Laurianus

ON ST. LAURIANUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, AT VATAN AMONG THE BITURIGES IN GAUL.

PERHAPS IN THE SIXTH CENTURY.

A PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Laurianus, Bishop and Martyr, at Vatan among the Bituriges in Gaul, and at Seville in Spain (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

§ I. His most ancient sacred cult and martyrdom. The certain monuments about them distinguished from the uncertain.

[1] Vatan, a village, or the town of Vatan in the diocese of Bourges, distant about eight leagues from the metropolis, glories among other things in this title, that it gave birth to St. Sulpitius Pius, formerly a most illustrious Bishop of the Bituriges, A collegiate church at Vatan dedicated to the Saint: enriched today with the remains of many other Saints, concerning whom see Arthur du Monstier, page 60. I write "Vatan" Vastinnum with Adrian de Valois, that I may distinguish this place from other places called Vastin, Vastini, Wastin, or Gastin, concerning which he treats fully enough in his Notitia of the Gauls. The town is adorned with a collegiate chapter under the name of St. Laurianus, of whom we must here treat. Thus it is described in the codex of the Benefices of Gaul (commonly Pouillé), page 7: "The dignity of the Priorate of St. Laurianus of Vatan, or Vastignium, is chosen capitularly: but the prebends and vicarages, to those named or presented by the Canon holding office in turn, are conferred by the chapter, whose foundation some refer to Guido, Count of Blois." The year of the foundation Catherinot marks as 1390, so that one cannot easily assent to the praised Arthur du Monstier, in his little work often to be cited below, on the contest, prize, and elogium of St. Laurianus, page 49 and elsewhere, who refers the beginnings of this chapter, by I know not what authority, to the year 1005, nay even to earlier centuries.

[2] But whatever was the age of that chapter, whatever Arthur's conjectures avail, his memory in the ancient Martyrologies, this is certain from our most ancient ecclesiastical Fasti, that already before the eighth century the memory of St. Laurianus was marked in them. He is expressly set down in the copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology, the most ancient Epternach, the Corbie, and the Blume, nay probably also in the Lucca, though in a different phrase, and, as Florentinius judges, adventitious. In the first it is thus read: "the feast of Laurianus the Martyr." The Corbie has: "At Bourges, the birthday of St. Laurianus, bishop and confessor," the Blume adds "and martyr." The Lucca, for "Laurianus," writes "Lucianus," with the title of bishop only. Among the supplements of Bede there is one in which he is called Bishop and Martyr; others seem taken from the Usuardine codices. The source of the true and genuine announcement of Usuard is Ado, from which "at the village of Justinus" has been rightly expunged in place of "at Vatan." Thus the purest codices have it in our edition: "In the territory of the city of Bourges, the feast of St. Laurianus the martyr, whose head was carried to Seville in the Spains." Nor does Wandelbert indicate anything else, in this his little verse: "Laurianus, thou holdest the fourth place in the name of merits." The dignity of Bishop the author of the Hagiology of Labbe inserted into the Usuardine text.

[3] to which the more recent [writers superadd some things.] And these are the only approved monuments, from which it may be certainly established that the palm of martyrdom must be asserted to St. Laurianus: about his bishopric there can be controversy: but about the see of Seville nothing has hitherto been found, at least that can be placed beyond the die of doubt. Vaseus and the Spanish writers, both in the Annals and in the Roman Martyrology, Baronius followed, when he so liberally ascribed to him the fillets insignia of Seville, from which Maurolyco and Felicius had far better abstained. Nor did Florentinius evince it from a more recent writer of the miracles of St. Austregisilus, by whom he is called Bishop of Seville, doubtless from the tradition of the Acts,

as see on the XX of May, volume 5, page 238*. After the reformation of the modern Roman Martyrology, the see of Seville was eagerly adopted. Thus Ghinius speaks in the first place: "In the territory of Bourges, the feast of St. Laurianus, bishop of Seville and martyr, who, having suffered under Totila, king of the Goths, departed to the Lord in the year of salvation 544, whose head was carried to Seville in Spain." More briefly, but perhaps more nervously, in the Catalogue of Ferrarius: "At Seville, the feast of St. Laurianus, bishop and martyr." To adduce others is superfluous, nor need we care further for the elogium of Saussay, which even the Spaniards themselves repudiate, in that part where he testifies that the very body of St. Laurianus was translated into Spain. Now concerning the cult exhibited to the most holy Martyr both at Vatan and at Seville, and persevering even today.

[4] The celebrated solemnity at Vatan, That St. Laurianus is honored with solemn celebrity at Vatan the praised Arthur sufficiently shows, when he dedicates the "contest, prize, and elogium of the most valiant athlete of Christ the Martyr, Lord Laurianus, Archbishop of Seville, patron of the notable collegiate church at Vatan, a noble town of the diocese of Bourges, situated in the county of Blois," to the very Reverend Prior, Cantor, and Canons of the aforesaid church, in the year 1656; observing elsewhere that in two places of the territory of Bourges the churches of St. Laurianus, namely the collegiate church and a chapel situated not far thence, are frequented by the pious veneration of the faithful. Of the former Arthur thus speaks: "That most spacious church within Vatan being therefore built and dedicated, it was necessary to translate into it the sacred remains of Lord Laurianus from the chapel of St. Laurianus himself, where they were already for a long time preserved; that they might there be more honorably venerated, both by the majesty of the new structure of the temple, and by ampler divine services, and by the more frequent troops of the faithful coming thither, of which translation indeed the feast is kept on the 4th Sunday after Easter, with the same solemnity and rite by which his birthday is celebrated on the IV of July." That an Office of IX Lessons is held in the Breviary of Bourges on the V of July, Claudius Roberti noted in his Auxanius of Arles. Thus Arthur continues, page 58.

