ON ST. FLORENTIUS OF ORANGE, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, IN GAUL,
ABOUT THE YEAR 526.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Florentius, bishop and confessor, at Orange in Gaul. (S.)
§ only. His memory in the sacred calendars; his uncertain Acts excerpted from the Life of St. Veranus; the councils at which he was present; his death and the translation of his relics.
J. V. H.
The memory of St. Florentinus in the calendars of the Church; The holiness of St. Florentius, bishop of the Church of Orange, is proclaimed by the Martyrologies which we call Classical, Ado and Usuard, with whom the present-day Roman agrees. Ado, whom Usuard and the Roman almost copy, adorns our saint with this eulogy: "In Gaul, in the city of Orange, of St. Florentius, bishop, who, illustrious for many virtues, rested in peace." Which very same words Notker also employs Canisius, volume II, part II, p. 181.. Nor do I doubt that Wandalbert in his metrical Martyrology, although a German and a monk of Prüm, wrote of our saint on the 16th day before the Kalends of November D'Achery, Spicilegium, volume II, p. 54.:
The sacred prelate Florentius adorns the sixteenth.
For both the more celebrated cult of the one of Orange forbids us to divert this praise to St. Florentius, bishop of Trier, and so does Wandalbert's guide, Florus, subdeacon of the Church of Lyon Ibid., p. 39., to whom the Florentius of Orange ought rightly to have been better known than the one of Trier, inasmuch as he was nearer to Lyon and a subscriber of various Synods celebrated in Gaul, as we shall explain more fully below.
[2] his Acts for the most part As regards the Acts of St. Florentius, we have scarcely any, if we except the Lessons of the Breviaries. In the Bollandian papers, indeed, which are preserved in the royal library at Brussels under number 8912, there is found a Life of the saint, copied long ago in the hand of our Papebroch from the parchment Legend of Carlo Strozzi, Florentine Senator. But this seems to have been drawn for the most part from the Acts of St. Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, which are had in Labbe Bibliotheca manuscriptorum, volume II, p. 690. and will be published in this volume under the 19th day of October. For after St. Florentius, of Tours by birth, has been designated in place of St. Veranus of Javols, the rest runs in order in almost the same words in both biographies. Thus each is said to have been of a family neither the least nor most exalted; each keeps vigil in a church, Veranus that of St. Privatus, patron of Mende and so of Javols, Florentius at the body of St. Martin; and when the night was over each asked that, his hair being laid aside, he might be admitted into the number of the clerics. Then the Roman journey, with all its circumstances, is the same for both, and the like return, the same Honoratus, bishop of Albenga, who receives the pilgrim, by whose help the pagans, rain having been obtained and a dragon driven away,
are converted to the faith of Christ. Nay, each too, having crossed the Alps, comes to longed-for Gaul and approached the basilica of St. Thyrsus, situated in the territory of Cassianum. The biographer stumbles, however, with our Florentius, when he imagines that he reached Cabillo and occupied the see of the dead bishop of Cabillo, for no Florentius is read to have occupied this see.
[3] taken from the Life of St. Veranus. It remains, therefore, to examine to which saint these Acts, common between the two, are to be ascribed. It must be confessed that they fit St. Veranus better than St. Florentius. First, because it treats of a bishop of Cabillo or Cavaillon, such as our Florentius never was. Then, while everything runs most easily for St. Veranus, many things stand in the way of our applying the same to St. Florentius. I shall bring forward one example, in which a girl at Florentiola, raised to life by the prayers of our saint, is treated. "Returning hence therefore (namely from Albenga), continuing his journey he hastened toward Gaul, and when, having crossed the Alps, he had come near to a certain village close to the road, situated in the territory of the city of Piacenza, he stopped, as happens, for the sake of praying. Coming there into the church, as soon as he entered he heard the voices of mourners. Then, inquiring what this was, they said that a certain girl had died; whence, moved with mercy and piety, 'Let us go,' he said, 'to visit the mourners, and if we can bestow any consolation on them, let us confer it.' And at that word, prayer having been made, he moved his steps quickly, and entering the lodging where the little body of the dead girl was kept, silence having been imposed, he ordered those who were with him to pray. And when he had risen from that prayer, taking the hand of the lifeless girl, he called her three times by her own name with a louder voice; and she, the Lord helping, snatched from the captivity of death, answered, and, restored to life, removed the weeping of her parents with an immense abundance of joy." It is then related how this village, in memory of the prodigy wrought, took the name of Florentiola.
