1 October. 1662 Book of Common Prayer: Bishop Remigius & Apostle of the Franks
1 October. 1662 Book of Common Prayer: Bishop Remigius & Apostle of the Franks
Saint Remigius, Remy or Remi, (French: Saint Rémi or Saint Rémy; Italian: Remigio; Spanish: Remigio; Occitan: Romieg; Polish: Remigiusz; and Breton: Remig), was Bishop of Reims and Apostle of the Franks, (c. 437 – January 13, 533). On 24 December 496 he baptised Clovis I, King of the Franks. This baptism, leading to the conversion of the entire Frankish people to Nicene Christianity, was a momentous success for the Catholic Church and a seminal event in European history.
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Saint Remigius, Remy or Remi, (French: Saint Rémi or Saint Rémy; Italian: Remigio; Spanish: Remigio; Occitan: Romieg; Polish: Remigiusz; and Breton: Remig), was Bishop of Reims and Apostle of the Franks, (c. 437 – January 13, 533). On 24 December 496 he baptised Clovis I, King of the Franks. This baptism, leading to the conversion of the entire Frankish people to Nicene Christianity, was a momentous success for the Catholic Church and a seminal event in European history.
Contents
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1 Life
Life
Remigius was born, traditionally, at Cerny-en-Laonnois,
near Laon, Picardy, into the highest levels of
Gallo-Roman society. He is said
to have been son of Emilius, count of Laon (who is not otherwise attested) and
of Celina, daughter of the Bishop of Soissons, which Clovis had conquered in 486. He studied at Reims and soon became so
noted for his learning and sanctity, and his high status, that he was elected Bishop of Reims in his 22nd year,
though still a layman.[3]
The story of the return of the sacred vessels (most
notably the Vase of Soissons), which had been stolen from the church of Soissons, testifies to the
friendly relations existing between him and Clovis, King of the Franks, who he
converted to Christianity with the assistance of Saint Vedast (Vedastus, Vaast,
Waast) and Saint Clotilde,
the Burgundian
princess who was wife to Clovis. Even before he embraced Christianity, Clovis
had showered benefits upon Remigius and the Christians of Reims, and after his
victory over the Alamanni in
the battle of Tolbiac (probably 496), he requested Remigius to baptize him at Reims (December
24, 496) in the presence of a large company of Franks and Alamanni: according
to Saint Gregory of Tours, 3,000 Franks were baptized with Clovis.[4]
King Clovis granted Remigius stretches of territory, in
which Remigius established and endowed many churches. He erected bishoprics at Tournai; Cambrai; Thérouanne, where he personally
ordained the first bishop in 499; Arras, where he installed St.
Vedast; and Laon, which he gave to his niece's husband Gunband. In 530 he
consecrated Medardus, Bishop of Noyon. Remigius' brother
Principius was Bishop of Soissons and also corresponded with Sidonius Apollinaris, whose letters give a sense of the highly cultivated courtly literary
Gallo-Roman style all three men shared.[5]
The chroniclers of "Gallia Christiana" record that numerous donations were made to Remigius by the Frankish
nobles, which he presented to the cathedral at Reims.
Though Remigius never attended any of the church
councils, in 517 he held a synod at Reims, at which after a heated discussion
he converted a bishop of Arian
views. Although St Remigius's influence over people and prelates was
extraordinary, upon one occasion his condoning of the offences of one Claudius,
a priest whom Remigius had consecrated, brought upon him the rebukes of his
episcopal brethren, who deemed Claudius deserving of degradation. The reply of
Remigius, still extant, is able and convincing.
Few authentic works of Remigius remain: his "Declamations"
were elaborately admired by Sidonius Apollinaris, in a finely turned letter to
Remigius, but are now lost.[6] Four letters survive: one
containing his defence in the matter of Claudius, two written to Clovis, and a
fourth to Bishop Falco of Tongeren.
