ON SS. CANNATUS AND ANTONINUS, CONFESSORS, BISHOPS, AS IT IS SAID, OF MARSEILLE, IN PROVENCE,
Fifth century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Cannatus, bishop and confessor, as it is said, at Marseille in Provence. (S.)
Antoninus, bishop and confessor, as it is said, at Marseille in Provence. (S.)
BY J. B.
§ I. Mention of the holy Confessors among the Martyrologists, the ecclesiastical office, and other records of sacred cult paid to them; honour shown to their Relics; Acts of slight credit indeed, yet to be published.
As uncertain as are the things which the tradition of the people of Marseille proclaims about SS. Cannatus and Antoninus, [Concerning these holy Confessors, although referred in some places to various days,] so certain is the sacred cult that has been accustomed to be shown to them there on this day for many centuries back. Among the Martyrologists the first of those, at least whom I have seen, is Ferrarius, who in his Catalogue of the Saints not inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, from tables of the church of Marseille transmitted to him, announces St. Cannatus, with no mention made of St. Antoninus, at the third day of October thus: At Marseille, of St. Canas, bishop. Following Ferrarius in the Supplement of his Gallican Martyrology p. 1176., likewise at the third day of October, but with the name of St. Cannatus, whom alone he exhibits just as Ferrarius does, somewhat corrupted, Saussay celebrates him, as he is wont, with a somewhat longer encomium, saying: At Marseille, of saint Canalis, bishop, illustrious for testimonies of divine grace and glory: whose body rests in the principal temple of that city, where today also his memory is celebrated with the honour of religious cult. But both are commemorated by the Universal Martyrology of Castellanus, and the more recent one of Paris: St. Cannatus indeed today, but St. Antoninus at the 13th day of October. The former has today thus: At Marseille, of St. Canas, bishop of this city, whose body is honoured in the cathedral church; but at the 13th day of October: At Marseille, of St. Antoninus, bishop, whose body was translated from the town of St. Canas to the Major church in the year one thousand two hundred and seventy-seven. And the words of the Paris Martyrology at the 15th day of October concerning St. Cannatus are: On the same day, of St. Cannatus, whom Gennadius, a contemporary author, calls a man of God. There is a town bearing his name in Provence, whence his body was translated to Marseille into the Major church. There also one of the parishes of the city was once distinguished with his title; and at the 13th day of October: In the province of Arles, of St. Antoninus, who, translated from the town of St. Cannatus, where he was first buried, to Marseille, rests in the cathedral church. We have in hand the proper Offices of the church of Marseille, furnished with the approval and authority of Étienne de Puget, bishop of Marseille, and printed in the year 1662, in whose Calendar, because we read at the 15th day of October: Of SS. Cannatus and Antoninus, bishops of Marseille. Double of the 2nd class, it has seemed good to us to treat of both together at this day.
[2] to be treated together here, because they are venerated together at Marseille; Gononus had written in the Lives of the Fathers of the West, book X p. 266., that the feast of St. Cannatus is celebrated in the churches of Apt, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and Cavaillon on the eighth day of October; but, better instructed, in the Appendix to the Lives just mentioned p. 470. he writes: whose feast is celebrated on the 15th of October with solemn Octaves at Marseille; and he adds finally: It is to be noted also that together with the solemnity of St. Cannatus is celebrated also the feast of St. Antoninus. That on this day the feast of St. Cannatus not only is celebrated at Marseille, but was also celebrated in the fourteenth century, says Antoine Ruffi in book X, no. 19 of the second edition of his History of Marseille, and that he found this in two instruments of the years 1356 and 1385: but at no. 22 he writes that the feast of St. Antoninus was formerly celebrated at Marseille on the 16th day of October. Of the Octaves which Gononus, cited a little before, mentions, no mention is made in the Marseille Proper furnished with the authority of bishop Puget; but an Office common to both Saints is prescribed to be recited throughout the diocese, in which the following are proper to them. Antiphon at both Vespers: These are the glorious Pontiffs, and our most excellent Pastors, who stand before the Lord and pray unceasingly for their beloved flock. Prayer: Hear, we beseech thee, O Lord, our prayers which we offer on the solemnity of thy Blessed Confessors and Pontiffs Cannatus and Antoninus: and by the intercession of the merits of those who worthily merited to serve thee, absolve us from all sins. Through our Lord. Lessons of the 1st and 2nd Nocturn are proper to St. Cannatus and agree with the Acts to be given below: the sixth is attributed to St. Antoninus, but it contains nothing that is peculiar to him, inasmuch as it is taken from St. Maximus's Homily 59: To the praises of our holy and most blessed Antoninus, whose feast we celebrate today, to have added anything is to have plucked away, etc. Antiphon at Lauds: Let us praise glorious men, who, shining with knowledge and burning with charity, fed their people with the bread of the life of understanding. The Hymn at Lauds and the Prayer proper to St. Cannatus alone, formerly accustomed to be recited, he exhibits from the Breviary of the church of Marseille in this fashion:
O Christ, most loving King, Who art the maker of the world's frame: Whom Cannatus served, Good, holy and chaste. In the desert he ate Roots, while he stayed there: For, because of the narrowness of the place, Its waters were his drinks. That he might serve thee, Christ, And spurn the kingdom of the world, Which was coming to him, He listened to thy word. Praise be to the Father, etc.
Prayer. Almighty everlasting God, who didst miraculously set St. Cannatus, springing from royal stock, as pontiff over the church of Marseille while he was doing penance in the desert, vouchsafe by his merits and intercession to grant us the support of all heavenly gifts.
[3] where also to their Relics, Besides the Office common to both Saints, various indications of ancient cult paid to them are recorded: and to St. Cannatus indeed, in the cathedral church of Marseille sacred to the Virgin Mother of God, as Ruffi testifies, book X, chapter 1, no. 8, a chapel dedicated to him is seen next to the sacristy. Likewise a parish temple within the bosom of the city was once founded in his honour, but is now destroyed, namely since the year 1524, when Charles of Bourbon,
following the standards of the emperor Charles V against Francis I, king of France, besieged Marseille in a vain attempt, as Ruffi says, book VII, chapter VI, no. 31: but Henri de Belzunce, bishop of Marseille, in book XIII of the History of his predecessors Vol. III, p. 126. writes that the roof of the temple was taken away; but that the rest of the body and the vault itself still exist, though covered with earth heaped on them. Not far from Aix there is likewise seen a town or castle of St. Cannatus de Sauzet, called after our Saint, enclosed indeed within the bounds of the diocese of Aix, but formerly subject to the spiritual as well as the temporal jurisdiction of the prelates of Marseille, as may be seen in a Charter of the year 1278 in Henri, just cited, book IX Vol. II, p. 297.. But in the year 1473 John Allardeau, having made an exchange with the barony of Aubagne (Aubange), ceded it to René, king of Sicily. The Charter, witness of the exchange made, is exhibited by bishop Henri, book XIII Vol. III, p. 48., in which the castle of St. Cannatus is called a place of healthful air, situated on a plain, pleasant with springs, and delightful with waters, and abounding in fruits, hunting and pastures: it was a desert when, as the Acts relate, St. Cannatus began his solitary life there. Two places likewise to which St. Antoninus probably gave his name are recorded by Honoré Bouche, book III of the History of Provence, chapter IV p. 627., namely the village of St. Antoninus near Aix and the village of Puyloubier; and the mountain of St. Antoninus near Brignoles and the village of Camps, on which mountain he says an Oratory was built to the same Saint.
