ON SAINT ANTONY
ABBOT AT TOURS IN GAUL.
CommentaryAntony, Abbot at Tours in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Among the city of Tours's monasteries the more ancient is reckoned, that which from S. Julian now is named, before S. Gregory Bishop of Tours's times, Sacred cult May 4 in honor of S. Maurice dedicated. In this monastery's church to be celebrated yearly on this IV of May under a double rite the feast of S. Antony, of the Rock surnamed, testifies Simon Martin in the sacred Relics of the desert. On which day also the memory of B. Antony Abbot of S. Julian is inscribed in the Martyrology of Tours and of B. Antony Confessor at Tours in the MS. Florarium Sanctorum, and the Auctarium of Greven and Molanus to Usuard, the Martyrology German of Canisius and Gallican of Saussay, who these things has: At Tours of S. Antony the Confessor, by beatitude's glory conspicuous. But the Translation of the body of S. Antony the Confessor at Tours is celebrated on the day second of April, April 2 and 3. in the MS. Martyrologies of the Priory of Averon in the diocese of Chartres, the Roman of Duke Altemps, and the Carmelite which at Cologne is preserved. On the following day III of April is remembered S. Antony the Confessor at Tours in the MS. Vallicellan of the Fathers of the Oratory at Rome, and the Centula of S. Richarius in Ponthieu. From all which his ancient cult is confirmed. But of his illustrious virtues and manner of living nothing we could hitherto attain, beyond the few, which Simon Martin in French suggests, and are nearly these.
[2] When B. Antony several years in the monastery of Tours of S. Julian had lived, and with exact observation monastic in all virtues he excelled; with greater zeal of doing penance burning, A Compendium of the Life. he obtained the Moderator's consent, of departing to some rock, two or three leagues from Tours distant; in which a small little cell in the rock cut for himself he chose, but so narrow, that scarcely either lying or standing he could subsist, because in no part either of height, or of length or of breadth, it contained beyond four feet: and that cell by the benefit of a little window even now is shown, but for reverence of S. Antony entrance is not permitted. The rest of his Acts lie hidden, to God alone known: by whose providence life he sustained, and before his departure from life he was by the Parish-priest neighboring with the Sacraments fortified, and after death the body to the monastery translated. These things there. Of which the former from popular tradition, the rest from present notice to be received it appears.
[3] But in what century he flourished nowhere even by conjecture to be handed down we find, The time uncertain, whence neither can we him to the Order Benedictine enough safely assert: for if among the first of the said monastery monks he lived, would say the Sammarthani, uncertain to be what Order or Rule first there the monks held. Perhaps some light to the matter obscure will afford Dachery and Mabillon. Another, to be from S. Antony, companion of S. Maurus, with Martin Simon we judge, because of this man the body by Calistus Pope II in the year MCXIX in the church of Glanfeuil with the greatest reverence placed to have been, asserts Mabillon in his Annotations to the Life of S. Maurus the Abbot number 70. This one on account of the said elevation on the day III of September places Hugo Menard, with whom and other Benedictine Martyrologists no mention of the Tours that Solitary.
[4] The Relics in the church of S. Julian, We, that nothing of diligence we should omit, letters given to the R. P. Rector of the Tours College, those things asking which seemed to the matter to be of use, an answer we received from R. P. William Quirini, these for himself parts demanding, the R. D. Prior of S. Julian by him questioned about S. Antony, to assert, that he was the first of the same monastery Abbot, and is shown at the right side of the high altar on a large tablet his effigy; in the sacristy moreover some Relics of the same, in a case enclosed silver, which piously kissed the said P. William, judged from the thickness a part to be of an arm or hip: the body indeed said the same Prior, to be buried in the village of S. Antony, du Roche called, three about leagues distant. I went to the place, says P. William, and visited the chapel, which otherwise so frequented that ten or eleven Presbyters it nourished; and in his own church, but now only those dwellers visit it for prayer's sake. There is in it a crypt, within which the Saint to have lived is said: and there are preserved the Relics, the bone of the hip namely and one rib. Of writings moreover neither there nor at S. Julian's anything I found. The rest therefore of the sacred body parts dissipated that fierce whirlwind, which the more illustrious all the city's of Tours sanctuaries undermined in the preceding century, of which more often having complained still often we shall complain, but never without a groan. In the Register of Benefices of the Archbishopric of Tours in the year MDCXLVIII printed are indicated page 86 and 87 places from the monastery of S. Julian dependent, and among others is the Priory of S. Antony of Brechia, and the Church parochial of S. Antony, of which asked again the aforesaid P. William, whether the same S. Antony as Patron they venerated, he affirmed: adding the Priory of Brechia and the Antonian parish's a double to be the title, as a double is the benefice; but the church of each the same, that namely which others from the village's name of the rock call.