ON ST. LAUTENUS, CONFESSOR, ABBOT OF THE MONASTERY OF SIESIA IN THE TERRITORY OF BESANÇON,
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 6TH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Lautenus, abbot in the diocese of Besançon. (S.)
BY C. D. S.
§ I. His memory in the sacred fasti. His Life, written by a contemporary or nearly contemporary monk.
The name of St. Lautenus * does not occur in the pure Usuard, but in its supplements, the Anchin, Cluny and Altemps Acta SS., vol. VI of June, p. 643., at this day 1 November, Mention of St. Lautenus in the martyrologies and breviaries; his feast day. and at the day 2 in the supplements of Saint-Victor and of the Queen of Sweden Ibid., p. 646., as also in the supplements of the Martyrology of Bede, the Tournai and Barberini Acta SS., vol. II of March, p. XXXVII., with the title of abbot added in all these, except in the Cluny one, where only that of confessor is set. Arnold Wion, after the manner of most Benedictine writers, who wherever they read that some holy monk lived in the sixth century or later in Western Europe are accustomed at once to claim him for their order, inserted St. Lautenus in the Benedictine martyrology, at the day 3 November. He is followed by Ménard, Bucelin, Heredia, Cherle and Lechner, but they restore his memorial to day 2. At the same day 2 du Saussay and Ferrari recorded Lautenus; Castellano at day 1. At which day too the saint was praised in the martyrology of the church of Besançon Lives of the Saints of Franche-Comté, vol. III, p. 440.; but on 25 September in the old Breviary of Valladolid, as also in the Cluny one Mabillon, Acta SS. O.S.B., century II, p. LX., perhaps, as Dunod conjectured History of the Sequani, etc., part II, p. 126., because on this day his body was translated. His name is read also in the litanies of the diocese of Besançon accustomed to be recited in the 14th century, and his office was inserted in the breviary of the same church in the year 1761 by Cardinal de Choiseul. His feast day was once celebrated on 2 November; then by Urban VIII, at the request of the parish priest of the village of Saint-Lothain, it was transferred to day 3, and at length afterward by the authority of the bishop of Besançon to day 5 of the same month Saints of Franche-Comté, place cited..
[2] A Life written by some disciple of St. Lautenus, The Life of St. Lautenus was written by one of the monks brought up in one or the other of the monasteries which the saint founded, or rather, if we may give credit to most of the codices reporting it, by one of his disciples. For it is read in them See below, Life, no. 12.: But if ever the devil had put an evil thought in any of the brothers, us his disciples … In one Troyes codex Compare below no. 4., easily the most ancient of all those we have obtained, for the word nobis occurs nostris: by which variant reading the argument that was constructed from this word for defining the age of the writer becomes somewhat weaker. Nor would I say with the writers of the Lives of the Saints of the Sequani Lives of the Saints of Franche-Comté, vol. III, p. 429. that the author professes himself an eyewitness of the miracles of St. Lautenus, where he says Life, no. 12.: In truth we confess, calling God to witness, that God himself, the author of miracles, has declared through him many other signs, which on account of the length of the dictation and their own innumerability it seemed good to us to omit. For that he could thus call God as witness of the truth of his statements, it was not necessary that those things should have been done in his sight, but it was enough if he had learned them from the most suitable testimonies.
[3] or certainly by some contemporary or nearly contemporary monk, But even if it were granted that the reading nostris of the Troyes codex is to be preferred to the reading nobis of the other codices (why this does not seem probable to us will be clear from what is presently to be said about our codices No. 5.
the reader will easily understand), nevertheless from the twofold passage just praised I judge it to be no doubt that the writer of the Acts lived with those who had associated with the saint. For that so weighty attestation which we have just cited seems to indicate that his narrative was drawn not from written documents or oral tradition, but from the testimonies of those who themselves perceived the events by sight; and by the appellation our brothers he points sufficiently, not to those monks who had lived long before him, but rather to those with whom he himself was then living. Moreover this is signally confirmed from another passage, from which you may not improbably conclude that this same writer was also contemporary with St. Lautenus. For after he has related a certain prodigy, which had no witness except the holy abbot himself, he continues thus Life, end of no. 9.: This became known to us not as boastfully uttered by him, but he spoke it, as if for counsel, in the ear of his disciple Syagrius, who, instructed by him according to the rule of the holiness of that life, was familiar and of one mind with him. For what need was there for the writer to profess that he had not received these things from the saint's own mouth, if he had written so long after his death that he could not at all be supposed to have spoken with him? But he also so appeals to the authority of Syagrius, a man otherwise unknown and who certainly is not indicated to have left anything handed down in writing, that it is easily gathered that his testimony was taken from his own mouth. Rightly therefore and deservedly it may be pronounced that the author of the Life of Lautenus was contemporary or certainly nearly contemporary with the saint, and that he composed the whole series of his narrative according to the testimonies of his brother monks who had had St. Lautenus as their master, and consequently that his authority is to be held in the highest regard.
