Saint Nicaise

Nicaise led with him Sai nt Quirin an saint Quirin Martyr companion of Saint Nicaise. d Sa int Egobille, saint Egobille Companion in mission and martyrdom of Saint Nicaise. whose country and extraction are not well known, but who were animated by the same zeal as he for the salvation of the infidels. Their first stations were at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, at Andrésy, and at Triel, where they made some conversions. Then, they went to the village of Vaux, near Pontoise, which had for some time been infested by a horrible dragon: they won a signal victory over this monster; Saint Quirin bound it and brought it before the people with the stole of Saint Nicaise, and it perished then at their feet. The Saints engaged these idolaters to renounce their errors and to embrace the faith of Jesus Christ: three hundred and eighteen people then received baptism in a fountain that is still called today the Fountain of Saint-Nicaise. The neighboring places soon had a share in this grace; the inhabitants of Meulan, of Mantes, and of the village of Monceaux began, from that time, to open their eyes to the light of the Gospel. A troop of demons who, stationed in a cavern, were doing incredible harm to passersby, were driven out by our apostles.

However, as this land was not the destination of these blessed travelers' mission, they continued on to reach Rouen as soon as possible. When they were at La Roche-Guyon, they preached with such effectiveness in the presence of Pience, a nob Pience A noble widow converted by Nicaise, who ensured his burial before being martyred. le widow of the place, that she converted and wished to be regenerated in the salutary fonts of baptism. By this means, her castle was opened to Saint Nicaise as if to an angel from heaven. He found there a priest of the idols, named Clair, who was already very old and had lost his sight. He healed him and catechized him, then, having made him touch with his finger his spiritual blindness, even more deplorable than the physical one, he led him to embrace Christianity. Several pagans followed his example, and our holy preachers, upon leaving this place, had the consolation of leaving behind very great dispositions for the entire ruin of idolatry. The demon, seeing his empire half-destroyed, incited against the authors of his defeat the sacrificers of the temples and the leaders among the people. These found a compliant executor of their homicidal projects in the gover nor Fescenninus, who h gouverneur Fescenninus Roman governor and persecutor of Saints Nicaise and Denis. ad just shed the blood of Saint Denis and his companions on the hill of Montmartre. This implacable persecutor of the Christian name, having set out in pursuit of our apostles with a troop of soldiers, had them seized by his archers and brought before him with their hands bound. He severely reprimanded them for their undertaking to overthrow the religion of the Romans in order to introduce a new one into the world. He treated them as seditious, rebels against the laws of the State, impious, extravagant, and visionaries. He threatened them with the most rigorous tortures if they did not worship Mars and Mercury, who were held in the greatest veneration among the Gauls. Saint Nicaise answered him admirably on all these points, and showed him, along with his companions, the unshakable resolution he had, not only to remain until death in the service of Jesus Christ, but also to announce his Gospel everywhere and to constantly win new servants for him. Thus Fescenninus, despairing of defeating them, condemned them on the spot to the whip and to be beheaded: which was carried out. This massacre took place at Scamnis (Éco s), between La Scamnis (Écos) Site of the martyrdom of Saint Nicaise. Roche-Guyon and Les Andelys, near the Epte river, in the diocese of Évreux.

The bodies of the Saints were left on the ground to be the prey of animals. But the following night they rose of their own accord, and, each taking their own head in their hands, they crossed the river at a ford hitherto unknown, which has since been called the Ford of Saint-Nicaise; they then went to rest on a small island later named Gasny, which is today part of the mainland. Pience, who came with Clair to collect them, followed them, rendered them the duties of burial, and had an oratory built over their tomb. This action, which could not remain secret, made it known to her father, a cruel and obstinate idolater, that she was a Christian. He had her seized, and, by the authority that Fescenninus gave him, he first condemned her to be torn by lashes, then he had her beheaded along with Clair and other Christians who had taken part in her conversion. Her sacred remains, according to the order she had given, were also carried to the island to be buried with Saint Nicaise and his companions.

