ON BL. PELAGIA, WIDOW,
AMONG THE PEOPLE OF LIMOGES IN GAUL,
About the year DLXX.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
The ancient cult of this Blessed one, her Acts and miracles.
Pelagia, widow, among the people of Limoges in Gaul (Bl.)
BHL Number: 6612, 6613
BY G. C.
Our Longueval in the History of the Gallican Church, book 7, at the year of Christ 577, This pious Widow is everywhere called holy or volume 3 of that French Work, page 107, asserts that Pelagia, mother of saint Aredius, is honored as a saint on the second day of August. But would that that writer had assigned us sure arguments of this cult still persevering! Whence Sollier, our colleague, perhaps doubting of the lawful cult of Pelagia, or awaiting greater light in this matter, placed her on the second day of August among the Passed Over and deferred to other days, as may be read in volume 1 of August, page 108, where he referred the examination of this pious Widow to the present day, on which she is announced among the more recent Martyrologists, and in Ruinart in the new edition of the Works of St. Gregory of Tours, column 983 in the margin.
[2] Meanwhile the Benedictine Fathers of the Congregation of Saint Maur published in French the Literary History of France, by modern authors, where in volume 3 of that Work, page 365, they called the same Mother of saint Aredius by the title of saint. But there is no reason why we should suspect that our Longueval and those French Benedictines attributed to this Widow a cult and the title of saint rashly or without any knowledge of the truth. Long before them Arthur du Monstier had ascribed the same title of saint to this pious Matron, when he announces her in his Sacred Gynæceum on the XXVI day of August in these words: In the territory of Limoges, of saint Pelagia, widow, mother of saint Aredius the abbot, a woman greatly religious and illustrious for admirable signs. Although Arthur in his notes there cites Du Saussay for his announcement, yet Du Saussay might here be opposed to him, since he in part 2 of his Gallican Martyrology, page 1241, thus cautiously relates the annual memory of this religious Matron on the XXVI day of August without any title of sanctity: Pelagia, pious mother of saint Aredius the abbot, who by her assent, being made a follower of the Crucified, distributed his copious patrimony among the poor. But that caution of Du Saussay little moves us, who here appears scrupulous beyond his custom, since we have older testimonies of her sanctity, which we shall now allege.
[3] First, Bernard Gui, bishop of Lodève, in his Treatise on the Saints and by ancient ones, who adorn the diocese of Limoges, in our Labbe, volume 1 of the Library of Manuscript Books, page 631, reckons among them St. Aredius the abbot, as we related on the preceding day in the Acts of this Saint, and straightway subjoins this concerning his Mother: The holy and blessed Pelagia also, mother of saint Aredius, rests in the same church of her son (namely of the monastery of Atane, of which that writer had made mention above in the same place), whom saint Gregory of Tours in his book on the miracles of the Saints places among the Saints, and describes her most miraculous passing. Moreover Geoffrey, Prior of Vigeois, in his Chronicle in our aforesaid Labbe, volume 2 of the Library of Manuscript Books, page 287, after enumerating the more illustrious Saints of the diocese of Limoges and assigning their tombs, thus briefly makes mention of our Matron of today: At Saint-Yrieix, saint Pelagia his mother. To these add that the contemporary biographer, or at any rate one near his time, twice calls this same Woman by the name of blessed, as we observed in the Annotations to the Acts of St. Aredius her son.
[4] and she seems to be excepted by the Bull of Pope Urban VIII, Since therefore those ancient writers indicate by these testimonies an immemorial cult of Pelagia, and everywhere name her holy or blessed, this seems to be a case excepted by the most well-known bull which Urban VIII published in the year of Christ 1625, and in which, at §4, that Pontiff declares that by the above he does not wish, nor intend, to prejudice in anything those who are honored either by the common consent of the Church, or by an immemorial course of time, or by the writings of the fathers and of holy men, or by the knowledge and toleration of the Apostolic See or of the ordinary through a very long time. All men everywhere know that by an immemorial course of time is understood a hundred years before the publishing of this bull of Urban VIII, as the Pontiff himself afterward declared. Now from the most eminent Prospero Lambertini we shall endeavor to prove our opinion concerning an excepted case, and shall confirm this exception of our Blessed one by some examples.
