ON ST. GERVASIUS, DEACON AND MARTYR,
IN THE TERRITORY OF CHALON.
FOURTH OR SIXTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Saint's age, cult, Acts.
Gervasius, Deacon and Martyr, in the territory of Chalon (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Among the ancient Aedui, in present-day Burgundy, there is a village named from this holy Gervasius, a church now for many centuries consecrated to his name, distant about three leagues from Chalon, in which he himself obtained the palm of martyrdom, as P. Claudius Perry, of our Society, wrote to Bollandus, when he transmitted the Acts described by him in the year 1653. They are brief and, for the century in which they seem to have been written—perhaps the 9th or 10th—accurate enough, if a few things be cut away which bring difficulty; first of all concerning the Saint's birth and origin, which they derive from the Cenomani Le Mans, I know not whether accurately enough, St. Pavatius (who is there called Panacius) being then still alive, inasmuch as he washed St. Gervasius with the sacred waters. But the times of that Bishop of Le Mans, if we believe the Catalogues in Papebroch on 19 June in the treatise on St. Innocent, are to be so ordered, that Pavatius sat from the year 303 to 356, and so our Saint must have been born at the beginning of the 4th century, who, since he underwent martyrdom while still a young deacon, certainly did not exceed the fourth century, on that hypothesis. But he who described the passion seems in some way to combine his age with St. Lupus of Chalon, whom it is agreed lived at the beginning of the 7th century, whence a sufficiently entangled knot arises, unless for St. Pavatius of Le Mans another name be substituted, of a Bishop at least living in the 6th century, such as could have been St. Bertichramnus, concerning whom see the praised Papebroch on the said day, volume 3 of June, page 862.
[2] And indeed that it was most probably erred in the name of the Bishop of Le Mans, thou wilt gather also from this, that the Bishop who conferred on St. Gervasius the grace of baptism, with St. Pavatius, Bishop of Le Mans; is said to have imposed such a name on him chiefly for this cause, because his cathedral church was dedicated to St. Gervasius, companion of St. Protasius. The words of the Acts are below n. 3: And for love of St. Gervasius the Martyr, in whose honor the see of that city is consecrated, he imposed the name of Gervasius. That thou mayst more clearly perceive the lapse; thou wilt note that the church of Le Mans, before sacred to Blessed Mary and Blessed Peter, did not receive the other appellation before the times of St. Innocent or Innocentius, who held that see from the year 496 to 542, as in his life page 859 it is most openly said. He, succeeding St. Principius, when he had enlarged and completed the church begun to be restored by St. Victurius, made an altar, in which he honorably placed the relics of SS. Gervasius and Protasius … and thus in honor of the Saints Gervasius and Protasius, the name of the same church was changed, namely on account of the virtues miracles which there innumerably, in memory of the Saints Gervasius and Protasius, were done. Since therefore before the end of the 5th century St. Gervasius could not have been the titular patron of the church of Le Mans, it is altogether consequent that the name of St. Pavatius, a century and a half older, was wrongly intruded into these Acts.
[3] to be reduced rather to St. Paul of Chalon. I am not ignorant how frequent such prolepses are in those who, little skilled in chronology, after many centuries from the death of the Saints, compiled Acts here and there from vague reports; but here so studiously is expressed the reason of imposing the name of St. Gervasius, that I can scarcely believe that the writer feigned it rashly; and therefore, for that part at least, I am plainly led to reject the epoch of St. Pavatius. Not so open is the combination of the Saints Pavatius of Le Mans and Paul of Chalon: for the holy Martyr Gervasius could have been buried one or another century, before he appeared in a vision to the holy Bishop of Chalon and admonished [him] to take up the care of his burial: yet this indeed does not seem probable to me, for those words n. 10: The fame of his miracles afterward increasing round about, do not easily allow so great a latitude, since they are so immediately subjoined to the burial of the Saint himself and to the building of the little cell, in which the neighboring people could daily exhibit the service of their devotion before the presence of so great a Martyr. Who would believe, that from the 4th to the 7th century that little straw [and] wooden cell remained, and only then was St. Paul, Bishop of Chalon, admonished by a vision? Since therefore not obscure indications appear, for the supposition of the name of St. Pavatius, it will be no scruple to me to ascribe this error too to the author, which being removed, the rest may better stand.
