ON ST. PAULUS, BISHOP OF VERDUN
Around the year 649.
Preliminary Commentary.
Paulus, Bishop of Verdun in Gallia Belgica (St.)
BHL Number: 2143
By the author I. B.
Section I. By whom was the Life of St. Paulus written?
[1] St. Paulus is counted as the thirteenth Bishop of the Church of Verdun in Gallia Belgica by Richardus Wasseburgius, Antonius Demochares, Joannes Chenu, and Claudius Robertus; his annual celebration is held on 8 February. Whether the distinguished deeds he performed were committed to writing in his own time, we have nowhere read. Three centuries later, when the books and records of the holy Fathers, together with the principal basilica of Verdun, had been largely consumed by fire, the Priest Bertharius, as is said in the Life, chapter 4, number 8, at the request of Lord Dado, Bishop of that same city, wove together with remarkable brevity, as best he could, the names and deeds of all the Bishops of Verdun before him; among which, not forgetting this one, he set what has been described above in its proper place. Wasseburgius, in book 3 of the Antiquities of Gallia Belgica, writes that this Bertharius was first Dado's Chaplain, then Dean of the Church of Verdun, and from the preface of that book he cites the following: "To my most reverend and most holy elder, my Lord Dado, the renowned Bishop of the Church of Verdun: your Priest Bertharius devoutly prays for your eternal happiness in Christ. Since in your time, for thirty-six years, through good zeal and renowned fame, many prosperous things have come to us; but now, our sins requiring it, our principal church has been consumed by fire, and the books and records of our holy Fathers have been largely given over to the same flames. Lest the most sacred memory, the venerable name, and the holy work should be altogether consigned to oblivion, though worn down by infirmity and sorrow, I have thought it fitting to comprehend in brief discourse what I have read and heard from the faithful concerning your holy predecessors—pleasing to you indeed, and useful to posterity."
[2] Bishop Dado attended the Council of Metz in the year of Christ 888, or, as Sirmondus and Browerus hold, 893. Then also the Council of Tribur in 895, as the acts state, or 896, according to Regino, who was then living, and Browerus. There survives a letter of the same Dado to Ratbodus, Archbishop of Trier, dated on the fifth day before the Ides of May, Indiction IX, the year of Christ 906, in Ivo's Decretum, part 6, chapter 435. The thirty-sixth year of Dado, in which the breviary of the Bishops of Verdun was written by Bertharius, was the year of Christ 916, not 920 as Miraeus asserts in the Appendix to the Ecclesiastical Library. For a certain document in Wasseburgius, in which Dado describes all the donations made to the Church of Verdun in his time and that of his two predecessors Hatto and his uncle Berhardus, begins thus: "In the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 893, in the reign of the most glorious King Arnulf in the fifth year, and the thirteenth of our ordination, Indiction IX, I Dado, Bishop of the Church of Verdun," etc. He had therefore been elevated to that See in the year 880, which he held until 920, as Wasseburgius has it, or 923, according to Claudius Robertus. He therefore did not die in 880, as Molanus erroneously writes in his annotations to 8 February.
[3] After Bertharius (who is Bertharius to Molanus, Surius, Lippelous, Haraeus, Doubletius, and Gerardus Joannes Vossius in book 3 of the Latin historians, part 2, where he lists authors of uncertain date), the deeds of the Bishops of Verdun were written under Bishop Albero around the year of Christ 1146 by Laurentius of Liege, a monk of the monastery of St. Vitonus at Verdun, at the instigation of Hugo, also a monk there, as Wasseburgius attests in book 4, citing him frequently. Miraeus says that Laurentius continued the deeds of the Bishops that Bertharius had written down to the year 1144. Valerius Andreas asserts that after Bertharius, they were written by an anonymous author up to 1048, and by Laurentius up to 1144. Wasseburgius, in the deeds of Berengarius the thirty-third Bishop, cites Bertharius in his collectanea under the year 960, which were undoubtedly additions to Bertharius's work. Under Richardus the fortieth Bishop, around the year 1045, he cites Laurentius, whom Valerius says began his history from the year 1048. It is to be wished that these and other ancient documents might someday see the light, so that a more certain judgment could be formed about the various authors and the deeds of the Bishops.
[4] Laurentius Surius asserts that another Life of St. Paulus was written seriously and faithfully long ago, which he himself published, rendered in somewhat more Latinate style and indeed in several places paraphrastically, in volume 1 of his Lives of the Saints. Galesinius and Wion, in their Notes on the Martyrology for this day, consider this to be the same Life said to have been written by Bertharius. But it becomes clear to the reader that it was written by another author, since Bertharius is cited in it. We here present it in its original diction from an outstanding codex of the monastery of St. Maximin at Trier, which we conjecture from the handwriting and other evidence to be at least four hundred years old.
[5] Franciscus Haraeus, Zacharias Lippelous, and Jacobus Gononus in book 1 of the Lives of the Fathers of the West also published the Life of St. Paulus, condensed from that of Surius; in French by Jacobus Doubletius, and more carefully by Wasseburgius, Renatus Benedictus, and Guilielmus Gazaeus. Browerus treats of him in book 7 of the Annals of Trier. Trithemius in his Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, book 3, chapter 258, and book 4, chapter 201. Wion in Lignum Vitae, book 2, chapter 55. Demochares, Claudius Robertus, and Joannes Chenu in their Catalogue of the Bishops of Verdun; and Bruschius in the Chronology of German Monasteries, where he describes the monastery of St. Maurice at Tholey.
Section II. The life of St. Paulus in the desert and the monastery.
[6] Concerning the homeland of St. Paulus, we can determine nothing. Browerus, Surius, Haraeus, Ghinius, and Lippelous say he was born in Gallia Belgica; Doubletius says in Flanders (by which name we mean the very broad region situated between the Scheldt and the sea, while the Franks sometimes use it for all the Belgian provinces); but Wasseburgius, Wion, Gononus, Roserius, and Saussaius say at Augustodunum among the Aedui. These are moved by the argument that he is said to have been the brother of St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris, and it is established from the testimony of Fortunatus that the latter was a native of the territory of Augustodunum. It is surprising that Surius, Haraeus, Lippelous, and Doubletius did not consider this, who here assert that Paulus was born in Belgium, yet say he was the brother of the one whom on 28 May they acknowledge to have been from Augustodunum. Renatus Benedictus and Gazaeus write only that Paulus was born in the lower parts of Gaul. The Breviary of Verdun says he was born in the territory of Augustodunum in the parts of lower Gaul; a kinsman of St. Germanus. In the Responsory, however, he is called the brother of St. Germanus.
[7] It is not sufficiently plausible that Germanus and Paulus were brothers, even though, besides the more recent writers already named, Bertharius and the History of Trier cited by Wasseburgius report this—though it does not seem sufficiently proved even to Wasseburgius himself. St. Germanus died in the first year of King Childebert, the year of Christ 576, as is evident from St. Gregory of Tours, book 5, chapter 8—already advanced in age, since he had been initiated into the priesthood by St. Agrippinus, Bishop of Augustodunum, whom we showed on 1 January to have seemingly died around the year 540. Who would believe that in the very year in which Germanus died (being at least sixty years old), his full brother Paulus was born—whom most authors assert to have lived until the year of Christ 640 or 649? Moreover, Germanus was not even the firstborn, as is evident from his Life. So that it would be necessary for Paulus, if he were his full brother, to have been born of an eighty-year-old mother—or a hundred-year-old one, if (as Wasseburgius reports and we shall discuss in its proper place) Germanus lived eighty years. Wion, Chenu, Wasseburgius, and Gononus write that Paulus was not the brother but the nephew of St. Germanus—that is, the son of a brother or sister. But on what grounds do they prove this? For as to Wasseburgius calling his father Eleutherius, and Renatus Benedictus and Gazaeus calling him Eleutharius, and his mother Eusebia, this derives from the opinion of those who make him a brother of St. Germanus, who is known to have been born of the father Eleutherius and the mother Eusebia. Wasseburgius attests that ancient records show that the parents of St. Paulus had seven children, all of whom embraced the religious life and all of whom were enrolled among the Saints.
