ON ST. ITHERIUS, BISHOP OF NEVERS,
AT NOIENNI OR NOVIGENTUM IN GAUL.
ABOUT THE YEAR 691.
Collection concerning the cult, fatherland, age, deeds, and relics.
Itherius, Bishop of Nevers, at Noienni or Novigentum in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Papebroch, on the twenty-fifth of June, distinguishing from Saussay two holy Itheriuses, the one of Bourges, the other of Nevers, thus left written in the list of the Passed-over: St. Itherius, Bishop at Bourges, Remitted hither from the 25th of June, successor of St. Sævitianus, laid in the basilica of the Holy Cross, illustrious for his signs, is mentioned by Saussay, following the Saint-Sulpician Monk, writer of the Patriarchium of Bourges, who asserts that the holy body is now, that is in the last century, held in great veneration. Concerning this, the Parish priest of that church, being asked, denies that any memory of a tomb, much less of a cult, exists among them. Thus the Reverend Father Peter Carité, Rector of our College there, in the year 1691, having diligently scrutinized all things; and affirming for certain that he who today is venerated at Bourges with a semidouble rite, uncertain for what cause, is the Bishop of Nevers: yet it is not known whether the two collegiate churches of Ay and Sancerre are of this one or of that: concerning which matter I desire to be more fully informed, for the day on which the other is venerated at Nevers, the eighth of July. Papebroch's request was vain, no one taught anything, so that after so many years from the edition of the fifth tome of June, I had to have recourse again to Nevers, to obtain even modest notices concerning the holy Bishop of Nevers.
[2] We still have today the cited letter of our Carité, not for the Bishop of Bourges, whose own words it will be worthwhile to report, that it may be more clear that all the cult paid to St. Itherius looks to no other than to him of whom we here treat, the Bishop of Nevers, sixteenth in order, as is there said. Behold the entire response of Carité, given on the sixth of September 1691: Your Reverence required this of me, that with accurate study I should make you more certain concerning the cult and veneration which St. Aetherius has in the church of the Holy Cross of this city of Bourges. I will indeed do so gladly and with what diligence I can. And this first I will say to Your Reverence, that no memory of this holy Prelate exists in the tables of the Breviary of Bourges itself. For the Itherius who is celebrated on the twenty-fifth day of June in the church of Bourges with a semidouble rite is not Aetherius or Itherius the Prelate of Bourges, but another Itherius Bishop of Nevers. In which matter the usage of the church of Bourges is singular, since the memory of this Itherius is celebrated on the eighth of July in the Breviary of Nevers, of Orléans, and of Sens, and the Gallican Martyrology reports it on the same day in the Supplement; by which also is reported the memory of that Aetherius or Itherius on the twenty-fifth of June.
[3] but must be taken for him of Nevers. Neither have I seen, nor received by hearing, that in this very church of the Holy Cross there exist any indications of peculiar veneration toward that Saint; and it can be that that cult and veneration which Father Labbe designates in the Patriarchium of Bourges existed thus to the times of that author from whom he himself described the matter, but not to the times of him who wrote. Besides, lest any scruple should remain in this part in the mind, I went to the Parish priest of the church of the Holy Cross, from whom I required three things. First, whether the tomb of Blessed Aetherius was still marked anywhere in that church: and he denied that any traces of this remained, the earth being so often shaken and moved. Second, whether at least some place was marked, to which the devotion of the people, a witness of his sanctity, flocked: and this too he equally denied. Third, whether on any day the memory of the same Saint was venerated, and whether any monuments of foundations testified this: and he added that no indications of such matters existed. It is said indeed that, not far from the city of Bourges, two collegiate churches, of Ay and Sancerre, venerate St. Itherius as patron; but whether him of Bourges or him of Nevers, this I have not yet ascertained … Concerning Itherius of Nevers, moreover, Your Reverence, I think, expects nothing from me, since very many authors everywhere celebrate his memory.
