ON ST. PIGMENIUS, CONFESSOR AND BISHOP, VENERATED AT AUTUN IN GAUL,
CommentaryPigmenius, confessor and pontiff, at Autun in the Gauls. (S.)
Single §. The name of this saint seems to have arisen from a distorted mention of St. Benignus of Dijon in the Hieronymian lists.
V. D. B. Why this writing is set down by way of appendix. St. Pigmenius, bishop and confessor at Autun in Gaul, relying on the tablets or liturgical calendar of the church of Autun and the common index of bishops, Ferrari celebrated today in his General Catalogue Catalogus gener. SS., p. 426, Venice 1625. , and after him Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology Martyrologium Gallic., p. 1188 f., Paris 1637. , Châtelain in the Universal Martyrology Martyrologe universel, p. 552, Paris 1709. , and other more recent writers. According to these our colleague, Fr. Joseph Van Hecke, had written a brief sylloge; whose opinion, although
I would not dare to approve, I should yet not wish (as the matter is most difficult) to conceal from the reader. But because the writing does not seem to be printed either among the Passed-Over, or among the Commentaries on the saints, as belonging to neither class, it will appear out of order and by way of appendix.
[1] [J. V. H. Concerning Pigmenius, who seems wrongly to have been called bishop of Autun,] The office of St. Pigmenius, bishop, is prescribed with semidouble rite at the 30th day of October in the liturgical calendar of Autun of the year 1829. But of that prelate, whom the more recent martyrologies commemorate at the following day, nothing has become known besides the bare name. In the Gallia christiana published at Paris in the year 1626, Claude Robert makes Pigmenius the eighth bishop of Autun, namely midway between Ægemonius or Igomonus, and Simplicius P. 198. . The same was handed down by Claude Saulnier in the year 1686 Autun chrestien, p. 10. . But when in the year 1656 the brothers Sainte-Marthe published the Gallia christiana reworked with new care, they were altogether silent about St. Pigmenius Cf. vol. II, p. 28. . Him likewise the Benedictines of St. Maur omitted, who in the year 1715 undertook a greater work on the churches of the Gauls Cf. Gallia christiana, vol. IV, col. 333 ff., Paris, 1728. . No reason can be given for this silence, except that the erudite men judged the Autun episcopate of St. Pigmenius to be fictitious. Since therefore there is no suitable testimony for which St. Pigmenius may be believed to have presided over the Æduan Church, I suppose that he is to be held a prelate of uncertain see: for he is consistently called bishop, even today, and as bishop he is adorned with ecclesiastical cult.
[2] nothing has become known besides his cult. In the History of the Church of Autun, written in French in the year 1774 by a canon of the same Church, we read this of Pigmenius Histoire de l'Église d'Autun, p. 17, Autun 1774. : The name of Pigmenius (who is also called Primus or Priminus,) is not found except in the Augmentations of the martyrologies of St. Jerome, of Usuard and of other more recent writers. There is no sufficiently firm reason why he should be numbered among the Æduan bishops. The ancient catalogues and breviaries of Autun by no means record him. He seems to have been inscribed in the place of St. Primus, bishop of Alexandria. Here assuredly Alexandria in Egypt is signified: for although there are several cities so named, yet that one, as the chief, is to be understood when Alexandria is brought forward without addition. Now in the series of patriarchs of Alexandria which our Sollier edited, there occurs one prelate named Primus, more rightly Ephrem, who departed this life in the year 119 Acta SS., vol. V June, p. XIX and 16*. . This being omitted, it could have happened that some Greek bishop came to Autun, since it is established that the Church of Lyon, of which Autun was a part, formerly had Greek prelates Gallia christ., vol. IV, col. 4, Paris 1728. . Indeed among the first Æduan bishops St. Cassian is numbered, who is reported as an Egyptian, or rather an Alexandrian. Although his Acts, illustrated by Sollier Acta SS., vol. II Aug., p. 59. Cf. Histoire de l'Église d'Autun, p. 12. , are mixed with many fables, yet no one has proved false the tradition of the people of Autun, who suppose that St. Cassian originated from Egypt. In like manner St. Pigmenius, a bishop of another see, could have obtained burial at Autun, and in the course of time have crept into the index of the prelates. He will have lived, if the conjectures of some are to be stood by, after St. Ægemonius and before Simplicius, and accordingly about the beginning of the fifth century.
V. D. B. The name seems to have arisen from an error of copyists. There is scarcely need for the reader to be advised how uncertain those things are. To us, however, inspecting the Hieronymian lists of the 1st day of November and comparing the various copies with one another, it seems most probable that there was first written there: Augustoduni in Gallia, in Lingonica civitate, castro Divione, S. Benigni PRIMI episcopi et martyris [At Autun in Gaul, in the city of Langres, at the fortress of Dijon, of St. Benignus, first bishop and martyr]; which mention is variously disturbed and distorted in other codices, the word PRIMI being changed into presbyteri, Pirmini, Pinminii and Pigminii. If the aforesaid writer had come upon these, I do not doubt that he would have suspected with me that from this error of copyists arose that Pigmenius, unknown to the Æduan historians. And that he is venerated on the day before, or the 31st day of October, is no wonder, since the 1st day of November is occupied by the feast of All Saints. But let it suffice to have briefly indicated this conjecture, since at that next day the mentions from the Hieronymian martyrologies are to be edited: the view of which seems likely to serve almost as a proof. One thing we add at this place, that in the recent liturgical calendars of the diocese of Autun the name and cult of Pigmenius are no longer met.