Flamidianus

COMMEMORATION OF ST. FLAMIDIANUS, MARTYR, AT CUSAN IN SPAIN.

Flamidianus, Martyr at Cusan in Spain (S.)

From Antonius Vincentius Domeneccus.

[1] Ferrarius records the feast of St. Flamidianus on this day in the General Catalogue of Saints. The memory of St. Flamidianus the Martyr in the sacred calendars. In the territory of Elne, he says, St. Flamidianus the Martyr. Elne, commonly called Elna, is an episcopal city of Catalonia under the Archbishop of Tarragona, on the river Tech, not far from the sea. Concerning St. Flamidianus, Antonius Vincentius Domeneccus of the Order of Preachers writes the following in his book on the Saints of Catalonia:

[2] The records of the Church of Urgell, which I have examined, relate that that city was in the power of the Moors for only twelve and a half years. Urgell captured by the Moors, soon recovered. For when Bishop Dotila had departed this life, the Barbarians soon occupied it, but after twelve years and six months it returned again to the Christians; and Sisebut, the First of that name, was created Bishop there. This fact attests to the great antiquity of the faith in that city and its territory.

[3] In the year 745, when Hilderic ruled Gaul in title and name, but Pippin the Mayor of the Palace in fact; and his son Charles, to whom the glorious name of the Great was afterward attached, was barely three years old; on September 13, certain priests, moved by divine inspiration, went from the diocese of Urgell to the beginning of the Confluentine Valley, to a place called Exalada, and there beside the river Tet they built a monastery from their own resources, The monastery of Exalada is founded. which they wished to be sacred to the honor of God and of the holy Apostle Andrew, and to be governed by the Rule of St. Benedict. This was afterward destroyed by a flood of the same river, with the Abbot and most of the monks drowned. It is destroyed by a flood. Only five survived; these went to Protasius, Archdeacon of Urgell, to whom that sacred congregation was bound by a certain sharing of spiritual and temporal goods. He, pitying that terrible disaster, went with them to the court of King Charlemagne on December 27, in the year 794, and, having related the sad destruction of the monastery, requested permission to rebuild another in the Cusan valley. It is rebuilt at Cusan. The most religious Prince gladly granted what was asked, binding them by oath to dedicate it to the name of Blessed Germanus of Auxerre. And he commanded the Bishop of the place Dedicated to St. Germanus. where these things were being done to bestow upon Protasius the hand of St. Germanus and a tooth of St. Amator. He then took Protasius with him to Rome and arranged with Pope Adrian I that he should ordain Protasius to the priesthood and make him Abbot of the monastery to be built. Protasius then returned to Spain with his companions, and built the monastery and dedicated it to St. Germanus, as Charles had commanded.

[4] Its Abbots. Many Abbots presided over that place after Protasius: Hembertus, Adasimundus, Amatius, Guntida, Blandericus, Adalardus, Aynardus, Raynardus, and Gondefrenus; the last obtained a diploma of exemption for his monastery from Agapetus II. It is restored. Pontius succeeded him, who restored the monastery, which had somewhat deteriorated with age, and committed it to the patronage of the holy Archangel Michael, with Count Guifredus of Barcelona providing his support and very ample funds for the work, which was at that time nearly the custom of leading men. All these things are preserved in the choir, as it is called, of the Basilica of St. Michael at Cusan, collected from various diplomas and other most reliable records by Vincentius Pisanus, which attest to the undoubted antiquity of that monastery. For although the walls have been repaired many times and the name changed, the same congregation of religious men has nevertheless continued.

[5] Into this most noble monastery, and the most ancient of all those in Catalonia that have retained uninterrupted religious discipline from their first foundation, Here are the relics of St. Flamidianus the Martyr. the sacred remains of St. Flamidianus the Martyr were brought, as a present incentive for the pursuit of the religious prize. He is recorded as having been crowned with martyrdom on December 25, the very birthday of Christ, on which day his commemoration is made in the Mass. But on the day after the Octave of the Innocents, his feast is celebrated with the double rite, and his name is recited in the Office and Mass. But nothing further exists. For the ancient Lessons which they use contain nothing pertaining to his life, being merely sermons of the Fathers.

So Domeneccus, and from him Antonius Yepes, Chronicle of the Order of St. Benedict, Century 3, at the year 745, chapter 4.

NOTE.

Urgell, or Urgellum, is an episcopal city in Catalonia on the Segre river, commonly called Segre. Hilderic III was the one who was afterward thrust into a monastery. Pippin the Short later became King of the Franks. The Confluentine, or Confluentan, region is watered by the river Tet, which also flows past the town of Perpignan. In this valley the town of Prades is seen, and not far from it the Benedictine monastery of St. Michael of Cusan, or de Cuxano, adorned, as is reported, with a splendid church. The Tet is the river called Thelis by Pomponius Mela (Book 2, chapter 5). Then there is the coast of the Sardones, he says, and the small rivers Thelis and Thicis, which are very fierce when in flood. In Ptolemy (Table 3 of Europe) it is Rhuscion; others call it Ruscinon; today it is called Tet. In that year Charles celebrated Christmas at Aachen, as is clear from the Annals of the Franks published by Andre du Chesne; in the previous year at Wurzburg. But it is clear that Domeneccus errs here in the number of years, since after that year Charles did not go to Rome except in the year 800 to restore Pope Leo. I would rather believe that Protasius came to Charles in the year 780, in which year the King celebrated Christmas at Pavia and then set out for Rome. We shall give the Life of St. Germanus on July 31. We shall give the Life of St. Amator, Bishop of Auxerre, on May 1. Perhaps Protasius met Charles before he entered Italy; and since he is said to have obtained relics of two Bishops of Auxerre, it is probable that he received them at Auxerre from the Bishop of that place. We have already said that this seems to have happened in the year 781, the tenth of Adrian, when Charles came to Rome to fulfill a vow and celebrated Easter there. Adrian was made Pope in the year of Christ 772 on February 9 and died in the year 795 on December 26. Agapetus II began his pontificate in the year of Christ 946 and died in the year 955 on December 27. Hieronymus Zurita (Volume 1 of the Annals of Aragon, Book 1, chapter 8) reports that Wifred II, Count of Barcelona, died in the year 812. But in chapter 9 he says that Seniofredus, son of Mirus, who died in the year 967, is called by some, though incorrectly, Guifredus or Wifredus. He is perhaps the one commemorated here as having promoted the efforts of Abbot Pontius, unless this was done by Count Wifredus of Rousillon, who was living in the year 981, as Zurita writes in the same place. We have found his name in no Martyrology on that day.