SAINT EUGÈNE
Évêque de Carthage
(+ 505)
On ne sait rien sur la naissance et les premières années de saint Eugène. Son nom apparaît pour la première fois dans l'histoire quand il est choisi pour évêque de Carthage, en 481, à une époque où le fanatisme arien, joint à la barbarie des Vandales, faisait, presque à coup sûr, de tous les évêques catholiques africains des martyrs de la vraie foi.
Sa conduite dans l'épiscopat fut celle d'un vrai pasteur des âmes. Malgré la pauvreté de son Église, il trouvait le moyen de répandre dans le sein des pauvres de si larges aumônes, que Dieu semblait multiplier à plaisir les ressources entre ses mains.
Hunéric, roi des Vandales, lui fit défendre de recevoir dans son église aucun chrétien de la race des Vandales ou en portant le vêtement; mais Eugène refusa d'obéir:
"La maison de Dieu, répondit-il, est ouverte à tout le monde; nul ne peut en chasser ceux qui y entrent." Ce fut le signal d'une affreuse persécution.
Dieu voulut prouver par un miracle éclatant la vérité catholique contre la fourberie de ses ennemis. Un aveugle de Carthage, nommé Félix, vint trouver l'évêque et lui dit: "Je viens ici sur l'ordre de Dieu, et je n'en sortirai pas que vous ne m'ayez rendu la vue." Eugène le repoussa d'abord avec bonté, protestant qu'il n'était pas homme à faire des miracles; mais l'aveugle insista; il lui fit alors un signe de Croix sur les yeux, qui s'ouvrirent aussitôt à la lumière. Peu après, il rendit la vue à un homme que l'évêque arien avait suborné pour se donner à lui-même la réputation d'un thaumaturge, et qui était devenu réellement aveugle au moment même où il jouait son triste rôle. Malgré le bruit de ces prodiges dans le pays, la persécution ne fit qu'augmenter.
Saint Eugène fut exilé; il eut à subir toutes sortes de mauvais traitements. Le persécuteur Hunéric, dévoré vivant par les vers, fut bientôt victime de la vengeance céleste; il périt en déchirant lui-même ses membres avec ses dents; ses entrailles lui sortirent du corps, et cette mort effrayante fit horreur à ceux mêmes des hérétiques qui avaient fait de lui un prince pervers et cruel.
Sous le règne suivant, Eugène put revenir à Carthage et y continuer son apostolat; mais la paix ne fut pas de longue durée, car, sous le second successeur d'Hunéric, la persécution sévit de nouveau; Eugène, toujours invincible, fut d'abord menacé des plus horribles supplices, puis envoyé en exil à Albi, dans les Gaules, où le vaillant athlète de la foi vit la fin de ses travaux, le 13 juillet.
C’était l’an 505, Symmaque étant pape, Anasthase Ier empereur d’Orient et Clovis roi de France.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/eugene_carthage.html
Saint Eugène de Carthage
Evêque de Carthage (✝ 505)
Évêque de Carthage, il en fut chassé par les Vandales ariens et fut condamné par le roi Hunéric à être d'abord ouvrier agricole à Telmin. Puis, avec beaucoup de ses fidèles et de ses diacres, il fut exilé au désert de Tripoli où ils connurent tous de grandes souffrances. Hunéric avait chassé tous les évêques fidèles à la foi catholique. Quarante-six d'entre eux furent exilés en Corse pour y devenir bûcherons. En 487, Eugène put revenir, mais les persécutions reprirent 8 ans plus tard et il fut à nouveau exilé dans le Languedoc. Il mourut à Albi, dans le sud de la France.
"Assigné à résidence à Albi, il joue peut-être le rôle d’évêque, avec l’appui des aristocrates locaux hostiles à la domination wisigothique. Il meurt dans la ville ou dans son voisinage, vers 505... L’Albigeois demeurant, aux VIe et VIIe siècles, une marche-frontière au contact des Wisigoths, le culte de saint Eugène – vénéré comme martyr en raison des persécutions qu’il a subies en Afrique – connaît une diffusion non négligeable."
Commémoraison de saint Eugène, évêque de Carthage. Recommandable par sa foi et ses vertus, il fut expulsé de son siège dans la persécution vandale et mourut en Aquitaine, à Albi, en 505.
Victor de Vita donne le récit des luttes sociales et religieuses suscitées par la conquête vandale dans la province romaine d’Afrique. Le conflit entre l’aristocratie traditionnelle, dépossédée de ses biens et de ses prérogatives, et les nouveaux maîtres se double alors d’une opposition entre le clergé catholique et l’Église arienne. Les périodes de tension alternent avec les époques de détente.
J.-L. B. Extrait des Tarnais célèbres
Unanimously elected
Bishop of Carthage in 480 to succeed Deogratias
(d. 456); d. 13 July, 505. The election was
deferred owing to the opposition of the Arian Vandal kings and was only permitted by
Huneric at the instance of Zeno and Placidia, into whose family the Vandals had married.
The bishop's wise government, charity to the poor, austerity of life,
and courage under persecution, won the admiration of the Arians. In his uncompromising defence of
the Divinity of the Word
he was imitated by the members of his flock, many of whom were exiled with him,
after he had admitted Vandals into the Catholic Church, contrary to royal edict, and had
worsted in argument Arian
theologians, whom the king pitted against the Catholics. Both sides claimed the name
"Catholic", the Arians calling their opponents
"Homoousians". The conference was held some time between 481 and
February, 484, and ended by the withdrawal of the chief Arian bishop on the plea that he could not speak
Latin. The Arians being enraged, Huneric persecuted the Catholics, exiling forty-six bishops to Corsica, and three hundred and two to the African
deserts. Among the latter was Eugenius,
who under the custody of a ruffian named Antonius
dwelt in the desert of Tripoli. On setting out he wrote a letter of consolation and
exhortation to the faithful of Carthage
which is still extant in the works of Gregory
of Tours (P.L.,
LVII, 769-71). Gunthamund, who succeeded
Huneric allowed Eugenius to return to Carthage
and permitted him to reopen the churches.
