ON ST. MEMORIUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS,
IN THE VILLAGE OF BROYES IN THE TERRITORY OF TROYES IN THE CHAMPAGNE OF GAUL.
In the year CDLI, as is reported:
PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.
The cult of St. Memorius and his Companions: the place of the martyrdom: their Acts published and unpublished, but faulty: the later ones to be published from these.
Memorius, martyr in the village of Broyes in the territory of Troyes in the Champagne of Gaul (S.)
His fellow martyrs, in the village of Broyes in the territory of Troyes in the Champagne of Gaul
BY J. S.
The church of Troyes in the Champagne of Gaul today celebrates St. Memorius with his Companions the martyrs, concerning whom the Roman Martyrology has it thus: The memory of the Saints in the sacred Calendars, At Troyes, of St. Nemorius the deacon and his Companions the martyrs, whom Attila king of the Huns slew. Baronius praises in his Annotations Molanus and Maurolycus, the first of whom likewise called him Nemorius, but Maurolycus more correctly wrote Memorius, as he is called by most of the more ancient writers. Moreover Molanus and Maurolycus more exactly announce the Saints in the territory of Troyes than in the city itself, and both call Memorius archdeacon of St. Lupus of Troyes; but whence they drew that dignity of the Saint I do not yet perceive. The announcement of Greven pleases me better, which is conceived in these words: In the territory of Troyes, of blessed Memorius the martyr, deacon of St. Lupus the bishop, whom Attila king of the Huns slew with his Companions. Two other auctaria of Usuard on the same VII day of September may be seen in the Usuard of Sollerius. In the same place at the IX of the same month the Hérin codex has these words added by an ancient hand: In the territory of Troyes, of St. Memorius the martyr, with his Companions. The manuscript Florarium on the VII day has it thus briefly: Likewise of Memorius the martyr and his Companions. The recent author of the Parisian Martyrology mentions the place in these words: At Brogilum in the territory of Troyes, of the holy martyrs Memorius and his Companions.
[2] A more lengthy elogium of these Saints Saussay wove together in the Gallican Martyrology. their elogium, It may be held for a summary of the Acts already published, and sets forth more clearly the place of the martyrdom and the cult. Wherefore I transfer the whole hither: At Troyes, the birthday of St. Memorius and of six companion Martyrs: who, being archdeacon of St. Lupus prelate of Troyes, was sent by him to meet Attila king of the Huns, when he was invading the city of Troyes to destroy it, with seven Clerics clad in sacred vestments and bearing before them the insignia of the cross: where, when he had come into his sight, holding the golden text of the Gospels applied to his breast, he so exasperated the tyrant, whom he was busy to bend to mercy by every observance of honor and by soothing and humble address, by the very sight of the insignia of piety, that presently by his order he was seized by the soldiers with his sacred company, mocked, dreadfully tortured, and at last beheaded with swords at the fifth milestone from the city, at a place then called Brolium on the bank of the Seine. Six Clerics slain with the holy Man fell in the same place. A seventh escaped by divine help, and told blessed Lupus what had been done. Who, the impious king being appeased by heavenly grace, coming with clergy and people to the place where the holy men had completed their martyrdom, buried their bodies with the praises of God. Whose most ancient tombs are seen even now in the crypt of the church of the village, which has long since been reckoned under the name of St. Memorius. Whence their most sacred pledges, being afterwards dug out, were put into a wooden chest, which is preserved in the sacristy of that church.
