Saint Maximus (Mauxe) and Saint Venerandus

Having escaped the rage of the persecutors, they abandoned Italy and came to the Gauls, accompanied by two holy priests named Mark and Etherius. They passed through the cities of Auxerre, Sens, and Paris. After staying for some time at the confluence of the Oise and the Seine, they continued their march toward Évreux. Having arrived at the village of Acquigny, one league from Louviers and three and a half from Évreux, they were stopped by a troop of barbarians, who had them beheaded on a nearby island formed by the Eure and Iton rivers. Several Christians, newly converted, carried off the palm of martyrdom with them. These Christians, thirty-eight in number, were soldiers whom the patience and courage of Maximus and Venerandus had won over to Jesus Christ. The leader of the troop, furious that they had changed their religion, treated them with the same cruelty as the two holy Martyrs. Mark and Etherius, who had not been caught in the massacre, escaped while they were being led to Évreux. They retraced their steps and buried the bodies of Saint Maximus and Saint Venerandus, not at the very place where they had suf saint Maxime 4th-century martyr bishop, brother of Saint Venerandus. fered, but inside the half-ruined walls of an ancient church, on the site of the current cemetery of Acquigny, right where the Saint-Mauze chapel is located.

Around the year 960, while Richard I, surnamed the Fearless, was Duke of Normandy, and Guiscard was Bishop of Évreux, a certain Amalbert discovered the relics of Saint Maxime and Saint Vénérand at Acquigny: he removed them, with the exception of the heads of the two Martyrs and a few bones. It is reported that a miraculous illness with which he was struck while crossing the Seine, in the Pays de Caux, near Fon Saint-Vandrille Benedictine monastery that received a portion of the relics in the 10th century. tenelle or Saint-Wandrille, compelled him to deposit them in that famous monastery, and that Duke Richard built a chapel to receive them. These relics were subsequently burned by the Huguenots. In 1753, the monks of Saint-Wandrille obtained from the parish church of Acquigny a portion of the bones of the holy Martyrs, which they honor with the title of secondary patrons.

The relics that had remained in Acquigny were always kept there in a church built over the tomb of the holy Martyrs, which became a priory dependent on the Benedictine abbey of Conches. As the church was falling into ruins, M. de Rochechouart, Bishop of Évreux, ordered in 1750 that they be transferred to the parish church. They were deposited there under the high altar and enclosed in beautiful reliquaries. The church was demolished in 1752; but a chapel was left standing, the altar of which, filled with relics, is over the tomb of the holy martyrs. On May 25, they are carried in procession to the place where the Saints received the crown of Martyrdom; and a very large number of the faithful, who come from all the neighboring parishes, are present at this ceremony. Saint Maxime and Saint Vénérand are honored with great devotion in the diocese of Évreux and at Saint-Vandrille. They are invoked especially in times of drought. Their relics are then carried in procession; and one does not appeal to their merits in vain. It was in this way that rain was obtained in the years 1559, 1615, and 1726.

The new diocese of Laval also celebrates the feast of the holy martyrs of Acquigny; there exists in the episcopal city of Mayenne a church by the name of Saint-Venerandus which holds the first rank after the cathedral: this church was founded on the occasion of a piece of the skull of Sain saint Vénérand 4th-century deacon and martyr, brother of Saint Maximus. t Venerandus, which the religious of the priory of Acquigny had given to Laval; a fragment remains of it which was able to be saved at the time of the Revolution. Godescard; Propers of Évreux and Laval; Notice on the commune of Acquigny, by Father Le Courier.