CONCERNING THE HOLY BROTHERS FAUSTINUS, PRIEST, AND JOVITA, DEACON, MARTYRS AT BRESCIA IN ITALY
THE YEAR OF CHRIST 120
Preliminary Commentary.
Faustinus, Priest, brother, Martyr at Brescia in Italy (Saint) Jovita, Deacon, brother, Martyr, at Brescia in Italy (Saint)
By G.H.
Section I. The sacred memory of Saints Faustinus and Jovita. Their Life written by various authors.
[1] Brescia, an ancient city of Transpadane Gaul among the Italians, the chief city of the Cenomanian people, by whom Livy in book 5 implies that it was founded after they migrated to Italy -- and whose other distinctions he records in books 21 and 32 -- is situated almost at the foot of the Rhaetian Alps, At Brescia, to whose Prefect under the Emperors it was subject, as the Acts of these Martyrs relate below. Strabo, in book 4 of his Geography, under the Prefect of the Rhaetian Alps, which he wrote under the Emperor Tiberius, asserts that "the Rhaetians extend into Italy as far as the region above Verona and Como." Between these cities lies Brescia, which Catullus celebrated as the mother of Verona, from which it is less distant. And Ptolemy, who flourished in the times of the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Aelius Verus, in book 2 of his Geography, chapter 12, affirms that "the southern side of Rhaetia is bounded by the Alpine mountains which extend hence above Italy."
[2] Under these same Emperors, Brescia, having drawn the light of the Christian faith from apostolic times, sent very many citizens to heaven, crowned with the palm of martyrdom. The Martyrs Saints Faustinus and Jovita, Among these were the holy brothers Faustinus the Priest and Jovita the Deacon, whom, having been beheaded on February 15 after enduring many torments (as will be established below), the Roman Church venerates, and whom the city and diocese of Brescia honor with a singular cult, extended even to eight days, as their patron saints and protectors. The ancient veneration is attested by the tables of the principal Martyrologies. And Bede has briefly: "In the city of Brescia, Saints Faustinus and Jovita, Martyrs." The same things are read in the manuscript Martyrologies of the Carmelites of Cologne, of St. Martin at Trier, of the church of St. Mary at Utrecht, and in another belonging to the Queen of Sweden, inscribed in the ancient Martyrologies, but without mention of Brescia. In another ancient manuscript of ours, which appears to have been written in Italy, they are reported to have suffered in the city of Colonia instead of Brescia. That a Roman colony was established at Brescia is attested by Pliny, book 3, chapter 19: "In the interior," he says, "of the tenth region, colonies are Cremona and Brescia, in the territory of the Cenomani." Whence perhaps, with a few words added to that Martyrology, it should read: "At Brescia, a city and Roman colony, of the holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita, otherwise called Jovita." But most manuscripts of Usuard, both handwritten and printed, are involved in a greater error when Jovita is called a "Virgin," as though she were to be assigned to the female sex. For it reads thus: "In the city of Brescia, of the holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita the Virgin." In an ancient manuscript of ours, which bears the name of Bede, she is called "Sobita the Virgin." We know that St. John the Evangelist and other holy men are occasionally called Virgins by authors on account of the singular continence by which they were distinguished, but we have not yet observed this in Usuard and similar Martyrologies. Notker, omitting Jovita (perhaps because the matter was less clear to him), says: "At Brescia, Faustinus the Martyr." In the manuscript of Ado belonging to the Most Serene Christina, Queen of Sweden, from the church of St. Lawrence at Liege, there is added "and of Jobita the Virgin," as if she had not undergone martyrdom. But Molanus, having erased the word "Virgin," substituted the word "Deacon."