[4] Whatever doubt the unknown writer has left concerning the composition of the times, Long since venerated, though unknown to the ancient fasti. already abundantly weighed, from the aforesaid Acts and monuments existing today, it plainly is established, that St. Gervasius, though a Martyr in the wider acceptation, from the very slaying, wrought by robbers, by the common acclamation of clergy and people, obtained the service of devotion, and, the fame of his miracles increasing round about, first a cell was built, then a church, and that consecrated in honor of the holy Martyr Gervasius. For the rest, I must confess, that of so many Usuardine codices, however augmented, as were adduced in the most recent edition, there is not one which makes any commemoration of this holy Gervasius. Ferrarius seems to have first recorded him in his catalogue from the tables of the church of Chalon: At Chalon in Gaul, of St. Gervasius, Deacon and Martyr. He would have written better, in the territory of Chalon; but slight errors of this kind are easily to be forgiven to Ferrarius, as also to Saussay, in the supplement to his Martyrology, writing on this day: At Chalon among the Aedui, the natal of St. Gervasius, deacon and Martyr, there laureled in the defense of piety. Best of all Castellanus, not obscurely intimating that that displeased him in the Legend which we above thought to be reproved: In Burgundy, of St. Gervasius, whom the legend will have to have been born at Le Mans, baptized by St. Pavatius, who is venerated as deacon and Martyr in the diocese of Chalon.
[5] To come to the Acts themselves, the age of the author does not appear even through a crack, so that to what century they should be recalled must altogether be divined. The Chifflet Acts interpolated in two places He intimates that he writes the things which were told to him, or which many have related, or which are in the mouth of all: I understand popular narrations or traditions, which do not show themselves older than the 9th century:
which, if it were admitted, namely that Robert, the most glorious King of the Franks, is truly cited in them, they would now be brought down to the 11th century. Peter Francis Chifflet, most well-known in this work, sent Acts of this kind to our Elders, under this title: The Passion of St. Gervasius, deacon and Martyr of Le Mans, from two ancient manuscript codices, to which toward the end this parenthesis is inserted: "having received from Robert, the most glorious King of the Franks, by royal precept, the church to be possessed in perpetuity"; which Chifflet tried to explain thus, as to be otherwise punctuated and wrongly intruded by later hands, who received the confirmation of the privilege, long after the Acts were written, from King Robert: otherwise for Robert, Childebert would have to be substituted. But other Acts free us from that difficulty, with this inscription: The Passion of St. Gervasius the Martyr. This Claudius Perry, of the Society of Jesus, described from the old legendary of the church of Chalon. His feast is celebrated in the church of Chalon, under the rite of a semi-double, on 6 July. Bollandus noted that he received it in the year 1653.
[6] To this Passion plainly similar is that which, under the same title, in the History of Chalon, published in French at Lyons in two volumes in the year 1662, the author published, who wished to lie hidden under the name the Illustrious Orbandale; from which Passion, equally as from the Perrian, that whole period is plainly absent with the Chalonnaise [Acts they are compared.] which mentions Robert, King of the Franks; so that it can sufficiently be understood that some marginal notation crept subsequently into the text. For the rest, those Chifflet Acts are much more polished and correct than those others, nonetheless diligently collated by us with those just now cited, whose variants, which are of any moment, we shall not neglect to indicate in the annotations. They bring moreover another difficulty, however superior the Chifflet Acts [are], when toward the end, not without another manifest error, they thus read: by blessed Flavus (or Flavius), the first pontiff of the said city, in the unraveling of which the describer torments himself somewhat; but since that particle "first," which he himself acknowledges false, is rightly omitted in the Chalonnaise Acts, there is no reason that trifles of less moment should detain us longer.
