Anatolius

CONCERNING SAINT ANATOLIUS, BISHOP, AT SALINS IN BURGUNDY.

Preliminary Commentary.

Anatolius, Bishop of Salins in Burgundy (Saint)

By the Author I. B.

Section I. The Feast Day, Life, and Miracles of Saint Anatolius, Patron of Salins.

[1] The region of the Sequani, which is now called the County of Burgundy, possesses notable salt mines in several places: Ludovicus Gollutius, book 2 of his work on Sequanian affairs, chapter 24, considers that these were entirely unknown to the Romans, profitable salt works in Burgundy, for they would neither have neglected such an opportunity for immense profit -- they who had dug out gold and silver everywhere -- nor would their cosmographers and historians have failed to make mention of them somewhere, if they had then existed. They were known, however, already in the time of the Burgundian Kings in the fifth Christian century, as is clear from the Life of Saint Eugendus on January 1, who was a disciple of Saints Romanus and Lupicinus on the Jura mountain, where now the town of Saint-Claude stands. His monks therefore, as is related in chapter 10 of his Life, fearing the terrible and neighboring incursions of the Alemanni, who were accustomed to attack travelers not in close combat but by surprise assault in bestial fashion, decided to obtain refined salt rather from the border of the Tyrrhenian Sea than from the neighboring territory of the Herienses. And shortly after: others who had feared returned safely from nearby, etc. Who those Hertenses were, we have not discovered: but since they were neighbors and were exposed to the incursions of the Alemanni, it can hardly be doubted that they were among the Sequani.

[2] The most famous and most abundant salt mines are in Scodinga, which is now called the Valley of Salins, divided into several villages, which lie partly on the grassy ridges of the mountains, partly in the more depressed lowlands. In Fredegarius Scholasticus, chapter 24, that region is called the pagus of the Scutingi, or, as other codices have it according to Chesne's testimony, of the Scotengi and Scutengi: On the death, he says, of Duke Wandalmarus, in the district of Ultra-Jura and of the Scutingi, the patrician Protadius is appointed. Likewise in the division of the kingdom between Louis King of Germany and Charles the Bald, in the portion of Louis is Scudingum, which Miraeus interprets as Salins, citing the Life of Saint Anatolius in the Code of Donations. For the principal glory of that valley is the city of Salins, stretching in a long space between two mountains, which, as Gilbertus Cognatus the Sequanian, born at the nearby town of Nozeroy, relates in his description of Burgundy, is a most spacious city, known and celebrated throughout the whole world, whence the city of Salins, named from the salt and deep springs springing up there alongside other springs of fresh water: from which salt, condensed by fire, is made for daily use, excelling in whiteness, and constituting the greatest revenue of Burgundy, which is exported thence to neighboring regions in immense wagons. Franciscus Ranchinus also praises Salins for the elegance of its buildings, the abundance of salt, its temples, and its walls, in his description of Europe, volume 2. The splendid craft of salt-making, and the admirable construction and order of the workshops, Gollutius sets forth at length in the book cited: more briefly Johannes Jacobus Chiffletius in his work on Besancon, part 1, chapter 5.

[3] In this city Saint Anatolius the Bishop obtains the greatest veneration. Concerning him, the Author of the Life of Saint Maimbodus, January 23, number 6, addressing Burgundy, says: After these (Columbanus, Deicolus, Columbinus) we proclaim the most celebrated Confessor Anatolius, likewise born in Scotland, a light destined for you by the Lord. In his honor one of the four parish churches of the city, together with a college of Canons, is dedicated. Thus Cognatus writes: It has three most celebrated colleges of Canons, among which the principal place is held by that which is named after Saint Anatolius ... the second is of Saint Maurice, the third of Michael ... there are also four parishes, namely of Saint Anatolius, Maurice, John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary. where the church of Saint Anatolius stands, On the southern side of the city, on the summit of a cliff, stands the castle of Belinum, below it the hermitage of Saint Anatolius, and below the castle's church. Of these Gollutius also treats in book 2, chapter 22.

