Justus

ON ST. JUSTUS, PRESBYTER AND CONFESSOR, AT LIMOGES IN GAUL,

IN ABOUT THE YEAR 370.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Justus, presbyter of Limoges in the Gauls. (S.)

BY R. D. B.

§ I. Several saints of the name of Justus. St. Justus of Limoges. His cult and Acts.

[Several saints have flourished of the name of Justus, whose Acts have already been given; to whom is added St. Justus of Limoges.] Although the old Christians did not superstitiously, after the example of the gentiles, seek names of good omen, and several were called Injuriosus, Contumeliosus, Stercoreus, yet they were generally pleased with words which contained some praise: among which none seemed more excellent and more suited to Christian men than Justus or Justinus, seeing that we are commanded in the Gospel first to seek the kingdom of God and his justice and that the rest are to be added to us. Matt. VI. 33. Hence it has come about that in the catalogues of the saints there occurs a huge column who are called Justus, Justinus or Justinianus: so that in these our Acta there has often been treatment of heavenly persons distinguished by those names; and of these some shone with episcopal dignity, namely Justus of Vienne Acta SS. volume II of May, page 99., Justus of Urgell Ibid. volume VI of May, page 773., Justus of Alexandria Ibid. volume I of June, page 620., Justus of Lyons Ibid. volume I of September, page 365., Justus or Justinus of Strasbourg Ibid. volume I of September, page 377., Justus of Clermont Ibid. volume I of September, page 439.; others gained the laurel of martyrdom, such as Justus of Volterra Ibid. volume I of June, page 437., Justus of Alcalá Ibid. volume I of August, page 154., Justus of Lecce in the province of Otranto Ibid. volume V of August, page 764., Justus the boy in the territory of Beauvais Ibid. volume VIII of October, page 323., Justus in the diocese of Arras Ibid. volume VIII of October, page 371., Justus, martyr, as is reported, at Oulx in Piedmont Ibid. volume VIII of October, page 371., and several others whom our predecessors mentioned at the days 17, 21, 25, 28 of February; 1, 3, 5, 13 of March; 12 of April; 1, 4, 6, 31 of May; 2, 3, 6, 8 of June; 2, 14, 16, 18, 21, 23, 30 of July; 4, 6, 25, 26 of August, etc.; finally among holy confessors not bishops are numbered SS. Justus, a layman of Vich in Spain Ibid. volume VI of May, page 774., Justus of Trier Ibid. volume III of July, page 650. and St. Justus, archdeacon of Clermont Ibid. volume IX of October, page 72.. To these is added St. Justus, disciple of St. Hilary, whose Acts are at present to be illustrated; whom, on account of his birth in the territory of Limoges, for the sake of brevity and distinction it is pleasing to call Justus of Limoges, or on account of the excellence of his master Justus the disciple of St. Hilary of Poitiers.

[2] [Referred by our predecessors to this day, although he is venerated on another day.] St. Justus of Limoges was mentioned by our predecessors in the Acts of St. Hilary of Poitiers Ibid. volume I of January, page 785., where they disputed whether he was the author of the Life of St. Hilary, which by many is called a writing of St. Fortunatus; then in volume VI of July at the 27th day among those passed over, on which day formerly the translation of his relics was celebrated. His birthday, however, is kept on the 27th day of November by all the churches of the dioceses of Luçon, Poitiers, Limoges and Périgueux; and formerly the same festival was observed in the dioceses of La Rochelle and Sarlat, as is established from their present or ancient breviaries and liturgical calendars: yet so that in the Breviary of Limoges of the year 1625 the feast of St. Justus, no differently from the Martyrology of Du Saussay, is indicated for the 25th day of November. In the Parisian Martyrology of Cardinal de Noailles, however, is read at the 26th day of November: Among the people of Poitiers, of St. Justus, presbyter; but, by an error of a whole month, in the Universal Martyrology of Du Chastelain you have at the 27th day of October: Among the people of Limoges, of St. Justus, disciple of St. Hilary; and since among those passed over at the 27th day of July our predecessors imprudently followed him, promising that St. Justus of Limoges would be spoken of at the present day, we have wished to fulfil this promise, although his genuine birthday, as we have already advised, occurs on the 27th day of November.

[3] The Acts of St. Justus, whose author and age are unknown, Whom, or in what age, St. Justus obtained as the writer of his life, is hidden. This we know, that there exist in the national library of Paris two very old manuscript copies of that writing: the one, marked with the number 5321, seemed to our Ivan Martinov to have been written in the 10th century; the other, more accurate, is noted with the signs: 5365, Lem. 204, in folio, and seems written in the 11th century or the following. This is certain to us, that since it by no means shrinks from an altogether barbarous style, it is the offspring neither of the fourth nor even of the fifth century, in which times the study of letters so flourished in the Gauls that the schools of Marseilles, Toulouse, Lyons, Bordeaux, Autun and several others flourished above the rest of the Roman empire [Histoire littéraire de France, volume I, part II, page 1 and following; volume II, page 1 and following.]. Nevertheless it is older than any translation of the relics of St. Justus, or dispute about his true body; which dispute Geoffrey of Vigeois affirms blazed up at Limoges in the 12th century Labbe, Bibliotheca Mss. volume II, page 286.; for of this the author of the Life of St. Justus is entirely silent, although he speaks at length of his burial. But we can define nothing more closely, since there is no internal indication in the Life, nor have ancient writers spoken of it.

[4] were written not without care. But this no one will deny, that the writer was a grave man, and an imitator of good examples more zealous than happy. For he tried to tread in the footsteps of Sulpicius Severus, composing the Life of St. Martin; from which book he borrowed not a few expressions. If he was not strong in very distinguished talent, yet he held nothing more important than to serve truth and to report only things ascertained by himself. For this reason he begins with these words: When I had long been lingering among the series of the divine Scriptures and was turning over many sayings with myself, I found a few things concerning the life of the holy and most blessed, eminent confessor Justus. Which even sweating with labour I have scarcely put together, that I might recount some deed. But because, as Scripture advises, unrelenting labour conquers all, it must therefore be undertaken with the highest devotion, lest anything begun remain in vain. And since many documents were wanting to him, as he himself confesses, it came about that from common tradition he admitted some fables, for example of the ass given back by a ravening wolf, and that the labours which to

cultivate the vineyard of the Lord St. Justus endured, and not a few other things of his deeds, he passed over. Nor does it injure the Acts of St. Justus that they are interwoven with rather long speeches, which were set down according to the sense rather than word for word: for this was the custom of the ancients in writing history, as all know who have handled Livy, Sallust, Tacitus, Thucydides, Xenophon and several other profane writers, whether Latin or Greek, or even SS. John Chrysostom in the Acts of St. Babylas Acta SS. volume II of January, page 570., St. Jerome in the Life of St. Paula Ibid. page 711., and Cassian Works, volume I, column 481, Migne edition, volume XL. in the Conferences. Indeed St. Jerome too, explaining chapter II of Matthew, holds it as manifest that the evangelist there took not the words from the scriptures, but the sense Complete Works, volume IV, column 10, edition of the Maurists.. And what wonder that these men, distinguished on every side, should have thought that historical truth suffers no detriment thereby, when they themselves, being thoroughly instructed in Greek and Latin letters, thought that there was no one who, if he had touched the praised historians with the tips of his lips, would not rightly judge of that manner of writing? Which opinion, however, I should not wish to defend.

§ II. The various names of the city of Limoges. The district and diocese of Limoges. The birth of St. Justus.

[Limoges, an episcopal city, of which several names are listed, was the head of the district of the same name.] In the 17th and 18th centuries there was much debate about the name by which the town of Limoges was formerly called. For some contended that it was named Augustoritum, others Limonum, others Ratiatum. But since that time the distinguished Belley Académie des Inscriptions, volume XIX, page 691 and following. published three dissertations for settling this dispute Études sur la Géographie de la Gaule, part II, page 467 and following. and the distinguished Maximin Deloche a Commentary on the Topography of Gaul; of whom the former demonstrated that the head of the Limousin was Augustoritum (Limoges), but that of the Poitevins Limonum (Poitiers); the latter that Ratiatum (Reze) was the head of a lesser one, the district of Ratiatum (Rezois), also within the bounds of the Limousin. To the town of Limoges, however, there was not one word only. For it is found called Augustoritum, Augustoretum, Austritum, the city of the Lemovices, the urbs Lemovicena, Lemofex, and by other like names, which have been collected by Adrien de Valois Notitia Galliarum, page 267., Benjamin Guérard Division territoriale en France, page 26., and the distinguished Maximin Deloche Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Beaulieu, page CXXX.. But all these are derived from Augustoritum Lemovicum; so that the true name gradually ceased and the gentile name prevailed: but this was the fortune of the names of almost all the cities of the Gauls Compare Acta SS. volume XI of October, page 911.. The diocese of Limoges took in the district of Limoges, called also the field, the terminus Lemovicenus, the region of the Limousin, the province of the Limousin: that is the tract today comprising the divisions of the Upper Vienne (dept. de la Haute-Vienne), the Corrèze (dept. de la Correze), the Creuse (dept. de la Creuse), the hundred of Nontron (Notron et son territoire) in the division of the Dordogne (dept. de la Dordogne) and Cenfolens with the surrounding territory in the division of the Charente (dept. de la Charente) Cartul. de l'abb. de Beaulieu, page CXXXV.. The city of Limoges is also today the head of the division of the Upper Vienne, and at the same time the seat of the bishop, whose jurisdiction by virtue of the concordat of the beginning of this century is extended into the divisions of the Creuse and the Upper Vienne.

[6] In its vicinity St. Justus is born And that St. Justus saw the light in that district of Limoges is the opinion of all; and indeed not far from the place of his burial, which later grew into a parish by name Saint-Juste, as the biographer of St. Justus not obscurely hints. For he, describing (number 21) the saint's burial and exequies, says: "But the priests who were present there, taking his body, laid away with spices and wrapped in linen cloths, placing it on a bier, tried to carry it to Limoges. And as they set out on the road, they came to a certain place which is eight miles from the aforesaid city, facing the eastern quarter. And when they had halted a little while, they tried again to lift the limbs of the blessed man. But that bier was weighed down with such heaviness and so great a weight that more than fifty or eighty men could not move him from the place. And his brother Benedict, standing by, said to the crowd: "Do not, brothers, do not do anything against his will; because while in his youthful age he exercised pastoral care, I saw him stay long in this place and clear it of thorns. And so I know that it is his will that he should rest buried in this place." Hearing this they acquiesced in his words, and buried him there on the VI day before the Kalends of December. For a council being held, they built a church over the tomb of the blessed man, which remains to the present." Now since it is not to be imagined that St. Justus as a boy cared for his parents' sheep far from his father's house, it is natural to judge that he began life in the vicinity of the village of Saint-Juste.

[7] of pagan parents, not poor; It befell St. Justus to be born of parents not yet illumined by the light of faith: which we read both in the Life of St. Justus by Canon Labiche de Reignefort Six mois des vies des Saints de Limoges, volume III, page 90., and in the Breviaries of Limoges in the year 1783, of Poitiers of the year 1855 and of Périgueux of the year 1833, and even in the Gallican Martyrology of Du Saussay. And this the old biographer of St. Justus hints not obscurely, saying: Blessed Justus, against the will of his parents, went to the church of the city of Limoges, and there … asked to be made a catechumen. But although his parents did not much approve the plans of their son, yet he does not seem for this reason, as the distinguished Labiche narrates, to have suffered repulse from them: for, as the biographer says, when he returned from there (from Limoges), his parents, seeing his devotion or talent, committed their sheep to him to be ruled, and handed them over to be kept. From which words too it is evident that they were wrongly relegated by the praised Canon Labiche to the poorer classes, but rather lived the life of honest country-folk.

