Alneus or Alveus

ON ST. ALNEUS OR ALVEUS, PRESBYTER AND ABBOT IN THE PROVINCE OF LE MANS,

VI century, after DLX.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Alneus or Alveus, presbyter and abbot, in the province of Le Mans (S.)

J. S.

Among those holy monks who in the Life of S. Almirus just given are said to have come into the district of Le Mans in the VI century, The Saint's memory in modern Fasti: when S. Innocentius the bishop presided over that church, was also this holy Alneus, or Alveus, as his name is expressed in the transcript of the Life. Nevertheless I do not think that he came with SS. Avitus and Carilefus, but that he was of those who, as the Life of S. Almirus at num. 2 has it, followed them afterward. Hence in the Life of this Saint no mention is made of Avitus and Carilefus; but his companions are named Erneus, whose Life was given at the IX of August, and Bohamadus, whom I judge distinct from the Boamirus mentioned in the Life of S. Almirus. As regards the cult of S. Alneus, I do not find him inserted in the ancient Fasti; but Castellan in his Universal Martyrology at this day has thus: Near Celsiacum in the same province (of Le Mans), of S. Alneus the solitary. Corvaisier also in the History of the bishops of Le Mans*, p. 138, mentions S. Alneus among the Saints of the diocese of Le Mans, as does Bondonnet, p. 167. These were preceded by the Life, from which they drew their matter.

[2] Further, the said Life, of which we have only one transcript, The Acts written by an author probably nearly contemporary. is marked with this title: The Life of Saint Alveus the confessor. The Saint's name is everywhere written Alveus. But since among all the modern Writers in whom I find mention of him he is always named Alneus, I suspect that the letter n was changed into V by the copyist's error, as could easily have happened. I have not wished, however, to change the transcript, because the matter does not seem altogether certain. Whence it was received is expressed above in these words: This Life was drawn from the old parchments of the royal and collegiate church of S. Peter of the Court of Le Mans, by the procurement of D. Jean Verdie, canon of the same church. Who the author of the Life is, is not established. Nevertheless the manner of writing hints that the biographer was nearly coeval with S. Alneus, or of about his time. Moreover, if we compare this Life with the Life of S. Erneus given at the IX of August, from the likeness of style we shall be able to suspect that the writer of both is the same. And that the author of the Life of S. Erneus was of about that time is shown in the Commentary prefixed to his Life, num. 4. Of the place also in which Erneus dwelt, and from which the cell of S. Alneus was not far distant, there is treatment in the same place in the Annotations on the Life, letter b. Now I subjoin the Acts, meaning to elucidate in the Annotations whatever further doubt may occur.

THE LIFE

By an anonymous author, and probably one of about his time.

From manuscript parchments of Le Mans of the collegiate church of S. Peter of the Court.

Alneus or Alveus, presbyter and abbot, in the province of Le Mans (S.)

BHL Number: 0317

A. By an Anonymous Writer

The Saint's endowments and virtues, who, having left his native land, Holy Alveus was the companion of holy Erneus and of Bohamadus ^a, and of the rest of their companions: who was also ardent in the service of God, and desired to do the will of the Lord in all things. Whence he deserved to obtain the grace of the Lord; for he was zealous in the divine offices and in the praises of God, and fully instructed in the law of God, and imbued with a holy rule, loving the brethren, hating vices, given to vigils and prayers, and abounding in tears, and assiduous in holy meditations, and intent upon the will of God, temperate in manners, and noble by birth: for, leaving his native land and his kindred for the love of God, and joining himself of his own accord to spiritual men who sought and did the will of God, frequenting holy places, and fleeing banquets and despising delights, and loving poverty, abstaining from richer foods and enjoying meaner ones, despising the world, seeking the Lord, and treading under foot the vain things of this world, and meditating day and night on heavenly things.

