Saint Fuscian, Saint Victoricus and Saint Gentian

The two apostles brought about numerous conversions in Thérouanne, despite the hostility of the Romans and the Gauls. However, they did not dare, in the city where the Roman authorities protected the cult of the god Mars, to raise a temple to the true God. It was outside the city walls, where the village of Helfaut is located today, that Saint Fuscien erected a chapel under the dedication of the Blessed Virgin; near this sanctuary, the zealous missionary announced the word of God in the open air to those inhabitants of Thérouanne and the neighboring lands who came to seek the grace of baptism. "While I was carefully exploring," says Malbrancq, "the territory of Helfaut, the lord of the place showed me an acre of land which is situated a quarter of a league from the church, to the right of the road to Thérouanne; he told me that this field had never been given over to cultivation, because, according to tradition, it had belonged to the two holy apostles. I have supposed that because of the smallness of his church, the apostle gathered the multitude in this field, that he received strangers there, and that he had founded establishments of hospitality there. Indeed, ancient documents teach us that after engaging in preaching, he occupied himself with the healing of the sick, partic ularly t Victoric Companion of Saint Fuscian, evangelizer of the Boulonnais region. he paralyzed."

Victoric had separated from Fuscien to evangelize the Boulonnais, whose importance had grown singularly since Roman rule had established four ports there: Portus ulterior, Portus Itius, Portus citerior, and Gessoriacum. Encountering strong resistance from the authorities, he could only erect a small chapel to the west of the city, towards the mouth of the Liane river. It was there that the new Christians of the Boulonnais and even of the Ponthieu would go.

The generous efforts of our two Saints were not to leave lasting traces in Morinia, where the Christian faith had almost entirely disappeared when, a century later, Saint Victricius evangelized these same regions. The Morini, driven by the lightness of their character, were to fall back into idolatry a second time after the mission of the Bishop of Rouen, and would not definitively attach themselves to Christianity until the 7th century, under the long and glorious episcopate of Saint Omer.

Fuscien and Victoric left Thérouanne to go in search of their companion Quentin and report to him on the success of their mission. Informed of the route this apostle had taken, our two Saints headed toward Paris. Arriving in Amiens, and seeing persecution reigning there, they hastened to leave and followed the Roman road to Lutetia. On December 11, while approaching *Sama*, which would one day, in honor of their martyrdom, bear the name of Sains, they met an old man, an inhabitant of that locality, who came to meet them. It was Gentien, one of the richest figures in the Gentien Inhabitant of Sains, converted and martyred with Fuscian and Victoric. country, according to the best tradition; a simple innkeeper, according to popular belief. Secretly worked upon by grace, he had heard of the miracles of our two Saints, and perhaps he had listened to the preaching of Saint Quentin in Amiens; but he had nonetheless remained in the bonds of paganism. "Lords," he said to them, "your accent and your costume lead me to suppose that you are strangers to these regions. Please tell me in what country you were born, where you come from, where you are going, and what is the purpose of your journey?" — "Born in Rome, we were raised there and we sucked the milk of Catholic doctrine. We have come to your parts to teach you the truth and to show you the way of eternal salvation. Seduced by the wiles of the demon, you adore vain simulacra, insensitive to your prayers, while you ignore the supreme God who, after having given you the perishable life of this world, you destine for an eternal life of glory and happiness. Consider the stars that shine in the firmament, the productions that come from the bosom of the earth, and tell me if all these masterpieces can owe their existence to your fragile simulacra. No, the supreme God is the author of this order of nature; it is He who suspended the heavens in space, who strengthened the earth on its foundations and chained the waves of the ocean in their bed of sand. With a single word, He created everything, and, by the breath of His spirit, He ensured the duration of His work. It is His Son, it is Jesus Christ, author of all things, that we have come to announce to you, so that you may not be victims of your errors for all eternity. At this moment," continued Fuscien, "we are in search of our venerable companion, the most noble Quentin who, like us, and for the same purpose, has left his native city."

