Fortis Bishop and Martyr
Acta Sanctorum, May 16
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-16/fortis-bishop-and-martyr.html
----------------------------------------

ON S. FORTIS BISHOP AND MARTYR

AT BORDEAUX IN AQUITAINE.

[Commentary]

Fortis, Bishop & Martyr, at Bordeaux in Aquitaine (S.)

D. P.

In the MS. Martyrology of the Church of Bordeaux
under the name of Usuard, which at Dijon with Petrus
Franciscus Chifletius we found, these things
on this day are read: At Bordeaux of S. Fortis,
Bishop & Martyr. [Sacred cult:] Which the very same has
Ferrarius in the general Catalogue, From the tablets, as he says in
the Notes, of the Church of Bordeaux, recently transmitted to us:
in which however nothing about the time, when he lived,
or under what Prince he suffered, is read. Nor a wonder,
because about the first Bishops of this Church nothing certain
is established; until the beginning of the IV century, in which Orientalis the Bishop,
& Flavius his Deacon from the city of Bordeaux
participated in Council I of Arles in the year 314; from
which again a hiatus of about forty years until
S. Delphinus, who is venerated XXIV December, & in the year 381
participated in the Council of Saragossa. Saussay in
the supplement of the Gallican Martyrology on this XVI of May,
At Bordeaux, he says, the natale of S. Fortis Bishop &
Martyr, there with sacred anniversaries on this day honored.
In the proper Feasts of the Church of Bordeaux is prescribed
of him an Ecclesiastical Office under double rite, as
from the Calendar sent to us is established.

[2] We have the Metropolitan and Primatial Church
of S. Andrew of Bordeaux, [the time uncertain,] by Hieronymus Lopez Theological Canon
of the same in the year 1668 illustrated,
& eight years after by the same kindly given to us, who
in part 2, chap. 4, with no mention anywhere made of S. Fortis
(I believe therefore, because no certain time of him he knew)
names as the first Bishop Orientalis, after whom if
S. Fortis had succeeded, it could be believed under Constantius the Arian
to have endured Martyrdom in that time, in which he staying at Arles,
made force on the Bishops convoked from all Gaul, that
against S. Athanasius they should subscribe, from October of the year
353 until spring of the following year: & thus somehow
the aforesaid hiatus would be filled. He could also have been before Orientalis,
& under some of the Heathen Emperors made
martyrdom: for it ought to be presumed that Bordeaux, as
according to the division of the Roman Empire was the head of the second Aquitaine,
& seat of the Governor of the Province, so & metropolis
of other sees in the same Province was, even under Gentiles.
And it itself indeed by S. Martial glories that the faith was announced to it,
[as also the first Bishop of Bordeaux,] whether in the I century & time of the Apostles, or
indeed under Decius, this does not look here to define: but that in
the letters, supposed to the same Saint, the first by him constituted
Bishop is named Sigebert, that to Lurbaeus in the Chronicle
seems to have given occasion of establishing Gilbert, with corrupted name,
first in the order of Bishops, & to Lurbaeus following
Chenu, Robertus, Sammartani; of whom these seeing,
that scarcely could it be, that the name of Gilbert, equally as of Sigebert,
at Bordeaux had been used, perhaps the first,
they say, was in dignity of sanctity, not in order
of time.

[3] [who is wrongly feigned to be called Sigebert,] But of this his sanctity from no head is established to us;
since neither memory of him is found in the Fasts of Bordeaux,
nor any vestige either of sepulchre or relics,
&, as I said, born from the fictitious Sigebert of Martial,
seems to have crept into history. That those letters which are circulated
were supposed to S. Martial, no one
will doubt, who shall have considered that texts of Scripture are alleged in them
according to the version of Jerome; & that in that very Epistle to the Bordelois
about which here can be treated, about the mystery of the most holy
Trinity most distinctly speaking, thus about the Holy
Spirit he discourses; The Spirit of God, who has sanctified you
believing in Him, who the natural Son & to Himself
according to eternity coequal in all things resuscitated
on the third day from the dead, is not begotten as
the Word: because also the Spirit himself, in divine equality
glorious, proceeded ineffably from Him who begot
& who is begotten: and so the Spirit of the Lord not begotten,
not made, not created, but proceeding is from
the Father & the Word. Those skilled in old Theology know, of what
age these things savor: wherefore they will not wonder at him, [from SS. Martial, & Aurelianus.] who dared
thus to introduce Martial speaking at the beginning of the Church, also
about Sigebert could so write: Whom I established for you
by the command of God, it is just to be preserved by you: for he himself
Sigebert, who before consulted demons a slave
of the creature; now in the faith of O. L. Jesus Christ perfect,
serving the Creator alone, considers as dung those very
demons, whom before he served. Drew this fabricator,
from no better S. Martial's Life, under S. Aurelianus's
name put forth, in which is said Sigebert, the highest
Priest & Pontiff of the gentile temples among
the Bordelois, by the nightly complaint of the demons among themselves,
about the faith to be preached by Martial pre-warned, broke the idols
& overturned the temples, except the temple of the Unknown God: who
there also is called Prince of the Bordelois, & his wife Benedicta.