After eight years of peace Thrasamund
succeeded to the throne, revived the persecution, arrested Eugenius,
and condemned him to death, but commuted the sentence
into exile at Vienne, near Albi
(Languedoc), where the Arian Alaric was king. Eugenius
built here a monastery over the tomb of St. Amaranthus, the martyr, and led a penitential
life till his death. He is said to have miraculously cured a man who was blind.
He wrote: "Expositio Fidei Catholicae", demanded of him by Huneric, probably the one submitted by the Catholic bishops at the conference. It proves the consubstantiality of the Word and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. He wrote also an "Apologeticus pro Fide"; "Altercatio cum Arianis", fragments of which are quoted by Victor de Vita; also pleas for the Catholics, addressed to Huneric or his successors. His letter to the faithful of Carthage has been mentioned above.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05602c.htm
Bishop of Carthage
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/en/saints/eugenius.html
C’était l’an 505, Symmaque étant pape, Anasthase Ier empereur d’Orient et Clovis roi de France.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/eugene_carthage.html
Saint Eugène de Carthage
Evêque de Carthage (✝ 505)
et ses compagnons martyrs,
Salutaire, Muritta et plusieurs autres.
Évêque de Carthage, il en fut chassé par les Vandales ariens et fut condamné par le roi Hunéric à être d'abord ouvrier agricole à Telmin. Puis, avec beaucoup de ses fidèles et de ses diacres, il fut exilé au désert de Tripoli où ils connurent tous de grandes souffrances. Hunéric avait chassé tous les évêques fidèles à la foi catholique. Quarante-six d'entre eux furent exilés en Corse pour y devenir bûcherons. En 487, Eugène put revenir, mais les persécutions reprirent 8 ans plus tard et il fut à nouveau exilé dans le Languedoc. Il mourut à Albi, dans le sud de la France.
"Assigné à résidence à Albi, il joue peut-être le rôle d’évêque, avec l’appui des aristocrates locaux hostiles à la domination wisigothique. Il meurt dans la ville ou dans son voisinage, vers 505... L’Albigeois demeurant, aux VIe et VIIe siècles, une marche-frontière au contact des Wisigoths, le culte de saint Eugène – vénéré comme martyr en raison des persécutions qu’il a subies en Afrique – connaît une diffusion non négligeable."
Commémoraison de saint Eugène, évêque de Carthage. Recommandable par sa foi et ses vertus, il fut expulsé de son siège dans la persécution vandale et mourut en Aquitaine, à Albi, en 505.
Martyrologe romain
Saint Eugène
Évêque
Victor de Vita donne le récit des luttes sociales et religieuses suscitées par la conquête vandale dans la province romaine d’Afrique. Le conflit entre l’aristocratie traditionnelle, dépossédée de ses biens et de ses prérogatives, et les nouveaux maîtres se double alors d’une opposition entre le clergé catholique et l’Église arienne. Les périodes de tension alternent avec les époques de détente.
La carrière de saint Eugène
illustre ce balancement, dans lequel il tient une place de premier plan, en
raison des fonctions qu’il occupe. En 481, il est en effet appelé au siège
épiscopal de Carthage, vacant depuis un quart de siècle, et devient, dans la
pratique, chef de l’Église d’Afrique. Son nom indique une origine grecque ou
bien orientale, mais Eugène réussit parfaitement à Carthage ; selon Victor
de Vita, il brille par son humilité, sa charité, sa piété et ses bonnes œuvres,
et parvient à convertir de nombreux « barbares ».
Le roi Hunéric provoque, en 484,
un concile pour confronter la doctrine des ariens et celle des catholiques.
L’opposition de ces derniers vaut aux évêques d’Afrique d’être tous
déportés ; Eugène se retrouve alors dans le désert de Tripolitaine.
Toutefois le successeur d’Hunéric adopte une politique d’apaisement et saint
Eugène rentre à Carthage en 487. Sous le règne suivant, celui de Thrasamund, il
s’oppose vigoureusement au prince, qui le condamne à un exil lointain et
définitif, vers 496.
Grâce à Grégoire de Tours, on
sait qu’il est alors envoyé vers Alaric II, roi des Wisigoths de Toulouse,
eux-mêmes sectateurs de l‘arianisme. Assigné à résidence à Albi, il joue
peut-être le rôle d’évêque, avec l’appui des aristocrates locaux hostiles à la
domination wisigothique. Il meurt dans la ville ou dans son voisinage, vers
505. Grégoire de Tours décrit le sanctuaire où il repose aux côtés de saint
Amarand. Il y accomplit des miracles et, pour sa fête, une foire importante y a
lieu.
L’Albigeois demeurant, aux VIe
et VIIe siècles, une marche-frontière au contact des Wisigoths, le
culte de saint Eugène – vénéré comme martyr en raison des persécutions qu’il a
subies en Afrique – connaît une diffusion non négligeable [1].
Bloqué par celui de saint Salvi, il est relancé à partir du milieu du IXe
siècle par les comtes de Toulouse et d‘Albigeois. À ce moment ,le vicus de Vieux se trouve être le lieu de la sépulture
de saint Eugène, associé à deux autres évêques africains, Lougins et Vindémial,
déjà cités par Grégoire de Tours. La dévotion portée à ces derniers s’avère
secondaire ; elle a pu se développer par attraction de celle vouée à saint
Eugène. En 1494, les reliques des "saints de Vieux" sont
transférées à la cathédrale Sainte-Cécile
par Louis d’Amboise.
