CONCERNING ST. BILIUS THE MARTYR,
BISHOP OF VANNES IN ARMORICA.
From the Catalogue of Albert le Grand.
IN THE YEAR 895
CommentaryBilius the Martyr, Bishop of Vannes, in Armorica (St.)
D. P.
The diocese of Nantes, extending far and wide through the Armoricans, Conan Meriadec is believed to have first divided into six Bishoprics, after, the Aquitanians being repressed, he had established for himself the British kingdom; crowned King, the Bishopric of Vannes instituted around the year 385, as it is reported, in the year 383; he died, and was buried in the city of León, in the year 388. The first of the dioceses thus torn from that of Nantes is reckoned that of Vannes, of which Judicaël, named Bishop by the same Conan, in the year 409 approved the foundation of the monastery of St. Gildas, made by Gralon, Conan's successor; and, with the same wishing to give a proper Bishop to Cornouaille, he suffered that province to be separated from his parish. Of this diminished diocese, in what order and at what times the Bishops sat, in some following centuries, is sufficiently uncertain. Yet a Chronological-historical Catalogue of them Albert le Grand professes to weave, a man originating from Mont-Relax or Morlaix, a town of the same Brittany, of the Order of Preachers, who after the work on the Saints of the same Region published in French in the year 1639, would have been of greater use to us if he had published the original and Latin texts of the individual Lives, it is not established that any Bilius presided in the year 785. which now we seek only with great difficulties, and often in vain. Yet we use what he gave; and thus we here note that the 31st Bishop is set by him as a certain Bilius, who lived under Charlemagne, and died in the year 790, after the seventh year of that See. But while he sets forth no author, nor indicates whence he received it (for Argentré in book 3, chapter 7, indeed 8, treats of Charlemagne's expedition against the Britons, but names no Bishop except Judicaël of Nantes), the Sammarthani justly doubt whether such a one is to be received for that time, and whether there was more than one Bilius, Bishop of Vannes.
[2] However it be, neither they, nor Albert, call that one—who lived under Charlemagne, and saw his city taken by the Franks—a Saint; but the one who succeeded Kenmonoc as the 43rd Bishop, More certainly held for a Saint is the one who was ordained in the year 882 ordained in the year 882; and who, while Charles the Fat reigned, amid the civil dissensions of the Britons, held the helm of the Church until the year 895: for from him he thinks is named the chapel which in the parish of Prandreh is today called St. Bilius's. We have the Proper of the Church of Vannes, printed in the year 1630, by the decree of Sébastien de Rosmadec the Bishop; and again revised and reprinted for the year 1660 by a similar decree and authority of his immediate successor and kinsman Charles. There, at June 23, with the Office of the Vigil of St. John, for the commemoration of St. Bilius, and as a Martyr he is venerated in the chapel of his name on the 23rd, Bishop of Vannes, a Prayer from the common of a Martyr is prescribed; but why of a Martyr? No reason is adduced by Albert other than that the Martyrology of the Cathedral of Vannes mentions him as such at June 24. Indeed I believe that to be his Natal day; but on account of the solemnity of the Feast the day of the Commemoration to be made is anticipated: I believe also that in that Martyrology nothing more is found,
than the name with the title of Bishop Martyr; added to the old text of Usuard; although he died on June 24. nor added rashly, but from the tradition of the elders, who always venerated him as such. Nor is it difficult, for that time, in which Armorica blazed with seditions and civil wars, to suppose that, on account of the liberties of the churches or some similar cause of piety, death was inflicted on the holy man by the seditious; for this, at that time, when all Saints who died by a bloody death were called Martyrs, abundantly sufficed for the title.
[3] As for what pertains to the rest of the notices of the same man, Albert says that a donation was made to Rainont, Abbot of St. Sergius of the diocese of Angers, by Duke Alan de Rebras, of the Abbey of St. Andrew upon the Ardra, which now perhaps, the Abbatial title abolished, is called the Chapel upon the Ardra, He is said to have subscribed the donation of King Gralon after the year 894. four leagues above the city, situated at the mouth of the river. That Alan, the first after St. Judicaël, the eighth among the Kings of Lower Brittany who arose at Brest from the year 499, having abdicated the Kingdom and become a Monk, is said to have ruled with the title of Duke in the year 894, and to have died in the year 907; and that Bilius, of whom we treat, was his Chancellor. But the parish of Plandreh, where his chapel is held, and where once perhaps his body too was honored; therefore likely, because he himself founded the church, and chose burial in it; seems in the topographical tables of the Sanson and Blaeu Atlas (where many things are wrongly written) to be named Plandran, where is his chapel? four leagues above the city of Vannes toward the North. There are furthermore in the same diocese of Vannes, named from Saints unknown to me, and concerning whom I ask to be informed, the places: St. Moul, St. Dolet, St. Jagunier, St. Serans, St. Alovestre, St. Risal, St. Disain, and perhaps very many others, either unknown to Albert himself or passed over.