Saint
Gaudence
Évêque de Brescia (+ 410)
ou Ence.
Disciple de saint Philastre, il lui succéda et fut ordonné évêque par saint Ambroise vers 387. Envoyé défendre saint Jean Chrysostome en Orient, il fut prisonnier à Thrace et mourut peu après.
Illustre par son érudition et, bien sûr aussi, par sa sainteté. Les textes qui nous restent de lui dans la 'Patrologie Latine' de Migne en témoignent.
À Brescia en Lombardie, vers 410, saint Gaudence, évêque. Ordonné par saint Ambroise, remarquable par sa doctrine et ses vertus parmi les évêques de son temps, il enseigna son peuple par sa parole et ses écrits et construisit une basilique qu’il appela l’Assemblée des Saints.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE :
https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/2079/Saint-Gaudence.html
Saint Gaudence de Brescia
Neuvième évêque de Brixia
Fête le 25 octobre
Brescia, Lombardie, v. 360 – † id. v. 410
Autres graphies : [Gaudentius] Gaudenzio
Élève de saint Philastre, il lui succéda comme évêque de Brixia, ville de la Gaule Transpadane [auj. Brescia], vers 387. Il fit partie de l’ambassade envoyée à Constantinople par Innocent Ier pour plaider la cause de saint Jean Chrysostome. Mémoire liturgique 25 octobre (Fête).
SOURCE : http://www.martyretsaint.com/gaudence-de-brescia/
HOMÉLIE PASCALE DE SAINT GAUDENCE DE BRESCIA
L'Eucharistie, Pâque du Seigneur.
Un seul est mort pour tous, et c'est le même qui, à travers toutes les maisons
de l'Église, dans le mystère du pain et du vin, réconforte en étant immolé,
donne la vie en étant cru, sanctifie ceux qui le consacrent en étant
consacré.
C'est la chair, c'est le sang de l'Agneau. Car le pain qui est descendu du ciel
a dit : Le pain que je donnerai, c'est ma chair, pour la vie du monde. Et son
sang est fort bien signifié par l'apparence du vin, puisqu'en disant lui-même
dans l'Évangile : Moi, je suis la vraie vigne, il montre clairement que son
sang, c'est n'importe quel vin offert pour représenter sa passion. Aussi le
saint patriarche Jacob avait-il fait cette prophétie sur le Christ : Il lave
son vêtement dans le vin, son habit dans le sang de la grappe. Effectivement,
il devait laver son vêtement, c'est-à-dire notre corps, dans son propre
sang.
Lui qui est le Créateur et le Seigneur de la nature, qui fait sortir le pain de
la terre, il fait avec du pain (parce qu'il le peut et qu'il l'a promis) son
propre corps ; et lui qui a fait du vin avec de l'eau, il a fait son sang avec
du vin.
C'est la Pâque du Seigneur, dit-il, c'est-à-dire son passage. Car tu ne dois
pas penser que c'est un élément terrestre : en « passant » en lui, il en a fait
une réalité céleste, il en a fait son corps et son sang.
Ce que tu reçois, c'est le corps qui provient de ce pain céleste, c'est le sang
de cette vigne sainte. Car, lorsqu'il présentait le pain et le vin à ses
disciples, il leur a dit : Ceci est mon corps ; ceci est mon sang. Croyons, je
vous en prie, celui en qui nous avons mis notre foi; il ignore le mensonge, lui
qui est la vérité.
Lorsqu'il parla de manger son corps et de boire son sang, les foules furent
stupéfaites, et elles protestaient : Ce qu'il dit là est intolérable, on ne
peut pas continuer à l'écouter ! Aussi, pour purifier par le feu du ciel ces
pensées, dont je vous ai dit qu'il faut les éviter, il ajouta : C'est l'Esprit
qui fait vivre, la chair n'est capable de rien. Les paroles que je vous ai
dites sont esprit et elles sont vie.
