ON ST. PAPULUS, MARTYR, IN THE PAGUS OF LAURAGAIS IN OCCITANIA,
THIRD CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Papulus, martyr in the pagus of Lauragais, in Occitania. (S.)
BY G. V. H.
§ I. The liturgical tradition of the church of Toulouse concerning St. Papulus.
Those about to treat of St. Papulus meet an enormous difficulty straightway at the threshold. For we are destitute of any sufficiently clear and firm knowledge of the deeds of the holy man, No ancient Acts of St. Papulus survive. of the time in which he lived, and of the dignity he held. Ancient documents are lacking; no authentic or genuine Acts of St. Papulus survive. For whatever comes under the name of Acts of St. Papulus lacks the mark of antiquity. We are thus driven into such straits that we must of necessity confess ourselves to be of the opinion that, apart from Papulus's outstanding sanctity and glorious martyrdom and the ecclesiastical cult paid to the holy martyr for many centuries past, almost nothing about him can be proved with such weight of reasons that no room for doubt is left. I would not have these words taken as if anyone should suppose that I bid the traditions of the most holy church of Toulouse be abandoned, which I venerate and embrace, yet with that reverence which can be joined to a holy love of truth. For the saints, and above all the God of the saints, love the pursuit of truth; they do not love the lightness of a credulous heart.
[2] The traditions of the church of Toulouse The traditions of the church of Toulouse (under which the town distinguished by the name of St. Papulus was * ) are known chiefly from the liturgical books, the adornment of the churches, and the form and solemnity of the cult. We shall therefore try faithfully to search out from the usage of this church what can be believed about St. Papulus. — The modern Proper of the Saints from the Breviary of the archiepiscopal church of Toulouse appoints for the third day of November the feast of St. Papulus, presbyter and martyr. In the lesson of the second Nocturn I read the following: Papulus is reckoned among the chief disciples and companions of St. Saturninus, first bishop of the people of Toulouse. With such virtue and such success did he labour under this fervent apostle that Saturninus did not hesitate to commit to his care the newly born Church of Toulouse itself, while, discharging an embassy for Christ, he travelled abroad to preach the gospel of the heavenly kingdom. In the very place which afterwards retained his name he consummated his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head.
[3] from the breviaries The Breviary of Toulouse of Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse (of the year 1784), on the feast of St. Papulus, martyr, has the same as far as the words: the gospel of the heavenly kingdom. It then goes on thus: What he did or what he suffered in asserting the faith in these regions is not entirely established; but at least that he sealed this testimony of faith by the shedding of his blood, all acknowledge. In the very territory of the people of Toulouse, a day's journey distant from the city, he consummated his martyrdom. The proper Offices of the saints of the church and diocese of Toulouse, published by order of the illustrious and most reverend lord Charles Antoine de la Roche-Aymon, archbishop of Toulouse, at Toulouse by Cl. Æg. Le Camus 1744, on the feast of St. Papulus, martyr, hand down the following for reading: Papulus, a youth of Antioch, having set out from Rome with St. Saturninus, first bishop of the people of Toulouse, intending to go to the city of Toulouse, both were cast into prison at Carcassonne by Ruffinus the judge of Carcassonne, and being freed from it by divine aid, at length reached Toulouse. When they had enlightened very many there with the torch of the gospel, Saturninus, about to make for the Spains, parted from Papulus and commended to him the flock of Toulouse. And while Saturninus lingered for two years in those shores, Papulus devoted vigorous effort, both at Toulouse and in the neighbouring places, to increasing the flock of Christ. Wherefore, while he applied himself ever more earnestly to spreading the Christian faith, he was seized by the pagans and, having been subjected to insults and various tortures, he completed his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head, in that place which afterwards retained the name of Papulus himself. The severed head, lifted in his hands, he carried to a neighbouring spring under the guidance of an angel. There the traces of the knees and hands on which he leaned when about to be beheaded are said to have remained impressed upon a stone. In the Proper of the basilica of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse (of the year 1672), on the 3rd day of November, on the feast of St. Papulus, martyr, in the lessons IV and V of the second Nocturn, the same is read word for word.
[4] and missals, The Missal for the use of the metropolitan church of St. Stephen of Toulouse, most recently revised and corrected with no mean diligence and study by the most learned and wise Chapter of the said cathedral church of Toulouse (1524), contains on the feast of St. Papulus, martyr, the following prayer: Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who keep the feast of blessed Papulus, your martyr and PONTIFF, may by his intercession be strengthened in the love of your name. In the Toulouse Missal of the year 1490, under Archbishop Pierre de Lion, St. Papulus is called PONTIFF and martyr, with the same prayer that we have just copied from the missal of the year 1524, in which he is called pontiff and martyr. Beyond the year 1490 it has been possible neither for us, nor for the priest G. Redon, as he himself testifies in the historical pamphlet which he wrote on St. Papulus, bishop and martyr, in the year 1874 G. Redon, Saint Papoul, évêque et martyr (Castelnaudary 1874)., to pursue the traditions of the church of Toulouse in the liturgical books.
[5] especially from the Missal of the year 1490, How important the testimony of the Toulouse Missal printed in the year 1490 is, everyone will understand from what is said in the preface of this book, which we report here in summary from the cited pamphlet of the venerable G. Redon. The necessity lay upon Pierre de Lion of committing this missal to print, as the wishes of all had long been demanding. For at that time much disorder had arisen in liturgical usage and in the celebration of the holy mysteries. For the missal books, worn and torn with age, swarmed with very many errors owing to the carelessness of copyists; certain Offices had been moved from their places. The archbishop accordingly determined to apply every effort to correcting the errors, and having enlisted in aid the venerable Pierre du Rosier, doctor of both laws, provost of the church of Toulouse, abbot of Montolieu, with the concurrence of the chapter of the holy metropolitan church, after long and learned deliberation he prepared with the greatest order a Missal conformed to the missal of the metropolitan church; and he exhorts all rectors of parishes to use it. From which it is clear that this missal, set in order with so much care and so much wisdom by the archbishop and chapter of Toulouse, accurately renders the tradition of the church of Toulouse itself concerning Papulus. In the year 1490, then, and long before that year, the church of Toulouse venerated Papulus as Pontiff and martyr.
[6] and from the remaining monuments The church of Toulouse held Papulus as Pontiff and martyr in the year 1622, this tradition of hers being inscribed on the casket of the holy martyr's relics Redon, work cited, p. 33., just as in the year 1522 she had exposed to the eyes of the faithful in the church of Saint-Sernin an image painted in pontifical vesture Ibid., p. 30.. In the year 1661 Raymond Daydé published a “History of St. Saturninus, or the Incomparable Treasure of his abbatial church of Toulouse” in the French language, where he calls Papulus Bishop of the district of Lauragais *, a colleague of St. Saturninus. At that time also the holy Martyr was represented with mitre and cope, in episcopal adornment. In a French booklet entitled: Antiphons and prayers for the use of those whom devotion leads to visit the sacred relics resting in the distinguished abbatial church of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse (of the year 1762, at Toulouse by J. H. Guillemette), one reads: The altar in which rests the body of St. Papulus, colleague of St. Saturninus; and again: Outside the said chapel is a shrine, adorned on its front part with gold, in which rests the body of St. Papulus, colleague of St. Saturninus; whose elevation took place in the year 1517, placed here in the shrine on the 7th of April of the year 1622, the finding of whose body took place in the year 1265. — Antiphon. This saint contended for the law of his God unto death and did not fear the words of the impious: for he was founded on firm rock. The law of God, etc. — Let us pray. Lord, who gave blessed Papulus as a colleague to glorious St. Saturninus, grant that in him we may find help in necessity, consolation in affliction, and a powerful intercessor with you, so that, with the gospel which these two saints preached to us engraved upon our hearts, we may keep the purity of faith and morals against the errors and vices of this age, and, like them, may merit the rewards promised by you. Amen. This booklet was approved by Montgazin, canon, cantor of the church of Saint-Sernin and doctor of theology in the university of Toulouse, on the 25th day of March 1762, and by F. Bourgez, former provincial of the Dominicans and professor in
the university, on the 9th day of March 1762. In the year 1880 I visited the church of Saint-Sernin, and there I saw images of St. Papulus distinguished by pontifical adornment.
[7] They acknowledge St. Papulus as bishop and martyr, but not constantly. From all that we have said so far it appears clearer than the sun that for the last four centuries, namely from before the year 1490 down to modern times, St. Papulus has been held in the church of Toulouse to be pontiff and martyr. For although the title of pontiff has gradually vanished from the liturgical books, the honour of pontiff has nevertheless persisted in the monuments. From our own time back to the fifteenth century, therefore, a most explicit and most open tradition of the church of Toulouse acknowledges Papulus as companion of St. Saturninus, preacher of the faith, martyr, bishop. But truly thick darkness goes before so great a light, and in no way can the older traditions of this church be followed back as far as Papulus. We know that the lessons of the breviary cited above are taken from the Acts of St. Papulus composed by Bernard Gui out of a certain sermon, as he says, of Flavius Anselm, monk of Bec. Whatever sort of man that Flavius Anselm was, of whom there will be talk again later, he is an author of the thirteenth century. Whatever, then, is known about Papulus from written monuments does not ascend beyond the twelfth century. Now from these Acts no explicit testimony for Papulus's episcopal dignity can be drawn. It must be admitted, however, that such things are narrated about Papulus as make it not rash to believe he was a bishop. For St. Saturninus, when about to set out for the Spains, is said to have commended to Papulus the city of Toulouse and the region of the territory of Toulouse to be ruled in Christ, and he ruled it vigorously, preaching the word of God to the peoples and watching like a good shepherd over the sheep entrusted to him. From these words anyone might not unfittingly conclude that St. Papulus was distinguished by the episcopal order. Whether Flavius Anselm, and Bernard Gui following him, drew from written documents, or from the oral tradition of men, or from reasons that were indeed fitting but not certain, those things which seem to ascribe pontifical honour to St. Papulus, is certainly hidden from us, and I think will always be hidden. Therefore it ought not to seem surprising that the church of Toulouse has not held more tenaciously to her tradition, which is perhaps not so ancient, and has at length ceased to adorn the martyr Papulus with pontifical honour in the sacred recitation of the Office and in public prayers. Whence it has come about that the pontifical dignity of St. Papulus, companion of St. Saturninus, is a doubtful question.
[8] In the other circumstances of St. Papulus much is doubtful. In like manner several circumstances of St. Papulus, namely of his family, time and places, have begun to be called into doubt. The Life by Bernard Gui derives Papulus's family from Antioch, makes him the son of the prefect of the city, the only son of his father, an adherent of blessed Peter the apostle, gone with him to Rome, and sent with Dionysius and Saturninus into Gaul. It brings him to the forum and prison of Carcassonne along with Saturninus, and then to Toulouse. Although he clung inseparably to Saturninus, he was nevertheless separated from him, and he received from blessed Saturninus the church of Toulouse and the region of its territory to rule. While he was assiduously discharging this pastoral office, he was beheaded with the sword, at a place in the territory of Toulouse where a rock was shown on which the imprinted traces of the martyr's knees and hands were to be seen; there was also shown the spring to which the martyr himself had carried his severed head. The holy church of Toulouse, having propagated this narrative for a time, seems gradually to have diminished it and at length omitted it for the most part, as the reader can easily verify from the breviary lessons cited above by us. Now the church of Toulouse honours Papulus as presbyter and martyr, disciple and companion of St. Saturninus, who had the church of Toulouse committed to him by Saturninus and consummated his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head in the place that keeps his name. — What then is to be thought of those who, clinging more closely to the traditions of the church of Toulouse of the sixteenth century, proclaim Papulus a companion of St. Saturninus and a colleague in the episcopal dignity? I say that they are within their right, since no one has yet refuted their opinion, provided however that they do not claim to force upon us as invincible truth what can only be piously believed; for the people of Saint-Papoul also have their tradition, of which we shall treat later, which acknowledges St. Papulus as neither pontiff nor presbyter, but simply a deacon, although in the year 1553 it still venerated St. Papulus as pontiff and martyr, according to the Breviary of Toulouse Redon, work cited, p. 31..
Annotations* St-Papoul (dépt Aude).
* Lauraguais.
§ II. On the Acts of St. Papulus; on the town of Saint-Papoul; on the relics and cult.
