Saint Eutropius

Saint Eutropi Saint Eutrope First bishop of Saintes whose tomb was restored by Palladius. us, whom the people of Saintonge recognize as their Apostle and their first bishop, was one of those Blessed ones of whom Our Lord speaks, who had the honor of seeing Him on earth and conversing with Him: that which so many kings and prophets desired so ardently and did not obtain. This is how the tradition of the churches carries it, according to the account of Baronius. The Jansenists and our Gallican bishops have vied with one another in making vows against the ancient legends bequeathed by the faith of our Fathers. This is a wrong in our eyes, because, if these legends recited on winter evenings may have lost something of their native simplicity by passing from mouth to mouth, and by taking on some tint of the narrator's character, it is no less true that there is a true foundation in these accounts. It was a matter of uncovering the unknown; it was found more logical to deny everything.

There exists in Saintes a very ancient legend about Saint Eutropius. The Saint was said to be the son of a king (a great personage) of Persia. In his childhood he was led by his tutor to the court of Herod; he heard of Jesus of Nazareth and his miracles; he wished to see him, asked to be presented to him, received his blessing, and embraced his doctrine. He returned to his father whom he won over to Christianity; later he returned to Judea and there learned of the death of Christ, condemned to the torment of the cross; indignant, he again took the road to Persia and had all the Jews who were in his father's states put to death. Abbé Lacurie, honorary vicar-general of His Beatitude, the Patriarch of Chaldea, has gathered information on the origin of Saint Eutropius. The opinion of the Chaldean Church, which confirms the French legend, is that the first bishop of Saintes was Chaldean and the son of a great personage. Disgusted wi saint Pierre Apostle and first pope, mentioned as the father of Petronilla. th the world, he returned to find Saint Peter, who raised him to the priesthood and sent him to Mediolanum-Santonum.

Eutropius, having prayed as we said above, resumed his march toward the city. Arriving at the main gate, he entered an inn to rest for a moment from the long fatigues of the journey and to take a frugal meal, then he penetrated into the heart of the city and became the object of public curiosity. The severity of his attire, which offered a singular contrast to the gentleness of his countenance, drew the eyes of all passersby; having reached the center of Mediolanum, he chose a spacious square. Having gathered around him a considerable crowd of citizens and artisans, he drew from his bosom a small, crudely fashioned wooden cross, and began to recount, with sublime enthusiasm, the life, miracles, and death of our Savior. Upon hearing these marvelous accounts, the people, believing they were seeing a madman or an impostor, armed themselves with sticks and rushed upon the missionary. Eutropius, driven from the city so cruelly, took refuge on a nearby height, chose a deserted place, and built himself a hut on the slopes of a rock.

Discouraged by this lack of success, Eutropius took the road back to Rome; Saint Peter was dead, Saint Clement revived hi s zeal, ordai saint Clément Pope who sent Nicaise on a mission to the Gauls. ned him bishop, and placed him under the guidance of Saint Denis the Areopagite who, with saint Denys l'Aréopagite Missionary accompanying Eutropius in Gaul. a caravan of other missionaries, was coming to evangelize the north of Gaul.

Eutrope therefore followed the Areopagite to the city of Arles and from there passed into Guyenne. The particular cult of which Saint Eutrope is the object, even in our day, in the mountains of the Ariège, leads one to believe that this Apostle must have evangelized certain regions of the south of France before returning to Saintes. Be that as it may, having returned to his isolated retreat, Eutrope gave himself over to prayer and mortification. Roots soaked in water were his daily food, a little straw sufficed to rest his body exhausted by vigils. Despite the unfavorable reception he had received from the inhabitants of Mediolanum, he often abandoned his dear solitude and, traveling through the surrounding countryside, he announced the word of God everywhere. He even ventured to return to the city. The purity of his morals and the simplicity of his language gradually won him

Gregory of Tours, whose testimony one is pleased to invoke in favor of the evangelization of the Gauls in the 19th century, — although the text upon which one relies is far from being authentic, — Gregory of Tours attests that Saint Eutrope, founder of the Church of Saintes, was at least sent by Saint Clement. De gloria martyrum, Hr. 271, chap. 36.

the esteem of a small number of pagans. Some, drawn by his inspired eloquence, learned of the true religion and received baptism.

