ON ST. GOSSELINUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR AT METZ IN BELGICA PRIMA.
In the Year 460.
A collection concerning his cult, deeds, and age, such as it may be.
Gosselinus, bishop and confessor, at Metz in Belgica Prima (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Long, to confess the truth, and much was I in doubt, hesitant and uncertain, whether Gosselinus, here prefixed in the title, deserved a place among the Saints, or rather ought to be relegated among the Passed-Over; not because the various inflections of the name, through "Gunselinus," "Gosolinus," "Cosolonus," "Consolinus," "Consolonus," Arguments long sought "Ansalinus," etc., rendered the appellation somewhat doubtful, but because neither in the classic Martyrologies, nor in the other sacred Fasti, even those of the cathedral church of Metz itself, did any memory of him occur, not even in Meurisse, who otherwise most accurately enumerates the bishops of Metz, not being wont to pass over anything which might conduce to demonstrating their sanctity, or to proving even the least cult. I knew indeed that in Ferrari's general Catalogue of Saints on this day it is marked with these words: "At Metz, St. Ansolinus, bishop of Metz," with the records of the church cited, and the Catalogues of the bishops of Metz: but those records of the church of Metz I had long sought in vain; and in the Catalogues of the bishops which I had read in Warnefrid, Dominicy, Demochares, the Sammarthani, and elsewhere, there was not one to be found in which the title of Saint, even by the slightest trace, was found appended to Gosselinus.
[2] Saussay indeed served as a reinforcement to Ferrari in the Supplement of his Gallican Martyrology, page 1153, for his cult, where he praises the same in his manner with a grand eulogy, but so general, that the whole could be fitted to individual holy bishops, had he not named the bishop of Metz; to be noted for that singular anachronism, that he makes him nearly a whole century later, when he thus writes: "At Metz, the deposition of St. Ansolinus, otherwise Goselinus, bishop and confessor, who in merits succeeded near to holy Agatimber, and for eighteen years, flourishing with every episcopal praise, directed this church, seeking the gains of the Lord, not his own conveniences." And yet from all the Catalogues already cited by us, it seems sufficiently certain that this Gosselinus with whom we here deal is by three whole degrees older than Agatimber, inasmuch as he was succeeded by Romanus in the nineteenth place of the series, Freminius the twentieth, Gramacius the twenty-first, whom at last Agatimber followed, first in the year 520: whence for that reason also the authority of Saussay, erring so shamefully, was rendered suspect to me, which here Castellanus did not dare even to admit, keeping profound silence about our Gosselinus, however diligent a re-digger of the Saints he was otherwise.
[3] Nevertheless, since I judge it altogether to be part of my duty, they were found. to favor the Saints in this respect as far as is permitted, I deemed it should be inquired more deeply, whether perhaps, if not in the cathedral church's, at least in some other Martyrology or Kalendar of that city it might be permitted to find some commemoration of this holy Gossolinus or Gunzolinus. And behold, most opportunely there recurs an extract from the Martyrology of the manuscript of the church of St. Peter of the city of Metz, prefixed among our papers to the Life of holy Livarius or Libarius, to be produced and published for the first time at the 25th of November (on which day he is venerated), in which extract, among other things, I found this announcement expressed in the plainest words on this very day: "At Metz, the birthday of holy Gunzolinus, bishop and Confessor"; whose Martyrology, although I do not have its antiquity altogether ascertained, I judged sufficiently ancient, that to that Gunzolinus, whom we with Meurisse call Gosselinus, a place in this work among the Saints might not undeservedly be claimed. And these things about his cult are enough: of the rest scarcely anything remains to be said.
[4] He is supposed to have suffered much. For of St. Gosselinus's deeds Meurisse had only this to hand down, having premised a somewhat longer history of Attila's ravages, that in those times lived the good bishop Gosselinus, so that from the incursions of the barbarians he suffered the gravest straits and calamities. The rest in his eulogy, with his usual elegance, but indifferent matter, Saussay supplied, when to what has already been said he added these things: "Whence, a faithful stewardship being discharged, the faithful servant, admitted into the joy of his Lord, rendered to the Lord himself the talents of grace which by his sedulous labor he had multiplied, and thence, his reward being increased, was enriched according to his merits with riches never to perish in the heavenly kingdom." Further, as to what pertains to the Saint's age, I neither undertake to examine it, nor have I truly whence to examine it: if Meurisse rightly reckoned the times, he would not have been the seventeenth in order, as the Sammarthani note, but the eighteenth, having begun his episcopal charge in a most sorrowful season about the year 443, which, exercised strenuously and sedulously through eighteen years amid various persecutions, he was called to the reward of his labors and hardships on this 31st of July in the year 460.