ON ST. CALIMERUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR.
AT MILAN IN INSUBRIA.
TOWARD THE END OF THE SECOND CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On his cult, age, and deeds.
Calimerus, Bishop and Martyr, at Milan (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
The name, variously formed as Calemerus, Calimerius, Chalemerus, Kalemerius, and so forth, presents one and the same bishop of Milan, who in the Catalogues reviewed by Papebroch before the seventh volume of May stands fourth in order after Anatolo, Gaius, and Castritianus; whose times, that is his age, and deeds we shall weigh The matters pertaining to his cult so far as it can be done, once we have first treated of his cult—which you may easily understand not to be of the greatest antiquity from the fact that his name is found inscribed in none of the Martyrologies which we call classical, nor even in any of their supplements, except in Molanus's addition to Usuard on this day in the later editions, in which it is read thus: At Milan, the birth into heaven of St. Calimerus, pontiff and martyr—no other source being indicated whence it was received than the Ambrosian Missal. Certainly Baronius, when he first inserted St. Calimerus into the Roman Martyrology, had no other records to cite than the Milanese ones alone, namely the Ambrosian Preface, and those things which are noted by Galesinius on this day, presently to be reported. There is mention, says Baronius in the same place, of the same man in the Acts of Sts. Faustinus and Jovita. Indeed; and that too in volume II of February, page 812, column 2; but what is there related in passing about St. Calimerus, no one will easily reconcile with the things that will be said of him below; nor are the things any more pleasing which others have from time to time recorded concerning the services rendered by St. Calimerus to the holy Brothers.
[2] Let us first hear Galesinius, who in his Martyrology begins the announcement of this day thus: At Milan, they are sufficiently established, of St. Calimerus, bishop and martyr; by whose religion, discipline, and martyrdom not only was the church of Milan increased and adorned, but also nearly all Liguria, by his virtue and by his singular labor in propagating Christian piety, received the faith of Jesus Christ. Upon which he observes thus in his Notes: From the records of the church of Milan and of Brescia. There exists besides concerning him the Ambrosian Preface, and mention is made of him in the Canon of the Ambrosian Mass. And from the very ancient monuments of the same Ambrosian church we have rendered his acts, as we received them, into Latin in a more splendid style. He is said to have been crowned with martyrdom under the emperor Hadrian. Thus Galesinius; whose splendid oration I neither find nor think worth seeking. The history to be produced by us below does not depart so greatly from its splendor; but it is in this much safer, that it does not say St. Calimerus was crowned with martyrdom under Hadrian, but that he was then first promoted to the episcopate, which the Catalogues and the other monuments constantly assert he held for 53 years, however much they differ greatly among themselves in various particulars.
[3] The things pertaining to his age, however, are not so. Nor is this greatly to be wondered at, since those monuments do not present such great antiquity that anything certain beyond his episcopal dignity and martyrdom can be safely drawn from them. And indeed the Acts of Sts. Faustinus and Jovita, cited by us, would have St. Calimerus ordained at Rome under St. Evaristus the Pontiff, when the holy Martyrs had been led thither. Charles, bishop of Novara, records quite other things in his History of Milan, to which things wholly opposed are handed down by a little book printed at Rome under the title The Successors of St. Barnabas, from the Vatican Library, where under the name of Callocerius these things are found: He ruled the church of Milan, ordained by Pope Sixtus I. By his religion, discipline, and martyrdom not only was the church of Milan increased and adorned, but also nearly all Liguria, by his virtue and singular labor in propagating Christian piety, received the faith of Jesus Christ. This man, having received into Milan Faustinus and Jovita, noble Brescians led in chains … aided them with his resources, consoled them with his word, and exhorted them to endure hardships for the name of Christ, [and] in the same persecution—namely at the beginning of the reign taken up by Hadrian—distinguished with the palm of martyrdom, he rested in the Lord, having ruled the church for 53 years.
[4] And from anachronisms of this sort there arose—or at least an occasion was eagerly seized—of doubling Calimerus, His memory is celebrated so that Brescia should not lack a Saint of the same name. Wherever you turn, there is nowhere you may plant your foot safely. But let us pursue chiefly those things which pertain to his cult, of which the notable monument is of course the Ambrosian Missal, which exists among us in a very ancient copy, published namely in the year 1522, from which we have judged these things are to be taken for the glory of the Saint. The first prayer is the Super populum: Almighty God, look propitiously upon the solemnity of this day, and make thy Church rejoice in continual celebration through the intercession of blessed Kalimerus, thy pontiff and martyr, and fulfill the vows of all who believe in thee. Through our Lord. Epistle: Where the Spirit of the Lord [is]. Gospel: When the Son of man shall come. Super syndonem: O God, author and founder of the world, who hast bestowed upon thy Saints strength and victory in the confession of thy name; grant to thy people, that by the suffrages of him in whose annual celebration it exults with devout observances, it may obtain the aid of thy mercy. Through.
