ON SS. GERMANUS AND COMPANIONS: RODULPH, ISMIUS, ISMIDO, BONUSPARUS, AND GEORIUS, HERMITS IN THE DIOCESE OF ANNECY IN SAVOY,
ELEVENTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Germanus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Rodulph, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismido, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Bonusparus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Georius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
BY R. D. B.
§ I. Documents on St. Germanus and his companions. On their dwelling at Talloires. On the time in which they lived.
Being about to speak of St. Germanus, Benedictine monk and hermit, and of other saints of the same condition, Documents on St. Germanus and his companions who flourished at Talloires (otherwise Tallueris, Talgeriae, Talgurii, or Tallueri) in Savoy, in the diocese formerly of Geneva and now of Annecy, in the eleventh or twelfth century, we cannot but review at the outset the written monuments in which there is talk of these most excellent men. We must indeed confess that no ancient documents concerning their birth, deeds or pious death have come down to posterity; indeed, that those which survive, if you except six distichs composed in honour of St. Germanus, were not compiled before the year 1621, and also that in them his companions SS. Rodulph, Ismius and Ismido are treated only in passing. But those few historical documents of the seventeenth century, although they need some correction, especially in chronological matters, no prudent man will hold cheap or despise, since they are very ancient traditions of that place. For they are a brief Life of St. Germanus, written in Latin in the year 1621 or the following year; likewise a eulogy of the same saint inserted in the Martyrology of that place at the same time, as also the Inscription of the cave or dwelling, likewise of St. Germanus. All these writings, no less than the diplomas of several bishops and some excerpts both of the Chronicle of Talloires and of the Book of Usages of the same monastery, were generously communicated to me by the venerable priest Vincent Brasier, then parish priest of St. Mary at Talloires, now canon of the cathedral church of Annecy; had his skilful service been lacking, we could have brought forward only very little about St. Germanus and the other holy monks of that region. These documents, when we had already put an end to our Commentary on St. Germanus, the venerable man Vincent Brasier himself made public, and appended to them some other shorter ones, to be mentioned by us. Of great use to us also was the Life of St. Germanus written in French by Clette, a monk of Talloires, between the years 1627 and 1634; which, preserved in the Library of the French Republic at Paris among the manuscript codices under no. 11765 of St. Germain-des-Prés, the most diligent Paul Pierling, priest of the Society of Jesus, had copied at our request. This composition the venerable man Vincent Brasier, from the copy shown him by us, appended to the Life of St. Germanus as an appendix. Moreover, we found many things by no means to be neglected in a little work on St. Germanus published at Annecy in the year 1859 by the venerable man Pinget, priest, then assistant to the parish priest of St. Germain at Talloires.
[2] are recent But all these writings, being consonant with one another and composed in the same monastery of Talloires, have one and the same origin; which Claude Louis Nicolas de Quoex, prior of Talloires, a man of the greatest integrity and most highly approved by St. Francis de Sales [Charles-Auguste de Sales, Hist. du B. Franç. de Sales, vol. II, book VII; De la Rivière, Vie de Franç. de Sales, p. 282.], declared at the end of the eulogy of St. Germanus inserted in the Martyrology of Talloires. These are his words: "What is here contained concerning St. Germanus I received, preserved and set down here from an old manuscript codex which is kept in the present monastery; likewise from an ancient diploma of indulgences granted by the most holy Lord Eugene the Third; and finally from the account, testimony and tradition of various ancient monks of this monastery, on the advice of the Most Reverend bishops aforesaid, the brothers, of Geneva (St. Francis de Sales) and of Chalcedon, for the greater glory and honour of God most good, of the Virgin Mother Mary, and of SS. Benedict and Germanus, and for the future memory of the translation of the saint. But what concerns the monastery of Savigny, from various letters and the diploma of foundation, which are most securely preserved both in this monastery and in that one. Dom Claude Louis Nicolas, of Talloires."
The monk Clette also affirms that he borrowed his narrative both from some ancient manuscript codices, which certain very aged alumni of the monastery of Talloires had formerly written (for it abounded in books of this kind until the end of the eighteenth century) Martène, Voyage littéraire, part I, p. 244; compare Pinget, p. 11., and from a history which some inmates of a certain Augustinian monastery in Belgium had compiled; but in what place that was situated I have not been able to find. I suspect, however, since St. Germanus seemed to the people of Talloires to be a native of Tienen, that it was the Augustinians of Tienen, who had a house in that town from the year 1617 Bets, Histoire de Tirlemont, vol. II, p. 35 f., to whom the monks of Talloires probably wrote a letter.
[3] and infected with some manifest errors. These things indicate sufficiently that St. Germanus obtained a writer of his Life only a considerably long time after his death, and that his deeds were at first transmitted to posterity by tradition; which tradition, although it was perhaps less trustworthy in some matters, could not nevertheless fail
to be long-lived, since at Talloires, where he departed to heaven, his sacred remains were kept with great reverence, and there God heaped almost without intermission many and stupendous benefits upon men who approached the holy hermit as their intercessor. Now in the Latin Life and in the encomium of the Martyrology of Talloires, as also in the French Life of St. Germanus written by Clette, two statements occur that must by all means be corrected. For those authors say that he, having begun his life in Belgium and having grown older, was received into friendship by the bishop of Mechelen; which is indeed incongruous, since on the one hand the bishopric of Mechelen was established only in the year 1559, and on the other St. Germanus departed from the living in the eleventh century, as will be shown below. But I think this error arose from the fact that these writers, when they read in the ancient documents that St. Germanus was born at Thenae or Tirlemont in Belgium, and knew that this town was in their own time, that is in the seventeenth century, comprised within the limits of the diocese of Mechelen, wrongly judged that this also obtained when St. Germanus was among the living, not attending to the fact that in that age Tirlemont was part of the diocese of Liège. Wherefore I think Mechelen was written in place of Liège. Granting this opinion, we understand that the bishop of Liège was on familiar terms with St. Germanus; for, as Gramaye writes, in the middle ages Tienen had been enriched with a palace of Liège, though he could not indicate its location Antiquitates Brabantiae, Thenae, p. 39.. Moreover Clette, no less than the author of the eulogy inserted in the Martyrology of Talloires, fell into error in reporting that St. Germanus fell asleep in the Lord about the year 1000; which opinion is to be utterly rejected, since the holy man, as will be shown presently, could have come to Talloires only in the youth of the eleventh century. But no one will deny that much here is obscure. Yet if we show in what age the monastery of Talloires began, it will be manifest when SS. Germanus, Rodulph, Ismius and Ismido were among the living, since they, as is narrated in the life of St. Germanus and in other documents, were the first monks and successive rectors of the monastery of Talloires.
[4] From two diplomas Now in the midst of this darkness two ancient and entirely genuine diplomas, issued, it is true, very inconveniently without indication of date, bring no mean light, and show that St. Germanus and his companions established their seat at Talloires between the years 993 and 1032. By the earlier diploma Rudolf, king of Burgundy, gives Talloires as a gift to Abbot Iterius and the other monks of Savigny Bernard, Cartulaire de Savigny, p. 317.; by the later, Irmengard, wife of Rudolf, declares that she will build a church for the benefit of the brethren of Talloires Ibid., p. 318.. But these very historical monuments, wrongly understood, were the cause why different writers held different opinions about the origins of Talloires and about St. Germanus and his companions. Reading in the earlier diploma that King Rudolf gave Talloires to Iterius, abbot of Savigny, and in the other that Irmengard his wife enriched the monastery of that place with goods "for the remedy of the soul of her Senior, King Rudolf, and for the remedy of her own soul," or also that she did it "with the permission of her Senior Rudolf," they fell into chronological errors. For they supposed, since there were three kings of Burgundy of the name Rudolf, some that it was Rudolf I [Serrasin, Inventaire des Chartes de Talloires, in Philippe, Notice sur Talloires, p. 100.], others Rudolf II Philippe, ibid., p. 8., others finally Rudolf III Régeste Genevois, p. 44.. The supporters of the first and second opinions denied that Rudolf III is treated in these diplomas, since he, as the last, should rather be called junior than senior; into which opinions we may not go. And first, indeed, the word senior troubles us little, since a woman's senior is none other than her lord or husband Du Cange, Glossarium latinitatis, under Senior, Didot edition.; then, since Irmengard bestowed her gift "with the permission of her senior Rudolf," and therefore while he was living, "through the counsel of Leodegar, archbishop of Vienne," who ascended this see in the year 1030, it is beyond doubt that Irmengard speaks not of Rudolf I or Rudolf II, but of Rudolf III. For the first of these was king of Burgundy from the year 888 to the year 911, the second from the year 911 to the year 937, the third from the year 993 to the year 1032, in which he died Art de vérifier les dates, p. 662 f., edition of 1770.. Whence it also follows that Talloires was given to the monks of Savigny between the years 993 and 1032, and that therefore St. Germanus and his companions betook themselves there at that time.
