ON ST. BOSSIANUS, CONFESSOR, IN THE DIOCESE OF LAON IN GAUL,
NOT AFTER THE YEAR DCCCLXXXVI.
His cult; whether this Saint is distinct from another of almost the same name.
Bossianus, confessor, in the diocese of Laon in Gaul. (S.)
Written by J. P.
Laon, whose name is written in French Laon, but pronounced Lan, an episcopal city of Gaul in the province of the Île-de-France, A distinct description of the place in which he is venerated. suffragan to the archbishop of Reims, has a village in its diocese in which this Saint is in public veneration, as our Father Bollandus testifies: who in a certain sheet, among several others concerning the Saints for the first day of September preserved among us, left us in his own hand the memory of St. Bossianus, bishop, with the month of September noted beforehand, without the day of that same month. And he then describes the place of his cult thus: At Reneville, a village of the diocese of Laon on the Serre, which flows into the Oise of the Fère, gliding past Montcornet and Marle, St. Bossianus is venerated as a remedy for the colic. Nor does he add more. In Castellan's Universal Martyrology, among the Saints without a day, that is, who have no fixed day, on page 765, there is placed Botthianus, and it is added that his body is honored at Saint-Vincent of Laon, which is a monastery of the Order of St. Benedict at that same city. Is this Bothianus the same as Bossianus? The likeness of the name and the places of the same diocese of Laon seem to persuade that two Saints are not designated here.
[2] Mabillon in tome 3 of the Benedictine Annals, at the year 886, number 3, writing of the translation of St. Bothianus, St. Bothianus or Botianus, who among the monks of St. Vincent of Lyons, records this: The same fury of the Northmen compelled the canons of Pierrepont in the district of Laon to flee with the body of St. Botthianus or Botianus to bishop Dido, who placed them in the suburban basilica of St. Vincent, then destitute of monks. There exists on this matter a charter of the same Dido, in which he himself says that with the consent of clerics and laymen he placed the body of St. Botthianus, confessor of Christ, which on account of the aforesaid infestation could not stand quietly in its own church, together with its canons, who by fleeing hither and thither were failing and perishing, in the church of St. Vincent the martyr, where they might remain perpetually; and that he assigned them all the goods belonging to the church of St. Botthianus, that from these goods the canons, twelve in number, might have what was necessary for food and clothing. "Done at Laon, Mons Clavatus, in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord J. C. DCCCLXXXVI, in the fourth Indiction, on the fourth day before the Ides of May, in the second year of the most glorious lord Charles, emperor augustus, grandson of the great Charles the emperor," namely the Bald … Things being made calm, the canons of Pierrepont returned to their own with the body of St. Botthianus: on which matter a controversy afterwards arose in the time of abbot Berlandus, who demanded back the sacred deposit from the canons of Pierrepont.
[3] But in what manner that controversy was settled and afterwards rested among the canons of Pierrepont, is held from a diploma in Marlot, tome 2 of the Metropolis of Reims, page 31, from which place Mabillon reports the matter at the year 980, number 104: Already, he says, Louis had been taken by his father Lothar into a share of the Frankish principate; when the venerable Berlandus, abbot of the monastery of St. Vincent of Laon, earnestly asked Adalbero, bishop of that city, that, according to the privilege which bishop Dido had granted to that same monastery.., the body of St. Botianus should remain perpetually in that same place with the canons of the church of Pierrepont, who had betaken themselves thither with the aforesaid sacred body on account of the infestation of the pagans: but who, things being pacified, had returned to their former see. But Adalbero .., thinking it hard that the town of Pierrepont should be bereft of its patron, and unwilling to frustrate the men of St. Vincent's of the privilege granted, decreed that the body of St. Botianus should remain in the church of the aforesaid stronghold .., but that that church with its goods should be subject to the monastery of St. Vincent… To these letters, which in the printed texts are destitute of chronological notes, there subscribes Adalbero, archbishop of Reims, and after him Adalbero himself, bishop of Laon, as may be seen in Marlot cited above.
[4] does not seem to be different We have therefore from what has been premised three different places, namely the monastery of St. Vincent of Laon, and Pierrepont, about three French miles distant thence, according to the geographical map which I use; add the village of Reneville, situated, as Bollandus testifies above, in the same diocese of Laon, and about six French miles distant from Pierrepont: which places furnish me a not improbable argument for suspecting that in places so near of the same diocese no other Saint is to be sought than Bossianus, otherwise Bothianus or Botianus; almost daily experience teaching us that the names of Saints are very often formed in different ways for the same men. And indeed could it not easily have happened that the public cult of the same Saint was propagated from the men of Pierrepont to those of Reneville, especially if some relics from his body were translated thither, or if the mere fame of his name was spread abroad there, the religious affection of the inhabitants and neighbors toward that same Saint being chiefly increased, because they had experienced his patronage in mitigating or removing the torments of the colic?
[5] from St. Bossianus, who is venerated in the village of Reneville. Nor should you say that this Saint is called in the alleged diploma a confessor, but not a bishop, as Bollandus above called him. For although Bollandus learned this title of episcopal dignity from somewhere, since he sets it to the Saint before his above-mentioned announcement; yet he does not expressly repeat it in the announcement itself, but only says: At Reneville .. St. Bossianus is venerated. But grant that the same title is to be understood there; can it be legitimately enough deduced from that alone, brought in perhaps by common tradition, that two Saints are to be set here, when for a single one those agreements which I brought forward before make war? Meanwhile there is this good in my conjectures, that if at some time it be proved that the one is to be distinguished from the other, there has been treatment of each in the present place, since perhaps the occasion of doing this would never return afterwards. Bollandus above assigned him to the month of September without a day: which, since I do not know it from elsewhere, I have judged myself free to treat of him on this day. Of the time of his death I have nothing ascertained whence I might distinctly determine it. That he died before the year 886 I gather from the chronological reckonings at number 3.