[3] the cult and the relics. Camuzat in the Storehouse of the sacred antiquities of the diocese of Troyes, folio 434, writes nearly the same about the place of the martyrdom and about the sacred relics. Whatever be the case with that history of St. Memorius, he says, it is most true that he was beheaded with the sword together with his Companions in that place of the diocese of Troyes which anciently was called BROLIUM, on the bank of the Seine, only five leagues removed from the city of Troyes, where now is a village distinguished by the name of the same St. Memorius; whose body and those of his Companions were laid and buried in the crypt there, in which most ancient tombs are seen even now, whence their sacred relics were afterwards dug out and placed in a wooden chest, which are kept in the church built above the crypt. And that chest was opened in the year MDLIV, on the XV day of April, as a public instrument enclosed in it and shown to me in the year MDCVIII indicates; and it declares that at that time an ancient slip of paper was likewise found in it which contained these words: "Here are had the bones of St. Memorius the martyr with his head, and with the head of St. Lebaudus". And the same relics were found in the aforesaid year MDLIV, as the authentic Acts then written prove and confirm. These things about the cult of St. Memorius and his Companions Desguerrois has in nearly the same manner in the Annals of Troyes written in French, at the year 451, number 5, where also he observes that Memorius is called in French S. Memier, and by others S. Memy. The village of St. Memorius I also find marked on the geographical maps in this last manner, S. Memy. As regards St. Lebaudus, the praised writers say nothing about him. I suspect that he is one of the Martyrs who suffered with St. Memorius.
[4] The Acts published in Camuzat are defiled with fables; Brief Acts of St. Memorius and his Companions Camuzat published in the Promptuarium, folio 430: but in the Annotations subjoined he acknowledges and shows that they are faulty; and that the things which are narrated in them about the death of Attila (near Troyes) seem nearer to fable than to history. And those Acts of St. Memorius seem drawn from the second Life of St. Lupus of Troyes, given among us at the XXIX of July, in which, in chapter 4, the same things are narrated about St. Memorius and his Companions, and the same also about the death of Attila near Troyes,
and in nearly the same words, yet so that here and there not a few things are omitted in Camuzat. We have another copy of the manuscript Acts, a little more lengthy, but in no way better, in which nearly everything agrees with the praised Life of St. Lupus, omitting however those things which pertain neither to Memorius nor to Attila, whose death is reported in these in the same tragic but fabulous manner. But now it is certain from contemporary writers that Attila neither died near Troyes, nor at all in that expedition which he undertook against Gaul about the beginning of the year 451. Further, Camuzat in his Annotations alleges the opinion of a certain anonymous writer, who would have it that another leader of the Huns, also named Attila, was punished from heaven by that death by which king Attila himself is reported in the Acts to have been struck; that so he might in some fashion defend the authority of the Acts. But Camuzat confesses that this is too weak and feeble a subterfuge. And the Acts can be so much the less defended by such a fiction, the more fabulous all the circumstances of that death seem. Moreover in the praised Acts of St. Lupus, chapter 4, from which the Acts of St. Memorius seem to have been collected, several other plainly fabulous things are narrated. Wherefore the Acts of Memorius drawn thence must be consigned to fables, excepting perhaps a few things which become likely from other sources.
[5] Another manuscript copy of the Acts of St. Memorius I have to hand under this title: Other manuscript Acts, also of uncertain credit, The Passion of the most blessed Memorius, priest and martyr. It is noted as taken from a most ancient manuscript of Don John Bouhier, councillor of Dijon; and it is written in the hand of our Papebroch. Now these Acts differ much from the preceding, nor have they anything about that fabulous death of Attila. Nay, they carry much of antiquity in their appearance, nor can I doubt that they are ancient, since Papebroch himself noted that they were drawn from a most ancient manuscript. Yet I would not dare to say that these Acts are such as I should desire and wish, so that we could hold for certain all the facts related in them. For (although they have nothing which can be convicted of open falsity) they contain certain marvels related in a manner not very credible, whether this happened through ignorance of the Latin tongue, in that that writer did not know well enough how to set forth facts in Latin; or through lack of knowledge, in that he was not sufficiently informed about the matters themselves; or lastly through lack of sufficient knowledge both of the facts and of the language. This is certain, that the grammatical laws were not sufficiently known to this writer, since he has fallen into many solecisms, and in many places leaves his phrasing gaping. Yet I shall give these Acts, illustrated with due annotations, that the learned men of Troyes may be able to determine, or to investigate further, what can or ought more probably to be said about St. Memorius.
