ON ST. CILINIA OF MEAUX, VIRGIN, IN GAUL,
BEFORE THE YEAR 530.
HISTORICAL SYNOPSIS.
Celinia, virgin, at Meaux in Gaul. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ I. The memory of St. Cilinia, her homeland, the time of her life, and her taking of the religious veil.
Although the cult of St. Celinia, or St. Celinia, virgin of Meaux, is very ancient, yet her name is read in no older martyrologies. The memory of St. Celinia in the martyrologies; Yet the Tournai addition to Usuard of the thirteenth century gives it In Sollerius, Martyr. Usuardi, page 616. in these words: In the city of Meaux, of St. Cilinia, virgin; similarly the Lübeck-Cologne edition, giving Celina for Celinia; and also the addition to Usuard of Molanus's first edition, calling her Edinia, while the addition of the second calls her Celinia Ibid., pages 617 and 618.. Of the more recent martyrologists, many praise her at the present day: namely Galesini in the Martyrology of the Holy Roman Church; Du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology; Ferrari in the General Catalogue of saints, calling her Edimia or Edinia; Arthur du Moustier in the Gynaeceum; Castellan in the universal Martyrology or additions to the Roman; the Parisian Martyrology published by the authority of Cardinal de Noailles; and finally the Martyrologies of Évreux and Auxerre. Her name is moreover read in the ecclesiastical Calendars of Meaux, Paris and Troyes, because her memory is celebrated there. Her image is moreover seen at 21 October in the Gallo-Belgian Calendar written in runes and illustrated in the year 1841 by Luigi Frati. She is represented in a little cell, crowned with three small towers: by which allusion is made to the baptistery to which the holy virgin fled. Finally Baillet at this day in his Lives of the Saints Vies des Saints, volume VII, page 329, edition of 1739., and also Godescard in the collection of the lives of the saints of Butler Vies des Pères, des Martyrs, etc., at 21 Oct., narrated the deeds of St. Celinia; before whom Toussaints du Plessis had gone in the ecclesiastical history of Meaux Histoire de l'Église de Meaux, volume I, page 9., and already in the year 1645 La Hière [Le grand Ménologe des Saintes et bienheureuses Vierges, volume II, pages 280 and 281.], at the 2nd day of October, on which he relates the pious virgin died, because in his age she was venerated at Paris on this day. And, to remark it in passing, the Parisians were very inconstant in assigning a day to the veneration of St. Celinia. In the diocesan Breviary which Cardinal Pierre de Gondi had printed in the year 1584 her office is still omitted. But in the Breviary, likewise diocesan, which Cardinal Jean de Gondi published in the year 1630, an office of simple rite with proper lessons is appointed at 20 October: which was still observed in the Breviary for the use of the abbey of St. Genevieve of Paris, printed in the year 1765, except that the rite was semidouble. On the other hand, in the editions of the Parisian Breviary which Cardinals de Harlay, de Vintimille and de Juigné saw to, it is prescribed to be celebrated on the 21st day of October.
[2] her homeland Meaux; But very few things have become known about St. Celinia. That she was born in the city, or at least in the territory, of Meaux is stated by Fulcoius, a native of Beauvais and
subdeacon of Meaux in the eleventh century, in the metrical Life of Blessed Blandinus, anchorite of Brie. For thus he sings Du Plessis, volume II, page 453.:
Meaux, fruitful mother of holy men, Of the just Walbert, and also of the sacred Chainoald, Of Faro, of Fara, who knew how to love Christ, For whom she makes the earthly bridegroom a stranger; Meaux bore Celinia, divine in her celibate life, Meaux bore Rigomer too, stern to his enemies.