J.-L. B. Extrait des Tarnais célèbres
[1]
Le titre de saint Eugène est encore attaché aux églises de Brens, de Poulan
(près de Réalmont), de Rosières et de Vieux, toutes situées dans l’ancien
diocèse d’Albi.
On ne sait rien sur la naissance et les premières années de
saint Eugène. Son nom apparaît pour la première fois dans l’histoire quand
il est choisi pour évêque de Carthage, en 481, à une époque où le
fanatisme arien, joint à la barbarie des Vandales, faisait, presque à coup sûr,
de tous les Évêques catholiques africains des martyrs de
la vraie Foi.
Sa conduite dans l’épiscopat fut
celle d’un vrai pasteur des âmes. Malgré la pauvreté de son Église, il trouvait
le moyen de répandre dans le sein des pauvres de si larges aumônes, que Dieu
semblait multiplier à plaisir les ressources entre ses mains ; il ne se
réservait rien, disant : « Le bon pasteur devant donner sa vie pour
son troupeau, serais-je excusable de m’inquiéter de ce qui concerne
mon sort ? »
Hunéric, roi des Vandales,
lui fit défendre de recevoir dans son église aucun Chrétien de la race des
Vandales ou en portant le vêtement ; mais saint Eugène refusa
d’obéir : « La maison de Dieu, répondit-il, est ouverte à tout
le monde ; nul ne peut en chasser ceux qui y entrent. » Ce fut le
signal d’une affreuse persécution.
Dieu voulut prouver par un
miracle éclatant la Vérité catholique contre la fourberie de ses ennemis.
Un aveugle de Carthage, nommé Félix, vint trouver l’Évêque et lui
dit : « Je viens ici sur l’ordre de Dieu, et je n’en sortirai
pas que vous ne m’ayez rendu la vue. » Saint Eugène le repoussa
d’abord avec bonté, protestant qu’il n’était pas homme à faire des
miracles ; mais l’aveugle insista ; il lui fit alors un signe de
croix sur les yeux, qui s’ouvrirent aussitôt à la lumière.
Il fit peu après un autre
miracle, en rendant la vue à un homme que l’évêque arien avait suborné
pour se donner à lui-même la réputation d’un thaumaturge, et qui était devenu
réellement aveugle au moment même où il jouait son triste rôle.
Malgré le bruit retentissant de
ces prodiges dans le pays, la persécution ne fit qu’augmenter.
Saint Eugène fut exilé ; il
eut à subir, sous la surveillance de gardiens farouches, toutes sortes de
mauvais traitements, et il ne put conserver la vie que par une grâce spéciale
de Dieu.
Le persécuteur Hunéric, dévoré
vivant par les vers, fut bientôt victime de la vengeance céleste : il
périt en déchirant lui-même ses membres avec ses dents ; ses entrailles
lui sortirent du corps, et cette mort effrayante fit horreur à ceux mêmes des
hérétiques qui avaient fait de lui un prince pervers et cruel.
Sous le règne suivant,
saint Eugène put revenir à Carthage et y continuer son apostolat ;
mais la paix ne fut pas de longue durée, car, sous le second successeur
d’Hunéric, la persécution sévit de nouveau ; saint Eugène, toujours
invincible, fut d’abord menacé des plus horribles supplices, puis envoyé en
exil à Albi, dans les Gaules. C’est sur ce sol hospitalier que le
vaillant athlète de la Foi vit la fin de ses glorieux travaux,
le 13 juillet.
St. Eugenius of Carthage
He wrote: "Expositio Fidei Catholicae", demanded of him by Huneric, probably the one submitted by the Catholic bishops at the conference. It proves the consubstantiality of the Word and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. He wrote also an "Apologeticus pro Fide"; "Altercatio cum Arianis", fragments of which are quoted by Victor de Vita; also pleas for the Catholics, addressed to Huneric or his successors. His letter to the faithful of Carthage has been mentioned above.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05602c.htm
July 13
|
St. Eugenius, Bishop of
Carthage, and His Companions, Confessors
|
A.D. 505.
THE ROMAN provinces in Africa were for a long time one of the richest and
most noble portions of the empire. The Carthaginian barbarism and perfidy had
given place to the most flourishing reign of the sciences, arts, and
religion. The nobles of this country were all princes, and for riches and
state, seemed to vie with kings; its peace seemed on every side secure. But
the strongest cities and empires are often nearest a fall; they are founded,
to be again sooner or later torn to pieces. Every state has even within
itself the seeds of its own destruction; these will occasion the dissolution
of every body politic no less certainly than the internal weakness of the
animal body must bring it to a fatal period. This was the condition of the
Roman empire in its decline, when its rulers, to preserve Italy which they
regarded as its heart or head, abandoned its extremities to the Goths and
Vandals. At a time when Africa thought of no danger, in the reign of the
emperor Valentinian the III. in 428, Genseric, king of the Vandals and Alans,
having lately made a settlement in part of Spain, 1 passed into this country, and in a short time became master of those
fertile provinces. This politic barbarian king kept great armies perpetually
prepared for any expedition, by which he prevented the vigilance of his
enemies, and astonished all the world with the rapidity of his enterprises.
