Saint Benezet

When Bénézet had traveled some distance, he met an angel in the guise of a pilgrim, carrying a travel bag and a staff in his hand. He approached the child and said to him: "Come with me without fear; I will lead you to the place where you must build the bridge of Jesus Christ, and I will show you what you have to do."

They arrived together on the banks of the Rhône. At the sight of the width of the river, Bénézet, seized with fear, cried out: "It is impossible for me to build a bridge here!" "Fear nothing," replied the angel, "for the Holy Spirit is with you. Go toward that boat you see over there, the boatman will take you across the river; you will enter the c ity of Avignon City of which Saint Rufus was the first bishop and founder of the church. Avignon and you will present yourself to the bishop and his people." And saying this, the angel disappeared.

Bénézet went to the boatman and begged him, for the love of God and the blessed Virgin Mary, to transport him to the city, where he had some business. This man was a Jew; he answered the child: "If you want to cross, give me three deniers like the others." Bénézet begged him a second time to take him to the other side, for the love of the Lord Jesus and the blessed Virgin Mary, his mother; but the inexorable Jew replied: "What do I care about your Virgin Mary! She has no power either in heaven or on earth. I prefer three deniers to her love."

Bénézet gave him his three obols. The Jew, seeing that he could not extract any more from this child, received him into his boat and deposited him, a few moments later, under the walls of Avignon.

The child went to the cathedral, which was then called Notre-Dame du Château or du Rocher, and as the bishop, named Ponce, was in the pulpit, explaining the word of God to his people, Bénézet interrupted him by crying out in a firm voice: "Listen to me and lend an ear to what I am going to tell you: Jesus Christ has sent me to you to build a bridge over the Rhône."

The bishop, indignant that a child of such frail appearance dared to interrupt him publicly and in the holy place, or perhaps believing he was dealing with a madman, ordered that he be taken to the viguier to be punished for his insolence. The viguier or provost-viguier was the first civil magistrate of the city. He was then a hard and severe man, called Bérenger, of the Sade family.

Bénézet presented himself boldly before him and said to him: "The Lord Jesus Christ has sent me to this city to build a bridge over the Rhône." "How," replied the viguier, "does a child of your kind think he can build a bridge that neither Charlemagne nor anyone else has ever dared to undertake? God himself and his Apostles could not succeed in it." And as Bénézet insisted: "Well!" he added, "bridges are made with stones and lime. I have an enormous stone in my palace; if you can move it and carry it, I will believe that you can build this bridge."

Bénézet, full of confidence in the Lord, accepted the provost's proposal and returned to the bishop to inform him of it. "Let us go," said the Prelate, "to see the marvel you announce to us." And he followed him with all the people.

In the courtyard of the palace, there was, says the chronicle, a stone that thirty men could not have carried. According to several historians, it was thirty feet long by seventeen wide. Bénézet knelt down and remained in prayer for a few moments; then, rising, he approached this stone, made the sign of the cross over it, and loaded it onto his shoulders "as easily," says the chronicle, "as if it had been a small pebble." He carried it thus through the crowd to the place where the foundations of the first pier of the bridge were to be laid.

At this sight, all the people were seized with admiration, and, in the transports of their enthusiasm, they loudly proclaimed the greatness and power that God manifests in his works and in the instruments of his goodness toward men. The provost was the first to recognize the prodigy: he prostrated himself before Bénézet, kissed his hands and feet, and offered him three hundred sous for the construction of the bridge. Everyone wanted to contribute to a work of which God was so visibly the overseer, so that five thousand sous were collected on the spot, a very considerable sum for that time.

The Lord performed many more miracles on that day, through the intercession of his servant; he restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and straightened eighteen lame people.

