ON ST. MAGNUS, CONFESSOR,
BISHOP OF AVIGNON IN GAUL,
In the year 660.
A HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
The Saint's public cult, the annual memory of his festival, and a brief notice of his deeds.
Magnus, confessor, bishop of Avignon in Gaul (St.)
BY G. C.
[1] Saussay sufficiently indicates the immemorial cult of this holy Prelate, when in part 2 of his Gallican Martyrology, page 1239, in the Catalogue of the Saints, he writes thus about him: Although the cult of this Saint is sufficiently established, St. Magnus, bishop of Avignon, father and predecessor of St. Agricola, with whom he is celebrated with sacred honors, the precious bones of both being laid up in silver urns beneath the greater altar, and preserved with all veneration in the basilica of St. Mary. François Nouguier, in the History of the Church of Avignon, which he published in French in the year 1659, relates at the year of Christ 646, or page 23, that the body of St. Magnus was honorably buried immediately after his death in the cathedral church, and that his sacred relics rested there until the year 1321, when Pope John XXII ordered them, together with the relics of St. Agricola, his son and successor, to be translated to the church of St. Agricola and placed together beneath the high altar, where at the side the following verses were read, which abundantly demonstrate the sanctity of both bishops:
A man pious and holy, great in fact, Magnus by name, Begot a man distinguished in religion. He begot holy Agricola, shining with piety: Both son and father, therefore, are saints. Do you therefore, holy son, and blessed father, Both entreat God for us wretched ones.
Sebastiano Fantoni Castrucci the Carmelite reports similar things about this translation of the relics and the metrical inscription in his History of the City of Avignon, volume 2, page 300, which he had printed in Italian at Venice in the year 1678.
[2] Although these things suffice to prove the immemorial cult of St. Magnus, nevertheless the day of his veneration is uncertain to us, nevertheless it still remains doubtful to me on what day he is honored: for Nouguier, Castrucci, and the Sainte-Marthe brothers testify that his annual memory is celebrated on the XVIII day of August. But Ferrarius, in his Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, makes mention of that holy Prelate on the following day thus: At Avignon, of St. Magnus, bishop. Castellanus, in his Gallican Martyrology, page 936, places this same St. Magnus among the ahemeri; but in the same place he asserts that he is honored by the people of Avignon on the XIX day of August, on which another St. Magnus occurs in the ancient Martyrology, for the reason that they did not know the certain day of his death.
[3] But the distinct day of his death is expressed in the Acts of St. Agricola, and therefore we have chosen the XIX day of August, a fragment of which is reported by Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 660, number 3, in these words: In this year of the Lord six hundred and sixty, the holy son is declared by the common vote of all successor to the holy Father, blessed Agricola to blessed Magnus, in the episcopal see of Avignon. Blessed Magnus saw his bride betrothed to his son; he saw also his own living image set in his own see; he saw that his flock had changed the man, yet had not changed the Shepherd: for whatever the Old Man could have wished in himself, this he saw shining forth in his son Agricola. Wherefore he resolved to bestow all his goods upon the same church, to which he had devoted himself and his son: the estates, possessions, and fiefs which remained to him in the world he consecrated by a liberal donation, a testament being drawn up, to the temple of the most blessed Virgin Mother of God. These things being accomplished, after no long interval of time, that blessed soul, ripe for God and for the world, being loosed from the bonds of this wretched life, and leaving the people of Avignon heirs both of his virtues and of all his goods and of his most holy offspring, flew away to the heavenly reward on the fourteenth Kalends of September.
[4] Although in this fragment of the Acts it is expressly said that St. Magnus passed to the Blessed on the fourteenth Kalends of September, that is, on the XIX day of August, on which he passed to the Blessed. Le Cointe nevertheless suggests that his annual memory is celebrated on the second day of September together with St. Agricola, when, after reporting the words of the Acts, he subjoins this: St. Magnus, bishop of Avignon, is honored together with his son and successor Agricola, as Saussay observes in the encomium of St. Agricola on the fourth Nones of September, and in the Catalogue of Saints, Blessed, and pious persons who have no proper histories or birthdays. Then Le Cointe in the same place accuses the biographer of St. Agricola of a certain parachronism, which does not concern us here and can be examined at the second day of September, when the Acts of St. Agricola will have to be discussed. Since meanwhile, on account of the differing opinions, the day on which St. Magnus is honored at Avignon is uncertain to us, or since it has perhaps been changed in the course of time on account of another feast, we have chosen the day of his death, and therefore have placed that holy Prelate on this XIX day of August in our Work. It now only remains for us to gather his few deeds from others.
