ON ST. PASCHARIUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, AT NANTES IN ARMORICAN BRITTANY. ABOUT THE VIII CENTURY. A collection concerning his cult, age, deeds, and ecclesiastical office.
Pascharius, Bishop and Confessor, at Nantes in Armorican Brittany (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR I. B. S.
He who is here called by the more common appellation Pascharius, is elsewhere named Pasquarius, Paschasius, and by an almost different name by Claude Robert, namely Poscarius or Pascarius; by whom, however, he is called a Saint, He is known only in the more recent Fasti. this feast of the X of July being added. In the series of the Bishops of Nantes, in many places not a little entangled, he himself, by I know not what conjecture, makes him the twentieth in order, who in the Sammarthani is the twenty-second, not before Taurinus and Hairco, but after them, before Salappius; of which last one the age is proposed to be gathered from this, that Chaddo the archdeacon, in his stead, set his sign to the Council of Chalon in the year 650, so that it must consequently be said that St. Pascharius, if he preceded Salappius, departed from the living before that year; which opinion Castellanus embraced, in the Universal Martyrology, recording his death about the year 677, and appending to him this brief eulogy, that he distributed his whole patrimony to the poor. By all the ancients he is passed over, but among the more recent authors Saussay mentions him in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology, page 1144. At Nantes in Armorica, the deposition of St. Paschasius the bishop, a man illustrious for apostolic virtues; who, excelling at once in divine power and eloquence, inflamed many, while he preached in the church, with the love of God, and, drawing them away from the world, taught them to follow Christ, and to carry the cross after him for the obtaining of his kingdom. More briefly Ferrarius in the General Catalogue, in these words: At Nantes, of St. Pascharius, of the same city. Where it is plain enough that by the fault of the typographer the title of bishop, and perhaps of confessor, has fallen out.
[2] The Acts of St. Ansbert of Rouen teach his age. Concerning him, in the Life of St. Ansbert, archbishop of Rouen, on the IX of February, chapter 3, number 16, it is thus read: Under whose government also (namely of St. Lantbert) blessed Hermeland, from the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle, at the request of the venerable pontiff Pascharius of the city of Nantes, being directed by Father Lantbert himself into that same region of Nantes, built, on a certain island of the bed of the Loire, which was called Antrum (Cave), according to the property of that same name, a venerable monastery of monks. In the endowment of which the aforesaid prelate Pascharius established that, after the death of the same venerable Father Hermeland, from the monastery of Fontenelle, through all succeeding times they should appoint rulers for themselves; as the endowments of that place, which are still kept in the aforesaid monastery of Fontenelle, most openly declare. On which Henschenius rightly observed in the annotations of the cited chapter, that St. Pascharius, Bishop of Nantes, is placed by the more recent authors under Dagobert, king of the Franks, who are to be corrected from the connection of St. Hermeland with our Prelate: and this will appear the more so from the series of the Life of St. Hermeland, arranged by the same Henschenius, on the XXV of March in the preliminary Commentary, number 7, which for the illustration of the whole matter I thought should be here transcribed:
[3] and of St. Hermeland, for whom he built a monastery: Concerning the age of St. Hermeland some things are established for certain from the Life; of which this must first be established, that St. Landbert was abbot of Fontenelle in the year 673, until the year 684, and that by him St. Hermeland was received in that monastery, and clothed with the sacred habit: and, the probation of novices being completed, admitted to profession, and, since he excelled in virtues, by his command consecrated a priest, and at last sent away to St. Pascharius, Bishop of Nantes, that he might preside over a new monastery to be erected, with twelve other monks. Hence we gather that he lived at Fontenelle under Abbot St. Landbert, if not for nearly the whole time, at least for several years. Secondly, it is established that he reached a mature
age when he came to Fontenelle, namely one who before, when he was splendidly instructed in studies, had lived in the royal court, and had turned the heart of the King and of all the nobles, by the grace of his charm, into love of himself. … But the King of the Franks, when St. Landbert became abbot of Fontenelle, was Clothaire III, who, substituted for his father Clovis II, who died in the year 662, reigned nearly XIV years, dying in the year 675 or at the beginning of the following… Clothaire was succeeded by his brothers, Childeric; and, he being slain in this year 679, Theodoric, in whose time the monastery of Antrum was built.
[4] Henschenius proceeds to define the times in which St. Hermeland flourished; and since in the Life he is said to have been worn out with long old age, from which it is shown, he so orders them that he judges the Saint to have lived at least until the year 715. Furthermore, the beginnings of the monastery of Antrum, its construction and endowment, the lessons of the proper Office of Nantes explain, in which the whole matter is narrated accurately enough, if you except the confusion of times, in these words: But fearing (St. Pascharius) lest he alone might not suffice to fulfill the office of Gospel preaching, he asked Lambert, abbot of the monastery of Fontenelle, of the diocese of Bayeux, to send to him some of his monks, most religious and most learned, to instruct in the Catholic faith and good morals the people committed to him. But the venerable Lambert, when he learned the desire of the holy Pontiff, sent to him Hermeland the monk, a man of the highest integrity, together with certain others, likewise companions of approved life. Whom Pascharius received with the highest honor and joy: and erected for them a monastery in the place which is commonly called Antrum, on the shore of the river Loire, distant from the city by four miles; which he endowed with tithes, rents, estates, and revenues, and many ecclesiastical ornaments. Thus far the Office, rightly naming the persons, but, as will presently appear, hurrying the times too much, which are better to be brought to the chronological norm, and from them whatever Albert le Grand, in his Saints of Armorican Brittany, following the disturbed reckonings of the Lessons, wrongly arranged, is to be refuted: for the rest, only deducing more verbosely those things which will more safely be subjoined below from the aforesaid Office.
