ON SAINT VALENTINE,
BISHOP OF TONGRES;
AND S. CANDIDUS THE BISHOP,
DEAD AT MAASTRICHT.
IV CENT.
On their cult, fixed on the day of Translation, age, episcopate.
Valentine, Bishop of Tongres (S.)
Candidus the Bishop, died at Maastricht (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
We have a very ancient Breviary of Maastricht, according to the Ordinary of the Church of S. Servatius, printed near the beginning of the discovered art of Typography; in which, since the way of applying minium to the press for titles had not yet been invented, these are everywhere seen supplied by hand together with the other rubrics. Cult June 7. In that Breviary, on this day VII
of June, is prescribed the office to be recited of the Translation of the body of S. Servatius Bishop of Maastricht, with the Commemoration of Saints Valentine, Bishop of Tongres, and Candidus the Bishop, not known of what Church; but going to Maastricht for the sake of prayer at the tomb of S. Servatius, and there holily dying: and this Prayer is added in the said Breviary, or, as it is there called, Collect: Prayer, "Hear, O Lord, your people celebrating the solemnities of your Holy Confessors Valentine and Candidus, and grant them to rejoice with peace in temporal life, and to find eternal subsidy."
[2] Giles of Aurea-Vallis the Monk, who flourished about the year 1240, Encomium of S. Valentine from Giles of Aurea-Vallis. in his Additions to Abbot Hariger of Lobbes, when he in chap. 17 among the Bishops of Tongres had reported only the bare name of Valentine, the last Bishop before S. Servatius, added these: "The ninth of the Bishops of Tongres B. Valentine, a powerful friend of the nine orders of Angels": and then in chap. 18, on S. Valentine the ninth Bishop, writes these things: "But Blessed Valentine the last of these, admonished by the touch of the Holy Spirit, or instructed by some example of Ecclesiastical tradition, induced by whatever sign or command of God, when he came to the end of his life, placing the pastoral staff on the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the threat of indissoluble anathema forbade that anyone temerariously take it from there, or that any mercenary plunge himself into the orphaned Prelacy, until through the revelation of Jesus Christ at hand the election should find a suitable Doctor and Bishop of their souls. With which sentence all terrified, and all falling back, the See of the Tongres mourned without Pontifical blessing for seven years. Who could neglect to consider the magnanimity of the one prescribing and the obedience of the people? Truly worthy of a worthy pastor is the people, which awaits him with so much delay with vows and prayers. The same blessed Valentine died before the year 308 of the Lord's Incarnation, namely about those times when over the Roman city presided Constantine Augustus, with Constans and Constantius his sons succeeding him; the feast of each June 7. and he was buried honorably in the Church of S. Mary of Tongres next to his colleagues, namely the Bishops of Tongres: whose feast is celebrated by some on the 7th Ides of June. On which day likewise is celebrated [0]"
[3] Time of the See, But because he is said to have died about those times when over the Roman city presided Constantine, with Constans and Constantius his sons succeeding him, indeed also Constantine equally his son, who presided over these regions of Belgic Gaul and others up to the Alps; and because that succession happened in the year 337, with Constantine the Great dead on May 22 on the day of Pentecost; we judge that about the same year S. Valentine died, and to him without delay succeeded S. Servatius; but the See of Tongres rather to have been vacant before Valentine for seven years, with S. Maximinus dead about the year 300 in the highest persecution of Diocletian and his successors, as on the 20th day of June, on which the same S. Maximinus is venerated, I shall teach. Therefore I judge that the beginning of S. Valentine must be referred to the year 308, or even later.
[4] About S. Candidus the cited Giles in a marginal addition writes besides: "He after the death of S. Servatius, with the Lord revealing to him, leaving his fatherland, is reported to have come on pilgrimage to the tomb of S. Servatius; and to have served that Church for many years, with the See vacant, night and day, Eulogy of S. Candidus. until his death in the time of D. Agricolaus the Bishop." The Acts of S. Agricolaus we have given on February 5, and have said he obtained the See of Maastricht before the year 400. But the death of S. Servatius we have reported on May 13 to the year 384, so that between each the See was vacant about 16 years.
