ON S. VOLUSIANUS, MARTYR, BISHOP OF TOURS IN GAUL.
Around the Year 500.
CommentaryVolusianus, Bishop of Tours in Gaul, Martyr (S.)
From various sources.
[1] "At Tours in Gaul, on this day, the feast of S. Volusianus the Bishop, who, captured by the Goths, gave up his spirit to God in exile." So the Roman Martyrology. Molanus also mentions him in his Additions to Usuardus, and Ghinius in the Calendar of Saints of the Canons. Others call him a Martyr, The feast of S. Volusianus; because although he was not killed expressly for his religion, nevertheless out of hatred for that same religion he suffered calumny from the impious, and was thus banished, and was either worn out by the hardships of exile or struck by the sword, as will be said afterward. Galesinius and the Germanic Martyrology: "At Tours, S. Volusianus, Bishop and Martyr." Molanus also in his earlier edition of the Additions to Usuardus calls him a Martyr. Andreas Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology: "On the same day, at Tours, S. Volusianus, Bishop of that same Metropolis, and glorious Martyr, who was captured by the Arian Goths, and in hatred of the orthodox truth which he upheld, was dragged hither and thither and variously harassed, and surrendered his blessed spirit to God in exile." The same author, in his Supplement, writes that he was beheaded, as we shall say presently.
[2] Concerning him S. Gregory of Tours writes the following in book 2 of his History, chapter 26: "After this, B. Perpetuus, Bishop of the city of Tours, having completed thirty years in the episcopate, his banishment, rested in peace. In his place Volusianus, one of the Senators, was appointed. But being held suspect by the Goths, in the seventh year of his episcopate he was carried off to Spain as a captive, but immediately ended his life. In his place Verus succeeded him, and was ordained the seventh bishop after B. Martin." An error seems to have crept in here: for in book 10, chapter 31, where he lists all the bishops of Tours, he makes S. Martin the third, Verus the eighth, and between them Brictius, Eustochius, Perpetuus, and Volusianus; so that Verus would be only the sixth from S. Martin.
[3] It is surprising that Verus himself was not also enrolled in the tables of the Saints, since he too, for the same cause as Volusianus, was led into exile and ended his life, as the same S. Gregory records in book 10, chapter 31, where he writes the following about Volusianus: "The seventh bishop ordained was Volusianus, of senatorial lineage, a holy man and very wealthy, himself also a kinsman of his predecessor Bishop Perpetuus. In his time Clovis was already reigning in certain cities in Gaul. And on this account this Pontiff was held suspect by the Goths, on the ground that he wished to submit to the dominion of the Franks, and was condemned to exile in the city of Toulouse, the cause of this: where he died. In his time the village of Manthelan was built, and the basilica of S. John in Marmoutier. He sat for seven years and two months."
[4] "Volusianus lived," says Baronius in his Notes on the Martyrology, "in the times of Childeric, son of Clovis, King of the Franks": but who is this Childeric, son of Clovis? His era. He lived under Clovis himself, the son of Childeric. Some error, however, seems to have crept into Gregory's account of the years of the successors of S. Martin. He writes that Martin died in the consulship of Caesarius and Atticus, which was the year of Christ 397; others say 400 or 401. To his successor Brictius he assigns 47 years, to Eustochius 17, to Perpetuus 30, to Volusianus 7 years and 2 months, to Verus 11 years and 8 days, to Licinius 12 years, 2 months, and 25 days. But as the same author writes, in the time of Licinius, The calculation of S. Gregory of Tours corrected, King Clovis returned victorious from the slaughter of the Goths to Tours. That slaughter occurred in the year 507. Theodore and Proculus then sat for 2 years. Dinifius then acceded to the episcopate by the election of the aforesaid King. Clovis died in the year of Christ 511, 112 years after the death of S. Martin. But according to the calculation already set forth from Gregory himself, 112 years are reached up to the beginning of Licinius, and 126 up to Dinifius. Moreover, Gregory himself in book 2, chapter 43, writes that Clovis died in the eleventh year of Bishop Licinius. Perhaps in book 10 one should read "by the election of the aforesaid Queen," namely Chrodield, of whom he had previously treated, rather than that Dinifius was elected by the King. But according to Gregory's earlier calculation, if Clovis died in the eleventh year of Licinius, and Verus sat for 11 years and 8 days, it would follow that S. Volusianus was expelled around the year 490, which was the ninth year of Clovis. And S. Gregory seems to imply in book 2, chapter 27, that Clovis was still a pagan when Verus obtained the episcopate: but Clovis was baptized in the year 496. So much for the era of S. Volusianus.