Flavius Anselm wrote on St. Papulus Many have written Acts of St. Papulus; but none of the ancients, at least none whose writings have come down to us. The first and chief writer of the Acts of St. Papulus must be held to be Flavius Anselm, monk of Bec. Of this Flavius Anselm there have treated Daniel Papebroch in the Acta Sanctorum for the month of May, namely in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Berengar written by Flavius Anselm, monk of Bec At the 26th day, Acta Sanctorum, volume VI of May, p. 447., and in Annotation a Ibid., p. 449., and Mabillon in the sixth Benedictine Century, on the Life of the same St. Berengar Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century VI, part II, p. 773.. There have been those who thought that this Flavius Anselm was the very same St. Anselm, abbot of Bec and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. In Ménard, book II of the Observations, at this 26th day of May, this Flavius Anselm, author of the Life of St. Berengar, is said to be St. Anselm of Canterbury, who survived St. Berengar. It is true that St. Anselm outlived St. Berengar, for in the same year 1093 in which the latter passed to heaven, the former ascended the throne of Canterbury, and he closed his life in the year 1109. But St. Anselm is never read as Flavius Anselm. Moreover this Flavius says that he came to the monastery of St. Papulus after the death of St. Berengar; whereas St. Anselm is nowhere read to have come there when already archbishop. Nor, if he had written at that time, does it seem that he would have called himself a monk of Bec. These reasons, brought forward by Papebroch, also prevent us from believing this author to be the same as St. Anselm. Mabillon stands with Papebroch; yet he suggests a reason for which some will perhaps say that St. Anselm is truly indicated: for the holy Doctor sometimes signed simply F. Anselm (Brother Anselm), even when he was already resplendent in archiepiscopal honour; and therefore he leaves everyone free judgment in the matter. In our manuscripts of the Life of St. Papulus which Bernard Gui brought into his Sanctorale, it is written not Brother Anselm but Flavius Anselm; whom we judge to have been other than the most holy archbishop, and we are of the opinion that he is the same man who wrote the Life of St. Berengar, and perhaps at about the same time, when he had come to the monastery of St. Papulus and had been received most courteously, as he himself writes in the prologue of the Life of St. Berengar. I would believe that he set in order the Life of the patron St. Papulus for the excellent monks, his brothers of Benedict's family, as a sort of return for their most gracious hospitality.
[10] in the thirteenth century, But if we knew at what time Raymond, abbot of St. Papulus, lived, to whom he dedicated the Life of St. Berengar, we should also be more certain of the age of this Flavius Anselm. For two Raymonds presided over the monastery of St. Papulus: one under whom St. Berengar lived, Raymond I Gallia Christiana, volume XIII, p. 299., who is read to have been present in the year 1068 at the council of Toulouse and in the year 1071 (on the 8th before the kalends of December) at the election of the abbot of Sorèze; the other Raymond II Ibid., p. 301. of Althinac, who flourished in the middle of the thirteenth century. The author says in the prologue of the Life of St. Berengar: So I took up the burden you imposed, and according to what I received from a great many men, who beheld with their eyes what they told, I took care to commit it to the record of letters. But that I took care is a correction by Ménard; for the manuscript both of Papebroch and of Mabillon had they took care. As Papebroch notes, however, even if you keep they took care, which is in the manuscript, an error of the copyist must nevertheless be admitted, for then the conjunction and is necessarily required, that is: they beheld with their eyes and took care to commit it to the record of letters. For my part I would not easily admit so great an error as they took care for I took care would be: much more easily could the sign of the conjunction and have dropped out, and therefore I should think that they took care is to be read. Whoever does this, it at once becomes clear that Flavius Anselm did not necessarily hear from contemporaries of St. Berengar as an ear-witness the things he was going to write, but read them and transferred them from their notes into his work. Whence it follows that the Raymond to whom he dedicated his work is not necessarily Raymond I, but it becomes much more likely that it was Raymond II: and thus at length the age of the writer is drawn back to the middle of the thirteenth century, and the Life of St. Papulus written by Flavius Anselm, monk of Bec, would be a product of the thirteenth century.
[11] when the body of St. Papulus had been found, There is, besides, something that may drive one to judge thus. For it may be asked what cause there was that at that season a new Life of St. Papulus should seem to be needed. In the eleventh century nothing occurs that could renew the memory of the holy martyr, but in the thirteenth century a most celebrated event could stir the minds of all the people of Toulouse and especially of Saint-Papoul, and renew the memory of St. Papulus for both. For in the year of the Lord 1265, on the nones of October, there were found in the church of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse four tombs of saints, namely of Silvius and Hilary, and Honoratus and Papulus the martyr, next to the tomb of the first bishop and martyr Saturninus. These words, says G. de Catel, are taken from the book Præclara Francorum facinora Mémoires de l'histoire du Languedoc (at Toulouse 1633), p. 825., and are reported by Bernard Gui in the Chronicle of the Popes and in the Life of Clement IV and in the Martinian Chronicle. The book which begins Præclara Francorum facinora [Compare de Catel, Histoire des comtes de Toulouse, Appendix, p. 111–155 (1623); Writers of the History of the Franks (F. Du Chesne), volume V, p. 764–792 (1649).] is excerpted from the book of Bernard Gui entitled Flowers of the Chronicles; it corresponds to the period of years running from the year 1202 to the year 1311, and it represents one of the earlier copies of the Flowers, to which their author more than once afterwards set his hand Delisle in the French work: Notice of the manuscripts of Bernard Gui, n. 57. from the year 1311 to the year 1331 Ibid., n. 13.. By the Martinian Chronicle understand the Flowers of the Chronicles itself. When this finding of St. Papulus had been made, the piety of the faithful could not but be stirred; and, as the names of the discovered saints flew through the mouths of the people, one may suppose that prayers were directed by the monks of St. Papulus to Flavius Anselm, from whom they had received a few years earlier the Life of their Berengar, that he should also strengthen by a newly written Life the memory of their patron Papulus, renewed by the most happy finding of his body. Flavius Anselm may have complied with this request, having composed a panegyric sermon
in the form of an encomium of St. Papulus, from which Bernard Gui afterwards drew the present Life that we publish from his Sanctorale. For what G. de Catel says is not true, that the Life written by Anselm is reproduced by Bernard Gui, but Bernard composed the Life of Papulus from what Anselm wrote. For so all three manuscripts that we have collated have it, as will be seen below.
[12] from oral tradition and apocryphal documents, A question of great importance, but hard to answer, is raised at this point: from what source Flavius Anselm drew this narrative about Papulus. You will easily recognize the local tradition of the people of Saint-Papoul, living in the mouth of the people and of the monks, in what is narrated at the end, namely of the stone on which the martyr, about to be consummated, left miraculous traces of his knees and hands, and of the spring to which he went on carrying his severed head in his hands. That the body had been translated to Toulouse, but that the head was preserved at least in part at the place of martyrdom, everyone knew. But whether what he writes of the fellowship and colleagueship of St. Saturninus he drew from oral tradition or from written documents, no one is able to judge: yet what concerns Papulus's Antiochene origin, the fellowship of St. Peter and the journey to Rome, I hardly doubt he took from apocryphal documents. For although these things may be true, yet prudence, driven to the utmost caution by innumerable fables, forbids us to believe them without a suitable authority.
[13] and therefore of varying credibility. Hence another question arises, namely what credit this Life or these Acts of St. Papulus deserve. This cannot be satisfied with a single reply. For what the author or his contemporaries had seen with their eyes doubtless deserves the highest credit. Such are the body of the holy man found at Toulouse, the head of the same martyr preserved in the town of Saint-Papoul, the traces of hands and knees impressed on the stone, manifest to the eyes of all who looked on them, and above all the martyrdom of Papulus himself accomplished in that place, for which, even if documents set down in charters were perhaps lacking, there stood a monument stronger than all charters, namely the monastery and the very town named Saint-Papoul after the blessed martyr. The fellowship of the martyr himself with blessed Saturninus, as disciple and colleague, is, apart from the human tradition itself, confirmed in no small degree by the place of burial near the tomb of Saturninus, together with three other bishops of the first times, successors of Saturninus. The other things narrated of St. Papulus do not find equal credit. Some can hardly be called into doubt, such as the preaching of the faith through the region of Toulouse; others are much more doubtful, such as the Antiochene origin, the discipleship of Peter, the journey to Rome and the journey from Rome to Toulouse: and among these again one must distinguish. For, unless I am mistaken, that part of the journey which touches Gaul can more easily be believed than what precedes it. For although neither I nor anyone else could bring forward certain documents establishing the prison of Carcassonne and the interrogations held there by Rufinus, yet since they cling more nearly to what is certain and are altogether likely, they seem capable of being believed without lightness of heart. But the earlier things, even if I do not pronounce them invented, I yet do not assert as true.
[14] His work has been found in the town of Saint-Papoul. It is certainly to be regretted that the sermon of Flavius Anselm from which Bernard Gui had drawn the Life of St. Papulus is not in our hands; or, to express my mind better in words, it is to be regretted that the Sermon on St. Papulus which we have in our hands does not display the name of the author Flavius Anselm. Yet we must of necessity treat of that Sermon here. Monsieur H. Hennet de Bernoville published at Paris in the year 1863, in the French language, a pamphlet to which he prefixed the title Miscellanea concerning the diocese of Saint-Papoul. The author narrates that, while he was arranging the library of the Château of Saint-Papoul, there came into his hands a manuscript codex of the beginning of the fifteenth century. The codex is thus inscribed: Collection of the chief Acts of the diocese of Saint-Papoul. In this codex, among other documents, of which he publishes a part, he says that he found a rather prolix Life of St. Papulus, a shorter Life of the same, and the same Life divided into three lessons. All of which we shall report later from the same pamphlet. Now we must treat of that prolix Life. That Life ought rather to be called a Sermon on St. Papulus than his Life. It begins by explaining the name of Papulus, in that insipid and affected manner that suits the thirteenth century well enough. Let the reader judge. Papulus is pastoris pullus, pastus pullus, pauper pullus, pascens pullos the shepherd's chick, a fed chick, a poor chick, one who feeds chicks. You would say you were reading the Golden Legend. Then the Life of Papulus is narrated with much circumlocution of words, with speeches interposed; and at length it ends in an exhortatory sermon, and it is concluded by a prayer to the Lord Jesus. The venerable G. Redon in the pamphlet cited above declares, p. 5, that he is of the opinion that Pierre Soybert, twelfth of the bishops of Saint-Papoul, who lived about the middle of the fifteenth century, is the author of this Life. That the documents of the codex were collected by Pierre and that the whole collection, whether Pierre wrote it or ordered it written, grew together into this codex, I would not deny; but I do not see that the said Life is to be ascribed to Pierre himself as author.
[15] Whom Bernard Gui follows, but not blindly. We know for certain from Bernard Gui that a sermon on St. Papulus was composed by Flavius Anselm, monk of Bec, from whose sermon Bernard drew his Life of Papulus. If that sermon was preserved in any place, it should have been preserved among the people of Saint-Papoul; and therefore I admit that I am of the opinion that this anonymous sermon on Papulus should be assigned to him who is known to have composed a similar sermon, rather than to Pierre, who inserted it in his codex. Almost everything that the shorter Life of Bernard Gui contains is found here; and besides, one anachronism, which Bernard, a most learned man, could not fail to see, and which he carefully avoided by passing over the narrative. It is worth the trouble to share with the reader this rather charming anachronism. The author of the sermon assigns Papulus with Saturninus to apostolic times; he brings them, designated by Peter, the prince of the apostles, in the time of Clement, into Gaul to the city of Arles, which according to the author had formerly received the faith at the preaching of Trophimus, disciple of the apostles, but now, returning to its vomit, had forsaken Christ and, with few exceptions, worshipped idols. Now the city of Arles falling away from the orthodox faith to wicked doctrines is first treated in history about the year 258, when Bishop Marcian followed the impiety of Novatian. Of this heresy of Marcian the author must have heard something, unless someone should say that the lying man invented it gratuitously out of his own head. He knew, then, that the church of Arles had wavered in the faith; and because he had heard, or thought, that Saturninus, whom he held to be contemporary with the apostles, went there at that time, he could recognize no other defection from the faith than to the cult of idols: and thus he transported a fact of the third century to the first century. Of the journey to Arles and of that church's being brought back to the orthodox faith by Saturninus and Papulus, no mention is made by Bernard Gui in the Life of Papulus. If, then, this sermon of which we are treating is that of Flavius Anselm, from which Bernard drew the Life of Papulus, the judgment of the man is to be praised, who was silent about the journey to Arles. He was likewise silent about the journey to Nîmes and about the taking up of Honestus. Evidently he acknowledged no part for Papulus in this matter.
