Sabina

ON S. SABINA, OR SAVINA, WIDOW OF LODI, AT MILAN.

Beginning of the Fourth Century.

Savina, Widow at Milan (S.)

From various sources.

[1] Laus Pompeia (concerning which city, and its destruction and restoration in a more advantageous location, we treated on 19 January under the Life of S. Bassianus) produced, among many others added to the number of the Blessed, Sabina, or, as they commonly write, Savina, The feast of S. Savina, a most excellent matron. Her memory is thus consecrated in the Roman Martyrology at the third of the Kalends of February: At Milan, S. Savina, a most devout woman, who fell asleep in the Lord while praying at the tombs of SS. Nabor and Felix. Galesinius likewise, and from him Canisius: At Milan, S. Savina the matron, through whose piety the bodies of the blessed Martyrs Nabor and Felix were translated to that city.

[2] She is venerated by the Church of Milan with an Ecclesiastical office, in which this third Lesson is recited: Feast at Milan, Savina, a matron of Lodi, during the great storm of persecutions which the Emperor Maximian stirred up, wonderfully practiced the duties of piety. In the city of Laus Pompeia, therefore, she buried by night the bodies of the Martyrs Nabor and Felix, who fought bravely for the glory of Christ the Lord: nor, though terrified by the threats of the impious, did she ever cease to act piously. But having advanced further in good works, the brave matron, after she had piously and skillfully placed the bodies of those blessed Martyrs upon a vehicle, translated them to Milan, to the basilica of Philip; where, praying at their tomb, she fell asleep in the Lord.

[3] Ferrarius writes nearly the same things in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and makes this general declaration concerning the piety and mercy of the most devout woman: She rendered many offices of piety toward Christians detained in prisons, Pious works, and seeking out the bodies of the Martyrs, she took care to bury them honorably, as she was able. We find this written only of Nabor and Felix. Yet it can scarcely be doubted that the same was done by her in the case of others as well. Indeed Franciscus Rugerius, to be cited presently from Gaspar Trissino, writes that she buried Martyrs both at Lodi and at Milan.

[4] In his Annotation, the same Ferrarius writes that she sprang from the noble Tresseni family of Laus Pompeia, as the people of Lodi say. Life written by Gaspar Trissino, Gaspar Trissino, a Theologian of the Somaschian Congregation, elegantly described the Acts of S. Savina, Nabor, and Felix the Martyrs, which were published at Venice in the year 1627 by the press of Jacobus Sarcina. It did not seem fitting, however, to transcribe them here in their entirety, since they are composed in a rather prolix style, and for the most part properly pertain to those two Martyrs, and besides the things that are recorded about Savina in their Acts, he recites scarcely anything about her confirmed by the testimony of an ancient writer. We shall, however, set forth from him those things which he reports as especially pertaining to the illumination of Savina's memory, however they may have been received from earlier generations.

[5] And first indeed, he says, Fortunate, it has come about that the lineage and homeland of her family are very well known to us: Homeland, for both the most ancient and constant tradition of the Church of Lodi, preserved to these very times, testifies that Savina derived the splendor of her birth from the Trissini line, and the authority of historians both ancient and modern who write about Savina establishes the most certain proof. He cites in chapter 13 the Chronicle of the city of Lodi composed by Joannes Mustus, where Savina is called a most holy woman, Family, born of the noble and illustrious Trixini family. So Joseph Ripamontius in the history of the Church of Milan: Her homeland was Laus Pompeia, her line the Trissini, and many were the distinctions which she herself produced and which she received from her ancestors. Franciscus Rugerius: The Trissini family claims Savina as a citizen of Vicenza and Lodi, when it counts its own kinfolk, and takes her as its badge in the first rank of nobility. The Synod of Lodi in the year 1619, celebrated under Bishop Michael Angelo Seghitio, in the catalogue of Saints of Lodi: S. Savina, of the noble de Tressini family, whose memory we celebrate on the 30th of January. Gaspar Trissino traces the origin of the Trissini, or Tressini, family back to the Traezenians, peoples of the Chersonese. Why not rather from Troezen, a city of the Peloponnesus, nearer to Italy?

[6] But from whatever ancestors Savina may have sprung, she was assuredly illustrious in virtue, which is indeed true nobility. Thus the manuscript Acts of SS. Felix and Nabor, which we shall give on 12 July: Then Maximian, angered, ordered them to be beaten with rods and to undergo capital sentence. They were beheaded near the gate of the city, by the river *Scelera. Their bodies a certain matron named Savina buried by night, with spices and with her own resources. This pious and devout woman, a true mother of a household, having secretly taken them from the city of Lodi, SS. Nabor and Felix buried by her, conveyed to Milan and placing them on her vehicle, brought them to Milan, full of religious devotion.

