ON SS. EUSEBIA AND COMPANIONS, ABBESS, AND THIRTY-NINE NUNS, VIRGINS AND MARTYRS, NEAR MARSEILLE IN PROVENCE IN GAUL,
PERHAPS IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
Concerning their cult and martyrdom.
Eusebia, abbess, virgin and martyr, near Marseille in Provence in Gaul. (S.)
Thirty-nine companion nuns, virgins and martyrs, near Marseille in Provence in Gaul.
BY C. S.
Among the monuments concerning the Saints to be recorded in our Work at this 8th day of October, deposited by my predecessor of pious memory John Stilting, [These have been venerated since the year 1733 with an annual Office on the second Sunday of October,] there are letters of the most ample lord Joseph Antoine de Brantes, treasurer and penitentiary of the metropolitan church of Avignon, often praised and to be praised for his services to our Museum, by which he advised us in the year 1759 that at Marseille in Provence in Gaul, on the second Sunday of October not impeded by an Office of double rite, there are venerated with an annual Office of the same rite SS. Eusebia, abbess of the monastery formerly founded by St. John Cassian near Marseille, and thirty-nine Nuns subject to her, slaughtered by infidels for their faith and virginity. And the aforesaid Office (I recite the words of the same most ample man) was granted by decree of the most illustrious and most reverend lord bishop of Marseille on the 27th day of May, MDCCXXXIII; and therefore of the most illustrious Henri de Belsunce, who at that time presided over the church of Marseille.
[2] recorded by one martyrologist alone at the 30th day of December: He most probably affixed the memory of these holy Virgin Martyrs at his own discretion to the aforesaid second Sunday of October, because they had no certain day sacred to their cult. Certainly I have found no memory of them among the martyrologists, except in Arthur du Monstier in the Sacred Gynaeceum, who inserted them, I know not for what reason, at the 30th day of December in these words: At the Weaunense monastery of the diocese of Marseille, the passion of saints Eusebia and her Companions, nuns and Virgins, who, contending with wonderful constancy for the defence of chastity and faith, carried off the palm of martyrdom. So Arthur, all the other martyrologists, both ancient and more recent, keeping silent; while other writers who honourably mention the same do not assert, or at least do not prove, their ancient sacred cult; nay, some of them do not even honour them with the title of Saints or Blessed.
[3] yet in the 18th century their Sacred veneration, however, is indicated by what Jean-Baptiste Guesnay has in St. John Cassian illustrated, book 2, chapter 22, §2, number 8, where, treating of the lower church of St. Victor at Marseille (to which the bodies of all of them are said to have been translated anciently), he says thus: And opposite that cave is a certain ampler and more open chapel, to which is the name of the Blessed Virgin of the Confession, celebrated with the greatest frequency, both on account of the elegant image of the blessed Virgin set up in it, and because in it are buried the bodies of nine and thirty Virgins dedicated to God, slain by the Saracens and Vandals; and hence it comes about that girls and other women are still today prohibited from entering it, as we have also seen religiously observed by our elders. For this reason it is enclosed by iron railings through the munificence and liberality of a certain queen and of a count of the Salyes. To the right of this chapel a marble sepulchre has been set up, and in it are laid the bones of St. Eusebia, formerly abbess of the same nine and thirty Nuns. The same writer asserts their cult still more clearly in the Ecclesiastical Annals of Marseille at the year of Christ 477, number 8, where he likewise speaks thus of them.
[4] The sacred remains of the Martyrs were afterwards (after their martyrdom) carried over by the people of Marseille to the city and placed in the principal monastery of the Cassianite monks of St. Victor, cult of whatever kind did not begin, but an older one where a certain ampler and more open chapel is still seen in the inner part of the church, in which they are preserved with religious cult and the highest veneration. These things Guesnay wrote almost eighty years before the Office mentioned above was granted by Belsunce, so that accordingly no one can suspect that what is said in the Lesson of the same Office began under the same bishop: Their bones, laid in the underground church of St. Victor, are venerated with religious veneration. To this also bears what is read in the proper Lesson of their Office, and what the most illustrious Belsunce, praised above, asserts in volume 1 of the History or Antiquity of the church of Marseille, page 292, to be recorded also in an ancient manuscript: that it was formerly wont to be observed in their monastery, translated into the city, that whenever a virgin was to be admitted either to the novitiate or to Religious profession, the martyrdom of St. Eusebia and her Companions should be recalled to her memory by the priest as an example and incitement of invincible constancy in preserving chastity. For it does not appear doubtful that they also honoured with sacred veneration those whose martyrdom they valued so highly.