[8] From his homeland, whatever it may have been, Paulus withdrew to the Vosges Mountains, or Vosequm (as the Life has it). The Vosges separate the Burgundians and Alsatians from the Lorrainers, as Ortelius and Merula write; or rather, as others say, they extend various ridges from the very borders of the Sequani to the limits of Belgium, suitably divided by valleys. What part of the Vosges Paulus inhabited, Browerus explains thus in book 7 of the Annals of Trier: "Local writers report that before he entered the monastery of Tholey, in order to lay the foundation of the hermit's life, he chose that place which, in view of the city of Trier, was anciently called Mount Gebenna, and thereafter, taking its surname from Paul himself, was called Pauls-berg. Its ridge, though broken in various places, still pertains to the ranges of the Vosges, as witnesses from this age still survive":
"The Vosges mountain rises from the Rhaetian Alps, and with its green slope reaches even to you, O Trier."
Trithemius, in On Illustrious Men, book 4, chapter 201, writes thus about Paul's anchoritic life: "He had at first led the eremitic life with many others upon Mount Cebenna, opposite the city of Trier, which from his name is now called Mons-Pauli; but the common people call it Bulisberg." This was perhaps so in the time of Trithemius; but now it is commonly called Paulsberg or Polsberg. The same Trithemius, in book 1 of his Compendium of Annals, under Clovis II: "In these times, men of great sanctity flourished in the diocese of Trier, among whom Paul was one, who led the eremitic life upon Mount Gebenna, opposite the city of Trier, across the bridge over the river Moselle... The mountain, formerly called Gebenna, taking its name from him, is called Pauls-berg (in the vernacular Paulsberg) to this day."
[9] From this hermitage, Paulus migrated to the monastery of Tholey. This monastery, as Browerus attests, is situated near the town of St. Wendelin, in a wooded place made pleasant by flowering meadows. The ancients were pleased to call it Doleia, or Tabuleium, as though its first structure had risen from stones hewn like boards and fitted into a square; but we have learned that it was called Theologium because of the frequent meditation on divine matters there and also because of a notable school once established there for the study of sacred letters. The foundations of that monastery were laid in the first years of King Dagobert's reign, with Modoaldus, Archbishop of Trier, contributing his zeal and patronage to the enterprise—as can be demonstrated both from private documents of that place and from public records containing the deeds of Blessed Paulus. So Browerus, with whom Trithemius and Bruschius had already agreed. The former writes in book 1 of his Compendium of Annals, under Clovis II: "Nor should it be passed over in silence that Dagobert, King of the Franks, in the year of the Lord's Nativity 627, the fifteenth Roman Indiction, began to found the Benedictine monastery of Dolegium in the diocese of Trier, with the counsel and aid of Blessed Archbishop Modoaldus; which Sigebert, King of Austrasia, his son, completed, and St. Pirminius, a Bishop and monk, afterward more beautifully adorned." Bruschius writes the same about the founders and the year of foundation, and from him Claudius Robertus and Gononus. But Antonius Yepes, in volume 2 of his Benedictine history under the year of Christ 620, writes that Dolegium was founded not by Dagobert but by Clothar, his father; and before him Wasseburgius, moved by the argument that before Dagobert reigned in Austrasia, Paulus was already a Bishop. But this was precisely what needed to be proved, as Browerus rightly observes. "We do not wish," he says, "to be prevented by the commentary on the Bishops of Verdun from embracing the ancient and received opinion of the monks, especially when it is unsupported by other testimony."
[10] Who was the first Abbot of Tholey, by whom Paulus was admitted as a monk, is not recorded. Claudius Robertus supposes it was St. Wendelin. Bruschius says the name of the first has been lost, "although there are those who consider St. Wendelin the first Abbot of this place." We shall treat of St. Wendelin on 21 October. Browerus writes the following about him, which is relevant here because he was either Paulus's teacher or colleague in the religious life, in book 7 of his Annals, where he discusses the origins of the monastery of Tholey: "The soil of Trier abounded in the glory of foreign sanctity no less than domestic. To this place, from afar, with great ardor of piety but with a fame made more illustrious by the wondrous works he had performed, St. Wandalinus had come, a Scot by origin and, as fame attests, of royal stock. They say that both out of love for the heavenly fatherland and out of disgust with his native soil (which he set aside for the desire of Christ), he was borne to that region of Trier which we call the Westerreich, or Western Kingdom; that there, for a nobleman with a noble zeal to conquer himself, he hired himself out to tend swine; and forgetting his birth and rank, he ungrudgingly assumed the role of a swineherd; and with such fervor of religion he devoted himself to divine worship and the other exercises of a pious mind that he would not omit any interval of day or night for fasting, constant prayers, and vigils. At last, inflamed with the love of a more perfect life, he entered the monastery of Tholey and willingly submitted his neck to its strict discipline, most observant of humility and self-abasement to the very end of his life. Wherefore it pleased the divine goodness that the name and fame of the man should shine with the greatest brilliance to the memory of posterity, and that the town built over his tomb and church should be venerated in the Saint's name and preserved to this day; for posterity named it the town of St. Wendelin, and it obeys the Bishop of Trier, under whose jurisdiction it remains to this day. Moreover, the place was once most famous for the remarkable frequency of miracles and the multitude of people gathering there out of devotion; although since the Catholic faith suffered a grievous blow in the neighboring areas, and the place was further ravaged by fires, it barely maintains its ancient splendor." So Browerus.
[11] Instructed, therefore, by his teaching or his examples, Paulus himself soon became a teacher of others. For Claudius Robertus, Saussaius, and Bruschius report that he was the second Abbot of Tholey; indeed, Bruschius writes that he was made Abbot from being a hermit. Perhaps St. Wendelin immediately recognized him as fit to be placed over others and substituted him in his own place, so that he himself might lead the solitary life—namely in the place where he was afterward buried, one mile from Tholey. But the author of his Life denies that he was placed over the others from the beginning, since "out of reverence for his sanctity, except for the title of Pastor, he was honored as if he were a teacher" (chapter 2, number 5). Afterward, however, the author seems to indicate that he was made Abbot, or at the very least master of novices, since he says that many flocked to him from distant parts of the earth, having heard the report of his fame, and placed themselves under his teaching. Among these, Grimo, of royal lineage, having been introduced by him into the fields of Scripture, "made such progress in a short time that in discipline and character he equaled his teacher... so that at that time he attained the rank of deacon." From which it can be gathered that Paulus remained in the monastery for no small span of time but for several years—especially if it is true what Wasseburgius cites from Bertharius: "Grimo the Deacon, grandson of King Dagobert, who is also called Adelgisus, having been reverently raised by St. Paulus from infancy," etc. But it seems more likely that he was already a youth mature enough to receive heavenly instruction when he came to Paulus, perhaps eighteen years old or not much younger; and not Dagobert's grandson but his kinsman.
Section III. The episcopate of St. Paulus; his predecessor.
[12] When Paulus's virtue and prudence had been proved in this double arena, and the fame of his piety had spread widely, he was unwillingly brought to the episcopal office of the Church of Verdun. The manuscript Life does not specify the time of his accession and administration of this dignity; the authors give various dates without any probable evidence. Guilielmus Gazaeus writes that he died in the year of Christ 649, after administering the episcopate for twenty-nine years, which means he should have assumed it in 620. Joannes Chenu, Ghinius, Claudius Robertus, and Arnoldus Wion in book 2 of Lignum Vitae, chapter 55, say he died in 646, the twenty-seventh year of his episcopate. The same Wion, however, in book 3 in his Notes to 8 February, and Gononus in book 1 of On the Hermits of the West, write that he was made Bishop in 621, and died in the twenty-ninth year of his See, the year of Christ 658—which does not add up. Jacobus Doubletius and Demochares say he was ordained Bishop in 621; how long he served in that office, they do not report. Wasseburgius says that when the Bishop of Verdun Ermenfredus died in 621, the dignity was offered by Clothar to Grimo, who three years earlier had seized the kingdom of Austrasia after the death of Theoderic. But since we have proved elsewhere that Theoderic died in 613, it follows that the death of Ermenfredus occurred in the year 615 or 616. Wasseburgius then says that Grimo declined the burden and, with the patronage of the still-young Dagobert, obtained that it be imposed on Paulus; and that Dagobert was given as King to the Austrasians six years later. Renatus Benedictus follows Wasseburgius.
