de S. Martino of the Congregation of Foligno, at Paris in the year 1662 deceased, who also another MS. but not of a complete life from a MS. of Amiens had submitted. There is extant the greatest part of it in the cited Breviary of the Church of Amiens, their compendia: and in French by Renatus Benedictus edited. Some compendium have Vincent of Beauvais bk. 16 of the Speculum historiale ch. 90, Peter de Natalibus bk. 2 of the Catalogue ch. 87, and earlier it was related in the MS. of Utrecht of St. Salvator. There are also from the said Acts encomia described in various Martyrologies, especially in the MSS. of the church of the Morini and the monastery of St. Lawrence among the Liège people, a memory also January 16, and by Saussay in the Martyrology Gallican. There is also his memory in the present Martyrology Roman, as in Greven, Maurolycus, Molanus, Ghinius and others. The same is mentioned by various on the day January 16, joined to St. Honoratus Archbishop of Arles: on which also day is venerated at Fondi in Italy St. Honoratus the Abbot.
[3] The time of the life and death of St. Honoratus is greatly controverted, nor sufficiently do we seem able to trust the said Acts, since it appears, they were composed first in the Christian century XI or XII, when happened the miracles, which the chief of the Acts part constitute. He was Bishop in the time of the Emperor Maurice. More late also was written the Appendix after no. 13, inasmuch as at whose end is commended to the prayers of others the matron Sibylla, who at Paris in the year 1204 the church of St. Honoratus built. Meanwhile it is permitted to presume also the beginning from older Church monuments to have been received by the author, who the Characters of times not wholly ineptly added from his own ingenium. First he indicates the empire of Maurice the Emperor, who reigned from the 13th day of August of the year 582 up to the 27th of November of the year 602, on which by the order of Phocas the successor he was slain. It is added that by Maurice a treasure was conferred on Childebert King of the Franks, namely of the Austrasians, as Gregory of Tours explains bk. 6 of the History of the Franks ch. 42 fifty thousand solidi, of Childebert of the Austrasians: that the Lombards from Italy he might expel. Let us grant this ineptly added (the Amiens people for were not under the Austrasian Kings, but in the kingdom of Soissons of Chilperic, and then of Chlothar his son) nothing however against Chronology will have erred the author, commemorating the friendship of Maurice the Emperor with the said Childebert, who reigned from the day December 25 of the year 575 up to the year 596. But if he believed, as he seems to have believed, this same Childebert to have sought the Relics of SS. Fuscianus, Victoricus and Gentianus the Martyrs, by St. Honoratus translated, and from carrying them off by a miracle prohibited, to have given to the Clerics of Amiens the village Megium; in this hardly can he be excused; and I would prefer to say, provided it were established that donation to be of some Childebert, the third of this name to be noted, who from the year 698 to 711 reigned; and what one century after the sacred bodies were found happened, I would judge wrongly hither to have been referred. and of Pope Pelagius II, Secondly is indicated the Pontificate of Pelagius II, who the most blessed Gregory had as a successor. Sat moreover this Pope from the day about the 10th of November of the year 577 up to February of the year 590, and succeeded St. Gregory the Great. Thirdly in their times it is said St. Honoratus the Church of Amiens to have ruled, to the year at least 600 and the year six-hundredth is prefixed, in which he could still have survived.
