Agricolus

ON ST. AGRICOLUS, BISHOP AND PATRON OF AVIGNON IN GAUL, IN GAUL,

In the year DCC, as is reported.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Agricolus, conf., bishop and patron of Avignon in Gaul. (S.)

BY J. S.

§ I. The lawful and famous cult of the Saint among the people of Avignon.

[ ] Although the memory of St. Agricolus, bishop of Avignon, is neither read inscribed in the ancient Martyrologies, nor has hitherto been inserted in the present Roman one, The Saint's memory announced in the fifteenth century, yet his lawful veneration, sufficiently ancient, is established, and most of the more recent martyrologists have commemorated him. Our Ms. Florarium at the 2nd of September has thus: Likewise of the holy bishops Colmann and Agricola of the city of Avennica. Avignon in St. Gregory of Tours and others is called the city of Avennica, so that there seems no doubt that that writer of the fifteenth century meant to designate St. Agricolus of Avignon, of whom we treat. But I do not perceive with sufficient certainty whom he means by Colmann, bishop of Avignon, joined to him; since I find no one of that name among the bishops of Avignon. I suspect, however, that St. Magnus, Agricolus's father and predecessor, is designated, whom perhaps he found recorded with St. Agricolus, and whose name he dislocated, as the same writer not seldom does elsewhere. Certainly this conjecture appears to me likely, both because that hagiologist does not elsewhere announce St. Magnus of Avignon, and because of both Saints the bodies were translated together and joined in the fourteenth century, as we shall see: for this may have been the reason why the said writer commemorated them together on this day.

[2] Greven in the Supplements to Usuard on the same day announces the holy Bishop in these words: and commonly among more recent writers: a sufficiently ancient cult, Of Agricolus, bishop of Avignon and confessor. Saussay wove a prolix elogium from the Acts, but from it I here transfer only the last part, which pertains to the Saint's cult and his posthumous glory: Afterwards, he says, on account of the frequent flashings of miracles by which he perpetually supports the city and its citizens, together with the precious body of saint Magnus his father, his venerable bones were translated to the church of the glorious Virgin: thence carried to the sacred church of his own name, which is marked by a body of canons, and often enclosed in more adorned caskets: at last laid in silver cases beneath the greater altar, they are observed with that religion which is fitting. The citizens experience daily the power of so great a Protector, by whose most powerful patronage the city of Avignon itself is believed to have been preserved hitherto, both often from destruction and above all from the plague of heresy. Two things in these must be corrected, namely the asserted translation to the church of the blessed Virgin, in which the Saint was buried from the beginning; and what is then said of the silver cases. The same Saint is announced today by Ferrari in the General Catalogue, by the new Paris Martyrology, by Menard in the Benedictine Martyrology, and by others, whose words there is no need to bring forward. [ ] the Saint at Avignon on the 2nd day of September as patron, various men confirm who have written of the bishops of Avignon; and the antiquity of his cult will be clear from the Acts to be given below.

[3] and most famous, as of the patron of the city of Avignon: Various observations on the Life, relics, and cult of St. Agricolus have lately been most kindly sent to us by the very Reverend lord de Brantes, treasurer and penitentiary of the metropolitan church of Avignon. From these I transfer to this place his observations concerning the Saint's present cult: First, St. Agricolus is not patron of the diocese of Avignon, but of the city only. His feast is celebrated with a double rite of the first class with an Octave, and is to be celebrated with cessation from servile work: The most excellent vice-legate, he says in French, who is the vicar of the supreme Pontiff and governor of the city, accompanied by all the courtiers and the lord consuls, with solemn state assists at first Vespers, and on the next day at the Mass solemnly sung: and the concourse of people to the Saint's church is very great. Toward evening the Saint's head is carried round in a long procession of suppliants; and on their return the blessing of the venerable Sacrament is given. About the beginning of night, at the expense of the city, artificial fires are set up, with which the feast is ended.

[4] As regards the Saint's Office, only the church marked with his name uses a proper Office. The ancient Office, for which a new one was lately substituted: In the other churches of the city the common Office is recited. Some of these recite in the second nocturn three lessons drawn from the Life, but others all from the common. I have in hand the Saint's Office, printed at Avignon in the year 1671, which was said in his church. It has in the second nocturn lessons from the Life for the whole Octave. But those lessons are the very Acts which we shall give, so that there is no need to transfer anything from them hither. The antiphons indeed, hymns, responsories, and chapters frequently allude to the Saint's patronage and his benefits, but contain no facts which are not read in the Acts. This Office a few years ago Francis Maurice de Gonteri, archbishop of Avignon, who died in the year 1742, abrogated and substituted a new one, on the testimony of the said de Brantes. That new Office, by the archbishop's command, Francis Anselme, canon of the church of St. Agricolus, composed, and it began to be used in the year 1741. The hymns of this Office communicated to us I shall set before the eyes of readers, since they contain those deeds of the Saint which the men of Avignon believe more certain.

[5] The hymn at Matins:

The shadows flee away, we rise more swiftly; from which hymns are given, in which his deeds before the episcopate, Sliding into the darkness the day comes on: Let the angels applaud Agricolus with songs, While we sing a holy melody. Offspring of Magnus, of the race of the Albii, He casts away and flees the delights of the world, Keeping the seeds of virtues which his father Sowed in the depths of his heart. An island noble enough in fame upon the sea, Where Gaul nourished holy prelates: Religion and faith dwell in these seats; Thither he swiftly flies. Whither, holy one? Do you thus forsake your own? Avignon calls you with vows, seeks you out. You make illustrious by your merits, and cherish by your prayers. Return to us more swiftly. Returning, he is soon set as the eye * over the clergy, He opens the sacred treasures to the poor, Feeds the widows entrusted to him, and, whole, Now plays the prelude to a bishop. To the one Lord be perpetual honor, Who now blesses Agricolus with his gaze, That he may set us among the citizens of heaven, Who are citizens of our fatherland.

[6] At Lauds:

Light rises for us, the fiery sun gleams: in the episcopate, Peoples, utter a festal song; Let organs be fitted to companion voices, And resound with sweet sound. Presently Magnus is anointed bishop, And, full of merits, enters the heavenly places: The Son is clothed with the sacred fillets, The deserving heir of his father. A marvel, with what authority he rules the peoples: The Shepherd knows his sheep, instructs them by his manners, Recalls them by his examples, watchful night and day, Begets little sons for Christ. Holy faith grows, a new people is born, Then he consecrates the walls of a temple to the Lord, Increases it with revenues, enriches it, and unknowing Now prepares a temple for himself. Ah, grief! The lovable Prelate is snatched away, The Shepherd, delight, the Shepherd, love of the flock: Presently entering heaven, into the choirs of those above His happy spirit flies away. To the one Lord, etc., as above.

