An account of the discovery (inventio), in 677, of the relics of *Memmius (first bishop of Châlons-en-Champagne, northern Gaul, S01285), and of the miracles which followed. Written in Latin, presumably in Châlons (northern Gaul), shortly after the event. Full text, and full English translation.
E06475
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Literary - Hagiographical - Other saint-related texts
The Discovery of Saint Memmius, Bishop of Châlons (Inventio sancti Memmii episcopi Catalaunensis, BHL 5911)
The opening words of this text connect it to the Life of Memmius (E07577), which precedes it in the manuscripts.
(1.) Postquam tantis effulsit virtutibus et miraculis Deus per servos suos claruitque, novissimo tempore in anno secundo sub imperio Dagoberti regis – ipse est, qui post longam pressuram reversus est ad propria regna, – in mense quinto, in quinta die mensis, secunda vigilia noctis, cum ei nocturnos fratres celebrantes adstarent, sic res nova nec antea unquam visa ad caput sancti sepulchri, ut patrem se apostolicumque eo tempore declararet, apparuit, precibus caelum aperiens, quod nec tribus mensibus pluerat super terram. Dum et vehemens fervebat siccitas, ita ut omnes putei in pulverem redacti sint, sic Deus terram irrigavit et compluit et aquam, quae descenderat, ab imo per pedes quadraginta ad sublimia conscendere fecit et eam usque ad quartam vigiliam desuper fontem manare fecit, ut omnes vigilantes viderentet tremerent omnes fratres uno voto consentientes. Consummata est quidem ea nocte vigilia et celebrata festivitas. Verum ab ipsa die usque ad octavam diem nullatenus cantus cessavit psalmorum in una fide pulsantium in nomine Iesu Christi domini nostri. Amen.
(2.) Ubi fons manaverat desursum, in profundum ibidemque consimilem virtutem reppererunt. Vasculum plumbeum est repertum, sicque opertorium eius medium se scidit, quasi serrula manibus percussum fuisset, claruitque aqua in eodem vasculo in similitudinem cristalli. Tremefacti psallentes in fide Christi in perscrutando, inventumque est pulchrum corpus, cuius omnes artus et articuli, dentes et nervi conexi ad invicem, continentes sic pulchra membra vel dentes, quasi ipsa die cibum edissent. Ablatum utrumque vasculum et opus, inventum est sicque perscrutatum tanto miraculo, ut sic inter medium pendens equali mensura, quantum desursum, tantum deorsum terra praeminebat, nec inventum ullum foramen, per quod aqua ingressa fuisset. Et inventa est pulchritudo prima in ipso eodem loco, quae perpetuo manat vigore constructa et opere elegantissimo ornata. Unde cotidie infirmi recipiunt medicinam, fonte firmo et omni tempore admirando. Vasculum inventum extra templum ad partem orientalem pedum decem in suo proprio honore locum recepit.
(3.) Tercia die puella a longo tempore pede constricta nullo poterat proficisci gressu; fide firma ad ipsum sanctum corpus devota tribus noctibus ad orationem prostrata, infirmitate relicta, sanitate recepta, sine dolore pedis egreditur.
(4.) Post sex vero menses, ipsa sequente virtute, puer consimili infirmitate ad sancti viri Memmii sepulchrum in eius locum iuxta fontem manantem iacuit pernoctans; aurora surgente, sanitatem recepit.
(5.) Mulier a lumine clausa, caecitate percussa multis temporibus, duabus noctibus iacuit; tercia vero nocte quarta vigilia sic ei claruit lumen, quasi nullum tenebris obscuratum habuisset visum. Quo recepto, ad propria remeavit.
(6.) Ex illa die demones, quacunque essent imagine Dei repressi, nullatenus in hoc loco latere potuerunt, ibidem declarati et ibidem effugati, et alia multa similia et virtutes, quas enarrare visum non est et enumerare longumque per ordinem texere. Verum ea quae vidimus haec scripsimus et narramus. Quanta gloria, quanta claritas, quanta praemia in perpetuum, quae Deus sanctis praeparat in aeternum, quando ad eius sepulchrum tanta est virtus et veneratio in praesenti, regnante domino nostro Iesu Christo. Amen.
