Saint Palladius

As early as the year 573, Pallais attended, along with thirty other bishops, the council

Alias: Palais, Palais, Palatia.

convened in Paris at the in Gontran King of Burgundy who welcomed Columbanus upon his arrival in Gaul. sistence of Guntram, King of Orléans and Burgundy. In this council, Promotus, who had been appointed to the bishopric of Châteaudun by Sigebert, King of Austrasia, was deposed. Efforts were then made to reconcile Kings Chilperic and Sigebert; however, all the efforts of the episcopate failed before the mutual animosity of the two queens, Fredegund and Brunhilda, the primary cause of the troubles that were then staining France with blood.

In 579, Saint Pallais himself held a synod or council in Saintes. There, they judged Nantinus, Count of Angoulême, who was guilty of violence and sacrilegious depredations for which he had been excommunicated. As he showed repentance, he obtained his absolution. But he gave himself over to the same excesses again and died prey to a strange malady in which one has believed to recognize the symptoms of the disease known in the Middle Ages as Saint Anthony's Fire. Saint Gregory of Tours reports, in fact, that the corpse of Nantinus had the appearance of flesh burned on glowing coals.

In an effort to secure the peace of the Church and the State, Saint Pallais wrote to King Sigebert. But the political vicissitudes that caused Saintonge to change masters several times rendered the saintly prelate's zeal useless and one day caused him to incur the disgrace of Gontran. The virtue of Pallais, subjected in this circumstance to a harsh test, faltered for a moment. The faults of the Saints show us that they were not of a nature different from that of other men; but weakness is always redeemed in them by the generosity of penance. The account we are about to relate of the life of Saint Pallais has been distorted by the bad faith of certain modern writers, systematic detractors of the Church and the clergy. To restore the facts to their full truth, it will suffice to borrow the narrative from Saint Gregory of Tours, an e yewitness and truthful saint Grégoire de Tours Bishop of Tours, contemporary historian, and friend of Palladius. witness.

Clotaire I had an illegitimate son named Gondovald, better known by the name Gondovald Pretender to the throne of Aquitaine, natural son of Chlothar I. Gondebaud. At that time, bastards were not excluded from the right of succession. Gondovald could therefore lay claim to that of Clotaire. With this in view, his mother had taken particular care of his education and had presented him to Childebert, King of Paris, as her nephew. This prince, who had no children, had Gondovald raised and allowed him to wear long hair as the princes of royal blood wore it. Clotaire, having learned this, declared that Gondovald was not his son and had his hair cut. But, at the death of Clotaire, the young pretender let his hair grow again with the approval of Charibert, who recognized him as his brother, despite Sigebert. He then went to the East, where he acquired a considerable fortune. The dissensions of the kings of Burgundy and Austrasia facilitated the designs of some great lords who aspired to independence. In order to better execute their projects, they called upon Gondovald and offered him the throne of Aquitaine. This province, which had remained Roman in its customs and institutions, had little sympathy for the domination of the Franks. Gondovald was proclaimed, at Brives-la-Gaillarde, king of all the country that extends from the Charente to the Pyrenees. He presented himself before Périgueux, whose bishop closed the gates to him; but he seized everything that resisted him; he even managed to win over Mummolus, a former general of Gontran, and Bertchramne, Archbishop of Bord eaux. It was therefore all the easi Bertchramne, archevêque de Bordeaux Archbishop of Bordeaux and metropolitan of Pallais. er for him to be recognized by the Bishop of Saintes, as this prelate, too little concerned with political debates, could very well have been unaware that Gontran had said, at times that Gondovald was the son of a miller, at other times that he was the son of a wool-carder; or, if he knew it, he was well permitted to think that the truth was on the side of the pretender, proclaimed in fact by the majority of the populations, recognized by his own mother, by the kings Childebert and Charibert and all the leudes, rather than on the side of Gontran, who was too interested in denying the facts. One had already seen in a short time Saintonge pass through so many hands that one could be unaware of whom one had to obey. Moreover, Gontran himself excused Theodore, Bishop of Marseille, who had been the first to welcome Gondovald. Saint Pallais could therefore believe himself authorized to condescend to the demands of the pretender in purely spiritual matters. It was a question of giving a successor to the Bishop of Dax who had just died. Chilperic, the legitimate sovereign of the region, demanded that it be the count Nicetius, who was still a layman. Gondovald and Mummolus had the priest Faustien appointed. The Archbishop of Bordeaux, Bertchramne, suffering from ophthalmia, charged the Bishop of Saintes to consecrate the new prelate. The agents of Gondovald, to better ensure the consent of Pallais, seized his person and took him away by force.

