VERECUNDUS
352
VERECUNDUS
Order. The superb Church of Saint-Vanne was
destroj-ed in 1832 and its cloister, which had been
converted into barracks, was burned in 1870. The
Abbey of Saint-Paul de Verdun was founded (970-
973) by Bishop Vicfrid. It was originally occupied
by Benedictines, but in 1135 by Premonstratensians,
and was finally destroyed in 1552. The Benedictine
Abbey of Saint-Airy de Verdun, founded between
1025 and 1042, opened pubhc schools about the year
1100, which enjoyed renown for a number of years.
In 709 a monastery dedicated to St. Michael was es-
tablished on Mont de Chatillon by Vulfoad, mayor
of the palace under Childeric, King of Austrasia.
Abbot Maragdus, a friend of Charlemagne, trans-
ferred it in 819 to the borders of the Aleuse, thus
founding the town of Saint-Mihiel. The reform
inaugurated by the congregation of Saint Vanne was
introduced into this monastery in 1606 by Cardinal
Charles de Lorraine, one of its abbots. Cardinal de
Retz was also an abbot of Saint-Mihiel and occupied
the castle of Commercy, where he wrote his "Me-
moirs on the Fronde", and which castle he restored
and afterwards sold to Charles IV of Lorraine.
The castle and town of Vaucouleurs belonged to the lords of Joinville, one of whom wrote the life of St. Louis. At this town Joan of Arc presented her- self to Robert de Baudricourt, offering her services against the English who were then besieging Orleans. Before the foundation of the Fortress of Montmedy there existed, on the rock dominating the town, a chapel under the protection of the Blessed Virgin which in the sixth century had replaced a statue of the Gaulish Mercury. The Diocese of Verdun fig- ures largely in the history of art, owing to the sculp- tor Ligier Richier (1500-72), a pupil of Michelangelo. His mausoleum of Rene de Chalons, Prince of Orange, at Bar-le-Duc and his Holy Sepulchre in the church of Saint-Mihiel are admirable works of art. A council held at Verdun in 947 dealt with the conflict between Hugues and Artaud both of whom claimed the See of Reims, finally retained by Artaud. At Tusey (Tusia- cum) near Vaucouleurs, a council, convened by Charles the Bald and Lothaire, was held in 860. The synodal letter despatched by the council and revised by Hincmar, dealt with usurpers of ecclesiastical benefices and maintained against the doctrine of Gottschalk that Jesus died for all men without ex- ception. The Treaty of Verdun signed in 843 by the three Kings, Lothaire, Charles the Bald, and Louis the German, definitively confirmed the division of Charlemagne's empire. A number of saints are con- nected with the history of the diocese of whom the following are worthy of mention: St. Euspicius, who during the siege of Verdun in 502 by Clovis, prevailed on him to spare the town and received the territory of Micy near Orleans on which to build an abbey; he was an uncle of St. Vanne (V'i tonus). Bishop of Verdun, and of St. Mcsniin (Maximinus) from whom the Ab- bey of Micy received its name. St. Wandrille (Wan- dregesilus), b. in Verdun in 570, founder of the Monastery of Fontenelle and his nephew St. Gou, also bom in Verdun and a monk of Fontenelle; St. Rouyn (Rodingus) of Irish origin, who founded the Abbey of Beaulieu in the episcopate of St. Paul and died in 708 at the age of 117; also Ble.ssed Pierre of Luxembourg (1369-1387), Bishop of Metz and cardinal, son of Gui de Luxembourg, Count de Ligny. Father Ger- billon (1634-1707), a Jesuit, who ]>layed an iniimrtaiit part in the Chinese Mis.sioiis, came originally from Verdun, and the celebrated and learned Doni Calniet (1672-1757) was bom at Mesnil la Ilorgne.
