little coherent with themselves, that it deserves no credit at all, and nothing certain can be affirmed concerning his fatherland and deeds.

[19] That Life having now been abundantly repudiated, there remains the series of the bishops of Autun, to be determined according to St. Gregory's mind in such a way whence the bishops are to be taken that there be assigned, if not a certain, at least a probable time in which the holy Cassian and Egemonius sat between the holy Rheticius and Simplicius. Of the former we spoke in our Acts on the XIX day of July; but the year of his death could not conveniently be defined, just as neither in the latest edition of Gallia Christiana has it been defined with sufficient certainty; unless the more recent Autun table be admitted, in which the year 314 is marked, beyond which it is indeed certain that that Saint survived, inasmuch as in that very year he was present at the council of Arles; but whence it could be drawn that he departed this life in that same year, I am mistaken if anyone can safely assign. Nor is it clearer whence Tillemont in volume 10, page 836, judged that it could so easily be admitted that St. Rheticius held the see down to the year 334, and that his successors, the holy Cassian and Egemonius, filled out the round number of forty years, namely down to the year 374, in which St. Simplicius succeeded, and accordingly sat down to the year 418 and perhaps beyond; which hypothesis being admitted as probable enough, the debate hitherto about doubling Simplicius has been in vain.

[20] Let it be permitted me also, in matters not yet fully cleared up, by a conjecture in no way improbable, whose times to prolong St. Rheticius' life at least down to about the year 320. Let twenty years be ascribed to our St. Cassian his successor — as many as the Life so often cited assigns him roundly, though erring in most other points, and as the Sammarthani also admit; one will come to the year 340; from which, if the beginning of St. Egemonius' bishopric be reckoned, nothing at all forbids extending his years to 374, whence the beginnings of St. Simplicius may be taken. For my part I do not see by what other more probable reasoning the succession of the bishops of Autun can be conformed to St. Gregory of Tours' views, unless some intermediate bishops be invented, of whom it would surely be strange that so distinguished and so near a writer should have been ignorant, while he pursues so accurately what pertains to the sacred history of that city. Thus in substance Severtius, the Sammarthani, Tillemont, the Benedictine Fathers in the new Gallia Christiana, and others think with us; for all of whom the knot must be untied which, drawn from the council of Cologne, was long ago solved aptly enough by our Henschen, whose words I shall here subjoin from the Commentary on the Life of St. Simplicius, XXIV of June, volume IV, page 812:

[21] are somehow determined. The time of his see does not seem to be taken from the sacred councils of Cologne and Sardica, as though he had been present at them, but from the Acts of Sts. Amator and Germanus, bishops of Auxerre; from which it is quite solidly established that St. Simplicius presided over the church of Autun in the fifth century. Meanwhile the council of Cologne is handed down as held in the year 346, in which the bishop of Cologne, because he denied the divinity of Christ, was deposed: whom we showed to be another than Euphrates, although his name has been wrongly inserted, at the Lives of St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, and St. Servatius, bishop of Tongeren, on the II and XIII days of May. In this council of Cologne, as Euphrates was inserted as a heretic, so Simplicius, bishop of the people of Autun, is feigned to have been present, though then perhaps not yet born. But the council of Sardica was held in the year 347, at which among the bishops of Gaul there was present a certain

Simplicius, but who he was is not added.

This one way has seemed to us sufficient, and must accordingly be held to, in order to save St. Gregory's authority, and at the same time to defend the most probable Chronology of the bishops of Autun. For the rest, see the praised Benedictine Fathers, which matters are not immediately reducible to St. Cassian, and upon which accordingly we have not thought it necessary to linger here.

[22] Concerning the various copies of the Life, It remains that we advise the reader in a few words that several Manuscript copies of the Acts of St. Cassian are preserved in our Museum, both in Manuscript codices and as transcribed elsewhere from various others. Nearly the chief seems to be that which the codex of St. Germain of Paris furnished us under the mark number 807. Another was copied by the hand of our Father Peter Francis Chifflet from the Manuscript of the monastery of Acey and of Val-des-Lucent and of Corneux. Another Papebroch copied from the Cistercian Manuscript, codex 4, number 25; codex 6, number 24: besides others received at Soissons, Seclin, Anchin, and at Trier from the monastery of St. Maximin. And all these indeed agree well enough among themselves, except that a luxuriating copyist's pen sometimes judged the same matter should be expressed in another phrasing, mostly a more barbarous one: just as everything appears abridged in the Utrecht codex of St. Salvator, yet in such a way that it is sprinkled with the chief errors equally with the rest. But lest anyone dare to charge either our censure or that of the Benedictine Fathers with excessive rigor, we have judged that the Acts themselves must be set forth, selecting from all those copies the one which we judged more entire than the rest, the Saint-Germain one, from which it will be easy enough to form a most fair judgment about the others.

