Saint Aptone

The successor of Lupicin was Saint Aptone saint Aptone Bishop of Angoulême in the 6th century, successor to Lupicinus. , or Aphtone, whose life we are writing, but regarding whom historians have preserved for us only these three facts: the reclusion of Saint Cybard, the consecration of the cathedral of Angoulême, and his attendance at the Fifth Council of Orléans. We shall recount these, while lamenting that an episcopate which must have been fruitful in great things offers us so little to glean in the field of history.

We have made known in the life of S aint Cybard saint Cybard Spiritual master of Astier in Angoulême. (July 1st) the various circumstances that determined this illustrious solitary to settle under the walls of Angoulême, in a cave that Bishop Aptone had shown him. We have also said with what prudence and by what preliminary examination this bishop assured himself of the qualities, character, and virtue of the one who aspired to the state so perfect of a perpetual reclusion. It only remains for us, therefore, to make known the ceremonial that the Church had prescribed to glorify and consecrate by the pomp of religious rites this supreme renunciation of family and the world. The day and hour having arrived, therefore, when this great and irrevocable sacrifice was to be accomplished, the clergy and the people gathered in the cathedral church, and Saint Cybard was brought into the sanctuary, dressed in the coarse tunic of the anchorites, his loins girded with a leather belt, and his shoulders covered with the ancient melote, or sheepskin, which the children of the Prophets already wore in the Old Testament. After a humble and fervent prayer, he prostrated himself on the floor, while the bishop, vested in his pontifical robes, recited with all his clergy the great litany of the Saints, thus calling all of heaven to unite with the earth for this solemn consecration. He then celebrated Mass as for a dead person, the solitary remaining all the while stretched out on the floor; then he said over him eight prayers, interspersed with psalms and antiphons. Here are the first and the last:

"Sweet Lord, you who understand the groaning of a contrite heart before it makes itself heard, make, we pray you, of your servant, the temple of the Holy Spirit, so that he may merit to be crowned with the shield of heavenly benevolence. — O God, you who are the blessed hope of your faithful and who reserve for yourself the task of fully satisfying with yourself, in eternity, those who live on this earth, guard and protect, we pray you, your servant whom we bring in your name to the door of his tent, where he is going to dwell as if suspended in the expectation of your Son, so that, when you come, he may have his lamp lit, and merit to emerge from his narrow prison, to be happily introduced into the immensity of the celestial Jerusalem. We pray you through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen."

These prayers finished, the bishop with his clergy, followed by a multitude of people, led the new solitary in procession along the rough paths that led to the cave, and to the singing of this beautiful psalm: *Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi*:

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High and rests under the shadow of the Almighty, shall say to the Lord: You are my hope and my support; you are my God, and in you I put all my trust. For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the tongue of the wicked. His truth will serve as your shield: and you shall not fear the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the snares that are prepared in the darkness, nor the attacks of the demon of the South... No unfortunate accident will happen to you, and the plagues will not approach your dwelling, for the Lord has commanded his angels to guard you in all your ways... I will be with him, says the Lord, in his days of affliction; I will deliver him, and I will bring him out with glory. I will fill him with days and years, and I will make him partaker of the salvation that I give to my Saints."

However, this sacred chant of such beautiful poetry and so appropriate to the circumstance had led the bishop, the clergy, and Saint Cybard to the threshold of the cave. The bishop entered it alone with one of his priests, and he blessed it, saying: "Bless, Lord, almighty God, this place, so that your servant may always have there health, purity, strength and victory, charity, holiness, meekness, gentleness, perfect docility to the law and complete obedience to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. May your blessing be always upon this place and upon him who is going to inhabit it: through you, our God, who live and reign for ever and ever. — Hear us, holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, and send from the heights of heaven your holy angel, to guard, support, protect, visit and defend your servant who is going to inhabit this dwelling."

