Veranus of Cavaillon

ON ST. VERANUS OF CAVAILLON, CONFESSOR AND BISHOP, IN GAUL,

TOWARDS THE END OF THE VI CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, confessor in Gaul. (S.)

B. B.

§ I. Tamayo de Salazar numbers St. Veranus among the bishops of Tarragona. His fictions are refuted.

Writers vary in assigning the see of St. Veranus. "In the territory of Orléans, the deposition of St. Veranus, bishop." So the Roman Martyrology at this 19th day of October. Which words have not a little vexed the hagiographers up to now. For it is not so easy to determine who that Veranus is who is there treated. Most agree in this, that they refer the territory of Orléans to Gaul, but they disagree among themselves in assigning the see which Veranus, who is there said to have been deposited, held. Some would have him to have been bishop of Chalon, others of Cavaillon, others of Lyons; there are also those who call him of Vence. Salazar in the Spanish Martyrology differs from all: for he expressly affirms that St. Veranus, Prelate of Tarragona, is in question, who ended his life as an exile in the Aurelian tract of Carpetania in Spain, and not in Gaul. We think it worth while to set down here at length what Salazar disputes on this matter, and that chiefly for a twofold cause. The one, that from these will become known the holy Bishop whom the church of Toledo venerates on this day (if, however, any credit can be given to Salazar); the other, and indeed the chief, that thence the way will be laid open for discussing the opinions of those who interpret the territory of Orléans of Gaul, although they differ among themselves about the chair which Veranus occupied. There will be occasion moreover for censuring Salazar and for judging his Martyrology, of which mention recurs not infrequently with us.

[2] Salazar makes him bishop of Tarragona; Salazar, then, writes at the 19th of October Martyrologium Hispanicum, Lyons edition, 1658.: "At Aurelia in Carpetania of Spain, of St. Veranus, bishop of Tarragona, who, when he had beheld the ruin of the Moors among the people committed to him, and had looked round on the destruction of all Spain, driven from his see, came to Toledo, where, kindly received by blessed Concordius, bishop of the royal city, he deplored with him the miserable state of the Christian religion, until, expelled from the city, in the Aurelian tract, glowing with works of virtues and miracles, he rested in peace." Then in the Notes these things are unfolded more fully in this manner.

[3] trying to confirm his opinion by various reasons. "St. Veranus, bishop of Tarragona, confessor. That there were several most holy bishops of this name is plain from this, that the most eminent cardinal Cesare Baronius, in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology at this day, letter F, folio 648, enumerates five. The first, this one who died in the territory of Orléans; the second, of Chalon, of whom St. Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, book 3, chapter XXXI, who flourished about the year DLXXX; the third, of Lyons, of whom Pietro de' Natali Esquilinus, Catalogue of the Saints, book X, chapter L, although he confuses him with the one of Cavaillon, as Théophile Raynaud noted in the Indiculus of the Saints of Lyons, folio 375, and he lived about the year CCCCLX; the fourth, of Vence, whom Filippo Ferrari mentions in the General Catalogue of the Saints at the 11th day of November, folio 439; he flourished about the year CCCCLXV, or thereabouts. The fifth, of Cavaillon, of whom the same Ferrari in the General Catalogue of the Saints at the 14th of November, folio 443; he lived about the year DLXXXVIII, as Baronius holds. To which we too add a sixth, namely of Pisa, whom the same Ferrari mentions in the said General Catalogue of the Saints on the 26th day of October, folio 419, and affirms that he was a martyr, and writes that his Sacred body was translated from another part and laid up at Pisa. From whose relation it becomes plain that our Veranus, bishop of Tarragona too, is different from the one of Chalon, of Lyons, of Vence and of Cavaillon; to assert which the differences of times, sees and events persuade: since it is established that ours ceased to live about the year DCCXLIV and acted as bishop of Tarragona. Which Liutprand proves in the Chronicle, year 744, no. 219, in these words: 'In Carpetania and the Aurelian tract St. Veranus, bishop of Tarragona, is in exile. He is venerated on the 19th of October.' Julian, archpriest of Toledo, follows in the chronicle, year 743, no. 381, folio 92, in this sequence: 'To Sinderedus succeeded the blessed pontiff Concordius, archdeacon of Urban, a man excellently learned, compassionate to the poor, and eager and prompt in undergoing dangers for his flock. He received under his roof and in his house St. Veranus, bishop of Tarragona, an exile and a wonderful man, who not long after died holily in Carpetania and the Aurelian tract, on the 19th day of the month of October, whose body is carried to Toledo, and then, with many tears of the Mozarabs and of the pontiff Concordius, is honourably buried in the Church of St. Justa.' Hence you will now settle the hesitation of Baronius, who, doubtful of the see of our holy Prelate, goes astray, suspecting that he whom the Roman Martyrology relates to have died on this day in the tract of Orléans was bishop of Chalon, since he is not numbered among the Prelates of Orléans. Because, as is clear from our histories, he of whom mention is made in the Roman Martyrology in these words, 'In the territory of Orléans, the deposition of St. Veranus, bishop,' must be understood of Veranus, prelate of Tarragona, who ended his life as an exile in the Aurelian tract of Carpetania in Spain, and not in Gaul. Hence also the assertion of André du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, volume II, at this day, folio 1182, in the Supplement, comes to be rejected, where he confuses the pontiff of Cavaillon with this one of ours, since in truth he has nothing in common with this one of ours, as we have recounted above. Of ours, besides the Roman Martyrology, also the Castilian of Fr. Dionisio Vázquez, folio 171, column 2; the Portuguese of João Lopes, folio 225; Liutprand, the said no. 219; Julian, the said no. 381; Don Tomás Tamayo in the notes to Liutprand, folio 130; Fr. Higuera, folio 401; M. Rus-Puerta, History of the Saints of Jaén, part 1, century VIII, chapter II, no. 3, folio 221; Fr. Antonio Quintana-Dueñas, History of the Saints of Toledo, folio 418, from which we transcribe his Acts thus."

[4] Among the bishops of Tarragona, Before we proceed further, let us note that Baronius is indeed rightly censured by Tamayo Salazar, as we shall show below, for having numbered our St. Veranus among the bishops of Chalon; but by a far better right is Tamayo to be censured for intruding him among those of Tarragona. The last who certainly held the see of Tarragona before this city was overthrown by the Moors is called Vera España Sagrada, volume XXV, p. 93.. In precisely what year he was taken up is not altogether clear. Flórez, in the place cited, inclines to the year 689 or 690. This is certain, that Vera subscribed the XVIth council of Toledo in the year 693, nay also the XVIIth council in the year 694. "After this," says the praised Flórez Ibid., "he could have prolonged his life for a long time, and perhaps reached those unhappy times of the invading Moors. But documents are lacking. And this was the last bishop while the ancient state of the church of Tarragona persisted; eight others indeed are named, but the epoch of their pontificate is uncertain, nor accordingly can it be determined with certainty whether they flourished before the irruption of the Moors." Afterwards, however, he adds Ibid., p. 94. that it is much more credible that George succeeded Vera at the beginning of the VIIIth century, and consequently belongs to the ancient prelates of that see.

[5] it is established from the catalogues of that church, For the rest, Flórez has Ibid., in the Appendix, p. 227. three Catalogues of the ancient bishops of Tarragona. The first, from the manuscripts of Juan Bautista Pérez, ends thus: "In the year 693: Vera, last archbishop of Tarragona, died on the 2nd of May, Era 731." Flórez adds: "If he died in that year, he was not the last, unless the discourse be of the known and certain ones." — The second catalogue is had from the Constitutions of the synod of Tarragona of the year 1555, printed in the year 1557, where at the end these words are read Ibid., pp. 231 and 232.: "Vera, having undertaken after Cyprian the true labours of administering the Church of Tarragona, yielded to nature in the year DCXCIII. In his time there fell that most wretched and never sufficiently to be lamented irruption of the Saracens into Spain, and the devastation of all Spain: by which it came about that many archprelates did not sit in the church of Tarragona. But who these were it is of no great concern to know for the understanding of this work. A certain William of Barcelona is said to have been elected bishop in the year DCXCIV, who lived up to the year DCCXIII. Meanwhile, partly on account of the Saracens, partly on account of a most ancient monster" (what that monster is, Flórez says he has no leisure to inquire Ibid., p. 95.) "which had besieged the city and had infected it with slaughter, gore and corruption, Tarragona lies untilled and drained of all its settlers. But in succeeding times, the Saracens having been in great part expelled from this region, Tarragona, after CCC years or more, afflicted by various calamities, began again to be inhabited." Namely, Pope John XIII in the year MLXXI transferred the overthrown see of Tarragona to the church of Ausona (in the vernacular Vich), "that the Church of Ausona" (the words are those of the bull) Flórez, España Sagrada, ibid., p. 102. "may hold the powers and primacy of the church of Tarragona, and that

all the suffragan bishops of the same holy church of Tarragona may have recourse to the church of Ausona. Afterwards, Tarragona having been rebuilt, Berengar de Rosanis was transferred from the pontificate of Ausona to that of Tarragona on the Kalends of July MXCI, and lived up to the year MCVIII" Ibid., p. 232.. So indeed in the second catalogue: it is not, however, altogether established concerning the years of Berengar; this is certain, that at the end of the eleventh century he held the see of Tarragona. See Flórez, Treatise LXIII, chapter V, no. 9 and following Ibid., p. 110 and following., who observes moreover Ibid., no. 94. that in general the said catalogue is far from being accurate in this place, inasmuch as it refers the irruption of the Saracens to the episcopate of Vera. But if he died in the year 693, Spain was not laid waste by the Saracens in his time, since this took place not in this but in the following century. Nor does it fall in the years of William, if he died in the year 713, since his death coincides with the beginning of the Saracen domination. Flórez, namely, undertook of set purpose to prove [España Sagrada, volume II, part I, chapter III, §§ IV and V. Likewise part II, chapter III.] in what year the Moors occupied Spain, and concludes that its ruin arose from the battle in which King Roderic fell, at the end of the year 713, but was consummated in the following year 714 Ibid., p. 187, no. 218.. Compare, on this very day, the Acts of St. Theofrid, Preliminary Commentary, § I, no. 15 and following, where we saw the writers hesitate in fixing the death of Roderic, which some attach to the year 711, others to the year 712, others 713, the common crowd of historians, as Pierre de Marca speaks Marca Hispanica, column 226. Paris edition, 1688., to the year 714. — Finally, the third catalogue of the Prelates of Tarragona, by the author Antonio Agustín, whom Flórez prefers to the others, relates the following under no. 13: "Vera was present at the XVIth and XVIIth council of Toledo, as Bishop Rodrigo reports, whom King Alfonso calls Verus. But in the Acts of those councils he is named Vera. The XVIth council was held on the sixth day before the Nones of May, in the sixth year of King Egica, in the year of Christ DCXCIII. Presently, in the next year, the XVIIth council on the fifth day before the Ides of November. The subscriptions are wanting in the Acts which we have seen. We have reported the certain names of these Archbishops: we do not doubt that there were more, among whom there exists mention of George, a bishop, whose times are uncertain. For we have read this inscription of a certain ruined altar:

STEPHANUS ALEXANDRINUS IN HONORE DEI

ET OMNIUM SANCTORUM DIE VII ID. APRIL

AN. TERTIO ORDINATIONIS EJUS CUM SUIS SUB

PONTIFICATU GEROGII EPI. SIGILLUM HIC ESTO.

[Stephen of Alexandria, in honour of God and of all the saints, on the seventh day before the Ides of April, in the third year of his ordination, with his people, under the pontificate of George the bishop. Let the seal be here.]

We have omitted Prudentius, Aemilianus, Paternus, Idacius, Phaluax and Agnellus as uncertain, although their names are read in the books of the church of Tarragona" Flórez, España Sagrada, volume XXV, p. 238.. Here the year in which Vera died is not noted; but since he is said to have been present in the year 694 at the council of Toledo, it is clear that he did not die in the year 693, as Antonio Agustín would have it.

[6] that there is no place for St. Veranus. From these things, further, it now appears that there is no place for St. Veranus among the bishops of Tarragona; unless perhaps, which I should not wonder at, Tamayo thought, or rather wished to persuade himself, that Veranus is the same as Vera; and thence, after his manner, hammered out that whole narrative, of which not even one jot is to be found in approved writers. Tamayo, then, proceeds in the place cited.

[7] His deeds from Tamayo, "Veranus, Spanish by nation, and a citizen of Tarragona in Hither Spain, when (after the plague of the Saracens rushing into the Spains had occupied every corner of the region and they had invaded that most illustrious city) he had come, his merits pleading for it, to the summit of that metropolitan church, determined to preserve their rights for his Mozarabs. But the insolent cruelty of the Arabs, rising up against the altogether upright pastor, decreed to deprive him of life. But the crowd of the faithful removing the Prelate from their midst, Veranus, departing from the city and bidding farewell to his own, entered the city of Toledo as an exile; and, kindly received by blessed Concordius, pontiff of the royal city, the latter assigned to him suitable expenses, as those times allowed, that he might adhere to the decrees of the holy Fathers. When, then, the holy man had lived for some space of time at Toledo, from desire of a more perfect occupation, and that he might look to the salvation of his soul, he determined to leave the royal city, and, having obtained leave from the most holy prelate Concordius, withdrew into the Aurelian district, which is seen not far from the Olcades of Carpetania. The same most blessed Prelate so wove a most pious life that, illustrious for virtues and distinguished by miracles, he merited eternal glory on the 19th day of October, in the year of the Lord DCCXLIV. Whose body, honourably composed on a litter by St. Concordius, he had transferred to Toledo, and buried it with the tears of the people of Toledo in the church of St. Justa, where it thereafter received veneration with honourable cult."

[8] and the Epitaph. "On whose sarcophagus St. Concordius placed this sepulchral poem.

This tomb contains the bones of Veranus the prelate, Whom barbarous Tarragona banishes into exile. He was the prelate of that city, a citizen by origin, In the time when the Moorish Arab tramples all things. But when the Saint sought mightily to preserve the rights Of God, the Moor prepares his plots. Then the holy prelate, his own accompanying him, the city Leaves; and has sanctified our soil. Illustrious, he dies at Aurelia, whom the Stars and the heavens Make bright; but kindly Justa holds his body. These verses Concordius the Prelate inscribed to him; That he may be mindful of us, of the city and the world alike.

[9] likewise certain topographical notes. "This sepulchral Poem was supplied to me by my manuscript codex of Aulus Halus, by which the opinion of Liutprand and Julian is wonderfully proved, nor have we anything to add; unless we wish to note how it was established by the holy Fathers that bishops driven from their sees should be received kindly and humanely in other cities, which the council of Sardica, canon 21, proves, and Fr. Higuera noted on Liutprand, the said no. 219, folio 402. Hence also we read that this decree was observed in Spain in the time of the Saracens, when the bishops cast out of their Sees, received at Oviedo, had their dwellings assigned, and alms for their sustenance, as Julian says." Tamayo finally adds: "Aurelia is an ancient city of Spain in Carpetania near the city of the Olcades which they call Ocaña, and now this Aurelia is called Oreja, as Fr. Higuera noted, the said no. 219, folio 401. There was also another Aurelia among the Vettones of Spain, which our people still call Orellana; but this is different from the Carpetanian one, in which the holy Prelate put an end to his life. For the latter is of the diocese of Toledo, the former of Plasencia."

[10] Cardinal Aguirre most sharply censures And these things indeed Salazar, after his manner, confidently asserts. But it is known among the learned of how slight weight that man's authority is. Certainly Cardinal Aguirre censures him sharply, yet not beyond his desert, not fearing to call him both an old trickster and a liar. "These" (namely the Pseudo-Liutprand's Adversaria, as also the Pseudo-chronicles of Dexter, Maximus and Julian Pérez, fabricated by Fr. Jerónimo Román de la Higuera, a most pernicious corrupter of Spanish history, especially ecclesiastical) "were the origin of so many fictions and most fabulous narratives with which most books of Spanish history written from almost the beginning of this century are filled" (Aguirre died at Rome in the year 1699): "especially the six vast volumes of the Spanish martyrology published by Juan Tamayo de Salazar, who added to the fictions of Higuera very many others, and those most insipid, and scattered them everywhere, with great applause indeed of the vulgar and of half-learned men, but with vast grief and blushing of all the most learned within and outside Spain." So Aguirre Collectio Maxima Conciliorum Hispaniae, volume II, p. 68..

[11] the Spanish corrupters of ecclesiastical history, And again Ibid., page 76.: "From these muddy and dreg-laden pools Juan Tamayo de Salazar, with excessive credulity and no criticism, skimmed, or rather heaped up, innumerable fictions, and with them filled those six volumes of his Spanish martyrology, received with vast applause by the vulgar and the half-learned, but moving the stomach and bile of all the most learned Spaniards and foreigners. Nor was Tamayo content to insert the fictions of others into his writings; he added very many of his own at every third word, and especially most insipid poems, observing the laws neither of grammar nor of poetry, as if written of old by Maximus and other most weighty men, which, however, were composed partly by Tamayo himself, partly by others his table-companions in the house of the most illustrious Don Diego de Arce Reinoso, inquisitor general of the Spains, without any genius or salt.