[2] builds a cell in the territory of Ceaucé, And he too, like the aforesaid Erneus, deserved to obtain from holy Innocentius ^b the bishop a place where he might make some little cell for gaining souls to God. To whom the said S. Innocentius, out of the right of the church of his see, gave in the district ^c of Ceaucé some part of the desert, whose name is Mufa, together with certain mounds and the dwellers round about, that he might build himself a cell, and gain souls for God, and set up a holy rule. Then the aforesaid holy Alveus began there to clear the ground *, and to build a cell: who also, with the help of the aforesaid holy bishop Innocentius, deserved to make there a church in honor of S. Peter ^d, and strove to gather there brethren loving the common and regular life, and thoroughly taught them to live and converse regularly. and gathers monks, with whom the common life

[3] By whose holy conversation, lovely to God, and by whose sanctity, many priests are made better in sanctity than they were; laymen and religious men are converted to a good life and holy conversation, and not a few men of either order, selling their possessions for the love of God and in imitation of him, nay and by his preaching, and their riches, gave them to the poor, according to the Evangelical word which is: Go, and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor: come, and follow me. So then also many, as we have said, doing this by his preaching and imitation, and selling what they had, gave it to the poor, to the church and to the servants of God, and joined themselves to brethren leading the common and regular life, and led the common life, and all things were common to them. There was also to them one heart, imitating the primitive church, and one soul: and no one said that anything was his own, but all things were common to them.

[4] Whence it came about that many nobles, leaving their possessions and selling all things, distributed * he founds: he goes to king Clothar, and is honored before him by a miracle: them to the poor, to the church, and to the servants of God: and, giving themselves to the cells which were then being built by the aforesaid S. Innocentius the bishop and by the said Saints, they led in them, together with those Saints, the common and regular life. Wherefore at that time more than forty ^e cells were built in the district of Le Mans, and were filled with good and just men loving and leading the common and regular life. For the rest, the aforesaid S. Alveus, coming with his gifts of blessed bread to Clothar ^f, king of the Franks, when he had returned from Brittany, was kindly received by him. And when he wished to salute the aforesaid king, he held out his cape to a certain man, who feigned to take it ^g: whose hand straightway became withered, and wholly devoid of the moisture of blood. Then by the nod of God, before the cape of the said holy Alveus fell to the ground, it is taken up by a sunbeam; and, all beholding, it hangs upon the sunbeam, which no one doubts was done by the nod of God, to show forth the merit of the holy Man. Then, honored by the king and by all his attendants, and enriched with great gifts, he returns to his cell with joy.

[5] Finally, on a certain night, when he had risen for the morning vigils together with the rest of the brethren entering with him, a light obtained by the sign of the cross: a dead man raised: they find in the church the lights, which were wont to burn in it, extinguished. And while holy Alveus was prostrate in prayer, the disciples seek a light: but they cannot even find fire. The hour now growing late, the disciples remind the Saint of the lateness of the hour: who, presently rising from prayer, made the standard of the cross over the wax taper: which, straightway kindled by the power of God through the merits of the aforesaid man, gave a most clear light to all who were in the house. Nor must that sign be passed over in silence which shone by his merits on the day of the Assumption ^h of holy Mary. A certain man, by name Bundus ⁱ, while on that same day he was running to the church, falling into a certain well, is drawn out thence for dead by the neighbors of the same place; and when it had been announced to the aforesaid holy Man that, while running to the church and hastening to its office, he had fallen into a well and was dead, being moved with mercy he asked that he should be brought to him. Who, when he was brought, he touched him, and anointed him with holy consecrated oil: and, all beholding, together with the rest of the brethren he prostrated himself in prayer; and while he prayed long for him , breath is restored to him: and on that same day by his merits and prayers he is restored to his former health.

