ON ST. BONOSIUS, OR BONOSUS, BISHOP OF TRIER.
The year of Christ 381.
CommentaryBonosius, or Bonosus, Bishop of Trier in Belgica I (St.)
I. B.
[1] That the birthday of St. Bonosius, Bishop and Confessor, is commemorated at Trier on February 17 is indicated by Hermann Greuen in his supplement to Usuard, likewise by the Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490, Canisius, Molanus, Ferrarius, the birthday of St. Bonosius and the manuscript of the Carmelites at Cologne. The manuscript Florarium and Saussay call him Bonosus.
[2] Concerning him, our Christopher Brower writes thus in book 4 of the Annals of Trier, at the year 358, page 279: ordination in the year 358 After the death of Paulinus, Bonosius, as our records indicate, or, as the usage of this century goes, Bonosus, was created Bishop: of whom all memory of his life, as of many subsequent Bishops after him, has been utterly destroyed.
[3] Then at the year 381, page 301, he speaks thus: The Treverians had during that time Bishop Britonius, who had succeeded to the place of the deceased Bonosius. his acts unknown Although, indeed, no literary record has preserved the pontificate of Bonosius, the Martyrologies nevertheless do not pass over in silence the fact that he was enrolled among the Confessors on the seventeenth of February: and in the church of Blessed Paulinus, under the altar of St. Clement, where his ashes are preserved in testimony of his Martyrdom or Confession, the following epitaph is read: epitaph "Here lies Bonosius of blessed memory, Archbishop of Trier, whose departure from this world is celebrated on the 13th day before the Kalends of March." Brower then clearly shows that this man is different from that Bonosus, Bishop of Macedonia, who was condemned in the Synod of Capua for denying the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God: likewise from another of the same name, a friend and companion of St. Jerome, who once resided at Trier for the sake of his studies, and afterward became an anchorite in the East: and finally from that Luciferian who, by the command of Maximus, as is believed, was cast into prison at Trier and perished therein. Concerning St. Britonius, the successor of St. Bonosius, we shall treat on May 5.