Libaria

ON ST. LIBARIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, IN THE DIOCESE OF TOUL IN LORRAINE,

Perhaps under Julian.

SYLLOGE.

Of her cult and her little-known deeds.

Libaria, V. M., in the diocese of Toul in Lorraine. (S.)

BY C. S.

At the third day of this month we gave St. Menna, or Manna, virgin, venerated at Fontenoy and elsewhere in Lorraine. Her sister, Her memory exists as is believed, a virgin also and besides a martyr, Libaria by name, whom the French commonly call Libaire, whom Chastelain calls in Latin Leobaria and in French Libiere, and asserts is called Livieri in French Champagne, comes to be recalled on this day, known equally with St. Menna for her cult, not for more certain deeds. Which I wonder at the more; although they will have it that she suffered under Julian the Apostate, not only Ado and Usuard are silent about her, but also their Additions, edited by Rosweyde and Sollerius. The first in whom I have read her memory in the Martyrologies, the author of our Ms. Florarium of the Saints, brought to its end in the year 1486, praised her at this 8th day of October, the arena and the place of cult being omitted: yet that her cult is far more ancient will become undoubted from what is to be said.

[2] in some Martyrologies at the 8th day Thus the praised Florarium has it in the same place: Likewise of the holy virgins Regenfledis and Libaria, martyr. Philip

Ferrarius added the arena after a fashion in the General Catalogue of the Saints whose memory does not exist in the Roman Martyrology, saying on this same day: In the territory of Toul, of St. Lybaria, virgin and martyr; and in the Annotations praising the Calendar of the church of Toul and the monuments of the church of Grand. Du Saussay agrees in the Supplement of his Gallican Martyrology on the same day in this manner: In the diocese of Toul, the natal day of St. Libaria, virgin and martyr, celebrated in the church of Grand. Nor did the author of the Martyrology of Paris, printed in the year 1727 by the authority of the Cardinal and archbishop of Paris, Louis Antoine de Noailles, pass her over, in which likewise on this day is read thus: On the same day, of saint Libaria, virgin and martyr. The place either of the martyrdom or of her chief cult, omitted here, is indicated in the Index of Saints at the end of the same Martyrology in these words, in Latin: At Grania in the pagus of Solec. or of Odorn. of the diocese of Toul; and in French: A Gran au pays Soulossois, ou Ornois, diocèse de Toul.

[3] Chastelain, calling her, as has been said, Leobaria, and at the 12th of October; in which she is venerated at Toul preferred to place her memory at the 12th day of this month, saying: In Lorraine, St. Leobaria, virgin, who suffered martyrdom under Julian the Apostate; whose very ancient memory is held at Condate on the Mucra (the river) in Brie; in French: A Condé sur Morin en Brie. The same Chastelain, however, in the Alphabetical Index of the Saints in the same place, acknowledged that she is venerated also on the 8th day of October; for in it she is said to be honoured in Lorraine, in Champagne (namely French Champagne) and in Brie on the eighth and twelfth days of October. Further, that she is venerated on both days is established also from the Breviaries; and in that of Toul indeed, printed in the year 1535, at this 8th day a simple Office is read without proper Lessons, with this Prayer: O God, who didst place in the heavens blessed Libaria, virgin and nun, a martyr crowned by angels in the company of other virgins, and didst free her from the hands of the impious, grant, we beseech Thee, that those who rejoice in her honour may be freed from all iniquities. Through the Lord, etc. But in the Breviary of Meaux, at the 12th day of the same month, this Prayer from the Common of virgin martyrs is prescribed for her: O God, who among the other, etc.; in which St. Libaria is called virgin and martyr, not nun.

