ON SS. FLORENTIUS AND COMPANIONS: FLORENTIUS AND VANDALETUS, MARTYRS, AND HONORATUS, CONFESSOR, AT TIL-CHÂTEL IN BURGUNDY,
ABOUT THE YEAR 264.
CRITICAL SYLLOGE
Florentius, martyr, at Til-Châtel, a town of Burgundy. (S.)
Vandeletus, martyr, at Til-Châtel, a town of Burgundy. (S.)
Honoratus, confessor, at Til-Châtel, a town of Burgundy. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ Single. The countless errors about St. Florentius, martyr. Where Til-Châtel is situated. The church, priory and relics of St. Florentius both at Til-Châtel and at the Île Barbe. His feast in the dioceses of Langres and Dijon. The memory of SS. Vandaletus and Honoratus.
Over very few saints has so much labour been spent as over St. Florentius, martyr, whose name is celebrated today in the martyrologies and other sacred Fasti. St. Florentius, martyr, assigned to nearly all parts of the world For since it was not known where Til-Châtel was located, the place where the holy martyr was said to have been venerated or slain, some have said that he underwent martyrdom on the Euphrates Compare Sollerius, Martyrology of Usuard, page 631., others in Pontus Ibid. at the place cited., others in Africa Du Saussay, Martyrologium Gallicanum, page 165., others in Guelders Miraeus, Fasti Belgici et Burgundici, page 636., others in Spain Tamayo and other Spaniards., others near Lyons Du Saussay, Martyrologium Gallicanum, page 784., others finally in Burgundy between Langres and Dijon. But most of these conjectures, which rest only on the fact that some place whose name more or less approaches Tile, Thile, Tyle or Thyle is found in those regions, need no refutation as soon as it is known for certain where that fort is situated. The persuasion of the Spaniards alone stands on another foundation. For they, having accepted the fabrications of Higuera under the names of Dexter, Maximus and other ancient writers, claimed St. Florentius for themselves. For this reason Tamayo, surrounded by that troop of fabulists, but himself also a forger and fabulist, announces this at the present day Anamnesis or Martyrology, volume V, page 659 and following.: At Castrum Tyle among the Tudetani of Hispanic Baetica near Seville, of St. Florentius, martyr; who, converted to the catholic faith, was seized on account of it and for the name of Christ, under the emperor Hadrian, and after blows and scourges received as a strenuous contender the crown of martyrdom. These things he then embellishes in the Commentary; where he also claims that his name was M. Bolanus Rusticus Florentius; that Pliny the Younger wrote to him, and other things of the same stuff. Who would have believed that by these things Francesco Maria de Aste, archbishop of Otranto, could have been taken in, who in the year 1716 published at Benevento a not bad commentary on the Roman Martyrology In Martyrologium Romanum dissertationes, page 485.? Nevertheless I should not wish to show that these things are false: for it does not seem that one need write for the benefit of those who, after the censures of Nicolás Antonio upon the wares of Higuera, still place some faith in histories taken from the writings of Pseudo-Dexter, Pseudo-Maximus and others. But let us come to the better martyrologies and calendars in which the name of St. Florentius is inscribed.
[2] and praised in many very ancient sacred Fasti, The birthday of St. Florentius or, with the form slightly corrupted, of St. Florenctis is announced today at the end of the other memorials in the three better published copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology, namely in the Antwerp or Echternach copy of St. Willibrord, in the Corbie copy of d'Achery and in the Lucca copy of Fiorentini, with the place of his contest nowhere indicated Compare Fiorentini, vet. Martyrol. Occidentale, page 937.; likewise in the Reichenau, Augsburg and Labbe copies, edited by Sollerius in these our Acta at the end of June; in the Gellone copy of d'Achery Spicilegium, volume II, page 35.; in that of St. Germain of Auxerre Thesaurus anecdotorum, volume III, column 1561. and in the very ancient Calendar of Corbie
Ibid. column 1603., brought to light by Martène; in the additions to the Martyrology of Bede, the Vatican, Arras, Tournai, Liessies and Barberini ones Acta SS. volume II of March, page XXXVI., where he is also called Florianus and Florinus, is sometimes doubled, and is even assigned to Sardinia from the neighbourhood of St. Protus of Porto Torres; in the Martyrologies of Ado and Usuard: On the same day at Tyle or the fort of Tile, the birthday of St. Florentius, martyr, except that in three copies of Ado another Florentius is substituted, and in others is added, as also in some copies of Usuard: of which Florentius among those passed over. He has also been admitted into the Martyrologies of Galesini, the Roman of Baronius, the Parisian of Noailles, that of Évreux of Pierre de Rochechouart and the Gallican of Du Saussay, and indeed into the Parma-Aquileia Calendar edited by Altani De calendariis, page 275..
