The Life of St Remigius

From The Golden Legend of Blessed Jacobus Voragine, translated by William Caxton in 1483.

HERE FOLLOWETH OF ST. REMIGIUS

Clotilde and Her Children

St Remigius converted to the faith the king and the people of France. The king had a wife named Clotilde, which was Christian, and she enforced her much to convert her husband to the Christian faith, but she might not. And when she had a child she would have christened him, but the king defended it to her. And she rested not till at the last the king granted that it should be Christian, and after that it was christened, it died anon. Then said the king: Now it appeareth well that Christ is a vile God, for because he may not keep him which in his faith should have been enhanced in my kingdom after me.

And she said to him: Now feel I well that I am loved of my God because he hath received the first fruit of my womb; he hath enhanced to a better kingdom my son, and to reign perpetually without end, which is much better than thy kingdom is.

And soon after she conceived again, and had a fair son, whom with great prayers she baptized as she did the first, but anon after, he was sick, so that they had no hope of his life. And then the king said to his wife: Certainly this is a feeble god which may not conserve, ne keep none that is baptized in his name, and if thou hadst a thousand and didst them to be baptized, all should perish.

Yet nevertheless the child revived and was whole, so that he reigned after his father, and the faithful queen enforced her to bring her husband to the faith, but he refused it in all manners.

The Angry Miller

It is said in that other feast which is after the Epiphany [see below], how the king was converted to the faith. And the foresaid king Clovis, when he was christened, said that he would give to St. Remigius, for to endow his church, as much land as he might go about whilst he slept at mid-day, and so it was done. But there was a man which had a mill within the circuit which St. Remigius had closed. And as St. Remigius went about it the milner put him out with great indignation and great despite. And St. Remigius said to him: Friend, have no disdain and let it not be too hard if we have also this mill with that other.

Nevertheless the milner put him out, and anon the wheel of the mill began to turn contrary, and then the milner cried after St. Remigius and said: Servant of God, come and let us have the mill together.

And St. Remigius said: Nay, it shall neither be mine nor thine, and anon the earth opened and swallowed in all the mill.

St. Remigius Prophesies a Famine

And St. Remigius knew by the spirit of prophecy and by the will of God, that a great famine should come, and assembled in a town great plenty of wheat. And the drunken villains of the town mocked and scorned him of his providence, and set the garners afire. And when he knew it he came thither, and because he was cold for age and his last time approached fast, he sat down by the fire and warmed him, and said with a peaceable heart: The fire is always good.

Nevertheless they that made that fire, and all the men of their lineage, were broken in their members and the women gouty. And this endured in the same town unto the time of Charles, which chased and made them go their way, and so disperpled them.

The Translation of St. Remigius

And it is to be known that the feast of St. Remigius that is hallowed in January is the feast of his blessed death and disposition, and this is the feast of the translation of his blessed body. For when, after his death, the holy body should have been brought to the church of St. Timothy and Apollinarius with the shrine, and came nigh unto the church of St. Christopher, it began to weigh so much that they might not move it from thence in no manner. At the last they prayed our Lord that he would vouchsafe to show them if it were his will that the body should be buried in that church, whereas no relics rest. And then anon they took up the body lightly enough and buried him there honourably. And many miracles were there showed, so that they enlarged and made the church more ample and large.

And then they made an oratory behind the altar, and would have dolven for to have laid the body in that oratory, but they could not move it in no manner. Then they watched, and prayed unto our Lord, and at midnight they fell all asleep, and on the morn they found the sepulchre with the body in the place, which angels had borne thither while they slept. And this was the kalends of October which afterwards by long time on the same day, it was translated into a feretre or shrine of silver. He flourished about the year of our Lord four hundred and ninety.

CHAPTER 16

Remigius is said of remi, that is to say "feeding," and geos, that is "earth," as who saith feeding the earthly people with doctrine. Or of geon, that is a "wrestler," for he was a pastor and a wrestler he fed his flock with the word of preaching, with suffrages of praying, and with example of conversation. There is three manner of armour that is for the defence, the shield, for to fight, the sword, for his salvation and health, the habergeon and helm. He wrestled against the devil with the shield of faith, with the sword of the word of God, and with the helmet of hope. Ignatius Archbishop of Rheims wrote his life.

Remigius, an holy doctor and confessor glorious of our Lord, was tofore his birth provided of our Lord, and foreseen of a holy hermit. When the persecution of the Vandals had almost wasted and destroyed nigh all France, there was a man recluse, holy and virtuous, which had lost his sight, which oft prayed to our Lord for peace and welfare of the church of France. He had on a time a vision, and him seemed an angel came to him and said: Know thou that the woman that thou knowest named Aline shall bring forth a son that shall be named Remigius, which shall deliver all the country from this persecution.

And when he awoke he came to the house of this Aline and told to her his vision, and she would not believe it because of her age. The recluse said: It shall be so as I have said, and when thou hast given thy child suck, thou shalt give to me of thy milk, to put upon mine eyes, and therewith I shall be whole and recover my sight again.

And like as he said all these things happened. And the woman had a child named Remigius, which when he came to the age of discretion, he fled the world, and entered into a reclusage. And sith after, for the great renown of his holy life, when he had been twenty-two years therein he was elect and chosen to be Archbishop of Rheims.

He was so debonair that little birds came and ate on his table and took meat at his hand.

The Miracle of the Wine

It happed on a day that he was lodged in an house of a good woman which had but a little wine in her tonnel or vessel, and St. Remigius went in to the cellar and made the sign of the cross upon the ton, and prayed a while. Anon the ton was so full that it leapt over, by the merits of the good saint.

