Junian

ON ST. JUNIAN, ANCHORITE, AND ON HIS MASTER ST. AMANDUS, IN THE LIMOUSIN IN GAUL,

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Junian, anchorite, in the district of Limoges. (S.)

Amandus, his master, in the district of Limoges. (S.)

BHL Number: 0329, 0330

ABOUT THE YEAR 500.

§ I. Why St. Amandus of Comodoliac is treated here; he is distinguished from St. Amandus of Genouillac; his homeland, birth, and the time of his death.

Why St. Amandus of Comodoliac is treated here. Before we turn aside to unfold the deeds of Saints Amandus and Junian, it seems that a reason should be given why we have included St. Amandus of Comodoliac and his disciple Junian in one chapter. For it is not to be denied that St. Amandus is not religiously venerated on the present day, and that at the 25th of June something has already been treated of him by our predecessors. But what was set out there must at some time be altogether renewed. The cause of this is that, when Henschen had undertaken to illustrate the Life of St. Amandus of Genouillac, who is celebrated on the said 25th day of June, and had accordingly undertaken to examine whether that St. Amandus was distinct from the master of St. Junian, he died over the work. Papebroch undertook to complete the little work begun; but, more sagacious in his own work than in another's, he did not attend to the incompleteness of Henschen's composition, and, at once confusing St. Amandus of Comodoliac with the one of Genouillac, he added a few things, and entrusted the writing, such as it was, to be printed. Nor are we the first in censuring that little work of Henschen and Papebroch. Already long ago our predecessors Pien and Stilting, among those passed over at the 26th day of August Acta SS., volume V of August, page 762., made manifest their mind on this

matter in these words: With us, in volume V of the month of June, at the 25th day of the same month, page 78, Saints Amandus and Domnolenus at Gimeliacum among the Petrocorii were treated, and there, from the Life of St. Junian of Comodoliac, to be given, as is said there, at the 16th of October, a fragment about St. Amandus of Comodoliac is brought forward: and when I compared it with his lessons adduced above, the agreements which occur in these and in that fragment persuade me that St. Amandus of Comodoliac shines forth in both narratives: so that it appears surprising that that fragment was then reported there, in a place, at any rate, as it seems to us, not its own. But this Saint and the present controversy can be treated in the supplement of the work, if it shall seem good to our posterity. Nevertheless this dispute is to be settled here rather than in the supplement of the whole work, since the life of St. Amandus of Comodoliac is altogether interwoven with the life of his disciple Junian: whence it has seemed most fitting of all to illustrate the whole of the master's deeds in the present Commentary; lest one should have to speak of the same Saint three or four times in pieces.

[2] He is distinguished from another St. Amandus, Before all things St. Amandus of Genouillac and St. Amandus of Comodoliac, the master of St. Junian, must be properly distinguished from each other: and that this may become clear, we shall first discuss the day and place of cult of St. Amandus of Genouillac, and then the place of his dwelling with the time of his life; thence to proceed to the deeds of St. Amandus of Comodoliac. About the day on which Amandus of Genouillac is venerated no question need be raised; since all agree that it is the 25th of June. But the place of cult has become most entangled in our work, from the following announcements which Henschen produced at the said day: Molanus in the second and third editions of Usuard with his additions has these words: "At Gemeliacum, the natal day of Saints Amandus and Domnolenus, Confessors." And of Amandus separately thus in the Barberini manuscript: "At Genelaicum, the natal day of St. Amandus, Confessor." But "at Geniliacum" is written in the manuscript Ado of St. Lawrence at Liège, and "Genuliacum" in the manuscript Florarium. But, without place expressed, "St. Amandus, Confessor" is reported in the manuscript Florentine of the Grand Duke and the manuscript Cologne of St. Mary ad Gradus. Who is also wrongly written Amandus or Amantius, bishop. Thus far Henschen: to whose statements may be added, from the Auctarium of Du Sollier's Usuard, according to the codex of Mont-Saint: At Geneliacum, the natal day of St. Amandus, Confessor. Papebroch supported Molanus, affirming that Saints Amandus and Domnolenus were venerated at Gimeliacum among the Petrocorii.

[3] who on the 25th of June is venerated not at Gimeliacum but at Genouillac; And here already the first error appears, namely that Saints Amandus and Domnolenus are observed with sacred cult at Gimeliacum. There are indeed several places of this name; for, to say nothing of the village of the diocese of Namur, formerly most celebrated for its abbey, which is written now Gimeliacum, now Gemblacum, but best Geminiacum (as may be gathered from the History of ancient Belgium Les Pays-Bas avant et durant la domination Romaine, volume II, page 494. of the distinguished Schayes); St. Ruricius I, bishop of Limoges, whose Acts we shall illustrate at the 17th of October, had a diocese or parish of Gemiliacum; which he himself testifies in his Letters: Wherefore, he says, from zeal of charity, not of covetousness, I have sent these to your holiness by my priest on behalf of the diocese of Gemiliacum, about which I had written to you long ago [Book II, epistle 6, in the Lectiones Antiquæ of Henricus Canisius, Basnage's edition, volume I, page 384.]. That a third Gimeliacum was a village among the Petrocorii is clear from the Life of St. Eusitius, which we shall explain at the 5th day before the Kalends of December, and in which these words occur: He therefore, a native of the city of Périgueux, was born and brought up at the village of Gimeliacum [Life of St. Eusitius, printed separately and taken from an old manuscript codex of the royal Library at Paris.]; which place the author of the Geography of the Legends of the Saints Page 54. is witness is now called Gembly or Gemeliac. But none of these three villages is sacred with the cult of Saints Amandus and Domnolenus. About the Belgian Gimeliacum no doubt can be raised; nor does either of the remaining two hold good. For by the testimony of Geoffrey of Vigeois Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum of Labbe, volume II, page 286., about the year 1184 (about which Geoffrey was writing) St. Domnolenus rested not among the Petrocorii nor in the rural district of Limoges, but at Limoges itself: Let us therefore, says Geoffrey, return to our City after the diocese… In the church of St. Gregory beside the monastery of St. Andrew is seen the tomb of St. Domnolenus; the same of whom the Gallia Christiana Volume II, column 539. relates that from the year 1534 he lay near Limoges. Whence it is evident that St. Domnolenus is not rightly ascribed to Gimeliacum. Nor is there reason why the authority of Henschen should cause delay, who objects these words likewise taken from Geoffrey: Blessed Dominicus rests in the basilica of St. Stephen beside the castle of Gimel; since the names Dominicus or Dominius and Domnolenus are altogether distinct; the former is venerated on the 13th day of November [Universal Martyrology of Cl. Chastelain at the said day, and Labiche de Reignefort, Six mois de vies de Saints*, etc., volume III, page 41.], the latter on the 25th day of July Breviary of Limoges of the year 1626.; nor is Geoffrey to be rashly convicted of contradiction, as though he had said that one and the same Saint was buried in the church of St. Gregory and in the basilica of St. Stephen. Hence therefore it is clear that that announcement of Molanus, by which the cult of Saints Amandus and Domnolenus is ascribed to Gimeliacum, and which Papebroch and Henschen embraced, is most certainly erroneous so far as concerns St. Domnolenus. On the other hand, since all the remaining commemorations cited are free from this blemish, and since from variant readings those must be chosen which the context and other circumstances approve, I reckon that no one will doubt that the St. Amandus who is venerated on the 25th of June is to be given to Genelaicum, Geneliacum, or, what is most correct, Genuliacum.

[4] where he led the monastic life; And this indeed becomes altogether manifest from the fact that a holy man named Amandus once dwelt at Genouillac. There is, namely, in the diocese of Périgueux a place whose common name is Genouillac, and in which the compilers of the Gallia Christiana Volume II, column 1536 and elsewhere. and Ruinart in his edition of St. Gregory Column 980. report that St. Amandus, with Saints Sorus and Cyprian, served his first monastic service under the abbot Savalus. Nor have they embraced this tradition of the Monastery of Genouillac without reason: for in the fragment of the Life of St. Amandus which Labbe published Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum, volume II, page 481., I find these very words: The aforesaid man of God, Amandus, therefore, according to the etymology of his name, loved by his fellow-tribesmen, having obtained the rudiments of divine love, undertook divine things of this kind. Being a very noble soldier, sprung from the district of the city of Limoges, that is, from the old mountains, where also his inherited estate is shown, departing from these mountains and leaving his possessions, he attained the whole monastic norm. For, seeking lowly things, going from the lofty mountains (namely those of Limoges) to the depths of the valleys and descending to a little field of Périgord called Genoliacum, where at that time bands of monks lived under the abbot Savalus and King Clothaire, having joined to himself Sorus of Auvergne, a most holy man, and Cyprian, the elect of God, unanimous in one devotion, laying aside the hair of their head at one moment of a day, they bound themselves to the service of holy religion, and, quickly raised to the summit of virtues, for the sake of contemplative grace they chose solitude: which words need no commentary. St. Sorus is venerated on the 1st day of February, and St. Cyprian on the 1st of December.

[5] whence he afterwards passed over to a place celebrated for the abbey of Coly, From the Life of St. Sorus, published at the beginning of February, more may be learned about this same St. Amandus. When, namely, St. Sorus, whom St. Amandus had as companion in the purpose of monastic life, saw the anxiety and tumult of the men flocking to Genouillac, and therefore shortly departed hence, St. Amandus followed him as inseparable companion across the river Vézère lower down, and in the lowest tract which the Dordogne and the Vézère enclose, the three chose for themselves separate places. St. Sorus is reported to have lived at Terrasson, and is said to be the founder and patron of the monastery which was there. St. Cyprian had his cell near the Dordogne, in a place which is now called from his name Saint-Cyprien, and, as is narrated in his Life, being affectionately received by the brethren of that place, at length, by the election of the brethren dwelling round about, he was taken up to the office of priest; and since this priesthood seems to comprise the office of abbot, we agree with Papebroch, who adds: and he was made their abbot. Midway between St. Cyprian and St. Sorus, but nearer to the latter (not at Gimeliacum, as Papebroch reckoned, but in the place where in the last century the abbey of St. Amandus of Coly still existed), St. Amandus chose a seat for himself, not so retaining the purpose of the solitary life up to the very last end of life that he received one (he means Junian, but wrongly) disciple Acta SS. at the 25th of June, page 79.; but that, at least after the example of Saints Sorus and Cyprian, he admitted several followers of his rule of living, perhaps not under one roof, but scattered and dwelling round about. Which kind of life seems to have been most common in the district of Limoges, Périgord, Auvergne, and other districts of Gaul in the sixth and seventh centuries. That St. Amandus, moreover, presided over very many disciples, constant tradition is an argument, and the writers of the Gallia Christiana testify it, who had dealings with the abbot of the place; and indeed the abbey itself, which has the name of St. Amandus from its founder and patron, whose feast is kept on the 7th day before the Kalends of July Gallia Christiana*, volume II, column 1536., is no vain proof. So much for the day and place of cult, and for the homeland and monastic life of St. Amandus of Genouillac. Now of his age.