[4] And as she has the aforesaid cult at Toul, because she is believed to have suffered in that diocese, and at Grand; the greater part of her body in the monastery of St. Leo. so without doubt she enjoys also a much greater one at Grania, or Grand, formerly a town or city of the Leuci, now a village of the diocese of Toul, commonly called Gran or Grand, as also in the abbey of St. Leo at Toul; concerning which Calmet, in the History of Lorraine, reprinted at Nancy in the year 1745, tom. 1, col. 203, num. VIII, noted the following in French. St. Libaria, whom they call the sister of SS. Eliphius and Eucharius, also underwent martyrdom under Julian, but the circumstances of the matter are hidden. She probably suffered in the city of Grand, or in its vicinity. Her cult there was always celebrated, and her relics were preserved with great veneration and honour in the parochial church of Grand dedicated to her up to the year MDLXXXVII, in which the Cardinal de Vaudémont, at that time bishop of Toul, ordered them to be translated to the abbey of St. Leo at Toul on account of the military forces of the Germans … about to pass that way. They rest there up to now; but a certain portion of them was restored some years ago to the parochial church of Grand.

[5] Concerning the other place of the special cult of St. Libaria, indicated above in Chastelain, In the diocese of Meaux she has a church of her name, namely Condate on the Mucra, as it is called by him, take this. In the Codex of the benefices of France it is called here Condetum of St. Libaria, and is placed in the deanery of Croyacum, commonly Crecy, of the diocese of Meaux. Toussaints du Plessis agrees, tom. 2 of the History of the church of Meaux, published in French, page 635, where it is called Condé sainte Libaire, and situated in Brie. Then besides, to our purpose, it is subjoined: St. Libaria, patroness of this church, is a holy virgin and martyr, whose relics rest at Toul in the abbey of St. Leo. The inhabitants of Condé obtained two bones of them in the year MDCC, which are still today exposed to the veneration of the faithful in their church. For these the historian refers to the historical monuments, among which, at num. DCCXXIV, he exhibits from the archive of the bishopric of Meaux a letter of the most illustrious Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, written partly in French, partly in Latin, which, since it contains the circumstances of the translation of these relics, it has seemed to me worth while to exhibit entire, the Latin parts, to the reader.

[6] in which her relics, by Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, In the year MDCCI, on Monday, the 24th of October, within the 23rd week after Pentecost, on which day the feast of the sacred Relics had been celebrated through our whole diocese, We, Jacques Bénigne, by divine permission bishop of Meaux, ordinary councillor of state to the king, formerly tutor of the most serene lord the Dauphin, and first almoner of the duchess of Burgundy, set out at the second hour after noon from our castle of Germigny-l'Évêque, accompanied by master Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, priest, doctor in Theology of the faculty of Paris of the royal house of Navarre, abbot of Savigny in the diocese of Lyon, archdeacon of Brie in our cathedral church, and our vicar general; Master Jean Phelypeaux, priest, doctor of the Sorbonne, treasurer and canon of the same church of ours, and also our vicar general; Master François le Dieu, priest, doctor of Theology, chancellor and canon of our said cathedral church, and our ordinary secretary, and by our attendants; in order to betake ourselves to the parish of Condé-Sainte-Libaire of our diocese.

[7] When we had arrived there towards evening, we with our retinue were invited by master Michel Saulnier, whose authentic letter on this matter, councillor to the king, president in his Court of Aids at Paris, and lord of the said parish, to turn aside to his castle, which we also accepted. Then, in the presence of the same lord, of our aforesaid ministers, and of the parish priests of Condé and of Isles, all of whom signed these Acts with us, we caused to be shown to us the chest of saint Libaria, virgin and martyr, and patroness of the said parish; which chest, made of gilded wood, architecturally ornamented, covered in the manner of a tent, and furnished on the sides with plates of crystal, we recognized to be the same which we had blessed before; and, it being opened, we found two bones fittingly fixed with a fine silver thread drawn round in many turns to a little cushion woven likewise of silver cloth; of which bones one is a vertebra of the neck, the other a bone of the metacarpus, which are the relics of St. Libaria which I enclosed before in the same casket. And under the cushion we found an authentic testimony and the autograph Acts, both those of Toul and mine made at Paris and at Meaux; from which we learned that nothing had been changed in the said casket since we translated the said holy relics into it; which authentic testimony and autograph Acts we caused to be transcribed in these our Acts, as follows, the autographs themselves being taken thence, to be deposited together with these our Acts in the common archive of the bishopric of Meaux.

