Lupus

CONCERNING S. LUPUS, BISHOP OF CHALON IN GAUL.

Beginning of the seventh century.

Lupus, Bishop of Chalon in Burgundy (S.)

[1] The citadel of Chalon (which others call Cabilinum) is a city of the first province of Lyon, situated on the river Saone, excellently fortified and adorned with an episcopate, at one time the seat of the Kings of Burgundy, as we shall show in the Life of S. Guntram on 28 March. The age of S. Lupus, Bishop of Chalon. Here S. Lupus was Bishop around the year of Christ 600. For there survives a letter of S. Gregory the Great, which is no. 52 of bk. 9, issued in Indiction 4, the year of Christ 601, in which he commends to Menna of Toulouse, Serenus of Marseille, Lupus of Chalon, Agilius of Metz, Simplicius of Paris, Melantius of Rouen, and Licinius, Bishops of the Franks, the monks whom he was sending to Augustine in England with Laurence the Priest and Mellitus the Abbot. Whence it is clear that the learned Robertus and Jean Chenu are mistaken, who would have it that he succeeded S. Gratus in the episcopate; who, as we shall say in his Life on 8 October, participated in the Second Council of Chalon under Clovis II, around the year 650.

[2] S. Lupus is venerated by the Church of Chalon with a double Office on the 6th before the Kalends of February. Natalis. In the treasury of that church there are still preserved a foot-bone of his relics and a golden ring. His natalis was recorded thus by Molanus in his additions to Usuard: "At Chalon, of S. Lupus, Bishop of that city." Galesinius and Ferrarius say the same. But Saussay more fully: monastic profession "On this day at Chalon-sur-Saone, the deposition of S. Lupus, Bishop and Confessor, who was first a most devout monk and Abbot of S. Peter's, and succeeding S. Gratus with gifts of grace in this see, poured forth wondrous splendors of all the virtues and copious showers of salutary teaching; and at last, laden with many merits, he fell asleep in Christ. At whose venerable body, gleaming signs caused him to be elevated once and again, and to be honored with the worthy reverence from his townspeople that he still enjoys." But concerning his predecessor we have already said that he does not seem to have been Gratus.

[3] In the monastery of S. Peter. André du Chesne writes in his book of Gallic Antiquities that the monastery of S. Peter was first a cemetery of Christians, in the primitive Church, as was usually the case in the suburbs; afterward a chapel was built there, which was subsequently enlarged; and finally a monastery was founded by S. Flavius the Bishop, or if by some predecessor, certainly restored by him. Jean Chenu and the learned Robertus write that S. Lupus was Abbot there, and therefore wished to be buried there. But that monastery is now destroyed by the first tumults of the Calvinists, and a fortress has been erected in its place.

[4] Life. The Life of S. Lupus, written by an anonymous author, but several centuries later, as is clear to the reader, we received from an ancient manuscript of our Jacques Sirmond. Elevation by Bishop Gerboldus. The learned Robertus relates that his relics were elevated by Girbaldus, or Gerboldus, the Bishop, on the 4th before the Kalends of September in the year 877. Girbaldus participated in the Third Council of Soissons in 866, at Chalon in 873, at Ponthion in 876, at the Second Council of Troyes in 878, and at Mantaille in 879. In a precept of Charles the Fat issued in 885 for the free election of the Bishop of Chalon, it is said that Girboldus, then already worn out by infirmity and old age, caused no small grief to the citizens and children of his Church by the fear of his death.

[5] On what occasion the elevation of S. Lupus was made, Jean Chenu indicates: "In the time of the same Gilboldus," he says, "the Supreme Pontiff John VIII, returning from Troyes, canonization to which city he had convoked a synod and in which he had consecrated Louis the Stammerer as Emperor, while he was staying twenty days in the city of Chalon, at the request of Gilboldus, SS. Silvester, Agricola, Lupus, and Gratus, Tranquillus, Desiderius, John, and Veranus, Bishops of Chalon, were enrolled among the Saints." Chenu is mistaken, indeed: it was not an imperial but a royal crown which John placed on the Stammerer. But if nevertheless the body of S. Lupus was elevated on that occasion, then it was not in the year 877, since the synod of Troyes was not held until the following year--unless one should wish that the body of the holy Bishop was elevated two years before, and those celestial honors were decreed only in 879, which is probable.