[5] Memorial June 7 in Molanus Molanus in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, on this VII day of June, also treats of S. Valentine Bishop of Tongres, and of S. Candidus the Bishop; and from the Chronicles of Liège and the information of Maastricht writes these: "In the place on the Meuse which is called Maastricht, the birthday of SS. Valentine and Candidus Bishops. Of whom the former was the next predecessor of the most holy Servatius. But the latter came there for the sake of prayer to the burial of Servatius, and there remained the rest of the time of his life, supplying the office of the vacant Episcopate. The relics of each are kept on the high altar, and the births coincide with the translation of S. Servatius." Which we have indicated above from the Breviary. About each on this day also treat Miraeus in the Belgic Calendars, Fisen in the Flowers of the Church of Liège; with the Martyrology in French printed at Liège in 1624: in which each is called Bishop of Tongres; and others: which likewise Saussay did in the Gallican Martyrology. Gelenius in the Calendars of Cologne commemorates S. Valentine. In the Ms. Florarium of Saints on the 7th day of January, in place of June, is thus written: "At Tongres the deposition of Valentine, Bishop and Confessor of the same city"; and then most of the above-related encomium of Giles is produced, which is again done on the 9th of July.
[6] S. Valentine does not seem to have been at the same time Bishop of Trier. Meanwhile, what Molanus has also warned, the people of Trier celebrate Valentine on the 16th day of July; and commonly, with seven predecessor Bishops of Tongres, he is also inserted into the Catalogs of Bishops of Trier. Brouwer follows these in the Annals of Trier, and asserts that Valentine, to be numbered the 26th in that order, and in the year 321 substituted for S. Maximinus, after a septennium died in the year 327. But it is established that already long before S. Agricius had been Bishop of Trier: as one who in the year 314 was present at the Council of Arles: and from the number of Bishops who after him subscribed, he seems to have been one of the seniors, and so long before to have been Bishop. That S. Valentine is wrongly transferred to Trier from their Chronicle, fabulous around its beginning, we have endeavored to persuade in the preliminary Exegesis before tome VI of May, on the Episcopate of Tongres and Maastricht: and the same we shall confirm at the Acts of two predecessor Bishops SS. Martin and Maximinus on the 21st and 20th of June. If however the people of Trier indicate more certain monuments to us, we shall gladly retract everything, with the giving of thanks on the 16th of July, on which Baronius ascribes S. Valentine to Trier, and inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, otherwise to be omitted by us there. Let the people of Trier see meanwhile, whether they wish to distinguish him whom they believe a Martyr from the one of Tongres, who at Maastricht is held and venerated as a Confessor. In this sense perhaps S. Valentine Bishop of Trier is indicated in the Ms. addition of the Carthusian of Brussels to Greven on the 21st of April. Molanus certainly so felt, when in the Additions to Usuard on the 16th day of July he celebrated S. Valentine Bishop and Martyr at Trier: but in the Index of the Saints of Belgium he assigns to S. Valentine Bishop of Tongres without mention of martyrdom the seventh day of June, or in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, afterwards published, he corrects and explains himself elsewhere in the above-related eulogy, where he adds at the end that he is celebrated at Trier on the 16th day of July, with again no mention of martyrdom made. Demochares, on the divine Sacrifice of the Mass cap. 33, inserted the bare name of Valentine in the Catalog of the Bishops of Trier, but (as we have warned) from the fabulous Chronicle, and establishes his predecessor S. Maximinus to have been present at the Council of Cologne in the year 346, by an entirely enormous error, since this was the celebrated S. Maximinus the successor of Agricius, whose Acts we gave on May 29. Baronius, who from the cited Demochares and Molanus inserted Valentine as Martyr in the Roman Martyrology, as I have already said: whether, if he had read Molanus's Index and Natales, he would have wished to write otherwise, let the Reader judge.
[7] Veneration also February 6 Another solemnity is celebrated at Maastricht under the rite of a double, of the Confessors whose Bodies or Relics rest in the Church of S. Servatius, and that on the 6th day of February, as we have at length deduced then among the Passed Over, and have referred one of them, S. Valentine, the matter not yet fully discussed, to the 16th day of July: but on such day, in the old Breviary of the Church of S. Servatius this Prayer is prescribed: "Be propitious to us, we ask, Lord, your servants, by the glorious merits of your holy Confessors Servatius, Monulphus, Gondulphus, Martin, Valentine, Candidus, and Amandus, and of others who rest in the present Church, that by their pious intercession we may always be protected from all adversities." Of these Martin is venerated on June 21; Elevation of the relics. Monulphus and Gondulphus on July 16; but on the occasion of them S. Valentine seems referred to the same July 16; and their sacred bodies, together with the bodies of SS. Valentine and Candidus, under the same stone monument in four chests are kept, even from the year 1039; and again that monument was opened in the seventeenth century in the year 11 and 23, when the History of the aforementioned Elevation, by the eyewitness William Fexhius (and so also read the name below in no. 7 line penultimate), Canon and Cantor of the Church of S. Servatius, was described, as Mr. Alardus Laurentius van Eyl Canon of S. Servatius transmitted it to us, whose great kindness toward our studies we have often experienced. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology reports some finding of the aforementioned four Gondulfus, Monulfus, Valentine and Candidus, we know not when or how made, on March 4.