SOURCE : http://adoratioiesuchristi.blogspot.ca/2014/05/homelie-pascale-de-saint-gaudence-de.html
HOMÉLIE PASCALE DE SAINT GAUDENCE DE BRESCIA
Le sacrifice céleste institué par le Christ est vraiment l'héritage légué par son testament nouveau ; il nous l'a laissé la nuit où il allait être livré pour être crucifié, comme un gage de sa présence.
Il est le viatique de notre voyage, notre nourriture sur le chemin de la vie, jusqu'à ce que nous soyons parvenus à celle-ci, en quittant ce monde. C'est pourquoi le Seigneur disait : Si vous ne mangez pas ma chair et ne buvez pas mon sang, vous n'aurez pas la vie en vous.
Il a voulu que ses bienfaits demeurent parmi nous ; il a voulu que les âmes rachetées par son sang précieux soient toujours sanctifiées à l'image de sa propre passion. C'est pourquoi il donne l'ordre à ses disciples fidèles, qu'il établit les premiers prêtres de son Église, de célébrer sans fin ces mystères de la vie éternelle. Et il est nécessaire que tous les prêtres, de toutes les Églises du monde, les célèbrent jusqu'à ce que le Christ revienne du ciel. C'est ainsi que les prêtres eux-mêmes et tout le peuple des fidèles devraient avoir chaque jour devant les yeux la représentation de la passion du Christ ; en la tenant dans nos mains, en la recevant dans notre bouche et notre cœur, nous garderions un souvenir ineffaçable de notre rédemption.
Ensuite, il faut que le pain soit fait avec la farine de nombreux grains de froment, mêlée à de l'eau, et reçoive du feu son achèvement. On y trouve donc une image ressemblante du corps du Christ, car nous savons qu'il forme un seul corps avec la multitude des hommes, et qu'il a reçu son achèvement du feu de l'Esprit Saint.
En effet, le Christ est né du Saint-Esprit et, parce qu'il devait ainsi accomplir parfaitement ce qui est juste, il entre dans les eaux du baptême pour les consacrer ; alors, rempli du Saint-Esprit qui était descendu sur lui sous la figure d'une colombe, il s'éloigne du Jourdain, comme l'affirme l'Évangile : Jésus, rempli de l'Esprit Saint, s'éloigna des bords du Jourdain.
De même, le vin de son sang est tiré de plusieurs grappes, c'est-à-dire de raisins de la vigne plantée par lui, écrasés sous le pressoir de la croix ; versé dans le cœur des fidèles au moyen de grandes coupes, il y bouillonne par sa propre vertu.
C'est là le sacrifice de la Pâque, qui apporte le salut à tous ceux qui sont libérés de l'esclavage de l'Égypte et de Pharaon, c'est-à-dire du démon. Recevez-le en union avec nous, dans toute l'avidité d'un cœur religieux. Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ lui-même, que nous croyons présent dans ses sacrements, nous sanctifie en profondeur, et sa vertu sans prix demeure pour tous les siècles.
SOURCE : https://www.aelf.org/2017-04-27/belgique/lectures#office_lecture_patristique
Maestro dell'Ancona Barbavara, San Gaudenzio, 1390-1400, Museo Poldi Pezzoli
Gaudentius of Brescia B (RM)
Died c. 410. Saint Gaudentius was apparently educated under Saint Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, Italy, and considered him his spiritual father.
He made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem hoping to escape the attention his reputation has gained him at home, and then became a monk at Caesarea in Cappadocia. During this time, Saint Philastrius died, and the clergy and people of Brescia chose Gaudentius to succeed him, overruling his objections. He was consecrated by his friend, Saint Ambrose of Milan, c. 387.
A nobleman named Benevolus, who had been disgraced by Empress Justina because he failed to support the Arians, had retired to Brescia. Due to ill health, he was unable to attend Gaudentius's Easter sermons, and he asked Gaudentius to write them down. For this reason, ten of the saint's sermons survive.