[5] "The body of St. Laurianus, therefore, brought hither, was afterward enclosed in a silver casket, and his surviving relics carried about. [and] remained most honorably venerated, until the Huguenots, Calvinist heretics filling the Gauls with their filth and warlike furies, obedient neither to religion nor to divine or ecclesiastical law, and still less to human, attacked the borders of Bourges, under the lead of the Count of Duras, and, devastating Vatan, plundered this church, stole the precious casket, and burned the sacred relics. … But there escaped from so great a slaughter and utterly diabolical rage a certain bone of the arm of St. Laurianus, preserved piously and religiously in the same collegiate church, and it is reverently carried, as often as a solemn procession publicly draws near. … Besides, the festivity of St. Laurianus is most solemn at Vatan on the IV of July, on which day a celebrated and public procession takes place through the whole town: to which there come first the Friars Minor of the convent of that place, then the curates of the parochial churches, afterward all the Canons, clad in copes or ecclesiastical mantles, with the dignitaries. Then the sacred relics are carried, to be venerated by the whole clergy and people; which indeed, after Second Vespers of the feast day, are replaced in their former place, with great rite, reverence, and devotion: to which comes a huge number of the faithful."

[6] The equal piety of the people of Seville toward their most holy patron the extant monuments of veneration, even now, most manifestly demonstrate in the most magnificent church of Seville, The veneration of the people of Seville no less, where a chapel dedicated to St. Laurianus, to be compared with the rest for cost and elegance, the ample description of that church, published by Ferdinand de la Torre in the year 1671, teaches, page 176. There exists likewise, in Diego Ortiz de Zuñiga's Ecclesiastical and Secular Annals of the city of Seville, a decree of a Synod held in the year 1604, by which the anniversary solemnity of St. Laurianus is enjoined, on account of the singular devotion of the people toward the glorious Martyr, formerly Archbishop of that city, whom he once freed from a pestilential plague and other troubles. But the Annalist observes an error in this, that the framer of the decrees affirms that the venerable head of the Saint was preserved among the relics of the church at that time, whereas it is certain that it lasted only to the times of the Moors; by whom, destroying all things, it was translated to the mountains, hidden there, and never afterward found. That nevertheless the people's veneration toward St. Laurianus persisted I easily persuade myself, but that it wonderfully increased in the century just past, the whole city has left attested by a notable proof, when in the year 1649, afflicted by an epidemic disease, it fled to the patronage of St. Laurianus, a vow being solemnly conceived, which you have here copied from Ortiz.

[7] "The ecclesiastical assembly of the Dean and chapter, the senate and people of Seville, specially gathered at the great metropolitan and patriarchal temple, a vow conceived in the Saint's honor in 1649. in the chapel consecrated to our holy and most holy Archbishop and Martyr Laurianus, we make a vow, and confirm it with the religion of an oath, by these sacrosanct Gospels of God, made spontaneously by us, under the good pleasure of the Apostolic See, every year to keep this fourth day of July, on which the passing of our most holy Martyr is celebrated, as a festival, and to cause it to be kept in this city and its suburbs; hoping, by a firmer faith and sacrifice of the heart than that of the heathen, who said, 'With blood and a slain maiden ye have appeased the winds,' that by the blood of our most invincible Martyr and his intercessions, offered to God the best and greatest, we may, with health entire, be freed from the epidemic plague, by which we are afflicted in these days, which, like an unbridled dragon and a beast infested with venom, devours the city and the peoples. So may God help us and these holy Gospels of God. Amen." It has seemed good to change nothing in the writing; the intention of those who vow is sufficiently understood, and it is an illustrious proof of confidence in St. Laurianus.

[8] As certain as these things are, so doubtful are the Acts, And so this second part too, pertaining to the continuous cult of our Saint, is easily placed beyond controversy, save for a few things which, drawn from the Acts alone, remain sprinkled with that soot which somewhat obscures the sincere truth. I long ago warned in the Observations on Usuard that the whole history of the life of St. Laurianus seems suspect, composed by I know not whom, nor at what time, but which formerly to Adrian de Valois, in the Notitia of the Gauls cited above, appeared no less fabulous than to me: not rightly conceived, worse arranged, dissonant from the reckoning of the times, interpolated here and there, to say it in few words, a verbose and jerky narration, which no one has reduced to right chronology or probable history, unless with Arthur he has expunged the chief chapters, substituting new ones, or with Le Cointe has so inverted the marks of the times, that whether it be the same, or a nearly different, history may be doubted, and even so still subject to great difficulties, which I do not so much wonder to have been passed over by the more recent Spaniards; to whom it is familiar to receive that kind of histories, however they may reek of fable, or wander from true chronology. But from Arthur, publishing a special work and heaping up various annotations, something more worked over, more exact and polished, was to be expected.