[3] In other Martyrologies, more details from the Acts of these Martyrs are recorded. The manuscript of the Canons Regular of Albergen has this: "In the city of Brescia in Italy, the birthday of Saints Faustinus and Jobita the Deacon. And with a larger eulogy from the Acts: Who, under the Emperor Hadrian, having been exposed to the most ferocious beasts and to flames, were ordered to have their arms bound and to be suspended on high, and there to be violently tortured; finally, with lighted torches placed at their sides, they consummated their glorious martyrdom by the cutting off of their heads. Moreover, strengthened by their passion, more than three thousand persons believed." The same things are read in the Martyrology printed at Cologne in 1490, and in Hermann Greven's supplement to Usuard. But in these the error of Usuard concerning Jobita the Virgin is retained. The torments inflicted upon them are described in both sets of Acts below; but what is said about more than three thousand having believed is taken from the later Acts. Concerning this number, the manuscript Martyrology of St. Gudula at Brussels has: "At Brescia, the birthday of Saints Faustinus and Jobita the Deacon. Who under the Emperor Hadrian, after various kinds of torture, fulfilled their glorious martyrdom by the severing of their heads. By their passion more than three thousand persons believed in Christ." Similar things are read in the manuscript Florarium. But what is found in Bellinus, in the Martyrology printed in 1498 according to the usage of the Roman Curia, appears to be excerpted from other Acts which we have not yet seen in their entirety. In it we find: "At Brescia, the birthday of the holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita, who, being examined under the Emperor Hadrian, said to him: 'Hear, Hadrian, you twisted serpent -- nay, most savage snake -- you run through twists and turns so that you might cause us to deviate from the right path. Let this be known to you: that we shall not obey your barking, nor shall we place incense before your gods; but to the Lord our Creator we continually offer both incense and libations.' When the peoples from the city of Milan heard of the constancy of the Saints, gathering together they came to the blessed Martyrs of God and had themselves baptized. Then Hadrian, hearing this and inflamed with fury, immediately had them struck with the sword and their heads cut off." So far Bellinus; and nearly the same is found in Molanus, citing the Roman Martyrology. What the Martyrs suffered at Milan is related in the earlier Acts, number 16, but that invective against the Emperor is absent. Other eulogies are given by Wandelbert, Felicius, Maurolycus, Galesini, and Canisius. We shall presently treat of the epitome of the Acts which is found in certain codices of Ado. In the current Roman Martyrology these words are read: "At Brescia, the birthday of the holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita, who under the Emperor Hadrian, after many outstanding struggles undertaken for the faith of Christ, received the crown of martyrdom."
[4] The Acts of these Saints were written in various forms by various authors. Of these, we give some from a manuscript codex of the monastery of St. Maximin near Trier, collated with the edition of Laurentius Surius. The same Acts exist in manuscript at Rome among the Fathers of the Oratory, The Acts published here are twofold, from manuscripts and Surius: and at Capua in the convent of nuns of St. John, as the most courteous Signor Silvester Ayossa indicated to us by letter from there. Other Acts were sent to us from Naples by our Anthony Beatillus, which, hitherto unpublished, we judge worthy of being brought to public light as well. Some portion of these is cited by Antonio Bosio and Paolo Aringhi in book 3 of "Roma Sotterranea" -- the former in chapter 11, the latter in the following chapter 12 -- and they assert that these manuscript Acts are found in the Lateran Codex. Both sets of Acts appear to have been contracted from others written in a more ample style and with a greater wealth of material. An indication of this in the earlier Acts is found in number 19, where we read: "Since it would be lengthy to set forth the entire text of the passion or the miracles of the most blessed Martyrs of Christ, Faustinus and Jovita, let us come to their glorious end." Parts from others, from Mombritius, Some part perhaps of those more ample Acts is what Mombritius published concerning St. Calocerus, and which we append here from him, because it admirably illustrates the deeds performed by these Martyrs; and the words are also at times the same as in the other Acts. Finally, we add excerpts from the Life of St. Secundus, Martyr of Asti, baptized by St. Faustinus, and the manuscript Life of St. Secundus: which we shall give on March 30 from the most ancient manuscripts of the Church of Asti and various others. These contain nearly the same material as the Life of St. Marcianus, Bishop of Tortona and Martyr, to be published from Mombritius and manuscripts on March 27.
[5] Galesini annotates in his Martyrology that the martyrdom of Saints Faustinus and Jovita was first committed to writing by Faustinus VII, Bishop of Brescia, and then by Philastrius, likewise a Bishop; and that from their writings survive the Acts the authors are considered to be the Bishops St. Faustinus, which were transcribed by Surius. Ughelli also, in his account of the Bishops of Brescia, asserts that the Acts of St. Apollinaris and of Saints Faustinus and Jovita were recorded in writing by St. Faustinus the Bishop. And Ascanius Martinengus, a Brescian Abbot of the monastery of St. Afra, in the preface to the Life of these Martyrs which he published in Italian, says that it is celebrated by ancient tradition that seven epistles were composed by St. Faustinus the Bishop, in which not only the glorious struggles of martyrdom but also other things nobly accomplished by these brothers throughout their whole lives are set forth in a careful narrative -- but he laments that these have perished. This writer, St. Faustinus, is venerated on February 16; he became Bishop around the year 350, and in the manuscript of Ado belonging to the Most Serene Christina, Queen of Sweden, he is said to have collected the bodies of Saints Faustinus and Jovita -- but on what occasion we have not yet read. St. Philastrius, his successor, according to the testimony of Ughelli in his preface to the Bishops of Brescia, described the struggle for Christ of St. Afra the martyr, whose conversion is contained in the Acts below, and St. Philastrius: and whose feast is celebrated on May 24; in which account he could not have failed to treat of the illustrious martyrdom of Saints Faustinus and Jovita. The aforementioned Martinengus writes that their passion was printed in the year 1611 and that in the prefatory note by Jacobus Riccius it is attributed to St. Philastrius; but he doubts whether it can be considered the work of the latter, since it differs entirely in style and manner of writing from his book on Heresies, published in the "Great Library of the Fathers." St. Philastrius was a man most distinguished both in learning and in holiness of life, an intimate of Saints Ambrose, Augustine, and other leading men of his time, and was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on July 18; his Life was written by his successor, St. Gaudentius.