[6] Concerning the canonization of those Bishops of Chalon, Saussay writes thus on 20 November, treating of S. Silvester, Bishop of Chalon: "Nevertheless, since the blessed Confessor continually shone in his tomb with the radiance of divine power, he lay buried in his sepulcher until, at the initiative of Gilboldus, Bishop of Chalon, he was brought out of his coffin for a more ample cult. For when Pope John VIII, driven out of Rome, had taken refuge in Gaul and held the Council whose acts survive at Troyes, on his return he stayed twenty days at Chalon. The aforesaid Bishop Gilboldus, having fortunately seized this auspicious occasion, obtained from him by his supplications that he should elevate the sacred bodies of the holy Bishops of Chalon, by Pope John VIII Silvester and Agricola, from the tombs where they shone with wondrous manifestation of divine glory, and place them in more honorable shrines, so that they might be more zealously venerated by the faithful people; and further, that he should by Apostolic authority pronounce those blessed Bishops to be Saints, and by solemn decree enroll them in the register of the Blessed, along with seven other Bishops and Confessors who had illuminated the city of Chalon by the merits of their holy life (as perpetual helpers and patrons of that land), namely, Tranquillus, Desiderius, John, Flavius, Veranus, Gratus, and Lupus, together with Desideratus the Priest, who, as a dweller of the desert, enclosed at Gordanum, had left behind traces of wondrous holiness. The Apostolic Pontiff received the pious petition of the Bishop with favorable ears, and having made a careful investigation of the morals, merits, and miracles of those eight pious men, those whom he found to have been pleasing to God--by the zeal of his glory and the innocence of their perfect life, and whom he had in turn found glorified by the wondrous working of signs both in life and after death--he numbered among the Blessed by Apostolic pronouncement, and decreed that they should be venerated forever by the faithful with the honors of sanctity. But since he was pressed by the constraints of time and the weight of pressing affairs, he did not remove from their tombs the sacred remains of each and every one of those Saints, as Giboldus desired, but only the precious relics of SS. Silvester and Agricola; for the more fitting enshrinement of which Gilboldus himself, the Bishop of Chalon, had prepared more distinguished reliquaries."

[7] Anniversary of the canonization. The commemoration of all of them together is celebrated in the Church of Chalon on 30 April, as the learned Robertus testifies; on which day Ferrarius records: "At Chalon in Gaul, the enrollment of the holy Bishops among the Saints." But with a particular feast, additionally, SS. Silvester and Desideratus the Priest are honored on 20 November, S. Agricola on 17 March, S. Gratus on 8 October, and S. Veranus on the 20th of the same month.

[8] Concerning S. Lupus, Saussay furthermore records this on 27 August: "At Chalon-sur-Saone, the feast of S. Lupus, Bishop, another feast whose glorious departure, with a tribute to his holiness, is recorded on its proper day in these sacred annals of Gaul on the 6th before the Kalends of February." Ferrarius likewise: "At Chalon in Gaul, of S. Lupus, Bishop." And on 29 August, the same Saussay: "Likewise at Chalon-sur-Saone, the elevation of the body of S. Lupus, Bishop and Confessor of the same Church, carried out on account of the divine miracles gleaming at his tomb, by Garboldus, Bishop of that see." Finally, the same Saussay numbers the same Gilboldus, whose name he has expressed in such varied forms, among the Saints on 12 June in his Supplement to the Martyrology.

LIFE BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR,

from a MS. of Jacques Sirmond, S.J.

Lupus, Bishop of Chalon in Burgundy (S.)

BHL Number: 5081

By an Anonymous Author, from MSS.

CHAPTER I.

The episcopate, virtues, and miracles of S. Lupus.

[1] The Saints are to be praised. To describe for posterity the deeds of holy men is to bestow a work of piety and to honor the magnificence of the Divinity, since both readers have something by which they may be inspired, and the works of the Almighty something by which they may be praised. The authority of the book of Ecclesiasticus exhorts on this matter: "Let us praise," it says, "glorious men and our parents, who obtained glory among the generations of their people and are held in praises in their days. Ecclus. 44. Those born of them have left a name for the narrating of their praises; and there are those of whom there is no memory; but those are men of mercy and their good deeds remain with them."