[9] not easily to be purged by anyone. Some difficulties I shall discuss severally in the next paragraph, but here it will not be out of place to premise in a few words what I think of the whole matter, separating the certain and probable from the uncertain and doubtful, which are everywhere confused. Prudently Pagi warned, in his critique on Baronius at the year 548: "As to the martyrdom of St. Laurianus, Bishop of Seville, that it was consummated in Gaul, all agree; but at what time, in what place, and by whose treachery he was delivered to death, can scarcely be known, on account of the various errors which crept into his Acts. Le Cointe, at the year 518, number 14 and following, thinks that in place of King Theodoric the name of Totila crept in, and that for Eusebius Bishop of Orléans was written Eusebius Bishop of Arles, and in that way no small confusion of matters and times was introduced; for Totila never reigned in Spain, and no Eusebius, who nevertheless is said to have taken care of the funeral of Laurianus the Martyr, was Bishop of Arles in this century. Concerning this martyrdom therefore the same Le Cointe must be read, who tried to purge the Acts of St. Laurianus." Nay, as I was saying, those two marks, expressly stated in the Acts, being changed—the chronological marks of Totila and Eusebius of Arles—he thought all things easily to be reconciled, the whole rest of the history being tacitly admitted, which he could have weighed a little more accurately.

[10] What can be admitted from them. I, from the aforesaid, judge this must be safely admitted: that St. Laurianus was a Martyr in Gaul, and that most probably, not near Marseilles, as Baronius wrote, but in the district or territory of Bourges, which is called Vatan, so named from a woodland solitude: but that his head, carried to Seville, was famous for miracles, equally as his sacred body, at which the town of Vatan grew by the frequency of signs. Hence, if I am not mistaken, some centuries after the martyrdom, occasion was taken of composing a Legend, which in the time of Wandelbert someone undertook to correct, if the oration prefixed to Labbe's edition is true. Other things Arthur notes and laboriously impugns or reconciles, page 38, which it is not worth the trouble here to mention. For the rest, whether St. Laurianus was a Pannonian, or an Italian, or a Spaniard, or a Gaul, or a Bishop, and indeed of Seville, at what time and by whom he attained the crown of martyrdom, I should not dare to assert from the faith of the most uncertain Acts. I have called him Bishop with some Martyrologies, nor do I wish anything detracted from the tradition of Seville: when they themselves shall have exhibited a somewhat more accurate catalogue of their ancient Prelates than Tamayus represents on the XI of March, a place must be sought in which our Saint may be said to have held that see for XVII years, and it, if it can in any way be done, must be reconciled with Le Cointe's corrections. Meanwhile I am forced to confess candidly, that such are the Acts of St. Laurianus, that they cannot at all be purged, as will presently be shown in the following § and in the Annotations to the Acts.

§ II. The Acts uncertain, mutilated, and interpolated; nor sufficiently purged by Le Cointe.

On what occasion I judge the Acts of St. Laurianus, equally as many others, to have been compiled, I have already sufficiently explained: those who have tried to polish the badly digested history The Acts transformed Arthur exhibits, have either themselves deformed it, or rendered it more suspect by new fictions. The Arthurian way, borrowed from the Spaniards, greatly displeases me, which if it ever be permitted to enter upon, we shall now give, not sincere Acts, such as we received, but new compilations, fabricated according to our own wit. Thus that writer hands down the more ancient Acts of St. Laurianus, such as Bolland obtained from Du Chesne, or such as Labbe published, depraved, contracted, inverted, changed, as if it had been permitted him to rage with impunity upon ancient writings: and in that way indeed he thought he would explain most of the errors which occur in that Life: but wherever he turns himself, he must swallow huge anachronisms, about the dissolving of which he was little solicitous. Totila, as he writes with the Spaniards, compelled St. Laurianus to go into exile from Milan; he, fleeing to Seville, undertook the office of archdeacon to be administered for some years, then indeed held the episcopal see for a full seventeen years; ejected thence, to Marseilles,

Rome, and into Gaul he wandered for another seven years, and at last was slain by the command of the same Totila; in this way a reign, circumscribed in true chronology by only eleven years, will have to be extended to thirty and more. About these things the Spanish writers, cited in great number by Tamayus, no more solicitous, proceed to weave together other things of this kind unskillfully, and from the aforesaid Acts to join St. Laurianus badly, as Claudius Roberti noted, with Eusebius of Arles; in which, by leaving that Bishop anonymous, Arthur was somewhat wiser than the Spaniards.

