Saint Austind of Bordeaux

Until then, Auch had only had one cemetery. It was always the same one that the first Christians had established around the church of Saint-Jean. When Saint Orens, imitating his predecessors and in turn imitated by the bishops who succeeded him, chose it as his burial place, people loved more than ever to rest near such venerated ashes; and more than once, no doubt, the piety of the faithful proved generous and paid amply for the hospitality it came to seek. As long as there was only one parish church in the city, this custom was maintained without difficulty. But, after the division of the city between Sainte-Marie and Saint-Orens, it had to be otherwise. The establishment of a new religious service, by creating two different administrations and almost opposing interests, was naturally to lead to the creation of a second cemetery. Several archbishops had understood this; but, whether out of timidity or weakness, they had all recoiled before the opposition that this measure could not fail to provoke. Raymond Coppa, firmer and more courageous, resolved to execute it. He chose a location inside the city, at the very gates of the metropolis; and without stopping for the clamor or the protests of the monks of Saint-Orens, declared adversaries of the project, he solemnly blessed the chosen site, enriched it with indulgences, and established the new cemetery there. The act of this establishment bears the date of November 4, 1045. Among the three or four subscriptions with which it is adorned, one reads that of Saint Austinde, who takes the title of clerk of the Church of Bordeaux.

Despite this public adherence to Coppa's attempt, when the young clerk wished to escape entirely from the expectations of the century and embrace a more perfect life, he did not hesitate to withdraw among the monks of Saint-Orens, wh om his conduct must h moines de Saint-Orens Monastery of which Austind was abbot before becoming archbishop. ave singularly displeased, and, astonishingly, it was he whom they chose to place at their head after two or three years of novitiate. The life of the new abbot was to present another singularity greater than the previous one. The Archbishop of Auch having died in the meantime, the chapter of Sainte-Marie, in open struggle with the monks of Saint-Orens, placed their superior on the metropolitan see (1041). Certainly, it required a merit that was very rare and well-recognized to triumph thus over the most legitimate prejudices and to win such opposing votes so quickly.

His first acts announced what was to be expected of his episcopate. Confident in his right and deaf to all considerations of vain prudence, he resumed the work of his predecessor, which the Holy See, deceived by the monks, had quashed, and in spite of a bull whose nullity he suspected, and which was later confirmed, he reopened the cemetery of Saint-Marie and ordered burials there. His former community immediately protested and sent two of its members to Rome. The Prelate followed them there; but before leaving, pouring out his soul before the altar of the Virgin and prostrate at the feet of her image, he conjured heaven to defend his cause and to thwart the designs of his adversaries. His prayers were answered. The deputies of Saint-Orens died on the way, and he himself had no trouble justifying his claims in the eyes of the sovereign Pontiff, and obtaining a favorable sentence which, however, was never promulgated. The rights of the Archbishop appeared no doubt so evident that this formality was judged useless.

The meager possession of a cemetery would not have been enough to tear Austinde away from his flock and lead him beyond the Alps. More serious interests had called him to Rome. He needed the support of the Pope to carry out a reform he was contemplating. Two centuries earlier, when Gascony was but a heap of ruins, a Count Gombaud had received the holy unction and had united in his hands the administration of the bishoprics of Bazas, Aire, Dax, Oloron, Bayonne, Lescar, and perhaps even Lectoure. What was done in the days of desolation was perpetuated when times had become better. Religion groaned to see the Canons violated, and society suffered from it even more than religion. The Church then, by its spirit, by its principles, by its constitution, was almost the only providence for the serfs who covered the soil; for all that there had been before of free men, of former owners of small manors, of inhabitants attached to the fatherland by the feeling of possession, had completely disappeared. The absolute lack of social guarantees had made the situation intolerable. The people did not yet exist. The priesthood was to give birth to it later and raise it under its beneficent tutelage. In these circumstances, to increase the number of pastors was to multiply the guarantees of the weak, the poor, and all who suffered.

Austinde obtained the deposition of Raymond the Elder who, in the middle of the 11th century, possessed as many sees as Gombaud Raymond le Vieux Bishop holding multiple sees in Gascony, deposed by Austind. had occupied in the 9th, and usually took, like him, the title of Bishop of Gascony. The great blow was struck; order did not take long to be re-established. Raymond, nephew of the deposed bishop, known in history under the name of Raymond the Younger, to distinguish him from his uncle, retained the bishoprics of Bazas, Dax, and Bayonne; but soon he abandoned the last two and kept only that of Bazas. The ecclesiastical province of Gascony was thus, thanks to the zeal and activity of Austinde, reconstituted as it was before the invasion of the Saracens of Spain and the long struggle of Charles Martel, Pepin the Short, and Charlemagne against Duke Eudes and his descendants had brought trouble and desolation into its midst. This first goal achieved, Austinde gathered at Jaca, in Spain, a council which he presided over and where he appeared with his suffragan s Heraclius of Ta Jacca, en Espagne Site of a council presided over by Austind in Spain. rbes, Stephen of Oloron, and John of Lectoure. There too he occupied himself with restoration; for all the decrees that were passed there concerned the re-establishment of ecclesiastical discipline and sacred rites.

