ON ST. MODERATUS AND FELIX
PERHAPS IN THE 5TH CENTURY.
A LITTLE COMMENTARY.
Moderatus Martyr, at Auxerre in Gaul (S.) Felix Martyr, at Auxerre in Gaul (S.)
BY C. J.
On these very Kalends of July something was said among the Things Passed Over, page 2 letter F, about the holy Felix and Moderatus Martyrs of Auxerre. About both I was admonished of several things not so long ago by a learned man, John le Beuf, Canon and succentor of the church of Auxerre, The ancient cult of these, which clearly teach the very ancient veneration of both. For the cited Canon asserts that St. Moderatus (in French commonly Modere; and more briefly More; under which last name he is also inserted in the universal martyrology published in French by D. Claude Castellan canon of Paris, on the Kalends of July, page 692, with this announcement; In the diocese of Auxerre St. Moderatus, whose name a church and a village by the river Cure preserve) the Canon, in the church of St. Moderatus, I say, le Beuf asserts, that in the Calendars of certain monasteries, subject to the abbey of St. Germain, written in the twelfth century, the memory of St. Moderatus is read on the Kalends of July, without St. Felix. But the name of this Felix is inscribed in all his Calendars on June 16.
[2] But as St. Moderatus has a church of his name by the river Cure, likewise in another that of St. Felix, not in the diocese of Autun, as some lately wrote, but on the borders of Auxerre itself: so St. Felix also had his church in the village of Madriacum, of the diocese of Sens indeed, but distant from Auxerre no more than four leagues: and le Beuf mentions that he read in the deeds of Guido or Wido Bishop of Auxerre, who flourished in the tenth century; deceased according to the Sainte-Marthe brothers in the year 961, that he obtained from the Archbishop of Sens the tithes of three churches, of which one namely at Aiglinniacum is consecrated in honor of St. Stephen; another at Matriacum, in honor of St. Felix. He adds also that he further inquired about the village of Matriacum, and learned from the husbandmen of the place that there still survive traces of a chapel of St. Felix in the woods of the same village, and that thither once, for the sake of healings, frequent supplications were made. And he continues: It is no wonder therefore if in the Calendar and Martyrology of the cathedral church of Auxerre there persevered even to the year 1670 the name of that Saint, since for many centuries Matriacum together with its appurtenances has pertained to the Chapter of Auxerre, and to provide for the Chapel of the woods of St. Felix is the business of the same, as is plain from the Registers. These things he not perfunctorily.
[3] and also in the old martyrologies. He cites also the Martyrology of the church of Auxerre, written about the beginning of the twelfth century, of which a copy, he says, was lately transmitted to him from Paris, enumerating the Saints for the individual days of the year; who are everywhere known and common, although that Martyrology follows neither the traces of Usuard, nor of Ado, nor of another exactly. Yet only three or four are inserted, whose either celebrity of cult is less commonly known; and among them is read on June 16: At the village of Madriacum, of holy Felix Martyr.
[4] To one inquiring more curiously about his body, says the praised le Beuf, The body of both is thought now to be it will seem to rest at St. Germain of Auxerre, and to have been carried thither in the times of wars or, the chapels falling, to have been laid up beside the tomb of St. Moderatus martyr, who also before the age of the monk Heric (he flourished at Auxerre in the ninth century, in the times of Charles the Bald, to whom in his last years he dedicated his Poem on the life of St. Germain, written in six books) had been translated from his own church by the river Cure into that of St. Germain. Hither tends what George Viole, Benedictine of Auxerre, reports in his Animadversions, saying that he found in the larger manuscript legendaries of the monastery of Reigny, from a certain index, in St. Germain of Auxerre. that the Passion and Translation of St. Felix were contained in a certain volume; but a leaf torn out of its place, which he greatly grieves. Nor can it be objected to the contrary, that the memory of holy Felix and Moderatus is celebrated on one day in the basilica of St. Germain, namely on September 5, because this was done carelessly by the first monks of the congregation of St. Maur about the year 1630, who expunged St. Felix from June 16, and St. Moderatus from July 1, to move them to the first free feria in their more recent Calendar. Thus le Beuf.
[5] And let these things about the public and ancient cult of these saints, The time of martyrdom uncertain. and about the days of their martyrdom, suffice. For the days June 16 and July 1 are to be retained, on which in the old Calendars and Martyrologies they are read inscribed. About the year of their martyrdom and their deeds it is less established. I have at hand a more recent Ms. collection of the Saints of the diocese of Auxerre, under this title: On the holy Martyrs and confessors of the territory of Auxerre, according to the order and months of the year, observed, and extracted from the Martyrology of Auxerre, made by D. Bargede, Archdeacon of the Cathedral church of Auxerre. There on the first day of July it is treated of St. Moderatus and St. Felix together. The time of their martyrdom is referred to the martyrdom of St. Fraternus Bishop of Auxerre, who in one day is said to have been made Bishop and Martyr in the time of Evaric the tyrant of the Goths, devastating Gaul far and wide, toward the end of his life, who died in the year 484 or the following. But these are conjectures, since it is not even established in what year St. Fraternus died. Nay it is not even sufficiently known whether he died a Martyr or a Confessor. Certainly Usuard writes thus of him: On the third of the Kalends of October. At Auxerre, of holy Fraternus Bishop and confessor. Others follow Usuard. We shall inquire what is more probably to be held on the said day.
