ON BL. AGILUS THE VISCOUNT, CONFESSOR,
NEAR MEUNG IN GAUL
After the year DLXXXVII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Blessed one's cult and Acts: whether he was a monk.
Agilus, viscount and confessor, near Meung in Gaul (St.)
J. S.
The memory of Bl. Agilus, or Agilis, viscount of Orléans, was indeed never entered in the ancient Martyrologies: The lawful cult of the Saint but more recent martyrologists mention the Blessed one, and other monuments abundantly show his ancient cult. The new Paris Martyrology in the Addenda for the XXX of August has it thus: At Voisinat [] near the town of Meung [] in the territory of Orléans, of St. Agilis the viscount, who, converted from the world, sold his goods for the food of the poor and the building of monasteries. Castellanus agrees in his Universal Martyrology, but gives a shorter eulogy. Saussay, however, in the Gallican Martyrology on the same day gives a summary of the Acts. Simon de Peyronet in his Catalogue of the Saints, page 269, further confirms the cult, and ascribes the Blessed one to the monks also in these words: Ay, Agilus, in others Agylus, viscount of Orléans; afterward a monk of Micy in Gaul, whom Charles Saussay mentions in the Ecclesiastical Annals of Orléans, book 3, §4, where he enumerates the distinguished abbots, monks, and confessors who came forth from the monastery of Micy, situated not far from Orléans. He is venerated in the diocese of Orléans on the XXX of August, especially in the church of his own name, which, formerly built by him in honor of the Mother of God, is today commonly called St. Ay sur Loire.
[2] The memory of the Blessed one is also found in the Calendar of the Saints of Orléans on the XXX of August with a summary of his Life; is shown: and in Ferrarius's General Catalogue. Besides, François le Maire in the History and Antiquities of Orléans, page 200, enumerating the relics of Saints which in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries used to be carried about in processions, numbers among them the relics of Bl. Agilus. Finally, under the Acts of which we shall presently treat, I find this noted: These Acts are preserved in manuscript in an old codex in the church of St. Agilus near Meung, to be read every year on his birthday at Matins; with which the nocturnal lessons of the ancient manuscript Breviary of the monastery of St. Maximin agree in the very words on the same feast. By these things I judge the immemorial cult of the Blessed one to be abundantly proved.
[3] The Acts of Bl. Agilus our predecessors received from the Fathers of the Feuillants from their Paris collection. Whence the Acts were received, and of what sort. Their author is anonymous and of uncertain date, since he nowhere implies that he was contemporary with the Blessed one, nor can it be gathered from elsewhere that he was far removed from his age. Further, from our annotations it will appear that nothing is related in them which can be convicted of falsity or error. Charles Saussay in the Annals of the Church of Orléans, book 3, chapter 40, abridged these very Acts, and Surius published them as abridged by him on the XXX of August. We shall subjoin them entire from our transcript, and shall illustrate them with annotations after our custom. But from the Acts the studious reader will easily perceive that our Blessed one was not rightly numbered among the monks of Micy by Charles Saussay and certain others, since no mention is made in them of a monastic life of his, nor can it be proved from elsewhere. Hence Mabillon himself, volume 1 of the Acts of the Saints of his Order, page 581, noted this: St. Agilus (of Orléans) does not seem to have been a monk.
Annotations*. Voisinat. *. Meung.
LIFE
By an anonymous author
From a manuscript of the church of Bl. Agilus near Meung.
Agilus, viscount and confessor, near Meung in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 0147
By an Anonymous writer.
When a servant of Agilus, who had offended, had fled There was a certain man, by name Agilus, of noble stock and mighty in renown, who was so exalted in this present life that he held the honor of viscount of the district of Orléans a. For he was so severe and so strict toward evildoers that scarcely any of the guilty could escape him. Now it happened that a certain servant of his committed a certain offense against the same Bl. Agilus; and this being perpetrated, that servant, despairing of the help of living men, began to consider whether anywhere God's aid might meet him through the merit of some holy man. And amid various thoughts of mind it came into his memory how great things God, the holy Trinity and simple unity, deigned constantly in those days to work at the tomb of the excellent confessor and excellent abbot Maximinus b.