Gentien, struck by this language and heaving a deep sigh, replied: "For three days, I have felt a mysterious inclination to believe in this God whose power you are explaining to me. As for His servant Quentin, who was evangelizing the inhabitants of Amiens, he was imprisoned, tortured by the orders of the Prefect, and finally driven from the city. Forty-two days have already passed since he had his head cut off at Auguste-de-Vermandois (Saint-Quentin). The same torments threaten you, you who are considered the enemies of the gods and of the public good. Soldiers have received the order to arrest you. But, I pray you, my lords and fathers, come under my roof to take a bite of bread and rest a little."

At that time, Ri ctiovare h Rictiovare Roman prefect and persecutor of Christians in Gaul. ad just arrived in Amiens. Maximian-Herculius, associated with the empire by Diocletian, having found in Rictiovare a worthy emulator of his fury against Christianity, had appointed him prefect, a somewhat vague term generally interpreted as prefect of the praetorium; and it was in this capacity that he had stained the dioceses of Reims, Soissons, and Noyon with the blood of his persecutions. In Trier, he had carried out such a massacre of Christians that the waters of the Moselle had turned red with the blood of the martyrs. His emissaries scoured the towns and the countryside, publishing edicts that ordered the arrest of Christians and their delivery to the Roman tribunals.

Rictiovare, having learned that Fuscien and Victoric had passed through the city of Amiens, began searching for them and arrived at Sains, with a troop of soldiers, directly in front of the house where Gentien had offered our two Saints the eager services of hospitality!

The fierce prefect gave the order to arrest them and chain them together. Gentien, moved by a sudden indignation, rushed, sword in hand, at the iniquitous persecutor, forbidding him entry to his house. "It was not," says the biographer of our Saints, that he had the intention of striking the persecutor, "he only wanted to create for himself the opportunity for martyrdom." — "Whence comes this fury in you," cries Rictiovare? "Why do you wish to pierce me with your sword?" — "You deserve no other fate, since you persecute the servants of this Christ, by whom all was created, and whose all-powerful will governs the laws of the world. To pay him homage, I do not hesitate to sacrifice my life; for I proclaim that I, too, am his servant." Rictiovare, even more irritated by such a profession of faith, ordered that Gentien be beheaded immediately in the presence of his two guests.

Rictiovare, having seated himself on his throne of pestilence, ordered the judges to assist him, and, surrounded by the popular crowd, he proceeded to the interrogation of the two Christians: "I do not doubt that you are Romans; I see it in your physiognomy; but make known to me what are the gods you profess to worship." — "We do not worship the gods of the pagans, whom we consider as vain simulacra or as incarnations of the demon. We are the worshippers of God the Father, who alone is eternal, who alone is immutable in his designs. Without ever varying, he governs all that is variable; without losing his unity, he presides over the diversity of beings: he is everywhere and penetrates all creatures by enveloping them with his omnipotence. Very different from men, he has had no beginning and will have no end; no limit could bound the extension of his power. Before the origin of time, he begat a coeternal Son, equal to him in all things. Unfathomable mystery! A God gives birth to a God; light comes from light, immensity produces immensity, the incomprehensible begets the incomprehensible! This Son, born of the Father before the origin of time, willed to be born of a mortal mother; like amber, one in two natures and composed of a double nature, he remained God with the Father, and, for our salvation, he became man in the womb of Mary, whom the Holy Spirit covered with his mysterious shadow, so that she might preserve her virginity." — "You are mad," interrupted Rictiovare. "Renounce these aberrations and sacrifice to the gods, otherwise I will deliver you to the tortures." — "We do not fear them," replied the Saints; "we will even be happy to suffer and to die for the name of Christ. We will willingly exchange this earthly dwelling for the eternal city, of which God is the architect. Listen to our advice; abandon your vain superstitions; convert to the true God who will forgive your sins and give you endless happiness, whereas the metal statues that you worship are powerless in themselves and will be the cause of the demon dragging you into the eternal flames."

Rictiovare, carried away by a mad fury, ordered that the two Christians be loaded with irons to be led to Amiens and locked in a dark dungeon. The Saints set out, full of a heavenly joy. "Twice on the way," says M. Salmon, "Rictiovare had them stopped and tortured, according to tradition, without being able to break their constancy, and the two places where he had them undergo these tortures are still marked by stone crosses, mutilated by time, one of which is seen near Sains, and the other in front of the gate of the former abbey church of Saint-Fuscien."