[4] as is established from the instruments Moreover, the church of Marseille has long since, as will be clear from what is to be said, honoured the Relics of both Saints with notable honour. Part of these is preserved separately in the cathedral church of Marseille; but the other part so mixed together that the bones of the one cannot be distinguished from the bones of the other: there are kept separately, enclosed in silver cases, as Ruffi writes, History of Marseille, book X, chapter 1, no. 9, the skull and an arm of St. Cannatus: he adds at no. 19 that the skull of St. Cannatus was found under the high altar of the cathedral church in the year 1653 on the 21st day of January, placed in a silver case, and then on the 15th day of October carried round through the whole city in a solemn procession, and that St. Cannatus was moreover declared by Puget, bishop of Marseille at that time, secondary patron of the city. The sacred skull was covered by a stone, whose inscription was this: Here are contained the Head of blessed Cannatus and Relics of St. Antoninus, of the Holy Innocents, and of the garments of the blessed Virgin Mary. The remaining Relics of SS. Cannatus and Antoninus, first shown openly to the clergy and people, were enclosed in a seemly chest by Raymond, bishop of Marseille, in the year 1122 on the day sacred to the Virgin Mary taken up into heaven; of which matter, from the Archives of the church of Marseille, book VI Vol. I, p. 450., Henri de Belzunce exhibits the following testimony: Raymond, by the grace of God bishop of Marseille, a religious man under the monastic habit and rule, living all the days of his life in hymns and psalms, served God perseveringly with chastity, who established many books and many ornaments of gold and silver and of palls in the church of St. Mary of the see of Marseille by purchase. And at the last, under the name of Christ, to the honour of Mary, Mother of God, of the ancient see of Marseille, he made this chest in the year 1122 from the Incarnation of the Lord, in which he himself with his own hands placed Relics of very many Saints on the day of the Assumption of St. Mary, his clergy and people being present; the body of St. Cannatus, bishop of Marseille and Confessor, and of St. Antoninus, Confessor, and of St. Victor, Martyr, are there. Here are Relics of St. Peter the Apostle, and of St. Stephen, and of St. Adrian, Martyr, and of St. Vincent, Martyr, and of St. John, and of St. Veranus, and of St. Apollinaris, and of St. Regina, Martyr, and of St. Paul, and of Gregory, and of St. Polycarp, of the sepulchre of the Lord, of the garment of St. Stephen, of St. Sebastian, of St. Sulpicius, Confessor, of St. Martin, of St. Marcellinus, of St. Andrew the Apostle, of St. Lawrence, of the wood of the Cross, of St. Lazarus, whom the Lord raised, and of St. Faustinus, of St. Christina, of the Holy Innocents, and of many others whose names we do not know; God knows.
[5] it is established This instrument was drawn up, as its words reveal, after Raymond's death; but, as appears, not long after; and it was found in the year 1277 in the chest made by Raymond, when it was opened by the Chapter of Marseille, as bishop Henri points out. Both Ruffi, book X, chapter 1, no. 43, and Henri ascribe this pious work to Raymond, bishop of Marseille, surnamed de Soliers; but whom the latter calls Raymond II, the former calls III. For the rest, I should like it observed here in passing both that no mention is made here of the skull of St. Cannatus placed separately by Raymond, and that the chest made by him for keeping the Relics of SS. Cannatus and Antoninus was not the most ancient of all: for this succeeded another already almost worn away, as I believe, by age, for the repair of which Aicard, archbishop of Arles, had given the honour or lordship of the village of St. Marcellus to the cathedral church of Marseille, concerning which matter this is read in bishop Henri, book V Ibid., p. 446., in a Charter of the year 1121, by which Pons de Puy-Noir and his wife Guerriada, having been loosed from the bond of excommunication by Raymond, bishop of Marseille, release the honour lying at St. Marcellus, which archbishop Aicard gave to St. Mary for the restoration of the silver of the chest of St. Cannatus. The chest, made, as was said above, in the year 1122, containing the sacred bones of SS. Cannatus and Antoninus and of other Saints, and accustomed to be carried about in processions, was opened again in the year 1277 on the 11th day of May by the Chapter of St. Mary of Marseille, in the absence of the bishop of Marseille, the other Raymond, surnamed de Nîmes; as another instrument in the most illustrious prelate of Marseille, already often cited, book IX Vol. II, p. 294, gives assurance. At that time another chest was made, of iron, to be closed with four locks, in which on the 20th day of June of the same year most of the Relics of the aforesaid Saints were enclosed in the presence of Bernard de Languissel, archbishop of Arles, the second of this name, and Alan, bishop of Sisteron, and that deposition of the holy Relics is commemorated in the cathedral church with a proper Office on the same day. Yet the bodies of SS. Cannatus and Antoninus were not at that time brought into that iron chest; their translation to the church of St. Cannatus was indeed decreed, but only partly carried into execution. For the canons of the cathedral church, because they believed that those Relics would not be safe enough in the church of St. Cannatus, retained part of them, enclosed in a little sack, in the cathedral church and secured it with their seal, on the 22nd day of June: for so has the testimony given by them on that matter, and found in the year 1444 in the chest of Relics of the cathedral by Bartholomew de Racoli, bishop of Marseille, in bishop Henri, book IX Ibid., p. 295.:
[6] it is established Be it known to all that when the venerable Father, the Lord B. (Bernard), by the grace of God archbishop of the holy church of Arles, with the Lord A. (Alan), by the grace of God bishop of Sisteron, assisting him, had solemnly laid up before the clergy and people many Relics within the church of B. Mary, among which were found the bodies of St. Cannatus, bishop of Marseille, and of St. Antoninus, in one little sack so mixed and joined together that they could not be distinguished in any way; and had decreed that the said bodies of St. Cannatus and St. Antoninus be laid up in perpetuity in the church of St. Cannatus of the city of Marseille, We, de Novis, precentor and vicar of the venerable Father the Lord R., by the grace of God bishop of Marseille, and G. de Florensiac, Sacristan, holding the place of the Lord R. de Securet, Provost of Marseille, and Jo. Blanchi, J. Bonifacii, and G. de Châteauneuf, canons of Marseille, G. Columberii, Chaplain with cure of souls of the same church, considering that in the said church of St. Cannatus there is no sure or firm place in which the said bodies of the Saints could be placed or laid up with any security, without the greatest danger, both on account of the weakness of the place, and also the suspicion of the clerics who dwell there, since they are annual and hired, on account of which there might be great danger that they could be corrupted by money and steal the said bodies of the Saints of Marseille; wishing also, if not wholly, yet in part, to avoid the said danger, we have secretly retained in the possession of the said church of Marseille half of the said bodies of St. Cannatus and St. Antoninus, and have resolved to lay it up in this little sack. In testimony whereof, we have sealed the present page with our seals. In the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and seventy-seventh, on the tenth day before the Ides of July, etc.
