ON ST. HERCULANUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT BRESCIA IN ITALY.
Sixth century.
CommentaryHerculanus, Bishop and Confessor, at Brescia in Italy (S.)
J. B. S.
Just as we have already noted that St. Eusebius was first inserted into the Roman Martyrology from the Records of the church of Milan, Known from elsewhere than from the Martyrologies, the same must here be said of St. Herculanus, as one who is known in none of our classic Martyrologies, being supplied doubtless by Galesinius, to whom the aforesaid records gave light. Thus he is announced by him on this day: At Brescia, of St. Herculanus, bishop and confessor, famous for the great praise of his miracles. A little more the Brescian Martyrology itself embraces in these words: At Brescia, of St. Herculanus the bishop, in the church of Maternum, a town of Benacus, whose sanctity was so great that by his prayers he recalled the dead to life, and he flourished with many other prodigies. But, laden with holy works, he passed to Christ, and was chosen as Tutelary of the whole Riviera of Benacus (understand, at the lake today called di Garda). Bernardino Faino cites in his note ancient Breviaries and Catalogues of the Bishops of Brescia, besides other more recent writers of whom no account is here to be had — least of all indeed of that Life which Bartolomeo Vitali wrote and published, daring to dedicate it to St. Charles Borromeo.
[2] It is extant among us, sent once to our predecessors
by Leonardo Cominello, he is not to be adorned from fables, who himself in jest calls it a "little tale," but the praised Faino warns that it must be read cautiously; both might have said that it is a mere panegyric stuffed with many errors, as being embellished at the writer's discretion, which, having read it whole not without weariness, I have not judged worthy that I should recite anything from it here. Let us candidly say that concerning St. Herculanus's fatherland, age, or deeds nothing survives which can undergo more exact criticism. The people of Brescia assert that he was German by race, which I shall readily grant them. Let us grant besides that the Catalogues also in Ughelli rightly define his times, when they say that he succeeded St. Cyprian, of whom treatment was made long since in this work in the month of April, so that accordingly he sat not in the IV century, as Elia Capriolo and others trifle, but from the year 552 to 576. Concerning his deeds, moreover, I could wish that this first were confirmed by some ancient testimony, that when as a boy he was carrying to the poor bits of bread taken by stealth, lest he be rebuked by his father, they were by a miracle turned into stones; which the bishop of Sarzana celebrated in this distich:
Asked by his father what he was carrying, he answered, Stones; And he brought forth stony fragments of bread from his bosom.
[3] famous enough for miracles. Faino observes besides that it is related by Capriolo and others that St. Herculanus put on the monastic habit in the abbey of Leno, and, having discharged the lesser ministries, shone as abbot in it, whereas nevertheless the said abbey did not exist in the VI century, having been first erected and endowed by Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards, in the year DCCLX. I pass over the rest, that I may conclude the Saint's praises with Faino. He says: When he had at some time withdrawn for his own quiet to Campione, a peninsula of the lake of Benacus, full of merits and miracles — so that he had even the animals at his nod — he passed to the Lord, and, buried at the church of Maternum, is venerated with the highest honor as Tutelary of the whole Eastern Riviera of Brescia. And now a noble marble chest encloses him with this inscription:
Here rest the bones of St. Herculanus, bishop of Brescia and confessor, famous for the great praise of his miracles.