ON ST. ALEXANDER OF BERGAMO, MARTYR,
AT BERGAMO IN ITALY,
Under Maximian.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Alexander, martyr, at Bergamo in Italy (St.)
BY J. S.
§ I. His cult; the ancient Acts; more recent writers; certain observations concerning the Saint's military service, and the time and place of his death.
St. Alexander, another soldier of the Theban legion, likewise adorned with the laurel of martyrdom, The cult of Alexander: the Fasti of the Saints announce on this day; and with especial veneration, as its patron, Bergamo honors him — a most ancient city of Italy, subject to this day to the Republic of Venice — which not a few writers of the middle age called Pergamum. Ado of Vienne wove a long eulogy for St. Alexander, which, since it is a compendium of the Acts, I pass over; more briefly Usuard recalls his memory in these words: In the city of Pergamum, of St. Alexander, who was himself also one of the Theban legion, and who, when he most constantly confessed the name of the Lord Jesus, fulfilled his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head. With Usuard the Roman Martyrology nearly agrees, saying: At Bergamo in Cisalpine Gaul, of Saint Alexander the martyr, who was himself also one of the same legion (the Theban), and who, when he most constantly confessed the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilled his martyrdom by the cutting off of his head. I add no more martyrologies, since of the Saint's cult there is no doubt. He is honored at Bergamo as chief patron with a double Office of the first class, which stands in the Proper Offices of the Saints of Bergamo, reformed in the year 1707, with an octave added, in which that solemnity is celebrated.
[2] The Acts of St. Alexander have come to us partly in manuscript, the Acts to be published first: partly already published in print; of which some appear better and more certain than others. Those which I shall publish first we have in three manuscript copies, agreeing among themselves as to the matter, though sometimes differing in words. The first of them, which is more correct than the others, we received extracted from the manuscript Legendary of the most eminent Cardinal Barberini, folio 243; the second from the Vatican codex 11900; the third, faithfully taken from a manuscript codex of the ancient monastery of St. Grata, and fortified with authentic testimonies, was sent us from Bergamo by Martino Antonio Guerrini, doctor of sacred theology and of both laws, and canon of the cathedral church there. The title of those Acts is: The Passion of St. Alexander the martyr; the author is anonymous, ancient in some degree, yet not contemporary with St. Alexander, nor nearly so, as may easily be gathered from his manner of writing, since he relates all things as long past. That he was of Bergamo I surmise from the prologue, at the end of which he says: For whose (Alexander's) rosy blood this festive day has dawned upon us. The Acts of St. Alexander which Mombritius published, volume 1, folio 24, nearly agree with these, except that in these latter the places where anything was done, and certain other circumstances, are expressed, which are passed over in the former; so that we may surmise that these circumstances were afterward added to the Acts published by Mombritius. Wherefore
I shall observe in the notes what is contained in these which is not read in Mombritius: for I have determined to publish these in preference to the Mombritian ones, because they are unpublished and fuller.
[3] Other Acts to be published in part in the second place: Other Acts of St. Alexander, from the aforesaid Bergamo codex, the aforesaid Guerrini likewise sent us, fuller than the preceding, but less certain: for since they contain all that is read in the aforementioned in nearly the same words, and add other things both at the beginning and toward the end, related in a manner little likely, we can scarcely doubt that these were composed out of the preceding by some later author, and perhaps amplified out of popular report. For which cause I have judged that these Acts should not be published entire, nor yet altogether passed over; but that that part should be exhibited to the reader which I have said was afterward added to the preceding Acts. For although these do not merit undoubted credit, they certainly merit greater credit than what certain more recent writers have narrated of St. Alexander without the testimony of the ancients, since they were written in the XII century, or earlier, as is established from the words subscribed to the second volume of the same Lectionary, which are the following: In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand one hundred and twenty-five, in the third Indiction, in the month of October, Peter, priest and provost of the church of blessed Alexander, caused this book to be made, to the honor of God and of the same church, that he may receive a reward from the Lord, and may be a perpetual partaker of the prayers and alms both of present and of future brethren. From this subscription the men of Bergamo gather that these Acts seem to have been transcribed into this Lectionary from an older writing, which is likely. The same Acts stand in the codex of the monastery of St. Grata; and both manuscripts rightly agree with each other, as we ascertained from a collation.
[4] An ancient Office; more recent writers. The aforesaid unearther of the monuments of Bergamo transmitted, together with the aforesaid Acts of St. Alexander, an ancient manuscript Office of the same Saint, found in the library of the ancient monastery of the Holy Sepulcher of Astino, of the Order of Saint Benedict, of the congregation of Vallombrosa, situated in the suburbs of the city of Bergamo, as is noted. In the said Office the lessons are twelve, and there are certain antiphons pertaining to the history of the Acts, which I shall cite from time to time. These are the things which the men of Bergamo — most diligent indeed in supplying the Acts of their Saints — most courteously communicated to us, or which it was possible to find elsewhere; of which I shall withdraw nothing from the reader, so that, these being seen, he may the more rightly gather what things written by the more recent writers concerning St. Alexander rest upon the authority of the ancients. Of St. Alexander various more recent writers have treated. Marco Antonio Benali undertook to write his Life in Latin; Giovanni Antonio Guarnerio completed and published it in his Commentaries on the lives of the saints of Bergamo. The same Mario Muzio composed in the Italian tongue in his Sacred History of Bergamo. Besides these, writers of Bergamo everywhere make mention of Alexander, and not a few others. But it is not my mind to sift their several assertions; yet certain things affirmed by their common consent I shall compare with the more ancient Acts, where opportunity shall be given. Now a few points must be discussed which are read less explained in the Acts.
[5] That St. Alexander was a soldier of the Theban legion — which, under the leadership of St. Maurice, being laid low for the faith of Christ, triumphed more gloriously than if it had itself laid low the enemy's phalanxes — authors both more ancient and more recent everywhere agree. Alexander a Theban soldier, but not a common one: But it does not so clearly appear what place he held in the said legion. For the Roman Martyrology with Usuard calls him a soldier, and they do not add whether he obtained a place more honorable than that of a common soldier, since in the case of St. Secundus, whom under the name of commander they set before Alexander, they did not omit this. Likewise the Acts to be published below are silent as to Alexander's rank; as are those which Mombritius published, and which Ado copied out in compendium. In the Office of which we treated just now he is said to have been standard-bearer, as also in the longer Acts. But in the same place he is also named Primipilarius: they mean, as I suppose, that the primipilus is designated. Now the primipilus was the first centurion of the legion, in dignity next to the tribune; which office if Alexander bore, he was to be preferred to St. Secundus in military rank, not postponed to him, as the Martyrology has postponed him. Hence, therefore, I gather only this, that it is uncertain what place Alexander held in the legion.
