ON ST. FIRMINUS OF UZÈS, BISHOP,
IN LOWER LANGUEDOC
IN THE YEAR 553
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The memory of the Saint in the sacred Fasti, his cult, a certain chronotaxis of his life, the Acts to be edited, of what kind.
Firminus, bishop of Uzès in Lower Languedoc. (S.)
BHL Number: 3017
BY J. B. F.
Usetia or Uzetia — by others Ucetica or Utica — a city of Gaul, The Saint, whose memory in the sacred Fasti, in Lower Languedoc, an episcopal see, venerates on this day St. Firminus, formerly its prelate. Usuard celebrates his memory in these words: On the 5th day before the Ides of October, in the city of Uzès, of Firminus, bishop and confessor. On the same day and in the same terms the old Hagiologium of the monastery of St. Savin of Levitania in Du Saussay, the Martyrology of Rouen, and our manuscript Florarium commemorate him. Cardinal Baronius, in his first edition of the Roman Martyrology, relates that St. Firminus had his chair at Uzetia, not in Narbonese Gaul but in Africa, thus: At Uzetia in Africa, on the 11th of October, of St. Firminus, bishop and confessor. This announcement afterwards — not the more recent editors of the Roman Martyrology (as Dominicy relates in the Work entitled Familia rediviva Ansberti), but Baronius himself — judged faulty, namely when he noticed that the feast of St. Firminus was celebrated at Uzès in Lower Languedoc on precisely the same day, as also on the 2nd of May; and therefore in the year 1631, in which the Roman Martyrology, with annotations
illustrated by him, he published again, substituting for the reading "in Africa" the following "in Narbonese Gaul", the purpled man corrected his own hallucination. Following him, Castellanus and Fr. Labbe, in their Martyrologies edited in French, also indicate the place in which the Saint discharged the office of bishop more clearly than the cited Usuard and the authors of our manuscript Florarium, of the Martyrology of Rouen, and of the old Hagiologium of the monastery of St. Savin of Levitania, thus: On the 5th day before the Ides of October, at Uzès in Narbonese Gaul, of St. Firminus, bishop and confessor. With these the Calendars of the churches of Uzès, Béziers, and Narbonne also agree, which constantly hand down that he was bishop at Uzès in Narbonese Gaul. Meanwhile Faber, supported by the faulty announcement of the Roman Martyrology published by Baronius which I have recited, contends, in the book entitled Historical Disquisition on the marriage of Ansbertus with Blithildis, that there never existed at Uzès in Narbonese Gaul a prelate by the name of Firminus. But how far the assertion of this author is from the truth the subscriptions of the councils of Gaul in which the Saint took part, of which we shall treat in the course of this Commentary, in the churches of Uzès, Béziers, and Narbonne clearly prove.
[2] Not only do the sacred Fasti of the churches of Uzès and Béziers celebrate the memory of the Saint, but every year on the 11th of October the day of his death is honoured in the said churches with an ecclesiastical office, of the rite, as they call it, double; and in the church of Narbonne he is honoured with a proper office of nine lessons. These, published by Lambeck, Commentaries, book two, page 914, excepting only the seventh Lesson, which is lacking in the Imperial copy, I set out here to be read by the reader, because they also present a fragment of the Saint's Life. Lesson I. Our Lord Jesus Christ reigning for ever, when the faith of the Christians was flourishing most steadfastly, Firminus, while his parents were still given up to the error of paganism, hearing that the Christians confessed Christ the Lord, and desiring to free himself from the superstitious snares of the pagans, following indeed the Gospel precepts which say: unless a man leave father or mother and so forth, he cannot be my disciple; leaving homeland and parents, having meanwhile handed over his own possessions to the poor, longed to follow Christ the Lord continually.
