ON SAINT MANUÆUS
BISHOP OF BAYEUX IN NORMANDY.
ABOUT THE YEAR CCCCLXXX
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On his age, cult, Acts.
St. Manuæus, Bishop of Bayeux in Normandy.
BY G. H.
Bayeux or Bajocum, an Episcopal city of Lower Normandy, venerates on this XXVIII of May St. Manuæus, the fifth Prelate of its Church, The first Bishops of Bayeux: the successor of St. Lupus. Concerning him and the three other first Bishops we treated at length some time ago on the XVIII of this month of May, at the Life of St. Regnobertus the second Bishop; and we said that this man, after St. Exuperius, sat in the fourth century of Christ, and about the year CCCC migrated from this mortal life to the eternal and immortal one; and then in the fifth century of Christ flourished SS. Rufinianus and Lupus, and that this latter by living attained to about the year CCCCLXV. Under this St. Lupus flourished St. Manuæus, then a Hermit and Prior of three Monks, the fifth of these, Manuæus, flourished under St. Lupus: illustrious for virtues and miracles, believed the resuscitator of two dead men. Of these times therefore is to be understood the period of his first Life, where he is said to have been in the times of the Emperor Marcian and Merovaeus King of the Franks, who both flourished in their dignity from the year CCCCL
even to CCCCLVII, nor reached the year CCCCLX, which nevertheless in the said Acts is adjoined. But afterward about the year CCCCLXV, St. Lupus dying on October XXV, St. Manuæus was substituted; but how long he presided, is not known. His next successor St. Contestius, he succeeded about the year 465: is referred to January XIX, in whose Acts published in the Appendix page 1137, no character of time either is indicated. Then were substituted Patricius and St. Vigor, whose Acts, to be illustrated at the Kalends of November, are referred to the times of Childebert King of the Franks; he died about the year 480, under which King Leucadius Bishop of Bayeux subscribed the Council of Orleans III in the year DXXXVII, and the Council of Orleans IV in the year DXLI. All which things considered, we judge that the death of St. Manuæus can be placed about the year CCCCLXXX.
[2] Patron of various Churches. He is venerated with Ecclesiastical Office, not only in the city and diocese of Bayeux, but also in various churches of the neighboring diocese of Coutances, of which he is held Patron. Such are, in the deanery of Périers the parishes of Marchésieux, and Vaudrimesnil, and elsewhere Gouffreville: in which and other churches of both dioceses that St. Manuæus is in great veneration was testified by Dominus Thomas le Gouix, Presbyter and Rector of the aforesaid Church of St. Manuæus of Marchésieux, by a holograph sent on the VIII day of August in the year MDCLII, together with the Acts of the Saint, faithfully extracted from the old archive, just as they distributed into nine Lections were wont to be recited in the Ecclesiastical Office on this XXVIII of May, on which day and on the Sunday next following, nay also through the whole year, it is known that very many on account of fevers flock not without solace. The Acts in Manuscript. All these things received from the said Presbyter, Jacobus de Machaut, Priest of our Society, transmitted to us from Caen, whose proved beneficence afterward at Paris we gladly recall with grateful memory. But that those Acts were composed some centuries after the death of St. Manuæus, the years of the Emperor above indicated note, and the Decretal books named in them. The style everywhere almost concise and disconnected, such as is wont to be that of Responsories and Antiphons, a compendium of them. makes me doubt, whether there was not once some fuller Life, which first indeed was used for Lections, then divided verse by verse and antiphon by antiphon for the whole Office, and under musical Notes separately described in the Antiphonary of the Church of Bayeux; and finally, the original more prolix Legend being lost, those things which were had in the Antiphonary were recollected into the form of briefer Lections, such as we have received, with the accustomed clause added to the several numbers, But Thou, O Lord, have mercy on us. Whatever of this may be, we have another much briefer compendium described from the Manuscript codex of the monastery of Rouge-Cloître of Canons Regular in the Soignes forest near Brussels, which it is enough to have indicated; as also that in the new Library of Manuscripts of Labbe tome 1 page 779 the same Acts transmitted by the same D. Thomas le Gouix to the same Fr. Jacobus Machaut, are touched on word for word as far as the place marked by us; and finally that there pleased greatly Claude Robert, in the Bishops of Bayeux, this sentence extracted from the same Acts: He was good in youth, better in the middle, best at the end. The Sammarthani for his sacred veneration allege the Breviary of Bayeux. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology on this XXVIII of May brings forth some encomium of him, especially concerning a dead man resuscitated to life, and calls him Manucus.
