Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Gallican Martyrologies, Usuardus, &c. Authorities: — A Life by Dado (S. Ouen) bishop of Rouen, d. 683; in Ghasqui&re, A A. SS. Belgii, iii. p. 198; and Dachery, Spicil. v. p. 156; in Surius altered and curtailed.] Eligius was bom at Chitelat near Limoges. His father's name was Eucherius, his mother's Terrigia. He was placed Dec. x.] S. Eligius.
Nearly with a goldsmith of Limoges, named Abbo, master of the mint there, and with him Eligius acquired great skill in the work of the precious metals, and, perhaps, also in that enamel work which afterwards made Limoges famous.. He went next to Paris, and was placed with Bobbo, treasurer of Clothair II. The king wanted a seat, or throne, made of precious metal, and as he could find no one else capable of undertaking the task, he confided it to Eligius, giving him at the same time the metal necessary for making the throne. Eligius found that he had enough to make two seats. When they were done he gave one to the king, who admired it, and ordered payment to be made to the skilful workman. Then Eligius produced the second throne.1 The king was so struck with his honesty, that he immediately advanced him to be master of the mint, and gave him his entire confidence. The king, anxious to secure Eligius to him more securely, brought him before some relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] and bade him place his hand on them, and swear to him devout allegiance. The goldsmith hesitated: he was uncertain how far he could serve his master with a good conscience. Clothair, instead of being offended at this hesitation, respected it, and said he had rather have the word of Eligius than the oath of another man.
S. Ouen was then at the court of Dagobert; he was a young noble, a few years the junior of Eligius. Ouen and Eligius became mutually attached, and confided to each other their desires and troubles. Eligius hung little packets of relics from nails in the ceiling all round his bedroom. After having made his general confession, and imposed on himself a penance, he was very desirous of knowing if he were really pardoned, and his penance accepted. One of the little hanging packets dignitati congruam.” Mediaeval artists rendered this a saddle, and made of Eligius a farrier. Aimoin speaks of Dagobert using a golden throne, no doubt that fashioned by Eligius.
began to emit a peculiar odour, and drip with some oily matter, and Eligius accepted this as an omen that he was absolved in heaven.
The affection borne by Clothair II. to Eligius passed to the king's son Dagobert, and this king honoured his master of the mint with his special confidence. He even chose him as his ambassador to the prince of Brittany, apparently Judicael, who had assumed the royal title, and attacked and defeated the Frank soldiers in the plains of Le Mans. Judicael was the father of S. Winoc and S. Judoc, and is also honoured among the saints. Dagobert found the Breton prince a dangerous neighbour, and the commission he gave to Eligius was a delicate one — to enforce on the prince the danger of provoking the powerful Frank monarch, and to establish peace without having recourse to arms. Judicael, according to Fredegar, came to Clichy and did homage to Dagobert. Eligius returned to Paris, and occupied himself in hammering out gold and jewel-encrusted vessels for his master. As master of the mint he struck coins, some of these remain, bearing his name.1 His friend S. Ouen gives the following description of his appearance: — “ He was tall, with a ruddy face, his hair and beard were naturally curly; his hands wellmade and his fingers long, his face was full of angelic sweetness, and his expression was one of prudence and simplicity. At first he wore habits covered with gold and precious stones, he had also belts sewn with pearls. His dress was of linen encrusted with gold, and the edges of his tunic trimmed with gold embroidery; indeed, his clothing was very costly, and 1 (>) A gold i sou with the head of Dagobert on one side and the legend “ Panama ceve fit ** (Paris ina civitate fecit), on the other a cross and the legend “ Dagobert us rex.*' Under the arms of the cross " Eligi.” (s) Another gold i sou, with similar head and cross, and the legends " Parisiis fit** and "Eligius mone " (monetarius). (3) Another coin of same value, with legend " Mon palati *’ (moneta palatina) and " Scolare T.A." Under the arms of the cross " Eligi." (4) Another of same value, with legend " Pari si civ... “ Dagobert us rex," and " Eligi fit." (5) One struck in 637 or 638 for Clovis IT.
