ON SAINT JUSTUS MARTYR
BISHOP OF VIENNE IN GAUL.
In the year CLXXVIII
CommentaryJustus, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul, Martyr (S.)
By G. H.
[1] The memory of S. Justus Bishop of Vienne is celebrated on day IV of May, without mention of martyrdom, in the Martyrology of Ado in Mosander: but as if that reading were not sufficiently genuine, the name is marked with an asterisk and by Rosweyde to
the Appendix is rejected. Memory in the fasti on May 4 He is recorded in the same way in the Martyrology under the supposed name of Bede, and in the MS. Florarium of Saints. But he is venerated as crowned with martyrdom in the Martyrology of Cologne and Lübeck printed in the year MCCCCXC, likewise in the Auctarium of Greven to Usuard. Indeed three companions in martyrdom are added to him by the author of the Gallican Martyrology Saussay, with this lengthy eulogy.
[2] At Vienne of S. Justus Bishop and Martyr, who fifth in order from S. Crescens, and with eulogy in Saussay, whom Paul the Apostle established there as the first Prelate, sitting, fostered the cradles of this Church with deep love and paternal solicitude: and in the great persecutions preaching and confirming the faith by word and deed, most illustrious in the confession of Christ shone forth. Whence he was honored by S. Pius Pope and Martyr with Apostolic rescripts; and as if the chief of the Gallican church, he merited to be admonished about the great matters of the kingdom of Christ and the martyrdom imminent on him. At length he himself, while strenuously propagating the faith of Christ, and intrepidly defending the flock of Christ everywhere besieged by wolves; was violently cast out from his watchtower, and worn down by long exile. But when by chance with letters he confirmed his desolate sheep, recalled to the city with Severinus, Exuperius and Felicianus, his chief helpers, he was attacked with all ferocity. But persevering in the defense of piety to his last breath, he fell by glorious martyrdom, in the persecution the fourth under Antoninus. Whose glorious Bishop's and renowned fellow-soldiers' bodies, cast into the flowing Rhone, but rescued from the waves by a pious man, were laid in a place called Brenio: where they lay long uncultivated, until at length roused by divine revelation, B. Bernard Archbishop of Vienne brought them out from concealment, and translated thence with becoming honor, deposited them in S. Romanus's, which he had built, church. But out of zeal to procure greater splendor, hence also shortly after raised up, to the Roman monastery, which he himself had built on the Isère, he carried them: in which to this day they are gloriously preserved, and shine with perpetual monuments of divine virtue and glory.
[3] and on May 6 in MSS. of Vienne. All these things Saussay says: which we shall try to elucidate. And first concerning S. Crescens, whom others ascribe to Galatia, we shall treat on his birthday, June XXVII. We have two MS. Martyrologies of Saints of the church of Vienne; in these, as also in the Calendar of an old Missal, he is referred to the said VI of May, and this eulogy is given in the said Martyrologies: On the day before the Nones of May, the Birthday of S. Justus Martyr, sixth Bishop of Vienne, who at the time when Pope Pius the first sat at Rome, received from him a consolatory letter about the dignity of the sacred Pallium (which he calls the colobium of Bishops) and about the fervor of the faith. At length being exiled by Marcus Aurelius, he was also crowned with martyrdom under the same, in the fourth persecution, after he had ruled his Church for thirty-five years. Indeed Saussay seems modestly to retract what he had said about day IV, when again in the Supplement on day III of August he writes thus: At Vienne the deposition of S. Justus Bishop and Martyr, whose birthday is celebrated on day VI of May. About the time in which S. Pius Pope sat, who is venerated July XI, we treated in the Tractate on the ancient Supreme Pontiffs, and in the Life of S. Anicetus his predecessor and S. Soter his successor on April XVII and XXII, and showed him crowned with martyrdom under M. Aurelius in the year CLXI. Receive here his letter to S. Justus, drawn forth from the archive of Vienne.
[4] Letter of S. Pius Pope to S. Justus: Pius Bishop to Brother Justus Bishop. Athalus, bringing the letters of the Martyrs, came to us: and making for us ineffable joy concerning their triumph, he told us that S. Verus, our colleague, had triumphed as victor over the prince of the world: but you in the Senatorial city of Vienne in his place by the Brothers have been constituted Bishop, and clothed with the colobium of Bishops. See that you fulfill the ministry which you have received, in the Lord. But care for the bodies of the Saints, as members of God: just as the Apostles cared for Stephen. Visit the prisons of the Saints, lest any grow lukewarm in the faith. Test the holy martyrdoms by the Holy Spirit; and that they may persevere in the faith, urge them on as instigator. Let the Presbyters and Deacons regard you not as a greater, but as a minister of Christ: let the whole people be protected by your sanctity. Our Brothers, whom you will recognize through Athalus, freed now from the cruelty of the tyrant, rest in the Lord. Pastor the Presbyter founded a titulus, and worthily died in the Lord. Know, most blessed Colleague, that it has been revealed to me, that I shall sooner make an end of this life. One thing I beg, stand in communion, and do not forget me. The poor Senate of Christ, established at Rome, salutes you. Salute all the college of Brothers, who are with you, in the Lord.