Courtiers of Gontran found the occasion favorable to disparage the saintly bishop to this prince. Pallais could have cast all the blame on his metropolitan; he had the generosity to assume responsibility for an act that had been so imperiously extorted from him. To the reproaches addressed to him on this subject by the bishops and the leudes of the court of Orleans, he replied with his usual loyalty: "My metropolitan was afflicted with a painful eye disease. On the other hand, mistreated, ransomed, and taken away by force as I was, I found it impossible to resist the injunctions of the one who declared himself master of all Gaul." Despite these excuses, Pallais did not fail to incur, along with Bertchramne, the indignation of Gontran.

Shortly after, Gundovald, defeated by the kings of Burgundy and Austrasia, fell under the dagger of those very men who had acclaimed him. The bishops had gathered in Tours to consult on the means of making peace with Guntram. This prince arrived in the city unexpectedly; and Saint Gregory, who was its bishop, invited him to a meal with all the prelates gathered in Tours for this occasion. Bertram and Pallais had gone there. Despite the insistence of their colleagues, the king demanded that all those he did not yet know be presented to him. Bertram entered. "Who is this?" asked the prince, for he had not seen him for a long time: "It is Bertram, Archbishop of Bordeaux," they replied. Then, addressing this prelate: "I am grateful to you," the king told him, "for the way you serve the interests of our family; for you must know, beloved father, that we are related through our mothers, and you have called against our house a stranger who has been its scourge!..." He made many other reproaches of this kind to Bertram. Then, turning to the Bishop of Saintes: "As for you, Pallais," he said to him, "I do not owe you much obligation for your conduct. This is the third time you have betrayed me; which is very unworthy of a bishop. The messages you sent me are full of duplicity. While you were excusing yourself through your letters, you were writing to my brother to attract him to your country. But God has made the justice of my cause shine forth. I honored you as a father of the Church, and you had the perfidy to act against me." Guntram, then addressing Nicetius, Bishop of Angoulême, and Antidius, Bishop of Agen: "And you, most holy fathers," he said, "what measures have you deemed useful to take in the interest of the country and our throne?" The saddened prelates remained silent. The king, nevertheless, washed his hands, asked the bishops for their blessing, and sat down at the table, hiding under a serene face and an air of gaiety the resentment he had just let burst forth.

The following Sunday, Guntram came to the church to attend the solemn mass. All the bishops had deferred to Saint Pallais, as the most worthy, the honor of celebrating the holy mysteries. As he began the reading of the prophecy, the king asked for the name of the celebrant. It is Pallais, they told him. — "What!" he exclaimed in anger, "the one who has always been unfaithful to me, who has betrayed me, is he the one who is going to preach before me! No, I am leaving the church, so as not to hear the preaching of my enemy." At these words, he rose to leave. All the prelates, afflicted by the humiliation of their brother, said to the king: "Prince, we saw him at your table; you received his blessing. Why does the king no longer wish to suffer him in his presence? If we had thought that he was so disagreeable to you, we would have sent him away, and another would have been designated to celebrate the mass. Allow him at least to finish the ceremonies begun. Later we will examine the grievances you may have against him, and we will do you justice in the canonical forms." Pallais, bearing this affront with rare humility, had retired to the sacristy. But the king had him recalled, and he continued the mass.

Nevertheless, the loyal soul of the holy bishop revolted at seeing himself abandoned to all the indignation of Guntram by Bertram, the principal author of his disgrace. Saint Gregory of Tours adds that, invited again to the king's table, the two prelates, at the beginning of the meal, began to quarrel, and in the heat of the discussion allowed themselves to be carried away into reciprocal insults. Several laughed at this debate; others, more sensible, groaned to see discord fanned by the infernal spirit between priests of the Lord. Bertram and Pallais took leave of the king, promising under bail to appear at the next council convened in Mâcon for the 10th of the Kalends of November (October 23).

At the appointed time, continues Saint Gregory , the council opened at concile s'ouvrit à Mâcon Ecclesiastical assembly of 585 that exonerated Theodore. Mâcon. Faustien, ordained bishop of Dax by order of Gondovald, was deposed. Archbishop Bertchramne, Orestes, bishop of Bazas, and Pallais, bishop of Saintes, who had consecrated Faustien, were condemned by the council to pay the latter an annual pension of one hundred gold sous. Finally, Nicetius, who, while still a layman, had been presented by Chilperic, was raised to the episcopate.

The bishops who had embraced the party of Gondovald had to justify themselves, and we do not see that Saint Pallais had to account for his political conduct like the others, so much did it appear beyond reproach. Our holy Bishop nevertheless had against him several members of his clergy and Bertchramne, his metropolitan, who spared neither intrigues nor slander. The latter prelate died on his return from the council. Saint Pallais was then able to obtain justice. The clerics who had slandered him were degraded and deprived of their benefices, then subjected, according to the rigor of the laws of the time, to corporal punishment.

