ON S. BLITHARIUS THE PRESBYTER,
ANCHORITE IN THE TROYES DIOCESE OF GAUL.
VII CENT.
PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.
On the cult at Brecae and Sézanne; the Acts received from Herovallius.
Blitarius the Presbyter, Anchorite in the Troyes diocese of Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
Nicolas des-Guerrois of Jesus, Presbyter, Preacher and Parish priest of Troyes, For the feast of 11 June edited in the year MDCXXXVII, in the French language, a book whose title is: "Christian Sanctity, containing the life, death, and miracles of several Saints of France and other regions, whose Relics are in the diocese and city of Troyes, with the ecclesiastical history of the same city and diocese." He arranged it in the manner of Annals: and so to the year MCL he referred the Life of the above-titled Saint, faithfully rendered from the Latin original, with this Annotation at the end: "The feast of S. Blitharius (commonly called Saint Blier) is celebrated XI June, with great devotion and frequency of the surrounding people, to be celebrated at Brecae in the Collegiate church of Brecae, with the Canons performing the ecclesiastical Office about him, whom now to a number of six or five fires, devastations and wars have reduced, of which Gallic Champagne was long the theater."
[2] More than a hundred and forty years ago, that is before the year MCCCCXVII, The body was wont to be borne yearly to Sézanne, indeed from time immemorial, the chest of S. Blitharius, on some urgent cause, was borne to the monastic church of S. Julian of Sézanne, next to the chest of the same Saint; where it was preserved by the inhabitants, with such zeal, that to the Canons of Brecae requesting it back they would never give it back. By right therefore it had to be acted, and by decree for composing the lawsuit, that the chest indeed at Sézanne should always be preserved; but each Clergy and people of Sézanne, every year on X June, should bear it to the stone Cross, which is at the entrance of the village of Brecae, where, received by the Brecae Canons, they should bear it into their church, to remain there the whole feast day; and so satisfaction should be made to the devotion of the people, accustomed to run there from everywhere, and to make their prayers and offerings: but on day XII, after Matins, with procession and song the same chest the same Canons should bring back to the aforesaid Cross, with the Religious, Clerics and citizens of Sézanne waiting, who should bring it back to their church with similar pomp to that with which they had brought it.
[3] until in the year 1568 it was destroyed by the heretics. That this was preserved from time immemorial, an eighty-year-old man of best fame and credit affirmed; asserting, that he had often been present at such a procession and devotion, used yearly, until in the year MDLXVIII the Huguenots, invading Sézanne with many other towns and cities of France, despoiled the church and monastery of S. Julian, broke the silver chests of the Saints, and scattered the sacred bones preserved within; which also the Canons and Ecclesiastics of Sézanne testified, men upright and worthy of credit. The same Saint also in the Laon diocese seems to have had his cult formerly, so that even his name was imposed on infants; as is proved from a certain Act of the year MCXXIV, which Blithardus or Bliardus, Cantor of Laon, subscribes. Thus far the above-praised Nicolas, to the year, as I said above DCL, because around that year S. Furseus is believed to have flourished, The saint is said to have come with S. Furseus, Patron of Péronne in neighboring Picardy, as on XVI January, having illustrated his Acts, Bolland demonstrated. But the name Blitharius, altogether Teutonic or Frankish, does not favor a presumption of this kind, although asserted in the Life, and probably founded on the mere pilgrimage of each Saint; as of several others, who are said to have come with S. Furseus from Hibernia, it is probable to us, that they were born in Gaul or Belgica itself; but, because they perhaps flourished at the same time, were ascribed to the company of the aforesaid Saint, by popular opinion, accustomed to adjudge all Saints of unknown origin to Scotland or Hibernia.
[4] and to have lived a solitary near Brecae. Sezania or Sezannia, from the documents of the year MCCVII and MCCCIV which Camuzat notes, is a town in the borders of the Tricassii, pertaining to the Briony or Brie Province, and almost to be passed by those going from Troyes toward Château-Thierry to the North; nearer to this one, than to those; but between it and the aforesaid city it is necessary to find Brecae, commonly Broyes, celebrated by the anchoresis of S. Blitharius (whose location however and name the topographical tables do not express), since Hadrianus Valesius, in the Notitia of the Gauls, says, that they are not far from the city of Tricassis; although from it to Sézanne the leagues, if not XIII (as Baudran writes in his Geography) at least XI are numbered on the map, and from what has been said it is known to be not more than a half-day's journey, which was made with the chest processionally each year.
