CONCERNING ST. DECOROSUS, BISHOP OF CAPUA IN CAMPANIA.
ABOUT THE YEAR 690.
Preliminary commentary.
Decorosus, Bishop of Capua in Campania (Saint)
By G. H.
[1] The Church of Capua in Campania venerates on February 15 St. Decorosus, formerly its Bishop, of whom this testimony exists in the Roman Martyrology: "At Capua, of St. Decorosus, Bishop and Confessor." The sacred cult of St. Decorosus, The same is found in Michael the Monk, in the third, fourth, and fifth Calendars of his Sanctuary of Capua; in the last is added "Double," in the earlier ones "of nine lessons." The third Calendar is taken from a manuscript Treasure of Capua in Lombard script, the others from other ancient manuscripts.
[2] Some Acts of the same St. Decorosus were published by the said Michael the Monk, The Acts, which, distributed into nine Lessons, were customarily recited in the Ecclesiastical Office at Matins. From these, epitomes of his Life were published by Ferrari in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy and by Ludovico Zaccone in the Italian-language Lives of the Saints. The following prayer, published by the same Monk from the said Breviaries, indicates his burial: "Be propitious, we beseech You, O Lord, to us Your servants, His burial: through the glorious merits of this St. Decorosus, Your Confessor and Pontiff, who rests in this present church, that by his pious intercession we may be always protected from all adversities."
[3] In the Acts of St. Rufinus, Bishop of Capua, who is venerated on August 26, the following is read about St. Decorosus in the same Monk, Lesson 2: "In the times of Justinian the Younger, Emperor, son of Constantine, In his time cemeteries were cultivated, under Pope Sergius and Grimoaldus, Duke of the Lombards, there was a certain very devout man named Decorosus, Bishop in the See of the Church of Capua. In his time, when the cemeteries were being devoutly maintained by the Lombard nation, it happened that they searched out the names of the Saints in order in the Martyrology; Martyrologies were examined, and the names of two Saints were found written thus: 'On the eighth before the Kalends of September, the birthday of St. Rufinus the Confessor; and with one day intervening, that is on the sixth before the Kalends of September, the birthday of St. Rufus the Martyr.'" So far from the Life of St. Rufinus, who is found on the said day in the more ancient manuscript Martyrologies of St. Jerome, of Reichenau, and others. But Rufus is everywhere inscribed in all the Martyrologies. St. Barbatus, Bishop of Benevento, lived at the same time as St. Decorosus, in whose Life, to be given below on February 19, these words are read: "Although the Lombards pretended to have been bathed in the waters of baptism, The Lombards reformed. yet the contemptible error held their foolish hearts sufficiently stifled; which error, as St. Barbatus labored at Benevento, so at Capua St. Decorosus labored to overcome with brilliant and mellifluous sermons," as the Acts below call them.
[4] Michael the Monk judges that St. Decorosus lived in the Episcopate for thirty or even more years, from about the year 660 to the year 690. For both in the Acts of St. Rufinus He was Bishop under Duke Grimoaldus, and in his own Life, he is said to have been Bishop under Duke Grimoaldus, whom we said on February 9, in connection with the Life of St. Sabinus, Bishop of Canossa, section 10, number 60, was made from Duke to King of the Lombards in the year 662 or the following. The Synod held by Pope St. Agatho against the Monothelites at Rome in the year 680, He attended the Synod at Rome in the year 680, of one hundred and fifty Bishops, among whom, thirteenth after St. Barbatus, St. Decorosus subscribes to the letter sent from this Synod to the Emperor Constantine and the Augustuses Heraclius and Tiberius, which is reported in the fourth session of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, begun in November of that same year 680, where this subscription of St. Decorosus is found: "Decorosus, by the grace of God Bishop of the holy Church of Capua, province of Campania, have likewise subscribed to this petition which we have unanimously composed for our Apostolic faith." He lived still under Justinian II and Pope Sergius. In Greek he is called Decorosos. The said Constantine was succeeded in the year 685 by his son Justinian II, later called Rhinotmetus by posterity on account of his nose being cut off, under whose reign Pope Sergius was created on December 26 of the year 687, under whose pontificate St. Decorosus is believed to have died.
LIFE,
published from an ancient Breviary by Michael the Monk.