[4] The feast of Saint Anatolius is celebrated on the third of the Nones of February, on which day the following is read in the Martyrology of the Metropolitan Church of Besancon, whose feast is February 3, as Miraeus recites in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti under the eighteenth of January: On the third of the Nones of February, in the territory of Besancon, at the village of Salins, Saint Anatolius the Confessor, whose tomb is made illustrious by great miracles. Andreas Saussaius in the Gallican Martyrology: On the same day at Besancon, Saint Anatolius Bishop and Confessor, who, a Scotsman by nation, in order to multiply the talents entrusted to him by the Lord, crossed over into Burgundy: and having established a hermit's station at Salins, both by his word and by the glory of his holy deeds, he greatly advanced the inhabitants who flocked to him from the desire for earthly things to heavenly longing and endeavor, and renowned for miracles and full of merits, he at last hastened to the eternal joys. In his veneration, at the place where he was buried, a basilica was erected, distinguished by a college of Canons: in which he rests, most honorably enshrined, and is venerated with the title of Patron. Molanus in his additions to Usuard and Ferrarius in his general Catalogue of Saints also mention him, as does Colgan in the Lives of the Saints of Ireland. But Claudius Robertus in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Besancon, number 63, has this concerning him: At Langres a double office is performed for him on the third of the Kalends of February. At Langres, January 30, on account of relics, Saussaius on that day: At Langres, the reception of the relics of Saint Anatolius, Bishop of Besancon and Confessor, whose distinguished feast shines on the third of the Nones of February. Ferrarius, however, again records him on September 4, as if his feast day were celebrated on that day, with these words: At Besancon, Saint Anatolius the Bishop. David Camerarius in his book on the Piety of the Scots, under December 10, records a Saint Anatolius, but another one, as we shall say below, wrongly ascribed to the Scots, who was Bishop of Laodicea and is venerated on July 3.

[5] In the eleventh century after Christ, the body of Saint Anatolius was exhumed from its former tomb, elevation on June 13, and more honorably placed in the basilica which Hugo of Salins, Canon of Saint Stephen at Besancon and Chaplain of King Rudolph, afterward Archbishop, had rebuilt, a canonical order also being established in it. Concerning this church and its Canons, Johannes Jacobus Chiffletius treats in his work on Besancon, part 2, under Hugo I. This elevation of Saint Anatolius was made on the thirteenth of June, as we shall state below from Petrus Franciscus Chiffletius.

[6] Two hundred years later, by Archbishop Nicholas, who administered the Church of Besancon from 1229 to 1235, the body of Saint Anatolius was placed in a more elegant reliquary. Concerning this matter the same J. J. Chiffletius writes under Nicholas: Among other things which he is recorded to have piously done, another on September 1, this is not to be counted least, that he elevated the sacred body of Saint Anatolius, the most renowned Confessor at Salins, a Bishop of Scottish nationality who lived a solitary life in that place, to be enclosed in a more honorable casket: a monument of which fact exists in the Martyrology of the basilica of Saint Anatolius of Salins in these words: On the Kalends of September, at Salins, the Elevation of the Blessed Anatolius, Confessor and Bishop, by the hands of the Lord Nicholas, Archbishop of Besancon. Miraeus has the same in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti under the eighteenth of January from the Martyrology of Besancon; so that what Claudius Robertus writes, treating of the same Nicholas in his work on Besancon, that these things are found in the Martyrology of Salins on the Kalends of February, not February 1, plainly seems to need correction.

[7] The Life of Saint Anatolius from the manuscripts of Salins was transmitted to us by our Petrus Franciscus Chiffletius, who taught that the same text exists in the Legendaries of most Burgundian Churches: and that it appears to have been written some four or five hundred years ago. a twofold Life, He himself composed another, slightly shorter one, which we shall also present here. The former Life Gilbertus Cognatus cites, writing thus: the earlier one cited elsewhere. The valley itself (of Salins) was once called Scodinga, as we read in the history of Saint Anatolius. Gollutius also brings from it the description of the Valley of Salins at the beginning of chapter 22 of book 2. When into Scodinga, he says, the region of the Sequani of the Diocese of Besancon, in which there is a valley accessible to the Roman road, and now the site of the salt works. * Above this valley there rises a most pleasant mountain, which on account of its pleasantness our ancestors named Aureus. From it a perennial spring flows, irrigating the valley with a most sweet murmur. These same things, though with somewhat varying phraseology, are found in the Life, number 6.