[4] How the blessed Confessor Firmin's successor is said there, has its difficulties; about which more accurately could be treated on the Kalends of September, he did not immediately succeed St. Firmin the Confessor. the day of his birthday. John Monchiacenus Demochares, these first assigns of the Church of Amiens Bishops, St. Firmin the Martyr, Eulogius, Firmin the Confessor, St. Honoratus, and so also of this See the fourth Bishop to be numbered St. Honoratus asserts Baronius in the Notes to the Martyrology. But it is not to be presumed, that the author intended to signify an immediate succession: wherefore nothing prevents that between the two intervened several, not named in the older Catalogues. For such Catalogues seem in great part drawn from the Litanies and Martyrologies of the Church of Amiens, in which were noted the Bishops, who in sanctity had flourished, the rest omitted, whose memory by the injury of wars or the negligence of ancestors seems to have perished. Of these moreover some, by others afterward into notice recalled, thus are indicated; Leodardus, Audoënus, Edibius, and Beatus, who was present at the Council of Orléans V, in the year 547 held. There is mentioned from a most ancient Martyrology of the Church of Amiens Deodatus in the time above indicated St. Honoratus, and to him is substituted St. Salvius, as the Acts of this man testify, on January 11 by us illustrated; then Bercundus, who in the last of Chlothar II's times to have presided is said in the Acts of St. Walericus the Abbot,
on the Kalends of April. These things, all among themselves collated, seem to us more probable: if anyone more certain monuments should propose, gladly we will follow.
[5] Masinus in Bologna surveyed hands down on this May 16, in the church of St. Stephen to be preserved some relics of St. Honoratus the Bishop. But we would wish to see the documents, by which it might seem proved, that those Relics are of this Bishop of Amiens. Of the Centula monastery in Gaul the Cenobites, by St. Richarius more commonly named, nor much more than ten leagues distant from Amiens, whether some relics at Bologna? more certainly their possession demonstrate: for in that monastery's Chronicle, which into Achery's Spicilegium volume 4 is inserted, it is read at the year 865 bk. 3, ch. 12, that in that year, in which Louis the Pious the Emperor the kingdoms to his sons conferred, Odulfus, the Custodian of the church of St. Richarius, asked the Venerable Hilmeradus Prelate of Amiens, that to himself, to the honor of God and for the love of his Brothers, some portion of the Relics he would give: A finger at Centula. which to him, by divine grace illustrated, with a willing mind he yielded, and the day on which for them he should send he appointed. The aforesaid indeed Custodian his disciple Samuel a Presbyter to Amiens sent, who the received from the Bishop Relics on the Ides of July to Centula carried. Namely from the Chasuble of St. Firmin, which he had worn when he was killed for Christ; and of the bones of the hams of the blessed Martyrs Fuscianus, Victoricus and Gentianus; and also a part of the front finger of the most famous Honoratus the Confessor of Christ. Then the most religious Brothers, to meet from the monastery proceeding and to the ground adoring, received those with immense joy and the highest honor; and in the chest, in which St. Richarius's blessed head was kept, they placed. Thus far either the Chronicle's initiator Lord Saxowalus, or its after several years continuator Fr. Arnulfus, of the monastery of B. Richarius a humble monk, completing the work of that humanity of the son of God in the year 1088. About that monastery if anyone wishes more in us to read, let him consult the aforesaid St. Richarius's Life on April 26.
LIFE
From various MSS. and the Breviary of Amiens.
Honoratus, Bishop of Amiens in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 3972
FROM A MS.
In the year of the Incarnate Word six-hundredth, from the time of Pope Pelagius, who the most blessed Gregory had as successor, the Emperor of the Romans Maurice, the predecessor of Phocas Caesar, the most Christian King of the Franks Childebert received into grace, Devoted to abstinence and piety, so that to him treasures he conferred not small, that to defend the Empire he might become of Maurice a coadjutor. In whose most happy times, the blessed Confessor Firmin's successor, the Church of Amiens ruled most holy Honoratus. Who when himself wholly to works of piety and divine worship had given: with fasts and vigils the flesh taming, the body to serve he made the more ready spirit; and himself with divine afflicting services, with charity's flame a placable to God sacrifice he burned up. That moreover to Him pleasing was this victim, afterward Christ showed.