ACTS OF THE ELEVATION
Of SS. Valentine, Candidus, Monulphus, and Gondulphus.
Valentine, Bishop of Tongres (S.)
Candidus the Bishop, died at Maastricht (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[1] In the year 1623 In the year from the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ 1623, on the 22nd day of the month of April, Indiction VI, in the 3rd year of the Pontificate of our Most Holy Lord Gregory XV Pope of this name, with Ferdinand of Bavaria being Bishop of Liège; with Engelbert Boonen, S. T. D., being Provost of the distinguished Collegiate Church of S. Servatius of the town of Maastricht in the diocese of Liège, there was visited and inspected, by the Reverend and venerable Lords Winandus of Gelderland Apostolic Protonotary, Adam Brockart, William Fexhius, William de Bemmel, John Stevart, Priests Canons of the said distinguished Church, and respectively, Dean, Chamberlain, Cantor, Vice-provost, and Master of the fabric (by previous ordination of the Dean and Chapter of the same Church), that great and ancient stone monument, situated upon a stone column, behind the altar of S. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, in the crypt of the aforesaid Church of S. Servatius. With it opened and uncovered, under a stone monument by the elevation of the stone lid, was found in it a lead coffer, four feet more or less in length, in width about a foot and a half, in height one foot; made of lead plates, of the thickness of one finger, and covered with a similar lead cover: which it was to be seen had been bound with two cords, and one leather belt, sealed and fortified with the impression of five wax seals, but loosened and torn in the year of the Lord 1611, when the same monument once again had been visited, a lead coffer was found, because it was not clear what was kept in it. Otherwise because then exact knowledge of the things found there was not preserved, nor committed to writing; it pleased the aforesaid Lords this year again to visit and inspect them, and to keep a note of this visitation; lest, as before this, the presence of so great a treasure should come into oblivion, and the bodies of the Saints be defrauded of due honor to themselves.
[2] Above the aforesaid lead cover lay first of all an ancient parchment, with this inscription eaten away, partly consumed: in which in old characters could still be read with the intervals eaten away: "… IHU .. XPI. 1039 … IN… ORE… Rege Romanorum Augusto anno primo collectæ sunt reliquiæ … ulfi Tungrensis Epi a Nithardo Leodicensi Epo et a Gerardo Camsi Epo."
Secondly, in the same place lay letters, also written on parchment, letters drawn up in the year 1611, and placed in the aforesaid year 1611, containing the tenor of the aforesaid letters, with the intervals eaten away from age, as above. Thirdly, five seals, which had originally been impressed on the cords and leather bindings, but from them (as said above) in 1611 detached and torn apart; 5 Seals, of which two were of the Church, of green wax, on which was impressed the figure of S. Servatius, Patron of the same Church; two others were probably the seals of two Bishops, of Liège and of Cambrai, mentioned in the aforesaid letters, of white wax, on which were impressed the effigies of Bishops with letters around, with the name of the Bishop of Reims, but so consumed by age, that no certain name could be gathered from them: the third quite manifestly on the circumference of the harder wax of which it was composed, had these words: "(Hermannus by the grace of God Bp. of Reims.)"
[3] Fourthly, on the same lead cover were glued four lead plates, of one foot in length, and two inches in width, distant from each other by almost a foot of space: on which four plates were engraved these titles, and with the titles of 4 Bishops, one on each, and that in great letters and in this order, namely beginning from the north or from the Gospel horn: "Scts Candidus Epi. Scts Gondulphus Epus. Scts Valentinus Epus. Scts Monulfus Epus." With the aforesaid lead cover elevated and removed, SS. Candidus, Gondulphus, Valentine and Monulphus: it was found that the said coffer was distinguished into four spaces or intervals, in the manner and form of four chests, and that by the interposition of three plates of similar lead, between the outer sides of the coffer transversely placed at equal distance, making, as said, as it were four smaller chests: in which were to be seen distinctly placed bones (undoubtedly of the four Bishops, named and designated in the titles engraved on the cover) not pertaining to one body, whose Relics were in 4 chests. but to four bodies (as could be evident from the multitude and number of the said bones and joints). For there were in each chest almost all the bones which pertain to the integrity of the human body; namely of the legs, arms, shoulders, back, hands, feet, fingers: only the heads were almost broken into minute parts, with the chins however remaining intact, and in them with many teeth still adhering; saving that of the body of S. Valentine there were fewer bones, namely not all that pertain to the integrity of the body.
