ON ST. BOLONIA, MARTYR, IN THE DISTRICT OF BASSIGNY IN GAUL,
PERHAPS ABOUT THE YEAR 362.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The cult of St. Bolonia, her biographers, her youth, the time and place of her martyrdom, an uncertain miracle, and the condition of her relics.
Bolonia, virgin and martyr, in the district of Bassigny. (S.)
[The cult of St. Bolonia is established from Chastelain, from the name of the village, and from an old Breviary of Langres.] However certain the cult of St. Bolonia may be, no mention of her occurs in any Latin Martyrology. Claude Chastelain alone, in his universal French Martyrology, mentions her in these words: In the district of Bassigny, of St. Bolonia (Ste Boulogne, or as she is commonly called, Ste Bologne), who in the said district, in a church of her name, is honoured under the title of Virgin and Martyr; nay, he could also have added that the very village in which this church is goes under the name Bologne or Ste Bologne. That village lies, as d'Expilly says Dictionnaire géographique et historique des Gaules et de la France., in the district of Bassigny (now roughly the département of Haute-Marne), on the right of the river Marne, a league and a half from Calvus Mons (Chaumont); which suffices to distinguish this village from several villages of the same name in France. In this place a twofold feast of St. Bolonia was formerly celebrated, the first on the 17th of July in memory of the translation of the Relics, the other on the 16th of October, since on this day she is said to have undergone martyrdom. Nor was her cult formerly confined to this district alone: for from the Breviary of Langres printed in the year 1604 we learn that a commemoration of her was made in this whole diocese, with the prayer Exaudi recited; with this rule, however, that if the feast occurred on a Sunday, no Commemoration should be made of them (of St. Bercharius and of St. Bolonia), nor two Collects said through the Hours, but only in the Mass. In the Ordo printed for the year 1829 this commemoration was deleted. In a letter, however, most courteously sent to us by the most worthy Mr. Favret, Vicar General of the Most Illustrious Bishop of Langres, it is intimated that at this time the feast of St. Bolonia is again celebrated in the diocese of Langres. I put his very words into Latin: Today a Breviary of Langres no longer exists. That which was printed in the last place, namely in the year 1830, with the title "Breviary of Langres," was purely Parisian; but for this the present Most Illustrious Prelate of Langres substituted the Roman, as it stands, with the intention that the bonds of unity which join the see of Langres with the centre of the Christian Church might be drawn tighter: for which the diocese of Langres will for ever congratulate our excellent Prelate. Nevertheless I would have you note that we have not on that account dismissed the former Patrons of the district of Langres. By these last words I think is intimated what I stated above: but let the reader judge.
[2] Three Lives of St. Bolonia, mixed with fables, are extant. Further, for writing a Life of St. Bolonia of any sort, there are records enough at hand, if you consider the age of this Saint; but they are so defective and so full of blemishes that I cannot but regard them as popular traditions. Yet since, generally speaking, truth also smells through traditions of this kind, following this slender thread as guide, I shall discuss the deeds of St. Bolonia so far as will be permitted. Those records are three: the first, namely, nine lessons, which in the year 1657 Father Jacques Vignier, priest of the Society of Jesus, then rector of the college of Chaumont, transcribed from the Legend of Chaumont, and who added at the end these very words: The above Legend agrees with that which is preserved in the church of Bologne, diocese of Langres, whose Patroness is St. Bolonia herself; except that the latter is more corrupt than it. To it, however, is added what follows: "In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventeen, on the 17th of the month of July, the reverend in Christ, and Lord commonly called the Cardinal of Bar, bishop of the Church of Langres, honourably translated the bones of the glorious Virgin St. Bolonia: and instituted the feast of that translation annually in the church of Bologne, granting to all the faithful of Christ, on the day of its feast, 40 days of indulgences." So much Father Vignier on the Legend of Chaumont and of Bologne, and on the translation of the Relics. Since this is passed over in silence in the lessons themselves, although the French Life, to be mentioned presently, teaches that immediately after the year 1417 mention was made of that translation in the Breviary of Langres, it seems to follow that they were written before this year; and indeed they savour of the time when history had not yet been brought to criticism. Since, however, they are not conspicuous for venerable antiquity, and have nothing that is certain or probable, or that is not repeated in more recent ones, there is no reason to burden our work uselessly with them. The second record, which Father Chifflet seems once to have sent to the Antwerp hagiographers, consists of three lessons, which seem to have been collected somewhat more prudently, partly from the former ones, partly from the traditions of the region, about the end of the seventeenth century. These, although