Several centuries passed without these great treasures being touched; but Saint Ou en, a knig saint Ouen Author of the eulogy and life of Saint Aurea. ht of France, having been raised by his merits to the archiepiscopal see of Rouen, had a priory built at the place where they rested, dependent on the abbey of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul of Rouen, which was later named after him, Saint-Ouen; and, unable to bear that his metropolitan city should be entirely deprived of the relics of its first apostles, he took a portion of them which he transferred, both to the same church of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul and to another, which he had built under the name of Saint-Nicaise. Moreover, he presented Leudebold, Bishop of Lisieux, who was from the house of the lords of La Roche-Guyon, with several bones of Saint Pience, her belt, and some works made by her hand. This good bishop placed them in the chapel of a castle, named Saint-Cande-le-Vieux, which he had in Rouen and which has also become a parish.

In the course of time, the relics of our holy Martyrs, which were at Saint-Ouen, were transferred to Condé, in the diocese of Paris, where another church was built in honor of Saint Nicaise; but, several years later, a translation took place of the arm of Saint Nicaise, a large part of the body of Saint Quirin, and some bones of Saint Égobille, from Condé to Malmédy. Some authors say that from Malmédy, they were transported to Lorraine, to a monastery called Val-aux-Moines; and that from there they were brought back to Saint-Ouen of Rouen, where, in the 16th century, the Calvinist heretics profaned them and reduced them to ashes; but it appears that this should only be understood as applying to a part, and that the other, especially the body of Saint Quirin, remained at Malmédy, where his memory and feast are very celebrated. As for the relics that had remained at the priory of Gasny, they were transferred, towards the end of the 10th century, to Meulan-sur-Seine, by Robe rt, count of tha Meulan-sur-Seine Town housing significant relics of Saint Nicaise. t city, and placed in the church on the island, dedicated under the name of Notre-Dame. Valéran, also Count of Meulan, later had a more magnificent church built there, which, without losing the title of the Virgin, also took that of Saint-Nicaise.

Saint Nicaise, apostle of the French Vexin, is no longer the patron of the parish church of Meulan; the patron of this church is Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. Nevertheless, Saint Nicaise is held in great veneration there. This church possesses notable relics of this Saint, and some of Saint Pience. The reliquary that contains these relics is kept in the church of Saint-Nicolas; it is carried in procession through the city each year on Ascension Day, along with a certain number of other reliquaries containing relics of different Saints. The authenticity of all these relics is well recognized. Among these reliquaries, there is one that contains a relic of Saint Gaucher, born in Meulan and who died as a regular priest in Limoges or in the vicinity of that city. Devotion to Saint Nicaise attracts a considerable crowd of people to Meulan each year on the feast of the Ascension.

Finally, regarding the relics of Saint Pience, the episcopal city of Avranches, in Normandy, and that of Meulan-sur-Seine, of which we have just spoken, both pride themselves on possessing them. Before the great Revolution, the parish of Meulan possessed the relics, and consequently the head of Saint Pience. Cardinal de Rohan, upon leaving the castle of La Roche-Guyon (around 1830) to take possession of the see of Besançon, took with him, in addition to several other relics, an important relic of Saint Nicaise; his successor, Cardinal Mathieu, sent it as a gift to the cathedral of Évreux, which has just ceded a portion of it to the church of Écos. At La Roche-Guyon, there is no devotion or feast in honor of Saint Pience. Only the castle chapel, carved into the mountain about fifty feet below the ground, at the site of the cave where Saint Nicaise, apostle of this region, converted Saint Pience, preserves some memories of these two Saints.

The feast of Saint Nicaise is celebrated today in the diocese of Rouen on the second Sunday of October.

To rectify and complete Father Giry, we have used the Notes kindly communicated to us by Mr. Goubert, former collaborator of Mr. Picot at the Ami de la religion; Mr. Ducorys, parish priest of Meulan and honorary canon of Versailles; Father Cochat, of Rouen; and Mr. Brunel, parish priest of La Roche-Guyon. — Cf. Vie du Saint, by Nicolas Davanne, etc.