Vitalis

ON ST. VITALIS, HERMIT, IN THE PAYS DE RETZ IN THE DIOCESE OF NANTES IN GAUL,

BEFORE THE 9TH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Namesakes, biographies, age, manner of life, translations of the Relics, and cult.

Vitalis, hermit, in the district of Retz in Gaul. (S.)

In the district of Retz The inhabitants of the district of Ratiatum or Retz, distinguished by the sojourn of St. Vitalis the hermit, dwelt on the shore of the Ocean, as Ermentarius has it Acts of the Saints, vol. IV of August, p. 91., the collector of the miracles of St. Philibert, founder and abbot of the Black monastery (Noirmoutier) on the island of Herio, now also called the Black monastery; and within the very boundary of the Pictavi which adjoins the city of Nantes, as St. Gregory of Tours speaks in the book on the glory of the Confessors Chap. LIV. Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum, Lyons, vol. XI, p. 883.. Since it was separated from Brittany and the people of Nantes by the river Loire flowing between, this land was part of the diocese of Poitiers, as the new Gallia Christiana Vol. II, col. 1143. gathers from the fact that, on the testimony of St. Gregory of Tours Ibid., in the place cited, St. Hilary baptized St. Lupianus there; until in the year 851 it was cut off from the territory of Poitiers by Charles the Bald, king of the Franks, in favour of Erispoë, and added to Brittany, that an end might at last be made of the disturbances which the celebrated V. Guépin sets out at length in his recent history of Nantes [History of Nantes, p. 45 and following. Compare the Chronicle of Fontenelle, the Fragment of the History of Armorican Brittany, the Annals of Saint-Bertin, etc. Dom Bouquet, vol. VII, p. 42, 49, 68, etc.]. There can certainly be no doubt that up to the times of Erispoë, or at least of his father Nominoë, that boundary or district was subject to the bishop of Poitiers; and so Adrien de Valois Notitia of Gaul, p. 245., discussing the district of Herbauge, which lay in the boundary of Retz, or even, as the celebrated V. Guépin seems to will History of Nantes, p. 50., was the same as that boundary, reasons as if the bounds of episcopal jurisdiction had not been changed at once when the manner of civil authority was altered; these are his words: If therefore the territory of Arbatilicum (Comté d'Herbauge) … was in the borders or in the territory of the Pictones, it certainly belonged to the Pictones, not to the Namnetes, and was attributed to the diocese of Poitiers, not to that of Nantes; which district the Church of Poitiers could not afterwards easily lose, and was not going to suffer to be snatched from it. But since in the middle of the 9th century all things in Brittany and in the very district of Retz or Herbauge had been turned upside down by the Normans [Chronicle of Nantes in Dom Morice, Memoirs for the history of Brittany, vol. I, col. 137.], and the same lands had suffered very much from Lambert and Nominoë, princes of Brittany Ibid., col. 139 and following, this new delimitation of the dioceses must have been made much more easily; moreover, since Nominoë had intruded Gislard into the see of Nantes in place of Bishop Actard, it was plain that that illegitimate prelate would extend his authority into the district of Retz, which Nominoë, his patron, had occupied by force and fraud; especially since Bl. Pope Leo IV, deceived perhaps by false reports, favoured Nominoë, as may be gathered from the Chronicle of Nantes Ibid., col. 140.. To which conjectures new strength would be added if the things which are spread about concerning the metropolis of Dol, instituted by the same Nominoë, were more certainly established Compare the work of the Rev. Mr. Tresvaux, l'Église de Bretagne, p. 63.: for from these it would be clear that Nominoë dared all things in ecclesiastical and civil affairs. Whatever that may be, in the 11th and 12th centuries certainly, as is manifest enough from the charter The brothers Sainte-Marthe, Gallia Christiana Antiqua, vol. IV, p. 211. of the foundation of the monastery of St. Mary of Calmaria (La Chaume), founded in the district of Retz in the year 1055, no otherwise than from the instrument of donation of Radulf, lord of Retz, made in favour of the monastery of Buzay in the year 1152, which Hyacinthe Morice published Memoirs for the history of Brittany, vol. I, col. 621., the district or boundary of Retz belonged to the diocese of Nantes; nor was it ever thereafter separated from it. More about this land, which is now contained in the division called Lower Loire (département de la Loire-Inférieure), is to be seen in the geographical Dictionaries of d'Expilly and La Martinière, no less than in the universal Dictionary of France printed at Paris in the year 1804, under Retz, in the Notitia of the Gauls of Valois under Pagus Ratiatensis and Herbatilicensis, in the historical Geography of Dom Vaissète Vol. VI, p. 462 and following, and finally, to pass over other things, in our Work in the Commentary on St. Pantalus Vol. VI of October, p. 78 and following, where an excellent disquisition exists against those who will have it that the bishops of Poitiers were at some time called bishops of Ratiatum, and in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions of Paris, in which Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, vol. XIX, p. 722. is read the dissertation of the abbé Belley on Ratiacum, an ancient city of the Gauls.

[2] flourished St. Vitalis, little known elsewhere; Further, the name of St. Vitalis, who illumined the territory of Retz with his virtues, remained shut within such narrow bounds that it more than once held up our predecessors. For when Du Sollier, the editor of the Usuardine Martyrology, and easily the chief in accurately knowing and distinguishing the Saints, had found at the present day in the Usuardine codex of Dom Le Mare: In the territory of Ratina, of St. Vitalis, Confessor, he added: I confess this one is wholly unknown to me. And he who drew up the catalogue of those passed over at the 14th day of October rightly writes that Greven made mention of St. Vitalis, Confessor, at this day; but he also adds these words: There appears no reason to doubt that he is one and the same with the Saint of the same name whom Du Sollier records at the 16th day of this month among the Usuardine Additions, and whom, no otherwise than here, we confess there to be wholly unknown to us. But there is nothing in assertions of this sort that should excite wonder, since even in the very parish of Leynes, of the diocese of Autun, in which our Vitalis is without doubt patron, he is by no means known; so that the inhabitants believe that the church of their parish enjoys the patronage and title of St. Vitalis, abbot of Savigny. Hear namely the Rev. Mr. Guillard, the serving priest of this place, in a letter given on the 12th of January in the year 1841: In an old book of acts, which is in my possession, it is handed down that St. Vitalis, abbot of Savigny in Normandy, is patron of the church of Leynes; that his life is set out at length in volume XIV of Fleury's Ecclesiastical History; and that his feast is kept on the 16th of October. I could not gather other traditions, and I have never found any proper Office in my parish. But to scatter these darknesses it will be enough to have brought forward Châtelain, who recalls these things quite rightly in his universal Martyrology at the present day: In the district of Retz in Lesser Brittany, of St. Vitalis, hermit, whose body in the times of the Norman irruption was carried to Tournus, a monastery of Burgundy. So Châtelain, though using the French idiom.

