ON ST. SENOCH, PRESBYTER AND ABBOT, IN THE TERRITORY OF TOURS IN GAUL,
IN THE YEAR DLXXVI.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Senoch, also called Enoch, presbyter and abbot, in the territory of Tours. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ I. The origin of St. Senoch, his clerical state, monastic life, monastery, the period of his life.
This is the praise and power of divine grace, that even from nations St. Senoch, celebrated three times by St. Gregory of Tours, which seem by nature most estranged from virtue and holiness, it chooses and perfects men who are a most pleasing spectacle to God and the angels, and a constant incitement to their countrymen and to all the faithful to lay hold of heavenly things; so that, just as it is true that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, nor grapes be gathered from thorns or vintage from a bramble, so too it must be admitted that from a bad and thorny tree there are sometimes produced shoots which, grafted in Christ, as wild olives into the good olive, bear fruits worthy of an eternal reward. And this opinion is excellently confirmed by the example of St. Senoch, whose memory is recalled today and who, though a Taifal by nation, disposing continual ascents in his heart, arrived at the summit of Christian perfection. These things we have learned from a contemporary writer, who knew him by face and had often conversed with him, namely St. Gregory of Tours. He first wrote his Life somewhat before the year 588, and inserted it in the book of the Life of the Fathers, chap. XV; in the book of the Glory of the Confessors, whose chapter XCV he committed to writing about the year 588, he relates at chap. XV a more recent miracle of his, with these words premised: The Life of Abbot Senoch was written by us long ago; and finally in the History of the Franks, which he afterwards collected and polished perhaps up to the end of his life, or the year 594 or the following, book V, chap. VII, he mentions St. Senoch a third time and comprises his chief deeds in brief. And this last passage seems to be reported at present, so that the reader may better know the blessed man from the beginning.
[2] he lived about forty years But it is pleasing to record this too, says the blessed historiographer, who or what kind of men were called by the Lord in this year. Whence I judge him great and acceptable to God, who is placed in his paradise, being such a one, from our land. For the blessed Senoch, a presbyter, who stayed among the Turonians, thus departed from the world. He was by race a Theifal, and having been made a cleric in the Touraine, he withdrew to a little cell which he himself had composed among ancient walls: and having gathered monks, he repaired an oratory which had been destroyed for a long time. The same worked many miracles over the sick, which we have written in the book of his Life. And here first of all we must inquire into the age of St. Senoch, who, we know from the Lives of the Fathers, indeed from num. 4 of his Life, died when he was about forty years old. That question indeed at first sight seems very easy, since Blessed Gregory of Tours in book VI of the History of the Franks, chap. VI, immediately before the words which we have reported from that History, wrote: In the year mentioned above, that is, in which, Sigebert having died, Childebert, his son, began to reign, many miracles appeared at the sepulchre of St. Martin; by which words there seems to be signified the year 575, since in this year Sigibert, king of Austrasia, was killed by the plots of Fredegund, and in his place Childebert assumed the royal crown.
[3] [and in the year 576, as is gathered from the times of Sigibert and Childebert II,] But although these things are so, the learned seem to agree (unless they have spoken too carelessly) that St. Senoch departed from this earth in the following year; and since St. Gregory of Tours in the same place, or rather in chap. VIII, said: In that year also the blessed Germanus, bishop of Paris, passed away, and then spoke in the same manner of the holy men Calupp the recluse, Patroclus likewise a recluse, and Brachio the abbot, no one fails to see that the same rule applies to all these. And indeed the year 576 is altogether to be retained, so that St. Gregory must be explained as if St. Senoch, and the other illustrious men whom he praises, had gone away to those above in the first year after the death of Sigibert, or from the beginning of the reign of Childebert II. Moreover I should not wish to write a commentary on the last year of King Sigibert, which it is more than sufficiently established was 575, as we have already said. But if it is asked in what month, the answer seems to be, with Gebhard Reges Francorum Merovingici, pag. 69., at the end of November or the beginning of December. For as soon as the news of his death came to Paris, Duke Gundobald seized his little son and carried him off by stealth: and having snatched him from imminent death, and having gathered the nations over which his father had held the kingdom, he established him as king, barely one lustre of age being completed: who began to reign on the day of the Lord's Birth [S. Gregorii Turon. Hist. Franc. lib. V, cap. 1, ap. D. Bouquet, tom. II, pag. 233.]: and since all these things were done hurriedly and without delay, it cannot be that the death of Sigibert and the elevation of Childebert were separated by a great space from one another. To which is added that Marius of Avenches Ap. D. Bouquet, tom. II, pag. 18. reports the following: In the year X of the consulate of Justin the Younger, Augustus, ind. IX. In this year Sigibert, king of the Franks … was killed through fraud by the men of Chilperic, and Childebert his son took up his kingdom. Which most writers condemn as an error, as if the year 576 were designated by these words; but Gebhard Reges Francorum Merovingici, pag. 69., seeing that the indiction of Constantinople was employed, explains it in this manner: The year X of Justin from the 13th day of November 575 (rather, since the year I of his consulate began on the 1st day of January of the year 566 Art de vérifier les dates, tom. I, pag. 360., the year X ran from the 1st day of January of the year 575 to the end of December of the same year) and the indiction IX from the kalends of September 575 were current. Sigibert, therefore, perished by parricide in the year 575 in either the month of November or of December.