But it was above all against the lords that Saint Austinde was called to struggle; for it was especially among them that he was to find stubborn resistance. They had broken into the sanctuary in the midst of public disturbances, and, relying on time and the possession that had sanctioned their encroachments, they claimed to keep them. At the beginning of his pontificate, the archbishop's zeal had nevertheless found some sympathy in Guillaume Astanove, Count of Fezensac. The church of Sainte-Marie was very small and rather poorly built. Austinde had it rebuilt on a plan more vast and more worthy of a metropolis. Guillaume Astanove helped him in his undertaking, placed his gold, his workers, and his authority at the service of this work, and when the edifice was completed, he gave to the new church all the land he possessed in the vicinity, which touched the basilica on one side and his castle on the other. The count and the archbishop also joined forces to enlarge the canonical house, which had become insufficient since the canons had adopted the community life, which had been done under one of the previous pontificates. Finally, Guillaume Astanove supported the prelate in his claims against the monks of Saint-Orens; but he died soon after, and his son Aymeric II did not inherit his sentiments.

Bernard Tumapaler, Count of Armagnac, then suzerain of all Gascony, jeal Bernard Tumapaler, comte d'Armagnac Count of Armagnac and suzerain of Gascony, opponent of Austind. ous of his authority as weak minds almost always are, was especially prejudiced against Austinde. Other lords, and in great numbers, shared Bernard's jealousy and his hatred for the metropolitan of Auch. It is good to remember that following the misfortunes of all kinds that had weighed for a very long time on Gascony, the lords had seized not only the property of the clergy, but also most of the churches, which they had served by a few starving clerics to whom they threw a meager share of their income. One can therefore understand the respective situation of the metropolitan of Auch, resolved to restore the churches and their enfeoffed property to their respective destinations, and of the upstart lords, obstinate in keeping the riches of which an unjust spoliation had made them masters. The archbishop invoked the Canons; he prayed, exhorted, urged. Some lords listened to his voice. The greatest number showed themselves deaf. Austinde was not a man to stop in the fulfillment of a recognized duty. Seeing his exhortations disdained, he threatened with the sword that the Church had placed in his hands. There was courage in such a threat. The guilty were numerous, and at their head were distinguished by their resistance three counts, whom history does not designate, but who are, very likely, none other than the counts of Fezensac, Armagnac, and Astarac, the most powerful in the region.

Tempers flared: alarmed rapacity made its vociferations heard. Far from fearing and softening, Austinde launched the thunderbolt and struck the guilty with excommunication, whatever their rank, and subjected their churches to the interdict. At this blow, passions knew no bounds. The days of the courageous Pontiff were in danger; why would he not have spared the sacred character with which he was invested from gratuitous outrages and perhaps even a final crime to sheep whom their bewilderment only made dearer to his heart? He moved away, carrying with him, along with some violent hatreds, numerous and very keen regrets, and went to wait on foreign soil for the storm to dissipate; he retired to the famous Gervaise, Archbishop of Reims, who kept him with him for two whole years.

However, the memory of his virtues lived on among his flock: his zeal and firmness, those two qualities that always strike the masses, lent them a new luster. The interdict, especially, which was then strictly observed, weighed upon the faith of the populations. People were alarmed to be deprived for so long of the ceremonies of worship and almost of the benefits of religion. They murmured against an obstinacy provoked by greed and pride, and in a time of harshness and impetuosity, threats were easily translated into acts. The guilty were therefore forced to bow before the general reprobation and to promise the requested restitution.

The inhabitants of Auch immediately deputed some of their principal fellow citizens to the prelate to bring the happy news to the archbishop and to solicit his return. Delighted by a change that fulfilled all his wishes, Austinde did not delay in leaving Reims and resuming the journey to his diocese. On his way, he entered Paris, where he stopped for a few days. From Paris, he headed toward Provence, visited Rimbaud or Rajambaud, Archbishop of Arles, and attended the consecration of the church of Tritis, performed by that prelate. He himself consecrated that of the priory of Saint-Zacharie, dependent on Saint-Victor of Marseille. The act drawn up on this occasion and bearing his signature was preserved until 1793. Finally, after such a long absence, he returned to his metropolis amidst general joy. Hearts had changed. Austinde believed he could solemnly confirm his victory, or rather, irrevocably consecrate his rights. He took advantage of the passage through Gascony of Cardinal Hugh the White, legate of the Holy See in Spain, and assembled a council at Auch which he presided over jointly with the legate, and which was attended not only by all his suffragans, but also by the abbots and even the principal lords of Gascony. It was decreed there that all churches located within the limits of Gascony would pay to their respective sees a quarter of the tithes, which had not been practiced until then. The council finished overcoming all resistance. The law he made passed into general practice; it was still being executed in 1790.