[2] to the tomb of St. Maximinus, he sends officers, Thither therefore the aforesaid servant flew with the utmost haste, and presently, prostrate on the ground at the tomb c of the holy Maximinus, sighing with groans he cried out with abundant tears, saying: O most excellent in mercy, blessed Maximinus, who by no means deniest thy benefits to those who ask them, come to my aid, that the violence of my own master may not be able to drag me from this holy place to my hurt. Let thy power, O Saint, appear over me, since I have fled to thee, hoping to have found no stronger defender. Saying these things very often, he did not cease to kiss the holy tomb. But the aforesaid lord Agilus, using a barbarous mind, at once sent officers who should most surely lead him away from that place and present him to him, that he might take vengeance upon him.
[3] [that they might drag him away by force from the mule: but these being frightened by trembling, he goes there himself,] They therefore, drawing near to the place, began after a little to tremble in all their limbs, seized by the power of God and the merit of holy Maximinus. And coming to themselves, they acknowledge the Saint's power and their own presumption; and presently approaching humbly to the tomb, they render their vows to God through the intercession of that same blessed man, not laying a hand on that fugitive whom his own protector was defending; and so they, unhurt, report to their lord what had befallen them. Hearing this and by no means believing it, but full of fury, he mounted his horse and began to direct his way to the aforesaid tomb, that he might drag away by force, to punish him, the servant whom the divine power was preserving.
[4] But when he was set almost midway on his journey, but being seized with grave sickness, he makes many vows, he could by no means urge his steed forward, though he struck both its flanks with the spurs; and he himself was so suddenly weighed down that he could in no way raise his head (for he began to be tormented with an incredible torture of his whole body), and being able neither to return home nor to go to the place of the sepulcher, coming to himself he was compelled to confess the power of the Lord and the merit of the Saint. And drawing sighs from the bottom of his heart, he ordered himself to be carried by the hands of his servants to the tomb of the holy confessor; and abiding there a little while, wasted with lack of food and drink, with many tears and lamentation, having confessed before God and holy Maximinus that he had sinned, he made a vow that, if God and St. Maximinus would restore to his limbs their former strength, and drive from him the impending death and bring him life, he would build a church over the sepulcher of the blessed man, and would make over to his service in perpetuity the servant whom Bl. Maximinus had claimed for himself.
[5] The clemency therefore of the Lord Almighty God most swiftly received his tearful voices: if he be restored to health; and being restored, he fulfills his vows. for indeed, his strength being immediately recovered, he cheerfully blessed God, gave thanks to blessed Maximinus, and handed over that servant, freed by God and by blessed Maximinus, to serve him with all his offspring in perpetuity under the attestation of a testament; and he also raised the church d which he had vowed. The building of the church therefore being completed in the name of the Lord and of blessed Maximinus, he endowed it with the inheritance of his patrimony; for he granted to that church, by written testament, the estate which is called the villa of Bl. Berarius, with its appurtenances. At that time blessed Avitus e ruled the place of Micy.
[6] But now we must tell what manner of life and what deeds were those of blessed Agilus after such a conversion. The Blessed one shines with virtues For this oft-named Agilus, who before was hard and beyond measure strict, is now most kindly and conspicuous for all gentleness. He gave himself to prayers and to continual fastings; and he so stood midway between the rich and the poor that the poor looked upon him as one poor, while the rich esteemed him as a rich man above themselves. And he honored each man the more highly the more holily he had learned to live. Toward the needy he showed himself so solicitous that he truly believed, according to Christ's word, that Christ was in them. With a father's affection he bore the cause and all the care of widows, orphans, and wards. Of all the clergy he took such care that if he saw poor clerics, he would join them to the rich, so that, according to blessed Paul's saying, the abundance of the latter might relieve the want of the former. His care for the clergy was such that if he found any among them studious in the law of God, he loved them with the greatest veneration, and joined them to himself in friendship.
[7] Blessed Agilus was therefore most eloquent in speech, endowed with justice, he shines with various just in judgment, faithful in what was committed to him, conspicuous in goodness, illustrious in all uprightness of manners, an enlarger and propagator of the churches of God, founding several also out of his own inheritance; and some too, growing in riches, he is said to have endowed more abundantly from the estates of his patrimony, such as the basilica of the proto-martyr Stephen f, which was founded at Micy. For he gave the estate which is called Biverias, and another which is called Audoenus's Well, in perpetuity by testament, free from all lordship. And the monastery g of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, which is built outside the walls of Orléans to the east, in which the body of blessed Anianus is held buried, blessed Agilus greatly enriched from his estates which are situated in divers places.
