ON ST. NAMATIUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, AT CLERMONT IN AUVERGNE,
AFTER THE MIDDLE OF THE 5TH CENTURY.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE
Namatius, bishop of Clermont. (Bl.)
BY V. D. B.
§ Single. The cult of St. Namatius, his origin, marriage, episcopate. The building of the cathedral church of the Arverni and of that of St. Stephen. His burial.
St. Gregory, bishop of Tours, sprung from the Celtic tract of the Gauls, a native of the Arvernian region, [St. Namatius, whose principal deeds St. Gregory of Tours has listed, was long since called a saint, but venerated with a liturgical office only at the beginning of the last century] as Abbot Odo says at the beginning of his Life In d'Achery, Works of St. Gregory of Tours, Migne edition, column 115., by no means neglected in his historical books the affairs of the Arverni, which was his natal soil as a boy, and above all he listed in order in the History of the Franks the bishops of the Arverni or of Clermont: among whom comes St. Namatius or Namacius, of whom we must now speak. Of his cult Denis de Sainte-Marthe wrote plainly contrary things in volume II of the new Gallia Christiana, which he published in the year 1720. He first claims that his feast is celebrated on the 27th day of October, and a little later adds that, although he is marked with the title of SAINT, no day has been assigned to his cult Gallia christiana nova, volume II, column 231.. But the cause of this diversity and contradiction is not altogether hidden. In the year 1711 there had appeared the writing of Tillemont Mémoires ecclésiastiques, volume XV, page 411. that Namatius is called a saint in ancient monuments, but that his birthday is designated neither by Savaron in his little books on the affairs of Clermont, nor by Branche in the Lives of the saints of Auvergne, nor by Ferrari in the general Catalogue of the saints (to whom he could have added Pierre Durand in his Origines Claromontanae), but that by Branche and Du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology his name is recorded at the 4th day of November on the occasion of the festival of SS. Vitalis and Agricola, whose relics he had formerly summoned from Milan to Clermont. And indeed neither among the Feasts of the diocese of Clermont, inserted in the synodal statutes of Guillaume du Prat in the year 1552, nor among the proper Feasts of the church of Clermont (which second catalogue is more recent), nor in the Ordo of the divine office for the use of the cathedral church of Clermont for the year 1656 do I find the name of St. Namatius. On the contrary in the Ordos of the years 1827 and 1849, in which the customs of the last century are still observed, it is prescribed that on the 27th day of October the feast of St. Namatius, bishop of Clermont, be kept with lesser double rite. It may therefore be admitted that this festival was introduced between the years 1711 and 1720: that this festival became known to Denis de Sainte-Marthe; but that he, by I know not what distraction of mind, forgetful of his first assertion, afterwards added from Tillemont that no certain day has been assigned to the cult of St. Namatius. It will become manifest below that the blessed man has been listed among the blessed for perhaps a thousand or more years.
[2] He builds the cathedral church at the Arverni, Now since whatever has been learned of the deeds of St. Namatius has been preserved to memory by St. Gregory of Tours, let us hear him now. And St. Namatius, he says [Hist. ecclés. Franc. book II, chapter 16 and following, column 214 and following, Migne edition.], after the death of Bishop Rusticus, was at that time eighth bishop among the Arverni. By his zeal he built the church which now stands and is held the senior within the walls of the city, having in length a hundred and fifty feet, in breadth sixty feet, in height within the nave as far as the vault fifty feet: having in front a rounded apse, on either side wings built with elegant work, and the whole building is set out in the manner of a cross. It has forty-two windows, seventy columns, eight doors. For there the terror of God and a great brightness are seen; and truly very often a most sweet odour as of spices is perceived there by the religious to come. It has its walls at the altar adorned with mosaic work from many kinds of marble. The building therefore being finished in the twelfth year, the blessed bishop sends priests to Bologna, a city of Italy, to bring him relics of Saints Vitalis and Agricola, whom we know to have been most manifestly crucified for the name of Christ our God.