[3] Lesson II. And so, having gone out of the city of Narbonne, the journey being begun, he came to a certain city of the province (of Lower Languedoc) named Uzès, with an ecclesiastical Office and there found Laurence the presbyter, a learned and religious man, and joining himself in friendship with him, and showing him, as it were, the service of intimacy, he stayed with him for some time in a tranquil life. Lesson III. Ferreolus, a distinguished scion, the son of his brother, following him by a hasty path, desired to join himself to him. Blessed Firminus, lifting up his eyes and seeing him, said: Son, whither are you going, or where are you going? He at once replied: I, having left father and mother, have followed you, ready to obey the Lord with my whole heart. Then blessed Firminus said to him: Let it be as you have said. Lesson IV. Then they came to a certain house of the city of Roricius, pontiff and patrician, and found there a youth sitting, who daily served the meals to Roricius. He, seeing blessed Firminus, questioned him, saying: From what province are you, or from what nation are you begotten? He answered: I was born in the city of Narbonne. My father, he said, is called Ferreolus, and my mother is called by name Industria.
[4] Lesson V. That youth, seeing these things, having entered the palace of that pontiff, he is honoured, already also announced to him all that he had heard from blessed Firminus. Then the pontiff ordered him to come in to him, and said to him: Whence do you come, or whither are you going, or what name do you use? Blessed Firminus said to him: Born in the city of Narbonne, having left the error of paganism, I have come here to serve Christ the Lord; and as to the name which you have asked, I am called Firminus. Lesson VI. And the pontiff himself recognized that he was sprung from his own lineage, and joined him to himself by the bond of blessed love. For Firminus himself was about twelve years old, well instructed in letters; Ferreolus indeed was seven years old. On the following day Roricius, making Firminus a cleric, ordained him deacon; but Ferreolus he handed over to instruction in Grammar. And when Firminus was twenty years old, he attained the honour of the presbyterate. Lesson VIII. Now blessed Firminus was most religious, serving the Lord in sanctity, fasting daily, and in no way taking food except with the poor; spending the nights in nocturnal vigils, seeking secret prayers, he served as a soldier for the Lord with girded loins. And so the Lord began to work signs through blessed Firminus. For by his prayer he gave light to the blind, cleansed lepers, cast out demons. Lesson IX. At Uzès, while he was entering at the gate of that city, great crowds of people going with him, he met a leper of pitiable face and bristling skin, whom, kissing him before all and blessing him, he forthwith cleansed from all leprosy. And the next day, coming to the church with shining skin, he gave thanks for the health which he had received.
[5] from the 9th century, From what time the beginnings of the cult of St. Firminus are to be traced I cannot define, for want of monuments reporting it: Marc-Antoine Dominicy, in the book entitled Familia Ansberti rediviva, judges that already in the 9th century the piety and confidence of the people, humbly approaching his sepulchre, had grown much by a multitude of miracles; and the praised author contends that this is confirmed from the following words of the Letter of Amulo, bishop of Lyon, who succeeded Agobard about the year 843, directed to Theobald, bishop of Langres: We know also a certain city not far from our borders, which is called Uzès, situated in the province of Narbonne; where, when in the time of our same predecessor of pious memory, at the sepulchre of St. Firminus the bishop, strokes and seizures of this sort had begun to occur, so that on the limbs of those falling certain marks of burning were found, as though sulphur had burned there, and the common people, terrified and astounded by this, frequented the church in flocks with very many vows and gifts, Bartholomew, bishop of Narbonne, who still survives, having received counsel from our same father, preached to them and commanded them that they should by no means any longer frequent that place, which the superstitious had begun to frequent, and that whatever they had been accustomed to bring there they should rather spend on the uses of the needy and on works of mercy.
[6] as is here proved. When this had been done, immediately, both there and in the other places in which it was likewise beginning to happen, that whole deception ceased, and the faithful people breathed again in the desired safety and tranquillity. Whence it seems to us altogether right that you … cast out of the house of the Lord a contrivance and diabolical fiction of this kind, by which so great a multitude of unhappy men, and especially of women, is held bound, most lamentably and shamefully, as though captive and out of their minds; announcing faithfully to all and adjuring them that, such vain and pernicious concourse being left off, from which no salvation of the soul, no safety of the body, no advantage of life is known to come, each people should remain quiet in the parishes and churches to which it has been assigned, etc. These strokes and seizures, I say, the praised author judges are to be held for miracles, and thus strives to prove that the Saint was famous for miracles in the 9th century; but I do not at all doubt that these operations are to be called a contrivance and fiction, as Amulo, bishop of Langres, rightly calls them in the cited Letter. For who would believe that in the churches of God, in the basilicas of the most blessed Martyrs, such signs ever became frequent through the intercession of the Saints, by which the sick were by no means healed, but the healthy were struck and driven out of their minds?