This blessing finished, and after these prayers which are on the part of the Church the touching expression of its maternal solicitude, Saint Aptone left the cave and introduced Saint Cybard into it to the singing of the psalm *Exaudiat te Dominus*:

"May the Lord hear you in the day of tribulation; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you; may he send you his help from the bosom of his sanctuary; may he watch over you from the heights of Zion; may he remember your sacrifices, and may your holocausts be pleasing to him." The singing of this psalm was followed by that of the antiphon *O clavis David*, "O key of David," the same that the Church sings in the last week of Advent, and which borrowed from the present circumstance a very personal application. Meanwhile, while the holy solitary, at the height of his wishes, watered the rock with his tears of joy and gratitude, workers, on the order of the pontiff, walled up the door of the cell, and Saint Aptone affixed his seal to it, to mark that this door should no longer open except by permission of the episcopal authority and on very rare occasions. Finally, as a last farewell to Saint Cybard, he recited over him this prayer: "O God, the sweetest of consolations, console by yourself your servant who abandons himself to you alone, so that, filled with a holy hope, he may merit to rest day and night in the blessed embraces of your Son. We pray you through this same Son Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever." *Amen*, so be it, replied the clergy and the people, and all withdrew in silence and deeply moved. It is that indeed, as Mgr Cousseau observes, from whom we have borrowed this liturgical page, "there was material for deep reflections upon leaving such a spectacle, and the people who had the happiness of attending it drew from it other emotions and other lessons than those of our theaters and our courts of assize."

We have said, in the life of Saint Cybard, that on certain days and hours, he would receive, through the small grated window of his cell, the many faithful who came to ask him for advice or consolation, and there is no doubt that Saint Aptone often mingled with this pious multitude. Likewise, it is not reckless to assert that he brought to him the illustrious guests who, from time to time, visited his episcopal city. Thus, one day, the humble hermit saw arrive at his cave, with Saint Aptone, two of the most famous bishops of that era, Saint Germanus of Paris and Saint Euphronius of Tours. They were sent by King Charibert to preside over the consecration of the new cathedral which had been built following the generous intentions of the great king, his grandfather, and which had finally been completed. This church, known by the name of the Church of Clovis, was a reproduction of the basilica, ca lled the Basilic église de Clovis Religious edifice rebuilt by Clovis and consecrated by Aptone. a of Constantine, which Mgr Cousseau presumes to have itself succeeded a first church that Saint Ausonius would have built. Moreover, this new cathedral, like the previous one, had only one nave, but more elongated, and it was the ancient basilica in all its simplicity. The ceremony of its consecration took place around the year 560, and it must certainly have attracted the attendance and presence of several other bishops; but history has not made them known to us, and it names only Saint Germanus of Paris and Saint Euphronius of Tours. We also lack all details regarding the stay that these illustrious prelates made in the city, and the fruits of blessing that their words and perhaps even their miracles produced.

After their departure, Saint Aptone continued to shine in the see of Angoulême with all the brilliance of the highest episcopal virtues; but chronological order brings us back to the Fifth Council of Orleans. This council had been convened by Childebert to judge the case of Marc, Bishop of Orleans, who had been accused before him of several crimes. This council opened on October 28, 549, and was a true national council; for there were seven archbishops, forty-three bishops, and twenty-one representatives of absent bishops present. The Fathers first examined the case of Marc, and as all the accusations were found to be false and slanderous, they declared him innocent and restored him to his see; nevertheless, his subscription is not read in the acts of the council, and perhaps, indeed, he did not attend. But it was not only a matter of the personal case of this bishop: news had reached France of the troubles that the Nestorians and Eutychians were once again stirring up in the East, and it was feared that the evil might spread to the Churches of the West. This gave rise to the first canon, which anathematizes the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches along with their authors and followers. There follow twenty-three other canons concerning ecclesiastical discipline, which testify to the zeal with which the Church has always watched over the exact observance of its rules. The nineteenth, which concerns women's monasteries, proves that even then there existed two types of religious communities, namely: cloistered communities and others that were not cloistered, but whose vow of chastity was no less recognized as perpetual. For the former, the Fathers of the council required only a one-year novitiate, and for the latter, they extended it to three years. This was because it was judged, says Father de Longueval, that their virtue, being more exposed, also had to be tested for longer. Moreover, few councils have offered a more numerous gathering of holy bishops, for there are no fewer than eighteen whom the Church has placed upon its altars, and it is certainly glorious for the diocese of Angoulême that Saint Aptone sat in such an illustrious assembly. There is also no doubt that upon his return he had the wise decrees that had been promulgated at Orleans executed, which he had subscribed to in these terms: *Aptonius in Christi nomine episcopus ec clesiæ E Aptonius Bishop of Angoulême in the 6th century, successor to Lupicinus. colimensis subscripsi*: "In the name of Jesus Christ, I, Aptone, Bishop of the Church of Angoulême, have subscribed."

