Tetricus

ON SAINT TETRICUS, BISHOP OF LANGRES IN GAUL.

IN THE YEAR 572.

Tetricus, Bishop of Langres in Gaul (Saint)

[1] The father of Saint Tetricus was Saint Gregory, of the foremost nobility among the Arverni and Aedui: who, after he had lived for forty years as Judge or Prefect of the city, or Count, with the highest praise; suddenly enrolled among the Clergy, [The father of Saint Tetricus was Saint Gregory, from Count made Bishop of Langres,] and not long afterwards was elected and consecrated Bishop of Langres: to whom the surname of "the Great," which was given to the holy Roman Pontiff, Jacques Vignier in the Chronicle of Langres judges should be denied by no one who has more attentively considered his birth, his deeds, his prudence and authority, and his holiness. All of which are indicated in his Life written by Gregory of Tours and elucidated by us on January 4. He is said in the same place to have had

a wife of senatorial stock, His mother Armentaria, Armentaria by name, whom he had known only for the purpose of propagating his line. His brother Gregory, grandfather of Saint Gregory, Bishop of Tours. Vignier suspects that she was the daughter of Attalus, Count of Autun, from whom the said Saint Gregory had two sons: Saint Tetricus and Gregory, the father of Armentaria, whose son by Florentius was Saint Gregory, Bishop of Tours. Let this suffice concerning the holy family.

[2] Upon the death of his father Saint Gregory around the year 539, Saint Tetricus was elected Bishop of Langres by a double title, says Vignier, according to the usage of that age: both because he was his son and because he was most like his Father. He took part in Synods: Created Bishop, the fifth of Orléans in the year 547, the second of Paris in the year 552, and not long afterwards that of Toul, and through Piolus the Presbyter the second of Lyon in the year 566. Likewise, says Vignier, he consecrated many altars, churches, and monasteries throughout the Diocese. When he saw the church of Saint John at Dijon falling into ruin from age, He restores a church at Dijon and the venerable relics being made illustrious by frequent miracles, he restored it to a better condition and translated these from the former tomb to a new and more fitting one. Among these relics the body of Saint Gregory the Bishop, translated by his son Saint Tetricus, was preeminent: which we have narrated thus in his Life from Saint Gregory of Tours, chapter 4, number 12. When the blessed Pontiff Gregory had been buried in a corner of the basilica, He transfers the body of his father Saint Gregory to a new mausoleum: and the place was small, and the people could not approach it as devotion demanded; Saint Tetricus, his son and successor, seeing these things and perceiving that miracles were being constantly worked there, laid foundations before the altar of the basilica, and built and vaulted an apse of wonderful workmanship: and when the vault was completed, he broke through the wall and built an arch. When he had brought this work to completion and adorned it, he dug a tomb in the middle of the apse, where, wishing to transfer the body of his blessed Father, he summoned Presbyters and Abbots for this office: who kept vigil in prayer, that the blessed Confessor might allow himself to be transferred to this prepared habitation. And when morning came, with choirs of singers they took hold of the sarcophagus and transferred it before the altar into the apse which the blessed Pontiff had built. While they were carefully arranging the sepulcher, suddenly, and as I believe at God's command, the lid of the sarcophagus was moved on one side: and behold, his blessed face appeared intact and uninjured, so that you would think him not dead but sleeping. Nor was anything shown to be diminished of the very vestment which had been placed with him. Whence not undeservedly did he appear glorious after his passing, whose flesh was not corrupted in mockery.

[3] While Saint Tetricus was dwelling at Dijon in the atrium of the said basilica of Saint John, he was very close to a great calamity; because he had received Chramnus, the rebel son of King Clothar, He receives Chramnus, the rebel son of Clothar I, coming with an army: to whom, when he inquired about the future, what happened is narrated by Gregory of Tours in Book 4 of the History of the Franks, chapter 16, in these words: When the Lord's Day had come, there was present the holy Bishop Tetricus, and the Clergy, having placed three books upon the altar, namely of the Prophets, the Apostle, and the Gospels, prayed to the Lord that he would show to Chramnus what would befall him: or whether success would follow him, He takes an omen through the Clergy about his fortune, or whether he could certainly reign, might the divine power show it: and at the same time having an agreement that whatever each one first found upon opening the book, this he would also read at Mass. Therefore, upon opening first of all the book of the Prophets, they find: I will take away its hedge and it shall be a desolation, because when it ought to have produced grapes, it produced wild grapes. And upon opening the book of the Apostle they find: For you yourselves know perfectly, brethren, that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night: when they shall say peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as the pains upon a woman in labor, and they shall not escape. And the Lord says through the Gospel: He who does not hear my words shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house upon sand; the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was its ruin. Chramnus, however, was received at the basilicas by the aforesaid Priest, and eating bread there, he set out for Childebert. Then in chapter 20 of the same book Gregory narrates the unhappy end of Chramnus, who, defeated and captured by his father in battle, and shut up with his wife and daughters in a hut, perished when the cottage was set on fire over them.

