ON ST. SINERIUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, AT AVRANCHES IN PRESENT-DAY NORMANDY,
About 570 or 580.
SYLLOGE.
Of his cult, deeds, distinction from St. Severus, and relics.
Sinerius, bishop and confessor, at Avranches in present-day Normandy. (S.)
BHL Number: 7575
BY J. S.
[ ] The martyrologists of the later centuries commemorate on this day St. Sinerius, or Senerius, commonly St. Sinier, The Saint mentioned in the more recent calendars, whom some assert was also called Senator, bishop of Avranches in Lower Normandy, of whom it may be doubted whether he is not the same as St. Severus, bishop of the same city, whose Life is given in us on the first of February. Greven announces St. Sinerius without expressing the place: Of Synerius, bishop and confessor. Molanus more clearly in these words: At Avranches, the deposition of saint Sinerius, bishop and confessor of that city. The Hagenau codex, written in the year 1412, expresses him thus: In the district of Castina, of saint Severius the confessor, a man wonderful and illustrious in holiness. For Castina it should have been written Constantinus or Constantiensis. For the city of Avranches is in the district of Coutances, commonly le Cotentin, and in the same district in all likelihood was the monastery of Saint-Sever, where he was buried, as we shall see. Galesini, Ferrari, and Canisius announce St. Sinerius at Avranches with Molanus. Saussay, after his manner, wove a longer elogium, which begins thus: At Avranches, under the metropolitan of Rouen, of St. Severius, bishop and confessor of that city, who, shining from his boyhood with signs of future holiness, gave himself over with devout affection to the sweet yoke of Christ. The rest I pass over, to be given more fully from the Breviaries. Lastly Castellain in his Universal Martyrology announces the same Saint at Avranches under the common French name Sinier, and notes in the margin that he is called in Latin Senator. What he adds about the relics will be given below.
[2] and his cult on this day in the church of Avranches In the proper Offices of the church of Avranches, printed in the year 1635, the Office of St. Sinerius is prescribed to be celebrated on this day, as a double of the second class. But all is said from the common of a confessor bishop except the fourth lesson, which is as follows: Honoring the memories of the holy fathers with religious assemblies, dearest brethren, let us wonder both at their own merits and at the divine gifts in them. How great both of these were in the blessed Senerius must not be passed over in silence. He, from boyhood given over to the divine service, and nourished in continence and in the chastest instructions, came to the highest merits; and on account of his eminent virtues he proved a worthy successor of saint Paternus, bishop of Avranches. And he was endowed with so great a grace of miracles that he is reported by constant memory not only to have allayed the burnings of fevers, but to have restored hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, sight to the blind, and to have cured very many infirmities. And thus, famous for merits and miracles, he was carried up into heaven.
[3] and at Rouen, The Office of St. Sinerius is celebrated on the same day in the church of Rouen, and is found in the Breviaries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and lastly in the Breviary of this century, which was printed in the year 1736. In the Breviary of the year 1627 this Legend is set down: Sinerius, who is also Senator, after Paternus, a most holy man, ruled the church of Avranches. He, trained from boyhood in most devout habits, so bore himself in the episcopate that he equaled also by his merits the fame of him whose office he had received. Illustrious for the praise of miracles, he restored to a certain man who had been made deaf and dumb by a long burning of fever the use of ears and tongue by the pouring in of holy oil. Besides, by his prayer light was divinely restored to a man born blind, and wicked spirits were driven out of the bodies they oppressed. These and other things being wonderfully performed, he departed from life at the monastery of Saint-Sever. At whose death the monks heard a heavenly harmony of angels. He was buried in that same place beside the bodies of the saints Paternus and Scubilio on the fourteenth of the Kalends of October. His relics, at some time carried to Rouen, are preserved in the greater church in an honorable place. The same things are read in the Breviary of the year 1736, except the miracles, which are not there narrated one by one, but are touched on generally in a word.