In reading the above, one might have wondered what was the point of this divine vocation and so many miracles that follow and prove it, regarding the construction of a bridge. It is because in the 12th century a construction of this kind was not only an act of charity, but a work of high social importance. Under Roman rule and the civilizing influence of Christianity, a host of boatmen's corporations were born in Gaul and Italy which, for a modest wage, transported goods on rivers and facilitated the passage of rivers for travelers. Especially in Provence, where the rivers, more impetuous, had a more uncertain bed, these kinds of associations multiplied and spread on all sides: those who were part of them were called Utricularii, because they used skins, instead of rafts and boats. But they were not united by any religious bond; thus, enormous abuses soon crept in among them: greed became their sole motive, one saw them pitilessly stripping travelers, and often, according to an author, under the pretext of taking them to the other side, they sent them to the other world. This sad state of affairs only worsened at the decline of the second race of the kings of France and at the beginning of the third race. The State fell into a kind of anarchy, the great lords set themselves up as sovereigns occupied with making war on one another; then came the invasions of the Saracens, and there was no more safety for travelers, especially at the river crossings. As bridges were rare and surveillance non-existent, the boatmen were able to exercise their brigandage on the largest scale. Italy and the rest of Europe were in no less deplorable a situation. Then, pious men gathered into religious corporations, and pledged by vow to always be in a state of readiness, for the service of travelers, on the great roads and particularly on the banks of rivers, as much to facilitate their passage by means of bridges, causeways, and ferries, as to defend them against all kinds of insults and even to give them shelter in hospitals. The people called them Brothers Pontiff or bridge-makers; pagan Rome had already given this title to the heads of the cult who, under the reign of Ancus Marcius, built the Sublician Bridge. It was therefore a very importa Frères Pontifes Religious and labor congregation founded for the maintenance of bridges. nt and at the same time very difficult undertaking that God had entrusted to the holy shepherd of Hermillon. From the day his mission was divinely recognized by the people of Avignon, Bénézet gave himself entirely to the construction of the bridge of Jesus Christ, according to the expression of Jesus Christ himself. A certain number of young men, attracted by the brilliance of his virtues and miracles, offered themselves to him to help him in this work and placed themselves under his guidance. Thus was formed the corporation of the Brothers Pontiff of the city of Avignon, "whose particular care was to watch over the preservation and repair of the bridge, and to lodge pilgrims." Several Brothers Pontiff from the neighborhood joined them and brought to the nascent congregation the experience they had acquired in religious life and bridge construction. Nevertheless, they did not form, during the Saint's lifetime, a religious community properly so-called, although they lived in common and applied themselves to the practice of monastic virtues. Bénézet, despite his young age, was the father and model of all. As he knew that pride is all the more to be feared when one has received more signal favors from God, he did not want to consent to take the title of prior that the heads of the other corporations of Pontiffs bore, and contented himself with the more modest one of procurator or minister of the Work of the bridge. This is the title he bears in the acts passed in favor of the Work. In the year 1180, he obtained from several notable persons of the city, and notably from one named Bernard or Bertrand La Garde, a complete cession of the rights they had over the port of the Rhône. The following year, he bought from Galburge and Raymond Malvicini, her son, a house and a garden located near the place where he had laid the foundations of the first pier of the bridge. The Brothers Pontiff gathered there and from then on began to lodge indigent travelers. In the midst of the innumerable embarrassments that the construction of the bridge and the government of the corporation of the Brothers Pontiff necessarily entailed, Bénézet gave around him the example of the most admirable virtues. To an ardent zeal for the accomplishment of the mission that heaven had entrusted to him, he joined a faith so lively, a piety so touching, a purity of morals so angelic, and at the same time such an amiable simplicity of conduct, that everyone was forced to love and venerate him as a saint.

However, the construction of the bridge progressed only very slowly, despite the tireless zeal with which the Saint had been working on it for seven years. One will not be surprised by this if one reflects that the Rhône is one of the fastest rivers in Europe. In the time of Saint Bénézet, not being contained by any dike, it carried its impetuous waves here and there, which gave its bed an immoderate width, and had caused even the genius of the Romans and Charlemagne to despair. Opposite Avignon, it still divides today into two branches, separated by a very fertile island called the Barthelasse. To join the two banks without discontinuity, it was necessary to give the bridge a length of 1,840 paces; it was five paces wide and consisted of eighteen arches. The Lord did not grant Saint Bénézet the consolation of seeing the completion of his work. His soul was ripe for heaven, and his body consumed by the labors to which he had devoted himself. He expired gently on April 14 of the year 1184, the nineteenth of his age, in the house he had bought next to the bridge. RELICS, CULT, HOMELAND OF ST. BÉNÉZET. — THE BRIDGE-BUILDING BROTHERS. The Bishop of Avignon, who was then Rostaing de Marguerites, learning that the holy young man had died, thought at first of enriching the cathedral with his mortal remains. But Bénézet had chosen for his burial the chapel he had had built on the third arch of the bridge, in honor of Saint Nicholas; he had wished to preside in this way over the completion of his work and to remain its guardian. It was decided to follow his will, and the funeral was celebrated with the greatest pomp.

