Saint Germain of Auxerre
On the thirty-first of July, we commemorate Saint Germain [also Garmon or Germanus], the Bishop of Auxerre. Saint Germain is best known for his opposition to the Pelagian Agricola and for the consecration of Saint Patrick as a missionary bishop to Ireland.
A Gallo-Roman of high birth, Germain was known for his able wit and quick tongue, both of which served him well when he began practising civil law in the Roman courts. He married a socialite of good repute, a kinswoman of the emperor named Eustachia, and ingratiated himself readily into the halls of power. The clever youngster was soon noticed by the Western Emperor Honorius, and before too long he was appointed as dux, or governor, in charge of the fifth part of his native province of Gaul and in charge of all the military affairs of that province.
Germain was politically astute and outwardly virtuous, but he remained a pagan to his roots. He was also a bit overly fond of hunting. He brought back the heads of the beasts he killed and hung them on a great tree in the town plaza of Auxerre, ostensibly to honour the gods – but in truth to feed his own vainglorious ego. None except Saint Amator, the bishop of Auxerre, dared to remonstrate with the young Germain for his costly and conceited hobby – and that same saint received little for his pains but haughty laughs. Once, while Germain was again out on the hunt, Saint Amator went to the city plaza and cut down the tree with all his trophies mounted on it. Germain, who went into a fury at seeing his tree chopped down, threatened Saint Amator, who fled for safety to Autun.
Saint Amator was given a vision from God telling him that Germain was to succeed him as bishop, and that he must prepare him for the honour. Thus, Amator began to lay plans. Consulting with Germain’s superior Julius, who gave him permission to consecrate Germain as a deacon in the Church, Amator lay a trap for Germain. He lured the cocky young lad into the church, locked him inside, and forcibly tonsured him a deacon! Germain did not thereafter take any action against Saint Amator, fearing the wrath of God upon him. Saint Amator reposed shortly thereafter, on the first of May, 418. As per the will of God, the people and Christian clergy of Auxerre unanimously demanded that Germain be made their bishop. (In this sense, Germain’s fate was much like that of Saint Ambrose of Milan!)
Germain took to his new office with a seriousness and sobriety that one would not have thought to expect from a young man of fortune such as he had been. He immediately put off all his former pomp and wealth. He distributed his whole fortune to the poor, and all of his landed properties to the Church. And though he did not put off his wife – it was not yet the custom in the West that bishops had to be celibate – he and Eustachia nonetheless cohabited in a celibate life as though brother and sister. He would not partake of pastries made from white flour, oil, wine, vinegar or salt; and furthermore, prior to every meal he would place a few grains of ash on his tongue to chasten his spirit, and he would eat only the barley bread from what he had reaped and milled himself. He would fast strictly, often eating only once a day. He would dress in the same clothes no matter what season or weather it was: a simple tunic and cowl which he would wear until they were threadbare and in tatters; and he would always wear a hair shirt against his skin. He slept under sackcloth on a simple wooden bed strewn with ashes.
Saint Germain was always generous to the poor with whatever he had to hand. He would go and wash their feet, especially during fast times, and he would serve them food with his own hands. He blessed and laid the foundations of a Benedictine monastery in Auxerre in honour of the Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian, now dedicated to Saint Marien. He also founded another Benedictine monastery in memory of the victims of the persecution of Aurelianus, the Abbaye Saints-de-Puisaye. As the hagiographer Fr Alban Butler put it:
In this manner he reduced himself to great poverty, and to perpetuate the divine honour, 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.Saint Germain was chosen by unanimous vote among the bishops of Gaul alongside Saint Loup of Troyes, at the behest of a Roman deacon named Palladius, to venture into Great Britain. The reason for this visit was that the Orthodox teachings might be preserved and that the hæresies of Pelagius – then represented in Britain by his student in mischief Agricola – might be rebutted. Saint Germain took to the task with his usual energy. As they put out into the English Channel in their ships, about halfway across a sudden storm blew up, ‘which turned day into night with black clouds,’ according to Saint Bede. ‘The sails were torn to shreds by the gale, and the skill of the sailors was defeated, and the safety of the ship depended on prayer rather than seamanship.’
