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ST. NICETIUS, BISHOP OF TRIERS, C.
ST. GREGORY OF TOURS has left us a great eulogium
of this holy prelate. His parents placed him young in a monastery,
where he made so great a progress in learning and piety, that his
reputation reached the court. King Theodoric honored him in a
particular manner, and, in 527, obliged him to accept the bishopric
of Triers. Theodebert, his son, had the same regard for the servant
of God: but his successor, Clotaire 11., offended at his zealous
efforts in restoring discipline, unjustly banished him; but the
saint’s exile continued but a very short time: for that prince
dying, Sigebert, one of his sons, who succeeded him in that part of
his dominions, would not take possession of his kingdom till Nicetius
was restored. The holy pastor’s great talents and zeal were
displayed in the assiduity and extraordinary fruit of his preaching:
the sanctity of his life, and the practice of all good works were
rendered illustrious in the eyes of men by the gift of miracles, with
which he was favored. He assisted at the first and second councils of
Clermont, in 535 and 549; at the fifth or great council of Orleans;
at the second council of Paris, in 551, and assembled one at Toul in
555. Though he enjoyed the favor and protection of king Sigebert, his
zeal failed not to raise new persecutions against him, without which
a Christian cannot live in this world. But no human respects or fear
could make him abandon the cause of God, and the true interest of
souls. The extirpation of incestuous marriages in France was what
cost him many difficulties; but God blessed his constancy and labors
with success, both against vice, and against the Arian and Eutychian
heresies. We have two letters which he wrote against those errors.1
The first was written about the year 561, and addressed to
Clodosindis, a Catholic princess, daughter to Clotaire 1., married to
Alboin, the Arian king of the Lombards. In this he exhorts her to
endeavor to convert her husband to the Catholic faith, which he
proves from the form of baptism, and from the miracles which were
wrought in the Catholic church by the relics of saints, which the
Arians themselves venerated. “Let the king,” (Alboin,)
says he, “send messengers to the church of St. Martin; if they
dare enter it, they will see the blind enlightened, the deaf recover
their hearing, and the dumb their speech; the lepers and sick are
cured, and return home sound, which we see.—What shall I say of
the relics of the holy bishops Germanus, Hilary, and Lupus? at which
daily so great miracles are wrought that we cannot recount them all;
and the demoniacs are tortured, and confess their virtue. Do they do
so in the churches of the Arians? They do not. One devil never
exorcises another. What have you seen at the tombs of the bishops
Remigius and Medard? You have heard from your grandmother, the good
lady Clotildis, how she brought Clovis to the Catholic faith,”
&c. Another letter the saint wrote to the emperor Justinian, who
was fallen into the error of the Incorrupticol, who maintained that
the body of Christ in his mortal state was not passible, or subject
to pain, alteration, &c., which was a spawn of Eutychianism. St.
Nicetius tells him with an episcopal authority and zeal, that since
he had published an edict commanding all bishops to subscribe his
error, all Italy, Africa, Spain, and Gaul, anathematized his name.2
Dom. d’Acheri has published two other treatises of St.
Nicetius; the first, on Watching in Holy Prayer, which he extols from
the testimony of Isaiah. the Psalms, the example of Christ, SS. Peter
and Paul, &c., also from the advantages and necessity of fervent
prayer, &c. The second is entitled, on the Good or Advantage of
Psalmody, or singing the divine praises assiduously, and in common.3
St. Nicetius died about the year 566. Many great men of the age
wherein he lived bear testimony to the innocence of his manners and
his extraordinary sanctity and miracles.4 See St. Gregory of Tours,
Vit. Patr. c. 17; Fortunat.1. 3, c. 9; D’Acheri, in Spicileg.
t. 12. p. 209; Bulteau, Hist. Occid. t. 1, p. 120; Rivet, Hist.
Lettr, t. 3, p 291.
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