Arrived at about a mile from the place where they had been arrested, the two martyrs knelt and, shedding tears, addressed this fervent prayer to God: "Lord Jesus Christ, essence of all light, you who are and who were before the creation of the world; who with your fingers measure the heavens, who can enclose the universe in the hollow of your hand, who have the cherubim for a throne, who probe to the bottom of the abysses, who unleash the storms, who give to the good and the wicked the benefits of the sun and the rain; O Lord, in whom we believe, we hope and we live, deign to receive our last breath, and do not forget us in eternity!"

After having finished this prayer, they said to Rictiovare: "What joy for us if you embraced our faith! But, alas! your obstinate soul runs to its ruin. Ah! unhappy man, cease to increase your iniquities, to find grace with the Lord." — "You are always threatening me with eternal tortures," said Rictiovare: "well! it is you who are now going to undergo tortures, if, on the spot, you do not sacrifice to the gods." The Saints replied: "Cruel towards yourself, how could you be good to others? Not fearing eternal death for yourself, what is there to be surprised at that you condemn us to temporal death. We are ready to undergo your tortures."

Rictiovare had iron spikes driven into their nostrils and ears, and, into their heads, awls reddened in the fire; he then ordered that their eyes be torn out and that they be pierced with arrows; he himself, seizing a javelin, threw it against them. Finally, as the patients had not entirely succumbed to these horrible torments, he had their heads cut off.

This martyrdom took place on December 11, around the year 303, at the very place where the choir of the abbey church of Saint-Fuscien was later built, a space today enclosed in the garden of the boarding school of the Brothers of Saint-Joseph!

The burial place of the three martyrs remained unknown for a long time, and was only revealed in 555 by a prodigy Lupicin Priest of Amiens who discovered the bodies of the martyrs in 555. . Lupicin, a priest of the city of Amiens, had just fallen asleep in a field near Amiens after reciting the night office, when an angel appeared to him and said: "Arise and head towards a crypt shaded by trees that I will point out to you: it is there that you will find the bodies of Gentien, Fuscien, and Victoric." The venerable priest, having awakened, armed himself with a weeding hoe, went to the indicated place, dug deep into the earth, and discovered the bodies of the three martyrs. Immediately, he gave thanks to God and let his joy burst forth in hymns of gladness. The sound of his singing reached the ears of Saint Honoré, Bishop of Amiens, miraculously, as he was then celebrating the holy sacrifice of the Mass in his cathedral, five miles from Sains. The fervent bishop was looking for Lupicin, when the latter came to find him and told him of the happy discovery he had made. Saint Honoré, followed by a crowd of the faithful, went in procession to the place where the bodies of the holy martyrs lay, and from which a sweet odor exhaled. He offered to these relics the tribute of veneration that was due to them, thanking the Lord for having glorified his episcopate with such a benefit.

The news of this discovery having quickly reached the ears of Chi ldebert I, Kin Childebert Ier King of the Franks who supported the saint. g of France, he commanded his chaplains to go to Sains to fetch this precious treasure; but it was in vain that they tried to execute this order; for when they tried to remove the holy bodies, they became so heavy that it was impossible to move them. Childebert, informed of this fact, ordered the holy bodies to be reburied in the very place where they had been discovered, and for a church to be erected over their tombs. It was on this occasion that the king donated to the church of Amiens the land of Le Mesge, located in the Amiénois. Numerous miracles were accomplished at this triple tomb, which saw the healing of the blind, the deaf, the mute, the paralyzed, the infirm, and the possessed.

At the time when the Normans ravaged the surroundings of Amiens, probably around the year 859, the relics of the three Saints were transported to the cathedral of Amiens for safekeeping. It is certain that they were there in 865, since at that time, Bishop Hilmerade gave a relic of Saint Fuscien to the abbey of Saint-Riquier, at the request of Odolphe, the treasurer of that monastery.

