Saint Gatian

It would be difficult to explain here in how many ways the most obstinate of the country opposed the designs of our zealous missionary, whether by interrupting his instructions, or by denouncing him to the magistrates, or by mistreating him and threatening to put him to death; thus this prudent Apostle, following the counsel of Jesus Christ, went to hide in a cave dug with his own hands into the rocks that border the northern bank of the Loire and where the illustrious abbey of Marmoutier later ar ose. Surrounded by b abbaye de Marmoutier Abbey near Tours upon which the priory of Arcis depended. rush and brambles, this place was difficult to access, and the Apostle could easily escape the hatred of the pagans there and gather his few neophytes. Even now, the pious pilgrim can visit this cave, almost in ruins, which was the cradle of Christianity in Touraine. Saint Gatien had dedicate d this s Touraine Region of origin of Saint Braque. mall oratory to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God. The history of his life even assures us that, during the times of retreat that he was forced to make in the caverns and in the distant forests, he did not cease to be followed by a great number of his disciples and even to return on certain days to the towns and villages, to support the faith of the new Christians, to repeat to them the truths he had announced to them, and to confirm them in their belief.

Dealing with very coarse men, little capable of penetrating truths as elevated as those of the Gospel and as attached to the worship of idols as they were, it would have been very difficult and almost impossible for the holy Prelate to achieve the completion of his holy enterprises, had he not been favored with particular help; but two things contributed marvelously to supporting his work: his life, more angelic than human, and a great number of miraculous prodigies that accompanied his preaching. The holiness of his conduct, the harshness he exercised toward his body, his fasts, his vigils, his continual prayer, his selflessness, his extreme kindness, his prudence in all that he undertook, his patience in enduring insults, calumnies, and threats, his profound humility—all virtues hitherto unknown to these peoples; this assemblage of so many perfections compelled these minds to recognize that there was in this man something extraordinary and of which they had not yet seen an example; so that, although the holy bishop was deprived of the consolation of seeing great fruits from his harvest in the beginning, the precious seed that he had sown nevertheless did not fail to present in the end a very abundant harvest, of which he had the joy of reaping the happy yield. Two of the most obstinate found themselves obliged to surrender and to approve in our holy apostle morals and a doctrine that it was not possible to reject; the first disciples already won over, and who no longer left our Saint, but who followed and accompanied him, whether in his retreats, or in his travels, or in the other exercises of his missions, then reported to their hardened compatriots the entire economy of the holy life of the one they recognized as their master, and thus finished convincing these stubborn ones and opening their eyes to see the light that was presented to them.

To the power of the divine word, Gatien added that of miracles, and it was mainly the extraordinary operations he performed that astonished and stopped those who contributed most to the persecution exercised against the new faithful. Indeed, there was no illness to which he did not bring some healing, nor demons of which he did not make himself the master and which he did not cast out by exorcisms; the mere sign of the cross was the most ordinary and powerful means he used on these occasions; this sovereign dominion, which Saint Gatien exercised with such ease over the powers of hell, compelled the most incredulous to confess that the religion of the one who had such great authority was the true one that must be followed. It was then that the persecution slowed down, that conversions were more frequent, that the worship of idols was neglected, that pagan ceremonies were despised, and altars abandoned and demolished. The esteem and authority that the holy prelate had acquired finally prevailed so much in the minds of the greatest number of men that there was the freedom to erect other altars and small oratories where those who had embraced the faith could assemble; they built in the surrounding villages, as in the city of Tours, suitable places that were called small churches, to exercise the functions of the true religion: they are counted up to the number of eight. It was in these holy places, consecrated by the prayers of our famous missionary and by the continual exhortations he gave there, that those who had embraced the faith of Jesus Christ were formed in Christian practices and ceremonies; that instructions, advice, and the means necessary to persevere in the confession of the true religion were given. There, they learned to sing the praises of the true God, clerks were trained to be raised to the dignities of the Church; priests were ordained to support the glory of the priesthood and exercise ecclesiastical functions; sacraments were administered, and they gathered there at least on Sunday to receive the nourishment necessary for the new state they had had the happiness of embracing.

Finally, our holy prelate having gloriously fulfilled all the duties of his mission, being at a very advanced age, overwhelmed by the weight of evangelical labors, having provided for all the pressing necessities of the churches he had established, and having no more desires than for heaven, he felt with happiness the approach of the moment of rest and the hour of reward. One day the holy apostle, overwhelmed by fatigue and old age, was lying on his bed; a light sleep had just taken hold of him, when Jesus Christ appeared to him, awakened him, and presented his own body to him, as a viaticum, to strengthen him at this supreme moment when he was about to leave this life. Illness followed closely upon this divine visit, and it made such rapid progress that seven days later, on the fifteenth of the kalends of January, Gatien was in heaven.