[3] and his wife the suburban basilica of St. Stephen, adorned with paintings. His wife built the basilica of St. Stephen in the suburb of the walls. And when she wished to adorn it with colours, she held a book in her lap, reading histories of the actions of the ancients, showing the painters what they should fashion on the walls. And it happened one day that, as she sat in the basilica and read, a certain poor man came to pray and seeing her in black dress, already advanced in age, thought she was one of the needy, and he brought out a piece of bread, and placed it in her lap and went away. She, not disdaining the gift of the poor man, who did not understand who she was, accepted it and gave thanks, and stored it, setting it before her meals, and taking a blessing from it on each day, until it was spent. (Here are inserted the public affairs which happened in the Gauls and especially among the Arverni from the year 463 and 485.) And when Bishop Namatius had died among the Arverni, Eparchius succeeded, a most holy and religious man.
[4] The race and marriage of St. Namatius. Further that St. Namatius was of a most noble race and of a very rich house is clear enough from what St. Gregory says of his wife; whence too it is evident that he was joined in marriage when he was promoted to the rank of the episcopate. For here and there in the 5th century and also in the following one may see most noble and very rich men taking up sacred orders, especially the episcopate [Dubos, Hist. de l'établiss. de la monarchie française dans les Gaules, volume I, page 21 and following.]; so that, since episcopal authority was the stronger by the trust and veneration of the peoples, some magnates seemed with perverse zeal to have aspired to so sacred a dignity; although most, since the people wished holy bishops and, the ambitious being neglected, were accustomed to designate distinguished men by spontaneous acclamations De Sismondi, Hist. des Français, volume I, pages 70 and 71, Brussels edition., were of the number of those who sought not their own things, but those of Jesus Christ. And whoever had climbed to so sublime a rank were, with the threat of excommunication interposed, separated from their wives. Gregory records here and there, says Ruinart [Works of St. Greg. of Tours, preface, number 33. Compare Dubos and Sismondi, at the places cited.], bishops who before their ordination were married: but he at once adds that they were separated from one another ACCORDING TO THE PRESCRIPTIONS OF THE CANONS: which he calls THE ORDER OF CATHOLIC INSTITUTION in the book on the Glory of the Confessors, chapter LXXVIII; to show that this custom was kept not in one or another region only, but everywhere uniformly in the whole catholic church.
[5] Why he is called the eighth bishop of the Arverni; at what time he lived. St. Gregory calls Namatius the eighth bishop among the Arverni, who everywhere in the catalogues of the bishops of the Arverni is read as the ninth. But the historian of the Franks disagrees with these only in appearance, since he lists all the predecessors of St. Namatius; but, after the example of Eusebius, who does not number SS. Peter, James and Mark among the bishops of Rome, Jerusalem and Alexandria, he excludes St. Austremonius from the roll of the bishops of the Arverni [Acta SS. volume VI of September, page 690, number 8. Compare Tillemont, Mémoires ecclés. volume XV, page 409.], since he had been consecrated bishop before coming to Clermont. Tillemont judges Volume cited, page 410. that the see of Clermont was occupied by St. Namatius for twelve years, namely from the year 440 (or rather 450) to the year 462; Gonod Chronologie des évêques de Clermont, page 6. from about the year
446 to the year 462; Durand Les origines de la ville de Clermont, page 48. abstains from all chronological notes, and Denis de Sainte-Marthe Gallia Christiana nova, volume II, column 231., setting out the calculations of Tillemont, concludes that nothing is established on these matters. This one thing is certain, that St. Sidonius Apollinaris was established in the see of Auvergne in the year 471 or the following Acta SS. volume IV of August, pages 606 and 607., after St. Eparchius, the successor of St. Namatius, had left it vacant by his death. But of the years of St. Eparchius we have nothing ascertained. And this our Pinius saw long since Ibid. volume VI of September, page 690., inquiring at what time St. Rusticus, the predecessor of St. Namatius in the see of Clermont, flourished; for which reason he was content to report his death about the middle of the 5th century. Since St. Namatius held the episcopal crozier for at least twelve years, he is to be said to have departed from life that many years or even more after St. Rusticus.
