ON SS. FELIX AND AUGEBERT, MARTYRS IN GAUL,
IN THE 7TH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Their cult in various parishes of the diocese of Langres. Their Legend and Passion. Their bodies kept in the abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif near Sens.
Felix, Martyr in Gaul. (S.)
Augebert, Martyr in Gaul. (S.)
B. B.
We have few things concerning these Saints. Chastelain makes mention of St. Augebert, or Angilbert. Besides him I have found none of the Martyrologists who makes mention of him: for the careless error in which Saussay here moves does not allow us to weigh his words even a little. Namely, at the sixth day of September he announces: At Sens, the natal day of the holy Martyrs Sanctian, Augustine, Felix, Aubert and Beata, a Virgin likewise empurpled, who in the time of the Emperor Aurelian … having set out from the Spains into the Gauls … sealed the confession of Christ … with shed blood; which indeed Saussay, according to his custom, amplifies at length. For the rest, our Stilting at the said sixth day of September declares that the names of Felix and Aubert are to be struck out Acta Sanctorum, volume II of September, preliminary commentary, no. 1, 688.. The holy Martyrs, he says, whom I have proposed in the title, I find nowhere announced all together, except in Saussay and in the Breviary of Sens at this day, where in the prefixed Calendar they are read thus: Of Sanctian, Augustine, Felix, Aubert and Beata, Virgin, Martyrs. But the Lessons inserted in the Breviary of the year 1625 treat of almost only three, and add at the end a very brief memorial of Felix and Aubert in such a way that they seem to intimate that these two did not suffer together with the other three martyrs, but were joined to the others, so that the festival of all might be kept together. Which last will be declared more fully below. Nor are the Martyrologists alone silent about our Saints, but I have been unable to detect even the slightest trace of any kind in the historians; and accordingly SS. Felix and Augebert would have had to be sent away among the Passed Over, had we not, by the kindness of the most distinguished Monsieur Lamy, President of the Seminary of Langres, received certain documents from which their cult is certainly established.
[2] They are venerated in the Diocese of Langres. SS. Felix and Augebert are held today as patrons in two churches of the diocese of Langres: namely at Silva Rubra, or Silva Roborum (in the vernacular Silvarouvre or Silvarouvres: for it is written differently by different people), and at Villa (in the vernacular Villars-en-Azois; Chastelain writes Villers-en-Azois). Each village (which the river Aube flows between, placed opposite each other and not far apart) is in the district of Calvimons (Chaumont). But there is also another village or hamlet of the same district, called Sexfontes or Siccumfons (in the vernacular Sexfontaine), in which from time immemorial the Relics of SS. Felix and Augebert are venerated.
[3] Their Legend. From the three said villages or hamlets we have received various things pertaining to our Saints and their cult. And indeed the Reverend Monsieur François-Jérôme Mettrier, parish priest at Silvarouvres, sent the Legend, which he testifies that he copied from a manuscript office of these Saints. The codex bears the year 1710, and was recognized and approved in the year 1843 by the most distinguished Monsieur Favrel, vicar general of the most illustrious Lord Pierre-Louis Parisis, Bishop of Langres, today of Arras, a man very well known throughout the world for the fame of his learning and eloquence. Let it suffice to have excerpted these few things from the aforesaid Legend (which you will find edited entire below). SS. Felix and Augebert, natives of England, are led captive into Gaul. Thence, presented with liberty, they come to Rome. Where, after their faith was pledged to Christ, they are given by St. Gregory the Great as companions to SS. Augustine and Mellitus, apostles of the English. Felix is ordained priest, Augebert deacon, by Augustine. Afterwards, sent to Rome, while they are returning to their homeland, they are slain in hatred of the faith by two robbers in a forest not far from the village of Nuceus, in the parts of Bar. Seven days having intervened, their bodies, incorrupt and untouched by beasts, are translated by the zeal of a pious matron into a church situated in the territory of Troyes, whose name is Supinus Rubus; which translation was made illustrious by miracles; translated thence to Siccumfons, they rest there today. St. Gregory the Great converted the Anglo-Saxons to the faith, Augustine and other monks having been sent thither in the 14th year of Maurice, of Christ 596. So Petavius Rationarium, part I, book VII, chapter XII, at the end.. From these it would follow that Saints Felix and Augebert were slain in the seventh century, not far advanced. They came to England with St. Augustine. Let us suppose that they preached the gospel there for ten years, and spent another ten years in travelling; we shall arrive at about the year 620. This, however, is mere conjecture: wherefore at the beginning we indicate simply the 7th century.
