ON ST. MERA VIRGIN AND MARTYR
AT LECTOURE IN GAUL
From the notices of Auch and from more recent Martyrologies.
CommentaryMera, Virgin and Martyr, at Lectoure in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
The obscure memory of this Saint, unknown among the ancient Martyrologists, the first, so far as I know, to revive it was Ferrarius in his general Catalogue of the Saints, first published in the year 1625, whom Saussay in the Gallican, The cult of a rather unknown Saint Arthur in the Gynaeceum, and other more recent writers of no great authority followed, so that consequently the commemoration of St. Mera in the sacred Fasti long seemed to me sufficiently uncertain, Claude Castellan being silent as to these things, a most diligent searcher especially of popular Saints, in whom no mention of her at all, not even among the venerable, was anywhere made. Doubtful, therefore, whether a place in this work was due to her, I used the wonted practice of our elders, by having recourse to the source itself, or the place where she is said to be worshipped, if perhaps some light might thence be shed, whereby at least I might be made more certain of the cult: for as to what pertains to her deeds or age, that nothing would be found, I had already sufficiently perceived.
[2] Doubts, therefore, pertaining to the aforesaid cult alone I submitted thither, established from the notices received, to which Bertrand, Rector of our college of Auch, out of his kindness subjoined those things from which it was permitted to establish that the Saint can here be placed safely enough. Thus runs his reply: In the Breviary of the church of Auch, printed and finished on the day before the Kalends of May in the year of the Lord 1533, in the Litanies following the penitential psalms, is read among the names of the holy virgins and widows the name of St. Mera, thus: St. Mera, pray for, etc. On the very front of the Breviary, in the catalogue of the Saints of the month of July, is found thus: On the 12th day before the Kalends of August, of Mera the virgin. And afterward the commemoration of Margaret the virgin. In the body of the Breviary, in the feasts of the Saints of the month of July, is found thus: On the birthday of St. Mera the virgin, a prayer: which prayer runs thus: O God, who gladdenest us by the commemoration of blessed Mera thy virgin, grant, we beseech, that whom we venerate with an office, we may also follow by the example of a pious conversation.
[3] And these are sufficiently certain vestiges of a more ancient cult, whatever perhaps has now been neglected. by which the authority of the said Martyrologists is in some way supported, whatever perhaps today, neither at Auch nor at Lectoure, in the revisions of the Breviaries, may be preserved of those things which were once recited in them. Of the Auch one I have nothing ascertained, but the Lectoure one, which Ferrarius cites, must certainly have been changed, since in the Proper of the Saints of the cathedral church of Lectoure, which is in our keeping, printed in the time of the illustrious de la Rochefoucauld, who held the see from the year 1649 to 1654, not a word is found by which any commemoration is made of St. Mera. These things, I say, we do not suffer to be to the prejudice of Saints anciently received, nor are we so easily led by those daily reformations of the Gallican Breviaries as to exclude from our work Saints sufficiently established from elsewhere, or to think that we should subscribe to the excessive license of the modern critics, as will perhaps be more fully set forth elsewhere.
[4] Ferrarius acknowledged it, Let these things be said to vindicate solely and only the cult of St. Mera; for to those things which besides were said by Ferrarius, Saussay, or others, we attribute no more than their faith deserves: nor is it sufficiently clear whence it could be established to those Martyrologists that this Saint consummated her martyrdom on 2 March, from whom Bolland once remitted her hither, in the list of the Passed Over on that day. Ferrarius, following no other than the Lectoure monuments, announced the Saint on this day alone, in these words: In the territory of Lectoure, of St. Mera virgin and martyr. He adds further in the notations that he received her from the Calendar of the church of Lectoure and of Auch, which venerates her also with an ecclesiastical Office. She is handed down to have suffered among the people of Auch; but in the territory of Lectoure a sacred building was dedicated to her, and a little town called from her name. Whether that sacred building of any kind still stands, and whether the little town survives, Bertrand in his reply omitted to note.
[5] Saussay, Let us now hear Saussay, adorning all these things with a somewhat graver buskin. Thus he has on this day in the supplement page 1148: In the territory of Auch, the birthday of St. Mera virgin and martyr, who, for the testifying of the divine truth, slain there with a firm purpose of cultivating sanctity, a victim pleasing to God, by dying penetrated the entrance of eternal life. That these things are proper to all virgin martyrs is sufficiently manifest. Thus he continues: But she is worshipped chiefly in the territory of Lectoure, where she has a dedicated building and a little town. And since she suffered on 2 March, yet because that day, as generally happens, is occupied with the beginning of holy Lent, that she may shine with a richer celebrity, her festivity is deferred to this day. This, I think, is Saussay's conjecture, quite rare and little used: but whence he gathered the day of the martyrdom, I candidly confess that I cannot divine.
[6] In fewer words our Laherius embraced all things in the Menologium of Virgins, when on the aforesaid day 2 March, and others. all elogium being omitted, for the composing of which he had found no matter, he simply writes: At Lectoure in Aquitaine, of St. Mera virgin and martyr. To Arthur the oration of Saussay pleased more, which accordingly he transferred entire into his Gynaeceum, as also that Simon Peyronet in the Catalogue of the Saints of Toulouse published in 1706, with notes, as it pleased him to call them, most exquisite, in which, namely, he also copied the words of Saussay alone, no further labor being applied to elucidating or illustrating the matter, where nevertheless no one was nearer to it than he, who, if he had wished to search out anything conducing hither, could have cleared up the whole matter a little more amply and clearly: I have nothing to add.