Optatus

ON SS. OPTATUS, BISHOP, AND SANCTINUS AND MEMORIUS, PRIESTS,

AT AUXERRE IN BURGUNDY,

About the year DXXX.

HISTORICAL-CRITICAL COLLECTION.

Of their deeds, their cult, and the translations of their bodies.

BY J. S.

Very few things concerning the deeds of St. Optatus, bishop of Auxerre, and of his priests Sanctinus and Memorius, [Few things formerly related concerning the deeds of St. Optatus, Sanctinus, and Memorius,] who are honored with sacred veneration along with him, have been handed down to the memory of posterity. They are related in the History of the Bishops of Auxerre in Labbe, volume 1 of the Library of Manuscripts, page 419, in this manner: Optatus sat 1 year, 8 months, 5 days. He built a basilica in honor of St. Christopher the martyr beside the basilica of St. Germanus on the eastern side, with the assistance of his two priests Sanctinus and Memorius. This most holy Pontiff, the time of his life being run out, on the day before the Kalends of September ended his temporal life with those same holy Priests of his, and obtained the eternal; with whom likewise he was buried in the same basilica which he had built. But afterwards, as the years slipped by, by the counsel of the nobles and of wise men their sacred bodies were translated into the church of blessed Germanus, so dutifully, so solemnly, that in all Martyrologies, and especially the ancient ones, the day of their translation is inserted at the VI of the Nones of the month of May. But their passing, or deposition, is noted on the day before the Kalends of September, as we have said before. And indeed they all rest together in one and the same sarcophagus. The city was without a bishop for one year. And he lived in the times of the aforesaid Pope Vigilius, while Justinian Augustus was still emperor, and Clothar, king of the Franks, was reigning. Of the translation of the bodies to the church of St. Germanus exactly the same things are narrated in the Miracles of St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, by Heiric the monk, whose words are to be recited below.

[2] In the new Breviary of Auxerre, which was printed at Sens in the year 1726, to which in the new Breviary a twofold translation of the body is added: at the XXXI of August, on which the festival of St. Optatus is prescribed to be celebrated with a semidouble rite, there is added to the foregoing a twofold translation of the body of St. Optatus. For lesson 3 is conceived in these words: Optatus, bishop of Auxerre, with happy care governed his flock one year, eight months, five days. Beside the basilica of St. Germanus he built another, smaller, in honor of St. Christopher the martyr on the eastern side, with the assistance of his two priests Sanctinus and Memorius. Conspicuous for holiness, he fell asleep in the Lord on the last day of August, about the year five hundred and thirty-two, and was buried in the same church which he had built, with the same priests. The bodies of the holy Prelate and of the two priests were, as the years slipped by, translated into the church of St. Germanus with so solemn a pomp that in all the Martyrologies, even in those which were already ancient in the ninth century, the day of this translation is inserted on the second day of May. From the time of this translation, laid up in one and the same sarcophagus, they rested together. But the body of blessed Optatus, at the end of the ninth century, was carried to the old monastery of St. Peter of Dèvres in the territory of Bourges; and thence to the new church of the monastery of Vierzon, in which he is honored as patron, and the solemnity of his translation is celebrated on the sixteenth day of February.

[3] the birthday of these Saints in the ancient Martyrologies, The later translations here asserted have given rise to some controversy, which we shall presently treat of. But first we shall adduce some Martyrologies in which the birthday and the earlier translation of these Saints are read as announced. The Hieronymian, in Florentinius, at the XXXI of August, have it thus: In the city of Auxerre, of St. Optatus, bishop and confessor, with his companions. Most other Martyrologies marked with the name of Jerome announce St. Optatus on the same day; but in them there is no mention of his companions. This announcement have, among our volumes, in volume VII of June toward the end, the Reichenau, the Augsburg, the Labbean, the Queen of Sweden's; and in D'Achery, volume 2 of the reprinted Spicilegium, page 17, the Corbie; finally, in Martène, volume 3 of the Anecdota, column 1559, he is recorded in the most ancient Martyrology of the monastery of St. Germanus of Auxerre, and at column 1589 in the Fragment of the Martyrology of Tours. From the Hieronymian, as Sollier notes, Usuard records Optatus in these words: At Auxerre, of St. Optatus, bishop and confessor. The Roman agrees, and very many others which it is not necessary to enumerate. Greven wrongly commemorates the birthday of these Saints on the 2nd of May, nor more rightly Molanus on the III of the same month.

