Saint Orens of Auch

In a short time, he made great progress in letters and even greater progress in the ways of salvation. The Lord, who destined him to become one of the ornaments of His priesthood, tore him from the bosom of his family at the very moment when all the goods and honors of his house were passing to him upon the death of his elder brother. An angel warned him and led him as if by the hand into the Lavedan vall vallée de Lavedan Pyrenean valley where Savin lived as a hermit. ey, a few hours from Tarbes.

While the pious young man put all his care into hiding himself from the world, God seemed to take pleasure in glorifying him. The reputation of his holiness and the report of the miracles that signaled it soon spread everywhere: people were seen flocking to the place of his retreat. They came seeking only a remedy for their infirmities, and they found in the prayers and charitable advice of the servant of God the health of their souls along with that of their bodies.

However, the virtuous solitary was alarmed by this concourse. He feared the seductions of a self-love that everything awakened, and in order to escape such eagerness, he left the Lavedan valley and climbed the summit of a steep rock, which, at his approach, split in two, appearing to open its bosom to provide him with an unknown and almost invisible asylum. In this deep rock, hidden from the eyes of men but under the eye of God, he gave himself over to vigils, fasts, macerations, and all the rigors of the most austere penance. "There," one of his ancient biographers tells us, "herbs were his meat, water his drink, his house a den, the sky his roof, the earth his bed, and a rough hairshirt his clothing." This spirit of mortification followed him even into his prayers. Every day he recited the psalter, his loins girded with an iron chain and immersed up to his waist in a basin of cold water.

The hours left to him by his religious exercises were devoted to the composition of a poem remarkable for the era, which some writers have sought to attribute to Orens who never existed. Divided into two books and composed in elegiac verse, it is titled Commonitorium or Warning: it is a depiction of Commonitorium Major theological work defining the rule of Catholic tradition. the various obstacles that stand in the way of our salvation and a sort of guide to heaven. It breathes a sweet and holy melancholy, as the misfortunes of the empire and the aspect of an abrupt and wild nature were bound to easily inspire. While working on it, the author continued to sing the praises of God and occupied himself with procuring His glory.

We find these verses on the brevity of life to be very beautiful:

Omnia paulatim letho nos applicat hora, Hoc quoque quod loquimur tempore præmorimur ;

Et per fallaces tacito melimine cursus Urget supremos ultima vita dies.

Quum cibus et somnus, dum verba et pocula mulcent, Sive domo sedens, seu peregrina petas,

Each hour that passes brings us closer to death; the moment I speak is already in the domain of death.

By a progression that hides its insensible steps from us, the last of the hours hastens the pace of the last of our days.

"While you eat and while you sleep; while you are intoxicated with wine and words; while you are sitting in your home and when you walk outside;

Dumque geris quodcumque geris, vel non geris invito, Mors movet alternum nil remorata pedem. Cereus et cæcæ positus sub tempore noctis Compensare diem luminis officio,

Dum non sentimus, lento consumitur igne : Semper et ad finem flamma vorax properat ;

Sic hominum res est, pereunt quæcumque geruntur, Proficit et moritur quod sibi vita trahit. »

During each of your voluntary or involuntary actions, death, which nothing stops, advances, always advances.

Just as the torch that we light to deceive the darkness of the night and replace the light of day,

Consumes itself slowly without us noticing, and the flame hastens to devour the matter subjected to its activity;

So it is with man and his destiny: everything perishes; that which has shone the brightest passes, and life itself resolves into death.

Thus his days were passing, when the deputies of the church of A uch Auch Episcopal city of which Leothade was the pastor. came to inform him of the orders of heaven and to implore him not to refuse the eager wishes of a people who were awaiting him. Humility is the seal of holiness, and indeed of all true merit. Orens, judging himself completely unworthy of the high dignity that was being conferred upon him, refused to believe what was flattering in this account, and without hearing any more, he immediately took up his traveler's staff, and was already preparing to flee; but stopped by the deputies and fearing, upon their redoubled assurances, to resist God, he prayed to the supreme Master to make His will known to him more specifically. His prayer was barely finished when the staff he held in his hand took root, extended its branches, and covered itself with green foliage. At the sight of this miracle, Orens bowed his head and headed toward Auch. When he was about to enter its walls, all the sick who were confined there were suddenly healed. This second miracle finished winning him their hearts. The inhabitants hastened to go out to meet him to show him their joy and gratitude.

