Maximus and Venerandus
Acta Sanctorum, May 25
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-25/maximus-and-venerandus.html
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ON SS. MAXIMUS AND VENERANDUS
BROTHERS, MARTYRS IN THE ÉVREUX DIOCESE.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY
On their cult and discovery; and on the Legend, but fabulous.

Maximus, Martyr, in the Évreux diocese of the Gauls (S.)

Venerandus, Martyr, in the Évreux diocese of the Gauls (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

The Évreux Breviary, according to the decree of the Council
of Trent through Claude de Sanctes Bishop
of Évreux emended, [The Sacred Cult:] and at Paris
in the year MDLXXXVI printed, exhibits at this
XXV of May the veneration of the Saints Maximus and Venerandus
Martyrs under a semidouble rite, with nine Lessons
proper added, with some Antiphons. Of these the first at
Vespers is of this kind.

Hail, fraternal offspring of Martyrs:
Whom twin to the world one day brought forth, [Antiphons,]
Hail, glorious Martyrs of Christ,
Whom equally suffering an equal rest cherishes.
You, who the supernal glory now hold;
For us, we pray, obtain pardon.

The other Antiphon at Lauds is recited of this kind.

O how pleasant the brotherhood of the Martyrs,
Which the true charity of Christ consecrated!
O how blessed a rest cherishes them,
Whom here a heap of punishments afflicted!
Through you we pray, luminaries of heaven,
Twin olives, sacrifices of praise,
May we merit the joys of eternal light.

And the following everywhere is recited as the Collect. [Collect,] We beseech almighty
God, that a doubled gladness of today's festivity
may receive us: which from the glorification of Your blessed Martyrs
Maximus and Venerandus proceeds,
whom the same faith and passion made to be brothers: which
Collect in the Roman is of SS. John and Paul, the 26th of June.

[2] These things about their sacred veneration in the city and diocese of Évreux,
in which at the river Eure on high heights of Eure after
into it has flowed down the Iton, [Ancient burial,] is the borough of Acineia, with a Provostship
of the Order of St. Benedict, in which once were deposited
the bodies: whose history of discovery before many years
we found in a Ms. codex of the Queen of Sweden marked with the number
322. It had been once of D. Petavius, and contained the Chronicles
of Eusebius, Jerome, Prosper and Sigebert: which last
the author, who lived after the year MCC, says he accumulated by adding
the Norman and Anglic things after Bede and Aimoin:
and so in Sigebert augmented these things at the year DCCCCLXIV are had:
At this time, namely of Richard Duke of the Normans,
who third from Rollo his grandfather of Normandy
ruled the Duchy, [the bodies in the year 964 found,] and who on account of the long duration of his age
had taken the surname of Vetulus, of pious memory
Mainardus the Abbot insisting on the restoration
of the sacred monastery of Fontenelle, a certain man from the parts
beyond the sea admonished by a frequent vision, into the Gauls
came: and to the place, which over the Eure river
situated, is called Acineia, in the silence of unseasonable night came:
and the bodies of the Saints Maximus and Venerandus
the Martyrs, as from a revelation he had learned, he found,
and with him more secretly took, and to the port of Loges
hasty descended: where, fare being given to a certain man
by name Amalbertus, the little boat to enter he wished: but
held back by divine virtue, like a drunkard he began to stagger;
and the journey which he had disposed, to fulfill in no way
was able. Which when that sailor saw, and by the novelty of the thing
astonished, a little longer gazed; at length the man
having questioned, [to the monastery of Fontenelle brought.] what under the wrapping he carried; to
the monastery of Fontenelle, which near was, with him
to come he compelled: and to the Abbot and Brethren him offering,
what had been done he disclosed. But he seeing himself
caught, and the hope of carrying it off entirely not
having, the holy bones wrapped uncovered, the names and vision
to all openly set forth: and so having lost,
the heavenly treasure which through so many perils he had sought,
sad and exceedingly mournful, he departed. Which thing when
to the aforesaid Prince of the Normans it had become known, and the Brethren
humbly suggested to him, that, what thence they ought to do,
he should decree; vigilantly he decreed this, that where
by divine command and their own choice the Saints had come,
there thenceforth they should remain by his authority also.
Whence hitherto in the Fontenelle monastery there
the Saints with due reverence are held. Thus far
the said Ms. Chronicle. Which afterwards were printed by Luc
d'Achery, in the third tome of the Spicilegium in the Appendix 2 to the Chronicle
of Fontenelle chapter 5, page 256.

