Saint Germanus of Auxerre

However, God made it known to Saint Amator that he would soon die, and that He destined Germanus himself to be his successor. The Saint immediately went to find Julius, Prefect of the Gauls, who resided in Autun, to ask his permission to include Germanus among the clergy; without this permission, no officer could change his status. Julius having granted it, Saint Amator returned to Auxerre. He assembled the principal faithful at his home, who followed him along with the people; Germanus also came. Immediately, the doors of the temple were closed by the order of the bishop, who seized Germanus, conferred upon him the clerical tonsure, clothed him in the ecclesiastical habit, and informed him that he was to be his successor. This example proves that immediately after the general persecutions, the clergy were distinguished from the laity by the tonsure. Germanus dared not resist, for fear of opposing the will of God.

Saint Amator having died shortly thereafter, on May 1, 418, the wishes of the clergy and the people united in favor of Germanus, who was consecrated on July 7 by the bishops of the province. After his consecration, he was no longer the same man. He renounced the pomps and vanities of the world, lived with his wife as if she had been his own sister, distributed his goods to the poor and to the Church, and embraced the austerities of penance. During the thirty years that his episcopate lasted, he forbade himself the use of wheat bread, vegetables, salt, wine, and vinegar. All his food consisted of bread made from barley that he had threshed and ground himself; he never took his meal until evening; often he ate only once or at most twice a week. His clothing was the same in winter and in summer. He wore a hair shirt continuously, and always carried some relics upon him. He practiced hospitality toward everyone, washed the feet of the poor, and served them at table with his own hands, while he himself remained fasting.

His first sleep began with tears and was interrupted by sighs, following the example of the prophet-king, who washed his bed every night with these salutary waters. But the almost continuous prayer that he offered during that time did not allow his poor nature to take much rest; and the assiduity of such a cruel mortification, which lasted his whole life without any respite since he had renounced the vanities of the world, compels us to say that he was in a continual martyrdom, and all the more rigorous in that the torments he inflicted upon his innocent flesh did not end in a short time, like those of most martyrs, but lasted as long as his life.

These exercises of penance of which we have just spoken being so continuous in Saint Germanus and his austerities so prodigious, it is not to be wondered at that he soon climbed to the pinnacle of Christian perfection, that his soul was filled with all virtues, and that such a holy and admirable life was promptly honored with the gift of miracles.

One of the most remarkable effects of his humility was to hide with as much care as he did the gift of miracles that God had communicated to him very liberally. But an occasion arose where he was compelled to show the world this heavenly grace.

A treasurer or receiver general of the emperor, named Janvier, while carrying to the savings coffers the money he had collected throughout the province, turned aside from his path to have the consolation of seeing in passing the holy bishop, who received indiscriminately all the guests and pilgrims who presented themselves at the episcopal residence. As he entered Auxerre, his suitcase fell without him noticing and was picked up by a possessed man, who, having escaped from the hands of those who had him in their care, was running through the streets.

Janvier, not seeing his bag, retraced his steps, made inquiries everywhere, and having no news of it, pressed Saint Germain to make restitution for his money, as if he had entrusted it into his hands. "Well! my son, I will return it to you," replied the Saint; "give me a little time, and in the meantime do not cease to make inquiries on your part." Three days passed without being able to get any clue to the theft, and sadness grew in the soul of the treasurer, who threw himself at the feet of the bishop, saying that he could not survive this loss which ruined his house and put him in danger of execution if he could not satisfy the emperor, conjuring the Saint to have pity on him and to remedy his disgrace.

Saint Germain consoled him again and gave him hope that sooner or later he would return to him what he had lost. Seeing that all the means he had used had not succeeded, he had one of the possessed who were in the city brought to him, with the intention of compelling the devil, who, being the author of the thefts, could not be ignorant of this one, to reveal to him where the money being sought was. God willed that the very one who had picked up the treasurer's suitcase be brought. He pressed him with secret exorcisms; and the demon not wanting to declare anything, he had him taken to the church, judging that public prayers would be more effective than his own. He celebrated the holy mass with the ordinary fervor of his devotion; then, having exhorted the people to join their prayers to his, he prostrated himself before the altar. At the same time, the demon lifted into the air this unfortunate possessed man whose terrifying voice resounded throughout the church, crying like a criminal subjected to torture: "You burn me, Germain; your prayer torments me; it is I who took the money, I am ready to make restitution." His prayer being finished, he rose with the ministers of the altar and went straight to the place called Podium, where the energumens were placed. Having arrived there, he had the possessed man declare the place where he had hidden the money, and immediately the demon left the body of this wretch.