[5] That therefore anything may be established for certain concerning the age of St. Pascharius, that he lived until the end of the 7th century. it must altogether be compared and connected, from the Acts already published, with the times of Saints Lantbert and Hermeland, which are placed beyond controversy. But these two flourished toward the end of the seventh century, as has been demonstrated by Henschenius in the cited places; nor did the monastery of Antrum begin to be built before the year 679; nor before that time could it be endowed by St. Pascharius with tithes, rents, estates, and revenues; the epoch of the Saint, therefore, so plainly expressed in the first lesson of the Office of Nantes, deceives: Pascharius, a citizen of Nantes, illustrious for wondrous virtues and good works, flourished about the year six hundred and forty, in the time of the Emperor Heraclius and Dagobert I, King of the Franks. Moreover all the things too which have been determined concerning the year of his death by the writers praised just now are in error; for I judge it manifest, from the beginnings of the monastery of Antrum, that they cannot at all stand. To say it in a few words; if anything is to be rightly gathered from what has been alleged above; it is this: that about the year six hundred and forty, in the time of the Emperor Heraclius and Dagobert I, King of the Franks, St. Pascharius was born, who, without doubt, prolonged his life even to the eighth century, together with St. Hermeland, whom it is certain he cherished with singular piety and favor: whence the Catalogues of the Bishops of Nantes are altogether to be corrected, and St. Pascharius is most probably to be placed after Salappius at least and Agatheus, although concerning the year in which he put off mortality nothing certain has hitherto been able to be discovered.
[6] Of his deeds nothing else remains, No less obscure are the remaining things pertaining to the deeds of St. Pascharius, inquired into by us in vain, except only those which are recited in the aforesaid lessons of the church of Nantes; truer, I think, and more genuine than the reckoning of the times, sufficiently overthrown from the age of Saints Lantbert and Hermeland. More than once elsewhere the lessons from the aforesaid Nantes proper have had to be adduced, whose edition is to some extent gathered from the appended royal privilege of the year 1622, concerning which it has been said again in the other volume, where St. Felix, bishop of that city, is treated on the VII of this month, page 471. The Office is set in the double rite with this prayer: O God, who didst will blessed Pascharius, prelate of the city of Nantes, to leave the world in the confession of the true faith: be present to our pious supplications, and grant that, by his merits and intercession, we may rejoice with thee without end. Through our Lord. The rest are taken from the common of a Pontiff confessor, but with the homily on the Gospel: Let your loins be girded. Entirely proper are the three lessons of the second Nocturn, which we thought should here be transcribed word for word, that those things which we drew from them may be more apparent. Thus they have it:
[7] except in the lessons Lesson IV. Pascharius, a citizen of Nantes, illustrious for wondrous virtues and good works, flourished about the year six hundred and forty, in the time of the Emperor Heraclius and Dagobert I, King of the Franks. In faith he was robust, in hope patient, in charity fervent, in almsgiving overflowing, conspicuous for chastity, abstinence, and gentleness; fleeing the world and all that is of it, he wished to have nothing of his own with it. But when his virtues shone to all men, the Bishop of the city of Nantes having died, being demanded by all, at God's prompting, with unanimous consent, as Pontiff, he is elected. Who, though much resisting, could nevertheless not escape the divine will. Whether these things were taken from some more ancient Breviary of Nantes, or collected from other monuments only in the past century, is indeed not clear to me. For the rest, besides the epoch, already abundantly refuted, nothing much is had which could not conveniently be fitted to other holy Bishops of Nantes: in the two following lessons there are somewhat more things pertaining to the peculiar history of St. Pascharius, which we plucked out above.
[8] of the proper Office Lesson V. That office of the episcopate being at last received with humility, lest he be marked with the crime of a slothful servant, he began to watch over the flock committed to him, and took care to bring back to the Lord, doubled, the talent entrusted to him: but the earthly goods which he had received from God, by relieving the need of the poor and the oppressions of widows and orphans, he gave back to the same God who had bestowed them. He visited those placed in prison, and refreshed the sick with his consolation. Before the sheep committed to him he walked by the example of good works, and called them by the preaching of the word of truth. But fearing lest he alone might not suffice to fulfill the office of Gospel preaching, he asked Lambert, abbot of the monastery of Fontenelle, of the diocese of Bayeux, to send to him some of his monks, most religious and most learned, to instruct in the Catholic faith and good morals the people committed to him.
[9] Lesson VI. But the venerable Lambert, when he learned the desire of the holy Pontiff, of Nantes. sent to him Hermeland the monk, a man of the highest integrity, together with certain others, likewise companions of approved life; whom Pascharius received with the highest honor and joy, and erected for them a monastery in the place which is commonly called Antrum, on the shore of the river Loire, distant from the city by four miles; which he endowed with tithes, rents, estates, and revenues, and many ecclesiastical ornaments. But the infidel Normans, returning from the slaughter of Nantes, in the year of the Lord eight hundred and forty-three, burned and devastated that monastery too, whose traces still lie open to those who behold them. Full at last of these and other good works, he departed to the Lord on the sixth day before the Ides of July. And these are the things which could be said concerning St. Pascharius.