Florus

ON SAINT FLORUS, ROMAN MARTYR, AT ANTWERP.

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

I. B.

[1] Famous is the Via Nomentana, not much more than a mile from the city of Rome, The body of Saint Florus was excavated from the cemetery of Saint Agnes, where stands the basilica of Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, beside which a cemetery, likewise called that of Saint Agnes, was formerly constructed. Many of its passages have been opened in our own time, when the earth that had been heaped up deeply around that basilica was removed, as Antonius Bosius attests in his Subterranean Rome, book 3, chapter 48; and he presents various forms of the marble tombs excavated thence, as well as many inscriptions. Not a few bodies of Saints were afterwards brought forth from there: two were brought to Antwerp, And brought to Antwerp, to be placed in the magnificent church of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus, which had already (as was said on February 3, when we treated of Saint Fortunatus) been not sparingly enriched with such heavenly treasures. These bodies, moreover, were those of Saints Florus and Palladius, Together with that of Saint Palladius; which, having been legitimately approved by our Most Illustrious Bishop Gaspar Nemius, were solemnly exposed to public veneration: that of Saint Florus on the day before the Ides of February, and that of Saint Palladius on the Ides themselves; and on those days their annual celebration is observed. As is evident from the diploma of the Bishop of Antwerp. By whom, to whom, by what authority, and when these bodies were donated, the same Most Illustrious Bishop sets forth in a public document drawn up concerning them, which we give here.

Gaspar Nemius, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See, Bishop of Antwerp, confirmed Archbishop and Duke of Cambrai, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, Count of the Cambrésis, etc., to all who shall see these presents, greeting in the Lord.

The benignity of a propitious Divinity, which has very often in our times brought heavenly protection to this our city against manifold and most grievous dangers, while the armies of heretics clamored round about, Holy relics are useful for various purposes. does not cease even now to offer a remedy against whatever calamities and vices, and an incentive to public piety, through the most sacred relics of the Saints brought from Rome and elsewhere.

[3] Recently indeed the Reverend Father Francis Geubels, The relics of Saints Florus and Palladius were sent from Rome to Antwerp, Provost of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus in this city, informed Us that the bodies of the holy Martyrs Florus and Palladius had some time ago been sent from Rome to his predecessor, the Reverend Father Francis van Hees, to be placed for the veneration of the people in the church of the same Society, provided they were approved by Our authority; and he humbly besought Us to deign to do so. We, most willingly bestowing Our favor on matters of this kind,

came on Thursday after Sexagesima Sunday, the eighth day of February, in the year 1652, to the said Professed House, where two small gilded wooden caskets were presented to Us, Here inspected and approved by the Bishop, bound with fine red linen and sealed in two places with the seal of the Most Eminent Cardinal Ginetti. In the first casket, on which the title SAINT PALLADIUS MARTYR was inscribed externally, were found fragments of an ampulla stained with the Martyr's blood, discovered in his tomb; likewise fragments of the skull and bones of the entire body (so far as one could conjecture). In the other, likewise bearing the title SAINT FLORUS MARTYR, were bones of the entire body, but very many of them partly dissolved by age and partly perhaps shattered by impact.

[4] In this same second casket there was a public document written on parchment, drawn up at Rome in the year from the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1649, An authentic testimony being found therein; Indiction II, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of May, in the fifth year of the pontificate of the Most Holy Father in Christ and our Lord, Lord Innocent, by divine providence Pope, the Tenth; by Leonard de Leonardis, a Roman citizen, public notary of the Court of Causes of the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Vicar General of the Holy City of Our Most Holy Lord the Pope, subscribed and published. In it he attested that Balthasar Ballonus, a Religious of the Society of Jesus, well known to him, had on the said day testified under oath that, because he had undertaken various labors over several years in finding and extracting from the Catacombs and various cemeteries of the City the sacred bodies of holy Martyrs, for the service of the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Ginetti, Vicar of Our Most Holy Lord the Pope, he had received as a gift from the same Most Eminent Lord Cardinal, among other sacred relics and holy bodies, the bodies listed below, Excavated from the cemetery of Saint Agnes, namely those of Saints Palladius and Florus, Martyrs, extracted from the cemetery of Saint Agnes by the mandate of Our Most Holy Lord the Pope, with the faculty and authority (as he affirmed) given to him orally, to retain them in his possession, to donate them to other persons, to send them outside the City, and to publicly expose and place them in churches for the pious faithful.