[5] it seems to be established that St. Germanus and St. Rodulph The same argument, namely that the monastery of Talloires was founded by Rudolf III, is strongly corroborated by the very history of Talloires. In the year 866, then, the villa of Talgurium was given by Lothar, king of Lotharingia, to his wife Theutberga, together with a church Bouquet, Historiens des Gaules, vol. VIII, p. 412.; since most villas in that age had been furnished with a church Guérard, Polyptique d'Irminon, vol. I, Proleg., ch. III, p. 45.. The same, already made a cell and called Talgeria, Boso, king of Provence, whose mother was Theutberga's sister, gives in the year 879 to the monastery of Tournus Bouquet, vol. IX, p. 669.. "We grant," he says, "in the county of Geneva the cell, that is the little monastery Du Cange, under Cella., which is called Talgeria, which is also dedicated in honour of St. Mary … with all its appurtenances, with the churches belonging to it there…" This grant Charles the Simple, king of France, renews in the year 915 Bouquet, vol. IX, p. 524.. Louis d'Outremer imitates him in the year 941 Ibid., p. 594.. Accordingly, since Talloires was in the domain of the monastery of Tournus from the year 879 to the year 941, within which, as we have seen, Rudolf I and Rudolf II lived, it is clear that neither king gave that estate to the monks of Savigny. The cell of Talloires seems to have remained thereafter subject to the monastery of Tournus until the youth of the eleventh century; for no trace of any change appears. Then Rudolf, king of Burgundy (who, being a contemporary of Iterius, abbot of Savigny Bernard, Cartulaire de Savigny, p. 317., cannot have been other than Rudolf III, grandson of Louis d'Outremer through Matilda his daughter), transferred Talloires to the monastery of Savigny. "At the petitions," says Rudolf, "of Queen Irmengard, our wife … and of Burchard, archbishop of Lyons, our brother … and of Burchard, archbishop of Vienne … we give in the pagus of Albanais the villa at Talloires, with its appendages and with the church consecrated in honour of St. Mary and St. Peter and St. Maurice, to St. Martin, to the monastery of Savigny, and to the rule and subjection of Abbot Iterius and his successors, and for the benefit of the brethren serving God monastically at Talloires, so that it may remain in our protection and that of Queen Irmengard and of our successors …" Ibid.. This course of events manifestly shows, first, that neither Rudolf I nor Rudolf II conferred the villa of Talloires on the monks of Savigny between the years 879 and 941; and then how Rudolf III acquired it for himself, or also established a dwelling for Bb. Germanus, Rodulph, Ismius and Ismido, monks of Savigny.
[6] came to Talloires not before the youth of the eleventh century These things understood, the reader will easily draw from the diploma that Rudolf III, at the request of Burchard, archbishop of Lyons, bestowed Talloires on Iterius, abbot of Savigny, the immediate successor of Durand, between the years 1013 and 1030. For first, Iterius the donee did not succeed Durand before the year 1013; that same Abbot Durand is mentioned as living in a certain diploma of the year 1013 inserted in the Cartulary of Savigny Bernard, Cartulaire de Savigny, pp. 290, 295.; and therefore Talloires did not pass to Savigny before this time. Nor did it happen after the year 1030, as being the year of death of Burchard of Lyons Gallia Christiana, vol. XVI, col. 64., during whose lifetime, as we have seen, the thing was done. Indeed those who give credit to Canon Rivat, a man of the greatest integrity and learning, will judge that Rudolf III conferred the villa and cell of Talloires on the monks of Savigny between the years 1016 and 1024. For Rivat testifies Jules Philippe, Notice sur l'Abbaye de Talloires, p. 9. that the original diploma, now lost, which he had seen, was subscribed not only by Rudolf III but also by his nephew through his sister, Henry II, emperor of Germany, from the year 1016 to 1024, the year of his death [Thietmar's Chronicle, book VII, in Pertz, vol. III, p. 845, book VIII, p. 863. Compare the Life of Conrad the Salian, in Pertz, Scriptt., vol. XI, pp. 263, 267; Annal. Einsidlenses, ibid., vol. III, p. 144 ff. Compare Art de vérifier les dates, p. 663.], the colleague of his uncle Rudolf. These discussions surely show that Talloires, if you admit Rivat's opinion, was given to Savigny by Rudolf III between the years 1016 and 1024; on the contrary, if you reject it, between the years 1013 and 1030. Wherefore from these and several other documents to be recited below, and especially from the chronicle of Talloires compiled in the eighteenth century, we not unjustly infer that St. Germanus, born in Belgium of rather noble parents, applied himself as a young man to sacred letters at Paris together with his brother St. Rodulph, and that shortly afterwards both were admitted by Abbot Iterius among the monks of Savigny; and that from there, between the years either 1013 and 1030, or 1016 and 1024, with SS. Ismius and Ismido as companions, they were sent to Talloires, which at that time Rudolf III, king of Burgundy, had made a priory of the monastery of Savigny. There blessed Germanus, Rodulph, Ismius and Ismido are said to have discharged in order the office of prior, and, having laid down the dignity, to have led the hermit life. And this is the sum of their deeds.
[7] They seem to have been born about the year 1000 and to have died almost old men. But now several questions arise, namely at what time those holy men began their life, entered the monastery of Savigny, for how many years they were adorned with the dignity of prior, and in what year finally they departed from the living. But to these questions, since genuine documents are lacking, the answer is not so easy. We think, however, relying on the tradition of Talloires, approved by Mabillon himself, that SS. Germanus and Rodulph were admitted among the monks of Savigny not before the year 1013 nor after the year 1030; since Iterius, who enrolled them in the list of the brethren, was not abbot before the year 1013, nor did he, as we have seen, send them to Talloires after 1030. Whence it also follows that these same saints were born either at the end of the tenth century or at the beginning of the eleventh; for they came to Abbot Iterius as young men. That SS. Ismius and Ismido, indeed, exercised themselves in the monastic disciplines at Savigny and Talloires at about the same times appears more than sufficiently. As to the span of time during which the four holy priors of Talloires
presided over the monastery, or their year of death, nothing certain can be brought forward. For from the aforementioned writings of Talloires it is gathered only that St. Germanus lived as a hermit about thirty-four or about forty years after he had given up the office of prior. Nor does the Catalogue of the Priors of Talloires help us much in this matter, since, written and perhaps composed in more recent times, it teems with no small errors in the noting of years. It indicates aptly, however, the order of those priors according to the tradition received there. For the more ancient are reckoned as these Chronicon, ms. of Talloires, p. 583.:
I. St. Germanus 989
II. St. Rodulph 1018
III. Ismius 1041
IV. Ismido 1062
V. Stephen 1095
VI. Bonuspar 1118
VII. Guido or Vuido 1120
Other priors succeeded Guido, until in the year 1677 the government of the monastery of Talloires fell to commendatory abbots Gallia Christiana, vol. XVI, col. 486..
[8] They were not contemporaries of St. Bernard of Menthon. This chronological table is perhaps favoured by the fact that Roland Viot, biographer of St. Bernard of Menthon in the year 1627, and other more recent Savoyard writers Pinget, p. 94; Brasier, Étude sur S. Germain, p. 21. judged that St. Germanus was the master of St. Bernard of Menthon, who flourished in Savoy in the tenth century; but several things prevent our adding our vote to this opinion. For first, Roland's opinion most plainly conflicts with the diplomas mentioned; second, nothing is related of any familiar intercourse between these two most excellent men either in the earlier or in the later Life of St. Bernard, illustrated by our predecessors Acta SS., vol. II of June, p. 1071.; third, Clette affirms that he found in the manuscript codices of the monastery of Talloires no trace of any acquaintance between the two holy men, but on the contrary much about the monastic and eremitical life undertaken by St. Germanus in the Order of St. Benedict. Finally Canon Brasier shows Brasier, p. 21 f. that no biographer of St. Bernard older than Roland spoke of an acquaintance between the two saints. All these things taken together greatly corroborate our opinion.
[9] At Talloires they first embraced the monastic life, then the eremitical. But perhaps the reader will suspect that St. Germanus, who no less than his companions had solemnly embraced the Rule of St. Benedict, bade farewell to the Benedictine laws by following the eremitical discipline. But the case is not so. For St. Germanus's new profession was in no way in conflict with his former rule of living; rather it was entirely in harmony with it, as St. Peter Damian shows Opera Omnia, vol. I, book VI, letter 12, col. 393, Migne edition. by the words of St. Benedict, who greatly praises good monks passing from the monasteries to the desert. This is also manifest from the statutes of the Camaldolese, who, although they followed the Rule of St. Benedict, nevertheless in several places inhabited, some monasteries, others separate cells Mittarelli, Annales Camaldulenses, vol. I, book IV, p. 134 ff.. It is also plain from many holy men of the same Benedictine order who, without deserting their institute, lived separated from the other monks in cells here and there. Among whom are to be reckoned not a few monks scattered over the Vosges mountains, as we read in the Life of St. Paul of Verdun Acta SS., vol. II of Feb., p. 169., such as St. Madalgisilus the monk Ibid., vol. VII of May, p. 264. and St. Barontus, monk of Pistoia Ibid., vol. III of March, p. 567.. To these men of God you may add St. Cuthbert the Anglo-Saxon Ibid., vol. III of March, p. 93. and a great many others whose deeds Benedict Gonon has illustrated Vitae Patrum Occidentis, passim, Lyons edition 1625.. Calmet also shows Commentarius in regulam S. Benedicti, ch. I, p. 47. that these saints, with very few exceptions, betook themselves to the desert only with the will of the abbot and their brethren. "And surely it seems just," says the learned man, "that those who are wont to be admitted into the monastery by the consent of the brethren should by no means withdraw from it, except with the benevolent permission of the whole congregation." These things suffice to signify that St. Germanus, who with the licence of the abbot of Savigny had preferred the exercises of hermits to the monastic discipline, in no way renounced the order of St. Benedict.
[10] [We shall treat in this place also of SS. Rodulph, Ismius, Ismido, Bonusparus and Georius.] From the beginning we professed that in this place we would illustrate the deeds not only of St. Germanus, but also of SS. Rodulph, Ismius and Ismido. I know indeed that the festival of St. Rodulph, brother of St. Germanus, is celebrated on the 31st day of October, and that therefore, unless something particular stands in the way, his memory is to be recalled in our Acts at that day. But since his history is closely connected with the history of his brother, he rightly and deservedly obtains his place from us here; which reasoning indeed has very often been used by our predecessors. SS. Ismius and Ismido, indeed, since they seem never to have had a day of cult, and were the companions of SS. Germanus and Rodulph at Savigny and Talloires, are justly and rightly commemorated on the same day in the Bollandist Work. Nor do we think it incongruous here to rescue from oblivion St. Georius, since the report is that this holy hermit served God long before, first among the monks of Savigny and then in a hermitage where afterwards a priory was instituted under the name of St. Georius, which was also subject for a very long time to the priory of Talloires. It will be welcome to the reader also to have knowledge of Bl. Bonusparus, who closes the band of the primitive monks of Talloires distinguished by particular holiness.
§ II. The beginnings of the cult of St. Germanus. His translation. Masses proper to him. Blessings used in his honour.