[8] In a certain manuscript of the Charterhouse of Brussels, but plainly recent, the following is read concerning Saint Anatolius, which does not appear in the Life: February 3, Anatolius, Bishop and Confessor, he carried live coals harmlessly in his lap, resting in the town of Salins in Burgundy. This man once carried live coals, where salt is made, in his lap without injury. Gollutius in book 11, chapter 21, narrates that Salins was preserved through the help of Saint Anatolius. For when in the year 1492 the French, having been expelled from Salins, still held the neighboring fortress of Bracon (in which Saint Claudius the Bishop is believed to have been born); Baudricourt, their Prefect, having quickly gathered at Poligny forces of considerable number (some record ten thousand), was planning to recapture Salins before it was strengthened with new fortifications. Philip Loettaeus, Lord of Areschium, the city, preserved by his help, and Frederick Chapelarius, with a far smaller number of soldiers, surrounded the narrow and depressed roads girded with thickets and brambles through which the French had to pass, and attacking them while they were unconcerned around midday, in a battle prolonged until night, the enemy being slain, they killed very many, put the rest to flight, and on the following day returned to the city as victors. Nor meanwhile did the citizens fail in their duty: for every order, age, and sex spent that day (it was sacred to Saint Anthony the Abbot) in fasting, prayers, and attending sacred services; the Senate had placed the keys of the city on the bier of Saint Anatolius, hence an annual procession of supplication, trusting that the city would be saved chiefly by his help. The solemn memory of so great an event still flourishes. For the vows which were then pledged at the Saint's tomb with common devotion are fulfilled each year by a public procession of supplication. Many other benefits of this kind, obtained from heaven through his help, Petrus Franciscus Chiffletius briefly touches upon. Gollutius writes in book 2, chapter 22, that the people continually flock to venerate his relics, and that very many and very great miracles are performed, frequent miracles, by which wars and other public calamities are driven away, and the miseries of private individuals are relieved.

* Something seems to be missing.

Section II. The Episcopate and Homeland of Saint Anatolius.

[9] It is commonly reported that Saint Anatolius was a Bishop. That he was a Bishop of Besancon, as Molanus and Ferrarius wrote, is not approved by us. The former indeed in his additions to Usuard Saint Anatolius a Bishop, on this day writes thus: In the city of Besancon, Saint Anatolius, most holy Bishop and Confessor of the same metropolis. Ferrarius: At Besancon in Gaul, Saint Anatolius the Bishop. And he adds in his Notes: He was a Scotsman by nation, and on account of his outstanding virtues was made Bishop of Besancon, and governed that Church most holily. But under September 4, likewise in his Notes: However, we have been unable to learn what number Bishop of that city he was. And indeed how could he have learned, not a Bishop of Besancon: since not even a trace of this matter exists in Chiffletius, who in his work on Besancon wove an accurate catalogue of the Bishops of that city, or in Claudius Robertus after him? Whether he had exercised the episcopate in some other part of the world, and voluntarily relinquished it, whether from a desire for humble submission, or from zeal for the cure of souls to be undertaken in other regions, by the authority of the Roman Pontiff, or by some extraordinary impulse of the Divine Spirit; or whether he had been cast out of his See by wicked men; or whether, as was once frequent, especially among the Scots, he had been ordained Bishop for the easier conversion of pagans wherever it might seem good, without being attached to any fixed See; or whether he was not even a Bishop but was so called by posterity for the sake of greater dignity, as certain others have been in our Belgium and elsewhere -- we do not dispute: nor do sufficiently strong arguments survive for either side. Although Colgan asserts that it is beyond doubt that he was a Bishop and Confessor: but he only proves that he is called a Bishop and is venerated as a Bishop.

[10] The same author says it is beyond controversy that he was a Scotsman, or Irishman, by race and home. was he certainly a Scotsman? This does not seem to us so certain that it would be a sin even slightly to doubt it. And below we shall give the judgment of a learned man who makes him a Greek or Cilician, and considers him to be called a Scot in the manner by which in Gaul in those early centuries all foreigners were commonly called Scots.

just as by certain historians all foreign soldiers, although they were Goths, Franks, Alemanni, Saracens, or Hungarians, are found to have been called Vandals. What of the fact that in certain schools in Germany, foreign and poor students -- Belgians, or so called because a foreigner, Lorrainers, and others -- are still called "Scotti"? according to a custom received elsewhere? When we inquired about the reason for this nomenclature, the following was written to us from Cologne some years ago by the man most distinguished for learning and humanity, Doctor Heinrich Franz Dierstorf, the senior of the Theological Faculty: There is here at Cologne a most celebrated abbey of the Order of Saint Benedict, now of Saint Martin the Greater, formerly called the Island of the Scots, from the Rhine flowing around it and the Scots inhabiting it. Because the Scots held this for several centuries, very many young men from the same regions followed them for the sake of studies, as usually happens. Not a few of these, young men of slender fortune, lived by the generous munificence of the people of Cologne; which, like so many Cleantheses, they earned by drawing water, singing from door to door, and other services -- just as even now we see the dependents of the same doing. Hence in our local idiom we call poor students "Scotten." I believe the same is observed at Regensburg and elsewhere where there are similar colleges of Scots. These things I remember that the most distinguished man, Doctor Stephanus Broilmann, Doctor of Civil Law, diligent investigator of the antiquities of Cologne, formerly Professor of our University, used to say in table conversation. So far that venerable elder. Now let us return to Saint Anatolius.