[8] "We, Claude-Charles de l'Aigle, priest, canon, and inserted in it, we give that of the vicar general of Toul, grand archdeacon of the cathedral church, provost of the notable collegiate church of St. Gangulphus of Toul, official and vicar general of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Henri de Thiard de Bissy, bishop and count of Toul, make known that we, on the day of the date of these presents, having entered the abbey of St. Leo of this city, of the Order of St. Augustine, and having requested the reverend fathers the Prior and the Religious to open to us the chest in which the relics of saint Libaria, virgin and martyr, were preserved, took out thence, with their consent, two bones, namely one of the posterior vertebrae of the neck, and one phalanx of the great toe of the foot, which without delay and in our presence we ordered to be replaced, together with a duplicate copy of this letter, in a little casket of fir-wood, wrapped in a silk ribbon of red colour, and sealed in eight places with the seal of the most illustrious lord bishop in red Spanish wax. Which relics, together with this our letter, are to be delivered at Paris to the lord president Saulnier, who asked for them for the parish of Condé-Sainte-Libaire, of which he is lord, and whose church is dedicated to God under the invocation of this notable Saint. Done at Toul on the twenty-eighth of August MDCC. And signed: De l'Aigle; and below: By mandate of the lord vicar general, and signed Pillement, secretary. And at the side is written: Paraphe ne varietur, at Paris on the tenth of March one thousand seven hundred and one, and signed with a cross and the following letters J. B. E. M., and below signed: By the lord, Le Dieu, and at the side Chevalier, Saulnier."

[9] "In the year MDCCI, on Thursday, the tenth day of March, in our Palace at Paris, approved, in the Place des Victoires, Parish of saint Eustache, we, Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, received by the hands of master Hyacinthe Chevalier, priest, canon of the cathedral church of Toul, vicar general of the most illustrious lord bishop of Toul, the lord president Saulnier, lord of the parish of Condé-Sainte-Libaire, of our diocese, accompanying him, a packet inscribed in this manner: To Master Chevalier, grand vicar of Toul, for the lord president Saulnier, councillor to the king in his councils, president in the Court of Aids at Paris; sealed with the seal of the lord Official of Toul, by whom the packet was sent to the said master Chevalier; and, the first wrapping being removed, we found an authentic letter, giving assurance of the contents of the packet, sealed with eight seals of the most illustrious lord bishop of Toul on a red ribbon over a white cloth covering a certain casket."

[10] "Which authentic instrument begins: Claude-Charles de l'Aigle, etc., and is dated at Toul on the twenty-eighth day of August MDCC. and by his mandate, Signed De l'Aigle, and by mandate of the lord vicar general, Pillement, with a particular mark added to the name *; signed by us and the said master Chevalier, and by the said lord president Saulnier, ne varietur. Which casket, thus sealed, we kept with us, in order to open it in its time and place, and to translate the relics contained in it into a reliquary to be exhibited to us. In witness of which we have signed these Acts, and the said lords named above have signed with us. Thus done in the aforesaid place, day and year, and signed with a cross, J. Bénigne, bishop of Meaux. Chevalier. Saulnier; and below, by mandate of my most illustrious lord: Le Dieu."

[11] diligently inspected by three doctors of medicine, "On this thirtieth day of March one thousand seven hundred and one, We, Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, ordinary councillor of state, formerly tutor of the most serene Dauphin, and first almoner of the most serene duchess of Burgundy, opened the casket sealed with the seals of the most illustrious lord bishop of Toul, in which were deposited the relics of saint Libaria, virgin and martyr, delivered to us in the manner set out in our preceding instrument; and we caused them to be recognized by the masters Charles Morin, Nicolas Bontems,

and Jean Seguin, doctors of medicine of this city of Meaux, who reported to us that one of the bones of the Saint is a vertebra of the neck; and that the other, called a phalanx of the great toes of the feet, seems in their judgment rather to be a bone of the metacarpus. Which relics we had deposited under our seal in the hands of master Le Dieu, priest, chancellor and canon of our church, to be fittingly placed by us in a Reliquary to be presented to us. Done at Meaux on the thirtieth of March MDCCI, and signed with a cross, J. Bénigne, bishop of Meaux."

