Saint Liborius of Le Mans

Christian society no longer had to fear the persecutions of the empire; it even received the favors of the power. From the beginning, Christians had voluntarily brought their quarrels before their bishop, but at that time they were obliged to do so; likewise, the functions of defender, which gave so much power to the one who was invested with them, were from then on devolved to the bishop, and it was the wishes of the people that entrusted him with this new dignity. Thus, he was henceforth pastor and magistrate in the city. The first known to us as having exercised this double function in Maine is Saint Liborius.

He was born into a powerful family in Gaul, and he appeared gifted, from his childhood, with such remarkable talents that everyone, while admiring him, expected great things from him. One saw him from then on, full of disgust for the vanities of the earth, applying himself to acquiring the science of holy things. He found in the catechetical school, under the guidance of the bishop and his archdeacon, the instruction that was to form him to be a worthy leader of the faithful flock. But the Holy Spirit acted even more in the depths of his soul, and prepared him to receive the abundant graces of an apostolic ministry.

He left the secular habit and all the splendor of worldly life, where his birth seemed to engage him, and took the humble habit of an ecclesiastic, to say freely to God that He was his portion, and that he wished for no other good than Him. This change of state served as a new spur for him to work on his advancement in virtue. He watched so perfectly over himself, to form all his thoughts, all his desires, and all his actions according to the most just rules of reason and the law of God, that almost nothing escaped him for which he had cause to repent. He was continually at war with his passions; and even when they did not rise up, he did not cease to attack them, to pursue them, and to diminish their strength by opposing acts and exercises suitable for mortifying them. He relied above all on the goodness of God, who gave him a marvelous constancy, firmness, and assurance; no temptation troubled him; no adversity was capable of breaking his courage. He often meditated on the great truths of Christianity, which imprinted in him more and more the contempt of the world and all its vanities, and the resolution never to have any other goal than to please God and to procure His glory. He had for Him an incomparable zeal and love; for his neighbor, a justice and charity that were always constant; and for himself, a holy severity that he manifested through his sobriety, his abstinence, his vigils, his fasts, and other practices of Christian mortification.

Such rare virtues earned him such a reputation throughout the country of Maine that, upon the death of the bishop, there was but one voice among the clergy and the people of Le Mans Le Mans Episcopal see and primary place of activity of the saint. to place him on the vacant seat. Then one saw shine with even greater brilliance all that one could have expected of his holiness, his zeal, and his knowledge. The days of his episcopate were days of blessing for the Church of Le Mans; the number of the faithful increased prodigiously through the conversion of idolaters, and error retreated more and more into the darkness.

However, Liborius, destined to accomplish such great works for the glory of God during his episcopate, had felt a most marked aversion to this ministry. Like the great bishop of Tours, his friend, he had tried to evade it, seeking to persuade the clergy and the people that he was not at all capable of sustaining such a heavy burden; but it was in vain, for they were too convinced that it was the will of God. He had to yield to a unanimous choice, and the bishops of the province laid their hands upon him.

Constrained to accept the episcopal dignity, Liborius knew how to preserve, in the high rank that it henceforth gave him, the humility and practices of a lower rank. The people of Le Mans admired his assiduity in being with the clerics of his church to celebrate the vigils and the hours destined for the praises of God; he was always seen to be diligent in offering the sacrifice of propitiation; for the rest, he was entirely given over to the exercises of piety and the functions of his ministry. A life so perfect and adorned with all virtues contributed much to making his preaching effective, both for converting idolaters and for enlightening and warming the zeal of those who had already embraced the true religion.

