ON SAINT MONTANUS,
A RECLUSE MONK IN GAUL.
Notice from Hincmar. Cult in the territory of Luxembourg.
IN THE FIFTH CENTURY
CommentaryS. Montanus, recluse monk, in Gaul.
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
S. Montanus obtained sacred cult on this day, on which his body was translated: of which Molanus thus makes mention in the Auctarium of Usuard: At Laon the translation of the body of S. Montanus the monk. Which, thence transcribed, are read in Canisius and Ferrarius: likewise because he is called a monk, in Wion, Dorganius, Bucelinus; Before the year 435 by whom Hincmar is cited at the beginning of the Life of S. Remigius, whose birth he long before foretold to his mother. That S. Remigius was born in the year CCCCXXXV we showed at the Life of S. Vedastus on the VI of February number VII, therefore forty-five years before S. Benedict was born, so that Menard prudently omitted him. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, with an elogium taken from the Life of S. Remigius, thus adorns him at this XVII of May. At Laon the translation of the body of S. Montanus the Recluse, illustrious by the spirit of prophecy and the grace of a most holy conversation: who foretold to S. Cilinia, the mother of S. Remigius the Apostle of the Franks, his nativity. And when he was blind, that he might receive the fruit of his prophecy, after the birth of the sacred offspring, anointing his eyes with the maternal milk, he received sight: and after the fruition of temporal light, a crown being added to his merits, he set out rejoicing to the joys of eternal light. Therefore Montanus is to be understood, of whom Hincmar writes these things.
[2] There was a certain venerable man, worthy by profession and name, Montanus a monk, leading a solitary life in reclusion, continually attending to fasts, vigils, and prayers, and rendering himself so commendable to the Divinity by the marks of the other virtues, a revelation made to him of S. Remigius about to be born that he often enjoyed Angelic colloquies, and frequently was present at celestial visions and revelations. He therefore, when watchful in prayer for the peace of the holy Church, which was vexed by many and diverse afflictions among the provinces of the Gauls and the Belgians, was entreating almighty God with unwearied prayers; on a certain night prolonging his prayer more than usual, he remained in contemplation until the twilight of dawn. Who, when, weariness and the frailty of the flesh compelling, he had given his limbs a little to sleep; suddenly by divine grace he was present at the choirs of Angels and the assemblies of souls of the most blessed men now reigning with God, and the spirits of those still expecting the immortality of their bodies, and began to hear a most familiar colloquy. Among other things therefore which he heard in that heavenly assembly, those holy spirits too, avid of human salvation, began to complain of the dejection of the Gallican Church; and frequently to turn over in speech what needed to be done for such things; saying that it was time to have mercy on it: for it had received double for all its sins, although its dregs were not emptied out. While these were thus conferring among themselves, suddenly a voice was present, from the higher and more secret shrines, most healthfully and most sweetly resounding; which both consoled the sadness of the present spirits, and gratulatingly promulgated by sentence what was to be, thus saying: The Lord hath looked forth from His holy height, the Lord hath looked from heaven upon the earth, that He might hear the groans of them that are in fetters, that He might loose the sons of the slain: that His name may be announced among the nations, in the gathering of the peoples into one and Kings to serve Him. Cilinia conceiving in her womb shall bring forth a son by name Remigius, to whom by me the people to be saved shall be committed. For blessed Cilinia, intent on pious works, though held in the world by body, in mind dwelt in heaven …
[3] But that venerable man, amid the innumerable perils of that time, so great a consolation being received, made known to Cilinia the divine oracle, received by the grace of God. But she said to Montanus: How can it be that an old woman should suckle a son? he indicates to the mother Cilinia: since the womanly things have failed me for many times now past, and my husband Aemilius is an old man, and in his aged body the blood lies cold about the heartstrings, and the works of pleasure in him are utterly withered… To whom B. Montanus answered: Know that when thou shalt have weaned the boy Remigius, with thy milk thou shalt anoint my eyes, and I shall receive light. For that his merits might increase, as also of S. Tobias according to the divine word, that the just may be justified still, the same B. Montanus had lost the light of his bodily eyes… The future Pontiff of Christ is therefore conceived, and recovers his sight by his milk. and, the mercy of Christ aiding, the most blessed mother happily bore a son, on whom according to the word of the Lord she caused the name of Remigius to be imposed in baptism. And being weaned, as his foreteller had foretold, with the milk of the mother anointing the eyes of his prophet, the mother acting as midwife, the divine grace restored light to him… But he was born in the district of Laon of high blood of parents. Thus Hincmar in the said Life of S. Remigius: which Flodoard attributes to Fortunatus, who narrates the same in book 1 of the History of Reims chapter 10; adding, that Montanus was a third time struck by an admonition, that
he should foretell to his blessed mother Cilinia by a truthful relation.