[3] But what the state of the said Relics at this time
is, is thus indicated in the above-related Évreux Breviary, and
in the ninth Lesson on these Saints which is thus wont to be recited.
For the memory of these Martyrs and of the whole history, in
that district of Achiniacum a monastery or a most ancient priory
is seen, [the heads in the Priory of Achiniacum] in which their Heads for
veneration are kept, and they help in various
diseases and necessities of the Christians, who for the sake of devotion
thither make pilgrimage. But the bodies in the monastery
of S. Wandregisilus thither translated are retained. The district
finally nearest to Achiniacum, is called the Wood of the impious
or of those finishing; on account of the impiety of those, [the place of Martyrdom the neighboring Wood.]
who from that wood from ambush assailed the Saints; or
from their end and destruction, which immediately after the consummated
persecution against the Saints they suffered:
whom divine vengeance willed not longer so great a crime
to bear unpunished. Thus there, and the district Achiniacus
is said above Acineia, commonly Aquigny: and that there is
the Fontenelle monastery, from its founder is called of S.
Wandregisilus, commonly S. Wandrille, whose Acts will be related
at the day XXI of July. His Successor was S. Lantbertus, then
Archbishop of Lyon: at whose Acts on the day XIV of April,
we set forth accurately the times of the built Fontenelle
monastery.

[4] The things hitherto related, to us seem to be reckoned sufficiently certain;
and they to be satisfied, and so an end to be imposed, were there not
opposed certain little narratives, altogether fabulous, [The fabulous Legend,] here to be rejected.
These were in few words adjoined in the above-related codex
Ms. of the Queen of Sweden, and at greater length are related in the eight Lessons
of the Évreux Breviary; but most fully are described in a very ancient Aquigny Ms., which John Darde of the Society
of Jesus a Priest, as he writes, with much labor extorted: because
having often suffered a repulse, he so insisted partly by prayers partly by the intervention
and authority of friends, that, what the good Procurator
had resolved not to lend, at length he won and stormed,
some one of his friends, who in that town in authority
was powerful, being made surety, of that treasure, as he reckoned, after seven
days to be restored. In this codex therefore the Life and martyrdom
of SS. Maximus and Venerandus thus begins: [where in the 4th or rather 5th century,] In the year indeed
of the Lord's Incarnation about three hundred and sixty-sixth,
presiding over the Roman See of holy
recordation Pope Damasus, the Republic indeed
Valentinian the younger, with his mother Placidia strenuously
governing, [is feigned a persecution stirred up,] Vitalius and Sabinus then in the city Formana
of Italy being Consuls, a sudden tumult of the Gentiles
of the same Province in the cults of idols
arises. Which thus abbreviated in the Ms. codex of the Queen of Sweden
are read: Valentinian the younger with his mother Placidia
the Republic governing, Vitalius and Sabinus
in the city Formiana of Italy being Consuls, a sudden
tumult of the Gentiles of the same province in the cults of idols
arises. The first Lesson of the Évreux Breviary
thus begins: In the year of the Word incarnate about three hundred
and sixty-sixth, in the time of Damasus
the Pope and the Emperor Valentinian, Maximus and
his brother Venerandus were born at Brescia. In the first Ms.
afterwards they are said to be sprung from the city Brescia, which neighboring
was to the city Formana.

