ON ST. SAVINUS, OR SABINUS, MONK AND CONFESSOR, IN LAVEDAN,
Perhaps in the fifth century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The distinction of St. Savinus from his Namesakes; his homeland, deeds and monastery.
Savinus or Sabinus, monk, conf., in Lavedan. (S.)
BY J. B.
Pien treated, in volume III of July, page 189, of St. Sabinus, confessor; and likewise on the following page of St. Savinus, martyr (whether the same, St. Savinus's however, or different, he doubts), at the 11th day of July, on which both have a cult in the territory of Poitiers. This very territory another Savinus or Sabinus, confessor, distinct from these (who is also called Severinus by Beaunier, On the Abbeys of Gaul, volume 1, page 103), illustrated for some time by the holiness of his life, but he died elsewhere and is venerated on this day. Du Saussay, in the supplement to the Gallican Martyrology, page 1144, but heaping together into one Savinus things which can only be said of different men, mentions him on the occasion of SS. Savinus and Cyprian, martyrs, thus: There was another Savinus, otherwise Sabinus, a confessor conspicuous in the same tract for the merits of grace, in whose honour an ancient monastery was founded on the river Gartempe, nine leagues from Augustoritum of the Pictones, where he is venerated on his proper Natal day, the 7th before the Ides of October. On this day died, and is venerated among the Bigerrones, St. Savinus, confessor, namely the one of whom we treat here, and Du Saussay himself wrote a prolix elogium of him in the Gallican Martyrology at the 9th day of October, in which, however, he says not a word of the monastery founded in his name nine leagues distant from the city of Poitiers; and rightly indeed: since it is sacred to St. Savinus the martyr, venerated at Poitiers on the 11th day of July, as Mabillon writes, part 2 of the third Benedictine century, page 535, and the authors of the newest Gallia Christiana, volume 2, column 1285. You have the Acts of the Translation of St. Savinus the martyr printed in Martène, volume 6 of the Ancient Writers, column 805 and some following. But Glaber, book 3 of the Histories, chapter 5, calls that monastery the monastery of St. Savinus, confessor of Poitiers.
[2] Chastelain in the Universal Martyrology, in order to distinguish St. Savinus of Poitiers from ours, from others of the same name calls the latter of Lavedan, in French St. Savin de Lavedan: and Lavedan is an old viscounty, as Adrien de Valois writes in the Notitia of the Gauls, among the Bigerrones (in French Bigorre), among whom St. Savinus died his last day, and a monastery is dedicated to his name, of which receive the following notice from the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, volume 1, column 1246: The Abbey of St. Savinus in Lavedan and the district of Bigorre, commonly "S. Savin de Tarbes," is situated in the valley of Lavedan at the slope of the Pyrenean mountain, yet on rich and very pleasant soil, not far from the river Gave, eight miles from the Royal Baths, commonly "Barèges," and five French leagues from Tarbes, which is the head of the county of Bigorre and enjoys an episcopal see under the metropolis of Auch. But the discourse will return below to the monastery of St. Savinus. The Bordeaux codex of Usuard in Du Sollier, in the Auctaria at the 11th day of July, has thus: And in the territory of Bordeaux, of St. Sabinus. The 11th day of July and the territory of Bordeaux mentioned here seem to indicate St. Sabinus of Poitiers (for the 11th day of July is sacred to him: and Poitiers is under the archbishopric of Bordeaux), although Du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology describes St. Savinus of Lavedan in these words at the 11th day of July: In the territory of Poitiers, the coming of St. Sabinus, anchorite and confessor, who, endowed from his early age with the wonderful grace of God, after a most holy course of life, famous for abundance of merits and splendour of miracles, passed to the Lord. His Natal day is venerated on the seventh before the Ides of October. For neither in this place, nor at the 9th day of October in the Martyrology, does Du Saussay seem to have recognized two Savinuses, the one of Poitiers, the other of Lavedan; whom at length he distinguished in some fashion in the Supplement to it, at the 11th day of July, in the words reported above.