[7] held in veneration among mortals But although, from the aforesaid signs, in which it is in no way established that the divine power shone forth, the Saint's fame as renowned for miracles in the 9th century is in no wise proved; yet from these following words of the Letter of Amulo, bishop of Lyon, it becomes manifest that Firminus was already held as a Saint at the said time: At the sepulchre, says Amulo, of St. Firminus the bishop, etc. And St. Agobard, archbishop of Lyon, in a letter directed to Bartholomew, bishop of Narbonne, who flourished in the year 828, expresses in clear terms that the honours of the heavenly ones were paid to the Saint in the 9th century, thus: We have learned that your prudence is solicitous as to how that ought to be taken which has begun to happen in a certain place, certain strokes, so that some fell, … especially in a certain church where the body of a certain Saint is venerated, by name Firminus. From these it is sufficiently evident that the Saint enjoyed cult in the 9th century. Further, at what time mortals began to honour him with the honours of the Saints, no one, so far as I know, has hitherto been able readily to determine.
[8] The Saint's cult having now been established and illustrated, it remains at Narbonne, in Lower Languedoc, that we speak of certain of his deeds which, the Acts of St. Firminus being silent, various writers have handed down, and that we try to reduce the chief heads of his life to chronological order. His Acts hold that our Saint was brought into the light at Narbonne, which is a large and fortified archiepiscopal city of Gaul, in the province of Lower Languedoc; but the editors of the Literary History of France conjecture that the Saint was born in a district of Aquitanian Gaul, among the Ruteni, called Trevidon, as Sidonius witnesses, or in the Prusian territory, in French Lesperou, not far distant from the said district, from the fact that in the said places, which were noble estates of the ancestors of St. Firminus, the Saint's parents lived, as Sidonius witnesses, book 2, Letter 9. However that may be, we, adhering to his Acts — to which, on this head too, as many authors as have treated of the Saint subscribe — say that the city of Narbonne was his birthplace.
[9] The authors whom we have now seen fairly agreeing among themselves as to the place of the Saint's birth in the year 516 we shall find wholly dissenting in assigning the year in which St. Firminus first saw this light. Baillet in the Lives of the Saints at this day, the editors of the New Gallia Christiana, volume 6, page 613, the authors of the Literary History of France, and Le Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks constantly write that the Saint was born in the year of restored salvation 516; but Du Bouchet, in the book On the Origin of the House of France, the Sainte-Marthe brothers in the History of the same House, and Dominicy in the Work cited above, report that he was born two years later. Let us inquire which of the opinions is to be adhered to. And first let us here hear Le Cointe, who places the Saint's birth in the year of Christ 516: Firminus was born of Ferreolus and Industria, or Deutheria, in this year, that is, 516; for he lived only thirty-seven years, and Ferreolus, his successor in the bishopric of Uzès, who survived him by twenty-eight years, passed to God in the year of Christ five hundred and eighty-one. The Saint's Acts also relate that he lived only thirty-seven years, nor do the praised authors of the second opinion oppose Le Cointe on this head; but they deny that Ferreolus — who, as his Life relates, to which the patrons of the second view likewise subscribe on this head, occupied the see of Uzès for 28 years — departed from this life in the year 581, or was adorned with the episcopal dignity, St. Firminus having died, in the year 553; and they contend that the said Ferreolus not before the year
555 succeeded our Saint. The praised Du Bouchet, the Sainte-Marthes, and Dominicy were drawn into this opinion, which is far from the truth, because they judge that the second synod of Paris, after subscribing to which the Saint died, was held in the year 555. But that this synod was held before the year 553, and that our Saint exchanged mortal life for immortal in the year 553, will become manifest from what we shall say below when the discourse returns to the epochs of the synod of Paris and of the Saint's death. Meanwhile, lest the order of this Commentary be disturbed, let us say here that St. Firminus was born in the year 516, intending afterwards to declare to the reader the reason why we fix the Saint's birth to the said year. Now let us treat of the Saint's family.