[3] at Til-Châtel, a place which lies between Dijon and Langres on the stream Tille, Further, where Tile or Tyle castrum is situated, Adrien de Valois saw rightly. The river Tila, he says Notitia Galliarum, page 455., more than once mentioned in the Chronicle of the Dijon monastery of St. Bénigne In d'Achery, Spicilegium, volume II, page 386 and following., is commonly called the Tille, by some the Til, in the masculine gender. At first it has two channels, arising from different sources; of which the one, properly called the Tille, feeds the villages of Mariacum (Marey-sur-Tille), Villiacum (Villey), Cressiacum (Cressey), Fossatum (le Fosse) and Echevanne; the other, however, which has the name Ignon or Ivron, glides past Moloy, Villacomitis (Villecomte), Icium (Issur-Tille) and Marcilliacum (Marcilly). Then both streams flow together, the one name Tila being preserved. This enlarged stream flows past Til-Châtel (Tille-Chateau), and then, running from north to south, past the villa of Fauriniacum or Faberniacum (Favernay) and several other villages; and finally it flows down into the Arar (the Saône). In the chronicle praised above a letter, given in the year 1020, makes mention of Humbert, cleric of Tilecastrum. Another ends thus: These things were done at Tilecastrum publicly in the year from the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1017, indiction XV, in the reign of Robert king of the Franks, in the month of February. One Hugh de Tilecastro is found in the same place in a letter of the year 1026, and here and there in other documents of that Chronicle: likewise Milo the Stammerer, knight of Tilensis castrum. This fort therefore, 650 years ago now, was called, and that quite often, Tilæcastrum; now also Tilense castrum, from the river Tila, beside which it sits, as if a fort on the Tila. For Tilæ castrum there is very often found written in the old manuscripts Tilecastrum, as above. In the same Chronicle I find Tiricastrum, Tiricastel and Tricastel: names born from a corruption of the word Tilæcastrum or Tilæcastellum, with l converted into r and æ or e into i. From Tricastel our people made Trichastel, Trichasteaul and Trichasteau: by which name this place is now corruptly called by most. So Valois in the year 1675; but now, as I have learned from the topographical maps of Cassini and the geographical lexicons of the Gauls, the common name is Tille-Chateau, Til-Chateau, Thil-Chateau, and also Mont-sur-Tille. The town, peopled by nine hundred inhabitants, is situated upon the public road laid between Langres and Dijon; from which city it is 24 kilometres distant. There remain on the hill notable traces of the former fort, from which it received its name.
[4] he won a most celebrated cult, as appears from the history of the priory When Ado and Usuard published their Martyrologies in the 9th century, the birthday of St. Florentius was already then celebrated there and his body preserved; but the church, or rather the altars and tithes of Tillecastrum, were in the hands of the canons regular of St. Stephen of Dijon, to whom Betto, bishop of Langres, had given them in the month of May in the 33rd year, in the reign of the lord emperor Charles, or the year of Christ 801; so that they might have the means of obtaining necessary bodily support [See the Charter of Betto, in Fyot, Histoire de l'église abbatiale et collégiale de saint Estienne de Dijon, Preuves, number 117, page 77.]. But this donation did not remain intact. Certainly the lords of Til-Châtel thrust themselves in place of the canons of St. Stephen and held by right of benefice from the bishops of Langres the church of St. Florentius at Til-Châtel with its annexed rights; yet so as to see that the divine office was performed there by some clerics. But in the year 1033 this state of affairs seemed to the knight Aimo not sufficiently religious. These things are very plainly evident from the following diploma, by which he restored the church of St. Florentius to the canons of Dijon, and which we bring to light again chiefly for this reason, both because the cult of St. Florentius is duly illustrated by it, and because it has so far seen the light only once, namely in Fyot's very rare work on the church of St. Stephen at Dijon Ibid. proofs, number 71, page 41.. Receive therefore that very ancient instrument.
