Aurelian
Acta Sanctorum, May 8
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-08/aurelian.html
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ON SAINT AURELIAN

BISHOP OF LIMOGES IN AQUITAINE.

[Commentary]

Aurelian, Bishop of Limoges, in Aquitaine (S.)

By G. H.

[1] The city of Limoges, an Episcopal city of the first Aquitaine,
had St. Martial as the herald of the Christian faith
and its first Bishop: whose
Acts will be set forth on June XXX.
The names and deeds of the Bishops of this city
were written by Bernard Guidonis, of the Order of Preachers,
Bishop of Lodève, published by Philip Labbe in his Collection
of Aquitanian matters: in which is treated in chapter
1 concerning St. Martial, and there these things are added: Furthermore his
illustrious deeds and happy end were described by Bl.
Aurelian, who saw, heard, and was present, while
the deeds for the most part were happening: whom that same most holy
Martial raised from the dead, and afterwards while still living in the flesh ordained
his successor. Concerning the life
of St. Martial we shall treat below: [He did not die on November 17] meanwhile from chapter 2 we continue these things
with Bernard, who says that Bl. Aurelian, by
St. Martial, while he was still a Pagan and Pontiff of idols,
was raised from the dead, and afterwards by the same chosen Bishop,
died on the fifteenth Kalends of December,
and was buried in the monastery of St. Martial in
the church of St. Peter, but now lies in the church of Bl. Cessator
outside the walls of the city of Limoges. Thus there: On
the said day, the XV Kalends of December, in the Epternach copy of the Hieronymian
Martyrology, these things are read, added at the end:
In Gaul, of Aurelian Bishop and Confessor.
But that there is an error there, which Bernard Guidonis
and others have assumed, we gather from three other copies of the same
Hieronymian Martyrology, in which
these things are thus expressed: In Gaul in the city of Orléans,
the deposition of Anianus Bishop and Confessor. Therefore this
error being detected, [but on May 8,] with the Church of Limoges we celebrate his birthday on May VIII, when under double rite he is there
honored; and this Lesson concerning his life is prescribed to be recited.

[2] [Eulogy from the Breviary of Limoges.] Aurelian and Andreas, among the Limoges, Pontiffs of pagan
superstition, after Bl. Martial preaching Christ
had been struck with scourges, with Alpinian and Austriclinian,
cast him into a dark prison.
When a most clear light, divinely poured forth, on the next day
had illumined him, and the doors at the prayers of the most holy Apostle
had spontaneously opened; with a great earthquake shaking the whole city,
the air resounding with horrible thunder,
Aurelian and Andreas perished struck by lightning. Moved by the great novelty
of the matter, very many joined themselves to the faith of Christ,
whose example others, transgressors,
followed when they saw those struck from heaven, raised from the dead by the prayers
of Bl. Martial. From that time
Aurelian and Andreas, having been made from vessels of dishonor
vessels of honor, committed themselves to the most holy Apostle
to be formed: under whose direction they expiated the offenses
of their former life, assiduous in prayers, content with bread and water once
a day. Aurelian especially began to flourish in the glory of miracles,
by which when Bl. Martial saw his sanctity attested,
with the addition of skill in letters
and the faculty of preaching the divine word,
he designated him as his successor. Therefore having illustriously
and laudably administered the Church of Limoges for fifteen years, he migrated
to heaven, whose body
on the day before the Nones of May was placed near the tomb of Bl. Martial.
Thus there; but this eighth day of May
must be written not the day before, but the day after the Nones of May.

[3] In the same Breviary of Limoges on February XV
the feast of the revelation of St. Aurelian Bishop and Confessor
under double rite is celebrated, [Feast of the revelation on February 15.] and in the second Nocturn
the fourth Lesson is recited of this kind. The body of Aurelian
Bishop of Limoges was first placed near the tomb of Bl.
Martial: where when it was not found,
and it was unknown where in subsequent times it had been brought;
the memory of the matter being effaced, in the year
one thousand three hundred and fifteenth it was found
in the church sacred to St. Cessator. [in the year 1315] When Reginaldus the Prelate had learned this,
he proceeded thither with sacred pomp;
and having delivered a sermon on the praises of St. Aurelian
to the great multitude of people, his Relics
he most honorably placed upon the altar of St. Cessator, on the fifteenth Kalends
of March: whence
afterwards into a chapel, [a chapel erected to him.] dedicated under the name of the same Saint,
they were translated into the city. Thus there. The aforesaid
St. Cessator flourished in the time of Charles Martel, and is honored
under double rite in the Church of Limoges on November XV.
But the aforementioned Reginaldus, surnamed de la Porte,
is recorded as ordained Bishop of Limoges in the year
MCCXCIV, who having joined to himself the College of the Church
of Limoges, and the Abbots and Religious of various monasteries,
raised the body of Aurelian Bishop of Limoges
in the year MCCCXV, on the day of the XV Kalends of March,
with the highest devotion, and transferred it to its own
shrine: [shrine of relics.] which afterwards he most fittingly placed upon the altar of the church
of St. Cessator, having been afterwards elected Archbishop
of Bourges in the year MCCCXVI. Thus
from the Chronicle of St. Martial of Sammarthani in the Bishops of Limoges.
Ferrarius in the General Catalogue celebrates on the said
February XV the memory of St. Aurelian, which Saussajus calls his revelation.

[4] There exists a Life of St. Martial, by the Carmelite Beauxamis
appended to the Lives of the Apostles, which are circulated under the name
of Abdias of Babylon, and it is of the same flour as these:
some of whose fables are brought forth by John Hessels, Theologian
of Louvain, and after him Francis Bosquet in
his Histories of the Gallican Church part 2 page 53 and following,
who calls the author of the said Life of St. Martial [Whether and what kind of Life of St. Martial was written by him.] an unskilled
Theologian and a careless historian. Whoever,
he says, that one was, he sought to capture antiquity and credit
by these words, with which he made an end, as if
Aurelian himself, the disciple and successor of Martial, had written,
by these words, I say: But I, Aurelian,
although I have not known all things, which I would have plainly
learned before I deserved to be regenerated by him in the wave of holy baptism;
yet after, freed by him from the bars of hell,
I was restored to the upper life, whatever
I could hear by report and see with sight, I have by no means
neglected to set down. Thus there: alluding to which Bernard Guidonis
asserts that Aurelian wrote, who saw,
heard, and was present. Bosquet adds that the Life of
St. Martial, which is said to have been written by Aurelian, no longer
exists. The reader can consult his reasons, and
we will be able to examine them more accurately at the Life of St. Martial.