Saint Gaudentius is remembered, however, chiefly in connection with Saint John Chrysostom. After Chrysostom was banished for the second time in 404, the Western emperor, Honorius wrote on his behalf to Emnperor Arcadius at Constantinople.
The letter, with another form Pope Saint Innocent I, was carried by a deputation, of which Gaudentius was a principal member. They were stopped by officials outside Constantinople and ordered to give up the letters, and when they refused to deliver them to anyone but Arcadius in person they were taken from them by force.
Then a vain attempt was made to bribe the deputation to recognize Chrysostom's intruded successor as archbishop. Gaudentius saw that their mission was hopeless, and at his request they were eventually allowed to go back home.
They were shipped on a vessel so unseaworthy that it had to be left at Lampsacus. Chrysostom sent a letter of thanks for their efforts to Saint Gaudentius and the others, a rather stiff and cool missive which suggests it was written by a secretary rather than by the warm-hearted John.
Rufinus (who wrote one of the first ecclesiastical histories) had a high opinion of Saint Gaudentius as a teacher, but only a few homilies have survived (Attwater, White).
SOURCE : HTTP://WWW.SAINTPATRICKDC.ORG/SS/1025.SHTML
St. Gaudentius
Bishop of Brescia from
about 387 until about 410; he was the successor of the writer
on heresies, St.
Philastrius. At the time of that saint's death Gaudentius was
making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
The people of Brescia bound
themselves by an oath that
they would accept no other bishop than
Gaudentius; and St.
Ambrose and other neighbouring prelates,
in consequence, obliged him
to return, though against his will. The Eastern bishops also
threatened to refuse him Communion if he did not obey. We
possess the discourse which he made before St. Ambrose and
other bishops on
the occasion of his consecration,
in which he excuses, on the plea of obedience, his youth and
his presumption in speaking. He had brought back with him from
the East many precious relics of St.
John Baptist and of the Apostles, and especially of the Forty
Martyrs of Sebaste, relics of
whom he had received at Caesarea in Cappadocia from nieces of St.
Basil. These and other relics from Milan and
elsewhere he deposited in a basilica which
he named Concilium Sanctorum. His sermon on its dedication is
extant. From a letter of St.
Chrysostom (Ep. clxxxiv) to Gaudentius it may be gathered that
the two saints had
met at Antioch. When St. Chrysostom had been condemned to exile
and had appealed to Pope
Innocent and the West in 405, Gaudentius warmly took his
part. An embassy to the Eastern Emperor Arcadius from his
brother Honorius and from the pope,
bearing letters frorn both and from Italian bishops,
consisted of Gaudentius and two other bishops.
The envoys were seized at Athens and
sent to Constantinople, being three days on a ship without food. They were
not admitted into the city, but were shut up in a fortress called Athyra, on
the coast of Thrace. Their credentials were seized by force,
so that the thumb of one of the bishops was
broken, and they were offered a large sum of money if they would
communicate with Atticus, who had supplanted St. Chrysostom. They
were consoled by God,
and St.
Paul appeared to a deacon amongst
them. They were eventually put on board an unseaworthy vessel, and it
was said that the captain had orders to wreck them. However, they
arrived safe at Lampsacus,
where they took ship for Italy,
and arrived in twenty days at Otranto.
Their own account of their four months' adventures has been preserved to us
by Palladius (Dialogus,
4). St. Chrysostom wrote them several grateful letters.
