ON SAINT TERTULLIAN,
BISHOP OF BOLOGNA IN ITALY.
CommentaryTertullian, Bishop of Bologna in Italy (Saint)
Blessed Tertullian, how many places he sat from Saint Zama, the first Bishop of Bologna, at the helm of that Church, is uncertain to say; since writers, the how-manyeth Bishop of Bologna? because proper monuments are lacking, opine diversely. By Ughelli in tom. 2 of Italia Sacra, he is the eleventh in order; by Masini in part 2 of Bologna Perlustrata, the thirteenth; by Celso Falcone in Historical Memoirs of the Bolognese Church, the eighth; and by Carlo Sigonio, book 1 of The Bishops of Bologna, the seventh. The beginning of his episcopate most conjecture in the year of the Lord 470 or about then. Antiquity has transmitted little about him, and therefore has deprived more recent writers of material. Ferrari, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, weaves from Carlo Sigonio this elogium for him: "Tertullian, eighth Bishop of Bologna, substituted after Saint Paternian, began to administer the Church of Bologna about the year of salvation 470. He is thought to have either built or approved when built he founds a monastery, the monastery of Saint Helena in the Bolognese territory, near the Lavinus river, seven thousand paces distant from Bologna, which at these times does not exist; only the church, which is a parish church, possessed by the Servite Friars, with some buildings remaining. He granted to Namatius, Bishop of Arverne, who sought some relics of Saints Vitalis and Agricola the Martyrs, to be brought into a new church built by himself: concerning which matter Saint Gregory Bishop of Tours, in book 2 of the History of the Franks, and in the book On the Glory of the Martyrs, makes mention. The same man with the other Bishops of Aemilia seems to have opposed John, Bishop of Ravenna, who had ordained a certain Gregory as Bishop of Modena against what was right. Under this Bishop, Odoacer, King of the Heruli, invaded Italy. The holy Bishop, however, his Church having been duly administered for some years, on the 5th day before the Kalends of May migrated from the world, he is buried at Bologna in the church of Saint Felix, and was laid in the church of Saint Felix." The things here produced about the requested and obtained relics of saints from Bologna are indeed narrated in book 1 of the Miracles, chapter 44 by Gregory; but with no name of the Bolognese Bishop from whom they were requested given: hence we believe there is no other foundation for Saint Tertullian here, whether he gave the relics of Saints Vitalis and Agricola to Saint Namatius? than the conjecture taken from this, that certain writers suppose the episcopate of both, namely Tertullian and Namatius, to have fallen in the same time. Sigonio, from whom Ferrari derived his things, is the author that Tertullian donated relics to Saint Namatius in the year 477, since the reckoning of times demands it. But if we believe the Sammarthans, Saint Namatius had already some years before departed this life, being the predecessor of Saint Eparchius, whose death they consign to the year 472. Inscribed in the Martyrology, In the Roman Martyrology on April 27 it is written thus: "At Bologna, of Saint Tertullian, Bishop and Confessor."