[2] Therefore, being about to relate the life and deeds of the most blessed Lupus, Bishop of Chalon, in some part, The Acts of S. Lupus have perished since I am unable to do so in their entirety--although I am unequal to this task, I shall briefly explain why I have undertaken it. Since the same city had been consumed by frequent fire, nearly all that had been committed to writing concerning him was consumed by those same flames; and had not some survivors remained who had read them, so as to narrate them again for writing to those to whom they might by chance be unknown, they would have remained condemned to perpetual silence. Giving credence, therefore, to the assertions of truthful reporters, and at the same time eager to carry out the holy command of the Lord Bishop, who most strongly orders it, I shall set forth with faithful speech what is known to me concerning the aforesaid Father, although my uncultivated discourse may falter. And if eloquence does not suffice, obedience will assist. And since I remember it is written, "Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner," let the authority of him who commands wipe away the stains of negligence. Ecclus. 15:9.

[3] He, then, about whom we introduce this narrative, was born in the kingdom of Burgundy, no little distinguished by the title of nobility. For that he was of the highest lineage according to the propagation of this flesh, his vast estates testify, which he himself also donated to the ownership of sacred places by a sufficiently pious distribution, He gives his goods to the Church transferring, as it were, the resources of his patrimony to heaven, where he was incessantly engaged in deed and in the intention of his mind, according to the Apostolic saying. Phil. 3:20. For the estate of Baugiacum, which he had received as an inheritance from his parents, he bestowed upon the Church of the Blessed Martyr Vincent; of which church, on account of the probity of his morals and the excellence of his religious deeds, he was afterward appointed the worthy Pastor, both by divine election and by the acclamation of the entire clergy and people. He becomes Bishop. For in him the supreme and preeminent charity among the virtues flourished: he was nourished by abstinence and vigils; he devoted himself to the refreshment of the wretched and those placed in prison, for whom he most mercifully intervened before the secular Judges, the ministers of their death; he was also zealous for the advancement of daily instruction, and having established a school of the divine books, he ministered an abundance of heavenly eloquence to his hearers; and he investigated most vigilantly, by proposing questions on the readings, how each individual was progressing. He flourishes in virtues. He was indeed most intently given to hospitality, a most generous distributor of alms to the needy; zealous for exhortation among his subjects and for teaching in all things. He did not teach one thing and do another, but his life, joined to his preaching, shone with the lamp of all the virtues. Whence, on account of these outstanding divine merits which he accomplished while alive, he now works miracles after his death.

[4] In the aforesaid estate of Baugiacum, the Lord renewed through him an ancient miracle. He draws forth a spring by his prayers. For he who once brought forth water from the rock for his murmuring people, by his prayers caused a spring to flow forth in a dry place for the people parched with thirst. For when the bands of his workmen cutting hay, wearied by the prolonged heat of the sun, lacked water to slake their thirst, and because of this shortage were already exhausted and failing, the man of the Lord exhorted them to trust in his mercy; he prostrated himself in prayer; having completed it, he rose; the staff of his holy hand was driven by him into the parched ground; and when it was drawn back, a most abundant flow of the spring followed forth, healthful against diseases which to this day provides in that same place a sweet draught for the thirsty, as a testimony to the most blessed man. By its refreshment the workers then began again to labor eagerly at the task they had begun; and frequently by drinking of it, the sick have deserved to recover their desired health. There is still pointed out, adjoining the oratory of the same estate, his cell, in which he was accustomed to sleep after his labor; to which, as long as he lived, no access was permitted to women. His cell is closed to women and harmful to birds of prey. Whence, on account of the former reverence, no woman now presumes to enter there. It is reported that if any bird of prey is released around the perimeter of that same cell, it is afterward of no use for any purpose.

[5] Having therefore received the dignity of the pontifical eminence, how much he gave himself over to stricter observances exceeds human narration. He had, indeed, on the left side of the mother Church, facing the altar of S. Vincent, a small chapel for prayer, which still remains, consecrated in honor of the holy Pope Silvester, in which an arm of his is enshrined and venerated. There during the hours of the night he conducted his intimate private devotions; where, in honor of the sacred relics, a lamp once lit burned perpetually. In this chapel, when by chance on a certain night after long vigils of prayers he had given his limbs to rest, through negligence, as is usual, the city was being consumed by a severe fire burning from its western side. He extinguishes the fire by prayers and the sign of the Cross. And when the fire, devastating everything, was already approaching beyond the middle of the city, some casting water eagerly, others devising various means to quell the balls of flame but accomplishing nothing, with the total destruction of the city now imminent, the terrified citizens sought the protection of their Priest. He, immediately rising, devoted himself briefly to prayer, then went of his own accord to meet the flames. Wondrous to tell: as soon as he stretched his palms toward heaven and set the sign of the Cross against the fire, the flames were parted; the fire leapt apart; and as if by a most vehement rain sent from heaven, all the assaults of the raging conflagration were destroyed. And so, through the power of Christ, he who had already for love of him extinguished all the flames of vices within himself repressed the threats of the fire.