Since this miracle, which took place publicly, a large number of possessed people were brought to Saint Germain; all the avenues of his house were usually occupied by a crowd of sick people afflicted with all sorts of infirmities, who recognized no better doctor than the charity of the holy bishop; which, although it was extreme towards these poor afflicted ones and led him to give relief to each according to his need, he nevertheless did so with such skill that he attributed all the healings he performed either to the relics of the Saints that he wore around his neck, or to the sign of the cross, or to the holy water he sometimes used, or to oil that he blessed and with which he anointed the sick parts, and sometimes to herbs that had no other virtue than to serve his humility, or even to his own industry, as if he had been a very experienced doctor; thus covering with a truly Christian modesty the grace that God had given him to perform miracles.

He performed them much more often, and with less reluctance, in favor of poor people and peasants, in the villages, where there was not so much reason to fear ostentation and the vain applause of men. He also sometimes rewarded with these extraordinary graces the charity and liberality of his hosts, who were often poor villagers, among whom he stayed more willingly than among the rich.

It seems that adversities and temptations are the most faithful companions of innocence, and that virtue is only found in contradictions and battles, just as the rose only appears among thorns.

The demons used all imaginable artifices and brought all possible violence to triumph over his virtue and his courage or to corrupt his innocence, which was the strongest shield he had in hand. They thought to take him by his weakness by renewing in his imagination the ideas of things that had once had the most power over his heart and which had taken from his soul the rich treasures of grace and virtues that he had received at baptism. They represented to him the delicious dishes and exquisite wines of his table; the innocent pleasure of hunting, of which he had been so passionately fond; the honors and applause that Rome and all the Gauls had once rendered to his merit and his eloquence; the beautiful offices he had held; the riches he possessed at that time, and all the other advantages of his birth and fortune, which placed him well above everything he could hope for by the way of life he was leading now. But as love is the greatest demon of nature, it is also the one they used to shake his constancy and give harsher blows to his courage.

These invisible attacks not having succeeded, they appeared to him in the form of horrible and terrifying beasts, to distract him in his prayers, or to trouble his mind by sudden apprehensions and fears; crying and howling near him, each according to the nature of the animals whose figure they had borrowed; adding to this infernal concert terrifying threats, as if they had wanted to devour him. But Germain remained motionless and peaceful in the midst of all these furies, arming his heart with the impenetrable shield of faith, and holding himself strongly attached to the hope he had in the cross of his good master, which he used as a staff to drive away all these spirits of darkness. He sometimes said to them: "Is that all you know how to do, to disguise yourselves and transform into beasts, you who were the most faithful expressions of the first beauty, and who were creatures of light more brilliant than the stars of the firmament; you wanted to place your seats on the mountain of the Testament, and affected the likeness of the Most High in power and glory; and now you are lions, dogs, wolves and beasts so deformed? Go, cursed ones! The Lord is the protector of my life, and there are no monsters that can frighten me. If it is my penance that ignites your anger, and that provokes your rage, I will make it more rigorous to increase your spite."

At these words, these infernal monsters fled, full of shame and despair, without however leaving the obstinacy of their malice, which led them to discharge part of their rage on the flock, seeing that they had been able to do nothing against the shepherd.

A disease ran through the city of Auxerre, which attacked children first and then indiscriminately all sorts of people. It was a kind of quinsy, which caused their throats to swell, and, taking away their breath, carried them off in three days, without the industry of doctors being able to provide any effective remedy. They finally had recourse to Saint Germain, to pray him to have compassion on the public necessity and to turn away this scourge which was depopulating the whole city. He blessed oil and had it distributed to all the houses; the sick parts being rubbed with it, the swelling ceased immediately, and gave way to breathing and nourishment. Such a present and infallible remedy made it well known that there was a miracle, and the demon, who left the body of a possessed man shortly after, was forced to admit that he and his companions had spread this plague to avenge themselves for the signal victory that the bishop had won over them.