[4] It was first published in the year 1848; but now from eight codices or apographs That Life was first committed to print (though he did not indicate from which codex) thirty years ago by the venerable man Tissier, who then held the office of parish priest in the district called today Saint-Lothain, where namely the monastery of Siesia founded by the saint once stood [Life of Saint Lautein, Abbot of Silèze, by the Abbé T., parish priest of St-Lautein. Arbois 1848. In 32mo.]. For our edition altogether eight codices have been used, among which the first place in order of antiquity is claimed by Troyes 1248, of the 9th or early 10th century. There follow the codices Paris (national library) Latin 12601, of the 12th century, and Brussels (royal library) 9120, of the 13th century. The remaining five present apographs copied in the 17th century. One of these is found in the Paris codex Latin 11767, among the Lives collected by the Benedictines. The rest are preserved in a codex formerly of the Bollandist Museum, now of the Royal Library of Brussels, 8930, namely an apograph copied by our forebears from a certain Cluny breviary, which they noted had been written in the year 1017, and another transmitted to them by Father Fr. Chifflet from a codex of Gigny, with variant readings added from codices of Baume and of Saint-Bénigne of Dijon. And the Life which is read in the Brussels codex 8014 and in the codex 8930 already cited, copied from the Lectionary of Moissac, is a compendium of the longer Life that we are about to publish, adapted to the use of the monastic office: from which therefore there was no room for excerpting variant readings.
[5] the original form having been restored, as far as was permitted. Now to one collating the aforesaid eight copies with one another it will easily be established that not rarely the Troyes codex diverges on some words from all or most of the others, and indeed especially in those places where the variant reading of the other codices more shrinks from the correct usage of Latin speech [Compare no. 4, notes 4, 5; no. 9, notes 1, 6; no. 10, notes 5, 10; no. 12, note 6; no. 15, note 8; no. 16, note 4; no. 17, note 9]. He who has noticed this, and has at the same time considered that that barbarous kind of speaking was altogether customary among writers of the sixth century in Gaul, while on the contrary it seems by no means probable that copyists more recent than the tenth century would have undertaken, if they had had before their eyes some composition written in a more polished style, to adapt it, as if on purpose and by common consent, to that older barbarism, will easily be led to this opinion, so as to judge with us that in the Troyes codex there is not presented to us the pure and sound text of the original writer, but one emended and consequently somewhat adulterated. For it is our purpose above all, in publishing the Lives of the saints, to set before the reader's eyes the original form of each, as far as it can be fished out from a most exact collation of the codices. So, as far as concerns the Life of Lautenus, we have not thought that we should so cleave to the Troyes copy as not at times to set before it the agreeing authority of the other codices, especially the Paris 12601 and the Cluny, which both surpass the others in antiquity after the Troyes and most recall the Merovingian, as they say, kind of writing. For the rest, by continually subjoining to the text of the Life established by us a survey of all the variant readings excerpted from the several codices, we have taken pains that anyone may easily judge for himself which is to be preferred to the others, and, if something less right has been admitted by us in the text, may chastise it with the censor's rod.
Annotation* Commonly Lautein, Loutin, Lothin, Lothain, Lothein.
§ II. At what time St. Lautenus lived. On his birth and youth and his apprenticeship in the religious life.
Gregory of Langres, returning from Epaon, It is known how much trouble is given to more recent hagiographers by the negligence of their predecessors of the Middle Ages in this kind of labor, in assigning to what years the several things reported by them concerning some saint are to be attached. Nor does the matter stand otherwise in the Life of St. Lautenus. In which there is found one indication for defining the age of this saint, namely that it is read at the end that, a few days after Gregory, bishop of Langres, finishing a journey in Switzerland, had visited him, he died at seventy years of age on a Thursday, which then was on the Kalends of November Life, nos. 15–17.. Now Gregory of Langres died in the thirty-third year of his episcopate, at ninety years of age, as is read in his Life composed by Gregory of Tours: not before the year 538, in which year through his presbyter Evantius he subscribed the decrees of the Third Council of Orléans, nor long after this year, since Tetricus his successor is read in Venantius Fortunatus to have presided over the church of Langres for thirty-two years, and Papolus, who succeeded Tetricus, took part in the synod of Paris in the year 573 See Gallia Christiana, vol. IV, p. 519.. Rightly therefore they commonly enclose the prelacy of Gregory of Langres between the years 506 and 539 Ibid. and Acta SS., vol. I of January, p. 168.. Now in the 6th century before its middle there occur eight years having the dominical letter G or AG Art of Verifying Dates, vol. I, p. 11., in which therefore the day of the Kalends of November falls on a Thursday Ibid., p. 14., namely the years 501, 507, 512, 518, 529, 535, 540 and 546. Of these the first and the last two may be set aside from our consideration, on the basis of the time already defined of Gregory's episcopate. Further, it seems by no means probable that the Swiss journey was undertaken by Gregory in the year 507 or 512, in which the Arian Gundobad still ruled the kingdom of Burgundy. But Gundobad having died in the year 516, St. Sigismund, his son, who professed the Catholic faith with great zeal, at once took pains that the true religion should be cultivated by all in his kingdom and kept undefiled. For this reason he convened a council of bishops at Epaon, at which we gather that Gregory of Langres was present, from his subscription set to the Acts of this council Sirmond, Councils of Gaul, vol. I, p. 201; Mansi, Councils, vol. VIII, p. 564.. But we find no indication of any journey undertaken afterward by Gregory into these parts, nor does it seem probable that any was undertaken, especially since, Sigismund having been slain by the Franks in the year 524, and Godomar his successor, after many struggles, having been put to flight by the same in the year 532 and his kingdom occupied Compare A. Jahn, History of the Burgundians, vol. II, pp. 50–54., all things in that unhappy region were in the greatest disturbance, nor after the year 532 would it easily enter anyone's mind that Gregory, already eighty years old, girded himself for that journey.
