ON ST. NATALIS, PRIEST AND CONFESSOR,
AT CASALE IN LIGURIA OF ITALY,
ABOUT THE THIRD CENTURY, OR THE EIGHTH.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Cultus, Acts, age.
Natalis, confessor, priest, at Casale in Liguria (St.)
BY J. P.
Casale, a city in the Liguria of Italy, is illustrated with many notices in Ughelli, volume 4 of Italia sacra, column 768 and following, on the occasion of the bishops of Casale, of whom he there treats. Topographical notice: It will suffice for our purpose to compress here into an abridgment some few things out of the many which Baudrand writes concerning this place: Casale, he says, and the city of Casale … a very well fortified town of Italy, is sometimes called, with reference to other places named Casale (of which the same geographer also treats), Casale of St. Evasius … from St. Evasius its patron … It sits upon the river Po, and is the capital of the Duchy of Montferrat, under the Duke of Mantua …, 4 miles distant from Trino toward the east, 12 toward Valenza, and 15 from Asti toward the north, 10 toward Novara, and 40 from Turin. Hence the situation of that place is abundantly discerned, so that it is not necessary to add more. Let us therefore proceed to the public cultus which is there rendered chiefly to St. Natalis: whose name, although I have not known it to be inscribed in the ancient Martyrologies, that same city will nevertheless furnish matter whereby he may deservedly be numbered among the Saints of this day with us.
[2] Francesco Agostino Della Chiesa, in the Chronological History of the Cardinals, Bishops, and Abbots of the Piedmontese Region, chapter 14, the public veneration of the Saint is proved: page 189, treating of the state of the city of Casale, says: Its cathedral … has St. Evasius for its protector, whose most holy relics, and those of SS. Projectus, Natalis, and their companions, it venerates. The aforesaid Ughelli expresses the matter in almost the same way at column 769: The cathedral is a beautiful one, and it venerates as its tutelary saint St. Evasius, where rest the bodies of the holy Projectus, Natalis, and their companions. The Acts, to be produced by us below, although in other respects of little or no value, nevertheless deserve credit in this, that, speaking of his own time, their author confirms that the cultus of St. Natalis — and indeed a solemn one — then existed on today's day, saying that on the twenty-first of August … his feast is solemnly kept in the church of Casale: in which his body, formerly laid up near the body of St. Evasius, still rests in the same place. Rightly therefore did Ferrari weave the memory of St. Natalis into each of his Catalogues at this day, as also Castellano into his universal Martyrology. From what has been said thus far we have as much as suffices for the public veneration of this Saint, so that, without injury to the famous decree of Pope Urban VIII, he may deservedly obtain a place among the other heavenly citizens of this day whom we give.
[3] the Acts are censured, Further, his Acts are of slight authority, because they are compounded from the Acts of St. Evasius, which are so wretchedly and coarsely put together that they do not hang together but fight with themselves. It is true indeed that the Acts of St. Natalis, which will be brought forward below, do not contain that gross error by which the unskilled writer of the Acts of St. Evasius M. confounds things, persons, and times, as will presently be said. Since nevertheless these are taken from those, they seem to be deservedly held suspect. For such as the fountain is, such is the streamlet flowing from it. It is now well to hear the censures with which the Acts of St. Evasius are assailed. Ferrari, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, on this day brings forward a brief narration of the deeds of St. Natalis from the Life of St. Evasius, published, as he adds, at Trino in the year of the Lord 1566; which he at once corrects in an annotation thus: In that Life (in which many things concerning the city of Casale are noted) some matters seem to need emendation, as we advised in the Life of St. Projectus, namely on the XXV day of January, where he expressly censures this: that Atubalus, who from the history of Casale which he had mentioned appears to have been an Arian, was endeavoring to lead Evasius to the worship of idols. For there were no idols in Italy at that time, nor did the Arians venerate them. There are also other things in the aforesaid history that are improbable, or even false.