[5] I beseech, let us inspect each thing. S. Damasus from our
calculation was created in the said year CCCLXVI at the end of the month
of September. [and they themselves born at Brescia,] But far from that year is distant Valentinian
the younger, who with his mother Placidia began to reign in the year
CCCCXXV, where after the assigned year CCCLXVI, is an interval
of LIX years. The Author then names Formana
neighboring to Brescia, a city in which there was an Amphitheater
with a den of lions. The city Brescia in the Cisalpine parts
all we know. Formiae in Latium; from this different
nothing nearer occurs than Verona; in whose place
whether Formana has crept in we know not; we know moreover that it is
near enough to Brescia and in it is had a famous amphitheater,
which with its dens in the year MDCLX we beheld. In this
Formana city in the said year CCCLXVI are said to have been
Consuls Vitellius and Sabinus, names taken from the Roman calendars,
in which the Vitellii were Consuls in the years next to
the passion of Christ, as also the Sabini under Domitian and
Antoninus Caracalla. But how aptly these things into whatever
Formana city are transferred, I do not ask: I proceed with
the ancient Ms. where it is said that their father Magnus under
Laoditius and Maximus in the province of Amphipolis with Martyrdom
was crowned. But who mentioned his Martyrdom? and
where is the province of Amphipolis, in which Magnus of Brescia
was crowned? Amphipolis a city of Macedonia,
somewhere perhaps named the Author had found; I know not whether also
Maximus, a Martyr of Brescia in the Brescia Martyrology
of Faynus recently inscribed at the XII of June; but for that time,
in which suffered the Saints Faustinus and Jovita under Aurelianus
the Prefect and Adrian the Emperor; and so by more years
than two hundred forty before the year above noted
and the Pontificate of Damasus.

[6] Afterwards by the Roman Pontiff (who in the Ms. of the Queen of Sweden
is Damasus) was ordained Maximus, [and ordained by Pope Damasus,] Bishop;
and Venerandus, a Levite or Archdeacon. But these
dignities in the above-related are not recorded, and therefore in the Title
themselves we have omitted. By the same Pontiff for the sake of Evangelizing
sent they are said to Brescia, whence they had been born; and thence
to have run out to Formana, where there was an idol of Vestorosius, that is
Bacchus; to which because they had contradicted, by Vitatius the Proconsul
they were captured and subjected to question, and to the idol brought:
which by their prayers an earthquake being made fell into
dust. Then they are narrated cast into a burning furnace,
but an Angel approaching to have remained untouched by the fire; [after various torments inflicted by the Gentile Proconsul,] the flame
consuming with Vitellius the Proconsul about one hundred sixty,
who stood around Gentiles, of whom not even the bodies
could be collected. Afterwards by Sabinus the Prince,
because Apollo they would not adore, bound to wheels are said
member by member to be torn, but the wheels at once being dissolved unharmed
they escaped. Then in the amphitheater exposed first to a lioness,
afterwards to lions by a three days' fast for ferocity prepared: but these
milder than sheep the feet of the Saints to have licked, and upon the very hunters
to have rushed, whom in a moment they devoured.

[7] Shut up at last in prison the Martyrs, seven days without
any food or drink persisted but by an Angel led out, [from Italy to have fled into Gaul,]
companions Etherius and Marius having been taken into the Gauls they went away:
on which journey four dead were raised, three from nativity
blind illuminated, two lame raised, and as many lepers
cleansed. Burgundy further (this began under the beginning of the
V century to be named) Burgundy, I say, having entered, they came
to S. Germanus Bishop of Auxerre,
then with S. Lupus Bishop of Troyes
from Hibernia returned (which journey in the year
CCCCXLVI impute Bede book 1 chapter 17, Sigebert and
others) and when toward the Seine they tended, and the Proconsul
Sabinus, from Italy having advanced with two hundred armed men
pursued them, through the Seine miraculously divided they crossed,
half the part of the following men submerged: and so
into the Arboniacus district, to no one that I know known,
they came. But by Sabinus at length after three days seized
in the Achiniacus district, [and there to have consummated their martyrdom.] when they had freed two energumens from furious
spirits, and thirty-eight of the companions
of Sabinus to the faith of Christ had brought, beheaded are asserted
on the eighth of the Kalends of June, as also thirty-eight men in their blood
having obtained baptism. But the two Martyrs their own Heads
carried to the cemetery, where by Etherius and Marius
they had been delivered to burial, who also wrote these
Acts, a preface to S. Germanus Bishop of Auxerre
prefixed, that nothing might be lacking that they might
be held most certain, as by eye-witnesses; and you, of them,
they say, who used their familiarity, and who them by your
blessing accompanied, their contests by your
authority may divulge.

