Floscellus

ON ST. FLOSCELLUS, A BOY, MARTYR,

WHO IS VENERATED AT BEAUNE, IN THE DUCHY OF BURGUNDY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On his cult, translations, the time of his martyrdom, and his Acts.

Floscellus, a boy, M., who is venerated at Beaune in the duchy of Burgundy. (S.)

BY C. S.

He is venerated at Beaune, whither his body At Beaune, which is a town of Gaul in the duchy of Burgundy, in the middle age called Belnum, and by the natives Beaune, the little body of a certain holy boy, Floscellus, or Flocellus, or, as is read in some of his Acts, Victor Flocellus, is held in veneration, whither it is reported to have been translated some centuries ago and to have become famous by many miracles. Castellanus in his Martyrologium universale on this XVII day of September notes in the margin that he is commonly called in French saint Flaceau, and in certain places also saint Frouceau. About the translation of his body to the aforesaid town, receive the following from the Martyrology of Beaune, fol. 63, transmitted to us long ago and set aside for this day. On the eleventh of the Kalends of May. At the fortress of Beaune, the Reception of SS. Floscellus and Herneus, of whom the glorious athlete of Christ Floscellus, as his Passion written by faithful writers of the Christian religion testifies, was buried with worthy veneration in the village of Duurnunum, which is in the district of the Cotentin, and was made illustrious by God with great powers.

[2] But when, the fury of the gentiles growing strong, in that place his most holy limbs lacked the religious observance of due honor, translated from the Cotentin country they were carried by certain soldiers of the aforesaid fortress, together with St. Herneus, the most reverend abbot of Le Mans, into the village of Ruffey, and there shone with signs and powers. Thence, by the disposition of the divine mercy, in the time of Count Otho, they were translated to Beaune [], and there even until now they succor with clement piety those who ask faithfully and humbly for whatever they [] ask. Thus far he there: but on folio 179 of the same Martyrology one may read again about the same sacred deposit: On the fifth of the Ides of November. On the same day the Translation of the body of blessed Floscellus the martyr, resting in this church of Beaune, which body was translated on the aforesaid day from one place to a more venerable place by the venerable fathers, the lord Simon, Cardinal-presbyter of the title of St. Cecilia, legate of the Apostolic See in France, and Girard by the grace of God bishop of Autun, in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-five.

[3] it is said in his Passion What is here said, from his Passion, about the first burial of our holy Martyr in the Cotentin district, commonly le Cotentin in Lower Normandy, deserves no certain credit; since that Passion, as we shall show below, is to be rejected among the fabulous, and in the very passage cited betrays its own fabulist. For its anonymous writer, when he had said that St. Floscellus, when he was to be cast into a burning pyre, had asked of God that he might be crowned not by fire but by any other punishment whatsoever, and that he might deserve that his body, his martyrdom being consummated, should return to its own homeland and to its own district, which is called the Cotentin; when, I say, the writer had said these things, having afterwards narrated the Saint's slaying, he went on in these words: But the Christians, carrying off his little body, hid it with devout mind in a quiet place and one sufficiently well adorned. But while his little body rested there four months and more, certain Christian sailors [] from the province of blessed Floscellus, being admonished in dreams, went and stole away his little body; and clothing it in the finest [] linen and putting it aboard a ship, and sailing with sail spread over the great sea, with candles conspicuously burning, on the third day they came to the province of the district which is called the Cotentin.

[4] with fabulous circumstances But on the morrow, all the bishops of that province being gathered, on the third day of the Kalends of the month of March, amid the melody of psalms and the joys of all who chanted, they buried his limbs, fragrant as with a mighty odor of spices, in the monument of a little place, by name Christonnum, in the village which by the men of that province and district is named Duurix Duuronnum. Thus far he: but who would believe that fabulist, who invents that in the times of Antoninus, and while the persecution was raging, as he asserts, in which he places Floscellus's suffering, the Church of God in the Cotentin district flourished with so many neighboring bishops, and exulted so peacefully and publicly in the reception of a sacred body, as it could ever have done under Christian emperors? Of the Cotentin district too the more common opinion is that it took that name from Constantius Chlorus, or from his grandsons Constans or Constantius, as may be seen in Hadrian Valois's Notitia Galliarum. Hence it must be said that this word was used by the writer of the Passion by prolepsis: but by that very thing he shows that he was rather far removed from the age of St. Floscellus.

