Theodore

ON ST. THEODORE, ABBOT AND CONFESSOR, AT VIENNE IN GAUL,

ABOUT 575.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Theodore, abbot, at Vienne in Gaul. (S.)

BY J. V. H.

§ I. Eulogies of the Saint in the Martyrologies; his illustrious birth; his discipleship and monastic life under St. Cæsarius of Arles; his return to his native land and foundation of monasteries; his laborious solitude; his death; his burial.

The name of our Saint we write Theodore according to the form of the Roman Martyrology. [The name of St. Theodore, variously written, is celebrated by the Martyrologists;] Yet it is commonly given as Theuderius, or also Theodarius, Theudericus Compare Du Sollier, Martyrology of Usuard at the 29th of October.. Certainly Ado, bishop of Vienne and biographer of the Saint, constantly calls him Theuderius; which the historiographer of the Church of Vienne also does, C. Charvet, archdeacon of the same Church, who in the year 1761 published the History of this Church Hist. de la Sainte Eglise de Vienne, p. 108.. And so the Roman Martyrology announces the Saint on this day in these words: At Vienne, the deposition of Blessed Theodore, abbot. Ado has nearly the same, except that he adds a memorial of his translation: In Gaul, in the city of Vienne, the deposition of the holy and most blessed Theodarius, abbot and confessor. And his translation to the place which is called Vallis Rupiana, on the 4th before the kalends of November. Domenico Giorgi observes in his edition of Ado's Martyrology that the name of this Saint, omitted in the pure Usuard, is found in Ado alone, who deservedly assigns to the Calendars of the Saints St. Theodore, abbot, whom he himself had celebrated in a composition. Hugues Ménard in his Benedictine Martyrology copies out Ado word for word, except that he says: In the place of Vallias Rupiana. Du Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, after his manner, at the 29th of October, recounts the life compendiously. The same however in the supplement P. 1183. places the Saint at the 19th of October: At Vienne, of St. Theuderius, abbot, who, a monk of Lérins under the holy abbot Cæsarius, afterwards bishop of Arles, so learned the theorems of heavenly discipline that he passed into a living rule of perfect piety and an exemplar of all religion both in work and in speech; and at last, the instructor of very many disciples, he was raised to the longed-for sight of the Lord.

[2] The Saint probably never lived at Lérins; From boyhood, as the Life to be published has it at no. 2, he began to yearn with pious studies toward the love of eternal life; and when more grown, leaving all things, he thought of seeking the monastery of Lérins. But whether he accomplished what he thought is very doubtful to me. For making for Lérins, he put in at Arles, and there, received by St. Cæsarius, he appears to have made only so long a stay as to receive from that prelate the Orders commonly called major. Then, intending to return to the province of his birth, he disclosed his will to the holy bishop (Cæsarius), and asking from him a blessing for going and returning, at first affected him with great sorrow. But if St. Theodore had been a monk of Lérins, either before or after taking up sacred Orders, he should have disclosed his will to the bishop of Fréjus, as the one to whom jurisdiction over the clerics of Lérins belonged. For about the year 450 (for it is not possible here to discourse on the true time of the assembled synod Diction. des Ordres Religieux, under Lérins, vol. II, p. 771.) the bishops, under the presidency of Ravennius of Arles, decreed what had already been decreed under Leontius of Fréjus (Frejus), that *clerics and ministers of the altar should be ordained by no one, except by him or by him whom he shall enjoin; that chrism should be hoped for only from him; that neophytes, if there were any, should be confirmed by the same; that strangers without his order into

communion or to the ministry should not be admitted. But all the lay multitude of the monastery should pertain to the care of the abbot* Labbe, vol. IV of the Councils, col. 1024.. To the bishop of Fréjus therefore, or at least to the abbot of Lérins, St. Theodore's will to return to his native land should have been disclosed. But neither is called into counsel: the whole matter is transacted between SS. Cæsarius and Theodore; inasmuch as Cæsarius was truly the master of St. Theodore. I should not wish however to conceal that some words indicate that our Saint's stay at Arles was brief. For at first the holy prelate gave counsel, no. 3, that he should delay his journey a little, that he should remain with him for a time. But I believe that the youth, an intimacy with the bishop having been contracted, could not thereafter be torn from the society of the Saint.

[3] But a disciple of St. Cæsarius, Further, our opinion is confirmed by the Acts of St. Cæsarius himself. For when, already a monk, he had been transferred for reasons of health from Lérins to Arles, and was also applying himself there to learning letters, St. Cæsarius became known to St. Æonius the bishop, who, when, as Cyprian narrates in the Life of St. Cæsarius, book I, no. 10 Acta SS. vol. VI of Aug., p. 65., he had begun to contemplate the youth, not as a stranger or outsider, but with more attentive regard with the inmost eyes of the heart, soon asked for him from his abbot St. Porcarius: at the request therefore of the blessed man Bishop Æonius, he was granted, though unwillingly. Thus Æonius, bishop of Arles, did not consider himself free to tear a monk of Lérins from his monastery, except insofar as Porcarius, abbot of Lérins, had granted his consent, though unwillingly. In the same way, if St. Theodore had been a monk of Lérins, he should also have disclosed to his abbot his will to return to the province of his birth. For the rest, I shall not deny the monastic life of St. Theodore: for there was at Arles a monastery of men in the suburb, which St. Cæsarius also administered as abbot: and so indeed, says Cyprian, no. [ ] Acta SS. vol. VI, p. 66., he gladly took up in the suburban monastery the life which he also ever cultivated within the city in his daily acts. St. Theodore could then in this monastery (of which today, says Mabillon, no trace any longer exists) profess the monastic life and yet be with St. Cæsarius, even daily. The name of St. Theodore is therefore to be expunged from the Roll of the monks of Lérins. Which indeed Vincent Barrali already did in his Chronology of the Saints of the Island of Lérins, published at Lyons in the year 1613.

[4] Having professed the monastic life, For the rest, the monastic life of St. Theodore is most likely to us, provided that it is placed at Arles or in its suburb. For St. Cæsarius, when he in a manner intercepted Theodore as he was yearning for the monastery of Lérins, and asked that he should stay with him for a while, busied himself, I should believe, to bring this about with his purpose of the monastic life preserved. Since therefore in the suburb of Arles there was a monastery of men, whose rule Cæsarius himself had held before his episcopate, it can scarcely be doubted that he proposed this kind of life to the holy youth Theodore. In this way, namely, the leisure of the monastic life was tempered by the activity of the clerical office. Then our Saint appears to have made again for the province of his birth with this purpose, that he might there institute or spread monastic ways. Which certainly he could scarcely hope to do, unless he himself had already experienced a life of this kind before. Wherefore I judge entirely that St. Theodore put on the monk before he returned to his native land. Nor should I doubt that he was instructed according to the form of Lérins by St. Cæsarius; who, as his Life has it, book I, no. 11 Ibid., p. 65., though a cleric, yet never abandoned even a little the canonical chant of a monk, never the institutes of the Lérinese. Instructed therefore according to the Lérinese rule, St. Theodore wished the same to be preserved in the monasteries built by him, until the Benedictine law was introduced.

[5] He was promoted to sacred Orders, In the very first encounter of St. Theodore with Bishop St. Cæsarius, there was discussion between them about taking up the clerical warfare. For this reason the bishop, while he says at no. 3 of the Life to the blessed youth that the purpose of his heart, that is, of entering a monastery, was to be strengthened, yet wished that he should remain for a time with him, subject to the ecclesiastical order; he wished therefore to enrol the Saint in the clergy. But how long a stay he made at Arles we are not able to define; but I judge that it was lengthy from two things. First of all it is narrated in the same number that St. Theodore stayed according to the will of Blessed Cæsarius, and day and night with fasts, vigils, and prayers committed the voice of his soul to God: from which manner of acting he brought no little joy both to the pontiff and to God. But that he might be proved to the prelate Cæsarius, a lengthy stay was certainly necessary. For, as we read in the Life of St. Cæsarius, book I, no. 43 Ibid., p. 74., he admitted to Orders only those who had read the books of the Old Testament four times in order, and before that, four times the New. Certainly he who was so severe an exactor of the sacred literature of his clerics no less required their morals to every point of ecclesiastical discipline. Which investigation requires quite a long time. Then, what is chief, St. Cæsarius, as the Life has it, book I, no. 43 Ibid., loc. cit., never ordained a deacon in his Church before the thirtieth year of his age. From this one may to some extent divine the age of St. Theodore.

