Saint Reverian of Autun

Several military usurpers fought for the possession of Autun from 260 to 267. The city was sacked and partially destroyed in the war between Aurelian and the Aurélien Gallo-Roman nobleman and ambassador of Clovis. usurper Tetricus. To make Tétricus Gallic Emperor defeated by Aurelian. matters worse, the peasants had been pushed to the last extremity by the demands of the treasury; bands known as the Bagaudae descended from their rocks, seized the unfortunate city already a victim of so many disasters, and passed back and forth over the debris left by Tetricus. Excessive taxes, exhausting the last resources, brought these calamities to a peak. Autun, guilty like Lyon of the murder of the just, was thus struck in its turn, and persecution came once again to demand its blood.

The habits of luxury and corruption, which until then had made the inhabitants of this city deaf to the voice of truth, having been violently broken by recent calamities, the action of Christianity was able to develop from then on with fewer obstacles. The ministers of Jesus Christ, faithful to their mission of charity, endeavored at the same time to calm the fury of the rebels, to console the vanquished, by initiating both in the sublime doctrines of the Gospel, to confirm the faithful in the faith, and to prepare them to await, like them, the combat with a firm footing. The hour of the struggle did not wait: the terrible Aurelian, having succeeded in re-establishing his unrecognized authority in the Gauls, included in his vengeance both those who had insulted the majesty of the empire and those he called the enemies of his gods. After crushing the army of his competitor on the Catalaunian Plains (Châlons-sur-Marne), he made Lyon, already so horribly mistreated not long ago by the fierce Severus, suffer harsh treatment, also passed through Autun, and headed toward Rome, dragging after him the emperor of the Gauls, the unfortunate Tetricus, to make him serve, along with the queen of Palmyra, the heroic Zenobia, to adorn his triumph and to feed his pride as a victorious Roman. Irritated by resistance, intoxicated by his anger as well as his victories, he marked his passage everywhere with the blood of martyrs. It was said of him that no one had drunk as much wine as he had shed blood; but it was even less the blood of his enemies than that of the Christians for which he seemed thirsty. By his orders were slaughtered, at Sens, the sweet and pure virgin Columba; at Troyes, the bishop Savinian; at Auxerre, Saint Priscus. A t Autun, Révérien Missionary bishop sent from Rome, martyr at Autun or Nevers. Reverianus gave his life for his flock and for his God. At the same time were cro wned Paul, the worthy Paul, le digne prêtre Priest and collaborator of Reverianus, martyred with him. priest who so well seconded the zeal of the missionary bishop, and ten other missionary collaborators of this new apostolate. These glorious successors of the disciples of Saint Polycarp, after having worked like their illustrious predecessors, like them also watered with their blood the land they had cultivated with so much fatigue and in the midst of so many perils. Reverianus, the worthy leader of these valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ, set the example and was struck first. The priest Paul and his ten other companions followed him successively to heaven. "It is believed," says the old hagiographer, "that the heads of the holy martyrs were already rolling on the ground while their tongues were still pronouncing the name of the divine Master."

In all probability, Saint Révérien suffered martyrdom in the diocese of Nevers: some Nevers The saint's first episcopal see. say in the village that bears his name, eight leagues from Nevers, where a fountain is still shown near which he is said to have endured his torture, as well as the path he traveled; others say at the very gates of Nevers. Before the Revolution, a chapel dedicated to the Saint was shown in the Benedictine abbey of that city, supposedly occupying the site where the Martyr was beheaded, along with the stone upon which his head was severed. There, too, is a fountain that bears the name of the Saint and near which it is claimed he was put to death. A tower and the street adjacent to this fountain bear the same name. How can these two opinions be reconciled? A conjecture has been ventured, suggesting that Saint Révérien was immolated in Nevers, but that his body was hidden in the village that bears his name.

## CULT OF SAINT RÉVÉRIEN

FAMOUS 3RD-CENTURY INSCRIPTION OF AUTUN, SUMMARIZING THE ENTIRE CATHOLIC DOGMA.

The cult of Saint Révérien has always been dear, not only to the parish that bears his name today, Saint-Ré vérien in the Morvan, in Saint-Révérien en Morvan Village bearing the name of the saint, the presumed location of his remains. the current diocese of Nevers, but also to the church of Autun, which has never ceased to honor him as one of its Martyrs and one of its pontiffs, and even in the Bourbonnais, the Châlonnais, and the Beaunois.

