ON SS. PALLADIA AND PORCARIA, VIRGINS, AT AUXERRE IN GAUL,
IN THE FIFTH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
The age of the holy Virgins, and their sacred cult: whether Porcaria of Auxerre is different from Porcaria of Sens, and whether the latter was a martyr.
Palladia, virgin, at Auxerre in Gaul. (S.)
Porcaria, virgin, at Auxerre in Gaul. (S.)
BY J. B.
Constantius the priest, the most weighty and contemporary biographer of St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, the funeral of St. Germanus, who died at Ravenna, who died at Ravenna in Italy in the year 448, and whose Acts you have illustrated in our Work, volume 7 of July, from page 184, after he has described, in the volume cited, page 218 and the two following, various prodigies of St. Germanus performed throughout Italy, and his death at Ravenna, says that the funeral of the most holy man was carried into the Gauls with solemn display and with a numerous escort: Then, he says, the zeal of those contributing to the display for the dead man is fervent; they accuse one another, that only a small expense was owed to the dead. Acholius made the body firm by the binding of spices; the queen (Placidia, mother of Valentinian III) clothed it. All these things being duly completed, the emperor furnishes the journey with expenses and conveyances, and accompanies his ministers with copious largess. The priests both furnish the service of religion in the present, and send it on ahead by arrangement; and a single column is formed for the Gauls. There must have been not a few who accompanied the funeral of St. Germanus from Ravenna into the Gauls, if they already then constituted a column, as Constantius speaks. It is indeed to be regretted that Constantius did not hand down to posterity the names at least of the principal companions of the illustrious funeral: for thus it would perhaps have come about that we should speak more securely and more fully of the holy Virgins of whom we give here a Sylloge.
[2] But although Constantius, intent chiefly on St. Germanus, did not express the names of those accompanying the funeral of St. Germanus, into the Gauls the funeral, yet it hardly appears to be doubted that of their number were not a few whom he had bound more closely to himself and to God, either by the greatness of his prodigies, or by the excellence of his virtues, or by the sacred eloquence of his mouth. Further, that these were of both sexes can be gathered from what Constantius relates of the matron of Piacenza who was freed from paralysis at the funeral of St. Germanus and on that account followed him on foot into the Gauls. Besides the matron of Piacenza, five Italian Virgins also, who, having been taught by St. Germanus to spurn the allurements of the world and to cleave to the heavenly Spouse alone, followed his funeral into the Gauls, and there died a death precious to God, are named by authors of a later age; namely Magnentia, or Magnantia, Palladia, Camilla, Maxima, Porcaria. Magnentia is venerated on the 26th day of November: of Camilla we have treated in our Work at the third day of March. The birthday of Maxima we do not know. Palladia and Porcaria, of whom our discourse must be here, are venerated today at Auxerre, as we shall say below. The names of these Virgins have been drawn from St. Heiric the monk, of whom we have treated at the 24th day of June, a writer of the ninth century, book 1, chapter 3, On the Miracles of St. Germanus. Heiric says in the Prologue that Constantius knowingly and prudently passed over many things concerning St. Germanus; among which certainly are those which Heiric wrote particularly about the above-mentioned Virgins; and indeed, so far as I know, the first of all who are now known: and so, lest the reader should need to betake himself elsewhere, I transcribe here his words about them from the cited chapter 3 of the first book On the Miracles of St. Germanus, pertaining to our holy Virgins.
