ON ST. VALENS, OR VALENTIUS, BISHOP OF VERONA.
In Italy.
In the year 531.
CommentaryValens, or Valentius, bishop of Verona (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR P. B.
Would that Verona, as fruitful a parent of Saints as it is on this day, were as fruitful of Acts! For it sent five, on one day, though not in one century, Confessors into heaven, whom it venerates at its altars on the same day; namely Valens its bishop; Benignus and Charus; Evangelista and Peregrinus; [The Saint is noted on this day in the Roman Martyrology; not likewise in the ancient ones;] the Acts of all of whom, at least such as they merit, have hitherto been desired. Of Valens is to be spoken in this place; of the rest, in their order. The name, therefore, of this holy Bishop is altogether unknown to the catalogues of the chief among the old Martyrologists, whether you seek Valens bishop of Verona, or Valentius; for both this name is read ascribed to him in Augustine Valerius (who was himself also bishop of Verona, and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church) in the ancient Monuments of the holy bishops of Verona, folio 12 and others. Galesini seems to have been the first to take him up outside the church of Verona, and that from the Veronese tables, as he observes in the annotations to his Martyrology on this day; and thence a little after he passed to the reformed Martyrology which the Roman Church now uses, being announced on the same day in these words: At Verona, of St. Valens, bishop and confessor. And so of St. Valens it does not seem should be understood what before Galesini Aloysius Lipomanus, bishop of Verona, asserted in general in the preface to volume 4 on the Lives of the Saints: The Saints of my church not only this city, but almost the whole world venerates.
[2] Yet no one doubts that his veneration in the church of Verona is much more ancient; although his cult among the Veronese is ancient; since Augustine Valerius long ago proved this by many arguments in the said little work: for the testimonies which are heaped up on this matter concerning the holy thirty-six bishops of Verona in general, folio 1 and 2, all make also for vindicating the ancient cult, in his own church, of Valens, who is reckoned among them; as the ancient Martyrology from the membranes of the cathedral church of Verona, in which the names of the 36 bishops of Verona are described in their places; the book On the antiquities of Verona and on the holy relics which are found in it, written in the year 1477 by Francis Corna, and other monuments there cited which may be read at greater length, both from printed books and from Veronese manuscripts; from which not only some cult of our Saint, but even a singular and more solemn one, is proved: for at least from the year 1503, by a synodal Constitution, exhibited on folio 1 verso, it is thus provided: We will, decree, ordain, and, in virtue of holy obedience strictly commanding, command that the aforesaid most holy thirty-six bishops, below named one by one, and each of them on their below-written days, be celebrated under a double venerable ecclesiastical Office through all the churches of this city and diocese of Verona, and by the ecclesiastical persons of either sex, of whatever grade, state, order, dignity, and condition they be, in perpetual future times, every year, devoutly, solemnly, and inviolably.
[3] Concerning the relics of the Saint there is treatment in the same place, folio 12, where these things are read: The body of St. Valens, otherwise Valentius, with whom his relics are preserved. rests in the church of St. Peter in the citadel; as is gathered from a marble stone at the side of the greater altar to the north; on which, among other letters, these are engraved (for the rest are so corroded that the sense cannot be drawn from them:) ST. VALENS THE BISHOP, WHO LIVED VERY MANY YEARS AND SAT SEVEN YEARS, SEVEN MONTHS, AND EIGHTEEN DAYS. Near this stone, in a small stone chest of red color, with a lid and base of white color, and a little window fortified with iron, these letters are engraved: IN PEACE, THE BODY OF ST. VALENS THE BISHOP. But from a stone tablet, and from an ancient tablet of membranes, of which above (folio 3), where of St. Agapius, from the tablet of the Saints (of which folio 2), on the 26th of July, the body of St. Valens rests in the church of St. Proculus. And in the altar at the entrance of the crypt, or confession, of the same church of St. Proculus, is an image painted in pontifical habit with these letters: St. Valentius. But how these things, which seem contrary, are to be reconciled and understood, see below after the monuments of the Saints: namely folio 35; where the author teaches that, by a pious extension, it is wont to be said that in some place the body of some Saint is had, because a good part of him is had there. This manner of speaking is indeed in the subject matter so usual, that I wonder it was not observed by Ferrari, in the annotations to this day and Saint. Something of the same relics is in the church of the Holy Apostles, as is noted in the same little work, folio 77 verso.