[4] [is gathered from those of St. Germanus of Paris and of Theodebert, son of Chilperic, he died.] These things being established, we must come to the time of the death of St. Germanus of Paris. From his biographer St. Venantius Fortunatus it is established that the blessed prelate died on the 28th day of the month of May, or the V of the kalends of June Ap. Migne. Patrologia latina, tom. LXXII, col. 78.. Now it altogether appears that in the year 575 after the end of the month of May the holy prelate was still among the living, seeing that, shortly before Sigibert was slain at the close of autumn, he directed threats at him: which St. Gregory of Tours narrates in these words: Sigibert, he says Historia Francorum, lib. IV, cap. LII, ap. D. Bouquet, tom. II, pag. 230., hearing that the Franks of Soissons, having abandoned Chilperic, were requesting that he should become their king, sent men to besiege his brother Chilperic in the above-mentioned city of Tournai, within whose walls he had fortified himself with his wife and sons Ibid. cap. LI, pag. cit., himself resolving to hasten there. To whom the holy bishop Germanus said: If you go away and are unwilling to kill your brother, you will return alive and a victor; but if you intend otherwise, you will die. These threats could not have been made except when Sigibert was next girding himself for the journey. But he prepared this expedition at the same time at which he sent the men of Dun and the Touraine against Theodebert, son of Chilperic by Audovera Ibid. cap. cit. pag. 229.; which could scarcely have been done before the month of October. For Theodebert in the first battle, which was fought eight miles from Angoulême beside the river Charente near the forest of Buxa Adhemari Chronicum, ap. D. Bouquet, tom. II, pag. 651, not. k., was overcome and laid low on the field S. Gregorius Tur. Hist. Franc. lib. IV, cap. LI, pag. 230.; so that between the deaths of Sigibert and of his nephew Theodebert there were only eighteen days Ibid. cap. LII, pag. 231., by which the latter died before his uncle. Moreover if anyone reads all of chapters LI and LII of book IV of the History of the Franks of St. Gregory of Tours, he will not be able not to see that the war which blazed up in the year 575 between Chilperic and Sigibert was undertaken, prepared and finished in a very short space of time; and accordingly that St. Germanus uttered after the middle of that year those words which we have just reported. From which it follows that he lived until the end of the month of May of the following year, and accordingly that the death of St. Senoch also is to be attached to the year 576. Godescard Vies des principaux saints, ad 24 Oct., the Maurists Art de vérifier les dates, tom. I, pag. 78. and others, by I know not what carelessness, have written that St. Senoch departed this life in the year of Christ 579; and the authors of the new Proper of the Saints of Luçon, in the year 577: but these things need no correction, but only an obelus.
[5] [He sprang from the most foul nation of the Taifals, who at the beginning of the 5th century had already settled in the diocese of Poitiers] St. Senoch, therefore, was born about the year 536, and indeed of Taifal parents and in the district of Poitou which they call Theiphalia, as St. Gregory of Tours says in the Life. The Taifals, moreover, as I have already intimated at the beginning of this commentary, were a foul nation, being part of the Scythian or Tartar stock, which now is represented chiefly by the nomads of Asia and at all times has been stained with the vice of sodomy. And indeed among the Taifals this stain was regulated by fixed laws and manners, so that no boys were free from this incest until by the slaying of a boar or a bear they had proved that they had become men. But on these things I have said enough in the Commentary on St. Ursula Act. SS. tom. IX Oct. pag. 137.; and the words of Ammianus Rerum gestarum lib. XXXI, num. 9. I neither wished to transcribe entire there, nor do I wish to now. Already in the year 401, about which the Notitia Imperii seems to have been compiled [Cfr D. Bouquet, tom. I, præf. pag. XIX et pag. 127; cfr Walckenaer, Géographie ancienne des Gaules, tom. II, pag. 375 et 376.], Taifals were settled, several in number, on the Loire among the Pictones. For in that book there is a singular place, in which it is explained what seats the Sarmatians (now we should say Tartars), Gentiles, or those who lived by their own, not by Roman, laws and manners, had throughout the Gauls, and how great was the jurisdiction of each of the prefects: and in it there comes first the prefect of the Gentile Sarmatians and Taifals at Poitiers in Gaul Ap. D. Bouquet, tom. I, pag. 128.. But Valesius judges that St. Senoch and the others who afterwards formed a distinct nation in the territory of Poitou and occupied the territory called Taifalia did not spring from these; but that these were rather the progeny of those who, under the leadership of Ataulf, king of the Goths, or
certainly under the leadership of King Goar with the Alans, a neighbouring nation, made for the Gauls and took up their seat in the territory of the Pictones around the Loire in the principate of Honorius; and this the more probably, because during the reign of Placidus Valentinian, the successor of Honorius, a part of the Alans settled across the river Loire, as Jordanes relates [Notitia Galliarum, pag. 543; Annales Francorum, lib. VIII, ad an. 457, tom. I, pag. 475 et 476.]. Indeed the Alans and Taifals were neighbouring nations, as were the Franks and Goths; but that the Alans then came into the Gauls no more entails that the Taifals came also, than that the Goths occupied almost the whole of the Gauls, because the Franks are read to have done so. It is much better, therefore, to agree with the abbé Dubos Histoire de l'établissement de la monarchie francaise, tom. IV, pag. 196 et 197. and Walckenaer Géographie ancienne des Gaules, tom. II, pag. 767., who judge that the Taifals of Poitou sprang from those whom we know to be inscribed in the Notitia imperii.