[6] From which circumstances the Chronotaxis is to some extent ordered: For he probably did not leave his native Vienne before the twenty-fifth year of his age; because only then could he dispose of his own goods according to Roman law, as Justinian has it, Institutes on Curators (I, 23), saying that those under 25 years, though they be of puberty, are yet of that age that they cannot look after their own affairs, which disposition Ulpian had already confirmed before, as may be seen in D., l. 3, on Tutelage (XXVI, 1). It is true indeed that by the laws of the Burgundians, under which the people of Vienne lived, title LXXXVII Lindenbrog, Codex legum antiquarum, p. 300., it was enacted that a minor before the 15th year of age may neither set free, nor sell, nor give. But we believe that our Theodore, already twenty-five years old, departed according to Roman usage; otherwise he would not so suddenly have sought to enrol him in his clergy, nor could he himself, as is said at no. 2 of the Life, have distributed to the poor no small money acquired from the rent of his patrimony. Further, although St. Theodore after no long time, as is said at no. 4 of the Life, attained the dignity of presbyter, yet I judge that an interval of at least one year must be interposed; because, as we said above, between the individual orders all the books of the Old and New Testament had to be reread four times. Then, having been made presbyter, he may easily have spent ten years. Nevertheless it is certain that our Saint migrated to Vienne before the death of St. Cæsarius, whose will he sought out, and with whose blessing, as the Life has it at no. 4, he returned to his native land: and thus before the year 542, the year of the death of St. Cæsarius, he was an inhabitant of the province of Vienne. And if from this year 542 to the year 575, which is commonly assigned as the year of the death of St. Theodore, we count, we have altogether 33 years, from which are to be subtracted the twelve years in which he lived in the Viennese solitude, as Ado says at no. 9. We have then about twenty years, in which he founded monasteries in the province of Vienne. And so all things proceed rightly, if we say that St. Theodore died a septuagenarian, and accordingly first saw the light at the beginning of the 6th century or the end of the 5th century.

[7] He founds cells in the province of Vienne Coming, says the biographer Ado at no. 5, St. Theuderius, not far from the city of Vienne, began to seek insistently where he might establish the little cell of his habitation. When we hear of a little cell, let us not judge that the Saint wished to pursue the solitary life. For the meaning of cella, and thus also of cellula, among the ancients is various, as Edmond Martène learnedly shows in his Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict P. 53.: where he says that, besides the ordinary meaning of a room of the monks, which is assigned to each one, cella also indicates a monastery, as is clear from the words of St. Benedict reported by St. Gregory, book II, chapter 33 Migne, Patrol. vol. LXVI, col. 294.: I can in no wise remain outside the cell; and the same St. Gregory, book I, letter 56 Ibid., vol. LXXVII, col. 517.: The oratory of Blessed Mary, which was recently built in the cell of the brethren, where Marinianus the abbot is known to preside. I will not however be silent that cella is sometimes taken for a smaller monastery subject to a greater, as is established from canon 44 of the council of Aachen of the year 817 Labbe, vol. VII of the Councils, col. 1510., by which abbots are permitted to have cells, in which there are either monks or canons, and let the abbot provide that he does not permit fewer than six monks to dwell. Indeed that the cells founded by St. Theodore were monasteries in the true sense is plain from the context of the Life. For at no. 5 we read that the Saint constructed a little house in honour of St. Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli, and, relics of Saints being placed on the altar, a proper monastery. In the same way he erected a basilica of St. Symphorian, and, the place being adorned, he chose monks there to serve God. The little cells therefore which are reported in the Life of St. Theodore as constructed are to be reckoned as true monasteries.

[8] He becomes public intercessor to God for the people, Twenty years and more St. Theodore had spent in founding monasteries in his native Vienne, when he was summoned to Vienne by the bishop of the city, that he might support as it were the whole city by his prayers. It was, namely, the custom in the Church of Vienne that some presbyter of inviolate virtue should be appointed intercessor to God for the whole people, as is said at no. 7 of the Life. This embassy had been discharged before St. Theodore by St. Anianus, afterward bishop of Orléans Charvet, Hist. de l'Egl. de Vienne, pp. 53 and 108., whose Acts will be illustrated at the 17th of November, and by St. Lannianus, abbot, who is venerated on the 13th of the same month. Although all clerics established in sacred orders, when they sacrifice or pour out the daily liturgical prayers, implore the mercy of God for the whole faithful people, there have always been in the Church of God some specially deputed who by a more austere life and continuous prayers discharge this embassy to God. Further, although the biographer says that the Saint devoted himself to the contemplative life alone, he adds however that the people could commit to the holy man their secrets, as far as pertained to salvation. Which words seem to me to bring back the image of the penitentiary presbyter, although you would scarcely find express mention of him before the 11th century Thomassin, De antiq. et nov. Eccl. Discipl. part I, book II, chapter 10..

[9] And penitentiary presbyter, Nevertheless the office had been instituted in the Latin Church and it persevered. For Sozomen, book VII of the Eccl. Hist., chapter 16 Migne, Patrol. Græc. vol. LXVII, col. 1459., treating of the abolition of the penitentiary presbyter in the Church of Constantinople, adds: *In the Western Churches, and especially in the Roman, it is zealously observed,

namely that some one of the presbyters, who was most approved for integrity of life, and strong in reticence and prudence, should be set over this office. Nowhere, says Valois in his Annotations on this passage, as far as I know, is mention made of this presbyter, neither in councils nor in canons, nor in the books or letters of ecclesiastical writers who lived in the West of old, nor in the Lives of bishops, or other monuments of antiquity. Valois therefore denies the office of the penitentiary presbyter, since he has read nothing of it in the monuments of antiquity: that is, he opposes a negative argument to a positive; which reasoning, even if true, is wholly unwarlike. For he says that in the Roman Church the bishop alone had the care of the penitents. But this can very well be turned back: since indeed nowhere is it read in the monuments of antiquity that presbyters, at least some, were delegated to receive the confessions of penitents and to absolve them from sins. Certainly clearly enough, in my judgment, a delegation of this kind was committed to St. Theodore, to whom the people committed their secrets, as far as pertains to salvation: which pertains wholly to secret confession. Then in the following no. 8 we read that the Saint was accustomed to open a very small window and to give admonitions to those coming. Whence it came about that he who had been struck by the wound of the devil (which is sin) departed at once medicated and whole, and he who was sorrowful over the weight of his sins, at once consoled about the mercy of God, returned safer and more joyful.* Which indeed are fruits to be gathered almost from sacramental confession alone. And hence I judge that it was the custom in the Church of Vienne for a penitentiary presbyter to be appointed: among whom our St. Theodore is to be listed.

[10] And at last after twelve years he dies: The same holy man remained, says the biographer at no. 9, for twelve years in the place chosen beforehand and most sweet to him, in which he also met his last day. We marked above at no. 6 the Saint's day of death at the year of Christ 575 from the authority of the more learned, rather than from any argument taken from chronology. It is certain that St. Theodore flourished while St. Philip was occupying the see of Vienne, and that he was appointed public intercessor of the people. And Philip, as our predecessors have it at the 3rd of February Acta SS. vol. I of Feb., p. 365., died about the year 578, though a little below they say: When Philip departed we read nowhere. We know that his pontificate is to be included between the year 567, in which he subscribed first to the council of Lyons Labbe, vol. V of the Councils, col. 847., and the council of Mâcon of the year 581, which, assembled in the month of November, Evantius, the successor of Philip, ratified Ibid., col. 971.. For this reason the year of the death of Bishop Philip hangs wholly in doubt; whence it also came about that some have said that our St. Theodore lived on after his bishop Philip Charvet, Hist. de l'Egl. de Vienne, p. 109., while others hold that he died before him; for as to what we read at no. 10 of the Life, that the holy pontiff determined that the body of St. Theodore should be carried to his monastery: since Ado the biographer speaks of no other bishop than of Philip, the rule of right interpretation prescribes that we understand Philip as the author of the decree.

