ON S. REMIGIUS, OR REMEDIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN.
AROUND THE YEAR DCCLXXI.
CommentaryRemigius, Bishop of Rouen in Gaul (S.)
From various sources.
[1] Claudius Robertus, Ioannes Chenus, and Antonius Demochares list Remigius, or Remedius, as the twenty-ninth Bishop of the Church of Rouen. He was the son of Charles Martel by Suanichilde of Bavaria, The family of S. Remigius. or by another wife or concubine (for the authors differ), and the brother of King Pippin. His feast is celebrated on 19 January in the monastery of S. Audoenus at Rouen, as we learned from our Fredericus Flouetus. We are surprised that his name was omitted by Saussaius in his Gallican Martyrology. In the MS. Florarium on 11 May the following is found: At Rouen, the deposition of the holy Bishops Robertus and Remigius, brother of Pippin, King of the Franks. Nowhere else have we found the name of Robertus, or Ratbertus, in the roll of Saints.
[2] His deeds. The Acts of Remigius do not exist. We shall gather a few things about him from various writers. Ioannes Dadraeus confuses him with his brother Carlomannus, when he says that, having renounced the part of the kingdom that had fallen to him to govern, he became a monk on Mount Soracte, established a church there for S. Silvester; then migrated to Cassino, and finally was named Archbishop. The Annals of the Franks by an unknown Author, edited by Andrea du Chesne his promotion to the episcopate, from the manuscripts of Tilius and Petavius, mention his election at the year 755: In this year the Lord Remedius obtained the See of the Church of Rouen. The Chronicle of Fontenelle: The aforesaid Raginfridus, on account of his insolent behavior and depravities, was also accused by the clergy of Rouen before King Pippin; in the thirteenth year after he had lost the governance of this monastery of Fontenelle. When he was ejected from the episcopate of that Church, it was given to Remigius, brother of that same glorious King Pippin, in this year, which is the seven hundred and fifty-fifth from the Incarnation of the Lord. To whom, Ragenfridus, however, out of mercy, certain estates from the same bishopric of Rouen were assigned.
[3] What Remigius did before the episcopate, we have not discovered. He was afterwards sent by Pippin to arrange for the return of the relics of S. Benedict from Fleury to Cassino, as Adreualdus relates in book 1, On the Miracles of S. Benedict, chapter 16. But when the monks turned to prayers and tears along with Abbot Medo, the most omnipotent Majesty, Wishing to carry off relics from Fleury, he is divinely prevented, as the same author writes in chapter 17, was pleased to resolve so great a dispute of danger with His accustomed mercy. For Bishop Remigius, having entered the church with his men, as he approached the sacred sepulchre, was so struck with a sudden blindness of their eyes that they could neither see one another's faces, nor discern by touch in which direction they wished to proceed. Likewise covered with powerful terror, they expected nothing other than the loss of their lives. Some therefore were cast to the ground, intending to await the Lord's mercy; others, planning to find safety in the remedy of flight, ran hither and thither, crying out and begging for help to come. While these were thrown into confusion by excessive tumult, the Abbot was summoned and hastened with the Brothers: and giving them his hand, he led the violators of the sacred temple out of the church, they feeling quite sufficiently and abundantly the divine vengeance. Then he graciously pardoned those prostrate on the ground and seeking pardon: and from the body of that most precious Confessor of Christ he most kindly bestowed relics. He obtains some. Having refreshed them, and having generously provided all necessities for the journey, he sent them back to their own. And they, returning to the palace, made known to the most excellent King Pippin the very great power of God, flourishing in this place through the merits of the holy Mother of God and perpetual Virgin Mary, and of B. Petrus, Prince of the Apostles, and also through the intercession of the distinguished Father Benedict, and by their exhortations diligently made him generous to this sacred monastery. The same events from Adreualdus are commemorated by Carolus Sauffeyus, Annals of the Church of Orleans, book 4, no. 33, and more briefly book 5, no. 38; Vincent of Beauvais, book 23, chapter 155; Petrus de Natalibus, book 6, chapter 81; Sigebertus at the year 753, who attributes this to Carlomannus, the brother of Remigius. But Matthew of Westminster at the year 748 relates that the monks of Cassino obtained letters from Pope Zacharias to Pippin; that Remigius was sent by Pippin. But Zacharias had died three years before Remigius became Bishop.
[4] He arranges for stolen property of the Roman Church to be restored. Remigius was then sent as legate by his brother the King to Desiderius, King of the Lombards, together with Duke Autcharius: they prevailed upon him to restore the patrimonies of the Roman Church: for which Paul I, the Pontiff, gives thanks to Pippin in his third letter, given in the year 760, in which Remigius is called God-beloved Remedius.
