ON ST. GERONTIUS, BISHOP OF ITALICA IN SPAIN,
In the First Century.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
The ancient worship of this Saint, the age in which he flourished or died, the place of his death, and the scanty knowledge of his deeds.
Gerontius, bishop of Italica in Spain (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
Among the ancient Martyrologists
of whom we have knowledge, This holy Prelate today
Usuard alone in our edition
thus announces this Prelate:
In Spain, in the city
of Italica, of holy Gerontius the bishop,
resting in prison. Whence our Sollier
on this day, at the Martyrology of Usuard illustrated,
gives the following warning: Gerontius or Geruntius is unknown to all
the more ancient Martyrologists,
nor do I sufficiently perceive whence Usuard could have received
him, unless in his Spanish journey he got some knowledge
of him, which he thereupon judged worthy
to obtain a place in the sacred Fasti.
That he lived or preached in the time of the Apostles
he nowhere hints; whence by the reformers of the Roman
Martyrology this must have been added from other documents,
upon which matter Baronius's note may be seen
for a while.
[2] related in the ancient Usuardine codices For the rest, with this announcement various
Usuardine codices agree, which Sollier recounts in the same place.
But the Prato codex, which the Benedictines
of Paris contend to be the autograph, the name of Spain being erased,
assigns only the city in which
this holy Prelate died, in these few words:
In the city of Italica, of holy Geruntius the bishop, resting in
prison. Wherefore the anonymous editor of this Prato codex,
who first published at Paris in the year 1718 the autograph Martyrology
of Usuard, monk of Saint-Germain,
and vindicated it from the observations of our Sollier,
notes this at that day's announcement: Usuard deleted
in his codex in Spain. For what
cause, who shall say? Was it because, speaking of a city sufficiently
known, he judged it useless to name the region
in which it was situated? Further, that editor, concerning
the origin of this announcement, agrees with Sollier,
or has followed him, when in the same place
he presently subjoins this: Of holy Geruntius there is nothing
among the Martyrologists who surpass Usuard in age.
His worship he doubtless received in Spain.
[3] Doubtless St. Gerontius was carried over from the Martyrology
of Usuard into the modern Roman one, and in today's Roman Martyrology,
which thus records him on this day: At Italica in Spain,
of holy Geruntius the bishop, who in the time of the Apostles,
preaching the Gospel in that province,
after many labors rested in prison. But why
in this Roman Martyrology this holy Prelate is said
to have preached the Gospel in the time of the Apostles, which
is not read in the Usuardine Martyrology, we easily gather
from the notes of the most eminent
Baronius, who today at that announcement of the Roman
Martyrology observes the following:
His Acts are described in a sacred hymn which
we read in the ancient Breviary of Toledo: which we wonder
was passed over by those who have most lately treated of Spanish
affairs, and have written of him very meagrely.
[4] The most eminent writer by this note designates
the proper hymn of the old Mozarabic Breviary, he is also honored in the old Mozarabic Breviary,
which I copied out at Toledo in the year 1722,
and which, the copyist's faults being removed, runs thus:
Christ's consecrated bishop,
Gerontius the confessor,
let us sing with worthy praises,
and celebrate with our voices.
He is reported to have shone as a seer
in the Apostolic time,
and to have preached the supreme
Father of the mighty Son .
And while, illustrious, he ran through
the Western region,
at length by the wrath of the heathen
he is dragged to his passion.
But presently, by the governor's command,
weighed down with iron knots,
to the horrid shadows of the prison
he is given into the executioner's power.
Whom, bound with chains,
amid the pallid darkness,
they report to have given up to heaven
the soul snatched from his sacred body.
Thus, now placed among
the Apostolic fellowships,
he rejoices in heavenly glory
and in the bright grace of Christ.
For, mitred, he shines and gleams
with a twofold reward;
with the priestly title
and with the reward of confession.
Let glory resound to the Father
and to Christ the only-begotten,
to the Paraclete Spirit,
unto the ages of ages. Amen.
[5] From this old Breviary of the Mozarabs it appears first
and already in the 7th century he had a basilica marked with his name. that the yearly festival of St. Gerontius
was solemnly celebrated from immemorial time.
But a still more ancient and more distinct knowledge
of his worship we dig out from the Life of St. Fructuosus,
prelate of Braga, who flourished in the VII century. In
it a nearly contemporary biographer, in Mabillon at the Benedictine second
century, page 586 and following, narrates a miracle
to our purpose in these words: On a certain
day the most blessed Fructuosus himself, for the sake of fulfilling
his devotion, set out by ship from the city of Seville to the basilica*
of holy Gerontius. When
there he had devoutly paid the vows of his desire, the Lord
helping, and when, the day drawing toward evening, he had arranged
to return again whence he had come, those sailors
who had steered the ship over long spaces of the sea,
wearied with the labor of the sailing, not only said
that they had not strength to steer the ship, but
also, because the last part of the day now remained,
began to complain. Then that ancient writer
sets forth how that ship, of its own accord, the sailors
sleeping, and St. Fructuosus reciting the ecclesiastical Office,
swiftly put in without oars at the farther bank of the river
and at the appointed place.