[7] notable honour was shown. When the canons of Marseille here named say, we have secretly retained in the possession of the said church of Marseille, it is sufficiently manifest that by the name of the church of Marseille they designated the cathedral church sacred to St. Mary, and that in the year 1277 one part of the Relics of SS. Cannatus and Antoninus was retained in it, and the other, enclosed in a little sack, translated from it to the church of St. Cannatus, contrary to what Ruffi, book X, chapter 1, supposed, writing that part of them was translated from the church of St. Cannatus to the Major church in the year 1178 (rather 1277). Hence further it flowed that he also wrongly wrote that the chest made by Raymond de Soliers in the year 1182 (read 1122) was not opened before the year 1444, on the day of the nativity of B. Mary, by the bishop of Marseille, Bartholomew de Racoli. In that year 1444 the half part of the Relics of SS. Cannatus and Antoninus which, enclosed in a little sack, had been translated to St. Cannatus's in the year 1277 will have been brought back from there again to the cathedral; and thenceforth all have been preserved there. Thus far of the sacred cult paid by the people of Marseille to both holy Confessors: now I proceed to the Acts and to those things which are related in them, that is, from the certain to the uncertain.
[8] Why the Acts, although of slight authority, are published. The Acts of St. Cannatus are extant in Gononus in the Appendix to the Lives of the Fathers of the West, drawn from the Breviary of Marseille, and almost similar to those which Henri de Belzunce brought into the History of the bishops of Marseille from an old Breviary likewise of the church of Marseille, book III Vol. I, p. 201.. From these were put together the two Lessons which are proposed in the Proper of Marseille to be recited on the 15th day of October concerning St. Cannatus. There is extant likewise in the literary stock of Tongerlo a Life of St. Cannatus, bishop, as the title presents it, of Marseille, transcribed from an old Manuscript, and once sent to Bolland from Marseille to Antwerp through the care of the Rev. Fr. Silvestro Pietrasanta, somewhat fuller than those already enumerated, and the source, as appears, from which the Lessons in the old Breviaries of the church of Marseille were derived; which, therefore, such as it is, we here commit to print. About the beginning of this century, that the Life of St. Cannatus was written
I read, by Emmanuel Pachier, a presbyter of Marseille, which, as we believe, would have brought us at least some help, had it been at hand. Our anonymous author of the Life of St. Cannatus claims slight credit and authority for himself, being removed from the age of St. Cannatus by easily five centuries: he himself reveals this right from the beginning of the Life of St. Cannatus, saying that the kings of Aix were in his memory no longer called kings, but counts, who in the tenth century first began to rule in Provence, and to govern that region in their own name and right, their line being led, as writers commonly relate, by Boso. He also delights at times in Leonine verses, whose use perhaps, as Du Cange says at the word Leoninus, only first prevailed under Louis VII and Philip Augustus, kings of the Franks, that is, in the twelfth century. It has seemed good, however, to commit him to print here, both because these Acts of St. Cannatus we have nowhere else seen entire, and because from them seem to have been drawn the things which the old Breviaries of the church of Marseille have handed down about him.
[We think Leonine versification far older, since St. Augustine already seemed to pursue it; and in the sixth century, not yet advanced to its middle, St. Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe, already affected a final consonance in his phrasing: for example, let there be his homily on the birthday of St. Stephen the Protomartyr Bibl. Max. Patt., vol. IX, p. 107., which is read in the Roman Breviary at the 26th day of December: He descended veiled in flesh, this one ascended laurelled with blood. This one ascended while the Jews were stoning, because He descended while the Angels rejoiced. Glory to God in the highest, the holy Angels sang yesterday: today, rejoicing, they received Stephen into their fellowship. Yesterday the Lord went forth from the womb of the Virgin: today the soldier has gone out from the prison-house of the flesh. Yesterday Christ was wrapped in swaddling clothes for us: today Stephen has been clothed by Him with the robe of immortality, etc. Consonance of this kind is to be found also in the life of St. Gall, to be published on the 16th day of October, which belongs to the eighth century. Thence it flows as if of its own accord that these consonances were reduced to Latin metre: certainly in the ninth century Leonine poems were being composed, as is shown by the verses of Ratpert, a monk of St. Gall of the ninth century, in the Casus S. Galli Pertz, Monum. Germ., vol. II, p. 71: To him to whom, O Christ, Thou givest gifts as rewards of such labours, To him mayest Thou grant heaven, Thou who hadst created the lofty stars. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and likewise John, May they be his companions, whose honours he used to celebrate. For the rest, at the end of the tenth century the use of Leonine verses was already most frequent, as is clear from the poems composed by Notker Labeo of St. Gall Ibid., p. 55..]
§ II. The other things which are related about these Saints are for the most part uncertain.
St. Cannatus, whose native soil, At Aquae Sextiae, which is an archiepiscopal city and the metropolis of Provence, called in French Aix, St. Cannatus, as the anonymous author narrates, was brought forth to the world, the son, as he says, of a king of Aix; I would rather he had said of a prefect: but, since these, when Rome had been taken by Odoacer, first king of the Heruli and presently of Italy, in the year 476, and the Roman empire was falling, began to govern by their own authority the cities and provinces for the ruling of which they had been appointed prefects, having claimed them for themselves, they were at times honoured with the title of kings: so Gregory of Tours, in book II of the History of the Franks, chapter XXVII D. Bouquet, Rec. des Hist. de France, vol. II, p. 174., called Syagrius, who was over Soissons only, king of the Romans: And in the fifth year of his reign (of Clovis I) Syagrius, king of the Romans, son of Aegidius, had his seat at the city of Soissons, which the above-mentioned Aegidius had once held. But of a kingdom or king of Aix I think mention is made nowhere else; nor did the anonymous author himself have this more ascertained than the names of the parents of St. Cannatus, about which he is silent.
[10] his retreat into the desert, At what age St. Cannatus began to live, at what age he ceased, the Anonymous is equally deeply silent; indeed he does not even offer any indication from which you might gather it: from elsewhere, however, it will be assigned in some fashion a little below. For the rest, he commends the youth of St. Cannatus for the study of letters both profane and sacred, for chastity, for the uprightness of an exemplary life, and the other virtues, but above all for contempt of worldly things, led by which, bidding farewell to the delights of his father's court and to the succession to the kingdom, as indeed the anonymous author affirms without a witness, he hid himself in a solitude whose name was Sausset, to live for God alone. This was distant from Aix, as the Anonymous says at no. 2, about five or six miles; in Bouche's Geographical Map, about two Provençal leagues. He also describes the pleasantness of the place in almost the same way as you have it described above at no. 3. I do not so much wonder that St. Cannatus chose a pleasant place for himself as that he chose one so near his father's court. That the holy Hermit inhabited this place, however, is made very likely by this, that in the lapse of time a town or castle arose there which long ago took its name from him, St. Cannatus, and has it to this day. How long the holy Anchorite stayed in this desert the Anonymous has left to posterity to guess.