[3] as St. Heiric I should certainly believe, says Heiric, that some from Ravenna, most experienced of his (St. Germanus's) holiness, imposed upon themselves a voluntary pilgrimage with the clod of the sacred body, and thus, with unwearied minds, although the way was longer, followed the venerable funeral. Among whom and of whom are said to be five most famous Virgins, sisters by birth, whose names or merits have long obtained celebrated memory in our province (St. Heiric was a monk of Auxerre). Of these, three, by these names Magnentia, Palladia and Camilla, as each, called by God on the very journey, closed her last day, received noble burial on the public highway, churches being built over them and dedicated to their holiness; which even today, on account of the evidence of miracles, are both most famous and are frequented with the great zeal of the peoples. Of the two to whom it was granted to see the entombment of the sacred body (of St. Germanus, made at Auxerre), the one, whose name was Maxima, deserved to be buried around the same basilica (of St. Germanus at Auxerre, in the church of his name, as I think), which however the circuit of a larger building afterwards enclosed: the other, called Porcaria, rests in a church about the ninth milestone from the city, renowned for her merits. These things concerning those holy Virgins St. Heiric; and since no one older than he is known who wrote of them particularly, it is right that we weigh his words one by one, and compare them with the things which more recent writers either affirm or suspect concerning the same holy Virgins, especially Palladia and Porcaria, and, so far as can be done by us, illustrate them.
[4] writes from the tradition of the ninth century, Whence Heiric drew these things he does not declare: it is credible that, besides those things which he perhaps found in writers older than himself, he also inserted here and there in his works things which he had received only by tradition; and especially those which he writes concerning the said holy Virgins. So I judge, because Heiric himself in the Prologue of his work divides his matter into two parts, of which the one, sufficiently assured by relation, inasmuch as it was committed to letters by Constantius while the memory of the Saint (Germanus) still breathed fresh on the lips of all, and the relation of those who had seen St. Germanus concerning his deeds, not yet having suffered the blemish of variation, was flourishing, comprises those things which preceded the death of St. Germanus, or accompanied it, or immediately followed it. The other sets forth the prodigies which afterwards took place at the sepulchre of St. Germanus at Auxerre. We consider, he says, that the arrangement of the undertaken business stands most settled, if, setting forth first some of the things which are reported, sufficiently assured by relation, to have been performed by him before his glorious passing, we proceed in order to those things which we have both seen done and learned to have been done afterwards at his sacred memorial. To those things which partly preceded and partly immediately followed the death of St. Germanus belong the things which Heiric records concerning the intimacy of the five above-mentioned Virgins with St. Germanus, their union of blood with one another, that is, their sisterly kinship, and their escort of the funeral of St. Germanus into the Gauls; and since Constantius, priest of Lyon, does not even mention these, it appears very likely that Heiric wrote these things only from the tradition which flourished in his age. But since Heiric distinguished the various relations concerning St. Germanus, as is plain from his words produced a little before, and most probably applied diligent effort to separating the true and genuine from the false, so far at least as the interval of time between the age of St. Germanus and that in which he was writing permitted him; hence some weight accrues to his sayings about those holy Virgins, not only where he speaks of the things which he himself saw in his own age, but also where he speaks of those which preceded or immediately followed the death of St. Germanus.
[5] From the tradition, therefore, which flourished in the age of Heiric, who died about the year 924, followed to Auxerre we have it that five Virgins stood by St. Germanus as he was dying at Ravenna, and wished to be companions of his translation into the Gauls, out of their notable love and veneration for him, by whose teaching, the delights of the world having been spurned and a vow of keeping virginity having been made, they had learned to live for God alone. Georges Viole, in the French Life of St. Germanus, chapters 21 and 22, recounts the names of only four, Magnentia, Camilla, Palladia and Procaria, Maxima being omitted, who, as he admits, is wont to be added to the others by some: but Heiric, at least much more ancient, is believed in preference to Georges, if not altogether safely, at least with less danger of error. But Georges counts only four Virgins because he read only so many expressed in the Life of St. Magnentia: So it is. But that Life must yield to Heiric, since, as was said in volume VII of July, page 200, it seems not very ancient and written from popular tradition alone. From the same source Viole drew what he relates concerning the homeland of those Virgins, namely that they came to Ravenna from Centumcellae, whence they originated, roused by the virtues and fame of St. Germanus; which therefore must be attributed only to popular tradition.