[16] The town named after St. Papulus. But it is well worth the trouble to treat with special care the greatest monument of St. Papulus, namely the town distinguished by so great a man's name. The town of St. Papulus, in French Saint-Papoul, is situated, according to the modern divisions of the Gauls, in the department of Aude, district of Castelnaudary, from which city it is ten miles distant towards the south-east, having fifteen hundred inhabitants. Of it the following is read in Gallia Christiana. The old monastery of St. Papulus gave its name to the city, which is nine leagues distant from Toulouse on this side of the Garonne, one from Castrum Novum Arrii (Castelnaudary), the chief town of the same diocese and of the pagus of Lauragais among the Volcae (Lauraguais), under the archbishopric and Parlement of Toulouse. This place first received Christ in the blood of blessed Papulus, companion of St. Saturninus, bishop of Toulouse, and on the place of the martyrdom a chapel was afterwards built, which remained so for a long time under baptismal care; little by little the possession grew, and in the time of King Pepin this basilica took on the monastic state; and by the devotion of Charlemagne, as they report, the buildings and enclosures were enlarged. And accordingly in the notice of the monasteries which owed to Louis the Pious Augustus, by decree of the assembly of Aachen held in the year 817, military service to the king, gifts, or prayers alone, the monastery of St. Papulus is recorded in the Toulouse district, which at the end of the tenth century was subjected to the abbey of Saint-Victor of Marseilles… First … it was a parish; thence, directed for four hundred years or thereabouts under abbatial rule, it was detached from the church of Toulouse by Pope John XXII and changed into an episcopal see, at Avignon in public consistory … in the year 1317 … the monastic state remaining, as can be seen from the bull of institution Gallia Christiana, volume XIII, p. 299..
[17] The body of St. Papulus found at Toulouse: The body of St. Papulus was translated to Toulouse after the glorious triumph of the blessed martyr, the head being preserved at the place of martyrdom, which afterwards obtained his name. Not only is the year of the translation unknown; we do not know besides whether it was immediately after the martyrdom, or if later, in what century. But we know, from G. de Catel [In the place cited above (number 11) from Catel, Mémoires de l'histoire du Languedoc.], that in the book which begins “Præclara Francorum facinora” one reads thus: In the year of the Lord 1265, on the nones of October, there were found in the church of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse four tombs of saints, namely of Silvius and Hilary, and Honoratus and Papulus the martyr, next to the tomb of the first bishop and martyr Saturninus. Of these, Saints Silvius, Hilary and Honoratus are bishops of Toulouse. Honoratus succeeded St. Saturninus, Hilary succeeded Honoratus, Rhodanius or Rhodanusius succeeded Hilary; who, driven into exile by the Arians, died in exile. Silvius succeeded Rhodanius. Of him in the Acts of St. Saturninus In Ruinart, Sincere Acts of the Martyrs (Amsterdam edition 1713), p. 132.: Having obtained the episcopate of the aforesaid city (of Toulouse), he (Silvius), preparing at great expense a beautiful and handsome basilica to translate there the relics of the venerable martyr (Saturninus), departed from the world before the completion of the work begun. After whose death St. Exuperius, chosen to the high priesthood … most urgently finished the basilica which his predecessor had faithfully begun, and happily dedicated it. And when he hesitated to translate there the relics of the holy martyr, not from his own unbelief, but out of honour for the martyr himself, he was admonished in sleep not faithlessly to neglect what he had faithfully believed: that no injury was done to spirits either by the diminishing of ashes or by the moving of limbs; because it was a manifest thing that what had availed believers for salvation availed martyrs for honour. And at once, strengthened by such a vision, to the religious emperors
he carried his prayer, and without any delay obtained what he had so piously requested, that he should revere the holy man's relics, translated to the basilica prepared with all zeal, not so much violating them by rash audacity as honouring them by the more solicitous service of a venerator. The sacred relics of Saturninus were translated about the year 405 Histoire de S. Saturnin by the abbé A. S. (Toulouse 1840), p. 37.. At that time, then, I am of the opinion that with Hilary, Honoratus and Silvius the bones of St. Papulus were laid near the new tomb of St. Saturninus; and one might suppose that he had first been buried next to St. Saturninus, while the latter still rested in his earlier tomb. There perhaps the bodies of Honoratus and Hilary also had been entombed. For if the devotion of the pious was so strongly borne towards burying the bodies of their own next to St. Saturninus that the whole place was filled with a multitude of entombed bodies, as the aforesaid Acts of St. Saturninus attest, with how much greater zeal must the faithful have seen to the entombing next to the tomb of the first bishop of the mortal remains of the holy prelates, and especially the sacred body of Papulus the martyr, who had been the companion and colleague of Saturninus himself?
[18] when it was translated there is not known with certainty. The matter, however, may have happened otherwise. For first we do not know which of them departed this life first, Papulus or Saturninus; and, if there is anything of truth in the narratives of the apocrypha, Papulus seems to have undergone martyrdom before Saturninus. In which case he was certainly not buried next to Saturninus; but it should rather be believed that he found a tomb in the place of martyrdom: whence also the honour preserved to the place on account of the memory of the martyr bodily resting there is better understood. Further, since so religious a fear possessed men's minds that they did not dare to move the entombed bones of martyrs (as is manifest from the very Acts of St. Saturninus, where one reads that St. Hilary did not dare to touch the bones of his predecessor Saturninus), no one can believe that, if Papulus had been entombed elsewhere, the faithful would have dared to move the sacred bones. But after the heavenly voice had taught Exuperius better things and the holy man had translated Saturninus into the new basilica, then indeed it is credible that the sacred body of the disciple was carried over to the side of the holy master, perhaps with Exuperius himself doing this. But though we do not know at what time it was done, it is established that it was done, from the finding reported above. And since St. Papulus underwent martyrdom by the cutting off of his head, it is easily understood that the head remained at the place of martyrdom for the comfort of those people, who were loath to be without their martyr and patron, although (as will afterwards appear) at least some part of the head was translated to Toulouse. In the Proper of the saints of the basilica of Saint-Sernin (of the year 1672), on the 3rd of November, in lesson VI, it is said that the body of St. Papulus, laid in a marble tomb, lay for a long time at the church of St. Saturninus, until many years later it was found there together with the bodies of the holy prelates of Toulouse Honoratus, Silvius, Hilary. Precisely in accord with this are the proper Offices of the Saints of the church and diocese of Toulouse, revised and published anew by order of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Charles de Montchal, archbishop of Toulouse, in the year 1647.
[19] The translation of the body of St. Papulus, The various translations, findings and elevations of the relics of St. Papulus are thus set out by the Breviary of Toulouse of the year 1784: Lesson II. A long time after the death of St. Papulus, the fame of his memory led first to a church being built around his tomb, and then near it a monastery, designated by the names of St. Paul and St. Papulus, of which there is mention in the times of Louis the Pious. The concourse of peoples to this place gave a beginning first to a village, and then to a city distinguished by his name, in which Pope John XXII erected an episcopal see, converting the abbey into a bishopric. The solemnity of St. Papulus is celebrated by old custom on the third day of November. — Lesson III. The body of St. Papulus was translated from the place of his burial to Toulouse and laid in the basilica of Saint-Sernin, where it is venerated by the faithful to this day. In the thirteenth century it was found near the tomb of St. Saturninus; at the beginning of the sixteenth it was solemnly raised from the earth, on the twenty-fourth day of March. And in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-two, borne in a silver casket, it was exposed to the sight and veneration of the peoples. His head is most religiously kept to this very day in the cathedral church of the city called by his name. From this, then, we learn: 1° The translation from the modern town of Saint-Papoul to Toulouse; concerning which it would be wrong to go beyond conjecture. We have set out ours above. 2° The finding in the thirteenth century, of which we have treated above, and which took place in the year 1265, on the day of the nones of October. 3° The elevation at the beginning of the sixteenth century. 4° The elevation and translation of the year 1622. 5° The preservation of the head in the town of Saint-Papoul at least to the year 1784. — Of which the following.
[20] the finding and That the finding made in the thirteenth century occurred on the nones of October of the year 1265, Catel, cited above, testifies. In the book “Præclara Francorum facinora” one reads: In the year of the Lord 1265, on the nones of October, there were found in the church of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse four tombs of saints, namely of Silvius and Hilary, and Honoratus and Papulus the martyr, next to the tomb of the first bishop and martyr Saturninus. In the year 1420, moreover, the tomb of St. Papulus was opened, and the sacred relics were led through the city in solemn procession and exposed for two days to public veneration, and enclosed again in the tomb: which is proved by the instrument that follows, from the Archives of Saint-Sernin, from the book called “Authentic of the Relics.” In the year of the Lord 1420 and the 15th of the month of April, with Louis the Dauphin, only son of the king of France, ruling the kingdom, and with lord Tulio de … doctor of decrees, of the diocese of Limoges, as abbot of this sacred monastery, this vessel of St. Papulus the martyr was opened and through the altar prout it now is, it could not be done otherwise, and the sacred relics were carried with a general procession of the whole city to the common house, and there a solemn mass was celebrated, and the sacred relics were shown there to the people, and on the following day, after what delay there was, the aforesaid relics were put back in the present tomb, in the presence of the religious men: lord Stephen Reynald, licentiate, and p. of the king. l. bachelor … and also of discreet men…
[21] various From the same Authentic we copied the following at Toulouse: In the year of the Lord 1517, on the 25th day of the month of March, which was the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary, the relics of St. Papulus were raised and placed in a silver casket by the most reverend fathers in Christ the lords Laurent Alleman of Grenoble and Louis de Narbonne of Vabres, bishops, the other Laurent Alleman being abbot of Saint-Sernin, with John Dupuy, abbot of Saint-Uberius, assisting, and in the presence of the presidents and other councillors of the court of Toulouse, of the noble men the lords capitouls of Toulouse, of the lord judge-major and of very many other councillors of the seneschal's court, and of the parters and bailiffs and superintendents of the table of the glorious Apostles of the said Church of Saint-Sernin of Toulouse. — Deposalis, royal notary. — Dosodio. To this pertains the following instrument from the same Authentic, drawn up, as is clear, on the day before the aforesaid elevation, in the year 1517, on the 24th of March. There was opened the stone vessel in which was the body of blessed Papulus: and in it was found a certain stone called a slab, on which were inscribed the following words:
THE BODY OF BLESSED PAPULUS:
and one small coffer closed with fragments of nails, in which were the bones of the said St. Papulus, and it was carried onto the altar of St. Saturninus.
[22] elevations. The relics of St. Papulus, laid in the silver casket in the year 1517 on the 25th of March, were taken out of it and again laid in it on the 3rd day of October, in the year 1621, as is gathered from the following instrument found in the aforesaid Authentic: In the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1621 and on the next-to-last day of October, the most reverend in Christ lord Louis de Nogaret, cardinal de La Valette, being abbot of this sacred Church, for the happy arrival in this city of the most Christian Louis XIII, by the grace of God king of the French and of Navarre, this casket was cleaned of age and rust and in it, as before, were placed the relics of blessed Papulus, companion of St. Saturninus. In faith of which we have subscribed: Delary, canon. — Thibault, canon. — Debus, prebendary of this church, wrote it. — … bart Sextus, sacristan.
[23] The last recognition of the relics. Finally the authenticity of the relics of St. Papulus resting in the church of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse is confirmed by the following instrument from the same archives of Saint-Sernin: In the year of the Lord 1846, on the 27th day of the month of October, we the undersigned commissioners, deputed by the lord Paul Thérèse David d'Astros, archbishop of Toulouse, to visit the reliquaries in which are kept the relics in which the distinguished church of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse rejoices, having found the reliquary in which the sacred relics of St. Papulus, martyr, companion of St. Saturninus, have rested from ancient times, and having been assured of their authenticity both by the state of the tomb itself and by reading the instruments found in it, have placed the sacred relics in a new tomb, which, as well as the present letter, we have sealed with the seal of the lord Archbishop. — Feral, canon, secretary. — P. Berdoulat. The instruments we have cited from the archives of the Church of Saint-Sernin were communicated to us, of his courtesy, by a learned and pious man of the clergy of Saint-Sernin, Monsieur Charbonnel, in the month of January of the year 1880. To him, for his outstanding zeal towards the saints and the exceptional charity shown to us when we came to Toulouse for the sake of St. Papulus, we give thanks from the heart.
