ON ST. MAGNUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR,
IN ITALY,
Under Decius.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Magnus, bishop and martyr, in Italy (St.)
BHL Number: 5173, 5175
BY G. C.
§ I. The intricate difficulties concerning the distinction of the various Saints who are honored on this day under the same name are set forth.
About to illustrate the Acts of certain Saints who are called by the name of Magnus, Intricate difficulties are set forth, and who are honored on this same day, I am entering a labyrinth so inextricable that I dare not hope for a happy issue from it. Nevertheless, that I may discharge my office, I shall set before the learned reader most of the difficulties which I myself cannot resolve, so that he may pass free judgment upon them, and one more skilled in this matter may perhaps more easily find his way out of that labyrinth. In the first place, indeed, so great a discrepancy occurs in the various Martyrologies that one cannot determine with certainty whether one and the same Saint, or rather divers martyrs, are being announced — as will presently appear from the very words of the Martyrologies and from other ecclesiastical monuments.
[2] Certain ancient Martyrologies, which Edmund Martène published in volume 3 of the Thesaurus Anecdotorum, column [ ] and following, arising from divers Martyrologies, simply celebrate on the XIV Kalends of September the annual memory of Magnus the martyr, without any other circumstances, except that in the same place, column [ ], the ancient Corbie Calendar adds many companions to him in this manner: Of St. Magnus with his companions, two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven. Other copies of the Martyrologies add two thousand five hundred and ninety-three, or two thousand six hundred and seventeen, associates to a certain St. Magnus and to St. Andrew, tribune of the soldiers, who underwent martyrdom in the East, as will appear from what is to be said below.
[3] Furthermore, the Codices of the Sacramentaries, nine hundred years old and more, and other ancient which Thomasius published at Rome in the year 1680, make mention of St. Magnus alone, and on page 169 they commemorate his feast on the XIV Kalends of September thus: Be present, O Lord, to our supplications, and, by the intercession of thy blessed martyr Magnus, defend us in thy mercy from the assault of our enemies. Through, etc. SECRET. May our gifts be pleasing to thee, O Lord, which are both instituted by thy precepts and commended by the glorious feast of blessed Magnus. Through, etc. Post-communion. Receiving thy holy things, we beseech thee, O Lord, that the continued protection of blessed Magnus may cherish us. Through, etc.
[4] Thus far all these monuments of venerable antiquity treat of St. Magnus alone. monuments, But it is hard to say who or what sort of man he was: for the author of the old Roman Martyrology, which was published by our Rosweyde, and Usuard entangle a matter already sufficiently involved still further, when the latter, following Ado, announces that Martyr on the same day in these words: The birthday of St. Magnus, or of St. Andrew the martyr, with his companions, two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven. This manner of speaking suggests that St. Magnus bore two names and was the same as St. Andrew, tribune of the soldiers, who, after the victory won over the Persians, was slain in Cilicia along with a great number of his associates on account of the profession of the Christian faith, as will be related this day in his Acts. Hence Menard, in his Notes on the Book of Sacramentaries of St. Gregory the Pope, page 175, and Florentinius, in his Observations on the Hieronymian Martyrology, page 762, think that St. Magnus was also called by the name of Andrew, or that St. Andrew, after a custom usual among the Greeks, bore the surname μεγαλομάρτυρος, that is, of great martyr.
[5] This opinion of Menard and Florentinius can be confirmed from the Calendar of the Book of Sacramentaries of Abbot Ratold, which they announce on this day, a Saint of the same name in which St. Magnus alone with two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven associates is thus announced: Of St. Magnus with his companions, two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven. Add that in the manuscript to be cited below the martyrdom of St. Magnus is placed with St. Andrew and his companions in Cilicia. But the additions to the Martyrology of Bede, which we published before the second volume of March, assign on page XXIX another arena of martyrdom, and seem to distinguish St. Magnus from Andrew by the copulative particle in this way: At Alexandria, the birthday of SS. Magnus and Andrew, martyrs. Then there follows an announcement which has probably been corrupted by the copyist, in this manner: On the same day, the birthday of St. Marianus (it is known from elsewhere that this man was a confessor and died in Gaul) with two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven. I judge that this number of companions has been faultily transposed and belongs to the former announcement. This opinion of mine is strengthened by the manuscript which Holstenius cites in his Animadversions on the Roman Martyrology, page 98, and in which St. Magnus and St. Andrew with their companions are also recorded copulatively in another place thus: In Cilicia, the birthday of Magnus and St. Andrew, and of their fellow soldiers, two thousand six hundred and seventeen. I suspect that an error of the copyist has crept into this number too, and that at the end DCXVII has been faultily written for DXCVII, as could easily happen by the transposition of a single letter.
[6] in various ways and places For the rest, the aforementioned additions to Bede's Martyrology seem in the same place to distinguish the above-mentioned St. Magnus of Alexandria from another martyr of the same name, whom on the same day they assign to another place in these words: At Rome, the birthday of St. Magnus the martyr. But Florentinius on this day, in his observations, cites a most ancient copy of the Hieronymian Martyrology, in which the reading is: At Fabriteria, of Magnus, etc. The manuscript codex of the Queen of Sweden also, which is cited by Holstenius in the same Animadversions on the Roman Martyrology, expresses the same place of veneration or of martyrdom, and places St. Magnus at Fabriteria on the XIX of August. Now Fabriteria, or Fabrateria, is, according to Baudrand, a colony and town of the Volsci in Latium in Strabo and Antoninus, now Falvaterra, a stronghold of Roman Campania in the territory of the Church, near the river Liris on the very border of the kingdom of Naples, eight miles distant from Aquino to the west.
[7] they announce on this day. But from these announcements I do not yet know whether St. Magnus underwent martyrdom at Fabriteria, or was merely honored there with a special cult on account of sacred relics translated thither. Florentinius thinks that Fabriteria was the arena of his martyrdom, when in his observations on the Hieronymian Martyrology, page 762, he writes thus: That it is an addition, which is wanting in our books and is marked at the end in the Corbie Martyrology — namely, the memory or birthday of St. Magnus the martyr — I should scarcely believe, since in the most ancient copy, as we have said, it is not only noted, but the place of his passion is expressed, At Fabriteria; which word I should not so easily suppose to have crept in by the fault of a scribe. Yet I should judge that one ought rather to write Fabrateria, because by this name a colony of Italy is designated in Paterculus, and it is mentioned on the Latin Way, near the river Tretus (perhaps this stream is confounded with the river called above the Liris), in Strabo; while in Antoninus's Itinerary it is placed between Aquinum and Fregellae, as indeed it is now a village in the same place in Latium. From these words of Florentinius I gather without difficulty that he believed Fabrateria to have been the place of the passion in which St. Magnus obtained the palm of martyrdom. But would that that learned man had shown this clearly by ancient testimonies!
[8] The opinion of the prelate of Otranto is reported, This matter, obscure enough on other grounds, is not made any clearer by the most illustrious Don Francesco Maria de Aste, archbishop of Otranto, when in his notes on the Roman Martyrology on this day he raises a topographical question in this manner: The most ancient Martyrology of St. Willibrord in Florentinius, and the Manuscript of the Queen of Sweden in Holstenius: At Fabriteria, of Magnus. But among the topographers Fabriteria is not to be found; whence in the aforesaid codices it is dislocated: At Fabriteria. Nevertheless the fault lies only in the scribe writing Fabriteria for Fabrateria; not, however, in the place, by which name a colony of Italy on the river Tretus is designated in Paterculus; it is mentioned on the Latin Way in Strabo, and in Antoninus's Itinerary between Aquinum and Fregellae; now a village in Latium.
[9] But if anyone should add that a translation could have been made from Fabrateria to Anagni, who would have him surnamed "of Fabrateria" with the support of the Acts in Ferrarius's Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on this day, which state at Anagni in Latium, St. Magnus, bishop and martyr — this will be to divine: for the copies cited mark not Anagni but Fabriteria or Fabrateria; and besides, since both this village and Anagni stand in Latium, those Acts might easily have run over from the one place to the other. For the rest, let not the people of Anagni be angry at the seizing of their martyr and bishop Magnus; and besides, there are no inhabitants of Fabrateria left who could grieve over this; and since we have set forth these things only for the knowledge of this wavering, let the people of Anagni themselves therefore retain the reading of the Roman Martyrology, according to the judgment of wiser men, delivering it thus: At Anagni, of St. Magnus, bishop of Fabrateria and martyr, who, etc.
[10] I do not know what the epithet "of Fabrateria" is meant to signify in this announcement, the ground of which surname is equally obscure, which the most illustrious prelate proposes to be recited by the people of Anagni. Will that Saint perhaps be called "of Fabrateria" from his native place? But certain Acts and several authors relate that he was born at Trani in Apulia. Wherefore the city of Trani still glories in this holy citizen of hers, and even today points out his birthplace on the tradition of her elders; as Don Tommaso Angelo Bay, to be praised below, writes in the preface to the Acts of this St. Magnus. Whatever may be the case concerning this showing of his birthplace, or rather this popular tradition, which after so many elapsed centuries, owing to the great vicissitude of things and other circumstances, is not so very certain to us, at least all
the Acts agree that that Saint was a native of Apulia. Nor again can he be called "of Fabrateria" from an episcopal see, since there seems never to have been any bishopric of Fabrateria in Italy. Could he perhaps be called "of Fabrateria" because he was crowned with martyrdom at Fabrateria? But martyrs are not commonly surnamed in this way from the cities in which they obtain the laurel of martyrdom: for in that case the arena of martyrdom is usually expressed otherwise, namely at Fabriteria or of Fabriteria, as we have reported above from the ancient Martyrologies. But when St. Magnus is announced at Anagni, I judge that the chief place of his veneration or of his relics is designated, as will be said again below. Therefore I do not sufficiently clearly grasp why the most illustrious archbishop of Otranto wished St. Magnus to be called by the surname "of Fabrateria."
[11] Nor do I any better understand what the Martyrology of Aachen means, than the twofold announcement of the Martyrology of Aachen. which in Florentinius makes mention thus, confusedly, of the various Saints of the same day: The birthday of St. Magnus or Andrew with two… soldiers \ DC and VII. At Amasea, the birthday of Silio, Rufinus, Leontius, Magnus, Arion. You see that here a twofold St. Magnus, or at least the same Martyr, is commemorated twice on the same day. But it might rightly be doubted whether this varied commemoration of the same Saint, or of a twofold Saint, does not arise from dislocated or confused entries of the Hieronymian Martyrology. Wherefore Florentinius on page 761, after these announcements, concludes thus from the collation of divers codices: From so many codices, then, it now seems clear that Leontius and his companions are to be placed not at Fabretaria with Magnus, but at Amasea in Pontus with Filio and Rufinus.*
[12] But among so many and so various announcements as I have hitherto reported, Some wrongly call him bishop of Anagni, none assigns to this Saint the title of bishop. Nevertheless the present Roman Martyrology on the XIX of August announces the annual memory of St. Magnus in these words: At Anagni, of St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, who was put to death in the persecution of Decius. I suppose that this Saint is placed at Anagni by the Roman Martyrology only because notable relics of him were translated to that city, as will be said afterwards. Baronius, however, indicates that he suffered in the city of Anagni, when in his Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 254, number 29, he thus reckons this same Martyr with others: There are read as having suffered likewise under Decius, at Formiae, Albina; at Anagni, Magnus the bishop and Secundina the virgin. Nay more, that most eminent man seems to number this St. Magnus among the bishops of Anagni, since in the Index of Saints to the Roman Martyrology Magnus, bishop of Anagni, martyr under Decius, is assigned by him to the XIX of August. Certainly Ferrarius on this day expressly calls this same Martyr bishop of Anagni in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, where also he briefly narrates his chief Acts.
[13] whom Ughelli refutes, Ferdinando Ughelli, in the latest Venetian edition of Italia Sacra, volume 1, column 306, rejects this opinion of both writers, where he says this concerning the city and the martyrs of Anagni: This city became far more illustrious, after receiving the light of the Gospel from the very times of the Apostles, on account of the most illustrious and most renowned martyrs who in it, that the Christian faith once received might be confirmed, bore through the most savage torments the never-failing palm of martyrdom; among whom shone Secundina, virgin and martyr, Aurelia, and Neomistia\, and very many others, whose unconquered crowns are recorded in the Roman Martyrology. In the cathedral church consecrated to the Virgin Mother of God of the Annunciation rests St. Magnus, bishop of Trani, whom Ferrarius and Baronius will have to have been bishop of Anagni; and we shall afterwards demonstrate in its proper place that they plainly err.* Then in volume 7 of the same edition, treating of the prelates of Trani and relating the deeds of St. Magnus, he shows at column 889, from various manuscript codices, that he must be reckoned among the bishops of Trani. Various copies of the Acts also, which we shall presently enumerate, adorn St. Magnus with the same title of bishop of Trani; but we do not know how much antiquity or authority all these have, so as to deserve certain credence concerning times so remote as those of Decius. Since, therefore, intricate knots everywhere present themselves here, as the learned reader sees, let us try whether those authors have happily untied them who have written laboriously about the various Saints of this name.
