Saint Eustasius of Luxeuil

The passions of the flesh had no dominion over his spirit, because he forestalled their movements through an implacable war he waged against himself, and through harsh penances with which he tormented himself. His heart was so inflamed with the love of God through the continuous meditation of eternal truths that he could not help but care for the salvation of everyone. It is particularly noted that he had an extreme tenderness for the penitents who confessed their faults to him, and that, anticipating their tears with his own, he filled their hearts with an unspeakable consolation. The instructions he gave to his monks, concerning mortification, mutual charity, and prayer, were admirable; and as they were always supported by his example, they bore wonderful fruit.

He made a journey to Italy, by order of King Clotaire II, to bring Saint Columbanus back to France: these two Saints had the extreme consolation of embracing one another once more during their lifetime; but as great reasons prevented Saint Columbanus from returning, Saint Eustase made it acceptable to the king that he remain outside the kingdom. Going another time to the court for the needs of his monastery, he passed through the castle of Oppigny, two leagues from Meaux, belonging to Count Cagnéric. He had already passed through there some years earlier with his master Saint Columbanus: at that time, this holy Patriarch had receive sainte Fare Virgin and abbess, founder of Faremoutiers in the 7th century. d the vow of virginity of Saint Fare, daughter of the count; but, since then, this count, without regard for his daughter's vow, had betrothed her and absolutely wished to marry her off. The Saint's grief was so great and accompanied by so many tears that she had lost her sight and had fallen ill to the point of death. Saint Eustase took pity on her, and, after consoling her, he performed great miracles in her favor: he restored her sight, cured her entirely of her fever, and finally convinced her father, however obstinate he was, to give her permission to become a nun. The business he had at court being dispatched, he returned to his monastery and applied himself to the preaching of the Gospel throughout the surrounding country: he converted many sinners and won a great number of servants to Jesus Christ. He even went, following the course of the Doubs, to announce the word of God to the Varasques, of whom one part was still idolatrous, and the other, imbued with the errors of Photinus and Bonosus, considered Jesus Christ as a mere man, and the Holy Spirit a s the vi Bavarois Region of the saint's birth. rtue of God, not as a person; then to the Bavarians, whom Saint Severinus had not entirely Christianized.

Some authors have claimed that it was around the time of his return from Bavaria that the Perpetual Praise, mentioned by Saint Bernard, was inaugurated in the abbey. This opinion is poorly founded; but it is at least certain that this custom of perpetually singing the praises of God was maintained and developed under the government of Eustase, and that the pious Abbot always happily presided over this psalmody, the most precious fruit of which was to be, according to him, the life of faith. On the other hand, we see the famous school of Luxeuil prospering under his care. This school, established in the monastery, became the meeting place for a large number of lords from Burgundy and even several foreigners. Lyon, Autun, Langres, Châlons-sur-Marne, and Strasbourg sent their youth to study at Luxeuil. It is easy to understand the full extent of the good that resulted from this. It is not in vain that those who are called to govern a country, or at least to exert great influence there, work to train themselves in a school of knowledge and virtue. Moreover, Saint Eustase did not only count among his children this crowd of young laymen, who praised him by becoming the edification of the province; his monastery was also fruitful for the Church, and, in the space of a few years, we see emerging from it Saint Cagnoald, Bishop of Laon; Saint Achaire, Bishop of Noyon; Saint Donat, Bishop of Besançon, etc., not to mention several abbots and several missionaries, who worked with admirable zeal for the establishment of the reign of God among the peoples. Cultivated by these pure hands, the desert germinates, flowers, and casts a scent that perfumes everything: in this field bristling with brambles and wild bushes, myrtles are born; in place of thorns, lilies grow, and the posterity of Eustase is blessed like that of Abraham.

It was not possible for the work of God to continue with such success without raising the fury and jealousy of the devil. He who had known how to find a Cain to kill an Abel, and a Judas to betray Jesus Christ, did not delay in discovering within the family of Eustase a false brother, determined to support the darkest enterprises.

Agrestius or Agrestinus, who had been secretary to King Theuderic and had since become a monk at Luxeuil, asked the holy Abbot for permission to go and preach the Gospel to the infidels: the Saint, who did not judge him capable of this ministry, reminded him for a long time that one must be called by God for this; and that, if Moses and Jeremiah had been frightened by such a formidable mission, it was by no means appropriate for him to meddle in it of his own accord: but this presumptuous man, continuing his importunities, Eustase was finally forced to let him go. Agrestius traveled through part of Bavaria without fruit; and seeing that he was achieving nothing there, he went to the city of Aquileia, whose inhabitants were then schismatics and separated from the Church regarding the matter of the Three Chapters. The greatest evil is that he embraced their schism and that, returning to France, he endeavored to involve Saint Eustase and his monks in it, along with any Catholics he could meet. The holy Abbot fought him with admirable vigor and light, and compelled him to be silent on this subject. But he turned his weapons elsewhere, and began to censure the Rule and Constitutions of Saint Columbanus, saying that they contained ridiculous things and errors. The matter reached such a point that King Clotaire was obliged to assemble the third Coun troisième concile de Mâcon Ecclesiastical assembly of 585 that exonerated Theodore. cil of Mâcon to settle this dispute. Agrestius was present, supported by some bishops he had seduced. But Saint Eustase, after refuting all his propositions, to punish his obstinacy, cited him to answer for it, a year later, in the presence of Saint Columbanus, before the tribunal of God. Some of the assistants who favored him, greatly astonished by this summons, begged the Saint to retract it and to save, through his gentleness, the one who was about to perish. The generous Abbot consented, on the condition that Agrestius would acknowledge his fault. He did so in appearance: but this feigned penance did not last long, for this wretched schismatic, resuming his former follies, went again through the monasteries to surprise the simplest. Indeed, he deceived some of them, even those who seemed the most perfect. But divine justice, which leaves nothing unpunished, caused them, in less than a year, to almost all perish, some by the rage of wolves, which came to devour them even within their enclosure, and others by lightning, which destroyed an entire convent. There was even one, named Plerea, who, being possessed by the devil, hanged and strangled himself. It is true that the most criminal of all, who was Agrestius, escaped all these disasters, the divine Goodness still giving him room to do penance: but finally, as he did not become any wiser by the misfortune of others, he was killed by a blow of an axe by his own servant. Thus the schism ceased, and those whom this seditious man had seduced, and who survived him, returned to the path of truth.