[42] especially Higuera and Tamayo, "But among all the grave absurdities brought in by Higuera, Tamayo and other men of similar meal, this above all is intolerable, that they dared to present with the title of holiness, or to reckon in the number of the saints of Spain or of those pertaining to the Spains, and to assign to certain churches, cities or peoples of them, very many men, and the same of women, whom neither the universal church nor any particular church had venerated or known up to about the year MDXCIII, in which Higuera began to publish those fictions. There are found indeed in the martyrologies or menologies very many Saints of the same name as innumerable others who were not Saints. But the monstrous daring of those old tricksters was, when they found in the councils or the examined documents of Spain certain bishops, presbyters, deacons or men of another condition, to confuse them with other holy men or women of the same name existing in the martyrologies or menologies; or with those who by the peculiar tradition of some province or city are reckoned and venerated as Saints. What other fiction could be more pernicious than this in things so sacred, I do not see.

[13] whom he calls old tricksters and liars "And this very thing plainly happened concerning those fathers, whether bishops or presbyters or deacons, who took part in the present council" (of Elvira, of which Aguirre treats in the whole second volume of his work). "For Felix, bishop of Acci, who subscribes in the first place, is placed by those old tricksters among the saints, and is confused with that Felix the bishop who is commemorated in the Roman martyrology from Usuard on the 18th of May, and was bishop of Spoleto in Italy, or of Spalato in Dalmatia, as Pietro de' Natali has in the catalogue, book V, chapter XIII. Likewise Melantius, prelate of Toledo, subscribing in the seventh place, is changed by a new metamorphosis into St. Melanius, bishop of Rouen, whose feast is placed at the 22nd day of October in the Roman martyrology. Patricius too, bishop of Málaga, subscribing in the tenth place, is transformed into St. Patrick, apostle and primate of Ireland, who is venerated on the 17th of March." Other examples similar to these are added, from which it is now easy to conclude how cautiously one must subscribe to the acts of St. Veranus reported above by Tamayo, which besides we shall demonstrate below to be false and fictitious.

[14] he proves, "Further, from these and very many others" (so Aguirre proceeds), "among other damages, I fear that this evil has followed, that in many churches and peoples of Spain, deluded by excessive simplicity and credulity, many feasts are celebrated of those Saints who pertain to them by no title at all except a fictitious one; nay, also of those who were indeed Spaniards, but never reckoned by the church among the saints. I judge it worthy of that supreme inquisition of the Spains, nay also of this holy See, to inquire into all these things, and to enjoin on certain most weighty and choice men the burden of examining with all zeal and candour those six volumes of the Spanish martyrology, and of cutting away the innumerable fables of like kind with which they swarm in a matter so grave and sacred.

[15] and wishes them known as such to all. "But besides, that the root of so great an evil may be extirpated, and that it may not afterwards be recalled from Orcus, it is necessary that the same examination be applied to all the Pseudo-Chronicles published under the name of Dexter, Maximus, Heleca, Liutprand and Julian by Fr. Higuera, their architect, and for that reason always derided by his most learned housemate Juan de Mariana, and so often most gravely censured by name by the Bollandists of the same Institute. For most of the fictions scattered in that Martyrology were taken from those fables of Higuera, although Tamayo also added many others of his own, and profited by his mastery in the art of lying or feigning. I give almost the same warning concerning the Pseudo-Aubertus of Seville, thrust upon us a little after the middle of this declining century by Antonio Lupián Zapata, in which similar fictions occur, especially concerning the Saints, churches and other sacred things of Spain. Almost all of these Gregorio Argaiz undertook to protect, nay to vindicate, in vast volumes, especially from the testimonies of those Pseudo-Chronicles, as if they were of tested credit." Thus far Aguirre Collectio Maxima Conciliorum Hispaniae, volume II, p. 76..

[16] The fictions of Tamayo about St. Veranus already stigmatized by Papebroch. No credit, therefore, can be given to Salazar asserting, and not proving, that our Veranus belongs to Spain. Neither to Baronius, nor to Fiorentini, nor to our Sollerius, nor to Raynaud, who laboured very much in examining the martyrologies, did it come into mind to interpret the territory of Orléans in the said place of Spain. Nay, besides Salazar and certain other writers of the same country, relying on no stronger arguments, no one occurs to us who went over to this opinion. There exists also, among the documents formerly collected by our predecessors, a letter of Father Ampringer S.J., sent from Rome to Fr. Papebroch on the 18th of September 1683, the beginning of which is: "The Father Provincial of Spain asks for the following information." Then the petition itself is appended, written in Italian, by which the hagiographers are asked to send to Rome a notice of the life of St. Veranus of Chalon, who died about the year 530; because instance is being made before the Sacred Congregation of Rites that the office of the said Saint be approved, which appeared at Avignon in the year 1620. But the Sacred Congregation refuses to approve it until that life be shown written by an author worthy of credit (da qualche autore classico e degno di fede by some classical author worthy of credit). What answer was given by ours may be read on the very leaf of this letter, on which Papebroch wrote with his own hand, as a memorandum, as they say: "I replied that the Spanish fictions must be guarded against, by which St. Veranus is ascribed to those of Tarragona. For I suspected that the office was being requested by those of Tarragona or by the Castilians." Hence it sufficiently appears that our St. Veranus, according to the mind of Papebroch, is by no means to be numbered among the Spaniards. And all these things persuade us that Salazar erred, or, if you prefer, indulged his genius, when he believed that the territory of Orléans, of which the Roman martyrology speaks, was to be found within the borders of Spain. Which will become more manifest from what is to be said.

§ II. The St. Veranus of whom the Roman Martyrology speaks on this day was bishop of Cavaillon, whose Relics were translated to Jargeau, in the territory of Orléans.

St. Veranus was not, as Baronius would have it, bishop of Chalon. Baronius in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology says: "Although this one (Veranus) is placed in the territory of Orléans, yet since in the tables of the bishops of Orléans no bishop of that name is found written, I suspect meanwhile that this is that Veranus, celebrated in fame, bishop of Chalon, whom Gregory of Tours mentions, History of the Franks, book 3, chapter XXXI, and book IX, chapter IV. Where these words about him: 'For that pontiff was at that time endowed with great virtues; so that very often, placing the sign of the cross on the sick, he at once restored them to health, the Lord granting it.' Thus Gregory. He flourished in the times of Childebert, king of the Franks, about the year of the Lord 580." Thus far Baronius at the 19th of October.

[18] Baronius is refuted. The collectors of the Gallia Christiana expressly contradict Baronius Volume IV, column 867.: "Veranus is inserted here" (namely between Flavius and Lupus, bishops of Chalon) "by many, both ancient and more recent, deceived by an error of the editors of Gregory of Tours: for in them Veranus is presented as bishop of Chalon, but everywhere one must read Cavellionensis, of Cavaillon, as the manuscripts have it"; and rightly indeed, since it is established that both, Flavius of Chalon and Veranus of Cavaillon, were present at the same time at the second council of Mâcon and subscribed it. There is also another reason which persuades us to depart from Baronius, drawn from the very words of Gregory of Tours, which Baronius did not transcribe entire: "In that year," says Gregory [Historia Francorum, book IX, chapter IV. Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum, volume XI, p. 789.], "another son was born to King Childebert, whom Veratus, bishop of Chalon, receiving him from the font, gave the name of Theodoric. For that pontiff was at that time endowed with great virtues, so that very often, placing the sign of the cross on the sick, he at once restored them to health, the Lord granting it." Now it is beyond controversy that it was Veranus of Cavaillon who raised Theodoric II, son of Childebert, from the sacred font, as may be seen in Le Cointe Annales Ecclesiastici Francorum, volume II, p. 326., where, at the year 587, citing Gregory of Tours, after the words "a son was born to Childebert, whom Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon," Le Cointe adds in parenthesis: "in some copies of Gregory is wrongly read 'of Chalon.'" And our Longueval Histoire de l'Église Gallicane, volume IV, p. 222. Paris edition, 1826, in 12mo. relates the same no less expressly: "Childebert II followed his father (Sigebert) in venerating the holy bishop" (Veranus of Cavaillon), "whom he wished to be the godfather of his son Theodoric." In the Martyrology of Auxerre, which was published by authority of the Right Reverend Charles de Caylus, bishop of Auxerre, and with the consent of the chapter of the same church in the year 1751, the following announcement is had at the 19th day of October: "On the same day, the translation of St. Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, who received Theodoric, son of Childebert the second, king of the Austrasians, from the sacred font."

[19] Fr. Claude Perry proves of set purpose that St. Veranus never sat at Chalon. From these things, therefore, it is made out that Baronius is to be abandoned, who thinks that the St. Veranus of whom the Roman Martyrology speaks on this day is to be numbered among the bishops of Chalon. The reason adduced by the most learned writer from Gregory of Tours does not hold, since the latter indicates clearly enough the holy Prelate of the church of Cavaillon. Hence Fr. Claude Perry, in his History of Chalon, treating of the Veranus who received Theodoric, son of Childebert, from the sacred font, says [Histoire civile et ecclésiastique de la ville de Châlons-sur-Saône, by Claude Perry S.J., Paris, 1659, p. 48.]: "It cannot be that that Veranus was bishop of Chalon; for at that time Flavius held this see. It must be admitted, therefore, that an error crept in in Gregory of Tours, and that the printers" (add also some copyists) "put 'of Chalon' in place of 'of Cavaillon,' which could easily happen from the similarity of the words" (compare below, no. 30). "Not only did Flavius preside at that time over the church of Chalon, but, as will be plain from what follows, he survived not a little the council of Mâcon, which was held in the year before the baptism of Theodoric. At this council Veranus of Cavaillon was present together with Flavius of Chalon." Thus Perry. And below, where he treats of set purpose of the episcopate of St. Veranus, he begins thus Ibid., p. 51.: "Since the church of Chalon reckons blessed Veranus among its holy prelates, reverence prevents me from expunging that name. The tradition of the churches is of such weight with me that, in whatever place I find its traces, I venerate them very greatly. Let it suffice, then, to have shown above that the Veranus who raised King Theodoric from the sacred font was not bishop of Chalon. For this is evidently plain. Accordingly, if anyone named Veranus ever sat at Chalon, he is certainly different from the sponsor of the said king, although in the Breviary of that church they attribute to him lessons which we have shown above to pertain to St. Veranus of Cavaillon. The same lessons also err vehemently when they place his death in the year 590: for it is established that Flavius was surviving in the year 591. Nevertheless the church of Chalon keeps the feast of St. Veranus on the twentieth day of October, and numbers him among the bishops enrolled among the saints by Pope John VIII. The Martyrology makes mention of him on the same day" (if the Roman is in question, read: on the preceding day, namely the nineteenth of October). "However that may be, if there was ever a bishop at Chalon by the name of Veranus, he succeeded Flavius." Thus far Perry.

[20] The Roman Martyrology treats of St. Veranus of Cavaillon, The suspicion of Baronius about Veranus of Chalon, therefore, is not proved; nay, from what has been said it follows manifestly enough that in the praised place of the Roman Martyrology St. Veranus of Cavaillon is in question; for he both raised King Theodoric from the sacred font and subscribed the second council of Mâcon. Besides, it is beyond doubt that at that time Flavius presided over the church of Chalon, who both sat in the aforesaid council in the year 585 and survived at least up to the year 591. And the Baptism of Theodoric falls, according to Le Cointe, in the year 586. But it may be asked how it comes about that the deposition of St. Veranus of Cavaillon is celebrated in the territory of Orléans rather than in his own see? This difficulty Chastelain and du Saussay solve. The former in his Universal Martyrology testifies that the relics of the blessed Bishop are preserved in the said territory: "At Albingaunum" (Albenga in the duchy of Genoa in Italy) "between Finale and Oneglia ... Veranus ... of Cavaillon, whose relics are at Gergolium" (Gergeau) "in the diocese of Orléans." So in the margin at the eleventh day of November. And much more explicitly du Saussay in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology, on the 19th day of October.

[21] whose relics were translated to Jargeau in the territory of Orléans, "At Jargeau in the district of Orléans, the reception of the body of St. Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon. Who, born among the Gabali in Aquitaine, instructed from boyhood in the fear of God and in sacred disciplines, was made a cleric of the church of Mende. And when the fame of his holiness was already breaking out, from the desire of declining human esteem he made his way to Cavaillon, a city of the province of Marseilles, where, having put to flight a monstrous dragon, he built a church of the blessed Mother of God. Then, coming to Rome as a pilgrim, and in many cities

having worked very many signs of holiness, while he fled wherever he could from the glory of his name pursuing him, by the secret of the heavenly disposition he was brought again to the city of Cavaillon, and was raised, although against his will, to the episcopal honour. In which office he displayed greater lights of divine grace: and when he had grown old in the sincere service of God and the diligent care of his flock, and had been present at the second council of Mâcon, full of days and merits he obtained the rewards of immortal life. The holy Prelate was buried in the oratory which he had long before built in honour of the Virgin Mother of God. But afterwards, as prodigies multiplied at his tomb, his most sacred body, carried into the city, gave the title of his name to the cathedral church: and conferred upon the whole diocese, of which he was the first pastor, the perennial patronage of one now a blessed Heavenly. But long since his body itself was translated thence into inner Gaul, at Jargeau, three miles from Orléans, and laid in the church of the Holy Cross, which afterwards, on account of the celebrity of its glorious guest, was distinguished by his name: in which the dean with the chapter of canons render diligent service to the Lord at the night and day hours. This holy Pontiff is venerated chiefly on the day before the Ides of November, on which day he received the remuneration of his faithful stewardship."

[22] as is proved from Charles de la Saussaye, From this narrative of André du Saussay it is easily understood why in the Roman Martyrology mention is made of the territory of Orléans, where St. Veranus of Cavaillon is treated. Accordingly, if the sayings of du Saussay keep their truth, the difficulty raised a little before by us vanishes. Further, although the praised writer does not always win complete credit for himself, inasmuch as he not infrequently fails in historical criticism, yet the chief things which he relates about the translation of the holy Prelate of Cavaillon to Jargeau seem to us placed beyond controversy, since they are supported by the testimony of other weighty writers. So Charles de la Saussaye, dean of the church of Orléans, in his Annals of the same church, treating of the second council of Mâcon, says: "Likewise there subscribed Veranus, bishop of the church of Avelianensis" (in the margin Gavaillon), "whose body, brought into the town of Jargeau" (in the margin Gergeau), "was laid in the church of his name in this diocese (of Orléans); in which the Dean, Cantor, Capicerius, Canons and many Chaplains serve the Lord at the day and night hours, whereas before the bringing in of that holy Body the church was named of the Holy Cross" Annales Ecclesiae Aurelianensis, book III, chapter XXXV, p. 138, Paris, 1615..

[23] Expilly So too the learned man Expilly, in the Geographical Dictionary, calls Jargeau a town of the territory of Orléans, situated on the left bank of the Loire. Its parish church is dedicated under the invocation of St. Stephen; but the collegiate one under the title of St. Veranus (S. Vrain). The chapter numbers two dignities, the dean and the cantor, and besides ten canons Dictionnaire Géographique, Historique et Politique des Gaules et de la France.. Expilly's excellent work remained unfinished; it ends at the letter S. Let us note here in passing that three dignities are numbered by Charles de la Saussaye, namely the Dean, the Cantor and the Capicerius. The Capicerius, according to the glossary of Du Cange, is "a dignity and office in churches and monasteries, in French Chevecier, on whom the care of the Capicium of the church is incumbent." The Capicium is the part of the sacred building which is commonly called the presbytery, or the place where the altar is set up, and by the Greeks is called βῆμα.

[24] and François Le Maire. What has been said above is confirmed by master François Le Maire in the history of the city and duchy of Orléans. We set down his words here in part, because they contain certain particulars serving our purpose. "Since part of the relics of St. Veranus were translated to Jargeau, the church of that town, which was formerly called of the Holy Cross, has been called of St. Veranus. Those relics, further, were part of the Head (une partie du chef a part of the head)... They were carried off by the Huguenots on the last day of April in the year 1562, namely when they destroyed all the images of that church; the sacred building itself was cast down only in their following storm." There follows the life of St. Veranus of Cavaillon, whom he warns must be distinguished from the prelate of Chalon of the same name [Histoire et Antiquité de la Ville et Duché d'Orléans, part II, pp. 6 and 7. Second edition, Orléans, 1648.]. In this work many things indeed are found pertaining to ancient history, less accurate. But since here a matter is in question which the writer could as it were see with his own eyes, there is certainly no reason why he should not be held a suitable witness.

[25] Conclusion. There is no need to heap up more testimonies here. For these abundantly suffice for it to be established to everyone concerning the tradition from time immemorial by which it is held that the relics of St. Veranus of Cavaillon are preserved at Jargeau in the collegiate church which is for that reason called by his name. On this matter, which is the chief one for us, all agree; but as regards the relics themselves, there is some disagreement: some affirming that the Body, others that only part of the Head, was carried thither. But this translation and preservation being laid down, no one will wonder that the martyrology, in the Announcement of St. Veranus of Cavaillon, makes mention of the Territory of Orléans.