[11] and the episcopate, but without date, the anonymous author relates, Meanwhile, while St. Cannatus is wholly given to contemplating heavenly things, proceeds the Anonymous, the bishop of Marseille dies: had the Anonymous expressed his name, we could at least have known from it at what age St. Cannatus, his successor, as is believed, lived; but he seems not even to have had this ascertained: we must, therefore, turn elsewhere. Gennadius, a presbyter of Marseille, who wrote the book on the illustrious writers of the church towards the end of the fifth century (according to Tillemont, Monum. eccl. Mém. pour servir à l'hist. eccl., vol. XVI, p. 747., in the year 485, according to Pagi, in the Critica of Baronius at the year 490, no. 20, not after the year 494), writes thus in the edition of Suffridus Petri of the year 1580, chapter LXXX: Vincent, a presbyter, himself also a Gaul by nation, practised in the divine scriptures, having a tongue polished by the use of speaking and by greater reading, wrote commentaries on the Psalms: some of which he read to Cannas, a man of God, in my hearing, promising at the same time, if the Lord should give life and character, that he would labour on the whole Psalter. In Martianay, volume V of the Works of St. Jerome col. 43., is read Majorum for majori: before homini Dei is prefixed Sancto; Cannati likewise is read for Cannatae: finally the cited article on Vincent ends thus: Promising at the same time, if the Lord should give life and strength, that he would labour on the whole Psalter with the same zeal.
[12] he probably flourished in the fifth century: It is very likely that the name Cannas is no other than the name Cannatus: then it appears certain that the Cannas of whom Gennadius speaks was a man who had both stayed at Marseille at some time and was famous throughout Provence not only for learning, as one to whom Vincent the presbyter, perhaps as to a censor, read beforehand the commentaries he had written on the Psalms, but also for the reputation of holiness: whence most writers on the affairs of Marseille judge that mention is made here of our St. Cannatus, and that he lived in the same age as Gennadius, who lived under the end of the fifth century; and indeed not altogether without foundation: since of another Cannatus who flourished above all in this reputation for holiness no memory seems to survive. The authors of the Literary History of France point out Hist. littér. de la Fr., vol. II, p. 635. that Gennadius, although he did not everywhere keep the order of time, nevertheless divided the writers whom he reviews into three classes; of which the first records those who flourished from the fourth century, the second those before the middle of the fifth century, the third, finally, those from the middle of the fifth century up to the time when Gelasius was writing, from Pope Leo: since in this last class Vincent the presbyter, who read his writings to Cannatus, is recorded, it is likely that the latter too flourished in the fifth century beyond its middle part having elapsed.
[13] flourished: Yet I do not hold this as entirely certain, both because another Cannatus than ours, famous for learning and holiness, could have been known to Gennadius, even though no memory of him survives; and because not all the MS. Codices record Cannatus. There is extant in the Library of Tongerlo a twin MS. parchment Codex comprising Gennadius's Catalogue of illustrious Men, of which the one is marked M. 106, the other ✠ MS. 202: neither of these mentions Cannas; but both, instead of legit (he read), have legi (I read). After mentioning Vincent's Commentaries on the Psalms the latter proceeds thus: Of which Work I read some commentaries, promising at the same time, if the Lord should give life and strength, that he would labour on the whole Psalter with the same zeal; the former, however, thus: Of which Work I read some to the community of St. John of God in my hearing, promising at the same time, if the Lord, etc. Did he by the words Dei communitati, which are read here instead of these, homini Dei, understand the monastery of St. Victor, and by these, Sancti Johannis, John Cassian, founder of the said monastery, still existing at the time he was writing at Marseille, and did Gennadius himself read beforehand to the monks inhabiting it Vincent's Commentaries on certain Psalms? It seems that this matter could be doubted to some extent: but since our Codices seem to be no older than the thirteenth century, while the Catalogue of Gennadius was published by Martianay from a very old Codex of Corbie or of Saint-Germain written a thousand years ago, and Martianay assigns no variant reading in Vincent the presbyter between this and the published books, which he does elsewhere, we judge it safer that the name of Cannas ought to be held as in fact inserted by Gennadius into the article on Vincent. Since it is quite likely from what was said above that the Cannas recorded by Gennadius was not different from our Saint, it follows hence with an equal degree of likelihood that St. Cannatus flourished in the fifth century, and that advanced beyond its middle part. Guesnay removes both St. Cannatus and St. Antoninus to the seventh century; but he is to be met below: we return meanwhile to the Anonymous.
[14] that he was bishop of Marseille some say, others deny; The people of Marseille, bereft of a pastor, are taught by God, as he says, that Cannatus is to occupy the vacant see: full of hope, therefore, the envoys of Marseille approach Cannatus as he leads a solitary life in the desert of Sausset, and urge him with many words not to refuse the fillets of his homeland: in vain; sooner, says Cannatus, will this reed, which he happened to be carrying dry, grow green than Cannatus accept the episcopate. The reed grows green; hence, taught the will of God, he assents to the requests of the envoys, and, having received office and blessing from his superior, approaches his see humbly. What the Anonymous says about office and blessing received from a superior he seems to have said of the episcopal consecration conferred on St. Cannatus, namely through the archbishop of Arles, to whom, as metropolitan, the bishop of Marseille was subject in the fifth century after its middle part had elapsed. But indeed, whether SS. Cannatus and Antoninus were bishops is disputed, although their cult among the people of Marseille is not doubted. The episcopate of St. Cannatus is acknowledged by Honoré Bouche, History of Provence, book III, at the end of chapter IV; by Ruffi in the second edition of the year
1696, book X, no. 19; by Guesnay in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 621; by Henri de Belzunce, bishop of Marseille, History of his predecessors, book III, no. 6 and following; by Gononus in the Appendix to the Lives of the Fathers of the West p. 469.; by Le Cointe, volume I of the Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, at the year 544, no. 39; by the Sainte-Marthe brothers, Gallia Christiana, volume III p. 644.; to whom add Saussay, Castellanus, and the author of the Paris Martyrology. It is denied by Claude Robert (or at least he does not reckon Cannatus and Antoninus among the prelates of Marseille) in Gallia Christiana p. 407.; by Tillemont, Monum. eccl., Note 6 on Hilary of Arles Mém. pour serv. à l'hist. ecclés., vol. XV, p. 846., who likewise rejects the Life of St. Cannatus written by the Anonymous Ibid., vol. XVI, p. 13.; and by the writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana Vol. I, col. 635..
