Saint Hilary of Besançon

Saint Hilary enjoyed great consideration in Rome; honored with the confidence of an illustrious Pontiff, he also earned the esteem of Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine.

When he arrived in his episcopal city, there was no other cathedral at the foot of Mount Coelius than a humble chapel dedicated to Saint Stephen, such as those Christians built in the first three centuries. Until then, the most beautiful temples of Christ had been the pure hearts of the faithful. But from that moment on, Saint Helena was one of the most powerful instruments used by Providence to raise churches to the true God everywhere.

Around the year 320, while Constantine the Great was busy delivering Gaul from the incursions of the Franks, and while he was winning brilliant victories over them, Saint Helena came to Besançon, where she stayed for some time. She had freq uent conferen saint Hilaire Bishop of Besançon in the 4th century, envoy from Rome. ces with Saint Hilary concerning the religious interests of the province. She visited the humble religious edifice located at the foot of the mountain, whose origin tradition traced back to the bishop Saint Lin. This princess, so zealous for the glory of God, resolved to replace this modest temple with a vaster and more splendid edifice. She gave Saint Hilary a sufficient sum to begin the work, and promised that she would endeavor to obtain for this church some relic of Saint Stephen.

Saint Hilary immediately set to work and laid the foundations of a large and beautiful church in honor of Saint Stephen. It was raised on the very site where his predecessors had previously built a cryptic chapel to celebrate the holy mysteries there. This church is today the Cathedral of Saint John. Placed first under the patronage of the first martyr, it was later placed under the invocation of the two glorious patrons, Saint Stephen and Saint John.

The zeal of Saint Hilary for the glory of God was not limited to the construction of the cathedral placed today under the patronage of Saint John; he laid the foundations of another church on Mount Coelius. But he did not have time to finish it, and this edifice, which was later the church of Saint Stephen on the Mount, was only completed long after.

Saint Hilary occupied the see of Besançon for about fifteen years. Most historians date his death to around the year 330; for the great works he accomplished suggest that he lived at least until that time and perhaps beyond. Some time before his death, God favored him with a glorious vision, in which He announced his approaching end and the happiness that was destined for him. He died on July 22; his feast day, indicated for that date in an ancient calendar of the diocese, is fixed on the 21st in the martyrologies of Du Saussay and Ferrarius.

The successor of Saint Hilary to the see of Besançon was Sain t Pancharius or saint Panchaire Successor of Hilary, exiled for his faith. Pancratius, who had lived for a long time in the confidence and intimacy of the deceased bishop. The first pastors, before dying, usually designated to replace them one of their most fervent disciples among the priests they had trained in Christian and priestly virtues. But the one who was elected would go to Rome before exercising the episcopal office, and would receive the holy anointing from the hands of the Sovereign Pontiff. Saint Pancharius was consecrated by Pope Julius II, just as Saint Hilary and Saint Eusebius had been themselves, one by Miltiades and the other by Saint Sylvester. This detail clearly shows that, in those remote times, the church of Besançon was already united to the Roman Church by the closest bonds of subordination, obedience, and love. The episcopacy of Saint Pancharius began around the year 338. Saint Maximin of Trier having convened a council in Cologne in 346, to provide a prompt remedy to the progress of Arianism , fourtee arianisme Heresy opposed by Columbanus in Italy among the Lombards. n bishops were present; ten others sent deputies. Saint Pancharius appeared there in the first rank, and concluded, like all his colleagues, for the deposition of the bishop of Cologne, who had allowed himself to be won over by the Arians.

Having become master of the entire Roman Empire after the death of his brother (353), Constantius placed the great authority he enjoyed at the service of Arianism. The heretics no longer kept any measure, and the persecution became universal in the Gauls. Officers were sent to the principal cities to force the Catholic bishops to receive the Arians into their communion. They were given the choice of either going into exile or subscribing to the desires of the emperor. The provincial magistrates who hesitated to associate themselves with this persecution and to execute the orders of Constantius were deprived of their offices and condemned to a fine. In such difficult circumstances, Saint Pancharius suffered generously for the faith of Nicaea. Not wishing to expose his people to the fury of the tyrants, he chose to go into exile himself. The solitude to which he retired was devoid of all the comforts of nature; but there is no exile for a bishop, because he finds Jesus Christ everywhere. Solely occupied with the care of his soul and the contemplation of heavenly things, Saint Pancharius allowed himself to lack the most necessary things for life. It was in the exercise of these sublime virtues that death came to surprise him, around the year 356.

