John

ON ST. JOHN, MARTYR,

BISHOP OF BERGAMO IN ITALY.

About the Year 683.

HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.

John, Bishop and Martyr, at Bergamo in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 4337

BY THE AUTHOR J. P.

§ I. St. John's cult; his elogia; his apostolic labors.

Bergamo, an ancient city of Italy, as was already said on the day June 9, on the occasion of the holy spouses Lupus and Adleida, venerated in that same place, once in Transpadane Gaul, at that time subject to the Kings of the Lombards, St. John is venerated at Bergamo, now joined and subject to the Venetian Republic, besides several other Saints whose memory is inserted into this our work, honors with public cult St. John, once its most worthy bishop; the second of this name; and no less remarkable for apostolic labors than for the laurel of martyrdom, his blood being shed for the defense of the orthodox faith against Arian obstinacy.

[2] His name you would seek in vain among the classic or ancient Martyrologists. passed over by the ancient Martyrologists, announced by the more recent. Among the more recent, Galesinius refers to him thus: At Bergamo, of St. John, Bishop and Martyr, who for his doctrine and sanctity, affected with singular honor by Kings and Princes, for the faith and religion treated too injuriously by the Arians, at last slain, honorably buried by the pious in the cathedral church, shines forth with the divine power of miracles. Ferrarius wove him into the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy with a compendium of his Life; and the modern Roman Martyrology, on this day the 11th, thus announces him: At Bergamo, of St. John the Bishop, who for the defense of the catholic faith, by the Arians

was slain. In the proper offices of the church of Bergamo, published in print, his feast is prescribed to be celebrated with a double rite with this proper prayer: O God, who through blessed John, your Martyr and Pontiff, recalled the souls of many from the error of heresies to the light of the catholic faith; grant to your peoples, that by his merits interceding, they may both always be found stable in the same faith, and effective in work. Through our Lord. The rest from the Common, except the lessons of the second Nocturn, which are proper. But in the third Nocturn a homily on the Gospel: I am the good shepherd, etc. from the Common of one Martyr. These proper lessons I here pass over; which are to be given a little later from the manuscript.

[3] Martin Anthony Guerrini, doctor of sacred theology and of both laws, Well deserving of the matters pertaining to St. John, Martin Ant. Guerrini. Canon of the Cathedral church of Bergamo, has deserved most excellently of St. John, as well as of us, not without the praise of erudition and of duty, when he collected a gleaning, which he transmitted hither, writing in a letter, given at Bergamo on the Kalends of January of the year 1711 to our Janning, that he was adding to the other documents pertaining to the Saints of Bergamo the ancient Acts of the same St. John with a sylloge of authors treating of so great a Prelate, or at least most honorably recording him. Therefore wishing to enter most of what we here give to the account of the praised gleaner as a demonstrator, we shall here more than once use his helping labor, who professes that he thought it opportune here to collect what, after so many disasters of his country, burnings of archives, incursions of barbarians, survive as it were rubble and fragments: and there are of that same most holy Prelate and Martyr very many native, and more external testimonies.

[4] The Saint subscribes to the Roman synod under Agatho: Not lacking praise is the pious, modest, and orthodox subscription, by which St. John ratified the epistle of Pope Agatho, and of the Roman Synod of a hundred and twenty-four Bishops, convoked in the year 680 for the due instruction of the legates going into the East, to celebrate the sixth synod against the Monothelites: in which Roman synod, or rather preparation for the third ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in the fifty-fourth place after the aforesaid Pontiff he thus subscribes: John, unworthy Bishop of the holy church of Bergamo, to this suggestion, which for our apostolic faith we have unanimously constructed, likewise subscribed. This subscription is had in Greek and Latin in Action 4, after epistle 2 of the said Third Council of Constantinople, in Labbe, volume 6, column 700.

[5] An elogium from Paul the Deacon; We produce likewise an honorable testimony, and venerable for its antiquity, from Paul the Deacon, book 6 on the Deeds of the Lombards, chapter 8; which in the Library of the Fathers of the Cologne printing, volume 8, page 187, I read in the following words: At the same time also John, Bishop of the church of Bergamo, was a man of wondrous sanctity; who, when he had offended King Cunibert at a banquet, while they were conversing, the King caused to be prepared for him, as he returned to his lodging, a fierce and untamed horse, which with immense snorting was wont to dash to the ground those who sat upon it. When the Bishop had mounted it, it became so gentle that with a mild gait it carried him even to his own house. Which the King hearing, both honored the Bishop from that day with due honor, and bestowed on him as a gift that same horse, which he had dedicated to his sitting.

