ON ST. DONATIAN, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.
At Châlons in Gaul.
Perhaps the fourth century.
CommentaryDonatian, Bishop and Confessor, at Châlons in Gaul (S.)
J. B. S.
This is that disciple, companion, The companion of St. Memmius Deacon, and next successor in the episcopate of St. Memmius, the first apostle of the people of Châlons, everywhere praised in the published Acts along with his most holy Master, and not separated from him, as has already been sufficiently shown at the fifth day of this month, where St. Memmius was treated, and will have to be repeated again at the ninth day, when St. Domitian will be treated. For we know nothing else handed down to memory, nor could we obtain anything from Châlons, beyond those things which are recorded in the brief Acts of St. Memmius concerning both his companions and successors in the episcopate. Among the more recent Martyrologists the first, so far as I know, who seem to have placed him on this day are Molanus and Galesinius: the former simply and rightly in these words: In the city of Châlons, the deposition of St. Donatian, bishop and confessor; but the latter, although also briefly, entangling himself in an insoluble difficulty, when he writes thus: At Châlons in Gaul, of St. Donatian, bishop and confessor, who, a man of great renown for religion, was present at the council of Cologne.
[2] If Galesinius had remembered that he had called St. Memmius a disciple of the Apostle Peter, and his successor and sent by him into the Gauls, he would not so easily have given a place to St. Donatian, his immediate successor in the see of Châlons, in any council whatever of Cologne, not celebrated before the year 346. Nor indeed do I see what many others confuse when they so roundly substitute this our same St. Donatian for his namesake of Chalon-sur-Saône, unless they contend that he survived by a century and a half and more. But we seem already to have cut the sinews of that controversy, when, in treating of St. Memmius, we arranged the series of the first prelates of Châlons in a most probable manner. Nor indeed do other things remain here to be recorded concerning matters pertaining to St. Donatian, or concerning his virtues and sanctity — things which, as I say again, could not be obtained from Châlons, I suppose because nothing solid survives which can be declared of him separately; so that accordingly it is enough that he was a sharer in the apostolic labors of his excellent Master and indeed in his glory. The Gallican Martyrologist has comprised everything in a brief compendium in the following eulogy:
[3] he is praised by Saussay At Châlons, the birthday of St. Donatian, bishop, who, endowed with the order of deacon, was sent by St. Peter into the Gauls to this city with St. Memmius the bishop, and Domitian the subdeacon: and complying with him for nearly eighty years, he greatly advanced with him the establishment of the kingdom of God in that place. When he had been translated to the rest above, being now nearly a hundred years old, he undertook the pastoral care of that church, and, instructing the people of God more amply in the lessons of salvation, he led them to a perfect observance of religion by the highest exercise of holy virtues. At last, heaped up with the merits of piously performed deeds, he peacefully rested in the Lord. In what manner both the mission of St. Donatian and his age are to be understood, you have in the Memmian Commentary already cited more than once.