ON ST. EUTROPIUS BISHOP OF ORANGE IN GAUL.
AFTER A.D. CCCCLXXV
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Concerning his age, his Life written by his successor Verus, his cultus, and Relics.
Eutropius, Bishop of Orange in Gaul (S.)
BY D. P.
Arausio mentioned by Ptolemy, Strabo, Pliny, and other ancients; the Arausican city in the Councils; the Arausionensian city by Sidonius Apollinaris in book 6 Epistle 12 named; Among the first Bishops of Orange in the fourth and fifth centuries of Christ is said to have had these first Bishops in Claudius Robertus and the Sammarthani: Constantius, S. Eutropius, Verus, Constantius, and S. Florentius. Of these the first Constantius with Proculus Bishop of Marseilles from the Narbonensian province as Legate was present at the Council of Aquileia in the year CCCLXXXI, where the Arausican Bishop is called, and with other Bishops pronounced sentence against the Arian Palladius. Between him and S. Eutropius some chaos of the Arausionensian See is interposed, within which seem to have existed several Bishops, Eustus, of whom one below, the predecessor of S. Eutropius, Justus is mentioned: who in the year CCCCXLI was present at the first Council of Orange, and is named in the Letters of S. Pope Leo to the Bishops of the Province given in the year CCCCXLV and following, and in the Synodical Letter of the Bishops of Gaul to S. Pope Leo in the year CCCCLII: but in the year CCCCLV he was present at the Council of Arles. S. Eutropius, To this Justus therefore succeeded S. Eutropius, made Deacon by the Marseilles Bishop Eustachius or Eustasius, to whose predecessor Venerius and other Bishops of Gaul Pope Leo wrote in the year CCCCLII, that in time everything plainly agrees. in the year 463 To the same S. Eutropius and other Bishops S. Pope Hilarus wrote in the year CCCCLXIII, that in the Church of Die a Bishop had been improperly ordained. and 275 Eutropius himself also subscribed in the year CCCCLXXV to the Letter of Faustus Bishop of Riez, to Lucidus a Presbyter of the sect of the Predestinarians, in which to him is explained, what sentences he should reject and which embrace and profess. Familiar also with him was S. Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop of Auvergne, whose to him stands in book 6 Epistle 6, in these words: "Sidonius, to the Lord Pope Eutropius, greeting. After I learned that the treaty-breaking nation had returned to its seats, and was preparing no ambushes for travelers; familiar with S. Sidonius Apollinaris I judged it impious to defer further the discourse of office, lest your affection should reckon a certain rust to my fault, as an unpolished sword, from rarity of care. Whence having sent only the bearer of letters for this business, what may be the state of your little body in soundness, how much may things go according to the mind's opinion, anxious I inquire; hoping that the love once granted me by you, neither by the length of the journey interposed, or by the long duration of mutual absence, may be diminished: because the goodness of the Creator encloses rather the dwelling of men, than charity within final narrows. It remains that your Beatitude with the wholesomeness of compunctory discourse, you who request his instruction and prayers. feed the avid hunger of our ignorance. For it is too useful to you, that by your exhortations the leanness of the inner man often the mystic fat and spiritual lard may distend. Deign to be mindful of us, Lord Pope. Farewell." Thus S. Sidonius Apollinaris, who died in the year CCCCLXXXVI, but whether earlier or later S. Eutropius died, is not known.
