The Latin Life of *Maximus (bishop of Riez, ob. 452/462, S00424), by Dynamius of Marseille, describes the life, many miracles, and death of the saint, with an account of his dedication of a church to *Alban (martyr of Verulamium, S01364), and references to churches dedicated to other saints. Written in south-east Gaul, c. 580/590.
E00852
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives of saint
Dynamius, Life of St Maximus, Bishop of Riez (BHL 5853)
Summary:
(1.) Preface addressed by Dynamius to the current bishop of Riez, Urbicus, in which he says that Urbicus had requested that he write the Life of Maximus. He mentions that Urbicus had read about Maximus in a work by one of his predecessors as bishop of Riez, Faustus.
(2.) Dynamius mentions Maximus' feast day (without giving the date).
(3.) Maximus is born in a village near Riez named Comeco. He displays holiness from his earliest years.
(4.) Maximus lives an ascetic life and gives away all his property. He becomes a monk at Lérins, and is appointed abbot in succession to the founder of the community, Honoratus.
(5.) One night, when Maximus is walking around the island, the devil appears. Maximus is undisturbed, but the young monk accompanying him nearly dies of fright. Maximus drives the devil off the island, even when it takes the form of a dragon (draco), and then heals the young monk with his prayers.
(6.) On another occasion, the devil sends the phantom of a ship to the island. The sailors tell Maximus that he is honoured throughout the world, and offer to take him to Jerusalem, where everyone will honour him. Maximus realises that this is an illusion of the devil, and declares that he cannot be deceived and that Lérins was long ago fortified against the devil by the prayers of Honoratus, who expelled serpents from the island. The ship and its sailors vanish.
(7.) After rumour made Maximus' virtues known throughout the world, he was 'no less seized than elected' (non minus raptus quam electus) by the priests and citizens of Riez as their bishop.
(8.) Maximus builds a church within the fortified walls of Riez (intra castellum Regensem) dedicated to *Alban (martyr of Britain, S01364). One day, when Maximus is absent, the teams of oxen bringing columns for the church stop and refuse to move further, although there is no visible obstacle. Maximus is summoned, and sees that, invisible to everyone except him, the devil, in the form of an Ethiopian boy, is blocking the path of the oxen. He prays, and the devil vanishes, leaving behind a foul smell.
(9.) When Maximus was bringing relics to this church to consecrate it, accompanied by singers of psalms, the following verse was sung just as they passed through the town gate: 'This is the gate of the Lord, the just will enter through it' (Haec porta domini, iusti intrabunt per eam – Ps. 117:20). This was a sign that Riez would always be protected by Maximus from being captured by any enemies, and will continue to be through his patronage in heaven. Thus the city has never fallen and will always be triply protected: 'from outside, through the strength of his body which prevails, from within through the most sacred church that he built, everywhere through the grant of favour which he merited' (a foris per virtutem sui corporis quae praecellit, ab infra, per templum sacratissimum quod construxit, undique per beneficia indulta quae meruit). Through this he excels other earlier bishops of the city, even if they were his equals in merit.
(10.) Maximus resurrects an orphaned boy, brought up as a son by the deacon Ausanus, who had died after falling from the city wall. Maximus is reluctant to heal the boy, out of modesty, but does so at the entreaty of Ausanus. He then tries to conceal the fact that he was the one who healed him, but cannot prevent the miracle from being witnessed by the crowd.
(11-12.) He resurrects the only daughter of a local widow, who was already on her funeral bier (the cause of her death is not mentioned). A crowd surrounds him and tears off most of his clothes as relics.
(13.) He resurrects an adolescent (adolescentulus) who had died from the bite of a mad dog, and strikes the dog dead by breathing on it.
(14.) He resurrects a man who had died after being gored by a bull.
(15.) How Maximus always wore a hair shirt.