[3] he is distinguished from very many Martyrs and Confessors; Although from these things it is clear enough how greatly some have been hallucinating when our Saint Vitalis was in question, yet the cause of the hallucination is not that all his deeds lie hidden, or that he is not easily distinguished from his namesakes: for, to begin from this head, since he was and is called a Confessor, he is without trouble distinguished from fifty and more Vitales who suffered martyrdom: and the Confessors who were also called Vitalis are these: the Vitalis who from the Martyrologies is assigned in our work to the 2nd day of January and is scarcely known; Vitalis, abbot of Savigny, whose feast is kept on the 7th of January; a third Vitalis obtains cult at Spoleto on the 21st day of the same month; a fourth, who is venerated on the 9th of March, in the 10th century was abbot of the Order of St. Basil of Armento and Rapolla in Sicily; a fifth the Martyrologies record at the 31st of May, and him, surnamed of Bastia, the Hagiophiles know to have been of the third order of St. Francis. A sixth, known from the Martyrologies and assigned to the 23rd day of July, seems to have been bishop of Ravenna; and a seventh Vitalis is venerated on the 20th day of October at Salzburg in Germany, where he sat as bishop in the seventh century.

[4] of one of whom, very obscure, there is fuller discussion; An eighth becomes known at the year 777 from the longer testament of St. Fulrad, abbot of Saint-Denis near Paris, which Dubois Ecclesiastical History of Paris, vol. I, p. 269., Mabillon Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, saec. III, part II, p. 309., Le Cointe Le Cointe, Ecclesiastical Annals of the Franks, vol. VI, p. 131., Félibien History of Saint-Denis, justificatory pieces, p. XXXVIII., Scheid Origines Guelficae, vol. I, book II, proofs, p. 225., Grandidier History of the Church of Strasbourg, vol. II, justificatory pieces, p. CXXII and Neugart Codex diplomaticus Alemanniae, vol. I, p. 63. published, and in which is read: Likewise the sixth cell, where St. Vitalis rests, on the river Nettra, which Hafti handed over to me; and from the shorter testament of the same, which, as far as I know, was published by Grandidier alone History of the Church of Strasbourg, vol. II, justificatory pieces, p. CXXVII., and which has: Likewise the sixth cell, where St. Vitalis rests, above the river Necra. The site of this cell, however, is more precisely determined by the diploma of Louis II, or the German, given in the year 866 and published by Doublet History of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, p. 784., Mabillon On Diplomatics, p. 401. and Bouquet Collection of the historians of France, vol. VIII, p. 421.; for there is read: Hetsilinga in the district of Nechragawe on the river Nechcra, where St. Vitalis the Confessor rests in body. And that district of Nechragawe, or Neccergowe, Neccariensis, Necchargowe, lay almost wholly in Swabia on both banks of the river Neckar (le Necker), from the river Vilusa (la Fils) near the castle of Teck almost to the fortress of Dilsberg near Neckargemünd Compare the Chronicle of Göttweig, vol. II, p. 701 and following. And Hetsilinga is without doubt Esslingen or Etsilinga on the river Neckar; of which imperial town Baudrand and other geographers explain many things. But of the cell which existed there and where the body of St. Vitalis rested I have been able to find nothing certain anywhere. Neugart Codex diplomaticus Alemanniae, vol. I, p. 63. indeed says that it once flourished; but if it flourished, it must have flourished in such a way that we know of it from the cited diplomas

only, that it was given as a gift by Hafti to St. Fulrad, abbot of Saint-Denis, who gave it with many others to his monastery; that already in the time of his most illustrious grandfather Charles and of his lord father Louis, most pious Augustus, there had been a market in the aforesaid little cell of Hetsilinga, as Louis the German speaks in the cited diploma; and that it, with the cell, at the request of Abbot Louis, was taken under his protection by the same Louis the German; since, that cell being as far as possible distant from the abbey of Saint-Denis, it was exceedingly exposed to the vexations of the ill-willed: whence it is clear that Beatus Rhenanus Three books on German Affairs, p. 208, edition 1712. is not to be listened to, nor those who copied him, Crusius Annales Suevici, vol. II, p. 4. and Sattler Geschichte des Herzogthums Würtemberg, p. 517, 644 and following, when they contend that Esslingen was given as a gift to Fulrad by Charlemagne; who did indeed confer other estates in Alemannia on the monks of Saint-Denis Doublet, History of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, p. 712 and following, but by no means Esslingen, which Fulrad received from Hafti. But what was then done lies wholly in obscurity for me, so much so that Dom Franz Petri, in his Suevia Ecclesiastica, although he records several monasteries of Esslingen Suevia Ecclesiastica, p. 318 and following, says not even a word of this cell: and I would say the same of Zeiller, who in his Topography of Germany Vol. IV, Beschreibung des Schwabenlands, p. 69 and following illustrates Esslingen at length, but keeps deep silence about the cell of St. Vitalis. Nevertheless, since we have learned from him that the chief church of Esslingen is sacred to St. Denis, and the word cella, as we showed at length above in the Commentary on St. Salvius p. 854., formerly signified a little building as well as a monastery, I incline strongly to believe that the cell of St. Vitalis was a sacred building, not a monastery, in which the monks of Saint-Denis had the right of patronage and other like things; that thence the cult of St. Denis arose and was promoted in it; that his name, when occasion offered, was given to the rebuilt church; and that it remained the chief one by right of antiquity. Now who that Vitalis the Confessor was, who in the 8th century rested in body in the cell of Hetsilinga, we have been able to find nowhere. But since it is not likely that he is the same as one of the preceding, it has pleased us to gather here these things about his cult, lest he be wholly omitted in our work.

[5] the other Confessors being well enough known. But what is to be noted at present is that this St. Vitalis is by no means to be confused with St. Vitalis of Retz, who never rested in Swabia. Of all the others so named there is no reason for me to speak; of St. Vitalis of Salzburg I shall note only, from the history of this bishopric, that he is still buried at Salzburg; whence he is without trouble distinguished from our Saint, often translated. And St. Vitalis, abbot of Savigny, although he is in fact confused, as I warned at num. 1, with the one of Retz, is not more difficult to separate from him; for first, the abbot of Savigny lived in the 12th century, but our Vitalis several centuries before; second, the latter was an Angle by nation, the former a Gaul; third, the former lived in the wilderness and perhaps in the Black monastery, the latter in the monastery of Savigny, which he founded; and he was far from acting the hermit, since he was quite often involved in political affairs too; in a word, they are so far distant from one another that one name is common to them, besides this nothing. I pass over the other Saints Vitalis. Hence I move on to the biographers of ours.