To these virtues, so to speak domestic, Germanus added an ardent zeal for the worship of the Lord. Opposite Auxerre, on the other side of the Yonne river, he founded a monastery under the invocation of Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, which has since borne the name of Saint Marianus, one of its first abbots. Our Saint often visited this monastery, which was the scene of a great number of his miracles. It was there that he delivered a man possessed by the devil: when he saw what grace was working in the heart of a pagan named Marcellinus, he instructed him, baptized him, and restored the use of a hand and an eye of which he had been deprived; finally, he made him a religious of the monastery, where he later became abbot. He discovered the tombs of several martyrs. We owe to him above all the discovery of the relics of a great number of saints who, under the persecution of Aurelian, had been put to death with Saint Priscus, otherwise Saint Bry, in a place called Coucy. The bodies of these generous soldiers of Jesus Christ having been thrown into a cistern, Saint Germanus retrieved them and had a church built in their honor with a monastery that later bore the name of Saints-en-Puisaye. He stripped himself of all his possessions to enrich the indigent and the house of the Lord: thus become poor, he perpetuated the monuments of his charity and his zeal for the endowment of temples and monasteries. His rich donations, and those of several other prelates, prove that the great goods of the Churches often came from the bishops who governed them. At that time, the Pelagian heresy was infecting Great Britain.

Besides this heresy, there was still another of a certain Timothy, a native of the country, who maintained that, in the Incarnation of the Son of God, the divinity had been changed into human nature.

Add to all these disorders the corruption of morals and libertinism, impurity, magic, envy, and above all hatred and vengeance, which reigned so universally that one could hardly find a person who was in agreement with his neighbor. This is what the wise Gildas reports with many tears.

Deacon Palladius, who had been sent to the scene by Pope Celestine, and who was later consecrated bishop with orders to go to Scotland, could not bring an effective remedy to the evil; he wrote to the Sovereign Pontiff about it, and begged him to have pity on so many souls that the poison of error was putting in danger of perishing. At the same time, the Catholics of Great Britain sent a deputation to the bishops of Gaul to ask them for missionaries capable of defending the faith and opposing the progress of the heresy. The Pope appointed Saint Germanus of Auxerre to go to the aid of the Britons and gave him the title of apostolic vicar. This appointment was made in 420, according to Saint Prosper. The bishops of Gaul, having assembled for the same subject, begged Saint Lupus of Troyes to join S saint Loup de Troyes Bishop of Troyes, friend and advisor to Sidonius. aint Germanus to assist him in the important mission with which he was charged.

the two holy prelates thought only of leaving for Great Britain. They passed through the village of Nanterre, located near Paris. Saint Germanus saw Saint Genevieve there, g ave her his bles sainte Geneviève Young girl met in Nanterre whose sanctity was predicted by Germanus. sing, and predicted the high degree of holiness she would reach. Genevieve, aged about fifteen, showed a great desire to consecrate her virginity to God. The Bishop of Auxerre led her into the church where he received her vow after several solemn prayers, and he confirmed it by laying his right hand on her head.

Saint Germanus and Saint Lupus continued their journey and embarked for Great Britain. It was then winter. The two bishops were assailed by a furious storm. Saint Germanus calmed it by invoking the name of the Holy Trinity and throwing a few drops of oil into the sea, according to Constantius, or holy water, according to Bede. When they arrived in Great Britain, they saw an innumerable crowd of people coming to meet them. The fame of their holiness, their doctrine, and their miracles had soon spread throughout the country. They confirmed the Catholics in the faith and converted those who were engaged in heresy. The churches could not contain all the people who flocked to their discourses; they often preached in the middle of the countryside.

The leaders of the Pelagians did not dare to appear before them, and even fled, for fear of being forced into a regulated dispute. They finally blushed at a conduct that caused their condemnation and accepted a conference that was held at Verulam. A great multitude of people attended. The heretics, who at first kept a good countenance, appeared with much pomp and spoke first. They were given the freedom to speak for a long time. When they had finished, the two holy bishops replied with such force that their adversaries were soon reduced to silence. The faithful then raised a cry of acclamation to testify to the joy they felt that truth had just won the victory over error.

The assembly had not yet separated when a tribune and his wife presented to Saint Germanus and Saint Lupus their daughter, aged ten and deprived of the use of sight. The holy bishops told them to present her to the Pelagians; but the latter joined the parents in order to obtain from the servants of God that they pray for this young girl. Then Saint Germanus, invoking the Holy Trinity, applied the reliquary he wore around his neck to the eyes of the little blind girl, who immediately recovered her sight. This miracle filled the parents and the whole assembly with joy. From that day on, the doctrine of the two holy bishops knew no more obstacles.

To render solemn thanksgiving to God, they went to the tomb of Saint Alban, the most illustrious martyr of Great Britain. Saint Germanus had it opened and deposited there a box containing relics of the Apostles and several martyrs; he then took some earth saint Alban English martyr to whom Maximus dedicated a basilica. that still appeared stained with the blood of Saint Alban, took it with him to Auxerre, and placed it in a church that he had built under the invocation of this Saint.

Although all these successes of which we have just spoken were extremely happy and favorable for the mission of our two bishops, there was reason to fear that heresy might be reborn, more powerful and more pernicious than it was before.

