ON ST. LUCANUS, MARTYR, IN THE DIOCESE OF CHARTRES IN GAUL,
ABOUT THE YEAR 177.
CRITICAL COMMENTARY.
Lucanus, martyr in the diocese of Chartres in Gaul. (S.)
BHL Number: 4969
BY R. D. B.
§ I. The cult of St. Lucanus at Loigny, at Paris, and in other places. Lessons in Breviaries.
In the Belsia, in French La Beauce, in the former territory of Chartres [Guérard, Divisions territoriales de la Gaule, p. 146. Compare Pouillé des diocèses de Paris, de Chartres, etc., page 70, Paris, 1648.], there lies a parish by the name of Luigniacum, at Loigny in the Beauce, in the vernacular Loigny, or also Loigny-en-Beauce and Saint Lucien de Longny-en-Beauce: so small in the thirteenth century that it numbered only eighty inhabitants [Guérard, Cartulaire de Saint-Père de Chartres, volume I, page CCCXXX; Merlet, Dict. Topog. du départ. d'Eure-et-Loir, page 104; compare page 11.]. At that period its collator was the bishop of Chartres, as we read in the polyptychs of those times. In the year 1697 it remained within the boundaries of the ancient diocese of Chartres, when that of Blois was taken out of it [Compare Gallia Christiana, volume VIII, column 1343; Expilly, Diction. géogr. de la Gaule, volume III, page 343.]. At the end of the eighteenth century, when all France was divided into greater districts (Départements), middle ones (Arrondissements) and lesser ones (Cantons), Loigny was part of the greater district of Eure-et-Loir, the middle one of Châteaudun and the lesser one of Orgères. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the writers of that age report that this village numbered 288 inhabitants [Dictionnaire universel de la France ancienne et moderne, volume II, page 383; Expilly, in the place cited.] or 63 hearths: but in the nineteenth century it took on some increase, for in the year 1850 it had 381 inhabitants Breve of Chartres for the year 1850, page 117.. After the concordat entered into in the year 1801 between Pius VII and the French consuls, the little village was joined to the restored diocese of Chartres. These things show well enough that Loigny is a very obscure place, which would hardly be known if St. Lucanus had not there, on the 30th day of October of about the year 177, poured out his blood for the sake of the Christian religion, or if on the 2nd day of December of the year 1870 many noble men of France, fighting for altars and hearths under the banner of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, had not laid down their lives.
[2] St. Lucanus is venerated at Paris and in other places. This memorial of St. Lucanus, martyr, was entered in the Roman Martyrology of Galesini of the year 1576 at the 30th day of October in these words: At Paris, of St. Lucanus, martyr. Galesini adds in his Notes that he took the name of St. Lucanus from the table of saints of the church of Paris, where the relics of the holy martyr rested. And this is the reason why in this place, no mention being made of Loigny, the martyrologist speaks only of Paris, since he had searched through the archive of the church not of Loigny, but of Paris. Galesini's notice passed into the Roman Martyrology published in the year 1583, then into the Martyrology corrected by Baronius and others, and used in the Church down to these times. Yet in the ninth century no cult was paid to the holy martyr at Paris, although Chartres is very near to Paris, and both dioceses were included in the same province of Sens: for Usuard omitted his name, composing his martyrology at Paris about the middle of the ninth century. Later, however, it passed into the Auctaria to him of Tournai, Centula, the Queen of Sweden, and also of Muneratus and Molanus Martyrology of Usuard, edited by Sollerius, page 637 and following.. These were imitated in the Paris Martyrology by Cardinal de Noailles, in the Universal by Chastelain, and in the Gallican by du Saussay; which last writer reports nearly the same as the Paris Breviary of the year 1636. But among the people of Chartres, where the holy athlete is reported to have shed his blood for Christ, and among the people of Paris, who kept his relics for several centuries, he is honoured with outstanding cult, more than elsewhere. For it seems beyond doubt that the people of Chartres have venerated the blessed martyr as a saint from before the memory of men. But at what time they first celebrated him in the liturgy is hard to say; but in performing the ecclesiastical office every year, at least from 1783, at the end of the lesson to be recited in honour of St. Leo (honoured there, just as in many other churches of Gaul, on the 30th day of October), they added these words: On the same day St. Lucanus, martyr, is venerated in a parish of the Beauce in the diocese of Chartres, which is called Lucaniacum from his name. He is reported to have shed his blood for Christ there. Today a whole lesson is recited there in his praise.