[6] [he died after the middle of the sixth century, indeed toward the end of this century;] However much the Life of St. Sorus, which I have already mentioned, and which Bolland at the 1st of February and Labbe in the Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum Volume II, page 666. published, may be mixed with fables, as Claude d'Estiennot, cited in the Gallia Christiana Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 1532., hints, who seems to profess that he had another, from which the narrative of the elephantine disease of King Guntram is absent; yet to condemn it altogether would be unjust, nor did the compilers of the Gallia Christiana condemn it. Wherefore at least those things from it seem to be admitted which are altogether probable: further, toward the end of that Life this is to be found: at whose (St. Sorus') death the holy men Amandus and Cyprian were present. Whence it is plain that St. Amandus of Genouillac survived St. Sorus, and therefore that his age can be gathered from the latter's age. Now whether Guntram, who obtained the kingdom in the year 561,

furnished St. Sorus with what was necessary for building a monastery, as the published Acts of St. Sorus have it; or whether Gocundus, prince of Limoges, his wife Pelagia, and his son Aredius provided it, as, says d'Estiennot, the unpublished Acts of St. Sorus himself relate, and as Geoffrey in Labbe Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum, volume II, page 286. and Bernard Gui likewise in Labbe Ibid., page 631. obscurely agree, it follows that St. Sorus, and all the more St. Amandus of Genouillac, died after the middle of the sixth century. For St. Aredius, who died in the year 591, when he sent his gift, already held the abbatial staff, as is clear from the published Life of St. Sorus: Blessed Aredius (these are the words read there), at that time abbot … sent to him (St. Sorus), in aid of the building, a door fitted with horn-work. Whence, since according to Mabillon's computation Annales Benedictini at the year 572, number 48. St. Aredius founded his monastery about the year 572, or certainly did so after the year 550, as is clear from his Lives in our work Acta SS. at the 25th of August, page 171 and following., it must be that St. Sorus, and therefore St. Amandus his companion, was still living in the middle of the sixth century. If, however, you make Guntram the benefactor of St. Sorus, it becomes still more manifest that St. Sorus, and consequently St. Amandus of Genouillac, did not depart from the living before the year 550; since Guntram, at 36 years of age, obtained the kingdom only in the year of Christ 561, and met his last day in the year 593. Nor is it established only from the published Life of St. Sorus that this most pious man was contemporary with Guntram; but from this Life it is clear that this was asserted in an earlier one also. At number 12, namely, one may read: Therefore, AS IS EVIDENT FROM HIS (St. Sorus') DEEDS, this Blessed one lived in the times of Guntram, formerly a most powerful and most holy king … And indeed, according to the common reckoning of the writers, the death of St. Sorus is referred to the year 580; to which, therefore, the death of St. Amandus of Genouillac would be later. It remains that we inquire into the day and place of cult, the deeds, and the age of St. Amandus of Comodoliac.

[7] [but our St. Amandus is venerated at Comodoliac, or Saint-Junien, on the 26th of August,] Geoffrey of Vigeois in his Chronicle Labbe, Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum, volume II, page 285. clearly establishes the cult of St. Amandus, which we shall below make altogether certain from elsewhere also: The people of Comodoliac, says the chronologist, rejoice in Junian with Amandus his teacher. Comodoliac, moreover, is a charming little town of the diocese of Limoges (département of Haute-Vienne), now called by the common name of Saint-Junien (St-Junien), lying on the bank of the Vigenna (Vienne), and formerly celebrated for its collegiate church, as will become known below. Nor is the day of cult less certain, as is clear from what our predecessors wrote among the passed-over to be reviewed at the 26th day of August Acta SS., volume V of August, page 762.: "On the feast of St. Amandus, Confessor, a double of the first class, on the twenty-sixth day of August": a proper Office, with an Octave, we have found among our manuscript schedules on the Saints of the same day: which Office Armand Gerard, canon of Sarlat, is indicated in our copy to have sent to Rev. Father Godfrey Henschen in the year 1664: "from the traditions, as is noted beforehand, of the church of Saint-Junien." The praised Rev. Mr. Gerard, in a fragment of his letters … writes these words: "The manuscript Offices of Saints Amandus, Confessor, on the 26th of August, and of Junian on the 16th of October … I received from the collegiate church of Saint-Junien in the Limousin." To which statements of our predecessors we can add credence from the very documents cited here, which still survive. Moreover Collin, canon of Comodoliac or Saint-Junien, once gave to our men a catalogue, of which Bolland makes mention in a manuscript note; and in it the feast of St. Amandus is announced, to be kept among the people of Comodoliac on the so often mentioned 26th day of August. This day, moreover, was without doubt made sacred to St. Amandus by the finding or translation of his Relics, as is clear from the Antiphon at the Benedictus, which at number 11 of his Office runs thus: Today the devotion and holy hands of the canons found the holy body of Amandus and translated it… Of what rite this solemnity was is evident from what has just been said.

[8] although Collin wrote otherwise erroneously, It is altogether surprising, however, that Collin, whom I named a little before, in the History of the Saints of the Limousin, published the Life of St. Amandus of Comodoliac at the 25th of June, on which St. Amandus of Genouillac is venerated, and not at the 26th day of August; which was perhaps done by him because he was deceived, as Henschen and Papebroch were, confusing the two Amanduses; or because he believed that he must comply with the people of Limoges, who read the feast of a certain St. Amandus in the Calendars of Limoges at the 25th day of June, by no means at the 26th of August. A difficulty, namely, which must not be passed over in silence, lies hidden here: that in the sacred calendars of the diocese of Limoges only one St. Amandus occurs, and he is venerated on the 25th of June; whence it seems to follow that only one existed in Limoges or its neighbourhood; which can be pressed all the more, the more surprising it would be that the one of Genouillac or of Périgord should be venerated in the diocese of Limoges, and in the same the one of Limoges not be venerated. The answer is ready: for it is known to all lovers of the saints that sometimes nothing is more surprising than the cult which Saints have obtained in certain places and not in others, and, not to range widely, a specimen is close at hand. St. Amandus, namely, whom I have called of Genouillac from the place to which his cult is assigned, is referred in no Martyrology or Auctarium, so far as I know, to the monastery of Coly, of which he was nevertheless held to be the founder and patron, or to Limoges, whence he was sprung, but to Genouillac, where he did not stay so very long. Moreover, since this Saint is a Limousin by nation, you will surely not be surprised that he is honoured in his homeland; and there would be so much less reason for this surprise the more famous his miracles, and therefore his cult, were. As witness of this assertion I invoke his biographer, speaking thus in the prologue: About to write of the life of Blessed Amandus, I undertake some things that I may strive to weave in order his deeds, incomprehensible to mortals, but that I may set forth the beginnings of his conversion (which he surely knew from the Life of St. Sorus) and the indications of some miracles and the highest points of his holiness. For who would suffice clearly to set forth his conduct, since the manifold chaos of his miracles is not yet grasped.* These things, taken from the often cited fragment, hint at a cult such as St. Amandus of Comodoliac seems never to have had, whose body even lay overwhelmed with oblivion and earth until almost the end of the eleventh century, as we shall see afterwards. But let us now turn our pen to the Life of St. Amandus.

[9] This St. Amandus is said to be the son of a king of Hungary, From the several biographies of St. Amandus, of which we shall speak afterwards, you will try in vain to draw out the homeland of this Saint, if you except one little French work of Collin, canon of Saint-Junien, which I have already mentioned. He, namely, mentioning the Relics of St. Amandus, brings forward an inscription which he refers to the middle of the eleventh century; this inscription runs thus:

Hic sunt ossa, sudarium et cineres Sancti Amandi filii Regis Hungariæ.

Since, however, letters of the eleventh century are commonly distinguished quite easily from more recent ones, and Collin must have handled many manuscript codices, his testimony seems to be admitted, and therefore the inscription is to be referred to the year 1075, in which his sacred body was discovered, as we shall try to show at number 19. Whence, however, it was learned in the eleventh century that St. Amandus was the son of a king of Hungary, you will not easily determine. Was it inscribed on the tomb in which St. Junian is said to have laid his master? Or did the people of Comodoliac themselves in the eleventh century imagine it for themselves? Although the expression of the King of Hungary, and not of the King of the Huns, or of the Hungarians, lies open to suspicion, yet I do not care to affirm the latter, since on this supposition they would without doubt have inserted it in the Life or Office of St. Amandus, which is sufficiently pure of fables. To answer the former question affirmatively, however, will perhaps seem to some the same as casting the dice. Nevertheless Hildebert of Le Mans, in the Life of St. Hugh of Cluny, in a place which I shall recite in full at number 18, relates that some inscription was placed on the tomb of St. Amandus.

[10] which, if understood literally, would make him the son of Attila; But if anyone admits the truth of the former inscription, let him beware of understanding the word Rex as it sounds in the ears of men today. Several have already tried at length to show that in the fifth and following centuries it is the same as the word Dux. And indeed if St. Amandus were said to be the son of the king of the whole nation of the Hungarians, he would have to be determined to be the son of Attila himself, who laid waste Gaul in the middle of the fifth century. Johannes Thuróczy, namely, teaches in the Chronicles of the Hungarians Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum, volume II, page 60. that the captains of the Hungarians, Bela, Keme, and Kadicha, fell in the battle of the year 401 at Kesmawr, and on the following page adds that only Attila, who in the Hungarian idiom was called Ethele, and Buda his brother survived, and that the same Attila was raised to the royal dignity by unanimous vote. But although the divine grace is manifold, although Attila himself, by the testimony of the same Thuróczy, did not shrink from hermits, and, by the same author Page 76., with whom Pietro Ranzano agrees Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum, volume II, page 346., begot a multitude of sons, it would be absurd to assign St. Amandus as son to Attila; since on this supposition Ruricius, bishop of Limoges (of whom more presently), would surely have mentioned it at some time in his letters. If therefore St. Amandus was a Hungarian by nation, he must be said to be the son of some duke serving under Attila.

[11] He is also said to have served under Clovis or Alaric. Further, since St. Amandus has been held by some to be a Hungarian, and embraced the eremitical life at the end of the fifth century, thence surely flowed the tradition which Collin also relates, and by which our Saint (whom, however, they deny to have been an Arian) is reported to have served either under Alaric, king of the Goths, or Clovis, king of the Franks. But although either supposition does not conflict with the chronology presently to be proposed, since Clovis took up arms in the year 486, and Alaric II obtained the kingdom in the year 484, I do not know whether it will please the learned to count a Hun in the camps of the Goths or Franks, when only a frail tradition supports it.

