ON ST. JANUARIUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR, AND PERHAPS ON SS. FELIX AND HONORATUS, DEACONS AND MARTYRS,
At Marsico in Lucania.
CommentaryJanuarius, bishop and perhaps Martyr, at Marsico in Lucania (St.)
Felix, martyr, at Marsico in Lucania (St.)
Honoratus, deacon and martyr, at Marsico in Lucania (St.)
BY J. P.
Ughelli in volume 7 of the Italia Sacra, column 485 of the latest edition, thus describes the city of Marsico on occasion of the prelates of that place: The situation of Marsico, whose patron is St. Januarius: Marsico Nuovo, he says, is an inland city of Lucania, 58 miles from the metropolis of Salerno; now in the province of the Hither Principate, by no means girt with walls, called Nuovo that it might be distinguished from the old Marsico, six thousand paces distant, of which no mention is made among the ancient writers. Now the aforesaid city is set upon the upper ridge of a mountain of three hills, which the neighboring mountains round about surpass in height. These and several other things Ughelli then subjoins. Further, that city attends St. Januarius with the public honors of the Citizens of heaven on this day, as the aforesaid Ughelli testifies at column 497, declaring his cult in these words, after he had recited a very brief history of the Acts, or rather of the translation: Thus far, he says, the very brief Acts of St. Januarius, to which there is not a hair to be added, which are read in the church of Marsico on his feast day, the XXVI of August, who is patron of the city; concerning whom we have found nothing in the Martyrologies and other ecclesiastical monuments which we might here recount. The same writer had premised at column 487: He shines with innumerable miracles. But the Acts which I mentioned run thus at column 497: At Marsico in Lucania, the translation of Bl. Januarius, bishop of Carthage, who, having suffered much at Potenza for the faith of Christ under the governor Leontius, at last at the grove of Aireusum, being struck with the axe together with the deacons Felix and Honoratus, obtains the palm of martyrdom.
[2] His most holy body, long unknown to the Christians, the translation of the body; the arm carried into Spain: Susanna, a pious woman, admonished in sleep, discloses to Grimaldus, bishop of Marsico; who goes to the place with the clergy and people, and takes care that the relics laid there be carried to the cathedral church. But nevertheless, because the abbot of St. Stephen, in whose field the Martyr's body had lain hidden, contended that it should be carried away to his own church, after long altercations they agree that it should be placed upon a wagon of untamed cows, and that in the place which they themselves should choose the body should be kept. Which, being carried by the will of God to the church of St. Stephen, is honored with the utmost devotion by the men of Marsico and by strangers, and especially by those who, being possessed by demons, are freed by the Martyr's prayer even at their entrance into the territory of Marsico. The arm, enclosed in a silver case — which the people of Marsico used as their helper in the greatest perils — Spanish soldiers, in the year of salvation MDII, our city of Marsico having been plundered and burned by them on occasion of the wars, carried into Spain to the town of Rodrigo, where it is preserved with miracles down to this time.
[3] Thus far the instrument of the translation published by Ughelli, whether Felix and Honoratus are honored, is not certainly established upon which alone rests the whole foundation of the public veneration of Bl. Januarius, bishop and martyr. But although other documents are not at hand for us, we have nevertheless thought that he should be numbered among the Citizens of heaven who are honored on this day, upon the credit of what is narrated in the aforesaid writer. As regards the two others, Felix and Honoratus, who are said above to have suffered with Januarius, their case is different. For the instrument brought forward from Ughelli does not indicate that they were found with him, that they were translated, and honored with public honors. Nevertheless, conforming ourselves to the same document, we have announced both also with the title of blessed Martyrs. For it may be that together with Januarius they had a public cult among the people of Marsico either from ancient times or afterward; but that it is attributed by name to Januarius alone as the more worthy, and to the two other deacon Martyrs tacitly and implicitly. This kindly interpretation is favored by the phrase the relics laid there in the instrument already so often alleged. For what compels us to understand that equivocal expression of the body of Bl. Januarius alone, of whom there was speech immediately before; and what forbids us to extend it also to Felix and Honoratus, who, a small interval being interposed, had been named, and are recorded as crowned with martyrdom together with him — deacons, namely, not separated in death from their own bishop of Carthage, as we may suppose? Yet since the things which we have related concerning them are so obscure, and so unknown to us, that nothing can be established concerning them save by uncertain conjectures, we have addressed them with the title of blessed Martyrs, but restricted by the adverb perhaps.
