ON ST. DOMITIAN OF BEBRONNE.
Fourth or Fifth Century.
PREVIOUS COMMENTARY. His memory in the Fasti, the monastery named from St. Ragnebert the Martyr, the age of the Saint, the Acts not sufficiently sincere.
Domitian, Abbot and Confessor, among the Segusiani, in the Jura monastery of St. Ragnebert (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
In the Usuardine observations on this day we said that no Martyrology makes mention of St. Domitian the Abbot which is at least older than Ado of Vienne. But that from him into Usuard, Notker, and other more recent Martyrologists, commonly all, and into the modern Roman it passed, First marked in the Fasti by Ado is undoubted. But lest I weary the readers by reviewing in long order the very many texts of so many Martyrologies, it will be enough for me to open the source, whence into diverse streams the waters, now purer, now more muddy, flowed. Here are the words of the Prelate of Vienne: And in the territory of Lyon, in the place which is called the Valley of Vebronna, the deposition of the man of God, the most blessed Domitian the Abbot, who first there exercised the eremitic life, and gathering very many to himself in the service of God, founded a monastery, and very illustrious for great virtues and glorious miracles, was gathered to his fathers in a good old age. These things Peter Equilino copied almost to the word in the Catalogue, book 6 chapter 30, for Domitian wrongly rendering Dominianus. The things which are recited from the lesser Hieronymian codices in the Usuardine preface numbers 39, 41, 43, 44, are mere additions, added to those codices from Ado by some more recent hand.
[2] he is neglected by the ancient writers. Most rightly the distinguished man Samuel Guichenon observed, in the continuation of the second part of the history of the Bugey from page 96 at St. Rambert de Joux, that our Domitian, although acknowledged as a famous Saint in the Fasti, is yet so neglected by the ancient writers that of him scarcely anything is found handed down. He cites there the Roman Martyrology, Trithemius, Wion, Menard, Saussay, to whom we have already given things older from Ado. Nor are the Benedictine writers to be heeded, who, to number Domitian among their own, feign him dead in the year 560, whereas by the more prudent judgment of Achery and Mabillon, in Volume 1 of the Acts of the Order of St. Benedict, he is placed among those passed over, as having preceded the founder of Cassino by almost a whole century; inasmuch as from the Acts, published first by Gonon in the Lives of the Fathers of the West book 4 from page 314, then by the praised Guichenon among the Proofs page 228, he is asserted to have been contemporary with the most holy men Vincent of Lérins, Hilary of Arles, and Eucherius of Lyon; unless the writer of the aforesaid Acts be said to have stumbled in these notes of time as much as in the beginning of the life itself, when he narrates that St. Domitian fled into the Gauls, in fear of the persecution of Julian the Apostate. Here we follow for the present that hypothesis which establishes that the Saint flourished in the fifth century.
[3] To Guichenon alone we refer the more distinct notice of the place From Guichenon is had into which St. Domitian under the guidance of St. Eucherius first hid himself, and from which then, as the Life testifies, he migrated into another more deserted one, namely that which two, indeed several centuries after, obtained the name not now of St. Domitian, but of St. Ragnebert the Martyr; just as it is most well known to have happened to the other Jura monastery of the same period; which, since from its first origin it was called Condatescense, that appellation the fame first of St. Eugendus, then of St. Claudius, the most renowned Abbots, intercepted. Thus St. Ragnebert, Ragnibert, Ramgbert, and by a softer inflection Rambert, he who among the synonymous ones, under the tyranny of Ebroin, was killed at the monastery of St. Domitian, and by the custom of that time was called a Martyr, gave his name to it, but after the times of Ado; as must be shown more fully in its proper place, on the day on which St. Ragnebert is honored, XV July. Of this Saint also, and from the monuments of the same place, the praised Guichenon published the Acts, in the Proofs from page 232; noting at the end that the distinguished man André du Chesne published the same Legend, but far dissimilar and shorter, in volume 1 of the history of the French writers under King Dagobert. So much concerning the name of the monastery founded by St. Domitian, which we will now briefly delineate from Guichenon.
[4] It is situated in the borders of the Segusiani, today in the territory of Lyon, a more distinct notice of various things, near the mountain of the Jura, or under the beginning of the Jura ridges (whence also it commonly is wont to come under the name of the monastery of St. Ragnebert of the Jura), at an almost equal distance of three French miles from the rivers Rhône and Ain (in the Acts it is called Igneus), at the fountain, to others the torrent, Bebronna. Ado above wrote the Valley of Vebronna, which comes to the same; but wrongly Wion and others, whom you may call mutual transcribers, inflected it the Valley of Membrana, not at all solicitous about consulting the older monuments. From the aforesaid fountain some river or torrent seems to flow, which empties itself into the Ain. So the monastery of St. Domitian or St. Ragnebert is as far as possible from the bank of the river Loire, whither the Sammarthani carried it across the Saône, in the Gallia Christiana Volume 4, not noticing the contradiction, when in the margin they note St. Rambert de Joux, that is, of St. Ragnebert of the Jura, from the mountain of Jura, which you would vainly seek on the bank of the Loire. There is in the country of Forez a Priory of St. Ragnebert, to which there are those who contend that the sacred bodies of Domitian and Ragnebert were translated. See Guichenon page 97, beyond the middle.