[4] Relics at Sexfontaine; From Villars-en-Azois we have nothing else except that they are Patrons of that church. Chastelain, who places this village in his Announcement, names only Angilbert, Felix being passed over. The Reverend Parish Priest of Sexfontaine wrote the following to the most distinguished President of the Seminary of Langres. About the year 650, SS. Felix and Augebert, Fabian and Silvian, English by nation, while they were returning from Rome towards their homeland, underwent martyrdom at Silva Rubra. The Relics were partly deposited in the Priory of Sexfontaine, partly are found at Silvarouvres. How this translation was made I do not know, since we have no authentic letters. Popular tradition holds that the holy Relics rested in a cave beside the oratory of the aforesaid Priory. They used, when rain was lacking, to be carried round through the fields, and never indeed, as they say, without the hoped-for result. Formerly fairs were celebrated, to which the people flocked in crowds. But on account of abuses they are today suppressed. It is said too that the reliquaries in which, when I came here in the year 1820, the sacred Relics were kept, were opened by the allies (who occupied France after the fall of Napoleon). I do not know whether they carried off the authentic letters.
[5] their cult there. As regards the cult: up to the year 1830 we kept the feast of the holy Relics on the 24th of October: on this whole day they remained exposed; and, according to old custom, I showed the cranium of St. Felix to the veneration of the faithful: but for some years now that feast has not been kept so devoutly. The women of this parish, as also of the surrounding places, when after childbirth they are destitute of milk, ask me to bless little glass lenses under the invocation of St. Felix.
[6] Tradition concerning their translation. Very recently I consulted a certain old man of eighty-six years about the translation of the Relics; who answered that he had heard from his forebears that the inhabitants of Silva Rubra, when war was raging, carried the sacred remains to Sexfontaine, that they might be more safely kept, and deposited them in the cave of which I spoke above; but when, peace having been restored, they had come to recover the same, they could not move them from the place, their very carts being broken; and so they remained at Sexfontaine. So far the Reverend Parish Priest.
[7] The Legend suspect on more than one head. And these are the things which were sent to us, and they agree well enough with the Legend of which it was spoken above. But whence was this Legend itself drawn? What credit does it merit? To speak candidly: on more than one head it is very suspect to me. First of all it betrays no great antiquity, as appears more than sufficiently even from the style. Moreover, the said Monsieur Mettrier writes that it was excerpted from the office composed in the year 1710 by the care of the Reverend Monsieur Crevel, then parish priest at Silvarouvres. Then those two, nay four, companions of Saints Augustine and Mellitus are unknown to all writers. Then the exclamation of St. Gregory the Great is a manifest imitation of that other one which writers commonly report was uttered when, passing through the cross-roads at Rome, he first came upon Angles bound to slavery, to be sold publicly. Nor as regards the place of the martyrdom are all things clear. According to the Legend they were received in hospitality at the Villa Nucei. On the following day in the morning, having scarcely entered the next forest, they fall in with robbers and are slain. Now the Villa Nucei is probably a place eleven leagues distant from the city of Troyes, and today called Ville-noce, as Sanson writes, Ville-noxe, as Cassini has it, or Villenauxe-la-Grande, as is read in the Geographical Dictionary of France Dictionnaire universel géographique de la France. Paris, year XIII (1304).. Nothing assuredly conflicts with the bodies of the Saints, after seven days incorrupt and untouched by beasts, having been translated thence to a church in the territory of Troyes. But, on the testimony of the aforesaid Monsieur Mettrier, the tradition of his region holds that the holy Martyrs suffered in a place situated between Silvarouvres and Villars-en-Azois, which indeed are distant not more than about ten leagues from the city of Troyes, but, since they lie on the opposite side, are separated by twenty leagues and more from the Villa Nucei, if, as is our opinion, this place is today Villenoxe.