[12] Before the year 490 he withdrew to Comodoliac, where he died about the year 500. Whatever, finally, St. Amandus did in the world, it is certain that he withdrew to Comodoliac to lead the eremitical life: which withdrawal certainly happened before the four hundred and ninetieth year. For Ruricius, prelate of Limoges, called the elder to distinguish him from the grandson who succeeded him, is related to have died before the five hundred and tenth year; which we shall examine more at large at the 17th of October. Now if

St. Amandus is said to have died at least ten years before St. Ruricius I, one cannot stray from the truth, since St. Junian is reported in all the records to have freed St. Ruricius the second, while still a youth puffed up with the haughtiness of pride, from a demon or from a disease, after the death of St. Amandus. But since this Ruricius succeeded his grandfather in the see of Limoges, and does not seem to have ascended this grade of honour immediately after his liberation or amendment of life, the death of St. Amandus is surely deservedly referred to about the year 500. If, however, ten years of eremitical life are assigned, and it is therefore determined that he came to Comodoliac not after the year 490, it will have been affirmed that he spent there almost fewer years than the labour of instructing St. Junian and his other deeds require. For since Ruricius I obtained the see of Limoges about the year 484 (as is clear from our Stilting, illustrating the Life of St. Faustus of Riez at the 28th of September, numbers 270 and 288, where he partly recites the IX Epistle of Faustus), and St. Amandus was discovered at Comodoliac under his episcopate after he had lain hidden for some time, it will perhaps seem permissible to refer the beginning of St. Amandus' anchoretic life even to before the year 490. These things having been unfolded, therefore, if we return to the proposed question, who will not see that St. Amandus of Comodoliac is distinct from St. Amandus of Genouillac not only by the day and place of cult, by homeland (so far as credence is given to tradition), and by place of dwelling, but that between the two either a whole or at least half a century elapsed? It remains that the other things which are known about St. Amandus be set forth: but first about his biographers.

perhaps cum his* with these

* La Vesère

supply non* [not]

§ II. The biographers of St. Amandus of Comodoliac; a compendium of his deeds from Bernard Gui; the finding of his Relics by St. Hugh of Cluny, and their cult.

The sources are reviewed, Jean Collin, theological canon of Saint-Junien, whom we have already mentioned, in the year 1657 made public the Life of the blessed anchorites Amandus and Junian, from the old records of the church. The same in the year 1673 published two little works: the Florilegium sacrum Lemovicense, and another in French, the Sacred History of the Lives of the Saints of the Limousin. Bonaventure de Saint-Amable, a Carmelite, in his work printed in the year 1676 on the Apostolate of St. Martial, also having discourse on the Saints of the Limousin, without doubt treats of Saints Amandus and Junian; but the absence of his writing brings us no longing, since it cannot be that he used more documents than Collin. The third who patched together the Life of St. Amandus is Bernard Gui, bishop of Lodève, of the Order of Preachers, whose Speculum Sanctorale, which seems the best among the old legendaries (so far as may be judged from the published Lives), Haenel recently stated falsely in the Catalogues of Libraries to exist in manuscript at Avignon in the city library. But when it was formerly preserved there, Benoît Gonon published from it the Life of Saints Amandus and Junian. A copy of the same Life exists at Brussels in the royal Burgundian Library, taken from a manuscript codex of Prague, and collated with the autograph. From a manuscript note of Bolland I gather that a shorter Life existed in the manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloître; but he thought it of too little value to collate it to the end with the Prague autograph.

[14] whence the life of St. Amandus is known; In Bernard Gui's little work mention is made of the codex of Saint-Junien in these words: Of the finding of which body of St. Amandus in the aforesaid place and of its translation from the same, and of the miracles done, the series and history is read and kept there, written more at large, and is also called that of St. Amandus. This History of St. Amandus is the very Office which we shall publish; and which therefore must certainly be referred to the beginning of the fourteenth century, unless rather, as I willingly reckon, to the beginning of the twelfth century, perhaps thirty years after the finding of the body. But there are rather few things there about the deeds of St. Amandus while living on earth: Bernard Gui brings forward the most of all, using chiefly the Life of St. Junian. This Life of St. Junian, moreover, which St. Hugh, abbot of Cluny, heard at Comodoliac, is the most ancient record of all: yet to which century, whether the seventh or the eighth, it is to be bound is not clear; although its notable antiquity is beyond doubt. Papebroch formerly copied this Life at Cluny: and we did the same at Paris, taking a copy of the same Life somewhat amplified from the Golden Legend with additions, written by order of Romanus, prior of the monastery of the Celestines of Blessed Mary (probably of Paris), and finished in the year 1442, as is noted at folio CXLII. This manuscript codex now occupies shelf 45 of the Paris library which has borrowed its name from the arsenal (l'Arsenal). This Life, however, lacks the prologue; but it is divided into very many chapters, whose titles are lacking in the shorter Life. Thus far of the sources from which the deeds of St. Amandus are known.

[15] and here, according to Bernard Gui, his eremitical life is narrated, Further, behold how Bernard Gui collected the deeds of St. Amandus; I use Gonon's edition collated with our copy: Blessed Amandus, an illustrious man, and sprung from noble birth, leaving his birthplace and temporal riches for divine love, and choosing for himself the solitary life, built for himself a small hut among the narrow and hard-to-reach straits of the rocks, in the country or territory of the noble man Ruricius or Roricius , bishop of Limoges, above the river Vigenna, the name of which place or territory was then called Comodoliacus, where he stayed for some time unknown to men, known to God, whom alone he desired to please in solitude. But on a certain day, by the will of God, the solitary is found on a steep rock by shepherds, who, wondering at the place of that most harsh dwelling, went away; thereafter they divulged the inhabitant of that solitude to the peoples. When knowledge of this, as report carried it, had come to the aforesaid Ruricius or Roricius, prelate of Limoges, having learned that the man of God Amandus had a cave for a dwelling among the shrubs and leaves which the place had brought forth, he ordered a little cell to be made there, according to the space of the place, roomy enough for a solitary inhabitant but too narrow for an assembly of a multitude. For out of the whole space of that mountain a steep rock stood out, which gave access on every side, containing a narrow and small level space, to which there was a very difficult descent from the upper mountain, where Amandus, leading a solitary life full of virtues, devoting himself to divine contemplation, endured and overcame no small combats of the ancient enemy.

[16] his teaching of St. Junian, Blessed Junian, a boy (as it is said), of the nation of Cambrai, drawing his origin from a noble lineage, inspired by the Spirit of God, so that through desire for the heavenly homeland he left his parents and native country, came, the Lord guiding him, to the parts of Aquitaine. Having learned of the fame of the holiness of blessed Amandus, he went to him, desiring to be formed by his teachings and manners, and to bind himself with him to the apprenticeship and service of Christ; and coming to the little cell of St. Amandus, he began to knock at its doors that they might be opened to him. But St. Amandus, when he knew that someone was knocking at the doors, thinking that it might perhaps be an illusion or a diabolical temptation, was silent for some time, nor did he at once open entrance to him, until he should test for what cause the aforesaid venerable boy had come to his cell. But having learned the cause, he at once received him with joy, and showed him the way of salvation. Junian, therefore, a youth of excellent disposition, who had obtained a good soul, is known to have grown in such grace of humility and such holiness of life that he not only became an imitator of his master, but, kindled with divine love, surpassed the life and virtue of his master.

[17] his death and burial. At length, when the death of the same St. Amandus was drawing near, after the holy instruction of his disciple Junian and a praiseworthy life of holiness, having consummated the contest of a happy life, full of days and of holy works, he passed in peace to the Lord; leaving Junian heir and successor of his dwelling and of his holiness, from disciple made master, as a second Elijah a second Elisha. And he buried the body of St. Amandus in the same place where he had led the solitary life (namely in the former cave): and there, buried, it lay hidden for many years, and thence, after the courses of many years, it was translated to the church or monastery of St. Junian and placed beside his tomb, the vigorous man, the lord Rabulphus , canon, bringing this about and pursuing it urgently and devoutly, signs accompanying and following. Which Rabulphus, first exhorted by Blessed Odo of Cluny, first built a church in the same place, in which he renounced the world, died holily, lived, and rests. Of the finding of which body of St. Amandus in the aforesaid place and of its translation from the same, and of the miracles done, the series and history is read and kept there, written more at large, and is also called that of St. Amandus. St. Amandus flourished at about the same time at which Clovis, king of the Franks, baptized by Blessed Remigius, had an encounter with Alaric, king of the Goths, who was an Arian and occupied the kingdom of Aquitaine and Gothia, which he had taken from the Romans, at the tenth milestone from the city of Poitiers, where Alaric fell pierced through (in the year 507), and, the Arian Goths having been driven out of Aquitaine, he at once filled it with a better rule of religion and faith. It was, moreover, about the five hundredth year of the Lord's Incarnation (the year 497) when Clovis was baptized by St. Remigius, and he reigned about fifteen years (rather 14) after his baptism.

[18] the circumstances of the finding of the Relics, Since things almost similar to these will occur in the Life of St. Junian to be published, to be illustrated with annotations, there is no reason for us to dwell longer on the deeds of St. Amandus: the finding of the Relics alone remains to be examined. What Bernard Gui brought forward about it above I have already noted is extracted from the Office of St. Amandus. Hildebert, bishop of Le Mans, narrates the same finding somewhat differently in the Life of St. Hugh, sixth abbot of Cluny, which was published in our work at the 29th of April, where these words are read Acta SS. at the 29th of April, page 639.: Likewise the servant of God (St. Hugh), while he was in Aquitaine, came to the church of Blessed Vivian, as a careful visitor of holy places. Where, when he was diligently reading the deeds and life of the aforesaid Confessor, he found in it mention made of a certain good man named Amandus, about whom, desiring to be more fully informed, he inquires in person of the clerics his reputation and homeland, his purpose and end and burial. To his inquiry it is answered that Blessed Amandus was the master of St. Vivian, distinguished by merits, conspicuous in doctrine, famous by examples. That his body, as report had it, had burial in Gaul. (From the Life of St. Junian they knew, moreover, that he had been buried by this Saint and therefore in the vicinity.) *On the following day, however, the dean of the canons, about to build a hospice in the same place, asks Blessed Hugh to designate the foundation of the work undertaken. But he, taught by the Holy Spirit, said: "Lay the foundations here, and you will by no means regret it." At his suggestion, therefore, the boys, digging deeper, find a tomb of a beauty to be proclaimed, marked with the name of Blessed Amandus: which having been found, the clergy exults, the people glorifies

God, who is wonderful in His Saints, no longer doubting the merit of the abbot, which had shone forth in the finding of the Confessor.* The name Vivian led Papebroch into error, who did not notice that St. Junian, as I shall presently establish, was called Vivian by some. He believed this to be the bishop of Saintes to whom Ambrose is said to have been master.