The Conversion of King Clovis

Now it happed that Clodovius the king of France, which was a paynim, might not be converted for any preaching that his wife might do, which was a Christian woman, unto the time that a great host of Alemans came into France. Then by the admonishment of his wife he made a vow that if the God that his wife worshipped would give him victory, he would be baptized at his returning from the battle. Thus, as he demanded, he vanquished the battle, and after came to Rheims to St. Remigius and prayed him that he would christen him. And when St. Remigius baptized him he had no chrisom ready, then a dove descended from heaven which brought the chrisom in an ampull of which the king was anointed and this ampull is kept in the church of St. Remigius at Rheims, of which the kings of France be anointed when they be crowned.

The Wayward Bishop

St. Remigius had a niece which was married to a clerk named Genebaldus, which by devotion left his wife for to enter into religion. Then St. Remigius saw that the see of Rheims was over great, and ordained a see of a bishopric at Laon and made Genebald first bishop of that place. When Genebald was bishop his wife came thither to see him, and he remembered of the privity that they were wont to have together, and lay on a night with her, and engendered on her a child. When his wife knew that she was great and let him have knowledge thereof, and when he wist that it was a son, he commanded that it should be named Thief, because he had engendered it by theft. After, for to quench the suspicion and the words of the people, he suffered that his wife should come to him as she did tofore, and anon after she conceived a daughter, whom he commanded to name a Fox's Whelp.

And after [he] came to St. Remigius and confessed him of his sin, and took the stole off his neck and would leave his bishopric. But St. Remigius, after he had confessed him, comforted him, and gave him penance, and shut him in a little cell seven years long, and gave to him bread and water, and in the meanwhile he governed the church himself.

At the end of seven years an angel came to the prison, and said to him that he had done well his penance, and bade him go out of the prison. To whom he said: I may not go out, for my lord St. Remigius hath closed the door and sealed it.

And the angel said to him: Know thou that the door of heaven is opened to thee; I shall open this door without breaking of the seal which St. Remigius hath sealed.

And anon the door was opened. Then Genebald fell down in the midst of the door in manner of a cross, and said: If our Lord Jesu Christ came hither I shall not go out but if St. Remigius, which shut and closed me herein, come and bring me out.

And then the angel went anon and fetched St. Remigius and brought him to Laon, and he delivered him out of prison, and remised him and set him again in his see there, where he lived after, all the days of his life, holily.

After his death, Thief his son was made bishop after him, which is also a saint in heaven.

And at the last St. Remigius, after that God had shown many miracles for him, he departed out of this life unto everlasting joy the year of the incarnation of our Lord five hundred.

St Michael, St Galgano, & the Sword in the Stone

Sunday was Michaelmas. There are 7 monasteries dedicated to St Michael on a geographical straight line stretching from the Irish Sea eastward to Mount Carmel.

From The Imaginative Conservative

By Fr Dwight Longenecker

Could the life of St Galgano be linked to the Arthurian legend of the Sword in the Stone?

In an earlier essay for The Imaginative Conservative, I recounted my discovery of the famous “Sword of St Michael” while on a hitch-hiking pilgrimage from England to Jerusalem. For those who are unfamiliar, the Sword of St Michael is a remarkable phenomenon: seven ancient monasteries dedicated to the Archangel Michael that are on a geographical straight line stretching from the Irish Sea eastward to Mount Carmel. My aforementioned essay and this one at Aleteia have more information.

Ever since that summer pilgrimage in 1987 I have been intrigued by the St Michael Line. Was it real? I tracked down a fellow who uses satellite technology to improve the accuracy of maps and gave him the coordinates of the seven sites. He came back with the information that not only were the sites on a straight line, with a variance of less than fifteen miles, but the line seemed to accommodate the curvature of the earth. The monasteries were founded as early as the fifth century—most of them the result of a vision of the Archangel Michael to their founders. Were their foundations linked? Was the geographical straight line intentional? If so, who devised it? I met with an expert in medieval cartography at the British Museum, and he confirmed my suspicion that the medieval world did not possess the knowledge or technology to accomplish such a feat.

Some researchers rightly point out that there are dozens of churches on hilltops dedicated to St Michael as the archangel would be—according to Christian lore—the first of the heavenly cohort to set foot on earth at the Lord’s second coming. Giving him a hilltop was therefore to give him a first foothold in his invasion of this world from the heavenly realm.

Furthermore, Christian churches were often established on the sites of pagan shrines, and indeed in France there are a number of hilltop churches dedicated to “St Michel de Mercure” (St Michael of Mercury), God’s winged messenger obviously replacing Mercury, the winged messenger of the pagan gods. Those who look for a natural explanation observe that with so many St Michael churches, it would not be surprising that, with a bit of imagination and ingenuity, one might discern a mystical connection among them.

In this essay, Jared Staudt observes that the monasteries are perfectly aligned with the sunset on the summer solstice and muses on the spiritual significance of the seasonal changes for the ancients. Being more attuned to the shifts of seasons and the cycles of the sun, did our forefathers in the faith see in the turning cycles of the seasons a spiritual reflection of the need for spiritual renewal? While the explanation seems reasonable to the modern questing mind, one still comes back to the astounding accomplishment of these monasteries.

Skellig Michael is a collection of beehive monastic cells clinging to a barren rock in the Irish Sea. Established sometime between the sixth and eighth centuries, the island is difficult to access even today. A handful of monks lived there for centuries existing on the vegetables they could grow in their tiny terraced gardens, supplemented with the eggs of sea birds and the meager catch of fish. Why go there to live? To give people a spiritual reminder of the sunset in summer?

