ON ST. VENANTIUS OF TOURS, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR, AT TOURS,
ABOUT THE END OF THE 5TH CENTURY OR THE BEGINNING OF THE NEXT.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Venantius, abbot, confessor, at Tours. (S.)
BY D. A. B.
§ I. The Acts to be published: the name of the Saint inscribed in the Calendars of the Church on various days; the day and year of his death weighed: whether he is to be ascribed to the Benedictine Order?
The deeds of St. Venantius were committed to writing in more than one place by St. Gregory, bishop of the city of Tours, The Saint, whose Acts, written by St. Gregory of Tours, the father of Frankish History: indeed, having followed his Life in a fairly diffuse style through the whole of chapter 16 of the book entitled Life of the Fathers, he also wove some miracles worked by St. Venantius into chapter 15 of the book On the Glory of the Confessors. And at the end of this last chapter the holy Bishop expressly asserts that he had written the Acts of Venantius: "His Life," he says, "we have described." By which words indeed it is not obscurely hinted that this book On the Glory of the Confessors, which however in the edition prepared by Ruinart obtains the former place, was composed after the book On the Lives of the Fathers. Therefore the things which St. Gregory has about St. Venantius and the miracles worked by him seem to be held as genuine offspring of his; and not undeservedly have Ruinart and others who made public the books written by him woven them into his Works.
[2] But how much credit is to be given to Gregory narrating the things done by St. Venantius written, appears even from this, that, besides the mark of holiness which showed the bishop of Tours conspicuous to the Christian world, he sat as bishop in the same city which Venantius illustrated with most holy conduct and signs, for 22 years, that is, from the year 573 to 595: although therefore he was not a contemporary of our Saint, who, as I shall show in its place, died at the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the following, yet it is altogether likely that he could have been taught the things which pertain to his history by his disciples or by others who had either seen the Saint or lived near his time, or could have drawn them from authentic monuments. Hear what the holy Prelate has in chapter 15 On the Glory of the Confessors: "Among the other things," he says, "which we have either seen or heard done there, a certain woman,
seized with a quartan fever, we saw healed." Accordingly, at least the miracles mentioned here the holy biographer had either seen himself or had learned, received from others worthy of credit, and then committed them to writing.
[3] [reprinted by Ruinart with the other works of the holy Prelate and collated with two Manuscripts, we publish,] It is our intention to give here in new type this Life of St. Venantius, prepared by Gregory of Tours, as revised by Ruinart, who used singular diligence in reprinting the Works of the holy Bishop and examined them against the authority of Manuscripts of the best character, and collated again with two Manuscript codices preserved in the Bollandian Museum. And it will beyond doubt not be beside the point to set forth in a few words in what esteem those Manuscript codices which I used in publishing the Acts of St. Venantius are to be held. The first of these, marked P. MS. 5, as far as the principal part of the Acts bound together in it is concerned, appears in my judgment to have been written in the 10th century: the other, which formerly belonged to the abbey of Vaucelles and came to the Antwerp hagiographers by exchange from the Library of Balthasar Moretus, is written in a neater hand in the 12th century. Furthermore, from these two codices, which contain the Life of St. Venantius, to which is subjoined chapter 15 drawn from the book On the Glory of the Confessors, I have taken certain variant readings, and subjoined them to those which Ruinart reported from the very many codices which he had at hand in preparing the edition of the Works of St. Gregory. These things being premised, some matters now present themselves to be discussed concerning the history of our Saint and the cult shown to him in the Church.
[4] in some Martyrologies now on the 13th day, The name of Venantius is found inscribed among not a few martyrologists and hagiologists, and on different days too. The genuine Usuard treats of him in his announcement for today, couched in these words: "At Tours, of St. Venantius the abbot." On the same day he is mentioned by the present Roman Martyrology, the Auctarium of Florus, the author of our Manuscript Florarium, the Hagenoy Codex, praised today by Sollerius among the Usuardine Auctaria, which wrongly hands down that our Saint was laid in the monastery of St. Martin of Tours, the Second Milan Martyrology, edited by Domenico Giorgi at the end of the Martyrology of Ado, page 720, Belinus, who, as Sollerius notes, substitutes the name Amantius for the word Venantius, Galesinius, Felicius, Arnold Wion, Ménard in the Benedictine Menology, du Saussay, Maurolycus, Dorgain, Chastelain in his General Martyrology of the Saints, the writer of the New Martyrology of Paris, and the Franco-Gallic Hagiology published by Labbe in the Manuscript Library, tome 2, page 704, in which our Saint is celebrated at Tours, although wrongly as a martyr.
[5] But on the 11th of October also St. Venantius is celebrated by the Hieronymian Auctaria, now on the 11th of which Fiorentini speaks at that day, by the Gellone Martyrology printed by d'Achery in tome 13 of his Spicilegium, page 414, by another under the name of Bede inserted in tome 6 of the Most Ample Collection of Monuments, col. 637 and following, the Auxerre one, edited in the same place, col. 686, the Tours one, brought into tome 3 of his Anecdota, col. 1588, the Fulda one, Labbe's, the Augsburg one, Rabanus, Notker, the Auctarium of Florus, the author of our Manuscript Florarium, who announces a certain translation made at Tours, the Usuardine codices mentioned by Sollerius on the 11th day, namely that of Centula, that of St. Victor, that of the Queen of Sweden, that of Reims, the Lübeck-Cologne Edition, Greven, and Maurolycus, who mentions him on this day as well.
[6] The memory of the same Saint is kept on the 23rd day of October by Rabanus, and finally he is inscribed on the 23rd of October; who announces his birthday, Notker, the Vatican Calendar, written at the beginning of the 11th century, marked 3806 and published by Domenico Giorgi at the end of the Martyrology of Ado, the Stavelot Calendar, inserted by Martène in tome 6 of the Most Ample Collection, col. 668, and the Copy of Bede mentioned by the same Giorgi on page 526: "Palatine-Vatican 833," he says, "at the 23rd day of October, but in another and less ancient hand, has: 'At Paris, of St. Venantius the abbot.'" But of these days, marked in the various works of martyrologists and hagiologists, which was the day of Venantius's death is not easy to define.
[7] And indeed from his Acts, written by the holy Prelate, [but the 11th day of October seems to be held as the day of the Saint's death, although some martyrologists] as from the various words with which the martyrologists composed their announcement of the Saint, nothing certain can be drawn out for marking it. Perhaps in solving this difficulty the opinion of Chastelain will not displease, by which that learned man, in a little note placed at the announcement of St. Venantius, observes that the 13th of October was the day of his burial, not of his death; so that consequently the death of the Saint is to be said to have occurred on the 11th day of October. And not, as it seems to me, undeservedly; for on this day only the Martyrology of Tours, copied 800 years ago, as Martène has it in tome 3 of the Anecdota, col. 1547, who published it from col. 1590, commemorates him: and hence it comes about that his feast is read inscribed on the eleventh day of October in the Breviary for the use of the canons of the church of St. Martin of Tours, published in the year 1635 and preserved in the Museum of the hagiographers, and no mention is made of the Saint on the other days. Nothing therefore prevents us from asserting as most likely that Venantius put off the man on the eleventh day of October, as the church of Tours seems to hint.
