Pastor

ON SAINT PASTOR.

Pastor (St.)

[1] The memory of St. Pastor is inscribed for this day in the principal Martyrologies, but with great variety: and first in the very ancient codex of St. Maximin he is mixed in with the other Martyrs given above in these words: St. Pastor numbered among other Martyrs: Passion of Eulalia the Virgin, Aquilina the Virgin, Pastor, and others. Eulalia and Aquilina have been recorded with Victor and six others expressed by their own names, to whom Pastor is added as a tenth in the Martyrology of St. Jerome printed at Paris. In the manuscript Ado of Bressanone, formerly of the Church of Toulon in Provence, then of the Queen of Sweden, and written in the twelfth century of Christ, the following is read toward the end: or companion of St. Aurelian: Likewise of Saints Aurelian and Pastor. In our very ancient codex of St. Jerome, after the Martyrs recorded above, these two words are added thus: Aurilian Pastoris. About the meaning of which there can be dispute. In the manuscripts of Augsburg, St. Ulric, and the Parisian Labbaeus, the following is found: Deposition of Pastor; in the Reichenau manuscript, Aurelianis is prefixed. In the Blume manuscript, which is of St. Jerome, Auriliani ciuitate depositio Pastoris is added. The same things, but with Aurelianis written, he is said to have been deposited at Orleans: are read in the Lucca copy of St. Jerome and the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden cited by Holstenius. Notker adds the title of Saint. And these are the older Martyrologies.

[2] Others confer a dignity. Thus Bellinus: At Orleans, of Pastor the Bishop. Molanus, Canisius, and Maurolycus write Aurelianis. In Mosandrus, volume 7 of Surius, and Rosweyde in the Appendix to Ado, the following is found: Bishop: In the city of Aurelia, the deposition of St. Pastor the Bishop. In the present Roman Martyrology it is read thus: At Orleans in Gaul, of St. Pastor the Bishop. Charles Saussay of Orleans, Dean of the Church of Orleans, Doctor of the Sorbonne, in Book 2 of the Annals of the Church of Orleans, Chapter 53, has the following: Concerning St. Pastor the Bishop, whom the Roman Martyrology commemorates, we do not know at what time he lived, and we are uncertain whether there was ever a Bishop of Orleans of that name, since he is found inscribed in no catalogue. Not even after these Annals were printed did John Chenu, Claude Robert, or the Sainte-Marthe brothers dare to insert this Pastor into their catalogues of the Bishops of Orleans. Galesinius calls him Bishop and Confessor, which Andrew Saussay also does in the Gallic Martyrology with this added eulogy: and Confessor: On the same day, at Orleans, of St. Pastor, Bishop and Confessor, who there, after the completion of a religiously spent course, putting off the mortal man, passed over to the fellowship of the heavenly citizens and the delight of immortal life. Which can be said of any and every Saint.

[3] Peter de Natali in the Catalogue of Saints, which he completed in the year 1371, according to others, a Palatine Bishop: Book 11, Chapter 130, numbers 103 and 104, has the following: Domninus and Victor, Martyrs, are crowned with martyrdom at Thessalonica on the third day before the Kalends of April. Pastor, a Palatine Bishop, on the same day was famous at Orleans. We have given above two classes of Martyrs, of which the leader of the first is St. Domninus, of the second St. Victor. To St. Domninus crowned at Thessalonica are joined his companions Philopolus, Achaicus, and Palatinus, and indeed the memory of Palatinus is found in fifteen Martyrologies. whether on account of St. Palatinus the Martyr? To Victor, who suffered elsewhere, are joined eight others, and indeed by some Pastor is added, as we said above. We therefore suspect the aforementioned Palatinus, with Francis Maria Florentinus on the Martyrology of St. Jerome, to have been taken from the Thessalonian Martyrs, and joined to St. Pastor by Peter de Natali, nor do we doubt that he so read in some manuscript Martyrologies. Certainly these words, At Orleans, of St. Pastor, Palatine Bishop, we find in very many manuscripts under the name of Usuard, as well as in the manuscript Florarium of the Saints. To these can be added the Martyrology printed at Cologne and Lubeck in the year 1490 and the Supplement of Greven to Usuard, in which he is called Confessor. The Brussels manuscript of St. Gudula has the following: In the city of Orleans, of St. Pastor, Palatine Archbishop. The above-mentioned Charles Saussay whether he should be considered a Chorepiscop? conjectures that he is called by Peter de Natali a Palatine Bishop, that is, a curial or Chorepiscop, who died at Orleans, but was not the Bishop of Orleans. Constantinus Ghinius composed this eulogy for him in the Birthdays of the Holy Canons: At Orleans, of St. Pastor, Bishop and Confessor, who was also a Palatine Prelate and rested in Christ at Orleans.

[4] whether another Pastor is venerated at Liege? Andrew Saussay begins this day of his Martyrology with these words: At Liege, of St. Pastor the Martyr. We have found nowhere any trace of this Pastor; we have various Breviaries and Missals of the Church of Liege, and some of them very ancient, but without mention of the said Pastor. A certain Roman Martyrology printed in French at Liege in the year 1624, to which the Saints of Belgium are added in another typeface, published by Baldwin Willotius, likewise the Belgian Hagiologion in the year 1658, but everywhere there is great silence concerning this Pastor: whose name perhaps was cited in some manuscript Martyrology found at Liege, and it should be believed that it refers to St. Pastor, whom we have already mentioned, or to St. Pastor the Martyr of Nicomedia, whom we celebrated on the twenty-ninth of March as the Leader of eight other athletes: whom Greven and Canisius also record for this day, together with the Trier manuscript of St. Martin.

[5] Another controversy is raised here by the Spaniards, as though he had come as an exile from Spain to Gaul. whether he was Bishop of Valencia? The argument is taken from the Chronicle which was produced as a forgery under the name of Julian, Archpriest Peter of St. Justa, in which at number 250 the following is found: Pastor, Bishop of Valencia, a noble writer, dies in exile at Orleans. Francis Bivarius in his commentary on M. Maximus, page 358, contends that in Peter de Natali one should read Bishop of Valencia, not Palatine. But we read Palatine in fifteen manuscript Martyrologies and several printed ones: nowhere Valentine. Bivarius argues from the roll of Bishops of Valencia that from it a truly great Father had fallen, who had previously adorned that See, whom, to restore him by right of return, he offers the torch lit by Julian: but one that brings darkness, not dispels it. Tamayo Salazar lacked Saints for his Spanish Martyrology for the twenty-ninth and thirtieth of March: wherefore they had to be fetched from elsewhere, for the former day St. Secundus, Martyr of Asti in Italy, for this day St. Pastor: from which he corrects the error that crept into the printed codex of Julian Peter, and reproaches Bivarius, who, deceived by Julian's error, also wrongly makes St. Pastor Bishop of Valencia. In order therefore to come closer to Peter de Natali, he asserts that St. Pastor was Bishop of Palencia: or of Palencia in Spain? and that Jerome Roman de la Higuera so contrived in the Spanish Martyrology not yet published. We know that this man applied himself with all his might to producing and defending the books of Fl. Lucius Dexter, Luitprand, and Julian Peter, and therefore his authority ceases with those books. Gonzalez Davila in volume 2 of the Ecclesiastical Theatre of both kingdoms of Castile published the Bishops of Palencia, but found no trace of this Pastor, whom he would not otherwise have omitted, since he pushes forward the first of all from the Chronicle of Fl. Dexter.