[7] and his miracles are recorded; At both Vespers:

Him whom in heaven the hosts of heaven celebrate, Whom on earth the mouths of the faithful resound, Happy Avignon, know your Bishop, Your citizen and son. Now the highest glory of the Godhead blesses you; God, all love, unfolds himself to your mind: Relics shine on altars with lamps, Honor is for the sacred bones. You are the pillar of the city in hard things: Rains flow of their own accord at your will; The earth bears harvests, the vineyard buds, When you command the clouds. Countless storks lay waste the fields, They foul the city with pestilent serpents: These you remove by command, whereby as the Father's gift We now know the birds. Impious heresy rages, vomiting falsehoods, Tries to spread through the flock in wedges: You watch for us, protect the walls, And put them to flight with wondrous torches.

All these things will receive light from the Acts to be published below. And the storks are called the Father's, that is, St. Agricolus's, birds, because the Saint bears them as his arms, who is painted with a stork in the image sent to us.

[8] antiphons and a collect, which indicate the Saint's patronage, To these at last I add some antiphons. At the Magnificat in first Vespers this occurs: Today Agricolus ascends to heaven, today holy solemnities are kept throughout the city: let our land rejoice, glorious in his birthday. At the Benedictus in Lauds: I am upon the watchtower of the Lord, standing continually by day: and I am upon my watch, standing all nights. At the Magnificat in second Vespers: This is the Priest of the Most High, who ever prays for his people to the Lord, and in the time of tribulation was made a reconciliation. Finally the collect of the Office is this: O God, who hast granted to us, for the manifesting of the glory of this city, blessed Agricolus, thy confessor and bishop, as fellow-citizen and patron: mercifully grant that we may so be ever defended by his patronage that, having effectually obtained what we ask, we may deserve to be his fellow-citizens in heaven. Through, etc. Thus far concerning the Office, from which I judge that no more should be taken.

[9] which is chiefly implored for obtaining rain or fair weather: That the Saint's patronage is chiefly invoked to obtain rain or fair weather, and that his head is for this cause carried round in procession, the Acts briefly suggest at n. 12, and we shall confirm it further. But it must be observed that there were various translations of the Sacred body, which we shall discuss in chronological order after the chronology of his deeds. And in one of the first translations the Saint's head was placed separately. Of this head the often-mentioned lord de Brantes writes thus: As regards the head of St. Agricolus, it was wrapped in a cloth woven with golden threads, and enclosed in a half-length statue of gilded silver, which is exposed for veneration and is carried round by suppliants. The figure of that half-length statue I have given to our engraver to be cut in copper, but reduced to a smaller form, that it might be more conveniently inserted in the volume. Thus therefore I here exhibit it.

[10] Receive now with what ceremonies the men of Avignon use for obtaining rain or fair weather: a procession with the Saint's head customarily instituted for this cause In public necessities, says Lord de Brantes, and especially for obtaining fair weather, or still more for obtaining rain (for rain is rare in this region, and drought frequent), our Saint's head is carried round in a long procession of suppliants, or it alone is exposed in his church for the veneration of the faithful. The lord consuls for this cause approach the most illustrious lord archbishop, and signify to him that necessity requires that the venerable head of St. Agricolus be exposed or carried round. The prelate at their prayers writes out a mandate, which those lords take care to have exhibited to the dean and canons of the church of St. Agricolus, that they may obey the mandate. When the procession of suppliants is arranged, a Sunday or feast day is commonly chosen for this ceremony. The confraternity of the White Penitents and the chapter of St. Agricolus precede the relics, which are carried under a canopy, and which a vast multitude of people follows.

[11] First the relics are carried to the metropolitan church of St. Mary of the Doms, with the ceremonies here described, where the most illustrious lord archbishop, clothed in pontifical ornaments, with the metropolitan chapter assisting, receives them at the door, and venerates them with a threefold incensing. When they have come to the middle of the church, the prelate repeats the same incensing. Finally, when the relics have come to the sanctuary, they are placed on the archiepiscopal throne, where again with a repeated threefold incensing the archbishop honors them. Then is sung the antiphon of the blessed Virgin, Holy Mary, succor the wretched, or another suited to the season, with a fitting versicle and collect. Afterwards for St. Agricolus is sung the antiphon, PRIEST AND BISHOP, with a versicle and collect, and to this is added another fitting the necessity for which the procession is instituted. These being sung, the relics are carried back, the archbishop accompanying, and with the same incensings used with which they had been received, namely in the sanctuary, in the middle of the church, and at the door. After this the suppliants proceed to the church of the Celestines, and the head of St. Agricolus is carried into this church before the altar and the tomb of B. Peter of Luxemburg, who is another protector of this city (of whom we have treated in our work at the 2nd of July). The head of B. Peter of Luxemburg is exposed upon his altar, and the canons of St. Agricolus approach one by one to honor him with a reverent kiss. Almost the same honors are shown in this church to St. Agricolus as in the metropolitan. Then the relics are carried back to their own church; and the whole ceremony is closed with the blessing of the most holy Sacrament. Thus far de Brantes, who also sent the hymn which is sung in the procession of suppliants.

[12] To the hymn this title is prefixed: A hymn to be sung at the procession, the hymn which is wont to be sung by the suppliants. both on the feast day and for obtaining rain or fair weather. And this is the text of the hymn:

O Bishop, dwelling on high Olympus, Pillar and glory of our city, Ever-watchful guardian, receive the vows Of your calling fatherland. Behold, you are celebrated throughout the whole city, We sing a holy triumph for your bones: The citizens give incense, and with many torches The shrine shines forth. A friend by your merits of the highest Godhead, You turn aside his heavy wrath and mind; You, favoring our vows, drive back The weapons hostile to us.

For rain this verse is to be recited:

The sun burns upon the lands, and the sorrowful thirst: Let a plenteous cloud drip from heaven: The meadows will laugh, and the crops will rise, The grape will redden.

While supplication is made for fair weather, this is to be said:

The sky is clouded, let calm return; Roll back the golden face of the sun: You are powerful to drive from heaven the clouds Heavy with waters.

Then, one or the other being said, thus it goes on:

We hasten to your sacred house, Favor kindly the vows of your citizens: Grant the gifts of the present life, the pledges Of the life to come. Amen.

All these things abundantly show with how great piety St. Agricolus is venerated at Avignon, and how great is the confidence of the men of Avignon in his patronage. Now I set about examining the authority of the Acts and the order of his deeds.

*. archdeacon

§ II. The Saint's Life written by a more recent pen, but probably from older monuments: such chronology of his deeds as there is.

[ ] The Saint's Life written toward the end of the sixteenth century, The Life of St. Agricolus Vincent Barrali first published in the Chronology of the Saints of the island of Lérins from p. 321, and prefixed to it this title: The Life and deeds of saint Agricola, bishop of Avignon and monk of Lérins, from a most ancient manuscript of the church of Lérins and of Avignon. The same Life was reprinted in Surius at the 2nd of September, and the same title prefixed. The same also, divided into lessons, is read in the Office of St. Agricolus composed for the Octave, and published at Avignon in the year 1671 for the use of the church of the said Saint, and there again at the beginning it is repeated as from a most ancient manuscript. Nevertheless it is clear from the Life itself that it was not composed until the end of the sixteenth century, since the author at n. 13 mentions deeds of the year 1574, which he testifies that he saw. Denis de Sainte-Marthe in vol. 1 of the Gallia Christiana, col. 801, having recited this writer's words about the place of burial, which is now called the chapel of the rosary, thus subjoins: Which words prove that the writer of the Life of St. Agricolus given by Barrali is recent, which indeed I already suspected from many modes of speaking used in this Work, which truly savor little of antiquity. Mabillon in vol. 1 of the Annals, p. 598, without much inquiry declares that these Acts are of a more recent author. And indeed there can be no doubt of this matter: for the author himself indicates his age by the words already given, and everywhere uses the same style, so that we cannot judge that the later things were afterwards added by some other man, but it must necessarily be said that this Life was written toward the end of the sixteenth century.