[19] the time, But since the narrative of Saint-Junien recounts even minute circumstances (which, when no obvious error underlies it, is usually held to be an argument of truth), and the people of Saint-Junien ought to have known this finding of the Relics better than Hildebert of Le Mans, it is preferable to adhere to the Office of Saint-Junien rather than to the Life of St. Hugh where a diversity is seen in setting out the circumstances. But the principal knot lies in assigning the time of the finding. From numbers 1 and 8 of the Office of St. Amandus we know that the translation was made on a Wednesday; from number 11, however, it is clear that it was made on the 26th of August, the day thenceforth sacred to St. Amandus. But these things (that we may confine ourselves within a fitting space) could have coincided only in the years 1069, 1075, and 1080. Which of these is to be chosen, however, must be inquired from elsewhere. In lesson II of the second Nocturn of the Office of St. Amandus it is related that St. Hugh of Cluny passed through the monastery of Comodoliac again when, some time after the visitation of the monastery of Saint-Jean-d'Angély made in the year 1062, he was summoned to Poitiers by William, prince of Poitou, for the sake of endowing Montierneuf. But as is clear from the instrument inserted in the Gallia Christiana Volume II, column 351., this endowment was made in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1077, on the 5th day before the Kalends of February, in the fourth year of the Pontificate of Gregory VII, indiction XV. But St. Hugh was not present at the drawing up of this instrument, as the absence of his name, not marked among the monks present, is a sure argument. Wherefore St. Hugh must have undertaken the said journey to discuss the conditions of the endowment with William; which he would have done about the 26th of August of the year 1075, unless they wish the narrative of Saint-Junien to be enfeebled. Wherefore the finding of the Relics of St. Amandus seems to be attached to the year 1075.

[20] and the cult that followed, are illustrated. The history of this finding and translation is set forth at greatest length in the Office of St. Amandus. From Collin (let them be on his credit) the following may be added: When Ramnulph was translating the sacred pledges to the church of St. Junian, a poor man seized with quartan fever, and carrying a lighted taper in his hand, approached, touched the casket, and was restored to health. The remains of St. Amandus were then placed beside the reliquary chest of St. Junian. Ramnulph afterwards founded a church with a hospice in the very place from which the Relics had been extracted. This church rejoices in the name and patronage of St. Amandus, and sixty years ago (these things were written about the year 1673) it was given for the use of the Recollect Fathers of the Order of St. Francis by the canons of Saint-Junien, who nevertheless reserved to themselves the right of instituting supplications and other practices of piety to it, when the days on which the people long to hear the praises of St. Amandus come round each year. The same Collin discourses almost thus about the Relics of St. Amandus: In the greater church of Saint-Junien is shown the precious head of St. Amandus enclosed in a very beautiful gilded cup (coupe), of ancient workmanship, given out of piety by a certain Lord De Brigueil. The other Relics of St. Amandus, with several others, are kept in an old casket which is seen in the treasury. In this casket, namely, lies a very well made little bag, on which is inscribed in letters older than six hundred years: "Here are the bones, the shroud," etc., as I reported at number 9. But long before Collin, Bernard Gui had already mentioned these Relics in his Historical little Works: St. Amandus, who was the teacher of St. Junian, is kept there (at Comodoliac) in a chest, is venerated, and is honoured Labbe, Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum, volume I, page 633.. It remains that the Office of St. Amandus, conspicuous for pious simplicity and the narration of facts, be entrusted to print. I spoke of its antiquity at number 13; I praised its credibility at number 19, and the learned reader will find it after the following paragraph on St. Junian.

Prague manuscript: sanctæ memoriæ* of holy memory

The Prague manuscript everywhere wrongly writes Bunaum or Bonaum*.

read Ramnulpho*

read Hugone*

§ III. Of the cult of St. Junian; whether he is to be confused with St. Junian of Nouaillé and another of Reims; of the tomb and the church consecrated to God under his name.

ABOUT THE YEAR 535.

St. Junian, whom many Martyrologists mention, Since the life of St. Amandus is intimately bound up with the life of St. Junian, and therefore the one cannot be discussed without the other also being discussed, very many things about St. Junian were determined when the questions that arose in the life of St. Amandus were called to examination and solution. First of all, however, there remain the things which pertain to the cult of St. Junian. Further, the memory of this Saint occurs in Martyrologies both recent and old, the classical ones, however, excluded. Domenico Giorgi, namely, in his edition of Ado, testifies that this addition is made to the Vatican codex 512 at the present day: On the same day, the natal day of St. Junian, Confessor; the Anchin Auctarium of Usuard in Du Sollier indicates the territory of Limoges as the place of cult; the Auctarium of Bede published by Eckhart De rebus Francicis, volume I, page 829. also mentions him. The cult of St. Junian has already been indicated from Bernard Gui where St. Amandus was treated: behold another mention from the Historical little Works of the same man Labbe, Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum, volume I, page 633.: The canons of Comodohatum (Comodoliac) rejoice in St. Junian, hermit and Confessor: for so were anciently called those who are now named canons of St. Junian; whose deeds are kept there. His feast is recalled on the 17th day before the Kalends of November. To the same day this Saint is assigned by Le Mire in the Belgian and Burgundian calendars, Chastelain in the universal Martyrology, Du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, Molanus in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium, Willot in the Belgian Martyrology, Collin in the History of the Saints of the Limousin, Labiche de Reignefort in the Half-year Collection of the Lives of the Saints, etc. The Martyrology of Paris, however, and other more recent sacred calendars mention the same St. Junian at the 15th of November or at another day of this month; whence this arose will be seen afterwards. In the more recent edition of Butler's Hagiography, St. Junian is mentioned at the 26th of August, where his master Amandus should have been treated; finally in the Ordo or Directory of Limoges of the year 1832 the feast of St. Junian is announced to be celebrated on the 16th of October with the double minor rite in the whole diocese. As regards the name of St. Junian, it is notable that in Greven's Usuard he is called Ninian, monk and Confessor. In place of Ninian, Vivian must without doubt be read. Hildebert of Le Mans, cited at number 17, calls St. Junian of Comodoliac by this name, and St. Junian of Nouaillé, at the 13th of August, likewise obtains the name Vivian in the Usuard of Daveron.

[22] [and formerly, on account of his miracles, not only the people of Limoges but also those of Poitiers venerated him,] The antiquity of the cult of St. Junian of Comodoliac must be referred to the age of St. Gregory of Tours, and even higher. Thus this holy bishop writes of him On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter CIII.: There was also Junian, a recluse within the territory of the city of Limoges, who while living showed many miracles to the peoples: and now also diseases are often cured at his tomb. For I have seen many, whom I have thought it long to number, who, carried there (elsewhere brought there) with blind eyes, received light, and paralytics were made straight. And the people itself is witness even today, who, when they receive health, at once make themselves tributaries to that place, and, as the circle of the year comes round, pay tributes for the grace of restored health. Of whom there are some who seem to belong to the basilica of St. Martin, our prelate. Since, however, St. Junian died about the year 535, and St. Gregory himself, yielding to fate in the year 595, did not go beyond the sixth century, hence it is fairly clear that the cult of St. Junian began from his death. Moreover, from this testimony of St. Gregory, by which he establishes so particular a cult of St. Junian that Theodoric Ruinart (number 50 of the preface to the edition of St. Gregory) judges it worthy of special mention and calls it memorable, it must be established with everyone that already from the sixth century the piety of the people of Tours toward this Saint prevailed; which Collin writes still existed in his own times, in the little book already mentioned, the History of the Saints of the Limousin. Neighbours to the people of Tours are those of Poitiers, among whom the said custom of paying tribute existed, by the testimony of the same man; and the same lover of the saints relates that so many miracles were done in their favour that, when he was writing, the Office of St. Junian was celebrated every year on the 16th of October in the district of Poitiers, especially in the cathedral church of St. Peter and in the collegiate church of St. Hilary of Poitiers, where the solemn double rite was observed. But from the more recent Directory the name of this St. Junian has been struck out. From the same Collin it may be deduced that another particular feast was celebrated at Limoges in his age: which feast they called that of St. Junian of the Snows (S. Junien des Neiges). The reason for this feast was sought from this tradition: when St. Junian had come to St. Amandus, St. Amandus had kept his cave shut against him the whole night; but although throughout all this time abundant snow had fallen, St. Junian had not been made at all wet. The feast is certain, not so to me its foundation.

[23] he is distinct from St. Junian of Nouaillé, The second labour, to be undertaken after setting forth the cult of the holy hermit, is concerned with distinguishing St. Junian from those of the same name. Gonon, namely, in the Lives of the Holy Fathers, after he had mentioned Page 209. that the name of St. Junian is marked in the tables of the Order of Fontevraud (the cause of which I have not been able to draw out from the history of this order), and had referred the feast of this Saint to the 16th of October, at once confuses this Saint with St. Junian, abbot of Nouaillé, whose sacred day is the 13th of August. He did not fall alone into this error: he had as companion of his hallucination not only Giorgi, illustrating Ado's Martyrology at this day, but Labbe himself, who in the Bibliotheca nova Volume II, page 569. published the Life of the abbot of Nouaillé, and in the prologue Page VI. on the first section of the writers whom he was going to publish, quite wrongly carped at Bernard Gui. By what characteristics these two St. Junians are distinguished from each other, our predecessors pursued at length at the aforesaid 13th of August. Moreover, at the 15th of November, not only in the universal and Paris Martyrologies, where St. Junian, recluse of Limoges, is announced in clear words, but in very many other Martyrologies too, a third St. Junian comes forth, whom they will have belong to the archdiocese of Reims: for by the testimony of Molanus in a note at the 16th of October and of Ferrarius at the 15th of November, one reads among the people of Reims in the Martyrology on the fifteenth day of November: On the same day, of blessed Junian, Confessor, whom blessed Remigius washed with baptism. Since, however, the place of the memory is passed over in silence here,

that defect was shortly supplied in the Canisian Martyrology, which refers St. Junian on the 15th day of November to Reims. And indeed this memory of St. Junian among the people of Reims is quite ancient. For in the Usuardine codex of Hérines, which Du Sollier and Bolland praised at length, and to which this twofold note was affixed by Du Sollier: It was written at the end of the eleventh century, and added to the pure Usuard almost only Saints of Reims; to the pure text is added: On the same day, of blessed Junian, Confessor, whom blessed Remigius washed with baptism. To which addition Du Sollier adds: It is evidently proper to the place. I should have preferred that Du Sollier had said that the more recent martyrologists drew their St. Junian of the 15th of November from this codex: for Molanus certainly culled his from there; and Ferrarius, although he wishes to hide his nakedness with new words of his own, used Molanus alone; which without doubt Canisius himself also did. I pass over the more recent ones.

[24] but seems to be the same But the question is whether this St. Junian is distinct from St. Junian of Comodoliac. Molanus expressly follows the affirmative opinion, in the Natales of the Saints of Belgium at the 16th of October; likewise Ferrarius at the 15th of November; and Du Saussay, who confused the St. Junian of the 15th of November with St. Junian of Nouaillé, necessarily mentioned two distinct Junians on the 16th of October and the 15th of November. That Claude Chastelain and the compilers of the Paris Martyrology thought otherwise is clear from what was said above. And in truth, although they erred when they ascribed the St. Junian of the 15th of November to the district of Limoges, their opinion of fusing this twofold St. Junian into one is very probable: the argument which stands in the way, otherwise very grave, namely that distinct days of cult are indicated, is perhaps lighter here: for since the 16th of October is called in the Martyrologies the 17th day before the Kalends of November, and the 15th of November, only the name of the month being changed, is called the 17th day before the Kalends of December, how easy it was for the Hérines compiler to celebrate St. Junian in a wrong place: which must be said to have been all the easier because no traces of a true cult toward St. Junian appear among the people of Reims. For there is nothing in the Breviary of Reims printed in the year 1630; nothing in the Brief, or Directory, of the year 1812; nothing in Flodoard, the historiographer of Reims; nothing in the continuators of the Gallia Christiana; nothing, finally, in our Suysken, who in the Life of St. Remigius, illustrated at the 1st of October, pursued the disciples of St. Remigius at great length.