[8] Relics in two different churches of the diocese of Langres. From what has been said above it follows that the Relics are found partly at Sexfontaine, partly at Silvarouvres. But in both places, as both parish priests expressly write, the authentic letters are lacking. In the former church the sacred remains are said to be deposited in reliquaries, and they are accustomed to be brought out in public on the 24th of October; and by name the cranium of St. Felix is shown to the veneration of the faithful. At Silvarouvres they are kept in a Reliquary, the highest part of which represents the likenesses of both Saints. One may conjecture that something of the Relics is similarly shown at Villars-en-Azois; and also that authentic documents are lacking. Nothing, however, has been written back to us thence. But since the aforesaid village is in the neighbourhood of the parish of Silvarouvres, scarcely any room for doubt can remain that the parish priest of the church last named would have indicated it if the matter stood otherwise. But he notes only this, namely that our holy Martyrs, as of his own, so also of the church at Villars-en-Azois are the patrons, without adding even a single word about Relics and their authentic instruments.
[9] The bodies kept in the abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif But another thing occurs, by which the credibility of the aforesaid Relics would be destroyed, at least if it be interpreted of the bodies or the greatest part of them. For it is established from several recensions or inventories, drawn up at different times, that in the abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, near Sens, the bodies of the holy Martyrs Felix and Augebert remained deposited in the treasury of that church. To this effect the following was sent to us
by the very Reverend Monsieur Carlier, Canon Treasurer of the metropolitan church of Sens. His words, rendered into Latin, we subjoin.
[10] as is established from the inventories. Extracts from the Inventories of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif.
From the 13th century up to the year 1793, the Treasury of Relics of that abbey was regularly reviewed and recognized five times.
First by Geoffroy de Collon in the year 1294. The instrument is found in the civil archive of the city of Sens. Since, however, the following inventories are sufficiently explicit, I have not thought it necessary to transcribe the formula concerning SS. Felix and Augebert. (Further, the Geoffroy of whom there is question here is the chronographer of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif. See Gallia Christiana Volume XII, column 141.. The abbot at that time was Jacques I de Champigny.)
The 2nd general review of the Relics was made on the 6th of September 1438 by Michel de la Sousterraine, abbot of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, and Gilles du Tartre, abbot of Sainte-Colombe near Sens. (In the series of abbots of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif in the New Gallia Christiana Ibid., column 143. these things are read: L. Michel de la Sousterraine, elected from prior of Our Lady of Rais on the 30th of July 1437, reviewed the Relics of both churches with the abbot of Sainte-Colombe in 1438, died 1439. And it is had in the authentic instrument of the aforesaid review): Art. 15. Item the bodies of the holy Martyrs Felix and Aubert.
The 3rd review was made on the 4th of September 1455 by Olivier Chapperon, abbot of St. Peter, (and is read): Art. 13. Item the bodies of the holy Felix and Aubert, martyrs.
The 4th by the same Olivier Chapperon, on the 16th of November 1462. Art. 14. Item the bodies of the blessed Martyrs Felix and Aubert.
The 5th was carried out on the 25th of May 1660 by Hugues Mathoud, prior of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, Dom Rupert Michel, Treasurer and Cellarer of the abbey, and Dom Grégoire Huguet of the same abbey assisting. Art. 7. Item another wooden reliquary, in which are the bodies of Saint Augustine, Martyr, and companion of St. Beata; likewise of Saint Felix and Aubert, who underwent martyrdom near Langres; of Saint Ebbo, monk and abbot of the aforesaid abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, and also archbishop of Sens. The names of these we have seen in the Inventories or Catalogues, both old and more recent, of the treasury of the said abbey. In which, however, we have observed that each Saint formerly had his own reliquary. But the aforesaid monks testified that it was established for them as a fact that, at the time when their church was burned, those reliquaries were very old and falling apart, and that for that reason a certain man named Du Rollot caused a new one to be made, and deposited there the aforesaid bones of the Saints, wrapped in linen or waxed cloths. Then is subjoined: The undersigned Treasurer of the metropolitan church of Sens testifies that he has faithfully transcribed the above from the authentic instruments of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, today kept in the metropolitan archive. At Sens, the 20th of February 1849. It was signed: Carlier, Canon Treasurer.
