ON ST. BAUDELIUS THE MARTYR,
AT NÎMES IN NARBONESE GAUL.
PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.
On the Cult, the Translation, the Acts: of which some are given, others are rejected as apocryphal.
Baudelius, Martyr at Nîmes, in Narbonese Gaul (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Nîmes is an ancient city of Narbonese Gaul in the Eastern part of present Occitania, toward Provence and the city of Arles, but under the Archbishop of Narbonne. In this city the Martyr St. Baudelius died, Memory in the ancient Calendars. slain by idolaters; whose sacred memory is inserted in four old transcripts of the Hieronymian Martyrology, and indeed in the Epternach one, written about a thousand years ago; and that not toward the end, which happens to those who afterwards were added in transcribing, but plainly in the middle, immediately after the holy Roman women aforementioned, in this form: At Nîmes of Baudelius the Martyr, then is subjoined. Likewise elsewhere the Birthday of the holy ones Gervasius and Protasius, and the Deposition of Vellesius and Faustinus the Bishop, which cannot be so confidently said to be Jerome's: as those of Baudelius, whose name however in the said transcripts is written in divers ways; namely Baudilis, and also Saudili; as also Nemavus for Nemausus. He is commemorated likewise in the older MSS. the Barberini, the Reichenau, the Arras, the Tournai, and many others, under the name of Baudolus, Blandius, Bautilius, Bauddus, Bautius: in some he is indicated with his Companions, of whom indeed in the earlier Acts mention is made at number 7, but without any appearance of martyrdom endured by them. Usuard adorns him with this elogium: In the Gauls, in the city of Nîmes, of St. Baudelius the Martyr, who apprehended when he would not sacrifice, and in the faith of Christ persisting immovable amid stripes and torments, received the palm of martyrdom by a precious death. Which words of Usuard are retained in the present Roman Martyrology. Ado adds, that he was apprehended by the pagans, celebrating the sacrifices of their gods. To these subjoins Notker, that he shone illustrious with most frequent signs. In the Jumièges MS. he is related on the day before, that is May XIX.
[2] The Acts are given from MSS. We have double Acts; of which the former we judge
to be more authentic, and from the tradition of the elders written for the people of Nîmes, at least in the sixth century, when there his sacred body shone with miracles: and these Usuard, Ado, Notker seem to have used. We have them in our illustrious Legendary in MS., likewise from the MS. of Arrouaise of the Canons Regular in Artois. The same things Peter Francis Chifflet sent us at Dijon, taken from the MSS. of Mont-Sainte-Marie and of Acey. with an Appendix from Gregory of Tours. The time of the Martyrdom endured is nowhere definitely expressed, nor the name of any Roman Emperor, under whom it was permitted to idolaters thus to rage against the Saint: yet the antiquity of the Hieronymian Martyrology easily persuades that it could have happened, as at number 4 it is said, when still the greatest part of men was held by the error of gentile superstition, even before the tyranny of Diocletian and Maximian. Certainly by no verisimilitude does it seem that it can be presumed, by a more recent memory and the Goths occupying Occitania, in the fifth century only, that he suffered, who was held celebrated in the time of Theodoric the Italian King, when his General Aram resided at Arles, as is established from Gregory of Tours, whose words we add to the Acts themselves, under the title of an Appendix: although otherwise worthy to be placed in the front of this Commentary, because affording a more certain notice of the Saint, than the Legend, however that be believed (which I would scarcely believe) to be composed earlier.