[5] and from a diploma of the year 1033 After, through the preaching of the holy apostles, as we read in their Acts, many, leaving their possessions for Christ, rejoiced to possess nothing in the world, that they might be enriched with heavenly rewards in the future, the custom took root that very many, leaving all things, gave themselves over to monastic discipline, while very many, retaining their own goods, took pains to soldier for God canonically in congregations. The devotion of the lay faithful also, aspiring to share with such men in the eternal recompense, took care to minister to them the more readily from their resources and benefices, for the more free exercise of the service of God. Hence I, Hugh, by the favour of God bishop of the most holy church of Langres, desire it to be made known to the sons of the church present and future, that a certain faithful man of ours from among the sons of our church, approaching me as I resided in the same church, humbly asked that in a certain church, which he held from me by right of benefice, I should see to the gathering of clerics living canonically, for the performing of the service of God and the showing of veneration to the holy martyr of that same church, Florentius, who rests there, and should establish that the church with the clerics be given in perpetuity to the abbey of St. Stephen of the fort of Dijon. Receiving his petition most willingly, I forthwith took pains to fulfil it.
[6] is abundantly evident. I therefore gave, according to the petition of the knight, by name Aimo, that altar with the benefice, to a certain cleric, provost of the aforesaid abbey of St. Stephen, by name Warner, on behalf of the clerics to be gathered in the aforesaid church of the holy martyr Florentius, with the serfs of both sexes belonging to the saint, with the market also, namely the toll, and whatever is customarily paid by customary right from the market, so that the canons of that place may hold and possess it in perpetuity, and may render to God the service due and to the martyr fitting veneration: but let them not neglect to show subjection to the prelates of the abbey of St. Stephen, and according to their command let the ordering of the place and the dispensation of the things belonging to it be done freely without any gainsayer. We forbid also, by the power of Almighty God, and by the authority of all the saints, and by the power conferred on us by God, that anyone presume henceforth to seize for his own uses these things which have been given to the service of God, and to separate them from his service; otherwise let him be anathema maranatha. And if anyone at the devil's prompting attempts to infringe the authority of this our royal donation, made for God's sake, and the corroboration of the episcopal decree, or to violate it in any respect, as we have said, let him lie under eternal malediction, unless he come to his senses and make satisfaction to the holy protomartyr Stephen and to his canons living in the fort of Dijon. Mark of Hugh, bishop of the city of Langres; mark of Aimo, both author and approver of this donation; mark of Hildegard, his wife. Mark of Otbert, brother of the same Aimo; mark of Warin, presbyter; mark of Arduin, knight; mark of Ulgerius; mark of Humbert; mark of Witbert, provost; mark of Wido, knight, and his son; mark of Ulderius; mark of Stephen; mark of Walter, cleric, and his son; mark of Organdus; mark of Peter and his son Teutbald. Done at Tille-Castrum publicly, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation MXXXIII, indiction I, epact six, on the day of the nativity of St. John the Baptist, the fifth feria, in the month of June, in the reign of Henry king of the Franks, in the VII year of his reign. I, Odolric, dated it, and confirmed it with my own hand.
[7] [The relics of SS. Florentius and Honoratus were preserved above two altars in a church which served at once the priory and the parish.] Besides the church of St. Florentius there was in the same place the chapel of Tylecastrum; which, although it belonged to that church, had not been restored together with it. This therefore Aldo son of Aldo, himself a son of that Aimo, held in fee from Robert, bishop of Langres. By the persuasion, therefore, of that Robert, who occupied the see of Langres from the year 1185 to the year 1110, in the reign of King Philip, that is between the years 1060 and 1108, and when Odo was duke in Burgundy, that is between the years 1078 and 1102, visited by a divine movement of the soul, fearing to be under anathema, and eager for eternal glory, he restored to the church of St. Florentius the chapel of Tylecastrum, from which it had been unjustly mutilated. The charter itself will be given by Fyot Fyot, proofs number 109, page 73.. Thus by these restitutions of Aimo and Aldo it came about that the canons of St. Stephen established some of their number there, over whom a prior presided, who before the others discharged the care of the parish. To these canons was entrusted also the administration of the parish of Marcilly, united to that of Til-Châtel. This arrangement lasted until the community of canons was suppressed and the parish of Til-Châtel separated from the priory. Thereafter it became a simple priory, depending in full right on the abbot of St. Stephen. St. Florentius was patron of the priory; but the priory and parish, because the former church had not been renewed, had the same church: so that the prior celebrated the divine offices on the more solemn feasts at the principal altar Ibid. Pouillé de S. Estienne, page 296.; above which was placed a casket containing the bones of St. Florentius De Mangin, Histoire des diocèses de Langres et de Dijon, volume I, page 127.; on other days in the chapel of St. Honoratus, confessor, whose relics were placed there above the altar. The translation of these relics was celebrated on the second Sunday after Easter: the neighbouring peoples, however, flocked together on the feast of the Holy Trinity Fyot, Pouillet etc. page 296.; which thing was as it were a kind of monument of the former banal processions, which used to be held very near Pentecost Acta SS. volume X of October, page 861.. There was also in the same place a hospice with a chapel of Bl. Mary assumed into heaven, subject to the abbot of St. Stephen Fyot, Pouille etc. pages 301 and 302.; but this pertains less to St. Florentius. In the last century St. Florentius was still held there in the highest veneration; and since his feast coincided with the vigil of the Holy Apostles Simon and Jude, they obtained from the holy see leave to keep the common fast on the day before.