[7] He met Lautenus a few days before the latter's death. And so, if it could be affirmed that the Council of Epaon was celebrated in the year 518, it could now scarcely be doubted that Lautenus died in this same year. For whether with Gelpke Church History of Switzerland, vol. I, p. 126 and following. and Hefele History of the Councils, vol. II (2nd edition), p. 681., after other older writers, you admit that Epaon was near Agaunum in the Swiss district of the Valais, or more probably with A. Jahn Volume cited, p. 141 and following. that that village was situated near Vienne in Gaul, for Gregory making for there or returning from there by the road which led from Langres to the lake of Lausanne or Geneva, the way was easy through the tract of Besançon. And since that synod was celebrated in the month of September, as is explicitly indicated in the subscription of Avitus, bishop of Vienne, who presided over it [Sirmond, Councils of Gaul, vol. I, p. 201; Mansi, Councils, vol. VIII, p. 564. Compare the next number.], Gregory on his return at the end of the month of October could also easily have met Lautenus at Grozon, which is a village not far from Poligny, situated between north and east, less than two leagues distant from the monastery of Siesia (today now the parish of Saint-Lothain) See the Map of Cassini, fol. L11..
[8] which, like the Council of Epaon, in the year 518 But the common opinion has long held that the synod of Epaon was gathered not in the year 518, but in the year 517, relying indeed on one argument, but a very weighty one, namely the just-cited subscription of Avitus of Vienne, where he says the Acts of the council were approved by him on the 17th day before the Kalends of the eighth month, Agapitus, a man of clarissimate rank, being Consul. Agapitus was consul in the western part of the empire in the year 517 See Mommsen, On the Chronographer of the Year 354, p. 668.; but the year 518 was without a consul and consequently is noted in the fasti as after the consulship of Agapitus Ibid.. Yet we must here recall what Gaetano Marini notes Diplomatic Papyri, p. 299, col. 2. and confirms by not so few examples from documents of the 6th and early 7th centuries, namely that a postconsulship was sometimes designated in those documents by the name of consulship: from which too, in the subscription of Avitus, the notation Agapitus being Consul would not prevent the supposition that the synod of Epaon was held after the consulship of Agapitus. And since we are wholly led to that conclusion from what is read in the Life
of ours, contemporary or nearly contemporary with St. Lautenus, we judge modestly, and saving a better judgment, that on account of the authority of this document we must now depart from the common opinion concerning the year in which the synod of Epaon was gathered, and that it took place only in the later year.
[9] it seems to have happened. Some keen-nosed investigator may perhaps object further that in the Troyes codex, to whose authority, as the most ancient of all our codices, very much is to be attributed, and in two others of our codices, Gregory bishop of Langres is not indicated, but less definitely Gregory, pope or bishop, nor again the same man returning from the parts of Switzerland, but hurrying to them. This latter variant reading, which is found in the Troyes codex alone, can scarcely seem doubtful as due to the copyist who wrote out the codex and wished to emend, not quite happily, what he found said in less correct Latin in his exemplar, properans partibus Genavensium. But even if this had been said by the first writer of the Life, certainly no one will wonder that this error was admitted by him about a matter of so little moment for his purpose, namely the edification of his brothers and of the other faithful. As for the omitted mention of the city of Langres, besides the fact that this lacuna too can not undeservedly be attributed to the copyist, something surely should be granted to the authority of the tradition expressed in the other four codices. Especially since, even if that mention were lacking in all, it could be supplied of their own accord by readers. For who, reading of a Bishop Gregory in Gaul at the time when monasteries were being built everywhere in that region, would not at once think of a prelate Gallo-Roman by birth and of the Merovingian age, and, when he hears that he had to pass through the tract of Besançon on going from his episcopal city to the parts of the Genevans, of that Gregory of Langres?
[10] [Lautenus was born about the year 450. Certain other things by more recent writers] And so we now judge it sufficiently certain that Lautenus departed from mortal life in the year 518 and consequently, since he was then in the seventieth year of his age Life, no. 15., that he began it about the year 450. He was born in the territory of the Aedui, of no lowly family Life, no. 2.. The other things that pertain to his first age (apart from the general praise of his virtue) could not be learned by the writer of the Life End of the Prologue., nor have they been handed down to memory by any other historical document. On conjectures alone, then, from that Aeduan origin and from the above-mentioned meeting of Lautenus with Gregory, bishop of Langres, his contemporary (inasmuch as he died about the year 539 at ninety years of age), rest the further things which the writers of the Lives of the Saints of the Sequani, to be cited more than once, have reported more distinctly: namely that Lautenus sprang from a senatorial house, and that he gave his effort to letters at Autun together with Gregory, with whom he was joined in close friendship; and that he had St. Euphronius, bishop of Autun, as master of Christian perfection, and by his counsel gave his name to the monastic profession when he was twenty-six years old, in the monastery of St. Symphorian at Autun Lives of the Saints of Franche-Comté, vol. III, pp. 421–423..
