Demetrius

ON ST. DEMETRIUS, MARTYR, FIRST BISHOP OF GAP IN GAUL,

PERHAPS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Demetrius, martyr and bishop, at Gap in Gaul. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ single. The cult of St. Demetrius abolished and restored. The fortunes of the relics. Whether he was a disciple of the Apostles. His martyrdom. Sacred buildings. The dearth of monuments.

On the 25th day of October the Parisian Martyrology of Cardinal de Noailles, following in the footsteps of the Universal Martyrology of Claude Chastelain, [the cult of St. Demetrius, first bishop of Gap, wrongly inscribed in some calendars at the 25th day of October, was suppressed for eighty years at Gap,] celebrates at Gap the birthday of St. Demetrius, first bishop of this city: in which matter we have pointed out above, among the Passed Over, that an error of one day lies hidden. For before all human memory his feast has been kept on the 26th day of October; not because on this day he laid down his life for Christ, or was buried or translated, but because this day was celebrated in the Greek calendars and in a few Latin ones under the name of St. Demetrius, martyr of Thessalonica, whose Acts our predecessors gave at the 8th day of October, on which his festival is announced in the Roman Martyrology.

For, although it is easy for wholly different saints who are recorded on the same day, by reason of their having the same name, to be at times confounded into one, yet nothing is found to be more common among the Latins as well as among the Orientals than that saints whose deeds lie hidden should be inscribed on days at which saints of the same name have already been inscribed. And indeed in the Breviary of Gap of the year 1499, which is kept in the imperial library of Paris, and in a Missal of the same age, which nineteen years ago was in the possession of the distinguished Mr. Amat, a jurisconsult of Gap [Dépery, Mandement à l'occasion du rétablissement du culte de S. Démétrius, p. 14.], and likewise in the Order for reciting the divine office and celebrating Mass according to the rite of the Roman Breviary and Missal, which François Hellies compiled and wrote out for the leap year 1676 for the use of the churches of Dauphiné and Provence, there occurs at the 26th day of October for the diocese of Gap the feast of St. Demetrius, bishop and martyr, in the double rite, with nine lessons and a commemoration of St. Evaristus. This rite was afterwards raised, or changed into a greater double, as appears in the Orders for the years 1761 and 1763; but in the following year, when by order of François de Narbonne, scarcely created bishop of Gap, a new Breviary of Gap according to the Parisian rite was brought to light, St. Demetrius the bishop was deleted, and in his place was substituted St. Demetrius the martyr, that is, the Thessalonian, to be celebrated in the simple rite: and this arrangement lasted until the diocese of Gap was restored in the year 1823. Nor were changes introduced even then: certainly in the liturgical calendar of the year 1831, which is before my eyes, there is read at the 26th day of October the birthday of St. Demetrius, martyr, simple; but, what you could not understand, in the same calendar, on the Monday of Rogations, a station is ordered to be made in the church of the hospice in honour of St. Demetrius, BISHOP and martyr, and titular of this church. But our discourse will return below to this church.