[6] [The Lives of St. Vitalis published by Lobineau, de Garaby and Albert le Grand do not agree in all things] In the year 1724 Dom Lobineau published a collection of the Lives of the Saints of Lesser Brittany, which recently, namely in the year 1836, the Rev. Mr. Tresvaux, canon of Paris, brought out again into the light, corrected and enlarged with a skilful hand. In the second volume History of the Saints of Brittany, vol. II, p. 251. of this edition you have the Life of our Saint, put together, as it is inscribed there, both from the biography which Fr. Albert le Grand had taken from an old manuscript codex kept in the parish church of St. Vitalis of the diocese of Nantes, and from the History of the abbey of Tournus of Dom Juenin, canon of Tournus. The Rev. Mr. de Garaby, writer of the Lives of the Saints of Brittany published in the year 1839, could have said the same of his biography of St. Vitalis. But since the printed Lives of St. Vitalis have conjectures mixed with certain things, it is worth while to know what Fr. Albert professes about the sources of his biography. Thus his words, turned from the French idiom into Latin, run: This Life is collected from a parchment manuscript which is kept in the parish church of St. Vitalis in the territory of Retz, and which contains the history divided into lessons, hymns, responsories, antiphons and propers, and was communicated to us by the venerable and discreet lord François Merlet, rector of the said parish, and partly also from manuscript commentaries and notable traditions noted by the said rector; all which are conformable to the Annals of Brittany and to the inviolable reckoning of times. And by the care of the Rev. Fr. Delvaux S.J., superior of the residence of Nantes, the Rev. Mr. Auboisenet, secretary of the illustrious bishop of Nantes, contributing his effort, there was sent to us a paper codex, wholly worn, on the front of which is read in French: Life of St. Vitalis, Confessor, patron of this church, consonant with the manuscript Life which is kept here. And at the end of the codex is written: Book of the fabric of St. Vitalis, begun by the lord François Merlet, priest and rector of the said place, in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-eight, on the 16th day of January. — Index of the things contained in this book: 1. The Life of St. Vitalis, Confessor, patron of this church and parish. What follows in the index does not pertain to our Saint. But in the note which the same Mr. Merlet subjoined to the Life of St. Vitalis, and which I shall show entire a little below, it is asserted that nothing else exists in writing besides the Life set out before. But since it is manifest that all the things which pertain to the very Life of St. Vitalis while he dwelt on earth were drawn by Dom Lobineau not from the records collected by Dom Juenin in the history of Tournus but from the writings of Albert le Grand, it follows from what has been recited that all the assertions of Lobineau or of Albert himself which are not to be found in this codex of Retz must be referred among conjectures. And this is the reason why it has not displeased us to set out the words of these writers at length.

[7] with the sources, which are described here. Now this codex of Saint-Vital must be described. First of all it comes to be noted that this French Life is only a translation, prepared by the said Mr. Merlet, a man commendable for piety, zeal and prudence, as far as may be conjectured from the several annotations added to this book. Further, we have in our hands a twofold copy of the lessons which the monks of Tournus were formerly wont to recite: the one, copied from the Breviary of Tournus written by hand about the year 1577, was sent to us by the above-praised Mr. Tresvaux; the other is kept in the Bollandian collection at the 16th of October in the royal library of Brussels; and our Chifflet formerly published the same lessons in his History of Tournus. Now when I compared these lessons with the French manuscript Life, it was at once manifest that the lessons of Tournus are part of the Latin Life which we know, from the testimony of Fr. Albert, was formerly kept in the village of Saint-Vital. It is permitted therefore to judge securely what fidelity the rector of Saint-Vital practised in translating: he seems everywhere to have rendered sense for sense, but to have diluted it, for the most part, in more words: and this seems to be pronounced in general; the particulars I prefer to put off to the end of the Life among the annotations. But since it is unknown to us where on earth the old Latin manuscript of Saint-Vital is kept, that French translation had to be made Latin anew; in which matter we have kept this method: whatever we found in the lessons of Tournus we have copied word for word; but what occurred only in the French translation we have enclosed in brackets [ ] and turned almost word for word into the Latin idiom, not omitting to insert those words which, although less Latin, the very strangeness of the translation sufficiently indicated were present in the original text. And this original Latin manuscript seems to be stitched together from a threefold monument: the first part contains an encomium rather than a Life, and seems the most ancient of all; the second part consists of miracles, which seem to have happened between the year 839 and 858 and were perhaps collected by Ermentarius himself, who, as will shortly be seen, described the miracles of St. Philibert; the third part is woven almost wholly from the writings of Ermentarius. From the note which Daniel Louis Miorcec de Kerdanet subjoined to his most recent edition of the Lives of the Saints of Lesser Brittany of Albert le Grand, I understand that Lobineau greatly desired these Acts, because they seemed to him most ancient and sprinkled with a venerable simplicity, which is the value of these works: which opinion rested solely on the writing of Albert le Grand. The documents having been inspected, the reader himself will at least pass a kindly judgment.

[8] The age of St. Vitalis is fixed variously by various writers; These things having been observed, it now remains to speak of the age, the manner of life, the fate of the Relics, and the cult of St. Vitalis; and first indeed of the age: Albert le Grand affirms that St. Vitalis was born in England of noble parents about the year 702, and in the year 725 came to the monastery of St. Philibert, which was on the island of Herio, or of the Black monastery, at the mouths of the Loire, to receive the religious habit. But in the recent edition of the Lives of the Saints of Brittany of Dom Lobineau and in the Lives of the Saints of Brittany of the Rev. Mr. de Garaby the year of birth is passed over in silence; but the time of his arrival at the monastery of St. Philibert is referred to about the year 725. The rector of Saint-Vital, Merlet, thinks wholly otherwise; it will be helpful to relate in one stretch whatever he noted on the Life of St. Vitalis, discoursing thus in French: It is not handed down in this history in what year St. Vitalis came to the territory of Retz, or in what year he died his last day. But from the annals of Brittany and other histories it can be conjectured that he passed from England into Brittany with many other Angles driven from their homeland on account of the catholic faith, and came to the said place Scobrith (which is now the village of Saint-Vital) about the year five hundred and sixty, and lived there until old age, as is narrated in the Life. But about two centuries after his death persecution came upon them; and the monks who had been sent to dwell there and to perform the divine offices in the sanctuary built by Vitalis himself went away with other neighbouring monks, and carried his body to the monastery of Tournus, or to another monastery of Burgundy situated on the banks of the Saône and about fifteen or twenty leagues distant from Lyons. From this monastery

there came to our shores after the persecution a certain monk, and the arm of St. Vitalis which he was carrying with him he left in the said place of St. Vitalis, where it is preserved;" and his history, as it has been set out above, and which we may believe, since nothing else about him exists in writing. From which it is manifest that the year 725, devised by Albert le Grand and admitted by Lobineau as well as by the Rev. Mr. de Garaby, is no less than the year 560 put forward by François Merlet a mere conjecture: wherefore it has seemed better to us to leave his age uncertain; that he lived before the ninth century we have learned only from the account of the miracles and from the diploma of the year 839, part of which is to be recited below.

[9] [The tradition by which he is said to have been a monk of Hérou seems to rest on this, that the monks of Hérou his body] The second question concerns the manner of St. Vitalis's life. Le Grand relates at length (and Lobineau follows him almost word for word at this point) that St. Vitalis came to the mouth of the Loire, and there heard a great deal about the holiness of the monks of St. Philibert; that, moved by these reports, he went on to Hérou, or the island of Noirmoutier; that he threw himself at the abbot's feet, asking for himself the religious habit, with which, after a probation of no very great length, he was clothed in the year 725; nor is he silent about what his fervour was thereafter throughout the year of his novitiate; and, that being completed, in what way he was admitted to religious profession by the unanimous consent of the monks; that then, after making his profession, inflamed with love of the solitary life, he asked for and obtained from his abbot leave to build himself a little cell in the solitude of Mount Scobrith (which we have already said is the village of Saint-Viaud in the diocese of Nantes), and to dwell in it. Would that all these things agreed with the monastic usages of those times, and indeed rested on some historical monuments! But nothing else can be adduced in confirmation than that in his Life, num. 5, it is said either that God inspired St. Vitalis, or that a certain abbot or other superior, under whose obedience and direction he ordered his holy life, commanded him to build an oratory. But this whole number was thrust into the Life from popular tradition by the rector of the church, Merlet, as he himself confesses. For my part I think that this whole fiction arose from the fact that the church of St. Vitalis was given to the monks of Noirmoutier, and that his sacred body was preserved among them after the Norman invasion, when they had removed to Tournus. But if the matter is duly weighed, I rather wonder whether the donation of this church does not stand in the way of this pretended religious profession. It is at least natural to reckon that an oratory or church built by a monk would from the beginning have been in the possession of his monastery. We learn the contrary, however, from the diploma of the emperor Louis the Pious, given at Poitiers on the fifth day before the Kalends of December, in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, of Christ 839, in the third indiction.

