Saint Caesarius of Arles

Thus Caesarius, having happily escaped the hands of those who wished to oppose his vocation, arrived at Lérins where Saint Porcarius, who was its abbot, gave him the habit of the Congregation, to the great contentment of the Brothers. He immediately made himself a model of virtue in the monastery; for he was the most diligent in vigils, the most careful in the observance of the Rule, the most prompt in obedience, the most assiduous in work, the most humble in the exercise of the ministries of the cloister, and the most admirable in modesty and gentleness; so that the elders were quite surprised to see a young man, whom they had received to instruct in regular discipline, already perfected in the practice of all religious virtues. He practiced extraordinary mortifications, knowing well that the more the body is weakened, the more the spirit becomes vigorous, and that the perfection of the inner man is founded only upon the ruins of the outer man. He spent the nights in reading, prayer, and work; and, instead of giving his body the food that his age required, he deprived it of that which was necessary, eating only a few vegetables that he prepared from one Sunday to the next.

This excessive austerity in a young man soon ruined his health and reduced him to a state of languor that moved the holy abbot to pity. But, as long as he remained in the monastery, one could never stop his fervor nor oblige him to interrupt for some time his spiritual exercises and the practice of mortification; it was therefore decided to send him to Arles, so that one cou ld wo Arles Ecclesiastical metropolis of the province to which Constantine belonged. rk toward the restoration of his health. There was in this city an illustrious citizen, named Firminus, who, with his wife, used his wealth to assist the ecclesiastics, the religious, and the poor who implored his charity.

He was asked to receive the young Caesarius into his house. He received him and considered him as his own son. Not content with restoring the health of his protégé, Firminus wished to adorn his mind: to this end, he had him follow the lessons of Pomerius, a famous rhetorician who had come from Africa to teach in Arles. But a terrible vision warned Caesarius not to learn profane sciences: God reserved for Himself the instruction of this privileged soul. However, Firminus spoke of the virtues of our Eonius Bishop of Arles, a relative of Caesarius, who ordained him and designated him as his successor. Saint to Eonius, Bishop of Arles, a compatriot and relative of Caesarius. This prelate requested him from Abbot Porcarius, obtained him with difficulty, and conferred upon him successively the diaconate and the priesthood, to employ him in the service of his Church.

Our Saint did not change his way of life in the slightest, and always faithfully observed the constitutions of the monastery of Lérins. He was raised to holy orders, but he was no less a religious, distinguishing himself among the other clerics by his profound humility, his ardent charity, his prompt obedience, and his continual mortification. He was the first to arrive at the church and the last to leave it. He closed his eyes and ears to all things of the world, to apply himself solely to the contemplation of heavenly truths, and there appeared on his face a certain divine something, which inspired devotion in those who had the happiness of seeing him.

The abbot of a monastery located on an island at the gates of Arles having died, Eonius immediately cast his eyes on Caesarius to put him in his place. Three years later, Eonius, exhausted by a long illness and seeing himself to be extremely ill, asked for Caesarius as his successor. At this news, the Saint took flight and went to hide in the tombs built by the Romans, the ruins of which can still be seen today near Arles. But he was discovered and forced to acquiesce to the desires of the people and the clergy, who, with a unanimous voice, had elected him as their pastor (502). He was then thirty-three years old.

As soon as he was elected to this first see of the Gauls, he made himself, through his vigilance and tireless labors, a true successor of the Apostles. He abandoned the care of the temporal affairs of his Church to his deacons and other officers whom he appointed, in order to apply himself entirely to studying the word of God and dispensing it usefully to his people. He possessed the Holy Scripture so thoroughly that one would have said he was reading it from a book rather than reciting it from memory. It was from this alone that he drew all the beautiful instructions he gave to his flock, and he explained it with such eloquence that, like that man in the Gospel, he drew new things from this treasure every day: he described vices with such ugliness that it gave horror to those who listened to him, and he represented virtue with such beauties that, charming everyone, they inspired an ardent desire to practice it. He made pathetic descriptions of the vanity of earthly things and showed the solidity of those of heaven. He converted some through threats and severity, and won others through his honesty and gentleness; by his tears, he triumphed over the hardness of the most stubborn; in a word, he prudently applied the remedy to each sick person, and, like a wise physician, he had less regard for what might please the patient than for what he judged to be most useful for his healing. He did not blush to exhort the very bishops who visited him to discharge their duties worthily and to work tirelessly for the salvation of the souls that God had committed to them; he especially exhorted his clergy to make themselves worthy of their functions and their ministry. He represented to them that it was a crime for them to remain silent when they saw abuses to be corrected among the people; that their profession bound them indispensably to announce the word of God; and that, if they failed in this duty, which others than they would discharge more worthily, they would draw upon themselves this terrible reproach of Jesus Christ: "Woe to you, lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering." Finally, as if he had penetrated the interior of consciences, he exposed to each of them the faults to which he was prone and of which he had to correct himself.