Here what pertains to our purpose is that at that
time St. Gerontius already had there a basilica or church
dedicated to his name, and that holy Fructuosus
visited it for devotion's sake.
Let these things said about the immemorial and ancient worship of today's holy
Prelate suffice.
[6] He seems to have flourished in the first century, Also from the hymn already related we learn that
the Mozarabs then thought, from common tradition,
that St. Gerontius flourished in Apostolic times.
Yet Juan Vaseo in the Chronicle of Spain
in our possession, page 279, reckons that same holy Prelate
among those who in the persecution
of Diocletian and Maximian Herculius underwent
martyrdom, as will be made manifest to the curious reader
who shall be willing to run through the cited Chronicle of Vaseo from page 271 as far
as page 183. But to the opinion
of this more recent writer is to be preferred
the ancient tradition of the Mozarabs, which would be greatly confirmed
if that epigram were genuine which
Juan Tamayo de Salazar ascribes to St. Isidore of Seville,
and thus relates in his Spanish Martyrology
from manuscripts (if one please to believe him who asserts it) at the day
XXV of August:
This temple holds the long-hallowed bones of Geruntius,
prelate of Italica, who was the love of that city.
He also increased with his ploughshare the Apostolic seed,
and that of the Christ-bearing Cross, whereby the kindly faith is renowned.
At last beneath the sword thou sufferest, O Bishop, the unworthy
torments of Nero, of prison, and of hunger.
[7] although his age is not confirmed by Tamayo's forged epigram, I have already said above that the chronological tradition
of the Mozarabs would be greatly confirmed
by this epigram, if it were genuine, and
written by St. Isidore of Seville himself: for from
it we should prudently conclude that our Saint
preached under the reign of Nero and died in prison,
since more ancient monuments do not contradict this chronology.
But we have already so often and so evidently convicted this Spanish
Martyrologist of imposture that we give no credit to him when he brings forward
testimonies of this kind. Wherefore we rather assent
to Nicolás Antonio, the learned Spaniard, who
in the Old Spanish Library, tom. 1, page 267,
passes such a judgment about writings of this kind alleged by Tamayo de Salazar:
In the Spanish Martyrology
of Juan Tamayo we now see brought forth anew
certain verses of the holy Father (namely Isidore of Seville,
whose true lucubrations Antonio there separates from the supposititious ones),
which he says he gives from manuscripts; against whose
liberality it is pleasing to chant that Virgilian
line: I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts.
For Tamayo's codices are not such as they wish
to seem. And that this is said by me not
calumniously, we make attested more often. Certainly
Nicolás Antonio shows this often through the course of his Works,
and especially in tom. 2
of that same Library, page 20, uncovers like frauds of Tamayo.
[8] whom the anonymous editor of Usuard's Prato codex Therefore the anonymous editor of the Saint-Germain
Usuard did not sufficiently know this author, when
after the other things related above, he confidently in his observation
at today's announcement of our Saint
adds this: What is held more ancient about that Geruntius
is the epigram of Isidore of Seville, which
Juan Tamayo de Salazar read written by hand, and wove into his Spanish
Martyrology. In
that epigram Geruntius is said to have suffered the torments of prison and hunger
under Nero. Whence Salazar gathers
that he suffered about the year LXVIII,
in which the cruelty of Nero raged more vehemently in Spain. On this
occasion there could be turned back upon that editor of the Prato
codex the very words with which
he himself, on page XL of his Preface, thus addresses our Sollier:
These things I readily forgive thee. For how
couldst thou have rightly judged about that codex, who
wast using another's eyes, and those not very sharp-sighted
… I am persuaded that thou wouldst have dealt much
more kindly with the Prato codex,
if it had been permitted thee to survey it with thine own eyes.
[9] With a few words changed, these things could without
difficulty be fitted to the anonymous editor of the Saint-Germain
Usuardine Martyrology: believed too lightly. for that learned
and critical man could not so affirmatively pronounce upon the authentic
credit of this epigram, who
was using another's eyes, and those very deceitful.
Too lightly indeed did he at once give credit
to Tamayo, who ascribed that epigram to St. Isidore
of Seville, and boasted that he had seen it in manuscript.
Certainly I am persuaded that that editor
would not so quickly have believed this Spanish
Martyrologist, if he had read the judgment of Nicolás Antonio or of the most eminent
Cardinal Aguirre about Juan Tamayo
de Salazar. Although from that epigram
I dare not assign the time of his death, yet on account of
the authority of the Mozarabic Breviary I probably
judge that St. Gerontius flourished in the time of the Apostles,
and therefore above, at the beginning of this
collection, I bound his age in the margin to the first century.
