Leo the Bishop

ON SAINT LEO THE BISHOP,

TRANSLATED FROM THE ISLAND OF SAMOS TO VENICE.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Leo, Bishop of Methone (St.)

BHL Number: 4844

By G. H.

Among the cities near Venice, which were once Episcopal, two have perished: namely Metamauco, or contractedly Methaucum, or Meduacum, commonly Matamocho, when the See of the Doge of Venice was flourishing, from which the very deep port has its name. The body of Saint Leo translated from Metamauco to Venice. This city was devastated by the flood of the year 1101: therefore the Episcopal See was transferred to Fossa-Clodia, commonly Chioggia. But the body of Saint Leo, when it had previously rested in the said city of Metamauco with the greatest veneration, was translated to the city of Venice to the monastery of Saint Servulus the Martyr; in whose church, together with the body of this Saint, it rests: of which Servulus more will be treated on May 24. The other city, which has perished, is Æquilium, in the March of Treviso and on the island of Æquilia, which is now called Isola distrutta: of which place the Bishop was Petrus de Natalibus, His deeds written by Petrus de Natalibus, previously Plebanus at Venice in the Church of the Holy Apostles, when he wrote the Catalogue of Saints, which he completed in the year 1371. He could best obtain what he wrote of Saint Leo the Bishop in book 4 chapter 101, and these things we here give from him, and they are as follows:

[2] "Leo the Bishop, born in the parts of Greece, renounced all things in the world for Christ, and taking up his cross, though not in body, suffered Martyrdom in spirit. He was famous for miracles, Who also in his life was famous for miracles: for he healed a woman from a grievous bodily illness: and on the island of Samos he rested in peace. Whose body, when the Greeks tried to transfer it thence by ship, on the island of Samos, they were never able to move from there: until, the body they had moved being placed back in its own place, they obtained permission to depart. But after much time, ships of the Venetians dwelling in the port of the same island most devoutly visited the body of the Saint on his solemnity, which then fell while the Venetians were there, namely on the third of the Kalends of May: and having solemnly celebrated Mass, they took care to depart. The body taken by the Venetians, Going out from the port, a sudden storm having arisen, they were forced to return: but after a short while, the sea being calmed, they went out again, and again with contrary winds were compelled to retreat. Then, common counsel being taken, lifting the holy body from there, they brought it to the ship; to Methone, and immediately every storm being driven off, with a favorable wind blowing, they came to Methone. Where a voice sounded from the heavens, saying: 'This is the body of Leo the Bishop.' Zacynthus From there coming to Zacynthus, an eagle was seen watching over the body with wings extended, which showed them the sign of going farther with its wings. And while other ships suffered storm and shipwreck and almost sinking, only that one in which the holy body rested remained unharmed. And as often as the lights lit around the body were extinguished by the blowing wind, so often by themselves they were divinely rekindled.

Arriving at the port of Vestis, they are visited by the Bishop of that place. Who, when he was unable by prayers or by price to obtain anything from the holy relics, at least obtained the water used for washing the holy members. And when Mass had been celebrated, when he had washed the body with water, and given it in a drink to a certain ailing Presbyter; brought to Metamauco and Venice, presently he who had been carried in by others was healed, and went off whole to his church. At last these sailors, arriving at Venice, handed over the body to Leo, Bishop of Metamauco; who receiving it with the greatest joy, honorably enshrined it. Where also a blind man was given sight; and a sick man having a withered hand received healing. In the process of time, when Metamauco was submerged by the sea, that body was translated to the monastery of Saint Servulus the Martyr: whose feast is held on the third of the Kalends of May."

[3] Memory in the calendars, Thus far Petrus de Natalibus, whom various writers have described, and first Richard Whitford in his Martyrology, printed in the English language at London about the year 1608, who on this April 29 has the following: "Of Saint Leo Bishop in Greece, who most of all excelled after death by the holiness of his life and the magnitude of his miracles." Previously Grevenus in his additions to Molanus had excerpted the following: "Of Leo the Bishop and Confessor, who on the island of Samos first rested, and then the Venetians coming there, admonished by miracles, carried off the holy body with them." whether Bishop of the city of Samos, Samos is an island of the Aegean Sea, not far from Ephesus the Ionian city, and on it is a city of the same name, formerly episcopal, so that Leo may seem to have been bishop there. On the same island there flourished Saints Gregory, Theodore, and Leo under the Emperor Constantius, Confessors of Christ from among the soldiers, of whom the same Petrus de Natalibus treats in book 7 chapter 106, and toward the end has the following: where another Saint Leo flourished, "In the process of time two of these bodies are said to have been lifted by the Venetians, namely those of Gregory and Theodore, and brought to Venice to the monastery of Saint Zacharias. But the body of Leo is still held at Samos." These Saints are venerated on August 24: whence we judge this Leo the Bishop to be distinct from this last Leo, although it is not indicated at what time he flourished.

[4] He was not Bishop of Methone. Ferrarius celebrates the same man in his general Catalogue, and makes him Bishop of Methone. Methone, however, is a maritime city of the Peloponnese, on the Messenian coast, formerly under Venetian dominion, taken from them by Bayezid II Emperor of the Turks: to which the sailors put in with the body, which is said to have been there honored by a heavenly voice: from there they sailed to the Ionian Sea island Zacynthus, and then to another island, Vegia (for which was printed Vestis). (These two places are still subject to Venetian dominion) and thus at last the holy body was brought to Metamauco and Venice.

* Vegia,