[3] distinction from other Saints, The same Du Saussay, volume 2 of the Gallican Martyrology, pages 1249 and following, from a Ms. Martyrology of the twelfth century, as he says, and of the monastery of St. Sabinus or Savinus of Lavedan, recites these things at the 9th day of October concerning St. Savinus, without doubt of Lavedan: On the same day, the deposition of the most illustrious holy man Savinus: but at the 11th day of August he mentions the translation of St. Savinus thus: On the same day, the translation of St. Savinus; whence it seems clear that in that century the memory of St. Savinus of Lavedan was celebrated in his monastery with a twin feast: but in what year that translation took place I cannot say. The translation of St. Savinus of Poitiers took place on the 7th day before the Ides of January according to the Acts of the translation, written by Aimoin, monk of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, as Martène judges: it becomes most probable, therefore, that the translation mentioned a little before from the Martyrology of the monastery of St. Savinus of Lavedan was of no other Savinus than the one of Lavedan, if not the founder, certainly the patron of the same monastery. From Du Saussay Tamayo too brought St. Savinus of Lavedan into his Spanish Martyrology at the 10th of October, praising besides a certain ancient Breviary of Huesca, in which, at folio 435, he found these words concerning St. Savinus, as he says: Sabinus, a native of Barcelona, a city of Spain: afterwards he came to Poitiers to visit his parents, and in the monastery of St. Martin at the place Ligugé gave himself over under the regular order, and having lived there faithfully for three years, he sought the secret places of the desert, and again entered as a wayfarer the city of Bigorre, in which place he lived and ended his life most holily with the abbot Fortunius and a few monks.
[4] his homeland That he was born at Barcelona, the chief city of Catalonia, in Labbe, volume 2 of the Ms. Library,
his Acts, whose age and author we do not know, expressly have St. Savinus. Du Saussay and Pierre de Marca, in the History of Béarn, book 9, chapter 2, also write it from the Acts. But here I strongly suspect the writer of the Acts, or their interpolator, of error, and I think that he, having read somewhere that St. Savinus was born at Barcino, or perhaps, from some French monument, at Barcelone or Barselone, or having learned it from elsewhere, at once induced himself to believe that this was to be understood of Barcelona, the noble and most well-known city of Spain, and did not notice that not far from those tracts of Gaul in which St. Savinus, having departed from his father's hearth, stayed for some time and then led the solitary life, there also exists a Barcelona (in French Barcelonne) in the county of Armagnac in Gascony, on the river Aturrus, in French l'Adour. It is numbered among the lesser towns of the county of Armagnac, bordering the district of Bigorre, by Duchesne, On the Antiquities of Gaul, page 730. That St. Savinus was born there, and perhaps of the leading family of the place, rather than at Barcelona in Spain, is suggested not only by his blood-relationship or kinship by marriage with Eutilius, count of Poitiers, but also by his departure to the place Sabarte, or (as I think it should be read) la Barthe, to which, as the Acts relate, having gone out from his kindred, he first betook himself before he went to Poitiers. That place is not far distant from the monastery of St. Savinus, and is, as Oihenart writes in the Notitia of both Vasconias, page 525, a lordship which enjoyed the title of viscounty, enclosed within the limits of the old county of the Convenae, and situated in the tract of Magnoac. To Spain, therefore, St. Savinus is owed neither because he was born there nor perhaps by any other title. Nor does the ancient Breviary of Huesca praised by Tamayo deter me from this opinion: since it is acknowledged among the learned today that Tamayo was deceived by, and made use of, either fictitious or suspect monuments.
