ON ST. GERMANUS, HERMIT AND MARTYR, IN AUVERGNE,
Before the 11th century.
SYLLOGE.
Germanus, hermit and Martyr, in Auvergne. (S.)
In the town of Saint-Germain-l'Herm, which was formerly a priory of Auvergne, Our predecessors wrote the following at the 10th day of the month of October in the catalogue of those passed over and referred to other days, which, since it contains the reason why we treat of St. Germanus here, it is pleasing to recite: "St. Germanus, hermit, who is said to have led the hermit's life in a priory of Auvergne which took its name from him, is asserted in a MS. notice which exists in our keeping to be venerated today in the same place; but since we have so far found out little about that Saint, and it may perhaps come about that in the lapse of time we shall be taught more, it is indeed expedient that, setting aside that notice for a while, we follow Mabillon here in the Benedictine Acts, and therefore that we do not treat of St. Germanus before the day to which his cult is deferred by that author in the same place, Saec. VI, part II, page 209, in the little note subjoined to it, the 16th of October." Nor is it unpleasing to hear Mabillon, who, illustrating the miracle by which St. Robert, abbot of La Chaise-Dieu, is said to have known by divine means of the theft of some eels, at the same time somewhat illustrates this priory: "This place (which the biographer of St. Robert calls Saint Germanus) seems to be the town called Saint Germanus, about four leagues distant from Casa-Dei (Chaise-Dieu) towards Iciodorum (Issoire), situated in a very rough and very cold place. It is commonly called Saint Germanus in the Desert, S. Germain en l'herm, where there was formerly a conventual priory subject to Chaise-Dieu, now reduced to a simple priory, as they call it, the title of which is held by one of the Fathers of the Oratory of Clermont. The church of this place was restored by Blessed Robert, having been handed over to him by Henry, king of the Franks, and confirmed to him by a diploma given in the year 1052. Further, St. Germanus, the patron of this place, is said to have led the hermit's life there, whose feast the inhabitants of the place celebrate on the 16th day of October." So Mabillon, loc. cit. Henschenius, going before Mabillon in commenting on the Life of St. Robert at the 24th of April Vol. III of April, p. 328., says that in his time this priory depended on Chaise-Dieu and was rich. Now, however, it has been swallowed up by the voracious impiety of the last century. But care must be taken that this little town be not confused with other almost namesake towns or villages of Auvergne, such as Saint Germanus in Ambronium, Saint-Germain Lembron, Saint Germanus, Saint-Germain, etc.
[2] St. Germanus is venerated not on the 10th or 16th, but on the 8th of October. Unless our St. Germanus had various feasts dedicated to him (which on account of the slenderness of his cult is not probable), Mabillon probably erred when he referred the cult of St. Germanus to the 16th of October; he too was far from the truth who wrote the notice which, following our predecessors, we mentioned above. For the Rev. Parish Priest of Saint-Germain has written to us that the patron of his parish is venerated not on the 16th of October but on the 8th of the same month. For the rest, his ecclesiastical cult is confined to this town; for in the directory of the diocese of Clermont (in which this town is included), issued for the year 1827, he is exiled from the sacred lists; and the said Parish Priest testifies that not even in the town of Saint-Germain-Lembron is this Saint the patron; and indeed St. Germanus of Auxerre, although he was not a native, formerly obtained much greater veneration in Auvergne, since Jacques Branche in the Lives of the Saints of Auvergne, published in the year 1652, recounts many miracles worked by the help of this Saint at Cesain, a village of Upper Auvergne, while he does not make mention even of the name of our Saint Germanus. Moreover we know of no Martyrology which mentions this Saint: which are so many indications that the cult was formerly by no means widely propagated.
[3] Places dedicated to him; But on the other hand in the town which has borrowed its name from him the honour due to him still flourishes and thrives, although no Hymn, no Prose, nor Litanies, but the Mass and Office from the common of Martyrs is celebrated. Besides the town two places are dedicated to him, each with special veneration: namely, on the southern side of the town, if you turn a little to the east, there is a spring which is said to have gushed forth from the very place where the head of the holy Martyr fell. Here come those who are assailed by fever; they drink the water drawn from here; and very many give thanks to God and to His Saint that they have experienced the healthful power of this water. The other place is the royal forest of Saint-Germain-l'Herm. In this forest there still exist the ruins of a small building, imitating the form of a Greek cross, which among the inhabitants has always been called and held to be the cell of St. Germanus. On the southern side of these ruins an apse has been built, or something like an apse (chevet); which place the praised parish priest reckons is probably the oratory in which the holy hermit poured out his prayers: to which conjecture we do not object; and indeed we hold it most probable that St. Germanus was buried there; and indeed in the Life of St. Junian we have already shown that formerly the dead, and above all, as it seems, hermits, were sometimes buried in the place in which they had lived. Nevertheless the oft-mentioned reverend man wrote that he had had the earth dug there, but that no inscriptions, seals or other things of this kind were found: which, since the Relics of St. Germanus were long ago raised from the earth, cannot seem surprising. And there still obtains there a pious and native usage: namely on Easter Monday the devout inhabitants of Saint-Germain hasten there; and each brings his own dinner, which is either a lamb or a kid.
