ON ST. VICTURNIANUS, ANCHORITE AND CONFESSOR,
AT LIMOGES IN GAUL.
Perhaps in the sixth or seventh century
SYLLOGE
On his cult and deeds.
Victurnianus, anchorite and confessor, among the Lemovices in Gaul. (S.)
BHL Number: 8601
BY C. S.
The province of Aquitanian Gaul called Lemovicensis, by the natives le Limosin, Near the river Vienne, in the village of his name has on the North the Marche, on the East Auvergne, on the South Quercy, and finally on the West the provinces of Périgord and Angoumois. Its capital is Lemovicum, otherwise Augustoritum Lemovicum, now in the vernacular Limoges, a city founded on the right bank of the river Vienne, episcopal under the metropolitan see of Bourges. Thence towards the West, on the same bank of the Vienne, St. Victurnianus, a Scot by nation, is believed to have led an anchoretic life in that very place where now is seen the village called Saint Victurnien after him, and in whose church his sacred body rests. In the Tables of Blaeu and in the Topography of Merian this place is marked as four French leagues below the aforesaid city of Limoges; but in the compendium of the Life, or Elogium, to be given, it is said to be eight miles distant from (the same) city. The discrepancy may be reconciled if it be allowed to explain the word "mile" by a thousand geometrical paces, and to take in the aforesaid Tables the lesser French leagues, that is, each for two thousand geometrical paces.
[2] Of the martyrologists whom I at least have consulted, very few, on this day, on which he died, he is announced and those not ancient, have mentioned him. The first of these, Philip Ferrari, in his general Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, listed him on this XXX day of September from the Calendar of the church of Limoges and the monuments of his own church, as he noted in the same place, in these words: In the territory of Limoges, of St. Victurnianus the hermit. On the same day André du Saussay in the Supplement to the Gallican Martyrology celebrated him with this elogium: At Limoges, of St. Victurnianus the hermit: who, a Scot by country, born of illustrious family, that he might serve God without hindrance, left his country like another Abraham and passed over into Aquitanian Gaul, and having built a little hut by the river Vienne in the territory of Limoges, settled there in the utmost innocence of life, wholly intent on heavenly speculations and divine services. In which place, buried after a blessed death, he shone with great prodigies; on account of which a church was built there under his patronage, in which from that time he is celebrated with sacred honours.
[3] Claude Chastelain was added, saying thus in his Universal Martyrology: in a few martyrologies, but through the diocese of Limoges In the province of Limoges, St. Victurnianus the anchorite. He rendered the Saint's name in French as Vertunien, but in the margin wrote it in Latin, as I have published it, Victurnianus. Finally the Parisian Martyrology published in the year 1727 announces him on the same day thus: Among the people of Limoges, the birthday of St. Victurnianus the anchorite. In several Martyrologies I have not found the name of this St. Victurnianus inscribed; not even in the Scottish and Irish Calendars, although it must be determined from what is to be said that he was born in Scotland or Ireland. Further, that this day was the Saint's birthday in heaven, that is, the day of his death on earth, the Breviary of Limoges and the elogium to be quoted below agree with the Parisian Martyrology; nevertheless in the same diocese of Limoges he is honoured only on the next day, that is, on the Kalends of October (at least since the year 1625), with an Office of semidouble rite; without doubt because the last day of September was taken up by the double feast of St. Jerome, doctor of the Church.
[4] he is honoured on the first of October with a semidouble Office, Thus we learn from the proper Breviary of the said diocese, which we have in our Museum, published in the year 1625 by the authority of the most illustrious lord Raymond de la Martonie, bishop. But all things are prescribed from the common of a confessor not a pontiff, except the Prayer and the first Lesson of the second Nocturn, which are proper, and which I here subjoin. Almighty everlasting God, who hast joined to the college of thy Saints blessed Victurnianus thy confessor, grant, we beseech thee, that by his most holy prayers interceding we may everywhere feel the grace of thy protection. But the Lesson runs thus: Victurnianus, born in Scotland of a noble family, laying from boyhood the rudiments of piety, gave signs of his future sanctity. As a youth, receiving increase of virtue with his age, he gave himself wholly to God: and that he might serve him more freely, leaving his country and parents, and crossing into Aquitaine, he settled in a place overgrown with dense woods, afterwards marked with his name, by the bank of the Vienne.