[6] and from the more recent, Bartholomew de Peregrinis, But if we make a step to the more recent authors, no illiberal contribution to the praises of the Saint has Bartholomew de Peregrinis made in the Vineyard of Bergamo, printed in the year 1553; where in part 1, page 3 verso, he thus expounds: After those bishops of the vineyard of Bergamo, Dominator, Stephen, Claudian, Simplician, Babian, and Quintian, of whom he had just treated, very many robbers, that is, Arians, began to tear this vineyard, but in the year of Christ 654 there arose in that same vineyard that great husbandman and blessed shepherd, John our Bishop, who most holily governed it for twenty-nine years and cast out the heretical Arians. For so great was his sanctity and doctrine, that Kings and Princes were wont to rise for the sake of honor to him. Among other things he converted to the faith the town of Fara, infected with the Arian heresy, and built there a chapel to the holy Martyr Alexander; and, that he might record that omen of the said Martyr, when, ships failing, fleeing from Milan to Bergamo, he had crossed the river Adda with dry feet, where he at one time performed the sacred rite; traversing Insubria also, he keenly pursued the Arians with either sword.

[7] For the aid of which matter, when the affair required, John Bonus, in the Vineyard of Bergamo; the thirty-eighth Prelate of Milan, sent him troops of soldiers. This most holy Shepherd increased the number of the canons and the revenues in a wondrous manner, and whatever remained over from honest food and clothing, he gave to the benefit of his church. Finally one and the same common table for all, one habit, one rule, and one apostolic order was continually observed in the canonry of the holy Martyr Alexander. But at last he was cruelly slain by the Arians, in the year of salvation 683, on the fifth day before the Ides of July, and was buried in the said Cathedral church of holy Alexander. Then he alleges the sources whence he drew his own, the history of Paul the Deacon, the privileges of three Emperors, Charles III, Arnulf, and Berengar, the Chronicle of Bartholomew de Ossa, etc.

[8] Moreover no narrow field is opened for the praises of St. John in the Acts of St. John Camillus Bonus, Likewise from Joseph Ripamonti in his history of Milan. our Saint's contemporary, of whom mention was made on the day January 10: on which also his Life was given from the Milanese history of Joseph Ripamonti; whence I cull some things, others being omitted, of which we treated in the elogia above. And so there at number 3 you have thus: John was the second prelate of the people of Bergamo, in loftiness of soul and zeal for the uncorrupted religion, rightly matched with the character and sanctity of John Bonus: keen likewise and vehement in disposition, and to whatever side he had leaned, pressing on to the very end with fixed purposes.

[9] With this John, because he had need of his distinguished aids for carrying on the affair and thoroughly healing minds, where concerning his greatness of soul in confuting the Monothelites; John Bonus contracted friendship and familiarity. Nor did he refuse a part of the labor: and he offered himself as a companion for confuting the dogmas of the Monothelites, which daily grew more strong. Then at number 4 he sets forth the miracle of the river Adda trodden with feet; concerning which above, number 6. And at number 7 is commemorated King Grimoald, converted by the labor of the holy Prelate from Arianism to the true faith of Christ. Concerning whom, since it is to be said elsewhere, I forbear to treat in this place. Several other more recent authors have put labor either into commemorating or into praising St. John; whom you may see in Ughelli, volume 4 of Italia Sacra, column 590. To whom add the praised Guerrini in the Synopsis of the affairs and times of the church of Bergamo, published in the year 1696, from page 31; and Baronius in the Notations on the Roman Martyrology, as also in the Annals; the words of this latter place we shall produce, when there is discourse of the apostolic labors of St. John.