[14] This age of the writer can win little authority for the Life of St. Agricolus, and therefore is of little authority; especially since we have no ancient monuments by which we can confirm its assertions and the chronological order which it has framed. It is indeed likely that certain ancient monuments concerning the deeds of St. Agricolus were preserved in the church of Avignon, and this must altogether be believed, lest we be compelled to say that all was invented by an impostor. Nay rather it is not improbable that some Life of St. Agricolus was in the hands of this writer, and that it was enlarged and arranged by him in that method and style in which we have this one. Nevertheless, even if this were certain, even so it would remain wholly uncertain how exactly the older Life was written, and at what time its author flourished; and we should be equally ignorant what had formerly been written, and what added by the modern author; and finally whether he followed the older monuments with sufficient criticism, or mingled in nothing from uncertain and slight conjectures, nothing from popular traditions. Certainly many things are asserted in this Life which, though not altogether unheard of, yet shrink from ordinary usage: but others are affirmed which are of themselves little probable; others which cannot be confirmed from elsewhere, and seem written from mere conjecture. The chronological order, which has been composed not without industry, was probably wholly drawn from conjectures by the modern writer, and therefore appears plainly uncertain.

[15] Mabillon in the place just assigned attacks the chronology of this Life from the Privilege of the monastery of Grasse, the chronology of the Life attacked from the privilege of Grasse: which he published in the Appendix of that same volume, p. 698, and thus reasons: Four years ago we reported the first letters of the monastery of Grasse, to which all the bishops of the metropolis of Arles subscribe, to which then the church of Avignon, now metropolitan, was subject: but among the subscribers there is no Agricolus, to the likeness of whose name none of these comes nearer than Agliacus, nay in the subscription Aghiacus. The said Denis de Sainte-Marthe weighs Mabillon's argument in these words: Concerning the credit of this author suspicion is cast by the privilege of the monastery of Grasse, which Mabillon published in vol. 1 of the Annals, p. 698. To this privilege given by Petroinus, bishop of Vaison, the metropolitan of Arles subscribes with all his suffragans, of whose number then was the bishop of Avignon. The time of the privilege granted is referred to the Xth year of King Theodoric, in which St. Agricolus was sitting; for this year answers to the six hundred and eighty-fourth of Christ. Nevertheless no Agricolus is read subscribed to this privilege: whence a suspicion of forgery arises. But it is by no means certain that the names of the bishops which are read at the end of the privilege of Grasse are those of the suffragans of the archbishop of Arles rather than of other neighboring prelates; nor does Mabillon assert it, save from mere conjecture. Besides, after Wolbert, whom we think was archbishop of Arles, because he subscribed first, there is read Aglicus (Aghiacus) the bishop, who perhaps is the same as Agricola of Arles: for r could easily be changed into l, which two letters are liquids and very akin; and from Agricus was made Agriculus, Agricolus. If Mabillon's argument stood, the whole chronology of the Life would fall. But besides what Sainte-Marthe answered, it can further be said that that Privilege is of an authority as uncertain as is the Life of St. Agricolus; since it is strange that of the nine bishops whose names are subscribed, not one is known from elsewhere even by the same name. Wherefore I do not see why that privilege should stand in the way of the Life, if the latter were older and of better stamp.

[16] [Other writers who have treated of St. Agricolus, of whose deeds a certain chronology cannot be given:] The aforesaid Life two other writers imitated, one an Italian, the other a Gaul, who in their own vernacular tongue published a Life of St. Agricolus. The Italian was printed at Naples in the year 1626, and adds nothing to the preceding but ornament of speech, which it distinguishes with various texts of sacred Scripture. But the French one, published at Avignon in the year 1651, added an illustrious miracle done in the writer's own age, which we shall report below from him. Of the deeds of St. Agricolus there have also discoursed Franciscus Nouguier in the History of the church and prelates of Avignon from p. 23; Charles Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks; Sebastiano Fantoni Castrucci in the History of the city of Avignon written in Italian, p. 300; and finally, to omit others, Denis de Sainte-Marthe, already praised. All these followed the said Life, and arranged almost the whole chronology from it, correcting, however, some heads. I confess indeed that what is said in it concerning the year of his death and certain other matters pertaining to the Saint cannot be convicted of open falsity. But at the same time I assert that this foundation is not solid, and therefore that a certain chronology cannot be woven, even with whatever corrections are applied. For who could draw a certain conclusion from uncertain premises? Who could arrange all things in a certain order, where the year of his birth and of his death, the time of his entering the episcopate and its length, the beginning and end of the monastic life, and finally all the heads of chronology seem equally uncertain, and asserted by the biographer from mere conjectures? For this cause it must here be sought what appears nearer the truth, not what is certain and undoubted, since almost nothing certain can be found.

[17] yet such an order of his deeds and times as there is is given, which Le Cointe Divine Agricolus, says the biographer at n. 1, about the six hundred and thirtieth year of the Lord's Incarnation, Honorius being supreme Pontiff and Clothair reigning in Gaul, … was born at Avignon. The assigned year of Christ agrees with the pontificate of Honorius I; but it does not agree with the reign of Clothair 11, since he died in the year 628, as writers commonly hand down. The writer therefore erred either in assigning the reign of Clothair, or in setting the year 630. Who now shall define whether he erred in the year, or in the reign of Clothair? Le Cointe at the year 627, n. 2, having brought forward the same words of the Life, solves the doubt more easily than more solidly, when he subjoins the following: But those three characters cannot agree together, because Clothair died in the six hundred and twenty-eighth year of Christ. Better therefore shall we refer the birth of Agricolus to this year, the six hundred and twenty-seventh of Christ … The life of Agricolus, which others bound within a course of seventy years, we shall prolong to the seventy-third year, and by an addition of three years shall define the time passed over by the author of the Life, in which Agricolus held the archdeaconry in the church of Avignon. In the rest we shall agree with the same writer and with Barrali, for we shall set the pious withdrawal of Agricolus into the island of Lérins in the fourteenth year of his age, his return after sixteen years, then a three-year archdeaconry, and lastly shall subjoin an episcopate of forty years. If an arbitrary chronology suffices for anyone, provided it does not conflict with itself, he can admit this Cointian one, as Sebastiano Fantoni Castrucci did.

