De sancto Remigio
The Shepherd of the Franks
The etymology of Remigius is explored alongside the faith and trials of Queen Clotilde in her efforts to convert her husband.
The name Remigius comes from 'remex' (rower), the guide or director of a ship, or from 'remis' (oars), the tools used to steer a ship. It also comes from 'gyon,' meaning 'struggle,' because he steered the Church away from the danger of shipwreck, led her to the gate of paradise, and struggled on her behalf against the snares of the devil. Remigius is said to have converted the king and the Frankish people to Christ. The king had a wife named Clotilde, a most Christian woman, who tried to convert her husband to the faith, but she couldn't. When she had a son, she wanted to have him baptized. But the king forbade it entirely; yet she, unable to rest, finally managed with difficulty to get the king's permission and had the son baptized, who died suddenly after being baptized. The king told her, 'Now it's clear that Christ is a worthless god, since he couldn't keep alive the one through whom his faith might have been exalted.' She replied, 'On the contrary, I feel that I am greatly loved by my God in this, that I know he has received the first fruit of my womb, for he has granted an infinite kingdom to my son, which is better than yours.'
Signs of Grace and Authority
The narrative follows the royal family's spiritual struggles and the saint's miraculous acquisition of land for the church.
She conceived again and bore another son, whom she had baptized with the same great persistence as the first, but look—he suddenly fell ill, to the point that his life was despaired of. The king said to his wife, "Your God is truly weak, for He can't keep anyone alive who is baptized in His name; if you were to bear a thousand children and baptize them all, they would all perish together." But the boy recovered and regained his health, to the point that he reigned after his father. Yet the faithful woman kept trying to bring her husband to the faith, but he resisted in every way; how he was converted to the faith, however, is told in another feast, which is after Epiphany. King Clovis, having become a Christian, wanted to donate the church of Reims and said to blessed Remigius that he would give him as much as he could walk around while he... ...was sleeping at midday. And this was done. But when a certain man had his mill within the lands of blessed Remigius, the miller drove him away with indignation while he was walking around; Remigius said to him, "Friend, do not let it be hard for you that we share this mill."
Miracles and Divine Judgment
Remigius demonstrates his spiritual authority through the judgment of the mill and the punishment of those who mocked his prudence.
But when he rejected him, the wheel immediately began to turn in the opposite direction, and he called out after Saint Remigius, saying, "Servant of God, come back, and let's share the mill together." He replied, "Neither for me nor for you," and the earth immediately opened up and swallowed the mill whole; for Remigius, having foreseen a future famine, had stored piles of grain in a certain village, and the drunken peasants, mocking the old man's prudence, had set them on fire. Hearing this, he arrived and, because of the chill of his age and the late hour, began to warm himself, saying with a calm heart, "A fire is always a good thing; nevertheless, those who did this, and the man's descendants, will be men ruptured in their genitals and women afflicted with goiters." And so it happened to them, until they were dispersed by Charles.
The Saint's Final Resting Place
The account concludes with the miraculous translation of Remigius's body and the divine intervention that secured his burial.
It should be noted, however, that the feast of Saint Remigius celebrated in January is the feast of his blessed passing; this one, though, is said to be for his blessed passing and the translation of his sacred body. When his body was being carried after his death on a bier to the church of Saints Timothy and Apollinaris, it began to weigh so much while passing the church of Saint Christopher that it could not be moved at all. Finally, compelled, they asked the Lord to deign to show them if he perhaps wished to be buried in that church of Saint Christopher, where a thousand relics of the saints were resting, and immediately they lifted the body with the greatest ease and placed it there with honor. Since many miracles were occurring there, they enlarged the church and made a crypt behind the altar, but when they wanted to place the exhumed body there, they could not move it at all. But as they were spending the night in prayer and everyone had fallen asleep at midnight, the next day, namely the Kalends. In October, they found the tomb with the body of Saint Remigius, which had been carried by angels into that crypt; however, after a long time, it was moved on the same day into a more beautiful crypt inside a silver casket, and he flourished around the year of our Lord 490.