[12] and enclosed by the same in a reliquary, Thus far I have made these instruments Latin from the French; what is next subjoined in the same letter is written in Latin, and runs thus: Jacques Bénigne, by divine permission bishop of Meaux, for the everlasting memory of the matter, we make known that on the day of the date of these presents there was brought to us by the most illustrious man, master Michel Saulnier, councillor to the king, and president in the Court of Aids at Paris, and lord of the parish of Sainte-Libaire of Condé, a casket for laying up the sacred relics of the same saint Libaria, virgin and martyr, presented to us and religiously received according to the tenor of the acts on the twenty-eighth day of August in the year of the Lord one thousand seven hundred and one; in which casket, having first been duly blessed by us in the chapel of our episcopal palace, we placed the same relics together with the aforesaid Acts, and permitted them to be exposed to the veneration of the faithful in the parochial church of the said saint Libaria, virgin and martyr, of Condé, of our diocese; there being present there master Pierre Durand, rector of the parochial church of the said Libaria of Condé, and master Nicolas Lienard, rector of the parochial church of Isles near Villenoy, and also the aforesaid most illustrious president. Given at Meaux in our episcopal palace, on the first day of April in the year of the Lord one thousand seven hundred and one. Signed with a cross, J. Bénigne, bishop of Meaux. Durand. Lienard. Saulnier. And below: By mandate of my most illustrious and most reverend lord, the Lord bishop of Meaux, Royer, with a particular mark of the name and the seal (in French: Avec paraphe, etc.)

[13] with great festivity The things which follow the same most illustrious Bossuet continues in French in the same place, setting out the solemnity with which he himself at length exalted the same sacred relics and exposed them to the public veneration of the faithful. And on Tuesday, the twenty-fifth of October of the said year, in the morning, we, the aforesaid bishop, ordered the casket in which the precious relics of saint Libaria rest to be set down upon a table in the middle of the choir of the parochial church of the said place, to which we were conducted in procession by a numerous clergy gathered for that festivity, and received in the vestibule of the same church with the customary ceremonies by master Pierre Durand, priest, rector of the same parish. After adoring the most holy Sacrament, and pouring out prayers before the reliquary, which we venerated with great veneration, as our clergy also at once did likewise, we told the people, who had flocked from all the neighbouring parishes to that solemnity, that the cause of our coming was to expose to public cult the relics of saint Libaria, virgin and martyr, and patroness of the place, enclosed in that casket, taken from the tomb of the same Saint, and brought thither by the pious zeal of a devout magistrate, their lord, by which he had been impelled to procure this new aid for exciting their piety, led by the mind of the Church, which exhibits the relics of the Saints to the veneration of the faithful, in order to animate them by such examples to imitate their virtues, to give thanks to God for the triumphs won by them, and in that way to merit their patronage with Him: and to all the faithful assisting at this solemnity with a mind duly prepared we imparted the customary Indulgences.

[14] After this, vested in Pontificals, we were present at the solemn procession, exalted there by a supplication, Mass and sermon in which these holy relics were carried by priests through the principal street of the parish and into the courtyard of the castle, the clergy and people accompanying us, singing Responsories in honour of all the Saints; and, the procession having returned into the church, we celebrated pontifically the Mass of the festivity of the Sacred relics, with a sermon to the people after the Gospel, on the same argument, of the triumph of the holy martyrs and of saint Libaria, delivered by master Simon Michel Truvé, priest, doctor in Theology, canon Theologal in our cathedral church; and, the solemnity being finished, we enclosed these our Acts of what was done in the same casket, which we caused to be sealed in four places, forbidding that it be opened without our special licence and causes approved by us.