[4] seem suspect, These things indeed by no means fit with the series of the Acts. For, hastening into Gaul and having entered Albenga, we do not see by what reason St. Florentius can be said, having crossed the Alps, to have been able to reach the territory of Piacenza, for that is not to advance but to go back. Since Albenga, situated on the western coast of Liguria, lies next to Gaul, whereas Piacenza on the Po is distant from Gaul at least a hundred and twenty Italian miles toward the east. But these same things can fit St. Veranus very well: for his Legend has that, having crossed the Alps, he came to a certain village which is not named, and there raised a girl to life, and at length reached Gaul. From these things, therefore, I think the praised Acts pertain less to St. Florentius, bishop of Orange, and rather to St. Veranus; wherefore they will be published in this very volume on the 19th day of October, where they can also be weighed more accurately.
[5] since he is often called of Cabillo For the rest, this biographical confusion went so far that there were those who judged St. Florentius to be numbered among the bishops of Cavaillon. And in fact, both in St. Antoninus in his Chronicles, part III, title XXIV, chapter XIII, §2 Volume III, p. 801, Lyon edition 1586., and in a Breviary of Le Puy, quite old, as is said, a copy of which Claude Perry, writer of the History of Chalon, once sent to John Bolland, our Florentius is read as bishop of that same city of Cabillo, confused with Cavaillon. To which error indeed Saussay assented in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology on this day, writing: "At Cabillo among the Aedui (Chalon-sur-Saône), of St. Florentius, bishop and confessor of that city. He, born at Tours, filled with the grace of God, shone with much power in freeing energumens, both at Grenoble and also at Milan: and at length, excelling in humility and charity, he obtained the joys of heaven from the divine bestower. His bones, glittering with many flashes of heavenly power, are preserved with religion partly at Le Puy, partly at Lausonium, a little village of the Velauni. Nay, part of them too, transported into Italy, mindful of his virtues, as a votive gift, placed in the town of Florentiola, named after him, in a church of his own name, is held with great reverence, where even today his office is solemnly celebrated, approved by the holy Apostolic See."
[6] Here there are evidently attributed to Florentius of Cabillo or Cavaillon things which are proper to the one of Orange alone, or he is called bishop of Cavaillon; such as the translation of the relics to Florentiola, which, as we shall see below, were transported from Orange into the territory of Piacenza. The Breviary of Le Puy of the year 1784 has similar things, in which it is said that "St. Florentius, bishop of Orange, was buried in his episcopal city, whence his sacred bones were translated and are honourably preserved partly in the cathedral church of Blessed Mary of Le Puy, partly in the parish church at Laussonia in the diocese of Le Puy, partly at Florentiola in the aforesaid church, carried there by the efforts of Dionysius, bishop of Piacenza." From which it is clear that what Saussay and the old Breviary of Le Puy ascribed to a bishop of Cabillo unknown to all was at length vindicated to Florentius of Orange. And this indeed with the best right, since it was certain that there was a bishop of Orange, Florentius, known from the Councils of the 6th century and inscribed in the authentic Martyrologies; while on the other hand a Florentius, bishop of Cabillo or Cavaillon, was plainly unknown.
