Lusor

ON ST. LUSOR, BOY AND CONFESSOR, IN THE TERRITORY OF BOURGES,

3RD CENTURY.

Lusor, confessor in the territory of Bourges. (S.)

BY C. D. S.

[1] St. Lusor died while still a boy, a few days after baptism, Whatever we know of the history of St. Lusor comes down to these few things which Gregory of Tours handed down in the book On the glory of the confessors, chapter 90: But in the village of Dolense in the territory of Bourges rests blessed Lusor, son of Leocadius, formerly a senator, who is said to have departed from the world in his white robes. That Leocadius, the father of St. Lusor, was the same as that Leocadius of whom the same Gregory treated in Hist. Franc., I. 31, can hardly be doubtful to anyone; there he relates that the first heralds of the Christian faith among the Bituriges were received by him, and at the same time describes him as the first senator of the Gauls, who was of the stock of Vectius Epagathus, who, we mentioned above, suffered at Lyon for the name of Christ. That is, in chapter 29 of the same book Vettius Epagathus is read to have been one of the forty-eight martyrs who with Photinus, bishop of Lyon, shed their blood for Christ in the year 179. The same Leocadius seems to have been among the forebears of Gregory of Tours: for this writer praises Leocadia, whom Florentius, Gregory's father, had as his mother Cf. G. Arndt, Praef. to Gregory of Tours' Hist. Franc., p. 4., and she herself descending from the stock of Vettius Epagathus Greg. Turon. Vit. Patrum, VI, 1.. No reason, however, compels us to call Leocadia the granddaughter of Leocadius with a certain more recent writer [Levesque de la Ravaliére, Nouvelle vie de S. Grégoire, évêque de Tours, in Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscr. (anc.), vol. XXVI, p. 599. ], but it is altogether uncertain in what degree of kinship she was joined with him.

[2] towards the end of the third century, From the fact, however, that Gregory sprang from the progeny of Leocadius, and of such a progeny that nothing is found in the Gauls more highborn and noble Vit. Patrum, loc. cit., it follows that special authority must be attributed to his testimony where he speaks of the things which concern it: for at every time it has been the custom in houses of such exceptional nobility for the memory of the ancestors to be preserved more diligently, and especially in what order they succeeded one another and in what age they lived. Now Gregory clearly indicates that Leocadius flourished when the city of the Bituriges was first converted to the Christian faith through the work of one of the disciples of those bishops whom he says were sent from Rome into the Gauls about the middle of the third century Hist. Fr., I, 30, 31.: whence, unless I am mistaken, is effectively refuted the opinion of those who attach Leocadius and therefore Lusor to the first century of the Christian era or the beginning of the second. To this is added that Gregory asserts that Leocadius was of the stock of Vectius Epagathus Ibid., who, as we mentioned above, suffered martyrdom about the year 180; and one is said, according to the common manner of speaking, to be of the stock of some man who has sprung from his descendants after at least two or three generations. Whence further, to observe it in passing, is overturned the opinion of those who contend that the church of Bourges was founded in the first century by St. Ursinus. For although Ursinus is not named in the cited passage of the History of the Franks, it is nevertheless clearly indicated that in the time of Leocadius the Christian faith was first preached among the Bituriges, and in another place Gregory testifies that Ursinus played the chief part in this preaching, where namely he says: But the city of Bourges first received the word of salvation from St. Ursinus, who, ordained by the disciples of the apostles, was destined for the Gauls, and he first instituted and governed the church at Bourges Glor. conf., chapter 79..

[3] not yet having passed the years of infancy. It seems certain, then, that St. Lusor did not die before the third century was well advanced. At what age of his life he was called to the heavenly seats is at any rate not sufficiently established from the fact that he is said to have departed from the world in his white robes: for from this it is only gathered that he died a few days after baptism. Yet that he was not undeservedly designated with the title of boy in the ancient martyrologies Cf. the following no. I would gladly conclude from the narrative of the apparition mentioned by Gregory a little further on. Namely, the same blessed Lusor appeared in a vision to a certain poor man and commanded the little cell to be cleaned in which, as they say, he had spent the wailings of infancy Cf. below, no. 5.. For why would the discourse here be only of the wailings of infancy, unless because, when, a Christian of a few days, he passed over to eternal rest, he had not yet completed the years of infancy?

