ON ST. PROCULUS, BISHOP, MARTYR, AT BOLOGNA IN ITALY.
IN THE YEAR 542.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY. On the Cult, and the double translation of the body; and the time of the Martyrdom, and its difference from Proculus of Interamna.
Proculus, Bishop, Martyr, at Bologna in Italy (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[1] After the Henschenian Commentary on St. Proculus, the Soldier Martyr, exhibited on this day; it might seem that nothing should be said in this place about St. Proculus the Bishop Martyr buried with him, if this one, which Henschenius had already done, were to be rejected to December 1, Hitherto believed to have been Bishop of Interamna, on which at Interamna is venerated St. Proculus Bishop Martyr, whose body too is shown there. And this would be believed in appearance the more equitable, the less the people of Bologna themselves, who likewise display a body under that name, now contend with the people of Interamna about him; believing that the one who suffered at Bologna was Bishop of Interamna, brought from Syria into Italy with St. Anastasius. But lest from the duplicity of the bodies an inexplicable controversy seem to exist, on account of the Acts of St. Herculanus applied to him, both parties nearly agree in this, that they make two Sts. Valentinus, and as many Proculi Bishops of Interamna; of whom the first died at Interamna, the second at Bologna; just as the people of Perusia make two Herculani, and the people of Narni two Juvenales. But this, in my judgment at least, is nothing other than a veil of ignorance, and an indication of the greatest confusion, introduced into times and places, from the homonymy of various persons; increased also by the fact that the Acts of St. Herculanus of Perusia, such as they are, with only the names changed, were applied to St. Proculus of Interamna. All these things therefore set aside, about the one who still rests at Bologna, and has a common cult with St. Proculus the Soldier, here must be treated separately, as born at Bologna, and probably having obtained his name from his parents from that older Patron in that city, and ordained Bishop there.
[2] [Better will it be said that he was substituted for St. Theodorus Bishop of Bologna about the year 540; himself a Bolognese,] And first I retract that which I said in the Appendix to the day May 5, and at the name of St. Theodorus Bishop of Bologna, number 4; and all things considered again I now say more confidently; that there is no cause, the farrago of such perplexed Acts excluded, why it should not be believed that, the aforesaid St. Theodorus being dead, this St. Proculus was substituted, taken from the very body of the Bolognese Clergy, about the year 540. But this Proculus, when King Totila, after the routing of Justinian's generals around the Po, was hastening like a torrent to Florence, met him to turn him away from Bologna, and obtained the reward of his pastoral care from the barbarian victor, death, in the year 542. I know that Totila with his Goths was not a Gentile idolater, such as his Acts and those of St. Herculanus feign; but a Christian under the profession of Arianism; I know also that it is read in Procopius, that Totila, having obtained that victory and others, by much humanity bound to himself the minds of the captives, so that very many of them, Roman men, with the Goth as Leader bore arms against the Romans.
[3] But how little those Acts which I have mentioned are to be valued, apocryphal as can most be, let the Reader understand even hence, and learn to be moved nothing by them; [than that he came from Syria from the fabulous accounts of St. Anastasius and his sons:] that they say the Saints, with eight other companions and the leader and instructor of all St. Anastasius, brought from Syria to Rome, received and ordained by Pope Urban, in the time of Julian the Apostate; by whom, seeking them for death, dispersed through various cities of Italy, they announced the faith to them, and each illustrated his own church; and at last two of them, namely Herculanus and Proculus, were killed by Totila King of the Goths; whereas from Urban to Totila there flowed altogether 320 years; so that those torment themselves in vain, who strive to fit other times to that arrival of the foreign Syrians. For if the first fount of all those Legends be sought, the very original Acts of St. Anastasius and of his sons and grandsons will be found to be compounded from the true names indeed of true Saints, but of those diverse in places and times. For the one who is there said to have been beheaded at the Aquae Salviae by Julian's order, to whose name a monastery was erected in that place, notwithstanding the apocryphal Acts asserting the contrary. where his whole head is shown; is St. Anastasius the Monk, captured in Syria by the Persians, and who suffered Martyrdom in Assyria in the year 628. Then is narrated the Martyrdom of three grandsons, as if long after the father, and yet having suffered under Diocletian and Maximian, who were so much older than Julian. There are also fully described the deeds of St. Brictius, believed one of the sons, with Pope Eugenius, who was first created in the year 654: so that nothing more absurd could be feigned. But not on that account does the Martyrdom of Proculus of Bologna become less credible to me, attending to what Totila then perpetrated against St. Herculanus of Perusia, by the testimony of Gregory the Great in the Dialogues, and which are wrongly and ineptly applied to this Proculus; and what he designed against St. Fulgentius Bishop of Otricoli, by the testimony of the same Gregory book 3 chapter 12, related by us on May 22, whom that King Totila might hold him more reverently, was induced only by the greatest miracle. Namely he wished to seem clement to those whom he preferred as companions of arms rather than as adversaries; but toward the unwarlike Bishops he was more truculent, driven by the zeal of Arian impiety. Yet this opinion of ours about the Episcopate of Proculus of Bologna, and his Martyrdom under Totila, is not recent, as it might perhaps seem to someone: but a hundred years ago it was common to many at Bologna, by the testimony of Costanzo Felici, in the Historical Calendar which he published in Italian about the year 1577: where, when on December 1 he referred Proculus, martyred at Bologna under Totila, and had given him the title of Bishop of Narni, he soon adds, or (as others say) of Bologna.