[23] also a metrical one. The same Acts are extant drawn out in verse, in the refashioning of which the poet contributed only this, that what was otherwise sufficiently intricate he rather confounded than illustrated in bound speech: the copyists too contributing to this, so as, according to their own capacity, rather freely to truncate or extend not a few things. But we shall not weary the reader with these, being, I suppose, sated with prose, since we shall do far more service by subjoining to the Life itself other more certain monuments, and ones more conducive to the Saint's glory. These are, namely, those of which we spoke above, the Acts of the translation and of the miracles, by some author doubtless contemporary, of Saint-Quentin — why not the writer of the Life himself? — copied by Papebroch from the old Manuscript of Claude Joly, Canon of Paris. By way of a gleaning there will be some excerpts from Hemeré, praised above, both those which regard the deposition of St. Cassian with Sts. Quintinus and Victoricus, and those which regard the translations and returns to Laon, the long discourse being omitted, and the other things pertaining more closely to St. Quintinus and other Saints, which the curious reader will find in Hemeré's Register. Let there follow now the so often mentioned

LIFE

From the Manuscript codex of St. Germain of Paris, number 807, collated with the rest of our Manuscripts.

Cassian, Bishop and Confessor, at Autun in Gaul (S.)

BHL Number: 1630

Born at Alexandria of an illustrious family, Therefore the most blessed Cassian was sprung of noble and wealthy parents of the city of Alexandria. For from his first age he continually commended himself to God with a devoted mind. But holy Zonis the bishop, rearing him, instructed him in divine teachings and in the doctrine of the Gospels, the apostolic teaching abiding in himself. At that time in all Alexandria the heathenism of the pagans held sway. And there had been before an emperor named Julian, a persecutor of Christians, and he slew many Saints for Christ's name: but the venerable Cassian, not fearing the persecution, giving himself constantly to prayer and vigils, was loving God with all his heart and with all his strength. And while with fervent mind he was imploring the aid of many holy Martyrs, he associated himself with the fellowship of St. Hilarinus. For whom St. Cassian had his own dwelling enlarged, for the reception of pilgrims, which he himself bestowed upon many.

[2] To this many of his servants, whom he had made free, bear testimony, instructed by St. Zeno the bishop, he becomes so well known that his fame being spread abroad not only in the city of Alexandria but also in the province of Egypt. Yet he himself, according to the Lord's precept, made it his care to bestow attention on the needy, to wash the feet of the poor, to set the table, to pour water on their hands, to take care of the sick, to minister food, and to render the other offices of religious virtue; and thus he was fulfilling the teachings of charity. First indeed the venerable Cassian built a church in the city of Orta, and enriched it with a great service of clergy, and there St. Lawrence the levite appeared to him in a vision, exhorting him that it be dedicated in his name — which is now called the Laurentian.

[3] Then Jovian succeeds in Julian's place, an emperor of the Christians, by the will of the emperor Jovian he is made bishop of Orta, fearing the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose reign the churches of the Christians were opened which his predecessor, the most unhappy Julian, had closed. The emperor Jovian too began to rejoice in the Christian religion. Then he with the people cried out with one voice: Let us appoint St. Cassian, chosen by God, as bishop over us and over all Christians who love God. But St. Cassian with trembling mind was unwilling to acquiesce, nor to fulfill the prince's wish, while he answered humbler things of himself; but all the people rushed upon him, saying: Cassian our fellow-citizen, worthy, just, chaste, and sober — crying praises and blessing the Lord, both old men and every sex and age; with one voice the tumult of the people grew hot, that he should be raised there as bishop. And by another blessed Cassian of the same name, from the region of Asia, St. Cassian was ordained and blessed bishop in the city of Orta.

[4] At this the blessed man, shunning ostentation, bestowing gold and silver, or the remaining stipends, on the poor, laying up for himself treasure in heaven, always held this in memory, where he shines forth to his own with wondrous sanctity. that he would receive it in everlasting glory. He always taught the holy congregation, fortified the brotherhood with charity, taught discipline, established continence. Thus, then, St. Cassian was instructing the flock subject to him to put on the arms of justice for resisting the devil with the vices and hindrances of this world. For he was with gentleness, giving them an example in perseverance, and in right faith, and in charity unfeigned, persevering in vigils, in prayers, in fastings, and in perpetual chastity. Yet he himself held in his understanding what he knew in faith: bright of countenance, brighter of mind, he always kept an angelic disposition in his heart, sweet in speech, preeminent in holiness. This blessed man saddened no one; there was never guile in him, but he always had gladness with the brethren.