[3] the time of her life, Baillet writes that she flourished in the fifth and sixth centuries; du Plessis around the year 470 Ibid., volume I, pages 9 and 757.; Godescard at the end of the fifth century: but nothing manifest can be determined. Certainly she lived in the time of St. Genevieve, the most celebrated and never sufficiently praised patroness of Paris; who, more than eighty years old, rendered her most innocent spirit to God around the year 509 or 512 Tillemont, Mémoires ecclésiast., volume XVI, pages 630 and 804, edition of 1712.. It is probable that St. Celinia was clothed with the sacred garment while Childeric, son of Merovech, ruled over the Franks from the year 463 to 481 Gebhardi, Reges Francor. Merovingici, page 23 and following.; since the order of events which occurs in the Life of St. Genevieve seems to imply this Cf. Act. SS. volume I of January, page 140, numbers 25 and 27.: for after the biographer has narrated that St. Genevieve obtained from Childeric the release of some guilty men, and then interposed mention of her fame being carried to St. Simeon the Stylite of Antioch, he at once turns his discourse to the benefits which the holy patroness of Paris once conferred on the virgin of Meaux, when she changed her garment: so that St. Celinia seems to have grown up in the reign of Childeric, or between the year 465 and 481. Of the time of her death we know nothing else than that she had already departed to those above when, around the year 530 Tillemont, Mém. ecclés., volume XVI, page 802., the biographer of St. Genevieve brought out her Life.
[4] praise celebrated by the biographer of St. Genevieve; Now must be given what was inserted about St. Celinia in this Life of St. Genevieve Act. SS. volume I of January, page 140.: A certain girl, already marriageable and already betrothed, named Cilinia, when she learned of the grace of Christ conferred on Genevieve, asked her that her garment be changed. When the young man to whom she had been promised heard this, at once filled with indignation, he came to the city of Meaux, where Cilinia was staying with Genevieve. Soon Genevieve, when she learned that the young man had arrived, went with the greatest haste to the church. It was a matter of great miracle; how, as they fled to the church, the baptistery which was within opened of its own accord to them. Thus therefore the aforesaid girl, freed from the shipwreck or contagion of this world, persevered until her consummation in abstinence and chastity. About the same time the above-mentioned Cilinia presented to Genevieve a girl of her household, who had been ill for almost two years and from whom the use of her feet too had been taken. When Genevieve handled her with her hands, she at once obtained health. Thus far the biographer of St. Genevieve concerning St. Celinia.
[5] If we weigh these things minutely, we shall gather first that St. Celinia was fairly well furnished with temporal goods, she is Gallic or Roman by race; since she had a household, or a band of servants. Du Plessis maintains Volume I, page 9. that her parents were among the more noble of the whole district, having as surety the amplifier of the Life of St. Genevieve Cf. Act. SS. volume I of January, page 145, number 23., who calls St. Celinia a very noble young girl. I will not oppose it, provided you understand nobility according to the customs of those times, and ascribe it not to the victorious race of the Franks, but to the conquered race of the Gauls or Romans; for the name of Celinia or Cilinia was not in use among the Franks, but among the Romans, as the names of St. Celinia or Cilinia, mother of St. Remigius, and of Celinia, mother of St. Evodius, make sufficiently manifest.
[6] having taken the veil, she does not renounce her goods; St. Genevieve had perhaps come to Meaux because she had fields in the neighbourhood, as is established from the miracle of the rain averted: In the territory of the city of Meaux, says the biographer Ibid., page 142, number 49., the reapers having been assembled, when the often-mentioned virgin was reaping her OWN harvest, etc. Which testimony also has this force, that we should not believe that St. Celinia gave up her household and other goods when she received the sacred garment from St. Genevieve. For as the pious virgin of Paris, though consecrated to God, retained her fields of Meaux and others, so there is no doubt that Celinia too, having embraced the kind of life of her hostess and friend, did likewise. For although virgins consecrated to God were plainly religious and were then held by the Church in the same number as nuns now (which has been sufficiently shown in another work [Examen hist. et can. de regularium et saecularium cleric. juribus et officiis, page 44 and following.]); yet they were not ordered to strip themselves altogether of all property: which doctrine the Rev. Mr. Emery, superior of the excellent congregation of St. Sulpice Mémoires sur cette question? Les religieuses peuvent-elles, etc., learnedly defended, and after him the Rev. Mr. Carrière, a most eminent theologian of the same institute [De Jure et Justitia, part I, section I, chapter IV, §2, number 195 and following.]. Similarly it was not necessary to seek religious cloisters: each lived in her parents' house or her own: of which thing a trace still survives in the Neapolitan monache di casa. Yves de Valois formerly handled that subject with singular care, distinguishing four orders of virgins, the first of which professed virginity with no distinction of dress; the second privately assumed a dark tunic and a dusky mantle with a veil; the third was clothed with the same garments publicly by the bishop during the solemnities of the Mass on the feast of the Epiphany, on Easter Monday or on the festivals of the Apostles, yet was to live at home, no differently from the first two orders; and finally the fourth order, veiled with no less solemnity, but to lead its life in a monastery: and at the same time de Valois shows that formerly there was no interval between the change of garment and profession. See volume IX of the History of the academy of inscriptions.
