Saint Benignus of Smyrna

For our Saint, he came as far as Autun, with his other companions, and he was favorably received there in the home of an illustrious senator named Faustus. He brought with him the reward for the warm welcome he received: the evangelical pearl, which is the knowledge of the true God. He shared it with this senator and spoke to him so effectively about the extravagance of idolatry and the wisdom of the Christian faith that he inflamed him with the same fire with which his own heart was inflamed. Faustus became a Christian and washed away the crime Symphorien Saint to whom the chapel where Anatolius settled was dedicated. of his infidelity in the waters of baptism. Symphorian, his son, imitated his fervor, and, from being a pagan, became one of the most zealous preachers of the Gospel. Several other faithful also followed their example, and Benignus soon had the consolation of seeing in the midst of Autun a holy company of Christians ready to shed their blood and give their lives for the confe ssion o Langres City of origin of the cleric Warnahaire and several cited martyrs. f one God. From there, Faustus begged him to go to Langres to work for the conversion of three twin children, Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Meleusippus, grandsons of Leonilla, his sister, a fervent Christian. The Saint believed that God was offering him this opportunity to carry the torch of truth further: he went to Langres, catechized the three triplets, and convinced them of the falsity of their religion. These, after having broken all the idols that filled their house and made it like a pagan temple, completely made this miserable heap of false divinities disappear. Nothing there, therefore, offended or saddened Christian eyes anymore, and Jesus Christ could come and take possession of it.

An altar was erected for the sacrifice of the spotless victim in an oratory that Benignus consecrated under the invocation of Saint John. The Ionian missionary wanted the name of the beloved Apostle to be inscribed on this cradle of the Church of Langres, so that this noble sister of the Church of Autun might also remember whose daughter she is, and from what heart she received, along with birth and faith, as a family inheritance, angelic virginity and sweet charity, those two flowers of heaven that Jesus had given to his friend.

Meanwhile, Benignus continued his teachings to the fervent neophytes every day. Soon they were found to be not only sufficiently instructed, but strong in faith and charity; and the apostle believed he could without delay definitively consecrate them to God through baptism and participation in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The apostolic worker was happy: he thanked the Father who is in heaven for having given him, in Langres as in Autun, spiritual children who promised the highest hopes. Benignus, after having left, as a monument to the apostolic origin of his ministry, the oratory he had consecrated in honor of Saint John, commended to God and secured the fate of the Christendom of Langres, this second and beloved daughter of his soul, poured out his heart one last time in a final farewell, and went to Dijon to continue the work already so fruitful of an apostolate blessed by heaven. He was the father of two great Churches; and by baptizing Saint Symphorian and the three holy Triplets, he had baptized two of the most famous peoples of Gaul, the Aedui and the Lingones.

Having ar rived Dijon City where the relics were temporarily hidden and disputed. in Dijon, Benignus established the center of his mission there, and from that place caused the evangelical light to radiate throughout the surrounding country. His word, confirmed by the holy authority of his virtue and by the divine sanction of miracles, obtained consoling successes. Paschasie, instructed and baptized by him, was in this place the noblest conquest of his apostolate. To preserve in Dijon, as well as in Langres, the memory of the apostolic origin of his mission, he dedicated a humble oratory in honor of Saint John.

In the meantime, Marc us Aurelius Marc-Aurèle Roman emperor marking the chronological limit of Hegesippus's work. , obliged to travel across all the frontiers of the empire to repel the Barbarians who were invading it, came to visit, in passing, the walls of Dijon, which had been recently constructed. At the news of his arrival, Benignus fled two leagues away, to a village currently named Prenois (Prunidum, Prunetum), then to another named Epagny (Spaniacum), whose inhabitants still preserve by tradition the memory of this event, linked so closely to the martyrdom of the illustrious apostle of the Dijon region. The emperor, who was at once a sophist, superstitious, and cruel, after having inspected the enclosure of the nascent city, ordered a temple to be built to Mercury and that not a single Christian be tolerated in the land. "We do not know here what a Christian is," replied Count Tere ntius; "but I h comte Térentius Count of Dijon who denounced Benignus to Marcus Aurelius. ave seen a stranger with a shaven head, whose appearance and way of life are entirely different from ours. He declaims against the worship of our gods, makes people take I know not what kind of bath, anoints them with a certain perfume, performs many wonders among the people, and promises those who believe in his God another life after death." — "By these signs," replied the prince, "I recognize a Christian. Let him be sought out and brought to me loaded with chains. For our gods detest this new superstition. As soon as they perceive the sign of the Crucified, they wither with fury, gnash their teeth, and cannot bear the sight of it." Terentius hastened to carry out the master's order. The apostle was found in the village where he had taken refuge and was announcing the word of God to the pagans. He was chained and brought before the emperor.