[5] These things S. Pius, who, as we have said, was crowned with martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius in the year CLXI. Time of the See according to Ado If therefore S. Justus had not been created Bishop several years earlier, the beginning of the See does not seem to be referred to the times of the Emperor Hadrian, as did Ado in his Chronicle writing: At this same time, that is under Hadrian, Justus of the Vienne church Bishop most illustrious in confession stood forth. But under Antoninus Pius, he says, of the people of Vienne the Bishop Justus is held famous. Then under Marcus Antoninus Verus, he says, Justus Bishop of Vienne, worn down by long exile, is made glorious Martyr. With some matters interposed about his fellow Martyrs, added by Saussay, he has these: Severinus, Exuperius and Felicianus, a little time before, at Vienne were crowned with martyrdom. We ourselves at Vienne in the year MDCLXII described the Catalogue of holy Bishops of Vienne, and in the MS Catalogue from which these things look here: S. Justus Bishop flourished in the times of Antoninus Pius and Antoninus the Younger, that is M. Aurelius Verus, at which time Irenaeus of Lyon Bishop was still held a Presbyter. In the time of this Justus is said a most grievous persecution of Christians to have been: with companion Martyrs. among whom were crowned with martyrdom Severinus, Exuperius and Felicianus; whose bodies by divine revelation were afterwards found. Thus there, and better the See of S. Justus is attributed only to the imperium of Antoninus Pius, and M. Aurelius Antoninus Verus: hence thirty-five years are not to be attributed to him. He who preceded him, S. Verus Bishop, is venerated on the Kalends of August, and S. Irenaeus on June XXVIII. Eusebius in book 5 of his Ecclesiastical History in the Preface asserts, in the seventeenth year of the imperium of Antoninus Verus, that is in the year of Christ CLXXVII, the persecution was set in more violent motion; chiefly however (as he pursues in chapter 1) in Gaul, in which two before the rest are celebrated as distinguished and outstanding mothers of cities, Lyon and Vienne. Among the Martyrs of Lyon were SS. Epipodius and Alexander with thirty-four companions, of whom we treated on day XXII of April, where also we said that S. Irenaeus still a Presbyter was commended by some Martyrs in a letter to S. Eleutherius Pope. In this then persecution, and perhaps in the following year CLXXVIII, we judge that S. Justus the Bishop suffered at Vienne with three others named above.
[6] The first place of burial was Brenio, which John le Lievre in his Antiquities of Vienne asserts, Translations of 3 Martyrs without mention of S. Justus. is near the town of S. Columba, opposite Vienne, across the river Rhone. Another place, ascribed to the translation of S. Justus by Saussay, under the name of the Roman Monastery, is the church of S. Romanus, built not by S. Justus, but by S. Bernard Archbishop, and made blessed by the bodies of the three already-mentioned Martyrs: and concerning this translation Peter de Natalibus in book 10 of the Catalogue chapter 82 has these: Severinus, and his companions Exuperius and Felicianus, suffered at Vienne on the XIII Kalends of December. Whose bodies, after many courses of years, themselves revealing it found, and by the Pontiff of that city's Clergy and people honorably taken up, in the basilica of S. Romanus, which is situated in that city, were buried with worthy honor, and there they rest. These things there, which for the earlier part are referred in MS. Martyrologies of Vienne, and S. Bernard is named Pontiff, but the location of the church of S. Romanus is not indicated: then is added: Afterwards the same Pontiff transferred the same relics to his Romanense monastery. In the Life of S. Bernard at January XXIII edited by us, num. 7, treats of the Romanense monastery built and the church of S. Peter, into which he reverently transferred the relics of the three Martyrs, namely Severinus, Exuperius and Felicianus. All which are everywhere narrated without mention of S. Justus: so that Saussay seems to have joined these things less than considerately: who then on November XIX hands down concerning these three Martyrs the things already related, and that without mention of S. Justus. John le Lievre asserts, that by the Christians of Vienne in honor of S. Justus a church was built on the mount, where formerly the fortress Crappum had been, of this church. and that it was afterwards erected into a Priory, but at length reduced to solitude. Some parish of S. Justus, three leagues from Vienne toward the North is indicated on maps, as also another on the right bank of the flowing Rhone, before it descends to the town called Pont S. Esprit. But because there were many Saints Justus in Gaul, we do not at once assert that all those places were named from one and the same.