[8] against whose will, after a long catechumenate Nowhere have the ancients handed down in writing under what master St. Justus, brought up in the midst of the darkness of idolatry, received the Christian religion. His biographer describes the first steps that he took in the doctrine and knowledge of Christ in these words, already recited: When therefore the same blessed Justus was about eight years of age, against the will of his parents he went to the church of the city of Limoges, and there, pressing for a long time, asked to be made a catechumen with a certain religious presbyter. And since this catechumenate was beyond measure long, it is pleasing to dwell on it a little. Treating of catechumens, then, Edmond Martène De antiquis ecclesiæ ritibus, part I, book I, chapter I, article 6, page 29., after Origen, St. Isidore, Rabanus and Leidrad of Lyons, distinguishes them into two principal orders, namely catechumens and competents, and using the words of Leidrad he says: Catechumens are those who first come from paganism, and having the will to believe in Christ, hear the word of faith, but are not yet called faithful. Competents are those who now, after the teaching of the faith, after continence of life, hasten to receive the grace of Christ: and therefore they are called competents, that is, those seeking the grace of Christ. Martène then describes and recites the rites of the ancients for instructing catechumens; of which these were the chief: the imprinting of the sign of the life-giving cross on the forehead, and the laying on of hands with prayer. There were added, according to the diversity of regions, exorcism, breathing on the face, the touch of saliva on the nostrils and ears, and the anointing of the breast and shoulders Ibid. page 30 and following; 37 and following.. Nor was anyone, as the I council of Constantinople teaches at canon VII Labbe, Collectio Conciliorum, volume II, column 952., admitted to the bath of baptism, unless he had been found suitable through a lengthy probation of the catechumenate; yet so that the Fathers of Constantinople left the time of this novitiate to be determined by the prudence of bishops and presbyters; which moderation both the Fathers of the council of Elvira of about the year 305, canon XLII Ibid. volume I, column 975., and also of that of Agde of the year 506, canon XXXIV Ibid. volume IV, column 1389., had already previously brought to ecclesiastical discipline in Gaul and in Spain, laying down now eight months, now two years, or even three years for the novitiate of new Christians; which was sometimes prolonged for several years, either at the request of the catechumens, or at the demand of the bishops: for this was the persuasion of all, that if anyone gave his name to the Christian religion, the old man must be put off by him and the new put on completely. Hence the reader will wonder the less that St. Justus, who at eight years old, against the will of his parents, had been numbered among the catechumens, was only after several years admitted into the bosom of the church through the sacrament of baptism. But what was the cause of so long a delay in a man whose only wish was to live to Christ has not come down to us, just as deep silence is also kept on why St. Martin of Tours Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin, chapter III., enrolled in the roll of catechumens at ten or twelve years of age, was regenerated to the new life in baptism only in the eighteenth year of his age. He would perhaps not err whose opinion it was that, although both saints gave proofs of such proved virtue that their novitiate should rather have been shortened than prolonged, they were of too young an age, as those who had first lived in paganism and still stood under the power of pagan parents, to be raised to higher things against the resistance of their parents.

[9] he is baptized by St. Hilary of Poitiers. Thus after a long catechumenate St. Justus passed through baptism to the fellowship of the faithful. But who conferred on him the sacrament of regeneration is not the same opinion in all the writers, for Collin, denied by Bonaventure of Saint-Amable Histoire de S. Martial, volume III, page 114., affirms that St. Justus received baptism at the hands of St. Hilary. But Canon Labiche Vies des saints du diocèse de Limoges, volume III, page 93., as if the thing were undoubted, reports that Exsuperius, bishop of Limoges, performed this function. Bonaventure gives his opinion the more weight, because St. Justus, even before he enjoyed the friendship of the prelate of Poitiers, shone with the gift of miracles; further, that if St. Hilary washed St. Justus in the sacred font, the novitiate of a man of most respected virtue would have had to be extended for many years. But few will go along with that opinion of Bonaventure, for in the Acts of St. Justus, which are in no way spurious, but rather genuine, it is read at number 5: And the same blessed man (St. Hilary) tried him (St. Justus) with words of exhortation and catechized him, and strengthened him in the faith of Christ. And afterwards he delivered to him the sacrament of baptism. Besides, Bonaventure not even one instrument

of history does he point to, from which it might be gathered that St. Justus was dipped in baptism by another than St. Hilary; then his whole argument, drawn from a rather long catechumenate, plainly conflicts with the customs of the Christians of the 4th century, as we explained a little before: besides, in the Acts which we are editing it is not read that St. Justus, before he came into the fellowship of St. Hilary, performed miracles. Finally it is not known on what authority Canon Labiche affirmed that St. Justus received the grace of baptism from Exsuperius, bishop of Limoges.

§ III. St. Justus the companion of St. Hilary on the journey to Périgueux. His priesthood. Whether he announced the Gospel among the people of Périgord? Prisoners at Poitiers set free.

[St. Justus accompanies St. Hilary his master to Périgueux, whose bishop at that time was not Paternus, an Arian man.] In ancient written books St. Justus is everywhere called the disciple of St. Hilary. This name he gained both because St. Hilary with special care instructed him in Christian doctrine and washed him in the waters of baptism, and at some time took him as his companion, and because St. Justus, leaving the district of Limoges, clung for ever to his master, from whom he had received the clerical state and the presbyterate, and only under his leadership toiled in winning souls for Christ. Nor does he rarely occur with the appellation of presbyter, not so much because he had been initiated into the priesthood, but because he had been set over a rural church, and at that time those who were set over rural churches, as Ruinart Preface to the Works of St. Gregory of Tours, column 52, Migne edition. says after Thomassin [Discipline de l'Église, volume I, book I, chapter LI, column 375, edition of 1725.], which today we call parishes or cures, were called presbyters. Further, a little after receiving baptism St. Justus was enrolled among the faithful, when he joined himself as companion to his master St. Hilary, travelling to Périgueux. And this is undoubted. But Canon Labiche reports Six mois des vies des saints de Limoges, volume III, page 96., with no surety, that St. Hilary made for Périgueux both to venerate the threshold of St. Fronto and to bring back Paternus, bishop of this city, to a better life. But in the Life of St. Justus it is only hinted, Paternus being omitted, that this journey was undertaken by both saints that they might have God gracious to them at the tomb of St. Fronto. Besides, since the anonymous biographer of St. Justus narrates that both travelling saints, before they departed from Périgueux, asked a blessing from the bishop of that church, it is clear that this was not Paternus, since he so obstinately championed the dogmas of Arius that after the Council of Rimini, senseless and not refusing perfidy, as Sulpicius Severus says, he was driven from the priesthood Sacred History, book II, column 155, Migne edition.. And indeed, besides these praised words, nowhere in the ancient writers does mention occur of Paternus. Nor is it hidden from me that Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gallia christiana, volume II, column 1448. and other writers have put it on record that Paternus took part in the council of Béziers of the year 356 Labbe, Collectio Conciliorum, volume II, column 783.. But even if that be admitted, although by what right I do not know, could not St. Hilary, who began to rule the church of Poitiers about the year 350, have made the journey to the tomb of St. Fronto several years before the council of Béziers (for shortly after the synod of Béziers he was driven into exile Sulpicius Severus, column 155, Migne edition. and have received a bishop at Périgueux other than Paternus? Which way of thinking the Rev. Audierne, who contends that St. Leo was the predecessor of Paternus, does not seem to oppose, but rather even adds his vote [État de l'Église du Périgord, by Dupuy, edition annotated by Audierne, volume I, page 242.].

[11] [St. Justus is ordained presbyter by St. Hilary, without breach of ecclesiastical law,] But St. Hilary, on the journey that he made to Périgueux, ordained St. Justus presbyter. But here too the question arises in what way St. Hilary, without breach of the laws of the church, did not fear to lay hands on St. Justus, an inhabitant of the diocese of Limoges, since the council of Elvira, in canon XXIV Labbe, Collectio Conciliorum, volume I, page 973., inserted later in their collections by Ivo of Chartres Decretum, part VI, chapter 352. and Gratian Decretum, part I, distinction 98., had laid down that all who have been baptized in a foreign place *, since their life is by no means known, it has been resolved, are not to be promoted to the clergy in other provinces. Now whoever duly weighs the words of the Fathers of Elvira will be persuaded that that law is not to be so taken as though it had been lawful to lay hands on no foreigner at all, but that it was forbidden only that men whose life and conduct were unknown should be admitted among the clerics. And that this is the sense of the canon is proved by Cardinal de Aguirre Aguirre, Concilia Hispaniæ, volume II, page 222 and following., Gonzalez Ibid. page 223 and following., and also Thomassin Discipline de l'Église, volume II, column 3 and following. from SS. Paulinus of Nola, Jerome and Augustine, who, their own bishops being unheard, allowed themselves to be promoted to ecclesiastical orders by other prelates, without being guilty of violating the canon of Elvira. Then Thomassin shows that in many regions each person could be admitted to sacred orders by another than the bishop of his origin: and that no bond existed between bishop and clerics other than that of ordination: indeed that those were not bound even by this bond who, before they allowed hands to be laid on them, refused to enter into such a pact, after the example of SS. Paulinus of Nola and Jerome. But the bond of the clerical state or of first ordination, where it existed, was so tight that in the year 416 the II council of Milevis, canon XV, laid down that whoever had read in one church, even once, should not be held by another church for the clerical state Labbe, Collectio Conciliorum, volume II, column 1541..

[12] and without any obstacle from the canons of Sardica. Besides, although the general council of Sardica laid down in canons XVIII and XIX that it was lawful to no bishop to ordain an ecclesiastical man of another city in his own parishes, and thus declared that whoever from another parish should wish to ordain another's minister without the consent of his bishop and without his will, the ordination is not to be valid Labbe, ibid. column 647.; these decrees nevertheless were not everywhere kept in the same way. For in Africa they were extended no less to laymen than to clerics Ibid. African Council under Gratus, column 715.: and thus a layman was prohibited from being promoted to the clerical state, and a cleric to higher orders, by another bishop: whereas on the contrary in other regions they seem to have been restricted to clerics alone, because there perhaps the canons of Sardica were judged to be extended no further than canon XVI of Nicaea, whose words are these: But if any (bishop) shall boldly try to invade one (a cleric) belonging to another (bishop), and to ordain him in his church, the bishop from whom he who is bound to the rule has departed not consenting, let an ordination of this kind be proved void [Labbe, Collect. Conciliorum, volume II, column 43; Christian Wolf (Lupus), Complete Works, volume I, page 262.]: or even than the precept of Siricius to the African bishops: That no one should presume to ordain a cleric from another church Constant, Epistolæ Rom. pontificum, column 655.. Hence it came about that the council of Orange of the year 441 decreed at canon IX: But if any have ordained citizens of another or those established elsewhere, and those ordained are not accused of anything, let them either recall them to themselves, or obtain for them the favour of those with whom they live Collectio Conciliorum Galliæ, volume I, column 457.; and that St. Jerome and his brother Paulinian, St. Paulinus of Nola and St. Augustine of Hippo were ordained in another diocese by bishops not their own. For this reason no one will wonder that St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, who also later made St. Martin of Tours, born in Pannonia and baptized at Amiens in the Gauls, a partner of his clergy, thought it lawful for himself to enrol St. Justus among his clerics, and to raise him by degrees to the presbyterate.

[13] In this way he becomes the spiritual son of the bishop of Poitiers, Nor is it to be passed over (lest it escape anyone why St. Justus was so bound to the holy prelate of Poitiers that he had no intercourse with the bishop of Limoges) that at that time the discipline of the church prevailed that every cleric should have as his spiritual father the bishop who had ordained him, and should depend on him just as a son of the flesh on a father of the flesh: which indeed Thomassin has evidently demonstrated [Discipline de l'Église, volume II, book I, chapters I and II, page 3 and following.]. And that spiritual bond, which the western church made so much of, was much tighter in the eastern church: for it was the cause, as is established from session XVI of the council of Chalcedon Labbe, Collect. Concil. volume IV, column 813 and following., why the bishops of Constantinople could so easily claim for themselves all authority over the whole East.

[14] who sends him to announce the gospel in the region of Périgord: After St. Justus, then, had been raised to the priesthood, he set out, sent by St. Hilary, to illumine the people of Périgord with the light of faith, as Bouchet Annales d'Aquitaine, folio 24. and the Breviaries of Périgueux, Poitiers, Luçon and La Rochelle hand down. Nor in this matter (if there is certain trust) did either St. Hilary or St. Justus violate the rights of the bishop of Périgueux. For the holy man was not sent to parts in which the Christian religion flourished, but to pagans, clinging to the old superstition. For nothing stood in the way of this class of men being approached by presbyters from elsewhere; as was declared in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Martin Acta SS. volume X of October, page 796., who by order of Felix, bishop of Nantes, opened Christian dogmas to the inhabitants of the district of Herbauge, in the diocese of Poitiers. What then, says the writer of that Commentary, did Felix of Nantes send his deacon (Martin) into the diocese of Poitiers? Certainly to overstep the bounds which the fathers have set has always been held in the church a very great crime and full of schism. But this knot is untied by the Life of St. Martin itself, in which it is plainly handed down that this part of the district of Herbauge, contiguous to the people of Nantes, lay still fully overwhelmed by the darkness of idolatry. And no one is ignorant that the lands of the infidels, even if judged enclosed in some diocese, are held as open, and that accordingly the laws on keeping limits are not of the same weight there: indeed Ariowald, king of the Lombards, had the suspicion that bishops had not so much authority over places far distant from the episcopal cities Jonas, Life of St. Bertulf, in Sæc. II Benedict. page 161.; certainly because the Christian faith was judged not yet to have penetrated into them. For this reason they preached Christian doctrine, in those regions too, where there were bishops

catholic, and those not consulted, St. Wulfram of Sens, St. Amandus of Maastricht and many others, especially regionary bishops. Nor did the Roman pontiffs ever accuse the patriarchs of Constantinople of fault because they sent Greek presbyters to convert the Bulgars to Christ, but only because they contended to exercise jurisdiction over the newly converted, whose new homeland belonged to the Roman patriarchate: indeed they extolled with great praises SS. Cyril and Methodius because, although they had been sent by the patriarch of Constantinople to win for Christ the Slavic peoples of the Roman patriarchate, they subjected them to the Roman patriarch.

