Saint Memmius

Faith having taken deep roots in his heart, and the love of God inflaming him ever more, the same Apostle judged him worthy to be a minister of the doctrine of heaven, and to go and carry the Gospel to the Gentiles; thus, he ordained him priest and bishop, and sent him into the Gauls, with Donatian , a deac Donatien Deacon of Memmius and his successor to the see of Châlons. on, and Domit ian, a s Domitien Roman emperor who persecuted John. ubdeacon. The humility of Memmius persuaded him that he was not capable of such a great ministry, and that he should rather remain in the following of Saint Peter, to profit from his instructions and his examples, than to undertake himself the conversion of the infidels, of the number of whom he was two or three years before; but charity and obedience prevailed in his mind over these sentiments of humility; thus, full of zeal and ardor for the conquest of souls, he departed joyfully from Rome with the two holy companions that the Apostle had given him. However, as it was necessary that he be tested, so that his virtue might become more solid and his fidelity might appear with more brilliance, he had scarcely gone twenty miles from the city when Domitian, his subdeacon, was seized by a violent fever which took him from this world. This accident troubled this new missionary a little, and he believed that, being still so close to Rome, he should retrace his steps to inform Saint Peter, so that he might give him another companion, or that he might postpone the mission to another time, according to what he would judge most appropriate.

Saint Peter consoled him in his sorrow, and encouraged him to persevere, and, as he had in his hands the keys of health and sickness, of life and death, as well as the power to bind and to loose sinners, he took some threads from the fringe of his mantle, and, giving them to him, he said: "Go, place this upon the body of the deceased; God will restore his life to him, and he will become, with you, an excellent worker of the Gospel." Memmius did not doubt the truth of this promise; he took this piece of fringe and departed immediately with his deacon, Donatian, who had returned with him. As soon as he arrived at the place where he had left the dead man, he applied the relic of the holy Apostle to him, and, at that very instant, the dead man was resurrected, and having no longer any remainder of infirmity, he was in a state to continue his journey.

This great miracle inspired new courage in our holy Bishop, and dispelled all the fears that the sight of his weakness and lack of experience had previously given him; he crossed all the rest of Italy and Cisalpine Gaul, and, having passed the mountains, he came through Burgundy, into Champagne and the surroundings of Châl ons. Hi Châlons Territory where the Irish siblings settled. s journey was accompanied everywhere by new wonders: he healed the blind, the mute, the crippled, and the sick afflicted with fevers on all sides, and, finally, no bodily infirmity could resist the power that his master Saint Peter, after Jesus Christ, had communicated to him. When he saw himself near Châlons, he learned, by the inspiration of heaven, that this was the end of his travels, and that he was called to the conversion of this people. He therefore entered the city and began to preach there with apostolic vigor against the superstition of paganism, which, by worshiping several gods, entirely destroyed the essence and property of the Divinity, which can only be one. His deacon and his subdeacon worked, for their part, to gain something from these idolaters; but, the time for their conversion had not yet come, and all the efforts of these holy preachers were useless. They even saw themselves forced to leave Châlons by the mutiny of the people, who, unable to suffer that one should speak against the deities they were accustomed to worship, drove them out shamefully, and with threats of making them die in a very cruel manner if they were met again within the walls.

Saint Memmie then knew that the change of these blind people had to be the fruit of his prayers and his tears, and that he had to merit a good success for his preaching by afflicting himself for those he wished to convert. Thus, having found a league from the city a forest, called Buxerre, which its silence and solitude made suitable for the exercises o f the in Bruxerre Initial burial place of Saint Poma and Saint Memmius. ner man, he retired there with his companions; and having made himself a small rustic dwelling with tree branches, he began there the life that anchorites have since led in the deserts. He lamented there at all moments the misery and the hardening of the pagans who refused the light that the goodness of God sent them; he made great entreaties there to this infinite Mercy, so that it might please Him to finally touch their hearts to make them enter the paths of eternal salvation; and to obtain more promptly what he asked for, he accompanied his prayers with vigils, fasts, and many other macerations that his zeal and love for his neighbor inspired in him.

