Fortunatus

ON SAINT FORTUNATUS, MARTYR, OF ROME, AT ANTWERP.

Fortunatus, Martyr, Roman, at Antwerp in Belgium (Saint)

I. B.

[1] James Tirinus of Antwerp, of the Society of Jesus, endowed while he lived with a wonderful sweetness of character, kindness toward all, James Tirinus of the Society of Jesus, famous for his writings, and at the same time with remarkable greatness of spirit, adorned the Church of God with distinguished commentaries on Sacred Scripture, and his homeland with two other truly exceptional ornaments. For the temple whose design Francis Aguilon, Rector of the College of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp, had drawn up according to the architectural precepts of Vitruvius and other ancients, he builds a temple at Antwerp and adorns it with Relics, and whose foundations he had laid -- Tirinus himself, when the college had been converted into a Professed House, as we call it, and he had been appointed its superior, built it up in Ligurian marble, a work remarkable both in material and craftsmanship. Then in the year of Christ 1622, the year after the temple had been completed and dedicated, having been sent to Rome as Procurator of the Flemish-Belgian province, he obtained a great number of relics of the Saints, destined to bring sacred splendor to the same temple and protection to the city.

[2] Among these is the body of the holy Martyr Fortunatus, dug up from the cemetery of Saint Callixtus on the Appian Way. namely the body of Saint Fortunatus, We celebrate his feast on the third of February. For the Fortunatus who is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on the second of February -- Tirinus perhaps judged him to be the same one whose body he had received, and because that day was occupied by the solemnity of the Purification, he established, by the authority of John Malderus, then Bishop of Antwerp, that he should be venerated on the following day. Moreover, the Acts of this Fortunatus, just as of the other one of whom we treated on the second day, are entirely unknown to us. We shall append here the instrument of the Roman notary, by which he declares whence and when his Relics were dug up, and when they were given to Tirinus.

[3] On the twenty-fourth day of November, 1622, at Rome. I, the undersigned public Notary, attest that in the year 1606, in the month of September, by virtue of certain Apostolic letters, [dug up in the year 1606 from the cemetery of Saint Callixtus by the Marquis of Villena,] from Pope Paul V of happy memory, granted to the Most Excellent Lord Juan Fernandez Pacheco, Marquis of Villena, then Ambassador for His Catholic Royal Majesty to the same Pontiff, dated at Rome at Saint Peter's on the fifth of September 1606 (the tenor of which letters was registered in the office of Lord Fulvius Passarini, then Notary of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Vicar of the Pope, on the tenth of September of the same year) -- certain bodies of Saints were extracted from several cemeteries or crypts of the City, as is established by the instruments drawn up by Lord Hieronymus Marchettus, public Notary, and by myself the undersigned, who personally attended the said extraction: and certain of the said bodies and Relics of the said Saints were given as a gift by the said Most Excellent Lord Marquis to various pious and devout persons, according to the faculty granted to him by the aforesaid Pontiff in the said Apostolic letters. Among which bodies were also extracted the following, in my presence as Notary, namely: the body of Saint Fortunatus, the body of Saint Innocentius the Subdeacon, the body of Saint Cyrinus, and the body of Saint Cerealis; all of whom endured martyrdom for the faith of Christ. All the above-named bodies were extracted from the cemetery of Saint Callixtus outside the City: given to him in the year 1622, and now, given as a gift by Lord Antonio Corbo, who was one of the said extractors, they have come into the hands of the Reverend Father James Tirinus of the Society of Jesus. And therefore, I, the undersigned Notary, having been requested, have made the present attestation, have subscribed it, and have sealed it with my customary seal.

So it is. I, Matthew Sorcius, public Notary of the Capitol. attested by a public Notary.

We, the Conservators of the Gracious City, attest that Lord Matthew Sorcius is our public and faithful Notary, and that full faith should always and everywhere be given to his writings: and therefore we have ordered the present document to be drawn up and sealed with our seal. Given on the twenty-fourth of November, 1622.

Fabritius Vallatus, Secretary.

[4] So much for this. We celebrate Saint Innocentius with a double feast on the ninth of August; Saint Cyrinus on the twelfth of June; Saint Cerealis on the fifth of the same month. A catalogue of all the relics that are preserved in our church here we shall give elsewhere.