Faustus

ON ST. FAUSTUS, BISHOP OF RIEZ IN GAUL.

Toward the end of the Fifth Century.

[1] Around the year of Christ 475, the synod of Arles was held to condemn the error of Predestination. Faustus, from being Abbot of Lerins now Bishop of Riez, at the sense and sentiment of the synod (as he himself testifies in his preface to Leontius of Arles) wrote two books on the grace of God The books of St. Faustus, and the free will of the human mind, which were, however, subsequently rejected by the Church.

[2] Moreover, the error of Predestination, says our Sirmond in volume 1 of the Councils of Gaul, against the heresy of the Predestinarians, for the overthrow of which this synod was convened, I interpret as that heresy of the Predestinarians which, as Prosper and Sigebert report in their Chronicles, was said to have taken its beginning from the books of St. Augustine badly understood, having arisen in the principate of Honorius. Sigebert, year 415. These men disputed about predestination in such a way as if it imposed a kind of fatalistic necessity that would cut off all pursuit of good works, since they said that evil works could not harm men if they were predestined, nor good works benefit them if they were not. Because St. Augustine, in the judgment of certain bishops and others in Gaul, seemed by certain statements in some of his books to pave the way for or add force to this absurdity, they therefore dissented from him vehemently in this regard, while holding him in the highest esteem in all other matters. On the other hand, those who fought alongside Prosper for St. Augustine's opinions accused his adversaries, who seemed to attribute more than was due to human nature, of being Semi-Pelagians. Faustus too did not escape this charge in these books of his. For they were listed among the apocryphal works by Pope Gelasius under this title, and were opposed by Avitus of Vienne, by Fulgentius, accused of error, and by many others. However, the grave and long-lasting contention, which exercised the holiest and most learned men on both sides in Gaul for more than a hundred years, was at last finally brought to an end by the Second Council of Orange, which settled the entire controversy on grace and free will according to the opinion of St. Augustine. So says Sirmond. The Second Council was held in the year of Christ 529; St. Caesarius, Archbishop of Arles, presided.

[3] Some men, otherwise excellently Catholic, were deceived by I know not what subtlety of style into regarding the books of Faustus on grace as orthodox. On the other hand, most recent writers have attacked him with more than just severity, Even the author is suspect to some: so as to condemn not only his books but also to blot his name from the sacred registers and besmirch it with the foul brand of heresy — Baronius in his Annals, volume 6, at the year 490; our Possevin in the Apparatus; Bellarmine on ecclesiastical writers; and others.

[4] Baronius afterward, on better examination of the matter, in the Appendix to volume 6 published after volume 10, thus retracts his former censure — certainly a harsh one — Purged by the retraction of Baronius: in which he had attacked Faustus: "To have affirmed these things in the first edition on the basis of the various writings adduced was not indeed unbecoming. But from what has since been learned and adduced, we do not consider it unworthy to recall the judgment itself to review, though the opinions of the Fathers on his writings remain unmoved."

[5] For the Gallic Martyrology has continued to include the same Faustus among the saints up to this time, always counted among the saints, from which Molanus first expunged him; for the Church of Riez in Gaul, where he himself sat as bishop, as we have learned, has always venerated him as a saint, celebrating his feast on January 17; and the basilica erected there in ancient times in his memory, distinguished by his name, has continued to be frequented by the faithful in his worship; and since for so many centuries, with the Christian world looking on, the Roman Church silent, and absolutely no one (so far as is known) contradicting, these honors are understood to have been rendered to the same Faustus — we are not prohibited from holding the opinion He erred in his writings, as certain other saints, without obstinacy, that the same thing could have happened to Faustus that is asserted of many holy men: that having erred, he sinned when that question had been defined by the authority of the Apostolic See and his opinion condemned by the judgment of other Fathers; that he himself may have detested his error in contrary writings which, like very many others, could have perished; or that he may have died before the condemnation of his writings by the Church (for the year of his death is uncertain), holding in his mind the intention to follow in these matters what the Church should teach ought to be followed. That he was indeed so disposed in mind, and that this was known to others, can easily be understood from the fact that he always (as the Acts of the Councils of Arles and Lyons recited above indicate) maintained communion with the most holy and orthodox bishops of Gaul. Let therefore the rightful honors of Faustus remain intact, nor let him suffer prejudice from our writings; nor let private judgment and novelty be permitted to overthrow antiquity. So says Baronius — but for January 17, read the seventeenth day before the Kalends of February, that is, January 16.