[11] On the twofold burning of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif. But here certain things come to be observed, both that what has been said may become known more clearly, and also that we may indicate some consequences from it. A twofold burning of the church of St. Peter seems to be recorded. Guillaume Chignard, say the Sainte-Marthes in the Old Gallia Christiana Volume IV, page 728., where they treat of the Abbeys, completed the church, burned by the injury of wars. He passed from the living in 1512. And a little more fully in the New Gallia Christiana Volume VII, columns 143 and 144.: Guillaume II Chignard (he is fifty-fourth in order among the abbots of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif) of Sens, from Prior of Auxon was elected abbot on the 15th day before the Kalends of November (the 18th of October) 1491, against the wish of the archbishop, who was panting for the mitre of that place. Hence, removed from communion, he fled to the supreme Pontiff (Sixtus IV) on the 1st of January 1481 (1482), who commended his institution to the bishop of Meaux. He completed the refectory and chapter-house from the foundations; the little bell-tower and the church, which had been burned by the Burgundians, he completed with great labour and expense from the square tower to the other church, in which the monks discharged the divine office… Guillaume ceased to live on the 13th of April 1511. If it is this burning that is in question in the 5th review of Relics recorded by us above, it is not easily understood how the monks in the year 1660 could affirm that it was established for them as a fact that, the old reliquaries falling apart from age, a new one was made, in which the bones of several Saints, collected together, were deposited. Whence those words perhaps regard the things which happened while Charles Prévost presided over the abbey, of whom I find these things among the compilers of the New Gallia Christiana Ibid.. LXVII. Charles Prévost, archdeacon of Sens, counsellor and almoner to the king, an excellent preacher of the word of God, cast from the see in the year 1594 Bartholomew (de Crottes, deprived of the commendam by decree of the king's supreme council, because he did not attend to the repairs of the monastery nor supply food to the monks), which he held about 42 years. In his times Pope Urban VIII in the year 1628 asked of the archbishop of Sens the Relics of St. Gregory, whose head he had read in the Vatican archive was deposited at Sens in the Vivian basilica. Charles grieved over the church struck by lightning in the year 1632, who, seeing the monastery ruined on every side and its revenues not a little diminished, oppressed with sorrow, consigned it in the following year 1636 to his nephew by his sister. If the church struck by lightning indicates a burning (as the words seem to sound in their obvious sense), the monks could certainly in the year 1660 testify that it was established for them as a fact what had happened at that time.
[12] [Whence it came about that Augebert and Felix were venerated together with others.] Further, as the Reverend Monsieur Carlier rightly notes, from this insertion of several Sacred Bodies into one and the same reliquary seems to have arisen a simultaneous festival, recurring on the same day, of several Saints different in age and homeland. I have observed, he says, that the number of reliquaries at Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, after the burning, was notably diminished, and the pledges of several Saints placed in one and the same reliquary. And hence perhaps the monks were gradually led to venerate together the Relics laid up together, although they themselves related to different regions and times. For the rest, this is found to be in use elsewhere too. And from this a reason could be given why formerly at Saint-Pierre-le-Vif SS. Felix and Aubert, who suffered near Langres, were venerated together with SS. Augustine, Sanctian and Beata, crowned with martyrdom in the territory of Sens on the sixth day of September in the year 273 or 274.
[13] Their bodies kept at Sens to this very day. There no longer occurs a memory of Saint Felix and Saint Aubert in the Breviary of Sens after the year 1702. But their festival was celebrated in the abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif on account of the Relics kept there, which indeed are still seen today, furnished with their authentic instruments. Namely in the year 1793 they were preserved with the rest of the treasury of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif by the work of a certain goldsmith of Sens, namely that very one who had been deputed to strip the reliquaries of their gold and silver ornaments. So far from the reply of the Reverend Monsieur Carlier.
