Juliana

ON SAINT JULIANA, WIDOW, OF BOLOGNA IN ITALY

Around the Year of Christ 435

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY

Juliana, widow, of Bologna in Italy (Saint)

By the author G. H.

Section I. The ancient veneration of Saint Juliana, confirmed by Pontifical documents.

[1] Among the other illustrious churches and monasteries that are seen in the most celebrated city of Emilia in Italy, Bologna, there is the basilica of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, whose very ancient origin, the sacred bodies of Juliana and other Saints buried within it, the miracles wrought through their intercession, Pope Celestine in an Apostolic Bull and indeed the indulgences granted are recorded by Pope Celestine in the following document, published by Francesco Patricello in his History, and by Donato Pullienus Luparus, who cites him, in treatise 7 of his Historical Relation, or Chronicle, of the basilica of Saint Stephen. He asserts that the original of the Bull is preserved by the Abbot of the adjoining monastery, and that a copy of it is hung in the sanctuary for reading. We recite it here as the most certain testimony of the veneration once rendered to Saint Juliana. It reads as follows:

[2] Celestine, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all the faithful of Christ, greeting and Apostolic blessing. The glory of eternal life, with which the wondrous benevolence of the Creator of all crowns the blessed host of the citizens of heaven, ought to be acquired by those redeemed at the price of blood shed from the precious body of the Redeemer, through the power of merits; among which it is recognized as preeminently great he records that in the temple of Saint Stephen at Bologna that everywhere, but especially in the churches of the Saints, the majesty of the Most High be praised. Since, therefore, in the temple of the glorious Protomartyr Stephen, which is called "Jerusalem of Bologna" -- which the servant of God Petronius, Bishop of that same city, erected and built in the likeness of the Sepulcher of our Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem -- there rest the relics of very many Saints, the bodies of Saint Juliana the widow and other Saints are preserved but especially the bodies of the Martyrs Vitalis and Agricola, of Florian with his forty companions, five bodies of the Holy Innocents, and of Saint Juliana the widow; and nearly all the mysteries of our Savior Jesus Christ are there most devoutly represented and displayed; and where Almighty God, through the interceding merits of those same Saints, works many miracles: We ask and exhort all of you in the Lord, enjoining it upon you for the remission of your sins, that you approach the aforesaid temple in humility of spirit, to implore from the Lord pardon for your offenses. For we, in order that we may wholesomely invite the faithful of Christ to merits, as it were through rewards, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and the authority of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to all who are truly penitent and confessed and among other indulgences who shall visit the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the said temple out of devotion, and who shall extend helping hands for the upkeep and preservation of that church: two hundred years; and the altar of Saint Peter and of the Innocents, six hundred; and of Saint James, one hundred; of Saint Catherine, one hundred and fifty; of Saint Mary Magdalene, one hundred and fifty; of Saint John the Baptist, one hundred and sixty; of Saint Stephen, three hundred; of Saint Agnes, two hundred; and of the Holy Trinity, three hundred; the column, in the likeness of that at which our Redeemer was scourged, two hundred; and likewise of Saint Juliana, one hundred; he grants 100 years to those visiting the tomb of Saint Juliana and of the holy Martyrs Vitalis and Agricola, two hundred and fifty; and the tombs of the Blessed Florian and his companions situated in the said church, four hundred; and the place which is called Calvary, three hundred and sixty; likewise those who shall visit the said temple annually on the feasts of the Lord's Nativity, Circumcision, Epiphany, Ascension, and Pentecost, and of Saint Stephen, and on the solemnity of All Saints, seven hundred; and those who, out of devotion, shall annually enter the Sepulcher built in the likeness of the Lord's Sepulcher on the Friday of Holy Week, and on the Easter of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and on the two following days, and extend helping hands -- we mercifully relax and grant a plenary remission of all sins from the penances imposed upon them, to be valid in perpetuity. Given at the Lateran, the eighth day before the Ides of May, in the fifth year of our Pontificate.