St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall and most famously, Mont St Michel in France, are built on islands—Mont St Michel in a bay made hazardous by unpredictable tides and deadly quicksand. Why build there? Why build such astonishing structures? Sacra di San Michele  (go here for a virtual tour) is built on a rugged peak in the Italian Alps as a result of a vision of St Michael to the founder. Building any structure there would be hugely expensive and nearly impossible even today—but in the eleventh century? All this to give Christians a devotional aid by linking to the midsummer sunset?

I continued to scratch my head. Then, in a recent visit to Tuscany—spurred by a story told to me by Rod Dreher—I looked further into the story of twelfth century St Galgano Guidotti. According to legend, while on the road near Siena, Galgano’s horse threw him and an angel lifted him to his feet and led him to a rugged hill called Monte Siepi. There he experienced a vision of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin, and the Apostles. The angel urged him to repent, but Galgano protested that he could no more repent than split a rock with a sword. To prove his point, he drew his blade and thrust at the stony ground, but the sword slid easily into the living rock, where it remains stuck fast to this day.

Galgano set up a hermitage on the site and lived a saintly life. He died in 1181, and three years later the Cistercians established a monastery nearby dedicated to his memory. He was actually the first saint to be formally canonized by the Church in 1185.

Galgano’s sword in the stone is at the small rotunda at Montsiepi near the ruined Cistercian Abbey. Go here for a BBC video about St Galgano, the sword’s authenticity, and possible links to the Arthurian legend. Could the life of St Galgano be linked to the Arthurian legend of the Sword in the Stone? Scholars disagree. Some trace the tale from Tuscany through the troubadours like Chretien de Troyes and then to Britain. The first written mention of Arthur’s sword in the stone is Robert de Boron’s French romance Merlin (dated 1200) but assuming that de Boron’s tale is based on earlier oral sources it would seem that the first traces of the Arthurian legend pre-date St Galgano. Furthermore, the elaborate romance of the future king of the Britons and the geographical and cultural distance from twelfth century Tuscany would make the connection between King Arthur’s sword and the hermit Galgano no more than a co incidence.

What is interesting is St Galgano’s vision of St Michael, the existence of the sword in the stone, a monastery founded on the site… and the fact that upon my further research, it turns out that St Galgano’s hermitage and his sword in the stone also lie exactly on the famous St Michael Line—otherwise known as the sword of St Michael.

So go figure!

The featured image, uploaded by Sailko, is “Adoration of the Shepherds between Saints Augustin and Galgano by Pietro di Giovanni d’Ambrogio.” This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Feria (Commemoration of St Remigius)

Today's Holy Mass from Sacred Heart Church, Tynong AUS. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.

St Remigius, Bishop and Confessor, Apostle of the Franks ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

St Remigius, Bishop & Confessor, Apostle of the Franks

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

Scarcely had two centuries elapsed since the triumph of the Cross over Roman idolatry, when Satan began to cry victory once more. While Eutychianism was crowned at Byzantium in the person of Anastasius the Silent, Arianism was rife in the West. Throughout the whole ancient territory of the empire, heresy was supreme, and almost everywhere was persecuting the Church, who had now none but the vanquished for her sons.

“But fear not; rather rejoice,” says Baronius at this point in his Annals; “it is Divine Wisdom still delighting to play in the world. The thoughts of men count for little before him who holds the light in his hands, to hide it when he pleases and, when he wills, to bring it forth again. The darkness that now covers the earth marks the hour when the dawn is about to break in the hearts of the Franks, and the Catholic faith is to shine there in all its glory.” (Baron. Annal. eccl. ad ann. 499, xv; the year 496 is now universally recognized as the date of the Baptism of Clovis.)

Little known in our days is such a manner of writing history; yet this was the view taken by the first historian of the Church, and the greatest. On such a feast as this we could not do better than repeat summarily his account of the Franks. “How,” says he, “can we help admiring that Providence which is never wanting to the Church? From the midst of tribes still pagan, on the morrow of the irremediable fall of the Empire, God forms to himself a new people, raises unto himself a prince: against these must break the rising tide of heretics and Barbarians. Such, in truth, appeared in the course of ages the divine mission of the Frankish kings.

“What energy has faith to uphold kingdoms; and what fatal power has heresy to uproot every plant that is not set by our heavenly Father! In proof hereof, see how the principalities of the Goths, Vandals, Heruli, Alani, Suevi, and Gepidi have utterly disappeared; while the Franks behold their little spot of earth blessedly fertilized, and encroaching far upon the surrounding territories. (Ibid. ad ann. 484, cxxxv)

“Henceforth appeared the might of the Franks, when preceded to battle by the Cross. Hitherto obscure and struggling for existence, they were now everywhere victorious. They had only had to acknowledge Christ in order to reach the highest summit of glory, honor, and renown. In so speaking I say nothing but what is known to the whole world. If they have been more favored than other nations, it is because they were supereminent in faith, and incomparable in piety, so that they were more eager to defend the Church than to protect their own frontiers. (Baron. Annal. eccl. ad ann. 514, xxiii)

“Moreover, a privilege unique and truly admirable was theirs: never did the sins of kings bring upon this people, as upon so many others, subjection to a foreign yoke. The promise of the Psalm (Psalm 88:31-34) would seem to have been renewed in favor of this nation: If his children forsake my law … and keep not my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with a rod … but my mercy I will not take away from him.” (Baron. Annal. eccl. ad ann. 514, xxvii)