[15] and they vary in the date There is also little agreement among the patrons of the episcopate of St. Cannatus about the time at which he ruled the church of Marseille. Guesnay, when he read in the Anonymous that St. Cannatus condemned the deadly inventions of the heretical plague, interpreted this of the heresy of the Iconoclasts: for he knew that Serenus, whom he makes predecessor of St. Cannatus, was rebuked by Gregory I because, carried away by a good but excessive zeal, he had ordered the images of the Saints to be broken, lest they be adored by his diocesans: hence further Guesnay supposed that the people of Marseille were at least partly contaminated with the heresy of the Iconoclasts, to the extirpation of which Cannatus, the successor of St. Serenus, had to labour. Guesnay was mistaken in his opinion: for so far was the people of Marseille from being infected with that plague, that on the contrary, on account of this deed of Serenus, the greater part of the people withdrew from his communion. But while you carry these things out in this incautious movement of your mind, says Gregory, book XI, Letter 13, you are said to have so scandalized your people that the greatest part of them suspended themselves from your communion. Nor did the people of Marseille sin by hatred of sacred images, but because they extended their cult further than was fitting. But that hatred had infected Sicily: what then? Was it also, as Guesnay writes in his Serenus, spread as far as Marseille? If he wished to add anything to the Anonymous, who expresses no heresy by name, why did he not name the Predestinarian, the Pelagian or the Arian, or another which, as the fifth century was growing old, was not yet extinct? So that little credit is to be given to Guesnay when he assigns the year 621 to the episcopate of St. Cannatus.
[16] of his episcopate, Bouche writes that St. Cannatus sat at Marseille at the time when part of Provence, comprising Arles and Marseille, belonged to the Visigoths, a time which extends from the year 468 to the year 511; Ruffi, between the years 475 and 489; Le Cointe, before Provence was occupied by the Franks, or, what comes to the same thing, before the year 536; the Sainte-Marthe brothers, about 480; Castellanus and the author of the Paris Martyrology, about the year 487; Henri, bishop of Marseille, about the year 496. Likewise they vary the order of the bishops of Marseille through these times: that Eustasius succeeded Venerius is clear from Gennadius; further, that Graecus succeeded Eustasius, praised by Sidonius Apollinaris, and counted among the Fathers of the Council of Arles celebrated in the time of Euric, king of the Visigoths, in the Letter of Lucidus the presbyter in Labbe Vol. IV Conc., col. 1044., the same Sidonius, book VII, Letter 7, makes beyond doubt; but thereafter they go off in different directions. In Ruffi, Graecus is followed by Cannatus, Sabinianus, St. Honoratus, St. Antoninus, Theodore. The same order is kept by the Sainte-Marthe brothers. Henri de Belzunce subjoins next to Graecus Salvian from the year 492, St. Honoratus from the year 494, St. Cannatus about the year 496, Gennadius about the year 499, Dalmatius about the beginning of the sixth century. From the discrepant opinions of these authors, therefore, only this can be gathered broadly, that Cannatus presided over the church of Marseille about the end of the fifth century; but do they say truly that he was a bishop?
[17] although not even this The most illustrious Belzunce contends that there can be no doubt about the episcopate of St. Cannatus, first, because the constant tradition of the church of Marseille from time immemorial has it so; then, because his feast was celebrated in the diocese of Marseille at least as that of a confessor bishop; third, because he is called bishop in the old Breviaries as well as the new; finally, because in the most ancient Acts which make mention of him, such as the instruments drawn up formerly when his sacred Relics were visited and translated, he enjoys the same title. The instrument of the translation made in the year 1122 by Raymond, bishop of Marseille, whether the first of this name, as Ruffi will have it, or, as Henri prefers, the second, you have above at no. 4; and it seems the oldest of those which Henri at least saw. And of the Breviaries of Marseille he cites none older than that which came out at Lyon from the press of Denis de Bursy in the year 1526. But if Gennadius, who, from the Catalogue of illustrious Men in Martianay, chapter XCIX and following, was contemporary with Pope Gelasius, raised to the Roman Chair in the year 492, makes mention indeed of Cannatus, but none of his episcopate, that does not strike bishop Henri, since he for that reason writes that St. Cannatus, about the year 496, in which Gelasius ceased to live, and when Gennadius had already earlier finished his Catalogue, came to the see of Marseille after Honoratus.
[18] Far be it from us to hold in contempt the traditions of churches, even particular ones, especially if they are constant and perpetual, beyond controversy yet such does not seem to me to be the tradition of the people of Marseille concerning the episcopate of St. Cannatus at Marseille. The writers of the enlarged Gallia Christiana, as was said above, give this reason for the episcopate of St. Antoninus being denied by them: They are no less in error, they say, who teach that St. Antoninus, whose relics are preserved in the Major church, was bishop of Marseille. The very inscription which Ruffi says is read on the stone which covered the skull of St. Cannatus and the relics of St. Antoninus (you have it at no. 4) sufficiently proves that he was never held for a bishop. For if he had been bishop of Marseille, he would doubtless be distinguished with the title of bishop in the inscription; to which, as regards St. Antoninus, bishop Henri willingly subscribes. But they speak in the same way about St. Cannatus too: The same reason, they say, militates against the episcopate of St. Cannatus rejected by us above; since the said inscription is silent about his episcopate just as about the other's. Be it so, Henri and the other patrons of the episcopate of St. Cannatus will say, the case of St. Antoninus is different: for the instruments of the translations of the Relics of the same Saints made in the years 1122 and 1277, which the said writers of Gallia Christiana did not see, ascribe indeed in very clear words the dignity of bishop of Marseille to St. Cannatus, but not so to St. Antoninus: whence it results that his episcopate was at that time still unknown, but that of St. Cannatus, on the contrary, well known.
