ON ST. SICHARIUS MARTYR
AT BRANTÔME IN THE PÉRIGORD.
CommentarySicharius, Martyr, at Brantôme in the Périgord (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
The name in the additaments to Usuard, Certain Martyrologies of Usuard, for the use of the Gallican
Churches augmented, of this holy
Martyr give us a most simple notice.
Thus in that which at Chambéry in
the monastery of the Conventuals of St. Mary we found,
on this II of May is marked the memory of Sicharius Martyr:
in another of the Queen of Sweden, the Passion of St. Sicharius Martyr;
but in that which in the year MDXXXVI at Paris was printed,
is noted on the same day the passion of St. Sicharius Martyr. They followed
other similarly augmented ones, Molanus, Witfordus, Canisius and
Ferrarius: Saussaye with a longer elogium from the writings soon to be cited
sought, names the place. Of the first authors of that additament
would that we could say of how great age the monuments
they followed, when they thus added this name to the fasts of Usuard
to be transcribed by them: for if they were quite ancient, a great
foundation they would afford us of more efficaciously overturning the figments,
by which the monks of Brantôme in the Périgord, while they wish
to render the memory of Sicharius more illustrious, made it most obscure.
[2] Before I come to discuss this, there are to be produced
the words of Jean du Puy the Recollect, an infantile body in this century recognized in the state of the church of Périgueux,
in the year 1629 published in French page 192, reporting
what in this century has been ascertained. A little while ago,
says he, the Claustral Prior of that Abbey, knowing
that the precious casket, in which rested the bones of the Holy
Innocent Siccarius, had long been kept in hidden places,
for fear of the irreligious Reformers,
who like harpies tear apart all sacred things; thought it advisable,
a fitting preparation being premised, to open
the little wooden chest, covered with golden and silver foils,
and with many pearls and precious stones adorned,
which was kept in the sacristy. It being opened those good
Religious saw the little body of the little Innocent,
altogether entire; then a bony knot from the girdle
of St. Peter, and finally a phial of that liquid, which from the sepulcher
of St. Catherine the Martyr once gushed forth. But it is
(as from the Proper of Brantôme signified to us Armandus
Gerard Canon of Sarlat) his feast as
of a Patron under the rite of a double of the I Class on this II of May: but the Translation
(that I believe by which into the said chest the body was laid)
on the day XI of October.
[3] If nothing else had been found, nor elsewhere anything before this
written, which thou couldst believe of a boy once in Gaul slain by the Jews, I could without scruple have suspected that of that or
another region of Gaul some Innocent boy, on whom
his parents had imposed the name of Sicharius or Sicarius, on this
second of May by the Jews, with their accustomed often elsewhere butchery, slain
through hatred of Christian baptism and name, had merited
the honor of worship preserved even to this day in the Brantôme
monastery, three leagues from Périgueux once built under
Pippin the King, as the Chronicle of Maillezais has; or, as the
more constant tradition of the place has, by his son Charlemagne: ancient
certainly, and brought into the old monastery of Brantôme. since the Monastery of Brantôme under Louis
son of Charles is numbered among those, which neither gifts nor military service
ought to give, but only prayers for the safety of the Emperor
or of his sons and the stability of the Empire.
This our conjecture could confirm the name of Sicharius or Sicarius,
drawn from whatever etymology (for various can
be brought) and also under the Romans known in the Gauls, as
is plain from St. Sicarius Bishop of Lyon, of whom on March XXVI
we treated; nor today rare, in those parts, even among
persons of higher rank, as to me asking about these things lately
wrote the aforesaid Armandus Gerard, of the time of the body placed in
that chest one could conjecture, that it was after the
X century, and placed in a precious chest after the X century when on occasion of the transmarine expeditions,
first I judge it was done, that in our West there began to be
a more celebrated worship of St. Catherine, and known in these parts to become
the oil, which from her sepulcher was said to flow.
