ON ST. HELANUS, PRIEST AND CONFESSOR, IN THE TERRITORY OF REIMS IN GAUL,
IN THE 6TH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
Helanus, priest, confessor, in the territory of Reims in Gaul. (S.)
BY C. B.
Among the seven brothers, all commended everywhere for holiness of life, The Saint, whose genuine name is Helanus, yet not all (see volume 2 of May of our Work, page 302, in the Annotations) inscribed in the sacred Calendars, who, as Flodoard hands down to memory in the History of the church of Reims, book 4, chapter 9, came together with their three sisters, Francla, who is Frauda to others, Promptia and Possenna, from Ireland into Champagne for the sake of pilgrimage for the love of Christ, he records Gibrianus in first place and Helanus in second. The same is also done in the Life of the former of these two Saints, already edited by us on the 8th day of May, on which he is venerated, as also in all the other monuments seen by me which commemorate those seven brothers in continuous series with the names of each expressed. Further, in nearly all the same monuments this our Saint is constantly distinguished by the name of Helanus, as also by Flodoard at the place cited. Colvener indeed, in his Scholia on Flodoard's History of Reims at the place of it just cited, observes that in the Manuscript codex which he used Helanus, who was lacking, was added by another hand, and that in the printed editions Tesanus is found in his place; but this Colgan holds for an error in the Annotations which he appended to the Life of St. Tressanus, who himself also was a brother of St. Helanus, on the 7th day of February; namely because, as he says in the same place, Helanus, the brother of SS. Gibrianus and Tressanus, is commemorated everywhere not under the name of Tessanus but of Helanus in the Menologies on the 7th of October and in the Office of the Saints of the diocese of Reims, which exists in my keeping. So he, and, although I do not know what Office of the Saints of the diocese of Reims he records here, rightly indeed, in my opinion. Wherefore, since the Saint in the Life of his brother Tressanus, or, as it is written elsewhere, Tresanus, just mentioned, edited by us on the 7th day of January, and written, as our Bolland suspected in the same place, from as early as the seventh century, is also called Helanus, no otherwise than is done in the monuments mentioned above, his genuine name was most probably Helanus, although meanwhile he is also found called Emanus, Elanius, or somewhat otherwise besides. These things being observed, before I proceed to other matters, I set down beforehand a certain compendium of the Life of Helanus.
[2] It runs thus: Clovis, king of the Franks, having been recently converted to the Christian faith and baptized, and a compendium of his life is given here, when the affairs of the Gallican church were chiefly directed by St. Remigius, archbishop of Reims, from the island of Ireland, which the race of the Scots inhabited, flourishing in the dignity of Christian vigour and surpassing all the neighbouring nations in faith, as Jonas the abbot writes at the beginning of the Life of St. Columbanus the Irishman, who with his disciples a hundred years after St. Helanus and his brothers filled a great part of Gaul, Germany and Italy with monasteries; from that island, I say, for the sake of pilgrimage for the love of Christ, seven brothers, excellent examples of piety and virtues, with their three sisters, stirred by divine inspiration, came into France. Namely Gibrianus, Helanus, Tresanus, Germanus, Veranus, Habranus and Petranus; Frauda, Promptia and Possenna; and when they had come to St. Remigius, the father of pilgrims, he received them humanely and kindly, and having learned their holy purpose, he appointed that they should choose for themselves suitable places above the river Marne for dwelling, and for visiting and helping one another. For they lived not only on the alms of those to whom the most pious prelate had commended them, but also by their own industry and the labour of their hands, according to the custom of the Religious of Ireland and of others of that age and the preceding, according to their state and condition. By which manner of life, joined with wonderful holiness and most devout prayers, they greatly won for themselves the favour of those who inhabited those places. Of these, Helanus, the holy priest, chose for himself the estate of Buxiolum, pleasant with meadows and vineyards and not unequal to the neighbouring places in the fertility of its soil. In which, living soberly, piously and justly for many years, and instructing the people and forming them in the things which are of faith, piety and morals, having fought the good fight, he at length rested happily in the Lord; and he did the same as his brothers, who by their life and death made illustrious the diocese of Reims and that of Châlons.