[8] But, you will say, on the other days too on which most martyrologists mark the Saint, marked on other days the Saint's birthday or deposition, seems to be held. using indiscriminately the word deposition or birthday, they at least hint that Venantius died. But what anyone may draw out from these words, with which the writers of the Martyrologies composed their announcement of Venantius, against the opinion of Chastelain related in the preceding number and the tradition of the church of Tours, which seems to hold the 11th day of October as the day of the Saint's death, I do not see. For indeed no one who has even run through the tomes of this Work is unaware that these words, birthday and deposition, have often been used by hagiologists to express not only the day of some Saint's death, but any translation of his relics or some festival instituted in his honor; the same is proved by Fiorentini in his Preliminary Admonitions to the Hieronymian Martyrology, page 44, by Papebroch in the Chronological Attempt on the Roman Pontiffs, page 25, and by Janning discoursing on the holy Apostles Peter and Paul at the 29th day of June, tome V of the same month, page 409 and following; let the reader studious of Ecclesiastical Antiquity see and weigh the force of their reasons. Accordingly Rabanus, celebrating the birthday of St. Venantius on the 23rd day of October, who had already commemorated his deposition with most others on the XIth day of this month, meant nothing else than that some bringing of the relics of the Saint, who died on the 11th day, was made on the 23rd day from the city of Tours to Paris or to another place. But enough and more than enough has now been disputed about the signification of these words. Let us now inquire in about what year Venantius exchanged mortal life for immortal.
[9] But the year of his death In defining this year there is not one opinion settled among the learned. For Catharinus, in the Work On the holy Patrons of the diocese of Bourges, page 2, ties the death of St. Venantius to the year 480. But his death is fixed to the year 560 by Arnold Wion, Lignum Vitae, book 3, on the 13th day of October, by Bouillart, writer of the History of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, page 246, and by the author of certain Manuscript notes placed in the margin of the Roman Martyrology edited at Antwerp by Rosweyde in the year 1613. But Chastelain, determining no year, as also Baillet in the Lives of the Saints, preparing the history of Venantius, lay down that he passed to heaven in the 5th century: I forbear to relate the other opinions in marking the year of the Saint's death, content to indicate here the opinion of the present Paris Martyrology, which in today's announcement asserts that Venantius flourished before the 6th century. But since, in this conflict of opinions, the Acts of the Saint do not indicate which is to be chosen before the others, two texts are at hand, drawn from book 10 of the Frankish History composed by Gregory of Tours himself, by which it is proved clearly enough that the time at which the Saint passed to heaven is not to be fixed to the year 560, as some write.
[10] not in the year 560, Thus the holy Bishop has it in chapter 31 of the book just praised, num. 17: "Guntharius, from abbot of the monastery of St. Venantius, is ordained bishop," namely of Tours. But if you inspect the tables of this church prefixed to the Ritual of the same diocese published in the year 1785, composed, as it seems to me, with more diligent care, Guntharius, who was raised from abbot of the monastery of St. Venantius to the mitre of Tours, having sat as bishop for two years and as many months, departed from among the living in the year 555. In the year 553, therefore, Venantius had died; nor consequently can the opinion stand by which some, cited in the preceding number, think his death is to be tied to the year 560. New force will be added to this argument by the words taken from chapter 31 of the same book, num. 9, which are these: "The ninth bishop of Tours, Licinius, … having exercised the office of abbot in the monastery where St. Venantius the abbot is buried, is elected to the episcopate. In his time king Clovis returned to Tours victorious from the slaughter of the Goths; and he sat twelve years, two months, twenty-five days, and was buried in the basilica of St. Martin."
[11] But the return of Clovis from the expedition undertaken against the Goths, or 508, as Ruinart teaches, after Le Cointe at the year 507, num. 10, in a note subjoined to the words of Gregory related above, cannot be put off beyond the year 508; hence Licinius, who had been taken up to the chair of Tours at least in the year 508, had already before received the monastery named after St. Venantius to administer, and consequently it is certain and clear that our Saint, who, then enjoying public cult, had given his name to the monastery, had passed to heaven some time before: therefore the epoch of his death, as becomes plain from the text just recited, is to be sought before the year 508; and yet it does not seem that it should be attached to the year 480 with Catharinus and certain others.
[12] For this opinion of these learned men appears to me foreign to every appearance of truth, nay opposed to the historical facts asserted by the holy biographer. but after the year 480 And indeed it is altogether certain that the most celebrated monastery of St. Martin was erected before the monastery named after St. Venantius was built, over which Silvinus and Venantius himself presided. But Gregory teaches in many places, but especially in book 10 of the History of the Franks, chapter 31, num. 6, that it was founded by St. Perpetuus, who, as the author of the New Index writes, obtained the see of Tours in the year 461. These things being premised, whether you attach the erection of this monastery to the first years of St. Perpetuus or to the following ones, since between the year 461 and the year 480, which they call the year of our Saint's death, only 19 years intervene, say, I ask, how within the brief space of these years St. Venantius, who, as Gregory witnesses, had come to Tours as a young man, or at a youthful age, to embrace the monastic life under Silvinus, could reach the years of advanced old age, as in fact he is
said to have reached them, as I shall presently show? The opinion of Catharinus, therefore, who lays down the year 480 as the year of our Saint's death, collapses under its own weight.
[13] The opinion of the author of the Paris Martyrology pleases me more, [or rather is to be fixed about the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the next:] who in a chronological note added to today's announcement of the Saint writes that Venantius died before the sixth century, determining no year. For within the space of forty years which runs from the first years of St. Perpetuus the bishop to the time of Licinius, who, from abbot of the monastery of St. Venantius, obtained the see of Tours about the year 507 or 508, Venantius, who entered the monastery as a young man, could reach an advanced age. That martyrologist would in my judgment have written more rightly still if he had hinted, as I said in the chronological little note prefixed to this Commentary, that the holy Abbot closed his last day either when the 5th century was running out or at the beginning of the following. And indeed there is no reason at all why I should fix the death of Venantius to one rather than to the other of these two epochs, although many occur which have led me to dare to say that he was still among the living after the year 480 and died before the year 507 or 508.