[7] whence there were those who imagined two Florentii: Nay, even those who assigned Florentius to the see of Cabillo nevertheless admitted another, of Orange, celebrated for the fame of holiness, as is clear from Saussay, who praises the one of Cabillo in the Supplement, but in his Martyrology itself adorns ours with the following eulogy: "At Orange, under the metropolis of Arles, of St. Florentius, bishop and confessor, who, full of the grace of the divinity, created pontiff of this see after Verus, the encomiast of St. Eutropius, procured the salvation of souls with heavenly wisdom and apostolic fervour and work: he added wonderful increases to Religion as much by the force of holy preaching as by the examples of an unblemished life. Then, sitting honourably among the chief Fathers of the Gallican Church in the council of Epaon, which came together under Pope Hormisdas, he gave his vote and his signature to the enactments published on sacred polity. And at length, having entered the path of immortality, he obtained the reward which he had earned in faithful stewardship."
[8] we judge certain his Italian journey and From what has so far been said it follows that nothing certain has become known to us about St. Florentius except his Italian journey, his episcopate of Orange, and his presence at certain councils of Gaul. And indeed, as regards the Italian journey, very frequent in that age for the sake of devotion, there can scarcely be doubt on account of the tradition of the people of Piacenza: for Giovanni de' Mussi, who flourished at the end of the 14th century, writes that in the year 1057 the bones of St. Florentius the bishop were carried from the city of Orenga (Orange) to the castle of Florenzola Muratori, Scriptores rerum Italicarum, volume XVI, p. 451.; whence it is given to understand that the inhabitants of Florentiola, since they desired to have the relics of their patron in the church dedicated under his name, sought them from Orange, inasmuch as they knew very well that not some bishop of Cabillo, but the one of Orange, both wrought a signal miracle in their village and thereafter obtained solemn cult. In this, however, the Piacenza tradition stumbles, that it reports St. Florentius to have flourished about the middle of the 4th century, saying Ibid., p. 448.: "In the year of Christ 365 St. Florentius passed through the bishopric of Piacenza, who visited the church of St. Boniface, working very many miracles there." Pietro Campi follows the same chronology in his Ecclesiastical History of Piacenza, book II, under the year 364 Historia Ecclesiastica di Piacenza, volume I, p. 60., nor do I at all doubt that he drew it from the praised Giovanni de' Mussi. But the historian of Orange, La Pise Histoire de la principauté d'Orange, p. 57., seems to go off into the altogether opposite direction, when he insinuates that St. Florentius was the brother of Alatais, countess of Orange, and puts off his episcopate to the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th (from 880 to 910). But Gallia Christiana, weaving the series of the bishops of Orange through the 9th and 10th centuries, does not insert any Florentius in the Catalogue even by way of doubt, nor makes any mention of him: wherefore it judged that no account was to be taken of that opinion Gallia Christiana, volume I, column 769..
[9] his presence at the Council of Epaon, For the rest, neither chronology in any way fits with the certain documents which we have about St. Florentius in the Acts of the councils. For although the beginning of our saint's episcopate is uncertain, since we do not know the time of his predecessor Verus Ibid., column 767., this nevertheless is placed beyond all controversy, namely that St. Florentius was present in person at the council of Epaon in the year of Christ 517, as is plain from his subscription Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1582.: "Florentius, in the name of Christ bishop of the city of Orange, I have reread and subscribed, on the day and consul written above," namely on the 17th day of the eighth month, or October, Agapitus being consul, or the year of Christ 517, as St. Avitus of Vienne, president of the council, has in his subscription. Nothing indeed occurs in the said synod which expresses the manners of that period more specially than other contemporary Councils, except perhaps Canon XXV Ibid., column 1579., by which it is provided that relics of saints be not placed in rural oratories, unless perhaps it happens that clerics of some parish are near, who may serve the sacred ashes by frequency of psalmody.