However, Saint Eustasius worked more and more for the advancement of the glory of God and the salvation of the faithful, and his word was authorized by the power of miracles: for he restored sight to a young girl, after having obliged her to fast for two days, and by putting blessed oil on her eyes. She was named Salaberga, and she was later a very holy abbess, whom the Church honors on September 22. He also cured of fever a religious named Agilus, brother of Count Cagneric and uncle of Saint Fara, who was later the first abbot of Rebais, and holds his rank among the Saints on August 30. But he is not the only one of the disciples of this great Abbot who shone in the Church by his doctrine and his piety; for it is also from his school that came Saint Agnod, bishop of Laon; Saint Aichard, bishop of Saint-Quentin and Noyon; Saint Omer, bishop of Th érouanne; saint Omer Famous predecessor of Folquin at Thérouanne. Saint Romaric and Saint Amatus, abbots, and Ragnachar, bishop of Autun and Basel: all excellent personages and worthy disciples of such an excellent master. He also extended the rule of Saint Columbanus in many places and built several monasteries.

Finally, seeing himself advanced in age, and judging well that the hour of his departure could not be very far off, he divested himself entirely of all exterior and temporal occupations to apply himself solely to the meditation of eternity. In these exercises, he was seized by an extremely violent and painful illness; and as one night nature was almost overwhelmed by it, he had a vision in which he was asked which he preferred: to suffer these ills for another thirty days, or to receive some relief from them, or to die only in forty days. The Saint, who burned with the desire to be released from his body to go and enjoy the presence of God, chose the first option; thus, thirty days later, laden with merits and years, and entirely purified by these final pains, after having exhorted his religious to the love of their rule and received the holy Sacraments, he departed from this world to enter into the possession of blessed eternity. This was on March 29 of the year 624 or 625.

## RELICS OF SAINT EUSTASE.

The continuators of Bellandus note that his body was still, in the 17th century, in the Benedictine abbey of Vergavill e, in the Vergaville Place where the saint's relics rested until the French Revolution. diocese of Metz, in Lorraine, where he performed great miracles, both for the deliverance of the possessed and for the healing of those who had fallen into dementia; and that he was honored there by a great concourse of pilgrims.

M. De Blaye, parish priest of Imling, wrote to us on December 2, 1862, regarding the relics of Saint Eustase:

The abbey of Vergaville has been totally destroyed; I believe that nothing remains of it but the ground and the surrounding wall.

The relics of Saint Eustase were taken away in 1792 by the religious leaving their monastery; they were not kept without danger; for Madame de la Marche, the last abbess, was obliged to entrust them for several years to M. Labrosse, parish priest of Suriaoville; they were recognized and approved on June 25, 1894, by Mgr Antoine-Eustache Oumond, Bishop of Nancy, on the testimony of the former nuns, of M. Labrosse, and of M. Vuillemin, director of the nuns before the Revolution, who had removed them from the shrines and reliquaries; they are perfectly certain and authentic and are presently venerated in two gilded wooden shrines at the priory of Flavigny-sur-Mosel le (Meurthe), where Flavigny-sur-Moselle Family estate and site of the final translation of the relics. the Benedictines of Flavigny have been permanently settled since 1824.

These relics consist of the head and several large bones, among which are a right tibia and fibula, of smaller development and good preservation; they belong to another Saint and are not specified.

In 1679, bones of Saint Eustase and Saint Valbert were exchanged between Vergaville and Luxeuil; it would not be impossible that the aforementioned incomplete tibia and fibula are those of Saint Valbert.

At Vergaville, nothing remains of Saint Eustase: in the parish church, some relics are kept, among which are a certain number of unspecified bones. But the name of Saint Sigésic (Sigéricus), founder of the abbey, found on old inscriptions among these bones, suggests that they belong to him and perhaps also to the Blessed Delta, his wife. Their bodies, which still rested at Vergaville during the 17th century, as is confirmed by the inventories of the relics, do not appear to have been removed with those of Saint Eustase. These latter relics, which seem to be all that remains of the founders of this great and ancient abbey, have been poorly preserved. I do not know if a serious revision, which would be somewhat difficult, could restore to these latter relics some of the certainty they have lost, as well as determine to which Saint belong the right tibia and fibula that do not belong to Saint Eustase.

Here are the names of the bones of Saint Eustase: 1° The head; 2° the incomplete left groin; 3° lower half of a femur; 4° upper half of the right femur; 5° left humerus; and 6° left shoulder blade.

His life, as we have said, was written by Jonas, one of his religious, who is even believed to have been one of his successors: it is from him that we have drawn it and from the preface that was added long after its composition. Saint Fare is called Burgondofure there; but perhaps it is the same name, and that Burgondofure is as one might say Fare in Fare of Burgundy. On which fact one may see Baronius in the eighth volume of his Annals, in the year 640, and the same continuators of Bellandes on April 3.