[3] Lesson of the Paris Breviary of the year 1584, But in the church of Paris the feast of St. Lucanus has been celebrated from more remote times with semidouble rite. Indeed in the Missal of the year 1516 a Mass of St. Lucanus is read; in the Breviary published in the year 1584 by the authority of Pierre de Gondy, bishop of Paris, the semidouble rite is prescribed, and this fourth lesson: St. Lucanus, martyr, is said to have come from the regions of the East into Aquitaine, where, professing Christ in name and in life, subduing his flesh with wondrous severity, and proclaiming by public preaching the faith which he bore in his breast, he shone, like a lamp lit in the house of God, for all who wished to believe in Christ. At length, when persecution arose against the Christians, since neither terrified by human fear nor seduced by love of the world he would hide the light of his faith, he was recognized, seized, and afflicted by the faithless, and being immovably founded on Christ the rock, he merited to become a witness of the Lord by capital sentence. He, having been translated into the church of Paris, is there devoutly and humbly venerated by the faithful people. Thus the Paris tradition of the late sixteenth century held that St. Lucanus came from the regions of the East into Aquitaine and bore martyrdom there, adding nothing about the places and time of his gospel preaching.
[4] of the year 1636, Likewise Jean-François de Gondy, the first archbishop of this city, imitating his uncle, ordered the semidouble rite to be used for the feast of St. Lucanus in the same diocese of Paris; yet he differs in this, that he inserted in the Breviary of the year 1636 three new lessons: which (introduced into the Proper of Saints of the canons regular of St. Genevieve in the year 1665) we here subjoin:
Lesson IV. Lucanus, drawing in Aquitaine the origin both of nature and of faith, from desire of proclaiming the name of Christ came towards Orléans, thence to Paris; where, while he assailed the abominable rites of false gods and urged the pious worship of the Saviour, he was seized by the emissaries of the emperor Antoninus and brought before the judge: who straightway strictly orders him to abjure Christ and sacrifice to the gods. But the divine athlete, burning up with a greater ardour of religion, speaks out at length against the vanity of idols, extols the benefits of Christ the Redeemer, and exhorts the judge himself to lay aside the blindness of unbelief and open his eyes to the divine light offered him.
Lesson V. The savage governor, exasperated by these admonitions, orders the servant of Christ to be tortured in horrible fashion, so as to bend him by the bitterness of the punishments to the opposite opinion. But in the unconquered champion courage grows amid the torments: and by his constancy and exhortation he leads many of the bystanders to the faith. Wherefore the enemy of piety speedily adjudges him to the extreme punishment, and instructs the lictors that he be presently hurried to death.
Lesson VI. So the witness of Christ is cut down with the sword; but he gathers up his severed head in his hands, and indeed carries it in triumph as far as the place where he found the end of his struggle and the gate of eternal rest. So, having set his neck upon a rock that lay in his way, he halts his step there, and having breathed forth his spirit to heaven, lays down his sacred limbs in the same place; which thereafter, as a heap of witness and the trophy of his victory, was called the stone of Lucanus. His sacred corpse the faithful tended secretly; and afterwards, when the calm breeze of peace blew upon Christian affairs, it was brought into the sacred treasury of the church of Paris, where even now it is held in great veneration. These lessons of the year 1636 differ not a little from the lesson of the year 1584; for they report the place and time both of the gospel preaching and of the martyrdom, and they present the holy man as sprung not from the regions of the East, but from Aquitaine.
[5] of the year 1697, But François de Harlay, archbishop of Paris, bringing some changes to the same breviary in the year 1680, decreed that on the feast of St. Lucanus everything should be from the common, except the lessons of the first nocturn, which should be from the occurring Scripture. But this ordinance lasted for a short time; for in the year 1697 his successor Louis-Antoine de Noailles willed the fourth lesson of the ecclesiastical office on the feast of St. Lucanus to be this:
There exists a very ancient memorial of Lucanus in a village situated on the very borders of the people of Chartres and of Orléans, called Lucaniacum from his name: where the place consecrated by his martyrdom is called the Rock of St. Lucanus. From there his relics were long ago brought to Paris,
they were laid up in the principal church, and enclosed in a wooden casket. But in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty-six, on the third day of August, they were translated from the old casket into a gilded silver one, crowned with elegant obelisks. With such devotion has the holy martyr been venerated at Paris for several centuries that in public processions, in which, for averting the calamities of the kingdom, the body of Blessed Genevieve is carried to the church of the holy Mother of God, his casket is carried, according to very ancient usage, midway between the caskets of St. Marcellus and of the same St. Genevieve Edition of the year 1700.. Let the reader observe that in this lesson of the year 1697 only the place of the martyrdom of St. Lucanus is mentioned; but that on the other hand several notable things are reported of his sacred relics.