God finally granted his desires. Several people, informed of his gift for restoring health to the sick, had recourse to him and implored his assistance. He received them with kindness and delivered them from the infirmities with which they were afflicted. The healing of these first ones attracted others to his desert to receive the same grace, and he granted it to them as well; and, by this means, he became in a short time the refuge of all the unfortunate in the country. It happened at this same time that a young Lampas Prefect and governor of Châlons for the Romans. nobleman named Lampas, son of the governor of the province for the Romans, having urged his horse onto the bridge of the Marne, called the bridge of Nau, was thrown into it, and, unable to be rescued, perished there miserably. An accident so fatal drove his father to despair, and no other means was found to console him than to call to his side our holy Bishop, whose reputation was already flying everywhere. The servant of God saw well that grace wished to use this occasion to begin to make his word bear fruit in this city; thus, without being asked too much, he came as soon as possible to find the governor. The consternation in which the latter was rendered him incapable of hearing long speeches: also our Saint was not one of those comforters that Job calls *verbosos*, "great talkers." He said only one word to him, but a word that restored the life of his heart before restoring that of the body to his son: "Do not grieve," he said to him, "the almighty Lord who sent me, and who is alone the God of heaven and earth, will resurrect your son and will return him to your hands in full health." This promise was quite new to pagans who had never heard of resurrection, and who, according to the principles of the philosophy of the Gentiles, believed it entirely impossible. However, they saw with their own eyes the execution of what the holy Prelate had promised them: he had the body of the deceased presented to him, and, by the virtue of the sign of the cross, he restored him to the state he was in before his fall. It is in memory of this prodigy that every year, in Châlons, on the day after Pentecost, a solemn procession is held, in which the reliquary of Saint Memmie is carried onto the bridge of Nau; formerly it was incensed there. Today this no longer takes place. But when the reliquary has arrived at this spot, the bishop or the dignitary who presides intones the Te Deum, the singing of which is continued while proceeding to the cathedral.

A miracle so striking changed not only the mind of the governor, but also that of all the inhabitants who heard about it. They repented of having driven from their enclosure a man so admirable and to whom death obeyed as to its sovereign. They came themselves to beg him to return and to share with them the heavenly doctrine that he had come to bring them. Saint Memmie had a marvelous joy at this conversion; and, being always accompanied by his subdeacon, he took back the road to the city whose gates were gloriously opened to him. Upon his entry, he restored sight to three blind men who came to present themselves before him; he also healed three lepers, and cast the demon out of the body of a possessed man. To preserve the memory of these two miracles, a large cross was erected at the very place where they were performed, which gave the name to the gate of this region. It has been called the Sainte-Croix gate since that time. The same name was given to the street.

The inhabitants, admiring more and more the merits of the servant of God, overwhelmed him with respect and affection; the governor begged him very insistently to take lodging in his palace; but he told them "that the only thing he expected from them and which could give him any satisfaction, was that they recognize the truth that he was announcing to them, that they overturn their idols, that they demolish their profane temples where they had committed so many abominations, and that they receive in their hearts the faith of Jesus Christ." They listened quite willingly to this proposal, and the Saint, who wanted to leave the grace of the Savior time to dispose their minds entirely to such a surprising change, returned in the evening to the solitude from which he had come. His absence only increased the desire to possess him; the inhabitants, unable to suffer that their city be deprived of the divine preacher who held in his hands the remedy for all their bodily and spiritual ills, came in crowds, the very next day, to his desert to beg him to return. They protested to him that they would entirely renounce the worship of their false divinities, and even offered him one of their temples to be purified and changed into a Christian church. The Saint, seeing their devotion, re-entered Châlons for the third time, and having purified this place of abomination by ecclesiastical ceremonies, he dedicated it under the name of Saint-Pierre du Mont, although Saint Peter was still alive, as Saint Savinien did later at Sens, and Saint Clement at Metz. It was then that he began to instruct these idolaters in earnest on all the points of our religion; he did it with such success that the governor, with his wife and son, and most of the inhabitants, received Baptism from his hands and those of his subdeacon.