[6] The year in which he was crowned with martyrdom is equally uncertain, more probably slain before the Theban legion; although that it was done under the rule of Maximian Herculius is sufficiently established. Baronius at the year of Christ 297, in which he narrates the martyrdom of the Theban soldiers, subjoins these words at number 16: All these (the Thebans) two distinguished soldiers of the same legion seem to have preceded to martyrdom, before the Roman army (advancing into Gaul) had crossed the Alps — namely Secundus and Alexander. Others will have it that Alexander was crowned after the Theban legion, and that, having escaped by flight from the slaughter of his fellow soldiers, he obtained his deferred crown of martyrdom after Maximian's return into Italy. But the opinion of Baronius seems more probable, because no mention is made in the Acts of Alexander's flight out of Gaul, and none of the Theban legion having been slain before. We think, therefore, that St. Alexander went before the Theban legion to the palm of martyrdom. But in what year the Theban legion was slain, authors do not agree; nor does it please me to examine that in this place, which must necessarily be discussed at the Acts of St. Maurice and his companions.
[7] The later men of Bergamo write that St. Alexander preached the Christian faith at Bergamo, the faith preached at Bergamo before his martyrdom by Alexander and excellently promoted it; and they will have it that this was done when, a fugitive from the prison of Milan to Bergamo, he stayed there. But if we are to stand by the more ancient Acts, they will find no foundation for this preaching. Let us hear, therefore, the Acts from the flight down to the Saint's death. At number 7 they have thus: Then blessed Alexander, by a spirit in some sort prophetic, not from dread of suffering, avoided the unclean hands of the lictors by a secret and hasty departure; and having gone out of Milan, he went to the place where he should obtain the crown of the martyrs, namely near the city which is called Pergamum, on a small estate which is called Prætoria. Further, while there for some days the Athlete of Christ was cherished in a hiding-place, behold, there suddenly come with savage mind the officers to whom he had lately been handed over by Maximian Cæsar. Him they presently attacked with bloody hands after the manner of wild beasts, and, bound with ropes, violently dragged him to the statue which was called Plotatius, that there, if he would not sacrifice to the idols, he might, according to Cæsar's precept, be beheaded. Which, a little after, is subjoined as having been done. In the second Acts the matter is narrated in this manner: Then, not long after, blessed Alexander, by the nod and will of God taking flight, came by a straight path — the river Adda having been crossed with dry feet — to a place not far from the city of Pergamum, which place was of old called by the inhabitants Plotacium; where the Lord, as he willed, brought him crowned with martyrdom to his own kingdom. Then the blessed Man, hiding himself there among the thickets of briars, prayed the Lord that he would direct the course of his passion. But presently there came the officers to whom he had been handed over to be beheaded, etc.
[8] the more ancient Acts do not have. No vestige at all of preaching here; for if we give credit to these authors, as the men of Bergamo do, we must needs say that Alexander did not at that time enter Bergamo, much less preach the Christian faith there, or discharge the office of a bishop, as some say. Yet I should not wish to deny that the Christian faith was promoted at Bergamo by the help of St. Alexander. I should not wish to adjudge away this glory from the illustrious Martyr. For since the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians, by the blood poured out for Christ he preached the faith at Bergamo, kindled the piety of the faithful, roused sluggish minds to promote the faith, and by the miracles wrought after his death perhaps converted not a few to the Christian faith. From the said propagation of the faith among the men of Bergamo through St. Alexander — which was doubtless in the mouth of posterity, report gaining strength — the more recent writers might have supposed that the faith was preached by St. Alexander at Bergamo, even though they did not find it in the ancient Acts. Now a few things must be discussed concerning the place where the Athlete of Christ bravely fell.
[9] The Saint was slain in a place named Plotacium from an idol, That this place was not far from the city of Bergamo is made manifest from the words cited a little before, where that place is said to have been called Plotacium, namely from the idol Plotacius, to which the officers, sent to slay Alexander unless he should sacrifice, wished him to sacrifice. For I cannot understand the cited words in any other sense: Bound … they violently dragged him to the statue which was called Plotacius, that there, if he would not sacrifice to the idols, … he might be beheaded. I am not unaware that there is at this day another opinion among the men of Bergamo concerning this place. They will have it, namely, that the place was corruptly named Plotacium, and that by its true name it was called Crotacium, from the first Duke, as they suppose, of the men of Bergamo, whom they write to have been appointed by the emperor Probus, for his distinguished merits, duke of the whole Venetian dominion; and they contend that this statue was erected to him by posterity, and from him called Crotacium. To prove this the men of Bergamo adduce chiefly a passage from the poem of master Moses of Bergamo, whom they suppose to have flourished at the beginning of the eighth century. But that most learned editor of the writers of Italy, Ludovico Antonio Muratori, who in volume 7 of the Writers of Italy from page 529 published in print the poem of Moses, in the preface prefixed to it refutes this epoch, and proves that Moses wrote in the XII century.
[10] But from the aforesaid Moses, chapter 5, they adduce verses which, as they were published by Muratori, page 530, I here subjoin:
Hence, when thou shalt go forward a little toward the rising of the sun, Look upon the happy garden of rich Credatius, Which the mighty queen Grata encompassed with marble, [which the more recent writers will have to be called Crotacium from the duke Crotacius,] When she was ruling the blessed scepters of the see of Pergamum. There every kind of flower is green at every season, From which there issues a power of odors healing the sick. Crotatius,\* the grandfather of this queen, is said To have established that farm at great cost out of his own goods; Whence the ancients said that the place was named, And that same place preserves his buried body. A tall column will give thee manifest signs of the matter, Which his fostered people built for their lord after his death.
Note that these verses are cited by Pinamonte Peregrino de Brembate, a writer of the XIII century, in the Life of St. Grata, which I shall publish on the IV of September, where it is more rightly read Crotacus hujus avus; for the laws of the meter require this.
[11] Queen Grata, who is said to have girt the above-said garden with marble, and that there were four groves at Bergamo they write they think to be St. Grata, the daughter, they say, of the holy dukes Lupus and Adleyda, and granddaughter of duke Crotacius, who buried the body of St. Alexander. To say briefly what I judge: these verses of Moses do not suffice to persuade us of so great a matter, unknown to all the ancient historians. For Grata, who gave the body of St. Alexander to burial, is nowhere called a queen, nowhere a duchess or governess of the city, in the ancient Acts. In those to be published in the first place, at number 9, it is said: After some days a certain matron, most chaste in merits and Grata by name, coming and finding the blessed body, received it with joy and gladness, and carried it with all her household to her own little estate, which is seen to be situated near
the walls of Pergamum, and there buried it with spices in an excellent place. In the second Acts the matter is narrated in altogether the same manner, and the same name of St. Grata is attributed to the matron. But in the ancient Office it is thus read in the antiphon at the Benedictus: A certain widow, Grata by name and by work, gathered up the body of the glorious Martyr, and diligently laid it up in her own field. Since, therefore, Moses calls her a queen, and designates no time, he seems to look back to earlier times, in which he either believed that kings had reigned at Bergamo, or feigned it by poetic license, as is manifest from his verses in chapter 4, which we shall give to the reader, that by the same labor we may illustrate the place where the Saint, before he was taken the last time, is said in the first Acts, number 7, to have lain hidden, in these words:
[12] Having gone out of Milan, he went to the place where he should obtain the crown of martyrdom; unknown to other historians, whose opinion is disapproved: namely near the city which is called Pergamum, on a small estate which is called Prætoria. Which place the aforesaid Moses in chapter 4 thus describes:
The third toward the south wind, called by the name of the Prætor, Fashioned with a thousand windings and a thousand coils: Whence he fears neither the ambushes nor the force of madmen, Fortified by the gift of nature and by the art of former men. Here shine the wondrous palaces of ancient kings; For here flourished right and the celebration of the laws.
