ST. MEMMIUS, IN FRENCH, MENGE FIRST BISHOP AND APOSTLE OF CHALONS ON THE MARNE

THE Catalaunian plains, according to Jornandes, one hundred leagues in length, and seventy in breadth, famous for the defeat of Attila, and other great victories, gave name to the whole province of Champagne, and were the theatre of the apostolic labors of St. Memmius, the first bishop and apostle of Chalons, in the decline of the third century. Flodoard is our voucher that he was contemporary with Sixtus, bishop of Rheims in 290. He is honored on the 5th of August, the day of his death. His relics, after several translations, are deposited in a rich shrine of silver gilt, together with those of his sister St. Poma, and famous for many miracles. St. Gregory of Tours relates that when he was travelling through Chalons his servant fell dangerously ill of a fever: St. Gregory, prostrate before the tomb of St. Memmius, prayed earnestly for his recovery; and the next morning the youth found himself perfectly we11.1 St. Memmius’s two immediate successors, Donatian and Domitian, are also honored among the saints, and their relics enshrined in the Basilic of St. Memmius. Likewise St. Elasius and his brother and successor Laudomerus or Lumier, the thirteenth and fourteenth bishops of Chalons from 565 to 590, are honored, the former on the 19th of August, the latter on the second of October, though he died on the 30th of September.