[4] I confess indeed that St. Itherius of Nevers is celebrated by some writers, His cult is proved from Saussay, but by all so barely and confusedly, that it is difficult to dig out his age or deeds safely enough; which will presently be more manifest. Nor indeed can the cult itself be called celebrated in any way, since in no Usuardine Martyrologies, however augmented, nor in others more recent, is his memory found marked, except in Saussay's Supplement and in the most recent Universal of Castellanus, who mentions St. Itherius of Nevers on the twenty-fifth of June, but the other, not Itherius but Aetherius of Bourges, whom Saussay had marked on that day, he plainly excludes from the number of the Saints. Let us hear the words of both. Thus speaks Saussay in the Supplement, on this day: At Noienni among the Senones, of St. Itherius, Bishop of Nevers and Confessor, who, where born, there also buried, fosters and protects the fatherland committed to him with a special patronage. And not only in his fatherland is the Man, celebrated for sanctity, venerated, but, the rays of his glory being diffused far and wide, also at Sully on the Loire, in the collegiate church dedicated to his tutelage, he is observed with sacred honors. But there sat in the chair of Nevers other Prelates of proved sanctity before Blessed Itherius; of whom some, having fixed birthdays, are consigned to cult on their proper days; others, though equally remarkable for merits, are by no means ascribed in the sacred Fasti to a certain day, namely the holy Patricius, Eulalius, and Eoladius, whose blessed memory, lest it fall from the series of the Saints of Gaul, it has seemed pious and consonant to inscribe their names in these sacred tables.
[5] In which we too have here followed Saussay, although those last things by no means pertain here: and from Castellanus, who distinguishes the place more accurately. This memory will supply that which we ought to have treated among the Passed-over, being perhaps sometime about to obtain other documents which may claim a proper place in the Acts for those Saints, still wandering out of order. Let us return to St. Itherius of Nevers, whom, no doubt from the Breviary of Orléans, Castellanus thus celebrates on the twenty-fifth of June. His several words, as he himself wished, we make Latin, with the corrections which he afterward added. Thus is his announcement to be interpreted in the text: At Noviodunum, near Montargis in the Gâtinais, of St. Itherius Bishop of Nevers. He admonishes, moreover, on page 690, that the place Noyen, as he had written there, must be changed to Neugent, and that this must be rendered in Latin Novigentum, not Noviodunum, he says, or Noyen, as Catherinot did, deceived by the terrible word Noienni invented by Saussay. Let these things be said, that a more distinct notice may be had of the place itself, which we are wont to premise. For from several other villages or towns distinguished by the name Novigentum, this our one is sufficiently distinguished by its vicinity to Montargis (commonly Montargis), on the road which leads from Paris to Nevers.
[6] Other aids were fetched from Nevers; Saussay and Castellanus therefore prove the cult exhibited to St. Itherius, to be still more confirmed from the Lessons of the Breviary of Nevers, which the Rector of our college there, the Reverend Father Desgres, most recently sent, being asked by me that he would kindly deign to suggest whatever of notices concerning St. Itherius remained. He performed, both obligingly and diligently, what I had requested, having recourse even to Sully through friends, because he had learned that St. Itherius is honored there with a more solemn cult, that they too might confer what contribution they could. There were received again the Lessons from the old Breviary of Orléans, in which diocese the aforesaid town is situated, wont to be recited there on the twenty-fifth of June, plainly conformable to those of Nevers, but which, from the modern Orléans Office, reformed nineteen years ago (1701), the then Prelate of that city, the most Eminent Cardinal de Coislin, a little more liberal in changes of this kind, ordered to be expunged, leaving only a simple commemoration, not on the day on which he was before venerated, but on the ninth of July, by his mere arbitrament. The transposition of the day the Canons of Sully accepted, but they continue to celebrate the feast with the former solemnity, using a very ancient proper Office, written on membranes, and a most festive chant.
[7] whence were received the old lessons, The reporter of the whole matter did not note in what the propriety of that Office consists, but from the things which are subjoined it seems able to be gathered that the same Lessons are recited which I here describe. Lesson IV. Iterius, Itherius, or Ytherius, sprung from the village of Noëmium, instructed in the knowledge of all the liberal arts, conspicuous for sanctity of life and for the grace of healings divinely conferred on him, so declined the glory of men, that whomsoever he healed, he admonished not to tell anyone: but he himself sought any most hidden places, that he might there lie hidden unknown. Lesson V. Him therefore, tarrying in a certain place which is called the Gâtinais, among brambles and thorns, and thence brought to Rome by his legates, the supreme Pontiff, the man's sanctity being ascertained, embraced most familiarly, and, glittering there with miracles, kept with him for eighteen months. Sought and obtained at last as Bishop by the clergy and people of Nevers with all their vows, Itherius, at his entrance into that city, restored to health a certain man contracted in his limbs, freed one demoniac from the demon. Lesson VI. But after he had ruled the church of Nevers for many years, the veteran soldier rendered his soul to God. His body, placed in a boat upon the Loire, the river restored to its own soil: and when in its passage many sick had recovered health, at last, being brought to Noëmium, the priests honorably buried it near the altar of the church.