[11] David Camerarius in book 3 of his work on the Piety of the Scots makes Anatolius (whether this one or some other) not only a Scot, but also Abbot of the island of Iona, or Hy. Nor indeed would we have had an argument to refute him, since we have nowhere seen a catalogue of the Abbots of Hy, or Iona, or the Cell of Saint Columba; were it not that, while he supports his view by the authority of Bede, he himself thereby subverts it. Thus he writes under December 10, on which day no one lists any Anatolius: Saint Anatolius, Confessor and Abbot, a man truly apostolic. You will find much about him in Bede, book 3 of his history, and in others. Anatolius presided with the office of Abbot on the island of Iona. But he either has not read Bede, or has not understood him, a different Anatolius is praised by Bede, since Bede is treating of a plainly different Anatolius, about whom Saint Jerome in his book on Illustrious Writers of the Church, chapter 73, writes thus: Anatolius of Alexandria, Bishop of Laodicea in Syria, flourished under the Emperors Probus and Carus; he was a man of wondrous learning in Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectic: the greatness of whose genius we can understand from the volume which he composed on the Paschal question, and from ten books on the Principles of Arithmetic. It can occur to no one to think that this Anatolius, who flourished in Syria in the third Christian century, was Abbot on Iona, an island of the Picts; where a monastery was first founded by Saint Columba near the end of the sixth century. not Abbot of Hy, or Iona, Indeed, as Bede writes in book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, chapter 4: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 565 (at which time, after Justinian, Justin the younger received the governance of the Roman Empire) there came from Ireland a priest and abbot, distinguished by the monastic habit and life, of illustrious name, named Columba, to Britain; to preach the word of God to the provinces of the Northern Picts, that is, those which are separated from the southern regions by steep and dreadful mountain ridges ... Columba came to Britain when Bridius, son of Meilochon, a most powerful king, was reigning over the Picts, in the ninth year of his reign, and he converted that nation to the faith of Christ by word and example. Whence also he received from them the aforesaid island, for the purpose of establishing a monastery ... which his successors hold to this day. As for what Hector Boece in book 7 and Lesley in book 4 write, that King Fergus II founded a monastery on Iona in the times of the Emperor Honorius -- who will prove this to them without the testimony of a more ancient writer? Iona itself received its name from Saint Columba, since before it was called Hy or Hu, as we shall say elsewhere: to which perhaps Saint Adamnan referred in preface 2 to the Life of Saint Columba, where he shows that Iona in Hebrew is peristera in Greek, which in Latin is Columba Dove.

[12] Bede, moreover, mentions that Anatolius of Laodicea in book 3, chapter 3, writing thus about Saint Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne: For he was accustomed to observe the Lord's Easter Day in the manner of his nation, from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon. For in this order the northern province of the Scots, and the entire nation of the Picts, at that time still celebrated the Lord's Easter; but a Bishop of Laodicea in the third century considering that in this observance he had followed the writings of the holy and praiseworthy Father Anatolius. That this is to be understood of the Bishop of Laodicea is even more clearly evident from chapter 25 of the same book, where Bishop Colman argues thus for the Scottish rite: Was it possible, he says, that Anatolius, a holy man and one much praised in the aforesaid Ecclesiastical History, held opinions contrary to the Law or the Gospel, who wrote that Easter should be celebrated from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon? Is it to be believed that our most reverend Father Columba and his successors, men beloved of God, who celebrated Easter in the same manner, held or practiced things contrary to the Divine Scriptures? To which Saint Wilfrid, then a priest, soon responding, said: It is established that Anatolius was a most holy, most learned, and most praiseworthy man: but what have you to do with him, when you do not even observe his decrees? Therefore Anatolius had not been praised there, as Camerarius would have it, as Abbot of Iona: for Saint Wilfrid would not have said, "What have you to do with him?" Nor that thing, "when you do not even observe his decrees." For if he had been an Abbot, then he would have been among the successors of Saint Columba, who died in 597, and whom Colman had already asserted celebrated Easter in the same manner, even on the fourteenth moon. But Colman himself expressly separates him from the successors of Columba, and names him before Columba. Indeed, he says he was praised in the aforesaid Ecclesiastical History. Which one was that? Which indeed had Wilfrid cited? Not some chronicle of Hy, but the History of Eusebius, in which book 5, chapters 22 and following, he has much about the day of Easter, and in book 7, chapter 26, he praises Anatolius.