If he attacked a vice, one saw manifestly that he was exempt from it; if he exhorted to a virtue, one saw that he possessed it with eminence and in a heroic degree. For example, did he try to inspire horror for the vice of pride and presumption, one saw nothing, neither in his words, nor in his gestures, nor in his clothes, nor at his table, that smacked of these disorders; but everywhere a perfect modesty and a Christian humility that showed he was a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Did he say with the Apostle: "Seek not vain glory," one saw that he never gloried except in God alone. If he encouraged his listeners to liberality and to give alms to the poor, because the miser is the slave of idols, one saw that he was himself full of compassion for the miserable and that he had taken the bread from his own mouth to give it to him who was hungry. Finally, when he recommended meekness, because it is by it that one possesses one's soul, one saw that he had an unshakable gentleness, and no affliction or persecution could embitter him or cause him sorrow. Thus, he made great conversions in his diocese, and, although he was the successor of several Saints who had very diligently worked in this vineyard of the Lord, one can say, nevertheless, to his honor, that he made it change its face even more and that he increased it by the reduction of a great number of idolaters, and civilized it marvelously by banishing from the customs of the Christians several disorders that the care of the first bishops had not been able to prune away.

He had this particularity, among all the great prelates of his time, that he applied himself with extraordinary zeal to everything pertaining to the religious worship that is due to God: this is why, except for the little that was necessary for his subsistence and that of his household, and what his mercy and liberality caused him to give to the poor, he employed all the rest of his patrimony and the revenues of his diocese and the donations of the faithful to build new churches, to adorn the old ones, and to provide them with the books and sacred vessels that were necessary for them, to multiply the number of cantors and other choir officers there, and to increase, as much as he could, the majesty of ecclesiastical ceremonies. His goal, in the construction of new churches, was not only to multiply the service of God, which can never be praised enough, but also to provide for the convenience and salvation of the faithful, so that having their churches and their priests near them, without being obliged to travel far, they would have no pretext to excuse themselves from the frequent use of the Sacraments, from attendance at divine offices, and from assiduity in listening to the sermons, catechisms, and holy conferences that would be given to them on the observance of the commandments of God. With this in view, he founded during his episcopate seventeen different parishes, the names of which are marked in his history; he provided them with all the sacred furnishings that a parish needs; he instituted priests and lower clerics there, so that the divine offices might be celebrated there day and night at suitable hours. But, wishing that these churches should recognize in perpetuity the dependence they had on his cathedral church, he obliged each of them to pay him every year a pound of wax and two pounds of oil, to help maintain the lamp's fire.

Saint Liborius was bishop for forty-two years, during which it is said that he performed ninety-six ordinations; he ordained two hundred and seventeen priests, one hundred and seventy-six deacons, ninety-three subdeacons, and as many clerics as were necessary for ecclesiastical ministries. He enjoyed the esteem, not only of his clergy but also of all his people, of his diocesans, of good prelates, and of all the pious persons of his time. What is admirable in him is that the care to please God did not prevent him from making himself loved by his neighbor, and that the application to satisfy men did not prevent him from rendering himself irreproachable before God. So that one can justly apply to him the praise that Holy Scripture gives to Zechariah, father of Saint John the Baptist, that he walked in all the justifications of the law of the Lord, without giving cause for complaint to anyone. But his priesthood was elevated above that of this holy old man, as much as the truth surpasses the figure and the light of the law of Jesus Christ surpasses the shadows of the ancient law.

Finally, this glorious prelate learned by revelation that he would soon enjoy the heavenly inh eritance. Sa Saint Martin Spiritual model for Aquilin. int Martin, the great wonder-worker, was then Archbishop of Tours, of which the bishopric of Le Mans is a suffragan. As he was in prayer, an angel appeared to him on behalf of God and ordered him to go as soon as possible to Le Mans to visit Our Lord who was ill. He understood what this meant, and that since Our Lord could not be ill in Himself, He was so in the person of our holy prelate, one of His most precious mystical members. He therefore left immediately, and, upon arriving in that city, he met in a vineyard the subdeacon Victor, who was w Victor Successor of Saint Liborius to the see of Le Mans. orking while singing the praises of God. The Holy Spirit made it known to him that it was he whom His Providence had chosen to succeed Saint Liborius: he greeted him in that capacity and gave him his staff. Then he entered the city and went up to the sick man's room. One cannot express the joy that Saint Liborius felt to see beside him this incomparable man who was the prodigy and admiration of his century. Although he was almost in his agony and already saw heaven opened to receive him, he did not fail to converse a little longer with him as with an earthly angel whose holiness equaled that of the blessed intelligences. But what was this conversation, and what were the dispositions of these great captains of the armies of the Lord, who had both triumphed over the world, the devil, sin, and idolatry; who saw each other then only to part in a moment, one going to receive the reward of his labors, and the other having to remain for some time longer on earth for the consolation and defense of the Christian people? This is what we do not undertake to describe here, because, as the first author of this life said, it is given to no one to report it worthily. Our holy prelate rendered his soul to God, in the presence of Saint Martin, on June 9, 390. His body was buried with great solemnity by the same holy archbishop, in the abbey church of the holy Apostles, which has borne since the 8th century the name of Saint-Julien du Pré Saint-Julien du Pré Initial burial place of Saint Liborius in Le Mans. , and which is still one of the churches of the city of Le Mans.