[3] The later Acts, patched together at Orléans, after the Relics of the body were translated thither, we found in the MS. codex of the Queen of Sweden marked n. 721: Other Acts composed at Orléans, and from these compendia extracted in the MS. of Utrecht of St. Salvator, and in an old Breviary in the aforementioned Chifflet, and also in the Catalogue of Peter de Natalibus book 5 chapter 24, finally in the Gallican of Saussay and the Spanish Martyrology of Tamayo Salazar: but this last says he gives them from an old Breviary of Burgos. There exists with us a Breviary of the said Church of Burgos printed in the year MDIII, in which nine Lessons on St. Baudelius are recited but from the earlier Acts taken with the preface changed: like to which the aforesaid Tamayo found in the Breviary of Seville printed about the year MDXXV. But the later Acts, those which I said were patched together at Orléans, are of far less merit than the former (although these themselves are not of the greatest) and with them many apocrypha from elsewhere are mixed; and especially to this Baudelius is applied what is said of another in the Life of St. Evurtius Bishop of Orléans; that Baudelius the Subdeacon, he elevating the Host, saw a hand from a cloud, which covered his head, as apocryphal they are rejected. and extended blessed three times the offering made to God: who afterwards, that the connection may be made, is feigned to have set out to Nîmes and undergone martyrdom. St. Evurtius is venerated on September VII, and Charles Saussay in the Annals of Orléans judges that he held that See from the year CCCLVIII even to CCCLXXXX: wherefore those who believed this our Baudelius to have been a Subdeacon of St. Evurtius, held by an older tradition of the people of Nîmes a man military and married, seem to have looked to the times of Julian the Apostate, under whom idolatry, wholly prostrate in the Gauls and reduced to the villages, could sprout again even in the cities. There is added the blood of the Martyr, flowing from the wound, turned into milk; which in the earlier Acts is not found. The miracle of this conversion further is much dwelt upon in the Hymns, composed for St. Baudelius's proper Office for the use of the Church of Nîmes, the body translated to Orléans which transcribed thence to us P. Charles Faber sent from Avignon, with the Lessons, likewise received on the faith of the Orléans Acts, where it is said that St. Evurtius's successor St. Anianus, moved by the fame of miracles, came to Nîmes; and leave being obtained from the Prefect of the Gauls, then dwelling at Arles, carried off the sacred remains to Orléans, the country of Baudelius, with the greatest mourning of the people of Nîmes.
[4] That Anianus set out to Aëtius the Patrician at Arles is read in his Life, to be given on November XVII: by which journey indeed the Saint could pass by Nîmes, the city of Arles being on the way and near: but of St. Baudelius carried off thence there is no mention there, and the man of Tours so speaks of him, that, he himself writing, you ought to believe the body was still at Nîmes, unless by a more certain authority from elsewhere you be moved. Wherefore the second Acts, in whatever esteem afterwards held, we judge to be cut away from this work, and so the whole Office which the people of Nîmes now use to be reformed, and a new one to be made from other Acts. But as to the time of the Translation, if the matter is to be defined by conjectures, I would prefer to look to the incursions of the Saracens into Provence, on account of which to the interior parts of Gaul many other Relics of Saints were translated. Beyond doubt meanwhile remains the tradition of the people of Orléans, since it is established that in the year MXXIX under King Robert was made the elevation of the body of St. Anianus, with the bodies of SS. Euspicius, Monitor, and Flosculus the Confessors, it is elevated in the year 1029. of Baudelius and Scubilius the Martyrs, and of Agia the mother of St. Lupus the Confessor: as from the Life of King Robert by the author Helgaud, Charles Saussay writes book 8 of the Annals of the Church of Orléans number 32, and we have it in various MSS. The Acts of St. Scubilius the Martyr lie hidden: his birthday is October V. But in the Old Calendar of the Church of St. Anianus, on this XX of May is prescribed an Office of IX Lessons on St. Baudelius the Martyr. Anthony Vincent Domenech in the general History a cult in Catalonia. of the Saints of Catalonia, has some Life of St. Baudelius, because in various Churches of those domains he is venerated as Patron, and not far from the city of Barcelona is the parish of St. Baudelius, commonly called San-Boy. Hence occasion seized of inserting in the lately-devised Adversaria of Liutprand number 63 these words: The Relics of St. Baudelius, Deacon and Martyr of Nîmes, suffered under Julian for the faith, were brought to Roda, a maritime city near the Indigetes, and to Toledo: which were brought in the holy Ark to Oviedo. These things, that they may find faith, ought from more certain monuments to be confirmed, before from the authority of the Spanish Martyrology, a special cult of this Saint be assumed by the Church of Toledo. In the Proper of the Saints of the Church of Lodève, published by the authority and labor of John Plantavit the Bishop in the year MDCXXX, the feast of St. Baudelius the Martyr is celebrated with a double rite, Patron of the Church of Somonte, distant only one league from the city: but Lodève itself or Lureva is distant a two-days' journey from Nîmes, by about eighteen leagues. likewise at Lodève Some cult of St. Baudelius also in the diocese of Auxerre is proved to have been, from the Deeds of the Bishops of Auxerre, in the new Library of Labbe; where of the XLIV Bishop of that city, Gualdric, about the year DCCCCXXX it is said, that in the monastery of Sanxiacum, the hall of St. Baudelius, and at Auxerre. burned by the furious rage of the Normans and afterwards fallen, glowing with the sacred fire of divine love, strove at his own expense to reform to the integrity of its former state, and ennobled the place with no small oblation of gifts.