[4] as also the translation of the bodies: The aforesaid Hieronymian, in Florentinius, at the 2nd of May announce the translation in this manner: At Auxerre, the translation of the bodies of the holy confessors Optatus the bishop, Memorius the priest , and Sancianus the priest. Florentinius observes various things upon this faulty passage, and testifies that the memory of this translation is found in various very ancient manuscripts, but likewise not without errors. In D'Achery, from the aforesaid Corbie manuscript, it is read thus: At Auxerre, the translation of the bodies of the holy confessors Optatus the bishop, Memorius the priest, Sanctinus the priest. The ancient Martyrology of the church of Auxerre, in Martène, volume 6 of the Most Ample Collection, column 702, has only: At Auxerre, of Optatus the bishop, of Memorius the priest, and of Sanctinus the priest. Nevertheless it seems to hint at a translation, since it records the deposition of St. Optatus on the XXXI of August. Certain other Hieronymian transcripts also record this translation on the 2nd of May, as has been observed by us on the same day. Saussay and Galesinius wrongly commemorate the same on the 2nd of March. From what has been said, gather that the translation of Saints Optatus, Sanctinus, and Memorius was indeed inserted in various ancient Martyrologies, but not in all, as is too generally asserted in the new Breviary as well.

[5] Before the new Breviary which we cited above, on the XXXI of August the Office of St. Optatus at Auxerre was said as a simple with a commemoration of SS. Sanctinus and Memorius, [the festival is celebrated on 31 August, the first translation on 2 May, the other on 16 February.] as may be seen in the ancient Breviaries of the people of Auxerre, and also in the Directory of the year 1720. But now on the same day a semidouble Office is made of St. Optatus; and on the 2nd of May a commemoration is made of the translation of Saints Optatus, Sanctinus, and Memorius. In the abbey of Vierzon of the Order of St. Benedict, of which we shall presently treat, the festival of St. Optatus is celebrated on the XXXI of August, as of a less principal patron, with a double rite of the first class and of the second order, with an octave. But the translation on the XVI of February with the rite of a greater double and of the third order. But this is another translation

than the preceding, and therefore is celebrated on another day. Moreover, on the XXXI day of August the chest in which the body of St. Optatus is laid is exposed to the veneration of the faithful. This from the letter of the Prior of Vierzon, of which we shall presently give more.

[6] Now these words of the new Office — But the body of blessed Optatus, at the end of the ninth century, [A controversy concerning the twofold translation and the possession of the body of St. Optatus:] was carried to the old monastery of St. Peter of Dèvres in the territory of Bourges, and thence to the new church of the monastery of Vierzon — have not pleased everyone. Dom Jean Bretagne, a Benedictine monk of St. Germanus of Auxerre, in the year 1730 wrote on that matter to Master Lebeuf, canon and succentor of Auxerre, a rather long letter, in which he assails by various arguments the translation to Dèvres, and endeavors to prove that the body of St. Optatus was never removed from Auxerre. But Master Lebeuf answered all those arguments in a letter sent to us together with the preceding. To these was joined a letter of Master Royer, Prior of Vierzon, who adduced all the records by which the possession of the body of St. Optatus is claimed for the abbey of Vierzon. It will be useful to set those records before the eyes of the readers, as they are reported in the letter, and at least briefly to weigh the difficulties which can be raised against them. But first I shall set forth the places to which the body is said to have been translated. Virsio or Virzio, commonly Vierzon, is a town in the province of Bourges at the confluence of the river Yèvre with the Cher. In the neighborhood of this town was founded the monastery of Dèvres. But when the said abbey had been reduced almost to nothing by the incursion of wicked men, it was in the tenth century transferred to the town of Vierzon itself. These things Denis de Sainte-Marthe sets out more fully in volume 2 of the Gallia Christiana, column 133 and following.

[7] The people of Vierzon cannot show at what time, on what occasion, in various charters the body of St. Optatus is asserted or by whom the body of St. Optatus of Auxerre was carried to the abbey of Dèvres. This the aforesaid Prior of Vierzon confesses openly enough, when in the aforesaid letter he says that he has no other arguments except a tradition from time immemorial, and certain passages from the cartulary of the abbey by which the possession of the body may be proved. And from the said Cartulary, page 5, he adduces these words: Of the holy basilica of the monastery of St. Peter of Dèvres, which is built in honor of the prince of the apostles Peter and of the undefiled Virgin Mary; where also rest the bodies of the Saints, Optatus the confessor and Perpetua the martyr; where also Americus is known to preside as abbot. The sign of King Charles. On page 6 the following: To the highest Maker, etc., namely to blessed Peter of the holy basilica of Dèvres, which is known to be dedicated in his honor; in which also the bodies of the Saints rest buried, namely of Optatus the venerable bishop of Auxerre and of Perpetua the martyr; where Americus is known to preside as abbot. I, Ambranus, etc. The sign of Charles the most glorious king.

