ON ST. JUSTUS OF CLERMONT, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
Seventh century, before the year DCXXX.
The cult of the Saint; a namesake distinct from him.
Justus, bishop of Clermont, conf. (S.)
BY J. P.
Clermont, a most well-known city of the Gauls in Auvergne, and praised at length in our work at the XXIII of August, p. 597, and in Denis de Sainte-Marthe, vol. 2 of the Gallia Christiana, p. 221, The public veneration of the Saint, whom Sainte-Marthe, reckons St. Justus among its other bishops conspicuous for holiness of life. His name is marked on this day among the proper feasts of the church of Clermont in this manner: Of Justus, bishop, 9 lessons; and in the Order of the divine Office for the year 1656, Of Justus, bishop and confessor, 9 lessons. But I have seen no lesson concerning him, the Breviary of that church having been sought by us and not hitherto found. In Denis de Sainte-Marthe, col. 244, among the prelates of that same church of Clermont St. Justus is marked as the twenty-first, whose cult he both proves, and whom he thus distinguishes from the namesake archdeacon: Gregory of Tours, bk. 1 of the History of the Franks, ch. 40, mentions St. Justus the archdeacon in these words: "He (St. Illidius) had also an archdeacon, Justus in name and in merit, who, completing the course of his life with good works, is joined to his master's tomb." Whence it is clear that St. Justus the bishop, who is read to have sat here at the beginning of the seventh century, is other than the archdeacon of St. Illidius, the fourth bishop of Auvergne, who was so far distant from these times. In the chapel of the basilica of St. Illidius there is read carved on a marble tablet: "There rests saint Justus, bishop of the city of Auvergne." In the same place near the greater altar on the Gospel side is seen the marble tomb of St. Justus, whose arch easily proves its antiquity.
[2] Theodoric Ruinart in his notes on the words of Gregory, published by himself, Ruinart, which Sainte-Marthe reported, did not sufficiently perceive these two namesakes named Justus, when he wrote this of the archdeacon: He is recorded among the Saints who rested in the church of St. Illidius, bk. 1 On the churches of Clermont, ch. 11 (in Savaron), although he is faultily called bishop in the inscription. Unless perhaps there be two men named Justus, one archdeacon, and the other bishop. For in the same book, ch. 14, Justus is said to rest in the church of St. Cyricus. See Sirmond on letter II of bk. 4 of Sidonius. The feast of Justus is recorded in the Illidian records on the XII of the Kalends of November. But the said editor afterwards, among the Addenda and emendations in his notes on Gregory of Tours, col. 1401, clearly distinguishes Justus the bishop from the archdeacon. In the chapel, he says, of St. Justus, which is in the basilica of St. Illidius, … there is a marble tablet with various figures and this inscription: Here rests saint Justus, bishop of the city of Auvergne. That this Justus is other than the Justus who was archdeacon of St. Illidius, of whom Gregory in bk. I of the History, ch. 40, speaks, besides the title of bishop which is here attributed to Justus, is urged by the History of the translation of St. Illidius, made in the year MCCCXI; where bishop Arbertus is said, after the relics of SS. Illidius and Venerandus were raised, to have left in their own places the bodies of the other Saints, and chiefly of B. Nepotianus the bishop and of Justus, archdeacon and disciple of St. Illidius, on account of the difficulty of seeking them. Certainly the little book on the Churches of Clermont has two men named Justus. Whence Savaron and after him Sirmond, on bk. 4, letter II, of Apollinaris Sidonius, gave Justus a place among the bishops of Clermont between Avolus and Cæsarius.
[3] [and Sirmond distinguish from Justus the archdeacon of St. Illidius: the latter lived in the fourth century, the former in the seventh, before the year 630.] Sirmond, whom Ruinart cites, has this: But the Justus who on the sepulchral chest which is seen in the basilica of St. Illidius is inscribed bishop of the city of Auvergne, is not that Justus the archdeacon of St. Illidius the bishop; but another Justus, who in fact was bishop of Auvergne after Avolus, before Cæsarius. Whose name indeed in Gregory of Tours should not be sought in the list of bishops, because he lived after Gregory. Cæsarius, who next succeeded our Saint in the bishopric of Auvergne or Clermont, was present at the council of Reims, celebrated about the year 630, or, as Labbe thought, 625. Between this prelate and St. Avitus I, who died about the year 594, St. Desideratus and Avolus are believed to have sat, and then St. Justus: whence it is deduced that this last began to hold the bishopric after the year 595, which was Gregory of Tours's last year of life, and doubtless passed to a happier life in the following century. But the other Justus, whom the same Gregory praises, lived in the fourth century: for St. Illidius, whose archdeacon he was, died before the year 389, as Sainte-Marthe, cited above, proves at col. 228. Saussay refers this Justus to the XXI day of October; concerning whom it may then be seen. The other Saints of whom mention has been made were all prelates of the church of Auvergne: of whom we have given Venerandus at the XVIII of January, Desideratus at the XI of February, Illidius at the V of June, Avitus I at the XXI of August. Nepotianus Castellanus announces at the XXI of October.