The Life of Amator describes how *Amator (bishop of Auxerre, ob. 418, S01980) visited and consecrated the shrine of *Symphorianus (martyr of Autun, S00322) in Autun, central Gaul, towards the end of his episcopate (388-418), and on the same occasion healed three lepers. Written in Latin in Auxerre (central Gaul), 561/605.
E08561
Literary - Hagiographical - Lives
Life of Amator 28
Tunc Simplicius episcopus, vir summae simplicitatis atque caritatis, rumore adventus ejus praeventus, ei cum omni ordine clericali, nec non et cum Julio tunc praefecto, officii sui turmis stipato, ire obvius non neglexit. Quem rite salutatum atque debitae venerationis assentatione purius honoratum, ad Aeduam civitatem perduxerunt. Peracto autem caliginosae noctis tempore, famuli Dei surgentes, ad Symphoriani martyris diversorium properant. Eo namque tempore nondum latis aedificiis ambiebatur, sed parvissimae cellulae angustiis obseratum erat spatium. Illic duae olivae et duo candelabra, luminosis lychnis praeceptorum Domini perlucentia, pariter ingrediuntur: alternatim se orationibus praeveniunt: votorum obsequia martyris dignitati persolvunt. Licet enim jam diu praefata cella fuisset in honore martyris constructa, non tamen fuerat canonico more pontificis invocationibus dedicata. Tunc ante dictus Dei sacerdos Simplicius beatissimo Amatori postulatione incumbit, ut per ejus precum puritatem Symphoriani martyris Deo consecraretur habitaculum. Perficiente ergo Domino per suum famulum, quae fidelissimo athletae Symphoriano promiserat; protinus, praeeunte ac subsequente turba populorum Deum collaudantium, in urbem regressi sunt.
Et ecce subito, in ipsa brevitate itineris, tres leprosi, mundationis sui corporis integritatem cupientes, sese conspectui eorum praesentaverunt; poscentes ut solitam precum salubritatem eis impenderent. Antistes vero ex fluento Jordanis latices sumit, qui Reticio quondam episcopo jubente, ad Aeduam civitatem allati fuerant. Ex his in ora leprosorum irrorans, insuper oleo benedictionis omne corpus eorum Crucis facto signaculo illinivit, et statim omnis morbus obsessos penitus dereliquit, ita ut sic pristino colori cutis superficies redderetur, tamquam si numquam fuisset lepraticae inquinationis deteriorata languore. Proclamant omnes Deo gratias, et Symphoriano martyri atque Amatori consona voce gratiæ peraguntur, et sanitatis redditae opitulatio utrisque populorum præconiis deputatur.
'Then Bishop Simplicius [of Autun], a man of the greatest simplicity and charity, forewarned of his [Amator's] arrival through rumour, did not neglect to meet him with the whole clerical order and also with Julius, then the Prefect, surrounded by a crowd of his staff. Properly saluting him and honouring him more purely by assenting to the veneration owed to him, they led him into the city of the Aedui [Autun]. When the time of dark night arrived, the servants of God, arising, hurried to the abode of the martyr Symphorianus. For at the time it was not yet surrounded by extensive buildings, but was a space enclosed by the narrowness of a tiny cell. There the two olives [i.e. oil-lamps] and two candelabras, lucent with the luminous lamps of the Lord's precepts, entered together. Anticipating each other in prayer by turns, they paid in full their duty of prayers to the dignity of the martyr. For while the aforementioned cell had already long been constructed in honour of the martyr, it had not been dedicated in canonical form by the invocations of a bishop. Then the previously mentioned priest of God Simplicius, sought by request to the most blessed Amator, that through the purity of his prayers the habitation of Symphorianus the martyr should be dedicated to God. With God therefore achieving through his servant what he had promised to the most faithful athlete Symphorianus, thereupon, with a crowd of the people of God preceding and following them with applause, they returned to the city.
And behold, suddenly in the same brief journey, three lepers, longing for the wholeness of a purified body, presented themselves to their sight, demanding that they should bestow on them the customary healing of their prayers. The bishop took some of the waters from the River Jordan which had been brought to Autun at the command of the former bishop, Reticius. Sprinkling from them onto the faces of the lepers, he poured the oil of benediction onto the whole body of each of them, making the sign of the cross, and immediately the whole disease completely abandoned those it had seized: so much so that the surface of their skin returned to its pristine colour, as if it had never been damaged by the sickness of leprous pollution. All proclaimed thanks to God, and thanks were given with a united voice to the martyr Symphorianus and to Amator, and the gift of restored health was attributed to the two glories of the peoples [of Auxerre and Autun].'
Text: Duru 1850, 154.
Translation: David Lambert.
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Burial site of a saint - crypt/ crypt with relics
Martyr shrine (martyrion, bet sāhedwātā, etc.)
