Saint Germier of Toulouse

Germier replied: O king, I ask nothing of your domains; grant me only in the territory of Toulouse as much land as my cloak can cover next to the blessed Saturnin my master, in whose shadow I desire my body to rest: for, after the Lord, I desire to have him in Toulouse as my defender and support. Clovis said to him: I give you, around the place called Doz (Ox), six thousand measures of land, and for buryi ng your Doz (Ox) Site of the monastery's foundation and place of the saint's death. dead as much land as seven pairs of oxen can plow in a day.

Germier remained with the king for twenty-two days, and Clovis gave him a considerable sum of gold and five hundred silver shekels, gold crosses, silver chalices with their patens, three croziers or staves of gilded silver, three gilded crowns, and as many mantles of fine linen. He handed him a deed sealed with his ring and that of the officers of his court, by which he confirmed all the donations and declared them free of all dues. The king then said to those who surrounded him: Do what you see me do; he approached and commended himself to Germier by the hair of his head, which all did after him. Clovis embraced him and bade him farewell. Germier, after blessing the king, prepared to continue his journey. An innumerable multitude of people accompanied him for four miles. The Saint, shedding tears, said to them: May peace be with you, my brothers!... Persevere in the faith you have embraced, and return to your homes. May the Lord always be with you!... And they departed.

Saint Germier returned to Toulouse to fulfill his ministry there. The people received him and accompanied him on all his visits to the churches; he went to the church of Saint-Saturnin, traversed all the places committed to his care, and returned to his house, where he found what he had left. His servants said to him: It has been a long time since you left us; we longed greatly to see you again. Germier shared with them the goods he had brought. Dulcidius and Pretiosus, his two faithful disciples, showed him all the treasures and furniture he had entrusted to them; and afte r he had Dulcidius Faithful disciple of Saint Germier. exam ined them Pretiosus Faithful disciple of Saint Germier. , all these things were returned to their place. The people rejoiced at the arrival of Germier, who exhorted them to confess their sins and healed the sick. He went to take possession of the land of Doz (Ox), which the king had given him; he built there a church in honor of Saint Saturnin with three altars, and he consecrated it. In the ceremony of the dedication, three hundred wax torches were lit. On that night, Saint Germier healed several blind people, the lame, the paralyzed, and in particular seven lepers. The fame of his holiness continued to grow in his city of Toulouse.

He then built a monastery at Doz and consecrated an altar there in honor of Saint Martin, gathered his servants and his family in this place, placed at Doz all that he had collected from various places, and established almoners for the poor in his house.

While still only a deacon, he performed several miracles: at his prayer, God caused a spring of living water to gush forth and a withered laurel to turn green again; he healed two lepers, delivered three possessed persons by the sign of the cross, and extinguished a vast fire.

The pontiff spent his life in the midst of fasting, prayers, and almsgiving for thirty-six years, having many servants. The demon sent the plague upon his herds; they all perished in one night. The shepherds came to announce this loss to him, weeping. But he said to them: Is it your sins that you are weeping for? What saddens you? Do you not know that we are not of this world, and that he who has life cannot taste death? Why possess the riches of the century? He who hates the world, loves God. It is He who said: "Love neither the world, nor what is in the world." This temptation comes from the demon; these herds perished because of our sins. The Lord had given them, He has taken them back: may His holy name be blessed! This same scourge came to strike his servants, and they all perished. Their death caused Germier the deepest sorrow. He then said to Precieux and to Dulcide: My brothers, let us go to the church of the priest Saint Polycarp, and let us pray to God that He may show Himself merciful toward us. Having entered the church, he put on a hairshirt, covered himself with ashes, and for three days, without drinking or eating, he persevered in prayer, shedding abundant tears, beseeching the Lord to deliver him from the tribulation that overwhelmed him. He then offered the sacrifice for the dead. While he was praying, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: Know that all yours have been led into Paradise. He then gave thanks to God who had deigned to console him in this way. — I beseech You, he said, Lord, to place me among the number of Your Saints. — Master, his disciples then said to him in tears, why do you take no food? Why do you abandon yourself to sorrow? We will bring you some food. He answered them: I have neither hunger nor thirst; we must, because of the tempting demon, persevere in prayer and fasting; God will crush him under our feet and everything will become prosperous for us. Indeed, after a few years, he regained all the goods he had lost, and seven years later he died most holily!

