ON SAINT SATURNINUS
BISHOP OF VERONA IN ITALY.
CommentarySaturninus, Bishop of Verona in Italy (Saint)
G. H.
From the ancient Martyrology of the Cathedral Church of Verona and other manuscript codices it is established that thirty-six bishops of this city were inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints, and customarily venerated with Ecclesiastical office under a double rite. The same is confirmed by Francesco Corna, Giovanni Panteo, Mattia Ugoni and other ancient writers, as Raphael Bagata, Among the 36 Holy Bishops of Verona and Battista Perretto relate, as does also Agostino Valerio, Bishop of Verona and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, in his Ancient Monuments of the Holy Bishops of Verona, in which concerning Saint Saturninus on page 42 this eulogy is brought forth: "Saturninus, Bishop of Verona, because of his admirable doctrine in human and divine matters, Saint Saturninus and because of various illustrious virtues by which he profited the people of Verona, was held in great honor by all. When he had piously and prudently conducted himself in the episcopal office, he passed to the Lord on the 7th day before the Ides of April. died on April 7, His body was buried in the basilica of Saint Stephen." Thus there, and on page 11, where the burial of the bishops is treated, these things are read: "The body of Saint Saturninus the Bishop rests in the church of Saint Stephen, as is established from an ancient tablet, from parchments, from Francesco Corna, and from the tablet of the Saints of April 7." Onofrio Panvinio, in book 4 of the Antiquities of Verona, chapter 5, writes the following: "After Proculus, the Episcopate of Verona, as Giovanni Deacon of Verona writes, was assumed by Saturninus, a man of singular piety; buried in the crypt who dying, in the crypt behind the theatre (where an oratory was dedicated to Saint Stephen, and there is now his basilica) was laid to rest." And in the preceding chapter 4 he more fully thus explains: "The basilica of Saint Stephen of Verona is among the most ancient churches of that city, in early times built a little outside the gate of the city, in a place which was called ad Fonticulos, on the Tridentine way, which is said at some time to have been the Cathedral. In it are laid the bodies of many Saints, now in the basilica of Saint Stephen. Bishops of Verona": and after the inscription quoted from a marble tablet, and various places of the church and altars indicated in which the bodies of the Saints rest, these things are subjoined: "In the same basilica in uncertain places lie the bodies of the holy Bishops of Verona, Lucidius, Dimidrianus, Servulus, Vindemialis, Saturninus, and Lupus." Thus Panvinio.
[2] But in what time Saint Saturninus lived, or what number Bishop he was of this See, or whom he had as predecessors or successors, is uncertain. For Panvinio admits in chapter 7 of the said book 4 that these matters, concerning the succession of the bishops, through too great antiquity, and through the fatal sloth of our forefathers, When he lived is uncertain have been oppressed by the darkness of antiquity. Concerning Saint Proculus, whom he with Giovanni Deacon of Verona (who flourished at the beginning of the 14th century) reckons as the fourth, and predecessor of Saint Saturninus, we have treated at length on March 23: and we have shown from the Acts of Saints Firmus and Rusticus that he seems to have departed this life in the fourth century of Christ, peace having been restored to the Church. Ferrarius, in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy and in his Topography on the Roman Martyrology, makes Saint Saturninus the fourteenth Bishop, whom Panvinio had made the fifth. Bagata, Perretto, and Agostino Valerio set forth their eulogies of these holy Bishops in alphabetical order, because the times in which they individually lived are most obscure and uncertain. His sacred memory is inscribed in the Martyrology of Galesinius and in the present Roman, and, as has already been said, His name in the sacred fasti. in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy compiled by Ferrarius. Nicolaus Brautius, Bishop of Sarsina, honors him with this distich:
Devout Verona celebrates the feasts of Saturninus, Mindful of his lavish zeal and assistance.
Masinus in Bononia Perlustrata on this day relates that some relics of Saint Saturninus the Bishop are preserved in the church of Saint Francis, some relics at Bologna, and outside the gate of Saint Mamolus in the church of the Jesuates.