Saint Salvius of Amiens

We do not know if it was before his entry into religious life, or since, during a journey he might have made to Amiens, that Salve witnessed the most famous of the miracles that marked the life of Saint Honoratus: the appearance of a divine hand above the altar during Mass; all that we know about the presence of Saint Salve at this prodigy was limited to the mention of this fact.

Salve's daily occupation, in his pious retreat, was fasting and prayer. Helping his brothers, constantly defeating the ancient enemy, and winning souls for God were his works. The virtues of the holy monk were so brilliant that after the death of the abbot, whom he and his brothers had placed at the head of the monastery, he was elected by a unanimous voice to replace him. Raised to this dignity, his merit became even more evident in the eyes of all. A pious and fervent monk, he became an abbot of exemplary merit, always the first to fulfill the Rule, and his disciples found in him both a model and a father. Numerous miracles attested to his holiness from then on.

At the same time that Salve was thus edifying, through his virtues and examples, the part of the diocese of Amiens that borders the sea, Saint Honoratus, Bishop of Amiens, died at Port, the place of his birth, a few leagues from the monastery where our Saint lived. As soon as the news of this death reached the ears of the king, he sent delegates to the city of Amiens, the principal of whom was Saint Acharius, Bishop of Noyon a nd Tournai, t saint Achaire Bishop of Noyon and Tournai, royal delegate for the episcopal election. o proceed with the election of a new prelate. The Bishop of Noyon was specifically charged with ensuring that the clergy and the people of Amiens chose for themselves a bishop according to God.

A three-day fast was ordered to ask the Lord to be pleased to designate the one whom His divine Providence intended to ascend the see of Amiens, and everyone offered ardent prayers to heaven to this effect. The request of the Amiénois was granted; the three days having passed, they heard a heavenly voice address these words to them: "Know that I have chosen Salve and have given him to you as bishop."

All were filled with joy by this miraculous response; the humble religious alone had not ratified the divine choice: his humility made him regard the episcopate as a burden beyond his strength. But God had spoken, and the Amiénois obeyed. Salve was forcibly taken from his cell and placed against his will on that illustrious see which had already been occupied by so many holy Pontiffs, and whose splendor he himself was to enhance.

Having become Bishop of Amiens, he soon attracted the love and respect of his diocesans, and the fame of his merit spread far and wide. The king called him to sit on his councils, while the people of Amiens, whose hearts he had quickly won over, united in him the two qualities of magistrate and bishop, declaring him the temporal lord of the episcopal city.

At the time of his accession, the cathedral church of Amiens was still the one erected, outside the city walls, by Saint Firmin the Confessor, over the tomb of Saint Firmi n the Martyr, and dedi saint Firmin le Martyr First bishop of Amiens whose relics were rediscovered by Salve. cated to Our Lady of the Martyrs. As it was too far from the city, Salve built another one within its enclosure, at the place where we currently see the basilica of Notre-D ame. This new cathedral basilique de Notre-Dame Edifice built by Salve to replace the former cathedral located outside the city walls. was a sumptuous construction for the time, although built mainly of wood. It was later burned by the Normans. Saint Salve transferred there all the relics kept until then in the church of Our Lady of the Martyrs, to which he left a few priests to celebrate the divine office, and which later became the abbey of Saint-Acheul.

The holy bishop also had another church built in Amiens, which he dedicated to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and which was later replaced by the collegiate church of Saint-Firmin the Confessor, destroyed during the Revolution.

Saint Salve ardently desired to be able to venerate the precious relics of Saint Firmin the martyr in his new cathedral. The precise location of the burial of the first bishop of Amiens was unknown, although it was known that he was within the precincts of the church of Notre-Dame des Martyrs, which, moreover, was indicated by frequent miracles. The holy bishop resolved to turn to God to obtain the revelation.

After a triduum of prayers, a celestial ray, brighter than the light of day, indicated to Saint Salve the place where this holy treasure rested, which he hastened to raise from the earth and transfer to Amiens, amidst the greatest wonders. The detailed account of this translation, which was attended by the bishops of Beauvais, Cambrai, Thérouanne, and Noyon, belongs to the history of the relics of Saint Firmin.

Salve, following the duty of a good shepherd, assiduously traveled through his diocese, announcing to all the word of eternal life. He contributed greatly to uprooting the last vestiges of paganism from the hearts of his flock, and begot countless sons for Jesus Christ through the Gospel.

Often, along with the health of the soul, he restored that of the body to his diocesans, for God was pleased to confirm his words with wonders. The author of his Life tells us that while traveling through his diocese in this way, he restored sight to a blind man, delivered the daughter of a man named Guadon from a demon, etc. One of his most famous miracles was the healing of a deaf and mute child, to whom he restored h earing Ingaud Deaf and mute child healed and baptized by Salve. and speech, whom he baptized and named Ingaud, and who, after having been his disciple on earth, now shares his glory in heaven.

Salve did not confine his zeal only to the extent of his diocese; he was part, as we have said, of the king's councils, in which he opposed, with a truly episcopal spirit, the desires of the wicked and the corruption of the enemies of Christ. Humble and gentle to all, harsh only to himself, poor by choice but rich in liberality, he not only distributed his goods to the poor; but he gave himself to all, in the ardor of an inexhaustible charity, which led him not only to enrich his flock by impoverishing himself, but to sacrifice himself for them.