[6] Finally, when a certain man, by name Anseric, had long been pressed by a grievous infirmity, and could obtain remedies of health from no man, he was presented to the sight of the aforesaid holy Priest ^k, a sick man healed: a woman possessed delivered: his death and burial. by whose prayer and by the anointing of consecrated oil the said sick man is restored to health. And in the time following there was brought to him a certain girl full of a demon, whom straightway by the benefit of prayer he freed from the demon. Indeed there are also innumerable relations ^l of his other virtues: which, avoiding prolixity, we have forborne to insert here. The aforesaid holy Alveus therefore died on the third of the Ides of September, and was honorably buried by his disciples and monks in his already-named cell. At whose tomb miracles of great power are done, by the help and reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and is glorified as God through the infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Ceaucé

* i.e. to till the place

* i.e. their own

* add the word

* they distributed

* S. Alveus being prostrate

* while he prayed

Notes

a. Of S. Erneus there has been treatment at the 9th of August. S. Bohamadus seems to be he who in Corvaisier, p. 132, is called Boamaldus, as also in Bondonnet, p. 165. Both distinguish Boamaldus from Boamirus, and rightly in my judgment, not only because Boamaldus is said to have died on the 4th of August, and Boamirus on the 3rd of November; but also from this Life. For hence it becomes known in some measure in what part of the province of Le Mans S. Bohamadus or Boamaldus dwelt, since he is said to have been the companion of SS. Alneus and Erneus, who dwelt in the deanery of Passais, or toward the borders of Normandy and of Armorican Brittany. But Boamirus had his cell near the borders of Perche, that is, in a part plainly opposite of the province of Le Mans. Nay, in the maps of the province of Le Mans I find noted two villages called in the vernacular S. Bomer, one near the bounds of Normandy, which perhaps has its name from Bohamadus; the other about the spring of the little river Braye, where Boamirus dwelt. Further, Alneus, Erneus and Bohamadus are not called companions because they dwelt together in the same monastery: for each had his own cell; but because they now and then visited one another and shared counsels. For the rest, our Sollerius at the 4th of August treated of S. Baumadus, and does not seem to have distinguished between Bohamadus and Boamirus; but the matter can be further examined at the 3rd of November.

b. Since S. Innocentius died about the year 542, before that year S. Alneus began the monastic life.

c. *Condita* here is the same as territory. Ceaucé, commonly Ceaucé, which is still noted in geographical maps, S. Erneus had received, so that the cell of S. Alneus, who built it in the territory of Ceaucé, was near it.

d. I suspect that *a church* or *an oratory* must be added.

e. Many of these have become known from the Lives of their holy founders, and it is likely that more were erected, whose authors did not attain to such holiness as to be venerated by the Church.

f. Clothar I waged a war in Armorican Brittany against his rebel son Chramnus, to whom the count of Brittany adhered. That expedition is everywhere fixed by the historians to the year 560, in which Chramnus was conquered and slain. S. Erneus, as is read in his Life, went to Clothar as he was going into Brittany; and this Alveus saluted him as he was returning. Both therefore were still alive in the year 560.

g. That is, he feigned that he would take it, so that it should fall to the ground, wishing, so far as appears, to mock the Saint.

h. Here I judge that the 15th day of August is not designated, but the 18th of January. For S. Gregory of Tours, bk. 1 *On the Glory of the martyrs*, chap. 9, says that the festival of the most blessed Virgin Mary was in his time celebrated *in the middle of the eleventh month*, that is, of January, which was then the eleventh month. And that the passage of Gregory must be understood of the feast of the Assumption, and that it was at that time celebrated in Gaul on the 18th day of January, Mabillon shows in bk. 2 *On the Gallican Liturgy*, num. 22, p. 118.

i. This miracle, as also the two following, are narrated in exactly the same way in the Life of S. Constantinianus in Labbe, vol. 2 of the *Bibliotheca*, p. 516. But since there several miracles follow which are read in exactly the same way in the Life of S. Erneus, that the Life of S. Alneus is not to be accused, but that the Life of S. Constantinianus was stitched together from various sources by an impostor, I have already shown in the Preliminary Commentary to the Life of S. Almirus just given, num. 4.

k. From this place it is understood that S. Alneus was a presbyter; just as either all or most of those seem to have been presbyters who in the time of S. Innocentius erected monasteries in the province of Le Mans.

l. *Relations of his virtues* is here taken in a good sense, and signifies that several miracles of the same Saint had been reported, whether only by word of mouth, as is more likely, or also in writings.