[11] what is handed down about his history is too uncertain or certainly false. Nor on any more solid foundation does Mabillon say that Lautenus embraced the religious life in another Aeduan monastery Benedictine Annals, vol. I, p. 32 (book I, no. 79)., and Gabriel Bucelin Benedictine Menology, p. 752. that he spent his novitiate in the monastery of Baume and succeeded Abbot Lawrence in ruling this monastery. For who that Abbot Lawrence was, to whose instructions Lautenus submitted himself Life, no. 3., is learned from no source. Rightly too the writers of the Lives of the Saints of the Sequani Vol. III, p. 597. reject the opinion of Doncieux In the manuscript History cited below, p. 283, note 5., who judged that St. Lautenus lived at least for some time in the monastery of Baume, led only by this argument, that he thinks that monastery was founded before the end of the 5th century, which he strives to demonstrate from this, that in the Life of St. Odo, written by John of Cluny, it is read of the monastery of Baume: There were founders of the same place, imitators of a certain father Eutychius Acta SS. O.S.B., century V, p. 158.; and Doncieux makes Eutychius a disciple of St. Benedict. But Mabillon has long since taught that that Eutychius is the same as St. Benedict of Aniane, who lived at the beginning of the 9th century Ibid., century IV, part II, p. 570., and it is sufficiently established that the Benedictine Rule was first introduced into the Gauls by St. Maurus a little before the middle of the 6th century, and consequently after the death of Lautenus. Finally, among the fables must be utterly dismissed also what Dunod read in a certain Cartulary of Luxeuil, namely that St. Lautenus came to Luxeuil to visit St. Columban History of the Sequani, etc., Part II, p. 126., since Columban founded the monastery of Luxeuil in the year 592, that is, more than seventy years after the death of Lautenus.
§ III. On the monasteries founded by St. Lautenus.
Two monasteries founded by Lautenus: So of the religious conduct and abbatial rule of St. Lautenus we know nothing besides what is read in the anonymous writer of his Life. It only remains to inquire about the site of the two monasteries founded by him.
[13] one at Silèze, now Saint-Lothain; the other at Maximiacum, on whose site And indeed, as for the one, there is no doubt that it was built at Siesia or Silezia, which village afterward took its name from St. Lautenus and retains it to this day Chevalier, History of Poligny, vol. II, p. 216.. But the monastery of Maximiacum founded by Lautenus Mabillon pronounces without hesitation to be the same as the priory which he says has retained the name of Maximiacum Acta SS. O.S.B., century V, p. 88., in the vernacular Mesnay (or Moisnay). This opinion we judge the more probable because the anonymous writer of the Life indicates No. 15. that the holy abbot, going from Maximiacum to Siesia, passed through the village of Grozon, which is in fact situated on the road from the place now called Mesnay to Saint-Lautein Map of Cassini, fol. L11.. Nor certainly ought it to cause any difficulty that Mabillon places each monastery in the district of Autun, since there is no doubt what places he means to signify, and the name of district is often used by many more recent writers as a synonym of the word tract, in a very wide and uncertain sense, and one wishing to refer the site of each of the two villages just mentioned to some chief city would assign them with almost equal right to the district or tract of Autun and of Besançon: for they are not much further from Autun than from Besançon.
[14] different opinions are proposed. From the same chapter 14 of the Life of Lautenus those are refuted who would have Maximiacum be the same as Bouilly Chevalier, vol. II, p. 241. or Baume [Dunod, History of the Church of Besançon, vol. II, pp. 98, 99; History of the Sequani, part II, p. 126.] or some other monastery separated from the village of Saint-Lothain by an interval of two leagues toward the south and west [D. Monnier in the Annuaire du Jura, the year 1843 (cited in Lives of the Saints of Franche-Comté, vol. III, p. 599).]: for from none of these places would one making a journey to Saint-Lothain have to go by the village of Grozon. By the same argument, indeed, Doncieux [In a manuscript History of the monastery of Baume written in the year 1576 (cited ibid.).] cannot be refuted, who likens Maximiacum to Arbois, from which the village of Mesnay is no more than two kilometers away; but since the form of the name differs so much, and there are no other foundations of his opinion except that a priory of the Order of St. Benedict once existed at Arbois (which, however, is never found to have been joined by any bond with the monastery of Siesia or Saint-Lothain), this too seems deservedly to be removed.
[15] He died at seventy years of age, on 1 November. On the fortunes of the monastery of Silèze after Lautenus see Barthélemy Hauréau in Gallia Christiana Vol. XV, pp. 132, 133.. Mabillon indicates Benedictine Annals, vol. I, p. 33. that in his time the cell of Maximiacum together with that of Silèze was subject to the abbey of Baume under the congregation of Cluny. — Certain other things brought forward by more recent writers concerning the monastic life of St. Lautenus you will find among the Annotations to his Acts. That his holy death occurred on a Thursday, which was then on the Kalends of November, the same Acts indicate, and indeed in the year of the Christian era 518, which seems to have been sufficiently demonstrated above § II..
§ IV. On the relics of St. Lautenus.