not altogether safe, we shall publish, since it has not been our lot to find anything better about St. Bolonia. The third, a French Life, was most courteously communicated to us by the Rev. Mr. Champion, curate or parish priest of Bologne. It is a copy made in the year 1819 from an older codex, earlier than the tumults of the French republic (as is clear from what is narrated there about the Relics), and probably first composed about the beginning of the eighteenth century. The writer, who seems to be a pious priest, professes himself the author of a certain Life of St. Clement of Metz unknown to us; but he does not disclose his name. He has no other guarantors of his assertions than the aforesaid Chaumont lessons and the Legend; and since he himself, a man by no means incredulous, pronounces this worse than those lessons, we do not at all regret that we lack it. As for the new lessons on St. Bolonia which Father Vignier, a man most deserving of the history of Langres, once wrote and destined for the hagiographical museum at Antwerp, these never reached Antwerp, as I find noted by Papebroch; nor have we been able to obtain them from elsewhere.
[3] St. Bolonia, distinct from St. Apollonia, Further, if one chooses to call the Life of St. Bolonia into examination, the first doubt that occurs is a very grave one: whether St. Bolonia is the same as St. Apollonia. Which doubt can easily be pressed: for the name of St. Bolonia is very like the name of St. Apollonia, who is also called Pollonia and Paulina, and whose feast occurs on the 9th of February; moreover each is said to have suffered the pains of teeth pulled out: wherefore in the lessons to be published below it is said: and first he disfigures her face with blows and the bruising of her teeth, so that she who was already joined with Apollonia by the likeness of name and the fellowship of virginity might agree with her by equality of torment. Whence someone might perhaps conjecture that two have been made out of one holy Martyr, and that the second arose only in the village of Bologne from Relics brought from elsewhere: which conjecture is somewhat helped by the innumerable doubts that turn about St. Apollonia herself: for it is not established whether the Roman St. Apollonia is distinct from the Alexandrian St. Apollonia, since they are inscribed in the sacred calendars on the same day; and if she is not distinct, it is doubtful whether she was a virgin or married, and above all in what place, in what year, and what kind of martyrdom she suffered. See Father Bolland on this matter at the said 9th of February. Nevertheless a fourfold reason with me stands in the way of my judging St. Bolonia to be the same as St. Apollonia: the first, because she is venerated on a different day from St. Apollonia, which is a very firm argument; the second, because all her sacred Relics seem formerly to have been preserved in the village of Bologne; the third, because popular tradition, whose weight is not to be despised, binds the whole life of St. Bolonia to certain places of that village; the fourth, finally, because the commonly received Passion of St. Apollonia differs very greatly from that of St. Bolonia: the torment of the teeth knocked out is almost the only thing in common.
[4] she is piously brought up by a nurse, her pagan father not disapproving, The tradition itself, however, seems to vary concerning the mother of St. Bolonia. The lessons to be published, no less than the older ones, assert that her parents were pagans. But in the French Life which the aforesaid Mr. Champion submitted to us, the author reports that in the other Legend which he used it is found that the mother was a Christian, the father a pagan. And this is the place which bade me affirm that a third Legend once existed which has not come into our hands. What is said, however, in the lessons themselves and in the French Life about the upbringing of St. Bolonia is quite similar to what occurs in the Passion of St. Libaria, who is venerated in the neighbouring diocese of Toul on the eighth of October. St. Libaria, however, is not said to have had a nurse, but she too was pasturing sheep when Julian passed before her. See Father Cornelius Suysken at the 8th of this month, where he abridges what he had found more broadly explained in a manuscript codex which now constitutes number 3402 of the royal Burgundian Library at Brussels. I would not, however, on that account altogether reject this passage of the Life of St. Bolonia, since the Passion of St. Libaria seems rather to have been taken from the traditions which found credence concerning St. Bolonia. As to what is said in the lessons to be published, that her father did not dare openly to disapprove, under a most Christian prince, of his daughter being a Christian, the writer of the French Life tries to vindicate it in these words, which I put into Latin: For not long before an edict had gone forth from the king of Austrasia, by which this prince, whose parents had once been converted to the faith by St. Clement, bishop of Metz, forbade that anyone of his people should trouble anyone on account of having received the faith of Christ. That king then lived at Metz, which city was the capital of his kingdom, and the lands and castles which the father of St. Bolonia had, both at Grand in Lorraine and in the village of Rocourt, were subject to him; wherefore St. Bolonia suffered nothing from her father.