[11] And he is buried in the monastery of St. Mary. Although therefore St. Philip is said to have finished his life in the year 580, there is nothing for which we should change the opinion of the learned, who suppose the year of death of St. Theodore to be 575. But another question must be briefly indicated: namely in what place the holy man departed. Domenico Giorgi in his accurate edition of the Martyrology of Ado has this under the 29th of October: In the same monastery of St. Mary, about the year of the Lord 575, on the 29th of October he departed, and was buried there, and that monastery, from his name, was called in the vernacular Saint-Chef. So Mabillon, Annal. Bened., book IV, § XLIV. Alban Butler says nearly the same at the 29th of October, namely that the Saint first obtained a sepulchre in the basilica of St. Lawrence, and was then carried to his monastery. But Mabillon, at the place cited, speaks more accurately. For he says that the Saint spent the rest of his life at the basilica of St. Lawrence, and that after his death his body was buried in the aforesaid monastery of St. Mary, of which he had treated a little above. And I believe that Ado joined the translation of St. Theodore because both celebrations were carried out on one and the same day, as his Life at no. 10 and following shows well enough. Ado therefore writes in his Martyrology under the 29th of October: In Gaul, in the city of Vienne, the deposition of the holy and most blessed Theodarius, abbot and confessor, and his translation to the place which is called Vallis Rupiana, on the 4th before the kalends of November.

§ II. The burial of the Saint in his oratory; the memory of his sepulchre is gradually obliterated; a brief history of the Theuderian monastery and of St. Theobald, archbishop of Vienne.

The Saint is buried in the oratory built by himself: When these things had been written, at an opportune time and by the benevolence of Rev. Lord Auvergne, canon and secretary of the diocese of Grenoble, under which the city and countryside of Vienne are today contained, we received a little work on the deeds of St. Theodore, small indeed in bulk, but precious for accurate learning, written by Rev. Lord Varnet, parish priest; in which various things obscure and ambiguous to us are made clear Saint Theudère, fondateur et patron de Saint-Chef.. We have first of all that the Saint obtained burial in the very oratory built by himself, which lasted until the end of the century just past. It had its apse according to custom toward the East; for the axis of the larger church is directed from south to north, whence the oratory of St. Theodore was situated at the right of the church Ibid., p. 39.. This larger church St. Theobald, archbishop of Vienne, began to build; Leodegar, his successor after Burchard, completed it Ibid., p. 57.. Of St. Theobald our Henschenius treated at the 21st of May Acta SS. vol. V of May, p. 47.; but against his custom very meagrely, and with the chronological notes not sufficiently observed: which defects come in great part from the fact that while he compiled his collection he had no other guides than recent and, as he himself confesses, neoteric writers. More accurately the deeds of St. Theobald, though he too says that they are to be drawn from diplomas Charvet, Hist. de l'Egl. de Vienne, p. 260., were enumerated by Archdeacon Charvet, and he encloses his episcopate between about the year 970 and 1000 Ibid., loc. cit., and p. 271.. The holy prelate was the last among the archbishops of Vienne who obtained public cult in the Church Ibid., p. 271.. Although therefore the title of Saint is attributed to Leodegar Saint Theudère, p. 57., he was yet celebrated by no liturgical rite: indeed the aforesaid Archdeacon Charvet expressly says that such grace was not present to Leodegar that he should be held a Saint in the Church, but that he nevertheless had all the virtues necessary to preserve the splendour of his Church Hist. de l'Egl. de Vienne, p. 296..

[13] But in the course of time the memory of his sepulchre is obliterated, The body of St. Theodore rested in the oratory built by himself; nor does it appear to have been translated elsewhere: for the translation of which Ado speaks in his Martyrology is no other, as we have already said, than the carrying from the city of Vienne to the monastery of St. Mary. And at his tomb, on the testimony of Ado in the Life at no. 11, even in the ninth century, various miracles took place: and at a later time the Saint's head is recorded; but in the lapse of years the Saint's Relics wholly vanished, without the documents so far found indicating to us when and on what occasion that treasure disappeared Saint Theudère, p. 48.. The writer of the Notice on St. Theuderius or Theodore confesses that all hope of the discovery of the sacred body has not been wholly taken away, and indeed he greatly commends both prudence and sagacity in searching the ruins. Meanwhile however the sectaries of the 16th century are by no means to be accused of violating the sacred body, who are indeed said to have despoiled both the church and the monastery, and even to have wished to burn both; but there is deep silence about the destruction of the sacred Relics, which certainly would not have been omitted by those who wrote of the pillaging of the sacred building. It is therefore likely that piety gradually cooled, and at length the memory of the place was obliterated where St. Theodore lay, and indeed up to now lies.

[14] Which also with other saints Nor is it to be wondered at that the memory of a burial sometimes perishes: this often happens either from the folly of men or from the repeated upheavals of wars, invasions, and all sorts of tumults. Therefore we read among the hagiologists of feasts instituted for the discovery of the body of some Saint. Indeed, to select a few among many, St. Eutropius, who first ruled the Church of the Santones (Saintes), lay hidden for some centuries in the crypt of his church, unknown to all, until on the 19th of May 1843, while the said crypt was being restored, there was found in the middle a tomb with the sole inscription: Eutropius: and the discovery having been accurately and severely investigated, at length on the 6th of September 1845 Clement Villecourt, then bishop of La Rochelle, afterwards most eminent cardinal of the Holy Roman Church (who to the grief of all good men met his last day in the month of January of the current year), declared that the sepulchre found in the lower church of St. Eutropius of Saintes … is in fact the tomb of the first bishop and Martyr of Saintes, and that the bones of an adult, which it contained, are most certainly the bones of the same St. Eutropius [Recueil des procédures faites pour la reconnaissance des Reliques de Saint Eutrope, p. 73.]. We know also with what celebration and piety there is venerated through the whole world, but especially in Umbria, the memory of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Friars Minor: in his honour there was erected at Assisi a most magnificent basilica, adorned with the most perfect works of all the arts: and though it is placed beyond doubt that the body of the Saint was laid up within the basilica, yet the place of the sepulchre was uncertain when in the year 1768 our forebears were writing the Acts of St. Francis. For in 64 pages they most accurately examined the state of the body of the holy patriarch, which some maintained to be incorrupt and upright, while others exhibited it lying in the sepulchre, stripped of its flesh: from which controversy it arose of itself that the place of burial was uncertain [Acta SS. vol. II of Oct., pp. 919–983. And de Invento corpore divi Francisci, p. 35, Rome 1819.]. At length in the year 1818, Pope Pius VII assenting, after nocturnal labours of fifty-two days, the corpse of St. Francis was found De Invent. Corp., p. 32.. Which discovery the Pontiff approved by a brief given on the 5th of September 1820, declaring that the identity of the body recently found under the high altar of the lower basilica of Assisi was established; and that it was in truth the body of St. Francis, founder of the Order of Minors.