The tyrant Vortig ern stil Vortiger British tyrant who opposed Germanus. l remained in his infamous practices and the scandal of his incestuous marriage; which removed the hope of seeing perfect health in a body whose corrupted head could only spread evil influences.

Saint Germain, who wished to spare nothing for the good of his legation and for the salvation of this kingdom, resolved to speak to him with the zeal of Saint John the Baptist; but seeing that his remonstrances were of no avail, he cited him before a council of bishops that he had assembled for this purpose. Vortigern appeared there, not to confess his fault or to place himself in the posture of a true penitent, but to avoid correction through a studied calumny, which was the blackest he could invent. He persuaded his wife, who was his own daughter, to complain in full assembly against Saint Germain, maintaining that he had had secret dealings with her, and that he had fathered a child upon her after having abused her for quite some time under the pretext of religion and piety. But the holy Bishop immediately cleared himself of this infamous calumny, and the king, furious to see his accusation annihilated, promptly withdrew from the assembly. The bishops who were present, seeing that God had taken the cause of innocence into His own hands, proceeded according to form against this contumacious man and fulminated ecclesiastical censures against him.

On the other hand, the people, who were excessively weary of his violence and who could no longer bear the scandal of his debaucheries and crimes, seeing also that they had been unable to dissuade him from forming an alliance with the pagans and barbarians, withdrew their obedience and recognized as true king his eldest son Vortimer, born of his first wife in a legitimate marriage, who was a generous and liberal prince, zealous for justice, and who in all things upheld the interests and honor of the Church. He also had a particular affection for Saint Germain, whom he honored as his father, and of which he gave him proof on many occasions. To repair the calumny with which his father had sought to blacken his reputation, he gave him in perpetuity the land where he had received such opprobrium, which was since called Guartenian, which means, in the Breton language, calumny justly retorted; as M. du Chesne noted after Nennius, in his history of England.

The wretched Vortigern, seeing himself excommunicated by the bishops and driven from his throne by his subjects, instead of humbling himself and recognizing that this punishment came to him from the hand of God, who disposes of scepters and crowns according to His good pleasure, called to his aid the infidel Picts and Saxons, from whom he composed a large army to re-establish himself in his states.

Saint Germain and Saint Lupus had not yet returned to France when the Saxons and Picts invaded Great Britain. These barbarians were already ravaging the country: the Britons, having gathered an army in haste, invited the two Saints to come to their camp, hoping to find powerful protection in their presence and their prayers. The servants of God did what the Britons asked of them. They began by working for the conversion of the idolaters and the reformation of the morals of the Christians. There were several among the former who renounced their superstitions. They were prepared to receive baptism, as they desired, for the feast of Easter which was soon to arrive. A kind of church was formed in the camp with intertwined tree branches, and the catechumens were baptized there. The whole army then celebrated the feast with great devotion.

After Easter, Saint Germain occupied himself with the means to deliver the Britons from the danger with which they were threatened. As he did not wish for any blood to be shed, he had recourse to a stratagem: he placed himself at the head of the Christians and showed in this circumstance that he had not forgotten his former profession. He led his small army into a valley that lay between two mountains. At the same time, he ordered his soldiers, when they saw the enemy, to repeat all at once, and with all their strength, the cry they would hear him give. The Saxons and Picts had no sooner appeared than the Saint cried out three times, Alleluia. The Britons shouted the same cry, which the echoes of the mo untains alleluia Battle won by the Britons against the Saxons thanks to the spiritual cry suggested by Germanus. returned with a terrifying noise. The barbarians, terrified, fled in disorder, throwing away their weapons and leaving their baggage; many drowned while crossing a river. This event occurred, according to Ussher, in the county of Flint, near a town called in Breton Guid-Crue, and Mould in English. The place is still called today Maes Garmon, or the field of Germain. The two Saints, having thus fulfilled their mission, returned to France, carrying with them the blessings and the regrets of all of Great Britain.

Saint Germain, upon returning to Auxerre, saw with sorrow that his people were overburdened with taxes. Auxiliaris was then Prefect of the Gauls and resided in Arles. The holy Bishop set out on his journey to find him. Wherever he passed, the people flocked in crowds to receive his blessing. When he was near Arles, the prefect came out to meet him, although it was not the custom, and led him into the city. Auxiliaris did not take long to realize that fame had not made him known as he truly was. He could not sufficiently admire the majestic air of his face, the extent of his charity, the nobility of his discourse, and the power of his words. He gave him rich gifts and begged him to restore the health of his wife, who had long been afflicted with a quartan fever. He obtained what he asked for, and granted the Saint a reduction in taxes.

