ON ST. GALLUS OF CLERMONT.
About the Year 554.
PREVIOUS COMMENTARY. On his cult, age, death, burial, and the life written by St. Gregory of Tours.
Gallus, Bishop, at Clermont of the Arverni in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
[1] As the city, once of Auvergne, now of Clermont, is most illustrious for several holy Prelates, so in our Acts the discourse recurs more often concerning it and its manifold patron Saints and protectors: the 25th day of January alone, in St. Praejectus, enumerates six Prelates of Clermont illustrated in that month. What makes for a sufficient notice of the most noble city, the Sammarthani abundantly supply, the rest are described in Savaron. In the order of the Bishops likewise holy thus far, the sixteenth is St. Gallus, uncle of the polymath Gregory of Tours, praised by him in the book on the Lives of the Fathers chapter 6, so that no more illustrious Acts could be desired. Among the synonymous Galli, Bishops of Clermont, Savaron distinguishes in the notes on the little book on the Saints and churches numbers 3, 8, and 11; for the rest, most well known is this our one, the first of that name, whom it is surely a wonder was not only passed over in the sincere Martyrologies of Usuard and Ado, as Mabillon observes, but was recorded in no ecclesiastical Fasti or ancient Martyrologies at all. For neither in any classical one, such as I call the Hieronymian, Bede, Florus, Rabanus, the Little Roman, Ado, Usuard, Notker; in no classical one, I say, is his memory to be found: indeed not even in Maurolycus, Ghinius, the Florarium, and other more recent ones.
[2] John Molanus seems first to have inserted St. Gallus into the Usuardine supplements: he was added to the Usuardine supplements, At Auvergne, the deposition of blessed Gallus, Bishop and Confessor of the same city, whose life blessed Gregory of Tours writes; which words in the Canisian one are translated into German. From Molanus Galesinius could have known the Saint, and contracted the elogium from Gregory of Tours in this manner: At Auvergne, of St. Gallus the Bishop and Confessor, a man of admirable charity, the highest humility, and the greatest patience, by which virtues, and by his holy and wonderful deeds illustrious, the church entrusted to him being administered for twenty-seven years according to the will of God, he departed to heaven. From one or the other, unless I am mistaken, Baronius received it and inscribed it in the Roman. By the monastic Benedictines, Wion, Dorganius, Menard, Bucelin, he was by no means passed over: the first adopted the words of Galesinius, but in his notes hallucinated more than once. He says that, from Abbot of Cournon, he was made the twenty-seventh Bishop of Auvergne: neither subsists: as neither that he was present at the IV and V Councils of Vienne: concerning the V of Orleans it is certain enough, not so concerning the year 552, to which it is there referred.
[3] Dorganius took the beginning of his eulogy from Wion: adorned with a eulogy by more recent writers. Of St. Gallus, Bishop and Confessor, renowned for great charity, the highest humility, and the greatest patience. Menard's notice is most simple; Bucelinus, however, compressed nearly the whole life into an epitome, wrongly with Baronius linking the death of St. Gallus to the year 573. Saussay's eulogy is likewise a compendium of the whole life, the last part of which I append here: At length the man, to be loved, admired, and venerated under so many titles, after he had with great dignity taken part in a council convened in his own city (which was the first), and had subscribed to the fifth of Orléans, never wearying of doing well, departed from the course, and set out for the crown of his pious labors, in the twenty-seventh year of his episcopate. His sacred body, buried in the church of Saint Laurence before the altar, afterwards on account of his blessedness and gleaming signs, being held worthy of heavenly veneration, gave thereafter the designation of its name to that very church. But in the course of time his relics, lifted up from there, were honorably translated to the basilica of Portus, where they are religiously kept together with the precious remains of many others.
