Sabinus

ON ST. SABINUS, OR SAVINUS, BISHOP OF PIACENZA IN ITALY.

Toward the End of the Fourth Century.

Sabinus, Bishop of Piacenza in Italy (Saint)

From various sources.

[1] At Piacenza, a noble city of Cispadane Gaul, St. Savinus, or Sabinus, is venerated on the 17th of January, with a double office and octave, as Ferrarius attests in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy and in his general Catalogue of Saints, where he writes thus: The feast of St. Sabinus: At Piacenza in Gallia Togata, St. Savinus, Bishop of the same city, its Patron. He is said, however, to have died on the 11th of December; on which day the Roman Martyrology: At Piacenza, St. Sabinus, Bishop, illustrious for miracles. Molanus and the Carthusians of Cologne in their additions to Usuard, Maurolycus, Felicius, and Galesinius mention the same on that day; but the latter again on the 14th of February, or the 16th day before the Kalends of March (he perhaps intended to write the 16th day before the Kalends of February), with these words: At Piacenza, St. Sabinus, Bishop and Confessor: who was present at the Council of Aquileia; and, shining forth with the glory of things wonderfully and divinely accomplished, rested in the Lord. The German Martyrology on the 11th of December: Likewise St. Sabinus, Bishop of Piacenza, who by divine revelation found the body of St. Antoninus, of whom an account was given on the last day of September. He was a man full of faith and a doer no less than a preacher of the divine word, also illustrious for miracles. St. Gregory writes of him.

[2] His deeds: We shall give the miracle narrated by St. Gregory as having been performed by him, in book 3 of the Dialogues, chapter 10, and then the epitome of his life that Ferrarius has compiled from Readings, as he says, approved at Rome, which are read at Piacenza on his feast day. There exist several letters of St. Ambrose to him: for they were bound to one another with the greatest charity, his friendship with St. Ambrose: whence he concludes letter 8 of book 1, and book 4, letters 30 and 31, thus: Farewell, and love us, because we love you; and letter 65 of book 8: Farewell, and love us, as you do; finally letter 63: Farewell, brother, and love one who loves you, because I love you very much. In that letter 63, Ambrose signifies that he sends him his compositions his learning. to be corrected by his judgment, and admonishes him to judge clearly and to examine searchingly what he should correct. And he adds that splendid remark: For somehow one's own writings deceive each person and pass by his ear, and just as even deformed children are pleasing, so also one's own unseemly compositions flatter the writer.

[3] Another evidence of Sabinus's erudition we have in the Council of Aquileia, celebrated in the consulship of Syagrius and Eucherius, in the year of Christ 381, where his most weighty judgments against the Arians are read. Baronius treats of the same Sabinus's variously attested erudition in his Notes on the Martyrology for the 11th of December, and in the Annals, volume 4, at the year 381, number 83.

MIRACLE OF ST. SABINUS.

From St. Gregory's Dialogues, book 3, chapter 10.

Sabinus, Bishop of Piacenza in Italy (Saint)

I learned of another miracle of this same venerable man, Bishop Venantius, by his account, which he declares to have been performed in the city of Piacenza: which the most truthful man of God, John, who now in this city of Rome holds the office of the Prefects, and who was born and raised in the same city of Piacenza, attests, just as the Bishop relates, St. Sabinus the Bishop because it was done. For they assert that in that city there was a Bishop named Sabinus, of wondrous virtue. When his Deacon had reported to him one day that the River Po, having overflowed its channel, had occupied the fields of the Church restrained the flooding of the Po, and the water of the same river held all those places intended for the nourishing of crops, the venerable Bishop Sabinus answered, saying: Go and tell it: The Bishop commands you to restrain yourself and return to your own channel. His Deacon, hearing this, despised it and laughed. Then the man of God, having summoned a Notary, dictated, saying: Sabinus, servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, a formal notice to the Po: I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, by a written notice cast into it, that you no longer go beyond your channel in these places, nor presume to damage the lands of the Church. And he added to the same Notary, saying: Go, write this, and throw it into the water of the same river. he restrains it. Which having been done, the water of the river, receiving the holy man's command, immediately restrained itself from the lands of the Church and, having returned to its own channel, did not presume to go out again into those same places. In which matter, Peter, what else is confounded but the hardness of disobedient men, when, by the power of Jesus, even the irrational element obeyed the commands of the holy man?

LIFE FROM FERRARIUS.

Sabinus, Bishop of Piacenza in Italy (Saint)

[1] Savinus, or Sabinus, as in the Roman Martyrology, a Roman by birth, having been made Bishop of Piacenza, shone forth with virtues and miracles. He accomplished many splendid things in his episcopate: the body of St. Antoninus the Martyr, protector of that city, which had long lain hidden in an obscure place, St. Savinus translates the bodies of Saints: having been found by divine warning, he carried it with great concourse of the people to the basilica of St. Victor the Martyr, dedicated by St. Victor the Bishop. He was present at the Council of Nicaea, then, together with St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, at the Council of Aquileia. He was of such great learning he flourishes in learning, that St. Ambrose entrusted his own writings to him for review.

[2] He was also a performer of remarkable miracles. For among other things, as St. Gregory the Pope writes in the Dialogues, when the Deacon of St. Savinus had announced that the Po, and in miracles: having overflowed its channel, was occupying the fields of the Church, and the holy Bishop had answered: Go, tell it: Bishop Savinus commands you to return to your own channel; and the Deacon, laughing, had scorned to carry out the command; he summoned a Notary and dictated a command of this kind: Savinus, servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the Po: I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, to return to your own place, and henceforth not to go out into these places, nor presume to damage the lands of the Church. And he commanded the Notary to carry that command to the river Po and cast it into its waters. Which having been done (wonderful to say!) immediately the Po withdrew into its former channel, and never returned again to those places of the Church.

[3] he dies. When St. Savinus had governed the Church of Piacenza most holily for 45 years, he rendered his spirit to God on the 3rd of the Ides of December. His body was buried in the church then dedicated to the holy Twelve Apostles, which was afterward called St. Savinus's, by St. Maurus the Bishop, his successor, on the 16th day before the Kalends of February. On which day his solemnity is celebrated by the Church of Piacenza.