Mansuetus (bishop of Toul)

Saint Mansuetus (French: Mansuy; died 375) was the first Bishop of Toul.

Mansuetus
Bishop of Toul
ChurchCatholic Church
Appointed365
Term ended375
SuccessorAmon
Sainthood
Feast daySeptember 3
Venerated inCatholic Church

Life

Mansuetus is thought to have been of Irish or Scottish origin. After religious studies in Rome, he was sent by Pope Damasus I to evangelize Gaul, becoming the first Bishop of Toul in 365.[1][2] Little is known about the details of his life; he is believed to have erected a church dedicated to St. Peter and to have spent nearly four decades preaching in the Leuci region, which efforts were met with considerable success.[3] He died in Thulium while serving as itinerant bishop of Belgian prim.

Veneration

Mansuetus is recognized as a saint according to the Pre-Congregation standards for canonization.[4] Tradition holds that he is responsible for the healing of lepers and for restoring the life of the drowned son of the prince of Toul.[5] His Feast day is celebrated on September 3 in the Roman Catholic diocese of Toul and on August 31 in Saint-Dié .[6]

Various versions of St Mansuy's life were composed in the Middle Ages, the earliest was written by Adson of Montier-en-Der at the request of Gerard of Toul in the mid tenth-century. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries a shorter version and a metrical version were written. [7]

According to the Vita Sancti Gerardi, Bishop St. Gerard I of Toul (r. 963–994) had the relics of both Mansuetus and Aprus brought into Toul and placed in the church of St. John the Baptist while he was ill.[8] Later, in 1790, Mansuetus' relics were divided among the canons of the church of Toul, to prevent them from being destroyed by revolutionaries.[9]

Iconography is found on the shrine of Vittel and a brotherhood statue, belonging to the Church of Fontenoy-le-Château. There are parish churches dedicated to St. Mansuy in Bouvron, Fontenoy-le-Château, Loisey-Culey, Nancy, Serécourt. The village of Dommary-Baroncourt had a church of that name, but it was destroyed in 1974.

Notes

  1. Dictionnaire d'orfèvrerie, de gravure et de ciselure chrétiennes, (Jacques Rémi A. Texier, 1863).
  2. « Ils sont nos aïeux, les saints de chez nous » - Chanoine André Laurent - Mirecourt - 1980.
  3. "Saint Mansuy, évêque".
  4. "Saint Mansuetus of Toul". catholicsaints.info. August 17, 2009.
  5. Rev. S. Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints (John Hodges: 1875), 36
  6. Calendar Ecclesiastical.
  7. Monique Goullet, 'Les Vies de Saint Mansuy (Mansuetus) Premier Évêque de Toul' in Analitica Bollandiana, vol 116 (1998), p. 57-105
  8. Karl Leyser, Timothy Reuter, Warriors and Churchmen in the High Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Karl Leyser (Continuum International Publishing Group: 1992), 56.
  9. Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A. The Lives of the Saints (John Hodges: 1875), 36.
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