ON ST. LEO, MARTYR, ARCHBISHOP OF ROUEN, APOSTLE OF THE PEOPLE OF BAYONNE, AND HIS TWO BROTHERS, ST. GERVASIUS, MARTYR, AND ST. PHILIP, CONFESSOR, AT BAYONNE IN GAUL,
Preliminary Commentary.
Leo, Martyr, Archbishop of Rouen, Apostle of the people of Bayonne, at Bayonne in Gaul (Saint)
Gervasius, Martyr, brother of St. Leo, at Bayonne in Gaul (Saint)
Philip, Confessor, brother of St. Leo, at Bayonne in Gaul (Saint)
ABOUT THE YEAR 900.
§ I. St. Leo's country, martyrdom, canonization: when was his Life written? Various eulogies.
[1] Bayonne is a city of Gaul, rich and strong, situated almost on the very borders of Spain, beside the Adour, or Adur, a river which to the ancients was the Aturrus, or Atyr, or Atyrus, and which not far below it rolls out into the Western Ocean. It venerates as its Tutelary Saint St. Leo, a native of Carentan, a town of Lower Normandy in the diocese of Coutances: who, since he was endowed with outstanding piety and learning, is said to have been raised to the Metropolitan Chair of the city of Rouen, St. Leo roots out impiety at Bayonne: and shortly afterwards to have been sent by the Roman Pontiff to Bayonne and to the neighboring places of Spain, to root out profane superstitions, and indeed the worship of idols, brought in perhaps by newcomers from the North or others, or by the evil demon himself,
From the old Aberdeen Breviary.
LIFE OF ST. MONAN
amid public calamities, happily rooted out the error that had been sown among the people destitute of Pastors. And at first indeed, upon his approach to that city, on a small hill outside the southern gate, he built a hut for himself and his two brothers Gervase and Philip; then, introduced into the city by the citizens, he converted most of the inhabitants. Finally, he was cruelly killed by pirates near the river Nive, which joins the Adour at that city, therefore killed by wicked men — the pirates being furious that the city had been changed to different customs and that their shrines and idols, under whose protection they boasted that their robberies were safely and successfully carried on, had been overthrown. In the place where he was killed, or certainly where his head, cut from his body, was raised from the ground by his hands and carried for the distance of one stadium and set down, a church was erected to him as a Martyr, he is solemnly venerated as a Martyr: which was destroyed in the year 1557, with his relics being brought into the city and interred in the basilica of the Virgin Mother of God. These things are related partly by André Du Chesne in his Antiquities of Gaul, partly by Papirius Masso, and others to be cited below.
[2] The Sammarthani in volume 1 of their Gallia Christiana, among the Archbishops of Rouen, relate among other things that in the Church of Bayonne there exists a twofold Life of Leo: one very brief in the ecclesiastical cursus, his Life from the Bayonne manuscripts, without date or Consul; the other more extended, which refers the birthday of Leo to the year 856. Both were sent to us by our Frederick Flouet from Rouen in the year 1642, whence they had been brought from Bayonne nine years before. Although he indicated that the more succinct one was also found in the old Breviary of Rouen; whence obtained? in it certainly the name of St. Leo appears in the month of February, after the feast of St. Matthias the Apostle. To the larger one, however, as Flouet's transcript had it, the following had been appended: Extracted from its original manuscript, which is preserved in the Choir of the Cathedral Church of the city of Bayonne, on the fifteenth day of November, in the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and thirty-three, by me, Michael Dorsarard, Canon Theologian of the said Church, and Vicar General and Official of my most Reverend Lord Raymond de Montagne, Bishop of Bayonne, being absent.
[5] Besides these two manuscript Lives arranged in a series of Lessons to be recited in the Ecclesiastical office, other Lives; 3 in French we have three others published in the French language by learned and weighty men. The first is in the work of René Benoist, who says that it was composed by order of Pope Gregory, and does not explain which one; but that in the month of July of the year 1570 a copy transcribed from the archive of Bayonne was sent to him, through the great kindness of the Bishop and chapter. It was similar to ours, as we found from the comparison of the two. Guillaume Gazet, Curé of the Church of St. Magdalene at Arras, published the same with other Lives of the Saints in French, from the old Legendaries of Bayonne, as he says, or more truly he rendered it almost word for word from René Benoist. Elegantly and lucidly, in his history of those Archbishops of the Church of Rouen who have been entered in the registers of the Saints, the Venerable Dom François Farin, Presbyter of Rouen and Prior of the Church of Blessed Mary of the Valley, also wrote the acts of St. Leo in French; and he too with singular kindness gave us that history of his. He used here the Bayonne acts of that Saint, which he cites again and again in Latin in the margin, somewhat different now and then from ours. Papirius Masson seems to have had another, differing from all these. others in Latin cited by Masson. It was not, however, composed by Sampson, Canon of Bayonne, as Robert Denyau wrote in the book on Rollo the Norman-Breton, chapter 9. The words of Papirius, page 611, are these: "Sanson, Canon of Bayonne, once known to me, wrote back that the river which washes Bayonne is called the Adour: that in the Life of St. Leo the Nive loses its name at the exit of the city, where it flows into the Adour." This indeed we nowhere read so expressly stated in the Lives of St. Leo which we have already cited.
[6] St. Leo is venerated at Bayonne on the Kalends of March, on which day he consummated his martyrdom, as the same François Farin testifies, and the Bayonne Acts cited by him, his feast on March 1, and René Benoist, although the latter places his Life between those of St. Calupanus the Recluse and St. Adrian the Martyr, of whom the latter belongs to the 4th of March, the former to the 3rd: but he candidly admits that that Life, which was otherwise to be given at the Kalends of March, was delivered to him rather late. This was not noticed by those who recorded his natal day at the 3rd of March, Saussay and Ferrari; elsewhere on the 3rd. although the latter cites René in his Notes; but we shall presently show that René was not read by him, nor were the things he brings forward from him faithfully suggested to him by another. Gazet strays further, and places him on the day before the Nones of March. But Saussay, as we shall say presently, placed St. Leo back at the Kalends in the Supplement to the Martyrology.
[7] Further, the double eulogy of Saints Leo and his two brothers which he composed seems also to be published by us, although some things in the former are less approved by us. He writes thus, then, at the 3rd of March: "At Castrum Lampurdum, or Bayonne of the Lampurdenses, under the metropolis of Auch in Aquitania Secunda, of St. Leo, Bishop and Martyr, A eulogy from Saussay, containing his birth, who, born of pious parents in the district of Carentan, of the province of Rouen, an Angelic prophecy going before, gave wonderful specimens of future holiness from infancy. Afterwards, most fervent in zeal, outstanding in chastity, most eminent in learning, most adorned with virtues, when he was flourishing among his contemporaries, he was enrolled in the Clergy at Rouen, his virtues, and raised through the degrees of merit to the summit of the priesthood: that he might scatter the sacred seed of the Gospel, relying on Apostolic authority, he set out with his two brothers Philip and Gervasius from Celtic Gaul into the province of Novempopulania, blinded by the darkness of unbelief, the conversion of many in Gascony, and there, by overthrowing the shrines of false deities and setting up the trophies of Christ, he put forth wonderful deeds of pious endeavor. Exasperated by which, the sacrificers of Mars, a shadowy god, stirred up a mob against the man of God. But he, having poured out prayers to Christ, turned the idol of Mars into dust by his breath alone: and by this miracle he led the astonished multitude, and the priests themselves, from the abominable worship of demons to the faith and adoration of the incarnate Word.