[7] she becomes a nun by private profession. That St. Celinia asked that her garment be changed by St. Genevieve, not by a priest or bishop, agrees with the customs of that age. For there was one public profession of the religious life, another private; but both of the same firmness; which twofold rite, still used today by the Greeks, is customarily called by them the office of the little habit and the office of the great and angelic habit; and so if anyone at that time, whether man or woman, sufficiently manifested by some external sign that he wished to be such as the religious then were, by that very fact he was truly a religious. And indeed, if St. Celinia had put on the darker garment with her own hands (for this is that changed garment), and had not received it from St. Genevieve, equally a virgin consecrated to God, she would have been a professed nun or religious: And this form of discipline flourished in the Latin Church at least until the end of the eleventh century Examen hist., etc., page 16 and following..
§ II. The site of Meaux, of the river Marne and of the cathedral church changed. The amphitheatre of Meaux. The abbey or priory of St. Celinia. Cult.
[The church into which St. Celinia fled was the cathedral, situated near the amphitheatre.] About the church into which St. Celinia fled with St. Genevieve du Plessis disputes much Hist. de Meaux, volume I, pages 9 and 10; 628 and following.; which seems to have pleased the writers of Gallia Christiana Volume VIII, col. 1715., and, far from displeasing me, I think should be strengthened. Further, when we read in the biographer of St. Genevieve that both virgins, the angry bridegroom arriving at Meaux, fled to the church and that the baptistery which was within opened of its own accord, and at the same time turn over in mind that baptismal churches were rarer in that age, and that certainly in the whole city of Meaux and its suburb no others than the cathedral had this right and title (for so the discipline and customs of that time required); it occurs of itself that Celinia and Genevieve fled into the cathedral church. But in the Breviary of Meaux of the year 1546, as du Plessis witnesses Ibid., page 628., these words are read: But the handmaids of Christ, when they learned of the anger and approach of the bridegroom, going out of Meaux, yielded to the young man's fury … and, having entered the church situated in the place which by the ancients was called the amphitheatre, pray to the Lord. Which, since they seem to have been preserved from ancient tradition, are to be reconciled with the sayings of the biographer of St. Genevieve, not cast away with contempt.
[9] Formerly Meaux was on the left of the Marne; as is established from Hincmar First of all, then, it must be known that the site of Meaux seems to have been entirely changed: for now it lies on the right of the Marne, so that for those travelling from Senlis to Meaux only the brook called le Brasset is to be crossed, whereas before the devastation of the Northmen the city was situated on the left, and the same travellers had to cross the river Marne *; as du Plessis shows Ibid., page 707. from what is stated in the Annals of Saint-Bertin, or rather of Hincmar of Reims, at the year 862 Pertz, Monum. German., volume I, page 456.. And these things can be excellently confirmed from elsewhere.
[10] [and from the division of the Belgae and the Gauls, and also of provinces and dioceses;] In the time of C. Julius Caesar the Marne flowed between the Belgae and the Gauls, as he himself testifies: The Marne and the Seine, he says De bello Gall., book I, chapter 1., divide the Gauls from the Belgae; that the same division existed in the fourth century Ammianus Marcellinus is the authority: The Marne and the Seine, he says Book XV, chapter 2., rivers of twin greatness, separate the same people (the Gauls, who are Celts) from the Belgae; and similarly Ausonius, singing thus of the river Moselle Verse 461, in D. Bouquet, volume I, page 470.:
The Loire will not prefer itself to you, nor the headlong Aisne, Nor the Marne, set between the bounds of the Gauls and the Belgae.
