The 17th Century Unpublished Manuscript on the Life of Saint Véran
by Jacques Barcillon

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Download various versions and translations of the Saint Véran manuscript.

You can read a more in-depth account of Saint Véran in this article: Faith and Legends: Uncovering the 5th-Century Mystique of Saint Véran of Vence.

Holding the seventeenth-century handwritten, unpublished manuscript of the Life of Saint Véran, Bishop of Vence (Vie de Sainct Véran, évesque de Vence) in my hands for the first time was a fascinating experience. Until then, it had existed for me only as an intangible reference: an abstract source cited in footnotes and mentioned in passing in many of the histories of Vence I had read. Now it was something entirely different: the actual book itself, written by hand nearly four centuries ago. Its pages bore the convictions, passions, and devotional aims of its author. Seated at a table in a small reading room, I turned the pages slowly, one by one, aware that I was no longer simply reading about history but actually engaging with a piece of it.

When I first began to study the history of Vence, I came across references to this manuscript in some of the books I read. For a long time, I didn’t give it much thought, but eventually I began to wonder about this document. Did it still exist after all these years? If so, where was it located? Was there a copy of it online anywhere that I could download and read? Surely someone before me had taken an interest in creating a digital copy of this for Vence history lovers to enjoy. A little bit of online detective work turned up no digital copies of the manuscript, but it did lead me to the Archives diocésaines du Diocèse de Nice (Diocesan Archives of the Diocese of Nice). It’s here that the manuscript is now kept. I found an email address online and requested an appointment to come and view the manuscript. A few weeks later, I had it in my hands.

Jacques Barcillon, the author of this manuscript, was a canon of the Cathedral Chapter of Vence in the first half of the seventeenth century and one of the most learned clerics of his diocese. He composed at least two known works: this work on the life of Saint Véran and La Vie de Saint Lambert, a biography of Vence’s other patron, Saint Lambert, dedicated to Bishop Antoine Godeau. Both texts belong to a broader movement in Provence after the Council of Trent, when the lives of local saints were rewritten to encourage religious reform and to renew the spiritual life of both clergy and ordinary believers.

Barcillon’s works provide a fascinating window into 17th-century devotional thought and how both Véran and Lambert were venerated at the time. They are, however, not evidence of the historical life of either saint. Barcillon wrote about Véran twelve hundred years after his death, and Lambert five hundred years after his death. He was not a historical witness to the life of either of them. He is simply the first to write an extended narrative about either of which has survived.

Though the manuscript title might lead one to believe otherwise, this “Life of Saint Véran” was never intended to be a “historical biography,” at least not in the modern sense. Although the work runs to ninety-four pages, it contains very few concrete events, dates, or narrative episodes from Véran’s life. Barcillon provides few citations, most of which can not be verified. Much of what is included can not be historically confirmed. Barcillon uses the “life of” Saint Véran largely as a moral and spiritual framework for developing his own reflections on Christian virtue, renunciation of the world, episcopal dignity, family sanctity, divine providence, and more.

Like much early-modern hagiography (writing about the lives of saints, usually focused on spiritual virtues and miracles rather than precise historical detail), the book is less concerned with reconstructing exact historical events than with uplifting the reader, offering religious reflection, and reinforcing accepted traditions. It was meant to inspire devotion above all else, not necessarily document facts. It is reverent and uncritical, richly embellished, and relies almost entirely on legend, popular tradition, and local lore.

Much of the book follows this pattern: while narrating a few specific events from Véran’s life, Barcillon pauses to develop extended moral and theological reflections that are only loosely anchored in the saint himself. Véran becomes less a historical figure than a pretext for spiritual instruction, allowing Barcillon to expound on themes such as the primacy of the soul, the dangers of worldly distraction, and the Christian duty to preserve spiritual purity.

These long passages read more like sermons or devotional reflections than a biography, showing Barcillon’s priorities as a seventeenth-century cleric more concerned with spiritual instruction than with reconstructing historical events. As a result, the work tells us relatively little about the actual life of Saint Véran, but a great deal about the religious outlook, devotional concerns, and writing habits of Barcillon and the clerical world in which he lived in the early seventeenth century.

