ON ST. GAUDENTIUS, BISHOP OF ARBE IN DALMATIA.
A Collection from Philippus Ferrari, and S. Peter Damian.
11TH CENTURY.
CommentaryGaudentius, Bishop of Arbe in Dalmatia (S.)
G. H.
Arbe, an Episcopal city on the island of the same name, on the coast of Dalmatia, under the Venetian Dominion and the Archbishop of Zadar, between Veglia to the West, and Cherso to the East, numbers among its Bishops S. Gaudentius: of whom Ferrari makes mention in the general Catalogue at this first of June in these words: The cult of S. Gaudentius. At Arbe in Liburnia, of S. Gaudentius Confessor. But Liburnia is a part of lower Dalmatia, with a maritime part of Croatia. Ferrari cites in the Notes the Tables of the Church of Arbe, and adds that the rest is unknown. John Lucius in book 2 of the kingdom of Dalmatia and Croatia chapter 11, indicates Gaudentius Bishop of Dalmatia, whose sanctity in few words Peter Damian describes, in the little work 19 on the Abdication of a Bishopric, to Nicholas II Pope of Rome: where in the first Chapter, among other examples, he inserts this: Whether the Bishop related by Peter Damian, The venerable Gaudentius too, Bishop of Absarum, of whose familiarity's sweetness I deserved, through whom God had now done a not ignoble miracle, dismissed his Bishopric; and sailing from the Slavonic kingdom, landed on the shores of the city of Ancona: not far from which, after two years, he happily died. Behold the marks of Sanctity in Gaudentius: who, on account of his dismissed Bishopric, is perhaps by Ferrari only surnamed Confessor. But instead of the city of Arbe or Arbarum, he is named by S. Peter Damian of Absarum; of which there is mention in Lucius book 2 chapter 6, where Absarus is said to be almost deserted. But that there was there an Episcopal See we have not yet been able anywhere to read, with the title of Absarum? except in the already cited tract of Peter Damian. These are the things, which concerning S. Gaudentius we set forth to learned men in Dalmatia, as doubtful to us; of which we desire to obtain further knowledge. But from the people of Ancona too, since he died near them, I would wish to understand, if any memory of him survives in the vicinity of the city. We have the Historical Notices of Ancona published by Giuliano Saraceno, Dean of that Church, in the year 1675, without any mention of such a Gaudentius, where however he ought especially to be venerated: but perhaps, the body being translated to its own See, all occasion of venerating him ceased among the people of Ancona. Meanwhile we refer the time of his Bishopric to the eleventh century of Christ, in which both Nicholas II Pope and Peter Damian flourished.