We possess twenty-one genuine tractates by Gaudentius. The first ten are a series of Easter sermons, written down after delivery at the request of Benivolus, the chief of the Brescian nobility, who had been prevented by ill health from hearing them delivered. In the preface Gaudentius takes occasion to disown all unauthorized copies of his sermons published by shorthand writers. These pirated editions seem to have been known to Rufinus, who, in the dedication to St. Gaudentius of his translation of the pseudo-Clementine "Recognitions", praises the intellectual gifts of the Bishop of Brescia, saying that even his extempore speaking is worthy of publication and of preservation by posterity. The style of Gaudentius is simple, and his matter is good. His body lies at Brescia in the Church of St. John Baptist, on the site of the Concilium Sanctorum. His figure is frequently seen in the altar-pieces of the great Brescian painters, Moretto, Savoldo, and Romanino. The best edition of his works is by Galeardi (Padua, 1720, and in P.L., XX).
Chapman, John. "St. Gaudentius." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 31 Oct. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06393c.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. September
1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop
of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06393c.htm
St. Gaudentius of Brescia, Bishop and Confessor
HE seems to have been educated under St. Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, whom he styles his father. His reputation ran very high when he travelled to Jerusalem, partly to shun applause and honours, and partly hoping by his absence to be at last forgotten at home. In this, however, he was mistaken. In a monastery at Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, he met with the sisters and nieces of St. Basil, who, as a rich present, bestowed on him certain relics of the forty martyrs and some other saints, knowing that he would honour those sacred pledges as they had honoured them. 1 During his absence St. Philastrius died, and the clergy and people of Brescia, who had been accustomed to receive from him solid instructions, and in his person to see at their head a perfect model of Christian virtue, pitched upon him for their bishop, and fearing obstacles from his humility, bound themselves by oath to receive no other for their pastor. The bishops of the province met, and with St. Ambrose, their metropolitan, confirmed the election. Letters were despatched to St. Gaudentius, who was then in Cappadocia, to press his speedy return; but he only yielded to the threat of an excommunication if he refused to obey. He was ordained by St. Ambrose with other bishops of the province, about the year 387; the sermon which he preached on that occasion, expresses the most profound sentiments of humility with which he was penetrated. 2
The church of Brescia soon found how great a treasure it possessed in so holy a pastor. He never ceased to break to them the bread of life, and to feed their souls with the important truths of salvation. A certain virtuous nobleman, named Benevolus, who had been disgraced by the Empress Justina, because he refused to draw up an edict in favour of the Arians, had retired to Brescia, his own country, and was the greatest ornament of that church. This worthy nobleman being hindered by a severe fit of sickness from attending some of the sermons of St. Gaudentius, requested of him that he would commit them to writing for his use. 3 By this means we have seventeen of his sermons. 4 In the second which he made for the Neophites at their coming out of the font, he explaineth to them the mysteries which he could not expound in presence of the catechumens, especially the blessed eucharist, of which he says: “The Creator and Lord of nature who bringeth the bread out of the ground, maketh also of bread his own body; because he hath promised, and is able to perform it: and he who made wine of water, converteth wine into his own blood.” 5 The saint built a new church at Brescia, to the dedication of which he invited many bishops, and in their presence made the seventeenth sermon of those which are extant. In it he says: that he had deposited in this church certain relics of the forty martyrs, of St. John Baptist, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Luke; some of the blood of SS. Gervasius, Protasius, and Nazarius, moulded into a paste, and of the ashes of SS. Sisinnius and Alexander. He affirms that a portion of a martyr’s relics is in virtue and efficacy the same as the whole. “Therefore,” says he, “that we may be succoured by the patronage of so many saints, let us run and supplicate with an entire confidence, and earnest desire, that by their interceding we may deserve to obtain all things we ask, magnifying Christ our Lord, the giver of so great grace.” 6 Besides these seventeen sermons of this father we have three others. The twentieth is a panegyric on St. Philastrius, 7 wherein our saint mentions that he had made a like panegyric on his holy predecessor every year on his anniversary festival for fourteen years. The saint exhorts Christians to banish all dissolute feastings accompanied with dancing and music, saying: “Those are wretched houses which resemble theatres. Let the houses of Christians be free from every thing of the train of the devil; let humility and hospitality be practised therein; let them be always sanctified by psalms and spiritual songs; let the word of God, and the sign of Jesus Christ (the cross) be in your hearts, in your mouths, on your countenance, at table, in the bath, when you go out and when you come in, in joy and in sorrow.” 8 In 405, St. Gaudentius was deputed with some others by the Roman council and by the Emperor Honorius into the East to defend the cause of St. Chrysostom before Archadius: for which commission St. Chrysostom sent him a letter of thanks which is extant, though the deputies were ill received, and imprisoned for some time in Thrace, and afterwards put on board a rotten vessel. St. Gaudentius seems to have died about the year 420; Labbe says in 427. Rufinus styles him “the glory of the doctors of the age wherein he lives.” He is honoured on this day in the Roman Martyrology. See his works printed in the Library of the Fathers, and more correctly at Padua, in 1720, 4to; also Ceillier, t. 10, p. 517; Cave, Hist. Littér. t. 1, p. 282.