[10] of a noble father Ferreolus, of a mother named Industria, whom The father of St. Firminus, who in his Acts is named Ferreolus and is there said to have been sprung of noble stock from an exalted * lineage of parents, all the authors who have treated of the illustrious family of our Saint (if you except Faber) write with unanimous consent to have been one and the same with Tonantius Ferreolus, the third of the name, son of the praetorian prefect of the Gauls. Le Cointe, at the year 508, chapter 47, describes the noble family of this Ferreolus thus: If we consider the family of the same Ferreolus, what could have been more august, below the royal dignity, or more useful to France? Among the Visigoths he was of the greatest authority; he gloried in a father and grandfather who were praetorian prefects of the Gauls, in a grandfather who was emperor through his mother, in a great-grandfather through his grandmother who was consul and praetorian prefect of Italy and of the Gauls. Thus far there is no great dispute among the authors. But when it comes to designating the name and family of the Saint's mother, there is no agreement among them; some naming her Industria, as the Saint's Acts hold, while others, who think the name Industria was put in the said Acts by unlearned copyists for Deutria or Deutheria, would have her be the daughter of Clovis I, king of the Franks; some call the mother of St. Firminus Etheria, and contend that she was the daughter of a certain very wealthy senator.
[11] some say was the daughter of King Clovis; he had 5 brothers and two sisters. The genealogists who say she was the daughter of King Clovis strive to prove it from Paul the Deacon, who lived in the times of Charlemagne. This praised writer, where he speaks of Agiulfus or Aigulfus, who, as we shall see immediately, is read to have been the brother of our Saint, relates that he was born of the daughter of King Clovis thus: The twenty-sixth, namely Pontiff of Metz, Agiulfus, who is said to have been begotten of a father sprung from a noble family of senators, and of a daughter of Clovis, king of the Franks. If now, the said genealogists infer, it be clearly proved that Agiulfus was the brother of St. Firminus, it will follow that the Saint's mother too was the daughter of Clovis. Fr. Jourdan, S.J., in the little book which he entitled La critique de l'origine de l'auguste Maison de France, reads two wives of the father of St. Firminus: one, the daughter of Clovis, of whom Agiulfus alone was born; the other, the daughter of a very wealthy senator, and called Eteria, who bore to Ferreolus, the father of our Saint, the rest of his children; and so he contends that Agiulfus and Firminus were born of the same father but of different mothers. However that may be, whoever desires this whole argument, worked out indeed elegantly and with as much diligence and erudition as could be, may go to the cited little book, through its whole former part; and likewise consult Dominicy in Familia Ansberti rediviva, Du Bouchet in the book cited above, and Le Cointe in the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks: for it is not my intention to renew a controversy so diffuse and so often agitated by men most versed in this kind of thing. Among the praised genealogists, when they undertake to designate the brothers and sisters of our Saint each by their names, all dispute ceases, and all subscribe to the genealogy of St. Arnulf, bishop of Metz, which in an old codex of St. Symphorian of Metz enumerates the brothers and sisters of St. Firminus in this manner: Ansbertus…, who was of the race of senators, had as brothers Deotarius, Firminus, Gamardus, and Aigulfus the bishop, and Raginfridus. Deotarius built the village of Arisidum, where he rests, made a confessor of Christ; Firminus held the Pontificate in the city of Uzès, where he rests a confessor of Christ; Aigulfus was ordained bishop in the city of Metz: and Goda and Maria, persevering in virginity, departed to the Lord. Let these things now suffice concerning the illustrious family of the Saint.