To prevent chatter in the church, he obliged the laity to sing, with the clerics, psalms, hymns, and antiphons, and he established the custom of preaching and exhortations on feast days. He founded hospitals for the sick, where he wanted the divine office to be performed as in his cathedral. He also assigned places and revenues for the retreat and subsistence of the poor: he had such tenderness for them that he often commanded his servants to go and see if there was anyone at the door of his palace, for fear of making them wait too long exposed to the insults of the weather, while he was at his ease in his room. He said that God had left the poor on earth so that we might give them the goods for which we hope to receive restitution from the hands of Jesus Christ in heaven.

As Caesarius was thus working quietly for the guidance of his people, he was accused before Alaric, King of the Goths, of Alaric, roi des Goths King of the Goths who conquered Touraine. conspiring with the Burgundians to hand over the city of Arles to them. His true accusers were ecclesiastics from his own clergy, whose status might have made them credible had their wicked lives, which their prelate rebuked too strongly for their liking, not stripped them of all trust. They did not appear themselves, however, but made use of Licuman, the Saint's notary or secretary; Licuman, having a greater share in his master's affairs due to his position, made the slander more plausible. Alaric, who, although an Arian, had until then held much respect for Caesarius, too lightly gave credence to this report, according to the nature of tyrants who cannot help but be suspicious; thus, he drove him from his see and relegated him to Bordeaux. But this exile became infinitely glorious for him through a miracle that bore witness to his innocence: for fire having broken out in the city, threatening it with total ruin, the inhabitants, who had recognized his holiness since he had been living among them, turned to him and begged him to pray to God to make the conflagration cease. He could not refuse them: he therefore came into the street before the flames, knelt down, and offered a prayer so effective that the fire ceased all at once. During the time he remained in Bordeaux, he often preached to the people, and his words moved all hearts. Far from complaining about Alaric, his persecutor, he always spoke of him with great respect and recommended that the people obey him, because the Gospel obliges one to be subject to sovereigns.

This conduct was fortunate for Caesarius, for Alaric recognized his innocence through it and wrote him a very honorable letter to inform him that he could return to Arles whenever he wished. The inhabitants, knowing he was approaching, went out to meet him with raised crosses and lit candles, as if meeting a conqueror. His arrival was marked by a miracle: for a long time an extraordinary drought had devastated their territory, and there was no hope of a harvest for that year; but as soon as he entered the city, the sky, which had illuminated it with the most serene day ever seen, suddenly darkened and poured down rain so abundant that the earth was sufficiently watered to produce a fine harvest. Alaric had condemned his slanderer to be stoned; when Caesarius saw the stones in the hands of the people, he placed himself before the culprit and saved him.