Saint Germain, who had lain asleep in exhaustion all this time, was roused by Saint Loup with a fearful cry, begging him to oppose the fury of the waves by means of his prayers. Unshaken, with the spray of the sea in his face, Saint Germain invoked the name of the Holy Trinity and shook a vial of holy water out onto the waves. At once the waves calmed and the winds reversed, and God interceded to save their ship and give it speed into the harbours of Britain. On their arrival, great throngs of men came to meet them – most of these were poor folk, and lived not in great houses but by their own labour. It was they who were the most distressed by the errant teachings of Pelagius, and the sway he held among the clergy on the island of Britain.
And so, this was where Saint Germain and Saint Loup took to preaching. They did not do so behind amvons in the churches; they did so on street corners and to workers in the fields. The common folk of Britain flocked to hear the life-giving words of the true faith, and that faith was strengthened amongst them. It was only after the two bishops had been in the island for some time, and that they had made these headways among the folk, that the Pelagians dared to come forth to dispute with them at Verulamium – what is now St Albans.
The difference between the Pelagians and the Orthodox bishops could not have been any plainer or more apparent, as Bede recounts in his History. The Pelagians appeared in extravagant robes, lavish jewels, magnificent finery, and surrounded themselves with their servants and supporters in a great pompous procession. On the other side, the Orthodox bishops dressed as I have described them above – in their simple, travel-worn garb. The bishops allowed their opponents the privilege of speaking first. When the Pelagians put forth their arguments, they did so in highfalutin philosophical language, with elaborate argumentation and logic. When the bishops spoke, they did so plainly such that everyone around them could understand, with appeals to the Gospels and to the Apostles. The common Britons who had come to judge the disputation found strongly in favour of the bishops – and it was only at the bishops’ behest that they were restrained from committing violent outrages against the Pelagians.
After this disputation had concluded, a certain Romano-British tribune came forth with his wife, asking the Pelagians to cure their daughter, who was blind. The Pelagians, who were unable by their own powers to cure the girl, begged the bishops instead to do so. With a short prayer to the Holy Trinity, Saint Germain stepped forward with a small reliquary he kept around his neck, and lay it on the brow of the young girl. At once her sight, to the throng’s great awe and to her parents’ joy, was restored to her. Thereafter the doctrines of Pelagius had little weight or currency among the British people.
Once this was done, Saint Germain asked to be taken to the resting-place of Saint Alban nearby, that he might give thanks to God through His great saint. He had the tomb opened – not so that Saint Alban might be removed, but instead that he might deposit there the relics of several of the apostles and martyrs and other saints that he had brought with him from Gaul. By this action Saint Germain sought to strengthen the faith of the British people. He lay these relics to rest with great solemnity, and took away with him a portion of the earth on the spot where Alban had been executed. This earth was red as though it had but lately received the martyr’s blood.
It happened as Saint Germain was headed for home that he took a fall and broke his leg. As he was recuperating, a cottage nearby caught fire, threatening all the buildings around. The attendants of the bishop panicked, and sought to move him away, but Saint Germain chided their poverty of faith and refused to move from where he lay. The servants left him to find buckets of water to put the fire out, but to no avail – the fire raged and nothing they could do could put it out. Saint Germain, however, kept constantly in prayer, and wondrously the flames never touched the building where he lay, or several buildings around that. Beholding this awful wonder, many of the common folk nearby came to Saint Germain, and begged him to work wonders for them as well. Germain refused any treatment for his own broken leg; but everyone who came ill to him left healed and whole. At last an angel of God came to Germain and bade him to stand up; as Germain obeyed the vision, he found that his bone had knit perfectly and that he was able to stand without pain.
At the time in which Germain was in Britain, the Saxons had been invited as mercenaries to protect the Britons from Pictish invasion by a Romano-British lord named Vortigern. It was not long before the heathen Saxons decided the pay wasn’t good enough, switched sides, and joined the Picts in attacking the Britons. An army had been raised near where Saint Germain and Saint Loup were residing, and the commanders asked the two bishops to come to their camp and inspire their troops. Saint Germain and Saint Loup did as they were bidden, and went to the British camp. This was during Lent of the year 429. They spent all that season teaching and preaching to the British soldiery, many of whom were yet pagan, and all of whom were desirous of hearing the life-giving Word at a time when their mortal enemy was yet drawing near to them. Saint Germain and Saint Loup gave them every worldly and every heavenly encouragement. Twisting green boughs together, the two bishops made a makeshift shrine where they kept the Liturgy. Once Pascha had arrived, they baptised the army of the Britons en masse in the waters of regeneration. ‘Whereas they had formerly despaired of human strength,’ writes the Saxon historian, ‘all now trusted in the power of God.’
