ON ST. AGRICOLUS, BISHOP AND PATRON OF AVIGNON IN GAUL,
IN GAUL,
In the year DCC, as is reported.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Agricolus, conf., bishop and patron of Avignon in Gaul. (S.)
BY J. S.
§ I. The lawful and famous cult of the Saint among the people of Avignon.
[ ] Although the memory of St. Agricolus,
bishop of Avignon, is neither read inscribed in the ancient
Martyrologies, nor has hitherto been inserted
in the present Roman one, The Saint's memory announced in the fifteenth century, yet his lawful
veneration, sufficiently ancient, is established,
and most of the more recent martyrologists have commemorated him.
Our Ms. Florarium at the 2nd of September has thus: Likewise of the holy
bishops Colmann and Agricola of the city of Avennica.
Avignon in St. Gregory of Tours and others
is called the city of Avennica, so that there seems no doubt
that that writer of the fifteenth century meant to designate St. Agricolus
of Avignon, of whom we treat. But I do not perceive with sufficient certainty
whom he means by Colmann, bishop of Avignon, joined to him;
since I find no one of that name among the bishops
of Avignon. I suspect, however, that St. Magnus,
Agricolus's father and predecessor, is designated, whom perhaps he found
recorded with St. Agricolus, and whose name he dislocated,
as the same writer not seldom does elsewhere. Certainly
this conjecture appears to me likely, both
because that hagiologist does not elsewhere announce St. Magnus
of Avignon, and because of both Saints
the bodies were translated together and joined in the fourteenth
century, as we shall see: for this may have been the reason
why the said writer commemorated them together
on this day.
[2] Greven in the Supplements to Usuard on the same
day announces the holy Bishop in these words: and commonly among more recent writers: a sufficiently ancient cult,
Of Agricolus, bishop of Avignon and confessor.
Saussay wove a prolix elogium from the Acts,
but from it I here transfer only the last
part, which pertains to the Saint's cult and his
posthumous glory: Afterwards, he says, on account of the frequent
flashings of miracles by which he perpetually supports the city
and its citizens, together with the precious body of saint
Magnus his father, his venerable bones
were translated to the church of the glorious Virgin: thence
carried to the sacred church of his own name,
which is marked by a body of canons,
and often enclosed in more adorned caskets: at last
laid in silver cases beneath the greater altar,
they are observed with that religion which is fitting. The citizens experience
daily the power of so great a Protector,
by whose most powerful patronage the city of Avignon itself
is believed to have been preserved hitherto, both often from destruction
and above all from the plague of heresy. Two things
in these must be corrected, namely the asserted translation
to the church of the blessed Virgin, in which the Saint was buried
from the beginning; and what is then said of the silver cases.
The same Saint is announced today by Ferrari
in the General Catalogue, by the new Paris Martyrology,
by Menard in the Benedictine Martyrology,
and by others, whose words there is no need
to bring forward. [ ] the Saint at Avignon on the 2nd day of September
as patron, various men confirm who have written of
the bishops of Avignon; and the antiquity of his cult
will be clear from the Acts to be given below.
[3] and most famous, as of the patron of the city of Avignon: Various observations on the Life, relics,
and cult of St. Agricolus have lately been most kindly sent to us
by the very Reverend lord de
Brantes, treasurer and penitentiary of the metropolitan church
of Avignon. From these I transfer to this place his observations concerning the Saint's present cult:
First, St. Agricolus is not patron of the diocese
of Avignon, but of the city only. His feast
is celebrated with a double rite of the first class with
an Octave, and is to be celebrated with cessation
from servile work: The most excellent vice-legate, he says
in French, who is the vicar of the supreme Pontiff
and governor of the city, accompanied by all
the courtiers and the lord consuls, with solemn
state assists at first Vespers, and on the next day at the Mass
solemnly sung: and the concourse of people
to the Saint's church is very great. Toward evening
the Saint's head is carried round in a long procession of suppliants;
and on their return the blessing of the venerable Sacrament is given.
About the beginning of night, at the expense
of the city, artificial fires are set up, with which
the feast is ended.
[4] As regards the Saint's Office, only the church marked with his name
uses a proper Office. The ancient Office, for which a new one was lately substituted:
In the other churches of the city the common Office
is recited. Some of these recite in the second nocturn
three lessons drawn from the Life, but others
all from the common. I have in hand
the Saint's Office, printed at Avignon in the year 1671,
which was said in his church. It has in the second
nocturn lessons from the Life for the whole Octave.
But those lessons are the very Acts which we shall give,
so that there is no need to transfer anything from them hither.
The antiphons indeed, hymns, responsories,
and chapters frequently allude to the Saint's patronage and his
benefits, but contain no facts
which are not read in the Acts. This Office
a few years ago Francis Maurice de Gonteri, archbishop of Avignon,
who died in the year 1742, abrogated
and substituted a new one, on the testimony of the said de Brantes.
That new Office, by the archbishop's command,
Francis Anselme, canon of the church of St. Agricolus, composed,
and it began to be used in the year 1741. The hymns
of this Office communicated to us I shall set before the eyes of readers,
since they contain those deeds of the Saint
which the men of Avignon believe more certain.
[5] The hymn at Matins:
The shadows flee away, we rise more swiftly; from which hymns are given, in which his deeds before the episcopate,
Sliding into the darkness the day comes on:
Let the angels applaud Agricolus with songs,
While we sing a holy melody.
Offspring of Magnus, of the race of the Albii,
He casts away and flees the delights of the world,
Keeping the seeds of virtues which his father
Sowed in the depths of his heart.
An island noble enough in fame upon the sea,
Where Gaul nourished holy prelates:
Religion and faith dwell in these seats;
Thither he swiftly flies.
Whither, holy one? Do you thus forsake your own?
Avignon calls you with vows, seeks you out.
You make illustrious by your merits, and cherish by your prayers.
Return to us more swiftly.
Returning, he is soon set as the eye * over the clergy,
He opens the sacred treasures to the poor,
Feeds the widows entrusted to him, and, whole,
Now plays the prelude to a bishop.
To the one Lord be perpetual honor,
Who now blesses Agricolus with his gaze,
That he may set us among the citizens of heaven,
Who are citizens of our fatherland.
[6] At Lauds:
Light rises for us, the fiery sun gleams: in the episcopate,
Peoples, utter a festal song;
Let organs be fitted to companion voices,
And resound with sweet sound.
Presently Magnus is anointed bishop,
And, full of merits, enters the heavenly places:
The Son is clothed with the sacred fillets,
The deserving heir of his father.
A marvel, with what authority he rules the peoples:
The Shepherd knows his sheep, instructs them by his manners,
Recalls them by his examples, watchful night and day,
Begets little sons for Christ.
Holy faith grows, a new people is born,
Then he consecrates the walls of a temple to the Lord,
Increases it with revenues, enriches it, and unknowing
Now prepares a temple for himself.
Ah, grief! The lovable Prelate is snatched away,
The Shepherd, delight, the Shepherd, love of the flock:
Presently entering heaven, into the choirs of those above
His happy spirit flies away.
To the one Lord, etc., as above.
[7] and his miracles are recorded; At both Vespers:
Him whom in heaven the hosts of heaven celebrate,
Whom on earth the mouths of the faithful resound,
Happy Avignon, know your Bishop,
Your citizen and son.
Now the highest glory of the Godhead blesses you;
God, all love, unfolds himself to your mind:
Relics shine on altars with lamps,
Honor is for the sacred bones.
You are the pillar of the city in hard things:
Rains flow of their own accord at your will;
The earth bears harvests, the vineyard buds,
When you command the clouds.
Countless storks lay waste the fields,
They foul the city with pestilent serpents:
These you remove by command, whereby as the Father's gift
We now know the birds.
Impious heresy rages, vomiting falsehoods,
Tries to spread through the flock in wedges:
You watch for us, protect the walls,
And put them to flight with wondrous torches.
All these things will receive light from the Acts to be published below.
And the storks are called the Father's, that is, St. Agricolus's,
birds, because the Saint bears them as his arms,
who is painted with a stork in the image sent to us.
[8] antiphons and a collect, which indicate the Saint's patronage, To these at last I add some antiphons. At
the Magnificat in first Vespers this occurs: Today
Agricolus ascends to heaven, today holy solemnities
are kept throughout the city: let our land rejoice,
glorious in his birthday. At the Benedictus in Lauds:
I am upon the watchtower of the Lord, standing
continually by day: and I am upon my watch,
standing all nights. At the Magnificat in second
Vespers: This is the Priest of the Most High, who
ever prays for his people to the Lord, and
in the time of tribulation was made a reconciliation.
