Justus Martyr
Acta Sanctorum, May 6
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-06/justus-martyr.html
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ON SAINT JUSTUS MARTYR

BISHOP OF VIENNE IN GAUL.

In the year CLXXVIII

[Commentary]

Justus, Bishop of Vienne in Gaul, Martyr (S.)

By G. H.

[1] The memory of S. Justus Bishop of Vienne is celebrated on day
IV of May, without mention of martyrdom,
in the Martyrology of Ado in Mosander:
but as if that reading were not sufficiently genuine,
the name is marked with an asterisk and by Rosweyde to the Appendix is rejected. [Memory in the fasti on May 4] He is recorded in the same way in the Martyrology
under the supposed name of Bede, and in the MS. Florarium
of Saints. But he is venerated as crowned with martyrdom in the Martyrology
of Cologne and Lübeck printed in the year MCCCCXC, likewise
in the Auctarium of Greven to Usuard. Indeed
three companions in martyrdom are added to him by the author
of the Gallican Martyrology Saussay, with this lengthy eulogy.

[2] At Vienne of S. Justus Bishop and Martyr, who
fifth in order from S. Crescens, [and with eulogy in Saussay,] whom Paul the Apostle
established there as the first Prelate, sitting,
fostered the cradles of this Church with deep love and paternal
solicitude: and in the great persecutions
preaching and confirming the faith by word and deed, most illustrious
in the confession of Christ shone forth. Whence
he was honored by S. Pius Pope and Martyr with Apostolic rescripts;
and as if the chief of the Gallican church,
he merited to be admonished about the great matters of the kingdom of Christ
and the martyrdom imminent on him. At length
he himself, while strenuously propagating the faith of Christ, and intrepidly
defending the flock of Christ everywhere besieged by wolves;
was violently cast out from his watchtower, and worn down by long
exile. But when by chance with letters
he confirmed his desolate sheep, recalled to the city
with Severinus, Exuperius and Felicianus, his chief
helpers, he was attacked with all ferocity. But
persevering in the defense of piety to his last breath,
he fell by glorious martyrdom, in the persecution
the fourth under Antoninus. Whose glorious Bishop's
and renowned fellow-soldiers' bodies, cast into
the flowing Rhone, but rescued from the waves by a
pious man, were laid in a place called Brenio:
where they lay long uncultivated, until at length
roused by divine revelation, B. Bernard Archbishop
of Vienne brought them out from concealment, and
translated thence with becoming honor, deposited them in S. Romanus's,
which he had built, church. But
out of zeal to procure greater splendor, hence also
shortly after raised up, to the Roman monastery,
which he himself had built on the Isère, he carried them: in
which to this day they are gloriously preserved, and shine with perpetual
monuments of divine virtue and glory.

[3] [and on May 6 in MSS. of Vienne.] All these things Saussay says: which we shall try to elucidate.
And first concerning S. Crescens, whom others ascribe to Galatia,
we shall treat on his birthday, June XXVII.
We have two MS. Martyrologies of Saints of the church
of Vienne; in these, as also in the Calendar of an old Missal,
he is referred to the said VI of May, and this eulogy is given
in the said Martyrologies: On the day before the Nones of May, the Birthday
of S. Justus Martyr, sixth Bishop of Vienne,
who at the time when Pope Pius the first sat at Rome,
received from him a consolatory letter about the dignity
of the sacred Pallium (which he calls the colobium of Bishops)
and about the fervor of the faith. At length being exiled by
Marcus Aurelius, he was also crowned with martyrdom under the same,
in the fourth persecution, after he
had ruled his Church for thirty-five years.
Indeed Saussay seems modestly to retract what he had said
about day IV, when again in the Supplement
on day III of August he writes thus: At Vienne the deposition
of S. Justus Bishop and Martyr, whose birthday is celebrated
on day VI of May. About the time in which S. Pius Pope sat,
who is venerated July XI, we treated in the Tractate on the ancient
Supreme Pontiffs, and in the Life of S. Anicetus his predecessor
and S. Soter his successor on April XVII and XXII,
and showed him crowned with martyrdom under M. Aurelius in the year
CLXI. Receive here his letter to S. Justus, drawn forth from the archive of Vienne.

[4] [Letter of S. Pius Pope to S. Justus:] Pius Bishop to Brother Justus Bishop. Athalus,
bringing the letters of the Martyrs, came to us: and
making for us ineffable joy concerning their triumph,
he told us that S. Verus, our colleague,
had triumphed as victor over the prince of the world: but you
in the Senatorial city of Vienne in his place by the Brothers
have been constituted Bishop, and clothed with the colobium
of Bishops. See that you fulfill the ministry which you have received,
in the Lord. But care for the bodies of the Saints,
as members of God: just as the Apostles cared for Stephen.
Visit the prisons of the Saints, lest any grow lukewarm in the faith.
Test the holy martyrdoms by the Holy Spirit; and that they
may persevere in the faith, urge them on as instigator.
Let the Presbyters and Deacons regard you not as a greater,
but as a minister of Christ: let the whole
people be protected by your sanctity. Our Brothers,
whom you will recognize through Athalus, freed now from the cruelty of the tyrant,
rest in the Lord. Pastor the Presbyter founded
a titulus, and worthily died in the Lord.
Know, most blessed Colleague, that it has been revealed to me, that I
shall sooner make an end of this life. One thing I beg,
stand in communion, and do not forget me. The poor
Senate of Christ, established at Rome, salutes you. Salute
all the college of Brothers, who are with you, in the Lord.