[10] But although of those it is abundantly established from what has been said, yet it will not be superfluous to add these things from the diplomas (I use the words of the gleaner praised several times) still surviving on the parchments of his capitular archive, finally from the diploma of the Emperor Charles III. among which the chief is that of the Emperor Charles III, signed at Bergamo near Murgula with the imperial monogram, on the third day before the Kalends of August from the Incarnation 883. That same diploma is read in Ughelli, in the said volume 4, from column 592; where, when it had been premised that the church dedicated in honor of Alexander in the place called Fara had been of the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Bergamo from the time of Grimoald, King of the Lombards, who established that same church with all its possessions under the dominion of the aforesaid bishopric of B. Alexander, it is added: And deservedly; because a certain bishop of that place, named John, once converted that same church from the Arian schism to the catholic faith; and therefore it should be owed to his church by ecclesiastical sanctions.

[11] What Baronius wrote of his apostolic labors. No less magnificently than truly of the apostolic zeal, by which in defending and propagating the orthodox faith he excelled excellently against the Arian plague, did our holy Bishop, Baronius proclaimed, at the year 659, number 6, thus speaking: Furthermore, while the Kings of the Lombards were still affected with the Arian pest, they caused no little trouble to the catholic Bishops; who set themselves as a wall for the house of Israel. Among whom especially shone John, surnamed Bonus, of Milan, and John, Bishops of the church of Bergamo. For these, as once Paul and Barnabas, joined hands together to defend and propagate the catholic faith: but one of them, namely the one of Bergamo, advanced so far in glory, that by that fight he gained martyrdom for himself: concerning which mention will recur in the following paragraph; where concerning the compendium of his life: the finding and translation of his body.

§ II. Compendium of his Life; finding and translation of his body.

When the compendium of his Life was written; The gleaner often mentioned sent hither the Acts of the holy Martyr, as he calls them, but which you would more truly call a compendium of his life, taken from the Passional of the Saints of Bergamo of ancient character, in a folio Manuscript codex on parchment; whose title is: The Amalthea of the Canepary of the Cathedral of Bergamo, in which are read, from folio 14, the Acts here faithfully extracted. The age of the writer clearly appears from the characteristic notes, appended at the end on the occasion of the alabaster placed under the martyr's head, and after five centuries had elapsed fragrant with a most sweet odor; of which matter are produced as witnesses the Lord Alexander de Clementis, Provost of the church of St. Alexander, and his canons and religious, and many Prelates of the religious, and I, who wrote it: which translation occurred in the year 1291, as will be seen a little later.

[13] The agreement of it with the original juridically proved. Moreover, lest it should happen to anyone to doubt of the conformity of the copy which we commit to the press with its original, whence it was taken, I found it fortified with the undersigned testimony: I, Quintilian, son of the late Lord Gaspar de Cucchis, citizen and by imperial authority public notary of Bergamo, subscribed for faith the present copy, agreed and consonant with the aforesaid ancient codex, as described above, and confirmed it with the accustomed sign of my tabellionate. Peter, by divine mercy Cardinal Deacon of St. Adrian of the Holy Roman Church, Priuli, Bishop and Count of Bergamo, appends a testimony that the said Quintilian is a public notary. And his seal is added. Below subscribe the Vicar and Chancellor General: which juridical testification of theirs is annexed also to the two next following copies, comprising the proper lessons and the translation of the Martyr. These things being noted, the manuscript itself follows.

[14] John, martyr, and Bishop of Bergamo, whose name is interpreted: St. John dead to the world in whom is the grace of God, by a right presage of his future sanctity marked beforehand with such a name: because he was truly endowed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and in him through its effect the divine love was manifest, which, by the testimony of Gregory, works great things, if it exists; but if

it ceases to work, it is not love. For not on account of the Episcopal dignity was he raised to human glory: that gold should shine in his saddle and bridle, or in his own garment, nor were there for him great palaces, or delicate foods, or a great abundance of servants, but content with common and cheap things, he followed his master Christ; who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister: nor was there for him a place given to the body or to sloth, but a running about in preaching, and always keeping, for the sake of others, hard ways, that he might preach, and lead to Christ the hard hearts of the Pagans, by his austere life and elegant doctrine.

[15] Because his master first began to do, and afterward to teach; he fulfills all the parts of a diligent shepherd. because long is the way through the word, short and effective through example. He himself indeed fed his people by word, by example, by temporal support, and by the aid of supererogation, by his glorious martyrdom: for such a shepherd was this man, who cared not to shear the sheep, but to rule and feed them well. He sought not the wool, but the soul entrusted to him; he sought not the milk, but spiritual grace, the fruit of the soul; he sought not the fat things, but procured to fill the souls with divine grace. This man feared not to die, that he might gain for God the souls which Christ redeemed by his passion: nor did he even refuse to live, whose whole life is described to have been not joy, but rather martyrdom: Because, as Gregory says: if we wish to live according to the Gospel, our whole life is a cross and a martyrdom.