[4] Alexander Wilthemius, a man most skilled in ancient history, of the Luxembourg college of our Society, His cult in the territory of Luxembourg which he also governed as Rector, once wrote to us thus: I have learned that at Orval there is a tradition, that S. Montanus, who was the prophet of the holiness of D. Remigius to his mother, had a cell between Marville and Montmédy, in a place which still today exists there, called from S. Montanus, venerated by the neighbors on account of the miracles wont to be wrought there. They add that there are also certain Relics in the monastery of Virgins of Juvigny. The said towns are known in the Duchy of Luxembourg, Mons-Medius commonly Montmédy on the river Chiers, intercepted by the French in the year MDCLVII after a long siege. But Martis-villa commonly Marville is nearer to Damvillers. But between Montmédy and Marville upon the river Chiers is situated Juvigny, a most noble Abbey of the Benedictine Order and most frequented by nuns, whose Abbess is Lady of the place, which once was the cell of S. Montanus, now is a chapel; and it is held by her permission by two Hermits, as I have learned from the letters of P. Jacobus Pirenne, and is distant only a small league from the Parthenon with the same estate pertaining thereto. But thither frequent pilgrimages are said to be instituted for driving away the diseases of cattle, which also are religiously led around the chapel. But no Relic of the Saint is there present: yet I would believe there was at some time, and that this very one for the cause of greater reverence was translated to the monastery: but it is, so far as the nephew of the Pastor of Juvigny himself remembers, questioned by the aforenamed P. Jacobus, a jaw-bone. At Mechlin, in the church of the Society of Jesus, some particle of Relics is said to be of S. Montanus, but whether of this one, who shall say?
[5] Another S. Montanus, Martyr at Sirmium in Pannonia, has been related by us from the old Martyrologies on the day XI of May, and on the 11th of May. on which likewise a S. Montanus monk is referred to in the Ms. Florarium, who, before blind, is said to have been restored by the milk of the mother of S. Benignus (nay rather Remigius) in the Ms. Usuard augmented in Alsace: which things are to be understood of this Saint: as also when a S. Montanus Confessor is mentioned in the Ms. Martyrology of the Carmelite Order, likewise in another printed at Cologne and Lübeck in the year MCCCCXC, and in the Auctarium of Greven. But we have the Missal of the Church of Laon, printed in the year MDVI, in which at the XVII of May a Mass of S. Montanus is prescribed, with this collect: Be propitious, we beseech, O Lord, Proper Office on the 17th of May. to us thy servants, through the glorious merits of S. Montanus thy Confessor, whose Relics rest in the present church, that by his pious intercession we may always be protected from all adversities. Through the Lord, etc. And in the Calendar it is indicated that a third Lesson is to be read of his Life, which he does not think was ever proper, but a relation received from Hincmar already given above. But concerning the body itself, and its present cult, and old and recent miracles, if the people of Laon shall have taught us anything, we will gladly relate it either in the Appendix, or in the Supplement of the work to be made by our posterity.