The "Testament of St. Remigius" is apocryphal. A brief and
strictly legendary "Vita" was formerly ascribed to Venantius Fortunatus. Another, according to Jacobus de Voragine, was written by Ignatius, bishop of Reims.[7] A letter congratulating Pope Hormisdas upon his election
(523) is apocryphal, and "the letter in which Pope Hormisdas appears to
have appointed him vicar of the kingdom of Clovis is proved to be spurious; it
is presumed to have been an attempt of Hincmar to base his pretensions for the
elevation of Reims to the primacy, following the alleged precedent of
Remigius."[8]
A Commentary on the Pauline Epistles (edited
Villalpandus, 1699) is not his work, but that of Remigius of Auxerre.[9]
St Remigius' relics were kept in the Cathedral of Reims, whence Hincmar had them translated to Épernay
during the Viking invasions and thence, in
1099 to the Abbey of Saint-Rémy. His feast is celebrated on October 1.
Remi and the Sainte Ampoule
Main article: Holy Ampulla
There was an early legend associated with St. Remigius
known as the Legend of the Baptism of Moribund Pagan, according to which a
dying pagan asked for baptism at the hands of St. Remigius, but when it was
found that there was no Oil of the Catechumens or sacred Chrism available for
the proper administration of the baptismal ceremony, St. Remigius ordered two
empty vials be placed on an altar and as he prayed before them the two vials
miraculously filled respectively with the necessary Oil of the Catechumens and
Chrism.
Apparently when the sepulcher containing the body of St.
Remi was opened in the reign of Charles the Bald and
while Hincmar was the Archbishop of
Reims, two small vials were found, the contents of which gave off an aromatic
scent the likes of which was like nothing known to those present. If one recalls
that when St. Remigius died the ancient art of perfumery was still known and
practiced in the collapsing Roman Empire, but was unknown in the Carolingian
empire four hundred years later, these vials may have originally simply have
bottles of unguents used to cover the scent of decay of St. Remigius’ corpse
during his funeral, but the memory of the two vials miraculously filled in the
story of the Baptism of the Moribund Pagan and the unusual, seemingly
otherworldly scents issuing from these two vials found buried with St. Remigius
combined to suggest to those present that these two vials were the miraculously
filled vials of the legend.
It should be remembered as well that it was not uncommon
for chalices, patens and other sacred vessels to be buried with high ranking
clergymen.
Hincmar adroitly combined the discovery of (1) the two
vials (2) the Legend of the Moribund Pagan and (3) the historical memory that
St. Remigius had baptized Clovis, into the Legend of the Sainte Ampoule, (ie. that the
Chrism used by Remigius when he baptized Clovis was miraculously supplied by
heaven itself). Hincmar used the new Legend to strengthen his claim that his
own archepiscopal see of Reims (as the possessor of this heavenly sent Chrism)
should be recognized as the divinely chosen site for all subsequent
sacre/anointings of French kings. The fate of the second vial is uncertain. It
has been suggested that since in the original form of the legend this would
have been the vial containing the Oil of the Catechumens and that the French
coronation ordinals prescribe the Oil of the Catechumens, rather than Chrism,
for the anointing of queens, it was subsequently used for anointing the queens
of France[10] and it is possible that a
vial currently identified by some of the Bourbon Legitimists as the Sainte
Ampoulle is actually this second vial.
Archbishop of Reims
459–533 |
See also
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References
1.
Jump up ^ Great Synaxaristes: (Greek) Ὁ Ἅγιος Ρεμίγιος Ἐπίσκοπος Ρημῶν. 13 Ιανουαρίου.
ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.
4.
Jump up ^ The legend of the
ampulla of holy oil that was used to anoint the kings crowned at Reims
originated after St Remigius' time, with Bishop Hincmar of Reims.
8.
Jump up ^ Philip Schaff, "The
New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge," entry by A. Hauck
10.
Jump up ^ The Legend of the
Ste. Ampoule by Sir Francis Oppenheimer, KCMG, Faber & Faber Ltd., 24
Russell Square, London.
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