ON ST. JUVENIANUS THE GREAT, CONFESSOR,
AT EICHSTÄTT IN GERMANY.
ABOUT THE END OF THE 4TH CENTURY.
A notice concerning his cult.
Juvenianus the Great, Confessor, at Eichstätt in Germany (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
In our papers, or certain indices of Saints left by Bolland, I find noted on this day St. Juvenianus the Great, confessor, as one who is venerated in our church at Eichstätt, with no notice at all added, Passed over in all the sacred Fasti whence one might come to any knowledge of the Saint. I know indeed that there, as well as in our church at Antwerp, and in other churches throughout the world, many relics of the holy Martyrs received from the Roman crypts are venerated; nay, such Martyrs too are recorded in that same church of Eichstätt, expressed by their proper names, Venerius, Leontia, Castus, and Livenius, in our Acts on the 1st day of March, page 22; nor would I wonder if more of that kind were found there. But that of Confessors the reckoning is not the same, is commonly known. Wherefore I began diligently to inquire whether in our Museum there were any indications of that Juvenianus the Great, confessor, submitted later, whether that Saint was ancient or new, whether Eichstätt was his fatherland, or he had been brought thither from elsewhere: in what century he lived; from what time he was venerated there. But our Tables, Fasti, Martyrologies, and whatever Catalogues of the Saints being unrolled, since nothing anywhere occurred, I thought other helps must be sought out.
[2] I therefore had recourse to our friend Father Johann Seyfrid, it became known from Eichstätt letters, Professor of History in the Academy of Würzburg, from whose reply I could at length gather this, that he is truly a Saint, once set upon the sacred altars, and honored in our church at Eichstätt, now for a century, with public veneration. Thus he wrote to my questions, sent on the XXII of February of the year 1722, on the XVIII of March next following: While I await the replies from Eichstätt, concerning those things about St. Juvenianus the Great, confessor, into which your Reverence inquired, I have at leisure surveyed the Necrologies and Martyrologies which I have, few in number; and among them I found the Calendar of a Breviary of the church of Hersfeld of the Order of St. Benedict, in manuscript, with this title: Here begins the Breviary, etc. In this, on the third day before the Ides of July, besides St. Margaret, virgin and Martyr, is set St. Juvenianus the confessor. I doubted whether this were the name of the Saint into whom your Reverence inquires, and to whom is added the surname or eulogy of "the Great." The doubt was removed by the letter of the Reverend Father Edmund Sickingen, Rector of Eichstätt, which I received yesterday with its enclosures. One and the same is St. Juvenianus of Eichstätt with him of Hersfeld, and in the said Calendar the feasts of the other Saints, whose relics were once kept at Hersfeld, are marked on the same days on which they are noted in the letter of Father Agricola.
[3] And this is the letter on which the whole reckoning of the present cult rests, especially from the letter of Father Agricola, truly worthy to be read, as being the instrument of the veteran army chaplain Father Johann Agricola of our Society; a letter, I say, given to the most exalted and most reverend Lord Johann Christoph, bishop of Eichstätt, in which he testifies of a thing seen, and by which the whole order of the chance finding, and of the subsequent transmission, is rendered clear. May God grant that, when it has been read, curious Germans, whether of Hersfeld or others, may be stirred up to suggest more concerning that Saint Juvenianus, and some others found at the same time, which, if not here, at least elsewhere, may be illustrated for the merits and glory of the Saints: as, to say nothing of Cyril of Alexandria, Wigbert, some companion of St. Maurice, Lull Archbishop of Mainz, or others, whose deeds have already been sufficiently cleared from elsewhere. Some circumlocutions, indeed, the praised Agricola uses, which may rightly be called mere offices of courtesy toward the munificent founder of the College, but that the whole instrument, thus far, at least so far as I know, unpublished, may be open to all, it has seemed good to insert the whole of it in this place, just as we received it from the Reverend Father Edmund Sickingen through Seyfrid. The autograph of the letter is written on a parchment leaf, and secured with the appended seal of the most illustrious Lord General de Tilly; and it is kept in the archive of the College of the Society of Jesus at Eichstätt. Thus Father Agricola begins:
TO GOD, BEST AND GREATEST.
May He grant all health to the most illustrious and most reverend Prince and Lord, Johann Christoph, Bishop of Eichstätt.