[14] Nor therefore are Trithemius, Wion and Ménard to be listened to, who ascribe St. Venantius to the Benedictine Order. For since St. Benedict, born only in the year 480, as Mabillon teaches in book 1 of his Annals, and so the Saint cannot be ascribed to the Benedictine Order. num. 4, page 3, and then living in the solitude of Subiaco, laid the foundations of no monastery whatever before the year 520, how could it happen that the Benedictine Order, not yet arisen in Italy in the year 507, should, having crossed the Alps, have sent forth some offspring as far as Tours, where Venantius led the monastic life? Led perhaps by these reasons, Mabillon judged that no place should be assigned to Venantius either in his Benedictine Centuries or in the books of the Annals. Hence also Brouwer comes to be emended, who in the oration prefixed to the Works of Venantius Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, which he took care to publish, page 3, has thus: "Fortunatus was enticed to leave Italy above all by the desire of paying cult to St. Martin: he turned also especially toward Tours, wishing to be joined to the abbot Venantius, and, associated with him both by likeness of conduct and by intercourse of life, to be equalled with him also in name. Let this then be our conjecture, that he lived chiefly in that city, and set out to that part of the Gauls in which he excelled wonderfully among men on account of the excellence of piety and religion, and that for this reason he emulated the virtues as well as the name of Venantius." For since, as Brouwer himself notes, page 9 of the preface, Fortunatus, having left Italy, arrived in the Gauls after the middle of the sixth century, he could neither visit nor be associated with Venantius, the abbot of Tours, who died before the year 508. We have thought that the time of the Saint's death should be defined, in the manner we could, in this first § of the Commentary; so that, this being determined at once, the things which remain to be said about some epochs of his life might become the better known.
§ II. The Saint enters a monastery: whether this monastery was different from the monastery of St. Martin? Its brief history.
Still a young man, the Saint the monastic life, Venantius, whom the holy biographer, at num. 2 of the Life to be published, calls a young man, or one placed at a youthful age, or even fit for marriage, having embraced the monastic life under Silvinus the abbot, spent his life in the monastery up to extreme old age. But in what year he came to lead the cenobitic life, about what time he was co-opted into the place of Silvinus, appears neither from the words of Gregory nor from any document. Yet the biographer seems to distinguish three epochs of the Saint's life: the first, in which, still a young man, he was received into the company of the monks by Silvinus the abbot; the second, in which, placed in the monastery under an abbot, he showed to all various examples of Christian virtues; the third finally, when, advanced to the years of a good old age, he presided over and profited his brethren as abbot by word and example.
[16] This last age of the Saint's life Gregory expresses thus at num. 3 of the Life to be published: "One Sunday he is invited to celebrate the Solemnities of Masses; and he said to the brethren: 'For now my eyes are covered with darkness, and I cannot look at the book; which he prolonged to extreme old age, commit these things therefore to another presbyter to perform.'" Then at num. 4 the author adds: "The same, while he was returning on a Sunday from the basilicas of the Saints, his prayer completed, supported upon a little staff." Which words indeed express certain indications of advanced old age, and prove that the Saint reached the highest age in the monastery. And thus, in writing at num. 13 of this Commentary that Venantius, having professed the monastic life as a young man about the first years of St. Perpetuus the bishop, which fall about the sixty-first year of the fifth century, lived in the monastery up to the end of this century, or to the beginning of the following, I said nothing foreign to the truth.
[17] Of the monastery in which St. Venantius led the monastic life or presided as abbot, [in a monastery which is different from that of St. Martin of Tours, he professed.] or in which he died his last day and finally obtained burial, Rabanus in the Martyrology at the 23rd day of October, Arnold Wion, the writer of the Hagenoy Codex, whose words Sollerius recites today in the Usuardine Auctaria, and some others have spoken in such a way that from their sayings that monastery appears to have been the same as the most celebrated monastery of St. Martin, which St. Perpetuus the bishop erected; whence our Saint is sometimes called by them a monk and abbot of the monastery of St. Martin; which, however, as is drawn out from the words of Gregory of Tours, stands altogether at variance with the truth. I subjoin here his words, taken from num. 1 of the Life to be published: "There was at that time a monastery near the basilica of St. Martin, in which Silvinus the abbot ruled a flock devoted to God with the sceptre of the rule." So also in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, where he speaks in chapter 15 of St. Venantius the abbot and the miracles worked by him. "Not far," he says, "from the basilica of St. Martin, Venantius the abbot rests"; nor are the things which Ruinart has at col. 1228 of the Works of this holy bishop edited by him at variance with these things asserted by St. Gregory, writing thus: "Today the monastery of St. Venantius subsists under the jurisdiction of the chapter of St. Martin, long since converted into a college of canons under the title of St. Venantius." The same author had already said the same things at col. 533. These will acquire new force still from what I shall discuss about the present state of this monastery and the place in which the Saint was laid in the tomb. Meanwhile it remains proved that this monastery, dedicated to St. Venantius, stood near the monastery of St. Martin, or was placed in its vicinity, or, as Ruinart observes, built in the cloister of the church of St. Martin, but was altogether different from it. What were the fortunes of that monastery, or what abbots presided over it, it will help to state here in a few words.
[18] That the church named after St. Venantius belonged to monks from its earliest origin Its various states is proved by the monuments which I used in weaving this Commentary, as well as by the words of the Life of our Saint to be published, which the holy biographer used throughout. But that, regular discipline collapsing and the fervor of the monks growing cold, it passed to secular canons is equally clear. But at what time this happened no document, so far as I know, teaches us. Yet it is quite likely that the monks of St. Venantius, enticed by the example of the Martinian monks, who, as Mabillon writes in book 28 of the Annals, num. 87, and in other places, had fallen away to the state of secular canons at the end of the 8th century or the beginning of the following, having forsworn the monastic rule about the same time, put on the dress and manners of canons; at least no indications of monastic discipline occur in this church of St. Venantius from those times. And thus those who serve this church have persevered in the secular state up to our own times, and there are, as write Henschen, illustrating the Acts of St. William Firmatus at the 24th day of April, tome 3, pages 335 and 336, and the author of the Catalogue of the benefices of the diocese of Tours, published at Paris in the year 1648, page 22 and following, besides the dean, nine canons, and it is a parish church.
[19] and the causes of its submission toward the church of St. Martin That this church was formerly and still is subject to the basilica of St. Martin we have written from Ruinart at num. 17. The reasons or causes of that subjection are in some measure proved, as it seems to me, in the middle of the 12th century by Philip the dean, Rainald the treasurer, and the whole chapter of blessed Martin of Tours, in a letter to Philip, archbishop of Cologne, inserted in the Benedictine Annals, book 28, num. [ ], where, discoursing of the life and certain miracles of St. Martin, they say: "Many years having elapsed after these things, this church suffered a change both of Order and of custom, and in place of the monks, who, perhaps on account of the disturbance of those who frequented it, did not carry on completely, canons were substituted by the princes of the land, the three hundred prebends which existed at that time being restricted to the number of one hundred and fifty (or 200). And to temper that wearisome and intolerable labor," namely of perpetual praise, as Mabillon observes, "those continual and endless alternations of the psalm-singers were divided into fixed and distinct hours, as is done in other churches. And of the revenues and treasures of that church the greatest part was cut off; from which three congregations, which should serve at the discretion of the canons, were built and dedicated. All which things stand even today in the name of Christ." Those churches, as Mabillon writes, were that of St. Venantius, hitherto collegiate, and the churches of St. Benedict and St. Peter, which were three lesser abbeys.
