ON ST. LAZARUS THE DEACON,
Martyr at Trieste in Istria.
UNDER ANTONINUS.
CommentaryLazarus, Deacon, Martyr, at Trieste in Istria (St.)
BY D. P., FROM AN ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT.
CHAPTER I.
Acts of the Martyrdom from Received Tradition.
[1] The most ancient and likewise most noble city of Istria, Trieste, after the fall of the Roman Empire, was itself afflicted with various calamities, partly from barbarian enemies, partly from neighboring allies, The body is preserved in the Cathedral together with four others: as it repeatedly strove to withdraw its neck from their growing dominion. The Cathedral Basilica of this city, sacred to Saint Justus the Martyr, is situated on a very high hill near the citadel, as Ferdinando Ughelli writes in volume 5 of his Italia sacra; who, after praising the many mosaic images in it, than which Italy has almost nothing more precious or more elegant, says: there are in it four other chapels or altars, each enriched with a body of one of the holy Martyrs—Servatus, Lazarus, Apollinaris, and Sergius. Moreover, an opinion, long handed down from the memory of our fathers, is as if sown throughout everyone's minds here, that these saints were Triestines. To confirm this opinion, Annals are cited, which carry only such authority as that of being ancient.
[2] That the Acts of all of them perished, wrapped up in the ruins of a city so often overthrown, is most probable: Ancient Acts are lacking: but as for the Annals that Ughelli praises, we are persuaded that they are not particularly old, because they appear to have been written not in Latin but in vernacular Italian. Certainly only in Italian manuscripts could Fr. Francesco Basello, Rector of our Society there, find what he sent to Ferrara concerning Saint Justus to be commemorated on November 2, Saint Servulus on May 24, Saint Apollinaris on December 8, and this Saint Lazarus—to Fr. Andrea Lazzari, certain more recent Italian manuscripts an old man most devoted to this work, who took care to render into Latin and send to us at Rome, along with the Italian original, in the year 1661. Content to set these forth now as they are, we shall ask learned men in that city who love the antiquity of their homeland to kindly share with us anything more ancient and authentic, if not from parchments then at least from old stones or similar monuments, concerning those holy Patrons of theirs or others pertaining to Istria, for illustrating their memory.
[3] they say he was a Deacon at Trieste under Antoninus the Emperor, Well known in the Church of God is the most fierce persecution of that same Church under the Emperor Antoninus: in whose name indeed an edict was promulgated in all places subject to the Empire, that if anywhere anyone dared to call himself a Christian, he should be punished with the most savage tortures and finally with death itself most cruelly. At that time there was in the city of Trieste a certain devout man, Lazarus by name, a Christian from his earliest boyhood, since he was from a Christian family and parents. From his earliest years he began to minister in the church of the Christians with great fervor: and since as a boy he gave not a few signs of future sanctity, he was uniquely dear to the whole city and was held in great honor. Therefore when he had reached the age fit for sacred Orders, Lazarus was inaugurated in the sacred Order of the Diaconate: who immediately scattered and gave to the poor, according to the Lord's counsel, whatever patrimony he had.
[4] Around that time the Emperor had set a certain Pompeius over the city of Trieste, and was arrested under Pompeius the Prefect, with the title and office of Prefect: who arrived at Trieste at night and in great silence; and having entered the city, at once summoned all the magistrates and leading men, from whom he asked whether there was anyone there who professed the Christian faith and called himself by the name of Christian. The Prefect did not have to labor long; for at once Lazarus the Deacon was denounced by one accuser, as one who frequented the church of the Christians and was highly regarded among the people. Pompeius immediately ordered this "seducer of the people" (as he called him) to be brought to him: who, carefully sought out by the same Prefect's ministers, was found with some Christians, who in the house of the same holy man had recited the divine office and devout prayers to the Lord: in which prayers Lazarus, prostrate on the ground, was making this conclusion: "Lord Jesus Christ, strength of the weak, give me virtue and fortitude, that man may not prevail against me; that most wicked judge, I say, and let his empty threats not deter me. Grant me perseverance and constancy in your holy service, that I may be able to show them that you alone are the true God, to whom alone honor and glory are due."