[6] Whatever may be said about the authors of this Life of these Martyrs, who are certainly ancient, it seems that it was written on the basis of the records of the governor's tribunal, which had once been excerpted by notaries, and composed in subsequent centuries, now expanded, now abridged by other authors. There exist various epitomes of these same Acts, of which the principal may be considered that which is found in the edition of Ado by Surius epitomes in Ado, and relegated by our Rosweyde to the Appendix. The same Martyrology of Ado is found among the manuscript books of the Most Serene Christina, Queen of Sweden; it formerly belonged to the Church of Toulon in Provence, and in its opening folios it supplies some Bishops of that church unknown elsewhere. Throughout the entire year it offers much concerning the Saints of Brescia, and for this fifteenth of February it presents an illustrious eulogy of these Martyrs drawn from some more ample Life than we now possess, with this conclusion: "Whose Mass is found in the Gelasian Sacramentary only." The rest may be seen in Surius and Rosweyde, and are indicated below in our annotations. Another epitome is distributed in the Ecclesiastical Office, in the Lessons of the second Nocturn, for the city and diocese of Brescia, in the Brescia Breviary, and the same, somewhat more condensed, is contained in the Roman Breviary. Other epitomes have been published by Petrus de Natalibus in his Catalogue of Saints, book 3, chapter 127, and by Vincent in book 10 of his "Mirror of History," chapter 83, in Equilinus, Vincent, and others, from whom, when the ancient Acts themselves are briefly touched upon, they are rendered more certain and indubitable. Among more recent writers, eulogies of these Martyrs have been composed by Ferrari in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, by Peregrinus Merula in his "Sanctuary of Cremona" (on account of the singular cult with which the Church of Cremona honors them), by Haraeus, Lippelous, and others who have published Lives of Saints in various vernacular languages.
Section II. The date of the martyrdom of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, and likewise of Saints Marcianus, Secundus, Calocerus, and others.
[7] Among the persecutions stirred up against the Christians by the pagan Emperors, the third is reckoned to be that which Trajan instituted The third persecution, begun by Trajan in the year 107, in the tenth year of his reign, the year of Christ 107, while he was in the East. In this persecution we stated on the Kalends of February that St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was devoured by the teeth of lions at Rome in the year 109. In the same persecution were slain St. Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, affixed to a cross, and St. Onesimus, Bishop of Ephesus, crushed by stones; the latter is venerated on February 16, the former on the eighteenth of the same month. After this persecution had been proclaimed, Trajan always remained in the East and never returned to Rome or Italy; and at last he died at Selinus in Cilicia (which city was subsequently called Trajanopolis) on the fourth day before the Ides of August, in the consulship of Quintius Niger and Vipsanius Apronianus, Hadrian, succeeding in the year 117, continues the persecution: in the year of Christ 117. Hadrian succeeded Trajan through the zeal and favor of Plotina, who had been Trajan's wife -- a cunning and crafty man, whom Dio in the epitome found in Xiphilinus calls "meddlesome and versatile." He was, in the words of Aelius Spartianus in his Life, "at the same time severe and cheerful, affable and grave, wanton and deliberate, tenacious and liberal, a dissembler, cruel, merciful, and always in all things changeable." Dio writes that he fell into hatred on account of the nefarious and unworthy murders he committed at the beginning and toward the end of his reign. Meanwhile, at the beginning of his Empire, as Spartianus relates, he pretended that all the things that seemed displeasing had been ordered for him to do by decree of Trajan. Hence also the persecution of Trajan against the Christians was continued by him for some time; whence Saints Faustinus and Jovita are said in the Lessons of the Ecclesiastical Office to have been bound and led through various cities of Italy while the persecution of Trajan raged -- although, as will soon be established, they were first apprehended and cast into prison under Hadrian.
[8] Sulpicius Severus, in book 2 of his Sacred History, says that the fourth persecution is reckoned under Hadrian, which he nevertheless afterward prohibited from being carried out. But others have adopted a different method in numbering the persecutions and do not distinguish this persecution of Hadrian from that which Trajan had begun; because, as Tertullian testifies in his "Apologeticus" against the Gentiles, chapter 5, Hadrian, although he was an investigator of every kind of curiosity, enacted no laws he promulgates no new edict throughout the Empire, against the Christians -- that is, by promulgating some public edict throughout the entire Empire. But he who, according to Spartianus, observed the Roman sacred rites most diligently, despised foreign ones, and performed the office of Pontifex Maximus, gave to others who requested it the power to rage against the Christians, but gives the power to rage against them: by means of a sacred rescript, or imperial sanction, as the earlier Acts, numbers 2 and 3, explain. But in what year these things were done, we now investigate. Having obtained the Empire, he made peace with the Parthians and restored Armenia, Assyria, and Mesopotamia to them, and rebuilt Alexandria at public expense. These things occurred in the year 117. In the following year, in the consulship of the Emperor Caesar Hadrian for the second time and Claudius Fuscus Salinator in the year 118, (which Baronius calls the first year of the Empire, Petavius the second), he returned to Rome; but when the Sarmatians and the Roxolani were causing disturbances, he set out for Moesia and concluded peace with them. In which same year, Italicus, Count of the Rhaetian provinces, met the Emperor -- perhaps as he was setting out toward Moesia -- at the river Adda, At Brescia he orders Saints Faustinus and Jovita to be tortured before him, and received the power to rage against the Christians; and, having then captured Saints Faustinus and Jovita, he kept them imprisoned until the Emperor's return. The Emperor returned; the Martyrs were examined and thrown to wild beasts, but remained unharmed. Three thousand persons were converted, among them St. Calocerus and his servants. The Emperor ordered these to be beheaded on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of December. Whence we know that he was at Brescia in the month of November. He orders others to be slain on November 19.