[15] it is not accurately known in what place. Now which parts of the people of Périgord St. Justus illumined with the light of faith is very obscure. For none of the breviaries in which the preaching of St. Justus among the people of Périgord is praised indicates in what tract it took place. Nevertheless Jean Bouchet Annales d'Aquitaine, chapter XII, folio 22., without any doubt, affirms twice and three times that St. Justus announced the doctrine of Christ, both before and after the happy departure of St. Hilary from among the living, near Périgueux, towards Limoges, in the vicinity of a church which he calls Notre-Dame-en-Perigord, and at length died his last day in peace there. In an apocryphal writing on St. Justus, however, it is discovered that this took place in a certain forest, by name Auren, of the suburb of the city of Périgueux. But these things the inhabitants themselves will be able to define only with difficulty; especially because there is no lack there of several ancient and distinguished sanctuaries of the Blessed Virgin Mary; of which which one is designated by Bouchet, several learned men of that tract whom I approached by letter candidly confessed they could not point out: I suspect however that this place is either Notre-Dame-des-Vertus or Notre-Dame-de-Salignac, since they are a few leagues distant from Périgueux, and lie not far from the ancient Roman road which led from the town of Périgueux to Limoges. Jean Bouchet adds that St. Justus was sent here by his master in the year 366, that is two years before the death of St. Hilary: and that there, until the end of his life, except that he was present at the death of his master, he laboured diligently in the vineyard of the Lord: but that this is less consonant with the truth we shall demonstrate below.

[16] coming to Poitiers he sets prisoners free and sends them to St. Hilary, Further, although the ancients have handed down nothing about St. Justus's preaching among the people of Périgord, yet I should not wish to call it into doubt, since mention of it is made in a little writing to be edited below; which indeed is apocryphal, but contains an Aquitanian tradition much older than the memory of men: all the less because it conflicts with no historical monument, and is made likely by the journey of SS. Justus and Hilary to this district. This however does not stand in the way of St. Justus's having not rarely stayed at Poitiers, as is more than once asserted in his Life, and becomes altogether certain from the fame of his holiness and the glory of his miracles, with which he shone there while living. Further we read in the Acts of St. Justus (number 14) that one day, as he was walking about through Poitiers, he heard men held in prison, who with great shouts begged him to help them: and that the saint, after making prayer to God, broke their chains and sent them to St. Hilary, that they might receive from the bishop's lips what was to be done; but when the attendants of the prison were about to throw them into chains again, God worked wonders lest those whom St. Justus had given liberty should again be deprived of it at the feet of St. Hilary.

[17] that they might there enjoy the right of asylum. But it must not be passed over that, if St. Justus sent to St. Hilary those freed from prison, he without doubt did so that they might enjoy the right of asylum. For the Roman law, no differently from the laws of other nations, as is proved from Theodosius the younger Codex Theodosianus with the commentaries of Godefroy, volume III, page 395. and other sources by Jean-François Simon Academie des inscriptions, volume III, page 37., laid aside the cases of the accused who had fled to the altars of the gods. Nor could Augustus or Tiberius, as witness Tacitus Annals, book III, number 63; book IV, number 14. and Suetonius De XII Cæsaribus, book III, page 373, Leiden edition of the year 1667., although they left no stone unturned, wholly remove that privilege. But when Constantine the Great or his successors professed our dogmas, by their will the right of asylum, as they say, was granted to Christians also: and this we gather from writers hostile to the Christian cause, Ammianus Marcellinus Works book XV, chapter 5; book XXVI, chapter 3, edition of Jac. Gronovius., contemporary with SS. Hilary and Justus, and from Zosimus [Writers of Byzantine history, Zosimus, Histories book IV, page 256; book V, number 18, page 269; number 29, page 288; number 34, page 295; number 35, page 297; number 45, page 310, Bonn edition.], or even from Socrates Hist. ecclesiast. book IV, chapter 5, edition of Valois. and Sozomen Ibid. book VII, chapter 7.; and especially from SS. Augustine Letter 153, Works volume II, column 654, Migne edition. and John Chrysostom Homily on Eutropius, works volume III, part I, column 394, Migne edition., for whom, as catholic bishops, it was customary to exhort to mercy towards the accused. But I should not wish to pursue what was laid down after the times of St. Justus about the right of asylum and is contained in many books.

* otherwise peregre.

§ IV. Was St. Justus abbot of the monastery of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand; or companion of St. Hilary going into exile? The people's wishes that he should succeed him on his death.

St. Justus was not abbot of the monastery of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand; Denis de Sainte-Marthe was of the opinion Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 1223., and others have followed in his footsteps, that St. Justus was the first abbot instituted of the monastery near Poitiers, to which the name of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand was later attached. Justus, they say in listing the abbots of that monastery, according to a fellow in the studies of Dom Rapaillon in writing the history of St. Hilary, was the first abbot Ibid. at the column cited.. Nevertheless the opinions of Sainte-Marthe and of Rapaillon are poles apart. For Sainte-Marthe after St. Justus the first abbot places Pascentius, a pupil of St. Hilary, St. Porcarius, etc. Rapaillon, however Mémoires des Antiquaires de l'Ouest, year 1856, page 326., whose writings are preserved even today in the public library of Poitiers, lists the first abbots of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand in this order: St. Hilary, St. Leonius, St. Maxentius, St. Gelasius, etc. Nor does Rapaillon seem to have been inconsistent with himself; for Sainte-Marthe, who on his authority wrongly supposed that St. Justus was the first abbot of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand, we detect from his own words to have been deceived by memory. For he says: He who wrote the history of this church, the most distinguished lord Rapaillon, counsellor of Poitiers and canon of the same, having spent thirty years in making this work, had promised us the series of the abbots, treasurers and deans, but later refused; whence we can bring to light only some drawn from various monuments Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 1223.. And indeed we easily give our vote to Rapaillon, since neither in the Acts of St. Justus, which yet abound in matters of lesser moment, nor in the catalogues of saints, nor in the martyrologies and breviaries which we praised above, is it anywhere hinted that St. Justus presided over monks or clerics.

[19] but he seems to have professed the religious life, though bound to no monastery. Sainte-Marthe would have spoken more correctly if he had said that St. Justus professed the religious life. For he merited, says his biographer, to receive the burden of the clerical state from Bishop Hilary himself. Since by this he was made for ever the portion of the Lord, and could no longer live for himself or for men, but for God alone, he had assumed all the parts of the monastic state as perpetual duties. For at that time all the words which the bishop said in making a cleric were taken to the letter. In truth those clerics at that time were not assigned to any particular monastery; but this stability was not introduced by firm law until the Rule of Benedict prevailed generally. For most monks at that time were free to live where they wished. But why do I pursue these things? Long since the most learned men have clearly demonstrated that in those ancient times clerics in the Gauls were monks with this sole difference, that all clerics were monks blessed by the bishop; but monks had often received no blessing, having embraced the monastic life through no one's intervention, content by a change of clothing to profess that they had bidden farewell to the world for ever. But on this matter Ruinart Works of St. Gregory of Tours, preface, column 33 and following, Migne edition., Du Cange Glossarium latinit. under Clericus, Clericatus., Thomassin Discipline de l'Eglise, volume II, book I, chapter 85, column 548 and following. should be seen. Indeed it became the rule (which also pertains to the affairs of St. Justus) that the monastic state took the place of the minor orders and the subdiaconate or even diaconate, so that monks initiated into one or another or even no sacred order were promoted by a leap to the presbyterate. The reason for this custom seems to have been that the monastic life effects the same as the minor orders, subdiaconate and diaconate, namely it separates men from secular allurements and joins them with God; and accordingly it paves the nearest way to the presbyterate Acta SS. volume X of October, page 766.. According to this discipline, therefore, St. Hilary could, without breach of the laws of the church, enrol St. Justus, marked by no inferior order, among the presbyters; which indeed his biographer hints not obscurely (number 5). Nor do we gather that this was strange in that age from Gregory of Tours [History of the Franks, book I, chapter XXII, column 542; Lives of the Fathers, column 1171, Migne edition.]. Add that at that time, with the church's leave, bishops were ordained who had never passed through the presbyterate or diaconate or perhaps any other lower order: and this we are taught by the Roman ordo, which Mabillon Musæum Italicum, volume II, pages 84 and 86. made public and affirms contains a purer Roman ordo on the ordination of ministers than is found in the printed ones. And so it came about that St. Martin, who for humility's sake had not allowed himself to be raised higher than the office of exorcist, was, by the acclamation of the people, elected and consecrated bishop of Tours [Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin, chapter IX, column 165, Migne edition; Thomassin, Discipline de l'Église, volume II, book I, chapter 85, column 547.].

[20] [St. Justus did not join himself as companion to St. Hilary going into exile among the Phrygians;] Now another error is admitted by some writers in reporting the deeds of St. Justus.

For Fr. Bonaventure Histoire de S. Martial, volume III, page 120. and Canon Labiche Vies des saints de Limoges, volume III, page 99. report that St. Hilary, when about the year 356 he made for Phrygia, to which he was being sent as an exile in punishment for the Catholic religion he had defended, joined to himself as companions SS. Leonius and Justus, to bring some solace to their exiled master. But this narrative, which rests on conjectures rather than on genuine documents, seems to deserve no credit. For St. Hilary was not one who, seeing Saturninus of Arles and some other bishops, at the persuasion of the emperor Constantius, spreading the Arian heresy through the whole of the Gauls, or even Paulinus of Trier [St. Hilary against the Emperor Constantius, volume II, column 578, Migne edition.], Rhodanus of Toulouse Sulpicius Severus, Histories book II, column 151, Migne edition. and others exiles in Phrygia for defending the Nicene creed, would have borne it that to wipe away his tears Saints Justus and Leonius, both most ardent champions of Christian truth, should of their own accord leave the Gauls and abandon them to heretical pastors; and that all the less because not only was the district of Poitiers little distant from the tract of Arles, over which Saturninus presided, most hostile to the homoousians, but also because Saturninus, Hilary's open enemy, discharged the office of apostolic vicar in the Gauls, as being bishop of Arles. Then the biographer of St. Justus, who narrated even the smallest things, by no means holds any discussion of his journey to Phrygia.

[24] [he is demanded as his successor by the people of Poitiers; nor in this matter was there departure from the discipline of that time.] Meanwhile, the blessed bishop Hilary being withdrawn from this light (in the year 368), says that same biographer of St. Justus (number 16), or rather having passed to the Lord, the citizens of Poitiers, taking common counsel among themselves, asked that blessed Justus be ordained in the place of the prelate. This discipline seems to have prevailed at that time among the people of Poitiers: for although by the divine will no right of this kind belonged to the people, yet by the institution of the church, received almost from apostolic times, the wishes of the faithful were by no means neglected in the election of bishops. This is excellently described in a few words by Bellarmine Book on Clerics, chapter VII.: For at first, he says, that is, in apostolic times, pastors were elected without the knowledge of the people, then the people began to be employed to give testimony about the life of the one to be elected. Whence that saying of Tertullian in the Apology, chapter XIII: "Certain approved elders preside, having gained that honour not by price, but by testimony." Then, that peoples might the more love their bishops, those alone began to be ordained whom the people had requested. Whence that saying of St. Leo, Letter 87 or 89: "Let there be awaited the wishes of the citizens, the testimonies of the peoples, the judgement of the honourable, the election of the clerics, which in the ordinations of priests are accustomed to be observed by those who know the rules of the Fathers." Where St. Leo assigns to the peoples wishes, that is, desires and testimonies, but to the clerics election. Finally in certain places the custom prevailed that the people took to themselves even the right of suffrage, as can be understood from book III of Chrysostom on the Priesthood. But after this was tolerated for some time, and the confusion and unworthiness of the thing appeared, then election and demand were also gradually taken away from the people, and there was left only testimony of life and morals. For even now bishops and presbyters are ordained before the people, and the bishop who is to confer the orders addresses the people through the deacon, and asks that, if there is anyone who has anything against those to be ordained, he should come forward and say it. Now at the time when a successor to St. Hilary was to be given by the people of Poitiers, in very many churches both of the East and of the West the people demanded whom they desired as bishops. For this reason, without violation of the sacred canons or certainly of ecclesiastical discipline, St. Martin of Tours Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin, chapter IX, column 163, Migne edition. and St. Ambrose of Milan [Paulinus, Life of St. Ambrose, Works of St. Ambrose, volume I, column 29, Migne edition.] were elected bishops at the demand of the people. We advise these things briefly, that it may be clearly evident that if St. Justus had yielded to the wishes of the people of Poitiers, with the election or approval of the clergy being added, he could have been accused of not even the smallest fault. But no more need be discussed on this head; on which Hallier [Hallier, de Sacris electionibus et ordinationibus, volume I, page 50 and following.], Selvaggio Selvaggio, Antiquit. Christianæ, volume I, chapter 22, page 420 and following., Geremia da Bennettis Geremia da Bennettis, Privileg. RR. Pontificum, part III, volume VI, page 327., and others almost countless have spoken copiously.