[8] and with miracles: Abounding in these and very many virtues of good works, blessed Agilus, though set in a layman's habit, pleased both God and men, in the times of the renowned king Childebert h, who nobly governed the empire delivered to him by God, on account of the aforesaid good deeds. Bl. Agilus was also an assiduous visitor of holy places: for he very often journeyed to Rome and to other places of the Saints that were to be seen. And through the same blessed Agilus the glory of Christ so shone forth in a fullness of healings that the deaf received hearing, the blind sight, the dumb the office of speaking, the lame their walking, and paralytics the healing of their limbs. Such things Christ bestowed upon many through the merit of holy Agilus.
[9] he journeys to Rome and Jerusalem, For he himself fled the boasting of men, remaining in a most secret place, from which he was by no means willing to come forth unless some clear cause required it. But after much time, when he had made himself over to God with his whole heart, while the divine power still knocked at his soul concerning its perfection, considering more watchfully with wakeful mind the saying of our most loving Savior, who says: If thou wilt be perfect, leave all things and follow God naked — judging, and greatly fearing, that it would be to the detriment of his soul if he remained in so great a dignity as was regarded in the honor of the viscountship, having left and disposed of all his estates and other movable goods in alms, he hastened to seek out the admonition breathed into him by Christ. In which pilgrimage, tarrying long, he first came to Rome; and abiding there a long while at the thresholds of blessed Peter and Paul, at last by divine instinct, for the honor of our redemption and of the venerable holy Cross, he sought Jerusalem; and at the sepulcher of the Lord he for a long time wore himself down with fastings and prayers, until he was divinely admonished to return.
[10] and visits other Holy places on his return. And the grace of the Lord directing his steps, he came as far as a seaport, in which, finding a ship made ready, he embarked with his companions; and sailing they came to Arles i; and there, leaving the ship, with his companions for the sake of prayer he visited all the places of the Saints set along his way, seeking pardon from Christ through their merits. And so pursuing his journey, he came as far as the city of Tours k, in which, tarrying a little at the basilicas of blessed Maurice and Martin, he learned by divine revelation that the day of his calling was at hand. And having crossed the river Loire, he was returning by a direct way to the city of Orléans, desiring to be buried in the church which he himself had founded over the mausoleum of blessed Maximinus.
[11] Touched by a slight fever, he is warned by an angel of his approaching death: And when he was lodging on an estate of his own right, pleasant enough, near the river Loire, which is five miles distant from the above-named city of Orléans, and was tarrying there a little while, he is touched by a slight fever. And there appears at the time of midnight an angel, conspicuous of countenance in a vision, who cheerfully said: O soul beloved of God, thou hast fought the good fight, thou hast accomplished the work of Christ; now the same Christ shall set an end to thy labor. And on the Lord's day thou shalt be taken up to Christ by the holy angels; but thy poor body he bids by divine command to be buried in this place. But most swiftly, if thou hast anything to dispose of, dispose of it: for so shall it be to thee as thou hast heard from me.
[12] But when report spread abroad that blessed Agilus had returned from his pilgrimage, and, fortified with the last viaticum, he piously dies a throng of many rich and poor rejoicing and in haste flew to the place where he lay. He himself also sent for Austrenus l, bishop of Orléans, and for Maximinus the second m, abbot of Micy, who was the nephew of blessed Theodemir, that they might come to console him and to commend his soul to Christ. They, presently obeying his will, are present with a great company of clerics and monks. And he asked for the viaticum of the Lord's Body; and thus full of days, the seasons of his life being completed, gleaming with the splendor of his merits, he commends his earthly limbs to the earth, while his spirit ascended on high to abide with the heavenly choirs of the angels, on the third day of the Kalends of September n.
[13] Thereupon suddenly the company of innumerable peoples flowed back: his burial, and the miracles at his sepulcher. and his body, borne to the sepulcher in the church which had there been dedicated in honor of the holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, was becomingly buried behind the altar. And blessed Agilus left a certain household of servants to serve that place, and the estate which belonged to him, in which he was buried. And the offspring of this household still belongs to blessed Agilus by devoted service. At his tomb the divine goodness deigns continually to work very great miracles: for very often frenzied persons are healed, and diseases of divers kinds are extinguished, through the invocation of the holy and undivided Trinity, and through the merit of the most blessed and ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and of the holy confessor Agilus who rests there. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
Glossary of Du Cange, which may be consulted. The viscounts of Orléans are enumerated by le Maire, praised before, in chapter 27, and among them he sets Bl. Agilus first. In the Acts of St. Maximinus, to be assigned presently, Agilus is called only a rich and very powerful man.