Saint Amans of Rodez

The brilliance of his virtues and the holiness of his life made him worthy of being designated to occupy the see of Rodez, around 401; it was a formidable burden. But he bore it with a greatness of soul equal to his eminent dignity, and with a devotion and courage proportionate to the difficulties of the situation.

Nature and grace had vied with each other to form this great apostolic heart. Austere toward himself, he was full of tender compassion for others. He was distinguished by an eager charity, by a boundless liberality; he was full of meekness in forgiving, calm in discussions, gentle against insults, patient in tribulations, moderate in prosperity, even-tempered in contradictions, severe against flattery, humble in success. He knew how to combine ease with restraint, and playfulness with dignity. Finally, all these noble qualities, all these admirable virtues were crowned by an ardent zeal for the conversion of his brothers. Such was the shepherd full of meekness, the apostle with a burning heart whom Providence had granted to the Ruthenians, as the angel of its mercy.

The holy pastor had the sorrow of finding his native city bowed under the yoke of paganism; it had already allowed the torch of faith lit by Saint Martial to be almost extinguished. Amans saw his church abandoned and closed with stones and bushes; none of the few remaining Christians could or dared to worship the true God there anymore.

The holy bishop had chosen as a faithful and worthy companion for his labors the deacon Saint Naamas. He did not hasten, out of prudence, to reopen th e deserted c saint Naamas Saint whose head is displayed with that of Dalmas. hurch; but he contented himself at first with a small oratory in which he never ceased to pray, day and night, with his deacon, for his idolatrous fellow citizens. Then he announced the word of God to these infidels, and thus converted some of them. But the greatest number persisted in error with blind obstinacy, and continued to address their worship to the infamous idol of Ruth, which held its worshipers under the empire of the pleasures of the senses. It was especially the leaders of the city who set the example for the people and kept them in their deplorable superstition. For this coarse people, striking miracles were needed; the zealous pastor understood this and obtained them from God.

One day, the Saint was announcing the word of God to these idolaters with all the ardor of his zeal. One of the most prominent men of the city was listening to him with curiosity; struck by the evidence of the truth, but finding the Christian faith perhaps too elevated for his earthly soul, and the evangelical morality too austere for his sensual nature, he cried out publicly that he would not renounce his religion and embrace that of Jesus Christ unless he saw the small stream, named Lauterne, which flows at Lauterne Stream at the foot of Rodez, associated with a miracle. the foot of the high and steep hill upon which Rodez is situated, flow up into the city. The holy bishop accepted the proposal and dared to promise the miracle; he prostrated himself and invoked the Almighty. Suddenly, the stream turned from its ordinary course, climbed to the summit of the mountain, and came to flow at the feet of the pastor. Then, submitted to a new command from the pontiff, it descended back into the valley and returned to its bed. At the sight of such a surprising miracle, those who witnessed it gave glory to the God of Amans and abandoned their superstitions.

Another day, the provost of the city, having set up his tribunal in the public square, condemned a criminal to die on the gallows. The holy pastor, touched with compassion, hastened at this news to go and ask the provost for the pardon of the condemned man. The latter opposed the most obstinate refusal to all his entreaties, and even ended by overwhelming the Saint with invectives and insults. The prelate returned sadly to his oratory, prostrated himself in the dust, beat his breast, and begged the Lord with tears to grant him the grace that the governor had refused him. During this prayer, the pitiless provost suddenly fell from his seat as if struck by death. Everyone understood where the blow came from; they hastened to run toward the Blessed one, to pray him to restore the almost inanimate governor to life. Upon the arrival of the Saint in the square, the provost was suddenly healed; he fell at the knees of the prelate, asked his pardon for his hardness and his outrages, publicly abjured idolatry, and asked for baptism. Most of those present, struck by all these wonders, converted to the Christian religion.

These miracles were not yet powerful enough to bring back all the people. Many hardened themselves in their detestable error; the defection of a great number of their own only made them more fanatical.