Encouraged by this first success, Eutrope redoubled his perseverance and zeal. From that moment, he was seen every day traversing the streets and squares of Mediolanum, followed by a great multitude of people, who took pleasure in giving him the title of envoy of God.

One day, the people having, as was their custom, gathered around Eutrope, a young girl of rare beauty and high birth suddenly parted the crowd and came to prostrate herself at the feet of the Apostle, saying to him: "Master, I wish to embrace the religion of Christ, instruct me in the truths it teaches." Eutrope, having thanked the Lord, brought the Virgin to the place where the new Christians gathered, and initiated her into the principal mysteries of the faith.

Eustelle, f or that Eustelle Daughter of the Roman legate, converted by Eutropius and martyr. was the name of the young pagan, was soon baptized; grace transformed her soul. She wished to share with Eutrope the harsh labors of the apostolate.

Now, this conversion caused a great stir in the city of Mediolanum. Eustelle was the daughter of the legate of the praetor of the Gauls: there was everything to fear from this man, who, by his high dignity, had to, more than any other, ensure the gods of the empire were respected. Abusing his power, he could send to death the reckless man who had dared to tear his daughter from the bosom of idolatry. Upon learning that his daughter was a Christian, Eustelle's father flew into an extreme rage. He brutally drove her from his palace. Returning to better sentiments, he attempted to bring his daughter back through gentleness and seductions. Eustelle always replied with the greatest firmness and did not consent to return to the paternal home. She had built herself a narrow cell not far from Eutrope's hut. It was in this humble asylum that she wished to spend her days. Irritated by so much resistance, the legate no longer sought to hide his resentment; his fury knowing no bounds, he waited impatiently for the day of vengeance. He was unaware, this cruel Roman, that in preparing the palm of martyrdom for Eutrope, he was preparing a throne for him in heaven, and that his name, immortalized by his torture, would be pronounced with respect by future generations.

The legate summoned all the butchers of the city; he distributed to them a sum of one hundred and fifty Roman sous, and ordered them to go and put Eutropius to death, and to bring Eustelle back to his palace.

On the day before the Kalends of May, the butchers left the city early in the morning, and, followed by a crowd of pagans who applauded the cruelty of the legate, armed with clubs, axes, and straps weighted with lead, they headed toward the hut of the hermit, who was at that moment on his knees and in prayer. They dragged him out of his refuge, rained a hail of stones upon his head, struck him without pity with clubs, and tore his whole body; they completed their crime by splitting his head with a blow of an axe. As soon as Eutropius had breathed his last, his murderers, no longer thinking of bringing Eustelle to her father, took flight and returned tumultuously into the city, frightened by the crime they had just committed.

As soon as night had spread its first veils, some Christians, guided by Eustelle, buried the body of the holy mission Eustelle Daughter of the Roman legate, converted by Eutropius and martyr. ary in the hut that had sheltered his life. The death of Eustelle followed closely that of the Apostle who had converted her to the true faith. She was buried, according to her wishes, beside the tomb of the first martyr of Saintonge.

Saint Eutropius is depicted with his head split by an axe or a cleaver. Near him is a tree: the presence of this tree in monuments relating to the Apostle of Saintes is explained in different ways, for the true meaning has long been lost. Some say that before receiving the coup de grâce, Saint Eutropius was hung from a tree and tormented for a long time in that awkward position: the fact remains that in the past, Saint Eutropius was considered very helpful to people condemned to death. Others, taking the matter from a higher perspective, think that this tree recalls a good deed of the Saint in his youth, during the triumphal entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem; for he is said to have been one of those who climbed the trees along the road and tore off branches to throw them in the path of the Savior. Such is the fact that this tree is said to recall.