[5] These things S. Pius, who, as we have said, was crowned with martyrdom
under Marcus Aurelius in the year CLXI. [Time of the See according to Ado] If therefore S. Justus had not been
created Bishop several years earlier, the beginning of the See does not
seem to be referred to the times of the Emperor Hadrian,
as did Ado in his Chronicle writing: At this same
time, that is under Hadrian, Justus of the Vienne
church Bishop most illustrious in confession stood forth.
But under Antoninus Pius, he says, of the people of Vienne
the Bishop Justus is held famous. Then under Marcus
Antoninus Verus, he says, Justus Bishop of Vienne,
worn down by long exile, is made glorious Martyr. With
some matters interposed about his fellow Martyrs, added
by Saussay, he has these: Severinus,
Exuperius and Felicianus, a little time before, at
Vienne were crowned with martyrdom. We ourselves at Vienne
in the year MDCLXII described the Catalogue of holy Bishops
of Vienne, [and in the MS Catalogue] from which these things look here: S. Justus Bishop
flourished in the times of Antoninus Pius and Antoninus
the Younger, that is M. Aurelius Verus, at which time Irenaeus
of Lyon Bishop was still held a Presbyter.
In the time of this Justus is said a most grievous persecution
of Christians to have been: [with companion Martyrs.] among whom were crowned with martyrdom
Severinus, Exuperius and Felicianus;
whose bodies by divine revelation were afterwards found.
Thus there, and better the See of S. Justus is attributed only
to the imperium of Antoninus Pius, and M. Aurelius Antoninus
Verus: hence thirty-five years are not to be attributed to him.
He who preceded him, S. Verus Bishop, is venerated on the Kalends of
August, and S. Irenaeus on June XXVIII. Eusebius in book 5
of his Ecclesiastical History in the Preface asserts, in the seventeenth year
of the imperium of Antoninus Verus, that is in the year of Christ
CLXXVII, the persecution was set in more violent motion;
chiefly however (as he pursues in chapter 1) in Gaul,
in which two before the rest are celebrated as distinguished and outstanding
mothers of cities, Lyon and Vienne.
Among the Martyrs of Lyon were SS. Epipodius and Alexander
with thirty-four companions, of whom we treated
on day XXII of April, where also we said that S. Irenaeus
still a Presbyter was commended by some Martyrs in a letter
to S. Eleutherius Pope. In this then
persecution, and perhaps in the following year CLXXVIII,
we judge that S. Justus the Bishop suffered at Vienne with three others
named above.

[6] The first place of burial was Brenio, which John
le Lievre in his Antiquities of Vienne asserts, [Translations of 3 Martyrs without mention of S. Justus.] is near
the town of S. Columba, opposite Vienne, across the river
Rhone. Another place, ascribed to the translation of S. Justus
by Saussay, under the name of the Roman Monastery,
is the church of S. Romanus, built not by S. Justus, but by S.
Bernard Archbishop, and made blessed by the bodies of the three
already-mentioned Martyrs: and concerning this translation Peter
de Natalibus in book 10 of the Catalogue chapter 82 has these:
Severinus, and his companions Exuperius and Felicianus,
suffered at Vienne on the XIII Kalends of December.
Whose bodies, after many courses of years,
themselves revealing it found, and by the Pontiff of that city's
Clergy and people honorably taken up, in the basilica
of S. Romanus, which is situated in that city, were buried
with worthy honor, and there they rest.
These things there, which for the earlier part are referred in MS. Martyrologies
of Vienne, and S. Bernard is named
Pontiff, but the location of the church of S. Romanus is not indicated:
then is added: Afterwards the same Pontiff transferred the same relics
to his Romanense monastery.
In the Life of S. Bernard at January XXIII edited by us, num.
7, treats of the Romanense monastery built and the church
of S. Peter, into which he reverently transferred the relics of the three Martyrs, namely
Severinus, Exuperius and Felicianus.
All which are everywhere narrated without mention of S. Justus:
so that Saussay seems to have joined these things less than considerately:
who then on November XIX hands down concerning these three Martyrs
the things already related, and that without mention of S. Justus.
John le Lievre asserts, that by the Christians of Vienne in
honor of S. Justus a church was built on the mount,
where formerly the fortress Crappum had been, [of this church.] and that it was
afterwards erected into a Priory, but at length reduced to solitude.
Some parish of S. Justus, three leagues from Vienne
toward the North is indicated on maps, as also
another on the right bank of the flowing Rhone, before
it descends to the town called Pont S. Esprit.
But because there were many Saints Justus in Gaul,
we do not at once assert that all those places were
named from one and the same.