(16.) A man who had been blind for fifteen years constantly begged Maximus to heal him, but Maximus avoided him because he was so importunate. The man persuaded a subdeacon named Rusticus to let him into a church at night when Maximus was performing a vigil there. While Maximus sang psalms before the altar of St *Andrew (the Apostle, S00288), the man embraced Maximus' legs and begged Maximus to heal him. Maximus did so, but begged him to tell no one that he had done this. However, when people asked how the man had regained his sight he revealed that Maximus had healed him.
(17.) Praise of Maximus' virtues and powers of healing. It is not possible to recount his miracles in full.
[(17a.) (interpolated in some manuscripts): Maximus left Riez, accompanied by the previously mentioned subdeacon Rusticus and a deacon named Valerius, and travelled to northern Gaul. They arrived at a place called Tarvenna (Thérouanne, Pas-de-Calais), 'which is the last city in the northern part of Gaul' (quae ultima est in septentrionali parte urbium Galliae), where they entered a church of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, S00050) and spent a day and a night in prayer. They then tried to cross the sea, but had no means of doing so. They rested in a desert place, and Maximus had a vision in which a heavenly voice told him that his life was complete. He then had an oratory built in the place, which he dedicated to *Mary (Mother of Christ, S00033) and Andrew, and named the place Vima. He lived there for eight years and four months until he learned by divine revelation that his death was imminent. He preached to the people that they should not be afraid, and comforted them in their grief at his passing.]
(18.) Maximus was granted a revelation of the day of his death. He visited his birthplace and his relatives, and then died peacefully while praying and singing hymns. When he died, the place was filled with an odour of extraordinary sweetness. As the news of his death spread, crowds came from afar in the hope of gaining healing by touching the covering of his bier (optantes singuli vel vehiculi velamenta contingere pro munimine salutari).
(19.) His funeral passed by the burial of an unnamed adolescent girl (quaedam adolescentula). Her mourners called upon Maximus' pallbearers to place her body under the bier. The whole crowd poured out prayers and cried out Kyrie eleison seven times, and the girl was restored to life. She then joined the funeral procession for Maximus, proclaiming his miracle. Maximus' body was taken to the church of St *Peter (the Apostle, S00036) which he had founded, and buried in a tomb there. The name of Maximus quickly took possession of the church, until it claimed the patronage of its founder (templum deinceps invasit vocabulum Maximi nominis, dum patrocinia vindicavit auctoris), 'where with the help of Christ whatever is sought with faith is found, whence there is no doubt, if faith is not doubtful; for his power remains without end' (ubi auxiliante Christo quicquid confidenter petitur invenitur, unde procul dubio non sit fides dubia; nam virtus permanet infinita).
[(19a.) At this point some manuscripts interpolate Gregory of Tours' account of a miracle at Maximus' tomb from Glory of the Confessors 82 (E02715).]
(20.) A subdeacon named Cariatto later related that during Maximus' lifetime he had been supervising vigils in the cathedral of Riez on the eve of the feast of St Andrew. During the night he fell asleep and was woken by singing sweeter than human voices can produce. Maximus was there with St Peter and St Andrew. Each in turn offered a prayer. Cariatto moved forward and saw Maximus prostrate on the floor. Maximus perceived him, and rebuked his rashness in prying into the secrets of the saints. He warned him never to reveal what had happened, and that if he did so his soul would leave the world on the same day. Cariatto told his listeners that he was nonetheless revealing it so that they should know that the just would gain union with the saints. But Maximus' warning proved true, since Cariatto died the same day.
(21.) Dynamius begs for his sins to be forgiven through Maximus' intercession, alluding again to Maximus' feast day.
Text: Gennaro 1966.
Summary: David Lambert.