[5] but in his own church the finding of the same on the fifteenth of October. Where, as the fame of his holiness spread abroad, he marvellously healed all the sick who flocked to him, even the blind, the deaf and the insane. At last, having completed the course of a most pious life, on the day before the Kalends of October he laid down his body, famous for frequent miracles. Thus far concerning his cult throughout the diocese of Limoges; whether it stood otherwise before the year 1625, or was changed afterwards, I have not learned from elsewhere. Yet it cannot prudently be doubted that in the village of his name and in the church in which his body is kept he is honoured every year with a more solemn Office, and perhaps on the very day of his death. To the same church I think must be referred another annual feast of the same Saint, namely of the finding, which the author of the elogium to be reprinted mentions thus: On the fifteenth of October is celebrated his finding, on which day his most holy body was found; which is there honoured with the utmost reverence, famous for very many miracles. The Saint's Elogium is given from the copy of the most illustrious Bosquet
[6] We have no Acts of St. Victurnianus except a short Life, or rather an elogium, which Philippe Labbe published in volume 2 of his Bibliotheca of manuscript books, page 695, having received it from a copy of the most illustrious lord François Bosquet, bishop of Montpellier, and which I have transferred hither from there. Victurnianus, a Scot by nation, born in an honourable station of a noble family, is said to have laid the rudiments of piety at once from tender age. But when he had grown up, his age bringing increase to his virtue, already meditating on the heavenly holy Jerusalem, he made over and devoted himself wholly to the Lord God. Nor could his outstanding beauty, in which he surpassed his equals, or his father's wealth, which was abundantly at hand, or the other allurements by which the minds of young men are commonly captivated and led away from the path of virtue, call him back even a nail's breadth from his purpose. Nay, despising all these incitements to evil, and leaving his country and his parents, he boarded a ship and crossed secretly into Aquitaine, seeking a place remote from the sight of men, where, leading a life quiet and free from the cares of this world, he might serve God more freely.
[7] There is a place in the territory of Limoges, at the eighth mile from the city, published by Labbe in the Bibliotheca of manuscripts, on the bank of the river Vienne; the inhabitants called it from him the shrine of Victurnianus, and before that they called it the Dark Valley, because it was overgrown with dense woods, and on account of the brambles [*] passable by none but wild beasts. When Victurnianus had come there, thinking that he had found a seat most fitted to his purpose, he settled there. But he who fled from men, his holiness betraying him, soon saw many mortals flocking to him; and especially all those who were afflicted with any kind of disease came to him. The blind, the deaf, and above all those who were not masters of their own minds, he marvellously cured and restored to their former health. Those weak in faith he raised up and strengthened with salutary precepts. Having thus passed his age there, at last on the day before the Kalends of October he departed from this life. On the fifteenth of October is celebrated his finding, on which day his most holy body was found, which is there honoured with the utmost reverence, famous for very many miracles. Thence daily the frenzied draw soundness of mind, not without wonder. May we deserve to be helped by his prayers, through Christ. Here it ends.
[8] It is altogether uncertain to me whence the most illustrious Bosquet copied or received these things; of uncertain authority, which is weighed. but they are so conformable to the Lesson given from the Breviary of Limoges that I do not doubt either that this was abridged from that, or that that was amplified from the same or a similar lesson, or finally that both flowed from a common source. The same or very similar things were had also by du Saussay and Ferrari, cited above; so that no other Acts of his seem to exist containing anything different from these. But how ancient these are, who can divine? Certainly, such as we now have them, they by no means breathe antiquity. Nor can we receive light here from the biographers of other Saints and other ancient writers, among whom there is deep silence about this St. Victurnianus, if you except two, of whom one wrote in the twelfth century, the other flourished in the following and in the fourteenth; but these two both mentioned his sacred body resting by the Vienne, yet nothing
do they add about his deeds or the time in which the Saint flourished.
