He was born at Auxerre about the year 380, of noble parents. Having
laid the foundation of sound literature at home, he studied eloquence
and the civil law at Rome, and pleaded with great reputation in the
court of the Præfectus-prætorio. He married a lady of great quality
named Eustachia, and being taken notice of by the emperor Honorius,
was raised by him to several honorable employments, and at last to
that of duke in his own province, which dignity gave him the command
over all the troops in that country. Germanus being returned to
Auxerre, was careful to shun gross vices, but his religion seemed
confined to principles of integrity, and his virtues were merely
human; for he was unacquainted with the true spirit of mortification,
humility, and prayer. The young duke had a passion for hunting, and
hung up the heads of the wild beasts which he killed on a great tree
in the middle of the city, as trophies of his diversion. No one
could presume to show him the meanness and folly of this favorite
petty vanity, by which he seemed to authorize the superstitious
custom of the Pagans who did the like to honor their gods. St.
Amator, who was at that time the zealous bishop of Auxerre, made him
strong remonstrances on the danger of countenancing such remains
of idolatry, but without effect. At last, watching an opportunity,
he caused this tree to be cut down while Germanus was absent, who,
upon hearing this news, grievously threatened the bishop. St. Amator
withdrew for a while to Autun; where he learned by a revelation
that Germanus was designed by God to be his successor. He therefore
procured privately the consent of Julius, the prefect of Gaul, that
he might give the tonsure to Germanus; for, by the laws, no officer
could quit his employment without such a permission. Julius giving
leave, St. Amator returned to Auxerre, and causing the church doors
to be shut when Germanus was come in, he gave him the tonsure, and
ordained him deacon. By this instance, it appears, that immediately
after the general persecutions, clerks were distinguished by the
tonsure. This proof is the stronger, as the priest Constantius wrote
this life in the same age. Germanus durst not make any opposition for
fear of resisting the will of God. St. Amator died soon after on the
1st of May in 418, and St. Germanus was unanimously chosen by the
clergy and people to succeed him, and consecrated by the bishops of
the province on the 7th of July, notwithstanding the great reluctance
he discovered.
Full of a deep sense of the obligations of his new dignity, he
became at once another man. He renounced all the pomps and vanities
of the world, lived with his wife no otherwise than if she had been
his sister, distributed all his possessions to the poor and to the
Church, and embraced a life of poverty and austerity. From the day he
was ordained bishop to his death, that is, for thirty years together,
he never touched wheaten bread, wine, vinegar, oil, pulse, or salt.
He began every meal by putting a few ashes in his mouth to renew
in his soul a spirit of penance, and took no other sustenance than
barley bread, which grain he had threshed and ground himself, that he
might, as a true penitent, live by his own labor. He never ate but
in the evening, sometimes about the middle of the week, often only
on the seventh day. His dress was the same in winter and summer, and
consisted of a cowl and tunic which he never changed till they were
worn to pieces. He always wore a hair-cloth next his skin. His bed
was enclosed with two boards, strewed with ashes, without a bolster,
and covered with a sack-cloth and one blanket. He always carried
about him some relics of saints in a little box, tied to a leather
string. He extended his hospitality to all sorts of persons, washed
the feet of the poor, and served them with his own hands, at the
same time that he himself fasted. He built a monastery over against
Auxerre, on the other side of the river Yone, in honor of SS. Cosmas
and Damian, which now goes by the name of St. Marian’s, from one
of its first abbots. He found the sepulchres of several martyrs,
particularly of a great multitude who had been put to death in the
persecution of Aurelian, with St. Priscus, otherwise called St. Bry,
in a place called Coucy, where their bodies had been thrown into a
cistern or pit out of which he took them, and built in their honor
a church and monastery, called at this day _de Saints en Puy saye_.
St. Germanus gave all his landed estates to the Church, consisting of
several agreeable and spacious manors, lying all contiguous to one
another.[296] Seven of these he gave to the cathedral church, namely
Appoigny, where his father and mother had been buried in St. John’s
church; little Varsy, where stood a palace; great Varsy, Toucy,
Poeilly, Marcigny, and Perigni. Three he settled on the monastery of
St. Cosmas, namely, Monceaux, Fontenay, and Merilles. He bestowed
three others, called Garchy, Concou, and Molins, on the church which
he built in honor of St. Maurice, which at this day bears the name
of St. Germanus himself. In this manner he reduced himself to great
poverty, and to perpetuate the divine honor, and the relief of the
indigent, enriched the church of Auxerre which he found very poor. By
many like examples, it appears, that the great endowments of several
churches were originally owing to the liberality of their bishops, as
Fleury observes.