All honor, then, to the saintly Pontiff, who merited to be the instrument of such heavenly benefits! According to the expression of the holy Pope Hormisdas, “Remigius converted the nation, and baptized Clovis, in the midst of prodigies similar to those of the apostolic age.” (Hormisd. Epist. 1, ad. Remigium) The prayers of Clotilde, and labors of Genevieve, the penances of the monks who peopled the forests of Gaul, had doubtless a great share in a conversion which brought such joy to the Angels. Did space allow, we might relate how it was also prepared by the great Bishops of the fifth century, Germanus of Auxerre, Lupus of Troyes, Anian of Orleans, Hilary of Arles, Memertus and Avitus of Vienne, Sidonius Apollinaris, and so many others who, in that age of darkness, held up the Church to the light of day, and commanded the respect of the Barbarians. Remigius, contemporary and survivor of most of them, and their rival in eloquence, nobility, and holiness, seemed to personify them all on that Christmas night forestalled by so many desires, prayers, and sufferings. In the baptistery of St. Mary’s at Rheims, the Frankish nation was born to God; as heretofore on the banks of the Jordan, the dove was again seen over the waters, honoring this time not the Baptism of Jesus, but that of the Church’s eldest daughter; it brought a gift from heaven, the holy vial containing the chrism which was to anoint the French kings in future ages into the most worthy of all the kings of the earth. (Matth. Paris. ad ann. 1257: Archiepiscopus Remensis qui regem Francorum cæleste consecrat chrismate (quapropter rex Francorum regum censetur diynissimus) est omnium Franciæ parium primus et excellentissimus)

Two churches in the city of Rheims claim the honor of these glorious souvenirs: the grand church of our Lady, and the venerable basilica where Remigius lay, with the vial of chrism at his feet, and guarded by the twelve Peers surrounding his splendid mausoleum. This church of St. Remigius bore the name of caput Franciæ, (Mabillon. Annal benedict. xlvii. 30: Diploma Gerbergæ reginæ) head of all France, until those days of October 1793, when, from its desecrated pulpit was proclaimed the word that the days of darkness were at an end; when the holy ampulla was broken, and the relics of the Apostle of France were thrown into a common grave (they were, however, afterwards discovered and authentically recognized; and are, to this day, an object of the greatest veneration to pilgrims).

After an episcopate of seventy-four years, the longest ever recorded in history, Remigius took his flight to heaven on the 13th of January, the anniversary of his episcopal consecration and also of his birth. Yet in the same century, the first of October was chosen for his Feast; this being the day whereon his relics were first translated to a more honorable place, in the midst of miracles such as those which had graced his life. The Translation of St. Remigius is the name still given to this day by the church of Rheims, which, by a special privilege, celebrates on the Octave Day of the Epiphany the principal festival of its glorious patron. We borrow the following Lessons from the Office of that day.

Remigius, also called Remedius, was born at Leon, of noble parents by name Æmilius and St. Celinia. They were far advanced in age, and renowned among their own people for their virtue, when the birth of this child was foretold to them by a blind hermit name Montanus; who afterwards recovered his sight, by applying to his eyes some of the milk wherewith the infant Remigius was nourished. The future Apostle of the Franks devoted his youth to prayer and study in retirement; but the more he shrank from the company of men, the more his fame spread throughout the province. On the death of Bennadius, Archbishop of Rheims, Remigius, who though but twenty-two years of age had the mature character of an old man, was unanimously elected, or rather forcibly installed as Archbishop. He endeavored to escape the burden of the episcopate, but was obliged by the command of God to submit. Having been consecrated by the bishops of the province, he governed his church with the wisdom of an experienced veteran. He was eloquent, learned in the Scriptures; and a pattern to his people, fulfilling in deed what he taught by word. He carefully and laboriously instructed his own flock in the mysteries of faith, and established discipline among his clergy. Then he undertook to spread the kingdom of Christ in Belgium; and having converted the people to the faith, he founded several new bishoprics and appointed them pastors: at Terouanne St. Antimund or Aumont, at Arras St. Vedast, and at Laon St. Genebald.

The wonderful works of Remigius, being divulged far and wide, filled with astonishment the minds of Clovis and his still pagan Franks. When Clovis, who had already conquered the Gauls, triumphed over the Alemanni also at the battle of Tolbiac, by the invocation of the name of Christ; he sent for Remigius, and willingly listened to his explanation of the Christine doctrine. Remigius urged the king to embrace the faith, but he replied that he feared the opposition of his people. When this was reported to the Franks, they cried out with one voice: “We renounce mortal gods, O pious king, and are ready to follow the immortal God whom Remigius preaches.” Then the Bishop imposed a fast upon them, according to the custom of the Church, and having, in the presence of the Queen St. Clotilde, completed the king’s religious instruction, he baptized him on the day of our Lord’s Nativity, addressing him in these words: “Bow down thy head in meekness, O Sicambrian; adore what thou hast hitherto burnt, burn what thou hast adored.” After the baptism, he anointed him with holy chrism with the sign of the cross of Christ. More than three thousand of the army were baptized, as also Albofleda, Clovis’ sister, who died soon after; upon which occasion Remigius wrote to console the king. His other sister, Lanthilda, was reclaimed from the Arian heresy, anointed with sacred chrism, and reconciled to the Church.

Remigius was exceedingly liberal to the poor and merciful towards sinners. “God has not placed us here,” he would say, “to exercise wrath, but to take care of men.” During a council, he once by divine power struck an Arian bishop with dumbness, until he begged forgiveness by signs, when he restored him his speech with these words: “In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, if thou holdest the right belief concerning him, speak, and confess the faith of the Catholic Church.” The bishop recovering his voice, protested that he believed, and would die in, that faith. Towards the end of his life, Remigius lost his sight, but recovered it shortly before his death. Knowing the day of his departure, he celebrated Mass, and fortified his flock with the sacred Body of Christ. Then he bade his clergy and people farewell, giving to each one the kiss of our Lord’s peace; and full of days and good works, he departed this life on the Ides of January, in the years of our Lord five hundred and thirty-three, being ninety-six years old. He was buried in the oratory of St. Christopher; and as in life, so also after death, he was famous for miracles.

