ON ST. JUSTUS OF CLERMONT, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
Seventh century, before the year DCXXX.
The cult of the Saint; a namesake distinct from him.
Justus, bishop of Clermont, conf. (S.)
BY J. P.
Clermont, a most well-known city of the Gauls
in Auvergne, and praised at length in our work at the
XXIII of August, p. 597, and
in Denis de Sainte-Marthe, vol. 2 of the Gallia Christiana,
p. 221, The public veneration of the Saint, whom Sainte-Marthe, reckons St. Justus among its other bishops
conspicuous for holiness of life. His name is marked
on this day among the proper feasts of the church of Clermont
in this manner: Of Justus, bishop, 9 lessons; and in the Order of the divine
Office for the year 1656, Of Justus, bishop and confessor, 9 lessons.
But I have seen no lesson concerning him, the Breviary of that church
having been sought by us and not hitherto found.
In Denis de Sainte-Marthe, col.
244, among the prelates of that same church of Clermont
St. Justus is marked as the twenty-first, whose
cult he both proves, and whom he thus distinguishes from the namesake archdeacon:
Gregory of Tours, bk. 1 of the History
of the Franks, ch. 40, mentions St. Justus the archdeacon
in these words: "He (St. Illidius) had also
an archdeacon, Justus in name and in merit, who,
completing the course of his life with good works,
is joined to his master's tomb." Whence it is clear that St. Justus
the bishop, who is read to have sat here at the beginning of the seventh century,
is other than the archdeacon of St. Illidius,
the fourth bishop of Auvergne, who was so far distant
from these times. In the chapel of the basilica of St.
Illidius there is read carved on a marble tablet: "There
rests saint Justus, bishop of the city of Auvergne."
In the same place near the greater altar on the Gospel side
is seen the marble tomb of St. Justus,
whose arch easily proves its antiquity.
[2] Theodoric Ruinart in his notes on the words of Gregory,
published by himself, Ruinart, which Sainte-Marthe reported,
did not sufficiently perceive these two namesakes named Justus, when
he wrote this of the archdeacon: He is recorded
among the Saints who rested in the church of St. Illidius,
bk. 1 On the churches of Clermont, ch.
11 (in Savaron), although he is faultily called bishop in the inscription.
Unless perhaps there be two men named Justus, one archdeacon,
and the other bishop.
For in the same book, ch. 14, Justus is said to rest
in the church of St. Cyricus. See Sirmond
on letter II of bk. 4 of Sidonius. The feast of Justus is recorded
in the Illidian records on the XII of the Kalends of November.
But the said editor afterwards, among the Addenda
and emendations in his notes on Gregory of Tours,
col. 1401, clearly distinguishes Justus the bishop from the archdeacon.
In the chapel, he says, of St.
Justus, which is in the basilica of St. Illidius, … there is
a marble tablet with various figures and this
inscription: Here rests saint Justus,
bishop of the city of Auvergne. That this
Justus is other than the Justus who was archdeacon of St. Illidius,
of whom Gregory in bk. I of the History, ch. 40, speaks,
besides the title of bishop which is here attributed to Justus,
is urged by the History of the translation of St. Illidius, made
in the year MCCCXI; where bishop Arbertus is said,
after the relics of SS. Illidius and Venerandus were raised,
to have left in their own places the bodies
of the other Saints, and chiefly of B. Nepotianus the bishop
and of Justus, archdeacon and disciple of St. Illidius,
on account of the difficulty of seeking them. Certainly
the little book on the Churches of Clermont has two men named Justus.
Whence Savaron and after him Sirmond, on bk. 4,
letter II, of Apollinaris Sidonius, gave Justus a place among the bishops
of Clermont between Avolus and Cæsarius.
[3] [and Sirmond distinguish from Justus the archdeacon of St. Illidius: the latter lived in the fourth century, the former in the seventh, before the year 630.] Sirmond, whom Ruinart cites, has this:
But the Justus who on the sepulchral chest which
is seen in the basilica of St. Illidius is inscribed bishop
of the city of Auvergne, is not that Justus the archdeacon
of St. Illidius the bishop; but another Justus, who
in fact was bishop of Auvergne after Avolus,
before Cæsarius. Whose name indeed in Gregory
of Tours should not be sought in the list of bishops,
because he lived after Gregory.
Cæsarius, who next succeeded our Saint in the bishopric
of Auvergne or Clermont, was present
at the council of Reims, celebrated about the year
630, or, as Labbe thought, 625. Between this
prelate and St. Avitus I, who died about the year
594, St. Desideratus and Avolus are believed to have sat,
and then St. Justus: whence it is deduced that this
last began to hold the bishopric after the year 595, which was Gregory
of Tours's last year of life,
and doubtless passed to a happier life in the following
century. But the other Justus, whom the same
Gregory praises, lived in the fourth century: for St. Illidius,
whose archdeacon he was, died
before the year 389, as Sainte-Marthe, cited above,
proves at col. 228. Saussay refers this Justus
to the XXI day of October; concerning whom it may then
be seen. The other Saints of whom mention has been made
were all prelates of the church of Auvergne: of
whom we have given Venerandus at the XVIII of January,
Desideratus at the XI of February, Illidius at the V of June,
Avitus I at the XXI of August. Nepotianus Castellanus announces
at the XXI of October.