Finally the collect of the Office is this: O God, who
hast granted to us, for the manifesting of the glory of this city, blessed Agricolus,
thy confessor and bishop,
as fellow-citizen and patron: mercifully grant
that we may so be ever defended by his patronage
that, having effectually obtained what we ask, we may deserve to be
his fellow-citizens in heaven. Through, etc. Thus far concerning the Office,
from which I judge that no more should be taken.
[9] which is chiefly implored for obtaining rain or fair weather: That the Saint's patronage is chiefly invoked to obtain
rain or fair weather,
and that his head is for this cause carried round in procession,
the Acts briefly suggest at n. 12, and we shall confirm it
further. But it must be observed
that there were various translations of the Sacred body,
which we shall discuss in chronological order after
the chronology of his deeds. And in one of the first
translations the Saint's head was placed separately.
Of this head the often-mentioned lord
de Brantes writes thus: As regards the head
of St. Agricolus, it was wrapped in a cloth woven with golden
threads, and enclosed in a half-length statue of gilded
silver, which is exposed for veneration and
is carried round by suppliants. The figure of that half-length
statue I have given to our engraver to be cut in copper,
but reduced to a smaller form,
that it might be more conveniently inserted in the volume. Thus therefore
I here exhibit it.
[10] Receive now with what ceremonies the men of Avignon use
for obtaining rain or fair weather: a procession with the Saint's head customarily instituted for this cause
In public necessities, says
Lord de Brantes, and especially for obtaining fair weather,
or still more for obtaining rain
(for rain is rare in this region,
and drought frequent), our Saint's head is carried round
in a long procession of suppliants, or it alone
is exposed in his church for the veneration of the faithful.
The lord consuls for this cause approach
the most illustrious lord archbishop,
and signify to him that necessity requires that
the venerable head of St. Agricolus be exposed or carried round.
The prelate at their prayers writes out a mandate,
which those lords take care to have exhibited
to the dean and canons of the church of St. Agricolus,
that they may obey the mandate. When the procession of suppliants
is arranged, a Sunday or feast day is commonly chosen
for this ceremony. The confraternity
of the White Penitents and the chapter of St. Agricolus
precede the relics, which are carried under a canopy,
and which a vast multitude of people follows.
[11] First the relics are carried to the metropolitan church
of St. Mary of the Doms, with the ceremonies here described, where the most illustrious
lord archbishop, clothed in pontifical
ornaments, with the metropolitan chapter assisting,
receives them at the door, and venerates them
with a threefold incensing. When they have come to
the middle of the church, the prelate repeats the same incensing.
Finally, when the relics have come to the sanctuary,
they are placed on the archiepiscopal throne,
where again with a repeated threefold incensing the archbishop
honors them. Then is sung the antiphon
of the blessed Virgin, Holy Mary, succor the wretched,
or another suited to the season,
with a fitting versicle and collect. Afterwards
for St. Agricolus is sung the antiphon, PRIEST
AND BISHOP, with a versicle and collect, and to this
is added another fitting the necessity for which
the procession is instituted. These being sung, the relics
are carried back, the archbishop accompanying, and with the same
incensings used with which they had been received,
namely in the sanctuary, in the middle of the church,
and at the door. After this the suppliants proceed
to the church of the Celestines, and the head of St. Agricolus
is carried into this church before the altar
and the tomb of B. Peter of Luxemburg, who is another
protector of this city (of whom we have treated in our work
at the 2nd of July). The head of B. Peter of Luxemburg
is exposed upon his altar, and the canons
of St. Agricolus approach one by one to honor him
with a reverent kiss. Almost the same honors are shown
in this church to St. Agricolus as in the metropolitan.
Then the relics are carried back to their own church;
and the whole ceremony is closed with the blessing of the most holy
Sacrament. Thus far
de Brantes, who also sent the hymn which is sung
in the procession of suppliants.
[12] To the hymn this title is prefixed: A hymn to be sung
at the procession, the hymn which is wont to be sung by the suppliants. both on the feast day
and for obtaining rain or fair weather.
And this is the text of the hymn:
O Bishop, dwelling on high Olympus,
Pillar and glory of our city,
Ever-watchful guardian, receive the vows
Of your calling fatherland.
Behold, you are celebrated throughout the whole city,
We sing a holy triumph for your bones:
The citizens give incense, and with many torches
The shrine shines forth.
A friend by your merits of the highest Godhead,
You turn aside his heavy wrath and mind;
You, favoring our vows, drive back
The weapons hostile to us.
For rain this verse is to be recited:
The sun burns upon the lands, and the sorrowful thirst:
Let a plenteous cloud drip from heaven:
The meadows will laugh, and the crops will rise,
The grape will redden.
While supplication is made for fair weather, this is to be said:
The sky is clouded, let calm return;
Roll back the golden face of the sun:
You are powerful to drive from heaven the clouds
Heavy with waters.
Then, one or the other being said, thus it goes on:
We hasten to your sacred house,
Favor kindly the vows of your citizens:
Grant the gifts of the present life, the pledges
Of the life to come. Amen.
All these things abundantly show with how great piety
St. Agricolus is venerated at Avignon, and how great is
the confidence of the men of Avignon in his patronage. Now
I set about examining the authority of the Acts and the order of his deeds.
Annotata*. archdeacon
§ II. The Saint's Life written by a more recent pen, but probably from older monuments: such chronology of his deeds as there is.
[ ] The Saint's Life written toward the end of the sixteenth century, The Life of St. Agricolus Vincent Barrali first published
in the Chronology of the Saints of the island
of Lérins from p. 321, and prefixed to it this title:
The Life and deeds of saint Agricola, bishop
of Avignon and monk of Lérins, from a most ancient
manuscript of the church of Lérins and of Avignon.
The same Life was reprinted in Surius
at the 2nd of September, and the same title prefixed. The same
also, divided into lessons, is read in the Office
of St. Agricolus composed for the Octave, and published
at Avignon in the year 1671 for the use of the church of the said
Saint, and there again at the beginning it is repeated as
from a most ancient manuscript. Nevertheless it is clear
from the Life itself that it was not composed until
the end of the sixteenth century, since the author at n. 13 mentions
deeds of the year 1574, which he testifies that he saw.
Denis de Sainte-Marthe in vol. 1 of the Gallia Christiana,
col. 801, having recited this writer's words
about the place of burial, which is now called the chapel of the rosary,
thus subjoins: Which words prove that the writer
of the Life of St. Agricolus given by Barrali is recent, which indeed
I already suspected from many modes of speaking
used in this Work, which truly savor little
of antiquity. Mabillon in vol. 1 of the Annals, p. 598, without much
inquiry declares that these Acts are of a more recent author.
And indeed there can be no doubt of this matter:
for the author himself indicates his age
by the words already given, and everywhere uses the same style,
so that we cannot judge that the later things were afterwards
added by some other man, but it must necessarily be said
that this Life was written toward the end of the sixteenth century.
[14] This age of the writer can win little authority
for the Life of St. Agricolus, and therefore is of little authority; especially since
we have no ancient monuments by which we can confirm
its assertions and the chronological order which
it has framed. It is indeed likely
that certain ancient monuments concerning the deeds of St. Agricolus
were preserved in the church of Avignon,
and this must altogether be believed, lest we be compelled
to say that all was invented by an impostor.
Nay rather it is not improbable that some Life
of St. Agricolus was in the hands of this writer,
and that it was enlarged and arranged by him in that
method and style in which we have this one. Nevertheless, even
if this were certain, even so it would remain wholly
uncertain how exactly the older Life was written,
and at what time its author flourished;
and we should be equally ignorant what had formerly been
written, and what added by the modern author;
and finally whether he followed the older monuments with sufficient
criticism, or mingled in nothing from uncertain and slight conjectures,
nothing from popular traditions. Certainly many things
are asserted in this Life which, though not altogether unheard of,
yet shrink from ordinary usage:
but others are affirmed which are of themselves little
probable; others which cannot be confirmed from elsewhere,
and seem written from mere conjecture.
The chronological order, which has been composed not without industry,
was probably wholly drawn from conjectures
by the modern writer, and therefore appears plainly
uncertain.
