ON ST. ALDROVANDUS, BISHOP,
AT BAGNOREA IN TUSCANY,
HE FLOURISHED IN THE YEAR DCCCLXIX.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
The public cult of this Saint, his episcopal see, and his date.
Aldrovandus, bishop, at Bagnorea in Tuscany (S.)
G. C.
Balneoregium, called in the vernacular Bagnorea, an episcopal city of Tuscany, which became known chiefly among foreigners for the birth of St. Bonaventure, This Saint, who is honored at Bagnorea, today celebrates the annual festival of a Saint who is called Aldrovandus, or by another name almost like it, as will appear from what is to be said. Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy
on the XXII day of August relates the following concerning the cult of this Saint: Aldrovandus the bishop, who is also called Androvandus and Aldrebandus, is honored at Bagnorea in Tuscany by ancient tradition on this day; whose head, religiously kept there, is wont to be carried about through the city, with the clergy and people accompanying, and by the Saint's intercession what is suppliantly asked is obtained. Although Ferrarius in this place names that Saint a bishop, yet in the same place in his Annotation he warns that it is uncertain whether he was bishop of Bagnorea or of another city, since his Acts are wanting.
[2] Neglecting this doubt of Ferrarius, Ferdinand Ughelli in the Italia sacra of the most recent Venetian edition, and was probably bishop of this city, volume 1, column 515, reckons the same Saint among the bishops of Bagnorea in these words: St. Aldovandrus or Aldibrandus was present at the Roman council under Pope Adrian in the year DCCCLXXI. His feast is celebrated at Bagnorea on the XXII day of the month of August. Of him Ferrarius makes mention on this very day, and he is held the tutelary Saint of that same city. The tradition of the people of Bagnorea also holds that this Saint was the prelate of their city, as I gather from the letters which Bernardino Coccovagino sent from Viterbo to our Papebroch, and in which he thus instructs him, who was asking for documents concerning today's Saint: From Bagnorea no notes concerning St. Hildebrand have been sent to you. They only answer that he was bishop of that city, as is noted in Ughelli's Italia sacra, and that no memorial of him exists in the archive. Yet the city honors him as its patron, and celebrates a holiday in his honor, and an Office with an octave. There is a report among the citizens that turtledoves roasted and set before him, when the sign of the Cross had been made by the holy man, flew alive out of the dish. I think this to be a fiction, since no memorial of the matter exists. From these testimonies we certainly learn the public cult of St. Aldrovandus, and at least probably admit his bishopric of Bagnorea.
[3] he appears to have flourished in the year of Christ 869. But if that Saint governed the church of Bagnorea, as Ughelli and tradition assert, we now gather his date approximately: for under Adrian II the Pontiff the Roman council at which our Saint is said to have been present was celebrated in the year of Christ 869, not in the year 871, as Ughelli above wrongly affirms. And to this council, among other prelates, in Labbe, volume 8 of the Councils, column [ ], and in Harduin's edition, volume 5, column 870, the prelate of Bagnorea subscribes in this manner: I, Adoaldus, bishop of the holy church of Bagnorea, have subscribed with my own hand. If therefore anyone with Ferrarius doubt whether St. Aldrovandus governed the church of Bagnorea, let him not be reluctant to assign us among the bishops of Bagnorea someone who comes nearer than today's Saint to the name of Adoaldus which is read subscribed to this council. But since Ferrarius freely confesses that St. Aldrovandus was a bishop, from tradition and from the testimony of Ughelli it becomes to us very probable that he presided over the church of Bagnorea and in the year of Christ 869 subscribed his name to the Roman council: for why should the people of Bagnorea have from time immemorial honored so solemnly the prelate of another church? On the same foundation we have noted above in the margin that this Saint flourished in the year 869, since we do not know the time of his death. Moreover these are all the things which we have been able to gather concerning that Saint, since his Acts are not found.