From that time on, his life was nothing but a continuous series of miracles that followed one another. He delivered another possessed man, healed a lame man by the laying on of his hands, and restored the use of his limbs to a paralytic, saying to him these words of Saint Peter: "I have neither silver nor gold; but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." At the same time, he applied himself to refining the morals of these new Christians, to gradually ridding them of the bad customs they had retained from paganism, to making them taste the solid maxims of the Gospel, and to making them perfect disciples of Jesus Christ through the contempt of temporal things and the desire for eternal goods.

Memmie and his two companions could no longer suffice for their sublime ministry. The harvest was becoming ever more abundant. He had to think about finding worthy co-workers for himself.

The holy Pontiff, with profound wisdom, did not ask Peter for new workers. He believed that to ensure the perpetuity of the faith in Châlons, to strengthen it there forever, and to implant it into the very hearts of the inhabitants, he must seek his co-workers among them. He chose young men from the city itself, in whom he discovered happy dispositions, who were held by a thousand ties to the mass of the people: by their birth, their parents, their allies, their friends, their customs, their language. By this, they were infinitely more suited to exercise a powerful influence, and if persecution were to distance them momentarily from their native land, they would soon return by the force of nature. Memmie formed a college of clerics from them, which he established in the solitude of Buxerre. There, far from the world, and under the eyes of God alone, he instructed them with the greatest care in the doctrine of salvation, exercised them in the practice of Christian virtues, of which there is no example in all of antiquity, and trained them for the functions of the sacred ministry. When he judged them sufficiently prepared, he laid his hands upon them and ordained some as subdeacons, others as deacons, and others as priests.

To assign to each the portion of the flock that he was to pasture with words and examples, he instituted seven titles or parishes in Châlons, independently of the two temples he had already dedicated to the true God, namely: four in the city, and the other three in the suburb or the great island and in the boroughs, where he committed seven priests and as many deacons, following the example of Rome.

The first of these titles, which is next to Saint-Pierre au Mont, was named mother church, baptismal church, or baptistery, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, precursor of Jesus Christ.

In ancient times, one was baptized only in this church. It was the bishop who performed this function himself on the eves of Easter and Pentecost. During the course of the year, when there was an urgent necessity to baptize, the priest of each parish would go to this same church and confer baptism there upon those who were under his charge.

The second title was dedicated in honor of the Blessed Mary in Vaux, where there was an underground chapel in which the statue of the Virgin who was to give birth was worshipped.

The third title was that of the Holy Cross, which is said to have been that ancient church which, having fallen into ruins, was restored and has since borne the name of Saint-Éloi. Nevertheless, the street still retains the name of Holy Cross, as much in relation to this church as on the occasion of the beautiful cross that the people of Châlons had erected at the entrance of this street, at the same place where Saint Memmie restored sight to three blind men.

The fourth title was consecrated in honor of Saint James. This is the whole region that is now called the parish of Saint-Loup. These are the four titles that were in the city, or the town.

The fifth title was established in the great island or the suburb of the market castle, which was called in Latin *suburbium, seu macelli castrum*. It was dedicated in honor of Saint Andrew. It would later bear the name of another saint. However, Saint Andrew would always remain the primitive patron. Its extent began at the Mau bridge and ended at that of Nau. This suburb was formerly inhabited in large part by merchants.

The sixth title, which Memmie instituted, was in the borough of Nau, and had Saint Mary Magdalene as its parish church. This was the whole region that was called the parish of the Trinity. It included within its extent all the streets and houses that are from the Nau bridge to that of the Marne.

There stood several very ancient monuments, the temple of the sibyls, the college of the druids, and the town hall, or the praetorium where they administered justice. It is there that the most beautiful monument of Châlons would later be built.