[2] and the relics themselves, in the civil wars of the 16th century Nor had the improvident reformers stopped here; but they had wished the cult of the relics themselves to be discontinued. This matter I shall so explain that there need be no further dealing with the relics hereafter. The people of Gap had diligently followed the party of the Catholics, and, having gone over to the party of the Confederates *, had driven the Protestants out of the walls Le Bas, France, Dictionnaire encyclopédique, vol. VIII.: lest, as this plague crept more widely, they themselves should at some time be expelled (as was happening here and there elsewhere). But not much later, namely in the year 1577 Depéry, Histoire hagiologique du diocèse de Gap, p. 245., a band of Protestant soldiers, having taken the town, slaughtered part of the citizens, laid waste the cathedral church, and pulled down many other sacred buildings: among which that of St. John the Round, built where afterwards rose the chapel of the White Penitents. They would have it that this was once a pantheon, and certainly it reproduced the form of the Roman Pantheon; and it contained the tombs of the ancient bishops Ibid., pp. 13, 243 and 245.. Yet the Catholics recovered the city shortly afterwards, so that in the year 1580, the fortress of La Mure having been wrested away, the whole of Dauphiné was free of the Protestants [De Thou, Histoire universelle, bk. LXXXII, vol. VI, p. 11 and following, edition of 1740.]; and the Confederates were still occupying Gap in the year 1587, when Lesdiguières, the military commander of the Protestants in Dauphiné and the neighbouring regions, assailed its walls in vain on the 17th day of April De Thou, Histoire universelle, bk. LXXXVIII, vol. VII, p. 51 and following.. But shortly afterwards the Protestants, having again gained possession of the town, acquired all authority; to such a degree that in the year 1603 they held at Gap the notorious synod in which they agreed on almost this one thing, that the Roman pontiff, the successor of St. Peter, is openly Antichrist Ibid., bk. CXXIX, vol. IX, p. 592 and following.. But not long before these civil wars the relics of St. Demetrius had been discovered in the church of St. John the Round Juvénis, in Depéry, p. 243., and they were being piously kept there when that storm burst; in which the greatest part perished; but a part was in good time carried, together with the relics of St. Arnulf, likewise bishop of Gap, to the suburb of Sisteron, commonly Baume-lez-Sisteron, or La Baume near Sisteron; which in the year 1248 Beatrice, countess of Provence and Forcalquier, had given to the order of Friars Preachers Gallia Christiana, vol. I, col. 433.. Thither, namely, also betook himself Pierre de Paparin de Chaumont, bishop of Gap, who both held a synod there in the year 1587, and six years later built himself a dwelling, even now called l'evescat De Laplane, Histoire de Sisteron, vol. II, p. 141.. Nevertheless Paparin was able to return to his see before his death, which he met at Gap on the 1st day of August 1600 Depéry, p. 13.. Some while afterwards the condition of the Catholics in the city was made better, especially after Charles Salomon du Serre, formerly coadjutor of Paparin and now his successor, entered into agreements with the Protestants by which security was brought back within the walls. And so in the year 1616 he caused the bones of SS. Demetrius and Arnulf to be brought back from La Baume to Gap; and these were held in public veneration in the cathedral church, enclosed in silver shrines, until the year 1692, in which, together with the city, they were visited with a new indignity Ibid., pp. 14 and 245..

[3] and preserved in the Savoyard devastation of the year 1692 For when Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy, seemed to be inclining to the side of the Austrians, Louis XIV, king of France, had demanded troops from him, so as to render him defenceless: hence arose in the year 1690 a war which ceased only six years later; peace being so concluded that the Savoyard seemed to have betrayed his allies. Now while this war was raging, in the year 1692 the Savoyard entered Dauphiné by way of Guillestre, Embrun and Gap, having in his army many Germans and Waldensians, who had been persuaded that the French Protestants would come to their aid. When they saw that they had been deluded in this hope, they treated most cruelly all the places they reached [Bertolotti, Storia della R. casa di Savoia, vol. II, p. 150 and following; Muratori, Annali d'Italia, year 1690, vol. XI, p. 337 and following; Sismondi and Beauchamp, in Michaud, Biographie, vol. XLVIII, p. 384 and following.]. The city of Gap above all experienced a dreadful disaster. Everything was despoiled and stripped; and fire was thrown in by those departing, by which the cathedral church was destroyed and almost all the houses, only a few surviving Depéry, p. 245.. Yet the relics of St. Demetrius did not perish in this slaughter. They had been opportunely taken out of their cases and, together with those of SS. Arnulf, Aregius and other saints, in the sanctuary behind

the high altar they had been hidden in the ground by Alexandre de Velenes, abbot of Ronseray and vicar general of the bishop, with the help of Jean Thome, a beneficiary; whence in the following year, in the presence of the deans, canons, beneficiaries and the rest of the clergy and the leading laymen of the city, they were brought out by Bishop Charles Bénigne d'Hervé Ibid., pp. 14, 245 and 246.. The silver shrine had been carried off by the soldiers of the Savoyard, as had the remaining reliquaries of silver: wherefore a chest of walnut was made, adorned with inlaid work and gilding, on the top of which these words were inscribed: HERE ARE LAID UP THE RELICS OF ST. DEMETRIUS, BISHOP OF GAP. MCLXXXXII. And in that condition they were once again set out for popular veneration until the year 1764.