This is a fitting occasion to bring forward the beautiful formula rightly called the Prayer of the Franks, which dates from the first ages of the monarchy. (Pitra. Hist. de S. Léger, Introduct. p. xxii, xxiii)

PRAYER

Almighty, eternal God, who didst establish the empire of the Franks to be, throughout the world, the instrument of thy divine will, and the sword and bulwark of thy holy Church: ever and in all places prevent, we beseech thee, with thy heavenly light, the suppliant sons of the Franks; so that they may both see what they ought to do to promote thy kingdom in this world, and, in order to fulfill what they have seen, may continually increase in charity and in valor.

St. Leo IX said to his contemporaries, and we echo his words, concerning the land of France: “Be it known to your charity that you must solemnly celebrate the Feast of the blessed Remigius; for it to others he is not an Apostle, he is such with regard to you at least. Pay such honor, then, to your Apostle and Father, that you may merit, according to the divine promise, to live long upon the earth, and, by his prayers, may obtain possession of eternal beatitude.” (Leon. ix. Epist. xvii) When he thus spoke, the sovereign Pontiff has just consecrated thy church, then for the third time rebuilt with the magnificence required by the growing devotion of the people. The nine centuries since elapsed have augmented thy claims to the gratitude of a nation, into which thou didst infuse such vigorous life, that no other has equaled it in duration. Accept our thanks, O thou who wast as a new Sylvester to a new Constantine.

Glory be to our Lord, who showed forth his wonders in thee! Remembering those gestes of God accomplished in all climes by her sons the Franks, the Church recognizes (Lect. 1 Noct. in proprio Remensi et aliis) the legitimacy of applying to thee the beautiful words which announced the Messias: Give ear, ye islands, and hearken, ye people, from afar. The Lord hath called me from the womb … And he said: … Behold I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth. Truly it was a day of salvation, that Christmas day, whereon it pleased our Lord to bless thy labors and grant the desires of thy long episcopate. By the holy faith thou taughtest, thou wast then the covenant of the people, the new people composed of the conquerors and the conquered in that land of France, which, when once itself raised up, soon restored to God the inheritances that had been destroyed. O true Church, the one only Bride, captive and destitute, behold Remigius rises to say to thy sons that are bound: Come forth, and to them that are in darkness: Show yourselves! From North and South, from beyond the sea, behold they come in multitudes: all these are come to thee. Therefore, give praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice O earth, because the Lord hath comforted his people; after a whole century of heresy and barbarity, God has once more demonstrated that they shall not be confounded that wait for him. (Isaiah 49:23)

Our confidence in God will again be rewarded if thou, O Remigius, deign to present to our Lord the prayer of the Franks who have remained faithful in honoring thy memory. The renegades sold over to Satan may tyrannize for a time over the deluded crowd; but they are not the nation. A day will come when Christ, who is ever King, will say to the Angels of his guard those words of his lieutenant Clovis: “It displeases me that these Goths possess the good land of France; expel them, for it belongs to us.” (Greg. Turon. Histor. Franc. ii. 37; Hinemar. Vita S. Remigii, li)

St Fidharleus of Ireland: Butler's Lives of the Saints

 

An audio reading of the entry on St Fiodhairle Ua Suanaigh.

St Remigius, Archbishop of Rheims: Butler's Lives of the Saints

St Fidharleus of Ireland

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:

THE Irish calendars commemorate on this day St. Fidharleus, abbot of Raithen, who departed to our Lord in 762. See Colgan, MSS.

St Remigius, Confessor & Archbishop of Rheims

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:

From his ancient life now lost, but abridged by Fortunatus, and his life compiled by archbishop Hincmar, with a history of the translation of his relics. See also St. Gregory of Tours,1. 2; Fleury.1. 29, n. 44, &c.; Ceillier, t. 16; Rivet, Hist. Littr. de la Fr. t. 3, p. 155; Suysken the Bollandist. t. 1, Octob. pp. 59, 187.

A. D. 583.

ST. REMIGIUS, the great apostle of the French nation, was one of the brightest lights of the Gaulish church, illustrious for his learning, eloquence, sanctity, and miracles. An episcopacy of seventy years, and many great actions, have rendered his name famous in the annals of the church. His very birth was wonderful, and his life was almost a continued miracle of divine grace. His father Emilius, and his mother Cilinia, both descended of noble Gaulish families, enjoyed an affluent fortune, lived in splendor suitable to their rank at the castle of Laon, and devoted themselves to the exercise of all Christian virtues. St. Remigius seems to have been born in the year 439.* He had two brothers older than himself, Principius, bishop of Soissons, and another whose name is not known, but who was father of St. Lupus, who was afterwards one of his uncle’s successors in the episcopal see of Soissons. A hermit named Montanus foretold the birth of our saint to his mother; and the pious parents had a special care of his education, looked upon him as a child blessed by heaven, and were careful to put him into the best hands.