[7] More fully in an ancient codex, which is preserved in the archive of the great Hospital at Lodi, Gaspar Trissino testifies the following is narrated: There were two soldiers, S. Nabor and Felix, who suffered very many torments in the city of Lodi: after they were led bound to Lodi, they were delivered to prison. Blessed Savina visited them by day; they, severely mangled, underwent capital sentence. On the following night the aforesaid Blessed Savina buried the bodies of the holy Martyrs with spices in her own house. Another dark night By heavenly admonition: the Lord deigned to illuminate with the greatest brightness, showing that their bodies ought to be laid to rest in a more suitable place: immediately a star appeared, more brilliant than the rest, which Blessed Savina beholding, began to praise the Maker of all things, understanding that the aforesaid bodies did not rest well in that place: and she, illuminated by the grace of the Holy Spirit, having placed the bodies of the holy Martyrs in a container set upon a cart, and having poured forth prayer, began her journey toward Milan. But when she had reached Legnano, she is asked: What do you have in your vehicle, woman? She answered: The soldiers deceived by honey flowing from the bier, Honey. Not trusting the woman, they drew some, and honey came out of the vehicle. Perceiving which miracle, she confessed that in the vehicle were the bodies of the holy Martyrs Nabor and Felix: and opening the little door of the vehicle, they found the aforesaid bodies there. At which miracle, being converted, they believed in the Lord, and then they gave the aforesaid land the name Melegnano. Converted. S. Savina, pressing on eagerly with the bodies, went to Milan, and deposited them in the garden of Philip.

[8] Others cited by Trissino record the same things: but Paulus Morigia writes that Melegnano, or Melignano, was previously called Gnano, and Franciscus Rugerius calls it Lignano. Trissino himself describes the place thus in chapter 6: Old Laus Pompeia was distant more than ten miles from Milan. Did the name of Melignano come from this? Not far away, at seven thousand paces going straight, one encounters a town irrigated by the river Lambro: Lignano was then its name; but after the fortunate passage of these Martyrs under Savina's guidance, ennobled by that miracle of the honey, it began to be called Melignanum by the inhabitants and neighbors: which name even cultivated writers of the Latin tongue now use; although the vernacular speech of the Lombards, by a perversion of letters as in many other cases, retaining the custom of the Ligurians who change the letter L into R in the pronunciation of their vernacular words, has corrupted it into Merignanum. The town is subject to the Dynasts of the Medici family, adorned with the title of Marquisate by imperial diploma. Concerning this town and its nomenclature, nothing further presents itself for us to pronounce, except that it seems altogether to be what is called Ad Nonum in the Jerusalem Itinerary: Milan, Ad Nonum VII. Lodi VII.

[9] Trissino established that the memorial of this translation was customarily observed on the 18th of May, from a most ancient manuscript Martyrology which exists in the Library of the Friars Minor at Milan, Memorial of the Translation, in which the following is read: At Milan, in the year 310, on the 18th day of May, the Translation of the holy Martyrs Nabor and Felix, and it shall be a greater double feast.

[10] The Garden of Philip, in which the bodies of the Martyrs are said to have been deposited, was named after an illustrious man Philip, whom either S. Barnabas, or, as Tristan Calchus more correctly judges, S. Caius, having cleansed him with holy water, brought to Christ. The Church where the Martyrs were buried. For he thereafter dedicated the garden to the use of religion, elsewhere called the Polyandron of Philip, over which the adjoining house was consecrated as a church by S. Castricianus the Bishop; and soon two other nearby churches, Fausta or Fausti and Portiana, named after Faustus and Portius, sons of Philip: but the latter was afterwards called S. Martin ad corpus, and the former S. Vitalis, as the same Calchus attests. Subsequently, by S. Simplicianus, the successor of the great Ambrose, as Trissino believes, a church was erected for SS. Nabor and Felix, distinguished with the title of a parish: this was granted to the Friars Minor when they were admitted to the city, while Oldradus Grossus, sprung from the ancient Dresena family of Lodi, was holding the Praetorship of Milan, as Calchus writes in book 13. Waddingus writes in the Annals of the Friars Minor, volume 1, year 1212, number 55, that this was done in the year 1255 by the authority of Alexander IV; yet we do not agree with him, since he writes that the garden of Philip, the servant of God, in which he buried SS. Gervasius, Protasius, Nabor, Felix, and other Martyrs of Christ, had already previously been granted to the same Friars Minor. How could Philip, if he lived in the age of Nero and Domitian as all report, have buried SS. Nabor and Felix, who were killed under Maximian?