Procession
Chant and religious singing
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Cult building - oratory
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Saint as patron - of a community
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
Construction of cult buildings
Vigils
Oral transmission of saint-related stories
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Miracle at martyrdom and death
Miracle after death
Miracle with animals and plants
Healing diseases and disabilities
Power over life and death
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Miraculous protection - of communities, towns, armies
Other miracles with demons and demonic creatures
Miraculous sound, smell, light
Revelation of hidden knowledge (past, present and future)
RelicsTransfer, translation and deposition of relics
Contact relic - cloth
Touching and kissing relics
Unspecified relic
Contact relic - saint’s possession and clothes
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Demons
Crowds
Source
Dynamius (PLRE IIIA, 'Dynamius 1'; PCBE 4, 'Dynamius 3' – the variant spelling Dinamius is also used) was a major political figure in Gaul in the late 6th century, notably as governor (patricius or rector) of Provence in the 580s and 590s (for entries in which he appears in this capacity, see E02185 and E06343). He was active as a writer in many literary genres, including letters and poetry, and was possibly the author of another hagiography, of the monk Marius of Bodanum (E06686). For the epitaph of Dynamius and his wife, see E07862. There is a full examination of the evidence for Dynamius' life and career in Dumézil 2009.The Life of Maximus can be dated to the period around the 580s by the fact that its preface is addressed to Urbicus, bishop of Riez (PCBE 4, 'Urbicus 3'), all of whose attestations come from that decade: at the councils of Valence (584) and Mâcon (585), and mentioned by Gregory of Tours in relation to an incident in 589 (Histories 9.41). It cannot have been written much later, since Dynamius himself died around 595.
In the preface to the Life, Dynamius claims that Urbicus had read about Maximus in a work by Faustus of Riez (ob. c. 485), Maximus’ immediate successor as bishop, but that the volume in which he did so was disintegrating from age. Urbicus therefore asked for ‘a few things out of very many’ (pauca de plurimis) to be handed on by Dynamius in his Life. This seems to imply that the Life includes material from the work by Faustus. A work on Maximus which was almost certainly written by Faustus survives in the form of a sermon in the Eusebius Gallicanus collection (E00756), but its portrayal of Maximus has almost nothing in common with the Life by Dynamius. The two works share the basic structure of Maximus’ life (his birth near Riez, the fact that he was a monk and abbot at Lérins, his selection as bishop of Riez, his foundation of churches in the city), but beyond this not a single biographical detail or incident in the sermon appears in the Life or vice versa. This suggests that if the work read by Urbicus was indeed the Eusebius Gallicanus sermon, then Dynamius himself had not read it (he does not actually claim to have done so), nor used material from it indirectly. If there was another work by Faustus about Maximus, it has not survived and there are no other references to it.
For the manuscripts of the Life of Maximus, see the introduction to Gennaro's edition (Gennaro 1966, 15-33), and now also the comprehensive survey in Pécout 2021, 9-15, which lists 33 manuscripts in total. The earliest are two 9th c. manuscripts in the Vatican Library, Reg. lat. 711 and 274, both originally from the monastery of Fleury. One group of manuscripts contains two substantial interpolations, one describing how Maximus left Riez and settled at Thérouanne in Flanders (which claimed to have his tomb in the later middle ages), the other reproducing the entry on Maximus in Gregory of Tours' Glory of the Confessors (E02715).
The first printed edition of the Life was produced at Cologne in 1575 by the Counter-Reformation hagiographer Laurentius Surius (De probatis Sanctorum historiis, t. VI, 601-6); followed in 1613 by Vincentius Barralis in his collection of texts relating to monastery of Lérins, Chronologia Sanctorum et aliorum virorum illustrium ac abbatum sacrae insulae Lerinensis (Lyon, 1613), vol. 2, 120-126; reprinted Patrologia Latina 80, 31-40. On these editions, see Gennaro 1966, 34-5; Gioanni 2010, 130-31; Pécout 2021, 8. The two editions are virtually identical, so either Barralis used the same manuscript as Surius or simply used his edition (neither editor says anything about the manuscripts or source text he used). The text given by Surius and Barralis differs in significant respects from the text of the extant manuscripts, to the extent that Gennaro, in his critical edition, printed it separately as an appendix. There were no further editions until Salvatore Gennaro produced the only modern critical edition in 1966: Maximus' feast day of 27 November is in the part of the year not covered by the published volumes of the Acta Sanctorum, and – perhaps surprisingly for a work by a prominent Merovingian politician – the Life did not attract the attention of any MGH editors.