[26] [Our St. Veranus is also different from the other whom the Roman Martyrology mentions at the 11th of November;] Nay rather, in no other place of the Roman martyrology is the memory of the same holy Prelate celebrated. I know indeed that that other Announcement which is had at the 11th day of November is referred by some to our Saint. But, to speak candidly, I do not know with what right. The text of the martyrology is: "At Lyons, of St. Veranus, bishop, whose life was illustrious in faith and the merits of virtues." Certainly those words, as they sound, point to a prelate of Lyons, nor is it easily perceived how they could be understood of another. Nevertheless the praised François Le Maire went over to this opinion, who, in the place cited, testifies that in the diocese of Orléans the feast of St. Veranus is celebrated on the 12th day of November, but the translation on the 19th day of October. And, on the authority of Raynaud, "Pietro Esquilino (otherwise de' Natali) confused this St. Veranus of Lyons, whose feast day falls on the 11th of November, with St. Veranus, bishop of the people of Cavaillon, on whom fall all the things which he there says about St. Veranus." See the Indiculus of the Saints of Lyons.

[27] it is proved from Raynaud, Sollerius But by far the greatest part of the learned judge with Raynaud that the St. Veranus of whom at the 11th of November is different from the bishop of Cavaillon. Our Sollerius writes in the Observations on Usuard: "Of Veranus, without doubt bishop of Lyons, the Martyrologist of Vienne" (namely Ado) "makes mention, not in the appendix, as Fiorentini says, but in the text itself... It is read also in the Hieronymian copies; but Fiorentini would not doubt that it is from the additions to the More Ancient Martyrology. However that may be, the praised writer notes there several Veranuses, namely one bishop of the Gabali or of Cavaillon, another of Vence, and these different from the one of Lyons and from our present one, from the Hagiologium of Labbe, du Saussay and Raynaud. Chastelain seems to think otherwise; for, by an appended little note, he declares Veranus to be the one of Vence, transferred here from the 9th of September, who is called in French Veran; but the second, in French Vrain, he establishes as bishop of the people of Cavaillon, by which reckoning Veranus of Lyons would have to be altogether excluded. These are controversies to be discussed more laboriously elsewhere. Our text not obscurely designates the one of Lyons, and it is also Usuard's." Thus far Sollerius in the Martyrology of Usuard at the 11th day of November.

[28] Baronius, Tillemont and the Catalogues of Lyons. All these, then, agree in this (which alone here serves our purpose), namely that the Veranus who is commemorated at Lyons is different from Veranus of Cavaillon. Nor did Baronius dissent in the notes at the 11th of November, saying: "Of him (Veranus) Bede, Usuard, Ado and others. But Pietro (de' Natali) in the Catalogue, book 10, chapter 50, places on this day Verus (Veranus) of the Gabali. This one, of whom we treat, is numbered the twenty-third bishop of the see of Lyons, the fourth from Eucherius. We think he is that Veranus whom Gennadius mentions in De viris illustribus, chapters 63 and 67; and to whom Pope Hilary wrote a letter." Which words we have set down only so that it may be established that the Veranus of the 11th of November is distinguished by Baronius from the bishop of Cavaillon. For the other things will come to be examined when the Saints whose memory occurs on the said day are to be treated. Let Tillemont too finally be heard. "The Sainte-Marthes (in the old Gallia Christiana) acknowledge that Salonius is undeservedly called successor of St. Eucherius in the see of Lyons; they themselves place St. Veranus; without, however, giving a reason for either of those assertions; whereas a very powerful reason certainly fights for St. Veranus: for several Martyrologies, and those most ancient, keep the memory of this prelate of Lyons. Usuard and Ado have the same" [Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, Notes on St. Eucherius, volume XV, p. 849, Paris edition, 1711.]. In the New Gallia Christiana Volume IV, columns 24 and 25. it is noted that in three Catalogues published by Chifflet, after St. Eucherius are reported Salonius, Veranus and Patiens, as his immediate successors. Whence a threefold opinion was born. Some affirm that Salonius and Veranus, sons of Eucherius, held the see of Lyons after their father. But against it is that it is established from Gennadius that they were sons of St. Eucherius; and from the letter of Salvian to the same St. Eucherius and other documents, that they were raised to this dignity while their parent was still living, and indeed not in the city of Lyons, but in the province of the Maritime Alps; at least as regards Veranus the learned editor of St. Leo proves this excellently. It is added that among the bishops of Vence it was proved that Veranus, son of Eucherius, both was and died prelate of Vence; that they would do the same for Salonius elsewhere. Others, distinguishing Salonius and Veranus from the sons of Eucherius, admit them as bishops of Lyons before St. Patiens. But against it is the third opinion (which is that of our Bolland), namely that Patiens succeeded Eucherius immediately; but that Veranus, distinct from the son of Eucherius, sat between Stephen and Viventiolus; and that this is drawn from the life of St. Avitus, Prelate of Vienne, in which that holy prelate is declared to have given Veranus, an abbot, to the church of Lyons as bishop. "It is not ours, further" (so the Gallia Christiana concludes), "to settle such great disputes." It will perhaps be ours at the 11th day of November. But this is clear, that that Veranus, whoever he finally was, is as far as heaven from ours.

[29] Therefore on this day the Martyrology treats of St. Veranus of Cavaillon. From all these things, in our opinion, a solid proof indeed arises, first that the words of the Roman martyrology at this 19th day of October are to be understood of St. Veranus of Cavaillon; then, that in other places of the same, where mention of a St. Veranus occurs, this is to be taken of saints who agree indeed in name with the bishop of that see, but nevertheless exist altogether different from him. And these are the things which moved us to illustrate his acts on this 19th day of October.

§ III. The city of Cavaillon. The antiquity of the see. The deeds of St. Veranus and his episcopate. The church dedicated to his name.

The site of the city of Cavaillon, and its various names. "The region which lies between the rivers Durance and Isère, in the province of Narbonne, was occupied by the Caveres or Cavari. By the former name this people is designated in Pomponius Mela and Pliny; by the latter in Ptolemy, who assigns four cities to this people: two on the bank (of the Rhône), Avignon and Orange; one drawn back a little from there towards the east, Cabellio; the fourth of doubtful right and site, Acusio, a Colony... The city of Cabellio withdraws from the Rhône, placed beside the river Durance. It is called Cabellio by Pliny, Ptolemy, Stephanus (of Byzantium) and the author of the Itinerary (commonly that of Antoninus). But by Strabo Caballio (Καβαλίωνα πόλιν Καουάρων), also in the Peutinger (table). To Ptolemy it is a colony; to Pliny it is numbered among the Latin towns (that is, endowed with the right of old Latium). In the Notitiae, the city of the Cabellici; now Cavaillon." So Christoph Cellarius [Notitia Orbis antiqui, book II, chapter II, section III, nos. 123 and 124. Leipzig edition, 1773.]. "By Stephanus, following Artemidorus, Cabellio is called a city of Marseilles, Καβελλίων πόλις Μασσιλίας, as also Avignon, which cities both belong to the Cavari. Whence it appears that a great part of the Cavari, and Cabellio and Avignon, were formerly attributed to the region of the people of Marseilles" See Valesius, Notitia Galliarum, at the words: Cabellio Colonia, p. 109..

[31] Its present state. In very many charters which are recited among the Proofs (preuves) for the history of Occitania (Languedoc) by two Benedictine authors of the congregation of St. Maur, there is almost perpetually written Cavellio, the city of Cavaillon. See volume III among the proofs, column 593, the testament of Joanna, countess of Toulouse Volume III, column 593, among the Proofs. Paris, 1737.; likewise in the Homage of the count of Valentinois to the count of Toulouse Ibid., column 389.; again in the same place, page 402, in the Homage of the count of Toulouse to the bishop of Albi and the archbishop of Arles, where is read Ibid., column 402.: "This was done at Cavaillon in the Chamber of the Lord bishop of Cavaillon in the year 1241." And so on. This manner of writing, as being more customary now for several centuries, we have used. For the rest, Cavaillon is a city placed at a mountain next to the Durance, in the county of the Venaissin, an episcopal see, suffragan first to the metropolis of Arles, then to that of Avignon, until it was suppressed by the recent circumscription of dioceses made under Pope Pius VII. Today it is a parish church, as they call it, of the first rank (de première classe), under the invocation of St. Veranus, in the diocese and district of Avignon Almanach du Clergé de France, year 1851, p. 107.. We saw above, § II, no. 18 and following, how from the words of Gregory of Tours a confusion arose, so that Baronius thought St. Veranus should be ascribed to the see of Chalon. Cabellio or Cavellio and Cabillonum are certainly cities very far apart from each other; since the former is found on the Durance (Durance) in Provence, the latter on the Saône (Saone) in Burgundy. But the names are not so unlike, and moreover are written variously by various persons, as we have seen of Cavellio; and as regards Cabillonum, "you will not find," says Valesius Notitia Galliarum, at the word Cabilonnum., "another city whose name has been worse received, or more often and more greatly changed by various writers, or, if you prefer, even corrupted." Whence, even if the Gregorian reading were genuine, scarcely anything could be concluded from it.

[32] Its first Bishops. The time at which the evangelical light was brought to Cavaillon is not accurately known. What is narrated about its first apostles rests on no suitable, or rather no, testimony. "But although Genialis, who flourished in the year 322, is said to have been the first bishop of that city, it would nevertheless be easy to prove that that see had its prelates long before." So Expilly Dictionnaire Géographique des Gaules et de la France, at the word Cavaillon.. The learned author would certainly have rendered useful service if he had in fact accomplished what seems so easy to him; the more so because it is well enough known that the origins of most of the churches in Gaul are wrapped in dense darkness. It can indeed be established in general, as our Longueval notes in the preliminary dissertation to the history of the Gallican church Volume I, pp. LXIII–LXXX. Edition in 12mo. Paris, 1825., that the Christian religion was brought into those regions already in the first century by the disciples of the apostles; but it is no less certain that in the two first centuries of our era it made altogether small progress. It suffices to have run through the volumes of the new Gallia Christiana even very lightly with the eyes for what we here assert to be plain to the point of evidence. However that may be, the collectors of the praised Work begin the series of the bishops of Cavaillon in this manner Nova Gallia Christiana, volume I, column 940 and following..

[33] "I. St. Genialis. In the diptychs of the church of Cavaillon the first bishop noted is St. Genialis, whose time is assigned to about the year 322, rather from conjecture than from any certain reason.

II. Julianus or Julius. This bishop was present at the council of Riez (Riez) assembled in the year 439, omitted in the collections of the councils. Tillemont, volume XV of the commentaries on ecclesiastical history, is to be consulted about him. The same is mentioned as bishop in the year 451, in which he subscribed the synodal letter of the bishops of Gaul sent to Pope St. Leo. To him and to many other bishops is inscribed the fifty-second letter of the same St. Leo.

III. Porcianus. We leave the bare name of Porcianus, as it was found by us. For nothing occurs to us by which his episcopate might be illustrated, to which the year 459 is assigned.

IV. Philagrius. Philagrius came to light from various councils which he subscribed from the year 517 up to the year 529.

V. Praetextatus. Equally certain are the testimonies about Bishop Praetextatus, and drawn from the same sources. In his name Optatus subscribed the Vth of Orléans in the year 549; but he himself was present at the Vth of Arles in the year 554, and the IInd of Paris in the year 555, according to Le Cointe in the year 551.

VI. St. Veranus (St Vrain)." His life is presented synoptically in the same place Ibid., column 941., which we set down here, with notes interposed here and there by the help of which the narrative may become more explicit.

[34] The birth of St. Veranus "St. Veranus, born of the Gabalitan district, was enrolled in the clergy of the city by Evantius, bishop of the Gabali." Pietro de' Natali adds, relying on I know not what foundation, that this was done against the will of his parents; which I have found neither in the acts nor anywhere else. The Gabali were a people bordering on the Ruteni and the province of Narbonne. "Their city is called in Ptolemy Ανδερίδον, Anderidum, or, as Scaliger reads, Ανδερηδών, Anderedon; in the Peutinger table is had Anderitum: in the councils it is called the Gabalitan church and city. In Pliny is read the pagus Gabalicus; later writers write the pagus Galvadanus; whence today it is named in French Gévaudan. From Gabali, the name of the city, comes Javols, Javouls and Javoux, four leagues from Mimate (Mende)." These things from Christoph Cellarius Notitia Orbis antiqui, p. 153.. Expilly and Valesius agree, although the latter somewhat doubts in some things. "Gabali," he says, "the more recent geographers and others, led by the likeness of the name, think to be the little town of Javouls, distant IV leagues from Mimate, to which place the see of the bishopric was translated from the city of Gabali" Notitia Galliarum.

[35] Ferrari is emended. Whence, a little too confidently (yet I should not think erroneously), Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy at the 15th day of November, in an annotation, asserts: "The Gavalitan city, which is also called Mimatum, commonly Mande." In the same place he also censures, but partly undeservedly, Pietro de' Natali, who, in book X, chapter L, weaving the life of St. Veranus (which otherwise is scarcely anything else than a compendium of the Acts), writes thus: "Veranus the bishop shone at the Gavalitan city of Gaul in the time of the emperor Valens. He, born of noble parents from the territory of that city, devoted to God from boyhood, imbued with divine letters, while still a youth left the world, and in the church of Mende, against the will of his parents, was made a cleric. And advancing in virtues, he ascended to the priestly order; and began to be powerful in great and many signs. But on account of the many flocking to him, fleeing the glory of the world, taking only one companion, he came to the Gavalitan city: where, while there was a most monstrous dragon... Veranus, praying, compelled it to come out of the cave in which it lay hidden and to follow him... And shut it up in the bowels of the earth." And below, after he had returned into Gaul from a long pilgrimage into Italy: "At length, landing at the Gavalitan city, he began to remain in the church of blessed Mary which he had built (formerly in the Cave of the slain dragon)... After this, the prelate having died, Veranus was elected bishop by the king and clergy and people." Ferrari therefore notes that for "at the Gavalitan city" it seems one should write "the city of Cavaillon," Cavillicensis or even Cabellicensis (for it is called in so many ways). "This city is in the province of Avignon, Cabellio to the Latins, but commonly called Cavaillon. But the Gavalitan city, which is also called Mimatum, and commonly Mande, among the Arverni, is far distant from the river Durance, on which is situated the city of which St. Veranus was bishop." From the acts Ferrari himself must be corrected; from which it is made out that St. Veranus was born indeed in the Gavalitan district, and there was presented with the clerical habit, but afterwards came to the people of Cavaillon, of which city he was afterwards, several years intervening, made bishop. Pietro de' Natali therefore errs in writing everywhere the Gavalitan district or city; but Ferrari also slips when he insinuates that everywhere in place of Gavalitan one should substitute of Cavaillon. Moreover, in the compendium of the life (which was taken from Pietro de' Natali, yet not to the letter) Ferrari also writes "the Gavalitan city": why did he not change this word where the election as bishop is treated? For the rest, Ferrari rightly adds in the same place: "Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, lived about the year of the Lord 588, since he was present at the council of Mâcon; he did not, therefore, live under Valens, who in the year of the Lord 378, conquered by the Goths, was burned." Let us return to our Veranus.

[36] St. Veranus makes a pilgrimage to Rome; and on his return is elected Bishop. "But" (so the Gallia Christiana) "for the sake of declining glory (for the fame of his virtues had already spread abroad) he fled, and, having crossed the river Rhône, lay hidden for some time in the district of Cavaillon. Having set out thence to Rome, he again sought his retreat at Cavaillon, then by no means foreknowing the future. The episcopal see was then vacant, the bishop having died, in whose place Veranus was substituted by the unanimous consent of clergy and people. At what time this was done we can to some extent ascertain from the councils and ecclesiastical business at which he was present. Namely, in the year 585 he subscribed the second synod of Mâcon. In the following year, Praetextatus, bishop of Rouen, having been killed by the wiles of Fredegund, King Guntram sent Veranus of Cavaillon, with Artemius of Sens and Agroecius of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, bishops, to search out the person of this crime and present him in his sight. Who bravely discharged this commission; for without fear of Queen Fredegund they boldly said: 'Know that if the person who perpetrated these things is not placed in the midst, our king with an army

coming here will lay waste all this region with sword and fire; because it is manifest that she has killed the bishop with the sword who by her evil arts ordered the Frank to be killed.' Having said this, they adjured that Melantius, who had previously been substituted in the place of Praetextatus, should never discharge the office of priest in the church of Rouen."