[4] The chronological series of his life from Cointius, Cointius arranged the chronological series of our Saint's life in such a way that he holds, at the year 509 no. 11, that he had then reached his twentieth year of age, and so he must have been born in 489. He then established that St. Gallus was led out of the Cronon monastery by St. Quintianus, Bishop of Auvergne, in 515. Furthermore, when in the year 527 Quintianus passed to the heavens on the 13th of November, St. Gallus succeeded him, substituted by King Theoderic, and perhaps in the same year, or at least soon after, was ordained Bishop of Auvergne. He took part in the Second Synod of Orléans through the presbyter Laurentius in the year 533. At a council celebrated in his own city of Auvergne in 535, he subscribed in the second place after Honoratus of Bourges. The Third Synod of Orléans was held in 538, to which his envoy the presbyter Optardenus is read as having been delegated. He was present at the Fourth Synod in the year 541. Finally St. Gallus honored by his presence also the Fifth Synod convened in the same place in 549. But since, by the testimony of Gregory of Tours, he ceased to live in the twenty-seventh year of his episcopate, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, the praised Cointius rightly refers his death to the year 554. All of which things, against the calculations of Baronius, Savaron, the Sammarthani, Branche, and others (which it is not worthwhile to enumerate here one by one), we judge to be most excellently ordered.
[5] others being rejected; Nor is it necessary to pursue these things more fully, since no one thus far, as far as I know, has been able to find more certain chronological markers, as will again be evident below, where we treat of St. Gallus's death. Fortunatus, whose metrical eulogy you will find at the end of the life, writing poetically, less exactly defined our Saint's episcopate at five lustra of five years each, and his age at fifteen lustra, which would be seventy-five years. Thus indeed Cointius explained St. Gallus's epitaph from the praised Fortunatus: but in Baronius's Annals at the year 573 no. 26, in Brower's edition and Mabillon's fragment, it is expressly read not "thrice five lustra," which I know not where Cointius found, but "yet surviving TWICE THRICE-TEN lustra," so that there a lustrum is undoubtedly to be taken for a year, and thus the Saint is said to have lived sixty years; which is equally far from the truth, at least said poetically, or for the sake of meter; since Gregory most clearly testifies that he died in the sixty-fifth year of his age, which we suppose to have been the year of Christ 554. Pagi says the year of his death is uncertain, nor does Mabillon dare to determine it: but Cointius sufficiently proves that in the said year our Saint most probably departed from life.
[6] There remains for us a controversy with Cointius himself concerning the day of St. Gallus's death, yet he himself erred in the day of death, about which from Gregory of Tours thus at the cited year 554 no. 3. He died, he says, on the Lord's day early in the morning; he lay in the church for three days, and during those three days the Rogations were celebrated, such as are made everywhere every year after Easter, and on the fourth day he was buried by the neighboring Bishops, as Gregory of Tours testifies in his life. The question is whether he ought to be said to have died or been buried on the Kalends of July, on which day his anniversary memory is everywhere observed. That question is indeed most easily soluble, if attention be paid to Gregory's words, to which alone one ought to attend; but the things which Cointius disputes and entangles with many words to explain the question render the matter more complicated, and at length wrongly draw out that conclusion, by which he asserts: Let it therefore be held as certain and undoubted, that St. Gallus Bishop of Auvergne passed to God, at the dawning of the Lord's day, as we have premised, on the fourth of the Kalends of July, in this twenty-seventh year of his episcopate, of Christ 554, the sixth of King Theobald.
[7] In no way does the fourth day before the Kalends of July please, which we determine from Gregory, which can in no way be put together either with Gregory's narration, or with the received festival of the Saint. I confess indeed that the choice of the first day of July for celebrating the Saint's birthday or deposition is arbitrary, nor can chronological notes be either drawn out or established from such a principle, as long experience has taught me, and as Pagi also observed, at the year 573 no. 5. But on such a day he could have been either elevated or translated: yet certainly that St. Gallus died or was deposited neither on those Kalends, nor on the fifth or fourth of the Kalends, Gregory indicates so clearly, that I altogether do not see by what reasoning Cointius could have been led into so manifest an error. For he died on the Lord's day, early in the morning, lay in the church for three days, and during those three days the Rogations were celebrated, such as are made everywhere every year after Easter. The Lord's day before the Rogations must therefore be sought, the fifth after Easter, or that which precedes the triumph of the Ascension, on which we have said the Saint put off mortality in the year 554, and it must be seen on what day and of what month it fell in that year; it will be most clearly evident that neither in that nor in any year could it ever fall on the 28th of June. In that year, under the Dominical letter D, Easter was on the 5th of April: now count on your fingers; thus the 1st Lord's day after Easter, the 12th of April; the 2nd Lord's day, the 19th of April; the 3rd, the 26th of April; the 4th, the 3rd of May; finally the 5th, or that which preceded the Rogations, could not but coincide with the 10th of May, and so St. Gallus must have departed not on the 27th or 28th of June, but on that very day, whatever be the case about the burial, whether it was deferred to the fourth or to the fifth weekday; about which it is not pleasing to contend.
