samedi 13 février 2016

Saint LÉZIN (LICINIUS) d'ANGERS, évêque et confesseur

Charlotte de Ferré présentée par saint Lézin,

 vitrail, La Chapelle-Janson (Ille-et-Vilaine), église Saint Lézin

Saint Lézin

Évêque d'Angers (6ème s.)

Il fut d'abord le connétable du roi Clotaire, puis gouverneur des provinces armoricaines. Il vint habiter à Angers qui en était alors la capitale. Il remplit toutes ces fonctions avec conscience, habileté et honnêteté. Puis, un beau jour, il changea d'orientation et se retira pour devenir moine dans l'abbaye de Châlonne. C'est là qu'à la mort de l'évêque d'Angers, les angevins se souvenant de lui, le tirent du monastère et l'élisent pour être leur évêque. Il mit au service de l'Église les qualités dont il avait fait la preuve durant son gouvernement civil. 

Une localité perpétue sa mémoire: Saint Lézin-49120. 

Un internaute nous écrit:

"D'après l'abbé Louis Tardif, auteur de 'Saint Lézin, évêque d'Angers', ce saint a vécu au VIe siècle et non au VIIe. Il serait né entre 530 et 540. 

J'habite St-Lézin et je connais l'histoire du Saint patron de mon village, dont les habitants sont les Liciniens (du latin Licinius)"

Au 1er novembre au martyrologe romain: À Angers, vers 606, saint Lézin, évêque, à qui le pape saint Grégoire le Grand recommanda les moines romains qui gagnaient l’Angleterre.


Martyrologe romain



Licinius of Angers B (RM)

(also known as Lesin, Lucinus)

Born c. 540; died c. 618; feast day formerly November 1. When Licinus was about 20, he was sent to the court of his cousin King Clotaire I. His prudence and valor distinguished him both in the court and in the army, and he carried out all his Christian duties with diligently. Fasting and prayer were familiar to him, and his heart was always raised to God. After King Chilperic made him count of Anjou, about 578, Licinus consented to take a wife. On their wedding day, the lady contracted leprosy. He immediately decided to renounce the world and entered holy orders two years later.


Licinus found true joy within a community of ecclesiastics, engaging in the exercises of piety, austere penance, and meditaton on the holy scriptures. The people, clergy, and the court of Clotaire II all concurred that Licinus should assume the episcopacy of Angers when Bishop Audouin died. Overcoming his own humility, he was consecrated by Saint Gregory of Tours.

As bishop, his time and his substance were divided in feeding the hungry, comforting and releasing prisoners, and curing the bodies and souls of his people. Though he was careful to keep up exact discipline in his diocese, he was more inclined to indulgence than rigor, in imitation of the tenderness which Jesus Christ showed for sinners. He won souls, not simply by strong preaching, but more through an exemplary life, miracles, and daily prayer for the souls in his care. He longed for greater solitude, and tried to resign his bishopric, but his priests, people, and fellow bishops refused to entertain such a thought. So he spent the rest of his life tending his flock--doing God's will and not his own. His patience was perfected by continual infirmities in his last years.

Licinus was buried in the monastery church of St. John Baptist, which he had founded for his frequent retreats. It is now a collegiate church, and enriched with his relics. At Angers he is commemorated on June 8 (the day of his consecration) and on June 21 when his relics were translated or taken up, 1169, in the time of Henry II, king of England, count of Anjou. His vita, based on the testimony of his disciples, was written soon after his death; and again by Marbodius, archdeacon of Angers, afterwards bishop of Rennes, both in Bollandus (Benedictines, Encyclopedia (Nov.), Husenbeth).


February 13

St. Licinius, Bishop of Angers, Confessor

[Called by the French Lesin.]  HE was born of a noble family, allied to the kings of France, about the year 540. He was applied to learning as soon as he was capable of instruction, and sent to the court of King Clotaire I. (whose cousin he was) being about twenty years of age. He signalized himself by his prudence and valour both in the court and in the army, and acquitted himself of all Christian duties with extraordinary exactitude and fervour. Fasting and prayer were familiar to him, and his heart was always raised to God. King Chilperic made him count or governor of Anjou, and being overcome by the importunities of his friends, the saint consented to take a wife about the year 578. But the lady was struck with a leprosy on the morning before it was to be solemnized. This accident so strongly affected Liciuius, that he resolved to carry into immediate execution a design he had long entertained of entirely renouncing the world. This he did in 580, and leaving all things to follow Jesus Christ, he entered himself among the clergy, and hiding himself from the world in a community of ecclesiastics, found no pleasure but in the exercises of piety and the most austere penance, and in meditating on the holy scriptures. Audouin, the fourteenth bishop of Angers, dying towards the year 600, the people remembering the equity and mildness with which Licinius had governed them, rather as their father than as a judge or master, demanded him for their pastor. The voice of the clergy seconded that of the people, and the concurrence of the court of Clotaire II. in his minority, under the regency of his mother Fredegonda, overcame all the opposition his humility could make. His time and his substance were divided in feeding the hungry, comforting and releasing prisoners, and curing the bodies and souls of his people. Though he was careful to keep up exact discipline in his diocess, he was more inclined to indulgence than rigour, in imitation of the tenderness which Jesus Christ showed for sinners. Strong and persuasive eloquence, the more forcible argument of his severe and exemplary life, and God himself speaking by miracles, qualified him to gain the hearts of the most hardened, and make daily conquests of souls to Christ. He renewed the spirit of devotion and penance by frequent retreats, and desired earnestly to resign his bishopric, and hide himself in some solitude: but the bishops of the province, whose consent he asked, refusing to listen to such a proposal, he submitted, and continued to spend the remainder of his life in the service of his flock. His patience was perfected by continual infirmities in his last years, and he finished his sacrifice about the year 618, in the sixty-fifth of his age. He was buried in the church of St. John Baptist, which he had founded, with a monastery, which he designed for his retreat. It is now a collegiate church, and enriched with the treasure of his relics. His memory was publicly honoured in the seventh age: the 1st of November was the day of his festival, though he is now mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on the 13th of February. At Angers he is commemorated on the 8th of June, which seems to have been the day of his consecration, and on the 21st of June, when his relics were translated or taken up, 1169, in the time of Henry II. king of England, count of Anjou. See his life, written from the relation of his disciples soon after his death; and again by Marbodius, archdeacon of Angers, afterwards bishop of Rennes, both in Bollandus

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


Saint Licinius

Also known as
  • Lesin
Profile

Born to the French nobility. Monk. Bishop of Angers, France in 586, consecrated by Saint Gregory of Tours.