[2] A church erected to him, His ancient veneration is indicated by the church, formerly built to him in the city of Orange: in which with great devotion his sacred body Relics used to be preserved which, placed under the steps, in the year MDLXXII the Calvinist heresy took away, and with other Relics of Saints consumed with fire; the church also being converted to the use of a fortress, where soon to be praised Henricus Suarez noted that there used sometimes to be read these words, engraved on the very sacred lintel: "GAUDENTIUS
AND PALLADIUS MADE THIS FOR THEIR MOST INNOCENT BROTHER,"
by which to be indicated the very brothers german of S. Eutropius, the first founders of that church, who except by rashly conjecturing would affirm? especially when on the same marble was seen engraved some history, to which it is credible those words were as a title, and so the whole matter is of a few centuries? Meanwhile though all these things have been abolished, his sacred memory shall remain in the ancient Ecclesiastical Fasti. For Usuard, before eight hundred years, inscribed these things in his Martyrology on this day XXVII: "Likewise in Gaul, in the city of Arausica, of S. Eutropius the Bishop, whose life, memory in the sacred Fasti, illustrious with virtues and miracles, Verus the Bishop describes with luculent discourse." The same things and in the same century, namely from more ancient fasti, transcribed Ado and Notker: and were followed by more recent, Bellinus, Greven, Maurolycus, Molanus, Galesinius, Canisius, Saussay with various Mss. and the present Roman Martyrology. Indeed also Sigebert of Gembloux, On Ecclesiastical Writers chapter 73, has plainly the same things about Verus the Bishop, writer of the life of S. Eutropius. This Verus Peter de Natalibus in book 5 of the Catalogue chapter 57 calls Bishop of Aurasica, Life written by his successor Verus, whom the above-cited Claudius Robertus and the Sammarthani place as successor of S. Eutropius: and to him they say S. Florentius was substituted, who in the year DXVII subscribed the Council of Epaone, and is venerated on October XVII, also inscribed in the Roman Martyrology: therefore Verus could, between this Florentius and S. Eutropius, have presided over the Church of Orange. Which Life he wrote of S. Eutropius we do not know to have been published by anyone hitherto. of which a part is given from Ms. We at Paris in the library of the most illustrious man Nicholas Fouquet found the beginning, and we plainly judge it to be part of that which Verus the successor wrote. The same part, but here and there contracted, was also found in the old Ms. Breviary of S. Paul of Tricastin, by a most studious and noble man among the Avignonese, Henricus de Suarez; who dying left various Mss., and among the rest a Description of the Principality of Orange with a recension of its Bishops, whence transcribed by his own hand a copy was sent to us by P. Carolus Faber. This part therefore we give, with the Lessons of the said Breviary collated, to stir up others, that if they shall find it whole anywhere, they may deign to bring it forth into light, or to send to us, at least at some time to be edited in the Supplement of the work. Of S. Eutropius these things narrates the previously cited Peter de Natalibus, perhaps excerpted from the said Life: "He on account of devotion of faith to two sisters, handmaids of Christ, disinherited by their parents, because they had emitted a vow of virginity, wrote consolatory Letters with elegant and fitting eloquence, fortified not only with reason, but with the testimony of the holy Scriptures."
[5] In the said Ms. Fouquet codex we found another Life of S. Eutropius Bishop of Orange, Another fabulous Life is omitted. or rather a sermon at his festivity, containing very many things which we judge to be plainly fabulous, and feigned at the time, when the Episcopal cities of Gaul contended about antiquity. This S. Eutropius is said to have been chosen by Christ among the seventy Disciples, to have come to the Supper of the Lord's passion; and after Christ's resurrection and ascension to have been sent to Gaul, and made Bishop of Orange to have been illustrious by miracles, granting to the blind sight, to the lame walking, to the possessed health, to the leprous the comfort of life, also to the deaf hearing, and at length snatched from this vale of tears on the sixth Kalends of June, to have entered the court of heaven. But these things we judge altogether should be omitted, nor does the authority of Philip Ferrari move us, who in the New Topography to the Roman Martyrology judges him a contemporary of S. Maximin Bishop of Aix, of whom not even in the said fabulous Life is any mention found. The Tarascon church's once Cantor, now Dean, D. Berlet, in his published Panegyric History of S. Martha, joins to this and other incoming Saints (as is commonly believed) from Jerusalem to Provence S. Eutropius as a companion, and narrates many things based on similar persuasion, to which I do not wish to direct mind and pen. From nothing more truthful fables an Office was once composed, whence formerly received the proper office. of which this Antiphon with Prayer remains: "B. Eutropius from Antioch was born, who in the parts of Gaul with B. Trophimus came to preach the faith of Christ. Let us pray. God who decorated B. Eutropius, your Confessor and Pontiff, with sacred gifts, converting him by the voice of your preaching to the Catholic faith, and uniting him to the college of your Disciples; and you who willed him in your supper to be present with you; grant we beseech you that we may always be aided by his merits, and united to the fellowship of your Blessed ones." There are some who make him a disciple of S. Eutropius Bishop of Saintes, sent (as they think) by S. Clement to Gaul, but more probably to be deferred to the third century (as we said on April XXX), with the similarity of name persuading them. Others distinguish two Eutropii Bishops of Orange: but this asylum of ignorance and pertinacious fabulosity does not please us, unwilling to recede from a badly assumed antiquity.
