Guimerra

ON ST. GUIMERRA, BISHOP OF CARCASSONNE IN GALLIA NARBONENSIS.

Guimerra, Bishop of Carcassonne in Gallia Narbonensis (St.)

G. H.

[1] Carcasso, Carcassio, or Carcassium, in later times Carcassona, a city of Gallia Narbonensis on the river Atax in lower Occitania or Languedoc, Carcassonne once had its own bishops, although in the ancient Register of the Provinces and Cities of Gaul no mention of this city is made. Sergius, Bishop of Carcassonne, in the fourth year of Reccared, King of the Goths, Era 1127, an ancient episcopal see: that is, in the year of Christ 589, subscribed to the Third Council of Toledo on the eighth day before the Ides of May, and to the Council of Narbonne on the Kalends of November. Claudius Robert begins his catalogue of the Bishops of Carcassonne from this Sergius. But William Catel, in book 5 of his Commentary on Occitanian Affairs, published a more ample series of those same bishops, placing before Sergius three -- and these sainted -- bishops: Guimerra, Hilary, and Valerius, whose first bishop was St. Guimerra, and asserts that the memory of the last two is honored among the sacred rites on June 3, while he assigns the birthday of St. Guimerra, whom he calls in French "St. Gimier," to February 13.

[2] Andreas Saussaius, in his Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology, writes the following from Catel for the Ides of February: he is venerated on February 13. On the same day, of St. Guimerra, first Bishop of Carcassonne in Gallia Narbonensis, who shone before his people, whom he gained for Christ, for a full decade with the wonderful splendor of his virtues and divine wisdom, and having completed his good combat and most happily finished his course, obtained the crown of justice laid up for his labors by the Lord. His most sacred body, he rests in the church of St. Nazarius, buried in the cathedral church of St. Nazarius, enjoys well-deserved veneration. So far the text. At what time St. Guimerra lived, Catel says is not established.

[3] Another Gimara, Bishop of Carcassonne, is distinguished from him, to whom and to the Canons of the Cathedral Church of St. Nazarius, and also...

[6] When did he die? Stephen has been inscribed in the calendar of the Blessed. And in some manuscript codices he is assigned to February 12, on which day Galesinius, and from him Canisius, have the following: At Lyon, of Ss. Stephen the Bishop, Damian, and Julian. This is our Stephen. Julian is the one who is mentioned by most on this same February 13. inscribed in the Martyrologies on February 12. Damian was a soldier who obtained the laurel of martyrdom in Africa, inscribed also in other Martyrologies on the same day, February 12.

[7] On the 13th day, the most ancient manuscript Roman Martyrology, which we call that of St. Jerome, in more, on February 13, commemorates Stephen thus -- if indeed it was written by him, it was certainly afterward augmented, as is clear from this alone, since Stephen lived a hundred years after Jerome -- thus it commemorates Stephen: At Lyon, the deposition of Stephen the Bishop. Nearly the same is found in the manuscripts of Reichenau, and of the monastery of St. Cyriacus at Rome; likewise Bede, Rabanus, Notker, the Paris edition of Bellinus from the year 1536, and very many manuscripts. Peter de Natalibus, book 11, the last chapter, number 63, makes him a Martyr, a Martyr to some, as does Maurolycus; but the Roman Martyrology, the manuscript Florarium, Ghinius, and many others call him a Confessor. Our Theophilus Raynaud also testifies that in the Lyon Breviary an Office is noted for him as for a Confessor Bishop; more correctly a Confessor. and that he is honored with this title also in the catalogue of Relics of the Church of St. Justus, in which he rests. Jacob Severt mentions Stephen in his Chronology of the Bishops of Lyon. But he errs when he writes: "His century is not recorded." Saussaius, following the common catalogues, makes him the predecessor of St. Lupicinus, of whom we treated on February 3.