Saint Aregius

Idolatry still reigned in many places of this diocese which was, moreover, infected with several heresies and prey to many disorders and vices, after having been devastated by several wars. Arey applied himself with tireless care and courage to ruining all the remains of paganism, to banishing all kinds of errors from his diocese, to reforming the corrupted morals of the faithful, and to renewing the ancient fervor of Christianity. He employed for this purpose assiduous prayers and tears at the foot of the sanctuary, and the sword of the word of God, which he wielded every day with great success. The innocence and purity of his life corresponded to the holiness of his doctrine; for he was chaste, sober, patient, modest, penitent, just in all his judgments, and fervent in all his actions. He took only one meal, drank no wine, slept little, and the time he took from his sleep, he occupied faithfully in prayer. Our Lord also authorized his discourses and his examples with great miracles: his Acts state that he gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, that he made the lame walk straight, restored health to the sick, and even raised the dead.

Bound by a close friendship with P opes Vigiliu papes Vigile Pope who held the Council of Constantinople and was persecuted by Justinian. s an d Pela Pélage Pope contemporary with Saint Aré. gius, he traveled to Rome several times to visit both of them during the course of his Ours Servant of Saint Aré, resurrected by him. episcopate. Upon returning from one of these journeys, he sent one of his men, named Ours, ahead to notify the inhabitants of Nevers of his arrival. The latter found the Nièvre overflowing, and the bridge, which he was to cross, carried away by the waters. Nevertheless, he attempted to cross the river on horseback; but, swept away by the force of the water, he drowned. Saint Arey, arriving at the place where the misfortune had occurred, seeing his servant deprived of life, prostrated himself and prayed fervently to God to restore to him the one who had just perished so miserably for having wanted to execute his orders too scrupulously. His prayer was answered; Ours was able to serve his master for many more years. In memory of this miracle, when the bridge was rebuilt, it was named Pont-Saint-Ours, a name it still bears today.

Saint Aré attended and subscribed t o the fifth council of Orlé cinquième concile d'Orléans Council held in 549 attended by the saint. ans in 549, and the second council of Paris, in 551.

Finally, the time of his reward having arrived, he learned the day of it through a heavenly revelation. This news was so agreeable to him that he wished to share it with his dear faithful. He therefore assembled them in the cathedral, and mounting the pulpit, he declared to them that he must soon leave them, because God was calling him to go and enjoy the sovereign happiness for which he had been sighing for so many years; at the same time, he begged them to always remember the salutary instructions he had given them; to carefully avoid the poison of heresies, to have the fear of God's judgments perpetually before their eyes, to make piety and divine worship their primary concern; to esteem nothing as much as their eternal salvation, and to prefer it to riches, pleasures, honors, health, life, and all temporal things. After this discourse, he gave them his blessing. For his burial, he ordered that his body, after his death, should be placed in a small boat on the Loire, and that he should be buried in the place where this boat would stop of its own accord. Thus, having received with great fervor the Sacraments with which the Church provides its children against the difficulties of death, he fell asleep peacefully in Our Lord, in 558.

The venerable ecclesiastics of his church punctually fulfilled what he had commanded. His body was placed in a small boat on the Loire, with a quantity of lit torches, and immediately the boat, instead of descending the river's current, went up, by a supernatural force, as far as Decize, ten leagues from Ne vers b Decize Burial place and main center of the cult of Saint Aré. y water. It was there that Saint Aré had chosen the place of his rest. While traveling through his diocese, he had one day visited two holy anchorites, Euphraste and Auxile, who had built a chapel in Decize in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Having recognized something extraordinary in this sanctuary, he had taken a singular affection for it, and even said these words of David: "This is my rest for ever and ever: here will I dwell; for I have chosen it." But let us return to the boat that carried the body of the deceased saint. It stopped, therefore, at Decize. This prodigy filled those who saw it with admiration. But here is what astonished them more: the wind, however impetuous it might be, did not blow out the candles around such an august relic. The holy bishop was buried in the chapel of Our Lady, which he had adorned.

## CULT AND RELICS.

A large church was built on the very spot where Saint Aré was buried, which serves as the parish for the entire town and has Saint Aré as its patron and titular saint. The chapel of Notre-Dame was enclosed within it, and the entire body of this blessed prelate was preserved there, along with his head, which was displayed in a separate reliquary. Several miraculous healings have taken place at the same site through his intercession.

In the 18th century, one could see in the registry of Decize the criminal trial of two thieves who, having stolen his venerable head to obtain the silver of the reliquary, were stopped in a field two leagues from the town by divine power, unable to move: this led to them being caught, the recovery of this rich treasure, and their punishment for this sacrilege.

Nothing is as well known in Nevers as the Saint-Ours bridge, which is built over the Nièvre, five kilometers from the city, on the road leading to Prémery, Varay, Clamocy, Corbigny, Lormes, and Avallon. The chapel no longer exists: it was dedicated not to Saint Aré, nor to Saint Ours, but rather to Saint Agatha of Catania. The fact of the resurrection of Saint Ours is known, but little among the people.

Saint Aré is held in greater veneration in Decize than in Nevers, for two reasons: 1° The body of Saint Aré remained in Decize until the Revolution and was considered the safeguard of that city; 2° Nevers possessed the body of Saint Arégie, another of its bishops, whose powerful protection the inhabitants have often experienced, and in whose intercession they have boundless confidence. Saint Aré is the patron of the parish of Decize; under the apse of the church exists a very ancient crypt, and although it presents no particular character, it is regarded as primitive. In this crypt is the antique stone sarcophagus that contained, before 1793, the body of Saint Aré. At that time, the revolutionaries profaned it and threw the venerated remains of the holy Bishop into the midst of the books and priestly vestments to which they set fire in the very choir of the church of Decize. It was believed that the diocese of Nevers was deprived forever of the relics of this holy Bishop, when Bishop Crosnier, wh ile in Deciz Mgr Crosnier Author of the Hagiologie Nivernaise and authenticator of relics in the 19th century. e, learned that a sick woman possessed the tibia of one of Saint Aré's legs: he went to this woman, tibia d'une des jambes de saint Aré Relic saved from revolutionary desecration. accompanied by the parish priest, and learned from her that her mother-in-law, a very pious woman, had had the courage, at the moment of the profanation of 1793, to throw herself into the midst of the flames to remove some portion of the holy relics; everyone, or at least many people in Decize, knew this fact. This woman, before her death, had given Mr. Boutoute, former parish priest of Decize, a fragment of the tibia to be deposited in the tomb before which the faithful went to pray, and she kept the most considerable part, which she gave to her daughter-in-law. It is the latter who gave it to Bishop Crosnier, assuring him with an oath of what she had just told him; her husband, who had been a witness when his mother removed this bone from the midst of the flames, took the same oath; Bishop Crosnier took care to bring in other friends of the pious woman, all of whom certified the fact to him; of all this he drew up a report signed by the witnesses and a doctor he had called. "It seems to me," adds Bishop Crosnier, "that we have, for this relic, all the certainty one could desire. I removed a part of it for the cathedral and returned the rest to the parish priest of Decize, for his church, with the authentic document."

Du Saussay and Philippe de Ferraro, in their martyrologies, and the Messieurs de Sainte-Marthe, in the Gallia Christiana, speak of Saint Aré. What we have said about him has been mainly drawn from the proper Breviary of the diocese of Nevers; and from the Hagiologie Nivernaise, by Mgr Crosnier.