[14] and others confound him with Magnus or Andrew, Hugh Menard the Benedictine, in his notes and observations on the Book of Sacramentaries, page 175, notes the following concerning the Saints of this day who are called by the name of Magnus: Further, in the Rheims codex and in that of Ratold there follows: On the XIV Kalends of September, the birthday of St. Magnus. On the same day in the Roman Martyrology: At Anagni, of St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, who was put to death in the persecution of Decius. There was also another Magnus, only a martyr, not a bishop, of whom Peter treats on the same day in his Catalogue, book 7, chapter 76; and the manuscript Martyrology of St. Jerome: And the birthday of St. Magnus the martyr. He is also called Andrew, and suffered with many others, as may be seen in the Martyrology of Usuard: The birthday of St. Magnus, or St. Andrew the martyr, with his companions, two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven. And in the manuscript Martyrology of the Corbie library: THE BIRTHDAY OF ST. MAGNUS OR ANDREW, MARTYRS (read MARTYRIBUS), WITH THEIR COMPANIONS, TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY-SEVEN. In the Calendar of the Book of Sacramentaries of Abbot Ratold mention is also made of the same St. Magnus the martyr, but with the name of Andrew suppressed: OF ST. MAGNUS WITH HIS COMPANIONS, TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY-SEVEN. And although he is not here called martyr, this can nevertheless be discerned from the circumstances. In the little Martyrology stitched to the Rheims codex mention is made of St. Magnus without any addition, in this manner: And the birthday of St. Magnus. But of this last I think our Sacramentaries are to be understood, since in their Collects he is called only MARTYR, and by no means BISHOP. The Collects of both codices are alike and common. From these things indeed it follows that St. Magnus the martyr is probably to be distinguished from the bishop of the same name. But on that account I do not yet admit that St. Magnus the martyr is the same as Andrew, since their Acts differ much from one another, and the one is said to have suffered under the emperor Aurelian, the other under Maximian, as will be made manifest below from the Acts of each.
[15] Meanwhile let us see whether Florentinius brings any light to these obscure announcements, who was commander of the army, who in his notes on the Hieronymian Martyrology on this day discourses thus: At Anagni likewise in Latium the Roman Martyrology presents on this day St. Magnus, bishop of that city and martyr, and Ferrarius runs through his Acts in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. Could he have been translated from Fabretaria to Anagni? For my part, one of the manuscripts of the Queen of Sweden also assigns him not to Anagni but to Fabriteria: At Fabriteria, of Magnus. Peter de Natalibus, book 7, chapter 76, refers to this day another St. Magnus, martyr, of Caesarea in Cappadocia, with two thousand five hundred and ninety-eight pagans. Maurolyco stands little apart from this number, who reckons the companions of Magnus and Andrew as 1592; (Maurolyco in the two editions of his Martyrology clearly expresses two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven companions) but that Magnus bore two names Usuard and Rabanus teach, when they commemorate the birthday of St. Magnus, or St. Andrew the martyr, with companions marked with the same number as in Maurolyco — just as Ado does in as many words. Of St. Magnus the martyr, who was also called Andrew,… under the name of Andrew only, commander of the army, and of his companions, two thousand five hundred and ninety-three, struck with the sword under the emperor Maximian and the commander Antiochus, the Menology of the Greeks makes mention on this very day. His Acts are pursued more fully by Metaphrastes in Surius, volume 8, who teaches that the most valiant commander finished his course with his fellow soldiers in the region of Androcala, in the narrows of Mount Taurus, on the Lord's Day. But I should readily think that the name Magnus was likewise an adjective, after the manner of the Greeks, who call distinguished martyrs GREAT, as is plain concerning Andrew in those Acts, chapter 9.
[16] For my part I willingly confess that illustrious champions for the Christian faith are called by the Greeks μεγαλομάρτυρας, and suffered martyrdom elsewhere with very many companions, that is, great martyrs; but how can St. Magnus, who underwent martyrdom at Caesarea in Cappadocia, and of whom Peter of Equilio makes mention, be the same as Andrew, commander of the army, who was slain by Antiochus in the narrows of Mount Taurus? Certainly the age of each athlete, the arena of the martyrdom, the manner of death, and the other circumstances of the Acts are wholly different from one another, as will afterwards be clear from their Acts. Wherefore I do not see how Florentinius and Menard could have confounded these two Martyrs, unless they contend that the Acts of one or the other were fabricated from beginning to end — which is not to be asserted without solid reason — or unless both those authors were deceived by Maurolyco, who in his Martyrology mingled the Acts of both Martyrs at the XIX of August in this way: At Caesarea in Cappadocia, in the reign of the emperor Aurelian, of the holy martyrs Magnus and Andrew with their companions, two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven, who, when they had seen a most ferocious lion raging against the pagans, but prostrate and tame at the feet of Magnus, were converted to Christ and beheaded by order of the governor Alexander; but Magnus was crushed with stones. In like manner Galesinius on this day confounded those Acts in his Martyrology.
[17] from whom, however, we think he must be distinguished, These things indeed in some part have to do with St. Magnus the Cappadocian, to whom, however, in our manuscript Acts, to be published afterwards, no companions are joined, and who, after various torments by which the heathen had vainly attempted to kill him, gave up his spirit of his own accord in prayer. But that tame lion, and the emperor Aurelian, and the governor Alexander, in no way belong to St. Andrew the tribune, who was slain with very many Christian soldiers by Antiochus, commander of the army, in the narrows of Mount Taurus, and of whom the Greek Martyrology of Cardinal Sirleto on the same day relates the following: The birthday of the holy martyrs Andrew, commander of the army, and his companions, two thousand five hundred and ninety-three, who, being denounced in the times of the persecutor Maximian before Antiochus, commander of the army, because they were Christians, and persevering in the confession of Christ, were struck with the sword. Consult afterwards the fuller Acts of St. Andrew, which my colleague Pinius will illustrate on this day.
[18] and we review the various Saints of the same name, All things, therefore, being maturely weighed, we judge in the first place that St. Magnus the Cappadocian is to be distinguished from Andrew the tribune. Moreover we judge that St. Magnus the bishop in Italy is different from both these martyrs. Most certainly there differs from all these St. Magnus, bishop of Avignon and confessor, whose memory is also celebrated on this day, as Castellanus affirms in his Universal Martyrology. We shall arrange each of these Saints of this day, called by the same name of Magnus, according to the order of the time in which they suffered or flourished. Now therefore in the first place we shall discuss the Acts of St. Magnus, the Italian prelate, who is said to have lived under the emperor Decius, and who is announced in various places in Italy
in various places in Italy, we think, because in them his sacred relics rested or are still preserved, of which we shall treat afterwards.
[19] who occur on this day in the Martyrologies. We have said nothing here of the venerable Magnus, king of Norway, although on this very day, the XIX of August, in the Supplements to our illustrated Usuard, in Greven, the annual memory is celebrated of Magnus, king of the Norwegians and martyr. Our predecessors, unless I am mistaken, placed this same king among those passed over on the first day of May in these words: Magnus, king of Norway, is reckoned as a Saint in the Martyrology of Richard Whitford, printed at London in the year 1506. He is omitted by John Vastovius in the Vitis Aquilonia, and by the Northern Missal printed about two hundred years ago. Nor have we found anything elsewhere concerning his cult. I indeed find, in the History of Norway which the heterodox Thormodus Torfæus published at Copenhagen in the year 1711, part 3, book 4, chapter 16, a venerable Magnus, king of Norway and son of St. Olaf, who for his piety is adorned with a singular eulogy; but nowhere do any traces of a public and ancient cult appear, even though Torfæus in the same place relates, from an old book called Morkinskinna, that certain miracles were wrought by his intercession. Wherefore we require more certain information concerning his immemorial cult; and if anyone shall supply it to us, that Magnus may be treated of on the XXV day of October, on which Torfæus and other writers report him to have died. Meanwhile, in the following paragraph we shall discuss the Acts of the more ancient St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, and afterwards we shall set forth some opinions and conjectures concerning the sacred relics of the same, or of another Saint of the same name.
Annotations\ Perhaps thousands*
\ elsewhere Neomisia*
§ II. The public cult of this Saint, the various Acts, a summary of them, and certain difficulties concerning them.
[1] The public cult of this Saint is proved from a proper Office, We have a solemn Office, celebrated every year by the Olivetan Congregation in the church proper to St. Magnus, which Don Cyprian of Salerno, a monk of the same Congregation, composed from ancient monuments by order of the most worthy Don Lactantius of Naples, abbot. At First Vespers of this proper Office the following hymn is sung:
Let mother Church sound forth the praises of the highest King, the great wonders of God, the great solemnities of Magnus.
He first, as shepherd of the sheep, made a pattern to the humble, by the prayers of all ascended to the pastoral height.
He shone in life and doctrine, renowned he was made bright by signs; he did more than he taught, and taught by living; thus he presided who profited.
In the exile of the body, by a certain privilege, he enjoyed in his ministry the fellowship of the angels.
Afterwards, seized by the officers and by the executioners, his holy prayers poured forth, he is joined to the citizens of heaven.
Therefore, O excellent martyr, light and glory of the Church, restore to heavenly grace those who applaud your glory.
For the merit of so great a Father be praise to thee, Unbegotten, and praise to the Only-begotten, praise to thee, O Paraclete. Amen.
Philip Ciammaricone, in the Sanctuary of Anagni which he published in Italian in the year 1704, sets forth on page 187 a great part of this hymn, and on the preceding page testifies that this and other hymns are found in old manuscript codices and have been used from time immemorial in the church of Anagni.
[21] Moreover this author of the Sanctuary asserts on the following page and by the immemorial veneration of the sacred relics that at Anagni the sacred body of St. Magnus is to this day preserved with honor in the middle altar of the lower church, which is built of white marble, and that there the following inscription is displayed: Here lies the body of Bl. Magnus, bishop and martyr. But on the side toward the East, where the old altar stands, according to the same writer, the following hexameter verse is read: Here rests the body of Magnus, the kindly bishop. Then he adds in the same place that in the visitation of the year 1701 the veneration toward this Saint was increased by the bishop of Anagni, and that there, for the greater cult of St. Magnus, this commemoration is made. Antiphon: Blessed Magnus, guard by your kindly prayers the people who ever render you the wondrous offices of praise. ℣: Pray for us, blessed Magnus. ℞: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Prayer: Be present, O Lord, to our supplications, and by the intercession of blessed Magnus, thy martyr and bishop, mercifully defend us from the assault of our enemies. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Although this collect is very like the prayer which we transcribed above at number 3 from the Sacramentary of Thomasius, nevertheless we still do not know whether in those most ancient codices the annual memory is of this St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, since there the title of bishop is not added to him, and he is called only martyr, as we briefly observed in the same place at number 4. But since the immemorial and lawful cult of that holy Prelate is otherwise sufficiently established, we do not prove it more laboriously, and we proceed to enumerate the various copies of the Acts.
[22] which is confirmed from his ancient Acts, In the Antiphons, Lessons, and other parts of the above-mentioned proper Office there are narrated the chief deeds of St. Magnus, which the aforesaid Don Cyprian of the Olivetan Congregation excerpted from old codices and set forth in a more elegant and clearer style. Although this clarity and elegance deserve praise in the divine Offices, nevertheless, on account of authority, we prefer the obscure and barbarous narrative in which those Acts were anciently written. Hence we set more store by the Reverend Don Tommaso Angelo Bay, a native of Corato and Vicar General of the archbishop of Trani, who in the year 1626 faithfully published the Acts of St. Magnus just as he had found them in an old codex of the church of Trani, as he testifies in his preface to his fellow townsmen of Corato. Yet we shall not reprint that edition, which swarms with very many faults, since we have at hand two old codices of our museum, and various copies of the same Acts which we received long ago from different regions, and of which we shall now furnish some account.
[23] of which we specify the various copies, First, a parchment codex in ancient script, which in our museum is marked ✠ Ms. 74, contains at folio 177 and following the Life of St. Magnus, of which this is the opening: Whoever shall have confessed the name of the Son of God, and shall have wished diligently to follow all that was done or written by St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, offers both to himself and to very many edification and fruit, etc. From this codex we shall publish the Acts of the Saint after the Preliminary Commentary. Secondly we have a paper codex of more recent date, marked O Ms. 17, which without any prologue begins thus abruptly: The most blessed athlete of Christ, Magnus, since he was the only son of his parents in the region of Apulia, and since his parents were pagans and poor, and had not the substance of a single day, their son Magnus grew up, etc. A third copy of the Acts, which was taken from an Augsburg manuscript, Father Christopher Steborius, known in the Library of the Society of Jesus, sent long ago from Dillingen to our predecessors, who also in the year 1641 received from the very reverend and most noble Don Stephen Schenckinck of Osnabrück, Scholastic and Canon of Minden, another copy of the same Acts, which had been transcribed from a Minden codex.
[24] which we received long ago both from Germany, Of these two German copies, the Minden one for the most part agrees with the parchment codex of our museum; but the Augsburg copy is more verbose, and there are mingled with it some things which belong to the other St. Magnus, martyr of Caesarea in Cappadocia, as we gather from the following narrative: Then the soldiers, moved with anger, prepared bears and lions of wonderful size, and making them fierce with hunger, cast the Servant of Christ before their gaze. But he, making the sign of the holy cross against them, prayed, saying: "Deliver not, O Lord, to the beasts the soul that trusts in thee, and forget not to the end the soul of thy poor one." And so the beasts, turned to gentleness, kissed the feet of the holy Man and fled, and appeared no more. Then, preparing a burning furnace, they commanded him to learn whether his God could redeem him from the fire of the burning furnace. And so blessed Magnus, fortifying himself with the sign of the holy cross, prayed, saying: "Show me a token for good, O Lord, that they who hate me may see it and be confounded, because thou, O Lord, hast helped me and comforted me." And thus a saving dew came from heaven, while the soldiers looked on, and quenched all the fury of the burning furnace, and showed the servant of Christ coming forth safe from the furnace. Perhaps because of a similar interpolation some writers have confounded St. Magnus the Italian with the martyr of the same name from Cappadocia: for the bear, the lion, the furnace, and the other torments vainly attempted against the holy Martyr belong to St. Magnus of Caesarea, as will afterwards appear from his Acts.
[25] To these we add certain copies excerpted from the libraries of Italy, and from Italy, among which the first is that which our Antonio Beatillo sent from Naples to Antwerp without any note of the codex from which it was taken. To this is prefixed a prologue, far different from the others, which the unknown author begins with these words: It is a precious and wonderful thing, dearest Brethren, that the festive memory of the Saints should be celebrated year by year, so that as we commemorate their contests upon earth by praising God, so we may hope — nay, hold for certain — that they daily have intercessions on our behalf with Jesus Christ our Lord, etc. But the Acts begin in this manner: The most blessed athlete of Christ, Magnus, therefore, being the only son of his parents, was born in the region of Apulia, in the city of Trani, etc. Although the preceding copies assign Apulia as this Saint's native country, they nevertheless do not express the city of Trani. For the rest, from that prologue we conjecture that on the annual festival of St. Magnus a sermon was delivered in which perhaps his deeds and miracles were set forth to the people. Another copy was transcribed from a manuscript codex of the library of Monte Cassino, whose preface runs thus: It belongs to the glory and praise of our Lord Jesus Christ to set forth with faithful assertion the merits and virtues of the Saints, because, according to the word of the Lord: "It is good to conceal the secret of the king; but to reveal and confess the works of God is honorable," etc. But that copy is rhetorically amplified with many dialogues and digressions, and sets forth in many words the same things which others have related in fewer.