[5] The village Duurix Duuronnum, or Duurnunum, as it is read in the Martyrology of Beaune, and at an uncertain time. I have sought in vain. About Ruffey among the Sequani, to which the body of the holy Martyr was afterwards translated, as the same Martyrology asserts, the Valois just praised may be consulted. But what fury of the gentiles is mentioned in the cited Martyrology is unknown to me, unless perhaps some irruption of barbarians is designated. As regards St. Herneus, he is doubtless Erneus, whose life you have illustrated in us in tom. 2 of August, on the IX day, page 425 and following, where it is shown that he lived toward the close of the sixth century, and was buried in the village of Celciacum, in the church of St. George the martyr. In the Annotations at letter l a new translation of St. Erineus is mentioned from Mabillon's Analecta, made by Franco the elder, bishop of Le Mans, who is said to have sat there from the year 793 until 816; but that translation too was accomplished within the village of Celsiacum. For the rest, our Bosch confesses in the same place that he does not know where the sacred bones of Erneus at last came to rest. By Count Otho, in whose time the people of Beaune, as their Martyrology has it, received those sacred pledges, probably some one of the counts of Burgundy is indicated; and since there was more than one of that name before the year 1265, in which the last translation was made, we can determine nothing certain from this either.

[6] However these things may stand, more certain are the things which we have reported at number 2, from the often-mentioned Martyrology, about the last translation of St. Floscellus within the same church of Beaune. He is translated there anew in the year 1265; For Simon, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Cecilia, by whom it is said to have been done, was Simon de Brie, a Frenchman, who long discharged legations for the Roman Apostolic See in Gaul, and in the year 1281 succeeded Nicholas III in the Pontificate, being called Martin II, by others IV. And Girard, bishop of Autun, in whose diocese Beaune is, and who also himself

was present at the translation, is said, in tom. 4 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 402 and following, to have been surnamed de Rupe, or de Rocca, or rather de Beauregard, and to have been still sitting in the year 1275 in that see to which he had been elected in the year 1253. In his elogium in the same place one reads on this very subject: Under him the body of St. Flocellus is elevated at Beaune to a more honorable place by Simon, Cardinal of St. Cecilia, legate, on the V Ides of November MCCLXV. Claude Robert has the same in his Gallia Christiana likewise, in the section on the praised Girard. For the rest, both announcements of the translation reported at numbers 1 and 2 have been recited word for word by our Sollerius among the Supplements of Usuard from a codex of St. Mary of Beaune, with this difference, however, that the earlier translation, or Reception of the sacred bodies, is there referred not to the eleventh of the Kalends of May, that is, the XXI of April, as my Ms. has it, but to the XXVI of April, on which day mention was also made of it in our Work in the index of the Prætermissi.

[7] Moreover, that our Saint is venerated among the people of Beaune with a twofold ecclesiastical Office, where he is venerated with a twofold Office; or at least was wont to be so venerated, is taught me by the proper lessons copied out for us by Father Peter Francis Chifflet from the Breviary of St. Mary of Beaune, published MDXVII, where first one reads: On the Birthday of St. Floscellus, XVII September. Those lessons are composed from his Acts, which we shall examine below. But for the antiphons of Lauds the following hexameter verses, sufficiently inept, are read:

The unconquered spirit, leaving its fleshly dwellings, was seen by many to be accompanied by kindly companies. Soon seven thousands of the peoples hasten to believe in Christ, and to be born with living waters together with Cæsar. From the Saint's homeland sailors seek his venerable body, and, having found it, bring it back with praise to his homeland. Acquaintances, neighbors, and kinsmen come together, and reverently lay away the honorable Pearl. If anyone brings a needy man to the Martyr's tomb, from his merits the medicine of health is carried off.

Another Office concerning the same, On the Translation of St. Floscellus, IX November — on which day, namely, we have said that his body was translated within the church of Beaune to a more honorable place — is prescribed in the same place. But, what you may marvel at, the proper lessons, put together from the remaining part of the Passion, contain only the Saint's martyrdom, and make no mention at all of the translation or elevation of the sacred body.

[8] as also with one in the diocese of Coutances. And that St. Floscellus enjoys some cult not only at Beaune, but also throughout the whole diocese of Coutances in Lower Normandy, we learn from the Breviary of that bishopric, published at Coutances in the year 1610 by the mandate of Nicholas de Briroy, bishop of Coutances, and with the consent of the Chapter, which I have in hand. For in it, on the XVII day of September, an ecclesiastical Office of nine lessons is prescribed to be recited of St. Flocellus the martyr, and at the same time of St. Lambert. But that whole Office is from the Common, except the collect, which I subjoin: Grant us, most clement heavenly Father, by the merits and intercessions of thy holy martyr Flocellus, pardon of all our sins, and the everlasting reward of blessed perpetuity in thy glory with thine elect. Through our Lord, etc. This cult is doubtless paid him there as to a native Saint; because, namely, the Passion to be examined below narrates that he was born in the district of the Cotentin. Baronius, to be praised at num. 13, affirms that his memory is famous also at Autun: yet in the Breviary of that diocese, which was printed in the year 1534 by the authority of James Hurault, bishop of Autun, and which exists in our Museum, I find absolutely no mention made of that Saint. Hence it is permitted to conjecture that Baronius so thought because he believed him to have suffered at Autun, or that he wrote Autun for a town of the diocese of Autun, such as Beaune is; or certainly, if he there speaks of an ecclesiastical Office, that in some later edition of that Breviary an Office of our Saint was added; which I cannot determine.

