Saint Vannes

The history of this holy pontiff is still half-legendary, and, in the time of Bertaire (9th century), no ancient writing about him could be found. From what is known in a general way, it follows that Saint Vannes was one of the great figures of his time; that he extirpated the remnants of idolatry among the Verdonois; that, under his administration, and thanks no doubt to the favor of Clovis, the bishopric began to become the preponderant power in Verdun; finally, that his episcopate lasted about twenty-five years.

Vannes died in such an odor of sanctity that the ancient basilica where he rested, alongside most of his predecessors, was soon known only by his name, due to the influx of people who came from afar to pray at his tomb. This church preserved, until 1790, the relics of its patron in a silver shrine where Pope Eugene III himself had transferred them in 1147, when he came to dedicate the pape Eugène III Pope who transferred the relics of Saint Vannes in 1147. cathedral, which had been rebuilt by Bishop Alberon of Chiny. We have been described this shrine as a gilded silver casket, adorned on the outside with figurines and jewels simulating precious stones. This reliquary was in the shape of a small church and bore an inscription in Latin verse mentioning the translation we have just spoken of. At the time of the Revolution, the relics of our holy bishop were fortunately hidden: they still enrich the treasury of the Verdun cathedral.

Legendary history attributes to S aint Vannes saint Vannes Bishop of Verdun in the 6th century. the deliverance of the land from a dragon or great serpent, which had established its lair in the rocks upon which the citadel stands today, darting from there upon men and animals, and spreading death afar with its pestilential breath. Attempts to destroy it were made in vain; masses and prayers were chanted; finally, Saint Vannes, taking with him a few of the faithful, marched boldly to the monster's cavern. The people watched him from afar and prayed to God. He was seen entering the place of horror alone, and, some time having passed in general anxiety, it was already feared that he would not emerge from that den, when at last he reappeared, pulling by his scarf the hideous reptile, which an invisible power seemed to tame at his feet; and he dragged it thus to the Meuse, where the frightful beast threw itself in and disappeared forever. In memory of this famous miracle, Saint Vannes was represented in paintings with a winged dragon, which he held by a chain; and a figure of the fantastic animal was carried, each year, in the Rogation processions.

Let us say a word, in closing, about the famous abbey of Saint-Vannes. It was located outside the walls of Verdun, on the west side, on a height that connects the city to the hill of Saint-Barthélemy. It consisted of a group of buildings and gardens surrounded by walls, in the center of which rose its beautiful church. The latter, first dedicated under the invocation of the apostles Peter and Paul, dated back to the very origin of Christianity in Verdun; it was the seat of the first four bishops of Verdun, and their successors usually chose it for their burial. When the episcopal see was transferred into the city, Saint Vannes established there a community of clerics which was governed for more than four centuries by figures of eminent piety and learning, and often by bishops, in the capacity of provosts and abbots, who gave much brilliance and splendor to religion in this diocese. In 952, Berenger, the twenty-third bishop of Verdun, placed religious of the Order of Saint Benedict in this church, and anne xed to it regular pro Ordre de Saint-Benoît Religious order occupying the monastery of Honnecourt. perties which thus became the first monastery of the city. Humbert of Verdun was its first abbot.

Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine and Archbishop of Reims, was abbot of Saint-Vannes from 1548 to 1574; with the authorization of Pope Gregory XIII, he had the monastery united to the episcopal mensa of Verdun. From that time on, the abbey, which had begun to degenerate, was restored to regularity, following the Rule of Saint Benedict, through the zeal, piety, and wisdom of the priors who governed it. The most famous was Dom Didier de La Cour, who began the Reform there in 1600, by virtue of a brief from the Holy See, obtained by Duke Henry of Lorraine, bishop of Verdun and abbot of Saint-Vannes. This famous monastery then became the head of the illustrious Congregation of all the abbeys of its Order in Lorraine, Champagne, and Burgundy, which embraced the same Reform. It also communicated it, through its religious, to all the other monasteries of France, which embraced it under the title of the Congregation of Saint-Maur. That of Saint-Vannes was erected by a brief of Pope Clement VIII, dated April 7, 1604, on the model of the statutes of Monte Cassino, giving power to the presidents and visitors to aggregate to their Congregation all the monasteries that wished to accept the Reform.

