| ST. SATURNINUS |
| Feast: November 29
|
| St.
Saturninus was, says Tillemont, one of the most illustrious martyrs France has
given to the Church. We possess only his Acts, which are very old, since they
were utilized by St. Gregory of Tours. He was the first bishop of Toulouse,
whither he went during the consulate of Decius and Gratus (250). Whether there
were already Christians in the town or his preaching made numerous conversions,
he soon had a little church. To reach it he had to pass before the capitol where
there was a a temple, and according to the Acts, the pagan priests ascribed to
his frequent passings the silence of their oracles. One day they seized him and
on his unshakeable refusal to sacrifice to the idols they condemned him be tied
by the feet to a bull which dragged him about the town until the rope broke. Two
Christian women piously gathered up the remains and buried them in a deep ditch,
that they might not be profaned by the pagans. His successors, Sts. Hilary and
Exuperius, gave him more honourable burial. A church was erected where the bull
stopped. It still exists, and is called the church of the Taur (the bull). The
body of the saint was transferred at an early date and is still preserved in the
Church of St. Sernin (or Saturninus), one of the most ancient and beautiful of
Southern France. His feast was entered on the Hieronymian Martyrology for 29
November; his cult spread abroad. The account of his Acts was embellished with
several details, and legends linked his name with the beginning of the churches
of Eauze, Auch, Pamplona, and Amiens, but these are without historic
foundations.
RUINART, Acta Martyrum (Ratisbon, 18569), 177-80; Gregorii Turonensis opera Hist. Francorum, ed. ARNDT AND KRUSCH, I (Hanover, 1884), xxxix; TILLEMONT, Hist. ecclesiastique, III (Paris, 1701), 297; LABAN, Vie de Saint Saturnin (Toulouse, 1864); DUCHESNE, Fastes épiscopaux de l ancienne Gaule (Paris, 1894), 25, 295. Antoine Degert From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright © 1913 by the Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright © 1996 by New Advent, Inc., P.O. Box 281096, Denver, Colorado, USA, 80228. (knight@knight.org) Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent). |
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