[9] In the year 119, in the consulship of the Emperor Caesar Hadrian for the third time and Quintus Junius Rusticus, on the eighteenth of April, St. Calocerus was slain and earned the palm of martyrdom. After his servants had been killed on November 19, he had been taken away with Saints Faustinus and Jovita to Milan, In the year 119, he stays at Milan: where he was subjected to various torments by Hadrian's command. Thence he alone was taken to Asti, and finally, made a martyr at Albenga, he flew to heaven. The same dates are confirmed in the Acts of St. Marcianus, Bishop of Tortona, At that time St. Marcianus was slain, March 27, and of Secundus, citizen of Asti. The former was apprehended by Antiochus, Prefect of the Cottian Alps, as he was setting out for Milan to the Emperor Hadrian, at which time Saints Faustinus, Jovita, and Calocerus were being afflicted there with various torments. Sapricius, appointed in place of Antiochus, took St. Calocerus away to Asti; instructed by whom, St. Secundus traveled to Milan and was baptized by St. Faustinus. Returning to Tortona, he witnessed the beheading of St. Marcianus the Bishop, seized his body and buried it on March 27; St. Secundus, March 30, and returning to Asti and conversing with St. Calocerus, he suffered martyrdom by the cutting off of his head on March 30, on which same day St. Calocerus was taken away to Albenga, where, as we said, he was killed on April 18. St. Calocerus, April 18. Saints Faustinus and Jovita, ordered then to proceed to Rome, visited the Roman Pontiff hiding in the Catacombs. This was St. Evaristus, who was crowned with martyrdom in this same year 119, on October 26. Pope St. Evaristus, October 26. Hadrian went to Campania in this same year and relieved all its towns with benefactions and largesses, as may be read in Spartianus. That Saints Faustinus and Jovita were also carried by ship with the Emperor Hadrian and thrown into the sea by his order, Saints Faustinus and Jovita, February 15, year 120, but rescued by the ministry of angels and arrived at Naples, the later Acts relate. At length the Martyrs were sent back from Naples and handed over to Count Aurelianus, by whose command they were beheaded at Brescia on February 15 of the year 120, in the consulship of Lucius Catilius Severus and Titus Aurelius Fulvus.
[10] In the same year, after settling affairs in Rome and Italy, Hadrian set out for the Gauls and the Germanies; thence he crossed into Britain, where he built a wall extending for seventy miles Hadrian is absent from Italy until the year 124: to divide the barbarians from the Romans. This is more plausibly dated to the year 121. In the following year the Emperor, having returned from Britain to the Gauls, built a basilica at Nimes in honor of Plotina, wife of Trajan. After this he entered the Spains and wintered at Tarragona. Thence, having set out for the East in the year 123, and spending the following winter at Athens, he revisited Rome -- at which time St. Quadratus, a disciple of the Apostles, and St. Aristides, an Athenian philosopher, presented to the same Emperor books concerning the Christian religion; moved by which, he wrote to Minucius Fundanus, Proconsul of Asia, that Christians were not to be condemned without the presentation of charges. He relaxes the persecution. From all of this it is established that in the years assigned above, the aforesaid Martyrs were captured, afflicted with torments, and beheaded. We have often noted that Baronius advances the epoch of the years of Christ by two years, and thus assigns to the year 122 those consuls under whom we have said these Martyrs were slain in the year 120.
Section III. Various Translations of Saints Faustinus and Jovita. Altars, churches, and monasteries dedicated to them.