[6] and there they long formed a people distinct from the rest. This nation, clearly distinct from its neighbours, lasted until the XIth century and perhaps even later; nor is this surprising, since in face and the whole appearance of the body, in language and manners, it was plainly different from those in whom it could inspire nothing but horror, as it came very near to the Huns, whom we have described at length in the commentary on St. Ursula Act. SS. tom. IX Octobris, pag. 113 et seqq.. Moreover the same occurs here and there in Germany, and most of all in Transylvania, where you have Hungarians, Szeklers, Germans, Slavs, Armenians and others, keeping altogether apart from one another, although they often do not live separated in their seats. The little region, however, which the Taifals occupied in the Gauls and which thence retained the name of Taifalia or Teifalia, is a village of the Pictones, says Valesius Notitia Galliarum, pag. 543., situated between Clisson and Mortagne on the river Sèvre, which goes out into the Loire near Nantes, and today, with L changed into V, in place of Teifalia called Tifaugia *. But I should not wish to dwell on these things longer, since in the Commentary on St. Martin of Vertou, which I have also taken care to have printed in the present volume, I have inquired more accurately into the limits of Tifalgia and other neighbouring districts. See that place, then, if you desire more.
[7] [The clerical state and monastic life of St. Senoch do not appear to have been distinct; from a simple monk he becomes a deacon; in the ruins of Roman buildings] In what year of his life St. Senoch became a cleric no one will easily say; probably after he had completed his twenty-fifth year of age, since a little afterwards he became a deacon: which order the canons of that age forbade to be conferred on younger men [Cfr Martene, De antiquis ecclesiæ ritibus, lib. I, cap. VIII, art. III, num. 4, tom. II, pag. 274 et seqq.]. And by this we are brought to the year of Christ 561; and certainly it could not have been done before the year 556, in which Euphronius, who laid hands on him, ascended the see of Tours. Moreover in which of the two dioceses, of Poitiers or of Tours, he embraced the clerical institutes cannot be gathered from the Life; but from the words of the History of the Franks, reported above, it is manifest that this was done by him in the diocese of Tours. For the rest, I greatly doubt whether he assumed the clerical state by one rite, the monastic by another. Since namely by the clerical state men become the portion and inheritance of the Lord and are transferred from secular cares to the management of divine business, and since monks too are held to be a singular possession of God, separated from the world and its allurements, the monastic order, these are the words of Ruinart Præf. ad S. Gregorium Turon., num. 35, ap. D. Bouquet, tom. II, pag. 88., was by then so joined to the clerical state that it was the same to be a monk as a cleric: which Louis Thomassin proves at length and with his usual erudition: and indeed, as we observe here and there in their places, those whom Gregory calls clerics at the beginning of a chapter, he afterwards names monks; indeed it seems certain that the monastic state was so held in place of the clerical that monks were ordained deacons without receiving the four minor orders and the subdiaconate [Cfr Examen historicum et canonicum de clericorum regularium et sæcularium juribus, pag. 150.]; and in that manner, as is read in the Life, Euphronius, the blessed bishop of Tours, gave St. Senoch the honour of the diaconate. Blessed Senoch, therefore, did not exchange his profession for another, when, as St. Gregory says, converted to the Lord and made a cleric, he established a monastery for himself; but rather from the beginning of his conversion he joined solitude of place with solitude of heart. In the sixth century, however, monks scarcely thought of building ample monasteries, such as were afterwards founded in so great a number. At that time they can be seen everywhere going to caves, made by nature or by hand; or if there were none in the neighbourhood, constructing huts of earth, straw and leaves; and esteeming themselves most blessed if anywhere they found ruins of temples, baths, country houses, and other buildings which Romans or others had once erected. Nor were these rare in the Gauls, which had suffered so many and so great evils from the barbarians. Hear the author of the Poem on Divine Providence Ap. D. Bouquet, tom. I, pag. 777.:
By what crime committed have so many cities perished alike? What evil have so many places, so many peoples deserved? If the whole Ocean had poured itself over the Gallic fields, More would have survived its wasting waters… What force of fire and rain has taken away the houses of estates, Of which it is sadder that some stand empty.
Hence very many of the older abbeys may be seen everywhere in the Gauls established in the ruins of ancient buildings Alb. Lenoir, Architecture monastique, pag. 19 et seqq.; nor can it seem surprising to anyone that St. Senoch found within the bounds of the territory of Tours ancient walls, which, clearing them of debris, he fitted into worthy dwellings from the ruins. For the rest, when we read of monasteries in the writings of that age, let us by no means think that they were always thronged with a number of inhabitants. For they often held only one, two, three or four monks, as a few years ago innumerable ones still survived in Greece, before the Hellenic government wished these small asceteria suppressed Didron, Annales archéologiques, tom. I, pag. 10.; and thus at num. 1 of his Life St. Senoch is said to have gathered only three monks.