THE ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM
From four old MS. codices.
Baudelius, Martyr at Nîmes, in Narbonese Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 1043
FROM THE MS.
[1] Christ in the Martyrs suffers and triumphs. The victorious contests of the holy Martyrs of Christ are not to be hidden from all by unfruitful silence, but openly to be preached for the edification of the hearers. For it is fitting that they be extolled with all manner of praise, chiefly for the love and honor of Him, who asserts that in them He not only is heard and honored, but also suffers. For in no way could the corruptible bodies of the sufferers have prevailed to bear so many kinds of torments, unless He had given them to persevere in the penal contest even to the end, who deigns in the Gospel to say to His own: In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Jo. 16, 33 And truly as the King Himself of the contenders triumphed over the world with its prince; so He gave also to those His Saints fortitude, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit to bear off trophies from the vanquished enemy. In the number of such warriors we rightly judge is to be reckoned the Champion of God Baudelius, whose deeds of passion it has pleased you to describe, that both the report of the virtues of so great a man may shine forth, and the devotion of the whole order in the celebration of his solemnity may increase.
[2] St. Baudelius therefore, born of nobility in all things according to the dignity of the world, Noble by birth, more noble was he in honesty of morals and the ornaments of holy virtues. For a Christian from his earliest age, he delighted not in the games of boyhood, but rather rejoiced in the assiduous familiarity of the servants of God. But at length having entered adolescence, he so tamed the wantonness of the flesh, that he gave his work to no slippery pleasure. Jo. 15, 5. And because he placed all his hope and protection in the Lord, who said to His disciples: Without me you can do nothing, he rather opportunely gave himself to prayer in His temple, than to the vain spectacle of revelling youths. Meanwhile when he had passed into manly strength, and by lawful right had been made heir of his paternal substance and the possession of lands; that he might be to all a form of religious life, by the increases of good deeds, he began daily to ascend to higher things. devoted to works of mercy, For he was the father of the poor, the consoler of widows and orphans, the receiver also of pilgrims: the hungering and thirsting with necessary food and drink he refreshed, the naked and cold he clothed, the wandering without roof he hastily received into hospitality, the languishing with pious solicitude he visited, and with fitting more liberal food restored.
[3] When therefore he was intent on such things, as much theoretical as practical virtues, like the beam of a star scattering everywhere its rays of brightness, he marries a wife equal to himself. he showed to very many examples of the Christian religion. Besides these things moreover when he both flourished with the flower of youth, and abounded with a store of infinite wealth, he was compelled by the authority and command of his parents to obtain a wife, for preserving the offspring of their posterity. Who although she was to him both in nobility of birth and means almost similar, yet, what is more laudable, in nothing was she degenerate from the excellent morals of her partner. Who placed in body on earth and bound by the indissoluble bond of wedlock, so with even moderation took care to dispose what he possessed in the world, that with his whole effort, according to his power, in eagerness and in mind he conversed in heaven. For he was busy to fulfill what to the married is enjoined by the Apostolic voice; They that have wives let them be as though they had none. 1 Cor. 5, 29.
