ON ST. MARCHELMUS, today MARCELLINUS, PRESBYTER, CONFESSOR,
AT DEVENTER IN OVERIJSSEL, BELGIUM.
ABOUT THE YEAR 800.
A Historical Collection concerning his cult, age, and deeds.
Marchelmus, otherwise Marcellinus, Presbyter and Confessor, at Deventer in Overijssel, Belgium (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Among the distinguished lucubrations of Bolland, the parent of our first work, a place not the last is held by those on which he almost died, the Commentaries on St. Suibert at March 1, and on St. Ludger at the 26th of the same month: for in these, as has more than once been said by us elsewhere, The true St. Marchelmus is substituted for the pseudo-Marcellinus to that pseudo-Marcellinus, the fabricator of the famous epistle under the name of St. Ludger concerning the canonization of St. Suibert, and of the Acts, he tore off the mask by his laborious and learned dissertations, the fictions and lies being produced through various paragraphs and refuted, with which that whole little story overflows, and it is a marvel that even today the defenders of the insipid work, carried away by popular prejudices, do not observe it. And so in §2 of the Commentary on Suibert, he skillfully and laboriously distinguishes our true St. Marchelmus so called from the spurious patcher-together of fables; first showing that his proper name in all the most approved old manuscripts is never brought forth under the formation of Marcellinus, but constantly under that of Marchelmus. Moreover he collected the testimonies, or if you prefer, the elogia, from St. Ludger in the Life of St. Gregory of Maastricht, and Altfrid the writer of the Life of St. Ludger himself, from the Anonymous of Werden and others, in which are contained all the things which can be brought forward concerning the true deeds and age of the aforesaid St. Marchelmus, and by which accordingly most of the things are overthrown which of the confused Marcellinus are wont hitherto to be circulated by our writers. Lest therefore we do what has been done; from the cited passages of Bolland we shall cull a few things, when we have taken our exordium from establishing his cult.
[2] That St. Marchelmus was a servant of God, from boyhood instructed in holy manners, from the more recent Martyrologies, an upright man, a most religious and holy Man, a venerable Man, endowed with sanctity, and called by many most deserved titles of this kind by the most approved writers, the cited paragraph of Bolland sufficiently demonstrates; nor do we think it doubtful but that the honors of the Saints were once rendered to him by the people of Deventer and the neighboring peoples: yet we are compelled to confess that in the Breviary of the church of Utrecht, of which it is established that he was sacristan while he lived, published at Leiden and Gouda in 1508, no memory of him is found; and that the Martyrologies which mention St. Marchelmus, under the name of Marcellinus, are almost recent; and that perhaps the first author of them was that of the manuscript Florarium of the Saints in the fifteenth century, to the end of which also belongs the Lübeck-Cologne edition in the Usuardine auctaria on this day. Thus that briefer one: At Deventer, of holy Marcellinus the presbyter and confessor. But the said edition in these words: At Deventer, the birthday of blessed Marcellinus the confessor, disciple of St. Lebuinus the presbyter. Greven thus reads: At Deventer, of Marcellinus the presbyter and confessor, companion of St. Lebuinus, but disciple of holy Willibrord the bishop. Which words Molanus described in his first edition, in others thus changing and augmenting the phrase: At Deventer, of holy Marcellinus the presbyter and confessor, disciple of St. Willibrord the bishop. Who ruled the parts of Overijssel, the place Oudenzeel, Drenthe and Twente, Coevorden and Deventer, and by God's providence gained almost the whole people to Christ by preaching: which things Bucelinus rendered much fuller, since the other monastic writers Wion, Dorganius, Menard are briefer; there can also be seen Canisius, Galesinius, Ghini, and the Roman itself.