Every step of Saint Germain was marked by miracles. At Tonnerre, he resurrected one of his disciples who had made the journey to England with him, and who had died in his absence; but this holy deceased having testified to him that he was too well off to wish to return to the world, he allowed him to fall back asleep and die on the spot a second time. At Angoulême, while he was consecrating an altar, the crosses he made upon it with the sacred oil were engraved into the stone as perfectly as if his finger had been a chisel or a burin that had carved them. At Brioude, he learned by revelation the day of the death of the famous martyr Saint Julian, which the inhabitants of that place did not know.

However, the partisans of Pelagius began again to sow their errors in Great Britain. Saint Germain was recalled there in 448. He took as his companion for the journey Severus, who had been a disciple of Saint Lupus of Troyes and who had just been appointed to the archbishopric of Trier. Their mission had the happiest success. They converted those who had been seduced by the heretics. The Pelagians, finding no more refuge on the island, left it forever. One of the principal men of the country, named Elaphius, presented to the holy bishop of Auxerre his son, who was in the flower of his youth, but who could not use one of his legs. The Saint touched the diseased part and healed the young man in the presence of a great number of people.

Saint Germain, foreseeing that one could neither banish ignorance nor maintain the reformation except by facilitating, especially for the clergy, the means of instruction, established public schools in Great Britain. Thus, "the Churches," as Bede observes, "retained thereafter the purity of the faith and fell no more into heresy." Germain, having ordained Saint Iltut a priest and Saint Dubricius an archbishop of Llandaff in South Wales, charged them with the care of several schools, which soon became famous for the number, learning, and holiness of those who attended them. There were up to a thousand students in two of these schools, over which Saint Dubricius presided, and which were on the Wye, one at Hentland and the other at Mochros. One finds the names of those who distinguished themselves the most in the life of the holy archbishop, which had been written on the ancient registers of Llandaff by Saint Teilo himself. This is at least the opinion of several scholars. The schools at the head of which was Saint Iltut, and the principal of which were Llan-Iltut (today Llantwit), near Boverton, and at Llan-Eity, near Neath, in the county of Glamorgan, enjoyed the same reputation. Children of the nobility of the island were sent there from all parts. Among the disciples of Saint Iltut, one finds Saint Gildas, Saint Leonorius, bishop, Saint Samson, Saint Magloire, Saint Malo, Saint Paul, bishop of Léon, and Daniel, who was made bishop of Bangor by Saint Dubricius, and who established in his episcopal city a seminary for the Britons. Paulinus, also formed by the holy bishop of Auxerre, made a similar establishment at Whiteland, in the county of Carmarthen. It was there that Saint David and Saint Teilo studied. We are also indebted to the zeal of Saint Germain for the seminary of Llan-Carvan, near Cowbridge, and the famous school of Bangor, in the county of Flint.

The Saint was on his way back to his diocese when he received a deputation from the inhabitants of Armorica, who implored his protection. These peoples had, through a revolt, incurred the wrath of Aetius, general of the Romans, and were on the point of suffering the punishment they had deserved. Aetius had entrusted the task of chastising them to a man well capable of serving him: this was Eocaric, king of the Alans, a fierce and idolatrous prince. Saint Germain went to find him promptly and used every means to appease him; but the barbarian at first refused to listen. The holy Bishop, without being disconcerted, took the bridle of his horse and stopped him at the head of his army. Eocaric, astonished by this stroke of boldness inspired by zeal, softened little by little and finally lent himself to proposals of peace; he even consented to spare the country and to have his troops withdraw, provided that the rebels obtained grace from Aetius or the Emperor.