[8] Now we ask the erudite reader, that he look around
and survey the fourth century of Christ, most peaceful
and in the Christian religion stabilized, in which the Veronese
Bishops, however many through that whole century presided, [Since in the 4th and 5th centuries at Verona and Brescia, no Martyrs are known to have been made,] to the Catalogue
of the Saints are inscribed, none however of them with Martyrdom
crowned. But if any Formana city, distinct from the Veronese,
be objected; it would have to be deduced from the hollow of the Moon, and
near Brescia placed: but also the Brescia Bishops, who
in the said century flourished, also to the number of Saints inserted are
most, nor is any with blood shed among the Martyrs reckoned.
That century moreover was with most illustrious writings
adorned, of which none of so monstrous a persecution
stirred up mentioned, which however would have done Socrates, Theodoret,
Sozomen, who the Ecclesiastical history of those times
wrote. They are Greeks, you will say: therefore let there be named
from the Italians and Gauls of the same age the more illustrious writers, S.
Eucherius Bishop of Lyon; Claudianus Bishop
of Vienne, S. Sidonius, Bishop of Auvergne, S. Vincentius
the Lirinensian Monk, S. Peter Chrysologus Bishop of Ravenna,
S. Leo the Pope, S. Hilary of Arles, S. Prosper
of Aquitaine, Salvian and Gennadius Bishops of Marseille,
and others besides them, [but on the contrary all things were peaceful under Valentinian and Placidia.] who the Acts of the Saints of the same
century with their pen adorned, without any of that time
of a stirred persecution mention. Above all to anyone let Constantius suffice,
in the Life of S. Germanus Bishop of Auxerre,
where his various legations are related, and also to Ravenna
to Valentinian the Emperor, and among other things he has this,
which also Baronius inserted in his Annals at the year
435 number 19. The Roman Empire was ruled
by Placidia the Queen with Valentinian now a youth, who
so loved the Catholic faith, that while they commanded all,
they served the servants of God with sublime humility.
And these would have permitted by public authority by their Proconsuls
so horrendous punishments to be inflicted on the servants of God? But what of the Councils
General, Ephesus and Chalcedon? What of the various
particular Roman, likewise of Riez, Vaison, Milan,
Angers, Arles, Tours, Chalon,
and the like? would they by no decrees have judged that similar
persecutions must be repressed, or the Catholics instructed how
to act in them they ought?