[9] The Saint, unknown to the ancients, is announced by the more recent Further, of this holy boy Martyr there exists absolutely no memory in the ancient Martyrologies, French as well as the rest, although the Acts hand down that he was crowned under the heathen Roman emperors. In the more recent, however, he is sufficiently known on this XVII day. First of all, Dominic Georgi in his Annotations on the Martyrology of Ado observes that Floscellus or Flocellus the martyr is announced today in one of his Adonian codices, as also in his Saint-Germain transcript. Of the same on this day various Supplements of Usuard in Sollerius make mention, which, on account of the scarcity of older ones, it may be useful to have recited here. The Hagenau codex has it thus: On the same day, of holy Floscellus the martyr. The Register of the Utrecht Charterhouse: Of Flocellus the boy martyr. Bigot's codex: On the same day, of holy Floscellus the martyr. The Beaune codex: The birthday of holy Flosculus the martyr. Belinus, faultily: On the same day, of holy Flesellus, an excellent martyr. And finally, still more faultily, the Florence edition: On the same day, of holy Stesellus, an excellent martyr.

[10] Greven here is more prolix, weaving an elogium for the holy Martyr from his Acts in this manner: by the martyrologists on this day. The Passion of St. Floccellus, a boy, who in the time of the emperor Antoninus, when he was comforting Christians set in torments, was sent into prison with a lion, to be devoured by it; but at his prayer the lion dies. Being led out of prison and cast into the fire, the fire being extinguished, he afterwards fulfilled his own martyrdom. Molanus has it more briefly, yet not without a fault: On the same day, of holy Frecillus, an excellent martyr. Again a long elogium is recited by the author of our manuscript Florarium of the Saints, following the same or similar Acts as Greven. Thus far they, with no place of martyrdom added. But Peter Galesinius says: At Autun, of holy Florellus the martyr, who, ten years old, cleaving in piety to Christ, is excellently crowned. The same arena, and at once the manner of death, the most eminent Baronius assigned in the Roman Martyrology in these words: At Autun, of holy Flocellus, a boy, who, having suffered many things under the emperor Antoninus and the president Valerian, at last, torn asunder by wild beasts, obtained the crown of martyrdom. Andrew Saussay agrees in the Martyrologium Gallicanum, where he exhibits a sufficiently prolix elogium after his manner. But these things must now be discussed.

[11] The boyish age of the holy Martyr, such as some of the martyrologists reported and the writer of the Acts attribute to him, Whence the Saint's age could have been conjectured: his arena, was doubtless perceived from the size of the sacred little body; yet some transcripts of the Acts call him now a boy, now a man. Those who note his arena seem to have learned it from no other source than the Catalogue of Peter de Natalibus, who in book 8, chapter 92, thus began about the Saint: Flocellus, a boy of ten years, suffered at the city of Autun. From no other source, I say; because in none of our Mss., to be enumerated below (if you except one of lesser moment), nor in the one published in Mombritius, is Autun assigned as the place of martyrdom: but either all are silent about the arena, or they assign Rome; although this is not consistent enough with the rest. Nor do the same transcripts entirely agree about the manner of martyrdom: for three of them speak of it thus: But Floscellus, a man of blessed memory, being called back to him, (Antoninus) stripped him of the garments with which he was clothed, and clothed him in a linen robe, and delivered him outside into the street, and they killed him. In like manner Mombritius reads, saying thus: At last, being presented to the emperor Antoninus, stripped of his garments, and clothed in a linen robe, he was delivered outside into the street on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October.