[37] Conjectures about the year in which he was made Bishop of Cavaillon. From these things it is indeed made out that in the years 585 and 586 St. Veranus presided over the church of Cavaillon; but it is in no way established in what year his episcopate began. It is certain that Praetextatus held that see at the least up to the year 555 or 554; beyond that nothing about him has come down to us. And the first authentic mention of St. Veranus as bishop occurs in the subscription of the second council of Mâcon in the year 585. There exists, accordingly, an interval of 30 years, to some one of which the election of Veranus will have to be ascribed. But here must be noted what Le Cointe writes Annales Ecclesiastici Francorum at the year 562, no. 48.: "Veranus, a cleric distinguished for piety, who had gone to Rome some years before, returned into France about these times; for on his return he visited Honoratus, bishop of Milan, who all agree was alive in this year (562); and, having crossed the Alps, he reached the borders of the Gauls when, their king named Clotaire being now dead, his sons were ruling the kingdom of the Franks in four parts: on account of the fame of his virtues he was summoned by letter by King Sigebert, and when after a long time he was staying at the royal court, at Cavaillon, Praetextatus, bishop of that place, having died, he was substituted with the unanimous consent of king, clergy and people." Thus far Le Cointe. From which we are taught that St. Veranus was not distinguished with the pastoral dignity before the year 562. But moreover, Clotaire I died after the 10th day of November of the year 561 [L'Art de vérifier les dates, p. 524. Likewise Dom Bouquet, volume II, p. LXXIX, in the chronological Index.]. And Veranus reached the borders of the Gauls while his sons were ruling in four parts. Which words are taken from the life of St. Veranus in the Bibliotheca of Labbe, of which it will have to be treated below of set purpose. From that same life we learn moreover that the holy man stayed a long time with King Sigebert, son of Clotaire, before he was elected bishop. Whence we rightly conclude that the beginnings of his administration preceded the synod of Mâcon of the year 585 by only some years. Let us note here in passing that Expilly errs vehemently Dictionnaire Géographique, at the word Cavaillon. when he referred this episcopate to the fifth century.

[38] In a Synod he disputes excellently on the Chastity of priests. There exists in Sirmond and Labbe a sentence or oration of Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, on the chastity of priests, "plucked," says Sirmond, "from an old codex of St. Germain of Paris"; and he affirms that this sentence was spoken in some Synod of this time; whence also he sets down its tenor between the second synod of Valence of the year 584 and the likewise second of Mâcon of the year 585. In neither of these synods does anything occur which, at least directly, pertains to the chastity of priests; unless perhaps you except canon XVI of Mâcon, on the wives of clerics, that they should not enter into second marriages after their death. "This also," say the Fathers, "has seemed right to us to dispose, that she who was the wife of a subdeacon, or exorcist, or acolyte, when he is dead, shall not dare to join herself in a second marriage. And if she does so, let her be separated, and handed over into the convents of the maidens of God, and let her remain there until the end of her life." In the discussion preceding this canon, Veranus could have discoursed incidentally on the chastity of priests in general. But whatever may be the case about the place in which they were brought forth, those words, as being very excellent and testifying how great was the authority of St. Veranus among his contemporaries, it would be wrong to pass over here. They are, according to the aforesaid Sirmond Concilia antiqua Galliae, volume I, p. 380. and Labbe Concilia, volume V, column 977. Paris edition, 1671., the following. "Veranus the bishop said: Who would suffer one presiding at the sacred altars, and coming by the privilege of honour to the very Holy of Holies, to be contaminated by the most unworthy allurements of carnal pleasures; and would acquiesce that any one of the clerics, under the very name of conjugal licence, should both discharge the office of priest and fill the part of a husband? With the motions of body and soul purified, it must be weighed with much thought how fit he ought to be who approaches the places of celebrating the mysteries to intercede not only for his own but also for others' sins. For it seems to me unbecoming that anyone rising from the conjugal bed should enter the enclosures of the altars. You yourselves certainly, enlightened and taught by the Holy Spirit, know very well with what fire he ought to burn who is about to offer the victims of spiritual sacrifice. For if in the old law, where not yet (sic) the authority of evangelical perfection shone forth, the priest Sadoch did not give the loaves of Proposition to holy David, when he was pressed by the necessity of flight, before he confessed that he and his young men had now on the third day been clean from women; who would dare to consecrate even the flesh of the immaculate lamb, offered for the salvation of the world, after the defilements of the passions? Blessed Paul the Apostle in truth testifies to us, saying: Let each of the ministers prove himself, and so presume to offer that bread. It is known to you that around the places of your beatitude, under the discipline of great fathers, there are no small congregations of monks, whence good men are readily available to be taken up to fill the offices of clerics. For in the church the chosen probation of a few good men is more useful than the gathered-together presence of a wandering multitude: and rare examples of virtue bring more edification than the abundant and uncorrected presumption of popular licence." These things certainly show both the antiquity of the discipline concerning the continence of priests, and the wisdom of the Roman church, which at every time has watched with the keenest solicitude that that law should be kept inviolate.

[39] His remaining deeds; death and burial. The remaining things pertaining to the acts of St. Veranus the Gallia Christiana presents thus: "In the year 587 the same bishop (Veranus) received from the Holy laver the son of King Childebert, to whom he gave the name of Theodoric. In the year 589 many bishops of his kingdom were gathered with King Guntram at Autun, to deliberate about calming the tumults stirred up in the maidens' monastery of St. Radegund at Poitiers by Chrodield and Basina, nuns of royal stock. Of these prelates was Veranus, whose name is read in the inscription of the letter of this synod to the bishops Aetherius of Lyons, Syagrius of Autun, Aunacharius of Auxerre. Gregory of Tours, from whose History we have learned these things, narrates in book III of the miracles of St. Martin that he went to the territory of the city of Cavaillon to visit his mother, and there heard from Bishop Veranus how, the help of St. Martin having been invoked, he had been cured of a quartan fever. The holy Prelate passed to Christ on the 11th day of November, whom the people of Cavaillon have chosen as patron. His life exists in volume II of the Bibliotheca of Labbe" Gallia Christiana, volume I, columns 941 and 942.. To which certain things are added in Le Cointe taken from Labbe's life. "He died," he says Annales Ecclesiastici Francorum at the year 589, no. 15., "on the third day before the Ides (that is, the 11th) of November; he was buried on the day before the same Ides in the oratory which he had long before built in honour of the blessed Virgin near the source of the Sorgue... Afterwards he was carried to Cavaillon, where he became illustrious with many miracles. He is held the patron of the church and city of Cavaillon, where he is venerated on the Ides of November, that is, on the thirteenth day"; which does not agree with most others, who put the eleventh day. Perhaps on account of the feast of St. Martin his festivity was transferred to another day, as we shall also note in another place.

[40] Although the church of Cavaillon was primarily dedicated to the B. Virgin Mary, It must be noted moreover that the cathedral church of Cavaillon was dedicated in honour of the B. Virgin Mary by the care of Innocent IV, while he, to avoid the fury of the emperor Frederick, was staying in Gaul, as is established from the following letter of the same Pontiff: "Innocent, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our venerable brother the bishop, and to our beloved sons the provost and chapter of Cavaillon, greeting and apostolic benediction. Although he from whose gift it comes that he is worthily and laudably served by his faithful, out of the abundance of his piety, which exceeds the merits and wishes of suppliants, repays those who serve well much greater things than they can merit; nevertheless, desiring to render to the Lord an acceptable people, we invite the faithful of Christ to please him as it were by certain alluring gifts, namely indulgences and remissions, so that thereby they may be rendered more fit for the divine grace. Desiring, therefore, that your church, which we have thought fit to dedicate in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may be frequented with fitting honours, to all truly penitent and confessed who shall venerably visit that church on the day of its dedication up to its octave every year, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the authority of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul, we mercifully relax one year and forty days of the penance enjoined on them. Given at the castle of Fugentia, on the third day before the Nones of May, in the eighth year of our pontificate," that is, the one thousand two hundred and fifty-first, since Innocent IV was elected on the 24th or rather the 25th day of June 1243, and consecrated on the 28th or 29th day of the same month and year. The letter is found in the Collection of instruments to volume I of the Gallia Christiana Page 155.; elsewhere we have not seen it.

[41] St. Veranus is the secondary Patron However that may be, it is certain that the cathedral church of Cavaillon is dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary; but at the same time the patron of this church is also St. Veranus (Saint Vrain). Expilly agrees: "The cathedral church," he says Dictionnaire Géographique, as above., "having experienced several ruins at the hands of barbarians, was finally built such as it is seen today. Pope Innocent IV, returning from Lyons, dedicated it in the year 1251. It was consecrated to the blessed Virgin and to St. Veranus. There are preserved there with great veneration the bodies of four saints: namely of St. Veranus, formerly bishop of that city; of St. Eucleta or Eveleta; of St. Honoratus, abbot of Lérins, and afterwards pontiff of Arles; and finally of St. Faustinus, martyr." Nay, in the Calendar of the French church Almanach du Clergé de France, 1851, p. 107. no other patron of the church of Cavaillon is indicated besides St. Veranus.

§ IV. On the Relics of St. Veranus. Whether the body was translated to Jargeau and to Albenga; or whether it is still found today in the church of Cavaillon. The instrument of the visitation.

Several assert that the body of St. Veranus was translated to Jargeau. As regards the relics of St. Veranus, various things, and indeed contradicting one another, are handed down by various persons. From what has been said at the numbers immediately preceding, it would follow that the body of the blessed Prelate remained at Cavaillon up to these latest times. This is clearly made out from the testimonies just brought forward. But on the other hand it is beyond doubt that at least a part of them was translated to Jargeau, and there had great celebrity, as abundantly even from this

it is established that the church of that town, at first distinguished by the name of the Holy Cross, was afterwards called after St. Veranus, which also persists to this day. I said: at least a part of them. For if in fact, as Expilly asserts, the body of St. Veranus rests at Cavaillon, it will have to be admitted that only a part of them is preserved at Jargeau, which François Le Maire also expressly relates, as we saw at no. 25, according to whom part of the head was found there before the irruption of the Huguenots, who dispersed all the relics of that church. Nevertheless several affirm that the very body of St. Veranus was translated. So the Gallia Christiana Volume I, column 942.: "That the body of St. Veranus was brought to the church of Jargeau (Gergeau) of the diocese of Orléans, du Saussay is the author, book III of the Ecclesiastical Annals of Orléans; the feast day of which translation is recalled on the 19th day of October." Le Cointe speaks in the same manner: "Finally he was carried to Jargeau, which is a town of the diocese of Orléans, where he rests in the basilica of his name, which was formerly named the church of the Holy Cross, as Charles de la Saussaye observed" Annals at the year 589, no. 15.. So also in the General History of Occitania Histoire générale de Languedoc, volume I, p. 31.: "His relics are preserved at Jargeau on the Loire in the Diocese of Orléans."

[43] Various arguments for this opinion are brought forward and weighed. There is added the Breviary and the Manuscript of Nevers, in which, on the witness of Severt [Chronologia historica successionis Hierarchiae Lugdunensis Archiepiscopatus, part I, p. 57, § VIII. Lyons edition, 1628.], it is said: "Afterwards the body (of St. Veranus) was translated to Jargeau in the territory of Orléans." Severt himself, indeed, had said a little before Ibid., § VII.: "He (Veranus) was present at the second provincial council of Mâcon, and du Saussay seems to intimate that he was that pastor who, for some unknown pious end, set out towards Orléans, died in that foreign territory, and his body was brought to the town of Jargeau, and also laid there in the church of his name, of the diocese of Orléans." Except Severt, I know no one else who has even suspected that St. Veranus died in the territory of Orléans. For the rest, it is far from being the case that credit is easily to be given to the aforesaid writer; and here, since he is alone and does not prove his sayings, he is to be altogether rejected. The Paris Breviary agrees as to the translation, in which on the 12th day of November, in the Lesson of the simple office, after the life of the holy Prelate has been presented in a brief compendium, is read: "He died on the third day before the Ides (that is, the eleventh day) of September" (without doubt read: November) "after the five hundred and eighty-ninth year. His body after some centuries was carried to Gargogilum, which is a town of the diocese of Orléans on the Loire. Relics drawn thence were translated into a parish built under the name of St. Veranus in the borders of the district of Paris near Castra." And hence it is plain why his memory is kept in the church of Paris. According to Baillet Vies des Saints, at the 11th of November., in the course of time the body of St. Veranus was translated from Cavaillon first into a town of the diocese of Nevers, where a church was built under his invocation; and thence to Jargeau, and there thereafter preserved with great veneration. The feast of this translation is held the most solemn among all the celebrations instituted in honour of St. Veranus, and is kept at Jargeau on the 19th of October in the church of his name, formerly called of the Holy Cross. Above we saw the testimony of André du Saussay in the same sense. Singular is what Oldoini writes in the Additions to Chacón Vitae Pontificum of Chacón, volume II, column 110. Rome edition, 1677.. "The relics," he says, "of Saints Veranus and Honoratus, confessors, he (Innocent IV), when the council of Lyons (the first, in the year 1245) was ended, exposed to the veneration of all at Jargeau in the district of Orléans, and consecrated a church there." Oldoini drew these things from André du Saussay, who in his Martyrology notes at the 7th of July: "At Jargeau in the district of Orléans, the opening and translation of Saints Veranus and Honoratus, confessors, made by Pope Innocent IV after the dissolution of the council of Lyons; and also the dedication of the church there consecrated by the same pontiff." But here Baillet observes that the council of Lyons, at which the pontiff was present, began on the Monday after the feast of St. John the Baptist in the year 1245, and was completed on the XVIIth of July of the same year. Whence, since it is likely that the feast of that translation was celebrated on the day on which it had been made, it is not understood how the pontiff who was presiding over the council at Lyons should at the same time have made the translation of the relics at Jargeau. Perhaps du Saussay confused this festivity with the dedication of the church of Cavaillon. Compare no. 45. There are found among the manuscripts collected by our predecessors for the life of St. Veranus certain notes written by the hand of Bolland, in which among other things pertaining here these are read: "The body of St. Veranus translated to Jargolium, commonly Jargeau"; and below: "In the time of the heretics the relics were scattered on account of the reliquary. The head was saved by a soldier, who took it for himself as his portion of the booty without the reliquary and carried it elsewhere, because he was a catholic." These things agree to some extent with François Le Maire, who perhaps saw the head, or part of it, carried off by that soldier; whence he could judge that those alone were the relics of St. Veranus at Jargeau. Yet Bolland asserts openly enough something else, namely that the whole body of the saint was formerly at Jargeau; and at the end he indicates that he learned these things from Fr. François Chesneau S.J., who, a native of Jargeau, "was lately," he says, "rector at Amiens, and still lives there." And so much about Jargeau.

[44] Others relate that the body of St. Veranus rests at Albenga: Ughelli But there is also a third church which claims that sacred body for itself; and this no longer in Gaul but in Italy; namely the church of Albenga (Albenga), suffragan to the metropolis of Genoa. "The cathedral consecrated to St. Michael the Archangel," says Ughelli Italia Sacra, volume IV, column 912. Venice edition, 1719., "is rich in Relics of the Saints, and especially in the body of St. Veranus the bishop, who, while he was returning from Rome, departed from life there under Bishop Honoratus, who was administering that see at that time; and, having worked very many miracles, was held worthy to be revered by the people of Albenga as their tutelary Saint." Here indeed Ughelli goes astray in an astonishing manner: for he could have drawn the commemoration of St. Veranus among the people of Albenga from no other source than his Acts. But these most expressly relate the journey to Rome undertaken by him while he was a cleric; nor do they indicate by even a single word that he went to the City a second time after taking up the episcopate: nay, they narrate at length the things which happened at Cavaillon at his death. Whence it may certainly be concluded that the acts were not even seen by Ughelli. A little after he begins the catalogue of the bishops of Albenga in this manner Italia Sacra, volume IV, column 913. Venice edition, 1719.: "I. Honoratus. That very one who received St. Veranus in hospitality while he was returning from Rome, in the year 377" (here again Ughelli slips), "as is plainly read in the Acts of this Saint." And below Ibid., column 920.: "XXXIX. Napoleone de' Fieschi, formerly bishop of Noli... He was translated to this church in the year 1459, on the XXIst day of the month of December. He translated the sacred bones of St. Veranus from the old sepulchre near the sacred tower to the altar which he himself had magnificently built and adorned, on the sixth day before the Ides of June, on which very day his feast is concelebrated."