They resolved to celebrate, with more pomp than ever, the feast of their idol. They assembled a multitude of idolaters from the city and the surrounding areas, in order to strengthen, through an imposing manifestation, the shaken cult of Ruth. They sacrificed a great number of victims to the demon, then, gorged with meat and drunk with wine, they burst into impious songs and gave themselves over to obscene dances around their idol.

The holy pastor, at this sight, felt his fatherly heart pierced with pain; he shed bitter tears over the sad blindness of these unfortunates. Then, unable to contain the ardor of his zeal, he took with him his deacon Naamas, appeared full of majesty to this degraded people, and raising his voice, he reproached all these delirious men for their impiety, their guilty excesses, and urged them to abandon the cult of the demon to embrace that of the true God. The pagans, exasperated at being disturbed in the midst of their festival, poured out coarse insults against the pontiff, and, in the fury of their fanaticism, they sought to seize him to sacrifice him to their infamous divinity. But the pastor, preferring to work for the conversion of his own rather than to pluck the palm of martyrdom so soon, escaped from their hands and went to his oratory with Naamas. There he prostrated himself before his unknown God, heaved deep sighs, and shed abundant tears to obtain the conversion of these unfortunates. After some time, he raised his head and asked his companion if he did not see a cloud rising from the East. Upon his negative response, the holy prelate prostrated himself again and redoubled his tears and prayers; then, he rose again, renewed his request, and, full of confidence, looked at the sky himself. Suddenly the clouds gathered rapidly; the sun, until then brilliant, veiled its light; the darkness was furrowed by the sinister glow of lightning; the thunder rumbled with an unheard-of crash. Suddenly, a formidable flash of lightning tore the clouds; the lightning, with a terrible flash, fell on the hideous idol and shattered it to pieces. The debris of the stone idol swirled in the air and were thrown with such violence that one part fell into the Lauterne stream, another into the Aveyron river, into the abyss since called the abyss of rivière de l'Aveyron River flowing near Rodez, site of several miracles. the Idol, and by corruption of the Romance term, the Youlle or the Guioule; and the third sank violently not far from the pedestal, in the very meadow of the Conque.

At this terrible blow, the people, seized with terror, uttered cries and groans. All these idolaters were suddenly struck, some with blindness and others with deafness, an image of the evil of their soul; only the children, whom age had preserved from corruption, were spared. When the first stupor had dissipated, the people, recognizing the hand of God that was striking them, ran to the blessed prelate, asked his forgiveness for all the past, implored the healing of their miraculous ailment, solemnly renounced the cult of idols, and solicited the grace of baptism. The pastor, filled with joy, obtained the healing of all, and, after having rendered fervent thanks to God for such a benefit, he admitted all this people into his henceforth renewed fold. The priests of the idol, under a diabolical inspiration, had summoned this considerable influx of pagans in order to restore the compromised majesty of its cult through a solemn manifestation; God took advantage of the gathering of the multitude to convert a larger crowd with more brilliance. Thus, the means that the demon had implemented to strengthen his empire were those that God used to overthrow it forever.

But such is the hardening of the human heart that, despite such striking wonders, not all the pagans converted. A fairly large number remained, and among the most fanatical, who dared to hatch plots against the life of the holy pastor. Exasperated by what should have won them over, by the miraculous destruction of their divinity, they went to find a noble and wealthy patrician named Honor atus; h Honorat Patrician converted by Amans, later considered a saint. is powerful influence made him one of the firmest supporters of their religion. He lived at some distance from the city. These pagans brought him the news of the ruin of their idol and its cult, expressed their grief before him, and incited his vengeance against Saint Amans, the cause of all the evil. Honoratus, outraged with anger, uttered the most terrible threats against the holy pastor; he immediately had his chariot harnessed, had himself accompanied by his satellites and the crowd that had come to seek him; and this whole multitude headed toward Rodez, shouting blasphemies against the true God and cries of death against his worthy representative.