[5] The same Valesius judges the Life was written five hundred years ago. Whence he could define this, reading it, I do not find; unless perhaps the parchments displayed the indication of so great antiquity, which in the year MDCLXII at Paris in the most illustrious Antonius de Wion Lord d'Herouval we found. Whose zeal (as before tome 2 of the Spicilegium Lucas d'Achery prefaces) seems to consist (now, was to be said, "to have consisted") wholly in this, Acts found in Herovallius, that the learned himself, with such more ancient merchandise, he might oblige and enrich every learned man. The same, before the book On Diplomacy, his helper and successor John Mabillon, having before all experienced beneficent, first praises, as many as he was able to gather from all the Gallican churches charters or instruments, with full hand contributed to the work, so that it would have been like a certain public archive for him laboring at it, as it is (but, alas! already was) for all learned men like a singular Patron. As however in the Epitaph of the lately deceased is read, "he was a man with candor of soul, a singularly learned man and patron of the learned, facility of manners, in things to be done with dexterity, with most propense will of deserving well of each, conspicuous everywhere: who the whole course of his life in the glory of the Church, the ornament of the Kingdom, the
ornament of literary republic he completed; communicated, and almost poured out to all most skilled Writers, both French and Foreign, more recondite charters and more abstruse monuments, by which he procured an immortal name." What need of more? since these themselves amply suffice for most heaped praise; likewise to rebuke the imprudence, not to say impudence, of certain, daring to fly upon a name so celebrated, as if gratuitously prefixed to the Epistle of a certain Royal Counsellor, disapproving the multitude of famous libels, in which after the first part of May was edited by us, it pleased those to rage against our opinion of their origins.
[6] I return to Nicolas des Guerrois, who for the year MLXXXI suggests to us something, on which depends the knowledge of the time in which the holy body was first borne from Sézanne to Brecae, The first Translation of the Body to Brecae as the Acts narrate, through Hugo Lord of Brecae, and his wife Heylwidis. He teaches, how the aforesaid church of S. Julian of Sézanne was handed over to the monastery of La Charité on the Loire, through Hugo Bardolph, Toparch of Brecae, to be erected into a Priory as it is to this day; "Then it is to be well noted," he says, "that in the castle of Brecae is held a Collegiate church of ancient foundation, whose Cure pertains to the Priory of Sézanne": but that is to be noted, not because to the same year, in which the Priory was instituted, I judge the foundation of the Brecae church also to pertain; but because the body of S. Blithardus was borne to Brecae by a certain Hugo Lord of the place. Indeed, besides the one already named, I find two others in our history, of the same title and name; one in the year MCXLVII, another MCCLXXX: I am inclined however, to consider the first the author of that translation, and so it was made in the XI century. Surely it does not appear that anyone's desire of obtaining from the people of Sézanne the body could have been more efficacious, through Hugo founder of the Priory of Sézanne in the 11th century. than that of him who by so great and so recent a benefit had those Monks bound to himself, especially to whom from antiquity their S. Julian was, sufficient for the confluence of peoples and the augmenting of devotion. I would wish to be more certainly informed about the day on which they venerate that their S. Julian, now Canons of Sézanne instead of Monks; meanwhile I suspect a Martyr, together with S. Maximianus a companion of S. Lucianus the Apostle of Beauvais, not so distant; since S. Audoenus in the Life of S. Eligius in Surius 1 December ch. 32, is said to have fabricated chests of those three Saints, of gold, silver, and gems, of which one most easily could have been translated to Sézanne, which for 8 January at their Acts I would wish to be observed.
ACTS
From the parchments of the most illustrious Antonius Wion d'Herouvalle.
Blitarius the Presbyter, Anchorite in the Troyes diocese of Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 1381
FROM MS.