[25] as St. Junian of Reims. Nevertheless it can be explained how St. Junian was inscribed in the Hérines codex, although he did not obtain a true cult in the diocese of Reims, nor, as Du Sollier says, is proper to the place. For since that codex was written at the end of the eleventh century, and in the year 1075 the body of St. Amandus, whom St. Junian had had as master, was found and translated with such great rumour that Papebroch at the 29th of April Acta SS. at the 29th of April, Life of St. Hugh, page 640. wrote that one so solemnly raised must have had a proper day of cult; it must be that with the fame of St. Amandus the name of St. Junian spread through the whole of Gaul, and so the Acts of each became known. Further, the fuller Life of St. Junian, which was already circulating at this time, is of such a kind that, when someone compares it with the Life of St. Remigius and does not very well observe the chronological notes, he could easily be led to believe that St. Junian of Comodoliac was baptized by St. Remigius. Come, behold the foundation of this suspicion: in this Life of St. Junian you not only have several things about the Franks converted by St. Remigius, but according to the common tradition St. Junian is said to be the son of a count of Cambrai; and the old office of St. Junian, the more recent one of Limoges, the Life of St. Junian collected by Bernard Gui, and likewise the Life which Molanus had before his eyes, agree in this matter. But that count of Cambrai is not to be thought distinct from Ragnachar or Raganar, of whom Hincmar in the Life of St. Remigius Acta SS., volume I of October, page 149. has these words: Finally many of the army of the Franks, not yet converted to the faith, lived for some time beyond the river Somme with the king's (Clovis' or Chlodovech's) kinsman Raganar, until, the grace of Christ cooperating, having gained glorious victories, King Louis killed the same Raganar, given over to shameful crimes, delivered to him bound by the Franks, and obtained that the whole people of the Franks be converted to the faith and baptized through Blessed Remigius. That St. Junian, who is held to be the son of Ragnachar, and was not read to have been killed by Clovis when he raged against his kinsmen, was then baptized, the writer of the Hérines codex may surely have believed, and on that account composed the aforesaid memory of St. Junian, by which I shall judge that not a Saint proper to the place is designated, but rather one such as is wont to occur in the particular Martyrologies of dioceses, when they have, or are thought to have, not a cult in the diocese but only some relation or other with the diocese.

[26] He died about the year 535, Leaving undecided, therefore, the father of St. Junian, his birthplace, his baptism, etc., I step forward to the time of his death. At the place reported from St. Gregory of Tours at number 22 of this Commentary, Theodoric Ruinart marks the year 530 as the year of St. Junian's death; Claude Chastelain, however, sets down a broad space of the sixth century. Ruinart cannot be far from the truth, since all the biographers assign to St. Junian forty years spent in the desert. For my part, since I should reckon that St. Junian came into the desert only a few years before the year 500, I should willingly, adding five to Ruinart's reckoning, call the year 535 the year of his death. Since, however, St. Junian passed over to St. Amandus as a boy or youth, he must be said to have reached about the fifty-fifth year of his age. What, moreover, St. Junian did while he was living at Comodoliac, and which are known from the Life, are reduced to a few miracles; on which we shall set some remarks in the annotations to the Acts.

[27] [and obtained a tomb at Comodoliac, over which St. Ruricius the younger built an oratory of St. Andrew,] Of the burial of St. Junian nothing else occurs in the Life to be published than that a Basilica was built by Ruricius the younger, where the holy limbs of the most blessed Junian might be laid. The fuller Life, however, supplies more about the burial of St. Junian, which it seems should be recited, since they are to be thought contemporary with the elevation of the Relics, which they here explain at length. After, therefore, the most blessed Junian by his happy death had closed his last day, Roricius, not unmindful of the benefit which he had received from him, decided to carry his body to Limoges; and when, divine Providence disposing otherwise, he could not, he ordered a basilica dedicated in honour of St. Andrew to be built not far from his cell, which hangs above the Vigenna on the slope of the mountain: and there he honourably buried him. For while the most blessed Junian was living, he was accustomed to offer prayers to God under a certain thorn bush; and when he was dead, Roricius, with most happy honour, buried him about two cubits from it; for so he deliberated that it was more fitting, on account of the sanctity of the place where he used to pray. Then he built an altar between the head of St. Junian and the thorn; and because it was in the way of the altar, he cut it down; but the root remained in the depths. And when it was found with the tomb, it was seen still adorned with its first sap and with the greenness of clinging branches, and deservedly it was flourishing, under which the prayers of the Saint had blossomed. For it would have been very unfitting that it should become dry which he deserted neither in life nor in death. In which place whoever with a sincere heart asks of God what is just through the name of St. Junian returns without difficulty having obtained his prayers.

[28] in which his Relics were discovered The mind is aglow, the heart and eyes burn together with love of seeing, to behold the tomb which within its enclosures contained the Relics of St. Junian; nor do the eyes suffice to look upon as much as the mind longs. But while they were clinging fixed in one gaze, a certain most ill-starred woman approached, breaking through the middle of the line; and what others did not presume, she alone presumed in wretched rashness. For, flying forward, raging with the most swift goad of the ancient serpent and polluted in sense, she touched with the hem of her stained tunic the dust about the tomb of St. Junian: but the punishment of vengeance was not lacking there. Immediately an unclean spirit seized her, and, tormenting her most violently, sent madness into her, and a most cruel fury. Therefore, when the bystanders perceived this wonderful sign, at once, shaken with terror, they turned pale with fear. Then each took care for himself against what had befallen the wretched little woman. And those who were conscious to themselves of any crime drew back their foot, dreading vengeance. Meanwhile the aforesaid unhappy woman was being most bitterly tormented by a most hostile demon, and about her her wretched parents were lamenting, and her relatives also were weeping. On the following night, therefore, they spent the night with lamps in prayers at the tomb of St. Junian, and when the light of the morrow had risen, they received back the handmaid purged of the demon. And she, though she had formerly been evil, learned through the prince of malice to be good. For from the time that she was snatched from his power, at every revolution of the year she did penance for her sin, which she rashly incurred, up to her last day.

[29] about the year 990; The Rev. Mr. Labiche de Reignefort Six mois de Vies de Saints de Limoges, volume II, page 237. refers this rediscovery of the Relics to about the year 990, while Alduin, or Hilduin, occupied the see of Limoges. Itherius, namely, so he discourses in French, the last regular abbot of the monastery of St. Junian, invited the people and clergy of Limoges to this celebration, and proclaimed a day of solemn fast. On the 26th day of January, after the hours of Matins had been sung, while the people and clergy were pouring out their prayers before God, with immense difficulty (this arose from the prudent caution with which Ruricius II had buried the Blessed man) he opened the hidden tomb, and lifted the sacred body out of it; which, placed in a wooden and painted casket (for the poverty of the monastery did not allow a richer reliquary to be made), was translated onto the high altar of the church, the people, who stood by in throngs, applauding and rejoicing.

[30] which a century later were again translated and are still preserved. The same hagiographer of Limoges Ibid. mentions another translation of the Relics, which was made on the 21st day of October of the year 1102, and is ascribed to Reginald or Raynald, bishop of Périgueux, acting in place of the prelate of Limoges, who was hindered by illness; and if this is true (and there is nothing that conflicts with it), the Gallia Christiana Volume II, column 1461 and following. will have to be corrected, which referred the episcopate of Périgueux of Raymond, who succeeded Reginald, to the year 1101 or even to earlier times. However that may be, Reginald or Raymond translated with the greatest solemnity the bodies of Saints Junian and Amandus, and also of St. Ruricius II. The head of St. Junian was then extracted by that prelate from the meaner casket and placed in a rich cup of gilded silver; which was enclosed in a huge and rich reliquary, furnished with silver plates, golden ornaments, and gems. The remaining sacred bones, in two wooden cases, with iron

fittings, were put in and deposited in the former stone tomb which St. Ruricius II had built; and which, after Itherius had lifted St. Junian's bones from it, had been restored and placed above ground at the lower end of the sanctuary. The prelate of Périgueux then closed that tomb with two sloping stones joined with lime and mortar. About eight years later that monument was surrounded with stone screens adorned with relief statues of the twelve Saints; on which was placed a huge white stone to support the silver pyx of the head; and at the lower end of the tomb, within the screens, a stone was afterwards placed, inscribed:

Hic jacet in ipso vase corpus S. Juniani, in quo sepelivit eum Roricius episcopus. Raynaldus vero Petragoricensis episcopus, qui meruit martyr fieri, collegit eum in scriniis ligneis infra vas repositis.

[Here lies, in the very vessel in which Bishop Roricius buried him, the body of St. Junian. But Raynald, bishop of Périgueux, who merited to become a martyr, gathered him into wooden caskets placed within the vessel.]

Which martyrdom the Rev. Mr. Labiche de Reignefort relates he underwent in Palestine. But that fables are being peddled here, and that the latter words of that inscription were added there afterwards, is clear on two heads. For first, according to a certain epitome and other manuscript records adduced by the collectors of the Gallia Christiana Ibid., in the place cited., that martyrdom would have happened at Antioch on the 8th day before the Ides of September of the year 1099, when Reginald was already spending his third year in those parts; whence it would be manifest that the elevation of the Relics was not made by Reginald in the year 1102; next, on the 3rd day before the Nones of October of the year 1098 he was present with the abbots of his diocese at the Council of Bordeaux, and in the year 1099 at the consecration of the church of Uzerche, as the Gallia Christiana has it Ibid., in the place cited.. Whence that martyrdom, endured in the East in the year 1099, collapses altogether; and room is made for the prelate of Périgueux to celebrate this rediscovery of the relics. It is not clear that the venerable tomb of the holy hermit was opened thereafter; and indeed it is established that during the tumults of the French republic it suffered no damage. Nor did the notable Relics of his head perish at that time, which Labiche de Reignefort says Six mois de Vies de Saints de Limoges, page 238. he venerated with the people when the solemnity of the Exposition was held with much celebration in the year 1820.

[31] An attempted translation older than these seems to be false. The so often cited Collin, and his imitator Labiche de Reignefort, mention another translation undertaken in vain, the attempt at which had been made long before these two. For four years after St. Junian had been buried at Comodoliac, St. Ruricius II was pleased to carry the body of the Blessed Confessor down into the church of St. Augustine at Limoges, built by his predecessor Ruricius I, since he had chosen his burial there. But when the tomb of St. Junian was opened and the body placed on a cart, the horses stood motionless, so that they could not be driven forward by any force. Wherefore Ruricius ordered that they should put back the sacred remains, dig around the former tomb, and cover it with three huge stones, that no one thereafter might be able to touch the bones of the hermit; and moreover that they should prepare burial for himself some day beside his friend. But that whole attempt is a little story of slight credibility, perversely deduced from what we copied somewhat above from an ancient document: After, therefore, the most blessed Junian by his happy death had closed his last day, Roricius, not unmindful of the benefit which he had received from him, decided to carry his body to Limoges; and when, divine Providence disposing otherwise, he could not, he ordered a basilica to be built not far from his cell … Moreover, in the sixth century the bodies of the Saints were very rarely dug up to be given burial elsewhere; as those who have tasted ecclesiastical antiquities have been sufficiently taught.