[16] Of this same holy John the martyr, citizen of Bergamo, he tames an untamed horse; in the Lombard history, at that same time namely of Cunibert, king of the Lombards, it is said: John, Bishop of the church of Bergamo, was a man of wondrous sanctity, who offended King Cunibert at a banquet, while there was conversing: but the King, indignant, caused to be prepared for the Bishop, as he returned to his lodging, a fierce and untamed horse, which with immense snorting was wont to dash to the ground those who sat upon it: When the Bishop had sat upon it, it became so gentle that with a mild gait he was carried to his own house. Which the King hearing, was astounded at so great gentleness in the horse, and from that day honored the Bishop with due honor and the greatest reverence, and bestowed on him as a gift that same horse, which he had dedicated for his sitting to evil.

[17] But John the Bishop himself converted the unbelieving inhabitants of a certain land, he converts the Arians; which is called Fara, lying next to the river Adda in the diocese of his Bishopric, in the time of King Grimoald, from unbelief and the Arian heresy to the faith of Christ, and acquired it for the dominion of his Bishopric by the munificence and gift of the same king, through the dignity of the Christian warfare.

[18] the omission of Mass from necessity is divinely approved; There is also told of the same venerable holy Bishop a remarkable miracle, who, devout, had been wont to celebrate the solemnities of Masses, whenever it was lawful for him. But on a certain day, when he had determined to perform them in the church of the blessed martyr Alexander, and, hindered by certain cares, proceeding later than usual, the ninth hour of the day being now almost passed, at the very entrance of the city, with his eyes lifted to heaven and his ears attentive, he halted, and thus at last said to his fellow-travelers: Let us return, brethren, for the hour of celebrating so great a mystery has now passed: and thus spending the whole day in fastings and prayers, and imputing to his own negligence that he had been so late in the praises of God, he abstained from the celebration of so great a mystery. At last, his clerics marveling and greatly inquiring, he declared that he had heard in heaven the voices of Angels saying: Go, the Mass is ended: and of others answering: Thanks be to God. And it is to be believed in faith, that while he remained in this life, he did not omit it.

[19] [the odor of the stone continued through many centuries, on which his head had been placed.] From the aforesaid is commended the active life in him, which he had in preaching, and the contemplative in this, that he heard such voices of Angels in heaven. There were also shown to us of him in these most recent days certain signs of his reverend and admirable sanctity: because in the translation made of the holy bones, it was found that his head had been most reverendly laid upon a stone of alabaster, which alabaster indeed, when it had stood placed under the head of the said martyr for five hundred years and more, in no way stank, but that stone was fragrant with a fragrant and aromatic odor, and so aromatic that it presented to those smelling it a most fragrant composition of infinite spices, as those who bore witness proved by experience over and over again, worthy of trust, the Lord Alexander de Clementis, Provost of the church of St. Alexander, and his Canons, and religious, and many Prelates of the Religious, and I, who wrote it. For all the bones of the aforesaid martyr, buried for so long a time, were found incorrupt, but solid and shining, as if mixed with silver: and fragrant with an odor similar to the aforesaid stone of alabaster: so also bear witness all the above-written. Now blessed John, martyr and Bishop of Bergamo, suffered, and was beheaded for Christ.

[20] Proper lessons But let their own place be given also to the proper lessons, drawn out, as is there premised, from an ancient codex of the cathedral archive of Bergamo in folio, of Gothic character, covered with dark leather with threads of gold: in which are had the legends or lessons of the ancient Offices of very many Saints of the church of Bergamo. That these lessons are not so very ancient is an indication the word "divus" for "sanctus" or "beatus," recurring more than once; a thing formerly unusual in ecclesiastical matters, and which is not read in the Roman Breviary, except perhaps in the most recent lessons. And these things I wished first to be observed: now I subjoin them:

Lesson I. The most blessed John, Bishop of Bergamo, and most holy martyr, flourished in authority, doctrine, and sanctity, born of no obscure parents. He, from his earliest age imitating the footsteps of Jesus Christ with all his heart, held the way of sanctity, and in his very tender years was zealous to enter upon the step of perfection; and thus, wholly containing himself in the works of religion, although exceeding the nature of man, he seemed in a wondrous manner to pass over into the heavenly and angelic. As much as his very age allowed, he wonderfully cultivated his talent and memory: so diligently did he give labor, that in a short time from his very earliest age he came forth most elegantly learned in the liberal arts.