Note 1. Gaudent. Serm. 17. [back]
Note 2. Gaudent. Serm. 16. [back]
Note 3. St. Gaudent. pref. [back]
Note 4. Bibl. Patr. t. 5, p. 765. [back]
Note 5. Ib. p. 947. [back]
Note 6. Bibl. Patr. t. 5, p. 970. [back]
Note 7. Extant in Surius ad 18 Julii. [back]
Note 8. Serm. 8. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume X: October. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : HTTP://WWW.BARTLEBY.COM/210/10/253.HTML
.jpg)
Façade ouest de l'église Saint-Gaudens d'Allaire ou se
situe l'entrée principale
Also known as
Gaudenty
Profile
Studied under Saint Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, Italy. He preached throughout Italy and in the East, respected wherever he went for his oratory and leading the Christian life. When Philastrius died near the end of the 4th century, the people of Brescia chose Gaudentius as their bishop. He was consecrated by Saint Ambrose of Milan in 387. Guadentius wrote many pastoral letters, and ten of his sermons have come down to us. They show a desire to educate, and to present good examples for living.
He left his diocese in 405 to join a delegation sent by Pope Innocent I to defend Saint John Chrysostom from charges brought by a heretic. The group was forced by John‘s enemies to return to Italy. Their ship sank near Lampsacus, Greece, but the group finally safely reached home. Though the delegation did not achieve its mission, Saint John sent a letter of thanks to Saint Gaudentius.
Born
410 of
natural causes
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/saint-gaudentius-of-brescia/
.jpg)
Église Saint-Gaudence de Péaule, Morbihan, France
San Gaudenzio di Brescia Vescovo
sec. IV-V
Fu l'ottavo vescovo di Brescia, la città in cui era
nato. Si sa qualcosa sulla sua vita dai suoi dieci Sermoni, inviati ad un
meritevole concittadino che perché malato, non poteva recarsi ad ascoltarlo.
Gaudemnzio, per la suo umiltà, pensava di svolgere il suo ministero unicamente
attraverso la predicazione. I suoi discorsi vennero copiati e diffusi perché
richiesti dai fedeli. Quando fu eletto vescovo, a furor di popolo e con
l'approvazione di Sant'Ambrogio, era in pellegrinaggio in Terra Santa. Fece
parte anche della missione di vescovi(obbligati poi a tornare indietro) che il
Papa ha inviò in aiuto di Giovanni Crisostomo. Gaudenzio, molto colto ma
insicuro, godeva fama di grande santità e per questo ebbe la stima di grandi
personalità religiose e civili del suo tempo.
Etimologia: Gaudenzio = allegro, gaudente, dal
latino
Emblema: Bastone pastorale
Martirologio Romano: A Brescia, san Gaudenzio,
vescovo, che, ordinato da sant’Ambrogio, rifulse tra i presuli del suo tempo
per dottrina e virtù, istruì il suo popolo con la parola e con gli scritti e
fondò una basilica che chiamò Concilio dei Santi.