[5] and to have an immemorial cult, The most eminent Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church just praised, in that excellent Work which not long since at Bologna concerning the beatification of the Servants of God, and
the canonization of the Blessed, came forth, book 2, chapter 19, number 6, or volume 2, page 156, brings forward the following example, which pertains altogether to our purpose. When the excepted case of the servants of God, or blessed, John of Perugia and Peter of Sassoferrato was being handled, and the Postulators of this cause had adduced on their behalf the testimony from the historical writings of saint Antoninus concerning the death undergone by these for Christ, Prospero Bottini, archbishop of Myra and Promoter of the faith, thus answered: A fourth document is brought forward from the Chronicles of saint Antoninus. But in the said Chronicle they are by no means called BLESSED or SAINTS; nor from what is related in it does there result any sign of a public cult and veneration toward them. But if that concurred, assuredly this single testimony of saint Antoninus would suffice to sustain that this cause falls within the excepted case by the law of the general decrees, through the writings of the Fathers and of holy men. Although the most illustrious Promoter of the faith opposed this answer to the Postulators of that cause, nevertheless in the year 1704 the Sacred Congregation of Rites judged that the immemorial cult of these two Martyrs was established, and at length Pope Clement XI confirmed this sentence of the sacred Congregation, as may be read in the most eminent Prospero Lambertini, chapter 24 of the same book, §30, or volume 2 of the aforesaid Work, page 253.
[6] Then the same most eminent hagiographer, concerning the historical monuments as by certain examples which can be alleged for proving an immemorial cult of the Servants of God, thus discourses in chapter 23 of the same second book, or page 193 of the volume just cited: Under the name of authentic documents in the present matter there come, first, histories written by men worthy of credit, who composed them a hundred years before the Urban Constitution, or who published their monuments in the course of the same century; and that not only if they give testimony concerning the cult of the servant of God, but even if they merely recount his virtues and miracles, calling him by the title of BLESSED or SAINT. Presently in the same place the aforesaid most eminent man, to establish his explanation, alleges the words of the Reverend Father Fattinelli, who in reply to a certain objection made to him in this matter answers that, from the fact that so many writers of different nations, in their books published in different places and times, and approved both by the Ordinaries and by the inquisitors, call this servant of God BLESSED, SAINT, or MARTYR, there arises therefrom the greatest proof of the cult and veneration shown to that same servant of God; since appellations of this kind are not attributed save to men whom we honor as saints.
[7] Finally the most eminent Prospero Lambertini in the same place, page 194, testifies and by arguments we endeavor to prove. that the sacred Congregation of Rites proceeded in that manner in the cause of saint John Nepomucene, while he himself was still discharging the office of Promoter of the faith. From all these things we conclude that the cause of Bl. Pelagia falls within a like excepted case; for St. Gregory of Tours at the end of the eulogy which we shall give below, besides other miracles, narrates that the sick were often healed at the sepulcher of this religious Woman. Therefore already in the time of saint Gregory of Tours many afflicted with diseases flowed together for the sake of veneration and patronage to the tomb of Bl. Pelagia; and from this concourse of the sick we gather her immemorial cult. Moreover the anonymous, nearly contemporary biographer of saint Aredius calls the Mother of this holy abbot blessed; whom Geoffrey, Prior of Vigeois, and Bernard Gui not only adorn with the title of saint, but also assign the venerable place of her burial among the other Saints of the diocese of Limoges, as we have already noted above. These ancient testimonies we judge sufficient to constitute an excepted case, and therefore we have placed Bl. Pelagia in our Work. Now we proceed to her Acts and to the miracles wrought after her death.
[8] Our Prague copy, concerning which we supplied notice in the Life of St. Aredius, In a certain Prague copy, thus begins the Acts of this blessed Matron: Blessed Pelagia, most noble by family, as descending from royal stock, was the granddaughter of king Theodobert, son of Childeric or Childebert, and was married to a nobleman named Jocundus, prince of the city of Limoges; which spouses, walking in the commandments and justifications of God, begot a happy offspring, saint Aredius, and Eustachius his brother, and Consocia his own sister. But her husband being dead, the secular habit being changed, dedicating herself to the Lord and exercising herself in holy works, she led a holy life. For although she was of royal family, and sprung of most noble stock, nobly born, nobly married, and tenderly nurtured amid the delights and riches of the world, she nevertheless so far bowed down so great a nobility of family, so far brought low so great a pomp of the world, so entirely trod under foot worldly delights, that, working through the fields at whatever small tasks she could perform with her own hands, she sought out for herself a necessary and quite scanty living. Assuredly, concerning this holy Pelagia, Gregory of Tours, relating how holy and how religious a life she led, and with how blessed an end she completed it, thus says, etc.