[6] Other things are narrated there, namely that Moderatus and Felix, The bodies found by revelation. both young men, were beheaded by the hand of the executioner: whose bodies for a long time lay hidden from the Christians: but in the course of time the Saints themselves revealing themselves by their miracles, they were translated to the church of St. Germain, where to this day are their tombs near the wall of the chapel of St. Peter, and there are seen images or painted tablets, in which they are represented, as offering their head to martyrdom. These things too about the finding and translation of the bodies are narrated in a vague manner without witness, without note of time: it can be more certainly believed, what the writer himself saw at Auxerre; that the bodies and images are now at St. Germain. He writes also that their epitaphs were once carved around the tombs, but which, by the frequentation of the people coming to honor the Saints, are so worn that they can no longer be read. These things smack of antiquity, so that it must be believed that the tombs have existed there now for some centuries.
[7] The antiquity of the church of St. Moderatus. The antiquity of the church of St. Moderatus, which we said is situated by the river Cure, is known from the foundation of the monastery of Molesme, which had its beginning in the year 1075 under St. Robert, the most celebrated founder also of the Cistercian arch-convent. For the collector of the Ms. life says that the Abbot of Molesme has the right of presenting to the said church of St. Moderatus, given to his Monastery from the beginning of its foundation by Ivo d'Avalon and Alice his wife, their sons consenting, Ivo, John, Hugh, Fossard, Godfrey, Herman, and Hugh the younger; as is found noted in the records of the said Monastery, in these words: They gave to God and St. Mary of Molesme the church of St. Moderatus, that is the presbytery, to be offered, and whatever pertains to the presbyterate. He says further that Alice after the death of her husband confirmed her donation in the presence of Robert de Chatillon, whom he reckons to be the same who gave the Priory of St. Cecilia of Châtillon to the monastery of St. Germain about the year 1020. Which is not credible, unless it be otherwise proved. Because that Robert, who in the year 1020 gave the said Priory to St. Germain, must then at least have been Lord of his own affairs and perhaps more advanced in age: but Molesme only began to be founded in the year 1075, and the church of St. Moderatus was probably not granted to it before the building was finished, and a competent number of monks gathered there and rightly ordered: then after his donation Ivo lived some years, and Alice after his death, perhaps not at once, confirmed the donation. And if she did this in the presence of Robert, who gave the Priory of St. Cecilia to St. Germain in the year 1020; he must, at the least, have been a hundred years old when he stood by Alice confirming her donation. I should prefer to understand another Robert, in whose presence these things were done.
[8] Other things less certain. These nearly are the things which about those saints are at this time known, or said by conjecture at Auxerre. Others besides hand down that St. Moderatus was a boy when he died slain for Christ: others, that St. Felix likewise was a boy. Others think that both fell together. Which last can seem less probable; because on different days their natal days are found consigned in the old Calendars. Some relics also of St. Moderatus are said to be kept in a place which is called Mailly le Chateau, of the diocese of Autun: but what they are is not expressed. Yet the greater part of the body of both is thought to be now kept at St. Germain of Auxerre.
ADMONITION.
In place of these Saints Felix and Moderatus Martyrs, now to be expunged among the Things Passed Over, put back the memory of the following Eva, lest it perish, taken from the elogium at her death, who on the first day of July died at Venray in the domain of Kessel, duly fortified with all the Sacraments of holy Mother Church. Eva Bernarda Monix, of the Cistercian Order, Religious of the Imperial monastery of Binderen near Helmond of the diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch, the last Professed there, who, born of noble lineage, desiring to lead a nobler life in the Lord, from her early age learned to serve God, when, scarcely eighteen years old, in the Imperial monastery of Binderen she made her sacred profession: but alas! in the first fervor of her Religion, scarcely educated to the observance of exact monastic discipline, with all the rest of her Sisters, after the general Peace of Westphalia by the decree of the confederated Orders of Belgium, she was compelled, much against her will, to be exiled outside her monastery: so that she most rightly applied to herself that saying of the lamenting Prophet; In peace my bitterness is most bitter. Yet withdrawing with the rest to Venray, there most devoutly, as far as was permitted, she both paid her vows and fulfilled the monastic institutions in a private house. But in the church there of the Friars Minor Recollect (in whose church choir she lies buried) as if in her own monastery performing her Divine offices, ever zealous with zeal, and panting with pious sighs and vows, to pass her religious life religiously and to end it piously in her own monastery. Vexed in the time of her exile by various diseases and adversities, she most patiently tolerated the darts of alternating fortune. There shone in her exemplary charity toward God and neighbor, since from her slender means, which she used for her nourishment, whatever superfluous she had, she took care to be distributed to pious uses and the necessities of the poor: not hoping in the treasures of money, uniquely intent to find a treasure not failing in heaven. Singular in her (which is useful to all things) was piety, and fervent and continual zeal for prayer and a cultivator of the other virtues, having in her dropsy, which was mortal to her, this one saying of St. Augustine in her mouth and heart: Lord, here cut, here burn, only spare in eternity. Until at length most devoutly invoking the name of Jesus on a Friday about dawn, such as she had ever asked of the Lord, she rendered her spirit to her Creator, in the 89th year of her age, the 71st of her profession, and the 21st of her jubilee.