[2] For on a certain day, when the man of God treated at the altar the b Sacrament of the Lord's Body, to see he deserved the palm of the Lord consecrating. That also to his glorious merits without doubt accrued: that in his times the precious of the blessed Martyrs Fuscianus, Victoricus, and Gentianus bodies, more than disclosed. For Lupicinus a Presbyter of Amiens, in sleep by an Angel admonished, the bodies of SS. Fuscianus, Victoricus and Gentianus found he translates: that those bodies from the hidden place to dig out he should hasten; proceeding to the place and the commands busying himself to fulfill, the pledges being found, with a loud voice his joy protesting, he chanted an Antiphon, which from the fifth milestone of the city deserved to hear the most blessed Honoratus. The miracle therefore made open, when to the place the Clergy and people had assembled; Childebert's messengers when by the royal command the found treasures to the King intended to carry off, resisted their attempts the divine power, so that the sacred clods by no means to move could the human force. Which heard the King compunct, there the Martyrs caused honorably to be buried. And also silken ornaments many to the Church of Amiens conferred: and the village Megium to the Clerics, there the blessed Martyrs honoring, assigned.
[3] By these and other signal things famous the Prelate, the course of his life consummated, tending to eternity's prize, he dies in the village Port while he visited his parish, in a Ponthieu district which is called Port, the laid down burden of his flesh he commended. Which place long in honor held, at last demanding the inhabitants' faults, it is translated to Amiens. to the barbarians' burnings was exposed and to rapines. There was guarded moreover the sacred Relics: for the bones of the blessed Confessor to the Amiens church thence were brought, and to their proper See commended. Many moreover, before his passing and after, wondrous things through him wrought God: which through the carelessness and simplicity of those then living are not in the points of letters noted. But many years' courses being revolved, that the praise and glory of His Confessor the Lord might dilate on the earth: new by his merits grew frequent miracles, which to the devout hearers it is pious to open.
[4] In the year therefore of the incarnate Word about one thousand sixtieth, d Philip the rule of the Franks procuring, and the venerable Guido Prelate of Amiens being, demanding the men's faults, our and other of the kingdom Provinces, no small the sun's fervor invaded. The trees with the crops a flame ravaging, Rain is obtained: the hope of fruits compelled to defraud. Sighed therefore the people to the divine suffrage desolate, where ceased the human. Destined the Church of Amiens the body of B. Honoratus about the city's cloisters to be borne. But while to the church of B. Mary the Virgin the people assembled, a certain paralytic thither himself dragged, the infirm with little stilts members sustaining: and while honorably the sacred body was borne by the Clergy and people, a paralytic is healed: the preceding crowd the paralytic somehow followed. But when as far as the church of B. Martin himself with all efforts he had raised, there himself wearied he abandoned, and the holy Relics with his mind alone follows: whence what piously he had besought, worthily he deserved to obtain. For the little stilts left whole rising, the crowd with a swift course he follows: to whom what in himself was done preaching, with all the rest praise to the Lord he cried. But what the chief of the vows cause had been, the storm-clouds' abundance the earth's thirst quenched, whence with doubled gladness the people exulted in the Lord.
[5] e On the same day the fame of this new solemn one, two to prison committed, what had been done instructed. They B. Honoratus invoke, through him from the Lord mercy asking. 2 captives thrice loosed from chains are freed: Loosed were the chains, broken were the bars: but preparing to escape, by the maidservant of the house they were prevented, who fastening the door, and to the church hastening, the deed to her Lord announced: who home returned, the loosed not only with chains he bound, but by anger moved with scourges afflicted. Him however to the church returning, the loosed again an exit sought; but the maidservant, by perfidy's goads agitated, the loosed preventing, their flight by the barred doors impeded. O woman wicked and foolish, who thus to a man faithful herself feigned, that to God herself she made unfaithful! To please more she wished, than to profit: faith to her Lord to simulate she knew, the flight of the captives to dissimulate she knew not: but her Lord from the church to the crime recalling, the deed showed. Who punishments sharper to the captives inflicting, with stronger chains bound them. Tyrant senseless and obstinate, what more would gentile perfidy have perpetrated? Or a manifest miracle of God in vain to impede do you try? If chains you multiply, if you fasten bolts, if towers about them you build; nothing the power will retard divine: those with chains you bind, yourself with sins. The loosed moreover now a third, a fourth time he had bound the brainsick man. Which made open to give them to the church he was compelled, not however that the bound he should dismiss, but that to the church he should make satisfaction for the offense.