Lesson II. Nor is it a wonder, if such presages already glittered in the boy; here they are given, for when he was returning from school with his companions, and they, as is wont, his fellows intent on jests and vain quarrels, he alone secretly with rapid course flew to the church of the martyr Alexander, and thus wonderfully devoted himself to prayer and to pious petitions to God: thus spurning childish and slippery things, as if inwardly breathed upon by the grace of the Holy Spirit, in his tender years holy John (in whom the proper interpretation of his own name, the grace of God, shone forth) practiced the celibate and holy life, and because he had received Jesus into his inner dwelling, he was fed with the greatest delights of honorable pleasures.

[21] Lesson III. Moreover, not moderately instructed by the diligence of his parents and reared in good morals, taken intent not on wanton or obscene things, but on the sacred letters, he clung to divine contemplations. For as soon as holy John passed out of boyhood, and otherwise applied himself suddenly to the study of those arts by which boyish age is wont to be shaped toward humanity, he betook himself to those things which might preserve the integrity of mind and body from every blemish. Aspiring thither, a new planting watered by heavenly doctrine, whereto one most easily tends to right and perfect religion, first as a cleric, his parents unwilling (who thought that posterity would be propagated through him) he was ordained in the church of holy Alexander.

Lesson IV. Of how great humility and obedience he was, it is not easy to say; from the codex of Bergamo, so that with one mouth of all it was said that something great and marvelous was to be hoped of him, and that he would turn out such as afterward his acted life soon proved. Furthermore, in those things which pertain to God, with pure and sincere service, earthly enticements despised and trodden down, with a strong soul he procured to be raised to the desired abundance of divine love. Finally he had the best care and zeal to profit all, to harm none, that others also might attain the same faith, religion, piety, or much better, to which he himself likewise hastened.

Lesson V. The Canons of Bergamo, marveling at John's sanctity, not however, as it seems, took [him] among the Canons, where what a specimen of sanctity, what a heap of religion was in him, was shown to all. An ornament of his country, and a glory, a perpetual example both to the Canons and prelates, and to his other fellow-citizens: so that that might deservedly be said of him: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He attained a happy beginning in the apostolic religion, with a happier middle now following, and finally deserved to obtain a most happy end. At length, in the course of time, gradually by the sacred orders, he is received most piously by the Bishop, and, although still young in age, yet he displayed the character of senile years.

[22] very ancient: Lesson VI. Not on that account did that man withdraw himself from the divine solemnities [or] ceremonies, either by day or by night, but was always present at them (unless he were detained by an arduous impediment). By which great mass of virtues and heap of deeds the men of the whole most sacred church of Bergamo, being greatly moved, because they lacked a shepherd, all unanimously chose him especially for Bishop. He, judging himself unworthy of so great an honor, begged all to admit his excuse as honorable, adding that his shoulders could by no means undergo so great a burden. On the contrary they urged him more vehemently: to whom at last acquiescing, blessed John undertook that charge most piously and reverently. in which as to the duration of his episcopate;

Lesson VII. He is ordained Bishop of the church of Bergamo in the time of Vitalian the Supreme Pontiff, which he ruled most holily for sixteen years. That man indeed was always adorned with erudition, faith, conversation, and all morals, to whom, on account of his excellent virtues, even all the princes were wont to rise for the sake of honor. Those things which here followed concerning the untamed horse, tamed by John its rider, and given to him as a gift by King Cunibert; concerning Fara restored; and the sacrifice of the Mass omitted on account of an impediment, divinely as it were approved through the voices of Angels; are sufficiently understood from the preceding. Wherefore I proceed to lesson 9.

an error is detected. Lesson IX. At last blessed John was cruelly slain by the Arians after many labors. For Alachis the duke unexpectedly occupies the borders of Bergamo, invades it with a great force, burns the buildings, and turns his execrable counsel against religion. He draws the monastery of Fara from the Christian doctrine to the Arian. He persecutes the priests of God everywhere. In which disturbance also holy John the bishop was slain, who deserved to receive the palm of martyrdom, and was devoutly buried by his Clerics in the greater church of holy Alexander of Bergamo. Thus the lessons: in which there seems to be corrected a chronological error as to the determination of the duration of the episcopate, which will be done in the next paragraph; when first those things have been expedited which pertain to the finding and translation of St. John.

