CONCERNING S. THEODORIC II, BISHOP OF ORLEANS IN GAUL.
Year of Christ 1022.
PrefaceTheodoric II, Bishop of Orleans in Gaul (S.)
From various sources.
[1] Tonnerre, a town of Gaul situated on the river Armancon in the diocese of Langres, has a very ancient church of S. Michael, to which afterward a monastery was added, at the expense, as they say, of Count Milo. The feast of S. Theodoric; In it Theodoric, Bishop of Orleans, the second of that name, while journeying to Rome, died on the twenty-seventh day of January, and being honorably buried by his kinsman Milo in the church of S. Michael, he thereafter began to become distinguished for many miracles; wherefore he was also adopted as Patron by the people of Tonnerre. Menard writes of him: "At Tonnerre, the deposition of S. Theodoric, Bishop of Orleans." Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology: "At Tonnerre, S. Theodoric, likewise Bishop and Confessor, who, a monk of S. Peter-le-Vif at Sens, on account of his singular piety was made Bishop of Orleans after Anselm, executing the charge of the divine ministry entrusted to him with all diligence, and by the advancement of his blameless life pointing out to the clergy and people the way to eternity; His commemoration in the Martyrologies, and afterward, having undertaken a vow to visit the threshold of the Apostles, while he was proceeding to Rome, he was intercepted by illness at Tonnerre in the territory of Langres, and exchanged life for death--nay rather, released from the prison of death, he happily departed to Him who is the true life. He was buried in the same place in the monastery of S. Michael on Mont Volute, where he shone forth magnificently with many miracles by which, through divine bounty, he comes to the aid of his clients." So writes Saussay, who confused Theodoric, the first of that name, with this second one: the first succeeded Anselm II, and after him Ermentheus, Manasses, and Arnulf held the see; then this other, S. Theodoric.
[2] Charles Saussay, in book 8 of his Annals of the Church of Orleans, under Theodoric II, number 11, writes: "His feast day is celebrated and with the divine office; in that monastery of S. Michael on 27 January; on each Tuesday the canonical office is celebrated in his honor outside of Advent and Lent; and on each day at Lauds, Mass, and Vespers his honorable commemoration is made, as we learned from the venerable and religious monks there, who also exhibited to us the sacred head and bones of so great a Bishop, relics, for the purpose of devotion, when we visited that church, on the eleventh of July in the year 1611." The same Saussay in his Register of the Bishops of Orleans, and Jean Chenu, assert that his entire body rests in the monastery of S. Michael at Tonnerre. But Claude Robert, in the Gallia Christiana, from the commentaries of David Andry, Advocate and Procurator of the Treasury of Tonnerre, reports that the reliquary of Theodoric and his kinsman Milo was despoiled of its gold, silver, gems, and other ornaments in the year 1568 by the sacrilegious fury of the heretics.
[3] We give the Life of S. Theodoric as it was published by Charles Saussay from the old manuscript codex of Paul Petau of Orleans, Life, omitting a more ample version which the same author also composed from the records of the monasteries of S. Michael of Tonnerre and S. Peter-le-Vif of Sens, and from the writings of other authors; among whom is Helgaud, a monk of Fleury, who in his Life of King Robert praises the piety of both the King and Theodoric with this encomium: "The King loved this place especially, namely the See of Orleans, where he was born and grew up, and was afterward regenerated from water and the Holy Spirit, and there received the solemn blessing of his assumption to the kingship. Moreover, the Lord Theodoric, Bishop of that same city, whose voice worthily and laudably poured forth the praise of the Lord, wishing to have a memorial of his name, ordered in the monastery of the Holy Cross a vessel to be made from one hundred solidi of the finest gold, in which the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ might be consecrated. A golden chalice, The King joined himself to so great a Bishop with a humble mind; touched by heavenly love, he made in that same holy chalice a paten for confecting therein the body of the Savior of the world, that the sign of the cross might be to him an aid, and the holy Passion the true redemption of soul and flesh." And after some intervening passages: "The King also gave to this Saint, at S. Anianus's, two churches, Sentiliacum and Rutinagum, with their estates and everything pertaining to them, which he confirmed by royal precept and ordered to be ratified. He also earned from the Lord Theodoric, the venerable Bishop of Orleans, the altars of those same churches, together with a pontifical privilege concerning them made by himself, which he conferred upon S. Anianus and the illustrious King, friendship with King Robert, who had always loved him in a voice of exultation, from a good heart." Concerning S. Anianus, Bishop of Orleans, we shall treat on 17 November.