[24] The head of St. Papulus once in the town of Saint-Papoul, now at Toulouse. We must now treat of the head of St. Papulus, martyr, which in the year 1784 was still kept in the town of Saint-Papoul, according to the testimony of the Breviary of Toulouse cited above. That a few years before the suppression of the diocese of Saint-Papoul the sacred head still remained at the place of martyrdom is also clear from a hymn of the Breviary of Saint-Papoul, two strophes of which, cited by Hennet de Bernoville in the often-cited Miscellanea P. 100., prove that at that time the body of St. Papulus was at Toulouse, the head in the town of the same name.
Happy Toulouse, who within your walls
Keep laid up, stored long since,
The body of the martyr,
A mighty glory made for you.
And you, blessed, who keep the Father's
Crown of the head, our people,
If him whom you now revere as patron
You follow also as a leader.
Now, however, the body and the head rest in the church of Saint-Sernin at Toulouse. When the sacred skull was translated there, I have not been able to learn so accurately as to be able to assign the year and day of the translation. Yet from notes communicated to me in the French language by the venerable Charbonnel, it may be known that in the year 1807 several parts of the skull of St. Papulus were found at Toulouse in the church of Saint-Sernin. For in the Procès-verbal drawn up in the recognition of the relics of the aforesaid church in the year 1807, mention is made of the body of St. Papulus, colleague of St. Saturninus, in a casket covered with silvered plates of copper, and of the relics of the same saint contained in a certain small casket. On pages 15 and 16 of the Procès-verbal one reads: We found in the small casket several parts
of the skull of St. Papulus, as is established from a note inscribed on a sheet of parchment placed in the same small casket. On page 19 of the same Procès-verbal mention is made of two bones of St. Papulus found in another small casket. If you add to these one arm kept in the town of Saint-Papoul, according to the testimony of Hennet de Bernoville Work cited, p. 100., we have shared with the reader all that has come to our knowledge about the relics of St. Papulus.
§ III. On the miracles of St. Papulus and his cult among the people of Saint-Papoul.
On the miracles in the martyrdom itself; The first miracles of St. Papulus are narrated as worked in his glorious death itself. For one reads that his severed head, taken in his own hands, he carried to a neighbouring spring and laid it down there. So it is read in the Life by Bernard Gui, with no mention made of a spring suddenly gushing forth. In that longer Life or Sermon of which we treated above, the matter is narrated somewhat differently: When the head was cut off, a living spring of water gushed forth in the earth, which remains to this present day, to which the holy martyr after his beheading, carrying the head itself in his hands, came by divine guidance through the ministry of angels, and laid him (sic) down there. To the head carried in Papulus's own hands, therefore, is added a second prodigy of the gushing spring. Let the credit for each miracle rest with the authors. For just as it is not my mind to deny either of the two, so for asserting them a greater authority seems to be required than that of the present Lives and the breath of popular tradition.
[26] on the stone keeping the traces of the martyr Perhaps greater credit may be found by another miracle done in the death of the holy martyr, namely the traces of the martyr's knees and hands imprinted on a stone. For that rock, at the time when Bernard Gui was writing, was still seen under the altar of the church of Saint-Papoul, and in it some traces were plainly manifest. In the longer Life the same miracle is asserted in the most explicit words: Seeing however the sword of the attendants, he fixed his hands and knees on a stone set before him, in which, for the perpetual glory of the martyr, the traces of hands and knees at once remained in evident impression. Hence it would be hard to deny that, when these things were being written, clear and manifest traces of the prodigy survived. Afterwards, however, doubts began. For in the Proper of the breviary of Saint-Sernin, in the year 1672, one reads thus in lesson V: There the traces of the knees and hands on which he leaned when about to be beheaded are said to have remained impressed upon a stone. The same words are read in the breviary of Toulouse of the year 1744. And in the breviary of the same church of Toulouse of the year 1784 no trace at all of the miracle remains. Its memory has been abolished from the modern Propers of Carcassonne and Toulouse. That the rock itself is also lost the reverend dean of Saint-Papoul affirms, in a letter addressed to Hennet de Bernoville Compare work cited, p. 99..
[27] there is much reason for doubt. Since these things are so, what then is to be thought of the miracle? That there was a stone showing certain as it were traces of hands and knees, no one in his senses can deny; for explicit are the testimonies of the most weighty Bernard Gui, confirmed by other documents of Saint-Papoul which Hennet de Bernoville published from the collected codex of Pierre Soybert, bishop of Saint-Papoul, namely the longer Life, and another very brief Life divided into three lessons Ibid., p. 111., where one reads: The stone retained the imprinted figure of the hands and shins. In the fifteenth century, then, the traces imprinted on the stone lay open to the eyes of beholders. How then has it come about that afterwards so clear a matter, one left to the judgment of the eyes, began first in neighbouring Toulouse to be reported on the authority of mere repute, and at length to be passed over altogether in silence? For my part I would believe that certain traces imprinted on the stone could indeed be seen, but rather rough ones, and such as were apt to resemble whatever the beholder's mind had conceived in advance. This the words of the documents suggest. For where the Life by Bernard Gui and the longer Life see manifest traces of hands and knees, there the shorter Life from the codex of Pierre Soybert finds the figure of hands and shins. I should suppose that men of keen discernment, subjecting the matter to most accurate examination, saw nothing else in the stone than certain hollows either accidental or artificial, and thence stood in doubt whether the popular tradition of the place had attributed the glory of a miracle to the hollowed stone, or whether perhaps the hollowed stone had given rise to the tradition of the miracle, and that thus at length, as belief wavered and the stone was removed, silence enveloped the whole question Histoire de S. Saturnin (by A. S., already cited), p. 13.. I consider this to have been done with the greater credit for prudence, in that the eyes of the people of Saint-Papoul are all the keener at seeing marvels. For the distinguished Hennet de Bernoville reports in the Miscellanea of Saint-Papoul Page 99., from a letter of the dean of that town, that the people are of the opinion that there exists in the spring consecrated by the head of the holy martyr a trunk on which the martyr laid his severed head, and that this trunk was seen by the eyes about twenty years before he wrote this, hence about the year 1843, and that it was red from the martyr's blood; but that afterwards, covered with moss, it denies to the eyes of beholders the appearance of preserved blood. Others, says Bernoville, see in the spring itself a red stone, which has drawn its red colour from the martyr's blood.
[28] Several miracles. That many miracles happened at the place of the glorious martyrdom through the intercession of blessed Papulus is signally testified both by the longer Life and by the one that Bernard Gui wrote. The former speaks thus: From which spring a rivulet flows continually to the church entitled by his name, not without the presage and testimony of approved miracles, where the whole body remained for a long time, with miracles flashing forth, venerated by the Catholic faithful to the praise of the name of Christ and the glory of the holy martyr. And the latter: In which place, as many were being freed from many troubles through the merits of the martyr, a church was built. In both places, then, miracles and very many healings are indicated; yet we know of none of them written down in particular. That the custom of drawing water from the spring of St. Papulus persisted, however, up to the middle of the fifteenth century, we gather from the letter of Pierre Soybert, bishop of Saint-Papoul, against those who superstitiously resorted to a certain spring for the sake of obtaining health, given in the year 1443, on the 22nd day of July, in which he has the following: The drinking of the water of a spring where a saint was martyred, with invocation of God and prayers to that saint (as a spring is read to have gushed forth at the cutting off of the head of blessed Papulus or of blessed Julian, soldier and martyr), is not an illicit drinking, because honour is given to God and to the merits of that saint, etc.
[29] [The punishment of those who profaned the place ceases, once the martyr's cult is restored.] That place which is believed to be sacred by the martyrdom of St. Papulus is three miles distant from the church of the town of Saint-Papoul, and has a most abundant spring of living water. Situated on the brow of a sandy ridge full of heather and rushes, it draws each year many of the dwellers in the surrounding places to the cult of the martyr, whom they hold in the greatest veneration. Formerly a hermitage built near the spring and a chapel of St. Papulus commended the piety and religion of the people. At the end of the eighteenth century, when things in France were overturned, the chapel with the hermitage and adjacent lands were sold to a certain inhabitant of that region, who, in servitude to the impiety of the age, made of the chapel a stable and a sheepfold, and sent oxen and sheep there. But he did not go unpunished, and had as the reward of his profane abuse the death of his oxen and the death of his cattle. Through five years, the profane abuse of the sacred place being more than once renewed, he paid for his wicked daring by the death of oxen and the death of cattle, and was by repeated punishments forced to abandon the place. At length the estate, sold again, passed to the commander-in-chief of the forces d'Hautpoul; who immediately restored to public piety the place dedicated by the martyr's blood. First he returned part of the chapel to worship, which in the year 1818 Delaporte, bishop of Carcassonne, purified by solemn blessing (for the diocese of Saint-Papoul had been done away with, and its territory had passed almost whole to the diocese of Carcassonne). At once in solemn procession pilgrims hastened there, and made good the interrupted honours to the holy martyr. At length a few years ago the whole chapel was restored, a beautiful altar being erected and dedicated by solemn consecration to St. Papulus, martyr. With the cult repaired the heavenly wrath ceased, and now the flocks of the neighbouring farm are afflicted by no penalty of death; and the faithful go on visiting the sacred place in a great concourse. They lead a religious procession, singing in the language of the country See the text in Hennet de Bernoville, work cited, p. 105. the following song:
Papulus, we offer you our honours,
In the place where your faithful blood
Came to render testimony
To God who reigns in heaven.
Filled with your memory,
Papulus, our glory,
Holy martyr, kind patron,
Protect us, protect us.
Apostle of this region,
You are the first who came
To preach the sacred word,
To set us on the way of salvation.
Filled with your memory, etc.
Papulus, if you wish your life safe,
You must deny Jesus Christ:
But death does not at all terrify
Your heart, led by the Holy Spirit.
Unto a great memory,
Papulus, our glory,
We plant the cross with a faithful heart
Over your tomb, over your tomb.
Your tomb in the woodland place
Will not remain in oblivion for us;
Every year we shall come to the Hermitage
Where your holy name is invoked.
Filled with your memory, etc.
A SERMON ON ST. PAPULUS WHICH WE JUDGE TO BE
BY FLAVIUS ANSELM, MONK OF BEC [See above, Preliminary Commentary, numbers 14, 15, page 590.]
published by H. Hennet de Bernoville from a manuscript codex of the beginning of the fifteenth century Compare ibid..
Papulus, martyr in the pagus of Lauragais, in Occitania. (S.)
BHL Number: 6453
FROM THE EDITION.
LIFE OF OUR BLESSED FATHER, CHIEF PATRON OF HIS CHURCH, ST. PAPULUS.
St. Papulus, whose name is explained, Papulus is derived, from the beginning of his conversion, as the shepherd's chick a; from his progress in holy learning he is called a fed chick; through the casting off of honours and of holy ambition, he is understood as a poor chick; from the fruit of his exemplary conduct he is derived as feeding the chicks. He is called the shepherd's chick because from the age of puberty he clung continually to the most blessed prince of the apostles, Peter, as his little servant, a son in baptism, called by Christ in tender age. Secondly, he is called a fed chick: for the boy of good disposition drank with thirsting breast, at his first calling, the streams of evangelical doctrine from the mouth , sweet draughts. Thirdly, he is called a poor chick because, fed by Peter on the bread of divine sayings, having left his father and his means, he followed the Lord's cross as a poor man: poor, having cast away the warfare of the world, full of the grace of gifts. Fourthly, he is called feeding the chicks, because, while the error of paganism raged everywhere, he unceasingly nourished the chicks of the new Christian seedling with the fodder of the word of God, the daily bread he lived *.
