CONCERNING SAINT SABINUS THE BISHOP AND SAINT ROMULUS THE DEACON, AT ATRIPALDA IN ITALY.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Sabinus, Bishop, at Atripalda in Italy (Saint) Romulus, Deacon, at Atripalda in Italy (Saint)
By J.B.
Section 1. Saint Sabinus, Patron of Atripalda: Is He the Bishop of Canusium?
[1] The Tripaldus is a river in Italy (also called Tripaltus, by Flavio Biondo Tropoaltus and Tropoaldus, and more commonly the Sabbato), celebrated even in ancient times; The town of Atripalda, in the Hirpinian territory which, rising from the Apennine mountains, joins the river Calore near the city of Benevento, and then with it flows into the Volturno. Above Benevento, on this river, is situated Tripalta, or Atripalda, distinguished by the title of Duchy; whose suburb, called the Sedile, extends along the left bank of the Sabbato toward the city of Avellino. For Avellino is more than a mile from the Sabbato, with another river flowing between, Patron: Saint Hypolistus, May 1, called the Puntarola (by some Pontodora and Pandorola), which below Atripalda mingles with the Sabbato. The principal basilica of the town of Atripalda is dedicated to Saint Hypolistus, Priest and Martyr, whose feast is celebrated with solemn rite on the Kalends of May. His companions in the contest are believed to have been the boy Crescens and others, whose bodies were recently found.
[2] and Saint Sabinus, February 9. In addition to Saint Hypolistus, the primary Patron, Saints Sabinus the Bishop and Romulus the Deacon are venerated there on the ninth of February, from whose marble tombs flows a sacred liquid, salutary against diseases, which the people commonly call Manna. It flows particularly on these days: All Saints, Saint Catherine, Saint Sabinus, Saint Hypolistus, and the day before and after the last of these. Therefore Leander Albertus wrote that this manna flows from the sepulchre of Saint Hypolistus, in these words: "Then the Tripaltus enters the Calore (he incorrectly makes the Tripaltus different from the Sabbato). Nearby is the noble town of Tripalta, known for its iron workshops and adorned with the title of Marquisate. There, in the principal church, the body of Saint Hypolistus, Martyr and Priest, is preserved, at whose monument miracles are divinely produced; and on the day before, the day after, and on his very feast day, Manna is sent forth with the marble exuding. And they say that Saint Sabinus and Romulus are there also, as the appended epitaph teaches." But in truth this miracle is proper to these latter alone, although the day of Saint Hypolistus is especially honored by it.
[3] Some believe this Saint Sabinus to be the same one who is venerated at Bari in Apulia, Bishop of the Church of Canusium, of whom we have treated at length above -- not only because the one is venerated at Atripalda and the other at Bari and Canusium on the same day, believed by some to be the same as the one venerated at Bari; but because the liquid that flows from the tomb of Saint Sabinus at Atripalda is also reported to have flowed from the former sepulchre of the same Saint Sabinus at Canusium. For the anonymous author of his Life writes thus in chapter 7, number 22: "God wondrously manifested to His priests a new and astonishing miracle. because both exude Manna, For from the marble, just as drops of balsam are accustomed to drip, a liquid emanated with an indescribable odor." And indeed one might rightly marvel that no Acts at all exist of this Sabinus of Atripalda, who is renowned for that prodigious liquid and other miracles, if he is different from the one of Bari. Nor is it unusual for relics of a single Saint to be preserved in many places, and for each to be considered (by synecdoche, of course) to possess the whole body. Thus the relics of Saint Sabinus that were translated from Lesina to Naples in the year 1598, in the Catalogue of Saints which Cardinal Decius Carafa, Archbishop of Naples, ordered to be celebrated throughout that diocese in the year 1609, are said to be those of the same Bishop of Canusium. Why then could some not have been transported to Atripalda, just as they were to Lesina?