[4] But because holy men through the grace of the Holy Spirit strive ever to follow the more perfect things, until they deserve to contemplate God in the essence of His Majesty; what to the same worshipper of God the Father of lights and Author of all good things deigned to inspire, in no way is it fitting to cover with silence. Seeing worldly felicity to be prosperous for him, and habitation among his fellow-citizens noxious to the salvation of his soul; he began anxiously to think, how, all the things of his country being left, his goods being distributed, departing from his native soil alone, he might be a pilgrim in whatever place it should please God. Therefore fearing what the Lord says in the Gospel to His followers; He who does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be my disciple; the movable things being sold which he could find in his treasures, he took care wholly to distribute their price to the needy; that thus he might become a merchant of the heavenly pearl. Luc. 14, 33. But possessions many and territories he left to his own kinsmen,
and thus unencumbered and alert, with her he comes to Nîmes, together with his spouse and a few household servants attending him, he seized the journey of pilgrimage, until he came to the encampment of the city of Nîmes. At that season indeed the same city was conspicuous by the very great circuit of its walls and lofty towers, and the firmness of its structure, by the frequency of citizens and habitation exceedingly populous, and by merchandise of riches conveyed from every side beyond measure opulent. But, although the transitory and shadowy glory of this world was clear enough; yet in that time, in which this blessed man deserved to receive the crown of the martyrdom destined him by God, the world given to idolatry: still the greatest part of men was held by the error of Gentile superstition. For there was lacking to them the doctrine of venerable Priests of Ecclesiastical instruction, and therefore erring like sheep they languished without the watchful care of Pastors.
[5] And when he had come to that place, where his body of his own free will he had ordered to his own spouse to be kept buried in a monument (as one about to receive there, God revealing it to him, the glorious crown of martyrdom worthy of his merits) he found in a common wood, very near the city, bands of Gentiles, celebrating the rites of their sacrifices and adoring the images of demoniac invention. This wood therefore, which then was given to the cult of malign spirits, meeting its inhabitants, produces acorn-bearing oaks, more apt for the nourishment of fire than for the buildings of houses. Into this therefore the man of God entering, said to the builders of the altars, filled with the zeal of just indignation: O most foolish of men, who do not acknowledge your Maker! cease henceforth, cease to adore the statues of demons: since those worshipping idols, sculpted by the hand of madmen, unless they come to their senses, will go into the eternal torments of hell. Wherefore if you desire to escape the damnation of such, believe in the Founder of all, and receive the regeneration of holy baptism; that made sons of light, you may deserve to be made heirs of the heavenly kingdom. But if any benefits of healings you hope to be bestowed on you by these for such vain worship; for certain believe, without doubt your bodies are not freed from any inconvenience of sickness, until your souls are wholly subjected to the intolerable yoke of the servitude of demons. But that from this diabolical damnation you may be redeemed by divine commiseration, he urges that the idols be broken: and obtain the liberty promised you by Christ; break the idols, deaf and dumb and lacking all reason, and adore Him whom every creature serves. But if you will not hear me, you will be made like those, whom you falsely call Gods, and madly worship.
[6] he professes the faith: From this erring and at the same time savage throng of Pagans, when many, who seemed more powerful than the rest, asked who he was or whence he had come, or what God he worshipped, with anger and threats; St. Baudelius, fortified with spiritual arms, and like a soldier undaunted at battle with the Emperor present, thus answered those questioning him, strengthened by the Holy Spirit; Who I am, or whence I have come, it is not necessary to confess: especially since both my military dress shows me strenuous and apt for the office of soldiery, and the idiom of my speech evidently discloses me to be an inhabitant of another region. But of my worship if you desire to know, know without doubt that I am most firmly a worshipper of the holy and undivided Trinity, and with Catholic faith in God the Father, and His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from both with my heart I believe, and with my mouth confess for my salvation; and the same faith, God working with me, I adorn with worthy operation. At these words of the holy man, uttered with unshaken mind, the profane multitude of Gentiles being most grievously indignant, he refuses to sacrifice: did not cease too atrociously to command the servant of God, that he should acquiesce to their altars and immolate victims of demons. But St. Baudelius, animated with the faith of true and Christian belief, and founded upon a firm rock, not only as he ought, abominating their admonitions, strongly execrated them; but also to the norm of a better life, and the saving sect of the sacred law he began to exhort them, through the doctrine of Apostolic instruction.