Section III. Was Saint Anatolius the Patriarch of Constantinople? Was He Bishop of Adana?

[13] Thomas Dempster, in his Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, book 1, number 43, thinks that the Saint Anatolius venerated at Salins is the Patriarch of Constantinople, who succeeded Saint Flavian the Martyr in the year 449 and died in 458. He says that this man was from that number of Scots who followed Pope Innocent I: that he was the Apocrisiarius of the younger Augustus Theodosius, and from that courtly dignity was called to greater things, and succeeded Saint Flavian: and then that his relics were translated to Burgundy. For he concludes that Pope Innocent himself was a Scot because he is called Albanus, since the Scots call themselves Albans. We shall examine this on July 28. Anatolius the Patriarch was not the Apocrisiarius of Theodosius, Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople, but of Dioscorus and the Alexandrian Church at the court of Theodosius: nor was he called from a courtly dignity to the episcopate, but from an ecclesiastical office: for, as the Greeks relate in the Menaea, "this man, being a Presbyter and Apocrisiarius of the Church of Alexandria, was appointed Archbishop of Constantinople." But Liberatus the Deacon in his Breviary on the Nestorian Controversy, chapter 12, writes thus: And in his place was ordained Anatolius the Deacon, who had been at Constantinople the Apocrisiarius of Dioscorus. He then, after the not blameless beginnings of his ordination, as Saint Pope Leo says writing to him in letter 53, abandoning the error of those who ordained him, he was Catholic, as the same Leo states in letter 54 to the Augustus Marcian, passed by a salutary correction into assent to the Catholic faith: and although his pride had to be restrained more than once by the same Saint Leo, and the excessive indulgence which he seemed to show toward the Eutychians had to be corrected -- whence Baronius also frequently censures him with a rather severe mark -- nevertheless he is also written to have performed miracles, and having been killed by heretics, perhaps by poison, and a saint: he is venerated by the Greeks, even Catholics, on July 3: on which day also the older Anatolius of Laodicea, of whom we treated in the preceding section, is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology.

[14] As to why Dempster considers this to be the same person who is venerated at Salins, he brings forward two arguments: one, that at Salins the following is stated, "Saint Anatolius, Scotsman, Archbishop of Constantinople." Where is this stated? In ancient codices? In the Readings of the Divine Office? Or on some tablet? He did not see it himself, but learned it from a distinguished man residing at Brussels. We suspect that if anything of this kind exists there, it reads not "Constantinopolitanus" of Constantinople but "Chrysopolitanus," his relics are said to have been translated to Salins; that is, "of Besancon." And this we have refuted above. The second is the testimony of Paradin, who in his Burgundian Antiquities is said to write thus: In the time of King Lothair IV, by legates sent by him to Constantinople, the precious body of Saint Anatolius the Patriarch, whom they make a Scot, was translated. What he calls Paradin's Burgundian Antiquities, we do not understand. We have seen that writer's book on the ancient state of Burgundy published at Basel, and his Annals of Burgundy written in French in three books, published at Lyon in 1586. In neither work do we find this. Nor indeed would it suffice for him to write it, unless he produced some other testimony of so ancient a matter. Dempster says that translation occurred during the pontificate of Leo VIII, and during the reign of Indulphus in Scotland. Leo VIII was substituted for John XII in the year 963 by force, and is not acknowledged as a legitimate Pontiff by Baronius; he died in 965. At that time Indulphus was reigning among the Scots, as can be seen in Lesley; in Gaul Lothair, the son of Louis d'Outremer; in the East the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas was ruling.

[15] Furthermore, if the King of Gaul obtained the body of Saint Anatolius from Constantinople, how did it reach the Sequani, who were not subject to him but to Conrad, King of Burgundy? Could it be that Matilda, the wife of Conrad, obtained it from her brother Lothair? But how can it seem probable that the Author who composed the Life of Saint Anatolius, at most one or two centuries after the times of Kings Conrad and Lothair, this is scarcely probable enough. would have written that he lived the hermit life there, if his relics had been brought there from elsewhere? Granted, he may have had no written records to follow; but how could so alien an opinion from the truth have taken hold in people's minds in so short a time, when there were perhaps survivors who could have learned about that translation from eyewitnesses, if it had ever truly taken place? Whether, however, Saint Anatolius of Constantinople was a Scot, as Adam King wrote before Dempster in the Scottish Calendar under July 3, may be examined there (if it seems appropriate).

