Paschasia

LIFE OF ST. PASCHASIA, VIRGIN MARTYR, AT DIJON IN BURGUNDY.

Recently collected from ancient sources by Pierre-François Chifflet, Priest of the Society of Jesus.

Under Marcus Aurelius.

Paschasia, Virgin Martyr at Dijon in Burgundy (St.)

From various sources.

[1] The author of the Chronicle of St. Benignus of Dijon, who indicates that he was a native of Salins and a monk in the Benignian monastery, and who concluded his work in the year one thousand and fifty-two since the Incarnation of Christ (in which year he reports that Halinard, formerly Abbot of St. Benignus, died at Rome as Archbishop of Lyon), pronounces thus concerning St. Paschasia under Abbot William: "She, instructed and baptized by St. Benignus, was after his martyrdom seized by the savagery of the pagans for punishment; and since she remained immovable in the faith of Christ, she was first afflicted by the squalor of prison, then for her confession of the Deity she was condemned to capital punishment; as a certain glass object, made in ancient times and surviving to our own day, demonstrated in elegant painting." She therefore suffered under the same Emperor Aurelius as Benignus. The nature of her punishment and the place of her burial are declared by the same author St. Paschasia cast into fire not far from the beginning of his Chronicle, where he says: "At the farthest limits of this burial site, to the west, the body of St. Benignus was placed after his martyrdom by Blessed Leonilla; a crypt of humble construction was built over him, as the constraints of the time permitted. Next to that crypt lay St. Paschasia, she too having completed her martyrdom through fire. For the soul that had burned with that fire of the Holy Spirit, which the Lord Jesus came to cast upon the earth and willed to be vehemently kindled, her body also (so that nothing should be lacking for the holocaust) was consumed by elemental flames."

[2] Moreover, when Blessed Gregory, Bishop of Langres, in the sixth century after Christ, was raising a sacred church over the body of St. Benignus, which had been divinely revealed to him, Paschasia was seen urging on the work and encouraging the builders to complete it; so that the grateful Virgin might show that she cared for the earthly honor of him by whom she remembered herself to have been begotten in Christ, and thus conducted into heaven. St. Gregory of Tours narrates the event, in his book On the Glory of the Confessors, She appears to those building the church of St. Benignus ch. 43: "Not far away there is also another basilica, in which holy Paschasia rests. She is said to have appeared to the builders of the basilica of St. Benignus the Martyr, which stands nearby, urging them to press on with the work they had begun, and to know that she was aided by the Martyr's help; having returned to her own basilica, she appeared no more." And more fully in his book On the Glory of the Martyrs, ch. 51: "Nearby there is also another basilica, in which a certain devout woman named Paschasia is venerated. For it seemed to the builders at that time that an elderly woman had come forth from that very basilica, in dark garments, with a snow-white head and handsome countenance, who addressed the builders thus: 'Come, dearest ones, complete this good work: let the scaffolds be raised by which this structure is erected. And rightly is it hastened, which has such a director: for if it were permitted that the sight of your eyes could gaze upon it, you would surely see Holy Benignus going before you as you work.' Having spoken these words, she entered the basilica from which she had come forth, and appeared to no one further. For the people of that time believed that Blessed Paschasia had appeared there."

[3] Where Paschasia was thereafter, and in what honor she was held among the people of Dijon, the above-mentioned writer of the Benignian Chronicle teaches; for when in the year one thousand and one of the Incarnation of the Word, Indiction XIV, An altar erected for her Abbot William of St. Benignus, distinguished both by the splendor of his birth and the integrity of his character, had built for St. Benignus the Martyr a basilica remarkable for its marble columns, of the five altars founded therein, the third was dedicated in the name of Blessed Paschasia. "For," he says, "five altars are contained within it: the first is consecrated in honor of St. Benignus himself; the second in memory of St. Nicholas and all Confessors; the third in veneration of St. Paschasia the Virgin, who rests there, and all Virgins; the fourth in honor of St. Irenaeus and all Martyrs; the fifth under the names of the holy Confessors and Abbots, John, and Sequanus, and St. Eustadius the Priest who rests there." These were the altars only of the lower crypt; for very many other altars were accommodated in the remaining parts of the church.

[4] That edifice was at length destroyed by age, but not the memory of the noble Virgin Paschasia; for the church of St. Benignus which stands today was built in the year of Christ 1287 by Hugh, surnamed "de Arcu," Abbot of the same monastery; and the cult of St. Paschasia still flourishes therein, recorded in the ancient calendars of St. Benignus for the ninth day of January. Her name in the sacred calendars And other churches have also imitated the devotion of the people of Dijon. In the manuscript Martyrology of the Franciscans of Salins it is stated: "On the fifth day before the Ides of January, of St. Paschasia the Virgin, whose venerable body rests at Dijon, in the church of St. Benignus." The same is noted on the following day, namely the fourth before the Ides of January, in the Martyrology of the monastery of Gollian of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine near Salins. But in case of doubt, I think one should rather rely on the domestic records of the Benignians.

[5] Thus far our Chifflet. Besides the cited authors, mention of St. Paschasia on January 9 is made by Pietro Galesini, Filippo Ferrari, the German Martyrology, Molanus in his Additions to Usuard, in these words: Eulogy from Saussay "At Dijon, of St. Paschasia the Virgin." More fully Saussay: "At Dijon," he says, "the Birthday of St. Paschasia, Virgin and Martyr, who, enlightened in evangelical truth by St. Benignus, Apostle of Burgundy, after his glorious contest, greatly propagated the faith of Christ in that same place by her exceptional holiness and most intense zeal for piety. Wherefore, fiercely persecuted by the impious and long afflicted by the squalor and starvation of prison, at length, since she could be drawn away from the pure worship of God by no threats or terrors, but rather recalled many spectators of her wondrous patience and fortitude from the most foul religion of idols, she was condemned to death and cast upon a fierce pyre, and amid raging globes of flame, proclaiming and praising the venerable name of Christ the Redeemer with a fire greater than that of the flames, she breathed forth her most pure soul." We shall treat of St. Benignus on November 1. We gave the life of Blessed Abbot William on January 1.