[14] Conclusion. From the aforesaid it also follows that not all things are clear regarding the sacred remains of our Saints. Nay indeed, it cannot be that the tradition which we saw above prevails at Silvarouvres and Sexfontaine should stand with the things which we have reported of the reviews or inventories of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif; unless perhaps it be said that in ancient times a translation of the Relics to this abbey was made, the documents of which have perished by the injury of time. It could be said besides that the inventories of St. Peter of Sens are not to be interpreted of entire bodies. For it is well known that in matters of this kind the whole is frequently used for the part by synecdoche.
[15] Notice of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif. Since we have several times made mention of the aforesaid abbey, it will not be unwelcome to the learned reader to have set down here what Mabillon neatly and elegantly hands down concerning its origin and situation. At Sens … there still flourishes the monastery of Saint Peter, situated in the suburb of the same city on the eastern side, in that place where originally the church of the holy Martyrs Savinian and Potentian was, and indeed in the vicus of St. Peter: whence some would have the surname Vivi to have stuck to the monastery of Saint Peter de Vico by corruption: while others prefer the word Vivi from the name of the Vicus, which they would rather have called Vivus in ancient times. But this matters little for the knowledge of a most noble monastery, where the burial-place of the archbishops of Sens was, even before monks were brought in, distinguished by the multitude and dignity of holy relics. It acknowledges as foundress Queen Theudechild, whom some call the offspring of Clovis the Great, others of Theoderic his son; most a Virgin, some married. And certainly there were at that time two very well-known women of the same name: one of royal stock, praised by Venantius Fortunatus in two places (for I do not doubt, with Hadrien de Valois, that one and the same is designated in both), and indeed the daughter of Theoderic, king of the Austrasians, married to Hermegisel, king of the Varni, namely she whom Flodoard calls the daughter of Suavegotta: the other sprung from a shepherd, who was the concubine of Charibert, king of the Parisians. That the former was the founder of the monastery of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif … is ascertained by me; that she was born of king Theoderic is sufficiently proved by this, that Nunnichius, tribune of the Arverni, is recorded by Gregory to have rendered tributes to queen Theudechild: namely because the Arverni then obeyed Theoderic and afterwards Theodebert his son. Nor does the Theudechild who founded the monastery of St. Peter seem to have been any other than she who received into the same monastery Basolus, count of the Arverni, who had been thrown into chains for defection from Theoderic… From these an argument is deduced that the origin of that monastery is to be placed about the twentieth year of the sixth century Annales Benedictini, volume I, p. 44, book XI, at the year 525..
[16] Destruction of the abbey and its present state. As regards the present state of that most noble abbey, the Reverend Monsieur Mourrût, Priest and Professor of Moral Theology in the Seminary of Sens, deigned to write back these things to us on the 10th day of July of this year 1852. (Let it be permitted here to render thanks publicly both to him and to the most Reverend President of the Seminary, to whom we had written letters on this matter.) When, at the end of the 18th century, that savage storm was afflicting all France, by which so many and such venerable monuments of Religion were sacrilegiously either destroyed or disfigured, the Abbey of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif, the monks being driven out, was sold at auction, and bought by Cardinal Loménie de Brienne (Loménie de Brienne), Archbishop of Sens (who was deposed by Pius VI because he had taken the nefarious oath to the civil, as they say, constitution, and departed wretchedly from this life on the 16th of February 1794 [Biographie universelle, under the word Loménie de Brienne. Compare also: Brefs et Instructions de Pie VI, Rome edition of 1797, volume II, p. 144, where is found: Acts in the secret consistory … 26 September 1796 … on the admission of the abdication of the Cardinalate made by Étienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne.]). The buildings were then partly overthrown, partly granted to laymen for habitation; but the church
was demolished, and the venerable crypt of St. Serotinus turned (which is unworthy even to be said) into a hen-house. But in the year 1845 the enclosure of the Abbey was bought back by the Sacred Virgins called of the Good Shepherd (Religieuses du Bon Pasteur); who inhabit it even today, and have opened there a house or Asylum for poor women to be called back or preserved from the gain of harlotry.