[3] But far more ancient than all these is the true and genuine commemoration of the Saint, not now under the name of Marcellinus, but under the genuine name of Marchelmus in the ancient Martyrology of Utrecht, and in the ancient Rosweydine codex of Usuard, which, for distinction from others, we have designated the Rosweydine; in place of which into the auctaria of Usuard has crept Marchelinus: thus there and truly it is had: Likewise of St. Marchelmus the confessor, companion of St. Lebuinus. The same name is preserved by another manuscript Martyrology of Utrecht, which is in our possession, of the church of St. Mary; although the Saint is absent from the Utrecht codex reckoned among the Usuardine ones. And these are the things which of St. Marchelmus it was permitted to find in the Martyrologies. A longer history Molanus wove in the Natales, as they were published by Lowius, but which for the greater part must be repudiated, inasmuch as taken from the now abrogated Acts of St. Suibert. And what things can be safely admitted, from what is to be said below you will most easily understand; that the Saint rested full of days and virtues among the people of Oudenzeel, and was translated to Deventer to that church which is now the cathedral, or at least was at some time; I indeed do not doubt. There pleases me more the briefer elogium of Miraeus, the last words about the written Life of St. Suibert being cut off. He calls him the apostle of Overijssel, and thus praises him, Miraeus: He was an emulator of the holy bishops Willibrord and Suibert in Gospel preaching. At the urging of Gregory, bishop (at least administrator) of Utrecht, he labored especially with St. Lebuinus in Drenthe, Twente, Oldenzaal, Deventer, and the rest of the tract of Overijssel. At last he died at Oldenzaal, which is the seat of the ancient Salii, thence translated to Deventer to the cathedral basilica of St. Lebuinus. Thus far rightly enough.
[4] those things not being admitted which are had in the Dutch of Opmeer, The Dutch Martyrology, published in Belgian under the name of the distinguished man Peter Opmeer in the year 1700, from page 28 reports the effigy of the Saint, formed at pleasure and from the painter's fancy, I suppose, in the sacred priestly habit, and some other things which are not forthwith to be admitted. From a few gather the rest. They err with Opmeer, who from the aforesaid pseudo-acts of St. Suibert suppose St. Marchelmus to have been one of the twelve companions of St. Willibrord, since at most in boyhood he could have been the disciple of him, already advanced in age, and this, if anywhere, in Belgium itself; hence consequently they invent other discordant enough things. Nor indeed is it certain that St. Marchelmus preached the Gospel in all those places which the aforesaid Opmeer so expressly enumerates. That he was a herald of the divine word at Oldenzaal, that he there closed his last day, and that thence his sacred body was translated to Deventer, we do not deny; but that his death can be so roundly marked in the year 762, we plainly do not admit, since from what Bolland disputed, it is most certain that he survived with St. Gregory, by whom at Rome he was taken as a disciple: but since he prolonged his life to almost the year 780, there can scarcely be a doubt but that St. Marchelmus survived beyond that year. To pursue here the rest, not sufficiently connected, would help nothing, for if with St. Willibrord, as his companion, he landed at Utrecht, this was done in the year 690: but if he preached even to the year 762, he sweated in the Lord's field not now sixty, as he himself will have it, but seventy whole years and more.
[5] or in the Proper of Utrecht Somewhat more solid I had hoped from the more recent proper Offices of the church of Utrecht, printed at Louvain in the year 1623 and at Cologne in 1640, in which the feast of St. Marchelmus, on account of the more celebrated solemnity of St. Bonaventure, is transferred under a semidouble rite to July 16: more solid, I say, I had thence hoped; but the lessons being attentively discussed, I find almost all things adapted to the vulgar opinion, that with
St. Willibrord and the other companions … he landed at Wiltenburch or Utrecht, etc. Which cannot rightly be composed with the dissertations of Bolland, so that accordingly I have not judged those lessons should here be produced. Plainly other things are handed down in the manuscript Offices of the same church, but which are not supported by greater authority. There is described there especially the diligent custody of the church, which we freely admit; and he is said to have written the Lives of SS. Suibert and Willibrord in the ninety-fifth year of his age, to have lived beyond a hundred years, and moreover to have laid down the clod of his body in the year 772, all which things diametrically conflict with the truer deeds of SS. Suibert, Gregory, and Ludger, as will at once appear to anyone inspecting and considering them. These things therefore being here passed over, let us now cursorily taste what of St. Marchelmus the more than once praised Bolland has more accurately defined.