The Vandals, who were mostly Christians but infected with the Arian heresy,
laid the whole country waste by fire and sword, plundered all places, even
churches and monasteries; burned alive two bishops, and tortured others to
extort from them the treasures of their churches; razed the public buildings
at Carthage, and banished Quodvultdeus, bishop of that city, with many
others. But in 454, at the request of the emperor Valentinian, Genseric
allowed the Catholics to choose a bishop of Carthage, and St. Deogratias was
raised to that dignity, who died soon after Genseric was returned from the
plunder of Rome. The persecution growing hotter, many suffered torments for
the faith, and several received the crown of martyrdom. The Arians, by a
sacrilege never before heard of, made themselves shirts and breeches of the
altar-cloths, and at Tinuzuda spilt and scattered the body and blood of
Christ on the pavement. 2 Catholics being by an edict disqualified for bearing any office in
the government, Armogastes, a nobleman who held an honourable post in the
household of Theodoric the king’s son, was condemned by the tyrant to keep
cattle. Genseric dying after a reign of thirty-seven years, was succeeded by
his son Huneric, a more barbarous persecutor than his father had ever been.
|
|||
The
episcopal see of Carthage had remained vacant twenty-four years, when in 481,
Huneric permitted the Catholics on certain conditions to choose one who
should fill it. The people impatient to enjoy the comfort of a pastor,
pitched upon Eugenius, a citizen of Carthage, eminent for his learning, zeal,
piety, and prudence; and such was his deportment in this dignity, that he was
venerable to the very heretics, and so dear to the Catholics that every one
of them would have thought it a happiness to lay down his life for him. His
charities to the distressed were excessive, especially considering his
poverty. But he always found resources for their necessities in the hearts of
his people; and he refused himself every thing that he might give all to the
poor. When others put him in mind that he ought to reserve something for his
own necessaries, his answer was: “If the good pastor must lay down his life
for his flock, can it be excusable for me to be solicitous for the
necessities of my body?” He fasted every day, and often allowed himself only
a most slender evening refection of bread and water. His virtue gained him
the respect and esteem even of the Arians; but at length envy and blind zeal
got the ascendant in their breasts, and the king sent him an order never to
sit in the episcopal throne, preach to the people, or admit into his chapel
any Vandals among whom several were Catholics. The saint boldly answered the
messenger, that the laws of God commanded him not to shut the doors of his
church to any who desired to serve him in it. Huneric, enraged at this
answer, persecuted the Catholics many ways, especially the Vandals who had
embraced, the faith. He commanded guards to be placed at the doors of the
Catholic churches, who when they saw any man or woman going in clothed in the
habit of the Vandals, struck them on the head with short staffs jagged and
indented, which being twisted into their hair, and drawn back with great
violence, tore off the hair and skin together. Some lost their eyes by this
means, and others died with the extreme pain; but many lived a long time
after. Women with their heads flayed in this manner, were publicly led through
the streets, with a crier going before them to show them to the people. But
this barbarous usage did not cause any one to forsake the true religion.
Next, the tyrant deprived the Catholics who were at court of their pensions,
and sent them to work in the country. He also ordered that none should be
admitted to bear any office in his palace, or any public charge who was not
an Arian. He afterwards turned them out of their houses, stripped them of all
their wealth, and sent them to Sicily or Sardinia. After this his persecution
fell on all Catholics. One edict followed another against them, and the cloud
thickened every day over their heads. Many nuns were so cruelly tortured that
several died on the rack. Great numbers of bishops, priests, deacons, and
eminent Catholic laymen were banished to the number of four thousand nine
hundred and seventy-six, all of whom the tyrant sent into a desert, where
they were fed with barley like horses. This desert was filled with scorpions
and venemous serpents; but they did not destroy any of the servants of God.
The people followed their bishops and priests with lighted tapers in their
hands, and mothers carried their little babes in their arms, and laid them at
the feet of the confessors, all crying out with tears: “Going yourselves to
your crowns, to whom do you leave us? Who will baptize our children? Who will
impart to us the benefit of penance, and discharge us from the bonds of sins
by the favour of reconciliation and pardon? Who will bury us with solemn
supplications at our death? By whom will divine sacrifices be
made?” 3
|
|||
The bishop
Eugenius was spared in the first storm, probably that the inhabitants of the
capital might seem to be somewhat considered. But in May 483, the king sent
him a summons requiring the Catholics, whom he called Homoousians, to hold a
conference or disputation with his Arian bishops at Carthage on the 1st day
of February ensuing. Eugenius answered, the terms were not equal, seeing
their enemies were to be judges; and that as it was the common cause of all
churches, other foreign churches ought to be invited and consulted,
“especially the church of Rome, which is the head of all churches.” 4 About that time one Felix, who had been long blind, addressed himself
to St. Eugenius desiring him to pray that he might recover his sight, saying
he had been admonished by a vision so to do. The bishop showed great
reluctance and confusion, alleging that he was a base sinner; but at length,
after blessing the font for the solemn administration of baptism on the
Epiphany, he said to the blind man: “I have told you that I am a sinner, and
the last of all men; but I pray God that he show you mercy according to your
faith, and restore to you your sight.” Then he made the sign of the cross on
his eyes, and the blind man saw: the whole city was witness to the triumph of
the faith. The king sent for Felix, and examined himself all the
circumstances of the miracle, which he found too evident to be called in
question. However, the Arian bishops told him that Eugenius had performed it
by recourse to art magic. The Catholics made choice of ten disputants for the
conference, which was opened on the 5th of February. Cyrila, patriarch of the
Arians, was seated on a throne; the Catholics who were standing, asked who
were the commissaries to take down in writing what should pass in the disputation;
and were answered that Cyrila would perform that office. The Catholics asked
by what authority he claimed the jurisdiction and rank of patriarch? The
Arians not being able to produce any sufficient warrant for his usurpation,
filled the hall with noise and tumult, and obtained an order that every lay
Catholic there present should receive a hundred bastinadoes. Cyrila sought
various pretences to defer the conference. The Catholics, however presented a
written confession of their faith. This takes up the whole third book of
Victor’s history, though he has only inserted the first part in which the
consubstantiality of God the Son is proved from the scriptures. The second
part, which confirmed the same from the writings of the fathers, is lost.
