Saint Verolus

He spent his life in the duties of the holy ministry at Marcenay, taking an active part in the work of pacification and civilization that the Church was then accomplishing, and confirming by miracles the authority of his teaching and the efficacy of his prayer. His reputation was great, and from all sides the sick came to ask him for healing, and the afflicted for resignation and peace.

Aganon, scholasticus of Châtillon in the 9th century, recounts in a homily he delivered on the day of his feast the follow ing prodigy: K Le roi Gontran King of Burgundy who welcomed Columbanus upon his arrival in Gaul. ing Guntram, drawn by the desire to see the wonders that fame proclaimed of Saint Vorles, came to Marcenay, and, while he was attending Mass with his retinue, he noticed that the Blessed one, seized by an ecstatic rapture at the moment of the Gospel, like Saint Ambrose at the hour of the passing of Saint Martin, stood motionless and silent... After a full hour of waiting, for no one dared to approach the altar, he saw him regain his senses and continue the sacrifice. As soon as the Mass was said, he hastened to ask him what had happened and why he had interrupted the holy Mysteries for so long.

"At the very hour," the Blessed one replied to him, "that I was offering the divine Sacrifice, the inhabitants of Plaines were hearing Plaines Site of the fire miracle and a cholera epidemic. it at Mossy, and, in their absence, fire caught in a house where a child was sleeping; God having made it known to me, I ran in all haste to stop the fire and save the child."

At this account, Guntram, amazed, dispatched faithful messengers to Plaines who indeed found the people in an uproar, and learned that the holy priest of Marcenay had carried a child in his arms from the midst of the flames and had returned him in full health to his parents. Thus assured of the miracle by his own testimony and that of his officers, he honored Saint Vorles with an even deeper veneration and took him as his counselor. It is to his influence, no doubt, that he owed his conversion and the glory of his reign.

We have no other details of the life of Saint Vorles; but the brilliant miracles that God performed at his tomb serve as sufficient testimony to demonstrate how holily and religiously he walked in the way of His commandments, and how he carried his cross in this world, conforming in all things to the will of God.

The body of Saint Vorles rested at Marcenay from his blessed death until the 9th century. At the approach of the Normans, who were ravaging the land of France, sparing nothing, burning castles, cottages, churches, and monasteries, outraging God and His Saints without shame, the Bishop of Langres, Isaac the Good, transferred the body of the holy Priest from Marcenay to Châtillon Châtillon Site of the translation of the relics and main center of the cult. , as to a place of safety: "A numerous crowd accompanied him with torches and the singing of hymns, which was not interrupted during the entire march." He deposited it in the chapel of Notre-Dame of the castle on May 26, in the year 868. "It is believed," says Courlepée, "that the oratory of the castle was raised by Saint Didier, Bishop of Langres and martyr, in the 11th century." Enlarged when the faith became fruitful on Châtillon soil and dedicated to Saint Martin, it was framed, so to speak, at the end of the 10th century, within the Romanesque church, so beautiful and pious, that the Bishop of Langres, Bruno de Roucy, had built, and which still dominates the city of Châtillon today. For eight centuries, the relics of Saint Vorles were the object of admirable devotion there: each year, the neighboring parishes came in procession on the day of the feast, and the influx was so great that, to satisfy the piety of the pilgrims, a Mass was said in the open air.

The reliquary that contained the most holy body, placed at first on two marble columns, was later suspended under the dome, above the high altar. It was lowered for religious solemnities and in times of calamity. In 1615, it was carried to the council of Airy, near Auxerre, convened by King Robert the Pious, and, some time later, a great drought having brought famine and plague to the Châtillonnais region, it was exposed under a tent, near the church of Saint-Mametz, adjacent to the ducal castle. The confidence of the numerous pilgrims who had rushed there was immediately rewarded: the scourge ceased, and the earth, watered by an abundant rain, yielded a rich harvest. In 1181, under the pontificate of Alexander IV and the rei Alexandre IV Pope who summoned Albert to Rome. gn of Philip Augustus, on the twenty-fourth day of May, Manassès, Bishop of Langres, performe Manassès, évêque de Langres King of Judah, son of Hezekiah, responsible for the martyrdom of Isaiah. d the canonical opening of the reliquary, and found the body within with its legend. He had it placed in a reliquary and raised upon two marble pillars. The head was set aside to be sumptuously adorned.

In 1636 and 1646, the inhabitants of Marcenay felt the effects of the protection of their venerated patron during a great drought that devastated their region. In 1784, the parish of Châtillon also went in procession to Plaines to pray before the relics of the Saint, which are kept there. They had not yet returned to Saint-Vorles when the prayers of all were answered: the drought had given way to beneficial rain. Finally, in 1832, when, in the space of twelve days, the village of Plaines saw fifty-two of its inhabitants taken by cholera, Saint Vorles made known the credit he had with God and the protection he loved to spread over those who invoke him. Following a procession where his relics were carried, the epidemic claimed no more victims, and the sick were healed.

A small chapel was erected in Plaines in honor of Saint Vorles, at the very place where the fire we mentioned broke out. It reminds the inhabitants that they have a protector in heaven who is as powerful as he is devoted. His relics, preserved in a bust and an arm of gilded wood, consist of a part of the vertebra of the holy Pastor.

The Revolutio La Révolution Period during which the saint's relics were hidden and lost. n scattered to the winds the holy relics kept at Châtillon, and broke the ebony shrine covered in silver, in which Mgr de Montmorin had enclosed them in 1751, as well as the bust and the silver reliquary, given in 1613 by the pious faithful of Marcenay; but it could not destroy the cult of the blessed Priest: it lives in souls and his name has remained popular.

Saint Vorles is depicted in priestly vestments, holding a child by the hand. Thus, at Chaource, opposite t he chape Chaource Location housing a sculpture depicting the saint's miracle. l known as the Paradise, one notices, fixed to a pillar, a sculpture group that represents Saint Vorles pulling a child from a burning house.

Taken from the Life of the Saints of the diocese of Dijon, by Abbé Dupuis; and from the Life of the Saints of the diocese of Troyes, by Abbé Defer.