[5] St. Zeno, now a martyr, being buried, While these and all his works persevered irreproachably, holy Zonis the bishop, who had taught and reared St. Cassian, a persecution being imminent, obtained martyrdom, whose little body blessed Cassian with pious love and the utmost diligence placed in the basilica of the holy Martyrs, whose names are these: Secundianus, Felix, Terentius, Victor, Reducus; likewise Victor, Colusus, Duddeus, Fortunius, Spenetius, Aphrodosius, Julius, Emeritus, Honorius, Salvanus, Saturnus, Dorigianus, priests; Roricianus, deacon. Beside the tombs of the aforesaid, the blessed Pontiff buried him with the utmost honor on the day before the Kalends of May, and consecrated most sacred martyr-rites in honor of St. Zeno the bishop, calling to mind his endurance and the triumph of his victory, consecrating his memory each day.

[6] stirred by his example, After this St. Cassian, seeing his blessed master's constancy and virtues, kindled with the fervor of the Holy Spirit and with the faith of the Martyrs, desired to set out on pilgrimage; who, pouring out prayers before the Lord God, it was revealed to him to go into the Gauls and preach the word of the Lord. And he, having learned God's will, began to disclose it to his fellow-bishops and to all the clergy, saying to them: I wish, according to the Lord's precept, to leave my land and kindred, and to desert my fatherland, and to set out into the Gauls. To whom all said: Does not your own land feed you? And does the place in which you dwell not please you? Or have you no friends or neighbors to console you, that you should desert the region in which you were born and reared? But St. Cassian answered them: Our Lord and Savior through the holy Gospel admonishes, saying: Everyone who shall leave houses or fields or parents for my name shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess eternal life; and this: He who shall not leave what he possesses cannot be my disciple.

[7] he plans an arduous pilgrimage, And when he said these things, they left off from him. And bidding farewell to them all, by the will of his brethren, he set out with a few whom he chose. And he began to have with him two priests, that is Domitian and Didymus, and two deacons, Orion and another named Neonas, and three lectors by these names, Rasamon, Heron, and Honorius, and four subdeacons, Ingenianus, Justus, Simplex, and Mansuetus. Taking all these with him, St. Cassian with great joy seized upon the journey. And perhaps it may seem incredible to someone how great and of what kind was the lamentation and weeping among the clergy or among the people of the city of Orta, when this our Patron departed. For weeping and mourning they said: To whom do you commend us, most loving father, whose ever-watchful father you were unceasingly? Why do you desert your flock, which you strengthened with unceasing prayers? And you who admonished us with heavenly doctrine, do you now leave your region and the lordship which until now you have had, and go into a distant land which we have never seen nor known?

[8] But the man of God, hearing these things, calling to mind St. Paul the Apostle, and takes it up into the Gauls, his own resisting in vain, lest he should go on to more perfect things, said: What are you doing, weeping and disturbing my heart? And blessing them all, he said: The Lord will be with you, and will be a companion to us. And, moved with compunction, he kissed all the clergy; and he wept abundantly for joy. And prayer being made, St. Cassian said to his companions: The Lord God almighty is our helper and protector, and his holy name shall be with us. And he added: Make your ways, Lord, known to us, and direct our paths into the way of peace. And again he said: Keep us, Lord, under the shadow of your wings, protect us with the shield of truth, and direct us into the right way for your holy name's sake, which is praiseworthy and glorious in all the earth and unto the ends of the lands. And the priests, answering together with the younger men, said, Amen. And St. Cassian the bishop, lifting his hands to heaven, said: Lord Jesus Christ, save your servants who hope in you.

[9] And the blessed Pontiff went out, going on the journey begun, on the day before the Kalends of April, making the journey in six months, that is, down to the Kalends of October. And preaching the word of the Lord, and destroying many idols of the nations, and baptizing much people, and building them up unto the way of salvation in the name of the Trinity, and visiting many places of the holy Martyrs through the cities, and carrying with him their relics for the saving of souls: the man of God, having inquired out a harbor of Africa, with Christ as pilot, by a prosperous voyage arrived at the city of Marseilles, glorifying God. Who would doubt that divine help was present? The most blessed

servant of God here, among heretics and pagans and most savage persecutions, with an angel accompanying him, arrived at the city of the Aedui: at which time blessed Simplicius, bishop of the city of the Aedui, still the third successor of the pontifical chair, was governing the holy church.

[10] And because an inveterate worship of idols was practiced in this city by certain persons, having set out from Marseilles to the Aedui by his preaching many, bringing forth the images of their gods, came to penance and the grace of baptism; and by his prayers, the divine grace flowing, the man of God Simplicius the pontiff conferred benefits touching the restoration of the sick. But when St. Cassian the bishop had come to the oratory of St. Symphorian the martyr, where the relics of his holy body are venerated, the new dweller attended prayer without intermission. But it was announced to St. Simplicius the bishop that a man of God named Cassian had come from the East from overseas: which being heard, the venerable Pontiff received him with great veneration, with hymns and songs. And blessed Simplicius embraced St. Cassian the bishop in a holy kiss, and both offered to almighty God a sacrifice of praise. For blessed Simplicius rejoiced at the coming of this just man, who had deserved such a companion for instructing the unbelief of evil men; and loving him with all fraternal affection, he desired always to have him with himself.