[5] who nevertheless did not fear the king of Austrasia. But how inept these things are no one can fail to see, since the name and kingdom of Austrasia are much more recent. About which matter our Godfrey Henschen has already discoursed at greater length at the 1st of February than that this should again
question should be discussed in this place. Concerning the apostolate of St. Clement, who is called the cousin of St. Clement the Pope, much has already been said by very many, some affirming, others denying, and it will have to be treated at length by us or our successors at the 23rd day of November. Meanwhile it seems that the opinion of Tillemont should be set forth, who speaks thus of this Saint: The Church of Metz boasts that it was founded by a disciple of St. Peter whose name was Clement. But no one made any discourse about this matter before Paul the deacon, contemporary of Charlemagne, and a less safe writer. Whatever, however, he may have said about this bishop, Usuard, Ado, and the other Martyrologists of the ninth century do not inscribe him in their rolls. He is also still absent from the Roman Martyrology. Ferrarius assigned him to the 23rd day of November, on which St. Clement the Pope is venerated. He then brings forward the opinion of Father Boucher, who banishes most of what is related about the first bishops of Gaul among the fables, and embraces the opinion of Gregory of Tours, who determines that very many Gallic Churches were given their first bishops about the middle of the third century, when these were deputed into Gaul by the Roman See. And hence the reader may weigh how much that whole hypothesis is to be valued by which the anonymous French writer strives to vindicate the aforesaid words about St. Bolonia's father, brought into these lessons from I know not what storehouse. What is most important, however, is that it cannot be doubted that in the time of Julian the apostate the Christian faith had already put down roots in the diocese of Langres. The first master of their faith is indeed doubtful with many; doubtful is the time at which the divine word was first preached there; nevertheless it cannot be, even if the Life of St. Benignus, which we shall publish at the 1st of November, should savour of fable, that Christ was then not yet known in this tract. See on this subject a certain Commentary inserted in the volume called Annuaire du diocèse de Langres 1838 Page 21.. Whence it cannot be doubted that in the fourth century, even in the countryside, this diocese could have had Martyrs. But let us come nearer to our Saint.
