ON ST. ANTONIUS OR ANTONINUS, BISHOP,
AS IS BELIEVED, OF CARPENTRAS,
AT BEDOIN IN THE COUNTY OF VENAISSIN.
At the end of the fifth century.
A COLLECTION.
Of his cultus and relics: conjectures as to his date and person.
Antonius or Antoninus, bishop, as is believed, of Carpentras, at Bedoin in the county of Venaissin (St.)
BY J. S.
The Antonius or Antoninus whom I bring forward today, unknown to all martyrologists, even the French, we too should be wholly ignorant of, This saint venerated in two villages of the county of Venaissin, had not help been brought by that most kindly man, praised also elsewhere in our work, the most worthy lord de Brantes, treasurer and penitentiary of the church of Avignon, to whom we owe all the knowledge we have of the cultus of St. Antonius. According to the letters which he transmitted to us in the year 1746, that saint is venerated on the 13th of September in two villages of the diocese of Carpentras, which is included in the county of Venaissin. And the capital of this county is Carpentras, and it belongs, with the neighboring city of Avignon, to the dominion of the supreme Pontiff. The first of the villages, in which St. Antonius has been venerated for many centuries, and where he is now venerated as patron with the common Office of a confessor pontiff, we find named in Latin Beduinum, in French Bedoin, and it is distant about three French miles from the city of Carpentras toward Dauphiné. The other village, in which St. Antonius is venerated, is nearer to the city of Carpentras, and is called in French Malemort.
[2] The inhabitants of Bedoin do not know from what time St. Antonius was chosen patron of their church. [in the former he was long ago patron, in the other he began to be venerated on the occasion of a miracle:] But they allege a certain bull of Pope Alexander IV to the abbey of Montmajour in the diocese of Arles, given in the year 1256, and from it produce these words: In the diocese of Carpentras we preserve to you the monastery of St. Antonius of Bedoin with half of the castle. And from these words they rightly infer that from the thirteenth century at least St. Antonius the bishop was patron of Bedoin. Nevertheless they say that the church was always dedicated to St. Peter. Concerning the cultus in the village of Malemort the notes sent have these things. A miracle which happened 50 or 60 years ago in the village of Malemort furnished the cause for propagating the cultus there. For there is said to have been in the territory of Malemort an oratory which had its name from St. Antonius or Antoninus. And a certain countryman took away the stones of this oratory, to use them for erecting a wall which he was building. But in punishment of the crime committed he was suddenly struck with blindness, so that not only he himself, but also the rest who saw the blind man, were struck with much fear. Hence he was admonished that the blindness seemed sent as a punishment for the destruction of that small oratory, and he is asked to bring back the stones and to make some vow to the saint. He obeyed the one who rightly admonished him, and received his sight. Hence the lord du Pont, who was then Prior and parish priest of the church of Malemort, saw to it that juridical informations of that fact were made; and he induced the inhabitants of the village to build in the same place where that little building had stood a chapel in honor of St. Antonius, and brought it about that a feast of St. Antonius was instituted, to be celebrated yearly with cessation from servile works until noon; and this is still carried out. Thus far the praised notes.
[3] Relics formerly kept in the village of Bedoin. What is added concerning the relics of St. Antonius I shall faithfully transfer hither from French into Latin: It is not known where the saint died and was buried. His relics are believed to be kept in various places. The cathedral church of Carpentras is said to preserve his head in the same case with the relics of St. Siffredus, whom that city venerates as patron on the 27th of November. But it seems that this can with reason be doubted, since the cathedral of Carpentras celebrates no Office of the saint — which it would not omit if it possessed the head, as being notable relics. The parish of Bedoin contends that for a very long time it has possessed the chief part of his relics; and it proves this from a book belonging to the confraternity of St. Antonius, erected in this parish, where it still subsists. This book begins in the year 1501, and has this title: "Book of the confraternity of St. Antonius of Bedoin
bishop of Carpentras, whose body rests in the church of St. Peter of the said place of Bedoin, made … in the year 1501." Tradition and old indications of the region intimate that it happened through the fury of the Calvinists that this parish was deprived of this sacred deposit. To this day the place is pointed out where these sacred relics were burned. It is a small hill, called the hill of St. Antoninus, where a small altar was erected with a cross, which stand even today. Formerly Mass was sung in that place on one day each year. The loss of these relics certainly did not occur before the year 1610, when the lord de Montbrun with his Calvinist band first began to make raids into these parts. Thus far the praised letter concerning the relics, to which I judge nothing should be added.
[4] He is believed to have been bishop of Carpentras, and to have sat about 480: Fewer and less certain things concerning the saint's deeds do these letters supply. They confess that no History of his life exists. Nevertheless they assert that it is believed from tradition that St. Antonius was brought up in the famous monastery of Lérins, and was promoted thence to the bishopric of Carpentras. Of the time of his episcopate only these things are added. A chronological list of the bishops of Carpentras is had written on the wall of a certain hall of the episcopal palace, where he is placed second among the bishops of that diocese, and these words are read of him: Blessed Antoninus lived about the year 480. This chronological list, although it cannot have great authority from age, since it is probably not ancient, will at least be able to teach us that it was the persuasion or tradition of the people of Carpentras that among the first bishops of their church there was a certain Antonius or Antoninus, and that he was adorned with the title of blessed. The same is the persuasion of the people of Bedoin, who have long venerated their St. Antonius as a bishop and have believed him bishop of Carpentras. In the Gallia Christiana of the Sainte-Marthes, tom. 2, a certain Antonius has been inserted into the catalogue of the bishops of Carpentras, but he is placed at the year 791; and the same is done in Le Cointe in the Annals at that year, and in Denis de Sainte-Marthe in the reissued Gallia Christiana, tom. 1, col. 899. But none shows that the date of Antonius should be fixed so late. If, however, some Antonius perhaps sat at that time, another of the same name could have administered the same church in the fifth century.