[10] by whose help the bounds But the council of Epaon, in my judgment, excellently illustrates a geographical question, namely the extent of the kingdom of Burgundy, as it had been constituted under King Sigismund. It is agreed among the learned that St. Avitus summoned not so much the bishops of his province of Vienne as those of the whole Burgundian kingdom, as Sirmond rightly notes on letter LXXX of St. Avitus Works of Sirmond, volume II, p. 119., just as the council of Agde of the year 506 embraced the bishops placed under the Visigoths Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1394. and the First of Orléans of the year 511 the prelates, though not all, placed under the Franks Ibid., column 1409.. And hence it is clear that the whole of Gaul can with easy labour be defined among the three chief nations for that period, especially since the bounds of the bishoprics remained almost unmoved down to our age. And as regards the kingdom of the Burgundians, its bounds toward the east were the Pennine Alps, on account of the bishopric of Octodurum, today of Sion in the Valais, whose prelate Constantius subscribed the council eleventh; Octodurum was followed by Vindonissa, whose see not so long after these times was translated to Constance on Lake Constance. From here one comes to the city of Avennica, or rather Aventicum, whose bishop, Salutaris, subscribed the council last through his presbyter Pelagius: it is known, further, that the bishops afterwards migrated from Aventicum to Lausanne.
[11] of the Burgundian kingdom, Nor should it be supposed that by the city of Avennica Avignon, situated on the Rhône, is designated rather than Aventicum, a city of present-day Switzerland, Avenches; whence there have been those who ascribed Salutaris to the bishops of Avignon Nouguier, Histoire chronologique de l'Église d'Avignon, p. 19.. But wrongly; since Avignon had belonged to the Visigoths already from the year 506, its bishop Julian subscribing through his presbyter Pompeius to the Council of Agde, in which
the Fathers, on bended knees, prayed to the Lord for the kingdom of Alaric, who had permitted the power of assembling Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1382.; from which words it is given to understand that the city of Avennica or Avignon belonged to the kingdom of the Visigoths. No place, therefore, can be found for the prelate of Avignon among the Burgundian bishops. But on the contrary, unless Salutaris was bishop of Aventicum, the prelate of that see would have to be said to have been absent from the synod, although his diocese was enclosed on every side by the borders of Burgundy. A double consideration, therefore, impels us to refer Salutaris to the Catalogue of the bishops of Aventicum, and to ascribe to an error of the copyist "the city of Avennica" for Aventica Cf. Gallia Christiana, volume I, column 798..
[12] for the year 517 they are determined; From the bishopric of Aventicum the bounds of Burgundy then bend (the tract of the Raurici or of Basel being omitted, whose bishop, unless perhaps he lies hidden under the name of the bishop of Autun Cf. Acta Sanctorum, volume VII of October, p. 879., which we do not believe) toward the west through the bishoprics of Besançon, Langres, Nevers and Autun; whence toward the south the bishops of Lyon, Vienne, Valence, Die, and on the right bank of the Rhône of Alba or Viviers, are met; whom further, but on the left bank of the Rhône, the prelates of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, Orange, Vaison and Carpentras follow. Afterwards the river Druentia (the Durance) is the boundary of the Burgundians, and along the right bank of the river come the bishoprics of Cavaillon, Apt, Segesterium (Sisteron), Gap and Embrun, from which one passes to the dioceses of Tarentaise and Geneva, which at length reach that of Octodurum, from which we began. In like manner it would be possible to define the bounds of the Visigoths in Gaul. But we have already done this on this very day in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Ruricius I, no. 47.
[13] inquiry is made into the site of Epaon, But concerning the synod of Epaon a more arduous question has long vexed the learned, namely what is the true place of Epaon, celebrated for its noble council. Various men have put forward various opinions; but to most of the learned (among whom are also to be numbered the authors of the History of the Gallican Church Histoire de l'Église gallicane, volume III, p. 149, Paris edition 1825. and our predecessors, both in the Life of St. Avitus of Vienne on the 5th day of February Acta Sanctorum, February, volume I, p. 665 and, the opinion being repeated from February on account of the rarity of the volumes of this month, in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Venantius, bishop of Alba or Viviers Ibid., August, volume II, p. 104, no. 6.) the opinion has pleased of those who judged that the ancient Epaon was on the same site as is today the rural parish of Yenne, which the collectors of the Historians of Gaul interpret as Etanna Dom Bouquet, volume I, p. 112, note 35., in the present-day duchy of Savoy and the province of Chambéry; various reasons are brought forward to establish the matter, which may be seen in the places cited at the foot of the page. But those seem to me to have solved the question more conveniently who place the site of the Council in the county of Abbo or Albo (Albon, department of Drôme, arrondissement of Valence, canton of Saint-Vallier). For the weightiest considerations conspire toward this opinion. And first of all the very name of Epaon, as is established from the diploma of Louis the Pious, given at Aachen on the 6th day before the Ides of March, in the 18th year of his empire, indiction IX, which chronological notes concur in the 10th day of March of the year 831 of the common era Ibid., volume VI, p. 570..