Dec. i.] S. Eligius. some of his dresses were of silk. Such was his exterior in his first period at court, and he dressed thus to avoid singularity; but under these rich garments he wore a rough sackcloth, and later on, he disposed of all his ornaments to relieve the distressed, and he might be seen with only a cord round his waist, and common clothes. Sometimes the king, seeing him thus divested of his rich clothing, would take off his own cloak and girdle, and give them to him, saying, * It is not suitable that those who live for the world should be richly clad, and that those who despoil themselves for Christ should be without glory/ ”
Dagobert was ready to grant him any favour he liked to ask in reason. Eligius requested the king to grant him the estate of Solignac in Limousin, on which to found a monastery. The situation was delightful, a river swept round the tongue of land on which the abbey was to rise, hills and woods surrounded it, and the rocky descent to the river was rich in spring with golden broom and purple lungwort, and in autumn with crimson wild vine, yellow maples, and brown beech. The abbey when completed by Eligius was filled by a swarm of monks, the numbers grew to a hundred and fifty, and when S. Ouen lodged there he found that it was unsurpassed by any monastery in France in its regular observance of discipline. He gave up his own house in Paris to S. Aurea, to become a convent for religious women under her guidance. His strict integrity appeared in the foundation of this religious house, as in the making of a throne. He had asked of the king a grant of the land on which the house stood, and had been accorded it He had represented it as occupying so many yards of ground. But when outbuildings were cleared away, and the land was remeasured, it was found that his estimate was wrong by a yard or two, and that there was more ground than he had represented. He at once stopped the works, and refused to allow them to be fDec. i.
proceeded with till he had stated the fact to the king, and obtained his consent to the appropriation of the additional few yards. After this he rebuilt the dilapidated church of S. Martial. Not long after Paris was in flames, and the conflagration neared the new church. Sparks and smoke were carried over the roof, and at every moment it was thought S. Martial's church would burst into flame. Then Eligius cried out: “ Martial ! Martial ! look well after thy church, for if thou dost not protect it, thou must be assured that Eligius will not take the trouble to rebuild it for thee.” The saint took the hint, and saved the church from destruction. He continued to work at the precious metals, and made shrines for a great many relics, the most famous ones were those for S. Martin [St. Martin of Tours (d. 397), soldier turned bishop] and S. Brice. The marble tomb of S. Denys he covered with gold and jewels, he encased the ends of the altar in gold, with gold apples set with jewels, probably pomegranates, with crimson rubies for the seed bursting through the golden pods.
On the death of Acharius, bishop of Noyon, Eligius was elected to succeed him. He and his friend S. Ouen were consecrated the same day, May 14, Rogation Sunday, 640, he to the see of Noyon [a bishop’s “see” is his diocese, named from his seat (Latin sedes)], including that of Tournai, with jurisdiction over Ghent and Courtrai, and Ouen to the bishopric of Rouen.1 As a bishop, Eligius was as conscientious as he had proved himself when a layman. He laboured indefatigably at the conversion of the half-Christian, half heathen Flemings, and at making his clergy lights to the world. S. Ouen has preserved to us a most precious sermon of Eligius, which throws much light on the superstitious practices then I in vogue among the people. He warns his people not to ' regard sneezing as ominous, except, of course, of the coming 1 “ Consecrati sum us gratis ab episcopis pariter episcopi ego Rodamo (sic), ille Norinio.”
Dec. x.] S. Eligius. on of a heavy cold in the head, nor to pay superstitious regard to the songs of birds, nor to the days on which they leave home — such as the first day of the new moon, or the eclipses; he forbids the observance of the first of January with feasting, dancing, and profane ceremonies, or the festival of S. John the Baptist, and the solstices, with capers, “carols,” and diabolical songs.1 The observance of the month of May he specially condemns; as also the festivals of moths and mice.2 The lighting of torches along the side of a road — not apparently for the sake of giving light, but for some superstitious reason— was to be avoided. He reprobates the custom of priests writing passages of Scripture on scraps of paper to be hung round the neck as charms.3 Such charms, says S. Eligius, very sensibly, are not a Christian remedy, but devil’s poison. The passing of cattle through a hole made in the earth, or through a hole in a tree, is also to be renounced; women must not wear amber round their necks, or in their zones, with invocation of Minerva. Only fools think, says Eligius, that madmen are affected by the changes of the moon. Quack doctors and witches are not to be resorted to in cases of sickness, but the efficacy of holy unction is to be tried, and that will prove of avail in recovering the sick of his malady. Fountains are not to be held sacred, trees which receive veneration are to be cut down, and whoever finds little representations of feet hung up in cross roads is to fling them away.4 The sermon goes 1 “ Nullus in fesrivitate S. Joann is.... solstitia, aut vallationes, vel saltationes, aut caraulus aut cantica diabolica exerceat. ” 3 An Irishman came to me one day in Yorkshire, and asked me for a “ Gospel,” r.r., for a text to be written on a scrap of paper to hang round his child's neck, " as a preservative against measles and looseness of the bowels." These charms are commonly sought by the Irish of their priests, and are sewn up in little bags. They pay a fee for them.