[4] However, the fact that he is venerated on the same day is not of great force, and is venerated on the same day, since, as Michael the Monk writes in the Capuan Sanctuarium on page 151, where he treats of Saint Matrona the Virgin, it is not unusual for several feasts of the same name to fall on the same day: "as among us," he says, "two men named Priscus and two named Rufus are commemorated by the Martyrology on one day." which is a weak argument: Other examples can be read, such as that of Saint Candida on September 4, of Saint Modestus on February 12, of Saint Stephen likewise on February 13. Baronius gives this reason for this in his Notes at February 12, letter e: "We have observed that the heaping together of so many Saints of the same name under one day was sometimes done by our forebears because the birthday of a certain Martyr was uncertain -- as in the example of Columba of Cordoba, whose birthday, as long as it was unknown, was customarily celebrated on the same day as the solemnity of Columba of Sens." And indeed this Sabinus is also commemorated on another day. perhaps formerly venerated on another day: For Philippus Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy records Saints Sabinus and Romulus on the Kalends of May together with Saint Hypolistus (whom he calls Hippolytus), and makes them all Martyrs; and he acknowledges, as also in the topographical Index prefixed to the same Catalogue, that they belong to February 17. And we have shown above that many place Saint Sabinus of Canusium on February 17. What if the Sabinus and Romulus of Atripalda were inscribed in the ecclesiastical tables on that day, and someone composing a Martyrology, not knowing who they were, rashly believed Romulus to be the same one who is commemorated elsewhere as crowned with martyrdom on that day together with others, and Sabinus to be the Bishop of Canusium and therefore to be referred to the ninth day? Although it could also have happened that, when Sabinus was venerated at Atripalda on February 17, it was suggested to the Bishop of Avellino, in whose diocese Atripalda lies, that the name of Saint Sabinus is found in the sacred Calendar at February 9, and by his decree his solemnity was moved to that day.
[5] We do not deny, however, that this Sabinus who is venerated at Atripalda if there are two Sabini among the Canusians, which is probable, may have been a Bishop of Canusium. For we have shown above in the preliminary Commentary on the other man's Life, section 1, that there seem to have been two Bishops of the Church of Canusium named Sabinus: one in the time of Pope Saint Gelasius, before the year 500, and the other during the reign of Justinian, a contemporary of Saint Benedict the Abbot -- although the Life, written three centuries later, intermingles the deeds of both and attributes them to one; and asserts that he died and was buried at Canusium shortly before the Lombards invaded Italy; and that his body was afterward revealed by divine intervention more than a hundred years later, translated to the cathedral basilica of the city of Canusium, and then to Bari, where it is still preserved.
[6] If this conjecture is approved, we shall acknowledge that the senior Sabinus appears to be the one who is venerated at Atripalda. Yet we have placed him second, this one should be called the senior, because from the things that have been said about the other, the deeds of this one must be illuminated. To him, therefore, as we have previously noted, should be ascribed both the foundation of the church at Barletta and the honored celebration of the cave of Saint Michael on Mount Gargano with the dedication of altars and miracles. But if the learned reject this conjecture, we shall say that this Sabinus, Patron of the Atripaldensians, is another, different from the Barian one, unknown to us. The sole reason we cannot acknowledge the younger of the two Bishops of Canusium named Sabinus to be venerated at Atripalda is that it is reported that Saint Nicholas predicted to him at Myra (since Saint Nicholas predicted that the younger would be translated to Bari) that it would happen at some time that the remains of both would be brought to a single city, of which they would both be the Patrons. If anyone rejects this tradition of the Barians, I indeed see no reason why the earlier Sabinus could not be thought to have died and been buried at Canusium, and the younger at Atripalda -- whom some want to have been born at Rome, while the other was a native of Canusium. But we can assert nothing except that it seems to us that there were two Bishops of Canusium named Sabinus; and that the one who is venerated at Atripalda, certainly a different person: whoever's Bishop he may ultimately have been, is different from him whose body was translated from Canusium to Bari.
