Celsinus

ON ST. CELSINUS, PRESBYTER AND CONFESSOR, AT REIMS IN GAUL,

ABOUT THE YEAR 802.

SYLLOGE.

Celsinus, presbyter and confessor, at Reims in Gaul. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

Single §. The sacred calendars. The association of St. Celsinus with St. Remigius. The sacred building under his patronage. Relics. Cult.

Whoever is not plainly a stranger in hagiographical matters must know the Usuardine codex called by our predecessors that of Herines. St. Celsinus, recorded in the sacred calendars This codex indeed is not very ancient, since it was written at the end of the 11th century; but it has this proper to itself that it represents the first edition of the Martyrology which Usuard published, and lacks many additions which the Parisian martyrologist himself added to the autograph codex of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, or the later edition of this his Martyrology. That codex of Herines is however not altogether pure, but has some additions pertaining to the province and especially to the city of Reims. Among these comes today the following announcement: On the same day, the deposition of St. Celsinus, presbyter and confessor; which announcement Galesini also has in the Martyrology of the Holy Roman Church, except that he has substituted for the words on the same day: At Reims; but in the codex of Usuard of SS. Timothy and Apollinaris of Reims and in the edition of Bellini these words are read: At Reims, of St. Celsinus, disciple of St. Remigius; in the edition of Molanus: At Reims, of St. Celsinus, confessor and presbyter, disciple of St. Remigius Martyrologium Usuardi, edition of Sollerius, pages 627 and 628.; in the very ancient Der codex of Usuard Dom Bouillart, Usuardi Sangermanensis monachi martyrologium sincerum, page 175.: At the metropolis of Reims, of St. Celsinus, confessor; in the general Catalogue of the saints of Ferrari: At Reims in Gaul, of St. Celsinus, presbyter; in the Martyrology of Paris of Cardinal de Noailles: On the same day, of St. Celsinus, presbyter of Laon, whose relics are preserved at Reims; and finally in the Universal Martyrology of Chastelain: At Laon, of St. Celsinus (commonly St. Soussin), presbyter, whose relics are preserved at Reims in the underground chapel of St. Maur, beside the church of St. Balsamia.

[2] [and praised more copiously but less sincerely by du Saussay, but best in the more recent Breviary of Reims,] Much more copious, according to his custom, is du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology: At Laon, he says, of St. Celsinus, confessor and presbyter; who, son of Blessed Balsamia, the nurse of St. Remigius, and made from his foster-brother his disciple, in a short time excelled his contemporaries, and even his elders, in maturity of morals, in the spirit of divine fear, in charity, in piety, and in every spirit of religion. But disdaining the crowds of the people, from desire of divine contemplation, shutting himself in a cell at Laon with the leave of the holy pontiff himself, he soldiered for Christ Jesus in all purity of spirit up to his last breath. Then, consummated by a peaceful end, he hastened to the enjoyment of the longed-for vision of the Lord. His body, flashing with the lightnings of divine power, carried to Reims, was replaced with fitting honor in its own little shrine; in which Blessed Balsamia his mother, then buried, by the lights of holiness which she put forth, claimed for herself the patronage of that church which is now called that of the Holy Nurse. But since there are many difficulties in these things, in the Breviary of the metropolitan church of Reims, which Louis of Lorraine, archbishop, had printed in the year 1630, it was indeed ordered that memory be made with a simple rite of St. Celsinus, confessor; but no lesson, nothing proper was set forth. In the year 1759 Armand Jules de Rohan, archbishop, acted somewhat more liberally toward the blessed man. In the Breviary

For in the Breviary which he published in this year, he willed that the following be added at the end of the ninth lesson: Today is commemorated the memory of St. Celsinus, presbyter, son of St. Balsamia, and disciple of St. Remigius. His relics are preserved in the collegiate church of St. Balsamia or of the Nurse, which formerly, on account of the aforesaid relics of St. Celsinus, was called the church of St. Celsinus. And in these things you have what is carried about at Reims concerning St. Celsinus.

