Saint Remigius baptising King Clovis of the Franks
Remigius (also called Remedius) was born in about 435 AD at Laon of noble parents, Emilius and Cylinia. They were far advanced in age and renowned among their own people for their virtue when the birth of this child was foretold to them by a blind hermit named Montanus who afterwards recovered his sight by applying to his eyes some of the milk with which the infant Remigius was nourished. His mother Cylinia is included in the Roman Martyrology as a saint with a feast on the 21st of October, and the translation of her relics is noted in some martyrologies on the 5th of April. The brother of Remigius was Saint Principius, the Bishop of Soissons. His nurse in infancy was Balsamia, venerated as a saint in the Church of Rheims.
Remigius devoted his youth to prayer and study in retirement, but the more he shrank from the company of men, the more his fame spread throughout the province. He was ordained in 457 and at the age of 22 became the Bishop of Rheims on the death of Bennadius. Remigius, who had the mature character of an old man, was unanimously elected, or rather forcibly installed as Archbishop. He endeavoured to escape the burden of the episcopate, but was obliged by the command of God to submit. Having been consecrated by the Bishops of the province, he governed his church with the wisdom of an experienced veteran. He was eloquent and learned in the Scriptures, and a pattern to his people, fulfilling in deed what he taught by word. According to Saint Gregory of Tours, Remigius was a man of great knowledge, imbued with love of rhetorical studies, and so illustrious for his sanctity, as to equal Pope Saint Silvester I.
He carefully and laboriously instructed his own flock in the mysteries of faith, and established discipline among his clergy. Then he undertook to spread the kingdom of Christ in Belgium, and having converted the people to the faith, he founded several new bishoprics and appointed them pastors: at Terouanne Saint Antimund or Aumont, at Arras Saint Vedast, and at Laon Saint Genebald. The wonderful works of Remigius, being divulged far and wide, filled with astonishment the minds of Clovis and his still pagan Franks. When Clovis, who had already conquered the Gauls, triumphed over the Alemanni at the battle of Tolbiac by the invocation of the name of Christ, he sent for Remigius and willingly listened to his explanation of the Christian doctrine. Remigius urged the king to embrace the faith, but he replied that he feared the opposition of his people. When this was reported to the Franks, they cried out with one voice: “We renounce mortal gods, O pious king, and are ready to follow the immortal God whom Remigius preaches.” Then the Bishop imposed a fast on them, according to the custom of the Church, and having, in the presence of the Queen Saint Clotilde, completed the king’s religious instruction, he baptised him on Christmas Day, addressing him in these words: “Bow down your head in meekness, O Sicambrian. Adore what you have until burnt, burn what you have adored.” After the baptism, he anointed him with holy chrism with the sign of the cross of Christ. Moro than three thousand of the army were baptised, as was Albofleda, Clovis’s sister, who died soon after. On this occasion Remigius wrote to console the king. His other sister, Lanthilda was reclaimed from the Arian heresy, anointed with sacred chrism, and reconciled to the Church.
Remigius was exceedingly liberal to the poor and merciful towards sinners. “God has not placed us here,” he would say, “to exercise wrath, but to take care of men.” During a council, he once by divine power struck an Arian bishop with dumbness until he begged forgiveness by signs, when he restored him his speech with these words: “In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, if you hold the right belief concerning Him, speak and confess the faith of the Catholic Church.” The bishop recovering his voice, protested that he believed and would die in that faith. Towards the end of his life Remigius lost his sight, but recovered it shortly before his death. Knowing the day of his departure, he celebrated Mass and fortified his flock with the sacred Body of Christ. Then he bade his clergy and people farewell, giving to each one the kiss of our Lord’s peace. Remigius died on the 13th of January 533 and has ever since been venerated as one of the greatest glories of the French Church. His festival is generally kept on this day which is the anniversary of the translation of his relics.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Scarcely had two centuries elapsed since the triumph of the Cross over Roman idolatry when Satan began to cry victory once more. While Eutychianism was crowned at Byzantium in the person of Anastasius the Silent, Arianism was rife in the West. Throughout the whole ancient territory of the empire, heresy was supreme, and almost everywhere was persecuting the Church, who had now none but the vanquished for her sons. “But fear not. Rather rejoice,” says Baronius at this point in his Annals: “it is Divine Wisdom still delighting to play in the world. The thoughts of men count for little before Him who holds the light in His hands, to hide it when He pleases and, when He wills, to bring it forth again. The darkness that now covers the earth marks the hour when the dawn is about to break in the hearts of the Franks, and the Catholic faith is to shine there in all its glory.”
Little known in our days is such a manner of writing history. Yet this was the view taken by the first historian of the Church, and the greatest. On such a feast as this we could not do better than repeat summarily his account of the Franks. “How,” says he “can we help admiring that Providence which is never wanting to the Church? From the midst of tribes still pagan, on the morrow of the irremediable fall of the Empire, God forms to Himself a new people, raises to Himself a prince: against these must break the rising tide of heretics and Barbarians. Such, in truth, appeared in the course of ages the divine mission of the Frankish kings. What energy has faith to uphold kingdoms, and what fatal power has heresy to uproot every plant that is not set by our heavenly Father! In proof hereof, see how the principalities of the Goths, Vandals, Heruli, Alani, Suevi and Gepidi have utterly disappeared, while the Franks behold their little spot of earth blessedly fertilised and encroaching far upon the surrounding territories.