[4] Finally, what befell Saint Tetricus in his old age, the same Gregory narrates in Book 5, chapter 5, in these words: When Blessed Tetricus, the Priest of the Church of Langres, was growing old, after he had deposed the Deacon Lampadius (whom he had as his Steward, that is, Administrator of revenues); In old age he deposes Lampadius; and my brother Peter the Deacon, desiring to help the poor whom Lampadius had wickedly despoiled, had consented to his humiliation, he incurred hatred on this account. Meanwhile Tetricus is stricken with hemorrhage: and when no remedies of physicians availed, When sick he allows a successor to be appointed: the Clergy, disturbed and as it were abandoned by their Pastor, sought Mundericus: who, granted and tonsured by the King, was ordained Bishop, under the arrangement that while Blessed Tetricus lived, Mundericus should govern the fortress of Tonnerre as Archpriest and dwell there; but when the predecessor departed, he should succeed him. This Mundericus, also called Modericus, was the son of the most famous Senator Ansbert, and the paternal uncle of Arnulf, Bishop of Metz, who incurred the wrath of King Guntram and, sent into exile, passed to the kingdom of Sigebert, and having been made Bishop of Arisitum, is believed to have died famous for miracles. When he departed, therefore, says Gregory in the same place, the people of Langres again sought Silvester, a relative either of ours or of Blessed Tetricus, as Bishop. But they did this at the instigation of my brother Peter the Deacon. Meanwhile, upon the passing of Blessed Tetricus, He dies, this man, having had his head tonsured, was ordained Presbyter. When he was soon carried off by epilepsy, and Peter was killed by the machinations of Lampadius, Pappolus was ordained Bishop, who subscribed to the fourth Council of Paris in the twelfth year of Kings Guntram and his brothers, on the third day before the Ides of September, Indiction VI, which had begun from September of the year 572: In the year 572 in which same year we judge that Saint Tetricus died on this March 18, since he had governed the Church of Langres for thirty-three years, as is established from Saint Fortunatus. Fortunatus celebrates his illustrious virtues in Book 4, Poem 3, raising this epitaph to him:

O Tetricus, palm of the Priesthood in venerable worship, The seat of your homeland holds you, a foreign one holds us. With you as pious guardian, no wolf ever snatched a lamb, Epitaph and his various virtues Nor did the sheep, fearing a thief, graze upon the pastures. Bearing as it were six lustra and for three years besides, You ruled as Pastor the flock with gentle love. For that hearts might be seasoned with divine savor, You poured forth continually sweet salt from your mouth. The highest love of Kings, the glory of the people, the arm* of parents, Cultivator of the Church, the honor of nobility, Food of the poor, guardian of widows, care of the little ones, In all offices you were all things as pastor. But the people for whom your care provided various healing, Now at the funeral of their Rector sadly groan. Yet this, gracious Father, we hope: worthy in the stars, As you shine with honor, here may you prove it by your piety.

Christopher Browerus adds to the said Poem: He held a place among those Bishops who by a life innocently led equaled the glory of heaven; after death more powerful with the majesty of God in aiding suppliant ones than in punishing the wicked: of which this memorable example is found in Gregory of Tours, Book 5, chapter 5. The people of Langres, again requesting a Bishop, receive Pappolus, who had formerly been Archdeacon of Autun: who is said to have done many wicked things, Appearing, he rebukes his successor Pappolus, which we pass over, lest we seem to be detractors of the brethren; yet I shall not omit what sort of end he had. In the eighth year of his Episcopate, while he was traveling through the Dioceses and estates of the Church; on a certain night Blessed Tetricus appeared to him with a threatening countenance: and said thus: What are you doing here, Pappolus? Why do you pollute my See? Why do you invade the Church? Why do you thus scatter the sheep entrusted to me? Yield the place, leave the See, And strikes him, go far away from this region. And saying these things, he thrust the staff which he had in his hand into his chest with a powerful blow: at which he awoke, Three days later he expired. and while he pondered what this might be, he was fixed to that spot and tortured with the greatest pain; he abhorred food and drink, and awaited death now close upon him. What more? On the third day, vomiting blood from his mouth, he expired.

[6] Thus Saint Gregory of Tours, who continually calls Tetricus Saint or Blessed: Called Saint or Blessed by Gregory of Tours which the same thing was done six hundred years earlier by the author of the Chronicle of Saint Benignus of Dijon, published by Luca d'Achery in volume 1 of the Spicilegium, where on page 359 about the burial of Saints Gregory and Tetricus these things are read: Saint Gregory the Bishop also, And by the author of the Chronicle of Saint Benignus, following the example of his forebears, requested to be buried in this Church; and next to him on the right and left lie two Pontiffs. Saint Tetricus his successor is placed on the right side of the same basilica. At this time part of his head with other relics of the Saints is displayed in a reliquary above the principal altar with this inscription: OF THE HEAD OF SAINT TETRICUS THE BISHOP. In the inscription of the relics Thus Pierre-François Chifflet wrote to us from Dijon on April 17 of the year 1667, a man distinguished by various published books: and adds that he has not yet been able to discover where the rest of his sacred bones are now preserved. Saussay in his Supplement to the Gallic Martyrology for March 18 thus recalls him: And in other calendars At Dijon, Saint Tetricus, Bishop of Langres, and heir no less of the holiness than of the See of his parent Blessed Gregory, behind whom he was buried in the Church of Saint John, and shone with signs of shared glorification with him. Ferrarius also inscribed the same Saint Tetricus in the General Catalogue of Saints for this day: whom also the Sainte-Marthe brothers in their list of Bishops of Langres, Dionysius Gaulterotus in Part 2 of the Anastasis of Langres, chapters 4 and 10, and many others designate as a Saint.

* alternatively "of the Powerful"