[17] The Relics of SS. Felix and Augebert. The Treasury (as has already been indicated in passing above) was preserved by a certain citizen of Sens and goldsmith, named Thomas; he by night transferred the sacred remains into the church of St. Peter (Saint-Pierre-le-Rond), which still stands. That said man, namely, had bought the treasury publicly, yet with this end, that he might restore the holy bones to the veneration of the faithful when the times should permit. Which was also done, and today they rest in the Metropolitan church of Sens, as the treasurer of the said church testified to the Reverend Monsieur Mourrût, adding that among those Relics are reckoned the bodies of SS. Felix and Augebert; which for the rest are today scarcely, or not even scarcely, known to the faithful. Finally, it is certain that formerly the office of these holy Martyrs was celebrated at Saint-Pierre-le-Vif; but it is not established that it ever obtained in the Liturgy of the diocese of Sens, where recently the Roman breviary and rite were adopted. And these things from the replies received from Sens on this 11th day of July 1852.
LEGEND OF SS. FELIX AND AUGEBERT.
It is taken from a certain complete office for the feast of these holy Martyrs.
Felix, Martyr in Gaul. (S.)
Augebert, Martyr in Gaul. (S.)
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
Felix and Augebert, companions of St. Augustine Felix and Augebert, born in England, were by the lamentable lot of wars led captive into Gaul and sold. These the holy Pope Gregory the Great caused to be redeemed through Candidus at the price of the alms which he was to collect in this kingdom. These, presented with liberty, the same Candidus led to Rome. When the holy Pontiff saw them, wondering at their beauty, he is read to have exclaimed: Shall hell thus devour such Angles, Angels? He commanded, therefore, that those happy Angles should be brought up among Angels in his monastery, be baptized, and profess the religious life. They had now reached the age of eighteen years. And since the aforesaid Pontiff desired nothing more than the conversion of the whole nation of the Angles to Christ, he destined Felix and Augebert for this so arduous work. On which account, they being for the time perfected and professed in religion, he joined them as fellow-workers to the holy Abbots Augustine and Mellitus, chosen apostles of England, and as faithful interpreters of the language known to them.
[2] They go to England, and thence returning undertake various pilgrimages. Fortified, therefore, and confirmed by the mandates of the supreme Pontiff Gregory the Great, they come into England carrying the image of the Crucified, and everywhere preach the Crucified. They convert King Ethelbert with many thousands of the people. Saint Augustine, then consecrated Bishop of England, ordained Felix Priest and Augebert Deacon. Not long after he sent them with St. Mellitus, Bishop of London, to Rome, to treat concerning the necessary affairs of the Church of the Angles with Boniface a, Pope, successor of St. Gregory. And when they had come to Rome, they visit the holy places, the thresholds of the Apostles, with pious affection of mind; thence, while St. Mellitus turns (returns) to England, they hasten to Jerusalem by reason of a vow to the Sepulchre of Christ. They offer the precious gifts of Ethelbert, king of the Angles. They follow all the holy footsteps of Christ and adore them; until they thought to return to their own country by the same way through the Gauls by which they had come.
[3] Their martyrdom. But when they had come to the village called Nuceus b, in the parts of Bar, they were received in hospitality by Rictrude, a noble and pious matron. They had scarcely entered the next forest in the morning of the following day, when two infidel robbers, out of wicked hatred of the faith and at the same time gaping after money, attack them kneeling in prayer, promising themselves a double booty, both of the faith and of money. The men of blood, greedy of money and enemies of the truth, are armed with a twin torch, with avarice to seize the gold, with impiety to take away Christ. They find a humble little ass, which the Saints led with them, loaded only with sacred vestments. Then the frustrated robbers roar, and set about the plunder of the more precious treasure, that, the richer, they might carry off that deposit the more sacred it was. They order Felix and Augebert to renounce Christ; but savage cruelty obtains nothing, each ready to lose his head rather than his faith; each dies beheaded; the robbers hid the bodies with leaves and boughs in a cave, where after seven days they remained incorrupt and untouched by beasts; which the pious Rictrude caused to be translated into a church situated in the territory of Troyes, whose name is Supinus Rubus c; which translation was made illustrious by miracles; translated thence to Siccumfons, they rest there today.