This presence of Saint Aptone at the Fifth Council of Orleans is, moreover, the last fact that history mentions regarding him. It tells us nothing more than the date of his death, and even then without giving us any detail about his final moments, and without making known to us the circumstances that accompanied an end so precious before the Lord. Saint Aptone died in the year 566, and probably on October 26, since this day has always been that of his feast. He had as his successor Merere, who attended, in 567, the dedication of the church of Saint-Pierre in Nantes, with the bishops of Tours, Rennes, Angers, and Le Mans.

In the chapel of the bishopric of Angoulême, a stained-glass window represents Saint Aptone in episcopal vestments.

## CULT AND RELICS.

Saint Aptone was buried in the church of Saint-Ausone, and his tomb, neighboring that of the martyr pontiff, soon became for the faithful the object of almost equal veneration. This is what even suggested to later generations, says Mgr Cousseau, the idea that Sa saint Ausone First bishop and martyr of Angoulême, whose burial place is shared with Aptonius. int Ausone and Saint Aptone were two brothers born of the same parents. Their brotherhood was entirely spiritual; it earned them the same glory in heaven, and even today on earth it earns them the same honors. Moreover, the oldest title of the name Saint given to Saint Aptone is a charter of Charles the Bald, from the year 852, in favor of the abbey of Saint-Cybard, and where a gate of the city of Angoulême is indicated under the name of Gate of the saints Ausone and Aptone. A second title is an act prior to the year 1028, and by which Guillaume, second of the name, Giberge his wife and their three children, Audoin, Geoffroy and Guillaume, cede to the church of the saints Ausone, Aptone and Cesaire, the seigniorial domain of Alamans, located below the city of Angoulême, above the Anguienne river. The relics of these three Saints rested indeed under the high altar of the same church, but enclosed in two separate shrines. One, richer, contained the relics of Saint Ausone, and the other those of Saint Aptone and Saint Cesaire. Mgr Cousseau says that the latter were carried in the solemn procession that took place on March 30, 1118, for the translation of the body of Saint Ausone, and Father Papebrock mentions in his notes on the acts of Saint Ausone, a particular translation of the relics of Saint Aptone, Saint Cesaire, Saint Cybard and Saint Calfagie. This translation took place on April 3, 1129, and consequently under the pontificate of Girard, but probably in his absence, for this fact is not related in his life. However, we find in this indication proof of the cult that was rendered to Saint Aptone, jointly with that received by the holy recluse whom he had settled near Angoulême, the pious deacon of Saint-Ausone, who was the confidant and distributor of his alms, and the virgin whom the martyr-pontiff had first consecrated to the Lord. But all these precious relics were burned by the Calvinists in the year 1568, and only slight fragments remain of them today.

It was before these relics that, before their profanation, the bishops of Angoulême would come, during their solemn entry, to keep the holy vigil, and here is what the ceremonial was: The new bishop would present himself towards evening at the door of the abbey church of the Benedictine nuns of Saint-Ausone, where he was received by the abbess at the head of her community. A nun would intone

- Saint Aurelian of Arles; - Saint Heryebius of Vienne, second of the name; - Saint Nicot of Trier; - Saint Desiderat of Bourges; - Saint Firmin of Uzes; - Saint Agricole of Chalon-sur-Saone; - Saint Gal of Clermont; - Saint Eleuthere of Anzerre; - Saint Tetrie of Langres; - Saint Nectaire of Autun; - Saint Domitien of Tongeren; - Saint Arege of Nevers; - Saint Lo of Coutances; - Saint Lubin of Chartres; - Saint Aubin of Angers; - Saint General of Laon, and Saint Aptone of Angouleme.