ON ST. SICHARIUS MARTYR AT BRANTÔME IN THE PÉRIGORD.
CommentarySicharius, Martyr, at Brantôme in the Périgord (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
The name in the additaments to Usuard, Certain Martyrologies of Usuard, for the use of the Gallican Churches augmented, of this holy Martyr give us a most simple notice. Thus in that which at Chambéry in the monastery of the Conventuals of St. Mary we found, on this II of May is marked the memory of Sicharius Martyr: in another of the Queen of Sweden, the Passion of St. Sicharius Martyr; but in that which in the year MDXXXVI at Paris was printed, is noted on the same day the passion of St. Sicharius Martyr. They followed other similarly augmented ones, Molanus, Witfordus, Canisius and Ferrarius: Saussaye with a longer elogium from the writings soon to be cited sought, names the place. Of the first authors of that additament would that we could say of how great age the monuments they followed, when they thus added this name to the fasts of Usuard to be transcribed by them: for if they were quite ancient, a great foundation they would afford us of more efficaciously overturning the figments, by which the monks of Brantôme in the Périgord, while they wish to render the memory of Sicharius more illustrious, made it most obscure.
[2] Before I come to discuss this, there are to be produced the words of Jean du Puy the Recollect, an infantile body in this century recognized in the state of the church of Périgueux, in the year 1629 published in French page 192, reporting what in this century has been ascertained. A little while ago, says he, the Claustral Prior of that Abbey, knowing that the precious casket, in which rested the bones of the Holy Innocent Siccarius, had long been kept in hidden places, for fear of the irreligious Reformers, who like harpies tear apart all sacred things; thought it advisable, a fitting preparation being premised, to open the little wooden chest, covered with golden and silver foils, and with many pearls and precious stones adorned, which was kept in the sacristy. It being opened those good Religious saw the little body of the little Innocent, altogether entire; then a bony knot from the girdle of St. Peter, and finally a phial of that liquid, which from the sepulcher of St. Catherine the Martyr once gushed forth. But it is (as from the Proper of Brantôme signified to us Armandus Gerard Canon of Sarlat) his feast as of a Patron under the rite of a double of the I Class on this II of May: but the Translation (that I believe by which into the said chest the body was laid) on the day XI of October.
[3] If nothing else had been found, nor elsewhere anything before this written, which thou couldst believe of a boy once in Gaul slain by the Jews, I could without scruple have suspected that of that or another region of Gaul some Innocent boy, on whom his parents had imposed the name of Sicharius or Sicarius, on this second of May by the Jews, with their accustomed often elsewhere butchery, slain through hatred of Christian baptism and name, had merited the honor of worship preserved even to this day in the Brantôme monastery, three leagues from Périgueux once built under Pippin the King, as the Chronicle of Maillezais has; or, as the more constant tradition of the place has, by his son Charlemagne: ancient certainly, and brought into the old monastery of Brantôme. since the Monastery of Brantôme under Louis son of Charles is numbered among those, which neither gifts nor military service ought to give, but only prayers for the safety of the Emperor or of his sons and the stability of the Empire. This our conjecture could confirm the name of Sicharius or Sicarius, drawn from whatever etymology (for various can be brought) and also under the Romans known in the Gauls, as is plain from St. Sicarius Bishop of Lyon, of whom on March XXVI we treated; nor today rare, in those parts, even among persons of higher rank, as to me asking about these things lately wrote the aforesaid Armandus Gerard, of the time of the body placed in that chest one could conjecture, that it was after the X century, and placed in a precious chest after the X century when on occasion of the transmarine expeditions, first I judge it was done, that in our West there began to be a more celebrated worship of St. Catherine, and known in these parts to become the oil, which from her sepulcher was said to flow.