Saint Liborius is represented: 1° carrying on a book or in his hand some small, almost imperceptible stones: we do not quite see the reason for this characteristic, unless it is to recall that he is invoked against the pains caused by stone and gravel; but then we would still need to know the reason for this invocation; 2° sometimes having a peacock near him: when, in 836, his relics were being transported from Le Mans to Paderborn, a peacock, it is said, fle w before Paderborn City in Saxony where the saint's relics were transferred in 836. those who were carrying his body, as if to show them the way.

## CULT AND RELICS. The relics of Saint Liborius rested in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles until the year 836. They were then raised from the sarcophagus, where Saint Martin had enclosed them, by the Bishop of Le Mans , Saint Aldr saint Aldric Saint of royal origin who became a shepherd out of humility at the convent of Fussenich. ic. This occurred on the following occasion: the Bishop of Paderborn, in Saxony, having sent a famous embassy to Saint Aldric to ask him for one of the holy bodies with which his Church was enriched, so that the presence of these relics might strengthen in the faith the Saxons, who were newly converted to Jesus Christ, this holy prelate, with the consent of his clergy and the magistrates of the city, granted him that of Saint Liborius. It is said that upon the opening of his coffin, such a pleasant odor emerged that it perfumed all those present. A blind woman received the benefit of sight at that very hour, and a demoniac, whom his mother had dragged by force to this ceremony, was delivered from the evil spirits that possessed him. A lame man and a mute, who approached the chest where the relics were being enclosed, were relieved of their infirmities. A hideous and deformed young man, who had the appearance of a monster rather than a man, having knelt to pray, rose only in perfect health and with a straight body of fine stature. Everyone ran in crowds to see so many miracles, to implore the assistance of the holy Confessor, and to accompany his sacred remains with honor. The Saxons, having them in their possession, took their route through Yvré, where a deaf and mute man received healing. From there, having crossed the Huiane river, they passed through Saint-Mars-la-Brière, where several sick people recovered their health. The rumor of so many wonders spreading little by little, all the people of the neighboring countryside ran to the passage, and great miracles occurred everywhere. At Conneré, nearly eighty people afflicted with various ailments were healed; among others, a noble woman possessed by the evil spirit, a paralytic, and a man who was completely crippled. At Chartres, Bishop Bernuinus, with all his clergy and an immense crowd, came to meet this sacred deposit and placed it in the church of Saint-Chéron, where a young girl who had a completely deformed body was happily restored. In Paris, it was deposited with much reverence in the cathedral; a woman who was deaf, mute, and possessed was delivered from all these evils. It would be an endless task to report all the miracles that Saint Liborius performed on the way. Several devout people accompanied him as far as the Rhine. He was received by the Saxons with incredible joy and fervor. They carried him in triumph into Paderborn, where he performed entirely new wonders, so that most of the infidels were converted to the faith: one can say that after his death he was the apostle of Westphalia. He was placed with honor in an eminent place in the cathedral church, of which he has always been recognized since that time as patron and titular. The relics of Saint Liborius still rest in the cathedral church of Paderborn, of which he is the patron, as well as of the entire diocese. His cult enjoys great celebrity throughout Westphalia, in Italy, and in Rome, where several altars are dedicated to him. The feast of his translation was formerly celebrated on April 29, and today the Church of Le Mans celebrates his solemnity on July 23. We have compiled this biography with the History of the Church of Le Mans, by Dom Piatin Dom Piatin Author of the History of the Church of Le Mans. .