[9] Far therefore being sent away such portentous figments, let us say,
that the fatherland of those Martyrs is unknown; and that they by no
other Title probably are called Martyrs, than that slain
by robbers, and so by a bloody death deceased, and then
by miracles illustrated, they merited to be honored as Saints:
for to all of this kind the title of Martyrdom the pious simplicity
of the ancients ascribed; by the same right by which it said Confessors, [To these is added the bearing of cut-off heads,]
to as many as had an unbloody end and are venerated as Saints.
But of these we have many examples in this work,
and namely S. Evermarus near Tongeren, by robbers
slain in our Brabant, of whom we treated on the 1st of May. Saussay
in the Gallican Martyrology asserts, that they endowed with supernal
virtue lifted up their cut-off heads, and like
the glorious trophies of impiety conquered through their combat
carried them to the place, where at length by the faithful,
for the perpetual honor of their holy memory,
a basilica with a monastery was constructed. To these
we have nothing else to say, [unskillfully taken from the pictures.] than, the custom once received through Gaul
of expressing all those Saints, who were believed
to have been beheaded, in statues or pictures with the same
head within the hands before the breast raised; that there grew strong a popular
error, by which they were believed to have lifted up their cut-off heads after
death, and to the place dedicated to their veneration
to have carried. This could once and again truly have happened;
but that fallacious principle once recognized, which so many led into error;
of no Saint can it prudently be believed, whose
Acts are not altogether most sincere, and from all suspicion of interpolation,
on account of the indubitable faith of the Authors,
most remote. But that manner of so painting the Martyrs, cut
in the neck, on the best reason is founded: by which moved S. John
Chrysostom, in Homily XL on SS. Juventinus and
Maximus, the XXV of January, who suffered at Antioch: Just as soldiers,
the wounds inflicted on them in battles to the King showing,
confidently speak; so also they, in their hands the cut-off
heads bearing and into the midst bringing,
whatever they shall wish from the King of heaven to obtain
they can.

[10] These things being thus set forth, we find mention of these
Martyrs made by Robert de Monte, in the Accessions to
Sigebert, together with his Appendix published by Luc d'Achery
after the works of Guibert Abbot of Nogent: where he at
the year DCCCCLXVI first brings forth the history of the Translation
of these Martyrs to the Fontenelle monastery, contracted
from those which we above in number 2 set forth. Then he says: [The same can be read in Robert de Monte.]

Their offspring, and fatherland, and life, and passion
it pleases briefly to intimate: and there follows the Life of SS.
Maximus and Venerandus, as above we said we found
in the codex Ms. of the Queen of Sweden. Which since there they can be read,
I think no one will be indignant with us, that that
so badly stitched farrago to relate we have omitted,
of which produced by us no other end would there be, than to prove,
that (which alas! by too many examples daily we learn)
in the middle age there were several, to whom it seemed
beautiful and lawful to lie for piety, as says Harigerus
Abbot of Lobbes in the Deeds of the Pontiffs of Tongeren
etc., since it ought not to shame us to confess that we are ignorant of what
we are ignorant of. Far more desirable altogether it would have been, that for the lost
or never written true Lives of very many Saints,
no one had presumed to substitute others; which the more distinctly
and solicitously they seem everywhere clothed with their
circumstances of times, places, and persons; the more evident
mostly the marks of their own condemnation they carry about,
from which even by moderately erudite men in this curious century
they are detected. And that this is ingenuously acknowledged by us, to none
can it seem grievous, except those who themselves love their own darkness,
bound by the condition of their own fatherland or profession, so that with closed
eyes they may follow those who go before: a lot, by many indeed to be borne,
but pitiable indeed; especially since the same suffer themselves to be carried away even
to this, that with those teaching better and saner things not to be angry,
they reckon impious; and against the same they believe it lawful for themselves, whatever
the excited mind suggests, to curses and invectives then
mostly more prone, when destitute it finds itself of the protection of reasons.

ON THE TWO HOLY LOVERS, INJURIOSUS AND HIS WIFE, VIRGIN SPOUSES IN AUVERGNE.
From S. Gregory of Tours.
ABOUT THE YEAR OF THE LORD.

[Commentary]

Injuriosus, Virgin Spouse, in Auvergne (S.)

His Wife, Virgin Spouse, in Auvergne (S.)