[13] Wasseburgius admits, however, that in the commentaries of Bertharius and other ancient codices of the Church of Verdun, it is asserted that Paulus was brought to that See by command of Dagobert. But he himself holds that this should be corrected and attributed to Clothar, since it is established that this occurred in the year 621, when (as he believes) Dagobert was not yet King. But on what grounds is the year of ordination established? In many matters indeed the chronology of this author is shaky. For besides what we have already noted concerning the death of Theoderic and Clothar's seizure of Austrasia, he says that Charimerus, Ermenfredus's predecessor, was made Bishop in 595, whereas St. Gregory of Tours expressly writes in book 9, chapter 23, that this occurred in the thirteenth year of Childebert, which was the year of Christ 588.
[14] In the thirty-eighth year of Clothar, or the following year—the year of Christ 621 or 622—Dagobert was given as King to the Austrasians. Thereafter, at his command and expense, the monastery of Tholey was founded, whether in the year of Christ 627, as Bruschius and others report, or perhaps somewhat earlier. When it was already completed, or at least had begun to be inhabited, Paulus withdrew there and remained for several years, as is evident from what was said in the preceding section—so that we may not rashly conjecture that he was drawn thence to the episcopate before the year of Christ 630 or 631. And indeed at the Synod of Reims held under Archbishop Sonnatius, it was not Paulus but Godo, Bishop of Verdun, who participated, as recorded in Flodoard, book 2, chapter 5. That Synod was celebrated around the year of Christ 624, as has been solidly proved elsewhere.
[15] But who was that Godo at the Synod of Reims? Claudius Robertus, in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Verdun, where he treats of Paulus, writes thus: "At this time St. Godo flourished, who is listed by Flodoard in book 2, chapter 5, as Bishop of Verdun at the Synod of Reims held around the year of Christ 634—perhaps because he was performing the duties of his Bishop?" But if he was performing the duties of the Bishop, why is it not added, as elsewhere, "sent by Lord N., Bishop of the city of Verdun," or something similar? Why is he not, as usually happens, listed in the last place? For nineteen are counted after him. If he is a Saint, as the same Claudius Robertus states, where does his memorial exist? There is indeed in the Calendar of Verdun under 19 October a memorial of St. Godo, but of an Abbot—the same one, I believe, who is recorded by others under 26 May, born in the territory of Verdun, a kinsman and disciple of St. Wandregisillis. Another Godo is mentioned as Bishop of Metz on the eighth day of May. But neither was Bishop of Verdun. Someone suspected that Paulus was perhaps called by a double name, Godo and Paulus, just as Grimo here is called Adalgisilus, and below Abbo is called Goericus, and in January Tillo is called Paulus. But since there is nothing to support that conjecture, and the reason for devising it (that Paulus seemed to have held the See both earlier and later) has already been refuted, there is no reason why he cannot be seen to have succeeded Godo, perhaps in the year 631 or even later. For the document cited by Roserius in volume 5 of his history, chapter 79, and from him by Joannes Ruerus in book 4 of the Antiquities of the Vosges, made in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 620, to which Paulus, Bishop of Verdun, among others, subscribed, does not merit belief, both for other reasons and because in that age the Franks did not record years of Christ in public acts.
[16] But not only Wasseburgius but also the manuscript Life attests that Paulus succeeded Ermenfredus; however, the Life was written many centuries later, and Wasseburgius frequently errs in chronology, and what he relates about Ermenfredus is not confirmed by any testimony from ancient records. He says that Ermenfredus was born in the furthest reaches of Belgica, near Strasbourg, in which city King Childebert frequently stayed; that he was brought to the king's court, having first been trained in letters and good morals; that he was raised with Childebert's sons Theoderic and Theudebert; that after Childebert's death he adhered to Theoderic, King of Burgundy; that he was present at the battle in which Theoderic defeated Clothar, King of Paris, in the year 605, and saw an Angel in the air brandishing an unsheathed sword, and resolved thenceforth not to commit himself to battle but rather to serve God with zeal; that shortly afterward St. Columbanus came from Ireland and founded the monastery of Luxeuil, and when he would visit the Court for the purpose of admonishing the King, Ermenfredus, having formed a friendship with him, sometimes turned aside to Luxeuil with him, and, captivated by the sanctity of the monks, at last left the Court and also assumed the religious habit; and that when Bishop Charimerus of Verdun died, Ermenfredus, now renowned for the fame of his virtue, at the demand of the Clergy and people, was appointed Bishop by Theudebert, who was then at Strasbourg; and that he finally died in the year 621.
[17] So Wasseburgius. That battle between Clothar and the sons of Childebert occurred in the fifth year after Childebert's death, the year of Christ 600, although Sigebert of Gembloux, whom Wasseburgius follows and cites, places it under the year 605, where he writes: "Clothar and Theoderic clashed in battle, in which more than thirty thousand are reported slain; Theoderic, however, won the victory. In this battle, the Angel of the Lord was seen holding a drawn sword over the people." Again, four years later, there was fighting between Clothar and Theoderic; but Sigebert and Wasseburgius are speaking of the first battle, as is also Aimoinus of Fleury in book 3, chapter 88. It is remarkable that Theudebert would have assented to Ermenfredus, formerly a courtier from Theoderic's kingdom, being called to the Church of Verdun, when the beginnings of the murderous war that was to follow were already forming between Theudebert and Theoderic. But let us grant this and the rest to the good faith of Wasseburgius and to the tradition of the people of Verdun, on which he perhaps relies. Franciscus Roserius, in volume 3 of his Genealogies of Lorraine, chapter 47, concurs, writing thus: "Hermenfredus, formerly a military and noble man, who at the suggestion of Columbanus, Abbot of Luxeuil (not Lexovium), renounced the world to some extent, and soon being made Bishop, having lived a pious life, rested in Christ, and was buried beside the tomb of his predecessor, in the twelfth year of his See." Wion, in book 2 of Lignum Vitae, chapter 55, where he cites these very words of Roserius, calls him simply a Saint; as does Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of Saints under 8 January and again 8 February; Constantinus Ghinius in his Natales of the Holy Canons under 8 December, on which day Claudius Robertus also writes that he died and cites Ferrarius, who assigns him in the Topography of the Roman Martyrology to 8 December. Saussaius also, in his Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology under the ninth day of February, where he too calls him a Saint, writes that he departed this life on 8 December, "which day," he says, "being devoted to the veneration of the Immaculate Conception of the most holy Mother of God, and the following days being sacred to the expectation and nativity of the Lord and other festivities and birthdays of His, the reverend memory of this heavenly dweller was long since deferred to this day."
Section IV. Deeds performed by St. Paulus in his episcopate.
[18] When Paulus came to Verdun, he found a shameful neglect of sacred things, because the means to support the priests of the Cathedral Church were lacking. He relieved this want partly through the generosity of his disciple Grimo, partly through that of King Dagobert; he increased the number of Canons and, as the Life states, established them to live according to canonical rule. Wasseburgius says it is established from the archives of the Church of Verdun that more possessions were bestowed upon it under Paulus than under all other Bishops who governed it thereafter.