However, the holy bishop, informed of this approach and these threats, was not troubled; he had recourse to his usual weapon, prayer. At that very moment, Honoratus, having arrived before the city gate, was preparing to enter, when his horses, until then docile, suddenly stopped as if stiffened and nailed to the ground. The lashes of the whip, the mistreatment were not spared them; all means were powerless to tear them from their statue-like immobility. It was precisely at this spot, on the threshold of this gate, that the Saint, the day before, had prostrated himself in the dust to pray. Honoratus, struck by such a strange prodigy and touched by grace, dispatched one of his servants to the holy bishop, to beg him to come and restore freedom to a captive he had known so well how to chain with his prayers. As soon as the Blessed one arrived, he touched the chariot, and immediately the horses, by a new prodigy, became docile again to the hand that directed them. The prelate, by this double miracle, tamed the fierce heart of the pagan. The latter rushed from his chariot, embraced the knees of the Saint, asked him, with tears, for forgiveness for the harm he had intended to do him, and implored the grace of baptism.

During this time, a servant ran in all haste to announce this news to the wife of Honoratus. She, irritated by a conversion that she regarded as a misfortune, hurried to arrive at the city, and, with her face all distraught, she approached the Prelate with words of fury and threats. But, at the sight of the Pontiff so calm and so full of majesty, she was suddenly seized with a respect that made her tremble all over; the words died on her lips, grace triumphed over her heart, and she threw herself at the feet of the Saint, asking for baptism. The Prelate regenerated in the holy water the husband, the wife, the son, and all the rest of the house of Honoratus, as well as a large number of pagans present at this miracle. Honoratus subsequently led such a Christian life that he was numbered among the Saints. There was in the church of Saint-Amans a chapel dedicated to him; his relics were deposited there, and there is still preserved, says the chronicler, in the treasury of this church, in a silver reliquary, a bone from the arm of Saint Honoratus.

Such was the final blow from heaven for the conversion of the idolatrous Ruthenians. God had multiplied wonders in their favor; He had willed to conquer them with brilliance.

Here are other miracles, less striking perhaps, but useful for the preservation and strengthening of the faith in the hearts of the neophyte faithful and for the glorification of their great Apostle.

The Prelate, wishing one day to exercise hospitality toward guests he had received, sent two boys, whom he had taken in and raised, to the Aveyron River to catch some fish. After their fishing, they were returning to the city, carrying their nets with their catch, when they encountered three horsemen from the garrison. The soldiers, learning that these fish were intended for their Pastor, mocked the Saint, beat his servants, and seized the product of their catch. Then they prepared the fish, lit a large fire, and set about frying them. It was in vain: the fish remained as hard and as fresh as when they came out of the river; the soldiers tried every means in vain, they took useless trouble. Then they recognized the wonder, understood their fault, and went to prostrate themselves at the feet of the Saint, returning to him the fruit of their theft and asking for his pardon. The good Pastor hastened to grant it to them; he even wished to make them a gift of what had excited their covetousness. The soldiers, having thanked him, took back these marvelous fish; and, as soon as they tried again to fry them, they found them easy to cook. This miracle, whose object was of such small importance, was nonetheless useful to all; for it put an end to the barbaric custom the soldiers had of attacking the people and plundering them, and to the harsh necessity the people were in of enduring their violence.

One evening, two thieves disguised as beggars presented themselves before the holy bishop, and, with all sorts of hypocritical groans, asked him for shelter for the night. The Prelate, touched with compassion for their misery, welcomed them with kindness, served them food, and gave them hospitality at his home, next to the church. These wretches took advantage of the sleep of the inhabitants and the darkness of the night to slip into the church, laid sacrilegious hands on the richest fabrics of the altars, and hastened to flee far away with their loot. But they were struck with blindness, made a thousand useless detours in the countryside, consumed the whole night in vain efforts; and the day was already advanced when they found themselves near the bridge close to the city.

Meanwhile, the theft that had been committed had been noticed, and the Pastor had been informed. The Saint, inspired from above, indicated the place where the thieves were. They headed toward the bridge, and indeed found the two scoundrels so well blinded that they believed, in broad daylight, that they were in the darkness of the night. They were brought before the holy bishop: at the sight of the outrage caused to the honor of the house of God, the Prelate, following the example of the divine Savior, forgot his ordinary gentleness. Before forgiving them, he addressed a severe reprimand to them and struck them lightly with his mantle; which, by a permission of God, caused them the most stinging pain.

