Saint Lautein

Such was Lautein in the midst of the world, whom his friend Gregory was edifying, for his part, on a vaster stage; for, at seventeen, the votes of the people had called him to govern the city of Autun. But while the young and pious magistrate was making the happiness of the Aedui, as much by the holiness of his life as by the wisdom of his administration, Lautein decided to leave the world to embrace the life of the cloister. He was about twenty-seven years old when he entered the monastery of Saint-Symphorien, which was then governed by the holy abbot Laurent. It was undoubtedly the venerable bishop of Autun, Euphronius, who pushed Lautein toward solitude, after having served as his guide and counselor in the midst of the century. Euphronius himself often went to reflect and pray in this retreat, which was so dear to him, and where he chose the place of his burial.

At that time, the Rules of the Eastern monks were observed at the monastery of Saint-Symphorien, with the modifications required by the temperament of the Gauls. Under the wise direction of Abbot Laurent, Lautein gave himself over with fervor to all the exercises of the spiritual life, and soon he gathered the most precious fruits there. However, he still aspired to a higher perfection, to a more complete detachment from earthly things. With the permission of his superior, he generously renounced the comforts of the common life, and, like another Anthony, he fled to the desert, where he wished to have only God as his witness and support in the battles he was about to wage against the spirit of evil.

Lautein crossed the Saône and came to seek solitude at the foot of the Jura mountains, in Upper Burgundy. It was easy to find the desert and silence in this unfortunate region, which the ravages of the barbarians had devastated for two centuries. Gondebaud had just re-established the dominion of the Burgundians there when Lautein came to settle in the part of this province called the Scodingue. He built his cell on the eastern slope of a hill then named Sièze or Silèze, on the ba nks of Silèze Site of the foundation of the monastery of Lautein in the Jura. a small river. Silèze (today Saint-Lautein, or Saint-Lothain, Jura, arrondissement of Lons-le-Saulnier, canton of Sellières) was a ruined village, located a short distance from the Roman road from Lyon to Besançon, via Bourg, Lons-le-Saunier, and Grozon. This land, once defiled by the worship of idols, then became a place of prayer, where the name of the true God was glorified day and night by the homage of the pious hermit and the disciples he gathered around him. It is thus that God confounded in a more striking manner the malice and pride of the demons, by establishing the reign of the cross on the debris of their altars.

But the works of God almost always grow in the midst of trials. Thus, the new host of Silèze was soon subjected to the attacks of impure spirits. Not only did the tempter seek to stir up storms in the soul of the holy anchorite: he made himself visible to his eyes, troubled him in his prayer, and sought to frighten him with the most hideous apparitions, renewing against him the temptations that had made the constancy of the solitaries of the Thebaid shine. But Lautein, without being frightened by these illusions, turned toward God and said to Him with confidence, like the holy King David: "Arise, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee from before your face." Instantly, the apparition of the impure spirits would vanish, and God would bring peace back into the soul of His servant.

Saint Lautein had learned from the divine Master that the most terrible of demons can only be conquered by fasting and prayer. He therefore resolved to add even more to the rigor of his austerities and his fasts, as well as to the length of his vigils, in order to protect himself against temptations that were renewed every day. His biographer assures that he spent three Lents, eating only twice a week. In the first, he used only barley porridge; in the second, dried apples; and in the third, raw vegetables.

Thus lived the holy anchorite of Silèze, happy in his solitude, because he knew that God was the witness of his struggles and his macerations. But it pleased the Lord to reveal this treasure of holiness to the world.

The presence of the pious stranger was a source of blessings for the neighborhood. God had given him, it was said, the power to divert storms and calm tempests. The inhabitants of the neighboring regions began from then on to honor him as a saint, and they came to him to obtain the favors of heaven through his powerful intercession. A priest, named Gallican, tormented by an evil spirit, came to find Lautein, whose eminent holiness he had heard praised, and begged him to deliver him through his blessing. "What!" the pious solitary humbly replied to him, "you are a priest, I am but a poor monk, and you ask that I bless you?" Lautein begged him, on the contrary, to bless him himself. But as Gallican refused, Lautein gave him oil and recommended that he spread it on his limbs. The priest obeyed, and immediately the evil spirit departed from him.

This miracle and others still increased the reputation of the one who performed them. Many disciples abandoned the world and flocked to Silèze to serve God there under the guidance of the famous wonder-worker. Soon he saw seventy religious gathered around him. This was the origin of the first monastery of Silèze, whose church was placed under the invocation of Saint Martin. But soon the humble cloister was found to be too narrow to contain the influx of new disciples, and the holy abbot was obliged to found a second monastery at Maximiac (this is very probably the primitive name of the famous mo nastery Maximiac Second monastery founded by Lautein. of Baume-les-Moines), in the vicinity of Silèze. He placed about forty religious there, all exercised in fasting, vigils, and above all in obedience. This virtue, which distinguishes good religious, is the infallible guardian of fervor and regularity in the cloister. Thus Lautein strove to inspire it in his disciples in a very special way, as much by the authority of his examples as by the wisdom of his counsels. His biographer even recounts, on this subject, a trait that would seem incredible if one did not know what miraculous rewards God has promised to obedience.

