Saint Pulchronius of Verdun

The church of Troyes then had such a great reputation that all the cities of Gaul wished to have a disciple of Saint Lupus as their bishop; this is what led the clergy and the faithful of Verdun to ask for Saint Pulchronius as their pastor; the passage of the Huns had reduced this city to a pitiful state. Saint Lupus saw good to be done, and he compelled his disciple to yield to the prayers of a diocese covered in ruins. The faithful were scattered far and wide and lived as best they could. The new pastor gathered the sheep scattered by the storm. His first instructions were very touching. He exhorted them to patience and resignation, and encouraged them to appease, through the practice of good works, the anger of God, who was irritated by the sins of men. His example, even more than his speeches, inclined their hearts toward contrition. The pagans, seeing the Christians humbling themselves and doing penance, felt moved to imitate them.

After having re-established the celebration of the holy mysteries and the other exercises of religion interrupted by the ravages of the Huns, Saint Pulchronius, as a devoted son of the Church, made the journey to Rome to visit the tomb of the Apostles and to ask the Holy See for the confirmation of his election.

Upon his return, he published in his diocese the decisions of the Council Concile d'Éphèse Ecumenical council that validated the position of Maximian. of Ephesus which declared Mary, Mother of God, and had a basilica built within the walls of Verdun, which he dedicated under the title of the Nativity of Our Lady. In the temple, the Blessed Virgin was represented holding a serpent under her feet to mark her victory over the heretics with this insc ription: THÉOTOCOS Greek term affirming the divine motherhood of Mary, central to the work of Pulchronius. THEOTOKOS, MOTHER OF GOD; CHRISTOTOKOS, MOTHER OF CHRIST. It was on a plot of his inheritance that Saint Pulchrone had this church of the Blessed Virgin built. To enlarge the Lord's portion, some inhabitants gave him their gardens, located on the slope of the mountain where the bishopric and the cathedral still stand today. Christianity made new progress in France after the barbarian invasions; paganism disappeared almost entirely under the ruins of the old Gallic cities; and it was undoubtedly to consecrate this triumph of the Gospel that Saint Pulchrone had a basilica built on the highest point of the city, vast enough to contain the newly converted faithful who from then on formed the majority of the Verdun population. He transferred the episcopal see, which had until then been in the church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul outside the walls, to the new church, and placed the city as well as the entire diocese under the protection of the Blessed Virgin. The decrees of the Council of Ephesus (431) and the Council of Chalcedon (451), by proclaiming the divine prerogatives of Mary, had powerfully contributed to popularizing her cult. It was especially from this period that a large number of temples were dedicated in her honor, that feasts were instituted in memory of her mysteries, and that bishops chose her as the special protectress of their dioceses.

One might be tempted to believe that schools, libraries, and all scientific documents disappeared in the great cataclysm of the barbarian invasions. Certainly, many things perished, but the love of study remained, especially within the clergy. The decadence of letters began, it is true, in the 5th century; but this decadence did not prevent Gaul from producing a great number of scholars, theologians, philosophers, historians, poets, and distinguished orators. Their works have not all come down to us. But those we know prove that an uncommon intellectual culture was still received in public schools. Most of the Gallic bishops of the 5th and 6th centuries were chosen from the ranks of the learned, and they soon became, through the schools they founded, the teachers of the ages called *barbaric*, "whose barbarity must not be denied, but who would have been thought less ignorant if they had been less ignored." These episcopal schools kept literary traditions alive until the creation of monastic schools, and for this reason alone they deserve to be better known. Saint Pulchrone established one in his city of Verdun. The brilliance it spread reflected upon the clergy of the entire diocese. Numerous evangelical workers were trained there, who converted the remaining idolaters: the divine office also gained in splendor and regularity there. The bishop further gave all his rich patrimony to the church. The revenues were used for the maintenance of the sanctuary and the construction of housing for the priests with whom he lived in common; such was the first origin of the Chapter of Verdun.

The holy bishop was respected and loved by the great and the small; he won over the most obstinate to Jesus Christ through his insinuating affability, his exemplary life, and the great number of miracles that supported the truths issuing from his mouth; his face was cheerful and his words grave. He considered himself a victim of expiation for the sins of his people, whom he saw exposed to the danger of falling under the domination of the conquerors who had come from beyond the Rhine. Civil wars divided the cities and provinces of Belgic Gaul: some were still subject to the Romans, from whose hands they were soon to escape and who burdened them with excessive taxes, and others to the Franks, who were making new conquests every day. Childeric, their king, had forced the Roman generals to abandon Cologne, taken Trier by storm, and conquere Childéric King of the Franks whose conquests threatened the region of Verdun. d the entire country situated between the Rhine and the Meuse. Verdun, which was not attacked this time, believed it owed this to the protection of its holy Pastor.

