ON SAINT HILARIUS
BISHOP OF TOULOUSE IN GAUL.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE
His Office, cult on a varying day, finding, elevation.
Hilarius, Bishop of Toulouse in Gaul (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Among the proper Offices of Saints of the Church and Diocese of Toulouse, by command of Charles de Montchal Archbishop of Toulouse recognized and in the year MDCXLVII brought to light, [a] Proper Office is contained on this day XXI of May the Office of S. Hilarius Bishop of Toulouse under the rite of semi-double, and this proper Collect is prescribed. Almighty everlasting God; who hast given us B. Hilarius thy Confessor and Pontiff as a minister of eternal salvation, we beseech thee that by his suffraging merits we may obtain the grace of thy piety. In the second Nocturn at Matins these Lessons are prescribed to be recited from his Life.
[2] Hilarius, Bishop of the city of Toulouse, was conspicuous and celebrated for the holiness of his life. By the recollection and zeal for S. Saturninus, the first Antistes of Toulouse and Martyr, he was so greatly seized; that after a long time from the death of S. Saturninus, bearing the insignia of Pontifical dignity, that which seemed less decorous to men, yet honored by God, the body of Saturninus Hilarius himself held in the highest honor, [b] in which he is said to have elevated the body of S. Saturninus. and wished it to be held [so] by the people of Toulouse entrusted and commended to him. Wherefore when his Relics buried under the earth had lain hidden many years, admiring the holiness of so great a Martyr Hilarius, what no one before had dared to attempt, he himself undertook. For he commanded the earth to be dug down to the wooden sepulchre of S. Saturninus: yet not daring to disturb his holy body, he took care that the tomb be encompassed with brick-work in the manner of an arch; and to excite the piety of the people, beside the relics of the holy Martyr he built above a wooden chapel for the sake of prayer. At length Hilarius having diligently fulfilled the Pastoral office, [c] and buried beside it together departed from mortal life. Whose holy body in the year one thousand two hundred at S. Saturninus's shrine was found in a stone tomb, and after three hundred and seventeen years was found in the same tomb plainly whole; and, what is amazing, covered with no squalor, but so luminous and shining, that all venerated this for a supreme miracle. So far the said Lessons. But at what time he lived, is not clear.
[3] [d] referred by others on May 20. William Catel, in the Historical Memoirs of Occitania or Languedoc book 5, deduces the histories of the Bishops; and among the Toulousans places third S. Hilarius, citing the proper Offices of the Church of Toulouse: and asserts that the feast is celebrated on May XX, and on that day says he departed from life. Hence we judge that a typographical error has crept in either in Catel, or in the title of the proper Offices, or indeed afterward the feast was transferred to the following day. Ferrarius in the general Catalog also refers the same to the day XX of May, the Episcopal tables of the same city being cited, with the little book of proper Offices of the said Church. Saussay on the contrary on the same May XX brings forward the elogium of S. Hilarius II, with these words: On the same day at Toulouse the natal day of S. Hilarius Bishop and Confessor. He filling the place of Mennas, shining with the praise of every virtue, bore the helms of this noble Church: and after the happy execution of the divine office, called to eternal rewards, the holiness shone in the tomb (which he obtained at S. Saturninus's) with marvelous indications. These things there, which can be said of nearly any holy Bishop. [e] or June 1 and several Hilarii are indicated. Such things again the same Saussay has on the Kalends of June; on which day likewise he adorns the prior S. Hilarius with a long elogium, taken from the related Lessons. Claude Robert in the Gallia Christiana on the Bishops of Toulouse mentions both Hilarii, of whom one he places third in order, the other he constitutes the fourteenth successor of Mennas, and asserts that both are venerated on the Kalends of June. But John Chenu names only one Hilarius, and that one tenth Bishop of the Church of Toulouse, whose natal day he affirms is venerated on the Kalends of June. Catel and the Sammarthani also constitute one; and omitting the second, who would have sat after Mennas, only the prior they refer, and they wish him to have been the third Bishop. Nor is any mention of any second Saint Hilarius made in the proper Offices of the said Church of Toulouse.