"From what country are you, worshiper of the cross, and what is your name?" — "I have come from the Orient with my brothers. They are already dead: it is you who killed them. We were sent by Saint Polycarp to preach the Gospel to the nations." Then the prince, changing his tone as well as his tactics, replied: "If you obey my orders, I will make you the high priest of my gods and give you the first rank in my palace." — "Ravening wolf, keep your priesthood. I wish to receive nothing from you, for you are reserved for all that eternal damnation can have of the most frightful; and you will never persuade me to renounce the Christ whom I adore." The emperor, seeing that his promises were useless, ordered that he be beaten cruelly with ox-hide whips, and added that, if he did not sacrifice to the gods of the empire, he would be made to undergo all sorts of tortures.

The Martyr was then stretched on the rack, and, while they struck him, he gave thanks to God and prayed. After this first torture, he was thrown into prison, all bruised, all torn, all bloody. But an angel came to console him and healed him so well of all his wounds that not the slightest trace of them remained. The next day, the emperor had Benignus appear before him again and urged him to sacrifice. The intrepid soldier of Jesus Christ mocked the gods. Then the prince ordered that he be led before an altar, and that meats sacrificed to idols be forcibly inserted into his mouth. Benignus, having arrived before the pagan simulacra, made the sign of the cross, raising his eyes and his heart toward heaven, and addressed a short but fervent prayer to the divine Master. Immediately, all the idols of stone or wood and the vessels used for sacrifices disappeared like smoke. The Saint, full of joy, thanked God for having deigned to hear him, then cast derision upon the tyrant and his gods who had vanished before the sign of salvation. — "See rather," replied the emperor, who was undoubtedly trying to hide his astonishment, "how much our gods care to do your will. If you also consent to do theirs and mine, you will be great in my eyes." These softened words, betraying a certain embarrassment, served only to provoke from Benignus a new and ever more energetic refusal. "You must be," he said, "very foolish and very blind, not to see the power of Jesus Christ in the annihilation of your idols." — "Let him be taken back to prison," cried the furious tyrant, "let a large stone be brought, let a cavity be made in it, and let his feet be sealed there with molten lead; let incandescent awls be driven under his fingernails; let him be given nothing for six days, not even water; and let the most ferocious dogs be locked up with him, which will be left without food or drink, so that they may devour him." Immediately the barbaric order was executed; and while they were leading him to prison, the apostle exhorted the counts and the tribunes to believe in Jesus Christ. He wanted to fulfill his divine mission to the end, by casting into these souls at least a few seeds of faith. The Martyr thus returned to his dark dungeon, never ceasing for six days to maintain the holy commerce of prayer with heaven. Thus God did not abandon him. He sent an angel to his aid who calmed the fury of the dogs so well that these animals did not touch a single hair of his head, nor a single thread of the fringe of his garments. Moreover, the envoy of the Most High removed the awls driven under his nails, removed the lead that sealed his feet in the stone, and gave him heavenly bread for nourishment.

The sixth day having arrived, the prison was opened, and the body of the Martyr was found so clean and healthy, so perfectly intact, that there did not appear the slightest trace of the tortures he had endured. At this news, the prince, no doubt to finish it and not be bested a third time, ordered that in the prison itself his neck be broken with an iron bar, and that to finish him off, a soldier pierce him with his lance. At the moment the blessed Martyr expired, the Christians, his children in Jesus Christ, saw a dove as white as snow fly from the prison and rise to the clouds: it was his soul departing for heaven. At the same time, they breathed an odor so sweet that they believed themselves transported into the midst of the perfumes of paradise. Thus ended, adds an old hagiographer, the passion of the holy priest Benignus, on the day of the Kalends of November (around the year 178).

Saint Benignus is represented with his body pierced by two lances, a mace behind his head. He is also represented with his feet sealed in a stone with molten lead. At the main portal of the cathedral church of Dijon, in front of the trumeau that divides the middle bay in two, is a standing figure, dressed in bishop's attire, holding a palm, his hand resting on a cane, his head covered with a kind of ribbed cap. This figure is considered to be that of Saint Benignus.