Sometime in the 7th or 8th (Gioanni 2010, 125), or possibly 9th century (Pécout 2021, 5, 17), an unknown author used the Life of Maximus as the basis for a Life of Virgilius (BHL 8679), bishop of Arles from 588 to c. 612 (see E06501). While there are some differences between the two texts, for the most part the Life of Virgilius follows the Life of Maximus so closely that it can be treated as a witness to its text (as it is by Gennaro in his edition). Stéphane Gioanni (2010, 130-31) has suggested that the variant version of the Life of Maximus published by Surius and Barralis had been rewritten in order to differentiate it from the Life of Virgilius.
Discussion
Maximus (PCBE 4, 'Maximus 4') became bishop of Riez in 433/4, after serving for seven years as abbot of the monastic community at Lérins, in succession to its founder, Honoratus. He died at an unknown point between 452 (his last dated attestation in office) and 462 (the first attestation of his successor Faustus). The Life by Dynamius, written in the late 6th century, therefore dates from well over a century after Maximus' lifetime. While the preface to the Life makes reference to an earlier work on Maximus written by Faustus of Riez (see above), nothing in the Life appears to derive from it.The content of the Life is essentially a succession of miracles by Maximus, primarily healing miracles and resurrections, though Maximus also defeats various manifestations by the devil. Depiction of other aspects of his life is minimal and formulaic. Significant details mentioned by Dynamius about Maximus' cult are the belief that he acted as a protector of the city of Riez, securing it from enemies (§ 9), the continuing importance of his tomb as a place of cult (§ 19), and the fact that by Dynamius' time, Maximus had come to be regarded as the patron of the church where he was buried, replacing its original dedication to Peter (§ 19). Dynamius mentions Maximus' feast day (§§ 2, 21), but without giving the actual date (the canonical date of 27 November is not attested until the 9th century: Pécout 2021, 5).
The Life states that Maximus founded two churches: the church dedicated to Peter where he was buried (§ 19), and a church dedicated to Alban (§ 8). Philippe Borgard and Marc Heijmans have argued that Maximus' burial church must have been outside the walls, on the basis of an antithesis made by Dynamius (§ 19), when he claims that Riez was protected 'from outside, through the strength of his body which prevails, from inside through the most sacred church that he built' (a foris per virtutem sui corporis quae praecellit, ab infra, per templum sacratissimum quod construxit). They argue that the contrast of foris ('outside') with infra ('below' in classical Latin, but often meaning 'within' in later Latin), where the latter relates to the church of Alban, which is explicitly stated by Dynamius to have been within the walled castellum of Riez, must show that Maximus' tomb was outside the walls (Borgard and Heijmans 2014, 240-41).
The more striking foundation attributed to Maximus in the Life (§ 8) is of a church dedicated to St Alban. There is no doubt about the manuscript evidence: all the manuscripts refer to the church of either Albani or Albini, but there is no known saint called Albinus who received cult in the 5th century. This makes the Life of Maximus a remarkable testimony to the rapid spread of Alban's cult, which appears to have been unknown outside Britain until it was introduced to Gaul by Germanus of Auxerre following his visit to Britain in 429 (see Wood 2009, Laynesmith 2017), not long before Maximus became bishop of Riez. According to Mark Laynesmith, it is the earliest attestation of a church dedicated to Alban outside Britain (Laynesmith 2017, 61). The relics whose deposition in the church is mentioned in § 9, would thus presumably have been relics of Alban (possibly of other saints as well), though this is not stated explicitly. Laynesmith suggests that Maximus could have received these relics from Germanus himself, given both the attested links between Germanus and bishops associated with Lérins, and Germanus' journeys to southern Gaul. The topographical details about the church mentioned by Dynamius in §§ 8-9 of the Life make it clear that it was within the walls of Riez and on a hill. On this basis, its site has been identified by Borgard and Heijmans as that of the medieval church of Saint-Maxime, demolished in the 16th century (Borgard and Heijmans 2014, 240). They suggest that the church became known by Maximus' name after his relics were translated there from their original extra-mural site. The details provided by Dynamius also imply that a reference in the Eusebius Gallicanus sermon (E00756) to Maximus founding a church on a hill in Riez (without its dedication being specified) is to this church.