[18] But such a method of ordering times has never pleased me, tried in vain to correct, since all things are too uncertain, and never will. I ask for reasons why I should judge that the writer erred in one thing rather than in the other. Where no reasons occur, I hold that nothing should be defined. But here no reason offers itself which favors Le Cointe: but rather the Saint's age is against him, which the biographer defines at seventy years at n. 8, so that he would have erred twice on Le Cointe's opinion. But I confess that that reason too is of small moment, and that it is uncertain to me whether the writer may not have gone astray by many more years than the three set by Le Cointe. Further, he goes on to weave the chronology at n. 2 in this manner: In his fourteenth year he embraced the monastic life in the monastery of Lérins. That therefore must have happened about the year 644. That he lived there sixteen years he says at n. 3; and then that he was initiated into sacred Orders and made archdeacon. Those years lead to the year 660, about which, according to the biographer's reckoning, these things must have been done. Nevertheless the same writer at n. 4 affirms that the Saint was declared bishop in the year of the Lord six hundred and fiftieth beginning, that is, a whole decade earlier than the chronology requires, not only of the preceding but also of the following facts: for at n. 6 he joins the sixty-second year of his age with the thirty-second of his episcopate, and at n. 8 he says that his death happened in the year of the Lord seven hundred, at the end of the seventieth year of his age, and the fortieth of the pontificate he had entered upon. The whole reckoning of the biographer therefore requires that we should say, in his opinion, that he was made bishop about the year 660; and this is affirmed by the said Le Cointe, Castrucci, and Sainte-Marthe.

[19] They probably believed that in the Life for the fiftieth year the sixtieth should be read, and the biographer's slips may indeed seem; and not rashly, as is clear from what has been said. But at the same time hence it is plain how ineptly the biographer joined the years of Christ with the years of the kings of the Franks, and how uncertain his whole chronology is. For at n. 4 he has thus: Without delay, Agricolus is sought by the mouth of all, by the vows of all. Dagobert himself … holds this acceptable. And so at the beginning of the six hundred and fiftieth year of the Lord, Dagobert having meanwhile died, and Clovis II reigning, he is by the common reckoning of all declared successor to his holy father … in the episcopal see. Dagobert's death some tie to the year 638, others to 644. How then did Dagobert hold the election of Agricolus acceptable? How was he declared bishop a short time after his death, if he was elected in the year 660? You see, I think, reader, how little our writer is to be trusted, who knew the times of the kings less exactly, and even so wished to relate under what kings each thing was done. The said Sainte-Marthe, after his own catalogue of the bishops of Avignon, gave another from the History of Polycarp de la Rivière, a Carthusian, where at col. 869 the beginning of the episcopate of St. Agricolus is connected with the year 666. Let the prudent reader choose from these what pleases him; or rather let him hold nothing from the whole chronology of the Life as certain.

[20] That the monastery was built by the Saint at Avignon in the year 690 the biographer hands down at n. 5, who also affirms at n. 8 that he died in the year 700. Whether these things are better ordered in their time than the preceding I do not know; but they cannot be corrected, unless more certain monuments be found. but no one has gone over to a contrary opinion. Vincent Barrali in the annotation after the published Life, p. 327, comprised the whole chronology in these brief words: Further, saint Agricolus is born at Avignon in the year of the Lord DCXXX. And in the fourteenth year of his age, but of the Lord DCXLIV, he becomes a monk in the island of Lérins, in which he remained for sixteen years, and was taken to the episcopal see of Avignon in the thirtieth year of his age, but of the Lord DCLX. He therefore governed the bishopric for forty years, and dies in the seventieth year of his age, but of the Lord DCC. These things may be kept until more certain ones offer themselves: for they can with difficulty be corrected, or cannot at all, unless a firmer document be found.

§ III. The Saint's burial; the chapel near Roquemaure, and others dedicated to the Saint: the translations of his body, his miracles.

[ ] The Saint buried in the cathedral church; The biographer at n. 8 says that the Saint's body was buried in the cathedral church, which is called that of divine Mary of the Doms, and which even at this time is called of blessed Mary of the Doms. He explains the place more distinctly in these words: In the chapel of saint Peter, in that place which is now called the chapel of the Rosary, … where an iron grating which is now seen with his inscription, it was honorably laid. Of these things Lord de Brantes wrote to us the following: He was buried, as the Life has it, in the church of blessed Mary of the Doms, which is the metropolitan of Avignon, in the chapel of St. Peter, afterwards called of the holy Rosary. Here it must be observed that the said chapel does not have the same name today, but that it is dedicated to St. Joseph. There is seen in the pavement an iron grating, by which is designated the place where St. Agricolus was buried. It was probably a crypt, which was filled with earth after the Saint's relics were translated thence. This grating is between the altar of St. Joseph and the mausoleum of Pope John XXII, who wished to be buried there, moved by a pious affection toward St. Agricolus. Thus far concerning the Saint's tomb.

[22] a chapel dedicated to him famous for miracles: Before the writer of the Life narrates the translation of the body, he asserts at n. 9 that various chapels were dedicated to St. Agricolus, and among them one formerly famous for miracles near Roquemaure, a small town of Occitania on the Rhône, which is distant about two miles from Avignon, and is of its diocese; in French called Roque Maure, and hence by Denis de Sainte-Marthe on the map of the province of Avignon Roca-Maura. This chapel, or church, formerly famous for miracles, says the said de Brantes, is one mile distant from Roquemaure, and belongs to the Benedictines of the Congregation of St. Maur, namely to the abbey of St. Andrew of Villeneuve near Avignon. They have there a priest, who administers baptism and the last Sacraments of the dying to the country people dwelling in the neighborhood. But they, if they wish to contract marriage, are compelled to go to the parish of Roquemaure, because hitherto they have asked in vain that that chapel should be promoted to parochial right. That chapel is believed to be one of the most ancient which were dedicated to the Saint. It is likely therefore that that chapel was built before the translation of the body, presently to be examined.

[23] The biographer at n. 10 reports the first translation of the body from the cathedral church of B. Mary of the Doms to the church of St. Agricolus; [a church consecrated to the Saint and increased with canons: his body and that of St. Magnus carried thither:] and asserts in various places certain things about that church: but all so confusedly and disorderly that with difficulty can their times be assigned to each from him. Nouguier at p. 107, in the article on John XXII, writes this: The same Pontiff in the year MCCCXXI founded the chapter of St. Agricolus, such as it is at this time; he enlarged the church formerly built by this holy Bishop, who had placed there Religious of his own monastery of Lérins, and at the same time added to the chapter's table twenty rural priories. These things are clear from a bull kept in the treasury of this church. This is the first parish of the city. The same author at p. 23 affirms that the bodies of SS. Magnus and Agricolus were translated by John XXII in the year 1321. Our biographer seems to say the same, but more obscurely, nor does he affirm that all was done in the same year. At n. 9 he says that yearly revenues were assigned to the church of St. Agricolus by John XXII in the year 1321, for the erection, I suppose, of the chapter, of which he does not speak elsewhere. At n. 10 he says the translation was made by order of the Pontiff, the same, as it appears, John XXII. A little below he says that the church was built for the Saint, and that he was chosen patron and protector, as if those things had been done later. But he there rather gives the reason why those things were done, than assigns the order in which each happened. Hence I suspect that those things too happened in the time of John XXII, who took care that the church be enlarged, and made it collegiate, and finally translated to it the bodies of the Saints Magnus and Agricolus.

