ON SAINT VENANTIUS
WHO DIED AT METHONE, AND IS HONORED AT LÉRINS.
ABOUT THE YEAR CCCLXXIV.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On his translation, cult, and Acts.
Venantius, who died at Methone, and is honored at Lérins (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Two brothers sprung from a Consular family
shone with sanctity. One
of them is S. Honoratus, founder of the monastery
on the island of Lérins, S. Venantius brother of S. Honoratus Bp. of Arles. now
called from him S. Honorat,
and afterward Bishop of Arles:
whose Life, written by S. Hilary, in monastic
instruction his subject,
and in episcopal dignity his successor, we have illustrated
at the day January XVI. The other brother is S. Venantius,
older in age, but in his youth, far from his fatherland,
dead. The place of death is assigned the city Methone, called Modon
now, and even now a most celebrated emporium of the Peloponnesus,
on the Southern shore of Messenia, which is nearest to Achaia
proper, to which more broadly taken it is attributed below in the Acts, but
wrongly is placed in Asia. There flourished in the ninth century of Christ this
city Methone's Bishop S. Athanasius, whose Life
we have illustrated at the day January XXXI. But the veneration of S.
Venantius endures in the monastery of Lérins, after his
death founded by S. Honoratus his brother. Dead at Methone in the Peloponnesus, Vincent Barralis,
in the Chronology of the Saints of the island of Lérins page 189
collects these things by disputing: The sacred bones of the most holy
and most acceptable to God Confessor, the youth Venantius,
ancient religion teaches to be preserved in
the monastery of the island of Lérins, below the tower and in
the chapel of the Holy Cross, as is gathered from the incision of a stone
existing before the doors of the same
basilica, where these things are read. This is the chapel
of the Holy Cross, translated to Lérins: which is called the Holy of Holies,
on account of the relics of the Saints there hidden, namely
of Honoratus, Caprasius, Venantius, &c. But how,
at what time, and by what persons his venerable
bones were carried into the aforesaid sacred island,
by no certain ancient monument or writing
are we taught: yet we deem it not unfitting,
that by our most blessed Father Honoratus, his
only brother, then by the moderator of the same the holy
old man Caprasius, with other Relics (as is handed down in the seventeenth
chapter of the first book of the Life of S. Honoratus, in the Chapel of the Holy Cross deposited,
that, I say, which is circulated in three books)
also the blessed remains of S. Venantius were brought from Methone of Achaia
to our Lérins, when first there
the standard-bearer Honoratus pitched the camp of God, namely the monastery,
the fourth century from the Lord's birth now drawing to its close,
in the year CCCLXXV, as is noted in a certain parchment
most ancient Lérins codex in MS. For to so great
a fraternity's excellent humanity, and to the framework of inviolable
faith and perpetual bond, it seemed very alien,
if the brother should leave his only brother, the master
so dear a disciple, of whom the mind was as also
the faith one in Christ, separated by so long an interval
into regions so far apart. whether by his brother S. Honoratus? Nay rather more consonant,
that those whom one mother had brought forth into light, one
wave of baptism had regenerated, and whom through the course of this
life's pilgrimage one inseparable faith had led about, the same
should bring back both brothers to one
monastery, that whom God had joined
man should not separate.
[2] Further, in an old MS. Psalter of the sacred monastery
of Lérins, Sacred cult. by the Reverend Father, Dom John
de Nicaea, monk of the same monastery and Prior of S.
Stephen of Bargemon and afterward Chamberlain
of Lérins written out, two hundred and forty-
five years ago, namely in the running of our Redemption
one thousand three hundred sixty-fourth,
there is had a Hymn, on the Birthday of SS. Caprasius and Venantius,
at Vespers and Lauds then accustomed to be chanted:
by the tenor of which it is not obscurely shown, that the bodies of SS. Venantius
and Caprasius are had in the island of Lérins, when it is said,
These are they whom this renowned island holds: which
hymn for antiquity's sake we here subjoin.
Let us sing, companions, the merits of the Saints,
Caprasius, Venantius: whose footsteps with its proper Hymn
Let us follow, with humble heart and work,
Praising worthily the Lord.
The first was a Shepherd, teaching the disciple
Born of royal stock: but grace,
By which all things are made, the font of baptism
Rendered him fully reborn.
These are they whom this renowned island holds,
Whom many Martyrs, but more Confessors,
And many Prelates have often followed
To the heavenly realms of life.
O youthful athlete, offer thy services
For thy servants, by thy merits
Lead us to the prizes, in which thou dwellest,
Through thy holy paths.
Thee, threefold and one Deity, we beseech,
That thou visit us at their prayers,
And place us also in thy ranks,
When the courses of life are finished. Amen.