[26] At Naples too we received from the Collectanea of the Theatine Fathers another copy of the Acts, we received long ago. which without any preface has this different beginning: At the city of Trani, Magnus, sprung from heathen parents like a rose from thorns, led in boyhood the life of an old man, and, pitying the poverty of his parents, an imitator of the patriarchs, became a keeper of sheep. Since he had none of his own, he had recourse to God. Moreover our Pierre Poussines in the year 1679 sent from Italy to Papebroch the manuscript Acts of St. Magnus, taken from the proper Office of a certain church, in which, besides the hymn, his deeds and miracles are sung in these hexameter verses:
That he may buy sheep, an angel brings a mass of gold; And as the Boy pastures them, he grants their fruits to the needy. He is washed in Baptism: afterwards he raised his father from the font. He gives his goods to the poor: at length he becomes shepherd of Trani. Signing the mouth of a dumb man, formed speech returned. The idol is cast down by his prayers, and the doors flew open.
The demon, offering himself as a companion, is turned by prayer into a serpent. Now he treads the waters with his foot; the blind afterwards received light. He expires in prayer; his neck is cut off with the sword. He is drawn out from Veroli; Anagni, you purchase him with money.
This metrical synopsis of the Acts and miracles will be understood more clearly from the fuller Acts to be published after this Preliminary Commentary.
[27] Besides the biographers in the vernacular, Ughelli Ughelli, in the latest Venetian edition of Italia Sacra, volume 7, column 888, has woven a sufficiently accurate and elegant synopsis of the Acts from the monuments of the church of Anagni, and also from an old manuscript "brief," as he calls it, of which he assigns this beginning: Magnus, bishop of Trani, whose fame the emperor and the prefect hearing, sent soldiers to seize him, etc. We say nothing here of the writers in the vernacular, among whom Francesco Maria Torrigio at Rome in the year 1629 published briefly in Italian the Life of St. Magnus from various manuscripts. Still more willingly do we pass over Philip Ciammaricone, who in the Sanctuary of Anagni played the preacher rather than the historian, and extended the Life of this same holy Bishop and martyr to twenty chapters in the vernacular. If, however, anything worthy of note should occur in them, we shall observe it in the course of our Preliminary Commentary or in the Annotations.
[28] from a manuscript codex Although the copies hitherto enumerated differ among themselves in style and words, nevertheless as to the substance of the matter they for the most part agree, as will presently appear from the fuller summary of the Acts which Ughelli sets forth from an old paper codex of the Vallicellian library, and which is cited in him in volume 7 of Italia Sacra, column 889, to this effect: In the times of Decius Caesar there was a certain poor and pagan man of the city of Trani, by name Apollo, who had an only son named Magnus, whom he was arranging to make over to his neighbors for the pasturing of sheep, that he might have a living from it. As soon as the Boy learned this, he departed very sorrowful from his father's face. But God, who comforts his poor, sent to that Boy by his angel ten talents, all of which he hastily brought to his father, saying: "Let us render thanks to the Lord of heaven, who has sent me this, that we may live from it, and may always serve him by giving back to the poor. And since God has not willed that I should be another man's hireling, buy therefore eighteen sheep, which I wish to keep, that we may be able to live from their produce." The flock of the said sheep grew to a thousand, and from their produce he daily bestowed upon the poor.
[29] sets forth a Latin After blessed Magnus had been baptized by the holy bishop Redemptus, he converted his father Apollo to the Lord; and blessed Redemptus himself baptized him, and his son raised him from the sacred font. But when his father died, blessed Magnus gave all his substance to the poor. When the whole people of Trani had learned that blessed Magnus was so perfect, although he himself cried out that he was unworthy of so great a priesthood, they chose him to be bishop and shepherd of their souls: and God fulfilled their holy and just desire, and wrought very many miracles through him. Now on a certain day there came to him a certain Castorius, made dumb by an excessive sickness which had befallen him six years before; and with the sign of the holy cross he restored his speech to him. On another occasion he darkened the eyes of the soldiers who had violently thrust him into the temple of the pagans to worship there; where by night he broke all the idols in pieces: and when the angel of God had drawn him out of it, and a certain poor woman had refreshed him as best she could, he blessed her house, and so from that day the woman with her son had sufficient provisions. But when he had entered Naples, he was received by St. Januarius, who himself also obtained the victory of Christ. Then, with an angel accompanying and directing him, he came to a certain church in which St. Paternus was joined to him by angelic command; and there by his great prayers he helped a woman who had been barren for twenty-five years, that she might conceive children; and so in that year she bore a son. Three sons of the prefect he healed of a grave infirmity with holy oil which he sent to their parents. A certain woman blind for thirty years he gave light to with his holy spittle. Another man from the region of Picenum, struck by the devil upon his horse, he cured by his prayer. A youth Mesias of Sora he freed from a demon. The chief man of the city of Aquino, with his wife and son, held captive by a demon, he released by his power. To seven robbers who thought that he had boundless money, and who were blinded by divine vengeance, he restored sight by laying on hands and pardoning them.
[30] After the emperor and the prefect had heard the fame of the most blessed Magnus, and an accurate summary of his deeds, and of blessed Secundina, made a Christian by his preaching, they sent thirty soldiers to arrest them, and, if they should refuse to worship the idols, to afflict them with various torments; and while these were going about in search of them, the devil in the appearance of a man urged that in no way should Magnus the bishop be spared, because it is he who draws all men away from the sacrifice of the idols. Now the blessed virgin Secundina was found at Anagni and asked whether she would observe the command of the emperor and the prefect, which she utterly renounced, and publicly preached Christ. But coming to his church, they gave all its furnishings to the fire, and were minded to tear blessed Magnus the bishop cruelly in pieces. Blessed Magnus, entreating these soldiers, said: "Bear with me a little"; and so, leave being granted, he entered his chamber, and weeping prayed to the Lord that he might pass from this world before their torment; and so he departed to the kingdoms of heaven. But the soldiers, after they had waited for him a long hour, entered the chamber and cut off his head: whose body blessed Paternus secretly buried on the fourteenth Kalends of December (read September, as several copies have it;) but the soldiers, sleeping through the whole night, perished: their bodies were eaten by dogs and wolves. But when in the middle of the night blessed Paternus was weeping in prayer, blessed Magnus appeared to him and comforted him, and announced the day of his death that was to come, as he desired.
[31] In this summary of the Acts a twofold difficulty presents itself to us, in which, concerning his meeting with St. Januarius, which we desire to be resolved by the learned. First, we do not sufficiently understand how St. Magnus, coming to Naples, could have been received by St. Januarius, since St. Magnus is said to have undergone martyrdom under the emperor Decius, who was slain in battle about the year of Christ 251, while St. Januarius suffered first in the persecution of Diocletian, that is, in the year of Christ 305, as Baronius and other chronologists commonly relate. If perhaps you should say that St. Januarius was then still a young man dwelling at Naples in his native place, you will be at strife with the people of Benevento, who against the Neapolitans contend that St. Januarius was their fellow citizen. The Cassinese copy of the Acts makes this matter still more incredible, which says of St. Magnus: Coming to Naples he lodged at the church of blessed Januarius, martyr of Christ. What church of St. Januarius the martyr was there at Naples then, since he underwent martyrdom only fifty years and more after that journey of St. Magnus? We suspect that Ughelli in his eulogy of St. Magnus, Torrigio in his Italian Acts of him, and Cyprian of Salerno in the above-mentioned proper Office, were silent about that meeting of the two Saints on account of these difficulties.
[32] and concerning the manner of death, Another difficulty occurs concerning the manner of death by which St. Magnus departed from among the living. Our parchment codex and the Minden copy attribute to him the crown of martyrdom in these words: But the soldiers, going, seized him and slew him with various torments. The Augsburg copy describes the savage slaughter of St. Magnus thus: The profane soldiers, hearing these things, struck with fear, drew their swords and, dividing the glorious Martyr of Christ limb from limb, left him in the street; and so with the cutting off of his limbs he passed to Christ, the supreme Head of the Church, with whom he rejoices and reigns for ever and ever. But the codex of the church of Trani, from which the Reverend Don Tommaso Angelo Bay published the Acts of St. Magnus, says not a word of his violent death, and on page 46 expresses the peaceful passing of this Saint in these words: Then he said to the soldiers: "Bear with me a little." And entering his chamber, weeping most bitterly, he prayed to the Lord. But the Lord in his power came with a great host of angels to receive the soul of blessed Magnus the bishop, and he departed to the kingdoms of heaven. Now his death was such that for three days he permitted no one to come in to him. But after three days, when the soldiers entered, seeing the body of blessed Magnus lying thus without soul, they were seized with terror and withdrew. The Cassinese copy agrees with this description of a peaceful death.
[33] by which the Saint departed from life, Other manuscript copies indeed of the Acts and proper Offices also affirm that St. Magnus rendered up his spirit to his Creator in prayer; but they add that the soldiers cut off his head when he was already dead. Among others this manner of death is read in the Neapolitan Collectanea of the Theatine Fathers, and two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven companions are joined to him in this way: Magnus, having obtained a delay of time, said: "Bear with me a little, that I may be allowed to direct my prayer to the God of heaven." Entering his chamber he prayed to the Lord, and, his prayer ended, gloriously ascended to the heavenly kingdoms. Meanwhile they, waiting for three days for him to come out, and watching for his departure, afterwards, having taken counsel among themselves, entered the place and found the lifeless body; and grieving vehemently that he had died without torments, since they wished to slay him with divers punishments, they showed therefore upon the dead man what they had purposed to do to the living: for by cutting off his head they made a martyr of one who had not felt martyrdom. Now he died with two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven martyrs at the city of Fondi, in the place called Campus Mitrianus. This last clause about the two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven companions of St. Magnus was probably taken from the martyrdom of St. Andrew the tribune, or from the interpolated Acts of the other St. Magnus, as we shall see afterwards.
[34] Finally the aforesaid Reverend Don Cyprian of Salerno, in the proper Office of his Olivetan Congregation, explains the same manner of death in this phrase: Conquered therefore by these arms, the ancient enemy rages with malignant anger against the Athlete of Christ; certain difficulties occur. *going to the henchmen of Decius, he stirs them up against the holy bishop: who, coming headlong to the blessed Man, after the wicked burning of the monastery and of the sacred furnishings, lay sacrilegious hands upon him and compel him to sacrifice to the gods. To whom he said: "Suffer me first to pour out my prayers to my God"; and entering his chamber, in prayer he rendered up his most pure spirit to God. But the soldiers, standing before the doors and taking ill his long delay, made a rush and, entering the chamber, found the most blessed body of the holy Man without life. Their fury does not cease thereat, but boils up more and more. Since they had let him go alive without torments, they strive to mangle him with torments; and therefore, by beheading him, they crown with a twofold martyrdom him who without bodily martyrdom
departed from life. Even though the Reverend Don Cyprian here adorns St. Magnus with a twofold martyrdom, Ughelli nevertheless in his eulogy of this Saint asserts only that he almost accomplished martyrdom. Whatever may be the case in this matter, we have called him martyr according to the common tradition, and have prefixed this title to our Commentary. Here other things might be observed concerning the discrepancy of the Acts, which we shall rather indicate in the Annotations. Now we shall first set forth certain matters concerning the translation of the sacred body and the relics of St. Magnus.
§ III. The translation of this Saint's relics from the city of Fondi to the city of Veroli and thence to Anagni.
The body of St. Magnus from the city of Fondi Concerning the translation of the body of St. Magnus I have in hand a proper Office, composed with some elegance, which our Pierre Poussines, known in the Library of the Writers of the Society of Jesus, sent to Papebroch in the year 1679. But on account of this very elegance of style I suspect that this Office is of more recent date, although it was probably compiled from ancient monuments. Wherefore I have preferred to transcribe the older and more barbarous history of that translation from the copy which we long ago received from the Collection of Gallonio, or from the library of the Roman Oratory, and which runs thus: After the church of Fondi, as is contained in the deeds of blessed Magnus, had been utterly laid waste by the Saracens, there was in Campania a certain man of the leading citizens, not a philosopher, but a tribune by office, named Plato, who, moved by divine love, when he learned that the most precious treasure of the sacred body had for a long while lain in the aforesaid place in forgetfulness and neglect, went with his people, by common counsel, to the place, opened the tomb not without the greatest awe, and finding the holy bones in a marble sarcophagus, translated them from thence, and carried them with him to Veroli with all the religious honor he could.
[36] And when he was bringing the greatly longed-for relics there into the church of blessed Andrew the Apostle, is translated to Veroli; with Avitus, bishop of that city, and with an assembly of clergy and people gathered together, he asks all to take counsel in common as to in what fitting place and with what befitting honor the most holy Martyr of Christ might be buried. And they, exceedingly gladdened at the coming of so great a guest, gave great thanks to God; and searching out with diligent inquiry a worthy place of burial, at length, with the voices of all concurring in one, they bore the venerable body into the crypt of the same church, singing hymns to the Lord. But Plato, after he knew that satisfaction had been given him according to his desire, providing for the salvation of his soul, made over a part of his estate to the same church, and commending himself to God and to St. Magnus, returned to his own place. But let these things concerning Plato and the translation of the blessed Man to Veroli suffice for the present: how he came to Anagni we shall now pursue.