[24] I suspect, I say, that all those things happened in the time of John XXII, the same bodies afterwards placed beneath the greater altar: both because the writer, when he names the Pontiff, always seems to mean the same man, and because at n. 10 he seems to assign to the translation the same year 1321 which he had expressed before, and because no one assigns another time to the translation. The biographer himself indeed raises a scruple, when at n. 10, about to narrate the second translation, he says, Where, having been kept for some years most honorably, as if between the first and second translation not many years had intervened; whereas nevertheless the second translation is more than a whole century later than John XXII. But the writer nowhere speaks accurately, and therefore those words do not prove that the second translation followed shortly after the first. And this second translation is fixed by the biographer at the year 1458, who affirms that the sacred bodies of Magnus and Agricolus were then placed beneath the greater altar of that same church by Pontius, bishop of Vaison. Vincent Barrali after publishing the Life presently observes the following concerning the translations of the bodies of SS. Magnus and Agricolus: The bodies of the most holy bishops of Avignon, Magnus and Agricolus, father and son, enclosed in two leaden chests *, are read to have been translated four times down to these days, the devotion of the people of Avignon always increasing: of which the first two are found above in the History of his life. Of these we have treated.

[25] But the third (translation) was made by the most reverend lord Charles Contamissa, the third and fourth translation without a change of place: bishop of Carrot and Apostolic vice-legate, on the fourth of the Ides of August, in the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-nine; and (the bodies) were placed in the church dedicated by his name beneath the greater altar, being in the aforesaid leaden chests. But in the present year one thousand six hundred and twelve, the chapter of canons of the aforesaid parish church desiring to enlarge the choir and to magnify the high altar, and in all things as far as they could (being driven to this by the greatest devotion) to adorn the church, a translation was made by the most reverend lord Étienne Dulci, archbishop of Avignon, on the eighth of the Kalends of May, and the bodies of both Saints were most honorably placed on the new altar. The most diligent lord de Brantes wrote to us this concerning the present state of the bodies: The sacred bodies of SS. Magnus and Agricolus even now rest beneath the high altar of the church of St. Agricolus, which is a famous collegiate and the first parish of Avignon. And they are kept in leaden cases, which are enclosed in wooden chests. Before these chests there has been built of gilded wood the front part of a tomb or mausoleum, which serves as the lower ornament of the high altar. On common days that ornament is covered with a suitable frontal, which is not put on at the chief feasts of the year; but two lamps are lighted beneath the altar, by which the tomb of the Saints is illumined.

[26] the bodies were not afterwards enclosed in silver cases: Barrali after the aforesaid thus continues: But the holy devotion of the men of Avignon, not content with these things, labors to enclose the aforesaid leaden chests, in which the sacred pledges are kept enclosed, in new silver chests, wrought at the greatest expense and most splendidly, as we ourselves saw, and learned from the report of the canons, and especially of the reverend lord Jacques Melan, a skillful and active man. But some hindrance must have intervened, for that this was not done the said de Brantes observes, and confirms his observation in these words: For the dean of St. Agricolus assured me that the bodies are enclosed in leaden cases, as I have affirmed above. That the head of St. Agricolus is kept separately and carried round I have already said. The same concerning the arm of St. Magnus Lord de Brantes writes in this manner: The arm of St. Magnus is enclosed in a silver arm, which the celebrating priest carries round in his hands in the procession which is instituted on his feast day, the XIX of August.

[27] a certain man brought to the last extremity by a malignant fever, As regards the Saint's miracles, besides those which in the Life are attributed to St. Agricolus, another is reported in the French Life already mentioned of the year 1651, which happened in the year 1643. The anonymous author narrates it in French in this manner: I cannot pass over a recent fact which in the year MDCXLIII, on the 2nd day of September, the feast of St. Agricolus, befell a goldsmith who, called Raymond Vinay, is still living, and, grateful toward St. Agricolus, ascribes to him the health which he enjoys, to the wonder of all who saw him sick. A malignant fever had attacked him, which appeared by pustules , black eruptions , and other wondrous symptoms. There was also a very troublesome difficulty of urine *, a frequent flux of blood through the nostrils, sometimes however intermitted, and an incredible and intolerable burning of the legs. At length the blood, inflamed by that inward burning, rose with a bubbling and eruption so violent that it did not cease to flow through the nose for a whole week. When by the application of marble or by unctions its course was stopped, it burst out through his eyes and his ears, however much they tried to divert it by opening a vein in both arms, and the saphenous vein of the right foot. He was believed about to breathe out his soul shortly with the last drop of blood. The physicians had departed. His wife had been torn from him, lest she should be overwhelmed with too great grief in seeing him dying.

[28] after a vow made to God in the Saint's honor, he shortly recovers. She had, however, returned to her husband, driven both by love and by a desire of finding out whether he still breathed. The dying man, destitute of his senses except hearing, perceiving some noise, asks what it was. They answer him that a procession of suppliants was passing, by whom were carried the relics of St. Agricolus. This word brings him confidence. He vows to God that, if it should please him to restore to him life and sight (for he cared little for life without sight, which he had lost in his sickness), he would, to the honor of this Saint, supply food to a poor youth, and would impart to him all things which he knew. Scarcely had he conceived this vow when he recovered strength enough to sit up in his bed. He took supper with appetite, recovered sight clearer than he had ever had, and gradually returned to the labors of his craft, which he practices to this day with honor, openly acknowledging the benefit of his excellent Patron, to whose honor he resolved to do more in testimony of a grateful mind than he had then promised. Thus far he. For the rest, it cannot be doubted that by the intercession of St. Agricolus many more benefits were obtained than have been carried down to the memory of posterity: for from these seems to have been born that notable confidence which the men of Avignon have conceived in his aid.

*. chests

*. Fr. exanthemes

*. Fr. tac

*. Fr. disurie

THE LIFE

by an anonymous author from the edition of Barrali and Surius.

Agricolus, conf., bishop and patron of Avignon in Gaul. (S.)

By an Anonymous author.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's birth, monastic life, deeds in the episcopate, death, and burial.

Divine Agricolus, about the six hundred and thirtieth year of the Lord's Incarnation, The illustrious birth of St. Agricolus, Honorius ^a being supreme Pontiff and Clothair ^b reigning in Gaul, was born at Avignon of the illustrious family of the Albii ^c, his father being blessed Magnus, who afterwards obtained the bishopric of this city, his mother Gandaltrude, or Austadiala, and his grandfather Albinus, a magnate. Distinguished indeed they were, and conspicuous, in that glory which is according to the flesh, for the brightness and nobility of their race among the other chief men of the province: but in that which is according to God, the true glory, far more illustrious in virtue, faith, and piety. Under the care therefore of such parents Agricolus was brought up, and gave such a specimen of virtue that the splendor of his integrity and innocence, and a certain greater disposition toward virtue in those tender years, shining forth signified of how great holiness his maturity would be.