[1] Since the praise of the Saints redounds to the glory of God Because whatever is ascribed to the honor and reverence of the Saints, is wont to correspond to the glory of almighty God; it is just and fitting to their exaltation, that each, according to the faculty of his ingenuity, strive and labor. For since their whole intention, their whole mind, and their whole affection hangs on the love of the Lord; it is consequent, that whatever is attributed to their glory, whatever is bestowed for their favor, may be done for the honor of him through whom they subsist. For no glory, except through him, and in him; no possibility, except through him, and from him. For he is the glory, which the mobility of fortune cannot corrupt: he the possibility, to whom there is always present strength, without exchange to the contrary: for nothing of right has in him the passage of accidents, and all that is mutable: because whatever is in him is substantially in him and natural. He is always one and the same, and is never altered: he deceives no one, and is himself deceived by no one: he is the head and beginning of all things subsisting in the nature of things: and therefore the memory and veneration of all the Saints principally exists as his glory.
[2] The Brecenses venerate S. Blitharius In whose number the Brecense crowd, does not doubt to be a man of venerable life, S. Blitarius, in whose patronage it rejoices, in whose intervention it is gladdened, in whose protection it exults. For what of reason, what of opposition can intervene, that this one less is believed to be in so sacred a fellowship, to whom for the beatitude of perfection nothing of virtue is believed to have been lacking? For he had faith, the beginning of all uprightness; he had also hope, the foundation of that faith; he had also charity, the solidness of each virtue, without which every virtue is widowed, retaining no fruit of uprightness. who eminent in chastity The strenuous life of his the integrity of virginity adorned, which thus among other virtues shines forth, as a rose among thorns. This is, which makes those clinging to it a most sweet odor to the Lord: this is, I say, through which Mary pleased the Most High: this is, through which John the Apostle merited to obtain the privilege of divine love: this is, through which Judith, with Holofernes the most cruel tyrant killed, freed the Israelite people: this is, through which Daniel was raised up, to snatch Susanna from the perverse testimony of false accusers: this is, to speak more highly, which the Creator of all chose as the foundation for his Bride, namely the holy Church.
[3] To augment this virtue of uprightness, the grace of integrity, excelling in virtues, there followed the submission of humility which to the modest is wont to be exaltation, but to the proud and sublime is wont to be fall and confusion. In this also patience worked as a certain mode of virtue, through which each is proved as gold through fire. He followed Abraham in faith, Moses in mildness of meekness, David in humility, Holy Job in patience, Joseph in the virtue of chastity, and equal to other Saints; Daniel in presages of future things, Martin in the dispensation of frugality, the Lord's precept in the love of God and neighbor. O blessed and man of unspeakable sanctity, in whom alone of all can be found the life of the Saints! For he was equal to the Apostles, in the announcement of evangelical preaching; equal to the Martyrs, in the assiduous maceration of his body; equal to the Confessors, in the humble and just execution of the priesthood, equal to the Virgins, in the inviolate conversation of integrity. What more? According to the Apostolic precept, he was made all things to all, that he might make all safe.
[4] But since we have plucked some things about the sanctity of his manners, it seems suitable, He shone with the Presbyteral grade in his country; that how to us by God's favor he was brought, how he came into these regions and whence, according to the truth of the matter we may set forth. The holy Blitharius therefore, Priest and athlete of God, marked the borders of Scotland with the brightness of his birth; namely the island of Hibernia, which also B. Brigid decorates and exalts by the gift of her presence. He from the very beginning of his boyhood age renouncing secular things, began to gape after the divine; not wearing away leisure in vile things, but attending to liberal studies. For it was just, that he who desired to follow the fountain of Wisdom, should prefer wisdom to all: just, I say, that he who wished to cling to his Creator, should postpone things hateful to the Creator: for it is written, "The prudence of the flesh is enemy to God." Rom. 8:7
[5] Holy Blitharius therefore having received the grace of the Sacerdotal office, which dismissed with the world, by which he had received the greatest burden, was laboring chiefly to execute the office of that burden itself. But because among the briars of riches true beatitude is not wont to be found, partly by the solicitude of friends, partly with secular business hindering; he chose rather to follow poor Christ, than to be himself rich, and tardy in his office. For he had before his eyes the precept of the Savior, in the Gospel saying: "Who does not bear his cross and follow me, is not worthy of me": and again, he crossed into Gaul, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor." Luke 14:17, Matt. 19:21 By the desire of this perfection therefore the holy Priest of God Blitharius led, applied himself to the parts of the Gauls, with S. Furseius as companion taken, a man of wondrous sanctity; where leading a sufficiently poor and strict life, according to the Lord's precept, he did not think of the morrow: for prayer and fast was his food.
