ON ST. DONATUS, BISHOP
OF BESANÇON,
IN THE COUNTY OF BURGUNDY.
About 660.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Donatus, Bishop, at Besançon in Burgundy (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR P. B.
Concerning Vesontio, or Besançon, the metropolis of the Sequani, treatment has already been made rather often in this Work. His birthday is celebrated at Besançon on this day: To the same city on this day the birthday of St. Donatus, once bishop of Besançon, recalls us — as unknown to the ancient and foreign Martyrologists as it is celebrated among his own from all memory; indeed more celebrated once than perhaps it now is, or at least than it subsequently was; which we gather from the comparison of the two Breviaries of the church of Besançon which we have: for in the one (which is of parchment and manuscript, and once belonged to Antoine Bercin, canon of the same church, and was given by him to Antoine Monrinel in the year of Christ 1523) he is celebrated on the seventh of the Ides of August with an Office of nine Lessons; whereas in the other (which was printed at Besançon in the year 1590) he is honored on the same day with an Office of only three Lessons; and of these indeed only two pertain to this our Donatus; but the third to St. Donatus, bishop and martyr of Arezzo, whose commemoration is there joined. Older than both these Breviaries we think is the Besançon Legendary of the church of St. Paul, which our Pierre-François Chifflet once transcribed for us, as very many other things; and in this too St. Donatus is said to have rendered up his spirit to Christ on the seventh of the Ides of August. There is therefore no doubting concerning this day both of his birth and of his feast: nor indeed do Ferrarius in his General Catalogue, Saussay in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology, Miraeus in the Belgic and Burgundian Calendars, and others assign any other, except only Castellan, whom indeed we have seen; and why he referred the memory of this Saint to the twenty-third of July, we said in the same place among the Passed Over that we do not know.
[2] We received his Acts from the Reverend Father Pierre-François Chifflet from the already mentioned Legendary of the monastery of St. Paul, Acts of no great value, from which it manifestly appears that the nine Lessons were excerpted, which we have just now signified are read on this day in the manuscript Breviary of Besançon. These spread out with very many words entirely the same material which is found treated much more elegantly in the Life of St. Columbanus the abbot, by the author Jonas, a monk of Bobbio, and a contemporary of St. Donatus, in d'Achery and Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century 2, page 14, number 22. Jean-Jacques Chifflet, brother of our Pierre-François, seems to have had better ones than these of ours, as at least appears to us from the fragment which he recites from them in his Vesontio, part 2, page 152 and following; nor nevertheless did he hesitate to prefer to them the praised text of the monk Jonas, which he there represents entire, with such supplement as there is subjoined from the Acts of St. Donatus, or the ancient parchments, as he calls them. The plan of that most erudite man pleases us: nor accordingly shall we exhibit anything from our Acts except the conclusion of the Life, which alone is lacking elsewhere. Here therefore, in place of the Acts, are first the things which Jonas relates in these words:
[3] except so far as they are had There was at that time a certain Duke, by name Waldelenus, who ruled the peoples who dwell within the barriers of the Alps and the fields of the Jura forest. To him there was no offspring, as Juvencus says of Zachary and Elizabeth:
That the gift might be more welcome to those now despairing.
He with his wife, by name Flavia, noble both in family and in prudence, proceeds from the town of Besançon to blessed Columbanus; both praying that he would entreat the Lord for them. They say that they are enriched with many resources; but that they had no heir to whom they might leave their inheritance after their death. To whom the holy man said: If it be of your vow that you consecrate the gift to the Giver, and hand him over to me to be received from the font, I will implore for you the clemency of the Lord, that you may not only have one whom you may vow to the Lord, but also that you may afterward receive as many pledges as you shall have wished. But they promise that they will obey his commands with glad mind; only let him not cease to implore the Lord's mercy for them. The man of God, full of gifts, pledges that he has it in readiness; only let them not study to violate the covenant of the pact. Wonderful to say! Scarcely do they return home when, by the gift of the Creator, the mother-to-be, heavy in the womb, awaits. Soon after his birth she carries him to the holy man, and shows the gift bestowed by his prayers: she gives thanks to the Founder, who thus bestows the gifts sought at the petitions of his servants. Whom the holy man, having received him in his hands, consecrated, and, washed in the sacred font, himself received him, and imposes the name of Donatus, and returns him to his mother for nursing.