If the poet truly thought that these kings reigned at Bergamo, he looked back to times before the birth of Christ; for after the birth of Christ he could not have supposed that there were kings at Bergamo; and so queen Grata is to be referred to those times also. But if by kings he perchance understood dukes, and meant that Crotacius, Lupus, Grata, Asteria or Hesteria, presided over Bergamo as dukes at the end of the second century and the beginning of the third, as the men of Bergamo now will have it, we shall say that the poet Moses seems to be the first author of this opinion, and that his authority is not so great that we can safely give him credit in this matter. Let these things be said here in few words, to be more amply examined and more firmly established at the acts of St. Grata on the IV day of September.
[13] it is uncertain what the idol Plotacius was. Let us briefly return to the place of the Saint's death, from which we have digressed. Francesco Bellafino, On the origin of the city of Bergamo, thinks that the statue which was called Plotacius was that of Pluto: Upon a column, he says, there had been set a statue of Pluto, although it be faultily read Plotacius. Which indeed does not seem to me improbable, but uncertain. But it does not appear even likely, what Celestino the Capuchin asserts in book 1, chapter 20, of his History of Bergamo written in Italian, that duke Crotacius was worshiped there as a god. Whatever, in fine, that idol may have been, the Acts make plain that it was an idol in the place where Alexander was slain; and Pinamonte, mentioned before, rightly writes in the Life of St. Grata, chapter 7: For in this place there was set a certain statue which was called Plotacius, where demons were worshiped; and from this statue certain persons called the aforesaid place Plotacium. In the same place we shall see below that a church was afterward built to St. Alexander.
Annotations\ Crotacus.*
§ II. The Saint's posthumous glory.
Many miracles of the Saint unknown; villages infested by wolves, That St. Alexander after his death shone with many miracles at Bergamo, the Acts testify in these words: In which place (of burial) the Lord, ever entreated by the merits of the blessed Martyr, shows prodigies and fulfills the vows of suppliants. But that this is so we can easily conjecture from this, that above the rest of the Saints of Bergamo he was chosen as Patron of the city, and above the rest was ever honored with especial veneration and honor. But we grieve that the miracles of the illustrious Martyr either were not written down, or at any rate have not come into our hands. Wherefore out of many I shall here subjoin a few which I have been able to gather from elsewhere. Pinamonte, praised above, in the Life of St. Grata, chapter 21, relates this benefit common to SS. Alexander and Grata: In the diocese of Como there are two villages, of which one is called Moltrasio, the other Vercana. Near these villages there appeared ravening wolves and most savage beasts, which attacked men, and, entering houses, carried off children and killed them; and so great fear and trembling seized all, and they did not dare go out to their work, nor even to their labor toward evening.
[15] freed from them by the patronage of SS. Alexander and Grata: But they remembered the holy and venerable Grata, because her monastery had formerly been wont to have possessions there; and when a vow had been made by the inhabitants of the land to the most blessed martyr Alexander and to the most blessed Grata of God, that people found itself forthwith delivered from the most savage beasts. Now their vow was that, so long as they should live, once a year they would with crosses in procession devoutly and carefully visit the most sacred body of the martyr Alexander, and the most holy body of the venerable Grata. Which vow they fulfilled for a long time, so long as peace lasted, and so long as that generation lived which had bound itself by such a vow. And they came singing and praising the Saints, and rendering manifold thanks to God, and to blessed Alexander, and to blessed Grata, because they had delivered them from most savage beasts. The same history Guarnerio relates in the Life of Alexander, folio 40, and calls the first village Multrafium. But here he adds concerning St. Alexander another miracle like the preceding, in this manner: By his help the same plague was driven off from the inhabitants of the Brembana Valley; and their posterity, mindful of the benefit received, religiously discharge to this time what they then vowed.
[16] From the same author I subjoin the benefit of health restored, Charles the Fat restored to health: bestowed upon the emperor Charles the Fat: Charles, he says, when about the year DCCCLXXXIII he was in sick and ruined health, and his recovery seemed all but despaired of, conceived a vow that he would go to the church of St. Alexander if he should be relieved of the disease. When by his help the violence of the disease first abated, and then entire health was restored, as soon as he was able, with kindled zeal he hastened to Bergamo; and having entered the church piously and religiously, he both gave most abundant thanks to God for the health obtained, and, most devoutly venerating the relics of St. Alexander, extolled with many proclamations of praise the greatness of the gifts which God had bestowed upon him. The same, glad at the greatness of the benefit, and captivated by the religion of the places and the courtesy of the inhabitants, for the everlasting memory of his grateful mind heaped upon the city and the sacred buildings very many privileges, and those honorable …, and gave most ample immunities and exemptions; and he then left recorded and attested in a most illustrious inscription the kind of disease from which he had most dangerously suffered, and the obtaining of his health. He also placed upon the altar as an offering a golden crown, adorned with very many and most brilliant gems, which should be an ornament to the church for the everlasting memory of the imperial piety. Several relate this miracle, and among them Ughelli, volume 4, column 416, who recites three diplomas of Charles by which the aforesaid things are confirmed. From the first I cull these words of the emperor: To the honor of the most blessed martyr of Christ Alexander, to whose thresholds we fled, and by whose intercessions the Lord restored us to health from a grievous infirmity of body, etc.
[17] Guarnerio, having related that benefit, subjoins two others in these words: The people of Riva freed from siege by the Saint's help: In a most difficult time also, and in a most perilous war, when the affairs of the people of Riva — who not far from Trent inhabit the shores of Lake Garda — were sick and tottering, St. Alexander brought them aid and help. In the year from the birth of Christ MDIX, Julius II being supreme Pontiff and Maximilian emperor, when almost all the Christian princes, a league having been struck among themselves, had conspired to blot out the Venetian name, and, battle being joined, the Venetians had been driven back and overcome, and the whole onset of arms turned against them, the people of Riva also were being pressed by the ravagings and inroads of the neighboring Germans. Who, since they were not equal to fighting with the enemy, being driven within their walls, fearful and destitute of all things, human aids being despaired of, implored help for their calamity from St. Alexander, to whom a chapel had anciently been built upon a neighboring hill; and they poured out very many tears in those bitter straits. God had mercy, Alexander interceding; and the men of Riva, as though bidden by a heavenly voice, the gates being thrown open and a sally made, routed and put to flight the enemy; and since nothing stood in the way of their panic, and arms and men were laid low one upon another with a huge slaughter, not only was the siege raised, but so great a carnage of the enemy was made that the number of the slain could not be reckoned, and the waters of the river were stained with gore. Hence upon that place was imposed the name Aquæ mortuæ (Dead Waters), from the multitude of the slain and the abundance of the flowing blood. And among the people of Riva in after times Alexander was held in the highest veneration, and by a decree made the people of Riva resolved to keep the day on which he departed to heaven as a feast, and to observe it for ever.
