ON ST. PROSPER, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT ORLÉANS IN GAUL.
Fifth century.
A collection concerning his cult and age.
Prosper, Bishop and Confessor, at Orléans in Gaul (St.)
BY J. B. S.
Of the deeds of this Saint there is no reason why I should record anything, for, by the testimony of Charles Saussay in the Annals of that church, page 89, "Of Prosper we should have nothing, had not Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Auvergne, written to him," from whose epistles we recognize that he immediately succeeded Blessed Anianus: Few of his deeds are known; of which matter a little below. Here first we pursue his cult, ancient indeed and famous, as being expressed in the Hieronymian codices: "In the city of Orléans, the deposition of Prosper the bishop." But although we confess that it is a mere addition inserted into the original text, just as that other concerning St. Lupus of Troyes, that it is itself very ancient, no one who has known these codices will deny. Thence Rabanus received it, adding to him perhaps not improper epithets of "a most learned man" and "most holy"; with which Notker would better have simply rested content, being about to avoid the confusion which he most openly betrayed in these words: "Who wrote many things for the utility of the Church, and especially took care to defend the grace of God against the pride of the heretics": for that these regard another Prosper, namely Prosper of Aquitaine, the scourge of the remnants of Pelagianism, is commonly most well known, and was long ago observed by our predecessors in the fifth volume of June, page 54.
[2] His cult is better known. But this is greatly to be wondered at, that Prosper of Orléans is passed over even by the popular Martyrologists themselves, Florus, Ado, and Usuard, nor is celebrated in many additions to him, as anyone may perceive from our edition. The Sainte-Marthes transcribed Binius, following him erring in the brief elogium which they attribute to the Saint, in assigning his festivity to the fifth day before the Kalends of August, whereas in all others this day is marked the fourth day before the Kalends of August. The words of the Sainte-Marthes are: "St. Prosper, famous for sanctity, as the public registers of the churches testify, in which his praise is chanted every year on the fifth day before the Kalends of August in the church." Understand, I say, the present day, on which Saussay rightly, with an oration more elegant than true, adorned him in his Martyrology: "At Orléans, of St. Prosper, bishop and confessor, who was of such great sanctity that he succeeded blessed Anianus by a worthy choice, of whose praise too he was so zealous a cultivator that he besought Sidonius, bishop of Auvergne, most celebrated for the glory of eloquence, that he be commended to posterity. And no less an ardent emulator of his virtues; having attained by his acts his notable advances; after he had also been present at the synods of Carpentras and Vaison, with great honor of knowledge and piety, the interest of the talent divinely committed being copiously enlarged, he was called, a faithful servant, to the joy of the Lord according to his merits." If the Calendars rightly note, the Office on this day at Orléans is of St. Martha, with a commemoration of St. Prosper. And so much for the cult.
[3] In assigning his age the Sainte-Marthes deservedly deserted Binius, Of his age adding this one thing; "but that he succeeded Anianus in the year 453 is plain from the epistle of Sidonius Apollinaris, book 8, epistle 15." Whether this is so clearly drawn from that epistle, be thou the judge. Thus Sidonius writes: "While thou wishest holy Anianus, a very great and most consummate pontiff, equal to Lupus, and not unequal to Germanus, to be celebrated with the highest praises, and desirest the morals, merits, virtues of so great and so notable a Man to be fixed in the breasts of the faithful; to whom also this is given, not without justice, for glory, that he departed with thee as his successor; thou hadst required of me that I should promise thee that I would in writing make known to posterity the war of Attila, in which, namely, was contained the siege of the city of Orléans, the assault, the irruption—nor the plunder—and that famous prophecy of the priest heard from heaven. I had begun to write, but, the burden of the undertaken work being perceived, it wearied me to have begun. On this account I entrusted it to no ears, which first I had condemned with myself as censor. It will be given, as I hope, to thy entreaty, and to the merits of the highest prelate, that
for the herald-praise of him, we may do service on whatever, and indeed a speedy, occasion, etc." From which, concerning the end of the episcopate of St. Anianus, as also concerning the beginning of St. Prosper, you will draw just as much that is, nothing.
[4] This Saussay the annalist rightly enough observed: "From which epistle," he says, "these things must be read: First, that St. Prosper, as I said, immediately not a few doubts succeeded Anianus: for Anianus died, Prosper being his successor. Wrongly, therefore, is the order preposterously inverted in the registers of Demochares and others, in which between them are interposed Magnus, Febatus, Gratianus, Monitor. And at last, that St. Prosper was contemporary with St. Sidonius Apollinaris, who flourished, as Trithemius has it, in the times of the emperor Zeno, about the year 480." These things so understand, that we by no means deny St. Prosper to have been contemporary with St. Sidonius, but if in that sense you extend the age of St. Sidonius to the year 480, as though St. Prosper too must be removed to that year, who therefore flourished even then: although we concede that the holy prelate of Auvergne reached that time, of Prosper certainly, whence Saussay could gather it, we altogether do not understand: and much less do we assent to what he subjoins below, that this is the Prosper who subscribed the council of Carpentras, as before us Labbe observed, aptly adding these little words to the notation of Binius, "Binius errs."
[5] they are somehow solved. A prodigy certainly must be devised, if St. Prosper in the year 453 succeeded St. Anianus, as Saussay confesses, but protracted his life to the year 527, in which the council of Carpentras is today confessedly held. Further, how long St. Prosper lived, I will ingenuously confess that this is unknown to me, nor would I dare to establish that the epistle of Sidonius given to him was written while he was already administering the see of Clermont, to which he was not raised until about the year 470. All things would be plainer if Sidonius were said to have written it younger, say about the year 460, but that St. Prosper survived at least some years, although it must be altogether uncertain whether he ever saw Sidonius resplendent with the episcopal mitre. Perhaps here Saussay does not much stray, when he thinks St. Prosper sat at least ten years, namely from the death of St. Anianus, which falls in the year 453, to the year 463; although he there rests on a false supposition, that in that year the council of Carpentras was celebrated, whose true epoch we have restored; and adduces there other things not consistently enough connected.