ON ST. BARTIUS, OR BARSIUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, AT VAISON IN THE COUNTY OF VENAISSIN,
ABOUT THE YEAR DLXXX.
CommentaryBartius, or Barsius, bishop and confessor, at Vaison in the county of Venaissin. (S.)
J. B.
Châtelain alone today announces St. Bartius or Barsius, bishop of Vaison, in the Universal Martyrology, in these words: At Vaison, St. Bartius, bishop, successor of St. Quinidius. Vaison (in French Vaizon) is an episcopal city in the county of Venaissin (le Venaissin), subject to the metropolis of Avignon. Jean Colombi wrote expressly on the deeds of the bishops of Vaison; who nevertheless, in book 1, number 54, committed to writing only this about St. Bartius: Blessed Barthus or Bartius is handed down to have succeeded St. Quinidius, so that Vaison can glory, and indeed most deservedly, and congratulate itself that it had in this most happy century (the VI) three successive bishops illustrious in every kind of virtue and endowed with heavenly honours. But, as of Theodosius, so also of Barthus, all the deeds have been buried in oblivion, and only the names of these most illustrious men have come down to us. This, however, I can assert: that if Barthus sat after Quinidius, as we have received from our Forefathers that he sat, he did not spend many years as bishop; certainly no more years, namely, than eight: since Quinidius, his predecessor, is read subscribed to the IV council of Paris of the year 572 or the following; and Artemius, his successor, to the 1st of Mâcon, of the year 581; as was said in volume 2 of February at the 15th day, where St. Quinidius is treated. And if he, as some write, passed to the Heavenly Ones about the year 578, only about three years will be left for the episcopate of St. Bartius. And hence perhaps, as also from the various disasters by which that city was worn down, it has come about that now even the people of Vaison themselves are in such great ignorance of the things done by him. But as regards his cult, I have nothing particular about it either to add to the statements of Châtelain and Colombi, except that his feast is observed with a proper Office among the people of Vaison, according to the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, who in volume 1, column 923, write thus of him after the brothers Sainte-Marthe: To comply with the tradition and the proper Breviary of the church of Vaison, we give this Saint as successor to blessed Quinidius. But he sat for a short time, as what follows will show. Jean Chenu and Claude Robert pass over St. Bartius in the Bishops of Gaul; the latter moreover wrongly places Artemius, the successor of SS. Quinidius and Bartius, before St. Quinidius: Jean Chenu nevertheless advises, in his series of the bishops of Vaison, that several are wanting after Quinidius.