[4] Moreover, Theodoric had formerly won the King's love when he instructed Queen Constance, the King's wife, who had been sent to S. Savinianus by a divine revelation, with much information about who Savinianus was and where he was venerated. That history was once described by Odorann, a contemporary of Theodoric, a monk of Auxerre, in his Chronology, which we also shall give in the life of S. Savinianus on 31 December, knowledge of the deeds and names of Saints, where among other things the following is found: "Constance, terrified by the vision, began anxiously to inquire of the clergy standing around whether there was a Bishop in those regions who was called Savinianus; and one of them, named Theodoric, who was later Bishop of Orleans, answered on behalf of all who were ignorant of this, saying: 'There is, my Lady, in the monastery of S. Peter-le-Vif at Sens, S. Savinianus, the first Archbishop and Martyr of the metropolitan city of Sens; if you approach his presence with a devout mind, you will know that you have obtained without delay what he promised.' And she, rejoicing at the counsel of so great a man, very quickly sought the threshold of S. Peter together with her son, and weeping for a very long time before the body of the blessed Martyr, and committing herself with all her strength to his faith, she returned home rejoicing, strengthened by the visitation of so great a Patron," etc.
[5] In the time of Theodoric, the insane heresy of the Manichees broke forth again from the lower regions and tainted certain members of the clergy of Orleans. Heretics suppressed. A Council was convened against them at Orleans in the year 1017, the Acts of which were recorded in writing by Glaber Rodulphus in book 3 of his history, chapter 8.
[6] How many years Theodoric lived, and how many he presided over the church of Orleans, we have not ascertained. Time of Theodoric's death. That he died in the year 1022 can be deduced roughly as follows from Charles Saussay, number 10: "He was still in his see," he says, "in the year 1021, Indiction 4 and Epact 4 concurring, in which year he gave us the churches of Germigniaco, Trigano, and Noemio, on the condition that we celebrate the anniversary day of his death." And under his successor Odolric, number 20, he produces a privilege of the Church of S. Maximin of Micy, "executed at Orleans publicly in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1022, the twenty-eighth year of the reign of King Robert, and Indiction 5." From these, as being most agreeable to the truth, it necessarily follows that S. Theodoric died on 27 January of the year 1022, which for the French, who then reckoned the year from Easter, was 1021--the date at which Theodoric's death is placed by Charles Saussay, Jean Chenu, and Claude Robert.
[7] "He who while living had become renowned for his virtues," says the same Saussay at number 11, "became known after death also by his miracles. Patronage against fevers. For a hunchbacked girl, long suffering from fever, came to the tomb of the blessed man at Tonnerre, and returned from Tonnerre healed. An old physician, afflicted with the disease of fevers through a very long illness and lying in bed, drank a little from the spring, arose, climbed the hill of S. Michael, gave thanks to God, and obtained his health. Hence he achieved such a memory of holiness among posterity that all who suffer from fevers approach his tomb, and many recover from their infirmity."
LIFE
Published from a manuscript by Charles Saussay.
Theodoric II, Bishop of Orleans in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 8053
By an anonymous author, from manuscripts.
CHAPTER I.
S. Gilduinus declines the episcopate.
[1] This Saint was born in the Armorican territory of the people of Dol, from a most noble and most powerful man in that same territory, named Rudalen, who was also surnamed Capra-cana. The homeland of S. Gilduinus, His mother, however, is reported to have drawn her illustrious origin from the nobility of the Lords of Puiset, in the territory of Orleans. The Armorican territory, indeed, according to the etymology of the name, can be called a Maritime region. For "Ar" in Breton is called "shore" in Latin, and "Mor" means "sea." Thence the word Armor, meaning, as it were, the neighboring or nearby region to the sea, that is, the maritime region, is said to have been so called in the Breton language.
[2] There the aforesaid Rudalen is remembered as having been powerful and noble among the magnates of that same region, distinguished by his marriage, parents, as has been said, contracted from the nobility of the Lords of Puiset. Among the other children he is reported to have begotten, he is said to have had the righteous Gilduinus, about whom we have begun to speak, as a son given by God, most elegant in character and appearance. studies, For having been entrusted by his parents to liberal studies in the province, he is said to have become in a short time no little distinguished in them. And immediately when he began to grow up, canonry, having been made a Canon in the Church of Dol, he did not give loose rein to wantonness or the frivolity of the world, as that age is wont to do, but rather, toward the religious life of holy continence, both the flower of his age and the excellence of his nobility, holy life, which rarely happens, he restrained himself, wholly turned to the work of God; to such a degree that he strove to tame his flesh with a hair shirt, fasting, vigils, and prayers, and to labor in all holy pursuits.
