Servulus

ON ST. SERVULUS, BISHOP OF VERONA IN ITALY.

After the year 1000.

Servulus, Bishop of Verona in Italy (St.)

Author G. H.

[1] Aloysius Lipomanus, Bishop of Verona, in the preface to the fourth volume of the Lives of the Saints published by him, asserts that in his holy and distinguished Church of Verona—which seems almost incredible to say—the celebrated memory of 33 holy Bishops is observed, and their anniversaries are celebrated with solemn Masses. Indeed, the Saints of that Church are venerated and revered not only by the city of Verona but by almost the whole world. But that 36 holy Bishops governed the Church of Verona is proved by Agostino Valerio, himself also Bishop of Verona and later Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, from very many ancient records, in his book On the Holy Bishops of Verona, in which concerning St. Servulus on page 9 he has the following: The body of St. Servulus, Bishop of Verona, rests in the church of St. Stephen, as is evident from an ancient parchment table (of which we speak under St. Alexander), from Francesco Corna, from a synodal constitution for the 26th of February, and from the table of the Saints on the same day, as mentioned above. So far that passage. In the earlier ancient table, he reports on page 4 that the following is read: Likewise in the said church of St. Stephen lie the bodies of the holy Bishops of Verona: Lucidius, Dimidrianus, Servulus, Vindemialis, Saturninus, and Lupus. These words are also cited from the ancient records of the church by Onofrio Panvinio, book 4, Antiquities of Verona, chapter 4, but he adds that they lie in uncertain locations. The basilica of St. Stephen at Verona, as he relates, is among the most ancient churches of that city, built in the earliest times of the Christians, a little outside the city gate, at a place called "at the Little Fountains," on the Trentine road. It is sometimes said to have been the Cathedral. So far Panvinio. Francesco Corna, whose testimony Valerius produced in the second place, wrote a book about the antiquities of Verona and the holy relics found there, in the year 1477. The synodal constitution was made in the year 1503. The table of the Saints, according to the custom of the Cathedral Church of Verona, was published in the year 1518. These last two were the final records produced by the same Valerio. Consult his first two folios.

[2] From the same Tables of the Saints of the Church of Verona and the synodal constitution, Galesinius inscribed the same Servulus in his Martyrology with these few words: At Verona, of St. Servulus, Bishop. The same is found in Ferrarius in his General Catalogue. He also treats of him in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, with a eulogy largely drawn from Valerius, who on folio 42 writes the following: Servulus, Bishop of Verona, a good servant of God, throughout the entire time of his episcopate so served God that he despised all human praise, directing all his thoughts, all his efforts, and all his actions to the salvation of the people of Verona. He died, a man of outstanding holiness, on the fourth day before the Kalends of March, and was buried in the basilica of St. Stephen. The same is copied by Ughelli in volume 5 of Sacred Italy, among the Bishops of Verona, column 586.

[3] Concerning the time of the episcopate of St. Servulus, Valerius is silent. Among the Bishops of uncertain time and order from the Calendar, the same is listed by Panvinio, book 4, chapter 7, and by Francesco Tinti, book 5, Nobility of Verona, chapter 9. Ferrarius designates him the 29th Bishop and the successor of St. Lupus, and conjectures that he lived around the year 1000. But on the 4th before the Nones of December, in the Acts of St. Lupus, he supposes this man to have lived between the years 1000 and 1100. But Ughelli reports that St. Lupus was not the 28th but the 23rd Bishop, and that his successors were Saints Felix, Moderatus, Salvinus, Andromicus, Vindemialis, Silvinus, Luperius, Manius, Petronius, Cerbonius, and Simplicius—whom he conjectures died a blessed death around the year 1000. The successor of Simplicius was St. Servulus, the 35th Bishop; and afterward St. Verecundus presided, who died under the Consul Flavius Anicius without a colleague, in the time of the Emperor Justin the Elder, and Theodoric, King of Italy, in the year 1023.

ON SAINTS EOLADIUS AND AGRICOLA, BISHOPS OF NEVERS IN GAUL

Sixth Century.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Eoladius, Bishop of Nevers in Gaul (St.) Agricola, Bishop of Nevers in Gaul (St.)

Author G. H.

[1] Nevers, a fortified and wealthy city of Gaul on the Loire River, where it absorbs the river Nievre, venerates many enrolled among the Saints—either Martyrs who shed their blood for the faith of Christ, or Bishops of illustrious and proven holiness. Among these, the memory of St. Agricola, Bishop, is recorded on this day in many Martyrologies; to him we join his predecessor Eoladius, following Saussaye.