[10] and possessed his church after the year 839 by the diploma of Louis the Pious; Here is an excerpt of this diploma, as it exists both in our Chifflet among the Proofs for the History of Tournus p. 194. and in the Collection of the Writers of Gaul of Dom Bouquet Vol. VI, p. 628.: "… We wish it to be known … that, touched by divine love, we have conferred upon the monastery of Déas, in which St. Philibert, Confessor of Christ, rests in the body, built in honour of the most blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, where the venerable man Hilbod the abbot is known to preside, a certain estate of our right, by name Scobrit, which is in the district of Poitou, in the vicariate of Retz, with all things belonging or pertaining to it, and with bondservants of either sex or age. The said estate, therefore, with the church of St. Vitalis, the houses and other buildings, lands tilled and untilled, vineyards, meadows, pastures, woods, salt-pans, mills, ways out and ways back, as much as pertains to the aforesaid estate and is of our right and possession by right of ownership, wholly and entirely or unreserved, we transfer from our right into the right and lordship of the aforesaid monastery: in such wise, namely, that whatever from this present day and thenceforward the rectors and ministers of the same monastery shall choose to do and to order concerning the aforesaid estate, or concerning the things that pertain to it, and to do for the advantage of the same monastery, they may have free and most firm power of doing in all things…" It is to be noted that this donation was made when the monks of Hérou, for fear of the Normans, who were daily threatening, had fled from the island of Hérou with the body of St. Philibert into the cell of Déas (in French Grandlieu, a priory in the diocese of Nantes before the troubles of the last century), which a few years before Arnulf, abbot of Hérou, had built in the district of Herbauge or Retz near Nantes on the little river Boulogne. And while we have brought forward these things in order to call into doubt or to deny the monastic profession of St. Vitalis, we have at the same time girded ourselves to treat of the various translations of the Relics of St. Vitalis.

[11] [and these, for fear of the Normans, carried to various places and at last to Tournus] It has just been made clear that the monks of Hérou came to the cell of Déas; which happened in the year 836. But in the year 841 the Normans burst in again, and the monks of Hérou, or of Déas, were compelled to flee to a place called in Latin Conaldum, in French Cunault, situated in the territory of Anjou, on the bank of the Loire; which Charles the Bald, before Angers was taken, had given to the monks of Hérou as a refuge, while the body of Blessed Philibert still remained in the monastery of Déas, although it had been burned by the Normans. But since there was now no hope of returning to the monastery of Déas or of Hérou, in the year of Christ 858 the body of St. Philibert was carried to Cunault, and it is most probable that from this time the body of our St. Vitalis was associated with it, no less than other sacred relics. And in the year 862 the holy burden was brought to Messais, an estate of the territory of Poitou, where how long it remained is not ascertained. These things were described more fully by Ermentarius, a monk of Hérou and an eyewitness, partly in the year 836 and partly in the year 863, in the Miracles and Translations of St. Philibert [Acta SS. of the Order of St. Benedict, Saec. IV, part I, p. 539, and Acta SS. Vol. IV of August, p. 81 and following]. What follows, however, we have excerpted from Falco, a monk of Tournus, who in the eleventh century composed the Chronicle of his monastery and carried it down to the year 1087: which Chifflet edited in the Proofs of the History of Tournus p. 15 and following, and of which Cuper inserted no small part in his Commentary on St. Philibert Acta SS. Vol. IV of August, p. 72 and following. From this, then, we have learned that during the depredations of the Normans the island of Hérou was not wholly deserted by the monks; yet that most of them wandered hither and thither, until at length Geilo, having been made abbot, approached Charles the Bald, that he might deign to provide a place of refuge for Blessed Philibert, still a pilgrim on earth in his body, and for those who clung to him; and the king, readily granting his petition, bestowed the little abbey of Saint-Pourçain, and confirmed this donation by a diploma, given in the year 870, and often published, both in each edition of d'Achery's Spicilegium, and in Dom Juenin's History of Tournus, and in Dom Bouquet's Collection of the Writers of Gaul. The king affirms in it that this gift was made by him so that the monks of Hérou might no longer run about wavering hither and thither. And then, namely in the year 871, the sacred pledges of the monks of Hérou were brought from the territory of Poitou, that is, from the estate of Messais, into the district of Auvergne, which contained the abbey of Saint-Pourçain. Five years later Geilo again approached King Charles, to ask for and obtain a new gift for Blessed Philibert, namely Tournus, formerly an abbey of the diocese of Chalon, with its appurtenances. He returns therefore to his own, as Falco says, and, taking the sacred pledges with him together with the royal charters of the grants, he came on the day before the Ides of May to the aforesaid Tournus. This, then, was the end of the wanderings of St. Vitalis and of the bodies of the other Saints.

[12] They carry the body of St. Vitalis with many other relics; If anyone should wish to know what sacred relics accompanied the body of our St. Vitalis, let him hear Falco discoursing on this matter at length and devoutly: "To tell the names of these gifts of divine prerogative I think neither very necessary nor at all easy. For who, apart from the garments of our Redeemer which He used from His very birth, so to speak, in His youth, and even at the very time of His passion, or those which His most sacred Mother herself either fitted to herself or to her Son, and the twin pyxes themselves in which are contained holy things known to God alone, unknown to us; and the very bond with which the same Redeemer in His passion suffered Himself to be bound: the very wood of the saving cross also: and finally the same vessel consecrated by the first miracle of the Saviour; that body too of the most holy Philibert; who, I say, these having been set first, will be able to count up or to name the small portions of the innumerable saints whose Relics were brought there on that day? Why should I commemorate Saints Candidus and Clinus, Martyrs? Why Saint Vitalis, Basil, and some others? Although their glorious bodies are kept among us, I fear nevertheless to bring them by name into this little work, lest among the slower-witted I should seem rashly to deny it. We plainly believe, however, that Blessed Valerian obtained from God by his worthy merits that his most holy body should have deserved to be honoured by the fellowship of men of such holiness and blessing." St. Valerian had long been the patron of Tournus: who the remaining Saints here enumerated may be, there will presently be a place to say.