Which indeed are not to be understood as if no parts of the districts belonging to the Gauls extended on this side of the Marne and the Seine (and you may say the same in turn of the Belgic districts); but in this sense, that the heads of the districts, or the cities of the Gauls, were beyond the Marne and the Seine, although the districts themselves quite often occupied both banks: so that the city of the Meldi, which the ancient geographers called Iatinum, must be judged to have lain on the left of the Marne, if it belonged to the Gauls and not to the Belgae. And from an old inscription, set up in those times in which the province of Lugdunensis had not yet been divided (which seems to have been done in the time either of Diocletian or of Constantine the Great), it is manifest that the Meldi were reckoned among the Gauls, not the Belgae. Here is the monument [Gruter, Inscript., page 371, number 8; D. Bouquet, volume I, page 130, number 14.].
ÆTE. MEMORIÆ. AVRELI To the eternal memory of Aureli-
DEMETRI. ADIVTORI PROCC. CIVITATIS. SENONVM TRICASSINORVM. MELDORVM. PARISIORUM. ET CIVITATIS ÆDVORVM. [-us Demetrius, assistant of the procurators of the city of the Senones, of the Tricasses, of the Meldi, of the Parisii and of the city of the Aedui.]
The same is established from the Notitia of provinces and cities, drawn up (as it seems) under Honorius Augustus, and in which the city of the Meldi is assigned to the province of Lugdunensis Senonia, or the fourth In D. Bouquet, volume I, page 122.; and similarly from the ecclesiastical division according to which the diocese of Meaux was part of the province of Sens until the year 1322, but thereafter of the province of Paris.
[11] likewise from the ruins. But besides this kind of arguments there remain others drawn from the very arrangement of the places. For on the left bank of the Marne, where afterwards the abbey or canonry of Chage was built (of which mention will recur again below), many structures and underground vaults were uncovered, and other traces of the ancient city.
[12] [Meaux is often laid waste by the Northmen; it is built in another place; the bed of the Marne is changed;] Nor is it difficult to grasp how it came about that the dwellings of the citizens were so changed that what was formerly the city became thereafter the suburb. For when around the year 865 Cf. du Plessis, volume I, page 708. the Northmen had burst into Meaux, in the first part of the night they occupy it and by lot resolve to kindle it with desolating fire; its flames too, shining harmfully, turn night as it were into day, and penetrate the unknown ways all round. They also most wretchedly stain with human blood the houses of the groaning and the various lanes of the city, and defile with every filth churches once venerable. Moreover a confused clamour beats upon heaven, earth and air are shaken by the groans of women with child and nursing, and the golden stars are withdrawn by its devouring flames Life of St. Faro, chapter 128, in D. Bouquet, volume VII, page 358.. That the cathedral church perished in this slaughter may be gathered from this, that Hildegar, prelate of Meaux, when in the year 868, the 18th of the reign of Charles, in the 2nd indiction, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of November, he assembled his priests, held this his synod in the suburban church of St. Celinia Mabillon, Analecta, page 412, folio edition.. In the years 887 and 891 the Northmen again laid waste the city and utterly destroyed it with flames Du Plessis, volume I, page 87.. Thereafter it was a ready consequence that the surviving inhabitants should build their cottages not in the midst of the ruins, but rather in the northern quarter, and similarly that the bishop should found a cathedral church in the midst of the new city: whereby it came about that the seat of the former city turned out to be the suburb of Meaux. Nor yet on that account did they have to cross to the right bank of the Marne, since formerly this river led its waves round not in a straight but in a winding course through the broader bed of the brook le Brasset, washing the village of Crégy towards the north; and so the present bed of the Marne, by which the more recent Meaux is divided from the ancient seat of the city, seems to have been dug in the year 1235 by the care of Theobald VI, count of Champagne Ibid., page 3..