[6] St. Bolonia seems not to have suffered in the year 356, The martyrdom of St. Bolonia itself, further, gives rise to several doubts, which it seems should be subjected to examination. First of all, the Lessons to be published, no less than the French Life, refer that contest to the times of Julian the apostate; and indeed in this Life and in these more recent Lessons the year 356 is said to have been adorned by the constancy of St. Bolonia. But in the older Lessons no mention is made of Julian, and these are the only words found in them about emperors: At that time (in which St. Bolonia was assiduously practising piety) the tyrant Ptolemy, desiring to obey the commands of the persecutors, was making for Alesia, inflamed against the Christians; which can be referred to the reigns of several emperors, but by no means to the rule of Julian, who never issued any edicts against the Christians. Moreover, in § II on St. Eliphius I think it was made manifest from Ammianus Marcellinus and others that Julian did not rage against the Christians so long as he stayed in Gaul. On the other hand, that year 356 is not without difficulties; for although it is true that Julian in this year stood with his army not so very far from the district of Bassigny, as is gathered from Ammianus Marcellinus Book XIV., who narrates that Julian, having left Vienne, came to Autosidorum (Auxerre); where, having refreshed himself with the soldiers, as he was wont, with a brief rest, he headed for the Tricassini (Troyes); on which march, since the barbarians created many dangers for him on every side, no one would deny that he could have turned aside to the district of Bassigny. But this can avail nothing, since St. Bolonia suffered in the middle of the month of October, as is established from the day of her cult; and Julian before that time had already made for Reims, where he had ordered the army, assembled into one, to await his presence at Vesontio: over which Marcellus, the successor of Ursicinus, presided, and Ursicinus himself had been ordered to remain in the same places to the end of the expedition. Julian then proceeded through ten districts to Brocomagus, and then to Colonia Agrippina, which he took possession of about the month of August or September of the same year (compare Tillemont, note 37 on Constantius in the Histoire des Empereurs). Now it cannot be that Julian had come back into Gaul in the month of October; nor therefore is what is asserted in the Lessons to be published about the stay which Julian made in the town of Grand valid, and the other circumstances, such as the winter quarters and the theatre, which are attached to this stay. For about what Julian did at this time, Ammianus, who was serving under him, speaks altogether otherwise: Having entered Agrippina, therefore, he did not move thence until, the kings of the Franks being thoroughly terrified and their fury abating, he had established a peace for the commonwealth which would be of use for the time being, and had recovered a most strongly fortified city. Glad at these first-fruits of victory, he departed through the Treveri to winter at Senones, a town then convenient. And indeed before he came to Senones he advanced from Trier to Basel, to harass the Alemanni, whom Constantius was pursuing from the direction of Rhætia Histoire des Empereurs, note 38 on Constantius.. From which it is clear that the army of Julian could not have been stationed near Langres on the sixteenth of October, nor Julian himself then staying at Grand. That year 356 must therefore be abandoned; and indeed the whole time during which Julian remained in Gaul, as is clear from what we discussed in the Life of St. Eliphius.
[7] but more probably some years later. Nevertheless I should not dare to deny that St. Bolonia obtained the palm of martyrdom while Julian held the reins of the empire. For that popular tradition which refers the slaying of our Saint to these times is not rashly to be rejected; especially when there is nothing that could establish the contrary opinion. For it could have happened, as we have already explained elsewhere, that the magistrates and commanders of soldiers whom Julian had left in Gaul after his departure into the East hoped that they would gain his favour if they busied themselves to destroy the faith of Christ, not sparing even blood. Which could the more easily have happened since impure love, when frustrated, kindles hatred: as we read happened in the Passion of St. Bolonia. Wherefore we have ascribed to this Saint as her natal year in heaven perhaps 362. Who that Ptolemy was, however, the commander of the army and slayer of the holy Martyr, we have nowhere been able to discover. The place, moreover, where St. Bolonia was beheaded is read in the Lessons to be published to have been afterwards adorned with a cross; which I reckon no longer exists, both because the French Life is silent about it and because nothing was indicated about it to me when I inquired.
[8] The hill of Rocourt the place of her passion. Of the hill of Rocourt, in so far as it concerns the life of St. Bolonia, the before-praised Mr. Champion writes to us thus: I went to the place which tradition assigns to the castle of St. Bolonia's father. There now appears there only a circuit marked by the ruins of a wall, overlooking the whole neighbourhood, and showing the traces of an ancient castle or tower. This tower rose on the very high hill of Rocourt (de Roocourt-la-Côte); toward the south it looked upon the river Marne and Bologne, and toward the west it beheld the beautiful valley of Vetus Villa (Viéville), and the village of Soncourt as far as Vinorix (Vignory); which prospect had as its limits Calvus Mons, Sex Fontes, etc. Further, they say that from this high hill St. Bolonia was cast down, shut up in a barrel armed with iron points. At the foot of the hill there is a rock which the farmer has always spared, because on it is impressed the shoe of the mule which St. Bolonia used. I saw this rock, which is about a metre broad and rises about a tenth of a metre above the surface of the field, near the meadow of Rocourt. I recognized the trace of the shoe: yet I can assert as certain only the form and the venerating tradition of the people. So he.