(1.) After God blazed forth with such great wonders and miracles and shone brightly through his servants, very recently, in the second year of the reign of king Dagobert (he is the one who after long tribulation returned to his own realm), in the fifth month, on the fifth day of the month, in the second watch of the night, when the brothers stood celebrating nocturns for him, so a new thing never seen before appeared at the head of the saint's tomb, which declared at that moment that he was a father and apostolic, opening through prayers the sky which had not rained on the earth for three months. When the fierce drought had raged, so much that all the wells were reduced to dust, God so irrigated the land and poured down rain, and made the water which had sunk down rise forty feet from the bottom to the top [of the wells], and made it flow forth as a spring until the fourth watch, so that all those keeping vigil saw it and all the brothers trembled, united in a single prayer. The vigil was completed on that night and the feast day celebrated. Indeed, from that day for a week, the song of the psalms never ceased resounding in a single faith, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(2.) Where the spring had flowed forth, in the depth there it was discovered through a similar miracle. A lead coffin (vasculum) was found, and the middle of its lid (opertorium) was split, as if it had been cut by hand with a saw, and water glittered in that coffin similarly to crystal. Trembling, singing psalms in the faith of Christ while they [the brothers] investigated, a handsome body was discovered, with its limbs, joints, sinews and teeth all connected, possessing such beautiful limbs, and teeth that could have eaten food that very day. When both the coffin and structure were [being] removed, it was discovered, and so observed by such a great miracle, that hanging thus in the middle by an equal measure, as much from above as from below, it stood out from the earth, nor was any opening found through which water could have entered. And the chief beauty [the spring] was discovered in the very same place, which flows with perpetual force, built and ornamented with the most elegant work. Each day the sick receive medicine from it, with the spring enduring and ever-wondrous. The coffin (vasculum) found outside the church, ten feet from the eastern part, received a shrine (locus) in its own honour.
(3.) On the third day, a girl for a long time had been unable to walk because of a twisted foot. In firm faith she spent three nights prostrate in prayer beside the holy body itself. Leaving behind her infirmity, receiving health, she walked away with no pain in her foot.
(4.) After six months, continuing the same miracle, a boy with a similar affliction lay through the night in her place by the flowing spring at the tomb of the holy man Memmius; at the rise of dawn he received healing.
(5.) A woman deprived of sight, struck with blindness for many seasons, lay for two nights; on the third night at the fourth watch, the light was as bright for her as if none of her sight had been obscured by darkness. With it restored, she returned home.
(6.) From that day, demons, however they had been constrained by the image of God, could not by any means be hidden in this shrine (locus). Here they were revealed and here put to flight. And there were many other similar things and wonders which it does not seem [necessary] to relate and to enumerate and to weave together in a long series. But we have written and spoken about the things we have seen. How great is the glory, how great the distinction, how great the everlasting rewards which God prepares for his saints in eternity, when at his [Memmius'] tomb there is such great power and veneration in the present day, as our Lord Jesus Christ reigns. Amen.
Text: Levison 1910.
Translation: Philip Beagon and David Lambert.
Service for the saint
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Cult building - independent (church)
Holy spring/well/river
Non Liturgical ActivityRenovation and embellishment of cult buildings
MiraclesMiracle after death
Material support (supply of food, water, drink, money)
Bodily incorruptibility
Power over elements (fire, earthquakes, floods, weather)
Healing diseases and disabilities
Exorcism
RelicsBodily relic - entire body
Contact relic - water and other liquids
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Children
Women
Source
Memmius (PCBE 4, 'Memmius') was the first bishop of Châlons-en-Champagne (until 1998 Châlons-sur-Marne). It is claimed in his Life (E07577) that he was a contemporary of the apostles, but it is generally assumed in modern scholarship that he lived in the early to mid 4th century. This is implied by the list of bishops of Châlons, in which he is separated by only six names from bishops who are known from other sources to have lived in the mid 5th century.The Inventio Memmii (BHL 5911) describes the discovery in 677 of Memmius' body, followed by brief descriptions of some miracles which subsequently took place at his tomb. In all known manuscripts (Levison 1910, 364) it is appended to the Life of Memmius, although it is not certain whether this was always the case, since most scholars agree that it predates any extant version of the Life (see discussion in E07577).