[3] So Pope Celestine, the principal part of whose Bull is repeated by Pope Sixtus IV in a document given at Rome at Saint Peter's on the Ides of January, in the sixth year of his Pontificate, which for us is the year of Christ 1477 Sixtus IV in the year 1477 confirms the Bull of Celestine (there, in the Pontifical manner, the preceding year). This Bull of Sixtus IV begins: "Although all the churches of the world, founded entirely under the names of the Saints, ought to be frequented with fitting reverence," etc., where Sixtus reports and approves all the indulgences granted by Pope Celestine, and decrees that they ought to obtain the force of perpetual validity. And nevertheless, for greater security, by his own authority he grants and bestows the same indulgences, to last for all future times in perpetuity; and the hundred years of indulgence granted to those visiting the tomb of Saint Juliana are repeated twice. In this Bull of Sixtus, the predecessor Celestine is called, by a typographical or other error, "the First," not the First whereas he was necessarily the Third. Saint Celestine I was created, according to the Chronicles of Prosper and Count Marcellinus, in the consulship of Asclepiodotus and Marinianus, Indiction VI -- that is, the year of Christ 423 -- and on the third day before the Nones of November. His fifth year in the Pontificate, in the month of May when the Bull is said to have been granted, in his fifth year the temple of Saint Stephen did not yet exist falls in 428; at which time the temple of Saint Stephen did not yet exist, having begun to be built (when Saint Celestine I died on April 6) in the year 432, as Antonius Paulus Masinus relates in his Bologna Explored at December 26, and Patricellus in Pullienus Luparus, treatise 1. But the latter would prefer it to have been completed in that year, and to have begun construction in the year 430, as if the Bull cited above could have been granted by Celestine I, as he frequently insists throughout his entire book, and indeed in the fifth year of his Pontificate -- though he had not reflected that this falls in 428. Then, in the said fifth year of the Pontificate of Saint Celestine the First, it is believed that Saint Felix the Bishop presided over the Church of Bologna, who died the following year, 429, on December 4, as Masinus observes at that date, nor was Saint Petronius yet Bishop using the testimony of Alidosius on the Bishops of Bologna; Ferdinandus Ughellus, volume 2 of Sacred Italy; Carolus Sigonius, book 1 of the History of Bologna according to the years expressed in the argument and placed in the margin; Cherubinus Ghirardaccius, book 1 of the History of Bologna; Gaspar Bombacius in Bologna Illustrated; and others. To this Saint Felix, Saint Petronius succeeded, either ordained near the end of the same year 429, as some relate, or rather in the following year 430, which Ghirardaccius and Sigonius assign. Furthermore, after the temple of Saint Stephen was built by Saint Petronius, Saint Juliana survived, nor was Saint Juliana yet dead and she is said to have devoted a great part of her fortune to building the adjoining monastery and supporting the monks, as we shall say below; so that Pope Saint Celestine I did not treat of her sacred body resting there, since she had not yet died before him. Finally, among the principal feasts of the Church, Celestine enumerates the solemnity of All Saints, nor was the feast of All Saints yet instituted which, by the institution of Pope Boniface IV, began at Rome at the beginning of the seventh century, and was afterward prescribed by Pope Gregory IV around the year 835 for the other Churches of the Western world, so that the said Bull could not have been given four hundred years earlier.

[4] Four Popes named Celestine lived afterward, of whom three did not preside over the Church for a full year: but the Bull is of Celestine III namely, Celestine II died in the sixth month, and Celestine IV in the first month of his Pontificate; and Saint Celestine V, having voluntarily abdicated the Pontificate in the sixth month, returned to monastic solitude. Only Celestine III reached the seventh year of his Pontificate, created on March 29 of the year 1191, died on January 8 of the year 1198, of whom several Constitutions exist in the Bullarium of Laertius Cherubini, given in the year 1195 to which in style and manner of writing the above-mentioned Bull is entirely similar, given on the eighth day before the Ides of May, in the fifth year of his Pontificate, the year of Christ 1195. Now that tomb of Saint Juliana is elegantly fashioned of marble, above the altar that is named after her, and is found in the chapel representing Christ appearing after the Resurrection in the guise of a gardener to Saint Magdalene. afterward other forty days of indulgences were added Augustinus Zanettus, Bishop of Sebaste and Vicar of the Bishop of Bologna, added to these indulgences of Celestine III, in the year 1536, forty days of indulgences, which he granted to all and each who visited the tomb or altar of Saint Juliana in the customary form, as Pullienus Luparus attests in treatise 5.