From then on, the bishop of Saintes applied himself to implementing in his diocese the wise regulations adopted by the Council of Mâcon, which had become state law through the royal sanction with which they had been invested.

The following year (587), our Saint saw a new storm arise. The rumor had been skillfully spread by his enemies that he was secretly favoring the plans of Fredegund against Guntram. It was said that he had given asylum to emissaries of this queen in his episcopal city, and had provided them with the means to reach Spain, where they were headed. It was then Lent. The holy Prelate usually retired during these days of penance to one of the islands of his diocese, where he remained until the solemnity of Maundy Thursday. Thus, at the moment when all the people were awaiting his return, Pallais found himself arrested on the way by the Count of Angers named Antestius. This magistrate, without inquiring into the truth of the facts imputed to the holy bishop, said t o him: "Y Antestius Count of Angers who arrested and ransomed Saint Pallais. ou shall not enter Saintes; but you are going to be led into exile for having welcomed the emissaries of our king's enemy." — "I do not know what you mean," replied the Prelate, "but as we are in Holy Week, let us go to the city. After the holidays, you will be able to investigate the matter. It will be all the easier for me to justify myself, as there is no truth in all that you allege." — "Not at all," said Antestius, "you shall not set foot in your church, because you are declared guilty of high treason." Thereupon, he placed the goods of the church under sequestration and delivered the bishop's house to pillage. In vain the inhabitants of Saintes begged the count to wait at least for the Easter holidays to pass before acting. He resisted for a long time; but his greed, the only true motive that drove him to treat our Saint this way, ended up betraying itself. "Let your bishop," he said, "abandon to me by deed of sale the domain he possesses in the vicinity of Bourges, and I will grant you what you ask of me; otherwise, he will only leave my hands to go into exile." Pallais cared less for his goods than for his freedom; he bought it back at the price of his patrimony; wrote and signed a deed of sale; promised to justify himself in the presence of the king; gave guarantors for his promise, and was able to return to Saintes. The holidays over, he went to the court of Guntram. Antestius also presented himself there; but the latter could not establish any of the facts with which he charged the holy Bishop.

The king sent the latter back to his diocese and deferred the examination of this affair to a future council. From then on, the peace of the venerable Pontiff was no longer disturbed, and he took advantage of it to restore the churches of his diocese and build new ones.

In 589, his friend Gregory of Tours, from whom we borrow all the details of this story, had sent him, at his request, relics of Saint Martin. Pallais had, in fact, just built a basilica for this glorious wonder-worker, which he wished to enrich with these precious relics. His piety toward the Saint was rewarded by the signal graces that the city of Saintes obtained from it. Pallais wrote to his illustrious friend that already two paralytics whose feet were completely contracted, having barely entered the new church, had obtained healing and were walking freely. Two blind men had also recovered their sight, and more than twelve sick people consumed by quartan fever had been completely cured.

Saint Gregory of Tours says that Saint Pallais had the church dedicated to Saint Eutropius rebu ilt, which, " saint Éutrope First bishop of Saintes whose tomb was restored by Palladius. situated outside the city," had been previously restored by Saint Leontius of Bordeaux.

It was there that Saint Pallais performed the first translation of the precious remains of Saint Eutropius. He had summoned the abbots of the neighboring monasteries to assist at the opening of the tomb. Two of them, while piously contemplating the relics of the Saint, noticed with surprise a long fracture on the skull. The misfortunes of the times had erased even the memory of the martyrdom of Saint Eutropius, and, as nothing could settle the uncertainties on this subject, he was honored only as a confessor. The following night, he appeared to the two abbots during their sleep and said to them: "The scar that you noticed on my head is the trace of the axe blow that consummated my martyrdom." It was probably on the occasion of this first translation that the head of Saint Eutropius was separated from the rest of the body, to be exposed in the upper church to the veneration of the faithful.

Saint Pallais also restored the tomb of Saint Martin, abbot of Saintes, and wished to transfer it to a more suitable place.