[2] born at Antioch and converted to the faith by St. Peter the apostle, Let us praise glorious men, our fathers, shining with the virtue of prudence, seeking out measures from their boyhood and telling the songs of the Scriptures; who in the generations of the Gauls are venerated with praises and have obtained the glory of peace. Among whom there shone forth, in this region, the prince of the Levites b,
that he might not lie hidden under a bushel but shine upon a lampstand in the pagus of Toulouse, Papulus the most holy martyr, from the parts of Greece, born at Antioch c, where the name of Christians first arose among the gentiles and the first church was founded by blessed Cephas of the apostles, of a father Theophilus, according to the tradition of some a chief man of Antioch, a Roman citizen, sent to rule the prefecture of Antioch by Gaius Gallicula, successor of Tiberius Augustus, in the current year 38 of the divine Incarnation. And when the most glorious of the apostles, Peter, had been raised to the episcopal chair of Antioch , applying himself with fervour to the preaching of the word of God and the declaring of the sacraments of the faith, a great multitude of peoples, of neighbouring and far-distant cities, flowed together to the rule of his fatherly teaching, that they might be greedily sated by the mastery of his most happy impression, and that his honey-flowing doctrine might moisten the avidity of their minds. Blessed Papulus was present, fifteen years of age, pre-eminent in the study of the liberal arts and in sharpness of wit. At length, when on a certain day blessed Peter, attended by a great crowd of gentiles, was coming forth to preach in public, passing near the house of the said chief man of Antioch, the renowned Papulus, a boy of good disposition, sprang forth, breathed upon by a divine impulse, betaking himself urgently to the hearing and the tasting of the word of God . For this honey-flowing edict frequently came forth from the mouth of the holy apostle: Little children, run while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you; you will find rest for your souls. Repeating this and the master's other teachings, more desirable than gold, sweeter than the honeycomb, the disciple began to cling more closely, by clinging to take them in, and to gather what he had taken in into a kind of storehouse of the mind; and, adorned with light *, the comely boy, of angelic innocence, ran thirsting to the fountains of life, and humbly asked for the fatherly fishpond of the supreme fisherman, the grace of blessed adoption, the laver of holy baptism. So marvellously simple was this chosen recruit that he harmed no one by word or deed, did not impress injuries on his heart, submitted himself to an inferior for God's sake, and returned to no one evil for evil. Then blessed Peter, looking at Papulus with a cheerful countenance, said: You are my son, the gem and joy of my warfare. If you receive my words, my son, and incline your heart to know wisdom, you will understand the fear of the Lord, and you will find the knowledge of God. Can anyone forbid water, that you should not be baptized? Then he was reborn by the blessed apostle in the everlasting wave of holy baptism.
[3] he clung to him Instructed by the liveliness of the holy sayings at the holy voice of the herald, made a disciple of blessed Peter himself, enlightened by true faith, believing the true God, innocent in hands and clean of heart, he received blessing from the Lord and mercy from God his saviour. For this is the condition of true innocence: everywhere it is unharmed; when tempted, it advances; if it humbles itself, it is raised up; if it fights, it conquers; if it is slain, it is crowned. In servitude it is free, in danger safe, in prison glad; the good obey it, the wicked envy it, rivals are jealous of it, enemies give way before it. So having left father, home and parents, the youth Papulus, angelic in life and countenance, advancing in grace, rejected all temporal things, pursuing the apostolic footsteps. The books and study of natural philosophy he entirely forsook , that he might follow the truth of the supreme philosophy, saying thus: What have I to do with the philosophy of this world? It is needful to hasten to that life which gives times to the times and does not dread the author of death, but beholds the creator of life. This blessed youth clung continually with a bond of indissoluble grace to the blessed apostle, obeying him, serving him domestically, a companion on his journeys, a sharer in his labours, an imitator in his fasts, a staff in his dangers, a little servant in the carrying out of his commands, a zealot of the evangelical law, a faithful steward in preparing necessities. If Peter suffered in body, Papulus burned in heart. Peter had his daily care for the mystical members of Christ; Papulus urgently gathered and comforted the poor of Christ. His simplicity was sharpened by prudence: with perverse thoughts turned aside to good, he conquered evil by good.
[4] and through him to St. Saturninus, And as the most blessed prince of the apostles preached this, presiding in the parts of Antioch for four years, there came to him at that time the holy Father Saturninus d, of the number of the seventy-two of Christ, afterwards the disciple of blessed Peter, reporting to the holy apostle with all humility the fruit of his preaching, the increase of the faith in the parts of the East and of the Persians, at the same time giving thanks to God. Here for the first time blessed Saturninus, with deep affection, took note of the rising character and the budding flowers of virtue of the youth Papulus, given in adoption through the grace of the supreme fisherman and so both through a singular friendship of devotion were joined.
[5] As the crowd of Christians grew, the harshness of the Jews e grew also, and did not allow the holy discipleship of Christ to come into Judaea; but they tried step by step to drive them utterly from those borders, consigning some, like Peter and Paul, to custody, and so he came with them to Rome stoning some, like Stephen, killing some, like James. Others they drove from the borders , and, having taken away oars, rudders, sails, and left them destitute of all provisions, like Lazarus f with his sisters, they put them to flight on the deep Tethys . But divine providence destined for better regions those whom the savagery of the Jews cast out from their borders, and endowed them with churches and saving gains. For at this time Simon the magician was saying in the parts of Judaea that he was the first truth, and was deluding the unlearned people, saying that those believing in him could not fail. He came to dispute with the most blessed Simon Peter, and was confounded by that same prince of the apostles. The apostle exposed all his sorceries, and brought back to penitence the people of Antioch deceived by that same magician. At length Simon the magician fled in shame to Rome.
[6] where he was ordained levite or deacon by St. Peter. Meanwhile, the church of Antioch having been happily ruled by Peter, and pastors having been arranged in obedience to Christ, since the heavenly emperor had foreseen from eternity that the principate of the vicar of Christ should be shown there, and that the head of the Christian religion and the holy seat of the priesthood should be placed where the monarchy, the stench of earthly paganism, held dominion, so that the vigour of discipline might profit more by the mastery of teaching and healing * than earthly loftiness by tyrannical cautery, the most blessed prince of the apostles, to expose the conjurings of Simon the magician, with a few companions and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, went forward to Rome. Presiding as Roman and universal pontiff for twenty-five years, seven months, eight days, with Papulus attending him in all things, by the gifts of grace… While the blessed apostle was thus presiding as Roman bishop, Papulus, now advanced in age, instructed in the sacred mysteries, received from the holy apostle the honour of the clerical state, taken up by the lot of the Lord to minister. At length like a resourceful bee advancing from good to better, from virtue to virtue, renowned in holiness, he was ordained a levite g, a defender of the faith, a most chaste athlete, a most faithful dispenser of evangelical wisdom. For the primitive Church reckoned the presbyterate and the levitical office the sacred orders after the episcopate; for which it chose men of good testimony, wise with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
[7] Sent into Gaul by St. Peter And the most blessed Cephas of the apostles, hearing that the peoples of Gaul were still deluded by idolatrous error, and foreseeing in the Holy Spirit that the people of the Gauls h, through their keenness of sense, were among other nations more readily inclined to grasp the teachings of the faith, and that in the parts of the Gauls, as in the centre of Christendom, the stability of the Christian name and of the orthodox religion would endure to the end of the world by liveliness of studies and love of piety, with many of the disciples and holy doctors of the Church gathered with him at Rome by his divine sign, with one inspiration, the conforming will of all and a singular suffrage, and by the miraculous dispensation entrusted to him by the mercy of God, he chose and named a great part of them, gathered from diverse nations, to be destined to those same parts of the Gauls, that they might confess the name of Christ. Among whom blessed Savinian and Potentian, both of the number of the seventy-two disciples of Christ and disciples of the holy apostle himself, were kept for the Lord in the worship of the faith in the Transalpine lands of Sens, Orléans and the regions of the Gauls lying around; blessed Martial, likewise one of the seventy-two, destined for the parts of Limoges and alidum (sic) of Bordeaux and Rodez, gained a great people for God; blessed Nathanael (named by Christ “a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile”) was delegated to Bourges; St. Julian (formerly called “Simon the leper”) to Le Mans, setting out with glorious confession. Clement, uncle of blessed Clement, to the people of Metz, Mansuetus to those of Toul, Memmius to those of Châlons , Saturninus to those of Toulouse and of Aquitaine, Dionysius to those of Paris, were chosen and sent as bishops. Then blessed Peter addressed them all thus, saying: Brothers, I know that the end of my sojourn in this world is near. Let zeal for the holy faith and the salvation of souls burn your heart. The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. So labour, and ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest. Receive the blessing and the grace of the holy purpose. Our Lord and master Jesus has need of your works. The enemy stirs up war against the bride of Christ, that Christ may not be believed true God and true man, willingly offered, who suffered for our salvation and that of all. You are the seed whom the Lord has blessed; your offspring will be in the midst of the peoples. As the earth brings forth its seed and sprouts, so the Lord will cause justice and praise to sprout through you for many nations. Have confidence and do not fear; stand in the faith. Act manfully, be strong. Let all things be done in charity. Our master Christ said to us: “My prelates and chosen ones will not labour in vain in trouble; they will take on wings like eagles, they will fly, they will walk and not fail, for they are a seed of blessing. Go, dearest sons, to the parts of the Gauls and to the regions appointed. May almighty God bless you and may the sevenfold Spirit increase fruits in you, may he instruct you in the knowledge of grace, enlighten you with wisdom, build you up by charity, multiply you by virtue, that you may be blessed in every work, confirmed by grace, strengthened by gifts”.
[8] and given by him as companion to St. Saturninus, And after the general address and blessing, having called blessed Saturninus and Papulus he said thus: Sweetest brothers, go to the pagus of Toulouse and the region of Aquitaine and the lower parts of Gaul and Spain: there you will preach the word of salvation, the mystery of the Holy Trinity; there you will receive the triumph of your holy labours. You will bring back to the Lord's sheepfolds the scattered sheep which have been commended to you. This dearest Papulus, a levite, a son by adoption, I commend to you, Saturninus, dearest brother. You know that he has continually followed and recognized the truth of my preaching: in tribulations he was a sharer; I have found him to be one who worships God, loves men, chaste, innocent, sober, kind, devoted to the pursuit of learning *, just, patient, one who despises injuries. For the work of the holy ministry he will be with you a zealot of the faith, a fruitful helper. And the saints with humility and weeping prostrated themselves at the feet of the most holy father, in obedience to Christ and the divine commandments. Of their own will they offered themselves, unto life and blood, for the defence of the faith.
[9] setting out in the time of St. Clement, pope, Having received, then, the common and the particular blessing, some took to the road, girded up, for the provinces and sees committed to them; others at the first taking up of blessed Clement i to the papacy; others as far as
the time of Clement's second taking up, the Lord so inspiring, delayed. Meanwhile, while the holy Roman Church * provid … duc … the order of polity, institution … of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the holy sacr … of the divine offices the ecclesiastical rules sac … of the magisterium of the radiant church and of the new seedling militant for Christ the Lord con … dissime. We presume that our holy fathers, Bishop Saturninus with the levite Papulus, looked to the road of their committed delegation up to the time of blessed Clement. For blessed Clement testifies in his epistles j that also to the Gauls, Germany, the Spains and Italy, by command of blessed Peter, he himself sent many of the holy doctors of the faith who had served in the warfare in the time of the holy apostles, as bishops through the several cities, and consecrated them as titled. He destined the wiser where the error of paganism raged more widely. And when the time of the harvest predestined for them came, and of the authority received piace (sic), with the blessing and grace of the apostolic see, on the way of peace and love, with the holy angels accompanying them, Saturninus with Papulus, both rejoicing, went forward together.
[10] he came first with Saturninus to Arles and Nîmes; Everywhere scattering the seed of the word of God in the devil's field, drawing to the faith souls deceived by diabolic fraud, commending them to Christ, advancing from good to better, they came to the port of the city of Arles k. This city had already received in part the grace of the gospels through the preachings of Trophimus, disciple of the apostles; but, now corrupted to its vomit, it was not yet advancing in the increase of the faith, but, with few exceptions, many had gone back from the faith. There they converted many to Christ, instructing them by word, edifying them by examples, flashing with the brilliance of miracles. After this our glorious fathers, coming to Nîmes l, converted many inhabitants of that same city from unbelief to faith; and, having taken up there Honestus, a citizen of Nîmes *, by preaching and baptizing through all Septimania they gained a great people for Christ. Many in their discipleship, marked with the stigmata of the Christian religion and instructed in the orthodox faith, they joined to their company.