[45] and Ferrari, Ferrari has similar things in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy at the 14th day of November. After he has briefly indicated the birth of St. Veranus and his Roman pilgrimage, he says: "Returning to his fatherland, he healed at Ravenna many possessed and sick. He did the same at Milan, where he is read to have cured twelve energumens, restored sight to a blind man and raised a dead man. Coming thence to Albenga, he obtained rain for the fields of the Christians after a long drought; and when the idolaters had seen this, they too, converted to Christ, and having demolished the temples of the gods, were made partakers of the rain. There also he drew out of its cave a dragon adored by certain persons, and, casting it headlong into the river, drowned it. By which miracles he led the whole city to Christ." And again a little below: "On the third day before the Ides of November he departed from life. All the sick who touched the coffin were healed. And when the citizens disputed whether he should be buried in the cathedral church or in that which he himself had built, the pall with which the body was covered, raised up, went before the funeral in the air until they came to the river Durance, which, they report, was divinely dried up so that all crossed over. And the pall, going before the people with the funeral, stopped at the church of St. Mary; and there the body was honourably entombed: which, carried at some time to Albenga, is held there in the greatest veneration. From the documents of the church of Albenga and Pietro in the Catalogue." Gioffredo, who professes that in putting together the life of St. Veranus he has adhered to Ferrari and Pietro de' Natali, writes in his History of the Maritime Alps in the manner of one doubting: "although it is reported that his (St. Veranus's) body was afterwards translated, either entire or in part, into the city of Albenga, which, mindful of the benefits obtained by his intercession, chose him as patron, and every year on the said day (the 14th of November) celebrates his festivity, which Filippo Ferrari in his new Martyrology announces in these words: 'At Albenga, of St. Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon'" [Gioffredo, Storia delle alpi maritime, book IV, towards the end. It is found among the Monumenta historiae patriae published by order of King Charles Albert, Turin, MDCCCXXXIX. Scriptores, volume II, column 249.].

[46] who censures Ughelli in some things. Ferrari adds, in the place above, an Annotation in which he says that Pietro de' Natali, from whom he drew most of the things said above, must be corrected in two things: the one as to place; for he ought to have written bishop of Cavaillon, not of the Gabali. (Above at no. 36 we have seen what this note is worth.) The other as to time; "because Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, lived about the year of the Lord 588, since he was present at the council of Mâcon: he did not, therefore, live under the emperor Valens, who in the year of the Lord 378, conquered by the Goths, was burned alive, after he had long harassed the catholic church." By which words Ughelli too is struck, who makes our Veranus contemporary with Honoratus of Albenga. For the rest, the source of this error lies hidden in the acts which we give below. For in them it is in fact said, or at least seems to be said, that Honoratus sat at Albenga while St. Veranus was passing through there; although it is certain that no one of that name held that see after the fourth century, as is plain from Ughelli's own catalogue. But on the other hand it is beyond controversy that our St. Veranus was still flourishing as the sixth century was verging to its end. It is established also that a bishop by the name of Honoratus presided over the church of Milan in the times of St. Veranus, and that he, while he was returning from Rome into Gaul, made some stay in the said city before he went on to Albenga. Manifestly, therefore, the writer of the acts errs, and Ughelli with him, when they refer to the prelate of Albenga the things which should be proclaimed of Honoratus of Milan. Nor is it right

it seems, to throw this error back on the negligence of copyists, since the various copies of the Acts which we have seen plainly agree in this place. I put advisedly above: "Or at least seems to be said." For it does not necessarily flow from the acts that Honoratus, of whom mention falls in the same place, sat at Albenga rather than at Milan. After the writer has narrated the wonders worked by St. Veranus in the city of Milan, he proceeds thus: "Then, at the request of the most holy man Honoratus, bishop of that city, he set out and came to the city whose name is Albingaunum." He would certainly do no violence to the words who should say that Veranus, at the request of St. Honoratus, bishop of that city (namely of Milan), of which he had just treated, went to Albenga.

[47] [It is more likely that the body of St. Veranus remained at Cavaillon up to our times.] As concerns the sacred body of St. Veranus: the testimonies of Ughelli and Ferrari prove the tradition of the church of Albenga; but it is inconsistent that the same sacred bones should be found in three different places at the same time, unless, which not seldom occurs, the part is taken for the whole by synecdoche. And to say what I think: the arguments which fight for the said church seem to me of less weight than those others which are brought forward in favour especially of the church of Cavaillon, where St. Veranus met his last day. For what Ughelli relates about the death of that holy Pontiff in the city of Albenga can in no way be admitted; which Ferrari also rejects, when he asserts that the relics of which discourse is here had were brought from Cavaillon into Italy, without, however, adding any proof except the ancient tradition of the particular church; but this favours equally both the people of Cavaillon and those of Jargeau. It seems more likely to us that the body of St. Veranus remained at Cavaillon; since nowhere are found either Acts of a translation into another city, nor is any other positive testimony had by which the church of Cavaillon might be thrust out of its possession, which according to all it had from the beginning. Hence also the Breviary of Orléans, at the 19th of October, on which day it keeps the feast of the Translation under a semidouble rite, speaks doubtfully in this manner: "His body is said to have been translated into the collegiate church of Jargeau; and his memory is read inscribed in the calendars of Orléans for very many centuries." Since, then, all confessing it, if you except Ughelli, the primeval possession stands for the church of Cavaillon, nor is it proved by any sufficiently suitable argument to have been thrust out of this possession; and moreover the church of Jargeau (to which certainly, if any ever took place, the translation of the body was made) doubts of its right, we do not seem to ourselves to presume too much when we say more probably that only notable parts of it were translated to those two cities, especially to Jargeau; notwithstanding those very many testimonies which we have reported above: for none of them seems to have decisive force for proving the translation of the body itself.

[48] The Instrument of the opening or Visitation of the Relics in the year 1845. And these things according to the documents brought forward up to now. Our opinion is not a little confirmed from the documents which lately, when our commentary had already been carried up to this point, the Reverend Don Jean-Michel Aillaud, honorary canon and pastor or curé of Cavaillon, most obligingly submitted to us on the 10th of February 1848; among which is had a copy of the instrument of the opening, or visitation, of the relics of St. Veranus. This opening, further, was made by order of the Illustrious Paul Naudo, archbishop of Avignon, on the 19th of June 1845, in the presence of the praised J. M. Aillaud, with the rest of the clergy of Cavaillon and at the same time also the councillors of the fabric. The aim was to extract certain parts of the sacred bones, to be handed to Don Valleret (who was also present at the opening), pastor of Saint-Véran, which is a parish of the diocese of Gap (Gap), and to Don Rey, pastor of Vallis Clausa (Vaucluse), of the diocese of Avignon. Both, namely, had asked for relics of this kind for their church. The instrument is written in the French language; we subjoin here its chief parts rendered in Latin.

[49] [The reliquary or chest called St. Veranus's contained three distinct portions of relics,] "We found the reliquary, locked with a triple key, in the Cupboard or treasury of the ancient cathedral church, placed in the chapel of St. Veranus. The two little doors having been opened, the first of wood, the second of iron (both were fortified with a strong lock), two priests reverently took up the reliquary and placed it on the altar; and thereupon all who were present, prostrate on the ground, venerated the sacred relics; and, each holding a lighted candle in hand, proceeded to the sacrarium or sacristy... We found the reliquary of gilded wood, and called St. Veranus's, duly closed with a lock indeed; but it bore no trace of a seal. Opening it, we saw three distinct portions of relics.

[50] which are accurately described, "I. Some bones, of no small size, wrapped in a linen napkin: this was very white, and itself covered with a silk cloth, rather diligently sewn. But here too the seal and any authentic writing were absent. From these were taken the Relics destined for the two above-said parishes. This done, the bones, wrapped in due manner, were put back into the reliquary.

"II. Beside the aforesaid we found half of a cranium and other powdery bones; these we placed on a purificator; the cranium we wrapped in an old corporal; and all, gathered together in a silk cloth of red colour, we restored to the reliquary. It will be declared below whence these bones were translated into the reliquary.

"III. We found in the same reliquary another smaller chest, of wood, covered with paper parchment of various colour, bound round with a red ribbon or band, and fortified with a seal in four different places. The whole, by means of a red cord, was wrapped in a cloth of crimson colour (ruoge cramoisi crimson red). Between this cloth and the chest itself there were two authentic letters: the one of the Illustrious de Manzi, archbishop of Avignon, given on the twenty-ninth of September in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one; the other of the Right Reverend de la Baume, bishop of Cavaillon, given on the sixteenth of July in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five." It will not be out of place, before we go further, to set down here certain things from the letter of the Reverend Don Aillaud sent to us together with the authentic instrument. "In the year 1761," he says, "Fr. Marie de Manzi, archbishop of Avignon, formerly prelate of Cavaillon, declared that he had found in the sepulchre of the chapel in Vallis Clausa, where the body of St. Veranus had been deposited, a little leaden box containing certain bones of St. Veranus, all which he himself enclosed in a wooden chest and gave as a gift to the church of Cavaillon. The said chest still exists. I saw it and opened it in the year 1845 by mandate of the Right Reverend Naudo, the present metropolitan of Avignon." The letter of the Reverend Don Aillaud was given on the 10th of February 1848. But on the 23rd of April of the same year, namely on the feast of Easter, during the very celebration of the solemn sacrifice, when his hands were being washed, the Right Reverend Naudo was carried off by apoplexy L'Ami de la Religion, 27 April 1848, volume CXXXVII, p. 268..

[51] certain particles being taken away, "These authentic letters having been read" (so it follows in the Instrument), "which indicated both the chest and what was contained in it, we broke the seals. Here we found first duplicates of the authentic letters, then another little box, of lead, very ancient, containing powdery sacred bones, and together two paper wrappings of white colour, in which were enclosed several particles of the relics of St. Veranus, as is established both from the name of the Saint inscribed on a certain particle and from the authentic letters themselves. From this little box we extracted a bone of due size (of two centimetres) to be divided between the churches of Saint-Véran and Vallis Clausa. These things done, all was put back and sealed. After this, the Relics extracted, whether from the little box just mentioned or from the bones which we have said were wrapped in the linen napkin, were divided into three parts: the first destined for the parish of Saint-Véran of the diocese of Gap; the second for the parish of Vallis Clausa; the third for the Illustrious Archbishop of Avignon, as he himself had asked."

[52] as they were in the year 1845. From these things, then, we have described very accurately in what state the Relics which are thought to be St. Veranus's were in the year 1845. But other things are subjoined in the said instrument which serve our purpose more nearly; which therefore we append here too, again rendered from the French into Latin. "To confess candidly, no moderate wonder held us when, the reliquary of St. Veranus having been opened (namely the greater, which held the whole deposit), we saw no seal impressed on the more notable part (of which treatment was given in the first place) of the relics which lay hidden in it... Not, however, was our veneration thereby diminished, attending to the documents which exist with us from elsewhere as witnesses of the authenticity. The chief are:

[53] [The authenticity of the said relics is suggested, first, by the feast of the Translation;] "1. The feast of the translation of those relics, which is celebrated on the Sunday after the seventh day of July, unless this day itself falls on a Sunday, in which case the feast is not transferred." That the force of this argument may be perceived, we add some things from the letter of the same Reverend Don Aillaud, which indicate the origin and reason of the festivity. "St. Veranus," he says, "was born in Vallis Clausa (Vaucluse), which has celebrity from the fountain of the same name." I do not know whence the Reverend Don Aillaud drew that St. Veranus was born in Vallis Clausa. The acts expressly relate that he was born in the Gabalitan district. Whence in the manuscript life of the holy Prelate from the collection of Gallonio, volume 1, is had aptly to our purpose: "Although where or at what time he was born cannot sufficiently be defined, yet this is plainly established, that in the borders of the Arverni, in the Gabalitan district, whose province and metropolis and capital is today called Mimate, he was born of honourable parents and educated, and flourished in the times of the emperor Valentinian." Compare nos. 35 and 36. There follows in the praised Don Aillaud a compendium of the life of the holy Prelate. Then he adds: "He was buried in Vallis Clausa, in the oratory which he himself had caused to be built there in honour of the blessed Virgin, and placed in a stone sepulchre, which is still seen today, but empty; from which, namely, Pons Augier, bishop of Cavaillon from the year 1303 to the year 1320, solemnly translated the body of St. Veranus to Cavaillon into the cathedral church on the seventh of July, it is not known in precisely what year, although it is likely that this was done about the beginning of that episcopate." (The New Gallia Christiana Volume I, column 948. has the year 1311, in which, it says, "he translated with solemn pomp from Vaucluse the body of St. Veranus, bishop and patron of the church.") "The solemnity which is celebrated every year in the church of Cavaillon on the Sunday after the seventh of July, unless this day falls on a Sunday, is an authentic monument of that memorable translation, which Petrarch testifies that he saw with his own eyes, and of which he also sings in the little verses to Laura. The office on the said day is proper, by which indeed the ancient tradition is confirmed, according to which the Relics of St. Veranus are preserved in the cathedral church of Cavaillon." Thus far the Reverend Don Aillaud in his letter to us. On which we remark that Francesco Petrarca is not rightly said to testify that he saw that translation with his own eyes, if the assertion

of the Gallia Christiana keeps its truth. For he was born in the month of August in the year 1304. "Of honourable parents," he says, "Florentine by origin, of middling fortune, and (to confess the truth) verging on poverty, but driven from their fatherland, I was born at Arezzo (Arezzo) in exile, in the year of this last age (century), which begins from Christ, MCCCIIII, on a Monday at dawn on the Kalends of August." So Petrarch himself in the letter to Posterity on the origin, life, conversation and progress of his studies Works, volume I, at the beginning. Basel edition by Sebastian Henricpetri, 1581.. In the Universal Biography Biographie universelle, at the word Pétrarque. he is said to have been born in the aforesaid year, but not on the Kalends or 1st day of August, but on the 13th day before the Kalends of August, or the 20th of July; which is only an apparent discordance, since he wrote before the reformed Calendar, while in the Biography of Petrarch the reckoning is reduced to the Gregorian Calendar, according to which that Monday can be no other than the 20th of July Compare L'Art de vérifier les dates, in the Calendar, p. 119.. And this in passing. Petrarch came into Gaul at nine years old: "The first year of my life," he says Complete works which exist, as above., "and not entire, I spent at Arezzo ... the six following at Incisa, on my father's farm, fourteen miles above Florence ..., the eighth at Pisa, the ninth and following in Transalpine Gaul on the left bank of the Rhône, the city's name Avignon... There, then, on the bank of a most windy river, I spent my boyhood under my parents, and then my whole adolescence under my vanities; not, however, without great digressions." And from these things it is now plain that Petrarch could not have seen with his own eyes the Translation of St. Veranus (if this was in fact made, as the Gallia Christiana has it, in the year 1311), since he did not reach Avignon before the year 1313. In what place of his works Petrarch writes that he saw it, I have not found, although I have turned over his volumes rather diligently, in that Basel edition of Henricpetri, which is the richest of all; which, however, since it is altogether destitute of indexes, it could easily have happened that what perhaps occurs incidentally about St. Veranus escaped me. What Butler reports in the life of the Venerable César de Bus At the 15th day of April. Louvain edition, 1829., a native, as is known, of Cavaillon, and afterwards canon of its church, is not to be passed over in this place. After he has narrated that the Man of God contributed expenses for repairing the cathedral church of that city, he adds Volume V, p. 157.: "The church having been repaired and adorned, the Venerable César obtained that a solemn translation should be made of the relics of St. Veranus, the first bishop of that city" (this indeed is manifestly false; compare no. 34) "and Apostle of the region. The tomb was frequently visited by the faithful; but the body rested in a place not sufficiently becoming: and the Venerable César was moved by this reason to urge the translation." Since that venerable man was born in the year 1544 and died in the year 1607, it is easily seen that here the translation made by Bishop Augier is not in question; which for the rest the words just recited sufficiently indicate; for they report that the body was only placed in a more becoming place in the same cathedral.

[54] then, that the sepulchre of St. Veranus at Vallis Clausa is empty; "II. The Sepulchre of St. Veranus at Vallis Clausa, which has remained altogether empty, from which the church of that place lost, after the year 1789, the instrument by which the authenticity was established of the rib which, as the constant tradition of the place reports, Pons Augier alone had left when he translated the Relics to Cavaillon. And hence it is understood why the pastor and faithful of that parish approached the Right Reverend archbishop of Avignon, by whose order we have satisfied their wishes on this day.

[55] the third is drawn from the Legends of the Breviary; "III. The Legends of the office, which we still recite, make mention of the solemnity of this feast; of the veneration with which the Relics were received by the people of Cavaillon; of the moneys which the chapter spent at various times that the sacred deposit might be kept with due honour.

[56] the fourth from the testimony of the Elders "IV. A constant tradition, confirmed by the elders who still survive, testifies that, while the civil discord among us, begun in the year 1789, was raging, the reliquary of St. Veranus, and another also larger, in which were contained the relics of several other Saints, were despoiled of the silver plates with which they were covered on the outside; likewise that the arm and the statue (both of silver) of St. Veranus were carried off; in the crown of which statue was enclosed part of the cranium of the holy Prelate; but that the relics themselves, inasmuch as they did not kindle barbaric greed, were saved. Namely, what had been in the reliquaries the Reverend Don Provost, in the presence of several presbyters of the chapter, put back into their former seats, though despoiled of their ornaments, as the Reverend Don de Crousnilhon, formerly provost and our predecessor, who himself presided while the sacred Relics were restored to their original reliquaries, expressly asserts in the third lesson of the office of the Translation." And here again certain things are to be inserted from the letter of the Reverend Don Aillaud, by which it may be made plain of how great moment the said office is for proving that the Relics of St. Veranus have remained at Cavaillon up to the present day. "The Reverend Don de Crousnilhon," he says, "formerly provost of the chapter of Cavaillon, who died in the year 1838, aged almost 88 years, prepared the office of St. Veranus, which came out printed in the year 1823. To this study, undertaken after our civil discords were extinguished, he contributed first what he himself held in memory, and of which he had been at least in part a witness; then he also used the ancient office of St. Veranus, which was saved from the burning of the episcopal Archives. This new office is scarcely anything else than a recent edition of the office published about the year 1610 by Ottavio Mancini (or Manchiny, as the Gallia Christiana writes, which also mentions this office); Don de Crousnilhon changed the order a little; which is not approved by all. In this Proper it is assumed without any hesitation that the body of St. Veranus is preserved at Cavaillon... And this agrees with the constant tradition, and with the manuscript history of the bishops of Cavaillon, which extends up to the seventeenth century." The rest we add from the instrument of the opening, resuming immediately after the words cited a little above.