[11] At last Sabina herself also, while she constantly devoted herself to fasts, vigils, and prayers at the burial place of the holy Martyrs, And Savina herself: piously departed to them in that very place, and was entombed in the same church. Trissino reckons that this occurred around the year of Christ 311, which was the fifth year of Constantine the Great. That her body was discovered by S. Charles Borromeo in the year 1571, on the day after the Nones of September, is attested by Carolus a Basilica Petri in his Life of S. Charles, book 3, chapter 6. Trissino describes this discovery as follows: After S. Charles the Bishop had duly performed these rites, Her body found intact: he entered the chapel which had been restored by the Morigia family after so many destructions of the city of Milan, and there, having repeated the customary prayers, he ordered the marble mausoleum, in which the body of S. Savina was enclosed, to be opened. And behold, an admiration equal to the veneration seized the holy Pontiff, when he beheld the venerable corpse of the most illustrious matron, deposited in the sepulchre for so many years, surviving so many ruins and plunderings, not only unharmed but entirely intact and uncorrupted, and exhaling a most pleasant odor; indeed, as he handled the sacred relics, he found even the cork of the sandals, the linen and woolen coverings, consumed by no decay or age. The fame of this event then drew all the citizens of Milan to the venerable sepulchre: thenceforth there was a constant throng: the greatest veneration, equal to the miracle, was struck into all: no one could be sufficiently sated by the sight of that lifeless body, and everyone thought they were gazing upon the face of one sleeping rather than dead. Hence the citizens, streaming in without order, did not cease to marvel and to praise the omnipotence of God, who both guards all the bones of His Saints and does not allow a hair of their head to perish.

[12] A tooth extracted by S. Charles Borromeo, When sufficient indulgence had been granted to the devotion of the great throngs of citizens streaming in, S. Charles extracted a tooth from the jawbone, which he kept as a treasure, enclosed in a silver case, and carried around his neck as long as he lived; and he placed the whole body of the Saint back in the marble sarcophagus, intact as he had found it. Moreover, he enrolled her blessed soul among his special patron Saints; he celebrated the vigil of her feast with a hair shirt and fasting; The feast piously celebrated; on the feast day itself, he attended divine services nowhere else than in Savina's chapel; after the divine liturgy, having ordered the reliquary to be opened each year, he piously venerated the sacred relics in prayer: one could see Charles there melting into many tears, with the tenderest sighs constantly exhaled from his breast, giving over his whole mind to divine contemplation. And he did not know how to depart from there except after many hours. The casket sealed once more: Moreover, the pious Bishop, fearing lest the wantonness of some unrestrained person might attempt to steal the sacred treasure, or to pilfer something, enclosed the stone casket with iron bars, such as we now see, so that it would henceforth be unlawful for anyone to open it.

[13] But lest so remarkable a miracle, worthy of celebration in every age -- the finding of an intact corpse after so many centuries, The matter attested by public documents, and still breathing forth a most sweet odor to our own times -- should slip from the memory of mankind, S. Charles ordered documents confirmed by witnesses and drawn up by the hand of the Apostolic Notaries Hieronymus Castilionaeus, Bernardinus Cattaneus, Jacobus Regretus, Baptista Corius, and the Chancellor of the Archbishopric himself, Bartholomaeus Pampolio, to be preserved in many copies in his Curia. And the same Carolus a Basilica Petri and Paulus Moriggia, who were writing at that time, attested these things in their histories; as did other most eloquent men of our age, among whom Franciscus Rugerius, who described the prodigious event of the discovery of Savina's uncorrupted body with almost Attic eloquence, consulting the surviving glory of his homeland.

[14] Thus far Trissino; who in chapter 12 testifies that at Milan Savina is venerated by matrons with outstanding devotion, S. Savina venerated by matrons, and why, and especially that she might grant them immunity from excessive menstrual flow: and that in previous years plans had been discussed for establishing a confraternity to promote her cult; such as the same Author conjectures once existed in the church of S. Euphemia at Milan, from the manuscript Martyrology of the Franciscan Library, in which the following is read: On the third of the Kalends of February, at Milan, the celebration of S. Savina, who was a matron of Lodi: she led the bodies of SS. Nabor and Felix to the city of Milan: she lies in the church of S. Nabor: she is greatly honored at S. Euphemia. Finally the same writer records the honors recently paid to the same Saint, especially by the Tressini family, the statues erected, the altars dedicated, and the images placed in a distinguished location. Silvanus Razzius also treats of her in volume 1 of his work on women illustrious for sanctity.

Side Note* Momb. Sileram. 1