[5] St. Domitian had first remained on this side the river Ain, where now, unless I am mistaken, stands the borough or village of St. Christopher, and other traces of his dwelling survive. But, impelled by love of a more horrid solitude, power being given him by St. Eucherius, he chose rather to select that most deserted place, in which both the memory of the Saint himself, and of the monastery, and of its Abbots, if there were any, also of the monastery itself, afterward called from St. Ragnebert. for several centuries seems to have been buried; until at last, probably through the miracles of St. Domitian and St. Ragnebert the Martyr, the place began to revive, and to be honored and increased so far that from the twelfth century perhaps a town gradually grew up, likewise named from St. Ragnebert, afterward endowed with privileges, and distinguished with the title of marquisate by Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, as may be seen in the often-praised Guichenon, who refers the bull of Celestine III confirming the privileges to Abbot Humbert, and many other things pertaining to the same monastery, which, commended to secular Abbots, underwent the lot of others, so far afterward collapsed that Guichenon testifies it fell much from its pristine splendor, in whom the curious reader will find the rest; let us weigh the Acts of our St. Domitian.
[6] I have already said that the entire Legend was produced by Guichenon among the Proofs from page 228, The Legends, whether long or short, where it is asserted to be extracted from the Breviary of the abbey of St. Ragnebert in the Bugey, to which this title is prefixed: Here begins the life of the most holy Domitian, Confessor of Christ, founder of the monastery of St. Ragnebert. At the end the editor observes that this Legend was transcribed by Benedict Gonon in the Lives of the Fathers of the West book 4, but mutilated. Its title is: The Life of St. Domitian the hermit, from the manuscript codices of the monastery of St. Rembert. We have it, copied by the hand of Father Pierre François Chifflet, from the ancient codices of the monastery of St. Ragnebert of the Jura, with a title different from the others; likewise another manuscript which lacks a title, and is shorter than the rest, so that it is a wonder that from the same codices things so diverse came forth. The Chifflet one, collated with the printed ones and with this last, we shall give below. Further, in this all agree, that they are acephalous, inasmuch as they lack the author's prologue; from which perhaps the writer's name, the time of writing, and other things necessary for the illustration of the life could opportunely have been drawn. That they are acephalous, the beginning of the Acts sufficiently proves, unless I am mistaken: "Therefore of blessed Domitian," etc., which particle was omitted by Gonon, this beginning being substituted: "The most blessed Domitian," etc. But our other shorter manuscript, every preface being neglected, begins: "In the times of the Emperor Constantius," etc.
[7] are not rightly arranged More full and entire are the Chifflet and Guichenon ones. For the rest, both these and the others so infect the whole work with the most manifest anachronisms, observed neither by Gonon nor by Guichenon, that they show the writer's unskillfulness, and the doubtful faith of the whole history. When Mabillon had noticed these, he did not even grant it a place among the spurious lives of the Benedictine Saints. In the Annals, further, he contracted some things piecemeal, Volume 1 page 222, noticing the hallucination in the notes of time, but nonetheless both there and on page 26 admitting to some extent the substance of the history, which, from the name of Syagria, praised in the aforesaid Acts; from Ennodius, in the life, not of St. Stephen, but of St. Epiphanius of Pavia; likewise from the Life of Augendus, otherwise Eugendus, he seems to wish to confirm. I greatly esteem, and have always esteemed, the judgment of a most learned man, by us most valued; but indeed I fear that the age of our St. Domitian cannot fitly enough be joined and reconciled with the Syagria of Ennodius and the Syagria of Eugendus (if indeed in both places the same is praised), since it must be brought down to Eucherius II of Lyon and the beginning of the sixth century, by Mabillon's reckoning. Let us first set forth the chief anachronisms of the Legend of St. Domitian.
[8] All the Acts, both printed and manuscript, however little varying, certainly most plainly agree in this, that they would have St. Domitian born at Rome, but infected with various anachronisms, under the Emperor Constantius, and so long before the year 361, in which the latter made an end of living; for they immediately add that in fear of the persecution of Julian the Apostate the Saint fled into Gaul, and arrived at Marseille, where, having stayed some time with Sylvanus a most learned presbyter, he traveled even to the island of Lérins; in which, having dwelt one year, he narrated to Father Vincent, a most learned and most retiring presbyter, and to the brethren, all the things which had happened to him: in which place, hearing the persecution which he had fled was coming, he came to Arles to Lord Hilary the Bishop, to stay however short a while, with whom, having dwelt some time, he heard that Julian the persecutor had perished by a divine sword in Persia, of which matter being somehow secure, and much loved by the aforesaid venerable Bishop for his conversation, he was ordained a presbyter by him according to the ecclesiastical orders: and then, declining human favors, a blessing being asked, he sought the Southern parts, choosing rather to lead an eremitic than a civil life. But hearing of the sanctity of blessed Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon, etc.