[5] The soldiers, bearing these and other such things with hostile spirit, and had confessed the faith before the tribunal, with reproaches and insults led him bound to the Prefect Pompeius: who cast Lazarus into prison until daybreak. The holy Deacon passed that sleepless night, and spent it all in pouring forth holy prayers and in chanting hymns and the praises of God. At dawn the Prefect ordered him to be brought, and questioned him about his name and the religion which he professed. To him the holy Deacon replied: "My name is Lazarus: in religion I am a Christian, and I profess the Christian faith: for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of God. I know no other God than the eternal Father, his only Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from both: and these three divine Persons I call by the name of the most holy Trinity, I venerate and worship them: and for the upholding of their honor I am ready to undergo any death whatsoever."
Having heard these things, the Prefect with heavy brow said to the Martyr: "Truly this vanity of yours and old wives' ravings and was vainly urged to apostatize, are the less tolerable in you the more advanced you already are in age. If in the green of your youth you let yourself be brought to such folly that you believed and professed these things, you would have been worthy of some excuse: but now, when you are already nearly worn out with old age, that you should bring your mind into such frenzy as to hold for God a wicked man who was fastened to the cross by the Jews on account of the offenses he had committed—this indeed is by no means to be endured. Therefore, not as a judge, but as a friend, I urge and beseech you to correct at last this error of yours, so long-standing, in which you have been engaged; lest you lose the Emperor's favor, and make yourself guilty of death, if you persist obstinately in your error. Listen to me, who care for and desire your welfare and the safety of yourself and all your fellow citizens: go and offer sacrifice to our immortal gods: for thus you will do a thing pleasing both to them and to the Emperor, and will consult your own salvation."
[7] The Prefect was awaiting a response, but not such as was given by the holy Deacon, when he had intrepidly rebuked the judge, who said: "O most shameless of men, you say that I am engaged in error,
because I worship the almighty God, who made heaven and earth: but I say to you, that you are altogether blind, and a leader of the blind, whom you drag with yourself into the fire of hell. Yours is the folly and frenzy, yours is the error in which you are engaged, plainly not to be borne; since you adore gods of stone, made by the hand of men, which can help neither you nor those who worship them in anything, nor can they even protect themselves from those who chop them into pieces or, handing them over to the flames, reduce them to ashes. Wherefore I say to you, as I have said again: I worship my one God, and to him alone do I offer acceptable sacrifice, and I shall offer it as long as I live, and not to your gods, the idols of the nations, in which demons dwell."
[8] his mouth struck It can hardly be explained with how much rage the Prefect received this answer: who therefore ordered the mouth of the holy Martyr, with which he had uttered such words against the gods of the Romans with such boldness, to be struck and his teeth shattered. But the holy and unconquered Martyr, quite undaunted, said: "If your gods are true and almighty, as you assert and believe, order them to walk and speak. Truly you are altogether out of your mind, who are engaged in such great unhappiness, as to confess as true gods the works of the hands of men, which have mouths and will not speak, have feet and will not walk, nor will they cry out in their throats." Therefore, when very many things had been said on this matter back and forth, and ordered to be beaten with clubs at last the most impious tyrant, unable to bear the greatness of spirit of the most steadfast Martyr, had him most severely beaten with thick and knotty clubs by strong and robust servants: who, with untroubled serenity of countenance and spirit, amid the storms of cruel blows, thus most sweetly entered into conversation with the Lord God, for whom he was suffering: "Behold the most longed-for day, O my Lord Jesus Christ, long awaited by me, on which it is now permitted to me, most unworthy your servant, to come to you. Secure and rejoicing I come to you, O my joy and my crown, and I give you immortal thanks, who grant me by your kindness and mercy to overcome the torments of the executioners, and to account as nothing the foolish threats of this tyrant."
[9] But the invincible Athlete of Christ was not yet in his final contest: for the tyrant, he reproached the tyrant, forbade the beating servants to proceed further: against whom the holy Deacon, more and more inflamed with zeal for divine glory and desire for death, vehemently inveighed, saying: "Where now, O most wicked judge, are your threats? Where the terrors with which you were striving to turn me away from the worship of the true God? Rightly you know, most unhappy of men, that if you wish to contend with me and with the grace of God, which is with me and in whose strength I can do what I can, this is nothing other than to waste time in vain: and now, I think, you are persuaded that for those who confess and profess Christ as the true God, victory always stands: wherefore you, conquered and confounded, order that they torture me no more, and that they cease from the blows."