[5] The veneration of the same Saint Juliana is indicated by the Roman Martyrology on February 7 in these brief words: "At Bologna, of Saint Juliana, widow." Veneration of Saint Juliana on February 7 Galesinius had added: "illustrious by the testimony of the blessed Bishop Ambrose." On the same day, Bombacius (at the end of the Life of the same Saint Juliana) and Masinus (at February 7) relate that a proper Mass is celebrated for her and the remaining Divine Office is recited. Masinus attests that this solemnity is observed both in the church of Saint Stephen, where her body rests, and among the nuns of Saints Vitalis and Agricola, who acknowledge her as the foundress of their monastery. Ferrarius in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy, Ludovicus Zacconus in book 2 of the Compendium of the Lives of the Saints, Life published in Italian Celsus Faleonus in the Ecclesiastical History of Bologna, and the previously cited Ghirardaccius, Sigonius, Bombacius, Pullienus, and others cited by them, all treat of the same Saint Juliana. Finally, Bernardus Pellicionus described her Life in two books, interspersed with lengthy moral commentaries.

* It read "valetudine" (health).

Section II. Saint Juliana the widow, praised by Saint Ambrose.

[6] Besides the metropolitan basilica dedicated to Saint Peter, there is another church at Bologna, sacred to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, which the historians of Bologna commonly relate that Saint Basilius, Bishop of this city (whose feast day is March 6), either first began, the Church of Saints Peter and Paul at Bologna or completed after it had been recently begun by Saint Faustinianus (who is celebrated on February 26). To this church, Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, together with Saint Eusebius, Bishop of Bologna, transferred with great solemnity the bodies of the holy Martyrs Vitalis and Agricola, then discovered; and afterward Saint Petronius the Bishop joined to it the church of Saint Stephen, to which the sacred bodies of those Martyrs were translated on March 11 of the year 1019, as Masinus reports at the day of November 4, sacred to their martyrdom. Saint Ambrose dedicates it to Saints Vitalis and Agricola And at the same time he confirms the above-mentioned Pontifical Bull, from which it is clear that those bodies are preserved in the church of Saint Stephen -- that it was given after the year 1019 -- not sufficiently mindful of himself, since he elsewhere ascribes that Bull to Pope Celestine I.

[7] After this translation of the bodies of Saints Vitalis and Agricola to the church of Saint Stephen, there lived the author of the manuscript Chronicle of the monastery of Saint Stephen, brought down to the year 1180, at least by a continuator. In this Chronicle, after the Life of Saint Petronius, the sacred bodies that are honored in the church of Saint Stephen are listed, and among them "the body of Saint Juliana, whom Saint Ambrose greatly praises" -- words which, after a diligent rereading of this manuscript codex, Gaspar Bombacius writes that he found to be said of Saint Juliana in his Life of her. Pullienus Luparus treats of this Chronicle at several points, Juliana the widow is praised and in treatise 9 he judges that its author was a contemporary of Saint Bononius, first a monk of this monastery, afterward Abbot of Lucedium in the territory of Vercelli, who died around the year 1024 on August 30. The treatise of Saint Ambrose indicated by the author of this Chronicle in the Exhortation to Virginity is extant in volume 4 of his works under the title "On the Exhortation to Virginity." We transfer some passages here. He begins it thus:

[8] Those who are invited to a great banquet are accustomed to carry away apophoreta (parting gifts) with them. Having been invited, therefore, to the Bolognese banquet, he brings parting gifts to Bologna where the Translation of the holy Martyr was celebrated, I have reserved for you apophoreta full of holiness and grace. Apophoreta, moreover, customarily feature the triumphs of Princes; and these apophoreta are triumphal, for the palm of the Martyrs is the triumph of Christ our Prince. Nor indeed did I direct my journey here for this purpose, but since I was summoned by you, I was obliged to bring with me what had been prepared for others, lest I come to you diminished -- so that what is less in me than was expected might be found to be more in the Martyr. The Martyr's name is Agricola, whose servant Vitalis was before, namely, relics from the bodies of Saints Vitalis and Agricola, raised up there but now is his companion and colleague in martyrdom... They had been buried in Jewish soil, among their sepulchers... There, therefore, we were seeking out the remains of the Martyr, gathering a rose, as it were, from among thorns. We were surrounded by Jews as the sacred Relics were being carried forth; the people of the Church were present with applause and joy... I have brought to you, therefore, gifts which I gathered with my own hands -- that is, the trophies of the Cross, whose grace you recognize in its works. Let others store up gold and silver, and dig it from hidden veins; let them gather precious necklaces of jewels -- that is a temporal treasure, and often ruinous to those who possess it. We have gathered the nails of the Martyr -- and many of them indeed, so that the wounds were more numerous than the limbs... We collect the triumphant blood and the wood of the Cross. These things we could not refuse to the holy widow who asked for them. and she places them beneath the altar Accept, therefore, these gifts of salvation, which are now stored beneath the sacred altars.

[9] That holy widow, therefore, is a "Judean" who prepared and offered to the Lord this temple which we dedicate today -- of the temple built by Juliana, dedicated by himself worthy of such an offering, she who in her offspring has already consecrated to the Lord temples of chastity and purity. While I wished to say "Juliana," I said "Judean." My tongue did not err, but defined. For a "Judean" is a soul that confesses Christ. Indeed, "God is known in Judah" -- that is, where God was acknowledged, not where he was denied. She is therefore a Judean in spirit, where the greater portion and the more sincere understanding reside, because "salvation is from the Jews." The error of the tongue, therefore, found a testimony of holiness. she is a widow Let us therefore honor this widow, for it is written: "Honor widows who are truly widows." 1 Tim. 5:3 Although our words of honor are not sought by her who has fulfilled the Apostle's commandment, having a testimony in good works, who has educated her children well and instructed them even better. Who did not mourn for her as a destitute and pitiable woman after the death of her husband, previously initiated into the sacred ministry when she lost her husband? But she grieved more for a minister torn from the sacred altars than for a husband lost to herself or a father to her children.

For even if she was deprived of the support and consolation of her husband, yet in her pious mind the cause of the Church outweighed all else. She therefore girded the depths of her mind, and seeing herself surrounded by a company of three daughters and one son, she consoles her children by that very circumstance by which others are commonly terrified, she was made the stronger, and addressed her children with this speech: "Children, you have lost a father; you have a mother. That exchange would indeed have been better if the father were living and the mother were absent. Yet, weak and desolate as I am, I show you, if you wish to follow, that you need not consider your father to have departed from you. For you have a better parent from heaven: it is he who also sustained these earthly fathers. What other hope, then, remains? Your father was rich in grace, not in money; wealthy in ministry, not in patrimony -- whose inheritance is faith, undivided for either sex, the wealth of men, the dowry of virgins.

[10] "And you indeed, my son, being somewhat closer to your father, recognize what you owe your mother: that you may restore the name to our house. Your age excuses you, but the inheritance calls you. Let father and mother rejoice in you, my son. Do not despise your mother as imprudent: the son obtained by a vow made to Saint Lawrence 'The admonition of the King,' it says, 'whom his mother instructed.' What shall you keep, my son? The sayings of God. To you, my firstborn, I speak, my son. What, O son of my womb? What, O child of my prayers? 'Do not give your honor to women.'" Prov. 31:1-3 "You hear what the Wise Man says, what Scripture asserts. Consider who helped you to be born: you are the son of my vows rather than of my travails. Consider to what service your father designated you by such a name, he who called you Lawrence. There we deposited our vows, whence we took the name. The fulfillment followed the vows: render to the Martyr what you owe the Martyr. He obtained you for us; restore what we promised concerning you by the giving of such a name. she offers him to God What else is there, my son, that you think should be chosen, except the God of our fathers?... He grants the desire to the one who asks, and blesses the years of the just..."