Decorosus, Bishop of Capua in Campania (Saint)
BHL Number: 2117
Lesson 1
The commendable trophies of the Saints, the deeds of the brave athletes of Christ, and their victorious achievements worthy of venerable memory, Prologue. which rouse the spirits of the weak to imitation, are by no means to be passed over in silence, according to the celebrated verse of the Psalmist: "I have announced Your righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I shall not restrain my lips, O Lord, You have known." Psalm 39:10 And also according to the eulogy of the merciful Tobias, who declares: "For it is good to hide the secret of a king; but it is honorable to reveal and confess the works of God." Tobit 12:7
Lesson 2
Therefore, in recounting the celebrated life of this beneficent Confessor and distinguished Bishop Decorosus, St. Decorosus is worthy of praise; dearest Brothers, let us rejoice, exulting with mental jubilations, with sincere affections of the heart, and with untiring proclamations of praise. For this is the day on which holy Mother Church exults with manifold rejoicing in observing his feast, by whose examples and manifold words she recognizes herself to be a participant with the citizens of heaven.
Lesson 3
The blessed Decorosus, therefore, a native of the city of Capua, was not only Decorosus (that is, "handsome") in name, but in deed and speech. For he was an invincible observer of charity, a cultivator of faith, Adorned with virtues, a follower of hope, a nursling of piety, a zealot for justice, a standard of prudence, a model of temperance, and distinguished by the title of true fortitude -- generous to the poor, gracious to guests, and a sure protector of orphans, wards, and widows.
Lesson 4
For the same blessed Decorosus sat as Bishop and Prelate of Christ in the Church of Capua, in the times of Justinian the Younger, Emperor, son of Constantine, He flourishes in the seventh century: in part under Constantine, under Pope Sergius of the Roman Church, and under Grimoaldus, Duke of the Lombard nation. For the blessed Decorosus was very devout and God-fearing, and when on a certain day he stood alone in his cell, praying with God, suddenly there arose a wailing and a very great outcry before the doors of the church of the blessed Martyrs Stephen and Agatha.
Lesson 5
Going out of his cell at the commotion of this outcry, he humbly asked what this might be. He receives from a mother her dying boy, Immediately a certain woman ran to him, whose son, seized by a grievous affliction and brought almost to the point of death, was at last taken for dead. She, anxious and full of sorrows because of the grave condition of her son, began diligently to inquire of the holy Bishop Decorosus concerning the Translation of the body of the blessed Rufinus, Bishop and Confessor of Capua, his predecessor, carried out by him from the place where he had buried it.
Lesson 6
Taking her by the hand, he went with her to the tomb in which the body of the same St. Rufinus was laid, carrying her son, who seemed dead, with them. And with vehement groaning and wailing, before the altar of the holy Protomartyr Stephen, near the place where the body of St. Rufinus had been entombed, they laid down the aforesaid boy, He lays him down beside the tomb of St. Rufinus, and having closed the doors that stood before the altar, the mother of the said boy, remaining inside the church, prayed.
Lesson 7
The blessed Decorosus, however, stood outside praying, and while they waited for some time, He prays, the anxious mother, weeping and wailing, wished to see what had become of her son; and when she approached the place where she had laid him, she saw him walking and going around the altar of the holy Protomartyr Stephen, He returns him to his mother in health, and taking him by the hand, she led him, cheerful and healthy, to the blessed Decorosus.
Lesson 8
Finally the mother asked Decorosus what she should do about her son. The blessed Decorosus answered: Go and raise him until the suitable time, He advises that the boy be offered to God: and bring him back to serve the One from whom you received him cheerful and well. And the woman, having said farewell, returned home with her son, and so, persevering in the love of God and the love of neighbor, she rejoiced to end her life for God alone.
Lesson 9
When the aforesaid Bishop Decorosus, praiseworthy in all things, was going around the holy places on a certain Lord's Day as was his custom, ascending the pulpit, He preaches, he delivered a mellifluous and brilliant sermon to the people. When he had finished, a fainting of the heart coming upon him, he immediately raised his arms to heaven and, clapping his hands, praised the Savior of all, saying: Great are You, O Lord our God, great and wonderful, whose greatness has no end. Having said these words, He dies a holy death. turning to his Clergy, falling asleep in peace and tranquility before the altar of the Lord, he commended his spirit to the Most High.