[15] Mabillon in the place just assigned attacks the chronology
of this Life from the Privilege of the monastery of Grasse,
the chronology of the Life attacked from the privilege of Grasse: which he published in the Appendix of that same
volume, p. 698, and thus reasons: Four
years ago we reported the first letters of the monastery of Grasse,
to which all the bishops of the metropolis of Arles subscribe,
to which then the church of Avignon, now metropolitan, was subject:
but among the subscribers there is no Agricolus,
to the likeness of whose name none of these
comes nearer than Agliacus, nay in the subscription
Aghiacus. The said Denis de Sainte-Marthe weighs Mabillon's argument in these
words: Concerning the credit of this author suspicion is cast
by the privilege of the monastery of Grasse, which
Mabillon published in vol. 1 of the Annals, p. 698. To this
privilege given by Petroinus, bishop of Vaison,
the metropolitan of Arles subscribes with all
his suffragans, of whose number then
was the bishop of Avignon. The time of the privilege granted
is referred to the Xth year of King Theodoric,
in which St. Agricolus was sitting; for this year
answers to the six hundred and eighty-fourth of Christ.
Nevertheless no Agricolus is read subscribed to this privilege:
whence a suspicion of forgery arises.
But it is by no means certain that the names of the bishops
which are read at the end of the privilege of Grasse
are those of the suffragans of the archbishop of Arles
rather than of other neighboring prelates;
nor does Mabillon assert it, save from mere
conjecture. Besides, after Wolbert, whom
we think was archbishop of Arles, because he subscribed first,
there is read Aglicus (Aghiacus)
the bishop, who perhaps is the same as Agricola of Arles:
for r could easily be changed into l, which
two letters are liquids and very akin; and from
Agricus was made Agriculus, Agricolus. If Mabillon's argument stood,
the whole chronology of the Life would fall.
But besides what Sainte-Marthe answered, it can further
be said that that Privilege is of an authority as uncertain
as is the Life of St. Agricolus;
since it is strange that of the nine bishops whose names are subscribed,
not one is known from elsewhere even by the same name.
Wherefore I do not see why that privilege should stand in the way
of the Life, if the latter were older and of better stamp.
[16] [Other writers who have treated of St. Agricolus, of whose deeds a certain chronology cannot be given:] The aforesaid Life two other writers imitated,
one an Italian, the other a Gaul, who in their own
vernacular tongue published a Life of St. Agricolus.
The Italian was printed at Naples in the year 1626, and adds nothing
to the preceding but ornament of speech,
which it distinguishes with various texts of sacred Scripture.
But the French one, published at Avignon in the year 1651, added
an illustrious miracle done in the writer's own age,
which we shall report below from him. Of the deeds
of St. Agricolus there have also discoursed Franciscus Nouguier
in the History of the church and prelates of Avignon
from p. 23; Charles Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks;
Sebastiano Fantoni Castrucci in the History of the city of Avignon written
in Italian, p. 300; and finally, to omit others,
Denis de Sainte-Marthe, already praised. All these
followed the said Life, and arranged almost the whole
chronology from it, correcting, however,
some heads. I confess indeed that what is said in it
concerning the year of his death and certain other matters pertaining to the Saint
cannot be convicted of open falsity.
But at the same time I assert that this foundation is not solid,
and therefore that a certain chronology cannot be woven,
even with whatever corrections are applied. For who
could draw a certain conclusion from uncertain premises? Who
could arrange all things in a certain order, where the year of his birth
and of his death, the time of his entering the episcopate and its length,
the beginning and end of the monastic life,
and finally all the heads of chronology seem equally
uncertain, and asserted by the biographer from mere
conjectures? For this cause it must here be sought
what appears nearer the truth, not what is certain
and undoubted, since almost nothing certain can be found.
[17] yet such an order of his deeds and times as there is is given, which Le Cointe Divine Agricolus, says the biographer at n.
1, about the six hundred and thirtieth year of the Lord's Incarnation,
Honorius being supreme Pontiff and Clothair reigning in Gaul, …
was born at Avignon. The assigned year of Christ
agrees with the pontificate of Honorius I; but it does not agree
with the reign of Clothair 11, since he died in the year
628, as writers commonly hand down. The writer therefore erred
either in assigning the reign of Clothair,
or in setting the year 630. Who now shall define
whether he erred in the year, or in the reign of Clothair?
Le Cointe at the year 627, n. 2, having brought forward the same
words of the Life, solves the doubt more easily than more solidly,
when he subjoins the following: But those three characters
cannot agree together, because Clothair
died in the six hundred and twenty-eighth year of Christ.
Better therefore shall we refer the birth of Agricolus
to this year, the six hundred and twenty-seventh of Christ
… The life of Agricolus, which others
bound within a course of seventy years, we shall prolong
to the seventy-third year, and by an addition of three years
shall define the time passed over by the author
of the Life, in which Agricolus held the archdeaconry
in the church of Avignon. In the rest
we shall agree with the same writer and with Barrali,
for we shall set the pious withdrawal of Agricolus into the island of Lérins
in the fourteenth year of his age, his return after
sixteen years, then a three-year archdeaconry,
and lastly shall subjoin an episcopate of forty years. If an arbitrary
chronology suffices for anyone, provided it does not conflict with itself,
he can admit this Cointian one, as Sebastiano
Fantoni Castrucci did.
[18] But such a method of ordering times
has never pleased me, tried in vain to correct, since all things are too uncertain, and never will. I ask for reasons
why I should judge that the writer erred in one thing rather
than in the other. Where no reasons occur,
I hold that nothing should be defined. But here
no reason offers itself which favors Le Cointe:
but rather the Saint's age is against him, which
the biographer defines at seventy years at n. 8, so
that he would have erred twice on Le Cointe's opinion. But I confess
that that reason too is of small moment, and that it is uncertain
to me whether the writer may not have gone astray by many more years
than the three set by Le Cointe.
Further, he goes on to weave the chronology at n. 2
in this manner: In his fourteenth year he embraced the monastic life
in the monastery of Lérins.
That therefore must have happened about the year 644.
That he lived there sixteen years he says at n. 3; and
then that he was initiated into sacred Orders and made
archdeacon. Those years lead to the year
660, about which, according to the biographer's reckoning, these things
must have been done. Nevertheless the same writer at n.
4 affirms that the Saint was declared bishop in the year
of the Lord six hundred and fiftieth beginning,
that is, a whole decade earlier than the chronology requires,
not only of the preceding but also of the following
facts: for at n. 6 he joins the sixty-second year
of his age with the thirty-second of his episcopate,
and at n. 8 he says that his death happened
in the year of the Lord seven hundred, at the end
of the seventieth year of his age, and the fortieth
of the pontificate he had entered upon. The whole reckoning of the biographer
therefore requires that we should say, in his opinion, that he was made
bishop about the year 660; and this is affirmed by
the said Le Cointe, Castrucci, and Sainte-Marthe.
[19] They probably believed that in the Life for
the fiftieth year the sixtieth should be read, and the biographer's slips may indeed seem;
and not rashly, as is clear from what has been said. But at the same time hence
it is plain how ineptly the biographer joined the years
of Christ with the years of the kings of the Franks, and how
uncertain his whole chronology is. For at n.
4 he has thus: Without delay, Agricolus is sought
by the mouth of all, by the vows of all. Dagobert himself … holds
this acceptable. And so at the beginning of the six hundred and fiftieth
year of the Lord, Dagobert having meanwhile died,
and Clovis II reigning, he is by the common reckoning of all declared
successor to his holy father … in the episcopal see. Dagobert's
death some tie to the year 638, others to 644. How
then did Dagobert hold the election of Agricolus
acceptable? How was he declared bishop
a short time after his death, if he was elected
in the year 660? You see, I think, reader, how little
our writer is to be trusted, who knew the times of the kings
less exactly, and even so wished to relate
under what kings each thing was done.
The said Sainte-Marthe, after his own catalogue
of the bishops of Avignon, gave another
from the History of Polycarp de la Rivière, a Carthusian,
where at col. 869 the beginning of the episcopate of St. Agricolus
is connected with the year 666. Let the prudent reader choose
from these what pleases him; or rather let him hold nothing
from the whole chronology of the Life as certain.
[20] That the monastery was built by the Saint at Avignon in the year 690
the biographer hands down at n. 5, who
also affirms at n. 8 that he died in the year 700. Whether these things
are better ordered in their time than the preceding
I do not know; but they cannot be corrected, unless more certain monuments be found. but no one has gone over to a contrary
opinion. Vincent Barrali in the annotation
after the published Life, p. 327, comprised the whole chronology
in these brief words: Further, saint
Agricolus is born at Avignon in the year of the Lord
DCXXX. And in the fourteenth year of his age,
but of the Lord DCXLIV, he becomes a monk in the island of Lérins,
in which he remained for sixteen years,
and was taken to the episcopal see of Avignon
in the thirtieth year of his age, but of the Lord
DCLX. He therefore governed the bishopric for forty years,
and dies in the seventieth year of his age,
but of the Lord DCC. These things may be kept
until more certain ones offer themselves: for they can with difficulty
be corrected, or cannot at all, unless a firmer
document be found.