[2] The manuscript Martyrology of Usuard, which is preserved among the ancient codices of the Most Serene Queen Christina of Sweden, has the following for the 4th before the Kalends of March: At Nevers, of St. Agricolus, Bishop and Confessor. Thus St. Deicolus, also called Deicola, is called an Abbot, whose Acts we gave on the 18th of January. The manuscript Martyrology of the Cologne Carmel records the same thus: At Nevers, of Blessed Agricola, Bishop. Similar entries are found in Maurolycus and Galesinius, who cites a manuscript codex, and Ferrarius who follows them; but these, like Felicius, name him Agricolaus. The same is commemorated by Hermann Greven in his supplement to Usuard, in which Avernis is erroneously printed for Nivernis. Saussaye in his Gallic Martyrology celebrates him with this eulogy: At Nevers, of St. Agricola, Bishop of the same city and Confessor, who, born at Alise in Burgundy, consecrated the first fruits of his youth to God through the practice of a devout life. Gradually growing in years and merits, enlisted in the sacred militia, he so excelled in piety and learning that, upon the death of St. Eoladius, Bishop of the same See, he alone of all was judged worthy—on account of the distinguished marks of his holiness—to take his place. Having therefore received the unsought honor and assumed the burden, he discharged his duties admirably, shining before his flock with the splendor of his virtues. And when he surpassed nearly all the most holy Bishops of his age in the glory of the episcopal panoply, and had attended certain synods of Celtic Gaul through his zeal for restoring Christian discipline, at last, having worthily fulfilled his pastoral care and laden with the greatness of his merits, he was called to eternal joy. So far Saussaye. In the manuscript Florarium, the memory of Agricolaus, Bishop and Confessor of Nevers, is observed on the 17th of March.

[3] Concerning St. Eoladius, the same Saussaye in his Supplement for the 4th before the Kalends of March writes the following: At Nevers, of St. Eoladius, Bishop and Confessor, who, a great light of the Church, attended the Council of Lyons in the year 570, and after his blessed death shone in the church of St. Stephen, where he was buried, with the rays of consummate blessedness. The same Saussaye, on the 8th of June, after recording in the Supplement the eulogy of St. Itherius, Bishop of Nevers, adds: Other Bishops of proven holiness sat in the See of Nevers before Blessed Itherius, of whom some, having fixed birthdays, are designated for worship on their proper days; others, though equally distinguished for their merits, are by no means assigned a fixed day in the sacred records—namely, Saints Patricius, Eulalius, and Eoladius, whose blessed memory, lest it be lost from the series of the Saints of Gaul, it seemed pious and fitting to inscribe their names in these sacred tables. Which, as we have seen, he did for St. Eoladius on the 26th of February, the day on which St. Agricola his successor is venerated.

[4] The same Eoladius is honored with the title and appellation of Saint by the writers of the catalogue of the Bishops of Nevers no less than Agricola. First, Vide Coquillius published a double catalogue at the end of the History of Nevers; but in both he calls the predecessor of St. Agricola "Saint Eulalius, or Aerladius," ascribing the acts of two bishops to one and the same person. John Chenu and Claude Robert in their catalogues distinguish them better. St. Eulalius is numbered the 4th Bishop of Nevers, whom St. Severinus, Abbot of Agaunum, visiting in the time of Clovis, the first King of the Franks, found deaf and mute and cured by his prayers, so that he celebrated Mass on the same day, as is told in his Life on the 11th of February, page 549, numbers 10 and 11. Saussaye in the Supplement and Coquillius, page 39, report that this Eulalius is venerated on the 26th of August, where, by another error, Coquillius makes him the successor of St. Agricola. But after St. Eulalius died, either under Clovis I or in the years immediately following his death, the Church of Nevers was governed by Tauricianus, who attended the Synod of Epaone in the year 517; then by Rusticus, who subscribed to the third Synod of Orleans in the year 535 or the following; and rather by Aridius, who attended the fifth Synod of Orleans in the year 547 and the second Synod of Paris around the year 555, where Aridius is written—for whom Clementinus is read in Coquillius, Chenu, and Robert, but he was the Bishop of Apt who subscribed to both Councils. Euphronius is substituted by Chenu and Robert, and is said to have subscribed to the privilege of St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris, for the monastery of St. Vincent, in the fifth year of Charibert, the year of Christ 565. His successor was then St. Eoladius, who subscribed to the second Synod of Lyons in the year 566 in these words: Eoladius, in the name of Christ, Bishop of the Church of Nevers, have subscribed. Claude Robert reports that the following verses were inscribed on his tomb in the church of St. Stephen:

Whoever you are who hasten from the west, whoever from the east, You have in this tomb a body to venerate. The Bishop Eoladius, once Father of this city, Rejoicing, here awaits the coming of the Lord.

[5] By John Chenu he is called St. Eolalius, or Eoladius; concerning how many years he sat or when he departed this life, nothing is established. His successor was St. Agricola, called by some Agricolus and Agricolaus, in French S. Arigle. He attended the Councils of Macon I, Lyons III, and Macon II in the years of Christ 581, 583, and 585, respectively. He also attended the assembly of Bishops at the court of King Guntram and, with others, confirmed the excommunication previously pronounced by the Bishops assembled at Poitiers against Chrodield and the other nuns who had departed from the monastery of St. Radegund in the year 589. The rescript then sent by the Bishops assembled at Guntram's court was published by Gregory of Tours, book 9 of the History of the Franks, chapter 41.

[6] The body of St. Agricola is reported by Coquillius and Claude Robert to have been deposited in the parish church of St. Vincent, which formerly had an Abbey annexed to it and is now dedicated to St. Agricola.