[18] The men of Bergamo the peril of the sacking of their city But that was a foreign case, this a domestic one, in which we ourselves experienced Alexander's ready kindness toward us, at the time when we were pressed by great perils. Raymond de Cardona, a Spaniard, was administering the kingdom of Naples for the king. He, because war had been undertaken by the Venetians with king Ferdinand, in the year MDXIV entered the territory of Bergamo with a hostile army; and, the fields being laid waste on every side, he besieged the city. The wall being shattered and thrown down by frequent strokes of the artillery, where the monastery of St. Augustine is situated, he had brought the matter to such a pass that without a battle they might climb into the city and bear in their standards. And Raymond, being hostile to the men of Bergamo, because, following the rule of the Venetians, they preferred to endure a siege and to bear all bitter things rather than surrender themselves, was about to give up the city to the soldiers to be plundered. While he provides and disposes those things which were of use for such a business, he stayed awake a great part of the night. For that cause a deeper sleep than the custom of commanders allows took hold of him. To him as he slept St. Alexander seemed in his dreams to announce that, unless he should spare the men of Bergamo and lead his forces back from the walls, he himself would fall pierced through by the weapon with which he had been armed.
[19] escape by an apparition of Alexander; That vision Raymond judged was not to be held for nothing. And so on the following day, when the envoys of the men of Bergamo had come out of the city, and pleaded the more piteously as the greater peril was impending, he who had admitted no conditions of peace to his ears answered more placably; and having rebuked the men of Bergamo with much chiding for their excessive zeal for the Venetian republic, he granted peace on this condition, that they should pay thirty thousand gold pieces. Hence, when he had entered the city with a small band, nothing was more urgent to him than to visit the church of St. Alexander. Simon of Brescia, provost of the church, a man of the utmost gravity and piety, who was lying hidden there and hoped to keep the sanctity of the church inviolate, was summoned. He, thinking that he was sought out for some destruction, was so dismayed in mind that neither his color nor his countenance remained steady. At last, his mind being gathered out of great trepidation, he received Raymond. And when the latter had used a humble and suppliant entreaty, and had venerated the body of St. Alexander, turning from his prayers to the men of Bergamo, he said: You ought to have great thanks to him (he pointed his finger to the panel on which was the image of St. Alexander), who, had he not covered you with his protection, it would have gone most ill with you today. Bartolomeo de' Pellegrini in the Vineyard of Bergamo, part 1, chapter 56, the same briefly
narrates the apparition. But both the benefits last related are likewise narrated by Mario Muzio toward the end of his Italian Life of St. Alexander.
[20] and in a pestilence they are kept almost immune. The said Muzio testifies that he saw many benefits of the same Saint toward the men of Bergamo, and tokens of his fatherly care and benevolence; of which he narrates one, which I here render into Latin: Among matters of this kind that of the year MDLXXVI is notable, when almost all Italy was infected with the plague, and in all the cities, especially Venice and Milan, men were dying by thousands, but at Bergamo (which is the fruit of the merits and intercessions of St. Alexander) scarcely ten or twenty perished. Let the studious reader take these miracles upon the credit of those who were able to know them and faithfully to recount them. Now I must pass to other matters, and see what the men of Bergamo likewise performed in the Saint's honor.
[21] That the body of St. Alexander was buried by a holy matron named Grata is narrated in the Acts; Churches built to the holy Martyr at Bergamo: and nothing is added concerning a church, either one or several, built by her to the holy Martyr. Yet Friar Pinamonte Peregrino de Brembate wrote already in the XIII century that three churches were built to St. Alexander by that same St. Grata, whom they will have to be their duchess; whom the men of Bergamo of today eagerly follow, and do not sufficiently weigh how unfit a time they assign for the erecting of so many churches. Namely, while the persecution of Maximian was raging there against the Christians, and enrolling many martyrs in heaven, they contend that six churches in all were built with impunity by Lupus, Adeleyda, and Grata — and that within a few years, which is no less incredible than unknown to all the writers of that time, as I shall show more amply in the Acts of St. Grata. I judge, therefore, that the churches of St. Alexander which the aforesaid Pinamonte assigns were built after peace was restored to the church, and indeed long afterward. The matter I thus prove from the Life. The writer of the Acts, having related the burial, thus goes on: In which place the Lord, ever entreated by the merits of the blessed Martyr, shows prodigies and fulfills the vows of suppliants. Can anyone doubt that, if a church had already been built there, the author would altogether have declared it? And so the church seems to have been built after these Acts were written. The aforesaid Pinamonte in chapter 8 narrates that one church was built in the place before the tall column where he had been slain, which is called IN COLUMNA; another at the crossways, where he will have it that certain drops of the same Saint's blood fell while the body was being carried to burial, which is called, he says, St. Alexander of the Cross, … which I myself also beheld with my eyes; a third where the sacred body was first buried. To whom the building of these churches ought to be attributed, I shall say in the Acts of St. Grata. Let us hear meanwhile how the said author in chapter 13 relates the building of this church, in which for many centuries the sacred body of St. Alexander rested:
[22] Blessed Grata also, not unmindful of her martyr Alexander, but ever solicitous for him, and being most faithful and most devoted to him, one, where the sacred body was buried; which being destroyed, considering that the Martyr of God stood unbecomingly upon her estate without house and without roof, put her hands to strong deeds, disposing and pondering how she might raise a fitting church over the holy body, in which faithful Christians might obtain the suffrages of Christ's Martyr. She pondered, I say, and what she pondered she accomplished. For out of her riches, which she most gladly expended in the service of God, she caused the first church of blessed Alexander to be built, seemly and serviceable, according to what the quality of that time demanded. And she gave to that church great and liberal gifts — namely all that the handmaid of God possessed about the place dedicated to the Saint, which even to this present day are known to belong to that church. Now this church remained in honor of the Martyr for a long time, until that which now is was built; that is, down to the times of St. Adelbert, about the beginning of the tenth century, when it was burned by a hostile hand; and another was magnificently built by the care of the same Adelbert, and adorned with many privileges and gifts, as may be seen in various diplomas on this matter which Ughelli recites, volume 4, from column 420.
[23] The church of St. Alexander being restored, or rather newly built, his body was taken up from the place of burial, and translated to a more honorable place, by the same St. Adelbert, in the presence, as Sigonio testifies, of Berengar, then king of Italy. Hear the said Sigonio, book 6 On the Kingdom of Italy, at the year 903: Italy being relieved of the burden of the Hungarians (who had ravaged Bergamo and other cities), he then, turning to the repairing of the damages, strove first of all to relieve the churches which had suffered their violence. In his presence, at Bergamo, bishop Adelbert transferred the bones of St. Alexander the martyr, who is honored in the basilica of the city itself, from his ancient sepulcher into the confession, where they rest even now. This was the first translation of the venerable body.
