ON ST. JOVINUS, IN THE DIOCESE OF POITIERS IN GAUL.
4TH CENTURY.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION. On his cult, lineage, and monastic profession.
Jovinus, in the diocese of Poitiers in Gaul (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
The Sacred memory of St. Jovinus is found inscribed in various Martyrologies, of which one was at Rome in the Library of the Duke of Altemps, in which on these Kalends of June it was read thus: At Poitiers, of St. Jovinus the Abbot. The same exactly are read in Bellinus of Padua, in the Martyrology published more augmented at Paris about the year 1521 according to the custom of the Roman Curia. The memory in the Martyrologies, Molanus copies Bellinus in the additions to Usuard, and him follow Galesini, Canisius, Ferrari. Molanus and Galesini also being cited, Arnold Wion inscribed the same in his Benedictine Martyrology, with this Annotation: But who he was, or at what time he flourished, I have not yet been able to know. But whence did he know that he was of his own Benedictine Order? Namely he preferred to presume this, rather than to doubt. Meanwhile follow Dorganius and Menard. In a certain Manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, under the name of Usuard, somewhat more light is conferred with these words: In the monastery of Hension, of St. Jovinus the Abbot and Confessor.
[2] Henri Louis Chasteigner de la Rocheposay, Bishop of Poitiers, composed the Pictonic Litanies, and in the Litanies, in which he inscribed St. Jovinus Abbot of Hension; but in his Notations on them he writes thus: First of June. Jovinus, born of an illustrious family in the territory of Loudun, was the propagator of the monastery of Hension, which is now called St. Jovin de Marnes; and there ended his day, and was buried. That place was formerly called Ansion. The same Bishop, in the Additions, adds these things: Maxentius Bishop of Poitiers is called Saint in the Life of St. Maximinus Bishop of Trier, He was the brother of Maxentius and Maximinus the Bishops. of whom, and of St. Jovinus the Abbot, he was brother. The Life of St. Maximinus we gave on May 29, written in the 8th century by an Anonymous monk of St. Maximinus, in which about this family at the beginning these things are set forth: The holy and God-beloved Maximinus drew his origin from the province of Aquitaine. But his brother Maxentius by name, and another Maximus, and a third Jovinus, and their holy sister Maxima, were born in the very province of Poitiers. After therefore St. Maximinus, and Maxentius his brother, and Jovinus were well instructed in divine things, Maxentius was chosen into the order of the Pontificate of the city of Poitiers: So much there. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, alluding to these things: At Poitiers, says he, of St. Jovinus the Confessor, brother of Blessed Maxentius Prelate of the same municipality, and of St. Maximinus Bishop of Trier, and disciple of St. Hilary: after whose glorious passing, given to the solitary life, he is venerated in a monastery dedicated to him: he passed his life with Angelic purity. To whose venerable memory, which he procured by the merits of a most holy life, is dedicated the cenobitic Church of his name, surnamed de Marnes, where today he is venerated with the worthy honor of a proper Protector. So much there. That St. Maximinus died in the year 349 we proved at his Life: and in the Annotations we said that Maxentius is to be reckoned not the 14th, but the 8th or 9th Bishop, before St. Hilary, of whom also we judge that St. Jovinus was rather a fellow-disciple and contemporary.
[3] Bucelinus nevertheless in the Benedictine Menology, favoring his Order, ascribes him to it thus: He was not a Benedictine. At Poitiers, of St. Jovinus the Abbot. He was the brother of St. Maxentius, and flourished in the times of Clovis King of the Gauls, and of his sons Childebert, Clothar, Theodoric, and Clodomir. There stands an eternal monument of his most famous sanctity, the most distinguished Abbey, dedicated to his honor in the diocese of Poitiers, commonly called Saint Jovin, otherwise St. Jovyn des Marnes. There is cited first Hugh Menard; who, although in the Observations he cites the times of Clovis the first and his sons, yet adds that it can be doubted whether he was a monk of the Benedictine institute. There is cited then Claude Robert, namely in the Abbeys of the Gauls, who has only this: The monastery of St. Jovinus, of the Order of St. Benedict, St. Jovyn des Marnes, in the diocese of Poitiers. But in that way St. John the Baptist, Sts. Peter and Paul and the other Apostles, as having died in the 4th century. indeed Christ the Savior and Michael the Archangel would have been of the Benedictine Order. We, because he is called brother of St. Maxentius Bishop of Poitiers, and of St. Maximinus of Trier, judge that he too flourished in the fourth century of Christ, long before the times of King Clovis and St. Benedict: but that his monastery, if it was begun by him, afterward received the Rule of St. Benedict. The Martyrology of the Duke of Altemps cited above again on June 20 seems to mention him, with these words: Of St. Jovinus the Presbyter and Confessor.