Sevoldus

ON ST. SEVOLDUS,

IN THE ABBEY OF SAINT-VALERY AND AT ABBEVILLE IN PICARDY.

Perhaps in the eighth century.

Sevoldus, in the abbey of Saint-Valery, and at Abbeville in Picardy (S.)

BY J. S.

From the same documents which on the preceding day supplied a brief notice of St. Rithbert the confessor, Of the Saint's cultus we shall now give a few things about St. Sevoldus, who is likewise venerated in the abbey of Leuconay, now everywhere called Saint-Valery's. Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology treated of St. Sevoldus at the 2nd day of November, where he announces him in French in these words, which I render in Latin: In Ponthieu, St. Sevoldus the confessor, whose relics are preserved at Abbeville [\] in the church of St. Vulfram. And on page 988 he wishes these words to be added: Where his festivity is celebrated on the 17th of September. Peyronet in the Catalogue of the Saints, page 210, records a few things about St. Sevoldus, whose, he says, sacred relics are preserved in the monastery of Saint-Valery-sur-Mer, and they are venerated on the 2nd of November*, commending for these things Henschen in our Work at the 1st of April, where St. Valery is treated of. Henschen indeed, in St. Valery, at least as his words are printed, assigned the 2nd day of November to the festivity of St. Sevoldus, and intimated that on the 16th day of September St. Vulganius is venerated there. But, whether this happened by the writer's error or the typesetter's, I find the festival day of the one assigned to the other. For, as is clear from a Letter given to Du Cange from the abbey of Saint-Valery and communicated to Henschen, St. Sevoldus is venerated there on this 16th day of September, and St. Vulganius on the 2nd day of November. But the Office is from the common: nor is anything read in it about the deeds of St. Sevoldus: and the aforesaid Letter testifies that no documents about them are to be had in the abbey of Saint-Valery.

[2] and of his relics. As regards the relics of St. Sevoldus, which Castellanus assigns to the church of St. Vulfram at Abbeville, but Peyronet to the abbey of Saint-Valery, I should believe that a notable part of them is kept in each place. For in a recognition made in the abbey of Saint-Valery in the year 1651, this is said of the relics of St. Sevoldus: In the reliquary of St. Sevoldus were found twenty notable bones with many fragments. And so the greater part of St. Sevoldus's body may be at Abbeville, as Castellanus asserts. Of the Saint's deeds I find nothing. Nay, I should not dare to declare with certainty whether he was a confessor or a martyr. Castellanus calls him a confessor. But the Letter already commended more than once testifies that he is announced as a martyr in the Martyrology of Saint-Valery, and adds that he is believed to have been an Englishman by nation. The eighth century Castellanus assigns in the margin as the epoch of the Saint's death. But I do not know on what foundation, or on what conjecture, it rests. Hence I add no more.

\* Abbeville.