At the Revolution, the abbey of Saint-Vannes was suppressed and the buildings handed over to the military authority. Almost all these buildings have been preserved, but not without having undergone many modifications in their layout and many mutilations in their architecture. As for the church (the modern Gothic church dated from 1520), as it could not, by the nature of its construction, be used, it was left in a state of abandonment that led to rapid degradation: it was completely demolished in the years 1831-1832.

MARTYR IN ALGIERS (1240).

Serapion, English by birth, from an illustrious family, was born towards the end of the 12th century, was raised at the court of the Duke of Austria, and first embraced the profession of arms. Having left for Spain with the Duke, who was bringing aid to the King of Castile against the Moors, he entered the service of Alfonso IX and remained in the Peninsula, wishing to dedicate his life to fighting the enemies of the Christian name. He bore arms for several years; but one day, having met religious of the recently founded Order of Saint Ordre récemment fondé de Sainte-Marie de la Merci Religious order dedicated to the redemption of Christian captives. Mary of Mercy, who were coming from the country occupied by the infidels with numerous captives they had ransomed, his heart was touched at this sight, and he began to feel the desire to embrace this holy militia arise within him.

Received into the Order by Saint Peter Nolasco in Barcelona, he gave himself from then on with great ardor to the practice of all virtues; he exercised himself tirelessly in prayer, humility, mortification, and chastity. Zealous for the salvation of souls, he withdrew several from the corruption of vice to return them to virtue; in particular, he converted many lost women. He deserved to be chosen several times by his superiors to go among the infidels to negotiate the ransom of captives, and each of his journeys was crowned with full success. The holy founder of his Order, Peter Nolasco, entrusted him with the direction of the novices, among whom was Saint Raymond Nonnatus; but the desire to establish the new Order in his homeland led him to return to England. During the crossing, he was taken by corsairs who stripped him and overwhelmed him with mistreatment. His zeal for the salvation of souls having led him to remonstrate with these brigands regarding the blasphemies they uttered and the disorders to which they gave themselves without restraint, they were so irritated that, after beating him to the point of leaving him for dead, they threw him into the sea. He managed, with the help of God, to reach the coast, and he went to London, from where he passed into Ireland and Scotland. He was persecuted in the latter kingdom and returned to Spain.

Saint Peter Nolasco sent him almost immediately after t o Alg Alger City associated with the liturgical source of the text. iers with another religious named Berengar. He delivered eighty-seven Spanish captives whom he proposed to bring back to their homeland. But those of other nations, seeing that their deliverance was postponed, went to find Serapion, exposed their miserable condition to him, and the danger they were in of losing the faith due to the mistreatment inflicted upon them to force them to apostasy. The holy religious then formed the resolution to let his confrere leave with the ransomed captives and to remain himself among these unfortunates to support and console them, while the money necessary for their deliverance was collected. However, as he freely announced the true faith to the infidels and performed conversions among them, the chief of the Moors had him loaded with chains, thrown into a dungeon, and beaten cruelly. Soon after, a death sentence was passed against him: he was put on a cross, and all the limbs of his body were cut off, joint by joint; during his torture, he repeated this prayer: "Lord, do not deliver the souls of your confessors to the beasts: save the souls you have redeemed with your precious blood." Finally, he was beheaded and flew to heaven to receive the crown of martyrdom in the year 1240. Benedict XIII approved his cult on July 14, 1728.

He is represented: 1st, tied by the Moors to a Saint Andrew's cross, where they open his belly to extract the entrails, which are wound onto a winch (one of the paintings in the Spanish gallery of the Louvre, under Louis-Philippe, depicted this torture); 2nd, tied to a saltire cross, with the four limbs severed above the elbows and thighs.