The 7th c. date of the Inventio has never been questioned (see Levison 1910, 364; van der Straeten 1974, 299; Heinzelmann 2010, 67). Levison cites in particular the reference to July as the 'fifth month', in accordance with Merovingian practice in which the year began in March, and the reference to the return from exile of Dagobert II (r. 676-679), which is unlikely to have been be mentioned in a text written very long afterwards. Furthermore, the listing of three comparatively minor miracles, two fairly precisely dated in relation to the discovery, would suit a time of composition soon after the event better than one many years later, by which time it is likely that the story would have become more elaborate.
The text was first printed in the Acta Sanctorum (1735), edited by Jean-Baptiste Sollers (Sollerius), who used manuscripts from Cîteaux and the Cistercian monastery at Vauluisant (Vallis Lucens) (Levison 1910, 364). The only modern critical edition of the text, by Wilhelm Levison, is based primarily on Montpellier, Faculté de Médecine 1, t. 4, fol. 113r-114r (12th c.); Levison also used Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, ms. 1269 (T.1.4.), fol. 43-46, a 13th c. manuscript originally from St. Maurice d’Agaune, but noted (Levison 1910, 364) that its text had been heavily revised (‘textus quam maxime retractatus est’): as can be seen from the variant readings in Levison’s apparatus, the copyist has frequently emended the text to make the grammar more regular and to impose a clear meaning on the often obscure Merovingian Latin of the original. Four other manuscripts are listed either in BHLms (bhlms.fltr.ucl.ac.be) or by Levison: Paris, BnF lat. 16734 (12th c.), lat. 17005 (12th c.), and lat. 11758 (13th c.), and Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 642 (13th c., originally from Cîteaux – Levison suggests that this was the Citeaux ms. used by Sollers).
The editions of Sollers and Levison have virtually no significant differences – Levison himself described them as simillimi (Levison 1910, 364). However, though they are based on different manuscripts, these are closely related: all but one of the known manuscripts (the exception is the heavily modified Biblioteca Angelica manuscript) are copies of the same collection of texts, the large collection of saints' lives compiled by the Cistercian Order in the 12th century and known as the Liber de natalitiis or 'Cistercian Legendary'. All these manuscripts must therefore be descended, probably at not many removes, from a single original, the source used by the compilers of the collection. Their uniformity is thus not surprising, in spite of the difficulty of the text. Details of most of the manuscripts can be found at BHLms (bhlms.fltr.ucl.ac.be) and/or the websites of the relevant libraries. For the contents of the Biblioteca Angelica manuscript, showing that it is not a copy of the same collection, see Levison 1920, 660.
Discussion
Date and placeThe Inventio states that the miraculous discovery of Memmius’ body took place on 'in the fifth month, on the fifth day of the month' during the second regnal year of a king named Dagobert ‘who after long tribulation returned to his own realm'. This description is applicable only to Dagobert II (r. 676-679), who took up the kingship after many years in exile in Ireland. The reign of Dagobert II is poorly documented and the precise date when it began is not known, but collation of various dated documents from his reign indicates that it was between 2 April and 1 July 676 (Weidemann 1998, 196). Under the Merovingian calendar the year began in March, making July the fifth month. The date given in the Inventio is therefore equivalent to 5 July 677.
Memmius' tomb was located at a site about 1.5 km east of the walls of ancient Châlons (Beaujard 2006, 65), in the modern district of Saint-Memmie. His tomb was in an established extra-mural cemetery along one of the main roads radiating from the city (Ravaux 1980, 59; Beaujard 2006, 65). A basilica dedicated to him existed there by the late 6th century, when it was visited by Gregory of Tours (see E02678).
Interpretation of the text
Like many texts from Merovingian Gaul, the Inventio of Memmius is written in Latin which diverges considerably from the norms of the classical language. The grammatical structure of its sentences is often very loose, and a number of significant words are used in senses different from those in classical Latin. This is most problematic in § 2, which describes the actual discovery of Memmius’ body and the physical context in which it was uncovered. Since the Inventio is the only account of this event, we are entirely dependent on it for our understanding of what happened, but it is precisely at this point that its language is most difficult. All attempts to understand it (including our own) are necessarily tentative. (Other discussions of the text can be found in Vieillard-Troiekouroff 1976, 268, and Beaujard 2006, 65; note that the latter, in particular, differs considerably from the interpretation put forward here.)