[8] "Bayonne having thus been wholly subjugated to Christ, he went on into Béarn and Navarre, and in Spain, and penetrated also certain towns of Spain, propagating the Christian religion with apostolic spirit among the peoples he met. Until he was seized with his companions by certain pirates, worshippers of Heathen impiety, at the river Nive, and was dreadfully beaten by them for the preaching of the faith. And first, under his eyes, both his brothers were beheaded. his slaughter by pirates, Then his own head was cut off by an attendant rushing upon him; which, falling to the ground, at once raised up a spring. But the body, at first remaining erect under the very stroke of the deadly blade, and then bending down, gathered up the severed head, miracles in it, and, an Angel accompanying, carried it one stadium from there. There afterwards the trophy of the Martyr became most famous: for in that place a mound of testimony was erected by the faithful to so great an athlete of Christ; in which, laid in an honored casket, he rested, until, when the recent enemies of the Saints were raging through all Gaul, he was carried from there to Bayonne, lest he should be subject to the profane sect, the translation of the relics. and placed in the chief church of the Virgin Mother of God; where to this day he both shines with miracles and enjoys due veneration. He suffered in the times of Charles the Simple, Stephen VII presiding over the Apostolic See after Bonosus."
[9] The same Saussay, in the Supplement to the Martyrology at the Kalends
[4] There is only one monastery of men in Normandy under the name of the Holy Saviour, and that of the Benedictine order, from the account of weighty men: founded by the most illustrious man Nigel, Viscount of the Cotentin, in the year 1048, which is therefore called St. Saviour of the Viscount, commonly Sainct Sauneur le Vicomte, as Arthur du Monstier writes in the Neustria Pia, page 540: who among the Abbots of that monastery shows only one Robert, elected in the year 1188; who is recorded in certain public Acts drawn up at the year 1205; Arthur nowhere indicates, however, in what year that Robert died, except that it is established that his successor Unfrid was present at certain other judicial Acts with Hugh, Bishop of Coutances, in the year 1230. From which a conjecture can be drawn that Robert died not long before that year, whom Gregory IX charged to examine the Life and miracles of St. Leo, his canonization by Gregory IX. so that he himself might solemnly declare him a Saint. Gregory VIII did not entrust this to him, who, created Pontiff on the 21st of October 1187, died on the 16th of December of the same year; since Robert was first made Abbot in the following year: nor Gregory X, who was first elected Pontiff in the year 1271, on the 1st of September. But Gregory IX was inaugurated Pontiff in the year 1227 on the 21st day of March. But who was William, the other examiner of the acts and miracles of St. Leo? He, I think, who was admitted into the college of Cardinals by Innocent IV in the year 1244, the second of his pontificate, having previously discharged many legations under Honorius III and Gregory IX; under which Gregory too he is read to have labored much for the canonization of St. Dominic, so that he seems to have proved his industry to the same Gregory at the beginning of his pontificate, while Robert the Abbot was still surviving, in a similar business of promoting the apotheosis of St. Leo: unless perhaps he afterwards himself reviewed and completed what Robert had left unfinished here, and reported the Acts. One thing can be opposed to this conjecture, that in Chacón he is said to have been made Cardinal of Sabina, in the Bayonne manuscript of St. Lawrence. What if he was transferred from one Church, or Title, to the other? What if the author of this manuscript went astray, as happened to him in many things? For the man whom he had said was born in the year 856, he writes was summoned to Rome by Pope Gregory about the year 880, after completing the course of Theological studies: whereas from the year 743, toward the end of which Gregory IV died, until the 12th of June 997, on which Gregory V was elected, there was no Pontiff of that name for 152 years and more.
[3] When that Life was composed can be conjectured from the words prefixed to it in the manuscript: "On the feast of Blessed Leo, Martyr, Prelate of the Church of Rouen and Patron of the city of Bayonne; as well from the statements of John Paken, Vicar of the same Saint and Canon in the aforesaid Church of Rouen, composed after the year 1230, as from the statements of William, of the title of St. Lawrence, of the Roman Church… and of Robert, Abbot of the Church of St. Saviour in Normandy; who approved his Life and miracles by mandate of the Supreme Pontiff Gregory, who canonized the same St. Leo and entered him in the catalogue of the Saints." Three marks of time, then, chiefly need to be discussed: when Robert, Abbot of St. Saviour, lived; when William, Cardinal of the title of St. Lawrence (for this word seems to be wanting); and who that Pope Gregory was who had the acts and miracles of St. Leo approved and entered him in the registers of the Saints.
of March has this other account of St. Leo, more concise than the first, yet no less elegant: Another account. On the same day, of St. Leo, Apostle of the people of Bayonne, whose triumphal song is read in the Martyrology on his birthday, the 5th day before the Nones of this month. This blessed Martyr shines with the perpetual gift of assistance within his borders. For women invoking him in childbirth whom he assists. are freed from danger; sailors are saved from shipwreck and the power of pirates; animals commended to his patronage are rescued from the rapacity of wolves and various infirmities; and innumerable other consolations are bestowed on the inhabitants through his intercession (by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the most blessed athlete glorified in life and in death). So much for that. That he says the Saint's birthday is on the 5th before the Nones of March, yet places it on this day, both indicates where he mentioned it and tacitly retracts what he had previously written. But in neither account does he signify by even a single word that St. Leo was a Bishop of Rouen. At what time he is recorded by others to have been raised to that See, and when he is said to have suffered martyrdom, we shall presently investigate. An error of the copyist or typesetter crept into Saussay's earlier narration, when Bayonne is said to be in Aquitania Secunda, under the Metropolis of Auch: since in the twofold Notitia of the cities of Gaul, prefixed to his Martyrology, the Metropolis of the province of Aquitania Secunda is established as the city of Bordeaux; while the city of the Ausci in the old Notitia is established as the Metropolis of the province of Novempopulania; and in the new one, of the province of Aquitania Tertia, and under it the city of Bayonne.
[10] I have not read the names of Philip and Gervase, Brothers of St. Leo, inscribed in any other Martyrology besides this one of Saussay. Gervase his brother, a Martyr, But what is reported here and in François Farin and Natale Tallepied — that both were beheaded — does not agree with the Life given here, to be published from the Bayonne manuscript, which reports that only Gervasius was killed; but that Philip, having seen the cruelty of those pirates, Philip, Confessor: withdrew two miles, on the opposite side of the city; "where he passed to the Lord as a glorious Confessor: and God works many miracles there by reason of his holy body; his relics. which is devoutly guarded by monks of the order of St. Benedict." Benoist and Gazet record the same, except that they put the place in which the relics of St. Philip were preserved at about one league from Bayonne. Whether those relics still exist there, and whether the one adorned with the title of Martyr, the other with that of Confessor, still obtains veneration, I have not been able to find out.