[8] to have been in the abbey of Dèvres about the middle of the ninth century, These charters must have been written about the middle of the ninth century, since already about the year 853 Aimeric the abbot had as successor Asinarius, as we learn from Mabillon, who in volume 2 of the Annals, page 641, adduces part of a document given in the XIII year of King Charles the Bald, when Asinarius was abbot. Receive the very words of the document, since they make no less for our purpose than the preceding: Of the most sacred basilica of the monastery of St. Peter of Dèvres, which is built in honor of Peter the prince of the Apostles and of the undefiled Virgin Mary, where also rest the bodies of the saints Optatus the confessor and Felicitas the martyr, where also Asinarius is known to preside as abbot, etc. The three fragments adduced, if they can prove anything, will necessarily prove that the body of St. Optatus was in the abbey of Dèvres before the middle of the ninth century.

[9] [in others it is said to have been in the abbey of Vierzon before the middle of the eleventh century;] The aforesaid Prior then enumerates certain fragments of charters which belong to the tenth and eleventh centuries. The first two, which are found in the Cartulary at pages 9 and 10, make no mention of the body of St. Optatus, but of the bodies of Bisencius the confessor and Perpetua the martyr, and therefore are of no avail to the tradition of Vierzon. But on page 12, by the same witness, this is read: Where the bodies of the Saints rest buried, namely of Optatus the confessor (Bisensius) and of Perpetua the martyr; where also Martin is known to preside as abbot. Then the following on page 21: Where also rest buried the bodies of the Saints, of Optatus the confessor, and also of Bisencius the confessor, and of Perpetua the martyr; where also Martin is known to preside as abbot. Martin presided as abbot of Vierzon in the year 1031, as may be seen in Denis de Sainte-Marthe, volume 2 of the Gallia Christiana, column 137: these two fragments, therefore, belong to those times. Moreover the aforesaid Sainte-Marthe recites in the same place a charter belonging to the same monastery, given under Abbot Christian, who had preceded Martin, in which of the bodies of the Saints preserved in the abbey of Vierzon only this is read: Where also rest buried the bodies of the saints Bizenesius the confessor and Perpetua the martyr. From these things I observe that in the fragments of the charters of Dèvres the sacred body of Optatus is asserted to have been in the abbey of Dèvres about the middle of the ninth century; but that in the earlier charters of Vierzon, which belong to the tenth century and part of the eleventh, that body is passed over in silence, and no mention is made of its being preserved at Vierzon before Abbot Martin, that is, about the year 1030. Hence the Prior of Vierzon in the aforesaid letter infers that the body of St. Optatus was not carried to Vierzon at once with the abbey itself, but only under Abbot Martin.

[10] and still to rest there: To these ancient records the aforesaid Prior adds another proof from the History of his house, in which he testifies that the following is read: St. Obtatus (or Optatus), bishop of Auxerre, rests in the basilica of Vierzon. See concerning him the Chronicle of the bishops of Auxerre, published in the Rev. Father Labbe. That in the church of St. Germanus of Auxerre, to which his sacred relics had been carried from the church of St. Christopher, they are no longer preserved, our learned Dom Georges Viole confesses in his papers, which I turned over in the keeping of Master Gaucher, royal advocate at Vierzon: and he notes that in the year MDCXXXIV, when the bones of the Saints laid up in the basilica of St. Germanus were visited, the relics of St. Optatus were not found, although in the crypt in which it long lay this inscription is read to this day: "Here lies the body of my lord St. Optatus, who was the fourteenth bishop of this city, who died on the last day of August." In what manner, on what day and in what year, the translation of this same St. Optatus to the monasteries of Dèvres and Vierzon was made, no records teach, but tradition alone. Thus far the arguments by which the body of St. Optatus of Auxerre is claimed for the people of Vierzon.

[11] Against these records there is chiefly opposed the authority of Heiric the monk in the Life of St. Germanus, but Heiric the monk wrote the contrary, and of the History of the Bishops of Auxerre. Heiric, in the Miracles of St. Germanus, volume VII of July, page 281, has it thus: In the same basilica (of St. Germanus of Auxerre) rests St. Optatus the bishop with two priests, Sanctinus and Memorius; with whom he was first buried in the church of St. Christopher the martyr, which he had built; afterwards, as the years slipped by, their bodies were translated into the church of St. Germanus so dutifully, so solemnly, that in all Martyrologies, and especially the ancient ones, the day of their translation is inserted at the sixth of the Nones of the third month : but their passing or deposition is noted on the day before the Kalends of September. And indeed they all rest together in the same sarcophagus. Now Heiric presented his books of Miracles, not long after they were finished, to Charles the Bald about the year 876. If therefore he says truly of St. Optatus the bishop, He rests in the same basilica, he could not have been translated about the middle of that same century to the abbey of Dèvres, as the charters adduced above have it. The words of the History of the Bishops of Auxerre, which we gave at number 1, seem to hint at the same; since that History too was written after the time at which the body ought already to have been in the abbey of Dèvres, and yet is wholly silent about that translation. There is added the silence of the History of the Abbots of St. Germanus and of the Chronicle of the abbey*, and finally of all writers: for nowhere is that translation found recorded by any writers contemporary, nearly contemporary, or even much later. From these things the aforesaid Dom Jean Bretagne thinks it follows that the St. Optatus who is honored in the abbey of Vierzon is other than Optatus of Auxerre. He adds other reasons also, and sets these out at greater length. But I judged that I should do enough if I set forth the chief ones briefly, and with the same brevity replied, lest this discussion prove more prolix than is necessary.