[5] Concerning his martyrdom, Saussay writes thus in the Supplement to the Martyrology: "At Foix, between Pamiers and Barilles, in the territory of Toulouse, the feast of S. Volusianus, Metropolitan Bishop of Tours and Martyr, The martyrdom of S. Volusianus, who (as has been noted in this Martyrology) was expelled from his See by the Goths and banished to these parts, and after many vicissitudes, at last completed a glorious contest by the cutting off of his head. Moreover, when he was ordered to present his neck to be cut off, tradition among the inhabitants says that he fixed his staff in the ground, which grew into a tree of unknown species, surviving to this very day."
[6] Guillaume Catel, book 3 of the Affairs of Occitania, writes that it is established by the tradition of the inhabitants the place of this; that he was killed in the County of Foix, between the castle of Pamiers, now an episcopal city, and the castle of Barilles, or Barelles, seven miles from the city of Toulouse: that at that place there stands a tree, to which there is a concourse of people on account of the memory of the holy Martyr. He cites as his authority Bertrand Elia, author of the history of the Counts of Foix, who testifies that he himself had often seen it, A tree from his staff: and had not been able to determine of what species it was; and that it was said to have sprung from the said Saint's traveling staff. In the Chronicles of the Counts of Foix written in the vernacular, which the same author cites, many things are related about S. Volusianus, who is there called Voulsia: that he was killed by the Goths between Pamiers and Barelles: that his body was carried by two bulls yoked to a cart his burial: to the church of S. Nazarius near the castle of Foix: that many possessions were dedicated and given to S. Volusianus by the Counts of Foix, which are enumerated one by one.
[7] Mons-Gaudii, commonly called Montgausi or Montgauci, is a place situated opposite the town of Foix, in which there is a chapel sacred to the Virgin Mother of God, famed for a very great concourse of peoples. To this place, the same Chronicles of the Counts of Foix relate, the relics of S. Volusianus were translated by Roger, son of Bernard, the second Count of Foix, in the year 1107, His relics translated, together with those of S. Antoninus of Pamiers, S. Antonius of Lezat, and S. Ferreolus. Papirius Masson, in his book on the Rivers of Gaul, treating of the Aurigera river (which, rising in the Pyrenees, washes Foix and Pamiers, and is finally joined to the Garonne two leagues from Toulouse, commonly called the Ariege), writes thus about this translation of S. Volusianus: "Not far (from Foix) is seen the sacred basilica of Mons-Gaudii, founded, as they say, by Charlemagne, and adorned with many offerings and revenues, which afterward became very famous when the body of Volusianus was translated to that city, through the zeal and diligence of Roger, the second of the Counts of Foix." Peter Olhagaray also writes in his history of the Counts of Foix that Roger, shortly before he departed from life, By whom, ordered the body of S. Antonius to be exhumed and transferred to Lezat; and that he himself followed the procession barefoot with religious devotion: and that he also translated the body of S. Volusianus to Mons-Gaudii, having invited to that solemnity Amelius, Bishop of Toulouse, and Raymond of Barbastro.
[8] More fully concerning that translation, Catel writes from the history of Guillaume Laperriere on Foix, who writes that S. Volusianus was beheaded by the order of Alaric; and that his body was translated in the year 1111 to Mons-Gaudii in a solemn procession, With what solemnity, at which, besides Count Roger, there were present Amelius, Bishop of Toulouse, the entire Clergy dwelling in the neighboring towns and villages within four or five leagues, Raymond of Barbastro and other bishops, and neighboring nobles, and an immense multitude of people.
[9] The same Catel in book 4 mentions the same translation, where he praises the piety of Count Roger, who not only attended the translation of S. Antonius to the monastery of Lezat in the year 1097 with many bishops and other holy men, but himself carried the bones of the Saint wrapped in his own cloak to the very monastery, always walking with bare head: and in the following year, 1098, In what year, he arranged for the relics of S. Volusianus and S. Ferreolus to be translated to the chapel of Mons-Gaudii.
[10] Concerning the year of this translation, the authors are not in sufficient agreement. Olhagaray relates that it occurred shortly before the death of Roger: but Catel says that Roger died in the year 1111, in the seventeenth year of his rule. The Annals of Foix cited by him place the translation in the year 1107; Catel in 1098, and earlier, on the authority of Guillaume Laperriere, in 1111. He writes in book 5, where he again mentions this translation, that Amelius, Bishop of Toulouse, seems to have succeeded Bishop Isarnus around the year 1098; and that he was certainly in office in the year 1100, as he has read recorded in many documents. But since B. Raymond, Bishop of Barbastro, is said to have been present, it must not have occurred before the year 1104: for since, as Elias the Canon of Barbastro writes in his life, he died in the year of Christ 1126, having sat for 21 years, 8 months, and 21 days, it follows that he was elevated to that See in September of the year 1104 or thereabouts, at the very time, as the same author attests, when Alfonso I the Warrior succeeded Peter I as King of Aragon. We shall give the life of B. Raymond on 21 May.