Salvius

ON ST. SALVIUS, IN THE DISTRICT OF AUXERRE IN GAUL,

BEFORE THE SEVENTH CENTURY.

SYLLOGE.

St. Salvius of Auxerre, mentioned in the Martyrologies, is distinct from St. Salvius of Albi, but is the same as the one of Nevers. The fortunes of the chapel sacred to him.

Salvius, in the district of Auxerre. (S.)

[The memory of St. Salvius is celebrated in the Martyrologies of Auxerre and Bourges.] The diocese of Auxerre lies in that tract of Gaul which they formerly called Burgundy; its metropolis was Sens; and from the third century

it is related to have already heard the precepts of Christian doctrine: and, what concerns us more closely, and is not its least glory, the land was fertile in Saints. For it venerates with ecclesiastical cult twenty or more of its first bishops, it was sprinkled with the blood of many Martyrs, nor did it lack fertility for producing Saints of another order. Deservedly, therefore, it has its own Martyrology, which came out in the year 1751, corrected, augmented, and illustrated by the care of Charles de Caylus, its prelate. In it, at the present day, there occurs this announcement: In the territory of Auxerre, of St. Salvius, monk, under whose name there was a cell within the same diocese in the sixth century: and another oratory existed before the thousandth year near the district of Villeneuve, which is thence called Villeneuve-Saint-Salve; and in the margin is added: before the year 540; which indicates the time of this Saint's death. Martène and Durand in volume VI of the Amplissima Collectio published several Martyrologies; among which there is a Martyrology of Auxerre of the tenth century, greatly praised by the editors; but you will seek the name of St. Salvius there in vain. On the other hand, that the memory of our St. Salvius is celebrated on the present day in the old Martyrology of Bourges Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum, volume II, page 697., which Labbe called the Hagiology of Franco-Gaul, will become manifest below.

[2] But it seems that before all things it must be proved that St. Salvius, whose feast is celebrated in so few records, About the year 587, as is clear from the constitution of St. Aunarius, cannot be confused with St. Salvius of Albi, bishop, of the same name. The best argument of all, however, seems able to be deduced from the antiquity of the cell which is mentioned in the foregoing announcement of the Martyrology of Auxerre. This cell, namely, which, distinguished by the name of Salvius, existed within the diocese of Auxerre in the sixth century, first became known through an authentic instrument which is inserted in the History of the Pontiffs of Auxerre, published by Labbe Ibid., volume I, page 419. and again partly printed in our work at the 25th of September. These are, namely, supplications proclaimed by St. Aunarius, bishop of Auxerre, in several, if not all, places of his diocese. The historiographer Lebeuf, who also published them Histoire d'Auxerre, volume I, page 119., attached to them about the year 596; saying that it may be that St. Aunarius did not proclaim these supplications before this year. But the shrewd man erred, since the anonymous historian of the Pontiffs of Auxerre puts these words first: Moreover the same most Blessed Pontiff established very many things in the Church of Auxerre, as is found in the ancient canons; which, that they might be observed with especial force, he strengthened to the utmost with the counsel and authority of the most Christian king Guntram. For for the protection of the flock committed to him by the Lord, he ordered that this institution should be kept both in the city of Auxerre and throughout the parishes. From which words it is manifest that this institution was made before the death of Guntram, king of Burgundy; which befell not in the year 596 but in 593. But moreover, at the year 587 or 588, St. Gregory of Tours History of the Franks, book IX, chapter XXI. left testimony that then a great part of Gaul was laid waste by the bubonic plague; but that king Guntram, as if a good priest, providing remedies by which the scars of the sinful people might be healed, ordered all the people to come together to the church, and Rogations to be celebrated with the utmost devotion, and nothing else to be taken for eating but barley bread with pure water, and all to be present urgently at the Vigils, which was so done at that time: and so, since the institution of St. Aunarius also prescribes Rogations and Vigils, it becomes in the highest degree probable that these supplications were proclaimed by St. Aunarius in the year 587 or 588, at Guntram's urging.

