ON ST. DESIGNATUS, BISHOP OF MAASTRICHT IN BELGIUM.
Beginning of the sixth century.
CommentaryDesignatus, Bishop of Maastricht in Belgium (St.)
From various sources.
[1] The city of Tongres in Germania Secunda was already of old — as is evident from the most ancient catalogue of provinces — distinguished by an episcopal see. When it was established The Bishopric of Tongres. is not reported by the ancients. For those whom writers of a later age record on the basis of an obscure tradition as having preceded St. Servatius were in fact of Trier. Certain learned men are of the highly probable opinion that the people of Tongres were first instructed in the Christian religion by those of Trier and were accustomed to seek the sacred rites from them, down to the time of Constantine the Great. We shall treat of this matter on May 13, when we give the Life of St. Servatius. Servatius, either having been divinely taught that destruction was imminent for the city of Tongres, or for some other reason, moved to Maastricht, about three leagues distant, and there departed from this life. Whether anyone immediately succeeded him, or whether the See lay vacant for some time while Belgic Gaul was devastated by the various incursions of the Huns, Vandals, Alamanni, and Franks, it is not possible for us to pronounce. It is established, however, that under the time of Clovis I, the first Christian King of the Franks, and thereafter, Bishops sat at Maastricht. Transferred to Maastricht. Second after St. Servatius in the published catalogues is Agricolaus, of whom we shall treat on February 5.
[2] The feast of St. Designatus the Bishop. Third after Agricolaus, St. Designatus is mentioned by Claude Robert and others. His feast on the Ides of January is recorded in the Sacrarium of the Saints of the country of Liege, and by Ferrari, who again refers to him on the 18th before the Kalends of February. And the manuscript Florarium, on this 13th day: "At Upper Maastricht (for there is another, Lower, which is commonly called Utrecht), the burial of St. Designatus, Bishop and Confessor of Tongres. He raised three dead soldiers, who gave their possessions to the Church. He died in the year of salvation 525; others say he died in the year 508, others 511." It calls him Bishop of Tongres because, even after the see was transferred to Maastricht, Why he was called Bishop of Tongres. some of the Bishops still called themselves Bishops of Tongres — both because Maastricht itself was in the territory of Tongres, and they were truly Bishops of the Tongri, and also to secure authority from the antiquity of the see. Thus at the Fifth Council of Orleans, in the year of Christ 549, Domitian subscribed as Bishop of the Church of Tongres.
[3] And this appears to have held even after the see was transferred from Maastricht to Liege, a town of the Eburones, by St. Hubert. Even the Bishops of Liege were called Bishops of Tongres. For there survives a letter of Pope Zacharias issued in the year 744, addressed to various Bishops of Gaul and Germany, among whom is numbered Fulcarius of Tongres — who was nevertheless the third from St. Hubert. Indeed, the same Zacharias, in a letter addressed to Archbishop Boniface in the 32nd year of Constantine, the 11th year after his consulship, Indiction 5, the year of Christ 751, writes thus: "And therefore, by the authority of Blessed Peter the Apostle, we decree that the aforesaid Church of Mainz be confirmed as a metropolitan see in perpetuity for you and your successors, having under it these five cities: namely Tongres, Cologne, Worms, Speyer, and Trier, and all the peoples of Germany whom your fraternity has caused to know the light of Christ through its preaching." Although Maastricht itself is also called Trichtis by the natives and local inhabitants — commonly Tricht, taking its name from the crossing of the Meuse — nevertheless Zacharias in his letter means the Lower Maastricht, commonly called Utrecht. The reason he names the city of Tongres, when the see was already established at Liege, could also be that in the Roman Curia the old names of bishoprics are neither rashly nor quickly antiquated. For we know that not long ago the Bishopric of the Morini was still listed in the Roman catalogue, though for so many years it has been either extinct or divided into three smaller dioceses.
[4] Otherwise, Baudemund the monk, in his Life of St. Amandus written nearly a thousand years ago, The Bishops of Maastricht. calls him and his predecessor simply Bishops of Maastricht — or, as the manuscripts we have used read, of Trajectum — and the Church of Maastricht as committed to them. Hariger speaks in the same way in chapters 44 and 50, where he treats of St. Remaclus. But Notger, in his Life of St. Remaclus, writes that he was given as Bishop to the Church of Tongres or Maastricht, having been requested by the people of Maastricht. But these matters will be treated more fully elsewhere.
[5] Hariger expressed only the name of Designatus. The deeds of Designatus are obscure. Giles of Orval added this eulogy: "He who was pleasing to God was made beloved, and living among sinners he was just; he was taken up into everlasting rest." What the Florarium records about the three soldiers raised from the dead, Jean Placentius also reports, calling him the son of the Duke of Dalen, born from a daughter of the King of the Scots. This indeed he did not invent, but rashly believed it drawn from the fabulous Chronicles of Maastricht — as also many other things which, having no probability whatsoever, do not even deserve to be refuted. We are surprised that Demochar wrote the same in his catalogue of the Bishops of Maastricht (book On the Divine Sacrifice of the Mass, chapter 37). David Camerarius seized upon this for the glory of the Scots and assigned his feast day to April 8, where he calls him both Dysignatus and Designatus.