[5] There follows the third prayer, SUPER OBLATAM: Almighty and everlasting God, who hast adorned blessed Kalimerus thy martyr with pontifical insignia, in the Ambrosian Missal; grant, we beseech thee, that by his example and glorious intercession we may worthily consecrate our gifts to thee, and despise the glory of the world in mind, and ever aspire to heaven. Through. Preface. Eternal God: it is meet on this day also, which the passion of blessed Kalimerus consecrated and rendered venerable to us, to proclaim thy praise. He who, imbued with evangelical preaching, nurtured in heavenly doctrines, conspicuous by the choice of his dignity, shone forth both an illustrious martyr and an excellent priest: through Christ. After communion. O God, who art the most powerful illuminator of thy prelates, grant, we beseech thee, that through these Sacraments which we have received, and being instructed alike by the glorious examples and admonitions of thy most blessed pontiff and martyr Kalimerus, we may pass through the darkness of this world without peril. Through. Besides this Mass, proper to himself, St. Calimerus has this peculiar distinction, that in the ordinary Canon too a commemoration of him is made, after Sts. Nabor and Felix, before St. Maternus, Eustorgius, and the rest.
[6] Add now the lesson from the Ambrosian Breviary, published by order of the holy Cardinal Charles and afterwards revised in the year 1635: and in the Breviary a summary of his Life. Calimerius, born of a noble family in Greece, educated at Rome, thence came to Milan, where, kindly received by blessed Castritianus, and his sanctity of manners and his doctrine being recognized, he was enrolled in the clergy of the Faustinian basilica. While he was in the college of that clergy, he outshone the rest in piety. And so, after the death of Castritianus, flourishing with the distinguished praise of his virtues, he was deemed worthy to be substituted in his place as bishop, to govern the church of Milan. Which office indeed he strove so far to refuse that he came to it bound in chains. But afterwards, although he took up the episcopal care and dignity under compulsion, he not only illuminated by his religion and doctrine the church committed to him, but joined all Liguria to Christ the Lord by his preaching and by the examples of his holy deeds. Wherefore, seized in the persecution of Antoninus and Commodus, first variously tortured by the enemies of the faith, at length pierced through with wounds, and his neck run through with a sword, cast headlong into a well, he departed to the palm of martyrdom into heaven on the day before the Kalends of August. His body was buried in a basilica built under his own name, in which Thomas the archbishop caused a golden altar to be made in memory of the Martyr. Afterwards, at the seventh provincial council, with a great number of bishops and a concourse of peoples, the body of St. Calimerius was translated and most honorably placed in its former resting-place. And so much concerning his cult.
[7] There are those who have entangled the matter We have already touched upon the doubtful age of the Saint, some placing his Roman institution under Evaristus, others under Sixtus, others under Telesphorus, and indeed his martyrdom under Hadrian: how discordantly these have been combined in the cited little book of the successors of St. Barnabas, I think is clear from what has been said. Even less to be regarded are the things which Ferrarius cites from Onuphrius Panvinius and refutes; for if, as he would have it, St. Calimerus was at last made bishop under Antoninus Pius, first in the year 155, and sat for 53 years, and his death is to be deferred to the year 208, then the whole chronology of the bishops of Milan must collapse, together with whatever tolerable things survive concerning the Saints. Nor indeed does Petrus Paulus Bosca bring any light to these matters in his Milanese Martyrology: for besides the names of various writers—whom it is scarcely worth the trouble to inspect—and two or three epigrams, by no means suited to elucidating tangled matters, he rather increases the doubts than explains them; for to establish two holy Calimeri from the already-mentioned Acts of Sts. Faustinus and Jovita, what else is it than to pour darkness upon matters obscure in themselves, which it would have helped to dispel with a little more labor?