[4] from which his Life is taken: The same author, at the I day of December, after he had narrated the deeds of St. Evasius from a little book in which many things concerning the city of Casale are treated, printed at Trino in the year of the Lord 1566, strikes the same with the following censure in an annotation: That book needs much and careful censure, since it contains certain things by no means probable. One may also read what Ughelli has in volume 4 of Italia sacra, reprinted at Venice in the year 1719, column 335, where, on St. Evasius the first bishop of the see of Asti, he says: Giovanni Maria Ballaino of Casale brought to light in the vulgar tongue a Life of Evasius, which agrees in part neither with the truth of times nor of things. For he confounds this first Evasius … the martyr with another Evasius, a confessor, bishop of the same church of Asti, who was renowned for sanctity under the Catholic king Liutprand. This our Filippo Malabaila in his Apologia, and the most learned Paolo Brizio, noble bishop of the church of Alba, lately in his History of the Western Church in the Seventh Century, have censured with most learned reasons. Authors, then, have long since conspired together, as you see, in censuring the Acts of St. Evasius; and since these are of so bad a name, what could you make out of them for the Life of our St. Natalis, taken from those same Acts, that would not be suspect?
[5] Let us meanwhile consider whether anything can be established, resting on a probable foundation, concerning the age in which he lived. observations concerning his age, This controversy would further have to be decided from the time in which flourished St. Evasius, the master and inseparable companion of St. Natalis, because for the Acts of the latter, and therefore for fixing the reckoning of the time, we have nothing but the Acts of the former; and since he is said to have been confounded into one out of two persons wholly discrepant in time, the reckoning of the time must also of necessity be confused and waver. It is too premature to examine this matter here at length and thoroughly; it may be weighed by our successors at the I day of December, where St. Evasius the bishop is marked with the title of martyr in the Roman Martyrology, and to which day he was deferred among us in the Prætermissi at the XV day of May. Let us nevertheless note some things, lest we say nothing, concerning the time of St. Natalis. Galesinius in his Martyrology, at the I day of December, makes mention of St. Evasius the bishop, not as a martyr, but as a confessor: concerning whom, as is observed in the Notationes, it is so written both in the monuments of the church of Casale and in very ancient codices of the church both of Vercelli and of Bergamo, as we too have seen.
[6] If therefore this be the Evasius who is set down as the second bishop of Asti of that name in the cited Ughelli, column 336, in which he lived, and is said to have lived in the time of King Liutprand, then St. Natalis will belong to the eighth century, to which St. Projectus, mentioned above, is attached among us at the XXV day of January, page 636. But if you admit another Evasius, the first of this name and a martyr under the idolaters, whom Ughelli sets down as elected about the year of the Lord 260, and of whom St. Natalis is reported to have been a disciple, in that case it is manifest to what time he belongs. But since most, or all, of the things contained in the Acts censured above are so entangled and disordered that to wish to dig out from them anything which can be historically proved is to grope in the dark,
therefore I marked above "about the third century, or the eighth"; even though, following our copy of the Acts, it ought to be bound to about the end of the third century.
[7] That copy is noted as taken from the Acts of St. Evasius … bishop of Asti and M., and concerning the Acts which are here given. and from the monuments of the church of Casale. Bolland, however, prefixed to that same manuscript the name of the Reverend Father Don Filippo Malabaila, visitor-general of the congregation of St. Bernard, of the Cistercian Order. The aforesaid Malabaila, or perhaps another, whoever he may have been, must have corrected that copy and purged it at least of that gross hallucination of which we complained above, when we adduced the censures of various writers; since in it no such open falsehood is found. Such as it is, therefore, we set forth that copy of the Acts to the reader, even though it be not of such value as to deserve great credit in the marvelous events which it narrates, since we have nothing else at hand that deserves greater. Few Annotations will be given: for since the Commentary is a small one, it can easily be read, so that references need not be assigned again and again. The situation of certain obscure, if not suspect, places will be understood from the context of the narrative itself.
ACTS
By an anonymous author.
Natalis, confessor, priest, at Casale in Liguria (St.)
BHL Number: 6037
BY AN ANONYMOUS AUTHOR.
St. Natalis, the inseparable companion of St. Evasius, St. Natalis, brought forth into the light at Benevento a, and instructed by St. Evasius in piety and in every virtue, rendered diligent obedience to that same Saint, who by the assiduous preaching of the word of God and by the display of miracles was confirming those already imbued with the Christian faith, and daily drawing idolaters to it. And when an angel had signified to St. Evasius that God had chosen him beforehand to be bishop of Asti, and had therefore admonished him to betake himself to Rome, Natalis joined himself to him as a companion. In the City itself, while they were tarrying, intent upon visiting the churches and memorials of the holy Apostles and Martyrs, legates sent to the supreme Pontiff by the men of Asti, that he might grant them a bishop of their own, being opportunely informed of how great sanctity and learning St. Evasius was a man, made supplication to that same Roman Pontiff that he might be granted to them as bishop. And having obtained their wish, they lead him, consecrated by the same Pope, with them to Asti b; and Natalis, having set out along with him, is ordained a priest of the church of Asti. There he showed himself the chief minister to the holy bishop, who was solicitously fulfilling the duties and all the offices of the best of shepherds, with the greatest merit to himself, and to the profit not only of the citizens but of the whole diocese, then indeed a most extensive one.
