CONCERNING ST. MARIA, VIRGIN, SURNAMED CONSOLATRIX,
AT VERONA IN ITALY.
8th Century.
COMMENTARY
On the cult & deeds.
Maria Consolatrix, at Verona in Italy (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
In that number of Saints in which Verona glories, this holy virgin, named Maria, holds no last place, illustrious by that singular surname, that she is called Consolatrix, celebrated by popular monuments, Although in the rhythmic but by those alone; so that her name I have hitherto sought in vain among other more ancient writers, or in the public Martyrologies before Ferrarius, or the ecclesiastical Fasti. Further, that the things which we have written concerning the affairs of the Veronese are neither ancient nor sufficiently authentic, that man illustrious in this age no less for learning than for birth, Scipio Maffei, shows at more length, in that epistle which he gave to the most erudite Coleti, inserted in the new edition of Ughelli's Italia sacra, tome 5, when there is treatment of the bishops of Verona; where he reports a rhythmic description of Verona from Mabillon's Analecta tome 1, which seems to be not later than the 8th century; such certainly, that it is not silent about the deeds of St. Anno the bishop, whom we reported in the Acts on 23 May, but neither does it so treat of them that the history of this our holy Maria Consolatrix can be said to be known to it, although she is reported to be the sister of the same St. Anno. It will be helpful to produce here, to be weighed, a fragment taken from that description.
[2] The author of the Description seems to have had this before his eyes, by the description of Verona that he might recount the first bishops of the city of Verona, whence Maffei judges that the Catalogues, thus far not accurate enough, must be corrected. The temples then, or rather the patrons of that city, he describes as if through the four parts of heaven; where he had a most opportune place for describing that marvelous bringing-back of the sacred bodies of Firmus & Rusticus, if in his time it had been as well known as now it is wont to be everywhere described. Let us hear him speaking. The Saints being set forth who guarded the Veronese from the East, he thus proceeds: In the Southern parts, Firmus & Rusticus, who once had received in thee the crowns of martyrdom: whose bodies were carried off to the islands of the sea. Lo the base of our history, where most aptly could be inserted the occasion of seeking out & recovering the aforesaid bodies, before carried off. Thus he proceeds: When it pleased God the invisible king, in thee things were made renewed through the prelate Hanno, in the times of the prince-kings Desiderius & Adelchis. The beginnings of Desiderius are referred to the year 756; so that these things agree exceedingly well with the tradition of the Veronese, concerning the time of the bringing-back of the sacred bodies of Firmus & Rusticus.
[3] The following strophe seems to overturn what is altogether to be held; the Saint should not be mentioned, namely, that the bodies were then brought back which had been carried off, & which the poet himself narrates to have been so solemnly & magnificently deposited, that I do not fear plainly to assert that for the negative particle "non," "tunc" (then) must altogether be substituted. Judge thou thyself. Thus he continues: The Saints who long tarried did [not] return, whose bodies the bishop laid up together, aromatics & galbanum, stacte, & "argoido," myrrh, gum-drop & cassia, & most-shining frankincense. By what reasoning, I beseech, would he lay up together the Saints who had long tarried elsewhere, if they did not return from the islands of the sea? I say, therefore, that one must read: "then they returned," then their bodies were laid up at Verona by St. Anno the bishop, & their tomb thus adorned, as the rhythmic poet, however for the rest inelegant, proceeds to describe: The golden tomb, covered, he surrounds with proclamations, the "color stritus" soothes the senses of men; now white, now black between two purple ones. These things, as he was able, prepared Hanno the illustrious prelate, through whose flame [he] shines with good works, from the borders of the land of Austria even to the boundary of ours.