[12] The same Life adds: "Louis, King of the Normans and the Germans, had him presented to himself by his parents at twelve years old." at twelve he is presented to Louis, King of the Germans, Louis, after the death of his father the Emperor Louis the Pious, which occurred on the 20th of June 840, held the kingdom of the Franks in Germany until the year 876, in which he died. His parents could, then, have presented Leo to him at twelve years old, namely in the year 868 or the following year; nor was there need, as certain writers have done, to say that he was presented to Louis the Younger, King of Germany; since in the year 876, in which Louis the Younger succeeded his deceased father in a third part of his kingdoms, Leo was already in his twentieth year. But how could either the father or the son be called King of the Normans, when that part of Neustria which was afterwards called Normandy then belonged to Charles the Bald, the brother of Louis? Or by what right could the King of Germany command a nobleman living in Western Francia, under another King, although born in the kingdom of Charles the Bald, to present his son to him? Or perhaps did he invite him, once known to him, into his kingdom with his family, or receive him when he fled to him of his own accord? For already before, in the year 858, envoys had come to Louis from the West, as the Annals of Fulda have it, "that he would come to the aid of the people in peril and placed in distress by his presence… For they could no longer bear the tyranny of Karl… because what the Pagans" (the Normans) "had left of them from without, with no one resisting or opposing a shield, by plundering, taking captive, killing [from whom, on account of his vices, Leo's father perhaps defected, as other nobles did:] and selling, he was destroying from within by treacherous savagery: nor was there anyone in the whole people who now put faith in his promises or oaths, all falling into despair of his goodness." More is narrated elsewhere about the cruelty and perfidy of the same Charles the Bald, and at the same time about his insane timidity. And so much so that in that very year we have mentioned, 858, having caught sight of the numerous army of his brother Louis, "having drawn up his soldiers as though for battle, he himself secretly went off with a few. But the army, left in the place of the conflict, learning of the departure of its General, went over to Louis." What if on this or a similar occasion St. Leo's father went over to the side of King Louis, and thereafter constantly adhered to him?
[13] That this Louis, moreover, is called King of the Normans, no one will wonder who remembers that certain less accurate writers who commit the history of ancient times to writing are wont to accommodate it more or less to the customs, names, titles of dignities and institutions of laws of their own age. Thus the author of this Life, who in the 13th century of the Christian Era wove it together after a fashion from old scraps of writing, when he read that St. Leo was born in the province of Rouen and was summoned to the court of Louis, King of the Germans, added "and of the Normans" too, because that province was then, as it is now, Leo is instructed in letters. inhabited by the Normans; as though that Louis, King of the Germans, had also governed Neustria, in which Leo was said to be born, and the Normans had already then settled in it with full right. By a similar reasoning he writes that the same Leo was sent to Paris to the University; and afterwards summoned to Rome by Pope Gregory, a name which, very ineptly intruded, we have struck out, since from the thirteenth year before Leo's birth, of Christ 843, in which Gregory IV died, to 996, in which Gregory V was elected, no Pontiff of that name administered the Roman Church.
[14] Now we must inquire about St. Leo's Episcopate, both of Rouen and of Bayonne. And of Rouen indeed the old lists and the published catalogues reveal nothing, as Jean Prévost and the Sainte-Marthe brothers testify: for which silence they give a twofold reason, either that he only touched the See in passing, [that he may be recorded in the Martyrology and the offices of the Church of Rouen,] to which, while the storm of the Normans raged, access was perhaps scarcely open, or that in so great a disturbance of affairs his memory perished. The same Prévost wrote to François II, Archbishop of Rouen, on the Kalends of July in the year 1633, a little book in which he begs that by his authority the name of the most holy Martyr Leo be celebrated with an annual festival. And of him, among other things which he elegantly discusses, he records this: "The Acts of the blessed Pontiff, drawn from the codices of the Church of Bayonne, lie open to the eyes of all, are turned over in the hands of all. The Gascons themselves and the Cantabrians, who go down to the sea in ships, since he had long been venerated in Gascony, doing business in great waters, have brought the name of their Patron to our shores by a happy commerce; and while they openly extol his memory, they silently rebuke our forgetfulness. From so many and such great documents it is more than sufficiently established that Leo himself, born at Carentan in your province, a Neustrian by country, Parisian by training, adorned by the Roman Pontiff with the mitre of Rouen on account of his outstanding gifts of mind, and given as leader and teacher to the nations, having relinquished his inheritance for a time, bore the reproach of Christ outside the camp, and, advancing in the blessed footsteps of your predecessor Audoenus as far as Spain, brought the city of Bayonne from the worship of demons and piratical ferocity to the gentleness of the true faith: where, having been subjected to many injuries for Christ, and at last cut down by the impious swords of a raging mob, he consummated the continual mortification of his body with a bloody sacrifice, which God declared acceptable to himself by miracles salutary toward the faithful and by prodigious vengeance on the persecutors."
[15] So Jean Prévost in his little book of supplication, or paraenetic epistle to the Archbishop of Rouen: Jean Prévost, Canon of Rouen, petitions who a little later, namely on the 15th day before the Kalends of August of the same year, issued Pastoral letters, by which he decreed that proceedings should be taken by his authority, with the consent of the Chapter, for the institution of a new feast of St. Leo; as the Sainte-Marthe brothers cited before write. We have those letters, in which he speaks thus of Prévost: "Prévost, who is under the Canon, our secretary." And before: "The most diligent Primicerius of our Notaries." And afterwards: "From the territory of Bayonne, formerly called Aquae Augustae, formerly Gemma, our venerable Canon Prévost brings back with exultation into the Lord's threshing-floor both the Gem of Prelates and his sheaves." The sum of the Decree is this: Archbishop François orders the matter to be lawfully examined "Wherefore to the most Religious Bishop of Tarsus, Coadjutor of our Suffragan of Avranches, Administrator and Vicar General of our Archbishopric, to whom we have fraternally handed over the province since the conduct of the sacred war against the heretics has been more urgently committed to us, we delegate the care that, having called into counsel our other Vicars General, with chosen men of greater distinction from the bosom of the Presbytery or Chapter of our venerable Church, he deliberate synodically, according to the ancient rite, about restoring, by our authority, St. Leo, Archbishop of Rouen and Martyr, into the Martyrology and the sacred Diptychs, and the Ecclesiastical Office." Further, that Bishop of Tarsus, Henri Boyvin, whom François Péricard, Bishop of Avranches, had taken as his Coadjutor in the year 1636, died three years before Péricard himself, who governed that Church for fifty years and more. Robert Denyau collaborates in the matter. Denyau, already cited before, Rector of Gisors, a famous town on the river Epte, declares what outcome that deliberation had: "Lately," he says, "St. Leo was added to the Calendar of Rouen and to the Ecclesiastical Office (at my instigation) on the Kalends of March."