[6] The cathedral church, whose form is explained, The principal praise of St. Namatius is that he built the senior church (that is the cathedral Du Cange, Glossarium latinum, under Ecclesia senior., not, as Tillemont will have it Mém. ecclés. volume XV, page 411., the older). St. Gregory explains its form; where this one thing is rather obscure, that it is said to have had in height within the capsus as far as the vault fifty feet. Camera is the vault, commonly voute; but what is capsus? Du Cange at first thought Gloss. lat. under Capsus. that the apse or capicium, commonly chevet, was indicated, because this part was formerly more often higher than the rest of the church; but later the most celebrated glossographer saw that the nave of the church (la nef) was designated, as also every enclosure [Compare Forcellini's Lexicon, under Capsus; Rich, Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, under Capsus.]; and in this very place the church is said to have had in front of the nave a rounded apse, and on either side ascellae, which Du Cange interprets as wings Du Cange, Glossarium latinum, under Ascella., but which seem to me to have been lesser apses, such as are still observed in many churches, at first sacristies, gradually made altars A. Lenoir, Architecture monast. volume I, pages 98, 112, 148 etc.. Then the building was set out in the manner of a cross, so that there were façades on either side Ibid. page 147.. The columns were disposed in four rows, and so the space of the church was divided into five parts; to which the eight doors gave entry; whose arrangement will be most easily perceived from the work of Albert Lenoir A. Lenoir, Architecture monastique, volume I, page 113., but chiefly from the images of the basilica of St. Paul outside the walls of the city of Rome. Nevertheless it was only of middling size, namely of 44 metres in length and seventeen and a half in breadth. At the altar the walls were adorned with opus sarsurium, which Du Cange shows to be mosaic. For twelve years St. Namatius spent his effort on this building; so that he was bishop at least that many years, if he did not put his hand to the work until after gaining the episcopate. Nor does St. Gregory of Tours hint that the blessed man undertook this labour before.
[7] [he takes care to honour it with relics of SS. Vitalis and Agricola, brought from Milan not without a prodigy:] And that the reverence for this place might be greater, he summoned, through a delegated presbyter, some of the relics of SS. Vitalis and Agricola, martyrs of Bologna, whose passion St. Ambrose narrated at the beginning of his book on the Exhortation to Virginity. He seems to have obtained brandea, that is dusts, oil from the lamps, linen cloths let down into the tomb or other things of this kind: for it had not yet become the custom to divide the bodies of the saints Compare Acta SS. volume VII of October, page 824. Compare pages 9 and 935.. A little more clearly the same St. Gregory narrated the translation of these relics in book I, chapter XLIV, on the Glory of the Martyrs. Their relics, he says Work cited 746., Namacius, bishop of the Arverni, devoutly sought, namely to place them in the church which he himself had built: and he directed thither one presbyter; who, going off with the grace of God, brought what he had sought. And returning with his companions, on their way back, at the fifth milestone from the city of the Arverni they take lodging or enter a hospice, and they send messengers to the bishop, that he may order them what they should do. And when morning had come, the bishop, the citizens having been advised, hastens most devoutly with crosses and candles to meet the holy relics. And when the presbyter offered him to look on the blessed relics, if he so ordered; he said: To me it is greater to believe these things than to see them; for so we read in the holy Scriptures, that the Lord himself judges those blessed who, not having seen, have believed in him Joan XX, 29. So, this faith of the bishop prevailing, the Lord glorifies his saints in power. For as they came, suddenly the sky was darkened: and behold a shadowy and most black rainstorm came down on them: and such rain was poured out there that rivers were seen to run along those roads. Nevertheless around the holy pledges, through one full jugerum, not one drop was seen to fall. And as they went away, the rain followed them from afar, as if paying its respects, refreshing the people, but not touching the bearers of the pledges. Seeing this the bishop magnified the Lord, who, thus favouring his faith, deigned to work such things for the glory of the saints. And the citizens being gathered with great joy and devotion, he dedicated the holy church illumined by these pledges.