Henceforth appeared the might of the Franks, when preceded to battle by the Cross. Hitherto obscure and struggling for existence, they were now everywhere victorious. They had only had to acknowledge Christ in order to reach the highest summit of glory, honour and renown. In so speaking I say nothing but what is known to the whole world. If they have been more favoured than other nations, it is because they were super-eminent in faith, and incomparable in piety, so that they were more eager to defend the Church than to protect their own frontiers. Moreover, a privilege unique and truly admirable was theirs: never did the sins of kings bring upon this people, as upon so many others, subjection to a foreign yoke. The promise of the Psalm would seem to have been renewed in favour of this nation: If his children forsake my law.. and keep not my commandments, I will visit their iniquities with a rod... but my mercy I will not take away from him.”
All honour, then, to the saintly Pontiff who merited to be the instrument of such heavenly benefits! According to the expression of the holy Pope Hormisdas, “Remigius converted the nation, and baptised Clovis, in the midst of prodigies similar to those of the apostolic age.” The prayers of Clotilde, the labours of Genevieve, the penances of the monks who peopled the forests of Gaul, had doubtless a great share in a conversion which brought such joy to the Angels. Did space allow, we might relate how it was also prepared by the great Bishops of the fifth century, Germanus of Auxerre, Lupus of Troyes, Anian of Orleans, Hilary of Arlee, Mamertus and Avitus of Vienne, Sidonius Apollinaris and so many others who, in that age of darkness, held up the Church to the light of day, and commanded the respect of the Barbarians. Remigius, contemporary and survivor of most of them, and their rival in eloquence, nobility and holiness, seemed to personify them all on that Christmas night forestalled by so many desires, and prayers, and sufferings.
In the baptistery of Saint Mary’s at Rheims, the Frankish nation was born to God. As heretofore on the banks of Jordan the dove was again seen over the waters honouring this title, not the Baptism of Jesus, but that of the Church’s eldest daughter, it brought a gift from Heaven, the holy vial containing the chrism which was to anoint the French kings in future ages into the most worthy of all the kings of the Earth. Two churches in the city of Rheims claim the honour of these glorious souvenirs: the grand church of our Lady, and the venerable basilica where Remigius lay, with the vial of chrism at his feet, and guarded by the twelve Peers surrounding his splendid mausoleum. This church of Saint Remigius bore the name of caput Francia, head of all France, until three days of October 1793when, from its desecrated pulpit was proclaimed the word that the days of darkness were at an end: when the holy ampulla was broken, and the relics of the Apostle of France were thrown into a common grave.
After an episcopate of seventy-four years, the longest ever recorded in history, Remigius took his flight to Heaven on the 13th January, the anniversary of his episcopal consecration and also of his birth. Yet in the same century, the first of October was chosen for his Feast, this being the day on which his relics were first translated to a more honourable place, in the midst of miracles such as those which had graced his life. The Translation of Saint Remigius is the name still given to this day by the church of Rheims which, by a special privilege, celebrates on the Octave day of the Epiphany the principal festival of its glorious patron.
Saint Leo IX said to his contemporaries, and we echo his words, concerning the land of France: “Be it known to your charity that you must solemnly celebrate the Feast of the blessed Remigius, for if to others he is not an Apostle, he is such with regard to you at least. Pay such honour, then, to your Apostle and Father, that you may merit, according to the divine promise, to live long upon the earth and, by his prayers, may obtain possession of eternal beatitude.” When he thus spoke, the sovereign Pontiff had just consecrated your church, then for the third time rebuilt with the magnificence required by the growing devotion of the people. The nine centuries since elapsed have augmented your claims to the gratitude of a nation, into which you infuse such vigorous life that no other has equalled it in duration. Accept our thanks, you who were as a new Sylvester to a new Constantine.
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Glory be to our Lord who showed forth His wonders in you! Remembering those gestes of God accomplished in all climes by her sons the Franks, the Church recognises the legitimacy of applying to you the beautiful words which announced the Messiah: “Give ear, ye islands, and hearken, ye people,from afar. The Lord has called me from the womb... And He said: Behold I have given you to be the light of the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth.” Truly it was a day of salvation, that Christmas day, on which it pleased our Lord to bless your labours and grant the desires of your long episcopate. By the holy faith you taught, you were then the covenant of the people, the new people composed of the conquerors and the conquered in that land of France which, when once itself raised up, soon restored to God the inheritances that had been destroyed.
O true Church, the one only Bride, captive and destitute, behold Remigius rises to say to your sons that are bound: “Come forth, and to them that are in darkness: Show yourselves!” From North and South, from beyond the sea, behold they come in multitudes: “all these are come to you. Therefore, give praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice O earth, because the Lord has comforted His people.” After a whole century of heresy and barbarity, God has once more demonstrated that they will not be confounded that wait for Him. Our confidence in God will again be rewarded if you, O Remigius, deign to present to our Lord the prayer of the Franks who have remained faithful in honouring thy memory. The renegades sold over to Satan may tyrannise for a time over the deluded crowd, but they are not the nation. A day will come when Christ, who is ever King, will say to the Angels of His guard those words of His lieutenant Clovis: “It displeases me that these Goths possess the good land of France. Expel them, for it belongs to us.”Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, blessed Aretas and five hundred and four other martyrs.
At Tomis in Pontus, the holy martyrs Priscus, Crescens, and Evagrius.
At Lisbon in Portugal, the holy martyrs Verissimus, and his sisters, Maxima and Julia, who suffered in the persecution of Diocletian.
At Tournay, St. Piaton, priest and martyr, who, with blessed Quinctinus and his companions, went from Rome to Gaul to preach the faith and afterwards, in the persecution of Maximian, having consummated his martyrdom, passed from earth to heaven.
At Thessalonica, St. Domninus, martyr, under the same Maximian.
At Ghent, St. Bavo, confessor.
At Orvieto, St. Severus, priest and confessor.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