[4] But to these our conjectures will be opposed before all things
an old parchment, in the same little chest found, on
one part indeed signed and sealed, on the other
with characters of an ancient age thus written, as the aforesaid
author has page 193. with the title of the Christ-child Innocent. Here rests the precious,
with celestial grace filled pearl of the most holy body
of the glorious Martyr CRETSPYY THE INNOCENT, whom
for almost three years and a half, for the protection of himself and his own,
with him honorably through diverse spaces of lands
* KPULOS, OF THE FRANKS THE GREAT and perpetual
prince, carried; at length after SPAIN by a long
exercise of wars made tributary to himself, while
with many other Relics of Saints kindly
divided; thence this church constructing, that with greater
veneration than the other places of Saints it be celebrated,
through LEO, and the memory of the dedication as if made by Leo III most renowned in all sanctity
of Religion, of the Roman See the Apostolic man,
in honor of Blessed PETER Prince of the Apostles, with divine
benediction consecrated; and with many
honors adorned it by ROYAL AND APOSTOLIC PRIVILEGE,
so under anathema delivered, that no
mortal, in those things which to their religion to pertain
should seem, any right or DOMINION by a RASH
endeavor should dare to USURP. But whoever,
inflamed with rapacious ambition, should presume to violate it,
by the judgment of almighty God, and of all
the PONTIFFS OF THE HOLY ROMAN SEE by authority
condemned let him suffer punishments, made a partner of JUDAS the betrayer
of the Lord in the depth of Erebus through eternal ages.
SAINT SICHTS.
[5] So far that document, to whose lowest margin are had
signatures with the letters of the names drawn among themselves:
which it is not needful to see expressed to the life in bronze or wood,
that a skilled antiquary may understand, even by the indication of the style alone, the writing
to be of an age later than the tenth, and much indeed.
But not only by more recent use is it called Brantôme, which
in Charles's age and even afterward Brantolmurium or more briefly
Brantolmirum was named: (which is received from fabulous writings) but also Charles's Spanish
expeditions in a manner wonderful enough are expressed; and (what
is chief) the consecration of the church is ascribed to Pope Leo,
which on figments fabricated under the nomenclature of Turpin and Ludger
rests, not to be received by him who the double journey of Leo
to Charlemagne, and the manner of return most separated from those parts,
shall have read in Eginhart and other Chronicles of better note.
For the rest, of whatever age that writing be, as
it contains nothing which prohibits believing this holy little body
was given by Charlemagne to this place, as the tradition
bore: so our conjecture in nothing it impugns: for it only
says that the Innocent Christ-child (for this in the Périgord
dialect those letters CRETSPYY seem to have sounded) whose
proper name in the same Périgord dialect SICHTS or
perhaps SICHES for Sicharius below is expressed, with the proper name of the Saint. was carried thither by
Charles; who by a similar idiotism there seems called KRULOS,
just as elsewhere among other nations he is called KARLOS: for P in place
of R I impute to the scribes or typesetters, by whose fault perhaps
also in the word PYY a second Y crept in for U. But
it is established that Innocents are called everywhere all those, whom by the Jews, as
I said, slain we venerate, with examples obvious in every age.
[6] Our conjecture about the manner of the martyrdom more strongly to impugn
seems the place of Regino the monk of Prüm in his
Chronicle, in the author of the history of Périgueux above cited
page 192, In the additament to the Chronicle of Regino according to the MS. fragments of the Pithou library.
In the year of the Lord 769 Charlemagne [again proceeding
to Périgueux], constituted a Basilica
next to the river Drona, in honor of blessed Peter
Prince of the Apostles, in which not long after
he placed one of the Innocents, given
to his Father by the Lord Pope of Rome, [by whose merits
and aid he said he had been victor in war many times].
But the place, in which this basilica was founded,
is called Brantôme. The same in volume 4 of Gallia Christiana
have the Sammarthani, the body is said to have been given by the Pope: but from another likely MS. since they
pass over those words, which thou seest enclosed in [ ], and far better
note the matter done under the year DCCLXXIX, which followed
Charles's glorious return from Spain, after which return
their church the men of Brantôme themselves think to have been founded. But the place
aforesaid impugns our conjecture, not only
in that it says one of the Innocents, by which phrase everywhere
are wont to be understood the boys slain by Herod; but adds given by
the Lord Pope of Rome, which ought not of a Gallic boy
to be supposed.