* obscene.

§ III. Finding and translation of the body; duration of the episcopate; time of the martyrdom.

It is given here The same codex of Bergamo, from which the proper lessons just given were drawn, furnishes us besides the proper lessons of the translation of St. John, as well as of SS. Projectitius, Jacobus, and Hesteria. Part of this subject, printed by our predecessors, is read in volume 7 of May, page 578, on the occasion of St. Jacobus, martyr of Bergamo, translated from the Italian of Mutius. But the finding of the aforesaid bodies is here said to have occurred in the year 1290; but the translation in the following year; for which, in the same volume of May and the page cited, is written 1290: but the year 1291 is indicated by the notes here marked at the end of the translation, namely Thursday, April 26, Easter then falling on the 22nd. Mutius indeed expressed the same day of the month, but no day of the week. Furthermore I am much mistaken if the history, adorned with several visions, should soon find trust with all without any dread of falsity: the approval or reproval of which visions we, leaving in the middle, hold it enough to subjoin here in print the things which we have received.

Lesson I. The translation of the holy martyrs Hesteria, the history of the finding, Projectitius, Jacobus, and John was celebrated in this order. Now the bodies of the aforesaid martyrs had remained in the Cathedral church of holy Alexander of Bergamo, for many years lying hidden less decently, so that the people of Bergamo scarcely knew those Saints, but were utterly ignorant of the place, which nevertheless was manifest to the Canons of that church from a certain ancient inscription on a stone.

Lesson II. And when they had stood there for a long course of time without due cult or reverence, at last in the year 1290, when many God-fearing and devout men were intent, both at nocturnal and at daily hours, on the divine offices in the sacred building of holy Alexander, it pleased God to reveal a spiritual treasure to his devout ones.

[24] Lesson III. And so in that place where the bodies of those four Blessed ones rested, those men saw by night a great splendor, as if there had been a multitude of burning tapers. And they saw those Saints go forth from that place where their bodies were buried, two indeed in clerical habit, but one clothed in pontifical dress, and a woman in white garments, who held branches of palms in their hands, passing through the place of the confession with great reverence.

Lesson IV. They saw them moreover surrounding the whole temple, shining with great splendor, who at last, returning to the former place, withdrew themselves from their eyes. When those men had often seen this vision, they took counsel together, that they might make this matter known to the Provost of that sacred building, and to the Canons. But that Provost, named Alexander, manifested it to the Bishop of Bergamo, Robert de Bongis.

Lesson V. But this reverend Bishop, together with Alexander the Provost and likewise his brethren the Canons, as also of the translation all kindled with desire of the venerable Saints, and wishing the most high God to be glorified in his Saints, in no way allowed the bodies of those Saints to remain any longer in hiding.

Lesson VI. The grace of the Holy Spirit therefore being invoked, with the greatest reverence and joy they faithfully labored to find the bodies. And they were found as if under a stage or pulpit, once built there by the aforesaid holy Projectitius, where in order were their heads placed in alabaster and odoriferous vessels, and they saw the bones also whole, bright like silver, from which emanated the fragrance of the best odor. These relics, taken up with all diligence and due reverence, they laid up in the sacristy of the same sacred building, until a fitting place should be built, where they could be more honorably placed.

[25] Lesson VII. And so, the place being chosen, and the day appointed for the bodies of the Saints to be translated, the aforesaid Bishop, with the Provost, and all the Canons of the church of Bergamo of the holy Alexander and Vincent, and a multitude of other clerics, as well as John XII, Abbot of the holy sepulcher of Astino, with his monks, and other religious men, translated the said relics from the sacristy to the right aisle of the aforesaid building; and there, in an altar newly fashioned to their honor, in the same and stone sarcophagus, where once the body of holy Alexander had for a long time rested, they placed them decently, and with the greatest solemnity of preaching and of offices, a numerous throng of men and women standing by.

from the codex of Bergamo. Lesson VIII. Finally that Altar was consecrated in honor of those Saints: and thus, the bodies which for very long times had been utterly unknown to the people of Bergamo and hidden underground, were now taken up for the devotion of the faithful, and reverently placed. Through their mediation the most high God at times shows the signs of his power. This translation was celebrated on Thursday, April 26, in the year from the Virgin's childbirth 1291, Nicholas IV sitting in the Roman Church as supreme pontiff, and Otto being the ninety-fourth Archbishop in the church of Milan, Rudolph reigning, and in the year from the restoration of Bergamo 355. Concerning this Otto, Ughelli treats in volume 4 of Italia Sacra, from column 282; assigning to him not the number 94, but 98, by which he ruled the see of Milan.