[37] but the leader of the Saracens, After many further courses of years had rolled away, when, as our sins required, our Lord Jesus Christ had decreed to strike his Church with the scourge of the enemy, the fierce Mura, king of the Saracens, gathering a great host, had burst in as though inspired, and that foul plunderer laid waste with the sword all Apulia and Campania; and when he had levelled with the ground many most strongly fortified cities here and there, and had overcome and trampled down many strongholds exceedingly strong by nature, on a certain day, coming to Anagni, he besieged it, and insolently commanded that sufficient tribute be given him at his own bidding; but the citizens, massed within the walls of the city, strove to resist the tyrant as best they could, now hurling darts, now vying with one another in rolling down stones. But the grim Mura, beholding such presumption of the men of Anagni, goaded by most savage anger, began to swell with rage; and moving his camp nearer beneath the wall, he shook the rebels with greater terror, and commanded them to hand over to him not only tribute but even themselves with all the substance they possessed, if they wished to live.
[38] the city of Veroli being taken, When they saw that the Saracens pressed on with sharper fighting, and that, as always happens in the fortunes of war, they must yield to the stronger, at last, compelled by an ignoble whirlwind of fear, they beg for peace and a truce, and promise that they will do everything that should be commanded them by the king or by his men. And he, although he was the fiercest of all whom the earth bore at that time, on hearing the agreement grew quiet; and having received no small sum of money along with the tribute to follow, he permitted the men of Anagni to live as by his own gift; and leaving the city, he invaded Veroli in hostile fashion and claimed it for himself, its leading men having first been miserably butchered with the sword without a hearing: and when the soldiers of that wicked man ran about plundering on all sides and laying out their camp, certain of them, entering the church of blessed Andrew the Apostle with reckless daring, destroyed the altars, seized for themselves the crosses, chalices, candlesticks, censers, codices, and everything appointed for divine worship, and there prepared lodgings in which to dwell; and in the crypt in which the body of the glorious bishop and martyr Magnus had been buried, they made their horses stand as in a stable.
[39] sells the body found there to the citizens of Anagni, But on the next day, when the sun was already approaching the earth, the Saracens, rising from their beds, found the horses which they had stabled, in contempt of St. Magnus, about his tomb and altar, lying dead upon the pavement: for deservedly did they suffer loss in their horses and in their other goods, who had not feared to defile with wicked and execrable rashness places consecrated to God. Yet what were they to do, when they saw so wide a slaughter of horses spread over the ground everywhere? Thinking to take good counsel for their madness, those hostile defilers bid that, the marble being cast aside, men should approach the tomb and diligently explore what power lay hidden there: and when the sepulchre had been dug open, as had been commanded them, they found the most glorious body of blessed Magnus; and having found it, they did not treat it honorably as they ought, but to their own harm cast it outside the church. Hearing this, the greedy Mura sent his embassy to the men of Anagni, and made known to them that he had one of the gods of the Christians for sale, whom, if they were willing to buy him even at a cheap price, they might at once possess as their own. And when the men of Anagni had received so jesting an embassy from the tyrant, rejoicing in the Lord with their whole heart, they quickly came together as one, and, delaying not at all, but rising by night, they ran in haste to Veroli, imitating that merchant of the Lord's parable who, for one precious pearl that he had found, gave all that he had and bought it.
[40] Having received therefore the relics of the most dear holy bishop Magnus, which these bear honorably to their own city, and having saluted the king, they left Veroli, and, not without a mighty noise of rejoicing — as yet ignorant of what was to come — they led their triumphant steps toward their own Anagni, about to tell wonders. And when they had already gone no great distance from Veroli, by an unlooked-for turning the most holy body is suddenly rolled over, and — what seems and is marvellous to tell — with its own strength it slips from the hands of them all to the ground. And while this miracle worthy of memory was being beheld, they ran together from every side, and, first with great fear rushing upon them, then with no small terrifying doubt, they fell wretchedly silent; and not knowing what should be done, they stood conferring much among themselves: for many times, when they had seen that they could neither lift the immovable body from the ground nor turn it in any direction, and that they failed in vain in the attempt begun, at last, the divine mercy instilling it into their hearts, they made a vow to God and to St. Magnus that, if he should allow himself to be borne away from that place, they would both honorably restore his tomb at Veroli destroyed by the Saracens, according to the measure of their ability, and would build at Anagni another tomb set above an altar, befitting his dignity, and would invest it with every adornment they could, both spiritual and secular, then and always and for ever and ever. Bound therefore by this vow, they lifted the body without the labor of any difficulty, which before they had not been able to lift; and giving that place in their own tongue the name EVOLUTA, from the fact that the oft-named Magnus had rolled over, they returned to Anagni with joy, and, rendering in the church of the Mother of God and virgin Mary the vows they had promised, they most fittingly laid up the most holy bones with hymns and psalmody. Now certain things occur to be observed concerning this narrative.
[41] First, in that history of the translation there is mentioned Avitus the bishop, although this whole narrative is not without its difficulties, who with clergy and people honorably received the body of St. Magnus into the city of Veroli. But among the prelates of Veroli, whom Ughelli reviews in the latest Venetian edition of Italia Sacra, volume 1, from column [ ], I find no bishop of this name. Moreover in this narrative the leader of the Saracens is named Mura; but in other documents he is called Muça and Manuca, so that from this diversity of the leader's name it is not established at precisely what time the cities of Fondi, Anagni, and Veroli were laid waste by those barbarians: for the Saracens burst into Italy in various years. Ciammaricone, however, in the Acts of St. Magnus, chapter 18, or in the Sanctuary of Anagni, page 177 and following, thinks that these things happened in the time of Pope John X, that is, after the year of Christ 914. Further, from this chronology there arises a certain difficulty concerning the Roman translation of St. Magnus, as will appear from what is to be said below.
[42] The most eminent Baronius, in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 846, number 3, relates from Leo of Ostia that the city of Fondi was destroyed by the Saracens; but then he says not a word about the translation of St. Magnus. whereas Baronius has made mention only of the Roman translation of St. Magnus. But afterwards, at the year of Christ 851, number 1, he makes mention thus of the translation of St. Magnus to the city of Rome: At which time the body of St. Magnus, carried off by the Franks from the city of Fondi in Campania and brought as far as Sutri, is by divine admonition carried back to Rome, and placed in the church of St. Michael near the quarter of the Saxons. But others assert that this was done under Charles, from an old inscription. But of these matters elsewhere. Nowhere have I been able to find in what place Cardinal Baronius made mention of this old inscription, unless perhaps he meant here to point to his notes on the Roman Martyrology, in which, treating on the eighth day of May of the aforementioned church of St. Michael, he judges that by the fault of the writer Charles was set for Louis in that old inscription cut in marble. Further, we shall relate this Roman translation of St. Magnus in the following paragraph, and shall see whether it can be reconciled with the translation to Anagni.
[43] The proper Lessons in the Octave of the feast relate, Meanwhile let us hear the proper Office of the Olivetan Congregation, which, silent about the Roman translation of St. Magnus, agrees almost entirely with the copy reported above, and in the Octave of the feast of St. Magnus, in the second Nocturn, recites the following: You have heard, dearest Brethren, upon the solemn day of the most blessed bishop and martyr Magnus, the wonders which God deigned to manifest through him while he was still placed upon earth. Now attend, following with due honor those things which were wrought after his death, and beseeching with humble obedience the omnipotence of God our Creator, that we may not be slow to imitate what we delight to celebrate. The sacred body of the blessed Bishop, then, beheaded, is buried by blessed Paternus in that place in which he had suffered; and there, peace being restored, a church was built by the Christians in honor of God and of the Martyr, and a temple and monastery most magnificently constructed, and given first, after many elapsed years, to the Cassinese, and to the Olivetans
afterwards, in the pontificate of Alexander VI, at the petitions of the most serene king Alfonso.
[44] that the body of St. Magnus, from the city of Fondi to Veroli, But when blessed Paternus was being led in chains by the same soldiers to torture, Magnus appeared to him in the silence of the night, and, gently comforting him, announced to him after three days a temporal death and eternal life. But the soldiers, departing thence, when they had crossed the river Legula, at the hour of evening, quarrelling among themselves and stirred up by a diabolical spirit, slew one another in turn with their own weapons; and their bodies, torn by wolves, were devoured, God taking vengeance. But in the pontificate of Pope John VIII, when the monastery of the holy Martyr had been utterly laid waste by the Saracens, his body was carried off by a certain Plato, tribune of the people, to Veroli and placed in the church of St. Andrew. Then Veroli, besieged and taken by force by Manuca, leader of the Saracens, was not only depopulated, but they even defiled the very sanctuary of St. Andrew, and in the crypt in which the body of Magnus rested they stabled their horses in mockery, as in a stable. But they paid the penalty of their impious sacrilege: for suddenly all the horses died; which the leader wondering at, he orders digging about the tomb, and, the body of blessed Magnus being found, he sold it for a price to the citizens of Anagni.
[45] and finally to Anagni, was translated, But when the holy body was being carried from Veroli to Anagni, a marvellous thing happened: for not far from Veroli it was held so fixed to the ground that by no force could it be moved from the place. The citizens therefore have recourse to prayers and vows; they promise God and blessed Magnus that, if he would allow himself to be translated to Anagni, they would not only build him a tomb there, but would also restore his sepulchre at Veroli. The blessed Bishop consented, and with hymns and canticles he is borne to Anagni and honorably laid in a tomb; in which also he did not cease to shine forth with miracles. For a certain bishop of Anagni, named Peter, doubting whether the body of blessed Magnus truly rested in that sepulchre, obtains certainty by this miracle. For he counselled a paralytic woman that, if she desired to obtain health, she should venerate the tomb of the holy Martyr. She obeys and pours out unceasing prayers to the Blessed one; but when she in no way obtained her wish, she returned home sorrowful. But by night the blessed Bishop appeared to her, clothed in his pontifical insignia, and, taking her hand, while bestowing health commanded her diligently to warn the bishop that he should no longer doubt about the place of his sepulchre.
[46] Another man besides, having a withered and maimed hand, where the presence of his relics by ancient praying at the Saint's tomb, was suddenly healed. When a certain Andrew had heard these things, having been lame almost from his tender years, he was carried aloft to the sepulchre of the blessed Man; and when day and night with abundant tears he had persisted in prayer before the tomb of the Bishop, he obtained health of his feet. After these things, a woman named Benedicta, miserably vexed by a demon, was brought by her parents, after the sacred veneration of many places, to the sepulchre of the blessed Martyr, and there she was marvellously freed; who, however, being again more sharply tormented by the same demon, is again snatched from his power by the patronage of the holy Man. Lastly a girl entirely deprived of the use of her hands, when she could not be cured by the art of physicians, is brought in tears by her mother to the holy physician Magnus to be healed: by prayers, weeping, and groaning she is restored to health. What is related here in the preceding number about the apparition of St. Magnus, made to a certain woman that she might inform Bishop Peter about the place of his tomb, can be confirmed from the Acts of St. Peter of Anagni, illustrated on the third day of August, where in volume 1 of that month, page 234, that matter is set forth more distinctly, and where on page 237 it is also related how St. Magnus appeared to the same Peter, bishop of Anagni.
[47] Philip Ciammaricone in his Italian Acts of St. Magnus, chapter 20, or in the Sanctuary of Anagni, page 183 and following, relates similar things, and by more recent miracles is proved. and in the same place reports from an old inscription that in the month of April of the year 1231 the body of St. Magnus, having first been publicly shown to the people, was more honorably placed under a new marble altar then erected. Then he affirms that the piety of the citizens of Anagni toward this holy Protector of theirs has always flourished from that time to our own age, and for confirmation's sake he adds a more recent miracle, which I here abridge from his Italian narrative thus: In the month of June in the year 1677 so great a multitude of locusts invaded certain tracts of Italy that they destroyed the harvest already ripe and stripped the fields of all grain. When there was no remedy for this evil, the men of Anagni, terrified by the loss of their neighbors, confidently had recourse to the patronage of St. Magnus, and implored his help with pious prayers. A wonderful thing! Although the region round about was devastated by those creatures, the fields of the men of Anagni alone remained immune from that neighboring and common calamity. Although these and other things sufficiently prove that the sacred relics of St. Magnus are preserved in the church of Anagni, nevertheless the Roman translation of the same holy Martyr, as it is called, gives us some trouble. For how, someone will say, could the body of this same St. Magnus have been translated to Anagni from the city of Veroli, which had received it from Fondi, when it had earlier been translated from the city of Fondi to Rome, as we have reported above from the most eminent Baronius? This difficulty must now be discussed.
§ IV. It is inquired to which Saint of this name belong the relics which were translated to Rome and to other distant regions.
It is related in an old Roman tablet, We have received from the archive of the basilica of St. Peter a copy in which the translation of the relics of St. Magnus to the city of Rome is narrated in the following words: The body of St. Magnus, from the city of Fondi, at which he had suffered martyrdom under Decius and Valerian, most savage emperors, as his Life teaches — a Life preserved in the library of the said basilica, written by hand on parchment — was carried to Rome by certain Frisian soldiers, and is placed in the church of St. Michael beside the way of the Holy Spirit, in the time of Leo the Third and Charlemagne; of which matter there exists a marble tablet, cut in clumsy letters, on the very right hand of the entrance of the church, of this tenor. Then follows the inscription itself, which Ferdinando Ughelli in Italia Sacra, latest Venetian edition, volume 7, column 891, Cornelius Kempius in his work On Frisian Affairs, book 3, chapter 19, and Martin Hamconius at the end of his Frisia, and other writers of Frisian history, have here and there published in print.
[49] some characters of which we exhibit, Although Francesco Maria Torrigio, in his Italian tract On the Origin of the Church of St. Michael, which was printed at Rome in the year 1629, has on page 32 expressed the same inscription in Latin in full words, he nevertheless there warns that on the Roman tablet itself it is expressed in abbreviated letters, which we commonly call abbreviations. Bernard Gerbrand Furmerius of Leeuwarden saw to it that this Roman inscription was faithfully engraved on copper, and published it entire in the same script, and appended it to Suffridus Petri's Apology for the Antiquity and Origin of the Frisians against Ubbo Emmius. We here exhibit, by way of specimen, a few lines of this script, which we have bidden our engraver imitate exactly.
