Domninus

ON ST. DOMNINUS, FIRST BISHOP OF DIGNE IN GAUL.

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY.

Domninus, Bishop of Digne in Gaul (St.)

I. B.

[1] In the upper province of Gaul, Digne is an episcopal city, formerly of the Sentii, as Ptolemy relates in book 2, chapter 10, table 3 of Europe; or, as Pliny has it in book 3, chapter 4, of the Ebroduntii; still under the metropolis of Embrun in the Maritime Alps. St. Domninus, first Bishop of Digne. Its first Bishop was St. Domninus. Papirius Masso calls him Doninus in his Register of the Bishoprics of Gaul and considers him to be the one who is famous in Italy -- he means, I believe, the one from whom Borgo San Donnino, a town in the territory of Parma, is named, where Domninus the Martyr is venerated on October 9. But that one was a Chamberlain of Maximian Herculeus, not a Bishop.

[2] The Domninus of Digne came to Gaul from Africa with St. Marcellinus, or (as others call him) Marcellus, Bishop of Embrun, to preach the Gospel; and on the day that Marcellinus is venerated, he too is inscribed in the Martyrologies, April 20. Thus Wandelbert sings of them there:

Marcellinus, Domninus, and Vincent alike inscribed in the Martyrologies on April 20. Shine with their name, their feast, and their faith on the twelfth.

The ancient Martyrology of the monastery of St. Riquier, bearing the name of Bede: In the Gauls, in the city of Embrun, of St. Marcellinus, first Bishop of the same city, and Confessor, and of Vincent and Domninus, his companions. More fully, Usuard: In the Gauls, in the city of Embrun, of St. Marcellus, Bishop and Confessor of the same city, who, coming from Africa by divine command with his holy companions Vincent and Domninus, converted the greatest part of the Maritime Alps to the faith of Christ by the word and by admirable signs with which he shines to this day. The same things are proclaimed about them, with the phrasing somewhat changed, by Maurolycus, Galesinius, and others. Some postpone them to the following day.

[3] Ado of Vienne in his Martyrology, to the eulogy that we gave from Usuard, appends certain things from chapter 69 of St. Gregory of Tours' book On the Glory of the Confessors, about the admirable baptistery of St. Marcellinus, and affirms that he was the first Bishop of that city. Then he adds this about his companions: His tomb is renowned for miracles. His venerable companions, buried at the city of Digne, are commended by no less glorious miracles. Notker and the manuscript Martyrology of the monastery of St. Maximin have the same. Peter of Equilinum renders the last part thus, in book 4 of the Catalogue of Saints, chapter 69: His companions, Confessors of Christ, fell asleep in the Lord, buried at the city of the Clunenses. Others also err in the name of the city, writing Cliniensium, Dimensium, Dunensium. The name of the city of Digne is incorrectly rendered elsewhere. Thus St. Aventinus, Bishop of Dunois or Chartres, who subscribed to the First Council of Orleans, was incorrectly called by some, as Sirmond admits in his Notes, Bishop of Digne or Dijon. Masso certainly writes thus in the Register cited above: That Digne was a metropolis is certain and clear from the subscriptions of the first Synod held at Orleans. Thus in the Venetian edition of the Councils under Sixtus V, among those who subscribed to this Council, Aventinus of the metropolis of Digne is in the first place. In the margin it is noted: Diviensis, Diensis, or Dignensis. In the Parisian edition of Sirmond and the Royal edition, he is last. Sirmond notes the following: The subscriptions of this synod and of the following ones had hitherto been arranged in published editions in alphabetical order, by what design one cannot tell, which we do not recall being done in any ancient manuscripts. We treated of that holy Bishop of Dunois on February 4. The city of Digne, whose name is erroneously expressed elsewhere, Canisius calls with a new error "Cliuensem" (of Cleves). For thus he has it in German: "in einer Cleuischer statt" -- "In some city of Cleves." Cleves, as is commonly known, is a very ample duchy between the Meuse and the Rhine and beyond the latter, almost at the borders of the Batavians.

[4] Saussaius explains the final words of Ado thus in his Gallican Martyrology: Ado of Vienne testified with grave assertion that this miracle persevered even to his own age, borne thither, adding that the bodies of the blessed fellow-workers of St. Marcellinus, after their renowned passing, were borne to the town of Digne and there rest with fitting veneration, and shine with glorious signs. Ado does not say that the bodies were borne to Digne, or did he die there? but that they are buried at Digne -- whether, as Equilinus has it, they fell asleep in the Lord at that city, or elsewhere. They certainly both preached there. Domninus was also a Bishop. This will become clear below from the Life written by Gassendi; the former from the Life of St. Marcellinus, which reads thus:

[5] The blessed Vincent, whom we mentioned above, a companion most worthy of such a colleague, together with the venerable man Domninus, his fellow-disciple, whom we almost passed over above on account of a certain* obligation of mind, choosing the territory of the city of Digne, saved many by their example. For Domninus himself is not undeservedly commemorated in the language of Scripture, whom a blessed devotion made the equal of the others. Indeed, to this very day at their venerable tombs, demons are driven out and many sick are healed. having set out there with St. Vincent, For it was not right that in three persons the threefold power should not prevail, and that the inseparable Trinity, while joining three in one purpose, should not thereby make a head of holiness.