[6] Meanwhile I shall not dissemble that a twofold difficulty offers itself against nearly everything [since in these alone Memorius is called a priest: to the slaughter also of the Saints by Attila] which is narrated in these Acts about St. Memorius. The first is that he is here called a priest, whereas elsewhere he is generally called a deacon, or by some archdeacon. And this dignity does not lessen the difficulty, since at that time archdeacons were not distinguished by the order of the priesthood, as afterwards began to be done and is now done, but were only of the order of deacon, although they had ample power. And so, if any authority be attributed to the praised Acts, it will have to be doubted whether St. Memorius was a priest or a deacon. The second difficulty can be opposed to both Lives, and even to the tradition of the people of Troyes, nay and to most other monuments which set forth the time and manner of the martyrdom: for generally all the monuments have it that Memorius with his Companions was killed by Attila king of the Huns, whom he had gone out to meet by order of St. Lupus the bishop. Nevertheless from the Life of St. Lupus which was given among us in the first place at the XXIX of July, and which is held by all for authentic, no light argument can be had against the slaying of Memorius and his Companions by Attila, especially if these holy Martyrs be believed to have been clerics of St. Lupus, and sent by him to meet Attila, as is the common persuasion. For the praised biographer of St. Lupus could not, so far as appears, have been ignorant of the martyrdom of St. Memorius, and so much the less ought he to have kept silence about it, the more it was connected with the deeds of St. Lupus, who is said to have been warned by a divine revelation to send the Saints to Attila as he approached. Yet in that whole Life Memorius is not even named, nor is anyone said to have been killed by Attila near Troyes.
[7] there can be opposed the silence of the better Life of St. Lupus, This silence of the biographer I should wonder at, if it were established from monuments worthy of credit that St. Memorius was one of the clerics of St. Lupus, and was killed by the Huns. But the slight credit of all the monuments in which these facts are asserted rather makes me the more compelled to doubt of the facts themselves. The distance of the place in which the Martyrs are read to have been killed increases my doubt: for it can hardly be believed that St. Lupus wished St. Memorius with the Boys to go forth from the city five Gallic miles to meet Attila. Moreover the Life of St. Lupus at number 5 implies that all the danger which threatened the people of Troyes from Attila was removed by the prayers of St. Lupus. But this does not seem to be true if Memorius with his Companions was killed by them. Deservedly therefore may doubt be entertained about the slaughter itself, or at least about the various circumstances of this slaughter, and various conjectures may be made. First, one may think that Memorius with his Companions was killed in some other incursion of barbarians, and that their martyrdom was referred to Attila by conjecture alone, through ignorance of the truth. Another may conjecture that Memorius was indeed killed with his Companions by the Huns serving under Attila; but that they did not dwell in the city of Troyes, much less were sent by St. Lupus to Attila as he drew near, but rather were overpowered and killed in the place of their dwelling.
[8] and thence doubt is entertained about nearly everything reported in the Acts. Yet more, so far as I judge, will believe that the tradition of the people of Troyes, constantly declared in all the Acts, however faulty, must be preferred both to the silence of the writer of the Life of St. Lupus and to these uncertain considerations. And indeed, if we consider how few things the praised biographer narrated about St. Lupus, how briefly he touched upon rather than recounted his dealings with Attila, we shall wonder the less that the death of St. Memorius and his Companions was omitted by him. Nor is he to be judged to have denied the slaughter of these Martyrs when he wrote that Troyes was saved from the impending danger by St. Lupus's prayers: for St. Lupus did in truth protect Troyes by his prayers when Attila's army passed through the city, even if St. Memorius be believed to have been killed a little before, with his Companions, in the territory of the city. Nay, the biographer may have omitted their slaughter of set purpose, lest he should in some fashion lessen, among less prudent judges of affairs, St. Lupus's glory, which he deserved for saving the city, by commemorating their slaughter. Thus may it be argued on either side; but nothing can be determined which is altogether certain, save that St. Memorius suffered near the place in which even today the village of St. Memorius is seen. Yet I subjoin those Acts which have not yet been published, illustrated and corrected with due annotations.
ACTS
by an anonymous author,
from a manuscript of the illustrious John Bouhier, councillor of Dijon.
Memorius, martyr in the village of Broyes in the territory of Troyes in the Champagne of Gaul (S.)
His fellow martyrs, in the village of Broyes in the territory of Troyes in the Champagne of Gaul
BHL Number: 5915
By an Anonymous author.