[24] another translation to the church of St. Vincent, now St. Alexander's: The second followed in the year 1561 — a sadder one indeed, but performed with no less solemnity. The Republic of Venice had determined to fortify Bergamo; the church sacred to St. Alexander was an impediment: it therefore orders this to be overthrown from the foundations, not without great grief of the citizens. Hence the bishop hastens to have the sacred relics both of the other Saints and of Alexander transferred to the church of St. Vincent. This church of St. Vincent was cathedral together with the church of St. Alexander then demolished, so that there was a twofold congregation of canons. But both these congregations coalesced into one cathedral chapter in the year 1689, by the care of the most illustrious bishop of the city, Daniele Giustiniani; and the church of St. Vincent was then dedicated to St. Alexander alone, the city's patron. These things the reader will find more fully narrated partly in the diploma of Federico Cornelio, bishop of Bergamo, in Ughelli cited, column 500, partly in the Acts of the union of the chapter, printed at Bergamo in the year 1689. We subjoin only, from the aforesaid diploma of the bishop, where in the year 1561, and in what condition, the sacred body was found.
[25] how the Saint's body was then found: Behind the altar, he says, which was set in the middle, dedicated to St. Alexander, there stood for a pavement a stone, which was a base for four small marble columns set beneath a wooden chest girt with iron plates. The altar and all these being wholly removed, and the ground dug up somewhat, a fragment of marble was found, upon which in capital letters is read written Miles Thebanus (a Theban soldier). Again, the aforesaid digging being continued through half a cubit of the earthy material which followed, another stone altogether larger and broader was found, and with great difficulty lifted, for it was the proper cover of the sarcophagus; and a vessel of three cubits in length, of deep marble, appeared uncovered, wrought on the outside with a carving betokening a wondrous antiquity — from which it is doubtful to none that that vessel was made, before salvation was bestowed upon the human race, for entombing the corpses of the heathen, and presently afforded its use for the pious burial of Christ's martyr Alexander; especially since in the middle there stands carved an epitaph with names and characters savoring of that ancient heathenism, which, since many letters have been wholly corroded by time, cannot be understood at all. In it the bones of St. Alexander lay scattered, much broken up. He adds a little after that during the digging two fragments of marble were found, containing epitaphs in rude characters, words indeed pious, and lacking the purity of the Latin tongue; of which, he says, because the marble is in part broken through, the entire sense cannot be had; yet of the other, which is larger and is better read, the words are, namely: The most precious treasure of the blessed martyr Alexander, etc. Thus the cited diploma, which I have given from the Bergamo manuscript, because certain things in Ughelli are dislocated, by the fault, I suppose, of the printers.
[26] The nuns of St. Grata of Bergamo, of the Order of St. Benedict, [the marble tomb in which the Saint's body was first buried is held in veneration.] preserve with due veneration the marble tomb in which they believe St. Alexander was first buried, and which afterward contained the relics of St. Grata. In a printed instrument, strengthened by the subscription of a public notary, to which they gave the title The translation of the most ancient marble sepulcher, in which first the sacred body of St. Alexander the martyr … and successively that of St. Grata … were laid, the form of that tomb and its honorable deposition are narrated in this manner: Hence therefore it is that in the year from the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand six hundred and twenty-nine, on Friday, the sixth day of the month of April, at the hour of Terce or thereabouts, in the twelfth Indiction, in the sixth year of the Pontificate of our most holy Lord Urban VIII, Pope, and the same most illustrious (Agostino) Priuli ruling the church of Bergamo, the said reverend lady abbess and nuns, hymns having first been chanted by them with versicle and prayer for the same St. Alexander and St. Grata, near the said door of the monastery delivered to the aforesaid canon Pozzo, their confessor, that same most ancient sepulcher of St. Alexander, to the end that it might be placed upon the said altar — diligently drawn forth and extracted from the same monastery by the industry and work of the excellent mason Francesco de Broli of Bergamo — which is a marble chest, as is discerned from the inspection of it, wholly whitish and lustrous; of a height of one cubit and a fourth part of such a cubit; of a breadth of another cubit and a like fourth part with also the half of that fourth; and of a length of three cubits with another fourth part, by the measure of Bergamo in the use of such workmen; and fringed at the upper and lower extremity of its front and sides with not unseemly cornices; from the front of which also there are seen four carved little columns, displaying a rounded form, with three arches after the manner of a portico; and beneath the middle and broader arch there are now read these words, engraved and overlaid with gold: She who once laid here the venerable body of St. Alexander the martyr, standard-bearer of the Theban legion, afterward rested in the same sepulcher — his disciple, Bl. Grata, virgin, princess of Bergamo; and as many upon the sides, namely two on the right and two on the left with an arch, and also at the corners others, corner-set or pilastered, wrought with no contemptible art, and each with its own base and epistyle; but at the back it is plain and without ornament, and within deeply hollowed like an egg, where some marks of the blood of St. Alexander still appear. Thus in the same place, which things are read to have been done before several witnesses; but the altar within which the tomb was placed is the first in the new church of St. Grata, and sacred to St. Alexander, as is premised in the instrument.
PASSION
By an anonymous author of Bergamo.
From the manuscript Legendary of the most eminent Cardinal Barberini, folio 243, collated with two manuscripts.
Alexander, martyr, at Bergamo in Italy (St.)
BHL Number: 0276
A. By the anonymous writer of Bergamo.
PREFACE.
If of the vast glory of the martyrs When with devotion of mind and most fitting veneration we recall the deservedly victorious battles and the notable triumphs of all the blessed martyrs of Christ, we without doubt illuminate the darkness of our own ignorance in the soul; and while
we weigh their brave deeds worthy of imitation, we cut off, so to speak, our own sloth with the sword's point of charity. In these, finally, we behold how mightily they burned with the love of Christ, who themselves none the less tasted for him the cup which he drank in the way from the torrent for our salvation, their own blood being poured out. Let us love, therefore, these most approved commanders of Christ, who, following his footsteps, laid low with his satellites the enemy of the human race; and the narrow way by which our King departed, the prince of this world being slain, they themselves, clothed with the breastplate of faith and the helmet of hope and salvation, followed as victors, the fear of the enemy being taken away; and they urge us by their glorious triumphs to follow them. For these the Lord deigned to call not servants but friends: to whom, namely, he willed that all things which he had heard from his Father should be made known, through which they were united to his incomparable sacred love. These the Psalmist had long since beheld, when with burning desire he cried out, saying: Thy friends, O God, are exceedingly honored by me. And as though we should straightway seek to have the causes of so great an honor suggested to us by him, he added: Their principality is exceedingly strengthened. For behold, we see the elect of God do wondrous things, command demons, flash with miracles, bestow health upon the sick, and the mighty of this world fall down at their sepulchers with humble veneration.
