ON SAINT AEMILIANUS, ABBOT OF LAGNY IN THE TERRITORY OF PARIS, AROUND THE YEAR 660
CommentaryAemilianus, Abbot of Lagny in the territory of Paris (Saint)
[1] Lagny is a town of France on the river Marne in the County of Brie, which owes its origin to the monastery built there in the seventh century of Christ by Saint Fursey, whose Acts we have illustrated on the 16th of January; from which we here repeat some things that concern Saint Aemilianus, who is also written Eminianus, Emmianus and Emianus: and first, in the History of the miracles after the first Life, these things are found at number 14: He comes from Ireland to Lagny: Saint Fursey built Lagny with his own hands... and not long afterward, his kinsmen and friends from beyond the sea, hearing these things, hastened together with Saint Eminianus to come to the most holy man Fursey: who, receiving them honorably and working with his hands together with them, built up that place greatly. Which things are set forth more broadly in the second Life thus: Whence Fursey, the most invincible athlete of the Lord Jesus, was not only extolled with great proclamations of praise throughout all Gaul or Saxony; but also that native soil of Ireland rejoiced to have had such a lord: the fame of whose holiness, when it heard of it, moved some to come to know it. For Blessed Aemilianus, most rich in all simplicity, desiring as quickly as possible to know for himself the holiness of his beloved Fursey, which he had long since learned of, because he heard that it was increasing daily, took certain Brethren with him and hastened devoutly to visit the presence of the Blessed man. kindly received by Saint Fursey: And at length, after long journeyings along the roads, that pilgrim and happy little Irish band, coming to Lagny, saw the Saint of God flourishing with greater virtues than they had learned of; and he, receiving them with joyful mind, formed them there for a long time in the service of Christ the Lord.
[2] But in succeeding time, after our God, through the merit of the blessed man, had honored the same place with a great number of approved men, He willed that the same blessed man should wish to return to Saxony and visit Foillan and Ultan, his excellent companions. He, setting the holy man Aemilianus over the congregation of Lagny, he is appointed Abbot: hastened his journey; and in the estate of Duke Haimo, named Macerias, he lodged... where, staying for a while, he was weighed down by a grave infirmity: of which he died about the year of Christ 653: whence the time is gathered when Saint Aemilianus was appointed Abbot of Lagny.
[3] Four years after the burial, as is said in the earlier Life at number 39, he translates the body of Saint Fursey with others, a little house having been built at the eastern part of the altar, there, after so many years, the body, spotless and whole, was translated without any corruption, carried beneath by the most reverend Bishops, namely Eligius and Autbert, and by the Abbots Foillan and Emianus (that is, Aemilianus), and other holy men. Saint Eligius, Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, is venerated on the 1st of December, Saint Autbert, Bishop of Cambrai, on the 13th of December, Saint Foillan on the 30th of October, and Ultan, mentioned before, on the 3rd of May. These things are found in the ancient Latin Acts of Saint Fursey: from which others have taken their accounts, the chief of whom is Jacques Desmay, Doctor of the Sorbonne and Canon of Péronne, in the Life of Saint Fursey published by him in French: where in chapter 18 he asserts that Saint Aemilianus was a devout religious, and was held a man of great holiness, especially on account of his outstanding simplicity and contempt of himself.
[4] Ménard inscribed him in the Benedictine Martyrology on the 10th day of March in these words: inscribed in the Martyrology of Ménard, At Lagny in the territory of Paris, of Saint Aemilianus the Abbot; and in book II of the Observations he notes that on this day the monks of Lagny celebrate his solemnity: which he himself, a monk of the same Order at Paris, could know very well. André du Saussay, he too a Parisian, celebrates him in the Gallican Martyrology with this eulogy: of Saussay, At Lagny in the same territory of Paris, of Saint Aemilianus, likewise Abbot and Confessor, who, passing from Ireland into Gaul on this occasion, that he had heard that the pursuits of the monastic life were being propagated by Saint Fursey, under whose teaching he had imbibed the elements of sacred religion, set out to him in order to bring him pious help, and joined himself again to his followers. Whom, since Blessed Fursey had his holiness well proven, he ordered to preside over the monastery which King Chlothar had lately founded at Lagny at his exhortation: judging that the beginnings of this community would be fortunate, of which a man of such religion held the government. Nor without reason: for under the direction of Aemilianus this new society in a short time shone forth adorned with abundant beauty of religion: and thereafter it advanced so much in Christian philosophy that it surpassed some older communities in the fame of holiness.
Moreover, Aemilian, the architect of so great an advancement, full of rich exultation at its fruit, bearing copious sheaves of the Lord's harvest, was raised to eternal joy. These things Saussaye writes with magnificent amplification, unless he had some ancient Acts beyond the Life of Saint Furseus. Bucelinus, Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menologion transcribes Saussaye, whom he wrongly calls Charles, with a slightly changed phrase toward the end. Whether however he was of the Benedictine order, or whether rather Saints Furseus and Aemilian embraced the rule of Saint Columban or another Irish rule, can be investigated. Indeed Latiniacum, together with other monasteries likewise, is now connected to the order of Saint Benedict, Colgan. so that from this alone they can and ought rightly to venerate their earlier Saints. Colgan treats of the same Saint in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland on this tenth day of March.