[15] Happened also to more celebrated ones. Celebrated also from of old is the cult of St. Hubert, bishop of Liège, whose body in the year 825 into the monastery of Andage, which thereafter was named after St. Hubert, by

Walcand, bishop of Liège, was translated [Reiffenberg, Monuments pour servir à l'histoire des provinces de Namur, de Hainaut et Luxembourg, vol. VIII, p. 17.], as is reported in the Antiquity of the Church of Andage. Thereafter there was a great concourse, as is narrated in the same place, because all around the fury of divine chastisement raged, and the weight of that fury lay most heavily on the neighbourhood of Blessed Hubert Ibid., p. 19.. Thereafter the throng of the concurring people does not appear to have been interrupted. But in the year 1568 Remacle de la Marck, abbot of the place, forewarned that his monastery was just about to be burned and his monks to be tortured with dreadful punishments, about the middle of October, in the dead of night, or, as is narrated, during the synaxis of the night office, first of all the sacred remains of Blessed Hubert, exposed before the doors of the choir in the nave of the basilica, together with the bodies of SS. Beregisus the Confessor, and Hostia, Grata, and Areapita, Virgins, he hid in a more secret place Ibid., p. 26.. Most of the monks appear not to have known the place where the sacred Relics were concealed; for when the night office was finished, the abbot only indicated to them the imminent danger, and commanded a most speedy flight. From then until the present day the pledges of St. Hubert lie hidden. What wonder then that the body of St. Theuderius disappeared from a similar cause, without its being therefore to be doubted that it has been preserved within the sacred building up to now.

[16] The history of the monastery For the rest, it will be worthwhile to recount in few words what was the fortune through the various centuries of the monastery in which St. Theodore obtained his burial. For institutions which have perished by the vicissitude of the times are usefully committed to letters. In the Life to be published below, at no. 6, we read: With the assent of the bishop of Vienne, a basilica was built by speedy work in veneration of the Holy Mother of God Mary, and a little monastery was endowed from the means both of his parents and of his kin, and monks were established according to the Rule of the Holy Fathers. This monastery of St. Mary then derived its name from St. Theodore or Theuderius: and it is commonly called Saint-Chef (Holy Head). Some hold that the word Saint-Chef is derived from Theodore or Theuderius, inasmuch as at first the name Thiers passed down to Cher and at length to Chef. But in my opinion a derivation of this kind is violent; for consonant letters are rarely exchanged except with their kindred: here the form T is turned into C at the beginning, R into F at the end, although there is no affinity between these consonants. A more approved reason for this name is given by Fr. Antoine Touron, of the Order of Preachers, in his History of the Illustrious Men of the Dominican Order Touron, Hist. des hommes illust. de l'Ord. de S. Dominique, vol. I, p. 201.; in which he teaches that Hugh, the first Cardinal of his Order and author of the Concordance of the Bible Ibid., p. 222., was called Hugh of St. Theodore or of St. Cher, because he had first seen the light there, which is also held confirmed by Ciaconius Vitæ Pontif. vol. I, col. 696.. The aforesaid Touron adds that the name Saint-Chef comes from the fact that the head of St. Theodore was preserved and held in honour in the church of the monastery Hist. des hommes illustres, vol. I, p. 201.. This opinion too is defended by the recent writer of the Notice on St. Theodore, who gives the reason for this name, that the faithful were accustomed to have recourse to SS. Theodore and Theobald, whose heads, enclosed in precious herms, were displayed for public veneration; they said therefore in the vulgar tongue: Let us go to the Holy Head: Allons au Saint-Chef Saint Theudère, p. 50.. And in this way the two names were confused, without one having therefore to be derived from the other.

[17] Is sketched in summary; In the ninth century, when St. Ado was writing, the Theuderian monks appear still to have adhered to some extent to regular discipline; since in the Prologue of the Life of St. Theodore he professes that he wrote it for this reason, that he might invite them further by his examples to the love of eternal life; and at the end he exhorts the same, that if they desire to have him as patron with God, they should imitate his life. For unless he had hoped that he would inflame the monks to every perfection of the Christian life, he surely would not have used such an exhortation. Nevertheless the Theuderian monks had in a short time so turned aside from the regular norm that within a few years they came to utter desolation. For Barnoin, archbishop of Vienne, who held the pontificate about the year 890, writes this: Seeing a certain little monastery of our Church, dedicated to God under the honour of the Holy Mother of God and of St. Theuderius, confessor, brought even to devastation on account of the various tempests of this world; wherefore for love of God and the honour of the holy Church of God committed to us, and for the profit of our soul, we have chosen to place and settle there monks from the monastery of Der, for serving God and soldiering under the rule of the Rule of Father St. Benedict, and for rebuilding and restoring the same place. Accordingly he gives to the monks of Der whatever formerly belonged to the Theuderian monastery, and at the same time he grants and confirms to them what the faithful shall at any time in the future donate.

[18] Into which the monks of Der in the 9th century The diploma of Barnoin was signed on the 6th before the nones of December, in the 4th year of King Louis, called and elected by the princes and magnates of the land D'Achery, Spicil. vol. III, p. 361 and following. Paris edition, 1723.. That Louis, called the Blind, after his father Boso, who died probably in the year 887, was king of Provence, which also comprised the province of Vienne: and the year of his call and election coincides with the year of Christ 890 L'art de vérifier les dates, p. 661.. The constitution of Barnoin was confirmed by Pope Formosus, who held the apostolic see from the year 891 to 896. He therefore, by letters given on the 7th before the kalends of December … in the reign of the Lord, the most pious, perpetual Augustus Guy, the great emperor crowned by God, that is in the common year 891 Ibid., p. 434.. To this year therefore are to be referred the apostolic letters in which the Pope writes: Hearing that you (the monks of Der) from the county of Troyes, from the monastery of Der, have escaped from the face of the pagans, and that you have been mercifully received by the same venerable archbishop, moved by your prayers, by the privilege of this our apostolic authority we confirm that you may soldier for God there firmly and quietly, etc. He then confirms what the archbishop has already decreed, and he adds that the election of abbots will be free, so that neither the aforesaid bishop, nor any of his successors, by any arrogance and haughtiness of pride, or of avarice and cupidity and anger, may presume at any time or in any way to impose another abbot on the congregation itself, except him whom the monks themselves shall elect for themselves by free election and devotion according to the Rule of St. Benedict.*

[19] With the consent of Archbishop Barnoin, are introduced: The reason why the monks of Der put in at the province of Vienne, and by the grant of Barnoin occupied the Theuderian monastery, was the frequent incursions and devastations of the Normans, who in the 8th and 9th centuries afflicted the greatest part of Gaul with immense slaughter. Yet they left immune the part of Gaul which lies to the east toward the south, and to it expelled and despoiled monks frequently fled. Mabillon in volume III of his Annals, in the Index, under Nortmanni, points out many monasteries, though not all, as having been destroyed: but he indicates none on the left bank of the Rhone, on which the tract of Vienne is found. Here therefore the monks of Der, like others of other monasteries of lower Gaul, had fled. In the Acts of St. Bercharius at the 16th of October the various misfortunes of the monastery of Der have been described [Acta SS. vol. VII of Oct., p. 1020. Compare Bouillevaux, Les Moines du Der, p. 91 and following.]; and also the Burgundian journey, which the monks of Der undertook, taking with them the bones of Blessed Bercharius, and they probably lodged in the ruinous Theuderian monastery. And after the hope of greater tranquillity had shone in Gaul, the abbot of Der returned with his men to his own, leaving however a colony of monks, which should restore the Theuderian monastery, as was said above, and reform it according to the Rule of St. Benedict.