[2] we wish to be partakers, their virtues are to be imitated. What else do we mark these tokens to attest, than that their principality is exceedingly sublime? For it is fitting that we follow them by a sharing of their sufferings, if we desire to be made conformable to their glory and consolation. Whence the Apostle well admonishes us, saying: Since if you are partners of the sufferings, you shall be also of the consolation. And likewise: If we suffer together, we are also glorified together. He well celebrates with devout mind the birthday of the martyrs who follows the faith of the martyrs with his manners and his life; for he who is still scattered abroad through the unlawful desires of pleasures seeks here in vain the suffrages of the martyrs with prayers. The holy Martyrs exhibit the gifts of their intercession to those who know how to make their works agree with what they seek in words. For how should one endure with fitting faith, together with the martyr, the torments of the various punishments for Christ, whom luxury defiles, whom ambition puffs up, whom anger makes bloody, whom envy destroys, whom prosperity lifts up, whom adversity casts down? These and like venomous darts of the devil the holy martyrs, fortified with the arms of faith, conquered before they laid low their holy bodies for the Lord in the destruction of torments. Let us meanwhile understand the wars of carnal vices, and at length with fitting faith let us follow the devotion of the martyrs; let us exhibit to all the martyrs of Christ, according to our small measure, a fitting honor, yet chiefly to those in whose patronage we glory: because we more confidently pay our vows to those whose sacred relics we venerate in our own dwellings. Of whose college the venerable Alexander, martyr, comes before us today, for whose rosy blood this festive day has dawned upon us. But let us embrace him with the more ardent love of heart, since we know his pious contests unto the glory of Christ.
[3] In the time, therefore, of Maximian Cæsar, the devil blazing out against the catholic faith, Persecution having arisen, St. Alexander by Maximian there was made a great a persecution against those who with pious religion worshiped Christ throughout the whole world. Now he had given it in charge to all the prefects that wheresoever they could search out by public examination those who worshiped Christ, they should harass them with various punishments and with the bites of wild beasts, and at last assign them to a capital sentence. But it came to pass in those days in which this cruel sentence was promulgated, that Bl. Alexander, being prevented by the grace of Christ, constantly received the faith of the Lord with the water of holy regeneration. Which Maximian hearing, after almost fifteen days, his officers being sent, he ordered him to be set before his sight in haste; whom he addressed with such cruel madness, saying: For no other cause have I bidden you to be summoned than that you should offer sacrifice to the gods whom you had forsaken. For I have found that you have deserted the gods and become a Christian. And saying these things he asks that a table be set before him, covered with linen cloths. And he says to Bl. Alexander: Come now, and sacrifice, if you wish to escape the penalties for the contempt of the gods.
[4] But St. Alexander, strengthened by the divine spirit, said: being ordered to sacrifice to the idols, constantly refuses to do so: Why do you set forth this abominable command, Maximian? You wish, in truth, to exercise a great tyranny; and indeed I can revere you as a king, but nevertheless I cannot love you as a god. But Cæsar said to him: I order you to die, unless you shall have sacrificed to the gods. But St. Alexander answered: Death inflicted upon me by you is life with God; for departing from this world, I shall receive true life among the angels, and shall possess the most just King, our Creator and yours. Wondering at his answer, Cæsar ordered him to be kept standing, and with persuasive words urged him, saying: Even if you refuse to sacrifice, Alexander, at least consent with those who sacrifice, and join yourself to them. But when he was silent, and answered the tyrant nothing, he ordered the ministers to set out the table with the sacrifices. But St. Alexander, looking up to heaven, said: Would that God, who bestows all right things upon those who ask through Jesus Christ, would give me so great a grace that I might both turn your will to the knowledge of God, and cut away this most vain madness of your mind. But since you have this incurable evil, congealed from the venomous b draught of the devil, I have no confidence that you will believe in your Creator. But me he has called, who long since promised that all nations should be blessed in the seed of Abraham. Spare at last your diabolical evil counsels; mourn, and know, though late, your abominable deeds; and believe in the one God, who made all things out of nothing, that you may be able to escape those eternal torments which are prepared for you with the devil. Then Maximian, moved at so great a constancy of his, said: Hitherto indeed I have modestly awaited your assent, and, as is my custom, I have admonished you that you might rejoice among the living. But since you have used freer words than is fitting, I command that you be held as a despiser and a rebel from the sacrifices set before you.
[5] [his threats being scorned, when they would compel him against his will, he overturns the table:] Hearing these things, Bl. Alexander said constantly to the tyrant of God: Your threats, Cæsar, are my caresses; and the torments over which you rage with frenzied mind shall procure for me an eternal crown with the Lord. For I boldly set before you my faith, which, when you begin to try it, you shall always find the stronger: for I worship the God of heaven, whom you have not deserved to c behold, who by his freely given goodness has brought me out of this error in which you, unhappy man, are held, to the knowledge of his law; and I adore not wood, nor stones, nor the figments of any metal whatsoever, which you in wretched madness, the devil abetting, irrevocably venerate. But why do you rage in vain with a frenzied spirit? Why are you racked by the laceration of your mind through various destructions? This sword indeed, which has been laid upon me by you because I would not sacrifice, I receive for the most unconquered glory of Christ with a loving sweetness of heart and with the highest devotion; through which, unafraid, I shall be joined d not to your iniquity, but to the justice of God, in which by his prevenient grace I have deserved to have part. Nor because of the momentary punishment which you strive to inflict upon me shall I be made a stranger to the grace of Christ or to the communion of the Saints. When most blessed Alexander was proclaiming these things with a clear voice to the tyrant of Christ and to the rest, Maximian, moved, ordered those standing by him to offer to him against his will of the sacrifice set out; and, armed men being applied, he commanded that this be urged upon him. But he, more indignant, and confounding in every way the royal iniquity and its unjust precepts, striking the table with his heel, overturned it with all the abominable things set upon it.
[6] a soldier ordered to kill him stands motionless: Hence, therefore, Maximian, filled with fury and wholly boiling with the venom of wrath, fixed his eyes of cruelty upon the death of the holy Man; and he ordered him to be handed over to one of those who served him, that he might butcher him for the name of Christ like a harmless lamb. But the minister, his sword drawn, began to stand there out of his senses, nor could he bring down the stroke of his lifted right hand upon the neck of Bl. Alexander. To whom straightway the tyrant Maximian said: Do you still stand back as though afraid, worthless soldier? But Marcianus, trembling, answered with stifled voice: My lord king, his head appears to my sight like a huge mountain; wherefore I, trembling in mind, am wearied at his suffering. But Maximian, that useless Cæsar, learning the cause, at length appointed him to other clients of truculent mind, that they might slay him.
[7] [being about to be led back to prison, he escapes by flight, and hides near Bergamo:] Then Bl. Alexander, by a spirit in some sort prophetic, not from dread of suffering, avoided the unclean hands of the lictors by a e secret departure; and having gone out of Milan, he went to the place where he should obtain the crown of martyrdom, namely near the city which is called f Bergamo, on a small estate which is called g Prætoria. Further, while there for some days the Athlete of Christ was cherished in a hiding-place, behold, there suddenly come with savage mind the officers to whom he had lately been handed over by Maximian Cæsar. Him, therefore, they presently attacked with bloody hands after the manner of wild beasts, and, bound with ropes, violently dragged him to the statue which was called h Plotatius, that there, if he would not sacrifice to the idols, he might, according to Cæsar's precept, be beheaded.