[57] the fifth, from the office, "V. This office of the Translation, as also the other proper offices of the church of Cavaillon, were approved by the Most Illustrious Lord de Mons, archbishop of Avignon, as is established from the letter of Don Reboul, vicar general, given to Don de Crousnilhon, at that time parish priest. And as regards the Relics enclosed in the statue and the arm of St. Veranus, that these too were saved is made out from the written testimony of the intruded (Constitutional) parish priest Roux. This testimony indeed we have not been able to recover; but Don Granon, a venerable old man, a native of Cavaillon, and attached to our parish church as vicar now for almost forty years, saw it and read it in the reliquary of St. Veranus, which he is also ready to confirm by oath." (We saw above that among the Relics found in the reliquary of St. Veranus there are reckoned half of a cranium and other powdery bones, whence it is excellently confirmed that what had been contained in the statue and arm did not perish.)

[58] the sixth, cult from time immemorial. "VI. The veneration of the faithful, the cult perpetually shown at Cavaillon to those holy remains, the custom kept from time immemorial of carrying them around several times a year in public supplications, and of exposing them to the votive prayers of the people; all which, joined with the others enumerated up to now, spur us on to ask the Right Reverend archbishop, in the name both of ourselves and of the clergy and the councillors of the fabric, to deign to confirm the said Relics with his seal and to attest their authenticity." Whether the petition was satisfied is not said: but they add in the praised Instrument that they opened besides another reliquary, different from the aforesaid, in which, according to the authentic letters, was deposited the body of St. Rademus, and relics of Saints Honoratus, Victorinus, etc.; they hoped, namely, to find here some certain title or authentic writing about the Relics of St. Veranus. But, although the search was made with all diligence, nothing was found.

§ V. Cult on various days and in different places. Supplications. Acts.

Days of cult: at Jargeau and Although in the course of our commentary mention has fallen here and there of the days on which the festivity of St. Veranus is celebrated, since, however, there are many things pertaining to this matter which it was necessary to pass over up to now, here we present under one view the days on which the memory of the holy Prelate is recalled in various churches. At Jargeau the feast of the Translation is celebrated on the 19th day of October; of the Deposition on the 10th of November, although this took place on the eleventh of the same month. On account of the feast of St. Martin, it is drawn back to its vigil. According to du Saussay, there is had at Jargeau also another solemnity, namely on the 7th of July, on which is kept the feast of the Opening and new translation of the relics of St. Veranus, and at the same time of the consecration of the church of Jargeau by Pope Innocent IV; this last indeed from a manifest hallucination, since Innocent consecrated the church of Cavaillon and not that of Jargeau. Compare no. 40.

[60] in the diocese of Orléans. In the diocese of Orléans a twofold festivity likewise occurs: the one of the Deposition, on the 12th day of November (beyond doubt again on account of the feast of St. Martin); the other of the Translation, on the 19th day of October, and the office is noted in the following manner: "The Translation of St. Veranus, bishop, semidouble. III lessons from the common of Holy Pontiffs."

[61] Lessons from the feast of the Translation. Lesson II (from the second council of Mâcon and St. Gregory of Tours, History, book VIII, chapter XXXI, book IX, chapter IV and book X, chapter XXVIII). "St. Veranus, who lived in the time of King Guntram, is called by some bishop of the Gabali, by some of Chalon, and by others of Cavaillon. That he was not of the Gabali is now beyond controversy; but after Flavius, bishop of Chalon, he is found to have subscribed the second council of Mâcon, assembled by order of King Guntram, and in the subscription he is called bishop of the Cabellici. Whatever may be the case about his see, he was among the most celebrated bishops of that time. For he was sent by Guntram as an envoy with Artemius of Sens and Agroecius of Troyes to King Clothar after the murder of Praetextatus, bishop of Rouen, and received from the laver of baptism Theodoric, son of King Childebert."

Lesson III (from the same and from the calendars of Orléans). "Veranus, moreover, on the witness of St. Gregory of Tours, was endowed with great virtues, so that very often, placing the sign of the Cross on the sick, he at once restored them to health, the Lord granting it. He was also one of the bishops who by order of the same Guntram were gathered together to examine the dissension which had arisen between the abbess of the monastery of St. Radegund at Poitiers and Chrodield, daughter of King Charibert. His body is said to have been translated into the collegiate church of Jargeau, and his memory is read inscribed in the calendars of Orléans for several centuries."

[62] He is venerated also at Paris, at Albenga Again on the 12th day of November his memory is made in the Paris breviary. At Albenga his feast is kept, on the witness of Ferrari, on the 14th day of November; but the translation is celebrated on the 8th of June. Chastelain, on the

11th of November, announces: "At Albenga, the death of St. Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon"; and at the 19th day of October: "In the diocese of Orléans, the deposition of St. Veranus, bishop." What the difference is between death and deposition let him see to it. Gioffredo notes that the holy Prelate also had a cult at Ebrodunum (Embrun), where his head and arm were preserved, which with the other relics of the saints were dispersed by the heretics Gioffredo, Storia delle Alpi Marittime, book IV at the end.. By what right Gioffredo asserts this is altogether unknown to me.

[63] and at Cavaillon. According to Le Cointe, the people of Cavaillon celebrate the feast on the Ides (the thirteenth) of November. Above we saw that the solemn memory of the Translation is recalled there on the Sunday after the seventh day of June, unless this day itself falls on a Sunday. This indeed, as appears, from the general rule established after the concordat of the year 1801, that patronal feasts are thrown back to the following Sunday.

[64] Why the Acts of St. Veranus are given at the 19th of October. And from these things it is sufficiently clear that there is a rather great diversity in the days of cult. We give the acts of St. Veranus on this day, following the Roman martyrology, which mentions the holy Prelate of Cavaillon only here, although it makes mention of other Saints of the same name in different places. It is added that, according to Baillet, the feast of the translation of Jargeau is the most celebrated of all.

[65] Various supplications also were formerly made in honour of St. Veranus. Supplications at Jargeau, "At Jargeau, on the Tuesday after Easter," says Bolland in a manuscript note, "there is a certain supplication in his honour. Likewise to a certain chapel of his supplications are made from various villages to obtain rain. And on the Sunday after Pentecost the supplications of various villages come together to another place. He is venerated also in the church of Nevers." From which it is sufficiently declared in how great veneration our Saint was in these tracts.

[66] and in the diocese of Nevers As regards the cult at Nevers, this is specially declared by Jacques Severt in the historical Chronology of the archbishopric of Lyons Page 57.. "We have received," he says, "the answer of our inquiry concerning the life of St. Veranus, formerly bishop of the Gabali below Avignon, by a faithful little letter, by the diligence and search of Master Guillaume Rapine de Sainte-Marie (sent on the 2nd of November 1618 and received on the last day), candidate of laws and criminal Assessor in the court of Nevers, who for our sake set out thence to the town of Saint-Véran of the diocese of Nevers, distant twelve double miles from that episcopal city, where he lately excerpted the whole history, which he had long before read through there in the year 1607, when the city of the people of Nevers had then of set purpose made a devout journey, together with the clergy and the cross and an array of mourning garments, on account of the plague then raging in the city, and to be repelled by divine gift; which instantly was in a wonderful manner extinguished, a public vow having been celebrated, by the force of the prayers offered to God through the intercession of St. Veranus." After this Severt treats of the pall of St. Veranus, which, divinely lifted into the air, showed the way to the citizens of Cavaillon, who, when the holy Prelate had died, hesitated in what place his body should be buried, as is described at length in the acts. "For the rest," he adds, "hence a history of this kind was in later time painted in the Chapel of the Castle of Saint-Véran, namely in the year 1519, by the care and work of M. André Verjus, president in the court of the Parliament of Paris (a native of Mâcon), and prior Curé (they say) of the same place of Saint-Véran. Which whole ornament was at length miserably delivered to the flames by the Calvinist heretics in the year 1576. The Chapel, however, the Reverend Eustache Du Lys, today Prelate of Nevers, greatly wishes to restore." Thus Severt; to which we add from the geographical dictionary of La Martinière: "Saint Verain, in Latin St. Veranus (Castrum S. Verani), a little town of France, in the Nivernais tract, of the diocese of Auxerre... Its ancient name is unknown. It began to be called after St. Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, since his body, while it was being translated from Cavaillon to Jargeau on the Loire, rested in that place for some time. Hence also had its origin the priory of St. Veranus, now a parish dependent on the abbey of St. Germain of Auxerre... Formerly pilgrims flocked to this church. Thither also, in calamitous times, the city of Nevers used to institute a supplication, although situated ten leagues and more from there." Today the church of Saint-Véran is a succursal Almanach du clergé de France..

[67] The Acts of St. Veranus. It remains that we say certain things about the acts of St. Veranus. Our Philippe Labbe, first of all, as it seems, in the library of manuscript books Volume II, p. 690, Paris, 1657. committed those acts to print under the title: The Life of St. Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, which indeed is of an uncertain author, as he notes in the syllabus at the beginning of volume II; but which he testifies that he copied from a transcript of the most reverend and most learned bishop of Montpellier. The manner of writing betrays a grave and laborious man, and one of some literature and learning. "We regret," says Le Cointe at the year 562, no. 48 Annales Ecclesiastici Francorum, volume II, p. 20., "that there have not come into our hands the parchments in which were had the things gloriously done by him in his pontificate, described separately by the author of the life, who, although he had been rather prolix before, made scarcely a word about his prelacy, and passed from the beginning of the pontificate at once to his death in this context: 'Having received the dignity of bishop,' he says, 'after his usual manner he restored very many sick persons, as he had been accustomed to do before, to their former health, a praiseworthy physician through the Lord. And he cast out demons from possessed bodies by assiduity of prayer. Before the supernal majesty, to which all things are possible, it is held entirely and openly that we have written nothing superfluous in this little work, nothing most false, nor uncertain; but lest too great prolixity should become a weariness to the hearers, the very many signs which he did in his episcopate, which we have described in other parchments, we have withdrawn from this work; but over these few which we have mentioned above, I invoke God as witness that all were done as truly as they are read described here. Now, therefore, we have taken care faithfully to make known his most holy death by letters to posterity.'" And these things from Le Cointe. There will certainly be no lover of antiquity who will not regret with him that those parchments have not been transmitted to us. The more so because from the cited words it appears that the facts reported by the writer were not heaped together in the acts rashly and without selection. After so solemn a protestation, the sincerity of the man in narrating is placed beyond all suspicion. Nevertheless, he has some things which in our times will not easily obtain credit; such as are the things which the writer relates about those monstrous and hideous dragons infesting the cities of Cavaillon and Albenga. It is certain moreover that the author goes astray in what he writes about St. Honoratus of Albenga, as if he had been a contemporary of our Veranus; if, however, his words, as we have said, are not referred to the bishop of Milan of the same name. For the rest, the style is a little neater than is usual in legends of this kind; and the division of the kingdom of the Franks among the four sons of Clotaire is accurately indicated, whence a chronological note of great moment for the life of the holy Prelate is drawn. Let us note here in passing that these same acts are attributed to St. Florentinus of Orange; but wrongly, since they are proper to St. Veranus. See on St. Florentinus, Another manuscript Life from Rooklooster; in this volume at the 17th of October.

[68] Among the Bollandian manuscripts there exists this same life from the manuscript of Rubea Vallis (Rouge Cloître, near Brussels). It differs little from the text of Labbe. The variant readings and the rest, where it shall seem worth while, you will find indicated in our Annotations.

[69] a third from the collection of Gallonio. Finally we have a third Life of St. Veranus, likewise in manuscript, copied at Rome from the collection of Gallonio, volume I. Namely, in the year 1661, on the VIIth day of January, Frs. Henschen and Papebroch, our predecessors, had arrived in the City; and on the XXIInd of the same month Henschen wrote thus to Bolland: "At the Fathers of the Oratory we are so far toiling happily in the manuscript books of Fr. Gallonio, and already about XX lives have been copied there from two books, and there are very many." From these it will become known what the aforesaid collection of Gallonio is. For the rest, that life is of more recent age. The author begins in this manner: "Many have written the life of blessed Veranus: but most of them preferred to publish a panegyric rather than to weave a history. We, following the order of events, will touch as briefly as can be done on whatever we have been able to have ascertained about him from the most certain authors." Yet it is far from being the case that all the things which he relates are clear; nay, in some he wanders altogether from the truth, as will be seen in the Annotations, where we shall recite very many things from this writing. Since he narrates the death of the blessed Prelate in another manner than the others, and moreover subjoins many things which followed after his death, and in particular reckons up some miracles worked at his tomb at Cavaillon, we shall give this part entire by way of an Appendix, with critical notes added where the matter requires.

THE LIFE OF ST. VERANUS, BISHOP OF CAVAILLON.

"I copied it from the Transcript of the Most Reverend and Most Learned Bishop of Montpellier." So our Labbe in the Nova Bibliotheca Manuscriptorum librorum, volume II, p. 690 and following, from which we have taken the life and the title.

Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, confessor in Gaul. (S.)

BHL Number: 8536

FROM LABBE.

PROLOGUE.

Why the author undertook to write the Life of St. Veranus The glorious solemnity ^a of the most blessed Veranus expresses both the vigour of his name and the grace of great salvation, because, while Veranus overcame the various dangers of this life, by his merits he conquered all worldly impediments. For as on the apostolic foundation of holy ^b church Peter was established by Christ an unconquerable founder, a firm rock; so Veranus is made among the nations a confessor of the Eternal triumpher, who, if the sword of the persecutors did not touch him, did not lose the dignity of martyrdom.

HERE BEGINS ^c THE LIFE.

[2] undertook to write. After the vengeance of crimes which was taken by the Lord in the slaughter of the Gauls ^d, the heavens distilled mercy, when they brought forth Veranus as a pontiff for the world. Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his holy place, which, by the worthy merits of the Saints, snatches us from the anger of his indignation. We have judged it, therefore, worthy and praiseworthy that we should record in letters on earth the life of the most blessed Veranus, who by his merits ascended into heaven.

[3] The birth of the holy Prelate. He is made a Cleric. The most blessed ^e Veranus, then, Gallic by nation, was a citizen of the Gabali ^f: nourished by the care of his parents not far from that territory; who, it was established, were neither of the least nor of the most exalted in stock. Whose adolescence was so instituted in good morals that he remained in the fear of God up to the end of his life. It happened, then, that he sought, for the sake of devotion, the solemn feast of the most blessed Privatus the martyr ^g, which is venerated and observed every year in the territory of the Gabali, where he spent the whole night sleepless, nor would he depart from that place where he had stationed himself to keep the vigils: in which station he stood no less in mind than in body. Finally

when morning had now come, he reverently went to meet the bishop of that place, and asked of him that, his hair being cut, he might be admitted into the number of the clerics, so that whatever the Lord had conceived in the mind of the child he might show more perfectly in religion as well. When the bishop saw that he sought this with the greatest devotion, his locks being cut, he was allotted to the habit of the clerics, and stayed there for some days.

[4] He drives away a Dragon troublesome to the people of Cavaillon. The above-said man of God, then, going forth thence, came with the greatest speed into the district whose name is Cavellicum ^h. Now that people of Cavaillon had for very many years been oppressed by a most foul serpent, which is commonly called a dragon, which had now for many days been staying in the fountain which is called the Sorgue ⁱ. Hearing this, the man of God, moved with excessive grief and compassion, began his journey to the above-said fountain; and when the violent dragon saw the saint of God coming to it, timid with excessive terror it began to cast flame from its mouth. Then the man of God, prone on the ground, prayed devoutly with mouth and heart. And when he had begun to rise from prayer, the man said to the dragon: "I adjure you, dragon, by Jesus Christ, son of the eternal King, that you may not be able to harm me, nor stay here any longer." At this voice of the blessed Man the most hideous dragon fell to the ground as if dead. And the man of the Lord Veranus put the chain which he carried with him on its neck, and dragged it, chained, as if dead, as far as the mountain Debriesonus. Then blessed Veranus took the chain from his hand, and, the sign of the Cross being made, the serpent rose up, and the man of God said to it: "I adjure you by him who lives for ever, that as today you have not been harmed by me, so from this hour and thenceforth you harm no one."