[8] This is also Mabillon's opinion, who however errs in the place of burial. almost as Mabillon, Thus he has it in the Acts of the Benedictines, first volume, annotation A, page 118. Gregory the Bishop of Tours furnishes us three chronological markers of St. Gallus's death, namely the eighth year of the groin-plague, the Lord's day, and the reign of Theodebald, in book 4 of the History, chapter 7. The day of the Kalends of July, on which St. Gallus is venerated in the ecclesiastical tables, is not the day of his death, but perhaps of his translation, when his body was carried into the church of St. Mary of Portus (which is the principal church, first founded in honor of SS. Vitalis and Agricola, then called St. Laurence's) from another nearby shrine of St. Laurence, by Bishop Guido in the year 1285. For Gregory, defining more specifically the Lord's day on which St. Gallus flew up to the heavens, says that it preceded by three days the Rogations which are made everywhere after Easter. But since from the same Gregory, book 2 of the History chapter 34, the aforesaid Rogations were celebrated before the triumph of the Lord's Ascension, they can never agree with the day of the Kalends of July. Nothing therefore certain can be drawn from these markers, except that the death of St. Gallus is to be placed after the Fifth Council of Orléans, but indeed before the decease of Theodebald, namely between the years 550 and 556. Ruinart repeats the beginning of the groin-plague from the end of the year 545, or the beginning of 546, and rightly links its eighth year, that of St. Gallus's death, with us to the year 554.
[9] who did not find the place of burial. From what has been said it is evident that we depart entirely from Cointius in the day of death, but not so in those things which pertain to the place of burial, more than excessively intricate, unless they had been explained by Savaron in the places cited above. It is enough for us to draw out from the life, that when the Bishops arrived on the fourth day, they (St. Gallus) lifted him from the church, and carrying him bury him in the Basilica of Saint Laurence. As to the controversy, broadly deduced by Cointius, concerning the confusion of the names of the churches of Clermont; we distinguish the cathedral church, once of SS. Agricola and Vitalis, then of St. Laurence, today of St. Mary, from the church of St. Laurence, in which our Saint was buried, and which is sometimes found called, as Savaron notes, the church of St. Gallus; but long ago it was united to the church of St. Mary of Portus, to which the Saint's body was translated. And this indeed is sometimes read called the principal one, but with the addition "of Portus," so that it is different from the mother or cathedral church, just as Cointius laboriously inquires, distinguishes, and expounds at the aforesaid year 554 throughout number 4. Whence it is easy to correct the confusion of the church of St. Mary of Portus with the episcopal one, in which we said Mabillon erred above, and Ruinart confesses it in annotation G, in the recent edition of Tours; Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology page 692 followed Mabillon. But enough of these things.
[10] Whence the Acts are taken. It remains, that we sample a few things about the Acts of St. Gallus. It was said above, that the life written by his nephew on his brother's side, Gregory of Tours, is reviewed among the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 6. But since several editions of Gregory exist, the most recent of which Ruinart adorned, there was doubt which we should especially choose. That later one differs in many things from the earlier ones, and accordingly would have to be distinguished by variant readings and other minutiae of that kind, on which to linger is scarcely worth the effort. The editor cites several Mss. to which he professes to have emended the earlier reading; but, to speak frankly, mostly the corrections or changes employed do not please; so that we have preferred that one which Mabillon long ago published among the Acts of the Benedictines, volume 1 from page 116, and which accordingly we have taken care to reprint here, and have tried to illustrate with annotations both Mabillonian, Ruinartian, and our own; adding at the end two nearly continuous miracles, one from Savaron's last edition, or rather from Durand's notations and disquisitions, concerning the city of Auvergne preserved from flames; the other from Branche, concerning the perpetual cure of fevers in the church of Langeac or Langhiac, where our Saint is more solemnly honored with singular cult, as titular patron. Now let us set down Gregory's words.
