Maurus

ON ST. MAURUS, CONFESSOR, IN THE JURA OF BURGUNDY AND THE FORMER DIOCESE OF BESANÇON,

AT AN UNCERTAIN TIME.

CRITICAL SYLLOGE.

Maurus, monk, in the Jura of Burgundy. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

Sole §. The memory of St. Maurus in the Martyrology of Saint-Claude. A village named from his name. Confused with St. Maurus the abbot. Relics. A society of presbyters. Indulgences. Recent benefits.

In the province of Maxima Sequanorum, which was bounded by the Rhine, Belgica I, Lugdunensis I, Viennensis and the Pennine Alps, [St. Maurus, confessor of the former diocese of Besançon, has been wrongly confused with St. Maurus the abbot, as is clear from the words of the Martyrology of Saint-Claude] and afterwards became a part of the kingdom of Burgundy, then changed into the county of Burgundy and finally into the Franche-Comté, innumerable saints flourished, a great part of them monks and hermits; whose Lives have not so long ago been brought to the light piously, elegantly, soberly and accurately by the professors of the college of St. Francis Xavier of Besançon. They omitted several, however (at which no wise man would wonder); among whom St. Maurus; whose memory is celebrated at the present day in the old Martyrology of St. Eugendus of the Jura, or Saint-Claude, in these words: "In the territory of Besançon, the birthday of St. Maurus, confessor." Where notice that his birthday is celebrated in the territory of Besançon, by which expression the diocese of Besançon itself is understood Compare Du Cange, Glossarium latinum, under Territorium.; and although the word natalis or natale is sometimes taken for every festival, as we have splendidly shown elsewhere Acta SS., vol. IX of October, p. 9 and 10., yet its obvious force in calendars and martyrologies is such that it for the most part designates the day of death: nor does anything urge that a translation or other solemnity be understood at this place. The title of confessor avails to separate the blessed man from the holy martyrs named Maurus, from the bishops of the same name, and also from St. Maurus the abbot, the most celebrated disciple of St. Benedict. And indeed he could be confused with this one alone, since for fear of the Normans in the year 863 "the body of the holy man was laid up and placed on this side of the river Arar *, on the estate of Count Aldo; where, guarded for three and a half years, his name, celebrated by the healing of sixteen very well-known persons, spread round about, began to be venerated and cultivated with the assiduous frequenting of the peoples" Acta SS. Ordinis S. Benedicti, century IV, part II, p. 182.. But since the relics of the most holy abbot stopped on this side of the Arar, by which the diocese of Besançon is for the most part bounded to the west, it is plain that he is not to be thought of at this place.

[2] And especially from his relics, which are preserved in the village of his name. But what is much firmer, at the end of the 17th century nearly all the bones of that St. Maurus were still kept in the diocese of Besançon, quite distinct from the sacred remains of St. Maurus the abbot, which from the 9th century to the end of the 18th rested at Paris in the monastery of St. Maur-des-Fossés. This memory we owe to our Pierre François Chifflet, whose Sacrarium of the Jura monastery of Condat, almost ready for the press, once came into the hands of our predecessors, and now is in part kept in the Royal Library of Brussels General Inventory, numbers 8287 and following., in part was formerly published by Papebroch Acta SS., vol. I of June, p. 646 and following.. In the unpublished second part, however, in which the Jura illustrations are contained, chapter VIII has this inscription: "What monasteries of the Sequani seem to have been derived in ancient times from those of the Jura. In passing, of SS. Lauthenus, Ymiterius and Maurus"; of whom we shall illustrate St. Lauthenus at the 1st day of November; the cult of St. Ymiterius, who is also Hymiterius and Imiterius, was somewhat declared in the Acts at the 31st day of July Ibid., vol. VII of July, p. 306., and could be declared more fully from the books of Sévert Chronologia historica Matisconensis, p. 39., Jean Marie de la Mure Histoire ecclésiastique du diocèse de Lyon, p. 268. and the professors of the Xaverian college of Besançon Vie des Saints de la Franche-Comté, vol. III, p. 219 and following.; but of St. Maurus Chifflet relates this: "From St. Maurus a village in the deanery of Lons of the diocese of Besançon has its name: in whose church I once saw a casket containing all or almost all the bones of this St. Maurus. There, when I had asked whether anything was held in writing about his life or feast day, there were shown to me certain charters or parchments, from which I have excerpted what follows.