[9] In this poverty of ancient monuments and writers let us weigh a little the elogium given. Most probably the Saint came thither from Scotland or Ireland, In the first place it is certain that nothing is read in it which in any way shrinks from likelihood, and that for giving credit to what is said only the authority of the first writer is wanting. That St. Victurnianus was a Scot by nation, the Breviary of Limoges agrees, and Ferrari in his Annotations, and du Saussay, or the records which these used. This is the more credible in proportion as love of country is not wont to make its own Saints foreigners instead of natives, and in proportion as it was more common among the Scots of old, having left their native land for Christ, to migrate into the Gauls. I said the Scots; by which name I include the Irish also, whose island for many centuries of the Christian era was called Scotia by writers. Hence it may be doubtful whether Victurnianus drew his origin from that island or from present-day Scotland, which is a part of Great Britain. Meanwhile (which you may wonder at) he is so unknown to Scottish and Irish lovers of the saints alike that I have not found him mentioned in the Martyrologies of either nation, nor in their other Calendars and Catalogues of the Saints.
[10] perhaps in the sixth or seventh century, In the elogia which I have reviewed nothing at all occurs which even lightly indicates the century in which the holy Anchorite lived, or suggests any means of investigating it. Chastelain too must have found out nothing on this matter when he composed his Universal Martyrology; for whereas elsewhere he is wont to note in the margin the time or century of the Saints' death, he left it blank in the case of St. Victurnianus. That he is not later than the twelfth century is clear from Geoffrey, monk of St. Martial of Limoges and Prior of Vigeois, who in the Chronicle which he wrote as that same century drew to its close, in Labbe, volume 2 of the Bibliotheca of manuscripts, page 287, says briefly of his body among the bodies of the Saints resting in the diocese of Limoges: Above the Vienne, St. Victurnianus the confessor. But how long before, or how many centuries before, the Saint died, remains equally obscure. The author of the Parisian Martyrology alone added to the announcement given at number 3 the sixth or seventh century; which I do not know whether he learned from some ancient document, or only conjectured from probable reasoning.
[11] as the Parisian Martyrology has it; uncertain also are his nobility, And this opinion is indeed favoured by the fact that at that time several Scots or Irishmen crossed the sea into Gaul and Germany for piety's sake; but this reason alone may fail by one or another century in fixing the date. For which reason, without a more certain argument, I prefer to determine nothing; yet since nothing occurs on the contrary side, and the author of the Parisian Martyrology perhaps found out something more certain, I have noted the sixth and seventh century above in the margin from him, adding the doubting particle Perhaps. As regards the Saint's noble family and his father's wealth, these are not without example in other such Saints who came from abroad; but that they may be safely held as certain they need a greater authority than that of an unknown time and an unknown writer. For, since it often happens with other Saints that nobility of blood and opulent patrimonies are too liberally attributed to them as an argument of more excellent virtue, it may rightly be feared that this has been done here also; especially because it is little likely that the holy Anchorite, shunning worldly things and glory, published these things about himself; nor is any occasion produced by which the people of Limoges could have learned the same from Scotland or Ireland.
[12] his wealth, his beauty, etc.: but his ancient cult is certain, Let the same be the judgment about his zeal for the virtues in tender age and youth, and about the outstanding beauty of body in which he surpassed his equals; things which certainly could first have been handed down only by a contemporary, and perhaps rest on conjectures alone, and those partly unfounded. More certain are the remaining things that are said about the Saint's cult, but as to time and certain circumstances they are quite obscure to me. That his sacred body certainly rested on the bank of the Vienne already from the twelfth century I have shown above at number 10 from Geoffrey, Prior of Vigeois. About the thirteenth century or the following, Bernard Gui speaks a little more clearly, of the Order of Preachers, inquisitor of the holy faith, and bishop, first of Tui, then of Lodève, in the Treatise on the Saints who adorn the diocese of Limoges, printed by Labbe in the said Bibliotheca of manuscripts, volume 1, from page 629. Take his words from page 633. St. Victurnianus rests in the village of his name, where he also led an eremitical life, in the church of the protomartyr Stephen; he powerfully snatches those devoted to him and crying to him from the jaws of wolves and ravening beasts, and bestows many benefits on the inhabitants. But this Bernard Gui flourished in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as James Échard testifies in volume 1 of the Writers of the Order of Preachers, where he bound his death to the year 1331.