The chief pilgrimages of the diocese are: Notre Dame d'Avioth, near Montin(5dy, dating from the twelfth century, with a sanctuary dating from the fourteenth to the fifteenth centuries; Notre Dame de Benolte Vaux; Notre Dame de la Belle Epine, at Bouchon; Notre DameduGuet, at Bar-le-Duc, dating
from 1130; Notre Dame des Vertus, at Ligny; Ste
Anne d' Argonne, dating from 1338; and Notre Dame
de La VoOte at V'aucouleurs. Before the application
of the law of 1901 regarding the associations, the fol-
lowing orders were represented in the Diocese of \'er-
dun: Capuchins; Clerks Regular of our Saviour and
several orders of teaching brothers. Among orders
for women were: Canonesses Regular of St. Augustine
of the Congregation of Our Lady, founded at Corbeil
(Seine et Oise) in 1643, in 1816 they were charged
with the education at Versailles of the daughters of
the Chevaliers de St. Louis and were transferred to
Verdun in 1839; also the Sisters of Compassion, a
teaching order founded in 1846 with a mother-house at
St-Hilaire-en-Woevre. At the end of the nineteenth
century the religious congregations directed: 64 infant
schools, 7 orphan asylums for girls, 2 houses of
charity, 1 dispensary, 3 houses for nursing the sick in
their homes, 1 house of retreat, 1 lunatic asylum, and
18 hospitals. In 1905 at the end of the concordatory
regime there were 283,480 inhabitants, 30 first-class
parishe.^, 444 succursals and 34 vicariates.
Gallia Christiana, XIII (nova. 1785), 1160-1263; instr., 551-584; RoussEL, Hiat. ecclesiaslique et civile de Verdun, first published in 1745 (rev. ed., Bar-le-Duc. 1863); Clouet, Hist, de Verdun el du pays verdunois (Verdun, 1867-1869); Robinet and Gillant. Pouille du diocise de Verdun (Verdun, 1888-1904); DcFOUR. Eglise catkidrale de Verdun (Verdun, 1863) ; Labande, La chariti a Verdun (Verdun, 1894); Gabriel, Verdun, notice hislorique (Verdun, 18SS). GeoRGES GotAU.
Verecundus, Bishop of Junca, in the African Province of Byzacena, in the middle of the sixth century, when the question of the Three Chapters was raised; d. at Chalcedon, in the beginning of 552. Pope VigiUus's "Judicatum" having excited almost universal discontent, both the pope and the Emperor Justinian agreed the question should be settled in a general council to be held at Constantinople. Vere- cundus, with Primasius of Hadrumeta, went to repre- sent the Province of Byzacena, and arrived at Con- stantinople towards the middle of 551. At once the Greek bishops set out to induce them by promises and threats to anathematize the Three Chapters. Both resisted strenuously at first, and, in the grave difficul- ties then besetting Pope VigiUus, stood by his side; and when the latter had taken refuge in the Basilica of St. Peter's, both, in union with him, issued a sen- tence of excommunication against Theodore Askidas and of deposition against Mennas, the patriarch of the imperial city (17 Aug., 551). Soon, however, the conditions became so unbearable that on 23 Dec. Pope Vigilius, although his residence was carefully watched, managed to escape across the Bosporus and to reach tlie Church of St. Euphemia at Chalcedon. Thither Primasius and Verecundus followed him a few days later. Verecundus, up to the end an ardent champion of the Three Chapters, died shortly after- wards. After Verecundus'sdeath, Primasius was moved by ambition to relent from his unyielding attitude. As an ecclesiastical writer, Verecundus is little known. His works, edited by Cardinal Pitra ("Spicil. Solesm.", IV, Paris, 1858), consist first of a collection of historical documents on the Council of Chalcedon, "Excerptiones de gestis Chalcedonensis Concihi", of which we po.sses8 two recensions; secondly, of an exegetical commentary in nine books upon the Canticles of the Old Testament ; and thirdly, of a poem of 212 hexameter lines, "De satisfactione pa^nitcntix", in which exquisite thoughts are unfor- tunately presented in a very incorrect form. St. Isidore of Seville (De vir. ill., vii) attributes also to Verecundus another poem on resurrection and judg- ment, which is possibly no other than the " De iudicio Domini" or " De resurrectione mortuorum", found among the works of Tertullian and St. Cj-prian.
Bardenhewer, Palrolooy. tr. .Shahan (St. Louis, 1908); Hefele, ConcilienQCschichte: Fr. tr. Leclerco, III (Paris, 1909). ii. 41 sq.
Charles L. Souvay.
