Gregory

ON SAINT GREGORY, ARMENIAN BISHOP, AT PITHIVIERS IN GAUL.

SHORTLY AFTER THE YEAR 1000

Preliminary Commentary.

Gregory, Armenian Bishop, at Pithiviers in Gaul (S.)

[1] The name of the Armenians, in the eleventh century of Christ, was so infamous among the Western peoples on account of the stain of manifold heresy, that to have known a certain Armenian was said to be the same as having detected a heretic, as Cardinal Baronius speaks at the year 1016, number 6; Not so was Armenia infected by heresies since, that is, in the two preceding centuries the insane faction of the Manichaeans had subjugated and infected that nation. Nevertheless, many illustrious men of that nation, who had traveled here in that same century, could sufficiently and abundantly excuse that nation for our Europe; so that their well-known virtue might soften the ill-will of past times and prevent the whole nation from being believed to have fallen into errors. For after Saint Nicon, surnamed Μετανοεῖτε, whose feast recurs on the 26th of November, consecrated the first-fruits of his Apostolate in the conversion of the Armenians (as is gathered from the fragment of his letter, which he wrote concerning their depravities, and which exists in volume 3 of the Library of the Fathers), it must be the case that the orthodox religion had been eminently restored in Armenia, which gave us such Saints, indeed it gave various Orthodox saints to Europe as the most Eminent annalist himself shows the two Simeons to have been; of whom the one is honored at Mantua by public office, on the 16th of July, at the year of Christ 1016, and others noted in the Annals; the other we know to have lived as a recluse at Trier, and to have been enrolled in the number of the Saints in the year 1037 by Pope Benedict IX, to be honored on the very Kalends of June.

[2] S. Gregory also, Bishop of Nicopolis. To these two, Gregory was far more sublime in dignity; being himself a Bishop, that is, to monks, and indeed in Armenia, which, more noble by the prerogative of the Trapezuntine Empire, is rightly called the First among the three provinces on this side of the Euphrates, adorned with the insignia of the Church of Nicopolis: thus he was left more obscure than either of them by the less renowned fame of that place in which his body rests, compared to that of Mantua or of Trier. It is Pithiviers, a not ignoble lordship in those said times, which together with the castle of Nongento fell to Odelricus by the death of his father Rainardus, Lord of Brecae and Toparch of Pithiviers (as the Sammarthani designate him), after Gregory had departed from the living, he gave to Pithiviers, the Bishop of Orléans: and this around the year 1033, upon the death of Isambardus, Lord of Brecae, nephew of that same Odelricus by his elder brother: which brother, if he himself was also called Odelricus, as the same Sammarthani wish from Chesne, it is credible that he, having left a son behind him, died before his father begot this Odelricus by a second marriage. Moreover Isambardus, himself also made Bishop of Orléans, a town of the Bishopric of Orléans, lived in that office until the year 1063, and to his sister, married to Hugo Bardulfus, if he did not cede the entire paternal inheritance (which those must say who call Hugo the Lord of Brecae), he certainly gave the castle of Pithiviers to be held: which Hugo defended that castle against King Henry stubbornly for a full two years, as will presently be told, and left a son Hadericus, himself also Bishop of Orléans after the death of his uncle. Moreover, whether the castle of Pithiviers returned to its former Lords through the clemency of the King pardoning the injury, or was annexed to the Bishopric of Orléans for the purpose of settling the controversy, we have found nowhere: only in Papirius Masso, in his description of France by rivers, is read on page 60: that three towns, as it is commonly said, belong to the Bishops of Orléans: Pithiviers, Jargeau, and Meung: today called Puthiviers, Mont-Agris, and Meun.

[3] Moreover, Pithiviers, in these Acts called Pithuria and Pithueris, where he is venerated on March 16: is situated upon that river which, after flowing for not many miles, joins the Juine and finally empties into the Seine at Corbeil: and it is equidistant from Orléans and Paris by an interval of about twelve leagues, but from Étampes no more than three: to which also the village of Saint Martin is closely adjacent, called here by the surname of Solitary, number 6, and ennobled by the seven-year anachoresis of Saint Gregory: from which the Acts were received: whence his body, illustrious with miracles, was transferred to Pithiviers by a pious Matron, the mother of the aforesaid Odelricus, to the church of Saint Solomon, where his veneration in the Acts is indicated thereafter. These Acts, from the monuments of the said church itself, as is credible, were sent to Heribertus Rosweydus at Orléans long ago, and we give them in their original style, which in the Martyrologium Gallicanum Andreas Saussayus altered; but to the 26th of March, because perhaps he had read VII Kalendas where we read XVII; and he omitted the miracles and the ending: from which, however, it should have been clear that they were written by an author nearly contemporary; inasmuch as he had partly seen with his own eyes, partly received from those who, enjoying his most holy conversation and familiarity, testified that they had seen, written by an author nearly contemporary. partly from parents and friends who, thinking him alive, had come there after his death. Moreover, the last mention is made of the church of Saint Solomon burned in the siege of Pithiviers: concerning which siege, between the years 1037 and 1045, the following is read in a fragment of French history, volume 4 of Chesne, folio 87: Hugo Bardulfus around the same time had fortified the castle of Pithiviers against the same King (Henry), whom the King, besieging for two years, compelled to surrender after those enclosed were consumed by famine, and recovered the castle.

