ON ST. BERTEWINUS OR BERTHVINUS, MARTYR,
PATRON OF THE PARISH OF THE SAME NAME IN THE DIOCESE OF LE MANS.
SYLLOGE
Concerning the Saint's cult, and whether he is perhaps the same as the Bertivinus or Bertininus who is honored at Lisieux.
Bertewinus or Berthvinus, patron of the parish of the same name, in the diocese of Le Mans (S.)
BY J. L.
Our Saint, patron of the parish of his own name in the diocese of Le Mans, The memory of the holy Martyr is celebrated by Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of the Saints, by Saussay in the Gallican and by Castellan in the Universal Martyrology; all on the VIII day of September. The first, from the Kalendar of Gaul and the records of the church of Laval, announces the Saint thus: In the territory of Le Mans, of St. Bertewinus, martyr. Saussay says: In the territory of Le Mans, the birthday of St. Bertewinus, martyr, whose crown the church of Laval especially venerates. He has similar words in the Supplement, page 1165. Castellan assigns more distinctly the place where the Saint is chiefly venerated: In the province of Le Mans, of St. Berthvinus, who is honored as a martyr in the place of the same name near Laval. I have written St. Berthvinus, following Castellan, who so rendered the Saint's name in Latin in the margin beside his French announcement, in which is read S. Berthevin. The place which bears the Saint's name has a parish church, as the Catalogue of the benefices of the diocese of Le Mans, published at Paris in the year 1648, page 71, teaches: where there occurs the parish of Saint-Bertevin in the deanery of Laval. This town more recent writers also call Lavallum and Lavallium, from the French Laval. It is situated on the river Mayenne * in that tract of the province and diocese of Le Mans which lies nearer to Armorican Brittany. But the parish which has retained its name from its holy Patron lies on the right bank of the Mayenne, not so very far from Laval, toward the West or toward Brittany.
[2] Castellan, as I was just saying, wrote the Saint's name in the margin as Berthvinus. [Castellan does not distinguish him from St. Bertivinus or Bertininus, whose body rests at Lisieux,] In the Supplement, page 706, he says: Add, or Bertivinus, as he is called on the XI of July in the Breviary of Lisieux, according to a most ancient marble stone found in one of the reliquaries of the cathedral church; on which these words are cut, divided into four lines and shaped in this manner: Corpora San- | ctorum Ursini: | Bertivini: | atq; Patricii. I have imitated Castellan as exactly as I could in expressing every point of the inscription; and if the letters were carved on the marble stone in a like shape, who will believe that it is most ancient? But the martyrologist praised, as I suppose, wished to exhibit only the division of the inscription into four lines, and not the exact form of all the characters. I have at hand the Breviary of the church of Lisieux in Normandy, printed at Paris in the year 1624, in whose Calendar, at the XI day of July, is placed the name of St. Bertivinus, just as is read on the marble monument. But in the Breviary itself, both at the said XI day of July and at the XI of June, he is named Bertininus.
[3] The Saint's birthday is commemorated in the diocese of Lisieux on the former day, that is, the XI of July, [and whose birthday is kept there on the XI of July. Solemnly commemorated there on the XI of June] on which the following are prescribed in its Breviary: Of St. Bertininus, martyr, semidouble. All from the common of one martyr. Prayer. O God, for love of whom the blessed Bertininus, martyr and levite, fell beneath the swords of the impious, grant, we beseech thee, that all who implore his aid may obtain the saving effect of their petition. Through our Lord. This Bertininus or Bertivinus is not to be distinguished from the Saint whom Greven commemorates on the same XI day of July thus: Of Bertinus, martyr, and whom Sollier reported among the Prætermissi as otherwise unknown to him. In the Calendar of the Breviary praised, at the XI of June, is noted the Translation of St. Ursiaus and his Companions. A solemn double in the cathedral only. The Prayer which the same Breviary orders to be recited at that solemnity is this: O God, who dost gladden us by the yearly translation of thy saints Ursinus, Bertininus, Patricius and Candidus, whose relics rest in our church; grant us, we beseech thee, both to profit by their imitation and to rejoice in their intercession. Through our Lord.
