ON SAINT ELPIDIUS, MARTYR, AND SAINT ARCHONTIUS, CONFESSOR,
AT BRIOUDE IN AUVERGNE, A PROVINCE OF GAUL.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
From Saint Gregory of Tours, the Proper of Le Puy, and Jacques Branche.
Elpidius, Martyr, at Brioude in Auvergne (Saint) Archontius, Confessor, at Brioude in Auvergne (Saint)
D. P.
Brioude, a famous town of Gaul among the Arverni, on the left bank of the Allier, Those old men are thought to be although it has descended about one league from its nearer site, where to this day it is called Old Brioude, still retains its name for those writing in Latin, which
the common folk in both places changed into Brioude: it also retains its ancient Patronage, and the body of Saint Julian the Martyr. He is venerated on the 28th of August, and from his passion, virtues, and glory Saint Gregory of Tours begins the 2nd book of the Miracles; where among other things, in chapter 1, he has thus: The old men who consigned the most sacred body to burial were so restored, that, set in the highest old age, they were regarded as young men.
[2] The more ancient Passion, from which these things were taken, has perished: who buried Saint Julian the Martyr if indeed there ever was a more ancient Legend of Saint Julian, which would give a more distinct account of the deed: for whatever things are now found in the manuscript Passionals seem to be taken from Gregory. Nevertheless the tradition of the people of Brioude is thought to have transmitted to the knowledge of posterity the names, death, and cult of the aforesaid old men, whence in the Proper of the Church of Le Puy, about the year 1642, it is read thus: While Julian's headless body lay on the ground, an Angel from above admonished Elpidius the shepherd that he should bestow burial upon it, which he did, together with Archontius the herdsman. Each was an old man: yet as a reward for the burial of the Martyr, their youth revived, old age being put to flight. Elpidius was carried off by martyrdom on a hill by the river Allier: but Archontius ended his life religiously at the tomb of Julian; and each, illustrious for sanctity, is reckoned among the saints.
[3] Jacques Branche, in his French work on the saints of Auvergne, one of whom is also assigned to the 8th of January published a decade after the said Proper, alleges also the Breviaries of Mende and of Clermont, in whose Martyrology of the last Church he asserts that the name of Archontius is referred to the 8th of January. But Elpidius, who is commonly called Saint Ilpis, is venerated on this 18th of June. Moreover concerning this last he narrates that, having left Archontius for the guardianship and cult of the sacred tomb, he chose a solitary life, withdrawing himself beneath a rock overhanging the river, above which a church of his name is seen, and beside a castle belonging to the jurisdiction of the Marquis of Langeac. When he had lived here in holiness for two years, Barbarians burst into Gaul during the reign of Constantine, who, being unable to extort from him either gold, which he had none of, or the faith of Christ, which he loved more than life, after dreadful scourges and torments cut off his head; which, brought together with the body to the church of Saint Julian, the other died a Martyr on this day. is believed to be kept buried there with the body of Saint Archontius, who also piously died there after him, and is customarily venerated by the people of Brioude on the 4th of February.
[4] On the same day, he says, Saint Archontius is also venerated, in a Priory dependent on the Abbey commonly called Chases; Whether from him another Saint Arconcius in a neighboring town of his name, which place, as also the parish church there, is commonly named Saint Arcons, and is on the other bank of the Allier, in sight of the town or castle of Langeac, about five leagues distant from Brioude and as many from Le Puy of the Velauni: where all the bones of the holy body are kept in a marble case, well secured with iron bands, under the high altar: on whose lid, and also on a leaden plate, is carved, Here is the body of Blessed Arconcius, with the note of the year 1379, impressed with a somewhat more recent chisel. The same Branche adds that he himself, taken as a companion by the Bishop of Saint-Flour in visiting the diocese, saw the aforesaid sacred bones, from which, except the jaw, none was lacking: which formerly, enclosed in silver and plundered by the Calvinists, tradition held. He says too that on the stone of the altar covering the case is read the inscription: a stonemason by trade? Here lies the body of Saint Arconcius; and likewise carved are the outlines of a compass, a hammer, and a rule, which are the instruments of Stonemasons: that this Saint Archontius was also such, the tradition of the place holds, confirmed by an old panel of the altar so depicting the saint. To this is added another tradition, by which the same is believed to have lent his labor to the founding of the church of Le Puy in such a way that every evening he returned to the place of his dwelling, whose ruins are still shown there, to minister to his decrepit parents, and yet returned no less quickly the next morning to the work, not without a miracle.
[5] Hence Jacques strives to conclude that two saints, Archoncius or Arcontius, must be established: which, in so great a nearness of places, he would prove to me with equal difficulty as that the aforementioned saints of Brioude We fear lest here persons and times be confounded are those very two old men whom Gregory says buried the body of Saint Julian, granted that this opinion has prevailed among the common folk, because together with the body of Saint Julian the bodies of Saints Elpidius and Arcontius were held there: although they themselves were perhaps some centuries later than he. That both bodies are at Brioude, he believes those who assert it; Jacques did not see them: but until someone says he has seen them, I shall strongly suspect that each was carried to the churches of his name, on those days on which they are venerated, the 4th of February and the 18th of June, and perhaps first in the year noted above, 1379. But that Branche would have the Arconcius of Brioude live under Diocletian, the other under the Emperor Alexander, under whom the foundations of the Marian church among the Velauni are said to have been laid; and the latter indeed a stonemason, the former a shepherd, moves me little: and that the aforesaid old men are others than these two Saints. For although the beginnings of that church are so ancient, which I do not now dispute, it is evident that from the time of Alexander it had to be repaired more than once and built anew, and so that Arconcius, laboring at it, could have lived later, and have been buried at Brioude according to his devotion, since he had spent the last years of his life at the body of the holy Martyr: but, growing famous for miracles, he could have been carried back to the place of his ancestral dwelling, when a church was founded there under his name. And so concerning the age of the pretitled Saints I define nothing; much less, for their sake, who must have lived while the Church had peace, do I defer the Martyrdom of Saint Julian to the last persecution; since Julian could have suffered much earlier, and perhaps be numbered among the first Martyrs of Gaul, concerning which we shall dispute in its own place. But whether the two old men, mentioned by Gregory, were ever assigned to the saints; this—since he himself is silent and only the more recent authors of the Breviaries assert it—I confess I doubt.