§ V. Some writings of which St. Justus is wrongly said to be the author.

St. Justus is wrongly said by some to be the writer of the Life of St. Hilary, Bouchet Annales d'Aquitaine, folio 26., supported by Du Saussay Martyrologium Gallicanum, volume II, page 931., affirms that St. Justus wrote the Life of his master, and adds that it was religiously preserved even in his time in the archive of the church of Poitiers. This is certain, that at least two very ancient Lives of St. Hilary are in circulation, of which one, ascribed by the learned to Fortunatus of Poitiers or of Padua, contains nothing that seems to swerve from the truth: and the other seems to be an abridgement of the deeds of St. Hilary and is kept in the public library of Brussels under number 4591; this latter I think has nowhere been printed, although the learned have often for two centuries past asked that it be put to the press. Concerning the former Bolland doubted Acta SS. volume I of January, page 785. whether perhaps its latter part was written by St. Justus, because a diversity of style indicates a different writer, and not a few contend that St. Justus handed down the deeds of his master to memory. But that St. Justus is not the author of the former Life of St. Hilary is evident from this, that it records solely things of lesser moment, the greater being omitted; so that it does not mix in a word about the victories gained by St. Hilary in the pseudo-council of Béziers, or over Saturninus of Arles and Auxentius of Milan, Arian men; and this is all the less admissible because St. Justus seems to have been a conspicuous man, if indeed in such clouded times he was demanded by the clergy and people of Poitiers as successor to St. Hilary. Of the latter it is certain that no mention is made by the ancients; and indeed Rivet knows no witnesses of this matter older than Bouchet and Du Saussay Histoire de la France Littéraire, volume I, part II, page 219 and following.. And so it is absurd to affirm that St. Justus is the author of this Life praised by Du Saussay and Bouchet: for its author, besides many absurdities, reports a conversation of the holy prelate of Poitiers with Pope St. Leo, altogether uncivil on both sides, taking St. Hilary of Poitiers for St. Hilary of Arles, with whom St. Leo had a controversy, nor attending that the discourse which he puts in the mouth of each saint is unworthy not only of St. Leo, but also of St. Hilary of Arles, although he was much less gentle. For these and other reasons Rivet Ibid. volume I, part II, page 219 and Tillemont Mémoires ecclésiastiques, volume VII, page 757, edition of 1706. refuse to have the later Life of St. Hilary attributed to St. Justus also.

[23] or also of another little writing on St. Hilary. There is also another little writing, which Bouchet Les Annales d'Aquitaine, chapter XIV, folio 26. and others say was a work of St. Justus. This Léonard Fonteneau, a monk of the congregation of St. Maur, discovered in the middle of the 18th century in the archive of the church of St. Hilary of Poitiers, and he left an apograph of it to posterity Tables des Manuscrits de Fonteneau relatifs à l'Aquitaine, volume I, page 1.. This copy Dom Menault, monk O.S.B. of the congregation of France, had transcribed for me, and we shall give it at the end of the Life of St. Justus, since it pertains no less to St. Justus than to St. Hilary. The codex which Fonteneau used seemed to him written at the end of the eleventh century or the beginning of the twelfth. If you listen to that masked Justus, the least disciple of the lord Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, St. Hilary, called by Pope Leo and the emperor Constantius, together with bishops and archbishops of various provinces, to dispute about the faith, would have gone to Rome with that Pseudo-Justus; and would there have received several sacred relics, namely a particle of the scarlet cloak with which the Lord Jesus Christ is recorded to have been clothed in the Passion, and a certain particle of the garment of Saint Mary, Mother of the Lord, and the thumb of St. Peter the Apostle and the head of St. Lawrence the martyr, and also a certain particle of that bread which the Lord blessed in the presence of the disciples at Emmaus on the day of his resurrection, in the breaking of which he was recognized by them. Returning then to Poitiers, says that masked fabulist, after a few days had passed we went to Limoges for the sake of visiting the church of St. Martial and likewise out of zeal for prayer. On which journey, going and returning, they would have built two churches in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of which St. Hilary would have committed one to St. Justus to be ruled. But after two years St. Justus, returning to Poitiers for the sake of greeting St. Hilary, would there soon have received his master's last breath; who would have handed over to him to be guarded the sacred relics not long since brought from Rome. That this little writing is apocryphal Dom Fonteneau did not hesitate to assert; to which opinion I have already sufficiently shown that I wholly adhere. For the ancient writers keep deep silence about it; then in it one reads that, under the emperor Constantius, Leo presided over the Roman church, who however flourished only about the middle of the 5th century; who is also there called Pope, although according to Papebroch Propylæum Maji, part I, page 213 Siricius, or, on the authority of Du Cange Du Cange, under Papa., St. Leo the Great first assigned this appellation to himself. But neither lived in the times of St. Hilary or St. Justus; since they are half a century later. But in place of Leo Liberius should be read. The falsity is betrayed also by the word archbishop, by which no prelate before the 5th century seems to have been designated except the bishop of Alexandria [Du Cange, under Archiepiscopus; Suicerus, Thesaurus ecclesiasticus, under Αρχιεπισκοπος]. To this point it also serves that nowhere among the ancients is mention made of a Roman council convoked by Constantius to dispute about the faith, but to condemn Athanasius, although the deeds of Constantius and the fortunes of the Arian heresy are narrated far and wide by various writers.

§ VI. Where, at what time, at what age St. Justus died.

St. Justus dies at his birthplace, which was afterwards called by his name, Very many things in the life of St. Justus, then, are obscure; but it is not even agreed among the writers in what place he met his day. For in the breviaries of Périgueux of the year 1835, of Luçon of 1836, of La Rochelle of 1825, and of Poitiers of 1855, one reads

that he fell asleep in the Lord in the district of Périgord, worn out by evangelical labours. And the same is the mind of Bouchet Annales de l'Aquitaine, folio 26. and of Henri Louis Chasteigner de la Rocheposay, bishop of Poitiers [Notes to the Litanies of Poitou which he himself composed, in Labbe, Biblioth. Mss. volume II, page 728.]; who add that this happened after the departure of St. Hilary at the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, over which he presided. But Bonaventure of Saint-Amable Vies de S. Martial, volume III, page 120., whom Canon Labiche follows Vies des saints de Limoges, volume III, page 104., no differently from the breviary of Limoges published in the years 1625 and 1783, place the departure of St. Justus from among the living not far from Limoges. But it is undoubted that the saint ended his life in his native land. For the biographer plainly hands down (number 19) that St. Justus asked and obtained from God that he might lay down his soul in his own place or in his own homeland. And what the biographer understands by his own place we have from his very words where, narrating how after the departure of St. Hilary he betook himself to Limoges, he adds: Justus, returning to his own places, found his father and mother already dead; but he found his brother Benedict … alive in the body. Then nowhere among the writers does it occur how and when the people of Périgord allowed the body of St. Justus, their apostle (which is scarcely credible), to be transferred to Limoges. Add that immediately after the priests had committed St. Justus to the earth, they built, says the biographer, a church over the tomb of the blessed man, which remains to the present. Where by the intercession of the aforesaid confessor the blind are enlightened, demons are driven out from possessed bodies, the deaf receive hearing, the lame their step, the dumb are restored to speech. Hence, as tradition bears, the place itself took on the name of its patron St. Justus. And these things move me to judge that St. Justus passed to heaven not far from Limoges.

[25] and indeed a few months after St. Hilary, That this happened a few months after St. Hilary had come to the prize is evidently established from the words of the biographer himself. And blessed bishop Hilary, he says, being withdrawn from this light … the citizens of Poitiers … asked that blessed Justus be ordained in the place of the prelate. But he, crying out that he was unworthy of this … going out of the city in the middle of the night, took to the road and went back to Limoges. And there, staying for a very long time and having gone round the churches in the same city, returning to his own places, he found his father and mother already dead; but his brother, Benedict by name, instructed in the catholic faith and adorned with good works, he found surviving in the body. And both brothers seeing one another, rejoicing for a very long time and weeping amid embraces, after sweet conversations of life returned together… And after a few days had passed, the blessed men took to the road (to Rome): in such a way finally that wherever they rested a little in cities or villages or farmsteads, they preached the word of God to the inhabitants of those places. And continuing the journey they had begun, they came to Rome; and staying there for eight days… returning to the Gauls, when they wished to return to their own homeland, the most blessed confessor of Christ Justus, seized by a fever … suddenly began to be deprived of the strength of his body. And calling his brother, he said to him: "I will not hide the matter from you, brother, which I have learned most certainly will be: that unless you hasten the more swiftly, you will return to your own place while I still survive in the body…" And on the next morning the servants who had been directed with him on the road rising up, the horses saddled and the asses loaded, binding the blessed man upon a carrying-chair, at his order, returned at a quick pace to his own house. For when four days had passed … he gave up his last breath. These words being duly weighed, it is my opinion that St. Justus exchanged the temporal for the eternal life shortly after his master St. Hilary. Nor does it give rise to difficulty that the biographer reports (number 18) that St. Justus, after the death of St. Hilary, stayed at Limoges for a very long time; for in the biographer the word very long also designates a few days. And this we gather from the fact that, treating of St. Justus's flight from Poitiers to his brother Benedict, and both brothers seeing one another, he says (number 16), rejoicing for a very long time and weeping amid embraces, after sweet conversations of life returned together, although he at once adds: And after a few days had passed, the blessed men took to the road (to Rome); and that, describing his and St. Hilary's pilgrimage to the remains of St. Fronto (number 9), he adds: There for a very long time they persevered, staying for thirty days in the praises of God.

[26] about the year 370, Now to one who asks in what year of the Christian era St. Justus gave up his spirit to God, I answer that the learned do not all enter on the same path. For some are of the opinion that St. Hilary of Poitiers passed to heaven either in the year 367 [Dusmenil, Doctrina et Disciplina Ecclesiæ, volume II, page 146. Acta SS. volume I of January, page 786; Pagi, Critica at the year 369, number IV.] or 368 [Fleury, Hist. eccles., volume IV, page 368; Tillemont, Mémoires ecclésiastiques, volume VII, pages 463 and 756; Coustant, Works of St. Hilary, volume I, column 178, Migne edition; Rivet, Histoire littéraire de la France, volume II, part II.], others in the year either 371 Bouchet, Annales d'Aquitaine, folio 24. or 372 [Chronicle of Jerome, edition of Mai, volume VIII, Scriptorum Veterum nova collectio, page 404; Likewise Works of St. Jerome, volume VII, column 695, Migne edition.]: nor are those wanting who prefer the year 369 Baronius, Annals at the year 369, number XXII.: and accordingly each, according to the system to which he adheres, indicates St. Justus's year of death as either 367, or 368, or 369, or 371, or 372. But it is of no great consequence to settle this controversy; nor do I see by what instruments this can be done.

[27] at the age of more or less forty years. Nor can it be determined with certainty how many years old St. Justus was when he completed his mortal life. For no historical monument survives from which this may be plainly deduced. If however we compare the Life of St. Justus with the Life of his master St. Hilary, this comparison will bring some light in such great darkness. For St. Justus received baptism from Bishop St. Hilary, who ruled the church of Poitiers for only fifteen years, when he had not yet, as seems to be able to be drawn from his Acts, reached an advanced age: then since he survived St. Hilary by a few months, it is clear that he passed at the most fifteen years among the living since he had been enrolled on the roll of Christians. Hence he will not depart much from the path of truth to whom it shall be approved that St. Justus did not carry the term of life beyond forty years.

§ VII. The relics of St. Justus. The origins of the monastery of St. Martin. The dispute about the true relics of St. Justus. Their translations.