[8] When the soldier of Christ came to that place, filled with the Holy Spirit, he asked that water be given him by the bystanders; which when he received, he at once washed his hands, where, being taken, having washed his hands and made a prayer, and lifting his mind to heaven, and bending his knees upon the ground, with bowed neck he offered a prayer to the Lord, saying: Blessed art thou, almighty Creator of all things, who bestowest eternal goods upon those who worthily worship thee. Blessed art thou, patient King, who bearest with sinners and the impious, and showest the light of thy truth that those who err may be able to return into the way of justice. Blessed art thou, exalted King, who for thy loving-kindness raisest up the broken. Blessed art thou, King of glory, who, emptying thyself, taking the form of a servant, wast made obedient to the Father for us unto death, even the death of the cross, by which thou didst tread down the nether regions; and, the empire of death being destroyed, thou didst return victor on the third day to those above, and gavest a place of penance to us also who were thy slayers. Blessed art thou, merciful one, who, now detesting the slaughters of animals of thy own, dost most graciously receive the prayers of the Saints. Blessed art thou, Lord of hosts, who dost put the contrivances of the demons beneath the feet of thy Saints. Blessed art thou, most loving one, who bestowest i penance for their sins upon deserters, and hast deigned to give a full wage to the workmen of the eleventh hour. Blessed art thou, O Lord, in thy wisdom, who hast this day extinguished in me the ignorance of impiety, and hast mercifully gathered me into thy veneration. Blessed art thou in the bowels of thy mercy, who, snatching me out of the midst of the worship of idols, hast taken me up to the greatness of thy good works, and hast freed me from the power of the prince of this air, and likewise of his followers. Blessed art thou, best Shepherd, who hast restored to the good flock the sheep which had gone astray, and hast made joy over me in heaven before thy holy Angels. Blessed art thou, Father of all benevolence, who to me of such great
goods hast deigned suddenly to bestow abundance, and hast granted me, contending in the stadium of thy truth, the crown of victory through Jesus Christ the Lord. Blessed art thou, strong King, who hast made me a strong athlete of true reason in word and work by the help of thy Spirit, and hast weakened the sting of the devil. Do thou, O Lord, show me perfect grace, as thou hast deigned to promise to those who love thee. Let the heavens bless thee, O Lord, and the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them: because thou hast made all things through thy Only-begotten unto the praise and glory of thy name, and, as thou didst will, k very good.
[9] These things the most blessed martyr Alexander prayed in the Holy Spirit; he is beheaded, and buried by Grata. and after the prayer, looking up to heaven, he commended his spirit, saying: Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit; and at last he bowed his holy head to the executioner beneath the sword; and then the executioner, who had delayed, according to what had been commanded him, drew the sword with his hand, and cut off the holy head of the Martyr. Thereafter, after some days, a certain matron coming, most chaste in merits and l Grata by name, finding the blessed body, received it with joy and gladness, and carried it with her own people to her little estate, which is seen to be situated near the walls of the already-mentioned city of Bergamo; and there she buried it with spices in an excellent place. Now the blessed martyr Alexander suffered for Christ under Maximian Cæsar on the seventh of the Kalends of September, and was buried near the walls of the city of Bergamo in the honor of the Lord with all Christian diligence. In which place the Lord, ever entreated by the merits of the blessed Martyr, shows prodigies and fulfills the vows of suppliants: who lives in Trinity, God, through all the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
A SECOND PASSION
by an anonymous author of Bergamo.
From the ancient Lectionary of the cathedral church of Bergamo, collated with the manuscript of the monastery of St. Grata.
Alexander, martyr, at Bergamo in Italy (St.)
BHL Number: 0277
A. By the anonymous writer of Bergamo.
PREFACE.
He writes the Acts of the martyrs for the edification of the faithful; Supplications having been offered soberly and in due order with the devotion of the Catholic faith, I speak, dearest brethren, while you stand by, and I pray that your concourse may appear sincere, for our common solace, in the joy of the sacred reading. The miracles also of the holy martyrs, the chief ones which almighty God willed to show to the world through them — the world's business being laid aside, and the cares of superfluous thought removed, with pure mind and its whole attention united, and with open ears, keeping silence — hear, and attentively hold your peace. Celebrating, therefore, these a birthday festivals, let no dogmas deceive you by any assault of error, dogmas of those who, carelessly regarding the rudiments of the catholic faith, hissed with apocryphal error things to be judged by the oracle of an unsound mind. But since you do not doubt that we have been regularly imbued with the sacred Scriptures of both laws, you ought to believe us learned in the canonical institutions, and therefore do not deny that the holy martyrs faithfully suffered. For with that affection we write out the acts of the holy martyrs with undoubting faith, with which we know beforehand that they guarded the catholic dogma with a catholic vivacity of mind. Whence we furnish to believers an example of edification, and to the soldiers of Christ we set in motion arms with which they may fight against the devil, and bulwarks fortified with the seal of defense. We write, indeed, those things which the holy martyrs did, as we find b in their deeds, and we faithfully make known to you those things which they suffered for the name of the most high God.
[2] For they who neglect to hear what has been done by the Saints, scorn to be their imitators. that these, in imitation of them, may war down their vices. We speak of divine powers, we proclaim notable deeds; let the jugglings, therefore, of their wordy rivals cease. For we are prepared, contending for the truth, to endure temporal punishments. Because we shall be the more glorious in that, contending for the Leader of truth, we shall carry back a triumph to the fatherland of our own dwelling. For there will be magnificent joy in heaven, when, our vices being warred down, the truculent rage of the bitter enemy shall behold the branding-iron of its own overthrow, and shall see the spectacle of our restoration, and also the reckoning of the highest reward. Since the holy martyrs suffered a dreadful persecution, we in the hidden stirring of vices suffer wondrous things daily; and in their harassment, God favoring, the arms of the virtues came in, by which the members of our frailty could scarcely succumb. But because our Guardian, who, watching by night, ceases not to guard his own, when they are worn down, the enemy, suddenly grown flabby, straightway vanishes, and no longer leaps forth master of his own strength, so that he might be able manfully to crush those who serve.
[3] In the times, therefore, of the most cruel and most savage emperor Maximian, who had taken up hard and harsh contests of war against the athletes and worshipers of Christ, there was a most blessed c Maternus, faithful bishop of the holy church of Milan, In the persecution of Maximian St. Maternus, strengthening the martyrs, who was so zealous and so acceptable toward the sheepfold of his mother that by his most learned discourses the temples of the idols and of the pagans took loss, and the holy Church daily grew in the praises of God, and more zealously triumphed in his jubilations. For while he was acting solicitously in the increasing of the holy Church, and had no small care for the instructing of the servants of Christ, to whom each of the nobles or of the common people the more gladly attached himself, and while he enlightened in some part those whom divine grace had already looked upon, the son of a certain illustrious man, Prætestatus, d Fidelis by name, joining himself to him most gladly, within a short time, being instructed by him, went about in the laurelled habit. On this occasion, indeed, he came to blessed Maternus the bishop, and gave himself in goodwill to his acquaintance, and made himself over as a disciple of entire obedience. Being thus instructed in every divine action, since he was beloved, and a follower of celebrated faith, he alone with blessed Maternus went about the prison-houses of the holy martyrs, and, kissing their chains, comforted them to act manfully in all constancy, uttering that word of the psalmist: Act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened.