[9] The opinion of J. J. Chifflet on Martyrs carrying their severed head Now if we turn aside to the miracles of St. Bolonia, there at once occurs the carrying of the head affirmed in both series of lessons. That kind of miracle pleases Jean-Jacques Chifflet, who in his Vesontio Part II, page 62. thus defends a similar deed of St. Germanus, Martyr and bishop of Besançon: So the old codices. Nor is there reason why it should come into anyone's mind to suspect that that carrying of the severed head is an unwonted thing and stitched on from the inventions of the common people: for wisdom generally delights to play in those things which are most remote from human senses and counsels. Hear Rupert, Abbot of Deutz (in Surius, volume V, 16th of October), relating something similar of the martyr Eliphius: "The body of the Martyr," he says, "raised itself by the power of Christ, and, embracing its head with both hands, carried it for one mile, Angels indeed accompanying and praising Christ together." You have the same of the Martyrs Ursus, Victor, and Companions of the Theban legion, beheaded at Solothurn in Gaul under the tyranny of Maximian and thrown into the stream, who (as their acts have it in Surius, volumes V and VII, 30th of September), "carrying their heads in their hands, came out of the river and came to the place where now a basilica has been built in their honour." Of St. Dionysius, the Apostle of the Gauls, the testimonies of the writers are in agreement; let Metaphrastes stand for all, in his Acts, which the Council of Florence cites and Surius reports in volume V: "He himself," he says, "carried his head in his hands like a kind of trophy, borne up altogether by divine grace." Thus far Chifflet; with whose leave I shall say that no historical authority is cited by him in this place which would make it beyond doubt that this miracle ever happened. Far be it from me to deny that God is most free and most powerful, and that that prodigy can happen; this one thing I assert, that the Acts of no Saint are known to me which have such credibility as to vindicate this wonderful carrying of the head from all doubt.
[10] is refuted. A twofold reason, however, bids us proceed as cautiously as possible concerning this miracle: the first J. Ghesquière Acta SS. Belgii, volume I, page 141. has already explained thus on the Life of Saints Chrysolius and Companions: I indeed scarcely doubt that that tradition arose from the fact that St. Chrysolius was formerly painted, or shown by the statuary's art, carrying in his hands the severed crown of his head, so that thus it might be designated by what kind of death he had consummated his contest; in just the same way as St. Dionysius the Apostle of the Gauls, St. Nicasius of Rouen, St. Desiderius, St. Justus of Auxerre, and others were formerly painted or sculpted carrying their severed head in their hands, and hence were commonly believed to have carried the severed head from the place of martyrdom to another more or less distant. See also J. Stilting at the 1st of October in the Commentary on St. Piatus Volume I of October, page 16, number 2.. The other reason is the great number of Saints to whom this prodigy is said to have happened: for, to say nothing of the Greek Saints, to whom this, together with the Latins,
is common, very many remain among these, besides those cited by Ghesquière, such as Saints Adalbaldus, 2nd of February; Alban, 21st of June; Boetius, 23rd of October; Ceraunus, 28th of May; Clarus, 4th of November; Decumanus; Dionysius, 9th of October; Domninus, 9th of October; Eliphius, 16th of October; Felix and Regula, 11th of September; Fingar; Fremundus, 11th of May; Fuscianus and Victoricus, 11th of December; Germanus, 11th of October; Chrysolius, 7th of February; Hyspadius; Jonius, 5th of August; Justinian; Justinus or Justus, 18th of October; Juthwara; Kenelm, 17th of July; Lambert, 3rd of November; Laurianus, 4th of July; Libaria, 8th of October; Livinus, 12th of November; Lucian, 12th of January; Maxentia; Nigasius, 11th of October; Oelbertus, 22nd of October; Oliricus, 18th of November; Ositha, 7th of October; Piatus, 1st of October; Proculus, 1st of June; Principinus, 12th of November; the Blessed Forty Irish Monks, 14th of August; Quiteria, 22nd of May; Regulus, 1st of September; Sabinian, 29th of January; Saturnina, 20th of May; the Blessed Six Martyrs; Theonestus, 30th of June; Valeria, 30th of June; Victor, 26th of August; Ursus and Victor, 30th of September; and an anonymous English Hermit; and these Raissius has more or less collected. To which it is helpful to add from Bolland Saints Frontasius, Severinus, Severianus, and Silanus, venerated at Périgueux on the 2nd of January; St. Guigner from the acts of the Saints of Ireland Volume I, page 389.; St. Germana, Martyr of Langres, from her acts published in our Work at the 1st day of October; St. Desiderius, bishop and Martyr of Langres, from the history of the diocese of Langres by De Mangin Page 122.; and St. Mitrius, Martyr at Aix in Provence, of whom we shall speak at the 13th of November. And indeed in this whole review it may be observed that several Saints belong to this tract of Gaul, which is not far distant from Langres. Whence, since the miracle of the carrying of the head was ascribed to several holy Martyrs, it was easily attributed by the common people to St. Bolonia also, as being a Martyr; and the more easily inasmuch as it is more probable that she was translated for the sake of burial to this place where now rises the church sacred to her, and that this translation greatly favoured the inventing of St. Bolonia's wonderful journey.