[12] But with the same Spaniards he did not hesitate to place Pope Vigilius at Rome, the Spaniards adding more. when St. Laurianus arrived there, whom the author of the life much more prudently kept silent. No less slothful, Tamayus, from the Supplement of the Prelates of Milan, collected by St. Charles Borromeo, confidently pronounces that our St. Laurianus, baptized by Eustorgius II Bishop of Milan, received the order of the diaconate. He asserts that he was received by Maximus, Prelate of Seville, in whose place he was substituted. Others add that Theudis, ruling over the Goths in Spain, repenting of a crime he had committed, and converted to the study of piety, venerated the blessed athlete of Christ (St. Laurianus) with singular zeal of devotion, and, a notable temple being raised in his memory, committed himself and his kingdom into his special protection: to omit other things which, by a pious—if I may so say—emulation of pious fabricating, some heaped one upon another in rivalry. I marvel that a notable chronological mark in Flavius Marcus Dexter, as it was published by Nicolás Antonio, most expressly stated at the year 538, was passed over: "Laureanus in Pannonia came to Milan, thence to Seville." For the rest, in the other matters Tamayus suffered nothing to be lacking. "And these are the Acts," he says, "which we could deduce from the ancient Breviaries of Seville and other writers." In vain shall I here enumerate a long series of such writers; when you have known one, you will know all: they sell mutual wares; namely, the collectors of the last two centuries, of whom it has been abundantly said elsewhere. No less wonderful things had Tamayus brought forth on the XI of March, in the catalogue of the Bishops of Seville, among whom he places St. Laurianus in the XXIII order, whom he says died in Gaul, by the treachery of Attila, Arian king of the Huns, in the year of the Lord 560. Of all those histories badly stitched together, as also of the Breviary of Bourges related by Gonon, the single source is the Legend cited above, muddy enough of itself and ineptly patched together, so that it would be in vain to accumulate errors upon errors.

[13] Le Cointe, about to expunge the anachronisms, The praised Le Cointe saw the enormous confusion of matters; at the said year 518, from number 14, he undertook to reconcile the more absurd anachronisms in this way: "We have attentively investigated whence such copious errors flowed; from two chiefly the rest seem to have proceeded. In place of King Theodoric the name of Totila crept in, who began to reign among the Ostrogoths in the fifteenth year after the death of King Theodoric, and in that way no small confusion of matters and times was introduced. Moreover, for Eusebius Bishop of Orléans was written Eusebius Bishop of Arles, and thence was born no small controversy about the places." Among whom that controversy was born, I do not know; that it ought to have been born, if the writers had been of a more discerning nose, is certain enough. In vain then Le Cointe asks whence the confusion of names could arise; then he continues: "But how well the things which are narrated of Laurianus cohere with right chronology, if Theodoric the King and Eusebius of Orléans, Totila the King and Eusebius of Arles being expunged, be restored, hear in a few words." He subjoins a very brief compendium of the Acts of St. Laurianus, so fitted to his own intent, that he wishes to persuade that all the rest agrees with the history of that time, if only those two faulty epochs be removed.

[14] He substitutes King Theodoric for Totila, "Behold the epitome," he says, "of the whole history, which cannot stand with the reign of Totila, for Totila never reigned in Spain, and presided over the Ostrogoths in Italy for only eleven years, namely from the year of Christ 541 to the year of Christ 552. Philip Labbe, who published the life of St. Laurianus from the manuscript codex of the church of Château de Bourges, suspects that in place of Totila should be read Agila; but Agila, who, Theudisclus being dead, took up the kingdom of the Visigoths in Spain, reigned only five years, as Isidore and the author of the Chronicle of Moissac attest, but the King who often tried to bring death upon Laurianus held a far more lasting principate. Totila being deleted from the Acts of St. Laurianus, if you replace, not Agila, but Theodoric, all things will fit excellently, because Theodoric reigned in Italy eighteen years, then reigned in Italy and Spain together for XV years. Theodoric the younger," says Isidore in the Chronicle of the Goths, "when he had reigned as victor eighteen years in Italy, again, Gesalic King of the Goths being extinguished, held the kingdom of Spain fifteen years; which he left to his surviving grandson Amalaric. The beginning of the XVIII years which Theodoric reigned in Italy, before he reigned in Spain, is sought from the year of Christ 493, in which the kingdom of the Heruli in Italy utterly failed; but the beginning of the XV years, which he reigned in Italy and Spain together, is drawn from the year of Christ 511, in which Gesalic, King of the Visigoths, died in Spain, because Theodoric himself closed his life in the year of Christ 526."

[15] "But now the withdrawal of Laurianus from Italy, the pontificate of Seville of seventeen years, the exile of seven years, and arranges the chronology at his discretion: and the martyrdom, can thus be tied to the reign of Theodoric. In the year of Christ 494 (which is reckoned the first of King Theodoric in Italy, by the style of Gregory of Tours and other very ancient writers, among whom the years of any King are gathered, not from the day on which he was substituted into the kingdom, but from the beginning of the following year) Laurianus fled from Italy into Spain, and most happily governed the bishopric of Seville, whose administration he undertook in the same year, under Kings Alaric and Gesalic, until the year of Christ 511, in which, lest he should fall into the hands of Theodoric, who under the name of guardian, until Amalaric his grandson by a daughter should grow up, usurped the government of the Visigothic dominions in Spain, admonished by God through an angel, he withdrew from Seville, and when he had performed various pilgrimages for seven years, in this year of Christ 518 he underwent martyrdom in Gaul, Theodoric King of the Goths being still alive, and was buried by Eusebius, Bishop of Orléans, who was then completing the twentieth year in the pontificate." Thus far Le Cointe's conjectures, by which he seems so to flatter himself, as if he had placed the whole history of St. Laurianus in safety.