CHAPTER II.

Death, obsequies.

[6] We must come to the glorious end of his life, in which those reading and hearing should assuredly call to mind As he is dying, he intercedes for captives how pleasing to God his life was, since heavenly miracles attend him as he departs from this world. When the same most blessed man perceived that the day of his passing was approaching, he learned that certain condemned men had been consigned to prison. Having therefore summoned the Judge of the city to himself, as he had always been accustomed to do, he began to converse with him about mercy, and begged with pious prayers that he would release those whom he kept imprisoned. But the Judge, held back by a spirit of cruelty, delayed in doing this. The most sacred Bishop, however, throughout the entire period of his illness, he instructs his people until he breathed his last, did not cease to bestow counsels of salvation on the crowds of citizens and sons who kept arriving. At last, perceiving that the moment of death was upon him, he receives Communion fortifying himself with the protection of the Lord's Communion, on the 6th day before the Kalends of February he breathed forth his spirit, about to go to heaven. He dies.

[7] His body, laid out according to custom, was decreed to be entombed in the church of the Blessed Apostle Peter, which stands in the suburb of the same city. Now on the following day it is impossible to describe how great a multitude assembled for the service of the sacred funeral. Meanwhile, as it was being carried out, some intoning psalms, others pouring forth tears and lamentation abundantly from grief, so that the whole city was filled with the outcry, they came to the place the funeral procession halts; the prison is divinely opened where the dungeon of the condemned was, at which point the divine power weighed down the bier of the blessed body with such weight that the bearers were held fast and motionless in one spot. Those, therefore, who were held in custody to be executed, raising their voices with wailing, immediately invoked the name of the Saint, and all the bars of the prison were cast off, the doors opened, and the crowd of prisoners, freed from their chains, came forth and accompanied the cortege. By all, the manifest power of God was perceived--of what merit was he who was being carried. This was immediately made known to the most wicked Judge, the Judge, pursuing the freed prisoners, perishes who, heaping new rashness upon his former impiety, swore with great indignation that none of those who had escaped should be saved through Lupus. Immediately mounting his horse, he pursued those who had been released at a rapid gallop. Divine vengeance was quickly present against the raging man, and his sorrow was turned upon his own head, and his iniquity descended upon his own crown. For when the horse on which he sat plunged headlong, his neck was dashed, and he ended an unworthy life with a worthy death.

[8] Meanwhile, as the body was being carried to the aforesaid basilica, Again the procession halts until the freed prisoners are bathed and clothed with those who had been released from custody going before with tapers, at a nearby spot, namely where thoroughfares intersect, the bearers halted, unable to proceed further, until those snatched from the dungeon were washed in baths by the clergy who were present and, having received garments, were permitted to depart. Wherefore, in memory of this sign, such great reverence toward the most holy Confessor increased that if anyone afterward led carts laden with wood into the city through those same crossroads, he would bestow one portion of them upon S. Lupus. Many of the clergy and people confess by public declaration that they too have seen this. His members, attended by heavenly favor, were then brought into the church, He shines with miracles in which, at the right side of the altar, they were committed to burial by the Priests and the religious. Where the Lord's majesty effects various healings: to the lame the power of walking is restored, upon blind eyes sight is poured, upon the limbs of the feeble the gifts of health are bestowed. Indeed, the fame of his miracles having spread far and wide, he is venerated, especially for diseases of livestock many began to flock from everywhere and to bring the small offerings of their vows. Very many, constructing oratories in various places, dedicated them under the title of his name. It was frequented accordingly by not a few, since if any disease of livestock occurred in a region, when vows were directed thither, it was driven away by the merits of the blessed man, with health for themselves and their own bestowed upon all who approached with faith.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles at the tomb.