Pelagius began to dispute against the necessity of divine grace at
Rome, about the year 405. Being himself by birth a Briton, it is not
to be wondered that he should have disciples in Britain. Among these
one Agricola, the son of Severinus, who, after the birth of this son,
was chosen bishop and became a Pelagian, spread the poison of this
heresy in our island. The deacon Pelladius, whom pope Celestine had
sent to the places infected with this heresy, and whom he afterward
ordained bishop, and commissioned to go into Scotland, moved him to
provide for the preservation of so many souls; and other Catholics
in Britain had sent a deputation to the bishops in Gaul, entreating
them to send over some able person to defend the faith and oppose the
growing evil. Pope Celestine nominated St. Germanus of Auxerre to
go thither in quality of his vicar in the year 429, as St. Prosper
assures us.[297] The bishops of Gaul assembled in a numerous council
for the same purpose, and agreed to entreat St. Lupus, who had then
been only two years bishop of Troyes, to accompany St. Germanus in
this important mission.[298] These two holy prelates, proceeding on
their journey, came to Nanterre near Paris, where St. Germanus gave
his blessing and good counsel to St. Genevieve, and foretold her
future sanctity. She being at that time about fifteen years old,
and desirous to consecrate herself a virgin to God, St. Germanus,
after many solemn prayers in the church, received there her vow, and
confirmed it by laying his right hand upon her head.[299]
St. Germanus and St. Lupus embarking in the winter season, were
overtaken with a furious tempest, which St. Germanus appeased
by casting some drops of blessed oil, according to Constantius,
but according to Bede, of holy-water, into the sea, having first
invoked the adorable Trinity. Being arrived in Britain they were
met by a great multitude of people and the fame of their sanctity,
doctrine, and miracles soon filled the whole country. They confirmed
the Catholics in all parts, and converted the heretics, preaching
often in the highways and fields where the churches were not able
to contain the crowd that flocked to them. The Pelagians everywhere
shunned them; but being at length ashamed thus to condemn themselves
by their flight and silence, accepted a conference. The disputation
was held at Verulam before an incredible number of people. The
heretics, who made their appearance with a great train and in rich
apparel, spoke first. When they had talked a long time, the bishops
answered them with great eloquence, and so invincibly supported their
arguments with quotations from scripture, that their adversaries were
fairly reduced to silence. The people applauded their victory with
joyful acclamations. Before the assembly broke up, a certain tribune
and his wife presented their little daughter of ten years of age,
who was blind, to the two holy bishops; and they bid them take her
to the Pelagians. But the latter joined the parents in begging the
saints to pray for her. The two bishops made a short prayer; then
Germanus called upon the Blessed Trinity; and taking from his neck
the little box of relics which he wore, laid it upon the eyes of the
girl before the whole assembly, who immediately recovered her sight,
to the great joy of her parents and of all the people. From that day
no one opposed the doctrine of the holy bishops. The saints went from
this conference to return thanks to God at the tomb of St. Alban, the
most illustrious martyr in Britain. St. Germanus caused his sepulchre
to be opened, and deposited in it his box of relics of apostles and
martyrs, taking from the same place a little of the dust which still
retained some marks of the blood of St. Alban. This he carried away
with him, and, at his return, built at Auxerre a church in his honor,
where he placed these relics.[300]
The Saxons from Germany on one side, and on the other the Picts, at
that time harassed the Britons. Paul the deacon tells us, that an
army of Picts and Scots invaded their territories whilst the two
bishops were in the island; and bishop Usher takes notice, that the
Saxons and English who inhabited Sleswic, and all the German coast
from Denmark to the Rhine, made descents upon Britain from time to
time before the arrival of Hengist and Horsa in 449. The Britons
having assembled an army against these plunderers, invited the
two holy bishops into their camp, hoping to be protected by their
prayers and presence. The saints complied with their request, but
employed their time in bringing the idolaters to the faith, and the
Christians to a reformation of their manners. Many of the former
demanded baptism, and the saints prepared them to receive it at
Easter, for it was then Lent. They erected a church in the camp of
green boughs twisted together, in which the catechumens received the
sacrament of regeneration; and the whole army celebrated the festival
with great devotion. After Easter, St. Germanus had recourse to a
stratagem, by which, without bloodshed, he rescued his dear converts
and the country out of the danger with which they were threatened.