[6] At the same time a woman deaf and mute, by her parents to the city of Amiens brought, by B. Honoratus's merits from the Lord what she besought received. There are healed a mute and deaf one, Decreed moreover the father exulting, that his daughter of St. Honoratus should become a handmaid, the Prelates of that church's yoke submitted. O proud woman! the yoke of servitude disdaining, and returned to her own, of the twofold gift of grace, which through B. Honoratus she had obtained, as quickly as possible she lost. O too proud a woman, who the servitude escaped, which her sex's condition could not escape. Not of a man she wishes to be a handmaid, but of crime. She escapes the yoke of B. Honoratus, but herself she subjects to the yoke of sin. She knows not the rash one, that thus to serve is to reign. But always to be propitious ready is God, who both us from sins compels to be contrite, and mercifully the contrite meets. For the aforesaid woman, to God's clemency returned, to the yoke whence before herself proud she had shaken off, humbly herself subjected: and the lost senses recovering, as long as she lived obtained.
[7] In the Amiens territory a Priest, contracted in the legs, the solemnities of Masses himself not to be able to perform was sad: but by the frequent of St. Honoratus he was compelled by miracles that thither himself to transfer he should dispose. and a contracted one: Through the channel therefore of the river in a little boat to the city he was brought, through B. Honoratus he obtained health; and his bases consolidated to the earth fixing, he returned glad to his own.
[8] f A boy, afterward of the Therouanne people made Bishop, while by the negligence of his nurse with hot water poured over, burnt skin is restored: his skin burnt lay lifeless; of the hope of earthly counsel he was destitute. But by his parents, the heavenly imploring medicine, in a certain church before the altar placed, a Mass, in which was made of B. Honoratus solemn memory, he heard: and not yet the celebration finished, a new skin the body covered: there remained however certain of scars' traces, which faith to the miracle should conserve. Those indeed afterward made a Bishop, with a pious intention often he showed, that to God's praise and B. Honoratus's the peoples he might invite to honor.
[9] A certain woman, from birth blind, in the Amiens church a nightly keeping vigil, to B. Honoratus prayers and vows poured: and while a fortunate service she performed, she heard the voice of a man himself B. Honoratus to be saying: a blind woman is illuminated: admonished moreover the woman, that the eyes with the altar's cloth she should wipe. But morning being made to the altar herself to be led commanding, what persuaded to her had been she fulfilled: and straightway sight received, magnificently to the Lord thanks exhibited.
[10] an energumen is freed: A certain shepherd, his sheep driving through the pastures, seized by a demon, himself into the Somme river to cast strove: but by the shepherds he was prohibited and detained. Who home returned, and with a bite those meeting attacking, was found to be insane. Whom his parents him with chains seized into the Amiens leading church, for him B. Honoratus's name invoke: through whose merits loosed from the demon, thanks to God coming to his senses he exhibited.
[11] The bells' peal, in the aforesaid miracle's joy made, heard a certain poor little woman, There are healed contracted ones, who from the loins downward of the members' office destitute, into the church herself to be borne commanded. Who the precious body's casket kissing and embracing, the Saint with a piteous voice's name invoked. Who mercy having obtained, to the altar by her own effort herself bearing, of B. Honoratus herself made a handmaid. So great a sorrow in his lower members a certain man had invaded, and a contracted one,
that when himself by his own effort to bear he could not, himself to be borne he commanded into the place, where a certain woman sight to have received he had noted. Thence himself whole to the altar he directed: and himself a servant of B. Honoratus glad he made. afflicted by a horrendous disease, Entered the city a certain man of so horrendous a disease's kind deformed, that who a place of lodging to himself would grant nowhere he found. But before the doors of the church to himself a bed strewing, thence himself a little after whole he raised.
[12] Many besides are through B. Honoratus among us miracles perpetrated, various others, of which some with a briefer style to be recounted we have decreed, lest a discourse more prolix the weak hearers should burden. A deaf man a certain, B. Honoratus's clemency beseeching, received hearing. A woman, with a distorted foot coming straight withdrew. Another, in the back curved, home returned straight. A girl mute, although not deaf, of speech's use herself to have received rejoiced. A woman a certain, of one eye's light deprived, experienced the Saint's clemency. A smith a certain, of his feet's office deprived had come, to whom the wished-for came suffrage.