[11] Among the Bishops of Brescia, St. Latinus is reckoned the fourth, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on March 24. In the cemetery dedicated by St. Latinus, He is reported to have endured many things for the Christian religion under the Emperor Domitian and to have dedicated a cemetery of Martyrs near the city walls, in which he himself upon departing this life was buried, and in which the holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita were covered in one and the same tomb by Bishop Apollonius, successor of St. Latinus. The burial of Saints Faustinus and Jovita: In this place there stands a distinguished basilica, held by the Canons Regular, erected in honor of St. Afra; for they relate that she rests there together with many thousands of Brescian citizens slain for the confession of Christ Jesus -- so Ascanius Martinengus, Abbot of the same monastery of St. Afra, in his Italian-language Lives of these Saints, Ughelli in his account of the Bishops of Brescia, Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and others. Christians long ago began to cultivate this place with the most chaste veneration. For they hold that in the time of the Emperor Alexander, around the year 225, an altar was erected, lights were kindled, [an altar erected to them; the church of Saints Faustinus and Jovita called "ad Sanguinem":] sacrifice was offered; and then, under the Emperors Philip, around the year 246, a sacred edifice or oratory was erected, which they called "Saints Faustinus and Jovita ad Sanguinem" because there, dying for the name of Christ, they had shed their blood. These events perhaps ought rather to be referred to the times of Constantine the Great or of other Christian Emperors, unless what was destroyed in the extreme persecution of Diocletian, Maximian, and other enemies of the Christian faith is said to have been restored -- which they record was done after the cruel devastation of Italy by Radagaisus, King of the Goths, and Attila, King of the Huns. On this tradition of the Brescians, Martinengus should be consulted. That a temple dedicated to St. Faustinus the Martyr existed at Brescia in his own time is attested by St. Gregory the Great, in Dialogues, book 4, chapter 52, which we shall recite here.
[12] "John," he says, "a man of distinction, holding the office of Prefect in this city, whose seriousness and truthfulness we know, has testified to me that a certain Patrician named Valerianus had died in the city called Brescia. The Bishop of that city, having accepted a payment, provided him with a place in the church when a wicked man was buried in the church of St. Faustinus, in which he was to be buried. This Valerianus, even to a decrepit old age, had been fickle and slippery, and had scorned to set any limit to his depravities. But on that very night when he was buried, the Blessed Martyr Faustinus, in whose church his body had been interred, St. Faustinus denounces it, appeared to his custodian, saying: 'Go, and tell the Bishop to cast out from here the stinking flesh which he has placed here; and if he does not do so, on the thirtieth day he himself shall die.' The custodian was afraid to report the vision to the Bishop, and when admonished again he declined to do so. The Bishop dies. But on the thirtieth day, the Bishop of that city, having retired to his bed in the evening hour in good health and unimpaired, died a sudden and unexpected death." So far St. Gregory; from whose words it is not clear whether the temple of Saints Faustinus and Jovita ad Sanguinem -- in the place where we said the basilica of St. Afra now stands, where their sacred bodies were then preserved -- should be understood, or whether that other temple of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, to which their relics were translated after about two hundred years, had then been built. Martinengus and other Brescians imply that it was the former church; and Ughelli says that Bishop Cunipert, not many years before that Translation, was buried in the church of Saints Faustinus and Jovita ad Sanguinem.
[13] Cunipert was succeeded by Amphridius, or Amphrigius, who, as the same Ughelli relates, held the See of Brescia with the highest reputation as a Pastor; and in the year 806, on the thirteenth day of the month of May, [In the year 806 the bodies of Saints Faustinus and Jovita are translated on May 13 by Bishop Amphridius,] he translated with solemn pomp the bodies of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, as may be read in the Life of these same Saints. "Amphridius, while he was storming heaven with insistent prayers, died a holy and pious death and was buried in the church of St. Faustinus, where the following memorial may be read, inscribed in Lombard letters, as Octavius Rubeus observed: 'Here lies the Blessed Bishop Amphridius, who while praying before the most holy Faustinus and Jovita rendered his soul to God.'" Amphridius was succeeded by Peter, who is reported to have consecrated a chapel in the church of St. Faustinus in the year 807, on the thirteenth of April; to the church of St. Faustinus Major, to have departed this life in the year 814, and to have been buried in the church of St. Faustinus Major -- in which, of course, his body and that of St. Jovita then rested. In the same year 814, Rampert was elevated to this See, who had a bronze cock cast and placed on the pinnacle of the tower, where it is still to be seen with this inscription: "The Lord Bishop Rampert of Brescia ordered this cock to be made in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 820, Indiction 13, the fourteenth year from the Translation of the Saints, the sixth of his episcopate." So far Ughelli; from which the year of the Translation, 806, is confirmed -- at which time Charlemagne also held the Empire, by whom, according to Capreolus and Martinengus, Naimus under the prefect Naimus: (or Namus), a Duke of Bavarian origin, was appointed governor of the city of Brescia, and the entire matter was carried out under his direction and judgment.