[4] Mention of him in the sacred fasti. The very ancient cult of St. Lusor is attested above all by the Martyrology which they call Hieronymian in the Bern codex of the 8th century, where at the kalends of November it is announced: In Gaul, in the territory of Bourges, in the village called Dolos, the deposition of St. Lusor, boy and confessor. On the same day in the Echternach codex: At Bourges, of Lusor, confessor; but in the Wissembourg codex on the day before the nones, that is, at the fourth day of November, in the same words as in the Bern codex. At the fourth day also he is mentioned in the martyrology which is called that of Bede-Florus: At Bourges, the deposition of St. Lusor, boy …, and in Rabanus: In the Gauls, at Bourges, the deposition of St. Inlusor (sic), boy and confessor. No mention of St. Lusor is made in the pure Usuard, but only in the Anchin, Daveronne and Bordeaux additions, where he is adorned not with the appellation of boy but of bishop of Bourges, an error for which some copy perhaps gave occasion, where through the ignorance or inattention of the copyist epi was read for the siglum pi. Certainly no other historical monuments produce a bishop of Bourges named Lusor. — It has seemed superfluous to review the more recent martyrologies. It must only be observed that the name of Lusor is absent from the Roman Martyrology. In the more recent Proper of the saints of the church of Bourges Ed. in the year 1879. the festivity of St. Lusor is indicated at the 16th day of November, to be celebrated in the semidouble rite, with the office from the common of a confessor not a pontiff, with a proper prayer and historical lessons in the second nocturn, where, on I know not what authority, the mother of St. Lusor is called Susanna. In the same Proper the festivity of St. Leocadius is marked, likewise to be celebrated in the semidouble rite with proper lessons of the second nocturn on the 14th day of the same month.

[5] His tomb Gregory of Tours had gone before the elogia of the martyrologists, in the more than once praised chapter 90 of the book On the Glory of the confessors, after the things cited above No. 1., celebrating the glory of the tomb of St. Lusor thus: And placed in a crypt above the pavement, having a tomb wonderfully carved from Parian marble. It happened

once that St. Germanus, bishop of the city of Paris, was celebrating vigils at this tomb, having not far off a little stool on which he bent his knees when necessity compelled. And it happened in one night of the vigils, while they were chanting the psalms, the Davidic lessons, that the clerics, weary with the labour of standing, as if for some relief propped themselves on the tomb of the saint, setting their elbows firmly upon it. At once the tomb of the blessed confessor trembled, and by the present vibration declared that injury was being done to it. But Bishop Germanus, terrified with fear, ordered the sleepy ones to be removed from on top of it, saying: Stand off, O sluggards, far from the tomb, lest annoyance be caused to the saint of God. When they had been removed, they did not feel that trembling thereafter. But neither has it pleased me to pass over this, that the same blessed Lusor appeared in a vision to a certain poor man and commanded that the little cell be cleaned in which, as they say, he had spent the wailings of infancy. But when that poor man, twice admonished, kept putting off doing what he was commanded, he appeared to him a third time, saying: If you do what I command, you will receive one triens for the service of obedience. He, rising, having cleaned the little cell with brooms, washed it with water and strewn it with herbs, stood astonished, awaiting the promise pledged, until by the will of God he noticed a triens shining on the pavement, which, gathering it up, he went away joyful.

[6] is still seen. We rejoice that this tomb has been preserved to our times, and several more recent writers, to whom it befell to behold it with their own eyes, have described it. One of these descriptions, most accurately made, rendered into Latin from French, we recite here. The tomb of St. Lusor is placed in the crypt beneath the chapel which is seen at the right side of the choir (in the church of Saint Stephen in the village of Déols), to which steps built behind the altar lead down. It is made of white marble, as Gregory of Tours indicated…, and consists of three parts, namely the base, the tomb itself, and the lid. The base, ornamented only with a plinth, is broken and widely hollowed out on the right side. But the tomb on its front face displays a sculpture in relief, by which are represented eleven hunters, clad in the Roman manner, some sitting on horses, others on foot, who with swords and hunting-spears, by the help of dogs, pursue and lay low lions, boars, wolves, stags and other wild beasts of every kind. But the figures carved on the frieze of the lid stand out much less and manifestly betray an artist and an age different from those of the former. The middle of that frieze is occupied by two little winged boys who hold up a square shield empty of any inscription; on the left side a certain meal is represented, and on the right a column of horsemen and foot soldiers [Fauconneau-Dufresne, Histoire de Déols et de Châteauroux (Chateauroux, 1873, 2 vol. in — 8°), vol. I, p. 125.]. We append also a picture of the monument drawn not long ago with remarkable art [Esquisses pittoresques sur le département de l'Indre, text by MM. de la Tremblais, de la Villegille and Jules de Vorys, drawings by Isidore Meyer (new ed., Châteauroux, 1882, large in — 8°), p. 27.]. The prudent reader will easily notice that nothing is displayed in this sumptuous tomb that could be called proper to Christian monuments, except the representation of the meal, in which the loaves marked with the figure of the cross and as it were the appearance of the whole picture manifest Christian art. Therefore it seems one should suppose that the tomb itself was procured from Italy by Leocadius, while still a pagan, for his own burial, but that the lid was afterwards adorned with sculptures in Gaul by a Christian artist.

* commonly Ludre.

* commonly Déols.