This confession seems to have been drawn up by St. Eugenius, to whom
Gennadius ascribes a confession of faith against the Arians. 5
|
|||
When
this was read the Arians quarrelled that the orthodox took the name of
Catholics, though this was given them by the whole world, even by the
heretics themselves, as St. Austin observed a little before this time in that
very country. Upon this, however, the Arians abruptly broke up the
conference, and the king, on the 25th of February, in 484, published a severe
edict for a general persecution, which he had already prepared for that
purpose. By this all the Catholic clergy were banished out of towns, and
forbidden to perform any functions, even in the country; all Catholics were
declared incapable of inheriting, or disposing, of any estates, real or
personal, with other such articles. Executioners were despatched to all parts
of the kingdom, and many Catholics were put to barbarous deaths, and many
more inhumanly tormented. One Dionysia, after having been herself cruelly
scourged, seeing her son Majoricus, a tender youth, tremble at the sight of
the torments prepared for him, she looked on him with a stern countenance,
and said: “Remember, son, we were baptized in the name of the Trinity, and in
the bosom of our mother the church.” The young man, encouraged by these
words, suffered martyrdom with undaunted resolution, and his mother buried
him within her own house, that she might every day offer to the holy Trinity
her prayers over his grave, in the lively hope of a glorious resurrection
with him at the last day. Her cousin Emilius, her sister Dativa, and
innumerable others in different parts of Africa received the like crowns. At
Typasus, in Mauritania Cæsariensis, certain Catholics who had assisted at the
celebration of the divine mysteries in a private house, were informed
against; and by the king’s order had their tongues plucked out, and their
right hands cut off; yet they spoke as well as ever, as St. Victor Vitensis,
an eye-witness, assures us. 6 He says, Reparatus, a subdeacon, one of this number, was entertained
when he wrote, in the court of the Emperor Zena, at Constantinople, and was
there highly honoured, especially by the empress; and that, though entirely
deprived of his tongue, he spoke gracefully, and without the least defect or
imperfection. Æneas, of Gaza, a platonic philosopher, who was then at
Constantinople, and wrote in 533, 7 says he himself had seen them in that city, and had heard them speak
distinctly; and not being able to believe his own ears, he had examined their
mouths, and seen that their tongues were plucked out to the very roots, so
that he wondered they could have survived so cruel a torment. Procopius, who
wrote soon after, says also 8 that he had seen these persons at Constantinople, and had heard them
speak freely, without feeling any thing of their punishment; but that two of
them, by falling into a grievous sin of the flesh, lost the use of their
speech, which they had till then enjoyed.
|
|||
The
tyrant wreaked his impotent vengeance on many others, especially on Vandals
who had been converted to the Catholic faith; but was not able to overcome
their heroic constancy. The streets of Carthage were filled with spectacles
of his cruelty; and one was there meeting continually some without hands,
others without eyes, nose, or ears; others whose heads appeared sunk in
between their shoulders, by having been hung up by the hands on the tops of
houses for sights to the people. Above four hundred and sixty bishops were
brought to Carthage, in order to be sent into banishment: of this number
eighty-eight died under great hardships at Carthage, some few made their
escape, and the rest were banished. St. Eugenius after having long encouraged
others to the conflict, was himself at length on a sudden carried into exile,
without being allowed to take leave of his friends. He found means, however,
to write a letter to his flock, which St. Gregory of Tours has preserved. 9 In it he says: “I with tears beg, exhort, and conjure you by the
dreadful day of judgment, and the awful light of the coming of Christ, that
you hold fast the Catholic faith. Preserve the grace of the holy baptism, and
the unction of the chrism. Let no man born again of water return to the
water.” This he mentions, because the Arians in Africa, like the Donatists,
rebaptized those who came over to their sect. St. Eugenius protests to his
flock that if they remain constant, no distance nor death could separate him
from them in spirit; but that he was innocent of the blood of those who
should perish, and that this his letter would be read before the tribunal of
Christ at the last day for the severer condemnation of such base apostates.
“If I return to Carthage,” says he, “I shall see you in this life; if not, I
shall meet you in the other. Pray for us, and fast; fasting and alms have
never failed to move God to mercy. Above all things, remember that we are not
to fear those who can only kill the body.”
|
|||
We
have a catalogue of all the bishops of the provinces of Africa who came to
the conference, and were sent into banishment; 10 namely, fifty-four of the proconsular province, one hundred and
twenty-five of Numidia, one hundred and seven of the province of Byzacena,
one hundred and twenty of the province of Mauritania Cæsariensis, forty-four
from the province of Sitifi, five from that of Tripolis, besides ten from
Sardinia and other places; in all four hundred and sixty-four bishops, of
which number eighty-eight died at Carthage, before their departure into
exile, forty-six were banished to Corsica, three hundred and three to other
places, and twenty-eight made their escape. St. Eugenius was carried into the
uninhabited desert country in the province of Tripolis, and committed to the
guard of Antony, an inhuman Arian bishop, who treated him with the utmost
barbarity. The saint added to his sufferings voluntary austerities, wore a
rough hair-shirt, lay on the ground, and passed great part of the night in
prayer and tears. When he was afflicted with a palsy, Antony, because vinegar
was contrary to his distemper, obliged him to drink it in large quantities.