[8] the fortunes of this church. To which Ruinart subjoins: This church, namely the cathedral, was first called of Saints Vitalis and Agricola; then (certainly already in the times of St. Bonitus, who governed the diocese of Clermont at the end of the 7th century) Gonod, Chronologie des eveques de Clairmont, pages 6 and 16. of St. Lawrence, and finally of St. Mary, which name it retains today. Le Cointe comments at length on this church Annales eccles. Francorum, at the year 354, number 4., lest it be confused with other churches of St. Lawrence and Bl. Mary: but all these were basilicas or cemeterial churches, and thus suburban; but the church which St. Namatius built and consecrated was an ecclesia, and indeed the only one within the walls. Elsewhere we have already quite often explained this subject Acta SS. volume VIII of October, page 902; volume IX, pages 139, 211, 214 etc.. This church stood until the year 761, in which the fort of Auvergne was taken by Pippin and destroyed by fire Gonod, page 6.. But in the times of Charlemagne or not much later it was built anew and on the 2nd day of June of the year 946 it was solemnly consecrated by Stephen II, bishop of Clermont, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ibid. page 23.; of whose hair something was deposited there In Savaron, in the little book to be cited, number 1.. And to this church belong the things read in the little book on the churches and altars which stand in Clermont, written about the year 950 and first edited by Savaron [I have before me three editions of Savaron's little work on the holy churches and monasteries of Clermont, the first which appeared at Paris, by Savaron's care, in the year 1608; the second which in the year 1657 Labbe inserted in volume II of his Bibliotheca Mss.; and the third which Durand subjoined in the year 1662 to his Origines Claromontanae.]: First of all in the house of the mother church there is the altar of St. Mary, and of Saints Agricola and Vitalis, and the altar of the Holy Cross, the altar of St. Gervase, the altar of St. John the Baptist, the altar of St. Julian the martyr. Of this new church there now exist only two western towers Gonod, page 23.; for the remaining parts Bishop Hugues de la Tour began to renew, before he set out in the year 1248 with St. Louis for the holy war; which parts his successors completed Ibid. page 36 and following.. Yet the memory of the translation of the relics of SS. Vitalis and Agricola was not omitted, inscribed in the manuscript Martyrology of Clermont at the 27th day of November in these words: In the Gauls, in the city of the Arverni, the translation of the blessed martyrs Agricola and Vitalis. That this festival was most solemnly celebrated Savaron shows from old choir books in his commentaries on the cited little work.
[9] [St. Namatius is buried in the little church of St. Stephen, now St. Eutropius, raised by his wife.] St. Namatius was buried in this very suburban basilica or cemeterial chapel of St. Stephen Compare Acta SS. volume VIII of October, pages 886 and 887., which his wife had had built and adorned. For in Savaron's very ancient little book on the churches of Clermont we read at number 13: In the church of St. Stephen, the altar of St. Stephen, where St. Namacius, and St. Quintianus, and St. Aprunculus, and St. Felix, and other bodies of saints, whose names we do not know, rest. This church has long since been made parochial; so that in a register of the citizens of Clermont made in the 14th century it is called la parroche de S. Stephe the parish of St. Stephen. Indeed it lost its name at the end of the 15th century, to take that of St. Eutropius Gonod, page 6.. Hence Savaron at the beginning of the 17th century Commentary cited.: Today the parish church of St. Eutropius, in which on the left is an altar on which statues, eaten away by age, express the martyrdom of St. Stephen, and also the principal altar is honoured by a statue of the same saint. It still exists now in the suburb of Clermont not far from the church of St. Illidius, commonly St. Allyre Gonod, page 6.. Branche claims that his body was translated from there to the neighbouring, but now destroyed, basilica of St. Venerandus La vie des saincts et des sainctes de l'Auvergne, page 637.. But I fear that he does not hand down the truth, since Savaron, Sainte-Marthe, Durand, Tillemont and Gonod do not even mention this translation. From the recited place of Savaron's little work it is manifest that already in the middle of the 10th century St. Namatius was listed among the saints. Rightly therefore in all the published catalogues of the bishops of Clermont he is honoured with the title of saint, with which St. Gregory of Tours had long since presented him; but in his books this word is ambiguous, being applied not only to men and women honoured with ecclesiastical cult, but here and there to bishops as a title as it were of priesthood and dignity. St. Namatius, however, was not venerated with a liturgical office before the beginning of the 18th century, as we taught above.