[Even if the relics of St. Justus were doubtful, cult would not for that reason be denied them.] When about to treat of the relics of another St. Justus, namely the boy, whose origin was rightly doubtful with many, one of my colleagues Acta SS. volume VIII of October, page 333. aptly and fittingly set out first the opinion of Sollerius, Lippomano and Leibniz on disputes of this kind. For Lippomano and Leibniz say that the honour of God suffers no detriment thereby, because, whether the relics are true or supposititious, the affection towards God is the same; but that meanwhile effort must be made lest by incautious devotion we expose the sacred cult of relics to the contempt of the imprudent. Sollerius indeed holds that from this has often arisen the confusion of relics, that people wish the relics of saints which they venerate to be more contentiously ascribed to all the more celebrated saints of that name, and accordingly the cult sometimes falls on the remains of another saint not rarely of the same name. In the same sense another colleague discoursed at great length in the Commentary on St. Ursula Ibid. volume IX of October, page 257.. This opinion of Sollerius and other learned men, since controversy has blazed for several centuries about the place where the relics of St. Justus of Limoges rest, we have judged not without point to recall to memory.

[29] [They were said by some to rest partly in the monastery of St. Martin at Limoges, whose origins are elucidated] But first the fortunes must briefly be declared of the monastery of St. Martin of Limoges; which boasted, to the envy of others, of being enriched with the relics of St. Justus. And indeed the origins of the monastery of St. Martin of Limoges are so obscure that its abbot Pierre de Coral, a diligent investigator of the affairs of his monastery, did not hesitate to write: I have thought upon the days of old and the years past, if I could find the antiquities or beginnings of this place, since some said that there were first canons here, others said that blessed Eligius placed monks here, when he built the place Chronicle of Limoges, fourth supplement, in D. Bouquet, volume XXI, page 793.. But although Pierre de Coral stood so doubtful, yet Denis de Sainte-Marthe writes: The monastery of St. Martin, which they report was founded by Alicius, brother of St. Eligius, where St. Eligius himself is said to have placed twenty monks and his parents to have been buried Gallia Christiana, volume II, column 582.. Mabillon speaks less affirmatively: He had (St. Eligius) most Christian and catholic parents, Eucherius and Terrigia; a brother Alethius or Alicius, who in the villa of Catalacum built a monastery on the paternal estate. His parents lie in the monastery of St. Martin in the Limousin, of which they are said to have been the first founders Annales Benedictini, volume I, at the year 631, page 322.. Whence either Denis de Sainte-Marthe or Mabillon took these things is hidden from me, nor is it indicated by them. It is indeed read in the Life of St. Ouen: Eligius sprang from Limoges, a city of the Gauls, which is separated from the British Ocean by a space of about two hundred miles, in the villa of Catalacum (Cadaillac in Longueval Histoire de l'Église Gallicane, volume V, page 134; Paris edition of 1826.), which lies about six miles to the northern quarter from the aforesaid city Acta SS. Belgii, volume III, page 200.. Then below, describing Eligius's journey into his homeland after gaining the episcopate, he goes on: He came (St. Eligius) also to the estate of his parents; for there too there was already a monastery built by his brother Alicius in the very dwelling of his father, and there likewise having assembled the brothers and kindly consoled them, he prepares finally to return to his city Ibid. page 242.;… But if Pierre de Coral had no other historical monuments for unfolding the origins of his monastery, it is easily understood how he vainly thought upon the days of old and the years past, if he could find the antiquities or beginnings of his monastery. Hence it must also be judged that Denis de Sainte-Marthe and Mabillon had in their hands historical instruments, not indicated by them, from which their narrative

was taken.

[30] and principal fortunes. A greater light, however, shines out when we come to the 11th century. For Ademar of Chabannes writes in his Chronicle, about the year 1031: "But Bishop Alduin (in the 10th century), at the persuasion of the devil, three years before he died destroyed the monastery of St. Stephen of Agen, which Aldegerius had adorned and set in order with a great company of monks, and restored canons there. For this offence he took care to gather within the city of Limoges, in the church of St. Martin, monks subject to the rule (of Benedict)" Labbe, Bibliotheca Mss. volume II, page 171.. In the following centuries mention of the same monastery is not rarely made among the writers. But about the year 1545, the Calvinist heresy gaining strength daily, no differently from many other and celebrated monasteries of France, it was turned upside down, and its monks put to flight. It befell it, however, that in the year 1619 it was restored from ruin: but so that it passed not to its ancient inhabitants or their successors, but to another family of the Benedictine order, namely to the Feuillant monks [Gallia Christiana novissima, volume II, column 585; Allou, Description des monuments de la Haute-Vienne, page 183.], until finally in the year 1791, the rights of the church in France having been ruined, the monastery was sold at auction, and then adapted to profane uses Ibid. page 184.. And such were the fortunes of the monastery of St. Martin.

[31] [The monks of this monastery contended that the head of St. Justus was preserved among them, which the clerics of Limoges denied.] To this celebrated monastery the head and bones of St. Justus were said by a tradition to have been brought, repudiated by some, especially clerics of Limoges. Of this dispute mention is made by Geoffrey of Vigeois, who, as the Benedictine monk Rivet affirms, ceased from writing books before the year 1184: The monks of St. Martin, says Geoffrey then, which Monastery is called at the Basilica, rejoice that they have that Justus, the disciple of the great Hilary, bishop of Poitiers: although the clerics say that he is not missing from the church in which he was first laid Labbe, Biblioth. mss. volume II, page 286.. Likewise wrote Pierre Coral, abbot of the monastery of St. Martin of Limoges, a writer of the end of the 12th century; for whom, as for his colleagues, although they could not settle a certain time, the translation of the head and bones of St. Justus to their house was held as undoubted. Of the body of blessed Justus, these are the words of Pierre Coral, when it was brought I have not found, because, as happened with others, so it was neglected. And they said that the lord Helduin brought it, and the head and bones are there; and in all the old writings of Limoges St. Justus is said to rest here, as also in the old books of this place, WHOSE BODY RESTS HERE. And he heard for certain that the Lord did many miracles here for him, and many came here, and many vigils took place; and one monk, the people being present, beat the casket because he said that he had not had the customary prebend (daily portion of food and drink) on this day. And then the miracles ceased. In truth many old people asserted this to be true; and that monk was from Salviac In D. Bouquet, volume XXI, page 793.. And so common was the opinion among the people of Limoges that the bones of St. Justus had been raised in the monastery of St. Martin that, as Geoffrey himself attests in the Chronicle of Limoges Ibid. volume XVIII, page 215., the clergy and citizens of this city, when Richard king of England was besieging it in the year 1183, carried the relics of St. Justus from the monastery of St. Martin, no differently from the head of St. Martial, around the walls of the city, lest God should give the people of Limoges into the hands of their enemies.

[32] [And indeed it may be that it was the head of another St. Justus, or of a saint of another name.] Nevertheless the clerics of the town afterwards by no means wished to agree; and indeed since the monks themselves did not know the origin of their relics, there should perhaps be repeated in this place the words of Sollerius indicated above: I may safely say that so many Justini and Justi exist in our Acta that relics of other saints of the same name have not been lacking. For such was formerly and today continues the piety of good catholics, .. that they wish the relics of saints which they venerate to be even more contentiously ascribed to the more celebrated of the same name Acta SS. volume I of August, page 34.. And if anything of this sort happened in the case of St. Justus, there would be nothing to wonder at, since in the praised Pierre Coral, abbot of St. Martin, one may read: About the relics of the place and the arm of St. Martin I have heard that Dodonaeus, our abbot, was a friend of the lord Arveus, treasurer of Tours, and the abbot asked him that it might please him to give some relics from the body of St. Martin; and he said that he had sworn he would not give any, but the keys were there so that he himself might take them, an oath first being given that he would not take the head. The abbot then took the arm and a certain bone, and swore that it would not be revealed in the life of either. He brought the arm here, and hid it under a certain altar. Afterwards this was reported to some, and it was said publicly that the arm of St. Martin was here; but where it was they did not know… Of the other relics, as I have seen and heard, I have written in the book of blessed Mary; but the charters are not with some, because the ancients used to burn the charters on account of robbers. He then goes on to speak of the body of blessed Justus; but these words we reported above. From which we gather that among the monks of St. Martin for a long time no indication of several relics existed except oral tradition, and that in their possession were relics, for example the arm of St. Martin of Tours, whose origin had to be concealed, perhaps also lost.

[33] [In the 12th century there was translated to Limoges a body which the clerics of Limoges said was that of St. Justus.] Meanwhile, while the cause was pending, as troops of robbers and brigands were laying waste with fire and sword the places lying around Limoges, and did not spare the very tomb which the clerics of Limoges supposed was St. Justus's, Hélie de Gimel, precentor of the church of Limoges, surrounded by a band of armed men, translated the relics of that St. Justus to the church of St. Stephen of Limoges. Of this translation the said Pierre Coral makes mention. In the year of the Lord MCCXV, he says, the canons of St. Stephen, at the instance of the cantor of Limoges, namely Hélie de Gimel, sent armed men to St. Justus, and carried away with them the body of a certain presbyter, which was in the said church, as was said; and this they say is blessed Justus, but we long before memory had had our Justus In D. Bouquet, volume XXI, page 794.. But what Pierre Coral touched on in a few words is unfolded far and wide in the Life of St. Martial composed by Bonaventure of Saint-Amable and in the Breviaries of Limoges, yet so that they refer the translation to the year 1217. Below we shall set before the reader's eyes the lessons of the Breviary of Limoges of the year 1625, as a not despicable witness of the traditions of this church. To this narrative Bonaventure adds Hist. de S. Martial, volume III, page 543. that the relics of St. Justus rested in the cathedral church of Limoges, until (he by no means indicates the year or century) they were restored to the parish of St. Justus, cleared of brigands.

[34] [Soon after there took place another translation of the body of St. Justus, preserved among the monks of St. Martin.] That former translation, which Pierre Coral claims was performed by Helduin of Limoges, the monks of St. Martin celebrated solemnly; but the other also they commemorated yearly, but with no solemnity. On the feast of the reception, that is the feast Compare Du Cange, Supplement of Carpentier, volume II, under Exceptio. of blessed Martin, says Pierre Coral, we translated his head, namely of blessed Justus, to the high altar, and placed it in a casket which we had bought in the preceding year; and it was from Noalhias * Deloche, Cartulaire de l'Abbaye de Beaulieu, page 380. and we made this translation without any solemnity, because the canons of Limoges wished to hinder us, saying that they had his body In D. Bouquet, volume XXI, page 793.; so that on every occasion the clerics of the cathedral church of Limoges opposed.

* Noaillac, dept de Correze.

§ VIII. The recognition of the relics of St. Justus at the beginning of this century.

The present cult of the relics of St. Justus in the parish of St. Justus It happily fell to me that the venerable Dupont, professor of sacred letters in the Seminary of Limoges, with signal kindness communicated to me whatever pertains to the present state of the relics of St. Justus. For I received from him that of the true or supposititious relics of St. Justus of Limoges two notable ones are venerated in this diocese: the one in the parish of St. Justus, the other in the parish of Couzeix. In the former, which is five kilometres distant from Limoges, in the church at the epistle horn, between the sacristy door and the eucharistic table, five feet from the ground, in the very wall is most religiously preserved a head, which is judged to be that of the most holy patron. These notable relics began to be venerated in this place of the church after the 13th century, namely at the time when princes from the house of the dukes of Brittany presided over the viscounty of Limoges Art de vérifier les dates, volume II, page 397 and following (1784 edition)., as is gathered from the heraldic arms of the dukes of Brittany which adorn the doors of the case. And indeed it is pleasing to report to the praise of the inhabitants of the parish of St. Justus that they so highly esteem whatever belongs to the glory of their guardian patron, that when a few years ago the distinguished Coetlogon, sprung from Lesser Brittany, then prefect of the division of the Upper Vienne *, greatly admired the heraldic arms of the dukes of Brittany, and urgently asked that they be granted to him, on the condition that new and much more precious ones should be supplied by him in place of the old, the inhabitants of the place, I say, with one voice rejected this exchange as contrary to their ancestral piety towards St. Justus. But since the venerable head of St. Justus was hidden in concealment for some years at the end of the 18th century, lest it be polluted by the hands of the impious, and, peace being restored to the church, Marie Philippe Du Bourg, bishop of Limoges, recognized it, we judge it not useless to insert into our Acta the instrument of these proceedings, translated from the French language into Latin; which now follows.