[16] But indeed, as ingeniously as these things were excogitated by Le Cointe, but it is pressed by other difficulties; so much would I wish they could conveniently be weighed to the balance of truth, from which, unless I am mistaken, they are as far as possible removed. And 1, indeed, plainly gratuitously is Theodoric substituted for Totila, whom though we grant to have administered even the Spanish affairs of the Goths, it does not yet follow that the life of St. Laurianus, in which the same Totila is so expressly and so plainly repeated, can be reconciled with his times. 2, Le Cointe ought to have found a place vacant in the see of Seville, which St. Laurianus could govern for 17 years, while, wonderfully precipitating everything, in the same year 494, in which Theodoric began to reign, fleeing from Italy, he bids him at once, by his own authority, ascend the see of Seville, in which he must have sat, at the least, until the year 511. Meanwhile from the catalogue of the Bishops of Seville we have it that Zeno and Stephen occupied the see at that time: how therefore, I beseech, can St. Laurianus be said to have been Bishop of Seville, at that very time, in which the place was by no means open? 3, St. Laurianus had to flee from Seville for fear of the Gothic King, whom the Acts lead to Marseilles and Rome; and yet if these things happened while Theodoric reigned, St. Laurianus was safe neither at Marseilles nor at Rome; therefore the Acts of St. Laurianus are not rightly tied to the reign of Theodoric, unless with Le Cointe we admit what we wish, the rest being repudiated at the same discretion: just as the anonymous author is ridiculed by him, because he writes that St. Laurianus performed the solemnities of Masses at Rome on the solemnity of the Chair. For the rest, I indeed praise Le Cointe's effort, by which would that could be saved the things which I desire in every way to be saved—the deeds of our Saint, of whatever kind. But both here and elsewhere I have found by experience that a man learned in other respects insists rather on patching up matters than on restoring them, whereby they are generally more entangled: to such a degree does he profit nothing who, the sources being omitted, follows the rivulets.

[17] Moreover, what the same Le Cointe excogitated, about substituting Eusebius of Orléans for the other Eusebius, nor can he save the rest of the Acts. who in the sixth century was sought in vain at Arles, is indeed opportune: but I do not yet know whether it is sufficiently certainly clear that that Eusebius of Orléans was alive in that year 518, which ought first to have been demonstrated. In a word: whatever be the case about Eusebius of Orléans; it is more probable that the author of the Legend was ignorant who truly took care of St. Laurianus' funeral, when he named a Bishop so far distant, who should rather have been fetched from Bourges, since in that diocese the man of Orléans had no more right than the man of Arles, or the other of Béziers, superadded by some Spaniards. Nor indeed are those two chronological points the only things which displease in the Acts. Those bears, guardians of the sacred body; the Saint himself, carrying his head before him, following his slayers for two miles, and other prodigies of that kind, are not so easily to be admitted, unless they be supported by the faith of trustworthy witnesses, at least by the suffrage of an approved writer. Of the rest let the learned reader judge: these things the zeal of investigating truth alone has extorted from me: now I exhibit the Acts themselves from the manuscript of the distinguished man Andreas du Chesne, collated with the edition of Labbe, Library of Manuscripts, volume 2, from page 411, from which the little preface has been taken; but most of the interpolations, found in Du Chesne's transcript, have been enclosed in brackets, that they may be more easily observed.

PASSION

From the Manuscript Codex of Du Chesne, collated with the edition of Labbe.

Laurianus, Bishop and Martyr, at Vatan among the Bituriges in Gaul, and at Seville in Spain (S.)

BHL Number: 4796

FROM MANUSCRIPTS

A PREFACE OF THE ANONYMOUS [AUTHOR] IS PREFIXED

From the manuscript codex of the church of Château de Bourges.

The passion of Blessed Laurianus, Bishop and Martyr, at the urging of the diligence of your sagacity, Brother, I have undertaken to correct. A laborious work indeed and difficult; yet useful. But when I had read through more diligently the series of the aforesaid work, I observed that it had been depraved by the fault of the writer, and that the solemnity of the Kalends, on which he consummated his glorious martyrdom, had been changed by his unskillfulness. For that the holy Pontiff Laurianus completed his happy martyrdom on the IV Nones of July, the most ancient codices of the Martyrologies attest, both of the Romans and of the Gauls. From which, several having been examined, by careful investigation it has seemed good to insert into this little preface as I found [it]: "On the fourth Nones," he says, "of July, in the territory of the city of Bourges, at the village of Vatan, the birthday of St. Laurianus, Bishop and Martyr, whose head was carried to Seville in the Spains." A certain poet also of our time, describing the Martyrology in heroic verse throughout the whole year, asserts that on the same Kalends Blessed Laurianus was martyred, saying: "Laurianus, thou holdest the fourth place in the name of merits." These things being thus elucidated, I earnestly pray that this work, which at your urging I have accomplished with the greatest labor,

you may most gladly receive, and if you still find in it anything to be corrected, charity remaining, do not delay to amend it.

ANNOTATIONS.