[5] Further, that various conjectures are made concerning the St. Antonius who is venerated at Bedoin, [he does not seem to be confused with Antiolius the bishop, nor with St. Antonius the monk:] the lord de Brantes, praised before, has taught me. A certain learned man, who gathered the notes given concerning the cultus, inclines to this conjecture, so as to suspect that he can be the same as Antiolius the bishop, of whom St. Sidonius Apollinaris makes mention with praise in his letter to Principius, bishop of Soissons, Letters, book 8, letter 14. That Antiolius was indeed formerly a monk of Lérins, and flourished at that time in which the people of Bedoin believe St. Antonius flourished, as is gathered from the praised letter of Sidonius. But the difference of the name seems notable. Besides, although it is not known in what place that Antiolius was bishop, yet his bishopric seems rather to be sought in some part of Belgic Gaul about Soissons and Reims than in Narbonese Gaul, or in the present county of Venaissin, which was part of it; for Sidonius was informed by Antiolius about the excellent virtues of SS. Remigius and Principius, bishops of Reims and Soissons. Another has suspected that St. Antonius the bishop is perhaps the same as St. Antonius the monk of Lérins, whose Life St. Ennodius of Pavia wrote. The name of this Antonius is celebrated in the Roman Martyrology at the 28th of December. But this conjecture appears to me even less probable than the preceding, because that Antonius was never a bishop, nor are his deeds unknown.
[6] I should therefore prefer to judge that St. Antonius really was bishop of the diocese of Carpentras or of Vaison. (For there was formerly, he is rather to be believed bishop of Carpentras, as Denis de Sainte-Marthe has it in the Gallia Christiana, tom. 1, col. 893, a bishopric of Vaison and Carpentras, and the bishops took their name sometimes from the one, sometimes from the other city — unless perhaps the two bishoprics were formerly distinct, which I do not here examine.) Certainly such is the tradition of those who have long venerated St. Antonius; nor do I find any argument contrary to this tradition. The praised Sainte-Marthe begins the catalogue of the bishops of Carpentras from the third century, but has inserted into it no one who cannot leave a place vacant for this Antonius from the year 460 at least to the end of the same century. Wherefore, since the chronological list mentioned at no. 4 records Antonius in the year 480, it is clear that nothing stands in the way of his having been bishop of Carpentras then. Nay, I shall assign an Antonius, bishop of that time, whom by a likely conjecture the people of Carpentras can judge to be their own.
[7] and perhaps the bishop Antonius who in the year 463 was sent to St. Hilarus, When in the year 463 complaints concerning St. Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, on account of a bishop consecrated for the people of Die had been brought to Pope St. Hilarus — as we set forth on the 10th of September in St. Hilarus — the Pontiff wrote to Leontius of Arles that the case of Mamertus should be examined in a synodal assembly. That synod being held and the case examined there, the bishops sent to Rome one of the bishops who had been present, as legate to the Pontiff, that he might inform him of the judgment of the synod. This bishop's name was Antonius, who also carried back Hilarus' answer to the bishops in Gaul. All these things we have from three letters of Hilarus, namely the 9th, 10th, and 11th, published in Labbe, tom. 4, col. [ ] and following. Further, it is a probable indication of the uprightness and prudence of this Antonius that out of twenty bishops he above all was chosen for this legation. Hilarus too approved Antonius, who in the 10th letter, given to the twenty other bishops of the synod, speaks thus of him: The letters of your charity were delivered by our brother and fellow bishop Antonius, whom we approve as an interpreter worthy of so great a legation. I add no more of the matter, because it conduces no further to our purpose.
[8] he is the same as today's St. Antonius. But I only observe that this Antonius, whose see is not known from elsewhere, can probably be believed bishop of Carpentras. For the bishop of Carpentras was under the metropolis of Arles, and was in the midst of the various bishops who were present at the said council. For of these there became known Leontius of Arles, Ingenuus of Embrun, Eustasius of Marseilles, Fonteius of Vaison, Veranus of Vence, Faustus of Riez, Memorialis of Digne, Ursus of Senez, Eutropius of Orange. I pass over others who can probably be added, because not all are known, and the sees of some are less certain than those enumerated so far. But from what has been said I gather that that Antonius can be the same as St. Antonius; for he who in the year 463 was sent as legate to the Pontiff was probably not of so advanced an age that he could not easily have survived until the year 480, and even much longer. The time therefore and the place favor our conjecture and the tradition of the people of Carpentras. Nevertheless I confess that it is only a conjecture, which I shall readily abandon if anyone shall teach more certain things.