[6] and of the year 1736. This lesson was retained by Louis-Antoine's immediate successor, Charles-Gaspard-Guillaume de Vintimille, publishing a new Paris Breviary in the year 1736. He made it, however, the second lesson of the single nocturn. The lesson proposed by Cardinal de Noailles did not much please the canons of St. Genevieve of Paris, and they admitted it only when, in the year 1765, they took up the Paris Breviary, changing however the last part of the lesson in this way: Let his casket (that of St. Lucanus) go before the caskets of St. Marcellus and of the same St. Genevieve, according to very ancient usage. In the footsteps of Charles de Vintimille closely followed Antoine-Éléonore-Léon Leclerc de Juigné and, in the year 1822, Alexandre-Angélique de Talleyrand-Périgord, or rather his immediate successor Hyacinthe-Louis de Quelen, also archbishops of Paris, printing the Paris Breviary anew. But in the year 1872 Joseph-Hippolyte Guibert, archbishop of the same city, reintroducing the Roman Breviary into the archdiocese, prescribed for the clergy subject to him, with the approval of Pius IX, Roman pontiff, that they should celebrate the feast of St. Lucanus every year on the 30th day of October at will with semidouble rite, and recite in his honour three lessons of the second nocturn; of which the first and second are almost the same as in the Breviary of the year 1636. For the third lesson this was substituted:
There exists a very ancient memorial of the holy martyr in a village situated on the very borders of the people of Chartres and of Orléans, which they call Lucaniacum from his name; where the place consecrated by his martyrdom is called the Rock of St. Lucanus. From there his relics were long ago brought to Paris and laid up in the principal church. With such devotion was the holy martyr venerated at Paris for several centuries that in public processions, in which, for averting the calamities of the kingdom, the body of Blessed Genevieve was carried to the church of the holy Mother of God, his casket went before the caskets of St. Marcellus and of the same St. Genevieve, according to very ancient usage.
We omit, since they present nothing new, the lessons which the priests of Chartres recite in honour of the holy martyr, ever since they substituted the Roman Breviary for the Parisian. In the diocese of Orléans, which St. Lucanus traversed preaching the word of God, he is also venerated in a particular way: for he is listed among several saints, the feast of all of whom together is kept on the first Sunday of the month of August throughout the whole diocese Proper Offices of the Church of Orléans of the year 1876.. Finally he is mentioned in the martyrology which the church of Salisbury and the monastery of Syon once used.
§ II. On the Acts, martyrdom, and relics of St. Lucanus.
The Acts of St. Lucanus are not genuine. Thus far we have said hardly a word about the Acts of St. Lucanus. In the century just past they indeed belonged to the monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés at Paris: they are now deposited in the Library of the Republic in the same city. By what author, in what age, they were composed seems to be entirely unknown. They are not so recent; for the Paris codex is reported to be of the eleventh century Léopold Delisle, Inventaire des mss. de Saint-Germain des Prés, page 13.. Ruinart, to whom, being a monk of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, they were not unknown, rightly and deservedly does not list them among the genuine Acts of the martyrs. It is manifest that they were either interpolated or written from the uncertain memory of the fathers; for they are vitiated by some circumstances either false or not very credible. Hence no one will be surprised that the authors of the Paris Breviaries have made little use of them. For in them one reads that the holy man, under the emperor Antoninus, or, if you prefer, under his son-in-law and successor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, emperors who departed this life in the second century, came to Poitiers to St. Hilary, bishop of this city, and received baptism from him, although the holy doctor flourished in the middle of the fourth century. Then he is said to have carried in his own hands his head, cut off from the trunk: which seems to be accepted less willingly, because great is the number of ancient saints to whom a like miracle is related, by recent historians or biographers alone, to have fallen. But how Christians of very many nations came so easily to be persuaded of a thing of this sort has been explained by the Reverend Father Charles Cahier Caractéristiques des Saints, page 761 and following. and, long before, by our own Joseph Ghesquière, in illustrating the Life of St. Chrysolius and his companions. I for my part, he says, hardly doubt that that tradition arose from the fact that St. Chrysolius was once painted, or presented in sculpture, carrying in his hands the severed crown of his head, so that in this way the kind of death by which he completed his contest might be indicated; in just the same way, that is, in which St. Dionysius the apostle of the Gauls, St. Nicasius of Rouen, St. Desiderius, St. Justus of Auxerre, and others were once painted or sculpted carrying their severed heads in their hands, and were hence commonly believed to have carried the severed head from the place of martyrdom to another more or less distant [Acta Sanctorum of Belgium, volume I, page 141; compare Acta Sanctorum, volume I of October, page 16; volume VII of October, page 819.]. Therefore, since the Passion of St. Lucanus abounds in blunders and is written in a rather diffuse style, we subjoin only excerpts, yet omitting nothing worth relating, so that the reader of this composition, which is ancient above the rest and was partly published in the old Breviary of Quimper, may acquire an exact notion of it Royal Library of Brussels, number 8926.. In these the holy martyr, baptized by St. Hilary, is said