[4] Concerning the Acts of the Saint, Concerning the Acts there is no reason, as I said before, that anyone should inquire; for, as says that assuredly diligent investigator Onuphrius Panvinius, Antiquities of Verona, book 4, chapter 7, where the discourse is of the holy 36 bishops, The deeds of each (and so also of Valens) are most obscure and uncertain. Nay, Lipomanus, speaking of the same holy bishops, subjoins this to the words cited in number 1: But I, if I should bring their Lives, such as they are had, into the open, should not only act against my purpose; but should expose myself to be laughed at by all. Yet, lest I here omit anything, have what Augustine Valerius collected concerning them, folio 43: Valens, bishop of Verona, very well considering the difficulty and peril of the episcopal office, seemed never to have spared any labor, that he might provide for the safety of the people of Verona. He presided over it always with great solicitude of mind. He observed himself especially. He avoided even the least faults; so that he was never not fearful. He departed from this life on the 7th day before the Kalends of August. His body was carried out with great pomp, and buried in the basilica of St. Peter within the citadel: although there are those who assert that he was buried in the basilica of St. Proculus. Briefly this Brautius, in the Poetic Martyrology, on this day:
Valens the shepherd admonished to avoid every stumbling-block, And dreaded every slight crime.
[5] and by an ancient epitaph, Not a little more ancient are the things which Panvinius hands down, Antiquities of Verona, book 4, chapter 20: Verecundus being, by the votes of all, in the episcopate of Verona, the 6th
day before the Ides of December of the same year (523), St. Valens was appointed successor. Who, when he had lived by the same arts and studies as his holy Veronese predecessors the pontiffs, and had ruled the people in the true religion for 7 years, 7 months, and 18 days, on the 8th (nay the 7th, as the following epitaph has it) day before the Kalends of August, after the consulship of Lampadius and Orestes, most illustrious men, in the year of Christ 531, Justinian the Great being emperor, and Athalaric king of Italy, passed to the Lord. His little body, with a solemn funeral pomp, was placed in the church of St. Peter in the citadel near his predecessor, when he had lived about 45 years. All which things thus appear inscribed from his inscription:
HERE RESTS IN PEACE THE HOLY VALENS THE BISHOP, WHO LIVED MORE OR LESS 45 YEARS, AND HELD THE EPISCOPATE 7 YEARS, 7 MONTHS, AND 18 DAYS, AND DEPARTED ON THE 7TH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF AUGUST. AFTER THE CONSULSHIP OF LAMPADIUS AND ORESTES, MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MEN, IN THE 7TH INDICTION.
[6] which Panvinius exhibits whole. The same things from Panvinius Ughelli gave, Italia Sacra, volume 5, column 587. But if anyone should wonder that this Epitaph could be read by Panvinius; since it is that same one of which above, number 3, we saw a fragment, and that faultily expressed, and whose other letters were said to be so corroded that the sense could not be drawn from them: let him consider that Onuphrius was by far the most practiced among all the learned men of his time in antiquarian matters; so that many things could seem clear to him which to others, less versed in that study, appeared like riddles. For the rest, I know not whence he received what Ferrari writes, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on this day; Valens, who was also Valentius, the thirty-first bishop of Verona, succeeded St. Vindemialis in the episcopate … When therefore he had presided nearly eight years, worn out with age, he departed from this mortal life. He certainly did not read these things in Augustine Valerius, whom alone he names there. Ughelli arranged the series of those bishops otherwise, to whom we refer the reader; the rest you will gather from what has been said, what credit they merit.