[5] Further, that he was born of a noble family, as I said above, at Barcino or Barcelonne in the county of Armagnac in Gaul, his family, and his deeds in the world is necessary, if, as his Acts relate, he was joined to Eutilius, count of Poitiers, either by blood-relationship or by kinship of marriage: he was not, however, his son, as will be plain to one considering the Acts, and Pierre de Marca, praised above, strayed from the mind of the Acts, as will be shown a little later, in making St. Savinus one of the twin sons of Eutilius of whom they make mention: perhaps the doubtful words of the Acts deceived Pierre de Marca, in which St. Savinus, having grown older, is said to have set out from his homeland in order to visit his parents in Gaul. But that by the word Parents not his father and mother but his blood-relations are signified, the circumstances and the very context of the Acts betray. He is said in the Acts to have been left by his father while he was still a little child, not by his father's departure into Gaul, as Pierre de Marca seems to have thought, but by his death. For the rest, St. Savinus, excellently instructed in letters, as the Acts say, and having grown older, and perhaps also bereaved of his mother, set out abroad; and first withdrew to the place Sabarte (understand the Lordship of La Barthe, from what was said in the number above) and stayed some time in it: having set out thence, when he had come to Poitiers, he was not only received in friendly fashion by Eutilius, count of the city, and generously maintained, but also had such favour with him, without doubt on account of his learning and holiness of life, that Eutilius committed to his care the instruction of his twin sons in piety and letters: from which it follows that St. Savinus was not, as I said a little before, the son of Eutilius, but the tutor of his sons.
[6] and his monastic Further, St. Savinus discharged this office with such fruit that one of the twins, at his persuasion, bidding farewell to the world, hid himself in a monastery against his mother's will: she asked Savinus to bring back to her her son, drawn away from his purpose of the monastic life: he promised that he would go to the son, not so much to restore the son to his mother and to the world as, on the contrary, to join himself to him as a companion in the monastic life, so far at least as appears; for the Acts are faulty in this place, or certainly not clear enough; see them below at number 2. However it be, Savinus thereafter devoted himself to the monastic life, and persevered in it as long as he lived. And the Acts declare that the monastery in which he began to lead the monastic life was situated in the place Tejacum; again, as appears, faultily: but since it is called St. Martin's in the Acts, and since not far from Poitiers on the river Clain was the monastery of Locociacum (in French Ligugé), in which St. Martin lived before he became bishop of Tours, I think that is to be understood here, with Labbe and with Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals at the year of Christ 700, number 74; of which Gregory of Tours writes in book 4, chapter 30, of the Miracles of St. Martin, in this manner: Some time afterwards, when we had come as far as the city of Poitiers, it pleased us, solely for the sake of prayer, to go to the monastery of Locogiacum, where the blessed man had settled a gathered band of monks. For there he is read to have first raised a dead man (see Sulpicius Severus, On the Life of Bl. Martin, chapter 7), and from it to have been led to the episcopate, etc.
[7] life; Savinus had spent three years there in every exercise of the virtues, when the desire of the solitary life came upon him: and so, without doubt with the good leave of his abbot, to seek a desert in which he might lead the solitary life, with a single companion of his purpose and of his journey added to himself, directing his way toward the Alps by which Gaul is divided from Spain, and seeking again the tracts neighbouring his native soil, he came, by the divine nod, as it is fitting to believe, to Turba or Tarba (the French say Tarbes, but the Acts call it the city of Bigorre, from the peoples of whom it is the head). There he fell in with Frominius (Pierre de Marca reads Forminius), abbot of monks, from whom Savinus obtained that they should go off together to the neighbouring mountains of the Alps to seek a solitary habitation in them: a certain place pleased him, though very inconvenient, five French leagues distant from Tarbes at the slope of the Pyrenean mountain, in which for thirteen years he led his life in the greatest austerity, shut up in a little cell stretching seven feet in length but only five in height. He was famous for miracles living and dead, and was buried in Lavedan in the place which was formerly called the Aemilian palace, situated at the roots of the mountain, says Mabillon in the Benedictine Annals at the year of Christ 700, number 74.