§ III. The Saint's burial; the chapel near Roquemaure, and others dedicated to the Saint: the translations of his body, his miracles.
[ ] The Saint buried in the cathedral church; The biographer at n. 8 says that the Saint's body was buried
in the cathedral church, which is called
that of divine Mary of the Doms, and which even at this
time is called of blessed Mary of the Doms. He explains the place
more distinctly in these words: In the chapel
of saint Peter, in that place which is now called the chapel of the Rosary,
… where an iron grating which
is now seen with his inscription, it was honorably
laid. Of these things Lord de Brantes
wrote to us the following: He was buried,
as the Life has it, in the church of blessed Mary of the Doms,
which is the metropolitan of Avignon, in
the chapel of St. Peter, afterwards called of the holy Rosary. Here
it must be observed that the said chapel does not have the same name today,
but that it is dedicated to St. Joseph.
There is seen in the pavement an iron grating, by which is designated
the place where St. Agricolus was buried. It was
probably a crypt, which was filled with earth after
the Saint's relics were translated thence. This grating is
between the altar of St. Joseph and the mausoleum of Pope John
XXII, who wished to be buried there, moved by a pious
affection toward St. Agricolus. Thus far concerning the Saint's tomb.
[22] a chapel dedicated to him famous for miracles: Before the writer of the Life narrates the translation of the body,
he asserts at n. 9 that various chapels were dedicated
to St. Agricolus, and among them one
formerly famous for miracles near Roquemaure,
a small town of Occitania on the Rhône, which is distant
about two miles from Avignon, and is of its diocese;
in French called Roque
Maure, and hence by Denis de Sainte-Marthe on the map of the province of Avignon Roca-Maura.
This chapel, or church, formerly famous for
miracles, says the said de Brantes, is one mile
distant from Roquemaure, and belongs to the Benedictines
of the Congregation of St. Maur, namely to the abbey
of St. Andrew of Villeneuve near Avignon.
They have there a priest, who administers baptism
and the last Sacraments of the dying
to the country people dwelling in the neighborhood. But they,
if they wish to contract marriage, are compelled to go to
the parish of Roquemaure, because hitherto they have asked in vain
that that chapel should be promoted to parochial
right. That chapel is believed to be one
of the most ancient which were dedicated to the Saint. It is likely
therefore that that chapel was built
before the translation of the body, presently to be examined.
[23] The biographer at n. 10 reports the first translation
of the body from the cathedral church of B. Mary of the Doms
to the church of St. Agricolus; [a church consecrated to the Saint and increased with canons: his body and that of St. Magnus carried thither:] and asserts
in various places certain things about that church: but
all so confusedly and disorderly that with difficulty
can their times be assigned to each from him.
Nouguier at p. 107, in the article on John XXII, writes this:
The same Pontiff in the year MCCCXXI founded the chapter
of St. Agricolus, such as it is at this time;
he enlarged the church formerly built by this holy
Bishop, who had placed there Religious
of his own monastery of Lérins, and at the same time added to the chapter's table
twenty rural priories. These things are clear
from a bull kept in the treasury of this church. This is
the first parish of the city. The same author at p. 23
affirms that the bodies of SS. Magnus and Agricolus were translated by
John XXII in the year 1321. Our
biographer seems to say the same, but more obscurely,
nor does he affirm that all was done in the same year.
At n. 9 he says that yearly revenues were assigned to the church of St. Agricolus
by John XXII in the year
1321, for the erection, I suppose, of the chapter, of which
he does not speak elsewhere. At n. 10 he says the translation
was made by order of the Pontiff, the same, as it appears,
John XXII. A little below he says that the church was built for the Saint,
and that he was chosen patron and protector,
as if those things had been done later. But he there rather gives
the reason why those things were done, than
assigns the order in which each happened. Hence
I suspect that those things too happened in the time of John XXII,
who took care that the church be enlarged, and made it collegiate,
and finally translated to it the bodies of the Saints Magnus and Agricolus.
[24] I suspect, I say, that all those things happened
in the time of John XXII, the same bodies afterwards placed beneath the greater altar: both because the writer, when
he names the Pontiff, always seems to mean the same man,
and because at n. 10 he seems to assign to the translation
the same year 1321 which he had expressed before,
and because no one assigns another time to the translation.
The biographer himself indeed raises a scruple, when at n. 10,
about to narrate the second translation, he says, Where,
having been kept for some years most honorably, as if between the first
and second translation not many years had intervened;
whereas nevertheless the second translation is more than a whole century
later than John XXII. But
the writer nowhere speaks accurately, and therefore those words
do not prove that the second translation followed shortly
after the first. And this second translation
is fixed by the biographer at the year 1458,
who affirms that the sacred bodies of Magnus and Agricolus
were then placed beneath the greater altar of that same church
by Pontius, bishop of Vaison. Vincent
Barrali after publishing the Life presently observes the following
concerning the translations of the bodies of SS. Magnus and Agricolus:
The bodies of the most holy bishops
of Avignon, Magnus and Agricolus,
father and son, enclosed in two leaden chests *,
are read to have been translated four times
down to these days, the devotion of the people of Avignon always increasing:
of which the first two are found
above in the History of his life. Of these we have treated.
[25] But the third (translation) was made by the most reverend
lord Charles Contamissa, the third and fourth translation without a change of place: bishop of Carrot
and Apostolic vice-legate, on the fourth of the Ides
of August, in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-nine;
and (the bodies) were placed in the church dedicated by his name
beneath the greater altar, being in the aforesaid leaden chests. But in the present
year one thousand six hundred and twelve,
the chapter of canons of the aforesaid parish church desiring
to enlarge the choir and to magnify the high altar,
and in all things as far as they could (being driven to this by the greatest devotion)
to adorn the church, a translation was made by the most reverend
lord Étienne Dulci, archbishop of Avignon,
on the eighth of the Kalends of May, and the bodies of both
Saints were most honorably placed on the new altar. The most diligent lord de Brantes
wrote to us this concerning the present state of the bodies:
The sacred bodies of SS. Magnus and Agricolus even now
rest beneath the high altar of the church of St.
Agricolus, which is a famous collegiate and the first
parish of Avignon. And they are kept in leaden
cases, which are enclosed in wooden chests.
Before these chests there has been built of gilded wood
the front part of a tomb or mausoleum, which serves
as the lower ornament of the high altar. On common days
that ornament is covered with a suitable
frontal, which is not put on at the chief feasts of the year;
but two lamps are lighted beneath the altar,
by which the tomb of the Saints is illumined.
[26] the bodies were not afterwards enclosed in silver cases: Barrali after the aforesaid thus continues: But
the holy devotion of the men of Avignon, not content with these things,
labors to enclose the aforesaid leaden chests, in which the sacred pledges
are kept enclosed, in new silver chests,
wrought at the greatest expense and most splendidly, as we ourselves saw, and
learned from the report of the canons, and especially of the reverend
lord Jacques Melan, a skillful and active man.
But some hindrance must have intervened,
for that this was not done the said de Brantes observes,
and confirms his observation in these words: For the dean
of St. Agricolus assured me that the bodies are enclosed in leaden
cases, as I have affirmed above. That the head of St. Agricolus
is kept separately and carried round I have already said. The same concerning
the arm of St. Magnus Lord de Brantes writes
in this manner: The arm of St. Magnus is enclosed
in a silver arm, which the celebrating priest
carries round in his hands in the procession which
is instituted on his feast day, the XIX of August.
[27] a certain man brought to the last extremity by a malignant fever, As regards the Saint's miracles, besides
those which in the Life are attributed to St. Agricolus, another
is reported in the French Life already mentioned of the year
1651, which happened in the year 1643. The anonymous author
narrates it in French in this manner: I cannot
pass over a recent fact which in the year MDCXLIII,
on the 2nd day of September, the feast of St. Agricolus, befell
a goldsmith who, called Raymond Vinay,
is still living, and, grateful toward St. Agricolus,
ascribes to him the health which he enjoys,
to the wonder of all who saw him
sick. A malignant fever had attacked him,
which appeared by pustules , black eruptions ,
and other wondrous symptoms. There was also a very troublesome
difficulty of urine *, a frequent flux of blood
through the nostrils, sometimes however intermitted, and
an incredible and intolerable burning of the legs.