[3] [he was already long since celebrated by Flodoard. He does not seem to have been a foster-brother of St. Remigius,] These things rest for the most part on the following words of Flodoard, the most celebrated historian of Reims of the 10th century [Hist. Ecclesiæ Remensis, book I, ch. 10, in Migne, Latin Patrology, vol. CXXXV, col. 44.]: Blessed Balsamia is reported to have been the nurse of this most blessed Remigius, who is recorded to have been the mother of St. Celsinus; who also himself is asserted to have been a familiar disciple of blessed Remigius, and is known also to have shone afterwards with miracles, and is still held distinguished chiefly by the vows of the just: in whose church also his blessed mother herself rests. That St. Celsinus was a disciple of St. Remigius I shall willingly grant; but that he was his foster-brother, or that his mother St. Balsamia was the nurse of St. Remigius, no prudent person will admit. For, as our Suysken has already remarked in the Commentary on St. Remigius Acta SS. vol. 1 of October, page 68., Hincmar reported nothing like this, indeed something far different, relating in the Life, nn. 4 and 5, in the manner of a prodigy, that his mother Cilinia, as Montanus had foretold, already an old woman, suckled her son, and after she had weaned him, smearing with her milk the eyes of the same Montanus, restored his sight to him. Flodoard narrates almost the same, book I, ch. 10, not sufficiently consistently with what is said of St. Balsamia. Is the word NURSE perhaps taken more broadly, as a carrier, or is it used by Flodoard for her to whom the care of the infant and the rest of the upbringing is entrusted? So indeed one part of the objected difficulties will cease, but not all; because on account of the silence of Hincmar a doubt will stick with me lest that opinion, lightly born, received all its weight from Flodoard, than whom I have read of no older author cited by anyone for it, and who only in the fifth century after St. Remigius, the word IS REPORTED being cautiously added, committed it to writing. But what can be added to or taken from this most prudent censure I for my part do not see.

[4] nor a hermit of Laon, but a disciple of St. Remigius and a presbyter of Reims. But when the things reported about the sharing of milk with St. Remigius totter, the things said about the fatherland of St. Celsinus must totter with them. Certainly since St. Remigius was born and grew up in the district of Laon Acta SS., vol. I of October, page 67., his nurse too, if he had any, and his foster-brother, would have to be said to have lived there: but as soon as these things are no longer firm, there is nothing on which we can safely rely; unless other sound documents are available, which here are wished for in vain. On the other hand that St. Celsinus was a presbyter becomes known from the Usuardine codex of Herines; nor is there anything to doubt on that matter. Whether of Laon or of Reims is a difficult question. Since he was a disciple of St. Remigius and remained a familiar of the blessed man, and since he was buried at Reims, it can scarcely be understood how it could happen that he was not a presbyter of Reims. But he made for the diocese of Laon, divided from that of Reims in the time of St. Remigius, fleeing the crowds of the city of the Remi, and there spent his life in a cell, and died, and afterwards his body was translated to Reims: so du Saussay, with whom Chastelain and Cardinal de Noailles seem to agree. But on what old testimonies do these things rest? I for my part see none; on the contrary it appears to me manifestly that these things have arisen from a certain singular confusion of matters. After the words, namely, which I have recited at n. 3, Flodoard continues thus: Blessed Remigius, handed over by his parents to a school to be steeped in letters, in a short time was made more eminent in doctrine than his contemporaries, and even his elders. Surpassing all his fellow pupils in maturity of morals and charity of benevolence, striving to avoid the crowds of the peoples, and to serve the Lord in solitude, which he also obtained, the pious young man, having by his zeal for holy conversation a place of enclosure, soldiered for Christ at Laon. But when he reached the twenty-second year of his age, the aforesaid venerable Bennadius, archbishop in this city of Reims, having died, by the general wishes of all he is known not so much to have been elected as to have been seized to the summit of the pontificate. And those things which Flodoard so openly said of St. Remigius, du Saussay referred to St. Celsinus. Much better therefore Lelong [Histoire du diocèse de Laon et du pays renfermé entre l'Oise et la Meuse etc., page 38.], who after du Saussay, Chastelain and de Noailles wrote the history of the diocese of Laon, plainly omitted the enclosure of St. Celsinus at Laon.