While the holy Bishop was distributing temporal and spiritual aid to the sick in the midst of a public contagion, he was in turn struck by the plague and died a victim of his devotion on October 28, around the year 615. The miracles that had illustrated his life glorified his tomb after his death.

The choir enclosure of Notre-Dame d'Amiens, dedicated to the history of Saint Firmin the Martyr, contains in its second bay four scenes featuring Saint Salve. The first arch represents the preaching of the holy bishop: about thirty people are received in a church; the men are standing and have their heads covered; the women are seated on folding stools. Saint Salve, mounted in a hexagonal pulpit, urges the faithful to pray to God to obtain revelation of the place where the relics of the martyr Saint Firmin rest. — The second arch represents the miraculous ray: Saint Salve has seen a miraculous ray emanate from the celestial throne to designate the burial place of his holy predecessor. He has descended from the pulpit, taken off his cope, and, dressed only in the alb and maniple, he kneels at the foot of the altar and contemplates the prodigy that has just been accomplished. — The third arch represents the invention of the relics: Saint Salve has just half-exhumed the body of Saint Firmin, who is dressed in his pontifical insignia. He is accompanied by four bishops, a priest in an alb, a canon wearing the amice, clerics in tunics, and acolytes carrying crosses and candlesticks, etc. Their countenances express the rapture they feel while breathing in a miraculous scent. — The fourth arch represents the translation of the relics: they are transferred in a reliquary, from Saint-Acheul to Amiens, by six levites, deacons, and priests. The procession is opened by a brotherhood carrying torches and ends with five bishops with croziers and miters. The green trees and ripened ears of corn recall the prodigy of the change of season. On the road, one can see two sick people who are healed by the intercession of Saint Firmin. — At the Saint-Firmin portal, at Notre-Dame d'Amiens, one can see the statue of Saint Salve, wearing the stole, maniple, chasuble, miter, and crozier. — Three large tapestries were once kept at Saint-Firmin-en-Castillon featuring Saint Salve discovering and transferring the relics of Saint Firmin. — Let us also mention a modern stained glass window in Villers-Bretonneux and a painting in the bishopric chapel.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

The cult of Saint Salve was very popular in the Middle Ages. A chapel was built for him in Amiens, which has long since disappeared and whose former location is unknown. Another chapel was dedicated to him in the Amiens Cathedral; but, when the miraculous crucifix of the Savior, vulgarly referred to as Saint-Sauve, was placed there, our holy bishop, who was to be perpetually the victim of a confusion of names, saw himself gradually forgotten, and popular piety, remaining faithful only to the name of Saint-Sauve, addressed itself exclusively to the Byzantine image representing the crucified Jesus.

Bishop Arnoul, who died in 1246, bequeathed a sum of four pounds so that the feast of Saint Salve could be celebrated more solemnly. Although he died on October 28, his feast was only held on the 29th, because it coincided with that of the holy apostles Simon and Jude. It is inscribed in all Amiens breviaries, in the ancient Proper of Saint-Florent de Roye and in the Proper of Saint-Valery; in the ancient breviary of Noyon (1764), which errs in making our Saint the patron of a church in that diocese, whereas it is Saint Sauve, bishop of Angoulême, who is the patron of Essigny; and finally in the current Proper of Arras.

The name of Saint Salve is inscribed in the Amiens litanies of the 12th century, in the Roman martyrology, and in those of Du Saussay, Chastelain, Galesinus, Hugues Ménard, etc., who committed the same error of date by confusing Saint Salve, bishop of Amiens, with the martyr Saint Salvian.

There was a confraternity of Saint-Sauve in Waben, a parish in the former deanery of Montreuil. A dead-end street in Abbeville bears the name of Saint-Saulve. The former Montreuil abbey of that name did not even survive in a few ruins. It is the City Hall that is built on its site.

Saint Salve was buried in the cathedral of Notre-Dame des Martyrs (Saint-Acheul); but his relics were transferred around the year 695 to the church of the abbey of Montreuil, which soon took the name of Saint-Saulve. On June 11, 1111, Saint Geoffroy, bishop of Amiens, transferred them into a new reliquary. A third translation took place on May 28, 1702. On August 24, 1729, Bishop Pierre de Sabatier performed the recognition of the relics of Saint Salve in Montreuil. During these various openings of the reliquary, some bones of the Saint were removed to be given to the abbey of Sainte-Austreberte of Montreuil, to the abbey of Saint-Vincent of Laon, and to the cathedral of Canterbury.

There remains today in Montreuil only one bone of Saint Salve in a small silver reliquary. The large reliquary and two other reliquaries, one in the shape of a pyramid and the other in the shape of a coffin, were sent to the Mint by Le Bon, during the mission tha t this Le Bon Conventionnel responsible for the seizure of reliquaries in Montreuil in 1793. convention member carried out in Montreuil in 1793.

This notice, by Mr. Charles Salmon, is taken from the *Sauvie religieuse du diocèse d'Amiens*; we have supplemented it with the *Hegingreghne du diocèse d'Amiens*, by Father Corhint.