ON SS. SILVESTER AND FROMINIUS
BISHOPS OF BESANÇON IN BURGUNDY.
CENTURY IV
CommentarySilvester, Bishop of Besançon in Burgundy (St.)
Frominius, Bishop of Besançon in Burgundy (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G.H.
Besançon, the Sequani's Metropolis & a free Imperial city within the County of Burgundy, very many had Bishops, with the title of Saint honored, whose deeds done described John James Chiffletius the Bisontine, in the second part of Besançon. In this in chapter IX & X about these Bishops these things he has: S. Silvester I. This one Golusius to the following Frominius postpones, & of either the matters wrongly mixes: we him from more certain monuments & most ancient catalogues in this place restore. S. Silvester his betrothed left Blessed therefore Silvester, by his parents' exhortation & also command a virgin to himself betrothed: whose embraces when he preferred to inviolate beds, to that his betrothed he led, that of eternal virginity by a vow each themselves to God bound. To them praying was present a destined from heaven messenger: who twin proposed crowns, to the betrothed at once & the betrothed minds great brought, by which the given to God faith bravely & piously they might keep. The maiden therefore to the company of Virgins, to the Clergy ascribed, Silvester to the Clerics himself joined: who among with great praise & of a preeminent certain virtue a signification having been versed, worthy at length judged he was, who, Anianus being translated to the Heavenly Ones, to the Episcopate's summit should be raised. That office when he bore, he is ordained Bishop: & with growing old either of the idols the cult or the Arian impiety, great being made daily to the pious flock an accession; to S. Mauritius & companions a basilica at Besançon he dedicated, he dedicates the church of S. Mauritius, which today still survives: into which to the assemblies & divine offices of the people some part should assemble. He was indeed besides a of marvelous works worker notable, as of one whose virtue in curing paralytics, with miracles he shines: the blind also of light the enjoyment to be given, nay & the dead to life to be recalled, not rarely shone. in his Episcopal Chair he dies: At the last with the pressing
by the force of disease, when he foresaw the goal of his life by a divine favor, having summoned the assembly of the Clergy, he ascended the Pontifical throne (so our records) and in the midst of his flock the pious Shepherd rendered his blessed soul to God: but he wished his body to be committed to a tomb near Anianus his predecessor, but in what place is uncertain.
[2] He is venerated 10 May His feast moreover is thus noted in the Martyrology of St. John. On the VI Ides of May at Besançon, S. Silvester Bishop and Confessor, whose life is commended by miracles. And then in the following month. and 5 June On the Nones of June the Translation of the Holy Confessors Silvester and Anianus, Archbishops of the Chrysopolitan Church. Whence, whither, when, and by whom this translation was made, is hitherto unascertained by me. I suspect, however, that when the church of S. Peter was enlarged, so that it might enclose the body of B. Nicetius Archbishop of Besançon buried outside the walls; the bodies of SS. Anianus and Silvester, on account of the translated body, laid in some part of the old church, were dug up, and again buried in the middle of the choir of the basilica restored to a better state. Indeed in that place, in the floor which is daily worn by the feet of those chanting psalms, there are seen stones arranged in the form of a square railing (with walls drawn beneath to separate the ground, which some years ago were found while digging) which enclose a space large enough. And indeed on that side of the square which is nearer to the greater altar, the middle stone is read inscribed thus:
The railing buries many bodies of Saints, For this cause therefore it receives no others.
But on the opposite side these things are carved in the stones. Many bodies of Saints are buried in the same place: whose happy souls are crowned in heaven.
[3] Silvester was succeeded by S. Frominius, a most perfect example of piety and religion: in whose eulogies our Elders chiefly left these things, S. Freminius devoted to virtues, that he was most addicted to prayer, to the affliction of the body, and to the bestowal of alms. He completed the upper basilica of the Caelian hill, begun to be raised to Stephen the Protomartyr by B. Hilarius, he completed the basilica of S. Stephen: and promoted by Pancratius: and in it he first established a college of Regular Canons, which he took care to fortify by Apostolic authority, many privileges having been obtained from Damasus and Siricius for that purpose. Hence the beginning of the Canons of S. Stephen, and so of the church itself: so that even from this it may appear, on how no foundation some have made it the most ancient of the churches of Besançon, which, at the time when it was completed, had four others before it; namely the mother church of S. John the Evangelist, he is buried in it. of S. John the Baptist, of S. Peter, and of S. Mauritius. The body of the deceased Frominius was laid on the right side of the altar of S. Stephen, of the upper church or of the lower, which was called both S. John and S. Stephen, is not altogether certain: for neither is that custom so ancient of burying no one in the church of S. John, as I remember in Paulinus. Thus Chifletius, having scarcely, I believe, other ancient monuments which he might follow, than the lessons inserted into the old Breviary a few centuries since. No one therefore ought to be moved, because, by a usage of an age far later than that in which Frominius lived, he reads Regular Canons named.
[4] Of the above-named Pontiffs, S. Damasus presided over the Church from the year CCCLXVI to the year CCCLXXXIII, in which he died and is venerated on XI December: to him then succeeded Siricius and he lived to the year CCCXCVIII. Hence concerning the time of the See of S. Frominius it is clear. Both Silvester and Frominius are joined on this day by Aubertus Miraeus in his Belgic and Burgundian Annals, Memory in the annals. and Andreas Saussajus in the Gallican Martyrology, with eulogies added but taken from the narration of Chifletius. Ferrarius in his Catalogue on V June has these things: At Vesontio in Gaul the Holy Bishops Silvester and Anianus. It is noted, from the Tables and Catalogues of the Bishops of Vesontio, and from the Calendar of the Church of Vesontio. On the same day the cited Miraeus and Saussajus treat of S. Anianus alone.