[The body of St. Lautenus, buried at Silèze, is first raised at the end of the 9th century;] That the body of St. Lautenus was buried at Silèze and that the holy abbot had already been deemed worthy of the honors of the blessed at the beginning of the 10th century is clearly gathered from a diploma given by Rudolf, king of Transjurane Burgundy, on 10 December of the year 904 (or 903) Compare Bréquigny, Tables of Diplomas, vol. I, p. 365., by which he granted to Berno, founder or restorer and abbot of the monastery of Baume, among other possessions, a certain little cell, in which rests St. Lautenus, the precious confessor Mabillon, Acta SS. O.S.B., century V, p. 69., which in the testament of St. Berno too, which seems to have been made in the year 926, is named the Cell which is called of St. Lautenus Ibid., p. 86., and this place has retained the name of St. Lautenus to our days. Not improbably the writers of the Lives of the Saints of the Sequani Saints of Franche-Comté, vol. III, p. 437. have conjectured that the elevation of the body of St. Lautenus was made at the beginning of the 10th century, when St. Berno restored the church of Silèze destroyed by the Northmen in the year 888 or 889: at which time perhaps too there was carved on the stone sarcophagus in which the body was enclosed this inscription: Here rests St. Lautenus, abbot. That sarcophagus, of which a little more distinctly will be said below No. 21., seems to have been placed at that time in the choir of the monastery church (now the crypt of the parish church) at the left part of the altar, on which common tradition held that St. Lautenus often offered the sacrifice of the Mass, and, as veneration toward the holy abbot grew from day to day, it was soon surrounded with many lamps, one of which consisted of nine lights, and popular report affirmed that a miraculous oil flowed from it Dunod, History of the Sequani, part II, p. 126..
[17] [then again at the end of the 11th century, and the greater part of it is laid in the monastery of Baume.] Again [What follows (nos. 17–20) has been drawn from Chevalier, History of Poligny, vol. II, p. 219 and following. From him they have been reported, with some things added relating to more recent times, by Tissier, Life of Saint Lautein, p. 55 and following, and by the writers on the Lives of the Saints of the Sequani, vol. III, pp. 438–440, whom we too have followed.] the relics of Lautenus were raised with solemn pomp and exposed to public veneration at the end of the 11th century. It is credible that this elevation was made by the authority of the abbot of Baume, to whom at that time the priory of Silèze or Saint-Lothain had long been subject Compare Gallia Christiana, vol. XV, p. 132., and that at the same time there were laid in the monastery of Baume the head and a great part of the holy body, which, placed at the right side of the high altar [Doncieux, History of the abbey of Baume (manuscript), cited in Lives of the Saints of the Sequani, vol. III, p. 600. Compare Miraeus, Belgian and Burgundian Fasti, p. 40.], are seen in that church today.
[18] [The third translation of the relics in the village of Saint-Lothain in the year 1641, distinguished by a miracle.] The rest of the body of St. Lautenus remained in the church of Saint-Lothain, laid in a wooden casket above the high altar. This casket, on 11 May of the year 1635, German and Lorraine soldiers, entering the church at the height of the war and thinking, as may be conjectured, that some precious things were hidden in it, threw down from there with their spears. The casket being broken, the relics were scattered on the step of the altar: these however, on the evening of the same day, the enemy withdrawing, the parish priest Tolosanus gathered, and, lest they be exposed again to the danger of profanation, enclosed them in a wooden chest and hid them under a stone of the pavement of the choir; and there they remained until 15 April of the year 1641. On that day, most of those who had been witnesses of their secret deposition six years before standing by, they were publicly raised and identified. This elevation was made distinguished by a miracle obtained by the intercession of St. Lautenus. A blind woman, namely, from the village of Miéry, hearing that the bones of the holy abbot had been raised from the earth, and that by his work sight had once been restored to the blind, with the greatest confidence of obtaining the same benefit asked to be brought to Saint-Lothain. When she had reached there, she asked the parish priest to offer the sacrifice of the Mass for that intention, and for three days she did not cease to visit the church and to pour out fervent prayers to God before the saint's relics. Nor in vain: for on the third day, obtaining the reward promised by Christ to those persevering in faith and prayer, she suddenly received the lost use of her eyes. This prodigy happened on 15 May of the year 1641, and the parish priest drew up an authentic instrument of it, to which he himself subscribed with three other witnesses.
[19] The fourth in the same place at the end of the 18th century. Then in the year 1793 the sacred remains, hidden again in the crypt of the church, escaped the eyes of the impious and their sacrilegous hands, and shortly afterward, some sort of peace having been restored to the Catholic religion in France, they were returned to their former place in the innermost wall of the apse above the high altar. There are contained in the reliquary a whole femur and a fragment of the shoulder, besides two jawbones and some vertebrae. Separately placed are two little bones, one in a certain silver base supporting an effigy of St. Lautenus, the other in an ancient image of the same saint's head, which has been placed in the crypt.
[20] The patronage of St. Lautenus invoked against the inclemency of the weather It used formerly to be the custom in the church of Saint-Lothain, on the occasion of excessive drought or flooding of rains or other public calamities, to expose the sacred casket, let down from its place in the presence of someone from the monastery of Saint-Lothain or rather of Baume delegated for this, and at the same time to show for public veneration in the church of Baume the saint's relics preserved there, and to sing a solemn Mass in his honor. Then with solemn pomp they came from the neighboring districts either to Saint-Lothain or to Baume, and prayed the holy patron to bring them help. In our days, however, there is no longer so frequent a concourse of the people to the relics of Lautenus. Yet he is still venerated by the inhabitants of that region as chief patron, and in public calamities many assemble at his tomb. Which was done not so long ago, namely in the year 1853, when an excessive abundance of rain caused the greatest fear that the crops committed to the ground would wretchedly perish, not without the success hoped for by those invoking him.