That said, Barcillon’s manuscripts remain valuable witnesses to the religious culture and episcopal identity of 17th-century Vence. Through them, Barcillon emerges as a humble yet eloquent servant of the Church, dedicated to safeguarding the memory of her saints and the spiritual prestige of his city. He is an excellent writer, and though his style is a bit flowery here and there, his book is a very interesting read.

Who Was Jacques Barcillon?

Jacques Barcillon was a highly educated cleric who combined scholarly credentials with real administrative and judicial authority, effectively making him one of the most powerful figures in the diocese of Vence at the time. Although very little is known of is his personal life, his surviving manuscripts reveal a man of erudition, piety, and deep attachment to the history of his Church.

Originally from nearby Saint-Paul (today Saint-Paul-de-Vence), he was a high-ranking cleric of the cathedral chapter of Vence and a key administrative figure in the diocese. His family was one of the most prominent in Saint-Paul at the time. In 1619, he was an Archdeacon of the church, and in 1622, he became a canon. He also served as the church’s “official,” the head judge of the diocesan ecclesiastical court, responsible for church legal matters, including discipline, disputes, and clerical jurisdiction.

Barcillon became the vicar general (the bishop’s principal deputy) of Bishop Pierre du Vair in 1627. This position empowered him to act in the bishop’s name in administrative, pastoral, and disciplinary matters. Later, he was appointed vicar general sede vacante, the cleric entrusted with administering the diocese during the absence of a bishop. He is referred to in several documents as a “docteur en Ste. théologie” (Doctor of Sacred Theology).

Barcillon’s writing combines historical diligence with theological meditation. His style reflects the influence of ecclesiastical Latin rhetoric and the humanist prose cultivated in cathedral schools of southern France. While his works were never printed, they circulated within the diocese and were often cited in later local histories.

Canon Barcillon donated a reliquary for Saint Lambert’s remains. He died on April 20, 1664 and is buried in the Vence Cathedral in a small chapel known today as the Chapel of the Sacred Heart.

Who was Saint Véran?

The historical Saint Véran of Vence remains an elusive figure. He was a real person. He served as bishop of Vence, likely sometime in the late 5th century — roughly the time when the Western Roman Empire was collapsing, and new kingdoms were forming across Europe. This was an age of insecurity, political fragmentation, and deep spiritual searching. Bishops were not only religious leaders but also social and civic ones.

That Véran lived and led the Christian community of Vence is generally accepted. His name appears in early lists of bishops, and his feast day, celebrated in Vence on September 10, is ancient. Those simple facts earn him a small but solid place in the history of Provence.

Yet the same early sources that confirm his existence tell us almost nothing about his personality, accomplishments, family, or spiritual gifts. No letters survive. No eyewitness descriptions. No stories of miracles, sermons, or travels. For the period in which Véran lived, this silence isn’t unusual; written records from early medieval Provence are very scarce.

Only his name and episcopal title appear in early Church lists and medieval martyrologies, which give no biographical details. The first extended account of his life (which has survived) is this handwritten biography composed in the 17th century by Canon Jacques Barcillon, over a millennium after Véran’s lifetime.

You can read a more in-depth account of the life of Saint Véran in this article: Faith and Legends: Uncovering the 5th Century Mystique of Saint Véran of Vence.

How Accurate is Barcillon’s Biography of Saint Véran?

There are very few genuine ancient references to a Bishop by the name of Veran in Vence:

His name appears in some early episcopal lists of the Church of Vence. These lists do not give biographical details; they only confirm that a bishop by this name once existed. It’s impossible to date these with certainty, but most scholars consider them from the 5th or 6th century.

Multiple early writers (medieval and later) claim that a written life of Saint Véran once existed, but no one ever quotes it. Unfortunately, no such early manuscript has survived. There are no surviving “vitas” of Saint Véran before the Middle Ages. A vita is a written biography of a saint, usually focusing on their virtues, miracles, and holy life rather than on historical detail. They were typically composed in Latin, often by clergy, to inspire devotion and to preserve the saint’s memory.

