ON SAINT VIGILIUS, BISHOP OF AUXERRE IN GAUL,
YEAR 689.
A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Vigilius, Martyr, Bishop of Auxerre in Gaul (Saint)
BHL Number: 0000
[1] Philippe Labbe, in his New Library of Manuscript Books, published in volume 1 the Deeds of the Bishops of Auxerre, written at various times by anonymous writers: in part 1, chapter 22, of which the following is reported concerning Saint Vigilius. "Vigilius occupied his see for twenty-five years, five months. For he was in the times of Pope Martin and of Eugene and Vitalian, He builds a monastery and a hospice, while Clothar the Younger was reigning among the Franks, or the Burgundians. For he was both of noble birth and illustrious in holiness. Among other marks of his virtues, he also built a monastery in the suburb of the city of Auxerre, which, enriched with numerous gifts, as the sequence of his testament demonstrates, he dedicated in honor of the Holy Mother of God, Mary: which also, enclosing it with a wall, he established as belonging to monks, and at the same time ordered that a hospice for the poor should be there. It is reported of the same holy man by a truthful account that, by the order of Warato, Prince of the Palace, who had succeeded Ebroin in the same office of Prince, he suffered martyrdom in the forest of Cuise. He is killed by Warado. He imitated, namely, his same predecessor Ebroin, who had formerly ordered Saint Leodegar, Bishop of Autun, to be put to the sword. Saint Vigilius was martyred on the fifth day before the Ides of March. When his sacred body was being carried to his own city, it happened that his transit passed through the city of Sens; and as it passed by a certain building where prisoners were held bound in chains, he frees captives: suddenly all the chains were broken, and so the crowd of wretches, escaping the darkness of that prison, began to attend the funeral of the sacred body: to this day those same chains remain as testimony of so great a miracle, adhering to his sacred tomb." He was buried in the basilica of the holy Mother of God, Mary, which he himself had built: and the city was without a Bishop for five days. So far those Deeds of the Bishops of Auxerre, which are read identically in the Breviary of Auxerre, which we have printed in the year 1580: in this are cited the Pontifical of Auxerre and the Chronicle of Hugo. The same are contained somewhat more briefly in book 23 of the Historical Mirror of Vincent of Beauvais, chapter 126, and in book 2 of the Chronicle of Saint Antoninus, title 13, chapter 6, section 28, and in a manuscript codex of the Most Serene Queen Christina. The earlier part concerning the monastery and hospice built is also narrated in the same words in the Chronology of the Monk of Auxerre: Peter de Natalibus described more in book 6 of his Catalogue, chapter 11.
[2] From what has been said, besides this eleventh day of March, we also have a certain time of martyrdom, killed in the year 689. when after Ebroin was removed from the living, Warado or Waratto was made Mayor of the Palace or Prince of the Palace of King Theodoric, which occurred in the year 688. He was supplanted by his son Gislemar, but when the latter not long afterward paid for his stubbornness with death, Warado recovered his former dignity; who after the death of Saint Audoenus, who departed this life in the year 689, did not live long, having obtained Bertharius, his son-in-law, as his successor; who in the following year 690 held the dignity of Mayor of the Palace, as we have accurately demonstrated elsewhere. From all of which we gather that more probably in the year 689 Saint Vigilius was killed in the forest of Cuise; which in the Breviary is said to be situated near Compiegne: where also Gregory of Tours places the same, in book 4 of his History of the Franks, chapter 21. If, moreover, Saint Vigilius occupied his see for twenty-five years, made Bishop in the year 663. five months, he was consecrated in the year 663, around the eleventh day of October, when Clothar III, or the Younger, was already in the second year of his reign among the Neustrian Franks and Burgundians, whom his brothers Theodoric succeeded, and after the latter was deposed, Childeric, and after the latter was killed, Theodoric again. But by that time the Roman Pontiffs Saint Martin and Eugene had long since died, and Saint Vitalian was presiding over the Church when Saint Vigilius was ordained, during whose lifetime the subsequent Roman Pontiffs were Adeodatus, Domnus, Agatho, Leo II, Benedict II, John V, Conon, and he who then presided, Saint Sergius, consecrated on the twenty-first of December of the year 687, who died on the ninth of September of the year 701.
[3] Andreas du Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology adorns him with a long encomium, in which various things either contradict the narrative already given, or report matters not contained in it, in these words: Said by du Saussay to have been killed under Ebroin: "In the territory of Compiegne, in the forest of Cuise, the trophy of Saint Vigilius, Bishop of Auxerre and Martyr, there cruelly slain by the henchmen of the tyrant Ebroin and by his command, for the practice of piety and justice. This blessed Bishop, noble by birth and illustrious in holiness, succeeding Palladius, a Bishop also of known holiness, devoted himself entirely to imitating, with the most holy morals and the most chaste religion, the Bishop whom the Apostle described. A father of the poor, he founded a hospice; an outstanding patron of religion, he built a monastery in the suburb of Auxerre, which, enriched with many gifts, he dedicated in honor of the holy Mother of God. A spirited zealot of justice, a vigorous defender of the oppressed, a pious champion of the Clergy and a true lover of the people: on account of which sentiments most worthy of an excellent pastor, he fell into the hatred of the enemies of justice: and he experienced the wild rage of the aforesaid tyrant, who persecuted all pious Bishops: because he had rebuked his impious crimes with priestly vigor, by Waracho, a captain of assassins sent by him, while the most holy Bishop was returning from the court, he was cruelly and impiously murdered, and having rendered his soul to God, obtained the unfading aureole of glory." So far du Saussay, upon whose credibility the narrative depends. Galesin agrees with him, and following him the one who augmented the German Martyrology, and, citing both, Ferrarius: but these do not seem to have recognized Warado, or Waratto, among the Princes of the Palace or Mayors of the House of the Kings of France, and therefore attributed everything to Ebroin.
[4] Du Saussay continues resolutely in his once-conceived opinion, and has the following in his Supplement for the twenty-sixth of June: memory on 26 June "At Auxerre, the reception from Compiegne of the body of Saint Vigilius, Bishop and Martyr, impiously slain in the forest of Cuise by order of the tyrant Ebroin on the fifth day before the Ides of March." On the twenty-sixth of June, Saint Vigilius, Bishop of Trent, is venerated, whose eulogy Peter de Natalibus, having published in book 6, chapter 10, in his usual manner
appended three other Saints of the same name, namely Vigilius, Bishop of Auxerre and Martyr, Vigilius, Pope and Martyr, and Vigilius, Deacon and Confessor. Others subsequently followed, and attached at least this Bishop of Auxerre to the one of Trent: the author of the manuscript Florarium, Maurolycus, Greven, and Canisius in the earlier edition of his German Martyrology, who adds Vigilius the Deacon and Confessor. Ferrarius also mentions him, but nowhere is there any mention of a Translation, which is also not found in the Breviary of Auxerre.
[5] Again Ferrarius, at the seventeenth day of July, citing a certain Calendar of Galesin, has the following: "At Compiegne in Gaul, of Saint Vigilius, Bishop of Auxerre and Martyr." In the annotations he conjectures it is perhaps a Translation. and 17 July. Du Saussay again follows, and in his Supplement writes thus: "At Auxerre, the Translation of Saint Vigilius, Bishop and Martyr." Meanwhile, there is profound silence in the Breviary of Auxerre for that day.