[3] by the ecclesiastical Office, three Lessons of which this constitutes, Let us, secure, magnify the merits of our patron Blessed Helanus, now placed in safety, who, holding manfully the helm of faith, set down the anchor of hope in a tranquil station, and brought the ship, full of heavenly riches and eternal merchandise, to the desired shore; and let us strive to imitate him. This compendium of the Life of St. Helanus, first woven together, in my opinion, in the past century from Flodoard and others, as is noted in the margin, Colgan also had at hand, and brought part of it into the Appendix appended by him to the Life of St. Tressanus on the 7th day of February; it was printed, however, not indeed under the title of a Life, as Colgan calls it, but of Lessons, together with some other Lessons which are of other Saints, by Nicolas Constant in the year 1612 at Reims in a small booklet. And these Lessons are three in number, each marked with one of the ordinal numbers IV, V and VI according to the place they occupy; and since this is so, they constitute part of the ecclesiastical Office which was to be recited of St. Helanus, namely the three Lessons of the second Nocturn, although meanwhile in the printed booklet which comprises them no mention is made anywhere either of an Office to be recited of St. Helanus or of the church for whose use the said Lessons were printed. And there is still less to be doubted on that matter for this reason, that after the Lessons the following Prayer of St. Helanus is also subjoined, the Antiphon This Man despising the world etc. having been set before it: May the intercession of blessed Helanus Thy confessor commend us, we beseech Thee, O Lord: that what we cannot by our own merits we may obtain by his patronage. Through.
[4] [he is venerated in some church of the diocese of Reims; in the sacred Calendars which are recorded here] But since in the aforesaid booklet, as I have said, which comprises this Prayer together with the three Lessons of St. Helanus, it is nowhere expressed for the use of what church these were, does nothing supply itself from elsewhere by which this may in some way be determined? In the Breviary of Reims, printed in the year 1630 and existing in our keeping, neither an Office of St. Helanus to be recited nor a commemoration of him to be made is proposed; so that assuredly the Lessons which the said booklet exhibits of St. Helanus, and the Prayer subjoined to them, were for the use not indeed of the whole diocese of Reims, but only of a particular church situated in it; but which this is I have not hitherto been able to find out. Meanwhile I would rather pronounce for the church of SS. Timothy and Apollinaris at Reims, because Helanus, from what is soon to be said, is inscribed in its Martyrology. However that may be, what has already been said of the booklet printed at Reims in the year 1612, comprising three Lessons of Helanus together with a Prayer and an Antiphon, does not permit us to doubt that the Saint is indeed venerated with an ecclesiastical Office in some church of the diocese of Reims. Nor, I think, is it to be doubted either that he enjoys at least some honour of the Heaven-dwellers at Buxiolum, a village of the diocese of Reims, which, as Chastelain teaches in a little Note added in the margin of the Universal Martyrology woven together by him, is now called Biseuil, and seems to be no other than the village Bissueil, marked in Blaeu's Geographical Map of the diocese of Reims between Épernay and Châlons on the Marne. So I judge, because Helanus, as is related in the compendium of his Life already given and is admitted by all, both led a holy life at Buxiolum and moreover obtained burial there, nor do I find that his body was translated thence elsewhere. Moreover, in the Martyrology of the monastery of SS. Timothy and Apollinaris at Reims, in Marlot, book 2 of the History of the Metropolis of Reims, chapter XV, he is announced there today in these words: On the Nones of October, in the territory of Reims, in the village which is called Buxiolus, the deposition of St. Helanus, priest and confessor. In the same Martyrology in Du Sollier, among the Usuardine Additions, Elanius, and Buxiosus for Buxiolus, are presented; but wrongly indeed, since both in the compendium of his life given and in nearly all the other monuments in which either the Saint or the village in which he lived holily and died is mentioned, Helanus (see number 1) and Buxiolus are brought forward.
[5] And first of all Molanus, who inserted St. Helanus into the Martyrology put together by him, he exists inserted, does it in these words: In the territory of Reims, in the village which is called Buxiolus, the deposition of St. Helanus, priest and confessor. From Molanus, as to the manner in which they write down the names of the Saint and at the same time of the village in which he died and obtained his tomb, those who also celebrate him today in the sacred Calendars put together by them, Costantino Ghini, Thomas Dempster and André du Saussay, by no means depart; for the first in the Birthdays of the Canons records Helanus today thus, though meanwhile he is deservedly not to be counted among the canons: In the territory of Reims, of St. Helanus, priest and confessor. He, having died in peace after a praiseworthy life, lies buried in the village which is called Buxiolus; and the second in the Scottish Menology does it in this manner: In the village Buxiolus, the deposition of Helanus, priest. Further, as regards the third, or André du Saussay, he, adorning Helanus with a somewhat more prolix elogium, uses these words: In the territory of Reims, in the village of Buxiolus, the deposition of St. Helanus, priest and confessor, who, having cast away the vanities of the world, offered himself to Christ by a spontaneous denial of himself, in whose assiduous service, having produced copious gains of souls and gathered immense sheaves of the merits of justice, he went joyful to the promised beatitude. And thus we now have not only what was to be shown here, but also some sacred Calendars in which the name of our Saint exists inserted today. To these further are added two printed Catalogues of the Saints of Ireland and Scotland, which exist in our keeping, likewise a Manuscript in which Emanus is wrongly written for Helanus, our Florarium, the German Martyrology of Walasser, and another Latin one besides, which has Galesini as its author,
and finally the present Roman one itself, in which the Saint is announced today in nearly the same words in which this is done in the already praised Martyrology of Galesini. Here they are: In the territory of Reims, of St. Helanus, priest.