[4] Besides, in the chest of S. Valentine was a cloth or shroud, in which were gathered the ashes of the body of S. Servatius in great quantity, in one of these the ashes of the body of S. Servatius: and as much as the capacity of the said shroud held; and in the same a square lead plate, on which was engraved in ancient character, "CINERES S. Servatii" (Ashes of S. Servatius). There were also among the aforesaid holy bones some cloths in which the same had been covered or wrapped, but greatly consumed and similar to ashes. Among the rest was one still intact of red byssus, of the length of a human body, in floral interwoven work: which cloths it was advised to the aforementioned Lords to extract thence, and transfer to the chamber of Relics; cloths and chins of 4 Bishops brought to the Chamber of Relics. where also the four chins of the four said holy Bishops were transferred, in the succession of time to be placed in precious cases, and to be exhibited and shown at intervals to the devotion of the people, with many other holy Relics, kept in the aforesaid Church and in the said place or chamber of Relics.
[5] Everything exhibited for viewing, These things being thus found, inspected, and diligently examined, the said Dean and Chapter resolved, for the honor of God and of the Saints, for the confirmation of the Catholic faith, and to excite greater devotion of the people toward the sacred Relics, to leave the said monument and coffer in it open for some time, and to allow inspection to the people flowing thither in throngs at the fame of this matter, and to exhibit for reading and viewing the aforesaid letters of the year 1039 placed there, and the seals of the Bishops who had placed the said sacred Relics there, in testimony of antiquity and truth. So there appeared the Superiors of the Religious Orders of this town, the Guardian of the Franciscans, the Prior of the Augustinians, the Rector of the Society of Jesus, the Governor of the town Claude de Lannoy, the Lord de la Moitry; two Consuls, Tolen and vander Heggen; with the Secretary Laval, and very many other Ecclesiastics and seculars, men and women: and after due veneration who all the said coffer, with the holy Relics or bones of the said four Bishops, as said before, [2]
[6] In whose presence a new lead cover, enclosed with a new cover, but thinner and lighter than the former (for the old one in being extracted because of its weight had broken into parts), was placed, with the four plates removed from the old one affixed to it and glued with lead, containing (as said above) the names of the four Bishops, whose sacred bones are contained and preserved in the aforesaid coffer. Likewise placed under the same cover were the letters of the date of the year 1611, containing a copy of the ancient letters before-mentioned of the year 1039, whose original lest it should be wholly consumed, was retained, that it might be preserved in the archives of the Church. With all these accomplished, the said sarcophagus or monument, with the stone cover again placed above it, with which before it had been closed and covered, and deposited in the monument, was concluded and reinforced, and around decorated with gilded wooden boards; and adorned with the effigies of the same four holy Bishops, painted upon the stone itself, adorned with gilded boards and pictures. by the mandate and at the expense of the aforesaid Lords Dean and Chapter.
[7] For the perpetual notice and memory of which thing, and lest so great a treasure remain (as before) unknown henceforth, Everything written by an eyewitness. the tenor of the preceding acts, as they happened, has been written down. And because I the undersigned saw, surveyed, and found the things written to be so, as said above; therefore for the credit, force, and memory of all of them, and for the notice to be conveyed to our successors, with my own hand I have subscribed and signed. William Fephius, S. T. L. Canon and Cantor of the Church.
