ON ST. EUPREPUS OR EUPREPIUS, BISHOP,
AT VERONA IN ITALY,
IN THE FIRST OR SECOND CENTURY.
HISTORICO-CRITICAL SYLLOGE.
The memory of this Saint in the Martyrologies; his cultus, relics, age, and Acts.
Euprepus or Euprepius, bishop of Verona in Italy (St.)
BY G. C.
The memory of this holy Prelate, who by some is named Euprepus and by others Euprepius, From the Martyrologies, occurs among the more recent Martyrologists, among whom Galesinius, on the XXI day of August, has it thus: At Verona, St. Euprepius the bishop. He is the first who administered the church of Verona in the episcopal office, and holily instructed it in the piety of Christ. To this announcement Ghini, in his Natales of the holy Canons, on the same day, added from the tradition of the Veronese the approximate age of St. Euprepius in this manner: At Verona, St. Euprepius, bishop and confessor, whom they report to have been a disciple of St. Peter the Apostle, and first bishop there, and to have holily instructed that same church in the faith and piety of Christ. Omitting Castellano and others, I here add the briefer announcement of the present-day Roman Martyrology, which runs thus: At Verona, St. Euprepius, bishop and confessor. The most eminent Baronius indicates in his Notes on the same place that he drew this notice of public veneration from Veronese monuments, which we shall now consult in order to confirm the immemorial cultus of this Saint.
[2] The most illustrious Augustino Valerio, bishop of Verona, in the Ancient Monuments of his own church, by the honor rendered to his sacred relics, which were published at Venice in the year 1576, proves at folio 1 and following, from an old Martyrology and from writers of the fifteenth century, that from time immemorial the first thirty-six bishops of the city of Verona were honored with public cultus. Then, from a certain manuscript Chronicle and from a letter of Girolamo Segala, written in the month of March of the year 1492 to Count Giovanni Bevilacqua, concerning the discovery of St. Euprepius and of some of his successors, he reports the following: In the year of the Lord 1492, in the month of March, in the crypt or confession of that same church, beneath the high altar, buried six or seven feet in the ground, there were found, together with many relics of Saints, the bodies of four holy bishops of Verona: of Euprepius the first bishop, created by St. Peter; of St. Agapius; of St. Cricinus or Crichinus; and of St. Proculus, over whose body there was an ophite stone, that is, a serpentine, valued at that time at three hundred ducats; and beneath that stone there was an effigy of St. Proculus upon another marble stone (marvelous to behold), carved or painted by no art. And on the following Thursday, for this cause, public supplications were decreed and enjoined upon the whole clergy.
[3] The aforesaid Augustino Valerio, at folio 3 verso, after reporting an inscription of the year 1502 (this same inscription is also reported by Onofrio Panvinio in book 4 of the Veronese Antiquities, chapter 3), discourses thus concerning the age and cultus of St. Euprepius: and by the indulgences granted These are the bodies of the Saints buried in the church of St. Proculus. And first, in the lower altar of that church lies the body of St. Proculus, bishop of Verona, and he was the fourth bishop of Verona; and the bodies of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian, of Cerbonius, Valentius, Luperius, and Probus, bishops of Verona, and the arm of St. Martin, bishop and confessor. In another altar on the right side of the aforesaid altar lies the body of St. Agabius, and he was the third bishop of Verona. In another altar on the left side of the aforesaid altar lie the bodies of Saints Euprepius and Cricinus; which Euprepius indeed was the first bishop of Verona, sent and consecrated by the blessed Apostle Peter, and likewise Cricinus was the second bishop of Verona. Likewise on the XXII day of March 1499 an indult was granted by the Reverend Lord Battista, Cardinal of St. Mary in Porticu, to all and singular of the faithful of Christ who should visit the said church of St. Proculus at Verona on each of the feasts of the glorious Virgin Mary, and of St. Proculus, and of St. Euprepius, St. Cricinus, St. Agabius, and SS. Cosmas and Damian, of a hundred days of indulgences, as is contained in the authentic bull in the sacristy of the confraternity of St. Mary, St. Sebastian, and St. Roch.