[19] At that time, St. Desiderius, Bishop of Cahors, was the Royal Treasurer. After the death of King Clothar, he was retained by Dagobert with such intimacy that he obtained an even higher dignity than he had previously attained. "For the King loved him, because he knew him to be a vigorous man, both faithful to himself and already firmly grounded in the fear of God. He himself managed the offices entrusted to him so as to preserve both fidelity toward the King and grace with God. King Dagobert entrusted the richest treasures and the entire furnishings of the palace to his judgment. Under his supervision, gifts were stored away; at his nod, things to be given were brought forth. Many Bishops, Dukes, and members of the household lived under the protection of his wing. Many of the nobility were glad to ingratiate themselves with him. Queen Nanthildis loved him singularly. The King, as has been said, had entrusted copious treasures, many residences, and the splendid equipment of the Court to him." So it is in his Life, which we shall present on 15 November. It was therefore through Desiderius, in all likelihood, that Dagobert relieved the poverty of the Church of Verdun.
[20] And perhaps at that time the friendship between him and Paulus was formed, or at least strengthened, which the writer of that Life indicates in chapter 3, writing thus: "Desiderius, meanwhile, diligently devoting himself to God amid the activities of a most exacting Court, persisted in prayers day and night; for he had friends who were men of good faith: namely Paulus, Arnulfus, Eligius, and Audoenus, by whose example and exhortation he was constantly raising himself to better things and advancing his life for the better." And in the shorter Life of the same Desiderius: "For he was formed by the example, life, and character of Paulus, Arnulfus, Audoenus, and Eligius," etc. A witness to this friendship is the letter of Desiderius himself to the same Paulus, which from the collection of the History of the Kings of the Franks we have thought fit to present here, since it demonstrates the extraordinary piety of both men: "To my ever dear Lord, Bishop Paulus, Desiderius the sinner. I believe that it has already come to your ears how I have begun to build a monastery, and that I now have a basilica completed (with the Lord's help). Accordingly, I ask and invite the apostolic condescension of your dignity to deign to be present at the dedication. And when we shall have seen each other there in the name of God, lingering together for several days, I desire that we may have familiar conversations about that eternal and desirable life for which we used to sigh together. For we shall also arrange for many other Bishops to be present, who may assist us either by their example or strengthen us by their exhortation, and by whose fellowship I think we shall be helped not a little. Come therefore, dearest one, the farther the distance, the more swiftly; so that after a long absence of body, we may at last be refreshed by mutual conversation. The Lord will be present, I believe, among those who discourse about Him; He will stand by those who pray; nor will He who suffered for us, coming from the seat of the Father, ever desert us. May the power of our Lord Jesus Christ deign to preserve him praying for us." Thus far Desiderius. Browerus cites the same letter in book 7 of the Annals of Trier.
[21] Paulus himself also adorned Verdun with sacred buildings. For the church of St. Saturninus was built by him, which was afterward called St. Paul's. The occasion for its construction is recorded by Wasseburgius as follows. "In the ninth year of Dagobert's reign, Haribert (as the Deeds of Dagobert have it; others call him Aripert or Charibert), his brother, died, leaving a small son named Childeric, who also died shortly afterward; and King Dagobert promptly brought the entire kingdom of Haribert, together with Gascony, under his own dominion. To bring Haribert's treasures and present them to him, he sent a certain Duke named Barontus. But it is known that Barontus committed a grave embezzlement, having committed theft along with the treasures he was faithfully to deliver, and defrauded the King of a considerable amount." Fredegarius narrates the same in chapter 67, and Aimoinus in book 4, chapter 23, who, in what is relevant here, writes of the same Dagobert in chapter 20: "Having forgotten his former goodness, he became an unconscionable plunderer, coveting not only the property of churches but also that of any wealthy persons. For among other spoils of the churches of Gaul, under the pretext of adorning the basilica of St. Denis, he is said to have carried off from the church of St. Hilary at Poitiers doors fashioned of cast bronze. In like manner, when Dagobert saw the body of St. Saturninus, Bishop and first Apostle of the people of Toulouse, preserved in a precious casket, he ordered it to be conveyed to the monastery of St. Denis; and he himself came there with many Bishops, to see to it that the sacred pledge was honorably placed. Among the others, Paulus was present, and by the favor he enjoyed with the King and through the patronage of his former disciple Grimo, he obtained some portion of those relics." So Wasseburgius, in substance.
[22] Nicolaus Gillius, who long before Wasseburgius included this Translation of St. Saturninus in the Annals of France, reports that it was carried out by Duke Barontus, who was evidently aware of his King's enthusiasm for such things. He says that legates then came from the city of Toulouse, demanding the return of the relics of the holy Martyr, by whom they had been taught the sacred rites of Christ and whom the citizens venerated with truly extraordinary devotion. For after the holy body had been taken from them, their wives had been unable to bear children and their crops had not ripened. Dagobert consented to let them receive back the body of St. Saturninus on condition that in exchange they give the bodies of Saints Patroclus, Bishop of Grenoble, Romanus, Priest of Blaive, and Hilary, Bishop of Grenoble. Wasseburgius seems to have copied this from Nicolaus Gillius, though he does not cite him; but the fact that he writes that these three bodies are still preserved in the monastery of St. Denis makes us wonder that Doubletius makes no mention of them in his work on St. Denis, as far as we have been able to find. Catellius, in book 3 of the Commentaries on Occitania, copies the same from Gillius, but neither confirms it with his own authority nor refutes it; he only notes that the St. Hilary whose body was given together with the other two was not the Bishop of Grenoble but of Gabalum, or Mende, who is venerated on 25 October, about whose sacred body Saussaius writes on that day: "And so that his body, the instrument of so many graces, might be possessed with more lavish worship, it was conveyed by royal piety to the most august basilica of St. Denis in France; it was placed there in its own chapel and shrine, where it is honorably preserved to this day." We shall present the Life of St. Romanus on 24 November, on which day Saussaius has the following: "The body of this heavenly dweller was brought by King Dagobert from Aquitaine into inner Gaul, and was piously placed by him in the renowned monastery of St. Denis, his most beloved, where it still rests." The name of St. Patroclus appears neither in the catalogue of the Bishops of Grenoble nor in the Gallican Martyrology. We treated of him (whatever See he may have been Bishop of) on 31 January.
[23] By this occasion, therefore, having obtained some portion of the relics of St. Saturninus, toward whom he had previously been drawn with great devotion, Paulus built a chapel or church in his honor outside the city walls, which was first given to Canons, afterward to Benedictine monks, as we shall say below, and finally to Premonstratensians, and is now called St. Paul's. Its construction seems to have begun around the year of Christ 637, for Aripert died in 636, or the ninth year of Dagobert.
[24] Somewhat later, Paulus participated in the translation of St. Arnulf, of which we shall treat in his Life on 16 August. Sigebert of Gembloux writes that Arnulf died in the twenty-eighth year of the Emperor Heraclius, which he equates with the year of Christ 611. But since Heraclius assumed the empire on 17 March 610, his twenty-eighth year should begin from 17 March of the year of Christ 637. St. Antoninus, in part 2, title 13, chapter 6, section 13, without any mention of the years of Christ, writes that he departed to the Lord in the twenty-eighth year of Heraclius. "After nearly a full year had already elapsed, as is stated in his Life, his most excellent successor, Bishop Goericus, having taken counsel and having assembled a vast throng of Clergy and also of peoples, and having taken two Bishops along with him, they proceed together to the hermitage." Who those two Bishops were is indicated in the Life of St. Goericus on 19 September, in which the same Translation and the miracles performed at that time are narrated; it reads as follows: "He sent for and summoned two venerable Bishops, namely the Bishop of Toul and the Bishop of Verdun, and with the Clergy and monks of these three cities, rich and poor alike, gathering together, the Blessed Goericus set out for the Vosges." Roserius reports, in volume 3 of his Genealogies of Lorraine, chapter 48, that at that time Teufridus, or Teupectus, presided over the Church of Toul; and this is the same Theodefridus who subscribed to the diploma of St. Sigebert the King, which we presented from the archive of Stavelot on 1 February in the supplementary materials after the Life of St. Sigebert, section 3, number 19.