[8] The eaten-away inscription is supplied, The intervals of the letters above, found in the year 1039 in the aforesaid monument, seem to be supplied in the following way; namely so that the slightly thicker letters be those which still remain; the smaller indeed supplied from the sense and from the Chronicles of the Caesars: "In the year from the nativity of our Lord JESUS CHRIST 1039. With the Emperor Conrad II, and Henry III KING OF THE ROMANS, AUGUSTUS, in the first year were gathered the relics of S. GondVLFI BISHOP OF TONGRES BY NITHARDUS BISHOP OF LIÈGE AND BY GERARDUS BISHOP OF CAMBRAI." Where we supply "GONDVLFI," and is explained. not however "MONVLFI": because S. Gondulphus was later than S. Monulphus, and therefore it is probable that S. Monulphus was first elevated, and in the said monument, with S. Candidus, placed near the Relics of S. Valentine; but afterwards by Nithard the Relics of S. Gondulphus gathered from the earth, and in the same monument next to S. Monulphus, whom he had succeeded equal in merits and honor, were placed, from the aforesaid letters evidently is established. And it must be presumed, that the aforesaid stone monument, by S. Servatius himself or in his time, or certainly a little after, was erected and placed in the aforesaid crypt, constructed by S. Maternus in honor of S. Peter the Apostle, for preserving in it the Relics of S. Valentine: but in the succession of time the ashes of S. Servatius were placed there, and the bones of SS. Candidus and Monulphus, and at last in the year 1039 the Relics of S. Gondulphus.
POEM.
Here Nithard, the Bishop of Liège, having raised the sacred bones of Gondulphus from the earth, placed them more sublimely, and added these worthy pledges to other Saints (whom in this marble once devoted antiquity had buried; namely your limbs, O Prelate Candidus, and the ashes of Valentine, and the ashes of Monulphus), that those similar in merits might be venerated with similar honor.
ANNOTATION BY D. P.
On the Emperor or King, and the Bishops of Liège and Cambrai, here named.
In the year 1039 Conrad the Emperor, on the third nones of June, died: for whom Henry the King his son reigned, with Hermann Contractus as witness: yet he did not receive the Imperial crown and name, except in the year 1046 ending; but King of the Romans, with his father living, was never called; but at the highest King of Burgundy and Duke of Swabia: for these titles, granted to him by his father in the year 1038, our Labbé teaches in the Chronological Epitome. Since therefore the supplement, by which the matter is conceived to have been done under the Emperor Conrad and King Henry, does not stand with truth; nor have the remaining letters IM, but IN, I think the defect must be supplied thus: "HelNrico JuniORE Conr. f. (that is, son of Conrad) Rege Rom. &c." For with respect to S. Henry, who had immediately preceded Conrad, "Junior" could here have been called Henry, by others surnamed "Niger"; although that appellation of "Junior" had no sequel among Historians, with Henry his son succeeding him by the same name, and Henry his grandson: whom those who wish to distinguish according to the order of reigning, with also Henry the Fowler numbered, call Fourth and Fifth; although in the order of Emperors only they were Third and Fourth. Besides "Rege Romanorum Augusto" does not sufficiently please; and therefore I should prefer the opinion of our Bartholomew Fizen, reading in his Liège history, "Rege Rom. men. (that is, mense) Augusto" — where also he names Nithard, whom the Sammarthani from the Chronicle of Albericus call Richard. But that the former name is true, the very Albericus's words which they cite on the year 1036 prove: "Reginard, Bishop of Liège, founder of the Abbey of S. Laurence, died; succeeds Nizo, Custos of the Major temple, who is also Richard." For since "Nizo" is a diminutive from Nithard, just as from Gothard Gozo, and from Adelard Azo, and other simple names; it consequently follows that in the following words "qui et Richardus" is a scribal error, and one must read "qui et Nithardus."
In Gerard of Cambrai everything is clear: ordained Bishop in 1013, he died in 1049, according to the Chronicle of the cited Albericus; nor does anyone doubt about the name. But what will you do with Hermann Bishop of Reims? whose name on the circumference of the third seal the people of Maastricht believed could be read manifestly enough; since that Church knows no Hermann among its Prelates; and the one who at this time sat, Guy, surviving up to 1055, was not called Bishop but Archbishop in his seals. Therefore I assert that not REM. but METT. in that wax must be read; and I understand Hermann of Metz, more closely neighboring Liège. And since he first began to sit in the year 1073, surviving to 1090, I do not wonder that, his name being impressed on different and firmer wax, was better preserved. Hence furthermore I conclude that the Relics of S. Gondulf were indeed gathered in the year 1039, and placed in that tomb in which already before were placed together the bones of SS. Monulphus, Valentine, and Candidus; but some years later, the same tomb was again opened by Hermann of Metz, to place there the Ashes of S. Servatius. But he left no other memorial of his act, than the seal, appended on the same parchment to three other older seals. But just as the first time the Canons had added their seal; so they seem to have done this second time; and so it happened, that S. Servatius was twice expressed, always indeed in green wax, but in wax of somewhat different time. Moreover since this Hermann, before his election, had been Provost of Liège; and against the abuse of investitures and their pertinacious usurper Henry,
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