LIFE
From the ancient archive of the Church of Bayeux.
St. Manuæus, Bishop of Bayeux in Normandy.
BHL Number: 5220
FROM THE ANCIENT BREVIARY
[1] In the city of Bayeux, about the four hundred and sixtieth year, The Saint in adolescence, in the times of the Emperor Marcian and Merovaeus King of the Franks, there was a certain venerable man, by name Manuæus: procreated and begotten of a most noble stock. But Manuæus himself, Confessor of the Lord, was filled with the grace of God to all nations; devoted also to his parents, and everywhere subject to them in words and deeds, and suppliant in all things. But the servant of God, with the highest love from infancy loved the true God, day and night with fasts and prayers with all his heart and mind and body served Jesus Christ alone. All worldly things therefore and earthly riches, delights and wantonness being trodden down and spurned, tending wholly to God, and thinking of the heavenly kingdoms, of the Catholic faith, living piously, justly, and honestly, he delivered himself wholly.
[2] he is imbued with letters and sciences, When the most illustrious parents of the most blessed Manuæus the Confessor discerned and perceived his simple manner, and the greatest prudence of his sense, and his lively talent, they rejoiced (for Bl. Manuæus was a boy in age, but he himself was most learned, and an old man before God in sense and in work) quickly they sent him to study, and delivered him to skilled doctors to instruct him. But Manuæus himself, full of divine grace, feared the doctors, and gladly heard them: and by the will of God the Father retained all things easily. Manuæus the good Pastor, merciful toward others: most holy Prelate, feared God: but the holy Trinity in his heart he always adored. To all he was pious, sweet, and humble. He visited the sick, satisfied the poor and feeble from his own goods, and was busy to fulfill all the works of mercy.
[3] he excels in virtue and doctrine: The most holy Prelate Manuæus, a Confessor worthy of God and benign, tending to the glory of God, attained to great renown, and to divine knowledge. He was full of all virtues, good morals and divine praises. With the utmost diligence he demonstrated to all the indications of good hope and holy faith, and likewise exhibited to all the benefits of eternal salvation, so diligently did Bl. Manuæus exercise the schools, and gladly studied in the divine volumes, that a master in two sciences, by the mediation of God's grace, he was most certain and expert. But these things being done and completed, the most illustrious Confessor of the Lord and worthy Prelate Manuæus, amiable in all things, pleasing, prudent, humble and devout; surpassed his doctors and all his teachers in all sciences, in laws and in decretals, and to each of them concerning matters past between himself and them, and concerning services, well and peacefully paid the reward.
[4] Bl. Manuæus expecting the fellowships of the supernal citizens, he builds a hermitage: and to attain to the heavenly kingdoms of the Blessed, with his good and firm mind loved exceedingly an excellent place and proper to himself, and there prepared a lodging and hermitage for doing the service of God, congruous and honest to his will, that there in the service of God day and night he might serve God, and finish his life in Christ. All the buildings by his own will and the precept of Bl. Manuæus being made and completed, he takes three companions then the good and wise Pastor desired to have three companions in the service of God, and had them, and prepared all these from his own goods. These things also being accomplished he changed his hermitage into a Priory, and Bl. Manuæus himself at the beginning a Hermit, made Prior: called himself Prior of three Monks. But the most noble Monk prepared for God loved his companions according to God, and comforted them in the service of God, and taught them by many good examples, and demonstrated the right way of eternal salvation and the benignity of truth.