[5] He built a cell in honour of the B. V. Mary. Then the dragon began to fly and was seen by all as far as the summit of the mountain, and afterwards never appeared. The holy confessor Veranus, then, returning to the fountain, cut the hardest rocks there with his own hand, and made a way by which men might walk, and there on his own estate built a little cell in honour of blessed Mary, where he stayed with his colleague for some days ^k.

[6] Making for Rome, he frees many from the demon in the city of Embrun. From devotion of prayer he determined to make for the city of Rome. Taking up, then, the course of that journey, he overcame the roughness of the way or the diversity of reason by the virtue of faith and the holiness of merit. And when he had come to the city of Embrun ^l, he there nobly made public the grace of almighty God which he had merited: for God showed through him, the peoples looking on, so great a power of prayer that he freed very many there from demoniacal passions; three, however, in the presence of the bishops ^m, suspending them from the ground, by the power of holiness he so bound their hands, by the very sign of the Cross laid upon them, without any visible bonds, that their heels did not touch the ground, and they hung so long in the air until those who had been made captive by diabolical snare were freed by his intercession.

[7] [He restores the right hand of a robber, which had stiffened while he was preparing to strike the holy man with a sword.] It happened also in the very course of the journey, when he was passing places friendly to robbers, that he suffered their attack: for when the greatest part of the mountain which adjoins Brienconum ⁿ had now almost been overcome, among the dark or secret places of the woods those robbers met the same servant of God: and when they attacked him with drawn swords, their impiety ordered that, his garments laid aside, he should put forth his head, his neck stretched out, to be cut off with the sword; which the man of God, intrepid and full of Divine power, desired; he asked, however, that they would grant him a little space for prayer. And when the prayer was completed, the blow of the striker vanished, and the right hand hung suspended in the air. And when the robbers saw that this was done through the power of God and the merit of the holy Man, prostrate and clinging to his footsteps they asked that his right hand might be restored to the robber. Then the blessed Confessor of Christ, most pious as he was, did not delay to grant what was asked, and, that he might fulfil the Evangelical precepts by loving his enemies, he immediately restored the disabled hand and recalled it to its former vigour. In which place, however, so great a din, as of a people coming, seemed suddenly to have sounded, that the robbers, disturbed, sought again by flight the hiding-places of the woods.

[8] Having entered Rome, From here, through all Italy, he came as far as the city of Rome without any obstacle of adversity or disturbance of mind, aided by divine help. And when he had come to the Tiber, about the fortieth milestone from the city of Rome, he determined to go on foot. Then he enjoined this on himself and all his companions, and so, having obtained his desire, he came as far as the most holy confession of St. Peter the apostle: where, when as a pious suppliant he had arrived with devout expectation, he honourably greeted the guardian of the confession, and with the greatest humility asked that he would deign to open to him the vestibule of the sepulchre: which the latter, ignorant of his holiness, said could not be done, saying that there were many powerful persons at whose request he would grant only space for praying: and the guardian, as if in haste, after such an answer returned to his little cell.

[9] he opens the barriers of the Confession of St. Peter by kissing them. But the blessed confessor Veranus, bending his knees before the very barriers of the confession, sought the ground to pray, and there fulfilled every vow and the desire of his heart with intent prayer; and rising from prayer, and, kindled with excessive ardour of faith, kissing the enclosures of the monument, that chained place was so opened, its fastenings loosed, that it was believed that the blessed martyr and supreme Apostle had met him who had prayed there, the entrances being unlocked. When the guardian of that venerable place heard this, he ran in haste to ask pardon, and, lying prostrate at the footsteps of St. Veranus, he asked indulgence: which the most pious man of the Lord Veranus granted without delay, and, standing wholly in charity, did not refuse the pardon which he asked.

[10] Most honourably received by the Pope, he stays several years in the City. And when the Roman pontiff had heard both of the benefit of the holy Apostle and of the merit of the newcomer, he received him with the greatest affection in all things, and the reverend Pope, overcome by love of his immense holiness, believed that he should be retained. Which in truth he did, and in some years, during which he lived in the Roman city, he shone with no small miracles, which if any of the studious should wish to write one by one, I think the day would fail him before his tongue ^o could prevail to explain anything.

[11] Seeking Gaul again, he works wonders at Ravenna A long space of time, then, having intervened, a suggestion having been made to the emperor by the most blessed Pope, he sought again [p] the already-mentioned Gallic fatherland; to whom, by the bishops of Italy and through all Gaul, at the command of the Pope, reception was honourably given; but when, his fame growing, he had arrived at the most famous city of Ravenna, those who were vexed there began to confess him, and by their report the peoples began to recognize the unexpected coming of the servant of God, and to present a multitude of sick persons, that they might merit to see the works of Christ through St. Veranus, namely upon the recovery of the sick: which in truth both their faith obtained, and the divine bounty granted the power of miracles through his servant.

[12] and at Milan, Whence, through the several cities, conveyances being provided with charity by the holy bishops, he came as far as Milan, where he was detained by the festivity of St. Lawrence the martyr; for there Galla Placidia, once wife of the emperor Zeno (rather Constantius) [q], built in honour of the same martyr a wonderful house, which in its beauty surpasses almost all the buildings of Italy [r]. There God showed to his faithful very many great miracles of his virtues through his most precious confessor Veranus. For on that very day he freed twelve vexed persons by his prayer, the Lord helping, from the bond of their accustomed passion. Likewise in the same city of Milan, one day, by the force of his prayers, he restored sight to the blind nephew of a certain most noble prince. Also the son, named Resterarius, of a certain exalted man by the name of Constantine, in that very city, who had lately died, he strove to rouse from the slumber of death as one sleeping from sleep. They carried his little body, rigid as it was, before his presence. And the man of God Veranus so applied himself to prayer that, the name of God being invoked, he raised him up before many crowds standing by.

[13] as also at Albenga, Then, at the request of the most holy man Honoratus, bishop of that city [s], he set out and came to the city whose name is Albinganum [t]; there too, Christ helping, he showed very many signs of virtues, not only to the faithful, but also to the gentiles. For when eight months had already been completed in which rain was denied to that land, by the intercession of the prayer of St. Veranus there was an outpouring of great rains, so that by the gift of God the land, which had dried up, afflicted by drought, running with water, recovered the vigour of the field, and furnished the accustomed nourishment of things. Which benefit, however, not M ... [u] was granted further than two miles on every side; which the divine power furnished in so short a space of land for this reason, that it might provoke the gentile people standing round to belief.

[14] where also, prayer being poured out to God, he overthrows the idols; When at length the gentiles had seen the rain granted to the Christians and faithful, coming eagerly to the most blessed Veranus, they began to petition him under a certain pledge, promising that if through his prayer the filthy idols which they worshipped were dissolved into dust, they would not delay at once to believe the God whom he worshipped. Which promise the friend of God received with great eagerness. For the bearer of salvation had come to the very dwellings of the pagans. Then, in the sight of the people in expectation, St. Veranus lay prone in prayer, asking that the supernal majesty would not deny the sign asked by the unbelievers: but that all the statues of the idols might be so dissolved that, reduced to dust, they should not appear further. And as soon as he had fulfilled the prayer, the effect of his petition appeared: for at once fire descended from heaven, which reduced to dust the monstrosities of all the images and the statues of the idols. After this the gentiles asked again that he would obtain rain for them by his prayers, as he had done for Albinganum; and the divine compassion granted through its most blessed servant Veranus what was asked. Which miracle, although the supernal kindness quickly furnished it, yet in them unbelief and blindness still persisted, because, while they delayed to fulfil what they had pledged, they were by no means willing to believe.

[15] he puts to flight a dragon worshipped in place of a deity; Then they began to affirm that they held for God a dragon of wonderful size, by whose help fertility came to them and the expected safety of their bodies followed; to which every year they sacrificed a boy not yet deluded by the pollution of carnal vice, and a girl of uncorrupted virginity [v]: bulls also or heifers they likewise slaughtered every year, so that they might more easily remain safe from it in their places. Whence they said that if by any condition it were put to flight, they would not afterwards delay to believe the living and true God, whom the blessed confessor Veranus worshipped. Which the man of God did not spurn, but, kindled by divine ardour of faith instead of fear, he did not hesitate to go to the place where the dragon itself was said to dwell in the caverns of the rocks, that he might satisfy the unbelievers,

and fulfil the wishes of all. Trusting, then, in the help of the Cross, with prayer, his knees bent, bringing his face near the earth, he prayed with a louder voice, saying: "Supreme God of heaven and earth and ruler of all, who art the maker of creatures visible and invisible and the disposer of the elements, who livest and reignest in Trinity, be present to the prayers of thy servant Veranus, and, being entreated, show to these thy servants that thou art the true and living God to be worshipped in Trinity, lest through long error the fear of diabolical pride hold all these souls which are due to thy kingdom, and exclude them from the faith of truth: but by the command of thy majesty either let this slippery dragon perish here, or, wherever it shall flee, let it in no way approach the dwellings of men."

[16] and baptizes the people. This prayer being finished, the horrible monster and immense dragon, slipping away from the city itself and making for the bed of the neighbouring river, was seen to have gone as far as the sea, nor did it further appear anywhere, driven away, which the divine power put to flight through blessed Veranus. This done, the whole crowd of the unbelievers, converted, praised the true and living God with a great voice in manifold ways, and through him they merited to receive the holy purification of baptism. So, the cloud of ancient unbelief being wiped away, they merited the new protection of a shining light.

[17] Having returned into Gaul, he raises a dead girl. Returning hence, then, to Gaul, when, the Alps having been crossed, he had drawn near to a certain village which was next to the road, he turned aside for the sake of prayer, as is mostly done. And when he wished first to enter the church there, he heard the voices of people lamenting. Then, having asked his companions what this was, he learned that a certain girl had died. Whence, moved with piety and mercy, he said: "Let us go, brothers, to visit the mourners: and if we can bestow any consolation on them, let us confer it charitably." And at that word, prayer having been made, he hastened his step. And before he entered the lodging where the dead body was had, counsel being declared, he ordered those who were present with him to pray. When, then, he had risen from the prayer, taking the hand of the lifeless girl, he called her three times by her own name with a louder voice, and at once, the Lord helping, snatched from the captivity of death, she answered, and, restored to life, filled the weeping of her parents with an immense abundance of joy.

[18] Two blind men obtain sight, a dumb man speech. The Alps being crossed, then, he came, led by divine grace, to the desired Gaul; and when he had arrived at the basilica of St. Thyrsus the martyr [x], situated in the Cassian district [y], two blind men, inhabitants of the same village, at once presented themselves to his sight there, whom the servant of God Veranus, according to the multitude of his prayers, the largesse of the divine indulgence being conferred in the sight of those very persons who were running up, freed from the darkness of perpetual death, light being bestowed: then to the house of a certain respectable man by the name of Tharsicius, by whose prayer he had been asked ... [z] of the devil ... he rescued those deprived, and redeemed them by the obtaining of his prayers. A certain ... also, from the very beginning of birth ..., they faithfully offered to him in the same place: in whose mouth he placed his finger with prayer, and opened the passage of speaking, so that first of all he answered "Alleluia" to the spiritual Physician. He himself afterwards also used the common speech of all, magnifying God through all things. By whose gift, through the prayers of his holy servant Veranus, he had come to say the things which he wished, and, the natural silence being removed, he rejoiced in the speech granted him. Which cause made faith grow so greatly in the peoples that they cried out with unceasing voice due thanks to God the great King and worthy praises.

[19] He is summoned by Sigebert, king of Austrasia. In these days in which blessed Veranus, the renowned confessor, returned into Gaul, their king named Clotaire [aa] being now dead, his sons were ruling the kingdom of the Franks in four parts. For the first of these, Charibert, had his seat at Paris: the second, Guntram, presided over the most noble city of Orléans: the third, Chilperic, at Soissons in his father's place: and the fourth, Sigebert, likewise reigned at the city of Metz. He, then, the fame having been learned from the people reporting virtues of this kind, letters having been venerably sent, summoned the saint of God Veranus to himself. And he, when he saw himself summoned to the prince for the Lord's cause, studied to fulfil what the latter most gladly asked. With whom, frequenting him for a long time, he shone with no slight virtues and miracles; he also remained a diligent intercessor for the affliction of the wretched.

[20] By a miracle he frees a guilty man from the punishment of burning. When the fury of the king [bb] had risen sudden and intolerable against a certain one of his fellow soldiers, he ordered him to be burned, a fire being set beneath. And when for this, according to the command of the royal power, the cappa [cc] had been set alight, the guilty man himself being now near the flame, the pious confessor Veranus, wearied with the greatest running and great haste, came to where the matter was being done, and, plunging himself between the flames and him who was being subjected to the flame, mindful of God, opposed the staff which he carried in his hand to the raging fire, and extinguished all the violence of the furious flame. And when the king had learned this with the greatest speed of a messenger, he ordered him to be released whom he had ordered to be burned like dry wood.

[21] By the sign of the Cross he opens a prison. Finally, the said prince, while he was travelling through the several cities in his accustomed manner with blessed Veranus, came to the city of Cavillo, where the man of the Lord, with his accustomed piety, was continually solicitous to fulfil the Divine commands; namely, not unmindful of the precept of the Evangelical authority, he did not delay to go to visit and comfort those who were held in chains. But when the wary guards would not open the prison, St. Veranus, confidently making the sign of the Cross with prayer, suddenly broke all the barriers and defences of the prison, and fulfilled the ministry which he was showing to the afflicted and troubled. And when this had been quickly spread abroad to the prince, as it had been done, by the frequent report of messengers, the love of his heart grew continually greatest towards that man of God, and very great veneration of honour. Nor undeservedly did human favour cherish him to whom the divine had been granted.

[22] He is made bishop of Cavaillon. While, then, his deeds were shining with these and so great mysteries of virtues by Divine help, it happened by the chance of operation that the Prelate of the said city of Cavaillon, his predecessor, overtaken by the lot of human frailty, at the same time, called by the Lord from the tabernacle of the body, departed from this world. For the time had now come that St. Veranus should becomingly succeed him in the dignity of the pontificate; who, confidently elected by the judgment of the king, and eagerly sought by the consent of the people, is known also to have been consecrated by heavenly command.

[23] His life in the episcopate is briefly touched on. Thenceforth, then, having obtained the priestly mitre there, how holily, how religiously he lived, by zeal of love and perfect charity no less than by eminence, standing for many circles of years in a blessedness to be preferred. For, having received the dignity of bishop, after his usual manner he restored very many sick persons, as he had been accustomed to do before, to their former health, a praiseworthy Physician through the Lord. And he cast out demons from possessed bodies by assiduity of prayer. Before the supernal majesty, to which all things are possible, it is held entirely and openly that we have written nothing superfluous in this little work, nothing most false, nor uncertain; but lest too great prolixity should become a weariness to the hearers, the very many signs which he did in his episcopate, which we have mentioned above, I invoke God as witness, that all were done as truly as they are read described here.

[24] His holy passing to the Lord. Now, therefore, we have taken care faithfully to make known his most holy death by letters to posterity. The holy confessor of the Lord Veranus assiduously besought the Lord in his prayers that he would make known to him his end: and, having received an answer from him, he knew that the dissolution of his body was approaching. Knowing this, he orders the neighbouring bishops and his disciples to come to him, that he might preach to them what he had heard from the Lord. Hearing this, the neighbouring bishops and fellow disciples came together, many and more, with excessive grief, to visit the man of God in his sickness, weeping, and with contrite mind stood around him and said to him: "Father, where do you have the burial of your body predestined?" To this the man of God Veranus answered: "Brothers, it rests not in my ordering, but in the predestination of God." After this utterance he sent forth his spirit, beloved of God, to heaven on the eleventh day of the month of November.

[25] The body, washed, is placed on a bier; By religious men, then, who had flocked to his passing, his most holy body was washed with waters, as is the custom; and placing it, as was fitting, with excessive reverence on a bier, they covered it with the veil of a precious pall. And spending that night wakeful, they gave their attention to psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles. And when the dawn was now putting an end to that night, and the sun was illumining the earth with its desirable light, the hearts of the bishops and fellow disciples, and of those who had come together to his obsequies, were held bound not only by sadness for the absence of so great a man: but there was also no small doubt in them, because they did not know in what place the body of the Just one should be laid. At length the kindly Lord, thinking it worthy to wipe away the cloud of doubt from their minds, so roused their spirits that they put their shoulders under the bier; but in what direction the journey should be taken they by no means knew.

[26] [The pall being divinely lifted up and going before, the funeral is carried along.] Then the divine compassion granted to its faithful who were present there a wonderful miracle, and almost unheard of in all ages. For the pall which covered the most holy body, suddenly, all seeing it, lifting itself into the air, always went before them like a guide of the journey, until they came to the above-written fountain of the Sorgue, which is drawn off into a very great river. And when they had come there, not only could they by no means find a ford, but also a vessel was lacking, nor did a boatman appear there either, who might carry them over by boat to the further bank [dd]. Wonderful to say, by the divine nod that great fountain suddenly stood still until all crossed over with dry footsteps. These are thy works, eternal God: these are thy great deeds, because thy servant Veranus is by thy grace what he is. For what would he be if he were not from thee? But thou who gavest that he should be such from thee, hast brought it about that thy grace in him should not be void, not only that it should profit him, but also that through him thou, having mercy, shouldst most abundantly succour others. For thou art powerful, Lord, to work these things, who madest the Hebrew people cross the red sea with dry footstep, and gavest them the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night as guide of the journey [ee].