[11] The images of St. Bolonia are described. For the first reason which I set out, sought from statues or images, does not hold for St. Bolonia. Of these the Rev. Mr. Champion, to be praised again, writes thus: Generally the images of St. Bolonia show a Virgin carrying a branch in her hand and a crown on her head; she always has a certain barrel beside her. There is at Roocourt a small picture in which St. Bolonia is shown as a girl whom two women, clothed in shepherds' garments, are teaching. In the village of Bologne itself we have an ungraceful picture, similar to the images of which I spoke. Beside the Virgin, moreover, there rises, painted, the church of Rocourt. Distichs added at the foot of the picture relate its origin. They run thus:
*Sweet soil, which you, holy Martyr Bolonia, call by your name, and which you, a Virgin, water with your outpoured blood: here your limbs lie like a wonderful seed, which has been life and health to many sick. A sick priest of Joinville, by name Patot, was made whole by the help of this Virgin alone.*
[12] In the year 1417, by Louis de Bar, At number 2 of this Commentary and at the end of the Lessons to be published, mention is made of the elevation of the holy Relics, made in the year 1417 on the 17th day of July by the Cardinal de Bar, and of indulgences granted yearly on this day. Although these assertions are repeated in the French Life, they nevertheless admit of some difficulty, which we shall try to resolve. For in the year 1417, in the month of November, the Cardinal de Bar was most certainly present at the council of Constance, since on the 6th day before the Ides of November he entered the conclave and on the 3rd day before the Ides elected as Roman Pontiff Otto Colonna, thereafter called Martin V. See Ciacconius with the notes of Oldoini Volume II, page 811.; the Gallia purpurata at the name Louis Cardinal de Bar; and the Italia sacra Volume I, column 143.. Yet this does not seem to prevent Louis Cardinal de Bar from having been at Langres on the 17th of July. At least in the thirty-fifth session of the council of Constance, which was held on the eighteenth of June, there being present there the most reverend Fathers and Lords in Christ, the Lords John of Ostia, de Ursinis, of Bologna, of Venice, of Siena, of Pisa, of Verona, of Cambrai, of Tricarico, of Piacenza, of St. Mark, de Chalanco, de Fuxo, the bishop of Châlons, that is, the Cardinal de Bar, does not occur. In the thirty-sixth session, however, held on the 26th day of July, fewer names are listed; and likewise in the thirty-seventh session, held on the 27th day of July. The session which follows was held on the 9th of the month of October; and Cardinal Louis could have been present at it even if he had been staying at Langres on the 17th of July; and in fact among the Cardinals present one Spaniard is assigned; whether this was Pedro Fernández de Frías, a Spaniard by birth, Cardinal bishop of Sabina, called of Spain, or our Cardinal de Bar, who is also reported by everyone to have been a Spaniard, it is superfluous for me to inquire. The other difficulty is this: that in the year 1417 the Cardinal de Bar did not occupy the see of Langres. Behold his life in brief, taken partly from Ughelli's Italia Sacra, partly from the Gallia Christiana. Louis, duke of Bar, son of Robert and of Mary, daughter of John, King of France, occupied the see of Poitiers in the year 1394, that of Langres in the year 1395, that of Porto in the year 1412, retaining Langres, that of Châlons in the year 1413, having relinquished Langres, and that of Verdun in the year 1420. The antipope Benedict XII had created him Cardinal deacon with the title of St. Agatha; but at the council of Pisa he was made legitimate Cardinal priest of the Twelve Holy Apostles by John XXIII. From which it appears that Louis de Bar at least did not possess the chair of Langres when St. Bolonia was raised from the earth. But since the see of Châlons, which he then occupied, is not so far distant from Langres, it could easily have happened that Charles, bishop of Langres at that time, entrusted to him the office of raising the Relics; and the more easily inasmuch as these two bishops were on more familiar terms with each other, since they had exchanged their sees with one another in the year 1413 Gallia Christiana, volume IV, column 626 and following.. Nor could this office, when offered, have been unwelcome to Louis, since he seems to have been much engaged in honouring the remains of the Saints: as is clear from the Gallia Christiana Ibid., and volume IX, column 894., where mention is made of the honours which he conferred on Saints Florina, Valeria, and Lupertius. And from these things, indeed, I consider the inscription which I brought forward at number 2 of this Commentary to be vindicated.