[13] most of which are burned by the Calvinists in the year 1562. For many centuries, moreover, the monks of Tournus had piously preserved these sacred pledges; but in the year 1562 the Calvinists, bursting into this abbey, turned almost everything upside down, and raged above all against these monuments of religion. There exists in Chifflet's History of Tournus a catalogue of the sacred pledges which these haters of piety burned: it is not, indeed, wholly correct, since it also lists the body of St. Philibert, which we know from elsewhere happily escaped their fury Acta SS. Vol. IV of August, p. 75.. In it, then, are counted the body of St. Philibert, the body of St. Valerian, the body of St. Candidus the senator, who is said to be named in the Acts of St. Maurice, the body of St. Clinus, who they think was granted martyrdom by the Saracens (rather, the Normans) when they overthrew the monastery of Hérou, the body of St. Samson, bishop of Dol, the body of St. Basil, the body of St. Benedict of Quinçay, the body of St. Vitalis, the body of St. Arnulf, the body of the most Blessed Ardagnus, abbot of Tournus, whom they used to venerate on the 11th of February, one water-jar of the wedding of Cana, the shroud of Christ the Lord, part of the sudarium, a tooth and hairs of the beard of St. Peter, two ribs of St. Stephen and drops of blood of the same Saint, and fragments of the stones with which he was overwhelmed. Before this, however, an arm of this Saint had been brought to the village of Saint-Viaud in Lesser Britain, as is clear from the commentaries of the rector Merlet produced above, and the same is still preserved there, as we have learned from the letters of the present parish priest.

[14] The cult of St. Vitalis flourished at Tournus, The cult of St. Vitalis was always celebrated among the monks of Tournus; this is established not only from the old catalogue of the bodies of the Saints preserved among them, printed among the proofs of Chifflet's History of Tournus p. 308., or from the old calendar published in the same place, which shows at the 16th of October the feast of St. Vitalis, Confessor; but it is to be drawn out above all from the Chronicle of Tournus Num. 45. of Falco; in which, in Chifflet Hist. of Tournus, proofs, p. 28., you have the following: "Wago after the death of Odo took up the pastoral office: who, following the footsteps of illustrious fathers, left to posterity monuments of his uprightness. And in the eighteenth year of his rule (which marks at least the year 1006 or 1007, as is clear from the age of his predecessor, which reached the year 989), on the feast of Blessed Vitalis, while the whole monastery was festively adorned, as being for the solemn joy of our patron, it was consumed by fire through the carelessness of the servants, together with all the workshops; and the devastation of the fire was so powerful through the blast of the winds that almost all the furniture of the monastery was consumed, except the memorials of the Saints and part of the ornaments pertaining to the worship of God; which the hiding-places of the crypts of the same monastery were scarcely able to conceal." There was, moreover, in the church of the abbey a chapel, which was united to the chapter by the Bull of secularization, and of which St. Vitalis, together with St. Martin of Vertou, was titular patron, as Juenin testifies in his History of Tournus Hist. de Tournus, p. 44.. In the same place this author contradicts Chifflet, asserting that the feast of St. Vitalis had long since been kept at Tournus without solemnity.

[15] [in another place of Burgundy, in the village of Saint-Viaud, and in England itself.] Nor did the cult of St. Vitalis keep itself within the enclosure of the monastery. A notable instance of the piety of the Burgundians towards St. Vitalis occurs at numbers 21 and 22 of this Saint's Life. Whether the devotion by which certain churches of this tract of country chose St. Vitalis as patron is indeed to be traced back to this time, let the reader judge. At least in the year 1120 the parish of Lenna * already had him as titular patron; which is gathered from a diploma, given on the Ides of May, in the 12th indiction, by which Pope Calixtus II, in the first year of his pontificate, confirms to the monks of Tournus a great many possessions, among which, in the diocese of Mâcon, "… the church … of St. Vitalis of Lenna." Nor did only the church belong to them, but also the whole lordship, which in order that the abbots might keep it for themselves, they built a castle in the time of King Charles VI, which in the reign of Louis XI was more than once taken and retaken, as the recently published book has it with the title: Annuaire du département de Saône et Loire pour l'année 1839 Yearbook of the department of Saône-et-Loire for the year 1839. From the letters of the present parish priest, already adduced at the front of this Commentary, it has been established for us that this cult still flourishes. As for the cult that is shown to St. Vitalis in the village that has borrowed its name from him in the diocese of Nantes, it will have to be spoken of in the annotations to the Life itself. It will be enough here to have set out the daily commemoration that was formerly to be used by the rector of Saint-Viaud, as we understand from the writings of Merlet:

At Lauds: Saint Vitalis, Confessor of Christ, hear thy servants who pray, and bring down to us the indulgence obtained from heaven.

Vers. Pray for us, Blessed Vitalis,

Resp. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

At Vespers: Noble Confessor of Christ, Vitalis, leading a truly noble life, thou didst merit to receive eternal life and to obtain safety for those who honour thee.

Vers. To thee we flee, Blessed Vitalis,

Resp. Receive our prayers and obtain for us a blessed life.

Prayer: Be present, O Lord, to our supplications, etc.

The cult of St. Vitalis did not stop in Gaul: from Lesser Britain it passed into Greater Britain, so that while the former venerated him as an inhabitant, the latter venerated him as a native. And these things are manifest to us from the English Martyrology A Memorial of ancient British piety. Supplem., p. 26., in which at the 16th day of October it is asserted, from Willis's Dedications, that there once existed in that part of England which is called Wales a church which was dedicated to divine service under the patronage of our Saint Vitalis. Having set out these few things concerning the deeds and the cult of St. Vitalis, we subjoin the Life described above.

* Leynes

LIFE AND MIRACLES OF ST. VITALIS, CONFESSOR

From two MS. Breviaries of Tournus, collated with the edition of Chifflet, S.J., and supplemented from the French MS. of the church of Saint-Viaud.

Life, miracles and translations of St. Vitalis.

Vitalis, hermit, in the district of Retz in Gaul. (S.)

BHL Number: 8698

St. Vitalis, an Englishman, leads the hermit's life in the territory of Retz; In the compass of this territory of Retz ^a, then, and in a more secluded place, there lived a certain inhabitant drawing his descent from the English nation, whom not only the noble lineage of his parents adorned, but also an ineffable elegance of manners. — While he drew his race from a most beautiful ^b nation, made more beautiful by perfect faith, he clung to his Author with the whole striving of his desire, so that, leaving behind every allurement of the present life and the apprenticeship of earthly warfare, spurning things that pass away, clinging eagerly to the precepts of life, taking up the arduous vows of a stricter life, studying to please God alone, he chose to live justly alone with God rather than, placed among the human crowd, to sin continually. — This he strove for so that he might the more loftily and swiftly subdue the enemy who tempted the first-formed man with an impious eating, and on account of it kept him long banished in exile within the dwelling of stinking and darksome flame. — Fearing his rapid windings, the man worthily called Vitalis took up against him on his head the helmet of the cross, bore on his body the breastplate of chastity, taking on his neck the shield of faith. — He was girded with the sword of justice, so that, having lawfully finished the contest of battle, he might receive the palm of triumphant victory from the bounty of sweet glory. —

[2] all his duties towards God, Now the dwelling of the cell of the most blessed man was on the very border of Retz, on a certain mount, Scobrit ^c by name, in which the divine power so joined this man to itself with most ardent love that, holding all earthly things of small account, as though he were already dwelling in heavenly places, the whole man was thus intent upon heaven. — Daily intent on the labour of prayers, passing continuous nights in like watchfulness, pouring forth sobs and groans of tears, mortifying the flesh with abstinence from food.