[15] We permitted that the casket itself be placed in a shrine made for this purpose above the altar, with this inscription: and they were deposited in the year MDCCI. Another church of hers. Saint Libraria, pray for us; commanding that in the said parish of Condé an annual commemoration be made of this solemnity, translation and exposition of these sacred relics on the Sunday on which the feast of the holy relics is celebrated in this diocese. Done and given in the above-said parish of Condé-Sainte-Libaire, on the day and year set down before. In witness of which we have signed these Acts, and caused them to be fortified with our seal; and the witnesses named below have signed with us, as also our secretary.

✠ J. Bénigne, B. of Meaux.

J. B. Bossuet, archdeacon of Brie.

J. Phelipeaux. Saulnier.

Lienard. Durand.

By mandate of my said lord, the most illustrious and most reverend bishop of Meaux, Le Dieu, secretary and chancellor of the church of Meaux.

So much concerning the relics of St. Libaria preserved at Condé, and the places in which she is venerated; to which must be added the church of Ayette, commonly d'Ayette, which is a village of Artois, about three miles distant from Arras towards Amiens, which church I read is also dedicated to St. Libaria, in notices formerly sent to my Predecessors.

[16] Her Passion has authors neither sufficiently ancient It is far from the case that we can bring forward such certain things about the family and deeds of the same Saint, because the chief knowledge of her seems to have been received from the Life or Passion of St. Eliphius, by Rupert, abbot of Deutz, or another, by an anonymous author, who lighted the way for Rupert, of which we have the latter in Ms., and Laurentius Surius published the former among the Lives of the Saints at the 16th day of October, on which that holy martyr is venerated, and at which it is to be discussed more fully. Meanwhile there may be consulted the Commentary on the Life of St. Menna, or Manna, praised above, in this very Work at the 3rd day of October, §1, where it has already been observed that Rupert wrote before the middle of the twelfth century, and the anonymous author not before the year 1036, and that therefore both were too far removed from the times of Julian the Apostate, under whom the same authors affirm that SS. Eliphius and Libaria suffered, for certain credence to be safely given them here.

[17] nor does it present such an appearance of truth And that one or the other lighted the way for the anonymous author who composed the Life of St. Libaria, of which we have a copy from the Ms. of the church of Ayette, and augmented it partly with accessories, partly with fables, becomes manifest to those who compare both; and that he is not more ancient than the year 1036 is a certain argument from this, that he too, equally with Rupert's anonymous author, teaches that the body of St. Menna rests at Poussay, to which it was shown in the praised Commentary on that holy virgin that it was translated in the same year. This Life of St. Libaria begins from the defection of the emperor Julian from the Christian faith, and from the law passed by him against the Christians, and from his coming from Italy into Gaul to pervert and torture them, in which it narrates that SS. Eliphius, Eucharius and their sisters were then flourishing in holiness; in all of which he had as guide Rupert, or the anonymous biographer of St. Eliphius who carried the torch before him.

[18] as to deserve to be printed. Then he adds from his own store the pious instruction of Libaria by her parents, and on that occasion recounts the chief mysteries of the Christian faith, inflamed by which he says that she devoted herself to the monastic life; that, while she was pasturing her sheep near the city of Grand, she despised the impious edicts and commands of Julian, and the gifts and threats of the man himself even when urging her in person; and that at length, a golden statue of Apollo having been broken in pieces at her prayers, and her distaff and spindles wonderfully budding, being confirmed by an angelic address, she consummated her martyrdom with her head cut off, and more than forty with her, whom she had converted to the faith of Christ by such great prodigies. He adds finally that she herself carried her cut-off head into the city of Grand and washed it at a fountain, and was buried there cautiously by the faithful, the earth trembling, and the walls and towers of the city falling down, and many embracing the sacred rites of Christ; a fountain also afterwards bursting forth under her basilica, by which the sick, being washed, were made whole. Let him believe these things who will, from an anonymous author by no means ancient compared with the age of Libaria: I judge that Life, fabulous also on other grounds, as we shall see, unworthy of the press.