[6] Lebeuf, canon of Auxerre, in volume 1 of the History of the church of Auxerre, page 70, suspects five Virgins; that the matron of Piacenza, who, as Constantius narrates in the Life of St. Germanus, was freed from paralysis at his funeral at Piacenza and followed it into the Gauls, was of the number of the five Italian Companions of the same funeral, whom Heiric
mentions: but Heiric writes that they all set out not from Piacenza but from Ravenna, and likewise that they were all not matrons, by which name Constantius calls the woman of Piacenza, but virgins; and accordingly the conjecture of the canon of Auxerre cannot be reconciled with the words of Heiric or Heric. The same writer, in volume 1 of the cited History, page 18, writes that a house of virgins existed at Auxerre already from the fourth century; and on page 101 he says that it could have happened that some of the five Virgins mentioned above dwelt in that same house of virgins: this could not have happened before they had accompanied the funeral of St. Germanus into the Gauls: and after the death of St. Germanus and his entombment at Auxerre only two remained surviving, Porcaria and Maxima, of whom the former seems to have spent the rest of her life not at Auxerre but in solitude; so that this other conjecture of the canon of Auxerre also wavers, unless one wishes to depart from Heiric altogether.
[7] of whom Palladia died in the year 448 before she had arrived there; Of the three Virgins whom Heiric writes died on the journey, before the funeral of St. Germanus was brought into Auxerre, one is she of whom we treat today, Palladia. Her year of death is the same as that of St. Germanus, 448 of Christ, from volume VII of July, praised many times. Further, the funeral of St. Germanus, who died at Ravenna on the day before the Kalends of August in that year, was brought into Auxerre, as Heiric writes, on the 22nd day of September, and was entombed there, as Constantius testifies, on the Kalends of October: Palladia therefore died in the same year, in the month of September, before it had advanced to the 22nd day, when she was not far distant from Auxerre; unless perhaps she lay sick from the month of September up to the 8th of October, so ill that she could not be moved from the place, which indeed seems less probable and less conformable to the words of Heiric. And if St. Palladia has this day sacred to her, this more probably happened not because she was born to heaven on that day, but for some other cause, although not ascertained. The place in which she died and was buried Heiric did not express; but since a church celebrated in Heiric's age had been built over her sepulchre, it does not appear doubtful that she laid down her mortal remains (which the Calvinists laid waste there in the sixteenth century) in the village of the diocese of Auxerre named after her Saint-Palladia (Sainte-Pallaye), situated not far from that place where the Cure (la Cure) flows into the Yonne (l'Yonne). The village not only received its name from St. Palladia, but also owes its origin to the concourse of the peoples to the sepulchre of the Saint, and it still preserves the stone tomb of the Saint, at which, although mutilated, the faithful continue to offer their vows; as Lebeuf, praised above, writes on page 276 and following of the History of Auxerre taken and liberated by the Calvinists in the years 1567 and 1568.
[8] and Porcaria later, in the territory of Sens, A happier lot befell St. Porcaria, who accompanied the remains of St. Germanus as far as Auxerre, and saw them entombed with the veneration and display that was fitting: how long she then lived, or what she did, is not plain: yet from what Heiric narrates of the church built over her tomb, celebrated at the time when he was writing for the glory and frequency of its prodigies, it is lawful to gather that she spent what remained to her of life in desert places and woods, which are still frequent today on the borders of the territories of Sens and Auxerre, the more familiarly and holily with God the more she was removed from the eyes and company of men. That church was situated, according to Heiric, at about the ninth milestone from the city of Auxerre, that is, about five French leagues: the author of the manuscript Calendar of the Saints relating in some way to the diocese of Auxerre does not much disagree with what has so far been said of Porcaria, on page 257, where he writes thus (but in French): St. Porcaria, of the number of the Italian virgins who were present at the translation of St. Germanus. After the body of St. Germanus had been committed to the earth, driven by a desire for solitude, and having advanced further, she founded a hermitage in the midst of the woods four and a half (leagues) from Auxerre across the river Serein (in French Senin or Senain) in the diocese of Sens, where, after she had died in the odour of sanctity, the solitary cell was changed into a church dedicated to her name, the ruins of which are still seen today in the villa of the abbey of Pontigny. Pontigny is situated on the boundary of the diocese of Auxerre on this side of the river Serein; but the villa of St. Porcaria is across the same river, yet distant from Pontigny by a small interval, namely on the left of those going from Pontigny to the town of Saint-Florentin, between Pontigny and the wood of the same abbey across the river Serein, as may be seen in the New Geographical Maps of Gaul of Cassini, sheet 24.