[4] time of death. Moreover, nothing else remains for us to preface, except that we believe Saint Gregory, or George, to have died around the beginning of the eleventh century because it is established that he came to Pithiviers while Odelricus was still being raised under the guardianship of his widowed mother; whom, from the death of Saint Theodericus his predecessor assigned by us to the 27th of January of the year 1022, and from the donation of Count Albericus signed by Odelricus in the same year and cited by the Sammarthani, it is established that he was elevated to the episcopal dignity in precisely that year. Moreover, from the beginning or the tenth year of that century to about the fortieth or fiftieth year, when the Acts were written, there is a sufficiently just interval for miracles to be said to have been wrought after no small space of time: and likewise after much time most truly.

ACTS

From the Manuscript of Pithiviers.

By an author nearly contemporary.

Gregory, Armenian Bishop, at Pithiviers in Gaul (S.)

BHL Number: 3669

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I

Life and Episcopate in Armenia: arrival in Gaul.

[1] Macarius Gregory, Archbishop of the Armenians of Nicopolis, distinguished for his upright character, arose from religious parents of the aforesaid nation. Born in Armenia, When the devoted care of his beloved pious parents had entrusted this their only son to a certain venerable man to be imbued with sacred letters, he, forestalled by heavenly grace, quickly learned the Old and New Testament, and running through with vigilant study whatever the dogma of the Catholic faith requires, he did not delay to commit it to a by no means idle memory. Without delay, he surpassed his very teachers in wisdom, whom the grace of the Holy Spirit had more abundantly filled. The teachers marveled that one whom they had known shortly before to be a disciple at the very threshold of learning so suddenly became a master. For the venerable boy Gregory was true in his speech, just in his work, chaste in body, and instructed in letters humble in obedience, generous in almsgiving, sparing toward himself, lavish toward others: he avoided sobriety's companion, luxury, as a plague: he assiduously frequented the holy thresholds of the church. and in virtues, Excelling in these and other such virtues, the venerable boy was greatly loved by all.

[2] near Nicopolis he becomes a monk, When his parents had been taken from this life, the athlete of Christ, Gregory, spent the not inconsiderable possessions of his parents in distribution to the poor, and devoted himself to serving God within the borders of the Holy Mother Church of Nicopolis: and there he surpassed all others in fasts, prayers, and vigils. After sunset, when the doors of the church were already barred, remaining within the church with only the custodians knowing, he diligently persisted throughout the whole night in vigils and prayers; prostrate with his whole body before the Face of the Savior, and clinging to the pavement, he would rise a hundred times in the night, supported only by his little fingers. When this had come to the ears of the venerable Archbishop, he is chosen as assistant by the Bishop: conceiving a fervor of divine love, no longer suffering so excellent a man of such probity to be a stranger to his intimacy, through certain sacred conversations, he labored to make him a confidant of his secret and a partner in every care of the ecclesiastical order. And since he was now worn out with old age, he determined, by the consent of the people, that this man should become in his stead a preacher of the divine word and an executor of his office: and so that he might more fully carry out the charge of the burden imposed, the most Holy Father himself raised him to the honor of the Priesthood.

[3] Having received the office of holy preaching, the divine goodness deigned to confer upon him such great grace, he preaches usefully through the diocese: that, traversing the regions of that land, by the sweetness of his torrent of eloquence, he drove far off the infestation of unclean spirits: for he recalled the discordant to concord, and rescued orphans, widows, and the fatherless from the jaws of their oppressors, not by force, but by the dispensation of a good word, as a good athlete of God: he converted a very great multitude of pagans, no small part of whom were attached to that same bishopric, by the sweetness of his honeyed mouth, from the abandoned rites of idols to the faith of Christ.