[12] Two other transcripts from the Breviary of Beaune agree, the manner of martyrdom, the day where one may read this: (Antoninus), stripping Flosculus in the Jewish manner of his own garments, and wrapping him in a linen and mournful robe, ordered him — alas the grief — to be killed in the street before all. Finally, in another of our Mss. one reads: By the emperor's order he was beheaded in the street of the city of Autun. On the other hand the author of our Ms. Florarium, Peter de Natalibus in his Catalogue, Baronius both in the Martyrology and in the Annals, and Saussay in the Martyrologium Gallicanum, write that he was torn asunder by wild beasts, because, namely, all these, or some one of them, read in the holy Martyr's Acts feris (to the beasts) for the word foras (outside), or at least judged that it ought so to be read. About the day of the martyrdom there is better agreement; for that he was crowned on the day XV Kalends of October is the common opinion of all, if you except Peter de Natalibus, who, whether from a different transcript or from error, marked the XIV Kalends of October.

[13] and the time are uncertain. Nor is it any more certain at what time the Saint suffered. The compiler of the longer Passion ridiculously affirms that it was done under Antoninus and Maximian, after the martyrdom of St. George, which happened under Diocletian, as we shall see at num. 15. In the shorter Acts Antoninus alone is mentioned; and whether this is to be understood of Ælius Antoninus Pius or of Marcus Aurelius Verus Antoninus, is again uncertain. Hence I think it came about that the most eminent Baronius in tom. 2 of the Annales Ecclesiastici, at the year of Christ 154, num. 3, treating of the martyrs crowned in the persecution of Antoninus Pius, numbered St. Floscellus among the rest, saying: At Autun in Gaul, Floscellus and others: and at the year 179, num. 37, again reckoned the same among the martyrs who suffered under Marcus Aurelius, saying: Among others, the martyrdom of Flocellus, a boy, was worthy of great praise, who after many torments, being cast to the beasts, was torn asunder by them: his memory is famous at Autun. Moreover it is manifest that the same Floscellus is commemorated in both places; and therefore it must be said that only from a slip of memory, the name of Antoninus deceiving him, the most eminent Annalist doubled in his Annals the man whom in his Martyrology he acknowledged as only one. But who could determine a certain time of martyrdom from Acts so doubtful as we shall say these are? I at least, until better documents have been produced, prefer nothing to determining something rashly.

[14] Various transcripts of a twofold Passion; That various transcripts of his Acts or Passion are preserved in our Museum, we have already often suggested. Among these three agree entirely, of which one was transcribed by Peter Francis Chifflet, a man of the highest merit toward our Museum, from a Ms. of the monastery of Acey and of St. Bénigne of Dijon; another by our Papebroch from a Ms. of Cîteaux, codex 6, num. 35; and the third, finally, I know not from where. The beginning of all these is: We have judged it worthy to commend to memory the Passion of blessed Floscellus, a boy, who in the time of Antoninus Cæsar and Maximian, publicly present, under the president Valerian, contending for the faith of Christ, deserved to suffer. Another, copied out by the same Chifflet from the Breviary of St. Mary of Beaune, of which we made mention at num. 7, begins thus: At that time, therefore, in which Antoninus Cæsar and Maximian presided at Rome, deceived by the illusion of diabolical fraud, they strove not to rule and adorn the City by the laws of justice, but to exercise the cruelty of their tyranny. Like this is another also, taken perhaps from the same Breviary.

[15] the longer Passion Finally the other Passion, much

shorter than the aforesaid, of which we also have a twin manuscript copy, published by Mombritius, has the following opening: In the times of Antoninus holy Flocellus the boy suffered under the president Valerian. From this does not differ much the one which Peter de Natalibus reviewed in his Catalogue of the Saints, book 8, chapter 92. Further, this can be noted in general, that the one has been either contracted or amplified from the other; and — what not seldom happens in writings of this kind — that the more contracted are stuffed with fewer fables. Certainly I reckon our more prolix transcripts unworthy of the press, and the learned reader will reckon so with me, when he has weighed some of their inventions. At the very threshold, as is plain from what has been said, the unskilled compiler asserts that St. Floscellus suffered in the time of Antoninus Cæsar and of Maximian; as though these two had reigned together, between whose reigns more than a century intervened — whether by Antoninus he wished Ælius Antoninus Pius to be designated, or Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. But lest anyone suspect that Antoninus crept into some codex by a copyist's error for Diocletian, all the transcripts have Antoninus, and indeed the shorter alone, such as Peter de Natalibus and Mombritius also published. But the name of Antoninus recurs afterwards in all the transcripts, that of Diocletian nowhere. Nonetheless that same writer imprudently signifies that St. Floscellus suffered under Diocletian, or after him, since he both narrates certain things about St. George the martyr — who underwent martyrdom under Diocletian — as though earlier, and introduces the judge speaking of the same.