LIFE. From St. Gregory of Tours, On the Lives of the Fathers, chapter 6.
Gallus, Bishop, at Clermont of Auvergne in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 3259
A. GREG. OF TOURS.
CHAPTER I. On the illustrious birth of St. Gallus, his monastic training, and the rest of his deeds up to the episcopate.
[1] The summit of worldly nobility ever gapes after lusts, rejoices in honors, is puffed up by encounters, Fleeing the vices of the noble, batters the forum with lawsuits, is fed by plunder, delights in calumnies, desires talents of rusty gold, and while it seems to possess little, in order to heap up very much, is the more inflamed, and the pile of gold instills in it an arduous thirst for possessing, as Prudentius says, For the hunger for gold proceeds greater from gold. Whence it comes about, that while one rejoices in the pomps of the age, and is delighted by vain honors, nothing is recalled to his memory of the dignities that abide: nor does he look to those things which are not seen, provided he importunately possesses those by which he thinks his mind is sated. But there are those who, like birds flying out of snares, and tending to higher things, have absolved themselves from these bonds by the genius of a more alert mind, and, having left earthly resources, have fitted themselves with all their strength to those things which are heavenly. Just as St. Gallus, an inhabitant of the city of Auvergne, a whom neither the love of a father, nor the blandishments of a mother, nor the love of nurses, nor the indulgence of attendants could draw away from the worship of God: but, all these things being held as nothing, and esteemed as dung, vowing himself to the love of God, to the office of God, meditates withdrawal. he subjected himself to the strictness of monastic life. For he knew that the flames of youthful fervor could not otherwise be conquered, unless he were subjected to canonical censure and the most severe discipline. He knew besides that he was to be raised from the humility of the world to higher things, and through the patience of endurance to be carried up to that glory of the lofty summit, which the outcome afterwards proved.
[2] St. Gallus therefore from his adolescence began to be devoted to God, The consent of his pious father obtained, and loving the Lord from his whole soul, he also loved those things which he knew to be beloved of God. His father was by name Georgius, his mother indeed Leocadia, b descending from the stock of Vettius Epagathus, whom the history of Eusebius testifies to have suffered at Lyons, who were of the foremost senators in such a way, that nothing more noble and high-born is found in Gaul. making excellent progress in the monastery; And when his father wished to seek for him the daughter of a certain senator, he, taking with him one little boy, sought out the monastery of Cournon, c situated at the sixth mile from the city of Auvergne, suppliantly entreating the Abbot, to deign to shear the hair of his head. But he, seeing the prudence and elegance of the boy, asks his name, inquires his family and fatherland. And he declares himself to be called Gallus, a citizen of Auvergne, son of Georgius the Senator. Whom the Abbot, when he knew him to be born of the first stock, said: You desire well, son: but first these things ought to be brought to the notice of your father: and if he shall be willing, I will do what you demand. Then the Abbot sent messengers to the father for this cause, asking what he commanded to be done with the boy. But he, a little saddened: he was my firstborn, he said; and therefore I wished to join him in marriage: but if the Lord deigns to summon him to his own service, let his will rather than ours be done. And he added: Whatever the child by God's inspiration shall suggest to you, fulfill. Then the Abbot, the messengers reporting these things, made the boy a Cleric. d He was moreover of remarkable chastity, and like an elder, desiring nothing perversely, but is thence led out by St. Quintianus. he restrained himself even from youthful jests, having a voice of wondrous sweetness with a pleasant modulation; bending to assiduous reading; giving heed to fasts, and abstaining much from food; and when the blessed Bishop Quintianus, e coming to the same monastery, had heard him singing, he did not permit him to be retained there any longer, but led him with himself to the city, and, as a heavenly father, nurtured him in spiritual sweetness.