All of these later accounts of Vérans life appear to depend on derivative summaries. Some scholars believe there once existed a short hagiographic notice (a brief written account of a saint’s life, virtues, and deeds), likely from the Merovingian era or early medieval ages. This belief is based on the fact that Véran appears in medieval calendars and martyrologies (catalogs or lists of saints and martyrs, often with brief notes about their lives and feast days).

Saint Véran is mentioned in a few such martyrologies, including: 1. A Roman martyrology where Véran is mentioned very briefly, essentially just his name and feast date; there is no biography. 2. Usuard’s Martyrology (9th century), where he is again mentioned briefly, again with no biography. 3. Adon of Vienne (9th century), once again a very brief notice, no biography or narrative. Later Benedictine calendars from the Middle Ages also mention Véran. These instances confirm his existence, sanctity, and feast day, but provide absolutely no information about his life.

To make things even more complicated, several figures named Véran (or Veranus or Verani) appear in early Christian tradition, and later writers often confused or combined them. Our Saint Véran of Vence was often confused with Veranus of Lyon and Saint Véran of Cavaillon.

In the short foreword to his manuscript, where Barcillon speaks directly to “the gentlemen of the venerable Chapter of Vence,” he laments the lack of knowledge about the life of Saint Véran. He describes him as “a stranger in his own house and in his own Church.” He says, “the changes and troubles of past centuries have made us lose the knowledge” of the saint and that “If the living image of his incomparable virtues had been preserved with as much care as the relics of his body, we would have no difficulty in knowing who Saint Véran was, what his birth was, and what deeds earned him the immortal memory of the just.”

In his introduction to the reader, he continues: “There are many saints whom we know in this world only by name, and not by the virtuous actions they carried out here, which earned them the place and the title of ‘saint.’ One of these is Saint Véran, Bishop of Vence. We know nothing about him except what is recorded in an old handwritten martyrology of the Church of Vence, which states that he was a monk of Lérins, a disciple of Saint Hilary, Bishop of Arles, and that he himself became Bishop of Vence. The whole diocese of Vence felt deep regret over the loss of the records of the life of such a great saint. To say that they were not written down at some time would be hard to believe; his merit was too well known to have been forgotten by so many learned writers of his century, who devoted their minds to subjects less important than the praise of great men.”

So where did Barcillon, writing in the 17th century, get the details of Saint Véran’s life, which he provides in his manuscript? In his own words, “By a good fortune of Providence, this great friend of God has made himself known to me, and I must make him known to you. My desire, joined with the research and effort I put into it, had the good fortune of finding light in the midst of the obscurities that opposed me at every turn, and that light opened the path to various kinds of knowledge related to my subject that history has given me.”

Barcillon is quite vague. “This great friend of God has made himself known to me.” “Light opened the path to various kinds of knowledge related to my subject.” He provides absolutely no information on how Véran has “made himself known to me” or where these “various kinds of knowledge” actually came from. He cites few sources and provides even fewer details as to where he has suddenly discovered this information, which has led to his account of Véran’s life.

Are we to believe that he simply made up the account of Véran’s life he now provides? Almost all details beyond “he existed and was bishop” are “hagiographic embroidery” and mostly unverifiable. Many resemble standard hagiographic formulas rather than facts. Barcillon’s account of Véran’s life includes “stock” saint-biography structure: noble birth, early piety, monastic formation, episcopal election, miracle narratives, holy death. These motifs are not specific to Véran and indeed can be seen in the life stories of many early saints.

Can we trust this biography to be true? In terms of history, no. Can we reliably say that a bishop named Véran existed in Vence and that his cult is attested early? Yes. We can’t say much else about his life, including his parentage, his supposed miracles, details of his episcopacy, dates, travels, character anecdotes, and more, with any certainty whatsoever. There is simply no supporting evidence from the time he lived.

One of the most important documents we have regarding the lives of early saints is the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina (BHL). The BHL includes entries for Saint Eucher and Saint Galla, who Barcillon wrote were the parents of Véran. However, this claim that Véran was the son of Eucher and Galla is not supported in early sources. It’s possible that Barcillon uses Eucher’s sanctity to “elevate” Véran’s pedigree, a common hagiographic strategy.