Section V. The death and relics of St. Paulus.
[25] After these and other distinguished and holy deeds, Paulus died around the year of Christ 650, as Haraeus conjectures, with whom most of those cited above concur, who assert he died in the year 648, or 647, or 649—although they adduce no chronological evidence. Perhaps he even survived somewhat longer. Trithemius, in book 4 of On Illustrious Men of the Order of St. Benedict, chapter 201, is far off the mark when he writes that he flourished in the time of King Dagobert in the year of the Lord 720, unless this is a copyist's error; for in the Compendium of Annals, he expressly states that Dagobert died in 645 and that Paulus flourished under his sons Clovis and Sigebert. Roserius at the cited place writes thus of the death of Paulus: "Thence he transferred the relics of Saturninus, the Apostle of Aquitaine, to Verdun, for whom he built an altar out of honor; and immediately, resplendent with the ornaments of justice and all virtues, he flew to heaven."
[26] His name is inscribed in the sacred tables under the sixth day before the Ides of February, on which day the very old manuscript Martyrology of Bruges and the manuscript of St. Lambert at Liege have: "On this day, St. Paulus, Bishop of Verdun." The manuscript of St. Richarius: "At Verdun, St. Paulus, Bishop and Confessor." In the manuscript Martyrology of Usuardus at the monastery of St. Germain in Paris, by another but ancient hand, had been added: "At Verdun, St. Paulus, Bishop and Confessor." Galesinius has nearly the same. The Roman Martyrology: "At Verdun in Gaul, St. Paulus, Bishop, illustrious for the glory of his miracles." The most ancient manuscript copy of Usuardus (which belonged to Augustinus Hunnaeus), Molanus in his additions to Usuardus, Canisius, the Florarium, and many manuscript and printed martyrologies: "At Verdun, the birthday of Blessed Paulus, Bishop and monk, the restorer and chief governor of that Church." The same had been added by an ancient hand to the manuscript Martyrology of Ado at the monastery of St. Lawrence at Liege, although he is there erroneously called a Martyr. Wion, Ghinius, and Saussaius have a more extended encomium. But Maurolycus under 9 February has: "At the monastery of Verdun, Paulus, Bishop and monk." Who called Verdun, a most ancient city, a monastery? Otherwise, he is also recorded on 9 February by the Martyrology of St. Gudula at Brussels and certain others. In a certain not very ancient manuscript, he is placed under 8 January. He is venerated at Verdun on 8 February with an Office of nine Readings, as is evident from the Breviary of Verdun.
[27] He was buried in the same church of St. Saturninus that he had founded, where many miracles were performed through him. Gisloaldus, who succeeded him, built many houses around that church and gave them to Canons and other Priests to inhabit, assigning an adequate revenue for their support and establishing a rule for the sacred rites that they were to perform regularly and devoutly, as he had learned that Paulus himself had previously intended. So Wasseburgius. Roserius also writes of Gisloaldus: "Gisloaldus succeeded him (Paulus), having been previously a monk at the cell of Tholey; when the Clergy had elected him and Sigebert, King of Austrasia, had confirmed the election, he established Canons in the church of St. Saturninus, and died not long after, in the seventeenth year of his office."
[28] The same author has the following about the relics of St. Paulus: "When the brethren of Tholey had stolen his body by night and were carrying it home secretly, they were divinely warned to stop and were unable to proceed." How and when this occurred is more fully related by Wasseburgius: "In the early times of Charlemagne and the last years of Pippin, the Church of Verdun is said to have lacked a Bishop, its administration having been imposed upon a certain Amelbertus, a holy man but unwilling, by the Canons, because it was not permitted to elect a Bishop without the King's command. He was unable to restrain certain wicked men from invading the Church's possessions or from retaining those they had previously seized by force. Charlemagne at last placed an Italian named Petrus over that Church, who was said to have persuaded King Desiderius to surrender the city of Pavia. While he was diligently attending to the affairs of his Church, he was accused before the King of having been complicit in some conspiracy against him. He was soon placed in custody, from which, since the accusers did not prove the charge, he was then released—yet with the condition that he was forbidden to approach the royal court, and he was unable to prevent the new injuries being inflicted on his Church, much less recover the lost property, until after about twelve years he returned to the King's favor through the patronage of his sons and proved his innocence to him."
[29] At that time, therefore, most of the churches of the city of Verdun were ravaged with impunity by soldiers and other wicked men, despoiled of their property, some abandoned, and wholly deprived of all worship of God. In particular, the church of St. Saturninus, situated outside the city walls, was stripped of all its ornaments and completely deserted. The body of Bishop St. Paulus lay wretched and unhonored in the church. When the monks of Tholey learned of this, they secretly plotted to carry it off to their monastery. Some of them came to Verdun, visited the churches in the manner of pilgrims, carefully observed everything, and finding an opportunity, they broke into the church of St. Saturninus by night, forced open the tomb of St. Paulus, reverently removed the relics, wrapped them in clean linen, and immediately departed. When at sunrise they believed they had completed much of the journey, they were only two miles from Verdun, in the middle of a forest. After resting there a little while, they set out again; but again and again they returned to the same place.
[30] There was in Verdun a devout Priest whom, as he was meditating on divine things that same night, a voice of this kind struck: "People of Verdun, too intent on private gain, through your indolence you will lose the Patron of your city, Paulus, whose body certain strangers have stolen and are carrying away this night." The holy man, terrified, leaped from his bed and roused the citizens. Having discovered the theft, they sent men in every direction to pursue the thieves. They found them, at the place we have mentioned, in the middle of the forest, detained by a kind of divine power, and asked them whence came such audacity as to conceive so enormous a sacrilege. The monks, astonished, said that they had been moved not by contempt or wicked intent but by piety, wishing to bring the body of the holy Bishop to the monastery of Tholey, where he had once lived and performed many miracles, to receive thereafter greater honor than it had received from the people of Verdun. The people of Verdun, appeased by this simple and guileless reply, not only forgave the deed but also bestowed upon them a portion of the sacred skull. The monks joyfully bore this to Tholey, where we believe it is still devoutly preserved. Bruschius attests for his own time: "His skull," he says, "is held in great honor at Tholey and is accustomed to be shown to the people on certain feast days."
[31] The rest of the body was brought back to the city, to the church of St. Saturninus, and greater veneration than before was paid to it. At the very place where the sacred remains had been recovered, a notable stone Cross was erected and an altar built before it. The name remains attached to the place, for it is commonly called Palecroix, as though Paul's Cross, and it belongs to the monastery of St. Vitonus. That Cross too was an object of veneration for the local inhabitants, who would frequently gather there out of devotion. But this piety of the people also gradually waned. Then a farmer from a neighboring village, needing a larger stone for some purpose in his buildings, casting aside all fear of God and reverence for the Saint, took the stone that served as the top of the altar before the Cross and adapted it for profane uses at home. But he did not bear this with impunity for long. For his sheep, horses, and cattle died; then he himself was seized by a severe illness and nearly given up for dead, until at last, by some divine instinct, the memory of his sacrilege returned to him. With great sorrow of soul he begged pardon of the holy Bishop and of God, and ordered the stone to be restored to its original place, publicly confessing his fault, and soon recovered his full health. The spirits of all were again inflamed toward piety and veneration of the Saint; pilgrimages were made to that place and many miracles were performed. Wherefore the monks of St. Vitonus (whose monastery had been founded not long before by Berengarius, the thirty-third Bishop of Verdun, around the year of Christ 952) built a church there and established a Priory of the Benedictine Order. But everything was later destroyed by various disasters of war, and all the bells, timber, and building materials were transported to Verdun for the monastery of St. Vitonus, and the place of Paul's Cross was completely deserted, as Wasseburgius attests.
Section VI. The church and miracles of St. Paulus.