The anonymous corrector makes much of his labor, when nevertheless he seems to have stopped at restoring the Kalends alone. But what "most ancient codices of the Martyrologies, both of the Romans and of the Gauls" he sings of, if he himself lived in the time of Wandelbert, I altogether do not understand. In the Hieronymian and other codices cited above St. Laurianus is truly placed on the IV Nones of July; but the announcement which is here related, as if taken from those codices, exists in no classical Martyrology, at least word for word, nor was it received from anywhere else than from the Hagiology published by Labbe, so that I almost doubt whether here an age greater than the just is not feigned. But even if for a while it be admitted that the corrector wrote in the tenth century, nothing of great authority will accrue to the whole Passion, presently to follow.

The birth, education, bishopric of Seville of St. Laurianus, his various apparitions and miracles, pilgrimages, martyrdom, and burial at Vatan.

Blessed Laurianus, sprung from the territory of the Pannonians, of parents pagan indeed, yet most noble in race, Enrolled from boyhood in the church of Milan, shone forth glorious, who from his early age, prevented by divine grace, was free from those contagions by which with fleeting [a enticements] youthful age is wont to be allured. For, being still a little infant, taken up by a certain Catholic of his nation and of his own kindred, his parents unaware, he was carried into the bosom of the church of Milan, and reborn by sacred baptism, and made a cleric, and there not moderately instructed in the liberal studies and disciplines, he became an alumnus of the aforesaid church. For in the flower of his youth he was vigorous in abstinence ^b, generous in almsgiving, sleepless in vigils, assiduous in prayers, frequent in fasts, skillful in refreshing the poor, modest in speech, mild in anger, outstanding in hospitality, illustrious in every study of the spiritual warfare, illumining the hearts of the faithful with shining eloquence, transfixing with the dart of the divine word the swelling breasts of the resisting perfidious.

[2] By these things therefore and things of this kind, growing by advancing in strength of body and mind, there initiated into holy orders, he becomes Bishop of Seville; in the twentieth ^c year, namely, of his age, chosen by the clergy, attested by the people, he received the office of the diaconate. Meanwhile the Bishop of the city of Seville, afflicted with the greatest injuries of the Arians, who with the poison [*] of their pestilential doctrine had infected almost all Spain and Gothia, the perfidious King Totila being the assertor of this heresy of error; the term of human life being ended ^d, with the palm of victorious gladness happily attained perennial glory. But the church of Seville, mother and metropolis of Spain, remained nearly two years without the office of a Pastor, until the Bishops of the same province, gathered together in like manner, ordained blessed Laurianus—directed thither from Italy by the clemency of divine providence to destroy the pravity of the aforesaid heresy—as pontiff in the same city. Pastoral rule over the Lord's sheep being therefore taken up, so great was the heavenly grace in him, glowing with virtues, shining forth, that, preaching without intermission the salvation of eternal life, many miracles by his merits, the divine power working, were done among the people.

[3] After 17 years he is admonished by an angel to forsake his see, The excellent Pontiff therefore, when for seventeen years, like a robust warrior of Christ, with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, he assiduously warred against the aforesaid heresy and yet did not conquer it, [but all, declining by a depraved schism from the confession of the holy Trinity, like ravening wolves with gaping mouth tried to rend the sheep of Christ, driven hither and thither by their own impulse, according to that saying of Maro, "His own pleasure draws each one,"] on a certain Lord's day, Matins [and] Lauds being ended, when he was resting half-awake on his couch, before the twilight of the rising light, there stood before him a youth ^e illustrious in aspect, in white garments, and called him three times, with gentle speech, saying: "Laurianus, Laurianus, Laurianus." To whom the most blessed pontiff, watchful in mind as if gently sleeping, answered: "Here I am." To whom the youth: "Rise," he said, "and depart from this malignant people, for it does not deserve to enjoy your sight, nor to be fortified by your suffrages [but go thither, where they shall hear you, who are worthy to be saved by your suffrages. Whence, with the crown of martyrdom, you shall arrive at the joys of Paradise.] Do not delay, but proceed swiftly: for I will be the leader of your journey. This city too will be in the greatest peril for many days, and will be worn down by famine, and will be endangered by a most grievous plague, and will lack rain for seven years, until it deserves to be adorned with your relics; and at length, wearied, it will come to its senses from the allurements of its crime. And on account of guarding which he was to stand there, [he forsook it, and finding none besides those whom he had brought with him, but seeing them unanimously following him, and recalling also from the mouth of the Lord Savior that of the Gospel: If they persecute you in one city, flee to another: he exhorted his own with Gospel comfort, saying: Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.]"