[20] About the year 950 St. Theobald began to build the church, Then in the 10th century, now at its middle, St. Theobald, archbishop of Vienne, who had also begun to restore his cathedral church, began to rebuild the sacred building too of the Theuderian monastery, such as it stands today, and left it to be completed by his successor, after Burchard, Leodegar. The Theuderian basilica is counted among the sacred monuments which are repaired at the expense of the public treasury Saint Theudère, p. 73.. Of St. Theobald we have already touched on some things above at no. 12, and we said that our Godfrey Henschenius drew the very little that he has from Neoteric writers Acta SS. vol. V of May, p. 47.. Therefore here we shall supply some things which make the deeds of the holy prelate more illustrious, taken from ancient and genuine sources. First of all Henschenius rightly corrects Du Saussay, who in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology under the 1st of July says that St. Theobald flourished under Pope St. Leo IX and Henry the First, king of the Franks. For it is established that both held the helms of the Church and the kingdom in the middle of the eleventh century. On the contrary St. Theobald occupied the see of Vienne in the middle of the tenth century. For there is a charter of the year 970, by which a certain Sarilio with his wife Irmengarde and his son Gerbert to the sacrosanct Church of God which is built within the walls, dedicated in the name of the Lord Saviour, under the patronage of St. Maurice, Martyr of Christ, where the lord Theutbald together with the clergy subject to him is known to preside, give estates in the countryside of Casiacum (Chessieu) in the villa which is called Ambalenis (Ambalans): but so that the usufruct remain with the donors under the charge of two casks of wine: they wish nevertheless that Otmar, the provost, should at once have a part of the vineyard cultivated by Andrew, which, on the death of the provost, shall pertain to the Church of Vienne Charvet, Hist. de l'Egl. de Vienne, p. 260.

[21] Archbishop of Vienne, whose deeds In the year 972 King Conrad, who ruled at Vienne, gave St. Theobald letters, by which he confirms the donations made formerly by the kings Lothar, Charles, and Louis to the bishops Ado, Regemfred, and Alexander. In about the same year Archeric, deacon of the Church of Vienne, which, he says, is distinguished by the head of Blessed Maurice and by the pledges of innumerable Martyrs and Confessors, gives various estates on this condition, that they should serve for the food of the brethren soldiering for Christ under the thumb of St. Maurice Charvet, p. 263.. In that century then, which is commonly called Iron, foundations were made, but by the ignorance of those who wrote the charters of donation and by the malice also of those who came after, they were very often rendered void. Of which thing Gerbert complains, then abbot of Bobbio, afterwards archbishop of Ravenna and Reims and at length supreme pontiff under the name of Sylvester II: for in letter II to the emperor Otto he says Migne, Patrol. vol. CXXXIX, col. 201. that his monks are thinned by hunger, pressed by nakedness, and that no better hope shines forth, because by certain codices which they call booklets the whole sanctuary of the Lord has been sold. Gerbert, having finished his life in the year 1003, occupied a great part of the tenth century,

and he was plainly aware of the miseries of that time, especially when he ascended through manifold grades to the summit of the apostolate.

[22] Are briefly recounted: he builds the cathedral; Wolferius, archbishop in the 9th century, whom the people of Vienne call a Saint in their Tables Charvet, p. 155., but whom our predecessors relegate among the passed over at the 16th of March Acta SS. vol. II of March, p. 436., had restored the cathedral church, long prostrated by the hardships and tribulations of wars Ibid., loc. cit.; but when the known calamities then broke in, it lay desolate again. St. Theobald therefore undertook the plan of a new building. And although he abounded in such riches that he alone could both begin and complete the immense work, yet he wished to associate his faithful with the magnificent plan. Wherefore he granted an indulgence of sins to all who should contribute anything to the building of the church; the same indulgence was also published for their diocesans by the archbishop of Lyons and the bishop of Valence. Fr. Daniel in his History of France, at the reign of Philip I, under the year 1095 Hist. de France, vol. III, p. 421. 1755 edition., judges that the council of Clermont gave the first example of the commutation of pious works, and thus that the journey to Jerusalem supplied for penances otherwise due. But here there already occurs an indulgence a whole century older Charvet, p. 264.. We have already said above that St. Theobald indeed began the work and continued it in great part; but his successor after Burchard, Leodegar, completed it Ibid., p. 292.: yet so that for six centuries thereafter labour was spent on it, until the sacred building, such as it is seen today, shone with all its ornaments Charvet, p. 265..

[23] He institutes a regular chapter in the town of Romans St. Theobald also instituted a regular chapter in the monastery of Romans, namely a town of the present diocese of Valence (department of the Drôme). This institution was made in the council of Anse about the year 994; the acts of which synod have been preserved for us by Edm. Martène and Ursin Durand in their Thesaurus Anecdotorum. At that time indeed the fear of the coming last judgment occupied the minds of many, as if in the year 1000 the world would receive its end. Theobald, who is there called Theutbald (as I was residing, he says, and our fellow bishops, in a certain place in the bishopric of Lyons, in a synodal assembly in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 994), granted that canons be placed in the see of the church of Romans: wherefore he conferred the ferule on them according to the custom of his predecessors. And at the beginning of this privilege he said that the end of the world was approaching, that the Church was just about worn out as it were with old age; nevertheless he adds that the church had turned aside from the rectitude of its state little by little, not altogether in itself, but in the wicked morals of certain of its sons Thes. Anecd. vol. IV, col. 77. Compare Charvet, p. 268.. The fear, namely, of the end of this world clung in the minds of all. The privilege was subscribed, besides several abbots and canons, by the bishops Theobald of Vienne and then Burchard of Lyons, Amiso of Tarentaise, Walter of Autun, Lambert of Chalon, Leutbald of Mâcon, Humbert of Grenoble, Guigo of Valence, Ebrard of Maurienne, Anselm of Aosta, and Aribald of Uzès Ibid., loc. cit..

[24] He receives many things from the faithful; To the institutions of the holy prelate the faithful concurred, who repaired the losses of the Churches by their largess. Berillo and his wife Erdegardis give to the Church of Vienne and to its archbishop Theobald gardens, orchards, vineyards, and lands, situated in the place of Toisi, in the countryside of Cassiacum (Chessieu) Charvet, p. 265.. Adhemar and Ermengardis conferred a mansus with a serf farmer. Here mansus appears to signify the buildings and lands necessary for one family of servile condition Ibid., loc. cit.. A noble also, by name Siebod, with his wife Anna, besides a mansus in the countryside of Mâcon, offered to the Saint all their furniture and domestic and farm provisions, and in addition the best horse, sword, mail, breastplate, and helmet Ibid., p. 271.. In the same way St. Theobald in the year 998 received from Wigo and Fredeburga for his Church, in which an assembly of canons day and night at the competent hours in the sight of Almighty God performs the sacred offices, their goods situated in the countryside of Cassiacum, in the villa which is named Vernio (Vernie) Ibid., p. 270.. The same Saint made an exchange with the bishop of Valence, Humbert, in the year 998, so that the place of Basaica (Besayes) in the county of Valence should be ceded to Humbert, who in turn left to the Church of Vienne whatever he possessed in the countryside of Salmoracum, in the villa which is called Faramanis (comte de Salmorenc a Famarants county of Salmorenc at Famarants) Ibid., p. 271..

[25] Which however were often plundered; But while these things were being given to the Churches, there were not a few who, seizing the opportunity of uncertain rule and of wars, plundered and squandered the goods of the Churches. Gerbert, archbishop of Reims, afterwards supreme pontiff Sylvester II, with his provincial bishops writes in letter 201 Migne, Patrol. vol. CXXXIX, col. 260. to Girbert and the invaders, butchers, and tyrants, that they should abstain thereafter from the slaughters and plunderings of clerics, monks, and the poor, otherwise they must be cut off like useless wood from the field of God by the sword of the Holy Spirit. And while the bishops of the province of Reims subscribed admonitions and threats of this kind, there was among them Fulk of Amiens, the First of this name, whom the same Gerbert rebukes in letter 208 Ibid., col. 262., as if he too had invaded the goods of the Church: he explains that he by the tenderness of years and the lightness of his morals had not yet learned to bear the priestly weight; for that reason he admonishes him to correct his errors … that the acknowledgment of these may be the abolition of many sins. From these things we see that in that century, though illustrated by the virtues of many Saints, there were yet many scandals, which in the greatest part came from the condition of the times, when all things, especially political affairs, were uncertain, and there was no prince who could or would restrain slaughters, plunderings, robberies, and usurpations.