[14] The same Bishop Rampert summoned Leuthgar the Abbot and Hildemar the monk (these are Ughelli's words), men distinguished for their praise of holiness and their learning, from Gaul; and having built a monastery, he assigned to them the church a monastery is built by Bishop Rampert, where the bodies of Saints Faustinus and Jovita rest ... "Rampert survived for a long time thereafter and departed to the heavens, having left to his successors the Church entrusted to him, wonderfully increased both in ecclesiastical discipline and in resources, and he lies buried in the same church of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, which he had made more splendid." The relics of Saints Faustinus and Jovita were also translated by him, perhaps to a more splendid location, or to a new altar erected for them. The manuscript of Ado, formerly of the Church of Toulon in Provence and now of the Most Serene Queen of Sweden, begins the entry for May 9 with a reference to this Translation in these words: "The Translation of the blessed Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita in the city of Brescia, and the relics are again translated in the year 843, on May 9, carried out by Lord Rampert, Bishop of the same city, in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 843, Indiction 6." Ferrari also records in the General Catalogue on the same date, May 9, the Translation of the holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita, and cites the records of the Church of Brescia.
[15] Not under St. Antigius or Ansiginus the Bishop. Others assign a different Translation, carried out by St. Antigius, or Ansiginus, a Bishop. Ughelli distinguishes these two and asserts that St. Antigius was, after St. Apollonius, the sixth Bishop of Brescia in the year 160; concerning whom, see the Brescian Martyrology on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of December, and the list of Saints of the same Church. But he says that St. Ansiginus lived in the year 782, having been appointed as successor to Bishop Deodatus, and that his feast is celebrated at Brescia on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of December -- the same day he had previously assigned to St. Antigius. Ferrari records him in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy and the General Catalogue on the same day, asserting that he succeeded the holy Deusdedit and that he expired while praying during the translation of the holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita, and that his body rests in the church of St. Faustinus -- things which we said above were read about Amphridius. Elias Capreolus and Ascanius Martinengus are cited, in whose accounts the dates of the events and translations of Saints Faustinus and Jovita are confused and entangled. If due authority is conceded to antiquity, we are informed that the body of St. Antigius, a Bishop but not of the Church of Brescia, is preserved in the temple of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, by the aforementioned manuscript of Ado from the Church of Toulon, now of the Queen of Sweden, which we suspect was once augmented among the Brescians themselves, since it contains the most detailed eulogies of the Saints of Brescia. In that codex, concerning St. Antigius, on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of December, the following is read: "In the city of Langres in Gaul, in the territory of Montmagny, the passing of St. Antigius, Confessor and Bishop, whose body was translated from Gaul to Brescia, who was first buried there; but afterward was thence translated and honorably interred in the church of St. Mary and St. Martin in the village of Caiciacum by the Lord Haymo, a venerable priest. Then, after not many years, out of fear of the Northmen, who at that time devastated the greatest part of France and Burgundy, he was carried by the same holy priest and brought into Italy, and in the city of Brescia, in the monastery of the holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita -- over which the same venerable Abbot afterward presided with honor for eight years, four months, and twenty-three days -- he was venerably placed and rests." So far that Martyrology.
[16] The privileges of the temple of Saints Faustinus and Jovita confirmed: The privileges of this monastery of Saints Faustinus and Jovita were most graciously confirmed, at the request of Bishop Notengus of Brescia, by Pope Stephen, reckoned the ninth of Rome (or the eighth by others), who presided over the Church from the year 939 to the year 943. In the basilica of the same Martyrs, in the eleventh century, Adelmann was buried -- formerly a cleric and scholar of Liege, then Bishop of Brescia, who among other monuments of his genius left to posterity a book on the Body and Blood of the Lord in the Eucharist, reprinted both separately and in the great Library of the Fathers, by which he refuted the heresy of Berengar, once his fellow student. The bodies of this man and of three other Bishops were translated to a more fitting place in this century, as may be seen in this appended inscription: "Until they shall put on immortality, the relics of Apsidius, Peter, Rampert, the burial of four Bishops therein, and Adelmann, Bishops of Brescia, have been repositioned here by the grateful Cassinian Congregation, 1612." Apsidius is the one otherwise called Amphridius, under whom we said the bodies of Saints Faustinus and Jovita were translated to that church; his successors Peter and Rampert were likewise buried there. In the twelfth century of Christ, a new church of Saints Faustinus and Jovita was built, a new church dedicated on August 13, 1152, which on the Ides of August of the year 1152, Bishop Maifredus of Brescia consecrated together with Obert, Archbishop of Milan, Gerard, Bishop of Bergamo, and Theobald of Verona. In Martinengus there exists an instrument recording the following repositioning of the relics of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, which we give here.
[17] "In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand two hundred and twenty-three, Indiction eleven, on the eighth day of August, the chest of the holy Martyrs Faustinus and Jovita was opened; Relics repositioned on August 8, 1223: and in this place were repositioned, together with the bodies of the same Martyrs and of Blessed Faustinus the Confessor, in the presence of the Archdeacon and the Archpriest, together with his Brescian clergy, and Brother Jordan, Master of the Order of Preachers, and Brother Guala, Prior of the same house, with his brothers; and this was done with a solemn procession. And then the bodies of those Saints, Faustinus and Jovita the Martyrs, were repositioned in this wooden chest, and the body of St. Faustinus the Confessor in this other, by our venerable Father Albert, Bishop of Brescia; and there was found a marble epitaph, the tenor of which is as follows: 'To Faustinus and Jovita, Martyrs, Victor the Moor set up this table in fulfillment of a vow to his fellow citizens.'" So far that source. Albert was present at the Third Lateran Council in the year 1215, and received St. Dominic at Brescia and assigned him a suitable location for building a monastery; over which the above-mentioned Guala (also called Gaula by some) was placed in charge and lived with such fame for holiness that, when Albert was promoted to the See of Antioch in Syria, he was ordained Bishop of Brescia in the year 1229. We gave the Life of Blessed Jordan, the General, on February 13.
[18] Finally, Ughelli, in his encomium of the city of Brescia before the catalogue of Bishops, writes this: "It venerates as its patron saints Faustinus and Jovita, to whom a distinguished temple is dedicated, and a monastery of the Order of St. Benedict endowed with enviable riches. A marble reliquary chest. Their sacred relics are preserved in a celebrated marble chest above the high altar of the same temple, built at the expense of the city and adorned with figures." Martinengus relates that this chest rests upon six marble columns and was made in the year 1455.
[19] In the manuscript of Ado from the monastery of Lobbes, a memorial of Saints Faustinus and Jovita is inscribed on March 18, perhaps on account of some elevation or repositioning of relics that occurred on that day. At Bologna, in the parish church of St. John on the Mount of Olives, which the Lateran Canons possess, Some relics at Bologna, certain relics of Saints Faustinus and Jovita are held in veneration, as Masini testifies in his survey of Bologna. Likewise, certain relics of Saints Faustinus and Jovita the Martyrs, concealed at Verona in the church of St. George in a small repository near the altar of St. Helena, were deposited there by Andrew, Patriarch of Aquileia, around the year of Christ 828, as an inscription cut in stone testifies, and at Verona: published by Ughelli in volume 5 of "Italia Sacra," under Theobald, the seventy-third Bishop of Verona, column 716. At Rome, the Brescians obtained from the year 1575 a certain place in which they erected a church or oratory in honor of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, a church at Rome, to which in the year 1604 a residence was added in which poor, pilgrim, and sick Brescians are received, as may be read in Octavius Panciroli's "Treasury of the City of Rome," region 6, church 15. In the aforementioned manuscript of Ado from the Church of Toulon, the memorial of St. Castor, Bishop of Apt in Provence, is celebrated on September 21, perhaps also at Apt in Provence? who, not yet a Bishop, built a church of St. Faustinus on his own property and, having gathered monks, prescribed a rule obtained from St. Cassian of Marseille. But whether St. Faustinus the Brescian Martyr and brother of St. Jovita was adopted as the patron of this church is not clear.
LIFE
By an anonymous author, From the manuscript of St. Maximin and Surius.
Faustinus, Priest, brother, Martyr at Brescia in Italy (Saint) Jovita, Deacon, brother, Martyr, at Brescia in Italy (Saint)
BHL Number: 2837
By an anonymous author, from manuscripts and Surius.
CHAPTER I
The faith, sacred orders, captivity, and constancy of Saints Faustinus and Jovita. The statue of the Sun cast down.
[1] The most blessed men Faustinus and Jovita, born of most noble parents in the city of Brescia, preached with urgent solicitude the faith of Christ which they had learned with a devout mind. For they were joined not only by brotherhood of the flesh but also so united in the strength of the spirit They preach the faith of Christ. that, proclaiming Christ everywhere with harmonious zeal, they brought a large multitude of that region to the worship of the true faith. For at that time Apollonius was the Bishop of that same city of Brescia, who out of fear of persecution was hiding himself in secret places. When he observed that the servants of God possessed a most ardent fervor for the work of preaching, he summoned them to himself and elevated them to ecclesiastical orders. To Faustinus, therefore, because he was the elder, he bestowed the order of the priesthood; Faustinus is ordained Priest, Jovita Deacon: but Jovita, being the younger, he associated with the number of Christ's ministers. Having thus received their divine ministries, the blessed men Faustinus and Jovita began nevertheless to apply themselves to the word of preaching all the more eagerly, inasmuch as the sacerdotal dignity itself also invited them to do so. And since they were daily winning an innumerable people for Christ, and there was no one who opposed their teaching, the fame of their preaching began to spread all around even to the neighboring provinces.
[2] At that time, therefore, Count Italicus, who governed the peoples of the Rhaetian provinces, being a most extreme pagan and excessively given to demonic worship, endeavored with insane zeal to banish from the people of his province the light of faith which he himself, wrapped in the darkness of his own blindness, rejected. Whence it came about that, when the Emperor Hadrian came into the parts of Liguria, Italicus met him at the river Adda and strove to prevail upon him with the following complaints from his sacrilegious mouth: They are accused before the Emperor Hadrian: "Most invincible Emperor and triumphant one," he said, "take counsel for your Roman commonwealth; take counsel for our most sacred gods. There are two men in the city of Brescia who, preaching some Christ or other, have already turned many from the rites of our great gods. Unless the censure of your divine authority restrains them, it is certain that by their subversions the divine worship in these places will be obliterated." Hearing such things, the Emperor Hadrian gave him, as one whom he recognized as a most zealous supporter of his own error, power by means of a sacred rescript of the following kind: that wherever he should find Christians, he should either bend them to the gods or exterminate them with various tortures.
