dimanche 8 avril 2012

Saint PERPET (PERPETUUS) de TOURS, évêque et confesseur



SAINT PERPET ou PERPETUUS

Évêque de Tours

(mort en 494)

Saint Perpetuus, originaire d'une famille sénatoriale d'Auvergne, dans la première moitié du Ve siècle, fut désigné par l'éclat de ses vertus au clergé et au peuple de Tours pour gouverner leur Église, en 461.

La gloire de l'épiscopat de saint Perpetuus, ce fut son amour pour saint Martin et pour la basilique qu'il avait fait construire en son honneur, basilique que les auteurs et les poètes de l'époque comparent au temple de Salomon et regardent comme une des merveilles du monde. La construction de ce temple, digne du Saint qui devait y être honoré, dura vingt-deux ans; sa consécration se fit avec une grande solennité; Perpetuus y avait invité un grand nombre d'évêques et de religieux.

Lorsqu'on voulut exhumer le corps de saint Martin pour le transporter dans un sanctuaire du nouvel édifice, on éprouva des difficultés insurmontables, et l'on ne put remuer le cercueil; le projet allait être abandonné, quand un vieillard inconnu, revêtu du costume d'abbé, s'approcha et dit: "Ne voyez-vous pas que saint Martin est prêt à vous aider?" Et aussitôt, de ses mains, il souleva sans effort le corps du bienheureux. C'était sans doute un ange envoyé du Ciel ou peut-être saint Martin lui-même.

De nombreux miracles s'opérèrent plus que jamais au tombeau de saint Martin, et depuis ce temps le nom de saint Perpetuus se trouva lié à toutes les gloires de la superbe basilique. Le saint évêque de Tours bâtit beaucoup d'autres églises; de là vient qu'on le représente avec un édifice sacré sur la main, symbole qui convient fort bien, du reste, à l'un des plus grands bâtisseurs d'églises qui aient jamais existé.

Saint Perpetuus aima les pauvres, son clergé et son Église d'un ardent amour, comme son testament en fait foi. Voici quelques lignes de ces pages vraiment épiscopales: "Au nom de Jésus-Christ. Ainsi soit-il. Moi, Perpetuus, pécheur, prêtre de l'Église de Tours, je ne veux pas partir de ce monde sans laisser un testament, de peur que les pauvres ne soient privés des biens dont la bonté du Ciel m'a libéralement doté, et de peur que les biens d'un prêtre ne passent à d'autres familles qu'à mon Église. Je donne et lègue à tous les prêtres, diacres et clercs de mon Église, la paix de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Ainsi soit-il. Que le Seigneur Jésus détruise du souffle de Sa bouche tous les impies! Ainsi soit-il, ainsi soit-il! Paix soit à l'Église, paix soit au peuple, à la ville et à la campagne... Pour vous, mes frères bien-aimés, ma couronne, ma joie, mes seigneurs, mes enfants, pauvres de Jésus-Christ, indigents, mendiants, malades, orphelins, veuves, vous tous, je vous fais et constitue mes héritiers..."

Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.

SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_perpet_ou_perpetuus.html


Saint Perpet

Evêque de Tours (✝ 494)

ou Perpétue.

Confesseur et évêque de Tours.

Originaire d'Auvergne, il fut un des évêques les plus remarquables de son temps. Dès la première année de son épiscopat, il réunit un concile à Tours. Quelques années plus tard, lors du premier concile de Vannes, il en sacre le premier évêque, saint Paterne. Il prit un soin tout particulier au sanctuaire de saint Martin faisant élever une grande basilique, l'ancienne étant devenue trop étroite. Saint Grégoire de Tours en parle avec admiration. Nous avons le texte de son testament, écrit de sa main, quatorze ans avant sa mort. Il est intéressant comme document de ce que pouvaient être la vie et les biens d'un évêque de ce temps. Les derniers temps de son existence furent assombris par l'invasion des Goths en Touraine et qui apportèrent avec eux l'arianisme.

Liste des évêques de Tours.

À Tours, en 491, saint Perpétue, évêque, qui construisit la basilique de Saint-Martin et beaucoup d’autres en l’honneur des saints, et organisa dans son Église les jeûnes et les vigiles.

Martyrologe romain

SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/935/Saint-Perpet.html

Saint Perpetuus

Eighth Bishop of Tours, d. 1 January, or 8 December, 490, or 8 April, 491. He was a member of the illustrious family which produced St. Eustachius, who had been his predecessor, and also St. Volusianus, who became his successor in the same episcopal see. Appointed about 460, he guided the Church of Tours for thirty years, and it is apparent, from what little information we have, that during his administration Christianity was considerably developed and consolidated in Touraine. Shortly after his elevation, St. Perpetuus presided at a council in which eight bishops who were reunited in Tours on the Feast of St. Martin had participated, and at this assembly an important rule was promulgated relative to ecclesiastical discipline. He maintained a careful surveillance over the conduct of the clergy of his diocese, and mention is made of priests who were removed from their office because they had proved unworthy. He built monasteries and various churches, but above all he desired to replace by a beautiful basilica (470) the little chapel that Saint Britius had constructed, to protect the tomb of St. Martin. The will of St. Perpetuus was published for the first time in 1661 by Dom Luc d'Achery in his "Spicilegium". This curious historical monument belonging to the end of the fifth century gives us an excellent idea of the sanctity of its author.