In 1669, during the winter, enormous masses of ice struck the piers of the bridge with such violence that two arches were carried away by the waters. The directors of the bridge hospice thought it appropriate to ask the archiepiscopal vicar, the see being vacant, to allow the body of Saint Bénézet to be removed from its tomb, for fear that it might be swept away in the ruin of the piers. The body then appeared free from all corruption, exhaling a sweet odor, dressed in a sort of linen shirt tied around the neck, which did not adhere anywhere to the flesh. The head was slightly inclined; the face presented itself to the eyes with such integrity that it allowed one to distinguish almost all the features it had during life; its mouth half-open, and the lips slightly parted, like those of a man smiling, revealed the tips of the upper and lower teeth; between them one could see the tongue, about as thick as that of a living man, and whose color was that of a dried rose. The belly, rounded like that of a living man, yielded to the touch and returned to its initial state. The hands, uncovered, were as well preserved as possible. The color of the whole body did not differ much from the natural color. The shirt and the shroud were better preserved in the places where they had touched the body most closely.

This translation raised lively protests from France, which had succeeded in extending its authority over the entire length of the bridge. Louis XIV complained about it to Mgr Aron Arlestin, Archbishop of Avignon, and demanded that the holy body be carried t Louis XIV King of France during the ministry of Olier. o the church of the Celestines convent, which was of royal foundation and under the protection of France. The arch bishop, so as not to couvent des Célestins Convent where the saint's relics were deposited. appear to yield to the orders of a foreign sovereign, replied that having had the state of the bridge and the chapel examined, he was going to return the relics to their former place. Which he did, in fact, on May 3, 1672.

But this measure, without satisfying the monarch accustomed to making everything bend to his will, excited the murmurs of the people, distressed to lose so soon a treasure they had hoped to keep within the city. This resulted in long debates between the courts of Rome and Paris, which finally agreed that the body would be deposited with the Celestines, while waiting for the bridge to be restored and consolidated. This new translation took place on Easter Monday, March 26, 1674, with extraordinary pomp.

The procession to the Celestines church was a true triumph. The body was placed in a wooden reliquary, magnificently carved and surmounted by a statue of the Saint. More than twenty thousand foreigners attended this celebration, which was followed by a solemn octave.

The relics of Saint Bénézet did not escape the impious rage of the revolutionaries. After the expulsion of the Celestines, they were transported to the collegiate church of Saint-Didier, which had become a parish church, by the unworthy hands of the city's constitutional priest. But the guillotine having replaced the worship of God and the Saints, this church itself was converted into a prison. Among the prisoners who were crowded there, waiting for the scaffold, were refractory soldiers of the Corrèze legion. One day, they threw themselves upon the reliquary of the holy shepherd, opened it, and scattered the bones throughout the church. But alongside these profaners were Christians full of faith, whose only crime was to be attached to the religion of their fathers. Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, they were able to remove, almost entirely, these holy relics; they shared them among themselves, and, later restored to liberty, they carried them into their families as a pious souvenir of the captivity they had suffered for the name of Jesus Christ. This took place in the month of June 1793.

Many times attempts were made to collect these precious remains, the loss of which deprived the church of Avignon of a rich treasure. In 1846, new searches were made, and this time the Lord willed that they lead to a happy result. They managed to reunite considerable portions of the holy body; their authenticity was recognized by Mgr Debclay, Archbishop of Avignon, after the necessary canonical inquiries, and their solemn translation to the Saint-Didier church was made on the first day of the year 1854.

The Saint-Didier church is not the only one that possesses relics of Saint Bénézet. The cathedral and all the chapels of the establishments of Avignon, the cathedral of Viviers, and the chapel of Le Villard in the Vivarais have obtained considerable portions, which are exposed to public veneration and maintain among these populations a confident devotion toward the holy Founder of the hospice and the bridge of Avignon.

The bridge of Avi Le pont d'Avignon The saint's major work, of which four arches remain today. gnon was completed in 1188. Its length, the boldness of its arches, and the regularity of its construction caused it to be regarded as a masterpiece of art inspired by religion. On the pier separating the second arch from the third, there stood, until recent years, the chapel where Saint Bénézet wished to be buried and which, dedicated first to Saint Nicholas, was later placed under the patronage of our Saint.