The story of Saint Eutropius is said to be painted on the stained glass windows of the cathedral of Sens.

He is invoked against dropsy.

## MIRACLES, RELICS AND CULT OF SAINT EUTROPIUS.

## RESTORATION OF HIS CRYPT.

This great bishop has performed very signal prodigies on all sides and in all centuries. He has miraculously pulled from water and fire those who were to be drowned or consumed therein. He has delivered from the depths of dungeons captives and prisoners whom their enemies had locked up there. He even transported one, in an instant, from Babylon to Saintes, with the brazen cage in which the infidels had locked him. He has healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons from the bodies of the possessed, and performed other similar wonders. One will also notice in the history of these miracles the terrible punishments that the justice of God has exercised against several persons who had the temerity to profane the feast of this illustrious preacher of the Gospel.

Nearly five centuries had passed over the forgotten tomb of the Martyr; many peoples had trodden the ground that held his holy remains. The Church shone then more than ever; it had emerged victorious from the Roman persecutions, it had witnessed the fall of the empire, and it had remained firm in the midst of the islands of barbarians who came from the North, who invaded and devastated a large part of southern Europe. "In the midst of this appalling chaos, civilization would have disappeared from the earth forever, without religion, aided by the enlightenment and vigilance of the popes!". More recently still, the Church had just triumphed over the schisms that had for a moment alarmed its most faithful children, but which had never weakened the power of its dogmas nor the strength of its doctrine. With the peace it enjoyed, monasteries rose up on all sides, where men, far from the noisy clamor of the cities, knew how to combine the worship of prayer with the hard labor of the fields. They instructed the people and made them share a love of agriculture; joining example to their lessons, they themselves cleared the uncultivated lands.

Clovis had just been baptize d. In Clovis First king of the Franks to convert to Catholicism. the interest of the faith he had embraced, he marched at the head of the Franks toward southern Gaul, in order to punish the Visigoths, who occupied it at the time and who professed Arianism. He defeated them on the fields of Fauchade and pursued them to the foot of the Pyrenees. Returning toward the North, the victor stopped at Mediolanum and was received there with acclamation. He did not leave without having left considerable sums to build churches and monasteries there, to which he granted great privileges.

Around this time, two monks occupied with clearing the hillside where Eutrope had been buried rediscovered the bones of the martyr. They noticed a deep cleft on the skull, which could only have been made by a blow from an axe. During the night, while the two religious were plunged in a deep sleep, Saint Eutrope appeared to them. "Know," he told them, "that the fracture you saw on my head is the mark of the martyrdom I endured." Palladius (Saint Pallais), Bishop of Saintes, warned of this miraculous vision, had the bones o Pallade (saint Pallais) Bishop of Saintes in the 6th century, of Auvergnat nobility. f the holy Apostle transported to a chapel of the church of Saint-Etienne, which he had just had built in one of the suburbs of the city. Later, a rich Benedictine convent rose around the basilica, which took the name of Saint-Eutrope. The holy relics, exposed to the veneration of the faithful, first attracted a few pilgrims who rushed from neighboring regions; but at the news of the miraculous cures performed through the intercession of the Saint in favor of those who came to visit him with faith, entire populations came eagerly to kneel at the foot of his altars. The church of Saint-Eutrope became a famous pilgrimage site.

Let us skip over the entire space that separates this era from the 16th century; let us arrive at the year 1562. At that time, the wars of religion were devastating Saintonge; the Protestants were pillaging and overturning the houses of the Lord. There was reason to fear that the body of Saint Eutropius had already been burned by the heretics, and t he same fate chef précieux Relic of the saint's head, preserved in Saintes. was feared for his precious head. François Noël, prior of the convent of Saint-Eutrope, secretly transported it to the cathedral of Saint-André in Bordeaux; but, in 1602, the holy relic was returned to its church through the care of Pierre de la Place, one of Noël's successors.

Later, when the political storm of 1789 passed over France, religion again had its days of mourning; but authentic documents prove that the relic of Saint Eutropius did not disappear in the revolutionary turmoil; and it has always been preserved in the church that bears his name.