The holy bishop had a small garden whose fruits tempted a thief, who, during the night, plundered them and took flight to put himself in safety with his catch. A small hedge formed the fence of the garden; he had crossed it easily; but, when he wanted to come back out, it seemed to him then a very high wall. The slightest obstacles were for him ramparts, and he did nothing but turn around all night, without being able to find an exit to escape from his marvelous prison. The clarity of the day did not pull him from his error, and he was brought before the Saint. The latter, seeing him repentant and confused, forgave him, recommending that he ask in the future for what he might need, and not to steal it unjustly.

Another day, a thief plundered the hives that the Saint kept in his garden, and carried away all their contents. When he arrived home, this honey was found changed into pitch. This wonder opened the eyes of the culprit; pressed by remorse, he ran to the pastor to return what he had taken, and to ask for his pardon. The Saint granted it to him with eagerness, and even made him a gift of the coveted honey; immediately, by a new wonder, this honey resumed its original nature.

However, Saint Amans was very advanced in age, and the great labors he had accomplished, joined to the austerities he had practiced, had finished depriving him of his strength. He could no longer administer his diocese as actively. He therefore relieved himself of the care of his church and his flock to his faithful deacon Saint Naamas; he retained only the high direction of it.

His soul had long been ripe for heaven. God finally wished to reward his great labors; He called him to Himself, to receive the crown due to his merits, on November 4, the day on which his feast is celebrated. The time of his glorious death can be determined to be approximately 440 to 445. This great Saint is invoked with success, particularly to ward off storms, hail, and fire from heaven.

He is ordinarily represented resurrecting a dead person: we have given the reason for this characteristic.

## CULT AND RELICS. — MONUMENTS.

Saint Amans was buried in Rodez in the church he had caused to be built. His first tomb was modest and placed in a place in the church that was not very visible. The miracles with which he was honored obliged Saint Quintien to translate his relics into a monument more worthy of the glorious bishop at the beginning of the 6th century.

The place where Saint Quintien had placed these venerable relics being subsequently too narrow for the great number of people who came from all sides to honor them, they were transferred again, and with much solemnity, into a lower but more vast chapel, in which were deposited at the same time the bodies of Saint Dalmas and Saint Naamas; the year of this second translation is not known. Since that time, the bishops of Rodez have made it a duty to preserve with care these sacred remains, which they have always regarded as the ornament of their church and as its most precious deposit, and, from time to time, they made a minute inspection of them in order to verify their preservation.

In 1295, Count Bernard d'Armagnac, Constable of France, bequeathed to the church of Saint-Amans a silver reliquary to enclose the body of the holy bishop. These venerable tombs were visited and their relics verified successively by Guillaume de La Tour, Georges d'Armagnac, Bernardin de Corneillan, Randonin de Périgueux, Gabriel de Paulmy, and François de Lusignan. Finally, on May 2, 1690, this last prelate, seeing that all these relics were in a place that was too damp, judged it appropriate to enclose them in the chapel called the Corps-Saints, located behind the high altar; he also transferred there the body of Saint Eustache, successor to Saint Amans.

The ancient church of Saint-Amans was threatening to collapse; it was therefore demolished in 1752; the first stone of the new one, which exists today, was laid on April 17, 1758, and its consecration was performed with unheard-of pomp by Bishop Charles de Grimaldi on September 8, 1764. As early as 1750, the tombs of the Corps-Saints chapel were opened by a delegate of the bishop; these relics were carefully verified, as well as the minutes of the various visits of the bishops, and these venerable remains were solemnly transported to the church of the Cordeliers, located on the site of the courthouse. At the time of the consecration of the new church, they were returned to the place they occupied in the old one.