[4] But to these our conjectures will be opposed before all things an old parchment, in the same little chest found, on one part indeed signed and sealed, on the other with characters of an ancient age thus written, as the aforesaid author has page 193. with the title of the Christ-child Innocent. Here rests the precious, with celestial grace filled pearl of the most holy body of the glorious Martyr CRETSPYY THE INNOCENT, whom for almost three years and a half, for the protection of himself and his own, with him honorably through diverse spaces of lands * KPULOS, OF THE FRANKS THE GREAT and perpetual prince, carried; at length after SPAIN by a long exercise of wars made tributary to himself, while a VICTOR he was returning, in this place which is called BRANTÔME, with many other Relics of Saints kindly divided; thence this church constructing, that with greater veneration than the other places of Saints it be celebrated, through LEO, and the memory of the dedication as if made by Leo III most renowned in all sanctity of Religion, of the Roman See the Apostolic man, in honor of Blessed PETER Prince of the Apostles, with divine benediction consecrated; and with many honors adorned it by ROYAL AND APOSTOLIC PRIVILEGE, so under anathema delivered, that no mortal, in those things which to their religion to pertain should seem, any right or DOMINION by a RASH endeavor should dare to USURP. But whoever, inflamed with rapacious ambition, should presume to violate it, by the judgment of almighty God, and of all the PONTIFFS OF THE HOLY ROMAN SEE by authority condemned let him suffer punishments, made a partner of JUDAS the betrayer of the Lord in the depth of Erebus through eternal ages.
SAINT SICHTS.
[5] So far that document, to whose lowest margin are had signatures with the letters of the names drawn among themselves: which it is not needful to see expressed to the life in bronze or wood, that a skilled antiquary may understand, even by the indication of the style alone, the writing to be of an age later than the tenth, and much indeed. But not only by more recent use is it called Brantôme, which in Charles's age and even afterward Brantolmurium or more briefly Brantolmirum was named: (which is received from fabulous writings) but also Charles's Spanish expeditions in a manner wonderful enough are expressed; and (what is chief) the consecration of the church is ascribed to Pope Leo, which on figments fabricated under the nomenclature of Turpin and Ludger rests, not to be received by him who the double journey of Leo to Charlemagne, and the manner of return most separated from those parts, shall have read in Eginhart and other Chronicles of better note. For the rest, of whatever age that writing be, as it contains nothing which prohibits believing this holy little body was given by Charlemagne to this place, as the tradition bore: so our conjecture in nothing it impugns: for it only says that the Innocent Christ-child (for this in the Périgord dialect those letters CRETSPYY seem to have sounded) whose proper name in the same Périgord dialect SICHTS or perhaps SICHES for Sicharius below is expressed, with the proper name of the Saint. was carried thither by Charles; who by a similar idiotism there seems called KRULOS, just as elsewhere among other nations he is called KARLOS: for P in place of R I impute to the scribes or typesetters, by whose fault perhaps also in the word PYY a second Y crept in for U. But it is established that Innocents are called everywhere all those, whom by the Jews, as I said, slain we venerate, with examples obvious in every age.
[6] Our conjecture about the manner of the martyrdom more strongly to impugn seems the place of Regino the monk of Prüm in his Chronicle, in the author of the history of Périgueux above cited page 192, In the additament to the Chronicle of Regino according to the MS. fragments of the Pithou library. In the year of the Lord 769 Charlemagne again proceeding to Périgueux, constituted a Basilica next to the river Drona, in honor of blessed Peter Prince of the Apostles, in which not long after he placed one of the Innocents, given to his Father by the Lord Pope of Rome, by whose merits and aid he said he had been victor in war many times. But the place, in which this basilica was founded, is called Brantôme. The same in volume 4 of Gallia Christiana have the Sammarthani, the body is said to have been given by the Pope: but from another likely MS. since they pass over those words, which thou seest enclosed in [ ], and far better note the matter done under the year DCCLXXIX, which followed Charles's glorious return from Spain, after which return their church the men of Brantôme themselves think to have been founded. But the place aforesaid impugns our conjecture, not only in that it says one of the Innocents, by which phrase everywhere are wont to be understood the boys slain by Herod; but adds given by the Lord Pope of Rome, which ought not of a Gallic boy to be supposed.
