Artemius

ON ST. ARTEMIUS, BISHOP OF CLERMONT IN GAUL.

Around the year of Christ 396.

Artemius, Bishop of Clermont in Gaul (St.)

From various sources.

[1] Jean Savaron testifies in the Origins of Clermont that on the 24th of January the feast is celebrated of St. Artemius, the sixth Bishop of the Auvergne, who died around the year 394. Concerning him Molanus in the Additions to Usuard writes: At Clermont, of St. Artemius, Bishop and Confessor, of wondrous sanctity. Ferrari, The feast of St. Artemius, Saussay, and Galesinius also record him; Galesinius calls him Artenius, although in the Notes he admits that he is called Artemius by others.

[2] Nothing survives concerning his deeds, except what St. Gregory of Tours writes in book 1 of the History of the Franks, chapter 41: Therefore at Clermont St. Nepotianus was reckoned the fourth Bishop. Envoys were being sent from Trier to Spain: among them a certain Artemius, of admirable wisdom and beauty, and flourishing in the prime of life, was seized by a violent fever. When the others went on ahead, he was left behind, ill, at Clermont. His conversion occasioned by illness. For at that time he was bound by a betrothal bond at Trier, but having been visited by St. Nepotianus and anointed with holy oil, by the Lord's grant he was restored to health. When he had received the word of preaching from the same Saint, forgetting both his earthly betrothed and his own possessions, he was joined to the holy Church: His renunciation of his betrothed and possessions. and having been made a Cleric, he advanced to such sanctity that he became the successor of Blessed Nepotianus in governing the folds of the Lord's flock.

[3] So writes Gregory. We shall treat of St. Nepotianus on October 22: whom he calls the fourth, after St. Austremonius, Apostle of the Auvergne and first Bishop, who is honored on November 1; he lists as intermediaries Urbicus, Legonus, and Hillidius. Saussay writes that Artemius was married and enrolled in the clerical service (though not without consulting or against the will of his wife), having distributed his possessions for works of mercy. But St. Gregory says only that he was bound by a betrothal bond, and presently calls her his betrothed, not his wife; and he does not say that he distributed his own possessions, but that he forgot them. Our Christopher Brouwer in book 9 of the Annals of Trier more accurately expressed Gregory's meaning, and he thinks that embassy occurred around the year 386.

[4] Saussay writes this concerning the tomb of St. Artemius: As the signs of divine magnificence multiplied at his tomb, a church was built outside the city in his honor, translation, from which afterwards, for greater honor, his most sacred body was carried with a religious triumph to the mother church, and there, placed with fitting reverence upon the high altar, it is venerated with the perpetual devotion of the faithful. This appears to be the reinterment that the same Saussay records on December 25: At Clermont of the Auvergne, he says, the reinterment of St. Artemius, seventh Bishop of that See; whose blessed passage to the heavenly choirs is celebrated with annual devotion on the 24th of the following month.

[5] Concerning that suburban church of St. Artemius, the following is found in book 1 on the Saints, churches, and monasteries of Clermont, published by Savaron, no. 29: In the church of St. Artemius, an altar of St. Mary, an altar of St. Martin, the church, where St. Artemius, and St. Vera, and St. Supporina, and other bodies of Saints rest. Savaron writes that this church was razed to the ground, and is commonly called "Le vas de Saint Arthem": at which place, he says, the stone chest in which St. Artemius was once buried is worn by rolling carts the tomb. and trodden underfoot by passers-by, the sanctions of the Canons having been trodden upon. But we think that the people of the Auvergne, moved by these pious complaints of their most distinguished Governor and citizen, now treat that chest with greater reverence.

ON SAINTS VERA AND SUPPORINA, AT CLERMONT IN GAUL.

Vera, at Clermont in Gaul (St.) Supporina, at Clermont in Gaul (St.)

In no Martyrologies, not even the Gallican of Saussay, have we found the names of Saints Vera and Supporina: nor do we know for certain whether they were Virgins or not, whether Martyrs or departed in a peaceful death. We have nevertheless thought they should be placed here, with St. Artemius, in whose church at Clermont their bodies were once buried, as we have said from the old book on the Saints and Churches of Clermont, when treating of St. Artemius. After that church was destroyed, we do not know where their remains were taken.