[4] visits them in prison with St. Fidelis; When therefore they took such solicitude for the servants of God, and did this with no small deliberation, that if they should find any held for the faith of Christ, they might visit them without any delay intervening — it came to their knowledge that the most blessed martyrs, namely Alexander, e primipilarius of the sacred legion, and f Cassius, Severus, Secundus, and Licinius, were held bound at Milan, and were also detained chained in prison. When blessed Fidelis, that wondrous worshiper of God, had heard this, together with the venerable bishop Maternus he came to the halls of the prison. And having entered in, he found the soldiers of Christ, how they were held bound in the stocks. Seeing them, therefore, afflicted with so great constraint, and knowing them glorious with the reward of the recompense to come, he besought them, saying, that they would intercede for him, and by their prayers would join him as a guest of the eternal fatherland and as their companion. O blessed men of God, he said, I beseech you that you ask Christ, through whom you suffer these things, in whom you believe, that he may make me a partaker of your banquet, and possessed of such a crown, and enjoy the joy of your contest.
[5] whose joy in chains, being observed, the keeper of the prison reports, While blessed Fidelis was pursuing these and like things, Sillanus, who was keeper of the prison, hearing him, came with the utmost speed to the emperor's palace, and announced all that he had heard from the Saints, and the miracle which he had chanced to see. Two fellow soldiers, therefore, who were most noble men in the palace, namely Carpophorus and Exanthus, hearing these marvelous things remarkable for all devotion, asked the jailer that he would lead them thither, so that they might be able to hear and see these things so stupendous and worthy of the admiration of the whole world. Make us, Sillanus, we pray, to see those of whom you speak, since
our age remembers never to have heard or seen anything of the kind which you tell. These words having been spoken, Sillanus, satisfying their prayers, went forward the more quickly.
[6] And the most noble fellow soldiers Carpophorus and Exanthus, [to the nobles Carpophorus and Exanthus, who, the martyrs being visited, are converted.] following him with equal steps, came the more eagerly to the prison, where the holy martyrs Alexander, Cassius, Severus, Secundus, and Licinius were being afflicted with various torments. When therefore they had come to the Saints in the prison, they greeted them according to the divine and upright custom, saying: Peace be to you, brethren. But they answered with one voice: May the peace of the angels never fail you, now chosen soldiers of Christ. In that same hour there was made among them great joy; and kissing one another, they afforded themselves the solace that in a little time the torment of punishments would fail, and that through these would follow the unfailing fruit of eternities, which would refresh them with the precious fragrance of its own flowers, in that paradise indeed of all delights, where spring never fails, and the ever-fragrant flower, once plucked, never withers. And having often given a kiss to one another, and bidding one another farewell, Carpophorus and Exanthus went out of the dwelling of the prison, and came to the palace, straightway spurning the idols, which profit neither themselves nor others at all, and began indeed unceasingly to adore the living and true God, who created all things out of nothing.
[7] At that same time, finally, the most cruel emperor Maximian, [The Martyrs, ordered by Maximian to sacrifice, refusing, are given back to prison;] who was most savage against the Christians, ordered the army of his soldiers to return to the province of the Gauls for battle. But on the next day the same Maximian ordered a tribunal to be prepared for him on high in the g Hippodrome of the circus, and commanded the Saints who were in prison — Alexander, standard-bearer of the commander Maurice, Cassius, Severus, Secundus, and Licinius — to be presented; and he said to them: Choose one of two things: either sacrifice to the immortal gods, or we shall prepare to slay you with various punishments. But the holy Martyrs said: We do not adore idols dumb and without sense and without life, which profit not themselves and harm others. We therefore sacrifice not to demons, but to the living and true God, offering ourselves to him as a sacrifice of praise. Then Maximian, being angry, ordered them to be shut up again in prison, until he should consider with what torments he might afflict them, or by what death he might destroy them.
[8] Hearing these things, Carpophorus and Exanthus together with blessed Fidelis went on to the prison, out of which, with Carpophorus and Exanthus, they flee to Como, and all with one counsel resolved that they should come to the city of h Como. While therefore the Saints were going out of the city of Milan by night, they came to a certain village not far from that same city, and there they remained until they should see the day dawn. And when day dawned, they began to pursue the journey they had begun. As they went on, indeed, they met a bier, that they might bury a dead man. Then Alexander, most holy and in all things eminent for wondrous sanctity, having seen the lifeless body, ordered the bier to be set down most quickly. And the bier being set down, he said to his colleagues and brethren:
[9] Men and brethren, let us pray and beseech our Lord and by their prayers they recall a dead man to life on the road, that by his power and mercy he may raise up this dead man, that being raised he may believe in him, and thereafter may have part with his faithful for ever. At this suggestion, therefore, being strong in undoubting faith, casting themselves upon the ground, they adored the God of heaven, who quickens the dead, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, to whom nothing is impossible and nothing difficult, to whom it belongs to know all things before they come to be, to whom even things dead are manifestly alive, and who dost not refuse to grant their petitions to the faithful who ask thee: give to us thy servants what we ask, and send back the soul of this dead man into his own body, that through our prayers he may believe in thee, being saved and raised again, and may know how to follow thee, his Savior, who art blessed through all the ages of ages. At this voice, being enlightened and raised again in both, namely in soul and body, he said with a clear voice, and with pious intent: There is one true and only God, whom the Saints worship, who by their prayers has raised me up, and has brought me back from darkness to light, and has mercifully freed me from eternal death.
[10] whom they send to St. Maternus to be baptized. Alexander is again taken. At that same hour, finally, the most glorious Martyrs, made joyful in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who ever deigns to bestow the bowels of his mercy upon his faithful, and willed that these benefits so manifest should suddenly be given them by his bounty, giving thanks to God with immense exultation, a token being given, sent the raised dead man to blessed Maternus the bishop, that he might receive the baptism of Christ. When therefore he came to blessed Maternus the bishop, bearing with him the token which they had enjoined upon him, being religiously received by him and catechized in the faith, he was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And he afterward faithfully believed God, and his justice departed not from him. The Saints therefore, setting out on the journey they had begun, came to a village not far from the city of Como, namely to the place which is called Silvula, and there, hiding themselves, they lay concealed in peace. But Alexander, leaving there the other brethren, Cassius, Severus, Secundus, Licinius, Carpophorus, and Exanthus, began to go by a different road. Then at that very point of time Maximian, seized with madness of mind, sending his fellow soldiers into various parts, ordered that if they could find the future martyrs of Christ, they should bring them to him the more quickly. And they, setting out, having found Alexander, brought him back to the walls of the city of Milan, and presented him to the most wicked Maximian. i