[5] The Sainte-Marthe brothers, in the earlier edition of Gallia Sacra, volume one, From the few deeds of St. Magnus in which the archiepiscopal sees are reported, on page 75 made brief mention of St. Magnus among the bishops of Avignon thus: St. Magnus of Avignon, sprung from an illustrious lineage, a monk of the abbey of Lérins, lived about 640, from his old Office and from the Book of the deeds of St. Agricola; his feast day is kept on the XVIII of August. But the present Sainte-Marthes, in volume 1 of Gallia Sacra, column 800, somewhat enlarge this brief eulogy of St. Magnus, and indicate that they doubt certain assertions of their predecessors, in this manner: Magnus is known especially from his son Agricola, whom he preceded in the bishopric. But whether he was his forerunner or his companion in the profession of the monastic life, as our Sainte-Marthes assert, we do not dare to affirm. They say that he was by birth of Avignon, and indeed of an illustrious family. In the synod of Chalon under Clovis II, in the year 644, "Magnus the bishop" subscribed, whom Le Cointe judges to be Magnus, bishop of Avignon, and teaches that he sat until the year 660, following the writer of the Life of St. Agricola, whose very words we shall presently report. And indeed Dom Polycarpe de la Rivière asserts that in the codex of the Charterhouse of Portes it is read in the subscriptions, "Magnus, bishop of the church of Avennicum." His feast day is celebrated on the XVIII of August. The following verses were formerly read on the wall near the church of St. Agricola. Then they subjoin the same verses which we exhibited above. And these are all the things which we have been able to find about the deeds of St. Magnus, which we shall now briefly examine and arrange in chronological order.
[6] First, concerning the Saint's native place, whom the older Sainte-Marthes call a man of Avignon, we set forth certain things to be discussed, a certain difficulty occurs: for Nouguier, in his French History of the Bishops of Avignon, page 22, affirms that St. Magnus was born in Provence of the illustrious stock of the Albiensians, and had as father Albinus, surnamed Magnus. This birthplace, which for want of ancient monuments we cannot assert, we leave to learned Frenchmen to inquire into more accurately. Secondly, a certain diversity appears concerning the name of his wife, whom Nouguier and Castrucci call Guandaltrud. But another name is added to her in the Acts of St. Agricola, which in Vincent Barrali's Chronology of the Monastery of Lérins, page 321, begin thus: St. Agricola, about the year of the Lord's Incarnation six hundred and thirty, Honorius being supreme Pontiff and Chlothar reigning in Gaul, was born at Avignon of the illustrious family of the Albiensians, his father being blessed Magnus, who afterwards obtained the bishopric of this city; his mother Gandaltrud or Austadiala, and his grandfather Albinus, a magnate. We do not know whether this woman bore two names, or bore one or the other of these names, since the Acts of St. Agricola do not seem ancient, as Le Cointe judges, and as will afterwards be investigated in our Work.
[7] and we assign the time of his episcopate. It is disputed among authors in what year St. Magnus ascended the see of Avignon: for Nouguier, in the place cited above, fixes the beginning of his episcopate at the year of Christ 646. But Castrucci, in the History of Avignon, volume 2, page 300, contends that Nouguier erred in marking this epoch, because St. Magnus subscribed to the synod of Chalon, which was celebrated in the year of Christ 644. But Le Cointe, in the Annals of the Franks at 644, number 42, discourses thus about this subscription: In Binius's collection, Magnus, who subscribed to the council of Chalon, is called bishop of Arras; in the Beauvais codex, which Sirmond published, the name of the church is not expressed. The people of Arras were then, with those of Cambrai, subject to bishop Autbert; nor was there in Gaul any bishop called Magnus except the one of Avignon, whom we have already mentioned three years earlier. This opinion of Le Cointe is confirmed by the testimony of Dom Polycarpe de la Rivière, who asserts that in the codex of the Charterhouse of Portes there is read the subscription Magnus, bishop of the church of Avennicum, as we reported above from the present Sainte-Marthes. Since Avennicensis could easily have been written for Avenionensis, we think it most probable, against Nouguier, that St. Magnus presided over the church of Avignon before the year of Christ 646, and perhaps even before 644. Since finally the writers with unanimous consent affirm that this holy Bishop departed from this life in the year of Christ 660, we have expressed that same year in the margin at the beginning of this collection.