[14] in the county of Albon, Further, in the cited diploma these things are read: "The illustrious man Count Abbo, approaching of his own free will the serenity of our highness, who also held by beneficiary gift from our largess the village which is called Epaonis, which was of the account of St. Maurice of the bishopric of Vienne, where now, God being the author, Archbishop Bernard is known to be prelate; where there were also churches destroyed and unroofed, whose names are of St. Andrew the Apostle and of St. Romanus the Martyr, besought our clemency with what prayers he could … that we should restore to the church of St. Maurice of Vienne whatever he himself held there of the benefice …" From this fragment, though mutilated, we have, as we said before, the very name of Epaon, which can of itself already serve in place of a solid argument, and then indeed most of all when it can be supported by other reasons, such as that the village of Epaon was both situated in the very bishopric of Vienne, whose prelate, St. Avitus, convoked the council, and belonged to the account of the Church of Vienne itself, as is clear from the cited fragment. From all which we have that the ancient Epaon must be placed within the bounds of the diocese of Vienne, must belong to the account of its cathedral church, and that there formerly existed there churches of St. Andrew the Apostle and of St. Romanus the Martyr.
[15] as is shown All of which concur accurately in the present-day village of Albon. For that village, 27 kilometres distant from Vienne toward the south, also belonged before the suppression of that see, made in the year 1801, to its diocese, as is sufficiently established from those who wrote before the new division of the French bishoprics Charvet, Histoire de l'Église de Vienne, p. 119.. Then the village of Albon, which with its tract was distinguished by the title of a county, belonged down to the end of the past century to the Church of Vienne. For the county of Albon, having devolved in the course of time to the Dauphins of Viennois and through them to the kings of France and so to the French crown, every year on the vigil of the feast of St. Maurice, patron of the Church of Vienne, namely on the 21st day of September, offered through the royal judge of Vienne at first Vespers a candle of twelve pounds in sign of ancient right and dominion Mémoires de Trévoux, year 1737, November, p. 1970.. And as regards the churches destroyed in the place of Epaon; even today Albon is often called St-Romain-d'Albon, and in its territory there existed the ruins of a certain church which is called by the inhabitants St-André-de-Mocune Place cited..
[16] two diplomas This opinion is also confirmed by a fragment of a diploma extracted from the Cartulary of the Church of Vienne, which C. Charvet cites in his History Histoire de l'Église de Vienne, p. 120. and which clearly points to the village of Albon; namely, that in the territory of Ebbao there is a villa which is called Anarioni (Anneyron): and that village is five kilometres distant from Albon and is contained in the same district of St. Walaric (canton of Saint-Vallier). Here are the words of the diploma: "Therefore I, Artulf, and my wife Adoara … give and cede something from the things of our own means which we are seen to have and possess, to the basilica of St. Maurice … which is built within the walls in the city of Vienne, which the lord and venerable Archbishop Odtramnus has to govern; these are things lying in the district of Vienne, in the territory of Ebbao, in the villa and place where it is called Anarioni." From all these it is most probably made out that the place of the council of Epaon is to be sought in the tract of Albon; for no one who has handled even a very few old documents will be offended by the change of the letter p into b. To this point finally is the fact that St. Avitus, announcing the council and treating of Epaon, says Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1573.: "Which place" (the parish of Epaon), "the fatigue of all being weighed, has been chosen as sufficiently suitable for the assembly." And in fact the village of Albon is situated in the middle of the Burgundian kingdom as it then was, although I do not deny that this could also fit Etanna or Yenne.