[9] Who from all this confusion of things and times could draw even a crumb of truth? which can neither be reconciled, There is no doubt, you will say, but that the writer badly designated the Emperors; whom if we neglect, it will easily be plain that the whole life of St. Domitian pertains to the fifth century; as Sylvanus, perhaps put for Salvian, Vincent of Lérins, Hilary of Arles, and Eucherius, the lights of that century, show, most illustrious about the year of the Lord 440; at which time chiefly St. Domitian came into Gaul. I hear, and I should wish that thus the most shameful slips could be saved. But by that reasoning, Charybdis avoided, we rush into Scylla, for the whole beginning of the life will be merely fictitious, when it is said that the father of St. Domitian was killed for the Catholic faith, but his mother worn out by excessive grief, etc.: fictitious will be the donation of Latinus and Syagria, made by them on VIII Kalends of July, in the first year of the Emperor Valentinian, from the nativity of the Lord 371. I confess indeed that this last epoch, from the nativity of the Lord 371, is placed only in the Chifflet copy, but even if it were absent from that copy too, none the more for that would the appended note of time, in the first year of Valentinian, subsist: for although you should have recourse to the last Valentinian, who was the third of that name, the instrument of donation must have been drawn up before the year 426 at least, that is, before either Hilary sat as Bishop at Arles, or Eucherius at Lyon.
[10] All these things indeed, which alone can be recalled to the balance of examination, nor can they be sufficiently explained. most shamefully stray from the truth, so that it is consequently not safe to give faith to the rest of the Acts' narration, at what time it was congealed you would not easily conjecture. Certainly they seem to have been in no way known to Ado of Vienne, since he adorned the Saint with so brief and common an elogium. I should prefer to believe that that same compendious elogium of Ado, received from perpetual tradition at Lyon, supplied the matter to the writer, that, with ornaments taken from everywhere, he might arrange his whole historical series so inelegantly. You will contend that the aforesaid Acts must have been written before the monastery of St. Domitian changed its name from the martyrdom of St. Ragnebert; what then afterward? Who knows whether the appellation of St. Ragnebert was given before the twelfth or thirteenth century, when perhaps his relics began to grow famous by miracles, and thence a town to be built, as we know was done at so many monasteries? What of this, that from John the Abbot, the successor of St. Domitian, even to the twelfth century, not the name of even one Abbot is found who presided over that monastery? Who would sufficiently prove that the monks were more diligent in seeking out the Acts of St. Domitian than in recording the names of their own Abbots? Lest I here entangle doubts with doubts, it remains briefly to investigate whether the things which in their favor Mabillon adduces in the cited places sustain the faith of the Acts everywhere.
[11] Mabillon, from the name of Syagria, His first place is page 26 at the beginning, where, following the life and miracles of St. Augendus the Abbot at the year 510, he narrates that the nobles themselves and the Bishops eagerly sought even the mere letters of Augendus. Among these, he says, a certain illustrious matron, by name Syagria, who was then the MOTHER OF THE CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES, from a desperate disease by which she was held, the letter of the holy man being kissed, suddenly recovered, by which deed the city of Lyon was refreshed with great joys. This is that Syagria who, to St. Epiphanius Bishop of Pavia, when he had poured out his wealth for redeeming the captives at Lyon, IMMEDIATELY SUPPLIED THE THINGS NECESSARY FOR THE EXPENSES OF THE REDEMPTION, called by Ennodius the Treasure of the church of Lyon, whose, he says, LIFE SEEKS A PROLIX NARRATION, although IT SUFFICES THAT SHE BE KNOWN FROM HER WORKS, WHICH TRANSCEND WORDS. Further, Syagria was the wife of Latinus, a most powerful and most noble man, but an Arian, who, led by Abbot Domitian to the Catholic faith, granted him an estate for building the monastery of Bebronne. In few words Mabillon here comprises many things, which are again repeated on page 222, supported almost solely by the Acts of St. Domitian. Whether they are certain enough, I indeed do not have ascertained.
[12] thinks he has gathered The miracle of the letter of St. Eugendus exhibited in Syagria the mother of churches and monasteries, which you have in our Acts on 1 January page 32, I freely admit; nor do I deny that to that same one can somehow be referred the things which, in praise of some Syagria, probably also of Lyon, Ennodius excellently sings, in the edition of Sirmond page 408, and in our Volume 2 of January page 375, inasmuch as she succored St. Epiphanius of Pavia with great alms for redeeming the captives from Gundobad in the year 494. But I should wish Mabillon had proved that that Syagria was the wife of Latinus, and so the foundress of the monastery of St. Domitian. Not one reason for doubting offers itself; let the first here be: that no epoch of the Acts of St. Domitian subsists with sufficient certainty; perhaps not even that which coalesces from the conjunction of so many Saints, namely Vincent of Lérins, Hilary of Arles, and Eucherius of Lyon, not the younger, who perhaps was never any Bishop of Lyon, but the first and elder Eucherius, who, as well as Hilary, before the year 450 more probably departed from the living: so that consequently neither the coming of Domitian into Gaul (if indeed he was not born in Gaul itself), nor his stay at Lyon, nor his withdrawal into solitude, nor the long duration of his monastic conversation, nor finally his age or the time of his death can be defined. Mabillon thinks, page 222, that from the pontificate of Eucherius the younger, Bishop of Lyon, and from the time of Syagria, the wife of Latinus, who lived toward the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth, must be gathered the very time at which St. Domitian flourished. Here I dare not fix my foot, since on the name of Syagria alone all that epoch depends.