This work crowned the life of the illustrio us Prelate. God h l'illustre Prélat Archbishop of Auch in the 11th century and reformer of the province of Gascony. ad called him to the chair of the metropolis only so that he might restore the churches of his province to their rights. This mission fulfilled, he fell ill toward the end of the council, and a few days later he fell asleep peacefully in the Lord, on July 25, 1068, although his feast day has been transferred to September 25, without one being able to assign the cause in a very certain manner.

## CULT AND RELICS.

Saint Austinde was buried in the old basilica of Saint-Jean, next to his two saintly predecessors, Saint Taurin and Saint Léothade. Most of the bishops and abbots who had come to the Council of which we have spoken, and whom the metropolitan's illness had detained in Auch, wished to attend his funeral and thus pay a final tribute of homage to his piety, and of gratitude to his zeal.

At a time that can no longer be precisely fixed in our day, the bodies of these three holy bishops were carried to the church of Sainte-Marie. When the crypts of the current metropolitan church were completed, they were lowered into them, and each of them had his sarcophagus, his chapel, and his altar. In 1810, the venerable Léonard Destrappes, Archbishop of Auch, visited them and had the honors due to them rendered; the tombs were sealed again, after, however, having deposited therein the report of this invention or recognition, written on a parchment rolled in the manner of ancient volumes, to serve as a monument to posterity.

Thus one arrived at the great turmoil of 1793. Then impiety descended upon the metropolis and stripped it of sacred vessels, pontifical or priestly ornaments, reliquaries of silver or vermeil, and all objects that presented to the eye the appearance of some value appreciable in currency; but it abandoned to it a more precious treasure, almost all of its great relics. The verification was carried out on January 20, 21, and 22, 1857, by order and under the eyes of Mgr de Salinis. Here is the invention of the relics of Saint Austinde, according to this recent verification: 1° Entire lower jaw, but fractured; 2° two shoulder blades; 3° two collarbones; 4° twenty ribs or rib fragments; 5° the sternum; 6° twenty vertebrae; 7° the two humeri, the two ulnae, the two radii; 8° the two hip bones and the sacrum; 9° the two femurs, the two kneecaps, the two tibiae, the two fibulae; 10° one calcaneus, the two tali; 11° two tarsal bones and two metatarsal bones; — 12° two belt vases.

Excerpt from the Lives of the Holy Bishops of the Metropolis of Auch, by J.-J. Monlezun, Canon of Auch and Le Puy. — Auch, 1857.

Saint Maurice and his generous companions, the soldiers of the illustrious Theban Legion, had fallen on September 22, 286, under the executioner's blade, giving the whole world a magnificent spectacle of Christian heroism. A few legionaries, however, had escaped the general massacre: God was reserving them for an imminent martyrdo m. Defend Défendant Martyr of the Theban Legion mentioned at the end of the text. ens was among their number. He was crossing the Rhône with a few faithful companions when the spies of the bloodthirsty Maximian surprised them. The following dialogue was exchanged between the executioners and the victims: "Are you not of the company of those wretches upon whom the emperor's edicts have done justice four years ago?" — "We are of that company; but our brothers are not wretches; that term can only apply to you and your emperor." — "Do you dare to despise the august Maximian and his envoys in such a way!" — "We despise his threats, his impiety, his cruelty." — "Do you know that we can make you pay for your blasphemies with your heads?" — "Here are our heads, strike, may we die for Jesus Christ and go to join our brothers!" And their heads rolled upon the ground.

Defendens and his companions were buried by Theodore, Bishop of Marseille: a church was dedicated under their invocation. Their cult soon spread to Italy: many cities took them as their patrons and erected altars to them. Let us cite Chivasso, on the Po, in the diocese of Turin; Calvi, in the Terra di Lavoro; and Novara, in the former Sardinian States. The church of the Hermits of Calvi possesses a portion of their relics. A miraculous event, reported by the Bollandists, will show us, along with the power of Saint Defendens, the respect with which the day of his feast was once surrounded. A villager from the diocese of Calvi, instead of attending the Mass of the patronal feast, was busy at home cooking small birds that he had caught while hunting. Suddenly they regained life and took flight, while the hunter, who had thought he could dispense with his duty, lost his sight: he only recovered it after having done penance for his fault and invoked, before the altar of Saint Defendens, the intercession of the servant of God.

Acta Sanctorum, January 2, new translation.