Saint Clair of Aquitaine

It is important to devote a few lines to the Apostles of the second mission who came after him and who left an indelible mark on the ancient soil of Novempopulania.

A contemporary of Saint Martial and a survivor of his illustrious master, we find Saint Saturn in or Sernin, who casts saint Saturnin ou Sernin Martyr to whom a basilica was dedicated in Viocourt. his immortal glory upon the apostolic cradle of the Church of Toulouse. His detailed history and the liturgical monuments of his apostolate will be presented in their proper place. (November 29.)

"His memory is famous and venerated throughout all the Aquitaines," say the Bollandists. "Most authors place him at the foundation of the churches of the Gauls and make him a martyr of the early times."

Africa has often been given as the homeland of Saint C saint Clair First bishop of Albi and martyr at Lectoure. lair and his companions. But the reading is incorrect. The manuscript of Saint-Sever, in which Benedictine scholarship summarizes everything it was able to collect and save from the ancient traditions concerning the evangelization of Novempopulania, asserts that the word *Ampligonia*, which is read with great difficulty in old manuscripts, was improperly rendered for the word *Africana*. The author prefers to follow an ancient tradition that would have Saint Clair and his companions come *from the regions of the East and the land of Saint Saturnin*. These same traditions have these apostles arriving as early as the evangelical times and towards the end of the 4th century, which would be further confirmed by a legend of Saint Quiteria that is read in the Proper of Agen published in the 17th century, under Bishop Barthélemy d'Elbène, and which has the Saint die in the city of the Tarusates, in the year 130 of the Christian era.

Du Saussay, in his martyrology, has Saint Clair come to Rome at the pape Anaclet Pope during whose reign Saint Clair is said to have come to Rome. time when the first glimmers of the faith were illuminating the world. This would be in the time of Pope Anacletus. The same author has Saint Clair preach in Cologne. It is a question, according to some hagiographers, of the city of Albi, which they designate by the name of *Colonia Albia*. According to others, it would be Cologne in the Gers, "where devotion to Saint Clair," the Very Reverend Father Carles writes to us from Toulouse, "has long been very flourishing. It is like a pilgrimage, and many children bear the name Cléry in his honor. He is invoked for eye ailments. His name has earned him this reputation, as happens so often in the history of the Saints. There is still in Cologne a small white stone, which is kept as one of his relics, and which is believed to have served him for the ring on his finger. It is touched to the eyes of the sick, and the parish priest assured me he had been a witness to truly marvelous healings."

The liturgical monuments of the Churches of Périgueux, Tulle, and Sarlat have Saint Clair preaching successively in these dioceses. It cannot be affirmed with proof that the relics honored in various places under the name of Saint Clair truly belong to this illustrious Martyr of apostolic times. All hagiographers agree in making Saint Clair the first bishop of Albi; the second is Saint A premier évêque d'Albi First bishop of Albi and martyr at Lectoure. nthimus, a disciple of Saint Clair.

Our regional holy bishop, sent by the Roman Pontif saint évêque régionnaire First bishop of Albi and martyr at Lectoure. f to watch over the faith in Aquitaine already founded by Saint Martial and Saint Saturnin, arrived in the city of Lectoure, whi ch was to be the ville de Lectoure Site of the martyrdom of Saint Clair. theater of his glorious passion. He preached in this ancient city. At his voice, the idols fell into dust, and evangelical miracles were renewed. The satellites of Satan rushed upon the man of God. He was loaded with chains and summoned to sacrifice to the false gods; upon his refusal, the Saint was dragged through brambles and bushes. He was thrown, still gasping, before an altar of Diana. The entire city goes in procession every year to the place of the martyrdom, on the site of the former temple of Diana where an abundant and sacred fountain flows today, on the flank of the hill crowned by the ancient Lacora.

It is reasonable to assume that the city of Lectoure religiously preserved and surrounded with the customary honors, for seven centuries, the relics of its Martyr apostle. The great missionary emperor Char lemagne, al Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. ways concerned for the glory of God and His Saints, is said to have transported them along with several others collected in various places and depo sited th Bordeaux City and diocese of which Amand was bishop. em in Bordeaux in the churc église Sainte-Eulalie Church housing the bodies of seven holy martyrs. h of Sainte-Eulalie to shield them from the profanation of the Saracens. Indeed, one could formerly read on the walls of the church of Sainte-Eulalie in that city the following inscription: "Charles the Great founded this chapel and had placed behind the altar the bodies of seven Saints who suffered for Christ: Clair, Justin, Gerontius, Severus, Polycarp, John or Jonas, and Babylas."

It is certain, in fact, that the six martyrs mentioned after Saint Clair, and who are regarded as his companions, suffered martyrdom like him, but in different places. *Passi sunt cum eo, sed alii aliis in locis*, says the Agenais Proper of Bishop Barthélemy d'Elbène, already cited.

As for Father Papebrock's claim to conf Père Papebrock Bollandist hagiographer criticized for confusing two saints named Clair. use Saint Clair of Albi and Lectoure with Saint Clair of Nantes, it cannot hold in the presence of the traditional and liturgical monuments of the Church of Nantes. While Lectoure still shows the traditional site of the martyrdom of its Apostle, Nantes names the place where Saint Clair, its first confessor bishop, died, at Réguiny, a parish in the current diocese of Vannes. The specific history of the relics of the two Saints completes the destruction of Father Papebrock's assertion.

4. Saint SEVER Saint SEVER Companion of Saint Clair and martyr. . — The manuscript of Saint-Sever assigns to the companions of Saint Clair the same homeland as to Saint Clair himself, that famous and illegible *Ampligonia* from which, quite wrongly, *Africana* has been made. It leans toward the tradition that makes them come from the East and from the land of Saint Saturnin.

For an attentive mind accustomed to unraveling the chaos of Christian origins, the traditions recorded by the monk of Saint-Sever still contain all the necessary indications to trace this Saint back to apostolic times. He is a contemporary of Saint Clair and, like him, from the land of Saint Saturnin. It is therefore difficult to push him back to the time of the Vandals under the reign of Honorius. Since *Ampligonia* had become *Africana*, it was necessary to look in history for compatriots who came from the same regions. The only constant facts in the debris of the