[6] But let it now suffice to have said these things concerning the cult of St. Helanus and his record in the sacred Calendars; and most probably in the 6th century let us now inquire into the time about which he flourished and died. The Compendium of the Life of St. Helanus recited above has at its beginning: Clovis, king of the Franks, having been recently converted to the Christian faith and baptized, when the affairs of the Gallican church were chiefly directed by St. Remigius, archbishop of Reims, from the island of Ireland, which the race of the Scots inhabited, … for the sake of pilgrimage for the love of Christ, seven brothers, excellent examples of piety and virtues, with their three sisters, stirred by divine inspiration, came into France, namely Gibrianus, Helanus etc. Since the speech here is of a Clovis who reigned in France while St. Remigius, archbishop of Reims, was chiefly administering the affairs of the Gallican church, undoubtedly no other is designated than Clovis, king of the Franks, the first of this name; and since this is so, and Clovis I was not baptized before the end of the 5th century, as is agreed among all, certainly St. Helanus with his brothers and sisters did not come into France or Gaul before the 5th century had nearly elapsed, nor most probably did he exchange this mortal life for the immortal sooner than when the 6th century had already been begun some years. But lest anyone perhaps call into doubt the time just assigned for Helanus's coming into Champagne and for the end of his life, because the praised Compendium of the Saint's life is not ancient, as I have already shown, it pleases me to confirm it further from elsewhere. That a full brother of our Saint, named Tresanus, was a contemporary of SS. Remigius, archbishop of Reims, and Genebaldus, bishop of Laon, is clearly indicated by the latter's Life, given by us on the 7th day of February, written from as early as the seventh century, as I noted above that our Bolland suspected.
[7] some years after its beginning, he departed to the Lord. Moreover, Sigebert of Gembloux writes thus at the year 509: Gibrianus the Scot, having made pilgrimage in Gaul with his brothers and sisters, makes illustrious the city of Reims both by his life and by his death. Miraeus indeed ascribes these words of Sigebert to an interpolator; but that this man, even if we give assent to Miraeus, does not deviate from the truth as regards the time at which he notes that St. Gibrianus and his brothers and sisters, and therefore our Saint, flourished, is plain even from the Life of St. Tresanus just praised alone, to which meanwhile either Sigebert or his interpolator adds some weight of whatever kind, as do also the common tradition and the Lesson concerning Gibrianus, the brother of St. Helanus, which the Breviary of Reims printed in the year 1630 comprises on the 8th day of May. And from the time in which St. Helanus and his brothers and sisters flourished it now follows, as our Bolland has already shown on the 7th day of February in the Historical Commentary on St. Tresanus, the brother of St. Helanus, number 6, that the Life of St. Eloquius, to be examined on the third day of December, on which he is venerated, wrongly relates that Helanus, Tresanus, Germanus and Veranus came into France with St. Eloquius in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 656. Nor, which still remains to be said here, are those writers more accurate who note that St. Helanus and his brothers and sisters came into France not from Ireland, which Bede calls the fatherland of the Scots, but from present-day Scotland, which is part of Britain. That you may perceive clearly that this is true, see what has been said by us of St. Gibrianus, the brother of Helanus, in volume 2 of May, page 300, number 3. To the same end there may also be seen Colgan, in the Appendix which he appended to the Life of St. Tresanus on the 7th day of February, and Marlot, book 2 of the History of the metropolis of Reims, chapter 15, treating there solely of St. Gibrianus and his brothers and sisters, and therefore also of St. Helanus, of whom meanwhile I have nothing else to record than what has already been said.