ON ST. ANDREAS, BISHOP OF FLORENCE IN ETRURIA
Fifth Century of Christ.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Andreas, Bishop of Florence in Etruria (St.)
Author G. H.
[1] Florence, the metropolis of Etruria and the illustrious seat of the Grand Dukes, venerates seven of its earliest Bishops as enrolled among the Saints; and on this day St. Andreas, of whom the Roman Martyrology says: At Florence, of St. Andreas, Bishop and Confessor. Ferrarius also reports him in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, where he notes that he is held and venerated among the Saints rather from ancient tradition than from any history that exists about him, since not only his Acts but also the time when he lived and his homeland are unknown. Then in his Annotation he adds that those who wrote the Annals of the city of Florence pass over this matter as uncertain, as can be seen in Borghini, who is otherwise a diligent student and investigator of antiquity; others think St. Andreas is the one who immediately succeeded St. Zenobius; others, the one who flourished under the Emperor Louis around the year of the Lord 870 and conferred many benefits on the Church of Florence. The matter is altogether ambiguous, which the Florentines themselves must resolve.
[2] Ferdinando Ughelli, himself also a Florentine, in volume 3 of Sacred Italy, presents all the Bishops of Florence, and among them calls the earlier Andreas, the successor of St. Zenobius, a saint and asserts that he has been enrolled in the number of the Saints and is venerated on the 26th of February. But his Acts, he says, have perished either from the antiquity of the times or from the negligence of mortals, so that he is even confused with the other Andreas, of whom he later treats without any mention of sacred veneration. Baronius in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology, and Ludovico Zacconi in book 1 of his Compendium of the Lives of the Saints, also understand the earlier one, since they write that more is related about him in the Life of St. Zenobius in Surius on the 25th of May, whom he succeeded in the episcopate. That Life of St. Zenobius was published by Giovanni, Archpriest of Arezzo, more probably surnamed Tortelli, who in the time of Eugenius IV was Subdeacon of the Roman Church, and later served Nicholas V as chamberlain and counselor. He—who at the request of Eugenius collected the Life of St. Athanasius from various sources and composed other small works—and his brother Carlo of Arezzo are called noble geniuses of that time by Volaterranus, book 21 of his Anthropology. This Giovanni testifies that in his own presence, in the year of Christ 1439, another Translation of the body of St. Zenobius was made, as he reports at the end of the Life, which he wrote during the time of the Council of Florence. Another Life of the same Zenobius, published by Ughelli from ancient manuscripts where he treats of the Bishops of Florence, was written by Laurentius, Archbishop of Amalfi, who held that dignity from the year 1024 to 1048.
[3] This writer therefore states that St. Zenobius was taken by Almighty God from earth to the joys of heaven in the times of Arcadius and Honorius. His most sacred body, on the very day of his death—the 8th before the Kalends of June—was placed in a marble chest and set in the church of St. Lawrence next to the altar. And after the passage of some years, on account of the invasion of certain peoples, it was translated to the basilica of St. Reparata by the efforts of St. Andreas, his successor, as we shall presently describe from the other Life written by the Aretine. The church of St. Lawrence was small, situated a little to the north outside the city, dedicated by St. Ambrose at the request of its foundress, the holy widow Juliana, as was said on the 7th of February in her Life.
[4] Ughelli appends to the Life of St. Zenobius an ancient inscription carved on a column at the place where, during the Translation, the miracle occurred of a dry elm tree suddenly reviving with greenery. In this inscription it is read that the body of St. Zenobius, Bishop of the Florentines, was carried on a bier from the basilica of St. Lawrence to the greater Florentine church, in the time of the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, in the 11th year, on the 26th day of January, a Thursday. These chronological markers correspond to the year of Christ 405, Solar cycle 22, Dominical letter A. That year was the eleventh of Arcadius and Honorius, when the year of Christ 395 is attributed to the beginning of their Empire—the year in which their father Theodosius the Great died, though some assign that entire year to Theodosius. But to the same inscription, the year of Christ 408 has been wrongly intruded, which is entirely at variance with the other more certain chronological indicators. The "passage of some years" mentioned above, between the death of St. Zenobius and the Translation of his body, is explained below by the Aretine, when he reports that the Translation was made in the fifth year of the bishopric of St. Andreas—the beginning of which, and the death of St. Zenobius, should therefore be assigned to the year of Christ 400. The Aretine is far from this calculation, placing the year of St. Zenobius's death in the year of Christ 424; Ughelli is less distant, assigning the beginning of St. Andreas's pontificate to the year 407; and those who report St. Zenobius as having died in the year 308 are refuted—among whom is Scipione Ammirato, part 1 of his Florentine History, book 1.