His nurse Balsamia is reckoned among the saints, and is honored at Rheims in a collegiate church which bears her name. She had a son called Celsin, who was afterwards a disciple of our saint, and is known at Laon by the name of St. Soussin. St. Remigius had an excellent genius, made great progress in learning, and in the opinion of St. Apollinaris Sidonius, who was acquainted with him in the earlier part of his life, he became the most eloquent person in that age.1 He was remarkable from his youth for his extraordinary devotion and piety, and for the severity of his morals. A secret apartment in which he spent a great part of his time in close retirement, in the castle of Laon, while he lived there, was standing in the ninth century, and was visited with devout veneration when Hincmar wrote. Our saint, earnestly thirsting after greater solitude, and the means of a more sublime perfection, left his father’s house, and made choice of a retired abode, where, having only God for witness, he abandoned himself to the fervor of his zeal in fasting, watching, and prayer. The episcopal see of Rheims† becoming vacant by the death of Bennagius, Remigius, though only twenty-two years of age, was compelled, notwithstanding his extreme reluctance, to take upon him that important charge; his extraordinary abilities seeming to the bishops of the province a sufficient reason for dispensing with the canons in point of age. In this new dignity, prayer, meditation on the holy scriptures, the instruction of the people, and the conversion of infidels, heretics, and sinners, were the constant employment of the holy pastor. Such was the fire and unction with which he announced the divine oracles to all ranks of men, that he was called by many a second St. Paul. St. Apollinaris Sidonius2 was not able to find terms to express his admiration of the ardent charity and purity with which this zealous bishop offered at the altar an incense of sweet odor to God, and of the zeal with which by his words he powerfully subdued the wildest hearts, and brought them under the yoke of virtue, inspiring the lustful with the love of purity, and moving hardened sinners to bewail heir offences with tears of sincere compunction. The same author, who, for his eloquence and piety, was one of the greatest lights of the church in that age, testifies,3 that he procured copies of the sermons of this admirable bishop, which he esteemed an invaluable treasure; and says that in them he admired the loftiness of the thoughts, the judicious choice of the epithets, the gracefulness and propriety of the figures, and the justness, strength, and closeness of the reasoning, which he compares to the vehemence of thunder; the words flowed like a gentle river, but every part in each discourse was so naturally connected, and the style so even and smooth, that the whole carried with it an irresistible force. The delicacy and beauty of the thoughts and expression were at the same time enchanting, this being so smooth, that it might be compared to the smoothest ice or crystal upon which a nail runs without meeting with the least rub or unevenness. Another main excellency of these sermons consisted in the sublimity of the divine maxims which they contained, and the unction and sincere piety with which they were delivered; but the holy bishop’s sermons and zealous labors derived their greatest force from the sanctity of his life, which was supported by an extraordinary gift of miracles. Thus was St. Remigius qualified and prepared by God to be made the apostle of a great nation.

The Gauls, who had formerly extended their conquests by large colonies in Asia, had subdued a great part of Italy, and brought Rome itself to the very brink of utter destruction,* were at length reduced under the Roman yoke by Julius Csar, fifty years before the Christian era. It was the custom of those proud conquerors, as St. Austin observes,4 to impose the law of their own language upon the nations which they subdued.† After Gaul had been for the space of about five hundred years one of the richest and most powerful provinces of the Roman empire, it fell into the hands of the French; but these new masters, far from extirpating or expelling the old Roman or Gaulish inhabitants, became, by a coalition with them, one people, and took up their language and manners.* Clovis, at his accession to the crown, was only fifteen years old: he became the greatest conqueror of his age, and is justly styled the founder of the French monarchy. Even while he was a pagan he treated the Christians, especially the bishops, very well, spared the churches, and honored holy men, particularly St. Remigius, to whom he caused one of the vessels of his church, which a soldier had taken away, to be returned, and because the man made some demur, slew him with his own hand. St. Clotildis, whom he married in 493, earnestly endeavored to persuade him to embrace the faith of Christ. The first fruit of their marriage was a son, who, by the mother’s procurement, was baptized, and called Ingomer. This child died during the time of his wearing the white habit, within the first week after his baptism. Clovis harshly reproached Clotildis, and said, “If he had been consecrated in the name of my gods, he had not died; but having been baptized in the name of yours, he could not live.” The queen answered: “I thank God, who has thought me worthy of bearing a child whom he has called to his kingdom.” She had afterwards another son, whom she procured to be baptized, and who was named Chlodomir. He also fell sick, and the king said in great anger: “It could not be otherwise: he will die presently, in the same manner his brother did, having been baptized in the name of your Christ.” God was pleased to put the good queen to this trial; but by her prayers this child recovered.5 She never ceased to exhort the king to forsake his idols, and to acknowledge the true God; but he held out a long time against all her arguments, till, on the following occasion, God was pleased wonderfully to bring him to the confession of his holy name, and to dissipate that fear of the world which chiefly held him back so long, he being apprehensive lest his pagan subjects should take umbrage at such a change.