[36] permitted by the bishop after its identity was recognized by him, Having seen the process of information of the 26th day of June of this year, which Mathieu Goudanas, servant of the succursal church of St. Justus in our diocese, by our mandate of the 21st day of October of the year 1802, drew up to attest that the relics of St. Justus are none other than those which were venerated there before the French disturbance, and has until this day for various reasons deferred; having seen then this commentary, and having examined the testimonies of grave men called for this by the praised commissioner, we have recognized the identity of the relics without any fear of error. For this reason, all things having been weighed, the most holy name of God being invoked, nothing, except the glory of God, the honour

of the saints and the spiritual good of the souls committed to us, having in our wishes, we have declared and do declare, so far as is needed, that the said relics of the cranium of St. Justus are authentic, and therefore we have permitted and do permit the praised lord Goudanas and his successors to expose it to public veneration by himself or through others, and also in public processions, or at the time of the ostensions, or also on other solemnities, as was customarily done yearly before the French disturbance; yet so that it first be fortified with our seal impressed in Spanish wax to attest its authenticity. We wish besides that an authentic apograph of this original instrument be handed over to the praised lord Goudanas to be kept in the archive of his church, so that he and the others who shall succeed him as servants be bound to show it to us or to our vicars general at each pastoral visitation and whenever they shall be required to do so. Given at Limoges on the 7th day of August of the year 1809. M. A. Ph. bishop of Limoges. By mandate, Legros, canon, for the secretary. Already before this the same bishop had recognized the other notable relics of St. Justus, namely of the church of Couzeix, after their identity had been established. The instrument, which we have partly turned from the French into the Latin language, is the lasting testimony of the inquiry then made.

[37] [as also of the relics of St. Justus of the parish of Couzeix, likewise after a recognition made by the ordinary.] On the 25th day of March of the year of the Lord 1806, we the undersigned François Guineau Dupré, servant of the church of Couzeix, in the district of Limoges, in the division of the Upper Vienne, designated by the most reverend and most illustrious Lord Marie Philippe Dubourg, bishop of Limoges, as commissioner to examine the identity of the relics which are preserved in the succursal church of Couzeix, and to inquire about the same business of the inhabitants of the place, so that the instrument of this inquiry when performed may be deposited in the hands of the most reverend bishop, who may then decide. For this reason, after we had informed our parishioners at the explanation of the gospel during the solemnities of Mass of the office committed to us, we summoned those men whom we thought to be acquainted with the place in which the relics had been hidden, that they might juridically disclose to us whatever had come to their knowledge. Then the venerable François Guineau recites the testimony of grave men, of whom the principal was Léonard Cusson, consul of the community of Couzeix. He testified that it was known to him, who had been one of the administrators of the village of Couzeix in the time of the suspension of divine worship, that the administrators had it greatly at heart that the relics of the holy patrons be kept safe from impious hands, and for this reason François Terrier, then consul at Couzeix, hid them in his house, until, the cult of sacred things being restored in full, they were translated anew to the succursal church; then that besides the relics entrusted to the care of François Terrier, another case of painted wood, whose lower part contained a bone of St. Justus, disciple of St. Hilary, and the upper a bone of St. Martina, virgin and martyr, was removed by a man unknown to him, lest the wicked should lay an impious hand on it: Léonard added that of these holy bones, even at that time, not letters but only an inscription gave assurance. Having heard these testimonies, the witnesses, at the parish priest's invitation, betook themselves to the altar of St. Magdalene, where, the relics of St. Justus and other saints being examined, with one voice they did not hesitate to declare them to be the same which they had once venerated. Of all which things, says the commissioner Guineau, we have drawn up a public instrument to be sent to the bishop of Limoges, that at the time of this ostension and also hereafter he may deign to grant the faculty of exposing to the veneration of the faithful the relics which are in the possession of the church of Couzeix. Finally, this instrument being read through, all the witnesses affirmed that they admitted and approved it. These things were done at Couzeix on the day and year expressed above. Cusson, consul, Jean Patupi, François Terrier, Pierre Drouet, Guineau-Dupré, servant of the succursal church at Couzeix. — On the 30th day of March of the same year, the Most Illustrious Lord bishop of Limoges recognized the relics to be true and gave leave to expose them to the veneration of the faithful. Guineau-Dupré, servant of the succursal church of Couzeix.

[38] Now it is asked concerning the origin of the relics of the parish of Couzeix These things being declared, it is now asked whether the bone and cranium which are venerated at Couzeix and in the parish of St. Justus were taken from the body which was under the name of St. Justus in the monastery of St. Martin, or from that which Hélie de Gimel and other clerics carried to the church of St. Stephen. And first of the reliquary of the parish church of Couzeix two things must be noticed, namely that it is so old as to bear no indication besides the inscription: then that the sacred pledge of St. Martina, virgin and martyr, of which above (number 37), was probably taken from the body which under the name of this saint was said to rest in the church of St. Martin at Limoges in the year 1666 Ardant, Des ostensions. État des reliques de Limoges en 1866, page 100.. Whether this St. Martina, virgin and martyr, was different from her whose sacred body was found in the pontificate of Urban VIII, is not evident to me Historia de S. Martina V. et M. opera di Marsilio Honorato da Viterbo.. But I judge it as almost undoubted that the relic of the parish of Couzeix was once bestowed on the inhabitants of this place by the monks of St. Martin, since one and the same reliquary, and that very old, was fitted, as was understood above, to the bones both of St. Martina, virgin and martyr, and of St. Justus, presbyter, whose bodies were said to be laid among the monks of St. Martin at Limoges.

[39] and of the relics of the parish of St. Justus. But the notable relics which the inhabitants of the parish of St. Justus assert to be the cranium of their patron are much less manifest. For he who attends to the words of the abbot of the monastery of St. Martin, Pierre Coral, saying: In the year 1270, on the feast of the reception of blessed Martin, we translated his head, namely of blessed Justus, to the high altar, and placed it in a casket which we had bought in the preceding year Likewise, volume XXI, page 793., will suspect that this sacred pledge later passed to the church of St. Justus, and that all the more because the parish of this name is said to have recognized the abbot of St. Martin as its patron Pouillé du diocèse de Limoges, page 37.. But not despicable arguments fight against this opinion: for down to our age a tradition in the tract of Limoges, which Bonaventure of Saint-Amable set down in his history Histoire de S. Martial, volume III, page 532., attests that the body of St. Justus, the robbers being removed, was carried back from the church of St. Stephen to its former burial in the parish of St. Justus, and that at least in part it rests there even now. Then who will persuade himself that a head which the monks of St. Martin affirmed to be St. Justus's and kept in their treasury was, with peace between the two contending parties, brought into the church where once the undoubted body of St. Justus had been buried? There is added that the monks of St. Martial turned aside not to the monks of St. Martin, but to the clerics of the cathedral church, denying that either the body or the head of St. Justus had ever existed in the church of St. Martin D. Bouquet, volume III, page 543.. But that the parish of St. Justus recognized the abbot of St. Martin as patron is certainly not without some force and moment. Nevertheless it would have to be demonstrated that the head of St. Justus was carried there after the abbots of St. Martin had gained authority over this church. However that may be, as most ancient relics have obscure origins, I said at the beginning that these too of St. Justus are not manifest, so that although I have not concealed the inclination of my mind, I admit that it is not clear to me on which side stand right and truth.

* Depart. de la Haute-Vienne.

LIFE OF ST. JUSTUS

confessor and presbyter of Limoges, copied from codices 5321 and 5365 of the Imperial Library at Paris, compared with one another.

Justus, presbyter of Limoges in the Gauls. (S.)

BHL Number: 4597

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

PROLOGUE.

[The author excuses himself because he writes the Life of St. Justus though unequal to so great a work.] Here begins the Life of the holy and most blessed * Justus, confessor.

When I had long been lingering among the series of the divine scriptures, and was turning over many sayings with myself, I found a few things concerning the life of the holy and most blessed, eminent confessor Justus. Which, even sweating with labour, I have scarcely put together, that I might recount some deed. But because, as Scripture advises ^b, unrelenting labour conquers all, it must therefore be undertaken with the highest devotion, lest anything begun remain in vain. Now after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ many, deserting the secular soldiery and leaving the worship of idols, converted to the Lord, adhered to the sayings of the holy fathers and strove to fulfil with their steps what they received with their ears.

ANNOTATIONS.

labor omnia vincit Improbus. labour conquers all, unrelenting.

* P. II lacks it.

* P. II aliquid

* P. II factum

CHAPTER ONE.

The boyhood of St. Justus. He becomes a catechumen. He is delivered from lightning. He is baptized by St. Hilary of Poitiers.

St. Justus, while still a boy, is truly merciful towards the poor, Blessed Justus therefore, when he was still a little child, living under the care of his parents, desired to show himself a sanctified vessel to Christ; whatever food or clothing he received from his parents, except a strict supply for the body ^a , he gave out all with his own hands for the necessities of the poor. And when he turned aside to his home, his parents and acquaintances, looking at him from every side, mocking his conduct, said that his face was growing thin, and his body covered with vile rags. To these things blessed Justus replying said : Do not, dearest ones, hinder me in my devotion: for whatever good I may have done in this world, the same pious one will repay us the reward of it in the world to come, who has never abandoned those who hope in him.

[3] and pious towards God The blessed, religious and pious boy Justus then, the more he was mocked by others, the more ardently was he kindled in the love of Christ; and whatever he could have of his own in the world, he spent wholly on the necessity of the needy. He was meditating then, placed in boyish age, what he did not afterwards in devotion refuse to fulfil. And he grew in body and was strengthened in the faith of the name of Christ; and he was tranquil in manners and serene in look. For his mind at all hours * and all moments ever meditated on the heavenly precepts.

Now the first miracle which was shown as an indication of his holiness, and which I learned by the testimony of great men, I ought not to omit.

[4] Made a catechumen, he is delivered from lightning; When therefore the same blessed man Justus was about eight years old, against the will of his parents he went to the church of the city of Limoges , and there, pressing for a long time, asked to be made a catechumen with a certain religious presbyter. And when he returned from there, his parents, seeing his devotion or talent, committed their sheep to him to be ruled, and handed them over to be kept. And when he was in the pasture with the sheep under a certain tree in the field, the sun already sinking towards evening, suddenly lightning and thunder burst forth; flashes and hail fell from heaven, and consumed everything through the neighbouring places, as well in farmsteads as in fields, as well in open places as in woods, as well in men as also in beasts of burden. And those who were with blessed Justus under the tree *, struck with excessive terror, suddenly fell to the ground seeing nothing; and while they lay there stupefied, surrounded by a brightness from heaven, raising their eyes, they saw above them an angel of God with spread wings, protecting everything that was under the tree. When the thunder and lightning ceased, the angel of the Lord appeared nowhere.

[5] he gives thanks to God. But St. Justus, throwing himself to the ground where he had stood before and bending his knees in prayer to the Lord, said: I give thanks to thee, eternal King, boundless God, who hast not withheld thy mercy from me thy unworthy servant , and hast given this indication in my heart, that those who worship thee do not labour in vain and those who serve thee do not keep watch to no purpose. Lord Jesus Christ, giver of mercy and author of all goodness, who didst first create Adam the first-formed in thy likeness and didst give him Eve as a help; who didst guard the just man Noah in the outpouring of the flood, who didst look on the offering of Abraham our father, who didst appear to Moses thy servant in the bush, and didst give him precepts and judgements for instructing the people of Israel; who didst grant to thy servant David the power of a kingdom; whom the prophets foretold would come in the flesh, who by no necessity, but by thine own will, didst come down from heaven to earth, and ascending the cross didst shed thine own blood for our sins, and the author of death being conquered, didst return to the heavens, whom the just await coming in judgement, I praise and magnify thee the creator of all things, who hast willed to spare me and all staying with me, and hast deigned to guard the brute animals for thy holy name's sake; guard in me thy servant, I beg, the works of thy mercy, and give in my heart an indication of holiness, and open my mouth to announce thy word: that wherever I go or whithersoever I proceed, the hand of thy right guard me there; and may the root of thy charity, by thy gift, be strengthened in the hearts of those who hear thy word from my mouth. Give me also, I beg, O Lord, the sacrament of baptism, that I may be numbered with the saints and those who love thee: because those who love thee perfectly fear nothing. Blessed be thy name, redeemer of all, who livest and reignest through all things for ages of ages. And when all who were present had answered amen, immediately there was a voice from heaven saying: Do not fear, Justus; be greatly strengthened in the Lord and act manfully, and the indications once sought from the Lord are now granted to you. Soon the same blessed man Justus, rising glad and cheerful from prayer, heard funeral laments resounding through the fields; and, among the other corpses of the dead, his parents were seeking the boy Justus with wailing; and when they had found him alive, they ceased from weeping and returned rejoicing to their home.