[13] Nor to be passed over we judge that signal miracle, to which a like not yet among us has been heard. For while from a church neighboring, in honor of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul founded, By the inclination of an image of the Crucified he is honored. to the proper See on a certain solemn day was carried back; of the aforesaid church the image, Jesus Crucified expressing, itself with its whole body inclined to the part, to which the body most holy was borne. This of many as well of the Clergy as of the people attested the sight: who together with voices raised, to the Lord thanks rendered. To so great therefore an intercessor let be directed our devotion, of whose sanctity there existed so great a proof; whose honor not only by man or Angel is preached, but by the insensible is approved. He compassionating the sheep and the flesh afflicting, the cross with the Lord bore, that His true he might be disciple, which the Crucified's appearance approved. The Pontifical of the Chair's honor thus moderated Honoratus on earth, that the thing of his name he obtained in the heavens. An exhortation to the veneration of the Saint. O a man of such worthy an office, whose mind neither prosperity made sublime, nor adversity depressed! His fame did not beg dignity's suffrage: since by his own virtues most celebrated he had been. For not him dignity, but sanctity; not honor, but virtue, Honoratus made. He was in doctrine prepotent, in signs wonderful, in virtues strong, with wisdom endowed, the things of the Church to him committed happily he administered. Blessed his time's little sheep we judge, which so great rejoiced to have a Pastor: blessed we call the Amiens Church, which of so great a man keeps the relics, to it the Lord granting committed. So great therefore most vigilantly a treasure let it guard, so great let it venerate the deposit, through which in heaven's court a most powerful it has obtained advocate: to whom unanimously let our vows tend, that by his merits raised, the strewn way of heaven steep we may traverse, that with him of the divine majesty's glory we may contemplate the eternal, granting our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory in the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATA.
The Sacrifice by the hand of the Saviour consecrated receiving, and with the highest devotion taking, from all defilement of flesh and spirit afterward he remained unharmed.
St. John in the year 1099 consecrated, and up to 1130 surviving, whose life we gave January 27? Before him from the year 1084 sat a certain Gerardus; John indeed followed Milo up to 1158.
APPENDIX
Honoratus, Bishop of Amiens in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 3974
a
FROM A MS.
[14] By many authentic and faithful testimonies, which in your ears reiterated I am, The reader is excited to understand the miracles seen: Brothers most dear, manifestly weigh you can, how great is that glorious Confessor of the Lord B. Honoratus: whose today our fathers have announced to us the works, which He wrought in their days and in the days ancient. For this therefore deservedly dancing and exulting the mother Church, praises, blesses, and glorifies the Lord, who in His Saints is glorious. To the augment also of pleasantness and gladness, this especially to us accrued, that since more sluggishly stir minds things sent down through the ear than what are to the eyes subjected of the faithful; and with new assiduously miracles, which under our eyes are done, the pious and merciful Lord our devotion to excite ceases not; that of past things faith may make the present, while to the patronage of the most blessed Confessor frequently the sick come and are healed. Since many therefore are of our time the miracles, about which many to us are at hand testimonies, they cannot to the full by our briefer page be comprehended. Whence also many omitting, two certain of the blessed Confessor miracles, which lately to us present and beholding were done, to write worthy we have judged, that the present may hear and see, not in writing only, but also with the finger pointing in faith strengthened; and to the utility of the following may know generation another, that truly great is the Lord, and great His power.