[32] Around the same time that miracles are recorded at that Cross, no fewer occurred in the church of St. Saturninus, at the tomb of St. Paulus; and in particular, a certain salutary liquid, like oil, flowed from it, by which many sick people were cured. The populace of Verdun interpreted this portent to mean that the Saint was weeping on account of the squalor and ruin of the church he had once built. Moved by this report and especially by the miracles, Wilgefridus, the thirty-fourth Bishop, successor of Berengarius, restored that church from its foundations, and having removed the Canons, he established monks of the Order of St. Benedict there, placing the Abbot Blicherius over them. He reverently removed the relics of St. Paulus from the tomb and enclosed them in a skillfully wrought silver casket. Thenceforth that church was called St. Paul's. Wasseburgius reports that Wilgefridus held the See from the year of Christ 961 to 987, when he died on the day before the Kalends of September, and was buried in the same church of St. Paul.
[33] But since there is no virtue among mortals so splendid that it is not eventually tarnished, after that monastery of St. Paul had stood for one hundred and fifty years, all moral discipline in it was dissolved. Wherefore Albero, the forty-sixth Bishop, who governed the Church of Verdun from 1131 to 1156, when he could not amend the depraved morals of the monks either by frequent admonitions, or by threats, or even by punishments, and could not persuade either Laurentius, Abbot of St. Vitonus—a man of extraordinary virtue—or anyone else of proven piety to undertake the governance of that monastery, finally sent the monks to various monasteries of their order and gave the monastery to Premonstratensian Canons to inhabit, in the year of Christ 1136. This act of his was afterward confirmed by Pope Innocent II (not III, as Miraeus writes in the Premonstratensian Chronicle under the year 1130), expressly decreeing that it should cause scandal to no one if in the place of monks who were living too laxly, religious Canons were substituted. The first Premonstratensian Abbot there was Roger, from 1136 to 1141, succeeded by Theodoric, son of Heymardus (or, as Pagius has it, Heynardus), Count of Salm, who died in 1148. Wasseburgius narrates the whole affair at length in book 4 under Albero; he should be corrected, however, in writing that the Premonstratensians follow the Rule of St. Benedict just as the Cistercians do. It does credit to religious discipline and economy that whereas before scarcely twenty could be fed, afterward three hundred were sustained, with the revenues of the monastery not at all increased. Joannes Pagius, in book 2 of the Premonstratensian Library, in the Lives of Roger and Theodoric, whom he calls Blessed (as he does Albero), either did not notice this or chose not to follow it, writing: "The domestic income of that abbey so increased and grew that what had previously been unable to sustain twenty Benedictines was, remarkably under his (Theodoric's) governance, multiplied and enriched for three hundred Premonstratensians."
[34] Albero himself also, having left the episcopate and the world, received the habit of the Premonstratensian order in the same monastery of St. Paul, and after spending nearly two years there, died piously in 1158. So Wasseburgius, Miraeus, and Pagius; the latter writes that he died on 2 November; the Abbot Chrysostomus records him on 3 November in the Saints' Days of the Premonstratensian Order, where he also calls him Blessed, as does Claudius Robertus. But Demochares, whom Miraeus and Robertus follow, writes: "It is reported that Blessed Bernard, while singing Mass for this man, changed the Collect for the Dead into the Collect for Confessors."
LIFE BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR
from the manuscript of the monastery of St. Maximin.
Paulus, Bishop of Verdun in Gallia Belgica (St.)
BHL Number: 6600
By an anonymous author, from manuscripts.
CHAPTER I
The youth and withdrawal into solitude of St. Paulus.
[1] This our venerable Father Paulus, an outstanding imitator of that once admirable preacher to the nations, Paul, whose name he shared in its designation and whose work he matched in its execution, drew his origin from persons of no mean dignity in the lower parts of Gaul. Received from the cradle and his infant cries, he was given over, as was formerly the custom of the nobility, to be trained in the liberal studies of letters, in the use and pursuit of which he so quickly grew that the subtleties neither of Grammar, nor of Dialectic, nor even of Rhetoric and the other disciplines escaped him. But once he had drunk this in, he drew back his foot—which had once slipped into the entrance of worldly pomp (which, heaping up cares and anxieties like mountains of gold, is reckoned first among mortals)—lest, enticed by excessive love of it, he should suffer the ruin of an immense precipice. Turning wholly to divine things, he was always intent on divine worship around churches or monasteries. He devoted himself to works of mercy, bringing aid to the wretched, reserving nothing for himself beyond what was necessary for daily food and clothing; not unmindful of the evangelical precept, he lavished upon the sick, the naked, the hungry, those imprisoned, and those afflicted by various necessities whatever he was able to have, keeping unshakably in the chamber of his heart that word of the Lord by which we are forbidden to be anxious about tomorrow. To these he had added the swiftest flights to heaven through fasting and prayers, together with the pursuit of peace and holiness, without which, as he had learned from the Apostle, he knew that no one can see God. And although he ministered to the Lord in the occupations of the active life, like the evangelical Martha, yet as an eager seeker of divine contemplation, he strove to choose the better part, which would not be taken from him, with Mary.
[2] While he was occupied with this intent day and night, that he might, if by any means possible, attain the summit of perfection, a most salutary and above all useful counsel came to him by divine regard: namely, that sustained by the most faithful belief of the Patriarch Abraham, leaving his native soil, he should seek foreign nations and unknown places, and enriched by the want of blessed poverty, poorer than the foxes that have holes and the birds of the air that have nests, he himself with Christ should have nowhere to lay his head. He was further incited by the not-to-be-despised words and examples of David the King and Prophet, who by day ruled the palace shining in purple, and by night, lying in sackcloth and ashes, laboring amid groans, watered his bed with tears, crying out that he was needy and poor, demanding God's help to free him without further delay: "I am needy and poor," he said; "O God, help me; for my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord has taken me up. And I am become a stranger to my brothers, and a pilgrim to the sons of my mother. And again, Behold, I have gone far off fleeing, and I have remained in the wilderness." Spurred on moreover by the evangelical trumpet (where whoever desires to attain the summit of perfection is commanded to sell all things and distribute to the poor, and where to him who leaves fields, patrimony, wife, children, and the rest for Christ, a hundredfold and eternal life are further promised; and by this also, that unless one takes up his cross daily, he cannot follow Christ; and further, that he is not His disciple who does not hate parents, children, and brothers, and indeed his own soul), he undertook the length of an unaccustomed pilgrimage and unknown road, not knowing where he was going; and forgetting his own nobility, fleeing the care of his parents by hating and ignoring it, he consented to his adversary in the way of God, and with the Lord as his guide, he joyfully entered the wilderness that is called the Vosges, a servant of Christ about to serve his King, having set aside all the cares of the world, to accomplish what he had conceived in his mind. Many anchorites are said to have inhabited the solitude of this wilderness in separate cells, cut off from mutual visits and conversations except on Saturday and Sunday, unless bodily illness or the salvation of the soul compelled someone to be visited. Their desirable way of life Paulus was striving to attain, as he had long deliberated in his mind with longing.
Note:
CHAPTER II
The monastic life of St. Paulus.
[3] But since a man's life is not in his own power, and there is no counsel against the Lord, and it depends not on the one who wills or runs but on God who shows mercy, it is believed to have come about far otherwise than he had supposed, by the direction of divine mercy: so that he who was at some future time to be a Bishop should meanwhile lie hidden, living with the Brethren in a monastery, and in the school of virtues attentively learn what he would soon contribute to the salvation of souls through salutary preaching. For in that same wilderness there was a monastery, which to this day, by the mercy of God, is preserved as a distinguished house of monastic observance. It was anciently called Tabuleium, so interpreted because it was first built of stones hewn in the fashion of boards; but more modern interpreters more aptly call it Theologium. Leaving the dispute over this interpretation to the wise, to decide what each sees best, let us return to our subject. When the Blessed Paulus happened to turn aside to this same monastery for the purpose of lodging, he was most gladly received by the Father and Brethren as though Christ were their guest; and when after prayer he returned to the guesthouse, the Abbot with the Brethren, in obedience to divine commandments, washed his feet and hands, and with all the reverence of devotion rendered him every service of humility; and they asked and obtained that he should remain there for a little while to refresh his limbs, which were wearied by the difficulty of the longer journey and the unaccustomed labor.
