ON ST. ATHANASIUS, BISHOP OF SORRENTO IN CAMPANIA.
CommentaryAthanasius, Bishop of Sorrento in Campania (St.)
[1] The Sorrentines in Campania venerate with public celebration five Patrons and Protectors of their city: St. Valerius, Bishop, on January 16; St. Athanasius, Bishop, on the 26th of the same month; St. Baculus, Bishop, on the 29th of the same month; Feast of St. Athanasius, St. Antoninus, Abbot, on February 14; and St. Renatus, Bishop, on October 6. Ferrari mentions St. Athanasius on this day in his General Catalogue of Saints with these words: "At Sorrento in Campania, St. Athanasius, Bishop." But in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy he writes this about him: Acts unknown, "Athanasius, Bishop of Sorrento, flourished among St. Valerius and St. Baculus, Bishops and Patrons of the same city; of whom nothing has been recorded by writers. image, Only this is known from ancient paintings: that he was an old man, venerable for his baldness and with a shaven beard. There was another Athanasius, Bishop of Naples, celebrated for his holiness, whom some identify with the Sorrentine one. But the Sorrentines, by ancient tradition, recognize and venerate this Athanasius as distinct from the Neapolitan one and as their own Bishop." So Ferrari.
[2] apparition. Paul Regius, Bishop of Vico Equense, in part 2 of his work on the Saints of the Kingdom of Naples, in the life of St. Antoninus the Abbot, ch. 11, reports a certain apparition of St. Athanasius, in which he exhibited himself for viewing as an old man, bald, with a shaven beard; whence he concludes that he is not the same as the Neapolitan Athanasius, who died at only 41 years of age. Of whom we shall treat on July 15.
[3] David Romaeus thinks otherwise in his booklet On the Five Holy Guardians and Patrons of the City of Sorrento, where he writes the following about St. Athanasius: "Concerning Athanasius also, we have not yet been able to ascertain anything definite. We have scrutinized what we could and sought everything that we might write down with certainty according to our custom; we found nothing, for the Sorrentines have nothing written about him. His sacred anniversaries are preserved and are handed down henceforth from fathers to families, and are thus perpetual -- just as the rites of Agrippinus and Euphebius are at Naples. Some think him the same as the one venerated at Naples on July 15. Therefore, prompted by his name, we suspected that the Athanasius who is the guardian of Naples and the one of Sorrento were the same; and Baculus was also a Neapolitan. Moreover, the fact that the Neapolitans celebrate their Athanasius on the Ides of July and the Sorrentines celebrate theirs on the 7th day before the Kalends of February is not of great significance. These thoughts occurred to me, since Athanasius the Bishop of Naples had stayed at Sorrento for some months (as we said in his life) with Stephen, then Bishop of Sorrento. For what reasons. And perhaps on that day Athanasius either arrived at Sorrento or departed from it, or bestowed upon the Sorrentines some divine benefaction; and they, in gratitude for his divine benefits to their city, wished lasting and divine honors to be paid to him and gratitude to be shown, so that they might be known to be mindful and grateful. Therefore, affected by some heavenly and immortal benefaction from him, and knowing that they would gratify both their Stephen and satisfy God, they piously wished to preserve the memory of so great a man. Furthermore, they show the tombs of each of the individual guardians, but the tomb of Athanasius is nowhere pointed out. As for the fact that we shall write in the life of Antoninus that Athanasius of Sorrento was an old man with baldness and a shaven beard, while Athanasius of Naples died at the age of forty-one -- here perhaps he was an old man before his time, and (to use a Horatian word) prematurely gray: either because he was never at peace through Sergius, his brother's son, who harassed his uncle, so that Athanasius was made an old man before his time, not by age or senility, but worn out by the pains of mind and body, by grief and cares; and he was feeble and in poor, or rather no health at all, as we said there on page 24; and our body is very often worn out by the slightest cause. We have related these things to certain Sorrentines, who were partly of the same opinion as I, and partly could not argue against it by reason. It suffices, Christian reader, to have informed you of these matters. Whether they are false or true, I do not greatly contend, since I can affirm nothing except my opinion and judgment; and if you prefer to follow it, since we have said quite enough about this matter in our account of the Neapolitan Athanasius, which will be relevant to this place, you will take it from there."