When Saint Panchaire had died, the clergy and the people chose, to replace him, a young priest who had been raised under his eyes and formed by his care. This was Sain t Just. Ha saint Just Disciple of Saint Ursin, who died on the way to Bourges. ving become the heir to the see where his master had sat with such glory, he wished to be so also of his faith and his holiness and proposed to follow him as a model.

The church of Besançon no longer had to fear open persecution; but the trials that Julian was preparing for it could make it regret the age of the martyrs and the executioner's axe. However, the passage of Julian through Besançon, in 355, was not, moreover, marked by any event. For, at that time, far from persecuting the bishops, he even sometimes affected to declare himself their protector.

Saint Just took advantage of this calm to make religion flourish within his province. Besançon already possessed several churches that were not completely finished. Saint Hilaire, we have said, aided by the help of Saint Helena, had built the first cathedral of Besançon; but this edifice was not completed. It was continued under Panchaire, and it was only Saint Just who performed its dedication. He added the title of Saint John the Evangelist to the title of Saint Stephen that this church already bore, wishing thereby, no doubt, to show the gratitude of the city toward the city of Lyon, which had sent it its first Apostles, and whose cathedral bore the name of the holy evangelist. The city of Besançon from then on had nothing to envy in the other cities of the Gauls. It possessed a temple worthy of it and of the entire diocese. But the zeal of the prelate was not to be limited to raising edifices of stone and marble to the Lord. He thought much more seriously still of raising altars to Him in the hearts of all his faithful. Understanding well that he would do little if he did not join to himself collaborators animated by the spirit of the Gospel and nourished in recollection and piety, he had long meditated on the reform of his clerics: however, it was only later that he was able to realize his project. God wished beforehand to lead our Saint into less common paths. Until now, Saint Just had done good without encountering great obstacles from without, and had sanctified himself while sanctifying his flock in the shadow of peace. But God wished to test his virtue through persecutions.

Julian having become master of the empire by the death of Constantius, he turned all his forces against Christianity, and the East was the theater of his madness and his furies. The Gauls were no happier than the rest of the world. Julian had left there Sallust, his devoted friend and the cruelest enemy of the Christian name. Under such a governor, Just had much to suffer. Exposed to the vexations and ambushes of Sallust, and no longer able to remain in the midst of his people without danger, he was obliged to flee his diocese. He left his episcopal city in 362. Like his predecessor, he was obliged to abandon his Church at the moment when the enemy was preparing to decimate it again. This terrible trial was harder for him than martyrdom. Courage and virtue can triumph over the fury of a tyrant; but the heart supports such cruel separations with difficulty. Saint Just therefore took the road of exile and crossed the Alps. He took refuge in Vercelli, in Piedmont, with Saint Eusebius, who was ba rely re Verceil City where Gaudentius began his ministry under Eusebius. turning from Asia (362), where Const saint Eusèbe Future bishop of Vercelli, baptized and instructed by Pope Eusebius. antius had relegated him for not having wished to subscribe to the condemnation of Saint Athanasius. Happy days for the Church, where the pastors knew how to suffer and die for her, and where the tyranny and seduction of princes could do nothing against the faith of the peoples!

