Sulpitius

CONCERNING S. SULPITIUS, BISHOP, AT GHISLENGHIEN IN HAINAUT.

Sulpitius, Bishop of Bayeux, at Ghislenghien in Belgium (S.)

By an anonymous author, from manuscripts.

[1] Ghislenghien is a town of Hainaut in Belgica Secunda, on the river Haine, whence the name of the province; but the town takes its name from the Cell of S. Ghislain, a noble and ancient monastery, about which more fully in the life of S. Ghislain on 9 October. Here relics of S. Sulpitius the Bishop are preserved, whose feast is observed on 27 January. Concerning him, Molanus writes in his additions to Usuard: The feast of S. Sulpitius the Bishop. "In the monastery of the Cell, the deposition of the holy Father Sulpitius, Bishop and Confessor." More fully in the Index of the Saints of Belgium: "The Cell, or the monastery of S. Ghislain, possesses the body, or relics of the body, of S. Sulpitius, Bishop and Confessor, which is the most ancient monastery in Hainaut. Whence in the Martyrology there it is read on the twenty-seventh day of January: 'The deposition of our holy Father Sulpitius, Bishop and Confessor.' And on the twenty-first of July: 'In the monastery of the Cell, the Translation of S. Sulpitius, Bishop, and S. Leocadia, Virgin,' etc." Galesin, Ferrarius, and Canisius also treat of him. Rabanus and the manuscript of S. Maximin have the following on this day: "And the birthday of S. Sulpitius, Bishop and Confessor"; if these words are written about him, his veneration must have been widely celebrated even before his relics were brought to Belgium, or else these words were added to Rabanus later by someone; just as we believe the following verse was added to the Martyrology of Wandelbert after this translation:

"Sulpitius, Bathild, and also Aldegund do flourish."

But on 26 January S. Sulpitius, Bishop of Bourges, Confessor, is commemorated by Bede, Notker, and manuscripts, while Pius is celebrated on 17 January and Severus on the 29th of the same month, so that one may suspect that our Sulpitius of Bayeux is perhaps listed in those authorities with the city in which he held his see incorrectly expressed.

[2] S. Sulpitius is also recorded in the Benedictine Martyrology by Arnold Wion, Hugo Menard, and Benedict Dorgany. And Wion indeed says: Was he a monk? "I am led by conjecture from those words 'Our Father,' which are read in the Martyrology of that monastery, to believe that he was a monk of S. Ghislain's; for they read thus: 'Deposition of our holy Father Sulpitius.'" Menard more correctly observes in book 1 of his Observations: "If he is called 'Father' by the monks of the Cell, it is because he cherishes that place with the presence of his body. Whether, however, he was a monk elsewhere is unclear." He lived, he lived a solitary life, as will be said below, a solitary life; whether before his episcopate, or after legitimately resigning it permanently, or merely by withdrawing for a time to enjoy some quiet, or having previously been formed by monastic discipline in a monastery, and at what time, we do not know.

[3] Of what city he was Bishop is also not established. Molanus in his Index: Was he Bishop of Bayonne? "I have read somewhere that he was Bishop of Bayeux, and that he was translated together with the relics of S. Leocadia from Spain to the monastery of S. Ghislain." Wion, Canisius, and Galesin also call him "of Bayeux." Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium: "He was, however, Bishop of Bayonne in Gascony, or, as certain learned men say, at Aquae Augustae, on the Spanish border; for this is established from the sermon on the translation." Miraeus writes the same in the Belgian Fasti. But first, we do not think that Aquae Augustae is Bayonne, but rather the city of the Auscitani, or Auxitani, commonly called Acqs; since some wish Bayonne to be called Boiona from the Boii, while others, with Masson, hold that it was formerly Lapurdum, fortified with a Roman garrison. Be that as it may, Menard, Saussay, the learned Robert, all following Molanus alone, say that Sulpitius was of Bayonne. But Ferrarius on this day in his Notes: "Some make him Bishop of Bayonne (which is the last city of Aquitaine on the border of Spain), others Bishop of Bayeux, which is more likely; for Bayeux is an episcopal city of Normandy, commonly called Bayeux." Or rather of Bayeux? Ferrarius seems to derive this likelihood from the resemblance between "Bayensis" and "Bayeux." But we have another reason for siding with Ferrarius, namely, that he led a solitary life in Normandy (who would believe he would have come here especially from Bayonne in the Basque country?), that his body was found there, and then translated by one who was making a pilgrimage from Belgium to Mont-Saint-Michel-au-Peril-de-la-Mer, which faces the Norman coast.