At length the blood, inflamed by that inward burning,
rose with a bubbling and eruption so
violent that it did not cease to flow through the nose for a whole
week. When by the application of marble
or by unctions its course was stopped, it burst out
through his eyes and his ears, however much
they tried to divert it by opening a vein in both arms,
and the saphenous vein of the right foot.
He was believed about to breathe out his soul shortly with
the last drop of blood. The physicians had departed. His wife
had been torn from him, lest she should be overwhelmed with too great
grief in seeing him dying.
[28] after a vow made to God in the Saint's honor, he shortly recovers. She had, however, returned to her husband,
driven both by love and by a desire of finding out
whether he still breathed. The dying man, destitute of his senses
except hearing, perceiving some noise,
asks what it was. They answer him
that a procession of suppliants was passing, by whom were carried
the relics of St. Agricolus. This word brings him confidence.
He vows to God that, if it should please him to restore to him life
and sight (for he cared little for life
without sight, which he had lost in his sickness), he would,
to the honor of this Saint, supply food
to a poor youth, and would impart to him all things
which he knew. Scarcely had he conceived this vow
when he recovered strength enough to sit up
in his bed. He took supper with appetite,
recovered sight clearer than he had ever had,
and gradually returned to the labors of his craft,
which he practices to this day with honor, openly acknowledging
the benefit of his excellent Patron, to whose honor
he resolved to do more in testimony of a grateful mind
than he had then promised. Thus far
he. For the rest, it cannot be doubted that by the intercession
of St. Agricolus many more benefits were obtained
than have been carried down to the memory of posterity:
for from these seems to have been born that notable confidence
which the men of Avignon have conceived in his aid.
Annotata*. chests
*. Fr. exanthemes
*. Fr. tac
*. Fr. disurie
THE LIFE
by an anonymous author
from the edition of Barrali and Surius.
Agricolus, conf., bishop and patron of Avignon in Gaul. (S.)
By an Anonymous author.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's birth, monastic life, deeds in the episcopate, death, and burial.
Divine Agricolus, about the six hundred and thirtieth year
of the Lord's Incarnation, The illustrious birth of St. Agricolus,
Honorius a being supreme Pontiff and Clothair
of the Albii c, his father being blessed Magnus,
who afterwards obtained the bishopric of this city,
his mother Gandaltrude, or Austadiala, and his grandfather
Albinus, a magnate. Distinguished indeed they were, and
conspicuous, in that glory which is according to the flesh,
for the brightness and nobility of their race among the other
chief men of the province: but in that which is according to God,
the true glory, far more illustrious in virtue, faith, and piety.
Under the care therefore of such parents
Agricolus was brought up, and gave such a specimen of virtue
that the splendor of his integrity and innocence, and
a certain greater disposition toward virtue in those tender years,
shining forth signified of how great holiness
his maturity would be.
[2] There flourished at that time that famous monastery of Lérins
d], called of saint Honoratus, [the monastic life in the monastery of Lérins,on an island of the Gallic sea near Antibes, into which
noble youths fled as to a most famous emporium
of letters and virtue, that,
as boyhood is shaped * toward virtue and honor, they might shortly be youths
worthy in virtues who could sustain the name
of honor and dignity. There served God Honoratus
and Cæsarius e of Arles, Germanus
of Paris, Eucherius and Justus of Lyons,
and Siffredus of Carpentras, bishops. Thither also
the blessed Youth betakes himself, and, spurning the allurements of the flesh
and the delights of the passing world,
in his fourteenth year committed himself wholly to the Fathers,
and set and fixed all the motions of his mind
and all the thought of his understanding on the pursuits of knowledge
and virtue. Scarcely had he entered youth
when already with the fragrance of all virtues and of the religious
life he had filled the monastery and the island,
so that he was in the eyes of all, was on the lips of all,
was loved by all, while he alone was displeasing
to himself. There shone in him a certain angelic
brightness, a charity poured out on all, a singular
modesty, a contemplation of all things and of himself,
and among all an incredible love toward God,
kindled with whose charity he thirsted daily with a more ardent
longing for the streams of Christian perfection.
[3] the archdeaconry of Avignon, He had passed sixteen years in the monastery of Lérins
with the utmost integrity of manners and holiness of life,
that vigorous Husbandman perpetually tilling the field of his own heart,
when, being now thoroughly imbued with divine and
human disciplines, by the command of his superior he was ordered
to be initiated duly and by degrees into the sacred orders,
not taking the honor to himself, but called by God as
Aaron was. And gradually, when he was compelled to discharge
the office of archdeacon,
the nard gave forth the odor of so great holiness that
he was now commonly held not merely to be the eye
of the bishop, but to discharge the episcopate itself.
[4] the episcopate and death of his father Magnus, Blessed Magnus, Agricolus's father according to the flesh,
was then tending the church of Avignon
with great praise and a great reputation of holiness.
He, worn out with age, when he recognized himself now unequal
to feeding the Lord's flock, began more earnestly to think
of a successor (as of old saint Augustine f had done).
The chief men of the city are called together with the clergy;
the venerable prelate opens his own desire:
that he wished to lay down the burden
formidable to angelic shoulders, his body now enfeebled,
his age languishing, his strength falling away and drooping:
let them together with the rest of the people choose whomsoever
they should judge in the Lord more fit as his successor. Without delay
Agricolus is sought by the mouth of all, by the vows of all.
Dagobert himself, who had succeeded his father Clothair g in the administration
of the kingdom, the Man's fame growing so great,
holds this acceptable. And so at the beginning of the six hundred and fiftieth
year of the Lord, Dagobert having meanwhile died,
and Clovis the second h reigning, to a holy father
a holy Son, to blessed Magnus blessed Agricolus
is declared successor in the episcopal see by the common reckoning
of all. Blessed Magnus saw his spouse betrothed to his Son;
he saw his own living image set in his own see;
he saw his flock had changed the man, yet had not changed its shepherd:
for whatever the holy old man had wished in himself,
this he saw shining forth in his son Agricolus.
Wherefore he resolved to bestow all his goods upon that same church
to which he had devoted himself and his Son, and by a liberal donation,
a testament being drawn up, consecrated to the temple of the most blessed
Virgin Mother of God the estates, possessions,
and fiefs which remained * to him in the world. Which
being done, after no long interval of time,
that blessed soul, ripe for God and for the world, being loosed
from the bonds of this wretched life, and leaving the men of Avignon
heirs both of his virtues and of all his goods and of his most holy
Offspring, flew away to the heavenly reward on the fourteenth
of the Kalends of September.
[5] The pastoral care therefore being transmitted to blessed Agricolus,
a church built with a monastery, a wondrous example, and to be imitated by ages to come,
with what zeal, with what vigilance the true Husbandman
set himself to this, that he might tear from the Lord's field
the brambles of vices and the thickets of errors,
and lest the enemy man should sow adulterate tares among the wheat.
Whence it shortly came about that, the number of the faithful growing,
one basilica could no longer hold them all.
Wherefore the pious Pontiff at his own expense ordered another parish
church i to be built within the walls,
like a most fortified tower in the midst of the vineyard,
to which he took care to summon not a few excellent workmen, monks,
from the monastery of Lérins, where he had laid the first
foundations of his own perfection,
because he received from the regular order a certain most delightful
fruit of pleasure; over whom he also set an abbot k
and liberally assigned estates: and moreover, the privilege of the quarters l being granted,
that nothing necessary might be lacking to the servants of God
which from yearly revenues might not easily reach them.
These things were done in the time of King Theodoric m,
Sergius being supreme Pontiff, about the year
of the Lord six hundred and ninety.
[6] Blessed Agricolus had passed about thirty-two years
in the episcopal care, care for a happy death, various pious customs, and sixty-two of his own age,
with vast fruit and increase of the Christian people:
when the holy Bishop, taking thought for the future,
began more earnestly to think about his last day,
after the example of his father Magnus. And
first he asked the abbot of the monastery which he had built
that, when he * had departed from this life and entered upon the way
of the fathers, he would make him a partaker of the prayers
and of the Sacrifices of the most precious Body and Blood of the Lord
which are daily offered to God.
He ordered besides, in his own episcopal church, revenues
being given for that end, that daily for his soul
the most august sacrifice of the Mass be sung with solemn rite.