[5] [He is read to have subscribed the longer testament of St. Remigius, and about the year 532 he seems to have met his end at Reims, not at Laon.] Whether St. Celsinus is the same who in the longer testament of St. Remigius (which seems to have been unknown to Hincmar, and for this and other causes was rejected by our predecessors Acta SS., vol. I of October, page 106 and following., but was inserted by Flodoard in his History) subscribed in these words Hist. eccles. Remensis, book I, ch. XVIII, in Migne, vol. CXXXV, col. 68.: † Celsinus, presbyter. Whom my father Remigius cursed, I have cursed, and whom he blessed, I have blessed: I also was present and subscribed, is asked in vain by those who judge that monument to be of doubtful credit. But those who think otherwise and hold this testament as sincere can indeed define nothing, since there could have been other presbyters named Celsinus; yet they do not seem to be accused of rashness, if they incline to the side of those who affirm it. Indeed, whether St. Remigius composed that testament, or others forged it for him, that Celsinus was certainly an illustrious presbyter, just as Agricola the presbyter, who there immediately, or with Teodonius [Testament of St. Remigius, in Varin, Archives admin. de Reims, vol. I, part I, page 23.] between, precedes him, seems to be another saint, namely St. Agricola, who on the 20th of October obtained an ecclesiastical cult at Soissons Acta SS. vol. VIII of October, page 885 and following.. Let that monument avail moreover to indicate in some way or other that St. Celsinus lived up to the last times of St. Remigius: for which reason, since St. Remigius departed from this life about the year 532, we have marked the same time at the head of this sylloge; in which matter Chastelain has already almost gone before us, assigning the year about 533 to the name of St. Remigius and 530 to the name of St. Celsinus. But since we do not approve the enclosure of St. Celsinus among the people of Laon, it is not permitted us either to approve that he died there, as du Saussay, Chastelain and de Noailles would have it, and that he was at some time translated from there to Reims. It is enough for us to affirm with Flodoard that he rested in the church of Reims called in the 9th century that of St. Celsinus.

[6] [He was buried and then venerated in the crypt of the cemeterial shrine which perhaps was first called that of St. Maur, and in the 10th century that of St. Celsinus, and in the 12th century that of St. Balsamia or of the Nurse.] The writers who have spoken of this church commonly relate that it was first founded in the 6th century; by which they intimate that it owes its origin to the burial of St. Celsinus. Certainly this basilica seems to have been cemeterial, built outside the former walls of the city, not far from the churches of St. Nicasius and St. Remigius, on the side by which one goes to Châlons. They would have it however that there had been there before a cemeterial crypt, on which Marlot discourses thus Metropolis Remensis historia, book III, ch. 9, vol. II, page 416.: There is also seen beside the church an underground chapel, not unlike the crypts of the martyrs, where some would have it that Blessed Maurus lay hidden in the time of persecution, and offered the immaculate victim to God; from here one goes into a small crypt, which the common people call the chamber of Blessed Maurus, and which is piously visited by them especially on the Thursday and Friday of Holy Week: but since Flodoard has been silent about this, although it is some monument of antiquity, I do not judge it worthwhile to relate more. It is easy however to divine what of the truth underlies this popular narrative, namely that in that crypt there were long preserved relics of St. Maurus the martyr, whom the people of Reims venerate on the 22nd of August. And indeed in the time of Flodoard, as he himself is witness Historia eccl. Remensis, book I, ch. 4, in Migne, vol. CXXXV, col. 35., the bones of St. Maurus were kept deposited in the church of St. Celsinus; while the head was venerated, laid up in a chest beside the altar, within the city in the basilica of the blessed Mother of God Mary. Indeed I shall not condemn him who should conjecture that this cemeterial shrine was first honored with the name of St. Maurus; and then with that of St. Celsinus, namely when he was laid up there and began to flash with miracles. However this may be, as is clear from what has just been said, in the 10th century it was most certainly called the church of St. Celsinus. Marlot would have it Metrop. Remensis Hist., vol. II, page 414. that at the same time it was called of St. Balsamia or of the Holy Nurse; but, as Suysken has already remarked in the Commentary on St. Remigius Acta SS., vol. I of October, page 68., of the instruments adduced by Marlot, in which it is expressly called the church of the Holy Nurse, the oldest are two letters of Roman pontiffs, Alexander III and Lucius III, who held the pontificate after the middle of the 12th century: at which time accordingly that designation of the church was already flourishing, or at least beginning to flourish.

