ON SAINT MAROLUS,
BISHOP OF MILAN.
5TH CENTURY
CommentaryMarolus, Bishop of Milan in Italy (S.)
G. H.
Celebrated on this April 23 is the veneration of S. Marolus, Bishop of Milan, indicated in ancient Missals and Breviaries according to the institution and custom of S. Ambrose, Sacred cult in Missals and Breviaries, augmented for the cult of the Saints who flourished after his death. Thus, with the feast of S. George remanded to the following day, this April 23 is assigned to the solemnity of S. Marolus in the Missals, which we have printed in the years 1522 and 1550, and in the Breviary of the year 1539, but all is said from the Common of Confessors and Bishops. But in the Ambrosian Breviary, published by order of S. Charles Borromeo, which we have revised and printed in the year 1635; and in the proper Lessons for the use of those who in that diocese use the Roman Breviary; there is one proper Lesson, which we here insert.
[2] Marolus succeeded Venerius Bishop of Milan, A Summary of the Life. illustrious in the virtue which he exercised for fifteen years in the administration of this Church. He was of the highest austerity of life, and besides other virtues worthy of an Ecclesiastical man, which shone in him to the highest degree, both in private life and in the Pontificate itself, he was marvelously devoted to fastings and prayer. The manners and abstinence of this holy Bishop, especially singular, Ennodius praised in song. With the great fame of sanctity having died, he is buried in the basilica of S. Nazarius, and his merits even before death shone with miracles.
These things in the foresaid Breviary, where the feast is indicated solemn, and in the proper offices, where it is prescribed to be celebrated under the rite of a double. Similar things other writers of Milanese affairs have everywhere, Francis Besutius, John de Deis, Peter Galesinius and Ferdinand Ughelli on the Archbishops of Milan, Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and others: to whom is added the modern Roman Martyrology, in which his sacred memory for the whole Church is preserved. But Galesinius placed him on the preceding day April 22.
[3] The years of his See are everywhere signed as fifteen, and those from the year 409 to the year 424. Years of the See variously signed. But Panvinius, in his Ecclesiastical Chronology, attributes to him only nine years, and those from the year 406 to the year 415. Some count thirteen or fourteen years. Which elsewhere may be more exactly discussed. Tristan Calchus, book 4 of the History of Milan, placed Venerius, Marolus, Martinianus and Glycerius in indistinct times, because on account of the discord of writers he found nothing which he could insert. The church of Milan was ruled after S. Ambrose by SS. Simplicianus and Venerius, of whom the first is honored on 16 August, the other on 4 May: after S. Marolus S. Martinianus, whose Acts we gave on 2 January; S. Glycerius to be referred to 20 September; and S. Lazarus, concerning whom
we treated on 11 February. What however Ennodius of Pavia sang about him in his poem, is of this sort.
Marolus, drinker of the far shore of the Tigris, Who had seen the morning's radiance in damp lodgings, Poem of Ennodius Whom toil on his own Syrian axis had hardened, A holy man with numberless gifts begins. Ever watchful, attentive, fasting, provident, ardent; The custom that he kept sufficed for his office. The tender mouth as often as a taste of the honorable touched it, What had been of command passed into affection. Earth once powerful, founded by blessed Fathers, With noble offspring irradiates the world.
[4] Thus far Ennodius, on account of whose poem Joseph Ripamontius, book 6 of the Histories of the Milanese Church, and before-mentioned Ughelli, believe S. Marolus to have been by nation a Syrian. S. Charles Borromeo, on May 10 in the year 1579, made a solemn translation of those sacred bodies, The Translation made on 10 May in the year 1579. which rest in the Nazarian Church: among which, besides the body of S. Nazarius the Martyr, were the bodies of four holy Bishops of Milan, namely of Venerius, Marolus, Glycerius, and Lazarus: which when the principal altar was removed from the middle of the Church, were found placed in certain rough stone basins. These and other things S. Charles, a Council of Bishops having been held, with very religious and celebrated pomp carried forth, and carrying through a suitable circuit of the streets himself with the Bishops the holy biers, he exposed them for veneration to the most frequent people. All the commemorated Relics he placed under the new great altar. Thus Carolus a Basilica-Petri, book 5 of the Life of S. Charles chapter 6 and elsewhere others.