[8] [the remains of similar ones having been found not so long ago in the village of St. Senoch, he established a small monastery.] There is still extant today, adds Ruinart on this passage of the Life, a village not far from the town of Loches, sacred to his name, commonly Saint-Senou, where he is believed to have lived; but no ruins of the monastery are seen there, as it was destroyed long ago. Now this place, lying between Luccæ (Loches) and Ligolium (Ligueil), about midway, to the south-east of the road by which both towns are joined, is commonly called Saint-Senoch in more recent books. That there could easily have been a Roman stopping-place there a recent writer affirms [Touchard Lafosse, La Loire historique, pittoresque et biographique, tom. IV, pag. 254.], because there passed this way the public road by which one went from Cæsarodunum, or Tours, to Vetus Pictavus. But that writer errs in this, that he thought that Vetus Pictavus, situated in the parish of Clenon, XV M. P. from Poitiers towards the north, was the former Limonum or Limunum, to which one went from Cæsarodunum by a paved road of LXIII M. P. [Tabula Theodosiana ap. Walckenaer, Géographie ancienne des Gaules, tom. III, pag. 57.]. But it is not so; for Limonum is most certainly the modern city of Poitiers; while Vetus Pictavus, known from the VIIIth or IXth century, seems to have been the chief place of a distinct people established among the Pictones Walckenaer, tom. I, pag. 364 et 365.. Moreover it is by no means credible that a public road from Cæsarodunum towards Limonum was once led through Loches or through the village of St. Senoch; for Loches and the village of St. Senoch lie much too far to the east; so that if that road had been carried through here, it would have been not LXIII M. P. long, which are indicated in the Theodosian Table and by which Poitiers and Tours are still distant from one another in a straight line Ibid. tom. III, pag. 57., but much more. For other reasons, therefore, the Romans had erected buildings there; and indeed when not so long ago a fish-pond was being made by digging up the earth near the present castle or manor-house, fragments of mosaic work and other structures were discovered, which agree with the words of St. Gregory Touchard-Lafosse, La Loire Historique etc. tom. IV, pag. 254..
[9] St. Gregory of Tours could have known him for only three years. St. Senoch was ordained deacon, as has been said, by St. Euphronius, who occupied the see of Tours immediately before St. Gregory; and I should think that he was ordained presbyter by the same, since, if he had received the order of the presbyterate from St. Gregory himself, the blessed historian would seemingly have said so; and would not have noted it in passing and hurriedly, as he has done at num. 3 of the Life. For the rest, St. Gregory knew Blessed Senoch for only three years; so that the grave fault of pride, which you have at num. 2 of the Life, happened in the last times of the holy abbot. For it seems to us much more probable that St. Gregory was ordained bishop not in the year 572, as most prefer, but in the following year, namely on the 24th day of the month of August, which was the feast of St. Bartholomew. For to pass over all the calculations scattered in the works of St. Gregory, which you would try in vain to reconcile with one another, he himself says at the beginning of book II of the Miracles of St. Martin, or, as he puts it, of the miracles which were done after we came S. Gregorii Turonensis Opp. edit. Ruinart, col. 1038., that he received the episcopal burden while the most glorious King Sigibert was reigning in his twelfth year, and at the end of book X of the History of the Franks Ibid. col. 536. that after the death of St. Euphronius, who is venerated on the 4th day of August, the episcopate was vacant for nineteen days; now since Clotaire I died in the month of December of the year 561 [Valesius, Rerum francicarum, lib. VIII, tom. I, pag. 587. Cfr Gebhardus, Reges Merovingici, pag. 51.] and Sigibert immediately succeeded him in the kingdom of Austrasia, on the 24th day of August of the year 573 the twelfth year of this king was current: which opinion also pleased a recent and not undiligent biographer of St. Gregory Loebell, Gregor von Tours und seine Zeit, pag. 8 et 9..
Annotation* Tifauge.
§ II. The cult of St. Senoch, begun immediately after his death, and its spread through Burgundy, through the territory of Tours, Lesser Britain and the diocese of Luçon.
[As is clear from the inscription and the pall spread over the sepulchre, St. Senoch was venerated immediately after his death;] When Blessed Senoch, while he lived, was famous for miracles
above all, it is no wonder if he began to be venerated shortly after his death. Certainly not long afterwards the title of saint and blessed was given to him and adhered to him thereafter, as is established from St. Gregory of Tours. For the title of the Life, which is read among the Lives of the Fathers, is: Of St. Senoch the abbot; in the body of which he is twice called Blessed Senoch and once a holy priest; in the book of the Glory of the blessed confessors, however, he refrains from this title, unless he is to be judged to have given it to him by the very fact that he celebrated his praises there; and finally in the History of the Franks he also reports him among the holy men and calls him the blessed presbyter Senoch. Add to these things that immediately after his death the sick came to his tomb: an example of which is a certain cripple Chaidulf, who (as is narrated at the end of the Life) on the thirtieth day from the death of Blessed Senoch came to his burial-place and was restored to health. In the book of the Glory of the Confessors, moreover, a singular miracle is narrated, which afterwards took place at the same sepulchre, and at the end the following is added: But also many feverish persons, held by the trouble of those and other diseases, as soon as they have either plucked off fringes of his pall or touched them, are healed. Nor is that pall itself to be lightly passed over, which was already placed on the sepulchre on the thirtieth day after his death, as is established from the end of the Life, where it is called palla. For on this matter Ruinart observes the following [Præfatio ad Opp. S. Gregorii Turonensis, num. 53, ap. D. Bouquet, tom. II, pag. 96.]: This, moreover, seems to have been a mark of sanctity, if a pall was placed on anyone's tomb. Hence Gregory observes that the honour due to a certain holy presbyter had not been paid, because his tomb, adjoining another, could be neither adorned with a pall nor illuminated with candles because of the narrowness of the place Cfr Liber de gloria confessorum, cap. XXVII, Opp. col. 917.. Beware, however, of holding sepulchral palls as well as lights to be a certain sign of beatification. For palls were once placed, or rather spread, over the sepulchres of all honoured men Cfr Cangius, Glossarium latinum, V° Pallæ sepulcrales.; just as one can also find testaments of bishops, ordering that lights be lit every year on the anniversary of their death over their sepulchres; and so it must be judged from the circumstances whether these things were done from ecclesiastical or civil veneration. But it is plainly manifest that these honours were conferred on St. Senoch as a holy patron and intercessor with God.