[6] To this plainly and fully pertains the whole second paragraph of the Commentary on Suibert, A compendium of his deeds from the Commentary of Bolland, to which we refer the more curious readers, as also to that on Ludger, in volume III of March, §4, number 35: let it suffice here to have observed, that from the testimonies there adduced of the most grave ancient writers it has been demonstrated, that this our holy Marchelmus, sprung of the race of the English, instructed in holy manners by the holy bishop Willibrord, was the companion of St. Lebuinus, when he was sent by St. Gregory, abbot of Utrecht and rector of that church rather than bishop, to the place whose name was Deventer beside the river IJssel; namely the companion of St. Lebuinus, not his disciple, as Usuard the Rosweydine rightly pronounces. Then Bolland proves that he, still a boy, or a youth of about fifteen years, was found at Rome by St. Gregory, who had accompanied St. Boniface thither, about the year 738, and taken as a disciple; to which pertains the whole text of the Life of St. Gregory in Mabillon, century 3, part 2, page 327, number 12, which I shall presently subjoin; in which this only is to be corrected, that he confounds the third Roman pilgrimage of St. Boniface of the year 738, with the other, when on November 30 of the year 723 he was exalted to episcopal dignity by Pope Gregory II, as is shown at length at June 5, volume I, in the preliminary Commentary on his Acts, page 454: and for this cause especially I judge that text should here be produced entire, because it contains almost all things which can be proclaimed of St. Marchelmus with any certainty. The things falsely there asserted or supposed being cut away, the rest are to be admitted: let us hear all.
[7] And on that journey too, while the holy martyr Boniface at Rome, and from the Life of St. Gregory of Maastricht, as was said above, was exalted to the sacred grade, blessed Gregory my preceptor remained the untiring companion of his elect master; entering and going out, and proceeding at his command … But he also acquired there, the Lord granting, many volumes of the holy Scriptures … But also two boys, with the consent of the master, into his own discipleship, namely Marchelmus and Marcuvinus, of the race of the English, he brought thence with him: of whose elder, Marchelmus, a most religious and holy man, as is worthy, God granting, I shall in its place say something more fully. Then the happy company, namely the holy master and his elect disciples, both by their own merits and by the intercession of all the clergy and household of St. Peter commended to God and his Saints, returned home, growing and profiting from that day in every good work; teaching and instructing in the way of God, in which they themselves walked, not only the people and nobles of the Franks; but even the religious kings themselves they seasoned not moderately with the salt of divine wisdom. And thus in the consent and unanimity of the kings and all the people, through the whole kingdom of the Franks there began daily more and more to be losses to the devil, and increases to the Church of God; heretical depravities not to appear, and the Catholic faith to shine red in all things, and pure and immaculate religion to grow bright far and wide. These same things Mabillon touches in fewer words in the Benedictine Annals, volume 2, page 173, at the year 755.
[8] from which his age is to be gathered. What St. Ludger here says, that of St. Marchelmus he will in its place say something more fully, that you plainly have in the same Mabillon from number 14; but this must by no means be passed over in silence, that "as I learned, the venerable man Marchelmus relating it …" which Bolland contracted at the end of his number 12; then subjoining other things which make especially for the glory of St. Marchelmus, taken from the Life of St. Ludger himself, which you may see in the source at March 26, chapter 3, number 15, page 646, namely how St. Marchelmus interpreted the mystical dream of St. Ludger, and in it the things said to him by St. Gregory, concerning committing to him the rule of three peoples: which prophecy, since St. Marchelmus related it in the presence of the sole witness Addo, provost of the monastery of Utrecht, of whose church we have said he was sacristan, thence also Bolland refutes the imposture of the pseudo-Marcellinus, since he, in the supposititious epistle on the Canonization of St. Suibert, asserts the matter to have happened in the village of Dokkum publicly before several witnesses there enumerated. Moreover, since the aforesaid dream and its interpretation, by the reckoning of Bolland, happened in the year 780 or 781, certainly after the death of St. Gregory; it is clear, as was also said above, that the received tradition is false, that St. Marchelmus closed his last day in the year 762 or 772; who most probably prolonged his life to the end of that eighth century, or perhaps the beginning of the ninth. What James Revius in his Deventer Illustrated wrongly mixed together concerning SS. Livinus, Lebuinus, and Marcellinus, it is nothing to refute here, since from what Bolland disputed they are sufficiently overthrown, to be explained at length on November 12: nor do I see that any support for St. Marchelmus is to be fetched from Beka or Heda, so that here it must altogether be brought to a stop.