[4] Who, afterward nourished, imbued with wisdom in the same monastery, in the Life of St. Columbanus the abbot, made bishop of Besançon, survives even now, ruling that same see. Who afterward, for love of blessed Columbanus, built from his rule a monastery of men, which they call the Palace, on account of the monuments of the ancient walls. Afterward the Giver of goodness added the promise made to his servant, another son, Ramelenus by name, who, strong in nobility and wisdom, was substituted in his honor after his father's death; although in a secular habit, nevertheless ever watchful in the love of the Creator. For he too, in love of the blessed man, built in the Jura forest, upon the little river Novisana, a monastery from his rule, in which he set Siagrius as abbot. And the Lord added two daughters to the former gift, both noble in the world and perfect in the fear of Christ. After these gifts their mother Flavia, after her husband's death, built a monastery of maidens in the above-mentioned city of Besançon, and, strengthening it with every fortification, gathered together an assembly of many maidens. So greatly did the grace of the man of God burn in them that, despising all the trappings of the present life, they panted after the worship of almighty God. Thus Jonas; to which Chifflet adds in the cited place the following from the ancient parchments of Besançon:
[5] Having attained the summit of so great a dignity (the episcopal), he was in no way altered from his purpose; and can be supplemented from the Besançon manuscripts. but remaining the same himself, desiring all to profit in Christ, he did not desist from the office he had begun. Dwelling at last among the canons, clothed in a monastic habit, he was among them as though one monk, fulfilling the office of a canon, not losing the purpose of a monk. But how great skill he applied in preserving the Catholic law, and what diligence he maintained, is not easy to relate. The fame therefore of his exceptional praise being everywhere published abroad, beyond the ordinary it animated many to see the thresholds of the highest Evangelist John and of the protomartyr Stephen: all of whom were refreshed by his consolation, and strengthened by his blessing: and if anything was offered at his feet after the apostolic manner, he suffered nothing to be spent for the uses of his own; but he lavished it upon the necessities of all the poor. Besides, he founded a monastery within the walls of the city, and consecrated it in honor of the blessed Apostle Paul, enriched it with possessions, fortified it with a privilege; and there he established faithful men to live under the rule of blessed Benedict and of blessed Columbanus of Luxeuil. At last in his own time, with his mother Flavia cooperating, out of his own inheritance another noble monastery of holy nuns was built in the same city, in honor of the Blessed Mary, in which the same Flavia rests in peace, and Sirudis, her daughter, a most sacred virgin, and abbess of that place. With these last things our manuscript Acts agree, and immediately conclude the Life (if it can be called a Life) thus: But the holy prelate Donatus, full of days, exercised in many virtues, on the seventh of the Ides of August rendered up his spirit to Christ, from whom he took his beginning; who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
[6] That these things may be more clearly understood, observe first that these words of Jonas, There was at that time a certain Duke, etc., are to be referred to about the year 593 or 594; when namely, as is clear from the preceding, the monastery of Luxeuil had already been founded by St. Columbanus; The Saint was born about the year 594, indeed when it had already so begun to flourish with a multitude of monks that, because it could not hold them all, a religious colony had to be led out from it to another new monastery of Fontaines; which it is credible happened scarcely before three or four years from its own rise, which, by the testimony of Mabillon in his Annals and elsewhere, belongs to the year 590. Observe secondly, that duke Waldelenus, who had his domicile at Besançon, and presided under Guntram, Childebert, and Theuderic, kings of Burgundy, over the tract which from the neighboring Jura Alps was called sometimes the district, sometimes the forest, of the Jura, in the modern County of Burgundy — Waldelenus, I say, came from the town of Besançon to St. Columbanus in the monastery of Luxeuil, which is distant from Besançon twelve leagues toward Lorraine: for there he was then abbot; there St. Donatus was afterward a monk; which not only our Acts and the manuscript Breviary of Besançon expressly assert, but which can also be gathered from the Life of St. Agilus the abbot in the Acts of the Saints of the Benedictine Order, century 2, page 318, number 7.
[7] consecrated bishop about the year 624. Observe thirdly, upon these words of Jonas, made bishop of Besançon, etc., that St. Donatus, bishop of Besançon, was present with others at the synod of Reims under the presidency of Sonnatius; as is established from Flodoard in Labbe's Councils, volume 5, column 1689. But that this synod was celebrated in the year of Christ 624 after May, or, at the utmost, 625, Pagi demonstrates in his Critique of Baronius at the year 624, number 4; and about the year 625 the learned now agree. But since from what has been said in the preceding number he can scarcely seem to have been born before the year of Christ 594, it follows that the year of Christ 624 was the beginning of his episcopate; unless by a singular privilege, about which nothing is known, he be imagined to have been raised to the miter before the age of thirty years, at that time required. It follows also, since at least in the year 625 he was without controversy a bishop, that he cannot be thought to have been born after the year 595.
