Gelasius

CONCERNING SAINT GELASIUS, A BOY, AT PLACENTIA IN ITALY.

BEGINNING OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.

Gelasius, a boy, at Placentia (S.)

By the author I. B.

[1] At Placentia in Cisalpine Gaul, Saint Gelasius the Confessor is venerated with a semidouble Ecclesiastical Office, as they call it, on February 4. On this day Ferrarius, in the General Catalogue of Saints, has: "At Placentia in Gallia Togata, Saint Gelasius, Confessor." He has more in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, as we shall presently say. When Saint Gelasius lived becomes clear from the fact that his elder brother Opilius, who is venerated on October 12, is recorded as having been present, while still an Acolyte, at the Translation of Saint Antoninus the Martyr performed by Saint Sabinus the Bishop. Now Saint Sabinus, as we said on January 17, was a contemporary of Saint Ambrose and died near the end of the fourth century from the birth of Christ — in the year 395, as some in Ferrarius conjecture. Ferdinando Ughelli in volume 2 of his Sacred Italy seems to defer his death to the year 419. He was succeeded by Saint Maurus, who is said to have held the see until the year 445, or by Ughelli's reckoning until 449; his feast is celebrated on September 13. By Saint Maurus, moreover, Saint Gelasius was buried, and Saints Domninus and Victor the Deacons were ordained; who are then said to have devoted themselves, together with Gelasius himself, to the preaching of the word and other pious works, especially concerning divine worship. But it does not seem that Gelasius could have devoted himself to preaching in any way other than by ministering to those who preached or performed sacred functions, if (as will be said below from the monk Rufinus) he was still a boy when he died.

[2] An epitome of his Acts is contained in the Offices of the Church of Placentia, approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites at Rome on March 23, 1602, and April 15, 1603, and published by order of Claudius Rangoni, Bishop of the same Church, in the year 1635. In them, Lesson 4 for the fourth of February, which is sacred to Saint Gelasius, reads as follows: "Gelasius, born at Placentia of noble and Christian parents, distinguished from his earliest age by a singular gift of divine grace, had a glorious sign of the heavenly kingdom prepared for him. For while still a boy, when he had once found his brother Opilius praying in his chamber, he was deemed worthy to see with his eyes a multitude of Angels conversing with him, and at the same time to hear the voice: 'Suffer the little ones to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Moreover, as he flourished alike in age and holiness of life, and like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God brought forth abundant fruits of good works, he departed to the heavenly fatherland. His sacred body was first interred by Saint Maurus, Bishop of Placentia, in the church of Blessed Sabinus outside the city walls, and afterward brought into the new basilica of Saint Sabinus himself by Bishop Everard. Fabricius, Bishop of the same city, in the year of salvation 1481 translated it with solemn ceremony to a more distinguished place in the aforesaid church, together with the bodies of Saints Peregrinus, Victor, and Domninus, which rested in the same church."

[3] So far the said Offices. Ferrarius has nearly the same in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. The Saints whose bodies were translated by Bishop Fabricius are venerated as follows: Peregrinus on February 10; Victor the Deacon on March 6 (for there was another Saint Victor, the first Bishop of Placentia and predecessor of Saint Sabinus, of whom we treat on December 7); Domninus the Confessor on May 15. We shall treat of each in their proper places.

[4] Ferdinando Ughelli, in volume 2 of his Sacred Italy, in the catalogue of the Bishops of Placentia, transmits the following from a codex written in the year 1253 by Rufinus, a monk of the monastery of Saint Sabinus, concerning the burial place of Saint Gelasius and others, in the very words of Rufinus: "I found in a certain very ancient Martyrology that two men, distinguished for wisdom and goodness, adorned with holiness and religion, from the city of Rome (one was called Constantinus and the other Opinianus) first founded a certain church in the countryside of Placentia in honor of God and the Twelve Apostles." And shortly before, when treating of Saint Maurus the Bishop: "This church of Moxia was built by Constantinus and Opinianus, who were from Rome, in honor of the Twelve Apostles, which the most blessed Bishop Sabinus consecrated. His body rests here with five bodies of Saints. At his side rests Saint Victoria, a Virgin, his sister, who was Abbess of the monastery of Saint Michael the Archangel in the city of Placentia, which was of his entire lineage. At the feet of Blessed Sabinus is the altar of Saint Martin the Confessor and Saint Eusebius the monk, whose feast is on the Conception of Saint John the Baptist. In another vault, near the east, is the tomb of Saints Victor and Domninus the Deacon, and of Gelasius, an infant, who was the brother of Blessed Opilius, whose body rests in the basilica of Saint Antoninus the Martyr. At their sides is another tomb of Abbot Victorinus of this church, and others. I, Maurus, the last Bishop... on the day before the Nones of February I buried Saint Gelasius; on the day before the Nones of March I buried the body of Saint Victor the Deacon; on the Ides of May I interred the body of Saint Domninus; on the ninth day before the Kalends of January, the most blessed Victoria departed from this world." These things, however, were not written by Saint Maurus, as we shall show in their proper place, but (as is there stated) by Abbot Ephrem.