The British continued to arm and ready themselves for combat, as the Saxons had sent ahead scouts and were moving against them at speed, anticipating an easy victory over a green levy recently-mustered. Saint Germain volunteered to command the armies himself – showing that perhaps his former worldly vocation as a military governor in Gaul had not yet quite been completely forgotten. He selected the readiest of the men and led them into a pass between the hills, through which he expected the Saxons to make their initial sally. He fortified the troops in this pass, and gave stern orders that as soon as the main body of the Saxon here came within their view, they were to raise a great shout when he raised the standard.
As the Saxons approached, expecting to fall upon the unprepared Britons, the British banner unfurled from atop the pass accompanied by a great shout of ‘Alleluia!’, which issued again, and yet again. The whole army echoed the shout, and the sound of it echoed all around the hills. The Saxons, taken aback, were gripped with fright as they thought themselves to be surrounded on all sides. (This was a similar tactic to the one taken by the Chinese Christian general Guo Ziyi against the Tibetans, some three hundred years later.) The retreating Saxons broke into a run, leaving behind them their weapons and gear. ‘So the bishops overcame the enemy without bloodshed, winning a victory by faith and not by force.’
Saint Germain thereafter left Britain for some while, but was compelled to return after the Pelagian heresy revived once again eighteen years later. By that time Saint Loup had reposed in blessedness, and this time Saint Germain took with him one of his disciples who had been recently elevated to the clergy, named Severus. Upon setting foot again in Britain, they found once again that their arrival had not gone unnoticed. The throng of people was there again to greet them, and with them, a local chieftain by the name of Elaf. Elaf had brought with him his son, who suffered from a severe and painful deformity in his leg. The bishops asked the people about the spiritual state of Britain, and they were answered that the Pelagians had been able to win over only a minority of the people. And then Elaf through himself at the feet of the bishops, and begged Saint Germain to heal the lame boy. Saint Germain prayed to the Holy Trinity for mercy, and then bade the lad sit down and stretch out his leg, which he could only do painfully, for it had been shrivelled and misshapen by the unnatural contractions of the muscles. Saint Germain lay his hands on the leg and worked them up and down, and as the crowd watched the boys muscles straightened and swelled into health, so that the limb was restored to its full and free use, without pain. Thereafter the British people were fully brought to Orthodoxy, and the Pelagian preachers among them were sent into banishment. It was on this voyage into Britain that Saint Germain appointed the saints Illtud and Dyfrig as bishops and teachers among the Britons.
Saint Germain spent his last years in Ravenna, attempting to broker a peace for the peoples of far northwestern Gaul – then called Armorica, but now the province of Brittany. The Emperor Aëtius had sent a troop of Alan fœderati under Goar into Armorica on a punitive expedition against the bagaudæ: social bandits drawn from the Gaulish underclasses (peasants, runaway slaves, deserters) who had arisen in protest of the impositions and cruelty of the landowners, who held many of them in debt-bondage. Saint Germain pleaded to the Emperor for leniency for the leaders of the bagaudæ, whose grievances he believed to be just – and even personally confronted Goar, the war-leader of the Alans.
Bede recounts that while Saint Germain was still on this peacemaking mission in Ravenna, he reposed in the Lord. He would have been in his late sixties or perhaps as old as seventy; contemporary historians dispute the actual year of his death, though Bede recounts that he held the office of bishop for thirty years. Holy Father Germain, defender and confessor of Orthodoxy, intercessor for the poor and oppressed, pray to Christ our Lord that he may have mercy on our souls!
By endurance you gained your reward, venerable Father;
You persevered in prayer unceasingly;
You loved the poor and provided for them in all things!
Blessed Germain of Auxerre, intercede with Christ God
That our souls may be saved.
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