[4] But all these things collapse with the production of more sincere history, to the obtaining of which whole no labor was spared, both by our P. Charles Faber, whom I had asked; and by the Reverend Admin. D. John Baptist Alexander Canon of S. Desiderius at Avignon, who having bought around the year MDCLXXIX from the Monks of Greater Monastery the College of S. Eutropius (which from a certain Ivion the founder the common people call "le College de Dyon S. Eutrope") and assigned to poor girls collected at Avignon under the name of Daughters of S. Joseph, But now reproved, this Saint's church and cultus by every means strives to restore at Avignon. Also the Provost of the Orange church D. Crochent, not only at Orange, but also in the neighbouring city of S. Paul, once joined to the Orange See, having most diligently scrutinized everything, lamented his labor like that of many others to have been useless in this part. But all judge that in the year MDLXX, with the Huguenots devastating everything, the same fortune was suffered, which perhaps in the Capitular archive were preserved, the writings about S. Eutropius; which his Relics suffered.
[5] Meanwhile to all a certain new light seemed to arise, from what I had communicated as a fragment of the Life, and the time- reckoning founded on it. our fragment was rendered into Gallic Wherefore that knowledge of it might be more widely spread, there was one who under my name, in elegant style, in Gallic wrote the Life of S. Eutropius, adorning with words the narration received from Verus the Bishop, but changing nothing in substance: which then with ten not unlearned Animadversions added he amplified, and sent back to me. Whether it has thus been printed I do not yet know; the counsel of one wishing to vindicate the Orangers from error, the Saint from fables, I greatly approve: but my name being inscribed on another's work, not so; especially since in the same observations are said some things about SS. Martha and Lazarus and other Saints familiar with Christ, which I would not wish to make prejudice for my posterity, but that they may freely write what they shall think, about their coming to Marseilles. Furthermore from the mutual exchange between us by letters this fruit also was reported, that we learned that the cultus of S. Eutropius did not contain itself within the city of Orange, but was diffused through Provence; since both at Tarascon is written to be a chapel, founded in his honor; and at Avignon we have already seen under his name a Canonical College, one of the seven more ancient Colleges of that city. It is added that this from its first institution was an orphanage; but the Roman Pontiffs residing at Avignon made it a College, and annexed it to the Abbey of S. Peter the Greater of Arles: from which whether thus it could be alienated was disputed afterwards I understand, from a Memorial printed in the year MDCLXXXI and offered to the General and Congregation Benedictine of S. Maurus, to prove the nullity of the contract: nor do I yet know what end that suit had.