Attila with the Huns drawing near to Troyes, St. Lupus, divinely warned, The lofty and venerable passion of our special patron, who illumined the city of Troyes a with the glorious blood of the city … b. And when St. Lupus c the bishop and apostolic man was exercising the priesthood, then at that time there came an iniquitous king, whose name was Attila, with a most wicked people, and a strong army lorded it everywhere through all Gaul d. Then St. Lupus with prayers and vigils most instantly besought the heavenly Lord that the Christian people who dwelt in the city of Troyes should not further be injured. After the vigil of the night, being overtaken by sleep e, behold an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a vision, saying: Rise, most faithful priest of Christ, order that twelve f innocents be sought out, and baptize them. Send with Memorius the priest likewise Felix and Sensatus the deacons and Maximian the subdeacon g; let them go with the cross, chanting the word of God, to meet the enemies.
[2] And it came to pass, the sun now rising , that the boys were baptized, he sends St. Memorius with his Companions to meet him, as had been shown to St. Lupus the bishop: and going out with a multitude of the people chanting together he led them forth, and lifting up his hands he blessed them, praying and pouring forth tears, and said: May the Angel of the Lord go with you: may the Holy Spirit be in your bowels. Make thy ways known to me, O Lord, and teach me thy paths. And again he prayed: Perfect thou my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps be not moved. And St. Memorius walked with his Brethren together with the innocents . He came to the place whose name is Brolium. When he had heard the silence of those Saints, the king was terrified h, and his horses trembled : he fell to the ground and said to his prefect: Who are these who have prepared such an injury? And St. Memorius said to the king: We are sent by St. Lupus the bishop. Be it known to thee that thou promise not to take captive this city whence we have come forth to thee, nor to burn it with fire . The prefect said to the king: Behold indeed they have prepared a grievous injury for thee with their magic arts . Command them to be struck with the sword.
[3] The king answering him said: Excellently hast thou declared: some of whom are killed by the king's order, and drawing their swords they cut off the heads of the deacons and of the innocents. And the king said: That old man : do not strike him with the sword; but let him go and announce to the city, or to the men who dwell in it, the wicked deeds that have been done; because I am before their God whom they themselves adore. The prefect said to St. Memorius: Behold, thou seest them slain. But thou wilt not be able to help them . And the King said to his ministers: Their magic things, which they bore in their hands before them, break them, and let them be burned with fire. But when the fire was blazing from the holy cross, a spark went forth and struck the eye of the king's cupbearer, and he fell crying out. And St. Memorius said to the king: If thou believest my God, he is able to make this boy whole. The king answered him: Let it be done. Then St. Memorius, laying the sign of the cross upon the boy's eye, straightway the boy's eye was restored i as it had been before.
[4] and after them St. Memorius: And the king said to St. Memorius: What is thy name
? And St. Memorius answering said: If thou believest in my God whom I adore, I will tell thee my name. The King answering said: I believe. And I say to thee: I am called Memorius. Say therefore thou, O king, thy name, or let thy prefect say his name. And the king said: I have the name Attila, and my prefect is called Selens k. The prefect said to the king: Behold all their magic arts: they have prepared an injury for thee: and he presumes still to ask thy name or mine. Therefore command his head to be cut off. And St. Memorius said to the king: Before thou deliverest me to martyrdom, let me have leave in my prayers to confess to the Lord my sins . And when St. Memorius the priest, kneeling down in prayer l, said: Lord God almighty, who hast made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them, I beseech thee that the city of Troyes may not suffer captivity , nor be burned with fire ; but deliver them from the hands of these enemies: for to thee, Lord, I commend my spirit. And his prayer being completed, lifting up his eyes to the heavens, he said: I give thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God: have mercy on me. And he said to the king: Finish what thou hast begun. And he, drawing his sword, cut off m his head after the example of the others who dwelt in the city of Troyes. And he was drenched with the wave of his own sacred blood.