[8] What is handed down concerning SS. Florentinus and Vandaletus. Of his martyrdom, which is established by the authority of so many martyrologies, most of which are very ancient, of several old charters, which we have indicated above and in part recited, and finally of a constant tradition, there is plainly no doubt. But when St. Florentius gave his life for Christ, whose
by the order of what tyrant, on what occasion, no one could say without any doubt. Nevertheless a certain Crocus was once very famous in those places, whom some make a duke of the Alemanni, but the people of Langres, Angoulême and others a king of the Vandals. Concerning him the gravest disagreements have arisen among the most learned Frenchmen: some, agreeing with St. Gregory of Tours, say that he burst into the Gauls in the times of the emperor Gallienus with a host of Alemanni and made a slaughter of Christians in many places; others, on the authority of a crowd of writers of a later age, contend that at the beginning of the 5th century he penetrated into the Cisrhenish provinces with bands of Vandals or other barbarians and raged against the Christians everywhere; others finally lay it down that there were several Crocuses who at different times were cruel towards the Gallic faithful. Into this question our predecessors have more than once already slipped; and it has seemed to them that one persecutor Crocus should be admitted, since otherwise the same deeds would have to be ascribed to different men; and further that the authority of St. Gregory of Tours, who referred the coming of Crocus, king of the Alemanni, into the Gauls to the times of Valerian and Gallienus, far excels the rest [Compare Acta SS. volume X of May, page 242 and following. Ibid. volume IV of August, page 434 and following.]: nor do I see what wiser opinion can be held in a very obscure matter. This was also long ago the opinion of Vignier, who in the Chronicle of Langres narrates that when Valerian had been captured after an ill-fated battle or by treachery, and his son Gallienus had just begun to reign, namely in the year of salvation 164, Crocus or Chrocus, surrounded by a great band of Suevi, Vandals and Alemanni, penetrated into the Gauls and besieged the citadel of Langres, Antomadunum; and that he then laid bloody hands on St. Desiderius, bishop of Langres, whose Acts our Henschenius illustrated at the 23rd day of May, and on St. Valerian, deacon of Langres, whose Acts were first brought to light at the 22nd day of October. He then adds Chronicum Lingonense, page 15.: We are persuaded that Florentius fell at Tile-Castrum through the savagery of the aforenamed barbarians, when they were making for Arles by the road to Lyons. This persuasion agrees with the tradition that St. Florentius died in the Vandal persecution, doubtless because in the Acts of St. Desiderius and in others of St. Valerius Crocus is called a duke or king of the Vandals; for by the name of Vandals any barbarians whatever were understood formerly too, as now: and indeed it was accepted by the historian of the diocese of Langres [De Mangin, Histoire ecclésiastique des diocèses de Langres et de Dijon, volume I, page 127.]; who also adds that at that time St. Vandaletus, martyr, was likewise killed at Til-Châtel. The manner or mode of the martyrdom of St. Florentius is recorded by Du Saussay Martyrologium Gallicanum, at the 23rd of March and the 27th of October., following the liturgical books of the Île Barbe; namely that St. Florentius, placed upon a huge rock in the river, was beheaded with a ploughshare by the soldiers of Crocus; but that his head, through stupendous crags, through the rapid courses of the waters of the Tille and the Saône, was by divine conveyance carried as far as the Île Barbe in the Saône near Lyons, and being found there was laid to rest with the highest honour (as was fitting). How little credible these things are without a sound surety is manifest. For the rest, they long ago displeased the bishops of Langres: among whom Charles Descars, when in the year 1604 he published the Breviary of Langres, wished the lessons on St. Florentius, martyr, to be suppressed, or rather that nine lessons on St. Florentius, confessor and bishop of Strasbourg after St. Arbogast, should be substituted for them, while in the Calendar and also in the title of the Office the name of martyr was kept. A plan by all means to be disapproved, since nothing can follow and arise from it but a confusion of the saints with one another. This was changed more than once afterwards; so much so that in the liturgical Calendar of Dijon of the year 1827 (in which diocese Til-Châtel is now contained), on the 27th day of October, which was a Saturday, the office of the Blessed Virgin Mary is ordered to be said, and on the day before, or the 26th of October, the birthday of St. Florentius, martyr, is ordered to be celebrated with semidouble rite. In the Calendar of Langres of the year 1829, however, there are appointed for the 27th day of October the vigil of the Holy Apostles and a bare commemoration of St. Florentius, martyr: whose name has also been kept in the yearbook of the diocese of Langres [Pechinet and Mongin, Annuaire ecclés. et hist. du diocèse de Langres, 1838, page XXVIII.].