[27] [He is buried at the fountain of the Sorgue, in the oratory which he had formerly built.] Exhilarated, then, with excessive joy for all these things, priest and people came at length to the estate of the Blessed man, where he himself, while he was still living in the body, built a little cell in honour of the Blessed ever-Virgin Mary. There, then, with weeping and excessive grief, they committed his most sacred body to burial with hymns and psalms on the day before the Ides of November [ff].

[28] The author calls all to spiritual joy. But while they are saddened with natural grief for so great a pastor, let us all rejoice in common, to whom

this Saint, made a mirror in the world, has left most holy examples. Let the adorned pontiff triumph with spiritual dancing, let the priests shining with the stole of justice exult, let the levites rejoice in the fortitude of the works of the Blessed and, girded with the beauty of virtue, let the whole ecclesiastical order re-echo pious songs to almighty God. Let the lay crowd with the female sex, young men and maidens, provoke one another in turn; old with younger, let us all say with suppliant prayer:

[29] He invokes St. Veranus "Holy Veranus, pious confessor, succour us wretches through the grace of Christ, that we who in this world are strangers and pilgrims may abstain from carnal desires, so that we may come to the fatherland of the heavenly paradise, where God the Father together with the Son and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns."

[30] and exhorts others to invoke him likewise. In that same place of his rest, up to today, if the faith of those who ask demands it, the man of God does not cease to bestow his benefits. You therefore, most beloved Brothers, I admonish and likewise exhort with me, that we entreat with prayers poured out the same confessor of Christ, the most blessed prelate Veranus, that, the circle of the year having revolved, he may faithfully by his intercession call us back to the feasts of his solemnity, where now the awaited unanimity has joined our devotion. May kindly Veranus soften the fury of the Lord, to whom the Lord granted among the Apostles a principal grace of perfection, who stood forth a heavenly herald and chief of the warriors of God, and now rejoicing reigns for ever with Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Gallonio has these things more fully in this manner: "Nor would the pontiff ever have suffered him to be torn away from himself, had not a certain grave cause of the whole Christian commonwealth, the authority also of the Roman emperor being interposed, called him back to his fatherland. Nor indeed did the supreme pontiff let him go away from him empty; nay, he most kindly conferred on him some part of the most august sign of the Cross, and two teeth from the most sacred skull of St. Peter, and not a few other relics of the Saints. Enriched with which so illustrious and so notable gifts, he prepares his return into Gaul. And first indeed he sought Venice, that he might visit certain sacred places there for the sake of religion; then Ravenna." Here many things indeed are added over and above our acts, but needing proof.

q. "Galla Placidia, once wife of the emperor Zeno." It is a hallucination. Galla Placidia met her last day in the year 450. Zeno was proclaimed emperor in the month of February of the year 474, and became sole master of affairs in the following month of November, namely when his son Zeno the younger was dead. For the rest, Galla Placidia, daughter of Theodosius the Great by his second marriage, was first married to Athaulf; then to count Constantius (whom on account of his illustrious deeds Honorius took into the partnership of the western empire), from whom she bore Valentinian, successor of the aforesaid Honorius. Rightly, therefore, was the name of Constantius inserted between brackets, whether by Labbe or by a Copyist I do not know.

r. I have found no one else who attributes this structure to Galla Placidia. Hence also nothing about these things in the manuscript life from the collection of Gallonio. That a magnificent church dedicated to St. Lawrence existed at Milan from the most ancient age is a matter placed beyond all controversy. Arnulf, treating of the fire which fell in the year 1071, writes these words [Historia Mediolanensis, book III, chapter XXII. In Muratori, Rerum Italicarum scriptores, volume IV, part I, p. 34.]: "Saint Lawrence himself, formerly tortured by the burning of his living flesh, again allowed himself to be burned by the flames, whose

church was so very beautiful above all that it seems difficult to relate." Then, after the description of the ornaments, he exclaims thus: "O temple, to which there is none like in the world." It is also commonly assumed (Alciato, however, opposing it) that in the place where the shrine of Lawrence is, there was formerly the temple of Hercules. "Concerning the time," says Grazioli De praeclaris Mediolani aedificiis, p. 67. Milan edition, 1735., "at which it passed from the religion of Hercules to that of St. Lawrence, Puricelli (life of St. Lawrence, chapter 26, no. 26) suspects that it was expiated by Christian rite up to the time of Ausonius" (he departed from life, aged almost a century, in the year 394). "Let this conjecture be his. Yet he believes the same more probably of the age of the elder Theodosius. These things are doubtful. It is certain that before St. Eusebius was chosen bishop of Milan" (he was chosen in the year 451, from Puricelli, Dissertatio Nazariana, chapter 64, no. 6) "it was dedicated to St. Lawrence: for in his shrine Gregory of Tours, On the glory of the martyrs, narrates that that prodigy happened of the crystal chalice broken by the same Eusebius, then a Deacon, and, prayers being poured out to St. Lawrence, restored entire. Whose name of Eusebius, although Gregory keeps silent about it, we know nevertheless to be that, from the Ambrosian Breviary, where on the 12th of August, about Eusebius, it is easy to read that very history. On the occasion of this prodigy, we have learned from the same Gregory in these words that that chalice remained hanging in the Basilica, above the altar: 'Then the pontiff of the place, the chalice being suspended over the altar from then on, instituted that the feast be celebrated most devoutly every year thereafter.'" From these things this one thing is made out, that chronology does not prevent the shrine of St. Lawrence being ascribed to Galla Placidia. But it is far from being the case that proof is had thence that it was in fact built by her.

s. What city, in the mind of the author, "that city" is, is not altogether clear. Milan, of which he has just spoken? Or Albenga, to which he writes that St. Veranus set out? Of the former Honoratus was bishop: of the latter no Prelate of that name occurs. Compare the Preliminary Commentary, no. 46. The manuscript Life from Gallonio expressly ascribes Honoratus to the church of Albenga. "Having departed from Milan," it says, "he came to Albenga, received most honourably by Honoratus, bishop of that place, with the highest zeal and goodwill also of the people of Albenga," etc. Which indeed is a solemn hallucination.

t. Albingaunum, Albigaunum, in the vernacular Albenga, a city of maritime Liguria, a bishopric under the archbishop of Genoa. Distant from there 60 miles. Baudrand in the Lexicon Geographicum.

u. Some letters or words are lacking in Labbe, easily to be supplied from our Rooklooster manuscript, where it reads thus: "Which benefit, however, was granted meanwhile not further than two miles on every side."

v. That these things obtained in that tract of Italy in the fifth century, I doubt whether any sensible person is to be found who would believe. They are recited nevertheless in Gallonio, the girl, however, being omitted.

x. Probably St. Thyrsus is here in question, whom the Roman Martyrology mentions on the 24th of September: "At Augustodunum (Autun), the birthday of the holy Martyrs Andochius the presbyter, Thyrsus the deacon, and Felix, who, sent from the East by blessed Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, to teach Gaul, there most harshly beaten with scourges, and hung the whole day with their hands bound behind them, and put into the fire but not burned, at last had their necks struck with bars, and so were most gloriously crowned." We have given their Acts at the aforesaid day.

y. Nowhere have I found mention of the Cassian District. Perhaps a little town on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea is pointed to, not far distant from Marseilles, by the name of Cassis See Expilly, Dictionnaire Géographique des Gaules et de la France.. In the manuscript Life from Gallonio is had: "Having set out from Albenga, when he was pursuing his journey into Gaul, and, the Alps being now overcome, had entered a certain municipality in the Cassian district... There existed at that time not far from that place a church consecrated in the name of blessed Thyrsus," etc.

z. A very corrupt passage, nor to be emended from our Rooklooster manuscript, which is mutilated here: for it passes from the word "asked" to the words "in whose mouth his finger," etc. The manuscript Life from the collection of Gallonio has thus: "To two blind men brought to him he restored sight, and this also he accomplished, that a certain man dumb from earliest infancy, who had fled to him for refuge, suddenly obtained the faculty of speaking by divine power. Likewise not a few sick persons and those agitated by the furies of demons he sent away from him sound and safe."

aa. Clotaire I is in question, who alone held the principate of the Franks for more than two years, from the year 558 to the year 561 L'Art de vérifier les dates, p. 524.. "His four sons," says our Petau Rationarium temporum, part I, book VII, chapter VI., "obtained by lot the empire of the Franks distributed into as many parts. To Charibert fell the kingdom of Childebert, and the seat of Lutetia of the Parisii: to Guntram the kingdom of Chlodomer, whose seat was at Orléans; to Chilperic the kingdom of Clothar his father, the seat at Soissons; to Sigebert passed the kingdom of Theodoric, whose capital was Reims." Which indeed agree exactly with the things which the author of the Life of St. Veranus subjoins. Nor does it stand in the way that the latter fixed the chief seat of the kingdom at Metz, the former at Reims: both cities belonged to Sigebert. For the rest, most say that Metz was the capital of the kingdom.

bb. In this place the manuscript Life from Gallonio departs much from our acts. After the words recited above at letter z, it proceeds in this manner: "There ruled in that region a certain petty king, by whom Veranus was received very kindly. He then had condemned to death a certain muleteer for some grave crime; and when he was just about to be punished by the burning of his body, the holy Man, pitying his lot, the staff which he carried being thrown into the fire, both suddenly extinguished the burning and freed the wretched man. Therefore thereafter that petty king embraced Veranus with such zeal and goodwill that he escorted him most honourably as far as the city of Cavaillon." Whence the author fished out this petty king there is no leisure to investigate. For the rest, everything persuades that the Acts are to be stood by here

cc. That is, a garment, or tunic.

It will help to have added here some things from Petrarch, which serve for a fuller knowledge of that place. "Seeking," he says, "some by-way as it were a harbour, I found a very small Valley, but solitary and pleasant, which is called Clausa, fifteen miles distant from Avignon, where the Sorgue, king of all fountains, rises: captured by the sweetness of the place, I transferred my little books and myself thither ... here the very face of the places suggested to me that I should undertake the Bucolic Poem, a woodland work, and two books of the solitary life, to Philip, always a great man, but then a small bishop of Cavaillon, now great as cardinal bishop of Sabina, who, now the only survivor to me of all my old friends, has loved and loves me not episcopally, as Ambrose loved Augustine, but fraternally" [Letter on his Origin and life, Works, volume I, at the beginning. Basel edition, the year 1581.]. And again elsewhere he cites from Virgil, Aeneid, book VI:

No one has a fixed home; we dwell in shady groves, And inhabit the couches of the banks, and meadows fresh With streams.

and he adds: "For if these things sufficed (for a happy life), certainly the Vallis Clausa, whence the fountain of the Sorgue bursts forth, could abundantly furnish us all with shining rivulets, and leafy homes, and grassy beds" [Epistolae de Rebus Familiaribus, book VIII, letter III. Works, volume II, p. 692.].

ee. These things and those which follow confirm what we said at the beginning in the Annotations, that this Life was written in an oratorical manner and according to the norm of an encomium.

ff. That is, the 13th day of November. Compare the Preliminary Commentary, no. 53.

APPENDIX. NARRATIVE OF THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF ST. VERANUS.

From the manuscript Life in the Collection of Gallonio, volume I.

Veranus, bishop of Cavaillon, confessor in Gaul. (S.)

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GALLONIO.

Notice. We think it worth while (compare no. 69) to add this narrative here, both because we have described in the Annotations the other things pertaining to the life of St. Veranus where they departed from our Acts; and because the author of the Gallonian manuscript professes, as we saw above, preface no. 69, that he has touched as briefly as could be done on the things which he had ascertained about the holy Prelate from the most certain authors. It is added that many things are narrated by him which happened after the death of St. Veranus, unknown to the writer of our Acts. Finally, the text is too prolix to have a place among the Annotations.

[1] St. Veranus expires at the Council of Arles. How holily and religiously he administered that (episcopal) office, the admirable things which he did, and his most happy end, very easily proved. And it is established that in praying he very frequently used this: "Make known to me, O Lord, my end." Ps. 38. Wherefore, having obtained his wish, at the provincial council of Arles, to which he had been summoned by his Metropolitan, he disclosed to his colleagues the bishops on what day he was to depart from this life; and, being asked by them where he would most wish to be buried, he answered with placid countenance that he committed it wholly and entirely to divine providence. And when he had said these things, the eyes of the body indeed, but much more also the eyes of the mind, being raised to heaven, with a clear and serene countenance he gave back his spirit to God, whom he had served with his whole heart ^a.

[2] His funeral is carried along not without prodigies, And when some by praying and singing psalms, others by carrying out the things which seemed necessary for the funeral, had spent that whole night, they began to carry out that sacred body, placed most honourably on a bier, and, although altogether ignorant whither they were going, nevertheless to proceed; where the admirable power of God shone forth. For as formerly the pillar of cloud went before the Israelite people going out of Egypt, so now that pall with which the bier was covered, raising itself into the air, went continually before the people who were accompanying the holy funeral, showing the way. Following the pall, then, those who were present came to the bank of the river Durance; but, the river being then already flooded beyond measure, when they had found neither ford nor any boat, the divine power again showed itself in favour of that most holy bier. For suddenly, the most rapid waves being drawn back on both sides, that torrent made itself so passable that all, the pall always going before in the air, easily crossed over with dry feet ^b.

[3] to Vallis Clausa, where he is buried. Which same thing, not so very long after, they experienced when they had come to the Sergia; in which place the water, divided into parts, so contracted itself into either part of the river that the bearers of that sacred funeral had thereafter an unimpeded way. And when they came to the town whose name is Vallis Clausa, behold, that cloth which, raised into the air, the sacred

we have said went continually before that body, betook itself into the church of that town, which blessed Veranus had some years before dedicated to the divine Virgin not so very far from the fountain of the Sergia; and, while those who carried the funeral, together with the surrounding multitude, wondered and followed in its track, it suddenly glided down upon the bier itself to cover the sacred Body; and at length, the obsequies being duly performed, that most holy body was laid away in a new tomb, and that most honourably.

[4] It is translated to Cavaillon. It is illustrious with miracles, Which ^c some time afterwards, although a sufficiently certain reckoning of it could not be reached, was translated with solemn rite and ceremony to Cavaillon, into the chief church, sacred to the divine Mary; where indeed very many things happened which both exceed the whole order of nature and show beyond doubt and plainly the heavenly and divine power of that holy Man. For a certain accused man too, bound with chains and in a foul (loathsome) prison, by the prayers of blessed Veranus, to whom he constantly commended himself, in the silence of the dead of night, loosed from his irons, the door of the prison opening of its own accord, escaped free, and flew to the church where the body of the same Veranus, to be venerated with ancient religion, still rests today, to give him thanks. And the barren wife of a certain emperor Emmanuel obtained offspring by the prayers of St. Veranus, and in everlasting memory of so great a benefit left as a gift a great paten shining with gold and gems, which is preserved up to this day in the church of Cavaillon. And at the same time a certain matron of Cavaillon, likewise barren, when she had heard of this and had wearied the holy Man with prayers, she too easily obtained the same benefit. Nor indeed is that to be passed over in silence, that a certain count, puffed up with nobility and wealth, when he had kicked out with his heel, with the utmost wickedness, at the bishop who had performed the divine office against his command and before he himself was present, suddenly his foot together with the whole shin withered entirely; and the same a little after, by the prayers of blessed Veranus, which that bishop with the whole clergy and all the people poured out suppliantly at his sacred body, was restored to his former soundness. Add that two spouses of Marseilles, when they had commended to St. Veranus their son, one of whose feet, with the whole shin likewise, had long since withered, at once obtained his former health. And also the son of a certain widow of Montpellier, when he was possessed by a demon, and his mother had brought him to Cavaillon to the body of blessed Veranus, and had diligently commended to him the health of her son, she at once received him back free from the tyranny of the demon and safe.

[5] as also at Jargeau. There is in the borders of Orléans the castle of Gorgolium, and in it a church sacred to blessed Veranus, which, when a certain noble had seized it by force and wickedness, he was at once seized by a demon, nor was he loosed before he had restored that sacred church, together with all the other things which he had invaded with the utmost wickedness, safe and sound to the bishop and the church to which they belonged. Finally, in the same church sacred to St. Veranus, which is seen at the castle of Gorgolium, there still exists that chain with which the same holy Man by divine power expelled from the fountain of the Sorgue that monstrous snake, foul and baleful with the rage of the evil demon; with which, as soon as those who are deranged in mind, or possessed by a demon, are bound, or even lightly touched, they suddenly come out altogether sound and safe. By which things indeed, and very many others, of which neither the reckoning nor the certain number can in any way be reached, the virtue of the most holy Man is held clear and attested among all mortals, to the glory of the all-powerful God and our Lord, to whom shall be honour and dominion for all eternity. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.