ON ST. SERVULUS, BISHOP OF VERONA IN ITALY.
After the year 1000.
CommentaryServulus, 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.