[11] But amid these things St. Cassian said to him: he succeeds St. Simplicius the bishop, Most holy brother, I wish to set out for Britain. Blessed Simplicius, wishing to detain him for consolation, answered: Brother, await the time, and the Lord will lead you into the way which you desire. And St. Cassian was with him for three years. After this blessed Simplicius died on the VIII of the Kalends of July, and blessed Cassian buried him with praises in the cemetery which is in sight of that city: who, offering the oblation each day, sacrificed the sacrifice to God for him unto eternal memorial. But after one year all the clergy and all the people, both rich and poor, with one accordant voice appointed St. Cassian to the Apostolic dignity of the holy church. On whom the Lord Jesus Christ deigned to confer such grace that he constantly showed miracles through him, gave light to the blind, hearing to the deaf, soundness to the weak, health to the sick: and he loved every man as himself. And blessed Cassian the bishop completed twenty years ruling the church, and passed to the Lord Jesus Christ, to rise again with the Saints in eternal glory. After whose departure his venerable companions and comrades above written, relating the acts of their blessed master and writing down the history of his life, and passing from this world, are entombed in the same cemetery as the Pontiff.

[12] after his death most renowned for miracles. It is worth while to add fittingly to the praise of the Most Blessed. While St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, was going to Rome, at the tomb of blessed Cassian, pontiff of the church of Autun, the divine power so appeared that on the Parian stone a contrasting color expressed a cross, and a distinct variegation showed the saving sign: and when most holy Germanus had come thither, prayers being poured out to Christ after his custom, he said: What, glorious brother, are you doing? Cassian is by truthful report declared to have answered from the tomb: I enjoy a sweet quiet in peace, and await the coming of the Redeemer. To whom Germanus is narrated to have said with an answering turn of speech: Rest in Christ for a long time, brother. But that we may deserve to obtain the singing of the divine trumpet, and the sound of the longed-for blast, and the joys of the sacred resurrection, intercede the more attentively both for us and for this people with our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, salvation, virtue, and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATION.

From what has been argued above it is, I think, abundantly plain with how many and how great errors and fictions this whole Life is besprinkled, so that the rest, equally inept, need not be sifted with new annotations. You have the last specimen here above toward the end of number 11, where he boldly invents that St. Cassian's companions related and wrote down the history of his life. I will say here in a word that number 12 alone, and the last, out of the whole medley can be admitted as sincere, inasmuch as it is taken from Constantius in the Acts of St. Germanus of Auxerre. More pleasing will be the following accurate narrative of the Acts of the translation and of the miracles.

* read "ut"

THE HISTORY

of the translation and miracles of St. Cassian

From the very ancient codex of Master Claude Joly, canon of Paris.

Cassian, Bishop and Confessor, at Autun in Gaul (S.)

BHL Number: 1635

FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

PROLOGUE.

The Saint's glory has been made manifest, The tokens of divine miracles and the propagations of glorious powers, which the kindly compassion of our Savior willed to be made manifest for showing forth the precious merits of his Confessor, are worthily committed to letters, so that the memory of them may be preserved for posterity, chiefly to the praise and glory of Christ, who, as in the kingdom of his eternity he willed his holy Pontiff to be rewarded with his inestimable gifts… so he disposed that he should be made illustrious by temporal miracles of powers; that from such indications it might be made manifest what he is held to be in the kingdom of Christ and God. Those things, therefore, we write which, after it came about by God's disposition that he passed from the borders of the Aedui to ours, are known to have been manifested in clear light, partly beheld by our own eyes, partly learned by the report of those who were often able to be present. For from that time in which he restored his glorious soul to the heavens, which is believed to have been in the times of Theodosius the elder ^a, down to the time of Louis the emperor Augustus — namely from that same year in which he closed the hour of his time, through 450 years ^b — we write nothing, for this reason, that we have not clearly ascertained it ^c, although we had heard many things of the merits of his powers, according to what the venerable Gregory, bishop of Tours, wrote in the book of miracles in these words: "In the cemetery," he says, "of the city of Autun I saw the tomb of blessed Cassian, a great priest, scraped by many sick persons, so that at that time it was thought almost pierced through. For the sick are washed with this dust and at once they feel the greatness of its power."

[2] In the year, therefore, of the Lord's incarnation 840, Modoin ^d the venerable bishop presiding over the see of the people of Autun, when, translated from his first burial to Saint-Quentin, Hugh, abbot of the monastery of St. Quintinus, sending his legates to him, demanded the body of the most blessed Cassian, which he had earlier requested in person; to which petition the above-named bishop granted effect, out of much regard for friendship and a measure of reverence, having regard to the deference owed to the most excellent emperors, of whom Charles Augustus was that abbot's father, and the other, his brother, the most blessed emperor Louis. At length, the body of St. Cassian having been reverently gathered by his priests, whom the aforesaid abbot had directed for this purpose, he sent it with his letter; on which journey, because it was necessary that it be done rather secretly on account of the tumult of the people of the city of Autun, no signs appeared, except that one of the fellow-travelers, whose wound in the breast had swollen, when he was pressed by grievous discomfort on this account to remain behind, invoked the merits of the most blessed Cassian and earned his former health, faith working in him, and so great a Pontiff interceding for him by his merits.