The parish of Savianges (Saviampa villa), where there was, as early as the 9th century, a property given by Count Eccard to the monastery of Perrecy, has always been under the patronage of Saint Révérien. The church of Villy, near Nuits, also recognizes him as patron and "possesses one of his relics, the upper part of the head, kept in a beautiful gilded reliquary," says Courlepée, "by Madame de Cléram, lady of Villy, who also gifted several ornaments and a silver censer. Throughout the neighborhood and in Beaune, there is great devotion to Saint Révérien, whom one invokes with confidence in times of drought."

Now, one might ask where the bodies of Saint Reverianus and his companions were buried? Gregory of Tours recounts that monks coming from Rome and bringing the relics of Saint Peter and Saint Paul were forced by a miracle to stop at the place where the body of Saint Reverianus had been deposited, and consequently, in all appearance, not far from Autun. Now, near this city and the tomb of Saint Symphorian, in the parish placed today under the patronage of this glorious Martyr, is the village known for a long time by the name of Saint-Pierre, and possessing since ancient ages a church dedicated in honor of the prince of the Apostles. It is therefore not unlikely that it was these same relics brought from Rome by religious men that caused this place to be given the name of Saint-Pierre and the church to be built and consecrated under the title of the visible head of the Church. The word of the new missionaries had not been sterile in Autun; it had sustained and developed there the faith brought in the previous century by the Greek Apostles. We have proof of this in an interesting episode that must have followed quite closely the martyrdom of Saint Reverianus.

Then, that is to say in the second half of the 3rd century, there lived in Autun a Christian family whose existence was revealed to us by a famous inscription found a few years ago in the ancient cemetery of Saint-Pierre-l'Étrier.

The holy house of which we speak had for its head the venerable Ascandius, and the young Pectorius Pectorius Author of a famous 3rd-century Christian inscription in Autun. for its hope. The mother's name has not reached us. Pectorius died in the flower of his youth and himself composed the funerary inscription that was to adorn his tomb.

In the primitive Church, the Greek word ΙΧΘΥΣ, which means fish, was ingenuously chosen as an abbreviated sym bol o ΙΧΘΥΣ Ancient Christian symbol representing Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. f the faith, because each of the letters of this word is the initial letter of the following words: ΙΧΘΥΣ Ιησούς Χριστός Θεού Υιός Σωτήρ, that is to say, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. "Si primas (horum verborum) litteras jungas erit ΙΧΘΥΣ, id est piscis, quo nomine intelligitur Christus." S. August. De civit. Dei, XVII, 23.

A pious and useful practice of the first centuries dictated that the rallying sign, the watchword of the Catholics, the five-letter anagram containing the summary of the faith and the radical refutation of all heresies, the divine fish (ΙΧΘΥΣ), should be everywhere in sight, engraved on vases, on urns, and even on rings, just as it was on tombs and baptisteries. Many rings bearing the image of the divine Fish, the ΙΧΘΥΣ, an abbreviated refutation of the Gnostics and a symbol containing all the most important and most attacked points of the faith, have been found in the ancient polyandrum of the Vie-sirotis. There is also, in Autun, an ancient statue where the ΙΧΘΥΣ is likewise represented on a chalice. There exists in the Autun museum a glass vase whose shape represents a fish. This curious object was found in a burial dating from the first centuries of the Christian era. These monuments of the ancient faith and our inscription serve as mutual commentary.

This precious inscription is kept at the Autun museum where it can be seen. M. Haze, so well known for his great works on the Greek language, thinks that one can without error fix its date to the 3rd century, and consequently the family of Ascandius existed at that time. The learned Benedictine, Dom Pitra, who has studied it extensively, thinks as he does. M. Raoul-Rochette regards it as very ancient. M. Letronne cannot believe that it is more recent than the century of Constantine. Father Secchi, MM. Lenormand, Franz, Dorret, Leemans, etc., all finally place it in the 3rd century or at the latest at the beginning of the 4th. Only M. Rossignol (of the Institute) considers it more recent. Here is the reading he gives of it:

ΙΧΘΥΣΙ ΑΙΔΡΩΠΙΟΥ ΑΓΜΩΝ ΓΕΝΟΣ, ΑΤΑΡΤ ΑΚΜΥΑ ΙΡΑΝΑΙ, ΛΑΘΥΣ ΙΝ ΖΩΟΝ ΑΡΑΡΤΟΥΝ ΕΝ ΗΙΡΟΤΕΟΙΣ ΘΕΟΠΤΟΙΩΝ ΙΔΑΤΟΥΝ' ΤΗΝ ΟΥΡ, ΦΙΛΕ, ΘΑΛΠΑΝ ΨΥΧΑΝ ΗΔΟΣΙΝ ΑΚΝΙΟΙΣ ΠΛΟΥΤΟΔΟΤΟΥ ΑΟΡΙΟΣ. ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΑΓΛΟΝ ΜΙΛΙΦΩΝ ΛΟΜΒΩΝ ΕΡ[ΑΟΙΝ]' ΕΝΔΙΕ, ΠΛΩΣ ΚΑΘΩΝ, ΙΧΘΥΣΙ ΕΓΩΝ ΠΩΛΟΜΟΥΣ. ΙΧΘΥ, ΧΕ[ΡΟΙΟ Σ' ΑΡΜΩΝ ΛΙΛΟΥΕΙ, ΑΙΠΟΤΑ ΟΥΣΕΡ], ΕΝΘΥ ΑΠΟΣΙΤΗΡ, ΕΙ ΛΕΤΥΖΟΜΟΣ, ΦΩΣ ΤΟ ΘΑΝΟΝΤΩΝ. ΙΝΧΑΝΔΕ [ΠΑΤ]ΕΡ, ΤΑΜΥΣ ΑΥ[ΧΟ]Ρ[Ι]ΣΡΕΟΣ ΘΥΜΗ, ΣΕΝ Μ[ΑΤΡΙ ΓΛΥΑΕΡΟ ΚΑΙ ΠΥΣΕΙ Τ]Ν[Ι]ΝΙΝ ΕΜΕΙΣΕΙ, Ι[ΑΝΟΥΜΑΙ ΟΤ, ΤΕΥΣ] ΜΙΝΑΓΟΥ ΙΛΛΕΤΟΡΙΟΥ.

In the holy [waters] of the celestial fish, [take] a heart filled with respect, after having received in this mortal world the immortal life of the divine waters. Warm your soul, O friend, in the inexhaustible waters of wisdom, source of wealth, and take the delicious food offered to you by the memory of the saints. Eat, drink, holy one with religious respect, while holding the fish in your hands.

Fish, I have taken you in my hands; hasten, master savior, be promptly accessible to me; I beseech you, O you the light of the dead. Ascandius, my father, so dear to my heart, I pray you, remember, with my sweet mother and all my kin, your Pectorius.

Pectorius, from the depths of his tomb, thus proclaims first the divinity of Jesus Christ, the sublime dignity of the Christian, the marvelous efficacy of the principal mysteries or Sacraments of the evangelical law, the respect they deserve, and invites his brothers to them in a friendly manner. After this homage and this fraternal imitation, he implores in the name of these two great Sacraments, of the Baptism he has received, of the Eucharist with which he has been nourished, the grace and mercy of Christ, Son of God and Savior. Then, addressing a father and a cherished mother, as well as all his relatives or friends whom he will soon leave, he conjures them to remember him. This last touch of eloquent simplicity makes it understood that the young and pious Christian claims the help of their prayers, as well as a place in their memory and in their heart for the one they have loved. It is the entire Catholic dogma of which one can say, as of Jesus Christ its principle: it was yesterday, it is today, it will be tomorrow.

Let us reflect, at the sight of this sacred marble, in a deep feeling of gratitude, and say with the venerable Father Secchi: "May the Lord our God grant that the descendants of the alleged reformers examine with a little of their proverbial sang-froid, with a frank desire to learn, the monument of Autun and so many others that attest to the ever-green age of the Catholic Church! They will recognize, they will detest the pride of those superb leaders who tore them from the bosom of their ancient mother; they will return with happiness to her arms, admiring the indelible permanence of her dogmas, under the shock of the centuries and among the storms of human revolutions or passions..."

Cf. Saint Symphorien et son culte, by Father Direct.