[15] Let know therefore present and future, that lately a certain boy, of a certain poor woman the son, among us born equally and nourished, and known from infancy, and from the knees downward with paralysis miserably loosened, when daily to our church, to the solace of his poverty alms about to ask from those entering, he came; so that on little stools creeping of his shins together and feet not only the use but also the sense utterly he had lost; and indeed this by a certain we had learned experiment, A paralytic boy that when in deepest winter through the pavement of the church the aforesaid members loosened and naked as if dead behind himself he dragged, no of cold trouble he felt: and we ourselves present and seeing, by the merits and intercessions of the most blessed Confessor Honoratus, divine wonderfully was present mercy. For on the great day of the festivity of the aforesaid Confessor, on which we, on the feast of St. Honoratus, with much of the Clergy equally and of the people throng, the body of the most holy Confessor about our cloister to bear are wont, returning we to the church, when now the Clergy into the choir had betaken itself the Masses about to celebrate the solemnities; and the casket of the most blessed Confessor in the middle of the church upon a table placed, by the assisting Priests' devout services was kept; and the people, there in the honor of the Lord and the blessed Confessor collected, at the tomb suddenly he is healed: their prayers longer poured and the vows promised paid; the boy aforesaid to the casket of the blessed aforesaid Confessor approaching, and gazing on those who it watched, as if something about to receive from them; he felt within himself the divine power's hidden miracle, which outwardly to all is manifest in the deed. Present for his mother and on prayers insisting, to cry began the boy, that it seemed to him himself upward to be drawn: but little understanding, not yet he knew what for himself the power divine had prepared. To whom the mother in the Lord comforted, answered: Trust, son, rise, take hold of the casket of the blessed Confessor. For I believe that him aiding you will be saved. At which words rose the boy, and of his feet equally and shins the recovered power, in praise of God equally crying together, and the church's peal ringing; us who in the choor were first with a stupor suspended horrible, as afterward with a sight wondrous they report. For when we by the clamors excited of the peoples, what had happened we asked, and the crowds rushing in we heard what had been done, hardly faith to us giving, the aforesaid boy was offered whole and unharmed. Whence we all equally and singly of the eyes' testimony in faith strengthened, in praise of God and the blessed Confessor our mouths loosing gladdened, we blessed and praised and glorified the God of heaven, who is the salvation of all: and at the nod of His will He disposes all things, and heals the contrite of heart, and binds their contritions.
[16] Continually moreover the divine mercy about us its multiplying grace, another wholly contracted is healed: in a hospital neighboring our church, which the faithful's devotion there prepared, that the poor and weak and infirm there it might receive, and feed them in hunger; happened another miracle. For a woman a certain in infirmity lying, when so of her body's strength was destitute, that neither to sit nor to stand she could, only the use of her hands to her by the Lord reserved, to the Brothers by whose ministry she was sustained, as she could of the benefit she repaid the return. For a distaff and spindle holding, in the hours in which to work it was permitted, what standing nor sitting to do she could, lying she wrought, the debt to the hospital with pious devotion repaying the service. She therefore on the day of the aforesaid solemnity, when the office of her hands ceasing in the bed of her infirmity to prayers she lay intent; she heard the church tumultuating, and the peal. And when she had asked what had been done, in the Lord comforted the strength of her body to her restored by the Lord, without human help, from the bed of her sickness rising, she ran to the church: and the casket of the most blessed Confessor holding unharmed, to God equally and to him rendering thanks, us seeing and praising together the Lord, to the solace of her poverty of the faithful assisting received benefits, because for her poverty and infirmity before for her to provide she could not, by God liberated by power, and by the alms of the faithful supported, to the hospice she returned. [b] These things therefore most beloved recalling the miracles of the most blessed Confessor, [Prayers are asked for Sibylla the foundress of the church of St. Honoratus at Paris.] you commending to the prayers, you, I say, especially who in his diocese dwelling, before all others a devout to him owe service, we admonish and beseech in the Lord, and unto the remission of sins your we enjoin you, that of the venerable matron Sibylla, who in the city of Paris lately in honor of the aforesaid Confessor Honoratus, an honorable built church, in your prayers memory you have: that with her a reward you may receive from the Lord in the time of retribution. Amen. c
ANNOTATA.
b. The following from the MS. of Paris of St. Honoratus are related in Brulius: and they prove this Appendix to have been written before the year in which Sibylla died 1204.