[11] [he communicates his name to two villages: his sepulchre and relics are transferred to Sassenay in Burgundy;] That his name adhered to this little village, in which St. Senoch had his monastery and then obtained burial, we have already mentioned before. The church which was erected there with a parish benefice, depending on the patronage of the greater archdeacon of Tours and the collation of the archbishop and yielding a thousand livres in the middle of the XVIIth century Pouillé général de l'archevêché de Tours, pag. 36, Paris, 1648., had the same title. In a recent illustrator of these parts I find that the church of St. Senoch was destroyed long ago and the parish transferred to the priory of Barbe-Neuve, subject to the abbey of Fontevrault and existing there from the beginning of the XIIth century Touchard-Lafosse, La Loire Historique etc. tom. IV, pag. 255.. Against which I shall however observe that in the topographical maps of Cassini the church of St. Senoch is still marked and that Barbe-Neuve there lies altogether to the east of the village. Next, there was sent to me from Luçon the following fragment of the commentaries on which the new Proper of the Saints of Luçon relied when it was offered to the sacred congregation of rites in the year 1853 for approval: From time immemorial a parish church in the diocese of Tours has been dedicated under the name of St. Senoch. About the beginning of the XIVth century it was rebuilt. This church of St. Senoch is dealt with in an old charter, which seems to experts to be of the XIIth century, in the Cartulary of the archbishopric of Tours; so that it seems certain that that church still exists, but was renewed in the XIVth century. In Lesser Britain, in the present diocese of Rennes, there is another parish to which St. Senoch communicated his name and which is therefore commonly called Saint-Senou Dictionnaire universel de la France, tom. IV, pag. 666.. Moreover, as I understand from a note subjoined to the Life of St. Senoch, which under the name of St. Enoch on the 5th day of November of the year 1653 Fr. Claude Perry, historian of Chalon, sent from Dijon to our Bolland, St. Enoch is patron of the church and parish of Sassenay, commonly Sasseney. The village is near Chalon and distant from it one league. His power shines especially in healing consumptive and wasted bodies of children. It is wonderful to say how many are brought to his sepulchre from all sides and from the whole neighbourhood; who, when vows have been fulfilled by their parents or nurses, generally recover from this infirmity. It is not known at what time and in what way both some relics of his and his sepulchre were carried there. His Life has been rendered into French to foster the veneration of the faithful towards him. For my part I cannot doubt that that most holy treasure was carried there in the IXth century; in which so many other relics of saints, previously resting on the left bank of the Loire, after many wanderings undertaken through fear of the Normans, arrived in the same parts, namely at Tournus. On this matter I have said more at the XVIth day of October in the Commentary on St. Vitalis Act. SS. tom. VI Octobris, pag. 1095.; and the same subject, so far as it concerns the perils of relics in that age in these tracts, I have treated again at this day in the Commentary on St. Martin of Vertou and at the preceding day in the Commentary on St. Benedict of Quincay. On the same occasion the monastery once erected by St. Senoch will easily have perished. The feast of St. Senoch, or Enoch, was celebrated at Sassenay on the 29th day of October, and the Life written by St. Gregory of Tours was recited, divided into nine lessons.
[12] here and in the monastery of St. Margaret of Beaune he is called St. Enoch; The diocese of Autun adjoins that of Chalon on the west; nor is it surprising, accordingly, that the cult of St. Senoch penetrated there also. Certainly, as is read in Gonon Vitæ Patrum Occidentis, lib. II, pag. 113., an office of nine lessons was said of him in the Breviary of the church of Blessed Mary * of Belna, commonly of Beaune, of the diocese of the Ædui, otherwise of Autun, d'Autun; where he is called Enoch, as also in the diocese of Chalon. But although in the middle of the XVIIth century revenues of twelve thousand livres were attached to the office of the abbot of St. Margaret Pouillé général du diocèse d'Autun, pag. 42. and doubtless as many to the table of the canons of St. Augustine who inhabited that monastery, yet that institute perished through the voracity of commendatory abbots Gallia christiana nova, tom. IV, col. 490.; so that in the year 1726 the revenues were only two thousand four hundred livres Beaunier, Recueil des archevêchés etc. de France, pag. 419., and there were no longer any canons there, but only some presbyter to perform the divine service Ibid. loc. cit. et Gallia christiana nova, tom. IV, col. 491.; nor did the fortune of this place afterwards become better Histoire de l'église d'Autun, pag. 578, Autun, 1774.. Whether there were once relics of St. Senoch there is unknown to me; certainly they are not indicated by Claude Saulnier, by whom alone I find some pious pledges of this asceterium to have been noted Autun chrétien, pag. 135 et 136, Autun, 1686.: but among these there is no indication of St. Senoch. But we must return to the parts in which the most holy hermit lived.