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Visiting graves and shrines
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsContact relic - water and other liquids
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
The socially marginal (beggars, prostitutes, thieves)
Source
The Life of Amator, bishop of Auxerre from 388 to 418, was written by a presbyter named Stephanus at the request of Aunacharius, bishop of Auxerre from 561 to 605. For full discussion of the Life, see E05672.Discussion
This incident is depicted as taking place shortly before Amator's death (and so by implication around 418). It forms part of a narrative (Life of Amator 25-30) in which it is revealed to Amator that his successor will be *Germanus (S00455), who at this point is still a layman and a secular official. Amator travels to Autun to ask Germanus' superior, the prefect Julius, for permission to tonsure Germanus as a cleric and for him to succeed as bishop. The events depicted here take place when he arrives: Amator is welcomed to Autun by Julius and by the bishop of the city, Simplicius; after nightfall, Simplicius and Amator go to the extramural shrine of the martyr Symphorianus, where they pray together, and since the shrine has never been consecrated by a bishop, Simplicius asks Amator to do this. On their way back to the city, Amator heals three lepers.The shrine of Symphorianus at Autun is well-documented. It was situated about 1400 metres north-east of the city walls (Picard 1989, 16-17). A basilica was constructed there around the middle of the 5th century (see E02024, E06496); by the time the Life of Amator was written in the late 6th century there was also a monastery attached to it (E06714). The account of Amator's visit is therefore correct when it says that in his time the original shrine was 'not yet' surrounded by extensive buildings, but was still in its original form, described as a 'tiny cell' (parvissima cellula). Almost identical words (parva cellula) are used to describe Symphorianus' burial place in the Martyrdom of Symphorianus (§ 12), a text that was in existence by the second half of the 5th century (see E06496). In context, the word cella/cellula, whose basic meaning is a small room, must indicate something like a tomb chamber or vault (cf. Picard 1989, 16: 'sans doute un petit mausolée').
For information about the cult of Symphorianus before the 5th century we are entirely dependent on the Martyrdom of Symphorianus, which claims that he was martyred under the emperor Aurelian (r. 270-75), and buried in the 'small cell', which then became a site of cult and where miracles took place. If the account of Amator's visit to the shrine has any historical basis, it would be the earliest specific incident known to have occurred there. It is not inherently implausible that the bishop of a neighbouring see might have been invited to take part in the consecration of a shrine, though the idea that Symphorianus' shrine had remained unconsecrated for generations until Bishop Simplicius spontaneously asked Amator to do so during a chance visit has an obvious air of implausibility: if something like the event described did happen, it may have been because – for example – Simplicius had refurbished or reconstructed the shrine in some way, though this is pure speculation.
There are a number of problems, however: most of the content of the Life of Amator is fictional, and this is certainly the case with the wider narrative in which this incident is embedded, Amator's journey to Autun to ask permission to ordain Germanus. This is part of a wider agenda on the part of the author, Stephanus, of giving Amator credit for the rise of his much more celebrated successor. The reference to Simplicius as bishop of Autun raises problems, since it is incompatible with other evidence that shows Simplicius (the subject of two miracle stories in Gregory of Tours' Glory of the Confessors – E02696, E02698) as having been in office in the mid 4th century. It therefore makes it necessary to assume that there were two bishops of Autun named Simplicius (thus Duchesne 1899, 176-7; PCBE 4, 'Simplicius 1' and 'Simplicius 4'). Even the apparently accurate account of the physical state of Symphorianus' shrine in the early 5th century is subject to the caveat that Stephanus seems to have known the Martyrdom of Symphorianus – suggested by the parva cellula / parvissima cellula echo between the two texts – and may have been influenced by what it says about the shrine. The incident must therefore be treated with caution at best.
The 'previous bishop' of Autun mentioned in the passage, Reticius, is the earliest recorded, and was probably the first, bishop of the city, appearing as a participant in church councils in the early 4th century (Duchesne 1899, 176; PLRE 4, 'Reticius'); a story about him was also included by Gregory of Tours in Glory of the Confessors (E02695). The waters that he had brought to Autun from the River Jordan are not mentioned except in this passage.
Bibliography
Edition:Duru, L.M., Bibliothèque historique de l'Yonne, vol. 1 (Auxerre, 1850), 136-158.
Further reading:
Duchesne, L., Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule. Tome deuxième, l'Aquitaine et les Lyonnaises (Paris, 1899).
Picard, J.-C., "Les premiers sanctuaires chrétiens des cités de Bourgogne," Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa 25 (1989), 3-19.
Pietri, C., and Picard, J.-C., "Autun," in: N. Gauthier and J.-C. Picard (eds.), Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, vol. 4: Province ecclésiastique de Lyon (Lugdunensis Prima) (Paris: Boccard, 1986), 37-45.
Pietri, L., and Heijmans, M., Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614), 2 vols. (Paris, 2013). [= PCBE 4]
David Lambert
29/10/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00322 | Symphorianus, martyr of Autun | Symphorianus | Certain | S01980 | Amator, bishop of Auxerre, ob. c. 418 | Amator | Certain |
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