His virtues and his labors were crowned by a precious death on the last day of April in the year 470. He had worked for sixteen years as bishop, causing science and piety to flourish in the midst of his flock. The Roman custom of burying the dead along the main roads still existed at that time in Verdun. Saint Pulchrone was therefore buried near a public road, not far from the current gate of the citadel. An oratory was raised over his tomb, which later became the parish church of Saint-Amant. In 1625, this church still occupied the site where the moats of this same citadel are dug today. In the course of time, the relics of Saint Pulchrone were transferred partly to the church of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul, and partly to the abbey of Saint-Vannes. His feast is cel ebrated in Verdun on A abbaye de Saint-Vannes Religious community of Verdun of which Madalvé was abbot. pril 30.

## MONUMENTS AND TRADITIONS.

The tradition, which attributes to Saint Pulchrone the construction of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Verdun, within the city walls and on the site it still occupies today, is recorded in the Breviaries of this diocese in these terms: « Novam ab eo intra urbem basilicam a fundamentis ædificatum, Deo, sub nascentis Virginis Deiparae nomine, fuisse consecratam... referunt ».

Roussel, author of a history of Verdun published in 1745, does not admit that Saint Pulchrone dedicated his church under the title of the *Nativity* of Our Lady, and he denies Verdun the honor of having celebrated this feast of the Mother of God as early as the 6th century. He opposes the constant and formal tradition of the church of Verdun with two reasons, the first of which proves nothing, since it is drawn from the silence of a 9th-century historian, as if this historian, or rather this annalist, had been able or required to say everything. The second is based on the entirely arbitrary interpretation of a word from Saint Fulbert of Chartres, who says, in one of his homilies for Our Lady of September, "that after the institution of older and more solemn feasts, the devotion of the faithful requested the addition of the feast of the *Nativity* celebrated today." — *Non contenta fuit devotio fidelium, quin Nativitatis solemne superadderet hodiernum.* — The word *hodiernum*, in a sermon preached on the very day of the feast, does not in the least indicate that it was a recently instituted feast. Moreover, the text of Fulbert, who died in 1029 (see his life above on April 10), if taken in Roussel's sense, would express only a manifest error; for it is certain that under the pontificate of Sergius I, around the year 688, this feast was celebrated in Rome. The sacramentaries of Saint Gregory and Saint Leo the Great, the martyrologies of Bede, Ado, etc., mention it. If, furthermore, one absolutely insists that Saint Fulbert spoke of a recent institution, that may be true for the church of Chartres and not for others. Moreover, Da Saussay, in the Gallican martyrology on September 8, thinks that Saint Maurilius, a disciple of Saint Martin and Saint Ambrose, who became bishop of Angers, was the first to institute the feast of the *Nativity* of the Blessed Virgin in Gaul: which would explain the name *Angesine* formerly given to Our Lady of September, just as the feast of the Immaculate Conception was called *the Norman*, whose celebration began in Normandy and England. Can one conclude from all this that the feast of the *Nativity* of Our Lady was actually established in Verdun by Saint Pulchrone? This conclusion would not be rigorous; but what is certain is that nothing, absolutely nothing, invalidates the constant tradition of the church of Verdun, which has always claimed the honor of having celebrated the birth of Mary first, or among the first. Cartularies, books of ceremonies, and the oldest Breviaries support this tradition: now, this is a very good and very solid proof, that of tradition supported by monuments; since monuments and tradition, each propping up the other, attest that from time immemorial, Verdun has celebrated the *Nativity* of the Blessed Virgin as a solemnity proper to it, as the patronal feast of the cathedral church, and this until the revolution of 1793; since, on the other hand, tradition and monuments grant Saint Pulchrone the honor of this institution, why come, in 1745, to rob him of this honor?

Regarding the Greek inscriptions that Saint Pulchrone is said to have had engraved below a bas-relief representing the Blessed Virgin seated and crushing the serpent, it is good to know that inscriptions of the same kind can still be seen today on a pillar of the Verdun cathedral. But it was Archdeacon Wassebourg, author of the *Antiquités de la Gaule belgique*, who in the 17th centu Wassebourg Archdeacon of Verdun and 17th-century historian, author of the Antiquités de la Gaule belgique. ry had a representation made of the Blessed Virgin crushing the serpent, and placed above it the inscription *Osservans* and *Xpressans*, thus continuing the tradition that attributed to Saint Pulchrone a monument of the same fashion, conceived in the same thought, and executed according to the same data. It is indeed a remarkable thing that, for many centuries, the church of Verdun was not content with the Latin words *Mater Dei* and *Deipara* as an expression of Catholic dogma, but believed it necessary to express this truth through the Greek words of the Council of Ephesus. Thus, one reads in an ancient Breviary of this church, dating from Saint Louis: *Ave, Theotokos, virgo Maria, quæ firmum mundi regentem machinam Filium protulisti*, etc. (third antiphon of the third Nocturn on the day of the Assumption). The Breviary of 1486 and that of 1560 preserved this usage in the offices of the Assumption, the Annunciation, etc. By inserting into the inscription of his monument the Greek words *Theotokos, Christotokos*, frequently used by the Council of Chalcedon, Wassebourg undoubtedly wanted to allude to the ancient liturgy of Verdun, which very often used these terms in the offices of the Blessed Virgin.

The curious monument raised by the piety of Wassebourg is found in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, on the wall facing the altar. The terrorists mutilated it in 1793.