4 “ Pedum similitudines, quos per bivia ponunt, fieri vetate, et, ubi inveneritis, igni cremate.” The Council of Auxerre (589) forbade (art. 3) " nec sculptilia aut pede aut homine lineo fieri prsesumat.”
[Doc. i. on to give very wholesome moral advice, which, however, contains little that is peculiar.1 S. Eligius found most paganism hanging about the neighbourhood of Antwerp,2 and he is said to have converted many Suevi. One would hardly have expected to find Swabians so far north as his diocese.
But if Eligius pursued the conversion of heathen and the perfecting of professed Christians as a duty, he prosecuted the discovery of the bones of martyrs with the zest of pleasure. Noyon flattered itself that it was the scene of the martyrdom of S. Quentin. If Quentin had died there, he must have been buried there. If buried there, he might be found. Eligius determined to discover the bones. Several persons represented to him that if buried, Quentin must have dissolved to dust long ago. But Eligius was above conviction by such arguments as these. He vowed not to eat a morsel till he had found a body which would, at all events, pass for that of S. Quentin. He turned up the earth of the church floor. The sacred precincts resembled a mine. Workmen grubbed here, and grubbed there, in all the most likely places, but found nothing. Eligius had passed three days without food, when at last, in the most unlikely place for a martyr's body to be laid, in the ditch of the church, the labourers came on a tomb of stones, and within it were bones and nails. The enthusiasm of Eligius passed into the wildest transports of exultation, when, on pulling the teeth 1 Except, perhaps, this: “ Qui ante legitimas nuptias habere concubinam praesumit, pejus peccat quam qui adulterium committit.” A phallus was sculptured over one of the city gates; this has been obliterated only in recent times. Christianity so far sanctioned this heathen superstition as to make the “ sacrosanctum pracputium ” the palladium of Antwerp. In like manner in Elsass in heathen times the club of Hercules received sacred worship. When Elsass was Christianized this was converted into the staff of S. Peter given to S. Maternus. Fragments still receive veneration. The “ sacrosanctum pracputium ” has been made to disappear; it has not, at all events, been presented to the adoration of the faithful since the riots of 2566.
Dec. i.] S. Eligius. out of the jaw for distribution to other churches, a drop of some slimy matter that looked like blood exhibited itself at the root of one of the fangs. The nails found in the vault had probably belonged to a wooden coffin, but their presence served to convince Eligius that he had the genuine body of the martyr, who, according to legend, was put to death by means of nails driven into his head.1 After this discovery Eligius set to work to unearth other saints, and was so happy as to discover also S. Piatus, also with nails. He made gold shrines for ail these relics, and also for the bodies of SS. Crispin and Crispinian, which he exhumed at Soissons. At Beauvais he discovered miraculously the body of S. Lucian, the companion of S. Quentin, and he made a shrine for him also.
He attended the council of Ch&lons-sur-Saone in 644 or 650 — the date cannot be fixed with certainty; and it was on his return from this council that he took charge of S. Godeberta, as is related in the life of that saint (April 1 1). S. Eligius died in 659, on December 1, in the midst of his faithful servants, beloved by his flock. The relics of S. Eligius are still in the cathedral of Noyon. His head is in the parish church of S. Andr£ at Chelles. Other relics, teeth, bits of bone, &c., at S. Barthdlemy, Noyon, the cathedral at Bruges, S. Martin at Tournai, S. Pierre at Douai. In the cathedral at Paris an arm. In art he is represented erroneously as a farrier, with a j horse’s leg in his hand; the story going that as he was one day shoeing a horse, the animal proved restive, so he took the leg off, shod it, and put it on again, without evil consequences.
1 It is, however, quite possible that this discovery of nails in the vault containing the supposed relics may have originated the fable of the martyrdom by means of Mill.