ON SAINT ANASTASIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF SENS.
About the year 979.
CommentaryAnastasius, Bishop of Sens in Gaul (S.)
[1] Anastasius is recorded as the sixtieth Archbishop of Sens in Gaul by Claude Robert, Jean Chenu, and Demochares. Andreas Saussay numbers him among the Saints in his Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology in these words: "At Sens, St. Anastasius, Bishop and Confessor, renowned for his examples and merits of holiness and abstinence."
[2] The feast day of St. Anastasius. Concerning him, an anonymous monk of Saint-Marien relates the following in his chronology: "Upon the death of Archembald, Anastasius was chosen, a man worthy of God. Abstinence and other virtues. He was of wondrous holiness and abstinence, a constant lover of vigils, and a most generous distributor of alms, a nourisher of clerics, and above all a venerator of monks. From the day he received the priesthood until the end of his life, he ate no meat, nor was he clothed in linen, but always wore a hair shirt. Blessed Savinianus appeared to him, threatening and solemnly adjuring him to rebuild the church of St. Peter. Then the holy Bishop began to repair the sacred place, Public works. to recall the monks, and to redeem lands and estates. He would also have perfectly restored the church of St. Stephen had he not departed this world too soon. On the night he died, an Angel of the Lord appeared to a certain sister of his, a nun in the monastery of St. Fara, saying: 'Know that this night St. Anastasius has departed to the Lord; arise therefore and sing hymns to the Lord.' Death announced by an Angel elsewhere. They arose and noted both the day and the hour, and found it to have happened just as the Angel had announced." After St. Anastasius, Sevinus presided, a man devoted to God. So says that author; and shortly after: "He restored to its original condition the ruined state of the monastery of St. Peter the Living, which Anastasius his predecessor had begun to repair." This monastery is of very great antiquity, commonly called Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, and Saint-Pere. We shall treat of it on August 26 in the Life of St. Ebbo and elsewhere.
[3] St. Savinianus, or Sabinianus, the Apostle of Sens, is celebrated in the Roman Martyrology on December 31; we shall treat of him on October 19. The Metropolitan church of St. Stephen, which Anastasius desired to repair, had been burned and destroyed under Archembald, and was restored by Sevinus. We shall treat of the most noble monastery of St. Fara in her Life on December 7.
[4] Claude Robert says that St. Anastasius sat for ten years, one month, and thirteen days, and died in the year 978. But for consistency, since he says that Archembald died in the year 968, these dates are to be understood according to the old Gallic custom, by which the year was reckoned from Easter; and thus Anastasius would be said to have been ordained in the year 968 on November 24 or 25, and to have died on January 7 in the year 979, which at that time was reckoned as 978 until Easter.