[4] [they were put aside, until the illustrious man Depéry found them and restored them to public veneration, their festival having been restored the year before.] In which year (a thing you would scarcely believe, had not this class of men perpetrated similar things everywhere) the reformers of the Breviary of Gap, as they had removed the Office of St. Demetrius the bishop, so also banished from the church the remains of the most holy man, wishing them to be hidden in a cupboard above the door of the sacristy Ibid., p. 14.. There they lay concealed, unknown to all, until the year 1845. For at that time, when Jean Irénée Depéry, lately promoted to the see of Gap, was wholly engaged in investigating the monuments of the hagiological history of Gap, he had learned that the relics of St. Demetrius had once been kept in the cathedral church. And so, having first held a novena of prayers in his honour, he undertook a search with the venerable Mr. Templier, vicar of the cathedral church: and not in vain: for on the 20th day of April 1845 he found a box, partly rotted, but with its seals intact, containing a bone of the left thigh, wrapped in a silken band, with an inscription attached: RELICS OF SAINT DEMETRIUS. The bishop enclosed them in a new casket in the form of a tomb, in the presence of the vicars general, the venerable Messrs. Borel and Chabrand, the secretaries James and Lepines, and Templier, already designated vicar: all of whom together with the bishop signed their names to a public instrument Proces-verbal du recouvrement de la chasse, etc.. Then on the 29th day of the following month of September, by a public mandate, the pious prelate restored the festival of St. Demetrius, first bishop of Gap, at the 26th day of October in the greater double rite Mandement à l'occasion du rétablissement dn culte de saint Démétrius, etc.; and this was kept in that year with a solemn procession instituted for it, in which the holy pledge was carried into the cathedral church and laid in the tomb of the high altar Depéry, p. 15.: where it rests also today. This restoration of the cult was approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites on the 16th day of March of the year 1854, together with the new calendar and the new Offices of Gap, published two years later by the illustrious Jean Irénée Depéry.

[5] New lessons of St. Demetrius, in which his praises And that same bishop composed hymns, lessons and other things; of which we judge that only the lessons of the second Nocturn should be brought forward, so that from them it may be possible to learn what is handed down concerning St. Demetrius. Let lesson IV, then, come forth first: Demetrius, first bishop of Gap, led the inhabitants of this region from the darkness of unbelief to the light of the Gospel, and from the vain worship of idols to the worship of the living God. That the holy prelate was a disciple of the apostles of the Lord is not indeed established by historical monuments, but it is the most ancient tradition of the church of Gap. Indeed it is even commonly handed down that he is the same Demetrius to whom so illustrious and true a testimony is given by St. John in the epistle to Gaius. Demetrius, as a workman who need not be ashamed, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, converted many to the faith and established the church at Gap. At length he sealed by martyrdom the faith which he had taught by word; and he made fruitful with his shed blood the church brought forth by his sweat: not far from the city, by order of the prefect, he was beheaded.

