ON S. MEMORIUS THE CONFESSOR
AT PÉRIGUEUX IN AQUITAINE.
CRITICAL COMMENTARY.
Of his age, crown, cultus: was he himself one of the Innocents?
Memorius the Confessor, at Périgueux in Aquitaine (St.)
D. P.
The Notice of the Passion of S. Sicharius, at the II day of this month, the first & more certain, The name & title of Confessor from the Martyrologies. although most brief, we received from the Martyrologies of Usuard, augmented for the use of the Aquitanian Churches: & now from a similarly interpolated copy of Usuard, truly ancient, which we found in the library of the Duke of Altemps at Rome, augmented first in Gaul then in Britain, we learn the title, under which this Saint of whom we have undertaken to treat was anciently venerated. For at the VII Kalends of June, it is thus read there: At Périgueux of S. Memorius the Confessor. The Martyrology of Ado agrees, not indeed as it was written by him, but as it is had amplified for the Church of Toulon among the Mss. of the Queen of Sweden; the additions which I said being added by a more recent hand to the older writing of the membrane codex, which once was of the Church of Brescia. In this indeed it is thus said: On the same day, namely XXVI May, of B. Memorius the Confessor, whom B. Frontonius, when he was in Egypt, found by the Lord's revelation.
[2] the body does not seem brought from Egypt: S. Fronto, the first Bishop of Périgueux, is venerated
on the day XXV October; to which day we shall examine, whether rightly this man is believed to be the same with that holy Abbot of the Nitrian Desert, of whom we treated on the day XIV April. Meanwhile I judge that, on the supposition of this identity, whether true or false, certainly not confirmed by the assent of many ages, it rests, that the Saint is said to have found the body of B. Memorius in Egypt; as also in the old Breviary of Périgueux (whence probably the later & more recent addition was taken) testifies John du Puy, in the book which he wrote on the State of the Church of Périgueux page 195. But this man, although he maintains the aforesaid identity, his frequent cultus in the church of S. Fronto: yet wonders at the simplicity of the elders, who could believe the body of S. Memorius brought from Egypt. It is believed to rest in the church of S. Fronto, formerly Abbatial, but long since converted into a Collegiate & lately into a Cathedral, the Canons being brought thither from the church of S. Stephen. But his feast is there venerated with so great an influx of people running together from everywhere, that D. Armand Girard Canon of Sarlat, who gave us the aforesaid book with his own proper additions, could testify with his hand & more recently confirm by Epistle, that each year there come to the procession then to be instituted more than four thousand strangers.
[3] But although this Memorius was not otherwise known to the ancients, but confused with the cultus of one of the Innocents, having probably ended his life in Gaul itself & the diocese of Périgueux, than with the title of Confessor; yet for some ages he began to be venerated as a Martyr, & indeed as one of the Innocents slain by Herod. Hence I am compelled to believe, that the place of burial is utterly unknown, & the confusion of person & name born thence, that in the same church there was long since kept the little body of one of the Innocents. For such a little body alone appearing there, where S. Memorius was anciently celebrated; it began to be believed, that it was his; & indeed the more readily, that it was already esteemed, that at Brantôme another of the same number of the Innocents was had. Of this Innocent there is circulated among the people of Périgueux something more absurd, namely that he himself is the little son of Herod, whom the father ordered to be slain with the rest, lest perchance even this one be the Messiah expected by the Jews, designated by the star, sought by the Magi.
[4] But as all the learned deservedly explode this little fable of the son of Herod; so he who shall know S. Memorius, whose name Memorius was made by chance. the famous Martyr & Levite at Troyes in Gaul, whose Passion & that of his companions is recollected on the VII day of September, & accordingly will understand that it is a name customary to Gaul; will wonder at the conjecture of the aforesaid John, by which he suspects the name of Memorius born by chance, & given to the anonymous boy, from the inscription of a tomb, altar or reliquary, which was marked Of the Memory of the Innocent Martyr. For although the people of Périgueux now venerate him as such, & for the Lessons of the Office have assumed the homily of S. John Chrysostom on the Innocents, doing the rest from the common of one Martyr; yet I would not doubt to postpone the more recent usage to the more ancient cultus, & to persuade, that the casket, which is said to be of S. Memorius, be searched more curiously; perhaps about to find something worthy of knowledge; & at least, if only an infantile body appear, evidently about to recognize, that this is not of him whom their elders held for a Confessor.