Lesson IX. While on the night of the Good Friday of the same year three women were keeping vigil in the same temple of holy Alexander, one of them being asleep, the other two saw a great splendor around the place where the holy bodies had before been placed, and when the one of those women had gone to see, she saw around that place many tapers lighted. Perhaps on the same night, while very many innocent youths were in the same temple, they saw a multitude of boys, clothed in white garments, who with lighted tapers were making toward the sacristy, where those bodies of the Saints had been laid, until they should be more conveniently translated elsewhere.

[26] The duration of the episcopate In determining the duration of the episcopate of the holy Martyr, the more recent authors do not agree; some extending it to somewhat more years; but others on the contrary contracting it a little. Marius Mutius in his Saints of Bergamo, page 166 verso, assigns him 29 years; the same number is attributed to him by the Synopsis of the church of Bergamo mentioned above; the same by Guarnerius, thus deducing the present argument: That John was slain in the year 683, on the fifth day before the Ides of July, is agreed among all writers. But since Platina relates the Acts of John V the supreme Pontiff, honored by the dignity of John, Bishop of Bergamo, I think there is an error in the reckoning of the times: for that John V was proclaimed Pontiff in the year 685, the writers hand down. Wherefore if this Bishop was an honor and ornament to this pontificate, it was necessary that the Bishop's life was prolonged further: but if my opinion is to be interposed, I would believe him slain not in that year, but somewhat after; and the more so, because Alahis, by whom Cunibert was driven out, John the Bishop circumvented, and Fara taken from Antoninus, John's successor, and turned to the Arians, began this most foul and most proud dominion not in the year 683, but 692.

[27] it is variously established by various writers. The proper lessons, given above, contract the time of the episcopate to only sixteen years; contrary to what the other lessons do, printed at Rome in the printing-house of the reverend Apostolic Chamber in the year 1614, which, conformable to the more common reckoning of the authors mentioned, attribute to him twenty-nine years. Ughelli grants more years to his episcopate; writing that St. John succeeded Quintian in the see of Bergamo in the year 640, and indeed according to the truer reckoning of time: and since the same author adds, what we too said above, and cannot be denied, that the same Saint was present under Pope Agatho at the Roman council in the year 680, it follows that he sat for about forty years at least, according to the epoch of his begun episcopate, as now determined by Ughelli; for which, as the truer reckoning of time, would that I could solidly vouch from elsewhere!

[28] We have therefore from what has been said this one thing certain, that St. John lived in the year 680: as also the time of the martyrdom. but how long he prolonged the time of his life beyond, I could wish it might be solidly determined, the authors here again assigning one time and another. Mutius in the said history published in the year 1610 sets down about the year 683: but the same author in the Sacred History of Bergamo, printed in the year 1621, page 209, connects the martyrdom with about the year 691. If we hear Guerrini, his martyrdom falls in the year 683; others reckon it in the year 692 from various native memorials. Finally Ughelli, various authors being cited, thus concludes: With all which there is not one opinion about the time of the slaying of this Saint, which some will have fallen in the year 683, others 691; others in the year 692. To me indeed the conjecture of Celestine is pleasing. I consulted Celestine; but what his conjecture is, hitherto I have not found: nor indeed is it of such moment to track it down more laboriously: since those things always remain equally uncertain which rest on conjectures. Add Sigonius, book 2, on the Kingdom of Italy, of the Frankfurt edition, who relates him slain in the year 683. But so small a difference of time, that it should detain us longer, is not worth the effort; let it suffice us that the martyrdom occurred toward the end of the seventh century, or about 681; in which precise year I shall gladly learn, if anyone from documents worthy of trust has defined it: which for us, on account of their defect, was not permitted.