ON ST. PATUSIUS, CONFESSOR, BISHOP-ELECT OF MEAUX, AT MEAUX IN BRIE, A PROVINCE OF GAUL,
IN THE VII OR VIII CENTURY.
Sacred memory, place, time, cult.
Patusius, confessor, bishop-elect of Meaux in Gaul. (S.)
BY J. B.
The Paris Martyrology, published in the year 1727 by command of the Most Eminent lord de Noailles, archbishop of Paris, records St. Patusius at the III day of October in these words: Which Martyrologies have mentioned St. Patusius, "In the district of Meaux, of St. Pathusius, presbyter of Meaux, who is said to have died on the very day on which he was elected bishop." The Breviary of Meaux of the year 1640 mentions him on this day, and again at the XXXI day of August, sacred to St. Ebregisilus, the successor of St. Patusius in the see of Meaux: "Ebregisillus, born of most noble parents, about the seven hundred and fiftieth year of the Lord, was elected bishop of Meaux for the merit of his excellent holiness, and substituted in the place of St. Pathusius (who had not yet been consecrated)." Du Saussay, in the Appendix to the Gallican Martyrology, at the letter P: "St. Pathusius, bishop of Meaux, dear to God, is recorded to have been deprived of life on the very day of his election: nay rather, withdrawn by death and carried up to blessed immortality." Chastelain in the Universal Martyrology, whose French words I render into Latin: "In the district of Meaux, St.
Patusius, canon at St. Stephen's of Meaux, whose name a certain priory of that district bears." He is further honoured with the title of Saint by Belleforest, by Démochares On the Sacrifice of the divine Mass, by Chenu, Severt, Claude Robert and others everywhere among the more recent writers who treat of him: nay, on the testimony of Le Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks at the year 697, "In all the Catalogues of the prelates of Meaux he is called Saint": Du Plessis, however, in the History of Meaux, book 1, number 79, writes that he is omitted in certain Catalogues of the bishops of Meaux; but he judges that this was done for no other reason than that he made an end of living on the same day on which he was elected to the sacred insignia, not yet consecrated.
[2] Of the city of Meaux, chief of the district of Brie, there has been treatment more than once in our Acts. what was his episcopal see, Formerly called Jatinum, it afterwards obtained the name of the people. It has an ancient bishopric, whose cradle some begin from St. Dionysius, some from St. Sanctinus. The cathedral church has as patrons the Virgin Mother of God and St. Stephen. Formerly subject to the metropolis of Sens, it is now subject to that of Paris, ever since, namely, the church of Paris, under the Supreme Pontiff Gregory XV, at the instance of Louis XIII, was added to the metropolitan sees of France. In the year 549 Medoveus, bishop of Meaux, subscribed to the fifth council of Orléans, and Gondoald to that of Reims in the year 625 according to Labbe, Le Cointe and Mabillon; according to the Sainte-Marthes in the year 630. It numbers also several prelates distinguished for holiness whose birth it claims for itself, as St. Rigomer, as St. Hildevert, as St. Ebregisilus, as our St. Patusius, of whom and others, in Du Plessis, tome 2, page 452, Fulcoius of Beauvais sings thus:
Meaux, fruitful mother of holy Men, Of just Walbert, and of sacred Canoald, Of Faro, of Fara, who knew how to love Christ, For whom she makes the earthly spouse a stranger. Meaux bore Celinia, divine with celibate life, And Rigomer, stern to the enemies. Partusius (what am I doing?) the city of Meaux brings forth from its district. Here three Brothers, sound in deeds and doctrine, Put Christ, whom they loved, in their own place. Here Addo, Rado, the most illustrious offspring of Dado, Founding excellent places, dedicating their goods and themselves, Established Radolium, Jotrum, Resbacum. Here was Hildevert, a shepherd true in fact and name. Here was the prelate wont to crush the gloomy; Eager for his fellow-servants, keen against the proud, Ebregisilus, etc.
[3] at what time he flourished, The chronology of the prelates of Meaux is very obscure. Hence Fr. Jean Pien, tome VI of August, page 694, placed St. Ebregisilus, who immediately succeeded St. Patusius in the see of Meaux, in the VII or VIII century, until the editors of the New Gallia Christiana should bring some light to the chronology of the bishops of Meaux. There is indeed in them, tome 8, column 1597 and following, a Catalogue of the prelates of Meaux; but no year is ascribed either to St. Patusius or to St. Ebregisilus. Of Herlingus, however, the immediate predecessor of St. Patusius, they have thus: "He is believed to be the bishop Herlingus who subscribed the privilege of Aglibert, bishop of Le Mans, for the little monastery of holy Mary in the month of June in the XI year of King Theoderic. You have it in Mabillon's Analecta, tome 3, page 204." The same Mabillon relates, tome 1 of the Benedictine Annals, page 595, that Theoderic died about the year 691, in the 17th of his reign: from which there arises the probable conjecture that St. Patusius closed his last day towards the end of the VII century. Le Cointe, cited at number 1, favours this conjecture, and the Paris Martyrology favours it too, which together with Le Cointe assigns the year of the Lord 697 as St. Patusius's year of death. Chastelain, at the III day of October, puts it that St. Patusius died in the VIII century; but an error, unless I am mistaken, has crept into that place: for to St. Ebregisilus, the next prelate of Meaux after St. Patusius, the same Chastelain at the XXXI day of August attached the VII century: and all the catalogues of the bishops of Meaux, as many as I have seen, make St. Ebregisilus the successor of St. Patusius. On the contrary, the Breviary of Meaux cited at the same number 1 notes that St. Ebregisilus was raised to the insignia of Meaux about the year 750: whence it follows that St. Patusius died either in the same or in the immediately preceding year. I would rather subscribe to the Paris Breviary than to that of Meaux: for, St. Hildevert having died, Herlingus succeeded about the year 680; St. Patusius succeeded Herlingus, and Ebregisilus Patusius; and consequently, if the Breviary of Meaux were to be stood by, it would be necessary that Herlingus occupied the see of Meaux for almost 70 years, which, on I know not what authority it would be said, and it is the less approved by me as so long a possession of an episcopal see is the rarer and more infrequent.
[4] So much about the Saint's age: his cult, however, is evident from this, what his cult is, is explained. both that the church of Meaux recalls his annual memory on the III day of October with a semidouble Office, as in the common of a confessor not a Pontiff, and that he long ago had in the diocese of Meaux a church consecrated to his name: of which Du Plessis writes thus, History of Meaux, book 1, number 79: "In the diocese (of Meaux), about the third milestone from the city of Meaux, between the North and the West, there is a parish church dedicated under his invocation, and perhaps he is buried in it. The village itself is known by no other name than that of the holy Confessor: there is also a priory in that church, which is also named of St. Patusius." A certain Odo gave this church to the abbey of Molesme in the year 1102, and Manasses, the I of this name, bishop of Meaux, confirmed it ten years later: but the priory, with the consent of those concerned, was extinguished on the XXVIII of June of the year 1726 under the Most Eminent lord Cardinal de Bissy, who applied its revenues to his seminary, as the cited Du Plessis relates from the record-office of the church of Meaux. More than these about St. Patusius I have not found, except that the nuns of the monastery of St. Fara, on the testimony of the same Du Plessis, believe that they have with them some relics of St. Patusius enclosed in the reliquary of St. Fara, their foundress.