Saint Germain took it upon himself t o ask f Ravenne Birthplace of the saint and site of his final mission. or it. He theref ore left for Ra Valentinien III Roman Emperor of the West who interceded for the appointment of a bishop. venna, where Emperor Valentinian III resided. The wonders he performed on the way are numberless. At Alise, having lodged with a holy priest named Senator, he restored speech to a young girl who had been mute for twenty years. It was in this place that, some years before, the straw upon which he had slept had had the power to deliver Agrestin from the demon that possessed him. At Autun, being at the sepulcher of Saint Cassian, martyr, he conversed familiarly with him, as if he had been alive. Then he begged him to intercede for him and for all the people who accompanied him. In the same place, he healed a young girl whose fingers were so attached to the palms of her hands that they could not be separated; and her nails, which it was impossible to cut, entered her flesh and caused horrible wounds. Another prodigy signaled his passage through the Alps. The Roman road of the Graian Alps had been broken by a considerable landslide, which one can still recognize today in the parish of Séez. The holy Bishop of Auxerre found a group of travelers stopped by the accident, among others a poor old man, lame and extremely burdened; our Saint took his load, put it on his shoulders and carried it to the other side of the torrent, then he returned and took charge of the old man as he had taken charge of his pack, and transported him likewise to the other bank. The passage followed by the holy Bishop through the landslide is still called the Path of Saint-Germain; and a chapel has been erected there in his honor. It is the goal of a pilgrimage for leg ailments and the undertaking of a journey. This same devotion has spread to several other parishes of the diocese. Having arrived in Milan, on the day of a great solemnity that had called several bishops there, he entered the church during the celebration of Mass, and immediately a possessed man cried out: "Why, Germain, after having driven us from the Gauls and Great Britain, do you pursue us still in Italy? Do you wish to banish us from all the places of the earth?" These words filled all those present with astonishment and admiration. They looked on all sides to discover this Germain, and it was not difficult to recognize him, because, although he was poorly dressed, the radiance of his holiness, which appeared even on his face, made him quite noticeable. The bishops, approaching him, asked his name and his rank, and he did not refuse to satisfy them. He said that he was called Germain, and that, despite his little merit, he was Bishop of Auxerre. It was enough to attract the respect of everyone: his name and the wonders that God had worked through him were so well known that there was no one who had not heard of them with praise. The bishops rendered him all sorts of honors, and begged him at the same time to have pity on the possessed man, by whose mouth they had learned who he was: which they obtained.

Upon leaving Milan, the poor asked for alms from our Saint, who questioned his deacon about what money he had left for his expenses. "I have three gold pieces left," he replied. "Give them to these poor people," the Saint told him. "And what shall we live on today?" the deacon retorted. "God," Germain told him, "will feed those who have made themselves poor for the love of Him. As for you, obey, and give the poor the three pieces you have." The deacon obeyed only in part; for, through a false prudence, he gave only two. Some time later, people on horseback came to them at full gallop, and having dismounted, threw themselves on their knees before the Saint and said to him: "The lord Leporius, our master, whose house is not far from here, is sick, and several of his household are as well; he conjures you to come see him, or, if you do not have the convenience, to at least give him your blessing and assist him with your prayers." The Saint, who had nothing dearer than charity, went to find the sick man who received him with joy and incredible honor. He stayed three days with him and obtained for him from God his health along with that of his whole family. When he wished to leave, the lord begged him to accept two hundred crowns to finish the rest of his journey. The Saint took them, and, putting them into the hands of his deacon, he said to him: "If you had given the poor the three pieces you had, this gentleman would have given us three hundred; but, because you kept one to the prejudice of the poor, God has permitted that he give only two hundred." Thus, this chaplain recognized that nothing was hidden from his prelate, and that it was by no means dangerous, in his company, to strip oneself of everything, by abandoning oneself to the help of Divine Providence.

When the blessed Germain was near Ravenna, he waited for night to enter, in order to avoid the great honors that were being prepared for him. But all his industry was useless. Valentinian the Younger, as we have said, was then Emperor, and governed the world with Empress Placidia, his mother. Saint Peter Chrysologus, so famous for his eloquence and his holiness, was Bishop of Ravenna. The city, because of impératrice Placidie Empress, mother of Valentinian III, who honored Germanus. the stay of the court, was full of prelates, princes, lords, and all sorts of persons of great merit. They all gave a wonderful welcome to our Saint, whom they knew to be an extraordinary man and of incomparable virtue. The Empress sent him a large silver basin filled with delicious dishes, but without meat, because she knew that the Saint had forbidden himself its use. He received it with thanksgiving, gave the silver basin for the poor, distributed what was inside to those who had come with him, and sent to the Empress, in gratitude, a barley loaf on a wooden plate. This princess received this gift with joy and, thereafter, she had the plate encased in gold and kept the bread, with which she healed several sick people.

One day, as the Saint was going through the city, surrounded by many people, he passed in front of the prisons. The criminals who were there, having been warned of his passage, began to cry out loudly. The Saint prayed for them, and immediately the locks, the hinges, the bolts, and the iron bars that closed this prison broke and gave all the prisoners the freedom to leave. This miracle caused no prejudice to the public good: for it converted the criminals at the same time that it delivered them.