[5] Therefore, since the same Balthasar wished to make use of the aforesaid faculty and to proceed to the donation described below and to have a public document drawn up, he freely, in every better manner, Donated to the Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp, first asserted under renewed oath that the aforesaid bodies of Saints Palladius and Florus, Martyrs, were the very same ones donated to him as described above; and that he had therefore donated, granted, and bestowed them, for the greater glory and honor of Almighty God and His Saints and for the increase of the devotion of the faithful, upon the venerable Professed House of the Society of Jesus at Antwerp, and for it upon James Hannott, a Religious of the said Society, present, for the purpose of publicly exposing and placing them in the church of the said Professed House. And the said James, with all possible devotion and reverence, in the name aforesaid, had received these sacred bodies, placed and stored separately each in two small caskets of cypress wood, bound with cord and sealed in two places with the seal of the Most Eminent Lord Cardinal Vicar by the same Notary, and had rendered immortal thanks. These things were done on the day and year above written, with the Reverend Father Jerome Boschetto and Ignatius Rocchetto, both of the said Society of Jesus, as witnesses called, present, and requested for all and each of the aforesaid matters. Below was added: "We, Martius, Cardinal Priest of the title of Saint Peter in Chains, of the Holy Roman Church, Ginettus, Vicar General of Our Most Holy Lord the Pope, to all, etc., attest and certify that the above-named Leonard de Leonardis was commissioned to draw up the aforesaid, and is a public notary of Our Court, such as he represents himself to be, and that full faith is and should be given to his public writings and the like, in court and outside of it. In witness whereof, etc. Given at Rome from Our residence on this twenty-sixth day of May, 1649." The seal of the same Cardinal Vicar was appended.

[6] We, having inspected, read, and diligently examined all of these, approved and do approve the said bodies of Saints Florus and Palladius, Martyrs, as true relics legitimately acquired and brought here, and we decree that they may be publicly exposed and honored in the church: Days assigned on which they are to be honored with the Ecclesiastical Office: in such manner (as the same Reverend Father Provost requested of Us) that Saint Florus on the twelfth day of February, and Saint Palladius on the following day, shall be annually celebrated with the Ecclesiastical Office for a Martyr not a Bishop, of the double rite, according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church. We then caused those relics to be enclosed in caskets skillfully made for the purpose, and in each one we sealed one more notable bone, with the name inscribed, with our seal.

[7] Done at Antwerp on the said eighth day of February, 1652, in the presence of the Reverend Sirs Francis Hillewerve, These acts drawn up on February 8, 1652. Canon of the Cathedral Church of Antwerp, John Sporckmans and Clement Nepveu, Priests, Licentiates of Both Laws, Our Domestics and respectively our chaplains and secretaries; likewise the Reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus, professed Priests Francis Geubels, Provost, Francis van Hees, and John Bolland.

[8] Thus far the acts of approbation. It happened moreover that in that year the twelfth of February fell on the Monday after Quinquagesima Sunday; and since during those days before Ash Wednesday prayers of the Forty Hours, together with a Pontifical indulgence, are customarily instituted in our churches, The relics of Saint Florus were brought into the church on February 11, the double Translation of the Martyrs served to augment the pomp and devotion of those days. On Sunday, therefore, after the afternoon sermon, the body of Saint Florus was brought from the House into the church, with all Our members in a long procession, in the manner of suppliants, carrying candles and torches in their hands, borne aloft by four Priests clad in precious deacons' vestments, In solemn pomp: with other accompaniment and apparatus splendid for piety. The casket itself, in which the sacred relics were enclosed, was skillfully made and sumptuously adorned. Then for the first time Saint Florus was solemnly invoked, and the hymn Te Deum laudamus was sung. On the following day the sacrifice of the Mass was solemnly offered to God in his honor. Venerated on February 12. At nightfall, the body of Saint Palladius was translated in the same manner and fashion.

[9] The acts of these Martyrs are entirely unknown to us, and even the names themselves were previously unknown. His acts are unknown: We have indeed read of two Roman Martyrs named Florus: one killed on the Via Salaria on January 13 together with many companions, the other at Ostia on December 22 with Demetrius and Honoratus. That the body of one of these was transported to the cemetery of Saint Agnes is something we cannot affirm, although the Via Nomentana (on which the church of Saint Agnes is situated) was not far from the Via Salaria and joined it at Eretum, so that one who was killed on the Via Salaria could easily have been buried on the Nomentana. Saints Florus and Palladius appear to have been killed either in the last days of Diocletian, or under Maxentius or Julian, When does he appear to have been slain? since it is probable that the cemetery of Saint Agnes was not built until about the time of her death -- unless one should suppose the bodies of those two Saints to have been transferred from elsewhere to that cemetery, as was done for many Saints.