Valerius and Valerianus
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/valerius-and-valerianus.html
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ON SS. VALERIUS AND VALERIANUS.

BISHOPS OF AUXERRE IN GAUL.

CENTURY IV.

[Commentary]

Valerius, Bishop of Auxerre in Gaul (S.)

Valerianus, Bishop of Auxerre in Gaul (S.)

By G. H.

We have various ancient Breviaries of the Church
of Auxerre, transmitted by Pierre le Venier the Penitentiary
of the said Church: in which
some veneration of SS. Valerius
and Valerianus the Bishops and Confessors is prescribed, [Cult in the Breviaries.]
and this Prayer is recited: God who us by the glorious confessions
of your holy Confessors Valerius and Valerianus
surroundest and protectest, grant
us by their imitation to advance and by their intercession
to rejoice. Valerius is delivered as the third Bishop of this See of Auxerre,
and his successor Valerianus: who was present
in the year CCCXLVI at the Council of Cologne, and subscribed to the deposition
of a certain Bishop, denying Christ to be God: this
indeed his sentence is indicated there: Valerianus the Bishop
said, [S. Valerianus condemns the Bishop of Cologne,] Even if not all the fellow-elders here at
Cologne, by the will of God who are gathered, had convened,
it would have sufficed by five Bishops N…
the blasphemer, who denies Christ to be God, according to his merits
to be sentenced and by the same right to be deposed.
Now however in the present we have learned greater things: for by the subscription
of many dear laymen it is manifest, that he denies the primordial
Lord and our God, when through all the Prophets it is manifest
that He was before the foundation of the world with
God the Father almighty, and that all sang
that He was to come and to suffer for the salvation of the whole world, just as
He himself fulfilled. Wherefore N… the false Doctor,
who asserts only a mere man Christ to be,
rightly by the voice of all his fellow-priests has been condemned.
Therefore I consent, that if anyone shall bring his epistles through the Catholic
Church, he be deprived of communion,
and the same I judge justly to have been deposed. So there:
from which we ascertain the time, in which he himself, as well as his predecessor Valerius,
lived.

[2] [Eulogies from the History of the Bishops of Auxerre.] Philippus Labbe in volume 1 of the New Library of MSS.
Books published the History of the Bishops of Auxerre,
where this eulogy of his is read thus: Chapter III on S. Valerius.
Valerius sat XVII years. [Of S. Valerius,] He was however in the times
of Diocletian and Maximian, with Carus and Carinus
Consuls, while at the city of Rome were administering
the dignity of the Priesthood Caius, Marcellinus and Marcellus
the Prelates, who also by the same tyrants were martyred:
this blessed man having faithfully completed the course of life,
on the II Nones of May migrated to Christ, and was buried
near the mountain Autricus, beside his predecessor
S. Marcellianus the Bishop. Chapter IV on S. Valerianus. [And of S. Valerianus.]
Valerianus by nation a Gaul sat XXX years.
He was however a man of the greatest sanctity and simplicity;
but this Blessed One, when by the parents of S. Amator
he was asked to come to his nuptials, namely that he might sanctify both
with his blessing; by the will of God taking up
the little book of the Sacraments, in place of the conjugal blessing
imposed Levitical orders on them. He also with other
Co-Bishops, namely Severinus of Sens, Solemnis
of Chartres, Camillianus of Troyes, Pronicius
of Meaux, Marcellus of Paris, ordained S. Euortius Bishop
of Orleans. He was however in the times
of Pope Melchiades and the holy Sylvester, under
Constantine the Emperor, with Constantius and Volusianus
Consuls, who full of sanctity died on the day before the Nones
of May, and was buried beside his predecessors on
mount Autricus. These from the said history of the Bishops of Auxerre.