[3] After therefore he came within the county of Laon, the aforesaid abbot with his priests and the ecclesiastical order came to meet him reverently with great joy, he became renowned on the whole journey for many miracles. and, having received the body, on the next day he embalmed it with precious spices, and drenched it with the dew of balsam, and, wrapping it in clean linen and precious purple, placed it in a bier and, having raised it, ordered it to be carried on the following day to the monastery of St. Quintinus. But when the third hour of that day had come, since no one was forbidden to carry so sacred a burden, two men, as we afterward learned, homicides, had come up, who, when they wished to carry the bier, at once it was in a wondrous manner drawn together, and, as if unwilling to go farther unless it were held by the pressing crowd, the sacred burden was tested by falling; which those who were round about perceiving, they compelled those same guilty men to flee, knowing without doubt that what was happening was caused by their approach. For holy sincerity was unwilling that it be done by hands dripping with blood, lest in any way it should seem stained; and that his living merits might be made manifest, from this many hidden things were made plain, and not only then by that miracle, but also a little after by that blind man given light. For he received a benefit who approached faithfully; but those received the disclosure of their crimes who had not before undergone worthy repentance.

[4] A crippled boy is healed, Then a woman, anxious with solicitude and with firm hope, hastening, came to meet them, and, throwing herself down in the middle of the road, asked with great supplication the abbot, who was following the bier farther back, to order the bier to halt, asserting that she had a crippled and weak son, so that he might be able to come up: whose faith the abbot, beholding, assented to the woman's prayers, and ordered the bier to stop; and when he who had come crawling delayed longer in coming, those who had carried the holy body were ordered to proceed. Then again the woman, as above, asked that they halt. When she did this in this same way, even to a third time, those whom she had sent to hasten her son, coming, reported that her son had been made whole in all his limbs, in the place where he had been, by God's wondrous power and by a marvelous sign. The woman therefore returned with her neighbors, and although they were delighted at so great a gift, so as to set out with God's Saint, yet they were drawn by the new spectacle to return to him who had been healed.

[5] a woman blind and afflicted with many evils, But after these things had resounded through the assembly of the multitude, there began to be a greater concourse of the weak, among whom a certain woman, known by name and place, ran up, deprived of both her eyes, and crippled in both arms, and utterly destitute of vigor in her loins, who, while she was dragged with great violence now before, now behind the Saint's bier, it seemed to the Abbot, following farther back, that she was being so troubled for the sake of alms. He ordered therefore that something of necessaries be given her; and that she be admonished not to weary her lamentable weakness further. But she, who had not come for that occasion, had not left off her constancy in following. Nor was it long: under the shade of a tree the bier is set down for the refreshment of the bearers. There the woman approached, and presently is made whole: for her eyes are opened, long condemned to blindness; her arms are stretched out which had been drawn into a feeble crookedness; and her loins are made firm which were loosened by dissolution. The woman therefore is made to run about most freely, who before had been no less ignorant of light than of free steps: and she busies herself to draw others to the bier, who a little before could not come to it unless she were dragged.

[6] likewise another blind man, In the same place also a certain blind man came, and by the merits of the holy Confessor deserved to receive the light which he had long desired: so that it might be openly given to understand that he can profit spiritual goods with the Lord, who could so succor bodies condemned by their own deserts.

[7] then three blind women. But as they went on from there, within a few brief intervals the most holy Confessor shone forth with three miracles; he who for the salvation of many chose to come to our borders: for among the following crowd, an open light shone forth for three women, most well known by name and place, which a savage blindness had long condemned: for it was fitting that, at the coming of the brightness of so starry a light, the shadows both of hearts and

of eyes should withdraw; so that so great a dignity might be shown to keep its own vigor, and, such bodily goods being beheld, there should be no doubt concerning the spiritual ones which humanity was forbidden to behold.

[8] But amid these tokens of powers and miracles of Christ's gifts it came about, A woman fatally sick is cured with her son. as the people passed with the Lord's holy Confessor, that reports of so many signs were spread abroad on every side in a short time; whence it happened that a certain woman lying fatally sick at home, when she could by no means come to meet him, being unable to rise by herself, having been placed by her people beside her little door, seeing the bier from afar, when she invoked the Confessor's merits, received a perfect healing of her long sickness: for, healed on the spot, she received the vigor of such great strength that not only could she herself come to meet the holy pontiff Cassian, but she also brought with her in her own arms her son, now fairly grown. She came to meet him therefore with the boy, praising and blessing the Lord for all those things which had been done for her; for nothing of all her sickness remained to her except a leanness with much pallor, as a sign of the long illness and a gift of the sudden health. For where, on account of the sincerity of faith, the divine power willed to be present, the sickness fled, nor could it resist longer, when the true medicine drew near. O truly praiseworthy medicine, where it is both believed by faith, and by sight alone the remedy of every sickness is obtained!

