Fabrician and Philibert

ON SS. FABRICIAN AND PHILIBERT, MARTYRS,

IN SPAIN.

Their public veneration; their deeds unknown.

Fabrician, M., in Spain (S.)

Philibert, M., in Spain (S.)

BY J. P.

Full of tares is the field which the famous Tamayo today opens to us for the gathering of wheat, being after his manner laboriously intent upon collecting apocryphal darnel and thrusting it upon the reader: where nevertheless these two Saints have nothing which can truly and solidly be gathered concerning them beyond their public cult, which in few words — would that it were permitted in more — we thus establish. The Roman Martyrology on this day announces them thus: In Spain, of the holy martyrs Fabrician and Philibert; Baronius adding in his notes: Of these, ancient manuscripts, and the records of the church of Toledo. In the Missal of that same church, which was published in the year 1550, I find nothing of these Saints: but our Henschen in the Kalendar of the Saints which is prefixed to that Missal, and which he testifies to have been collated with the Breviary according to the rule of Blessed Isidore, called Mozarabic, printed in the year MDII by order of Master Francisco Ximenes the archbishop; likewise with the mixed Missal according to the rule of Blessed Isidore, called Mozarabic, printed at Toledo in the year MD by order of Francisco Ximenes the archbishop, etc. — Henschen, I say, on the XXII day of August wrote with his own hand in that Kalendar: Of Fabrician and Philibert, MM., nine lessons. But in our transcript, which was extracted at Toledo from the Mozarabic Breviary in the year 1722 while we were there, these things are noted: Of the holy Fabrician and Philibert, abbot and Martyrs, let all be said of very many martyrs.* These are the things which I have been able to gather concerning the cult of our Saints; besides which, if you seek other things concerning their native land, date, and deeds, all things waver so much that there is absolutely no place where you may set a firm foot.

[2] As regards Tamayo, I have already dealt with him: nor shall I add more, their date, Acts, etc. lest I lose time if I laboriously chastise his trifles and dull the reader's ears with new complaints, which to repeat so often might seem, if not superfluous, at least sour. Hence I readily suffer that those things be passed over in silence which our Father Antonio de Quintanadueñas has in his Saints of Toledo at the fourth century, from page 225. For what would you expect from him that is clear and pure concerning the deeds of today's Saints, who drinks filth for water, drawn from those famous sewers which have long since been exposed by learned Spaniards, as is evident from the apocryphal authors and documents which he brings forward — deceived, of course, by the masked names of great writers in appearance, as has happened to innumerable others. Further, I have set above to the Saints the title of Martyrs, with the Roman Martyrology and the Mozarabic Breviary, even though I am wholly ignorant where, when, and under whom they suffered. I have likewise marked them in Spain with the said Martyrology, not because this is certainly established for me, but because the Spaniards are, so to speak, in possession, in which I leave them. Whether both were monks, and likewise of what Order and monastery, is equally unascertained by me.

[3] are hidden from us. Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology on this day, upon the name Philibert, which from the text of the Roman Martyrology he writes in French Philbert, appends a marginal note, and affirms that it is the burial of St. Philibert, abbot of Jumièges, made in the island of Noirmoutier; but that abbot was not a martyr, as may be seen on the XX day of August, on which his Acts have been illustrated. Then I do not sufficiently understand how Castellanus can state this so roundly and positively without any proof, especially since all things which can be sought concerning this Saint are most obscure. I know indeed that Nicolas Antonio believed that the pseudo-Julian changed the name of the island of Her in France, where that other Philibert the abbot of the same name died, into a fictitious one, when he adjudges him to an island of Spain; as is related at greater length on the said XX day of this month in the Commentary on his Life, §1, number 6, page 67. But since this Philibert is said by the pseudo-Julian to have been a solitary in Spain — whether he was invented by that fabler, or whether there truly was once such a man there, which it is not the place here to examine — while ours in the documents alleged above is marked with the title of martyr, I do not see that anything can thence be drawn out in favor of Castellanus's opinion.

perhaps abbatum*