[4] who, hearing what was said, withdraws, and a blind man being healed, At length, the sacrifice of the Mass being performed according to custom, fortifying himself with the mystery of the body and blood of Christ, he intrepidly addresses the iniquitous people, until the third hour of the day. Then, a staff being taken, going around the walls of the city, he cried out saying: "All this city will be in straits for many days, until it be visited by divine regard, and, doing penance in the manner of the Ninevites, they be converted from their depraved errors." But on the same day, after the setting of the sun, going out from the city, he came to the port of Clusor ^f, where, when he was resting a little, that youth, who had admonished him about the journey at Seville, was present, saying: "Laurianus, flee, and pursue the journey begun, because the cruel King Totila ^g is directing swift horsemen after you, to bring you back to Seville." Rising therefore, he enters the port of Clusor. But so great a terror seized the guards, that no one dared even to ask: "Who are you? Or whither are you going?" But at daybreak, while he was making his journey, a certain blind man, sitting in a hut beside the road, cried out saying: "Holy one of God who passest by, pray for me, an exceeding sinner, deprived of the lights of heart and body, that I may see with my eyes, and believe with my heart, and follow you." To whom the most blessed Laurianus answered: "What you ask is not mine to give you; but if you believe—all things are possible to him who believes—you shall deserve to be healed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, if you resolve to proceed with me, give me your little cord, and be a companion of my journey, I will guide your steps." Acquiescing in these words, the blind man gave his little cord into his hand, and now began to go. And when they were not yet far from that hut, his eyes were opened, and he says: "I beseech, Father, who is that most beautiful youth, who precedes you in garments of snowy whiteness?" Perceiving also, the most blessed Laurianus, that that blind man saw, he says: "Go, brother, the Lord be with you, for you are better than I: behold, the Lord, whom you see, has restored to you the light; him, God, ^h shall you serve: I ask, however, that you reveal neither me nor this sign to those following me."

[5] But on the same night, the Angel admonishing—who had been accustomed to admonish him in the figure of a youth—Having arrived at Marseilles, he recalls a dead man to life. rising in the morning, in the port of Helna ⁱ he boarded a ship, and proceeded to Marseilles. And when he was entering the gate of the city, behold the dead son of a very rich man was being carried out, who was his only son, [whom each parent required and loved with unspeakable affection, and rejoiced in him, a happy survivor and heir of an enormous substance.] But the most blessed Laurianus, perceiving the mournful funeral, groaned with sorrowful cries, and long drawing out deep sighs, inquires what so great a lamentation might be. Learning at length what it was, he says: "This youth was innocent, is not dead, but sleeps." At this word the father came as a suppliant, and imploring with groans, that he would have mercy on him and on his son, and cries out saying: "Holy one of God, restore to life, and to me, this dear offspring, and possess the unhappy riches of my substance." To whom the most blessed one answered: "The riches which you promise me, as is fitting, take care to distribute to the poor, and tell at what hour this youth departed from this light." To whom, while he said: "Today after cockcrow," the blessed Laurianus says: "Cease to weep, and return into your house in peace, and command the youth's body to be carried thither, and, lights being kindled, order vigils to be kept throughout the whole night without lamentation. But I will go to the basilica of blessed Victor the Martyr, and I believe confidently, that by his prayers the Lord Jesus Christ will raise up your son." Proceeding therefore, the man full of God, to the tomb of the Blessed martyr, prostrates himself in prayers, and passing the night in vigil, at that hour at which he had died, obtained by sacred intervention, that the cold corpse of the youth returned to life.

[6] But the Saint being prostrate in prayer, that angelic youth was present according to custom, saying: "Laurianus, rise, Illustrious in Italy by many signs, at Rome he celebrates Mass, and board the ship earlier, and sail to Rome, because the youth for whom you pray has risen at this hour, and his father exhorts the citizens, and confirms them in faith, to retain you in that city, that they may be protected by your patronage." Rising therefore without delay, the most blessed Laurianus, the angel leading, came to the shores of Italy, and there, whom he found afflicted from birth, and thereafter with various infirmities, blind, lame, dumb, deaf, and weakened with various languors, by his prayers, the divine power working, he healed all. At length, prosperously pursuing the journey begun by a straight path, he came to Rome, and, received by the Apocrisiarius, his arrival is announced to the venerable Pope. But he with honor orders him to be brought in to himself, and rejoicing over his most eloquent discourse, commands him to perform the Sacraments of the Masses publicly in the church of blessed Peter. For it was the solemnity of the Chair ^k [which the Roman people held as most celebrated according to custom, because the pontifical seat of the Apostle had on that day first been dedicated, that is], the fifteenth Kalends of February. But the most blessed Laurianus, the command being enjoined by the Pope, answered: "The obedience which is rendered to elders is shown to God: but I will most gladly obey your commands."

[7] But as he entered the church with pontifical honor, after which he restores to health a contracted old man. so great an odor of sweetness filled it, as if, at the coming of Blessed Peter with a very great throng of Martyrs, many perfumes of pleasant odor gave forth fragrance ^l there. After the completion of the Masses, with an immense retinue of Bishops and clerics, and of noble Romans, he was going to dinner; and behold, at the gate of the Prince of the Apostles there lay a needy man weighed down with age, and contracted with an ancient disease: for he was nearly sixty-three years old, whose knees and arms had so withered from birth, that he could neither walk nor even touch. He confidently, that he might have mercy on him, implores the man of God with all his strength, as he could, saying: "Holy Laurianus of God, help me, for the years of my misery await you, that by your prayers my weak members may receive vigor long and greatly to be desired;" and immediately added: "I adjure you by him who enlightened a man blind from birth, do not pass me by [before you restore my members, by your intercession, to that strength of which they have hitherto been deprived.]"

Moved by these prayers, the most blessed Laurianus, together with the Bishops and a throng of numerous people, returns to the basilica of blessed Peter, and, prostrate in prayer for a long space of the day, deserved to obtain what he devoutly sought. Coming again to the old man, he says: "Bid the ministers to lead you without delay to the threshold of blessed Peter: for by his merits you shall be healed." At this word he immediately rose [as if drunk, supporting his tottering members on the ground and on a staff to which they clung. At length, having set out] and having deserved the health long sought, which his birth had denied, his old age obtained.

