ON ST. DODA, VIRGIN AND PERHAPS MARTYR,
IN THE DIOCESE OF AUCH IN NOVEMPOPULANIA.
CommentaryDoda, Virg. and perhaps Mart., in the diocese of Auch in Novempopulania. (S.)
BY J. S.
St. Doda is mentioned by more recent writers as a virgin, Of the martyrologists whose Works have come to our knowledge, the first who announced St. Doda on this day was Filippo Ferrari in his general Catalogue of the Saints at the XXVIII of September, where he has it thus: In the territory of Auch, of St. Doda the virgin. Whence he received his knowledge of her, he indicates in the Annotations in these words: From the records of the church dedicated to the same Virgin in the village called by her name, where her body is kept: from which it appears that she was the sister of St. Quiteria, virgin and martyr. Saussay wove a more prolix elogium of St. Doda in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology, writing thus: In the territory of Auch, of St. Doda the virgin, who, being the sister of St. Quiteria, virgin and martyr, and a perfect imitator of her sanctity, was by her excellent merits made a partaker also of her glory (although she entered the threshold of heaven by an unbloody path). Whose precious body is even now honourably kept in her own church of the village named from her name. More briefly Castellan announced St. Doda the virgin in the diocese of Auch — all of them at the same day, all without the palm of martyrdom, which Saussay also denies her. But likely he knew nothing of St. Doda except from Ferrari.
[2] But both in the Acts and in the lessons of the Office St. Doda is called virgin and martyr, in the Office she is called virgin and martyr. and the whole Office, which in the year 1643 was sent together with the Acts from Toulouse to Bolland by Fr. Pierre Poussines, is recited of a virgin martyr with this prayer: Almighty and everlasting God, who didst make blessed Doda thy virgin ascend to heavenly glory by the palm of martyrdom, grant us, by the suffrage of her merits, pardon of all our offences, that we may deserve to attain to her fellowship. Through our Lord, etc. In the Acts she is not only called martyr, but there are also related many torments which are asserted to have been inflicted upon her before the cutting off of her head, by which she is said to have completed her martyrdom. The lessons of the Office agree with the Acts about the various punishments inflicted on the Virgin, and about her head being at last cut off. Wherefore I judge that Ferrari did not deny the palm of martyrdom to St. Doda, but that it was omitted by him in his brief announcement only by a slip of memory or some other chance. For when he observes that she was the sister of St. Quiteria, virgin and martyr, he shows that he had seen at least some records about St. Doda. And so the authority of the martyrologists cited does not deter me from judging that St. Doda is honoured as virgin and martyr.
[3] As regards the Acts already mentioned, I in no way judge them worthy The Acts, being fabulous, are not to be published; to be communicated to the studious reader or inserted into our Work, since they are openly fabulous. There may be seen what our Papebroch discussed in tom. V of May, page 172, num. 3 and following, about the fabulous Acts of St. Quiteria: for the same fables are stuffed into these. To Doda as well as to Quiteria there is attributed a father, king Catillius, a mother, queen Calsia, the same royal city of theirs, Blancagia — in our transcript Blacagia — the same birth of nine daughters at once attributed to Calsia, to whom nevertheless one son is added. There are added many contests of St. Doda, partly with the devil, partly with her father Catillius, partly with a fictitious emperor Moderanus, and very many torments and miracles. But all seem to be fictions, and those not even very ancient. In the three lessons of the Office the grosser fables are omitted. There is no mention there of the mother Calsia, or of her childbirth. For Moderanus there is substituted the emperor Numerianus, and certain fictitious contests of the Virgin are omitted. Yet there is left her father king Catillius, and the city Baltagia, as it is there written in our transcript: and several other improbable things are left, so that it may sufficiently appear that the lessons were drawn from a muddy spring. And so I shall not transfer even these hither.
[4] I should certainly prefer to be ignorant of the age in which St. Doda lived, her age and deeds are unknown. and by what martyrdom she flew to heaven, than to transfer hither things so fabulous. She was indeed the sister of St. Quiteria according to the latter's Acts, as Papebroch observes in St. Quiteria, num. 8. But in St. Wilgefortis, likewise numbered among the nine sisters, of whom it was treated at the XX of July, those nine sisters, as they will have it, are enumerated at num. 19, again at num. 29, and thirdly at num. 38, from different documents, and nowhere is mention made of Doda, so that she has not found a constant place even in that fabulous catalogue. It is therefore quite uncertain whether she was the sister of St. Quiteria or of St. Wilgefortis, which could not be made certain even if she were everywhere reckoned among the nine sisters.
[5] One thing about St. Doda is certain enough, namely that for many centuries she has been honoured in the diocese of Auch, The church in which her body is kept, whether because she suffered there, or because her body was brought thither from elsewhere. For among the documents which Denis de Sainte-Marthe published in tom. 1 of Gallia Christiana, the nineteenth of the church of Auch, page 168, is the Charter of William, count of Astarac, for Otto abbot of Simorre, in which he speaks thus: I, William, count of Astarac, moved beforehand and inflamed for the remission of my own sins and my parents', do build into a monastery that church where rests Doda, virgin of Christ, which church, namely, is situated in the estate anciently named Oriovallum. Then he gives that monastery to the abbot of Simorre. And he expresses the time in these words: This gift was made, Henry the First reigning as king of the Franks, in the days of Pope Benedict, and Garsian being archbishop of Auch.
[6] enlarged in the XI century by a monastery. Mabillon, from the notes of time alleged, in tom. 4 of the Annals refers the construction of the monastery of St. Doda to the year 1033, num. 25. Henry I was then reigning in Gaul, and Benedict IX was made Pontiff towards the end of the same year, so that the donation likely befell after the year 1033, in one of the following years — certainly not in the year 1030, as by a slip of memory Sainte-Marthe writes, col. 979, on Garsias II of Auch, who is here called Garsian: for neither is it read in the Charter, in the first year of king Henry, as he asserts in the same place. For the rest, what more concerns our purpose, from the Charter alleged we have that St. Doda has been honoured from the XI century at least, and likely much earlier. She is not called martyr in that Charter, so that her martyrdom too may seem less certain. But more uncertain is it in what century she died, for she could have been crowned with martyrdom in the earlier centuries under the heathen emperors, then under the Arian Gothic kings, and lastly under the Saracens, or in other incursions of the barbarians. The day is marked in the Acts as the XXVI of September, and the same in her Office: but on account of the martyrologists cited before we have treated of St. Doda at this day.