## CULT AND RELICS. — MONUMENTS.

The body of the holy Martyr, having been embalmed with costly aromatics and perfumes, was buried by Leonilla of Langres in a stone sarcophagus devoid of inscription or symbol, which was buried underground at a short distance from the place where the Saint had been martyred. The faithful of the place and those from neighboring villages came, from the day after the martyrdom, to honor the holy apostle in his sepulcher, and as soon as prudence permitted, they cleared the ground around it, dug a staircase, and built a small chapel or vaulted crypt over it: it is believed that this was toward the middle of the 3rd century.

On this tomb, a pilgrimage was born which ceased, at least extensively, during the years of trouble that followed the turmoil of civil revolts and barbarian incursions. The abandoned crypt collapsed, and little by little the memory of the precise place where the remains of the holy Martyr rested, and which nothing distinguished, faded, except in the memory of the country inhabitants, who still came to pray at the tomb of Saint Bénigne, bringing offerings, burning candles, and claiming to receive miraculous favors there.

In the meantime, Saint Gregory, Bishop of Langres, came to Dijon; and as wonderful things we saint Grégoire, évêque de Langres Bishop of Langres who recovered the relics of Benignus in the 6th century. re being told that had happened at the tomb of Saint Bénigne, this was enough to attract the attention of the bishop who, despite the popular tradition and the miracles, and finding in the pagan form of the sarcophagus only a reason to be wary, judged it prudent to forbid the pilgrimage, at least provisionally. It was then that Saint Bénigne appeared to him and ordered him to cease acting in such a way and to rebuild the ruins of his sepulcher as soon as possible. Struck by this vision, Saint Gregory hastened to have the old crypt, which was in ruins, rebuilt. When the work was completed, he summoned a large number of priests, religious, and abbots to solemnly celebrate the invention of the relics of the holy apostle and to attend their translation. After this ceremony, the holy bishop thought of executing a work of which he had long dreamed: it was to raise over the tomb of Saint Bénigne a church worthy of such an apostle and capable of containing the crowd of pilgrims who flocked from all parts. To ensure the cult of the holy apostle in a permanent manner, the venerable bishop of Langres, imitating Saint Euphronius, added a monastery to the new church and entrusted the care of the holy body to religious whom he brought from the Abbey of Baume. He placed them under the government of the holy abbot Eestade and gave them considerable lands from his own property and from that of his bishopric. Such was the origin of the famous Abbey of Saint-Bénigne in Dijon, which occupies such a considera abbaye de Saint-Bénigne de Dijon Important Benedictine abbey founded on the tomb of the saint. ble place in the religious, political, and artistic history of Burgundy.

The cult of Saint Bénigne, thus revived and surrounded by all the splendors of religion, took on an immense development. From then on, there was an immense gathering of pilgrims at his tomb and, as it were, a cloud of brilliant miracles. The devotion of the faithful extended to the places where the holy apostle had suffered, and to the instruments of his torture: the tower that had served as his prison was converted into a chapel, and the stone in which his feet had been sealed became the object of a special cult. A crowd of pilgrims went to draw water from the fountain of Epagny, near which he was arrested by the soldiers, and, in times of calamity, entire parishes went there in procession.

Some portions of the relics of Saint Benignus spread with his cult to various localities, in Tours, in Pontarlier, in Saint-Maurice in Velais, and as far as Germany. The basilica, raised over the tomb of the Martyr by Saint Gregory of Langres, having suffered greatly from the civil wars and the misfortunes of the 8th century, was restored in the 9th century by Isaac, Bishop of Langres, and the cult of the holy apostle was reborn with new splendor until the Norman invasions.

In order to secure the holy relics, they were first transported to the interior of the center of Dijon, then to Langres, a stronger city, where they remained until the fear of invasions had passed. The people of Langres made themselves paid for the hospitality they had given to Saint Benignus by demanding an arm of the Martyr. Later, as rumors of invasion still resounded, the precious treasure was buried underground in the crypt, without any external sign, but with an inscription enclosed within the tomb itself. It remained hidden there throughout the 10th century, until the day when the famous Abbot Will iam raised it abbé Guillaume Reforming abbot who rebuilt the abbey in the 11th century. from the earth, surrounded it with honors as great as those that had been bestowed upon it by Saint Gregory of Langres, and cast over his tomb, once again restored, this beautiful church with this magnificent three-story rotunda, the marvel of Romanesque art inspired by Italian genius, which perhaps had no rival in France. At the same time, the Cluniac reform was introduced into the monastery. Everything there changed its face, everything took a marvelous flight, science as well as piety. A new era began for the cult of the apostle of Burgundy, as for the great Dijon abbey. William placed the relics of the Saint in a magnificent reliquary covered with plates of gold and silver, exposed to the gaze of all in the crypt where numerous lamps burned day and night.