The beginnings of the cult of St. Germanus From disputing whether St. Germanus is rightly and deservedly numbered among the saints, and therefore claims a place for himself in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum, it seems to us we should abstain. For, imitating our predecessors, we judge this superfluous, since the ordinary bishop surely declared that his cause was to be excepted from the decrees of Urban VIII, when he approved his cult or translated the sacred body; which declaration Urban VIII recognized to be among the rights of bishops, as Benedict XIV shows De Canonizat., etc., book II, ch. I, no. I.. Let it suffice us, then, to set out the history of that cult in the usual manner. Now in what age the ecclesiastical cult paid to St. Germanus took its beginnings, no genuine document shows. I am not unaware that in the cave, formerly the dwelling of the blessed man, it is carved that he was honoured with the cult of the saints from the year 1014. But this inscription, besides being opposed to the entirely genuine documents recited above, is more recent, being written entirely in letters of the sixteenth century, and certainly after the year 1621. From it, however, it can be gathered that its authors were persuaded that St. Germanus had been reckoned among the saints from the most remote times. For these are the drawing and the epigram, as they were most faithfully reproduced by the venerable man Vincent Brasier Brasier, pp. 10 and 252..
HÆC SPELUNCA FULGET
SANCTITATE ET MIRACULIS
GERMANI NATIONE BELGII MONACHI
BENEDICTINI SAVINIACENSIS ATQUE
SACERDOTIS DEINDE
TALLUERUM ANNO 980 EJUSDEM LOCI PRIORIS ANNO 989
IN DNO REQUIEVIT CIRCA ANNO M ET IN ORATORIO SEPULTUS
COLITUR A FIDELIBUS AB ANNO MXIV ET SUB ALTARE
TRANSLATUS ANNO M 621
ANNO M
[THIS CAVE SHINES WITH THE HOLINESS AND MIRACLES OF GERMANUS, BY NATION A BELGIAN, A BENEDICTINE MONK OF SAVIGNY AND A PRIEST, THEN OF TALLOIRES IN THE YEAR 980, PRIOR OF THE SAME PLACE IN THE YEAR 989; HE RESTED IN THE LORD ABOUT THE YEAR 1000 AND WAS BURIED IN THE ORATORY; HE IS VENERATED BY THE FAITHFUL FROM THE YEAR 1014, AND WAS TRANSLATED BENEATH THE ALTAR IN THE YEAR 1621. IN THE YEAR 1000]
[12] are obscure; From what document, indeed, they took it that St. Germanus was enrolled among the saints from the year 1014, entirely escapes me. It pleases me well enough that this honour had already been paid to the holy hermit in the twelfth century, since Claude Louis Nicolas de Quoex, prior of Talloires, seems to indicate, as we showed above at no. 2, that Bl. Eugene III granted indulgences to enlarge the cult of St. Germanus. Nor is this opinion absurd; the more so as Eugene III, created pontiff in the year 1145, took the monastery of Talloires under his protection in the same year Ibid., p. 143.. Likewise in the year 1147, to visit Cîteaux, Clairvaux and other monasteries, he betook himself into Gaul, and in the year 1148, passing through the Valais and Savoy, returned into Italy [Documents relatifs à l'Histoire du Valais, by Gremaud, vol. I, p. 85, in the coll. Suisse Romande, vol. XXIX. Jaffé, Regesta Rom. Pontif., p. 634; Acta SS., vol. VI of Sept., p. 358.]. On which journey he quite probably visited the monastery of Talloires. But from this it by no means follows that the beginning of the cult is to be referred to this time; rather that it already existed before, and that the pontiff himself only intended to bring it increase. Nor is that beginning indicated to us by another historical monument, namely an epigram of six distichs, which the venerable priest Vincent Brasier, having copied it from a manuscript codex of the seventeenth century, communicated to us. For it is couched in these words:
EPITAPH.
which opinion the epitaph does not oppose The epitaph which follows, written in an old manuscript concerning the holy man of God Germanus, from cer * of Talloires
All that is born, it stands by nature, must itself Return whence it came and seek its first beginning. So Geremanus, famous for the gift of virtues, Giving himself to the sky, gave his bones to the soil. While life was his, he filled his homeland … * Confirming the good, appeasing the guilty with his speech. To the praise of the Lord he built this temple and shrine, Lest this place should stand empty of Christ; Where as a monk he lived his life, who, gentle as a lamb, Wounded, did not grieve; to wound, he did not wish. For whose wish, reader, say with all your heart: May the Everlasting grant you everlasting pardon.
[14] very ancient. Rightly and deservedly the venerable priest Brasier, writing a letter to me, suspects that this epitaph was composed when the most pious hermit had not yet been enrolled among the saints; since in the last distich the reader is invited to ask of God everlasting pardon for Germanus; which prayer, if it is poured out on behalf of some saint, is, as St. Augustine teaches Opp. vol. V, sermon 159, otherwise De verbis apost. 17, col. 868, Migne edition., a manifest injury done to him. It has happened, however, to some saints, as we read of SS. Walbert and Bertilia, husband and wife Acta SS., vol. II of May, p. 635., Norbert Ibid., vol. I of June, p. 810., or also of Bb. Ava Ibid., vol. III of April, p. 628., Charles, count of Flanders Molanus, Natales SS. Belgii, p. 44., and Pepin and his wife Iduberga Acta SS., vol. III of Feb., p. 259., that for the refreshment of their souls, several centuries after they had been honoured with ecclesiastical cult, either prayers were recited or a Mass for the dead was celebrated yearly; but, as our predecessors well observed, the reason for suffrages of this kind for the dead was that they had been begun after their death, when they were not yet venerated as saints or blessed, and were continued thereafter, when they had obtained the honour of the heavenly ones, without any thought of suppressing them. But nothing suggests that St. Germanus after his death experienced the same fortune; wherefore
it is credible that the six distichs mentioned were composed while the servant of God was not yet enrolled in the list of the saints. What is to be thought, indeed, of the origins of the chapel of St. Germanus, the place of his burial, a single kilometre distant from the parish church, seems entirely impenetrable. For if the old tradition of the people had authority, one would have to judge that this sacred building was constructed by St. Germanus himself. But since opinions of this kind have not rarely been liable to error, and documents suited to clearing up the matter are lacking at present, we shall undertake no discussion. Yet the reader should know that the chapel of St. Germanus in the years 1492 and 1499 was so ancient that, ruinous with age, it had to be repaired Brasier, p. 144 f.. This condition of the little building is no obscure sign that the honours of the saints were paid to the blessed man from the most remote times. Its later origins we shall explain below.
[15] After the year 1621, In the following centuries, as we have shown from the words of the monks de Quoex and Clette, not a few things concerning the cult of St. Germanus were committed to writing; but almost all these seem to have perished. Several things, however, are known to us about the growth of that cult in the seventeenth century. For then St. Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva, in whose jurisdiction Talloires lay, raised the body of the blessed man from the earth with great solemnity. The occasion of this was the very mandate given by Paul V, the Roman pontiff, to St. Francis de Sales, to recall to a better life the monks of Talloires, who for many reasons, but especially through the sloth and bad examples of the commendatory abbots, had turned aside from the path of virtue. Since, then, the holy bishop was not rarely at Talloires, he betook himself on one occasion, for devotion's sake, to the tomb of St. Germanus to pray, and there with great grief of mind he noticed that the chapel and its altar were almost ruined. Hence he urged the prior of the monastery of Talloires to restore them, promising that he would return to Talloires to bless the chapel and the altar, or also to raise from the earth the holy remains of Bl. Germanus. When the prior of Talloires had complied with these admonitions, the holy prelate came there on the 28th day of October in the year 1621, together with his brother and coadjutor Jean François de Sales, bishop of Chalcedon. The latter, after he had, at St. Francis's request, imparted the ecclesiastical blessing to the building and the altar, solemnly offered to God the sacrifice of the Mass. The sacred rite being finished, St. Francis showed to the people standing by the sacred bones drawn out of the tomb, and, having enclosed them in a new shrine lined inside with silk, he himself together with his brother, clad in pontifical vestments, carried them on their shoulders around the chapel and placed them under the altar; yet in such a way that he set aside certain sacred relics, such as the jaw to be given to the parish church of Talloires, and a tooth for the altar of the chapel, to be consecrated that same day by his brother Brasier, p. 172 ff.. Finally the holy prelate delivered before the people for two hours a discourse on the glory of the saints and especially of St. Germanus. On the same day he gave another sermon on the same subject in the parish church. Indeed the holy bishop cherished an outstanding devotion towards St. Germanus to the end of his life; inasmuch as a little before he had resolved to spend his last years at the threshold of St. Germanus De la Rivière, Vie de François de Sales, book III, p. 294.. Moreover, on the day after his death, to de Quoex, who was celebrating Mass in the chapel of St. Germanus for the recovery of the health of him whom he thought sick, not dead, he appeared shining with glory [Ibid., p. 293; book IV, p. 662; Charles Aug. de Sales, Vie de S. François de Sales, vol. II, book IX, p. 224; book X, p. 261, edition of 1857; S. François de Sales peint par les religieuses de la Visitation, ses contemporaines, p. 182, Paris edition.]. De Quoex himself, having discharged the office of prior, having obtained the licence of his superiors, acquired for himself in the year 1630 a dwelling at St. Germanus, and spent his life there. From that time until the end of the eighteenth century a monk of Talloires performed the ecclesiastical ministries in the chapel of the holy hermit Brasier, p. 190 ff., having the title of prior of St. Germanus at Talloires.