[4] what things are brought back to it suffice. This is not the place to correct, restore, or explain the other things in that little work, which how little accurate they are is manifestly enough apparent. It pertains to the history of holy Consolatrix chiefly, what we dig out thence, that most true is the bringing-back of the carried-off bodies of Firmus & Rusticus, from the islands of the sea or from Istria, in the time of St. Anno, about the year 756; & that it was the singular care of the same holy bishop to lay up the said bodies most honorably. But whether the whole history, received among the Veronese, of so many marvelous & stupendous adjuncts is in an equal degree of certainty, I would not indeed dare to assert. Nor, however, do I judge it must be rejected, although the poet is silent about it, to whom this alone seems to have been proposed, that he should enumerate the holy Patrons of the city, not likewise by what reasoning their precious deposits had first come thither, or had been brought back afterward. This not-to-be-despised foundation of the history being fixed, the rest we shall receive from the chief Veronese writer, Augustinus Valerius, the history itself from Ughelli, in whom Henschen went before us, when he treated of St. Anno in tome V of May page 256. Thus concerning St. Maria speaks His Eminence, the illustrator of the Veronese Saints, from page 27 verso:
[5] Valerius adduces other things The body of St. Maria Consolatrix, virgin, rests in her own church. In the Martyrology of the Cathedral church, on the day 1 August: Likewise at Verona, of St. Maria Consolatrix, sister of St. Anno bishop of the same city, whose body rests there in a church built in her honor. The same is had from Franciscus Corna, from the tablet of the Saints, & from the Martyrology of the Order of Preachers, concerning which above. In the church of St. Maria Consolatrix, in the stone chest, upon which Mass is celebrated, & in which her body rests, on the front of the lid of that chest is engraved this verse:
Console by thine own merits, even as by name thou shinest,
On the opposite front of the lid of that chest, toward the East:
Verona's people, happy, whose rising thou drawest.
In the middle space of the chest are these verses:
O Maria, called Consolatrix by surname, Virgin restorer of the people, whom Wisdom, turned toward thee, cherishes in the rays of heaven with faithful splendor, preserve Verona by thy merits, govern [it] by piety. In this tomb the prelate Thebaldus lays thy members, with twice-ten years of the Lord together with a thousand three hundred [1320], on the first light of the month of God, which lofty June is called from the space of light: have mercy on the one asking.
In the middle space of that chest, toward the East, are these verses:
Then shines the same illustrious light of the month & year, when the aforesaid prelate consecrates the altar of the Saint, the year, augmented by the fortieth light, is spared, the annual days now well worn down, in eight days.
In the space of that chest, toward the south:
Here rests holy Maria Consolatrix.
[6] On the pall of the greater altar of the said church, on the right side of the image of the blessed Virgin Mary, whence concerning the cult it is established enough: is the image of St. Maria Consolatrix, having a balance in her left hand, in one scale of which are the images of two bodies, in the other a ring: but with her right hand she holds a lily. In the year of the Lord 751 lived the holy Anno bishop of Verona, brother of St. Maria Consolatrix, from an ancient Psalter of the church of the holy Apostles: from the same Psalter & from an instrument of the year 1349 described in the same Psalter, it is had that the altar of the Holy Trinity of the said church of the holy Apostles was consecrated also with the relics of St. Maria Consolatrix. And the altar of the church of All Saints at Verona was consecrated also with the same relics; from a tablet of membranes in the sacristy of that church. Relics also of St. Maria Consolatrix are preserved in the altar of the church of St. Nazarius, from Franciscus Corna.
[7] Her Life is had in the ancient Lectionary of the Cathedral church on her day, The history of the Life painted on panels & in book 7 chapter 8 of Peter de Natalibus bishop of Equilium. There is treatment of her also in the same book chapter 42. On the exterior wall of the church toward the East, near the road by which one goes to the cathedral church, there exist eight ancient panels, on which is painted the history of St. Maria Consolatrix. For in the first, St. Maria receives a blessing from St. Anno the bishop, with silver & gold to buy up the bodies of the Saints. In the second she herself ascends into a ship. In the third the bodies of the Saints are weighed. In the fourth six bodies are brought in, namely SS. Firmus & Rusticus, martyrs; St. Apollinaris, subdeacon & martyr, St. Lazarus, deacon & martyr, St. Marcus, deacon & martyr, & St. Primus, presbyter & martyr. In the fifth the citizens of Istria pursue St. Maria in a ship, to snatch away the holy bodies. In the sixth is painted the ship of St. Maria with the six holy bodies. In the seventh are painted two ships, one of St. Maria Consolatrix, the other of St. Anno the bishop, going forth with the clergy to meet her. In the eighth the six holy bodies, the holy Bishop & clergy standing by, are laid in the chest.