[19] An abridgment of the same is given Shorter and less fabulous is the abridgment of that Life, divided into three Lessons of the second Nocturn for her Office, which our Predecessors placed at this day from the Breviary of Toul, reformed in the year 1595 by the Cardinal of Lorraine, bishop of Toul, and which I subjoin here:

Lesson IV. At that time at which Julian, the apostate emperor, having proclaimed war on the Christians, was striving by all means and arts to call them away from the camp of Christ, there flourished in Lorraine three most noble and most holy sisters, Libaria, Menna and Susanna, who are commended very greatly on this account, that from their earliest age they vowed their virginity to Christ, and with great zeal of piety and faith always persisted to their very last breath in the profession of the monastic institute once undertaken, among the various storms of those times.

[20] Lesson V. Whence it came about that, after they departed from this light, from the Breviary of Toul of the year 1595, Susanna indeed in Champagne, and Menna at Poussay, not far from Mirecourt, laid in honourable tombs, were always held in great veneration and cult among the inhabitants on account of their life most holily led. But Libaria is held more celebrated than her sisters in this, that to the crown of virginity she merited to be adorned by God with the laurel of martyrdom also, together with Eucharius and Eliphius, her own brothers. Lesson VI. And Libaria, when she was set before that renegade emperor, and was ordered to prostrate herself and adore the golden statue of Apollo, could be drawn by no blandishments or promises, nor by threats and tortures, to commit so monstrous a crime, saying that she preferred to be deprived of life rather than of Christ: for which reason, many things having been tried in vain, the impious apostate at length ordered the head of Libaria to be cut off, all marvelling at the ardour of her faith and at so great strength and constancy of spirit in a woman's breast.

[21] In our copy these things are noted as taken from Rupert, abbot of Deutz, and from the Archive of the church of Liverdun in the Toul district of Lorraine; whose author was preceded by Rupert and since this is certain of the first two Lessons, let us consult Rupert in the Life of St. Eliphius. In this, in Surius, is read thus: Now the same holy man (Eliphius) had a most holy brother and three virgin sisters, all memorable burghers of the supernal city of Jerusalem, whose names, written in the Book of life, are these: his brother Eucharius … happily obtained the palm of martyrdom also … The first

of his sisters was Menna, the second Libaria, the third was called Susanna; and they were, as of one faith, so also of one and the same profession, namely the monastic. And as for the first, namely Menna, the sacred virgin, whether she ended the present life through the palm of martyrdom, antiquity has (add not) expressed in writing, except that she died remaining in virginity, and was buried in the place which is called Porces.

[22] The second, Libaria, and the third, Susanna, consummated the purpose of a holy life by the holier glory of martyrdom. mentioned above And Libaria was entombed at the city named Grand, but Susanna in Champagne. These things Rupert took from the more ancient anonymous author praised above, who, in our copy of the Life of St. Eliphius from the Ms. of St. Vitus at Gladbach, collated with another of St. Maximinus of Trier, enumerated the brother and sisters of St. Eliphius thus: Namely a most holy bishop, named Eucharius, who with the palm of martyrdom was received into paradise … also three most chaste virgins, devoted to Christ in all things, whose names it pleases us to the reading: Menna is called the first, sacred virgin and nun, buried at Porci *. The second was named Libaria, nun and martyr, buried in the city of Grand. The third, likewise nun and martyr, by name Susanna, was entombed in Champagne.