In the upper part of the bas-relief, one reads the following ingenious distich, where the Blessed Virgin is made to say:

| Sum quod eram, nec eram quod sum; nunc dicer utrumque. | I am what I was; but I was not what I am: now I am both. | | --- | --- | | Christiforam pietatis heram cole me, genitumque. | Honor my son; honor in me the Christ-bearer, the Mother of mercy. |

In the center of the bas-relief, the Virgin is seated and crowned. With her right hand she holds a lily, symbol of virginity, and with her left hand she supports the infant Jesus, who himself carries the globe of the world surmounted by a cross. At her feet, Mary tramples the infernal dragon.

Now, precisely at the height of the Virgin's head, one reads these two characteristic inscriptions:

| at the right: *Xpressans*, *Mater Christi*. | at the left: *Osservans*, *Mater Dei*. | | --- | --- |

Below and almost directly at the feet of the Virgin is kneeling, hands joined very devoutly, the pious archdeacon to whom we owe this monument. He addresses to Mary this humble prayer, which runs on a triple-rolled cartouche:

| Dignare me laudare te, Virgo sacrata. | O holy Virgin, suffer me to praise you. | | --- | --- |

In front of him are his coat of arms with the stoic motto, whose energetic brevity, borrowed from paganism, summarizes all Christian morality:

| Abstine et sustine. | Abstain and endure. |

Opposite the archdeacon and on the same plane are six choirboys, who send toward heaven the words of this stanza, distributed on four cartouches:

| Monstra te esse matrem: Sumat per te preces, Qui pro nobis natus, Tulit esse tuus. | Show yourself to be our mother: May he receive our prayers through you, He who, born for us, Has willed to be your son. |

At the bottom, across the entire width of the frame, the meaning of this sculpture is summarized in this legend:

| Hæc contrivit caput serpentis antiqui, quæ sola cunctas hæreses interemti et, Virgo permanens, Deum et hominem genuit. | Behold she who has crushed the head of the ancient serpent, who alone has destroyed all heresies, and, while remaining a virgin, brought forth Jesus Christ, God and man. |

Finally, lower still and outside the frame is this inscription in Gothic letters:

Representation of the image of Our Lady of Verdun, ordered by Saint Pulchrone, fifth bishop of this City, according to the decree of the Council of Chalcedon: Where he was present when the errors against the Virgin Mary were confounded. And decreed that henceforth she would be called Christotokos and Theotokos: That is to say mother of Christ and mother of God, In the year of grace four hundred and fifty-two.

This image is made of wood, and Wassebourg had it engraved at the beginning of his book of *Antiquités de la Gaule belgique*.

It will have been noted that the last inscription makes Saint Pulchrone attend the Council of Chalcedon; but this statement is not sustainable, since Saint Pulchrone was only ordained bishop in 454, three years after the holding of this council. Did he attend as a simple priest, or was he confused with two other Pulchrones or Polychronius, one bishop of Antipatris in Palestine, and the other of Epiphany in Asia Minor? This last hypothesis explains in a fairly plausible way the error into which the author of the *Antiquités de la Gaule belgique* fell on this subject.

Although our intention is not to maintain that the idea of representing the Blessed Virgin in the way we have just described dates back to Saint Pulchrone himself, while noting that the pious archdeacon of Verdun, Wassebourg, echoed a respectable tradition, we cannot help but respond to one last objection, which was made in the name of the criticism of the last two centuries, of this criticism so pretentious and yet so ignorant. It has been said, without proof, of course, that the custom of representing the Virgin crushing the serpent under her feet was only introduced since the discussions on the Immaculate Conception. We can believe, we will answer, that this symbol became more general then; but for a long time, the infernal dragon had been represented under the feet of Saint Michael, Saint George, Saint Margaret, etc. The curse pronounced at the beginning against the seducer of the first Eve: — *Ipsa conteret caput tuum* : She shall crush thy head, — gave rise early on to the idea of introducing the same emblem into the images of Her whom the Fathers of the Church called the second Eve. The critics had undoubtedly not read Prudentius, a poet of the 4th century, who seems to describe in these beautiful verses the image of Our Lady, attributed to Saint Pulchrone:

| Hoc odium vetus illuderat, Hoc orat aspiète atque hominis Digladiabile discidium, Quod modo corona feminis Vipera proteritur pedibus. | The ancient hatred of the serpent was the source of the seduction; it is because there reigns between the children of men and him an eternal enmity that the viper is humiliated, trampled under the feet of the woman. | | --- | --- | | Edero namque Deum merita, Omnia Virgo venena domat : Tractibus anguis inexplicitis Virus inormo piger revomit, Gramine conociet in viridi. Hymn. ante cibum, v. 146-155. | The virgin who has merited to bring a God into the world, triumphs over all poisons. Under her grasp, the sluggish serpent, with tortuous coils, vomits its glaucous virus onto the grass, henceforth harmless. |

Consult the *Histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Verdun*, augmented, new ed., Bar-le-Duc, 1863; Ozanam, *Études germaniques*, vol. II, p. 386.