[8] The rest are done from the Common of a Pontiff. It is noted, moreover, in the Lessons of Nevers, from which the times and deeds are not sufficiently distinguished. that they are received from his deeds and writings of the church of Sully, where his memory is celebrated. We have already said that there is complete conformity between those which we received from Nevers and Sully. For the rest, you have here the Saint's fatherland and burial, which, called Noëmium, is today constantly taken for Novigentum (Nogent, Noyen, Noian), as Castellanus more distinctly expressed. His age and deeds savor of confusion, the Roman Pontiff not even being named by whom he was summoned to the City, and afterward destined for the church of Nevers. Michael Cotignon wished to bring light to these, in his historical Catalogue of the Bishops of Nevers, edited in French at Paris in the year 1616, where, numbering him sixteenth in order, he establishes him as successor of Rogo in the year 691, St. Sergius Pope sitting at Rome, but Theodoric I, or at least some Theodoric, reigning in France; an epoch indeed not unlikely, but not to be admitted outright, if it rests on the sole authority of Cotignon, than which I have not yet found an older. Among the Sammarthani he is placed tenth in the series, and is said to rest in the church of Noienni, his native village of the diocese of Sens, from the year 691. But these things are not to be handled too scrupulously.
[9] The things which besides Cotignon somewhat adorns,
contain no more substance The things which Cotignon added as certain, than is had in the Lessons described above. Nor is another brief compendium of the Life of St. Itherius, published in the year 1657 by the Canons of Ay (Des Ais) of the diocese of Bourges, to be reckoned of more value; among whom, that some St. Itherius is venerated also as Patron, as also among the people of Sancerre, the above-praised Carité mentioned. That compendium narrates that the Saint was hindered by a revelation from withdrawing from France into Liguria; and that the legates of Pope Sergius came to Soissons for the sake of business, by whom St. Itherius was led to Rome; and other things of that kind, which do not deserve to be reported at length. Of more recent matters the praised Cotignon could bear testimony: namely that the Saint's body, understand the greater part, is today reckoned deposited in the parochial church of Novigentum, dedicated to his name, and that several inhabitants are distinguished by the name of Itherius; that moreover in the citadel of Sully on the Loire, situated not far from Novigentum, there was once a collegiate church, which, destroyed by the petty king or non-Catholic Lord, was transferred to the town itself, where to this day a college of Canons subsists.
[10] To these a little Commentary adds strength, most recently directed hither by the praised Reverend Father Desgres, they are confirmed from more recent writings. from which I have already taken some things. There the Cantor and Syndic of the Chapter of Sully teach that the raging Huguenots, violators of all sacred things, having intercepted Sully and its citadel, in which was the collegiate church of St. Itherius, on the fourteenth of January 1562, miserably depopulated it, so that by Maximilian de Béthune, Duke of Sully, most known in the times of Henry IV, a new temple had to be built in the town; but that very many documents perished in that spoliation, so that it is no wonder if very few things pertaining to St. Itherius are found today. There remains nonetheless a gilded wooden reliquary, wrought after the form of the old collegiate church of the citadel, exposed on the summit of the altar, which is wont to be carried around every year in solemn supplication on the second festivity of Pentecost, and also through the year, some calamity urging, the townsmen requesting it, to implore the patronage of the most holy Guardian, as they testify was done in the year 1719, on account of the most intense heats and extreme drought. This is the piety and trust of the people of Sully toward their holy Patron, to whom in this part I do not think the other clients, of Novigentum, Nevers, Ay, Sancerre, and others, yield.
[11] From whom the church of Ay obtained relics. When and by what means the relics of St. Itherius came to the people of Ay, an instrument reported in the said little Commentary teaches, which I here subjoin: John, son of the former King of the Franks, Duke of Bourges and of Auvergne, and Count of Poitou, Étampes, Boulogne, and Auvergne, to all who shall inspect these present letters, greeting and increase of devotion. We make known that, with the consent, will, and good pleasure of the Prior of blessed Ytherius of Noyen, we took from the relics of the same priory a part of the head and arm of Blessed Ytherius, bishop and confessor: which relics we gave, for the favor and request of our beloved and faithful, master Simon and Alegret, to the church of Ay, which was founded in honor of the said Saint; that there the body of that Confessor may perpetually, as is fitting, be solemnly venerated. In testimony of which we have caused our seal to be appended to the present letters. Given in our town of Bourges, on the eleventh of November in the year of the Lord 1403. Whether the people of Sancerre too enjoy sacred remains, and what moreover was left to the people of Nevers, I have not whence to explore: let the clients take in good part the things which are here given.