[7] Regino, Abbot of Prüm in the dominion of Trier carried
his Chronicle even to the year DCCCCV, which pleases not, because it seems not credible and ten years
after he died an exile in the monastery of St. Maximinus near Trier.
But as the labor of this one some continued even to the year
DCCCCLXVII, so others to have interpolated him and augmented
seem, long perhaps afterward: and from copies thus interpolated
the place ought to have been taken, which in no Belgian MSS. is found.
Wherefore this only from it is proved, that the author of the interpolation
from some writing of the men of Brantôme of a later age it
took. And it is to me likely that these, after St. Sicharius'
body, placed in that little chest which we said was lately unlocked,
to greater veneration had raised; by a desire of narrating more and more distinct things
augmenting the proclivity to the old notice
received from elders through new conjectures to be amplified,
first to themselves, then to others persuaded, that of the infants slain by Herod one was called Sicharius, that of the victims of Herodian
cruelty one was Sicharius. But to those asking,
whence his name so definitely they pronounced, which in that
case ought to be presumed known to God alone; there occurs an easy answer
from a case, which in the old Sarlat Breviary is expressed,
for the eighth and only Lesson of this Saint, on II of May,
when of St. Athanasius only a commemoration is made, the rest of
St. Sicarius, but from the common, besides the Antiphons at the Magnificat
and Benedictus, and the Gospel from Matthew, An Angel
of God appeared in sleep to Joseph. But the Lesson
is this.
[8] Of the college of the Martyrs of Christ the Innocents
one athlete proceeded, whose true name a demon from a possessed man first indicated, who by the Lord's nod and the command
of the most glorious King Charles brought from the transmarine
parts, in the Aquitanian soil shines. He since without
a name, except only the Guiltless, among us was had; by the bounty
of a divine gift Christ Jesus, for whose name
he had borne the death of passion, his name to our
ears thus intimated. There was a certain wretch in
those days, who by a most long-lasting fatigue by a demon
was vexed. Him when his parents through the sepulchers
of the Saints led around, and through diverse places
profited nothing, they began to inquire where this holy
infant entombed perchance lay. Then the wretch, when he heard,
trembled, and with a wondrous struggle began to be hostile,
and in various ways unwilling to go to the boy's temple.
Indeed those who led him, understanding this
to be a phantastic figment, with his hands tied behind his back
to the Brantôme monastery led him. Soon therefore
as he passed the door of the church, with a clear voice thus
he said, Sicarius holy Martyr, thy prayers burn me.
[9] Jean du Puy alleges the old Brantôme Breviary,
where at length is reported, or arbitrarily out of himself feigned it. how to the holy Emperor
was through an Angel revealed, in what place were to be laid the holy
Innocent's Relics. But whether in the same is had the premised
history of the demoniac is not clear; since at the margin, where it
is set forth, is cited the Breviary of Sarlat. Then adds
the same John (from his own, or the men of Brantôme's conjecture, I know not)
that the demon seems to have put this name on this holy Martyr, because
with a dagger pierced he perished. So namely little likely
it seemed, that to a Jewish boy, in place of a Hebrew or Greek name
(for from those tongues alone their names they took under Herod
the Jews) that proper and by parents given would have been the appellation.
But this would by no means have been incongruous to opine of a Saint
born and suffering in Gaul: which the Martyrologies also seem to suppose,
which his Passion on this day recall; since
the Herodian Infanticide is believed to have been perpetrated on the day XXVIII
of December, in the XXI month after Christ's incarnation by
the Angel announced, and the appearance of the star to the Magi made.
These therefore being rejected, who refer St. Sicharius' slaughter
to Herod, we hold it enough to have proved his worship,
ancient and certain, which in the old Sarlat one with this Prayer
is concluded. O God who thy Church, by the merits and prayers
of the most precious Martyr, with wondrous splendor
makest illustrious; grant propitiously, that we who the solemnity
of him celebrate on earth, his intercession with
thee may merit to have in the heavens.