[11] "If you wish, my children, she urges virginity upon all to avoid this trial of so great necessities, integrity of the body must be sought by you, which I recommend as counsel, not command as an order. For virginity alone is that which can be urged, not commanded: a matter more of vow than of precept... They themselves are the ones who have in heaven rewards more excellent than others. This the Son of God proclaims in his Gospel... 'Not all receive this word, but those to whom it is given' Matt. 19:11 -- that is, the weakness of the human condition does not allow it to be open to all, but it is easy to receive only for those upon whom divine grace has shone, so that they can make themselves eunuchs in order to attain the kingdom of heaven. You have heard, children, how great is the reward of integrity. It acquires a kingdom, and a heavenly kingdom; it displays the life of Angels. This I urge upon you, than which nothing is more beautiful: that among men you may be Angels, who are bound by no nuptial bond... Consider, daughters, if you should wish to marry, how much you lack, he exhorts the daughters to it you who lack a father. The best dowry is lacking; yet even if it abounded, you would buy servitude at a great price... Since she who marries is sold into servitude with her own money. Slaves are acquired on better terms than marriages. In the former, the merit of servitude is bought; in the latter, a price is added to servitude. A married woman, put up for sale, is burdened with gold, valued in gold. I have experienced, daughters, the labors of the married bond, the indignities of wedlock; and under a good husband -- yet not even under a good husband was I free. I served my husband and labored to please him. The Lord had mercy and made him a minister, and straightway he was snatched from both me and you; and perhaps by the Lord's mercy, so that he would not be called a husband. You see, daughters, a mother aged by sorrows, and still unripe in the wages of widowhood. You see that all support and adornment have been lost. I have neither the help of a husband nor the grace of virginity. so that she may glory in being a mother of virgins Of myself I have little care: for you I grieve, for you I am concerned. The burdens of marriage have remained with me; its aids have departed. How much I would prefer never to have come to these practices! Yet you can excuse your father and relieve your mother, if what has been lost in us is represented in you. Only in this shall we not repent of our marriage, if our labor shall have profited you. I shall consider it nearly equal to holding my virginity, to be a mother of virgins... If you wish to remain thus, I shall seek no one's help: the crown of your integrity will suffice abundantly for me in every assistance. Who will not call blessed the one whom they now think wretched? Who will not honor the mother of so many virgins? Who will not venerate the palace of modesty?... Let us profess -- I, widowhood; you, virginity... since not only a virgin but also an unmarried woman thinks on the things of the Lord... Consider, daughters, what you owe to the vows of your parents... your father calls you to integrity; your mother exhorts you to follow what is fitting. Virginity is therefore a good thing... Let these things, daughters, be commended to you."

[12] "But you, my son, whom the true Elkanah -- that is, the possession of God -- has given to me, my requested one, my sought one (for thence Samuel also received his name); you, I say, my obtained and votive one, the son, instructed in the precepts of the virtues who how you came into my womb I know not (for I had already despaired of offspring of the male sex), whom my vows, not any secrets of solemn intercourse, formed for me -- you, I say, my son, recognize by whom you were given to me. 1 Sam. 1:20 He fashioned your countenance, he distinguished your limbs, he received my prayers, to whose temple, to whose service I consecrated you before you were born. You were born not for your parents, not for yourself, but for God, whose you began to be before you came forth from your mother's womb. And indeed we are all his, but you were specially promised to the Lord. You shall repay, for it is written: 'Make vows and pay them to the Lord your God.'" Ps. 76:12 "I, wretched, I, unworthy, and yet like Hannah, I promised that for all the days and nights of your life you would not depart from the sight of the Lord. 1 Sam. 1:28 I promised; you must carry it out. The Lord himself will fulfill the gift of his offering." So far the pious mother, and more. she devotes him to the ministry of God After she had seen the fitting disposition of her children, leading her weaned one, nourished with the milk of spiritual grace, into the temple of the Lord, she turned to prayer and said: "My heart is confirmed in the Lord..." 1 Sam. 2:1