[6] Thence he makes for Limoges; he is baptized by St. Hilary of Poitiers. But St. Justus, withdrawing from there, went on to the city of Limoges, and staying there for a very long time, became known to blessed Hilary, bishop of the city of Poitiers, who was then held by all in good repute in the things of God; and he had at some time come to the region of blessed Martial the apostle . And the same blessed man tried him with words of exhortation and catechized him and strengthened him in the faith of Christ. And afterwards he delivered to him the sacrament of baptism; and thus at length he merited to receive the burden of the clerical state ^b from Bishop Hilary himself. And afterwards when he had made bolder progress, the man of God understood that he could be promoted, being of higher talent, and delivered to him every gift of ecclesiastical dignity.

ANNOTATIONS.

* P. II cum adhuc … degeret.

* P. I sublemento

* P. I agebat

* Ps. II michi and so throughout

* P. I oris

* P. II Lemovicæ and so throughout

* P. I caticuminum.

* P. I arbore

* P. II indignum servum tuum non fraudasti misericordia tua.

* P. I pueri tui

* P. II adds: tu Domine,

* P. I rediderunt.

* P. I lacks it.

* P. II horans

* P. I verba

* P. II clericatus.

* P. II omnem domum.

CHAPTER TWO.

The virtues of St. Justus. The journey to Périgueux.

St. Justus cultivates virtue in an eminent degree. And the blessed man of God Justus, ordained presbyter, was not lifted up to human glory, but laying up the fear and love of God in his breast, he persisted in humility: and the greater he was confessed to be by men, the humbler he showed himself to Christ. For he had a great fight and a perpetual contest against the machinations of the old enemy. And the blessed man was assiduous in prayer, watchful in the divine Scriptures, praying continually for heavenly gifts; without any hesitation he besought the Lord day and night, that he might safely, after the end of the world, come to the palm of victory. He wrestled with the mouth and not the sword, with prayer and not the shield, with entreaties and not iron. And he frequently took part in the assemblies of the churches ^a, and whatever was recited there from the divine Scriptures ^b, lending his ear, he gladly drank in most eagerly. The blessed man therefore * Justus, on all the days on which he stayed in the aforesaid city, with bare feet daily sought the suffrages of the saints, singing psalms and prayers ^c in order. And returning home after prayer, turning over the volumes of the sacred Scriptures, like a most prudent bee, gathering different things from different flowers, he stored each and all in the hive of his breast.

[8] he restores sight to a blind man; And on a certain day when he had come out of the basilica of the blessed apostle [d] Martial, he met a blind man crying out and saying to him: I beseech you, blessed ^e Justus, look upon me and have mercy on me, and ask your Lord whom you serve to restore sight to me, because it is very necessary to me. And blessed Justus, taking pity at his prayers, at once bent his knees on the ground and, asking the Lord, said: Lord, knower of hidden things, who justly inflictest scourges on sinners and grantest pardon to the penitent, I implore thy piety with all my striving, that thou look upon me thy servant, and open the eyes of this blind man, that he may live and glorify thy name for ages of ages. And when the blind man standing by had answered amen, blessed Justus, raising himself, touched his eyes and said: In the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the most high God, let your eyes be opened . And immediately the man received sight, and glorified the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[9] St. Hilary takes him as companion, going to Périgueux. And when blessed Hilary was in the aforesaid city of Limoges, it seemed to him that he should go to the city of Périgueux ^f , and there pray at the memorial ^h of the blessed confessor ^g Fronto ⁱ. Taking to the road, blessed Hilary, having St. Justus with him in his company, they came to the estate which is commonly called Anassio ^k *. And when they had rested in the same place, the man of God ^l Hilary, looking about, saw a pleasant place; and it seemed to him that he ought to build a basilica dedicated in his name. And when the church had been finished, the blessed men took to the journey they had begun. And they came to the aforesaid city, and there for a very long time they persevered, staying for thirty days in the praises of God.

[10] Both are about to be slain by the pagans, And when these days had passed, and a blessing had been received from him who was then bishop there, bidding farewell to the brethren, turning aside homeward they came to the same place where they had before established the church, and there, turning aside after sunset, they stayed. And on the following day the famous men Hilary and Justus, rising up, a multitude of people being called together, dedicated the church, and there, the solemnities of the Mass being celebrated by the prelate, when the blessed bishop had gone out and was standing before the doors of the basilica, looking into the distance he saw a not small crowd running to him, of one mind and purpose, that wherever they found the man of God Hilary, they should put out his eyes and cast him from their borders, and should behead blessed Justus . But blessed Hilary, standing fearless, raising his voice and speaking, said: I give thanks to [thy] ^m boundless piety, almighty God, who hast willed to gather this people in this place to hear thy word. Enlighten, I beseech, O Lord, the eyes of their heart, that, abandoning their idols, they may be converted to thee, who justifiest the impious, who hast said that thou preferrest the repentance of sinners rather than their death. Open, O Lord, their ears to hear thy word, that having received the sacrament of the divine gift of baptism, returning to their homes they may bless thy holy name. And when, the prayer being completed, the blessed man had paused a little, behold suddenly under the right foot of the blessed man Hilary a great spring welled up and flowing on from there was drawn off into a river. Seeing this deed , those who had come, their most savage minds being softened, gave thanks to God who never abandons those who hope in him.

[11] whom they convert to Christ And blessed Hilary, seeing their souls bending to the faith of Christ, more abundantly announced to them words of exhortation, saying: I beg you, dearest brethren, and with all the gentleness of the fear of God I admonish you, that with all diligence you apply your senses to receiving the divine precepts, and that what you hear with your ears you fix in the soul and retain in the mind as soon as may be. For you ought ever to hold fixed in your heart how you came into this world, or how you will have to be presented on the day of judgement. You ought to remember that the devil, the old enemy, in the fault of the first transgression, circumvented our first father Adam through the seduction of the woman; envying lest he should by humility recover that blessedness which he himself had long since lost by pride. At the devil's suggestion the woman was deceived by the serpent, and thus then through * the serpentine venom the woman infected Adam, and so into each one of us

it entered. But our Lord Jesus Christ, in regard of the divine mercy, did not refuse to send, not an angel, not an archangel, but himself to earth for our sins. And although he had no sin at all, he took the form of a servant, and permitted himself to be delivered up, seized by enemies, bound, scourged, held in derision, and at the last speared and crucified. And thus, thrust within the enclosure of the tomb, after three days * rising from the dead he broke the enclosures of hell, and released the captives who were held bound there, and ascending into heaven he placed them with himself in the land of the living. And so we await him coming in judgement, to repay to each one the things proper to the body, according as he has done either good or evil. And now, brethren, withdraw from the worship of idols and be baptized in the confession of the Holy Trinity; and believe in him who has wrought all these things for us, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, because as the same saviour says in the Gospel: Unless one be born again of water and spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And hearing this, of those who were present no small multitude believed, and there were baptized on that day six hundred souls of men, men and women, boys and girls.

[12] The ass is given back to them by a wolf which had carried it off. And on the next day, when the blessed man Justus was exercising pastoral care over the ass which blessed Hilary had been accustomed to sit on continually, in the field of a certain man, sleep coming over him, he fell asleep as in a moment. And a wolf found the ass grazing [and] led it into the forest; but could not further hurt it or touch it. And when the blessed man had risen from sleep and had not found the ass, he was dismayed in mind, not knowing what had been done; and when blessed Justus had lain prostrate for a long time in prayer, raising his eyes, he saw the wolf coming with the ass, and it having suffered no evil. Then with voice and weeping turning to God, he gave thanks to him who had thus kept the ass unharmed. And returning to the blessed prelate, when he had reported to him all that had happened, together they praised the Lord who had granted such things to his servant.

ANNOTATIONS.

Gaulois, volume I, page I and following; Frick, Commentatio de Druidis, part II, page 88 and following; Fenel, Académie des Inscriptions, volume XXV, page 399 and following; Du Clos, ibid. volume XIX, page 483 and following; Amédée Thierry, Histoire des Gaulois, volume II, page 164 and following, Brussels edition 1842; La Gaule au cinquième siècle, volume II, page 318 and following.].

* P. II exorabat eum

* P. I auriebat

* P. II lacks it

* P. I added by a more recent hand.

* P. II videns.

* P. I lacks it.

* P. I. aperientur

* P. I. Petronicus

P. I qui () in the margin is added Aneissio

* P. I. muloetarent.

* P. I lacks it

* P. I magna

* P. I quo facto.

* P. I ut, P. II vel.

* P. I culpæ

* P. lacks it

* P. II tribus diebus.

CHAPTER THREE.

St. Justus is ordained presbyter by St. Hilary. His miracles at Poitiers.

[St. Justus with St. Hilary, by whom he had been ordained presbyter, makes for Poitiers, where he heals a paralytic] And the blessed bishop ordained as presbyter, in the basilica which had been consecrated, a man of good testimony ^a, and instructed him in all the doctrine of the fear of God; and after all things were finished, they returned to the city of Limoges. All the churches within the city then being gone round, and a blessing heard from all the catholic faithful, after sweet conversations of life, after a most lavish dispensing of alms, after countless captives redeemed ^b, after several cures of the sick recovered , the blessed men, taking to the road, came to the city of Poitiers. And while they stayed in the same city, many throughout the neighbouring places, hearing the fame of blessed Justus, running together to him, bringing gifts and presents, that he might come to the aid of their infirmities; and he nevertheless accepted from them. And there came a certain youth of elegant form, bringing presents with his left hand, and began to ask the man of God that he might receive some help from him. And when he had stretched out his left hand, the man of God said to him: Not that one, but show the other as quickly as may be. And when he answered that he could not stretch out the other hand, blessed Justus, raising his eyes again, said: Lord, almighty King, who didst cleanse Naaman the Syrian from leprosy; who didst enlighten the eyes of Tobi[as] through the archangel Raphael, in thy name let this young man be healed of the infirmity of this right hand. And when he had said this, he touched his hand and immediately the man was made whole and glorified God and magnified the confessor Justus.

[14] and sets free those held in prison. Again at another time, when he was walking about in the town of Poitiers, he came to the prison where accused men were held bound in custody with all diligence. They, hearing that blessed Justus had come, cried with what great voices they could that he should give them some relief . And blessed Justus, taking pity at their cries, said: Lord Jesus Christ, consoler of the sorrowful, who comest to the aid of those labouring in dangers and necessities, who after inflicting scourges in pity grantest pardon, who didst open the gate of paradise to the thief confessing thee on the cross sooner than to our master Peter; open, I beseech, the gates of this prison and free those who are held bound here. And saying this, at once approaching the gates of the prison, he said: In the name of Jesus Christ, whom we faithfully preach, let the bonds of this prison be dissolved and let those be freed who are bound here. At this word all the iron bars were broken; and the chains were burst from their feet and the prisoners, fleeing free, fell at the feet of blessed Justus crying: Have mercy on us, man of God; and show us what we ought to do. Go, said blessed Justus, to my master Hilary, and he will announce to you what you must do. And they, taking to a run, came to the blessed prelate, and falling at his feet narrated how blessed Justus had rescued them from the chains of the prison. And the attendants of the prison came and strove to drag them from the bishop's sight; and as they tried to seize them, immediately their hands withered; and they suddenly fell at the feet of the prelate, asking that he give them indulgence for this offence ^c. The blessed confessors besought the Lord; who at once restored them to their former health; and they did not dare to touch them further. And blessed Justus rebuked the prisoners for their iniquities, and sent them away eagerly to go to their homes *.

ANNOTATIONS.

* P. I. post plures sanitates recuperatas

* P. I Siro

* sublementum.

* P. I latronem etc.

* P. I. propriam

CHAPTER FOUR.

St. Hilary being dead, St. Justus is demanded by the people of Poitiers as bishop. He flees to his native place. He makes a pilgrimage to Rome. Having returned he dies. Miracles at his tomb.

[St. Hilary being dead, St. Justus is demanded by the people of Poitiers as bishop,] Blessed bishop Hilary being withdrawn from this light or rather having passed to the Lord, the citizens of Poitiers , taking common counsel among themselves, asked that blessed Justus be ordained in the place of the prelate. But he, crying out that he was unworthy, proclaiming himself despicable of countenance, ill-formed in dress, protesting that it was not lawful for so vile a person of the body to be set as prince under so great a power. And as the day sank towards evening, when the sun with cooling rays had declined to its setting, and all the clergy of the city spent that night in vigil, seeking the mercy of the creator, that he might provide them a pastor, who with his help might modestly rule that people.