[4] In the Breviary of Rouen printed in the year 1578 nine very short lessons are set down, he is praised with an elogium in which his deeds which I here transfer in continuous discourse: There was in the district of Coutances a certain man, Synerius by name. He, from his boyhood shining in the service of the Lord with all continence and with the chastest instructions, came to the highest merits. So at length he appeared eminent in mystical converse, that he succeeded to the honor of saint Paternus his predecessor, and was made equal to him in merits. There, while he guarded that same flock with pastoral diligence, it happened that a certain man, a native of the diocese of Avranches, was seized by too great a heat of fevers, so that he remained deaf and dumb. Therefore a deacon from that city was sent to Rome, to visit the pledges of the blessed Apostles, or of the other Saints who fortify that city. When this had come to the ears of that sick man's parents, they ask that he would deign to take him as a companion of his journey, trusting that, if he should visit the sepulchers of the blessed Apostles, he might straightway obtain healing. And as they went, they came to the place where the blessed Synerius dwelt. Having greeted and kissed him, they disclose the causes of their journey. And while they still tarried there, the blessed Synerius perceived through the Spirit
that the power of the Lord was present. And he said to the deacon: I ask that you bring before my sight the sick man who is the companion of your journey. And he, delaying not at all, goes swiftly to the sick man, and finds him full of fever: and taking hold of him he led him to the Saint of God. But he, taking the sick man's hand, drew him to himself, and, taking oil sanctified by his blessing, pours it upon his tongue and upon the crown of his head, saying: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ let your ears be opened; and let that power unlock your mouth which once cast out the harmful demon from the deaf and dumb man. And saying these things, he asked his name. And he in a clear voice uttered his name, and at once the sick man was made whole.
[5] After these things the blessed Synerius said to a certain man born blind, who had now dwelt three months in the monastery: and his miracles are related. Do you wish to receive sight? To whom the blind man said: I wish to know things unknown: for what light is, I know not. This one thing, however, I know, that it is praised by men. Then the blessed Synerius, making a cross with blessed oil over his eyes, said: In the name of our Redeemer let your eyes be opened: and at once his eyes were opened. Afterwards a certain woman, having three demons in her, was brought to him. And when he had touched her with his holy touch, and had set the sign of Christ upon her forehead with holy oil, the demons being cast out, she departed cleansed. But another girl also, vexed by an unclean spirit, he healed by giving her his blessing. At another time also a certain girl, whose private parts had so rotted away on every side that, the flesh being consumed, all the inward and secret parts of nature were laid bare, he so restored to health, anointing her with blessed oil, that no deformity of nature, no appearance of infirmity, showed in her to the women. And so, all the miracles being accomplished which the Lord wrought through him, and Catholic churches being built and fortified by him after the example of his own manner of life, his life and age being now complete, his happy soul went forth blessedly to Christ with hymns and angelic choirs on the fourteenth of the Kalends of October. So far the Breviary of the year 1578, in which there is nothing about the place of burial, nothing about the translation of the body, nothing about the other name by which certain moderns assert that he was also called Senator.
[6] [Someone has doubted whether St. Sinerius is distinct from St. Severus of Avranches,] Further, since I find nothing more about the deeds of St. Sinerius, it is well to consider whether he is distinguished with sufficient certainty from St. Severus, likewise bishop of Avranches, of whom we treated on the first of February. The people of Avranches and of Rouen distinguish them: for they venerate both on different days, and as distinct Saints, Sinerius in both places on this day, Severus at Avranches on the seventh day of July, at Rouen on the first day of February. Those who have written of the bishops of Avranches likewise distinguished them, namely Demochares, Chenu, Claude Robert, the brothers Sainte-Marthe, and they make Severus the successor of Senerius or Sinerius. Le Cointe too admits both, but after our Elders he believes Severus older than Sinerius. Claude Castellain, however, doubts the distinction in his Universal Martyrology, where at page 893, among the Aemeri, he discusses St. Severus ambiguously, and suspects that he is not other than St. Sinerius, because the name of each is nearly the same, and Senerius could easily have been changed into Severus. He rather believes, however, that Severus was not bishop of Avranches, because Le Cointe, he says, according to the older catalogues, makes the venerable Leobald the successor of St. Sinerius without any other intervening. But this last conjecture appears to me improbable, since St. Severus in his Life at number 15 is said in the clearest words to have been elected bishop of the church of Avranches. And so it does not seem to be doubted that he was bishop there, but some doubt can arise whether Sinerius and Severus are different bishops: for besides the likeness of the name, some other things too suggest the contrary suspicion. For to each is attributed as his country the district of Coutances, and almost nothing is related of the one which cannot stand with what is related of the other. But these are slight things and of almost no moment. Certainly they do not prove that Severus and Sinerius are the same.