[7] On the ancient rite of the Church, even the Catholic, A last difficulty, and in some way extraneous both to the Saint and to the Acts, is offered from the words of number four: "into the mouth of that infant, as is the custom, he put the holy body of Christ." To which Chifflet: In some of the first centuries from Christ there was a custom in all or most churches, that, if on account of danger of life it were necessary to baptize infants not yet endowed with reason, to them after baptism the Eucharist too, under the two species mingled together, was put into the mouth. That this was wont to be done in the Gauls, appears even from this place; [and] that among the Greeks, Africans, Italians, and Spaniards it was received in use, Dionysius the Areopagite, Cyprian, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and the Fathers of the Second Council of Toledo teach, in the places which the Theologians report and weigh, especially Suarez disp. 62 On the Eucharist, section 4, and disp. 69, sect. 2; Vasquez disp. 212, chap. 2; and John Martinon disp. 28, sect. 8. Nor is there doubt that infants sanctified by baptism were capable of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and so received something of grace by the virtue of it, as the cited doctors excellently prove. But that it was not necessary to them for salvation, is sanctioned in the Council of Trent session 21, chapter 4, canon 4. Whence Augustine, who seems to assert that the Eucharist was necessary even to infants, is to be understood (as the cited doctors well note) of the body of Christ mystically participated through baptism, with an aptitude to receiving it really, but not of the actual reception of it.
[8] Of the holy Eucharist to be conferred after baptism. I would not gainsay those doctors and Chifflet; but I remember to have more than once read and heard the argument of a man most versed in Augustine, by which he showed, that the holy Doctor taught no less strongly, that the real and actual reception of the Eucharist was necessary to little ones for salvation, than he taught, that the same little ones, dying without baptism, are tormented by the pain of sense. That the distinct solution of this parity he had not yet found, nor perceived from anyone, the praised disciple of Augustine asserts. But whatever be the case of it, that it is today forbidden in the Catholic Church to give the Eucharist to infants, is most certain: but why in those first centuries it was permitted, is not of this place more laboriously to examine. Chifflet thinks that it was then conceded, because for the most part they were adults who were regenerated by the laver of baptism. Other congruent reasons too can be adduced, which we leave to the polemical writers to gather. That among nearly all the Orientals that use of conferring the Eucharist after baptism is received even today, and that it is by them esteemed necessary to salvation, from the words: Unless you eat, etc., I have reported in the appendix to the treatise on the Patriarchs of Alexandria page 141, n. 191, where thou wilt find the rite of the Copts. This digression [is] a little long; let us return to the Acts of St. Gervasius.
PASSION
From two ancient manuscript codices of Chifflet, collated with another Chalonnaise Legendary.
Gervasius, Deacon and Martyr, in the territory of Chalon (S.)
BHL Number: 3512
FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.
The virtues miracles which the heavenly King, who is always marvelous in his saints, by the marvelous power of his divinity worked through those in whom he set for himself a temple of his inhabitation, Prologue of the writer. illustrious and most learned men have endeavored to write with such zeal, that not only things seen, but also things heard, they wrote with a shining style: believing it would be no small profit to posterity, if they should leave to them such writings, through which their minds might be excited to seek heavenly things, and to shun the things of this slippery life which are a frail. By whose examples I, stupid, being provoked, although I am destitute of all wit and eloquence, have nevertheless taken care to write the things which were told me of blessed Gervasius the Martyr, supported by the aid of the Martyr himself b. For I trust that there can be given me by him a mouth and wisdom, in whose breast are laid up all c the treasures of wisdom.
[2] The glorious Martyr of Christ Gervasius, therefore, a citizen of the parts of Le Mans, By the prayers of [his parents] was born of honorable and God-fearing parents: whose father and mother, notable for the worship of the orthodox faith, shone eminent among their own d with the highest nobility and grace. Which most noble parents, the days of old age now approaching, when they perceived themselves to be without children, afflicting themselves with the contrition of unspeakable grief, following the examples of that happy Anna, asked of the mercy of God that this be done for them, which they had not been able to attain by their own merits. They both therefore go to the Pontiff of the aforesaid city, by name Panacius e, a man likewise exalted in sanctity f of every kind g: with downcast faces humbly praying, that by their prayers they might bend the heavenly clemency, that from them should proceed such a son, of whose mind the Holy Spirit should be the inhabitant; and who in thought and eagerness, and in happy deeds, should dwell in that eternal fatherland.