He is one of the patrons of Barcelona and of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy.

Proper of Algiers.

--BLESSED GABRIEL FERRETTI OF ANCONA,

FRIAR MINOR OF THE OBSERVANCE (1436).

Blessed Gabriel was born in Ancona, of the illustrious family of the Counts Ferretti, to which our Holy Father Pope Pius IX, gloriously reigning (1873), belongs. His parents, endowed with deep piety, took great care to instill in him from childhood the Christian virtues. Docile to their lessons, he showed, while still young, a great aversion to the vanities of the world; thus cessation of the Rogations was still maintained in Verdun in the middle of the last century, as proven by a liturgical ceremonial written at that time; but, shortly after, this singular emblem was suppressed, which was regretted by no one, except perhaps the bearer who received, in front of each bakery, a small loaf of bread in the gaping mouth of his monster. — Abbé Clouët, History of Verdun.

he left the paternal home early, to exchange for Franciscan humility the glory and human advantages that the illustration of his family promised him. As soon as he had donned the holy habit, the practice of this humility seemed to become the object of his principal study. He appeared to have no other desire than that of being the servant of all his brothers; he embraced with a joyful and constant eagerness the most menial offices of the monastery, and delighted in the most complete self-abnegation. But, despite the attention he paid to hiding his talents, he did not succeed in being ignored by his superiors, whose will came to impose upon him first the office of guardian of the convent of Ancona, and later that of first superior of the province. He considered these charges only as an opportunity to serve his Brothers with more devotion and humility than in the past.

He was provincial vicar when, traveling to Assisi in order to gain the indulgence of the Portiuncula, he passed through Foligno and entered a church in order to pray. The sacristan, seeing him, took him for a poor Brother and invited him with a certain tone of authority to serve a Mass. Father Gabriel, happy to practice obedience, submitted to this order of the sacristan. Shortly after, the Father guardian of a neighboring convent, also entering the church, was very astonished to see him serving Mass, and began to reproach the sacristan for the informality with which he had employed such a respectable prelate in this humble office; but the Blessed one took the side of the sacristan. "Serving Mass," he said, "is a sublime function that the angels would consider it an honor to fulfill; therefore, I can only be very happy to hear myself charged with such an elevated ministry."

For long years, Blessed Gabriel devoted himself with an entirely apostolic zeal to the ministry of preaching, and numerous souls owed their salvation to him. He possessed to an eminent degree the gift of prayer; the contemplation of heavenly truths was not interrupted for him by any of the labors in which his life flowed; often he was seen, in sweet ecstasies, conferring familiarly with Our Lord Jesus Christ and with his holy Mother. Finally, God favored him with the gift of prophecy and that of miracles.

During his final illness, he had the good fortune to be assiste d by Saint James of the Ma saint Jacques de la Marche Companion and apostolic commissioner for Gabriel Ferretti. rches and by Brother George of Alba; in reward for the tender charity with which they served him, he announced to them, on behalf of God, that both of their names were already inscribed among those of the inhabitants of heaven.

He breathed his last on November 12, 1456. The inhabitants of Ancona paid great honors to his mortal remains, and God was pleased to illustrate them with striking and numerous miracles. His compatriots petitioned Pope Callixtus III for his beatification; the Holy Father appointed Saint James of the Marches as apostolic commissioner for the investigation of the cause; but the process was not completed in the Roman Curia. Innocent VIII permitted his body to be exhumed in order to give it a place befitting the remains of a Saint. The Blessed's family had a marble chapel built for this purpose, and when his body was removed from the earth to be placed in this monument, it was seen with admiration that the corruption of the tomb had not reached it.

Benedict XIV authorized the cult of the Blessed Gabriel, and Clement XIII approved the lessons of his office.

Excerpt from the Franciscan Annals.