ON ST. CYPRIAN
BISHOP OF BRESCIA IN ITALY.
AROUND THE YEAR 552.
CommentaryCyprian, Bishop of Brescia in Italy (Saint)
D. P.
Bishop Rambertus counts thirty prelates of the Church of Brescia, from St Philastrius to himself, in the Translation of the same St Philastrius in Surius on July 18: of these many are inscribed in the sacred calendars of the Brescians, of whom in March we brought forward three, and four we are to give in this month, Once more festively venerated, better instructed from ancient monuments than we were then, through the kindness of the once most illustrious man Bernardino Fayno. A Ms. Martyrology of Brescia, written about a hundred years ago, which Ferdinando Ughelli gave us, makes commemoration of one of them in these words: On the 11th day before the Kalends of May, at Brescia the birthday of St Cyprian, Bishop of the same city. Of what great sanctity and merit this holy Bishop was, testifies the people of Brescia, [who] in ancient days venerated the solemnity of his Transitus. His body is kept in the church of St Peter in Oliveto or at the Seven Golden Candlesticks. he rests in the church of St Peter in Oliveto What is here said concerning the solemnity of his Transitus, Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy explains thus: "His Acts have so perished that not even his country could be known: yet it is certain that he holily and piously administered the Church entrusted to him: since the church of Brescia from the time of his death to these times has held him and venerated him as a Saint." Fayno in his annotations to the new Martyrology more distinctly in this
manner: Of such great devotion was Cyprian once in the Church of Brescia, that his birthday was celebrated as if it were the Lord's Day.
[2] Cyprian sat between Paulinus and Herculanus, as commonly the historians of Brescia—Martinengus, Nazarius, Rossius, Capreolus, and others, and with them Ughelli in Italia Sacra—report, from the year 546 to 552; and with the title of Bishop and Confessor he is listed by Galesinius from the records of the church of Brescia. He was brought to Serle. His body, says Francesco Fiorentini in his manuscript Catalogue of the Bishops of Brescia, the people of Serle claim once lay in the church of St Peter on the mountain. That church was formerly of the Cassinese monks and had a monastery of the same joined to it, but now it belongs by right to the Canons of St Peter of Oliveto, as Fayno notes in the 4th Catalogue of his Coelum Brixiense; describing the churches of the Piedmont region under the bishopric of Brescia, in which southern part of the diocese, running between the rivers Navilio and Mella, is the parish of Serle, embracing Mount-Ursino within its compass. The Canons who then held the church of St Peter Olivetan when these things were being written, belonged to the Congregation of St George in Alga, extinct in recent memory: among whom, when in the year 1453 the Relics of four Saints, Bishops of Brescia, were found, The head is carried in processions: concerning the Head of St Cyprian a decree is read in the Book of Provisions of the city, under the day February 14, in this manner: Let the Head of St Cyprian, found intact, not be left with the Relics of the holy Bishops Paul, Evasius, Deus-dedit, and the same St Cyprian: but let the Fathers of St Peter of Oliveto make a most noble ornament of gold for the said Head: and at every request of the city let them cause it to be carried in processions, which are held in the city with devotion and lights.
[3] Concerning the Body also of this same St Cyprian and of the three others it was decreed on May 27 of the same year: The body of St Evasius Bishop and Martyr, the body is placed beneath the high altar, found in the great altar of St Peter of Oliveto, in a below-ground place together with the other bodies of the holy Bishops of Brescia, namely Paul, Cyprian, Deus-dedit: which, if they are not diminished, as is believed, let them be well closed and leaded with iron bars, for the preservation of so great a treasure, in a marble ark. Evasius is venerated on December 2, on the 10th of the same Deus-dedit, and Paul on April 29. Bernardino Fayno notes, however, that the Bodies which had been found under the altar looking to the North were translated to the high altar of the same subterranean oratory towards the south, and at last in the year 1503 were brought to the principal altar of the whole church: where what was done with them in the year 1542 we shall see on the day of the aforesaid St Paul.