[3] [the cell of Salvius existed, which was a little church dedicated to him, not a monastery,] Further, among the churches in which Rogations are to be made or Litanies said on one day of each month, there comes on the 22nd day Cassiniacus, Nantiniacus, with the cell of Salvius and of Maurus. Now what this cell of Salvius means must be examined. The historian Lebeuf, who translated the other names, left these in Latin, and in a note proposes only a conjecture about Cassiniacus and Nantiniacus. In two chorographical maps, however, of which the former shows the state of the diocese under St. Aunarius as bishop and was made by the care of the geographer Robert, the cell of Salvius is called in French S. Sauveur, and is placed near Puisaye, a tract of this region, in the place where the monastery of St. Saviour was; but this is not only gratuitous, but the monastery of St. Saviour was moreover built only in the time of Charlemagne and dedicated by St. Maurinus the bishop: so the Gallia Christiana Volume XII, column 360.. If, therefore, I, a foreigner, using the geographical maps of Cassini, may conjecture something after the praised historian of Auxerre about the situation of the cell of Salvius, it pleases me more that this cell is the same place which afterwards, on account of its nearness, gave its name to Villeneuve-Saint-Salve, and about which Lebeuf himself often speaks. The reason which impels me to embrace this opinion is this: a little church enjoying the patronage and name of St. Salvius formerly existed in this place, as we shall see below: now a poor little church or oratory was formerly called a cell in the district of Auxerre. The praised historiographer seems not to have noticed this; who, since nothing occurred to him, either in Du Cange in the Glossary, or in Haeften in his Monastic Disquisitions, or elsewhere, where very many things gathered from writers about the word cella are found, which indicated a little church, was perhaps prompted to regard the cell of Salvius as a monastery. Wherefore we must now examine whether cella formerly indicated a little church in the district of Auxerre.

[4] as, the meaning of the word cell having been weighed, In the Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre, published by our predecessors Acta SS., 31st of July, page 206., there is a little book written by St. Mamertinus on his conversion: in it St. Mamertinus narrates how he came to the cemetery in which they said was the little body of St. Amator the bishop, and, since he found no dwelling in which to take himself, how a small CELL was shown to his eyes in which there was one sarcophagus: and lower down it is added that there was also a vestibule to this cell. But when it had become known that the body lying there was that of St. Corcodemus the deacon See Acta SS. at the 4th of May., St. Mamertinus continues thus: These miracles having been shown, that CELL of Blessed Corcodemus the deacon, which on account of the thickness of the brambles had been known to no one except only to the prelate Germanus, became by God's working known to every sex; and it merited not only the knowledge of all, but also their veneration. All, therefore, from this time, bearing a votive devotion to that same CELL, eagerly frequented it. Moreover it must be observed in regard to these things that St. Corcodemus had already been raised from the earth before the coming of St. Mamertinus; which the complete description of the sarcophagus, and the manner in which St. Mamertinus prostrated himself upon it as upon the altar of the Lord, and other circumstances make most manifest; whence it is clear that before the coming of St. Mamertinus this cell was a true sanctuary or little church.

[5] is established; But, that the matter may become still more certain, I shall bring forward another testimony from book I of the Miracles of St. Germanus of Auxerre, written in the time of Charles the Bald by St. Heiric; behold the words: The singular power of his merits is protected by this argument, that along all the embankments of his journey, wherever he either prayed or taught, oratory CELLS and raised signs of the cross shine forth even to the present day. Below we shall give another example of the same meaning. And from these things it surely appears sufficiently with how much right the Benedictine fellows who laboured on volume XII of the Gallia Christiana did not number the cell of Salvius and of Maurus among the ancient monasteries of the diocese of Auxerre, thinking it enough to insert in their catalogue Volume XXI, column 356. those monasteries which come under the name of monastery or another similar both in the aforesaid constitution of St. Aunarius and in the other of St. Tetricus, who sat as bishop at Auxerre at the end of the seventh century. For in each very many are named, and a divine office to be celebrated in the church of St. Stephen at Auxerre is enjoined on them; among which the Cell of Salvius and of Maurus does not come. Whence the objection, which must be guarded against, cannot be admitted, that this Salvius and Maurus were abbots living at that time. But if the cell of Salvius is not a monastery, it must be a little church; nor therefore can it be doubted that St. Salvius was its patron, and that his cult is to be referred at least to the year 587 or 588. But these premises must now be applied to the proposed question, namely whether our St. Salvius is to be distinguished from St. Salvius of Albi.

[6] [wherefore St. Salvius of Auxerre is to be distinguished from St. Salvius of Albi, who in the year 587 could not have had a church dedicated to himself there.] From the Ecclesiastical History of St. Gregory of Tours Book VIII, chapters I and XXI. it is established that St. Salvius of Albi met his last day in the year 584 or 585; now in the year 587 or 588 there existed, as we saw above, in the district of Auxerre the cell of Salvius; and who further would say that it is even in the least probable that within the space of two or three years the cult of St. Salvius was so propagated that it passed from Albi (where, however, without doubt it scarcely existed) to the diocese of Auxerre? Nor does it stand in the way that, as St. Gregory relates, St. Salvius led the cenobitic life before he exercised the episcopal office: whence it would be easy to conjecture that this cell of Salvius was perhaps the same which the prelate of Albi had once inhabited. For this suspicion cannot cause delay; since it is not probable that the people of Albi went off to seek a bishop for themselves into the district of Auxerre, which lay outside their kingdom and ecclesiastical province. Moreover, even if St. Salvius (which, however, is not probable, since St. Gregory, silent about his homeland and place of dwelling, supposes these to have been near Albi) had stayed many years in the district of Auxerre as a monk, his memory would surely easily have perished within the decade during which he held the episcopate at Albi. Which I close, observing that the cult of St. Salvius of Albi was not so celebrated in Gaul, nay that it was even unknown to the classical martyrologists; whence it would be altogether surprising if the cult of this holy prelate had flown across to the people of Auxerre two years after his death.