[3] [And formerly, with the help of a society of presbyters and the offering of indulgences, they were in much honour.] "In the year of the Lord 1447, on the IVth of January, Jean de Fruyn Compare Gallia Christiana, vol. XV, col. 127 and 128., dean of Besançon and vicar general of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Quentin, archbishop of Besançon, commissioned two presbyters, Jean Maillet of Geningey and Antoine Boisselet of Chilley, parish priests, for arranging more conveniently and more seemly the bones of St. Maurus in a casket recently made at the expense of Nicolas Aymonin, parish priest of St. Maurus; into which they had been translated a few days before from another smaller and less ornate reliquary. In the year 1517 in honour of this St. Maurus there was instituted a sodality of thirteen presbyters, who are bound to assemble in his church to celebrate more solemnly the masses and divine offices on his feast day, the XVth of January; on which the Roman church also venerates St. Maurus, disciple of St. Benedict; and various indulgences have been granted to those flowing together there on that day, first by Antoine de Vergy, archbishop of Besançon, then by Leo X and Hadrian VI, and by some cardinals. Further, a certain Translation of the same saint is kept there with solemn rite on the vigil of St. Martin of the winter, the tenth day of November. It is established that this St. Maurus, confessor of the diocese of Besançon, is distinct from that most renowned disciple of St. Benedict, who is said to have first brought his Rule to this side of the Alps. The former is commemorated in the Martyrology of St. Eugendus without the title of abbot, in this form: 'On the 8th before the Kalends of November, in the territory of Besançon, the birthday of St. Maurus, confessor.' By ignorance of this his birthday he was driven to the 15th of January: like things not rarely

may be observed: or rather, since the Acts of the most holy patron were not known, the Life of St. Maurus was transferred to him, and thence the festivity itself was moved from its place." Of which matter an illustrious example will occur at the following day in the Saints Amandus of Strasbourg and of Worms, bishops; in whose place St. Amandus of Maastricht was substituted.

[4] [Nor can he be confused with St. Maurus, bishop of Verdun, venerated on the 10th day of November.] But because his translation used to be celebrated on the 10th day of November, the doubt comes up whether perhaps he is the same St. Maurus who at that day in the Luxeuil Martyrology of Usuard is announced in these words In Du Sollier, Martyrologium Usuardi, page 665.: "At Verdun, of St. Maurus, bishop and confessor"; and in that of Bordeaux Ibid., at the page cited.: "On that same day, of St. Maurus, bishop and confessor"; and whom Baronius, from the Additions of Molanus Ibid., p. 661., brought preposterously at the 8th day of November into the Roman Martyrology. But this man, as is plain, is constantly called bishop in the martyrologies, and his bones were laid up not in the diocese of Besançon, but in that of Verdun, which he had ruled by episcopal right: namely in the monastery of nuns of St. Maurus at Verdun, together with the bones of SS. Salvinus and Arator, likewise bishops of Verdun, they were kept Acta SS., vol. II of September, p. 221 and following.; but it could easily have happened that, just as his birthday was transposed to the 15th day of January on account of St. Maurus the abbot, so his translation was made and thereafter celebrated annually on the 10th day of November, a day sacred to the other St. Maurus.

[5] In the parish of St. Maurus near Lons-le-Saunier The village which received its name from St. Maurus its patron is commonly called simply Saint-Maur Dunod, Histoire de l'église, ville et diocèse de Besançon, vol. II, p. 434. or Saint-Maur-des-Buissons Dictionnaire universel de la France, vol. IV, p. 606., about two leagues distant to the winter sunset from Leodomum, or Ledo Salinarius, or also Leodo, commonly Lons-le-Saunier, now in the province or department of the Jura and the diocese of Saint-Claude. At the beginning of this century it was populous with only 240 inhabitants Ibid., at the page cited.; and although it was so tiny, there were once in the parish church seven founded chaplaincies, with lay patrons Dunod, Histoire de l'église, etc., vol. II, p. 434.; which is an illustrious indication of former celebrity and of the outstanding veneration of St. Maurus. This cult, however, was never widely extended: for so far from his name having been inserted in the old litanies of Besançon [Dunod, Histoire des Séquanois; Histoire de l'église de Besançon, proofs, page LIV and following.], it did not even find a place in its old Martyrology or rather Calendar Ibid., p. VI and following., or in any later one. Whether in the men's monastery of Baume, in whose possession was the patronage of the parish of St. Maurus, conferred on it after the year 1157 Ibid., compare page 131 and XCV., his feast was celebrated annually, I cannot say; seeing that I lack the liturgical books of this monastery.

[6] [St. Maurus seems to have led an eremitical life; but it is uncertain whether he is to be reckoned among the first monks of the Jura or of Saint-Claude.] Since, however, this parish seems never to have been in the possession of the monks of the Jura or of Saint-Claude [Ancien pouillé des bénéfices de l'abbaye de Saint-Claude, in Dunod, in the work cited, p. LXXIII.], hence the conjecture of Chifflet is somewhat shaken, who judged that St. Maurus should be counted among the alumni of the Jura; since it may commonly be seen that churches in which the bones of some holy monk were kept belonged to that monastery from which he came, whether by received donation, or by the title of a sacred building erected over the tomb. It is added that, since the blessed man was not a martyr, nor is he called abbot, presbyter or bishop, it is far more likely that he once led a solitary or eremitical life there, where he obtained the rest of death and of the tomb; but among those of the Jura from the times of St. Eugendus the eremitical life was plainly removed. For in the Besançon copy of the Lives of the fathers of the Jura, in which in chapters XV, XVI and XVII of the Life of St. Eugendus the statutes and customs of the holy man's monastery are so tied together that they can easily be reduced to certain canons; whose summary, drawn up by Chifflet, we would gladly give at this place, since inquiry has so far been made in vain into the Jura institutes. Further, these things are so foreign to our St. Maurus that he does not seem to have observed even the first law; namely that, the little buildings of the dwellings in which they had hitherto lived like anchorites being destroyed, all should be united in the midst and lead a cenobitic life; so that, if he ever lived among those of the Jura, he must be judged to have stayed there before the times of this abbot. But that his name was read in the Martyrology of Saint-Claude avails little to persuade us that the blessed man once came from this monastery; since the nearness of the place where his sacred remains were kept was a sufficient cause for the Usuardian Martyrology of that monastery to be augmented by his name. Because the village of St. Maurus received its name from him, it is plainly clear that he is to be counted among the older saints of Gaul; but what century he made illustrious by his virtues no one will attain except by divining. All things then are very doubtful; nor can anything wiser be related of St. Maurus than what that same Chifflet once wrote to our predecessors, reviewing the saints of the diocese of Besançon: "We have the place, the day, the relics; nothing besides."