[12] I hinted above that not all the illustrious deeds of St. Firminus in the episcopate are recorded in the Acts. In the year 541, at the fourth council of Orléans, Wherefore, whatever worthy of relation shall present itself from elsewhere I shall add in order of time. In the year 541 thirty-eight bishops assembled at the fourth synod of Orléans, with eleven presbyters and one abbot, who took part in the name of as many bishops. This synod was held, as the title in Labbe, volume 5 of the Councils, page 380, bears, Three years after the third council of Orléans, in the fourth Indiction, Basilius, a most illustrious man, being consul, that is, in the year of Christ 541, the 2nd of Pope Vigilius, the 30th of King Childebert. Although the day and month on which this council, in which Leontius, bishop of the church of Bordeaux, subscribed first, was held are hitherto found expressed nowhere, yet Jacques Sirmond, S.J., rightly judges that this synod was held before autumn, for the following reason, which he gives thus in the Annotations on the same council in Labbe: We have found this council in only three books, namely that of Reims, that of Beauvais, and the Lesser Pithou, which alone had a note of time, and that a double one: for it designates both the indiction and the consulate, but does not indicate the day and month. But that the synod was held before autumn we gather from this, that in the year of Christ 541, in which Basilius was consul, the fourth indiction was to have its end in the month of September, and the fifth its beginning.
[13] In this council, in which it was decreed that holy Easter should be celebrated by all priests at one time according to the Table of Victorius, and in the year 549 at the fifth council of the same city, thirty-eight canons were drawn up, by which the decrees of the preceding synods were confirmed, a few things being added. Firminus is read to have subscribed to these canons in this manner: Firminus, in the name of Christ bishop of the city of Uzès, I consented and subscribed. Then in the year 549 the fifth synod of Orléans was convoked from the threefold kingdom of France by King Childebert, in whose dominion this city lay. That council was held After the death of King Theodoret, on the 5th day before the Kalends of November, in the 13th indiction, that is, in the year of Christ 549, the 10th of Pope Vigilius, the 38th of King Childebert — so the title in Labbe, volume 5, column 390, where 50 bishops and 21 presbyters, or archdeacons, or deacons, or abbots, sent by their bishops, are related to have subscribed to this synod. The praised prelates there drew up twenty-four canons, a great part of which is a repetition and confirmation of the preceding canons and decrees. To these Firminus also subscribed in the following manner: In the name of Christ, Firminus, bishop of the church of the people of Uzès, I consented and subscribed.
[14] as is here proved against Binius and Faber, he took part in, and to them, Faber, praised above, supported by the Annotations of Binius on the said councils, judges that in the subscriptions of Firminus just cited he is faultily called bishop of Uticum for Vence. But how far Binius strays from the truth Dominicy demonstrates in the book cited above by the following reasoning: But, he says, how false the conjecture of Binius is, is clearly evident from the edition of the councils procured by the most learned Sirmond: for in the 4th and 5th councils of Orléans Firminus, bishop of the city of Uzès, or of the church of the people of Uzès, was constantly present, and with him Deuterius, bishop of the church of Vence. The name of this last is missing in the edition of Binius, and has now for the first time been restored from the Corbie, Lyon, and Pithou codices. Whence Firminus could not have presided over the church of Vence, since at the same time at which he presided over that of Uzès, Deuterius was administering that of Vence. Nor ought it to have moved Binius that there is a city of the same name in Africa; for the bishop of Uzès is rightly also sometimes called bishop of Utica, as is established from the 13th council of Toledo, to which, with certain bishops of Narbonensis Prima, Leopardus the abbot subscribed, acting in place of Potentinus, bishop of Utica. This opinion of the praised Dominicy is embraced by Le Cointe, Labbe, Pagi, Natalis Alexander, Baillet, with the editors of the Literary History of France, and the authors of the new Gallia Christiana; and of all the writers who have treated of these synods they have only Binius and Faber as their adversaries.
[15] [as he also subscribed to the second synod of Paris, held between the year 549 and the year 553.] Firminus is also read to have taken part in, and subscribed to, the second synod of Paris, convoked by King Childebert in the case of Saffaracus, bishop of the same city, who, accused of a most grave crime and convicted by his own confession, had been cast out of the episcopate according to the sacred canons and thrust into a monastery, in these words: Firminus, bishop of the church of Uzès, I subscribed. Concerning the time at which this council, to which twenty-seven bishops subscribed, was held, the authors do not agree: the title prefixed to this synod in Labbe, volume V, column 811, relates that the said synod was celebrated: In the case of Saffaracus the bishop, King Childebert summoning it, about the year of Christ 555, the 1st of Pope Pelagius I, the 44th of the same King Childebert. Sirmond, in volume 1 of the Councils of Gaul, page 610, conjectures that the second synod of Paris, whose year he admits cannot hitherto be defined by any note, was celebrated about the year 555. Natalis Alexander, Le Cointe, and Pagi, although they declare in open words that this council, since it lacks a note of time, has not yet been able to obtain a certain epoch in the collections of councils and in the Ecclesiastical Annals, nevertheless deny that the said synod can be deferred beyond the year 553, from the fact that our Saint, who is proved to have subscribed to it, left the see of Uzès vacant by his death in the said year, as will become manifest from what is to be said below. But since all the authors who have written of this council rightly affirm that this synod was later than the fifth council of Orléans, to which Saffaracus, removed from the episcopate before the second council of Paris, subscribed in the year 540, it follows that the second synod of Paris was held between the year 549 and the year 553.