[19] is placed: Thus indeed the difficulty proposed can to some extent be met; but it is not wholly exhausted: for it is permissible to doubt whether, in the centuries between the fifth and the twelfth, the episcopate of St. Cannatus was known to the people of Marseille. If St. Antoninus began to be venerated as a bishop only in the sixteenth century, although he never, as Henri seems rightly to relate in Dissertation XV at the end of volume III, occupied the see of Marseille, why could not a false opinion about his (St. Cannatus's) episcopate arise in the twelfth century, the century in which the Acts of St. Cannatus were perhaps written? But if anyone should say that to the records of the twelfth and following centuries is added a constant and perpetual tradition, neither would he thus effect much; since its perpetuity too can at least be called into doubt, not without a reason which I leave to be weighed by those defending the episcopate of St. Cannatus. And it is this: in the year 1653 the skull of St. Cannatus was found, and certain Relics of St. Antoninus placed separately under the high altar of the cathedral church of Marseille: the stone which covered these had carved on it an inscription (given at no. 4) in which there is no mention of the episcopate of either St. Cannatus or St. Antoninus; nor is there reason why I should deny credit to Ruffi in this matter. But the skull of St. Cannatus, and the other Relics recorded in the inscription, separated from the rest of the body of St. Cannatus and St. Antoninus, were not placed separately under the high altar either in the year 1122 or in 1277. Re-read the instruments drawn up about these, exhibited above at nos. 4 and 6: you will perceive from them indeed that the remaining Relics of the body of St. Cannatus were accustomed to be kept enclosed in chests together with the Relics of other Saints, and were translated with them: but about the skull of St. Cannatus there is deep silence everywhere: indeed in the year 1277 the bodies of St. Cannatus, bishop of Marseille (to use the words of the instrument drawn up in that year), and of St. Antoninus were in one little sack so mixed and joined together that they could not be distinguished in any way: these Relics likewise, so confused with one another, Bartholomew, bishop of Marseille, found in the year 1444, and Belzunce himself found in the year 1743. Since, therefore, there is nowhere any mention of the skull of St. Cannatus placed separately by these or other bishops, the skull of St. Cannatus will already, before the translation of the year 1122 of the remaining Relics of SS. Cannatus and Antoninus, have been not only enclosed separately in the high altar of the cathedral church, but the above-mentioned inscription also carved on the stone covering it; and since this ascribes the episcopal dignity to neither Saint, and seems from what has been said to be older than the year 1122, it becomes truly doubtful whether St. Cannatus was held for a bishop by the people of Marseille in the centuries between the fifth and the twelfth; doubtful likewise becomes the perpetuity of the tradition of the people of Marseille about the episcopate of St. Cannatus.
[20] whence most of the things which about him are doubtful Since this is so, there likewise come into doubt whatever the Anonymous builds upon the episcopate of St. Cannatus; such as the miracle of the dry reed growing green again in his hand, the donation of the place in which St. Cannatus had led a solitary life, made to St. Cannatus and his successor bishops in the see of Marseille by the king or prefect of Aix, the city of Marseille fortified by him with walls, and adorned with a temple which he is said to have raised from ruins. That Sausset, or the town of St. Cannatus, was indeed formerly subject to the bishops of Marseille in both courts is clear from what was said at no. 3; but when it began to be subject to them, or by what agreement it passed to them, I confess I do not know. It is easy indeed to believe that instruments of the donation made existed at least formerly; but I do not think they were drawn up in the age of St. Cannatus, or seen by the Anonymous: he mentions them indeed; perhaps because he judged that it ought to have been done so, or learned from the often unreliable tradition of the common people that it had been done so in the age of St. Cannatus. Neither the Breviary of Marseille from which Gononus, nor that from which Belzunce drew the Life of St. Cannatus, nor the Proper Offices of the church of Marseille of the year 1662, mention this donation; was it because their authors believed its credit wavered, or suspected so, and therefore prudently judged it should be omitted?
[21] most of the things which about him In what year St. Cannatus ceased to live on earth the Anonymous is silent; his birthday in heaven, the 15th of October,
content to have assigned: but since it was said above from Gennadius that he more probably flourished in the fifth century beyond its middle part having elapsed, it remains that, since nothing is available to us from which to define his year of death more nearly, we should say that he exchanged this life for eternal life either at the beginning of the sixth century or at the end of the fifth; and indeed we incline more to the end of the fifth century. For Gennadius in the Catalogue of illustrious Men, whenever he writes of a writer of whose death he had as yet heard nothing, is commonly accustomed to advise the reader that he was still surviving when he was composing his Catalogue; treating of Salvian, presbyter of Marseille, in Martianay, chapter LXIX, he says: He lives to this day in a good old age: he does the same in the case of Timothy, bishop of Alexandria, chapter LXXIV; of Samuel, presbyter of Edessa, chapter LXXXIV; of John, presbyter of Antioch, chapter XCIV; of Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, chapter XCVII; finally of Honoratus, bishop of Marseille, chapter IC; (if indeed this chapter is Gennadius's) he reveals it sufficiently, ending the said chapter with these words: He conducts Litanies to entreat the clemency of God with the people entrusted to him as far as his strength allows. But since he does nothing of this kind in chapter LXXXII concerning Vincent, a Gallic presbyter, it appears to me very credible that already some years before Gennadius wrote these things, not only Vincent but also Cannas, to whom, as to an elder, as appears, or an equal, he read beforehand his lucubrations in the hearing of Gennadius, had ceased to be among the living; if you suppose that the Cannas of whom Gennadius speaks is the same as the St. Cannatus of whom we speak; on which matter consult what was said at no. 13.
[22] are related; St. Cannatus died, as the Anonymous reports, in the same solitude of Sausset which he had inhabited before his episcopate. What has a bishop to do with a solitude which he had left? Did he perhaps bid farewell to the fillets of Marseille? It is not made likely. Did an unexpected illness take him from among the living while he was visiting his people there? But neither is it in any way certain that the place was given to him, or that it grew from that time into a town. I should rather think that Cannatus, a man celebrated for learning and holiness, accustomed to stay at Marseille, withdrew into the solitude of Sausset either through the iniquity of the times or through hatred of worldly din, and in it, far removed in mind and spirit from all dignity, ended a holy life with a holy end; although I will not deny that these things too are likewise to be reckoned among the uncertain. Then the place, perhaps made famous by the dwelling and miracles of St. Cannatus, began to be frequented, and grew little by little, as is usually wont to happen, into the appearance of a castle or town: whence afterwards, although at what time I do not know, he will have been translated to Marseille, perhaps also the Saint's homeland. Certainly these things are not much in conflict with what was said above about St. Cannatus from Gennadius, who alone of the ancient writers perhaps mentions him. That his Relics were translated from the town of St. Cannatus to Marseille the Anonymous relates, and indeed soon after the Saint's death; as to which last point, whether it was said truly or not, if anyone doubts, I will certainly not accuse him of sacrilege. Few things, therefore, about St. Cannatus, except his sacred cult, do we have which are either certain or approach certainty; but fewer about St. Antoninus.
