ON SAINT VENANTIUS WHO DIED AT METHONE, AND IS HONORED AT LÉRINS.
ABOUT THE YEAR CCCLXXIV.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On his translation, cult, and Acts.
Venantius, who died at Methone, and is honored at Lérins (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Two brothers sprung from a Consular family shone with sanctity. One of them is S. Honoratus, founder of the monastery on the island of Lérins, S. Venantius brother of S. Honoratus Bp. of Arles. now called from him S. Honorat, and afterward Bishop of Arles: whose Life, written by S. Hilary, in monastic instruction his subject, and in episcopal dignity his successor, we have illustrated at the day January XVI. The other brother is S. Venantius, older in age, but in his youth, far from his fatherland, dead. The place of death is assigned the city Methone, called Modon now, and even now a most celebrated emporium of the Peloponnesus, on the Southern shore of Messenia, which is nearest to Achaia proper, to which more broadly taken it is attributed below in the Acts, but wrongly is placed in Asia. There flourished in the ninth century of Christ this city Methone's Bishop S. Athanasius, whose Life we have illustrated at the day January XXXI. But the veneration of S. Venantius endures in the monastery of Lérins, after his death founded by S. Honoratus his brother. Dead at Methone in the Peloponnesus, Vincent Barralis, in the Chronology of the Saints of the island of Lérins page 189 collects these things by disputing: The sacred bones of the most holy and most acceptable to God Confessor, the youth Venantius, ancient religion teaches to be preserved in the monastery of the island of Lérins, below the tower and in the chapel of the Holy Cross, as is gathered from the incision of a stone existing before the doors of the same basilica, where these things are read. This is the chapel of the Holy Cross, translated to Lérins: which is called the Holy of Holies, on account of the relics of the Saints there hidden, namely of Honoratus, Caprasius, Venantius, &c. But how, at what time, and by what persons his venerable bones were carried into the aforesaid sacred island, by no certain ancient monument or writing are we taught: yet we deem it not unfitting, that by our most blessed Father Honoratus, his only brother, then by the moderator of the same the holy old man Caprasius, with other Relics (as is handed down in the seventeenth chapter of the first book of the Life of S. Honoratus, in the Chapel of the Holy Cross deposited, that, I say, which is circulated in three books) also the blessed remains of S. Venantius were brought from Methone of Achaia to our Lérins, when first there the standard-bearer Honoratus pitched the camp of God, namely the monastery, the fourth century from the Lord's birth now drawing to its close, in the year CCCLXXV, as is noted in a certain parchment most ancient Lérins codex in MS. For to so great a fraternity's excellent humanity, and to the framework of inviolable faith and perpetual bond, it seemed very alien, if the brother should leave his only brother, the master so dear a disciple, of whom the mind was as also the faith one in Christ, separated by so long an interval into regions so far apart. whether by his brother S. Honoratus? Nay rather more consonant, that those whom one mother had brought forth into light, one wave of baptism had regenerated, and whom through the course of this life's pilgrimage one inseparable faith had led about, the same should bring back both brothers to one monastery, that whom God had joined man should not separate.
[2] Further, in an old MS. Psalter of the sacred monastery of Lérins, Sacred cult. by the Reverend Father, Dom John de Nicaea, monk of the same monastery and Prior of S. Stephen of Bargemon and afterward Chamberlain of Lérins written out, two hundred and forty- five years ago, namely in the running of our Redemption one thousand three hundred sixty-fourth, there is had a Hymn, on the Birthday of SS. Caprasius and Venantius, at Vespers and Lauds then accustomed to be chanted: by the tenor of which it is not obscurely shown, that the bodies of SS. Venantius and Caprasius are had in the island of Lérins, when it is said, These are they whom this renowned island holds: which hymn for antiquity's sake we here subjoin.
Let us sing, companions, the merits of the Saints, Caprasius, Venantius: whose footsteps with its proper Hymn Let us follow, with humble heart and work, Praising worthily the Lord. The first was a Shepherd, teaching the disciple Born of royal stock: but grace, By which all things are made, the font of baptism Rendered him fully reborn. These are they whom this renowned island holds, Whom many Martyrs, but more Confessors, And many Prelates have often followed To the heavenly realms of life. O youthful athlete, offer thy services For thy servants, by thy merits Lead us to the prizes, in which thou dwellest, Through thy holy paths. Thee, threefold and one Deity, we beseech, That thou visit us at their prayers, And place us also in thy ranks, When the courses of life are finished. Amen.