In 1036, Bishop Gervin addressed the following letter to Lambert of Guines, Bishop of Arras: "In the holy church of Amiens, entrusted to our weakness, a reliquary of gold, silver, and precious stones is being prepared, through the care of one of our priests, to house the relics of Saint Fuscien; this ceremony will take place on Michaelmas Day. Knowing that you are pleasing to God and men through your works and doctrines, we do not hesitate to come and ask for your help and cooperation. We are persuaded that, leaving all business aside, you will accede to our desire, and that in doing so you will rejoice the Church of Amiens, while at the same time securing for yourself the protection of our glorious Martyr before the throne of God." It is believed that Lambert attended this ceremony, which took place on September 29. A second translation, into a gilded silver reliquary, took place in 1175, under the episcopate of Thibaut. Guillaume de Mâcon opened this reliquary in 1253.

In 1628, while the gilded steeple of the Amiens cathedral was being repaired, the Chapter had placed in the ball beneath the cross some relics of our three Saints, contained in a gilded bronze heart. This custom of depositing relics at the top of steeples to protect them from lightning dates back at least to the beginning of the 14th century: for, in 1362, some were placed in the ball of the steeple of Saint-Pierre de Limoges, which had been struck by thunder.

On July 12, 1631, Bishop Lefebvre de Caumartin gave the left clavicle of Saint Fuscien to the abbey of Saint-Fuscien, at the request of the abbot of that monastery, Charles d'Ailly.

On March 12, 1663, Antoine Rogeau, parish priest of Salus, discovered against the sarcophagus dovecote, but outside of it, relics of the three martyrs, enclosed in three boxes, which had undoubtedly been left there intentionally when, in the 9th century, the bodies were transferred to the Amiens cathedral.

Mgr Faure performed the translation of this precious deposit into a temporary shrine on June 27, 1664. So many people came to Salus, from Picardy, Artois, and Flanders, that the church doors remained open all day long to satisfy the piety of the pilgrims. On August 17 of the following year, these relics were deposited in a silver shrine, donated by Pierre Le Billon, the king's counselor at the court of Amiens. This was the origin of a confraternity of Saint-Fuscien established at Salus, whose statutes were printed in 1665 and to which Pope Alexander VII granted indulgences. In 1667, the Romanesque shrine of the cathedral was restored at the expense of a parishioner of Saint-Firmin le Confesseur.

A relic of Saint Fuscien, which was in Paris in the church of Sainte-Aubierge, near the Observatory, was taken in 1700 to the cathedral of Pamiers. Various old inventories mention relics of our three Saints in the abbeys of Saint-Vaast in Arras, Saint-Bertin in Saint-Omer, the Carthusians of Abbeville, the collegiate church of Saint-Nicolas in Amiens, etc.

The important relics of Saint Fuscien, formerly kept at the Amiens cathedral, were dispersed during the Revolution: their fate is unknown. More or less significant ones are kept at the Hôtel-Dieu, at Saint-Jacques, and at the convent of the Poor Clares of Amiens; at Berny (Ailly-sur-Noye), at Le Meuge (part of the arm), at Sateux, and at Saint-Fuscien. Here is the list of bones venerated in the church of Salus: three femurs, three cervical vertebrae, an ulna, two small ribs, one side of a jawbone, a radius, an apophysis, some fragments, and a tibia of Saint Gentien, given in 1568 by M. Bouillet, dean-priest of Corbie. The greater part of these relics, which had disappeared during the Revolution, was found in 1668 by M. Messio under the step of the high altar. The authentic documents of 1664 and 1665 were attached to them.

The abbey of Notre-Dame de Beaugency (Loiret) claimed to possess the heads of our three Saints in three silver busts. A translation was made in 1259 by Philippe Berruyer, Archbishop of Bourges, and Robert de Courtenay, Bishop of Orléans. Having partially escaped the depredations of the Calvinists, these relics, it is said, were saved in 1793 by an inhabitant of Beaugency and later reinstated in the church of Notre-Dame, which had become a parish church, where they are still the object of great veneration today.

There is obviously an error in the attribution of these relics regarding Saint Gentien, whose head was kept until the Revolution at the abbey of Corbie, and also regarding Saint Victoric, whose head is still venerated today at the church of Saint-Quentin.