[7] Now he is still deemed there to have been St. Maurus, disciple of St. Benedict: What has gone before was already in the hands of the printers when there was brought to me a letter of the venerable man C. Constantin, parish priest of St. Maurus, in which he replied most diligently to my inquiries and of which this is the summary: that the feast of St. Maurus, patron of the parish, as abbot and disciple of St. Benedict, is celebrated with solemn rite on the 15th day of January, or rather according to French custom on the Sunday next following; that the church however is deemed consecrated under the title of the Holy Trinity, because on this day about the year 840 the relics of the most holy man are said to have been brought there; wherefore in the year 1840, in the presence of the vicar general and a huge crown of presbyters, the millenary was celebrated, and annually on this day a public procession is made through the parish with the relics of St. Maurus; that no indication survives that his feast was ever kept on the 25th day of October, nor is any place anywhere shown where he led an eremitical life; and indeed that he is most certainly the disciple of St. Benedict, whose relics for fear of the Normans were carried to Baume-les-Messieurs, and thence to the estate of Count Aldo to the winter sunrise of Lons, which is the present parish of St. Maurus; that here, in a monastery that was built, a part of the relics remained, and the others were carried to the monastery of St. Maur-des-Fossés, where they utterly perished at the end of the last century; that the bones which the monks of Glanfeuil did not carry to Paris in the 9th century are the same as those which are kept there, and that they nearly agree; of which one was not so long ago given by his predecessor to the monks of Solesmes, another by himself to the monastic church of St. Paul outside the walls; that no ancient statue is present, but only a recent one, procured by himself.

[8] But wrongly. From which things it appears (which is by no means to be wondered at) that the old persuasion still endures there, although it can by no means stand with the truth of the matter. For, as is established from the history of the translation of St. Maurus, on this side of the Arar, that is on the left bank, was the estate of Count Aldo; nor are the monks of Glanfeuil read to have raised a monastery there, much less to have left a part of the relics; and most certainly they did not advance beyond the Arar. Then, when Chifflet visited the parish of St. Maurus, nearly all the bones were still there; which could easily have been given away formerly, as in more recent time, or dispersed in other ways; but where at the same time nearly all the bones of St. Maurus the abbot were was well perceived. Hear Mabillon: "Although," he says Acta SS. Ord. S. Benedicti, century IV, part II, page 183., "the greatest part of the relics of St. Maurus after the above translation remained in the possession of those of Fossés, something however was left to the monks of Glanfeuil, namely both radii of the arms: of which one is kept up to now in the same monastery, the other was carried to Cassino by St. Odilo, abbot of Cluny." Other relics of St. Maurus the abbot, laid up elsewhere, were reviewed by our predecessors in the Acts of St. Maurus Acta SS., vol. I of January, page 1051.; so that the bones kept in the parish of St. Maurus are more certain than certain to be those of another St. Maurus than the disciple of St. Benedict. But that a certain celebration is now kept on the feast of the Holy Trinity seems to have been transferred there from the 10th of the month of November, on which day it was still being done in the 17th century.

[9] Some more recent benefits obtained by his help. Asked about miracles, the excellent parish priest answered the following: On the 19th day of March of the year 1833, when a fire that had been kindled threatened ruin to the whole village, the parish priest had the relics of the most holy patron carried to the vestibule of the church and exposed them against the burning house. At once the fire stopped; so that only one house perished, and the fire was extinguished in the space of two hours. Wherefore for some years a mass was celebrated in thanksgiving. I know moreover that a woman, lying sick with a singular disease, began to recover as soon as her husband and all the household had implored the help of St. Maurus; in memory of which matter the husband sometimes brings gifts on the altar of St. Maurus. Finally no calamity, especially hail, has ever laid waste the parish; which benefit is by unanimous consent ascribed to the help of St. Maurus. And these are the things that could be gathered concerning St. Maurus, confessor, formerly of the diocese of Besançon, now of Saint-Claude. Would that I might persuade the inhabitants of that village that they are under the patronage and possess the bones of a native saint, and not of a stranger, carried to them by mere chance!

* Saône