[23] but more so those about St. Antoninus. For neither whence he came, where he stayed, nor what deeds he did have I found anywhere: that his relics were preserved and honoured long ago at Marseille is indeed sufficiently clear from what was said above: but whether they were brought thither from elsewhere, and at what time, the writers on the affairs of Marseille whom I have seen do not declare. The author of the more recent Paris Martyrology, after Castellanus and Guesnay, writes that he was translated to Marseille from the town of St. Cannatus, where he had first been buried; which, if it is truly said, it is not unlike the truth that St. Antoninus, while he lived, made illustrious by his virtues the same place as Cannatus: but from what source this was drawn, the said authors do not reveal, nor has it been ascertained by me from elsewhere. And what shall I say about the age in which he flourished? Bouche, book III, at the end of chapter IV, makes him contemporary or nearly so with St. Cannatus, St. Quinidius of Vaison, St. Aeonius of Arles, bishops, and Gennadius. St. Quinidius subscribed the Fourth Council of Paris in the year 572; Artemius, Quinidius's successor, the First Council of Mâcon in the year 581; Aeonius, the predecessor of St. Caesarius, died in the year 302, as was shown at the 30th day of August in our Work: whence these marks of the times are too disparate for anything to be determined definitely about the age of St. Antoninus. Castellanus notes that he died about the year 880: why he judges so he himself does not declare. The often-cited Guesnay writes that he sat in the year 647, deferring too far the age of Antoninus, as of Cannatus. Le Cointe puts him in the time of Theudis, king of the Visigoths, who, he relates at the year 518, no. 15, reigned from the year 531 to 547. There are likewise Catalogues of the bishops of Marseille cited by Belzunce Hist. des ev. de Marseille, vol. III, p. 550. in which he holds a place reckoned from St. Maurontus. From these it is clear that the age of St. Antoninus is uncertain: wherefore I refer the fifth century, assigned at the beginning of this Commentary, to St. Cannatus alone. As to what pertains to his episcopate, it is more uncertain here than that of St. Cannatus, from what has been said above. In his time, as Ruffi writes, St. Laurianus, bishop and martyr, passing through Marseille, raised a dead man; but nothing about St. Antoninus is read in the Life of that archbishop, printed among us at the 4th day of July and illustrated by Sollerius.
LIFE
From an old manuscript.
Cannatus, bishop and confessor, as it is said, at Marseille in Provence. (S.)
Antoninus, bishop and confessor, as it is said, at Marseille in Provence. (S.)
BHL Number: 1542
FROM AN OLD MS.
St. Cannatus, sprung of royal stock at Aix, The most blessed Cannatus was sprung from most illustrious birth. For he was the son of the King of Aix a and of the queen. For he who is now called count of Provence so great a line of nobility, therefore, the happy Cannatus raised up by his character and exalted by his virtues. For as a boy he began to be of good disposition, inasmuch as he had obtained from God a good soul, and in tender age bore an aged heart. So that he showed himself to fulfil the presage of his name by its most true interpretation. For Cannatus is rendered etymologically: cannatus, that is, born wise, according to what the Wise man says in Wisdom: “Venerable old age is not that which is long-lived, nor counted by the number of years: but the understanding of a man is grey hairs, and a spotless life is old age.” c For he did not, as that age is wont, give his time to wantonness, but imbued his docile mind with sciences and especially with the sacred letters of Theology: he despised noble affluence: he sought happiness: he made his holy mind illustrious with the exercises of the virtues, a cultivator of justice, a keeper of what is honourable, an outstanding zealot of chastity, which he commended to laymen and clerics alike by teachings and by examples. There was fulfilled in him the saying of the holy spirit in the book of Wisdom, in which it is said: “O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory! For the memory thereof is immortal.” [d]
[2] of his father's court But since in his father's royal house danger from the praise of men threatened the Blessed Man; especially since he had read: “Go forth out of thy country and from thy father's house:” [e] and in the Gospel: “He that hateth not father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, cannot be my disciple” [f] and in the same place: “He that doth not renounce all that he possesseth, cannot be my disciple” [g] I do not wish, he said, nor do I seek, but I despise the superfluous displays of reverence of servants, nor to be agitated by superstitious honours, nor to give my ears to the praises of flatterers. I will beware of praises and the sacrilegious spectacles of actors. Let my praise be in the heavens, where the faithful throng reigns. h Suddenly, therefore, the blessed Man was led by the spirit into the desert, holding the kingdom of the world and all the adornment of the age in due contempt for the love of the Lord Jesus Christ: for to His chaste embraces alone he clung, Him alone he served with his whole heart and his whole soul. There was a certain desert which is called de Sausset, i distant about five or six miles from his father's seat, namely the city of Aix. k For it was a pleasant and comely place, planted with a multitude of trees of various kinds. For willows are green on the banks, oaks on the mountain; it is watered by springs without mud (in limibus — read illimibus), the earth clothed with green meadows. It presented a place fit for heavenly studies.
[3] he prefers the solitude of Sausset, and inhabits it, Arriving there, blessed Cannatus often recalled in his exodus from Egypt that our Saviour, when He knew that they would come to take Him by force and make Him king, “fled into a mountain Himself alone”; [l] wherefore he exulted the more richly that it was given to him by God to imitate the Son of God, so as to flee the kingdom which belonged to him by succession. [m] So he entered the aforesaid place, giving thanks in hymns and confessions, blessing the Lord. A wonderful thing! Who ever heard such things? The son of a king became a solitary, became a hermit. O astonishing and so gratuitous divine election, by which it draws from the royal throne, the king's highest citadel, to the humblest state of the world! Behold, he who was nourished in saffron is now content with herbs and roots; the things which his soul formerly would not touch are now, for the narrowness of the place, not of the mind, his food; to him the waters offer a draught, to whom formerly the attendants of the nobles' son ministered spiced cups. Lo, he dwells alone whom a suppliant rank of servants and soldiers once surrounded. Lo, his garments are leaves and his cape n is the sky, whose parents used robes of state and purple. Not yet, therefore, trodden under foot, the Servant of God gathered his whole self into the study of contemplation, and the days seemed to him few for the greatness of his love, in which he enjoyed the most delightful embraces of beautiful Rachel. He had made a dwelling most pleasing to God in the guest-chamber of his heart, and standing on earth he reached the height of heaven: for his conversation was in the heavens. Living, therefore, at so great a height, he did not slacken his unconquered spirit from the service of God.
[4] until the see of Marseille, But the divine disposition, which had chosen him for itself for greater things, did not permit the lighted lamp to be any longer hidden under a bushel, but caused him to be chosen and set upon the candlestick of ecclesiastical dignity, him whom it had chosen from the foundation of the world, that he should be holy and immaculate in chastity before Him. Meanwhile, indeed, the church of Marseille, bereft of its pastor, besought the Lord with groans that He would deign to grant it a holy prelate, who in sound doctrine would nourish the flock committed to him in the richest pastures, raise it to heavenly things by examples, protect it by prayers, and cherish it with benefits. For through a good prelate there is peace and discipline for the peoples, quiet for monasteries, a rule for clerics, and continual increase for divine worship: nor is there a branch which does not feel or receive the benefit if great virtue has flowed from the root. Because
everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, when he asks for himself piously, wholesomely and constantly, it was not cheated of its desire, but rather, its gentle and humble prayer was heard. For the Lord J. C. revealed to its ear that Cannatus, the king's son, illustrious as much for holiness as for the pedigree of his line, celebrated and famous, would be bishop of Marseille, father of the homeland and patron. Praises, therefore, are given to the Son of God J. C., and without delay envoys are carefully chosen, who should both seek the holy Pontiff, the gift of God, more diligently, and, when found, induce him by irrefutable reasons to take up the burden, imposed not by themselves but by God, and, having induced him, bring him more affectionately to holy mother church, which was waiting with much longing.