[16] Before we discuss the year of our Saint's death and his Acts, [He is said to have been a disciple of St. Caesarius of Arles and a writer of his Life.] let us speak of a certain deed ascribed to the Saint by some writers. Mabillon, in the Annotations on the Life of St. Caesarius, bishop of Arles — which, as may be seen there, was composed by five of his disciples, namely the bishops Cyprian, Firminus, and Viventius, and the presbyter Messianus and the deacon Stephen — judges that this Firminus was one and the same with St. Firminus, bishop of Uzès, of whom we treat here; and Baillet, in the Life of St. Caesarius at the 27th of August, and the authors of the Literary History of France, volume 3, page 197, support him. But the most recent editors of Gallia Christiana, volume 6, columns 611 and 612, where they treat of St. Firminus of Uzès, speak thus:
In the Acts of our Firminus nothing occurs which favours this opinion; with whom J. Stilting, in volume 6 of the month of August, number 3 of the Preliminary Commentary on the Life of St. Caesarius, agrees in these words: Nor could I find anything in our manuscripts about St. Firminus of Uzès by which I might prove that he was a disciple of St. Caesarius, or, with others, a writer of his Life. Wherefore I am compelled to leave the matter uncertain until the 11th of October, where St. Firminus of Uzès will be treated more fully. And I gladly admit that after an accurate investigation I have hitherto been able to find nothing by which I could affirm, with the praised Mabillon, Baillet, and the editors of the History of France, that our Saint gave himself over to the discipline of St. Caesarius, or contributed his labour and zeal to composing his Life.
[17] Let us now inquire into the time of his death. Although the Acts of St. Firminus, He departed from this life in the year 553. as has been said above, by no means express the year in which he departed from this life, yet from the time at which his successor in the see of Uzès, St. Ferreolus, died, as also from the number of years during which the latter administered the said church, the epoch of our Saint's death can be determined. Gregory of Tours, book 6, chapter 7, relates that the death of St. Ferreolus occurred in the sixth year of King Childebert II, which year according to all historians is bound to the year of the Incarnate Word 581, thus: In the sixth year of King Childebert II Ferreolus, bishop of Uzès, a man of great sanctity, died, full of wisdom and understanding. He composed some books of letters, as though following Sidonius. Following this author, Le Cointe, Pagi in the Critica, Baillet, the editors of the Literary History of France, and many others have constantly placed the death of St. Ferreolus in the year 581. As for the number of years during which the said Ferreolus occupied the see of Uzès, his Life, edited from a very ancient codex of the college of Foix at Toulouse in the cited Work of Dominicy, reports it in clear words thus: Ferreolus, man of the Lord and most blessed confessor, after the passing of St. Firminus held the Pontificate for twenty and eight years. And on this head of the Life of St. Ferreolus all the writers who have treated of him wholly agree, as we have already said above. Accordingly, if you subtract the 28 years during which St. Ferreolus administered the church of Uzès from the year 581, in which he exchanged mortal life for immortal, you will find that St. Ferreolus entered upon the see of Uzès in the year 553, which our Saint had left vacant by his death in the same year. This being established, since St. Firminus, by the consensus of the writers praised above at number 9, lived only 37 years, it also follows that he was born in the year of restored salvation 516.
