Gratus of Aosta ( it, San Grato di Aosta, french: Saint Grat d'Aoste) (d. September 7, c. AD 470) was a bishop of Aosta and is the city's

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

Life

It is thought that both Gratus and Eustasius were of Greek origin and that they received their education and ecclesiastical formation from the type of monastic foundation in Italy established by

Eusebius of Vercelli Eusebius of Vercelli (c. March 2, 283 – August 1, 371) was a bishop from Sardinia and is counted a saint. Along with Athanasius, he affirmed the divinity of Jesus against Arianism. Biography Eusebius was born in Sardinia, in 283. After his fathe ...

, which was modeled on that of the Eastern cenobites.Borrelli, Antonio. "San Grato di Aosta", Santi e Beati, June 6, 2006
/ref> He is known to have signed the acts of the synod of Milan in AD 451 as a priest. Gratus represented the

bishop of Aosta french: Diocèse d'Aoste , image = Aosta Cattedrale.JPG , image_size = 255px , image_alt = Facade of Cathedral of Aosta , caption = Aosta Cathedral , country = Italy , metropolitan = , ...

Eustasius Eustace of Luxeuil (c. 560 – c. 626), also known as Eustasius, was the second abbot of Luxeuil from 611. He succeeded his teacher Columbanus, to whom he had been a favorite disciple and monk. He had been the head of the monastic school. Life ...

, at this council, signing the letter that the assembly sent to

Pope Leo I the Great Pope Leo I ( 400 – 10 November 461), also known as Leo the Great, was bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 until his death. Pope Benedict XVI said that Leo's papacy "was undoubtedly one of the most important in the Church's history." Leo was ...

in order to affirm its condemnation of the heresy of Eutyches. Gratus became

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of Aosta sometime after 451, and presided over the translation of various

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

in the city around 470, including those of Innocent, one of the martyrs of the

Theban Legion The Theban Legion (also known as the Martyrs of Agaunum) figures in Christian hagiography as a Roman legion from Egypt—"six thousand six hundred and sixty-six men"—who converted en masse to Christianity and were martyred together in 286, acc ...

. The bishops of Agaunum and

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

were present at this translation. The year of his death is not known, but the day is: his tomb in the parochial church of Saint-Christophe bears an inscription that reads ''Hic requiescit in pace S. M. GRATUS EPS D P SUB D. VII ID. SEPTEMB''. His relics are preserved in the

Collegiate church of Saint Ursus The Collegiate church of Saint Ursus ( it, Collegiata di Sant'Orso, french: Collégiale de Saint-Ours) is a collegiate church in Aosta, northern Italy, dedicated to Saint Ursus of Aosta. The original church had a single hall, delimited by a sem ...

in Aosta.

Veneration

His

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

is September 7. The diffusion of Gratus' cult occurred in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when his relics were translated from the church of St. Laurence (in Aosta) to the

. Some of his relics lie there still, in a gold and silver

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including ''wikt:phylactery, phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it i ...

. One March 27 of an uncertain year, a liturgical feast was introduced in the diocese of Aosta that honored the translation of Gratus' relics. An ancient ritual of

pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

origin consisted of a blessing of the earth, the water, and the candles, coinciding with the coming of spring. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, Gratus was invoked against a series of natural disasters:

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

s caused by the melting of the winter snows;

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

;

hailstones Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailstone. Ice pellets generally fa ...

; fire;

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

s and

moles Moles can refer to: *Moles de Xert, a mountain range in the Baix Maestrat comarca, Valencian Community, Spain *The Moles (Australian band) *The Moles, alter ego of Scottish band Simon Dupree and the Big Sound People *Abraham Moles, French engineer ...

that devastated the fields. As a thaumaturgus, he was invoked against

witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...

es and

devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

s. In 1450, he was invoked against a plague of insects in the Tarentaise region of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Gratus is particularly invoked for the protection of crops.

Background

In 1285, the ''Magna Legenda Sancti Grati'', a fictitious and anachronistic account of his life, was composed by Jacques de Cours, canon of

Aosta Cathedral Aosta Cathedral ( it, Cattedrale di Aosta; Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta e San Giovanni Battista; french: Cathédrale d'Aoste; Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption et Saint-Jean-le-Baptiste) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Aosta, in north ...

, to celebrate the translation of the saint's relics.Cf. Frutaz, pp. 179-181. In this account, Gratus was said to have been born into a noble

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

n family. He studied at

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

and became a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

. In order to escape the persecutions in the East, he fled to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where he was well received and was sent as an emissary to the court of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

. A vision experienced at the

Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone St ...

sent him to Aosta. He converted many pagans there and Charlemagne aided him in his mission. By divine command, he was then sent to the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

to find the head of

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

. For this reason, Gratus is sometimes depicted with John the Baptist's head in iconography. He was accompanied by ( it, Giocondo or french: Joconde). Gratus found the relic concealed in the palace of Herod. Smuggling it out of

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, Gratus returned to Rome, where churchbells played of their own accord in celebration. Gratus presented John's head to the Pope; in doing so, the

jawbone In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

remained in Gratus' hand. This was interpreted as a sign, and the Pope allowed him to carry that precious relic back to Aosta. Gratus continued to govern the diocese, while periodically withdrawing to a hermitage with Jucundus. This story was contested as early as the sixteenth century.

Caesar Baronius Cesare Baronio (as an author also known as Caesar Baronius; 30 August 1538 – 30 June 1607) was an Italian cardinal and historian of the Catholic Church. His best-known works are his ''Annales Ecclesiastici'' ("Ecclesiastical Annals"), whi ...

, who drafted a new edition to the ''

Roman Martyrology The ''Roman Martyrology'' ( la, Martyrologium Romanum) is the official martyrology of the Catholic Church. Its use is obligatory in matters regarding the Roman Rite liturgy, but dioceses, countries and religious institutes may add duly approved ...

'' (1586), doubted the veracity of the tale. In the twentieth century, the historian Aimé Pierre Frutaz demonstrated that the ''Magna Legenda Sancti Grati'' was an invented tale. However, the tale had spurred the diffusion of Gratus' cult into

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savo ...

, and provided the basis for the saint's attributes.

References

Sources

* Béthaz, Pierre Joseph (1884)
''Vie de saint Grat évêque et patron du diocèse d'Aoste''
Aoste: Édouard Duc. * * *

External links

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