ON THE HOLY BROTHERS BANTUS AND BEATUS,
PRIEST CONFESSORS.
At Trier and Coblenz.
Seventh Century.
CommentaryBantus, confessor, at Trier and Coblenz (St.)
Beatus, confessor, at Trier and Coblenz (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Already in the table of the Passed-Over prefixed
to the 26th day of this month, we observed that one
of these holy Brothers,
namely Beatus, is on that day recalled
in the Usuards of Cologne,
and likewise in the appendices of Molanus;
nevertheless it had to be remitted to this place, Concerning St. Beatus
because the solemnity of both Brothers on this day
is celebrated together in the Proper of Trier, as will be clear from the lection
to be subjoined below. Concerning his cult, therefore, although
not the most ancient, being unknown to the classic Martyrologies,
there is no room for doubt; thus St. Beatus
is announced on the said 26th of July in our
manuscript Florarium of the Saints: "At Trier, the birthday of St.
Beatus, confessor, a most holy man, showing
his life from his name." The Lübeck-Cologne edition speaks thus:
"In the territory of Trier, near Coblenz,
on a mountain, the birthday of St. Beatus, priest and confessor."
In Greven more simply: "At Trier, St. Beatus,
priest and confessor." This text Molanus followed
in his first edition; but he added a little more to the others: "In the Charterhouse near Coblenz,
of holy Beatus, priest of Trier and confessor."
From these you easily gather that both Saints most probably
were laid to rest at Trier, whence St. Beatus
was translated to the said mountain near Coblenz,
as will be more distinctly explained below.
[2] Now indeed concerning St. Bantus Usuardus of Abdinghof reads thus on this day:
and concerning the cult of St. Bantus "At Trier, St. Bantus,
confessor of Christ," which very same words Molanus
inserted into his appendices. But whether you say "Bantonis" or
"Pantonis" or "Panthonis," all are to be referred
to the same. So the Lübeck-Cologne edition has,
"At Trier, St. Bantus, confessor"; but Greven,
"At Trier, Pantho (otherwise Bantus), priest and
confessor." A little more ancient than these, the cited manuscript Florarium
of the Saints wrote on this day: "At the city
of Trier, the birthday of St. Sabinus, bishop, and
Bantus, priest and confessor." What that combination of St. Sabinus,
a bishop plainly unknown to the people of Trier, with St. Bantus means,
you would not easily divine;
if he had written "St. Basinus," he would say something pertaining
to the people of Trier; but he is venerated on the 4th of March, on which
very day in the same Florarium he is most rightly marked.
Let Saussay be added to the rest, who also on this day announces Bantus.
And these things adduced from the Martyrologies,
although the more recent ones, demonstrate that both most holy
Brothers are sufficiently celebrated—Bantus especially at Trier,
but Beatus in the Charterhouse of Coblenz,
concerning which I shall subjoin a few things, when I have transcribed a brief
eulogy of both from the Proper of Trier.
[3] Thus one reads there at the 31st day of July: "Of the holy
Beatus and Bantus, priests and confessors
of Trier. sure testimonies. Lection III: Beatus and Bantus,
two most illustrious lights of the city of Trier, in the time
of bishop Modoald, settled in the Vosges bordering Trier.
Who, by the interchange of blood and
equally by fraternal love, thus by a lot not unlike that of a more blessed
and heavenly life, both brothers by blood, both
priests, and inhabitants of the vast solitude, each having traversed
the arduous path of virtue, far conspicuous by the labors of abstinence
and by integrity; at last,
having left an eminent fame of sanctity, migrated hence
to the world above. And the body of Beatus, laid in a becoming tomb
beneath marble in the shrine of the holy Mother of God
among the Martyrs, brought the remedy of once-experienced health
to those suffering from fever. By whose translation thence
a mountain near Coblenz obtained its name,
which the Carthusians now inhabit, and which grows famous also
by miracles. But Bantus was laid in an oratory
near the metropolitan shrine."
[4] Concerning their deeds in the Life of St. Magnericus Besides these, some Life of St. Beatus from the already-mentioned Charterhouse of Coblenz was once sent to our Elders by Father John
Gamans, always most praised by us; but that, however brief,
scraped together from the Ebrewinian Acts, in its middle part no more
pertains to our holy Brothers than to
the saints Paul, Ingobert, Disibod, Wolfilaic,
and others, concerning whom, as contemporaries, the Life of St. Magnericus,
treated at the 25th of July, mixes in much matter;
from it it will be enough to excerpt these few things: "There were
in the city of Trier two priests of the Lord,
Bantus and his brother by blood, in name and in fact Beatus,
with other most holy hermits abiding in the parish
of Trier upon Mount Cebena and in the Vosges
forest, who led a beatific life:
when they had entered into the joy of the Lord, St.
Bantus was buried in body in a chapel behind the greater
church of Trier, where once was
a fraternity and congregation, which is still called the prebend
of St. Bantus, that is, in German 'Bantprobent,'
concerning which it is not worth the trouble to inquire more today."