Finally, the seventh title was fixed to a church built in the borough of Marne, which bore the name of the Holy Innocents, and then that of Saint-Sulpice.

These seven churches or parishes were served by seven priests and as many deacons. The dean of these priests was attached to the church of Saint-Jean, as the first parish; he was called *archpriest*. He was the head and superior of the other six. Likewise, the dean of the deacons was at the head of the deacons and was called *archdeacon*. The service of the priests extended to the spiritual; that of the deacons to the temporal needs of the elderly, wards, the poor, and the sick or infirm.

This archpriest and this archdeacon had authority only within the interior of the city and in the suburbs of Châlons.

As for Memmie, he reserved for himself the basilica of Saint-Pierre aux Monts. There he gathered all the Christians, who came to render to the true God a free and pure worship, and to hear the word of life that flowed from his mouth like a river of honey. This is the cradle of the Christian religion in Châlons, and the primitive seat of the bishopric. The faith having spread more and more, the church of Saint-Pierre later became too small to contain all the people. Hence the origin of the cathedral.

When Memmie had thus organized the spiritual administration of Châlons, and had unburdened himself of the weight that overwhelmed him onto a native clergy, young and full of ardor, he did not think of enjoying any rest. He found new and more numerous nourishment for his zeal. He turned his gaze to the neighboring countryside, which formed the city of Châlons, and which was still covered in the shadows of death.

To bring the lights of the faith to them more promptly, he divided them equally into parishes, and established an archpriest and an archdeacon in the chief towns of the different districts.

The chief town was always designated by this Latin word *pagus*, and it was always a considerable fief, often a county. *Pagus* and *comitatus* are sometimes synonymous in our ancient monuments: each chief town or *pagus* had its governor or count, according to the capitularies of Charles the Bald, in 853.

Memmie divided his diocese into four chief towns, whose names are as follows: *Perthisius pagus*, Perthes; *Stadiensis pagus*, Astenay, which later took the name of Sainte-Ménehould; *Vertudius pagus*, Vertus; and *Camisiciacus pagus*, Cheminon.

The rural archpriest or centurion was at the head of one hundred priests or ten tens of priests; the rural archdeacon had under him the same number of deacons.

The dean, under the orders of the archpriest, supervised ten priests in his district. He usually resided in a market town, *vicus*.

The title of archpriest has successively given way to that of archdeacon, which alone survived until the annihilation of all civil and religious administration in 1793.

Memmie was not content with thus dividing his diocese into four archpriestries; he hastened to go there himself to preach the Gospel.

Being Roman, Memmie had no greater urgency than to visit the Roman soldiers, his compatriots, who were established at Vitry, and to deploy all his zeal to draw them from the darkness of heathendom. Touched by his speeches, his virtues, and his miracles, the legionaries renounced their idols, purified their temple, and consecrated it to the true God.

The inhabitants of Vitry were so deeply moved by gratitude for the inestimable gift of faith that he had brought them, by admiration for his virtues, and by confidence in his power before God, that they placed their church under his invocation.

The Perthois region then had as its capital Perthes, which was a very considerable city, which gave its name to the province, and was like the garrison town where all the cases of the country were brought. Perthes had as its governor a lord named Athila. Memmie went to this city, and announced the Gospel there with such fruit that the lord ceded to him as a pure gift his very palace, in order to establish clerics there to celebrate the holy mysteries, and assigned them several lands for their maintenance.

Memmie, to give the converted pagans the means to fulfill the duties imposed by the divine religion they had embraced, consecrated in the very palace that Athila had ceded to him a church which he dedicated under the invocation of Mary, the Queen of Angels, to whom he had a singular devotion. He brought from his college of Buxerre clerics whom he ordained as priests, charged them with maintaining this new people in the faith, gave them the lands that the lord of Perthes had conceded to him to provide for their needs, and placed at their head L éger Léger Disciple of Memmius and the first rural archpriest at Perthes. (Leodegarius), his disciple most distinguished by the holiness of his life, by his zeal for religion, and even by his miracles. Léger was the first rural archpriest.