[5] one, however, delivered from death: But Maximian the subdeacon, suffusing his eyes with tears, revolved in his heart all the wicked deeds and their conversation, according to what had been done. And the king said to his ministers: Take this magician n and cast him into the river. Which ministers did as had been commanded them by the king o. Then returning and contending among themselves about the spoils of the holy Martyrs, striking one another with their swords [p], each gave death to the other. And one of them being sent announced to the King what had been done. But Maximian the subdeacon, gathering branches from the trees, spread them over the bodies of the martyrs: and when Maximian the subdeacon, filled with dread, went to the river, he found the garments [q] of the holy Martyrs with the slain bodies, and took the garment of St. Memorius, and with the others hid himself by the river Seine under the leaves of an auseria* [r]. But at midnight heaven and earth trembled [s], and those enemies were filled with great dread, and being exceedingly terrified they went out and fled from the city of Troyes.
[6] the burial of the bodies: the head found: But on the following day Maximian the subdeacon took the garment of St. Memorius the martyr, and laid it upon his body; and he went away to the city, and announced all that had been done. But St. Lupus [t] the bishop said: The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done; blessed be his name for ever. After this, pouring forth tears, he put upon himself a heavy penance. And the priests coming to the city [u] buried the body of St. Memorius the martyr, and those who had suffered with him: for the parents of St. Memorius, the aforesaid priest, were of that city of Troyes, fearing God. But after twenty days [x] there appeared in a dream to Maximian the subdeacon, behold, an angel of the Lord, announcing and saying: Rise and go to Pimenius the fisherman: let him take his nets: and stretch them out in the pool of the river, where thou wast hidden beneath the leaves of the auseria. And they went away to the place, and drawing the nets stretched out in the water, both the ends of the meshes [y] came to the shore: and they found the head of St. Memorius, priest and martyr, of a fragrant odor as of balsam.
[7] But as they carried it [z] to the place where the body of that same St. Memorius rested, a possessed woman delivered. a certain girl who had a demon came to meet them, who could be healed by no priest: and the devil crying out with a voice said: O holy Memorius the martyr, none could cast me out from this place but thy prayer: and Satan went out: and the girl was healed from that hour. And St. Memorius the priest suffered on what makes the seventh day of the month of September [aa], and was buried in the praise of the Lord in peace, and there Christ the Son of God is blessed: to whom be honor, power, glory, and might unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
p The word is faulty, and the whole phrase vicious. But the author meant that a contention arose among the soldiers about the spoils, and thence a sharp skirmish, in which not a few fell. The second Life of St. Lupus at number 42 has much more about this fight of the soldiers.
q If these things were done, they happened without doubt after Maximian had escaped from the river; and Attila's column had set out from the village of Brolium for Troyes.
r In the praised Life of St. Lupus he is said to have hidden himself beneath the thick withes of a certain willow, while the others were being killed, nor is there any mention there of a drowning. But here, having escaped the peril of drowning, he is said to have hidden himself beneath the leaves of a certain tree, I suppose, which the author meant to signify by the word auseria, unknown to me.
s If this earthquake were true, it would not have been omitted in the first Life of St. Lupus, so far as appears.
t Since St. Lupus is said in his own Life to have gone with Attila as far as the Rhine, he was not at Troyes when Maximian returned to the city on the following day. The things therefore which are here narrated about St. Lupus seem invented.
u It ought rather to be read, from the city, if credit could safely be given to the biographer. Certainly, according to the other Acts, St. Memorius with his Companions was buried in the village of Brolium, where he had suffered; and this is far more probable on account of the relics afterwards preserved there.
x That the head was found at once by St. Lupus by another miracle, his second Life has at number 44. That I judge fabulous, because I have already observed that St. Lupus did not remain at Troyes after Attila's departure. But I would not dare to assert that what is here reported about the finding of the head is truer.
y This word again is faulty, and the whole expression corrupt. But the author implies that the head was found in the nets after they had been drawn on both sides to the bank.
z Read: But as they carried it.
aa That is, on the 7th day of the month of September, on which in the other Acts also the Saints are read to have suffered.
read deprecabatur*
read in urbe*
read sole oriente*
innocentibus*
conterruit*
incendio*
tibi*
magiis*
perhaps, senex iste*
perhaps sceleratis*
eos*
imposuit*
add, said the Saint*
Domino*
peccata mea*
perferat*
incendio*
suorum*
Fili*
in urbe*
regi*
illud*
fragrans*
habens*
clamavit voce*