[13] The place formerly called Cavea, then Cagia or Chagia, These things being laid down, we judge with du Plessis that the cathedral church before the invasion of the Northmen was situated in that place in which afterwards the church of Chage stood, namely in the southern suburb (le faubourg de Châge), on the left of the present bed of the Marne, and that this suburb was at one time the city itself. This place, namely, was formerly called not de Chagia or de Cagia, but de Cavea. Hence in the diploma on dividing the table of the bishop and of the canons, written in the year 1005 Ibid., volume II, instr. VII, page 7., there comes at the threshold of the canons' part St. Mary in Cavea. Nor should you wonder that Cavea is changed into Cagia or Chagia: for the letters v, f, ph, p, b, which are of the same family, often pass among the Franks or Gauls, the Teutons, the Germans, the English and other peoples of the Indo-Germanic race into g, ch, etc.: thus among the Gauls abbreviare has become abreger; levis, leger; rubeus, rouge; diluvium, deluge; sapiens, savio, sage; cambio, change; among the Teutons levis is ligt; suavis, zoft and zacht; and from graven, to dig, comes gracht, ditch: I omit others. According to this linguistic law, therefore, it was a ready consequence that cavea should be changed into cagia, and in fact we say daily une cage d'oiseaux, manifestly derived from cavea. But why do we digress? What in the year 1005 was called the church of St. Mary in Cavea, in the year 1135, in the diploma on the erection of this church into a regular canonry, is called the church of Blessed Mary de Cagia Ibid., instr. XLVII, page 29., and in its pontifical confirmation Ibid., instr. LIII, page 32.; but from the year 1153 it begins to be called the church of Blessed Mary de Chagia Ibid., instr. LXXIV, page 42., yet afterwards quite often still called Cagiensis and de Cagia Ibid., pages 43, 52, 60. Cf. de Valois, Notitia Galliae, pages 331 and 332..
[14] was formerly an amphitheatre, near which was the cathedral church. Now amphitheatres, as they were called arenas (that name has remained to this day for the amphitheatre of Nîmes and that of Tintignac), so they were quite often called caveae, at least after the overthrow of the republic: of which thing Lipsius collected testimonies De amphitheatro, chapter II, volume III of the works, pages 558 and 559. from Apuleius, Tertullian, Julius Firmicus, Ammianus, Salvian and Prudentius. That some amphitheatres of Gaul were designated by this name is by no means doubtful to de Valois Notitia Galliae, pages 58, 332, etc., to du Plessis Volume I, page 629., to the writers of Gallia Christiana Volume IX, col. 464., to those who augmented Du Cange's Glossary with additions Under Cavea., to Le Moine Histoire des antiquités de Soissons, volume I, page 152. and others: which they deduce chiefly from the name of the abbey of Soissons, St. Crispin in Cavea, commonly called St. Crespin en Chaie, because it occupied the place of the former amphitheatre. They could have added that the amphitheatre of Autun is still commonly called Caves-Juliot, or Caves-Joyaux, because perhaps they had been built by Julius Sacrovir [Hist. de l'antique cité d'Autun, by Edme Thomas, pages 63, 64 and 217, Paris, 1846.]. Nor is one to think otherwise of the cavea of Meaux, since the ancient breviary plainly mentions the amphitheatre, in whose neighbourhood was situated the church and baptistery, the refuge of St. Celinia. For under the emperors, the Caesars and Augusti, many cities of Gaul were adorned with arenas, constructed or heaped up, some within, some outside the walls. De Valois mentions Augusta Suessionum, Durocortorum of the Remi, Divodurum of the Mediomatrici, Augusta Treverorum, Agedincum of the Senones, Rouen, Lutetia of the Parisii and Nîmes : to which Mongez Encyclopédie méthod., Antiquités, volume I, page 155. adds Forum Julii, Arles, Saintes, Autun and Tintignac , omitting Xanten Act. SS. volume V of Oct., auctarium, page 19. and other towns. So that it is no wonder that Meaux too had its amphitheatre. Many of these have scarcely left traces of themselves, either because they consisted only of wood or of heaped-up earth, or because they were scarcely anything else than a natural valley with steps arranged in a circle. And these things seem sufficient for it to appear that formerly the city of the Meldi was situated on the left of the Marne; that in it there existed an amphitheatre called a cavea; that in its neighbourhood was founded the cathedral church of SS. Mary and Stephen, to which SS. Celinia and Genevieve fled; that it was probably destroyed by the Northmen and then rebuilt in another place; that in its former seat there was afterwards founded a small church of St. Mary, which at the beginning of the eleventh century canons regular occupied; and finally that the writer of the Breviary, when he said that SS. Celinia and Genevieve went out of Meaux to betake themselves to the cathedral or baptismal church, spoke according to the arrangement of the places in his own age, taking no account of the former seat of the city. Further things do not concern us.