There are sung moreover his distinguished virtues by S. Hilary
Bishop of Arles in that sermon, which he delivered
to the people and Clergy of Arles at the funeral
of S. Honoratus his predecessor, which you have above
at the sixteenth of January. There is supposed also to this hymn
of Lérins, which is such. O God, under whose nods
the moments of our life run their course, and to whom no
instant, past, present and future, perishes,
but they presently stand by; and a Prayer grant to us thy
suppliants, that we who B. Venantius thy Confessor
hast chosen to the consortship of thy Saints and Elect,
at his intercession may follow him: be
to us a firm protection of this fleeting life, and of future
glory a perpetual support. Through our Lord
Jesus Christ &c. Amen.
[3] on the 30th of May, Thus far Vincent Barralis, who in part 2 page 185
asserts the sacred body of S. Venantius to be preserved at Lérins; and assigns
to the Ecclesiastical cult this day May XXX, and the year
of death CCCLXXIV. Philip Ferrarius in the Notes
of the general Catalogue asserts, that on this same day S. Venantius
brother of S. Honoratus is commemorated in several Calendars
of Germany, and is read in Pistorius in the Chronicle.
Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology praises him with this encomium:
On the same day of S. Venantius, Monk of Lérins,
brother of S. Honoratus, founder of that famous
asceterion and Archbishop of Arles: whose excellent
imitator and strenuous helper in the sacred purpose,
when for the love of Christ he had forsaken Greece his fatherland, and his wealth,
at Methone of Achaia, The blunders of Saussay, by premature death
consummated, under the protection and in the sight of S. Caprasius, whom
he followed as leader of pious
instruction, and of Honoratus himself his most loving
brother, he migrated to the supernal
rest: to whom the Angels with melody ran to meet.
His Relics afterward brought to Lérins,
in the little chapel of the Holy Cross were laid up,
with fitting honoring. These things Saussay; but he is mistaken when
he asserts him to have been a Monk of Lérins, since he is handed down to have died before
that monastery was built. Nowhere
also is it read that Greece was the fatherland of SS. Honoratus
and Venantius, whom we deem to have arisen in Gaul.
[4] Vincent Barralis published a certain Life, found in the MSS.
of Lérins, The Life from MSS. from various monuments; but chiefly
from the life of S. Honoratus his brother, whose second chapter contains
the peregrinations of SS. Honoratus and Venantius the brothers, and
his death: but these things can be read at January XVI. Some things
also in the Life of S. Caprasius to be given at the Kalends of June
are explained. But it suffices here to set forth the indicated Life of S. Venantius.
LIFE
From the MSS. of Lérins drawn out by Vincent Barralis.
Venantius, who died at Methone, and is honored at Lérins (S.)
BHL Number: 8520
When the marvelous works of the Saints are recited,
the glory also of him is proclaimed, through whose
faith and power they themselves, as the Apostle says,
conquered kingdoms, wrought justice,
obtained the promises. Heb. 6, 33 For human nature,
whose sense and thought are prone to
evil from adolescence, slips of itself to
vices, but to the saving merits of the virtues by no means
rises up, unless it be raised by the help of God's mighty hand.
Whence the Apostle says, It is not, he says, of him that willeth nor
of him that runneth, These Acts collected from various sources, are read at the feast. but of God that showeth mercy. Rom. 9, 16 To the praise
therefore and glory of the divine goodness, some things concerning his
works, which through his blessed Confessor Venantius
it deigned to work, as we have found described in various
volumes, we have decreed to insert into this lection;
that on his birthday feast, which today
is observed, your holy devotion may have whence to virtues'
examples it may be called forth.
[2] The glorious therefore Confessor of Christ Venantius,
sprung of illustrious lineage, as he was famous by birth, famous
appeared also by the honesty of his manners. For that
very origin of highest nobility he ennobled by upright manners,
adorned by holy works. For he was the brother
german of that excellent Confessor of Christ Honoratus, Wishing to pervert from piety his brother S. Honoratus,
who first was Founder and Father of the monastery
of Lérins, afterward existed as Bishop of Arles. For
when the same approved athlete of Christ, in life and name
Honoratus, being yet in his boyish years,
had by divine calling been led to the knowledge of the Catholic faith;
his carnal father began to prepare opposing
efforts, and with soft blandishments to the delights
of this world strives to entice the innocent boyhood.
And because by himself he could not accomplish this,
he joined this younger brother, who then by name Germanus
was called, apt for sportive deeds.
There is joined therefore to him the younger brother, more
given than the elder to transitory things and boyish deeds, who
might somewhat be able to bend the holy boy Honoratus from the undertaken
summit of virtue; but
almighty God scattering his iniquitous counsels,
far otherwise than was hoped the matter turned out. For
when the brother strove to allure his brother to the enticements
of this world; he himself is led to the holy life: divine clearness suddenly shining round about,
he who had come to subvert, by the changing
of the right hand of the Most High suddenly appeared converted: who, having received
the grace of conversion, the holy old man
Caprasius ministering, hastened to the receiving of the sacrament of Baptism.