[3] Dear to King Theoderic, And when, his father being dead, his voice was composed more and more from day to day, and the same had the greatest love among the peoples, they announced these things to King Theoderic, who, summoned more quickly than said, cherished him with such love, that he loved him more than his own son. By the queen, moreover, his wife, he was loved with a similar love, not only for the honesty of his voice, but also for the chastity of his body. But then King Theoderic led away many clerics from the citizens of Auvergne, whom he ordered to assist the church of Trier, for rendering service to the Lord: but blessed Gallus he by no means suffered to be separated from himself. Whence it came about, that when the King went to the city of Cologne, f he too went away at the same time. There was moreover there a certain shrine, filled with diverse ornaments, in which the barbarian crowd, displaying rich libations, was filled with food and drink even to vomiting: there too, as one adoring God, each carved in wood the members, according as pain had touched each one. He burns the shrine at Cologne. When St. Gallus heard of this, he immediately hastens thither with only one cleric, and, fire being kindled, when none of the foolish pagans was present, he applies it to the shrine and sets it ablaze. They, seeing the smoke of the temple ascend even to heaven, seek the author of the fire: having found him, they pursue him with drawn swords. But he, turned to flight, hid himself in the royal hall. But after the King, the pagans threatening, learned what had been done, he soothed them with bland words, and so mitigated their wicked fury. Thereafter, moreover, the blessed man was often wont to relate these things with tears, and said: Woe is me, who did not persist, that in this cause I might have met my end. He performed at that time the office of the diaconate. g
[4] He foretells that he will be Bishop. At length, when the blessed Bishop Quintianus, by the Lord's command, had passed from this age, St. Gallus was dwelling at that time at the city of Auvergne. But the citizens of Auvergne convened at the house of Impetratus the presbyter, his maternal uncle, complaining about the death of the Priest, and asking who ought to be substituted in his place. This being very long discussed, each one returned to his own house. After their departure, St. Gallus called one of the clerics, and the Holy Spirit rushing upon him, said: What are these men muttering, why do they run about, what do they discuss? Vain, he said, is their work. I shall be Bishop. The Lord will deign to bestow this honor on me. But you, when you shall hear that I am returning from the presence of the King, take the saddled horse of my predecessor, and going out, present yourself to meet me. But if you scorn to hear, beware lest hereafter you repent. And while he was saying these things, he was lying upon his little bed. Then the cleric, angered against him, while he reproached him much, struck against the rail of the bed, injured his side, h and departed in a turmoil.
[5] When he had departed, Impetratus the presbyter said to blessed Gallus: Sought in vain by the people of Trier, hear, son, my counsel: make no delay, but go to the king, and announce to him what has happened here, and if the Lord inspires him to bestow this priesthood upon you, we render great thanks to God: but if otherwise, at least you will be commended to him who shall be ordained. And he, going away, announced to the King what had happened concerning blessed Quintianus. Then also Aprunculus, i Bishop of Trier, passed away; and the clergy of that city, gathered before King Theoderic, sought St. Gallus as Bishop. To whom he said, Depart, and seek another; for I have Gallus the deacon destined for another place. Then, electing St. Nicetius, they received him as Bishop. But the Auvergne clergy, by the consent k of foolish men made, came bringing many gifts to the King. the Simoniacs being rejected, For already then that wicked seed had begun to sprout, that the priesthood was either sold by kings, or bought by clerics. Then these hear from the King, that they were to have St. Gallus as Bishop. Whom the King ordered to be ordained presbyter, and commanded that, the expenses being given from the public treasury, the citizens be invited to a feast, and rejoice for the honor of Gallus, the future Bishop. And so it was done. He moreover was wont to relate, that he had given no more for the episcopate, than one triens to the cook, who served at the dinner.
[6] After these things the King, two Bishops being given for his support, is set over the church of Auvergne. directed him to Auvergne. But that cleric, who had dashed his side against the rail of the bed, Viventius by name, hastens to meet the Pontiff, according to his word, not without great shame, and presents himself and at the same time the horse, which he had ordered. And both having entered the bath, he gently reproaches the pain of the side, which he had incurred from the impulse of his pride, instilling from this great modesty into him; not with anger, but only delighted in a spiritual place. Therefore thereafter with much psalmody l he is received into the city, and is ordained Bishop in his own church.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II. On the deeds of St. Gallus in his episcopate, his virtues, miracles, death, and burial.