[4] When, after lingering there for some time, the man dear to God began to be recognized through frequent conversations with the Brethren and the Abbot, the Abbot, reckoning that this was being brought about by God so that his life and character might be a salutary example for the others, was thinking whether he might attach him to the common life of the monastic institution, lest by his departing to other places, the Abbot should suffer the loss of his sanctity. And so on a certain day, as they were conversing about contempt for this world—as they often did—the Abbot inquired and Paulus revealed by the clearest declarations the intention of his mind, who he was, why he had come, by what ardor of heart he was held, and that he loved the solitude of the desert more than the amplitude of the entire world, provided he might possess the grace of Christ. He earnestly besought the Abbot through God to keep this secret, and to seek out for him a place suitable for inhabiting and devoted to divine services, and to hasten to inform him when he had found one. The Abbot, adjured not to disclose the secrets entrusted to him nor to oppose his wishes, yet more anxious lest the absence of so great a man should bring harm to the place, began to set before him—no longer from his own reasoning or his own examples, but from those of the Lord Himself—arguments to retain him: He who in the hour of His Passion, while His humanity feared death, prayed to the Father, saying: "Father, if You will, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but Yours, be done." And again: "I have come not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." While the Abbot pursued these and similar arguments for the retention of the man, Paulus remained immovable and could not be moved from his purpose to leave unfulfilled what he had conceived in his mind. When the Abbot saw that he persevered in that resolution and could in no way be pressed (for he was not of so humble a condition that he could be compelled to what he did not wish), taking examples from the divine Scriptures for persuasion, the Abbot proceeded in order thus: "If, like the Patriarch Abraham, you are a pilgrim for Christ from your native soil, which will be credited to you for righteousness; if with King David the Prophet you have gone far off fleeing to remain in the wilderness, and as an evangelical man you have left homeland, parents, fields, and the rest at Christ's command in the Gospel; yet know that, in order to be more fully justified as a just man, something of perfection is still wanting to you. Wherefore, if you eagerly hasten toward it, hear the Prophet declaring on behalf of the humble: 'You have led us into a snare; You have placed afflictions upon our backs; You have placed men over our heads'—showing that we must humbly and obediently carry out not our own will but the commands of our Superiors. And lest the assertion of the Prophet seem a small thing, since he himself endured none of these things, let us use the example of Christ the Lord Himself, whom you follow. See then what the Apostle says of Him: 'Christ was made obedient for us to the Father even unto death.' Therefore, if you truly resolve to follow Him (and to follow, I would say, is to imitate), enter the path of obedience, and in it perseveringly, if need be, be obedient even unto death. For the exercise of the disciple will not be praised unless the reverend teaching of the master has approved him; and it is the authority of sacred scripture that no one should presume to govern who has not learned to be subject. And the Savior said to His disciples about the new grace of the institution: 'If you know these things, blessed will you be if you do them.' And the Apostle James: 'Not hearers of the Law only, but doers will be justified.'"
[5] Upon hearing these things, to which he could not object, the blessed man gave his assent; and since what he was being asked to do he himself ought to have asked for first, prostrating his whole body on the ground, he begged pardon for his negligence, promising to obey the commands of the Father in all the precepts of regular discipline. And so, with the wishes of all and with the blessing of the Father of the monastery, he was clothed in the angelic garb of the monk; and as a true servant of God, mingled with the congregation of the Saints, it is beyond anyone's ability (as I judge) to describe what manner and what degree of person he showed himself to be. For from the day he changed his habit to the religious profession, remaining in the same place, it seems incredible to relate what crosses he imposed upon himself in chastising his body and reducing it to subjection, what torments he inflicted upon his limbs, since he did not indulge the health of his body even slightly, nor once turned back the hand he had set to the plow, remembering Lot's wife. For he was generous in almsgiving, outstanding in charity, most pure in chastity, holy in humility, shrewd in prudence, keeping the cunning of the serpent together with the law, and not losing the purity of a simple soul. At the suggestion of Solomon, with the timid he discussed war, with the proud humility, with the unjust justice, with the wrathful gentleness, and against all kinds of vices, which are driven out by the opposing virtues—not arrogantly rebuking but humbly and wisely, as though sympathizing—he watched over the flock with the care of a Pastor, as by a kind of premonition of the future. Graced with this endowment of virtues, he was loved by all, revered by everyone, pleasing to all; and with exceeding affection, out of reverence for his sanctity, except for the title of Pastor, he was honored as if he were a teacher.
Notes:
CHAPTER III
The episcopate refused by St. Paulus.
[6] But lest so great an abundance of virtues should be empty and void, and lest a lamp lit with the torches of so many rays should be hidden concealed under a bushel, but rather should shine for all in the house of God when placed aloft, many began to flock to him from distant parts of the earth, having heard the report of his fame; and not only the sons of middling families but those begotten of the noble lineage of the powerful and the aristocratic gathered unanimously and placed themselves under his teaching. For Grimo, who was also called Adalgisilus, a kinsman of King Dagobert, counting all the glory of this world as nothing for the love of the heavenly fatherland, submitted himself to be imbued with his teaching, having learned from many that his life and deeds, like a verdant field with the variety of different flowers, which the Lord had blessed, was fragrant with the scent of all virtues. He clung to his love so suddenly that he could in no way be torn from him unless prevented by death. Having been introduced by him into the fields of Scripture, he made such progress in a short time that in discipline and character he equaled his teacher. For the same monastery of Tabuleium, or Theologium, belonged by hereditary right to the property of Grimo, in which, as in his own, dwelling more freely with his teacher, he bore a hundredfold fruit from the pasture of virtues, to such an extent that at that time he attained the rank of deacon.
[7] At about the same time, upon the death of Ermenfredus, Bishop of Verdun, a search was made for someone worthy to be promptly substituted in this office, lest through the passage of time the flock of the Lord should be torn apart by the bites of wolves for lack of a Pastor. There was no lack of someone to report to the ears of the Princes that within the borders of their kingdom, in the aforementioned monastery, there dwelt a certain monk named Paulus, to whom the pastoral care could be committed with sufficient honor. Immediately, at the King's command, envoys were sent who brought this same message to Grimo, with the order that he take Paulus and bring him as quickly as possible to the palace—a man most dear to the King—to be promoted by the direction of divine providence and by the assent of the courtiers, Clergy, and people, and in reciprocation of his love for him, to the honor of the episcopate of Verdun. Grimo, filled with exceeding joy, announced to his dearest Father the will of the King and the unanimous and most eager devotion of the election by the nobles, the middling folk, and all toward him; and urged him to hasten to carry out the King's commands more quickly. To whom Paulus replied: "Although they exalt me with praise and elect me to the pastoral care as though I were worthy, perhaps they do not know that it is forbidden in the Canons that persons migrating from their own Sees should be easily ordained in other places. Wherefore let them know that neither at the King's command nor at the people's wish is it lawful to violate the decrees of the divine laws. Therefore let the intention of the King and the Princes turn to another; lest, if they place over the Church of Christ one who is unknown and falsely praised at the rumor of the mob, they perceive the damage with belated repentance in the future." Saying this, he sent the envoys back empty-handed, hoping by this pretext that he could have peace and that the King would desist from his proposed intention. But the providence of almighty God, who before all ages had known him to be a future Bishop, to give knowledge of salvation to His people in the remission of their sins, and who had brought him from remote parts of the earth for this purpose, put it into the heart of the King that he should place him, drawn from the monastery, though unwilling and resistant, no longer seeking his own wishes according to his own pleasure but obediently doing what belongs to God, over His Church, according to what seemed good to him by the counsel of the Kings, boldly. How this was accomplished, the following discourse will explain.
Notes:
CHAPTER IV
The life and miracles of St. Paulus as written by Bertharius.