[8] He founds the monastery of St. Paul; where he was buried; but did not remain: Observe fourthly, upon these words of the same, He built a monastery of men, which they call the Palace, that this is the same monastery which the anonymous writer mentions thus in the following number: Besides, he founded a monastery within the walls of the city, and consecrated it in honor of the blessed Apostle Paul, enriched it with possessions, fortified it with a privilege, and there established faithful men to live under the rule of blessed Benedict and of blessed Columbanus of Luxeuil. Jean-Jacques Chifflet testifies to this in his Vesontio, part 2, page 153, where he has these things: What Jonas said was called the Palace is the monastery of St. Paul, which even today lies next to the walls of the city, from which it is separated by the river Doubs. In the Acts he is said to have destined that monastery for his own burial: At last it seemed to him honorable that he should build a monastery within the walls of the city, where after his death he might commit his body to be buried, etc. And indeed that he was buried there, the catalogue of the prelates of Besançon written in the eleventh century teaches, which we gave in volume 1 of June, page 680, where concerning St. Donatus it is read: Through him the church (of Sts. John the Evangelist and Stephen the protomartyr, which is the cathedral at Besançon) received the estates of Domblingum and Arslatum. He built moreover the church of St. Paul, in which also he rests in the Lord. Yet that thence, after many centuries, his relics, mingled and confounded with others, came to a neighboring church consecrated in the name of our St. Donatus, Pierre-François Chifflet hands down among us in the same place, page 687, against his brother's opinion; where you will find more things both concerning the church of St. Donatus and concerning his relics. Further, the monastery of St. Paul, after various vicissitudes, at last passed in the eleventh century to the Regular Canons of St. Augustine, who inhabit it even now; as see in Chifflet's Vesontio, part 2, from page 198, and in Pennotto in his History of the Order of Canons, page 362. There are those who would have it (as Pierre-François Chifflet, exhibited by us in volume 1 of June, page 687, number 94, and the Sainte-Marthes on the archbishops of Besançon, where they treat of St. Donatus) that this our holy Prelate prescribed to this monastery of St. Paul, and at the same time to the canons of the cathedral church of St. Stephen, those rules or Commonitory which has been published under the name of the abbots of Sts. Paul and Stephen in Holstenius's Codex of Rules, part 2, from page 73.
[9] Observe fifthly, that these words of Jonas, Flavia after the death of her husband built a monastery of maidens, etc., and the convent of Jussa-Moutier, for which as an old man he prescribed laws: are explained partly by the anonymous writer in the following number, partly in the catalogue of the bishops of Besançon of the eleventh century, in which to the words already recited from it these are subjoined: And he built the Jussan monastery with his mother Flavia, who is buried there (supply what had preceded). For this convent he himself prescribed laws, or rather adapted them, compiled from the rules of Sts. Caesarius, bishop of Arles, Benedict, and Columbanus, abbots. They were published in Holstenius's Codex of Rules, part 3, from page 78; and illustrated by Le Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year 625 from number 66; and they altogether deserve to be read by those who desire to inspect more deeply our St. Donatus's remarkable humility, prudence, and other virtues shining forth everywhere: but they are too long to be reprinted here. He himself, I say, prescribed them; and indeed not in the year 625, in which they are reckoned by Le Cointe, but much later: the first all now confess, and it is gathered from this, that he calls himself Donatus; then because in rule 77 he openly reveals himself as bishop of Besançon in these words: This also (which I do not believe; nor may God in his mercy suffer it to happen) if at any time whatever any abbess shall attempt to change or relax anything of the institution of this Rule; or shall wish, whether on account of kinship or on account of any condition whatever, to have subjection to or familiarity with the pontiff of this city, then, God inspiring you, BY OUR PERMISSION resist in this matter with reverence and gravity, and permit this by no means to be done: and indeed among the bishops of Besançon there was only one Donatus: therefore it was without doubt ours. The other point shines forth from the Prologue, in which he says that he has endeavored by this little work to satisfy the requests of the nuns, so far as the divine goodness has given possibility, in view of his constant bodily infirmity, and as the fog of his dulled sense has permitted: for these words argue an old man growing dim and broken; not a young bishop, such as it is established Donatus was in the year 625. For the rest, concerning this Jussan monastery, which from the year 1607 passed to a religious family of Minims, more things can be seen in Chifflet's Vesontio, part 2, page 154.