[13] This mother, therefore, speaks thus to her children, she who brought into her house the titles both of widowhood in herself and of integrity in her children, like certain feminine principalities. An outstanding woman indeed, who left nothing for herself: she offered all that she had to God. Her life is a pattern of discipline and a certain model of chastity, by good resolve and better instruction. For it is an example of widowhood and a school of virginity. she frequents the temple with her daughters She proceeds to the Church surrounded by a retinue of virgin daughters, bringing in her domestic glory; and she finds in the church what she may call her own -- her son sounding forth the oracles of the sacred readings, so that the sisters seem to learn at home while the brother is heard. The mother, too, in imitation of the heavenly example, rejoices that she profits through her son, she hears her son reading the sacred books and commits all the words of the reader to pious affection, and preserves them in her attentive heart. But although nothing was lacking in the mother's exhortations, I too shall address you, daughters, in a few words: "Seek the Lord Jesus, who admonishes us to seek the kingdom of God, and behold, he says, all things shall be added unto you..." Matt. 6:33 "Take heed, O Virgin, to your sacred profession, and beware of the eyes of an irreverent man... Take heed especially, my son, take heed to yourself, that you too may rejoice in your youth, to whom Scripture says: 'Rejoice, O young man, in your youth...'" Eccles. 11:9

[14] "I now beseech you, Lord, that upon this your house, upon these altars which are dedicated today, Saint Ambrose implores the grace of Christ upon these spiritual stones, by which a perceptible temple is consecrated to you in each one, you may attend as daily Guardian, and that you may receive with your divine mercy the prayers of your servants which are poured forth in this place. May every sacrifice which is brought in this temple with whole faith and pious devotion become a sweet savor to you. And when you look upon that saving victim by which the sin of this world is abolished, especially for her chaste family look also upon these pious victims of chastity, and guard them with your enduring aid, so that they may become to you acceptable sacrifices of sweet savor, pleasing to Christ the Lord; and deign to preserve their spirit, soul, and body whole, without complaint, unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ your Son. Amen."

Section III. Whether one and the same Juliana lived at Florence and died at Bologna.

[15] Paulinus the Presbyter, author of the Life of Saint Ambrose, because this history of the bodies of Saints Vitalis and Agricola raised at Bologna had been narrated more fully by Ambrose himself, touches upon it briefly, without any mention of Juliana, but indicating the time at which it occurred. In the time of the tyrant Eugenius, in the year 392 or the following "After Valentinian of august memory," he says, "ended his life in the Gallic city of Vienne" (which occurred in the consulship of Arcadius II and Rufinus, on the Ides of May, a Saturday, the day before Pentecost, in the year 392), "Eugenius assumed the Empire; who, when he had begun to rule, not long afterward, at the request of Flavianus, then Prefect, and Count Arbogastes, forgetful of his faith, granted the altar of Victory and funds for ceremonies. When the priest Ambrose heard this, Saint Ambrose deposited at Florence the relics of Saints Vitalis and Agricola leaving the city of Milan, to which Eugenius was hastening, he departed to the city of Bologna, and from there proceeded as far as Faenza. When he had spent some days there, he was invited by the Florentines and went down to Tuscany, avoiding all the more the sight of the sacrilegious man... In the aforesaid city of Florence, therefore... he established a basilica, in which he deposited relics of the Martyrs Vitalis and Agricola, whose bodies he had raised in the city of Bologna. For the bodies of the Martyrs had been placed among the corpses of the Jews. Nor was this known to the Christian people, unless the holy Martyrs themselves had revealed it to the priest himself. When these were placed beneath the altar which was established in that same basilica, there was great joy and exultation of the entire holy people there, and punishment of the demons confessing the merits of the Martyrs." So far Paulinus, with no mention of Juliana, as we said. Concerning her, Baronius writes thus in his Notes on February 7: "Saint Ambrose heaps praises upon Juliana the widow in the Exhortation to Virgins; but she, as it appears, was a most noble woman who flourished at Florence, in the temple who erected there an illustrious basilica, which Saint Ambrose dedicated and enriched with the sacred relics of Saint Agricola the Martyr, which he had brought with him from Bologna. He seems to have originally intended to bring those relics to his own Church of Milan, as the letter 55 to all the peoples of Italy implies, in these words cited above: 'We gathered the nails of the Martyrs, and many of them indeed, because the wounds were more numerous than the limbs. We collected the triumphant blood and the wood of the Cross.' For just as those who are invited to a great banquet are accustomed to bring away parting gifts with them, so we have taken care to reserve for ourselves apophoreta full of grace and holiness from the Bolognese banquet."