[9] The cult of St. Florentius on the Île Barbe, where his head was once preserved. From what I reported a little above from Du Saussay, the reader will have understood that the head of St. Florentius was once preserved on the Île Barbe; which island lies in the river Arar (the Saône) above Lyons. Hermits or monks are said to have lived there even before peace was granted to the church; certainly afterwards a monastery arose there, with St. Martin as patron, whose fame was most celebrated; seven churches were built there, although the circuit of the island is exceedingly small Fortis, Voyage à Lyon, aux environs etc. volume II, page 465.: but that sevenfold number of churches was observed elsewhere too, for example at Hohenberg, or on Mont Sainte-Odile; likewise at Andenne in Belgium. Formerly there were celebrated on the Île Barbe some very solemn feasts in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Lupus, St. Denis, St. Andrew, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Martha; to which very numerous throngs came yearly with wonderful devotion, not from the neighbourhood only, but also from remote provinces Ibid. at the page cited.. But St. Florentius had no part in this signal honour; although a double feast of his was celebrated there: the one on the 23rd day of March in memory of the reception of his head on the Île Barbe; the other on the present day, the 27th of October, in memory of his martyrdom. Indeed Théophile Raynaud, who in his little Index of the Saints of Lyons wiped away the dust from the names of so many of the blessed, passed over St. Florentius, martyr. But Étienne de Vernay, presbyter of Lyons, who with the greatest labour produced the Breviary of Lyons according to the form of the council of Trent or rather of Pope St. Pius V, inserting countless lessons on the proper saints, did not wish St. Florentius to be omitted, as is evident to me from his manuscript codex; but he could not plead his cause to the end: so that the cult of St. Florentius in the diocese of Lyons continued until the overthrow of the religious houses within the bounds of the Île Barbe; but now it is entirely given over to oblivion, since on that island there no longer exist any sacred buildings, but only villas, remains of the old monastic structures.
[10] [Of St. Vandaletus and St. Honoratus, confessor, nothing has become known, not even the birthday.] St. Vandaletus, of whom I have said very little according to Mangin, I have found noted nowhere else at all. The name too is suspect to me, both because it is by no means Roman, and because it seems to have been formed as a diminutive from Vandal. These things certainly avail to take away confidence in the form of the name, by no means to call into suspicion the holy martyr himself. St. Honoratus the confessor, however, who as it were of his own accord presented himself to us as we wrote, seems to be other than the saints Honoratus, confessors, whose deeds have become known. Neither the calendars, nor the books of Langres or Dijon supply any light. Fyot, who could not refrain from his name, carefully avoided saying anything about him. We, however, as so many other times, try to do this one thing, to rescue the memory of SS. Vandaletus and Honoratus from oblivion in whatever way we can. It remains to advise the reader that in those passed over at this day several saints Florentius have been listed from the calendars, with whom the holy martyr of Til-Châtel is easily confused; but what has been said there does not seem to need repeating in this place. — Concerning the three holy men of Til-Châtel we await several other documents from the venerable parish priest of Til-Châtel; and if these should be brought to us in good time, we shall take care to place them in this very volume among the addenda.