[16] at which his translation was made In order that the memory of the Translation might be kept inviolate for ever among the monks of the monastery and the neighbouring people, on the advice of St. Francis de Sales and his brother Jean François, bishop of Chalcedon, as is clear from the words of Claude de Quoex related at no. 2, the following announcement was added to the Martyrology of Talloires at the fifth day before the Kalends of November: "In this monastery, the commemoration of St. Germanus, confessor and eminent anchorite, who from that royal monastery of St. Martin of Savigny, of the diocese of Lyons, in which he entered and professed the order and institute of our most holy father Benedict, was sent to this monastery of Talloires, given to Savigny by the most powerful and pious Rudolf the Elder, king of Burgundy, of Vienne and of the Arlesians, that he might profess the same order and Benedictine institute therein. And having visited, as a pilgrim, the places of the Holy Land, from which he brought away very many of the relics which are kept in the present church, he at length withdrew and betook himself to the mountain named after him, where he lived as an anchorite no less than most holily, and fell asleep in the Lord about the year one thousand; and whose name, from that time, God has made so illustrious and celebrated by divers miracles that his body, which is preserved in the church dedicated to that saint on the same mountain, is venerated on almost every day of the year, and especially on the Monday of Easter, of Pentecost, and on the feast of the Commemoration of All Saints, with the greatest concourse, the faithful of Christ assembling there from all sides for the sake of religion and of vows.
[17] by St. Francis de Sales, "But because the day of his passing is held to be by no means certain, the memory of his birthday is kept in this monastery on the present day, which is the day of the translation, by the mandate and institution of the Reverend Lord Francis de Sales, bishop and prince of Geneva, vicar or visitor general of the Reverend Father in Christ the Lord François d'Albon, chief superior or abbot general of the whole congregation of Savigny and of this conventual priory and its dependencies. Which Most Reverend bishop and visitor, together with his brother and coadjutor, the Most Reverend Lord Jean François, bishop of Chalcedon, having raised that very body of St. Germanus from the tomb in which it lay less honourably in the middle of the aforesaid church, and having had it carried in procession by the same lords bishops, most devoutly and most honourably replaced and set it within the altar which on that day was blessed and consecrated and dedicated to God Most Good and Most Great, to the most holy Virgin Mary and to St. Germanus, and ordered and commended that it be enclosed and venerated. And for that reason he delivered a sermon to the people concerning the same St. Germanus and the translation made by them, in the church of the monastery and in which the parishioners assemble, on the fifth day before the Kalends of November in the year of the Lord one thousand (six hundred) and twenty-one." The word "six hundred" was omitted by error in the Martyrology, as the reader will easily notice. We have copied out this lengthy eulogy here so that the reader may have in summary a notice of the cult of Bl. Germanus down to the times of St. Francis de Sales. We cannot, however, but warn him at once that we showed above, at nos. 7 and 8, that the writer who says that the holy hermit fell asleep in the Lord about the year one thousand committed an error, since he most certainly closed his life much later. Likewise that the surname of Senior was not rightly given to King Rudolf, since by this word, taken from the diploma of Irmengard, nothing else is signified, according to the custom of the time, than that Rudolf was her husband; but these things have already been set out.
[18] the cult of St. Germanus grew greatly. After the solemnity performed by St. Francis de Sales it appears quite clearly that the cult of St. Germanus at Talloires grew not a little. First, indeed, the concourse of the neighbouring people to his tomb, especially on the Monday of Easter, the Monday of Pentecost and on the feast of All Saints, became as celebrated as possible. The place itself of the former burial of the blessed hermit by no means ceased to be honoured by the faithful of Christ, and, since a sarcophagus had been made over it lest its memory should perish among the neighbouring people, pious men came to it frequently to pour out prayers. Indeed they carried home tiny fragments of it as sacred relics and kept them religiously, as being, so they said, very profitable to them in their necessities Pinget, p. 61 f.. Innumerable votive offerings, kept until the end of the eighteenth century, and representing arms, legs, hands, feet and other parts of the body, were placed before the eyes of all in the chapel of St. Germanus, as so many testimonies of benefits obtained there. Add that formerly the monks of Talloires every year, on the 29th day of October, honoured the holy hermit with an ecclesiastical Office and a proper Mass, a proper Mass also being celebrated on the preceding day in the chapel of St. Germanus in memory of his Translation. Both Masses, put together almost entirely from parts of Masses of the common, Guillaume Valfray printed with ecclesiastical authority at Lyons in the year 1638, as the venerable man Vincent Brasier recently did at Annecy Brasier, p. 264 ff.. He appended three prayers formerly used at Talloires: by the first of which was blessed the wine customarily drunk in honour of St. Germanus on the Monday of Easter, the Monday of Pentecost, the 28th day of October, the feast of the Translation, as also on the feast of All Saints; the second was used in the blessing of the linens of the sick; the third was in use for the blessing of people of every age and condition Ibid., p. 269.. But although at Talloires the feast of St. Germanus was celebrated on the days mentioned, du Saussay nevertheless preferred Martyr. Gallicanum, supplement, p. 1206. to inscribe his eulogy in his martyrology at the 31st day of January, moved, it seems, by devotion towards St. Francis de Sales. "In the territory of Geneva," he says, "among the Allobroges under the first Viennensis, of St. Germanus, monk of the order of St. Benedict, at whose altar blessed Francis, bishop of Geneva, taken up to glory on this day, first appeared." Chastelain Martyrologe Universel, p. 785., on the other hand, I do not see for what reason, transferred the holy hermit among the saints without a day, reporting that a church was built over his tomb and that the body was raised from the earth by St. Francis. He adds that religious honour is shown him by the Christian people most of all on the Monday both of Easter and of Pentecost, and on the feast of All Saints.
Annotata* Read: Cen(obio), monastery.
* Supply: virtute, with virtue.
§ III. The restoration of the chapel of St. Germanus. The finding of his relics. The second translation and the recognitions.
[The ancient chapel of St. Germanus, whose altar the brother of St. Francis de Sales consecrated,] The opinion of the people is, as we have already noted, that the original chapel, sacred to St. Germanus, was an oratory built for himself by the holy hermit himself. The fortunes of this building are not narrated by the writers; we know only that it was restored in the years 1492 and 1499 Brasier, p. 144 f., or also enriched by the offerings of the faithful Ibid., p. 146.. Its altar was solemnly consecrated, on the 29th day of October,
in the year 1621, by Jean François de Sales, bishop of Chalcedon, on the day on which the relics of St. Germanus were raised from the earth by his holy brother. This diploma of the consecrated altar is still preserved today: "In the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-one and on the twenty-eighth day of the month of October. I, Jean François de Sales, bishop of Chalcedon and coadjutor with future succession of the bishop of Geneva, * the altar in honour of St. Germanus the confessor, whose bones rest here, and enclosed in it relics of the holy martyrs Marcellus, Blaise, George, Eustace and Companions, and a tooth of Germanus the confessor; and to each of the faithful of Christ visiting it I have granted today one year, and on the anniversary day of this consecration forty days, of true indulgence in the customary form of the church. J. Franc., bishop of Chalc." Ibid., p. 172.. Jean François de Sales, bishop of Chalcedon, did not overstep the limits of his power in granting those two indulgences, since by common law this is permitted to bishops consecrating a church Ferraris, Bibl. can., vol. IV, under Indulg., art. II, no. 6, Migne edition..
[19] it was restored in the years 1663 and 1826. In the year 1663, since the chapel of St. Germanus, the place of his burial, was falling down with age, the monks of Talloires renewed or also enlarged it, and that it might be a perpetual monument of their piety they placed on the front of the sacred building this epitaph: TO GOD MOST GOOD, MOST GREAT. TO BLESSED GERMANUS, BENEDICTINE CONFESSOR. FALLEN WITH YEARS, IT WAS RAISED FROM THE FOUNDATIONS AND MORE AMPLY REBUILT BY THE REVEREND LORDS, THE BENEDICTINE RELIGIOUS OF TALLOIRES, IN THE YEAR 1663 Pinget, p. 52.. No other document of this rebuilding, still placed in its original position today, is said to have come down to us. The building of St. Germanus having been thus renewed, I judge that no change was afterwards brought upon the sacred affairs of Talloires until Savoy, at the end of the eighteenth century, was made by wicked arts a part of the French Republic, and there, as in the other provinces of France, the monasteries were suppressed and destroyed, and the Catholic religion itself and its rites ruined; by which disaster not only the monastery but also the chapel of St. Germanus at Talloires were incredibly shaken. When for thirty years the condition of the chapel of St. Germanus had been thus most wretched, and no one seemed to think of restoring it to its former state, there came the venerable priest Perrey, having his domicile in the parish of Arinthod in the diocese of Saint-Claude, who was, beyond all expectation, to be the restorer of the building of St. Germanus. For this most worthy man, going to Rome and stopping for some days at Annecy, saw the very bad state of the suppressed priory of St. Germanus, and, impelled by devotion towards the blessed hermit, previously unknown to him, acquired for himself the whole building, namely the chapel and the adjoining house, from Adelaide Perreard, widow Berthet, on the 29th day of May in the year 1826, for three thousand six hundred francs. Returning from Rome, he applied all his care to repairing the building of the chapel. The inhabitants of the place and neighbourhood, wondering at this devotion, themselves contributed their tireless and generous diligence so that the most pious work might be completed as soon as possible. The chapel having been restored in the year 1829, the venerable priest Perrey, called by his ordinary bishop into his own diocese, sold the whole property to a certain most religious man named Huant, a Frenchman by nation; who himself also, dying, gave it by will as a gift to the military commander de Ossans and his noble wife Pinget, p. 70 ff.; Brasier, p. 218..