[8] These are the things which from the Veronese monuments (as above I was warning, not very ancient) Valerius collected with what diligence he could, & arranged in such an order; & with an annual solemnity. in no way solicitous to expound some things in the verses, because he did not judge them worthy of that explanation. They savor altogether of their own century, & bring forward nothing which conduces even a little to illustrating the deeds of the Saint. That the body was elevated by Theobald in the year 1320, that the sacred relics of the Saint are in honor at Verona, & that she herself is celebrated with an annual solemnity on this day, we have already said to be confessed enough. Further, the fragments of the Life reported by Equilinus were not to be adduced here, since the whole history is reported more fully & elegantly from Raphael Bagata by Ughelli, with such a series of events, that you would almost doubt whether the picture was drawn from the history, or the history itself from the already-reported pictures. But before I subjoin it, here those things are to be described from the elogium of St. Anno in the praised Valerius folio 37 which pertain altogether to our holy Consolatrix, & which, with the things already said, conduce not a little to the understanding of the history. Thus there he writes:
[9] Bagata (I subjoin) the series of the Life The blessed bishop Anno & pious father, in a great calamity of the Veronese people, laboring under a long drought of the sky, dire famine & pestilence, was consumed with grief: with assiduous prayers & tears, Maria his sister weeping with him—she to whom the surname of Consolatrix was afterward given, a most holy virgin—by divine warning he learned the cause of so great a calamity. For by angelic ministry it was revealed to both, in one & the same night, that Verona was not to be freed from that calamity by the hand of the Lord before the bodies of the blessed martyrs Firmus & Rusticus
should be brought back into it, that they might rest there, laid up with due honor, where for the glory of Christ they received the crown of martyrdom. With great diligence, therefore, by what reasoning those holy bodies could be found, many & various consultations were held by him with the clergy & with men of the people, excelling in piety & prudence. And they were found, & by the work of St. Maria Consolatrix translated to Verona. Nothing remains, save that the already so often mentioned history be subjoined from Ughelli column 575, collated with the new edition. Thus it has:
[10] better than the poet Maria, surnamed Consolatrix, a Veronese virgin, born of most illustrious parents, was illustrious no less in mind than in stock; when she was desired in marriage by very many nobles, on account of the nobility of her stock & the beauty of her body; she determined to preserve for herself, in her whole life, the virginity which from her first age she had consecrated to the Lord. The vows & prayers of all being repudiated; she was assiduously free for fastings, vigils & prayers, &, her maidenly morals composed to the rule of the holy faith, she gave herself wholly to almsgiving & other pious actions. To this holy Virgin, when the Veronese people had now for seven years labored under huge famine, on account of the drought of the air, in a calamity of this kind, as she was praying, on a certain night it was divinely revealed in [her] rest; that the Lord would not water the earth with rains sent from heaven before the bodies of the blessed martyrs Firmus & Rusticus—who, under the reign of Maximian, a most impious tyrant, consecrated Verona by the glory of martyrdom—being carried off thence, should be restored to that same city. Hearing these things from Maria his sister, the blessed Anno bishop of Verona affirmed that the same had been revealed to him that same night. Wherefore, by the consent of the whole clergy, & also of all the citizens, he determined that men should be chosen who would diligently seek out those bodies. Who, when they had reported that they had been found by them in Capris, a city of Istria, & affirmed that the townsfolk would not suffer them to be carried off thence unless redeemed by an equal weight of silver & gold matched with them, as much as the weight of the bodies themselves should have been found to be;
[11] she briefly described. the holy Virgin, distinguished in prudence, is sent, with the silver & gold which she had collected from every side, but chiefly from the ornaments of the matrons, to accomplish the business: who, when she had come into Istria & the bodies of the Saints were being weighed in a balance, they were made so light by divine power, that they were redeemed with quite a small part of that price which she had brought with her. And so the Virgin of God carried back to her fatherland whole what was left over. But the holy bodies being placed in a ship with the utmost reverence, as the Virgin returned with them to her fatherland, the citizens of Istria—who would call the miracle of God a conjuring-trick—pursued her with ships to snatch them away. But the Virgin praying, her ship was borne with so swift a course, that those who pursued not only could not overtake it, but could not even perceive whither it tended. The venerable bishop, with the clergy & all the people, went forth solemnly, down the Adige, to meet the arriving Virgin his sister, &, suffused with holy gladness, received her with great congratulation. All who were present, boarding the ship, venerated the bodies of the blessed Martyrs: which being received within the city with common & universal gladness, soon rain was sent down from heaven; & the already-parched face of the earth, watered with heavenly showers, was made fruitful. Wherefore the holy Virgin then deservedly obtained the surname of Consolatrix. Passing the remaining time of her life in fastings, prayers & pious works, on the Kalends of August she migrated to the Lord: whose body, in the church built in her honor, was honorably laid up. Concerning the holy Firmus & Rusticus may be seen what was said on the occasion of St. Proculus on 23 March page 450: but more will be said on their natal day, 9 August.