Sources

BARONIUS, Ann. (1595), 47-52, 482; BOURASSE, Le testament de S. Perpetue, évêque de Tours, in Bull. de la Soc. arch. de Touraine, II (Tours, 1871-3), 256; CEILLIER, Hist. gen. des auteurs sacr. et eccl., XV (Paris, 1748), 189-95; HENSCHENIUS, in Act. SS. Bolland. (1675), Apr., I, 748-52; Hist. litt. de la France, II (Paris, 1735), 619-27; ROBOTTI DEL FISCALE, Cenni stor. intorno al glor. vescovo di Tours, S. Perpetuo (Alessandria, 1859); TILLEMONT, Mém. pour servir a l'hist. eccles., XVI (Paris, 1712), 770-3.

Clugnet, Léon. "St. Perpetuus." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 8 Apr. 2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11700a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Herman F. Holbrook. Benedictus Deus in sanctis suis.


Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11700a.htm

Perpetuus of Tours B (RM)

Died December 30, 490, or April 8, 491. Perpetuus, born of a senatorial family, became bishop of Tours c. 460. He dedicated the revenues of his estates to the relief of those in need. The poor, it is recorded, were his heirs (though apparently this will was a 17th century forgery): he left them pastures, groves, vineyards, houses, gardens, water-mills, gold, silver, and his clothing.


He also venerated his great predecessor Saint Martin, the soldier who had sliced his cloak in two and given half to a beggar. Martin was buried in a basilica in Tours and Perpetuus rebuilt and enlarged this fine building to house the countless pilgrims who flocked to his tomb.

One hundred twenty years later, Saint Gregory of Tours mentions that Perpetuus decreed that all the people in his diocese should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, save at a few church festivals. He also declared several Mondays in the Christian year as fasts, particularly in the time that became Advent. So great was Perptuus's influence that these fasts were still being observed in the diocese of Tours over a century after his death. And so powerful was his memory that, 13 centuries after his death, some unknown forgers drew up a fake will for the saint, declaring: "You, my dearly beloved brothers, my crown, my joy, that is to say, Christ's poor, needy, beggars, sick, widows, and orphans, you I hereby name and decree to be my heirs." Though the will was a fake, the true spirit of Saint Perpetuus shines through it (Benedictines, Bentley, Husenbeth).

In art, Saint Perpetuus is a bishop directing the building of a church. Sometimes the sick may be shown being healed at his tomb or as his relics are carried in procession (Roeder).



April 8

St. Perpetuus, Bishop and Confessor

HE was the eighth bishop of Tours from St. Gatian, and governed that see above thirty years, from 461 to 491, when he died on the 8th of April. During all which time he laboured by zealous sermons, many synods, and wholesome regulations, to lead souls to virtue. St. Gregory of Tours mentions his prudent ordinances, prescribing the manner of celebrating vigils before great festivals in the different churches in the city. All Fridays and Wednesdays he commanded to be observed fasts of precept, except during Easter time, from Christmas to St. Hilary’s day, that is, the 14th day of January, and from St. John Baptist’s day to the end of August. He added a third fast day every week, probably Monday, from St. Martin’s to Christmas, which proves the antiquity of Advent. These regulations were all religiously observed one hundred and twenty years after, when St. Gregory of Tours wrote his history. St. Perpetuus had a great veneration for the saints, and respect for their relics; adorned their shrines, and enriched their churches. As there was a continual succession of miracles at the tomb of St. Martin, Perpetuus finding the church built by St. Bricius too small for the concourse of people that resorted thither, directed its enlargement, causing it to be built one hundred and fifty-five feet in length, sixty broad, and forty-five in height. When the building was finished, the good bishop solemnized the dedication of this new church, and performed the translation of the body of St. Martin, on the 4th of July, in 473. Our saint was of a senatorian family, and possessed very large estates in several provinces; but consecrated the revenues to the service of the church, and the relief of the necessitous. He made and signed his last will, which is still extant, on the 1st of March, 475, fifteen years before his death. By it he remits all debts that were owing to him; and having bequeathed to his church his library and several farms, and settled a fund for the maintenance of lamps, and the purchase of sacred vessels, as occasion might require, he declares the poor his heirs. It begins thus: “In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. I, Perpetuus, a sinner, priest of the church of Tours, would not depart without a last will and testament, lest the poor should be neglected   *  *  *   You, my bowels, my most beloved brethren, my crown, my joy, my lords, my children, O poor of Christ, needy, beggars, sick, widows, orphans; you I declare, name, and make my heirs. Excepting what is above disposed of, whatever I am possessed of in goods, in fields, in pasturage, in meadows, in groves, in vineyards, in dwellings, in gardens, in waters, in mills, or in gold, silver, and garments, and other things, I appoint you my heirs. It is my will that as soon as possible, after my departure, they be sold, and the money divided into three parts; of which two shall be distributed among poor, men, at the discretion of the priest Agrarius and Count Agilo: and the third among widows and poor women, at the discretion of the virgin Dadolena,” &c. He adds most pathetic exhortations to concord and piety; and bequeaths to his sister, Fidia Julia Perpetua, a little gold cross, with relics; he leaves legacies to several other friends and priests, to one a silver case of relics of saints, to others gold or silver crosses or chalices, begging of each a remembrance of him in their prayers. His ancient epitaph equals him to the great St. Martin: St. Apollinaris Sidonius calls him the true copy of the virtues of that wonderful saint. St. Perpetuus died either on the 30th of December, in 490, or on the 8th of April, 491. In the martyrologies of Florus, and some others, his festival is placed on the first of these days: but in that of Usuard, and in the Roman, on the second. See his testament published by D’Achery, Spicileg, t. 5. p. 105; also St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. b. 10. ch. 31. and De Mirac. S. Martini, b. 1. c. 6; Tillemont, t. 16. p. 393; Dom. Rivet. t. 2. p. 619.

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73).  Volume IV: April. The Lives of the Saints.  1866.


Voir aussi : http://orthodoxievco.net/ecrits/vies/synaxair/avril/perpet.pdf