[5] The chronology we have established is confirmed by the indicated invasion of certain peoples, on account of which St. Andreas translated the body of St. Zenobius within the walls. For, as Prosper testifies in his Chronicle, under the second Consulship of Stilicho and under Anthemius, that is, in the year 405, Radagaisus was overcome and captured in Tuscany, with many Goths slain, under the command of Stilicho who led the army. This incursion is also placed by Ammirato, along with others, in the year 413, so that five years are interposed. The monstrous cruelty of this Radagaisus and his hatred of Christians are described by those who lived at that time: St. Augustine, City of God, book 5, chapter 23, and Paul Orosius, History Against the Pagans, book 7, chapter 37. For if that impious man, says St. Augustine, had entered Rome with so great and so impious forces (the same is to be thought of other places), whom would he have spared? To which shrines of the Martyrs would he have shown honor? In which person would he have feared God? Whose blood would he not have shed? Whose modesty would he have wished to leave intact? etc. The blasphemies are raging, says Orosius, throughout the whole City; everywhere the name of Christ is publicly burdened with reproaches as if it were some pestilence of the present times. All the pagans converge; the enemy, they say, is powerful not only in strength of forces but especially in the protection of the gods. But the City is deserted and about to perish quickly because it has lost the gods and sacred rites. So far Orosius, who writes that in the army of Radagaisus there were more than two hundred thousand Goths—as also Marcellinus Comes says, but assigned to the following year 406—which Zosimus, book 5 of his Histories, increases to four hundred thousand. Of these, more than a hundred thousand were laid low in a single day, without a single Roman being killed or even wounded, as St. Augustine attests. In this barbarian invasion, therefore, St. Andreas prudently translated the body of St. Zenobius within the walls of the city of Florence and into the greater church. We append the history of this Translation, published by Giovanni Aretino in the Life of St. Zenobius, which St. Antoninus, himself also a Florentine, in part 2 of his Chronicles, title 10, chapter 12, considers in a condensed version as a legitimate history, and confirms this elder St. Andreas by his own calculation. Thus the Aretine writes:
[6] After Zenobius, Andreas, a holy man and a citizen of Florence, was raised to the episcopate. Seeing the miracles that the Lord was performing on account of the merits of Zenobius in the Ambrosian church, and judging that this honor was rather owed to the greater church, in the fifth year of his pontificate, having communicated his plan with the Clergy and the leading men of his city, he resolved to translate the most blessed body of Zenobius from the Ambrosian church of Blessed Lawrence to the cathedral of the Holy Savior. Having convened Bishops from the neighboring cities and his entire Clergy, he proclaimed to the people a feast day on the 7th before the Kalends of February, with a fast preceding it—namely, to transport the most holy body of Zenobius to the greater church with great solemnity. When the day arrived, the casket with the body of Blessed Zenobius was most handsomely placed on a certain litter; the Bishops alone carried it. Clergy and candle-bearers preceded, of whom there was no small number. The faithful people followed—first the leading citizens and all the men; after them women and children. Hymns, psalms, and canticles were sung, both by the Clergy and by the devout people. Indeed, even the women and children sang songs recounting the blessings he had bestowed, with a wonderful modulation of voice. Everything seemed to resound in the praise of God. The Bishops proceeded and arrived at the square next to the basilica of John the Baptist. A great multitude of people had gathered there, and as soon as they saw the bier, they raised their voices in jubilation. Everyone strove as best they could at least to touch the coffin itself. And so it happened that the crowd pressed so hard upon the Bishops carrying it, out of excessive devotion, that they would have fallen with the holy body had not a certain dry and ancient elm tree, to which they clung with the coffin, supported them. This tree, touched by so sacred a body, marveled at the grace; it leapt for joy, and before the eyes of all immediately turned green and put forth leaves and flowers. And as it was continually plucked in pieces day by day by the devout people, the Florentine citizens, in memory of so great an event, erected at the same spot a marble column with a Cross, which endures to this very day.
[7] The Bishops therefore, being helped and rallying their strength, strove to carry the most holy body to the church. But when they tried to enter the door of the church itself, impeded by some divine power, they were completely unable to bring it into the church, nor could they enter the doors of the church by any effort. Cries rose from the people; some supposed this to be one cause, some another. Others proclaimed that it should be carried back to the Ambrosian church. But Bishop Andreas, a holy man, struck by a great agitation of soul, took refuge in the best remedy of prayer; and prostrating himself on his knees before all the people, with hands extended and eyes raised to heaven, he devoutly prayed to the Lord not to let that people be saddened, but to permit them to enter the church with the most blessed body and to place it in the designated spot. And for so great a benefit he vowed to establish twelve Clerics there, who would perpetually devote themselves to divine services in honor of the most holy Bishop. When the prayer was completed, he rose and himself placed his neck under the bier and urged the other Bishops to enter the church with him. They, praising God—with every obstacle ceasing—entered the Church of the Savior with the jubilation of all the Christian people; and after the solemn celebration of Masses, they placed the most blessed body of Zenobius most honorably in a certain crypt of the same church, next to the bodies of Eugenius and Crescentius, his ministers. There the same Bishop Andreas, with wonderful devotion, consecrated a small altar under his name... Meanwhile, after the death of the holy man Andreas, Mauritius, a Florentine Priest, a man endowed with great holiness, was raised to the episcopate; many believe he became a Martyr under Totila. Having thus died, he was buried in the crypt of Blessed Zenobius next to Andreas.
[8] St. Mauritius is venerated on June 28, St. Eugenius on November 26, St. Crescentius on April 19, and St. Reparata on October 8. The Florentines erected a church to her (which later became the Cathedral and is now called St. Mary of the Flower), attributing to her the fruit of victory over the slain army of Radagaisus and the most desired recovery of their country's freedom. The church of St. Lawrence, the foremost among the twelve collegiate churches, contains the tombs of the Grand Dukes and the chapel begun by Ferdinand III—to be considered the eighth wonder of the world by many, if it is ever completed.