Antony
Acta Sanctorum, May 4
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-04/antony.html
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ON SAINT ANTONY

ABBOT AT TOURS IN GAUL.

[Commentary]

Antony, Abbot at Tours in Gaul (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

Among the city of Tours's monasteries the more ancient
is reckoned, that which from S. Julian now is named,
before S. Gregory Bishop of Tours's
times, [Sacred cult May 4] in honor of S. Maurice dedicated.
In this monastery's church to be celebrated
yearly on this IV of May under a double rite the feast of S. Antony,
of the Rock surnamed, testifies Simon Martin in the sacred
Relics of the desert. On which day also the memory of B. Antony Abbot
of S. Julian is inscribed in the Martyrology of Tours and
of B. Antony Confessor at Tours in the MS. Florarium Sanctorum,
and the Auctarium of Greven and Molanus to Usuard, the Martyrology
German of Canisius and Gallican of Saussay, who these things has:
At Tours of S. Antony the Confessor, by beatitude's
glory conspicuous. But the Translation of the body of S. Antony
the Confessor at Tours is celebrated on the day second of April, [April 2 and 3.]
in the MS. Martyrologies of the Priory of Averon in the diocese
of Chartres, the Roman of Duke Altemps, and the Carmelite which
at Cologne is preserved. On the following day III of April is remembered
S. Antony the Confessor at Tours in the MS. Vallicellan
of the Fathers of the Oratory at Rome, and the Centula of S. Richarius in Ponthieu.
From all which his ancient cult is confirmed.
But of his illustrious virtues and manner of living nothing
we could hitherto attain, beyond the few, which Simon Martin
in French suggests, and are nearly these.

[2] When B. Antony several years in the monastery
of Tours of S. Julian had lived, and with exact observation
monastic in all virtues he excelled;
with greater zeal of doing penance burning, [A Compendium of the Life.] he obtained
the Moderator's consent, of departing to some
rock, two or three leagues from Tours distant;
in which a small little cell in the rock cut for himself
he chose, but so narrow, that scarcely either lying or standing
he could subsist, because in no part either
of height, or of length or of breadth, it contained
beyond four feet: and that cell by the benefit of a little window
even now is shown, but for reverence
of S. Antony entrance is not permitted. The rest of his
Acts lie hidden, to God alone known: by whose providence life
he sustained, and before his departure from life he was by the Parish-priest
neighboring with the Sacraments fortified, and after death the body
to the monastery translated. These things there. Of which
the former from popular tradition, the rest from present notice to be
received it appears.

[3] But in what century he flourished nowhere even by conjecture
to be handed down we find, [The time uncertain,] whence neither can we him to the Order Benedictine
enough safely assert: for if among the first of the said monastery
monks he lived, would say the Sammarthani, uncertain to be
what Order or Rule first there the monks
held. Perhaps some light to the matter obscure will afford
Dachery and Mabillon. Another, to be from S. Antony, companion
of S. Maurus, with Martin Simon we judge, because of this man
the body by Calistus Pope II in the year MCXIX in the church
of Glanfeuil with the greatest reverence placed
to have been, asserts Mabillon in his Annotations to the Life of S. Maurus
the Abbot number 70. This one on account of the said elevation on the day
III of September places Hugo Menard, with whom and
other Benedictine Martyrologists no mention of the Tours
that Solitary.

[4] [The Relics in the church of S. Julian,] We, that nothing of diligence we should omit, letters given to
the R. P. Rector of the Tours College, those things asking
which seemed to the matter to be of use, an answer we received from
R. P. William Quirini, these for himself parts demanding, the R. D.
Prior of S. Julian by him questioned about S. Antony,
to assert, that he was the first of the same monastery
Abbot, and is shown at the right side of the high altar
on a large tablet his effigy; in the sacristy moreover
some Relics of the same, in a case enclosed silver,
which piously kissed the said P. William, judged
from the thickness a part to be of an arm or hip:
the body indeed said the same Prior, to be buried in the village
of S. Antony, du Roche called, three about leagues distant.
I went to the place, says P. William, and visited
the chapel, which otherwise so frequented that ten or
eleven Presbyters it nourished; [and in his own church,] but now only those
dwellers visit it for prayer's sake. There is in it a crypt, within
which the Saint to have lived is said: and there are preserved
the Relics, the bone of the hip namely and one rib.
Of writings moreover neither there nor at S. Julian's
anything I found. The rest therefore of the sacred body parts dissipated
that fierce whirlwind, which the more illustrious all the city's
of Tours sanctuaries undermined in the preceding century, of which more often
having complained still often we shall complain, but never without a groan. In
the Register of Benefices of the Archbishopric of Tours in the year
MDCXLVIII printed are indicated page 86 and 87 places from the monastery
of S. Julian dependent, and among others is the Priory
of S. Antony of Brechia, and the Church parochial of S.
Antony, of which asked again the aforesaid P. William,
whether the same S. Antony as Patron they venerated, he affirmed:
adding the Priory of Brechia and the Antonian parish's a double to be the title, as a double is the benefice;
but the church of each the same, that namely which others from
the village's name of the rock call.