[5] The learned Robertus calls him a saint in his Gallia Christiana. Maurolycus: He is celebrated as a saint in the Martyrologies. "At Riez in Gaul, of Faustus the Bishop, in the time of the first Anastasius." Ferrarius says nearly the same; likewise the Carthusians of Cologne in their Additions to Usuard. Constantine Ghinius wrote erroneously that he was made bishop from being Abbot of the Lateran; he meant to write "of Lerins." Galesinius makes a graver error: "At Riez," he says, "St. Faustus the Bishop, whose books, piously and learnedly written, and whose deeds wonderfully accomplished, are read." In his Notes he says he was Bishop of Regium Lepidi; but when he cites Gennadius praising the books of Faustus, he indicates that he is speaking of our Faustus. But Gelasius, who decreed that his books should be held apocryphal, calls him Faustinus, Bishop of Reginensis — though it is one and the same Faustus, the third Abbot of the monastery of Lerins, the successor of St. Maximus, and then Bishop of Riez — that is, the city of the Reienses in the second Narbonese province, commonly Riez en Provence. Saussay also lists him among the saints in the Supplement to the Gallic Martyrology: "At Riez," he says, "the commemoration of St. Faustus, Bishop and Confessor, formerly a monk of Lerins." Peter of Natali, Book 2, chapter 91, calls him a saint. Vincent Barralis of Salerno in his Lerins Chronology testifies that he has been venerated as a saint from antiquity.

[6] We deliberately omit here what various Fathers wrote in praise of Faustus and what others wrote in censure of his books. We shall give only a portion of the Eucharistic poem which Sidonius Apollinaris, the most holy and most learned bishop, sent to him while he was still living, in which, among other things, he proclaims these things about his virtues:

— — — You, great Priest, This lyre of ours, though with unequal plectrum, sings. He is praised by Sidonius Apollinaris. This, therefore, is the first cause or occasion of our praises: That my brother, while slippery youth rolls on, Is proved to have been preserved with you by the Lord's gifts, Nor does his honor waver in report. This good, Whatever it be, looks to you. The reward will be owed to him; He to you. Let the praise be his, if he chose not to fall; For that he could not, rightly redounds entirely to you.

Moreover, because when I came to Riez some time ago, When Procyon raged, when the scorching fire of the sun whom he had received with hospitality at Riez, Split the thirsty fields with cracking fissures, With you as host, your peace, home, shade, water, blessing, table, and bed Immediately received our heat. Yet above all these, what stands out is that you wished Me to approach even the holy threshold of your holy mother. I froze, I confess, conscious of myself, and suddenly and had led him to visit his mother. Reverence tinged with a blush the face of one adoring in fear; Nor did I tremble less than if perhaps Israel Were leading me to Rebecca, or long-haired Samuel to Hannah. Wherefore, venerating you with unending vows, We confess a great affection through these small verses. Whether the blazing Syrtes and inhospitable wastes, Or a marsh green with slime, or dark rocks hold you In a still more uncultivated retreat, where, with the sun shut out, Hollow caves preserve age-old darkness; Faustus dwells in harsh places, an imitator of the ancient hermits. Whether on the steep cliffs of the outstretched Alps, The trembling anchorite takes his brief sleep on the frozen turf — Who, though he bears the cold, Never tames the heat of Christ conceived within him — Where now Elijah, now John bids you go, Now the two Macarii, now the hero Paphnutius, Now Or, now Ammon, now Sarmata, now Hilarion; Now the naked Antony calls you in that tunic Which the nourishing hand of his master made from palm leaves; Whether Lerins has embraced you, its ancient parent, He often revisits Lerins. Where you, now broken, often come for great repose To serve your disciples, and scarcely catching the first moments of sleep, Scarcely taking cooked food, you lead an abstinent life And adorn your fasts with interspersed psalms, Teaching your brethren what great mountains that level island Has sent to heaven — what was the holy life Of the elder Caprasius, and of the young Lupus, what grace Remained upon Father Honoratus, who that Maximus was Of whose city you, as monk, bishop, and abbot, Twice act as successor; celebrating also in those praises The journey of the arriving Eucherius, of the returning Hilary; Whether the people committed to you holds you, and the lesser man dares, With you as mediator, to scorn the haughty ways of the great; Whether you anxiously ask what food sustains the sick, He cares for strangers and captives, How the stranger lives, what feeds also him Whose slippery legs the prison wastes beneath its shackle; Whether, with your mind more distracted by funerals to be attended, If the livid bones of a dead pauper turn green, You yourself carry the unfastidious corpse to the pyre; and the funerals of the poor. Whether at the conspicuous steps of the venerable altar The eager people stand around you as you are about to preach, That they may drink with their ears the medicine of the law expounded — Whatever you do, wherever you are, always be to me Faustus, Always Honoratus, always also Maximus.