[16] But for what reason are we to believe it came about that Saussay, as though deliberately, makes no mention of the See of Rouen administered by him? Demochares, Chenu, and Claude Robert have not even expressed his name, whether the discourse was about the Prelates of Rouen or of Bayonne: Tallepied, in the Antiquities of Rouen, chapter 29, writes that when he had been raised to the mitre of Rouen, he was sent by the Roman Pontiff into Spain to imbue certain people with the sound doctrine of the Faith. And that, when he was returning after accomplishing this as he wished, he was beheaded at Bayonne by pirates, St. Leo omitted as Bishop in many catalogues, wicked men, after very many torments, with his two brothers. He adds that he is called Victo by some. Dadré, omitting the name of Leo, but Vitto to John
[11] The Life of St. Leo from the Bayonne codex which we are about to give here St. Leo is said to have been born in the year 856. reports that he was born in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 856. This René Benoist also reports, and from him Guillaume Gazet. From which it is manifestly clear, as we said before, that neither did Filippo Ferrari read that Life published by Benoist, whom he cites, nor did the one who suggested it to him do his work faithfully enough: for he writes that he lived about the year 843, and was put to martyrdom in 875. Of the time of the martyrdom we shall see presently.
§ II. St. Leo's studies, episcopate, apostolate; his public veneration at Bayonne, received at Rouen.
substituted in the year 875, born at Carantan in Lower Normandy elsewhere recorded under a different name; (which was the homeland of St. Leo), having held the See of Rouen for one year, was sent by Pope Leo to Spain to restore the faith of Christ which had been nearly extinguished by the Saracens; but was crowned with martyrdom by the people of Bayonne. Who was that Pope Leo by whom Vitto is said to have been sent to Spain? Leo IV had died in the year 855. Leo V reigned for only 40 days in the year 907. So that by neither could Vitto have been sent to Spain in the year 876, after having governed the Church of Rouen for one year.
[17] Arnaud Oihenart in his Notice of Both Vasconias writes thus about this holy Bishop: why was he sent to Spain? Blessed Leo, first Bishop of Bayonne, while holding the pontificate of Rouen, was sent by the Roman Pontiff as legate to Spain, to raise up and confirm the Christians oppressed by the Saracens, and arrived at Bayonne; and there, while he was most actively promoting the Christian cause by the example of his life and sacred sermons, he was killed by pirates and criminal men whose vices he was attacking, and deserved to be enrolled in the number of the Saints. He flourished under King Charles the Simple. Jean Dadré, Theologian and Canon of Rouen, in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Rouen calls him Vitto. In the ancient records of the Church of Bayonne, however, and in the ancient Breviaries, he is called nothing other than Leo.
[18] Pierre de Marca, book 1 of the History of Béarn, chapter 8, where he mentions St. Leo, Bishop of Bayonne, but not the first: nevertheless passes over his Rouen pontifical insignia in silence. Why he does this we may not divine, still less rashly undermine the old tradition. We willingly agree, however, with the same most illustrious writer on this point: that the people of Bayonne seem to do injustice to the antiquity of their bishopric, when they say that St. Leo was the first Bishop among them, who flourished under King Charles the Simple around the year 900: whereas before the first irruption of the Normans into the shores of Aquitaine (which he says took place in the year 845) there were Bishops of Bayonne. For he says that a testimony is brought forward from the archive of Lescar, from which it is established that Bayonne was laid waste by the Normans together with the other Cities of Gascony. There is added a writing of Bishop Arsius, who about the year 980, in the time of Pope Benedict VII, governed the Church of Labourd, or Bayonne. That writing the same Marca recites from the cartulary of Bayonne in the Observations on the said chapter, and Oihenart in book 3, chapter 4. In that writing Arsius declares that he wishes to hand down to the knowledge of his successors and posterity "those places which are subject to our Bishopric, namely to St. Mary of Labourd… or which IN FORMER TIMES the Church of Labourd itself canonically acquired by the public help or counsel of the faithful."
[20] If, however, we wish to stand by the ancient tradition of the people of Bayonne, which the people of Rouen too have lately received, what place, then, shall we assign him in the Catalogue of the Archbishops? Natale Tallepied and Jean Dadré make him the predecessor of Franco, who in the year 912 imparted sacred baptism to Rollo, and say that he was called by another name Vitto or Victo. he was not the immediate predecessor of Franco the Bishop, The Sainte-Marthe brothers and others refute their opinion, because Leo scarcely touched the See (for Dadré admits that he certainly did not hold it more than a year), whereas Wito labored outstandingly in the conversion of the Normans, as they prove from the passage of Flodoard cited. At which time, they say, it is far from the truth that a Prelate most occupied in the care of his own flock nor the same as Vito: should have turned his efforts to other sheep. Robert Denyau, however, contends that Leo and Wito are the same, and holds that Leo was called by the surname Vitto, or Victo, by some Vittus; and a little lower down he calls him Valo, or Wicto, or Wictus and Witto, and Leo Wittus: and that the same surname of Witto or Wittus was common to him and his brothers Gervasius and Philip.
[21] It is not necessary to review the very many things the same Denyau heaps up about St. Leo. We briefly lay down this, but the successor of John I, that if St. Leo governed the Church of Rouen, or was destined by lawful authority to govern it, it was, as the Sainte-Marthe brothers also put it, between Archbishop John I and Wito, already named. John, however, does not seem, as Dadré reports, to have been put in the place of Riculf in the year 872, if (as the same Sainte-Marthe brothers have, and the Fragment of the Chronicle of Fontenelle published by André du Chesne in volume 2 of the Frankish writers, page 387), if, I say, the anonymous writer of the same Chronicle "received the sacred rank of the presbyterate from Adelard, Riculf's predecessor, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 872, in the 5th Indiction, on the eighth day before the Ides of March, a Saturday." Then John succeeded Riculf, who followed Adelard, who before the year 876 in what year we have not read sufficiently expressly indicated: but he was present at the Council of Ponthion, held in the month of June in the year of Christ 876, the 37th of the reign of Charles the Bald, the first of his empire, in the 9th Indiction. To the same John of Rouen, and four other Archbishops of Gaul, there exists a letter from Pope John VIII, that they should come to a synod, given on the 4th day before the Ides of June, in the 11th Indiction, in the year of Christ 878. sat at least until 882. In another letter, given in the year 882, the same Pope John VIII warns Abbot Hugh to separate himself from all fellowship with certain Prelates, and by name with this John, Archbishop of Rouen, too.