[4] Not long after, that most holy Pontiff, he is raised to the Episcopate who had already earlier designated him as his successor, departed in peace to the Lord: to whom the venerable Gregory, by the consent of all, succeeded in the Archbishopric: and although he had persisted in God's work before becoming Bishop, in the Episcopate, however, practicing the increase of all virtues with more watchful zeal, he hastened to labor so that by his example he might benefit all and preserve himself free from every fault. Whoever came to him sick, having received health through his prayers, returned to their homes healthy and unharmed. he shines with miracles; The Lord deigned to work such great wonders through him: that not only were all the sick freed from all infirmities, but also, with peace established among his people, that whole city and country rejoiced in an immense abundance of crops. The power of the Most Holy Trinity was praised for this, which through the merit of that most holy man deigned to confer upon the Armenian peoples such great grace of salvation. Moreover, extolling their Shepherd to the heights with great praises, on account of whose merit they believed such things were given to them, they strove to honor him with the most precious gifts.

[5] The servant of God was wearied by the constant throng of people pressing upon him;

and, what grieved him exceedingly, out of love for quiet and solitude he was thereby more and more recalled from his accustomed prayer. For fearing lest, puffed up by human favor into pride, he might utterly lose what he had acquired in God's work with so much toil over so long a time, he had recourse to his customary weapons: imploring the clemency of divine goodness that it might deign to give him counsel that would avail him in the future. For he had already long since resolved within himself to seek the wilderness, having left his homeland and to flee the glory of this world, that he might find a greater one. Therefore, under the silence of a certain night, taking with him two religious Brothers to whom he had laid bare every secret of his heart, seizing the path of swift flight, he crossed the ridges of the Alps and directed his abundant journey toward Gaul.

[6] When, having traversed many cities and towns of that region, he arrives at Pithiviers in Gaul he had come to the town of Pithiviers, he was received as a guest in the house of a certain religious Priest, c named Arlefred, who presided over the custodians of the churches of that town. On that same night which followed the day of his arrival, when he had kept the watches of the first vigil of the night in his accustomed manner, wishing to pray to God for what should be the end of his journey, a voice from heaven thundered over him, saying: My dearest Gregory, who have long suffered much for me and are to suffer still more, I decree that here shall be the certain end of your journey. For not far from here there is a certain small church consecrated in honor of Saint Martin d of Vertanum, separated from all the noise of men. Which on account of its solitude the inhabitants call Sola, he is told about the church of S. Martin of Vertan, not more than two miles distant from this town: this I command you to enter, and there to serve God willingly, to whom you have pledged yourself in service, for the whole time of your life; and when the span of your life is completed, I shall receive you hence under the title of confession. When morning came, Blessed Gregory addressed his aforesaid host with these words, saying: Tell me, dearest host, is there around this town any place that you call Saint Martin the Solitary? The Priest replied: There is, my Lord. Then he: Is it far from this town? The Priest replied: Not more than two miles. Then the venerable Bishop Gregory, recognizing that the apparition of the previous night had been sent to him from heaven, suitable for his retreat, having received a guide from the aforesaid Priest, immediately directed his journey to the said place. Seeing the place prepared for him by God, his face suffused with a flood of tears, on bended knees he gave thanks to God with prayer; and rising, he returned with his guide to the aforesaid town.

[7] Now in that same town there was a certain noble matron, e named Ailuisa, of good memory, who herself was lovingly raising her only son, named Odolricus, heir indeed of that town, her, from Ailuisa the pious matron who himself later became Bishop of the Church of Orléans, his Father Rainardus being already deceased and buried before the doors of the Roman Church. She moreover, to crown her goodness, for the salvation of her soul and that of her husband, had newly built in the aforesaid town a canonical basilica in honor of f Saint Gregory and Saint Laetus, Confessor and Levite: and so that the service of God might be continually celebrated there in the canonical rite, she had endowed that place from Ussello, a certain allodium of hers which had come to her by right of dower. This woman, adorned with such and other like marks of distinction, and widely famed for her good character, as one holding the scepter of that town, the man of God, Gregory, addressed, saying: he asks, The fame of your goodness, my Lady, reaching even to my ears, exceedingly compels me not to fear to lay bare to you the secret of my heart. I am indeed sprung from the borders of the Armenians, of no mean birth, and burdened with the weight of the Archiepiscopal office of that same region: led hither by God's guidance, and by celestial admonition devoted for the whole time of my life to serving the living God in the Church which is near you, which you call Saint Martin the Solitary: which I wish to be done with your permission. For I see you exercising the rights of authority over the peoples of this region, and disposing them well and most excellently over them (though you be a woman). Wherefore I, a stranger, cannot dwell within the boundaries of your domain without your leave. Then the venerable matron, giving thanks to almighty God, who had deigned to illuminate the land of her domain by so great a Shepherd, brought from such distant regions: and then, turning to the Bishop, she replied: You have permission to dwell, Lord Father, wherever you please, with confidence. Then the aforesaid Bishop, bidding farewell to the matron and all, and obtains it. returned as quickly as possible to the aforesaid church: and there, constructing a hut of his own size, he began to lead the solitary life he had long desired.