Read the original Latin
Remigius dicitur a remige, qui est navis ductor vel rector; vel dicitur à remis, quae sunt instrumenta, quibus navis ducitur. Et dicitur a gyon, quod est luctatio, Ipse enim ecclesiam gubernavit à periculo naufragii, eam duxit ad portam paradisi, pro ea luctatus est contra insidias dyaboli. — Remigius regem et gentem Francorum ad Christum convertisse dicitar. Habebat enim rex uxorem, nomineClotildin christianissimam, quae virum suum nitebatur ad fidem convertere, sed nequibat. Quae cum filium genuisset, ipsum baptizare. voluit, sed rex omnino prohibuit: illa autem quiescere non valens tandem vix hoc a rege obtinuit et filium baptizavit, Qui dum baptizatus esset, subito est defunctus. Cui rex ait: nunc apparet, quod Christus vilis est Deus, qui eum, per quem fides ejus poterat sublimari, in vita conservare non potuit. Qui illa: imo in hoc a Deo meo valde me diligi sentio, quod primum fructum ventris mei ipsum recepisse cognosco, qui regnum infinitum tuo melius filio mco largitus est.
Concepit igitur iterum et filium alium peperit, quem sicut primum cum multa instantia baptizari fecit, sed ecce subito infirmatur, ita quod de ejus vita desperetur. Dixitque rex uxori: vere debilis est Deus tuus, qui nullum in suo nomine baptizatum in vita conservare potest, nam si mille genueris et cunctos baptizaveris, omnes simul peribunt. Sed tamen puer convaluit et sanitatem recepit, ita quod post patrem regnavit. At fidelis mulier virum suum ad fidem reducere conabatur, sed ille modis omnibus resistehat, Qualiter autem ad fidem conversus cst, in alio festo, quod est post epiphaniam, diclum est. Volens autem praedictus rex Clodoveus factus christianus Remensem ecclesiam dolare, beato Remigio dixit, ut, quantum eircuiret, dum ipse. in meridie dormiret, sibi dari vellet. Quod et factum est. Sed cum quidam molendinum suum habebat intra fines beati Remigii, molendinarius ipsum, dum circuiret, cum indignatione repulit, Cni dixit Remigius: amice, non sit tibi durum, ut hoe molendinum simol habeamus.
At ille ut eum rejecit, statim rota in contrarium verti coepit clamavitque post sanctum Remigium dicens: serve Dei veni et habeamus pariter molendinum. Cui ille: nec mihi nec tibi, statimque se terra aperuit et molendinum penitus deglutivit, Praevidens Remigius famem futuram, cum in villa : quadam bladi cumulos congregasset, inebriati rustici senis prudentiam deridentes ignem supposuerunt. Quod ille audiens illuc venit et prae frigore aetatis et vespertini temporis se calefacere coepit et tranquillo corde dixit: semper focus bonus est; verumtamen qui hoc fecerunt et posteri ejus viri in genitalibus rupti feminae gutturosae erunt. Qnod sic in illis evenit, quousque per Carolum sunt dispersi. Notandum autem, quod illud festum saneti Remigii, quod agitur in mense Januarii, est festum de feliei obitu illius, Istud autem dicitur esse de felici obitu illius et de ejus sacri corporis translatione, Cum enim corpus ejus post ipsius obitum ad ecclesiam sanctorum "Timothei et Apollinaris cum feretro deferretur secus ecclesiam sancti Christophori, coepit adeo ponderare, quod nullatenus moveri potuit. Tandem coacti rogaverunt dominum, nt iis ostendere dignaretur, si forte in ecclesia illa sancti Christophori, ubi mille reliquiae sanctorum quiescebant, sepeliri vellet, statimque corpus levissime sustulerunt et ipsum ibi honorifice posuerunt. Ubi cum multa miracula fierent, ecclesiam ampliaverunt et facta crypta retro altare, cum effosum corpus ibi reponere vellept, movere nullatenus potuerunt. Cum autem in orątionibus pernoctarent et media nocte omnes pariter obdormivissent, in crastinum, scilicet calend.
Octobres, invenerunt sepulchrum cum corpore sancti Remigii in illam cryptam ab angelis deportatum, quod tamen post longum tempus in pulehriorem oryptam eadem die cum capsa argentea translatum est, Flornit circa annum domini qnadringentesimum nonagesimnm.
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