[4] the lawful cultus of this Saint is proved, Finally that most illustrious writer has the following at folio 6 concerning the sacred relics of St. Euprepius: The venerable body of the blessed father Euprepius, buried outside the walls of the city of Verona, rests in the church of blessed Proculus, bishop of Verona, in a chest placed in the crypt of that same church, on the south side behind its altar. To this he there subjoins two inscriptions in this manner: In the crypt or confession of the church of St. Proculus, at the altar of SS. Euprepius and Crichinus: TO EUPREPIUS, FIRST PRELATE OF VERONA FROM THE YEAR OF CHRIST 72, AND TO CRICINUS, THE PARTNER AND COMPANION OF HIS LABORS, THIS PLACE HAS BEEN RESTORED. In the said crypt, upon the marble of the paved floor, near the column toward the south: HERE REST IN PEACE THE BODIES OF SAINTS EUPREPIUS AND CRICINUS, BISHOPS. There also he makes mention thus of other relics of St. Euprepius, and of a certain likeness of that same Prelate: In the church or monastery of St. John, among the relics which are preserved there, there are also relics of St. Euprepius, bishop of Verona. On the frontal of the chapel of St. Mary the Virgin in the cathedral church there is an effigy of St. Euprepius with a pastoral staff and a church in his hand, that he may be shown to be the founder of the church of Verona. Although in the judgment of the most noble Scipione Maffei these epitaphs and other monuments do not appear to be very ancient, nevertheless they suffice to demonstrate the immemorial cultus of St. Euprepius.
[5] But as to what concerns the series of the first bishops of Verona, who, in the series of the prelates of Verona, it is diverse among diverse writers, as Onofrio Panvinio testifies in book 4 of the Veronese Antiquities, chapter 3, and as Ughelli sets forth more clearly in the latest edition of Italia sacra, volume 5, column 678, in these words: Euprepius therefore began to sit at Verona in the year of the Lord 72, as the stone cited above intimates, in the third year of the Pontiff Linus, in the first of Vespasian. How many years he sat is uncertain; nor is any credit to be given to the chronology of Tintus and of the others who have written concerning the first prelates of Verona, since they teem with many errors, and enumerate the remaining bishops after Euprepius and Cricinus at their own pleasure, as below in the case of Proculus, who is reckoned by them the fourth bishop, whereas it is certain that he held this see after St. Zeno, who is said to be the eighth. Although Ughelli thought this certain, nevertheless he here strayed from the truth, as will appear from what is to be said below.
[6] Then he there sets forth the various opinions of authors in this manner: although these disagree among themselves, Nay rather, inconstant is their judgment; for John the Deacon, who wrote a history from Julius Cæsar to the emperor Henry the Seventh, in reckoning the first prelates of the Veronese, sets in the first place Euprepius, second Dimidrianus, third Simplicius, fourth Proculus, fifth Saturninus, sixth Lucillus, seventh Cricinus, eighth Zeno — dissenting from the other historians of the Veronese, who enumerate first Euprepius, second Cricinus, third Agapius, fourth Proculus, fifth Saturninus, sixth Lucillus, seventh Dimidianus, eighth Zeno; while others place some before, some after, and omit others. Nor does the reckoning of years hold the same with all: more or fewer do they assign to these and to those. And in truth I hold a great part of them under suspicion of having manifestly erred. It is indeed known to me that Panvinio greatly marvels at John the Deacon for having inverted this series. For the rest, I too cannot but marvel at Panvinio, who gives more credit to the others than to the Deacon: for we labor equally in uncertainty, whether we follow the Deacon or the others, until there be more certain monuments concerning which it is not permitted to doubt. For whence the Deacon and the rest drew these things, so that we should of our own accord yield credulity to their statements, I know not.
[7] But more ancient and at least more certain monuments were afterwards discovered, and in a document of the eighth century, concerning which the most noble Scipione Maffei writes thus to Niccolò Coleti, in volume 5 of the Italia sacra lately reprinted at Venice, column 672: I have understood from your letter that you at length acquiesce in the weight of my reasons, on account of which I resolved to abstain from a general examination of the Ughellian history of the bishops of Verona and from the sifting of its documents; and that you reduce your requests to this, that if I have anything concerning the more ancient bishops only which has been brought forward neither by Ughelli nor by our historians, and likewise if I have perchance discovered any prelate whatsoever of any period who is not yet known and is still an exile from our diptychs, I should at once communicate it to you; which indeed I shall perform in few words. There exists no monument on this matter more ancient than a certain rhythmical description of Verona, elaborated by an anonymous author in the reign of Pippin the son of Charlemagne. The earlier part of it Girolamo dalla Corte published in his Veronese History, book 1, from a manuscript Chronicle among the Jesuati; of the remainder, in which the first eight bishops are reckoned, Perettus cites some few words from a most ancient book among the Celestines of the monastery of Rimini; certain fragments came into my hands many years ago in the Zenonian codex.