[7] Then they all alike, exhorting each other to torments to be inflicted on him by common vow, variously tortured: against the body of Baudelius the Martyr to be tortured rise up with an unwonted rage of cruelty. Which that the diversity of stripes and grievous punishments might in all ways tear, the bitterness of the whole nefarious band instigated. For whatever the insane fury supplied to the minds of the sacrilegious, whatever the rabid wrath of the raging executioners could devise of penalties, on the frail flesh of the soldier of God they did not delay to exercise. Whose glorious confession of the faith of the Trinity disposing all things since it could in no way be overcome by any torturing engine, the phalanxes of the impious at length judged, that death should be inflicted on him by the two-edged sword dashed against his head. Which they therefore decreed by the unanimous desire of raging against him, that the more quickly he might end his present life by the long-desired shedding of his own blood. Which being learned, and to be slain with the sword, he who was kindled with the fire of divine love, and a follower of Christ, and a bearer of His Cross by fearing Him; sought of the lictors with humble prayer, that they would permit him to pray, at least for the little space of one hour. They willingly granting this, turning himself to the Eastern region, bending his knees on the ground, with eyes and hands devoutly intent on heaven, suffused with tears, to Him to whom he was soon to go by the laying down of the man, such offered upon the altar of his heart libations of prayer. To Thee, he says, Lord my God, I give thanks more earnestly, who hast created me and enlightened me: who hast redeemed me by the pious death of Thy Son, who by the adoption of the Holy Spirit and the regeneration of baptism hast counted me renewed in the number of Thy sons, after prayers poured forth, and consorting me amid prosperous and adverse things, even unto this day of my passion, hast given even in penalties endurance. I beseech Thee therefore, Lord Ruler of all, through the immense benignity of Thy clemency, that all who, through my name, shall invoke Thee in the name of Thy Only-begotten, the pious ear of Thy hearing Thou mayest accommodate to them: and from all the tribulations of straits, those trusting in Thee Thou mayest deign to deliver, and grant the things justly asked. I commend also to the care of Thy protection my companions, whom here I leave surviving; and also those by whose most cruel persecution I agonize: that those Thou mayest keep, and to these be indulgent, and to this erring city the light of Thy knowledge at some time show. But me through the contest of martyrial torments make I beseech Thee a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, in which I may deserve to contemplate with all the Saints Thy desirable face, and to praise Thee for ages of ages.
[8] The placable prayer completed, when he had signed himself with the victorious Cross, he admonished the executioner, he is crowned with martyrdom. not to delay to strike one now higher than the world. But he at once with arm raising the unsheathed sword, with strong effort struck him through the middle of the back of the head; and dashed out his brain. By which blow the body falling to the ground, with a rivalling effusion of gore, his blessed soul freed from the flesh, with the aid of Angels penetrated the heavenly kingdom. And so received with triumph into the supernal court, by the King of Martyrs he deserved to be crowned with perennial glory and honor, and rewarded with the victorious palm. Whose sacred body those who had come with him stealthily carrying off, and buried within the walls of the city: and wrapping it in clean linens, buried in a worthy mausoleum: namely in that very place which he himself coming had predestined, set within the walls of the city. Whence it came to pass, that he who once in the same city of the people of Nîmes had been received as a guest, after the passing volumes of times became a native and guardian of its inhabitants and Patron: for this is declared by the remedies, by his merits and intercessions, conferred on those asking with faith. For at his very tomb the blind receive sight, the deaf hearing, the dumb speech, the lepers clean skin, the sick are cured, he shines with miracles. demons are cast out, the prayers of suppliants are heard. Which indeed benefits of healings, hitherto by the divine Majesty are bestowed on the necessities of believers, the prayers of Bl. Baudelius helping, who for the confession of the Catholic faith fell in the glorious contest of Martyrdom, on the thirteenth Kalends of June. Whose solemn celebration of the festivity, which is commemorated today by the sons of the Church, to the praise of God and the veneration of the Saint himself; may obtain for all keeping it yearly remission of sins, and the eternal reward of unfailing life: our Lord Jesus Christ affording it, King of Kings, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, through all ages of ages. Amen.
