ON ST. AMANDUS THE COUNT, AND STS. LUCIUS, LEONTIUS, LUCIAN,
AT GISALBA IN ITALY.
CommentaryAmandus the Count, at Gisalba in Italy (Saint)
Lucius, at Gisalba in Italy (Saint)
Leontius, at Gisalba in Italy (Saint)
Lucian, at Gisalba in Italy (Saint)
AUTHOR G. H.
Bergamo is an ancient city of the Orobii in Alpine Italy, situated between Brescia and Como, in whose diocese eight miles from it toward Brescia lies Gisalba, At Gisalba near Bergamo a town still notable for the honor of a countship. For according to Ferdinando Ughelli tome 4 of Italia sacra, in Laurentius the eighth Bishop of the See of Bergamo, the Provost of the Church of Saint Laurence is Count of Gisalba, and exercises temporal and spiritual jurisdiction in that town, and has the use of the mitre for his dignity, granted by the Supreme Pontiffs by a special privilege. Saint Amandus the Count The Count of this town is reported to have been Saint Amandus, of whom these things are read in marble in the sanctuary of the church of Gisalba.
[2] died April 6, In the year of the Lord 515 currently running, on the 6th of April, Saint Amandus the Martyr paid the debt of human life. This man was Count of Gisalba, he caused the church of Saint Laurence to be built, which he endowed with very ample possessions: and he lies in the church of Saint Mary in the middle of two altars. Concerning the same Saint, Achilles Mutius composed these verses, related by Ughelli:
Amandus was once Prefect of Gisalba, Of the illustrious fortress, a man weighty in piety. A city often guarded by Hectorean strength, enrolled among the Saints, Whom pious citizens have borne up among the gods above.
[3] Bartholomew de Peregrinis treats of the same Amandus in part 2 of Vinea Bergomensis chapter 9, and Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, who compiled this elogium chiefly from the said Vinea: "Amandus, Count of Gisalba, devoted to pious works, and leading a life acceptable to God, built a temple to Saint Laurence the Martyr, and endowed it with ample revenues, founder of the church of Saint Laurence. many estates having been assigned to it: which was later erected into an Abbey, and called by the name of Saint Amandus. When however he had led a religious life there for some years as if in a monastery, in the year of salvation 515, on the 8th day before the Ides of April, he departed from this mortal life, buried in the church of Saint Mary of the same village (as his epitaph declares)." Thus Ferrarius, who inscribed the same Saint in the general Catalogue. Brautius, Bishop of Sarsina, in the poetic Martyrology adorns him with this distich:
The Count distinguished for exceeding piety, Amandus, The house which he established for the Saint, himself possesses.
[4] These things collected, we sent a letter to Brescia, and consulted the very Reverend Lord Bernardino Faino, familiar to us through mutual correspondence. Stirred up by him, the Reverend Father Donatus Calvus of Bergamo, of the Order of the Hermits of Saint Augustine, a learned man and famous for books concerning the history of Bergamo, indicated concerning Saint Amandus: that no proper office or Lessons of this Saint existed, he is venerated with the Ecclesiastical office. but that the whole office is celebrated from the Common of one Martyr with an Octave. That the day of his death was April 6, and of his Translation February 6, and that on this day his solemnity is celebrated at Gisalba. That the church of Saint Mary, in which the body of Saint Amandus with his companions still lies, the body in the church of Saint Mary, is possessed by the Society of the Disciplinati. But that the church of Saint Laurence is a Provostship, formerly called an Abbey, whose Provost bears the mitre and enjoys the title of Count, and it is in the diocese of Bergamo, though not in the city, a principal dignity. Besides he sent an extract from his book on the Coats of Arms of Bergamo written in Italian, and adds that he could find nothing more about him: "There exist," says the same, "together with the body of Saint Amandus in the church of Saint Mary, the bodies of Saints Lucius, Leontius, and Lucian: with the bodies of three Saints. whose Acts and day of death lie in darkness, and of them there is only a commemoration in the office of the day of Saint Amandus." The elogium of Saint Amandus, sent from the aforesaid book, as I said, is of this kind.
[5] "Amandus, Count of Gisalba under the Emperor Severus, in the year 463, under the General Ricimer waged war, and bravely fought against Berigus, King of the Alans, He is said to have overcome the Alans in war who had invaded the province of Bergamo, and protected his homeland. For in the valley of Decia, which is now called Scalve, having joined battle with Berigus, not so much Ricimer as Amandus, triumphing over the Alans in a single engagement, by a happy victory added triumphal laurels to the Caesarean diadem. A few years after, Ricimer having been made Governor of Insubria, and swollen with martial pride, repudiated the scepter of Artemius, who had succeeded Severus in the Empire. Thus all Italy being in suspense whether it would submit its neck to the yoke of Artemius or of Ricimer, Amandus, steadfast in loyalty, following the party of Artemius, transferred himself with his soldiers to the city of Bergamo for its protection and custody. To have defended Bergamo for Emperor Artemius: Hence made Father of his fatherland, solace of the afflicted, shield of the citizens, and strong defender of the whole province.
[6] [To have defended the Catholic faith against the Arians in the time of Odoacer and Theodoric,] Often engaging with enemies, he waged war, fought, conquered. But even more bravely, when Odoacer, King of the Heruli, shook all Italy with the Arian heresy, armed with the orthodox faith, although he served the pestilent scepter of Odoacer with outward obedience, attacking the infernal monster of Arianism, he so crushed its forces that, by God's help, he kept his Bergamese fatherland immune from its deadly contagion. He did the same when, in the year 489, by Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths, Odoacer having been ejected, the true faith, shipwrecked, was swimming amid the storms of the Arians. Amandus, always guardian of the faith, sparing no sweat, protected the Catholic religion, defended Roman holiness, and although by threats, injuries, insults, plots, persecutions and harms, by the fraud and deceit of the Arians he was very often assaulted, yet he never abandoned his undertaking, never departed from the true faith by a finger's breadth.
[7] he endowed the church of Saint Laurence, He built the church of Saint Laurence, which he endowed with estates and other goods. By the brightness of his morals, the largess of his alms, the radiance of his holiness, the splendor of all virtues, he illustrated his whole fatherland. He died a Martyr on account of the innumerable persecutions and injuries which he endured for the faith of Christ, and died as a Martyr; though by an unknown kind of death, on the sixth day of April: on which his feast is also venerated, in memory of his Translation, on the sixth of February."
[8] Thus he, to be accepted by us without hesitation, if he had equally indicated from what authors and monuments he received each particular. For we fear that here there is only proposed a plausible series of new conjectures, not ineptly woven together by a man skilled in Italian history, and congruously depending on each other. For that the name of Gisalba is older than the Lombard domination in Insubria (since it is itself Lombardic, signifying Mount of Gizo) we can with difficulty be persuaded: and we suspect that Saint Amandus is to be referred to the times of the Lombards and their persecution, who in his own estates erected the church of Saint Laurence, and brought into it the bodies or relics of three more ancient holy Martyrs, perhaps Thebans, before that place had the name or rights of a town; and who then, slain by the arriving Lombards for the cause of the faith, earned a common burial and honor together with the three others. For it is not new that those who had some possessions in places later adorned with a more notable
title, should be called Counts, Dukes, or Princes of such places; it could also be that Amandus, in the manner of the Roman Empire, bore the title of Count, attached not to a place but to an office, and because in the town now called Gisalba he once lived, he is called Count of Gisalba.