[26] At length about the year 1000 he dies holily. The writer of the History of Vienne reports that St. Theobald met his last day in the year of Christ 1000, after he had held the pontificate for forty-eight years Charvet, p. 271.; whence it follows that he received the episcopate in the year of Christ 952. Certainly in the year 999 he received from Rorgo and Theutberga on the 17th before the kalends of October (15 September) a villa which is in the Golden Valley and is called Spinosa (Epinose en Valoire) Charvet, loc. cit.. Since further his death is held to be on the 21st of May, it must be put off to the following year 1000. He obtained his first burial in his cathedral church: for in the tables of Vienne it is said in express words: He was buried in the church of St. Maurice and of the Machabees. But afterwards the body was carried away to the Theuderian monastery, at least in part. For there is extant there an inscription, carved on a stone, to the memory of John de Saint-Genis, who caused a silver herm to be made. It is of the following tenor: ANNO D. M. CCC. LXII FECIT FIERI CAPUD BEATI THEOBALDI IN ECCLESIA PRÆSENTI FRATER JOANNES DE SANCTO GENESIO SACRISTA SANCTI THEUDERI: ITEM MAGNUM CALICEM PONDERIS QUATUOR MARCIS ARGENTI: ITEM PLANTAVIT VINEAM JUXTA LOREPLAT AD OPUS SACRISTI; ITEM DEDIT VINEAM FASTE CANTUERE BEATA MARIE VIRGINIS: ITEM … [In the year of the Lord 1362 Brother John de Saint-Genis, sacristan of St. Theuderius, caused to be made the head of Blessed Theobald in the present church; likewise a great chalice of the weight of four marks of silver; likewise he planted a vineyard beside Loreplat for the use of the sacristan; likewise he gave a vineyard FASTE CANTUERE of the Blessed Virgin Mary; likewise …] Saint Theudère, p. 49.. Very frequent formerly were and still are herms of this kind, and they are exposed to the public veneration of the faithful: hence the common expression, already explained above at no. 16, let us go to the Holy Head, as if it were said, let us go to the sacred Relics.

[27] The Theuderian monastery is enriched with many privileges What has been said so far of St. Theobald suffices as a supplement to those things which Godfrey Henschenius reported from neoteric writers in his Acts at the 26th of May. Now we return to the vicissitudes of the Theuderian monastery. From the time of St. Theobald and Leodegar that monastery greatly grew. It seemed above all to be as it were a chief branch of the Order of St. Benedict, from which there went forth as shoots many monasteries of lesser note: for it had more than twelve priories under its abbot. In addition it had many fiefs: for which reason even in the civil order it exercised at times such authority that both the Dauphin of Vienne and the Duke of Savoy, in frequent wars, sought its alliance and aid, and not rarely its abbots came forward as mediators of peace Ibid., p. 57 and following.. That in such opulence and authority some abuses crept into the monastery I shall readily concede; indeed that when the election of some abbot was being debated, the ambition of certain persons also emerged can scarcely be doubted; nevertheless I cannot persuade myself that these abuses were the cause why the abbatial dignity and all its jurisdiction was transferred to the archbishops of Vienne. Simon d'Archiac, namely, archbishop of Vienne on the 12th of September 1319, and in the following year, on the Ember Wednesday (18 December), created cardinal by Pope John XXII, received the abbacy of St. Theodore, to be possessed perpetually by the archbishops of Vienne. What the cause was that a wealthy monastery was united to a see otherwise opulent I shall not plainly say. For nowhere have I found either a bull of Pope John or any indication of it. There existed, as Fabri and Berillot teach us in the History of the Dauphiné Hist. de Dauphiné, vol. I, p. 238., that bull in the Archiepiscopal Archive in the Roll marked no. 539. The historian of the Church of Vienne, without assigning any cause of this subjection, teaches however that the bull was given on the 6th of September 1320 Charvet, p. 454.: while the author of the Notice on St. Theodore says that the occasion for the transaction, about the year 1320, was a dissension in the election of an abbot, which, he says, was extirpated at the root through the perpetual conjunction of the abbatial title with the see of Vienne.

[28] In the 16th century it is changed into a secular College; But a graver change occurred in the 16th century, when the Theuderian monks in the year 1531, through the intercession of Francis I, king of France, asked of the supreme pontiff that, released from their monastic vows, they might thereafter be held as secular canons. The pontiff ratified their petition and in the year 1536 erected their church into a collegiate one under this condition, that canons should be elected who were both on the paternal and the maternal stock of ancient nobility [Fabri, Hist. du Dauph. vol. I, p. 238; compare Voyage litt. de deux Bénédictins, vol. I, p. 252, wrongly marked p. 522.]. It is singular that the historian of the Church of Vienne was wholly silent about this transformation. But the state of the new canons was not long tranquil. For in the year 1562 the civil war flared up, in which all France burned. In the province of the Dauphiné, under the infamous leader the baron des Adrets, things sacred and profane alike were overthrown. The Catholic Religion was abolished, churches and monasteries destroyed Charvet, p. 557.. The furnishings of the Theuderian Church were stolen, the images of the saints crushed, the altars razed to the foundations. The sacred building itself was meanwhile standing up to then untouched, the other buildings having been thrown down, when a certain Calvinist climbed to the top of the church to set fire to the ceiling: but suddenly falling, completely smashed, he sprinkled the church with blood and the stone with bloody stains, by no effort, as they have it,

the Benedictines in their literary Journey Voyage littér. vol. I, p. 522., to be wiped away. The architect Quenin says that stones marked with a red colour are dug in the quarry of St. Hilaire: whence it may be that a stone of this kind was placed in memory of the sacrilege Saint Theudère, p. 61..

[29] And at length in the 18th century, translated to Vienne, it perishes. About the middle of the 18th century the Theuderian canons, to whom residence in a rustic little town was perhaps burdensome and who were seeking the light of a principal city, began in the year 1749 to debate a plan for the translation of their college to the city of Vienne, or even of Lyons. They alleged, namely, the insalubrity of the air, the lack of physicians, an idleness as it were necessary, since they lacked the literary helps for advancing the studies of the good arts and sciences. Moved by these things, Clement XIV by a leaden bull united the three surviving Benedictine monks of the Church of St. Andrew the Lower (Saint-Andre-le-bas) with the Theuderian secular chapter, which he transferred to the church of St. Andrew in the city of Vienne. But, the metropolitan chapter opposing, and the parishioners of St. Andrew with their prior and many nobles and citizens, the bull first obtained its effect in the year 1774. Then the Theuderian canons carried off to their new domicile all the precious furnishings, and even the greater bell of two thousand pounds. But scarcely had they established their new seat, when in the year 1779, by force of a new bull, the chapter, which had taken its name from St. Andrew and St. Theuderius, was united to the collegiate church of St. Peter in the same city of Vienne: there too there had been Benedictines, but already in 1612 restored to the world. But twelve years having scarcely passed, the cataclysm broke in, and all things perished Ibid., p. 65 and following.. Today there survives the Theuderian church, which is restored with public money and serves the use of the parishioners. And these are the fortunes of the Theuderian monastery, which the author of the Notice on St. Theodore would wish to be adorned with a fuller history Ibid., p. 94.: and we wish the same, nor do we know a more apt chronographer than the one who wrote the learned Notice of which we have made very great use. We proceed to publish the Life of St. Theodore which St. Ado has left us.

* typho

* Replat

* Fayet

* Chantrerie

LIFE OF ST. THEUDERIUS, ABBOT, AT VIENNE IN GAUL,

by Ado, bishop of the same city, from the edition of Jean Mabillon in the Acts of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, century I, collated with Brussels ms. no. 8925.

Theodore, abbot, at Vienne in Gaul. (S.)

BY ST. ADO.

SOLE CHAPTER.

As a boy he plans the monastic life, he becomes a monk and presbyter under St. Cæsarius; returning to his native land, he founds various monasteries; in a laborious reclusion he ends his life and is buried in the monastery founded by him.