[4] This Translation was made in the year of Christ 986, by Simon, Abbot of the Cell of S. Ghislain, Translation made in the year 986, whose history was most kindly communicated to us from an old manuscript of the Cell by George Galopinus, Librarian of that same monastery. Whence you may refute what we related from Molanus (whom Menard and Saussay followed), and what he also writes in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium: Not when Spain was occupied. "And his body is thought to have been brought to the Belgians on the same occasion and at the same time as the body of S. Leocadia, through the Count of Hainaut." Miraeus also states more assertively: "His relics were translated there (together with the bones of S. Leocadia, Virgin of Toledo) at roughly those times, as is believed, when the Moors occupied Spain." The Moors invaded Spain in the Era 750, or the year of Christ 712; but the relics of S. Sulpitius were brought to the Cell nearly three hundred years later. Concerning S. Leocadia we shall treat on 9 December, and concerning her body recently restored by the monks of the Cell to King Philip II, the Catholic.

[5] The Translation of SS. Sulpitius and Leocadia is celebrated with an annual solemnity on 21 July, on which day Molanus writes in his Additions to Usuard: Another translation on 21 July. "On the same day, in the monastery of the Cell, the Translation of S. Sulpitius, Bishop, and S. Leocadia, Virgin." Ferrarius, Canisius, and Saussay in more words relate the same; and concerning Sulpitius, Wion and Dorgany. What that translation was, we have by no means ascertained. For as regards that earlier translation from Normandy to the Cell, the title of the manuscript of the Cell reads thus: "This translation of the body of S. Sulpitius was made in the year 986, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of July, this was done on 20 June, the twenty-eighth year after the death of S. Gerard, Abbot of S. Ghislain's and of Brogne"--he, namely, who happily restored the monastery of the Cell and very many others. From this you may refute what Saussay writes on this twenty-seventh day of January: "In Hainaut, at the Cell of S. Ghislain, not 27 January, which is his feast day, the reception of S. Sulpitius, Bishop of Bayonne, or of Bayonne of the Lapurdians among the Basques in the province of Novempopulania, and Confessor; together with S. Leocadia, Virgin and Martyr of Toledo, whose most sacred relics at the time when the Moors occupied Spain were conveyed to Bayonne for safekeeping; thence, together with the precious remains of the same S. Sulpitius, on account of other incursions, they were translated to the aforesaid monastery, far from the fury of the barbarians, and deposited with fitting honor, where they are guarded and venerated to this day with the greatest reverence." This indeed is false regarding Leocadia, and the earlier statements regarding Sulpitius.

[6] Another on 1 June. Another Translation of both, together with S. Ghislain, was made on 1 June, on which day Molanus in his additions to Usuard, and Canisius: "On that day, the Translation of the body of our holy Father Ghislain, and of S. Sulpitius, Bishop and Confessor, and of Blessed Leocadia, Virgin." Saussay writes nearly the same. Wion and Dorgany also treat of Ghislain and Sulpitius on the same day. In the year 1634, Reliquary adorned, the Abbot of S. Ghislain's had a splendid and ample silver reliquary, in the form of a head adorned with a mitre, made here in Antwerp with exquisite workmanship, for the purpose of enshrining the relics of S. Sulpitius.

TRANSLATION OF S. SULPITIUS

Extracted from an old manuscript codex by George Galopinus, a Religious of Ghislenghien.

Sulpitius, Bishop of Bayeux, at Ghislenghien in Belgium (S.)

BHL Number: 7935

[1] Let all falsehood be put to rest with its own eulogy; let us set forth in a simple account only what the report of the faithful has transmitted to us for writing; advancing toward credibility according to the measure of our talent, how the land of Normandy divinely enriched Hainaut with the little body of S. Sulpitius. At that time when Rome was supported by the government of Otto, the kingdom of the Franks was likewise governed by the scepter of Louis, and Normandy was subject to William, father of Count Richard, with Herluin likewise presiding over the See of Cambrai, Under what princes the body of S. Sulpitius was translated, Godfrey being Count of Hainaut, and Arnulf also of Valenciennes: a certain Abbot Simon proposed to travel as far as Mont-Saint-Michel for the purpose of prayer. As he was undertaking his proposed journey, it happened that he entered a certain village in the territory of Normandy for the purpose of lodging, which they call Livibacum, to which the surname of "Holy Valley" is attached. From Normandy, Seeing three small churches there, he learned that in one of them were contained the relics of this Saint; and immediately inquiring who he had been, or whence he had come, where he had lived as a solitary, and whether he had been a native of that place, he heard that he had been Bishop of the city of Bayeux, and that he had sought a hermitage there for the purpose of leading a solitary life.