[13] For what if the author of the Legend, who shows the utmost unskillfulness in composing the reckoning of times—what if, the age of our Saint, I say, he wrongly thrust in there too the name of Syagria, famous among the people of Lyon from some surviving fame, just as he coupled her donation with the first year of Valentinian, does not the whole reckoning of a determined time, built upon anachronisms of this kind, fall? Add that the Syagria of St. Eugendus is said to have been at some time a matron; but she who is described by Ennodius is only praised as the treasure of the church, which fits a very rich virgin as well as a widow; indeed rather a virgin; for Syagria the wife of Latinus had several children, some of whom subscribed the donation, and was thus less powerful and rich for helping St. Epiphanius of Pavia, about to redeem captives. I would not too rigidly discuss each point: as long as concerning the age of St. Domitian nothing more certain occurs, I shall gladly confess that, from the concurrence with Syagria, Mabillon, happily and probably enough, drew back St. Domitian to the end of the fifth century and the beginning of the sixth, if only there was no other Syagria of Lyon than the mother of monasteries [in] the Acts of Eugendus; whom further Ennodius called the treasure of the church, and who is far later than St. Domitian.
[14] And such must the aforepraised Syagria have been, if the Acts deserve any faith. but all things are very uncertain, I insist on the said hypothesis, that our St. Domitian was equal to Vincent of Lérins, Hilary of Arles, and Eucherius of Lyon: and Eucherius further ceased to live either before or about the year 450. Thus I argue: before the Saint completed his oratory, he was already then an old man, as you have in the Acts number 17: But rising, they followed the OLD MAN, and brought the begun oratory to its end. And in the following number: The oratory also being finished, and dedicated by the blessed Pontiff Eucherius, the servant of God began strictly there to tame his AGED body with fastings and vigils: therefore, while Eucherius was still alive and surviving, the same by whom he had been received, St. Domitian was already then an old man, and probably died before Eucherius. But now Syagria the wife of Latinus had so many adult sons, who had all subscribed the donation; she was therefore at the least fifty years old before the year 450. Now judge whether that Syagria survived to the sixth century. You will say that the writer here certainly hallucinates; I grant it, and confess that he is most unhappy in computing times. But was it permitted to Mabillon, from such twigs, to pronounce so assertively: This is that Syagria … Further Syagria was the wife of Latinus, etc.? All things limp. Here now is another hypothesis almost equally rough.
[15] Since the chronology of those Acts so evidently deceives, whatever way you choose. and on either side must be altogether repudiated; what if, the names of Vincent, Hilary, and Eucherius being rejected, we insist on the first part; and bring our Saint, truly born under Constantius, under Julian into the Gauls, not to Hilary of Arles, but to that more famous one, the great prelate of Poitiers, then returned from exile? What if for Eucherius we restore Justus, another Bishop of Lyon; for whom the author of the Legend wrongly substituted another more known one; either name will equally conduce to the truth of the history? Nay rather, by insisting on such a chronological order, all things will suit the Arian heretics then prowling and dominating, by whom the father of St. Domitian was killed, and by whose contagion Latinus the husband of Syagria is supposed to be infected: the donation made under the Emperor Valentinian will suit, whether he be taken for the first of that name or for the second. But for sustaining the rest of the authors' series, it matters nothing at all whether you say St. Domitian pertained to the end of the fourth century or to the later one. We are engaged in doubts, which we propose to be further unraveled by learned readers; as also that, why in his Annals Mabillon defers the compendium of St. Domitian's life to the year 590: finally whether it suits our St. Domitian, what is there reported from the letter of Gogo, concerning the rose-shoots coming forth from the sacred tomb of Domitian the Abbot. As we admit as true the things handed down by Ado, setting aside the time at which the Saint lived, we do not think it is for us to pass judgment on the rest. Here now are the very Acts from the more correct manuscript of Chifflet, collated with the edition of Gonon, of Guichenon, and with our other apograph.
LIFE. From the ancient codices of the monastery of St. Ragnebert of the Jura.
Domitian, Abbot and Confessor, among the Segusiani, in the Jura monastery of St. Ragnebert (S.)
BHL Number: 2250
From Manuscripts.
CHAPTER I. St. Domitian, bereft of his parents, withdraws from Rome into Gaul: ordained a priest by St. Hilary of Arles, under the guidance of St. Eucherius he seeks the solitude and there builds a dwelling for himself and his companions.
Born at Rome of illustrious blood. Therefore, about to describe the life of blessed Domitian, Confessor of Christ, a first I invoke God the Father almighty, that he who gave to the same Saint good perseverance to the end, may grant to us who are about to write, at your compulsion, through the intercession of the same Saint and of all the Saints, life everlasting. Now from the times of the Emperor Constantius, in the city of Rome from the lamp of nobility, of no obscure birth, was born Domitian the servant of God, his father Philip, his mother Marcianilla; who, adorned beyond the rest with the grace of high birth, faithfully kept, as was learned from their offspring, the grace of regeneration whole and Catholic amid the encounters with the Arians. But when the aforesaid boy was weaned, they commended him to Catholic schools; in which, having stayed some time, he began to have a strenuous zeal in learning the divine word. Who, when he was now nearly twelve b years old, the little books of his whole patrimony being received from his parents, returns again to school, and is given over to greater studies in learning. Where, while he had the leisure of devoting himself to the divine worship nearly up to the fifteenth year of his age, his father being killed by the Arians for the Catholic faith, his mother, worn out by excessive grief, lost the use of this light.