[9] As the meetings of the crowds grew more frequent, the miracles too grew more frequent; for among the following crowds, no long interval of delay coming between, Again two blind women are given light; to two blind women, known by place and name, the light denied them is restored, so that, the shadows fleeing, the light illumined by the divine light might be taught to be present. For this the Truth once declared of his disciples, that they were the salt of the earth, that they were the light of the world; salt to those whose inward parts they touched, light to those who beheld them with worthy reverence.

[10] But when he was now drawing near the gates of the court of the basilica of St. Quintinus, a boy like a corpse is fully restored, a certain sickly little boy, placed on a cart, was being drawn along; for no strength at all remained to him, so that he could be brought otherwise; now most like a corpse. And when he went before the bier, the cart was forbidden to enter the doors of the basilica: which the boy's mother perceiving, she placed her son on her shoulder, hanging not after the manner of a man but of a hide; and beside the coffer of the little chest he lay for some time, clinging with all his limbs to the pavement: namely until the arrival of so great a Saint was celebrated with the solemnities of Masses. From which hour the boy began to grow strong and to ask for food; and indeed he received so much strength that he could return home: no longer to be drawn in a cart, but sitting on a horse with his father. So by the most merciful goodness of God it came about that he who had come almost a corpse, the boy, aided by the merits of the most blessed Cassian, returned rejoicing.

[11] But after he was received in the church of Blessed Quintinus with most reverent honor, but a mute woman receives speech, and soon at his arrival the solemnity of Mass was performed, the arm of a woman well known, which had long withered by a contraction of the sinews, is stretched out; and when the woman wished to burst forth into divine praises, and, being wholly mute, was not able, presently the bond of her tongue is loosed, and the long-desired service of her mouth is restored. To the miracle, therefore, joy is joined, and to joy, praise, because she who had come condemned returns released.

[12] another blind woman her sight. But when the day of the most blessed pontiff Cassian's solemnity came on, with many crowds running up from every side, there ran up also a woman with the rest indeed to celebrate the solemn day, but not with the rest to see the solemnities of the offices. For she could hear with the rest, but could not see, whom savage blindness had long ago condemned. She came, therefore, equal in devotion, unequal in capacity; like in will, unlike in misery. Yet it seemed enough to her if it should fall to her to be present: which judgment being mercifully reviewed by the Godhead, she is made equal to the rest by the merits of his Confessor, who had come unlike them through her own misery. For her eyelids are loosed after the manner of waking eyes, and in place of the dark gloom of night the serene light of day is restored. The woman therefore obtained not what she had distrusted God to be able to do, but what she had not hoped that she could deserve; and she returns gladder in delight than the rest, who had come more wretched than so many hastening together.

[13] The punishment of a woman not honoring the Saint. Also on the same day of the solemnity, the divine power which had shone forth for the honor of so great a Confessor is thought worthy of note, so that, as it has been shown how great benefits are granted to the devout, it may also be recorded how much is deserved for contumacy. For a certain woman, who ought to have run up with her neighbors for the solemnity of so great a day, remained at home sluggishly torpid, and when she ought to have kept the festal day, kindled the oven for baking loaves. Wherefore, when she was rebuked by those living with her, she showed that she made little of the day, and, resisting the merits of the holy Confessor with arrogant pursuit, she at once experienced what she had deserved; for the flame which she had kindled in the oven, going forth as if the avenger of so great a guilt, suddenly attacked her, and began to burn her fiercely; and she, supposing that she could escape it, takes to running and betakes herself to flight: but the avenging flame, which had once clung to her, could not be escaped. Her garments therefore being consumed, her flesh too is burned; and, lest her life should fail, she is pitied by divine regard. Scorched at last, she recognized what she had deserved: but, that being chastised she might not fail, the fire is extinguished which she had kindled for herself, her hands being by then so burned that of the health of the right one indeed there was despair. It is plain therefore in this deed and in those recorded above what devotion and presumption have deserved from the merits of the Saints, since to the one a reward, to the other a punishment is meted out.