[10] Observe finally, sixthly, that our Acts, although they do not express the year, he died after the year 656; but how much later is unknown. but only the month and the day on which the holy Man died, nevertheless testify not obscurely to his altogether aged years by this epithet, full of days. But neither could that year be determined from elsewhere thus far: for as to Mabillon's establishing in the Benedictine Acts of the Saints, century 2, page 336, number 6, that he died about the year 651, which was about the fifty-seventh of his age; this he himself overturns in his Annals at the year 656, number 51; where he teaches from the Chronicle of Bèze that he survived in the month of February of the year 657. And certainly from that Chronicle, or rather from the legal instrument there recited in d'Achery's Spicilegium, second edition, volume 2, page 402, it is manifest that St. Donatus reached at least to that year of Christ 657, and to the sixty-third of his own age: for that instrument, by which the abbess Adalsinda gave her monastery of Dornatiacum, near Besançon, with the consent of our Prelate, as the Chronographer asserts, to the monastery of Bèze, is subscribed: In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 652, Indiction X, Epact VI, Clothar the king reigning in France, in the first year of his reign, the venerable man Donatus holding the see of Besançon. On the Wednesday next before the middle of the month of February. There is no one now among the learned who does not acknowledge that there is a fault here in the year of the Incarnation, the Indiction, and the Epact; whether because their use in writings of this kind is much more recent (whence they attribute these to a younger interpolator), or because the framer of the instrument erred by joining the year of the Incarnation 652 with the first year of Clothar III; as it pleases our Chifflet in his Dissertation on the years of Dagobert, chapter 5. There is also no one, so far as I know, who either calls this instrument spurious, or denies that it was drawn up in the first year of Clothar III, before the middle of February. Since therefore Clothar III began to reign after the second week of November in the year of Christ 656, as Pagi rightly shows at the same year in his Critique, number 17; it follows from the Bèze monument produced that at least until the middle of the following February St. Donatus held the see of Besançon. I said "at least," because it is altogether uncertain how much later he lived.
[11] The opposing opinion of Le Cointe is refuted. Le Cointe denies these things, you say, where he recites this same monument entire, at the year 656, number 37, and rejects in it, besides the year of the Incarnation, the Indiction, and the Epact, also these words: The venerable man Donatus holding the see of Besançon. We know that indeed; but why does he reject it there? Because Donatus the bishop, who subscribed to the council of Reims, and, by the testimony of Chifflet, sat more or less twenty-eight years, had died earlier; namely about the year 652, in which he himself places his death in his Annals, number 64. Does Jean-Jacques Chifflet testify this? By what authority? His own, of course, as is plain from Vesontio, part 2, page 161. By what arguments? By those of which Le Cointe would not have admitted even one; namely from this, that he thought the Saint was present at the synod of Reims in the year of Christ 633 or 634, and subscribed to the council of Chalon in the year of Christ 660 or 662. And yet neither Le Cointe nor anyone else now doubts that the Synod of Reims was not held later than the year 625; but that of Chalon, as is clear from its preface, was most certainly not celebrated after the death of Clovis II, or the year 656; indeed not even after the year 653, as Pagi proves in his Critique at the year 662, number 4; nay, Le Cointe himself judged it should be referred in his Annals to the year 644, as is to be seen there, number 2. The foundation therefore collapses on which Chifflet alone relied to establish those twenty-eight years more or less of his; nor indeed can there here be any authority of his, much less so great that it could be judged fit for carping at even in a single point a legitimate monument of the seventh century. To this is added also that in the same place Chifflet indeed attributed twenty-eight years more or less to Donatus's episcopate, because he believed he had found that many from the year 633 or 634 up to 660 or 662; but he nowhere asserted that St. Donatus did not sit longer: for he immediately subjoins: And I would readily judge that he prolonged his life much further still. Why then did Le Cointe allege this author for himself? These are the things which we have thought should be added concerning St. Donatus, bishop of Besançon, to those which have already been given about him at the sixth day of June from page 687.
Annotata* others: "to have"
* our manuscripts: "into Solviorense"
* perhaps "monastic"