This miracle and many others increased the reputation of Saint Germain so much that he was continually surrounded by a crowd of sick people who asked for their healing. There were also six bishops who did not leave him and who admired the austerity of his life no less than his miracles. It was at their instance that he resurrected the son of Volusianus, secretary to the patrician Sigisvult. He healed the adopted son of Acholius, grand chamberlain of the Emperor, of the falling sickness, and delivered him from a demon that tormented him. The affair for which Saint Germain had gone to Ravenna had all the success he promised himself; he obtained from the Emperor and the Empress, his mother, the pardon that the revolted Britons had asked for. But their insolence having led them to a new sedition, they rendered his care and his kindness for them useless.

This great servant of God, shortly after, was warned that the hour of his deliverance was near: Our Lord, appearing to him in a dream, presented him with the holy Viaticum, and told him to prepare for a great journey. Germain asked Him what this journey was. "It is," replied Jesus Christ, "that of your true homeland." Germain therefore warned the bishops who accompanied him of what he had seen and heard, and begged them to pray for him; a few days later, he fell ill. The whole city was alarmed; the Empress went to see him; it was not without difficulty that she promised him to have his body taken back to Auxerre, as he requested. He died in peace, on July 31, 450, after thirty years and twenty-five days of episcopate.

People vied for the smallest objects that had belonged to the Saint as if they were the richest of inheritances. The Empress wanted his reliquary. The six bishops we mentioned shared his garments among themselves. Acholius, who, as we have said, owed him the healing of an adopted son, had his body embalmed. The Empress clothed him in precious garments and provided a cypress wood chest to enclose him. The Emperor provided the carriages, along with the travel expenses for those who were to accompany him. The procession was most magnificent; the number of torches was so great that their light was noticeable in broad daylight. The people flocked to every place where the funeral procession passed, and showed their veneration for the servant of God. Some leveled the roads and repaired the bridges; others carried the body, or at least sang psalms. When they reached the passage of the Alps, they found the clergy of Auxerre, who had come to take the mortal remains of their pastor. Finally, the body arrived in Auxerre fifty days after the Saint's death. It was exposed for ten days to public veneration, and he was buried on October 1st in the oratory of Saint-Maurice, which the holy bishop had founded himself. This oratory was later changed into a church which became a famous Benedictine abbey, and which bore the name of Saint-Germain. His main feast is celebrated on July 31st.

This is what the priest Constantius left in writing about the great Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, by the command of Saint Patient, archbishop of Lyon. He dedicated this book to Saint Censurius, the third successor of our Saint; but, as he himself admits that he omitted many things in this life, a monk of the abbey of his name, called Eric, added to it, under the reign of Charles the Bald, two other books where he reports a great number of wonders that this holy prelate performed during his life and after his death. We read there that, during a journey of Saint Germanus to Orléans, the bells of the cathedral rang by themselves to warn all the inhabitants of his arrival: Saint Aignan, who was its bishop, went to meet him with a numerous procession of clergy and people. The place where these two great men embraced each other and gave each other the kiss of peace was so famous that a church was later built there in honor of Saint Germanus. Furthermore, as Saint Aignan was escorting him out of the city, an afflicted widow brought before these blessed bishops the body of her only son who had just expired, begging them with many tears to have pity on her and to restore this child to her, the sole support of her old age. There was then a holy debate between these two men of God, each praying the other to perform this miracle; but finally, Saint Germanus, in his capacity as a stranger and guest, was obliged to yield to the insistence of Saint Aignan. He therefore prayed and wept for the child, and his tears were so effective before God that at that very hour he returned to life. A temple was also built at the site of this miracle under the name of Saint-Germain. When the resurrected man died a second time, he had himself buried in this holy place: in the time of Eric, one could still see his tomb there, as well as the grass on which the Saint had prostrated himself to pray, and which was surrounded by a balustrade. In the same diocese, Saint Germanus, passing through a village where a rich and illustrious man was building a large church, supported with his word the wall of this church which, having poor foundations, suddenly shook and was about to crush the workers as it fell: when it was dedicated, the founder wanted it to be given the name of Saint Germanus, who had already passed away.

Two dry sticks that he stuck into the ground, one in the diocese of Tulle and the other in the Gatinois, immediately revived and turned into large trees that have long been called the hazel and the beech of Saint Germanus.

Saint Albinus, bishop of Vercelli, when Saint Germanus passed through this city on his way to Ravenna, asked him to consecrate the church begun by Saint Eusebius, the first bishop of that see, and completed by him. Our Saint promised that he would do it on his return; but, as he died in Ravenna, Saint Albinus, no longer counting on his promise, prepared to perform this ceremony himself. However, it was impossible to ever light the torches or candles, despite every effort made at various times and on various days. Finally, the procession of the holy deceased arrived, and at that moment, all these candles and torches lit themselves by a divine power and filled the church with a supernatural brightness that could serve as its dedication; then Saint Albinus exclaimed: "Truly, Saint Germanus is faithful to his promises; he had promised to dedicate my church, he did not do it during his life, but he does it after his death." Thus, he went up to the altar, where he intoned the Gloria in excelsis and celebrated the divine Mysteries.