[13] Further, from these words there arises a doubt about the aforesaid church, although the time of the church's building is also obscure, namely to whom it was originally dedicated and is even now dedicated. Philip Ferrari, in his Annotations to the announcement of St. Victurnianus, writes that that church is marked with his name, in these words: From the Calendar of the church of Limoges and the monuments of his own church, in which it is read that he … settled in the place which was called the Dark Valley, but now the Church of St. Victurnianus, by the river Vienne, and that he is there especially honoured, famous for miracles. Du Saussay agrees in the Gallican Martyrology, saying, In which place, buried after a blessed death, he shone with great prodigies; on account of which a church was built there under his patronage, in which from that time he is celebrated with sacred honours. According to these, then, that church was dedicated to St. Victurnianus himself from its very beginning, and the cause of its building was his tomb famous for miracles.
[14] Likelihood greatly favours what they say. For to whom is it more likely that a church erected in that woody place was dedicated in which he lies, and whether this was so from the beginning, than to St. Victurnianus, who living had made it illustrious by his virtues and miracles, and dead continued to make it illustrious, and by whose favour the place itself is said to have passed from being a horrid spot, passable only to wild beasts, into a village marked with that Saint's name? Notwithstanding these things, the aforesaid Bernard Gui, whom Échard in the place just cited writes to have been born in the very diocese of Limoges and to have held the priorate for two years in the convent of the Order of Preachers at Limoges, accurately mentioning both the village and the church, says that the latter is called of St. Stephen and the former of St. Victurnianus: St. Victurnianus rests in the village of his name, where he also led an eremitical life, in the church of the protomartyr Stephen. This testimony of Bernard does not allow me to believe otherwise than that, at least before the middle of the fourteenth century, the church in which the body of St. Victurnianus then rested was consecrated to the holy protomartyr Stephen, even though this may seem strange in the circumstances which I have reported.
[15] or whether it was only dedicated to him afterwards: Did perhaps St. Victurnianus himself, while he lived, have there some oratory sacred to that same holy martyr, in which he was wont both to pray himself and to exhort to piety those who flocked to him; and did that oratory, made illustrious by his burial, afterwards grow into a church, the name of the first patron being retained? Or after the times of Bernard Gui did that same church, on account of the presence of St. Victurnianus's body and his miracles, begin to be more commonly named from him; or was a new church substituted for the old and dedicated to Victurnianus alone, or at least as chief patron, and are the assertions of Ferrari and du Saussay to be explained in one or other of these ways? Let the people of Limoges look to these things, who have it at hand to inspect and examine their country's affairs more closely. I for my part have found nothing anywhere for either side: and Geoffrey of Vigeois in his Chronicle assigns the place of the sacred body only as above the Vienne; while the Breviary of Limoges and the copy of the most illustrious Bosquet do indeed teach that the place or village in which he lived and rests is named after him, but are wholly silent about the church.
[16] [likewise obscure is the finding of the body: the glory of his miracles is in no way doubtful.] Still more unknown to me are the time, occasion and manner of the finding of his body, which is read in the copy of the bishop just cited to have happened on the XV day of October and to be celebrated yearly, without other circumstances. That Victurnianus was famous for miracles his cult abundantly proves; since the faithful are wont to be kindled by benefits of that kind, which surpass the powers of nature, to show the veneration due to the Saints. But among other things the cure of the insane is ascribed to him from what has been said above, which the author or copyist of the oft-mentioned elogium teaches to have been frequent in his time, saying thus: Thence daily the frenzied draw soundness of mind, not without wonder. That in the thirteenth century too, or the following, he bestowed many benefits on the inhabitants and was wont to be invoked successfully against the madness of wolves, a writer of that time relates, Bernard Gui, whose words I gave at number 12. Further, since no more about this holy Anchorite has come to me, I am compelled to make an end here, earnestly beseeching that, if any have other or more certain things about him, they may not think it a burden to communicate them to us for the glory of God and of the same Saint, to be of use in the Supplement of our Work.
Annotataadd not*