ON STS. FALCUS AND NICHOLAS,
Calabrian Hermits in Apulia.
Fourteenth century.
CommentaryFalcus, Confessor and hermit, in Apulia (S.)
Nicholas, Confessor and hermit, in Apulia (S.)
J. B. S.
[1] Both these holy Hermits Ferrari records on this day, Their life described elsewhere, but in separate articles, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy; we here join them both together, following Henschen, who at the VII day of May embraced in the same brief Commentary Sts. Francus and Reginaldus, companions of today's Saints, reciting nearly all the things which are to be applied equally to Falcus and Nicholas as to those, received from the Neapolitan writers there cited, Marafioti, Romæus, Barrio, and Ciarlanti, so that of ours scarcely anything remains to be said which has not been illustrated there, whether as regards their austere manner of life, by which they are matched with the solitaries of Egypt, or their supreme humility, inasmuch as, when Hilarion their founder was dead, they unanimously refused the prelacy, until, dishes being cast into the water, a little fish found in the dish of Nicholas seemed to designate him as set over the rest. Here now is a brief eulogy of each, received by Ferrari from the cited authors, to whom he adds Regius, who records them in a few words. Of St. Falcus he has it thus:
[2] here a eulogy of each Falcus the hermit, a Calabrian by nation, under the discipline of Hilarion the hermit, together with Nicholas his fellow-disciple and five others, led a harsh life in the Abruzzi. He, after the death of his master, betook himself to the valley of the river Aventinus near the little towns of Casulum and Lama of the Peligni, and there, after the departure of Nicholas, he too flew away to the world above on the V of the Ides of August. Under the supreme Pontiff Eugene IV he was buried in the church of Palena. Here now is the eulogy of St. Nicholas:
[3] is given. Nicholas, fellow-disciple of B. Falcus, and himself from Calabria, coming with Hilarion the hermit into the land of the Peligni, led a strict life under his discipline. But when Hilarion had paid the debt of the flesh, Nicholas with Falcus lived for some time in the valley of the river Aventinus near Lama, Furca, and Vandagrela, and, leaving Falcus after him, laden with the merits of the eremitical life, departed from life, and was buried in the church of Vandagrela. In whose praise and that of his companions this antiphon is sung there: O offspring of Calabria, splendor of the seven stars, new glory of Vandagrela, noble deposit, bring, O radiance of grace, the benefit of Christ, that this brief body of pardon may not flow away empty.