These venerable remains, so preciously preserved by our fathers for fourteen centuries, were in part destroyed by the Revolution. The modern Vandals violated the tombs to scatter the ashes, and spared neither the reliquaries of the Saints nor the sacred vessels. They were seen leaving the temple all laden with the thefts committed against death itself, dragging on the public square, like a trophy of victory, the broken lead coffin, the mutilated images, throwing outrageously onto the pavement these bones so venerable, which neither the hospitality of the tomb nor the inviolability of holiness had been able to protect. A man of the time, the citizen Tarayre, secretary of the commune, collected the head of Saint Amans, which had been abandoned on t he pavement, and re chef de saint Amans Skull of the saint saved during the French Revolution. turned it to the church when times had become better. A man named Pougenç, from Réquista, saved, for his part, the heads of Saint Dalmas and Saint Naamas. Today these three venerable heads are displayed on the high altar of the church of Saint-Amans, with other relics.

The tomb of the holy bishop soon became famous for the great number of miracles that occurred there. We shall cite only the two most modern ones.

During the Terror, in 1793, when churches were closed to worship and destined to serve as granaries or national warehouses, the church of Saint-Amans did not escape the general profanation; it was transformed into a hay storehouse for the use of the departmental administration. Now, the hay supplier, Molénat, accompanied by two assistants named Sahut and Lamarque (the families of these unfortunate men are extinct), was shaping, with his two workers, bales of hay in the church, near the altar. They enlivened their work with impious and licentious remarks, seasoned with cynical laughter; the patron saint of the church was not spared. But suddenly a very visible hand, armed with a whip, struck them harshly. They took flight, distraught with fear and pain; they circled the church several times in the aisles, unable to find the door, so blinded were they by terror; and incessantly this hand pursued them, attached itself to their steps, and struck them without respite. All three recounted their misadventure, and one of them, Sahut, kept a convulsive tremor for the rest of his life following this punishment. Several people still alive knew them and hold this account from their own mouths; all three died in misery.

In the year 1826, the winter had been exceptionally harsh; snows had accumulated, and the Aveyron river was frozen over. The melting of the snows occurred all at once, accompanied by a torrential rain; thus the Aveyron left its bed and overflowed in a frightening manner. The lands were flooded far and wide, and the mills, as well as the houses near the river, were invaded and threatened with total destruction; the flood continued to rise. In this extremity, the threatened riverside residents went to find the venerable M. Sadoux, then parish priest of Saint-Amans, to beg him to order a general procession, with the head of Saint Amans, to avert the scourge. It was indeed convened immediately, and the population of the parish and the city flocked to it, despite a torrential rain. The procession was led and presided over by Abbé Annat, first vicar of Saint-Amans, who later died as parish priest of Saint-Merry, in Paris. Upon leaving the church, the litanies of the Saints were sung, and they headed toward the Cross of the Fifteen Trees, which overlooks the Aveyron. There, the hymn, antiphon, and prayer of Saint Amans were sung, and, during this chant, a man named Cazes was deputized to go and draw, with a bucket, water from the overflowing river. The head of Saint Amans was plunged into this bucket, and the same man went back down to throw this sanctified water back into the river. Now, as soon as this water touched the river, the latter, which until then had been rising more and more, subtly receded by about a meter; which the entire population could easily observe on the walls of the flooded houses; and, from that moment, the flood ceased to diminish little by little, and all danger was averted.

In the church of Saint-Amans, very ancient tapestries of great fineness of workmanship are preserved; they are hung on the wall that closes the back of the sanctuary, at the apse. They represent, one, the destruction of the idol of Ruth, another, the miracle of Saint Honorat; another, Saint Amans preaching from a pulpit; the others, the miracle of the theft of the beehives, that of the theft of the garden fruits, and that of the translation of the relics of Saint Amans.

The miracle of Saint Honorat was the occasion for a popular tradition regarding a horseshoe that can still be noticed fixed to the top of the main entrance door of the church of Saint-Amans. When Honorat's horses were suddenly rendered immobile and as if nailed to the ground, they tried to force one of these animals to lift its foot to walk; the shoe of this foot remained fixed to the ground. It is this shoe, or a facsimile, that is claimed to have been hung on the church door.

We have only analyzed the fine work of Abbé Servières on the patron of Rodez, in the Saints of Rouergue.