[7] Saint Romulus (of whom no mention is made in the Life of Saint Sabinus related above) is said to have been the Deacon of the one who is venerated at Atripalda; at whose tomb at Atripalda his own Deacon, Saint Romulus, prayed. and to have spent his time at Atripalda before the cave of the holy Martyrs in constant prayers and lamentations, lest he be deprived of the companionship of his Master. From which it follows that this very Sabinus, his master, either died there or was translated there shortly after his death, while his Deacon Romulus was still living. No one, therefore, can suspect that some part of the body of Saint Sabinus was given to the people of Atripalda from his body which was buried at Canusium and found so long afterward, since his own Deacon is remembered as having kept constant and holy vigils at his tomb, and indeed at Atripalda. Moreover, our Antonio Beatillus, who recognized only a single Bishop of Canusium named Sabinus, plainly pronounced the Atripaldan one to be different from him.
Section 2. The Memory and Epitaph of Saints Sabinus and Romulus.
[8] The Acts of Saint Sabinus of Atripalda (if he is not the other one of the Canusians) and of Saint Romulus do not exist -- either because they were never written, or because they were destroyed by some accident. Saint Sabinus, whether the earlier Bishop of Canusium or another, If you shrink from our conjecture about two Sabini, you may suspect that he was Bishop of Avellino and wished to be buried at Atripalda among the bodies of the Saints; or that he was expelled from Africa by the Vandals and settled here; or that he came here from elsewhere for religious reasons and died here -- the choice is free. He is listed with Romulus, besides the previously cited Ferrarius, by David Romaeus in the Index of holy men who were born or buried in the Kingdom of Naples, in these words: "At Atripalda, near the sources of the Aufidus: Hippolytus, Priest and Martyr; Sabinus; Romulus." The Aufidus indeed rises from the same mountains as the Sabbato, but the town of Atripalda is many miles distant from its sources. Paul Regio, Bishop of Vico Equense, in part 1, in the Life of Saint Hypolistus (whom he calls Ippolistro), chapter 5, writes the following: "And because, as has been said, buried at the church of Saint Hypolistus: the body of the holy Martyr had been hidden in the earth, devout men built there a private and pious oratory, and in it they deposited his sacred relics within a marble tomb, with an altar dedicated to the memory of the Martyr in the Catholic rite; where afterward two other altars were erected on either side, and in them were placed the relics of two other Saints, Sabinus and Romulus." But the tomb of Saint Hypolistus is not marble, nor, as he adds, does the sacred liquid drip from it, although on his feast day [and from his tomb and that of Saint Romulus (but not that of Saint Hypolistus) Manna flows.] and the day before and after, it flows from the marble tombs of Saints Sabinus and Romulus, as we have said. Although the author of the Life of Saint Hypolistus, a more recent writer following Regio, writes: "Wherefore they built a church there after the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian, and placed the body in a private oratory beneath the pavement of the church in a marble urn, which around the three days of his feast exudes Manna that benefits innumerable faithful." But, as we shall say in its proper place, the tomb of Saint Hypolistus is of brick, while the two of Saints Sabinus and Romulus are of marble, and these alone exude Manna.
[9] The same anonymous writer of the Life of Saint Hypolistus adds: "In which oratory, or chapel, with the passage of time, the bodies of Saints Sabinus the Bishop and Confessor and Romulus his Deacon were buried. Individual epitaphs are engraved on their sepulchres." When Michael the Monk examined these carefully in the year 1643, when were the epitaphs engraved? he judged, with his excellent discernment, from the form of the characters and the style of the entire structure, that they had been made in the times of the Lombards, at least seven hundred years before. And it is established that this flow of Manna has been in effect from time immemorial. We shall give here these two epitaphs, preceded by two concerning Saint Sabinus.