[21] The present Of the tomb of St. Lautenus preserved to our days the venerable man Tissier wrote this in the year 1848 Life of St. Lautein, p. 55.: state of his tomb. His (St. Lautenus's) body was placed in a sarcophagus of stone of Vergennes, six feet and two inches long, which consists of two stones, namely the sepulchral chest itself and the lid. The lid is still whole and marked with this inscription:
HERE RESTS
ST. LAUTENUS, ABBOT.
But the chest itself in which the body had been laid is broken and both lateral parts are lost: yet the lid is sufficiently supported by the end parts. The sarcophagus, thus mutilated, is seen in the underground crypt under the choir of the parish church of Saint-Lothain. This crypt was in antiquity the church of the monks, over which the present church has been built. Although, disfigured by new structures often added, it has now wholly lost the appearance of antiquity, yet there are still seen some traces which indicate that it was built in the ninth or at the latest in the tenth century. In the same crypt is seen a stone altar carved in fairly rough work, which St. Lautenus seems to have used for celebrating the most holy mysteries. That crypt was restored in the year 1822, and from that time the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated there at times, especially on the feast day of St. Lautenus and when in the winter time the cold rages more bitterly.
LIFE OF ST. LAUTENUS.
Lautenus, abbot in the diocese of Besançon. (S.)
BHL Number: 4800
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
There have been used for establishing the text of this Life the codices: 1. Troyes, of the 9th or 10th century; 2. Paris 12601, of the 12th century; 3. Brussels 9120, of the 13th century; 4. Paris 11767, of the 17th century, and the apographs preserved in Brussels 8930, namely from the codices 5. Cluny, 6. Gigny, 7. Saint-Bénigne of Dijon, and 8. Baume. — Compare the Preliminary Commentary, nos. 3, 4.
[The deeds of the saints are to be imitated. Some things passed over in the Life of St. Lautenus, because unknown.] Here begins the prologue of the Life in vita 3. of St. Lautenus, abbot [(Incipit-abbatis) omits 2, 4–7, and 2, 7, 8 omit the whole prologue; but in 4 it is moved to the end of the Life.]. — It is good to hear and read the deeds of the conduct of the holy fathers who have gone before (p. s. pr.) s. p. pr. 3., but it is best to accomplish them in the performance of the work, as John testifies teste 3–6., who speaks in his Apocalypse: Blessed is he who reads, and they who hear audit 3, 4. the words of this omits 1. prophecy libri adds 4. and keep servat 3, 4. the things omits 6. that are written in it. Hence too omits 6. the Lord in the Gospel: Every one who hears my words and does them omits 3–6. is like a prudent man who built his house upon super 3, 6. the rock. On the other hand At contra 6., of hearers and not doers it follows: But he who hears and does not do is like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. Therefore one who desires omits 1. to be wise must take heed that et 6. he be made not only a hearer auditoribus 4. with the foolish, but rather a performer of the commands of God with the prudent workers operarius 6.. So taking up quominus recitarem loco adds 4. the Life of blessed Lautenus, abbot, I beseech quæsumus 3; quis 6. the reader not non 6. to shrink from it because of some things passed over, namely et adds 4–6. because of omits 3. the lineage of his family, the place of his instruction, and the time of his birth, which are therefore not specifically set down indicata 4., because they could not be learned by us. Here ends the prologue (E. p.) omits 3–6..
[2] Lautenus from youth given to the pursuit of all virtues Here begins the Life of St. Lautenus, abbot (Incipit-abbatis) omits 2–6.. — There was a man of venerable life (v. v. v.) vir vit. ven. 3, 4., Lautenus by name, sprung from the territory of the Aedui, of no lowly family. In the very in adds 1. time of his youth, not pursuing wantonness, but following the footsteps of venerable fathers and bending the ear non lubricis næniis aurem 6–8. of the heart to their warnings, he showed in his morals what he was to be in his actions. For he was strong in chastity, not only of body omits 6; corpore 7. before men, but also omits 6. of mind mente 6, 7. before God: in charity caritatem 3, 4, 7; quoque adds 1; vero adds 7. chiefly, holding it fixed fixam 4. in his heart that he should love Christ with fear and fear him with love (et-timeret) omits 7.. Watchful in prayers, strong in fasts, assiduous in psalmodies, most frequent in divine readings, supreme in humility, following that (s. i.) i. s. 4. Gospel word: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest æternam adds 6. for your souls. It was his delight that for him Christo 3, 4. to live should be Christ, and to die gain a.
[3] under the discipline of Abbot Lawrence, then embraces the hermit life. For according to omits 4. the rule of the divine sanctarum 4. Scriptures, unwilling volens 6. to become a master before autem 3, 4. he was esse 4. a disciple antequam 3., he submitted himself to the instructions of the holy and religious master, the man Lawrence Lauteni 6., abbot b. Placed under his mastery, like a skilled farmer he cultivated the field of his mind and body in a brief time in all spiritual exercises, so that now, without the solace of others, relying on God's help alone, he sought the hermit life, to fight against the multitude of malignant spirits (m. s.) s. m. 3, 4., there to dwell habiturus 3. solus adds 1..