Among his virtues patience shines forth. Now indeed, the episcopate being assumed, he treated all with such humility, and such charity, that he was loved by all. He had patience moreover beyond the manners of men, so that, if it is right to say, he might be compared to Moses in sustaining diverse injuries. Whence it came about, that, struck on the head by his presbyter at a banquet, he rendered himself so quiet, that he did not even return a harsh word, but bearing patiently all things which befell him, cast this upon the will of God, by whom he sought to be nurtured. For when a certain Ennodius too, a presbyter from the senators, had provoked him at a banquet of the church with many calumnies and insults, the priest, rising up, went around the places of the holy basilicas. But when this had been reported to Ennodius, going after him with swift course, and prostrating himself before his feet in the very street, he asked pardon, beseeching that his prayer might not darken him with the omnipotent Judge. But he, kindly gathering him up, gently forgave all the things which he had spoken, rebuking him, that he should not dare to bring forth such things hereafter against the priests of the Lord: because he himself would never deserve to receive the episcopate. A prophetic prediction. Which the outcome afterwards proved: for when in the Gabalitan region he had already been elected to the episcopate, a already placed in the chair, all things already prepared, that he might be blessed Bishop; so suddenly the whole people rose up against him, that he could scarcely escape alive, who afterwards passed away as a presbyter.
[8] But at the city of Orléans, Bishop Marcus being incriminated by the wicked, He takes part in the 5th Synod of Orléans. and thrust into exile, a great convention of Bishops was gathered, King Childebert commanding. In which synod b the blessed Bishops, recognizing this to be empty, which had been muttered against him, restored him to his city and his chair. At length then to the service of St. Gallus there came Valentinianus c the deacon, who is now presbyter and cantor; The punishment of a proud deacon. and when, another Bishop saying Mass, that deacon wished to sing rather for boastfulness, than for the fear of God, he was prohibited by St. Gallus, who said to him: Forbear, son, when by the Lord's command we shall celebrate the solemnities, then you too ought to sing: now let his clerics sing together, who celebrates the Mass. But he declares that even then he can. To whom the priest: Do as you please, for what you will wish, you will not accomplish. He therefore, neglecting the command of the pontiff, went away, and sang so deformedly, that he was mocked by all. But when another Lord's day came, the oft-named pontiff saying Mass, he ordered him to go: now, he said, in the name of the Lord, you will accomplish what you wish. And when he had done this, his voice was made so brilliant, that he was praised by all. O blessed man, to whom such grace was granted, that, as the souls, so also the voices of men stood under his power, which he both prohibited from singing when he willed, and permitted to sing when it pleased him. God moreover granted other great miracles through him. His little bed heals a quartan fever. For when Julian the Defensor, d afterwards a presbyter, a man of most sweet disposition, seized by a quartan type of fever, e was grievously tormented, he sought the little bed of the holy priest, in which lying down, covered by a servant, and sleeping a little, he was so healed, that he did not even afterwards seem afflicted by this infirmity.