[4] His Relics, and the absence of documents. The Relics of St. Germanus which are now kept in the town of the same name are small, since they consist only of an ulna or radius (un os de l'avant-bras a bone of the forearm). The instruments which made their authenticity certain perished, swallowed by the flames amid the disorders of the French republic; but since those sacred pledges had been kept by two matrons and, when the public worship of religion was restored, had been given back, a juridical diploma was drawn up on the matter, which was approved in the year 1810 by the most illustrious Mr. Duvalk de Dampierre, bishop of Clermont. Wherefore, since those Relics had been recognized as taken from the body of St. Germanus, they were enclosed in a reliquary made of silvered copper in oval form. At the time when the church of St. Germanus was violated, however, the archive was not spared at all, and the MS. volumes which it contained were given over to be devoured by fire in the year 1793; and now there is no one in the whole parish who knows what they testified about St. Germanus; so that the oft-praised parish priest asserts that it is impossible for the Life of St. Germanus to be illustrated by documents to be sought from this town. He was pleased, however, to put together for us a notice from popular tradition, which I regret that I cannot compare with the other notice which I mentioned above had existed among our predecessors, and which we have now been able to find neither in the Burgundian library nor among ourselves in the monuments which were formerly useful for adorning with their light the 8th, 9th and 10th days of October. This little work, then, rendered by me into Latin from the French idiom and somewhat abridged, I now present.
[5] St. Germanus of his zeal St. Germanus, born of noble family, embraced virtue from his tender years. In order to live wholly for God, he bade farewell to the world, and hid himself in the vast forests which at that time overshadowed the part of Auvergne that slopes towards the south-east. He built for himself in a rough place a little cell, which he never left except when he desired to cultivate with the gospel word the scattered inhabitants of this region. The austerity of his life, his benefits and miracles bound to him the love and reverence of everyone who approached him. God had given him a wonderful knowledge of the human heart: whence, when he saw a sinner, he understood at once what was the state of his conscience. To which endowments he added a zeal gentle, kind and prudent, by which he brought back very many little sheep to the heavenly fold. But a change of mind of this kind procured him the palm of martyrdom. For one day a hunter, wandering in the midst of the forests, happened upon the holy hermit's little hut. And the holy ascetic knew by divine means
how many crimes lay hidden in the hunter's soul; wherefore he goes to meet him clasping in his hands an image of Christ crucified, and with one look he leads him to embrace a better course. The sinner kisses the Saint's knees, and refuses to leave the man through whom he had obtained the grace of repentance.
[6] he falls a martyr, as a painted panel and tradition testify. Before the tumults of the century just past there was displayed in the church a painted panel, which showed a young hunter kneeling before the holy hermit. The horse of the penitent youth was represented in the background of the picture tied to a tree. A poor copy of this image now exists at the top of the chapel dedicated to the holy patron. But whatever its merits, the traces of the old tradition are preserved by it. A chronicle, or rather (unless I am mistaken) popular tradition, testifies that this youth had a perverse commerce with a matron who lived in these parts. And she, when she saw the impure bonds of her lust broken, is kindled with anger, and, imitating Herodias, demands for herself the head of the holy man: wherefore she sends assassins to the holy anchorite, who comes to meet them. Soon the sacred head, cut off by the sword, falls, slides into a hollow, and where it stops a spring at once gushes forth, of which we spoke above at num. 3. These then are the things that it was possible to obtain from the narratives of the people concerning St. Germanus. There is scarcely anything to be found here that is hard to believe. The one miracle of the gushing spring is perhaps to be cut away, since almost everywhere springs of this kind are pointed out without historical documents supporting the faith of the people. I more willingly believe that waters of this kind were hallowed by the immersion of Relics or some other solemnity: whence I would not have anyone say that no foundation underlies the popular veneration.
[7] His age, and the former name of the town of Saint-Germain. Since the histories of the abbey of Chaise-Dieu have been written, indeed, but not published, almost nothing remains to me by which to illustrate the old priory of St. Germanus. Moreover Beaunier is silent about it in the catalogue of the Archbishoprics etc. of France, likewise the three editions of the Gallia Christiana, and Mabillon in the Annals of his order. I therefore close this sylloge, setting out a twofold annotation, which I draw from the privilege mentioned at num. 1 of this Commentary: the former regards the age of St. Germanus: for since this privilege was given by King Henry "publicly at the palace of Vitry, at the instance of the lord and venerable Hugh, bishop of Nevers, in the month of September, in the eleventh moon, in the fifth indiction, in the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1052" (or rather, according to the more recent reckoning, in the year 1051), St. Germanus must be earlier than the eleventh century. For among the various gifts which Henry I confirms there, you have "in the village of Triniacum the Church of St. Germanus, Martyr, with the village itself and all things belonging to it." And indeed, since, as we saw above, Mabillon testifies that the church of St. Germanus was restored by St. Robert, we must go back somewhat higher still, since that St. Robert, abbot of Chaise-Dieu, lived in the middle of the eleventh century. The other note regards the former name of the village which we have said is now called the town of Saint-Germain-l'Herm. That name was either Triniacum, as the associates of Dom Bouquet wrote from the autograph Recueil des Hist. de Fr., Vol. XI, p. 588., or Tuniacum, as the Gallia Christiana has it in a fragment of this diploma Vol. II, col. 104.. This charter was also published by Baluze, the editor of the works of Servatus Lupus, in the appendix p. 529., from an old Parchment of Mr. de Kerouval; and his reading favours the former form of writing. For the rest, although I searched quite diligently, this name has not come my way elsewhere.