From these few lines the learned reader will easily gather the remaining writing of this Roman tablet, and will be able to inquire more curiously whether this script belongs to the times of Charlemagne.
[50] that the Frisians from the city of Fondi Meanwhile we transcribe that tablet in full words from our copy, in which it runs thus: In the name of the Lord. In the time of Pope Leo the Fourth, in the reign of the emperor Charlemagne, at that time when the basilica of Peter had been taken by the Saracens, then at length, the head of the whole world being troubled, the whole world was troubled, and all Gaul with King Charles came to defend it. Whence, in fighting against the enemies of the Lord, certain men died, and were buried in a crypt beside the palace of Nero; and at the same time by Pope Leo and King Charles a church was made over them in honor of Michael the archangel. These things therefore being accomplished, the king went to Apulia, and subjected it to blessed Peter and to Rome. At that same time, as the army was returning into Gaul, three of their soldiers from Frisia — Ilderad of Groningen, and Leomot of Stavoren, and Jaro, and Celdui, a handmaid of God, of Slinga — these found the body of blessed Magnus in the place which is called Fondi: which having been found, they resolved to carry it into their own province and there to lay it up; but, divine grace working with them, after they had come to the region of Sutri, they were no longer able to carry it further. Wherefore, twice and thrice terrified and admonished in a dream, returning to Rome they bore the holy body with them.
[51] Whence it came about that, for the sake of their devotion, he allowed a part of the arm to be separated from himself by them; carried the body of St. Magnus to Rome. but the other parts remained in the aforesaid crypt, over which, as has been said, a church had already been made. Then they decreed that every year at the same time an excellent benefaction should be given there, namely three hundred marks of silver, for the redemption of themselves and of those resting everywhere; and that in perpetuity, whether rich or poor, they should keep hospices in the same above-mentioned basilica of the archangel and in the church of blessed Magnus built beside it by these same men, whenever they came to those parts. Therefore let it be plain to all of ours and of others, that if they themselves, or whoever, shall attempt to break this decree, they shall know that they are perpetually damned and accursed and bound in hell with the devil by the bonds of the anathema of the aforesaid Pontiff, unless they repent; but in this life wretched, poor, and scattered, and moreover blotted out of the book of heavenly life and cast down from the kingdom of Christ. To the confirmers and supporters of this decree may there be the grace of the blessed Christ, and may they enjoy the joys of both lives. Amen. This inscription agrees almost everywhere with the printed copies, if you except here and there some dislocated words and certain changes of less moment. Now the judgment must be reported which certain learned men have passed upon this inscription.
[52] Ferdinando Ughelli, in Italia Sacra, latest Venetian edition, volume 7, column 890, discourses of it thus: Ferdinando Ughelli, The beginning of this inscription seems false, since Leo IV was declared Supreme Pontiff of the Church thirty-three years after the death of Charlemagne, namely in the year 847. Charlemagne died in 814. Yet it is not to be attributed either to a fault or to the ignorance of the writer, nor does it seem to contain a falsehood, since Leo III is often also called the Fourth. Most ecclesiastical writers write that this came about because a certain Leo, a Roman, after the death of Pope Sergius I, intruded himself into the Roman Church in the year 698, and was called Leo the Third, who is not placed in the catalogue of the Roman Pontiffs. Hence the Leo who governed the chair of Peter in the times of Charles was in truth the third of that name, although more than once he is also called the fourth by writers. Torrigio, in chapter 15 of the tract praised above, confirms this reasoning of Ughelli by several testimonies of authors. The most eminent Baronius judges that in this tablet Charles was faultily set for Louis, as we saw in the preceding paragraph.
[53] Whatever may be the case concerning these opinions, Ubbo
Emmius, a heterodox writer, holds this inscription, honorable to his own countrymen, to be true, and in his History of Frisian Affairs, near the end of the fourth book, concerning Charlemagne, writes the following: and the heterodox Ubbo Emmius And so, preparing himself for the next year, which was the eight hundredth from the birth of Christ, he crossed the Alps in the late autumn with his son Pippin, king of Italy. But in this expedition, which was to him the most honored of all (for he was acclaimed emperor and Augustus by the whole Roman citizenry, while the festival of the Lord's Nativity was being kept, and was girded with the crown and the mantle by Pope Leo in a solemn ceremony, after he had already settled the Pontiff's dispute with the people), he had with him, as is sufficiently established, a strong cohort of Frisians: which, left behind in Italy with Pippin, who then had a grievous war against Grimoald of Benevento, by the notable exploits it performed, won a distinguished name for itself and its people, and declared even to those nations with what valor the Frisians were endowed. Proof of this is a huge tablet of ancient marble set up in memory of that deed and engraved with letters, which Raphael Volaterranus, a most excellent author, records to have been still intact in his own time at the church of Michael near the Vatican. For thus it stands in its inscription, that in the time of Pope Leo, in the reign of Charlemagne, the Frisians came into Italy and gave aid to the Pontiff against the Saracens, who were laying waste both the coasts of Italy and the very suburbs of Rome; and that in memory of this deed and of the slain, that church of Michael was then erected; and then, when the Frisians were by chance returning from Apulia to Rome, certain noble men among them, admonished in a dream, carried with them to the City the body of St. Magnus found at Fondi, and placed it in the same church of Michael; nay, further, that having built a hospice in the same place and assigned an annual revenue, they established a refuge for the poor of their nation.
[54] discourse concerning that Roman inscription. Then Emmius casts a certain reproach against the Romans, as is the manner of heretics, and explains some difficulties which may be raised against this tablet, in these words: Nor am I unaware that these matters are drawn by Volaterranus to the times of Charles the Bald, king of Gaul, and of Pope Leo IV; but that I cannot agree with him, these reasons chiefly move me: that the Bald did not hold the empire in the time of Pope Leo; and that the same man, not even afterwards, when he had begun to rule, ever used the name of "the Great," as it is here written in the tablet; that he did not himself come into Italy with an army so long as Pope Leo was among the living, nor did he mix himself in Italian affairs in any way; lastly, that he had nothing whatever in common with the Frisians, whom Lothair his brother and his sons held under their rule. But if you refer all these things to Charlemagne, they will agree most aptly with his affairs, provided that for the fourth Leo you take the third of that name. And such an aberration of a single stroke in writing or reading a name can easily happen. Nor indeed will Saracens infesting the shores of Italy be wanting at that same time in which Charlemagne held the empire, under Pope Leo, whom the Frisians pursued in arms, if anyone will care to turn over the annals of that time. And these reasons, even if perchance they deceive me, will not thereby detract anything from the glory of our forefathers, to which that marble bears most certain testimony, under whatever emperor it may have been set up. Emmius here notes in the margin that he has changed his opinion in this matter, and has shown the causes of this change in another printed book, which we do not have at hand. Although second thoughts are wont to be better, as the Greek proverb has it, nevertheless in this place they could easily have been worse: for perhaps this heretical writer, or his fellows, were afterwards displeased by the things recorded in this inscription concerning their forefathers' care for the dead, veneration of sacred relics, and obedience toward the Roman Pontiff, and therefore he was constrained to retract his former opinion, as being too favorable to the religion of his ancestors. It does not please me to dispute more laboriously about the truth or falsity of this tablet, which Emmius himself had called a most certain testimony; but rather it must be inquired who that St. Magnus was, whose body the Frisians, or the Franks (as the most eminent Baronius judges), carried from the city of Fondi to Rome.
[55] In the first place, the opinion of Cornelius Kempius of Dokkum seems to me utterly improbable, Certain Frisian writers relate that that St. Magnus, who in book 3 of his Frisian History, chapter 18, confidently asserts that the Frisians after the above-mentioned expedition against the Saracens returned from Italy to their native land, having lost not a few valiant men who fell in that expedition, and above all their chief leader St. Magnus, as he there adds, who fell bravely in Italy for the defense of the Christian faith and of the Apostolic See, as is found at Rome in the church of Michael the archangel, which is on the Janiculum to the west of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, in an elegant inscription cut into the wall of the church in the times of Charlemagne; a copy of which I have judged it not unfitting to insert here word for word, in witness of its antiquity. Then in the following chapter he exhibits that Roman inscription, which we have given above from our copy, and have noted in various authors.
[56] Torrigio, in the tract cited above, chapters 8 and 12, charges Kempius with error, whose body was translated from Fondi to Rome, in that he wrongly placed this Roman church of St. Michael on the Janiculum hill, and gratuitously substituted for St. Magnus, who is honored at Rome, a Frisian leader of the same name, merely on account of the likeness of the name — a leader who perhaps never fought in Italy against the Saracens, or whom at all events Kempius found enrolled in no Martyrologies. Indeed the Roman marble tablet, which Kempius cites as witness of his assertion, in no word or sign indicates that St. Magnus, whose body was translated by the Frisians from the city of Fondi to Rome, was a leader of soldiers, or fell in battle against the Saracens. Add that Christian Schotanus, in his vernacular History of Frisia, book 2, page 64, roundly affirms that many fables have been mingled with the deeds of the aforementioned Frisian leader.
[57] Nevertheless Martin Hamconius, in his work On the Illustrious Men and Affairs of Frisia, folio 36, adorns this opinion of Kempius with certain new episodes, was a leader or Potestas of his nation, and not only liberally bestows on this Magnus, leader of the Frisians, the title of saint, but even surnames him, in the more recent Frisian fashion, Fortema, composing in his honor the following hexameter verses:
When Magnus Fortema, subduing Rome together with the Saxon, Deserved of the Pope, deserved of the Emperor, By an illustrious diploma to be made the first Potestas of Frisia, And Count of Bentheim, with liberty; glorious Arms he brought back to his country, and everlasting praise. But setting out again against the enemy of Latium and of Christ, He received a deadly wound from a Saracen soldier: Whence, dying at Fondi, he was buried at Rome, and there Enrolled among the Blessed, as the marble in the sacred church Of Michael and the ancient hospice in the City bear witness.
[58] Then Hamconius, to prove the sanctity of Magnus Fortema, cites the Martyrology of Baronius at the IV day of September, and Hamconius to this end cites the Roman Martyrology, and in prose, after the other warlike expeditions of this first Frisian leader or Potestas, writes there of him to our purpose thus: A second time he made for Italy with an army, and there, fighting most bravely against the Saracens both in Latium and in Apulia and Calabria, at last wounded (as it seems) in battle by the enemies of Christ, he died at Fondi in Campania; but his body was carried to Rome by three Frisian soldiers, Ilderard, Leomoth, and Hiaro, and buried in the basilica of St. Michael the archangel in the Vatican; and, a notable hospice having been built there and an annual revenue assigned for the Frisians who should seek the City for piety's sake, he himself was reckoned among the Saints; as, besides the Martyrology of Baronius, the notable marble erected in the same basilica testifies, whose inscription is exhibited at the end of the second book. These things have been devised plausibly enough, if only they were true. Further, it is not our purpose laboriously to attack that narrative of Hamconius from the manner, and the time, and the other circumstances in which the leaders or Potestates of Frisia were formerly appointed, and about which the Frisian writers dispute sharply among themselves and with other historians. Wherefore we shall merely bring Hamconius to the Martyrology of Baronius, to which he has appealed.
[59] from which nothing can be extracted in favor of that improbable opinion. On the IV day of September in the Roman Martyrology we read the following announcement: On the same day, of the holy martyrs Magnus, Castus, and Maximus. But Baronius in his notes on this announcement of the Roman Martyrology writes thus: Usuard on this day has only Magnus and Castus; of Maximus, in the old Roman Martyrology and in other manuscripts. Concerning the translation of the body of St. Magnus the martyr and concerning his relics laid up in the church of St. Michael the archangel near the Vatican, in the time of Leo the Fourth, Roman Pontiff, an old inscription cut in marble, placed in the same church, gives information. Who from these words of the Roman Martyrology, or from the annotations of the most eminent Baronius, could hammer out Magnus Fortema, leader or Potestas of the Frisians? Finally, who would believe that on the IV day of September there is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology that leader of the Frisians who is said to have been wounded in battle against the Saracens after the year of Christ eight hundred and to have died at Fondi, when St. Magnus and his fellow martyrs are announced on the same IV day of September in ancient Martyrologies which were written before the year eight hundred, as may be seen in Florentinius on that day and in the preliminary admonitions to the Hieronymian Martyrology?
[60] Most think, against the notes of Baronius, For the rest, from that annotation of the most eminent Baronius it might be inferred that this St. Magnus the martyr, whose relics are laid up in the church of St. Michael, is different from the bishop and martyr of the same name who is commemorated on the XIX of this month in the Roman Martyrology, and whose body was translated to Anagni: for Baronius, on the XIX of August, in his notes on the announcement of St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, makes mention only of the monuments of Anagni, and meanwhile says not a word about the Roman church of St. Michael. Nevertheless Bartolomeo Piazza in his Roman Hemerologium, and Ottavio Panciroli in The Treasures Hidden at Rome, judge that the relics of the present St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, are preserved to this day in the church of St. Michael. Not a few side with these, among whom Ughelli in Italia Sacra, in the edition now so often cited, volume 7, column 890, holds that the St. Magnus whose relics are honored at Rome and at Anagni is one and the same, and that all these things are easily reconciled if we say that a part of the body of Magnus was sold to the men of Anagni by the Saracen king from the church of Veroli (I use his words) and that a part, indeed the greatest part, remained at Fondi, which the Frisian soldiers carried off from there. Here again we wander uncertain in a labyrinth, and cannot settle this dispute, which would have to be decided by an eyewitness inspection of both sets of relics and by their quantity and quality.
Wherefore let us now treat briefly of the sacred relics of whatever St. Magnus, which are said to have been carried to other churches.