[12] The chief difficulty lies in the authority of Heiric, nor can that passage of his be suspected of interpolation: who was also among those who under Bishop Wala began to compose the History of the Bishops of Auxerre, as may be seen in Labbe, in the Library, volume 1, page 434. Master Lebeuf endeavors to render the passage of Heiric suspect of interpolation. But that whole passage is read without erasures or additions in our Lyons codex P. Ms. 4, which no one will hold suspect of interpolation who has examined that codex, or has read what was most truly said of that codex in our volume VII of July, page 192, in the account of St. Germanus. Wherefore I do not see why we ought not to confess that Heiric believed that the body of St. Optatus was in his time still in the church of St. Germanus of Auxerre. It remains, therefore, that we consider whether Heiric himself could not have been mistaken in this matter, and whether it is not probable that he was in fact deceived.

[13] but Heiric could err: since the body of St. Optatus is probably at Vierzon: Those who are enriched with a sacred treasure by the translation of relics are wont to record their acquisition more than those who lose that same treasure record their loss. Hence Heiric could find in the papers of his monastery the translation to the church of St. Germanus, and yet not find the translation to the abbey of Dèvres, even if it had certainly been made, either because the monks of St. Germanus had not taken care to note down the loss of the sacred body, or because the translation had perhaps been made secretly, and therefore not committed to writing. Since therefore Heiric knew that the body of St. Optatus had been translated to the church of his monastery, and did not find that it had afterwards been removed thence, he could suppose that it still remained there. Certainly Heiric seems to have been ignorant in what part of the church the bodies of Optatus and his Companions had been laid. For of all the other bodies of Saints which he records there, he carefully describes the place in which they had been laid; of the bodies of SS. Optatus, Sanctinus, and Memorius alone he omits this. Nor do I see why he would not have assigned the place, if he had had it clearly before him. And Heiric seems not likely to have been ignorant of the place, unless the bodies had long since been translated elsewhere. These things indeed appear to me highly probable, both on account of the charters of Dèvres and Vierzon adduced above,

and because the people of Auxerre confess that they do not know where those sacred bodies are now laid — which they seem to have been ignorant of from Heiric's time — while the people of Vierzon venerate St. Optatus with a celebrated cult and expose his chest to public veneration. From all that we have discussed I gather that the body of St. Optatus is more probably in the abbey of Vierzon, as the new Office affirms; but that it was not carried to the abbey of Dèvres at the end of the ninth century, but earlier and at an uncertain time.

[14] a few words on the year of his death. Lastly, a few things come to be noted about the time in which St. Optatus flourished. The History of the Bishops of Auxerre, alleged at number 1, says that he flourished in the times of Pope Vigilius, of the emperor Justinian, and of Clovis king of the Franks. But these do not agree with one another: for Clovis had died many years before Vigilius was Pontiff or Justinian emperor. And so these chronological notes are plainly to be abandoned. The new Office of Auxerre fixes the death of St. Optatus about the year 532. Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks, at the year 531, number 19, has it thus: St. Optatus, bishop of Auxerre, died in this year on the day before the Kalends of September, on which day he is honored in the ecclesiastical tables. But this year of death does not appear so certain that it should be asserted without any hesitation. For the death of St. Optatus indeed ought not to be placed later, since the bishopric is said to have been vacant for one year, and then Droctoaldus succeeded, and after him St. Eleutherius, who in the year 533 subscribed to the Council of Orléans, in Labbe, volume 4, column [ ]. But I do not yet see why the Saint could not have died some years earlier, and therefore I have preferred to fix his death about the year 530. Whether Sanctinus and Memorius, who is called Memorianus by some, died at the same time, is not clear from the ancient records.

\ Memorii presbyteri.*

\ Sanctini.*

\ Perhaps Apostolorum*.

\ Perhaps Aymericus*.

\* That is, of May.