[8] so as to invent twin Calimeri: The rest of what Bosca disputes against Faynus illuminates the matter just as much; it has seemed to us by far the safer course to rest upon the ancient monuments, set forth in sufficiently orderly fashion in the Legend, so that those other things need not be attended to, which are drawn from ruinous foundations by equally uncertain inferences, not without partisan zeal. Lest, therefore, we be entangled here any longer in wholly uncertain trifles, let it suffice to compose the age of St. Calimerus and his deeds by that method which Papebroch long ago employed in the praised Exegesis, whose words it will not be irksome to transcribe here. Thus he determined concerning the Saint from the more approved monuments: St. Calimerus sat for 53 years, laid to rest on the day before the Kalends of August. And this is the heading: then he continues thus from the Catalogues: This man, nearly a decade before the death of Castritianus, prelate of venerable memory, had given himself as a young man into the discipline of St. Telesphorus the Pope, whom we have shown to have been ordained in the year 127 and to have sat for a decade and more: but terrified by the dangers among which
he saw himself embroiled, on account of the fury of the persecutors he withdrew to Milan. How conformable these things are to the Legends, as also what follows, will appear more manifestly below: let us follow the text:
[9] Papebroch arranged the chronology rightly enough. Enrolled in the clergy by St. Castritianus, and on his death elected bishop, and having suffered many things under Antoninus Pius, and likewise under Antoninus and Commodus, when he had completed a course of about fifty-three years in the pastoral care, at last, plunged into a well, he fell as a martyr on the day before the Kalends of August. And the episcopate was vacant for one year and a half. Thus the history so often already alleged, which through the 53 years we mentioned brings us down to the year of Christ 191, so that the year 193 was the first of his successor Monas. Concerning his body nothing was known either when the history was written or when this Catalogue was compiled. Ferrarius says that, buried in the cemetery of Gaius, he was afterwards laid in a church later built under his own name: and there, he says, a golden altar was set up in honor of the holy Martyr by Thomas the archbishop under Charlemagne; which Thomas, since he succeeded in the year 756, it appears that the one who noted the place of this first part of the deposition, when he was able to know it, did so before this church was built upon the finding of the body. Now the translation of St. Calimerus was made by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, into a new coffer to be laid beneath the same altar as before, in the year 1619 on the 31st day of May; and the church itself, once a provostship of the Humiliati, now serves for imperiled girls gathered beside it.
[10] Some series of the deeds of St. Calimerus was described at Milan by Henschenius, The history of the deposition is verbose from a most ancient—as Papebroch noted—Ambrosian manuscript codex, shelf N, no. 246. It is an oration, as I intimated above, not much inferior to the splendid Latinity of Galesinius; but far more ancient than he, since our Elders—judges by no means unskilled in discerning monuments of this kind—call that said codex most ancient. To about what century it is to be referred, I have nothing from which to conjecture; you will recognize a plainly verbose writer from the very beginning of the Legend, woven in this manner: With the most illustrious man Castritianus translated to the heavenly court, and in the council of the most illustrious senators, like a most warlike and veteran triumpher, gracefully exalted upon a shining bench. He would have said it more briefly and elegantly: St. Castritianus having been called to the supernal reward of his labors. Moreover, since I find no Acts that more probably pursue the series of St. Calimerus's deeds, however much the oration is here and there sprinkled with barbarisms, I shall here subjoin it entire, after I have noted a few things about his burial from Charles, bishop of Novara.
[11] Thus he records in his history of Milan, page 39: The body found in the fifteenth century. Bossius relates that the body of this blessed Martyr was found, while Francesco Sforza was duke (the first of that name, I suppose, who flourished in the mature fifteenth century), in the confession or subterranean chapel of the church dedicated to the Martyr himself, which is outside the Roman gate, in which, with parochial care, two priests, called canons, reside; for I judge there was once a college of canons there. And he says it was found in a certain well: since he is also said to have been cast into a well by those impious men when they had killed him. A proof of the notable cult of this holy Bishop is this, that in his Mass the Ambrosian church has a proper Preface: indeed it names him in the sacred Canon of the Mass together with the Apostles and other martyrs. His body still lies in the confession of the same church, in which place Thomas the archbishop is traditionally said to have taken care that a golden altar be placed over him. To say in a word what remains: you will nowhere more certainly draw the antiquity and nobility of the aforesaid church of St. Calimerus than from those things which Ennodius sang concerning its restoration procured by St. Laurence, as you have in our sixth volume of July, page 442. Behold now the promised history itself.
The Deposition of St. Calimerus, Martyr, Bishop of Milan.
From a most ancient Ambrosian manuscript codex, shelf N, no. 246.
Calimerus, Bishop and Martyr, at Milan (St.)
BHL Number: 1522
aFROM THE MANUSCRIPT.