[8] Bidden to depart from Rome, he hastens into Gaul to martyrdom. But while for some time he was detained at Rome by the friendly command of the venerable Pope, the aforementioned youth, whom it is right to believe an Angel of God, foretold to him, set in prayer, the end of his martyrdom in this manner: "Laurianus, be constant, you must visit the tomb of my Confessor Martin, and there, prayer being performed, go to the village of a vast solitude in the territory of Bourges, destined for your martyrdom, which by an ancient name is called Vatan [*], for King Totila is directing his officers to all the provinces, to kill you, and to carry your head to Seville. For a temple will be built in the same city, in which your head, decently placed, may be venerated, and my name be magnified in it, and thus at last I will be propitious to their iniquity, and I will be clement to them, and I will grant rain and the fruit of the earth. Act manfully, Laurianus, behold your reward is exceeding great." At this word he immediately rose, and with swift step and joyful mind fulfilled what he had been bidden to do. For, returning to the tomb of blessed Martin, his prayer being completed, he came intrepid to the place destined for him, and there the assassins sent by the perfidious King cut off his head on the fourth Nones of July: and terrified with excessive terror, like madmen, leaving the head, they began to flee. Wonderful to say! the most blessed Laurianus, taking his head in his hands, went after them, crying out in the manner of a living man, and thus saying: "Wait, do not flee, but taking this head, carry it to Seville, and render it to him who sent you hither for that purpose." Who, the head being received, kissing his hands and feet, cast the body into a certain cave, and went away.

[9] Meanwhile the aforesaid King Totila, striving to tempt Blessed Benedict ^m with rambling loquacity, whether he had the spirit of prophecy, The Saint's head is received with great veneration by Totila. being recognized by him and vehemently rebuked, was less cruel. But those who were carrying the head, as soon as they entered the borders of the Goths, so great an inundation of rain, preceding them, entered all Spain, that Blessed Laurianus was hindered by no one from entering Seville forthwith, and thereafter continual salvation was made by his protection. Hearing therefore King Totila that an inestimable treasure was coming for the protection of the whole homeland, compunct in heart, the Bishops with the priests and nobles being summoned, laying aside his royal garment, throughout all Spain he proclaimed a three-day fast, and in ashes and haircloth, with bare feet, came to meet [it] a journey of three days, and the Head being received, carried it to Seville, where he had been ordained Bishop, with great honor and a company of psalm-singers, and built a church in his honor, where he decently placed that venerable Head, and thus from that province every plague ceased. [But Blessed Laurianus consummated his glorious martyrdom on the IV Nones of July, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever.]

[10] But St. Eusebius ⁿ, Bishop of Arles, Eusebius of Arles is admonished from heaven to take care of the funeral, while, as usual after Matins, he was going around the altars with the clerics, and lay praying rather long at the tomb of Blessed Caesarius the Confessor, two Deacons awaiting the end of the prayer, being exceedingly wearied with vigils, it happened that he fell asleep. And when he was overcome by such a slumber, there appeared to him a most illustrious man, of most comely aspect in white garments, and said: "Eusebius, proceed swiftly into the district of the Bituriges, to the village which is called Vatan, and there in the forest of a vast solitude seek out a cave, in which lies the body of a Martyr, who yesterday was beheaded there by brigands of Spain, whose head also, by my command, they are carrying to Seville, where he was ordained Bishop, that through his glorious martyrdom the same province may be changed from long barrenness into fecundity; you will also take with you clean garments for the burial. But when you have entered the cave, two bears will meet you, but do not fear, because they were sent to guard the body of the Martyr, and they will show it to you, and this is a sign to you: When you come to the river Loire, you will cross where there was never any possibility of crossing."

[11] which many prodigies accompany. At this vision St. Eusebius rose, and with swift course, performing what was commanded, came to the river Loire, and found a small little boat never seen by anyone, in which was a boatman most beautiful in aspect, clad in precious garments, who, when he was asked by St. Eusebius whence and who he was, answered: "Why is the name inquired, when the fare ^o is not demanded?" This being said, the river being crossed in a point of time, he nowhere appeared. St. Eusebius also, understanding the secret of this mystery, kept silence, and came to the designated place, Vatan, by a straight path, and at the mouth of the cave, as had been shown him, found two bears. Which, all ferocity being laid aside, made gentle, with lowered countenance, preceded the holy Bishop even to the body of the blessed Martyr: forsooth by wonderful providence they had so long guarded the horses [p], and all things, going around, until the body of the blessed Martyr was delivered to burial. This being done, with lowered head, as if they sought a blessing, they returned into the forest. St. Eusebius also built a church over the body of the blessed Martyr Laurianus in honor of the blessed Apostle Peter, and dedicated it on the XIV Kalends of December, in which place many miracles are done from then and now, to the glory and praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. What the horses have to do here, I do not understand; unless the Anonymous would have St. Laurianus conveyed in a chariot, whose horses too the bears guarded, that the sacred body might be carried to burial in the same vehicle.

* In French, Vatan.

* poison.