[13] the Relics of St. Bolonia are translated; their present state. In the French Life this solemnity is described at greater length: for mention is made in it of the inquiries and processes made at Bologne; of the presence of the neighbouring bishops, abbots, secular magistrates, and an innumerable multitude of people; of the ceremonies usual in such a circumstance; and finally of the bones of St. Bolonia, which were found in such a state and in such an order as they would have been in if they had been committed to the earth only ten years. What the present state of the Relics is we are taught by the often-mentioned letter of the Rev. Mr. Champion: At Bologne, he writes, we have a chest in which the Relics of St. Bolonia are believed to be enclosed; here is what I learned from the mouth of the old men who survive in my parish. Before the tumults of the French republic these Relics were held to be authentic and were venerated by all. When, however, the church was violated, these sacred remains were thrown into the street to be trodden underfoot; but some men, whose names are still known and are on people's lips, gathered them up. Further, when the time of impiety had passed, the church received them back. And these are the sacred remains which we possess. The Most Illustrious Lord Jacques Mathieu, archbishop of Besançon, and formerly bishop of Langres, saw them; but what he thought of them is hidden from me. The pyx is secured with a seal; wherefore I have not opened it.
[14] Old prayers concerning St. Bolonia. At the end of the Lessons, both the older and the more recent, a twofold proper prayer is read; which, since it pertains to the cult, we set down in this place. The first prayer: O God, lover of chastity and restorer of innocence, mercifully grant that we who celebrate the triumph of Blessed Bolonia, Thy Virgin and Martyr, may, by Thy mercy, also merit her fellowship in heaven. Through our Lord, etc. The second prayer: Almighty everlasting God, who dost surround and protect us with the renowned confession of Blessed Bolonia, Thy Virgin and Martyr, grant us to profit by her imitation and to be upheld by her prayer: that we may always be helped by the merits of her by whose examples of beatitude we are enlightened. Through our Lord, etc. There now follow the Chaumont Lessons on St. Bolonia, which, as we have said elsewhere, seem to have been written about the end of the seventeenth century.
PASSION OF ST. BOLONIA
from the more recent sacred Lessons of Chaumont.
Bolonia, virgin and martyr, in the district of Bassigny. (S.)
St. Bolonia is piously brought up, First Lesson. Bologne is a not undistinguished village of the diocese of Langres in the deanery of Chaumont a, situated on the river Marne, where a very ancient bridge joins the public and consular road, which, brought from Neufchâteau as far as here, and thence divided in two, makes on the one side for Troyes and Paris, on the other for Alesia and Autun. Here Blessed Bolonia is believed to have been born, from here to have been named b, of parents noble indeed but pagan. Her mother having died, she was handed over, for her own salvation, to a Christian nurse, by whom, being taught according to the capacity of her age, she began to worship one God and to venerate His Son Christ, our Saviour. Which her father, not daring to disapprove under a most Christian prince c, thought it sufficient for himself if he hated it inwardly, reckoning that a baptized girl should be pursued with contempt rather than with tortures and heavier punishments, and left to her poor nurse.
