ON SAINT AURELIAN
BISHOP OF LIMOGES IN AQUITAINE.
CommentaryAurelian, Bishop of Limoges, in Aquitaine (S.)
By G. H.
[1] The city of Limoges, an Episcopal city of the first Aquitaine, had St. Martial as the herald of the Christian faith and its first Bishop: whose Acts will be set forth on June XXX. The names and deeds of the Bishops of this city were written by Bernard Guidonis, of the Order of Preachers, Bishop of Lodève, published by Philip Labbe in his Collection of Aquitanian matters: in which is treated in chapter 1 concerning St. Martial, and there these things are added: Furthermore his illustrious deeds and happy end were described by Bl. Aurelian, who saw, heard, and was present, while the deeds for the most part were happening: whom that same most holy Martial raised from the dead, and afterwards while still living in the flesh ordained his successor. Concerning the life of St. Martial we shall treat below: He did not die on November 17 meanwhile from chapter 2 we continue these things with Bernard, who says that Bl. Aurelian, by St. Martial, while he was still a Pagan and Pontiff of idols, was raised from the dead, and afterwards by the same chosen Bishop, died on the fifteenth Kalends of December, and was buried in the monastery of St. Martial in the church of St. Peter, but now lies in the church of Bl. Cessator outside the walls of the city of Limoges. Thus there: On the said day, the XV Kalends of December, in the Epternach copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, these things are read, added at the end: In Gaul, of Aurelian Bishop and Confessor. But that there is an error there, which Bernard Guidonis and others have assumed, we gather from three other copies of the same Hieronymian Martyrology, in which these things are thus expressed: In Gaul in the city of Orléans, the deposition of Anianus Bishop and Confessor. Therefore this error being detected, but on May 8, with the Church of Limoges we celebrate his birthday on May VIII, when under double rite he is there honored; and this Lesson concerning his life is prescribed to be recited.
[2] Eulogy from the Breviary of Limoges. Aurelian and Andreas, among the Limoges, Pontiffs of pagan superstition, after Bl. Martial preaching Christ had been struck with scourges, with Alpinian and Austriclinian, cast him into a dark prison. When a most clear light, divinely poured forth, on the next day had illumined him, and the doors at the prayers of the most holy Apostle had spontaneously opened; with a great earthquake shaking the whole city, the air resounding with horrible thunder, Aurelian and Andreas perished struck by lightning. Moved by the great novelty of the matter, very many joined themselves to the faith of Christ, whose example others, transgressors, followed when they saw those struck from heaven, raised from the dead by the prayers of Bl. Martial. From that time Aurelian and Andreas, having been made from vessels of dishonor vessels of honor, committed themselves to the most holy Apostle to be formed: under whose direction they expiated the offenses of their former life, assiduous in prayers, content with bread and water once a day. Aurelian especially began to flourish in the glory of miracles, by which when Bl. Martial saw his sanctity attested, with the addition of skill in letters and the faculty of preaching the divine word, he designated him as his successor. Therefore having illustriously and laudably administered the Church of Limoges for fifteen years, he migrated to heaven, whose body on the day before the Nones of May was placed near the tomb of Bl. Martial. Thus there; but this eighth day of May must be written not the day before, but the day after the Nones of May.
[3] In the same Breviary of Limoges on February XV the feast of the revelation of St. Aurelian Bishop and Confessor under double rite is celebrated, Feast of the revelation on February 15. and in the second Nocturn the fourth Lesson is recited of this kind. The body of Aurelian Bishop of Limoges was first placed near the tomb of Bl. Martial: where when it was not found, and it was unknown where in subsequent times it had been brought; the memory of the matter being effaced, in the year one thousand three hundred and fifteenth it was found in the church sacred to St. Cessator. in the year 1315 When Reginaldus the Prelate had learned this, he proceeded thither with sacred pomp; and having delivered a sermon on the praises of St. Aurelian to the great multitude of people, his Relics he most honorably placed upon the altar of St. Cessator, on the fifteenth Kalends of March: whence afterwards into a chapel, a chapel erected to him. dedicated under the name of the same Saint, they were translated into the city. Thus there. The aforesaid St. Cessator flourished in the time of Charles Martel, and is honored under double rite in the Church of Limoges on November XV. But the aforementioned Reginaldus, surnamed de la Porte, is recorded as ordained Bishop of Limoges in the year MCCXCIV, who having joined to himself the College of the Church of Limoges, and the Abbots and Religious of various monasteries, raised the body of Aurelian Bishop of Limoges in the year MCCCXV, on the day of the XV Kalends of March, with the highest devotion, and transferred it to its own shrine: shrine of relics. which afterwards he most fittingly placed upon the altar of the church of St. Cessator, having been afterwards elected Archbishop of Bourges in the year MCCCXVI. Thus from the Chronicle of St. Martial of Sammarthani in the Bishops of Limoges. Ferrarius in the General Catalogue celebrates on the said February XV the memory of St. Aurelian, which Saussajus calls his revelation.
[4] There exists a Life of St. Martial, by the Carmelite Beauxamis appended to the Lives of the Apostles, which are circulated under the name of Abdias of Babylon, and it is of the same flour as these: some of whose fables are brought forth by John Hessels, Theologian of Louvain, and after him Francis Bosquet in his Histories of the Gallican Church part 2 page 53 and following, who calls the author of the said Life of St. Martial Whether and what kind of Life of St. Martial was written by him. an unskilled Theologian and a careless historian. Whoever, he says, that one was, he sought to capture antiquity and credit by these words, with which he made an end, as if Aurelian himself, the disciple and successor of Martial, had written, by these words, I say: But I, Aurelian, although I have not known all things, which I would have plainly learned before I deserved to be regenerated by him in the wave of holy baptism; yet after, freed by him from the bars of hell, I was restored to the upper life, whatever I could hear by report and see with sight, I have by no means neglected to set down. Thus there: alluding to which Bernard Guidonis asserts that Aurelian wrote, who saw, heard, and was present. Bosquet adds that the Life of St. Martial, which is said to have been written by Aurelian, no longer exists. The reader can consult his reasons, and we will be able to examine them more accurately at the Life of St. Martial.