APPENDIX
By the Author St. Gregory Bishop of Tours, Book 1 of the Miracles or On the glory of the Martyrs chapter 78.
Baudelius, Martyr at Nîmes, in Narbonese Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 1046
[1] There is at the town of the city of Nîmes the glorious sepulchre of Baudillius the blessed Martyr, From the sepulchre a laurel sprung drives away diseases: of which often many miracles are manifested. From which sepulchre a laurel sprung and gone out through the wall, made a tree outside flourishing with salutary foliage. Which often the inhabitants of the place have experienced to have a heavenly remedy in many infirmities. For which benefits of miracles, when for the most part it was stripped of its leaves, or in some way of its very bark, it was made dry. Whence because we have said diseases of many infirmities to be driven away by it, it would be long to commemorate each one: therefore I thought these things to suffice, that bestowing medicaments, I have said it was made dry. It is also reported that a certain merchant in the East carried off a notable pledge of these leaves, but before the merchant reached port, a possessed man in a church, the East declaiming that the Martyr Baudillius was approaching, the peoples being amazed.
[2] But the blessed Martyr showed his virtue also in others. For Aram, the General of Theodoric the Italian King, while he resided in the city of Arles, there was to him a certain Archpriest of the parish of Nîmes hateful. Then boiling with gall, against him he sent servants, saying: Go as quickly as possible, and the feet and hands being bound, bring him by force, John the Archdeacon injuriously carried off to Arles that he may know that I am Lord of this region. But they, not understanding the word Archpriest, thought that he had ordered the Archdeacon to be brought. And the horses being mounted they came to the city, and asking about the Archdeacon, with the finger he was shown to them. This man was John by name, very religious, and in his Archdeaconate having a zeal of teaching little ones: and the General's servants having apprehended him, his hands and feet bound under the belly of a horse, brought him. But the virtue of the Martyr did not cease to succor its own nursling. But the servants near the very gate had a lodging with him: because, the leaves of the gates being already barred for the night, they could not enter. But in that very night, the General sleeping, there stood by him the Archdeacon in a vision, saying: What culpable thing to thee, O man, have I been, that me reduced to this humiliation thou hast ordered to be summoned with such injury? Truly I say to thee, thou shalt not escape the judgment of God. But he awakened and consternated with fear cries out to his men: Inquire if the servants, whom we directed to Nîmes, have already come. And asked from the wall, they answered they were present with the man. The messengers report what they had heard. And immediately the General says, Bring to me the man whom you brought. Which when it had been done,
the General beholding him, terrified with fear said: The Archpriest I had ordered to be brought, not the Archdeacon: and prostrate at his feet, he said: Pardon, I pray, the injury of this offense: because it is not in my conscience, that thou shouldst have suffered these things. And at once honored with worthy gifts he sent him back to the city: whom with so great love for the very reverence of the Martyr he loved afterwards, that, the Priest of that city departing, he is freed, he commanded that very one to be instituted Priest. But neither did he command the Archpriest any more to be inquired after. O great virtue of the Martyr, which through the injury of an innocent absolved a guilty man from punishment: and that of the Apostle was fulfilled, that to those loving God all things work together unto good: this injury constructed for this man a step, which he should mount to the governing of the Church of God.
[3] Thus far Gregory, from whose words we seem to ourselves to elicit that John, in the time of Theodoric the Goth, and so Bishop of Nîmes. that is on the confine of the IV and V century, was Bishop of the city of Nîmes, not yet observed by others, by a much more certain indication, than Sirmond in the Notes to the sixth epistle of Sidonius Apollinaris book 7 believed himself to have brought out as Bishop of the same city Crocus, under the Arian King Euaric an exile: who if truly he pertains to the people of Nîmes, must have been the predecessor of this John at least mediately.