St. Theodore, Ado, bishop of Vienne ^b, to the brethren dwelling in the monastery of St. Theuderius, eternal salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Life of your Father , that is, of Blessed Theuderius, I have resolved to commend to your sanctity by my writings for this reason, that I might invite you further by his examples to the love of eternal life. For I desire you to be imitators and emulators of him whose patronage I greatly rejoice to have acquired by the gift of God. The first origin and the progress of the life of this man, then, stand thus.

[2] While still a boy seeking the monastic life This blessed man, sprung in the province of Vienne ^c from parents illustrious according to the dignity of the world, was honourable in the means of the world. When he was still a boy, he began to yearn with pious studies toward the love of eternal life: and because, sprung from illustrious parents, he had acquired no small money ^d from the rent of his patrimony, that he might be a perfect disciple of Christ, he did not delay to give it to the poor, that he might receive a hundredfold, and in the future possess eternal life. Unburdened therefore of the temporal load and stripped to the full of the garment of the world, that he might serve the Lord God more perfectly, he thought of seeking the monastery of Lérins . And so, leaving his parents, and committing himself wholly to God, with this desire he made for the city of Arles, where at that time St. Cæsarius was the pontiff, that, helped by the solace of the pontiff, he might through him more easily take the way to the Island of the monks. But it was brought about by the disposition of the supreme almighty God that by the holy counsels of the holy pontiff he was somewhat delayed there. For they report that when they first beheld each other they greeted each other by their proper names , and that the power of almighty God so inspired each alike by the gift of grace that they who had had no knowledge of each other before, soon seeing each other in the body, manifested by mutual address to those outside who did not know that they were truly servants of God. Truly * after the likeness of that blessedness ^e, where there will be full knowledge of the truth, where one will be known wholly and truly by another: when not through a glass or in an enigma, but face to face God will be seen, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of hearts. I Cor. IV, 5 and XIII, 12.

[3] Blessed Cæsarius, having learned of the ardours of his desire, He is received by St. Cæsarius of Arles, rejoicing with him and giving thanks to almighty God, thus addresses blessed Theuderius: "O servant of God, if you give assent to my words, the Lord will be with you, and will strengthen the purpose of your heart. Remain for a time with us, subject to the ecclesiastical order. What we shall lay upon you by the gift of God, humbly bear, that, as Scripture teaches, having perfected your works with meekness and humility, you may be directed above all glory." To whom blessed Theuderius: "I know, most blessed father, that it was said by the Lord to His own: 'He who hates you hates me ; and he who despises you despises me.' Therefore I will not delay to obey your admonitions as the commands of the Lord." Blessed Theuderius therefore stayed there according to the will of Blessed Cæsarius, and day and night with fasts, vigils, and prayers committing the voice of his soul to God, bringing forth no small joy of himself, he conferred it both on the pontiff and on God .

[4] And he is promoted by the same to sacred Orders: And time having rolled by , Blessed Cæsarius, thinking to bind him more closely to the divine ministries, while he long struggled against it and protested, imposed on him the office of deacon , and so not long after bestowed on him the dignity of presbyter, all the clergy and people acclaiming ^f. Which office St. Theuderius so reverently embraced that one might see him going before the others in merits and grace, wondrous in his office , and in humility submitting himself even to the lesser , thinking of that saying of the Lord: "He who humbles himself shall be exalted; and of Scripture saying: Luke XIV, 11 The greater you are, humble yourself in all things" Ecclus. III, 20. And time having rolled on in its course, the man of God thought of revisiting the province of his birth and consoling his parents. And so disclosing his will to the holy bishop, and asking from him a blessing for going and returning , at first he affected him with great sorrow. Then seeing that he could not oppose * the mind of the holy man, he gave his assent, though sad: and with blessings he departed from the city of Arles ^g, escorted by the clergy and people weeping that the man of God was withdrawing from them, and at length he permitted him to go away.

[5] Returning to his native land, various Coming therefore St. Theuderius not far from the city of the Viennese, began insistently to seek where he might establish the little cell of his habitation. To turn then for a little the point of the writer to the city of Vienne, Vienne is the most noble city of the Gauls, fortified on the West and toward the northern part by outstanding fortresses so that access to the walls of the city is not easy. The first fortress, facing south, is Cappro : next to which is Eumenius, nearest Quiriacus: to which by a wall extended through the valley is joined Propiciacus and Pompeiacus, once celebrated for a hundred gods among the worshippers of demons . Not far off a fifth fortress is attached, to which antiquity gave the name Suspoli: and the whole city itself, from the river as far as the river Rhone itself, is girt by a wall extended through the hills to the plain, a most illustrious metropolis and most distinguished among the cities of the Gauls ^h. When therefore the man of God was seeking a place for his dwelling, he came at length to a place suitable for his solitude, no less far from the city: and there in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the veneration of St. Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli and Martyr, he began to build a little house. And it happened , the foundations having been laid, that the hill by reason of its eminence was split with a great precipice, and threatened ruin to the place. But by the prayer of the man of God, by Him who said to His own: "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you would say to this mountain: Pass hence into the sea and it would pass, Luke XVII, 6 wonderful to tell! in another part, destined to do no harm to the building, it subsided. Thereupon the house having been built, and relics of saints placed on the altar [h], again the man of God, walking around beside the river Gère, was turning over with himself in the secret of his heart * where he might found a little cell of the servants of God. He is therefore seized by sleep, and admonished in a vision that he should build a basilica of Blessed Martyr Symphorian upon that very water. And it was done: and the place being adorned, he chose monks there to serve God ⁱ. And the fame of the man of God grew, and spread far and wide. For Christ our God did not suffer a lamp to be concealed under a bushel.

[6] He founds monasteries: When very many therefore ran together to the notice of the man of God, his brother Arvus , and other kin too, for the sake of visiting came on a certain day among the others. He, embracing them sweetly and paternally, piously admonished them on the hope of eternal life and the reward of the Saints. And greatly inflamed and kindled by the ardour of the Holy Spirit, he came to the fortress named. Alarona ^k, and wishing to institute there a monastery of monks, he built an oratory of Blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, and devoting himself to God there by prayers and vigils he stayed for some time. Afterwards coming to the village and estate of his parents, whose name was Assicia ^l, where his parents had built an oratory in honour of Blessed Maurice the Martyr, prostrating himself in prayer, for continuous days and nights he asked the mercy of almighty God that He would deign to show him a place fit for the habitation of the servants of God. And when he had given himself to sleep, there was seen also an Angel of God, who both marked a secret place on the Rupian hill , and forewarned him to build there the monastery, for which he burned, . That place at that time, being woodland, was full of wild beasts and serpents. The man of God awaking came to the place divinely shown him, and there for a little while poured out a prayer to God. But the devil, envious of every good, that he might draw back the holy man of God from the intention of the work begun, just as through the serpent he administered to the first parents the poisons of his perfidy, again entering a serpent and moving the rages of wild beasts, held back from seeking *. The man of God, foreknowing his cunning, fortifying himself with the arms of prayers, stood undaunted, and the fraud of the devil, vanquished, succumbed by vanishing. With the assent therefore of the bishop of the Viennese, a basilica was built by speedy work in veneration of the holy Mother of God Mary, and

a little monastery was endowed from the means both of his parents and of his kin, and monks were established according to the Rule of the Holy Fathers.

[7] By St. Philip the bishop he is appointed At the same time Philip, venerable bishop of Vienne ^m, was held the twenty-first. It was the custom in the same city to place one, elected from many, of holier life, in a remote place within the city, who, devoting himself to the contemplative life alone, might the more familiarly present the vows of the people to God. The pontiff therefore, when he was seeking from the diocese a man full of virtue, to whom also the people, by his command, might commit their secrets as far as pertains to salvation, rejoiced greatly that he had blessed Theuderius, now existing as father of monks. And so he ordered him to be summoned. And the blessed man, knowing for what purpose he was being sought by the pontiff, committing himself wholly to God's grace, set over the care of his monastery his provost, Severian by name, and exhorting and bidding farewell to the brethren, commending them to the Lord to whom he had committed his hope, he proceeded to the pontiff . The same pontiff, receiving him venerably, having gathered the clergy and all the people, assigned the holy man to the brethren , sons of the Church, of the mercy of God, that by the prayer of the blessed man he might himself bring back to the Lord profit from the flock committed to him. The blessed man therefore chose for himself on the Quirinal hill a place and the basilica of Blessed Martyr Lawrence, where day and night he might devote himself to prayer to God ⁿ.