And he also willed that the canonical Hours
and the divine offices and mysteries should thereafter
in that same church be recited in the same way in which they are wont
in monasteries, namely with alternating chants;
for that custom had not yet prevailed in these parts
which some years before Pope Damasus n
had introduced, and afterwards King Pippin o
carried from Rome into the interior of Gaul, though it had long
flourished at Avignon. Nor indeed is it wonderful that God
willed to adorn the church of Avignon with that prerogative,
by whose gift, some centuries afterwards
being passed, at Avignon there was devised and found
by John, first bishop of Avignon [p], then supreme Pontiff of that
name the twenty-second and founder of our church,
the salutary custom of saluting the Virgin Mother of God [q]
thrice [r] in the day at the sound of a bell, which custom
the whole Church afterwards received. About a decade
meanwhile flowed by, in which the prudent Shepherd never ceased
to prepare himself for that hour in which
blessed are those servants whom the Lord finds so doing.
He did not fear to die, because he knew that he had a good Lord,
nor did he care to live, who with his whole heart
longed to be with Christ.
And so, awaiting the hour in which the earthly
house of this dwelling should be dissolved, he assiduously exercised himself
in those works by which he knew a way to be prepared for the Lord.
[7] And at length, when he felt his last day at hand,
the clergy being called and the people gathered,
he held discourse with them of his departure from this prison-house,
the choice of a successor, preparation for death, of the dangers of this life,
of the vanity of a most unhappy world, of shunning sins,
of the happiness of the Saints: lastly he admonished them
about choosing a successor, and co-opted into his own place
saint Veredemus [s], who near the city in the desert was leading
an angelic life famous for miracles. For the prudent
Shepherd knew that nothing is more certain than death, nothing more uncertain
than the very time of dying. Wherefore, frequent in prayer,
he kept vigil, wore down his body with fasts,
and wholly into the contemplation of heavenly things
he poured himself out, and refreshed his mind, distracted with daily
and various cares, by gathering it in nocturnal meditation.
O Bishop most worthy of all veneration,
who so embraced both lives that never
was business hurt by the contemplation of divine things,
or contemplation by business! For the more
he is celebrated with honor, the more humbly he thought of himself; and,
kindled with desire of the heavenly country, he longed more for a dwelling
in the heavenly than in the earthly country.
These things, dearest brethren, are to be honored with all veneration,
these are to be held fast with the whole affection of the mind, and not only held
but also imitated. Full therefore of holy
works, divine Agricolus, a testament being drawn up,
left the most holy Virgin heir of all his goods
in his own church. The servants
whom he used after the custom he ordered to be manumitted
and given full liberty, and above all him
who served the episcopal table.
[8] his holy death and burial. And not long after the venerable Old Man felt
the Lord coming, and resting in his good pleasure,
with the utmost quiet of mind and body, like one sleeping,
and lulled as by a peaceful slumber,
he gave back his soul to the Creator, which, loosed
from the frame of the flesh, was doubtless absorbed into the abyss
of eternal brightness, and entered the joys of everlasting
blessedness, on the fourth of the Nones of September,
in the year of the Lord seven hundred, at the end of the seventieth
year of his age, in the fortieth of the pontificate he had entered upon,
Childebert [t] the second being king of the Franks,
Sergius supreme Pontiff. What then were the feelings
of minds, what the emotions, what the concourse of the people
coming, what the tears, what the sighs,
He knows who is the author and parent of all pious affections,
God. O that day, most holy Bishop, most holy
for you, but no less sad and bitter to your own
as it was glad and joyful to you. What loss on the fourth of the Nones
of September, Avignon, what a ruin on that day, O city,
did you suffer? There perished the pillar of the city of Avignon,
there perished he who afforded safety to those in peril, help to the calamitous,
rest to the laboring. Wherefore
the obsequies are prepared, the sacred pledge is carried down to
the church of the Virgin Mother of God, the city pours itself out
into the basilica, every age, every sex,
with tearful lamentation strives to pay funeral honors to the best of parents,
leader, and author of eternal salvation, Agricolus,
and publicly to make supplication to him. At length, in a most crowded
assembly with the greatest pomp and veneration,
the most holy body was carried to the tomb, and, as before
his departure from the body he had earnestly asked,
in the chapel of saint Peter, in that place
which is now called the chapel of the Rosary, at
the church of divine Mary of the Doms [u], where an iron
grating, which is now seen with his inscription,
it was honorably laid. Let us therefore be imitators and emulators of this divine
Agricolus, on whose patronage our affairs rest;
let us follow after his holiness, and the piety which,
if we cannot attain by imitation, let us at least by zeal and labor
come very near to it.
ANNOTATA.
a. He means Honorius
I. Him some would have created Pontiff in the year 626, others in
the year 625; and to have died in the year 638. This mark therefore rightly agrees
with the year of Christ assigned.
b. Clothair
II is designated. But that he died in the year 628 we have already said, and we have observed
that the writer erred either in the year of Christ or in the reign of Clothair.
c. Most noble
indeed was the Roman family of the Albini, and marked by many consulships
and various prefectures. It is also certain that some men named Albinus
were renowned in the Gauls; but it does not appear equally certain whether St. Agricolus
took his origin from that family, both because it is unknown whence that writer
drew it, and because he himself and his father had another name.
Certainly wholly unknown to me is the Albinus whom he asserts to be St. Agricolus's grandfather, and whom he calls a magnate, a word at that time still unused, as I judge. Of St. Magnus his father we have treated in our work at the 19th day of August.
the most famous monastery whose founder and first abbot was St. Honoratus,
afterwards bishop of Arles, of whom we treated at the 16th of January. The other
is now called the Island of St. Margaret. Both are situated between
Antipolis (Antibes) and Forum Julii (Fréjus). And nearer to the latter is
Lerinus, and to Antibes nearer Lero. More about these in Valois in the Notitia
Galliarum, p. 272, and in the reprinted Gallia Christiana, vol. 3, col. 1188.
e. Of
Cæsarius of Arles we treated at the 27th of August, of Germanus of Paris at the 28th
of May, of Justus of Lyons on this very day. St. Eucherius of Lyons
is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, in which all the preceding are read,
on the 16th day of November. Finally St. Siffridus is said to have been a monk of Lérins
in Denis de Sainte-Marthe, vol.
1, col. 696. Of him too it will be possible to treat in this Work, when
his cult and its day are established. Moreover St. Cæsarius certainly was a monk of Lérins.
But I do not find this in the Life of St. Germanus, nor can it be true of St.
Justus, as I have observed in the Commentary on his Acts, n. 25. Of St. Eucherius
the same may be examined in his own Acts, since it seems less certain.
f. There may be
consulted the Commentary prefixed to the Acts of St. Augustine, vol. 6 of August, p.
345, where is read the election of his successor, who nevertheless was not
consecrated bishop before the death of the holy Doctor; although Augustine himself had been
consecrated while his predecessor Valerius was living, as is found in the same place, p. 271
and following.
g. That Clothair
II died in the year 628 I have already said in the Commentary. Then Dagobert
succeeded him in Neustria and Burgundy: for he had been administering the kingdom of Austrasia
since the year 622, while Clothair lived.
h. Clovis
II succeeded his father Dagobert, who died, as I have said, in the year 638 or 644,
in Neustria and Burgundy. According to this author's reckoning, therefore, St. Agricolus was eight or fourteen years old when Dagobert died, who is said to have ratified his election. These anachronisms render doubtful the very election made while his father lived: for although successors are sometimes read to have been elected while the bishops were living,
that nevertheless was done contrary to the custom of the Church.
Wherefore hence it came about that, the people's piety toward blessed Agricolus increasing,
a basilica was with the utmost zeal built and consecrated in his honor. Someone will ask how the church of St. Agricolus was built by the Saint himself, and how afterwards by the people? This passage the said lord de Brantes elucidated, when he wrote to us this:
It must be observed that the church which St. Agricolus took care to have built in
his lifetime is not the ample parish and collegiate church marked with his name
to this day, but a chapel now enclosed within that same church,
and dedicated to the Holy Spirit: for the greater church was built long
afterwards, as is then narrated in the Life at the cited n. 10.
k. The author,
by the monks summoned and the abbot set over them, suggests that a monastery of monks was built
to whom the care of the parish was committed. Certainly
Sainte-Marthe speaks thus of it at col. 869: When St. Agricolus,
bishop of Avignon, perceived that the church of the city was too narrow, …
he took care that another be built, whose administration he gave to the monks of Lérins,
once his companions… This abbey, founded at the end of the seventh century,
how long it persevered in this state we do not know. He does not add that the parish was committed to this monastery; but he had said this before in the article on Agricolus. But
the authority of this writer is not so great to me that I should certainly believe
that the parish church and the monastery were built together, and that
the care of the former was committed to the latter, since I do not know whether that usage had already
begun in the seventh century. Besides, that monastery is rendered
doubtful because no monument of it exists elsewhere, and no
abbot or monk of it has become known.
chs. 14 and 15. The author therefore would have it that this privilege was given to the monks,
that they should share something also from these quarters,
probably from that quarter which was divided among the clerics: for
they discharged the duties of clerics, if a parish church was assigned to them.