The Life of Maximus contains two references to veneration for St Andrew: a blind man approaches Maximus for healing (§ 16), when Maximus is performing a vigil before 'the altar of St Andrew' (altare sancti Andreae) in an unnamed church, and the vision by the subdeacon Cariatto of Maximus, Andrew, and Peter (§ 20), takes place when Cariatto is celebrating a vigil for St Andrew's day (sancti Andreae celeberrima festivitas). Borgard and Heijmans suggest that the dedication of the cathedral at Riez (which is unattested for this period) may have been to Andrew, which would provide context for both these events (Borgard and Heijmans 2014, 239).
Bibliography
Edition:Gennaro, S., Dinamii vita sancti Maximi episcopi Reiensis. Fausti Reiensis sermo de sancto Maximo episcopo et abbate (Catania: Centro di studi sull'antico cristianesimo, 1966).
French translation and commentary:
Jacob, P.-A., and Boulhol, P., Maxime de Riez, entre l’histoire et la légende. Dynamius le Patrice, Vie de saint Maxime, évêque de Riez. Fauste de Riez, Panégyrique de saint Maxime, évêque et abbé (Valensole: Aurorae Libri, 2014). [Not seen]
Further reading:
Borgard, P., and Heijmans, M., "Riez," in: F. Prévot, M. Gaillard, and N. Gauthier (eds.), Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, vol. 16: Quarante ans d'enquête (1972-2012): 1. Images nouvelles des villes de la Gaule (Paris, 2014), 234-242.
Dumézil, B., "Le patrice Dynamius et son réseau: culture aristocratique et transmformations de pouvoirs autour de Lérins dans la seconde moitié du VIe siècle," in: Y. Codou and M. Lauwers (eds.), Lérins, une île sainte de l'Antiquité au Moyen Âge (Turnhout, 2009), 167-194.
Gioanni, S., "La Vita Virgilii (BHL 8679). Plagiat, réécriture ou remploi?", in: M. Goullet, M. Heinzelmann, and C. Veyrard-Cosme (eds.), L'hagiographie mérovingienne à travers ses réécritures (Beihefte der Francia 71; Ostfildern, 2010), 126-59.
Guyon, J., "Riez," in: N. Gauthier and J.-Ch. Picard (eds.), Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, vol. 2: Provinces ecclésiastiques d'Aix et d'Embrun (Narbonensis Secunda et Alpes Maritimae); Corse (Paris, 1986), 35-41.
Laynesmith, M.D., "Translating St Alban: Romano-British, Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon Cults," Studies in Church History 53 (2017), 51–70.
Pécout, T., "Le culte de Maxime de Riez: premiers jalons (I)," Bulletin du Centre d'études médiévales d'Auxerre 25:1 (2021), 1-36.
___, "Le culte de Maxime de Riez: renouveaux (II)," ibid. 25:2 (2021), 1-51.
PCBE 4 = Pietri, L. and Heijmans, M., Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614), 2 vols. (Paris 2013).
Wood, I.N., "Germanus, Alban, and Auxerre," Bulletin du Centre d’études médiévales d’Auxerre 13 (2009), 123-129.
David Lambert
28/10/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00033 | Mary, Mother of Christ | Maria | Certain | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus | Certain | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain | S00288 | Andrew, the Apostle | Andreas | Certain | S00424 | Maximus, bishop of Riez, ob. 452/462 | Maximus | Certain | S00438 | Honoratus, founder of Lérins and bishop of Arles, ob. 429/30 | Honoratus | Certain | S01364 | Albanus/Alban, martyr of Verulamium (Britain) | Albanus | Certain |
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