[3] Nor did the regard of the divine condescension long delay to give assent to so happy a prayer: St. Gervasius obtained, for it granted them what they had long desired, and they begot this son of whom we speak; whom, bringing with great gladness to the aforesaid Pontiff, they returned thanks to God, and to him, that they had received the wished-for gift. But the venerable Pontiff, beholding them with a delightful countenance, said: It is fitting, my most beloved, that this little one, whom God has given to me and to you, moved by your tears and sighs, we offer to him wholly: for he himself can give you others, who may be able to enjoy the honor and dignity of this world; but this one both in the present will be great, and after the course of his life will profit many. Such things the Pontiff uttering with a serene mouth, the things which pertain to the baptistery being prepared, he himself by himself sanctified the font, and with pious hands baptized the little infant, and signed [him] with holy chrism: and for love of St. Gervasius the Martyr, in whose honor the see of that city is consecrated h, he imposed on him the name of Gervasius.
[4] and baptized by the Bishop of Le Mans, But this is not to be passed over, which those who heard the deeds of that Martyr related to us who have written these things. For they said, that in the hour when the oft-mentioned Pontiff, baptism being accomplished, put the holy body of Christ into the mouth of that infant (as is the custom i), he saw on his lips a drop of blood: which, gazing with sagacious mind, he said to all the bystanders: Know for certain, all of you, that this little one, as he is joined to blessed Gervasius the Martyr by name, so will be a strong assertor of Christ, joined to him also by the effusion of blood. The boy therefore grew, and is delivered to the studies of letters; and so far deserved to be imbued with the disciplines of all wisdom, that, the already-mentioned Pontiff choosing [him], and the rest praising [him], he was ordained a fit minister of the levitical order. Which office faithfully performing, and adorning [it] with the zeal of good works, made an imitator of blessed Lawrence the Martyr, all that he had, he gave wholly with a liberal hand to the needy, hoping to receive from him a reward in the heavens, who says in the Gospel, that what you did to one of my least, you did to me.
[5] He sets out for Rome. So, all his patrimonies and means being distributed in this work, he was made in spirit and in things a perfect poor man of Christ. This had most ardently clung to his heart, that he should leave his parents and country, and go to Rome, and serve blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, so far as faith might require. For, pontifical license being received, seizing that journey with many other faithful of Christ, as he had desired, he came to Rome: and there disclosed to his companions the secret which he had concealed from them, that he would never return to his country: which they hearing, with tears and groaning, casting themselves at his feet, entreated that he would not desert them; saying that they would have no reward for this pilgrimage, if, remaining there, he should let them depart with grief: and especially, because the Bishop had not given him license of remaining, but rather of going and returning. By which reasoning he, convinced, revolving with himself the sayings of that Samuel, obedience is better than victims, and to hearken more than to offer the fat of rams, gave solace to fraternal charity, and clung to them as companion in returning.
[6] Finally, fortified with many graces of the apostolic blessing, Thence returning he enters the wood of Cortes, and also with the intercessions of the holy Apostles, crossing Italy, and going through rough and doubtful passages, and the harsh places of the Pennine k mountains, at last, the river Saône being crossed, they come into the parts of the city of Chalon. Then holy Gervasius, strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the heavenly clemency providing, which had preordained him to be its Martyr, separated a little from his companions, having entered the byways of the wood of Cortes l, fell among robbers: who, looking upon him with grim eyes, surrounded him on all sides with brandished swords; with ferocious speech inquiring why he dared to approach the secret places of their dwelling, or who he was. But he, like another Abel, conscious of no malice, and secure of the mercy of God, amid the raging swords and the roarings of his persecutors, professed himself the true
servant of Christ, and from infancy a Christian, and prepared to endure all torments for the name of Christ, professed with free voice: and preaching to them many dogmas of the Gospel doctrine, he was in no way able to mitigate their ferocious spirits, that they might cease from their wickednesses; for they were vessels of all iniquity, and therefore (as the Psalmist says) salvation was far from sinners.