[2] There flourished at that time that famous monastery of Lérins ^d, called of saint Honoratus, the monastic life in the monastery of Lérins, on an island of the Gallic sea near Antibes, into which noble youths fled as to a most famous emporium of letters and virtue, that, as boyhood is shaped * toward virtue and honor, they might shortly be youths worthy in virtues who could sustain the name of honor and dignity. There served God Honoratus and Cæsarius ^e of Arles, Germanus of Paris, Eucherius and Justus of Lyons, and Siffredus of Carpentras, bishops. Thither also the blessed Youth betakes himself, and, spurning the allurements of the flesh and the delights of the passing world, in his fourteenth year committed himself wholly to the Fathers, and set and fixed all the motions of his mind and all the thought of his understanding on the pursuits of knowledge and virtue. Scarcely had he entered youth when already with the fragrance of all virtues and of the religious life he had filled the monastery and the island, so that he was in the eyes of all, was on the lips of all, was loved by all, while he alone was displeasing to himself. There shone in him a certain angelic brightness, a charity poured out on all, a singular modesty, a contemplation of all things and of himself, and among all an incredible love toward God, kindled with whose charity he thirsted daily with a more ardent longing for the streams of Christian perfection.

[3] the archdeaconry of Avignon, He had passed sixteen years in the monastery of Lérins with the utmost integrity of manners and holiness of life, that vigorous Husbandman perpetually tilling the field of his own heart, when, being now thoroughly imbued with divine and human disciplines, by the command of his superior he was ordered to be initiated duly and by degrees into the sacred orders, not taking the honor to himself, but called by God as Aaron was. And gradually, when he was compelled to discharge the office of archdeacon, the nard gave forth the odor of so great holiness that he was now commonly held not merely to be the eye of the bishop, but to discharge the episcopate itself.

[4] the episcopate and death of his father Magnus, Blessed Magnus, Agricolus's father according to the flesh, was then tending the church of Avignon with great praise and a great reputation of holiness. He, worn out with age, when he recognized himself now unequal to feeding the Lord's flock, began more earnestly to think of a successor (as of old saint Augustine ^f had done). The chief men of the city are called together with the clergy; the venerable prelate opens his own desire: that he wished to lay down the burden formidable to angelic shoulders, his body now enfeebled, his age languishing, his strength falling away and drooping: let them together with the rest of the people choose whomsoever they should judge in the Lord more fit as his successor. Without delay Agricolus is sought by the mouth of all, by the vows of all. Dagobert himself, who had succeeded his father Clothair ^g in the administration of the kingdom, the Man's fame growing so great, holds this acceptable. And so at the beginning of the six hundred and fiftieth year of the Lord, Dagobert having meanwhile died, and Clovis the second ^h reigning, to a holy father a holy Son, to blessed Magnus blessed Agricolus is declared successor in the episcopal see by the common reckoning of all. Blessed Magnus saw his spouse betrothed to his Son; he saw his own living image set in his own see; he saw his flock had changed the man, yet had not changed its shepherd: for whatever the holy old man had wished in himself, this he saw shining forth in his son Agricolus. Wherefore he resolved to bestow all his goods upon that same church to which he had devoted himself and his Son, and by a liberal donation, a testament being drawn up, consecrated to the temple of the most blessed Virgin Mother of God the estates, possessions, and fiefs which remained * to him in the world. Which being done, after no long interval of time, that blessed soul, ripe for God and for the world, being loosed from the bonds of this wretched life, and leaving the men of Avignon heirs both of his virtues and of all his goods and of his most holy Offspring, flew away to the heavenly reward on the fourteenth of the Kalends of September.

[5] The pastoral care therefore being transmitted to blessed Agricolus, a church built with a monastery, a wondrous example, and to be imitated by ages to come, with what zeal, with what vigilance the true Husbandman set himself to this, that he might tear from the Lord's field the brambles of vices and the thickets of errors, and lest the enemy man should sow adulterate tares among the wheat. Whence it shortly came about that, the number of the faithful growing, one basilica could no longer hold them all. Wherefore the pious Pontiff at his own expense ordered another parish church ⁱ to be built within the walls, like a most fortified tower in the midst of the vineyard, to which he took care to summon not a few excellent workmen, monks, from the monastery of Lérins, where he had laid the first foundations of his own perfection, because he received from the regular order a certain most delightful fruit of pleasure; over whom he also set an abbot ^k and liberally assigned estates: and moreover, the privilege of the quarters [l] being granted, that nothing necessary might be lacking to the servants of God which from yearly revenues might not easily reach them. These things were done in the time of King Theodoric ^m, Sergius being supreme Pontiff, about the year of the Lord six hundred and ninety.

[6] Blessed Agricolus had passed about thirty-two years in the episcopal care, care for a happy death, various pious customs, and sixty-two of his own age, with vast fruit and increase of the Christian people: when the holy Bishop, taking thought for the future, began more earnestly to think about his last day, after the example of his father Magnus. And first he asked the abbot of the monastery which he had built that, when he * had departed from this life and entered upon the way of the fathers, he would make him a partaker of the prayers and of the Sacrifices of the most precious Body and Blood of the Lord which are daily offered to God. He ordered besides, in his own episcopal church, revenues being given for that end, that daily for his soul the most august sacrifice of the Mass be sung with solemn rite. And he also willed that the canonical Hours and the divine offices and mysteries should thereafter in that same church be recited in the same way in which they are wont in monasteries, namely with alternating chants; for that custom had not yet prevailed in these parts which some years before Pope Damasus ⁿ had introduced, and afterwards King Pippin ^o carried from Rome into the interior of Gaul, though it had long flourished at Avignon. Nor indeed is it wonderful that God willed to adorn the church of Avignon with that prerogative, by whose gift, some centuries afterwards being passed, at Avignon there was devised and found by John, first bishop of Avignon [p], then supreme Pontiff of that name the twenty-second and founder of our church, the salutary custom of saluting the Virgin Mother of God [q] thrice [r] in the day at the sound of a bell, which custom the whole Church afterwards received. About a decade meanwhile flowed by, in which the prudent Shepherd never ceased to prepare himself for that hour in which blessed are those servants whom the Lord finds so doing. He did not fear to die, because he knew that he had a good Lord, nor did he care to live, who with his whole heart longed to be with Christ. And so, awaiting the hour in which the earthly house of this dwelling should be dissolved, he assiduously exercised himself in those works by which he knew a way to be prepared for the Lord.

[7] And at length, when he felt his last day at hand, the clergy being called and the people gathered, he held discourse with them of his departure from this prison-house, the choice of a successor, preparation for death, of the dangers of this life, of the vanity of a most unhappy world, of shunning sins, of the happiness of the Saints: lastly he admonished them about choosing a successor, and co-opted into his own place saint Veredemus [s], who near the city in the desert was leading an angelic life famous for miracles. For the prudent Shepherd knew that nothing is more certain than death, nothing more uncertain than the very time of dying. Wherefore, frequent in prayer, he kept vigil, wore down his body with fasts, and wholly into the contemplation of heavenly things he poured himself out, and refreshed his mind, distracted with daily and various cares, by gathering it in nocturnal meditation. O Bishop most worthy of all veneration, who so embraced both lives that never was business hurt by the contemplation of divine things, or contemplation by business! For the more he is celebrated with honor, the more humbly he thought of himself; and, kindled with desire of the heavenly country, he longed more for a dwelling in the heavenly than in the earthly country. These things, dearest brethren, are to be honored with all veneration, these are to be held fast with the whole affection of the mind, and not only held but also imitated. Full therefore of holy works, divine Agricolus, a testament being drawn up, left the most holy Virgin heir of all his goods in his own church. The servants whom he used after the custom he ordered to be manumitted and given full liberty, and above all him who served the episcopal table.