[6] and at Brecae he began to lead an eremitic life, At length with God as leader he applied himself to the borders of the Trecacenses, in the village called Verzeracus. There following the norm of eremitic institution, he constituted a cell of solitude, in which on each day he sacrificed himself to the Lord as a pious and pleasing host: for no offering can be more grateful to God, than that one render and vow himself to the Lord. Generous to others, sparing to himself: his strenuous virtue had declared war on businesses: rejecting the exterior man, only the interior he cared for: attenuating the body, he fattened the soul. For such a permutation of their alternations succeeds, that with the body afflicted, follows the fattening of the soul; and with this languishing, follows the thickness of the body: but the fatness of the body, gravity and tedium; the fatness of the soul, and piously dead he is buried at Sézanne, sweetness and remedy brings. And although still in earthly things he was lingering bodily; yet the heavenly already he inhabited spiritually. Therefore, the laborious contest of this life run through, at length he yielded to nature; and earthly things to earth, heavenly to heaven he rendered. Whose sanctity's fame perceived, the Sezanic suburbans took up the body of the aforesaid Saint, and placed it with them as worthily as they could: where for a long time he shone with many signs of virtues, which the Lord's piety worked through him: for sight to the blind, walking to the lame, health to the sick by his intervention was bestowed.
[7] Moved by the glory of these signs, the Lord of Brecae, by name Augo, under whose jurisdiction the parish of Sézanne was held; whence brought back to Brecae caused the same Saint to be borne to the castle of Brecae, with great devotion and reverence: and placed him in the church, which at that time was very small and wooden. Which augmented by the body and relics of the holy Athlete of God, the Clerics also wishing to augment in the work of structure, the church is built: by common counsel for imploring some help they bore him to Sézanne, the Lord of Brecae himself not knowing it. Where, the Lord working, of such gravity and weight he is said suddenly to have been, that for the space of one day they could not move him. Which heard, the Lord of Brecae moved with great grief of sorrow, with the greatest veneration came there: and prayers and fasts being proclaimed, with great honor of procession, brought him back to his castle; and assigning many estates, the church which is still present, he himself and his distinguished wife, by name Aeyluidis, to the honor of God and S. Blitharius established.
[8] But it is not to be omitted, how great power of virtue God's grace worked through him, a contracted man is healed, after the return from Sézanne to the castle. For there was a certain man Laudoenus, to whom from birth contracted limbs of body denied office; who with the hope of faith, was beseeching with frequent devotions of prayers, the Holy Blitharius of God, for the long denied use of the body. To whose petitions, by the suffrage and intervention of his holy Blitharius, the Lord's pious and embraceable piety responded. For the use, previously at all times denied, with limbs restored, he gave back. a madman is restored to himself, At another time also a certain one, sufficiently noble and sublime according to the glory of earthly dignity, foolish and insane,
ran here and there, as a brute animal (since to him nothing of reason was), whom not the industry of mind, but chance had led to the same Saint of God: who soon entering the temple, with the Holy of God aiding, recovered the lost sense. O wondrous and astonishing love and benevolence of the Lord around his Saints! who not for the merit of the sick, but for the glory of his own to be exalted, restores to wholeness even those not devoted. a sick foot is cured. At a certain time also a certain one, to whom a burning disease had withdrawn the use of the foot for quite long, sought again the patronage of the same S. Blitharius: by whose intervention he so departed well, as if he had not previously felt the evil.
[9] Since therefore, Dearest Brothers, this Saint is of such merit with God: Epilogue. with suppliant affection of heart, with all reverence, to observe the day of his solemnity, unanimous come together: him as a pious intercessor with prayers and tears with God, true examiner of hearts, seek for yourselves; through Our Lord Jesus Christ his son, who with him lives and reigns, in the unity of the holy Spirit, through all ages of ages. Amen.