[6] In the old Breviary of the Apt Church, printed under the note of the year MDXXXII, is prescribed the Office of IX Lessons, with this proper Collect about him: "May the intercession of your holy Confessor and Pontiff Eutropius, we beseech, O Lord, reconcile us, Office in various Breviaries. which shines venerable with holy virtues." The Breviary of the monastery of S. Andrew near Avignon, of the year MDLIII, prescribes XII lessons to be recited, according to the proper form of the Monastic Rite, but all from the common. In the Tricastin S. Paul church, commonly S. Paul of Three Castles, that a similar cultus of S. Eutropius flourished is shown by the Ms. which Suarez saw distributed into nine Lessons. If more ancient Breviaries of the same parts were available, from the Calendars of perhaps many Churches we could prove the cultus diffused through Provence. John Cherron, Provincial of the Carmelites through Aquitaine, in letters to his General Theodore Stratius in Lezana given at the year 1385 in this century, speaking of the Tarbes convent of his Order, says; that there in the church, with great concourse of the Pyrenees peoples, is venerated S. Eutropius, whose Relics also he says are had in the Convent of Condom. As to the said dissipation of Relics, it is said to have been done at the same time as the Relics of S. Florentius the Bishop, Relics to be commemorated on October XVII, while in a public procession they were being carried around; but the silver cases the sacrilegious sold at Lyon says the writer of the Orange History Lord de la Pise, page 132 and 161 commemorating both events; who although he himself professed the Calvinian heresy, yet abominates the author of the sacrilege James, commonly called the Bastard of Orange, natural son of Prince Louis de Chaalons; nor does he despise the religion of those who used to celebrate the feast with solemn pomp and joyful fires. From that dispersion the head of S. Eutropius, collected by the Catholics, and translated to Toulouse to the church of S. Saturninus, there is believed to be religiously preserved today.
THE EARLIER PART OF THE LIFE, By the Author Verus the successor Bishop From the Ms. Fouquet codex at Paris, and the old Ms. Breviary of S. Paul of Tricastin.
Eutropius, Bishop of Orange in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 2782
LESSON I, II
Whenever someone undertakes to explain by the grace of God the life of holy men, Author's prologue. venerable for merits, celebrated for virtues, he ought more carefully to fortify his conscience, lest either incautiously by negligence he omit something, or moved by grace he invent; knowing that he is also burdened with the fault of falsehood, and not a small praise is taken from miracles, if he should either subtract deeds, or feign undone things. * But because much instruction, much profit is subtracted from the hearers, if the Life of so great a Pontiff is concealed; even though we cannot collect all into one, yet we should not cease at least to declare some things from many. a
III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII.
[2] Born at Marseilles So S. Eutropius, of the ancient city of Arausia, and most noble under the cultus of paganism, supreme Pontiff, native of the city of Marseilles, illustrious in birth, acute in genius, and adorned with the gift of worldly things, when he had restrained his licentious adolescence by the conjugal remedy; and transferring his unlawful to lawful, had obtained a wife; for some time serving the world; because he was now called that he might be tested, is dissolved by the cutting of the bond; and his most holy spouse, flourishing with the grace of Chastity, he sends ahead to the Lord; joyful indeed at the preceding merit, but anxious with the affection of the remaining one: in whom when many hidden goods of conversation more revealed themselves to him, S. Eustachius [b] Bishop of Marseilles, an excellent man, did not escape him. Therefore Blessed Eutropius, whom the Lord did not wish to be hidden, converted to piety, is seized by the Pontiff's command; and reclaiming and pertinaciously resisting, like another Saul, about to follow B. Paul's footsteps, unwillingly he is drawn to salvation. The Bishop's c exhortation soothes the still wild recruit, yet not into the assent of conversion at all is he composed. And that hardness was perhaps of higher counsel: because he judged that ought not to be undertaken lightly, what he feared could not easily be completed. But when the barber was applied to his head, and the flowing locks of hair the converging blade of the iron in oblique cut began to cut; by I know not what virtue, with the hope of the present world wonderfully deprived, he gathered himself wholly into love of religion, like a lamb from a wolf. And when he had received the office of the Diaconate, is ordained Deacon, and penitent for the past, recalling his past acts, not only as a Levite, but also as a penitent he hastened to fulfill; * and by fastings, abstinence, almsgivings, prayers, tears and vigils he strove not only to fulfill the precepts, but also to bewail the past, By which contrition I believe God placated, that he might console the afflicted, by a wonderful vision, made known the preceding sin to be pardoned.