[9] But when the city of Auvergne was being burned by a very great fire, He calms a fire at Auvergne, and the Saint had learned this, having entered the church, he entreated the Lord for a very long time before the holy altar with tears; and rising, the Gospels being taken up and opened, f he presented himself to meet the fire. And it obeying, immediately at his sight the whole conflagration was so extinguished, that not even cinders remained in that fire. Under his time, moreover, the city of Auvergne was shaken by a great earthquake: but why it happened, we know not. This however we know, that it injured no one of the people. But when that plague, g which they call the groin-plague, raged through diverse regions, and especially then was depopulating the province of Arles, and preserves his own people from the groin-plague. St. Gallus was anxious not so much for himself, as for his people. And when day and night he entreated the Lord, that living he might not see his people laid waste, through a vision of the night there appeared to him an Angel of the Lord, who bore both hair and garment white in the likeness of snow, and said to him: Well does divine piety look upon you, O Priest, supplicating for your people, and therefore fear not; for your prayer has been heard, and behold you shall be, with your people, freed from this infirmity, and no one, while you live, shall perish in this region from this slaughter. But now do not fear, for after eight years completed you shall depart from the age: which afterwards was made manifest. Awakened therefore, he gave thanks to God for this consolation, that he had deigned to comfort him through a heavenly messenger. He instituted those Rogations, h that at mid-Lent they should come singing to the basilica of the blessed Martyr Julian, by a journey on foot. And there are in this journey about three hundred sixty stadia. But when, as we have said, that plague was consuming those regions, it did not touch the city of Auvergne, by the interceding prayer of St. Gallus. Whence I reckon no small grace of him, who deserved this, that, placed as shepherd, he might not, the Lord defending, see his sheep devoured.
[10] Seized by a wondrous fever, he dies most holily. But let us come to that time, when the Lord commanded him to be taken from this world. When, burdened by indisposition, he was lying ill, an external fever so depilated all his members, that he lost his hair and beard at once. But knowing, God revealing, that after three days he would depart, he convokes the people, and, bread being broken for all, he bestows communion i with a holy and pious will. But the third day coming, which was the Lord's day, about to bring immense grief to the citizens of Auvergne, the sky now whitening, he asks what they were singing in the church. And those standing around said, that the benediction was being sung. But he, the fiftieth psalm and the benediction being chanted, and the alleluiatic with the capitellum expressed, completed the whole office of the morning time. k Having now discharged the last office, he said: We bid you farewell, brothers. And saying these things, his members extended, he sent forth his spirit, intent upon heaven, to the Lord. He departed moreover in the sixty-fifth year of his age, but in the twenty-seventh year of his episcopate. l Thereupon, washed and clothed, he is carried into the church, until the bishops of the province m should convene to bury him. But a great miracle was there shown to the peoples, namely that the Saint of God, his right foot being drawn in upon the bier, betook himself to the other side, which was toward the altar.
[11] and is buried by the Bishops. While these things were being done, those Rogations, which every year are made everywhere after Easter, were being celebrated. He lay moreover in the church for three days, assiduous psalmody n pressing on, with a great throng of people. But the Bishops arriving on the fourth day, they lifted him from the church, and carrying him into the basilica of St. Laurence, o there bury him. Now indeed at his exequies how great a lamentation, how great peoples were present, can scarcely be narrated. Women with mourning garments, as if they had lost their husbands: likewise also men with covered head, [p] as is the custom at the exequies of wives. The Jews themselves too, with lamps kindled, lamenting, accompanied him. All the peoples besides said with one voice: Woe to us, who after this day shall never deserve to have a like pontiff. And because, as we have said, the provincial bishops were far distant, nor could come more quickly, as is the custom of country folk, the faithful placed a clod of earth upon the blessed body, that it might not swell from the heat. Which turf after his exequies a certain woman, and truly (as I diligently inquired) a most pure virgin and devoted to God, He shines with miracles. Meratina by name, gathered, cast out by others; and placed it in her garden, and water being often poured on, the Lord giving increase, she made it live. From which turf the sick, not only taking away the herb, and drinking from its juice, were healed, but also the prayer of a faithful one over it deserved succor. Which afterwards through carelessness, the virgin departing, perished. At length at his sepulcher many wonders were shown. For quartan sufferers and those sick with diverse fevers, as they faithfully come to the blessed tomb, immediately draw health. Valentian therefore the cantor, whom we mentioned above, who afterwards was a presbyter, [q] when he was performing the office of the diaconate, Herbs being scattered at the tomb, the fever is driven off. is seized by a quartan type, and for many days labored with great failing. But it came about, that on the day of the access of this fever, he disposed to go around the holy places, praying; and coming to the sepulcher of this Saint, prostrate, he said: Be mindful of me, most blessed and holy Priest, for by you I was educated, taught, and promoted. Be mindful of your own foster-child, whom you loved with singular love, and rescue me from this fever by which I am held. Having said these things, he gathered the little herbs, which in honor of the Priest had been scattered on the tomb by the devout, and because they were green, applies them to his mouth, plucks them with his teeth, and swallows their juice. That day passed, nor was he struck by this indisposition; and thereafter he was so restored to soundness, that he did not endure any, even the least, shiverings [r] henceforth. I learned that this was so done from the mouth of the presbyter himself; for it is not doubted, that through the power of him who called Lazarus from the tomb, wonders come forth from the tombs of his servants. [s]
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Mabillon observes, says Ruinart, that even today at the exequies of Kings, men, the officers of the deceased, attend the funeral with covered heads.