[9] whose credit We willingly admit all that St. Gregory of Tours and both anonymous biographers of St. Aredius narrate of the deeds of Bl. Pelagia; but we do not vouch for the truth of the several assertions which are read in this Prague beginning of the Life concerning the genealogy and kindred of that same blessed Woman: for in authentic monuments worthy of credit I find among the children of Bl. Pelagia only St. Aredius the abbot, and his brother named Rinoscindus or Renosindus, as we observed in the Annotations to the Acts of St. Aredius on the past day. But here mention is made of Eustachius, another son of Bl. Pelagia, and of Consocia, a daughter of the same Matron, of whom Gregory of Tours and the ancient biographers say not a word. I know indeed that in the testament of St. Aredius and Bl. Pelagia a certain Eustadius is named as brother of St. Aredius, as may be seen in Mabillon, volume 2 of the Old Analecta, pages 55 and 65. But this very testament is suspect to certain learned men of interpolation or fabrication, as we related in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Aredius.
[10] we here briefly examine, Indeed St. Gregory of Tours intimates that Aredius had only one brother, when in book 10 of the History of the Franks, chapter 24, he writes thus of that holy abbot after other things: Thereafter the man of God, filled, as we said, with the Holy Spirit, his father and his brother being dead, returns to his native land to console Pelagia his mother, who looked upon no kinsman besides this offspring. No word is here made of a third son of Bl. Pelagia, or of any daughter of hers, in whom this Widow would have had no small consolation of companionship. How then did that Matron, her husband and one son being dead, look upon no kinsman besides Aredius? It would therefore be necessary first to prove that both these offspring named in the Prague copy ever existed in the nature of things, and then to show from instruments worthy of credit that both died before their father's death; for the alleged phrase of St. Gregory of Tours will not easily be explained in another way. But whether Bl. Pelagia was the granddaughter of king Theodobert, and in what degree of kindred she touched Childeric or Childebert, we leave to the genealogists to investigate.
[11] and by Gregory of Tours Since the Prague copy relates the death and miracles of this blessed Widow from St. Gregory of Tours, we go to the fountain itself, and transcribe the same from the latest edition of Ruinart, where in the Book on the glory of the confessors, chapter 104, or column 983, the following are narrated: But Pelagia, the mother of blessed Aredius the abbot, of whom we have made mention above, a greatly religious woman, when she was pressed by fevers and was at her passing, asked her son, saying: I beseech thee, sweetest son, that you bury me not before the fourth day, that all the men-servants and maid-servants may come and see my poor body, and that none of those whom I most zealously nurtured may be defrauded of my obsequies. And saying these things, she gave up her spirit. Being washed according to custom, she is placed upon a bier, and is carried into the church. But on the fourth day, before she is buried, so great an odor of sweetness breathed forth from the body that all marveled. And in the night a great globe of fire appeared, which, rising from the east and running through the circle of the sky, stood over the church in which the body of the dead woman lay. For from this a sudden splendor so covered the whole building that they thought they beheld midday. And straightway many possessed persons cried out, saying that Martin was come to the passing of Pelagia.
[12] And on the following Lord's day, after she was buried, The Acts and death of this Blessed one are narrated. they set a candle at her head, saying: We have little wax, and the night is now longer; when we rise for Matins, then let this candle be lighted. And the door being shut, they went away. But when sleep was ended, entering the basilica, they found the candle burning which they had left extinguished. But also healings of the sick are often wrought at the sepulcher of this religious woman. Let no one object to me that Pelagia is never called blessed or holy in this narration; for this omission is no hindrance to her immemorial cult, since St. Gregory of Tours in the Book on the glory of the confessors often omits these titles, although in it most celebrated Saints are read who certainly possess a most well-known cult, as will become manifest to anyone willing to run through this book. Nay, Gregory in this very narration mentions the renowned St. Martin of Tours without any title of sanctity. For the rest, the pious life of this Blessed one is confirmed from the Acts of St. Aredius her son, which we illustrated on the past day. Above, at the beginning of this Collection, we placed her death in the margin with Ruinart about the year 570. Behold all that we have been able to gather or assign concerning that blessed Matron.