[13] he is venerated by ecclesiastical office in the dioceses of Tours Beyond all memory of man the memory of the blessed man is festively kept in the diocese of Tours. Here is what the people of Luçon wrote to Rome on this matter, when in the year 1853 (as I said a little above) they requested that the new proper offices be approved: The feast of St. Senoch is indicated in the calendar of a manuscript missal of Tours, written in the IXth century. (In the library of the minor seminary of Tours.) The feast of St. Senoch is indicated in the Order of ecclesiastical service according to the use of the church of Tours, written in the XIVth century; but whose redaction belongs to the XIIth century; as appears from a manuscript note at the end of the last leaf. His office is read in the Breviary of the collegiate church of St. Martin of Tours, printed in the year 1525; and likewise in the Breviary of the year 1625, which is preserved in our museum; but it is simple, or of three lessons, and not even the collect is proper. Likewise in the diocesan breviary of Tours of the year 1546, and the Mass in the Missal of Tours of the same year. But in the Breviary of the year 1612 a simple office is ordered to be said of St. Martin of Vertou, and a bare commemoration of St. Senoch. On the contrary in the Orders for reciting the divine office of the years 1830, 1835 and 1844, which I have before me, a simple office of St. Senoch and a commemoration of St. Martin are prescribed. Hence the people of Luçon wrote to Rome: He still has an office and mass in the diocese of Tours. On the contrary in the diocese of Poitiers, from which the blessed man came, he has never (unless perhaps now more recently) obtained ecclesiastical veneration. For I have at hand the Proper of the Saints of the diocese of Poitiers, adapted to the form of the Roman Breviary by decree of the Right Reverend bishop and of the chapter of the church of Poitiers of the year 1613, and likewise the Brief or Order for reciting the divine office for the year 1826, and in neither book is anything read of St. Senoch.
[14] and Luçon; But not so long ago in the diocese of Luçon, which in the year 1317 was cut off from the diocese of Poitiers, St. Senoch began to be venerated with an office from the common of abbots, of double rite, his feast being deferred to the 26th day of October, because the 24th is occupied by the feast of St. Raphael the archangel; for which purpose the S. R. Congregation approved the following lessons: LESSON IV: Senoch, a Theifal by nation, and sprung from Theiphalia in the region of Poitou, in his zeal for perfection forsaking his kindred, made for the territory of Tours, and being made a cleric there, established a monastery for himself near a ruined oratory, in which St. Martin was said to have frequently prayed. By his care the altar of the repaired oratory was consecrated by blessed Euphronius of Tours; who then ordained him deacon, and he was afterwards raised to the honour of the presbyterate. Serving God there with three monks, then shut up alone in a cell, he shone forth by great abstinence, charity towards the poor, whose want he relieved with the alms given him, and assiduous prayers. LESSON V. Famous for so many virtues, going out from his cell, not without some sting of vanity, he went away to Theiphalia to visit his parents. But having returned to Tours, warned by blessed Gregory of Tours of the danger of pride, thoroughly purged of boasting, he applied himself with new zeal to humility and the other virtues: becoming famous for the grace of healing,
he wished to withdraw himself from human sight by perpetual enclosure; but the blessed bishop dissuading him, humble and obedient, he acquiesced. Finally, in about the fortieth year of his age, and about the five hundred and seventy-seventh * of Christ, he departed to heaven. His merits, and the signs with which he shone both living and dead, St. Gregory of Tours celebrated in his writings. LESSON VI. A sermon of St. Gregory, Bishop of Tours. In the Lives of the Fathers, chap. XV, on St. Senoch. The saints of God, whom no of lusts up to had recovered.
[15] he is praised in many martyrologies. Although the cult of St. Senoch is so ancient, yet his name is read in none of the martyrologies commonly called classic. But it occurs in several of the Usuardine auctaria; in such a way however that in some, after the Touraine custom, he is called Senoch, in others, after the Burgundian custom, Enoch. The earlier and genuine form is retained by the very ancient codex of Anchin in the diocese of Arras, that of Daveron in the diocese of Chartres, and that of Tours, formerly partly transcribed by Chastelain; likewise the edition of Belinus, patched together from all sides and showing Senoc, that of Molanus, which followed the Belgian codices; and Wion in the Lignum Vitæ at this day; on the contrary the Lubeck-Cologne edition and that of Greven, and even the abbot of Messina in Sicily, Francis Maurolycus (from whom Ferrarius doubtless took the commemoration which he inserted in his general catalogue of saints), report Enoch. In those various auctaria, moreover, that memory of St. Senoch appears in more than one way; but the primitive and true one, according to the Anchin copy, is this: In the district of Tours, at the castle of Loches, of St. Senoch confessor and abbot. Those who in the XVIIth century and after compiled martyrologies in the Gauls all to a man celebrate at this day the memory of St. Senoch. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, according to his custom, praises him at length; Chastelain in the Universal Martyrology comes very near to the Usuardine auctaria, except that he omits the words: In the district of Tours; Cardinal de Noailles in the Martyrology of Paris approved the insertion of these words: In the territory of Tours, of St. Senoch abbot, whose life blessed Gregory of Tours wrote, and testifies that he was most famous for miracles and most generous towards the poor: likewise Peter Rochechouart in the Martyrology of Evreux these a little shorter: In the territory of Tours, of St. Senoch abbot, whose Life, notable for virtues and miracles, Gregory of Tours wrote; and finally Charles de Caylus these others in the Martyrology of Auxerre: At Loches in the Touraine, of St. Senoch, presbyter and solitary, whose virtues and miracles Gregory of Tours, an eyewitness, wrote. Finally his name is read in the Poitevin litanies Ap. Labbe, Bibliotheca mss. tom. II, pag. 730., of which I should not think there was ever a liturgical use, and of which it has already been said in the Commentary on St. Benedict of Quincay. It belongs also in some degree to the cult of Blessed Senoch that his Life is contained in the Legendaries of Giry, Baillet, Godescard, Peton etc. Here, then, follows the Life, written by St. Gregory of Tours, the origin and source of all other Lives.