[7] But he is the same as St. Salvius of Nevers. In the second place it comes to be examined whether St. Salvius of Nevers, who is announced on the present day in the Hagiology of Franco-Gaul, or of Bourges, is the same as our St. Salvius of Auxerre. Behold the words of this Hagiology, as Labbe published them Bibliotheca nova manuscriptorum, volume II, page 697.: In the territory of Nevers, of Saints Vincent and Salvius, Confessors. There is no reason why St. Vincent, surnamed of Magny, should detain us, since he has been spoken of among those passed over. St. Salvius, however, who is celebrated in this commemoration, at the 16th day

of October still obtains cult in these times in the whole diocese of Nevers, as is established from the Martyrology of Auxerre, where the Breviary of Nevers is cited; nor therefore may the various opinions which have been proposed about him be left untouched. Claude Chastelain, in the index of the Universal Martyrology, calls St. Salvius of Albi the solitary of Nevers, and assigns him the 10th day of September and the 30th of November; which latter day is certainly erroneous. Baillet, in the Life of St. Salvius of Albi at the 10th day of September, is of the same mind, as is clear from what he states about the town of the Nivernais whose common name is Saint-Sauge: They say, he says, that the Relics of this holy Martyr (Salvius of Albi) were, at least in part, carried in the time of Charlemagne to a small town of the Nivernais, which is now called Salvii-Fanum, and is six or seven leagues distant from Nevers toward the east. A church distinguished with his name was founded there, and a monastery, which is now (in the year 1739) a priory, depending on St. Martin of Autun. He has almost the same in the Chorography of the Saints, where he also refers to St. Salvius a place of Maine called by the common name Saulge; how erroneous this is may be gathered from what our predecessors wrote at the 7th day of May in the Life of Saints Serenicus and Serenedus; and indeed the very Latin name Sagium, too different from Saint Salvius, suffices to settle the whole controversy. Thirdly and finally, as the seventeenth century was growing, the people of Nevers themselves reckoned that their St. Salvius was the same as the bishop of Albi, since in the ecclesiastical Calendar of Nevers of the year 1637, which Claude Chastelain formerly copied with his own hand and destined for the Bollandian museum, one reads at the 16th of October: St. Salvius, bishop. And from what has been said a twofold argument is constructed: that from the Relics of St. Salvius of Albi, translated into the district of Nevers, the memory of St. Salvius arose there, and therefore that the one of Nevers is the same as the bishop of Albi; and then that the tradition of the church of Nevers itself favours this opinion. As regards the Relics of St. Salvius, however, I think no one will make much account of that reason, since Baillet himself seems to remain in doubt, and the Gallia Christiana, in its Catalogue of the prelates of Albi, determines assertively that the Relics of St. Salvius are preserved entire at Albi. Nor perhaps is the authority of the old Calendar of Nevers that is objected of greater moment, since afterwards the people of Nevers, bringing their Calendar and Breviary back to a surer balance, have stripped the name of St. Salvius of the title of bishop at the present day, as may be seen in the Martyrology of Auxerre At the 16th of October, in the notes.. On the other hand a twofold weight of reasons persuades that St. Salvius of Nevers be reckoned the same as the one of Auxerre: namely the identity of the day on which each is venerated, and the vicinity of the districts of Nevers and Auxerre, adjacent to each other; whence the cult of St. Salvius might easily have passed from one diocese to the other.

[8] The fortunes of the chapel of St. Salvius From what we have so far discussed, as far as was permitted, it has been made manifest that St. Salvius of Auxerre is the same as the one of Nevers, but distinct from the one of Albi; and that his name was given in both districts, of Auxerre and of Nevers, to some place, in the latter to a little town, in the former to a village and a chapel; about which chapel a little more remains to be said which pertains to the cult of St. Salvius. We have already established above against the historiographer Lebeuf that the cell of St. Salvius was not the monastery of St. Saviour, but only a small sanctuary which in the last century still existed two leagues east of Auxerre, not far from Villeneuve-Saint-Salve; as Lebeuf himself testifies Histoire d'Auxerre, volume I, table, page 881.. Further, Hugh of Mâcon, bishop of Auxerre, who in the year 1138 brought the Premonstratensian canons into the monastery of St. Marianus, among very many other things gave them the church of St. Salvius, as is established from the charter of his successor Alan, given in the year 1163, which is to be seen entire among the instruments in the Gallia Christiana Volume XII, Instruments, column 126.: which donation had been confirmed in the year 1161 by Pope Alexander III, as is clear from the bull inserted in the Premonstratensian Monasteriology Volume II, column 147., where, among several other things, is numbered the place which is called St. Salvius, with all things belonging to it.