The ruin of this famous bridge began during the wars stirred up by the schismatic ambition of the anti-pope Peter de Luna. In 1395, the Catalans and Aragonese, who were besieging the Palace of the Popes, cut an arch; it was rebuilt in 1413. By 1602, three arches had already been carried away by the impetuous floods of the Rhône. Two others collapsed on May 8, 1633. They were replaced by a wooden framework, one span of which was carried away on February 3, 1650. The enormous ice floes that the river carried during the harsh winter of 1669 to 1670 caused the fall of two other arches and shook the neighboring arches. Since then, the bridge existed only as a ruin, continually eroded by the waters of the Rhône. It appears that the city of Avignon recoiled before the considerable expenses that its repair would have required. Its majestic debris still attests to the powerful and inspired genius of the shepherd of Hermillon.

After the death of Bénézet, Jean Benoit, who succeeded him in the government of the corporation of the Frères Pontifes, and under whom the bridge was completed, took the title of prior. The Brothers made the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in his hands; they added to these the vow to serve travelers and to work on the completion and repairs of the bridge. They lived in retreat, and only left their house to work on the bridge or to beg for the things necessary for their sustenance; for the revenues of the Work and the legacies made to the hospice at various times were used solely for the maintenance of the bridge and the relief of poor or infirm travelers. They thus formed a religious community. Nevertheless, they remained laymen and kept their habit, which was more convenient for the manual labor that was the main purpose of their institution. Thus, one never saw studies flourish in this congregation. Only one of them, who lived in the 13th century, was a priest and had cultivated letters with success before joining the Frères Pontifes.

In 1233, discord arose between the Frères Pontifes and the people of Avignon, and the consuls of the city compelled the former to recognize them as rectors of the Work of the Bridge. This was the beginning of the decadence of the Order. Since 1260, there were only commendatory priors who not only did not concern themselves with the reform that had become necessary, but also completely neglected its interests. In 1331, the community having died out on its own, Pope John XXII gave the consuls of the city the management of the affairs of the hospice and the bridge, and united the chapel to the chapter of Saint-Agricol. In 1284, the Brothers of Bonpas had been, upon their repeated requests, united with the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem. Those of the Saint-Esprit bridge persevered longer in regularity and fervor. In 1448, Pope Nicholas V obliged them to wear a white wool robe, with a piece of fabric representing two bridge arches surmounted by a red cross on the chest, and permitted them to receive holy orders. They also ended up, little by little, forgetting the rules of their institute, to the point that in 1519 Leo X saw himself forced to secularize them and to form their community into a collegiate church which he placed under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Uzès.

Homeland of Saint Bénézet. — Hermillon, in Savoy, an d Le Villard, in Vivara Le Villard, en Vivarais Locality in the Vivarais claiming the saint's birthplace. is, dispute the honor of having given birth to the builder of the Avignon bridge.

M. Canron, author of the most detailed life of Saint Bénézet that we possess, and who had declared himself in favor of the Vivarais, found the reasons presented to him by M. Truchet in favor of Savoy to be very strong. These reasons are as follows:

1° A constant tradition in Hermillon and throughout the Maurienne holds that Saint Bénézet was born in this commune. This tradition is so precise that the location where his parents' house was situated is shown opposite the church. It certainly dates back to a very high antiquity; for it is impossible to discover its origin. How can this persistent belief in the Maurienne be explained if Saint Bénézet was born in the Vivarais? For what reason would the village of Hermillon have believed itself to be the homeland of a Saint born in a distant region with which neither history nor tradition shows he ever had any relationship?

2° It is admitted that relatives of Saint Bénézet lived in the Duchy of Savoy (M. Canron, p. 133). If this is so, it would have to be proven that this family, instead of being born in Savoy, emigrated from the Vivarais. Now, besides the fact that this immigration is not proven, it is against the probabilities, since the inhabitants of the Maurienne have always emigrated more into the Rhône valley than those of the Vivarais toward the gorges of the Mont-Cenis.

3° This immigration, which, after all, is only a hypothesis, would not have authorized the inhabitants of Hermillon to assert that Saint Bénézet was born among them. This is, however, what they still maintain today by showing the house where he came into the world. We doubt that the inhabitants of Le Villard can put forward anything as precise.

4° The written legend is absolutely silent on the place of Saint Bénézet's birth, and enters into the most detailed particulars for the entire account of his life. Now, this legend was written in the places that were the theater of his marvelous life, which inherited his mortal remains, and these places are not far from the Vivarais. How is it, then, that the biographer does not speak of the place of his hero's birth? This silence is explained if one admits that, having come from a relatively distant region, Bénézet, even if he had spoken of his country of origin, left nothing in writing, and twenty-five years after his death, one could perfectly well have forgotten what he had said about it by word of mouth. Conclusion: if the silence of the primitive historian proves anything, it is in favor of Savoy. This silence is certainly very unfavorable to the Vivarais.