[6] and his ancient and new cult are declared. Lesson V. How splendid a memory of his labours he left, and also how great a fame of sanctity, is sufficiently shown by the veneration of the following times toward the holy bishop. For very ancient monuments attest that his festival was held in the highest honour, a precept of abstaining from all servile work being even laid upon the faithful. In the ancient hymns dedicated to his name he is celebrated as the mirror of purity, the guardian of innocence, the root of the kindly church of Gap, the terror of demons and the healing of the sick. There exist to this day sacred buildings consecrated in his honour. Lesson VI. The body of the blessed bishop was once preserved in the church of St. John the Round. But in the lamentable disturbances of the pretended reformation, by which the city of Gap was shaken more than once, so precious a pledge perished for the greater part. Yet certain notable relics, withdrawn from the impious attempts of the heretics, were honourably kept in the cathedral church until toward the middle of the eighteenth century; at which time they began to be given over to oblivion. But in the year 1845 Jean Irénée, then bishop of Gap, a great lover of ecclesiastical antiquity, having heard that the relics of St. Demetrius remained, neglected, in the sacristy of the cathedral church, associated ecclesiastical men with himself and most diligently examined them; and their authenticity having been duly proved, he ordered them to be again exposed to the veneration of the faithful and preserved at the high altar of the cathedral church.

[7] [St. Demetrius is said according to the old tradition to have been a bishop in apostolic times:] And in these, in the first place, it is asserted that St. Demetrius was the first bishop of Gap and the author of the spreading of the faith in those parts. On which matter we have seen above that no doubts had been raised before the year 1764. It is true that Claude Robert, in the Gallia christiana which he brought to light in the year 1626, omitted St. Demetrius: but in compiling the catalogue of the bishops of Gap he was so poor in documents that he had ascertained only fourteen names Gallia christiana, in qua regni Franciæ, etc. p. 502.. The brothers Sainte-Marthe, who came thirty years later and are much fuller, list St. Demetrius at the head of the bishops of Gap Gallia christiana, qua series, etc. vol. III, p. 1123.; Denis de Sainte-Marthe held to the same way when in the year 1715 he published the first volume of the new Gallia christiana Gallia christiana in provincias, etc. vol. I, col. 452.. With these agrees an old prose, which was formerly recited in the church of Gap and in which he is called the happy ROOT of the church of Gap. And this is the very song that is praised in the new lessons. Hear it, then Depéry, Histoire hagiologique du diocèse de Gap, p. 10.:

Mirror of purity, Guardian of innocence, And flower of holy chastity, Terror of demons, Healing of the sick, Happy golden star, Radiance shining for the world, Happy root Of the church of Gap, Strength of the Church.

There agrees also an old prayer, which is read in the manuscript Missal of Gap Ibid., p. 16.: O Splendour of eternal light, beginning and true salvation of all, Jesus Christ, almighty God, grant us, we beseech thee, that by the prayers and merits of thy glorious martyr Demetrius, disciple of the apostles and first prelate of thy kindly church of Gap, being loosed from the chain of our misdeeds, we may manfully escape the contagions of this life and imitate him whom, with his purple crown triumphant, we may deserve to have as our chief intercessor with thee in heaven. Who livest and reignest, etc. Nor is there any reason why it should be denied that St. Demetrius was the first bishop of Gap.

[8] [which, if it is considered that the way from upper Italy to Lyon, Vienne and Arles then lay through Gap,] But that he is said to have been a disciple of the apostles is a more difficult argument, since it was once an almost common propensity of churches to be believed to have been born in apostolic times. For my part I would not wish to affirm positively that St. Demetrius was one of the disciples of the holy apostles; much less, however, to deny it. For Gap, whether it was a town of the Caturiges, as Samson, d'Anville Géographie ancienne, vol. I, p. 62 and following., Millin Voyages dans les départements du Midi de la France, vol. IV, p. 170. and Walckenaer Géographie ancienne des Gaules, vol. I, p. 540. have held, or of the Vocontii, as Salvaing preferred In Valois, Notitia, p. 585; and in the new Gallia christ., vol. I, col. 452., or finally of the Tricorii, as Valois seemed to himself to gather from Livy on Hannibal's march Notitia Galliarum, pp. 584 and 585., with Ukert in agreement Geographie der Griechen und Romer, vol. II, part II, p. 449., this is certain, that one had to pass through there in order to come from upper Italy, for example from Turin, to the cities situated on the Rhône, Valence, Orange, Avignon and Arles, and thence to Marseilles and other neighbouring places; and that of the two roads by which one went from Italy to Vienne and Lyon, one was paved through Gap. And indeed even now in the midst of the Alps of Dauphiné journeys are most difficult: how much more, then, must the one paved road have been followed formerly? Moreover at Gap two roads intersected; which happened nowhere else between Italy and the Rhône. So, as is clear from the Itineraries of Antoninus and of Bordeaux and from the Theodosian or Peutinger Table [Walckenaer, Analyse géographique des itinéraires anciens des Gaules, pp. 42 and 44.], one went