[6] With the approval of St. Marcellinus, Bishop of Embrun, Leaving the aforesaid Bishop of Embrun, judging themselves of lesser merit, yet unable to travel one without the other, unless perhaps with him in whom the perfect fullness of Christ remained intact. But this the blessed men seemed to have undertaken rather by the permission of the Bishop than by their own daring. and with his blessing: At length the most blessed man addressed them with these words, saying: "Go, my sons, keeping the commandment of the Lord, for he himself sent his disciples two by two to preach repentance for the remission of sins. Use one* escort. Although I am absent in body, I shall always remain present with you in spirit until the day of my dissolution. For the rest, the Lord's dispensation, as I trust, will in no way separate us." And since they could by no means contradict this command, kissing his footsteps, they said farewell and set out. And when he had followed them not without a shower of tears, he returned to the city he had chosen.

[7] That Domninus was then consecrated Bishop of the city of Digne by the same Marcellinus was indicated by Pierre Gassendi, Provost of the Church of Digne, St. Domninus becomes a Bishop: a man most famous for his courtesy and the books he published, who sent to Godefrid Wendelin -- himself also a most learned man and a very close friend of ours -- a Life of St. Domninus composed by himself from the records of that Church and arranged into three Lessons for use in the Ecclesiastical Office, in the year 1644, to be communicated to us. He is venerated on February 13. He also noted that he is venerated on the Ides of February.

[8] At what time St. Domninus lived can be gathered from the age of St. Marcellinus. Ghinius establishes that he flourished around the year of our Lord 310. When did he live? Gassendi relates that he came from Africa to Rome in the time of Pope St. Eusebius, around the year of Christ 310, and was made by him Bishop of the Maritime Alps. But in the Life found in Bonino Mombritius, it is said that St. Eusebius of Vercelli, having taken as his associate Aemilianus, Bishop of the city of Valence, consecrated Marcellinus. This I believe happened after Eusebius had returned from exile during the reign of Julian; for Aemilianus too is read to have subscribed to the First Council of Valence in the consulship of Gratian Augustus (for the third time) and Equitius, the year 374. And Eusebius, by the authority of Apostolic Legate with which he had served in the East, seems thereafter to have exercised the same elsewhere by the Pope's command. And so St. Marcellinus must be said to have received the episcopate only in the times of Valentinian I, and St. Domninus somewhat later, so that he could have survived to the reign of Theodosius.

*another reading: "forgetfulness." *another reading: "provision."

LIFE

distributed into Lessons for the Second Nocturn, by Pierre Gassendi.

Domninus, Bishop of Digne in Gaul (St.)

[1] Domninus, a native of Africa, burning with zeal for the Christian religion, St. Domninus, a native of Africa, together with his companion Vincent, followed the blessed Marcellinus, Bishop of Embrun, at the time when the latter arrived at Rome and greeted Pope Eusebius, with Constantine already reigning. But also, sent together with Marcellinus into Cisalpine Gaul, he rendered him constant assistance he preaches in the Alps: until the faith of Christ, disseminated in the city of Embrun and the surrounding region, took root. Then indeed he was dismissed by Marcellinus together with Vincent then at Digne, to propagate the faith further. He resolved to approach the city of Digne, in which there were said to be worshippers of idols and haters of the Christian name.

[2] And indeed as soon as he opened his mouth, speaking against the idols and preaching Christ the Savior, where those who resist the faith he had fiercely resistant disputants, until by reason he overturned their belief in the gods, and by prayer poured forth to heaven he obtained faith in Christ, he converts by words and miracles: and by signs and miracles he confirmed the faith he had won. For after he had extolled the promises made to believers, he ordered the sick to be brought from everywhere, and when a great multitude of them had been gathered before the whole people, he restored health to all in the name of Jesus. Wherefore, with great applause, a large part of the people began to detest their gods he baptizes 500 on the first occasion and to demand baptism, so much so that when a baptistery had been prepared, he washed about five hundred souls on the first occasion.

[3] When afterward he had also arranged for a church to be built in honor of the Virgin Mother of God, he builds a church: Marcellinus came to consecrate it, and at the same time he consecrated Domninus as Bishop. Meanwhile the Church of God in the East began to suffer on account of the Arian heresy, he becomes a Bishop: and the sacred Council of Nicaea was celebrated around that time. But Domninus, feeding his tender flock with untiring labor, he resists the heretics: kept it persevering in the confession of the holy and undivided Trinity. At length, when he felt himself nearing his end, after he had exhorted Vincent to take up the care of the flock, on the Ides of February, with Constantius already reigning, he departed to the Lord. His sacred head with one arm he dies. is preserved to this day in the Church of Digne and is held in veneration.

It is more probable that he came later, since he was consecrated Bishop by St. Eusebius of Vercelli and Aemilianus of Valence in the time of the Emperor Valentinian, as we said above.

Indeed much earlier, as we have shown.

Constantius died before St. Eusebius of Vercelli returned from exile -- the same Eusebius who ordained St. Marcellinus as master of the Lord.