[4] in which he signifies to the bishop of Eichstätt War destroys some, saves others, most illustrious and most reverend Prince, according as heaven favors or is angered, against whom alone we sin, and to whom we repent. Me certainly, beyond hope and merit, war has treated kindly, both as to life amid dangers, and as to good health, although I have more often exposed to death my head than my hand. Nay, though poverty was always my wish, I have been raised to riches, and those so great, that gifts remain to me fit for kings, unless I preferred to destine them for a Pontiff, your Most Reverend Highness. Let someone ask whether the wealth grew from spoils, or from theft and rapine: in both ways indeed they befall in war, and by this latter they are wont for the most part, but those only which the poor love. Far other are the riches that are of price to the heirs of the highest kingdom; which, since they bear the title of piety, it matters not in what way they are acquired. Your most illustrious Highness will feel with me, I know; if you will hear the matter simply. Thus far the not ungraceful preface of Father Agricola, by which neatly enough and ingeniously he wins the good will of the most exalted and most reverend Prince. There follows now the occasion of the whole matter done, and an accurate description.
[5] In this present year of Christ 1623, in the month of June, that army of the Catholics, the manner in which in the church of Hersfeld lately victor of the Palatinate and Bohemia, against the one-handed Duke of Brunswick (whom afterward on the VI of August it most bravely routed), by the name
of Christ, is set in motion by its most illustrious and most invincible hero the Duke, the Lord Johann Count Tserclaes de Tilly, etc., with whom I follow the camp—or is it peace? We come to Hersfeld, which, near the river Fulda, is a town in Hesse, once a splendid abbey of Germany. We halt there some days, and behold a spacious church, and in it the images of nine Saints painted in a row, whose inscription, besides the names (which seem to have been changed by evil deceit), states that they themselves are present in body and rest there. No one but grieved that the mausoleum of so many Saints had for a hundred years been so negligently kept, and reduced to bare stones by the Calvinists, about five years before, more or less, namely as Prince Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse, had ordered, invading the goods of the ancient monks with no ancient faith. But the most illustrious and most excellent Lord Count de Tilly, etc., orders me to inquire whether anything of the Saints' bones survived.
[6] While I do this, and am long in vain, at length a certain citizen points with his finger; various relics were discovered, Here, he says, beside the left side of the church, are the remains of ancient ceremonies: for those who a few years before had laid waste the sacred things could do nothing against a well-closed place, the keys having long since been lost; therefore it was enough for them to have broken the stone near the hinges of the door, as much as was needful for a look inside. They saw, despised, and left it among the abandoned things. But I summon a locksmith, who easily opened the first door within the church. Thence by some steps we go down to another; but the iron bolt driven into the stone, and moreover covered with strong iron against such treacheries, he could not move, unless he broke away the stone together with the iron; which done, the hiding-place both of the bar and of the Saints lay open. I enter a place most strongly fortified with a vault, and little lit by small windows, which the glass itself, overspread with mold and cobwebs, had shut up. Among the trifles I see nine biers of relics, that is, painted chests, such as are wont to be carried about at the feast of Corpus Christi, which, however, it is agreed have not for an age come forth here into public. And though the locksmith opened it, through the little clandestine door below I feel the darkness of the treasure, and hold the treasure itself.
[7] Immediately I report the matter to his illustrious Excellency, of which he destines a part for the Eichstätt church of St. J., he rejoices, hastens to see it, we survey all, we find the names of the Saints outside on the biers with the relics inside; we see also an altar entire, which alone and only escaped the violence of the heretics. Therefore from the closet of his illustrious Excellency I and my companion Father transfer the daily sacred Office of the Mass to this holy place. In the following days I inspected the Saints' relics at more leisure, collected them, arranged them, that they might be sent to Munich to the most serene Duke of Bavaria Maximilian, Archsteward and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, who lovingly embraced them. But that many might attend the celebrations of the revived Saints, from each of the relics I took something worthy of an altar and a church, his illustrious Excellency partly consenting, partly dissembling. These are my rich spoils, whence kingdoms and provinces can be enriched as much as piety can be increased. I shall not be circumvented, if, accused of extortion, I be summoned to the tribunal of Heaven. But it pleased that Eichstätt be endowed with these monuments of the Saints for our new church, which by your illustrious Highness has been dedicated to God under the name of all the holy Angels. For St. Lull, Archbishop of Mainz, and St. Wigbert, whose relics are present, seemed to look toward your Highness; for the one raised up the monastery of Hersfeld, obtaining for it from the supreme Pontiff and the Emperor Charlemagne all immunities, just as your illustrious Highness has done and does for us and others: the other came from England, and with St. Boniface, into these lands with the Gospel, as St. Willibald, his contemporary and without doubt a great friend, came to Eichstätt.