[32] The said chapel of St. Andrew gave place to the monastery of St. Junian, Of the church and monastery built in the very place where St. Junian lived there remain certain things to be recorded, with all the better right because some manifestly stray from the truth in elucidating the fortunes of this monastery. From what was said above it is clear that the corpse of Blessed Junian was buried on the slope of the mountain of Comodoliac, about two cubits from the thorn under which he used to pray to God; that a chapel or basilica was founded in that place by Ruricius II, so that the altar was between the thorn and the tomb, and that the title of St. Andrew was given to that little church; whence it is clear that the Gallia Christiana errs Volume II, page 552. when it affirms that the earlier title of this church was of St. Junian, to which that other of St. Andrew was afterwards added. The alms of pious pilgrims abounding, as we have already learned from St. Gregory of Tours, that chapel of St. Andrew grew into a monastery. Collin and the Rev. Mr. Labiche de Reignefort will have it that money was contributed for building the monastery by Ruricius II himself; and I confess that the Life to be published favours them somewhat, in which one reads that a basilica was built by Ruricius; which word in Gaul, as Adrien de Valois tried to establish in a particular little work on basilicas, very often signified the church of some monastery. But since St. Gregory of Tours, who they say visited this place Launoy, Complete Works, volume II, part I, page 191., does not mention this monastery, since all the Lives of St. Junian are likewise silent, and finally since Valois' rule admits of exception, as the Rev. Mr. Binterim Denkwürdigkeiten der katholischen Kirche, volume IV, part I, page 25. rightly teaches (for I pass over Launoy's angry dissertations against Valois on this matter): I prefer to assert nothing rather than rashly incur the danger of erring. But in the year 848 it was certainly called a monastery, as is established from the Chronicle of Adhemar of Chabannes; which in our Labbe Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum, volume II, page 161. runs thus: But Josfred the treasurer, unwilling to leave the world, hired by bishop Stodilus, stole away the monastery of St. Junian and the church of Cairo from the right and lordship of St. Martial by plunder and evil cunning. Which Geoffrey of Vigeois Ibid., pages 285 and 312. confirms. Since, moreover, Adhemar wrote his Chronicle a century and a half after the year 848, it is likewise clear from the adduced place that in the most ancient times the name of St. Junian adhered to this monastery, which the Gallia Christiana Volume II, column 552. wrongly surnamed also from St. Amandus.

[33] whose fortunes were various. A little after this year that monastery was destroyed by the Danes or Normans, as again the Gallia Christiana Ibid. and Labiche de Reignefort Six mois de Vies, etc., page 236. report; but about the year 880, by the same witnesses, it was repaired; which indeed, as the Gallia Christiana continues Volume II, column 553., from the end of the tenth century was only a provostship, but a regular one, until, as it seems, the year 1150; at about which time we read that various churches were given to the church of St. Andrew and St. Junian Ibid., column 552.. The canon Collin relates that the first regular provost was Blessed Israel, famous for his holiness, in the Life which he collected from the old records of the churches of Le Dorat and Saint-Junien, and which the Gallia Christiana Ibid., column 551. testifies was formerly preserved in the abbey of L'Esterps. He moreover restored the church of Comodoliac, or of Saints Andrew and Junian, as the same Collin is the author; which restoration must have been begun and advanced before the year 1014, since God translated the soul of St. Israel from exile to the happy inheritance on the 11th day before the Kalends of January in the year of the Lord one thousand and fourteen, as his biographer in Labbe puts it Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum, volume II, column 567.. The same church, moreover, we have learned from the Gallia Christiana Volume II, column 549. was consecrated on the 21st day of October in the year 1102, as the Rev. Mr. Labiche de Reignefort will have it Six mois de Vies de Saints, etc., page 237., by Reginald, bishop of Périgueux, at the same time translating the Relics of the three Saints.

[34] [When in the thirteenth century the church was being enlarged, it is said to have been illustrated by a miracle,] That in the following century, however, before the year 1240, the church, which was already being restored at the beginning of the eleventh century, had not yet been completed, may be learned from Collin together with other circumstances; he has almost these words: In the time of the provost Durand of Orliac the great gable (pignon) and the vault which covers the tomb of St. Junian did not yet exist, and the workmen were occupied in building the greater window, which, imitating a rose, rejoices in the name of rose and receives the rising sun. The work was languishing and growing cool: wherefore, when the canon Itherius had been sent to hasten the construction, driven by the wind or by a demon, he fell from a high scaffold onto a heap of stones and beams. He was free of every wound; which was credited to St. Junian, whom he devoutly venerated. Collin then narrates at length that twelve men clothed in white garments appeared at the time of the nocturnal funeral rites of this Itherius, and that it was reckoned that St. Junian was among them. Which things he copied, as he testifies at the beginning, from old manuscript codices: but the antiquity of codices alone does not command credence.

[35] and by another prodigy in the year 1312. The Rev. Mr. Labiche de Reignefort Six mois de Vies de Saints, etc., page 236 and following. reports two other benefits which are usually ascribed to St. Junian. The first he declares to have been drawn from the writing of an eyewitness who had committed it to memory four years afterwards. In the year 1312, namely, on a certain Sunday after Compline had been sung, a thunderbolt fell into the church of St. Junian, and laid those present on the ground, without, however, harming anyone, and the meteor hung in the air for about half an hour about fifteen feet above the pavement; yet if the circumstances of this matter were more accurately known, it might perhaps be that what was formerly called a miracle could be explained from the known laws of nature.

[36] Under the patronage of St. Junian, the town is saved. The Rev. Mr. Labiche In the place cited. adds another benefit, which the inhabitants reckoned was conferred on them by God at the intercession of St. Junian. For in the year 1587, when the French Calvinists were on the point of seizing the town of Saint-Junien by guile, they were detected in so wonderful a manner that all were persuaded it had been done by the help of their patron, and they instituted for all time an annual public supplication, by which they might render thanks to their preserver, and which the said hagiographer of Limoges thinks is still celebrated. And so much for the patronage of St. Junian.

[37] Which Life it seems should be published. Since the office of double rite which was inserted in the Breviary of Limoges in the year 1625, no less than the old one which the canons of Saint-Junien used on the feast of St. Junian, is a mere synopsis of the Life to be published and has no particular form, I forbear to entrust it to print. For the same reason I omit the Life written by Bernard Gui, which the reader may see in Gonon in the Lives of the hermit Fathers of East and West Page 208.. I pass over also the fuller Life, of which it was spoken chiefly at numbers 14, 27, 28. It seems that it will be preferable that one more ancient than this,

and therefore to be referred to the seventh or at least the eighth century, copied from the codex of Cluny, be put to press after the Life or Office of St. Amandus.

OFFICE OF ST. AMANDUS,

comprising his life and the translation of his Relics.

From the manuscript traditions of the Church of St. Junian of Comodoliac.

Junian, anchorite, in the district of Limoges. (S.)

Amandus, his master, in the district of Limoges. (S.)

BHL Number: 0328

All is said from the common of a Confessor not a Pontiff, except the proper parts which follow. At first and second vespers and at lauds, antiphons:

A synopsis of his life, I. Amandus was named, loving God and loved by the people whom he taught ^a, and by Christ whom he worshipped.

II. On the stone, which is Christ, he had founded his faith, and in Him he always lived, and ended his life.

III. When Amandus from this world happily breathed his last, Junian buried his body beside the rock.

IV. The body of blessed Amandus and his Relics ^b were found by Ramnulph on a Wednesday.

V. In heaven is exalted Amandus, and crowned with laurel by Christ, for love of whom he lived in a shining body.

Chapter: Blessed is the man who is found, etc.

[2] Hymn:

in which the chief deeds of St. Amandus, Rejoice, O land, made illustrious by the virtues of Amandus; whose life, with twofold light, shone in deeds, made comely by glorious ones, and by the manners of honour.

All things for Thee he resigned, O Christ; leading the solitary life, he aspired to the heavenly homeland; he spurned, fled, rejected the glory of this world.

Him as master and ruler Junian had, whose life and the brightness of whose manners he wished to follow; and by following him thus he merited immortal honour.

Thee, Amandus, this our assembly piously beseeches, that it may be rescued from evils, and with thee, in the heavenly palace, enjoy everlasting joy.

Praise be to the Father, praise to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, to whose blessed will Amandus devotedly served; and so longed-for a reward he merits to enjoy. Amen.

Pray for us, St. Amandus, etc.

Antiphon at the Magnificat:

Let the Church magnify the wonders of Amandus, over whom the court of heaven rejoices with gladness.

Prayer: Almighty everlasting God, who didst confer upon Blessed Amandus Thy Confessor, striving in the desert of this world against the frauds of the demons, the palm of victory in heaven, make us so steadfast in the faith of Christ that, about to fight against the wickedness of the enemy, we may be victors in adversities. Through, etc.

[3] his discovery, At matins, invitatory: Let us praise the king of heaven, who crowned Amandus with laurel, and placed him among the choirs of the Angels. Psalm: Venite, etc. Hymn: Iste Confessor, etc. Antiphons at the first nocturn:

I. Blessed Amandus did not stand in the ways of sinners, but chose to live in the desert beside the Vienne.

II. The shepherds were astonished when they found Amandus dwelling among the rocks in the desert without a hearth.

III. To Roricius, prelate of Limoges, they reported ^c how they had found St. Amandus in the desert.

℣. The Lord loved him, etc. The lessons of the first nocturn throughout the whole octave are always taken from the occurring scripture when the octave is kept.

[4] Responsories of the lessons of the first nocturn:

the building of his cell I. The place where he dwells is called Comodoliacus, set among the rocks beside the bank of the Vienne.

℣. And his place was made in peace, and his dwelling beside the bank of the Vienne.

II. Roricius ordered a cell to be built there, in which Blessed Amandus might worship God, and live with a clean heart, set apart from this world.

℣. For the holy man chose it for his dwelling, set apart from this world.

III. The man Amandus, a hermit, was tempted in this life to reject God and to worship idols ^d.

℣. The enemies of the Lord lied to him, that he might reject God and worship idols.

[5] Antiphons in the second nocturn:

and the coming of St. Junian is set forth. I. When Amandus called upon Jesus Christ * to take the demon captive, Him whom he sought, He at once heard him.

II. Junian struck the door of the cell and cried: Receive, holy Amandus, my words and attend.

III. I am called Junian, a true Christian of God, who destroy the fighter, the enemy and avenger.

℣. The mouth of the just, etc.

