ON ST. HONESTUS, PRIEST AND MARTYR, APOSTLE OF THE PEOPLE OF PAMPLONA.
AROUND THE YEAR 270.
Preface
Honestus, Priest and Martyr, Apostle of the People of Pamplona (St.)
By I. B.
[1] The first to preach Christ at Pamplona in Navarre (so far as can be determined from ancient monuments of unambiguous authority) was St. Honestus the Priest. St. Saturninus, while traveling from Rome to Toulouse, found him at Nimes, excellently learned in the liberal arts, and taught him the mysteries of our faith, and brought him along, though he was not yet of mature age. When he had reached adulthood and had in the meantime learned all the mysteries of the faith, since he was endowed with holy character and was most zealous for the common salvation, he was initiated into the priesthood by his same teacher and Bishop Saturninus and sent to Pamplona to sow the seed of faith there. A little later he invited Saturninus himself there, and St. Firminus, son of the Senator Firmus — who afterward became the first Bishop of the Ambienses in Gallia Belgica — was washed in the laver of baptism, and Honestus taught him sacred and other literature for seven years and formed him in every virtue.
[2] The age in which he lived can be gathered from the Acts of Sts. Saturninus and Firminus. Firminus, as we shall show on the twenty-fifth of September, suffered martyrdom under Diocletian and Maximian at Samarobriga of the Ambienses. Saturninus suffered under Decius at Toulouse, having come there from Rome long before and having preached the Gospel for many years to the surrounding peoples and having also visited the Spains, as we shall treat on the twenty-ninth of November. St. Honestus is venerated on the sixteenth of February, distinguished for his martyrdom, which he perhaps underwent around the year of Christ 270; at what place or in what manner has not yet been ascertained. His name is found inscribed in the Martyrology of Usuard, as published at Paris in the year 1636, in these words: "On this same day, of St. Honestus the Martyr." Richard Whitford has the same in the English Martyrology. But Molanus in his supplement to Usuard writes: "On this same day, at Amiens, of St. Honestus the Martyr." Saussaius gives a more extensive eulogy of him, as we shall presently say. His commemoration is made on this day in the Church of Amiens, formerly with an Office of Nine Lessons, as is evident from the Breviary of Amiens printed in the years 1650 and 1654, where the following is found: "On the feast of St. Honestus, Priest and Martyr, who was the Teacher of the blessed Firminus the Martyr, nine simple Lessons are read." Those Lessons record nothing of his deeds. We shall recite some details from the Life of St. Firminus, which Life we have collated with six or seven manuscript codices and the edition of Franciscus Bosquetus, Praetor of Narbonne. Prudentius Sandoval mentions St. Honestus in his book on the Bishops of Pamplona, but does not indicate when he is venerated or what death he suffered. Petrus, Bishop of Equilinus, also mentions him in book 8, chapter 119, as do Guilielmus Catellus in his work on Occitania, book 5, pages 817 and 825, and other Spanish and French writers.
[3] Concerning his relics and veneration, Saussaius writes as follows on this day in the Gallican Martyrology: "In Gallia Narbonensis, of St. Honestus, Priest and Martyr, who, as the foremost disciple of the blessed Saturninus, an apostolic man, at Toulouse, instructed St. Firminus, the first Bishop of Amiens, in sacred letters at Pompelo while still a youth, and formed him in the ways of holiness. Burning with the most fervent zeal, preaching Christ everywhere and eradicating the impious worship of false gods, at length, when he had drawn many away from abominable rites, he was arrested, and after enduring the ultimate contest for the glory of Christ, received the crown of a glorious martyrdom. His head, covered with a silver casing, is displayed at Toulouse in the church of St. Saturninus for devout suppliants to venerate with a kiss. His body, dispersed through various Churches of Gaul which cherish the glorious memory of so great an athlete with particular affection, enjoys due honor. A portion of these relics, deposited in the royal monastery of Virgins of the most holy Mother of God at Yerres, in the diocese of Paris, there enjoys the highest veneration. The church of the adjacent village is also distinguished by the glorious intercession of this most excellent Martyr. Moreover, his blessed memory is celebrated there with a double feast, namely on this day and on the Sunday next after the birthday of St. Dionysius the Areopagite; of which the former is the feast of his passion and the latter of his translation."
[4] The same Saussaius has the following for the twelfth of July: "At Toulouse, the feast of St. Honestus, Priest and Confessor, whose glorious passing occurred on the sixteenth of February. The head of the same, placed in a chapel of the basilica of St. Saturninus which is called that of the most blessed Mother of God of Consolation, on the left side of the altar, in glorious array, is today displayed for veneration according to custom." Thus the same man whom he himself and others had previously called a Martyr, he here makes a Confessor — as does also the compiler of annotations written in a recent hand in the Martyrology of Usuard in the Charterhouse of Brussels, which has the following for the seventeenth of May: "At Toulouse, the birthday of the holy Martyrs and Bishops Silvanus, Papulus, Hilary, and Honoratus; and of St. Honestus, Confessor." Whether a Translation of relics was then made, or some other solemnity, is not indicated, nor in any other Martyrology for that day. We shall treat of those four Bishops separately elsewhere.