The BHL includes an entry for another Saint Véran, of Cavaillon. But there is no entry for Saint Véran of Vence. This reinforces the conclusion that no medieval textual life was known to the compilers.

When writing about the parents and siblings of Véran, Barcillon cites at least five sources: the Venerable Bede (c. 673–735), Usuard (d. 877) and Adon of Vienne (c. 800–875) all of whom wrote early martyrologies (catalogs of saints and martyrs) documenting the family, as well as Germade (Germadius) of Marseille (6th century) and Antheme (Anthemius), both of whom also wrote about early saints.

At one point, Barcillon refers to an “old, barely legible manuscript” of Saint Véran’s life that he said came from the Carthusian scholar Polycarpe de la Rivière. Polycarpe was a prolific 17th-century historian whose manuscripts often blended authentic material with conjecture and later tradition, and many of the sources he cited have never been located or verified. The manuscript Barcillon mentions has not survived, and no other writer ever reported seeing it, so its contents and its reliability cannot be confirmed today.

In 1945, a French Catholic priest and church historian named Léon Cristiani published a long scholarly article (over 90 pages) entitled “Liste chronologique des saints de France, des origines à l’avènement des Carolingiens (essai critique).” Known for his critical, source-based work on early Christianity in Gaul, saints’ cults, episcopal lists, and hagiographical traditions, Cristiani undertook a systematic assessment of the saints of France from the earliest Christian period to the advent of the Carolingians in 751.

Because of its explicitly critical method, the study is particularly valuable for evaluating early bishops and saints known chiefly through later hagiography, including local Provençal traditions. Cristiani lists Saint Eucher and acknowledges Saint Véran of Vence as his son, while also listing Saint Véran in his own right—an inclusion that reflects Cristiani’s judgment that this familial and episcopal tradition rests on historically plausible foundations, even if it derives from later sources.

About The Manuscript

Jacques Barcillon’s handwritten biography of Saint Véran was composed sometime in the mid-seventeenth century. The exact date when this manuscript was written is unknown. Although many modern writers often assume that Barcillon composed the Life of Saint Véran before the Life of Saint Lambert, the manuscripts themselves indicate the opposite. On page 81 of the Véran text, Barcillon responds to a question about canonization by directing the reader to his earlier discussion “at the end of the Life of Saint Lambert,” thereby identifying the Lambert manuscript as a completed work prior to the composition of the Véran biography.

This internal cross-reference is decisive: it establishes the Life of Saint Lambert as the earlier of the two, and the Life of Saint Véran, traditionally thought to be the foundational manuscript, as the later text. This places the Véran manuscript sometime in the mid-1600s, following the Lambert biography, which was likely completed around 1630. At the beginning of the manuscript, Barcillon says that Saint Véran, “is considered a stranger in his own house and in his own church, even though he has lived there for more than 1,218 years.” He is quite specific with the number of years. Where we should begin counting from is the unanswered question. If, as Barcillon states, Véran was ordained Bishop of Vence sometime around 442, then this manuscript would date to around 1660.

The Life of Saint Véran consists of 18 chapters:
Chapter I – The excellent qualities of Saint Véran’s parents.
Chapter II – Continuation and conclusion of the same subject and of the birth of Saint Veran.
Chapter III – Saint Eucher’s care in the education of his Children.
Chapter IV – The island of Lérins, where Véran and his brother were taken to advance in knowledge and virtue.
Chapter V – The progress and happy success that Véran and his brother achieved in a short time at Lérins.
Chapter VI – Véran and his brother embrace the monastic life at Lérins.
Chapter VII – Saint Véran is chosen and ordained Bishop of Vence.
Chapter VIII – Saint Véran’s arrival in Vence and the pitiable condition in which he found his diocese. 
Chapter IX – The beginning and progress of Saint Véran in the governance of his bishopric.
Chapter X – As Saint Véran’s reputation spread everywhere, he became known, loved, and esteemed by all.
Chapter XI – The sufferings endured by Christians because of their impiety, and the help our saint gave to his people.
Chapter XII – The troubles stirred up in the Church by various new heresies, and how Saint Véran responded to them.
Chapter XIII – The dispute over the primacy of the churches of Gaul, claimed by the metropolitan bishops of Arles and of Vienne, settled by Saint Véran.
Chapter XIV – Saint Véran is made mediator in a dispute between Ingenius, metropolitan bishop of Embrun and the Maritime Alps, and Auxanius, bishop of Cimiez and Nice.
Unnumbered Chapter – It says Chap, but there is no number – Continuation of the same subject.
Chapter XV – The death of Saint Véran.
Chapter XVI – The church of Saint Véran in the district of Cagnes, diocese of Vence.
Chapter XVII – Continuation of the same subject
Chapter XVIII – Of four Saint Vérans, bishops, who flourished almost at the same time in France. 