[3] towards his soul Thus [d from day to day he advanced in the better gifts, so subjecting his body to the spirit, and so submitting his spirit and affections to his Creator, that he was a good example and a surpassing image of every virtue and perfection, for the benefit of each one who wished to imitate him. For he was just in his actions, truthful in his words, gentle in his manners, fortified with great spiritual strength, generous in giving alms, most chaste and most honourable in soul and body, holy and devout in his thoughts, sober in food, and moreover full of humility, ever persevering in the hope of God the Creator.

[4] and his body He was a man lovable in appearance, dear to all on account of the counsel, knowledge and learning in which he abounded, not elated in prosperity, not cast down in adversity. And although he used poor clothing, he nevertheless displayed a noble comeliness, and was very distinguished in all his actions; since he was adorned with many virtues, which made him perfect in the true divine knowledge, which shone forth in him and illuminated all to whom he was known, as shining marvellously in a comely man, such as he was. For he was handsome of stature, bright of face, and well formed in body.

[5] and fulfils his duties towards his neighbour. Further, among all the virtues that shone in him, there stood out love and an ardent fervour of devotion towards God and an exceptional charity towards his neighbour. For although the solitary life (which he professed ^e in order to be free more entirely for meditation and the contemplation of spiritual things, and to converse with God) did not allow very many corporal works of mercy to be done by him, nevertheless he spent himself according to his strength in promoting the glory of God, the devotion of the faithful, and the relief of his neighbour's necessities.

[6] While building himself an oratory, he draws forth a wonderful spring. From tradition ^f it is held as certain in the place in which he lived holily (which is now a parish distinguished by his name) that one day, whether by God's inspiration or at the command of a certain abbot or other superior under whose obedience and direction he ordered his holy life, he had a particular zeal to build on Mount Scobrith, which he inhabited, a certain oratory in the form of a chapel; and, when he had obtained from the lord of Prince leave to cut timber from the forest of Prince ^g, carpenters and ox-drivers with a cart and oxen were led by him into it; and that these men and the beasts, when they had made half the journey bringing back the timber, and were in a waterless place far removed from any house, and the heat of the air and a long drought were raging, suffered from intolerable thirst and stuck fast there. Wherefore the holy man fell upon his knees, lifted his eyes to heaven and his heart to God, his Creator and Lord, for whose sake he was labouring and suffering so great a thirst, and ardently besought Him to grant water with which they might relieve their thirst, so that they might finish the journey. Further, placing his trust in God, he thrust his staff into the earth, and immediately from the same place there gushed forth most limpid water, which thereafter has not ceased to burst forth; and in this way there came into being a spring ^h, which still leaps up in the same place and by which very many pools are filled: hence it has always been called the spring of St. Vitalis. To it the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages are accustomed to come in procession of supplicants in time of long drought, to implore rain of God through the intercession of Blessed Vitalis; which indeed God very often bestows.

[7] In the Saint, having died, At length, when the holy man, after innumerable exercises of very many virtues and good works, had come to the age of great old age, assailed by sickness, he fulfilled the duties of a true Christian and rendered to God his soul, which happily made its way to enjoy eternal life among the choirs of Angels ⁱ.]

[8] the eight beatitudes are fulfilled; So that the evangelical beatitudes might duly be fulfilled in him, in which the poor in spirit take possession of the kingdom of heaven. — The meek possess the land of the living, and those who mourn merit the consolation of the perfect, and those who hunger and thirst are filled with justice, and the merciful find the good things of the greatest kindness, and those who have patience are called the sons of God.

[That God fulfilled this in His servant St. Vitalis He has shown, as will be seen below.

[9] he is buried The body of the most blessed man St. Vitalis was laid in a stone sepulchre near his cave on the same Mount Scobrith (which ^k formerly belonged to the holy old religious of the monastery of Hérou). In which place Scobrith, so that a perpetual memory of his signal and surpassing virtues might be left by him to posterity

God the Creator willed; so that when the divine power should appear, as great as in fact appeared in the mass of his body, it might at once be recognized that the soul which had inhabited it on earth now lives in heaven. For through it God worked very many great and signal miracles ^l, which proved more than enough his holiness and blessedness; and although these are very many in number, we note only a few of those which we have learned.

[10] and he becomes illustrious by miracles: God therefore, willing that the body of that man who had loved Him so faithfully in life and had served Him should be honoured after death, suggested to many men the counsel of invoking this holy man in the presence of his body; since they had hope that it could come about that he who had served God so well would be much loved by Him, and therefore could obtain for them what was necessary for salvation and life. To which prayers God added such power that they obtained what they asked through the merits of His servant and Blessed Confessor St. Vitalis.

[11] he heals one bereft of her mind; Such a lot befell the wife of a certain inhabitant of this Saint's village, who, because she had become insane and bereft of her mind, had been separated for a time from her husband. When therefore she wandered day and night hither and thither performing her follies, it was at length counselled for the best by certain persons to bring her into the presence of the Saint; where (not through her own prayers) but through the devotion of those who had brought her and through the help and favour of the most holy Vitalis, a few days after, having recovered the use of reason, she who had been brought sick returned well. Whence was openly recognized the great friendship with which God attended His servant, and the power which He had granted him.

[12] a woman from a flux of the hand Another woman named Oda, also an inhabitant of the village of Scobrith, having left this village, had removed to another place, to live there thenceforth. But a little after she was assailed by a most bitter flux of the hand; and this pain so increased that the joints of the thumb clung to the middle of the palm of the hand. Whence she had become so deformed and disabled that, having lost every use of this hand, she seemed crippled and helpless in this member. Moved therefore by weariness of so long a pain, she returned to the Saint to obtain relief of her disease. In his church she devoutly poured out her prayer; and having poured it out, she made her way to the threshold of the church, so that there the sign of the cross might be formed upon her hand, whose sinews were contracted and shortened. Further, when this sign had been made and the Saint invoked, the thumb was separated, returned to its place, the sinews were loosened and the hand was restored to use; and the woman felt herself free of all pain and weakness. And so she was restored to her native health, and both she herself and whoever were present paid abundant thanks and praises to God almighty and merciful and to St. Vitalis, His beloved servant.

[13] and a man from contraction of the sinews, There was also in the city of Ploërmel Castle ^m a certain man named Vulinus ⁿ, who likewise suffered a contraction of all his sinews and limbs, and was very much subject to a languor by which he was wearied and wasted. Further, it happened that a certain man of surpassing and supreme beauty appeared to him and admonished him: if his strength allowed, he should seek the shrine of St. Vitalis, that there he might recover his health. This man therefore, aided by divine grace, set out on the journey, and reached as best he could the church of St. Vitalis; and, as the night of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ approached, he went to the church and poured out prayers, carrying in his hands with great faith a little gift of a candle. And when those who were keeping vigil were singing together the praises of God which are wont to be celebrated in the office of this night, at the hour in which the first sacrifice of the Mass was begun, the sick man who was present lay stretched upon the ground, shedding tears and complaints with wretched cries, so that he moved to pity all who stood by, who wept with him and implored our Redeemer that through the merits of His beloved servant Vitalis He would deign to give him back health, and restore him to the bodily well-being which He had once granted him. These devout supplications obtained their effect: for at that very time the sick man rises from the ground and, approaching the altar, invokes and implores from his heart the most blessed Vitalis, that through his great merits he would take from him the vehemence of his pain and bring him health of body. And then by divine virtue and power this man, who had already come into the straits of death, was made sound and whole in his whole body: a work worthy of the eternal Maker, who had given him life, and by this prodigy honoured His faithful servant Vitalis, for love of whom He grants and performs whatever is asked of Him. All who had gathered there from various places to be present at the sacrifice of the Mass and the whole night office were eyewitnesses of this miracle, which God had performed in their sight.