[17] lying: One thing nevertheless can be objected to the opinion set out, namely that the village of Albon was not of such size or seemliness that it could hold so many bishops and receive them in commodious lodging. I confess indeed that, besides the two churches in the same place, which intimate something not wholly common, no document has yet come to us which shows the ancient magnificence of Epaon. But it must be recalled that the village of Epaon, as the diploma of Louis the Pious cited above says, already then had its two churches destroyed and unroofed. And if the churches lay open in such ruins, one may suspect by probable conjecture that the remaining buildings suitable for receiving bishops collapsed by a like chance: and that it was reduced to this mediocrity in which it long lay hidden. But whether the name Albon is to be derived from Count Abbo, and so made the word Epaon obsolete, I do not know; nevertheless the inhabitants of the place even to this day said the county of Abbo, not of Albo Mémoires de Trévoux, volume cited, column 1973.. Thus far of the Council of Epaon.
[18] and he was present at the Fourth Council of Arles. In the same year as that of Epaon another council of eleven bishops was celebrated at Lyon, whose names are also read in the former synod; and among them is had the name of Florentius, whether ours or rather the bishop of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (for both had been at Epaon) is uncertain. But it is most likely that our St. Florentius was present at the Fourth Council of Arles of the year 524. For although he did not set the name of his see to his subscription; since, however, the same names of very many bishops occur both in the synod of Epaon and in that of Arles, nay, the subscription of each Florentius, namely of Orange and of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, is read, there can scarcely be doubt about the presence of our saint at Arles Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1623.. Over this synod St. Caesarius of Arles presided, and there were enacted, if indeed the codices have supplied us with the entire text, four canons, of which the first three treat of sacred ordinations, the last of wandering clerics who, escaping the rule of ecclesiastical discipline, seek protection with another bishop.
[19] The saint dies about the year 526: From the subscription of St. Florentius, compared with the coming of his successor Vindemialis to the Council of Carpentras, the time of his death can be defined from close enough at hand, namely between the 8th day before the Ides of June 524, on which the synod of Arles, and the 8th day before the Ides of November 527 or 528, on which that of Carpentras, Vindemialis being present, were celebrated Ibid., column 1664.. Wherefore I have noted the time of his death as about the year 526 at the head of this Commentary. For, as Domenico Mansi quite rightly observes Supplementum Conciliorum Labbe, volume I, column 411., although the chronological characters of the Council of Carpentras, namely "Mavortius, vir clarissimus, being consul," by which it would seem to be referred to the year of Christ 527, contain nothing ambiguous at first sight; yet if the last words of the synod are attended to, by which it is enacted that in the following year a council be assembled in the town of Vaison on the 8th day before the Ides of November Labbe, Concilia, volume IV, column 1661., the chronology is not without its difficulty. For the Fathers met at Vaison, under St. Caesarius as president, on the Nones of November, Decius the Younger, vir clarissimus, being consul, that is, in the year of Christ 529 Ibid., column 1679.: and so some error must have crept into the chronological note of one or other council. The praised Mansi prefers to acknowledge the error in the synod of Carpentras rather than in that of Vaison, because, the bishops by custom meeting on the second weekday rather than on another day of the week, this weekday in the leap year marked with the dominical letter BA concurred with the 8th day before the Ides of November. And this year 528 being supposed, since Vindemialis, bishop of Orange,
was present in person at Carpentras, it follows that St. Florentius met his last day in the intervening time between the years 524 and 528.
[20] his relics translated to Florentiola St. Florentius, having departed this life, on the witness of Joseph La Pise Histoire de la principauté d'Orange, p. 58., was committed to the earth according to the custom of that time outside the city in a church built by himself. Which church, called at first Claustra (la Clastre), afterwards received the name of St. Florentius and retained it until the year 1614, when Philip William, son of the famous William the Silent by Anne of Egmond, prince of Orange, himself however a Catholic, having destroyed the old church of St. Florentius, built in that place a convent of the Friars Minor Capuchin, which still, if credit is given to Cassini's Atlas, lies outside the city. The body of the saint remained there until the middle of the 11th century, when, as we said above at no. 8, part of the sacred bones was translated from Orange to Florentiola. For other cities were made sharers in a similar benefit, as is attested by the Breviary of Le Puy, both the old one, a copy of which exists in the Bollandian collection of manuscripts no. 8912, and the more recent one, published by order of Marie-Joseph Galard de Terraube in the year 1784: in which it is read that "the sacred bones of St. Florentius are honourably preserved partly in the cathedral church of Blessed Mary of Le Puy, partly in the parish church at Laussonia (Laussonne), a village of the diocese of Le Puy, partly at Florentiola."