[9] Of the place called St. Porcaria mention is made in the History of the monastery of Pontigny, after the charter of foundation of the abbey of Pontigny of the year 1114, [having obtained sacred cult already long ago, especially in the diocese of Auxerre:] as is written in the margin in Martène, volume 3 of the Anecdota, column 1223), in this manner: In those times the Lord John de Molendino and his wife Osilla and his son Geoffrey, at the request of the aforesaid abbot and of count William, gave to the monks that land which is between the road by which one goes from Vendosa to St. Porcaria and the church of the same monks, and between the wood and a certain stream. Likewise mention is made of the same in the Bull of Pope Adrian IV, in the Martène just praised, column 123. From which certainly it appears that already long ago, nay from the ninth century, and long before (repeat the words of Heiric transcribed at number 3), SS. Palladia and Porcaria were most celebrated for the glory of prodigies and for the notable veneration of the faithful: and that even in this our age their annual memory is commemorated in the church of Auxerre on the 8th day of October, I learn from the Breviary of the same church, published in the year 1736 by order of Charles de Caylus, bishop of Auxerre, in whose Calendar at the above-mentioned day I read these words: Commemoration of the virgins Palladia and Porcaria in the territory of Auxerre. This, which is there from the Common, as they call it, of virgins, not martyrs, and not nuns, runs thus: On the eve, after Vespers. Antiphon: Hear me, ye divine fruits, and bud forth as the rose planted by the brooks of waters; give ye a sweet odour as Libanus. Ecclesiasticus 39, 17, 18. ℣. Ye divine fruits, flourish with flowers as the lily; ℞. And yield a smell. Ecclesiasticus 39, 17, 19. Prayer: O God, who dost gladden us today with the annual festival of Thy holy virgins (Palladia) and (Porcaria); mercifully grant that we may be helped by the prayers of those by the examples of whose chastity we are illumined. Through our Lord. After Lauds, Antiphon: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, as a bride adorned with her jewels. Isaiah 61, 10. ℣. My soul hath thirsted for Thee; ℞. For Thee my flesh, O how many ways: Psalm 62, 2. In some older Breviaries of Auxerre existing with us, St. Pelagia, of whom discourse is made separately at this day, is joined on this day to SS. Palladia and Porcaria.
[10] But St. Porcaria is announced as a martyr in the territory of Sens, [a virgin of the same name is venerated on this day in the diocese of Sens, as a martyr:] in certain Auctaria of Usuard likewise on this day: Belinus in the second edition (of the year 1521) and Molanus, in Du Sollier, have thus: In the territory of Sens, of saint Porcaria, virgin and martyr. Ferrari in the General Catalogue of the Saints: At Sens, of St. Porcaria, virgin and martyr: from Molanus and Galesini, With whom, he says in the Annotations, the Tables of the church of Sens agree. The words of Galesini, praised by Ferrari, from the Calendar of the church of Sens are: In the borders of the Senones, of Saint Porcaria, virgin and martyr. Chastelain, in the Universal Martyrology, rendered into Latin, has thus: At Sens, of saint Porcaria, who is venerated as virgin and martyr. Du Saussay, however, in the Gallican Martyrology, thus: In the territory of Sens, of saint Porcaria, virgin and martyr, who, noble for an excellent contest of piety, slain by the impious, joining to the aureole of virginity the palm of a glorious struggle, admitted to the nuptials of the heavenly Lamb, happily entered into the court of glory. Behold St. Porcaria, but a martyr. Is she the same as the one whom we have already seen to be venerated at Auxerre, or another? Was she truly a martyr, or only a virgin, such as she of whom we have so far treated seems to have been? Let it be permitted for a while, only for the sake of clarity, to call the latter the Auxerre one, the former the Sens one.