[22] Therefore Vitto had not succeeded this John in the year 875 (as Dadré has it), of whom we read nothing in the public acts before the year 900, although the Sainte-Marthe brothers write that he presided over the Church of Rouen about the year 888, but without alleging the credit either of public acts or of any other writer. But in the said year 900 he was present at the excommunication pronounced against the men of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, but Vito, the successor of Leo, was sitting in the year 300 on account of the murder of Archbishop Fulk perpetrated by them. This Fulk, substituted for Hincmar, who died on the 21st of December in the year 882, received the pallium from Pope Marinus, who, put in the place of John VIII, who died on the 15th day of December in the year 882, on the 19th of the same month, died on the 18th of January 884. The things gloriously done by Fulk Flodoard reviews in book 4 of the History of the Church of Reims, from which we shall perhaps take some things on the 17th of June, on which he was slain by the treachery of Baldwin II, Count of Flanders, to whom, writing with his Fellow-bishops from the synod held at Reims in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 892, "he had rebuked him because he despised at once the Ecclesiastical and the legal rights, invaded Ecclesiastical properties and honors not granted to him, casting the fear of God from himself, and renouncing by his works the faith which he had promised God in baptism, intruding into a place of the sacred monastic order, and usurping for himself the name of Abbot. Whence it had been judged by common decree of the Bishops that he must be struck with the anathema of Canonical authority. But since he seemed useful to the Church and to the public interests of the kingdom, the censure of Ecclesiastical punishment was still suspended, and time was reserved for him to reconsider and amend himself, and he was besought through the mercy of God to recall his mind from this presumption, and not to provoke the wrath of God against himself any further." These and many other things about the wicked deeds of Baldwin Flodoard has, book 4, chapter 7. [at which he was present at the excommunication of the murderers of Blessed Fulk, Bishop of Reims:] The murder of the most holy Archbishop is narrated by John of Ypres in the Chronicle of Saint-Bertin, chapter 20, part 3. And Hervé was substituted for Fulk in the year 900, and on the day he was ordained, the day before the Nones of July, in the church of St. Mary at Reims, in the presence of several Bishops who are listed, and among them Wido, Archbishop of the people of Rouen, there was read the excommunication against the authors of the impious murder, the men of Baldwin himself, Winemar, Everard, Ratfrid, and their other accomplices; as the Sainte-Marthe brothers narrate from an old manuscript communicated to them through the kindness of Nicolas Camuzat, Canon of Troyes.
[23] This is the first mention of Wido that we find in the ancient acts. the same subscribed the council of Trosly in 909: He was then present at, and subscribed, the council celebrated at Trosly in the district of Soissons, on the 6th day before the Kalends of July, in the year of Christ 909, the 2nd year of Pope Sergius III. And hence I think it is clear that Wito was by no means the same man who was called Leo, and sent to the Gascons, and at last crowned with martyrdom near Bayonne; after he had done those things there which seem altogether to require a space of some years, having in the meantime ordered two Vicars General to attend to the Church of Rouen, as far as the fury of the Barbarians allowed. And yet already in the year 911 Franco was Prelate, in the year 911 Franco was already Bishop. and was treating the business of making peace with the same Normans. What of the fact that Hervé, Archbishop of Reims, of whom we treated before, at that very time at which peace and the conversion of Duke Rollo were hoped for, not long before Franco's Episcopate, at the request of Wito, then Bishop of Rouen, collected from various
§ III. The time of St. Leo's See at Rouen: his predecessor and successor.
[19] Marca admits, however, that St. Leo was the first Bishop of that city [perhaps translated there, the province of Rouen having been laid waste by the barbarians,] after the devastation inflicted on that diocese and on the others of all Gascony by the Normans. And I do not know whether it may not be suspected that the Pontiff, whoever he was, by whom Leo was sent, was moved by almost the same reason by which, not long before, John VIII was moved to transfer Frotarius from the Church of Bordeaux to that of Bourges: "Because," he says, "the incursion of the pagans, with frequent swords and continual plunderings, has so consumed the Church of Bordeaux and almost the whole diocese held under its rule, that almost every Episcopal office there is vacant, we have foreseen it to be necessary, by the authority of almighty God and of the Blessed Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, to prefer your Fraternity, whose vacancy is the failure of faith and the loss of almost all virtues, and at the same time to set you, incardinated, over the Church of Bourges, which is known to be vacant of pastoral care, from this present tenth Indiction." That Epistle was given, as was another concerning the same translation of Frotarius, on the 5th day before the Kalends of November, in the 10th Indiction, that is, in the year 876. To what devastation Neustria certainly had been reduced by continual plunderings is clear from Dudo, book 2 On the Customs and Deeds of the Normans, where Franco the Archbishop, the intermediary for concluding peace between Rollo and Charles the Simple, is bidden to report this to the latter: "Rollo cannot make peace with you, because the land which you wish to give him is untilled by the ploughshare, wholly deprived of flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and empty of the presence of men. and emptied of inhabitants, There is nothing in it from which he can live, except by plunder and pillage. Give him some kingdom from which he may procure food and clothing for himself, until the land which you give him is filled with a heap of riches and renders timely fruits of foodstuffs, of men, and of animals." Flodoard too, nearest to those times, in book 4 of the History of the Church of Reims, chapter 14, writes thus of the Normans: "They undertook to receive the faith of Christ, certain maritime districts having been granted to them with the city of Rouen, which they had almost destroyed, and others subject to it." What wonder, then, if, the city of Rouen having been almost destroyed, and the whole of that land being empty of the presence of men, Leo, destined for its Archbishopric, was sent elsewhere, where a more abundant fruit of his learning and zeal could be hoped for?
with the authorities of the Holy Fathers, thirteen chapters concerning how those Normans should be treated, as Flodoard has it in book 4, chapter 14.
[24] There is therefore a sufficiently ample space of vacant time, from the year 882, when the last mention of John was made, until 900 when the first mention of Witto was made, for St. Leo to have been promoted to the Episcopate and ordained at Rome by one of the six Pontiffs who during that time succeeded one another in the Chair of St. Peter; between John and Witto there was sufficient time for what is attributed to Leo. to govern the Church of Rouen for a sufficiently long time as well, if the devastations of the Normans permitted; to undertake the legation to Vasconia finally; and to undergo martyrdom before the year 900, which was, from the coronation of Charles the Simple by Blessed Fulk, the eighth year, and the last of St. Leo's life, if truly, as de Marca judges, he lived until that year — in which his successor Witto, as we have already related, was present at the excommunication pronounced by Hervé against the murderers of Blessed Fulk. Who otherwise would believe that Witto, after the year 909, in which he attended the Synod of Trosly on the 6th before the Kalends of July, having left the most fruitful harvest that was at hand, would have looked to another far-off and uncertain one? Yet this must be acknowledged by whoever judges Witto to be Leo, and yet does not leave him the opportunity of gathering that new one in the little time remaining until the episcopate of Franco.
[25] From what has been said thus far, what Ferrari annotates under March 3 is easily refuted in these words: This also seems remarkable, that since Bayonne is more than 170 Gallic miles from Rouen, This St. Leo does not belong to Bayeux: the body of this holy Bishop rests there and not rather at Bayeux, a city of the same province as Rouen. A slight error (σφάλμα) concerning these things is found in Denyald, page 96, where he writes that St. Leo became a rising sun for the Cantabrians and the Bayocenses, or people of Bayeux; nor is he the Leo Martyr previously recorded: when he meant to write "to the people of Bayonne." The same writer, toward the end of page 100, thinks that this Leo of ours is recorded by Pietro de' Natali, book 11, chapter 130, §82. But that is another, being listed in the Martyrologies, as we said above on this very day, which were written when this Leo of ours, of Rouen or Bayonne, was not yet born, much less inscribed in the registers of the Saints.
V. Coming from there to Bayonne, by a three days' preaching he so moved the minds of the citizens to admiration of himself and to the worship of the true religion, that all, casting away their superstitions he converts the people of Bayonne, and laying aside the ferocity of a piratical life, embraced the Christian truth and gentleness; and, initiated by baptism, at once built in the city a Church under the title of the Virgin Mother of God. and some in Spain: Then, advancing into Spain, he sowed the Gospel through rough and desert places. Where, when he had begotten many sons to Jesus Christ, he at last returned to Bayonne to confirm the people in faith and discipline.