[5] and among others All these things are quite vague, nor yet
will you fetch clearer ones from elsewhere. Mount Cebena they explain
as Paulsberg, from the opposite, they say, bank of the Moselle
to the city of Trier, with which the Vosges
or Vogesus, whence the Moselle flows forth, you would not easily
reconcile. As for "Vantprobent," since I have nothing to determine,
as neither concerning the certain age, year, or day of his death,
any more than from those things which about St. Beatus there
follow, so that it is manifest that all is received from mere tradition.
Hear the sequel: "But St. Beatus
was buried at St. Mary the Old on the shore of the Moselle,
once called the Capitol, where now there is a monastery
of Benedictines, and now it is called Mary
among the Martyrs, behind the high altar under white
marble. But afterward under archbishop Poppo
he was translated to this mountain, which before was called the Mount of Martyrs;
whose translation-feast
was once venerated on the day of Crispin and Crispinian,
but we venerate it on the day of the relics. And from
this coming this mountain is called the Mount of St. Beatus, of whose name
may almighty and merciful God make us
partakers here and in the future, by the merits and prayers
of the said Beatus our patron. Amen."
[6] Nearly the same things about the holy Brothers, briefly
but elegantly, does Brower proclaim in his Annals, vol.
1, page 347, the narrators being quite vague. num. 32, whose words here also
deserve to be transcribed: "For the rest, about the same time,
two most illustrious lights of the city of Trier, Bantus and Beatus,
settled in the Vosges bordering Trier,
so that, by the bond of blood and equally by fraternal
love, thus by a lot not unlike that of a more blessed
and heavenly life, both brothers by blood, both priests,
and inhabitants of the vast solitude, each having traversed
the arduous path of virtue, far conspicuous by the labors of abstinence
and by integrity. Indeed, at the tomb of the holy
Beatus those suffering from fever felt the remedy of once-experienced
health. Whence Eberwin, more or less five hundred years ago,
abbot of Tholey,
'But we,' he says, 'have experienced and faithfully obtained
this very benefit in ourselves.'" Finally
having left an eminent fame of sanctity, they migrated hence to
the world above; and the body of Bantus indeed in an oratory
near the high metropolitan shrine, but that of Beatus
laid away in the shrine of the holy Mother of God among the Martyrs under marble,
whence they were translated is reserved to be told
by us in its own place. The birthday of each is in the month
of July, but of the former on the thirty-first, of the latter
on the twenty-sixth, it is venerated.
[7] What Brower here notes about the translated bodies
of the holy Brothers, Concerning the translation of St. Beatus that it is true of St. Beatus, is beyond
controversy; but that St. Bantus was carried away from the oratory
near the high metropolitan shrine to another place,
I have nowhere found up to now: nay rather,
in the cited lection of the Proper of Trier, which agrees exactly
with Brower's text, he is most plainly asserted to be laid there in the same place even
today. Further,
it is agreed that the holy ashes of St. Beatus were translated to
that mountain nearest to Coblenz, which we shall soon show, from the deeds of Baldwin
the archbishop, to have passed to the Carthusians first in the fourteenth
century. Thus therefore concerning the translation of St.
Beatus made in the year 1018 by Poppo, the praised Brower records,
page 506, num. 14: "The dwelling of the Virgin
Mother of God among the Martyrs, which we said had been bound by the discipline of St.
Benedict by Theodoric, when in this age the Canons,
the Benedictines having been driven out by force, had occupied it: Poppo, these
in turn being expelled according to their desert, restored to the monks
the place to be inhabited, and the ashes of St. Beatus the priest
thence to Coblenz, to that mountain,
translated, which, adorned with the most holy dwelling of the Carthusians,
from the same Saint bears its name even today."
[8] the doubts which occur are explained. It remains that we show the Carthusians to have been brought to Mount St. Beatus not by Poppo
(in whose time they did not yet exist in nature),
but by Baldwin,
as we promised, from Brower's own
Chronological index, page 28, where at the year
1313 one reads thus: "Mount St. Beatus of Coblenz,
previously possessed by the Benedictine Fathers, he transferred to the canons."
But then at the year 1330 he subjoins thus: "The Carthusians
are summoned to Trier by Baldwin, and a pleasant seat
above the city, with the oratory of blessed Alban,
bought up from Eberhard abbot of St. Matthias, and neighboring
fields, is assigned to them. Whence to Coblenz
also, to Mount St. Beatus, the canons being excluded,
they were transferred." In the little treatise on the origin and progress
of the Carthusian Order, Henry Kalkar narrates some things about Mount St. Beatus,
not sufficiently worthy to be
here related: let the more approved monuments found up to now
suffice; for of the particular deeds of either
Saint, their virtues or miracles, we have received nothing handed down beyond
what has already been said. Nor of their
age will you gather anything more certain than if you
trace their beginnings to St. Magnericus at the end of the sixth century, and their death
to the times of St. Modoald, most probably,
about the year 637, at which Brower judged the end of both
should be placed.