[16] Anatolius, Bishop of Adana, Our Petrus Franciscus Chiffletius brings forward another Anatolius from Asia, with a sufficiently probable conjecture, a Bishop of Adana in Cilicia Prima. There exists a letter of Saint Chrysostom to this man, the third, given at Cucusus, which begins thus: When I had learned of your burning love toward me, a supporter of Saint Chrysostom, though you were by no means known to me by sight, from the conversation of many, etc. The same Anatolius appears to be the one whom Palladius mentions in the Dialogue on the Life of Saint Chrysostom, where, having related whither various Bishops who had supported him had been exiled or had voluntarily withdrawn, he writes about others who perhaps had not been present when he was driven into exile but nevertheless defended his cause, among whom was that Bishop of Adana: The rest of the communion of John, some indeed communicated with Atticus, compelled by necessity, and were transferred to other Churches of Thrace; of some we do not know where they are. he came to Gaul They say that Anatolius went to Gaul. The Presbyters were exiled to Arabia and Palestine. Tigrius was banished to Mesopotamia, etc. Lest anyone think that Galatia should be understood, George of Alexandria writes expressly in the Life of Chrysostom: "They say that Anatolius departed to the Gauls."

[17] Nor should anyone wish to conclude from the cited letter of Chrysostom that he was not ejected from his See. Chrysostom writes indeed: But even though we are separated in body, yet bound to you by the closest bonds of the soul, we seem rather to inhabit your tranquil region, driven from his See, free from wars, than Cucusus. For he may perhaps have escaped that first storm for some time, since he had not been in the royal city with him: but afterward he could not escape the wrath of Arsacius and his successor Atticus, and the fury of his own Patriarch of Antioch, Porphyry. Moreover, Palladius mentions several there who led hermitic and rustic lives, such as Anatolius is reported to have led in Gaul. Other Bishops then expelled lived solitary lives, For Antonius, he says, shut himself up in the caves of Palestine ... Brisso, the brother of Palladius, having voluntarily left his Church, lives on his own small estate, digging the earth with his own hands ... John Aethrius built a monastery at Caesarea ... Helladius, Presbyter of the palace, lives in Bithynia on his own small estate ... And the holy Bishop Silvanus at the Troad seeks his livelihood by fishing.

[18] very many having suffered, as perhaps he himself also did. How much all those Bishops suffered, moreover, while they were being driven into exile, besides the tortures inflicted on some, he writes thus in general: The Deacon who had returned from the Bishops reported that they had been so harassed by their conductors, through the instigation of certain persons, that they were weary even of living, and all cursed their own deaths. For seizing the money necessary for their expenses, they divided it among themselves; and placing the naked men on beasts of burden, they covered in one day a journey of two days, turning aside in the dead of night, and rising in the nocturnal darkness for the journey, so that their wretched stomachs could not retain even food. Moreover, they did not cease to assail them with base and obscene words. The Anatolius of Salins:

[19] Whether, however, the Patron of Salins is truly that Cilician or Syrian Anatolius, or rather (as the ancient tradition holds) some Scottish Bishop, we cannot determine with certainty. Both opinions are probable; but that ancient tradition ought not rashly to be dislodged from its possession of so many centuries.

LIFE BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,

extracted from manuscripts by Petrus Franciscus Chiffletius, S.I.

Anatolius, Bishop of Salins in Burgundy (Saint)

BHL Number: 0422

By the Author I. B.

[1] The imitation of the Christian religion emanated to posterity chiefly through the examples of the holy Fathers, whom the faith of later generations accepted not only as established without doubt in the firmness of the faith, but also charity itself does not doubt that, supported by the fellowship of virtue itself, they were raised to heaven. Moreover, to follow their examples is the summit of wisdom -- those whose souls are in the hand of God, and the torment of malice shall not touch them: and since their prudence, in their treatises, left many things to posterity for the edification of life, many Acts of Saints have been destroyed: of which many have been either deleted by accident, or abolished by age, or burned by fire, it seems not beside the point to gather together certain things that are scattered in memory, and to hand them down for the knowledge of those peoples who shall come, for the imitation of a good example.