The enemy approaching, he put himself at the head of the Christians
with so much skill and address as showed he had not forgotten his old
profession of a general. He led his little army into a vale between
two high mountains, and ordered his troops to send forth the same
shout for which he would give them a sign. When the Saxon pirates
came near them, he cried out thrice, _Alleluiah_, which was followed
by the whole British army; and the sound was often repeated by the
echo from the hills with as dreadful a noise as if the rocks had
been rent asunder. The barbarians, in a sudden fright, judging from
the shout that they were falling upon the swords of a mighty army,
flung down their arms and ran away, leaving behind them all their
baggage and a great booty. Many of them were drowned in crossing a
river, by missing the fords.[301] Bishop Usher[302] says, this battle
seems to have been fought near a town in Flintshire, called in the
British tongue, Guid-cruc, but in English, Mould. The place retains
to this day the name of Maes Garmon, or German’s field. The two holy
bishops, after so many victories, returned home to their respective
dioceses.[303]
St. Germanus found his people loaded with extraordinary imposts,
and undertook a journey to Arles, to solicit Auxiliaris, prefect of
Gaul, in their behalf. On the road, the people everywhere met him in
crowds, with the women and children, to receive his blessing. When
he drew near to Arles, the prefect Auxiliaris himself, contrary to
custom, was come a good way to meet him, and conducted him to the
capital. He admired his gracefulness, and the charity and authority
which his countenance and conversation displayed, and found him to
exceed his reputation. He made him great presents, and entreated
him to cure his wife who had been long ill of a quartan ague. He
obtained his request, and granted to St. Germanus the discharge
from the taxes which he had asked for his people. The saint being
returned home, applied himself earnestly to reform their manners;
but used to retire from time to time to his monastery of SS. Cosmas
and Damian. In 446 he was called again into Britain, to assist that
church against the Pelagian heresy, which began a second time to
raise its head there. He took for his companion St. Severus, who
had been lately promoted to the archbishopric of Triers, and had
formerly been a disciple of St. Lupus of Troyes. In Britain he
sought out those who had been seduced by the heretics, and converted
many of them; so that the obstinate sowers of those errors found no
longer any retreat here, and quitted the island. A principal man
of the country, called Elaphius, brought to him his son who was
in the flower of his age, and had one ham contracted, and his leg
withered. St. Germanus made him sit down, and touching his ham and
leg, healed him in the presence of Many. St. Germanus considering
that ignorance could not be banished, nor the reformation which he
had established maintain its ground, without regular schools for the
instruction of the clergy, instituted schools of learning, by which
means, “These churches continued afterward pure in the faith, and
free from heresy,” as Bede observes.[304] In South-Wales, having
ordained St. Iltutus priest, and St. Dubricius archbishop of Landaff,
he charged them with the care of several schools, which soon grew
very famous for the numbers, learning, and eminent sanctity of
those that were there educated. Two of these, under the immediate
direction of the latter, were seated at Hentlan and Moch-ros,
places lying on the river Wye, where he had one thousand scholars,
for years together. The names of the most eminent among them are
mentioned in the life of St. Dubricius, written (as some maintain)
by St. Thelian’s own hand in the ancient Landaff register.[305] The
schools of St. Iltutus at Llan-Iltut (now Lantwit) near Boverton,
and at Llan-elty near Neath in Glamorganshire, were in like repute,
and equally filled with the sons of the nobility from all parts of
the island. Among his disciples we find St. Gildas, St. Leonorius
bishop and confessor, St. Samson, St. Magloire, St. Malo, St. Paul
afterward bishop of Leon, and Daniel, whom St. Dubricius made bishop
of Bangor, where he likewise instituted a seminary for the Britons.