[20] are described. Hence further it may help to draw out one thing, namely that the church of St. Venantius, as also the two lesser abbeys of which we spoke in the preceding number, received the necessary things from the Martinian monks, and then from the canons, from the first centuries of their erection, and were themselves enriched with the same goods with which the basilica of St. Martin had been endowed, so that they might serve at the discretion of the canons of St. Martin in discharging the divine Offices or in the perpetual praises. An indication also of that subjection by which the church of St. Venantius was bound toward the Martinian basilica is shown, as it seems to me, by the holy biographer at num. 3 and 4 of the Life to be published. I transcribe his words here: "One Sunday he is invited to celebrate the Solemnities of Masses, and he said to the brethren: 'For now my eyes are covered with darkness, and I cannot look at the little book: commit these things therefore to another presbyter to perform.'" Then St. Gregory has this: "The same Venantius, while he was returning on a Sunday from the basilicas of the saints, his prayer completed. … But neither will I pass over this, that on a certain occasion, while, according to custom, as we said above, he was returning from the basilicas which he had visited for the sake of prayer, and in the basilica the words of the Lord's Prayer were being sung at the Masses," etc. Accordingly St. Venantius, accompanied by a band of brethren, on Sundays, when about to sing or celebrate Masses,
and to complete other prayers or divine Offices, used to go, according to custom, to the church of St. Martin, which Gregory is accustomed to designate under the name of the basilica; which, as I think, they would not have frequently visited on Sundays unless they had been bound by some usage or office to perform this. Now a few things remain for me to propose about those who presided as abbots over the monastery of St. Venantius.
[21] Since the monastery named after St. Venantius was erected in aid of the religious of St. Martin, Four abbots of that monastery are numbered here. and enriched with the same goods, it is in no way likely that it preceded that other monastery in its erection. Hence the beginnings of this monastery of St. Venantius are deservedly to be placed under the episcopate of St. Perpetuus, who founded and enlarged the most celebrated basilica of St. Martin. Accordingly I would not unwillingly believe that Silvinus, who I suppose lived in the time of St. Perpetuus, was taken as the first abbot of this place. St. Venantius is narrated by Gregory to have taken the place of Silvinus, and, as I have often said, prolonged his years to the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the following. We have now come to the times of Licinius, who, as the bishop of Tours witnesses, having been raised about the year 507 to the chair of this city, sat 12 years, 12 months, 25 days. That he was substituted in the place of St. Venantius I have no doubt. But whether after Licinius Guntharius was next placed over the administration of the monastery of St. Venantius, he who in the middle of the sixth century, as the writer of the New Index of the Bishops of Tours asserts, held the crozier of this church, does not appear to me so certain. However that may be, after Guntharius died, or perhaps was raised to the bishop's chair, no abbot of St. Venantius is read inscribed in the tables, whether their names were blotted out by the injury of time, or no abbot was afterwards placed over this church. I shall not therefore prolong the discourse about them.
§ III. Of the place where St. Venantius was buried: whether, and at what time, the relics of the Saint were translated to the monks of Saint-Germain? They are preserved at Couvin; then carried to Paris. Their present state: the cult shown to them.
In the church called after his name at Tours That the body of St. Venantius was buried in the monastery named after him in the city of Tours Gregory of Tours teaches in more than one place. Hear what the holy biographer has in book 10 of the History of the Franks, chapter 31, num. 9: "Licinius …, having exercised the office of abbot in the monastery where St. Venantius the abbot is buried, is elected to the episcopate." He hints at altogether the same in the work entitled On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 15, which we have subjoined to the Life of the Saint presently to be published: and consequently from these and from the words of the biographer recited at num. 10 it is equally certain that the relics of St. Venantius were first deposited in the church dedicated to his name. But what Ruinart writes about the tomb of our Saint in his Notes on his Life, col. 1231, must not be passed over in silence. "Today," he says, "in the church of St. Venantius, situated in the cloister of St. Martin, is seen a crypt lying under the choir of the church, in which there are three stone tombs, raised from the earth, namely one in the middle, upon which an altar is placed, and which is believed to be that of St. Venantius; and the other two are situated on either side. His sacred relics," Ruinart continues, "were translated thence, at the time, as we conjecture, when the Northmen were laying everything waste, and deposited at Couvin, a village in the district of Lomme near Namur, where the monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés at the beginning of the tenth century, as the author of the Life of St. Gerard of Brogne witnesses, were keeping watch over St. Venantius the abbot. But at the end of the same century the monks of Saint-Germain, compelled to leave Couvin, returned to Paris, carrying with them the relics of the same blessed Abbot, which are still preserved today in the basilica of Saint-Germain."
[23] the relics of St. Venantius, buried, So Ruinart: and aptly indeed, as will become plain from what is to be said in the course of this discussion. And first certain things present themselves to be inquired into concerning the relics of St. Venantius preserved among the monks of Saint-Germain of Paris. For indeed that his relics, deposited in their monastery, still exist and were in fact laid away there from early times is proved throughout by the documents which Bouillart praises or even recites in its History; the same is proved by the reliquary in which his sacred remains are laid with religious cult and which is seen preserved in the monastery mentioned above; this is shown by the tradition of the church of Paris, asserted by today's announcement of its Martyrology; and finally they are taught by the Acts of St. Gerard of Brogne, committed to writing about the year 1035 or 1038, as Mabillon observes in the Fifth Benedictine Century, pages 148 and 149, and Bye, who illustrated them at the third day of October: so that there is no doubt whatever that relics of some Venantius still exist among the monks of Saint-Germain and have existed for a long space of time.
[24] But at the very threshold of the discussion a difficulty presents itself to be untangled, to the monks of Saint-Germain dwelling at Paris, which Mabillon proposes thus in his Notes on the Life of St. Gerard, num. 3: "But whether the abbot Venantius, whose relics we enjoy" (for the learned man was then living in the monastery of Saint-Germain), "is the very one who ruled the monastery of Tours in the 6th century, or the one who is venerated in the town of the same name among the Atrebates, let others judge." But Ruinart, ascribing those relics to St. Venantius of Tours in the words recited at num. 22, judged the matter itself; and deservedly indeed. For it in no way appears that the whole body of St. Venantius the martyr, already brought into our Work at the tenth day of October, buried at Petrobergum or Itisberga and dug out of the earth on the third of August of the year 1604, was carried to the city of Paris, nor could it have been carried there. Secondly, the ancient usages of the monks of Saint-Germain make no mention of that Saint at the 10th day of October, which however commemorate Venantius, abbot of Tours, on the 13th day with twelve Lessons and under the double rite: thirdly, finally, today's announcement of the Paris Martyrology declares that his body is preserved in this royal abbey, which runs thus: "At Tours, of St. Venantius the abbot, whose Life St. Gregory of Tours wrote. His relics are honored at Saint-Germain-des-Prés." Accordingly it remains asserted, from the monuments already mentioned or to be related further below, that the relics of St. Venantius, laid away for many centuries in the monastery of the Prés, belong to that Saint of the same name whose Life St. Gregory of Tours described. And at what time that sacred treasure came into the power of the monks of Saint-Germain must now be said.
