ON ST. NOSTRIANUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR,
AT NAPLES IN CAMPANIA OF ITALY.
In the fifth century.
A commentary on his cult and age.
Nostrianus, bishop and confessor, at Naples (St.)
J. B. S.
Although in no ancient, nay nor even in more recent Martyrologies is the memory of this St. Nostrianus marked, His cult is established yet those Neapolitan records do not suffer us to doubt of his cult which John the Deacon long ago furnished, and after him Antony Caracciolo, who was a Clerk Regular, On the sacred monuments of the church of Naples, and also Ughelli in his Italia Sacra, volume 6 at the beginning, where, treating of the archbishops of that city, he places St. Nostrianus in the eighteenth place, and at the end of his eulogy renders him this sufficiently clear testimony of cult, in these words: His sacred bones are venerated as the relics of Saints. His head is enclosed in a silver and golden case, which is preserved in that church: a memorial has been set there upon the altar in letters carved in marble, thus:
Here lies the body of St. Nostrianus, bishop of Naples.
[2] Further, the matter is made indubitable by the Catalogue of certain Saints, from the Neapolitan records. issued by command of the most Illustrious and most Reverend Decius, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Carafa, archbishop of Naples, to be celebrated henceforth by all ecclesiastics at Naples and throughout the whole diocese with the Office from the Common. And among these there is set down in its order on this day: St. Nostrianus, bishop of Naples. Double. All from the Common of a Confessor Pontiff. At first Vespers all of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, with a Commemoration of St. Nostrianus. Mass from the Common, with the Creed.
[3] So much concerning his cult, to which Caracciolo will add like things. As concerns his deeds, His age is somehow drawn out; his age, the order and duration of his episcopate, the aforesaid encomiast of the Saint candidly confesses that antiquity has left us few things concerning Nostrianus, so that it is no wonder if the said writers vary in these matters. In the first place the illustrious Muratori, in his collection of the Writers of Italy, volume 1, part 2, page 295, corrects John the Deacon for departing from the right series of times, when he says that it was rightly noted by Ughelli that this Bishop presided over the Neapolitans in the year 444, citing the author On the Promises of God, who flourished at that time, and in chapter 6 makes mention of the venerable bishop Nostrianus, vigorously repressing the Pelagians who were ranging through Campania: so that these things seem most probably to indicate the Saint's age.
[4] the rest is doubtful. In what order of number he sat as bishop Caracciolo does not seem to have dared to determine. In the aforesaid Deacon it is read thus: XV. Nostrianus the bishop sat seventeen years, in which duration all readily agree; but where Ughelli found that he was the XVIIIth Bishop we forbear to inquire, lest in determining uncertain matters we lose our oil and our labor: it will be more useful to have here transcribed the discourse of Caracciolo, in which all things are somewhat more fully explained which are compressed in the aforesaid Catalogue.
THE EULOGY
From Caracciolo.
Nostrianus, bishop and confessor, at Naples (St.)
FROM THE PRINTED BOOKS.
This one thing almost is known of Nostrianus, Antiquity has left us few things concerning Nostrianus. The one thing we have is certainly the chief. Namely, that he ruled the church of Naples in a time of tumults. Since the false dogmas of Pelagius and of Julian were then vexing the Catholics. Claude Menard, in his Notes on Augustine against Pelagius, sets forth from the Annals of Baronius the war stirred up by them against the grace of God, year by year from 415 down to 444, in which Nostrianus is said to have been sitting, and beyond. St. Prosper is witness, in his book On the Predictions of the Half of Time, chapter 6, that Campania was assailed by the Pelagians, who came hither, as I think, from Sicily.
[2] Since indeed, that they might live in concealment and secretly sow their errors, they chose two islands before this age of Nostrianus, namely in the year 410, Rhodes in the East and Sicily in the West. Unless we would rather say that he fought against the Arians that by Pelagius himself the poisons of his heresy were secretly sprinkled through Campania, chiefly in those days in which he was at Nola with Paulinus and others. However the matter stood, this is certain, that the Pelagians infected that province, but lightly, except in certain places which that perfidious Julian imbued more deeply with that poison.
[3] Prosper and others fought with armed pen for the grace of God. with St. Prosper and others. The diligence of Nostrianus also sweated to establish his flock in the Catholic faith. Whose zeal flowed over to his brother also. For as we said in the History of St. Januarius, chapter 20, section 6, when we treated of Sossius, upon the testimony of Prosper, by this brother of Nostrianus, and by Horius the presbyter, and other clerics of the church of Naples, there was seized and restrained a certain Florus who was claiming for himself the sanctity of St. Sossius.
[4] Concerning Nostrianus John the Deacon says: He made baths in the city, Of the buildings erected by him. and other buildings round about, which even to this day is called the bath of Nostrianus. That the buildings were sumptuous is persuaded by his name being given to the buildings and to the street: for of the Nostrian street there is frequent mention in the ancient records of the churches of Naples. You will say, for whose use did he build the baths, his own or others'? That it was certainly not unusual for men otherwise holy to go to the baths, the very deed of blessed John the Evangelist proves, who entered a bath and came out thence when he perceived that Cerinthus was about to wash there. Tertullian also should be read, Apology, chapter 21, and Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogue, book 3, chapter 9. But I rather think that he did this for the benefit of others. This is persuaded by the naming of the Nostrian quarter, as though all had been dedicated to the use of others: for otherwise, if for his own, it would have been enough to build them in a private part of his own house.
[5] The day of his death unknown; the elevation made on this day. He died at last, after he had sat seventeen years; and doing good works, says the Deacon, he rested in the Lord, and was buried in the church of blessed Gaudiosus, Confessor of Christ, outside the city, on the way to St. Januarius the martyr, situated in a portico. But that after the age of John the Deacon his body was translated into the Nostrian quarter, and properly to the church of St. Januarius ad Diaconiam, its very uncovering in the month of August of the year 1612, under Octavius Cardinal Acquaviva, archbishop of Naples, demonstrated. And since it was not known on what day precisely he died, it was fixed for the sixteenth of August, when the sacred pledges were found. So Galesinius on the VII of the Ides of January testifies concerning SS. Benjamin and Maximus, martyrs: whose birthday, since it was unknown, their feast began to be kept on the day on which their bodies were found. In the Roman Martyrology also the feast of St. Daniel the martyr, on the third of January, is the feast of his finding. See the Notes of Baronius.