[8] the epoch of his death uncertain, In what century St. Savinus died is not well enough established: I have, however, assigned the fifth century at the beginning of the Commentary, with the particle perhaps added, solely on the credit of the Acts, which seem to indicate that he was a disciple of St. Martin, who died toward the end of the fourth century, in the following words: In which (the monastery of Locaciacum) having lived for almost three years (St. Savinus), ever increasing, considering the manner of Bl. Martin, he sought the secret places of the desert, so that the disciple might follow, not unwillingly, where the master going before was drawing him. But, besides the fact that I do not much trust these Acts, they are perhaps to be understood in this place in such a way that St. Savinus was a disciple of St. Martin only by the imitation of his virtues, not by dwelling or living with him: for which causes I have bound the age of St. Savinus to the fourth or fifth century indeed, yet not with certainty, since nothing occurred from elsewhere from which I might in some fashion fix it. The Acts supply nothing on this matter; nothing count Eutilius or abbot Frominius, unknown from elsewhere; nothing the records of the monastery of St. Savinus, whose origin is obscure; nothing, finally, the writers in whom I found anything about St. Savinus. Pressed by the same difficulty, Chastelain assigned no age to Savinus in his Universal Martyrology, which he is otherwise accustomed to do. It remains, therefore, that we treat in a few words of the monastery to which he gave his name.
[9] When Savinus withdrew into the valley of Lavedan, he received from Frominius the deacons Julian and Silvanus as companions the monastery sacred to his name of the solitary life, as the Acts state: further, it is not unlikely that others and still others presently joined these, and that, the number of the solitude of Lavedan gradually increasing, the few little cells at the beginning grew in the course of time into the monastery which exists even today and belongs to the Benedictine family. The Writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, volume 1, column 1247, write thus of the monastery of St. Savinus: This monastery, destroyed by the Saracens, was afterwards restored and endowed by Charlemagne, as the illustrious man Pierre de Marca will have it, which, he says, is established from the instruments of the monastery. Mabillon, however, teaches that it was restored by Louis the Pious. Afterwards, destroyed again by the Normans, it was restored by Raymond, count of Bigorre, whose diploma on that matter Pierre de Marca first published from the archive of the monastery. He indeed praises, in book 9 of the History of Béarn, chapter 2, page 802, the Charters of the monastery of St. Savinus of Lavedan, but writes that that monastery was neither destroyed by the Saracens nor restored by Charlemagne, but first founded by him. That disaster, if it was inflicted on the monastery of St. Savinus by the Saracens (for Mabillon does not here adduce a witness for his statement), will probably have to be referred to about the year 732, when Abd al-Rahman fought in Gaul with Eudo, duke of Aquitaine, and Charles Martel. But neither is it certain that the monastery of St. Savinus was founded by Charlemagne, as Pierre de Marca says: for the Charters of that monastery, which Pierre de Marca exhibits at page 805, have thus on this matter: Charles the Great, son of Pepin… having gathered together into one the cenobites, who should render sublime vows to the most high Thunderer. The lacuna occurring in these words Pierre de Marca fills with the word condidit, founded, though perhaps it is to be filled with the word instauravit, restored, or another of the same meaning.