[25] In the Life of St. Venantius which he composed at the 13th day of October, [not brought in the 6th century through the care of St. Germanus, prelate of Paris,] Baillet, writing of his translation made from Tours to the city of Paris, speaks thus: "His body lay buried in the abbatial church of St. Martin of Tours until, when the sons of Clothar I, after his death, received the kingdom," namely when the sixth century was already well advanced, "St. Germanus, bishop of the Parisians, brought it into the abbey, as it is said, of St. Vincent, afterwards called by the name of Saint-Germain-des-Prés." If therefore you listen to Baillet writing these things, you will have to say that the body of St. Venantius, through the care of Germanus the bishop, was carried to Paris into the basilica of St. Vincent about the year 576, which Henschen, illustrating his Acts at the 28th of May, and the authors of the New Gallia Christiana, tome 7, col. 201, assert as the year of his death. But relying on what instrument, or led by what reason, Baillet asserted these things, is indeed not clear to me. That this translation of our Saint to the monks of Saint-Germain took place not in the sixth century but later I shall presently give as proved from the words of St. Gregory, bishop of Tours, a contemporary of St. Germanus of Paris.
[26] And indeed the biographer of our Saint makes no mention of that translation performed by St. Germanus, but when the Norman whom he adorns with praises in several places. Secondly, those sacred remains were beyond doubt still buried in the monastery called by the name of St. Venantius at the time when Gregory of Tours, elected bishop in the year 573, his book X On the History of the Franks and the other entitled On the Glory of the Confessors, in which, as I said at num. 22, he has some things about the burial and relics of our Saint. For the holy writer would not have asserted that he was buried or rested there if in fact his sacred relics had already then come to the monks of Saint-Germain. Moreover, the writers of the Literary History of France, tome 3, pages 379 and 383, expressly teach that those two books just mentioned were committed to writing by St. Gregory only in the years 593 or 594, and consequently when some years had already elapsed since the death of St. Germanus of Paris. Therefore Baillet does not write rightly that those relics were carried by this holy bishop to Paris into the basilica of St. Vincent about the year 576. Whether, then, they were brought here at the time of the Norman irruption, as Ruinart, whose words we related at num. 22, writes, must now be weighed by us.
[27] irruption was imminent or raging, To search the matter from its beginning, it will help to subjoin certain things here. With how many and how great disasters the Northmen infested the provinces and cities of the Gauls, especially those which were situated on the Loire and the Seine, from the year 820 to about the year 912, all know who have run through the history of these times even in passing, and they know that very many relics of the Saints, lest they be polluted by the nefarious hand of the barbarians, were carried to places impassable to the barbarians or less exposed to their plunderings: hence I would not find it difficult to think that the body of St. Venantius of Tours was granted to the monks of Saint-Germain, and indeed before the middle of the ninth century, being led chiefly by this reason, that the city of Tours, exposed above all to the plunderings of the barbarians, after having been vainly surrounded by siege from the years 840 or 841, was at last, in the years 845, 846 and following, as the writers hand down whose works Bouquet published in tome 6, page 138, and tome 7, pages 225, 226, 258, occupied by them and plundered with fire and sword. What wonder that the canons or monks who served God in the church of St. Venantius committed the relics of the holy Abbot, or the principal part of them, to be laid away by the monks of Saint-Germain, then dwelling at Couvin, in order to provide for them?
[28] as is here said, That the matter is so I would the more willingly say as likely, because some martyrologists, notable also for their age, have announced St. Venantius at the 23rd day of October, now with no place marked, now at Paris. Moreover, no one, I think, will deny that when they celebrate the Saint on this day they undertook to commemorate one and the same Venantius. But if you inspect the words with which Notker composed his announcement, it will become altogether certain that they refer to Venantius, abbot of Tours: that martyrologist has thus at the aforesaid day: "The birthday of Venantius the abbot, of whom it is written that, while still placed on earth, the Solemnities of Masses to be completed in heaven
he recognized. And when once at Masses on Sunday the Prayer was being recited, he heard someone from a tomb answering the priest: But deliver us from evil." Which words indeed, drawn from the Acts of St. Venantius himself composed by Gregory, designate the holy Abbot of Tours. And indeed why those writers of Martyrologies commemorated the Saint on this day is, I think, sufficiently clear to all. For beyond doubt Rabanus and Notker, for example, who had already celebrated him with the church of Tours on the XIth day of the same month, did not think that his death was to be announced on this day. What, then, did those writers wish to celebrate in commemorating Venantius at the 23rd of October? The translation made, as I think, by which the sacred remains of the Saint, while the Northmen were raging far and wide through the Gauls, were carried from their first place of burial to Couvin, whence afterwards, as I shall show below, they came to Paris to the monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. And indeed this is the only celebrated translation of the relics of St. Venantius which has come down to us supported by due monuments. Nor indeed are Rabanus and Notker, who, commemorating the holy Abbot on the 23rd day of October, employed the word birthday and deposition, opposed to this opinion of mine, since, as we observed at num. 8, martyrological and hagiological authors using these words have sometimes expressed any other festival of some Saint, or the bringing of his relics to different places: which I would gladly say was done on this day by Rabanus and Notker. These things being laid down, place is now given to various inferences by which the time of the translation of St. Venantius to the monks of Saint-Germain can become known.
[29] It is certain that the body of the holy Abbot, or no small part of it, already belonged about the year 928 to the monks of Saint-Germain who were living at Couvin; they came to Couvin in the ninth century, and this is proved by the words which the biographer of St. Gerard of Brogne used, and which I am about to give at num. 30. But the things which Notker has about him in his Martyrology require, as I said in the preceding number, that that sacred treasure was in their possession for at least some years even before. For since that writer, as Sollerius asserts, after Papebroch, in his Preface to the Martyrology of Usuard, num. 67, and the writers of the Literary History of France, tome 6, page 136, committed his work to writing before the year 912, the year of his death, it must be that the relics of St. Venantius came from the city of Tours into the power of the monks of Saint-Germain at least from the first years of the 10th century. For this I may beyond doubt argue from what I have just set out. Nay rather, by like reasoning, it will be permissible to say, from the words of Rabanus by which he marks Venantius at the 23rd day of October, that this happened before the middle of the 9th century. For Rabanus, who prolonged his life until the year 856, is said by Sollerius, just praised, and by the writers of the Literary History of France, tome 5, page 154, to have written his Martyrology about the year 839 or 845; wherefore, when this author commemorates St. Venantius, whose day of death he had celebrated at the XIth of October, also on the 23rd day of this month, what, I ask, does he hint by this announcement of his, except that on this day some translation of our Saint had been made, namely that, and certainly that only, not by which, as I shall show below at num. 34 and following, toward the end of the 10th century, when Rabanus had long since died, the sacred remains of our Saint were carried to Paris, but by which, before he died, they were carried to Couvin? And there is no reason why anyone should deny that this happened before about the year 839 or 845, in which Rabanus composed his work; for it appears to me altogether consonant with the truth that in those days, when the Northmen, as I showed at num. 27, were infesting the district of Tours, the canons of St. Venantius of Tours then granted the relics to the Paris monks dwelling at Couvin, or committed them to them to be carried there, lest that sacred treasure should be plundered by the barbarians.