The Physical Manuscript

Today, the manuscript is housed at the Archives diocésaines du Diocèse de Nice (Diocesan Archives of the Diocese of Nice). The catalog number is Diocese de Nice – Archives FR AEC / 06 – 67 N 07 – Paroisse de Vence – 38. It is located in a cardboard box, which also contains several other archives (36 and 37). Inside the box is a simple folder with the same identification, which holds both the Life of Saint Véran and the Life of Saint Lambert manuscripts by Barcillon.

The Véran manuscript is then located inside another folder with some handwritten information on it, which reads:

PAV (Parish Archives of Vence)
Bundle G.
number 2
1 p(age).

Life of Saint Véran
by the Canon Claude [Jacques] Barcillon
(the name Jacques has been scribbled over, and Claude is written above it, which is not accurate)
(Manuscript)

The pagination stops at page
50, but the manuscript is complete.
Here, unlike the manuscript of the Life of
St Lambert, the pages bear a number on
the front and the back.

Written in much smaller, much more difficult to read handwriting is the following:

(But the pagination is not by the author)

Original manuscript –

Appears to have been written after the Life of St Lambert.
Several sentences seem to have been recopied; others are corrected in a later hand.
(this portion has been crossed out)
Various watermarks appear in the papers. But the whole is indeed by the same author as the Life of St Lambert.
2/1/1965 RY

28/1/65 The corrections are indeed by the same author. The watermarks are often the same as those in the Life of St Lambert (a tower). The paper may be from the Vence paper mill, since the tower appears in the arms of Vence.

Life described/written around the year 1660.

There is a red “Archives diocésaines de Nice” stamp in the lower portion of the page.

The manuscript measures approximately 18.5cm wide and 26cm high. The book is bound with string. Some of the writing is very, very close to the left or right edges of the book, where it is bound, making it difficult to photograph and sometimes even to read. In a few places, the text extends under and/or into the binding, leading me to believe this binding is not original. It would have been impossible for Barcillon to write on this portion of the page.

The pages of this manuscript bear the not-so-subtle marks of age and use. They are torn in places, and the edges are tattered, ragged, and frayed. Many pages are damaged with large stains. The ink is uneven in many places, sometimes thin and light, other times thick and dark. There is considerable bleed-through of ink from one side of the page to the other on many pages.

The handwriting is mostly strong and confident, though some pages are incredibly messy and others are downright chaotic. There are obvious hesitations and numerous marked-out words and passages where the author had changed his mind about what he was writing. There were numerous additions to the text written in the margins. On some pages, the line spacing was significant, while on others, the lines were packed very closely together. There were no word processors in the 1600s to hide these kinds of changes and revisions.

Each page is numbered in the upper right or left corner from 1 to 50. After that, none of the pages are numbered. As mentioned earlier, writing on paper in which the manuscript is enclosed indicates that the numbering was added later by someone other than Barcillon. Why they stopped at 50 is a mystery.

Between pages 14 and 15, there are two blank pages.

Between pages 19 and 20, there are 7 blank pages, 2 of which form a very small vertical strip of paper, a very narrow page, so to speak. Because of these blank pages, the “even” numbering shifts to the right, whereas previously it was on the left.

Pages 20, 21, 22, and 23 are loose; they have come free of the binding.