[11] then held at Carcassonne by the judge Rufinus, And when the aforesaid holy men, joining the offices of preaching, were travelling everywhere day and night, they entered the city of Carcassonne. Soon by the judge Rufinus, who presided over that city, and who had been aroused by letters and report about the novelty of such a religion, they were seized, without any hearing, with the whole company of the faithful. The judge Rufinus assailed them with a scowling countenance in such arrogance of wordiness, saying: Of what condition are you, you strangers, followers of novelties? To him the saints with placid countenance and constant mind replied with one accord: We are Christians, ministers and servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, whose coming, embassy, teaching and the fruit of whose passion, the glory of whose resurrection and ascension we have to declare to men made captive by the devil through unbelief. Then Rufinus said to the holy men: If you will not retreat from that wicked and most wretched purpose to the worship of our gods, which our lords the emperors have revered as most holy, know that you will undergo on this day all kinds of punishments that can be devised by human ingenuity. But if you pay sacred libations to our gods, you will be given whatever vast rewards you wish. So to whichever of these you drive your minds, you will be recompensed according to your deserts, either good for good or evil for evil. Then the holy athletes of Christ, with manly spirit and most firm mind, said to the judge Rufinus: We fear and love the Creator of all; to him we pay daily sacrifices of praise; we do not sacrifice to demons, nor ought they to demand it, nor we to pay it. Who is the agent of such madness as to pay sacrifices to deaf and dumb idols, from whom he neither receives salvation nor hopes for pardon, nor is enriched by mercy, but procures the ruin of his soul? For sacrifices are owed to him who on the day of the great judgment will restore the bodies of the dead for the better. He has no need of our goods, nor is he delighted by the gore of cattle ; we adore the living God from whom all good things proceed, in whom is the most invincible truth. Vain idols we curse and with all our power despise. But the insane Rufinus, vociferating, poured out such venomous words: Let the babblers be taken from our sight and thrust back into the confines of a dark prison, that we may not hear the insulting of our gods.
[12] but freed by an angel, The most blessed Saturninus and Papulus with their company of faithful associates, immediately seized by the attendants, were received into foul prisons, without food or drink. The cruel Rufinus had ordered that absolutely all aids of humanity be denied them. Having lingered some days, the holy soldiers of Christ, nearly failing from bodily want and the squalor of the prison, though comforted by an angelic vision, began humbly to beg divine help, since they saw that human help was lacking; trusting wholly in God, ready for life or for death, according to the good pleasure of the Lord's will. As they persisted night and day, since they were yet to offer to the Lord God wider gains of souls and to be crowned with a greater triumph, in the still of the night an angel of the Lord, shining with incredible brilliance, broke open the dungeons of the prison, burst the bonds of the chains, and prepared for the saints free passage wherever they wished, saying thus: Go, unconquered soldiers, announce to the peoples the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your hour has not yet come; greater rewards and contests for the faith of Christ are due to you… Then the guards of the prison, terrified by divine fear, fled.
[13] they go to Toulouse; a great part of which having been converted to Christ, The holy athletes, undaunted in most firm hope, went to the pagus of Toulouse, teaching the peoples and baptizing in the name of the undivided Trinity, with the Lord God working with them and confirming their words with frequent signs. Yet continually Papulus, the friend of God, the most holy levite, clung as an intimate to the pontiff Saturninus. And the athletes of Christ, knowing that in the very populous city of Toulouse the ferocity of paganism raged the more, like valiant centurions, kindled by divine promptings, entered upon the city undaunted. Having entered the city, they blessed it, saying thus: Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee from his face. Gradually, with the merits of the blessed Saturninus, pontiff, and Papulus, levite, helping, miracles flashed forth and the sacraments of the faith began to sprout. As all hastened to the holy faith, abundant blessing grew; little by little the name of Christ was spread abroad, the salvation of the evangelical preaching. Many flowed together to the laver of holy regeneration. In vigils, fasts and holy preachings the most blessed Levite m ran solicitous, angelic in countenance and life, that he might snatch prey from the devil and return it to the Lord God. Nor was he lacking in grace of speech, nor in penetrating eloquence. Pleasing to all, ever ready by keen prudence of mind, deep of intellect, apt at disputations, he confounded the gentiles by reasons, the Jews by the Scriptures; affirming that the most simple form of divinity has nothing in itself but itself, and that there are not many gods, and that the whole universe of creatures is created and has need of something that is outside the universe of created things. And these are not idols made by the hand of men, but God eternal, from whom all things flow.
[14] [St. Saturninus, going away into Spain, commits the people of Toulouse to St. Papulus.] So as holy regeneration increased in the city of Toulouse, the outstanding doctor Saturninus addressed the most venerable levite Papulus thus: O sweetest brother, we have come out from Greece, the land of our origin, to lead an unlearned people to the universal fatherland, the land of promise. Our blessed Father Peter taught us to aim unceasingly at the gains of souls, to labour above all things for the souls entrusted to us. For these reasons we have been sent to these regions, by the authority of Christ our Lord, by the ministry of the prince of the apostles himself, from whom by holy blessing we have received hope that we should receive the reward of labour and a harbour of rest. Our Lord Jesus Christ had commanded us, when he designated us disciples to travel through the world, that the sound of the evangelical trumpet should resound in every region, so that what was opened to us in secret we should speak in the light upon the housetops, and not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. If they persecuted Christ himself, our lord and master, we shall be persecuted in the body in his name. The Spirit of God has guided us everywhere; he gave the word, he will minister the grace. Go forward; through all those neighbouring regions preach the word, be urgent in season, teach, baptize, strengthen the taught. We must fulfil the command of Christ. I have determined to go around … and the lower Gascon lands, the parts of the Spains. But you, my son, keep watch around these provinces, labour in all things, fulfil your ministry; I commit to you, delegated by apostolic authority, my place everywhere. Farewell, dearest brother, most holy levite n. Our seed will be blessed in the generations of the ages.
[15] He, while he vigorously discharges the office of deacon, And the most blessed levite o Papulus went out and preached everywhere with constant mind Christ the saviour of all, begotten ineffably of God the Father before the ages, not made, consubstantial with the Father, eternal, almighty, at the end of the ages a true man from a mother, born of the Virgin Mary for our salvation, who suffered for the redemption of all, that from men the company of angels might be restored (sic) in … and that human nature, corrupted by the sin of the first-formed man, might be redeemed. The first man, a sinner, could not merit so great a gift, nor give so great a satisfaction; therefore the Son of God took flesh in the womb of the Virgin, mediator of God and man. Christ Jesus paid through justice the passion and restored us to the glory of the supernal enjoyment. And when the most holy father Saturninus had reached the Spains, preaching the word of God, the most prudent levite remained, like a honey-bearing bee, within the city and outside in the adjacent regions, most fervent for the holy mysteries and the dispensation entrusted to him. Sent by blessed Peter as apostolic legate, vicar of the blessed pontiff Saturninus and the first to exercise the sacred office of the archdeaconate [p] in the pagus of Toulouse. Distinguished by praise in all good works and marvellous in fame, he did not cease to minister the word of God, to console the poor, to instruct the ignorant, to rebuke tyrants, to draw all to the faith. And all who were pressed by infirmity of evil humours, harried by the devil, desolate, imploring the merits of the holy levite, were restored to their former health, marvelling at the immense gifts of graces which the clemency of the Redeemer worked through his servant Papulus.
[16] [beheaded by the senate of the Capitol of Toulouse, he carries his head to a spring that had prodigiously gushed forth.] As the tireless constancy of the evangelist persisted, the envy of the devil arose against the word of God and the doctor of the evangelical law, lest it should lose the prey of paganism and lest the pontificate of the Saviour should be increased through Christ's servant Papulus. And because the common people in these our regions firmly revered their guardian, spiritual father and levite-patron, attendants sent by the senate of the Capitol of Toulouse secretly seized this most blessed father of ours Papulus, bound him, and dreadfully wasted him with blows, scourges and slaps, saying that under the feigned name of a crucified Jesus he was a seditious man , a disturber, a persecutor of the commonwealth. But since the most holy athlete persevered most unconquered in the confession of the holy faith and of the Christian religion, and the name of Christ could not be taken away from his affection and mouth and invocation, by the cutting off of his head he consecrated his life with a happy palm to the Lord God. Seeing however the sword of the attendants, he fixed his hands and knees on a stone set before him, in which, for the perpetual glory of the martyr, the traces of hands and knees [q] at once remained in evident impression. He poured out a prayer to God, commending to Jesus Christ
for whose faith he was fighting, the souls committed to him, the increase of the place and of the faith, and of his own life the consummation, and thus he gladly endured the executioner, rendering his soul to God. Struck by the sword between two trees, by a consecrated death he happily consummated the fruit of his apostolic embassy. When the head was cut off , a living spring of water gushed forth in the earth, which remains to this present day, to which the holy martyr after his beheading, carrying the head itself in his hands, came by divine guidance through the ministry of angels, and laid him (sic) down there. From which spring a rivulet flows continually as far as the church entitled by his name, not without the presage and testimony of approved miracles. There the whole body remained for a long time, with miracles flashing forth, venerated by the Catholic faithful to the praise of the name of Christ and the glory of the holy martyr.
[17] [The body having then been carried to Toulouse, the head remained at the place of martyrdom. And the martyr is honoured by God;] At length, as the calamities of the country increased, it was carried to Toulouse and laid next to the bodies of the holy apostles in the church of St. Saturninus. The head, however, remains to this day in the church of the holy martyr himself, solemnly laid up and honoured in silver reliquaries , in memory of so great a patron, who served the eternal Father tirelessly and until death watched over the salvation of souls. Whence he has left his happy memory to us who come after. The martyrdom of our most glorious father Papulus in the holy confession gives to those who come after this judgment, that the servant of God should offer himself willingly to the contest for the defence of truth, and not cease to follow after by imitation *. Here let us look upon the pontiff Saturninus and the levite Papulus, his disciple, chosen for martyrdom. Did not the levite, last in order, go before his master, first to be crowned in the holy confession? So it often happens among the elect of God, that those last in calling become first in crowning [r].
[18] by miracles; The power of signs was given to the holy levite to nourish the faith of the pagan gentiles, for corroborating the preaching of the common teaching both of the master Saturninus and of the levite Papulus his disciple. Who could doubt that by the ministry of the holy angels the body of the most holy levite, when the head was cut off , took the glorious head in its hands and carried it to the destined place? and that not without presage it indicated how the place would in time be consecrated to the Lord for the honour of God and the praise of the martyr, and be devoted to spiritual offices, foreshown by God, blessed, and preserved in memory of the holy martyr, and, as the virtues of its ministers persevered, be prospered from good to better in the praises of God? Let us hold fast the miracles of the saints to their praise, for the strengthening of virtue, the confession of faith, the defence of truth. But in the reign of Antichrist miracles, indeed very many, will cease, to prove the patience of the saints and the lightness of the reprobate.
[19] but he is also to be revered by imitation, Let us therefore commit to memory, as mirrors of life, the deeds of the holy levite. He bore holy fruit among the nations, when for so long a time he disclosed the word of salvation. To evangelize is a most excellent work of prudence, when the evangelizer is occupied in the Holy Spirit. After the example of the holy martyr let there be knowledge in the understanding, charity in the affection, sweetness in speech, the light of good example in work. Let us consider how much Papulus was commended by blessed Peter in chastity, and blessed in life. Continence is the security of the mind, the health of the body. Those who enjoy it are made equal to the angels, if they guard against idleness, against quantity of foods, against vain talk and against wandering. Whence Ecclesiasticus *: No weight is worthy of a continent soul. But let us consider the humility of the holy levite, in which from infancy he was consecrated to the Lord, obedient to all, returning evil to no one, fearing to attain the holy dignity of the priesthood because of the depth of the mysteries. Rooted in true humility, he grew up in higher holiness; for it is not in loftiness of ranks but in amplitude of charity that the kingdom of God is acquired. For God resists the strong, and gives grace to the humble.