[5] When the Hungarians laid waste to Lombardy in the year 902, as Regino and others write, that church of Saint Sabinus was burned, when Everard was administering the Church of Placentia. He was the 29th Bishop, called Heurardus by others and Enuardus, and is said to have been elected in the year 893 and to have died in 904. Concerning him the already-cited monk Rufinus writes in Ughelli as follows: "In the time when the year 902 was current, the pagans and enemies of the Cross of Christ burst in and destroyed and burned whatever they found outside the walls of the city of Placentia, with tyrannical fury cutting down human bodies with the hostile sword. And then they burned and utterly destroyed the church of Saint Sabinus, which had originally been consecrated in honor of the Twelve Apostles. The aforesaid things are found to have been recorded by Lord Enuardus, the excellent Bishop of Placentia, who with all his strength endeavored to build anew this monastery in which we are. Therefore, while diligently searching for the privileges that contained the foundation of this monastery, I found a certain privilege of Lord Enuardus, Bishop of Placentia, made in the time of King Berengar in 903; in which privilege it was contained that the aforesaid Lord Enuardus, having convened a council of clerics, arranged to build the church of Blessed Sabinus anew; and so he chose a site outside the walls of the city of Placentia, on a certain estate of his, justly and legally acquired, on which he built anew the monastery of Blessed Sabinus, with buildings constructed for monastic worship. And for this reason the aforesaid Bishop relocated the said church near the city of Placentia, on account of the enormity of the pagans, lest they should burn it again."

[6] Into this new monastery, then, the bodies of Saints Gelasius, Victor, Domninus, and Peregrinus were translated by Bishop Enuardus in the year 903, as Ughelli reports. He testifies that the following inscription was placed in that new church of Saint Sabinus: "Bishop Conrad interred the bodies of Saints Victor, Domninus, Gelasius, and Peregrinus in this tomb, in the year of the Lord 943." Ughelli himself notes that the year 903 should be restored, since Enuardus died in the year 904; and he writes that Enuardus is incorrectly called Conrad by Huberto Locato, and that it is said he continued until the year 917 and translated the bodies of the Saints in 911. Concerning Saint Sabinus, to whom both the earlier church and this monastery were consecrated, we have treated (as written above) on January 17; but Ughelli's volume had not yet appeared, from which we could have drawn somewhat more light.

[7] The later translation of the sacred bodies, of which Ferrarius treats, was carried out through the efforts of Fabricius Macliani of Milan, the 78th Bishop of Placentia. He passed from the See of Tortona to that of Placentia in the year 1476, as Ughelli testifies, and held it for thirty-two years thereafter, adorning it with distinguished buildings, increased possessions, and many councils held — and especially with this Translation of sacred relics and others, such as that of Saint Opilius on May 10.

CONCERNING SAINT THEOCTISTUS, MARTYR.

Theoctistus, Martyr (S.)

I. B.

[1] Several Saints named Theoctistus are celebrated. For to pass over that holy Abbot Theoctistus who is venerated on September 3, of whom many distinguished things are recorded in the Life of Saint Euthymius the Great on January 20, and Saint Theoctistus the Patrician and Eunuch, of whom the Greeks treat on November 20, we have already reported above on January 4 Saint Theoctistus, Abbot of Cucumus; and we have said on the 8th of the same month that in the Greek Menaea a Theoctistus is mentioned — but (as it seems to us) a monk, together with Agatho. In the same Menaea, three Martyrs named Theoctistus are also celebrated: one on this day, February 4; another on October 3; a third, a boatman by trade, on September 6 — all beheaded. And they narrate nothing more about ours than that, armed with the divine weapons of the sacred religion, he offered his bared neck to the sword:

"Protected by God with the weapons of divine faith, Theoctistus bares his neck to the sword."