[16] Baronius explains these things at greater length at the year of Christ 392, number 24: by Juliana the widow "When Ambrose had reached Florence, it opportunely happened that he was asked to dedicate a church erected by Juliana, a most illustrious woman; beneath whose altar the same Saint deposited relics of the Martyr Agricola, which he had received at Bologna. Ambrose there delivered an eloquent oration in which, having celebrated with praises the deed of the pious woman in erecting the basilica, he extolled with even greater praise the fact that she was dedicating a nobler temple to God from living stones -- namely, her three daughters together with her son. That church was called by the name of Saint Lawrence, in honor of Saint Lawrence and was also called the Ambrosiana in memory of so great a man, Ambrose, who had dedicated it." Nearly the same is written by the same Baronius in the Life of Saint Ambrose, published together with his works; Carolus Sigonius on the Bishops of Bologna, book 1, under Saint Eusebius; and Scipio Ammiratus, part 1, History of Florence, book 1, at the year 393. At that time, the Bishop of Florence was Saint Zenobius, in whose Life John the Archpriest of Arezzo writes (at May 25) that a certain small basilica toward the north, then a little distance from the city, was dedicated in honor of the blessed Martyr Lawrence by Ambrose, as Lawrence, Bishop of Amalfi, attests, built outside the city with a great gathering of the faithful Florentines, and was itself called the Ambrosiana. And, as the blessed Simplicianus reports, that church was endowed by the same Ambrose with the body of the most blessed Pope Mark, which he deposited with great devotion beneath the small altar arranged toward the East, consecrated by himself in honor of Vitalis and Agricola. These things accord with the pious vows of Juliana and her husband, related above from Saint Ambrose, on account of which, having made their vows in honor of Saint Lawrence when they despaired of male offspring, they acknowledged that they had obtained a son, whom they therefore called Lawrence -- so that they appear to have built this church for the same Martyr with a similar devotion, and perhaps on their own property, where they may have lived outside the city.

[17] Behold, therefore, Juliana praised as a holy widow by Saint Ambrose, but dwelling among the Florentines, not the Bolognese. Silvanus Razzius ascribes her to the Florentine Saints, relying on the testimony of Vincenzo Borghini, She is considered different from the Bolognese Saint Juliana by some who asserts in his treatise on the Bishops of Florence that this Juliana the widow is different from that Bolognese Saint. Ughellus praises Borghini as a diligent writer (volume 3 of Sacred Italy) on the same Bishops of Florence. But Philippus Ferrarius, in his annotation on February 7, opines that the same Saint Juliana the widow is venerated at Bologna by others she is rather considered the same and also built near Florence the church in which Saint Ambrose deposited the relics of the aforesaid Martyrs. Lawrence, Archbishop of Amalfi, who was elevated to that dignity in 1024 and died in 1048, writes in the Life of Saint Zenobius, Bishop of Florence, published by Ughellus from an ancient manuscript, that this Saint Zenobius was deposited after death in the church of Saint Lawrence near the altar, but was translated to the basilica of Saint Reparata on account of the incursion of certain peoples -- which is shown by an ancient inscription to have been done in the eleventh year of the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, on a Thursday, January 26, that is, the year of Christ 405, solar cycle 22, dominical letter A, on which occasion she seems to have migrated to Bologna although the year of Christ 408 is incorrectly intruded there. For according to the Chronicle of Prosper, in the consulship of Stilicho II and Anthemius, Radagaisus was overcome and captured in Tuscany after many Goths were slain, with Stilicho leading the army -- namely, in that year 405, perhaps toward the end, so that Count Marcellinus referred it to the following year. Did Juliana at that time, seeing the church of Saint Lawrence which she had built, together with her other dwellings, exposed to the fury of the barbarians, and fearing the greater dangers to modesty that Saint Augustine proposes (City of God, book 5, chapter 23), migrate with her family and the relics of Saints Vitalis and Agricola to Bologna? Sigonius relates (book 1 of the History of Bologna) that there she arranged her house in the form of a monastery and spent the rest of her life with her virgin daughters -- which monastery from that time the nuns of Saints Vitalis and Agricola are said to possess, acknowledging their foundress Juliana, and religiously preserving two ribs of the said Martyrs. The daughters of the same Saint Juliana are also said to have had their tombs there. What if, according to the consensus of the Bolognese writers, she was originally from Bologna, from the noble Banci family, and before migrating to Florence on account of her marriage or some public office administered for the Emperors by her husband, whence she is believed to be a native she had more easily obtained from Saint Ambrose the relics of the Martyrs of her own city, and in the general devastation of Etruria returned to her native soil? These are approximately the factors that pull in different directions concerning Juliana the widow's residence among the Florentines and death among the Bolognese; the manuscript Chronicle of the monastery of Saint Stephen suggests that she was one and the same, until older and more certain records are unearthed from the archives of those cities. The said church of Saint Lawrence has been magnificently and most beautifully adorned by the Most Serene Medici family, and ennobled also by a most well-furnished library, including manuscripts.

