ON ST. PULCHRONIUS, BISHOP OF VERDUN IN BELGICA I
AROUND THE YEAR 470
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Pulchronius, Bishop of Verdun in Belgica I (St.)
By the author I. B.
[1] After Cardinal Baronius had treated of St. Polychronius, Bishop of Babylon and Martyr, in his Annotations on the Martyrology for February 17, he appends the following: There was of the same name a St. Polychronius, Bishop of Verdun in Gaul, a disciple of St. Lupus of Troyes, of whom mention is made in the Acts of the same St. Lupus. St. Pulchronius, Bishop of Verdun, venerated on February 17 We shall presently set forth the words of those Acts. Baronius, however, did not inscribe the name of Polychronius in the Martyrology, whom others commonly call Pulchronius, along with the Breviary of Verdun, in which he is venerated with a semi-double office on this day. He is inscribed for this same day in the manuscript Martyrology of the monastery of Centula, or St. Riquier, which bears the name of Bede and was written at least 1,000 years ago. It reads thus: At Verdun, of St. Pulchronius, Bishop and Confessor. Constantinus Ghinius lists the same in his Catalogue of the Saints of the Canons Regular, but errs in saying he was a disciple of St. Lupus, Bishop of Tournai: for there was no Bishop Lupus at Tournai, but at Troyes.
[2] We have a double Life of St. Lupus copied from ancient codices. The first (which Surius also published in a somewhat polished style) proclaims the following about St. Pulchronius: renowned for the grace of miracles In St. Pulchronius, Bishop of the Church of Verdun, the grace of healings shone forth so brilliantly that with their hands bound behind their backs, he would command demoniacs, and they would feel their senses restored before they fell headlong in the convulsion of their bodies. The second, more prolix Life, has the following: We think that the prolixity of our unpolished discourse has brought weariness to the readers who examine the deeds of so great a Pontiff. Wherefore let our garrulity, which by the folly of its talent disgraces more than adorns what should be adorned, fall silent, and, intermitting for a while the proper deeds of so great a Master, let it reveal some of his disciples, so that for the learned who draw their argument from effect, the marvelous virtue of the Master may be evident in the marvelous life of his disciples. For by his disciples, set forth below, who had always clung to his counsels in such matters, the account of his deeds was handed down to posterity. One of these was St. Polochronius, Bishop of the Church of Verdun, distinguished in merits and honor: whose life, filled with holiness, the working of miracles shows by the gift of virtue, by which he shone more than can be believed. especially in driving out demons: For to the wretched whom the harsh condition of madness tormented, so that they were outwardly afflicted by the iron chains of men, he obtained from the Lord remission and restoration of health through his prayers, so that the demons were expelled with their venomous weapons, and the phantasms of specters and ghosts were thenceforth removed. Not only in such matters, but also in various similar things did he shine, which the booklet written about his life elucidates for those who wish to know.
[3] That booklet written about his life we have not yet seen: His Life was written. nor had Bertharius the Priest seen it, who, not long after the year 900, at the request of Bishop Dado of Verdun, briefly described the deeds of his predecessors; for concerning St. Pulchronius he has absolutely nothing except what we have cited from the first Life of St. Lupus. We shall here sample in passing what Richard Wassebourg in book 2 of his Antiquities of Belgic Gaul recorded about him, a not careless writer, but one who would have earned greater gratitude from posterity if he had been able to separate the apocryphal from the genuine, and had distinctly cited the passages of the authors he used, or had even reproduced their words. He therefore commemorates the following things about St. Pulchronius.
[4] Pulchronius, born in Belgic Gaul to noble, pious, and wealthy parents, born at Verdun whose residence was generally at Verdun or in neighboring places where their estates and possessions lay, was, while still quite young, deprived of these parents. He was taken into the guardianship of his kinsman Lupus and his wife *Punimola, who were residing at Toul in Leuci and were most zealous in divine matters, and was handed over to teachers to be educated in letters and good morals. educated by St. Lupus, Bishop of Troyes When the pious couple then by mutual consent renounced the world and embraced the religious life, Lupus was shortly afterward elevated to the throne of the Church of Troyes. taken by him to Britain He, subsequently setting out with St. Germanus of Auxerre for Britain to suppress the fury of the Pelagians, took Pulchronius with him. The latter zealously strove to emulate the outstanding virtues of Lupus, to observe him, to serve him with the utmost reverence and submission, as a master and lord. The dangers which the holy Bishops encountered throughout that entire journey are described in the Life of St. Germanus on July 31 and in that of St. Lupus on the 29th of the same month; having suffered much with him the same had to be endured by Pulchronius as well: and also what Attila, King of the Huns, afterward threatened against Lupus and the citizens of Troyes, had not the benignity of God come to their aid.
[5] After Attila was defeated and driven back on the Catalaunian Plains, Belgium had somewhat recovered, except that the Franks were pressing upon it. Verdun, which city at that time still obeyed the Roman Republic, requested that a Bishop be given to it, made Bishop of Verdun in the year 451 or 452 whom it is said to have long lacked before, and obtained its request. Pulchronius was deemed most worthy of that office, since he was both born at Verdun and distinguished for his reputation for holiness and learning. He was summoned from Troyes, and with Lupus's approval, submitted his neck to the burden. Thus conducted to Verdun, and received with great joy by the citizens, he is said to have been consecrated in the basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, which is now called St. Vanne's (or St. Vitonus's). Then he undertook to restore the divine ceremonies, He reforms his Church: wherever they had been corrupted or neglected, and to regulate the rites of public prayers and sacred services.
