Ebregisilus

ON ST. EBREGISILUS, OR EBRAISILUS, BISHOP OF MEAUX,

IN THE MONASTERY OF JOUARRE IN BRIE, A PROVINCE OF GAUL.

Seventh or eighth century.

The place, his cult, his time, his sepulcher, his sacred remains.

Ebregisilus or Ebraïfilus, bishop of Meaux, in the monastery of Jouarre in Brie, a province of Gaul (St.)

BY J. P.

Mabillon, in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century 2, page 286, in the historical eulogy of St. Theodechildis, first abbess of Jouarre, The situation of Jouarre; the Saint's cult: calling that illustrious nunnery by name of the Order of St. Benedict, describes its situation thus: Jouarre … situated within the fields of the forest of Jouy (as Jonas in the Life of St. Columbanus, and the anonymous author in the Life of St. Agilus the abbot, speak), in the district of Brie, six miles above the town of Meaux, not far from the river Marne, owes its beginnings to Ado, a most noble Frank: of whom more there. Toussaint du Plessis, in the History of the Church of Meaux, published in French at Paris in the year 1731, volume 1, note 25, page 663, has collected various things in treating of this monastery. But Meldae (commonly Meaux) is an episcopal city in Gaul, and the head of the province of Brie, distant 10 leagues from Paris to the East, and 18 toward Rheims, by Baudrand's measurement. Thus much of the place; but concerning the cult of this Prelate these things occur. Molanus, Canisius, and Ferrarius mark him, and call him Ebraisilus; but Castellanus, Ebrigisilus, adding that he is called Evrele; the new Paris Martyrology writes Ebregisilus, and announces him thus: At Jouarre in Brie, of St. Ebregisilus, bishop of Meaux, whose body is religiously preserved in the church of the nuns of Jouarre. That the memory of this holy Bishop is honored on this day among the people of Jouarre and in the whole diocese of Meaux, Du Plessis indicates in volume 1, number 52, page 40. From Castellanus in the Ahemeris*, page 749, we have it that he is honored on this day with an Octave in the abbey of Jouarre.

[2] proper lessons concerning him In the Breviary of Meaux, which was printed in the year 1640, he is prescribed to be honored on this day with a semidouble rite, and it has two proper lessons in these words: Lesson IV. Ebrigisillus, sprung of most noble parents, about the year of the Lord seven hundred and fifty, was by the merit of his exceeding holiness elected bishop of Meaux, and substituted in the place of St. Pathusius (who had not yet been consecrated). In the discharge of which office he is said to have used such diligence that he omitted nothing whereby he might the more easily further the salvation of his people entrusted to him by Christ in the faith. For the good Shepherd understood that his administration must be weighed in just scales before the just judge, and that an account of his stewardship must be rendered item by item. And so some he fed with the divine sayings, others he drew away from vices by striking fear into them; to others he showed a more excellent way, being made all things to all men after the example of St. Paul.

[3] given Lesson V. And when he had long devoted himself with a truly fatherly heart to those pious works, behold, he dies, and indeed his soul seeks heaven, to be joined to the blessed choirs of the angels; but his body is laid in the monastery of Jouarre, in which he had died, and over which his sister Aquilberta presided, where it lay hidden down to our own times, and about the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty was raised from the tomb by the bishop of Nantes and placed in a more honorable position; but a small portion of that body the bishop of Meaux enclosed, with the relics of St. Sanctinus, in a silver case, which is now preserved in the cathedral church of Meaux. Would that in place of those lessons it had been permitted me to give the Saint's Life, which hitherto I have not found in our museum.

[4] together with various St. Patusius is found in Castellanus and in the new Paris Martyrology on the III day of October, on which he may then be seen. In the Paris Martyrology, besides the title of priest of Meaux (Castellanus adds, of St. Stephen's), it is said: Who, being elected bishop, is related to have died on that very day. In the Sainte-Marthe brothers, in the Gallia Christiana, volume 3, page 696, he stands among the bishops of Meaux before St. Ebregisilus, no year being assigned either to him or to the seven others following. After these there follows Romanus, who is named in the year DCCXLI in a letter of Pope Zacharias … under the year DCCXLIV. Castellanus in his Martyrology places St. Pathusius in the eighth century; the new Paris Martyrology about the year DCXCVII. These by no means agree with the year about DCCL marked in the lessons already given. But Ebrigisilus in the said Paris Martyrology is marked on this XXXI day of August at about the year DCC; in

Castellanus, however, in the seventh century. But I, following them, have above assigned him for the time being to the seventh or eighth century, amid the great chronological obscurity of the Prelates of Meaux; upon which the editors of the new Gallia Christiana will perhaps shed more light, when it shall be given us to see their archbishops of Paris, to whom the bishops of Meaux are suffragans.