[4] He puts demons to flight; Then the devil dæmon 4. himself, envious of good operum adds 1, 3–8. things, began to thrust himself omits 1. before his eyes miscere 6, 8; apparere 1., no longer secretly but openly (s. p.) omits 5., trying to terrify him with his deceptive devices. For he stood ipse sathan adds 1. before him as he prayed with a great multitude of his henchmen, sending forth sounds of the voices of various beasts, namely of lions ursorum adds 1, 6–8., of wolves and of the other
wild beasts bestiarum 3, 4.. But the holy Domini 3, 7. man, fearing none of these, turning to God Dominum 4, 6–8. said: Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee from your face. They at once, fleeing, vanished like smoke.
[5] he leads an austere life; And when he saw the army of demons rising consurgere 1, 3, 4, 6–8. against him so most savagely sæpissime 4., he began to exercise himself the more in omits 6–8. abstinence from food and frequency of vigils: so that adeo ut 8. now in the days of one omits 3. Lent et adds 4. he ate only twice in the week et adds 5., namely only little porridges of barley, in another Lent he used omits 1; (p. u.) u. p. 6–8, dried fruits, and in the third (i. t.) interea 2. vegetables not yet cooked. But of the frugality (d. p.) parcimoniam 1. of his continence, a few things having been said out of many, we must come, the Lord helping annuente 8., to the order of the narrative of his signs.
[6] He heals a demon-possessed presbyter. At that same time a presbyter, Gallicanus by name, was being vexed by a demon. He, hearing the report of his ejus 3, 4. holiness, came to him, begging that he would confer health on him by his blessing. Then he said: You are a presbyter, I am autem 1, 3–8. a monk. I ask that you omits 1, 3. bless me. And when there was a contest between them, each asking to be blessed omits 3. by ab 5. the other, the holy man (s. v.) v. s. 3. gave him oil and ordered him to anoint himself (s. p.) p. s. 3, 4. with it. And the presbyter, taking omits 3–8. it illud 3, 4., anointed perunxit 3, 4. himself, and at once the demon departed from him.
[7] He founds monasteries at Silèze and Maximiacum. Meanwhile Interim 4. the fame of his illius 3. holiness began to run about more widely everywhere and to resound far and wide, and many began cœperunt enim 4. to leave the world and to submit themselves to his mastery monasterio 3; (i. m.) m. i. 1., so that at Siesia omits 2, a blank space being left; so 4, 5. seventy monks were seen gathered to serve the Lord. He also autem 4. built omits 3. another monastery in a place in loco 3, 4. whose name is Maximiacum Maxiacus 4., where there were about forty disciples; all strong in abstinence, in vigils, in obedience, and in all other actibus 1, 3–5; actionibus 6, 7. good things c.
[8] An outstanding example of blind obedience, proved by a miracle. And because mention of the obedience of his disciples has come up, it must be said of one of them what he was in the virtue of the aforesaid obedience, that in him the obedience of the rest may be laid open. For on a certain day an oven had been lit and was being prepared for baking bread: and he ordered one of them, Pharadeus Pharado 4. by name, to go in and clean it, that it might be (a. e.) e. a. 1, 3. fit for loaves coquendis adds 3.. He, whose custom it was to obey all his illius 3, 4. precepts, without any delay (d. a.) a. d. 3. went in, to carry out the father's command. The God of heaven is witness that, as he went in unharmed, so he came out unharmed, and the bread after his illius 3; ejus 6–8. going out (i. e.) e. i. 1. was perfectly baked d.
[9] St. Lautenus kills a scorpion by prayer; At another time too, as he sat cum resideret 1. alone in his cell cellula 1, 3–5., there appeared before him a most monstrous scorpion, making a thrust to strike him. But he, bending his knees in prayers, said to the Lord: Rescue me, O Lord, from the man (a. v.) ab homine 3, 4. iniquitous malo 4. and deceitful, who sharpens his tongue like a serpent, setting up battle against me, to trip my steps (g. m.) me 1.. And making the sign (f. s.) facto signo 1. of the cross against it, with the invocation of the name of Christ (cum inv.-eum) contra eum cum inv. nom. Chr. 1, 4, 5., it burst into four parts. This became known to us not as boastfully uttered by him (a. i. p.) p. a. i. 3; ab ipso proferri 4.; but he spoke it, as if for counsel, in the ear of his disciple Syagrius Fiagrio 4; Sagriario 6., who, instructed by him illo 3. according to the rule of the holiness of that life, was familiar familior 3; familiarior 4. and of one mind with him.
[10] he heals a robber wounded by a serpent; And at one time robbers were coming with plunder from the fortress of Dijon Dunonensi 2; Dunonense 4; Dimonensi 3., and, at the instigation of one of them, it was agreed among them that they would seize him and torment eum adds 3, 4. him, unless omits 3, 4. he gave up tribuerent 3. the treasure which they thought he had. And as they were hurrying there (e. p.) eis properantibus 1, 3, 4., the very instigator of their illius 1; omits 5. malice was struck by a serpent. When cum 1, 4, 5. they reached pervenissent 1, 3–5. him, casting themselves provoluti 1; se provolventes 3–8. at his feet, they begged pardon. And he (a. i.) omits 5., as he abounded in the bowels of mercy misericordia 4–8. (m. v.) v. m. 3., et adds 1. pardoned them from the heart and healed the man who had been struck.