The indefatigable Pontiff worked with as much zeal and fruit for the conversion of the three other archpriestries, of Joinville, of Astenay, which was later called Sainte-Ménehould, and of Vertus. His fame prepared the way everywhere; he only had to present himself to reap an abundant harvest.

Memmie, after thirty years of episcopacy, wished to fulfill a great duty. He went to Rome, in the year 96, to report on the administration of his diocese to the visible head of the Church, wh o was Saint C saint Clément Pope who ordained and sent Latuin on a mission. lement, the third successor of Saint Peter, to refresh himself at the center of Catholic unity, to warm himself at the hearth of apostolic zeal, and even to unburden himself of the weight that pressed too heavily upon his shoulders, weakened by age. But the holy Pontiff of the Eternal City was satisfied with his immense labors and sent him back to Châlons to continue them with renewed ardor. He even gave him a more extensive mission; he charged him to go and evangelize the neighboring nations, which were still sitting in the shadow of death.

It is this second mission that some authors have mistaken for the first.

Memmie returned to Châlons inflamed with a more ardent zeal for the salvation of souls, and invested with greater powers. He was no longer content to announce the Gospel in the province that had initially been committed to his care; he pushed his apostolic journeys further.

He preached the faith to the peoples near the Ardennes forest and on the banks of the Meuse. Near Sedan is a place where his name has remained and which is called Saint-Menge. Far from seeking the comforts of rest, he constantly ran toward new fatigues. Dangers and obstacles seemed to multiply under his steps; but his zeal ignited more and more. How he wished to carry the torch of faith to the ends of the universe, and to immolate himself a thousand times for the salvation of his brothers! He traveled through the diocese of Langres, and everywhere obtained abundant fruits of salvation. This tireless apostle advan Liège Episcopal see of the saint. ced, in 120, as far as the country of Liège, announced the good news in the city which he converted, and where he consecrated a temple to God under the name and protection of the first martyr, Saint Stephen.

When he had strengthened this city in the faith, he left some of his disciples there to continue the work he had so happily begun, and returned to Châlons.

Some authors claim that he went to preach the Gospel as far as Spain, where his name is held in veneration.

There were no virtues that did not shine admirably in Saint Memmie. He had a constant and unshakable faith, a confidence in God that no adversity could weaken, a perfect and very pure charity that made him look in all things to the interests of the glory of Jesus Christ. He loved prayer and solitude, and, when he had spent entire days preaching to the idolaters, instructing the new faithful, administering the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, and publicly celebrating the holy Mysteries, he would eagerly withdraw to them, in order to draw, from prayer and communication with God, supernatural strength to continue his duties holily, without receiving any prejudice to his own spiritual advancement. In these exercises of piety, he reached an extreme old age, since it is asserted that he was thirty-two years old when he received episcopal consecration, and that he was a bishop for no less than eighty years. Seeing, therefore, that the end of his life was near, and that his weakness no longer allowed him to perform his duties, he relieved himself of his bishopric and the burden of his church onto Donatien, his former deacon, whom he designated as his successor. The treasure he bequ Donatien Deacon of Memmius and his successor to the see of Châlons. eathed to him was not considerable: it consisted only of a wooden crosier and a few other ornaments of the same value; but he left him, in compensation, admirable examples of virtue, which served to perfect the holiness he already possessed to an excellent degree. Finally, he rendered his soul to God in the manner one could expect from such a great servant of Jesus Christ. It was in the year 126, under the pontificate of Sixtus I and the empire of Hadrian.

His sacred body was buried in his oratory of Buxerre, which he had never abandoned throughout his life, and, as many miracles occurred at his tomb, the Christians of Châlons, who were his children in Jesus Christ, had a very beautiful church built there under the name of the Apostle Saint Peter, to whom they were indebted for their own apostle. Since then, as miracles continued, and the pilgrimage of Saint Memmie became very famous, this church changed its name and took that of the same Saint Memmie or Menge.

