ON SAINT VEREDEMUS,
BISHOP OF AVIGNON IN GAUL.
>EIGHTH CENTURY.
Historical Collection on the cult and age.
Veredemus, Bishop of Avignon in Gaul (S.) G. H.
[1] Avignon, a celebrated city of Gaul, set within Provence, subject to the Roman Pontiffs, and for some time their dwelling-place, on the river Rhône, among its own Bishops venerates with solemn cult St. Rufus and St. Veredemus, whose bodies rest upon the high altar, enclosed in a silver casket. Of these, St. Rufus is venerated in the month of November, on the day according to some the 12th, to others the 14th, when he will need to be treated. But the feast of St. Veredemus falls on this 17th day of June. Benedict Gononus, in book 3 of the Lives of the Fathers of the West, asserts that it is wont to be celebrated with an octave, from an ancient Missal of the same Church, in which there is found a proper Collect and Mass: and he adds that there exists among the Carthusians of Villeneuve an old manuscript Martyrology and a Calendar, in which honorable mention is made of St. Veredemus, Bishop of Avignon; as also in the Archives of the monastery of St. Andrew
there exist letters or contracts, Cult on June 17 from which it is established that Rostandus, Bishop of Avignon, entrusted to a certain Monk of the said monastery the charge of fabricating a silver casket in which to deposit the Relics of St. Veredemus; and for this cause gave him the Priory commonly called of Jonquières, around the year of the Lord 1050; and that he is better called Vendemius, as Bellovacensis (Vincent of Beauvais) has it, or, as others, Venderemus and Veredemius: and in this both the ancient Manuscripts and the Breviaries of the Churches of Arles, Carpentras, Cavaillon, etc., agree. And that he flourished around the year seven hundred. He is also mentioned by Ferrarius in the General Catalogue, and by Saussay in the Supplement, with this eulogy: At Avignon on the Rhône, St. Veredemus, Bishop and Confessor: who, designated by St. Agricola, Pontiff of this See, as successor of the sacred office on account of his outstanding merits, with no unequal glory of piety directed the Church committed to him: and dying full of works of justice and of eternal life, he obtained rewards in heaven, and left behind a name venerable on earth. For thenceforth, inscribed in the sacred registers on account of the manifest testimonies of his glory, he is celebrated each year with sacred honors on this day. So there; but most of these things are common to any and all Saints. Grevenus celebrates the same St. Veredemus as Bishop of Avignon and Confessor, in the Auctarium of Usuard, and following him Canisius in the double edition of the German Martyrology which we have: whom Ferrarius wrongly accuses, as though he made him Bishop of Orléans.
[2] The above-mentioned St. Agricola, by others Agricolus, his predecessor in the Bishopric of Avignon, he is said to have been co-opted by his predecessor St. Agricolus, is venerated on the second day of September. His Acts exist in the Lerinian Chronology of Vincent Barralis, but by a more recent Author, as one who mentions the bloody rain of the year 1573, and the conspiracy of the heretics in the year 1574. Meanwhile in the said Life these things are read: When Agricolus felt his last day to be at hand, he admonished the Clergy and people about choosing a successor, and co-opted into his place St. Veremundus, in the year 700, who near the city, in the desert, led an Angelic life renowned for miracles, and then Agricolus is said to have entered the joys of everlasting beatitude on the fourth before the Nones of September in the year of the Lord seven hundred, to whom then succeeded St. Veredemus. Concerning whom Gononus adds: In the place where he led the solitary life, there is still to be seen a hermitage only one league from the city of Avignon. These things are held more fully by Gononus in the Life written in honor of this man, but they cast a great difficulty, when he is said to be Greek by nation, dwelling there in a cave, to have received St. Giles coming from Greece, and to have lived together for a long time and to have been famed for miracles. These things are to be understood of St. Veredemius the Anchorite, whose celebrated memory is observed in the Breviary of the Church of Uzès on the 21st of August. This man must have lived in the time of St. Caesarius, Bishop of Arles, who died in the year 543, with whom the said Giles had lived for some time, before he came to St. Veredemius the anchorite: not sufficiently distinguished from St. Veredemius the anchorite. therefore those things which are reported concerning the anchoritic life of St. Veredemus the Bishop, in the said Gononus and in the Life of St. Agricolus, are suspect to us. We therefore omit the Life of this Bishop printed in Latin in Gononus, page 160, and in French in Simon Martin in the Sacred Relics of the desert, page 471, as a more recent composition, in which the true cannot be distinguished from the false, the certain from the uncertain: and the whole matter can be discussed more accurately and conveniently at the Life of St. Veredemius the Anchorite on the 21st day of August, and of St. Giles at the Kalends of September. Meanwhile, supposing this distinction, the name was given to the Bishop from that Anchorite, so many ages older; surely Greek, such as the Anchorite is said to have been; and composed in the same way as φερέκακος, φερένικος, φερέζωος—bearing evils, bringing forth Victory and life: for thus φερέδημος will mean "Bearing the people." But the use of the common folk has worn away the aspiration. It is necessary, however, that among some Greeks "βέρω" or "βήρω" was used for "φέρω" (I bear), whence Berenice took her name, although that word is nowhere found written.