[20] [In the year 1826 the finding of the relics of St. Germanus takes place, in the year 1831 their translation.] At almost the same time another happy fortune befell the people of Talloires, namely that the relics of St. Germanus, which all were lamenting as lost, were found beyond all hope. For what had become of them after the ruin of the monastery and the priory was unknown; when, behold, as the religious and civil tumults were drawing to an end, Nicolas Grillon of Talloires by chance found them deposited in a recess in the wall of the chapel. On the black casket which contained them was inscribed: THE BONES OF BLESSED GERMANUS. These sacred remains, lest they should suffer injury, another man of Talloires named Jean Louis Perreard hid in the furnace of the priory; whence they were carried by Louis Adam, with the help of Nicolas Grillon, into his father's house; where they remained unknown in hiding until in the year 1826 they were handed over by Louis Adam himself to the parish priest of Talloires. Claude François de Thiollaz, bishop of Annecy, decided that these sacred relics should not be carried to the chapel of St. Germanus. Indeed, by a decree of the 25th day of July in the year 1831, he forbade that thereafter at the chapel of St. Germanus, as being very difficult of access, public and private supplications be instituted, offerings be made in it, and Masses be celebrated on Sundays and feast days, or also on the feast of the holy hermit, and other ecclesiastical offices of any kind be performed. Outside these days, however, he permitted the sacrifice to be offered sometimes for a time on account of particular circumstances. This mandate of the bishop was obeyed in full. But lest the sacred relics of St. Germanus should be deprived of ecclesiastical cult, that same prelate assigned them as their dwelling a new altar in the parish church, erected at his own expense and adorned with a large image of the holy man. Hither, deposited in a new casket of the style, as they call it, Gothic, he ordered them to be transferred from the parish house, passing by the chapel of St. Germanus, on the 23rd day of October in the year 1831 (after, having questioned and heard as witnesses Nicolas Grillon, Jean Baptiste Perreard, father of Louis Adam, and six other men in every respect most approved, he had recognized them to be entirely genuine). Over this solemnity, after a Mass sung with great display, the bishop, surrounded by a ring of twenty-four priests, presided with notable pomp Procès-verbal de la Translation; Brasier, p. 225 ff..
[21] [The chapel of St. Germanus is changed in the year 1836 into the church of a new parish; another translation of St. Germanus.] Meanwhile the spouses de Ossans gave the building of St. Germanus, acquired by will, as a most welcome gift to the inhabitants of the six surrounding hamlets. Whereby it came about that a parish, which had long been among the wishes of the neighbouring people, was created there on the 12th day of September 1836 by mandate of the bishop of Annecy Pierre Joseph Rey, afterwards bishop of Pinerolo, and the chapel of St. Germanus was designated as the second parish church of the Catholics of Talloires, named Saint-Germain at Talloires. The inhabitants of the new parish several times asked Pierre Joseph Rey, bishop of Annecy, in suppliant words, that the remains of St. Germanus be restored to them by right of postliminium. To these most just wishes, although the people of Talloires took it ill, the bishop at length assented. Over the solemnities of the Translation, on the 20th day of October in the year 1838, that same prelate of Annecy presided, and there were present, besides the people of Talloires and some confraternities, a great many strangers, thirty clerics and several canons of Annecy, four of whom carried the remains of the blessed hermit on their shoulders from the church of Talloires to the church of St. Germanus. To this venerable procession had joined themselves the military commander de Ossans, the count of Menthon and the magistracy of Talloires, and innumerable men and women brought from all sides [Manuscript extract from the Registers of the episcopal Chancery of Annecy; Pinget, p. 73 ff.; Brasier, p. 230 ff.]. From this day the public supplications and other works of piety formerly undertaken in honour of St. Germanus, but discontinued by order of Bishop Claude François de Thiollaz, were restored. To fostering this devotion the image of the holy hermit, of which above, given by the people of Talloires to the church of St. Germanus, contributed much. Meanwhile, the new parish church was being considerably damaged by the inclemency of the weather and other causes; which disaster the Christian people, whose devotion towards the holy hermit was growing incredibly, grieved at vehemently, and resolved to meet this injury as soon as possible. Hence not only the inhabitants and the magistracy, but also many other men distinguished by birth and piety, such as Count Pillet-Will, the count and countess of Menthon and the noble widow of the commander de Ossans, the priest Pinget and others, contributed no contemptible effort to adorning and repairing the church of St. Germanus Ibid., p. 241, p. 71..
[22] [His relics are recognized and adorned on the occasion of a new altar and a new church.] After this most pious work was accomplished, since the reverence of the people towards the blessed man was not yet satisfied, a new honour was added to him. For his bones, surrounded with wax to the figure and habit of a Benedictine monk, were placed in a new casket at a new altar on the 25th day of October in the year 1857 by Louis Rendu, bishop of Annecy Ibid., p. 80; Ibid., p. 241.. But after some years the new parish of St. Germanus grew so much, and there was such frequent concourse there from all sides to invoke the holy hermit, that the former church, become too narrow, was enlarged and increased on each side by two chapels. This the bishop of Annecy Claude Marie Magnin consecrated with most solemn rite to God and to St. Bernard of Menthon on the 27th day of July in the year 1869, and dedicated to St. Germanus an altar erected at the Gospel side, to which he translated the sacred bones of the holy hermit. Moreover, since it had been noticed for some time that the Alpine climate was by its nature destructive to the remains of St. Germanus, and that they therefore appeared less clean, the bishop did not suffer so great a treasure to undergo damage. Wherefore on the same 27th day of July in the year 1869 he took the bones out of the casket and, having diligently cleaned them, replaced and recognized them. The same prelate, on the 11th day of October 1876, in a special manner committed to Pierre François Poncet, his vicar general and archdeacon of the cathedral church, a new recognition of the relics of St. Germanus. Performing this, Pierre Poncet, in the presence of François Marie Suchard, parish priest of Saint-Germain at Talloires, Vincent Brasier, parish priest of St. Mary at Talloires, and his curate Alphonse Patuel, and Jean François Adam, doctor of medicine, found two thigh-bones; two radii; one collar-bone entire, the other in part; one shoulder-blade entire, the other in part; two humeri in part, two tibiae in part; one cheek-bone entire, the other in part; eight vertebrae; a fragment of one calf-bone; one rib; the middle part of the right lower jaw; the occiput; two parietal bones. In the same casket the vicar general Pierre Poncet found two ribs and two radii tied with a blue band; which duplicate bones were placed in a separate place and seem to be of saints, though unknown ones, since formerly only holy bones were laid up beside the bones of saints in the same casket. These precious remains, cleaned again, Pierre Poncet placed most reverently as they had been before, and recognized them according to the strict forms of law Manuscript procès-verbal of the visit of the relics of St. Germain.. Now we bring to light the brief Life of St. Germanus, which Canon Vincent Brasier drew from the codex of Talloires and communicated to us in writing, and in the year 1879 printed piecemeal at Annecy Brasier, p. 279..
Annotata* Add: consecravi, I have consecrated.
LIFE OF ST. GERMANUS FROM THE MANUSCRIPT CODEX OF THE MONASTERY OF TALLOIRES.
Germanus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Rodulph, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismido, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Bonusparus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Georius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
SOLE CHAPTER.
The birth and monastic life of St. Germanus. His dwelling at Talloires, his death and translation.
St. Germanus, a Belgian, becomes a monk at Savigny and prior at Talloires, The man of God Germanus, then, took his origin in Belgium, in the place and town which is called Monstertius a, of noble parents, whose names however we do not know. And of his future holiness from the cradle he gave… this, that as soon as he had begun to walk by himself he withdrew himself from … and from home, and sometimes lay hidden for three days. Having grown older, he would run off to the bishop of Malines b to serve him when he performed the sacred rites, and whatever he received from his parents or from the bishop he gave away to the poor. As a youth he is sent to Lutetia of the Parisii c together with his brother Rudolph, to apply himself to letters, and stays there for some years. He so gave himself to sacred letters that he was on the lips and in the admiration of all his companions. And since at the same time the fame of the holiness of the abbot and monks of the monastery of Sylvaignium d, which is in the territory and diocese of Lyons, had spread everywhere and had come to his ears, he resolved to go to that place, and discloses to his only brother Rudolph that he would dedicate himself to the religion of St. Benedict; who answered that he would imitate his brother. Accordingly these two brothers, having sold what they had with them, make for the monastery of Sylvaigniacum, and, by God's favour, the pious youths are enrolled in the order by Abbot Itherius e. In which they came to such perfection that Germanus, the man of God, together with Rudolph and the others f, is sent to the construction of a monastery or priory and to the government of companions. The monastery having been constructed, the church built, and everything composed * for the habitation of monks in the place which is called Tallueres, Germanus returns to Sylvaigniacum. He seeks and obtains from the abbot leave to visit as a pilgrim the illustrious churches of the world, and especially of the Holy Land; on which journeys he suffered and endured very many hardships in memory of the passion of Christ. And in testimony of his pilgrimage he brought from Jerusalem to his monastery of Talloires, and left there, many relics, whose names and memorial are described and noted in this parchment g.
[2] where he also took up the eremitical life And since from the … order of the Benedictine institute the man of God Germanus … that veteran and experienced monks, in order to serve God with greater perfection, were permitted to seek out and inhabit solitary places remote from the monasteries, he asked and obtained this very thing from his superiors, and practised and performed it to the end h. For having left the monastery of Talloires he climbed the mountain on which his tomb is now seen, and the church dedicated to the man of God himself, in which the bones of his body, placed under the altar or within the altar itself, are preserved and venerated. He raises an oratory for himself there, and chooses and prepares a cave for a dwelling; and because this mountain was not far distant from his monastery, although he was already advanced in age and worn out with old age, nevertheless, so that he might attend the divine offices and perform the sacred rites, he resolved and observed to come down daily from the hours of Matins until Compline; and never before sunset, and only in the cave of his solitude, did he take the food which they supplied to him from the monastery. And if at any time he was unable to come down because of the injury of the weather, he remained fasting in his oratory; as his will was and always had been in the law of the Lord, so too he meditated in his law day and night, so that there was granted him frequent apparition and consolation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of SS. Martin of Tours and our father Benedict. There he dwelt for about forty years, using no human company except that of the monks, coming down from the mountain enjoying the consolations of angels; he frequently sustained combats with demons, as well visible as invisible. The onsets of the winds, the inclemencies of the rains, the chills of the snows and many labours of that kind he undertook, not only tolerably for the love of Christ, but also willingly and with longing, devoting himself at the place of his oratory to vigils, fasts and prayers, bearing various sicknesses of the body in himself most patiently, but healing them in others most readily, leading a heavenly life.
