ON ST. CRISPINUS I, BISHOP OF PAVIA
About the year of Christ 248
CommentaryCrispinus I, Bishop of Pavia in Italy (St.)
From various sources.
[1] Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy records three Crispini as Bishops of Pavia, and states that the first of them is venerated on this day, the second and third on October 30. But as we shall say below, the third, the predecessor of St. Epiphanius, is venerated on this day, January 7. Three St. Crispini, Bishops of Pavia. Bellinus, Maurolycus, and the German Martyrology mention Bishop Crispinus the Confessor, but do not specify whether he is the first or the third. Molanus, Galesinius, and Baronius in his Notes take it to refer to the third, that is, the predecessor and teacher of St. Epiphanius, The first is venerated on January 7. as will appear below. The Gallo-Belgian Martyrology records St. Crispinus, Bishop of Pavia, on January 2, without distinction.
[2] His life from Ferrarius. Ferrarius has briefly summarized the life of St. Crispinus I in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy under January 7: "Crispinus, born at Pavia from the noble Nigri family, and enrolled among the Canons, was appointed to the episcopal office after St. Ursicinus. Since he was unable to discharge the duty of preaching because it was prohibited, he devoted himself entirely to adorning the Church and the city, and to making peace between those at variance. He reconciles those at variance. For when rustics were quarrelling near the village of Summus beside the Po about the boundaries of their estates, he sent his Deacon to reconcile them. Likewise he settled two brothers contending with drawn swords over the matter of a single meadow, by offering them money. That meadow, which was called the Meadow of Peace, he donated to the city. He assigned the estate of Porrana to the Canons. He had the muddy city paved with stones, and the banks of the river Ticinus joined by a stone bridge. After these and other distinguished deeds, having exhorted the people and clergy to preserve religion and peace, and having lived thirty-four years in the episcopate, he departed to the Lord."
[3] Thus Ferrarius. When the name Papia, which is now commonly called Pavia, first attached itself to Ticinum, I have not found. It was formerly called Ticinum, and by some Ticinus, from the river Ticinus, which is still called Tesino, and flows into the Po below Pavia. He who is here called Ursicinus, the predecessor of St. Crispinus, is called Ursiscenus by the Roman Martyrology, Galesinius, and Ferrarius himself, and is venerated on June 21. Concerning his dates, as we shall say there, there is no certainty: Ferrarius considers it more probable that he died in the year 214. What Ferrarius writes here about the village of Summus (which I believe is the Suma in the maps of Mercator and Ortelius, on the left bank of the Po, opposite which the torrent Copis flows into the Po), and about the territory of Summias and the dispute settled through Crispinus's Deacon, ought to be referred to St. Crispinus III, as is clear from the Life of St. Epiphanius on January 21.
[4] The same should perhaps be said of the miracle which the same Ferrarius reports from the Pavian histories, namely that it was performed not by Crispinus I but by the third, or at any rate by the one whose memory was then more celebrated at Pavia. "Peter," he says, A storm calmed by his invocation. "a Deacon of Pavia, having gone across the Po from the city on business of the Church, when there was no refuge from the thunder, hailstones, lightning, and rushing winds, knelt down and had recourse to imploring the help of St. Crispinus, and immediately the sky, from being most turbulent, became serene."
[5] Bernardinus Saccus also mentions this holy Bishop Crispinus in Book 6, Chapters 8 and 9 of his Pavian history: "Around the time of the Emperor Severus," he says, "Crispus Niger was appointed Bishop of Pavia; who, being openly forbidden to preach, fostered the citizens of Pavia by other labor and zeal. For having taken up the administration of public affairs, he aroused the people to the embellishment of the city, and urged especially that it would be advantageous to pave the streets of the city with stone, He has embankments and a bridge built. to fortify the banks of the river with deeply driven piles, lest the river easily overflow and burst through the broken banks; and he taught that along the lower parts beside the river, embankments should be formed by heaping earth high, so that the enclosed estates would be safe when the river flooded, and would become more valuable. He declared, moreover, that the Ticinus absolutely must be joined by a bridge for the honor and convenience of the city; and the people heeded his word and completed the work. Thus at the urging of Crispus, the first Bishop of that name, the people of Pavia built a stone bridge over the river Ticinus, around the two hundredth year from the Lord's birth. At that time the walls of the city were distant from the bridge and the riverbank by a stone's throw, and vestiges of the ancient walls survive in the Salaria house and near the churches of St. Theodore and St. Agatha, attesting to the distance I describe." Saccus then discusses the bridge at greater length. But his claim that the bridge was built around the year 200, which was the eighth year of Severus, disagrees slightly with the chronology of Ferrarius related just above.
[6] The Acts of the Crispini are confused. The Acts of the three Crispini seem to me confused, and it may rightly be questioned whether three or only two should be reckoned, since Ferrarius himself in his new Catalogue of Saints under October 30 lists only two; Galesinius also considers the one venerated on that day to be the one whom others call the third. The same Galesinius has this under December 5: "At Pavia, St. Crispinus, Bishop and Confessor, whose learning and holiness have been distinguished in many matters." But to which of them this should principally be applied, I do not determine.