[30] where with due honor It had certainly come into the power of the monks of Saint-Germain by the year 928, in which St. Gerard, going to Brogne, situated in the diocese of Liège, came to Couvin, a not undistinguished town of the domain of Liège, distant one league in hours from Mariembourg, a notice of which Marne prepared in the History of Namur, among the dissertations added at the end, page 89. The matter, narrated by the biographer of St. Gerard and taken from his Acts illustrated and edited by Bye at the 3rd day of October, runs thus: "Gerard, having set out from the monastery of Mouzon in the diocese of Reims, namely on account of fear of the natives … by a prosperous course came to the township situated in the district of Lomme which is called Couvin. And here dwelt two monks from the monastery of Saint-Germain, to which the estate of the same township then belonged, keeping watch with one mind and with wakeful care in the vigils of St. Venantius the abbot." Accordingly, as is clear from the related words of the biographer of St. Gerard, the sacred relics of Venantius were preserved in the year 928, in which St. Gerard, having gone out from the monastery of Saint-Denis near Paris, was hastening to Brogne to build a monastery there, by religious of Saint-Germain deputed for this.
[31] by the monks of Saint-Germain Now perhaps someone may desire to know whether the relics of our Saint were brought from the city of Tours directly to the township of Couvin, or whether, first carried to Paris, they lay there for some time before they were brought into the domain of Liège by the monks of Saint-Germain, to whom they had been granted? Concerning both, those who wrote Martyrologies and the other hagiological authors are silent. But if it is permitted to relate here the conjectures which I have made about this, I would say that the sacred remains of the Saint were carried not to the territory of Paris, which in those ill-omened days the Northmen more than once defiled with their raids, but directly to the town of Couvin, moved even by the following reason, namely that Rabanus and Notker, who lived in the ninth and tenth centuries, commemorating our Saint at the 23rd day of October, or his translation performed on this day, did not mark it in the city of Paris, then most celebrated; which they would beyond doubt have done, as I think, if the relics of St. Venantius, having in fact been carried here about the year 840, had remained buried there; but they placed them in no location in their announcement, perhaps because they held Couvin, still overgrown with thickets in the Ardennes forest, as an unknown place.
[32] preserved What happened at Couvin, where the sacred pledges remained laid away for one century and more, the biographer teaches us in the following words taken from the Acts of St. Gerard, num. 24: "Of the aforesaid brethren who were at the vigils of the body of St. Venantius, one, having one night let himself go in drinking more than usual, is returned rather late to the nocturnal lauds, overcome indeed by drink and weighed down by excessive sleep. St. Venantius, standing by him, reproved him with a sterner countenance both with words and with a blow. 'Why,' he said, 'do you snore now, shameless monk? Why do you trifle in paying the hymns due to God? Why are you weighed down by sleep, Werembert?' (for he was called by this name) 'Behold, your brother Ermarus complains of your sleepiness, long since awakened for the watches of the vigils. And if reverence for us does not move you so much, why at least does the presence of the kindly martyr Eugenius, committed to you, not stir you? Are you ignorant of his merits? Do they not shine among the bright * hosts of the Saints, as the sun among the stars of the heavens? Rise, I say, rise as quickly as possible, and, what you ought to have done earlier, hasten to supply even though later.' Which reproof so far corrected him that not even for a little while after this did he withdraw anywhere from attendance on the martyr, except for the sake of human necessity, until his faithful creditor demanded back the faithful deposit. And lest any of the unbelieving should perhaps think this invented, it is established that this was related on the report of him who endured it."
[33] Further, who was that Werembert, rebuked with so sharp an admonition by St. Venantius? were, whether one of the twelve companions of St. Gerard, whom he had brought with him, or rather one of the two monks of Saint-Germain of Paris to whose care the relics of St. Venantius at Couvin had been committed, Bye inquires in his Commentary prefixed to the Acts of St. Gerard of Brogne, num. 49. I subjoin his words here. "Mabillon," he says, "in the Benedictine Annals, book 43, num. 8, thinks that of the twelve monks whom Gerard brought with him there was also Werembert, who, as the biographer narrates, was rebuked in sleep at Couvin by St. Venantius the abbot. But he was most probably not one of the twelve companions of Gerard, but one of the two monks to whom these, with Gerard, turned aside at Couvin according to what is to be said. This appears to be gathered from the place of the biographer just praised, if it is compared with what precedes." In the year 928, therefore, Ermarus and Werembert, monks from the monastery of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, whom St. Gerard visited on his way to Brogne, were keeping vigil at the relics of St. Venantius. But at about what time these were finally brought to the city of Paris, where they are preserved with religious cult, must here be said in a few words.
[34] That they were carried to Paris at the end of the 10th century Ruinart, [then to Paris at the end of the 10th century, as is clear also from the Martyrologies] whose words we have copied at num. 22, teaches: the cause of this bringing in Bouillart indicates in the History of the monastery of Saint-Germain, page 246, in the following words, translated by me from the French idiom into Latin: "Robert, having obtained the kingdom of the Franks on his father's death (in the year 996), granted Couvin with four villages adjoining the Meuse as dowry to his sister Hadwig, betrothed to Reginar IV, count of Mons, as is clear from the instrument published at the end of this History, page 30. Then Ermarus and Warembert, or rather whatever others were keeping vigil at the relics of the Saint, living at Couvin, compelled to return to Paris, brought them with them": and indeed toward the end of the 10th century; for since Robert then succeeded in the place of his father Hugh Capet, hence perhaps Ruinart and others not undeservedly asserted that the body of the Saint was carried to Paris. This too is not difficult to draw out from the announcement of the Calendars of Stavelot and the Vatican made on the 23rd day of October, by which Venantius is said to have been laid away at Paris.
[35] And indeed since the Calendar of Stavelot, as Martène asserts in the Observations on the Martyrologies edited by him, praised here, they were translated. and which he holds as most ancient, tome 6 of the Most Ample Collection, col. 635 and 636, seems to have been copied about seven hundred years ago: and since Giorgi, in the Preface to the Martyrology of Ado, page 17, thinks that altogether the same age is to be granted to the Vatican Calendar, which he writes in express words was written at the beginning of the 11th century; hence the writers of these two Calendars rightly announce the body of Venantius as brought to Paris and deposited in this city, who, as it appears to me, would not have commemorated the Saint at Paris on this day if his sacred body had been buried either at Couvin or in any other place. Accordingly, that that translation of the Saint from Couvin to Paris at the end of the 10th century
we should fix with Ruinart and Bouillart, nothing whatever prevents.