[3] and dies. His translation. The day of his death is revealed to him by SS. Martin and Benedict. And illustrious for miracles of every kind, when he had been the first of all to plant in these parts the Benedictine religion, brought from the monastery of Sylvaigniacum in which he had professed it, he died in the Lord in the hundredth year of his age i, and was buried in the oratory k. His body was translated by the most illustrious and most reverend bishops Francis, bishop of Geneva l, and Jean François, bishop of Chalcedon, brothers. And it was placed within the altar dedicated and consecrated to God Most Good and Most Great, to Blessed Mary and to this saint, in the year 1621, (on the) 28th of October, at the request of the venerable Dom Claude Louis Nicolas, vicar general in spirituals and temporals of the most illustrious and most reverend lord François d'Albon, abbot of St. Martin of Sylvaigniacum, and also chief superior of the aforesaid priory of Blessed Martin of Talloires and of St. Jorius and their dependencies, and minister general of the congregation, and of the other monks of the monastery of Talloires of the diocese of Geneva.
ANNOTATA.
* supply: specimen, a specimen
* supply: cognatis, his kinsfolk
* Read: omnibus compositis, everything having been composed
MIRACLES
Germanus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Rodulph, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismido, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Bonusparus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Georius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
BY R. D. B.
Through the intercession of St. Germanus there are cured That St. Germanus shone with many miracles after his death we gather both from the Martyrology of Talloires and the brief Life of the holy hermit, and from the monks Clette and Mabillon; but it is to be lamented that they were not communicated to posterity by these writers. With no lesser benefits did the blessed hermit adorn men in the course of the eighteenth century and in the nineteenth; which, lest the same fate should befall them, were gathered by the venerable man Pinget into his little work. They are these:
[1] Jacques Gilloz, crippled in the legs, About the year 1824 Jacques Gilloz was so crippled in the legs from the cradle that at seven years old he could not take a single step. His parents placed him on the old tomb of St. Germanus to obtain health. Nor did the outcome deceive their hope; for on that very day little Jacques, freed from all infirmity, could run no less than other boys; the truth of which, thirty years afterwards, he himself and all the people of Talloires affirmed.
[2] Françoise Mermaz, sick in the leg, Françoise Mermaz, a native of the hamlet of Maisons in the parish of Duingt, sick in both legs for eight years already, could not move even a step except with the help of two sticks, nor did the medical art, often applied, profit her; at length, placing all her hope in St. Germanus, she undertook a most difficult pilgrimage to his sacred remains on the 8th day of June, the Monday of Pentecost, in the year 1840. St. Germanus lent no deaf ear to her prayers; for there, after she had attended the most holy sacrifice and refreshed herself with the Most Holy Body of Christ, she was healed as if suddenly. Of this benefit seven hundred or
eight hundred people were witnesses, the venerable man Pinget relates, adding that at the time when he himself was writing his book, that is in the year 1857, she remained a little lame, but, no less than other more robust women of the same condition, worked, walked about and did other things of this kind.
[3] a girl of twelve, crippled in both legs, About the year 1843 a girl of twelve, crippled in both legs, came together with her parents, riding on horses, to Talloires to implore the help of St. Germanus, as they had vowed, having already for several years used the care of physicians in vain. For when the vow had been made, the daughter had at once been able to walk, leaning on one stick. Wondering at this, the parents brought their daughter to St. Germanus, and urged her to place the other stick under the reliquary of the holy hermit. The girl obeyed this admonition happily; for from that hour, to the amazement of her countrymen, she was entirely well and was able to return home on foot without any stick; yet she remained somewhat limping.
[4] a girl of eight, deaf and dumb, A girl of eight, deprived of walking, hearing and the use of speech, came riding on an ass, led by her mother, to St. Germanus of Talloires. After the consecration in the Mass she cries out loudly, walks two or three paces of her own accord, bends the knee to adore Christ, and tells her mother that she has been restored to health. Having received this benefit, she gave thanks to God and to St. Germanus, and returned home on foot, leading the ass, very well endowed with hearing and speech. This prodigy was related to the venerable man Pinget by several old men whose parents were eyewitnesses.
[5] a man almost incapable of walking, Shortly after the French upheaval of the eighteenth century, a certain man from the neighbourhood of the parish of Ugine was brought to Talloires, partly by carriage, partly by boat, to fulfil a vow. With the help of two sticks, together with three friends, by a toilsome walk of several hours he climbed from Talloires to the chapel of St. Germanus, which are a kilometre apart; where, after he had placed a gift on the old tomb of St. Germanus, suddenly rising, he cried out: "I am made whole," and went home again on foot. In perpetual thanksgiving for this benefit, he continued every year, as long as he lived, to go to St. Germanus bringing a stipend for a Mass to be celebrated.
[6] Michelle Fontana, incapable of walking and speech, Michelle Fontana, still a girl, shortly before the French upheaval of the eighteenth century, was brought by her parents, incapable of walking and speech, to St. Germanus. Scarcely had she entered the chapel of the holy hermit when, as all saw and were amazed at the new prodigy, she began to stand, walk and speak, and brought to the prior of the monastery the alms from her parents for the vow and for a Mass. From this day she was well, as though she had never been sick. The memory of this benefit several old men, eyewitnesses, have most faithfully preserved to our age. Michelle Fontana died a little before the year 1857.
[7] Louise Arambourg, sick in both legs, Louise Arambourg, six years old, when she was incapable of walking because of sick legs, and the physicians could not restore her, was commended to the blessed hermit of Talloires by her parents, who made a vow to go to St. Germanus and there to offer alms for a Mass to be celebrated and to make an offering, or also to refresh themselves with the Most Holy Eucharist. This votive offering having been discharged, the parents, according to the custom of the people, busy themselves crawling on their knees over the ground around the tomb of St. Germanus. This devotion of her parents Louise imitates, to the amazement of the prior of the monastery, being thenceforth healed of all disease of the legs. This benefit was made known in the year 1857 to the venerable man Pinget by Louise Arambourg, eighty years old, then widow Varlet.
[8] Pierre Battard, suffering from long-continued pains of the head. On the 10th day of February in the year 1857, Pierre Battard-Rosset of the parish of Grand-Bornand testified in writing that after a pious supplication made to St. Germanus he had been freed from violent vomitings and long-continued pains of the head.
[9] By his benefit a herd of cows is healed. A certain rich farmer of the parish of Thônes, still among the living in the year 1857, was grieving that his whole herd of cows, and a numerous one, was infected with an incurable disease. If St. Germanus would drive this disaster from all the cows, he promised that he would offer him one of them. When these wishes had been satisfied, the farmer kept his promises, adding another gift not to be despised.
[10] Other benefits are conferred on men. And these are the benefits conferred by God on men through the intercession of St. Germanus. The venerable man Pinget, relating them so that they may never slip from the memory of men, adds that he omits many other outstanding services of the holy hermit towards men; of whom not a few still, and indeed in summer some on almost every day, out of gratitude towards their benefactor, offer alms for a Mass to be celebrated. Indeed he adds that it is related throughout all Savoy that God, at the intercession of the holy hermit, has bestowed gifts of every kind on the people.
On St. Rodulph.
Germanus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Rodulph, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismido, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Bonusparus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Georius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
BY R. D. B.
§ Sole. The cult of St. Rodulph, brother of St. Germanus, and the translation of his relics.
Of Bl. Rodulph, Of St. Rodulph, or Rudolph, or Ruphus, in the vernacular Saint Rouph and Saint Ruph, most of the deeds known to us we have seen described in the Life of St. Germanus, his brother. It is gathered also from the catalogue of the Priors of Talloires and from popular tradition that he succeeded his brother St. Germanus as prior, and after twenty-three years spent in this office took up the hermit life in a deep and rugged gorge. This, two leagues distant from the monastery of Talloires, is comprised, for civil purposes, within the bounds of the parish of Faverges (Faverges), in the hamlet called by the name of St. Rodulph. There are seen, as tradition holds, both the little hut inhabited by the holy hermit and the oratory, now entirely ruined, built by the same saint, and his burial-place after death. Afterwards in the same place a priory was erected, subject to the monastery of Talloires Pinget, p. 41 f.. Nor should it escape the reader that not unlike fortunes befell the cells of several holy hermits; for example, the cells made of wood near Poitiers and the caves adjoining the river Loire inhabited by St. Martin of Tours and his companions, of which the former became the monastery of Ligugé and the latter the Great Monastery (Marmoutier). The same fortune befell the cells which, among the Bituriges, were used as dwellings near Oblacum (Le Blanc) by the hermits of Fons Gumbaldi (Fontgombault), and on the river Carus (the Cher) by St. Eusicius, and near Poitiers by St. Maxentius; which cells afterwards turned into monasteries, called the Cell of St. Eusicius, the Cell of St. Maxentius, and the monastery of Fontgombault. The first origins of these monasteries have been described, besides the authors of the new Gallia Christiana Gallia Christiana, vol. II, cols. 168, 183., by Jean Baptiste de Moléon, otherwise Lebrun-Desmarettes Voyage liturgique en France, p. 113., Edmond Martène Voyage littéraire, vol. I, p. 17., and the most learned men Albert Lenoir Architecture monastique, vol. I, p. 4 f. and Baron Jean Joseph de Witte Notice sur l'église abbatiale de Celles-Saint-Eusice..
[2] whose cult was ancient in the year 1472, But it is to be lamented that scarcely any sign of the honours paid for a long time to St. Rodulph has come down to us. We know, however, from the Book of Usages of Talloires that the monks of that monastery, before the great French upheaval of the eighteenth century, every year on the 31st day of October discharged a liturgical office, now unknown, in honour of St. Rodulph; likewise that every year on the Monday of Pentecost the inhabitants of the parish of Vieux-Faverges instituted a solemn procession to the church of St. Rodulph. It is also hidden from us in what year St. Rodulph began to be publicly honoured with ecclesiastical cult. The most ancient known document of it, the diploma of a visitation of the church of St. Rodulph made by the bishop of Geneva on the 27th day of August in the year 1472, once had its place in the archive of the monastery of Talloires. In which writing, indeed, whose summary François Serrazin, monk of Talloires, handed down to posterity in the year 1720, the bishop said that he had found there in an underground place all the bones of a certain man who was honoured with the cult of the saints, and through whose intercession a great many obtained outstanding benefits from God. The bishop, however, did not pronounce the name of that saint, but it seems beyond doubt that he was St. Rodulph. Nor is it less certain that in that age the cult of St. Rodulph was already ancient, since his name had been given to the very church and priory Jules Philippe, Notice historique sur Talloires, p. 163 f.. The same François Serrazin mentions a petition offered in the year 1645 by the monks of Talloires to Juste Guérin, bishop of Geneva, that Benoît Théophile Chevron, archbishop of Tarentaise, formerly a monk of Talloires, might be permitted to institute solemnly the translation of the bones of St. Rodulph. This permission having been granted, Benoît de Chevron, on the 29th day of October of the same year 1645, translated the body of the blessed hermit to the church of the place. Of this celebration he issued this document, which the venerable priest Vincent Brasier copied word for word with his own hand from the manuscript codex entitled Chronicle of Talloires written in compendious form.