The holy abbot, says the legend, was at Maximiac, where he was accustomed to spend Lent and other days of fasting, no doubt because the religious of this monastery edified him himself by a greater fervor and a more severe abstinence. One day when the oven was heated for the preparation of bread, he ordered Pharadée, one of the religious, to enter it to clean it, no doubt well assured of the miraculous success of the strang e test t Pharadée Monk of Maximiac who survived the ordeal of the furnace. o which he was putting the obedience of his disciple. The latter did not hesitate at all and threw himself, full of confidence in God, into the furnace. His obedience and his faith were rewarded as they deserved: the flames respected the servant of God, as formerly Azarias with his two companions; and Pharadée, after having accomplished the orders of his superior, came out of the oven as intact as he had entered it.

The divine Master had said, speaking of his disciples: "They will cast out spirits of hell in my name, they will speak all languages, they will handle serpents without danger, and if they drink any deadly potion, they will receive no harm. They will lay hands on the sick, and the sick will be healed." Saint Lautein was one of these privileged disciples of Christ, clothed with the miraculous power of heaven. One day, while he was alone in his cell, he suddenly saw an enormous serpent appear that threatened to throw itself upon him. The pious hermit began to pray to avert the danger: "Lord," he said, "deliver me from the wicked and deceitful man, who darts his tongue like a serpent, and who distills from his lips the venom of asps, to do battle with me and bring about my death." Then he made the sign of the cross, invoked the holy name of Jesus Christ, and immediately saw the monster perish at his feet. However, the holy abbot kept silent about this event, and was content to confide the secret to Siagrius, his friend and most fervent disciple, inviting him to bless the Lord with him for the protection He granted to His servants.

It happened at that time that brigands, having come from Dijon, headed toward Silèze, where they believed they would find great treasures. They proposed to seize the abbot and put him to torture until he surrendered these supposed riches to them. But, while they were advancing toward the monastery, the author of the criminal plan was bitten by a poisonous serpent. Then these perverse men, viewing this event as a punishment from heaven, were touched by repentance, and went to throw themselves at the feet of Saint Lautein, confessing their crime and asking him for mercy. The holy abbot forgave them with a good heart, and even healed the unfortunate wounded man.

Meanwhile, Lautein had reached the age of fifty-three, and was not yet a priest. For a long time his religious had urged him to receive holy orders, without having been able to overcome that profound humility which led him to judge himself unworthy of the priesthood. Recognizing finally that the desire of his brothers was the will of heaven, he allowed himself to have hands laid upon him by the bishop Saint A mand, wheth saint Amand Spiritual advisor to Gertrude. er this prelate had come to visit him at Silèze, or whether he had summoned him to the place of his residence. It was the year 501 or 502. Everything leads us to believe that Saint Amand was bishop of Besançon. Saint Lautein redoubled his fervor when his brow bore the double crown of the religious and the priest, and when it was given to him to celebrate the august mysteries every day. Silèze still happily shows pious tourists the modest altar where, according to tradition, the celestial Victim was so many times immolated by his hands; this altar is seen under the choir of the current church, in the crypt which was the church of the first religious. After his ordination, Lautein lived for another sixteen or seventeen years, walking always from virtue to virtue, rising from clarity to clarity, showing himself always the accomplished model, the assured counsel, the true father of his two communities and the providence of the unfortunate, who flocked to Silèze or to Maximiac to obtain from this powerful friend of God the healing of all their miseries.

Saint Lautein had just spent Lent at Maximiac, according to his custom, and was back at Silèze when Saint Gregory arrived at Gr saint Grégoire Childhood friend of Lautein and Bishop of Langres. ozon, an ancient village located near the Roman road from Geneva to Dijon. Informed of the prelate's presence, the holy abbot hastened to visit him. It was Easter Day, April 15. Saint Gregory, learning of the approach of his illustrious friend, rushed to meet him. They fell into each other's arms: "God be blessed," cried the bishop, "since He has granted me the happiness I desired so much, that of seeing you again in this lower world!" And both shed tears of joy. They spent the entire day together at Silèze, and shared their time between works of piety and the outpourings of friendship.

Saint Lautein, having previously been at Maximiac, had received a revelation of his approaching end through the ministry of an angel; for, although God keeps their end hidden from most mortals, He has often rewarded the faith of His Saints by announcing to them the day when their impatient desires for heaven would soon be fulfilled. Saint Lautein, who had obtained this favor, like Saint John Chrysostom and so many others, hastened to share his happiness with his beloved host. The next day, the abbot escorted the bishop and his retinue; then, after showering him with blessings and bidding him farewell, he returned to Silèze, where he continued to prepare for death by redoubling his fervor.