He did not enjoy this rest for long. Cl ovis, Clovis King of the Franks, mentioned to date the existence of the church. having allied himself with Gundobad, King of the Burgundians, came to besiege Arles jointly with him. During the siege, treacherous Jews, who were secretly in league with the besieging army, devised a plan to better veil their designs by accusing Bishop Saint Caesarius of treason, under the pretext of the charity he exercised toward the Frankish and Burgundian prisoners. They seized him, loaded him with chains, and led him to the prince's palace, where they threw him into prison with the intention of casting him into the Rhône at the earliest opportunity. The besiegers having moved slightly away from the walls, the besieged sallied forth, and a letter from a Jew was found attached to a stone, warning the enemies that if they attacked the city from the side where the Jews were keeping watch, they would undoubtedly take it; but he asked them, as a reward for this information, that those at that station be exempt from pillage. This letter having revealed, on one hand, the treason of the Jews, and on the other, the innocence of Caesarius, he was set at liberty. He immediately set to work to relieve the misery of many people whom the Goths had brought into the city after the lifting of the siege. To this end, he sold his furniture and had the gold and silver vessels of the church melted down. "If you were in the same misfortune as these poor people," he said to the priests and clerics who found fault with this charity, "you would undoubtedly approve of my conduct, and your misery would make appear just what you now blame. Why would you have me abandon the members of Jesus Christ and let them die of starvation, while I have in hand the gold and silver that were given to the same Jesus Christ, with which I can save their lives? Would it not be more pleasing to His heart and to His eyes to see His precious blood and His sacred body, which He willingly allowed to be nailed to the wood of the cross for our salvation, in vessels of lesser price, than to see such a great number of His children, who are the objects of His love and tenderness, perish from misery?" It is undoubtedly thanks to the reputation and charity of Caesarius and his credit with God that the city of Arles, in his time, was neither taken nor pillaged, but passed peacefully from the Goths to the Visigoths, then to the Ostrogoths, and from them to the Franks, under King Childebert.

While he was working on this good work, a new persecution was stirred up against him. Malicious people accused him before Theodoric of having plotted something against his service. This overly credulous prince sent him an order to come and meet him in Italy to clear himself of the things imputed to him. Caesarius, who felt innocent, willingly undertook this journey and went to Ravenna. He entered the palace with a face so serene and so full of majesty that the one who had summoned him as a judge trembled upon seeing him, and felt touched by an unknown respect for him; so that, instead of speaking to him of the things of which he had been accused, he inquired about the hardships he had suffered on such a long journey, and the state in which he had left the city of Arles; he rendered him extraordinary honors: he sent him a silver basin of about sixty marks, and a considerable sum of ready money, as compensation for the expenses he had caused him, with orders to say these words: "Holy Bishop, receive these gifts; the king, your son, prays you to apply them to your use, so that you may remember him." The Saint did indeed receive them; but, as he had never used silver tableware at his table, except for spoons, he immediately used them to ransom all the prisoners from the land of Orange and the Durance, whom he found in the army, for whom he also took the care to provide mounts to return to their country. Such a generous and charitable action was reported to Theodoric, who published it with great praise. The whole court admired such an extraordinary man, and hastened to make his acquaintance. The honors he received there did not inflate him with vanity; but, considering them as smoke, he believed that he should not be praised for having done what he ought to have done, and he had more sorrow at being forced to leave some prisoners behind than satisfaction at having ransomed a great number. God glorified him through even more wonderful actions: for, upon his departure from Ravenna, he resurrected the son of a poor widow, who supported her by his labor, and delivered a demoniac named Elpidius by sprinkling holy water throughout his house.

Caesarius went from Ravenna to Rome. Pope Symmachus, the clergy, the senators, and the people welcomed him as a Saint. Symmachus gav e him the Pal pape Symmaque Pope defended by Apollinaris. lium with his own hands, and granted the deacons of his Church the privilege of wearing dalmatics as the deacons of the Roman Church did. Having received considerable sums as a gift, our Saint used them for the ransom of the prisoners of his country who were still in the power of the Goths, and he returned with them to Arles, more glorious than if he had come laden with the spoils of all the enemies of the empire. As he still had a considerable sum left, he went himself to Carcassonne to deliver other prisoners there, and sent abbots, deacons, and clerics to do the same in various other places. Having one day met a poor man who asked him for the means to ransom a captive, and having no money to give him, he ran promptly to his room, took the cope he used for processions, and his Easter day alb, and gave them to him.

Saint Caesarius attended several Synods. The first was that of Agde, held in the year 506, where ecclesiastical discipline, which had been miserably relaxed by the mixing with Arian heretics, was restored. Many Catholics, through association with the Arians and to gain the favor of Alaric, who had embraced their sect, had renounced the faith; the bishops, not wishing to exclude them from the hope of reconciliation, found a compromise between the ancient rigor of the Church, of which Christians were no longer capable, and the total relaxation of discipline: this was to oblige them to the laborious exercises of penance for two years, which would serve as a test of their false or true conversion.

