Tenestina

ON ST. TENESTINA, VIRGIN,

AMONG THE PEOPLE OF LE MANS IN GAUL,

About the middle of the sixth century.

HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

Her cult, elogium, monastery, the translation of her body, and her relics.

Tenestina, virgin, among the people of Le Mans in Gaul (St.)

BY J. P.

Since the Life of St. Rigomer has just been illustrated by us, and the deeds of this Saint are interwoven with it, there is no reason for the reader to expect much here separately concerning that Virgin. Her memory in the Calendars, This also was the cause why we judged that she should be subjoined immediately to the aforesaid Saint, especially because the day of her death is not expressed in the said Life, and in some places she is also announced on this XXIV day of August, as we shall presently see, even though by others she is deferred to the XXVI day of the same month. The Belinus published at Paris in the year 1521 records her on this day, as was said in the preliminary Commentary on the Life of St. Rigomer, number 1. But Ferrari in his New Catalogue of Saints reports her on the XXVI of this month thus: At Floriacum in Gaul, St. Tenestina the virgin: on which day also she is found in Saussay (but more correctly announced by him among the people of Le Mans) with an elogium. Then also she is recorded by Castellain in these terms, which run thus from the French: At Le Mans, St. Tenestina the virgin, the first Religious of the abbey of Pré, which is at the gate of that city. On the same day she is found in Arthur's Gynæceum, but with the title of virgin abbess. But the public and ancient cult of St. Tenestina is confirmed at the end of the Life which is both hers and St. Rigomer's, and from other things presently to be brought forward concerning this holy Virgin, so that that cult cannot be doubted. Meanwhile Castellain here seems to confound the monastery of St. Mary at Le Mans, which was St. Tenestina's, with the monastery of St. Julian de Pré: concerning which Mabillon treats in the Benedictine Annals, volume 1, at the year 681, number 15.

[2] A hymn or elogium. In our parchment manuscript codex, from which we caused that Life to be printed above, there begin after it some verses; in which, although nothing occurs very worthy of note, yet, lest this fragment, however small, should lie hidden in darkness, we have thought that the reader should not be defrauded of it, some errors in it having been corrected. Now it relates this: Here was given by the Lord the kindly mother of virgins, the first, by name Theonefana, noble in faith [and] in works. Blessed from her youth, kindled with the love of Christ, devoted [to] the divine worship, of a most religious life. Having attained the height of holiness, happily trampling upon the allurements \ of the world, she deserved the rewards of the heavens. A devout neighbor was with her, a companion in Christ, Rigomer by name, a man illustrious in merit. Both alike were blessed servants of Christ; but the impious did not believe, and laid a false charge. They enjoyed \ life together as brothers, being neighbors; but with false witness the impious laid more upon them. The liars rejoiced, thinking to deceive them, the king being present, and telling their lies. When the king heard this, he drew them to be summoned into his presence in the prætorium, with a bright and cheerful countenance. The king, being angry and examining them why they should do a wicked thing, they answer that they are guiltless, apart from this evil accusation. Nor do I find more there. What the name Theonefana may mean I do not sufficiently understand, unless perhaps St. Tenestina had a double name. To these it is well to subjoin certain historical facts for the fuller explanation of what is narrated in passing in the aforesaid Life.

[3] In the same place, at number 12, there is this: But St. Tenestina received the veil under the sacred honor of virginity from St. Innocent. She was a virgin consecrated to God, In volume 3 of the Vetera Analecta which were published by Mabillon and printed at Paris in the year 1682, pages 92 and 93, there is contained the copy of the precaria which St. Innocent, bishop of Le Mans, made for the lady Tenestina concerning the monastery of St. Mary: in which she says, I, in the name of God, Tenestina consecrated to God, daughter of the late Haregarius and of Trudana, come to you as a petitioner. That instrument has more concerning the said place, which is signed: Done at Le Mans in the public city. Given on the V Kalends of May, in the XIII year of the reign of King Childebert — among the people of Le Mans after the death of Chlodomer, of Christ 537, according to what was said in the Annotations on the Life, of which I was just now treating, at letter c. In the same Analecta, pages 94 and 95, there follows the copy of the precept which Childebert, king of the Franks, made… concerning the grant of Haregarius and of his wife Trudana and of their daughter Tenestina, consecrated to the Lord, that is, concerning the cell of St. Mary, etc.; from which I cull this: Commanding, namely, that as the aforesaid Haregarius, and his wife Truda, and their daughter Tenestina, consecrated to God, have justly and reasonably assigned by instruments those places of their inheritance, together with lands, houses, buildings, bondsmen, vineyards, woods, meadows, pastures, waters and watercourses, mills, cattle, defenses, movables and immovables, and all other benefits whatsoever, to that house of the Lord — and as it is seen to be at present there possessed in due order — so also hereafter, the letter of donation being inspected, by this precept we more fully confirm in God's name those places named above, etc. Childebert, king of the Franks, has subscribed… Given on the VIII day, which the present month of June makes, in the VII \ year of our reign, at Opatinacum \, in God's name happily. Amen.

