Genesius

CONCERNING SAINT GENESIUS,

COUNT OF AUVERGNE NEAR CLERMONT.

BEFORE 740.

A synopsis concerning his cult, age, acts, from the Writers of Auvergne.

Genesius, Count in Auvergne (St.)

D. P.

Bonitus, the holy Bishop of the Arverni, whose Life we gave on the 15th of January, is believed to have held that See until about the year 709. To him St. Genesius the Count was a familiar friend, who afterward is said both to have attended St. Meneleus, Abbot of Menat, as he was dying, and to have been given to burial by his successor St. Savinianus the Abbot. Meneleus is venerated on the 22nd of July, a familiar friend of SS. Bonitus the Bishop and Meneleus the Abbot Savinianus on the 22nd of November: but the year in which the latter succeeded the former is not defined: yet we can presume that St. Genesius did not by living reach the middle of the 8th century. In Jacobus Branche, among the Lives of the Saints of Auvergne published in the year 1652, his Life is read in French, from the manuscript Chronicle of the church of Chamalières, situated in the suburbs of Clermont, whose own castle this Saint made more illustrious by five churches built. Savaro in his book on the origins of Clermont several times cites the History of St. Genesius, chapter 4, so that it appears it was distinguished into several chapters: there was also some Life printed at Paris.

[2] He has an Office in the Breviary of Chamalières. Of these we have thus far been able to obtain nothing, whatever our Fathers of Clermont did: only in the Breviary of that Collegiate church they found three Lessons about the Life of the Saint, not very ancient, which, as we received them, so we give, with Notes received from Branche, supposing that he received everything from the aforesaid Chronicle or History, and from present knowledge of affairs. In the church of Combronde, which gave Genesius burial and still keeps his Relics, although only four leagues distant, I do not hope that any writing is to be found there, since the aforementioned Branche, who would otherwise also cite it, did not find it there. buried at Combronde.

We therefore make an end of prefacing, with this Prayer likewise described for us. O God, who joined your excellent Confessor Genesius to the college of the citizens above; grant, we beseech, that we who venerate his birthday by celebrating it may, by his intervention, be freed from all evils.

OFFICE

From the Breviary of the Chapter of Chamalières.

Genesius, Count in Auvergne (St.)

LESSON IV.

Genesius, renowned for nobility of life, Count of Auvergne, born of his father Andustrius, his mother Tranquilla, of Cordova, sprung of royal stock, proved by a miracle of how great sanctity he was to be. As a boy he gives sight to a blind man, For while still a boy he very kindly received a blind man, named Gondus, importunately begging alms at the door of his father's house; and compensated his petition not only by a pious bestowal of alms, but also by the benefit of light. he heals a lame man. And as day by day the fame of his sanctity was propagated; a lame man, named Herimundus, is brought to him from Mauriac: who, while he most earnestly asks for health, Genesius praying to God and invoking the name of Christ Jesus, obtained it so whole; that he who had to be carried to the Saint, now in need of no help, with strengthened soles, returned home. He was especially distinguished in piety and respect toward his parents. His mother, harsh in manners, his mother's harshness and raging too fiercely against the household, he overcame by the modesty of gentle address; and, imitating Moses, by a rod turned into a snake, by a miracle softened, he led her over to the love of piety by a new miracle. Bereaved of his parents, against the allurements of the world, living in the world, he fortified himself with a privately instituted form of monastic life. By harsher food, by long fasts, and by nocturnal vigils he afflicted his body; he corrects by a miracle, nor was he ever wanting in exercising works of mercy; and so that he might be freer to attend to prayer, not far from the citadel of Combronde, fortified by his paternal bulwarks, on his estate, called Aula Maura by the inhabitants, above a brook called Trundis, near the laurel wood he very often dwelt. He built five sacred buildings in his castle of Chamalières, he builds 5 churches: which, distinguished by pious gifts, enriched with a rich estate, enlarged also with ecclesiastical and religious households of both sexes, together with his little castle, he willed to be under the jurisdiction of St. Bonitus, Bishop of the Arverni. He helped the revenues of the monastery of Menat with munificent liberality; holily dying and buried at Combronde: and with no less piety he attended St. Meneleus, Abbot of the same monastery, as he was dying. His body at last bearing no longer the continual labors of penance, full of virtues, on the Nones of June he migrated to heaven. A heavenly fragrance suddenly arising through the chamber bore witness how piously Genesius had lived, how holily he had died. By Savinianus, a man of venerable virtue and successor of Blessed Meneleus, he shines with miracles. he was given to burial. Nor after death did he shine less by miracles than alive: for two men, bent over by a contraction of the sinews, praying at his tomb, he restored to whole health: a blind girl was healed in her eyes: and among various cures of diseases, by marvelous power he freed those vexed by demons. Whose sacred Relics are kept in the church of Combronde by the pious veneration of the faithful.

NOTES, D. P.

Notes

a. Branche adds that his grandfather was Agesippus, who, famous under Clovis, undertook to govern a good part of Aquitaine, and namely the district of Bordeaux, and acquired Auvergne by arms: and having taken to wife Severa, granddaughter of Queen Euochildis, begot Andustrius. But the history of the Franks knows no Queen of that name; Clovis had no other than St. Clotilda: and he himself died in the year 511. Accordingly, the man whom he while living set over Aquitaine could have been the great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather of Genesius the Count.

b. Perhaps it should be read "Cordubanensi": for Corduba is in Spain, which in the age of Clovis was subject to the Goths, until the year 586 still Arians: Cordubanum, or Corduanum, is a tiny island in the mouth of the Garonne, equipped with a handsome lighthouse, which Papirus Masso describes in his learned work on the rivers of Gaul, page 560, and thinks it to be the remains of a larger island, which by Pomponius Mela is called Antros.

c. Branche says that on the seventh day from his birth he was reckoned among the Catechumens, and in his third and a half year baptized.

d. Mauriac is distant about 20 leagues from Clermont, toward the Dordogne and the borders of Limousin, famous for the Priory of Vetericella of St. Stremonius, belonging to the Cluniacs. There are those who place the Mauriac fields here, but they are not approved by Valesius.

e. Branche says it was a rod thrown into water, by whose motion the rod could easily have seemed to have the form of a snake, especially with God concurring to the woman's conversion, and disturbing her imagination on account of her son's merits.

f. Commonly Combronde, 4 leagues from the city toward the North, which Branche says was fortified by the Saint's father, after the destruction of the city of Lucia: but none of the ancients knows this city.

g. Neither Branche nor the Tables express the name; he only indicates a brook of the wood which is at Mont Herbet.

h. Branche reports these names: of St. Savior, of St. Mary, of SS. Peter and Paul, of St. Cecilia, of the Exalted Cross.

i. The same says that he contracted friendship with him while they were journeying together to St. Michael's. How there, as St. Bonitus prayed, he was given a miraculous Chasuble by the Mother of God who appeared, is reported from Beauvais and from an old Rhythm after the Life: but where that church is, is not indicated. I myself find near the city of St. Flour, 16 leagues from Clermont to the south, a village of St. Michael's. But Branche says that from then on Genesius lived so devoted to St. Bonitus, that on every Sunday, having heard his Mass, he received Communion from his hands.

k. Commonly Menat, distant from Clermont to the North 8 leagues.