[61] In our copy, which I cited above from the archive of the basilica of St. Peter, belong to St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, the following is read: In a silver head with breast, at the expense of Bernardino Paolini of good memory, datary of Pope Clement VIII of happy remembrance, and Canon of the Vatican basilica, is kept the head of St. Magnus, archbishop of Trani (better, bishop, as Ughelli notes in the place just cited), martyr, in the figure of a bishop wearing on his head a silver mitre adorned with stones not precious, with a cope of the same material, on whose borders are seen the images of Saints Clement and Sebastian, whom Clement VIII of pious memory most devoutly venerated; but on the hood, of the Holy Spirit and of the most blessed Virgin. The whole silver structure, of great weight and magnificence, stands upon a silver base skilfully chased, on which are the arms of Pope Clement VIII, beneath which this inscription is read: The sacred head of the glorious martyr Magnus, bishop. Below are the family arms of Bernardino Paolini, Canon and datary aforesaid. On the lowest band of the pedestal these words are read, engraved in silver: Bernardino Paolini of Florence, datary of Pope Clement VIII, Canon of this most sacred basilica, out of religion and piety adorned it with this silver case in the year 1602. On either side of the lowest band aforesaid: The head of St. Magnus, martyr, archbishop of Trani … In the year 1602, on the feast of St. James the Greater, the XXV of July, in the palace of the Quirinal hill after Vespers, our most holy Lord Clement VIII blessed the aforesaid silver image, as in the blessing of caskets for the laying up of relics — of great weight and of the value of eight hundred gold pieces; and on the XIX day of August, the feast of St. Magnus, the sacred skull is enclosed in it, and a solemn procession was held in the ambulatory of the basilica, and in the Gregorian chapel Mass was sung by the aforesaid Canon Bernardino Paolini, all the clergy of the basilica being present.
[62] Then in the same place the following is said concerning the arm of St. Magnus: that the bones preserved at Rome pertain, In a long wooden casket with glass in front, covered with red silk plush, is kept the arm of St. Magnus, archbishop of Trani, martyr, and part of the thigh of St. Petronilla the virgin. After these things, from the decree of the Chapter of the said basilica, which was held in the year 1602 on the 2nd day of November, the following is there reported: They decreed that the lords Aloysius Cittadinus and Octavius Estensis Taxonus, Canons and chief sacristans, should bring from the church of St. Michael beside the way of the Holy Spirit in Saxia to our basilica the arm of St. Magnus, archbishop of Trani, martyr, to be more safely and religiously kept among the other relics of the Saints; decreeing, however, that it be exhibited each year on the dedication of the blessed Archangel, and on the eight days only following, beneath the altar, for the veneration of the people flocking to his church. Evangelista Carbonesius, Canon, secretary. Lastly the translation itself of the sacred arm is there narrated in a few words thus: In the year 1603, on the first day of January, the aforesaid lords Canons privately carried the aforesaid arm, divided into two long pieces, to the aforementioned Vatican basilica, and placed it in the tabernacle of the sacred relics, a public instrument having been drawn up by me, Jacobus Grimaldus. From these things it follows, against the most eminent Baronius, that all the relics of St. Magnus formerly or still preserved in the church of St. Michael belong, in the common opinion of the Romans, to the holy bishop of Trani and martyr, whose feast is celebrated on the XIX day of August.
[63] and were translated into Belgium, Bohemia, and Germany. Notable relics also of the same Saint are said to have been translated to regions not a little remote from Italy: for the church of Anderlecht, situated in Belgium not far from Brussels, venerates the arm of St. Magnus, bishop of Anagni (rather of Trani, as we noted in §1) who was slain in the persecution of Decius, on the fourteenth Kalends of September, as Raissius noted in the Hierogazophylacium Belgicum, page 53. Moreover the most illustrious Thomas John Pessina de Czechorod, in the Phosphorus Septicornis of the metropolitan church of Prague, published a Diary or monthly index of the sacred relics which are piously kept in that church, where on page 516, at the XIX day of August, there is assigned a notable part of the leg of St. Magnus the martyr, to use the very words of the Diary. Finally, in the Minden copy of the Acts, of which I made mention above in §2, after the Life of St. Magnus has been narrated, a certain notice of his cult is added in these words: The feast of this Saint is kept on the aforesaid day (namely the XIX of August, which is expressed at the end of the Acts) as a semidouble in the cathedral of Minden, on account of the great part of the body of St. Magnus which the people of Minden possess. I do not know what or how great that part of the body may be; but I suspect it is notable, since in the Minden Breviary of the year 1516 proper Lessons are recited concerning St. Magnus, in which almost the same deeds are narrated which we shall now publish, according to our promise, from our manuscript codex.
ACTS
by an anonymous author.
From the parchment codex of our Museum, marked ✠ Ms. 74, folio 177 and following.
Magnus, bishop and martyr, in Italy (St.)
BHL Number: 5169
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
PROLOGUE.
The writer of the Acts, prefacing a few words, relates, Whoever shall have confessed the name of the Son of God, and shall have wished diligently to follow all that was done or written by St. Magnus, bishop and martyr a, offers both to himself and to very many edification and fruit, as the Lord says in the Gospel: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the merciful, for God shall have mercy on them. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God. But the incomparable fruit is the fruit of justice b.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's native land, condition, conversion to Christ, episcopate, arrest for the Christian faith, deliverance from prison, pilgrimage, and a miracle.
how St. Magnus in his poverty The most blessed athlete of Christ, Magnus, since he was the only son of his parents in the region of Apulia a; and since his parents were pagans and poor, and had not the substance of a single day, their son Magnus grew up. Now his parents began to admonish him, saying: "Go, son, do the work of a hireling, and pasture other men's sheep, that so at least we may have some substance of this kind." Then the most blessed Magnus began to be saddened at the distress of his parents. The mercy of the Lord therefore was such that at that hour he sent his holy angel to the Boy. And as he was going along the way, the angel of God appeared to him and said to him: "Why do I see you weeping thus? For God has sent me, whom you behold speaking with you, that I may afford you comfort. Now therefore take what our Lord has sent you"; and he gave him ten \* pounds of gold. And when he had received it, he returned rejoicing to his father's house. Then he began to relate to his father how the Lord had appeared to him — for as yet he did not know who he was. Then the boy Magnus began to ask his father, saying: "Father, the Lord has given us these things by his power, that we may do good therewith both to ourselves and to the poor."
[3] Then the Youth said to his father: "Go, and buy me sheep for pasturing"; received comfort from an angel, and when his desire had been fulfilled, he began to pasture the sheep. And the flocks increased greatly, so that from eighteen sheep they became a thousand. Then the most blessed Magnus, while he was still a pagan, filled sacks from the shearing of his sheep, and by night carried them to the city and distributed them to poor Christians and to widows; and he charged them, saying: "See that you tell no one; but say: 'The Lord has given it to us.' But let no one know of me." Then, as he was going down to the city, when the Lord's festival day was being kept, this was the lesson in the church: Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. Hearing these things, the most blessed Magnus, fixing the heart of his purpose, said within himself: "Behold, Magnus, long has your Lord let you be, and now through the Gospel he has manifested himself to you, that you may attain the light of truth and return from darkness to light; for you have lost what you have labored for, if you shall not hold the fruit of your labor, that is, the Savior. Therefore let me hold what must be held in mind, and let me leave behind all that must be rejected. Therefore I sought, that I might find; therefore I found, that I might hold." These things he turned over and meditated in his mind, and daily sought how he might find the way of truth.
[4] was converted to the Christian faith, While he was meditating these things, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the likeness of a man, and said to him: "Let us follow a just and holy and venerable man, named Redemptus b, learned in all things." Hearing this, the most blessed Magnus at once cast himself at the angel's feet, and begged with tears that he would bring him to the holy man. It comes to pass, the angel providing, what was implored out of the faith of his desire; and, the angel leading him, he came to holy Redemptus. And when he had entered the priest's house together with the angel, at once the most blessed Magnus prostrated himself before his feet, weeping and saying: "Show us the way by which we are to go, that we may deserve to enter the door of the Lord our Savior." Then the holy priest instructed him with all diligence, and he received holy baptism. And at that very hour his father gave up the spirit; whom his most blessed son Magnus buried in peace with all diligence c.
[5] was elected bishop, Then the most blessed Magnus, leave being given him, sold all the little holdings of his poverty and distributed them to the poor and to orphans and widows. And while the most blessed Magnus was doing these things, his fame ran through all Apulia. Then, by the will of God — for he wished to choose him as his priest — the whole people cried out to blessed Magnus that he himself should exercise the holy episcopate over them. To whom blessed Magnus replied: "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. And unless the Lord reveal it to me, a sinner, and unless you all pray to the Lord, then let the will of the Lord be done in me." Then all the Christians fasted for three days and poured out their tears in the sight of the Lord, that he might make a revelation to them concerning the just and holy Magnus. But the most blessed Magnus himself prayed to the Lord for seven days and nights. And in the middle of the night the angel of the Lord appeared to him and comforted him, saying: "Magnus, your prayer is heard, and the tears of the peoples
have gone up to the Lord. Consent to the petitions of the people, for through you a great throng shall be delivered." Then the most blessed Magnus, rising from prayer, addresses the people, saying: "The will of my Lord and yours be done." And when he had received the episcopate, all prayed for his welfare. Magnus, therefore, was a holy and true bishop of Christ, a simple man, and the Lord showed forth many wonders through him. In that time there was a certain man named Castorius in the region of Apulia. He, worn out by six years of excessive sickness, had been made dumb; yet he retained the faculty of hearing and understanding; and the most blessed Magnus healed him by his visitation. Then the renown of blessed Magnus increased, for he was praised throughout all regions.
[6] and being led out by an angel from captivity among the heathen, At that time, while a grievous terror from the heathen pressed upon all Christians, and had already punished a good many with the torments of divers pains in the regions of Galatia, Cappadocia, and Armenia, under the consul d Severinus, blessed Magnus was brought to his palace; and while he was being dragged by the soldiers, he spoke thus: "From my mother's womb I came forth; thou art my God, depart not from me." Then the pagans took counsel among themselves that they should shut up blessed Magnus in the place where they sacrificed to their idols. Then, as he entered the temple, all the graven images of the idols fell before his feet. But the soldiers who were with him were straightway struck blind. Then blessed Magnus, laboring the whole night through, broke all the images in pieces; and Jupiter himself, their chief, who was all of gold, he shattered; and when he had been shattered, holy Magnus prayed to the Lord that he would send him his holy angel, who should lead him out of the prison.
[7] While he was yet praying, behold, the angel of the Lord came and opened the doors of the temple, and wrought a miracle on the journey. and said to blessed Magnus: "Gather all the gold into your cloak, and wherever you can find poor widows or orphans, distribute it to them." And when this had been done, blessed Magnus said to the angel: "Behold, all that you have commanded me is fulfilled, my lord. I beseech you, angel Michael, do not permit me to see the face of the wicked, for you know the frailty of my body." Straightway his prayer was heard, and the angel who accompanied him showed him the way by which he should go. And blessed Magnus walked along the road like a poor man. Coming then to a certain woman, he asked water of her, who herself also was very poor. She had an only son, who sat daily begging alms. But when blessed Magnus asked for water, the woman said to him: "Enter my little cell, and bless it." Now the woman had a fourth part of a loaf, which her son took and set before him. And when blessed Magnus had eaten, he blessed her whole cell: and as blessed Magnus went out, the woman found her whole chamber full of every good thing, nor from that day was anything lacking to the woman.
ANNOTATIONS.
\ elsewhere talents*
CHAPTER II.
Certain journeys of this holy bishop, various miracles, and his martyrdom.
A demon appears to the Saint as he journeys, When holy Magnus had entered the city of Naples, he was received by St. Januarius a, who himself also obtained the victory for Christ and laid down his neck to be beheaded, whom the Lord consecrated to himself as a martyr. Now blessed Magnus wished to go to Rome to the shrine of the Apostles Peter and Paul. And when he had rested for three days with St. Januarius, the angel of the Lord, coming to him that night, touched his side, saying: "Magnus, servant of God, follow me." And when they had gone out of the city, they came to the twenty-fifth milestone from the city, and the envious devil met them, transformed into the likeness of a man, and said to blessed Magnus: "I am a wayfaring man; I come with you." But the angel of the Lord, when he perceived that it was the devil, straightway withdrew from holy Magnus, that he might prove how he would fight with the devil. The spirit of holy Magnus was frail, and he wept most bitterly. But the devil sought a hidden place where he might fight with him. And blessed Magnus perceived in the Holy Spirit that it was the devil. Then, prostrating himself in prayer, he said to the Lord with weeping: "Thou, Lord, hast said: Whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing, it shall be given you. Thou hast said: Where is death, which reigned? O death, where is thy sting? Death is conquered, the devil is overcome. But thou, Lord, hast risen from the dead and hast appeared to thy Apostles; who sittest at the right hand of the Father, and shalt come to judge the living and the dead; and unless I had known thee as true God, I should not have believed. Deliver me from the hand of the devil, who seeks my soul in his evil works, that he may destroy it. Thou hast left me, Lord, as a lamb in the mouth of a wolf."
[9] whose deceits the angel discloses to him, But when he had prayed, straightway the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him: "Why do you weep, Magnus? Behold, you could not endure a little: how then would you have endured much?" And the angel of the Lord breathed upon the face of the devil, and straightway he fled and appeared no more b. Then blessed Magnus said to him: "Angel of my Lord, I did not yet know the works of the devil." To whom the angel answered: "Your prayer was acceptable before the Lord, that without any persecution the Lord might choose you among the apostles and martyrs and confessors: for already a crown is prepared for you in heaven, since he who wished to fight with you is the very one who makes man lose his purity. He sows strife between father and son, and he makes a brother slay his own brother. He steals in with anger, that a man may commit murder. He sows divorces between spouses, discord among friends, quarrels among the peaceable, injustice among the just. All these things he does, that he may destroy the souls of men."