[5] Concerning this same S. Remigius, Sigebertus, or his amplifier, writes thus He introduces the Roman chant into Gaul at the year 751: Remigius, brother of the same King Pippin, Archbishop of Rouen (thus the old manuscript of Lobbes, which we used; the edition of Miraeus has Rodomensis) is famous in Gaul. King Pippin improved the churches of Gaul with chants of Roman authority through his own efforts. There exists a letter of Pope Paul I to King Pippin, given in the year 767, in which the following is read, indicating the outstanding zeal of S. Remigius: Wherefore, having received in the present the communications from your Excellency, protected by God, monks sent to Rome, we promptly fulfilled all that was contained in them. In them we found it written that you wish the monks of your God-beloved brother Remedius, who are present, to be handed over to Simeon, the Prior of the school of singers, for them to be instructed in the modulation of psalmody, which they had been unable to learn from him during the time he was there in your regions; on which account you assert that your said brother has been made very sad, in that he had not perfectly instructed his monks. And indeed, most kind King, we satisfy your Christianity; because had not Georgius, who presided over that school, departed this life, we would by no means have sought to withdraw the same Simeon from the service of your brother. But when the aforesaid Georgius died, and the same Simeon, as next in line, ascended to his place, for that reason, for the teaching of the school, we summoned him to us. For far be it from us that we should in any way do anything that is burdensome to you and your faithful ones. Rather, as has been said, remaining firm in the love of your charity, we most willingly strive, insofar as our strength suffices, to comply with your will. For which reason we have also handed over the aforesaid monks of your brother to the oft-mentioned Simeon, and lodging them excellently, and instructed by the orders of Pope Paul I, we have ordered them to be instructed with diligent industry in the same modulation of psalmody, and we have arranged, for the most ample love of your Excellency and of your most noble brother, that they remain in the teaching of ecclesiastical song with effective care until they become perfectly trained, frequently in the same, desiring for the rest that your Excellency prosper in healthy and favorable times in the Lord, and enjoy the scepter of the kingdom, and through the intercession of B. Petrus, achieve triumphal victories over your enemies. May heavenly grace keep your Excellency safe.
[6] He introduces Roman Rites. Renatus Choppinus, Monasticon, book 2, title 3, no. 25, also mentions this: King Pippin, he says, first introduced the ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies of the Romans, with Aegidius, Archbishop of Rouen, managing the affair, around the year 755. Paulus Aemilius also calls him Aegidius.
[7] In the year 769, Charlemagne celebrated Easter at Rouen, as the Annals of the Franks record, He dies, and the ancient life of Charles. There at last, in the year 771 or 772, S. Remigius, his uncle, died. His relics translated to Soissons. His body and that of S. Gildardus, together with the head of S. Romanus, were at one time translated from the city of Rouen to Soissons, to the monastery of S. Medardus. This is supported by the passage in Nithardus, book 3, which Pithoeus considered corrupt: When he (Charles the Bald) was heading for the city of Soissons, the monks of S. Medardus came to meet him, begging that he translate the bodies of the Saints Medardus, Sebastianus, Tiburtius, Petrus and Marcellinus, Marius, Martha, Audifax and Abacuc, Onesimus, Meresina and Leocadia, Marianus, Pelagius, and Maurus, Florianus with his six brothers, Gildardus, Serenus, more honorably placed with others. and of the Lord Remigius, Archbishop of Rouen, into the basilica where they now rest, and which was at that time already for the most part built. Acquiescing to their request, he remained there, and, as they had asked, translated the bodies of the Blessed with his own shoulders with all veneration. Moreover he added to the property of that Church the estate called Bernacha.
[8] Returned to Rouen. The relics of S. Remigius were then brought back from the aforesaid monastery at Soissons to Rouen in the year 1090, as is evident from an ancient codex of S. Audoenus, but unfortunately that very part is torn. This Translation is recorded in the MS. Florarium on 15 May in these words: At Rouen, the translation of B. Remigius, Bishop and Confessor of that city. 15 May.
[9] In the year 1520 a book was published in German, written by Doctor Iacobus Mennelius by order of Maximilian I, and printed at Freiburg in Breisgau by the press of Ioannes Woerlinus; in which, after the Author has commemorated the ancestors of the August House of Austria and where each was buried, he also adds the Saints related to it by blood. Among these he numbers S. Remigius, Archbishop of Rouen, First buried in the basilica of S. Maria at Rouen, whom he says died, distinguished for many virtues, in the year 771, and was honorably buried at Rouen in the basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary; afterwards translated to Soissons to the church of S. Medardus, and venerated there with singular piety. He was unaware that the relics of the holy Bishop had been returned to Rouen. These facts were communicated to us from that book by our R.P. Theodorus Rosmerus.