The new pastor devoted himself to the salvation of his flock. Although the cross had long shone on the brow of the Caesars, paganism still counted numerous followers, especially in remote provinces. Orens first set out to eradicate it from his diocese. To this end, he not only fought against idolatrous rites, but also tore down all the monuments which, by recalling the memory of false divinities, perpetuated their worship. Where the lover of the arts is tempted to lament, the man gifted with practical sense cannot refuse his assent. Above all, it was necessary to bring back a society led astray into the paths of error.

At the gates of his episcopal city, on a mountain then called Nervica or Nerveia, stood a famous temple dedicated to Apollo. Orens went there, destroyed it, and upon its ruins he raised a church in honor of the young child Cyricus and his mother, Sa Cyr Young three-year-old martyr, son of Saint Julitta. int Julitta, mar tyred together sainte Julitte Mother of Saint Cyricus, martyr, whose tooth and bones are preserved in Nevers and Nolay. under Diocletian. From the slightly altered name of this tender and innocent victim, the mountain has since been called Saint-Cric.

This departure dismayed his flock. They may have shown themselves to be unruly and rebellious, but they nonetheless cherished their pastor and venerated his high virtues. They ran after him, promising him a new life. The Saint allowed himself to be touched by these sentiments, and sacrificing his love for retreat to the hope of saving souls, he returned to the flock that requested him, and in the midst of which his ministry henceforth bore the most abundant fruits. His successes, his talents, his piety, and the numerous miracles with which God was pleased to highlight the virtues of his servant placed him at the head of the bishops of Aquitaine. Thus his name naturally oc curred to The Théodoric Ier King of the Visigoths who besieged Saintes. odoric I, king of the Arian Visigoths, when this prince, besieged in Toul ouse by L Lictorius Roman general, lieutenant of Aetius. itorius, lieutenant of t he fam Aétius Roman general who relieved Orléans from the Huns. ous Aetius, sent him a deputation of some orthodox prelates from his states to ask for peace; but Litorius received the prelates with haughtiness and almost with contempt; and deceived by the vain promises of the haruspices and soothsayers, who assured him that he would enter Toulouse in triumph and that he would capture the leader of the enemies, he rejected all proposals for accommodation.

While the Roman general fed his pride with the thought of a certain victory, Theodoric, Salvian t ells us Salvien Christian priest and author, tutor to the sons of Eucherius. , humbled himself before the God of hosts, and covered in a hairshirt, he often prostrated himself in prayer. He finally rose with confidence to march into battle. The love of glory on one side, and necessity on the other, made the action bloody and doubtful for a long time. Perhaps the advantage would have remained with the Romans, had Litorius, throwing himself too far forward into the fray, not been taken prisoner. This capture, in deciding the outcome, ended the combat and began the ignominies of Aetius's lieutenant.

Led to Toulouse, he had to undergo a triumph very different from the one his presumption had promised him, and which his imprudent advisors had predicted. He was subjected to all the outrages with which a delirious victor can defile himself. Placed backward on a donkey, he was paraded through all the streets, his hands tied behind his back and his body loaded with heavy chains. He was then confined in a dark dungeon, where for five or six months they threw him a black bread intended to irritate his hunger without satisfying it, and after such a long and cruel illness had rendered him unrecognizable to all eyes, they finally had his head fall under the executioner's axe. In such a tragic fate, the ancient legends do not fail to see the punishment for the outrage done to Saint Orens and his venerable colleagues.

Moreover, this embassy, all the more honorable as our Saint owed it to a heretical prince, crowned his life. As soon as he had returned to Auch, God appeared to him and made it known that his final hour was approaching. Here we shall let one of his ancient biographers speak: "From then on, feeling his desired passing approach, he was wonderfully rejoiced and consoled in his soul, and although his whole life had been a continual preparation for death, he armed himself with the Holy Sacraments to fight once again this infernal dragon, whom he had so many times defeated. Beseeching Our Lord to receive his soul into His hands and that those who, after his death, would have recourse to him in their troubles and spiritual vexations, might have the particular grace to drive away the enemy of hell who would cause them this disturbance. Immediately a heavenly voice was heard by two ecclesiastics who were witnesses to the vision: 'Orens, I grant you all that you ask of me in favor of those who will commend themselves to you, who, invoking your help in all infirmities, tribulations of spirit, necessities, and anguishes, shall be delivered from them and shall never lack temporal goods in their need'.

"Thus, this holy prelate, whose memory is in blessing, finished his mortal career like aromatic lamps with a sweet odor, like swans singing melodiously his own funeral, and like the phoenix consuming himself in the fire of his charity and pushing his beautiful soul out with a sigh of love, died in the kiss of the Lord on the first of May, which is the day the Church celebrates his feast."