[5] These things altogether make me believe that a cult of whatever kind of these Martyrs is far older than Belsunce, was increased by an annual double Office but was increased by him with this annual Office; and that, since they had previously had no certain day sacred to them, it was affixed at his discretion to the second Sunday of October. Hence I further determined that these sacred Virgin Martyrs are by no means to be passed over by us, but that a place among the Saints is to be given them at the present day of October, about which the second Sunday of the same month is wont to recur according to ecclesiastical custom. Now I subjoin that Office, such as the said lord De Brantes, having copied it with his own hand, communicated it to us: On the second Sunday of October, not impeded by another double feast. Commemoration of SS. Eusebia and her Companions, Virgins and Martyrs, double. All from the Common of Virgins, as in the Roman Breviary. At the Magnificat and Benedictus, Antiphon: Prudentes virgines, etc. Prayer: Da nobis, quaesumus, etc., as in the same Breviary for several virgins. In the 1st Nocturn the Lessons from the occurring Scripture.
[6] with a proper fourth Lesson, which In the IInd Nocturn, Lesson IV. "Eusebia, a virgin illustrious for notable piety, presided over a monastery of sacred virgins which blessed Cassian had formerly built in the territory of Marseille not far from the church of St. Victor. When the infidels were rushing upon the monastery, Eusebia exhorts the sacred Virgins, less anxious about retaining life than about preserving their modesty, to cut off their noses, so that by the bloody spectacle the ferocity of the barbarians might be inflamed and their lust extinguished. And when both she herself and all the others had done this with incredible eagerness of mind, the barbarians, first astonished at the novelty of the thing, then driven by fury, savagely slaughtered them, forty in number, confessing Christ with wonderful constancy.
[7] we give here, Their bones, laid in the underground church of St. Victor, are venerated with religious veneration. It is established by most certain monuments that in their monastery, which, translated within the walls of Marseille, now holds the name of the Holy Saviour, it was formerly the custom that, whenever any virgin was admitted either to lay down the novitiate of the cenobitic life or to make her vows, the priest should recall to her memory the martyrdom of the abbess Eusebia and her Companions as the greatest incitement to constancy." Lessons V and VI from the Book of St. Cyprian on the Discipline and dress of virgins: Nunc nobis ad virgines, etc., as in the Breviary. In the IIIrd Nocturn, the Homily of St. Gregory, as in the Common in the first place. Now let us note certain things on these few which we know of these holy Virgins.
[8] composed from tradition: of their monastery And first indeed, that these things are had from tradition alone is argued by the fact that the Ruffis praise this in the oft-mentioned History, volume 2, page 58, nor have I seen their Acts or Passion praised anywhere. And as regards the place which they consecrated by their religious life and shed blood, there is no one who doubts or can doubt that this is that house of virgins which Gennadius, in the Catalogue of illustrious men, hands down was founded by St. John Cassian near Marseille and survived at the time when he was writing, in these words: Cassian,
[9] its site disputed, and a notice of it. Arthur, following Guesnay, in the Sacred Gynaeceum announced St. Eusebia with her Companions at the Weaunense monastery; the opposite opinion was held by the author of the Lesson of the Office recited, by Belsunce in the Work cited, and by Denis de Sainte-Marthe, volume 1 of Gallia Christiana, column 695, under the abbey of the Holy Saviour, which name the same house of virgins, transferred not a few centuries ago into the city of Marseille, still keeps up to now, surviving. Sainte-Marthe says in the same place that it was dedicated from its beginning to St. Mary the Virgin; and afterwards to St. Cassian, he teaches from the Letter of St. Gregory the Great to the abbess Respecta, who is read in it to have presided over the monastery consecrated in honour of St. Cassian. That Letter exists in the Register of the same holy Pontiff, book 7, number 12. The praised author of Gallia Christiana adds besides that the same monastery was at some time also called by the name of St. Quiritius, otherwise Cyricus, martyr of Tarsus, from relics of the same Saint deposited in it; and that this is so believed from the epitaph of Eusebia, abbess of St. Quiritius, of which discourse will be made below. Finally he observes in the same place, from the Life of St. Caesarius, bishop of Arles, written by Cyprian, that St. Caesaria, virgin, sister of the same holy bishop, was trained in cenobitic institutes in the same monastery before she was set over her house of virgins at Arles. See our Work at the 12th day of January, where we treated of the same St. Caesaria, and at the 27th of August, where we treated of her holy brother Caesarius.