[2] At these words, as it were ruminating in the hidden place of his heart, and bringing forth to his companions what he was ruminating, he said: "It is fitting that this man be served elsewhere with more becoming honor than here; Abbot Simon explores the place of burial, and this very thing will come to pass if God grants me to carry out what I am meditating." He speaks these things in secret; at length the devout man arrives where he was heading. There, under the pretext of having his sins blotted out, prostrate on the ground, he prayed more earnestly that this very thing might be carried through to completion.

[3] Then indeed, returning home, he reports to the community of Brothers, he returns there: who were rendering service to God under the patronage of S. Ghislain in the monastery of the Cell, what he had done and how he had done it on his journey. Not long afterward, commending himself to their prayers, he repeated the same journey, taking with him the companions he had recently brought along. And since willingness renders even the most difficult labor easy, they arrived at the aforementioned village, experiencing no difficulty on the way. They seek out the sacristan, they request his hospitality; and having bought much wine themselves, the sacristan, together with his household servants, becomes drunk. And now the evening star was persuading sleep with its rising, he deceives the sacristan: when peaceful rest was pouring through the limbs of the intoxicated, while the zeal of the sacred theft was growing ever greater in the sober ones. At length they go to sleep, the sober ones as well as the drunken; the latter indeed bedewed with Lethean slumber, the former aroused by sleepless care.

[4] And indeed, while all things held the middle silence and the night had reached the midpoint of its course, the Abbot, cautiously leaping from his bed, had his men summoned for the venerable theft, shrewdly warning them lest anyone emit so much as a cough, nor make any other sound. Then going out step by step, they restrained the dogs from barking, holding out bread or cheese in their hands. While the others accomplished this around the church, the Abbot strove to carry out the body. But at the first attempt he was no more able to move it than a millstone. Then returning to his companions who were aware of this matter, he relates how great the weight of the Saint's bones was that he perceived. He devotes himself and his men to the service of S. Sulpitius. At this, entering together by common counsel and devoutly beating their breasts three and four times, with a leather strap placed around their necks, they joyfully bound themselves to his service, promising him more worthy worship to be celebrated elsewhere.

"And now the first dawn was sprinkling the lands with new light, And Aurora was leading the day, the stars put to flight,"

when they first perceived the day beginning to whiten, he carries off his relics, and immediately wrapping the venerable corpse in a clean cloth, they eagerly turned their steps away from there.

[5] But when dawn was ending, and the wine by which the sacristan had been overcome in the morning had been digested in sleep, he left his bed, found that the guests had departed, and suspected that they had committed some fraud--which he immediately confirmed according to the turn of events. At length rushing to the church and inspecting the coffin where the Saint had lain, The sacristan rises up against him, he saw that he had been deprived of so great a treasure and duped by his guests, or rather, so to speak, his enemies. Truly a holy valley, which at the end, in which all praise is securely sung, merited bearing such a man resplendent with nurturing virtues! Holy indeed the valley, which, although it then lost the one by whose merits it was sanctified, nevertheless retained for itself the very hermitage in which he had once shone with the lamp of holiness! O unhappy village, which had entrusted so great a treasure to this sacristan as a sheep to a wolf! Truly unhappy, which had made dim the brilliance of so great a light; dim, I say, because the one whom he seemed to serve brightly and assiduously, this one he so often left in the dark of night, staggering on his knees from excessive drink, without a care. But by how much Normandy feels itself the more unhappy by this theft, by so much does Hainaut feel itself the happier. What say you, sacristan? Practice sobriety, the mother of virtues, that you may be able to guard your deposit... But gird yourself for other things; perhaps you deserved to lose this one. Then the whole surrounding region roared, and the ringing of bells and the blare of trumpets...