[8] When the emperor Antoninus of the Roman empire … was raging against the blood of Christians, … the distinguished Lucanus, sprung … from the borders of Hunia, entering the realm of the East, arrived at Poitiers… So on a certain day, having entered the church of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, in which the venerable bishop of God Hilary, raised to his office, held sway, it came about that Mass was being celebrated by the most holy man for the offence of the people. Then, when the solemnity of the Mass was finished, the glorious boy Lucanus, filled with the divine Spirit, fell at the feet of the holy man, praying and asking that he would pour the font of sacred baptism upon him. Hearing this, the most blessed bishop, presently prostrated on the ground … and rising at once from prayer, instructing the most blessed Lucanus in Catholic doctrine, himself received him from the saving font; and as soon as he was bathed in the wave, he was suddenly changed for the better. The warfare of the world is abandoned, poverty is sought. For he was ruddy of face, comely of aspect, wise in words, and prudent in behaviour. And what is greater than these things …, seeking nothing of earthly business, he gave himself over wholly to the service of God. At that same time, then, the most blessed Lucanus was associated with the blessed martyr Mammes, with whom he began to preach the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. But Blessed Memmas, finishing the course of his passion, went on to the Lord, with whom he lives laurelled through all ages of ages, amen.
[9] to have preached the gospel in the region of Orléans But Blessed Lucanus remained, like a good athlete, to fight against the weapons of the devil. So in those days, when the most impious Caesar Antoninus had received the decrees of the princes, that Christians who did not sacrifice to the gods were ordered to undergo capital sentence; then he appointed persecutors through all the provinces, that if anyone should find a Christian, he should by all means report him to his presence. So Blessed Lucanus presently made his way into the territory of Orléans, and began to preach the gospel of Christ, in order by the word of his preaching to rescue men, fashioned in the image of God, from the worship of demons, and that they should adore with devout minds one God, the maker of heaven and earth… For he had no other regular food than the eating of green herbs, and he gave cold water as drink to his weary body. On the days of Lent he provided food to his body twice in the week… The author then relates how St. Lucanus drove from a man a demon called Balsamus, who, once gone out, appeared nowhere. And all who were present, seeing it, believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, and were baptized by St. Lucanus.
[10] He is killed by the persecutors for Christ. Meanwhile, as the holy man was pressing on with the teachings of piety, and converting the people of Christ from the error of vanity, raising his eyes a little he saw his persecutors coming at a distance. Yet he did not fall silent from the word of his preaching, but exhorted the people with saving words, saying: "Behold, brothers and dearest sons, now my Lord Jesus Christ deigns to be the rewarder of my labours." When he had said this, raising his eyes to heaven and lifting his holy hands to heaven, he said with tears: "I give you thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, who have deigned to call me to the title of your dignity, and to make me a sharer with the most blessed martyrs who have suffered for your name. Deign therefore, Lord Jesus Christ, to count me in their number, and to make me an heir of the everlasting kingdom." When he had said this, he began without fear to make his way against his persecutors… And when, excessively scourged by them, he was held fast, the holy man Lucanus was neither shaken by terror nor overcome by the pain of the body, but trusting in the Lord he said: "I believe in Christ the Son of God with my heart, and I do not cease to praise him with my mouth." Then one of the soldiers, drawing his sword, the holy neck being now prepared, cut off the precious head. And as the corpse of the holy man lay lifeless, suddenly there came a voice from heaven to him saying: "Well done, good servant Lucanus; come and receive the crown which the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for you." And the most blessed martyr, taking up his own head, carried it one mile, as far as the place which is called at the Rock of Lucanus. This took place at about the third hour of the day, which is the III Kalends of November. So the men of that place came with spices, and wax tapers and lamps, and buried his body with all honour.
