ON SAINT MARCELLINUS,
BISHOP OF THE VELAUNI, OR OF LE PUY IN GAUL.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
On his miracles, cult, translation.
Marcellinus, Bishop of the Velauni or of Le Puy in Gaul (S.)
G. H.
Ruessium or Ruessium of the Velauni in Gaul, a city mentioned by Ptolemy lib. 2 cap. 7, William Catel lib. 2 of the Antiquities of Languedoc cap. 12, Odo Gisseius lib. 1 of the Le Puy History cap. 12, and others judge to have been Cult June 7. where now the town of S. Paulhan is, and that the first six Bishops sat there, but the See was translated by S. Euodius the seventh Bishop to Anicium or Le Puy, as is more amply deduced at the Life of S. Paulhan, the sixth Bishop of the Velauni, on the 14th of February. Among these Velauni S. Marcellinus is asserted by John Chenu, Claude Robert, and the Sammarthani in the Bishops of Anicium and Le Puy to have sat as the third Bishop; who add that the feast is celebrated on June 7; when Ferrarius in the general Catalog says, "At Velauni, of S. Marcellinus, Bishop of the same city"; and adds in the Notes that he was the third Bishop of the Velauni, a virgin, and bright with miracles. Which in the Gallican Martyrology of Andrew Saussay are deduced in this manner:
[2] "On the 7th Ides of June, in the city of Le Puy or Podium of the Velauni, of S. Marcellinus Bishop and Confessor, who third in order ruled that Church, and led the greatest part of the Velauni, still entangled in pagan errors, to the saving recognition of Christ the Redeemer: Saussay's eulogy, then adorned with divine gifts, distinguished in miracles, enriched with merits, ascended to the blessed mansions of the eternal kingdom. About this holy Prelate is read, that he cultivated perpetual virginity: and after his happy emigration, shining in the tomb, brought forth admirable monuments of his glorification and powerful intercession: so that he expelled demons, illumined the blind, raised a dead man already buried. Besides, three little children dead without sacred laver, restoring to life, by his pious intercession made them participants of regeneration: and a man touched by the plague, and nearly dead without expiation of faults, he rendered safe, and made him possessor of the sought-for grace. Many other prodigies and not lesser at his invocation to these days, either by application of his most holy relics, or by pouring of oil, which flowed long ago from his tomb, or by sole devout imploring of his patronage, are proven to have been performed: for which with more distinguished cult his memory, than of any other Saint, after the veneration of the most holy Mother of God, in the whole tract of the Velauni is honored." Thus Saussay.
[3] But James Branche in the Lives of Saints of Auvergne and the Velauni page 359, and Odo Gisseius lib. 1 of the History of the Le Puy Mother of God cap. 11, A mute is healed, also a deaf, published his Life in French, and add, that by S. Marcellinus while still living was given speech to a mute for three years, and hearing restored to a deaf man. But more wondrous things happened after his burial. Then a man drawing wood in a cart for the church which was being built for him, was harassed by two great and horrible-looking black village dogs, and amid a favoring whirlwind was thrown to the ground; and with the devil mixing himself with them, vexed by extraordinary torments, he suffered possession of his body. Which when his companions had observed, and could provide no remedy against the atrocious assaults of the devil; a man possessed, they drew him not without violence to the tomb of S. Marcellinus, where the devil, after horrible vociferations, thus cried out: "O Marcellinus, I see you, clothed in pontifical robes, hastily running to a poor man, who is just now being killed." Which a messenger arriving at the same time announced to have been done, and so the energumen was freed, and the man to be killed helped. The son of one of the workmen, hired for the building of the said church, on account of huge headaches lost his sight: and brought to the Saint's tomb, a blind man, when he had passed there the night in prayer, at dawn recovered his health. When a certain girl was drawing water from a well, her hand by diabolical cunning so clung to the pitcher, that by no human art could it be torn off. She runs to the tomb of S. Marcellinus, a hand stuck to a pitcher, and on the ascent of the first step of the church, with the demon fleeing, her hand was freed from adhesion to the pitcher. Another youth fell into so violent an infirmity, that affixed to bed for eight days, and taken away the use of all his limbs, he was rendered blind, mute, and deaf. taken away in all limbs. To whom when the Sacristan of the church had come, and the badly affected limbs with oil consecrated to the honor of S. Marcellinus had anointed; at the same instant he received full health.
[4] In the year 1414, a certain woman's husband was already dead, and sewn up in a winding-sheet; Raised: one man and 3 infants: but received life by the vow of his wife, made to God in honor of S. Marcellinus. And three infants, dead before they were born, received life, by the merits and invocation of S. Marcellinus: of whom two afterwards lived many years, the third at least so long, that having received baptism he could be transferred to
eternal life. In the year 1504 a dweller of the place Latta, seized by plague, three leagues distant from Monistrol, had gone to Arles, the Metropolis of Provence; and there seized by plague, and destitute of all human help, sought a way of confessing his sins to a Priest, that he might prepare himself for death: which occasion not found, he tried to excite many acts of contrition, and among others sought the suffrages of S. Marcellinus; with a vow made of going barefoot to his sacred Relics, kept at Monistrol of the Velauni, refreshed by drops of dew, he is healed. if by the benevolence of God he should recover his health. He lay under a tree from Tuesday until the following Sunday, with no food or drink taken meanwhile. At last several drops of dew fell on his face, although the sun emitted its burning rays with violence, and the sky was entirely serene. He wiped his face, and felt himself well without pain; and so returning he came to Monistrol, fulfilled his vow, and declared these things. Many other miracles wrought by his intercession are omitted. He was first buried in the old Cathedral city, now called of S. Paulhan: from which his sacred bones were translated to Monistrol by Norbert Bishop of Le Puy, Sacred bones at Monistrol in a church dedicated to him. in the time of King Charles the Bald: where in the year 1309 Bernard Castanetus the Bishop founded a college of 13 Canons, who were to perform the divine office before the sacred body of S. Marcellinus.
[5] These things there: of which when the originals were desired (for that Odo had found several, and those written in Latin, must seem out of controversy) at last responded Bernard Layrac, Rector of our College of Le Puy
[6] Nothing there about the time of his See: nor can we define anything about it. About the Translation Saussay on the 22nd of December has these: "On the same day the Translation of S. Marcellinus, Bishop of the Church of Le Puy: Translation December 22. whose sacred body the Bishop Norbert brought from that town to Monistrol, to be observed with perennial cult." Monistrol is situated on the bank of the Elaver, four French miles from Le Puy westward, as nearly distant from it is the town of S. Paulhan. But Le Puy itself is not far from the river Loire.