[6] These things being briefly repeated, First lesson of the second nocturn: Blessed Amandus, sprung from a noble lineage, a despiser of this world, desiring to serve God, turned aside to the rocks of this village, whose name was Comodoliacus, but which is now called the town of St. Junian, above the river Vienne, and among those rocks, leading a solitary life for many courses of time under a certain cave, was found by shepherds, who announced it to St. Roricius, bishop of Limoges. And the bishop himself caused a little cell to be built there, scarcely capable of thirty men entering, yet very roomy for the Saint of God; and in it afterwards the most holy Junian, son of a count of Cambrai ^e, was an inhabitant with him, who so strengthened St. Amandus against the temptations of the demons that they both overcame the demons with their wiles. At length, very many years having passed, Blessed Amandus passed happily to Christ the Lord, and Blessed Junian with his own hands buried his body within the rock itself, cut out according to the size of the body. Still, however, even for very many and endless times after the happy passing of St. Junian, the place where Blessed Amandus had been buried, and where his body lay, was by no means known; but by the providence of God, which makes His Saints wonderful, shining forth through works, Hubo abbot of the monastery of Cluny, a man of great holiness, who visited very many monasteries , his monastery ^f of the loving Apostle Martial at Limoges, by reason of the office he had undertaken, and having completed a few days there, going down for a similar cause of visitation to the monastery of St. John of Angély ^g, made his way through this village. — But Thou, etc. Responsory:

And when the man Amandus had received St. Junian, and had firmly taught him in our faith, at length Amandus gave back his spirit to the Redeemer; whose body Junian committed to burial.

℣. The Lord hath prepared His seat in heaven, whose body, etc.

[7] it is narrated at length how, by the intervention of St. Hugh of Cluny, Second lesson: And there he was entertained, as was fitting, by the brother Canons of the basilica of St. Junian. Now this abbot, among his other gifts of virtues, had the custom that the divine words of the new and old Testament should be read to him ^h while he ate; and while he sat at table, having learned that the Life of St. Junian was kept in their basilica, he caused it to be brought to him quickly at table; and when it was read in place of the Bible, and the abbot heard a few things narrated in it about the life and doctrine of Blessed Amandus, he at once asked the brethren sitting at table with him where the body of St. Amandus was said to rest; and when they answered that they did not know his tomb, nor did they have his body, the abbot himself, together with those brethren, the meal having been taken, went on to the place ⁱ where the cell had stood, but it was now ruined from its excessive age. The place having been looked over on every side by the same abbot, the abbot charitably admonished the brethren to visit with a pure heart, devoutly, and very often, the place venerable through the dwelling of such great Saints, and to build an oratory there, in which they might celebrate the divine offices. On the following day the abbot with his monks set out on his journey to Angély; the aforesaid Canons of the basilica of St. Junian, however, stopping their own ears to the hearing of the aforesaid admonitions of Hugh, neglected to make the oratory. At length, after the lapse of some time, the same abbot was called back by the prince of the Poitevins ^k, that he might hand over the monastery which the abbot himself had built in honour of St. John the Evangelist in the suburb of Poitiers to the same prince to be endowed, to be served by a certain number of monks. — But Thou, etc. Responsory:

Hugh, Abbot of Cluny, making for Comodoliacus, and hearing there the blessed life of St. Amandus, at once arranged that a basilica should be built, where Blessed Amandus had his little cell.

℣. For there the Lord commanded blessing and life for evermore, where Blessed Amandus, etc.

[8] the Relics were discovered and translated; Third lesson: Which abbot, making his journey again through the aforesaid village, whose name is Comodoliacus, and being entertained there by the same brethren, asked of them whether they had built the aforesaid oratory; and having learned that they had done nothing, he rebuked them for their excessive negligence. On the following day the same abbot, setting out on the journey, asked Amelius, provost of the basilica of St. Junian, and Ramnulph his canon, to lead him to the said little cell; and he enjoined on the monks whom the abbot himself was leading with him to go on a little ahead of him, being content for the present with the company of Ramnulph and Amelius, and the rock and the place of the cell, in which St. Junian and St. Amandus had dwelt, were shown to him by those canons. And the abbot, weary of this active life, wishing to contemplate in the Lord, most urgently asked those canons to permit him to lead and end his life under the rock; but the abbot, forbidden by them, departed thence weeping; Ramnulph, then kindled with the same desire, considering within himself how the abbot himself, who had been led from the farthest parts with great fervour of spirit to the building of the aforesaid church, resolved to do it. The same Ramnulph and Gerald, a canon, having performed a three days' fast, digging round under the tree which had grown up at the head of St. Amandus, found the body itself of St. Amandus ^l; and translated it beside the shrine of St. Junian on a Wednesday, so that all the sick flocking to the tomb received the benefit of health. Among whom Peter the deacon, tormented by the flame of fever, when he had slept under the tree of St. Amandus, waking from sleep, at once went away made whole, and moreover the blind obtained sight, the demented reason, the dumb speech, the lame the power of walking. — But Thou, etc. Responsory:

To the aforesaid canons Hugh, departing, foretold that in the cell of St. Amandus, in which he lived long, there would shortly be a church in his memory.

℣. You shall adore in the place where his feet stood. That there would shortly be a church, etc.

[9] which translation Antiphons in the third nocturn:

a. When to Comodoliacus the aforesaid Abbot came again, and found that nothing had been done about the chapel.

promised to seek the body of Amandus in his cell and to build the chapel.

he fasted here three days, and on the altar of St. Junian he sang mass.

℣. The law of God, etc. Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew: At that time Simon Peter said to Jesus: Behold, we have left, etc. Homily of Bede, as on the fifth day within the octave of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Responsories:

fellow-canon of Ramnulph, tormented by the flame of fever, slept upon the tree, and, waking from sleep, went away made whole.

℣. By Him who heals the contrite of heart and binds up their bruises: ℞. and waking from sleep, etc.

and the finding of the body, from the limbs of St. Amandus, the venerable Confessor, so great a fragrance flowed forth that it restored to health all those truly sick who flocked to the tomb.

℣. This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes. ℞. That all those truly sick, etc. Glory be. That all. — Antiphons at Lauds as at first Vespers. — ℣. Pray for us, Blessed Amandus, etc.

[10] is here adorned Hymn:

Of Amandus, with pure minds, let us celebrate the solemnities; by whose doctrine, manners, and faith the Church grows green.

He, having left all things, following the footsteps of Christ, with all the efforts of his mind sought heavenly things.

To him in solitude Junian is companion, who, with a twofold light, joined together, shone the more brightly.

Amandus, lovable man, preserve our college ^m; may our praise and service be favourable to us.

With equal glory let us praise the Father, Son, and Paraclete, by whose grace Amandus avoided every unlawful thing.

— Versicle as above.

[11] with versicles. Antiphon at the Benedictus:

Today ⁿ the devotion and holy hands of the canons found the holy body of Amandus, and translated it beside the shrine in which lies the most holy Junian.

At second Vespers all as at first, except the Antiphon at the Magnificat:

In the place in which Blessed Amandus was buried a church has been made ^o: through whose suffrages sight is given there to the blind, and laughter restored to the sorrowful, health to the sick, and steadiness to the lame, reason to the demented, and speech to the dumb.

ANNOTATA.

Jesus Chritus*

Hugo*

supply obiens or gubernans* going round or governing

sua*

neglexerunt*

phthisicus* consumptive

asserts were drawn up by Blessed Rudolph in the year 1102. But Mittarelli and Costadoni of the Camaldolese Order, writers of the notable and most vast work of the Camaldolese Annals, have published Volume III, Appendix, column 512. Constitutions written in the year 1080 by Blessed Rudolph, and others Ibid., column 542. made in the year 1085. Further, in the former, chapter XXX, it is prescribed that if any Camaldolese should die in the place of Fonte-buono, he should be carried to the hermitage to be buried. For it is just that he should have the tomb of his departure where he had the dwelling of his solitary holiness. In the latter Ibid., column 546. the same is prescribed, and the same reason given.

LIFE OF ST. JUNIAN,

Monk and Confessor.

From a Manuscript Codex of Cluny.

Junian, anchorite, in the district of Limoges. (S.)

Amandus, his master, in the district of Limoges. (S.)

BHL Number: 4560

PROLOGUE.

The usefulness of the lives of the Saints. As often as the mind wishes to sound forth in narrating the virtues of any of the Saints, it ought first of all, with the whole effort of the heart, to ask their indweller ^a with humble and submissive prayer, that He who conferred on them abundance or triumph of virtues may grant to us His servants strength for narrating them, whence the hearts of the faithful may be the more faithfully kindled to imitate their works; since it is established that souls are roused to the love of the heavenly homeland no less by the examples of good works than by the word of preaching: and therefore, as our discourse arises concerning the life or conduct of the holy man Junian, let the beginning first of all be set down of how, or by what means, his conversion began to grow toward the knowledge of God Almighty.

ANNOTATA.

LIFE.

In the time of Clovis, king of the Franks When, in the borders of the provinces of Gaul and Aquitaine, the Arian heresy was being savagely followed under Alaric ^a, prince of the Goths ^b, and the nation of the Franks was at that time held in the error of heathenism, St. Remigius ^c, bishop of the city of Reims, preaching, Clovis, king of the Franks, with a great superstitious and deadly crowd of heathens, flew to the grace of baptism; who presently set to exhorting the whole nation of the Franks to share in baptism, that under the light yoke of Christ they might bind their strong necks with a sweet burden; who presently, having taken counsel with the priests ^d, the grace of Christ going before, that the heretical nation might be driven from the dominion of the Christians, made war with the aforesaid king Alaric in the borders of the Poitevins ^e; and presently, supported by divine help, having slain the prince of the Arians with his followers, he removed the dogma of that superstition from the borders of the Gauls and Aquitanians, and established all in the disciplines of the one true faith of the Christian Catholic religion.

[3] St. Amandus became a hermit in the district of Limoges; At about that time a noble man named Amandus, born of illustrious ^f birth, not a deaf hearer of the Gospel, having left all things, is seen to have built for himself, in the vast solitude ^g of the land of a certain most noble man of holy memory, the Pontiff Ruricius ^h, the name of which is called Comodoliacus, a not large little hut in which he might lead a more remote life. But while he was leading a life full of virtues in that same place, he is found there by shepherds. As soon as his fame reached the lord of the aforesaid land, he ordered a very little cell to be built for him to suit the aforesaid man: in which, while he led a solitary life, he endured, as is said, no small combats of the ancient enemy.

[4] to whom as master St. Junian entrusted himself; Then the aforesaid religious boy Junian, having left his parents, desiring to sing * in this way, so that he might by no means be deprived of the inheritance of the eternal homeland, and desiring to commend himself to the knowledge of Christ by the teachings of the aforesaid man Amandus, began to knock at his doors that it might be opened to him. When he knew that he was at the doors, the man of God, thinking that an illusion or diabolical temptation was present, gave himself for some time ⁱ to silence, nor yet did he at once open entrance to him, until he should test for what cause the aforesaid venerable boy had come to his cell. But having learned who he was, he at once received him with joy, and showed him the way of salvation. Wherefore Junian is known to have grown, the mercy of the Lord helping, in such humility and such holiness that he not only became an imitator of his master,

but also, kindled with divine love, set alight ^k the life and virtue of his master. In those same days, therefore, when the death of this Amandus was drawing near, he passed by a happy departure to the Lord; yet he saved many, as is said, by his example.