[10] Over that monastery, therefore, founded by St. John Cassian, [Guesnay assigns the martyrdom inflicted by barbarians to the fifth century, others to the eighth,] and at that time certainly situated outside the city of Marseille, St. Eusebia presided as abbess when, as is narrated in the Lesson of the ecclesiastical Office, she was the author to her thirty-nine Nuns of that memorable deed for the defence of their virginity, and was crowned with martyrdom together with all of them. But the year of the martyrdom, nay the century, is altogether hidden. Jean-Baptiste Guesnay, in the Annals of the province of Marseille, believed that it was inflicted on them about the year of Christ 477 by Vandal pirates; but in Cassian illustrated, no year being designated, he nevertheless bound it to the same fifth century. Far from him dissent others who defer it to the eighth century and to the Saracen depredations; with whom Mabillon seems to agree, in volume 2 of the Annals of his Order, where, after he had recounted some irruptions of the Saracens into the Gauls in the same century, he proceeds thus at number X.
[11] Here also they bring back the noble deed of the forty nuns of the monastery of St. Cyricus, others also bind it to the ninth. erected near Marseille by Blessed John Cassian, who, at the exhortation of Eusebia, their mother and abbess, are related to have cut off their noses, lest violence should be done to their chastity by the Saracens. This opinion about the time, as probable, was also followed by the most illustrious Henri Belsunce in the History of Marseille, volume 1, book 4, number 6, and Jacques Longueval, priest of our Society, believed it certain, in volume 4 of the History of the Gallican church at the year of Christ 731. Nor did the Ruffis, in the History of Marseille, volume 2, book 10, judge it remote from probability, inclining however more toward about the year 67 of the ninth century. To me indeed nothing occurs for fixing a certain century; yet the opinion for the eighth century is preferred, about the thirtieth year of which, namely, St. Porcarius, abbot, too, with five hundred monks, slaughtered by the Saracens in his island of Lérins in the Mediterranean sea, obtained the palm of martyrdom, as may be seen among us at the 12th day of August, where their Acts have been given.
[12] I have nothing more to say except some things about the marble tomb The inscription of the tomb which is believed to be St. Eusebia's in which the body of St. Eusebia is believed to be preserved separately from the bodies of her Companions; concerning which matter Mabillon, in the Benedictine Annals, after the words recited above, says thus: There exists in the monastery of saint Victor the tomb of Eusebia, on which is set the effigy of the same Heroine, mutilated in half the face and the nose, with this epitaph, the monogram of Christ prefixed, written most faultily in this manner.
Hic requiesset in passe Eusebia religiosa, Magna ancela Domini, Qui in secullo ab heneunte etate sua vexit Secolares, annus XIIII. & ubi a Domino Electa est, in monasterio sanctorum Cyrici Servivet annus quinquagenta; recesset Sub die pridie Kall. Octobris, indictione festa.
[Here rests in peace Eusebia the religious, great handmaid of the Lord, who in the world from her earliest age lived as a secular fourteen years, and when she was chosen by the Lord, served in the monastery of the saints of Cyricus fifty years; she departed on the day before the Kalends of October, in the indiction "festa."]