VI. Taking this ill, the pirates, who on account of their unbridled licence of living had been expelled by the citizens and had withdrawn into the nearest caves, overwhelmed the holy Pontiff by an ambush when he had gone out of the city for the sake of preaching. he is killed by pirates near Bayonne, He, worn out by wounds, his head at last cut off, crowned the glory of his apostolate with the crown of martyrdom. And his death was made illustrious by God with various miracles. For both the sacred head, dashed upon the ground, suddenly opened a most healthful spring; and is made illustrious by miracles. and the lifeless body, when it had stood firm and unmoved for some time and could not be thrown to the ground by any force, lifted the head in its hands and went forward to the place where it was honorably buried by the citizens; and afterwards, in the Cathedral church, it is venerated there with great veneration of the faithful.
Annotation* Colvenerius reads 23.
LIFE OF ST. LEO, from manuscripts.
Leo, Martyr, Archbishop of Rouen, Apostle of the people of Bayonne, at Bayonne in Gaul (Saint)
Gervasius, Martyr, brother of St. Leo, at Bayonne in Gaul (Saint)
Philip, Confessor, brother of St. Leo, at Bayonne in Gaul (Saint)
BHL Number: 4835
From manuscripts.
PART I
St. Leo's country, birth, studies, episcopate, mission into Spain.
LESSON I
That we may be instructed, dearest Brothers, by the examples of Blessed Leo the Martyr, and helped by his patronage, devoutly keeping his feast this day, let us also briefly hear some things of his life, how he converted the city of Bayonne from the a worship of idols to the faith of Christ. There was, then, in the parts of Normandy, in a little town named b Carentan, St. Leo, at Carentan, of noble family, in the year 856, and of the c diocese of Rouen, a certain man having a wife called d Alicia. These, distinguished by great nobility of birth and uprightness of conduct, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord eight hundred and fifty-six, e by divine gift begot three sons of the same womb, future saints, namely Leo, Philip and Gervasius. God, then, wishing to make his Saint Leo wonderful, conferred on him, as he came forth from his mother's womb, such grace and privilege that he f caused his mother no pain or hurt. born in a wonderful manner, while still at the breast he keeps a fast: The noble boy, being born, so afflicted his body with g fasts and abstinence from his mother's breasts, and adorned it with the composure of all good conduct, that, as a wonderful spectacle, Louis, h King of the Normans and the Germans, had him presented to himself by his parents at twelve years old. The pious King, seeing that he avoided the wantonness and companionship of youths which that age is wont to seek, offered to the King, and that he panted with all his desires for the supreme homeland, sent him to Paris [i] to study. Where he so advanced that, when he was twenty-three years old, he was most fully instructed, as was fitting, in the sacred Scriptures and in the learning of the Laws, together with the canons. he learns letters happily.
LESSON II
The boy Leo, then, applying himself to study at Paris, gave an example to all in conduct and uprightness; so that his fame flew in a short time to every land. Nor is it wonderful: conspicuous for uprightness of conduct and virtue, for he was most honorably enriched with abundance of speech, tall of stature, most handsome among very many, comely in appearance, most sweet in eloquence, most acute in mind, provident in foresight, fervent in zeal and love of God, the guardian of perpetual virginity. And therefore Pope [k] Gregory commands the Chancellor to send him the unheard-of and singular man. he is summoned to Rome: Leo, then, going forward to Rome as a son of true obedience, was so honorably enrolled and approved by the Pope and the whole college that within a few days, his holy way of life having been seen and his sweet-sounding preaching heard, he is ordained Bishop of Rouen. he was not only raised by the Pope, the College, the Clergy and the whole people to be Prelate of the city of Rouen; but was also asked by the college, he is destined for Spain: and adjured, that for the name of Christ he should seek the parts of the Spains, and subject that people, having no pastor, to the discipline of the faith.
LESSON III
He, soon most gladly embracing the command, having received the Apostolic blessing, is sent back to his See of Rouen to set its affairs in order. There, all things having been arranged, and John [l] Pahen and Geoffrey, his companions, having been left as vicars, he sets Vicars over his Church: the cause of his journey having first been explained to them, he took with him his aforesaid brothers of the same womb, Philip and Gervasius: on foot, after the manner of the poor, they made their way as far as the [m] Landes of the nobles of the Landes, which is said to be an infertile and desert land: he journeys with his brothers in the manner of the poor: and entering the village which is called [n] Herba-felbaria, there they converted the lord of the village, named Argarus, with his whole household, and baptized them. The said village having then been fully converted and instructed in the truth of the faith, the man of God Leo, with his aforesaid brothers, he converts the village of Bohanira. directed their steps to the sea-shore, and from there, guided by the water, came to Bayonne.
AnnotationsLesson IV. the Lessons from it. Leo, born at Carentan in the territory of Coutances, trained in sacred letters at Lutetia of the Parisians, since he excelled in learning and holiness of life, is set over the Church of Rouen by the Roman Pontiff; and is sent to the borders of Spain to instruct in the Christian religion the nations destitute of a Pastor. created Bishop And so, having set in order the affairs of the Church somewhat later, and having left his See, he set out there together with his twin brothers Philip and Gervasius. On which journey, he is sent to the borders of Spain: when he had come to the place which is called Faverio, he converted all the inhabitants to the faith of Christ by salutary admonitions.
[26] But when, as we related above, the name of St. Leo was restored to the Breviary of Rouen by the Archbishop of Rouen, it was decreed that he be celebrated on the Kalends of March with a semi-double office (as they call it): he is now venerated at Rouen with a semi-double Office: from which it pleases me to recite here the Lessons of the second Nocturn, so that the Reader may compare them with the Life which we shall append. They run thus, then:
(h) Benedict, Gazet, and Farin call him only King of the Germans, and Farin indeed calls him the Younger; which however must be understood of the first Louis the German. For the son in the year 868 or 869, when St. Leo was twelve, was not yet King, since the father lived until the year 876: who however could perhaps be called the Younger in respect to the Emperor Louis the Pious. But what did the Norman nation or the province of Neustria have to do with them? The latter obeyed Charles the Bald, brother of Louis the German; the Normans indeed harassed the kingdom of both, and of their nephew Lothair, with continual incursions.
(i) Farin adds that he was placed in a certain famous college at the expense of the same King.
(k) In the manuscript it was Gregory. This name was prudently omitted by Farin, Benedict, and Gazet; for no Gregory sat at Rome at that time. For Gregory IV died in 843; the fifth was not elected until the year 996. Farin relates that certain authors (with whom he himself agrees, although he does not publish their names) deny that St. Leo went to or was summoned to Rome; but that, being most fervent with zeal for God, he wrote letters to the Supreme Pontiff in which he prayed that the power be given to him of going to foreign regions and preaching the Gospel there: whether he voluntarily sought the faculty of preaching to foreigners? and that on the same day on which those letters were delivered to Rome, another messenger arrived who signified that a certain Priest named Leo, a holy man, had been elected to the pontifical see of Rouen by the unanimous consent of the King, the entire Clergy, and the people; but that he himself, from humility of mind, was resisting. The Pontiff, rejoicing at that election, ratified it: yet he also assented to his petitions, that once his Church was organized, he might go for a time to teach other nations the religion of Christ.