[4] We have seen above that our Saint is announced by Arthur with the title of abbess: and built a monastery, of which she does not seem to have been abbess. which from the ancient instruments we cannot sufficiently prove: not from the Life at number 12; for although the Handmaid of God, as it is there said, built a little monastery or basilica… and there led a religious life with other maidens devoted to God — and perhaps for that cause she is above at number 2 called the kindly mother of virgins, the first given by the Lord — yet from this it does not seem that it can sufficiently be hammered out that she presided over those maidens as abbess. Nor from the said instruments; in which she is indeed called a virgin, consecrated to God, and veiled, but not abbess: and therefore we have not followed Arthur, who in this matter is of little or rather of no authority, in attributing that dignity to our Saint, of which we should have to be assured from elsewhere; but with the other hagiologists we have given her the title of virgin before this syllogue. And in the said monastery she accomplished her blessed life, as the biographer there testifies. Concerning the time of her death, which I marked at the beginning of this syllogue, see the preliminary Commentary on St. Rigomer, §1, number 10. As regards the religious life which, as was just said, she led there with other maidens devoted to God, it seems

that some rule was in force in that nunnery, not the Benedictine, but probably that of St. Cæsarius of Arles. Bondonnet, in the historical Digression of which below at number 6, concludes from what he had premised to that Digression concerning St. Maurus, that since St. Innocent founded the monastery of Pré for religious women, they were not Benedictines in their original institution, having been founded before St. Maurus came into France, who was the first to propagate the rule of St. Benedict there; and that in those first beginnings they lived under a certain rule then esteemed; and he indicates that he inclines to the opinion that this rule was the one which St. Cæsarius, archbishop of Arles, had given to St. Cæsaria his sister, and which was in use in the time of the sixth century, and for some time after St. Maurus had arrived there. The matter is confirmed by the example of St. Radegund (she was contemporary with St. Tenestina), who procured that rule for the nuns of her own monastery of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. Consult with us the preliminary Commentary on the Acts of St. Radegund, §6, volume III of August, at the XIII day, from page 60. Here now are some things concerning the translations of St. Tenestina. You will ask, first, whether and when her sacred bones were translated thence. Secondly, whether they were also carried elsewhere?

[5] Her body I answer to the first: One translation occurred in the ninth century, which is read in volume 3 of the Vetera Analecta cited above, pages 60 and 61, inserted into the translation of St. Julian and the finding and translation of other Saints, while St. Aldric presided over the see of Le Mans. The narrative of the event begins thus: While the most pious emperor Louis held the scepter of all Gaul, the lord Aldric… was then governing the church of Le Mans. Who, while dwelling in that city, when he beheld the holy places about the city built of old by his predecessors, among all of them saw beyond the river Sarthe the place in which the body of blessed Julian, apostle and bishop of the people of Le Mans… had formerly been buried, exceedingly ruined, and quite abandoned by all clerical office of those serving God there… he began to consider within himself… that he might bring the holy bishop thence. Then, after the finding of that sacred body has been set forth, and likewise of SS. Turibius, Pavatius, Romanus, and of St. Tenestina, an eminent virgin, who also built the monastery of St. Mary situated beneath the wall of the city, upon the property of the elder church, with the help of St. Innocent, bishop of the aforesaid city, and also of the sacred pledges of other Saints who are named there, the following is subjoined:

[6] is translated in the ninth century, These things being thus found, and many miracles shown, the prelate with the people, greatly rejoicing, with burning tapers, with crosses and censers, and with inestimable exultation — lest so great a light should any longer lie hidden in darkness, but should shine to all who are in the house of the Lord — translated honorably the bodies of the aforesaid Saints from the little church within the walls of the city into the elder church, and there placed them with the utmost veneration: that by their merits and pious intercessions the cult of the church might increase the more, and the divine honor be multiplied for the better, as is proved by the Lord's assent to have been done in later times. In the same place, page 62, this is noted: Now the bodies of the holy confessors Julian, Turibius, Pavatius, Romanus, Liborius, and Haduindus were translated by the venerable bishop Aldric within the city of Le Mans into the elder church, on the eighth Kalends of August. It is not ascertained by me why in that clause the names of St. Tenestina are not noted, nor of St. Ada, who is by another name also called Adrechildis, who, as we read, at the entreaty of St. Innocent the bishop, came from the monastery of St. Mary which is situated in the city of Soissons to the city of Le Mans, and there in the suburb, namely in the monastery of St. Mary, taught the rule of blessed Benedict, and ordained holy women to live there according to rule; as had been premised in the present narration. Further, the finding and translation of St. Tenestina and of St. Ada or Adrechildis will be confirmed by us below. But that Adrechildis passed to the aforesaid monastery of St. Mary at the entreaty of St. Innocentius the bishop is most utterly false; for he had ceased to live a hundred years or more before. Mabillon in his Annals, volume 1, at the year 660, number 3, treating of the monastery of St. Mary of the same name at Soissons, says: Ada, or Adrechildis… was called from this monastery of blessed Mary to Le Mans by Aglibert her kinsman. More on this matter may be read in Bondonnet in his historical Digression on the first abbess of Pré, which is found among the Lives of the Bishops of Le Mans in the observations on St. Innocentius, page 249 and following; add Michel Germain the Benedictine in his History of the Abbey of St. Mary the Virgin of Soissons, book 3, chapter 2, page 296. But let us return to what went before.

[7] It has seemed good to append to these some remarks and it is inquired by which we shall endeavor to bring some light to the aforesaid history of the translation. In the first place, writers do not agree in what year it happened. In the Life of St. Aldric with us, volume one of January, at the VII day of that month, page 388, the translation of St. Julian is set in the year of Christ 834, and, as was noted above, on the VIII Kalends of August. But elsewhere it is deferred to the year 836. Our Bolland, in his historical Commentary which in the year 1648 he caused to be printed separately concerning St. Liborius, confessor and bishop of Le Mans praised above, and which was afterward reprinted in our fifth volume of the month of July at the XXIII day, page 418 of that volume — the writer of the translation of this Saint records thus: Therefore in the year of the Lord's Incarnation eight hundred and thirty-six, in the XIV Indiction, when the aforesaid Louis was in the twenty-third year of his reign, etc. And the year of the emperor Louis with the year of the translation the same Bolland thus combines in his Annotations, page 419, letter a: We have shown above that the chronological marks here expressed rightly agree with one another, and that the year of Christ 836 was the XXIII of Louis the Pious from the death of his father Charles, and the XXIV from the time when his father had crowned him WITH THE IMPERIAL DIADEM, as is said in his Life, about half a year before his own death.

[8] Le Cointe at the year 836, number 83, also embraces Bolland's opinion; in what year and on the same occasion he rightly rejects the opinion of Corvaisier, who in the History of the Bishops of Le Mans, in his account of St. Aldric, page 285, judges that this translation was made by him from the church of Pré into the cathedral, for fear of the Normans and the Danes. Aldric, he says, seeing that a near ruin threatened the abbey of Pré, and that the terror arisen from the incursions of the Normans and Danes had driven the Religious women out of it, etc. But to return to the year of the event: on the XVI day of April, volume II of that month, page 415, we gave St. Turibius, bishop of Le Mans, and the translation of which we here treat is deferred to the year 838 from the Acts of that same Saint, which Henschen there praises as accurately written by his disciples: from which this is there culled: In the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 838, in the 1st Indiction, in the XXV year of the reign of the lord Louis the Pious, emperor, Aldric, venerable bishop of the said city, found certain bodies of Saints, which were neglected in exceedingly deserted churches, in the divine offices and lights and the rest of the divine worship, etc. Thus there, and more, which the reader may consult. Observe first that in the transcript of the aforesaid Acts, which I have before me and which is kept with us for the VII day of January, among the other bodies found there is designated the body of St. Tenestina, an eminent virgin, etc.; and also of St. Ada, who is by another name called Adrehildis, who, as we read, etc. The names of those two Saints, and of St. Romanus the priest, Henschen knowingly omitted in the instrument just cited and printed, as is shown by the dots which are interposed in the text, because his aim was to treat only of the bishops of Le Mans there expressed, as he forewarns in these words: In these Acts, of which I treated a little before, he says, there is the most ancient memory of the first bishops which it has hitherto been possible to observe, with a certain token of ecclesiastical cult.