[7] but it must altogether be said that they were really distinct. For it appears far more likely that St. Severus and St. Sinerius were really distinct. For first, both seem to be found in the ancient catalogues of the bishops of Avranches. Secondly, Severus in all likelihood flourished many years before St. Sinerius, namely when idolatry was still strong in many places of those parts, and before St. Paternus, whose successor St. Sinerius is set down to be. Certainly in his Life mention of idolaters is frequent. Besides, among the disciples of Severus there is numbered in the Life at number 14 Aegidius, who seems to be that Aegidius who was afterwards bishop of Avranches before St. Paternus. Thirdly, if the records of Avranches are of any worth, it must altogether be said that St. Severus was buried in one church and St. Sinerius in another. For Severus in his Life at number 21 is said to have been buried in the church of the blessed Mother Mary, which he himself had built. But St. Sinerius, according to the elogium given at number 3, died at the monastery of Saint-Sever, and was buried in that same place beside SS. Paternus and Scubilio, who at Saint-Sever … likewise on the same day took possession, for burial, of the place of prayer which they had built, as is said in their Life given on the sixteenth of April, number 14. And so St. Severus was buried in one church, St. Sinerius in another, and consequently they are to be distinguished. For the reasons brought forward for confusing the two are altogether slight conjectures, and were born only to suggest some suspicion. But that suspicion must yield to arguments which sufficiently prove the distinction, especially since the Life of St. Severus itself contains deeds plainly different from those few which are narrated of St. Sinerius; and although those few things could stand together with the others, it would nevertheless be most surprising that so few things about Sinerius were reported in the Office, if his Life were the one we have of St. Severus.
[8] Wherefore, leaving St. Severus, who seems the older, [The Saint flourished after the middle of the sixth century, dying about 570 or 580.] let us examine the time in which St. Sinerius roughly held his episcopate and died. He is everywhere said by all to have succeeded St. Paternus in the episcopate, of whom we treated in the sixteenth of April. Now the death of St. Paternus is fixed by Le Cointe in his Annals of the Franks, at the year 563, number 2, without hesitation in that very year 563. But since Le Cointe alleges no reasons by which to establish that epoch, Henschen did not adopt it, and preferred to fix the death of St. Paternus about the year 565. This opinion appears to me more probable, because it coheres better with the time in which St. Paternus began to be sick, and in which he died, as may be seen in that place. But since neither is certain, and neither can be wrong by many years, let it suffice to have said that St. Sinerius was made bishop between the year 560 and 570. Then after St. Sinerius the bishop of Avranches was Leodovald, of whom St. Gregory of Tours makes mention in book 2 on the Miracles of St. Martin, chapter 36, as of the bishop of Avranches of that time. But from that we cannot deduce in what year St. Sinerius died. We may only infer that he died long before St. Gregory of Tours, since he wrote four books on the Miracles of St. Martin, and seems to have written them at intervals. Castellain assigns for the epoch of St. Sinerius's death only the sixth century. Nevertheless, since St. Gregory of Tours died about the year 595, and mentions Leodovald of Avranches long before, I think I shall not go far astray if I fix the Saint's death about the year 570 or 580.
[9] It remains that we say something about the relics of St. Sinerius, some part of which various places believe they possess. The Saint's relics in the metropolitan church of Rouen, from which The body, or the chief part of the body, the metropolitan church of Rouen ascribes to itself, which in the year 1639 gave some particles to the Most Christian king Louis XIII, together with some relics of St. Severus. The letters of this donation, subscribed by the canons of Rouen and the archbishop, were given in us under St. Severus, volume 1 of February, page 195. For which cause I shall transfer hither from them only those things which pertain to St. Sinerius and his relics. In them, the request for relics being reported, the canons add: For which reason … we cast our eyes chiefly upon the two bodies of the blessed confessors and bishops of Christ, Severus and Sinerius, that from them we might take sacred pledges for this end. Then they set out what relics of St. Severus they drew from his shrine, and about St. Sinerius they add: Then the body of St. Sinerius, from another old tabernacle wrought of cast bronze (which, on account of the manifold abundance of relics enclosed in it, is called the shrine of All Saints), where, laid apart in silken and party-colored cloths of very ancient weaving with various inscriptions, it awaits the day of recompense; being drawn forth with equal reverence, uncovered, and inspected, and a certain bone being taken from it exhibiting the shape of a heel, was laid up again in the same tabernacle of All Saints. Which two venerable pledges indeed, wrapped separately in purple silk and marked with labels, we have placed in this little chest, secured with lock and key, to be diligently transmitted to your most august majesty.