[36] A certain part of them to various When I said that the relics of St. Venantius came to the monks of Saint-Germain dwelling at Couvin at the beginning of the 9th century, I would not on that account believe that no part of them Col. 218E remained with the canons of Tours. For the contrary would be proved by the words of Bouillart, who has some things about their present state, which I subjoin: "In the year 1651 the monks of Saint-Germain of Paris gave as a gift half of one leg-bone of St. Venantius to the inhabitants of Villeneuve-le-Comte, called in French Ville-Neuve le Comte," which Bouillart also names Fontenaium or Fontenai le Comte, "in the territory of Poitiers. They granted something similar from these relics in the year 1654 to the church of Luynes in the district of Tours, dedicated to St. Venantius, at the request of the duke of the same name. Finally, in the year 1665 the canons of St. Venantius of Tours, in order to obtain something from the sacred remains of their Patron, and thus to make good the loss inflicted on them formerly by the followers of Calvin, who consigned his relics preserved in the church to the flames, sent one of the canons to the religious of Saint-Germain; who, assenting to his prayers, kindly bestowed an astragalus, or one of the bones of the foot, to be carried to Tours."
[37] granted to churches, So Bouillart, who in a note placed in the margin of page 246 names the capitular acts of this Paris monastery as the instruments of these bestowals made by the monks of Saint-Germain. The same author at page 247 mentions a certain procession performed in the year 1652 to check the fury of the civil war raging through the Gauls, in which the reliquary of the Saint is written to have been carried. From these things transcribed by Bouillart some are easily drawn out by which what was disputed in the preceding numbers can be established; and first, that the relics preserved in the basilica of Saint-Germain of Paris, of which the canons of Tours obtained a moderate part, belong to St. Venantius of Tours. Secondly, that only a part of them was translated at the beginning of the 9th century to the monks of Saint-Germain dwelling at Couvin or Paris, the other remaining with the people of Tours. Nor therefore is the tradition of the citizens of Tours, which Baillet mentions in preparing the Life of our Saint, empty and destitute of proofs, who think that there existed in their possession something of these sacred remains, which the partisans of the Calvinist heresy afterwards burned in sacrilegious flames.
[38] The people of Tours always held Venantius in particular honor, who wove his name into their old Martyrology, as I showed at num. 5, at the XIth day of October, [on the same day now as in centuries past the Parisians and the people of Tours with special] which is also read inscribed on the same day in the Calendar for the use of the illustrious basilica of St. Martin of Tours, published in the year 1635 and laid up in the Bollandian Museum: "Of Venantius the abbot, IX Lessons, I candlestick." For from the varying number of candlesticks and candles, as becomes plain from the general rules, the solemnity of a feast is customarily indicated here. The Collect customarily recited on the day sacred to St. Venantius is this: "O God, who desirest that we imitate the service of those who worthily serve thee: grant us to burn with the flames of thy charity, that we may merit the heavenly fellowship of blessed Venantius thy confessor, who happily pleased thee. Through our Lord," etc. The monks of Saint-Germain brought the name of the same Saint, at the 13th day of October, into their old usages, composed in the year 1396, as Bouillart hands down, and printed at the end of the History of this monastery, page 134, in these words: "The feast of St. Venantius the abbot, of XII Lessons, simple." "More about the same," says Gonon in his Notes on the Lives of the Fathers of the West, page 112, "in the Breviary of the churches of Paris, Le Mans and Beauvais, where an Office of three Lessons is assigned."
[38] Some churches dedicated to St. Venantius venerate Venantius with cult. are also shown by the codex of the Benefices belonging to the diocese of Tours, published at Paris in the year 1648, pages 22, 36 and 38: for indeed, besides the church named after him in the city of Tours, there exist in the place called Luynes a priory of St. Venantius, whose provision belongs to the abbot of Marmoutier near Tours, as also another, called that of Mailley, in which the Prior must live with a companion: I forbear to enumerate here other parish churches sacred to our Saint; since the cult shown to the holy Abbot from a past space of many centuries, and still shown, is established by monuments sufficiently and abundantly related in this Commentary of mine.
Annotations* Others read fulgida "shining".
ACTS OF ST. VENANTIUS THE ABBOT,
By St. Gregory, bishop of Tours,
Edited by Ruinart,
Venantius, abbot, confessor, at Tours. (S.)
BHL Number: 8526
BY GREGORY OF TOURS.
PROLOGUE
The heavenly power bestows on the churches and earth-born peoples a single and manifold gift, when it continually grants to the world not only b intercessors for sins, but also teachers of eternal life; which is seen to be single, while it is granted as manifold by the divine Majesty; because to all who have wished c to seek it, it is abundantly granted, according to that saying: "Ask and you shall receive d," and the rest. Whence the human mind ought vigilantly and unceasingly to investigate the life of the Saints, so that, provoked by this study and kindled by the example, it may always stretch out to those things which it knows to be acceptable to God, so that by him it may either merit to be delivered or be able to be heard. And these things the Saints sought to receive from his Majesty, asking continually that he himself would instil them into the heart, himself accomplish them in deed, himself speak them in the mouth, so that the mind, purged in thought, speech and action, might the more easily think holy things, speak just things, work honorable things. Whence it came about that, while they served in those things which are pleasing to the Divinity, they obtained that the debt of sin should be remitted to them, that they should be delivered from the contagion of the foul mire e, and that they should be invited to the heavenly kingdom according to their merits. They also set the examples of those who went before them before their eyes, and praised the almighty Lord for their affections, whose examples, as we have said, they meditated to follow. Whence we too, striving to speak in praise of Venantius the abbot, a devoted servant of God, rather render to the Divinity its own gifts, since it is manifest that his right hand effected what the Saints are established to have worked f, praying that he may open the mouth of the dumb to publish the works of his Prelate, because, as we recognize ourselves to be slender in knowledge, so we know ourselves to be sinners in conscience g.
ANNOTATIONS.
d. John 16. 24.
SOLE CHAPTER.
St. Venantius embraces the monastic life: he is placed over the monastery as abbot: he is refreshed with many heavenly visions: and living and dead he succors many.
HERE BEGINS THE LIFE
The Saint enters the monastery St. Venantius, then, was an inhabitant of the territory of Bourges b, of parents of free birth according to the dignity of the world, and Catholic. Who, while he was flourishing in the age of youth, is bound by his parents with the bond of betrothal. And when, as befits this age, he showed himself affable to the love of the girl, and was bringing her shoes too along with frequent cups c, it happened that he came, the Lord inspiring him, to the city of Tours. There was at that time a monastery [d] near the basilica of St. Martin, in which Silvinus the abbot ruled a flock devoted to God with the sceptre of the rule. This devout Man, approaching it, and seeing the mighty works of blessed Martin, said within himself: "As I conjecture, it is better to serve Christ undefiled than to be involved in worldly contagion through the nuptial bond. I will leave my betrothed of the territory of Bourges, and will be joined through faith to the Catholic Church, so that what * I believe in heart I may merit to bring to effect also in deed."
[2] Turning these things over within himself, he came to the aforesaid abbot, he is placed over it as abbot; and, cast down at his feet, he revealed with tears what he bore in his inmost heart e. And he, giving thanks to God for the faith of the Boy, and having also added the priestly preaching, tonsured the Youth and enrolled him in the monastic flock. From this time, showing himself in humility to the brethren, loving charity with all, he is asserted to have been raised to so great a height of holiness that he was honored by all with the greatest zeal as a near parent. Whence it came about that, when the abbot of the said monastery died, he himself was substituted in the place of the abbot, the brethren electing him f.