[4] the place of the martyrdom, The second thing which we desire to be observed is the place of the contest. This was at Potentia according to the above history of the translation. This name has a threefold signification in Baudrand. And in the first place: Potentia, he says, a city of Lucania in Italy in Ptolemy and Antoninus, now Potenza, a city of the kingdom of Naples in the province of Basilicata, episcopal under the archbishop of Matera or Acerenza …, 15 miles distant from Acerenza toward the winter sunset, and as many toward Marsico. In the second place is written: Potentia, a river of Italy …, which, flowing through the March of Ancona, waters the city of San Severino, and near Loreto … discharges itself into the Adriatic sea. In the third place, finally, is marked Potentia, which was a city of Picenum in Italy in Livy, now destroyed, whose vestiges appear in the March of Ancona, beyond the right bank of the river of the same name. From these I draw out that Potentia, the city of Lucania, is designated in the above narration of the finding and translation, at which Bl. Januarius is said to have suffered much; but that the grove of Aireusum, at which he is delivered to have undergone martyrdom together with the deacons Felix and Honoratus — although the situation of that grove is not known to me — was nevertheless in the territory of Marsico, both the aforesaid narration and what I shall presently relate persuade.
[5] the time of it unknown: Who could define securely enough the time of the martyrdom from the name of the governor Leontius, when the emperors under whom he lived are not added? Something more can be said of the finding and translation of the body of St. Januarius. For it came about, as their history reports, while the bishop Grimaldus was governing the diocese of Marsico; and since the time of that prelate is uncertain, it must be that the things also which can be inquired concerning the finding and translation of this sacred deposit in the reckoning of time are uncertain. Grimaldus, bishop of Marsico, says Ughelli at column 497 alleged above, the time in which he flourished is unknown; nor have we anything to say of him, except what is contained in the brief history of the translation of St. Januarius, bishop of Carthage, from the grove of Aireusum, where he took the palm of martyrdom together with the deacons Felix and Honoratus, to the church of St. Stephen the protomartyr in the church of Marsico itself. Yet since he places Grimaldus between Tuderisius, who is said to have sat in the year 853, and Gisulphus, who departed this life in the year 1093, the time in which the deed here treated of befell cannot be fixed, save very confusedly and imperfectly, since in Ughelli's series of the prelates of Marsico a gap of about two hundred and forty years is left.
[6] By way of conclusion these few things may be added to the preceding observations, on occasion of the arm of St. Januarius, notice of the place in Spain to which the arm of Bl. Januarius was carried away. which Spanish soldiers carried from the district of Marsico into Spain to the town of Rodrigo, as was indicated above. Of the situation, name, and founder of that place I cull this from Baudrand: Rodericopolis, Ciudad Rodrigo, is a city of Spain in the kingdom of Leon, which is otherwise called the city of Roderick, episcopal under the archbishop of Compostela … It was built in the year MCLXX under Ferdinand king of Leon, by count Roderick, whence the name was given it. You have, reader, these few things which we have found concerning this blessed Bishop and the two deacons, and have judged should be transmitted to posterity. In the gaping Catalogue of the bishops of the Marsi, which is contained after book 3 of the History of that people, by Muzio Febonio,
we have found nothing handed down to memory concerning the bishop Grimaldus, of whom above; nothing in the said History, so far at least as we have been able to see from the index, concerning our St. Januarius of today.