He presided over the Second Council of Orange which was held under the consulship of Aetius the Younger, in 529, although Baronius indicates another date. The occasion was the dedication of a basilica built by the patrician Liberius. They dealt with the disputes that were then making much noise in the Gauls, because of the books of Faustus and the accusations of his supporters against the true disciples of Saint Augustine, regardi ng predestinat saint Augustin Cited for his definition of fraternal charity. ion, grace, and free will. They w ere settled by the authority of De la Grâce et du libre arbitre Theological work by Caesarius against the theses of Faustus of Riez. the same Saint Augustine, from whose words almost all the Canons were composed. Caesarius showed the profound knowledge he had of the doctrine of this great bishop, and he maintained it against those who had declared themselves its enemies; but, at the same time, he condemned the Predestinarians who, under the pretext of this doctrine, taught propositions that were entirely heretical and pernicious. He had previously composed two excellent books 'On Grace and Free Will' against those of Faustus. Pope Felix IV, to whom he had sent them, found them so learned and so useful to the Church that he ordered him to publish them and gave them his approval through an epistle which was placed at the beginning. But this fine work is no longer found, and its loss cannot be regretted enough.

He also presided over the Council of Vaison, in 529, where it was ordered that the name of the living Pope would be recited in all Masses, and over that of Riez, where Contumeliosus, who was its bishop, was deposed for the disorders of his life: the conduct of Caesarius in this circumstance was approved by Pope John, who, in his response, ordered that the culprit be confined in a monastery to expiate, through penance, the scandal he had given to his people, and that a visitor be elected to govern his diocese, but that he would not perform any ordinations and would not interfere in temporal matters.

Our Saint had a revelation of his death two years before it occurred, and in a rapture, he saw the glory to which he was to be raised as a reward for his labors. He warned his disciples of this, in order to prepare them to bear this loss with the submission they owed to the order of divine Providence. During his illness, which caused him great pain, he asked those present when the feast of Saint Augustine would be celebrated, and, learning that it would be soon, he replied: "I hope that my passing will not be far from that of this great Doctor, whose doctrine I have always cherished and whose sentiments I have followed." He made his will in which he declared that, having inherited nothing from his parents, he bequeathed nothing to them: he left his property partly to his church and partly to the monastery of nuns he had founded. Feeling that his hour was near, he had himself carried, dying as he was, to the same monastery of nuns, in order to console them once more with his presence and to give them his final blessing. He exhorted the abbess, named Caesaria, like his sister, whom she had succeeded, and also all his daughters, two hundred in number, to work with fervor to correspond to their vocation and to keep inviolably the Rule he had given them some time before; then, taking leave of them while they were melting into tears, he had himself carried back to his church, where, three days later, on August 27, the eve of Saint Augustine, just as he had predicted, at the hour of Prime, he peacefully rendered his soul to Jesus Christ, in the presence of the prelates, priests, and deacons who were assisting him, in the year of grace 542. He was buried in the main church of the monastery dedicated under the name of the Blessed Virgin, and intended for the burial of the nuns: his body was preserved there very preciously.

We have not reported all the miracles he performed during his life and after his death, because their number is too considerable. They can be read in his life, in the 6th volume of Surius, composed by Saint Cyprian, Bishop of Toulon, his disciple, and b y Stephen, deacon of the same C saint Cyprien, évêque de Toulon Disciple and biographer of Saint Caesarius. hurch. It is addressed to the Abbess Caesaria, whom Surius and Baronius believed to be his sister; but it is evident that it was the one who had succeeded her, and of whom we spoke regarding his death. There remain to us four homilies of his, which are inserted in the Library of the Fathers, where those who have embraced the monastic life will find admirable instructions. He had composed them for the monks of Lérins, and they show the profound knowledge he had of the obligations of those who consecrate themselves to God in the cloisters.

Acta Sanctorum: History of the Church, by Jager; Godescaud; Legendary of Anton, by Abbé Puginot; History of the Church, by Abbé Darras. — Cf. Trichand: History of Saint Caesarius, 1 vol. in-9.