ON SS. NECTARIUS AND NICETIUS
BISHOPS OF VIENNE IN GAUL.
Cent. IV
CommentaryNectarius, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul (S.)
Nicetius, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul (S.)
By the Author G. H.
Two holy Bishops of Vienne in the ancient Ecclesiastical Calendars are joined on day V of May, whom the four very ancient apographs of the Hieronymian Martyrology add toward the end with these words: At Vienne the deposition of Nectarius and Nicetus. The names of each in the ancient Calendars. Which also are read in the very ancient MS. Roman Martyrologies of the Church of S. Peter and of Duke Altempsius, likewise the Casinensian in Lombardic character, the Tornacensian of S. Martin, and the Trevirian likewise of S. Martin, in which they are surnamed Bishops and Confessors. In place of Nicetus is also read Nicetas. Notker writes these things: At Vienne of Nectarius and Nicetius the Bishops. But with other Saints interposed both are read in the MS. Florarium of Saints, in the Auctary of Grevenus to Usuard, and in the German Martyrology of Canisius, in this manner: At Vienne of S. Nicetius the Bishop, a man of venerable sanctity. and afterwards: Of Nectarius, Bishop of Vienne and Confessor. The name of each is also inscribed in the MS. Tamlactense in Hibernia.
[2] S. Ado the Bishop of Vienne, when at the year of Christ CCCXXXVII he treated of Constantius and his brothers Constantine and Constans the Emperors, The time of S. Nectarius's See, adds these things: Then there flourished also at that time Nectarius, the Bishop of Vienne, in the doctrine of the faith eminent: who in that venerable Synod of Vaison was first present, and that of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit there is one nature, and power, and deity, and virtue, in the Church publicly preached and taught. The same Ado then reports the Acts of the Emperors Julian and Jovian; afterwards he describes the times of Valentinian and Valens, but at the end adds: Nectarius of Vienne and Hilary of Poitiers the Bishops die. The Acts of S. Hilary we have illustrated on day XIII of January, and we have said he died in the year CCCLXVII. But just as Nectarius is placed before Hilary, so could this one have died sooner. and some memory on the I of August. But the cited Council of Vaison seems to have been held about the year CCCL. Vaison moreover is an Episcopal city, under the dominion of the supreme Pontiff and of the Archbishop of Avignon. Some refer S. Nectarius to the Kalends of August, when in the Martyrology, under the supposed name of Bede, these things are read: At Vienne of S. Verus the Bishop, who was one of the disciples of the Apostles, and of S. Nectarius the Bishop. But separately Verus, and is called Severus, then also separately Nectarius the Bishop with no place assigned to him, and they are reported in the Martyrologies MS. Bruxellensis of S. Gudula, MS. Florarium, and in the printed one of the year MCCCCXC, likewise in the Auctary of Grevenus. In the supplement of Saussay he is called Bishop of Vienne, just as also by Ferrarius, who annotates that his natalis is not venerated in the Church of Vienne. Truly we also do not find his name in the Calendar, prefixed to the Missal or Breviary, or in the renewed Martyrology by John le Lievre Canon of Vienne, although the same wrote it in the French tract on the Antiquity of the Church of Vienne, and John de Bosco in the tract appended to the Floriacensian Library says he died on the first day of August. These things notwithstanding, with so many ancient Martyrologies we leave him joined to S. Nicetius, his successor, of whom we shall now treat.
[3] Ado in the indicated Chronicle, after the Empire of Gratian and his brother Valentinian subjoins, The singular cult of S. Nicetius, that at the same time the Church of Vienne was governed by Nicetas, a most illustrious Bishop in the dogma of the faith. The same Ado and Usuard, with very many MSS. and printed Martyrologies and the present-day Roman, celebrate the same on this day with these words: Likewise at Vienne of S. Nicetius the Bishop, a man of venerable sanctity. In the MS. Martyrology of Vienne, by the zeal and labor of John le Lievre, as we have said, renewed, these things are read: The natalis of S. Nicetius the Confessor, the fifteenth Archbishop of Vienne. He governed his Church in the times of Gratian and afterwards of Theodosius the Emperors: and was present at the Council of Valence in the Dauphiné held in the year CCCLXXV: and being buried in the church of S. Martin, fourth Bishop of Vienne and Martyr, which he himself had constructed in his honor, was glorified by miracles. Some similar encomium has Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology. In the Breviary of Vienne printed in the year MDXXII is prescribed an Ecclesiastical office of the said S. Nicetius, in which all things from the Common of a Confessor Pontiff with the prayer, Da quaesumus.
[4] About the Council of Valence a doubt could be raised whether truly Florentius the Bishop of the Church of Vienne was present at it, whether he was present at the Council of Valence? as the subscription has in Sirmond. For this Florentius is not found at this time to have presided, but in the third century of Christ is reported to have died a Martyr on day III of January, as we then said. It could therefore be reckoned that his name had crept in in place of Nicetius, which we propose for further inquiry to learned men.
[5] In John Chenu in the Chronological History of Archbishops and Bishops of Gaul, S. Nicetius is said to have been formerly educated by SS. Paschasius and Claudius Bishops of Vienne, even so much that he was even Deacon of B. Claudius. The Acts of S. Paschasius we have given on XXII February, those of S. Claudius we shall give on the Kalends of June. The Sammarthani are very meager in this, and through error place Nicetius before Nectarius.