[8] "That this Blessed Paulus was the brother of St. Germanus, Bishop of the Church of Paris, as we have received in writings, his sanctity and the greatness of his virtues clearly attest. And lest anyone should perhaps come to doubt that this is a falsehood mendaciously contrived and inserted into this work, and therefore false, if it is not confirmed by the testimony of an authority, it seems worthwhile to confirm it by the affirmations of the ancients, whose antiquity no one, however crafty, will be able to resist. To this assertion the Priest Bertharius bears witness, who, at the request of the Lord Dado, Bishop of that same city, wove together with remarkable brevity, as best he could, the names and deeds of all the Bishops of Verdun before him; among which, not forgetting this one, he set what has been described above in its proper place. And lest our words be reckoned false, we append his own words of this kind: 'After Ermenfredus,' he says, 'St. Paulus was drawn from the monastery of Tabuleium. He was the brother of St. Germanus, Bishop of the Church of Paris, and was consecrated Bishop in this Church, whose memory is eternal. For when Grimo the Deacon, kinsman of King Dagobert, who is also called Adalgisilus, had been reverently raised by St. Paulus from infancy, out of love for the Bishop, he handed over his own property—that is, the monastery of Tabuleium—to St. Mary at Verdun, confirmed it by his own writing and the writings of many faithful, and fortified it with every authority, so that our Church should have that monastery in perpetuity. Grimo also, out of his piety, assigned the estate of Frasindum for the sustenance of our Brethren. St. Paulus purchased Basonisvilla from his own revenues. He made a charter for our Canons concerning the more ancient estates and confirmed it with his own hands and those of other Bishops under divine attestation. Concerning the virtues of this our holy Father, we have heard this marvelous thing: that while he was still leading the monastic life and had the assignment of obedience in the Brethren's bakehouse, and feared that the Brethren might not have bread at the appointed hour, he cast the fire out of the oven, entered it himself in his cowl, cleaned the oven, and arranged the bread there for baking; and coming out unharmed, he distributed the holy bread to the Brethren in the refectory at the appointed time. I have read and I have seen depicted many miracles which he performed while living in the episcopate, and which after his death, lying in the church of St. Saturninus, he wrought with God's cooperation. For he gave sight to the blind, gave the ability to walk to the lame, and healed the sick of various infirmities. What more? He enriched this Church with temporal goods, and almighty God causes his soul to rejoice with all the Saints in eternal glory without end.'"
[9] "That these things are so, the authority of the man himself and his not-to-be-despised antiquity seem to contribute sufficient faith for believing it. But in what he goes on to say—that he read many things and saw many depicted things that through negligence were not written down—he himself is also convicted of the charge of negligence, since he neglected to write down for the edification of posterity what he had read in writings or seen in pictures. But we have not been reluctant to reveal in writing for the faithful to read, to the praise of the Creator and the veneration of this Saint, what we have been able to learn from pictures teaching us, according to the capacity of our small talent. Therefore, having come out of the oven unharmed, humbly and obediently carrying a basket on his shoulder (for he could not fail to be such a one, upon whom so great a grace had been divinely bestowed), while he was bringing unexpected bread to the Brethren's refectory, behold, he heard behind him the voice of a poor man begging for the help of sustenance. For he was bound by the disability of a double affliction, and destitute of means, creeping only on his knees and little stools, he satisfied his pain with whatever cries he could. The man full of piety, moved with compassion for his misery, held out a loaf taken from the basket to the one crying behind him; and the man, suddenly touched by divine power, stood on his feet, received the food, and he who had come by the help of others returned to his own home by his own power."
Notes:
CHAPTER V
The deeds of St. Paulus in his episcopate.
[10] The envoys, having been frustrated in so great a labor of travel, as was mentioned above, reported that the man was not obeying the King's commands, that he had replied that he was unworthy, unknown, or a neophyte for the governance of souls, not to be promoted, and that he was such a one as could not be seduced by flattery or shaken by terror; and that these same things were forbidden by the decrees of the Canons. Upon hearing this, the King, anxious with both anger and love, sent soldiers, had him extracted from the monastery, compelled and unwilling—yet acclaimed by the applause of all as most worthy—forced him to undergo the burden of pontifical dignity, and having had him ordained Bishop by the Bishops, established him to preside honorably over his See.
[11] The aforementioned Grimo, the King's kinsman, seeing that what he had long desired was fulfilled, filled with exceeding joy, hastened with a willing spirit to assign whatever property he seemed to possess to the jurisdiction of the Church of Verdun. But at that time, the Church itself was so destitute of resources that there was no Cleric who would regularly, or as the ecclesiastical order prescribes, complete the solemnities of the Mass or the customary course of the psalms there; but on account of poverty, scarcely and with great difficulty did some external Priest come each day, and completing the offices of the hours and the Mass at once very hastily and quite indecently, he would return home after receiving his pay. Likewise a second, and a third, and the rest, until the same confused order returned from the last to the first. Seeing this, the Bishop summoned his beloved Grimo and, having complained greatly about this matter, revealed the inner grief of his heart. To which Grimo immediately returned words of counsel and assistance: "You had refused before, Father, to obey the King; but since he placed you, unwilling and bound as it were by the chains of royal authority, upon this See, you may justly complain to him about those things that pertain to ecclesiastical rights. Moreover, whatever is mine or can be mine, in estates, possessions, or money,
I willingly grant to your authority, so that by your appointment and with the help of my resources, the order of the clergy may serve the divine worship through successions." Saying this, he assigned the estate of Frasindum for the sustenance of the Brethren. And shortly, with no further delay, they went to the palace and poured complaints about the hardships of his Church into the King's ears, praying together that for his own glory and salvation he would bestow upon the holy Church of Verdun whatever portion of earthly goods he might. The King willingly assented to their petition and sent them back to the city, enriched with possessions and money, with joy. The names of these properties, although they are not specifically set down in writing, yet because it was done, the aforementioned Priest does not pass over, when he attests that Paulus enriched his Church with a great many possessions. Concerning these, he wrote a charter with his own hand, confirmed by the authority of other Bishops under anathema, and deposited it in the archive of the same Church, to be preserved for all ages; which is known to have remained in the same place up to our times. I recall having seen some people who admitted to having seen and read the same charter, and who said they had never anywhere seen characters of letters more elegantly formed or a sentence more orderly in its eloquence. But these things for now.
[12] Having therefore obtained what he desired for the business of ecclesiastical care, he established the Canons to live according to canonical rule; and residing in his See for many years, he did not desist from the virtues he had begun. The aforementioned Priest reproaches those who knew of his works but neglected them, and yet attests that he read and saw in pictures that Paulus was a worker of miracles, reporting that he drove out demons, cured paralytics, and gave sight to the blind.
[13] With the performance, therefore, of these and all good works—which are unknown to us but manifest to the knowledge of God—ascending from virtue to virtue, he merited to see the God of gods in Zion and, in the likeness of the Patriarch Jacob, to see the same God leaning upon the ladder, by which Angels were seen ascending and descending by steps; and he heard the land of the living promised to him, if he should patiently make his pilgrimage in this valley of tears. And when the nocturnal shadows were dispelled after the vision, with the Dawn already shining—namely, the evangelical precept sounding forth, "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you"—he entered into the struggle with the Angel, that is, by walking in the spirit so as not to serve the desires of the flesh; he obeyed the angelic oracle, by which the sinew of his thigh was contracted and withered, since by laboring at divine precepts he extinguished in himself the ardor of lust by the mortification of the body; limping in the soil of this life, he understood that a firm step could never be established. But after the weariness of a long pilgrimage, during which he sang lamenting with the Psalmist, "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged," he sought his homeland through the desert of this uncertain solitude with manifold suffering; and worn out with old age and full of days, bidding farewell to the Brethren in the peace of his Church, he died on the sixth day before the Ides of February, and he commanded that he be buried in the church of St. Saturninus, as has been said; where through his merits the blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ are bestowed, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.
Notes: