Facio

CONCERNING BLESSED FACIO, CONFESSOR, AT CREMONA IN ITALY.

Year 1272.

Facius, Confessor Cremonae in Italia (B.)

[1] At Cremona in Cisalpine Gaul, on 18 January, the birthday of Blessed Facio, Confessor, is celebrated; who, although he has not been solemnly enrolled among the Saints, The birthday of B. Facio, Filippo Ferrari writes in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy that the Apostolic See has granted to the Church of Cremona and Verona that the Ecclesiastical office be recited there concerning him. Of him the same Ferrari writes in his general Catalogue of Saints: At Cremona in Cisalpine Gaul, S. Facio the Confessor.

[2] His life, The same author writes that his life was published at Cremona in the year 1604. That is perhaps the one which Peregrino Merula reports was published in Italian by Leonardo Gregorio, Master of Ceremonies of the Cathedral Church of Cremona. We have not yet obtained it. We give what Ferrari composed from it. Merula published a brief version in Italian in his Sanctuary of Cremona; who reports that this inscription is read at his sepulchre: The bones of Blessed Facio, a man of good faith and piety, whom Verona claims as its own his epitaph, because it bore him; Cremona claims as its own, because it received him as a citizen while living and took him in at death. The overseers of the church had the bones brought here in the year of the Lord 1540. The Bishop of Cremona at that time was Benedetto de' Acolti.

[3] A chapel stands at Cremona which some think was built by Facio himself and dedicated to S. Prisca, his chapel, for her image is seen in the choir. It began to be called the chapel of B. Facio not long after his death. The administrators of the greater hospital restored it when it was already crumbling with age, restored, adding above the doors for a memorial this inscription: This sacred church of B. Facio, made unsightly by age, the overseers of the great hospital adorned for their remarkable piety and for the public honor in the year 1600. And those same administrators arrange each year that the deeds of B. Facio be expounded in a sermon in the cathedral basilica on his feast day.

[4] Then in the year 1614, on 8 June, the bodies of B. Facio and other Saints were solemnly translated. Inscribed on the casket: The body translated, In the year from the birth of Christ 1614, on the seventh day of June, the body of B. Facio, Confessor and citizen of Cremona, was entrusted to this chest with splendid civic ceremony by the Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord Giovanni Battista Brivio, Bishop of Cremona. The sacred body is enclosed in a cypress casket, covered with white damask linen cloth adorned with golden fringes; and above is painted the image of the same Blessed, which was prepared at the expense of the overseers of the hospital. with a solemn procession, In the public procession this casket was carried around by four priests, under a most elegant canopy of white damask linen cloth, which six priests supported, dressed in white tunics, which they call tunicellae.

[5] On the road which leads from the church of S. Helena to that of S. Nicholas, a triumphal arch was erected, of which this was the inscription: The people of Cremona, to their own Saints Homobonus of old, with an arch and emblems, now a citizen of heaven, and Himerius, Bishop of Amelia, whose patronage they have long implored; and to Blessed Facio, who gleams in heaven with the torches of all the virtues, for their pious and chaste benefits, in the triumph of the sacred bones, in gratitude, erected this. Between the very columns of the arch was seen a statue of B. Facio, with an emblem of a door of Doric workmanship added, and of two lions in the base, with the motto: They keep watch, who guard. Above the crowns of that same arch, another emblem was placed, namely a wheel or little grinding stone of a gem-cutter, with the inscription: By removing, it adds.

[6] These are largely from Merula. Concerning S. Homobonus, who is mentioned here, we shall treat on 13 November; concerning S. Himerius, on 19 October.

LIFE FROM FILIPPO FERRARI.

Facius, Confessor Cremonae in Italia (B.)

From various sources.

[1] Facio, born at Verona, after the persecutions which he endured in his homeland over a span of thirty years, departing thence, came to Cremona around the year of salvation 1226, B. Facio the goldsmith, where, practicing the goldsmith's art, he distributed whatever he earned to churches and the poor. When his goodness became known, he was appointed by the citizens to oversee the alms customarily given by the city for the poor and the sick.

[2] Having returned to his homeland to be reconciled with his enemies, he was denounced by calumny to the Scaligers, who held dominion in Verona, He is thrown into prison at Verona, and was committed to prison. There, when he had freed many sick persons who were brought to him because of the holy man's known sanctity (among whom were a noble woman's infant, who for eight days had been without milk and food and was at the point of death, freed by the miracles he performs, and a woman possessed by a demon for eighteen years), he was released, together with the other captives, through the intercession of the people of Cremona, who had come to the aid of the Veronese in war, and returned to Cremona: where, having built an oratory, he founded a society of men who would visit the sick and imprisoned, clothe the naked, He founds the Order of the Holy Spirit, feed the hungry, and perform other works of piety, which was called the Order of the Holy Spirit.

[3] Whenever he had leisure to practice his art, he worked only on sacred objects, and those without charge. He was much given to prayer, He works without charge, and frequently visited churches: he undertook many pilgrimages, traveling to Rome, and to Spain to visit the body of the Apostle S. James. He gave to the Cathedral church as a gift certain works in silver, which are still displayed, among which is a chalice miraculously preserved works that he made, which, when more precious objects were consumed by a fire that broke out in the sacristy, was divinely preserved, and, what is more wonderful, was found unharmed in the church at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

[4] Called to a certain nobleman who, having been abandoned by physicians with his health despaired of, and having already received the Sacraments, was about to render his soul, he predicted that the man would regain his health He predicts health for a sick man, if he vowed to go to S. James: who, having made the vow, immediately rose from bed, to the astonishment of all: and Facio, accompanying him to fulfill his vow, brought him back to his homeland after many dangers overcome by land and sea.

[5] He is appointed Visitor of monasteries. The Bishop of Cremona, moved by so many signs and virtues, appointed him General Visitor of monasteries of women and men. He, at length, having completed so many labors, was seized by fever, and fortified by the sacred rites, rendered his soul to God in the year of salvation 1272. His body, which became famous for many miracles, was honorably buried by the entire clergy and people. He shines with miracles after death.