Saint Taurinus of Eauze

Auch, where Saint Taurin retired, was divided at that time into two very distinct cities: Climberris, the Gallic city, much diminished, no doubt, on the ridge and the slopes of the hill, and Augusta Auscoru m, the Roman cit Augusta Auscorum Episcopal city of which Leothade was the pastor. y or the bright city, as it was sometimes called later, on the banks of the Gers. Saint Sernin had sown the Gospel there in the first century of the Christian era; an ancient tradition which has been perpetuated through the ages, and which we find mentioned in several very respectable documents of the metropolis of Auch, even holds that, having learned by revelation while preaching in Auch of the death of Saint Peter, martyred in Rome under Nero, he hastened to build an oratory on the left bank of the Gers in honor of the prince of the Apostles. The faith had made proselytes there since that first preaching, and soon the oratory of Saint-Pierre was no longer sufficient. Another had been erected a few steps away, towards the north, outside the enclosure walls of the two cities.

After having erected on the summit of the hill a small chapel in which he placed the altar of the Blessed Virgin and a portion of the relics he had brought from Eauze, he went to deposit the rest in the oratory of Saint-Jean, and established his pontifical see there. This was to settle there himself, and as he wished to keep the bodies of his predecessors near him, he buried them in this oratory near the high altar. The presence of Saint Taurin, the example of his virtues, and his pressing exhortations could only revive the piety of the Christians in Auch and increase their number. Thus, he is generally regarded as the first bishop of this city. It is true that it is to him that the oldest documents of this Church go back and stop. We would be inclined, however, to believe that the see of Auch already existed. It was the almost constant custom of the primitive Church, when the faith had been preached with some success in a somewhat important city, and especially when it had made progress there, to place there not one or several priests, but a bishop. Now, when Saint Taurin appeared in Auch, Saint Sernin had cast the evangelical seed there for a good number of years, and this seed had fructified there to the point of requiring two oratories and a cemetery.

However, the confines of a city were too narrow for the zeal of the apostolic man. This ardent soul required a vaster theater; charity is sometimes as hungry for conquests as ambition. Like the latter, the former knows, when necessary, how to go almost to the point of imprudent temerity. One day, word spread that to perform we know not what rite of the Druidic cult, a large crowd was gathering in the woods of Berdale, then more extensive than it is in our day, for it ended only a short distance from Aubiet. At this news, the herald of the Gospel could not contain himself. Braving all perils and perhaps smiling at the fate that awaited him, he ran to attack error even in its lair. The sacrifice had begun. Suddenly, in the midst of the religious silence, a voice was heard. It was Taurin! To the deluded multitude, in the presence of the priests who were lead ing th Taurin Bishop of Eauze and later of Auch, beheaded martyr. em astray, he spoke of all that was empty, unworthy, and false in the cult of the false divinities that received their worship, and, on the contrary, of all that the God of whom he was the minister had brought to the earth in terms of virtues, consolations, and freedom. The crowd was at first astonished by the boldness and novelty of this language; it hesitated for a few moments: but soon, urged on by the druids, it threw itself upon the intrepid apostle and overwhelmed him with a hail of stones and blows from sticks. He was still breathing when an idolater, more carried away than the others, shattered his skull with a first blow of an axe, and with a second, severed his head entirely. An ancient tradition claims that the Saint renewed before the eyes of his murderers the miracle of Saint Denis of Paris, and that he carried, with his mutilated trunk, his head as far as the street of Auch, which since then has received his name and which was located near the terraces of the archbishopric. It was there that the Christians went to retrieve his sacred remains to bury them in the church of Saint-Jean, next to the remains of his predecessors on the see of Eauze.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The feast of Saint Taurin is celebrated throughout the diocese of Auch, with the same pomp as the greatest solemnities, on September 5, which is believed to be the day of his martyrdom. He is invoked against headaches. When the episcopal see was transferred, around the year 850, to the old chapel built by Saint Taurin on the ridge of the hill, which later became the church of Sainte-Marie, the archbishops thought to transport his relics near them. No monument that has reached us indicates the date of this translation. Be that as it may, the body of Saint Taurin was lowered into a crypt with those of Saint Léothade and Saint Austinde. In 1610, Mgr Léonard de Trapes ca rried out the inventi Mgr Léonard de Trapes Archbishop of Auch who conducted the invention of the relics in 1610. on of his relics.

During the Revolution révolution Period during which the saint's relics were hidden and lost. , the head of Saint Taurin disappeared, as did the large silver bust that contained it; as for the reliquary that held the rest of the body, it was respected, as was noted during the visit made on February 4, 1857, by Mgr de Sali nis. Here is t Mgr de Salinis Archbishop of Auch who conducted the inventory of relics in 1857. he inventory of the relics of Saint Taurin, as it was made at that time:

Twelve ribs or rib fragments; — In addition, four small fragments; — Seven vertebrae, whole or nearly so, including two joined cervical vertebrae and two others that are also cervical, but separated; — Sixteen fragments of other vertebrae; — Upper part of the larynx; — A large fragment of the upper part of the left scapula; — The right clavicle; — Two humerus fragments; — A notable fragment of each of the two radii; — A fragment of an ulna; — Both femurs minus their heads; — A separated femur head; — The left fibula, whole; — The right fibula, fractured in two; — Both tibiae; — Both patellae; — Both calcanei with one talus; — Four tarsal bones; — Twelve of the long bones of the feet or hands; — Four fragments of foot bones; — A very small fragment of fabric; — Two vases of ashes.

Excerpt from the Lives of the Saint Bishops of the metropolis of Auch, by M. J.-J. Moulesun, canon of Auch and Le Puy.