The inhabitants of Saintes are not unaware, and we shall take pleasure in informing strangers, into whose hands our account may fall, of the restoration of the crypt into an underground chapel of the church of Saint-Eutrope. This restoration has a double purpose: first, the conservation of a building precious to the history of religious architecture, and second, the restitution to worship of a monument dedicated to religion for nearly twelve centuries. Let us give to each what is due: it was at the solicitation of Abbé Lacorée, chaplain of the college of Saintes, that the work was undertaken by the French Society instituted for the conservation of historical monuments.

On Friday, May 19, 1845, at eight o'clock in the morning, workers were busy digging at the place where the high altar of the crypt stood before the Revolution. They soon recognized the traces of an excavation made in the rock that serves as the floor for the crypt.

Once uncovered, the excavation, whose shape is that of an oblong square, presented the following dimensions: Length: 1.23 m; width: 0.85 m; depth: 1.88 m. At the bottom, one could see a stone in the shape of a tomb, cut with a diamond head, with the following dimensions: Length: 1.20 m; width: 0.90 m; thickness: 0.37 m. This stone was pierced through and through, at the four corners, by bolts or round iron bars, about two centimeters in diameter, consolidated in their holes with molten lead, and which bound it to an object upon which it rested. On its extreme upper face, on the western side, one could read the name Eutropius, written in long-dimension Carolingian characters, deeply engraved and perfectly visible.

The chest, which this stone covered, was removed, and the bones it contained were delivered to two doctors tasked with examining them.

This operation took place in the presence of numerous assistants, impatient to know the result.

The doctors managed, in a short time, to reconstruct the skeleton of a man, minus the head and the upper bone of one of the arms. This is the place to say that, for centuries, a relic has been honored in the church of Saint-Eutrope in Saintes, which tradition, supported by important titles, has always caused to be considered as the head of the blessed Martyr. We will also add, for those who are unaware, that there is exposed to the veneration of the faithful, in one of the churches of the city of Béziers, a bone that written monuments say is that of one of the arms of the first preacher of the faith among the Santones.

We do not intend to argue, says an eyewitness, Abbé Briand, now deceased: we are only a narrator. Yet we cannot refrain from making this remark: it is supposed, with much reason, that the skeleton discovered is that of Saint Eutropius; this skeleton is missing the head and the upper bone of an arm. Now, two churches have just motives to believe themselves in possession of the missing parts. What a striking coincidence!...

Let us add, however, that the doctors also found a head in the chest; but, after a scrupulous examination, they declared that judging by its shape, by its proportions, by those of the teeth, several of which were still attached to their sockets and several others were scattered in the chest, this head was not in proportion of strength with the bones they had before their eyes and that, almost certainly, it did not belong to the same subject. It appeared to them to be rather that of a young woman or an adult.

Finally, there was also in the chest a notable part of the bones of an almost newborn child. One also noticed a little earth, some fragments of cement, and the round, white shell of a small snail. Do these latter circumstances not lead to the idea of a translation? A report, recording the events of the day, was signed by all the persons summoned and by other assistants.

April 30th brings back, each year, the double feast of Saint Eutropius and Saint Eustelle, patrons of the city of Saintes. Besides the ceremonies that the Church celebrates in honor of the holy Martyr and the handmaid of the Lord, the civil authority orders public festivities that attract a large gathering of strangers to the ancient Mediolanum. Formerly, minstrels would roam the city in every direction and stop before the homes of those who bore the name of the Saint or the Saintess, and perform a short serenade there. The city of Saintes, which remains plunged for the rest of the year in silence and the most complete isolation, takes on a completely new appearance the next day. The joyful crowd floods the pavement of its streets. The

contentment is universal; but, as if to offer a singular contrast to the noisy joys of the city, a traditional custom has established a pious pilgrimage to the grotto of Saint Eustelle, located on one of the hills that surround the city.