With Castritianus, bishop, taken away at Milan With the most illustrious man Castritianus translated to the heavenly court, and gracefully exalted in the council of the most illustrious senators upon a shining bench, like a most warlike and veteran triumpher, the widowed people of the faithful were pressed by no small sadness, greatly anxious and sunk down by the anguish of a twofold grief on either side—first over the death of their pastor and their own bereavement, then over choosing a successor beforehand, who could with difficulty be found at that time the equal of so great a man; since, by the pestilent harassment of Aelius Hadrian, throughout the whole Roman world, and especially in that part of Italy which bears the name of Cisalpine Gaul, the Church of God was harshly shaken. He who, at the first outcome of his reign, feigned himself gentle toward Christian men, afterward turned, like a rabid dog, to his native madness, and was so provoked by the insolence of certain envious men and by the most foolish acclamations of the senseless crowd, that at his command the martyrdoms and torments of the Saints resounded on every side.
[2] Calimerus is designated successor, For this cause, therefore, gathered together alike, they implored Christ Jesus with the groanings of their heart and with fountains of tears flowing here and there. But almighty God, who with the greatest piety and paternal solicitude ever provides for the desires b of his faithful, did not suffer his people, diligently obedient to him, to be any longer widowed of the necessary supports: but rather, being continually entreated, he furnished the accustomed aid which before the ages he had foreknown, out of his predestination. For there was at that time in the delegated clergy of the church of Fausta a most holy man, weighty by the lineage of his family *, but Roman by the probity of his illustrious character and of his knowledge, whose name was Calimerus: who, exceedingly well fattened by much abstinence and continual vigilance, and moreover most abundantly furnished by unwearied meditation on the divine teachings (such a one as the Wisdom of God calls blessed, saying: Blessed is he who watches for me and waits daily at the posts of my door), could easily both furnish to his fellow brethren and fellow disciples an evident testimony of good works, and present a mighty example.
[3] who, a fugitive from Rome to that place, But because sometimes in such men there lurks unluckily the pride of boastfulness, cloaked under a certain veil of feigned sanctity, and the eyebrow of lamentable self-exaltation, destined to fall wretchedly, creeps in—this man of whom I speak, a marvelous man and to be celebrated with all praise, was of such great humility and of such great sanctity, that not only was he subject to all the brethren in the clergy, but was also ever intent upon each of the least offices. Various things are told of him by various people, but more certain, as I suspect, is the account of certain persons concerning him, which in the present matter, though succinctly, I think most useful to add. Nearly a decade before the death of Castritianus, the prelate of venerable memory, while the unhappy Hadrian had resolved, as I said before, to grow worse from his better purpose, and to persecute the worshippers of Christ—not only through others but with himself as instigator, destined to pay the penalties of his insane head—and had begun this, with decrees published: at which season the aroused plague, finding Telesphorus hiding among the tombs of the martyrs, joined also to the merits and number of the Martyrs that supreme Pontiff of the Roman Church too, distinguished with great heraldings of virtues, by whose sagacity and industry the aforesaid man of God Calimerus had been instructed from boyhood with most salutary acts and sacred admonitions; reckoning that if he had been able to terrify and strike the head itself, that is the Roman Pontiff, he would more easily flay and pierce the more subordinate members, that is the churches spread through every part of the world and their prelates.
[4] Since therefore he still lived as a boy, unwarlike, in his younger years, and renowned for many virtues fearing lest, if he should be snatched to punishment in like manner as his Master, he might not be able to endure, he withdrew secretly from the City. And while, a fugitive traveler wandering about for several days, he accomplished his journey by night, at length, recalled by the help of God, he came to the city Alba, which by another name is called Milan: there, seeking the aforesaid oft-mentioned prelate of the Christians, as a most famous patron, he found Castritianus: by whom, most kindly received, and not long after proved by the patience of his character and by the testimonies of his faith, he was united to the rest of the company of his disciples. In which company how great was his solicitude in the divine services, how great the affection of mutual charity in fraternal offices, it is not for this our slenderness to unfold: wherefore I think I must rather forbear these things and hasten to the rest.