[10] and his sentence Then indeed, if ever before, Pompeius flared up in anger, and seeing that the holy Deacon on account of his old age (for he was seventy-eight years old) could no longer endure the torments, he commanded his head to be cut off, saying: "Let this rebel and seducer of the people at last finish his life, who denies true worship to our immortal gods and who refused to obey the most wise laws of our Emperor." On hearing this sentence the glorious soldier of Christ, lifting his eyes and hands to heaven, from which he was expecting and demanding all his help, said, after prayers were poured out "Lord Jesus Christ, who together with your co-eternal Father with the Holy Spirit live and reign, I give you the greatest thanks I can, who have deigned to guard me for the space of seventy-eight years, and have so directed me in the way of your commandments, that I have not only kept and preserved them, but have also been able to teach the wicked your ways, and to turn the hearts of the impious to you, the supreme good. Now receive my spirit, my Lord Jesus Christ, that I who now willingly die for you may happily live with you for ever and ever. Amen."
[11] Prayers to God completed, the servants led him outside the city, to the place designated for such executions: where, when he had arrived, the servant cut off his head. he was beheaded and buried by Eutropia: On the following night, a certain pious woman, Eutropia by name, of Christian parents, came with all her household—which was among the principal and more illustrious at Trieste—and, having received the sacred deposit, first anointed it with precious ointments, wrapped it in a white linen cloth, and placed it in an honorable tomb: while meanwhile all the Christians who were present rendered the highest praises and thanks to the Lord God for so great a benefit granted to them, to whom be honor and glory. Amen. The martyrdom of this holy Deacon and Martyr occurred in the year of our salvation 242, on the first day of April.
CHAPTER II.
Time of the Martyrdom, sacred cult, translation of the Body to Verona.
[12] The Acts of Saint Lazarus which we have given, received from more recent manuscripts, are drawn out in a sermonizing style, while what nearly all Martyrs must and could have said in such an article, is conceived to have been said by the holy Lazarus; This martyrdom, according to what has already been said lest, if only what simple memory of ancient tradition had preserved were committed to writing, the whole matter would be dispatched in a few words. For the Order of the Diaconate, the Prefect Pompeius, the bruising of the mouth, the blows inflicted with clubs, the age of seventy-eight years, the day of martyrdom or annual cult, the name of Eutropia solicitous about the burial, and any other such things, could have survived the injuries of time even after many centuries: the name also of the Emperor Antoninus one may believe was not taken in vain: certainly under Antoninus Pius most impious and unjust judgments were carried out throughout the whole empire against the Christians, as the just complaint of Justin the Philosopher concerning his times proves; and the rescript of the same Emperor, ordering all persecution against the Christians to cease, and rebuking the Prefects of the Provinces for the cruelty employed against them: which may be seen in Baronius in the 15th year of Antoninus, in which it was issued. Now this Pius reigned from the year 138 to 161: it could not have happened in the year 242 so that some error, not so much of the author as of the copyist, must be noted in the aforementioned Italian manuscript, since the name of Antoninus fought against the name of Christ only in the second century: and those who bore the same name in the third century, Caracalla and Heliogabalus, were neither troublesome to Christians, nor lived beyond 224.
[13] But in 151 under Antoninus Pius the Emperor. With these things prepared for the press, we received from Gorizia from Fr. Martin Bantzer of our Society, an elderly man most zealous for the sacred antiquities of those regions, a little before he departed from life (which happened to him around the year 1669), the Acts of the Saints of Trieste, comprised in a brief Latin epitome; in which the encomium of this Saint Lazarus is in all things (except for brevity) similar to those which we have already rendered from Italian into Latin: in which it is said that Saint Lazarus migrated to heaven, his head struck off, in the year of Christ 151, on the day before the Ides of April. The year agrees very well with the reign of Antoninus, extended to the year 163 of the common era: when Martinus is said to have been Bishop. and thus the error of the earlier writing is corrected. The name of Eutropia is lacking in the aforementioned encomium: but at the beginning of the narrative there is the name of Martinus, Bishop of Trieste; whose functions, while he was in hiding because of the raging persecution, Lazarus the Deacon is said to have tirelessly sustained, although advanced in age. Would that these things could be confirmed by more certain monuments! At present the first bishop of that city known to Ughelli is Gaudentius, subscribed to the letter of Pope Agatho to the Sixth Ecumenical Synod in the year 680. Yet long before, that city had its own bishops: and Saint Gregory in Epistle 37 of Book 10 congratulates Firminus, Bishop of Istria, on his return to the unity of the Church, from which he had been separated by the instigation of obstinate and ignorant men: which Carolus a S. Paulo in his Geographia sacra understands of the Bishop of Trieste.
