ON ST. AETHERIUS, BISHOP, CONFESSOR,
OF AUXERRE IN GAUL.
Sixth century.
CommentaryAetherius, bishop, confessor, of Auxerre in Gaul (St.)
J. B. S.
As known and celebrated as this holy Aetherius or Etherius, bishop of Auxerre, is in the sacred Latin Calendars, So unknown is his history, even the most ancient, so unknown are all his deeds, so cursorily touched in the history of the bishops of Auxerre in Labbe, tome 1 of the Bibliotheca of Manuscripts, that I rightly noted long ago in the Observations to Usuard that his memory survives in that church by his name and cult alone. Behold the very few things which are there reported concerning him: Aetherius (in order he is the 18th) sat 9 years, 6 months; he died on the 6th of the Kalends of August, and was buried in the basilica of St. Germanus. For he was in the times of Pope Benedict, Tiberius Constantine reigning. The city was without a bishop for four days. But with what credit these things stand, gather from this, that Pope Benedict died in the year 577, before that Tiberius Constantine was raised to the empire, first in the year 578, where others hold that the Saint did not survive beyond the year 573. As for his being said to have sat 9 years, 6 months, this Georges Viole refutes in a manuscript collection, submitted to us by Castellanus, where he attributes to him only about four years of episcopate, Baronius, in his notes to the Martyrology, ascribing to him from Demochares six years. The first opinion Galesinius followed when he roundly declared: At Auxerre, of St. Aetherius, bishop and confessor. He, having piously administered the church committed to him for 10 years and 6 months, his life holily spent, flourishing in the praise of many virtues, fell asleep in the Lord under Pope Benedict.
[2] Let us confess, therefore, that all these things are obscure and uncertain; how celebrated he is in the Martyrologies. not so the cult, as I was just saying, for although in the Hieronymian sources he must be judged an addition, yet in all of them he is expressly placed. The text of Florentini has: In the city of Auxerre, the deposition of St. Etherius, bishop: in other copies; In the city of Auxerre, the deposition of Hetherius or Etherius. In nearly the same words he is reported also in the Franco-Gallican Hagiology, also published by Labbe. To Bede, the Roman
, the small Roman, and Ado he was passed over, but the other classic writers, following the Hieronymian sources, Rabanus and Notker, and especially Usuard with all his progeny, expressly mark him: At Auxerre, the deposition of Etherius the bishop. No less certain is it that he was endowed with perpetual ecclesiastical cult in his church on this day, though under a simple rite, as is most plainly established from the Calendars, even the more recent. Let Saussay conclude the matter with this eulogy of his, such as it is: At Auxerre, the deposition of St. Aetherius, bishop and confessor. He, excelling in the praise of wisdom and religion, after St. Romanus held the helm of that church, which, piously administered for 10 years and 6 months, adorned with every episcopal virtue, he departed to his reward.
[3] What survives concerning him. Have now in few words the things which the praised Viole collected concerning the posthumous glory of the Saint, and which are here translated from the French. He was deposited, he says, in the crypts of the church of St. Germanus near the chapel of the most holy Trinity, where once an old image existed, with the name of St. Etherius subscribed. Certainly, when in the year 1536 the earth was dug there, some bones were found, which are thought to be of this holy Bishop. Nevertheless Heric of Auxerre does not mention him, nor St. Eleutherius, in the celebrated translation of the year 862, when from various places of that church were collected the bodies of many Saints and deposited under the principal altar. There is also there his picture at the side of the most blessed Virgin, in which he is represented kneeling. Likewise are read Latin little verses not sufficiently pure, by way of an epitaph alluding to his name:
The bosom of nature is the ether, with dew, rain, heat / it makes all things fruitful, dissolves and waters them. / Is not Aetherius an ether, who by words, signs, and morals increases, / and irrigates and pours over minds?
His emblem is said to have represented the manna fallen from heaven, which the Israelites, gathering it, offer to Moses and Aaron, with Hebrew words inscribed, which correspond to these Latin ones, WHAT IS THIS?