Monuments still in existence attest that he died at Ox, a hamlet located near Mur et; t Muret Town where the saint's relics rest. hat it was in this place that he was first buried; that subsequently, his bones, as well as those of his two disciples, were carried to the parish church of Saint-Jacques de Muret, where they are still found in a crypt located under the sanctuary.

## CULT AND RELICS OF SAINT GERMIER.

The cult of Saint Germier dates back to the highest antiquity: he is mentioned, under April 16, in an ancient manuscript Martyrology of the Abbey of Saint-Savin in the diocese of Tarbes, as well as in another very ancient manuscript from the city of Prague. As for his two disciples Dulcitius and Pretiosus, their feast is not celebrated, although their relics are placed next to those of Saint Germier, and exposed like them to the veneration of the faithful. Saint Germier is vulgarly attributed fifty years of episcopate. It is very difficult to admit such a long duration, especially when in this long space of time no historical monument reveals any fact relating to this episcopate.

"We believe," says M. Salvan in his General History of the Church of Toulouse, "to have rediscovered the two oratories that Saint Germier raised in honor of Saint Saturnin and Saint Martin. The first was located at the confluence of the Garonne and the Longe, not far from the castle of Muret occupied by the lords of Comminges. It is today completely destroyed. The second was found at the place where, since then, the parish church of Ox has been built, which is still dedicated to Saint Martin. As for the monastery built by Saint Germier, and in which he died in the midst of his many disciples, it was located a short distance from the town of Muret, towards the west, at the place where the three roads meet which lead, one to La Masquère, the other to Seysses, and the last to Oz. A cross was erected on the site of this monastery, and this district still bears the name of Saint-Germier le Vieux. It was undoubtedly in this place that the holy bishop remained buried until the translation of his body to the parish church of Saint-Jacques. The monastery of Saint-Germier later took the title of priory and was ceded to the abbey of Lézat."

The body of Saint Germier was formerly enclosed in a tomb dug into the wall, the entrance of which was closed by an iron grate. The humidity that reigned in the crypt necessitated the translation of the body into a new reliquary, which is today in a projecting cupboard placed opposite the old tomb. The church of La Dalbade, in Toulouse, and the chapel of the major seminary possess some fragments of the relics of this pontiff. He is the titular patron of several parishes in the diocese of Toulouse, and, in particular, of that of Frouzins, a village located between Toulouse and Seysses-Tolœanes. A local traditio n report Frouzins Village of which Saint Germier is the titular patron. s that Saint Germier, traveling from his episcopal city to Ox, passed through Frouzins by a path near the cemetery, and that flowers bloomed under his footsteps: this is what caused this path to be given the name of Monramet or the Branches (des Rameaux). There formerly existed a chapel dedicated to Saint Germier in the middle of the cemetery of Frouzins; its ruins can still be seen. The piety of the inhabitants of Muret also raised a temple to this holy bishop; this oratory later became a parish church of which M. Montjouzien was the last titular. The church of Saint-Germier in Muret, which still existed a few years ago, had been built by M. Boutirae, parish priest of that parish.

Cétel reports that Saint Remi saint Remi Bishop of Reims criticized by Leo in a correspondence. , Archbishop of Reims, presented Saint Germier with a mit re, a mitre Liturgical object gifted by Saint Remigius, preserved at Saint-Saturnin. pair of gloves, and a ring. After the death of Saint Remi, Germier had an oratory built in Toulouse in his honor, on the street that bears the name Saint-Remésy or Remi. These precious objects were placed by Saint Germier in this oratory, and transported from there to the church of Saint-Jean de Malte, where they were exposed to the veneration of the faithful, next to the altar. Reconciled by the piety of the inhabitants of Toulouse during the Revolution, the mitre and the gloves are today found in the Basilica of Saint-Saturnin.

We have abridged the Life of the Saint provided by the Bollandists, and have added to it some local information provided to us by the General History of the Church of Toulouse, by M. Salvan.