The pilgrimage, which had almost ceased during the misfortunes of the 9th and 10th centuries, began again on a larger scale. Such was the crowd that pressed to the venerated tomb that it was necessary to open three new doors in the upper church to descend to the crypt. The gifts of kings and peoples flowed in as in the time of Saint Gregory and Gontran.

One might have believed that the basilica, so beautiful and above all so solid, would defy the centuries. However, on February 21, 1271, the great stone tower that rose in the center collapsed with a terrible crash and dragged the entire building into its ruin, except for the great portal and the rotunda. By a miraculous preservation, the reliquary of Saint Benignus, whi châsse de saint Bénigne Reliquary containing the saint's remains, miraculously preserved in 1271. ch rested on two small columns near the tomb, a little in front of the rotunda, and which should have been crushed by the fall of the vaults, remained suspended in the air without anything being seen that could support it. The lamps that burned before the holy relics were not even extinguished. Such an event produced a profound impression in Dijon and throughout Burgundy; and the erection of a new basilica, even more splendid than the old one, if possible, was decreed with enthusiasm. A considerable fragment of the stone in which Saint Benignus had had his feet sealed with molten lead served as the first stone. It was laid solemnly on February 7, 1280, and the monument rose between the rotunda and the great portal, which were preserved. It is the church that still exists today. It bears the stamp of the best period of the ogival style and has as its particular character simplicity in grandeur. The illustrious Abbot Hugh of Arc also replaced the old reliquary, which had lost its luster, with a magnificent work of goldsmithing; and he performed, on October 12, 1285, the solemn translation of the holy relics. The memory of this day was celebrated annually by a feast that was called the Little Saint-Benignus. Little by little, houses grouped themselves near the basilica and filled the space that separated it from the old center. Thus was born the city of Dijon, capital of the Duchy of Burgundy.

Kings Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII, Francis I, Henry II, Charles IX, and Louis XIII were seen kneeling before the reliquary of Saint Benignus. Several other illustrious figures also came to pray at the holy tomb: the learned Queen Christina of Sweden, Cardinal Cajetan, Cardinal de Bérulle, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, etc. At the same time, churches, religious Orders, kings, and individuals continued to solicit relics of the holy Martyr. The Carthusian Fathers sent an embassy to Dijon, asking for some parcels of the glorious Saint Benignus. In 1498, the church of Autun considered itself happy to receive a beautiful chiseled and enameled reliquary containing a bone of the Apostle. In 1509, His Catholic Majesty humbly asked for the same favor. In 1584, the reliquary was solemnly opened, and at the request of two Capuchin Fathers, a notable fragment was taken from it to be carried to the Indies, to a cathedral church founded in honor of Saint Benignus. In 1589, Cardinal Cajetan did not believe he could bring back to the Pope a more pleasant gift than a relic of the holy Martyr. In 1650, Queen Anne of Austria came herself, with her young son Louis XIV, to seek some at the church of Saint-Benignus, and she was given some of those that were in the small reliquary carried by an angel.

The Abbey of Saint-Bénigne, having adopted the reform of Saint-Maur in the 18th century, obtained that the feast of the holy Apostle be established as a feast of obligation and fixed for November 24 (1763). From the beginning of 1791, in the second year of liberty, seals were placed on the doors of the sacristy. The following year, the reliquary was taken and the relics were transported in a wooden chest to the king's lodging. No one knows what became of them. The revolutionaries demolished the portal and the rotunda, devastated the crypt, broke the ancient sarcophagus, and buried it under the rubble; the ground was then leveled and paved. On November 30, 1858, the tomb was discovered during excavations undertaken to build a sacristy for the cathedral church: when the clearing was completed and the crypt appeared in its entirety, restoration work began.

The Diocese of Nevers possesses several churches placed under the invocation of the holy Apostle of Burgundy, among others, those of Saint-Benin-des-Bois, Saint-Benin d'Azy, and Sougy. Today, the church of Saint-Bénigne in Pontarlier (Doubs) still possesses some relics of its glorious patron and solemnly celebrates his feast on the Sunday following All Saints' Day. The church of La Maison-des-Champs, in the Diocese of Troyes, also possesses a portion of the bones of Saint Bénigne.

To compose this biography, we have used the Étude sur saint Bénigne by Abbé Bougand; Saint Symphorien et son culte by Abbé Dinot; the Vie des Saints de Dijon by Abbé Duplus; and the Hagiographie Nivernoise by Mgr Crounier.