[3] At that time there presided over the Church of Dol a certain Archbishop of perverse character, named Juhel, who strove with all his might to ruin rather than preserve the possessions of that Church, When Juhel was expelled for his crimes, to such an extent that he did not fear to use them as dowries for his daughters and granddaughters, and he endeavored in all things to afflict and devastate the Church. The clergy of the Church, not enduring such great wickedness, both on their own and through the neighboring Bishops, strove to expel him, not so much an Archbishop as an arch-wolf, from the See of that Church. When he did not cease to harass the Church of Dol with terrors, threats, and frequent attacks, having seized as the stronghold for his fury Mont-Saint-Michel-au-Peril-de-la-Mer, whence it also takes its name; the clergy and people of the territory of Dol were compelled to elect another ruler in place of the one they had repudiated, who was not a shepherd but a robber. But since they had no other person suitable for resisting the fury of the aforesaid tormentor, he is elected Bishop of Dol, against his will: having consulted with the Suffragan Bishops and enlisted their aid, they unanimously appointed the distinguished young man Gilduinus, although still unequal in age, yet adorned in character and most powerful and prevailing in the nobility of his friends, as their ruler. The most humble young man wished to resist the election, but overcome by the unanimity of both his own people and outsiders, he gave his assent unwillingly, "If, however," he said, "the judgment of the Roman and Apostolic See shall approve this decree of yours."
[4] Hence it came about that the elect, together with the authors and witnesses of his election, with a distinguished retinue and letters of support from the neighboring Bishops, hastened to Rome, and leading their chosen candidate, presented him to the Lord Pope, then Gregory VII, and requested that he be consecrated as their Archbishop. He asks the Pope not to ratify the election, and obtains his request: In order to obtain this, they truthfully testified to the most approved character of the elect, and commended him, and at the same time set forth the needs and labors of their Church, for which they knew no other remedy could be provided except through this elect. On the other hand, the elect himself, as he had done before, began to oppose the immaturity of his age and to beseech the Lord Pope not to impose so great a burden of so great a governance upon his tender and weak age. The Lord Pope, congratulating the young man on his so well-proven humility, said: "Well done, my son, well done; what you do is entirely in accord with the sacred canons. You do not thrust yourself forward impudently, but you prudently excuse what ought to be excused. Wherefore know that I will gladly spare your age, and if you can find with your companions any other counsel for relieving the labors and calamities of your Church, I will most gladly grant it."
[4] He is tested by illnesses: Indeed, because the furnace proves the vessels of the potter, and virtue is perfected in weakness, the servant of God was afflicted with a grave and prolonged illness. Ecclesiasticus 27:6. For the Lord was chastening the son whom He loved, so that either the merit of his virtue might increase, or, if any scruple of fault was present, the file of tribulations might thoroughly polish it away. 2 Corinthians 12:9. Hebrews 12:6. He frequented the monastery of S. Peter-le-Vif, both because he had been nourished there and because he knew the place to be holy and abundantly supplied with the relics of the Saints. When, therefore, he had come there on a certain occasion as was his custom, and though wasted by emaciation was planning to set out for Rome, it happened that while he was resting at night in that same basilica, he heard a voice from heaven saying to him: "Do not fear, Theodoric, for a heavenly dwelling awaits you, Eternal glory is promised to him from heaven, where the Martyr S. Sebastian gloriously triumphs." It was, moreover, the feast of Blessed Sebastian. When morning came, therefore, he summoned Aldebert, a most religious monk of that same place, together with certain others, and, disclosing to them what he had heard, he testified that his death was imminent, and commanded that if he should die on this side of the Alps, he should be brought back there. For he wished to be buried beside his venerable uncles, Archbishop Sewinus and Abbot Raynard.
[5] After this he set out on his journey, and on the first day he reached Briennon, and thence proceeded as far as Tonnerre, He dies at Tonnerre: where he was soon seized by illness. And within a few days, while lying there sick, he ended his life with a happy departure, on the sixth day before the Kalends of February. When his followers were arranging to carry him back where he had ordered himself to be taken, his kinsman Milo, lord of the aforesaid castle, objected, he becomes famous for miracles, and had him honorably entombed in the church of S. Michael the Archangel. Those who frequent his tomb frequently report that they obtain what they implore.
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