[5] His master dead, St. Junian puts to flight a horrible serpent, After his death the aforesaid venerable man Junian led a solitary life in his cell for a long space of time, and while he was powerful in many miracles, at a certain time a serpent of wonderful size ^l appeared beside his cell. Since many desired to approach the cell of the aforesaid man to be healed of the onsets of divers diseases and to commend themselves to his prayers, they were being torn by the aforesaid savage beast, and it laid waste with its ferocity not only men but also the cattle that it could reach. People of both sexes from the neighbouring places, joined as one *, besought the aforesaid servant of God that by his prayers he would drive this beast from their borders, lest it should cause further losses in that place, and that he would afford them a way by which they might have freer access to his cell. Constrained by their prayers, the man of God, relying on the help of the Holy Spirit, when he saw this savage beast coming forth from its lair, stretched out his right hand and set the standard of the cross against it, commanding in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that it should not presume to dwell any longer in those places, nor inflict harm on anyone, before it took its course into the open sea. It at once, at the command of the man of God, many beholding, having left its lair, departed from that place, and through the territory of the Poitevins ^m entered the waves of the Ocean sea. This, therefore, was the first matter or testimony of the miracles of the most holy man Junian.

[6] by means of miraculous water he allays a pestilence; But as divine vengeance is wont to follow the sins of a people, at that time, in the borders of the Poitevins, the disaster of a grave pestilence ⁿ is known to have consumed a great part of that people: for when the aforesaid populace saw itself perishing, and the reputation of the often-mentioned Junian was spreading far and wide, many, seeing themselves perishing in this peril, came together to the cell of the aforesaid man, asking that he would give them blessed water, which had been conferred on him by the Lord *, through which by his prayers they might escape the imminent danger. He at once answered them that he had no other water than what the neighbouring river, whose name is called the Vicenna, supplied. But when they persisted in asking, and the aforesaid man was wearying his little body with fasts and prayers and vigils, at the break of morning twilight he saw in his cell ^o water pouring forth abundantly from the side of the rock, which the man of God, drawing with thanksgiving and blessing the almighty Lord, brought to the people who asked. They receiving it with faith, all who drank of that water escaped the peril of the death written above; and as they carried some of that water with them into their regions, as many as touched a drink of it all received the grace of salvation; and, the miracles and prayers of the aforesaid man assisting, through the grace and mercy of the almighty Lord this disaster of pestilence departed from the said people; and many coming to his cell received the grace of health; and more, placed far off, were restored to their former health from that disaster through the blessing of the holy man: nor can it be doubted that it was His miracle who once brought forth water from the rock for the ancient people crying out in the desert for want of drink, so that as then the people of Israel might take it abundantly, so now at the prayers of His servant Junian a spring might flow by grace to wash away the rage of disease for the salvation of the aforesaid people.

[7] he hurls the devil, who had tried to throw him into the fire, into the Vienne, But since the rage of the envious devil often wishes to pursue the miracles of the Saints, and by the providence of the divine mercy is not permitted to do as much as it wishes, while on a certain day the aforesaid holy man was leading a solitary life within his cell, and was sitting before the coals to warm his little body, at once the ancient enemy, rushing with a violent onset, threw the limbs of the same holy man into the very fire; but divine help was not lacking to free him whom the temptation of the devil had seized to destroy. For at once, freed by divine service *, the holy man was seen to have plunged that bloody beast headlong [p], since his cell stood upon the rock, from the top of the mountain down its side into the river Vincenna; and He who once plunged the enemy of His ancient people with chariots and horsemen and four-horse teams into the deep sea, now through His help to His aforesaid servant Junian plunged the devilish enemy into the river; and he who at the beginning of his creation wished to set himself above the very author of life, God the creator of all things, now also tried to lay low the servant of God Junian by his malice; but rather he was conquered and laid low by him.

[8] he heals a blind man, and another lame and deaf; After he understood that he had been snatched by the mercy of almighty God from the temptations of the crafty enemy, relying also on divine help and sympathizing with the infirmities of others, he healed many by his prayers [q]. For at that same time a certain blind man, coming to him, besought the gaze of the holy man, that, since he had lost the light of his eyes, he might merit by his prayers to lose the darkness of blindness and receive the health of his eyes. And when he had been intent on prayer for two days, on the third day he was seen, by the Lord's doing, to have restored clear light; and not long after another also, who appeared to be lame and deaf, is brought to the cell of this holy man, begging that he who had given light to the blind would by his prayers give him walking and hearing. But the holy man, pouring out prayer to the Lord, after some days, when he came back, exhorts him, saying to him that if he remained in the Lord with unblemished faith he should not doubt that he would receive health; and it came to pass that, while the sick man was wishing to return home on foot at the command of the man of God, freed from both infirmities he received both the strength of walking and the effect of hearing. How many also were freed from unclean spirits by his prayers, and how many demons were put to flight from possessed bodies by his prayers, it would be too long to narrate in order.

[9] he frees Ruricius the younger, afterwards bishop, from a legion of demons. Now at that same time a certain noble man, born of illustrious birth, Ruricius, who was called by another name Proculus, enriched with an abundance of possessions, when he had been lifted up in the haughtiness of pride, not undeservedly, by the dispensing judgment of almighty God, is handed over to him who first lifted himself up in pride. Humbled, he felt how much he had lost in his swelling; but when he was being handled [r] by physicians, and also, what is graver, by sorcerers and enchanters, by his faithful followers and even by his own household slaves, and had consumed part of his substance through such men, who, while they wished to restore him to health, pursued him more grievously, while they wished to cast one out of him, at once, as is said, a legion of demons entered into him. But when he was being more sharply harassed by many, his people, returning to themselves, began to consider what they should also do, namely to bring him to the cell of the holy man Junian, so that he who could not before be cured by physicians might be healed by the prayers of the holy man. A wholesome counsel having therefore been taken, they go to the man of God: the man of God exhorted only this, that he should persist in fasts and prayers and vigils and bestow large alms from his substance on the poor, because this kind of demons cannot be overcome otherwise, as he confirmed according to the sentence also uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ; but when he himself brought out much money that he might merit to be cured of so great an enemy, the holy man gave this in reply, that it was not just that he who had of his own accord left his own things for God should be enriched by the wealth of others; but that what was offered to him he should bestow on the substance of the poor, because He was able to snatch him from so great an enemy who had driven a legion out of a demoniac man coming forth and permitted it to go into the swine. But when there had been prayer for a long time, and he besought the Lord for his health with many fasts and vigils, by his merits he is restored to his former health, and so, the divine mercy granting it, he is rendered so sound that now none of that very crowd of malignant spirits, at the command of the aforesaid servant of God, presumed to have a return into his little body; but in body and mind, by the prayer and correction of the aforesaid holy man Junian, he was so restored to health that after the death of his cousin [s] of holy memory, the lord Ruricius, formerly prelate of the city of Limoges, he was established as bishop. And afterwards too the aforesaid man of God, powerful in many miracles, led a solitary life in the aforesaid place for the space of forty years: but who of us could narrate one by one how great combats he had there against the ancient enemy?

[10] But when, after so many labours, our merciful Lord Jesus Christ now wished to place him from the perils of this toilsome life in the seats of paradise, He dies, is buried, is honoured with a church, and is renowned for miracles. and to join him to the number of the holy Angels, after so many spaces of time in which he here led a laborious life in the world, he breathed out his last spirit. Not unmindful in the least was the aforesaid man Ruricius or Proculus of how great benefits he had obtained from the aforesaid holy man; he ordered a basilica [t] to be built where the holy limbs of the most Blessed Junian might be laid, in which place also his conversation had formerly been. When anything is asked with faith, the mercy of the Almighty deigns to confer there such aids of miracles that many sick of divers infirmities, coming to the aforesaid man Junian, depart made whole. But we have discoursed in passing on a few of his miracles, that we might hand down the memory of so great a man to posterity, that he who healed many by his power and edified them by his example may now by his prayers deign to be the guardian of this people, so that both here by his suffrages we may be free from all evils, and in eternal beatitude may merit by his prayers to be made equal to him, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom is honour and glory, who grants such great glory to His Saints, who with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. [u]

ANNOTATA.

p. What of truth, what of falsehood savours in this narrative, the reader will easily divine.

q. With these miracles the text of St. Gregory of Tours reported at number 22 agrees.

r. The sense is dislocated; perhaps one ought to read: ad maleficos … duceretur was taken to sorcerers.

Fortunatus, who certainly knew Ruricius the younger, calls Ruricius the elder not his cousin but his grandfather in the epitaph which he wrote on the two Ruriciuses; I excerpt a distich:

*Joined by blood, with the forename adding to their rank, they exult together, here the grandfather, there the grandson Gallia Christiana*, volume II, column 503..

Although in the middle age the word nepos indicated the son of a brother, and not only, as among good Latin authors, the son of a son (about which matter Vossius is known to have inquired at length), I do not wish to raise a dispute about the word nepos, since Fortunatus is not to be counted among bad Latinists. Since the deeds of the two holy Ruriciuses are to be illustrated at the 17th day of October, there is no reason for me here to refute the opinion of those who deny that St. Ruricius the elder begot children from his marriage. And if an opinion is now sought about the expulsion of the demons which is narrated at number 9 of the Life of St. Junian, a twofold question must be put: the first, whether the diseased state of Ruricius arose from the presence of demons; the other, whether he was in fact cured by St. Junian. In order that the former be answered affirmatively, there would have to be present at least a contemporary author, and not a too credulous one, since how difficult it is to pronounce on true possession is known from the common Catholic theologians; to the latter question, however, I judge that assent must be given, chiefly indeed because I do not understand how the people would have invented that St. Ruricius, their bishop, whom they honour with ecclesiastical cult, was possessed by demons and freed by St. Junian, unless he had at least been cured of some epileptic disease.

t. Of this basilica or oratory it was spoken more at length in the preliminary Commentary. What, however, is to be found at number 27 about the place where the body of St. Junian was laid you may compare with what Mabillon has in the preface to the second Benedictine Century and in the letter of Eusebius Romanus, Ruinart in the preface to the works of St. Gregory of Tours, number 53, or a great many others who have written either about the tombs of the Saints or about their canonization. Thence it will be easy to understand that St. Junian was canonized, or rather beatified, as we say today, by St. Ruricius the younger.

u. Here followed in the manuscript codex the words of St. Gregory of Tours which we reported at number 22 about the miracles of St. Junian. In the fuller Life a whole chapter is put together from the same words, more broadly diluted. These, however, as being additions, did not seem fit to be subjoined to the Life to be published.

Fuller Life delegaret*

Fuller Life sustulit*

From the fuller Life currere*

read unum*

gratia* is lacking

perhaps auxilio*