ON ST. AEMILIUS, COMMANDER, AT LUCCA IN ETRURIA.
CommentaryAemilius, Commander, at Lucca in Etruria (St.)
I. B.
Caesar Franciottus, in his sacred history of Lucca, treating of the basilica of St. Paulinus, attests that there exists in that place an altar of St. Barbara, Virgin and Martyr, on whose stone these words are inscribed: The relics of St. Aemilius at Lucca, discovered in 1200. "Here is the body of Aemilius, commander. 11th. In the year of the Lord 1200, in the first month of February, it was discovered." On the tablet placed before the stone, the following is recorded: "The body of St. Aemilius, Commander of Temar. In recent years the altar was opened, and a case was found, in which ashes, bones, and an iron breastplate were enclosed, together with a silken garment bordered with a golden hem." That these are holy relics is argued by the fact that they were deposited within the altar, and that in the archive of the same church, as Franciottus states, his memorial is found elsewhere among other Saints whose bodies are there, Aemilius is counted; which the same author again shows below, when he enumerates the relics themselves. In a certain manuscript of the Charterhouse of Brussels, though not ancient, the following is recorded: "In the city of Lucca, of the holy Martyrs Marcianus, Valerius, and Aemilia." Concerning St. Valerius we have treated on January 29. Concerning Marcianus we have as yet found nothing further.