[7] [In the 12th century that shrine was made collegiate and in its place a larger church was then built;] These letters moreover pertain to the institution of a new college of canons in this very place and to the new construction of the church; and this is their sum. About the year 1170, some upright men (likely twelve, which was the lawful number of colleges and which afterwards, two chaplains being added, is found to have held in this chapter [Codex of the triennial tithe granted in the year 1344, in Varin, Archives de la ville de Rheims, vol. II, part II, p. 1041 and following. Compare Marlot, Metropolis, vol. II, p. 414.]), the Lord inspiring them, from their goods and from the alms of others instituted prebends, which in the year 1344 were each worth ten pounds Ibid., in the place cited., now about 881 francs [Mémoire sur la fortune, etc., in Mémoires étrangers, Académie des inscriptions, vol. I, p. 274.]; and at the prayers of Pope Alexander III they obtained from the provost and canons of the cathedral church of Reims the church of the Holy Nurse, laid waste of old in its exterior parts, but worthy of all honor on account of the relics which were held there; that

condition, that after their death the gift of the prebends of the same church should belong to the Chapter of Reims, the provost and dean making the investiture Marlot, at the page cited above.. When these things had been confirmed and approved by the Roman pontiff and the Chapter of Reims, the new canons put their hand to the work, to build another in place of the collapsing little shrine: and this, if I see anything, they undertook not on the former site, but beside it; whence it came about that the crypt in which the bodies of the saints had formerly been laid up was not under the new church, but beside it. But those canons could not complete this fabric by their own strength, although it was neither ample nor elegant. For which reason they obtained first from Pope Lucius III, then from Innocent IV, from Archbishop Thomas de Bellomeso or de Beaumets and his suffragans, indulgences, from the Chapter of Reims a communication of good works, and from neighboring abbots some Masses for those who should contribute helping hands, that is, financial aid. And relying on these spiritual aids they collected the coins necessary for completing what had been begun Ibid., at the page cited and following.. The new church stood until the end of the 18th century, when it was destroyed as impiety raged Tarbé, Trésor des églises de Rheims, p. 242.; nor does any other indication of it survive any more than a small blind street, called Impasse Sainte-Balsamie Brissart-Binet, Guide du voyageur à Rheims, p. 165..

[8] [which at the end of the 18th century perished just as the relics of St. Celsinus did. His sparse cult among the people of Reims.] Marlot, whose latter volume was published at Reims in the year 1697, reviewing the relics which the canons of the Holy Nurse retained in his time: They have also, he says Metrop. Remensis historia, vol. II, p. 416., quite notable particles of St. Celsinus, disciple of blessed Remigius, laid up in small chests; and thus, if these pledges were kept arranged in small chests, it is not credible that at the beginning of the 18th century they were still preserved in the crypt of St. Maurus, as Chastelain said. But these seem to have perished in the year 1792, in which the treasuries of the churches of Reims were despoiled of gold and silver, and innumerable remains of saints were lost. At least of the remains of St. Celsinus the distinguished man Prosper Tarbé found nothing Trésor des églises de Rheims, p. 241.. For the rest, the charters of this chapter and other books met with no better fortune, of which (which you will scarcely believe) there survives only one bundle, containing some titles of property Varin, Archives adm. de Reims, vol. I, part I, p. CCXVIII.. Yet the cult of St. Celsinus has not altogether perished in the diocese of Reims. In the ecclesiastical Kalendars (they call them Brevia and Ordines there) of the years 1812, 1829, 1838 and 1846 a commemoration of St. Celsinus is ordered to be made; on the other hand in the ecclesiastical Kalendars of Laon or Soissons for the former diocese of Laon nothing at all is prescribed. From which it may appear that the cult of St. Celsinus was never spread. Indeed, if you except the cemeterial shrine of St. Celsinus, afterwards changed into the collegiate church of St. Balsamia or of the Nurse, there was never in the diocese of Reims any church which venerated our saint as patron [Ibid., vol. II, part II, p. 1033 and following. Liste des Saints sous l'invocation desquels sont toutes les paroisses du diocèse.].