Here now are some precious details on the cult of Saint Eutropius in the mountains of Ariège; details that we owe to the kindness of Abbé P. Authier, pastor of Unac (diocese of Pamiers). This learn ed e Unac Village in Ariège featuring a pilgrimage to Saint Eutropius. cclesiastic wrote to us in November 1871:

« The Saint Eutropius in question on pages 22 and 23 of my brochure on the priory of Unac is indeed Saint Eutropius, bishop and martyr of Saintes, since we have celebrated his feast from time immemorial on April 30th, and I know of no other Saint of this name celebrated on this same day.

« To tell you how his cult was established in our regions, I can only base my assertions on conjectures. The church in which we celebrate this feast, where the pilgrimage takes place on April 30th, is a church built in the second half of the 11th century, joined to an older bell tower, whose architecture indicates a construction from the 8th or 9th century. The most well-founded presumptions lead one to believe that the current 11th-century church was decorated and served by the Benedictines of Cluny; but that the first church, whose bell and watch tower stil Bénédictins de Cluny Monastic order to which the monastery founded by Aderald belongs. l exists, was the church of a military abbey founded by Charlemagne or his son, Louis the Pious, King of Aquitaine, residing in Toulouse in his youth. The devotion of the pilgrimage to the relics of Saint Eutropius will have been established, either by the military abbots, like the neighboring pilgrimage devotions to the altars of the Blessed Virgin of Sabart, Montganzy, and Celles, which are believed to date back to that era, or by the religious of Cluny, who had dedicated chapels to Saint Eutropius in the basilica of the mother house. Pilgrims to Saint-Eutrope of Unac have a small bottle of wine blessed at the altar formerly dedicated to Saint Eutropius and drink it on an empty stomach in very small doses, either as a remedy or as a preservative against illnesses. It is with this practice as it is with that which caused pilgrims to take away, as a remedy, the oil from the lamps that lit the tombs of Saint Martin, in Tours, and other Saints.

« I could not affirm that the church of the military abbey of Unac was dedicated to Saint Eutropius; but it is certain that the altar where the inhabitants and the habitual pilgrims always come naturally to deposit their wine which must be sanctified by the solemn blessing of the Church, is found six meters in front of and facing the large opening of the old Carolingian tower, that is to say, where the altar of the primitive church was.

« The current 11th-century church was dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, titular patron, and the altars of the side aisles were dedicated to the secondary patrons, one to Saint Maur and the other to Saint Eutropius, in the very place of the Carolingian altar.

« Were there relics of Saint Eutropius at Unac at the time of the establishment of the pilgrimage? I do not know. Upon entering this parish forty years ago, I found, in the tomb of a medieval reliquary, which had served as a monstrance for the solemn blessing of the Blessed Sacrament, very small fragments of relics of Saint Eutropius, Saint Maur, and other Saints as indicated by fragments of vellum, with a note saying: « Aquestas reliquias foren trobades in cinastro de l’autor de missa de mossum S. Felix, l’an 1565 ». This formerly parochial church was destroyed that year by the Huguenots at Unac. These relics were without any other authentication and without a seal. I have not heard of any others mentioned. Now we have received from one of our bishops of Pamiers 1° a fragment of three centimeters of the relics of a Saint Eutropius, martyr, extracted by him from the cathedral basilica of Saint-Lizier, in our diocese; and 2° another fragment of one centimeter obtained by him in Saintes, in 1845, during the solemn translation of the tomb of Saint Eutropius ».

We have drawn our account of Saint Eutropius from Baronius and Father Giry; from the History of the Santone Church, by Abbé Briand, now deceased; from private letters that M. Lanarte of Saintes, the skilled restorer of the crypt of Saint-Eutrope, honorary vicar-general of S. B., the Patriarch of Chaldea, Abbé Grasliter, almoner of the Carmel of Sainte-M., Abbé Authier, pastor of Unac in the diocese of Pamiers, Abbé Ant. Risard, director of the Liturgical Seminary of Marseille, etc., have kindly addressed to us.