and thence to Segusio (Sion) and Turin (Turïn) etc.

But from the opposite direction Ibid., pp. 42 and 43.

And one proceeded to Lyon by two roads, which however were joined at Luc and again went off in different directions; namely Walckenaer, Analyse géographique etc., p. 45.

or In Migne, Patrologia græca, vol. XI, col. 862.:

[9] [where the most ancient churches of Gaul came into being, seems by no means improbable, especially since in the first centuries] Since, therefore, one went through Gap from Italy to Lyon, Vienne and Arles, where without controversy the most ancient churches and episcopal chairs of all Gaul were erected, I for my part cannot grasp how the seed of the Gospel should not have been sown by apostolic men (I mean bishops and priests and even laymen) passing through there. For the Christians of the first times are not to be thought of as though they cared only for themselves and applied their minds only to their own affairs: everywhere, as they came forth from the sacred fonts, they were full of a wonderful ardour to share their happiness with others. So much so that in the 4th century that heavenly and inward ardour, which is to be reckoned among the firstfruits of the spirit, was still so common that Jerome the Greek or of Jerusalem teaches in the Dialogue on the effect of baptism that by this mark anyone can find out whether he has been baptized or not: As many, he says In Migne, Patrologia græca, vol. XI, col. 862., as have received the divine spirit in the womb in holy baptism, within in their inmost hearts, from the stirrings, movements and pricklings, the leapings and operations, and, so to speak, the dancings of the grace of the Spirit, know most certainly in the depth of their heart that they have been baptized; for no man not dipped in baptism on earth abounds in such grace or effect or fully enjoys it, though he should fulfil all the commandments and precepts of righteousness. Those alone attain it who have been regenerated through water and the Spirit, and

have received the grace of the Holy Spirit in the womb, and keep it pure and undefiled; but unbelievers and heretics lack it, although these perhaps become partakers of the sacred things Ibid., col. 866., and though they have the Scriptures, and churches, and sacrifices, and teachers, and books, and in part the knowledge of God, and certain good actions, and feast days, and changes of vesture, and prayers, and vigils, and priests, and very many other things Ibid., col. 863..

[10] Christians propagated the faith with incredible ardour. And what the effects of these spiritual motions were the early ecclesiastical writers declare everywhere. Hear Origen refuting Celsus for having said that Christians would refuse if all men should wish to embrace the faith of Christ: That this is not true, he says Bk. III, against Celsus, ch. 3, col. 931, Migne edition., is clear from this, that Christians, so far as lies in them, take care that their doctrine should be spread to every part of the earth. Whence it comes that some have taken it on themselves as a task to walk about not only through cities, but also through villages and farms, in order to lead others to the pious worship of God: and this matter he goes on then to explain. What of the fact that Lucian, or whoever wrote the Philopatris toward the end of the 1st century, mocks the Christians because in season and out of season they tried to bring over the Gentiles to their sacred rites Works of Lucian, Basel edition, year 1563, vol. III, pp. 466 and 467.? And these mockeries recur also in the other dialogue, on the death of Peregrinus. There are added historical testimonies, by which it is established that prisons, workhouses, palaces, farms, workshops, camps and roads were not free from the Christians' ardour for evangelizing. Since these things are so, how could it have come about that the Christians of Lyon, Vienne and Arles going into Italy, and in turn the Italians coming to these cities, should so many times have passed through Gap and stayed in that station without sharing their faith with some of the inhabitants? And if a little flock came to exist there, the customs of those times allowed that, even if the city had been small, a bishop should be established there: all the more because in the Notitia of the empire the city of the people of Gap is reckoned the fifth city of the province of Narbonensis Secunda, its metropolis being the city of the people of Aix D. Bouquet, Hist. de France, vol. I, p. 124.. For this reason I see nothing in the former tradition of Gap concerning St. Demetrius that surpasses belief.