[18] the Acts to be edited here The Acts of our Saint, as I noted above, Du Bouchet published in the book entitled The Origin of the House of France, and they agree in almost everything with the copy of them which, transmitted by Fr. Poussines to our Predecessors in the year 1646, is here in our hands. The Acts in Du Bouchet, as also our copy, express neither the name of the author nor the sources from which what is narrated was drawn, nor do they contain any chronological note by which the time at which they were written could be determined; and in some places they are truncated, while in others they are greatly augmented with various additions wholly redolent of fable, so that they seem to deserve not much credit with the learned. But although these things are so, the praised Dominicy judges that these Acts are not altogether to be rejected, but that what is historical in them is to be separated from fiction, and so admitted with moderation. Baillet, the editors of the new Gallia Christiana, and the authors of the History of France seem to support the opinion of Dominicy, who in their Works have commended to posterity the said Acts, edited in Du Bouchet, omitting the fabulous additions found in them. However that may be, I shall subjoin to this Commentary our copy, hitherto, as I think, unedited, collated with those which Du Bouchet published, and shall report to the Reader in the Annotations what the authors just praised think of each of the things asserted in the Acts.
Annotata* read: alta
ACTS OF ST. FIRMINUS, BISHOP
By an anonymous author,
FROM the manuscript of Fr. Poussines, collated with those edited in Du Bouchet in the book On the Origin of the House of France.
Firminus, bishop of Uzès in Lower Languedoc. (S.)
BHL Number: 3015
By an Anonymous author.
SOLE CHAPTER
The Saint's homeland: his illustrious parents: his flight to Uzès: his promotion to the presbyterate and then to the bishopric of Uzès, which, near to death, he yields to his brother's son.
[The Saint, born at Narbonne, fleeing his parents, infected with the error of paganism,] There was a certain man in the city of Narbonne a, who is said to have descended from honourable parents according indeed to the dignity of the world, and to have been sprung of noble stock from an exalted * lineage of parents b, whose son was called Firminus; while he was strong in holy morals and had been regenerated by the wave of Baptism, being placed in tender years, inspired by the Spirit who breathes where He wills, he left the superfluous rite of paganism and faithfully gave himself over to the service of Christ. At the same time, therefore, while the faith of the Christians was flourishing most steadfastly, Firminus, while his parents were still given up to the error of paganism c, hearing that the Christians confessed Christ the Lord, and desiring to be freed from the superstitious snares of Paganism, followed the Gospel precepts which say: Unless a man leave father, or mother, or wife, or children, or brothers, or sisters, yea and his own soul also, he cannot be my disciple d. Having left father and parents e, having meanwhile handed over his own possessions to the poor, carrying his cross, poor, he followed the poor Christ.
[2] And so, having gone out of the city of Narbonne, having taken to the road, he came to a certain most noble city, Uzès, [he makes for Uzès, where, together with Ferreolus, his brother's son, also a fugitive, by Roricius] and there found Laurence the presbyter, a learned and religious man; joining himself in friendship with him, and showing him, as it were, the service of intimacy, he stayed with him for some time and led a tranquil life. Ferreolus f, a distinguished scion, the son of his brother, following him with hasty step, desired to join himself to him. Blessed Firminus, lifting up his eyes and seeing him, said to him: Son, whither are you going, or where are you going? He at once replied: I, having left father and mother, have followed you, ready to obey the Lord with my whole heart. Then they came to the house of Roricius g, pontiff and patrician, and found there a youth sitting, who daily served the meals to Roricius; who, when he saw Firminus, questioned him, saying: From what province are you, or from what nation * are you begotten? He answered: I was born in the city of Narbonne. My father, he said, is called Ferreolus, and my mother is called by name Industria h. That youth, hearing these things, having entered the palace of the pontiff himself, announced to him all that he had heard from blessed Firminus.
[3] [he is received as a kinsman by the bishop of that city, into whose see, having already been made a presbyter,] Then the pontiff ordered him to come in to him, and said to him: Whence do you come, or whither are you going, or by what name are you called? Blessed Firminus said to him: Born in the city of Narbonne, having left the error of paganism, I have come here to serve Christ the Lord: and as to the name which you have asked, I am called Firminus. And the pontiff himself recognized that he was sprung from his own lineage: and joined him to himself under the title of holy and blessed love. Now Firminus himself was about twelve years old, well instructed in letters; and Ferreolus seven years old. On the same following day Roricius, making Firminus a cleric, ordained him Deacon; but Ferreolus he handed over to instruction in Grammar. And when Firminus was twenty years old i, he attained the honour of the presbyterate.