[8] his holy death and burial. And not long after the venerable Old Man felt the Lord coming, and resting in his good pleasure, with the utmost quiet of mind and body, like one sleeping, and lulled as by a peaceful slumber, he gave back his soul to the Creator, which, loosed from the frame of the flesh, was doubtless absorbed into the abyss of eternal brightness, and entered the joys of everlasting blessedness, on the fourth of the Nones of September, in the year of the Lord seven hundred, at the end of the seventieth year of his age, in the fortieth of the pontificate he had entered upon, Childebert [t] the second being king of the Franks, Sergius supreme Pontiff. What then were the feelings of minds, what the emotions, what the concourse of the people coming, what the tears, what the sighs, He knows who is the author and parent of all pious affections, God. O that day, most holy Bishop, most holy for you, but no less sad and bitter to your own as it was glad and joyful to you. What loss on the fourth of the Nones of September, Avignon, what a ruin on that day, O city, did you suffer? There perished the pillar of the city of Avignon, there perished he who afforded safety to those in peril, help to the calamitous, rest to the laboring. Wherefore the obsequies are prepared, the sacred pledge is carried down to the church of the Virgin Mother of God, the city pours itself out into the basilica, every age, every sex, with tearful lamentation strives to pay funeral honors to the best of parents, leader, and author of eternal salvation, Agricolus, and publicly to make supplication to him. At length, in a most crowded assembly with the greatest pomp and veneration, the most holy body was carried to the tomb, and, as before his departure from the body he had earnestly asked, in the chapel of saint Peter, in that place which is now called the chapel of the Rosary, at the church of divine Mary of the Doms [u], where an iron grating, which is now seen with his inscription, it was honorably laid. Let us therefore be imitators and emulators of this divine Agricolus, on whose patronage our affairs rest; let us follow after his holiness, and the piety which, if we cannot attain by imitation, let us at least by zeal and labor come very near to it.

ANNOTATA.

p. John XXII was first created bishop of Fréjus, then of Avignon, then Cardinal bishop of Porto, and at last supreme Pontiff in the year 1316. His name before his pontificate was Jacques d'Ossa, or rather d'Euse, as Denis de Sainte-Marthe would have it, col. 820.

q. The pious custom of saluting the blessed Mother of God Mary John XXII did not first devise, but promoted. For Oderico Rinaldi at the year 1318, n. 58, has thus: In this year finally, to kindle the piety of the faithful toward the cult of the Mother of God, when a pious custom had been taken up in the church of Saintes that, as the day drew toward night, a bell should be rung to warn the faithful to implore the Virgin's help with the angelic salutation, the Pontiff (John XXII) granted an indulgence of ten days to those who piously poured out that prayer three times on bended knees, if they were truly repentant of their sins. The same author at the year 1327, n. 54, recites a letter of the said Pontiff to Angelo, bishop of Viterbo and his vicar in the City, in which he says: Some while ago indeed, for the rendering of glory to the said Virgin, … we piously thought fit to ordain that at every twilight of the night a bell be rung, and that at its sound the faithful should say the word of the aforesaid (Angelic) salutation. The whole letter may be seen, which also mentions the indulgences granted for this cause. But that use had already begun in some places before the pontificate of John XXII. Certainly Ottaviano de' Martini in his Oration to Sixtus IV, in which he asks that St. Bonaventure be reckoned in the number of the Saints, in our work vol. 3 of July, p. 826, has this of him: The same most pious worshiper of the glorious Virgin mother of Jesus also ordained that the Friars should exhort the people to salute her at the sign of the bell which is given after Compline; because it was believed that she was at that hour saluted by the angel. And St. Bonaventure died in the year 1274, that is, 42 years before the pontificate of John XXII.

r. As John XXII is not the first author of saluting the blessed Virgin in the aforesaid manner, so again it was not ordained by him that this should be done three times a day, but once in the evening time, as is abundantly clear from the words adduced. The salutation repeated three times, namely in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, as is today in use, is attributed to Louis XI, king of the Gauls, in Du Cange's Glossary and in the Trévoux Dictionary, which may be further consulted at the word Angelus; for with this the said prayer begins.

s. St. Veredemus is venerated on the 17th of June, at which day we treated of him briefly. But whether the Saint himself really chose his own successor is not sufficiently certain to me from this Life.

t. This Childebert, surnamed the Just, is by some called the second, by others the third; but he really was the third, if all the Childeberts are counted who legitimately held the monarchy or a part of it: for Childebert the son of Grimoald is not to be counted, who was rather a tyrant than a legitimate king. The learned have disputed about the first year of his reign; but he was certainly reigning in the year 700, in which also Sergius I was sitting.

u. Of the place of burial consult the Commentary, n. 21.

*. Surius: informata

*. Barrali: not faultily

*. Barrali: superant

*. perhaps augescente

*. from

CHAPTER II.

Chapels and a church dedicated to the Saint; the translations of his body, miracles, the protection of the city of Avignon.

[ ] Chapels built for the Saint, and a church dedicated to his name; Wherefore it is no wonder how great was of old the devotion of this people toward this divine Agricolus, since so many and so great chapels dedicated to his name stood in these parts. There stands a certain chapel near Roquemaure ^a dedicated to this divine Agricolus, to which on every Saturday there flows a great multitude of people, who from every kind of disease, and from the harassing of demons that beset them, are freed by the prayers and merits of saint Agricolus, which things indeed are proved by a daily miracle, and the public acts [b] of the most reverend archbishop's visitation authentically testify to them. Thence it came about, by the utmost piety of the people toward blessed Agricolus, that the church which he had taken care to have raised within the walls of the city at his own expense, growing up, was consecrated to his [c] name, and was held thereafter the first notable parish, adorned with the name of saint Agricolus its patron; to which John the twenty-second, supreme vicar of Christ, assigned yearly revenues [d], in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and twenty- first. Nor yet did the treasure of Avignon lie there buried, nor did the stone which covered Agricolus cover over the hope of the poor, the protection of the needy, the refuge of the wretched, and their comfort. But the city always receives new increases day by day, since it is always preserved by his help and aid. The citizens of this city know how often, when they were in peril and were encompassed on every side with great calamities, he raised them up, by driving off indeed the cruelest and most powerful enemies from the walls of this city. The citizens know how often divine Agricolus defended his own from imminent disaster. They know how often he wrested weapons aimed at the throats of the city. They know how often he has seized and quenched torches already lighted for the burning of this city. The citizens felt his aid when a certain destructive plague raged, by which, when the enemies were contriving slaughter for the citizens, destruction for the fatherland, and snares for the city, the citizens, who could not be safe from them because of the excessive spread of the pestilence, began to be safe by fires.