[7] Regino, Abbot of Prüm in the dominion of Trier carried his Chronicle even to the year DCCCCV, which pleases not, because it seems not credible and ten years after he died an exile in the monastery of St. Maximinus near Trier. But as the labor of this one some continued even to the year DCCCCLXVII, so others to have interpolated him and augmented seem, long perhaps afterward: and from copies thus interpolated the place ought to have been taken, which in no Belgian MSS. is found. Wherefore this only from it is proved, that the author of the interpolation from some writing of the men of Brantôme of a later age it took. And it is to me likely that these, after St. Sicharius' body, placed in that little chest which we said was lately unlocked, to greater veneration had raised; by a desire of narrating more and more distinct things augmenting the proclivity to the old notice received from elders through new conjectures to be amplified, first to themselves, then to others persuaded, that of the infants slain by Herod one was called Sicharius, that of the victims of Herodian cruelty one was Sicharius. But to those asking, whence his name so definitely they pronounced, which in that case ought to be presumed known to God alone; there occurs an easy answer from a case, which in the old Sarlat Breviary is expressed, for the eighth and only Lesson of this Saint, on II of May, when of St. Athanasius only a commemoration is made, the rest of St. Sicarius, but from the common, besides the Antiphons at the Magnificat and Benedictus, and the Gospel from Matthew, An Angel of God appeared in sleep to Joseph. But the Lesson is this.
[8] Of the college of the Martyrs of Christ the Innocents one athlete proceeded, whose true name a demon from a possessed man first indicated, who by the Lord's nod and the command of the most glorious King Charles brought from the transmarine parts, in the Aquitanian soil shines. He since without a name, except only the Guiltless, among us was had; by the bounty of a divine gift Christ Jesus, for whose name he had borne the death of passion, his name to our ears thus intimated. There was a certain wretch in those days, who by a most long-lasting fatigue by a demon was vexed. Him when his parents through the sepulchers of the Saints led around, and through diverse places profited nothing, they began to inquire where this holy infant entombed perchance lay. Then the wretch, when he heard, trembled, and with a wondrous struggle began to be hostile, and in various ways unwilling to go to the boy's temple. Indeed those who led him, understanding this to be a phantastic figment, with his hands tied behind his back to the Brantôme monastery led him. Soon therefore as he passed the door of the church, with a clear voice thus he said, Sicarius holy Martyr, thy prayers burn me.
[9] Jean du Puy alleges the old Brantôme Breviary, where at length is reported, or arbitrarily out of himself feigned it. how to the holy Emperor was through an Angel revealed, in what place were to be laid the holy Innocent's Relics. But whether in the same is had the premised history of the demoniac is not clear; since at the margin, where it is set forth, is cited the Breviary of Sarlat. Then adds the same John (from his own, or the men of Brantôme's conjecture, I know not) that the demon seems to have put this name on this holy Martyr, because with a dagger pierced he perished. So namely little likely it seemed, that to a Jewish boy, in place of a Hebrew or Greek name (for from those tongues alone their names they took under Herod the Jews) that proper and by parents given would have been the appellation. But this would by no means have been incongruous to opine of a Saint born and suffering in Gaul: which the Martyrologies also seem to suppose, which his Passion on this day recall; since the Herodian Infanticide is believed to have been perpetrated on the day XXVIII of December, in the XXI month after Christ's incarnation by the Angel announced, and the appearance of the star to the Magi made. These therefore being rejected, who refer St. Sicharius' slaughter to Herod, we hold it enough to have proved his worship, ancient and certain, which in the old Sarlat one with this Prayer is concluded. O God who thy Church, by the merits and prayers of the most precious Martyr, with wondrous splendor makest illustrious; grant propitiously, that we who the solemnity of him celebrate on earth, his intercession with thee may merit to have in the heavens.