Many years having passed, and the vacancy of the see having lasted a long time after the death of the blessed Gatien, the people had forgotten the place of his burial ; Saint Mart saint Martin Spiritual model for Aquilin. in knew it through a special revelation, and he then had the body of the holy bishop transported to his main church, amidst an immense gathering of the people. Animated by a great devotion for his illustrious predecessor, he often went to pray to him; he never strayed far from his episcopal city and never returned to it without prostrating himself before his tomb. Now, one day he came there, according to his custom, he prayed there with many tears, then, before withdrawing, he said to the most glorious Saint Gatien: "Man of God, bless me." And immediately a voice came out of the tomb, and these words were distinctly heard: "Servant of God, I pray you, bless me."

Another translation of the Saint's relics took place when the Normans threw themselves upon France and caused extraordinary ravages there, ruining cities and burning churches and other sacred places where they knew the bodies of holy martyrs or confessors were deposited. Fearing therefore that the body of Saint Gatien might be caught up in these ruins, the reliquary was removed from the great church and transported first to Maltezaie (Vendée), in Poitou; from there to Belgic Gaul, as far as Béthune (Pas-de-Calais), in the monastery of Saint-Prix. Finally, this precious deposit was entrusted to the religious of the monastery o f Saint-Vaast, in the ci monastère de Saint-Vaast Monastery reformed by Richard and Frederick. ty of Arras, where it remained until all the disasters of the war were ended by the conversion of the Normans to the faith of Jesus Christ, at which time these precious remains were restored to the city of Tours, to which they belonged, while nevertheless leaving some portion to the religious of Saint-Vaast in recognition of the care they had taken to guard this rich treasure. The history of this translation notes that other places were also favored with some parcels of these holy relics, because they had also been kept in those places through which they had passed: this gives reason to reconcile the different churches that glory in possessing the holy deposit of which we speak, by saying that several different places have some parcels of it. The feast of the translation of the relics of the holy apostle of whom we speak is celebrated on the second day of May. It was an archbishop of Tours, named Juheit Mattefion, who instituted it in the 13th century, as the continuators of Bollandus remark in the first volume of May, where they seem to suppose that the feast of some translation of lesser solemnity was already being celebrated; this could have been the feast of the translation of the body of our Saint, which Saint Martin performed when he removed it from the cemetery of the poor to give it a place in the great church.

As the devotion of the people toward Saint Gatien increased day by day, it was deemed appropriate, in the year 1354, to establish a Confraternity, accompanied by a foundation that carries the obligation to celebrate a mass every day of the year in honor of the Saint and in favor of all those who have the advantage of being in this Congregation. It would not be easy to report here in detail all the aid that has been received by invoking this illustrious apostle of Touraine, nor the miracles that have been performed to raise and increase the glory of this incomparable serva nt of God. Le roi Jean King of France, contemporary of Gertrude. King John having been a captive, the Queen, his mother, having made a vow to obtain the freedom of her son and having taken Saint Gatien as her advocate before God in this matter, was not frustrated in her expectation, the King having recovered his freedom shortly thereafter; which obliged this illustrious princess to publish everywhere that she was indebted for this grace to Saint Gatien, in whom she had placed all her trust. Under the reign of Charles VI, the English holding the city of Tours very tightly besieged, the inhabitants, having made a vow and prayers at the tomb of their holy apostle and protector, to be delivered from the sad situation to which this siege had reduced them, were also immediately heard and delivered by means of an honorable peace, which was concluded soon after between the besiegers and the citizens of the city.

The relics of Saint Gatien, apostle of Touraine, had partly escaped the sacrilegious fury of the Huguenots, who committed so many excesses in Tours in 1562. These precious fragments perished during the Revolution of 1793. The metropolitan church nevertheless possesses quite considerable portions that were given to it, in 1827, by the church of Saint-Vaast in Arras, at the request of Mgr Augustin-Louis de Monthiane, Archbishop of Tours.

Saint Gatien is especially invoked for the prompt recovery of lost or stolen items. The feast of our Saint is marked on December 18 in the martyrologies of Ado and Usuard, as well as in that of France.

We have drawn this life from the lessons of the new breviary of Tours and other memoirs of the same church, which were communicated to us. — Cf. Dissertation on the era of the apostolate of Saint Gatien, first bishop of Tours, and on the Origins of the Churches of France, by the Abbé Rolland.