He, called Venantius, grew to so great
an eminence of virtues, that he existed as the helper of S. Honoratus, his
brother german, and accompanied him no less
in virtue than in consortship; and through all
the time he afterward lived, became his inseparable
companion.
[3] Striving with his brother in the zeal of virtues: But there were between them pleasing contests proposed;
namely whose mind was softer toward piety, whose
food harder, whose garment rougher, whose speech
gentler; which of them spoke more rarely, who
prayed more frequently; whom the bed less detained, whom
reading more occupied; whom injury less moved,
who was more easily moved by mercy. And so
the pious Confessor of Christ Venantius was comely of elegant
form: he was also graceful in aspect, gentle in speech,
mild in mercy, composed in the honesty of manners,
a youth in age, but hoary in mind. And the more
he grew in the sublimity of virtues, the more by humility
and compunction he descended. Most sparing of food and sleep,
he used a roughest hair-shirt for a bed, and a hard stone
for a pillow. He was also imbued with the sweetness
of so great kindness, that being dear to men,
he was rendered amiable to all. and excelling in these. There shone in the youth
a gravity of manners, a senile maturity: rare was to him the visitation of women,
even of kinswomen. An angelic
life by him on earth was led in much patience,
in vigils, in fastings, in chastity, in sanctimony,
in long-suffering, in the Holy Spirit, in charity
unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God:
and amid so many virtues, what is difficult enough, the flight
from all vanity.
[4] Meanwhile because the chief servant of Christ Venantius,
among kinsmen and acquaintances, he leaves his fatherland: to poverty and
ignobility, as he desired, could not come, he disposed
to pass over to far-off and foreign nations.
He himself also dreaded his glory: and the odor of his
holy conversation, now far and wide diffused,
although he referred it to God's praise, yet feared
it to bring upon himself the peril of vanity. Counsel therefore being taken,
the splendor of royal garments being left, and all
the insignia of secular pomp being spurned, B. Venantius
together with the most holy Honoratus his brother, to the sea
hastens, boards a ship, flees his own fatherland, he takes S. Caprasius as director:
forsakes for Christ kinsmen and parents; under
the holy elder Caprasius, a man of perfect and consummate
gravity, by his mastership his life to set in order,
and his manners to compose, subtly chooses. Long
is it to run through, what profit each place sought out by them
drew from their setting forth, what salutary
doctrine they brought into the Churches, to how many masters
and Pontiffs they were masters in silence.
But Venantius, a youth and delicate, against the tenderness of his
nature, the rheum of the sea and the heat
and barrenness of the Achaian shore having undertaken, with incredible
patience and virtue bore. For no small
miracle, I think, must it be reckoned, that a youth so delicately
and so softly reared, against so great variety of waters
and airs, with so great constancy of mind prevailed
to strive. How grave, how intolerable
that was to that tenderness, he falls into sickness: the incurable sickness of B. Venantius
himself made manifest. For from then
in the brief time he lived, weak indeed in body
he was, but strong and robust in devotion of soul.
[5] But because to narrate the merits of B. Venantius one by one
we discern to be difficult, he dies at Methone in the Peloponnesus to his happy passage
let us direct the eyes of our mind and our pen. Venantius
therefore, fervent with the fire of divine love, his tender
little body with many vigils and various abstinences
unceasingly macerated: given also to divine
contemplation, transitory things being despised, on heavenly things alone
he meditated. And when the merciful God to his faithful servant's
labors had decreed to set an end, and to him for his lawful
contest to render the crown of justice laid up;
he himself permitting, a bodily ill more bitter than usual
invaded him. The languor therefore prevailing
he was brought to his last extremity: yet his angelic countenance,
joyous with gentleness and cheerfulness, nowhere
appeared changed. The Saints of God Caprasius and Honoratus
being there present, together with no small
company of holy men, that generous soul,
holy and uncontaminated, was loosed from the bonds of the flesh,
at Methone of Achaia, a province of Asia. To whose passing
ran the Lord Jesus Christ with a multitude
of Angels, Christ running to meet him with Angels. and says to him: Well done Venantius,
good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.
And so with those Angelic choirs singing together
that holy soul penetrated the heights of the heavens. For of the blessed
man the fame of repute had so greatly grown,
that Hebrews, Greeks, and likewise Latins, rejoicing together in his glory,
exulted for his excellent merits. The Jews
also, who reject Christ, admired the faithful
servant of Christ: and extolling his life
with praises, commended it with worthy proclamations.
[6] By his suffrage therefore, dearest Brethren, with the whole striving
of the heart, let us commend ourselves to his prayers, his suffrage is sought. who
was the brother of our holy Father Honoratus in flesh, but
more truly brother in religion: let us study to follow his life and manners,
that by the intercession of his merits, we may avail
forever to live with him, our Lord
Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy
Spirit lives and reigns world without end.
Amen.