There are sung moreover his distinguished virtues by S. Hilary Bishop of Arles in that sermon, which he delivered to the people and Clergy of Arles at the funeral of S. Honoratus his predecessor, which you have above at the sixteenth of January. There is supposed also to this hymn a Prayer to S. Venantius, from the MS. Breviary of the sacred monastery of Lérins, which is such. O God, under whose nods the moments of our life run their course, and to whom no instant, past, present and future, perishes, but they presently stand by; and a Prayer grant to us thy suppliants, that we who B. Venantius thy Confessor hast chosen to the consortship of thy Saints and Elect, at his intercession may follow him: be to us a firm protection of this fleeting life, and of future glory a perpetual support. Through our Lord Jesus Christ &c. Amen.
[3] on the 30th of May, Thus far Vincent Barralis, who in part 2 page 185 asserts the sacred body of S. Venantius to be preserved at Lérins; and assigns to the Ecclesiastical cult this day May XXX, and the year of death CCCLXXIV. Philip Ferrarius in the Notes of the general Catalogue asserts, that on this same day S. Venantius brother of S. Honoratus is commemorated in several Calendars of Germany, and is read in Pistorius in the Chronicle. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology praises him with this encomium: On the same day of S. Venantius, Monk of Lérins, brother of S. Honoratus, founder of that famous asceterion and Archbishop of Arles: whose excellent imitator and strenuous helper in the sacred purpose, when for the love of Christ he had forsaken Greece his fatherland, and his wealth, at Methone of Achaia, The blunders of Saussay, by premature death consummated, under the protection and in the sight of S. Caprasius, whom he followed as leader of pious instruction, and of Honoratus himself his most loving brother, he migrated to the supernal rest: to whom the Angels with melody ran to meet. His Relics afterward brought to Lérins, in the little chapel of the Holy Cross were laid up, with fitting honoring. These things Saussay; but he is mistaken when he asserts him to have been a Monk of Lérins, since he is handed down to have died before that monastery was built. Nowhere also is it read that Greece was the fatherland of SS. Honoratus and Venantius, whom we deem to have arisen in Gaul.
[4] Vincent Barralis published a certain Life, found in the MSS. of Lérins, The Life from MSS. from various monuments; but chiefly from the life of S. Honoratus his brother, whose second chapter contains the peregrinations of SS. Honoratus and Venantius the brothers, and his death: but these things can be read at January XVI. Some things also in the Life of S. Caprasius to be given at the Kalends of June are explained. But it suffices here to set forth the indicated Life of S. Venantius.
LIFE
From the MSS. of Lérins drawn out by Vincent Barralis.
Venantius, who died at Methone, and is honored at Lérins (S.)
BHL Number: 8520
When the marvelous works of the Saints are recited, the glory also of him is proclaimed, through whose faith and power they themselves, as the Apostle says, conquered kingdoms, wrought justice, obtained the promises. Heb. 6, 33 For human nature, whose sense and thought are prone to evil from adolescence, slips of itself to vices, but to the saving merits of the virtues by no means rises up, unless it be raised by the help of God's mighty hand. Whence the Apostle says, It is not, he says, of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, These Acts collected from various sources, are read at the feast. but of God that showeth mercy. Rom. 9, 16 To the praise therefore and glory of the divine goodness, some things concerning his works, which through his blessed Confessor Venantius it deigned to work, as we have found described in various volumes, we have decreed to insert into this lection; that on his birthday feast, which today is observed, your holy devotion may have whence to virtues' examples it may be called forth.
[2] The glorious therefore Confessor of Christ Venantius, sprung of illustrious lineage, as he was famous by birth, famous appeared also by the honesty of his manners. For that very origin of highest nobility he ennobled by upright manners, adorned by holy works. For he was the brother german of that excellent Confessor of Christ Honoratus, Wishing to pervert from piety his brother S. Honoratus, who first was Founder and Father of the monastery of Lérins, afterward existed as Bishop of Arles. For when the same approved athlete of Christ, in life and name Honoratus, being yet in his boyish years, had by divine calling been led to the knowledge of the Catholic faith; his carnal father began to prepare opposing efforts, and with soft blandishments to the delights of this world strives to entice the innocent boyhood. And because by himself he could not accomplish this, he joined this younger brother, who then by name Germanus was called, apt for sportive deeds. There is joined therefore to him the younger brother, more given than the elder to transitory things and boyish deeds, who might somewhat be able to bend the holy boy Honoratus from the undertaken summit of virtue; but almighty God scattering his iniquitous counsels, far otherwise than was hoped the matter turned out. For when the brother strove to allure his brother to the enticements of this world; he himself is led to the holy life: divine clearness suddenly shining round about, he who had come to subvert, by the changing of the right hand of the Most High suddenly appeared converted: who, having received the grace of conversion, the holy old man Caprasius ministering, hastened to the receiving of the sacrament of Baptism. He, called Venantius, grew to so great an eminence of virtues, that he existed as the helper of S. Honoratus, his brother german, and accompanied him no less in virtue than in consortship; and through all the time he afterward lived, became his inseparable companion.
