ON SAINT SILVIUS
BISHOP OF TOULOUSE IN GAUL.
From the Life of S. Exuperius his successor.
CENTURY IV
CommentarySilvius, Bishop of Toulouse in Gaul (S.)
G. H.
Philippus Ferrarius in the general
Catalogue on this
day XXXI of May has these things:
At Toulouse of S. Silvius
Bishop of the same
city. Sacred cult on 31 May, And he annotates
that he hands these things on
from the records of the Bishops
of the City of Toulouse, and
from the booklet of proper Offices
of the Toulouse Church. We have the said Offices,
by command of Carolus de Montchal Archbishop of Toulouse recognized,
and in the year MDCXLVII reprinted, in which are prescribed
the proper Lessons, in the second Nocturn at Matins to be recited,
and these almost from the Life of S. Exuperius the Bishop successor,
on the day XXVIII September to be illustrated, taken,
which here we give.
[2] Silvius, Bishop of Toulouse, of B. Hilary his predecessor
following the splendid footsteps, The church in honor of S. Saturninus by him begun to be built. his and the people's
zeal toward the holy Pontiff Saturninus
he much fostered and promoted. For when he noticed,
that with frequency of the faithful sepulchres next to S. Saturninus's
sepulchre were built, fearing lest after some time,
on account of the multitude of sepulchres, some doubt
might arise about S. Saturninus's sepulchre itself; with himself
seriously, of carrying out and elsewhere more honorably placing
the Relics of so great a Martyr, began to think.
Wherefore with much money heaped up and collected from every side,
with great expenses and outlay, of the temple
of Toulouse, not such as it now is (for in later
centuries to this magnitude, in which it is seen, it was built)
but of whatever sort he is said to have laid the foundations,
and in part to have built. To the summit however
he was not able to bring it intercepted by death: wherefore that
begun work he left to his successor to be completed.
This was S. Exuperius, who that temple not only
completed, but in it also of S. Saturninus the blessed pledges,
with great veneration, took care to be brought. Of Silvius
himself the tomb in the aforesaid temple
after no few centuries was found, the sepulchre of S. Silvius found, in the year namely one thousand
two hundred sixty-fifth, on the Nones of October.
There were also found in the same place sepulchres
of S. Papulus the Martyr, and of SS. Honoratus and Hilarius the Toulouse
Antistites. From those then were drawn the bodies
of these four Saints, and in other monuments,
outside the dug-up earth above raised up
placed, in that part of the temple, which is below S. Saturninus's
monument or chapel. So there, which Nicolaus
Bertrandi, in the Acts of the Tolosanians, published in the year MDXV, thus
briefly touches: S. Silvius also was Bishop
of Toulouse. He began the church of S. Saturninus,
which S. Exuperius completed, just as
is written in the Acts of S. Exuperius. The body of S. Silvius in the same
church rests, in his proper stone tomb,
below the same crypt above the ground. His birthday
is recalled on the day before the Kal. of June. The rest about the Discovery
and Elevation are said XXI May at the Acts of S. Hilary Bishop
of Toulouse. S. Saturninus is venerated XXIX November.
Saussajus in the Gallican Martyrology on this XXXI May
writes: At Toulouse the laying-down of S. Silvius Bishop and Confessor,
to whose deposition is sacred the day XVII February. Time of his See.
But he is much deceived. S. Silvinus Bishop
of some uncertain See, from this S. Silvius is plainly other, and
his Acts we gave on the said XVII February, and we said
he died around the year DCCXX. But S. Silvius of Toulouse
flourished in the fourth century of Christ. His next successor
the Sammarthani establish as Rodanius, whom others put before,
and assert that immediately succeeded S. Exuperius,
who very intimate with S. Hieronymus until the year CCCCVII
lived.