Yet God was pleased to restore his servant to his health. It is observed by
our historian, that the Arian bishops were all cruel persecutors, and went
through the cities and provinces, filling all places with scenes of horror,
rebaptizing persons by force and violence, scourging, mangling, torturing,
and banishing even women and children. The fifth book of the history of this
persecution is filled with examples. The apostates signalized themselves
above others by the cruelties which they exercised upon the orthodox.
Elpidophorus, one of this number, was appointed judge at Carthage to condemn
the more zealous to be tortured. Muritta, the deacon who had assisted when he
was baptized in the bosom of the Catholic church, being brought before him,
took with him the chrismale or white garment, with which at the time he
received the apostate coming out of the font he had clothed him, as an emblem
of that innocence which he engaged himself to preserve always unspotted; and
producing it before the whole assembly, he said: “This robe will accuse you
when the judge shall appear in majesty at the last day. It will bear
testimony against you to your condemnation.” 11 This relation is gathered from Saint Victor, bishop of Vita, in the
province of Byzacena; who being banished by King Huneric for the faith in
487, retired to Constantinople, and wrote (probably in that city) in five
books, the history of the Vandalic persecution. 12
|
|||
St.
Victor relates that Huneric, the great persecutor of the church, died
miserably, being devoured by worms, in December, 484, having reigned almost eight
years. Nor was he succeeded, as he had earnestly desired, by his son
Hilderic; but by Gontamund, a nephew, whom the maturity of his age rendered
better able to bear the burden of the state. This prince, in the year 488,
which was the fourth of his reign, recalled St. Eugenius to Carthage, and at
his request opened the churches of the Catholics, and permitted the exiled
priests also to return. Gontamund died in 496, and his brother, Thrasimund,
was called to the crown, of whom mention hath been made in the life of St.
Fulgentius. Though this king often affected a show of moderation, he
sometimes used the sword and every other violent measure to depress the cause
of truth, which at other times he pretended to seek after. But his
inconstancy betrayed his want of sincerity. True virtue is steady, but the
fool changeth like the moon; he who is governed by his passions is every
thing by fits, and if he one day pretend to condemn his vices, he by relapses
soon repents again of this very repentance, which frequently springs rather
from a disgust of sin, than from any principle of true virtue. Thrasimund by
this levity or hypocrisy never deserved to arrive at the light of the true
faith, and often persecuted its most holy champions, of which, among many
others, the sufferings of St. Eugenius are an instance. St. Gregory of Tours
relates 13 that by his authority the judges condemned our saint, one Longinus,
and St. Vindemial, bishop of Capsa, in Africa, to be beheaded. St. Vindemial
died by the sword; but the tyrant commanded St. Eugenius to be led to the
place of execution, and though he protested under the axe that he would
rather lose his life than depart from the Catholic faith, he was again brought
back to Carthage, and banished into Languedoc, which country was then subject
to Alaric, king of the Visigoths, who was also an Arian. He died in his exile
in a monastery which he built and governed at Viance, (since called St.
Amaranth’s, from the tomb of that martyr,) about a mile from Albi. He passed
to a better life in 505, on the 13th of July. King Hilderic afterwards
recalled the surviving exiled prelates; but peace was not perfectly restored
to that church before the year 534, when Belisarius, a general who was master
of all the maxims of the first Romans with regard to the art of war,
vanquished Gelimer, the last Vandal king in Africa, and sent him prisoner to
Constantinople. 14
|
|||
The
saints chose to suffer every temporal loss, torment, or death with which the
world could threaten them rather than lose the holy treasure of faith. This
gift is a light which shineth upon us 15 from God, to direct us amidst our darkness in the path to eternal
life, as the pillar of fire conducted the Israelites through the wilderness.
It is the seed, or rather the root of a spiritual life, and of every virtue
that is meritorious of everlasting glory. “Faith is the solid foundation of
all virtues,” says St. Ambrose. 16 And in another place he cries out: 17 “O faith, richer than all treasures! more healing and sovereign than
all medicines!” Our faith, if true, must have three conditions, or qualities.
1. It must be firm, admitting no doubt or wavering; ready to brave all
dangers, torments, and death; thus it filled the martyrs with joy under the
most affrighting trials, and made them triumph over fires and the sword. 18 2. It must be entire; for the least wilful obstinate error concerning
one article destroys the whole fabric of faith, by rejecting its motive,
which is every where the same testimony of divine revelation. “You who
believe what you please, and reject what you please, believe yourselves, or
your own fancy, rather than the gospel,” as St. Austin says. 3. Faith must be
active, animated by charity, fruitful in good works. A dead or a barren faith
is compared by St. James to a carcass without a soul, and to the faith of the
devils, who believe and tremble. How active and animated was faith in the
souls of all the saints! the eminent virtues which we admire in them were all
the fruit of their faith, and sprang from this root. With what care ought we
to nourish and improve this holy seed in our breasts? Gardeners cultivate
most diligently those seeds which are most precious.
|
Note 1. Though Pliny and Procopius pretend that the Vandals
were of the same extraction with the Goths, the contrary is demonstrated by
the learned F. Daniel Farlati, (Illyrici Sacri, t. 2, p. 1308. Venetiis
1753,) and by Jos. Assemani (in Calend. de Orig. Slavor. par. 2, c. 5, t. 1,
p. 297.) And their language, manners, and religion were entirely different.