[15] The abbey or priory and the bridge of St. Celinia. The memory of St. Celinia was formerly honoured at Meaux with a not contemptible church, whose first origin had been a small shrine built over the tomb of the holy virgin. As time went on a monastery too was added, which in the ninth century is related to have held more than sixty monks, clothed in white garments, although they are to be judged to have kept the Rule of St. Benedict: for formerly there was not so much solicitude about colours. We said above that a synod was held there in the year 868. But afterwards, through the ravages of the Northmen, attacking again perhaps in the years 887 and 891, that monastery came to such want that in the tenth century it was scarcely equal to feeding one monk. Struck by the pitiable condition of the monastery, the maternal uncle of Hugh d'Oisy, viscount of Meaux, brought in new monks summoned from elsewhere, who were to restore the sacred and temporal affairs; but the attempt turned out badly, that new colony having fallen into depravity of morals. These therefore having been expelled, Viscount Hugh approached Bernard, abbot of Marmoutier, then most flourishing in the territory of Tours, that he might send some of his monks with a prior. Walter II, prelate of Meaux, approved that counsel in the year 1096. And from then on the church of St. Celinia was a priory of Marmoutier, until in the year 1658, on the Nones of December, the title of prior remaining intact, the conventual table was joined to the priory of Blessed Mary of Bonne-Nouvelle of Orléans, which at that time Benoît Brachet, superior general of the congregation of St. Maur, was striving to fill again with monks [Cf. Du Plessis, volume I, pages 10, 11, 13 and 14; Gallia Christ., volume VIII, col. 1675; de Valois, Notit. Galliae, page 332.]. Moreover one of the four bridges of Meaux, because it was nearest to the church of St. Celinia, has been called from at least the year 1262 the bridge of St. Celinia (pont sainte Celine).
[16] Ecclesiastical cult at Meaux. Of the cult of St. Celinia in the diocese of Paris I spoke above at number 1. In the Breviary of Meaux, which came out in the year 1640 by the authority of Dominique Séguier, bishop of Meaux, the office of St. Cilinia, virgin, is appointed under semidouble rite. The Prayer is Exaudi nos from the common. The lessons of the II Nocturn and the Responsories are proper, and are conceived in these words: LESSON IV. Celinia, a virgin, born of a noble family, and sought in marriage by an illustrious young man for the excellence of her beauty: when St. Genevieve was staying at Meaux, gave herself to her discipline, and joined herself to her as companion in the zeal of keeping virginity. When that young man learned of this, soon burning with fury he flies to Meaux, meditating dire things against Genevieve, and intending to claim the beloved girl for himself as wife, whether by force or by entreaty. ℞ You shall not be among the foolish virgins, says the Lord: but you shall be among the wise virgins, taking the oil of gladness with their lamps! Going to meet, they went to meet the bridegroom with the palm of virginity. ℣ But coming they shall come with exultation, carrying their sheaves. Going to meet. LESSON V. When both handmaids of Christ learned that he had arrived, full of anger, they fled under the divine protection. They make for the church in haste, whose doors they show * closed, the young man pursuing, who was approaching with a strong band: when behold
the sacred doors of the baptistery were opened by angels to the trembling virgins, and, they having been admitted there divinely for protection, soon the sanctuary appeared closed to the raging young man and his companions. ℞. The kingdom of heaven is like to ten virgins, etc. LESSON VI. So astounding an event shook the mind of the pursuer, who, attributing it (as was right) to the divine power, which it is impious to resist, dismissed the girl in peace and returned to his own home. Further, Celinia, having obtained her vow and entirely free, devoted herself wholly to the love of Christ the bridegroom, and, having been invited * to the ways of St. Genevieve, whom she had emulated in conduct all her life, followed her after death also to the glory of heaven. ℞. This is a wise virgin … having taken her lamp, etc.
Annotata* Marne
* Soissons, Reims, Metz, Trier, Sens, Rouen, Paris, Nîmes.
* Fréjus, Arles, Saintes, Autun, Tinténiac
* "find"
* "having imitated"