The Suevi and Alemanni in Germany assembled a numerous and valiant army, and under the command of several kings, passed the Rhine, hoping to dislodge their countrymen the Franks, and obtain for themselves the glorious spoils of the Roman empire in Gaul. Clovis marched to meet them near his frontiers, and one of the fiercest battles recorded in history was fought at Tolbiac. Some think that the situation of these German nations, the shortness of the march of Clovis, and the route which he took, point out the place of this battle to have been somewhere in Upper Alsace.6 But most modern historians agree that Tolbiac is the present Zulpich, situated in the dutchy of Juliers, four leagues from Cologue, between the Meuse and the Rhine; and this is demonstrated by the judicious and learned d’Anville.7 In this engagement the king had given the command of the infantry to his cousin Sigebert, fighting himself at the head of the cavalry. The shock of the enemy was so terrible, that Sigebert was in a short time carried wounded out of the field, and the infantry was entirely routed, and put to flight. Clovis saw the whole weight of the battle falling on his cavalry; yet stood his ground, fighting himself like a lion, covered with blood and dust; and encouraging his men to exert their utmost strength, he performed with them wonderful exploits of valor. Notwithstanding these efforts, they were at length borne down, and began to flee and disperse themselves; nor could they be rallied by the commands and entreaties of their king, who saw the battle upon which his empire depended, quite desperate. Clotildis had said to him in taking leave: “My lord, you are going to conquest; but in order to be victorious, invoke the God of the Christians: he is the sole Lord of the universe, and is styled the God of armies. If you address yourself to him with confidence, nothing can resist you. Though your enemies were a hundred against one, you would triumph over them.” The king called to mind these her words in his present extremity, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, said, with tears, “O Christ, whom Clotildis invokes as Son of the living God, I implore thy succour. I have called upon my gods, and find they have no power. I therefore invoke thee; I believe in thee. Deliver me from my enemies, and I will be baptized in thy name.” No sooner had he made this prayer than his scattered cavalry began to rally about his person; the battle was renewed with fresh vigor, and the chief king and generalissimo of the enemy being slain, the whole army threw down their arms, and begged for quarter. Clovis granted them their lives and liberty upon condition that the country of the Suevi in Germany should pay him an annual tribute. He seems to have also subdued and imposed the same yoke upon the Boioarians, or Bavariaus; for his successors gave that people their first princes or dukes, as F. Daniel shows at large. This miraculous victory was gained in the fifteenth year of his reign, of Christ 496.

Clovis, from that memorable day, thought of nothing but of preparing himself for the holy laver of regeneration. In his return from this expedition he passed by Toul, and there took with him St. Vedast, a holy priest who led a retired life in that city, that he might be instructed by him in the faith during his journey; so impatient was he to fulfil his vow of becoming a Christian, that the least wilful delay appeared to him criminal. The queen, upon this news, sent privately to St. Remigius to come to her, and went with him herself to meet the king in Champagne. Clovis no sooner saw her, but he cried out to her, “Clovis has vanquished the Alemanni, and you have triumphed over Clovis. The business you have so much at heart is done; my baptism can be no longer delayed.” The queen answered, “To the God of hosts is the glory of both these triumphs due.” She encouraged him forthwith to accomplish his vow, and presented to him St. Remigius as the most holy bishop in his dominions. This great prelate continued his instruction, and prepared him for baptism by the usual practices of fasting, penance, and prayer. Clovis suggested to him that he apprehended the people that obeyed him would not be willing to forsake their gods, but said he would speak to them according to his instructions. He assembled the chiefs of his nation for this purpose; but they prevented his speaking, and cried out with a loud voice, “My Lord, we abandon mortal gods, and are ready to follow the immortal God, whom Remigius teaches.” St. Remigius and St. Vedast therefore instructed and prepared them for baptism. Many bishops repaired to Rheims for this solemnity, which they judged proper to perform on Christmas-day, rather than to defer it till Easter. The king set the rest an example of compunction and devotion, laying aside his purple and crown, and, covered with ashes, imploring night and day the divine mercy. To give an external pomp to this sacred action, in order to strike the senses of a barbarous people, and impress a sensible awe and respect upon their minds, the good queen took care that the streets from the palace to the great church should be adorned with rich hangings, and that the church and baptistery should be lighted up with a great number of perfumed wax tapers, and scented with exquisite odors. The catechumens marched in procession, carrying crosses, and singing the Litany. St. Remigius conducted the king by the hand, followed by the queen and the people. Coming near the sacred font, the holy bishop, who had with great application softened the heart of this proud barbarian conqueror into sentiments of Christian meekness and humility, said to him, “Bow down your neck with meekness, great Sicambrian prince: adore what you have hitherto burnt; and burn what you have hitherto adored.” Words which may be emphatically addressed to every penitent, to express the change of his heart and conduct, in renouncing the idols of his passions, and putting on the spirit of sincere Christian piety and humility. The king was baptized by St. Remigius on Christmas-day, as St. Avitus assures us.8 St. Remigius afterwards baptized Albofleda, the king’s sister, and three thousand persons of his army, that is, of the Franks, who were yet only a body of troops dispersed among the Gauls. Albofleda died soon after, and the king being extremely afflicted at her loss, St. Remigius wrote him a letter of consolation, representing to him the happiness of such a death in the grace of baptism, by which we ought to believe she had received the crown of virgins.9 Lantilda, another sister of Clovis, who had fallen into the Arian heresy, was reconciled to the Catholic faith, and received the unction of the holy chrism, that is, says Fleury, confirmation; though some think it only a rite used in the reconciliation of certain heretics. The king, after his baptism, bestowed many lands on St. Remigius, who distributed them to several churches, as he did the donations of several others among the Franks, lest they should imagine he had attempted their conversion out of interest. He gave a considerable part to St. Mary’s church at Laon, where he had been brought up; and established Genebald, a nobleman skilled in profane and divine learning, first bishop of that see. He had married a niece of St. Remigius, but was separated from her to devote himself to the practices of piety. Such was the original of the bishopric of Laon, which before was part of the diocese of Rheims. St. Remigius also constituted Theodore bishop of Tournay in 487; St. Vedast, bishop of Arras in 498, and of Cambray in 510. He sent Antimund to preach the faith to the Morini, and to found the church of Terouenne. Clovis built churches in many places, conferred upon them great riches, and by an edict invited all his subjects to embrace the Christian faith. St. Avitus, bishop of Vienne, wrote to him a letter of congratulation upon his baptism, and exhorts him to send ambassadors to the remotest German nations beyond the Rhine, to solicit them to open their hearts to the faith.