[11] he restores sight to a blind man; A certain blind boy, Leontius Aleoncius 6. by name, of about six years, was brought to him, and as soon as he anointed his eyes with oil (o. e. o.) ejus oculos oleo 3, 4; eum oleo 1., the blindness of night (c. n.) cæcitate noctis 1, 5–8; cæcitatis nocte 3, 4. being driven out, the longed-for light came advenit 1, 3–8.. Then the blessed man groaned and said: These, O Christ, are your rewards opera 3, 4., these your gifts, your bounties, and tua 3, 4. your promises, as sic 6. you yourself deign to thunder to those believing in you through the Gospel: He who believes in me, he says, the works that I do he too shall do here 2 ends.. You alone are the eternal King, you alone do great wonders.
[12] he performs many other miracles; In truth we confess, calling God Dominum 6; Domini 4. to witness (a. t.) t. a. 3, 4., that God himself, the author of miracles, has declared declarabit 6. through him many other signs, which on account of the length of the dictation and their own innumerability numerositatem 3. it seemed good to us omits 3, 4. to omit. Many beset by demons he freed by his prayers, he opened the eyes of many blind, he healed the sicknesses of many; to the deaf he gave hearing, to the mute he gave reddidit 1. speech. But if ever the devil had put in the heart of any of the brothers omits 3, 4., us nostris 1. his disciples, an evil suam 6. thought, anxiety, sadness, or anger, or cupidity of money, or sleepiness, none of these was hidden from him eum 3., but to each he disclosed his thoughts, words and deeds actaque 3, 4, 6–8..
[13] He applies himself unweariedly to the exercises of prayer and penance. He himself ceased from praises, hymns and spiritual songs neither neque 4; in adds 5. by day nor neque 3, 4. by night, nor at the very time of sleeping, truly singing: I sleep and my heart watches. He was cheerful hilari 5. of countenance, tranquil in mind et adds 1., never sad, ever full of charity, loving-kindness omits 1. and mercy. He so sacrificed mactaret 3; aptavit 6–8; affecit 1–4. himself in fasts, vigils vigiliisque 6. and excessive abstinences that the merit of martyrdom is believed not ei non 3; non ei 4. to have been lacking (c. n. d.) non defuisset 1. to him omits 3, 4..
[14] He is ordained presbyter when already fifty years old. And when the time of his age had come adfuisset 3, 4. that he had now passed not omits 6. less, but more plus quam 3, 4, 7, 8; omits 6. than a space of fifty years, God willing, by the request obtentum 3. of the brothers he was ordained presbyter by the holy prelate Amantius (ant. Am.) Am. ant. 3, 4. e. So he lived more in omits 3, 4, 6–8. the monastery of Maximiacum Maxiacensi 4., but in days of fasting et adds 1., desiring to complete the course of a stricter life, he returned reverti cœpit 6. to Siesia Siensie 4; Siesiam 5–8..
[15] [In the 70th year of his age, the nearness of the day of his death being known by revelation, he receives St. Gregory of Langres.] Finally in the seventieth year of his omits 3. age, residing at Maximiacum Maximia 6., the Lord revealed to him through his angel the day of his death. Then et 4., going out from there, he began to return to Siesia Siensie 4; Siesiam 5–8.. And when he had drawn near appropinquaret 6. to Grozon Gransonem (ad omitted) 6–8., St. Gregory, pope episcopus Lingonicæ civitatis 3–5; Lingonensis episcopus 8., met him, hurrying to the parts ad partes 1. of the Genevans Genevensium 4, 8; Genuensium 1. f. And the holy prelate said to him: Behold, the Lord has fulfilled the desire of his servant (s. s.) sui servi 6–8., that et adds 6. I should see you in this life (v. v.) vid. vita 3, 4., and should meet you, bidding farewell to one about to depart. And embracing with the kiss of peace, for joy they bathed each other with tears.
[16] A few days later, as he had foretold, at Siesia It was the first day of the week, which is called the day of the Lord's resurrection. They spent the whole day in conversations about God and the service of his commands. Now on the second day of the week, bidding farewell valedicens 8. to the same venerable pontiff and to all who were there, and receiving the blessing of all, he said to a certain presbyter, Victorius Victorino 8. by name, a familiar of his, who was present there: On the fifth day of this week bring me a shroud from the monastery (a. m.) ad monasterium 6–8., because my omits 5–8. corpse must be laid down (q. d. e. c.) ad deponendum corpus 1. in its place; and so inde 8. he hurried to Siesia Siensie 4; Siesiam 5–8..
[17] he dies piously on the Thursday, the Kalends of November. So he spent those illuc 3, 4. three days duxit 7. in prayers, and made a discourse sermonem 3. of exhortation, not short parum 6., to the brothers. When therefore the fifth day of the week came, which then was (t. f.) f. t. 3–5. the Kalends of November g, entering the oratory, he fortified himself semetipsum 3, 4. by the reception of the body and blood of Christ, and, placed in prayers oratione 3, 4., about to enter the heavenly kingdoms (c. r.) regna cœlorum 3, 4., he went out from the body, our nostro adds 3. Lord Jesus Christ (D. J. C.) Dominus Jesus Christus 1, 6. receiving suscepitque 1; suscipiens 6. him eum 6. with his suis adds 7. angels, who, coeternal and consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns God through all ages of ages.
Amen Here ends the life of St. Lautenus, confessor, adds 3..