[2] he gives his labor to the conversion of the unbelievers in various places Afterward, when a new persecution against the Christians had arisen, and when these very people compelled St. Evasius to withdraw from the city, that he might the longer preserve himself unharmed for his flock, he himself wished to have with him Natalis, Projectus the deacon, and Malianus c the subdeacon: that they might be a help to him in performing sacred rites, a support to him in laboring for the conversion of unbelievers, and a solace to him in his toil. And so, having gone out from the city, they come to a spring about a thousand paces distant from it, and thereafter called from this event Fontana Santa. And since they had begun the journey fasting, they persuade the holy bishop, weakened by age and want of food, to sit down there and refresh himself with food. Thence, as they advanced by cross-country routes, a brook called Rupta presented itself to them; and St. Evasius, about to cross it by a ford, remembers that he has left his episcopal staff fixed in the ground by the spring. Natalis, hastening then to fetch it, beholds it adorned with purple flowers, bursting forth as it were from swelling buds. This miracle being taken by St. Evasius as an omen of his future martyrdom, they commit themselves again to the journey; and toward nightfall they enter a town then called Volusianum d. There the rest give their limbs to rest. But Natalis, more solicitous for the safety of his holy father than for his own, kept watch lest they should be surprised unawares by the persecutors. Nor was this in vain. For, the night being now far advanced, he perceives beforehand that they are drawing near.
[3] whither he is compelled to flee. Having roused his companions, therefore, they turn aside again from the road, and direct their journey toward the Po. That place, where now Casale — called Casale of St. Evasius from this holy bishop of Asti — is seen to stand, was then a vast wood called Cornea, divided from the mainland by a fordable arm of the river Po. Entering it, and finding it suitable both for eluding the vigilance of their pursuers and for procuring the salvation of the nearer inhabitants, they fix their seat in it; and, for the performing of divine worship, Natalis and his companions set about building a church, which afterwards was completed by the alms of those whom they were leading to the Christian faith, and especially of the consul of that region. For in a short time the holy bishop, confirming by miracles the faith of Christ which he preached, led the surrounding peoples to it. But understanding it to be part of his office so to attend to these new gains that he should not neglect the care of the other sheep committed to him, he entrusted to St. Natalis for execution those matters which had to be provided for both in the city of Asti and throughout the diocese committed to him.
[4] It happened, moreover, that while Natalis was absent for this cause, St. Evasius having obtained the palm of martyrdom, Antubalus, prætor of the city of Sedula, not far distant from the wood of Cornea, was informed of those things which had happened there and in the neighboring region to the contempt of his gods and the increase of the Christian religion; and he ordered St. Evasius to be seized and thrust into prison. And when afterwards he had been able neither by promises nor by threats to draw him away from the faith of Christ to the worship of idols, he condemned him, and Projectus, and Malianus, together with a hundred and forty-five other faithful of Christ, to death; as will be more fully explained in the Life of St. Evasius. At the first news of these things St. Natalis hastened to go to Sedula, hoping to become a partaker of their crown. But when he found the sentence pronounced against them already carried into execution, he took care to commit to burial the sacred bodies of his holy master and of his companions, and likewise of the other martyrs.
[5] he himself, after abundant fruits, falls asleep in peace. Thereafter indeed, both from the desire of more earnestly cherishing the memory of the same St. Evasius, and from zeal for confirming and perfectly instructing those newly drawn in those places to the faith of Christ — since especially Austubalus himself, according to the prediction of St. Evasius, being converted to the faith and baptized with all his household, was a great help to him in leading others to the Christian religion — he determined to pass the remainder of his life at that same church. There, ever more and more intent, by the pursuit of the virtues, upon his own salvation, and by his preaching upon that of others, having at length attained by such exercises what his companions attained by the shedding of their blood, he was joined to them in eternal glory on the twenty-first day of August: on which his feast is solemnly kept in the church of Casale: in which his body, formerly laid up near the body of St. Evasius, still rests in the same place.