Paulinus, another disciple of St. Germanus, did the like at Whiteland
in Caermarthenshire, where St. David and St. Theliau studied. The
seminaries of Llancarvan near Cowbridge, and the famous school of
Bencor in Flintshire, were also noble monuments of St. Germanus’s
zeal. This saint was on his road back when he met a deputation from
the inhabitants of Armorica or Brittany who besought him to be
their protector; for to punish them for a revolt, Aëtius, the Roman
general in Gaul, had sent Eocarich, a Pagan and barbarous king of the
Alemanni, to subdue them. St. Germanus boldly accosted the barbarian,
stopping his horse by the bridle, at the head of his army. The
German at first refused to hear him, but at length listened to his
discourse, and by it was so much softened as to call off his troops,
and agree not to ravage the province, on condition that he should
obtain the pardon of the people from the emperor, or from his general
Aëtius. In order to procure this the saint undertook a journey to
Ravenna, where the emperor Valentinian III. then resided.
He wrought several miracles on the way, and at Milan delivered a
man who was possessed by the devil. He entered the city of Ravenna
by night to avoid honors and pomp; but the people being aware of
his precaution, a great crowd waited for him, and saluted him with
acclamations. He was received with great joy by the bishop St.
Peter Chrysologus; by the young emperor Valentinian, and his mother
Placidia. She sent to his house a great silver vessel filled with
dainties, without any flesh, which she knew he would never touch.
The saint sent her in return a barley loaf upon a wooden dish. The
empress received it graciously, ordered the dish to be enchased
with gold, and kept the loaf by which several miraculous cures were
performed. The emperor confirmed his request; but the restless
people by raising new disturbances destroyed the effect of the
imperial clemency. The saint was continually attended at Ravenna by
six bishops, and wrought there many miracles. The son of Volusian,
chancellor or secretary to the patrician Sigisvultus, being dead and
cold, the saint was called, and having put all the company out of
the chamber, he prostrated himself near the corpse and prayed with
tears. After some time the dead man began to stir, opened his eyes,
and moved his fingers. St. Germanus raised him, he sat up, and, by
degrees, was restored to perfect health. One day after matins, as the
saint was talking with the bishops of religious matters, he said to
them, “My brethren, I recommend my passage to your prayers. Methought
I saw this night our Saviour, who gave me provision for a journey,
and told me it was to go into my native country, and to receive
eternal rest.” A few days after, he fell sick. All the city was
alarmed. The empress went to see him, and he desired the favor of her
to send back his corpse into his own country; to which she assented,
though very unwillingly. He died at Ravenna on the seventh day of
his illness, which was the last of July in 448, having held his see
thirty years and twenty-five days. The empress Placidia took his
reliquary, St. Peter Chrysologus his cowl and hair shirt, and the six
other bishops divided his clothes among them. The eunuch Acholius,
prefect of the emperor’s chamber, one of whose servants, when sick,
the saint had cured, had his corpse embalmed; the empress clothed
it with a rich habit and gave a coffin of cypress wood; the emperor
furnished the carriages, the expense of the journey, and the officers
to attend it. The funeral pomp was most magnificent; the number of
lights was so great, that they shone as broad day. Everywhere as it
passed, the people came to meet it, showing all manner of honors.
Some levelled the ways and repaired the bridges, others bore the
corpse, or at least sung psalms. The clergy of Auxerre went as far
as the Alps to meet it. The sacred treasure was brought to that city
fifty days after the saint’s death, and after having been exposed
six days, was interred on the 1st of October in the oratory of St.
Maurice, which he had founded, where stands at present the famous
abbey which bears his name. His principal festival is kept on the
31st of this month. St. Germanus was the titular saint of many
churches in England, and of the great abbey of Selby in Yorkshire,
the abbot whereof was a parliamentary baron. A chapel near Verulam,
in which St. Germanus had preached, was a place of great devotion
to him among our ancestors, and was afterward dedicated under his
name. From him the parliamentary borough of St. German’s in Cornwall
is called. See his life written by the priest Constantius, who was
nearly his contemporary, and is commended by St. Sidonius Apollinaris
in the same age: also Bede, and Nennius the British historian, who
wrote in 620. All these relate the miracles mentioned above. See also
Leland’s Itinerary, Brown-Willis, Usher, Fleury, Tillemont, t. 15,
Rivet, Hist. Littér., t. 2, p. 256, and Recueil des Lettres sur la
Vérification des Reliques de St. Germain d’Auxerre, 1753, in 8vo.