[16] But he flees to an unknown place The blessed man Justus, counting the honours of this world as nothing, chose to be a stranger and needy in this world, that he might merit to be found wealthy and rich in heaven. And taking with him two servants of his household, going out of the city in the middle of the night, he took to the road and went back to Limoges. And there staying for a very long time and having gone round the churches in the same city, having sought the suffrage of the saints and drawn a blessing from the prelate of the see of the church of Stephen the protomartyr, returning to his own places, he found his father and mother already dead; but his brother, Benedict by name, instructed in the catholic faith and adorned with good works, he found surviving in the body. And both brothers, seeing one another, rejoicing for a very long time and weeping amid embraces, after sweet conversations of life returned together. And taking up the order of the matter, reciting to one another all that had happened to them, they rendered thanks to the Redeemer of all, who had thus kept them unharmed and permitted them to see one another .

[17] [he makes another journey, and thence goes on pilgrimage with his brother to Rome.] And after a few days had passed, blessed Justus, summoning his brother Benedict to common counsel, said to him: Hear, brother, what I wish to make known to you, that in this night a certain young man stood before me in a vision, and admonished me to go with you to Rome. And when I had awakened from sleep and was silently considering with myself the man's admonition, sleep coming over me, I fell asleep as in a moment. And behold a certain man, who had stood before me earlier, touched me and said to me: See, Justus, do not consider my words idly, but summon your brother Benedict, and so go with him, hesitating in nothing. And so for three hours of the night protesting he departed. Hearing this, the blessed man said: Whatever is in your heart, take care to fulfil the sooner; and I will go with you to go on whithersoever the piety of God shall permit us. All that was necessary on the way being prepared, the blessed men took to the road; in such a way finally that wherever they rested a little in cities or villages or farmsteads, they preached the word of God to the inhabitants of those places . Continuing the journey they had begun, they came to Rome; and staying there for eight days and, a blessing having been received from the president of the apostolic see, returning to the Gauls, when they wished to return to their own homeland, the most blessed confessor of Christ Justus, seized by a fever and troubled by excessive pain *, suddenly began to be deprived of the strength of his body.

[18] In returning, seized by a fever, he foretells that he will soon die. Calling his brother Benedict, he said to him: I will not hide the matter from you, brother, which I have learned most certainly will be: who, unless you hasten the more swiftly at a quick pace, will not return to your own place while I still survive in the body. Hearing this, blessed Benedict and all the servants and companions who were standing by them, stunned with great astonishment, wailing with tears and howls, tearing the hair from their heads, scarcely forming words amid frequent sighs, say to him: O most kindly and pious consoler, why do you wish to withdraw yourself so soon from our fellowship? Let this mourning move your piety, that you may obtain from the Lord to remain in the body so long, until we can return with you to our own place. The most blessed Justus, moved by their cries, turning to the Lord said: Most holy giver of life to all, O God, who didst add fifteen years of life to King Hezekiah; who didst make Lazarus, four days dead, stinking, at the request of his sisters , and thrust into the enclosure of the tomb , to rise from death to life; who didst make the dead man revive outside the gate, I humbly implore thy boundless piety, that thou look upon me thy servant, and grant that I may remain so long in the body … Whoever had been directed with him on the way were, the horses saddled and the asses adorned, binding the blessed man upon a carrying-chair, at his order, returned at a quick pace to his own house.

[19] He calls the clerics together. For when four days had passed, all the servants being sent off in different directions through the neighbouring places, he made the clerics and presbyters and those dedicated to God assemble in strength. And when they stood by he said: Hear, dearest brethren, the last opinion of my littleness, and retain in your mind in some way what I suggest . For I, according to the tenor of the fathers, go the way of all the earth ; but I admonish you and humbly implore your paternity, that you implore the mercy of the Almighty for me, the most unhappy of all, because very great are the offences that I have done in this world. And having said these things, raising his hand to heaven he said: Lord Jesus Christ, who for the salvation of us all didst deign to come down from the bosom of the father into the womb of a mother, whom we await coming in judgement, I beseech thee that thou order my soul to be received,

when it shall have departed from this body, and that thou make it to be led to the homeland of paradise. Let not the ministers of Satan rejoice over me, nor the princes of darkness have dominion over me, let not the powers of this air meet me, because thou hast ever been my helper. I know that I, unworthy, do not merit to see thy face; at least order me to be brought into the lowest tabernacle which * thou hast prepared for those who love thee. Free me from the torment of the nether regions, and open to me the gates of the kingdom of heaven. Into thy hands I commend my soul; receive it, I beseech, as it entreats thy mercy. And when he had said this, he gave up his last breath. And the priests who were present there, taking his body, laid away with spices and wrapped in linen cloths, placing it on a bier, tried to carry it to Limoges.

[20] And as they were going on the road, they came to a certain place, and he dies piously in his homeland. which is eight miles from the aforesaid city, facing the eastern quarter. And when they had halted a little while, they tried again to lift the limbs of the blessed man. But that bier was weighed down with such heaviness and so great a weight that more than fifty or eighty men could not move him from the place. And his brother Benedict, standing by, said to the crowd: Do not, brothers, do not do anything against his will; because while in his youthful age he exercised pastoral care, I saw him stay long in this place and clear it of thorns. And so I know that it is his will that he should rest buried in this place. Hearing this they acquiesced in his words, and buried him there on the VI day before the Kalends of December. For counsel being taken, they built a church over the tomb of the blessed man, which remains to the present. Where by the intercession of the aforesaid confessor the blind are enlightened, demons are driven out from possessed bodies, the deaf receive hearing, the lame their step, the dumb are restored to speech (), with the help of the Redeemer of all himself, who grants so many and such things to his servants, who lives and reigns through all things for ages of ages. Amen.

Here ends the Life of St. Justus.

* P. I. Pictaviensi.

* P. II. lacks it.

* P. I. expetita

* P. I. alterius alterum

* P. I tecumque

* P. I accersire

* P. I tecumque

* P. locis.

* P. I veritus

* P. I ad propriam.

* P. I eorum

* P. I lacks it.

* P. II. lacks it.

* P. I. suggessero.

* P. I. ore

* P. I. quem

* P. I. gravitudo

* P. II. a lacking

* P. II. at

* P. II. eloquium tantum

TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS OF ST. JUSTUS

From the Breviary of Limoges of the year 1625.

Justus, presbyter of Limoges in the Gauls. (S.)

[The people of Limoges rescue the relics of St. Justus from the outrage of brigands,] When Philip Augustus was king of the Franks ^a, about the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and seventeen ^b, when certain wicked men were harrying the region near the city which was under the jurisdiction of the church of Limoges, and were profaning the church in which the body of St. Justus was laid, God put it into the mind of the precentor ^c of the church (whose name was Hélie de Gimel ^d, a man of admirable holiness of life, between whom and St. William, archbishop of Bourges, there was a familiar intimacy and long acquaintance) to carry the sacred relics from there to Limoges, to rescue them from outrage. Taking into counsel some canons and citizens for entering on a way of dispatching the business, it was decided to go there with an armed band, which might oppose itself to the enemies.

[2] before this attempt comes to their knowledge. And the thing was done with such speed that the sacred relics had been carried off before the adversaries perceived it. Thus four priests, taking up the pious burden, joyful and eager carry the body to Limoges, Hélie, the canons and the whole multitude streaming out to meet it with sacred pomp and display, and praising God the author of the happy success. Enriched with so precious a treasure, they came to the church of the holy protomartyr Stephen ^e, the chief of the churches of the diocese of Limoges, in which the casket of the relics was placed. And to preserve the memory of the thing happily done and of the divine benefit, it was laid down that yearly on the sixth day before the Kalends of August, the day on which this translation took place, it should be kept as a solemn day, especially in the church of Limoges.

ANNOTATIONS.

ROMAN JOURNEY OF SS. JUSTUS, PRESBYTER, AND HILARY, BISHOP

wrongly ascribed to St. Justus, from a manuscript codex of Poitiers.

Justus, presbyter of Limoges in the Gauls. (S.)

BHL Number: 4598

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

I, Justus, the least disciple of the lord Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, knowing that I by the same way by which the rest of men die, this … of the relics I write down; that when those who follow find it, they may know for what reason they are laid here, or whence, or by whom brought. For in the times of the emperor Constantius, when the Arian heresy was shaking the church, situated in the different parts of the world, with its excessive disturbance, and with the poison of its infidelity was leading almost all into the darkness of its error, so much so that very many defenders of the catholic faith contended even to the shedding of their own blood; at the order and with the consent of the aforesaid emperor, bishops [and] archbishops of the various provinces were called to Rome to hold a disputation on the faith, in the presence of Pope Leo ^b and the above-mentioned prince, on the condition that whatever was laid down there should be commonly kept by all through all the churches. And the lord Hilary, my master, hearing that so great a danger hung over the church, fearing greatly that it might take some harm on account of the very great multitude of enemies gathered there; and especially knowing that the above-named Pope Leo and the aforesaid emperor had consented to the Arian sect, … went there fearless, girt about with the breastplate of justice and belted with the sword of the word of God, having in his company very many of his disciples, namely me, and a certain Blaenus, a religious man, and several others. And when we had come to Rome, we were received in hospitality by a certain presbyter, by name Vincent, a very religious man, and a disputation on the faith having been held with the Arians in the presence of the council, and all heretical wickedness having been annulled by the lord Hilary and utterly rooted out, the aforesaid Vincent, seeing the admirable doctrine of his eloquence illustrious with so many virtues and miracles, leaving homeland and parents, joined himself as a companion to us. This Vincent for the merit of his life was held in such reverence among the Romans that they set him as keeper of the sacred things of the church. Joined and associated with us, he handed over to the lord Hilary a little casket in which were contained the present relics of the saints, namely: a particle of the scarlet cloak with which the Lord Jesus Christ is recorded to have been clothed in the Passion, and a certain particle of the garment of Saint Mary, Mother of the Lord, and the thumb of St. Peter the apostle, and the head of St. Lawrence the martyr, who was roasted for the Lord under the emperor Decius; and also a certain particle of that bread which the Lord blessed in the presence of the disciples at Emmaus on the day of his Resurrection, in the breaking of which he was recognized by them. When he had received these, he carried them with him to Poitiers, and there in our presence, namely of me and Vincent the presbyter and the aforesaid Blaenus, he laid them away in a secret oratory, where he devoted himself privately to prayer. Then after a few days had passed, we came to Limoges for the sake of visiting … the church of St. Martial and likewise out of zeal for prayer. Finally, departing from the aforesaid city of Limoges, we took counsel to visit the church of St. Fronto at Périgueux. As we proceeded there, we came to a certain forest, which is called Auren, situated in the suburb ^c of the aforesaid city, and we rested there. And the lord Hilary, hearing that a multitude of robbers stayed there, who plundered those passing through; and seeing the place fit, the robbers being cast out, he built a church there in honour of Mary, the holy Mother of the Lord. Departing from there again, ministers of the church being appointed, again beginning to carry out our purpose, we came into the district of Périgord, namely to this place. The peoples, then, hearing the fame of so great a man, coming asked him to bestow on them saving admonitions. And when, all being attentive, he was preaching to the people and all drank the water of wisdom from his mouth, standing at the roots of a certain great tree, suddenly from under his feet a cold and very clear spring began to flow; seeing which the peoples glorified God, who through his servant deigned to show such a miracle. Father Hilary himself, rejoicing over this, with eager voice sang the verse of the Psalm, saying: The stream of the river makes glad the city of God. And the peoples asked him that, in memory of so great a miracle, he should build there

a church in honour of the blessed Mother of the Lord. Satisfying their petitions, he left me as minister to the same church; and completing the journey he had begun, all things being duly done, he made again for his own see. In which place I, having stayed for two years, desiring again to see my master, and at the same time longing to enjoy his sweet exhortations, went on to Poitiers. And seeing me he rejoiced greatly and falling to kisses wept, and showed me that the end of his life was at hand, the Lord revealing it. Hearing this, moved with vehement grief, I wept most bitterly, saying: Why, father, do you abandon me, or to whom do you leave me destitute of so great a solace? And seeing me weeping, he exhorted me with consoling words, saying: Do not weep, dearest son, for the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I have served, he himself will guard you from the deceitful plots of the enemy, and a little later, seized by fevers, the end of his life being at hand, calling me, he handed over to me these relics, saying: "Receive this heavenly treasure, most beloved son, and, as is fitting, strive to guard it in all things; and remember to set in order the church which I have committed to you, situated in the district of Périgord." Having said this his holy soul, freed from the flesh, made for the heavens. And I, Justus, receiving the aforesaid relics, brought the present ones with me to this place, and laid them in this church at the right side of the altar, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of October, calling God and the relics themselves to witness that I have thus placed them all here together, just as I had received them from the lord Hilary my master.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Liberio

* Liberium