CONCERNING ST. MAXIMUS, OR MAXIMIAN, BISHOP OF NOLA IN CAMPANIA
A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Maximus, or Maximian, Bishop, at Nola in Campania (Saint)
By the author G. H.
Section I. The sacred veneration of St. Maximus.
[1] Nola, a city of Campania twelve miles distant from Naples, still renowned for many vestiges of its ancient nobility and greatness, St. Maximus, Bishop of Nola numbers among its ancient Prelates St. Maximus, or Maximian, to whose memory several days in the calendars of various churches are dedicated. For on January 15 the Roman Martyrology has the following: "At Nola in Campania, of St. Maximus the Bishop." He is venerated on January 15, Galesini adds, "and Confessor." Some Martyrologies call him Maximian. Ghinius, in his Birthdays of the Holy Canons, adorns him on the same day with this encomium: "At Nola in Campania, of St. Maximus the Bishop: who, while he labored in the Gospel, suffered many things under the idolaters; and when the persecution was growing severe, already weighed down by old age, thinking he could not endure the punishments,
he sought the glades of the forests; and while he was wandering through them, afflicted by hunger, worn by frost, he fell to the ground half dead; but by God's providence he was found by St. Felix the Priest, and somewhat revived by a grape divinely provided, and lifted onto his shoulders, was further restored to health in the home of a widow, and at last yielded up his spirit in peace." We treated of St. Felix on January 14. On the following day St. Maximus was annexed, whose feast day was perhaps unknown.
[2] We had at first, as we noted in the Acts of St. Felix, decided to treat of him on that same January 15: but afterward, having learned of the tradition of the Church of Nola venerating his birthday on February 7, we preferred to defer it to this day, on which Ferrarius also inscribed the same in the General Catalogue of Saints in these words: "At Nola in Campania, of St. Maximus the Bishop." He composes a longer encomium in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy, and adds that he flew to his heavenly fatherland on the seventh day before the Ides of February. The Church of Benevento, on February 7 and 8: being impeded on February 7 by the Double office of St. Hermold the Martyr, celebrates on the following day, that is, February 8, St. Maximus, Bishop of Nola, with a semidouble rite, as Marius de Vipera reports in his Catalogue of Saints of the Church of Benevento, and asserts that the sacred ashes are preserved in the church of Benevento under the high altar, ancient relics at Benevento, and that an inscription carved in marble there indicates this. But since the monuments have perished from the devastations of the city of Benevento, no record survives of how they were brought there: it is believed that they were carried away through the piety of the Princes of Benevento. He appends the remaining encomium transcribed from Ferrarius.
[3] The Acts of St. Maximus would need to be drawn from the Life of St. Felix the Priest, expressed by St. Paulinus in various birthday poems, had not the same Life been compiled in prose by St. Gregory of Tours, The Acts are given from the Life of St. Felix the Venerable Bede, and Marcellus, Priest of Nola, each of whose accounts we gave in triplicate on January 14, and here we excerpt what pertains to St. Maximus. We have received at Naples from our colleague Antonio Beatillo a Life of St. Maximus composed in Italian by Andrea Ferrario, but, as the author states in his preface, drawn from the Life of St. Felix. Omitting that, therefore, we give a miracle sent by the same Beatillo, and a miracle from a manuscript, from an old manuscript Breviary of the Church of Nola, customarily read for the lessons at Matins on the feast of St. Maximus. That manuscript Breviary is preserved in the Nola college of the Society of Jesus.
[4] The following also treat of the same St. Maximus, or Maximian: in the Martyrologies on January 14, the published Bede, reporting that St. Felix was distinguished with the honor of the priesthood by Maximian, Bishop of the city of Nola; his commemoration in other Martyrologists and in the Roman Breviary; Notker and Maurolycus, who also commemorate the story of St. Maximus half dead in the wilderness and revived by St. Felix, all of which Ado joins together. He is also treated in the Roman Breviary in the proper Lesson on St. Felix, and is called Maximian. Both Ferrarii and Vipera attribute that persecution to Diocletian and Maximian: Paulinus and the remaining ancient authors are silent.
Section II. An epitome of the Life, from book 1 of St. Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Martyrs, chapter 104.
[5] Concerning Felix of Nola, a Martyr, because the history of his passion is not readily at hand, it is a pleasure to insert a few things from what Blessed Paulinus wrote in verse, for this reading. St. Maximus ordains St. Felix a Priest, For he, having been endowed with the honor of the priesthood by Maximus, Pontiff of the aforesaid city, was shown to be of such great wisdom and learning, not only to Christians but also