Maximiac received his customary visit once more during the course of this year, which was the seventieth of his life. Lautein was in this monastery at the end of October when, knowing that he had only a few days left to spend on earth, he said to his friend, the priest Victorius: "I am returning to Silèze, where I wish to die and be buried. Come there next Thursday, and bring a shroud to bury my corpse." Then, he hastened to leave: it was Sunday or Monday. He spent the following three days in prayer with his sorrowful religious, whom he consoled by showing them the meeting place of all the children of God in heaven. At the same time, they received his final exhortations, which the good Father seemed unable to finish. On Thursday, which that year happened to be the first day of November, Lautein entered the oratory and gave himself the communion of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, to strengthen himself for this terrible passage from time to eternity. His final moments were completed in prayer, and it was thus that his beautiful soul, tearing itself from the prison of the body, flew toward the heavenly homeland, where the Lord Jesus received it with love and placed it in the ranks of the elect.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The body of Saint Lautein was fully interred by his disciples in a stone sarcophagus from Vergennes, which can still be seen in the crypt of the church. The lid of this tomb bears this epitaph: "Here rests Saint Lautein, abbot." This inscription is in letters from the 10th or 11th century; which may lead one to suppose that the sarcophagus having been buried, according to custom, the inscription was only engraved when the remains of the holy abbot were raised from the earth and placed in the crypt, that is to say in the church of the monastery, on the left side of the altar. One undoubtedly wished, by this inscription, to distinguish this monument from two other walls, placed to the right of the altar, and belonging to some venerable abbots, the first successors of Saint Lautein, whose names, inscribed in heaven, have remained unknown to men. Indeed, the elevation of these holy bodies may have taken place at the beginning of the 10th century, a time when the monastery and the church of Silèze, ruined by the Normans in 888 or 889, were rebuilt by Saint Bernou, abbot of Baume.

Towards the end of the 11th century, the relics of Saint Lautein were taken from their tomb to be exposed for public veneration. This new translation must have been carried out by the orders of the abbot of Baume; for, since Saint Bernou, the monastery of Saint-Lautoin, having become a simple priory, was annexed to this famous abbey, which retained for itself the head of the Blessed one, with a large part of his body. These precious relics were enclosed in a reliquary with the head of Saint Désiré, and placed on the right side of the high altar, where they are still found today. The church of Silèze kept a portion of the relics of its illustrious founder. But, in the following centuries, the abbey of Baume having ceased to maintain religious there, no disciples of Saint Lautein remained to watch over his venerated tomb.

On May 11, 1635 (during the war of France, allied with Holland and the Lutherans of Germany, against the House of Austria), German and Lorrain soldiers entered the church of Saint-Lautein. As they noticed, above the high altar, the reliquary that contained the holy relics, they knocked it down with their pikes, believing no doubt that this chest contained some riches. The violence of the fall broke the reliquary, and the relics were scattered on the step of the altar. In the evening, the enemy having withdrawn, the parish priest of Touloose came to collect them. But, for fear of a new desecration, he locked them in a box, and they were placed under a slab in the choir, where they remained until April 15, 1641. Then they were solemnly removed, in the presence of most of those who had deposited them there. The following miracle, which occurred in these circumstances, has been transmitted for our edification by the parish archives.

A blind woman from Miéry, learning that the relics of the holy abbot had just been raised from the earth, and that his powerful intercession had formerly restored sight to the blind, had herself brought to Saint-Lautein, filled with the most complete confidence. She asked the priest to say mass for her and persevered, for three days, in visiting the church and pouring out her fervent supplications before the holy relics. Finally, on the third day, this pious woman suddenly recovered her sight and thus received the reward promised by Jesus Christ to perseverance in faith. This miracle occurred on May 15, 1641. The priest drew up a report, which he signed with three other witnesses.

In 1793, the reliquary was hidden in the crypt, and thus escaped the vandalism of the revolutionaries. Then, when the storm had passed, it resumed its place at the back of the apse. The relics it contains are a femur, a fragment of a humerus, two or more jawbones, and several vertebrae. Two small bones are still enclosed, one in a silver reliquary representing Saint Lautein, the other in an antique bust of the same Saint, which is in the crypt.

Formerly, in times of drought, excessive rain, or other public calamities, the reliquary was brought down and exposed to the veneration of the people. It was a commissioner of the monastery, and later of the chapter of Baume, who presided over the ceremony. At the same time, the relics of the same Saint, resting in the abbey church, were likewise exposed, and a solemn mass was celebrated in his honor. Then, the neighboring parishes came in procession, either to Baume or to Silèze, assured that they would not invoke the powerful intercession of the blessed abbot in vain. The venerable remains of Saint Lautein are no longer visited today by a large gathering of pious pilgrims. Nevertheless, the faithful still honor him as their great protector, and during the disastrous rains of the summer of 1853, one saw the faith of ancient times reawaken in these places, and the crowd flock to the tomb of the holy abbot to implore his protection in public misfortune.

Excerpt from The Saints of Franche-Comté, by the professors of the Saint-François-Xavier College, of Besançon.