[21] With which assertion the Proper of the Church of Piacenza wholly agrees, when it says: "Of his sacred bones some of the more notable, by the efforts of Dionysius, prelate of Piacenza, were carried to that church of which we have spoken and received most honourably." The history of that translation, at the request of the city of Florentiola, was written about the year 1292 by Jacobus de Voragine, of the Order of Preachers and archbishop of Genoa, a man most celebrated for his Legend called Golden. That document exists in a parchment codex written by hand. But the vicissitudes of the times, while we write these things, do not allow us to seek a copy; if we find anything afterwards we reserve it for the Addenda of this volume. We subjoin, therefore, since we have no other, the lessons of the Piacenza Proper, as they are shown in the Bollandian collection praised above, which seem to us therefore to be preferred also to the legends of Le Puy, because they omit most of the circumstances of the life drawn from the deeds of St. Veranus of Cavaillon. The memory of the Translation of the Sacred Relics is kept at Florentiola on the 19th day of March, as will be plain from the Legend to be recited.
LIFE OF ST. FLORENTIUS, BISHOP OF ORANGE,
From the proper Offices of the Church of Piacenza.
Florentius, bishop and confessor, at Orange in Gaul. (S.)
Synopsis of his life: Florentius, born among the people of Tours in Gaul, was a man of exceptional holiness. He, excellently instructed from his earliest age, after he had been enrolled in the number of the clerics, his mind having been excellently cultivated in a certain hidden little cell by pious meditations, sets out for Rome to the threshold of the Apostles for the sake of religion. On that journey he happened to fall among robbers, by whom, after many disgraces and insults, when he sees his head too aimed at with drawn sword, he does nothing but commend his spirit to God. When behold (O wonderful thing!) the robber's arm hangs suspended in the air in a vain attempt. When the wicked men, terrified by this miracle, had begun to ask the holy man to propitiate God for them, mercy having been at once obtained for them from God, he dismissed his assailants unpunished and with good pardon a. There is a village in the territory of Piacenza, not ignoble, which today they call Florentiola b; when he had afterwards come there, he raises from the dead a girl there who happened to be being carried to burial. By this so great miracle both the prince of the place, who was the girl's father, and also the inhabitants, each for himself, began to invite Florentius, to follow him with love and goodwill, to offer him all their goods.
[2] The translation of the relics. Some years after, when news was brought that he had passed to the heavenly homeland, all judged that the same St. Florentius should be taken as the tutelary and chief patron of the district c. And so in that same place where the girl had been recalled to life they take care to enlarge the church itself in honour of the saint, which, afterwards increased by more elegant work and structure as well, is today piously visited and frequented. Nor did the cult of so great a man keep itself within the narrow bounds of one district, but also at Rome, Venice, Milan, where he restored light to a blind man and life to a dead man, and in other places besides, he was in great honour and illustrious with the glory of miracles. In his own Gaul, very dear both to the whole people and to the king himself, pontiff of the Church of Orange, he gave many excellent proofs both of doctrine and of piety, most diligently carrying out all the offices and duties of an excellent shepherd and parent. A most holy death followed his most holy life on the 16th day before the Kalends of November. He was buried in that city, and as befitted such a man. Of his sacred bones some of the more notable, by the efforts of Dionysius the prelate d, were carried to Florentiola, to that church of which we have spoken, and received most honourably, and there they have both flourished with many miracles very often and are held in the highest veneration by all. The day of which translation too is recalled there with an anniversary memory on the 14th day before the Kalends of April.