[22] On the aforesaid sixteenth day of September, having first obtained permission from our most holy Lord Paul V, then Supreme Pontiff, through the Most Reverend Lord Mutius Cinquina, Bishop of Avellino and Frequento, then in 1612, on September 16, in the old tomb; the same tomb was raised by two palms and placed within the old wall; and in the tomb itself a leaden casket was enclosed, in which the body of the holy Bishop was at last deposited, the head elsewhere. but without the head: for the head had been enclosed in a silver case (just as afterward the head also of the holy Martyr Hypolistus was enclosed in the year 1634) and carried processionally through the town, and on certain feasts it is customarily so carried through the streets of the town.
[23] In the year 1629, during the general visitation of the Most Illustrious Lord Bartholomew Giustiniani, Bishop of Avellino and Frequento, on account of the firm tradition of the citizens and the inscription engraved on the tomb of Saint Romulus, which says "before the cave of the Martyrs," at the petition of the Magnificent Governors and the reverend college of Canons, the same Most Illustrious Giustiniani granted permission to dig in the aforesaid crypt, so that the bodies of the Martyrs themselves might be found; The bodies of five Saints found: and with the same Most Illustrious prelate present, and other persons selected for this purpose, there was found the mosaic pavement that was mentioned at the beginning; and upon it a certain small vault, raised to a height of four palms by walls on either side, and sepulchres, and in the sepulchres the bodies of Martyrs, which at that time appeared to be only five in number, arranged to the right of the same pavement. When these were found, the citizens wished to proceed no further at that time; but at the consultation and decree of their Most Illustrious Bishop, they resolved to enlarge the crypt, the crypt enlarged: adding two other wings, as they call them, toward the north, besides the one which had previously been added toward the south through the piety and at the expense of Prince Camillus.
[24] In the year 1633, on the fifteenth day of the month of March, the aforesaid wings having been added, with the same Most Illustrious Giustiniani and his Vicar General Giovanni Battista Grifo present (and in the first place the Most Illustrious Archbishop of Taranto, Lord Thomas Caracciolo, then Bishop of Cyrene), at the body of Saint Hypolistus, eight other bodies found, which had been found in the place previously indicated (or pointed out with the finger) according to ancient and firm tradition, at the entrance to the holy crypt on the right side as one enters, together with those other bodies of Martyrs near his own burial place, which together with the body of Saint Hypolistus appeared to be five in number, when they caused excavation to be made, eight other bodies of Saints were found. And the head of Saint Hypolistus, which some believed his body to lack, on account of certain people reporting that it had been cut off at the time of his martyrdom and thrown into the river Sabbato, was found wrapped in a great quantity of chalk and plaster; and the head of Saint Hypolistus with part of the rope, and not long afterward, beneath it, similarly entirely wrapped in plaster and clay, was found that part of the rope sprinkled with sacred blood, by which the more ferocious unbelievers had dragged the holy man of God from the Capitoline hill to the aforesaid river at the tail of a fierce bull. And now that part of the rope is preserved in a crystal vial -- of rock crystal, as it is commonly called -- by the Most Illustrious Lord Thomas Caracciolo, Archbishop of Taranto. afterward decently preserved;
Likewise at the same time a golden ring found in one of the two tombs of the boy Martyrs is kept with great devotion; and for the purpose of preserving in it the head of the holy Martyr, it was decided and decreed that in the meantime a silver case should be made.
[25] In the year of salvation 1634, on the first day of the month of May, upon the first entry that the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Prince Francesco Marino Caracciolo, Duke of the Atripaldensians, made to take possession of the town, the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Bishop of Cyrene, Lord Thomas Caracciolo, now Archbishop of Taranto, came to Atripalda, and with the will and express consent of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Bartholomew Giustiniani, the head enclosed in a silver case: having celebrated Mass, he duly and solemnly deposited the head of the holy Martyr Hypolistus in a silver case and ordered it to be carried processionally through the town, which was duly carried out.