[4] [he succeeds him as he grows old. Afterwards to Ferreolus, whom subdeacon, deacon, and then] Now the aforesaid Roricius was already an old man, namely of eighty years, and he placed blessed Firminus under his authority over all the cities of the province (of Lower Languedoc) and the other places. In the same following year Roricius ended his life. Firminus, a religious man, remained, titled at Uzès and raised to the summit of the pastoral office; who, residing at home, ordered Ferreolus to come to him; and when he had come, he questioned him about his learning and about his morals. Having examined this, he found him in harmony with the love of God and of neighbour, of charity unfeigned; for he rejoiced only to cling continually to the Lord in prayers. And so Firminus, the supreme bishop, made him a cleric and not many days later ordained him Deacon.
[5] he had consecrated priest, After these things St. Firminus began to be sick with a grave infirmity; then, carrying out and handling all things with fatherly care, calling the aforesaid deacon Ferreolus, he ordained him presbyter, and appointed him in his own stead over the cities over which he himself presided and over all his villages, and commanded him to admonish the priests that they should know how to teach the peoples and to rule those subject to them.
[6] the see of Uzès, by divine command, Blessed Firminus, gravely weighed down by the same infirmity, could speak but little; and to him, as he rested at night, an angel of the Lord stood by, and, calling him, said: Firminus, your sin is forgiven; tomorrow, at the third hour of the day, you will see the glory of God and the angel Michael coming to receive you and lead you to the kingdoms of heaven. Blessed Firminus, crying out with a loud voice, said to the angel: Lord, show me to whom I shall leave the care of all the cities of the province. The angel said to him: To your brother's son Ferreolus, because it has been given him from above; and saying these things the Angelic vision withdrew. And those who were keeping watch in the same house heard the angelic voice k.
[7] yielding, he dies piously. Blessed Firminus, hearing these things, rejoiced greatly, and, sending letters to the bishop of Arles l and of Avignon m and likewise of Orange n, admonished them to ordain Ferreolus bishop in his place o, which also was done. After this the most blessed Firminus commanded all the clerics, and presbyters, and all the ministers of the church, and all his subjects to come to him; and when they came, rolling himself at their feet, he begs them to forgive him if he had offended against them in anything. And about the third hour of the day the most blessed prelate Firminus had himself carried into the church, and ordered the sacred mysteries to be celebrated for him, awaiting the promise of the angel. And when he had received the holy body of the Lord, listening with attentive ears, he heard the voice of those singing in the air. And signing himself with the sign of the cross, he departed in peace on the 5th day before the Ides of October, and he persevered in the episcopate 46 [p] years.
ANNOTATIONS.
he insinuates; yet because, as is gathered from the same author Sidonius, that Tonantius Ferreolus was very young and of tender age at the time when Sidonius was writing, it may have happened that, the Goths having gained possession of Septimania, a part of Lower Languedoc, he embraced the Arian faith; or that the author of these Acts, when he heard that the father of Firminus was living among the Goths, persuaded himself that he too was imbued with their dogmas; in order to extol the virtue of the blessed Man whom he was praising all the more, the further he represented him as estranged from the faith of his parents. Baillet, the editors of the New Gallia Christiana, the authors of the Literary History of France, and Le Cointe seem to support the opinion of Dominicy, who in their elogia of our Saint speak not even a word of the heresy of his parents; nay rather, the editors of the New Gallia Christiana say that St. Firminus was piously brought up by his parents until his twelfth year.
p. For the chronological number XLVI the number XVI is to be put: which error easily crept in; for when the biographer had written in numeral letters that the holy Prelate held the bishopric for XVI years, which run continuously from the year 537, in which the Saint entered upon this see, to the year 553, in which he departed from this life, between the ten-numeral X and the five-numeral V the fifty-numeral L was added by unskilled copyists.
* read alta
* read progenie, or stirpe.