[3] Then one Sunday he is invited to celebrate the Solemnities of Masses, with various visions and he said to the brethren: "For now my eyes are covered with darkness g, and I cannot look at the little book. Commit these things therefore to another presbyter to perform." While the presbyter was saying them, he himself stood next by, and it came to the point where the holy offering, according to the Catholic custom h, was to be blessed with the sign of the cross placed over it. And he, gazing, saw as it were a ladder placed at the window of the apse, and as it were descending by it an old man, venerable with the honor of the clerical state, and with right hand extended blessing the sacrifice offered on the altar. For these things were done in the basilica of St. Martin, which no one merited to see except he alone; but why the rest did not see it i we do not know. He himself, however, afterwards related it to the brethren, nor is there any doubt that the Lord showed these things to his faithful Servant, to whom also he deigned to reveal the secrets of heavenly mysteries.
[4] refreshed, For the same man, while he was returning on a Sunday from the basilicas of the Saints, his prayer completed, supported upon a little staff, in the middle of the forecourt of the blessed Confessor, with ears pricked up and eyes fixed on heaven for a very long time, stood immovable: then, moving from the place, he began to give groans and to draw out long sighs. And being asked by his own people what this was, or, if he had seen anything divine, to relate it, he answered: "Woe to us, inert and slothful; behold, already in heaven the Solemnities of Masses are being performed, and we, sluggish, have not even begun to begin the Sacrament of this Mystery. Truly," he said, "I tell you that I heard the voices of angels in the heavens proclaiming Holy, Holy in praise of the Lord"; and quicker than speech he ordered the Solemnities of Masses to be completed in the monastery. But neither will I pass over this, that on a certain occasion, while, according to custom, as we said above, he was returning from the basilicas which he had visited for the sake of prayer, and in the basilica at Masses the words of the Lord's Prayer were being sung, when they said: "But deliver us from evil," he heard from the tomb of someone a voice saying likewise: "Deliver us from evil"; which is judged to have been not without the merit of perfection, that he should have merited to hear these things. But also, coming to the tomb of the presbyter Passivus k, he learned, the latter himself teaching him, both the quality of his merit and the quantity of his refreshment.
[5] from pain of the legs and knees And although these things are great, it is pleasing nevertheless to come to that grace of healings which the Lord brought forth through him for the sick. For there is no doubt that through him, as we said above, the right hand of God worked, which willed to reveal to him these so great things which we have mentioned l. For a certain little boy, Paul by name, afflicted with grievous pain of the legs and knees, came to the Saint, and, prostrate at his knees, began to entreat him that he would obtain by his prayer that healing be imparted to him from the mercy of the Lord; who at once,
having prayed, the sick boy's limbs having been rubbed m with blessed oil, made him rest upon his own little bed; and when he had rested a little while, after the course of one hour he orders him to rise; and he, rising up, was restored sound to his mother by the hands of the Saint. The slave of a certain Faretrus n, at enmity with his master, sought the oratory of this priest; but the latter, puffed up with pride, in the absence of the blessed Man, dragged the slave away and killed him, but soon, seized by a fever, he breathed out his spirit.
[6] and he succors those afflicted with fevers. The attacks o of quartan or tertian or other fevers he very often mitigated by prayer. The poison of an evil pustule * he extinguished by placing the saving sign upon it; those possessed [p] by demons he cleansed by invoking the name of the Trinity. For he was also very often assailed by the demons themselves, but remained victor in the contest. For, when he rose one night from his bed to render the office, he saw two great rams standing at his doors, as if awaiting his coming; and on seeing him they direct themselves furiously against him with a violent rush. But he, opposing the sign of the Cross, while they vanished, entered the oratory unmoved. Another night, returning from the oratory, he found his little cell full of demons, and said to them: "Whence do you come?" "From Rome," they say; "having set out yesterday [q] we have come to this place." He said to them: "Depart, detestable ones, and do not approach the place in which the name of the Lord is invoked." As he said these things, they vanished like smoke.
[7] Strong with the grace of these and such mighty works [r], Dead, the possessed having completed the course of the present life, he passed from the world [s] to receive eternal life, and his blessed tomb is often rendered glorious by the effect of illustrious miracles. A wicked demon had besieged the mind of Mascarpio, a slave of that monastery, who, having become possessed through the course of three years, raging at the tomb of the blessed Man, was at last, as we believe, cleansed by his prayer, the demon being cast out, living many years thereafter with a sound mind. The wife of Julian, laboring under the burning of a quartan fever, as soon as she touched the tomb of the blessed Man, the heat and bodily trembling being checked, departed healed. By a similar lot the wife of Baudimund too was laboring under this fever; but when, prostrate at the little bed of the holy Man, she poured out prayer, she was soon restored to safety and recovered. Many other things indeed we have heard of him, but we judge that these things which have been written suffice for the belief of Catholics [t].
[3] Of Venantius the abbot [u]. Not far from the basilica of blessed Martin rests Venantius the abbot, and he heals those laboring with fevers a man of wonderful holiness, who, while placed in the body, brought help to many sick people; who, having departed from the world when his time was fulfilled, shows by his own mighty works that he lives continually for ever. For if anyone incurring chilly fevers keeps vigil one night at his tomb praying, the attack [x] being soon checked, he obtains healing. For among the other things which we have either seen or heard done there, we saw a certain woman [y] seized with a quartan fever healed. She, held for a long time by this contagion, could take neither food nor sleep, but had so fallen away in her whole body that scarcely even that vital breath remained in her. Passing the night at his tomb in groans and prayer, she remained immovable until the coming of the light; but in the morning, settling herself to sleep, when she had been awakened, feeling nothing of evil, she departed healed. And the Life of this Saint we have written [z].
ANNOTATIONS.
p. Here in the Vaucelles codex, through the carelessness of the copyist, certain things are lacking, whence it comes about that the sense appears maimed.
q. In the two Bollandist Manuscripts: hesterno.
r. Both Marmoutier codices: privilegiis pollens "strong in privileges". Ruinart.
s. Germ.: emigravit; and with these words, redditur gloriosum, the Life of the Saint ends. Ruinart.
t. In Marmoutier a is subjoined chapter 15 of the book On the Glory of the Confessors, which is about the same St. Venantius, and at the end it adds this: "These things Gregory, bishop of the see of Tours, speaks of himself." So Ruinart.
u. We have thought that the things which follow, taken from the book of Confessors, chapter 15, should be added here to the Life of St. Venantius composed by the holy Bishop. In our two Manuscripts after the Life of the Saint these things are read subjoined: "Likewise a few words of St. Venantius." This chapter is lacking in Clar. a and Colq. tut. Ruinart, Works of Gregory of Tours, col. 904.
x. See the Note under letter o.
y. Laud.: gesta vidimus mulierem. Ruinart.
z. In the Vaucelles codex is added: Here ends the account of St. Venantius.
* Others read quae.
* Read pustulae.