In images of Saint Germanus, one sees near him a fallen donkey raising its head and looking at him. Here is the fact to which this alludes. Saint Germanus, wishing to intercede for the insurgent Britons, had come, mounted on a donkey, to Ravenna to ask for their pardon from the Empress Placidia. Placidia, learning that the Saint's mount had just died, had wanted to give him a horse to replace it. "Let my donkey be shown to me," Saint Germanus had replied, "for the beast that brought me here will take me back." Seeing the carcass of the animal, he said to it: rise and take me back home. Obeying this order, the beast had risen and had received the bishop on its back to take him back to his dwelling. There is in this a new proof of the humility of the holy bishop, for he had been a great Gallic leader, and he knew perfectly well how to handle a horse. One sees, in the current church of Saint-Germain, near Troyes, a stained-glass window that recalls the life of the glorious Saint Germanus. The first panel represents him advancing on Troyes with a numerous retinue. In the distance, one sees the top of the main buildings of a city and a group of people coming out of the walls. Closer to the Saint, an individual lies on his back, feigning death, and at the feet of the Saint, a beggar implores his charity. — The second panel represents the same procession with the Saint, but all retracing their steps. The deceitful beggar is on his knees; with one hand, he returns the purse so wickedly extorted, with the other, he hides his face. His comrade rises before the Saint in prayer. — The third panel represents the funeral procession of Saint Germanus. Enclosed in a coffin covered with the imperial mantle, his body is carried solemnly by the illustrious men of Ravenna; they head toward the road that must take him back to Auxerre. — The fourth panel represents the rest of the procession. At the head, the Pope accompanied by bishops and abbots; then the Emperor and the Empress, surrounded by eminent officials. — The fifth panel represents, in the trefoil that occupies the middle of the stained-glass window, two angels taking up, in the figure of a child, the soul of Saint Germanus.

## CULT AND RELICS.

Queen Clotilde, wife of Clovis the Great, had the famous monastery we have already mentioned built over the tomb of Saint Germanus, one of the most glorious sanctuaries that have ever existed, for the great number of holy bodies with which it is enriched. Clotaire I, son of Clotilde, and Ingonde, his wife, following the pious intentions of their mother, had a work of gold and silver raised over the tomb of the Saint, where their names were engraved. A few centuries later, King Charles the Bald, son of Louis the Pious, had the monument opened where the remains of the blessed Germanus were honored and found his limbs still as intact as when they had been deposited there for the first time. He had them embalmed again and wrapped in very rich fabrics; after which he had them placed in their chantry, in an even higher and more honorable place, where they have always continued to perform miraculous works for those who have implored their virtue.

There is nothing left in the tomb of Saint Germanus in Auxerre but a few pieces of cedar wood and dust. The church of Saint-Eusèbe in Auxerre possesses his shroud in yellow and violet silk cloth, with embroidered Roman eagles; the church of Saint-Étienne preserves some parts of his priestly vestments and his gloves. As for his bones, the Huguenots, at the capture of Auxerre in 1567, threw them into the square. They were, it is said, collected by some pious people, kept in the abbey of Saint-Marien, on the left bank of the Yonne, and discovered in this abbey in 1717, by the Abbé Lebœuf, author of the *History of Auxerre*, who seems not to doubt the authenticity of these relics. However, the verification process began, was left, resumed, left again, is still pending before the episcopal court and will probably never be finished. It is the church of Saint-Eusèbe that currently possesses these doubtful relics.

Saint Germanus was once the titular patron of several churches in England. A chapel was built at Verulam, where the Saint had preached, and where devotion attracted a large number of English people, when they were Catholic. A town in Cornwall bears the name of Saint-Germain. In the diocese of Troyes, the blessed Bishop of Auxerre is the patron of the parishes of Saint-Germain, Gyé-sur-Seine, Prunay and others. He is the patron of Auxerre, the invincible protector of this city, and, if he suffered for some time that the Calvinists were its masters, he has since driven them out entirely.

The life, virtues and miracles of Saint Germanus, by Dom Viole; Godescard; the Auvergne Hagiology, by Mgr Croquier; Life of the Saints of the diocese of Troyes, by the Abbé Dafer; History of the Church, by the Abbé Darras; Dom Cotitier.