Annotations* Margaret
* sixth
On St. Senoch, Abbot.
From the Lives of the Fathers of St. Gregory of Tours according to the edition of Ruinart and the manuscript codex of Sassenay.
Senoch, also called Enoch, presbyter and abbot, in the territory of Tours. (S.)
BHL Number: 7577
BY V. D. B.
The holiest men can perish by pride, as the example of Blessed Senoch teaches. Vanity of the vain a, says Ecclesiastes, and all is vanity. Eccle. 1, 2. Is it true, then, that all things that are done in the world are all vanity? Whence it comes about that the saints of God, whom no heat of lusts has burned up, no sting of concupiscence has stirred, whom no filth of luxury has tempted even, so to speak, in thought itself, lifted up by the cunning of the tempter, have seemed to themselves to be most just, and, puffed up by this arrogance of tragic boasting, have often fallen: and it has so happened that those whom the sword of greater crimes had no power to slaughter, the smoke of light vanity easily destroyed when they were given over to it. As he too, of whom our discourse is now to be, when he had flourished in many virtues, would almost have fallen overwhelmed in that abyss of arrogance, had not the attentive exhortation of faithful brothers recovered him.
[2] [Blessed Senoch, a Taifal by race and nation, restores among ruined walls an oratory, visited by St. Martin, which, not without a prodigy, St. Euphronius consecrates, placing relics there. There with three monks he begins a severe kind of life, and helps the poor and slaves.] Blessed Senoch, then, a Theiphal by race, was sprung from the district of Poitou b which they call Theiphalia c, and converted to the Lord, and having been made a cleric d, he established a monastery for himself e. For he found within the bounds of the territory of Tours ancient walls, which, clearing them of debris, he fitted into worthy dwellings from the ruins; and he found there an oratory, in which our celebrated Martin was said to have prayed. This being arranged with diligent care, an altar raised, and a niche prepared in it for receiving relics of the saints, he invites the bishop to bless it. Blessed bishop Euphronius then came, who, having consecrated the altar, gave him the honour of the diaconate. Mass f, then, having been celebrated, when they desired to place the little case of relics in the niche, the case proved too long, and could not be received into the niche. Then the deacon, prostrate with the priest himself, prone in prayer, poured out tears mingled with prayers, and obtained what he asked. Wonderful to say! for the niche was so divinely enlarged, and the little case so contracted, that it was received into it most spaciously, not without wonder. In this place, having gathered three monks, he served the Lord assiduously, and above all walked in the narrow path of life, taking scanty food and meagre drink: and in the days of holy Lent there was added an increase of abstinence by a lessening of food. For his food was barley bread only, and water, taking of both elements one pound each day: enduring the rigour of winter without any covering of the feet g, and bound with an iron chain on hands and feet, and also the neck h. Then, removed from the sight of the brothers, he shut himself up alone in a cell, praying assiduously, and persevering without doubt in vigils and prayers day and night. The devotion of the faithful often brought him money; but he stored it not in hidden purses, but in the purses of the poor, often recalling that oracle of the Lord's speech: Do not lay up for yourselves treasure upon earth, for where your treasure is, there also is your heart. Matth. VI, 19 et 21. For he gave what he received out of regard for God for the various necessities of the needy. Whence it came about that in his life he relieved of these more than two hundred from the bond of slavery and the burden of debt.
[3] [Having visited his parents, he falls into pride, from which he is freed by the help of St. Gregory of Tours. The times of his enclosure.] When we had come to the Touraine i, he came out of his cell, and came to seek us out; and having saluted and kissed us k, he went back again. For he was, as we have said, very abstinent, healing the sicknesses of the infirm: but as sanctity from abstinence, so from sanctity vanity began to creep in. For coming out of his cell, in tragic boasting he went away to seek out and visit his parents in the district of Poitou, which we have mentioned above. And having returned, swollen with arrogance he strove to please himself alone; but rebuked by us, and having received the reason that the proud are far from the kingdom of God, being purged of boasting he rendered himself so humble that no root of pride whatever remained in him; so that he professed, saying: now I know to be true what the blessed apostle testifies by the speech of his holy mouth: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. I Cor. I, 31. But when the Lord through him worked many miracles upon the sick, and he resolved to shut himself in so as never to appear to human sight, we urged the counsel that he should not bind himself perpetually in this enclosure, except only on those days which lie between the deposition of St. Martin l and the solemnity of the Lord's Birth, or likewise on those forty days which the authority of the fathers has decreed to be spent in the highest abstinence before the paschal feasts; but that on the other days he should make himself available to the people for the sake of the sick. Having heard our counsel, he gladly accepted what was said, and fulfilled it without doubt.