q. See in Ruinart from Thomassin, what cantors were like in the sixth century.
r. In the most recent edition it is; "that not even any, which they commonly call fractiones": other editions and Mss. have frictiones. Our reading is plain; for if he was freed from the fever, it is nothing so wonderful if he lacked fractions and intermissions.
s. Among those virtues is to be especially numbered that which Durand adduces as a perpetual miracle in his notes and disquisitions on Savaron, edition of 1662 page 183, whose words are nearly these, rendered from French into Latin: There holds, he says, among the people of Auvergne a tradition, He always preserves Clermont from fire. that this good Saint (Gallus) after the great fire, by which in his time the city of Clermont was burned, see above at the beginning no. 9 entreated the Lord, that if hereafter such a thing should happen, only a single house should be consumed. And that this was obtained from God, the outcome has often proved, as the aged old men still surviving testify: and we ourselves, fifty years ago, when we were present at misfortunes of this kind, when indeed the raging flames seemed about to consume some whole quarter of the city, we, I say, by an unforeseen but plainly prosperous fortune, saw with our own eyes that they, a single house being burned, were then suddenly stopped.
Branche relates another miracle concerning the Saints of Auvergne, page 450, which might be added to the cures of fevers, which are also recorded in the Acts. He testifies, that by his own experience he learned, A perpetual miracle in healing the feverish while for nineteen years he served as parish priest of Langeac, Langeac where St. Gallus is venerated as titular patron; he testifies, I say, that the feverish, prayers being poured out before the image of the Saint, and wine being drunk that had been blessed at his invocation, the sacred relics being immersed in it, are everywhere restored to their former health; and that this miracle there perseveres almost perpetually.
By way of conclusion we append the metrical epitaph, which, the other things now abundantly illustrated, needs no further explanation.
EPITAPH of Lord Gallus the Bishop. From Venantius Fortunatus, book 4, poem 4.
Gallus, Bishop, at Clermont of Auvergne in Gaul (S.)
From the MSS.
O wicked enemy, you drive Adam from paradise by fraud; behold, God grants his servants to approach the heavens. O envious one, thus your death prepared better things for man; you expel from the lands, He gives even the stars to his own. The witness and Prelate, this blessed Gallus, proves it, noble on earth, rich in going to the heavens. Who, propped by Christ's aid, nor grown in years, seeking greater things for himself, came bitterly to hate his home. He fled his father's embraces, and left his mother; an Abba parent is sought, to govern him as a monk. There, a raw recruit, he began from a noble age to suffer the warlike arms of the Lord's soldiery. With holy Quintianus at last instructing as master, a man proven in heart is fairer than gold. Thence transferred into the palatine hall of the King, O Theoderic, he lived in your pious love. Soon when the master, leaving the lands, sought the stars, the care of guarding the flock passed to the disciple. For moderating the reins of the pontificate he so ruled, that as a shepherd in his offices, he was a father in love. Gentle, patient, good, fair, loved, worthy to be loved, there was here no place for offense, but for pardon. If any came upon him, the injury was made a virtue, whence fury might have been, thence there was triumph. Cherishing the people with his voice, as a nurse her children with the breast, watering sweet honey seasoned with salt. Performing this work, he foresaw the gifts of the future, that with him as shepherd nothing could perish for the flock. Thus the father ruled the church for five times five years, yet surviving twice thrice-ten lustra. Hence the Saint, carried by a better way to the heavenly things, the urn of the pyre does not press, but the arm of God holds.
Annotations* Alternatively, "lover."
* why not "hall"?