ON ST. SEVERINUS OF BORDEAUX, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Severinus, bishop of Bordeaux. (S.)
J. V. H.
§ Sole. St. Severinus, like many others at the same time a stranger in the Gauls, administers the Church of Bordeaux.
Of St. Severinus the bishop, inasmuch as he is different from his namesake of Cologne, we know nothing other Various holy men are adduced, than what Gregory of Tours reports in the book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter XLV. It would suffice, then, to exhibit Gregory's narrative, illustrated by some Annotations, unless we thought it worth the labour to show, by bringing forward some examples, that it was not unusual in ancient times for holy men to leave their homeland in order to propagate Christian disciplines even in those regions that had already received the Catholic faith: whence it also came about that such men, having deserved excellently of their adoptive homeland, not rarely attained, though enrolled from outside, the highest honours among its people. Lest our discourse run on too far, we adduce only those examples which both touch the Gauls and are contained within the three centuries that surround the time of our St. Severinus: so the Saints we adduce flourished in the fourth, fifth or sixth century. For all know that the first apostles of the Gauls, who founded the ancient sees of the region, came forth either from Greece through SS. Pothinus and Irenaeus, or from Italy through SS. Trophimus, Saturninus and their companions. But here we are speaking of those men who brought aid to the already established Church of the Gauls.
[2] Who, having left their homeland, In the fourth century there came from Africa into the Gauls SS. Marcellinus, Domninus and Vincent; Marcellinus indeed founded the Church of Embrun, Domninus that of Digne [Compare Acta Sanctorum, volume II of February, page 660, and volume II of April, page 760.]. In the same century St. Cassian came ashore from Alexandria of Egypt in the Gauls, and succeeded Rheticius, bishop of Autun Ibid., volume II of August, page 59.. Next in the fifth century we see the Greek Diogenes exercising the episcopal office among the Atrebates: Joseph Ghesquière indeed denies that this Diogenes either was ever bishop of Cambrai or of Arras, or obtained any cult Acta Sanctorum Belgii, volume I, page 437.; but he by no means denies that such a man, before St. Vedast, and thus in the course of the fifth century, exercised the sacred ministry in those regions [Compare Le Cointe, Annales ecclesiastici, year 538, §70, and Gallia Christiana, volume III, column 2.]. So too we read of Severus the Indian, flourishing in the time of Leo and Zeno, at whose urging the church of St. Stephen was raised at Vienne of the Allobroges Acta Sanctorum, volume II of March, page 448, no. 3.. John Cassian too, either a Scythian or an Athenian by origin, after manifold wanderings, finally comes to rest at Marseilles, founder of two monasteries for both sexes Ibid., volume V of July, page 458.: so too Abraham, who had obtained his native soil at the river Euphrates, dies as abbot of the monastery of Clermont in the Auvergne Ibid., volume II of June, page 1058..
[3] Cultivated the Gauls about the fifth century. In the sixth century there occurs St. Fortunatus, a bishop born at Vercelli, who, desiring to see St. Germain of Paris face to face, took the road into the Gauls and ended his life in the territory of Sens Ibid., volume III of June, page 601.. Licerius, sprung from Spain, chose voluntary exile, and, having been made bishop of Couserans in Occitania, gave his name to the city (Saint-Lizier, département de l'Ariège) Ibid., volume VI of August, page 47.. Paul Warnefrid, commonly called Paul the Deacon, in his book on the Deeds of the bishops of Metz, numbers among the bishops of the sixth century Migne, Patrologia, volume XCV, column 704.. The twentieth, Fronimus; after whom Chromatius; then Agathander, and he adds: These three, then, whom we have set down, as one observes in their names, are to be believed to derive from the origin of the Greeks Histoire de Metz, volume I, page 243.. The Benedictine writers of the History of Metz say at this place of Warnefrid that all the monuments of Metz hold them to be as it were Greek in origin only on account of the etymology of the names. There is no leisure to inquire into this more laboriously: it suffices to have noted that it was not unusual in those centuries for men of a foreign region to ascend episcopal sees in the Gauls, otherwise Warnefrid would not have expressed his conjecture from the bare etymology of the name, as the Benedictines would have it. From the examples so far adduced it is understood in what manner a foreign bishop could both come to Bordeaux, and, at the instance of the bishop, clergy and people, hold the pontificate until his death. Although he is said by Gregory of Tours to have come from the parts of the East, I should believe him a Latin, as one who bore the name of Severinus. Nor does anything else occur to be said of St. Severinus of Bordeaux, which cannot more conveniently be deferred to the Annotations to the brief Life, which we give from the praised book of St. Gregory On the Glory of the Confessors.
THE BRIEF LIFE OF ST. SEVERINUS, BISHOP OF BORDEAUX AND CONFESSOR,
From Gregory of Tours's book On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter XLV.
Severinus, bishop of Bordeaux. (S.)
BHL Number: 0000 a
BY GREGORY OF TOURS.
St. Severinus, a stranger from the East The city of Bordeaux too has venerable patrons, who often show themselves by miracles, honouring with the highest faith St. Severinus the bishop in the suburb of the walls b: and although we have already said in the Prologue of this book that we would write only those things which God has deigned to work after the death of his Saints at their obtaining c; yet I do not think it will be held absurd if we recall some things of the life of those of whom we have learned that nothing has been written. St. Severinus, then, as the faithful report of the clerics of Bordeaux themselves brings forward, is sent from the parts of the East to the same city d. And while he was on his journey, and Bishop Amandus was ruling the Church of Bordeaux e, the Lord appeared to him in a vision of the night, saying: Arise and go out to meet my servant Severinus; and honour him, as Holy Scripture teaches a friend of divinity to be honoured: for he is better than you, and more lofty in merits. Rising up, then, Bishop Amandus, taking a little staff in his hand f, went on to meet him, knowing nothing of the holy man, except what the Lord had revealed.
[2] He rules the Church of Bordeaux in most holy fashion. And behold St. Severinus was coming as it were to meet him. Then drawing near to each other, and greeting one another by their proper names, they rush together into embraces, and having kissed one another, prayer being poured out,
they entered the church with great psalm-singing g. Whom thereafter Bishop Amandus so loved and venerated that he substituted him in his own place, and he himself was held as the junior. Finally after a few years the most blessed Severinus died. On his burial Bishop Amandus received back his place, which undoubtedly was returned to him through the obedience which he had shown toward the Saint of God h. From this the inhabitants, having learned of his sanctity, take him to themselves as patron, certain that if at any time disease creeps on the city, or hostility besieges it, or some complaint strikes it, the peoples at once run together to the basilica of the Saint, and, fasts being proclaimed, keep vigils, most devoutly pouring out prayer, and they are soon saved from the threatening calamity i. His Life, however, after we had written these things, we learned had been written by Fortunatus the presbyter k.