Their church too could have been a sharer of the quarter destined for the repairing
of churches. But that privilege is no more certain than is
the committing of the parish at that time to monks.
Concerning the year of the death of Theodoric III, king of the Franks, the learned are not
agreed. Hadrian Valois in bk. 22 chose the year DCXC; Le Cointe the year DCXCII;
Henschen in the Exegesis on the Diatribe concerning the three Dagoberts, prefixed to vol.
III of the Saints of the month of April, the same year or the next.
But that he ceased to live in the year six hundred and ninety-one ought henceforth
to be certain. Whatever
be the case about this certainty of Pagi, all opinions agree with our writer,
who rightly joined the reign of Theodoric with the year 690; as also
with the pontificate of Sergius I.
the custom of reciting the Office, or canonical Hours, is older than St.
Damasus: but this writer treats of the recitation of the Hours by alternate
chants, and this institution does not seem older than Damasus, certainly in
the West. Nevertheless I do not find this institution attributed to Damasus himself
by the ancients, but rather to St. Ambrose. Of these things St. Augustine
in bk. 9 of the Confessions, chs. 8 and 9: How much did I weep in your hymns and
canticles, keenly moved by the sweetly sounding voices of your church…
Not long had the church of Milan begun to celebrate this kind of consolation and
exhortation with great zeal of the brethren singing together with voices and
hearts. It was, indeed, a year, or not much more, since Justina,
mother of the boy king Valentinian, was persecuting your man Ambrose for the sake of her heresy,
by which she had been seduced by the Arians.
The pious people kept watch in the church, ready to die with
their bishop. … Then that hymns and psalms should be sung after the manner
of the Eastern parts was instituted, lest the people should waste away with the weariness of grief;
and from that time it has been retained to this day, many and almost all
your flocks now imitating it, and throughout the rest of the world. Tillemont in vol.
10, in the treatise on Ambrose, art. 45, refers this institution to the year 386, in which
Damasus had already been dead nearly two years. On these things more fully Thomassin, part 1,
bk. 2, ch. 73, who sets forth all things more fully.
o. The writer is again
mistaken when he says that alternate chant was first brought into Gaul by
Pippin: for it is far older. Hear the council of Agde, which Labbe
published in vol. 4, and which was held in the year 506, can. 30: And because it is fitting
that the order of the Church be equally kept by all, care must be taken that,
as is done everywhere, both the collects after the antiphons be said in order by
bishops or priests, and the morning or evening hymns be sung on all days.
By antiphons is understood alternate chant. Hear St. Isidore, bk. 1 On the Ecclesiastical Offices,
ch. 7, where he also attributes the institution to St. Ambrose: The Greeks first
composed antiphons, with two choirs singing alternately, as it were
two Seraphim and two Testaments crying out to one another. But among the Latins
that same most blessed Ambrose first established antiphons, imitating the examples of the Greeks;
from thence their use grew strong in all the western regions. If in all the western regions in St. Isidore's time that use had grown strong, then it was long before Pippin, and also long before St. Agricolus, since
Isidore is older than both. Go again to the said Thomassin, ch.
75. Nevertheless King Pippin brought in some change into the chant of the Gallic
churches: for he asked Roman singers from Pope Stephen, and
through them introduced the Roman chant into the churches of the Gauls: which, begun by
Pippin, Charlemagne perfected, removing, as far as he could, the diversity
which was great in the chant of the Gauls. These things Thomassin teaches more fully in ch. 80.
p. John XXII was first created bishop of Fréjus, then of Avignon, then Cardinal bishop of Porto, and at last supreme Pontiff in the year 1316. His name before his pontificate was Jacques d'Ossa, or rather d'Euse, as Denis de Sainte-Marthe would have it, col. 820.
q. The pious
custom of saluting the blessed Mother of God Mary John XXII did not
first devise, but promoted. For Oderico Rinaldi at the year
1318, n. 58, has thus: In this year finally, to kindle the piety of the faithful
toward the cult of the Mother of God, when a pious custom had been taken up in the church of Saintes
that, as the day drew toward night, a bell should be rung to warn the faithful
to implore the Virgin's help with the angelic salutation,
the Pontiff (John XXII) granted an indulgence of ten days to those who piously poured out that prayer three times on bended knees, if they were truly repentant of their sins. The same
author at the year 1327, n. 54, recites a letter of the said Pontiff to
Angelo, bishop of Viterbo and his vicar in the City, in which he says:
Some while ago indeed, for the rendering of glory to the said Virgin, … we piously thought fit to ordain that at every twilight of the night a bell be rung, and that at its sound the faithful should say the word of the aforesaid (Angelic) salutation. The whole letter
may be seen, which also mentions the indulgences granted for this cause.
But that use had already begun in some places before the pontificate
of John XXII. Certainly Ottaviano de' Martini in his Oration to
Sixtus IV, in which he asks that St. Bonaventure be reckoned in the number of the Saints,
in our work vol. 3 of July, p. 826, has this of him: The same
most pious worshiper of the glorious Virgin mother of Jesus also ordained that the Friars
should exhort the people to salute her at the sign of the bell which is given after
Compline; because it was believed that she was at that hour saluted by the angel.
And St. Bonaventure died in the year 1274, that is, 42 years before the pontificate of John XXII.
r. As John XXII is not the first author of saluting the blessed Virgin in the aforesaid manner, so again it was not ordained by him that this should be done three times a day, but
once in the evening time, as is abundantly clear from the words adduced. The salutation
repeated three times, namely in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, as is today
in use, is attributed to Louis XI, king of the Gauls, in Du Cange's Glossary and in the Trévoux Dictionary, which may be further consulted at the word Angelus; for with this the said prayer begins.
s. St. Veredemus
is venerated on the 17th of June, at which day we treated of him briefly. But whether
the Saint himself really chose his own successor is not sufficiently certain to me
from this Life.
t. This Childebert, surnamed the Just, is by some called the second, by others the third; but
he really was the third, if all the Childeberts are counted who legitimately held the monarchy
or a part of it: for Childebert the son of Grimoald is not to be counted,
who was rather a tyrant than a legitimate king.
The learned have disputed about the first year of his reign; but he was certainly reigning in the year
700, in which also Sergius I was sitting.
u. Of the place of burial consult the Commentary, n. 21.
*. Surius: informata
*. Barrali: not faultily
*. Barrali: superant
*. perhaps augescente
*. from
CHAPTER II.
Chapels and a church dedicated to the Saint; the translations of his body, miracles, the protection of the city of Avignon.
[ ] Chapels built for the Saint, and a church dedicated to his name; Wherefore it is no wonder how great was of old the devotion
of this people toward this divine Agricolus,
since so many and so great chapels dedicated to his name
stood in these parts. There stands a certain chapel
near Roquemaure [a] dedicated to this divine
Agricolus, to which on every Saturday
there flows a great multitude of people, who
from every kind of disease, and from the harassing of demons
that beset them, are freed by the prayers and merits
of saint Agricolus, which things indeed are proved
by a daily miracle, and the public acts b of the most reverend
archbishop's visitation authentically testify to them. Thence it came about,
by the utmost piety of the people toward blessed Agricolus,
that the church which he had taken care to have raised within the walls of the city
at his own expense, growing up, was consecrated to his [c] name,
and was held thereafter the first notable
parish, adorned with the name of saint Agricolus its patron;
to which John the twenty-second, supreme
vicar of Christ, assigned yearly revenues d,
in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and twenty-
first. Nor yet did the treasure of Avignon lie there
buried, nor did the stone which covered
Agricolus cover over the hope of the poor, the protection of the needy,
the refuge of the wretched, and their comfort.
But the city always receives new increases day by day,
since it is always preserved by his help and aid.
The citizens of this city know how often, when they were in peril
and were encompassed on every side with great calamities, he raised them up,
by driving off indeed the cruelest and most powerful enemies
from the walls of this city. The citizens know
how often divine Agricolus defended his own from imminent disaster.
They know how often he wrested weapons aimed at the throats
of the city. They know how often he has seized
and quenched torches already lighted for the burning of this city.
The citizens felt his aid when a certain destructive plague raged,
by which, when the enemies were contriving slaughter for the citizens, destruction
for the fatherland, and snares for the city, the citizens, who could not
be safe from them because of the excessive spread of the pestilence,
began to be safe by fires.
