The site selected for the erection of this monastery was on the banks of a branch of the Garonne, at the foot of an old city known in the time of the Caesars as Climberris, and built en amphithéatre, with superb terraces, upon the side of an elevation. It was fitting that the abbey, which Count Bernard had founded for the spiritual weal of himself and his posterity, and endowed with "lands and livings many a rood," should find shelter beneath his fostering eye at the very foot of his crescent-shaped city, which was itself surmounted by the embattled walls of his own stronghold. Thus enclosed by hills on the north and west, and the peaceful, sluggish Algersius on the east, threading its way toward the Garonne—its current soft-gliding and calm as the life of the cloister—what spot more suitable could Count Bernard have found on which to build a house of prayer? The warm sun of France to which it thus lay exposed was tempered by the keen, invigorating winds that came from the snowy Pyrenees, which glitter away to the south.
In this very place, before the advent of the Messiah, in mythological times, a temple had stood in honor of Diana, the old ideal of a people's reverence for purity, and one of nature's foreshadowings of the Christian exaltation of chastity. The Auscitains being early converted to Christianity, their zealous apostles overthrew the high places of the Gentiles, and thereon set up the victorious ensign of the cross—Vexilla regis prodeunt!
On the ruins of Diana's temple was erected an altar to the true God, and a baptistery, named, as all baptisteries are, after the precursor of Christ, where came the warlike Ausci to be regenerated at the holy hands of the zealous St. Taurin, and the fearless, idol-demolishing St. Oren, who in turn fixed their abode hard by. Other saints too have lived on the same spot, and their bodies were enshrined hereon after their spirits had passed away. St. Taurin, St. Oren, St. Léothade, St. Austinde, names ever venerable to the heart of an Auscitain, living in the shadow of your shrines, sheltered by your votaries who merit for me your protection, I should be ungrateful to you, untrue to my own heart, did I not often murmur your potent names and praise you to those afar off!
St. Taurin was the fourth successor of St. Paterne, whom St. Sernin, the great apostle not only of Toulouse but of all this part of France, consecrated first bishop of Eauze, then the metropolis of Novempopulania, as Gascony was called. Forced by barbarians, who came in search of spoils, to quit Eauze, St. Taurin took refuge in Climberris, bringing with him, among other relics, the bodies of his four sainted predecessors in the episcopacy: St. Paterne, St. Servand, St. Optat, St. Pompidien. At that time, there were two distinct cities here—Climberris, a Gaulish city, on the side and crest of the hill, and Augusta Auscorum, on the eastern bank of the Algersius, which last received its name from the Emperor Augustus, who passed through it on his return from Spain, and gave it the rights of a Roman city. St. Saturnin had first preached the gospel here, and built a church under the invocation of St. Peter in the city of Augusta; and at the foot of Climberris, where our priory now stands, was a church of St. John. St. Taurin chose the latter as his metropolitan church—a rank it retained for a long period—and there enshrined the holy bodies he had brought with him.
The zeal of St. Taurin was not confined to his own flock. Hearing of a great Druidical celebration in the woods of Berdale, he repaired thither. The unholy rites had commenced, and a profound silence reigned, when all at once a loud voice was heard. It was that of St. Taurin, denouncing their idolatry and calling upon the multitude to turn to the true God. The crowd was at first too much astonished at his boldness to move, but after some hesitation, incited by the Druids, overwhelmed the apostle with a shower of stones. Finding he still breathed, they cut off his head. His feast is solemnized with the utmost pomp in this diocese, on the fifth of September, which is believed to be the day of his martyrdom.
St. Oren belonged to a Spanish family of high rank, his father being the Duke of Urgel and Governor of Catalonia. He early renounced his right of heritage, but, after the death of his brother, succeeded to the family estates. He sold all his property, distributed the money among the poor, and retired to a hermitage amidst the mountains of Bigorre, where he led an angelic life, giving himself up to severe austerities and the contemplation of divine things. The renown of his virtues and his reputation for learning caused his nomination to this see, of which he reluctantly took possession in the year 400. He displayed extraordinary energy and zeal in rooting out the vestiges of idolatry still lingering in his diocese, and in reviving true piety among the lukewarm of his flock.
St. Oren was a learned man and a poet. The great Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, who lived in the sixth century, mentions his poems, of which some fragments have come down to us. His Nomenclature, in particular, has always been known and quoted. It is more extensive than any other ancient list of the symbols of the God-Man. Sylvius, in the fifth century, gives forty-five of these symbolical names in seven verses. Clement of Alexandria, in his hymn to our Saviour, gives ten. St. Cyril mentions twelve, in a sermon. The list of St. Phébade of Agen, in the fourth century, comprises twenty-one. The Nomenclature of Constantinople mentions twelve; that of Rome, twenty-two; but that of St. Oren, composed in his solitude of Bigorre, gives, in five distichs, fifty-two of these emblematical names of our Saviour. I quote it entire:
De Epithetis Salvatoris Nostri.
Janua,
Virgo,
Leo,
Sapientia,
Verbum,
Rex,
Baculus,
Princeps,
Dux,
Petra,
Pastor,
Homo,
Retia,
Sol,
Sponsus,
Semen,
Mons,
Stella,
Magister,
Margarita,
Dies,
Agnus,
Ovis,
Vitulus,
Thesaurus,
Fons,
Vita,
Manus,
Caput,
Ignis,
Aratrum,
Flos,
Lapis angularis,
Dextra,
Columba,
Puer,
Vitis,
Adam,
Digitus,
Speculum,
Via,
Botryo,
Panis,
Hostia,
Lex,
Ratio,
Virga,
Piscis,
Aquila,
Justus,
Progenies regis,
regisque Sacerdos;
Nomina Magna Dei,
major at ipse Deus.
"These are the great names of God, but he himself is still far greater!" says the last line.
St. Oren never lost his love for solitude, and this attraction, added to the burden of his episcopal duties, induced him at last to resume his hermit's staff and set out for the grotto, which had been the witness of his former austerities and was the never-ceasing object of his regret. His flock, in consternation, pursued him and brought him back to his post, where his piety, his talents, and the miracles he wrought, gave him preeminence among all the bishops of Aquitaine. When Theodoric I., King of the Visigoths, was besieged at Toulouse, by Lictorius, lieutenant of the celebrated Aétius, the former sent St. Oren, with several other bishops, to arrange terms of peace with the Roman commander. Lictorius received them with haughty contempt, and, sure of victory, rejected all their propositions. Then Theodoric humbled himself before the Lord of Hosts. He covered himself with sackcloth, prostrated himself in prayer, and then went forth to battle and to victory.