[6] After about a year had elapsed, he set out for Rome, to attest in person before the Supreme Pontiff (who was then Leo the Great) his zeal for obedience, and to piously venerate the sacred places. On this occasion Wassebourg says he was sent to the Council of Chalcedon, without any even seemingly probable argument, and with the chronology disagreeing: he goes to Rome for in the same year as the battle against Attila on the Catalaunian Plains, the year of Christ 451, that synod was convened and concluded, but not to the Council of Chalcedon and the Polychronii who were Bishops present at it held their own Sees in the East, as indicated. But this journey of our Pulchronius to Rome took place at the earliest in the year 452, or even later. Perhaps he received the decrees of the synod from the Pontiff and brought them back to his homeland. Otherwise, Demochares, Chenu, Claudius Robert, and Ghinius, along with Saussay, also say that he was present at that synod.
[7] Having returned from Rome, he laid the foundations of a new basilica within the city, he builds a new church expending all his own resources, which he had received from his forebears in no small measure, on this undertaking. But the narrowness of the site constrained the work. Pious men voluntarily gave up their gardens and nearby estates to enlarge the space. So great was the authority of their Bishop's holiness in moving hearts. Nor did he allow himself to be surpassed in generosity. For to these men who had so nobly deserved of their Bishop and Church, he granted a certain prerogative of honor, (grateful toward his collaborators) and dedicates it to the Blessed Virgin which their descendants afterward enjoyed, and still enjoy, at the solemn entrance of new Bishops, and they are called the Feudatories of Verdun. He dedicated that basilica to the honor of the Virgin Mother of God, and decreed that her Nativity should be celebrated as its principal feast. He also had her image carved, treading upon a serpent with her foot, since she alone destroyed all heresies, of which the serpent is the symbol. The episcopal See was transferred to this basilica. He himself, however, ordered that he be buried in the former suburban church of SS. Peter and Paul. and makes it the Cathedral: This is approximately what Wassebourg records concerning the deeds of St. Pulchronius.
[8] Certain miracles of his, overlooked by Bertharius and Wassebourg, are indicated in the Breviary of Verdun, in the third and fourth Lessons, in this manner: We read indeed in the Life of the most blessed Lupus, Bishop of the city of Troyes, who at that time when the impious nation of the Huns, invading the kingdom of Gaul, was perpetrating slaughter of the servants of God and destruction of churches, was happily governing the city committed to him by God; that Pulchronius was a man of admirable sanctity, his disciple, and that he then shone with such great virtues that if any demoniacs were brought to him, they were immediately released at the sight of him. So great a man, therefore, after the destruction wrought by the Huns, the Church of Verdun merited to have as its Patron. floods checked through his relics: By his merits we have very often seen excessive flooding of the waters cease when his most holy body was carried through the surrounding places.
[9] Since St. Pulchronius was buried in the suburban church of the Apostles, afterward Bishop Hatto, who governed that Church in the ninth century, arranged for his body, his body and those of two successors translated into the city as well as those of the Saints Possessor and Firminus, to be exhumed, not without heavenly portents, and enclosed in skillfully made caskets, to be transferred within the city, as the same author Wassebourg relates. Bertharius mentions this translation in these words: After these there flourished SS. Pulchronius, Possessor, and Firminus: of whose memory we know nothing else except that from the earliest times their merits were pleasing to God, and they were numbered among the citizens of the Saints. For it is read in the Life of Blessed Lupus, etc. by Bishop Hatto in the 9th century Certainly when the relics of the aforesaid Saints were taken up, in the time of the Lord Bishop Hatto, the tombs of these men were found honorably and reverently, as befits Saints, beneath the monument of Blessed Vitonus. But the portion of their bodies seen by some sufficiently shows that their souls enjoy eternal joy in blessed felicity.
[10] The anniversary of that translation is celebrated in the Church of Verdun on May 4, with an office of three Lessons. On which day Molanus has the following in his supplement to Usuard: The feast of the Translation on May 4. At Verdun, the translation of its Bishops and Confessors, Pulchronius, Possessor, and Firminus. The manuscript Martyrology of Centula, cited above: In the suburb of Verdun, of the holy Bishops Pulchronius, Possessor, and Firminus, Confessors. Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology for the same day: At Verdun, the translation of the Bishops of that city, the blessed Confessors Polychronius, Possessor, and Firminus: among whom Polychronius, as he is prior in order, so he is more eminent in merits and more illustrious in deeds. He then weaves a long eulogy, in which he commemorates what has already been related: that he was illustrious for the grace of healings; that he transferred the episcopal See from the suburban church... to the church of the most blessed Virgin which he had built in the city, and placed an image at the more prominent entrance of the temple, treading upon a serpent with her feet, etc. Indeed, he even supposed that he was present at the Council of Chalcedon, as did the others cited above. The manuscript of St. Maximin's alone commemorates St. Firminus on that day with these words: At Verdun, of St. Firminus. His feast day and that of St. Possessor are commemorated in the Breviary of Verdun on December 3.
[11] Baronius mentions this St. Polychronius in volume 6 of the Annals at the year 479, no. 15. Claudius Robert (who, with Chenu, Demochares, when did he die? and Wassebourg, reckons him the sixth Bishop of that Church) says he died around the year 470. St. Vitonus, who governed that Church four places after him, was created Bishop when the city was taken by Clovis I.
Annotation* rather, Pimeniola.