[3] The Life of S. Amator, afterwards Bishop of Auxerre, we gave
above on the Kalends of May: [S. Valerianus a remarkable Preacher,] in which is said S. Amator
a most diligent man, whose mind, already inclined toward heaven,
was held more inclined, with the precepts of the Lord more frequently
inculcated to him by the most blessed Valerianus: for he was uphill
and prone in the preachings of the most holy Valerianus.
Then with some matters interposed about the nuptials of S. Amator
these things are handed down: He is invited according to the custom of religious people
at the entry of the bridal chamber Valerianus the Bishop,
that he might confirm the omen of their union with the Lord's invocations.
Who while approaching, taking up with his right hand the little book
of sacred prayers, by the divine
instinct already and providence of the perennial nature of the Maker of humanity,
[He consecrates S. Amator a Levite;] for the union of association and
the conjugal good when he wished to pour out prayers,
he dedicated them by the sacred office of Levites. But none of those standing by,
the things which had been done by the Bishop, except only
those who enjoyed the blessings, was able to know… But after
the most celebrated days of the nuptials had been completed, eager and concordant to S. Eladius
the Bishop, who had succeeded the most blessed Valerianus,
Amator and Martha the bride direct their steps: and falling down
before him, and revealing the desires of their vows,
he begged to be made a Cleric, she more and more
asked to be associated with the number of the religious.
So there. S. Eladius is venerated on May VIII: but S.
Marcellianus predecessor of S. Valerius on the XIII of the same month
of May, and the first of all Bishops S. Peregrinus the Martyr,
also in this month of May, on day XVI.

[4] The sacred memory of these Bishops is inscribed in various
Martyrologies. [name of each in the Fasti,] In MS. Liège of S. Lambert these are read:
At Auxerre the deposition of S. Valerianus the Bishop
and Confessor, and S. Valerius the Bishop. The same are read
in MS. Florarium, and is added that S. Valerianus
was the third Bishop after B. Peregrinus. In
MS. Ado of the monastery of S. Lawrence at Liège both
are treated, and is inserted the history of S. Amator related above.
Which also is had in the illustrious MS. of the Queen of Sweden,
perhaps written at Fulda and another MS. of the Lobbes monastery:
but without mention of S. Valerius. So only of S. Valerianus
the Bishop's deposition at Auxerre is asserted in the most ancient
copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology of Echternach, [and separately of S. Valerianus]
likewise in MS. Reichenau, and the fasti of Maurolycus
and Felicius: [and of S. Valerius.] and on May XXI in MS. Florarium. But on the contrary
of Valerius alone the Bishop's deposition at Auxerre is inscribed
in the apographs Lucca, Corbie and Blumianus, and
the MSS. Trier of S. Maximinus, Tournai of S. Martin,
likewise in the Martyrologies of Notker, Greven, Canisius, and another
of Cologne and Lübeck printed about the year MCCCCXC. These things we wished
to describe more accurately, because someone outstandingly learned
in Burgundian antiquity supposes the same Bishop
to be Valerianus and Valerius, as if this name
had been written by contraction.

[5] [There is no other Valerius Martyr there.] Galesinius from a cited MS. codex but very imperfect,
published these: At Auxerre in Gaul of SS. Felix and Valerius
the Martyrs. The same with Galesinius alleged has
Ferrarius. But Felix one and another on this day is referred above
among the Milanese Martyrs, from whom S. Valerius
Bishop of Auxerre and Confessor is to be distinguished.
Valerianus is mentioned in MS. Tamlactense.

[6] [Time of the See] Of the time in which S. Valerius sat or died nothing
certain can we pronounce because the See could have been vacant for some years.
Another reason is for S. Valerianus, because from the Life of S.
Amator it is manifest that after the death of S. Valerianus immediately
succeeded S. Eladius, whose death we shall refer to the year

CCCLXIV. Consult what was said on his Life and S. Amator's.

But because S. Valerianus is delivered to have sat at least thirty years,
these are to be taken from about the year CCCXXXIV up to
the said year CCCLXIV, and so in the third year of his See he would have been present
at the Council of Cologne, and would have sat under the Emperors
Constantine and his sons, Julian the Apostate and Jovian;
and in his times the Roman Pontiffs were, Sylvester
at least for some time, Marcus, Julius, Liberius,
Felix II, Damasus, and Siricius. Of the years of both Pontiffs
and Emperors, with great confusion of times
adjoined in the History of the Bishops of Auxerre,
we treated on the Life of S. Amator, about to treat again on the Life
of S. Eladius. But if anyone shows a more certain way, that
we shall gladly enter. In the Council of Cologne for the abdicated
blasphemer, that the Bishop Ephratas was substituted,
clearly orthodox, and in the history of S. Athanasius a most praised
old man, and on that account soon a legate from the Synod of Sardica
to the Emperor Constantius, we doubt nothing:
and we judge by a base error to have been made, that his name was taken
for the name of his predecessor, which as worthy to be unnamed
perhaps was suppressed: and therefore we have expunged it from the above-related
sentence, having substituted the letter N, sign of an indefinite name:
but more on this matter we treat, on day XIII
of May Chapter I on the Life of S. Servatius, who in the presence of S. Athanasius
had refuted the blasphemer, when the latter still was in exile at Trier.