[2] his father killed by the Arians; despoiling himself of his goods, And so, his father killed by the infidels, and his mother extinguished by excessive grief, the noble son who remained is filled with the greatest sorrows: and his parents being worthily laid in the ground, somewhat refreshed from his sorrows, he began to consider what he ought to do; whether, content with his temporal patrimony, he should seek the lay or the ecclesiastical dignity. And when for two months he was engaged in such a conflict, then he addresses a servant of his house thus: Come, he says, Sisinnius, c tell me, whether a man, while he is known to be free, and can remain secure in free choice, ought to entangle himself in diverse, and many, and perishable servitudes. Sisinnius answered: I reckon, and truly confess, that anyone to whom there is opportunity is more nobly free than a slave. And the master said: Excellently have you answered; for also the Apostolic doctrine, which I learned in the schools, says thus: If you can become free, use it rather: this rule indeed I desire to follow according to the disposition: but you, and all over whom I am set, dismissing free, I wish to sell the rest, to be distributed to the poor. 1 Cor. 7. Which beginning at once to do, within two weeks he sold the whole patrimony, and distributed all to the poor, and most devoutly taking up the monastic life, he utterly forsook the secular.
[3] Meanwhile, the Emperor Constantius being dead, Julian the Apostate took up the empire; in fear of Julian he flees into Gaul, who, exercising cruelties, ordered many monks even to serve as soldiers. Which the man of the Lord hearing, recognized the wiles of the raging and envious devil, and immediately uttered the evangelical sentence, saying: If they shall persecute you in one city, flee into another. Matt. 10. But the rage of the raging Apostate increasing, the aforesaid noble man, his habit disguised, sought a sea-vessel, as if about to go into the Thebaid. But because he saw that in the Thebaid a greater persecution was to be stirred up, because there was an abundance of monks there, he dreaded to cross thither: but rather, choosing the western parts, having entered a certain ship, he reached even Marseille; where, having stayed some time with Sylvanus d a most learned presbyter, he traveled even to the island of Lérins, in which, having dwelt one year, he narrated to Father Vincent, a most learned and most eloquent presbyter, and to the brethren, all the things which had happened to him. In which place, hearing that the persecution which he had fled was coming, e he came to Arles to lord Hilary the Bishop, to stay however short a while: with whom, having dwelt some time, he heard that Julian his persecutor had perished by a divine sword in Persia.
[4] Of which matter being somehow secure, and much loved by the aforesaid venerable Bishop for his conversation, where, ordained a priest by Hilary of Arles, he was ordained a presbyter by him according to the ecclesiastical orders: and then, declining human favors, a blessing being asked, he sought the Southern f parts, choosing rather to lead an eremitic than a civil life. But hearing of the sanctity of blessed Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon, the renowned city of the Gauls, with the utmost haste, desiring to see him, he enters Lyon; and the Pontiff, knowing his will, the pious Father gave to the future hermit a tablet also with the relics of the holy Chrysanthus g and Daria, over which he might celebrate Mass. And so, having gone out from Lyon, he approaches a certain little hermitage, a place which is commonly called Axantia, h and there, having stayed not yet many days, he built a narrow oratory, i and made it known to the aforesaid Pontiff, that by his command it might be dedicated in honor of St. Christopher the Martyr.
[5] Meanwhile, while the servant of God Domitian dwelt there, from Eucherius of Lyon he obtains a hermitage. intent on fastings and prayers and vigils, and the solemnities of Masses, he began to have disciples, who desired to be the followers of his most strict life. But when he saw the frequency of those coming from the people residing round about, bearing it grievously, he goes back to lord Eucherius the Pontiff, and addresses him thus: Venerable Father, that little place in which I began to dwell does not seem to me, tumultuous and known to almost all, to be apt for monks, especially since water is lacking there. To whom the most pious Pope k: Go, he says, and seek out wherever you wish, a place suitable for dwelling: and so, a blessing being received, he returns to his own little cell. But on another day, after praises rendered to God, and the solemnities of Masses celebrated, with his disciple, by name Modestus, he took up a journey toward the eastern parts: who, the river which is called Igneus being crossed, gave themselves into the deep solitude, namely in the confines of the territory of Lyon; in which places the ancient false coiners had once dwelt.
[6] From that into a more deserted place he hides himself, and builds an oratory. Therefore, searching out those little places round about, they found watered fountains; among which, finding one very great, they gave it the name of Bebronna; whence even to the present l day that little place is called Bebronnense. But on that night, shutting themselves up in a certain cave, hymns and praises being performed to God, wearied from the journey, they gave their tired limbs to rest. But about the middle of the night, the servant of God Domitian not being very deeply asleep, the Lord Jesus appeared to him; and addresses him with a kindly countenance, saying: Domitian, most prudent athlete, act manfully; for in all things I am your helper, because I am about to receive in this place as sons many who are to be nourished by your example; as you disposed yesterday in your mind, so begin to build. For he had thought in the evening, upon the hill which overlooks the aforesaid fountain toward the west, which had however little a level space, to make a very great cell; but by the way, a little hospice for the poor, and, if it could be done, sometime an oratory. So the servant of God, being awakened, gave thanks to God, who had announced to him his prosperous outcome: and immediately returning to the cell, he consoles his disciples not a little from the most apt place, and especially from the vision which he had seen. But the oratory, and the little gardens, and the vineyard which they had built there, commending to a certain presbyter, they came with all their furniture to the foreseen place; and within two years they built, for dwelling, habitations and two oratories, one in honor of the holy Mother of God Mary, but the other in honor of St. Christopher the Martyr: which also by the command of lord Eucherius, Pope of Lyon, were dedicated.