[9] that translation happened. The body of our Saint, then, seems more probably to have been translated in the year of Christ 838 from the monastery in which she had died to the elder or cathedral church of the city of Le Mans, on account of the authority of the Acts of St. Turibius, which have already been praised. And let these be the answers to the first question proposed above at number 4. It remains that we proceed to the second, namely whether her sacred bones were also carried elsewhere — some notice being first given of certain Saints who have been named above. St. Julian is found with us at the XXVII day of January, page 761; St. Pavacius at the XXIV of July, page 537; St. Haduindus or Hadoïndus at the XX day of January in the Appendix, page 1140; St. Romanus in Castellain's Universal Martyrology and in the new Paris Martyrology at the VII day of November; St. Adneta (elsewhere Ada, or Adrechildis) is announced in Arthur's Gynæceum at the IV day of December, where the notes concerning her may be seen, and likewise Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals, volume 2, at the year 836, number 61, and Le Cointe at the year 686, number 13. But let us come to the second question.

[10] Her sacred remains among the monks of Maillezais and of Fleury. Corvaisier in the Lives of the Bishops of Le Mans, page 170, would have it that the bodies of St. Tenestina and St. Rigomer were translated to the monastery of Maillezais. But a difficulty is raised for us in this matter by the narrative of a most trustworthy author, who indeed describes the translation of this Saint, but makes no mention of hers. It does not therefore seem that the bodies of both were carried thither together. Consult what I premised in the preliminary Commentary on St. Rigomer, §2, number 16. Nevertheless we have not sufficient ground for denying that before or after some part of the body of the aforesaid Saint came to that monastery, since she is there honored, as I said in the place just cited. Yet we leave it to the monks of Maillezais to prove whether and what they possess of those relics. We say the same of those of Fleury. For Charles de Saussay, in book 4 of the Annals of the Church of Orléans, chapter 7, in which he treats of the bodies and sacred remains of the monastery of Fleury, page 232, places there the body of Blessed Tenestina the virgin, whose deeds are found in manuscript at Fleury together with the deeds of St. Rigomer, confessor in the district of Le Mans. Hadrian Valois in the Notitia Galliarum describes this monastery thus: Floriacum, a village on the Loire in the Chartrain (not indeed of the territory of Le Mans, as Ferrari has it in his New Catalogue at the XXVI day of August in his notes) and in the diocese of Orléans, gave its name to the most noble and most ancient monastery of Fleury or Floriaca, which also nine hundred years ago began to be called the monastery of St. Benedict, Fleury-sur-Loire, or Saint-Benoît

sur Loire. Then the same Geographer adds several other things. Saussay, just cited, says that of her relics Manasses, bishop of Orléans, brought a particle into the monastery of Curia Dei, commonly la Cour Dieu, of the Cistercian Order, in the diocese of Orléans on the river Loire. Saussay in book 6, from page 334, mentions three bishops of Orléans named Manasses: but he of whom he treats in the first place is most suspect to him; and he adds that he finds others than this one, named expressly Manasses the first and Manasses the second, in the dedication of the altars of la Cour Dieu in the year 1216. In the Sainte-Marthe brothers' Gallia Christiana, volume 2, page 240, Manasses I is marked, doubtful to Saussay; whom, as they add, Guyon establishes on the credit of the ancient diptychs of the church. Of another they treat at page 249; of the third at page 251.

\ perhaps inlecebras for illecebras*. \ perhaps Vivebant*. \* perhaps XVII. \ read Captunaco*.