[9] By the testimony of venerable Priests who say they were present, we have learned that when the reverend Bishop, on the returning anniversary of the passing of the most holy Lupus, had gathered there with the entire clergy to celebrate vigils, and happened to be walking past the sarcophagus, A sweet fragrance breathes forth from his tomb he suddenly perceived a fragrance of wondrous sweetness bursting forth from the place of the body. There, therefore, marveling and greatly delighted, he halted, and indicated to the Brothers who were present what had happened to him. All who approached on every side drank in the sweetness of this fragrance, which continued there uninterruptedly that same night and the following day. I believe, indeed, that an angelic visitation was present, which just as it always attended him while alive for his protection, so also serves the dead man for his glory.

[10] From noble and trustworthy persons who saw it, we have learned what we narrate. A lame man is healed, and his donkey. When, as was customary, from various parts of the land an innumerable multitude of people assembled near the city at the annual return for the purpose of trading, it happened that a certain poor man arrived, carried on a donkey, who lacked the use of his legs. When he had spent nearly the whole day begging among the merchants, as night was approaching, since he had no other lodging, he betook himself with his conveyance to the portico of the basilica, there indulging his feeble limbs in sleep. When he awoke, he found his little donkey lying beside him, with its legs crippled, creeping along the ground. The wretched man grieved, weeping anxiously; he did not know what to do, seeing himself and his animal held by an equal disability. Asked by a passerby what he had in mind, he set forth the cause. He was asked by someone whether he had any money by which even a small amount of wax could be bought. "I have two pennies," he said, "which I have gathered from alms." And the other said: "Keep one; from the other, buy wax and fashion a light, which, directing it to the Blessed Lupus, you will experience his aid." He did as he was urged; immediately upon offering the light, with wondrous speed he beheld the health of both his body and his conveyance through the merits of the blessed man.

[11] Thus far the narrative is woven from what has been reported by truthful narrators; henceforth we shall tell those things which have occurred in the course of our own time, embracing what we have heard with no less faith than what we have seen. We saw a certain woman and a lame woman who afterward becomes lame again (whose name has slipped from our memory) whom a pitiable natural condition had condemned to the loss of her legs from the very beginning of her birth, who, though frequently carried to the tomb of the Saint by the help of others, returned on her own feet. But when, after a very long time during which she walked sturdily, she began, forgetful of the benefit she had received, to give herself over to the vices of the flesh, she relapsed to her former disability and bore the inconvenience of her punishment.

[12] To this miracle should be added what happened in our presence concerning another lame man. A certain Odolricus, from the district of Lyon, a person of servile condition, when returning from his master on an errand, a lame and one-eyed man is healed encountered a troop of evil spirits, who, as he himself related, raged against him with such deception that he remained half-dead and could scarcely return to his master. On the following day, he was deprived of the use of his legs and of the sight of one eye; which disability continued for nearly ten years. During this time, carried to the shrines of many Saints, he obtained no relief from his affliction. At length in a dream it seemed to him that he ought to go to the oft-mentioned basilica. When he arrived there at night, since he happened not to have the ability to enter, he remained outside the threshold. But around midnight, the contraction of the sinews behind his knees began to be extended; the sick man cried out aloud, and having been admitted inside by the guardian aroused thereby, he was afterward brought near to the sacred relics, and by the aid of the Prince of the Apostles and the merit of the blessed Bishop, he was usefully restored to the necessary functions.

[13] Forgive me, reader, for narrating but a few of the many miracles of the blessed man; for to avoid producing weariness in you by a prolix discourse, what should have been intimated at length concerning him has been omitted through zeal for brevity. Indeed, we have both learned by report and observed by sight so many of his wonderful deeds that if we should desire to recount them all, He performs other miracles you would marvel at the immense volume that would have grown from them. Nevertheless, from this it is clearly evident to all that he who bestows such great bodily benefits upon those who ask, also provides by his most healthful intercession the salvation of souls for those who faithfully seek it and desire the pardon of their sins. With eager attention, therefore, and the special devotion of the heart, let us persist in the veneration and cult of the most sacred Bishop, the Lord Lupus, so that we may be able both to use the remedies of his piety in this world, and after the mortality of this fleeting life, together with the same patron, protected by his merits, to be peacefully present before the sight of the supreme Trinity, which, prevailing with mighty dominion, governs all ages of ages. Amen.