Section IV. Summary of the Life of Saint Juliana.

[18] The Bolognese writers bring forth many further details about Saint Juliana, from which we shall select some that seem more probable to most. She is said to have been born of a father named Julius Bancius and a mother named Facunda, From what parents was she born? and to have been educated by them in all piety and modesty until the fifteenth year of her age, at which time, by the will of her parents, she was given in marriage to a husband who was equally noble, wealthy, and abundantly instructed in Christian morals. She bore him three daughters (others count four), and having made a vow to Saint Lawrence, to whom was she married? she merited to receive a son, who was called Lawrence. Most writers are silent about the name of her husband; Pellicionus calls him Lucius. He, having obtained male offspring, separated from his wife by mutual consent from the marriage bed, was enrolled in the clergy, and was initiated into holy orders. But not surviving long, he died around the tenth year from the beginning of the marriage, leaving Juliana a widow. She educated her children so piously that her son, while still a youth, was admitted to the number of the clergy, her son a cleric and her daughters vowed and kept perpetual virginity to Christ their Spouse -- her daughters sacred virgins to whom Saint Ambrose wrote the above-mentioned Exhortation. Their names are given as: Lucia, Perpetua, Victoria, Candida -- of whom perhaps one was a cousin or related by some other degree of kinship, who, having been taken up into the same program of spiritual life, appears to have been called a sister by others and to have honored Saint Juliana as a mother, who was in fact her aunt or otherwise a blood relative.

[19] Before them and everyone else, Juliana shone with singular example, she herself devoted to piety inspired by the divine Spirit to desire heavenly things; continually devoting herself to the service of Christ, she persevered in prayer and fasting. Regarded as a mother of the poor, she aided them from her possessions, lavish in distributing alms; and no less generous in restoring churches and sacred altars. she adorns the temples Among other pious works, she is said to have renovated the church of Saints Peter and Paul, in which Saint Ambrose had deposited the bodies of Saints Vitalis and Agricola raised from the Jewish sepulcher, out of pious affection for these Martyrs, and to have furnished it with all things necessary for celebrating the Divine Office. For this reason, she is believed to have remained a widow for nearly fifty years, so devoted to divine contemplation she is caught up in ecstasy that frequently carried into ecstasy, she could not easily be roused by those around her.

[20] The holy Bishops gave her support in these counsels of piety; among them, Saint Felix, Bishop of Bologna after Eusebius, she assists Saint Petronius in founding the monastery of Saint Stephen formerly a disciple and Deacon of Saint Ambrose. We have said that around the year 430 Saint Petronius succeeded him, a man of outstanding learning and holiness, who built both other temples and the church of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, and joined it with that of Saints Peter and Paul. Lawrence, the son of Juliana, is said to have been given as Abbot to this church; and Juliana herself is said to have devoted a great part of her fortune to supporting the monks there, and to have requested burial there for herself.

[21] called by Christ to heaven, she dies on February 7 When at last she longed to be led out of the prison of mortal life, she is said to have heard a voice from heaven summoning her to the joys of Paradise; and not long afterward, seized by illness, she departed joyfully to Christ on the seventh day before the Ides of February. A Cross is said to have been seen impressed upon her heart. The funeral was splendidly conducted by Saint Petronius, not without the mourning of the entire city. The years of her life are reckoned in total at approximately seventy-five, from 360 to 435, around the year 435 by a probable calculation.