G. H.

Gregory Bishop of Tours, in the book on the Glory
of the Confessors, chapter XXXII under this title, On
the two Lovers, [After a long continent life] the eulogy of two Virgin Spouses
of this kind brings forth: That two
there were among the Arvernians, namely a man and a girl, relates
antiquity: who joined in marriage, not in coition,
and resting in one bed, were not by either
polluted in carnal pleasure. But after many years,
when to them latently a most chaste life by equal
consent existed, the man tonsured to the Clericate, the girl indeed
a religious garment put on. [they assume the habit of religion:] But it happened,
that the days being fulfilled the girl migrated from the world: at length
her husband the burial being prepared exhibited the little body
to be buried. And when he laid her in the sepulchre,
the secret which between them had been agreed, his hands lifted
to heaven he disclosed, saying: Thanks to You the Artificer of all things
I give, that just as me her to commend
You deigned, so to You I have rendered her from all contagion of pleasure
undefiled. [in which the dead woman reproves her husband's loquacity,] But she smiling, said: Be silent,
be silent man of God, because it is not necessary, that you confess our
secret no one interrogating. After this covered
with a covering she withdrew. But not after much time
he also migrated from the world, and was buried in his
place. There was moreover in a certain one basilica; but in different
walls each sepulchre was had;
and one indeed to the South, the other to the North.
But morning being made, [the sepulchres are miraculously joined.] they were found likewise to be
the sepulchres, which indeed today survive: therefore
now the inhabitants the Two-Lovers call them, and with the greatest
honor venerate. These things Gregory in the book on the Glory of the Confessors,
which is the third book of the Miracles: which being cited
the same Gregory, when in book 1 of the History of the Franks chapter 41
he had treated of S. Nepotianus, Bishop of Clermont among the Arvernians
(whom the Origins of Clermont note died on the 11th of October
about the year CCCLXXXVIII) subjoins the history
of the two Lovers, more at length set forth in chapter 42, and the man
calls Injuriosus, thus writing.

[2] About the same time a certain Injuriosus, of the Senators
of Auvergne, with great riches a girl similar to himself
in marriage sought, and an earnest being given
fixed the day of the nuptials. There was moreover each an only one
to his own parent. But the day coming, the solemnity
of the nuptials being celebrated, in one bed according to custom they are placed.
But the girl grievously saddened, turned to
the wall, most bitterly wept. To whom he, What, he said, [On the day of the nuptials she had deplored her lot]
are you disturbed by? Indicate I pray to me. And she being silent,
he added: I beseech you, by Jesus Christ the Son of God,
that to me what you grieve at wisely you set forth. Then she
turned to him said: If all the days of my life
I should mourn, would there be such tears, that they could
wash away so immense a grief of my breast?
For I had resolved that my little body immaculate
to Christ from a manly touch I would keep: but woe to me! [as betrothed to Christ before:]
who so by Him have been left, that what I desired to perfect
I could not: and what from the beginning of my age
I kept, on this latest day, which I ought not to have seen,
I have lost. For behold left by the immortal
Christ, who promised me a dowry of Paradise,
of a mortal man I have obtained the consortium: and instead of roses
unfading, of withering roses the spoil me, not adorns,
but deforms: and when I ought over the fourfold-flowing
river of the Lamb the stole of purity to put on; this
to me garment a burden exhibited, not an honor. But why
further do we draw out words? Unhappy I, who ought
by lot to merit the heavens, today am plunged into the abysses.
O if these things were to be for me, why was not the day of my life
itself the end, which was the beginning! O if before I had entered
the gate of death, than I received of milk
the nourishment! O if to me the sweet kisses of nurses at
my funeral had been expended! For terrestrial
forms shudder, because for the life of the world the pierced
hands I look up to of the Redeemer: nor do I discern diadems with gems
notable coruscating, when that thorny I marvel
in mind crown. I spurn far and wide diffused spaces
of your earth, because the amenity I desire of Paradise.
Your solaces shudder, when the Lord sitting I look up to
above the stars.