LIFE OF ST. HONESTUS
from the Acts of St. Firminus, Bishop and Martyr.
Honestus, Priest and Martyr, Apostle of the People of Pamplona (St.)
FROM THE ACTS OF ST. FIRMINUS.
[1] In the times of the Emperors Maximian and Diocletian, when tyrannical fury was raging against the Christian people, there was a man venerable for the uprightness of his life, the first among the Senators in rank and order, Firmus by name and deed. He had a wife similar in character and beauty, named Eugenia; both were distinguished according to worldly rank, and abundantly supplied with possessions and wealth. When in those days, according to the rites of the Gentiles, they were proceeding to the temple of Jupiter to pray, on a certain day a Priest of the Christians, Honestus by name, came upon them there. When with the free voice of preaching he proclaimed to the people against the execrable idols, Firmus, a most illustrious man, approached him and said: "If our gods, as you assert, are idols, whom venerable antiquity and the Roman Princes have worshipped from of old, then tell us what religion or what God you wish rather to introduce to us for worship." To whom Honestus replied: "Know that the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them, is the one true and only God, through whom are all things, and in whom are all things, and without whom no creature can subsist. He is the Lord of life and death. For the gods of the nations, whom your profane religion worships and deluded paganism has cultivated, are to be believed demons rather than a form of divinity. For thus the Holy Spirit speaks through the Prophet, saying: 'For all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens.'"
[2] Hearing these and similar words, Firmus the Senator, turning to Faustinus and Fortunatus, said: "What is to be said against these things? Can this stranger and foreigner alone destroy the worship of the holy gods through his idle conversations?" To whom Fortunatus said: "Let us hear his reasoning further and learn the cause of the matter, so that we may be able more easily to refute him from his own reasoning." Firmus then, turning to Honestus, said to him: "Of what sect or religion are you, that you presume to utter so abominable a judgment against our gods and goddesses?" To whom Honestus, answering steadfastly, said: "If you wish to know about me, who I am or from what origin I come, I shall show you in clear terms. For I profess that I was born of my father Aemilius and my mother Honesta, from the city of Nimes.
[3] "As to that which is of greater importance, as you have asked — of what sect or doctrine I am, or what my religion might be — I shall teach you with free voice and steadfastly. I am a Christian, instructed in the Catholic faith, ordained to the rank of the priesthood, a disciple of Bishop Saturninus and his son in baptism, learned in the liberal arts and imbued with the instruments of the divine Scriptures from the earliest time of my youth; just as I found there through the study of doctrine, so I teach. For God is one, who rules over all things visible and invisible; who is and was and shall be; in whom are all the treasures of wisdom; who in the hollow of His hand, by the nod of His majesty, encompasses all things — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three Persons, and three Persons in the true Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If anyone should wish to know this mystery fully, we shall be able, by His gift, to reveal it. But this, as it stands, no one can comprehend without the grace and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. If anyone among you wishes to know and recognize the true God, let him first confess that there is no other God besides the one Almighty, who is three and one, and it is not lawful to deny Him — since the gods whom ancient paganism worshipped are mute and deaf images. For they are fashioned by a craftsman from metals or wood or stone in the likeness of a human image; or even, what is more, they are adorned in gold, silver, and bronze by the skill of artisans. They have mouths and do not speak; they have eyes and do not see; ears and do not hear; nostrils and do not smell; hands and do not feel; feet and do not walk — as the divine Scripture recalls, saying: 'Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.'"
[4] "But our almighty God, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father, begotten before the ages from the secret of the Divinity, born in our age of the Virgin Mary, to whom has been given power in heaven and on earth, who freed the human race from the bond of death through the trophy of His Passion; who, triumphing over the devil, snatched the human race from the netherworld, leading all who believe in Him from death to life, from darkness to light, from servitude to freedom, and redeemed all from the captivity and power of the devil at the price of His blood; who with dry feet trod upon the abyss as He walked; who raised Lazarus from the dead after four days; upon whom God the Father, looking down from His heavenly throne, bore witness with a divine voice: 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to Him'; who sits at the right hand of God the Father; who will come to judge the living and the dead and the world through fire. He will then render to each one according to what he has done and accomplished in this brief life; the Angels and Archangels attend Him; He will establish the just and holy in the everlasting kingdom, and will assign infinite punishments and torments to the impious and sinners.