[10] Afterwards the papal liberality conferred many things
on this place, the first and second translation of the body, to the greater service and greater
glory of the divine Majesty: and before
all, since the most sacred relics of saint Agricolus
and of his most glorious father Magnus were venerated in the cathedral
church of the Mother of God, by the Pontiff's order a solemn
exchange of the remains was made.
And in the same year [e] there were translated from the church of saint Agricolus
to the cathedral the bones of the saints Donatus [f],
Maximus [g], and Veredemus, bishop of Avignon:
and in turn from the cathedral to the church of divine Agricolus were carried
the bodies of the saints Magnus the father and of his most blessed
offspring, and, with the utmost veneration of all orders,
were laid up in a gilded wooden chest,
where, having been kept most honorably for some years,
at length in the year of Christ one thousand four hundred
and fifty-eight, on the seventh day of the month of September,
by Pontius [h], bishop of Vaison and vicar general, by order of Alan
i, Cardinal and last bishop of Avignon,
they were fittingly set beneath the greater altar, and there,
frequented daily with the greatest devotion of all the citizens,
they bestow from time to time no common benefits
on the people, since he has never been absent from those who prayed to him,
nor has he ever refused * anything to those who duly asked.
[11] For in those calamitous times very often
a heavenly torch was seen, various benefits, he is chosen patron, which wandered about the walls
of the city, that it might deter with those torches
the wicked enemies of the city from assailing their country. Which
miracle indeed, though no monuments give it credit,
the whole city nevertheless ascribed to this divine Agricolus.
For to whom is owed the gathering and preservation of the crops
and of the other fruits?
To whom did the people ascribe the glorious victory of Charles III [k]
in repelling the assault of the Albigensians?
To whom shall the healthfulness of the city and the temperateness of the air
be ascribed? if not to this divine Agricolus,
to whom we ought not only to entrust all illustrious deeds,
but also to proclaim them with the highest glory?
But indeed who will not believe that we have as intercessor in heaven
him whom on earth we had as Patron? The city has very often
experienced that he lives in heaven whom of old it had as governor
of life and eternal salvation and venerated on earth.
His aid they felt who were tossed with fever and burning,
who were troubled by demons, and very many others, who
from the furthest parts of the world fled to his tomb
as to a most safe harbor. Wherefore
hence it came about that, the people's piety toward blessed
Agricolus increasing, a basilica was with the utmost zeal built
and consecrated in his honor.
Wherefore the people followed him with such inclination of mind
that the city chose him as its best patron
and protector.
[12] rains obtained by his aid, a lawsuit wondrously ended by his favor, Shall I be silent how often, when the earth was most parched
and dried up, when in solemn procession
his most holy head was carried forth, the greatest
rains were sent down from heaven, and richer crops
were restored? Shall I be silent of that illustrious deed,
plainly to be remembered by posterity, which was done
in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred
and eighty (as the monuments of that matter, attested by many witnesses,
testify), and in the tenth year of the pontificate
of the most holy father in Christ Sixtus l, by divine providence
Pope the fourth: a suit being brought
and joined between the chapter of the notable church
of saint Agricolus on the one part, and the lord consuls
of that same city on the other, concerning certain
territories, estates, and possessions lying
in the territory of Avignon, anciently
called of Caminum, now of Cassanea m, on the
eighth day of the month of July, when to the place
in dispute there had come the vicar of the city, the consuls, the court
of saint Peter, the officials, the aforesaid chapter,
and very many other men of approved credit. Behold, two storks n, which came to the territory, and flying hither and thither, laid open with their beak the place where the boundaries of the fields were closed up, and, once these had been unsealed, presently found the things buried . Wherefore, as all cried out, the city understood from that prodigy with what zeal the holy Agricolus watches from heaven over the souls entrusted to him, seeing that he had been so solicitous concerning the temporal goods of his church, and had openly declared what was his own. There once fell upon them so great a plague of storks that it oppressed the city of Avignon with great inconveniences: the storks laid waste the fields, and infected the city with the pestilent serpents on which they fed; and when this boundless evil crept on because of so vast a multitude of storks, and spread wider day by day, all the citizens began in astonishment to be at a loss, and to know not what counsel should be taken. And when the holy Agricolus [o] had seen this, in order to free this city, over which the greatest perils were hanging, and to deliver it from the impending destruction of those birds, he drove out that most hostile host of storks by an anathema. Hence it came about that, in memory of this event, the people assigned the stork to this holy Agricolus for his arms.
[13] Whence, further, do you suppose it came about that, when all Gaul was ablaze with the fire of civil wars, the city defended against the heretics: and the heretics were raging unpunished with every barbarity and savagery, and almost all the cities of the kingdom were either infected with the heretical plague or seized by sacrilegious men, and the temples dedicated to God were overthrown, and all sacred things violated and reduced to a pitiable desolation — that the city of Avignon alone remained unharmed, and, well-nigh alone among all, untouched by every contagion of heretical depravity? That most afflicted city felt the patronage of its tutelary saints, and above all of holy Agricolus its patron: for we ought neither to be silent about, nor can we forget, the things which we ourselves have seen in this calamitous age, and which all Gaul beheld with wonder at the good fortune and integrity of almost a single city. Indeed, in the year of salvation 1573, on the tenth and eleventh days of the month of July, in the island of the county of Venaissin [p], and in very many other places, showers of blood fell, which should warn us of the disasters that were impending. But in the following year, the seventy-fourth, when the city had already escaped most perilous conspiracies unharmed, and the heretics were now contriving another, the most atrocious treachery of all, there was seen a most brilliant torch [q] at the walls of Avignon, which went round about the whole city, in the sight and to the wonder of very many soldiers and leading citizens who were then keeping watch; and most of those who saw it are still alive. Concerning which prodigy, although we have nothing certain except that it portended the conspiracy — which a little after was, by a new miracle of unlooked-for rains falling in an unwonted flood, uncovered and shut off (when now most of the conspirators stood armed in their houses within the city, and others were made ready outside the walls, hard by the gate of the city) — yet we piously judge, and this is the common voice of all, that it was a timely sign given by the tutelary saints of the city, and chiefly by holy Agricolus, the divine clemency watching, at the prayers and merits of its Servant, over the safety and advantage of the faithful citizens.
[14] What hope, then, ought we to have, what confidence, from which the author concludes that the Saint's protection is to be trusted: most beloved, that holy Agricolus will guard and defend this city entrusted to him! O most happy Avignon, O most fortunate city, which hast deserved to have such a president and protector, and which amid so many rocks of sedition hast been preserved by his help and aid. Come now, brethren, let us follow the footsteps which so great a Father has impressed toward immortal glory: for then will he embrace us as true sons, when he recognizes in us the delineated image of his virtues. Never was he absent when invoked, never deaf when implored; that we may obtain the suffrage of his prayer, let us not forsake the example of his manner of life: no one who follows him goes astray; let him who asks him not despair; let him who thinks upon him not be afraid; while he holds, one does not fall; while he goes before, one does not fear; while he follows, one does not sink. O most holy Shepherd of this flock, who now art fed upon the mountains of Israel, in the richest pastures, be mindful of thy sheep, which wander in the valleys, where they are tossed by the tempests and storms of the world. This, most beloved, is that lover of the brethren, this is he who prays much for his people and for his whole city, commended to him by a special patronage; who will lead us, fighting faithfully in the contest of this life, with him in the dread moment of death into heaven in triumph, by the bestowal of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift, who is ever glorious in his saints, with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. The county of Vindascum, in French Venaissin, in Italian Venesino, is subject to the Supreme Pontiff, as is the city of Avignon, to which it lies adjacent. The island here named is of the Rhone, which washes the county, as does also the Durance.
q. Castrucci, in his History of Avignon, tome 1, book 3, chapter 5, also relates that a torch was seen which went round the walls of Avignon, and by which the garrison soldiers were warned to keep diligent watch; and he confirms this event by the testimony of men then living, who had heard it from their parents, who were eyewitnesses. Nouguier has the same, page 213. The aforesaid Castrucci in the same chapter relates various perils of the city of Avignon, because the Calvinist heretics were attempting to seize that city. He therefore may be consulted here, and also others who have handled the history of those times. In particular, in the year 1574, while Charles IX king of France was dead, before his successor Henry III had come from Poland into Gaul, the county of Vindascum was assailed by the arms of the heretics, as the aforesaid writer has it, num. XI.
* he would have denied
* perhaps fossis (ditches)
* perhaps temporalibus (temporal)
* heretical
* perhaps elusa (baffled)