CHAPTER II

Pious death after seven years: miracles after death.

[8] The venerable Priest of God, Gregory, lived in that same place for about seven years, Seven years he lives holily in Gaul, serving God with the whole purity of his mind, on the regular fasting days of the whole week he by no means took food; on the other days, however, that is, on Tuesday and Thursday, he broke his fast at sunset. The breaking of his fast was as follows: lentils germinated in water in the sun, as much as his left hand could support, and three ounces of barley bread cooked in lye, and the roots of raw herbs, which he himself prepared, he ate daily on the aforesaid days. On Sundays, however, and on other holy solemnities, excepting meat and fat, he took common food: for on those days the townspeople, generous to all from his poverty, and wealthy farmers, knowing that man's holiness, brought him what each one could. When these were received with thanksgiving, and those who brought them received sacred blessed bread, communicated by the hand and blessing of the holy Bishop, they returned home rejoicing. The portion that remained to him, however, he humbly divided among the poor, of whom no small number was present there. He also invited priests and ministers of sacred Orders, as well as certain religious laypeople, to dinner: to whom he provided not only bodily nourishment but also spiritual. It happened, however, that a certain peasant who had scorned his feast, while returning home with his servants, was seized by a demon and wished to throw himself into the water, had he not been held back by the hands of his servants: but freed from the demon by the prayer of God's servant, he humbly begged pardon for having scorned his feast.

[9] Distinguished by these and many other miracles, at length God's servant, made certain by divine revelation of the term of his departure, fortifying himself with the reception of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, he delivered his spirit to God and his body to the earth on the b seventeenth day before the Kalends of April for burial. and dies piously: What great lamentations there were at his funeral, and what a throng of the faithful, stirred by his death, flocked to him, I do not think should be passed over in silence. For not only from neighboring but also from distant regions, both the clergy and the devout people had gathered to him: who, taking the holy man's body from the hut, transferred it with hymns and canticles to the Church of Saint Martin, weeping, buried in the church of S. Martin. and there buried it honorably beside the altar. There, as long as he lay in that place, the operation of heavenly power willed that very many miracles should occur. For whatever sick person came to him, by the merits of the holy man, he went back healthy and unharmed, from whatever infirmity he was detained by.

[10] Then the aforesaid Matron, named Ailuisa, kindled by the fire of the most pious devotion, then translated to Pithiviers, transferred the mortal remains of the holy man with the highest honor to the town of Pithuria, and buried them again honorably in the Church of Saint Solomon, in which he now rests by God's will, before the Face of the Savior, in which the kind dispensation of God has wrought and will continue to work, through the merits of his servant, very many kinds of miracles. For a certain peasant, he illuminates a blind man, who had lost the sight of his eyes, lay so long in prayer before the bier where the bones of this Saint rested, until by his merit he received the light of his eyes. Then, after no small space of time had passed, a certain woman whose right hand paralysis had twisted — because she had refused to obey the words of her Priest announcing a feast day — at once ran to the bier on which the holy man's bones rested, he cures a crippled woman, and there, prostrate in prayer, she lay so long until by the merit of the holy man her hand recovered its former state of health.

[11] After much time, however, with c King Henry of the Franks besieging the town of Pithiviers, the Church in which the holy man's body lay, he restrains fire. together with the whole town, was burned by fire. d The pyx, however, which the Priest was accustomed to hold in his hand while he sang Mass at the altar of Saint Gregory, left by chance in the small window of the bier of Saint Gregory, was found unharmed after the fire. These things, however, which have been said above, we partly saw with our own eyes;

the writer's credibility. partly we received from others who, enjoying his most holy conversation and familiarity, saw these things with their own eyes; partly we learned from parents and friends who, after his death, sought him, thinking him still alive. Let the supreme and undivided Trinity therefore be praised, which triumphs in the manifold virtue of its holy Confessor Gregory: to whom is honor and glory, praise and jubilation through infinite ages of ages. Amen.