(l) Farin calls him Palien, but acknowledges that others call him Pahen, and so the manuscript has it; but René Benedict and Gazet have Palieu, as does Denyald.
(m) What the Landes are, commonly called Landes, Papirius Masso explains thus in his description of the rivers of Gaul, page 567: The maritime coast of Aquitaine from Bordeaux to Bayonne extends for 30 leagues; it is otherwise unfruitful and barren, yet abounds in honey, milk, and cork-oak. The Landes, or Landes, between Bayonne and Bordeaux. Which space and length of journey the inhabitants and foreigners call by the Spanish word Llanas, that is, a plain, or the Aquitanian Landes, barren and unfruitful.
(n) Benedict and Gazet call it Bahoneyre; Farin, Bahonire.
PART II
The Apostolic labors of St. Leo at Bayonne and in Spain.
LESSON V.
But on the next day the priests of the temple of the god Mars, who was worshipped there as God, because the city of Bayonne was then the receiver and sharer of all the pirates and evil deeds that were done on the sea, and he always granted them victory over their enemies by land and sea, were stirred up against the man of God, [dragged by the pirates to the temple of Mars, he scatters the bronze statue by his breath:] saying: "What are we doing? Behold, this man is an announcer of new demons, a manifest violator of the sacred rites, or a spy on the province." At this the aforesaid pirate men, fearing that the worship of their gods would be emptied, rush upon St. Leo as he was preaching to the people beside the e river Nive, and bring him into the temple of Mars, which was in the middle of the city, and try to compel him to sacrifice to it. But Blessed Leo, lifting his eyes and hands to heaven, on bended knees, spoke thus: "All the gods of the nations are demons; but the Lord made the heavens." And he blew into the face of the bronze statue of Mars; he converts and baptizes 143, which at once fell to the ground and is reduced to ashes. The Priests of the temple, seeing so wonderful a deed, believed in Jesus Christ; and on that day all the priests of the temple were baptized, [and, the temple having been overthrown by them, he builds another to the Holy Virgin.] and, of both sexes, one hundred and forty-three. And joyfully destroying the temple of Mars, in the same place they built a church in honor of the most holy Virgin Mary.
LESSON VI.
The peoples of both sexes then at Bayonne having been baptized and sufficiently instructed in the faith, the man of God Leo goes on further, f penetrating the wooded places of Biscay, Navarre and Spain, many having been converted in Spain, he returns to Bayonne. and converting much people from the error of idols to the true faith of our Lord Jesus Christ; and g after many days had passed he returned by Divine disposition to visit the city of Bayonne. And because the most cruel pirate men and satellites of the devil, who ranged the seas with [h] galleys and ships, given to thefts and robberies, had arrived at Bayonne before his coming, where the pirates rise up against him. and had found that Blessed Leo had emptied their rite, had destroyed the temple of their God, had taught people to give away their own and to take nothing by violence, nay, had commanded that those doing the contrary be avoided, they stirred up seditions and battles against the blessed man.
AnnotationsPART III
The slaughter of St. Leo and the miracles in it; likewise of St. Gervasius. The miracles of St. Philip, Confessor.
LESSON VII.
Rising up, then, the men of the devil, obstinate in mind, against the man tranquil in mind; leagued in cruelty, against the man kind of heart; troubled in heart and estranged from charity, against
The Saint, then, attempting with his co-heirs to enter the city, could by no means do so; because the gates were closed on every side on account of the ambushes of the a Vasculi, who were harassing the city night and day. shut out from entering Bayonne, Blessed Leo, therefore, went up on a certain little hill not far from the gate which faces toward the southern quarter: and there among the stones he set up a little cell, saying: he spends the night praying on a hill, "This is my rest for ever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it." Finding them in the night-time, the Vasculi raiders b asked who they were and whence; the saints did not understand them. Nor is it wonderful, unharmed by the Basque raiders, since their idiom agrees with no other c language, nay is wholly foreign. And when the aforesaid Vasculi had judged the holy men to be pilgrims, and had let them go and gone away, while the saints persevered in prayer the day dawned; and certain unbelievers having gone out of the city and seen the Saints, one at once announced to the citizens that there were three men like prophets before the gates. They, an assembly having been held, he is led into the city by the citizens, several of the wise men of the city go out to them, to inquire of them cautiously why and for what purpose they had come. St. Leo, d looking up at so great a multitude, fortified himself with the sign of the Cross, and the divine power conferred on him such grace of lips in their sight that they not only brought the saint himself with them into the city, but in the middle of the city, in the common square, preaching in the square, in one day he converts 718. with all his companions, while they listened devoutly, on the first day he converted seven hundred and eighteen of both sexes to the faith of Christ.
LESSON IV
sweet in eloquence and faithful in teaching — they attack St. Leo while he is preaching, with impious hands — stripped of faith and bound by the chains of Satan, they rushed in a tumult, armed with breastplates, upon him who was beautiful in faith, perfect in chastity, glorious in charity, and fittingly adorned with all works of sanctity, while he was preaching near the river Nive. and St. Gervase: Others killed his brother Gervase before his eyes.(b) But Philip,(c) observing their cruelty, withdrew to the parts of Rives Léodosie, two miles distant from the city on the opposite side of the city, and departed to the Lord as a glorious Confessor: St. Philip the Confessor died elsewhere and God works many miracles there on account of his holy body, which is devoutly guarded by monks of the Order of St. Benedict. Others, however, stood with drawn swords to kill the most holy Leo. St. Leo prays for the crown of martyrdom, Then the man of God, seeing death near, bending in prayer, spoke thus: Lord God almighty, Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we received knowledge of You; God of hosts and Creator of all creation and of the whole human race, I bless You, I glorify You, who have deigned to bring me to this day of contest. I beseech You, Lord, that You would command the mercy of your loving-kindness to be bestowed on me, and for women with child who invoke him, and that by the merits of your Saints you would make me a worthy partaker and a sharer of eternal life. I pray also, Lord, that any woman who, while bearing a child, invokes me may be kept unharmed from danger in carrying and in giving birth: and for the city of Bayonne: and to you I commend this city, that you may grant indulgence and protection to it, which worships you, the true God, with a pure heart, for ever and ever. Amen."
LESSON IX.
But of how great merit St. Leo was with God, and how he helps his devotees with benefits, a few of the many miracles of his Life written below attest. For on that evening on which the holy Prelate was being buried, a certain matron of that place, so loosened by paralysis that no limb performed its function, asks, while the people stood by, to be put to the bier on which the holy body lay: a paralysed woman healed at his bier. and when, having been put to it, she had lain down, her sinews were so strengthened that she returned home safe on her own feet. On the same night, too, on which he obtained the palm of martyrdom with St. Gervasius his brother, he appeared at Rouen to his f John, left there as Vicar, and related the manner of his martyrdom; admonishing him to go to Bayonne to see what had been done, appearing that night to John the Vicar, he relates what was done, and forbidding him to try to have the bodies moved elsewhere. Since with divine fear they had chosen that place; and had been made the Protectors of the same City. This vision having been completed, then, Geoffrey, whom the man of God Leo had left as fellow-vicar to the aforesaid John, comes in to him for the sake of a visit, and seeing him sad and at the same time grieving, asked the cause of his sadness. He at once set out the aforesaid vision and the manner of the martyrdom to the same Geoffrey. Which done, this the next day to Geoffrey: after many laments of grief, both at once made for Bayonne to verify what had been done. Where, when they had arrived, God granting it, they found the body of the blessed Martyr already committed to burial by the faithful Catholics. these go to Bayonne, Then, all the things mentioned above having been verified, and countless miracles, John and Geoffrey returned to Rouen: where, all the men of the Church having been assembled, then they report everything to the people of Rouen. they narrated all they had seen and all that had been done. Hearing which, behold the sorrow and grief of all, lamenting their Pastor, whom they had hoped would still bestow pasture on Rouen.