[7] But they began to cultivate certain places of the solitude, casting seeds, whence they received abundant fruits in their seasons. He kills a little fox by prayer. But on a certain day, when Domitian the servant of God with the brethren, wearied with some work, came to a neighboring stream, which is called Albaronna, to wash, for the sake of refreshment, and, stripped, were entering the river, a fox, which is called a cunning animal, began with its own mouth to tear the sandals of the aforesaid religious servant of God, and gnawed them: which the man of the Lord seeing, said: Lord, who made the angels, and who founded the little worms, and formed all things which are above, below, and beneath, I invoke you, that this beast, and its kind, may not presume to harm us and our successors further. The servant of God had not yet finished his words, and that little beast expired before his eyes: and thenceforth indeed its kind presumed to do no harm in that same place, even to the present day: for foxes were even seen afterward to have played with the hens of that place, acting against their nature, but presumed to harm none of them. n
[8] Meanwhile the servant of God began to lead a stricter life with his own; He tempers his stricter life at the prayers of his disciples. so that he himself once within a week took food. For there was conferred on him by the Lord the power of commanding demons, and of driving them from possessed bodies: whence, when he suffered much weariness from those coming, dreading human favors, which striving also to decline, he withdrew secretly into the deep solitude, at last returning on Saturday for the night vigils. But his disciples, seeing him very weakened by excessive abstinence, prostrate at his feet, say: Why, Father, do you strive to forsake us, or at least why do you not consider that we are still somewhat raw? But if from excess of leanness you depart, we shall remain untaught, and without a shepherd. So, seeing his disciples afflicted with excessive grief, he began to have a little daily, very cheap food, and that o in the evening; and thus he was somehow refreshed. Meanwhile it seemed good to the man of God that by the way, on account of the frequency of those passing, as he had thought before, he should make an oratory; and his disciples being called together he says: It is necessary, brethren, that with the help of the merciful God we begin to build one oratory by the way. To whom consenting, the same day they began to open the foundations; and on another day they laid them; where, masons being called together from the neighborhood, they began to build an oratory not so small.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II. In a time of famine he miraculously provides bread for his companions and the masons: he converts Latinus from Arianism; by whom, and by his wife Syagria, endowed with estates, he dies holily, as he had lived.
Famine pressing, he divinely finds bread But, the scarcity of famine coming on, which at that time held Gaul in some places, bread also failed the servants of God, and their hired masons: which the man of the Lord seeing, said: Labor, brethren, as seems opportune to you; but I will hasten to the world, to seek some things necessary for food. And, the little ass being mounted, he came to a village which is commonly called Torsiacus, a and while, as is the custom, the men of that place had the day before baked breads in the oven, and he saw the embers still glowing, leaning and looking within the oven, he beheld a bread of wondrous size, and unusual whiteness, drew it outside with his staff, and showed it to all the inhabitants of the aforesaid little village, lest perchance it had slipped the memory of any of them: but when none of them recognized it to be his, the man of the Lord understood that it had been prepared by him who is the living bread for his masons: and so, immediately returning, he offered it to them, saying: Receive, brethren, the provision prepared for us by the Lord: from which bread namely, sixteen monks, and four masons, were fed abundantly for ten days; for it seemed, while it was broken, to grow in their hands.
[10] So when they had now for five days been refreshed from that same bread, with which he sustains himself and his own and the masons. the Father, solicitous for his disciples and the masons, who both were intent on building the oratory, again the little ass being mounted, sought the world, to beg the things necessary for food. There was moreover a certain man, by name Latinus, most noble according to secular power, in his estate, which was formerly called Calonia, taking its name from a fountain which was called Calonna: but this man, since he was powerful and renowned, wished the fountain and the village to take their name from his own; that is, from Latinus the fountain Latinus, thence also the village Latiniacus, which names even to the present b day both the fountain and the village retain. But on a certain day, while he returned from the sport which he was wont to make with birds, seeing the winnowers of his threshing-floor, he turned aside thither: but also his wife, by name Syagria, a religious matron, hastens to meet him: and there, while they talked together amid various embraces, and sold their grain to various comers; the aforesaid servant of God the hermit came with his little ass, and addresses them thus: Noble couple, may life and peace be increased to you; the servants of the living God, dwelling in the neighboring solitude, sent me to you, as also to other nobles, asking the things necessary for food; especially since we wish to build one oratory, and bread has failed.