[20] that it may be well with the inhabitants of the city of Saint-Papoul. Therefore, good Jesus, who crowned Papulus in his contest, grant that the merits of the most holy father and levite may be for those who come after a mirror of life; and that by his most holy prayers the renowned place and people may be preserved and may grow by holy benefits. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. The author attributes the dignity of archdeacon to St. Papulus, deacon of Saturninus, from the usage of later centuries.
q. On this matter see Commentary, numbers 26, 27 above.
r. He who wrote this had certainly heard nothing whatever about St. Papulus as a bishop or presbyter. Whence a strong suspicion arises that the tradition of the Church of Toulouse concerning the dignity of St. Papulus is rather recent.
* namely rerum.
* namely Petri.
* nutrivit?
* edition Antiochæ.
* edition confervens.
* for comperta?
* edition deliquit.
* edition confortabatur.
* words supplied.
* (sing.-sunt) are read in the edition between referens and Hic.
* edition nitibus.
* edition tetide.
* edition merendi.
* edition idolatrica.
* edition inclinare.
* so the edition.
* edition Catalaunensis.
* edition dedictum.
* these things the editor was able to read from 4 lines of the codex.
* edition Nemausense.
* edition Qui.
* edition pedum.
* edition Jesus.
* edition seditionem.
* edition consacrata.
* edition absciso.
* edition tectis.
* edition desidat.
* edition perimationem.
* edition absciso.
* so.
* edition ecclesiasticis.
LIFE OF ST. PAPULUS
BY BERNARD GUI. [See Preliminary Commentary, number 11, p. 590 above.]
Papulus, martyr in the pagus of Lauragais, in Occitania. (S.)
BHL Number: 6454, 6455
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
We publish the Life of St. Papulus, by Bernard Gui, bishop of Lodève, from three manuscript codices collated among themselves. — 1. The first is a parchment codex containing the third part of the Sanctorale of Bernard Gui, and it is the original and autograph copy of this work, on whose folio 108 the Life of St. Papulus is found. It belongs to the public library of the city of Toulouse, in folio, n. 64. This we take as the foundation of our edition, and it will here be marked by us with the number 1. — 2. The second is a parchment codex containing the Lives of some saints of the region of Toulouse, in which the Life of St. Papulus is found on fol. 228. It belongs to the public library of the city of Toulouse, in folio, n. 72. We shall mark its variant readings with the number 2. — 3. The third is a parchment codex containing the Lives of some saints of the region of Toulouse, in which the Life of St. Papulus is found on fol. 158. It belongs to the national library of Paris, in folio, n. 4985. We shall mark its variant readings with the number 3. It is helpful to note that these three copies of this Life are contemporary with the author Bernard, who died on the 30th day of December of the year 1331. The second and third precede the year 1317, the first is later than that year. See the most learned pamphlet of the distinguished Léopold Delisle, head of the national library of Paris, entitled Notice of the manuscript codices of Bernard Gui [In the second part of volume XXVII of the French work entitled: Notices and excerpts of the manuscript codices from the national library and other libraries (Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la bibliothèque nationale et autres bibliothèques), Paris 1879.]. To this most learned man we gladly here offer a testimony of our grateful spirit for his exceptional kindness towards us.
St. Papulus, having followed St. Peter to Rome, with St. Saturninus, Of St. Papulus, on the third day before the Nones of November, from what Flavius Anselm, monk of Bec, wrote of him in a certain sermon [title 2, 3: Sancti Papuli martyris ex iis quæ scripsit Flavius Anselmus,
Beccensis (Becensis 3) monachus in quodam Sermone de ipso, cujus natale recolitur (in quodam-recol. is missing in 3).]. — The holy and glorious martyr Papulus was the son of the prefect of Antioch, the only son of his father. Forsaking father and fatherland et patriam omits 2, 3. with all his riches, he clung to blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, having become his disciple, choosing the poverty of Christ and preferring it to the riches of this world. After that, when blessed Peter the apostle was making his way from de omits 3. Antioch to Rome, St. Papulus travelled along with him; and when he had spent some time with him at Rome, with Dyonisio et adds 2, 3. Saturninus, afterwards the glorious martyr of Christ (m. g.) martyribus gloriosis 2, 3., he was directed by blessed Peter the apostle to the parts of Aquitaine for the purpose of preaching the word of God verbi Dei omits 2, 3.. Entering Carcassonne and publicly preaching the name of Christ, they were sent into prison by the judge of that city, Rufinus Ruphino 1. by name, and [(squalore-pœnis) so 2, 3; deinde a squalore carceris extrahuntur, non quidem a pœnis 1.] were afflicted by the squalor of the prison and by hunger, but at night they were drawn out from the darkness of the prison by the angel of light: not indeed freed from all punishments, but reserved to undergo afterwards greater torments for the name of Christ.
[2] He came to Toulouse; and while the care of this Papulus, then, at that time a youth, afterwards to be a glorious martyr of the Lord, entered the city of Toulouse with blessed Saturninus, to preach among the peoples the word of God and of faith and of salvation: region he carries on in St. Saturninus's place, and although he bore many injuries and tribulations from the unbelievers, he by no means slackened, but insisted the more on the preaching the codices prædicationem. of the word of God, laughing at torments and despising the punishments inflicted on him: knowing that The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us electis 2, 3.. St. Papulus is reported to have clung familiarly and inseparably to blessed Saturninus, bishop of the city Tolosanæ civit. 2. utpote sanctus sancto adds 2, 3.. And this blessed pontiff Saturninus, when he had gone into Spain to preach the word of the Lord, and was staying for two years and more at Pamplona Pampeloniam 3., commended the city of Toulouse and the region of the territory of Toulouse to blessed Papulus Paulo 3. to rule in Christ (ad regendum in C.) in Christo regendum 2, 3.. He ruled it vigorously, assiduously preaching the word of God to the peoples and watching like a good shepherd over the sheep handed over to him creditas 2, 3..
[3] [his head is cut off by the persecutors: but he carries the head to a spring a little distant,] At length, when he was preaching the word of the Lord far and wide and, like a good shepherd, supplying his sheep with the pastures of eternal life, he was seized by the persecutors of the faith of Christ and subjected to many injuries, and after manifold kinds of torments, since he persevered constantly in the confession of the faith of Christ (f. C.) christianæ fidei 2, 3., his head having been cut off from his body with the sword (ejus-corp.) cæsus 2, 3., he was made a victim of Christ and a martyr et martyr omits 2, 3.; and there is shown in the territory of Toulouse (t. T.) T. t. 2, 3. the place of his martyrdom, which is distant from the city of Toulouse about a day's journey [(locus-unius) sanctissimi ipsius martyrii locus distans ab ipsa Tolosa quasi diei unius itinere 2, 3.]. There is shown also a rock on which the imprinted traces of the martyr's knees and hands appear manifestly to this day, upon which quem omits 2, 3., with knees and hands fixed, he prayed when about to be struck. In which place, as many were being freed from many troubles through the merits of the holy sancti omits 3. martyr, a church was built by the faithful, in such a way that the rock we have mentioned is seen beneath the altar. And St. Papulus having been beheaded, immediately after the beheading, carrying the severed head in his own hands, by divine power and under the guidance of an angel he came to a spring not far from the aforesaid place [(Sanctus-loco) Monstratur autem non procul ab isto loco fons quo sanctus martyr Papulus post decollationem caput proprium manibus suis portans ductu divino pervenit 2, 3.] and there laid it down.
[4] this prodigy being similar to others of the saints, Something similar [(in place of Simile autem) Et ne hoc de sancto Papulo cuiquam incredibile videatur, simile 2, 3.] is read of many other saints, especially in the primitive church. Just as [(Sicut to the end) Lucianus (Luciconis 3) siquidem, Belvaci Galliarum civitatis primus martyr (et episcopus adds 2), cum pro Christi nomine cum sociis suis, Maximiano et Juliano, decollatus fuisset, assumpto capite cum prædictis sodalibus suis ad fontem qui hodie monstratur in illis partibus venit et (ac 3) lavit, iterumque resumptum prope civitatem in loco deposuit in quo in sui nominis ecclesia hactenus veneratur. Dionysius quoque, Parisiensis civitatis primus martyr et præsul, cum Rustico et Eleutherio sociis, capitibus amputatis, ipsa capita sua manibus accipientes deportaverunt ad locum quo nunc requiescunt. Nigasius (Nicasius 3) quoque, Rothomagensis civitatis archiepiscopus primus ac martyr, cum Quirino et Seuviculo sociis, capita sua post abscissionem eorum in quandam insulam deportarunt ibique deposuerunt. Sancta quoque virgo Valeria, prothomartyr Galliarum, caput abscissum manibus bajulando Lemovicis civitate firmis incedens vestigiis ad beatum Martialem attulit et obtulit ad altare ubi illa hora pro ejus martyrio divina mysteria celebrabat (celebrabant 3) 2, 3.] of St. Lucian a, bishop of Beauvais, and of St. Dionysius b of Paris and of St. Nicasius c of Rouen and of St. Valeria d in the city of Limoges, who carried her severed head to blessed Martial and offered it at the altar where at that hour he was celebrating the divine mysteries for her martyrdom.
[5] and his body still rests in the town of Saint-Papoul. The body of St. Papulus (m. g.) adds 2, 3., carried to Toulouse, is honourably venerated to this day in its own marble tomb in proprio tumulo marmoreo omits 2, 3.. But the head ipsius pretiosum adds 2, 3. in the place which is called by his name the town of Saint-Papoul villa Sancti Papuli omits 2, 3. is held in veneration in his own sui nominis adds 2, 3. church, where afterwards [(post-modum-decurrente) et (sic) monachorum cœnobium cum abbate sub regula beati Benedicti serviens Domino. Sic igitur beatus Papulus, martyr inclitus, hoste devicto martyrio consummato ab angelis lucis susceptus est in cœlis inter martyres laureatus 2, 3.] there came to be and is an abbey of the Order of St. Benedict, which in modern times lord John XXII of the popes raised to an episcopal see, in the first year of his pontificate, in the running year 1317 of the Lord's incarnation.
ANNOTATIONS.
LITURGICAL DOCUMENTS ON ST. PAPULUS.
Papulus, martyr in the pagus of Lauragais, in Occitania. (S.)
FROM THE EDITION.
I. From the Toulouse missal of the year 1524 (Missal for the use of the metropolitan church of St. Stephen of Toulouse, most recently revised and corrected with no mean diligence and study by the most learned and wise chapter of the said cathedral church of Toulouse, etc. 1524). Fol. 241:
AT THE FEAST OF ST. PAPULUS, MARTYR.
Prayer. — Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who keep the feast of blessed Papulus, YOUR MARTYR AND PONTIFF, may by his intercession be strengthened in the love of your name.
II. From the Toulouse Proper (according to the text revised by order of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Charles de Montchal, archbishop of Toulouse, and published in the year 1647).
On the 3rd day of November, St. Papulus, martyr, semidouble.
Lesson IV. — Papulus, a youth of Antioch, having set out from Rome with St. Saturninus, first bishop of the people of Toulouse, intending to go to the city of Toulouse, both were cast into prison at Carcassonne by Ruffinus the judge of Carcassonne, and being freed from it by divine aid, at length reached Toulouse. When they had enlightened very many there with the torch of the gospel, Saturninus, about to make for the Spains, parted from Papulus and commended to him the flock of Toulouse. And while Saturninus lingered for two years in those shores, Papulus devoted vigorous effort, both at Toulouse and in the neighbouring places, to increasing the flock of Christ.
Lesson V. — Wherefore, while he applied himself ever more earnestly to spreading the Christian faith, he was seized by the pagans and, having been subjected to insults and various tortures, he completed his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head, in that place which afterwards the
name of holy Papulus himself retained. The severed head, lifted in his hands, the martyr carried to a neighbouring spring under the guidance of an angel. There the traces of the knees and hands on which he leaned when about to be beheaded are said to have remained impressed upon a stone.
Lesson VI. — When a numerous multitude of men gathered from all sides at the tomb of Papulus, on account of the various miracles worked there, a huge church was raised, and in it the head of Papulus was kept, the rest of the body having been translated to Toulouse; which, laid in a marble tomb, lay for a long time at the church of Saint-Sernin, until many years later it was found there together with the bodies of the holy prelates of Toulouse Honoratus, Silvius, Hilary. So much honour was paid by those who came after to the monument of so great a martyr, that it was dignified not only by a splendid basilica but also by a very ample monastery, which John XXII, Supreme Pontiff, afterwards raised to the eminence of a bishopric.