[3] his body is translated in the year 1645. "In the year of salvation one thousand six hundred and forty-five, on the 29th day of the month of October, the most illustrious and most reverend lord Benoît Théophile de Chevron, formerly a monk of Blessed Mary of Talloires and once claustral prior of the same monastery, but now by the grace of God and of the apostolic see archbishop and count of Tarentaise and prince of the Holy Empire, at the instance of the Reverend Father Dom Romuald Pignier, present prior of the aforesaid monastery, and of the other venerable fathers and religious, accompanied by a numerous throng of the faithful, translated the sacred body of Bl. Rodulph, which had lain for a long time less fittingly in the tomb, to the present altar; to whom he granted forty days of true indulgence in the customary form of the Church, and also on the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension of the Lord, which he dedicated to the anniversary solemnity of St. Rodulph and of his translation; there being present the Reverend Lords Antoine de Genève, prior of Stamedium, de Guidebois, monk of the same monastery of the Order of St. Bernard, Duo, prior of the convent of St. Dominic at Annecy, and very many other men, both ecclesiastics and laymen, to the great consolation of the whole neighbourhood; under the pontificate of Pope Innocent X Pamphili, Ferdinand the Third of Austria being emperor; Louis XIV reigning among the French, and Philip IV holding the sceptres of the Spains; Francis guiding the reins of Portugal; Charles Emmanuel II administering the duchy of Savoy and the crown of the Cypriots; after a long series of graces and miracles obtained through the merits of the aforesaid St. Rodulph, and a report thereof having been had. In faith of which, I, the pro-chancellor, by mandate of the same archbishop, have written the present testimonial letter, subscribed by the most illustrious and most reverend Lord archbishop with his own hand and confirmed with his seal, on the day and year above."
[4] Prayers in honour of the blessed man were formerly composed. Having recited this letter, the author of the chronicle adds these words: "Of this letter
in the copy the name of the pro-chancellor is wanting, and the place where it was given. Since, however, it is read in it that the most illustrious de Chevron carried the relics of St. Rodulph to the present altar, I think that it was written at Falcimania (Faucigny). But what that long series of miracles and graces and the report had of them may be, is hidden from me." The same writer adds: "Father Dom Jacquot gave me the antiphon, responsory and prayer which used to be recited in the church of St. Rodulph; which, as he copied them out lest they should perish entirely, so I too with the same intention leave them here in writing.
"ANTIPHON. Rodulph, confessor of Christ, illustrious offspring of Flanders, light and glory of Savoy, noble ornament of Faucigny, gem of anchorites, rule of religious, most excellent follower of the supreme patriarch Benedict, physician of the sick, outstanding worker of miracles, receive with your wonted clemency the groans of the afflicted, and bring down to us the indulgence obtained from heaven.
"RESPONSORY. Rejoice, happy land of Faucigny, which possess the sacred treasure of the body of Bl. Rodulph. O thrice blessed for ever the land which has brought forth for us so saving a fruit.
"VERSE. How happy, royal and renowned the monastery of Talloires, from whose field so noble and precious a treasure has come forth… O thrice blessed, etc. Glory be to the Father, etc. O thrice blessed, etc. Pray for us, St. Rodulph, that we may be made worthy, etc.
"PRAYER. O God, who illumine your church with the splendours of the virtues of Bl. Rodulph your confessor and make it bright with the flashing of miracles, mercifully grant that we, who glory in his triumphs, may be protected by his help. Through our Lord, etc."
[5] Today, although his body is preserved, he lacks almost all cult In our age the cult of St. Rodulph, once celebrated, is almost obsolete; which happened because the priory of St. Rodulph, no less than the monastery of Talloires, was extinguished at the end of the eighteenth century, and the relics of the holy hermit were hidden away, and the church of St. Rodulph fell into ruins; so that oblivion intercepted almost everything of it. To this misery perhaps a remedy will at some time be brought by the finding of the remains of the blessed man, made by chance a little after the year 1834. They had been deposited in a wooden casket fastened with an inexplicable seal, and to them was attached a parchment almost reduced to dust. These, by the authority of Pierre Joseph Rey, bishop of Annecy, the venerable priest Veuillet, parish priest and archpriest of Faverges, afterwards canon of St. Maurice at Annecy, having held an inquiry, recognized, and ordered, against the strong resistance of the inhabitants of the place, that they be religiously kept in the sacristy of the parish of Septeniacum (Seythenex) (of which the hamlet of St. Rodulph is part for ecclesiastical purposes), until the bishop should decide what is to be done with them Pinget, p. 41. Compare Casalis, Dizion. di Sardegna, vol. XX, p. 29, p. 728..
On Saints Ismius and Ismido
Germanus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Rodulph, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismido, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Bonusparus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Georius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
BY R. D. B.
§ Sole. The cult and relics of SS. Ismius and Ismido.
SS. Ismius and Ismido were venerated as saints. That SS. Ismius and Ismido were deacons and monks of Savigny, or also that they began the monastery of Talloires with SS. Germanus and Rodulph, is reported by Clette and Mabillon Acta SS. Ordinis S. Benedicti, sixth century, part I, p. 736.. Likewise we gather from the Catalogue of the Priors of Talloires that St. Ismius presided over this monastery after St. Rodulph, and obtained St. Ismido as successor. The latter had not yet departed from the living in the year 1078 or the year 1079; for in a diploma of uncertain year he is written to have acquired some property under Guy, bishop of Geneva, who sat in that see from the year 1078 or 1079 to the year 1119 or 1120 [Bernard, p. 436 f.; Régeste Genevois, pp. 61 and 71; Gallia Christ., vol. XVI, col. 394.]. That SS. Ismius and Ismido were but one and the same saint was indicated by Charles Auguste de Sales In Brasier, p. 17. Compare ibid., p. 61.. But this opinion does not seem admissible, because it conflicts with other writers and also with the ecclesiastical tradition of that place; relying on which the chronographer of Talloires, to be recited below, reports that in his time two heads, as being those of SS. Ismius and Ismido, were kept as relics in the monastery. I would suspect that those two monks, on account of the likeness of their names, were brothers. Mabillon affirms that they, following in the footsteps of SS. Germanus and Rodulph, after many years of monastic life embraced the eremitical life, and adds: "the places which each inhabited are still seen, inhabited by some monks of the priory"; which tradition has perished. They were celebrated with eulogies as saints at the end of the sixteenth century by Claude de Granier, prior of Talloires, afterwards most worthy bishop of Geneva and the immediate predecessor of St. Francis de Sales. He was imitated, besides Clette and Mabillon, in the year 1640 by our Boniface Constantin Vie de Mgr. Claude de Granier, in Pinget, p. 40 f., in Brasier, p. 17., in the year 1659 by Charles Auguste de Sales, nephew, biographer and successor in the see of Geneva of St. Francis de Sales Pourpris Histor. de la Maison de Sales, in Brasier, p. 17.; in the year 1669 by Nicolas de Hauteville La Maison de S. François de Sales, in Brasier, p. 17.; in the year 1759 by the priest Besson [Mémoires pour l'hist. ecclés. des diocèses de Genève etc., in Pinget, p. 40; in Brasier, p. 18.] and in the year 1807 by Jean Grillet [Diction. Hist. etc. des départements du Mont-Blanc et du Léman, in Pinget, p. 40.]; of which writers the first three add that they were illustrious for many miracles, and that their sacred remains were religiously kept as relics in the priory of Talloires itself. Mabillon adds that the memory of both holy men was celebrated three times in the year, first indeed on the Monday after Easter, on the same weekday after Pentecost, and on the very day of the Kalends of November; but of these festivals there is not even a word either in the writings of the monk Clette or in the Usages of Talloires. From these statements we gather that SS. Ismius and Ismido, before and after the Urbanian decrees, were reckoned among the saints in the monastery of Talloires, and that St. Francis de Sales, who, at the mandate of Paul V, the Roman Pontiff, restored the decayed regular discipline there and duly ordered everything [De la Rivière, book III, ch. XV, p. 279 ff.; Charles Auguste de Sales, vol. II, book VII, p. 41 ff.], did not do away with this cult. Hence it follows that this equipollent beatification was made not so very lately, or also that both holy deacons, with the knowledge and toleration of the bishop of the place, were advanced to the honours of the saints, and therefore rightly and deservedly adorned with them after the Urbanian decrees Bened. XIV, de Canoniz., book II, ch. XXII ff.. Wherefore the opinion of the Chronographer of Talloires, about to be recited, is to be made less of.