When Clovis was preparing to march against Alaric, in 506, St. Remigius sent him a letter of advice how he ought to govern his people so as to draw down upon himself the divine blessings.10 “Choose,” said he. “wise counsellors, who will be an honor to your reign. Respect the clergy. Be the father and protector of your people; let it be your study to lighten as much as possible all the burdens which the necessities of the state may oblige them to bear: comfort and relieve the poor; feed the orphans; protect the widows; suffer no extortion. Let the gate of your palace be open to all, that every one may have recourse to you for justice employ your great revenues in redeeming captives,” &c.* Clovis after his victories over the Visigoths, and the conquest of Toulouse, their capital in Gaul, sent a circular letter to all the bishops in his dominions, in which he allowed them to give liberty to any of the captives he had taken, but desired them only to make use of this privilege in favor of persons of whom they had some knowledge.11 Upon the news of these victories of Clovis ever the Visigoths, Anastatius, the eastern emperor, to court his alliance against the Goths, who had principally concurred to the extinction of the western empire, sent him the ornaments and titles of Patrician, Consul, and Augustus: from which time he was habited in purple, and styled himself Augustus. This great conqueror invaded Burgundy to compel king Gondebald to allow a dower to his queen, and to revenge the murder of her father and uncle; but was satisfied with the yearly tribute which the tyrant promised to pay him. The perfidious Arian afterwards murdered his third brother; whereupon Clovis again attacked and vanquished him; but at the entreaty of Clotildis, suffered him to reign tributary to him, and allowed his son Sigismond to ascend the throne after his death. Under the protection of this great monarch, St. Remigius wonderfully propagated the gospel of Christ by the conversion of a great part of the French nation; in which work God endowed him with an extraordinary gift of miracles, as we are assured not only by Hincmar, Flodoard, and all other historians who have mentioned him, but also by other incontestable monuments and authorities Not to mention his Testament, in which mention is made of his miracles, the bishops who were assembled in the celebrated conference that was held a Lyons against the Arians in his time, declared they were stirred up to exert their zeal in defence of the Catholic faith by the example of Remigius, “Who,” say they,12 “hath everywhere destroyed the altars of the idols by a multitude of miracles and signs.” The chief among these prelates were Stephen, bishop of Lyons, St. Avitus of Vienne, his brother Apollinaris of Valence, and Eonius of Aries. They all went to wait upon Gondebald, the Arian king of the Burgundians, who was at Savigny, and entreated him to command his Arian bishops to hold a public conference with them. When he showed much unwillingness they all prostrated themselves before him, and wept bitterly. The king was sensibly affected at the sight, and kindly raising them up, promised to give them an answer soon after. They went back to Lyons, and the king returning thither the next day, told them their desire was granted. It was the eve of St. Justus, and the Catholic bishops passed the whole night in the church of that saint in devout prayer; the next day, at the hour appointed by the king, they repaired to his palace, and, before him and many of his senators, entered upon the disputation, St. Avitus speaking for the Catholics, and one Boniface for the Arians. The latter answered only by clamors and injurious language, treating the Catholics as worshippers of three Gods. The issue of a second meeting, some days after, was the same with that of the first: and many Arians were converted. Gondebald himself, some time after, acknowledged to St. Avitus, that he believed the Son and the Holy Ghost to be equal to the Father, and desired him to give him privately the unction of the holy chrism. St. Avitus said to him, “Our Lord declares, Whoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father. You are a king, and have no persecution to fear, as the apostles had. You fear a sedition among the people, but ought not to cherish such a weakness. God does not love him, who, for an earthly kingdom, dares not confess him before the world.”13 The king knew not what to answer; but never had the courage to make a public profession of the Catholic faith.* St. Remigius, by his zealous endeavors promoted the Catholic interest in Burgundy, and entirely crushed both idolatry and the Arian heresy in the French dominions. In a synod he converted, in his old age, an Arian bishop who came thither to dispute against him.14 King Clovis died in 511. St. Remigius survived him many years, and died in the joint reign of his four sons, on the 13th of January in the year 533, according to Rivet, and in the ninety-fourth year of his age, having been bishop above seventy years. The age before the irruption of the Franks had been of all others the most fruitful in great and learned men in Gaul; but studies were there at the lowest ebb from the time of St. Remigius’s death, till they were revived in the reign of Charlemagne.15 The body of this holy archbishop was buried in St. Christopher’s church at Rheims, and found incorrupt when it was taken up by archbishop Hincmar in 852. Pope Leo IX., during a council which he held at Rheims in 1049, translated it into the church of the Benedictin abbey, which bears his name in that city, on the 1st of October, on which day, in memory of this and other translations, he appointed his festival to be celebrated, which, in Florus and other calendars, was before marked on the 13th of January. In 1646 this saint’s body was again visited by the archbishop with many honorable witnesses, and found incorrupt and whole in all its parts; but the skin was dried, and stuck to the winding-sheet, as it was described by Hincmar above eight hundred years before. It is now above twelve hundred years since his death.16

Care, watchings, and labors were sweet to this good pastor, for the sake of souls redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Knowing what pains our Redeemer took, and how much he suffered for sinners, during the whole course of his mortal life, and how tenderly his divine heart is ever open to them, this faithful minister was never weary in preaching, exhorting, mourning, and praying for those that were committed to his charge. In imitation of the good shepherd and prince of pastors, he was always ready to lay down his life for their safety: he bore them all in his heart, and watched over them, always trembling lest any among them should perish, especially through his neglect: for he considered with what indefatigable rage the wolf watched continually to devour them. As all human endeavors are too weak to discover the wiles and repulse the assaults of the enemy, without the divine light and strength, this succor he studied to obtain by humble supplications; and when he was not taken up in external service for his flock, he secretly poured forth his soul in devout prayer before God for himself and them.