[14] and frees another from imminent death; Now the fame of the Saint's merits was spread everywhere to such a degree that it reached the ears of very many who were suffering from diseases and other necessities. Among these is to be numbered a certain old man, named Judicael, from the village of Frossay ^o, who, lying sick, was tormented with such pain that he was already thought about to render his soul to God. For which he had prepared himself, having devoutly received from his priest and spiritual father the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist, and he had now come into such danger that he could scarcely draw breath. Amid these remnants of life, therefore, he vowed and promised to God that he would himself visit the church of St. Vitalis, if He would bestow upon him the grace and favour of restored health. Through the Saint's power the effect followed the prayer at once; for beyond the hope of all he leaves his bed and, leaning on a staff, goes forward with feeble step and commits himself to the road. And when he came to the church, he poured out his prayer; and the next day he confessed that by the grace of God and of the good Vitalis he was perfectly healed and safe.

[15] and to a woman In the same village there also lived a certain woman called Teburgis [p], who through a violent pain of the head had become insane and wandering. In order therefore to be healed of this evil, she had gone to many villages distinguished by the beneficent cult of the Saints. But only at St. Vitalis's did she find health.

[16] and restores the use of reason to a man. Another man named Araldus, an inhabitant of the village of St. Perseveranda [q], had been deprived of the use of his memory by the vision of a phantasm appearing to him in the form of the devil, and suffered such a heat of madness that he would bite with his teeth whomever he could. He was, however, in the keeping of his kinsmen, who kept him bound with chains as much as they could, and led him through the places of the Saints, and they came to the church of St. Vitalis. Here they left him bound, committing his care to one of the monks, the procurator of the same monastery; who, when he saw him for a long time subject to the harshness of this madness, formed the plan of putting upon him a back-basket or wicker hamper, and loading him with stones destined for the building of the church; and when he had loaded him with them, he ordered this burden to be carried by him, and led him by a rope, as a beast of burden is led, and in this way compelled him to go very often to the church. Which good work, however unwillingly he did it, was in a short time a saving medicine for him. For a few days after, having been made master of his mind and sound, he of his own accord made supplication to God and to His good servant Vitalis; who so well aided and succoured the man who served him by his great power and living charity, that all were stirred to praise God and to invoke the Saint in all their necessities.

[17] When the Normans attacked But in the times of Pippin [r], king of Aquitaine, of John, the Roman Pontiff, and of Hibbod, abbot of the monastery of Hérou, a great multitude of pirates, enemies of the kingdom, who had come out of Denmark, burst along the shores of the Ocean into the neighbouring lands that lay in their way, plundering and ravaging, after the manner of war and brigandage, islands, cities, churches and castles; and carrying off whatever they could, they turned everything utterly upside down; they slaughtered captives, sparing no age; they practised every impiety, cruelty and disordered and shameful lust towards persons of either sex, showing themselves, by the rigour of their torments and the lewdnesses which they committed against those who met them, the most execrable and abominable of men: drunken and wanton, running about like madmen in skiffs over the sea and the rivers flowing into it, the Loire [s], the Seine and the Garonne. These detestable robbers, then, ravage and utterly destroy the region of Brittany, which they once called the horn [t] and end of the Gauls; then the metropolis Dol [u] and the seven cities subject to it, fortified with marvellous bulwarks, whose names are these: Vannes, Kerahes, Quimper on the river Ella, Quimper of Corentin, the Port of Saliocan, Diallentic, and the city of Saint Paul (which formerly had, and still have, other names), were bereaved and exhausted, no less than the cities of Nantes, Angers, Tours, Orléans, Nevers, with all the castles existing within their borders. These Stygian plagues, entering the Garonne, take possession of Bordeaux, Périgueux, Bourges and the cities of the Santones; and going up the Seine, they ravage Rouen, Coutances, Avranches, Rennes, Noviomagus, Lutetia of the Parisians, Beauvais, Sens, Chartres, and many other most strongly fortified cities and camps of Gaul: all of which happened on account of the civil discord which, after the death of the paternal uncle of Charlemagne [v], blazed up among four kings.

[18] and laying everything waste, In the towns and villages, then, both of Germany [w] (Lower?) and of Gaul, such a slaughter of Christians was made by the Danes, a perverse and idolatrous nation, that no one fell into their hands, of whatever sex, order or condition, who did not at once lose his life. And when they invaded churches or monasteries, they plundered without delay the sacred vessels, the treasures and all the gold and silver; and burning the books, and taking the sacred Relics out of reliquaries and sepulchres, they set flames beneath them, and destroyed by fire those which God permitted to be burned; and those which they could not burn, they crushed and reduced to dust, to give them afterwards to the water or the wind, so that no memory of them might remain on earth. Then in the Gauls this prophecy of Isaiah [x] was fulfilled: From the North shall an evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the earth.

[19] the monks of Hérou The monks, therefore, who inhabited the monasteries of St. Philibert [y], greatly fearing this butchery and the general persecution with which this region was afflicted, went to King Pippin and implored his counsels. On his authority [z], therefore, the superiors ordered that they should carry with them the holy bodies of Martyrs, of Virgins and of Confessors, and all the Relics which they had in their monasteries; and that they should flee and hide themselves in the neighbouring caves and caverns that they could find; and the king granted them certain refuges and a part of his kingdom free from disturbances. When very many monks and other ecclesiastical persons of either sex had heard this, they preferred the flight permitted them by God and by the king

rather than expose themselves to the swords of the cruel pagans.

[20] They carry the body of St. Vitalis to Tournus, Among these come to be reckoned the monks of St. Philibert, who, going out from their monastery of Hérou (Hérou is an island of the Ocean), carried with them their sacred Relics, namely of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, the body of St. Philibert, beloved of God, the body of the most illustrious and most celebrated St. Vitalis, of St. Samson, and of St. Benedict [aa] (their dearest pledges), with the scanty furniture which God had granted them. In order, then, to preserve themselves and the precious treasures of the blessed Saints, setting out in haste, they came to the borders of Burgundy, to a great monastery magnificently built on the banks of the Saône; in which they stayed, and laid down the sacred Relics which they were carrying: and the body of the most holy Vitalis was placed in a golden reliquary adorned with gems.

[21] which in a time of plague Further, some time after [bb] it happened that in this region there arose a plague so contagious and violent that it laid everything waste; so much so that it was almost reckoned that the end of the world was at hand, since men and women, young and old, everywhere fell dead to the ground. And so intolerable a fear seized men that no one, however sound, could promise himself a day, since all saw their companions while speaking suddenly fall dead into their arms.

[22] to the peoples of Burgundy In so great a stupor the principal heads of the Church came together, and by the judgement of the most ancient it was decided that a general penance and affliction was to be prescribed, namely a three-day fast. And by an answer given by Himself, God at once admonished that this was pleasing to Him, provided that the limbs of St. Vitalis were placed on a bier in such a way that the people could pass beneath them; and that He, on account of the prayers and merits of St. Vitalis, would put an end to the slaughter. The thing is so done: the body of the Saint is taken, honourably wrapped in varied cloths, veils and hangings, and thus adorned it is placed on top of certain upright doors, and is set there for the benefit indeed of all, but first of all of those who desire to live, provided that they approach the holy body and receive the remedy which God bestows through the power of the holy and sacred Relics of His beloved servant.

