ON ST. MODESTUS, BISHOP OF TRIER, IN BELGICA PRIMA
AROUND THE YEAR 480.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Modestus, Bishop of Trier in Belgica Prima (St.)
By the author G. H.
[1] Among the very many holy Bishops of the Church of Trier, St. Modestus flourished in the fifth century of Christ, whose solemn commemoration is celebrated on February 24, in various MS. Martyrologies: of St. Paulinus at Trier, of the Clerks of St. Jerome at Utrecht, of the nuns of St. Cecilia at Leiden, of the Society of Jesus at Leuven, and other codices of Usuard augmented for the use of the Belgian churches: likewise in the MS. Florarium of the Saints, Maurolycus, Felicius, Ghini, and Molanus in the supplement to Usuard: in which, and in the Roman Martyrology also, nearly the same words are read: At Trier, of St. Modestus, Bishop and Confessor. The same words, with a few additions, are found in the Martyrology printed at Cologne in the year 1490, and in Greven's supplement to Usuard, and in Canisius's German Martyrology: At Trier, they say, in the church of St. Eucharius, the deposition of St. Modestus, Bishop and Confessor of that place. The MS. of St. Gudula at Brussels, and another recent one of the Carthusians of Brussels: At Trier, of St. Modestus, Bishop and Confessor, who after Miletus governed the Church there with much fruit. Saussaius celebrates him with a longer eulogy in his Gallican Martyrology: On this day, he says, at Trier, of St. Modestus, Bishop and glorious Confessor, who, governing this Church in the time of Pope Gelasius, illuminated it with great splendors of holiness and wisdom: for he kept the rich in the duty of piety, aided the poor with resources no less than with counsel, recalled the erring to the way, and at last inflamed all to the pursuit of holy living by his saving teachings and the admirable examples of his virtues, and enriched with these fruits of divine grace, he was called to his reward. So says Saussaius. The Ecclesiastical Office is celebrated at Trier on this day for St. Matthias the Apostle, with a commemoration of St. Modestus the Bishop, who is reported on the previous day, that is, February 23, in the Martyrology of Witford.
[2] and the Ecclesiastical Office: In what years he sat as Bishop or when he died is not sufficiently clear. In the MS. Florarium the year of death is assigned as four hundred and ninety-nine. year of death whether 499, And Gelasius indeed, in whose time Saussaius establishes that he was Bishop, ascended the Chair in the year 492 and died in the year 496. But Cratepolius in his Catalogue of Bishops reports the following concerning him: St. Modestus despised the joys of the world or 486, and its harmful and fleeting blandishments, and died in the year 486. Christopher Browerus, in book 5 of the Annals of Trier, having narrated the success of Childeric, King of the Franks, in subjugating the territories of Gaul, notes the following few words about the Bishops of Trier of that time, page 356: Miletus at that time died at Trier of natural causes, and for his innocently led life is to be venerated in the calendar of Saints on the nineteenth day of September. The Trier flock was then taken up by Bishop Modestus, who likewise, on account of the beauty of his perfect virtue, honored with the dignity of a Saint, has his feast on the sixth day before the Kalends of March. The community of Bl. Matthias preserves the memorial of his sacred resting place. Furthermore, after him, Bishop Maximian was appointed over the Church of Trier, who reached about the year four hundred and eighty: or 480. and meanwhile none of all the Bishops we have mentioned became known by any deeds memorable to history: so that it wearies the mind to link together successions so frequent and also, which is the main point, empty of events.
[3] So says Browerus. Childeric reigned from the year 455 to 479, in which year his son Clovis succeeded him, who then in the year 494 embraced the faith of Christ. Hence we gather that St. Modestus presided over the Church of Trier in the most difficult of times, while, that is, the city was captured and devastated for the second or perhaps the third time by the Franks, who were still entangled in the pagan superstition of false gods, in the time of King Childeric: The city of Trier was captured and burned: which disaster is mentioned by Hincmar in the Life of St. Remigius, Sigebert in the Chronicle, and the Deeds of the Kings of the Franks, chapter 8. But Gregory of Tours, book 2 of the History of the Franks, chapter 9, reports from Frigeridus that the city of Trier had already long before been sacked and burned by the Franks in a second invasion. We also read in the same Deeds of the Kings of the Franks, chapter 5, that the people of Trier were destroyed by the Huns in the time of Meroveus, King of the Franks and father of the said Childeric. In the same fifth century there lived Salvian, Bishop of Marseilles, somewhat older than St. Modestus, who in book 6 of his work On the Governance of God four times reports that Trier was taken by storm, and meanwhile affirms that its inhabitants were of the most corrupt morals, the inhabitants given to vices: as an eyewitness: For I myself, he says, saw at Trier men noble at home and eminent in dignity, who, although already despoiled and devastated, were nevertheless less ruined in their circumstances than in their morals ... It is mournful to recount what we saw: old men, honored, decrepit, Christians, with the destruction of the city already imminent, serving gluttony and wantonness. And having related similar things, he concludes with these words: By the daily multiplication of sprouting evils, it came to the point that it was easier for that city to be without an inhabitant than for almost any inhabitant to be without crime. Among those people, therefore, and their sons and posterity, St. Modestus without doubt played the part of a watchful and faithful Pastor, the vigilance of St. Modestus: endeavoring to instruct the flock committed to him with the true teachings of faith and virtue, and to lead them to the safest fold of eternal salvation.
[4] We have said above from the Martyrologies that his body was deposited in the church of St. Eucharius. That church was afterward dedicated to St. Matthias, on account of the body of the same Apostle preserved there, as we have already reported on this day. His body is in the church of St. Matthias. Hence Browerus, cited above, also says that the community of Bl. Matthias preserves the memorial of his sacred resting place, that is, the Benedictine monks of the Bursfeld Congregation, in this monastery of St. Matthias outside the walls of the city of Trier, which Joannes Scheckmann describes in his Epitome or Medulla of the Gesta of Trier collected by Joannes Enen, booklet 3, and in title 2 reports that there rest these holy Bishops of Trier: Celsus, Cyril, and Modestus: and in title 3, among other relics which are shown in Holy Week before Easter his head was customarily shown publicly: and on the Vigil of Pentecost, is numbered the head of St. Modestus, Bishop of Trier. Likewise, in the Catalogue of Relics of the monastery of St. Matthias printed in the year 1515, it is said that in tenth place are shown the heads of Sts. Celsus and Modestus, Bishops of Trier: then the head of Severa, Virgin and Abbess, sister of St. Modoald, Bishop of Trier, and maternal aunt of St. Gertrude the Virgin. St. Severa is venerated on July 20, St. Cyril on May 19, and St. Celsus on February 23, where we gave the history of his discovery. Relics in the altar: That certain relics of the same St. Modestus and of other Saints were of old preserved with the greatest veneration in the high altar of the church of St. Matthias is read in chapter 4 of the second History of the Translation and Discovery of the relics of St. Matthias, above at page 453. That certain relics of St. Modestus the Bishop are at Bologna in the church of St. Lucy, which now belongs to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, others at Bologna. is reported at this day in the Survey of Bologna by Masini.