Here ends the Life of Blessed Leo, whose relics happy Bayonne retains, while Paradise possesses his soul with Christ; to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
AnnotationsANOTHER LIFE
From manuscripts.
Leo, Martyr, Archbishop of Rouen, Apostle of the people of Bayonne, at Bayonne in Gaul (Saint)
Gervasius, Martyr, brother of St. Leo, at Bayonne in Gaul (Saint)
Philip, Confessor, brother of St. Leo, at Bayonne in Gaul (Saint)
BHL Number: 4836
LESSON I.
Celebrating, dearest brothers, the natal day of the glorious Martyr Leo, since it would be difficult to express in words the distinctions of his whole life and conduct, let us at least hear in succinct words the manner and cause of his passion. The blessed man, then, was adorned with the titles of the sacred pages, and by divine revelation, and with the approval of the sacred council of the Roman Curia, St. Leo, Bishop of Rouen, was raised to the height of the Archbishopric of the city of Rouen: who after a few days, having left his own See, goes abroad to convert unbelievers: set out by mandate of the sacred Apostolic college toward Spain to preach the teaching of the Christian faith to the people of the gentiles.
[2] First coming to the place which is called a Faverio, sowing the word of the Lord, he called back the whole people to the worship of Christ. Then, returning to the town which is called Bayonne, he comes to Bayonne; which was then possessed by unbelieving pirates serving false idols, when evening had come and he had arrived at the said town, he spends the night outside: the gates being already shut, he could not enter, but waited outside the whole night.
[3] And when morning had come, certain people going out of the town recognized the said Blessed man, with his brothers Philip and Gervasius, as strangers to their sect, and wondered that they had escaped that night the assaults of evil men and the dangers of wild beasts and serpents: and when they reported that they had found men outside the city, the next day he is humanely brought in: the upright men of the said town went out before the said Saint in honorable dress, on behalf of the company of the city. Who, as soon as they had heard the word of the Gospel preaching, began to believe: and he, entering the said town with them, ordered a suitable place in the middle of the town to be prepared, in the name of God Jesus Christ, for declaring salvation to the people.
[4] The holy man, then, preached for three days: and, divine grace favoring, converted the people to the faith of Christ: he preaches for three days and converts many, who cried out with one voice: "We want no other law but this, which St. Leo sets forth"; and at once overthrowing the idols, at the bidding of the holy man they built a church in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and builds a church to the Holy Virgin: and are baptized with the sacred water of Baptism through the teaching of the said Saint.
[5] he preaches elsewhere. Which done, going on further to desert and wooded places, he sought for a long time the lost sheep, namely the unbelievers: and now the good merchant gained an infinite treasure. Again by Divine disposition he returned to the town of Bayonne, fearing lest he should find something astray or slippery among the people.
[6] Now there were pirates near the town, dwelling in caves: who, when one day they were hastening to enter the town as was their custom, are shamefully thrown out by the Catholic citizens: The pirates thrown out of Bayonne by the Catholics, who, wondering at the conversion of the citizens, exceedingly indignant and inflamed with fury, sought the said holy man.
[7] they kill St. Leo, whom they meet: And the pirates, fleeing from the city, saw Blessed Leo with his two brothers returning from his preaching: and rushing upon them, after various wounds, they cut off the head of the blessed man with the deadly sword. But the more strongly he was pushed to fall, the more firmly he is said to have stood, and, raising his head with his own hands, he manfully carried it as far as the place where he had first preached, before the gate of the city; he carries his head to the place of his first preaching. and devoutly offered it to God as a victim in the manner of a holocaust, after the example of just Abel, saying: "This is the place of true preaching: this I have chosen, in which, God favoring, I shall rest."
[8] and his brothers withdrew, Whereupon also the brothers of Blessed Leo, who had come with him, terrified with horror at seeing the miracle, fled and withdrew. A certain husbandman working in the vineyards, seeing all these things, reported them with a loud cry to the people of the city: and the people went out against the aforesaid murderers, and found a most beautiful spring in the place a spring sprung up where the head of St. Leo had fallen. where the most holy head fell, newly flowing forth by divine power, from which the people of the whole city are watered to this day.
[9] Finding, then, the headless body of the blessed Martyr, and the head placed upon a rock, they were moved with great disturbance, wounded in their hearts by the sting of grievous sorrow, seeing that their lovable Pastor, their chief defender, had not feared to incur so cruel a death for their salvation; A Church is built, in which he is buried: the Catholic people of the city built a church there in honor of God and of the holy body itself: and they honorably buried the holy Body, laid in a tomb: through whose merits very many miracles take place: women in childbirth invoking the said Saint are freed from danger: sailors in perils of the sea and in the power of enemies
And so, as the holy man was stretching out his hands to heaven, his head was cut off by a certain d satrap beside the bank of the Nive. It is an astonishing thing and worthy of relation: he is beheaded, and from the head, fallen on the ground, a spring flows: as the head and the blood touch the earth, a spring at once flows forth from ground that was exceedingly dry, and the body is said to have stood erect as though alive for the space of an hour. And when the executioner saw that the body did not at once fall, he struck it with his foot; and it, embracing its head in its arms, without the body falling to the ground, rose up, the body stands upright, and, an Angel leading, carried its head one stadium, to where today, by its own choice and the providence of God, it rests; where it is gloriously entombed by the faithful people, then, thrown to the ground, it raises itself and carries the head in its hands: and God then worked many miracles through him, and works them continually. Nor did the executioners and the aforesaid evil-doers fall unpunished. For when, fearing a rising of the faithful people, they had entered a certain most foul place, called in their tongue Cana, which is near the city at the southern gate, where the evil-doers used to put down whatever they plundered in the borders, he becomes famous for miracles. behold, they are suddenly struck by a horrible extermination: for, their sins demanding it, as on another Sodom and Gomorrah, e for eight days the Lord rained upon them fire, lightning and thunder, the slayers exterminated from heaven. that is, by day a most foul smoke, and by night, as it were a smith's furnace, it steamed with an ignominious flame; so that those who had done evil might perish evilly.
LESSON VIII.
are preserved unharmed: he aids women in childbirth, sailors, animals, etc. animals also committed to his custody are rescued from the bites of wolves and from various infirmities; and countless other blessings are bestowed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Note:
(a) Bahonira or Bahoneyra is what it is called in the first Life, Lesson 3, and differently in the manuscript.