[11] Then Latinus to him: Why, he says, do you seek my grain to be given to you, Latinus the Arian, by many arguments when I rather behold you to be a hireling than a servant of God? Domitian answered: O renowned Duke, you have just now had your eyes well opened upon me, since I live more slothfully and negligently than is fitting. But Latinus, because he was an Arian, and desiring much to dispute about the faith, said: Then because you say you are a minister of the servants of God, dwelling in the solitude, tell me now, what faith do you hold? Domitian answered: Faith, if it be varied, begets the varying and the leprous; but if solid and universal, it leads its own, solid and without any obscuring, to the kingdom that shall remain without end. Then Latinus: Which is solid and universal? Domitian answered: It is that which I have heard and learned from my masters, Apostolic men, and which now has many persecutors, the Arians. Latinus said: Which is it? Domitian answered: This is our faith, to believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit; God the Father, in that he has a Son; the Son, in that he has a Father, to whom he is equal according to Divinity in all things; but the Holy Spirit, proceeding from both, is nonetheless consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son: these three persons we confess one God, because there is one Deity, one omnipotence, one eternity, and an indivisible majesty.
[12] Latinus said: Then is the power of the Father not greater than that of the Son? convinced and terrified by prodigies, Domitian answered: By no means, because that very power of the Son according to Divinity is that which is also the Father's, as is the Deity and eternity. Then Latinus: You speak foolishly; do you wish that I, who am a man of such great power, should entrust all my glory and dignity to my little boy, whom you behold, while he is not yet at all able to rule? And if I, departing and dying, am unwilling to do that: how much more would God the Father almighty not confer all his dignity on his still tender son? Domitian answered: O Duke, you are wise carnally, and judge all things according to the flesh; but we believe that God the Father made all things through the Son, as we read in the Gospel, all things were made through him, and without him was made nothing. Latinus, angered, said: Withdraw, hireling, from us, because you lie; for I had thought, if you had argued rightly, to load your little ass with grain. Domitian answered: If I think rightly concerning the faith, and these things are true which I have just argued, in the name of the only-begotten Son of God, in all things coeternal and coequal with God the Father, let these shrines, which were built for the worship of demons, fall.
[13] Now there were about the threshing-floor two very lofty shrines, which according to the rite of the Gentiles he recalls to the Catholic faith, had been built in ancient times in honor of Jupiter and Saturn, and although secretly, yet they were still worshiped by rural and rustic men. Which ruin being accomplished, immediately the earth trembled; and after a little, the sky, although it was clear, began to be overshadowed with clouds; then the thunders to bellow, great lightnings to flash, and exceeding hail to fall. Which the Arian man beholding, with his wife and children, and all his household, hastily ran to his palace, which was built of marbles and great flints: which having entered, he began with his wife and his nobles to consider; why, he says, at the voice of so great a rustic hireling, did God will to do such things? The shrines fell, the earth was moved, the sky gave thunders, hail, and lightnings: are perhaps the things to be thought true which he argued, that the Son of God is equal to God the Father in all things? Syagria his wife, prostrate at his feet, said: My Lord, if you inquire well, you will find true the things which that servant of God argues: for while he spoke with you in the threshing-floor, I saw his countenance as it were angelic; which I wished also to indicate to you, that you might consider, but, the sudden ruin coming on, I could not: wherefore, I beseech, that you order him to be summoned to you, that he may instruct you with the sound doctrine which he holds: because, unless it were so as he argued, so great a miracle would by no means happen.
[14] To whom Latinus: Order, he says, him to be brought in: which when it was commanded, by whom he is treated with great honor, he being sought through all the offices of the palace, and not found, was thought to be dead from the hail and the lightnings: and while his corpse was being sought for burial, the servant of God is found unharmed at the threshing-floor with his little ass, going round the same threshing-floor with his own staff, and preventing the rivulets gathered from the storm, lest the rivulets touch the wheat which the hail had not harmed: which became a great miracle, that not even one drop, which could have appeared to human eyes, either touched Domitian the friend of Christ, nor entered the threshing-floor; nor even the little ass. Which when the young men seeking him had beheld, with swift course they announced it to their lord. But he, hearing these things, relying on his wife's counsel, so promised himself to believe, as the servant of the Lord Domitian believed: whom ordering to be brought in, he prostrated himself at his feet, saying: Be not angry, servant of the living God, that I called you a hireling; and because I acknowledge that you have argued true things concerning the faith of the Trinity, I so believe as you do: only, I beseech, pray for me, and my house, to the Lord, that he may deign to turn away his anger from us; because I truly believe the Son of God equal to God the Father, coeternal, and consubstantial.