[11] probably about the year 177, The reader himself will easily see that, besides the errors already indicated, the Acts of St. Lucanus suffer from others as well. Nor would I have brought forward in this place such lengthy excerpts of the Acts, if the cult of the holy martyr were not so ancient and widespread. Thus, since the Passion of the blessed martyr is to be held of less account, I shall not waste time examining the opinion of those who judge that he sprang not from the regions of the East, but from Aquitaine: a controversy which, in the absence of ancient or genuine historical monuments, will perhaps never be settled. But I would have it observed that to me
the views of Tillemont [Mémoires pour servir à l'Hist. Ecclés., volume IV, St. Denis of Paris, article V, page 452, Paris edition, 1701.] and of Longueval [Hist. de l'Église Gallicane, volume I, page 112, Paris edition, 1825; compare Acta Sanctorum, volume IV of October, page 906.] are little pleasing, who judge that St. Lucanus, just like SS. Agoardus, Yon, Paxentius, Justin and Eugene, was either a disciple or a companion of St. Dionysius of Paris, and met death at about the same time, under the emperor Valerian, Aurelian or Diocletian. I would rather suspect that he suffered martyrdom under Antoninus or his son-in-law Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, agreeing to some extent with the Acts of St. Lucanus, which here are in harmony with the Paris Breviary of the year 1636 and the Gallican Martyrology of du Saussay. It does not escape me that the Acts of St. Lucanus are for the most part by no means genuine; yet some credit can be given them where they agree with other certain documents, as in this place, much less conflict with them. For Sulpicius Severus, a Gallo-Roman, speaking of the age of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, reports: Then first (that is, about the year 177) were martyrdoms seen within the Gauls, the religion of God having been taken up late beyond the Alps [Works of Sulpicius Severus. Sacred History, book II, §32, page 174, Verona edition, 1754.]. This being so, I think it should be judged that St. Lucanus departed this life at that time, though I have no argument in hand by which to confirm the conjecture.
[12] at Loigny; but then translated to Paris, The place of the martyrdom of St. Lucanus is said by all to be Loigny: a place which is reported to have received its name from its patron St. Lucanus in very remote times Lebeuf, Histoire de Paris, volume I, page 263, Cocheris edition.; but this etymology is hardly probable. The sacred bones of the holy martyr were still resting at Loigny when his Acts were committed to writing, as is plain from the end. But in what age they were translated from this parish to the cathedral church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Paris cannot be made out from any historical monument. The thought occurred that they had not yet been deposited in this church about the middle of the tenth century; for in the Catalogue of the relics of this church, which is read in a Sacramentary of that age, no mention is made of relics of St. Lucanus Mémoires des Antiquaires de France, series III, volume III, page 169.. But I would not wish to settle the matter by that single negative argument. Wherefore Jean Lebeuf is to be heard, who thinks that the relics of St. Lucanus were carried to Paris in the later ninth century, lest they should suffer harm from the invading Normans Lebeuf, volume I, page 12., at the time when those newcomers laid waste the region of Chartres with fire and sword in the year 886 Recueil des Historiens des Gaules, volume VIII, p. LXXVI and 256.. I would not venture to call this statement absurd, since not a few people at this time brought relics of saints to Paris to protect them from the outrages of the Normans [Chron. Franc. in Peigné-Delacourt, Les Normands dans le Noyonnais, page 92 and following.]. Another writer adds that the inhabitants of Loigny, when after the peace concluded between the Franks and the Normans they sought back again the sacred relics of their holy patron, were refused Dulaure, Histoire de Paris, volume I, page 264 and following.. It suffices to have touched upon these views, since documents for disputing the matter are lacking.
[13] where he is held in great honour. In what reverence the people of Paris held the relics of St. Lucanus is clear from this, that every year on the 30th day of October, the anniversary of his martyrdom, they had the solemn custom of placing them in the middle of the choir and then, a procession being formed, of carrying them through the church [C. P. G. (Gueffier), Descript. Historique des curiosités de l'Église de Paris, page 289.]; indeed we see that it was the custom that, for averting the calamities of the kingdom, they were carried round through the streets together with the relics of SS. Genevieve and Marcellus Ibid. Paris Breviaries of the years 1697 and 1736.. A sharer in this piety of the Parisians towards St. Lucanus was Pierre de Gondy, bishop of Paris, who in the month of June of the year 1571 laid his remains in a wooden casket: the front of which was of gilded silver [Gueffier, page 360; Du Breul, le théâtre des Antiquités de Paris, book I, page 29, edition of 1639.]. But on the 3rd day of August of the year 1666 the bones of St. Lucanus were translated into another casket: it was wholly of gilded silver and in the likeness of a church. Its four extremities each had an obelisk Gueffier, page 289; Paris Breviaries of the years 1667, 1736, etc.. In our age it seems to be unknown what became of these holy remains at the time of the French upheaval at the end of the eighteenth century. Questioned on this matter in the year 1869, the priest to whom the custody of the sacred relics of that church had been entrusted candidly replied that this was unknown to him up to that time.