ON SS. MAURENTIUS, URBANUS, AVITUS, MATERNIANUS, AND VINCENTIUS, MARTYRS,
AT FORUM SEMPRONII IN ITALY.
Under the persecution of Diocletian.
Their cult and martyrdom.
Maurentius, martyr, at Forum Sempronii in Italy (St.)
Urbanus, martyr, at Forum Sempronii in Italy (St.)
Avitus, martyr, at Forum Sempronii in Italy (St.)
Maternianus, martyr, at Forum Sempronii in Italy (St.)
Vincentius, martyr, at Forum Sempronii in Italy (St.)
J. P.
Forum Sempronii, commonly Fossombrone, an episcopal city, is situated on the left of the Metaurus, on the Flaminian Way, in Umbria to the south …, Their public veneration: as Ughelli has it, volume 2 of the Italia Sacra, column 909, adding other things at column 910, from which I cull these: The cathedral was built under the invocation of St. Maurentius the martyr and of Aldobrandus the bishop, whose (read: of whom both) bodies rest in that same place … In the times of Boniface IX, while new defenses were being prepared for the new city, they (namely, the canons of Fossombrone) demolished the ancient cathedral, and raised the church of St. Maurentius, which was in the streets, into a cathedral. Concerning St. Aldebrandus, bishop of Fossombrone, we have written on the 1st day of May, from page 158, where these things are said: The body of St. Aldebrandus was also translated, and from that time, or at least after the restoration of the said Maurentian church — I know not when it was made — the cathedral church began to be called that of SS. Maurentius and Aldebrandus, and both to be reckoned by common right its patrons. Ferrarius, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on this day, treating of the aforesaid Martyrs, notes this: Their commemoration is made daily in the church of Fossombrone with this antiphon: "Maurentius the provost, the bravest soldier of Christ, with his faithful companions shines with miracles in the March" — namely, of Ancona. The same author further observes the following: Their Acts are not extant: the names of the companions are read in a corrupted form in the tablet of the same church: their feast is celebrated with an Octave. I have expressed the names above as Ferrarius forms them in the brief narrative of the martyrdom drawn from the records of the church of Fossombrone and from the Life of St. Paternianus.
[2] Narrative Concerning St. Paternianus, bishop of Fano, one may consult what I gave in volume III of July, on the XII day of the same month, page 295 and following. These things being noted beforehand, receive the very brief history of the martyrdom from the same Ferrarius: Maurentius, a disciple of St. Paternianus bishop of Fano, together with Urbanus, Avitus, Maternianus, and Vincentius, was living under the discipline of Paternianus himself in a monastery between Fano and Forum Sempronii.
[3] of the martyrdom. But when St. Paternianus had been made bishop of Fano, and Maurentius himself had been set over the monastery, he was seized by the worshipers of idols, while the persecution of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian was still in force, for the confession of Christ, and together with his companions was put to martyrdom on the day before the Kalends of September. Their bodies, buried by the Christians, were afterwards carried into the church of Fossombrone; where the head of the same St. Maurentius, separated from the other relics, is religiously preserved. Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology mentions St. Maurentius alone, whose relics, he says, are honored in that place — namely, at San Paterniano, where he announces him. A most cruel persecution raged under Diocletian and Maximian against the Christians in the year 303, which seems to be indicated here by the phrase τὸ still in force. But since from this the year of the martyrdom cannot be precisely determined, I have placed it under the persecution of Diocletian. St. Maurentius is called set over a monastery; but one may doubt whether at the end of the third century, or the beginning of the fourth, there were monasteries and provosts in Italy.