The manuscript ends on what would be page 94, though it is not numbered. A small “fin” marks the end. However, there are five additional pages bound into the manuscript after that, which are not part of the original manuscript. Saint Véran is never mentioned by name in these pages. They consist of a historical-theological essay covering the invasion of the Roman world by barbarian peoples, the collapse of political order and persecution of the Church, the moral decay and clerical weakness as underlying causes, the spread of heresy as an internal catastrophe, and the divine deliverance through saints, councils, and orthodox teaching. Why, when, and by whom this essay was attached to Barcillon’s manuscript is unknown.

The last page of this essay acts as the back of the book, which seems a bit odd. Normally, we would expect to find a blank back.

About 17th-Century Handwritten French

Seventeenth-century French looks similar to modern French, but it differs in several important ways. Spelling was far less standardized, so the same word might appear in several different forms, and writers often spelled according to habit, regional influence, or personal preference. One of the most noticeable orthographic differences is the use of u and v: the two letters were not distinguished the way they are now. A “v” often appeared only at the beginning of words (vne for une, verité for vérité), while “u” was used in the middle (auoit for avait, fauour for faveur). Similarly, “i” and “j” were not clearly distinct letters, and “i” could serve both roles (iour for jour). Accents were used inconsistently or not at all: many words that today have accents appeared without them (etre for être, aage for âge), and the circumflex did not yet consistently mark the disappearance of earlier consonants (hostel versus modern hôtel). Silent final consonants were sometimes written but not pronounced, and double consonants were less consistent, producing forms such as trespas for trépas or estoit for était.

Vocabulary differs too: some words have fallen out of use, others have shifted in meaning over time, and seventeenth-century texts often use highly religious or formal language reflecting the era’s culture. Grammar and sentence structure tended to be looser; sentences are frequently long, full of clauses, and may lack punctuation that would help guide a modern reader. Word order can feel unusual, and pronouns, verb endings, and gender agreements do not always match modern patterns.

Because of all these differences, reading seventeenth-century French can feel like reading a different, though clearly related, language, even for native speakers.

Abbé Eugene Tisserand and The Society of Scientific and Archaeological Studies of the City of Draguignan

In 1860, Abbé Eugene Tisserand published what is generally considered the first comprehensive history of Vence, titled “Histoire de Vence” (History of Vence). It’s clear that he relied heavily on Barcillon’s manuscript for his section related to Saint Véran. Shortly after the publication of his book, it was reviewed in a publication called “Bulletin of the Society of Scientific and Archaeological Studies of the City of Draguignan.” The Société d’études scientifiques et archéologiques de Draguignan et du Var, founded in 1855, is devoted to researching, preserving, and promoting the history, archaeology, and natural heritage of Draguignan and the wider Var and Alpes-Maritimes region. To accompany the review, Tisserand sent copies of both of Barcillon’s unpublished manuscripts, Life of Saint Véran and Life of Saint Lambert.

The Life of Saint Véran was published by the society in its “Bulletin” over several issues. They write, “Although this work does not always offer the same level of archaeological interest in all its parts, we believe we will please our readers by publishing almost all of it, either because of the valuable details it contains about one of the holiest and noblest families of the Gauls, or because of the important points of ecclesiastical history that are discussed in it.” Note the phrase “almost all of it.” A small portion of the piece was omitted from their serialization, but nothing too important, mostly an introduction to the reader by Barcillon and some additional information about the other historical figures from the time name Véran.

The first installment (chapters I through III) was published in the January 1861 edition. The second installment (chapters IV through VII ) was published in the April 1861 edition. The third installment (chapters VIII through XII) was published in the July 1861 edition. The fourth installment (chapters XIII through XV) was published in the October 1861 edition. The fifth installment (chapters XVI through XVIII) was published in the January-April 1862 edition. The first four installments were later published together in Volume III, 1860-1861, while the last installment was later published in Volume IV, 1862-1863.

Download various versions and translations of the Saint Véran manuscript.

You can read a more in-depth account of Saint Véran in this article: Faith and Legends: Uncovering the 5th-Century Mystique of Saint Véran of Vence.