ON ST. FLAVIAN BISHOP OF AUTUN IN GAUL,
Perhaps 7th century.
COLLECTION.
The Saint's ancient cult from the Martyrologies, his unknown Acts, and his uncertain age.
Flavian, bishop of Autun in Gaul (St.)
BY G. C.
The Hieronymian Supplements today announce the memory of this Saint in Florentini thus: In the Hieronymian Supplements At Autun, of Flavian the bishop. Florentini notes the following on this announcement: Flavian, holy bishop of Autun among the Aedui, is presented also by the Roman Martyrology, by Bellinus of Padua, and from him by Molanus, Galesinius, Maurolico, and Saussay. Among the Aeduan or Autun prelates I do not find him numbered in the Sainte-Marthes. But Florentini could not see the more recent Sainte-Marthes, or the latest editors of Gallia Christiana, who reckon today's St. Flavian among the bishops of the Aedui or of Autun, as we shall report shortly below.
[2] In the Usuardine Supplements the name of St. Flavian the bishop is for the most part recorded without a certain place of the bishopric, and in the Usuardine ones, and is joined with holy Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, as may be read on this day in our illustrated Usuard. But there in the Lübeck-Cologne edition both those bishops are wrongly ascribed to Autun in these words: At Autun, of the blessed Flavian and Sidonius, bishops and confessors. But Sidonius was bishop of the Arverni or of Clermont, as appears on this day from his Acts illustrated. St. Flavian alone at Autun is announced by the more recent Martyrologists, among whom Andrew Saussay adorns him with this vague eulogy: On the same day at Autun, of holy Flavian the bishop, who, an excellent cultivator of the Christian religion, gloriously directed the very church entrusted to him, and, the heavenly kingdom of Christ having been wonderfully propagated on earth, departed to his crown. This eulogy can easily be fitted to any holy prelate, and furnishes no indication of time or of deeds.
[3] Castellanus too in his universal Martyrology places St. Flavian at Autun on this day; and in other Martyrologies but at the same time there he advises with an obelus that he is unknown at Autun, although he is commemorated in the old Martyrologies. That this admonition of Castellanus is true we gather from a French Work which was published not long ago at Dijon or Paris, and in which are reckoned the Acts of the holy patrons, Martyrs, and bishops who down to the end of the seventh century made illustrious the diocese of Autun, as is promised in the title. In this French book, which celebrates the saints of the diocese of Autun in the order of the months, there is deep silence about today's St. Flavian, although there on the twenty-second day of August St. Symphorian the martyr, and on the twenty-seventh day of the same month St. Syagrius the bishop, are adorned with deserved praises.
[4] But that silence of the French author does not stand in the way of our being certain, from the old Martyrologies, of the lawful and immemorial cult of our St. Flavian, this holy Prelate is recorded; which the latest editors of Gallia Christiana, in volume 4 of their Work, column 347, confirm in these words: This one thing is established about Flavian, that his name is inscribed in the ecclesiastical records. In the Roman Martyrology, on the tenth of the Kalends of September, At Autun, of St. Flavian the bishop. In the Supplement to the Hieronymian, At Autun, of Flavian the bishop. In the second Reichenau one, in the Augsburg, the Labbean, and in that which belonged to the Queen of Sweden: At Autun, the deposition of St. Flavinianus the bishop. In Molanus, Galesinius, etc. From what has hitherto been said and reported, the ancient cult of this Saint is abundantly proved; but his deeds are unknown, which no one hitherto (so far as we know) has brought into the light.
[5] but his age Moreover we are compelled to doubt of the time in which that Saint flourished, even though Charles le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks, at the year of Christ 610, number 2, and at the year 614, number 14, reckons that he then sat in the see of Autun. Nor even is it sufficient utterly to pluck out that doubt that the praised editors of Gallia Christiana, in volume 4, in the column just cited, placed St. Flavian as the twenty-first in number among the bishops of Autun, since those very men there advise the reader beforehand thus: In the three following (namely those who follow Lefastus, the twentieth bishop of Autun in order in that catalogue) almost everything is uncertain — the order, the time, the name, and the rest. Nor are there monuments at hand by which they can be made plain. We shall follow Le Cointe, although what he brings forward seems to us anything but certain; whence we shall also bring forward the things which militate for his opinion.
[6] is uncertain, Then in the same place they subjoin the following about our St. Flavian in particular: Flavian, who is otherwise called Flavinianus and Flavignianus, at what time he sat is uncertain: for the lists and the authors vary. Here, following Le Cointe, we place him, although, to confess the truth, we rely on no certain foundation. For what he brings forward about the journey of holy Columbanus from Luxeuil to Nantes no more denotes Flavian than any other man. Nor is he happier in that he reports at the year 614 that the bishops of Autun and of Verdun were summoned to the election of a bishop of Constance: for there the name of neither of them is set down.
[7] and his deeds are unknown. What finally is brought forward from the Life of holy Audoenus, that "a certain asserter of the impious Monothelite dogma, driven out of Asia, a perfidious apostate, came into the city of Autun in the Gauls. And when it had been reported in the court of the king of the Franks that he had shaken his horrid venom widely in that city and had infected many there, he at once ordered a synodal assembly to be gathered at the city of Orléans; where the blessed men Audoenus and Eligius withstood the cunning of that heretic with most powerful objections, and all his arguments, etc." But neither here is the bishop of Autun named, and it would seem to agree better with Auspicius, inasmuch as it happened before the episcopate of Audoenus. The name of that bishop of Autun is likewise not expressed among us in the Acts of St. Audoenus, which will be printed on the following day. Meanwhile, following Le Cointe and these editors of Gallia Christiana, we noted above in the margin that this Saint perhaps flourished in the seventh century, until from some quarter more certain documents of his age or of his Acts be detected by the learned men of Autun or by other investigators of ancient monuments.