Taking this into account, the general thrust of the story is clear: in the main body of the text, four miraculous events are described (leaving aside the healing miracles briefly recounted at the end of the text, whose interpretation is unproblematic). First (§ 1) in a period of severe drought, during vigils at the tomb of Memmius, the heavens open and torrential rain fills the dried-out wells and causes a spring of water (fons) to appear at the grave. Secondly (first half of § 2): the spring uncovers a lead coffin (vasculum plumbeum). The language here is particularly obscure, but the implication seems to be that the spring washed away sufficient earth from the place where Memmius was buried to reveal his coffin (there is no reasonable doubt that vasculum here means ‘coffin’, although this is not its meaning in classical Latin). Because its lid (opertorium) is split down the middle, those present can see its contents: it is filled with water shining like crystal, in which there is a perfectly preserved body. Third (later in § 2): those present try to remove the coffin. The manuscripts say that they removed utrumque vasculum et opus, literally ‘both the coffin and the work’. The exact significance of opus here is uncertain, but most plausibly seems to indicate that the coffin was found in some kind of structure, such as a crypt or hypogeum, or perhaps simply that it was contained in a sarcophagus. Levison says in a footnote that he would prefer the reading corpus, ‘body’, which would undoubtedly make the meaning simpler. However, the description of the subsequent miracle seems also to imply that the coffin was discovered within a structure of some kind, not simply in the earth: it was found to be suspended, seemingly in mid air, with as much space above it as below it (quantum desursum, tantum deorsum). There was also apparently no gap through which the water could have entered. Fourthly (end of § 2, also § 4): the spring continued to flow permanently, and healed those who received its waters.
Three healing miracles are then described (§§ 3-5), which took place in the aftermath of the coffin’s discovery when people lay and prayed at the place where it was found. It is also claimed that exorcisms took place at the site (§ 6), though no specific cases are given.
Implications of the text
In spite of the lack of clarity in much of the text of the Inventio, a number a conclusions can be drawn from it:
a) The original grave
It is worth emphasising that the Inventio does not recount the finding of a lost tomb: it is explicit that the miraculous uncovering of the coffin took place at the recognised grave of Memmius, when vigils for the saint were being celebrated there (§ 1). The grave was ten feet east of the church (§ 2: extra templum ad partem orientalem pedum decem). While there is nothing inherently unlikely in this, it is notable that it appears to contradict the other early account of Memmius’ tomb, given about a century earlier by Gregory of Tours in his Glory of the Confessors (E02678). The account by Gregory, who says that he had visited Memmius’ shrine in person (and experienced a miracle there), while it does not describe the location of his tomb in absolutely unambiguous terms, certainly seems to imply that it was inside the basilica. There is no obvious way to reconcile this with the account of Memmius’ grave in the Inventio.
b) The new shrine
After the revelation of the coffin, a shrine (locus) was constructed for it (§ 2: in suo proprio honore locum recepit). No clear account of it is given in the Inventio, but it seems to have been on the site of the grave: certainly the miracles related in §§ 3-5 are said explicitly to have taken place at the site of the grave, outside the church. A structure of some kind was built around the spring (§ 2: constructa et opere elegantissimo ornata).
There is additional evidence regarding the shrine from the 9th century, when in 868 the Châlons priest Theudoin wrote to the hagiographer Almannus of Hautvillers, asking him to write a new version of the Life of Memmius (cf. E07577). Theudoin refers to the rebuilding of the shrine on the orders of King Charles the Bald, and mentions that this involved the removal of a ‘mausoleum’ and ‘a mound of earth’ (agger terrae), these physical features presumably being those of the original shrine. This enabled him to examine the saint’s ‘stone-lined grave’ (caementaria … fossa):
... noveris quod … ablato mausoleo et aggere terrae semoto, perlustrasse nos beati Memmii sepulcrum in quadrangula et caementaria pretiosi corporis fossa …
‘You should know that … after the demolition of the mausoleum and the removal of the mound of earth, we examined the blessed Memmius’ tomb in the square and his stone-lined grave …’
Theudoin then claims to have witnessed the miracle of the coffin being suspended in the air:
… eiusque sanctum sepulcrum est inventum minime ex ulla parte haerere ad terram, sed virtute omnipotentis Dei apud quem merita tanti patroni refulgent, in ipsa fossa veluti libratum in aera pendere quatuor digitis a terra …
‘… and his holy tomb was found to be not at all, in any part, fixed to the earth, but by the power of omnipotent God, with whom the merits of such a great patron [saint] shine brightly, in the grave itself it was as if balanced in the air, hanging four inches from the earth.’