[10] But as regards the monastery of St. Savinus of Lavedan having been restored by Louis the Pious, sacred to him. as Mabillon says, a monastery of St. Savinus is indeed mentioned among those monasteries which Louis the Pious restored, in his Life in Duchesne, volume 2 of the Writers of French affairs, page 293: but is the monastery of St. Savinus of Poitiers or of Lavedan to be understood here? Both these monasteries have a place in the Constitution of Louis the Pious of the year 817, cited in Duchesne, page 324, the one of Poitiers among the monasteries of Aquitaine, that of Lavedan among those of Gascony: whence it is clear that in the age of Louis the Pious the monastery of St. Savinus of Lavedan still remained safe. But after Louis was snatched from among the living in the year 840, the Normans not rarely made incursions into various provinces of Gaul, and it is very probable that in that period the monastery of St. Savinus in Lavedan was destroyed by them. Pierre de Marca, book 3 of the History of Béarn, chapter 1, page 191, enumerates, from Nicolas Bertrand's book On the Deeds of the Toulousans, various towns of Gascony destroyed by the Normans in the year, as Pierre writes, 841. It lay in ruins
this monastery of St. Savinus until the tenth century, in the 45th year of which Raymond, count of Bigorre, enriched it, restored by him, with various possessions, letters having been given on that matter, which Pierre de Marca, often praised, exhibits at page 804 and following. For the rest, from the same letters of Raymond we learn that the relics of St. Savinus did not perish together with the monastery, but were preserved there down to the tenth century. For thus does Raymond speak in the cited letters of the monastery of St. Savinus in Lavedan: Where the body of St. Savinus is known without doubt to lie.
LIFE OF ST. SAVINUS, CONFESSOR
From Labbe's Library of Mss., volume 2, page 666 and following.
By an Anonymous Author.
Savinus or Sabinus, monk, conf., in Lavedan. (S.)
BHL Number: 7446
By an Anonymous author.
SOLE CHAPTER.
The Saint's homeland, deeds, and the monastery sacred to his name.
St. Savinus, from Spain Blessed minds are spurred on to the pursuits of a better hope and of the good part when the pattern of the glorious life of the Saints, handed down for instruction, is described: because, while the things set forth are pressed upon the curious minds of those who desire them, and the things that have slipped by are not cheated of a lively memory, but profit those who fear, the page bearing witness, when their glorious merits are held inserted in it. The most blessed Savinus, then, from Barcino, a city of the region of Spain a, is made known by the reckoning, because in his boyhood he was elegantly imbued with the first elements. Left by his father as a little child b, he leaned with his whole regard on his mother alone: and when grown, in order to visit his parents c in Gaul, Christ so disposing, he went out from the place of his own kindred, and afterwards stayed for a little while at Sabarte d. Then at Poitiers e he associated himself with his parents, namely with Eutilius f, who was then flourishing in the public administration of the countship g; who had a twin son, whom the excellent instructor h, having received him for the sake of discipleship, rendered formed in letters for the sake of discipline. For which reason, held in singular regard by the count, rich in earnings, beyond simple clothing or the lesser conveyance of a horse, whatever came in over and above he paid out with liberal grace to the poor, reckoning it a loss unless even then he directed the whole, without fraud, to that place where the good steward would receive his centuplicated trading multiplied as interest.
[2] having set out into Gaul, Hence, at his persuasion, the son of the aforesaid count, almost a fugitive, sought the rule of a monastery. Then the mother of the family begs St. Savinus to call her son back at a quick moment from the place Tejacum i, from the monastery of St. Martin k. Which the just man gladly embracing, follows the one who had gone ahead to this end, that he might be held in the cenobium as his fellow-dweller l, where giving himself up to the regular m, and under * he went to bring back the other, withdrew himself. Having lived faithfully in it for almost three years, ever increasing, considering the manner of Bl. Martin, he sought the secret places of the desert, so that the disciple might follow, not unwillingly, where the master going before was drawing him n. Again, having shared counsel on this purpose, having taken to himself only one companion, while he embraces the airy Alps neighbouring the clouds, he enters as a wayfarer the city of Bigorre o. In which place he found the abbot Fronimius with a few monks [p]: who stretching out to him the mouth of his desire, that he might draw him along with himself to more remote places: but, God so disposing, he set out with the abbot, and, as a more learned sheep, by a new manner drags the shepherd himself as his prey, teaching him under whom he was living as a disciple.