[11] but neither is she different from the one of Auxerre, Bolland, at the third day of March, where he treats of Camilla, thought the Porcaria of Sens different from the one of Auxerre, writing that the memory of Porcaria of Auxerre is commemorated among the people of Auxerre at the 8th day of October for this reason, that on the same day the birthday of Porcaria of Sens, virgin and martyr, is celebrated. What Chastelain thought on that matter I cannot declare for certain. After he has announced Palladia at Auxerre and bound her age to the fifth century, he presently announces Porcaria, but at Sens, and assigns no century to her: in which way indeed he seems to admit two Porcarias: but when he writes of Porcaria of Sens that she is venerated at Sens as a martyr, I do not know whether he did not wish to signify that her martyrdom was doubtful to him, perhaps for this reason, that he was not unaware that a virgin of that name, not a martyr, is venerated on the same day at Auxerre. I, to say openly what I think, do not judge that Porcaria of Sens, venerated as a martyr, is different from the one of Auxerre, not a martyr, although I do not condemn as false those who think the contrary. These things make me think so: the name of both (if however they are different), being the same, seems to indicate the same person in both places. Then the place where each is said to have died agrees: for although the people of Auxerre venerate her as in some way their own, yet they admit that she died in that place which a church dedicated to her after her death made illustrious, and which the author of the Calendar of the Saints relating in some way to the diocese of Auxerre, praised at number 8, assigns to the diocese of Sens; with which the martyrologists and the monuments cited by them agree, when they announce their Porcaria in the territory of Sens, or at Sens, or in the borders of the Senones: add to these that Auxerre, as Monsieur Lebeuf writes in volume 1 of the History of Auxerre, page 34, was comprised under the province of Sens in the age of St. Germanus and of St. Porcaria of Auxerre. Then, if Porcaria of Sens, a martyr, as they would have it, was different from the one of Auxerre, who at length was she? Or at what time, and by whom, did she suffer martyrdom? Will you say in general with Du Saussay that she was slain by the impious? But I could assert just as much in the same way of Porcaria of Auxerre, not different from the one of Sens.
[12] nor does she seem to have been a martyr. Finally, I very much doubt whether the Porcaria assigned to the territory of Sens was formerly held to be a martyr: the cause of the doubt is that in the sixth volume of Martène's most ample Collection of ancient writers the ancient Martyrology of the church of Auxerre, which not only from its antiquity but also from the accuracy with which of the Saints,
the dignities or qualities of those who are recorded in it its author explains, Martène extols, has thus of each holy Virgin whom I have prefixed to this sylloge: At Auxerre, of Palladia, virgin. At Sens, of Porcharia, virgin. Do you see how Palladia is announced at Auxerre, and Porcaria at Sens, and yet martyrdom is not ascribed here to the latter more than to the former, nay to neither? But if the author of that Martyrology had believed St. Porcaria, whom he announces at Sens, to be a martyr, tell me, why would he have omitted it? For of St. Benedicta, whom he mentions immediately before in these words: In the district of Laon, the birthday of saint Benedicta, virgin and martyr, he certainly did not keep silent about her martyrdom; and he would have done the same of St. Porcaria, I think, if he had thought the condition of both alike here. However that may be, for these reasons I have announced SS. Palladia and Porcaria jointly at Auxerre, where each has her cult on this day, following the Breviary of the same church, attributing to neither the title of martyr: if anyone shall teach better and more certain things, we will retract what was perhaps wrongly said, and will gladly embrace what shall be true.