[26] The body of the glorious Martyr, however, and the other twelve bodies of Saints found near his burial place, the remaining bodies placed in the altar: were carried to the head of the last wing toward the north, and placed in wooden chests on the altar where there is now the image of Saint Hypolistus himself and his companions -- until, God granting, they may be preserved in more fitting monuments. On the aforesaid fifteenth day of the month of March, in the year of salvation one thousand six hundred and thirty-three, there were also found in the rear part of the monument of Saint Romulus three other bodies of Saints; three other bodies found, but not moved from their place. and besides these (though not so openly) many others, among which one near the sepulchre of Saint Romulus, of tall stature, with its head placed upon its breast. But these were neither carried away nor moved from there, lest the monument of Saint Romulus, which stands over their sepulchres (being composed of only two stone slabs, one for its front piece and the other for its cover, but cemented at the back and bottom), should suffer collapse, and the Manna should cease to flow from it. Indeed, another golden ring found in one of those same sepulchres was left where it was found. On the wall built in front of the aforesaid bodies of the Saints, this verse was placed:
HERE THE WALL ENTOMBS THE BODIES OF MANY SAINTS.
[27] In the year of salvation 1635, on the twenty-sixth of December, on the night following the most holy Nativity of our Redeemer, the dome, or tribuna as they call it, of the upper basilica fell, and on account of the impact of the falling stones and mortar, the pavement being broken and nearly the whole vault of the crypt of the holy Martyrs and the sepulchre of Saint Romulus, it filled nearly the entire cave of the Martyrs with stones and mortar. It was remarkable, however, that in the course of only twenty-four hours, on account of the crowd of both sexes and children running together, [The collapse of the dome broke and then repaired the front piece of the tomb of Saint Romulus:] everything that had fallen was removed and carried away. And no less remarkable was the fact that the front piece of the tomb of the holy Deacon, broken into many pieces (some of which were very small), with all the fragments found, was, by the Lord's mercy, restored to its original form. It was a matter of both great consolation and wonder that, although all feared the sacred liquid would cease entirely, the opposite happened; the Manna flows more copiously: for on the following ninth of February, on which the feast of Saint Sabinus is celebrated, the liquid flowed more copiously from the monument of Saint Romulus, just as at that time the tomb of Saint Sabinus also overflowed more copiously with the same. Wherefore the Archpriest, with greater devotion and joy, read it out according to custom and reverently distributed it to the people.
[28] This sacred liquid is accustomed to emanate not continuously on every day of the year, but at certain specific times, and particularly in Advent, on the feasts of All Saints, of Saint Sabinus the Bishop, and of Saint Catherine the Martyr; its abundance an augury of fertility, and indeed when it flows copiously, the citizens more joyfully expect the harvests and vintages and the gathering of other produce, especially hazelnuts. And when the sacred liquid is less abundant, they do not retain hope for greater abundance. But this should not be passed over in silence: namely that it frequently happens that before the first Vespers of the aforesaid feasts nothing of the liquid appears in these sacred monuments, but when Vespers begin, there hang upon them tiny drops, like pearls and beads.
[29] So far that account. Whatever else we have reported here concerning Saints Sabinus and Romulus beyond that account, we have received mostly from the same Don Silvester Aiossa, the Reverend Father Giacinto Rugerio of Atripalda, of the Order of Preachers, Professor of Sacred Theology in the Royal Convent of Saint Louis at Aversa, and Father Antonio Beatillus, Priest of the Society of Jesus. also of hazelnuts. From the fact that you hear an abundant crop of hazelnuts is foretold when a more generous liquid flows from the tombs of the Saints, you may conclude that not only Avella (or Abella), a city situated between Nola and Avellino, but also Avellino itself abounds in hazelnuts. Indeed, Pliny himself writes that hazelnuts, or filberts, were called "Abelline." So in book 15, chapter 22: "In the rest, whatever substance they have is solid, as in filberts, a species of nut which formerly they called Abelline from the name of their native land." It is doubtful whether he means they were called Abelline from Abella, or (as Leander thinks) that Abella itself was called Abellinum, or finally whether he judged that those nuts -- which are commonly called Avellane or Abellane from Abella, a city of Campania -- were named from the nearby Hirpinian city of Abellinum.