ON ST. DOMNOLENUS, CONFESSOR, IN THE TERRITORY OF AUXERRE IN GAUL,
PERHAPS AT THE END OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY.
COLLECTION.
Domnolenus, confessor, in the territory of Auxerre in Gaul. (S.)
V. D. B.
§ Sole. The cult of St. Domnolenus; his deeds unknown; his distinction from St. Domnolenus of Limoges.
The church of Auxerre, which, as Tillemont says in the Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre, cited by Charles de Caylus in the prologue of the Martyrology published by him, [St. Domnolenus, recorded in the Martyrologies of the abbey of St. Laurence and of Auxerre, gave his name to a church and a village,] if not by other titles, yet was commended by a great number of Saints, and by more eminent piety among the Saints, recalls on this day its own countryman, announced in these words: In the diocese of Auxerre, near the abbey of St. Laurence beside Cosne, of blessed Domnolenus; whom no other printed sacred fasti that I know mention besides the Martyrology indicated. And the name of this Saint was brought into it, as is added in the annotations, from the Martyrology of the said abbey written in the year 1271, and from the Calendar of the same abbey written in the year 1286. In the Ordinary, to which that Calendar is prefixed, on the Monday in the Rogations a Station is designated "at Saint Domnolenus." Hence it is plain that the church neighbouring the aforesaid abbey was distinguished with the name and patronage of St. Domnolenus before the thirteenth century. Of which matter we gather another testimony from the old Necrology of the same abbey, cited in Gallia Christiana Volume XII, col. 432.; where, concerning Abbot Bartholomew, taken from among the living in the year 1295, these things taken from it are read: On the fourth day before the Ides of April died Bartholomew of happy memory, abbot of this church, who for XXV years ruled this church most excellently, and acquired many things, namely at Montogor, where he built two granges, and bought the land of Fontemorini, and made our cellar with a prison and the enclosures of our walls and many other goods, both in books and in other temporal and spiritual goods, which it would be long to recount one by one, for whom we have XXX solidi of annual revenue situated on the church of St. Domnolenus. Moreover the village which is commonly called "Saint Andelain" still retains the name of the same Saint Domnolenus, as the aforesaid Martyrology of Auxerre says. And hence his cult is sufficiently established.
[2] he is perhaps the same as a priest of Auxerre at the end of the seventh century, But who St. Domnolenus was (to use again the words of the same Martyrology), or at what time he lived, is unknown. This one thing is established, that St. Domnolenus lived and died in the diocese of Auxerre. Yet one may conjecture that he is the priest Domnolenus whom Blessed Vigilius, bishop of Auxerre, mentions in his testament, as may be seen in the Benedictine Annals of Dom Mabillon Volume I, instrum. number 24., in which
St. Vigilius says: I give for one cope at the township of Leodebaro my portions, which I am seen to have from Sperius and from Domnolenus the priest. If this conjecture is valid, St. Domnolenus must have lived towards the end of the seventh century, since St. Vigilius is determined to have died around the year 683 Lebeuf, Hist. d'Auxerre, volume I, page 140.. But that township of Leodebaro is otherwise unknown to me, nor in Cassini's geographical maps of France does any place appear to me near the village of St. Domnolenus whose name approaches even a little to Leodebaro. And that village, distinguished with the name of our Saint, lies to the south-west for those going out of Auxerre, between the river Loire and the brook Nodas (Noain), and between two sufficiently well-known towns, Condida, Conada or Conium (Cosne) and Caritas (Charité-sur-Loire).
[3] and he is to be judged distinct from St. Domnolenus of Limoges. Further, although almost nothing is known about the present Saint Domnolenus, and another Saint of the same name is venerated, of whom no more documents survive, it yet seems wrong to fuse these two into one; for a twofold reason stands in the way. St. Domnolenus, namely, of Limoges, of whom Geoffrey of Vigeois wrote in his Chronicle around the year 1184: In the church (of Limoges) of St. Gregory, next to the monastery of St. Andrew, the tomb of St. Domnolenus is seen; of whom I have found nothing else except that report testifies that he was a prince of the Limousins; and his festival is kept on the seventh day before the Kalends of July Labbe, Bibl. nov. Mss., volume II, page 286.; whose church in the city (of Limoges) Ademar of Chabannes stated, in the Commemoration of the abbots of St. Martial of Limoges Cf. Act. SS. volume V of June, page 568., was burned on the Kalends of July in the year 1105 by men from the castle of St. Martial, and finally whose body, brought out of the earth, Jean de Langeac, bishop of Limoges, translated to a fitting place and laid in the church sacred to this Saint outside the walls of the city in the year 1534, as Gallia Christiana has it Volume II, col. 539.; this St. Domnolenus, I say, is to be judged different from our homonymous one of Auxerre: both because he is not venerated on the same day, which is a most weighty reason; and because he belongs to an altogether different district, since the dioceses of Limoges and of Auxerre are not enclosed in the same ecclesiastical province: which is a not contemptible argument, since the cult of each Saint is confined within the narrowest limits. If a third and less valid proof can be added here, the French names are also different. For as Simon de Peyronet witnesses in the Catalogue of Saints Page 284. printed at Toulouse in the year 1706, among the Limousins St. Domnolenus of Limoges is commonly called in French St. Dampnolet and St. Anolet, or, as Lelong has it in the Bibliotheca Galliae Volume V, page 234, edition of 1778., St. Tonnolein or St. Ounoulé; but Saint Domnolenus of Auxerre is commonly known as St. Andelain, as we learned above from the Martyrology of Auxerre. And these things seemed fit to be noted in this place, so that of him whose acts have been blotted out by oblivion the memory at least, as far as lies in us, may be preserved for ever.