[2] Their relics are lost. Now in the year 1738, speaking of SS. Ismius and Ismido, that writer of annals said: "Ismius and Ismido, both deacons, were sent to Talloires with St. Germanus and St. Rodulph in the year 980 by the often-cited Iterius. So our traditions, so also the little commentaries or memorial booklets which I have read. Whence these blessed men drew their origin is entirely unknown. From the catalogue of the priors of this monastery we learn that they successively discharged the office of priors: Ismius, namely, in 1041, and Ismido from 1062 to the year 1095… From the fact that they have been held by our people with constant tradition as blessed or saints, we infer that they shone with virtues. But whether they worked miracles in life and after death I dare not affirm; I think that public cult was never shown them; nevertheless we venerate them in our hearts as our very parents and founders. Their relics, namely the heads of both with several bones mixed together, are preserved in a wooden casket, which is now in the cupboard in which the copes are kept. But because no labels have been attached to them, nor are they proved by any authentic monument except a certain pious tradition, they are therefore not of entirely firm credit, nor have they ever been exposed to the public devotion of the faithful." To these words we add that we cannot assent to the chronographer; for from the fact that no labels have been attached to the relics, nor are they proved by any authentic monument except a certain pious tradition, it is only wrongly deduced that they are not of entirely firm credit. For it is known that on account of the calamities of the times not only a great many labels and diplomas, but the relics themselves, have perished; indeed the learned know that a tradition received from the most remote times, continued with the knowledge and without the contradiction of the prelates of the churches, is a sufficient testimony of the genuineness of relics [Honoré de Sainte Marie, Réflexions sur les Règles de la critique, vol. III, book V, Diss. VI, p. 437 ff.]. And if sacred remains of this kind are at times not exposed to the veneration of the faithful, this is to be attributed to the bishops, to whose prudent counsel the council of Trent committed the matter Council of Trent, Session XXV, Decree on Relics.. But as the eighteenth century drew to its end the relics of SS. Ismius and Ismido were removed, it is not known how, and it is hidden what became of them. God grant that at length at some time, no less than the relics of SS. Germanus and Rodulph, they may again be exalted and honoured for ever with the veneration of the faithful of Christ. Now concerning the venerable Bonusparus.
On Bl. Bonusparus
Germanus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Rodulph, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismido, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Bonusparus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Georius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
BY R. D. B.
§ Sole. On the relics and cult of Bl. Bonusparus.
Bl. Bonusparus, prior of Talloires, Among the monks of Talloires illustrious for holiness of life, a distinguished place is held by Bl. Bonusparus, in the native tongue Bompar, prior of that monastery at the end of the eleventh century. "Of this blessed man," says the chronologer of Talloires in the year 1738 Chronicle of Talloires, ms., p. 534., "we know nothing except that he held the priorate from the year 1018 to the year 1020 *, that in life, Good in name and in fact, he spread the odour of holiness, and that after death he grows famous for miracles. Indeed the parishioners of this district suffering from fevers, and that at the time of the attack, come into the chapel of St. John the Baptist to implore his help; and very often those who pray experience how much Bonusparus avails in favour with God. That Bonusparus was buried in the aforesaid chapel is the common
opinion; which is perhaps not as true as it is common; since they think that his ashes lie under the stone which is seen there, whereas there was buried Dom Jacques de Luliacum, prior of Talloires in the year 1278, who erected and founded the chapel of St. John. For the rest, since the faithful have from of old visited this place in order to obtain from God the cure of fever through the intercession of blessed Bonusparus, and do the same now, we no more reject this tradition than we praise the devotion. Provided only that Bonusparus be said to rest not indeed under the sepulchral stone, but near or beside those places." Moreover, in the Catalogue of the Priors of Talloires he is reckoned sixth, that is, with Stephen intervening, after Bl. Ismido, who ceased to discharge his office after the year 1078. Wherefore the chronographer of Talloires must be corrected, who writes that Bl. Bonusparus held the priorate of Talloires from the year 1018 to the year 1020.
[2] formerly he was venerated as a saint. In our age, indeed, no trace survives at Talloires of the ecclesiastical cult formerly shown him. At what time that cult took its beginning, no indication seems to exist anywhere. That it is older by a hundred years than the Urbanian decree of the year 1634, however, we think beyond doubt. To adopt this opinion it certainly does not suffice us that the bones of the servant of God, real or supposed, were held as sacred relics, on the testimony of Boniface Constantin and the chronologer of Talloires, and that a great many sufferers from fevers formerly, from the most ancient time, came to the tomb of the blessed man for the sake of obtaining health, and went away from it having obtained their wish; for it is not sufficiently indicated that the bones of the holy hermit were ever raised from the earth; rather the chronologer of Talloires mentioned above indicates the contrary. Then we are taught by Benedict XIV Canoniz., book II, ch. VII, nos. 6 and 10. that pious processions or other religious observance of this kind, unless a minister of the church presides over it, are by no means to be held among the signs of ecclesiastical cult. But although this devotion, being public, is in no way to be neglected, we make much more at present of the fact that the servant of God Bonusparus, before and after the Urbanian decrees, with the knowledge and without the contradiction of the ordinary bishops, was adorned with the title of saint. For he is reckoned among the saints of Talloires, no less than SS. Germanus, Rodulph, Georius, Ismius and Ismido, first, at the end of the sixteenth century, by Claude de Granier, prior of the same place, afterwards bishop of Geneva and immediate predecessor of St. Francis de Sales in the same see; then in the year 1640 by Boniface Constantin; in the year 1659 by Charles Auguste de Sales, nephew, biographer and third successor of St. Francis, and other writers of whom in the preceding § on Saints Ismius and Ismido Pinget, p. 40; Brasier, p. 17., or also by the chronographer of Talloires, who also shows, as we have just seen, with what eagerness the people venerated Bl. Bonusparus. But it must be confessed that we are moved especially to give him a place in our Work among the Saints and Blessed because in the year 1659, no less than St. Germanus and the other saints of Talloires, he was called Saint by Charles Auguste, who, being at that time ordinary bishop of the place for fourteen years, and most learned in and most observant of the sacred canons, knew best the Urbanian decrees lately issued, and is not to be thought to have offended against them.
Annotata* rather about 1100
On St. Georius
Germanus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Rodulph, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Ismido, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Bonusparus, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
Georius, monk of the Order of St. Benedict, in Savoy. (B.)
BY R. D. B.
§ Sole. On the age and cult of St. Georius.
St. Georius, hermit in the forest of Masellum, Of St. Georius or Jeorius, otherwise Jorius and Georgius, in the popular name St. Jorioz or Jeoire, who lived where now is the parish of St. Georius of the people of Annecy (Saint-Jorioz), on the lake of Annecy in Savoy, five kilometres distant from Annecy, we are at last about to speak. No document of his deeds seems to have come down to us except an epitaph formerly inscribed on a tablet of the holy man, which tablet hung by the shrine of his relics in the church of St. Georius itself. This, converted from the French tongue into Latin, the chronographer of Talloires did not permit to fall from the memory of men. For thus he writes: "St. Jorius, born of noble parents in the province of Luxembourg, having left father and mother, came into this region to lead a solitary life, where in the forest of Masellum, commonly Masselaz, he first bade farewell to the world. Afterwards, having become a monk and professed of the Order of St. Benedict in the monastery of St. Martin of Savigny, of the diocese of Lyons, he was created prior of Masellum; which place, because he had spent his days in it in good ways and had fallen asleep in the Lord, was thereafter called St. Jorius, whereas before it was called Massella." The writer adds: "From the archive of the monastery of Savigny." These words a friend, at my request, took from a manuscript codex of the library of Turin. That this was the popular and ecclesiastical tradition of that region is clear, for otherwise the ecclesiastical prelates would neither have permitted nor tolerated its being set forth without interruption in the church before the eyes of the people. This tradition, being very brief, could easily be kept unimpaired by the people, who venerated the sacred remains of Bl. Jorius most religiously. Moreover, it conflicts with no genuine historical monument; rather it agrees with a diploma of about the year 1031, where mention is made of the church … of Bl. Georius in Macellum Bernard, Cartulaire de Savigny, p. 320.. I confess, however, that I am troubled that in the inscription St. Georius is named prior. For in the diploma just indicated that priorate is passed over in silence, or also St. Germanus, as we have seen in his Life, is said to have been the first of all to plant in these parts the Benedictine religion brought from the monastery of Silvaigniacum… But I should not wonder that Bl. Georius was called prior of Masellum, because both before and after his entry into the monastery of Savigny he led the hermit life at Masellum, and when dead was the patron of that church, afterwards changed into a priory.
[2] he was already honoured with cult in the eleventh century; Of the age of the blessed man, unknown to the people of Luxembourg, or of the beginning of his cult, we are able to affirm nothing certain. Yet this is established, that he had died his last day long before the coming of the monks of Savigny to Talloires and had been enrolled in the list of the saints; since in the aforementioned diploma of about the year 1031 there is treatment of a church sacred to his name, which Adalgald and his brothers in that age gave in part as a gift to the monastery of Savigny. "We give," they say, "to God almighty and to St. Martin of the monastery of Savigny, and to the lord Iterius, abbot of the same church, and to the power of all his successors, and to the brethren who abide and shall abide in the same monastery, all the portions which we have in the church of Blessed Mary of Lovaniacum and of BLESSED GEORIUS built IN MACELLUM, with the tithes and the dower and all the appurtenances of that church, and with the chapels which are built in the same parish" Ibid.. Nor is it unjustly conjectured that in this place several hermits applied themselves diligently to sacred exercises, since from these words of the diploma we draw that at that time there were several chapels in the parish of St. Georius, which we not absurdly think were either the dwelling or the oratory of some pious hermit Du Cange, Glossarium, under Capella..
[3] but today little thought is given to him. It is read in a manuscript note of a parish priest of St. Georius, deceased not so long ago, that the remains of the blessed hermit were recognized by several bishops already from the fourteenth century, and that the diplomas of these examinations were deposited in the reliquary. By what right that parish priest wrote these things is not clear. But this is entirely certain, that St. Francis de Sales, on the 22nd day of July in the year 1618, in the inspection of the priory of St. Georius, translated the sacred bones of the blessed hermit from a too lowly place into a higher one Charles Auguste de Sales, vol. II, book IX, p. 177.. It appears that Mass was formerly celebrated quite frequently in honour of the holy man; but today his cult is almost obsolete. This misfortune would not have harmed the people if the monastery of Talloires had remained in existence, whose monks, since the parish of St. Georius was subject to them, were bound to perform the sacred offices there Casalis, Dizion. geogr. di Sardeg., vol. XVIII, part I, p. 416.. Yet it is to be hoped, since the parish itself is still today sacred to the holy hermit and his bones are preserved in it, that the ancient cult will rise again.