The same lessons are inserted word for word in the booklet entitled: Proper Offices of the saints of the Church and diocese of Toulouse, published by order of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Charles Antoine de la Roche-Aymon, archbishop of Toulouse. At Toulouse, by Cl. Æg. Lecamus 1744.
III. From the Toulouse breviary of Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse Carcassonne, Herisson 1784..
On the feast of St. Papulus, martyr. Greater double.
From Anselm of Bec and Bosquet.
Lesson I. — Papulus is reckoned among the chief disciples and companions of St. Saturninus, first bishop of the people of Toulouse. With such virtue and such success did he labour under this fervent apostle that Saturninus did not hesitate to commit to his care the newly born Church of Toulouse itself, while, discharging an embassy for Christ, he travelled abroad to preach the gospel of the heavenly kingdom. What he did or what he suffered in asserting the faith in these regions is not entirely established: but at least that he sealed this testimony of faith by the shedding of his blood, all acknowledge. In the very territory of the people of Toulouse, a day's journey distant from the city, he consummated his martyrdom.
Lesson II. — A long time after the death of St. Papulus, the fame of his memory led first to a church being built around his tomb, and then near it a monastery, designated by the names of St. Paul and St. Papulus, of which there is mention in the times of Louis the Pious. The concourse of peoples to this place gave a beginning first to a village, and then to a city distinguished by his name, in which Pope John XXII erected an episcopal see, converting the abbey into a bishopric. The solemnity of St. Papulus is celebrated by old custom on the third day of November.
Lesson III. — The body of St. Papulus was translated from the place of his burial to Toulouse and laid in the basilica of Saint-Sernin, where it is venerated by the faithful to this day. In the thirteenth century it was found near the tomb of St. Saturninus: at the beginning of the sixteenth it was solemnly raised from the earth, on the twenty-fourth day of March. And in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-two, borne in a silver casket, it was exposed to the sight and veneration of the peoples. His head is most religiously kept to this very day in the cathedral church of the city called by his name.
Prayer. — Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, a continual increase of the faith which the blessed martyr Papulus planted in these regions and watered with his own blood. Through the Lord.
IV. From the present-day Proper of the archdiocese of Toulouse Copied at Toulouse, 30 January 1880.
On the 3rd day of November, St. Papulus, presbyter and martyr.
in the II nocturn.
From Anselm of Bec and Bosquet.
Papulus is reckoned among the chief disciples and companions of St. Saturninus, first bishop of the people of Toulouse. With such virtue and such success did he labour under this fervent apostle that Saturninus did not hesitate to commit to his care the newly born Church of Toulouse itself, while, discharging an embassy for Christ, he travelled abroad to preach the gospel of the heavenly kingdom. In the very place which afterwards retained his name he consummated his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head. A long time after the death of St. Papulus, the fame of his memory led first to a church being built around his tomb, and then near it a monastery, designated by the names of St. Paul and St. Papulus, of which there is mention in the times of Louis the Pious. The concourse of peoples to this place gave a beginning first to a village, and then to a city distinguished by his name, in which Pope John XXII erected an episcopal see, converting the abbey into a bishopric. The solemnity of St. Papulus is celebrated by old custom on the third day of November. The body of St. Papulus was translated from the place of his burial to Toulouse and laid in the basilica of Saint-Sernin, where it is venerated by the faithful to this day. In the thirteenth century it was found near the tomb of St. Saturninus; at the beginning of the sixteenth it was solemnly raised from the earth, on the twenty-fourth day of March. And in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-two, borne in a silver casket, it was exposed to the sight and veneration of the peoples.
V. From the missal of Saint-Papoul.
On the 3rd day of November. On the feast of St. Papulus, PRESBYTER, herald of the gospel in Occitania and martyr, patron of the cathedral church and of the whole diocese.
PROSE.
Holy people, rejoice, whom Papulus
Once sought out for God.
To your apostle with pious praises
Now render * thanks.
Fervent with the love of Christ,
Having followed Christ as his auspice,
The head of the good,
He brought the faith here to our borders.
The cults and altars of the demons
And the shrines of the gods he overthrew.
Error being driven out, he dispels
The gloomy darkness of minds.
At length, while Tartarus raged,
He consecrated this land by his death,
Where, full of God, he had increased
The faith with great triumphs.
This is that land which, burning,
He filled with new light,
This is that land which the martyr, falling,
Hallowed with his blood.
Happy Toulouse, who within your walls
Keep laid up, stored long since,
The body of the martyr,
A mighty glory made for you.
And you, blessed, who keep the Father's
Crown of the head, our people,
If him whom you now revere as patron
You follow also as a leader.
He who proved the best master
Of truth for us,
To those who prove their faith by life
Will here be a sponsor of salvation.
O Christ, for whom Papulus
Brought us to birth in the faith,
Hear the prayer which now the good Father
Pours out for his sons.
Behold how great a night surrounds
Those beset by the world's darkness:
Those ignorant of the way of salvation,
Author of salvation, direct. Amen.
Annotation* edition refert.
LIFE OF ST. PAPULUS DIVIDED INTO THREE LESSONS
published by H. Hennet de Bernoville
FROM THE COLLECTANEA OF SAINT-PAPOUL [Work cited, p. 107. Compare above, Preliminary Commentary, numbers 7 and 14.].
Papulus, martyr in the pagus of Lauragais, in Occitania. (S.)
BHL Number: 6456
HERE IS SET THE LIFE OF BLESSED PAPULUS IN THREE SHORT LESSONS.
In the pagus of Toulouse, in the city of Saint-Papoul, the feast of the holy levite and martyr Papulus, disciple of the prince of the apostles.
Lesson I. — At Antioch the son of the prefect drew his birth and origin, abhorring the rust of idolatry. As a youth, having become a disciple of blessed Peter, baptized by him, having received the rudiments of the faith, believing the true God, he despised all temporal things, following everywhere the footsteps of his teacher; ordained a levite at Rome by the holy apostle, he clung to him continually as long as he lived in the world. He was a true zealot of the law, a prudent and faithful steward. With the illustrious Saturninus, disciple of Jesus, he was sent as an apostle to the Gauls, not subject to the vanities of the world nor to the filth of the flesh. In simplicity of heart, void of guile, he served innocently; he did not shrink from learning thoroughly the grace of the gospel with a most firm mind. But you, etc.
Lesson II. — While Clement in the papacy presided as Roman bishop and at Rome the sacred assembly of doctors panted for the reclaiming of the Gauls, Saturninus the pontiff with the levite Papulus entered the western parts. They won for the faith of Christ many colonies of peoples. Sowing the word of God at Arles and Nîmes, they brought many to perfection in the faith, and through all Septimania they drew them to Christian discipleship.
Under the cruelty of the judge Rufinus, they attacked Carcassonne undaunted; soon they were there beaten down with insults and scourges, threatened by the wily Rufinus that, unless within three days they offered libations to the gods of the nations according to the rite of the Augusti, they would suffer the burdens of unimaginable torments. But the most holy athletes, cursing the idols in which is neither salvation nor pardon, adored the most invincible God, three in persons, one in essence, through whom all things were founded. In the dungeon of a foul prison, afflicted by hunger and extreme want, they committed themselves wholly to God. At length, the iron bonds being broken, they reached Toulouse. But you, etc.
Lesson III. — And while Saturninus, the angelic doctor, traversed the parts of Gascony and the passes of Spain, teaching and baptizing in the faith of Christ, there remained in the whole region of Toulouse, a solicitous bee, gathering honey in the hive of Christ, the levite Papulus, an apostolic man, advancing everywhere, with God working with him and confirming his words with flashing signs. Preaching Christ the Saviour of all, true God, consubstantial with the Father, coeternal, who, when the fullness of time came, took on the parts of our nature, united together in the virginal chamber, in which assumed nature he willed to die for the working of the salvation of all, on the third day rose from the dead, and with the same glorified flesh ascended into the heavens, in which also he is awaited to come to the judgment of the living and the dead. This orthodox faith the poor men had been sent to evangelize, and in all the earth to defend, unto life and blood, by the same faith rebuking tyrants, teaching the ignorant, curing the infirm, gaining souls for God.
And as the savagery of paganism raged but the constancy of the holy levite evangelist persevered, the undaunted athlete was seized by the attendants of the capitol of Toulouse. With knees bent and hands joined upon a rock, fortified by angelic fellowship, preaching between two holm-oaks, held fast and cut down with blows, by the sword he underwent the capital palm of the martyr, happily crowned with perennial life in the Lord. When the head was cut off, a spring gushed forth to which the holy martyr bore up his head with his own hands. The stone retained the imprinted figure of the hands and shins. For the rock which is Jesus placed his soul in paradise. But you, Lord, have mercy on us. Thanks be to God.
CATALOGUE OF THE SAINTS WHOSE RELICS ARE IN THE DIOCESE OF SAINT-PAPOUL…
Published by H. Hennet de Bernoville Work cited, p. 117. Compare above, Preliminary Commentary, number 14..
Papulus, martyr in the pagus of Lauragais, in Occitania. (S.)
BHL Number: 6457
*
FROM THE EDITION.
On blessed Papulus.
The title of the church is under the honour of the most blessed prince of the apostles and of blessed Papulus, levite, disciple of the same prince of the apostles, his son in baptism, to whom he clung continually as long as he lived in the world. This most holy Papulus was not subject to the vanities of the world nor to the filth of the flesh. With simplicity of heart, void of guile, he served innocently; he did not shrink from learning thoroughly the grace of the gospel with a most firm mind. And while Clement in the papacy presided as Roman bishop and at Rome the sacred assembly of doctors panted for the reduction of the Gauls, blessed Papulus was sent by blessed Clement with Saturninus, disciple of Jesus, to the western parts. There they won many colonies of peoples. Sowing the word of God at Arles and Nîmes *, they brought many to perfection in the faith and through all the regions drew them to discipleship. Under the cruelty of the judge Rufinus, undaunted, to Carcassonne
they went; soon there they were beaten down with insults and scourges, threatened by Rufinus that, unless within three days they offered libations to the gods of the nations, they would suffer the burdens of unimaginable torments. But the most holy athletes, cursing the idols in which is neither salvation nor pardon, adored the true God, three in persons, one in essence: they brought very much fruit to God. And while Saturninus, the angelic doctor, by holy teachings, works and offices, was intent upon the conversion of Gascony, Navarre and Aragon, blessed Papulus remained as APOSTOLIC LEGATE in the whole region of Toulouse, rebuking tyrants, curing the infirm, instructing souls, and winning them for the seedling of the new faith. And as the savagery of paganism raged, under Roman rule, he was seized in this place, next to the spring of Arnunphus, by the attendants of the capitol of Toulouse, held between two holm-oaks, cut down with blows, with knees bent, hands joined, he underwent the capital palm of martyrdom by the sword, happily crowned with perennial life in the Lord. The head being cut off near the spring *. Soon in that same place a spring gushed forth, to which the holy martyr brought his head with his own hands (where the high altar of the church is). The stone retained the imprinted figure of the hands and shins, and the rock which is Jesus placed his soul in paradise.
METRICAL CATALOGUE,
on the state of the church of Saint-Papoul, until it was raised from abbatial to episcopal status Excerpted from Hennet de Bernoville, work cited, p. 181..
This fertile place, scattered among the settlements of country-folk,
First received Christ here, sprinkled in the martyr's blood.
Blessed Papulus carried his severed head from the spring of Arnumphus.
And thus by divine power he consecrated the place to God in blood.
As miracles grew, under the title of the prelate of the apostles a table was prepared here for God.
After … martyrdoms a chapel was dedicated with altars for both.
The old structure shows itself to the peoples by the faith of the eyes, etc.
At length the church of Saint-Papoul, led for four hundred years under abbatial rule,
Was raised by Pope John XXII of holy memory to episcopal rank.
With Louis reigning in France, on the 7th before the kalends of March, in the year 1315 VIII cal. mart. in “Catalogo episc. S. Papuli usque ad duodecimum.”.
Annotations* the last word could not be read by the editor.
* edition Nemanse.
* edition frontem.