[8] But there had utterly perished, of that notable document
the more excellent and more desirable part, which was published not so long ago, had not Father Mabillon at length brought it out whole and complete from the library of Lobbes. Ratherius, famous for many writings, had been translated from that monastery to the see of Verona in the year 928, as Sigebert teaches; and when afterwards he was compelled to bid farewell to Verona and to seek again for a time the cloisters of the monks, he carried off to Lobbes that description together with a ground-plan of our city painted in vermilion. That parchment indeed, and likewise the ground-plan, which would be of the greatest assistance to Veronese history, I took pains in the year 1713, through my brother, then prefect of the province of Namur, to have sought out with the utmost diligence — since the abbey of Lobbes is scarcely ten or twelve hours' journey distant from Namur — but the attempt was fruitless, the Fathers greatly complaining that many codices had either been stolen or had by no means been returned by those who received them for use. Since Mabillon's Analecta vetera, in the first volume of which that rhythmical monument is inserted, occur exceedingly rarely in Italy, I send you a copy of it which I once faithfully transcribed. He then reports that ancient document which Mabillon published among the Analecta vetera, volume 1, page 371 and following, and which was lately reprinted among the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, volume 2, part 2, column 1095.
[9] he is always placed in the first rank. In this venerable document of the eighth century the series of the first eight prelates of Verona is expressed thus: First did Euprepus the bishop preach at Verona; second Dimidrianus, third Simplicius, fourth Proculus the confessor, an excellent shepherd. Fifth was Saturninus, and sixth Lucilius; seventh was Gricinus, doctor and bishop; eighth the shepherd and confessor Zeno, the renowned martyr. The lately-praised Maffei passes the following judgment upon this series, which differs not a little from Ughelli and the other writers of Veronese affairs, in the same letter written to Coleti: But both Ughelli and our historians and the patchers-together of catalogues have nothing whereon to plant a foot, nor do they bring forward any ancient witness, nor do they rest upon any monument. He who some years ago appended a history of the bishops to the Veronese Order set Dimidrianus as sixteenth, Saturninus as fourteenth, Lucilius or Lucillus as eighteenth; and if you inquire on what foundation, there is nothing that can be alleged. Concerning Agapius they bring forward an inscription which anyone would recognize at first glance to have been cobbled together in the last few centuries. To me therefore, finding to this day no more ancient nor more sincere document, it would seem a sacrilege to depart from the tradition of the anonymous author: especially since there is also a second witness at hand, who preceded by more than two hundred years the other writers on this subject; namely John, Deacon of the church of Verona, who in the imperial history which he composed, now lost, recited the first eight prelates of the Veronese by the same names and in exactly the same order, as we learn from Panvinio, Veronese Antiquities, book 4, chapter 3, who had read that chronicle.
[10] But the age of this bishop is doubted, Although St. Euprepius is everywhere assigned in the catalogues as the first bishop of Verona, nevertheless between the most learned Maffei and the other Veronese writers there is no agreement as to the certain age of that first Prelate: for Panvinio, Ughelli, and other authors commonly hand down that St. Euprepius was sent to Verona by Peter the prince of the Apostles, and about the year of Christ seventy ascended, or rather instituted, the episcopal chair of that city. But this tradition the most noble Marquis Maffei does not admit; nay rather, from the more certain age of St. Proculus he gathers that the preaching or the see of St. Euprepius must be deferred to later times, since it is not sufficiently probable that the first four bishops of the city of Verona presided over that church so long as to have filled out nearly three centuries. We do not here repeat the words of the most learned Marquis, which we gave in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of SS. Firmus and Rusticus, martyrs, on the IX day of August, that is, in volume 2 of that month, page 416, where we also courteously invited the Veronese to bring forward solid monuments of their tradition. Since in the meantime nothing has been communicated to us, we have at the beginning of this Sylloge ambiguously assigned the age of St. Euprepius to the first or second century.
[11] It now only remains that we say something of the deeds of this holy Prelate, and his Acts are briefly set forth. which the most reverend Augustino Valerio, in the Ancient Monuments of the church of Verona, folio 38 verso, briefly sets forth from the common tradition of the Veronese in this manner: When Peter the Apostle, prince of the Apostles, having set out from Jerusalem, had first sat at Antioch, and afterwards, seven years later, had come to Rome, where he held the Pontificate for twenty-five years, he sent his disciples, apostolic men, into divers places and provinces to propagate the most holy faith of Christ; among whose number was Euprepius, a man endowed with admirable wisdom and most holy manners, to whose fidelity he entrusted Verona, a most noble city of Italy, and set him over it as bishop. Euprepius, inflamed with the zeal of God, so far as those times permitted, having cast out the worship of images, was the first to sow the seeds of the Christian religion at Verona by his teaching and piety: and when the Man of God had been engaged in that office for many years with great labor, worn out at last with extreme old age, everywhere preaching Christ undaunted, imitating his Master, a good shepherd for the flock committed to him, he passed into heaven on the twelfth of the Kalends of September. He was buried outside the city, in the place where now stands the church of St. Proculus, in the side of its crypt which is toward the south. Would that all and each of these things, especially those which regard the age of that holy Prelate, could be proved from more ancient documents!