[4] The Usuardine codex of Centula mentions that translation at the X of June: [the translation of St. Ursinus, who is a different person from the bishop of Bourges of the same name,] but it names only the two former Saints, and corruptly calls Lisieux Lysois, from the French name of the city, Lisieux. Take his words: At the city of Lysois, the translation of the blessed Ursinus, bishop and confessor, and of Bertunius, martyr. Henschen, in the Prætermissi of the same day, says: From these, so far as we can gather, Ursinus seems to be the bishop of Bourges, who is venerated on the IX of November, and Bertuwius martyr, reported by Saussay as Bertuwinus, on the VIII of August — nay, the VIII of September. Formerly the people of Lisieux truly believed that the body of St. Ursinus, bishop of Bourges, rested in their cathedral church, but wrongly: since they received only a few of his relics from Bourges, and that no earlier than the year 1475; as will have to be said at the IX of November, on which day that Saint is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. Meanwhile one may read the anonymous monk of Saint-Sulpice in the Patriarchium Bituricense in Labbe, tome 2 of the Bibliotheca of Manuscripts*, pages 9 and 10; where the truth of what I have asserted is placed beyond all controversy. That St. Ursinus, therefore, whose body the marble monument of the cathedral church and the Usuardine codex of Centula claim for Lisieux, is another than the bishop of Bourges of the same name — since that codex was written long before the relics of St. Ursinus of Bourges were translated to Lisieux, which was not before the year 1475,
as may be seen in Sollier, in the Preface to the Martyrology of Usuard, chapter 3, article 4, §3, at the end.
[5] [Of St. Bertivinus or Bertininus, martyr, who is believed to be the same as our Saint,] Castellan above, num. 2, judges that today's St. Berthvinus or Bertewinus, patron of the parish of his own name near Laval, is the same as the St. Bertivinus or Bertininus whom the church of Lisieux venerates on the XI of June and the XI of July. The same is suspected in the preceding number by Henschen, doubtless on account of the very great affinity of the names and the palm of martyrdom common to both Saints. Whether Castellan had some other reason for not distinguishing them is hidden from me: yet he seems to have had one, since he speaks so affirmatively. What I have found concerning the cult of the holy Martyr of Lisieux I did not think should be passed over in silence here, because he is believed to be the same as our St. Bertewinus or Berthvinus: to whom, however, I have not dared to attribute at the head of this Sylloge the name of Bertivinus or Bertininus, under which the people of Lisieux honor their Saint; because it is not certain to me that he is the same as that one. Each — or, if you prefer so, the same Saint in both places, namely at Lisieux and in the parish of the same name near Laval — is believed to be a martyr. He is also called a levite or deacon, and is said to have fallen beneath the swords of the impious, in the proper Prayer which the clergy of Lisieux recite of him on his birthday, that is, the XI of July. Concerning the time and the arena of his martyrdom I prefer to be silent rather than to grope in the dark.
[6] [Of St. Patricius, bishop of Bayeux, as is said, and of St. Candidus, bishop, who died at Maastricht.] The said marble monument and the Breviary of Lisieux at the XI of June testify that there was also translated into the cathedral church of that city the body of St. Patricius, bishop of Bayeux, if you believe Castellan in his index of Saints: concerning whom Henschen, tome VI of May, page 767, advised that he should be treated at the 1st of November. St. Candidus, who in the Prayer transcribed above at num. 3 from the oft-mentioned Breviary is joined to the three preceding Saints, the same Castellan announces thus at the Kalends of December: At Maastricht on the Meuse, of St. Candidus, regionary bishop, titular patron of two churches at Rouen. It is added in the Supplement, page 725: Whose relics rest at Lisieux in the cathedral. St. Candidus, bishop, is honored at Maastricht, where he died, in the distinguished collegiate church of St. Servatius on the VII day of June, on which day he was treated of, though with no mention made of the cult which I have learned from another source than Castellan that he obtained elsewhere on the Kalends of December.
Annotations* la Mayenne
* read: Bertunius
* read: Bertewinus