[8] Enclosed as Intercessor for the people to God Of how great strictness, and how great humility this man was, will not easily be expressed by any tongue. Poured out in tears, watchful in prayer, wholly fixed in heart on the Lord; and of the scantiness of his food and drink and the cheapness of his dress, I do not see what worthy thing I might express. When reclining on haircloth, he continued nights and days without food and drink. Because therefore peoples flowed together to him from every side, he, hiding himself in secret as far as he could, opening a very small window, gave admonitions to those coming. And the grace of Christ had conferred on him wisdom of heart and a gracious eloquence of mouth, that he might know what he should salutarily disclose to each. Who, struck by the wound of the devil, came to him and did not depart at once medicated and whole? Who, sorrowful over the weight of his sins, did not return at once consoled about the mercy of God , safer and more joyful? He whom the pressure of the world had rendered sadder, by his exhortation at once raised up his soul to the hope of everlasting joy. To conclude the whole with the words of the Apostle: "He became all things to all, that he might make all saved." I Cor. IX, 22 The Lord also glorified by miracles His servant who adhered more familiarly, so that several vexed by malign spirits and held by various sicknesses were healed by his prayers.

[9] And full of merits he dies And the same holy man remained for twelve years in the place chosen beforehand and most sweet to him: he ever sacrificed himself wholly to God by a most ardent contrition of spirit and body. And when he perceived that the time of his dissolution was at hand, persevering more fervently in the high contemplation of the mind, as if nearer to the gates of the heavenly life, he bore it ill to turn the eye of the mind to other things. He was present for love of his maker at the vision; there were present to his desires the columns of the choirs of the heavenly spirits, the manifold trophies of the Apostles, the unspeakable joy of the holy Martyrs in heaven. No sound, no food was sweet except Christ. Amid such happy and blessed labours, when the man of God languished somewhat in body, , full and consummate in pious works, he passed to the Lord . O blessed man, after so many labours numbered with the joys of the holy spirits in the society of the Saints, and by the vision of his Lord, whom he ever loved, eternally consoled and happily gladdened! After the death of the holy man was announced to the city, the whole city went to the service of the funeral: the priests and the rest of the clergy and an innumerable multitude of the people. The body, laid out according to custom, is covered on the bier; and when, after the offices had been rendered, the holy bier had been taken up by the presbyters standing around that it might be carried to the sepulchre, it could not be moved from the place, all who were present marvelling and being stupefied, and asking anxiously what should be done.

[10] By order of the bishop he is carried to his monastery When it was determined by the decree of the holy pontiff, though the people opposed, that he should be carried to his monastery, what is wonderful, at once it was moved with such ease that it was thought to be of no weight. They arrive in the suburb of the city at the basilica of St. Romanus the Martyr in the village of Brenniacus ^o, and there they rest a little: what remained of the night they spent watching . And what miracle happened I think must not be passed over. By the charity and service of the nuns, serving God in the monasteries of Vienne , care was taken that the fatigue of the brethren going before and following after should be somewhat relieved. This handmaid of God, who presided over the congregation in the upper monastery, sent three little vessels, full of wine, after the holy funeral, by which those thirsting might be refreshed, and those who were keeping vigils might be restored. There was drinking until the little vessels were exhausted . There was present then there Severian, formerly the provost of the man of God, with the brethren, who had come to meet the Saint. Certain of them, when they sought from what they might drink, did not find it. But what does the divine power not work through His Saints? The handmaids of God, who had brought the little vessels full of wine, when at dawn they wished to return to the monastery, seeking again their little vessels, found them full, as if they had drawn nothing. Truly He then worked, that He might magnify His servant in the little vessels, who in Cana of Galilee turned the taste of water into wine. The liquor of divine power sufficed for those drinking, so that enough was also brought back from it to the monasteries of the city, and a public miracle was made to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[11] In whose translation many miracles take place The holy body was borne on the shoulders of nobles , who in turn succeeded one another with pious desire. And when the sky was cloudy and the air dry, and all feared that a storm would come, suddenly clear weather was restored by the merits of the blessed man. The holy body was brought to the place called Duodecimum [p] , where the divine power performed such a miracle. A certain blind man, so born, waited for three days for the holy crowds to come with the funeral of the blessed man. As best he could, he touched the veil of the bier, and at once blood flowed from his eyes, and immediately he received the unknown light. And when they had come to the place of burial, certain men, full of faith, brought there a cripple, contracted in his limbs, so that the soles of his feet clung to his buttocks. The merit of the holy man was present: for he returned from the holy sepulchre sound on his feet. And lest this should seem to anyone fabricated and not truly done, both of them, the one who had been blind and the one who had received the walking denied him , remained devoted in the monastery of the man of God until death, and with living voice proclaimed the divine miracles done in them. For putting to flight the darkness of night wax was thought to be lacking. The brethren, saddened, did not have where to turn: but He dispelled their fear who gave five loaves to grow in the teeth of those eating in the desert. For the wax had so grown between their hands that from a small quantity very many lights grew. The holy body was therefore cared for with worthy veneration, and venerably concealed in the sepulchre which he himself had formerly foreseen for himself, where he manifests by frequent miracles that he lives with God, to the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you desire, my sons and brethren, to have him as patron with Him, desire to imitate his life, full of love. For this holy man ever desired the gains of his Lord, and himself to rejoice in Christ over your crown. He will never be absent from you, if you do not remove your soul and life from the conversation of his life. And may the Lord, who gratuitously conferred on him merit and eternal reward, both increase in you the desire of all good, and give you obedience pleasing to Him and the full perfection of justice.

ANNOTATIONS.

though sad, he gave, and escorted him with blessings outside the city of Arles, with the clergy and people, etc.*

p. Duodecimum (Dieme) is a place intermediate between Vienne and the monastery. The funeral appears to have followed the Roman road, on which we also have Septimum (Septeme): on the topographical map of the Province of the Dauphiné for Duodecimum we have Decimum, from which we more easily derive the name Dieme.

* B cœnobiolo

* B nostri

* B speluncam

* B Viennense

* B retardaret

* B salutaverint

* B veræ

* B aliquantisper

* B audit, me audit

* B votum

* B clero

* B evoluto

* B adds ei

* B videres

* B venerabilem

* B muneribus

* B revertendi

* B commutari

* B prominentibus

* B Crappo

* B insignis

* B nimis

* B honore

* B adds jam

* B volvit

* B Arvius

* B ejus

* B nuncupante

* B jejuniis

* B venerationem

* B dignaretur

* B igitur

* B Rupiniano

* B construeret

* B amicus

* B aliquantisper

* B hominibus

* B non timuit

* B omits Viennensis

* B adds necessarium

* B adds ire

* B fisus

* B cujusquam

* B recubavit

* B salubre responderet

* B Domini

* B ardentissimis suspiriis et

* B adds ac dure

* B somnus

* B omits quum

* B languescens

* B Christum

* B adds de

* B ruit

* B pervigiles

* B adds fundatis

* B obsequiis

* B Nam

* B sunt

* B adds jam

* B omits ibi

* B Qui

* B operetur

* B fuerit

* B piorum

* B ne forte tempestate gravarentur.

* B in loco duodecimo nuncupante

* B Sancti

* B omits Quod

* B recepit

* B crescere

* B crevit

* B sanctissimum

* B pleno

* B animum

* B gratiæ