In the year 633, there occurred in Châlons and its surroundings such a great drought that all the waters were dried up, and the land was reduced to extreme sterility. People had recourse to God, through the intercession of Saint Memmie, and, on the 5th of the month of May, at the break of day, around four o'clock, the ground where the church is built and where the holy body is buried opened of its own accord in the shape of a well forty feet deep. This prodigy caused no little astonishment to all the people; but the water that gushed forth immediately after over this opening, and which soaked the earth all around, gave a new subject for admiration and a desire to know the cause of this wonder.

They dug next to the miraculous well, and it was found that this source came from the coffin of our holy bishop, which was full of very clear water, and contained his sacred bones, no longer covered with skin and flesh, but so well joined together, and in such a beautiful arrangement, that it was evident they had not been preserved in this state without a particular protection of divine Providence. Then all those present, after having cried miracle for some time, offered prayers to God in thanksgiving for the favor they had just received from his mercy.

Several miracles have been performed at this admirable sepulcher: for the possessed have been delivered there, the blind enlightened, the sick healed, and all kinds of unfortunate people relieved. Saint Gregory of Tours reports, in the book of the Glory of the Confessors, that he was a witness to the virtue of Saint Memmie in the person of one of his servants, who, traveling in his retinue, was stopped at Châlons by a violent fever, accompanied by vomiting and other distressing symptoms. His master came to pray for him at the sepulcher of this blessed bishop, and, that very night, the sick man was perfectly healed: so that he rose in the morning in perfect health.

The college of clerics, founded by Saint Memmie, became a religious community around which dwellings began to group. We believe that this is the origin of the abbey and the village of Saint-Memmie. The abbey was destroyed in 855 by the Normans, as well as its church. Both were rebuilt, but the church was smaller. It is probably the one that can still be seen today next to the tomb of Saint Memmie. In 868, Charles the Bald gave orders to open the sepulcher and to raise the body of Saint Memmie from the ground. In 1005, the old patrimony of the abbey having been given to the chapter of Saint-Étienne, the canons wished to possess the body of the Saint. The bishop having given orders for the translation to take place in 1066, the few monks who still remained in the poor abbey and the inhabitants of the borough of Saint-Memmie vigorously opposed his undertaking. But soldiers came to invade, pillage, ravage the monastery, take the body of the Saint by force of arms, and carried it immediately to the cathedral. In 1077, Pope Gregory VII had the body returned to the abbey. On June 8, 1318, the body was raised from the ground and placed in a rich casket of pure silver, with that of Saint Pome, his sister. The casket was then placed in a vast sainte Pome Sister of Saint Memmius, whose relics are associated with hers. niche above the high altar. In 1450 and 1543, the religious were obliged to put the caskets in safety, because of the wars and thefts that followed. They deposited them in a house called the little Saint-Memmie, which belonged to them. It was located in Châlons, at one of the corners formed by the Rue Sainte-Marguerite and the Rue Basse-Saint-Jean. In 1624, the most famous translation of the relics of Saint Memmie and his two companions took place. It was accompanied by a large number of miracles.

The cult of Saint Memmie became from then on more and more famous, and his relics were requested from all sides for the consecration of churches. In 1793, the casket of Saint Memmie was taken, but the relics were preserved from any profanation: they were buried in the cemetery, and removed from the ground in 1795, under the eyes of the ecclesiastical authority. They were then enclosed in a gilded wooden casket that still exists today. In 1814, during the invasion, the relics were transported to the convent of the nuns of the Congregation where they remained until May 8, 1817, the time at which they were returned to the parish of Saint-Memmie.

We have used, to compose this biography, the Discourse on Saint Memmie, by the Rev. Fr. Charles Rapine, the Beauties of the History of Champagne, by the Abbé Boitel, and local notes, provided by the Abbé Bégin, canon of Châlons.