Saint Gregory of Tours recounts a marvelous fact that marked the restoration by Saint Pallais of the church dedicated to Saint Peter by Saint Vivien, and where the latter Saint was buried. The tomb of Saint Trojan, placed in one of the chapels, was also venerated there. In a corner of this chapel, at the springing of an arch, was a very large sarcophagus. An ancient tradition said that it was the tomb of two spouses who, in the days that followed their baptism, died at the same time in innocence, while they were still wearing the white garments that were its symbol. They were said to be descendants of the family of Saint Hilary of Poitiers. This tomb obstructed the entrance to the chapel, and it also had the disadvantage of preventing the repair of the wall to which it was contiguous, and which the infiltration of rainwater was degrading day by day. Saint Pallais had had another place prepared for this monument. On the day it was to be transported there, more than three hundred men gathered, equipped with cables and levers. They exhausted themselves in useless efforts, without even being able to shake the tomb. The efforts redoubled, sweat flooded every brow, but nothing worked. One could hear the redoubled cries of those presiding over the work; many times the signal was given, but always in vain. The tomb remained immovable. All strength was exhausted, and already the night invited them to take rest. At the break of day, Pallais had nothing more pressing than to invite his men to follow him to the chapel. He entered first, and what was his astonishment to see the sarcophagus established on the new base he had had built for it at the location he intended for it. A cry of admiration and gratitude escaped from the heart of the holy bishop, to exalt the power of Him who had accomplished so marvelously what no human force had been able to do. No one, adds Saint Gregory of Tours, has ever had a revelation of the names of the two spouses whose remains this tomb contained.

Of all the bishops of Saintes, Saint Pallais is the one who did the most for the cult of the Saints of the diocese, whose glory he was one day to share. It was he who placed Saint Vaise on our altars. Since the body of this yo saint Vaise Local martyr canonized by Saint Palladius. ung martyr had been buried by the piety of Francus, near the banks of the Charente, miracles had not ceased to occur at his tomb. The bishop of Saintes judged the time had come to proceed, according to the forms used then, to the canonization of this Christian hero. Legal inquiries confirmed the authenticity of his relics and the wonders he performed. All the faithful of the diocese were called to express their sentiments and their wishes regarding the cult of the new Saint; and soon, by the opinion of all, Pallais erected a church and a monastery on the tomb of Saint Vaise.

The most significant work of Saint Pallais was the construction of a basilica dedicated to the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and to the holy martyrs Lawrence and Pancras. The proportions of this edifice were grandiose. It contained thirteen altars, nine of which had just been dedicated to as many Saints. For the four that remained to be consecrated, the pious Pontiff sent one of his priests named Leuparic to Rome, to obtain fro m Pope Saint Gregor pape saint Grégoire Pope contemporary to Saint Psalmodius. y relics of the Saints in whose honor these altars were erected. The sovereign Pontiff granted the requested relics, and accompanied this gift with the following apostolic letter in which he praises the piety of the bishop of Saintes. It is assigned the date of the year 596.

"Your priest Leuparic, bearer of these letters," writes Saint Gregory, "has come to let us know that your fraternity has raised a church in honor of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, apostles, and of the holy martyrs Lawrence and Pancras, that there are thirteen altars in this church, of which four, we have been told, are not yet consecrated, because you desire to place there, if it pleases God, relics of the Saints whom we have just named. We therefore send you the requested relics, and we urge you to receive them and to place them, God helping, with all the respect that is due to them. Take care above all to provide for the suitable maintenance of the ecclesiastics who will serve the new altars."

Pope Saint Gregory held Saint Pallais in high esteem. He gives him new proof of this in the letter by which he recommends to him the missionaries sent from Rome to England under the leadership of Saint Augustine, who were to pass through Saintes.

Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Augustine of England, and Saint Pallais died at about the same time, around the year 600. The blessed death of the holy bishop of Saintes occurred on October 7, as indicated by all the martyrologies and the 13th-century manuscript breviary. His feast, however, is celebrated on September 6, according to an ancient custom adopted in the diocese and in the abbey of Notre-Dame de Saintes.

The church of this latter monastery was founded in 1047, near the tomb of Saint Pallais. Before this foundation, there existed a church dedicated to this Saint. It is thought that it had replaced the ancient basilica of the holy Apostles built by him, and in which he was buried. It depended on an abbey of men that had long been ruined, when Geoffrey, Count of Saintonge, and Agnes, his wife, restored its buildings, and placed canons there for the service of the parish and nuns of the new abbey, and founded the current church of Saint-Pallais.

Numerous favors obtained at his tomb attracted many pilgrims there. The devotion of the people regarded him as one of the most powerful protectors of the region. In times of drought, the reliquary containing the relics of Saint Pallais was carried in procession to obtain rain. This precious treasure was profaned and destroyed in the 16th century by the fanaticism of the Huguenots.

Four parishes of the diocese of La Rochelle, one of that of Angoulême, others in the dioceses of Bordeaux, Bayonne, Bourges, Sens, Moulins, Belley, and others, are placed under the patronage of the holy Pontiff.

Notice by Abbé Grasilier, chaplain of the Carmel of Saintes. — Cf. Saint Gregory of Tours, Hist., b. vii and viii; Saint Gregory the Great, b. v. ep. 2 and iii; Gallia Christ. nom., vol. ii, p. 1058; Fr. Longueval, Hist. de l'Église gallicane, vol. iii, passim; Balliot and other hagiographies.