Ecco un santo senza biografi. Quello che sappiamo di
lui si ricava in parte dai suoi scritti, da lettere di contemporanei e dalle
vicende che lo hanno coinvolto. È bresciano di origine, ma non si sa niente
della famiglia, della nascita e della gioventù. Lo troviamo, forse già
sacerdote, al fianco del settimo vescovo bresciano, Filastrio. Di sicuro ha
fatto buoni studi e gode di largo prestigio tra i concittadini. Infatti, quando
Filastrio muore (nel 387 o 388), clero e fedeli designano lui come successore.
Ma Gaudenzio al momento sta percorrendo come pellegrino
i luoghi santi; è anzi uno dei pionieri di questi pellegrinaggi. I bresciani
allora mandano in Palestina una delegazione per farlo rientrare al più presto. Lui
accetta con qualche difficoltà, perché si considera scarso come scrittore di
teologia, mentre questo all’epoca è compito fondamentale di ogni vescovo, con
tanti punti di fede da precisare, con la varietà di dottrine e di dottrinari
che ci sono in giro. (Il vescovo Filastrio ha scritto molto su eresie ed
eretici).
Ma infine si convince ad accettare, anche perché la
sua nomina è sostenuta da Ambrogio, vescovo di Milano. Così, intorno all’anno
390 viene consacrato vescovo, alla presenza di Ambrogio venuto da Milano, che
poi lo chiama nella sua città per una serie di prediche. (Milano è capitale dell’Impero
romano d’Occidente: vi risiedono la famiglia imperiale, il governo e i comandi
militari). Non si ritiene degno di stendere trattati, e non crede che le sue
omelie meritino di essere trascritte. E invece proprio questo accade: da un
lato, le trascrivono molti preti per servirsene nella loro predicazione;
dall’altro, c’è chi gli richiede più larghe spiegazioni di cose dette da lui in
chiesa; e allora gli tocca scrivere. Uno dei più vivaci intellettuali del
tempo, Tirannio Rufino di Aquileia, gli scrive: «Il tuo è un ingegno così vivo
che bisogna proprio scrivere e pubblicare quello che dici nelle prediche e
nelle conversazioni».
Tutta questa attenzione alle parole "parlate” si
spiega con la loro novità nei tempi e nelle sedi: niente accanimenti pignoli
sull’aggettivo o sul participio in greco, ma raffronti immediati e chiarissimi
tra la fede che si professa e i comportamenti. Il vescovo denuncia ingiustizie
e ipocrisie, dà voce a quelli che nessuno ascolta. C’è la vita del tempo, nelle
sue parole; e per molti esse sono anche un aiuto per conoscersi meglio.
La sua esperienza dell’Oriente gli procura
un’importante missione nel 406. A Costantinopoli, il patriarca Giovanni
Crisostomo è stato mandato in esilio per la seconda volta, a opera di Eudossia,
moglie dell’imperatore Arcadio. Papa Innocenzo I manda Gaudenzio e altri
quattro vescovi a Costantinopoli per incontrare Arcadio, promuovere un concilio
e ottenere la libertà per il patriarca. Ma l’impresa fallisce: i vescovi
vengono bloccati e rimandati indietro prima di arrivare a Costantinopoli.
E Gaudenzio ritorna a Brescia, dove fa sorgere una
chiesa dal nome insolito: Concilium Sanctorum. «Il nome voleva dire: qui c’è
una collezione di santi; e i santi sono le reliquie degli apostoli che aveva
portato san Gaudenzio nel suo ritorno dalla Terrasanta»: così ha spiegato
questo nome Paolo VI, bresciano, parlando a un pellegrinaggio di suoi
concittadini nel 1970. Gaudenzio è stato sepolto in quella chiesa nel 411 o
412, già venerato come santo dal popolo.
Autore: Domenico Agasso
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/75100
Voir aussi : https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudenty_(biskup_Brescii)