[7] Then they, counting the name of Christ for nothing, and spurning the words of holy instruction, in which he is killed by the robbers; shed, striving in emulation, the innocent blood of the holy Man, by tearing his body. But the most holy man, made an imitator of the Lord's passion and piety, his eyes raised to heaven, and with his whole mind turned to God, burst forth into these words of prayer, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, who, hanging on the Cross for our salvation, didst deign to entreat the Father to forgive thy persecutors, forgive, I pray, also these, working their iniquity on me, that the effusion of my blood may not be to them a cause of damnation. I give thanks to thy immense benignity, that on this day thou grantest me to come, with the palm of the Martyrs, to the glory of thy kingdom: and I pray that thou join me to blessed Stephen the Protomartyr, whose order of levitical ministry I discharge. Saying these things, the bonds of the flesh being loosed, with a great light of brightness, the angelic choirs ministering, he entered the hall of the heavenly kingdom.
[8] But one of the persecutors, seeing the patience of the holy Man, and the wondrous constancy of his mind, and the perfect charity, one of whom, repenting, narrates the martyrdom. kept to the end, and even extended unfailingly toward the very enemies, leaving the assembly of the malignant, following Christ with his whole heart, with all diligence guarded the body of the Saint; but the rest, as many have related, and it is still in the mouth of all, ended a most wretched life by various punishments: and so far is their offspring held bound by the bond of a curse from God, that none of them, when they depart from this life, will the earth receive: which thing was truly proved, and seen by many. So, the faithful Christians from the neighborhood being called together, he, in whom God had shown the change of the right hand of the Most High, narrated the passion in order; inasmuch as he was one who had seen and heard [it].
[9] Which they hearing, and weeping for joy, immediately composed the most holy body decently in the Christian manner, He chooses his burial by a miracle; and, placing [it] on the cart of a certain widow, two most tender beasts of burden m, and not yet tamed, being yoked, they began to entreat the clemency of the Lord, that he would direct him by a straight way thither, where he had disposed to rest for ever. Wonderful to say! none touching them, yet by angelic guidance (as we believe), it was come to the place where now the precious limbs of Christ's Martyr rest. There the beasts stood fixed with such immobility, that they could [not] be moved from the place, none urging them. Perceiving therefore in this matter the wondrous disposition of God, tapers being lit, and other ministrations being prepared, with a great number of clerics, and an assembly of both sexes, they delivered the venerable body to burial, building over [it] a little cell of wood, in which they could daily exhibit the service of their devotion before the presence of so great a Martyr.
[10] to which, the signs increasing, The fame of his miracles afterward increasing round about, the most blessed Lupus n, venerable Prelate of the church of Chalon, was admonished by blessed Gervasius through a vision, and was addressed by him with such words: Why, O Priest worthy of God, intent on other utilities, art thou unmindful of me? If thou wilt not wholly lose the grace of God, apply the care of thy solicitude to my burial. And when the venerable Priest asked who he was, whose face so great a splendor irradiated; I am, he said, the Levite of Christ Gervasius, begotten of orthodox parents; and coming into these parts a pilgrim, I underwent martyrdom for the name of Christ; and now I come to thee. If thou wilt be a partaker of my society, appoint me a place of prayer, where God may be worthily praised by thee, and by his other faithful.
[11] a church is built. Which heard, the venerable Priest of the Lord, building a more honorable church in the aforesaid place, consecrated it in honor of the holy Martyr Gervasius: and, enlarged with many estates, delivered [it] to the monastery of blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, built o by his predecessor blessed Flavus [p], Pontiff of the said city (having received from Robert, the most glorious King of the Franks, by royal precept, the church to be possessed in perpetuity). But in the dedication of the same church, God showed many miracles, to declare the grace of his Martyr, and the merit of the same Pontiff who dedicated [it]: namely by restoring sight to the blind, and to those held by various languors perfect health of body; which even now in our times Jesus Christ, our Lord, works, to the praise and glory of his name.
ANNOTATA.
p. And here, from the margin without doubt, there passed into the text the parenthesis, "having received from Robert, the most glorious King of the Franks, by royal precept, the church to be possessed in perpetuity"; of which there is nothing in the manuscript of Perry, nor in the printed Acts of the History of Chalon, which here I have preferred to the Chifflet Acts.