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ST. PIAT, APOSTLE OF TOURNAY, M.
ST. PIAT, or PIATON, a zealous priest, came from
Italy, being a native of Benevento, to preach the gospel in Gaul,
probably about the same time with St. Dionysius of Paris, and his
companions. Penetrating as far as Belgic Gaul, he converted to the
faith the country about Tournay, and was crowned with martyrdom, as
it seems, under the cruel governor Rictius Varus, about the year 286,
about the beginning of the reign of Maximian Herculeus, who then
marched into Gaul. His body was pierced by the persecutors with many
huge nails, such as were used in joining beams or rafters, and are de
scribed by Galloni and Mamachi among the instruments of torture used
by the Romans. St. Piat seems to have suffered torments at Tournay,
the capital, but to have finished his martyrdom at Seclin. This
martyr’s body was discovered in the seventh century at Seclin,
pierced with these nails, by St. Eligius of Noyon, as St. Owen
relates in his life of St. Eligius. He was before honored there, or
St. Eligius would not have sought his body in that place. It is
enshrined in the collegiate church which bears his name at Seclin, a
village between Lille and Tournay, the ancient capital of the small
territory called Medenentensis, now Melantois; and he is honored at
the apostle and patron of that country. In the invasions of the
Normans the relics of SS. Bavo, Wandrille, Aubert, Wulfran, Wasnulf,
Piat, Bainus Winnoc, and Austreberte were conveyed to St. Omer, and
there secured forty years, according to the chronicle of the Normans
in Duchesne, and 846. Those of St. Piat were in another invasion
conveyed to Chartres, and part still remains there in a collegiate
church of canons, which bears his name. Fulbert of Chartres has left
us a hymn in his honor. The body of St. Eubertus, or Eugenius, his
companion and fellow-martyr, is kept in the great collegiate church
of St. Peter at Lille, which was founded and richly endowed by
Baldwin of Lille, earl of Flanders, in 1066. See Tillemont, t. 14;
Molanus in Calend. Flandr. Stilting, t. 1, Octob. p. 1–26, who
gives his most ancient Acts, since interpolated in two editions. See
also Ado Usuard, Georgi, &c.
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