[10] who assigns a certain place for his dwelling, Hearing these things, blessed Magnus prayed to the Lord with tears on behalf of the human race. And when he had come to the place where he was to dwell, there was a river there, and there was no place for crossing, nor was any boat found. Then the angel of the Lord commanded holy Magnus to enter the river on foot with him; and there was a deep depth in that place. And as they passed over, it so came about that the waters reached them only up to the sides. But when they had come to the place, in the middle of the night there was a voice from heaven to the angel, saying: "Let my beloved Magnus dwell in that very place in which a holy and venerable church has been established." Then the angel of the Lord said to holy Magnus: "Blessed Magnus, the Lord Christ, king of all, has commanded me that you dwell in this place c, because the Lord will work many wonders through you in this place until the end." Then the angel, giving him peace, said to him: "Peace be to you, servant of God"; and straightway the angel was taken up into heaven.
[11] in which the Saint, taking up his abode, Then the most blessed Magnus began to sit like a poor man before the doors of the church, for it was a festival day. Then countless people gathered to him, asking: "From what region have you come hither?" But he answered nothing at all. And the multitude of the people, because they were Christians, and saw that he was holy, said: "This man is just." But others, unbelieving, said that he was a destroyer \*. While they were saying these things, there was there a certain boy named Paternus d; and when he had seen holy Magnus, he remembered what the Lord had revealed to him in a vision, saying: "I will send to you a holy man and a true priest from a far country; through him you shall come among the choirs of my Saints." Then blessed Paternus addresses blessed Magnus the bishop, and said to him: "From what region do we have you? For I, whom you see, am a Christian. Perhaps the Lord revealed to me concerning you in a dream, saying: 'I will send my Holy one to you.'" To whom holy Magnus answered and said: "You have said it." And he led him into his house. As soon as he entered the house, it was shaken from its foundations. And when all had fallen upon their faces, they were comforted by holy Magnus. And blessed Paternus with all his household persevered in the love of Christ.
[12] But while holy Magnus remained in the place obtains fruitfulness for a barren woman, where the angel of the Lord had established him, his fame ran through the whole province. Now there was a certain woman who for fifteen years had been unable to have children. She, hearing the fame of blessed Magnus, came to him, and casting herself at his feet, entreated him, saying: "Look upon me, a sinner; pardon my evils, and have mercy on me." But he turned his face away from her. To whom the woman said: "Why do you flee from me who entreat you? Do not despise me, a wretched woman, for the healthy man has no need of physicians, but he who is sick." Then blessed Magnus could not bear her tears; but he asked the woman what her case was. And after he had learned it, he raised his eyes to heaven, praying with tears. Then, prostrate in prayer, he blessed the woman, who in the following year came with a son to blessed Magnus, blessing the Lord.
[13] He showed also another miracle: for the wife of a certain praetorian prefect, exceedingly noble among her own people, heals three sick men, was also most reverent among the Christians. She came with her husband before the face of blessed Magnus on account of the sickness of her three sons, who had already been despaired of. For their mother knew not which of them to lament first. And when she had come to blessed Magnus, casting herself at his feet, she began to say with tears: "Blessed Magnus, by the most merciful God I beseech you, restore to me my three sons." Straightway blessed Magnus was moved with compassion. And when he had prayed, he blessed oil and gave it to their mother, that she might anoint the bodies of each, for he saw the faith in the mother
of them. When their mother had touched them, straightway her sons were made whole, and this was published abroad throughout the whole land.
[14] Now there was a certain woman who had remained blind for thirty years; gives light to a blind woman, and she was brought by her brothers to blessed Magnus, and they told him, weeping, that they had already spent all their substance upon physicians. To whom blessed Magnus replied: "What you have spent upon physicians, if you had given it to the poor, the true physician, who is Christ Jesus, would have cured her." Then the woman cried out the more, and entreated him, saying: "Look upon my blindness, and save my eyes, servant of Christ." Then holy Magnus spat upon her face, and straightway, after the example of the Savior and by the power of the Lord, the woman received her sight.
[15] A certain other man in the region of Picinum e, while he was sitting on his horse, was struck by the devil and suddenly grew stiff, a man struck by a demon so that he could move neither hands nor feet, nor bend his neck. He was carried on a litter to blessed Magnus; and he moved only his tongue to make entreaty. Then blessed Magnus said that the man could not be made whole unless he believed in Christ and promised to renounce the devil. And he straightway believed in Christ, and by the prayer of holy Magnus was healed in his whole body, and began to exult in the Lord together with blessed Magnus.
[16] and frees another possessed man, For a certain very strong young man, named Messias, of the praetorium of Sora f, had a most wicked demon, so that he could by no means be held either with chains or with fetters: and he had bitten off the noses or ears of many. He, when he had been bound with chains and ropes, was led to blessed Magnus. And when he had seen him, he straightway ordered him to be loosed. And when they had loosed him, he bowed his head and came trembling and bending his neck; nor did he look upon his face, but, cast down upon the ground, he began to lick the feet of holy Magnus. Then, being adjured by blessed Magnus in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the demon which had possessed the young man went out. Then the young man began to give thanks to almighty God, who had deigned to cure him through his servant Magnus. For God deigned to work many other wonders through him.
[17] and at last he undergoes martyrdom. At that time, while the persecution was being carried on under the persecutors Decius and Valerian, at the time when Cornelius entered Rome g, the fame of blessed Magnus came to the emperor, and, armed by the devil, he sent thirty soldiers to kill blessed Magnus. And the soldiers, going, seized him and slew him with various torments h. Hearing these things, blessed Paternus, the servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, took the body of the blessed bishop and martyr Magnus, and buried him. Now the most blessed martyr of Christ, Magnus, suffered on the XIV Kalends of September, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS
\ elsewhere an exactor*
ON ST. MAGNUS, MARTYR,
AT CAESAREA IN CAPPADOCIA,
Under Aurelian.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The distinction of this holy Martyr from the other, his Acts, and his immemorial cult.
Magnus, martyr, in Cappadocia (St.)
BHL Number: 5155
BY G. C.
On this day, in the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Magnus, bishop and martyr, Although this St. Magnus in the Acts who is reported to have undergone martyrdom in Italy under the emperor Decius, I distinguished this St. Magnus from that holy Prelate on account of the differing circumstances of place, time, and the Acts. But it is more doubtful whether this St. Magnus is to be distinguished from the other St. Magnus, or Andrew, commander of the soldiers, who with 2597 associates was slain by Antiochus in the narrows of Mount Taurus for the Christian faith, and whose memory is also celebrated on this day in the most ancient Martyrologies, as is clear from the first paragraph of the Preliminary Commentary to the Acts of St. Magnus the bishop, and will appear more clearly from the Acts of St. Magnus or Andrew the commander, which will be given today by my colleague. The doubt is increased by the silence of all the Martyrologies, which on this day make no mention of St. Magnus the Cappadocian.
[2] If, moreover, we attend to the number of associates with whom St. Magnus or Andrew the commander underwent martyrdom, which Peter of Equilio published, some confusion seems to have been made with our St. Magnus, since he too is said to have suffered with so great a multitude of companions, at least in the Acts which Peter of Equilio published in his Catalogue of the Saints, book 7, chapter 76, in this manner: Magnus the martyr suffered at Caesarea in Cappadocia in the time of the emperor Aurelian, under the governor Alexander; who, being sprung from that very city, and his Christian parents having died, being himself most steadfast in the faith of Christ, while he was praying to the Lord, was strengthened for martyrdom by a voice falling to him from heaven: which voice when the pagans had heard, they seized him and shut him up in prison, and after four days brought him before the governor; and when he refused to sacrifice to the gods, the governor handed him over to Alexander and Zozimus, priests of the idols, that they might consume him with fire: and they cast him into a furnace of fire; and straightway the flame is quenched, and after three days the martyr of Christ is led out thence unharmed. Hearing this, the governor caused the furnace to be kindled still more, and put him in again, where he remained shut up for five days. The flame too being divided into two parts, he himself remained wholly untouched. After five days the soldiers, approaching to find at least his bones, and hearing him singing psalms, looked in and saw as it were thousands of angels with him, in the midst of whom Magnus, unburned, was praising God.
[3] is said to have undergone martyrdom with 2597 companions, But when by the governor's order he had been brought out, and the governor attributed the power of Christ to magic, he ordered him to be led into the amphitheatre and wild beasts to be loosed upon him. And first indeed a most savage she-bear, let loose upon him, prostrated herself upon the ground and licked his feet. Then a leopard, leaping up, embraced his neck and wiped the sweat of his face with its tongue. Thirdly a most ferocious and huge lion, captured by hunters, was let in. And while a multitude of pagans was within the amphitheatre, before they could depart, the lion sprang from the hands of the hunters and rushed upon the heathen. But an angel closed the arena, so that no one could escape. And while the lion was tearing the multitude of pagans, at the Saint's bidding the governor alone with his retinue remained unharmed, and the lion returned tame to its cage. Then the governor, going out, ordered all to go out, and left Magnus alone there, and caused the lion to be released; and it fell at his feet and kissed him. At which sight two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven pagans believed in the Lord; all were beheaded by order of the governor Alexander. Then, at his command, the heathen people took the holy Martyr, and, having cast him out of the city, stoned him. And when they had thrown a heap of stones upon him, and had supposed him already dead, suddenly the Martyr of Christ, in the hearing of all, prayed the Lord to receive his soul in peace; and straightway he gave up the spirit: and his body was buried by the Christians in that same city in a new sarcophagus, on the XIV Kalends of September. But the bodies of the other martyrs were entombed beside the walls of the city in the cemetery.
[4] yet, other Acts being silent about this number of associates, This summary of the Acts has nothing in common with the Acts of St. Magnus or Andrew the commander, as will become manifest to anyone willing to run through them: for the place, the time, the emperor, the governor or executor of the martyrdom, and in a word all the circumstances of the narrative differ in the two sets of Acts, if you except the name and the similar number of companions. Nay more, no mention at all is made of any associates of our St. Magnus in another copy of the Acts, which Peter Calo the Dominican, before Peter of Equilio, inserted into his collection of the Lives of the Saints. Now Peter Calo flourished about the beginning of the fourteenth century, as Échard testifies among the Writers of the Order of Preachers there reviewed, where in volume 1, page 511, he has the following about him: Brother Peter Calo, otherwise Calotius, a Venetian, born at Fossa Clodia, in the vernacular Chiozza or Chioggia, and there received into the Order in the house of St. Peter Martyr, is praised by Leander, folio 152, as having been renowned about the year 1300. Then in the same place he enumerates his writings, among which he reckons Lives of the Saints collected from ancient monuments and comprised in two volumes of enormous bulk, which Work is said still to exist in manuscript in various libraries. Further, for the above-mentioned and other reasons I have judged that St. Magnus the Cappadocian must be distinguished from Andrew the commander and from the other martyrs of the same name.
[5] Although in the copy which we are now about to publish [he seems to be distinguished from the other, who suffered with so many companions on this day.] his martyrdom is placed on the Kalends of September, nevertheless, following the shorter Acts of Peter of Equilio, who assigns this same St. Magnus to this XIX day of August
as crowned with martyrdom, I have preferred to treat of him today, both that the various difficulties which occur in these Saints of the same name might be set forth together in one labor, and that the Acts of this St. Magnus the Cappadocian and the Acts of St. Magnus or Andrew the commander might more easily be compared with one another in the same volume of our Work. But since neither on this day nor on the Kalends of September have I found any distinct memory of this holy Martyr in the ecclesiastical calendars, I have gathered his immemorial cult from the Acts themselves, which were certainly written two hundred years and more before the well-known decree of Pope Urban VIII, and in which Peter Calo the Dominican and Peter de Natalibus, bishop of Equilio, bear witness to the martyrdom and honorable burial of that Martyr. Now it only remains that we commit the Acts themselves to the press and illustrate them with the customary annotations.
ACTS
Collected by Peter Calo the Dominican.
From the manuscript Codex On the Lives of the Saints, part 2, folio 87.
Magnus, martyr, in Cappadocia (St.)
BHL Number: 5154
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
The Saint, seized by the pagans, Magnus, taught by his Christian parents the law and the Christian faith, when his parents departed this life, grew up in the faith of Christ, walking in the precepts and justifications of the Lord without blame; and, gazing toward heaven, he prayed to the Lord. Then there came a voice from heaven, saying: "My servant Magnus, fear not, for I am with you." Then many of the Christian people, hearing this voice, greatly rejoiced. But the pagans, seizing him, cast him into prison. For in the days of the emperor Aurelian, who was making a persecution against the Christians, a decree went out over the whole world a that the Christians should sacrifice to the idols, and that those who despised it should be punished with divers torments. Now blessed Magnus was in prison for four days. Then, bending his knees, he prayed to the Lord, saying: "Lord God almighty of our fathers, hear me thy servant, and forsake me not, O Lord my God."
[2] After these things the governor ordered him to be brought out of prison and to stand before his tribunal. And when he had been brought forward, he is set before the governor, the governor said to him: "Sacrifice to the gods." Holy Magnus replied: "I have told you once already, and I tell you again, that I am a Christian, and I will not sacrifice to demons." The governor said: "Perhaps you trust in this, that your magic arts so prevail that fire cannot overcome you. Sacrifice to the gods." Holy Magnus said: "To what gods do you wish me to sacrifice?" The governor said: "To Mercury and Apollo alone." Magnus replied: "Does it seem just to you that I should sacrifice to Apollo, since those who sacrifice to him shall lose their soul? For Apollo is interpreted 'destruction' b."
[3] who condemns him to the flames, Hearing this, the governor ordered him to be cast into a furnace of burning fire. Then the governor commanded Alexander and Cosmus, priests of the idols: "Take him from before my face, and put him in the furnace, that the fire may consume him." And taking him, they led him to the place where the furnace of fire had been prepared and was burning. Blessed Magnus, looking up to heaven, said: "Lord my God, hear me thy servant, who suffer these things for thy name's sake, and grant me that I may remain whole in the faith of thy confession: do thou deliver me from this fire, since these malicious men have made trial of me, that all who have not known thee may know and believe that thou alone art God and glorious in the whole world." And when his prayer was completed, he signed himself in the name of Christ. Then, seizing him, they cast him into the furnace of fire, and straightway the flame was extinguished. But blessed Magnus glorified the Lord, saying: "I give thee thanks, O Lord, because, as thou didst deign to visit the three children in the furnace of fire and didst deliver them from the burning of the fire, so hast thou also deigned to deliver me thy servant." Now he was in the furnace three days. After the third day the governor ordered the furnace to be opened, and they found him unharmed.
