ON SS. ALEXANDER AND GALLA AT THE ARVERNI IN GAUL.
From S. Gregory of Tours and more recent Fasti.
CommentaryAlexander, at the Arverni in Gaul (S.)
G. H.
Joannes Molanus, as already in S. Paschasius we admonished, Memory in Fasti, in the first edition of his Auctarium to Usuard, in smaller character and prefixed by the letter Q, to denote that he received them from any of the more recent collectanea, on this day XXXI May reports first S. Paschasius, and then subjoins: At the Arverni of the Holy Confessors Alexander and Galla, of whom Gregory of Tours in the book on Confessors ch. 36. Petrus Canisius the memory of both transferred into his German Martyrology. Baronius S. Paschasius, because Roman Deacon, inserted in the Roman Martyrology: of these he was silent. But Ferrarius in the Catalogue of Saints, who in the Roman Martyrology are not, reported them in these words: At the Arverni of the Holy Confessors Alexander and Galla. Andreas Saussajus in the Gallican Martyrology, on the day IX March, has these things: Likewise there, at the Arverni, of S. Alexander Confessor, from whose tomb the necessity of the sick with dust scraped off attains health. The same again in his Supplement on this XXXI May writes these things: At Clermont of the Arverni, of the Holy Confessors Alexander and Galla: of whose marvelous sanctity the encomia S. Gregory in his book on the Glory of Confessors narrated.
[2] When the said Gregory of Tours in chapter 35, had treated of a sepulchre, and in Greg. of Tours. broken open in the basilica of S. Venerandus, then ch. 36, writes these things: There are however in this place many sepulchres, which, as we have said, are proved to be of the faithful. For there is held there a tomb, contiguous on the left of this one, in length, breadth, height, and every position alike. On the upper front of this is held written, Of holy memory of Galla. There is also no less that sepulchre with many merits glorious, between the exit of the basilica of S. Illidius, and the entrance of the temple of B. Venerandus, in a high place set: in which they say a certain religious Alexander was buried: of which the frequent necessity of the sick, with dust scraped off the drink taken, forthwith attains health. Whence so frequent medicament is attained, that on account of the assiduous advantages of benefits, perforated by the beholders is seen. So Tours.
[3] She does not seem to have been the wife of S. Eucherius. Baronius, when on the day V October had reported S. Galla, a Roman widow, daughter of Symmachus the Consul, in the Notes adds: There flourished in Gaul another likewise Galla, who was the wife of Eucherius, of whom Ado XVI November, of whose sepulchre, mentions Gregory of Tours on the Glory of Confessors chapter XXXVI. Ado on the said XVI November brings forth a long encomium of S. Eucherius Bishop of Lyon, in which at the end these things he has: His wife Galla, in holy habit serving God, having entered his cave, all there of her life's time in the study of religion she passed. Of her and her daughters, on the said day more largely will be treated. As much as we can collect, from this S. Galla easily is distinguished she, who far from the Arverni in Dauphiné lived and died: where to have been her son's cave indicates the same Ado, when he writes, that Eucherius lay hidden over the river Druentia, retired in a cave. Jacobus Branche, in the Lives of the Saints (male and female) of Auvergne and Velay, published in the year 1652, the words of S. Gregory in French rendering, elsewhere they are noted on the day cites the book of the churches of Clermont, in which at least mention is made of a church, built to S. Alexander. Of the present cult he has nothing, a man otherwise diligent in such matters; whence we suspect him to have plainly perished, nor any memory of Relics to remain. We wonder however, that since the said Author cites also Molanus, and this man places SS. Alexander and Galla on day 31, he himself locates them on day 3; and we fear lest in ordering the papers, in which were contained the lives written by him, the latter cipher escaped his eyes, and so to day 3 they are referred.