Now about the place of his death and of his see
I shall subjoin a few things.
[10] Of the arena of his last struggle, or of his martyrdom
broadly so called, our Papebroch in the Life of St. Ferdinand
the king at the day XXX of May, Although this Saint died at Italica in Spain, or in tom. VII
of that month, page 340, thus discourses: Further, going on
according to the flow of that same river (namely
the Baetis, of which the discourse there is), the same map shows
the ruins of a most ample amphitheatre, with the monastery
of St. Isidore, and places that have taken their name from holy Brigid
and Pontius; and there is added the inscription Sevilla
vieja, that is, Old Seville. Hence at one time
it seemed likely to me that the Moors,
who left scarcely any city of Spain, or not even
scarcely any, which they did not either utterly abolish
or transfer elsewhere, transported that Hispalis
which had been under the Romans and Goths from the right
side of the river Baetis to the left.
But all learned Spaniards laugh at that appellation
of old Seville, as an insipid invention of the rude common folk,
and teach by sure arguments
that the traces of the most ample ruins which are still found there
are remains of old Italica, not of Hispalis. For frequent coins
are dug up there having the name of Italica inscribed
on the reverse face; and he whom the common folk
call Santiponce seems to be St. Gerontius,
bishop and martyr of Italica in Spain, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the XXV
of August. But the Itinerary
of the emperor Antoninus sets Italica VI Roman miles from Hispalis,
and that across the river toward the west.
And there is in the same place still
a place called Talca, in the partition of the territory
of Seville decreed by the holy King, which more nearly
represents the name of old Italica.
[11] About the site of old Italica the Spanish writers themselves
dispute among themselves, as Luis Nonio
shows in his Topography of Spain, where in chapter
17 he gives the following: about the site of which city the authors disagree, Although Italica shows nothing
but shapeless ruins and scattered rubble,
yet let these few things be given to the shades of the best
emperors, that the soil of their birth may be known to all:
for by many its ancient site is unknown.
Appian of Alexandria is authority, in the Iberica,
that it was founded by Scipio Africanus, the Spanish war being finished,
where he left his veteran soldiers and those maimed
in some limb; yet in what place he founded
it he does not express. Ptolemy places it
in Baetica; but from Pliny some gather that it was formerly
called Ilipa … Vaseo is authority
that its ancient site is unknown to very many; some
think it is Niebla; Ambrosio de Morales
shows that it is Sivilla la vieja, and Jerónimo
Zurita. Then he also mentions the place today
called Talca, whose name seems derived from Italica
corrupted; and after other notices of that same destroyed
city he at last concludes that chapter
in these words: It was an episcopal city in ages past;
its first bishop it had in St. Geruntius the confessor.
Whatever be the true site of old Italica,
it suffices us that that city once stood in Baetica, a province
of Spain, not far from Seville,
and that there St. Gerontius had a basilica marked with his
name, as we related above from the Acts
of St. Fructuosus.
[12] yet about his episcopate at Italica Ambrosio de Morales and other sincere writers
of Spanish affairs give few things about the deeds of this holy
Prelate, because antiquity has left scarcely
any to posterity. Whence Thomas of Trujillo,
Col. [ ], adorns him with this brief eulogy:
Blessed Gerontius was bishop of the city of Italica
near Seville. And when he had been cast into prison
because he professed the faith of Christ,
he died there. Nay, it can be doubted
whether St. Gerontius was bishop of Italica, even if,
being apprehended at Italica, he died in prison:
for in those times various apostolic or regionary prelates
were appointed, to run through divers provinces or cities
for preaching the faith of Christ,
even though they held no fixed see.
We at least have hitherto found in the councils of Spain no
bishop of Italica before
Eulalius, who subscribed the third Toledan synod,
which was celebrated in the year 589, as may be seen in the most eminent
Cardinal de Aguirre, tom. 2 of the councils
of Spain, page 350, and in our Hardouin,
tom. 3, col. 485.
[13] and his other deeds we know nothing certain. Wherefore we leave to learned Spaniards
the more ancient prelates of this see to be searched out,
and we suspect not altogether rashly that St. Gerontius
was perhaps one of those Apostolic bishops
who in the first centuries of the Church had no fixed see,
and discharged episcopal ministries in some region or province.
Certain writers surname this holy Prelate
a martyr, some a confessor, since he did not expire
amid torments, and yet, being thrust into prison for the faith
of Christ, died there. Whence
both these titles are easily reconciled, as Ambrosio de Morales
shows in the History of Spain, book 10,
chapter 28. If anyone therefore should wish to call this Saint
a martyr in the broad sense, I shall not gainsay it.
These are all the things which about St. Gerontius
we can probably assert: for we make nothing
of the Acts which Tamayo amplified. If
anyone, however, shall find more, and those more likely,
we shall gladly congratulate him on the new knowledge.
Annotationsperhaps Patris potentis Filium* (the Son of the mighty Father).
* That is, of Seville