[14] To a blind man, when he repented of his sin, sight is restored, But not long afterward a certain blind man, known by place and family, having heard of the miracles of God's holy Confessor, came to seek the benefits of light, believing that by the Saint's merits there could be done for him what he had heard was granted to many condemned by a misery of this kind. Whose devotion of faith the divine compassion, beholding, willed to test his constancy for the space of three days: for through that three days, persisting in prayers at the holy Confessor's coffer, he obtained no relief in any part from his blindness. But when he believed that his own sins were hindering him, judging himself, he earned the support of light two days after his return. In which deed the effect of the divine power both proved the man's patience, and showed that his Confessor's merits were not only in that place where he had lain; but manifested by the work of a clear power that they flourished everywhere: which we shall openly show in the following chapters also, by noting his miracles as we have begun.

[15] For on a certain occasion, when the above-named abbot was forty-five miles from the place where the Lord's holy Confessor was, as also to another boy, though far distant from the Saint's body. being occupied with certain necessities of his own, there a certain young lad, belonging to one of those who had come with him, was seized with a grievous pain of the eyes: to whom, when it was often said with his companions' mockery that he should hasten to St. Cassian as to a singular physician of eyes, though rather unlearned he prudently answered the jesters, saying that there was no need to go farther, since there he could be helped by such merits. With what faith he said this, the following outcome revealed: for imploring the holy Confessor's merits, he gave himself to a midday rest; where then the holy Pontiff, appearing to him in a vision, granted to him whom he knew to be devout a sudden health of the eyes, manifesting that God's power willed that what was believed by faith could be done by merits. Which being done, his eyes were made clear, and the boy's assertion was approved: the mockery too of his companions was quieted, and the presence of the deifying power through so great a Man's merits was proved: so that by a bodily miracle it might plainly appear what he bestows on devout minds wherever he is implored.

[16] Many things indeed are chiefly proclaimed of the merits of the most blessed Cassian, Peace made between princes prepared for battle. but among the rest this is worthily set forth, which the Lord is clearly known to have done recently through him. For lately, when an unhappy encounter of our princes and a most unseemly battle was being sharply prepared, and, so far as was determined on both sides, nothing but war was imminent; to one of our people blessed Cassian the pontiff appeared in a vision, hastening swiftly to that side where the harder warlike effort of resistance was being prepared, and when he seemed to have delayed for some time, he was afterward seen to announce that he had obtained peace for the people from the Lord, and, that the present battle should not take place, propitiation. At which word, the multitude which seemed to be present, spread about on every side, began with frequent and consonant voices to proclaim that by blessed Cassian's merits peace had been obtained: which, since it is established that it was accomplished by a work of the divine majesty without anyone's hope, it was undoubtedly obtained by the great merits of the Saints: among which they believe chiefly Cassian's, who, God manifesting it, is shown to have been present at such a transaction. For we believe these things were shown so that it might be plain to each how much he availed with God, who could profit so many so greatly.

[17] These preliminaries being thus set forth, in ending the book of the description of the life and miracles of Blessed Cassian, Charles the Bald has the Saint's body honorably deposited in the year 845. the entombment of the body of that Confessor of Christ seems to need defining, in what manner it was done in the basilica of Christ's blessed martyr Quintinus. For when five years had passed since the reception of that Prelate's body within that basilica, and, on account of the inconvenience of the times and the accidents of various affairs and storms, it was laid away in various places, now in the open, now in hiding more often, however, in an unfitting place, king Charles, as though inspired by the divine will, coming to the aforesaid basilica, began to treat of the body of that same Confessor of Christ, dutifully not delaying long over it: namely in the year 845 of Christ's incarnation, and indeed the fifth of his reign, in the eighth indiction, on the day of the Nones of March, reverently approaching the aforesaid tomb of Christ's pontiff Cassian, with two bishops, namely Wenilo, archbishop of Sens, and Immo, prelate of the church of Noyon, and several other lovers of God, with tapers and choirs of psalm-singing clerics, with incense and fragrant spices, with most ardent love and the highest devotion, bearing forth that body of the Saint in which it lay, drenched with balsamic odors and packed with fragrant incense, and most seemly wrapped in palls and silken garments, he entombed it excellently and most beautifully within the crypt of the basilica of the aforesaid martyr of Christ Quintinus, at the right of the side of that witness of Christ, handing over, for the providing of lights and ornaments for both Saints, and chiefly for the constructing of the tomb of blessed Cassian, one estate, by name Tugny, with all its appurtenances and adjacent lands, to be had in perpetuity; whose charter, when he had placed it above at the head of the tomb of the most holy Cassian, he subjoined these words: But if anyone shall attempt to take away from their portions this gift now handed over and confirmed by me to these two most powerful Saints, let him have God as his judge, and these most resplendent just ones as perpetual prosecutors.

ANNOTATIONS.

Autun to have come in 366; where, since he is said to have remained nearly four years before he was promoted to the see of the Aedui, keeping to the Legend-writer's scheme, he would have begun to sit in the year 370; to which, if you add the twenty years of his rule, you will come to the year 390, in which Theodosius the elder was still alive.

* perhaps "was drawing near"

* read "of Noyon"

A LITTLE APPENDIX

From the Sermon on the entombment of the holy martyrs of Christ Quintinus and Victoricus and the confessor Cassian.