[23] of which it has already been spoken elsewhere among us, Behold, you have asserted the virginity and monastic profession of all three sisters, but the martyrdom of only two, namely Libaria and Susanna; and since of Menna it is neither affirmed nor denied, Rupert, having this Life of Eliphius before his eyes, says of the same St. Menna: Whether she ended the present life through the palm of martyrdom, antiquity has not expressed in writing; from which again it is clear that the Life of St. Eliphius praised by Rupert has not perished, as Tillemont thought, Note 12 on the persecution of Julian. See what was said in the Commentary on St. Menna among us, tom. 2 of this month of October, page 150, num. 2. But I have observed above, and it has already been said before in the Commentary just praised, that neither Rupert nor the anonymous author whom he followed here is an author sufficiently ancient to win credence; nor is of greater authority the other anonymous author, biographer of the same St. Menna, edited by us in the volume cited, who also narrated more things about the parentage of St. Libaria, concerning which consult in the same place the Life of St. Menna and the observations added to it in the Preliminary Commentary, which I do not care to rehash here.

[24] and the archive of Liverdun. She could have suffered under Julian; Of what age or credibility are the monuments of the archive of Liverdun, from which Lesson VI of the Office, containing the martyrdom of St. Libaria, is said to have been made, is altogether unexplored by me. And that she suffered under Julian, both the other Life of the same Saint, which I rejected above, and the Acts of St. Eliphius declare, but with circumstances certainly fabulous. Hear the anonymous biographer of Eliphius, with whom that Life agrees, speaking in the Trier copy of this persecution of Julian. For the most impious (Julian), having been made caesar, cruelly gave a cruel law, that all Christians everywhere should give up all their means … After no little time the most wicked tyrant, leaving Italy, went to the Gauls, with the intention, namely, of erecting idols, building temples to demons, laying waste the churches, and either inviting the Christians with rewards to the worship of demons, or, if by a higher counsel they despised him with his gifts, killing them with studiously exquisite punishments.

[25] yet not with the circumstances related in the Passion. But none of the ancients has related that a law of this kind was ever passed by Julian; nor could he himself pass it while he presided over the Gauls as caesar; nor, having obtained the empire, did he ever return from Italy into the Gauls. These are surely the fictions of a man writing some centuries after the times of Julian, and by no means instructed in his history. Yet it is not on that account to be denied that the martyrdom of Libaria happened under Julian, which is likewise asserted in a certain inscription below the village of Pompey in Lorraine, which Calmet relates in tom. 1 of the reprinted History of Lorraine, col. 201 and the following, in which St. Libaria is mentioned among other Saints, and these things are subjoined: These happy ones aforesaid were beheaded by the sword of Julian. This inscription indeed, by the testimony of the same Calmet, is not more ancient than the thirteenth or fourteenth century; but at least it proves the tradition of that same time. As, therefore, others also elsewhere suffered for the faith of Christ under Julian (although commonly for some other, feigned, cause), so could Libaria too, whose martyrdom I have for that reason placed under the same apostate, yet doubtfully. See also what was said in the Preliminary Commentary on St. Menna, §2, num. 18 and the following.

[26] Chastelain, agreeing (as we have seen above) about Julian, She was different from Scoberia, companion of St. Benedicta. also wrote the year 362 in the left margin; but this opinion cannot be reconciled with the annotation of the same martyrologist in the right margin, where at the word Libiere he has: Leobaria, not Scoberia, as Théophile Raynaud has it. He did not indeed indicate the place of Raynaud, but if he meant to indicate the second Prolegomenon on the Little Index of the Saints of Lyon, he was vehemently mistaken. For Raynaud makes the Scoberia whom he mentions there a companion of St. Benedicta, virgin martyr, as I have noted today at letter k on the fabulous Acts of this Saint, in which for Scoberia is read Liobera, and elsewhere also Limberia. But if St. Benedicta was crowned with martyrdom in the year 286, as Chastelain himself determines, with what probability will St. Leobaria or Libaria, wrongly called Scoberia by Raynaud, be said, as her Companion, to have lived on up to the reign of Julian and the year of Christ 362? I judge that this companion of St. Benedicta, if ever there was one, was different from the St. Libaria of today. Concerning the cult of Susanna, sister, as they will have it at least, of St. Libaria, see what has been said today among the Passed Over.

* in French: avec paraphe

* supply inserere

* Trier copy: Dicebatur

* the same: Porces