[15] and is endowed with many goods. The servant of God, beholding these things, gave thanks to the Lord, saying: Lord, innumerable thanks must be rendered to you by your faithful, because you do not cease to recall whomsoever perverted by error: and so he raised Latinus, weeping, from the ground with his own hand; and, as he could, drew back him and his house from the Arian error to the true Catholic faith, helped most of all by the aforesaid matron Syagria, who was a noble Catholic. The servant of the Lord, spending three days with them, admonished them to hold the right faith sincerely: whom when they wished to heap with the greatest honors, he sought nothing else but security in the solitude, as much as was of their right; and some little vineyard, from which he, and the other servants of God to come after him, might offer sacrifice to God. Then Latinus: The solitude which you seek, up to the rock which is called Artemia, d on the right or left, I cede to you in entirety: only that, by your license and that of those following you, we and our posterity may have license of hunting. Then Syagria: My Lord, he seeks a vineyard; we can give him that one situated above the village, which is called Vallis; which we gave to Gontbadus our son, which is near his solitude, and is called Deserta, e and, as is fitting to be offered to God, yields the best wine. So a notary and witnesses being called, immediately a deed was made containing thus:
[16] The instrument of donation. To the magnificent lords, the servants of God, Domitian and his companions the hermits, Latinus and Syagria. Because you are servants of the most high God, therefore we grant to you by right of property our own goods, which are in the districts of the renowned city of Lyon in Gaul, and on the side of the castle of Belley; that is, one vineyard above the village which is called Deserta, and is bounded on the east between the neighboring tenants, and the field of that same reckoning below the road: on the south, the road: on the west, between the neighboring tenants: on the back, the royal wood above the hill: and it has in length, with the hill and the wood above the road, according to a man's hand, one hundred twelve foot-perches of field: in breadth on the southern part, with the rush-bed, seventy-two and a half foot-perches of field. Within this boundary and measurement, we cede it to you in entirety. Likewise also one little field below the upper road, which on the west joins the stock of the aforesaid vineyard, and that field, according to the defined boundary-stones, with entirety we give to you. But all the above-said, as we have premised, we cede to you, except that which in Arandatus we reserve for ourselves at present: but the rest, for the reward of eternal life, and for the redemption of our souls, and that you may intercede to the Lord for us, on the right or left, up to the rock Artemia, we hand over to you by perpetual right, to be possessed in future times, and freely and most firmly used. If anyone, attempting to break in against this our grant of bounty, shall try to destroy it, or wish to invade anything, let him incur the wrath of God almighty, to be consigned to eternal punishment, and let him not be able to claim what he seeks; but let the increase of our bounty remain firm and stable. Given on the eighth of the Kalends of July, in the first year of the Emperor Valentinian. Duke Latinus by his own free will, and with his own hand, ordered it to be made, and subscribed. Syagria his wife likewise. Gondobadus consented to his parents, and subscribed. Deodatus, being asked, signed. Leotardus, not otherwise. Franno, nonetheless. Secundinus, likewise. Galominus, not otherwise.
[17] So the man of the Lord Domitian, the deed being received, and the little ass loaded, wishing to go back to his own cell, He refreshes the workmen depressed by famine. found his masons sleeping, near the fountain which is called Condemnans. For, depressed by the scarcity of famine, they had left the building; the monks had returned to the highest solitude and their accustomed food; the masons had disposed to return to their own homes: whom when he had found sleeping, recognizing them in part, he roused them, saying: What is it, brethren, what are you doing? Why have you forsaken the begun work? Does perhaps strength fail? To whom they immediately answered: It is true, Father, for ten days we were fed abundantly from the bread which you brought us before, and one day we remained over without food, that is, on the sixth day; but food failing, we began to return to our own homes. The servant of the Lord Domitian also said: What day do you think it is today? But they said, Saturday. But it was the second day Monday. Then blessed Domitian said: Rise, for you have had enough sleep for two days, return to the begun work, for the Lord has bestowed on us most abundantly the things necessary for food. But rising, they followed the old man, and brought the begun oratory to its end.
[18] But on a certain day Latinus with his wife Syagria, seeking the solitude, visited the brethren: and an Abbot being set over his companions but seeing their conversation, he rejoiced greatly, and bestowed many gifts on them, and so, a blessing being received, returned to his own. Meanwhile some nobles, hearing the fame of the brethren, began to come to him, and to hand over their sons to him to receive the habit of religion. The oratory also being finished, and dedicated by the blessed Pontiff Eucherius, the servant of God began strictly there to tame his aged body with fastings and vigils: and constituting a certain most prudent brother, by name John, as Father of the monastery, g he seized rest: and persevering for many days and nights in divine praises and prayers, he studied to please God alone, so that he always increased in virtues. The end of his days now approaching, he is seized by a light fever: and the Father of the monastery being summoned, he orders the rest also to be present (and they were twenty-five brethren), in whose presence he thus addresses them: Follow peace and holiness, without which no one shall see God; but study to approach God, and he will approach you: keep the precepts of your Father in all things, because I believe he teaches you rightly: for know that, God revealing it, I have learned the day of my death, which will certainly be on the day of the Kalends of July.
[19] the day of his death being foretold, he dies holily. Which words heard, the brethren began to weep, saying: And Father, why do you forsake us so soon? To whom he says: I do not forsake you, sons, but rather I go to commend you to God: give me a kiss; who, having kissed all, said: He who deigned to suffer for you, and for all, may he deign to preserve you in his holy service: go to your own. So the day of the Kalends approaching, he orders again the Abbot to be present, and the brethren, and the sacred solemnities of Masses to be celebrated: and so, fattened with the divine food, before all his disciples, his hands raised to heaven, he said: Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit: and so with this last word he breathed out his spirit. But, the soul going out from the body, so great a fragrance and most sweet odor arose there as no man before deserved to perceive in that place; so that certain sick brethren, one with a quartan fever, h others depressed with boils i and a melancholic affliction, filled with the said odor, were made whole. Then the Father with the brethren, taking up the body of the aforesaid Father, with worthy honor placed it in a sarcophagus prepared not far from the altar of St. Genesius the Martyr: where, God favoring, even to the present day divine miracles are shown. There the blind recover sight, the lame find gait, the demoniacs are cured, and innumerable other miracles the Lord deigns to do through his servant; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, in the perfect Trinity, lives and reigns God, forever and ever. Amen.