[9] are related. But this donation must have been made after the year 1145, or have been of lesser moment, since in several other instruments drawn up about the year 1145 it does not yet appear among the goods of St. Marianus. What is certain, and pertains more closely to our matter, the church of St. Salvius itself, or rather the sanctuary, was very poor; nor was this poverty removed without the name of the patron also being removed at the same time. For in the year 1209 this privilege was issued: I, Peter, count of Auxerre and Tonnerre, make known to all to whom the present letters shall come that I have given and granted to the poor church of St. Salvius that a fair of one day be held there every year on the feast of Blessed Dionysius; so that the same church shall freely, without any contradiction, receive all the revenues of the fair. I have also given in alms, for myself and for my wife and our parents, in my wood of Bar, one cartload of wood for the use of the aforesaid church, as much as one horse can draw away from that wood once a week. That this may be held ratified, I have strengthened the present page with the security of my seal. Done in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and nine. When this privilege, I say, which Lebeuf excerpted from the archive of St. Marianus of Auxerre, had been issued and granted, the name of St. Dionysius gradually prevailed, and it was believed by the people that St. Dionysius was the patron of this church; so that in the year 1398 an approbation of a miracle was made Lebeuf, Histoire d'Auxerre, Instruments, page 132. in which some peasants from Jaugiæ, a village lying a league or two beyond Pontigny if one sets out from Auxerre, are said to have come to St. Dionysius and to have prayed for a remedy for a boy through the merits of this Saint. In an added note, moreover, Lebeuf adds that the hill on which the oratory of St. Salvius had been founded is still called Tureau S. Denis (the slope of St. Dionysius). As to his affirming that the feast of St. Salvius was once kept there on the day sacred to St. Dionysius, let the credit rest with him; the only foundation, namely, on which I think he relied in asserting it is that he believed the feast of St. Salvius had been chosen as most opportune for holding the fair: whether, however, the feast of St. Dionysius, which the French were formerly bound to celebrate, seemed more opportune, the reader will judge, to whose judgment it has seemed that the assertion of the annalist of Auxerre should be left.

[10] For the rest, the life of St. Salvius is unknown. But thus far we have been wholly engaged in establishing the cult of St. Salvius and in vindicating the Saint himself from one of the same name: now if it is asked who he was, what he did, at what time he lived, whence he sprang, where he died, and so on, I prefer to seem ignorant rather than to be rash. As I have already stated above, St. Salvius is called a Confessor in Labbe's Hagiology; but that Hagiology is corrupt in this place, inasmuch as it announces Saints Salvius and Vincent on one and the same day; nor besides is it ancient enough for entire credence to be owed to it alone. What if someone should call him a Martyr, and one of the companions of St. Priscus, whose feast is kept today in several places, or of whom else? for several bands of holy Martyrs consecrated the district of Auxerre with their blood, as is easily clear to anyone from the Martyrology and History of Auxerre. But this very Martyrology makes St. Salvius a monk. But the twofold foundation on which it rests seems not to be solid enough; since the Breviary of Nevers has been various at various times; and the constitution of St. Aunarius, in which the cell of Salvius occurs, does not necessarily suppose that St. Salvius was a monk: for this could already be seen when we made mention of the cell of St. Corcodemus; for St. Corcodemus is read to have been a deacon, nowhere a monk, and moreover this very word cella in St. Gregory of Tours is openly put to use of the sanctuary of a Martyr who had never been either a monk or a hermit. For in the book of the Miracles of St. Julian of Brioude, chapter IV, he narrates that a woman promised that, if she received her husband safe, she would cover the Martyr's tomb with mortar in such space as she could, and fulfilled with immense gifts the promise she had made. Which having been said, chapter V begins thus: Now there was, not far from the CELL which this matron had built over the tomb of the Martyr, a great heathen shrine; and he continues by unfolding how a gentile boy sought the CELL of the glorious Martyr, shut the door upon himself, and another boy, pursuing the first, having seized both doorposts, tried to break the door. Which words show more than enough not a cavern or tomb, but an oratory sacred to the Martyr. Whence it is evident how frail is the foundation of the cited Martyrology. To the other questions I have nothing certain to answer. It will be enough to have vindicated St. Salvius from oblivion, and to have rendered toward him what we are accustomed to confer upon most of the Martyrs of the Hieronymian Catalogue.