[5] although reluctantly, nor without a miracle, he came to; The chosen messengers, therefore, setting out and tracking the Servant of God, quickly found him. For it was the will of God that he whom they wanted should quickly meet them; falling at his knees, they announce in order the truth of all things and the revelation of the Lord J. C., and the joy of the clergy and the applause of the whole people. But blessed Cannatus, as he was most humble, refuses the burdens of the pontificate and its honour alike, asserting that he was wholly useless and unworthy: he whom thou, O Lord, wast fashioning for this excellence, that thou mightest make him like to thee, and mightest exalt him the more loftily who humbles himself so much. For when those who had come pressed him in season and out of season, showing by very many reasons that this very thing would be a sign of great humility, if the king's son deigned to take up the episcopate of the church of Marseille; he answered them: Do not, brothers, I beseech you, burden me further: I say to you and assert in the name of my Lord that sooner will this dry reed which you see grow green, sprouting, putting forth leaves, than Cannatus (will receive) the episcopate which you offer. For he was carrying a reed in his hand, by which he supported his body worn thin by fasts and abstinence. Immediately after the servant of God had uttered the word, the dry reed grew wholly green again, put forth fronds, and sprouted leaves, manifestly declaring the divine election and the holiness of the chosen Pontiff. Wherefore, when the envoys had seen the sign he had done, wondering, they bowed themselves, and adored God, saying: Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord J. C., who hath not taken away His mercy and His truth from His church, and hath led us by a straight way. Cannatus, who was called by God as Aaron was, sighing said: Since the word has gone forth from the Lord, I cannot speak anything outside His good pleasure, and I commit myself to Him with all devotion, that what I shall not be able to have by my own merits may be given me by His pure goodness; and having made prayer, and having received office and blessing from his superior, the good Pastor approaches his see humbly. o As he entered his city a new light seemed to arise for the people of Marseille. Joy hortor * and exultation.
[6] which being excellently administered, Concerning the place in which St. Cannatus led the eremitical life, it was granted and sanctioned by the king of Aix that, in memory of blessed Cannatus and as a celebrated proclamation and honour, it should be held freely by all his successor bishops, with the whole territory and district of the same place; fortified also, for perpetual firmness, with guarantees and charters, he handed it over (wholly) to be possessed [p]: to which place very many of the people of Provence coming built a town, which is still today called St. Cannatus de Sausset. St. Cannatus, therefore, solicitously fulfilled the care of his subjects; now made a prelate, he kept watch over the acts of the Lord, [q] like a new heaven he shone forth with the most radiant lights of wisdom and doctrine, he showed himself to all as a special specimen and exemplar of religion and holiness, and that he might gain all, he was common to all; he restored the walls of the tower of David, and condemned the deadly inventions of the heretical plague. [r] He fortified his city and repaired the ruins of the temple, so much that the voice of exultation said: “Is this the city of perfect beauty, the joy of the whole earth? [s]” Day and night he bore the Gospel of J. C. in his mind and practised it in deed: for he had given himself wholly to the orthodox faith and to the precepts of the Lord and to preaching the institutions of the Holy Spirit and of the Church; fervent in the works of piety and cheerful, he performed them daily, and divided his own means among the poor of Christ. In the days of his pontificate he gave peace to the churches, discipline to the clerics, and to God a people acceptable, a follower of good works, as was always his zeal, and everywhere not only to observe carefully the tear of divine worship, but also to enlarge it with continual advances. And although he was strong in all virtues, humility especially made him loved by all: for the more noble he was, the more humble; honoured by all, he showed due honour to all. Giving himself to prayers and sacred readings, he so faithfully attended to others that he provided excellently for his sacred house. Of the guest-chamber of his heart he had made a hospice, and he knew not how to close the bowels of mercy to anyone.
[7] He dies at Sausset, and is brought back to Marseille. And so, full of faith and full of good works, he finished his course, kept the faith, and, according to the saying of blessed Job, because he loved to hear and observed, he fulfilled his days in good, and his years in glory. [t] For, famous for signs and powers, on the Ides of October he fell asleep [u] at St. Cannatus de Sausset in the Lord J. C., in whom indeed he thirsted… he tastes the eternal, adorned with one robe, he is secure about the other. For the Son of God greeted him with His faithful servants, appointing him a kingdom as the Father appointed to Him. After the happy passing of the holy Leader divine miracles were not lacking, proclaiming the Holiness of the just Man. For when his most sacred death had been announced to the citizens of Marseille, they made ready to move the blessed relics of so great and to dedicate the whole city of Marseille with so holy a body. When, therefore, they had come to the town of St. Cannatus and had taken up the clod of the blessed body to be translated, there suddenly took place an incomparable change of the air, exceedingly great. For the face of the sky is covered with dense clouds, and not only the surface of the earth is watered by a flood of rains, but also its depth. Wherefore all who were present, troubled and terrified, invoke Cannatus, the servant of Christ, that he lead and bear those who were bearing his most holy body. A wonderful thing, and one to be told at all times to the honour of the Lord J. C. and of this most illustrious Confessor! They complete the whole journey begun, the rain flooding everywhere on the right and on the left; but upon them and upon the holy relics through the whole way not one drop of rain fell. Let us imitate, Brothers, him whom we praise.
NOTES.
perhaps his father was a prefect for governing either Provence or the city of Aix. About the border of the fifth and sixth centuries, about which time St. Cannatus flourished, Provence was subject partly to the kings of the Burgundians, partly to those of the Visigoths. See Bouche, Hist. of Provence, book III.
hence further, since the talk here seems to be of the counts of Provence who possessed Provence by their own and perpetual right, it follows that the Anonymous was removed from the age of St. Cannatus by too long an interval of time to claim for himself, in the name of antiquity, the undoubted credit of the reader.
d. Ibidem, v. 1.
e. Gen. 12, v. 1.
f. Luke 14, v. 26.
g. Ibid. v. 33.
l. John 6, v. 15.
m. See letter a: whether he was the only or the elder son of his parent, he could not obtain by inheritance a kingdom which his father did not have; nor indeed his father's office by right of property.
p. That this town was long ago subject to both the spiritual and the temporal jurisdiction of the bishop of Marseille is sufficiently clear from what was said at no. 3 of the Commentary: but from what time and by what agreement it was acquired I could not say: I do not believe the Anonymous saw the guarantees and charters of which he speaks.
q. See what was noted above about Leonine verses at letter h.
r. Namely of the iconoclasts, Guesnay adds of his own in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 621: that this heresy had crept into Marseille at that age, however much Serenus, bishop of Marseille, may have seemed to favour it, is not gathered from the Letter of Gregory I to him: and that St. Cannatus lived at that time Guesnay neither proved, nor was he able to prove it. It is more likely that the Anonymous here wished to indicate the Arian heresy, with which the Visigoths were infected.
s. Lam. 2, v. 15; but in a plainly opposite sense: there the talk is of Jerusalem overthrown, in the Anonymous of Marseille restored.
t. Job 36, v. 11.
u. Perhaps towards the end of the fifth century.
* ortum (arose)?