[11] [St. Demetrius does not seem to be the same as the one praised by St. John in the epistle to Gaius. What is related of his martyrdom.] But that he was that same man of whom St. John the Evangelist wrote in the epistle to Gaius: Demetrius hath testimony given him by all, and by the truth itself; yea, and we also give testimony: and thou knowest that our testimony is true; this is a rather recent conjecture, resting on the mere likeness of names, of which the people of Gap themselves do not make much. But as to his being held to have been a martyr, he is said to have suffered on this occasion: when the number of the Christians at Gap was growing daily, the demons first tried to strike fear into the holy bishop with scarecrow terrors; and when they perceived that these were useless, they moved the priests of the idols to persuade Simon, a decurion of the city, that there was no safety for the old religion unless Demetrius were removed from their midst. Further, although Simon was anxious in mind, because the blessed man was ardently loved by the neophytes, yet he ordered him to be thrown into chains and cruelly tortured. But the athlete of Christ, unmoved by these things, preached the faith in the prison itself. Wherefore by order of the decurion he was led to the customary place of butchery, namely to a little hill outside the city (where afterwards the cemetery of St. Andrew stood, to the north of the city), and beheaded. But since, according to the custom for Gallican martyrs, he was formerly depicted on a panel, which is still seen in the cathedral church, carrying his head in his hand, he was said to have risen from the ground and to have carried his head before the wondering crowds; but nowadays belief is given with more difficulty to this kind of thing: concerning which, moreover, we have digressed enough at the 16th day of October, where we pointed out the multitude of cephalophoric martyrs Acta SS., vol. VII of October, p. 819..

[12] As for what I said at the beginning, that on the Monday of Rogations a station is made at the chapel of the hospital or hospice and that an antiphon is sung there in honour of St. Demetrius, [Sacred buildings dedicated under his title. Whence the dearth of memorials arises.] this is done because this chapel, which is an old little church of the Capuchins, has the title of St. Demetrius. And from the time that the illustrious Depéry restored the cult of the blessed bishop, he himself consecrated under the same title in the year 1846 the chapel of the White Penitents and an altar in the venerable sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Laus, a league distant from Gap. But as I put an end to these matters, I see well enough that here and there I have been able to bring forward only things probable. But no one will ever fill up the lacunae of the ecclesiastical history of Gap. For in that diocese there was scarcely one abbey of men, namely that of Clausonne; which was never celebrated or populous, and at the beginning of the 18th century lacked inhabitants Gallia Christiana, vol. I, col. 452.: so that the diocese of Gap never had those literary resources in which other churches abounded. Next, Gap was assailed by the Saracens in the year 968 Chorier, Hist. du Dauphiné, p. 740. and suffered very many injuries. At the end of the 16th century (as we explained above) the city was repeatedly taken by the Protestants and recovered by the Catholics: in which disasters most of the monuments that remained perished. Yet the crowning calamity came when (as we have also declared in its place) the army of the duke of Savoy almost destroyed the city. Whence it is fitting to conclude this one thing, that there is no force in the argument which they are accustomed to call negative, when a dispute arises concerning the affairs of Gap. And I give this warning for this chief reason, that the successors of St. Demetrius down to St. Constantine, who flourished in the 5th century, are unknown.

* la ligue the League