[5] The most prudent Confessor and most worthy Pontiff Bl. Manuæus watching, one of these suddenly dead, he raised by prayer: and praying in the service of God most devoutly, and his companions in prayers from a good and humble heart beseeching God, behold one of the companions of Bl. Manuæus, by a bad and most evil infirmity, by the will of God the Father, was both gravely oppressed, and quickly extinguished, Bl. Manuæus and the other companions being astonished and wondering. The most wise and most holy Monk Manuæus rising from prayer, said to his companions: Be strong in faith, and fight with the ancient serpent, and pray for our companion, and I will ask the Father for him. Bl. Manuæus, his knees bent and his hands stretched out upon the ground in a cross, with tears poured forth said: Lord God Father omnipotent, who hast redeemed the world with Thy blood, and hast formed me a sinner to Thine image, and didst raise Lazarus, and didst remit the sins of Mary Magdalene; bid that this sinner rise again, that living he may know and adore Thee the true God, and truly repent and confess of all his sins and faults. And when the companions had answered, Amen; the Monk rose sound from death, Bl. Manuæus rejoicing from prayer.
[6] Bl. Manuæus, most holy Pastor, procurator and keeper of all the things of his Brethren, he preaches in divers places going through the world to procure, was very necessary to all. He was everywhere pious, wise and modest. He was the consoler of the wretched, the pitier of the poor and desolate; he exhibited good documents to sinners, and to those deviating and erring he faithfully declared the way of truth and the faith of Jesus Christ. When Bl. Manuæus made a journey through the fatherlands, he met a certain dead man, lying on a bier, with a very great crowd of peoples, who carried him. Bl. Manuæus ordered the body of the dead man to be put on the ground; and all hearing he said: he resuscitates a dead man, Lord God, who art the knower and creator of all things, and who knowest all things before they are made; hear the prayers of Thy servants, and bid the soul again to enter into the body of this dead man, that those seeing and believing may be saved. When those present had said, Amen, the dead man rises from the bier, and Bl. Manuæus rendered thanks to God.
[7] he cures disease by the touch of his garment: Bl. Manuæus always reducing to memory in his heart the deeds of the ancient Fathers, bestowed all the good things he had on the poor, and comforted them in his straits and tribulations. So great grace and sanctity had the Lord given to Bl. Manuæus, that by whatever kind of fever a man was held, or by any other infirmity of his body, and he touched the smallest particle of the garments of the most blessed Confessor Manuæus; quickly the fever or other infirmity left the man by the merits of holy Manuæus: and that man who before had been infirm, rejoicing and cheerful, giving thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ and the most holy Manuæus, returned with health of body.
[8] and by blessing At that time there was a certain woman, languishing with a grave and morbid infirmity. The care of physicians, and the medicine of doctors, and their sense and unguents, could not cure her of the disease. That woman heard that St. Manuæus was passing through the village: she cried out, Manuæus, servant of God, have mercy on me, heal me of my languor. The holy Manuæus therefore, hearing the voice of the woman, approached her, and said: Woman, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ: who gave thee this infirmity, may He give thee health of body and soul. Then Bl. Manuæus touched the woman and blessed her. Then quickly the woman rose, and whole with joy went her way.
[9] Since Bl. Manuæus was full of the grace of God, his fame was diffused through the fatherland: all praised him, he is elected Bishop and spoke of his sanctity. In those days, the Canons, Presbyters and all the Clerics being gathered together in the mother Church of Bayeux, to elect a Pastor, worthy to keep the see of the Episcopate, all equally elected Bl. Manuæus. Bl. Manuæus was elected Bishop, and consecrated to the office. Manuæus was good in youth, better in the middle, best at the end. When Bl. Manuæus the Prelate drew to his end, for forty and seven days he abstained from all food and drink, taking nothing but the true sacrifice of Jesus Christ. he dies piously: These things being said and completed, the worthy Bishop perceiving and seeing his death quickly approach, the Brethren being convoked before him, said: Fear God, love the brotherhood, observe humility and charity; may He fill you with all goodness. These things being said the happy Confessor expired, on the fifth Kalends of June.