[3] Striving with his brother in the zeal of virtues: But there were between them pleasing contests proposed; namely whose mind was softer toward piety, whose food harder, whose garment rougher, whose speech gentler; which of them spoke more rarely, who prayed more frequently; whom the bed less detained, whom reading more occupied; whom injury less moved, who was more easily moved by mercy. And so the pious Confessor of Christ Venantius was comely of elegant form: he was also graceful in aspect, gentle in speech, mild in mercy, composed in the honesty of manners, a youth in age, but hoary in mind. And the more he grew in the sublimity of virtues, the more by humility and compunction he descended. Most sparing of food and sleep, he used a roughest hair-shirt for a bed, and a hard stone for a pillow. He was also imbued with the sweetness of so great kindness, that being dear to men, he was rendered amiable to all. and excelling in these. There shone in the youth a gravity of manners, a senile maturity: rare was to him the visitation of women, even of kinswomen. An angelic life by him on earth was led in much patience, in vigils, in fastings, in chastity, in sanctimony, in long-suffering, in the Holy Spirit, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God: and amid so many virtues, what is difficult enough, the flight from all vanity.
[4] Meanwhile because the chief servant of Christ Venantius, among kinsmen and acquaintances, he leaves his fatherland: to poverty and ignobility, as he desired, could not come, he disposed to pass over to far-off and foreign nations. He himself also dreaded his glory: and the odor of his holy conversation, now far and wide diffused, although he referred it to God's praise, yet feared it to bring upon himself the peril of vanity. Counsel therefore being taken, the splendor of royal garments being left, and all the insignia of secular pomp being spurned, B. Venantius together with the most holy Honoratus his brother, to the sea hastens, boards a ship, flees his own fatherland, he takes S. Caprasius as director: forsakes for Christ kinsmen and parents; under the holy elder Caprasius, a man of perfect and consummate gravity, by his mastership his life to set in order, and his manners to compose, subtly chooses. Long is it to run through, what profit each place sought out by them drew from their setting forth, what salutary doctrine they brought into the Churches, to how many masters and Pontiffs they were masters in silence. But Venantius, a youth and delicate, against the tenderness of his nature, the rheum of the sea and the heat and barrenness of the Achaian shore having undertaken, with incredible patience and virtue bore. For no small miracle, I think, must it be reckoned, that a youth so delicately and so softly reared, against so great variety of waters and airs, with so great constancy of mind prevailed to strive. How grave, how intolerable that was to that tenderness, he falls into sickness: the incurable sickness of B. Venantius himself made manifest. For from then in the brief time he lived, weak indeed in body he was, but strong and robust in devotion of soul.
[5] But because to narrate the merits of B. Venantius one by one we discern to be difficult, he dies at Methone in the Peloponnesus to his happy passage let us direct the eyes of our mind and our pen. Venantius therefore, fervent with the fire of divine love, his tender little body with many vigils and various abstinences unceasingly macerated: given also to divine contemplation, transitory things being despised, on heavenly things alone he meditated. And when the merciful God to his faithful servant's labors had decreed to set an end, and to him for his lawful contest to render the crown of justice laid up; he himself permitting, a bodily ill more bitter than usual invaded him. The languor therefore prevailing he was brought to his last extremity: yet his angelic countenance, joyous with gentleness and cheerfulness, nowhere appeared changed. The Saints of God Caprasius and Honoratus being there present, together with no small company of holy men, that generous soul, holy and uncontaminated, was loosed from the bonds of the flesh, at Methone of Achaia, a province of Asia. To whose passing ran the Lord Jesus Christ with a multitude of Angels, Christ running to meet him with Angels. and says to him: Well done Venantius, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord. And so with those Angelic choirs singing together that holy soul penetrated the heights of the heavens. For of the blessed man the fame of repute had so greatly grown, that Hebrews, Greeks, and likewise Latins, rejoicing together in his glory, exulted for his excellent merits. The Jews also, who reject Christ, admired the faithful servant of Christ: and extolling his life with praises, commended it with worthy proclamations.
[6] By his suffrage therefore, dearest Brethren, with the whole striving of the heart, let us commend ourselves to his prayers, his suffrage is sought. who was the brother of our holy Father Honoratus in flesh, but more truly brother in religion: let us study to follow his life and manners, that by the intercession of his merits, we may avail forever to live with him, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns world without end. Amen.