In Hemeré's Register, page 18.

Cassian, Bishop and Confessor, at Autun in Gaul (S.)

BHL Number: 7021

The Acts of the most celebrated translation, of the notable miracles, and of the Carolingian entombment having now been reported, the aforesaid sermon could be subjoined; but since by far the smallest part of it regards St. Cassian, and since some things are narrated from the Life which have already been abundantly given, nay refuted, it has seemed good to excerpt only those things by which the later translations and returns and finally the last deposition may be more distinctly explained, for the completion of the whole matter. Here is the opening of the said sermon: Company ever most beloved in Christ, hearts of fathers and brothers, fellowship most pleasing to God, the most celebrated solemnity of the present day stands out for us as exceedingly to be venerated. For it is consecrated by the honorable entombment of the Saints, namely of Quintinus the glorious martyr and our most loving protector, and also of Victoricus his renowned peer, and of Cassian the excellent pontiff: whose presence, because we rejoice in it, and are aided by their clemency, for their embraceable memory we strive to lift up the proclamations of this festivity.

Into the praises of all the saints, and thence into the glory of God, the orator runs out at greater length, and returning gradually to the three aforesaid, he says: To whose most white army are joined these Elders of ours, here resting in body, there happily reigning with Christ: namely the glorious martyr Quintinus, most invincible athlete of the heavenly king, our most constant preacher of this country, because our most clement consoler. But the second is Victoricus, seemly entombed at his left. The third, venerably placed at the right of the aforesaid Martyr, is called by the honorable name Cassian. And because their case is in part dissimilar, the narration of this little discourse must necessarily be distinguished separately. Thence, proceeding to the deeds of each, he begins a lamentation, when he slips into the most mournful times of the Normans. When therefore the justice of the heavenly King, on account of the negligence of our sins, willed us to be chastised by the fierce savagery of the pagans, the monuments of the renowned witness Quintinus, and the limbs of the precious confessor Cassian, were raised from their own tombs and carried by night, as fear compelled, to the walls of Laon.

Pursuing the Norman devastations, he inserts from the Chronicle: And since twice the bodies of those same Saints were conveyed with grief to Laon, and twice brought back to us with honor, it is well to set forth more openly both the cause of the flight and the outcome of the return. Namely in the eight hundred and eighty-first year from the Lord's incarnation, on the Kalends of January, the fear of the Normans compelling, they were first removed from their tombs and carried to the aforesaid mount. There follows the disaster inflicted on the Normans: whence in the following year the bodies of the Saints Quintinus and Cassian, coming down from Laon on the Kalends of February, with a huge throng of peoples and with a melody of praises and hymns, on the day of the Purification of St. Mary were brought back into their own basilica. For at that very time, when the aforesaid king was preparing to go to Angers and to make a pact with Alstenius, he fell into sickness, and thence returned to Saint-Denis, and there, alas! breathed out the spirit of life. After whose death the Franks appointed Carloman king.

When the pagans heard this, they entered the Scheldt with ships. Wherefore the bodies of the aforesaid Saints were carried a second time to the mount of Laon. Afterward the Normans, coming to this place, slew many with the sword, and led many also away captive; and thus the church of the blessed martyr Quintinus was cruelly burned, which had stood fifty-nine years from its completion. Thus, almost the whole place being devoured, the pagans, going forward this way and that, set out for other parts. Thereafter, when all everywhere had been afflicted by various misfortunes, by Christ's favor, in the fifth year the lord count and abbot Teutricus, using prudent counsel, began to build the walls of that place on the XII of the Kalends of May, which, relying on their most acute skill, they caused to grow quickly as necessity compelled. Whence the precious bodies of the Saints, namely of Quintinus and Cassian, thronged by an innumerable crowd, on the third of the Kalends of November were again brought back to their own place, and set within the walls of the burned house.

Here now is the epilogue of the whole matter: But when God's clemency willed to have mercy on us, and to bestow the supports of his consolation, he calmed the perils of fires, put down the savagery of the pagans, granted peace and concord, and also conferred the fruit of the earth abundantly. Wherefore it was salutarily discussed by the faithful of this place that the bodies of those same Saints should be seemly replaced in their own tombs. For the venerable prelate of the church of Noyon, Ranbert by name, coming, relying on prudent simplicity and adorned with simple gentleness, with the other brethren serving God there, on this present day suppliantly entombed the biers of the oft-mentioned three Saints in their own crypts… These things being thus accomplished, the aforesaid prelate, both devout and cheerful, in commemoration of those Saints, seemly celebrated the solemnities of Mass, and as a suppliant offered holocausts to the creator of all. Among which, by the counsel of all, he decreed and confirmed by pontifical authority that this day, for the praise of the holy Trinity and for the venerable love of those Saints, should be held festal and solemn every year, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.