[13] does not prove that this is hers; The Ruffis, in volume 2 of the History of Marseille, book XI, page 128, give the same inscription almost equally faulty, such as I also subjoin here:
P. requiescit in passe eusebia religiosa magna ancella dñi. qui in sæculo ab heneunte etate sua vixit secolares annus XIIII. & ubi a dño electa est in monasterio sanctorum Cyrici servivet annus quinquagenta recesset sub die pridie kald. Octobris indictione sexta.
[P. Here rests in peace Eusebia the religious, great handmaid of the Lord, who in the world from her earliest age lived as a secular fourteen years, and when she was chosen by the Lord, served in the monastery of the saints of Cyricus fifty years; she departed on the day before the Kalends of October, in the sixth indiction.]
In which place that epitaph has been more correctly reported I indeed cannot divine; yet if it really is that of today's St. Eusebia, she would have been fourteen years old when she undertook the monastic life in that monastery, and, after fifty years spent in it, would have died, more than sixty years old, on the last day of the month of September. But the inscription does not prove that it is that of today's St. Eusebia. For, granting that by the words Great handmaid of the Lord an abbess is designated, whence do we know that this was not a namesake of today's Saint? Certainly no word occurs in that epitaph which suggests that the Eusebia whose it is was a martyr; nay, as far as it goes, it makes one suspect that she departed by a natural death: and the monogram of Christ, which Mabillon mentions, is not read in the Ruffis, unless they meant it to be indicated by the single letter P.
[14] nor does the tomb itself teach it any more, Still less can be gathered on this matter from the marble tomb itself, on which that epitaph is inscribed, which the Ruffis present in the place cited above, and which the most illustrious Belsunce, in the often-praised History, volume 1, page 291 and following, sets forth thus, but in French words: The bodies of these Martyrs were translated to the abbey of St. Victor, where they still are today in the underground church. The body of St. Eusebia lies in a square, rather oblong marble tomb, placed within a certain hollow (in French niche), so that only its front part can be seen, which, in rather light sculpture, presents a fluted tomb. In the middle of the tomb, in an oval border, is a half human figure, whose nose is mutilated, which Dom Luc d'Achery believed to be the effigy of St. Eusebia. It has very short and thick hair, and a garment fairly like that of a Roman senator.
[15] made perhaps for laying the body of another, Below the border is seen a naked woman, half reclining, leaning on her left elbow, and turning away her face out of horror at a dragon, which seems to come forth behind her and to turn its head toward her to devour her. Perhaps it is a symbol of the Apocalyptic Woman, such as is seen also in other ancient monuments. The marble tomb does not occupy the whole face of the stone on which it is carved. On the right is seen the effigy of a man standing upright, holding a long staff in his hand, of which only the end part survives, which he has in his hand, and of two children, who seem to kneel and weep. On the other side stands a man, having a fruit in his hand, and behind him a basket, from which leaves come forth. It is doubted whether this tomb was made for St. Eusebia. There is reason why it should appear older than she, and why, in the confusion at the time of her martyrdom, there should not have been time to make a tomb for depositing her relics, and the first one found should have been used. Thus far Belsunce, who asserts besides that the figure of the tomb given by the Ruffis is accurate enough, except that the heads of the woman and of the dragon are much more raised in it than in the marble tomb itself.
[16] The more I consider the same tomb in the Ruffis, so that recourse must be had here to tradition. the more probable it appears to me that it was not first composed for laying the body of St. Eusebia. For that effigy which Mabillon, in the words given at number 12, and, as Belsunce testifies, d'Achery too believed to be St. Eusebia's, by its whole dress, its bare head and as it were cropped hair, presents a man rather than a virgin consecrated to God; and only the mutilation of the nose, which perhaps gave cause to this opinion from the pious deed of the same Saint, could have come about by chance, as often happens elsewhere. Therefore I did not think it would be worth the effort to have the same tomb engraved on copper; nor did it seem good to add my conjectures to those of Belsunce, inasmuch as they pertain nothing to our purpose. But whence, then, you will say, is it known that the bones of the celebrated St. Eusebia, abbess and virgin and martyr, are contained in that tomb? This indeed I judge to be had from tradition alone. If anyone shall bring forward more certain things, I will gladly be taught.