[16] The same fabulist invents that the emperor chose thirty-three boys it is shown to be fabulous, to sacrifice to the idols with him, and that, on hearing this, the boy Floscellus, all the ecclesiastical men and the people with the ministers being gathered, publicly pleaded for the Christian faith. But although that Boy is everywhere exhibited by the biographer as most fully instructed in the divine precepts, that same Boy nevertheless adjured the president by the idols, if we believe him. On the same testimony, when the holy Boy had been hung upon the rack, the recorder of the Office affirmed that he was lord and first not only of that city (which, however, the biographer nowhere indicates) but of the whole province: on hearing which, the prefect ordered him to be let down from the rack, etc. Of the sorcerer too he weaves a certain futile little tale in this manner: Then the sorcerer, being summoned, fixed nails in the palms and in the tongue of blessed Floscellus outside the city. Then Victor Floscellus began most greatly to give thanks to God, saying: My mouth is filled with joy…

[17] When blessed Floscellus was chanting these things, it was announced to Valerian (the president), and unworthy of the press: who, calling the sorcerer to him, said: You correct me by punishing; for you have not well transfixed the tongue of the seducer, since, always seducing the people, he speaks to them. To whom the sorcerer, swearing, said: By the power of the gods believe me, that I drove nails into his tongue more than we were wont to do to other Christians: but I ask that some beast be brought to me, so that, nails being likewise set in it, you may be able to see whether it will be able to live. And immediately a bull being brought, when it had been transfixed, it fell dead to the ground. Nor less trifling is what he says, that the Saint dictated his words, which he spoke with his tongue transfixed with nails, to a certain man, and that they were taken down by him in the Martyr's own blood. And blessed Floscellus dictated to a writer these discourses, he says, which the writer wrote on paper with his blood. See also what we reported above at nums. 3 and 4 from the same Passion about the translation of the sacred body: the rest I pass by, because these things certainly suffice for all credit to be denied to Acts of this kind.

[18] The transcripts of the more contracted Passion are not so fabulous, the shorter is of uncertain credit, whence it is to be published. such, namely, as Peter de Natalibus and Mombritius published: and yet they do not display that appearance of truth and antiquity on account of which we cannot prudently deny credit to documents of good note. Nay, I cannot lay aside a vehement suspicion that this name Floscellus is fictitious, attributed to some anonymous boy martyr whose body was deservedly held in veneration, and that the Acts themselves were compiled from uncertain tradition, or even wholly fabricated. This apprehension is moved in me by his martyrdom and memory being altogether unknown to all the more ancient martyrologists, French as well as the rest; by the Acts being either openly fabulous or doubtful, and leaving everything else uncertain except the cult known from elsewhere; and finally by the very word Floscellus, not ineptly to be imposed upon a boy martyr of unknown name. Nevertheless, since this is only my suspicion, I do not wish that contracted Passion to be missed by the reader, and therefore I shall reprint it from the Mombritian edition, with annotations after our manner on whatever shall seem to make for its illustration.

add oppidum* (town)

quibusvis* (whatsoever)

* i. e. sailors

optima* (the best)

PASSION

From the edition of Mombritius.

Floscellus, a boy, M., who is venerated at Beaune in the duchy of Burgundy. (S.)

The rack endured, the lion conquered, he heals a boy In the times of Antoninus ^a there suffered the holy boy ^b Flocellus under the president Valerian. For when he was comforting the Christians in the faith, saying: Do not fear, he was ordered by the president to be hung on the rack and vehemently scourged; then to be sent into prison with a lion to be devoured: but at his prayer the lion fell and died. And there appeared there seven most shining candlesticks with the odor of incense, and he was refreshed with the food of the Lord ^c. A certain man of the city, hearing this, who had a son blind, deaf, and dumb, understood that the grace of God was with him, and coming to the door [*] of the prison, begged him with tears to pray for the boy. And he said: Believe in him in whom the Christians believe, and he shall be healed.

[2] and after other things, is killed. Then that man confessed that he believed; and, Flocellus praying, the boy was healed. But the officers sent by the president to the prison, to see whether Flocellus had been devoured by the lion, saw the lights and the dead lion, and heard the Saint chanting psalms. When they had reported this to the president, he said: O Flocellus, how strong are your sorceries! And he ordered a great pyre to be made outside the city, and him to be led out to be burned. And when he prayed, there came a voice from heaven comforting him. As they hastened to the fire, the Saint of God was continually protected by an angel on his right. And when, being cast in, he lay in the midst of the fire ^d, straightway a mighty storm, coming from heaven, extinguished the fire, and the angel freed him unharmed from the fire. After this a poisoner being summoned, he fixed nails in his palms and tongue ^e. At last, being presented to the emperor Antoninus, stripped of his garments and clothed in a linen robe, he was delivered outside ^f into the street on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October ^g.

ANNOTATIONS.

ostium* (door)