The same arguments show that they differed also from the Slavi, Huns, and
original Winidi or Venedi, this last being a Sarmatian, and the two others
Scythian nations. The Vandals are placed by Jornandes and Dio (l. 55,) on the
German coast of the Baltic sea, in the present Prussia and Pomerania; they
thence extended themselves to the sources of the Elbe, in the mountains of
Silesia. They were afterwards removed near the Danube, in the neighbourhood
of the Marcomanni, in the reigns of Antonius, Aurelian, and Probus. In the
fifth century they made an excursion into Gaul: and being there repulsed,
crossed the Pyrenæan mountains with the Alani, who were the original
Massagetæ from Mount Caucasus, and beyond the Tanais, as Ammianus Marcellinus
testifies. About the year 400, in the reign of Honorius, the Alani settled
themselves in Lusitania, and the Vandals under King Gunderic, in Gallicia,
(which then comprised both the present Gallicia and Old Castile,) and in
Bætica, which from them was called Vandalitia, and corruptly Andalusia. See
St. Isidore and Idatius, in their chronicles. Salvian, l. 7, p. 137. St.
August, ep. 3, ad Victor.) The Vandals were baptized in the Catholic faith
about the time when they crossed the Rhine; but were afterwards drawn into
Arianism, probably by some alliance with the Arian Goths, and out of hatred
to the Romans. Idatius says, that common fame attributed the Arian perversion
of the Vandals to King Genseric, who succeeded his brother Gunderic in 428,
and was a man experienced in all the arts of policy and war. Count Boniface,
lieutenant of Africa, seeing his life threatened by Aëtius (who, with the
title of Magister Militiæ, governed the empire for the Empress Placidia,
regent for her son Valentinian,) invited the Vandals out of Spain to his
assistance. Genseric, with a powerful army, passed the strait which divides
Africa from Spain, in May, 429; and though Boniface was then returned to his
duty, the barbarian everywhere defeated the Romans, besieged Hippo during
fourteen months; and though he was obliged by a famine to retire, he returned
soon after and took that strong fortress. The Emperor Valentinian, in 435, by
treaty yielded up to him all his conquests in Africa. Genseric soon broke the
truce, and in 439 took Carthage, and drove the Romans out of all Africa. In
455, being invited by the Empress Eudoxia to revenge the murder of
Valentinian on Maximus, he plundered Rome during fifteen days. Though that
city had been ravaged by Alaric the Goth in 400, whilst Honorius was emperor,
the Vandal found and carried off an immense booty; and among other things,
the gold and brass with which the capital was inlaid, and the vessels of the
Jewish temple at Jerusalem, which Titus had brought to Rome. These Justinian,
when he had recovered Africa, caused to be brought to Constantinople, whence
he caused them to be removed and placed in certain churches at Jerusalem, as
Procopius relates. Rome was again twice plundered by Totila in 546 and 549.
The Vandals, by their transmigrations into Spain and Africa, soon after ceased
to be a nation in Germany, as Jornandes and Procopius testify. Euricus, king
of the Visigoths, in Languedoc, in 468, invading Spain, conquered most of the
territories which the Romans still possessed there, and all the provinces
which the Vandals had seized. So that by the extinction of the empire of the
Vandals in Africa under Justinian, the name of that potent and furious nation
was lost: though Frederic, the first king of Prussia, in 1701, was for some
time very desirous rather to take the title of king of the Vandals. The
cavalry of the ancient Vandals fought chiefly with the sword and lance, and
were unpractised in the distant combat. Their bow-men were undisciplined, and
fought on foot like the Gothic. See Procopius.
|
Note 2. Tinuzudæ tempore quo sacramenta Dei
populo porrigebantur, introeuntes cum furore (Ariani) Corpus Christi et
Sanguinem pavimento sparserunt, et illud pollutis pedibus calcaverunt. St.
Vict. Vitensis, l. 1, p. 17.
|
Note 3. Qui nobis pœnitentiæ munus collaturi
sunt, et reconciliationis indulgentiâ obstrictos peccatorum vinculis
soluturi? A quibus divinis sacrificiis ritus est exhibendus consuetus?
Vobiscum et nos libeat pergere, si liceret. S. Victor Vit. l. 2, p. 33.
|
Note 4. Scribam ego fratribus meis ut veniant
coëpiscopi mei, qui vobis nobiscum fidem communem nostram valeant
demonstrare, et præcipue ecclesia Romana, quæ caput est omnium ecclesiarum.
Victor Vit. l. 2, p. 38.
|
Note 5. In it the Catholics appealed to the tradition of the
universal Church: “Hæc est fides nostra, evangelicis et apostolicis
traditionibus atque auctoritate firmata, et omnium quæ in mundo sunt
Catholicarum ecclesiarum societate fundata, in qua nos per gratiam Dei
omnipotentis permanere usque ad finem vitæ hujus confidimus.” Victor
Vit. l. 3, p. 62.
|
Note 6. L. 5, p. 76.
|
Note 7. Æneas, Gaz. Dial. de Animarum Immortalitate
et Corporis Resurrectione, p. 415.
|
Note 8. Procop. de
Bello Vandal. l. 1, c. 8.
|
Note 9. Hist. Franc. l. 2, p. 46.
|
Note 10. Ruin. Hist. Persec. Vandal. part 2, c. 8. Notit.