[8] and among them those of this St. Juvenianus the Great; Honor, O men of Eichstätt, the English saints with the holy Angels. More concerning these relics of the Saints to the Reverend Father Rector of our College of Eichstätt, Gebhard Razenriedt. Here I shall only recount the names, their feast-days noted from the register of the Choir of Hersfeld, which I found here in manuscript of the year 1359. There will therefore be brought to your illustrious Highness of the sacred bones of St. Constantius, bishop and martyr, the third day before the Kalends of February; of St. Justinus, martyr, the tenth day before the Kalends of April; of St. Decentius, bishop and martyr, the eighth day before the Ides of May; of St. Cyril, bishop of Alexandria and martyr, the sixth day before the Ides of July; of St. Juvenianus the Great, confessor, the third day before the Ides of July; of St. Wigbert, confessor, on the Ides of August; of one of the companions of St. Maurice, the tenth day before the Kalends of October; of St. Laurence, bishop and confessor, the fourth day before the Kalends of October; of St. Lull, archbishop and confessor, the seventeenth day before the Kalends of November. To these I added a head, unknown, unless perhaps a slip of paper lies hidden within, so that from the old wrapping it may be understood that the relics found are genuine. But that these sacred gifts of the new church may have their splendor also from the offerer, your illustrious Highness will receive them from the most illustrious Lord Johann Count Tserclaes de Tilly, Baron of Marbais, Lord of Balâtre and Montigny, etc., Lieutenant-General of Ferdinand II Roman Emperor, and also of the most serene Maximilian Duke of Bavaria and Archsteward Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, and of the confederated Catholic princes and estates of the empire's forces, unless from elsewhere an impediment to the journey should arise. The same illustrious hero, entreated by my prayers, also made these present letters marked with his own seal, after he had heard me reciting them word for word, for their credit among posterity, who, I pray, may always give thanks, since our age now always earnestly desires this, that your illustrious Highness may hold the years of St. Willibald in the bishopric. In our winter quarters at Hersfeld, on the Ides of December in the year 1623. Signed, Johann Agricola, presbyter of the Society of Jesus.
[9] concerning which, what may seem to be thought. In all these things I have nothing whereby I might call in doubt the credit of Father Agricola or of Count Tilly; but I ingenuously confess that the name of Juvenianus the Great, especially as of a confessor, by no means pleases me; because in no tables anywhere, which I have consulted neither few nor drowsily, is he known outside Hersfeld. Nor do I sufficiently grasp thus far who is that Cyril of Alexandria, bishop and martyr, on the sixth day before the Ides of July; much less what that Laurence, bishop and confessor, on the fourth day before the Kalends of October, means. About the other Martyrs, Constantius, Justinus, and Decentius, I do not so greatly labor, since those Saints could easily have been transferred from the Roman crypts to Hersfeld, the title of Bishop being now and then added, as it is commonly well enough known to have happened in so many other places. If I may be permitted to conjecture, I shall not fear to suspect that the name of Juvenianus the Great grew together out of SS. Januarius and Magnus, the Deacons of Pope Sixtus, whose relics and perhaps sacred bodies, with almost innumerable others, were brought to blessed Rabanus Maurus, as you have in his Acts on the IV of February. Furthermore, the sacred remains of the said Januarius and Magnus, deposited by Humbert, bishop of Würzburg, at the request of Rabanus, in the church of the convent of Hohnkirchen, you will find in the cited Acts, chapter 6, number 34, page 519. How easily the aforesaid relics, or at least some part of them, could have been shared with the monastery of Hersfeld, not so far distant; or other synonymous saints, perhaps so baptized, be brought thither, just as a certain Magnus is said to have been deposited at Würzburg by St. Burchard in his Life, book 2, chapter 8, in Mabillon, century 3 of the Benedictines, part 1, page 709. Then indeed from the names of Januarius and Magnus, not clearly expressed, the barbarism of the succeeding ages may have formed Juvenianus Magnus, and added to him the title of confessor. As this conjecture of mine is a mere conjecture, so I would not wish it to be a fraud or detriment to whatever cult of St. Juvenianus the Great: I hold them to be most genuine relics of a Saint or of Saints, under whatever name at last they have been honored at Eichstätt, and are now honored.