This passage is significant, because although it has been thoroughly rewritten, it is evidently based on the corresponding passage in the Inventio. It therefore indicates that the Inventio was known and being read at Châlons in the mid 9th century, as well as showing how the text was understood by a Carolingian cleric.
c) Memmius’ apostolicity
One sentence in the Inventio is potentially of considerable significance. It is said of the miraculous appearance of the spring that: patrem se apostolicumque eo tempore declararet, literally meaning ‘[it] declared him at that moment to be a father and apostolic’. This seems most naturally to be understood as a reference to the story in the Life of Memmius that he was sent to Gaul from Rome by the apostle Peter. If this sentence dates from the original composition of the Inventio, it indicates that this claim about Memmius, and the consequent belief that the see of Châlons was an apostolic foundation, date back to at least the late 7th century. This would be the earliest datable reference to such a belief by a considerable margin (and would perhaps support those who wish to assign an earlier rather than a later date to the Life of Memmius – see discussion in E07577). It is possible that it is a later interpolation, added to bring the Inventio into line with the Life and to further strengthen Memmius' supposed apostolicity. It does appear consistently in the manuscripts, with the exception of the reworked Biblioteca Angelica manuscript, although given the nature of the manuscript tradition for this text (see above), this is not decisive evidence against interpolation at some point between the composition of the text and the copying of the exemplar from which most manuscripts are descended, probably in the 12th century.
Bibliography
Editions:Levison, W., Inventio Memmii episcopi Catalaunensis, in: Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici III (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 5; Hannover and Leipzig, 1910), preface 363-365, text 365-367.
Sollerius, J.B., Acta Sanctorum, Aug. II (Antwerp, 1735), 7-8.
Epistola Theudoini, ed. E. Dümmler, Epistolae Karolini Aevi IV (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epistolae 6; Berlin, 1925), 169-170.
Further reading:
Beaujard, B., "Châlons-en-Champagne," in: L. Pietri et al., Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule, vol. 14: Province ecclésiastique de Reims (Belgica Secunda) (Paris, 2006), 59-66.
Heinzelmann, M, "L'hagiographie mérovingienne: panorama des documents potentiels," in: M. Goullet, M. Heinzelmann, and C. Veyrard-Cosme (eds.), L'hagiographie mérovingienne à travers ses réécritures (Beihefte der Francia 71; Ostfildern, 2010), 27-82.
Levison, W., "Conspectus Codicum Hagiographicum," in: Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici (V) (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum 7; Hannover and Leipzig, 1920), 529-706.
Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614), ed. L. Pietri and M. Heijmans,2 vols. (Paris 2013).
Ravaux, J.-P. "Histoire topographique de Châlons-sur-Marne (IVe-XVIe siècles)," Mémoires de la Société d'agriculture, commerce, sciences et arts du département de la Marne 95 (1980), 57-87.
van der Straeten, J., "Vie inédite de S. Memmie, premier évêque de Châlons-sur-Marne," Analecta Bollandiana 92 (1974), 297-319.
Vieillard-Troiekouroff, M., Les monuments religieux de la Gaule d'après les oeuvres de Grégoire de Tours (Paris, 1976).
Weidemann, M., "Zur Chronologie der Merowinger im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert," Francia, 25 (1998), 177-230.
David Lambert, Philip Beagon (translation); David Lambert, Bryan Ward-Perkins (discussion)
05/11/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01285 | Memmius, first bishop of Châlons-en-Champagne | Memmius | Certain |
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