Bishop Otger, in memory of having been a canon of the collegiate church of Saint-Quentin, gave the body of Saint Victoric to this church, though he kept several bones. This translation took place on October 30, 895. Three niches were dug in the crypt of the collegiate church; the body of the apostle of the Vermandois was placed in the middle one, Saint Victoric to his right, and Saint Cassien to his left. Robert, Count of Vermandois, gave his land of Sinceny, with all its dependencies, on this occasion to increase the lighting of the altar.

A few years later, the fear of the Normans caused these three holy bodies to be transported to Laon. Around the year 980, they were reinstated in the crypt by Rambert, Bishop of Noyon. It is this memory that was celebrated in Saint-Quentin on January 12, with the feast of the Tumulation of the bodies of Saint Quentin, Saint Cassien, and Saint Victoric.

On May 2, 1228, before working on the choir of the church of Saint-Quentin, the bodies of Saint Quentin, Saint Victoric, and Saint Cassien were removed from the crypt and temporarily deposited in the nave.

On September 2, 1257, when the church was finished, these relics were placed in shrines by Thomas I of Beaumetz, Archbishop of Reims, assisted by Gérard de Conchy and the other bishops of the province, in the presence of Saint Louis and his sons.

In the Middle Ages, the inhabitants of Saint-Quentin referred to the relics of our Saint by the name of *chor de saint Victorie* (choir of Saint Victoric), because the body is, so to speak, the carriage of the soul.

At the Revolution, the relics of Saint Victoric were fortunately saved from profanation. In November 1793, they were buried, along with a large number of other relics from the church of Saint-Quentin, by two devoted servants of the collegiate church who had no other way to save them from the destruction with which they were threatened. In August 1795, they were exhumed and identified at the same time as those of Saint Cassien, with which they had been confused. Currently, they are kept in two beautiful gilded wooden shrines located above the altar of the chapel of the Holy Virgin. The greater part of the skull of the saint is kept separately in a small, quadrangular gilded wooden shrine, whose glass panes allow the relic to be seen. One reads this inscription: Remains of the head of Saint Victoric, martyr. Two pieces of this skull were given to the church of Saint-Fuscien.

In 1631, the monks of Corbie granted some relics of Saint Victoric to the abbey of Saint-Fuscien. Relics of this holy Martyr are venerated at Sains, Saint-Fuscien, Braine, and Soissons.

Francon, Abbot of Corbie and brother of Hermenfroi, Count of Amiens, greatly desired to enrich his monastery with the relics of Saint Gentien, kept at the Amiens cathedral. To achieve this end, he knew how to take a dvanta Corbie Monastery that acquired the relics of Saint Précord. ge of the friendship that Bishop Otger held for him, and solicited the body of Saint Gentien as a token of their mutual affection. The prelate found that this translation was not without difficulties; but, some time later, he gave his word and had it ratified by the guardians of the treasure. It was these docile approvers, already won over by Francon, whom the bishop charged with executing his promise while he was absent from the city. On the agreed day, May 7, 893, towards evening, Francon arrived in Amiens accompanied by the monks who were to transport the shrine. As a precaution, he had left a certain number of inhabitants of Corbie on the road, who could lend him a hand if needed. The monks slipped into the church, thanks to the connivance of the guardians, seized the coveted treasure, and rejoined the troop from Corbie. However, dawn had just appeared and the people of Amiens had learned of the abduction that had been carried out. Animated by a holy anger, they armed themselves in haste and ran in pursuit of the kidnappers. The two troops met and blood was about to be shed, when God, said an anonymous chronicler, enveloped both parties in a fog so thick that all battle became impossible. The people of Amiens then resigned themselves to the will of the Most High, while the people of Corbie continued their triumphal march, seeing the procession of honor following the sacred relics grow constantly around them. Arrived at Corbie, they went in procession, with the entire population, to the church of Saint-Pierre, where the shrine was honorably placed.

The head of Saint Gentien was set aside in a gilded silver reliquary in the shape of a ciborium. Each year, the priest and the churchwardens of Saint-Albin offered it a hat of roses. The monks of Corbie, in gratitude, celebrated the anniversary of Otger's death on August 1.