[4] Nicholas Bertrandi, in the Gesta Tolosanorum, published in the year MDXV and on the preceding day to the Life of B. William the Augustinian Hermit copiously praised, fol. XLVI, after he had treated of the Saints Honoratus and Silvius, buried in the crypt of the church of S. Saturninus, thus continues: Saint likewise Hilarius was Bishop of Toulouse. His body in the said church below the same crypt lies, in his own tomb placed: and his natal [day] is recalled on the [XII] Kal. of June. But in the year of the Lord MCCLXV on the Nones of October, in the church of the holy Martyr Saturninus, under the crypt of the same Martyr in the earth, were found four sepulchres of the Saints Honoratus, Silvius, Hilarius, Bishops of Toulouse, and also of S. Papulus the Martyr, who was the disciple and colleague of B. Saturninus. They were each inscribed and entitled with their names, beneath the earth round about on this side and that. And the bodies of the Saints were thence elevated, with their entitled tombs, and in the tombs there placed above the earth: where (as is now seen) within the same crypt, beneath the body of S. Saturninus, their master, they venerably rest in the Lord. Catel in the elogium of S. Honoratus II Bishop, from the book whose title is Praeclara Francorum facinora, [f] finding of the body October 7, 1265. more concisely transcribes the same matter thus: In the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred sixty-five, on the Nones of October, were found in the Church of S. Saturninus of Toulouse, four bodies of Saints, namely of Silvius and Hilarius, and Honoratus and Papulus the Martyr, beside the sepulchre of the Protopraesul and Martyr. About this finding Molanus on the day VII of October has these things: [g] with the bodies of SS. Silvius, Honoratus and Papulus At Toulouse the finding of the holy Confessors Silvius, Hilarius, and Honoratus the Bishops, and of Pappolus the Bishop and Martyr. The finding of the same on the said day Saussay recalls, and calls Hilarius the elder, because he had inserted another younger. Of the other Bishops Silvius is venerated on May XXXI,
Honoratus on December XXV, and Papulus on November III: on which day in the proper Lessons only Martyr is named, and mention is made of the finding already mentioned.
[5] [h] relevation March 24 The aforesaid Saussay also in his Martyrology on March XXIV, At Toulouse, says, the relevation of S. Hilarius Bishop and Confessor, made in the basilica of S. Saturninus, where he rests with becoming dignity in the chapel of the holy Cross. [i] March 26 elevation of the same and S. Gilbert: Earlier however on the day March XXVI he has thus: At Toulouse the festive elevation of the bodies of SS. Papulus, Silvius, Hilarius, Honoratus, and Gilbert in the church of S. Saturninus. The feast of S. Saturninus is celebrated with most solemn cult on November XXIX with the octave. [k] Who this [Gilbert is] About Gilbert Saussay treats on February IV with these words, At Toulouse in the church of S. Saturninus, the festivity of S. Gilbert Abbot and Confessor, who there rests in body. But finding nothing about him elsewhere, we did not dare to join him to the Saints of this day, because we knew that the Abbot of Sempringham of this name is then venerated in England; nor would it seem probable to us that his body had been at any time translated to Toulouse. Both indeed Saussay himself distinguished: but I know not what new confusion he has introduced, when he says the monastery of Sempigamia (for so Sempringham is also sometimes named) was founded in Hunonis-curia. If any such place near Toulouse had at some time been raised to an Abbey, and had had a holy Abbot of this name, we could suspect the occasion was hence given to Saussay of confounding France with England: now neither does it occur to us how to excuse him; nor does any other conjecture about S. Gilbert of Toulouse arise, than that the Basilica of S. Saturninus (whose Praesules from the year MCXVII alone the Sammarthani enumerate) from the beginning of its foundation, of which Venantius Fortunatus mentions in book 2 chap. 9 on the boundary of the sixth and seventh century, had Monks, or at least at some intermediate time; whose Abbot at some time, called Gilbert, deserved the name and cult of Saint; but since the day of his death was unknown, by posterity that one was assumed which was of the synonymous Abbot. For the rest, about that as well Elevation as Relevation I would wish to say more, if Saussay had named his Authors, or I myself had found them anywhere.