[3] And so, hastening together to the mountains, they found a place already predestined by the Lord [q], there he ends a solitary life so arid for sustenance, so precipitous in ascent, where at times a scanty flow of water ran to some extent, and, exhausted, did not refresh them. Because at a certain season it was rendered so dried up by the monstrous heat that water was carried on their own shoulders with water-skins up the mountain for a space of almost a thousand paces, so that, when they wished to check the heat, they thirsted the more under the burden of water, and then the burning was kindled by sweat *, whence they desired to restore their parched vitals. Then Gaudentius and his wife came together to blessed Savinus, for whose son abundance of milk was lacking at his birth; on their supplicating him, the holy man interceding, what was asked was granted, and there flowed from the prayer of the holy Confessor what did not issue from the mother's breast. By the providence of God the deacon Julian was directed to him, whom the abbot Fronimius appointed as his minister, on whom he might lean a little after labour, when he was vexed by a long assault of infirmity, the deacon Silvanus being joined afterwards [r]. Yet there were in part shining snows, which, set before the use of drink, might serve for solace, or water produced by fire might serve necessity. And then, although the cold was felt very much the more: yet from the city, whence came the provision, the toil of the one wearying himself is compensated, with which, from whatever quarter the force of the wind bore down, a man could not stand on his feet, but, driven, would wander on the land like a shipwrecked man. Where, a lodging having been built, whatever of roofing or furnishing the little hut required, they crept up with it on their own necks from almost two miles away, until they completed the work, sweating under such a weight.
[4] The abbot Fronimius having set out and returned to the brethren, He closes it with a holy end. the most blessed Savinus fortified his own dwelling-place, seven feet in length and five in height, raised for himself with his own hands as a domestic prison, and the brave Hermit shut himself up in the steep cave, where rest without journeying might pass by way of punishment. But when the abbot asked why he had thrust himself in without counsel, he answered: As you can, do whatever you please; I have done what is expedient. Nor less, insulting him, Chromatius, the owner in whose small property the little cell had been made, bids him withdraw thence, if he did not wish to suffer injury. But the holy man, content with his purpose, chose punishment rather than to leave the little cell. In which place, however, the sacred Hermit remained day and night for about thirteen years without a pullus *, without any property, and held that prison of eternal liberty. Of his abstinence what should the page relate first, when by fastings his nature conquered humanity itself, content with one tunic, a cheap gunnela [s] thrown over it, a cloak of skins spread underneath, passing the icy winter in the Alps without footwear, with bare sole. But with an admirable constancy, when the cold split the rocks, and the naked flesh of the man endured, and set the chill of the body behind him, his spirit remaining in fervour. When the heavy sob of death came on, the brave Hermit, raising his hands, upright toward the Lord, as he poured out prayers, his prayer completed, the slippery world triumphed over, the chain of his long prison broken, his spirit breathed out, happily passed to the Lord. A certain blind man, when every refuge had failed, ran to the holy Man, already dead, before he was buried [t]: who, as soon as he gave the kiss of peace to the bier of the blessed Man, received light from the kiss, and the body to be shut in the tomb furnished sight to the living, so that a sign might be given that he had departed, not died.
ANNOTATA.
p. Neither that abbot nor the monastery of Tarbes over which he presided is known from elsewhere.
q. You have the situation of that place at number 7 of the Comment.; nor does it seem different from the place of St. Savinus's burial, concerning which see what is to be said at letter t.
r. These
perhaps others and still others presently joined themselves; and at length, in the course of time, the number of those leading the solitary life there having increased, there arose the monastery which has its name from St. Savinus of Lavedan, concerning which see what was said at numbers 9 and 10 of the Comment.
s. It seems to have been a shorter tunic thrown over the inner tunic.
t. He is said by Mabillon to have been buried in a place formerly called the Aemilian palace: concerning which Ruinart, in the Addenda and Emendanda to the Notes on St. Gregory of Tours, page 1397: There was also the palace of Aemilianus in Lavedan, to which succeeded the monastery of St. Savinus near Barèges. Elsewhere I have sought in vain a fuller notice of that palace.
* Perhaps dumque?
* Perhaps accenderetur?
* Perhaps pallio, a cloak?