[4] St. Senoch heals the blind and crippled; Finally, since we have spoken a little of his manner of life, let us come to the miracles which the healing right hand of divine power deigned to work through him. A certain blind man, Popusitus by name, came to him; for Blessed Senoch was by then ordained a presbyter. While he was asking for some food, his eyes being touched by the hand of the holy priest, when he had merited the saving sign, he at once received his sight. Another boy also, of Poitiers, labouring under a disease of this kind, having heard of the works of this confessor, prays for the recovery of his lost sight. Nor does he delay, but calling on the name of Christ, he places a cross on the eyes of the blind boy, and at once, as a stream of blood flowed down, light entered, and after a course of twenty years the radiance of twin stars shone forth on the bereaved brow. Two boys crippled in all their limbs, and drawn together into a round shape like a ball, were carried into his sight: laying his hands on them, their limbs being made whole, in the moment of one hour he rendered both free; and then he doubled the benefit of twin power. A boy with a girl stood before him with contracted hands: and it was then the middle of the festival of the paschal solemnity; and when they begged the servant of God for the remedy of their straightening, and he was putting off these things because of the crowd of people which had assembled at the church, crying out that he was unworthy that God should deign through him to grant benefits to the sick, all begging him, he took their hands in his hands; and having handled them, the fingers being straightened, he orders them to go away sound. So too Benaia, for this was the name of the woman, bringing closed eyes, blessed by the touch of the healing right hand, went away enlightened.
[5] [he checks the poison of serpents; by a blessing he removes a branch adhering to a hand because of the violated Lord's day, and works other prodigies. He has a singular love for the poor and builds bridges.] But I do not think I should conceal this either, that his prayer often obtained the emptying of the poison of serpents. For two men swollen from the bite of a water-snake prostrate themselves at his feet, begging that by his power he would dispel the poison which the tooth of the evil beast had injected into their dying limbs. But he poured out a prayer to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, who in the beginning created all the elements of the world, and decreed that that serpent, rival of human dignities, should be under a curse *, drive away from these your servants the evil of this poison, that the serpent may not be able to triumph over them, but they over the serpent. When he had said this, he stroked the whole frame of their body, and at once, the swelling being checked, the deadly poison lost its power of harming. The day of the Lord's resurrection had come, and a certain man, as he was going to church, saw a multitude of cattle grazing on his crop, and he groaned and said: Woe is me, for the work of my yearly labour so perishes, that nothing
at all of it remains. And taking an axe, he cut off branches and began to close the opening in the hedge: and at once his hand, contracted, held against its will what it had grasped voluntarily. Driven by pain too, he came sorrowfully to the holy confessor, drawing after him the branch which he had gripped in his hand, and he narrated everything as it had happened. Then he, anointing the hand with his hand with oil sanctified by a blessing, the branch being drawn away, restored it to health. Moreover he afterwards rendered many to safety from the bite of serpents, and from the poison of a malignant pustule, by placing the sign of the cross over them, and some possessed by the malice of a savage demon, as soon as he laid hands on them, the demons being at once put to flight, he restored the mind troubled by the possessing energy to soundness of understanding. For all whom the divine right hand saved through him from various infirmities, if they were needy, he himself provided with food and clothing in cheerful distribution; and so great was his care for the poor, that he even diligently built bridges m over the beds of rivers, lest anyone should bewail cruel shipwrecks in the surging waters.
[6] [A pious death; the concourse of freedmen at his funeral; the honour of a pall applied to the sepulchre; miracles.] Declared famous among the peoples in these virtues, then, when he was about forty years of age, struck by a moderate fever, he lay on his bed for three days, and it was announced to me when his passing was near. And I, hurrying there swiftly, came to his bed; but I could draw no conversation from him, for he was greatly exhausted: then, after an interval of about the space of an hour, he breathed out his spirit. And there gathered at his funeral that multitude of the redeemed, whom we said above were released by him either from the yoke of slavery or from various debts, whom he either nourished with food or covered with clothing. For they mourned, saying: To whom do you leave us, Holy Father n? After this, being placed in burial, he often declared himself by manifest miracles. For on the thirtieth day from his death, when mass was being celebrated at his tomb, Chaidulf, a certain cripple, while begging for alms, came to his burial-place: and while he venerated with kisses the pall placed over it o, the bonds of his limbs being loosened, he was straightened. And I learned that many other things were done there, of which I have committed only these to memory.
[7] [Nantulf, a blind man, is healed at the tomb; likewise other sick persons, on touching the pall.] The Life of Senoch [p was written by us long ago. In which booklet, having recorded many of his miracles, we made an end: but since a miracle appeared at his tomb, it was absurd for us to keep silent. Now the boy Nantulf, held by excessive blindness and continually bewailing even his very adolescence of early age because of this affliction, sought the tomb of this saint; and prostrate, and supported by humble prayer, he begs that by his suffrage his lost light may be called back to him. Persevering in this prayer for four days, with his eyes unlocked he went away enlightened. And now too many held by the trouble of fevers and other diseases, as soon as they have either plucked off fringes of his pall or touched them, are healed.]
ANNOTATIONS.
p. In the book of the Glory of the confessors, from which we have transferred this number here, it is chapter XXV with the title: On Abbot Senoch.
* Gen. III.