[3] Count Italicus, having received the power he had desired to rage against the Christians, proceeded to go to Brescia, they are brought before Count Italicus: as Hadrian had commanded. As soon as he had entered the city, he immediately sent his counselor Liberius to Faustinus and Jovita, to make known to them the imperial sanction. When he found them standing immovable in the faith of the name of Christ, he was filled with indignation and commanded his soldiers to seize them and bring them before him. When they had been brought, Count Italicus addressed them thus: "The most invincible Emperor has decreed by his sacred commands that all Christians must be converted to the religion of our gods.
If any are found to resist his commands, various punishments are to be inflicted upon their contumacy. Wherefore it is right that you, O Faustinus and Jovita, should submit your necks to such salutary counsels and, abandoning this new error of superstition, return to the ancient worship of the sacred gods which the constitution of the commonwealth has established." The most blessed Faustinus and Jovita said: "Our time has come, so that we ought to rejoice rather than to be terrified. Wherefore we wish you to know more certainly they are confined in prison: that we can in no way abandon the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, with which we have once been imbued, nor obey commands of this kind." Hearing this, Count Italicus ordered them to be kept in prison until the arrival of the Emperor Hadrian, who was expected to come shortly.
[4] Therefore on the fifth day, when the Emperor Hadrian had entered Brescia, Count Italicus reported to him concerning the most blessed Faustinus and Jovita: that they had scorned to obey his commands and that they were being kept confined in prison until his hearing. The Emperor Hadrian said: "And of what lineage are they sprung, that they should be reserved for a hearing before our majesty?" Count Italicus replied: "They are descended from an illustrious family. For their parents were the chief of the senate in this city, who showed such reverence to our gods that, wherever they discovered there were Christians, they persecuted them with the utmost zeal of burning devotion. Accused before the Emperor, But what madness has made these men demented I know not, so that with obstinate intent of heart they reject our gods, blaspheming them, and worship Christ, who is said to have been nailed to a cross by the Jews." Hadrian said: "These men are most necessary to me, so that through their punishments I may convert many to the religion of our gods." Then he commanded them to be brought out of prison and presented before him, and said to them: "Is there any god more excellent than the Sun, that, abandoning his divinity, you should betake yourselves to another as though he were more powerful?" The Blessed Jovita answered: They are brought into his presence: "We venerate and worship the true God, who is the God of heaven and earth and of every creature, who also established the Sun itself and gave it the office of shining by day, just as he also gave to the moon and the ranks of the stars the office of illuminating the darkness of the night." They spurn the honors offered to them: Hadrian said: "You would act more wisely if you fulfilled our will, so that you could be the foremost in our palace, rather than persevering in this madness and being consumed by a most bitter death." The most holy Faustinus and Jovita said: "We shall not do a nefarious thing that would lead us to eternal destruction." Hadrian said: "You act nefariously when you declare yourselves Christians, so that, having excluded from yourselves the grace of our tranquility, you are marked with the stain of infamy." St. Jovita answered: "Most rightly do we profess and declare ourselves Christians; for your grace must be avoided by us, so that we may attain to the grace of the eternal King." The Emperor Hadrian said: "You are of too hard a heart, since my words cannot bend you. For our goodwill toward you is sincere; and therefore we desire that you should by all means become better, so that you may hold a worthy military rank in our service." The Blessed Faustinus replied: "We have a worthy service which our Christ has bestowed upon us. For your service must end with time, because you yourselves will also perish with time; but our service endures forever."
[5] Hadrian said: "It is enough now that I have patiently borne with you. Either sacrifice to the unconquered Sun-God, or I shall have many torments inflicted upon you." Faustinus and Jovita answered: They refuse to sacrifice to the Sun. "We sacrifice to the living God, who established the Sun as an ornament. But the Sun which you command us to worship was given to us by the true God for our service." Then Hadrian, moved with anger, ordered them to be led before the temple of the Sun. Now there was a statue of the Sun overlaid with gold, having on its head rays of pure gold. Hadrian said to them: "Do you see the glory of the unconquered Sun? Approach and sacrifice to him, so that he may hold you worthy in his sight, and you may be freed from the torments that await you." The Blessed Faustinus replied: "Now you shall see the glory of our God, so that you may know that this one whom you confess as your god is powerless." Then with one voice they said together: "The sun knew his going down; thou didst appoint darkness, and it was night." Hadrian said: "What is it that you mutter? Come nearer and sacrifice to the unconquered Sun-God."