ON ST. VINCENT OF BESALÚ, PRESBYTER AND MARTYR,
AT BESALÚ IN CATALONIA.
CommentaryVincent, presbyter, M., at Besalú in Catalonia. (S.)
J. P.
Besides the public cult, Bisuldunum, by its common name Besalú, is situated in the territory of Girona in the principality of Catalonia; of which Baudrand, giving a more distinct account, says: a town on the river Fluvià, at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains. It once had counts of its own of great name, before it obeyed the counts of Barcelona: it is 7 leagues distant from the shore of the Mediterranean sea to the west, as also 8 from Roses, and 5 from Girona to the north, and 12 toward Perpignan. It is praised at greater length by Antonio Domenec in his General History of the Saints and of Men Illustrious for Holiness in the said principality of Catalonia, in which he treats of this holy presbyter and martyr on the first day of September; whose body, after many centuries had passed, he asserts to have been carried thither, and to have been placed in the parish church there of the same name, and that God there without doubt bestows great graces through his intercession: that his feast is celebrated at Besalú on the first Sunday of September, and that on that day the priests read of this saint. And the collect which is recited in the Mass and in the day Office he assigns as this one from the common: Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that we who keep the translation of blessed Vincent thy martyr may by his intercession be strengthened in the love of thy name. Through our Lord, etc.
[2] The husbandmen of the territory and parish of Besalú, on the testimony of the same Domenec, hold him as their patron: and the priests who saw the history of this saint, almost nothing is known of this martyr. which was lost a little while ago, as he adds, affirm that it was recorded in it that he is patron against tempest: and likewise that that territory, anciently afflicted with hailstone and hail, was freed from such an evil after that sacred body had come thither. Ferrarius also announces this St. Vincent as a presbyter and martyr in his General Catalogue, from the records of the church of Girona, as he indicates in his notes; and he affirms that he was wont to be celebrated on the first Sunday of September in the town of Besalú. From what has been said it is plain that almost everything which pertains to this saint is obscure, if you except only the public cult. Who then this Vincent may be, we have no better ascertained now than what sort of man was that martyr and presbyter of the same name whom we placed among the Prætermissi on the twenty-second day of January. On the same day we treated of the Vincent who suffered at Girona, and of the martyr of the same name, archdeacon of Zaragoza. But whether some notable part of the body of either was translated to the people of Besalú, I cannot even suspect with sufficient foundation, since neither is called by us a presbyter, nor do I know whence, at what time, or from whom the people of Besalú obtained that sacred deposit; nor do I know whether the whole body, or a lesser or greater part of it, is kept among them. I have therefore judged that the things which I have found written long since by others concerning this saint should be transcribed hither.