[2] she is tempted in many ways by Ptolemy, Second Lesson. While she was pasturing her nurse's sheep, being about fifteen years old, it happened that the commander Ptolemy d was making his way through here with his men, toward the people of Alesia and the Ædui; whom I should believe to have been sent there for the sake of winter quarters by Julian, proclaimed Cæsar not many days before e, namely at the end of the three hundred and fifty-sixth year of Christ. For the prince, cousin of the Emperor Constantius, returning from the Alemannic victory f, stayed for a little while in the town of Grand, not far distant from here, where he also built a theatre g, which still exists, and exhibited games to his soldiers, and scattered money to confirm their goodwill toward himself. While Ptolemy, a lascivious and profane man, thinks he can gratify him, whose character and impiety he not only knew but also emulated, he resolved to try upon Bolonia what the wicked apostate had already attempted upon Libaria, whom he had most recently made a martyr there. Having therefore summoned her to himself, he sets about first softening her with blandishments and the hope of marriage, then moving her with terror and the fear of blows; but she, constant, and persuaded to keep her faith and her modesty, said: "You will more easily snatch my life from me, even by the bitterest tortures."
[3] Third Lesson. Thinking himself provoked by the answer,
the dire persecutor by whom at length she is slain. Her Relics are raised. orders rods and axes to be made ready quickly; and he threatens that she shall not be handed over to the torturer before he has defiled her and made her a concubine instead of a wife. But she, calling upon Christ, said: "Be present, O good Jesus, to Thy bride, and do not allow the little sheep dedicated to Thee, the heavenly lamb, to yield either to the fury or to the wantonness of these wolves." Then he said: "Although I pity this beauty and your youth, yet since with obstinate mind you reject what you ought to have sought, you shall soon experience what I can do." And first he disfigures her face with blows and the bruising of her teeth, so that she who was already joined with Apollonia by likeness of name and fellowship of virginity might agree with her by equality of torment. Then he orders her, stripped and stretched on the rack, to be beaten; when she was scarcely breathing he commands her sides to be burned, repeatedly pressing upon her: "Assent to me and sacrifice to the gods." But she said: "I offer myself as a sacrifice to the living God." The tyrant, astonished, orders her to be taken down half-dead from the scaffold h, and, with hands and feet bound, to be plunged into a barrel full of water, with stones and irons, by which she might be suffocated; nor was the suffocation itself free from pain. They add that, cast down from the top of the hill of Rocourt, on which her father's castle was built, with a truly splendid view, she appeared unharmed when the vessel was opened; and therefore that she was soon beheaded on the bank of the neighbouring river, where afterwards a stone cross was set up; and that she herself, gathering up her head with both hands, carried it across the river i, to be buried in the town of the same name. And because these things happened on the tenth * day before the Kalends of November, on which day a commemoration is made in various places of St. Gall the Confessor and of St. Bercharius the Martyr, occasion was hence given to those who philosophize badly k to suppose that Bolonia was the sister of these, who was a sharer of their glory, or was snatched away to beatitude some centuries earlier. The town, which for many centuries back was distinguished with the title of a county, chose as patroness her whom perhaps it had formerly had as lady; and willed that the parish church be dedicated to her name, where her Relics, laid up, long shone with miracles. They were afterwards raised and translated with solemn rite by the most illustrious prince Louis of Bar, cardinal, and also bishop of Langres l, on the seventeenth of July 1417. Wherefore also in the Breviary of Langres the memory of this holy Virgin is recalled at the sixteenth of October; and in the sacristy of the monastery of Der, and in the church of St. John the Baptist at Chaumont, particles of her bones are preserved, and in this tract of lands she is invoked as a Martyr.
ANNOTATA.
supply septimo* seventh