[14] We found the Martyrology of Usuard, but augmented with various Saints, in manuscript at Florence, with the most illustrious Senator Carlo Strozzi, in which under this day April 12 these things are read: "Likewise of Saint Lazarus the Martyr, who suffered in the time of the Emperor Antoninus at the city of Trieste under the Prefect Pompeius: Elogium of the Martyrdom from manuscript Fasti who, since he was a Deacon and faithful to Christ, and in his own house continually received those assembling; was accused of being a Christian, and when he constantly preached the faith of Christ before the Prefect, was ordered to be struck in the mouth, then beaten with rods: and at last, his head cut off, happily reached the eternal kingdoms." So there: the same things are read in the Martyrology published at Florence in the year 1485 by Francesco de Bonaccorsi, Presbyter. and printed ones.
[15] Relics translated to Verona, Among the Bishops of Verona in the 8th century flourished Saint Anno, whose sister Mary, called the consoler, also numbered among the saints, is said to have bought in the city of Trieste the bodies of the holy Martyrs Marcus the Deacon, Lazarus, Primus, and Apollinaris, and to have translated them to the city of Verona, and they rest there in the church of Saint Firmus Major. So Francesco Corna in his book on the Relics of the Saints resting at Verona; in Raphaël Bagata, Battista Perretto, and Agostino Valerio, in the book on the Ancient monuments of the holy Bishops of Verona and of other Saints whose bodies are held, fol. 17, where these letters are said to be read, painted on two tablets behind the high altar: "The translation of the holy Martyrs resting here was made on the 11th day before the Kalends of June, in the year of the Lord 755, in the year 755, May 22 by Blessed Anno, then Bishop of Verona, solemnized with all the clergy and people." On the same day, 11 Kalends of June, in the Martyrology of the Nuns of Saint Mary Magdalene in Campo-Martio these things used to be recited: "Likewise at Verona the translation of the holy Martyrs Firmus and Rusticus, Primus, Marcus, Lazarus, and Apollinaris." Raphaël Bagata also testifies that he saw the same in the year 1574, in an ancient Missal from the parchment codices of the church of Saint James on Monte Grigiano.
[16] they are preserved in the church of Saint Firmus Major, In the same Ancient Monuments, fol. 26, these things are handed down: "The body of Saint Lazarus, Deacon and Martyr, rests in the church of Saint Firmus Major, and the feast of Saint Lazarus is celebrated in the Martyrology of the Cathedral Church on April 12, and his Life is there said to be described in many ancient parchment books of this city." Finally on folio 79 these things are contained: "In the church of Saint Firmus Major or monastery are placed the bodies of Saints Firmus and Rusticus, and Saints Primus, Marcus, Apollinaris, and Lazarus the Martyrs." The church of Saint Firmus Major today belongs to the Conventual Franciscans, whom the common people call "Scarpanti" (Shod) from their footwear: among these, in the year 1673, most diligently searching, Alessandro Salvatici, Rector of our College at Verona, found no other notice of Saint Lazarus than in an ancient
Legendary these words: "At the same time in the city of the Veronese, Anno the Prelate was governing the Church of God. Therefore, learning that the bodies of the Blessed Martyrs, namely Saints Firmus and Rusticus, had evidently been found; going forth with inexplicable joy and exultation, together with the priests, clerics, and all the throngs of the people, he hastened to the place where the Saints of God were placed under one veneration. He gave therefore an immense weight of silver and gold; and bought the bodies of Saints Firmus and Rusticus, and likewise of Primus, Marcus, Apollinaris, and Lazarus." Nothing further could be found either in the aforementioned Legendary, or in any other books of the Veronese. Yet they believe they have the entire body of this Saint and of the others already named. But since the Triestines, as we said above from Ughelli, still have in the Cathedral Church an altar or chapel of Saint Lazarus, and believe they have the body of the same Saint in it, we are of the opinion that only some of his Relics were given to Saint Mary the Consoler, whose feast is said to be celebrated on the Kalends of August: but her brother, Saint Anno the Bishop, is venerated on May 23, and Saint Apollinaris, Martyr and Subdeacon of Trieste, on December 6.