IX.
[4] It happened therefore that on a certain night, after the vigils of prayer, he sees his sins consumed by heavenly fire, sunk in sleep, he was broken by a terrible vision. For he saw himself prostrate supine on the earth, and from the genital places a column of black birds multitude conglomerated extending up to the clouds. And when the stupor of so great a thing invaded the sleeper, he saw fire from heaven, even to his genitals consuming the multitude of birds d. He is shaken from sleep by the terror of the vision, yet not by the benefit of interpretation is he warned by divine indication. The affliction and abstinence are multiplied, the dreadful vision is impressed; God tests the recruit, uncertain by the fear of suspicion, but already secure by the secret of remission. Likewise after much time at night vigilant in prayer sleep is induced; and in the same way a globe of flies ascending from his breast up to the clouds, is suddenly consumed by divine fire. of works and thoughts. Awakened, and stirred by the novelty of the repeated vision, he seeks a certain Abbot e of approved sanctity, and at a permitted hour reveals to him the order of the previous visions. To whom the blessed Abbot, giving thanks to God, thus replied: "Do you not see, brother Eutropius, that you have deserved to be absolved from the past, not only of black acts, but also of culpable thoughts? Believe yourself to be that man, confirmed by the testimony of that Scripture, from the conjecture of that dream, of which says the Prophet, 'In what hour the impious shall be converted from his iniquity to justice, all his iniquities backward shall be blotted out.' Ezech. 33"
[4] Among these things with the Pontiff of the Aurasic city, also named Justus, ordained Bishop, and meditating flight, called to the Lord, the Church of that city as is the custom began to inquire, who worthily ought to be chosen Bishop: and running through diverse known persons, upon S. Eutropius the universality at length, with various judgments long wearied, gathered. S. Eutropius is ordained Bishop, who terrified by the [f] devastated solitude of the city, undertook a most cautiously meditated flight. But God, who was already proving his soldier by temptations, did not oppress, brought to such a counselor him meditating flight, where by a fitting response the broken one might be strengthened, and the afflicted one consoled. For when to a certain venerable man [g] Aper, perfect not only in life but in instruction, as being a disciple of S. Augustine, he had revealed his counsel; the latter approached the confessor with these words: "Are you that Eutropius elected, is comforted by Aper a disciple of Augustine: approved by known merits? Because the Church has not received you, distended in revenue, adorned with ministry, inflated with privilege, restless with company of nobles, therefore by you in disgrace is despised, and refused as most abject? Return, and know this committed to you by God, nor be doubtful of its sublimity, whose preciousness is sought only by the merits of the faithful. Examine inert minds, and dispel the darknesses of this diabolical temptation by the assiduity of more constrained prayer. Read that master; indeed, since you have already read, follow him, who teaches both to prepare working with hands, whence they may give to those suffering necessity. Eph. 4, 28"
[5] By these words S. Eutropius animated returned to his city, so devoted to labor, that he no less consumed his body with work, than he refreshed his soul with prayer [h]. But although the comparison of the previous admirable dreams attentively struck his thoughts; and by Paul's example working with his hands, yet he deserved to be made known first by [i] prodigies than by suffrages, that he might be proved to have come to this grace also by his merits. For when his tender hands took up the plow of a rude oxherd, and the assiduity of plowing with bent sides moved the pain of his body; like a clever physician, by the remedy of alternated labor, as if by certain epitagmata or antidotes he was being medicated. He was cutting therefore forests, and was cleansing the bushy face of fields by the uprooting of brambles: he gives himself to agriculture. often the burdened cultivator of the vineyard he himself, having seized the hoe, would relieve. He was being broken by another's labor, most full of piety, while he did not spare himself alone. But with what patience he opposed his body to heat and cold, is almost incredibly explained. For with the gelid penetrating his hand… The rest is missing.