ON THE HOLY MARTYRS
ALEXANDER, FIRMIANUS, PRIMIANUS, TELLURIUS,
AT LESINA IN APULIA.
CommentaryAlexander, Martyr, at Lesina in Apulia (Saint) Firmianus, Martyr, at Lesina in Apulia (Saint) Primianus, Martyr, at Lesina in Apulia (Saint) Tellurius, Martyr, at Lesina in Apulia (Saint)
Lesina, once a flourishing ancient city of Apulia, now destroyed, was described by us on February 9, in Saints Sabinus and Eunomius, from Leander Alberti. Here lay buried the bodies of the holy Martyrs Alexander, Firmianus, Primianus, and Tellurius until the year 1597, in the cathedral church, The bodies are buried at Lesina in the church of Saint Primianus which, dedicated to one of them, namely Saint Primianus, was supported by a crypt of elegant form and ancient workmanship, held up by marble columns. It was adorned with its own altars and sculpted images of the individual Saints, beside whose sides letters contracted in abbreviation expressed the names of the Martyrs; and from the vault, darkened by smoke, an iron hook hung to support a lamp, the upper temple having long since collapsed into ruins, and retaining almost nothing but a trace of itself. This church, together with another which is called of the Annunciation, by the gift of Margaret of Durazzo, widow of Charles III, King of Naples, came to the possessions of the house of the Annunciation of Naples, whose administrators in the year 1597 sent from Naples the priest Aurelius Marra, a nobleman, to Lesina, to attend to the repairs of the ruinous church and other things there. When the state or rather the destruction of the building seemed greater to him than would admit any interpolation or renovation, he turned himself to the task of investigating the bodies of the Saints buried there, soon to be brought to Naples for due veneration.
[2] In the month of November of that year, having entered the said crypt, They are dug up partly in the year 1597 whose door removed, opened, breathed the sweetest fragrance to those standing outside, he first found a wooden box on the middle altar, in which was seen an image of the same material representing Saint Primianus, clothed in a long robe and carrying a palm branch in his hand. Digging then into the ground, after he had done so at the altar there, on the 24th of the same month he found the body of Saint Paschasius; and on the 25th, those of Saints Sabinus and Eunomius; and removing the earth again, under the altar under which the Relics of Saint Paschasius had been found, on the 26th he came upon a marble box containing the bones of Saints Alexander and Ursula, whose lid removed, he saw these words engraved on the lower part: "S. Alex. et S. Urs. Virg. et Mart." which words were also read engraved in a lead tablet placed over the sacred bones. On the 27th of the same month, digging toward the right corner under the same altar, in a marble box likewise he found the body of Saint Tellurius; on the lid, in old characters, was engraved "S. Tellurius." And these things are taken from the account of Aurelius Marra himself, which we published on February 9 in Saints Sabinus and Eunomius.
[3] The bodies of Saints Primianus and Firmianus were found in the year 1598, Partly in 1598 and at last with the others were borne with solemn pomp to Naples to the church of the Annunciation: of which event the same Marra narrates the series in the cited place in these words: "On the 2nd day of March 1598, about the 16th hour, one of the governors of the said Neapolitan house arrived at Lesina, with the orders of the Apostolic Nuncio, which it behooved him and me to execute. When I had shown him the Relics described above, laid exactly in the same manner in which they had been found, in the presence of many witnesses and those very ones who had been present at the first discovery, the rest of the middle altar, as had been begun by me, was broken up. And the earth being dug to four palms, a marble box was found, three palms long, two wide, of a different form from the others, similar to a chest, They are taken to Naples in which the bones of Saints Primianus and Firmianus were found, and on the lower part of the lid were engraved these words: 'S. Primianus, S. Firmianus'; and likewise on a lead tablet 'SS. Primianus et Firmianus.' With signs of religious alacrity and joy being shown, as with the other Relics, for the same reason, these also were covered and hidden again."
[4] Where they are placed in the church of the Annunciation "On the 4th of March all the Relics were taken up, yet leaving in the same confession or crypt some part of each; and with many of the Capuchin family and others singing together, and carrying lighted candles in their hands, with as great solemnity as could be performed in that place, they were placed in three cases distinguished by an arched lid, lined within with white linen, brought from Naples for this purpose; and being taken to Naples, they were deposited in the church of Pietà at the steps of San Giovanni in Carbonara, until a supplication should be instituted with greater preparation, so that to the church of the Annunciation, with the Roman Pontiff consenting, they might be transferred; and also, in public testimony of the matter now narrated, the very marble boxes in which the Relics had been found were brought to Naples." So he writes.
[5] They are venerated with a semidouble rite They are venerated at Naples with a semidouble Office: so the Catalog of Saints to be celebrated in the Church and diocese of Naples, published in 1619 by order of the most illustrious and reverend Decius, Cardinal Caraffa, Archbishop of Naples, in which in the month of April these are read: "April 28, Saints Alexander, Firmianus, Primianus, and Tellurius, Martyrs. Semidouble. All from the Common of many Martyrs in Paschal time. Mass from the Common without Credo. Prayer: O God, who grantest that we should observe the natal day of your holy Martyrs Alexander, Firmianus, Primianus, and Tellurius, grant that we may rejoice in their fellowship in eternal blessedness. Through our Lord, etc." To these the following in smaller characters is added: "The Acts and natal day of these holy Martyrs are not held, and so they are to be celebrated on the day of translation. Their sacred Relics are preserved in the church of the most holy Annunciation, thither transferred on this day, with the city of Lesina destroyed, by permission of the Apostolic See; and the Acts of the finding and translation of them exist."