5° There exists, at the hospital of the city of Saint-Jean de Maurienne, a monument to the life and miracles of Saint Bénézet. It is a painting signed: Jomur pinxit anno 1695. In terms of art, it is of no value; but it is interesting from a historical point of view, and seems to us to be a testimony to the ancient tradition of the Maurienne regarding the homeland of Saint Bénézet; for, without this tradition, one would not see why the hospital would have bought or had a painting of this kind made.

The main subject is the vocation of Saint Bénézet. The Saint is represented in the figure of a child, standing at the foot of a tree, his sheep and his dog before him; Jesus Christ appears to him in a cloud. All around, there are medallions representing the main circumstances of the Saint's life: 1° (below, medallion on the left), Saint Bénézet arrives on the banks of the Rhône; one sees the Sovereign, a rope crossing it, a boat in the middle; on one bank, the city of Avignon, and on the other, the Saint with the angel speaking to him; 2° Saint Bénézet enters the church while the bishop is in the pulpit; 3° Saint Bénézet before the viguier who shows the stone; 4° Saint Bénézet carries the stone, the bishop follows him; 5° the bishop, the clergy, and the people admire the miracle that the Saint has just performed; 6° Saint Bénézet extends his hand over a large number of sick people; 7° he changes water into wine, a man holds a vase in his hand, and another draws from other vases placed on the ground; 8° he reprimands the gamblers; the dice are on the ground and the punished blasphemer is on his knees, his face turned backward; 9° construction of the bridge; boats transport the materials, and Saint Bénézet directs the work; 10° the devil appears to Saint Bénézet, who is on his knees before an altar; 11° Saint Bénézet between two Brother Pontiffs; but the painter was mistaken in giving them a religious habit; 12° burial of Saint Bénézet; a crowd of people accompanies his body to the bridge chapel with torches; 13° miracle of this man who, having missed a feast day, can no longer leave his wheat or his sickle; he is on his knees before the tomb of Saint Bénézet; near him one sees a Brother Pontiff and another man prostrate; 14° the Avignon bridge is completed.

6° The honor is given to Fr. Théophile Raynaud for having found a triumphant argument in favor of the Vivarais. Now, this is what this argument boils down to: we say in advance that it is far from being conclusive.

« The Acts say that Saint Bénézet crossed the Rhône to arrive in Avignon, which he would not have done if he had come from Savoy ».

Such is the crushing argument of Fr. Théophile Raynaud reproduced by Fr. Papebrock. To this we will answer: Why try to fix the itinerary followed by Bénézet when one has nothing that authorizes doing so? Why forget that Bénézet was under the guidance of an angel? Why assume that he followed the left bank, taking through Grenoble and Valence, instead of coming by the right bank to Lyon, which has always been the moral capital of the Savoyards and which is always the path they take to expatriate themselves, however circuitous it may be? Why, finally, not admit that it was necessary that, to enter Avignon, Bénézet himself experience the difficulty that there was for poor people to cross the Rhône and thus understand the necessity of the construction of a bridge at the very place where it had to be raised?

Finally, as all this is based on reasoning and positive proofs are lacking, it will always be permitted for the partisans of one or the other opinion to find their deductions more valid than those of the adversary. That is why we stop there.

We will only add that the sentiment we have adopted, without speaking of Paradin, is that of the Biographie universelle of Michaud, of Grillet, of the Marquis Costa de Beauregard and of several other authors of Savoy, and even of France, among others, of M. Champagne in his Dictionnaire de chronologie universelle, and of the Count de l'Escalopier, curator of the Arsenal library in Paris, who, working on a Life of Saint Bénézet, wrote to M. Angley, author of a History of the Diocese of Maurienne: « That after the various documents he had consulted on the birthplace of this Saint, he had believed it his duty to side with the opinion of the authors who make him born in Hermillon and that what he had just learned of the tradition that is preserved in this parish had fully confirmed him in his sentiment ».

We have borrowed this life of Saint Bénézet from the excellent Hagiological History of the Diocese of Maurienne, by the Abbé Trachet, parish priest-archpriest of Aiguebelle. Here are M. Trachet's authorities: A.A. SS., vol. II, of April; Cauron, Hist. de saint Bénézet; Champagne, Dict. de Chronologie universelle; Baronina, Ann. soci., no. 1177, n. 85; Luc d'Achéry, Spicilegium; Hélyot, Dict. des Ordres religieux, art. Pontifes; Minutes of the witnesses heard on the holiness of Bénézet, etc.