[5] "This religion and this clear doctrine of truth, Bishop Saturninus, a disciple of the Apostles, has shown to you and has commanded that the Gospel of truth be preached to you among all nations, and through this saving doctrine to teach and baptize all men in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, for the remission of sins and for life everlasting without end." At this declaration, Faustinus the Senator, marveling at his eloquence and weighing within himself the substance of what had been brought forth, said: "If Bishop Saturninus, whom you cite, a disciple of the Apostles, had set forth such words and arguments to us, perhaps we would have turned our minds' attention to this. For we have heard the fame and brilliant virtues of that man, in the words and many signs which he works in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth." To whom Honestus, as he was attentive, said: "If it is your desire to be able to recognize the light of truth, my Lord, Father and Teacher, Saturninus is at hand, to implant in you the saving preaching of eternal life and to lead you from darkness to the true light." When these things had been accomplished, the Bishop and Pontiff Saturninus himself arrived at the city of Pamplona on approximately the seventeenth day. There, taking his seat beneath a terebinth tree, where a most ancient shrine of Diana was worshipped in a place called Oppressivum, he offered the word of preaching openly to all, and taught that the execrable superstitions and worship of idols should be abandoned and the true God worshipped instead. A throng gathered from all parts of the city; and there, teaching the people for three days, confirming his words of salvation with mighty signs, he recalled nearly forty thousand persons of both sexes from error and the profane worship of idols to the knowledge of the true God, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father. He brought them, cleansed of the sins of their former state, to newness of life in the font of sacred baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and ordered the most ancient shrine of Diana itself to be destroyed from its foundations and the site uprooted entirely.
[6] When such deeds had been accomplished and reported, after one week had passed, Fortunatus, Firmus, and Faustinus, as they were the chief and senior members of the senate, came together with a multitude of the people and the citizens of the city to Bishop Saturninus, that they might personally receive the mysteries of his holy teaching — for they had previously heard very much about him through the reports of many. When they had remained in his presence for approximately three days and, drinking in from his lips the essence of divine grace, had come to know the path of truth and the ways of justice, and that the radiance of the true light consisted in his preaching and teaching, then, having taken salutary counsel, they abandoned the profane worship of idols and resolved to follow and believe in the true God whom Bishop Saturninus preached. Then Firmus, Faustinus, and Fortunatus, prostrating themselves at the feet of the Bishop, renounced the idols and professed that the true God, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, was to be worshipped and believed. Immediately upon receiving the mystery of sacred baptism through the confession of the Holy Trinity, they became not only Christians but also teachers and masters of Christians.
[7] The aforesaid Firmus, then, held the primacy of the people and the senate; he was a man of remarkable gentleness, preeminent above the other citizens in uprightness and religion. He had a wife named Eugenia, by whom he fathered Firminus and Faustus and their sister Eusebia. In the course of time, the aforesaid Firmus, being Catholic in faith and deed, entrusted his firstborn son, named Firminus, to Honestus the Priest, so that he might instruct him in the liberal arts and Christian learning — he who was already his son in baptism. Firminus, when he was about seventeen years of age, instructed in letters and Catholic doctrine, began to advance in the zeal of religion. For he eagerly hastened at every hour to the churches to render praises and honors to God without ceasing. And over the course of approximately seven years, he progressed in the zeal of religion and rose through the degrees of wisdom to the heights of virtue. The aforesaid Honestus the Priest, when he was weighed down by the time of old age, frequently sent him through the villages and suburban towns, so that by the word of preaching he might strengthen the people already devoted to God. And although Firminus was in the flower of youth, with remarkable gravity and constancy he roused the people everywhere to the pursuit of the Christian religion.
[8] And when his Father and teacher Honestus considered that the spiritual grace in him was growing more and more before all in word and doctrine, he sent him to Honoratus, Bishop of the city of Toulouse, so that he might establish him in the rank and grace of the Episcopate by the imposition of hands. When Bishop Honoratus saw him, he recognized in him that he had been predestined and chosen by the Lord to preach the word of life and the grace of salvation to the nations; and he ordained him Bishop, so that he might preach the name of the Lord in the regions of the West. And he addressed him before all with these words: "Rejoice, my son, for you have merited to be a vessel of election for the Lord. Go forth therefore to the dispersion of the nations, for you have received from the Lord the grace and office of the apostolate. Do not be afraid, for the Lord is with you in all things. Know that it is necessary for you to suffer much for His name, so that you may attain the crown of glory." Bishop Firminus therefore, bidding farewell to Bishop Honoratus and to the brethren and his fellow priests, returned in the course of his journey to Honestus the Priest, his teacher and nurturer. And he related to him all things that had happened to him on the way, and in what words that holy Bishop Honoratus had instructed him, and how and in what manner he had commanded him to proclaim the word of preaching and the name of Jesus Christ among the dispersion of the nations.
Annotations
p. Bosquetus and one manuscript read "Sebiam."
q. Two manuscripts read "perficeret annos."
r. Many manuscripts read "suburbana ciuitatis."
s. This Honoratus is listed as the second Bishop of the city of Toulouse; he is venerated on the twenty-second of December. Mariana writes that he was a Cantabrian by nation.
t. The meaning of these words is doubtful: namely, whether St. Honestus, divinely instructed, spontaneously reported to St. Firminus upon his return what had happened, in order to encourage him further to apostolic labors; or rather whether Firminus himself narrated to his Teacher what had been done and what had been commanded of him by St. Honoratus. The Breviary of Burgos explains it in the latter manner with these words: "He returned to Honestus the Priest, his teacher and nurturer, and related to him all things that had happened to him on the way."
u. From this point onward, the apostolic labors of Firminus are narrated; of St. Honestus, nothing further.