Saint Eusebius, after having been one of the most intrepid defenders of religion against the Arians, had the signal honor of being persecuted for the name of Jesus Christ. This holy confessor offered Saint Just the most generous hospitality. It was God who had brought these two men together and who allowed them to taste, in each other's company, those sweet consolations that religion alone inspires and that misfortune cannot find elsewhere. Both had suffered for the truth; both, after having nourished their flock with the word of life, had been forced to flee far from their homeland, far from their Church, far from the field that the Lord had given them to cultivate. The closest friendship united them, and they loved to share their thoughts and projects. During his stay in Vercelli, Saint Just was a witness to the exemplary life that Eusebius had established among his clerics. There reigned among them a regularity almost equal to that of the monks of the desert. Reading and study, manual labor, and prayer occupied all their moments. They fasted without respite, assembled often by day or night to pray, and the bishop lived in their midst, presiding over their pious exercises. Saint Eusebius is the first who, according to Saint Ambrose, established the common life among the clergy. Saint Just resolved to follow this example when it would be granted to him to return to his diocese. He deeply missed his people; his gaze was constantly turned toward his dear church of Besançon, and his heart lived always in the midst of his flock.

It appears that, even in his exile, he was forced to hide to escape the investigations of the imperial commissioners who were scouring Italy in search of all those whom the hatred of Julian pursued there. The holy bishop, having crossed the Alps again, was able to return in secret to Besançon. Soon it was learned in the Gauls that Julian had died in Asia in 363, and Saint Just ceased to be troubled. It was a happy day for the city, the one on which such a tender pastor was returned to it in such an unexpected manner: everyone found a devoted friend again, and the diocese found a father.

Scarcely returned from exile, Saint Just, after having repaired the evils that his absence had caused, was finally able to realize the project he had long conceived, and which circumstances had not until then permitted him to execute. This was the reform of his clergy. His clerics, living in the midst of the world, perhaps did not always know how to remain sheltered from its reach. Saint Just, who, during his stay in Vercelli, had been able to contemplate the marvelous fruits produced by the institution of Saint Eusebius, established this great work himself in his diocese. It was like his testament before leaving the earth. By bequeathing to his church an institution from which holy priests would emerge, he thereby ensured the triumph of faith and virtue among his people, and thus continued after his death the work of salvation to which he had devoted his strength and his life. If we wish to have an idea of this new foundation, let us read what Saint Ambrose recounts of the clerics of Vercelli, whose life Saint Just proposed as an example to the clerics of Besançon. "In the Church of Vercelli," he says, "two things are equally required by the bishop: monastic continence and ecclesiastical discipline. For Eusebius wanted the ecclesiastics, even while living in the midst of the world, to observe the rules of the monks and to govern the Church in the practice of mortification." The clerics lived separated from the company of women, following the counsel of the Holy Spirit, who regards this association as dangerous. They were to guard one another against temptations, to edify one another, and to urge one another to the practice of all virtues through counsel and good examples. This reform and these rules of discipline had the happiest success. The clergy of Besançon was distinguished from then on by its learning and its holiness; the people, edified by so much piety and such exact regularity, adjusted themselves imperceptibly to these models and profited from the examples of virtue of which they were daily witnesses. From this institution were to emerge later illustrious prelates, and it is to it that some historians trace the origin of the chapters in the diocese.

Saint Just lived for at least two more years after his return to the midst of his flock; his soul, entirely holy and purified by the tribulations of exile, aspired only to unite with his God. The world was nothing more to him; he had seen all too well the vanity and nothingness of earthly things; his heart, all ablaze with divine love, was detached from the earth and sighed only for his deliverance from the bonds of the body. After bearing the burden of the episcopacy for nearly twelve years, and manifesting the most sublime virtues in the various circumstances of such an agitated life—in the midst of his flock as in the rigors of persecution, in the bitterness of exile as in the calm of retreat among his clergy—Saint Just was a fruit ripe for heaven. At his final hour, God wished to manifest to men the glory of His servant through a miracle. At the moment his soul left the earth, a white dove, a sweet symbol of purity and innocence, was seen to escape from his lips and fly toward heaven.

Thus passed the days of Saint Just among men. God had provided this soul with the goods and evils of life, but always found it faithful; a tyrant had wished to intimidate him through persecutions, but the persecutions had only increased the brilliance of his virtues. God, in crowning him in heaven, has rendered unto him a hundredfold what he had done and suffered for the glory of His holy name.

Taken from The Saints of Franche-Comté, by the professors of the Saint-François-Xavier College of Besançon.