[4] which twice he escapes unharmed. Then the governor, filled with fury, ordered the furnace to be kindled again much more than it had been kindled before. But straightway the Holy Spirit in the likeness of a dove came down from heaven and pressed down the fire. And the flame was divided into two parts, and did not touch him, nor distress him, nor bring him any trouble at all. But after five days the governor ordered the furnace to be opened again, that they might find at least his bones. A multitude of soldiers came thither to see what had become of him: and they heard St. Magnus singing psalms and speaking praises to God. Astounded, they returned to the governor and said to him: "Lord governor, this man is no magician; but his God is great." Hearing this, the governor marvelled that so great a flame of fire had not harmed him, and said: "Perhaps his magic arts have prevailed"; and he said to his servants: "Bring him to me." But the soldiers, opening the furnace, saw as it were a multitude of thousands of Angels in great glory, whom the Christian brethren also saw. And St. Magnus was sitting in the midst of the furnace, and glorifying God. And the soldiers said to him: "Magnus, come out; the governor calls you." But as he came out, the angels departed thence. And when Magnus had stood before the governor, he said to him: "How is it, Magnus, that your magic arts so prevailed that the fire did not harm you? But tell me how it was extinguished, and I will do you no harm, but will order you to be released." Holy Magnus replied: "I made the sign of the Cross by the power of my Lord Jesus Christ, and the fire was extinguished from my side." Then the governor said to him again: "Tell me truly, how did your sorceries extinguish so great a fire?" Holy Magnus replied: "I give thanks to my God, because I am no sorcerer, but a Christian."
[5] Then also to ferocious beasts Then the governor Alexander said to the masters of the hunters: "Bring me divers wild beasts to consume him." Then the hunters did as he had said, and led blessed Magnus into the amphitheatre, and let loose upon him a most savage she-bear; and she, running up, stretched herself on the ground and licked his feet. Afterwards they let loose upon him a leopard, which, running up, leapt at his neck and embraced him, and with its tongue wiped the sweat from his face. Seeing these things, the governor, since they in no way harmed his body, commanded the hunters to spend many days in capturing a most ferocious lion, that so at least it might consume the Martyr of Christ. Soon, at his bidding, a lion of wondrous size was caught by the hunters and brought to the city; and it was announced to the governor that an exceedingly monstrous lion was being fed in the cage. And the governor rejoiced with exceeding gladness, and commanded that lion to be let loose upon the holy Martyr; and when the servants did not at once let it loose, for fear, that lion came and went down into the city, roaring and raging, and harmed no man, but hastening entered the amphitheatre, the bars standing open. And holy Magnus, looking upon him, said: "O creature of God, behold, now I suffer delays on your account." As he spoke these things, the doors of the amphitheatre were closed by angels, and no one could escape thence; and the amphitheatre being filled, the lion went up upon the people and tore the multitude of the pagans. But the governor alone with his retinue c remained unharmed. And this God did through the prayer of his servant Magnus, that his passion might be completed. And from the mangling of the people there was a great outpouring of blood; and not even so was the most cruel judge converted: for God had hardened his heart. After these things blessed Magnus commanded the lion to return to its own place.
[6] But the governor called St. Magnus and said to him: "Hear me and sacrifice to the gods, twice he is exposed in vain, as has been commanded by the emperor, lest you fail under divers torments." Holy Magnus said: "Hypocrite and partaker of demons, you shall not tempt the servant of God, for I serve the living God who reigns in heaven, and the Lord my God will never forsake me." While blessed Magnus was saying these things to the governor, the governor, exceedingly angry, said to him: "Hear, Magnus, I have a most ferocious lion; I command it to be let loose to tear you; and if you do not sacrifice to the gods, your bones shall be broken by it." Holy Magnus replied: "I do not sacrifice to the demons who dwell in you: for it is written, they who sacrifice to demons and not to God shall be rooted out." Then the governor, indignant, rose and went to the stadium, and commanded the hunters to let the lion loose upon him; and so they did. But blessed Magnus was walking in the midst of the amphitheatre, and looking up to heaven glorified God; and when the lion had come beside him, it cast itself at his feet and kissed them.
[7] But the people, seeing that he was not harmed by the lion, began with hisses and outcries and insults to harass the governor, crying out and saying: "Take this magician and sorcerer from our midst"; and gathering stones they stoned him, and at last in prayer he gives up the spirit. until they made a mountain over him; and they at once supposed that he was already dead, and each returned to his own place. After a little while, silence being made, blessed Magnus rose up unharmed and blessed the Lord. And straightway a voice came from heaven, saying: "Come, Magnus, that you may rejoice together with your holy brethren in paradise, all the wrestlings of the enemy being overcome; and the Holy Spirit shall receive you and lead you into holy rest." Then blessed Magnus, blessing God and giving thanks, said: "Lord God, lay not this sin to their charge according to what they have done to me; but receive my soul in peace." And when he had said these things, he gave up the spirit. And the Christians took away his body and laid it in a new sarcophagus. Now he suffered at Caesarea in Cappadocia under the emperor Aurelian, and the governor Alexander, on the I Kalends d of September.
ANNOTATIONS.
he should be condemned to death by some governor or proconsul, since the pagans knew that the Christian religion was forbidden in the Roman empire.
ON ST. MAGNUS, CONFESSOR,
BISHOP OF AVIGNON IN GAUL,
In the year 660.
A HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
The Saint's public cult, the annual memory of his festival, and a brief notice of his deeds.
Magnus, confessor, bishop of Avignon in Gaul (St.)
BY G. C.
[1] Saussay sufficiently indicates the immemorial cult of this holy Prelate, when in part 2 of his Gallican Martyrology, page 1239, in the Catalogue of the Saints, he writes thus about him: Although the cult of this Saint is sufficiently established, St. Magnus, bishop of Avignon, father and predecessor of St. Agricola, with whom he is celebrated with sacred honors, the precious bones of both being laid up in silver urns beneath the greater altar, and preserved with all veneration in the basilica of St. Mary. François Nouguier, in the History of the Church of Avignon, which he published in French in the year 1659, relates at the year of Christ 646, or page 23, that the body of St. Magnus was honorably buried immediately after his death in the cathedral church, and that his sacred relics rested there until the year 1321, when Pope John XXII ordered them, together with the relics of St. Agricola, his son and successor, to be translated to the church of St. Agricola and placed together beneath the high altar, where at the side the following verses were read, which abundantly demonstrate the sanctity of both bishops:
A man pious and holy, great in fact, Magnus by name, Begot a man distinguished in religion. He begot holy Agricola, shining with piety: Both son and father, therefore, are saints. Do you therefore, holy son, and blessed father, Both entreat God for us wretched ones.
Sebastiano Fantoni Castrucci the Carmelite reports similar things about this translation of the relics and the metrical inscription in his History of the City of Avignon, volume 2, page 300, which he had printed in Italian at Venice in the year 1678.
[2] Although these things suffice to prove the immemorial cult of St. Magnus, nevertheless the day of his veneration is uncertain to us, nevertheless it still remains doubtful to me on what day he is honored: for Nouguier, Castrucci, and the Sainte-Marthe brothers testify that his annual memory is celebrated on the XVIII day of August. But Ferrarius, in his Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, makes mention of that holy Prelate on the following day thus: At Avignon, of St. Magnus, bishop. Castellanus, in his Gallican Martyrology, page 936, places this same St. Magnus among the ahemeri; but in the same place he asserts that he is honored by the people of Avignon on the XIX day of August, on which another St. Magnus occurs in the ancient Martyrology, for the reason that they did not know the certain day of his death.
[3] But the distinct day of his death is expressed in the Acts of St. Agricola, and therefore we have chosen the XIX day of August, a fragment of which is reported by Le Cointe in the Annals of the Franks at the year of Christ 660, number 3, in these words: In this year of the Lord six hundred and sixty, the holy son is declared by the common vote of all successor to the holy Father, blessed Agricola to blessed Magnus, in the episcopal see of Avignon. Blessed Magnus saw his bride betrothed to his son; he saw also his own living image set in his own see; he saw that his flock had changed the man, yet had not changed the Shepherd: for whatever the Old Man could have wished in himself, this he saw shining forth in his son Agricola. Wherefore he resolved to bestow all his goods upon the same church, to which he had devoted himself and his son: the estates, possessions, and fiefs which remained to him in the world he consecrated by a liberal donation, a testament being drawn up, to the temple of the most blessed Virgin Mother of God. These things being accomplished, after no long interval of time, that blessed soul, ripe for God and for the world, being loosed from the bonds of this wretched life, and leaving the people of Avignon heirs both of his virtues and of all his goods and of his most holy offspring, flew away to the heavenly reward on the fourteenth Kalends of September.
[4] Although in this fragment of the Acts it is expressly said that St. Magnus passed to the Blessed on the fourteenth Kalends of September, that is, on the XIX day of August, on which he passed to the Blessed. Le Cointe nevertheless suggests that his annual memory is celebrated on the second day of September together with St. Agricola, when, after reporting the words of the Acts, he subjoins this: St. Magnus, bishop of Avignon, is honored together with his son and successor Agricola, as Saussay observes in the encomium of St. Agricola on the fourth Nones of September, and in the Catalogue of Saints, Blessed, and pious persons who have no proper histories or birthdays. Then Le Cointe in the same place accuses the biographer of St. Agricola of a certain parachronism, which does not concern us here and can be examined at the second day of September, when the Acts of St. Agricola will have to be discussed. Since meanwhile, on account of the differing opinions, the day on which St. Magnus is honored at Avignon is uncertain to us, or since it has perhaps been changed in the course of time on account of another feast, we have chosen the day of his death, and therefore have placed that holy Prelate on this XIX day of August in our Work. It now only remains for us to gather his few deeds from others.
[5] The Sainte-Marthe brothers, in the earlier edition of Gallia Sacra, volume one, From the few deeds of St. Magnus in which the archiepiscopal sees are reported, on page 75 made brief mention of St. Magnus among the bishops of Avignon thus: St. Magnus of Avignon, sprung from an illustrious lineage, a monk of the abbey of Lérins, lived about 640, from his old Office and from the Book of the deeds of St. Agricola; his feast day is kept on the XVIII of August. But the present Sainte-Marthes, in volume 1 of Gallia Sacra, column 800, somewhat enlarge this brief eulogy of St. Magnus, and indicate that they doubt certain assertions of their predecessors, in this manner: Magnus is known especially from his son Agricola, whom he preceded in the bishopric. But whether he was his forerunner or his companion in the profession of the monastic life, as our Sainte-Marthes assert, we do not dare to affirm. They say that he was by birth of Avignon, and indeed of an illustrious family. In the synod of Chalon under Clovis II, in the year 644, "Magnus the bishop" subscribed, whom Le Cointe judges to be Magnus, bishop of Avignon, and teaches that he sat until the year 660, following the writer of the Life of St. Agricola, whose very words we shall presently report. And indeed Dom Polycarpe de la Rivière asserts that in the codex of the Charterhouse of Portes it is read in the subscriptions, "Magnus, bishop of the church of Avennicum." His feast day is celebrated on the XVIII of August. The following verses were formerly read on the wall near the church of St. Agricola. Then they subjoin the same verses which we exhibited above. And these are all the things which we have been able to find about the deeds of St. Magnus, which we shall now briefly examine and arrange in chronological order.
[6] First, concerning the Saint's native place, whom the older Sainte-Marthes call a man of Avignon, we set forth certain things to be discussed, a certain difficulty occurs: for Nouguier, in his French History of the Bishops of Avignon, page 22, affirms that St. Magnus was born in Provence of the illustrious stock of the Albiensians, and had as father Albinus, surnamed Magnus. This birthplace, which for want of ancient monuments we cannot assert, we leave to learned Frenchmen to inquire into more accurately. Secondly, a certain diversity appears concerning the name of his wife, whom Nouguier and Castrucci call Guandaltrud. But another name is added to her in the Acts of St. Agricola, which in Vincent Barrali's Chronology of the Monastery of Lérins, page 321, begin thus: St. Agricola, about the year of the Lord's Incarnation six hundred and thirty, Honorius being supreme Pontiff and Chlothar reigning in Gaul, was born at Avignon of the illustrious family of the Albiensians, his father being blessed Magnus, who afterwards obtained the bishopric of this city; his mother Gandaltrud or Austadiala, and his grandfather Albinus, a magnate. We do not know whether this woman bore two names, or bore one or the other of these names, since the Acts of St. Agricola do not seem ancient, as Le Cointe judges, and as will afterwards be investigated in our Work.
[7] and we assign the time of his episcopate. It is disputed among authors in what year St. Magnus ascended the see of Avignon: for Nouguier, in the place cited above, fixes the beginning of his episcopate at the year of Christ 646. But Castrucci, in the History of Avignon, volume 2, page 300, contends that Nouguier erred in marking this epoch, because St. Magnus subscribed to the synod of Chalon, which was celebrated in the year of Christ 644. But Le Cointe, in the Annals of the Franks at 644, number 42, discourses thus about this subscription: In Binius's collection, Magnus, who subscribed to the council of Chalon, is called bishop of Arras; in the Beauvais codex, which Sirmond published, the name of the church is not expressed. The people of Arras were then, with those of Cambrai, subject to bishop Autbert; nor was there in Gaul any bishop called Magnus except the one of Avignon, whom we have already mentioned three years earlier. This opinion of Le Cointe is confirmed by the testimony of Dom Polycarpe de la Rivière, who asserts that in the codex of the Charterhouse of Portes there is read the subscription Magnus, bishop of the church of Avennicum, as we reported above from the present Sainte-Marthes. Since Avennicensis could easily have been written for Avenionensis, we think it most probable, against Nouguier, that St. Magnus presided over the church of Avignon before the year of Christ 646, and perhaps even before 644. Since finally the writers with unanimous consent affirm that this holy Bishop departed from this life in the year of Christ 660, we have expressed that same year in the margin at the beginning of this collection.