Paschalis

ON ST. PASCHALIS, ROMAN MARTYR, AT ANTWERP IN BELGIUM.

Paschalis, Roman Martyr, at Antwerp in Belgium (St.)

Author I. B.

[1] Among the most celebrated of the ancient Christian cemeteries that exist at Rome or in the Roman countryside is the one that stands on the Appian Way, two miles from the City, first constructed by the matron St. Lucina, and then restored by Pope St. Callistus around the year 224, or enlarged by the addition of some section—whence it is commonly called the Cemetery of St. Callistus. From it, numerous bodies of holy Martyrs have been extracted in this century and bestowed upon various churches. Among many who labored greatly in digging out and extracting those relics of the Saints, Balthasar Ballonus, a religious of the Society of Jesus, was preeminent. In recompense for his pious work, several bodies of Saints were given to him by Giovanni Battista Altieri, then Vice-Gerent of the Most Eminent Cardinal Vicar and later admitted to the College of Cardinals, for the purpose and with the granted faculty that he might donate them to others, send them outside the City, and publicly display them in churches. Among these were the bodies of Saints Paschalis and Cyprianus, Martyrs, which he himself, in the year from the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ 1646, Indiction XIV, in the second year of the pontificate of the Most Holy Father in Christ and our Lord, Lord Innocent, Pope X by Divine Providence, on the 1st of February, donated to Father Andrea Giudici, Provincial Superior of the Flandro-Belgian Province of the Society of Jesus, to be placed in the distinguished church of the Professed House of the same Society of Jesus at Antwerp, as is evident from Ballonus's own written declaration. But the same Provincial Superior asserted that one of those bodies had been given to him so that he might bestow it upon whatever church of his province he wished, and he donated (with the Superior of the Professed House, Father Francis van Hees, ceding his right) the body of St. Cyprianus to the college at Mechlin; the body of St. Paschalis was left to the Antwerp House.

[2] Those bodies were enclosed in two square wooden cases; the cases themselves were bound with cords, each impressed above and below with the seal of the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Marzio Cardinal Ginetti, Vicar of the Supreme Pontiff. When the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Gaspar Nemius, Bishop of Antwerp, nominated Archbishop and Duke of Cambrai, Count of Cambrésis, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, found all things safe and intact, and in the presence of several venerable Canons of the Cathedral Church had opened the cases and carefully examined the documents of donation enclosed in them and found them legitimate, he granted that the said bodies might be publicly displayed for solemn veneration, and that an annual Ecclesiastical Office of a non-Pontifical Martyr, under the double rite, according to the custom of the Holy Roman Church, should be celebrated for each of them separately, as may be seen in the public diploma, given on the day before the Ides of February 1650, which is preserved in the archives of the said House.

[3] The case containing the relics of St. Cyprianus, legitimately sealed, was given to the Mechlin community, together with an authenticated copy of the said diploma. In the other case, which was retained at Antwerp, a great part of the sacred body of St. Paschalis had dissolved into dust or small fragments, although some bones were intact, and notable portions of others, as well as the greater part of the skull and other smaller parts. Added was a glass lamp, presumably found in the same sepulcher, but broken into several pieces.

[4] Finally, in the year 1653, on Tuesday after Quinquagesima Sunday, the 25th of February, the body of St. Paschalis the Martyr, enclosed in a new and not inelegantly adorned case, was solemnly brought into the church of the said Professed House; and a Mass was celebrated for him with a notable concert of musical instruments and voices, along with other private Masses throughout that day. Concerning the deeds of St. Paschalis, and the time and manner of his martyrdom, nothing is known to us. The matters I have briefly recounted here concerning the approval and translation of the relics, I was an eyewitness of them all.

[5] Since, moreover, the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Bishop had granted the faculty of choosing the day that seemed most convenient for the annual celebration of the same holy Martyr's solemnity, the Superior then presiding over the aforesaid House, Father Francis Geubels, decreed that the feast of St. Paschalis should be celebrated annually on the same 25th day of February. But since on that day, in the Cathedral basilica and throughout this entire city and diocese, the feast of St. Walburga the Virgin is celebrated, also under the double rite—a custom which we too, as is fitting, observe—it seemed better that the solemnity of St. Paschalis should be deferred to the 26th.