ON S. LICERIA VIRGIN MARTYR
AT SENS IN GAUL.
CommentaryLiceria, Virgin Martyr, at Sens in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
Passing through the Senonian Archiepiscopal city in the year MDCLXI, it was not pleasing nor permitted to scrutinize more accurately the treasures of many and notable Relics there, because that See was then held by a man, in faith not sufficiently Catholically thinking, due to zeal for the Jansenist faction; the body is venerated in the church of S. Peter the Living, but to our Society affected with such mind, that he could greatly afflict it with injuries, when nevertheless it was publicly known, with how great a benefit she had him obligated. Yet that we might not bring nothing thence to our purpose, there was given to us a list, arranged by Calendar order, of the chief Saints in that city and diocese, whose either bodies or notable parts of bodies were had: where among other things thus is noted for the day XI May, S. Liciera of Sens, Virgin and Martyr, whose body is in the Abbey of S. Peter the Living placed. When therefore after sixteen years from that time, in our hand was this day to be prepared for the press, neither the older Martyrologies by Usuard and Ado composed in Gaul, nor several middle-time copies, there augmented for use of various churches; nor the most recent of all Andreas Saussajus, made any mention of her; with letters given to the Rector of our college there, we asked to be more distinctly informed about her, whether and how she was venerated.
[2] He was R. P. Nicolas Rogerius, familiarly known to us at Rome, whither sent by his Province he had come with right of suffrage to the XI Congregation of the Society. He, with the offered occasion of well meriting of our work joyful, dealt with R. D. Prior of the aforenamed Abbey: who through nearly three whole weeks
scrutinizing accurately all things, found nothing at all about her life, martyrdom, sepulchre and ancient translations; either through the carelessness of writers, or more truly through the calamities of past times; except these few things, which we subjoin. from the Monastery of S. Remigius, where her twin feast was kept, First, that there once existed in the ancient suburb of the city itself a most ancient monastery under the name of S. Remigius, about whose restoration cared for by Archbishop Hieremias, in the Sammarthani volume 4 is read the diploma of Louis the Pious the Emperor, signed at Aachen in the year XIV of his Empire, XV Kalends of June, which was in the year of Christ DCCCXXVII: this then was translated by Wenilo the Archbishop into the place called Vallilias, eight miles from the city, with the consent of King Charles, in the villa Carisiacum signing on this matter the privilege in year XII of his reign, on the Nones of May, which was in the year of Christ DCCCLI; translated in 1567 and there it stood until the year MDLXVII, when the Senonian citizens destroyed it through fear of the Calvinists, with the surviving monks transferred to the church of S. Columba Virgin and Martyr. Thus he. Mabillon however in the notes to the Life of S. Romanus, writes that by the very Calvinists' fury, it was overthrown to the ground, and around the year MDCXL united to the Abbey of S. Peter the Living. Whatever it be, we believe what is added, that in older Calendars, Breviaries and Missals of that monastery is noted a twin feast of S. Liceria Virgin and Martyr (who is commonly accustomed to be called S. Liciere or Lissiere) one on XI May, the other on XII October. In the said transmigration, were likewise translated the arks, in which were contained the bodies of S. Valerianus Martyr, S. Romanus Confessor, and S. Liceria Virgin and Martyr.
[3] Secondly the very church of S. Columba, by the aforesaid Wenilo, according to the just-cited Sammarthani dedicated, to another S. Columba where her painting in the altar: also itself monastic: which Gerard the Abbot renewed from the foundations, and had Pope Alexander III dedicate with great ceremony in the year MCLXIII: in the altars of this church is reckoned one, above which is even today seen an ancient painting, representing SS. Valerianus, Romanus, and Liceria; and Liceria indeed with the palm in her hands, the sign of martyrdom. But this very conjunction of three Saints makes it probable to me, that that tablet, if it is older than one century, was together with the holy bodies and other furniture of the Remigian church transferred to this basilica of S. Columba: in which however only the body of S. Valerianus was retained, then to the parish of S. Romanus an. 1571 with the two others borne to the parochial church of S. Romanus, not long after the migration of the monks: for in the year MDLXXI on the day XX of the month July, in the VI year of the Pontificate of the Most Holy Lord Pope Pius V, in the XI of the Most Serene King of the Franks Charles IX, by the Most Illustrious Lord Nicolas de Pelleve Archbishop of Sens, in the VIII year of his Archiepiscopate, were visited and approved the Relics of SS. Romanus and Liceria, which there were under deposit, as appears from the verbal process then drawn up.
[4] and finally to the city in 1645. Thirdly, says the same Prior, By the order and authority of the Most Illustrious Lord Octavius Bellegarde Archbishop of Sens, on Sunday XIX after Pentecost, in the year of the Lord MDCXLV, before a great concourse of people, solemnly and by processional rite were translated the head of S. Romanus, and the casket of S. Liceria Virgin and Martyr, with other relics of Saints, from the parochial church of S. Romanus to ours of S. Peter the Living, according to the verbal process drawn up on this matter, by the noble man Jean Baptiste Driot, and received by Jean Cornus Notary of Sens and Louis Benoist also Notary. The said XIX Sunday in that year fell on XV October, because by the Cycle of the moon 12 of the sun 2, with Sunday letter A, Easter had been celebrated XVI April and Pentecost IV June. S. Romanus the Abbot, who is here understood, is venerated on XXII of this; but S. Valerianus and S. Columba Martyrs, of whom mention has been made above, are venerated, the latter on XXVIII July, the former on XV September. Nor are more things at hand which can be certainly affirmed about this argument, unless the precited verbal Processes themselves, to be appended verbatim, be sent.
[5] Saussajus on S. Ebbo Archbishop of Sens (whom the Sammarthani say in the year DCCL on the day XIX August departed to those above) in his Gallican Martyrology, Whether perhaps a sister of S. Ebbo who died in 750? treating on XXVII August, and weaving him a long elogium from the Acts, thus concludes it: He had two sisters Ygoara and Letheria, who emulating the piety of their brother, in the service of Christ grew old as celibates, with their goods distributed to churches and the poor, from whose interest they opened to themselves an entrance to the eternal tabernacles; and having performed virtuous lives, beside their brother, whom in heaven they accompany, they were buried with due honor, namely in the church of S. Peter the Living. And again in the Catalogue of the Blessed and Pious, who do not have their own histories or birthdays, are placed Ygoaria and Letheria Virgins, kindled with charity to the poor, as on the birthday of S. Ebbo their brother to be commemorated. We have a certain Life of S. Ebbo, transcribed from volume 5 of the Senonic MS. Legendary, but without any mention of sisters, much less of their burial near their brother. Willingly therefore would we learn, whence Saussajus took these things, before we should dare even to suspect, that she whom he calls Letheria, perhaps is Liceria or Lissiera, whom not only as a Virgin, but also as a holy Martyr to be venerated, on perhaps too light indications, the later centuries believed; or also a violent death, inflicted on account of some virtue, truly made her a Martyr. This light foundation however, which the affinity of names suggests, for suspecting such a thing, I wished to indicate to those curious of Senonian history; perhaps from this taking occasion to seek a little more about those holy Virgins, and at least to find the time, in which the Saint mentioned above lived, if she could be referred to the age of Ebbo.