ON ST. PAUL, BISHOP, AT TRICASTINUM IN GAUL.
CommentaryPaul, Bishop, at Tricastinum in Gaul (St.)
By I. B.
[1] On the Kalends of February St. Paul the Bishop is venerated -- whether of Troyes (Tricassinum) or of Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux (Tricastinum) is uncertain; or perhaps he was Bishop of both sees, but a different person. The city of the Tricassini, which others have called Trecae, situated on the river Seine, is easily the chief city of the province of Champagne, about whose name and antiquity Pierre Pithou writes briefly but learnedly in his Adversaria Subseciva, book 2, chapter 1. We shall now set forth the Martyrologies which assign the Bishop Paul to this city. That St. Paul was of Troyes is shown by the Martyrologies. The Martyrology of Usuard, printed at Lubeck in 1490, the same published with the supplement by Jean Molanus, and that copied by hand for the use of various Belgian monasteries in former times and interpolated in various places; also the Cologne edition published in 1490 -- all read thus: "In the town of Trecassinum" (Bellinus of Padua: "Tricassinum") "of St. Paul the Bishop, whose life was illustrious for its virtues and whose precious death is commended by miracles." Galesius and Maurolycus have the same. The Roman Martyrology: "At Troyes, of St. Paul," etc. Ado and the published versions of Bede and Notker: "On the same day, of St. Paul, Bishop of the city of Tricassina" (Bede: "Trecassina"; Bavarian manuscript: "Trieartina") "whose life," etc. Peter de Natali, book 3, chapter 71: "Paul was Bishop of Troyes, whose life was illustrious for its virtues and whose precious death is commended by the most celebrated miracles. He closed his last day in Christ the Lord on the Kalends of February, as Ado says." Canisius has the same. The Martyrology of the Benedictine Order, formerly printed with the Rule of St. Benedict: "In the town of Trecassinum, of Blessed Paul the Bishop, glorious for his virtues and miracles." More briefly the manuscript of Centula: "At Troyes, of St. Paul, Bishop and Confessor." The Florarium: "In the town of Trecasinum, of St. Paul the Bishop." Ambiguously the manuscript Martyrology of the Church of St. Gudula in Brussels: "Likewise of St. Paul, Bishop of the city of Tricassina or of the fort of Yppidotum, whose life was illustrious for its virtues," etc.
[2] He is listed in the catalogue of Bishops of Troyes by Demochares, On the Divine Sacrifice of the Mass, chapter 19; Catalogues of Bishops. by Jean Chenu, Pierre Pithou (who cites Bede, Notker, and Usuard), Nicolas Camusat in his Promptuarium of the Antiquities of the Diocese of Troyes, and Claude Robert in his Gallia Christiana -- although the last two, as we shall say below, seem to express some doubt.
[3] A strong argument is that his relics are said to be preserved at Troyes. Thus Chenu: "He rests in the Church of Troyes." Camusat: "The Church of Troyes guards his body, deposited in a wooden reliquary, Relics. with the highest veneration, and piously and religiously venerates and protects it as a sacred deposit. No annual celebration, however, is dedicated to his name -- perhaps because his history does not survive." Des-Guerrois, in his book on the Saints of Troyes, writes that he flourished at the end of the time of Charlemagne and the beginning of Louis the Pious; for most writers list him before Elias, who is known to have held the see under Louis the Pious. Des Guerrois furthermore marvels that no celebration of St. Paul is held in the Church of Troyes. Elsewhere, however, he writes that on the Sunday after the Ascension the feast of Relics is celebrated in the Cathedral church, Ecclesiastical office. and that in a certain reading the following is recited: "Let us also venerate the precious and inestimable pearls of the bodies of the blessed Bishops of Troyes -- Ursus, Camelianus, Prudentius, and Paul -- resting intact in the present church."
[4] There are, however, arguments that claim him for the Tricastini, whose city, That he was of Tricastinum is confirmed by Martyrologies. believed to be called Augusta Tricastinorum in Pliny, Natural History, book 3, chapter 4, is now called Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux -- not, as Paulus Merula writes in part 2, book 3, chapter 40 of his Cosmography, Saint-Antoine-de-Tricastin, but, as Francois Ranchin writes in volume 2 of his General Description of Europe, Sainct Pol trois-chasteaux, or, as Catel in book 2, chapter 10 of his History of Languedoc has it, Sainct Paul-de-Tricastin. It is an episcopal city in the Dauphine, under the Archbishop of Arles; and its Bishop is also its Count; but there are few Canons in the Church and the diocese is small. To this city, therefore, various Martyrologies attribute Paul as its patron and the source of its name. The edition of Usuard printed at Paris in 1536 and at Cologne in 1521 with the additions of Hermann Greeven, together with manuscripts of the best note -- and among them one that formerly belonged to Augustin Hunnaeus and is now in our possession -- read thus: "In the town of Tricastrinum, of St. Paul the Bishop, whose life," etc. The manuscript of the Metropolitan Church of Prague: "Tricastino." The manuscript of the Church of Therouanne, and a very ancient one of the monastery of St. Lawrence at Liege,
both of which are editions of Ado: "On the same day, of St. Paul, Bishop of the city of Tricastina, whose life," etc. An ancient manuscript of the professed house of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp, bearing the name of Bede as title: "Trecastina." The manuscript of the Church of St. Mary at Utrecht: "On the same day, of St. Paul, Bishop and Confessor of the city of Castrina." So too the French translation of the Roman Martyrology by our own Philip Labbe: "A Tricastin, ou Tres-chasteaux sur le Rhosne, S. Paul," etc. -- if it does not immediately adjoin the Rhone, it is certainly not far distant from it, as is evident from the accurate map of Gaul in Ranchin. Our own Baudouin Willot translates: "A Trichateau en France, S. Paul," etc.
[5] Claude Robert lists him among both the Bishops of Troyes and those of Tricastinum; Catalogues of Bishops. and he indeed calls the latter's city Saint-Paul, and writes thus about him: "St. Paul, on the Kalends of February, although the people of Troyes believe the entry refers to their Paul. But among the Bishops of Troyes: XLIV. St. Paul, in the Martyrology on the Kalends of February; it seems, however, that the entry there refers to St. Paul of Tricastinum." Camusat also, after what we reported in number 3 above, and Nicolas Camusat of Troyes himself having cited the Martyrology of Bede, adds: "But I recall having read certain handwritten Martyrologies which have Tricastina, not Tricassina." The same author, after the dedicatory epistle, writes more explicitly: "After this Promptuarium was finished and completed, there came into my hands a codex of the monastery of Montier-la-Celle, containing the following catalogue of Bishops of Troyes, which does not agree with the published lists, in which more Bishops are included; but I would readily believe that certain names have crept into them: such as that of Paul, whom you would more truly call Bishop of Tricastinum; of Fredebert (more correctly Frodebert) and of Osulf; who, in my judgment, are wrongly listed among the said Prelates. For Frodobertus indeed seems rightly to be expunged, since, having been the Abbot of La Celle and a most famous man, he was placed in the order of the said Prelates by certain compilers of lists who had not weighed the matter with sufficient exactness; just as Paul himself, when they made him a Bishop of Troyes instead of a Bishop of Tricastinum, having been deceived and misled by the similarity of the names -- which often happens." So says Camusat, himself a native of Troyes.
[6] Others make two persons. The manuscript Martyrology of the Church of St. Lambert at Liege favors neither party, for it has only: "On the same day, of St. Paul the Bishop." Andrew Saussay makes two Pauls -- which is indeed convenient for settling this dispute, if he relies on ancient testimonies. He has: "On the same day, at Troyes, of St. Paul, Bishop and Confessor, who, succeeding Bertulf, with outstanding learning, eminent piety, and divine and admirable virtue, after he had governed that church for some time, having at last lived a most holy life, received the rewards of eternity; and, buried in his own church, he obtained the glory of extraordinary holiness." The church which he calls "his own" we believe to be not one dedicated to this same Paul but the Cathedral, which is that of St. Peter -- if the things we reported above from Des Guerrois are true. Saussay adds: "On the same day, in the province of Arles, of another holy Paul, Bishop of Tricastinum and Confessor, who, as the first instructor and Bishop of that city in Christ, by sacred learning and the admirable acts of his episcopal life, showed to the flock he had gathered the path to eternity; and after he had accumulated the abundant profits of the grace divinely received, enriched with outstanding merits, he departed to the everlasting reward." So says Saussay. Could this perhaps be the Paul who, together with others, subscribed to the first Council of Valence, under the consulship of Gratian Augustus for the third time and Equitius, vir clarissimus, in the year of Christ 374?