Afric.
|
Note 11. Hæc sunt linteamina quæ te accusabunt
cum majestas venerit judicantis. Vict. Vit. l. 5, c. 78.
|
Note 12. He closes this work by the following supplication to
the angels and saints: “Succour us, O angels of my God; look down on Africa,
once flourishing in its numerous churches, but now left desolate and cast
away. Intercede, O patriarchs; pray, O holy prophets; succour us, O apostles,
who are our advocates. You, especially, O blessed Peter, why are you silent
in the necessities of your flock? You, O blessed apostle Paul, behold what
the Arian Vandals do, and how your sons groan in captivity. O all you holy
apostles, petition for us. Pray for us though wicked; Christ prayed even for
his persecutors,” &c. Adeste angeli Dei mei, et videte Africam totam
dudum tantarum ecclesiarum cuneis fultam, nunc ab omnibus desolatam, sedentem
viduam et abjectam—Deprecamini patriarchæ: orate sancti prophetæ; estote
apostoli suffragatores ejus. Præcipue tu Petre, quare siles
pro ovibus tuis?—Tu S. Paule, gentium magister, cognosce quid Vandali faciunt
Ariani, et filii tui gemunt lugendo captivi. Victor Vit. Hist. Pers. Vandal. sub finem. The
history of St. Victor is written with spirit and correctness, in a plain
affecting style, intermixed with an entertaining poignancy of satire, and
edifying heroic sentiments and examples of piety. The author is honoured in
the Roman Martyrology among the holy confessors on the 23d of August, though
the time and place of his death are uncertain. He flourished in the middle of
the fifth century. His history of the Vandalic persecution has run through
several editions: that of Beatus Rhenanus at Basil, in 1535, is the first:
Peter Chifflet gave one at Dijon in 1664; but that of Dom Ruinart at Paris,
in 1694, is the most complete. It was published in English in 1605. The best
French translation is that of Arnau d’Andilly.
|
Note 13. L. de Glor. Conf. c. 13.
|
Note 14. The Roman provinces, in Africa, soon after sunk
again into barbarism and infidelity, being overrun in 668 by the Saracens
from Arabia and Syria, who in 669 took also Syracusa, and established a
kingdom in Sicily and part of Italy. They planted themselves in Spain in
707.—Muhavia, a general of the Sultan Omar, having routed Hormisdas
Jesdegird, king of Persia, in 632, translated that monarchy from the line of
Artaxerxes to the Saracens. This Omar conquered Egypt in 635.—He was second
caliph after Mahomet, and successor of Abubeker; and from his time the
caliphs of Bagdat or Babylon were masters of Syria, Persia, and Egypt, till
the two latter revolted; but notwithstanding various revolutions, all those
countries still retain the Mahometan superstition. The Mahometans in Egypt
shook off the yoke of the caliphs of Bagdat, and set up their own caliphs at
Cairo in 870, to whom the Moon in Africa adhered till the Turks became
masters of Egypt.
|
Note 17. L. 3, de Virgin. See S. Aug. Serm. 38,
de Temp.
|
|
|
Rev.
Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume VII: July. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
Saint Eugenius
Bishop of Carthage
(†505)
In the year 481, the episcopal see
of Carthage had been vacant for twenty-four years, when Huneric, barbarian King
of the African Vandals, decided to allow the Catholics to fill it, provided
certain conditions be met. The people, impatient to enjoy the consolation which
a pastor would bring to the church, chose Eugenius, a citizen of Carthage,
eminent for his learning, zeal, piety and prudence. His charities to the
distressed had already been very abundant, and in his new office he refused
himself the slightest convenience, in order to be able to give all he had to
the poor.
His virtue gained him the respect and esteem even
of the Arians; but at length envy and blind zeal overcame their better
sentiments, and Huneric sent Saint Eugenius an order never to sit on the
episcopal throne, preach to the people, or admit into his chapel any Vandals,
even if Catholic. The Saint courageously replied that the laws of God commanded
him not to shut the door of His church to any who desired to serve Him there.
The Vandal king, enraged at this answer, persecuted the Catholics in various ways.
Many nuns were so cruelly tortured that they died on the rack. Great numbers of
bishops, priests, deacons, and eminent Catholic laymen were banished to a
desert filled with scorpions and venomous serpents. Many also were put to
death.
During this persecution the people followed their
bishops and priests to execution with lighted tapers in their hands. Mothers
carried their little infants in their arms and laid them at the feet of the
confessors, crying out with tears, “On your way to receiving your crowns, to
whom do you leave us? Who will baptize our children? Who will impart to us the
benefit of penance, and free us from the bonds of sin by the grace of
reconciliation and pardon? Who will bury us with solemn prayers at our death?
By whom will the divine Sacrifice be offered?” By the intervention of
Providence, Saint Eugenius was liberated on the very scaffold, but exiled to an
uninhabited desert in the province of Tripoli and committed to the guard of
Anthony, an inhuman Arian bishop. The latter treated him with the utmost
barbarity, shutting him up in a narrow cell and allowing no one to visit him.
Before entering that prison, however, he had found a way to write to his
diocesans a splendid letter, in which he said: “If I return to Carthage, I will
see you in this life; if I do not return, I will see you in the other. Pray for
us and fast, because fasting and almsgiving have always obtained the mercy of
God; but remember above all, that it is written we must not fear those who
can kill only the body.”
When a new king named Gontamund succeeded to
Huneric, he recalled Saint Eugenius to Carthage, opened the Catholic churches,
and allowed all the exiled clergy to return. After reigning twelve years,
Gontamund died, and his brother Thrasimund was called to the crown. Under that
prince Saint Eugenius was again banished. He died in exile in France on July
13, 505, in a monastery which he had built and governed, at Albi, near
Toulouse. Saint Gregory of Tours assures that many miracles occurred at his
sepulchre.
Reflection: “Alms shall be a
great [source of] confidence before the Most High God, for those who give.
Water quenches a flaming fire, and almsgiving opposes sin.” (Holy Bible -
Tobias 4:12)
Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation
based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and other sources by John
Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); Les Petits Bollandistes:
Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol.
8.