[10] Louis XIII received a particle, they are believed to be held. Presently they pass on to declaring some things about both. And we sincerely testify in the Lord, they say, … that the deposition of the blessed Sinerius has for many centuries been entered in our diptychs on the XIV of the Kalends of October … Besides, we bear witness that the deeds of both exist in certain codices of the churches, and, reduced to a compendium, are contained in the diocesan Breviary. And a little after: Both illustrated the district of Coutances of this province by their cradles, the monastic life by their examples, the church of Avranches by their mitres… Sinerius, successor in honor and merits to St. Paternus, who under Childebert the first as king presided over the see of Avranches, when he too had shone with many virtues, after a happy departure was buried beside the bodies of that same Paternus and of Bl. Scubilio his companion, in the monastery which they called Saint-Sever. But the certain and undoubted possession of both bodies is confirmed to us both by long-standing tradition and by domestic documents. Those documents, however, they allege only for the body of St. Severus, so that its translation and possession is more certain than that of the body of St. Sinerius.
[11] Other relics are held at Paris in the church of St. Magloire A part of the body of St. Sinerius Castellain in his Universal Martyrology ascribes to the church of St. Magloire, which belongs to the Fathers of the Oratory in a suburb of Paris. But those relics are said to have been translated formerly to the praised church as relics of St. Senator the bishop; but the modern writers believed that that Senator was none other than St. Sinerius, and from that, I think, the opinion of many prevailed which says that St. Sinerius was by another name called Senator
The translation is reported at length in the History of the church of Paris in Gérard Dubois, book 9, chapter 3, number 4, and is fixed about the year 964. That fragment of the History of France, on which as on a foundation all these things rest, has already been given in us in volume 1 of March, page 248, and in volume VI of July, page 592, under St. Samson the bishop, who is named first among the Saints whose bodies are said to have been then translated to Paris. Against that translation several difficulties have been brought forward. But that translation may be more fully examined on the twenty-fourth of October under St. Magloire, to whom it chiefly pertains. Here I only observe that among the bodies translated, Senator the bishop is reckoned in the fourth place, namely after the bodies of SS. Samson, Magloire, and Machutus, who were all bishops in Armorican Brittany, and after the relics of far more others. Le Cointe, at the year 563, number 3, confusing Sinerius of Avranches with Senator, whose body was then translated, speaks thus: He (namely Sinerius of Avranches) is no other than Senator the bishop, whose relics (for the people of Rouen do not possess the whole body) were translated with the sacred pledges of the bishops of his own time, Samson, Magloire, and Machutus, from Armorica to Paris for fear of the Northmen, and are today kept in the suburb of Saint-Jacques by the priests of our congregation in the basilica of the blessed Magloire.
[12] Nevertheless Le Cointe admits that St. Senator is celebrated in the church of St. Magloire on the twenty-sixth of September, not on this eighteenth day. [under the name of St. Senator, whom today they believe to be the same as St. Sinerius.] From this at least it is clear that those monks of St. Magloire who received the said relics did not know that they had the body of St. Sinerius of Avranches. Wherefore I do not know whether that conjecture is sufficiently certain, although it has been handed down by many. Castellain in his Hagiological Vocabulary, at the word Senator, observes that in Lower Poitou there is a church dedicated to St. Senator, and notes that he is venerated on the twenty-sixth day of September, and is commonly called there St. Senaitre. The same again, at the word Sinerius, commonly St. Sendre, and at Avranches St. Sinier, observes that Senator is venerated in Lower Poitou, and is perhaps the same as St. Sinerius of Avranches. But I gladly confess that I am not so sharp-sighted in all these conjectures that I can affirm anything certain. The discussion of St. Senator will return on the twenty-sixth of September, where in the Paris Martyrology Senator or Sinerius is announced, perhaps because the author of the Martyrology believed him the same as the Senator announced on that day in Usuard. For the rest, Castellain adds in his Martyrology that relics of St. Sinerius are also held at Paris in the church of St. Victor, and in the church of the Most Holy Virgin at Nazareth. Lastly the Sainte-Marthes observe the following about St. Sinerius: There exist also in this diocese of Avranches very many churches consecrated to God under his name.