[5] In the aforesaid lessons Aquilberta (elsewhere Aguilberta, upon the same Agilberta, and Agliberta) is said to have been the sister of our holy Prelate. In volume 2 of August, on the XI day, page 656, we said a few things about that holy virgin, abbess of Jouarre, and there we also indicated that nothing at all was ascertained about her deeds. But in her eulogy from Saussay it is there reported that she was born of the illustrious blood of kings, her father Abobinus, her mother Pientia, the sister of St. Abregesilus, the most glorious bishop of Meaux. Menard, in the Observations on his Benedictine Martyrology, has the like, book 1, page 300, and concludes his note upon those same Saints thus: Which things I have ascertained from the ancient records of that same abbey. I could wish he had added of what age those were which he calls ancient, so that something more definite might be established here. Moreover, concerning the body of St. Ebregisilus, as the lessons above reported, raised from the tomb and placed in a more honorable position, it is well to observe this from Du Plessis, who in book 1, number 55, page 43, writing of the translation of the holy bodies of Jouarre to the great church of that abbey, narrates that this ceremony was solemnly performed on the XIII day of October in the year 1627, in the presence of Queen Marie de' Medici, mother of King Louis XIII, by Philippe de Cospéan, then bishop of Nantes and afterwards of Lisieux. He records that only three sepulchers were opened at that time, namely that of St. Theodechildis (of whom there will be an account among us on the X of October) and two others, which were believed to be those of St. Ebregisilus and St. Aguilberta.

[6] He treats also of certain pontifical ornaments found in the sepulcher of the holy Bishop, from the History of the Church of Paris published by Gérard du Bois, observations volume 1, chapter 7, pages 205 and 206; where he says this of the tomb of Agilbert, bishop of Paris: André Saussay writes that in the year of Christ MDCXXXI his body was found at Jouarre, buried in that crypt with pontifical vestments woven of silk, where were golden fringes which he himself had seen and touched; where also was a golden ring with an agate stone, on which is carved the figure of St. Jerome striking his breast with a flint before Christ fastened to the cross: he says it was of elegant workmanship, and adds that the circle of the ring was so wide that one might easily put both thumbs into it. Then the aforesaid Gérard du Bois, after interposing a narrative which does not altogether agree with Saussay's statements, says: It is credible that Saussay was mistaken, and that St. Agilbert was too incautiously assumed in place of St. Ebregisilus, bishop of Meaux, who is buried in the same crypt, and whose body was found with those vestments and with the ring. Whether a cult in the strict sense befits Agilbert, whom the author cited called a saint, as does Saussay also on the XI day of October, may be inquired elsewhere. The same Saussay makes mention in the same place of that prelate's burial: but he has nothing there of those things which Gérard du Bois just now imputed to him; which I have sought elsewhere also in vain in his Martyrology. Since therefore that historian does not there set down the place of André Saussay in which he found these things, I am compelled to leave them to the credit of the reporter. Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology, page 744, places among the Ahemeri the venerable Agilbert, bishop of Paris, of whom he then collects various things. Du Plessis, page 43, reports that the crypt of St. Ebregisilus is adorned with fifteen Corinthian columns, five of which are of marble, which support the sanctuary; and that the altar which before the year 1704 was seen there no longer exists. Of the position of the tomb in that shrine, and of the change made in the year 1640 in that same crypt, he also writes in the place cited.

[7] of our own. Lastly, in the lessons this is narrated: A small portion of that body the bishop of Meaux enclosed with the relics of St. Sanctinus in a silver case, which is now preserved in the cathedral church of Meaux. In the year 1658, on the XXX day of October, the most illustrious bishop of Meaux, Dominique Séguier, among the various sacred pledges which he translated and enclosed in a silver reliquary, records two bones of St. Ebrigisilus, which he asserts were given to his church by the abbesses of Jouarre of his diocese, as appears from the instrument drawn up on this matter and printed in Du Plessis, volume 2, from page 384, mention being made also of the sacred remains of St. Sanctinus, who is found in the Roman Martyrology on the XXII day of September.

\* Jouarre.