[3] Such things with great weeping casting forth moved with piety
the youth, said: Only ones us the most noble of the Arvernians
parents had, [the solace of a spouse not admitted,] and to propagate the generation
to join wished, lest us withdrawing from the world succeed
an extraneous heir. To whom she: Nothing is the world,
nothing are riches, nothing is the pomp of this world,
nothing is life itself which we enjoy. But that rather life
is to be sought, which by death terminating is not closed,
which by any defilement is not dissolved, nor by any fall
is finished: where man, in eternal beatitude remaining,
in light not setting lives: and what is greater than all these,
of the Lord Himself the presence, in continual contemplation enjoying,
into the Angelic state translated, with indissoluble
gladness rejoices. To these things he, With most sweet, he said,
your speeches eternal life to me like a great
radiance has shone: and therefore, if you wish from carnal
concupiscence to abstain, a partaker of your mind let me be made. She
answered: [and had induced him to keep celibacy;] It is difficult for the male sex to women
these things to render. Yet, if you do that immaculate we remain
in the world, I to you a part will give of the dowry,
which promised I have from my Spouse my Lord Jesus
Christ, to whom me both a handmaid I have devoted to be and a spouse.
Then he, armed with the standard of the Cross, said: I will do what
you exhort: and right hands given between them they rested. Many
afterwards in one bed reclining years, they lived
with laudable chastity: which afterwards in their
passing was declared. For when the combat being fulfilled
the girl migrated to Christ, the office of the funeral being performed the man,
when the girl into the sepulchre he laid down,
said: Thanks to You I give, our eternal Lord, because
this treasure, just as from You commended I received, so
immaculate to Your piety I restore. [the man then having died before her,] To these things she smiling,
What, she said, do you speak, that you are not interrogated?
And her buried he himself not after much follows. Further
when of each the sepulchre in different
walls had been placed, the novelty of a miracle, which
their chastity might manifest, appeared. For morning
being made, when to the place the peoples came, [but afterwards joined through a miracle.] they found
the sepulchres together, which far between them to be distant they had left:
namely that whom heaven holds as fellows, of the buried
bodies here the monument should not separate. These
unto today the Two-Lovers to call the inhabitants of the place
have wished, and we have mentioned of these in the book of the Miracles.
Thus far Gregory of Tours.

[4] A Treatise on the Holy churches and monasteries of Clermont
in two books wrote an anonymous Author about the year
DCCCCL, published by Jean Savaron; in which book 1,
chapter XI these things about the Burial are handed down. In the church of S. Illidius, [the bodies are kept in the church of S. Illidius and in the altar of S. Mary.]
the altar of S. Clement, the altar of S. Mary, where S. Illidius, and
S. Desideratus, and S. Gallus, and S. Avolus, and S. Justus,
and S. Injuriosus, and Scholastica in body rest.
That church was first called of S. Clement, because S. Illidius
the right arm of this Pontiff under the chest of the altar
had laid up. The remaining four prior were Holy Bishops
of Clermont, of whom are venerated, Illidius, on the VII of July;
Gallus, on the I of July; Desideratus, on the XI of February; of Avolus the birthday
we have not yet found. But S. Justus, the Archdeacon of S. Illidius
was, to whom sacred is the day XXI of October. Who follows then
S. Injuriosus, is said by Savaron one of those whom
the common people call the Two-Lovers, and who with his spouse
chastely lived, without any defilement of chastity. But what Scholastica
is subjoined, whether she was his Holy Spouse, under doubt
I leave: it could, although by Gregory passed over, through the tradition
of the ancients have come to posterity. Certainly S. Scholastica,
Sister of S. Benedict, there neither was buried, nor anyone
is said thither her Relics to have translated. The birthday Jacobus
Branche of the Lives of the Saints of Auvergne and Saussay in
the Gallican Martyrology, this XXV of May assign, [the birthday the 25th of May.] and with a long
both adorn eulogy, formed from those things which we have brought: but
in it we could not but note the inconsiderateness of Saussay,
asserting, on one and the same day deceased, and in one and the same
tomb buried. For after the Spouse buried,
says Gregory, not after much time he himself migrated;
and from the beginning far distant sepulchres, were not except through a miracle
joined.