[23] is a means of salvation. The news of this great benefit is spread at once through the villages, cities and castles round about, and indeed through the whole kingdom. The people run together; men and women gather from every side, shutting fear within their breasts, betraying in their faces pallor and the likeness of death, and asking God that He would deign to forgive them their sins, to free them from the danger of death, and to keep them sound and safe through the merits of His servant St. Vitalis: whence as many as approached the sacred body were preserved from death and contagion [cc]. This miracle happened after the persecution; from the history [dd] of which we have excerpted only a very few deeds, arranging them among the preceding, which we have partly read and partly heard, from the true testimony of reports, to have been done.

ANNOTATA.

p. Le Grand has Tethburgis, and perhaps better, as being more usual.

q. The village of St. Perseveranda, commonly called Sainte Pazanne, is about five leagues distant from the village of St. Vitalis and lies between the forest of Princé and the Great Lake (le lac de Grand-lieu). St. Perseveranda, who is commonly called Pecine, Pechinne, Pazanne, is venerated on the 24th and 26th days of June.

r. We come at last to the third part of the Life of St. Vitalis, stitched together from both books of Ermentarius on the Translations and Miracles of St. Philibert. But truly this stitcher has mixed up men, times, deeds, everything, although he lived before the close of the twelfth century, as will be clear from annotation u. See, from the beginning you have referred to the same times Pippin, king of Aquitaine from the year 814 up to the year of his death, 838, Pope John VIII, whose pontificate is comprised between the year 872 and the year 882, and Hibbod, or rather Hilbod, who is reckoned to have held the crozier of Hérou from the year 825 up to the year 854.

s. See the invasions to which allusion is made here explained more at length in book II of the Translations of St. Philibert. They happened, however, after the year 840. Ermentarius is silent about the destruction of Dol, etc.

t. Adrien de Valois, in the Notitia Galliarum under the word Curiosolites, thinks that Aimoin was the first, or among the first, at the beginning of the eleventh century to use this name, in book II of the Miracles of St. Benedict.

u. The vernacular names of Dol and of the seven following places are: Dol, Vannes, Carhaix, Quimperlé, Quimper-Corentin, Morlaix, Aleth and Saint-Pol-de-Léon. The reason why I have said that Diallentic is the same as Aleth, from the ruins of which city the city of Saint-Malo (St Malo) arose, is this: in the fragment of the history of Lesser Britain which Hyacinthe Morice published Mémoires de Bretagne, Vol. I col. 279 and following, the diocese or bishop of Dialetum appears twice Ibid. col. 284., and elsewhere in the same Collection Ibid. col. 23. the bishop of Dialectum again recurs. In the former fragment, moreover, you have these words besides: "Nominoë … set up others in their places (of certain bishops of Brittany), and, diminishing their parishes, namely in the monastery of Dol, which at that time was of the diocese of the Church of Dialetum, and in the monastery of St. Brieuc and of Saint Tugdual of Pabu, he installed three usurping bishops." Almost the same things are repeated by another chronicler, who is much inferior in antiquity and authority, and indeed to impugn these

he strives. But in the royal edition of the works of Sirmond Vol. III col. 409 and following there exists a sheet, copied from a MS. of Mont-Saint-Michel, which the same Sirmond Ibid. col. 170. greatly praises, and which agrees with the first fragment, found in the Charterhouse of Val-Dieu in the diocese of Séez; and in it, in place of Dialectensis, Aletensis is read. I know indeed that Salacon, who is here called bishop of Aleth, is called bishop of Dol in the synodal letter of the council of Soissons Labbe, Councils, Vol. VIII col. 838. to Nicholas I; but those who refer the beginnings of the see of Dol to the times of Nominoë, following Fr. Sirmond Vol. III of his Works col. 170., will ascribe this to the drowsiness of copyists or to some other reason; while others, who make the see of Dol much more ancient, follow that reading entirely Tresvaux, l'Église de Bretagne, p. 254., without however maintaining that Sirmond's sheet is corrupt, being content to have contended that it was written by an Anonymous author out of anger against the Bretons Ibid. l. c.. Wherefore nothing can be gathered from this variety of opinions against what has been said about the name of Aleth. See moreover in the Notitia Galliarum of Valois that Aleth was formerly called by the Bretons Guich-Aleth, Quid-Aleth: whence it is plain that this city had very many names. And since the seven cities enumerated above are said to be subject to Dol, and Dol is called a metropolis, it is clear that these things were written before the year 1199, in which, by a diploma given, Innocent III again subjected Dol with the remaining Churches of Brittany to Tours. See the work of Jean Maan on the Church of Tours p. 129..

v. Who does not know that Louis the Pious, who is here designated, was not the paternal uncle but the son of Charlemagne? See in Ermentarius and other writers ready to hand the discord which is spoken of here, set out at length.

w. Germany surely indicates Belgium and Frisia.

x. These words are not Isaiah's but Jeremiah's, chap. I verse 14. You have the same words in book II of Ermentarius.

y. He surely means to designate the monasteries of Hérou and of Déas.

z. Here again there is the greatest confusion. These things are related in Ermentarius, book I of the Miracles and Translations, at the year 836. A general assembly was held at that time. At num. 11 of the Commentary I have briefly explained the whole flight of the monks of Hérou.

aa. This is St. Benedict, venerated on the 23rd day of Oct. at Quinçay, as was noted at num. 13 of the Commentary, where the other Relics of the Saints are also treated.

bb. Allusion is perhaps made here to the mortality which arose in Burgundy in the year 869; of which Clarius in the Chronicle of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif speaks in these words Rec. des Hist. de France, Dom Bouquet, Vol. VII, p. 266.: "In those days there was a famine and great mortality throughout the whole kingdom of the Franks, especially through Aquitaine and Burgundy; so that because of the multitude of the dying there was none to bury them. For at Sens fifty-six dead men were found in one day: but by the mercy of Christ it ceased in that same year."

cc. At the end of the Saint-Viaud MS. I find it noted that the following ought to be inserted in this place of the Life: "Afterwards, in memory of this signal miracle, a stone cross was erected in the village of St. Vitalis, supported on two pillars, which one may pass beneath; and those who suffer from fever and pass beneath it out of reverence in honour of Jesus Christ crucified, to whom they subjected themselves in baptism, and make supplication to Him and to Blessed Vitalis with some devout prayer, or do Him homage with some abstinence, are restored to health a few days after." Whether this fragment really belongs to the Life, or was rather composed by the rector Merlet, I doubt the more strongly the more I wonder that in the French text certain words were inserted and then struck out. Since the present parish priest in his letter to us and the Rev. Mr. Garaby in his Lives of the Saints of Brittany make no mention of this cross and of the people's devotion, it is plain to conjecture that these were destroyed at the end of the last century.

dd. This whole passage in the French MS. was truly inextricable; I have chosen the interpretation that I judged most probable. The history of which there is question here seems to be the same as the oft-cited writing of Ermentarius.