ON SAINT BASIL, MONK, OF THE ISLAND OF RATZ IN GAUL.
CommentaryBasil, Monk of the Island of Ratz in Gaul (Saint)
G. H.
[1] André du Saussay, in the Appendix to his Gallic Martyrology, item 7, presents the names of certain Saints, as he prefaces, pertaining to Gaul and not very well known, from the most ancient manuscript Martyrology of the Benedictine monastery of Saint Savin (or Sauvin) de Lévitanie, in the Pyrenean Mountains in the territory of Tarbes, written on parchment about five hundred years ago, in which the following is found for February 12: On the island of Ratz, Saint Basil the Monk, "On the island of Ratz, of Saint Basil the Monk." On the same day, the manuscript Martyrology of Liessis in Hainault: "And on the island of Ratz, of Basil the Monk." And the Martyrology of Saint Martin of Tournai: "On the island of Ratz, the feast of Saint Basil the Monk."
[2] But where the island of Ratz is in Gaul, we have not yet discovered. In Aquitania III, or Novempopulania, where Tarbes is an episcopal city and the said monastery of Saint Savin is located, the river Ratus also flows past the town of Maulésin, Perhaps in Novempopulania? the capital of the Viscounty of Fezensaguet in the County of Armagnac. Whether some river island there was called Ratensis after the river Ratus, in which Saint Basil may have lived, we cannot determine beyond conjecture.
[3] The manuscript Roman Martyrology under the name of Saint Jerome has two Basils on February 11 and one Basilianus, Is he the same as the Saint Basil listed on February 11? and assigns this Basilianus to Campania and the other Basil to Armenia, while the place of the third is not indicated. Is this third one to be assigned to the island of Ratz? Or should the other Basil, who in the Reichenau manuscript also is attributed to Armenia, rather be considered this monk, who may have lived among the Armagnacs on the river Ratus? Let the matter rest in the middle; let it be decided by one who has read or heard more.