[2] Undertaking therefore to hand down to the memory of posterity the life of the most blessed Confessor of Christ Anatolius, insofar as we have learned it from the report of good men, these things are certain, we shall taste a few things from his own deeds, which we have ascertained to be certain and known to the present people: for before the eyes of the Divine Majesty, let no one ever invent what is not the case, whose goodness of simplicity empties out every fiction. Nor indeed are we ignorant that the saying is of His own wisdom: The mouth that lies kills the soul. Wisdom 1:11

[3] The homeland of Saint Anatolius, This man therefore was born in the Scottish region, endowed (as the assertion of earlier authorities holds) with the episcopal office, devoted to the service of God and given over to the works of the contemplative life; in whom there was gentleness with patience, abstinence with moderation, chastity with sobriety: he loved charity, surpassing all gifts, his virtues, which was the most faithful guardian of his religion. We did not consider it sufficiently appropriate to investigate his genealogy, because there is no respect of persons with God: this alone we firmly believe, and in believing we assuredly love; that he is worthily turned in the memory of men, who has passed to the joy of the Angels.

[4] Moreover, the blessed Anatolius, following the Lord, did not walk in darkness, because he found the light of life and of truth; his miracles, who, when he became a stranger for Christ's sake, was magnified in the sight of kings and clothed with the robe of glory and immortality. How great was his sanctity, the miracles themselves indeed declare, which adorn his glorious sepulchre with frequent celebrations of joy; of which we wish to touch upon certain ones, both seen and known through the report of truthful believers, if first indeed we shall have explained how he himself came to us.

[5] In the Archdiocese of Besancon, which is also called Chrysopolis, there is a certain region named Scodinga, in which there is a valley accessible to the Roman road, which is well called Salins by its own name, the region of Scodinga: because salt is sufficiently produced there. Above the valley also there rises a most pleasant mountain, having the name Aureus from the beauty of its situation; Mount Aureus: from whose slope a most clear spring emanates, which provides health to those suffering from various diseases, if they have washed in it. a healing spring: The valley, enclosed on all sides by mountains, extends like a wall for those who inhabit it. A river flows through the middle, which collected the name Furiosus from the reality, the river Furiosus, either because with a downpour of rain it suddenly and without measure swells up; or because one part of the populace rises against the other as if raging with pressing anger. But what more shall we say about it?

It is noble in fame, mentioned through many shores.

[6] Hence therefore the servant of God Anatolius, by the action of Divine grace, entering as he was returning from Rome, turned aside for the sake of prayer to an oratory placed on that same mountain beside a flowing spring which waters the upper parts of the mountain, dedicated also in honor of the most blessed Symphorian, Martyr of Autun, and seeks a respite from his companions. Seeing therefore the pleasantness of the place, the death of Saint Anatolius: the pleasant measure and situation of the mountain, already thirsting with the whole affection of his mind for the fellowship of heavenly happiness, he was seen to have prayed to the Lord that in that place He would confer upon him the reward of his recompense. John 16:22 But the Almighty Lord, who said to His disciples, Whatever you ask in my name shall be given to you, not despising the faithful prayer of His servant, received his holy soul as he remained there for a few days; as if He were openly saying: This is your rest forever and ever: here you shall dwell, because you have chosen it.

[7] Since therefore we have briefly touched upon the end of this most blessed man, let us now, following the order of our purpose, narrate certain of his miracles: of which we say little, because we cannot collect their multitude in a compendium. There is a certain estate, eight miles distant from the valley described above, called by the name Cremens, in which a certain peasant lived, whose name was Peter, who had fathered a son by a concubine, whose name was Ornatus. This boy, when he was already ten years old, showed in himself no use of a living person, because by the hidden judgment of God, nature had so failed him that it afforded him none of the senses of the body except taste: not walking on his feet, not feeling with his hand, scarcely uttering an intelligible word from his mouth, by his help a crippled, deaf, and mute boy is healed; not drawing any sound into his ears; for his joints, twisted back under the sole, could rest on no footstep; his fingers, folded into his palms, were deprived of the use of touching; his tongue had somewhat adhered to his palate, so that it could scarcely form a word; his ears, blocked by a long-standing adhesion, remained devoid of all sound. He is carried to the tomb of the illustrious Confessor, placed before the doors in front of the vestibule, watched by no guardian; abandoned by his father, to whom the long-standing infirmity had become wearisome. But the Almighty, who created all things when they were not, pious and merciful, does not abandon His own creation; for through the merit of the most holy Confessor He supplied what was imperfect, and in a short time restored his limbs to full function.

[8] There was also a very poor woman in the same territory, who likewise lacked the use of her body, and who, not having her own feet, was carried on the steps of others. Her heels, turned backward, pressed against the back of her posterior; her hands, bent together, clung miraculously to her arms: she was carried to the church of the Confessor and placed before the altar; a deformed, horrible figure, more abject than all living creatures, she calls upon the Saint of God by name, likewise another crippled woman, and in the hearing of all who were present she invokes him unceasingly: her prayer moves many to tears. A wondrous thing, to be proclaimed to the faithful for the praise of the Lord in holy confession, and to be lauded with all devotion and admiration! The feeble body is suddenly, and in the sight of the people, restored limb by limb to vigor; from a terrible and hideous appearance, a beautiful form is drawn forth by the Holy Spirit as artisan; without delay, with no mortal person helping, the woman is raised up. You might have seen the surrounding multitude weeping for excessive joy, striking their breasts with their arms, exulting in the praises of God: the Lord is rightly and admirably proclaimed glorious in His Saints, who so readily lends His ear to the cry of the poor, and what nature denies, immense mercy, when entreated, restores.

[9] These and many other miracles the Lord deigned to work through the merit of His beloved Anatolius, whose most holy body, revealed a long time afterward, relics elevated, was buried in the same church, with an arm retained for the assistance of the people and for the imparting of blessings upon them. At a certain time the town of Salins, by chance, caught fire; combustible material was easily available for burning, because the greater part of the houses there are built of fir timbers (a species of tree which most easily succumbs to fire). The houses moreover were joined by contiguous roofing, with no gap running between them; nor, once one was set ablaze, was there any doubt that all the others would be burned. But the people, having already despaired of human help, had recourse to the aid of the blessed Confessor; by them a fire was extinguished, the holy arm was brought into the midst, and set against the blaze of the fire. A wondrous thing! The force of the entire conflagration immediately subsided in an instant, no fire was to be seen, so that the Lord might demonstrate that by the merits of His Confessor, those whom their devotion had begun to venerate for love of him are freed from the dangers of fire -- to whom is praise and dominion through infinite ages of ages, Amen.

ANOTHER LIFE

From the papers of Petrus Franciscus Chiffletius, S.I.

Anatolius, Bishop of Salins in Burgundy (Saint)

[1] We know the blessed Anatolius, the illustrious patron of Salins, almost solely from his miracles. Those who think he was a Bishop of Adana, the episcopate of Saint Anatolius, a city of Cilicia, under the Patriarchate of Antioch, reason convincingly: who nevertheless, out of love of justice, took the side of John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, against Theophilus of Alexandria: and for that reason, as an exile (as Palladius relates in the Life of Chrysostom), withdrew to Gaul. There survive letters of Chrysostom, in exile at Cucusus, addressed to him, witnesses of particular goodwill. That he was a Greek, his exile, or a Cilician who used the Greek language, is shown both by the location of his See and by the etymology of his name, which in Greek means "Eastern." He could, moreover, have been called a Scot in that manner by which throughout Gaul in those early centuries all foreigners were commonly called Scots.

[2] When he had come among the Sequani, in the territory of the Scodingi, he stopped by a happy omen near Salins, on the slope of a steep mountain, having found the opportunity of a small chapel, his death, sacred to Symphorian, Martyr of Autun, which a spring of sweet water bathed, perennial and copious. From that place his blessed soul departed to the heavenly inhabitants: there his body, once buried, lay hidden for nearly six centuries; until at the beginning of the eleventh century after Christ it was exhumed and placed in a more honorable tomb on the Ides of June, in the basilica which Hugo (afterward Archbishop of Besancon), son of Humbertus, Lord of Salins, and of ^aHermenburgis, his elevation, had built with magnificent work and had dedicated in honor of Saints Symphorian and Anatolius and of the holy Virgin and Martyr Agatha; a noble college of Canons having been established there.

[3] Two hundred years having passed thereafter, when the sepulchre of Anatolius was being made illustrious by very many and remarkable miracles, likewise another; his venerable bones were taken from the tomb by Nicholas, Archbishop of Besancon, on the Kalends of September, and transferred to a precious reliquary. Moreover, because it is established that by his help and power the blind, lame, mute, deaf, crippled, feeble, and sick of every kind have been thoroughly healed; that the principal salt spring, which had been exhausted, was suddenly revived by the application of his sacred head; very many miracles of every kind, that fires of towns were also suppressed, evil demons expelled from bodies, cities freed from siege, victories over enemies obtained; that rains were now released, now restrained, as occasion required; that those in danger everywhere were saved; we believe that he has been deservedly inserted in heaven into the company of those about whom the Prophet sang: Exceedingly honored are Thy friends, O God; exceedingly strengthened is their sovereignty. Psalm 138:17