[5] Meanwhile, that I may follow up what I have begun, when all were afflicted with grievous grief over restoring a pastor to the deserted fold, he is compelled by force to admit the burden. and no one dared either to think of himself or to propose a companion, scarcely yet touched from heaven, they turn themselves to the most reverend Calimerus: in whom, as in a mirror-stone, they contemplated and thoroughly learned with one and the same eye and hearing both the wondrous life and the excellent teachings of their master. They therefore humbly beg him that, having pity on his companions, he would not stubbornly refuse the office of pastor; on whom the happy exercise of a long time had conferred no small merit. Why do I delay with many words? To him, refusing in every way and resisting sharply as though some enemy, praiseworthy force is applied. He is led, chained, destined to be a domestic pastor to the sheep, and is not released until he must be consecrated with the episcopal benediction. At last, consecrated bishop, he strenuously expended such great care in providing for his flocks, that—according as the idiom of his own most fitting name harmonizes—being an assertor of the good day, which is Christ, he drove the minds of many away from the darkness of idolatry, and made them partakers of the eternal light.
[6] But how many, washed in the laver of baptism through him, how many cured alike in soul and body, Unwearied in laboring what voice, what tongue could unweave? Never was there approach to him without a salutary instruction, nor departure from him without a suitable viaticum: no one's petition, in whatever anxiety, was poured out before him without a fitting remedy set forth. But since the whirlwind of persecution, even with Hadrian slain, was not yet at rest, but was raging most atrociously under Antoninus his successor, this man of whom the discourse treats no longer, as before, penetrated hidden places from fear of flight, but boldly and openly refuting the pagan rites, with ready spirit thrust himself even upon the very tribunals to endure whatever was hard and harsh for Christ. Nay more, entering of his own accord the prison-houses of the dungeons, he incited the spirits of Christ's soldiers to endurance of sufferings, being prepared not only to suffer whatever grievous things for Christ, but moreover to die.
[7] Very often, in short, bound with the bound, more often almost fatally flogged with the flogged, most often too, while he trampled the portents of the false gods, and despising all perils and openly declared to all their worshippers vain, blind, and wretched—beaten a very long time and placed upon a cart, he was exiled with the exiles. But because in him the salvation and life of the whole fatherland was without doubt believed to consist, the utmost care of the faithful unhesitatingly labored that he might as soon as possible be freed from his chains, healed of the bruise of the inflicted blows, and brought back from his exiles. And yet, as is the custom, by the love of a few good men, the hatreds of the perverse were stirred up more and more against him.
[8] at last he is seized, Finally they send and suggest to the wicked Caesar concerning the name of Calimerus: that he was the author of the whole
crime, and the chief of all evildoers, rashly babbling insults against the gods through the public squares, turning nearly all Liguria away from their due worship, with supplications sent before; they cry out that it will be a disgrace to the commonwealth if the great power of the gods be mocked by a single detestable old man who ought to be destroyed, and, being continually mocked with impunity by one man, be basely despised by all. Soon, therefore, when the sentence had been given, it is commanded that, wherever he should be found, he be punished without delay. But the holy Man, weighing the divine command more than fearing the destruction of the present life, desisted from what he had begun neither by day nor by night. Whence it came to pass that, found with others in the Romulean cemetery, which is on the southern side of that same city, not far from the shrine of Apollo, where, watching certain men going with the customary incense to make their prayer, he rebuked them more sharply than usual: seized by those very men whom he was piously admonishing, he is basely handed over to the sentinels of Phœbus to be punished with a horrid kind of torments.
[9] and cast headlong into a well, They, regarding him as merely an inveterate captured enemy of their gods, elated with immense joy, gave the highest praises to the gods their authors, so that the chorus was thought to be filled with theatrical applause, and the earth to be shaken. Then indeed they rise up alike, and pierce the holy man of God Calimerus with many blows on every side, and, remembering with what reproaches he had upbraided them, and with what frequent blemish he had reproached or befouled them, and that he had drawn very many of them to the faith of Christ and washed them, submerged with his own hand by the poured water of the saving font; while still, half-dead, lying before their feet, he was seen breathing his last, ready to die, they threw him headlong into the depth of an adjacent well, immersed feet upward, crying out together and saying: We will wash you better with fountain waters than you washed ours, whom, making them mad by your incantations, you are proved to have washed with turbid waters.
[10] he is crowned with martyrdom. This was the course of blessed Calimerus in the stadium of this life, this the contest which, to the praise and glory of the heavenly King, an unwearied wrestler, with Christ his patron, he accomplished through a course of about fifty-three years. These being swiftly unrolled, he mounts the hall of the supernal palace with the rest of his fellow-soldiers and coevals, to gain the prize of everlasting life. The day of his passion is the day before the Kalends of August. Now it was in the times of Hadrian, of Antoninus, and likewise of Antoninus and Commodus. The episcopate was vacant a year and a half.