[10] Afterwards the papal liberality conferred many things on this place, the first and second translation of the body, to the greater service and greater glory of the divine Majesty: and before all, since the most sacred relics of saint Agricolus and of his most glorious father Magnus were venerated in the cathedral church of the Mother of God, by the Pontiff's order a solemn exchange of the remains was made. And in the same year [e] there were translated from the church of saint Agricolus to the cathedral the bones of the saints Donatus [f], Maximus [g], and Veredemus, bishop of Avignon: and in turn from the cathedral to the church of divine Agricolus were carried the bodies of the saints Magnus the father and of his most blessed offspring, and, with the utmost veneration of all orders, were laid up in a gilded wooden chest, where, having been kept most honorably for some years, at length in the year of Christ one thousand four hundred and fifty-eight, on the seventh day of the month of September, by Pontius [h], bishop of Vaison and vicar general, by order of Alan [i], Cardinal and last bishop of Avignon, they were fittingly set beneath the greater altar, and there, frequented daily with the greatest devotion of all the citizens, they bestow from time to time no common benefits on the people, since he has never been absent from those who prayed to him, nor has he ever refused * anything to those who duly asked.

[11] For in those calamitous times very often a heavenly torch was seen, various benefits, he is chosen patron, which wandered about the walls of the city, that it might deter with those torches the wicked enemies of the city from assailing their country. Which miracle indeed, though no monuments give it credit, the whole city nevertheless ascribed to this divine Agricolus. For to whom is owed the gathering and preservation of the crops and of the other fruits? To whom did the people ascribe the glorious victory of Charles III [k] in repelling the assault of the Albigensians? To whom shall the healthfulness of the city and the temperateness of the air be ascribed? if not to this divine Agricolus, to whom we ought not only to entrust all illustrious deeds, but also to proclaim them with the highest glory? But indeed who will not believe that we have as intercessor in heaven him whom on earth we had as Patron? The city has very often experienced that he lives in heaven whom of old it had as governor of life and eternal salvation and venerated on earth. His aid they felt who were tossed with fever and burning, who were troubled by demons, and very many others, who from the furthest parts of the world fled to his tomb as to a most safe harbor. Wherefore hence it came about that, the people's piety toward blessed Agricolus increasing, a basilica was with the utmost zeal built and consecrated in his honor. Wherefore the people followed him with such inclination of mind that the city chose him as its best patron and protector.

[12] rains obtained by his aid, a lawsuit wondrously ended by his favor, Shall I be silent how often, when the earth was most parched and dried up, when in solemn procession his most holy head was carried forth, the greatest rains were sent down from heaven, and richer crops were restored? Shall I be silent of that illustrious deed, plainly to be remembered by posterity, which was done in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and eighty (as the monuments of that matter, attested by many witnesses, testify), and in the tenth year of the pontificate of the most holy father in Christ Sixtus [l], by divine providence Pope the fourth: a suit being brought and joined between the chapter of the notable church of saint Agricolus on the one part, and the lord consuls of that same city on the other, concerning certain territories, estates, and possessions lying in the territory of Avignon, anciently called of Caminum, now of Cassanea [m], on the eighth day of the month of July, when to the place in dispute there had come the vicar of the city, the consuls, the court of saint Peter, the officials, the aforesaid chapter, and very many other men of approved credit. Behold, two storks [n], which came to the territory, and flying hither and thither, laid open with their beak the place where the boundaries of the fields were closed up, and, once these had been unsealed, presently found the things buried . Wherefore, as all cried out, the city understood from that prodigy with what zeal the holy Agricolus watches from heaven over the souls entrusted to him, seeing that he had been so solicitous concerning the temporal goods of his church, and had openly declared what was his own. There once fell upon them so great a plague of storks that it oppressed the city of Avignon with great inconveniences: the storks laid waste the fields, and infected the city with the pestilent serpents on which they fed; and when this boundless evil crept on because of so vast a multitude of storks, and spread wider day by day, all the citizens began in astonishment to be at a loss, and to know not what counsel should be taken. And when the holy Agricolus [o] had seen this, in order to free this city, over which the greatest perils were hanging, and to deliver it from the impending destruction of those birds, he drove out that most hostile host of storks by an anathema. Hence it came about that, in memory of this event, the people assigned the stork to this holy Agricolus for his arms.

[13] Whence, further, do you suppose it came about that, when all Gaul was ablaze with the fire of civil wars, the city defended against the heretics: and the heretics were raging unpunished with every barbarity and savagery, and almost all the cities of the kingdom were either infected with the heretical plague or seized by sacrilegious men, and the temples dedicated to God were overthrown, and all sacred things violated and reduced to a pitiable desolation — that the city of Avignon alone remained unharmed, and, well-nigh alone among all, untouched by every contagion of heretical depravity? That most afflicted city felt the patronage of its tutelary saints, and above all of holy Agricolus its patron: for we ought neither to be silent about, nor can we forget, the things which we ourselves have seen in this calamitous age, and which all Gaul beheld with wonder at the good fortune and integrity of almost a single city. Indeed, in the year of salvation 1573, on the tenth and eleventh days of the month of July, in the island of the county of Venaissin [p], and in very many other places, showers of blood fell, which should warn us of the disasters that were impending. But in the following year, the seventy-fourth, when the city had already escaped most perilous conspiracies unharmed, and the heretics were now contriving another, the most atrocious treachery of all, there was seen a most brilliant torch [q] at the walls of Avignon, which went round about the whole city, in the sight and to the wonder of very many soldiers and leading citizens who were then keeping watch; and most of those who saw it are still alive. Concerning which prodigy, although we have nothing certain except that it portended the conspiracy — which a little after was, by a new miracle of unlooked-for rains falling in an unwonted flood, uncovered and shut off (when now most of the conspirators stood armed in their houses within the city, and others were made ready outside the walls, hard by the gate of the city) — yet we piously judge, and this is the common voice of all, that it was a timely sign given by the tutelary saints of the city, and chiefly by holy Agricolus, the divine clemency watching, at the prayers and merits of its Servant, over the safety and advantage of the faithful citizens.

[14] What hope, then, ought we to have, what confidence, from which the author concludes that the Saint's protection is to be trusted: most beloved, that holy Agricolus will guard and defend this city entrusted to him! O most happy Avignon, O most fortunate city, which hast deserved to have such a president and protector, and which amid so many rocks of sedition hast been preserved by his help and aid. Come now, brethren, let us follow the footsteps which so great a Father has impressed toward immortal glory: for then will he embrace us as true sons, when he recognizes in us the delineated image of his virtues. Never was he absent when invoked, never deaf when implored; that we may obtain the suffrage of his prayer, let us not forsake the example of his manner of life: no one who follows him goes astray; let him who asks him not despair; let him who thinks upon him not be afraid; while he holds, one does not fall; while he goes before, one does not fear; while he follows, one does not sink. O most holy Shepherd of this flock, who now art fed upon the mountains of Israel, in the richest pastures, be mindful of thy sheep, which wander in the valleys, where they are tossed by the tempests and storms of the world. This, most beloved, is that lover of the brethren, this is he who prays much for his people and for his whole city, commended to him by a special patronage; who will lead us, fighting faithfully in the contest of this life, with him in the dread moment of death into heaven in triumph, by the bestowal of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift, who is ever glorious in his saints, with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.