[4] These things therefore omitted, and Proculus given to the people of Bologna as Bishop; he, having died in the way I have said, or in any other way or time, was buried by the citizens (by the testimony of Antonio di Paolo Masini in his Bologna Surveyed on this day) near the street commonly called Mirasol grande, behind the palace of the Rovini. Nor would I doubt, He was buried first by the public road that for affirming the faith of his sanctity God made his tomb renowned by many miracles: yet I would not number among them the raising of a dead boy, and the wholeness of his incorrupt body after several years, with no apparent trace either of the cutting in the neck, or of the laceration in the back; because all these I see were taken word for word from the Acts of St. Herculanus. But in whatever way in that first place of his burial St. Proculus the Bishop was made renowned; he was carried thence at I know not what time; and the Cross which had stood there, says Masini, was placed in the middle pillar, at the left corner of that street which leads to the Mother of God called de Miramonte: in which even now is seen an old effigy of the Crucified. But the tomb itself was very little distant from the church of St. Ambrose, profaned about the year 1576; and its traces are still seen there. That that church and the houses adjoined to it formerly pertained to the right of the Monks of St. Proculus, is clear from the contract of Carlo Rovini, entered into with them in the year already said, for exempting that place, where he wished to build a palace, from the burden of the annual tribute to be paid to those Monks.
[5] thence translated to the church of St. Sixtus, now called St. Proculus's: These possessed the place and the subterranean church, before dedicated to St. Sixtus; and into it, refitted for their uses, or rather built anew from the foundations, under the honor and name of St. Proculus, they had translated the body of each Saint, about the year 900: for this is gathered from the monument which is cited, and which we shall soon see was transcribed from the chasing of the chest, within which the Abbot John in the year 1390, on February 17, the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, composed the sacred Bodies; so that they must have lain there, either each separately under his own altar, or jointly under one common one. This inscription is cited by Paleotti and Masini. But this one also mentions the chest solemnly inspected a half-century ago, on the faith of an authentic instrument, of which a legitimate copy the Most Illustrious Count Valerio de Zanis procured for us, and which I render thus from the Italian into Latin.
[6] In the year 1536, in the 8th Indiction, on the 15th day of January; when the Reverend Brothers of the monastery of St. Proculus of Bologna, Monks of the Order of St. Benedict, where in the year 1536 the chest was moved from its place and opened, were rebuilding their church; wishing from an old and ruinous one to make a new and magnificent one, to the honor of God and St. Proculus; and since therefore the chest, containing the bodies of the aforesaid St. Proculus the Martyr, and St. Proculus the Bishop, had to be moved from its place; they opened it before the Reverend Lord Agostino de Zanetti, Suffragan and Vicar general of the Most Reverend Lord Bishop of Bologna, and the Magnificent Lord Count Alessandro Pepoli, the Magnificent Lord Vincenzo de Ursi, and the Magnificent Lord Giovanni Anzarolo the Curate, Patricians of Bologna, taken on, deputed, and chosen by the Magnificent Government of the Lords Forty-men, Reformers of the state of the liberty of Bologna. The aforesaid chest was moved from its accustomed place, and deposited within a chapel built by the Isolani, existing in the said church; until a fitting place should be deputed to it by the Magnificent Government: but it was found as follows. That chest is a large one of Lucca marble, six Bolognese feet long, two and a half wide, three high: but the Bolognese foot exceeds the Geometric by three inches or thumbs and a half. It has at each end one festoon (as they call it), and two bands with garlands, and two little fluted columns at the corners: but a small cross under the festoons, and a lid placed above four little tiles of the same color
Page 81 and marked above with a Cross, and terminated with a rule. Under this lid on the front of the chest are seen two Angels, holding a tablet, thus inscribed ✠ 1390, with a note of the bodies deposited in it in the year 1390. on the 26th day of February, placed in this chest the whole bodies of the most blessed Proculus the Bishop and Martyr, and Proculus the Soldier and Martyr, of Bologna, which lay hidden in this place about five hundred years; and in this monastery were composed, in the time of the Reverend Father Brother John, Abbot of the said monastery, and placed by him, as it seems. Which that you may understand more clearly, behold for you its form engraved in copper, together with the measure of the altar, and the title of the chest itself spread out at length, in the same strokes of letters by which it is expressed, divided into five lines: below which, why more than half the space is empty of any letters carved, I leave to others to divine.
[7] To this chest there was set before a certain earthenware protection, composed of three parts, with a little door in the middle, and two figures on each side, yet separated from the chest: which, when it had to be removed, was broken into several pieces. This removed, there appeared in the middle of the chest a little window, which, sealed, is transferred, latticed with iron fixed within; through which lattice was seen a little box, covered with a cloth figured with flowers, with a board placed above; in which box were said to be the Relics of the aforesaid glorious Proculi. Moreover when the chest was moved, the aforesaid Lord Suffragan, clad in the Priestly Stole; and the Brothers, with burning candles and much reverence, chanting the Te Deum; and a huge crowd of men and women, with candles had come to the church, to accompany that chest to the hearth where it was to be kept. Then the iron lattice was covered with one sheet of royal paper, sealed in five places by the Lords Regents; a sixth seal of the monastery being also added: and of all things thus done, by the commission of the Magnificent Lord Confaloniere of justice, I Evangelista Matuliano, Notary and Chancellor of the Magnificent Community of Bologna, as a public person, made a public writing. Done in the church of St. Proculus, before the Corrector of both Faculties, the Doctor Magnificent Francesco son of Marco Antonio Torelli, and Lord Ippolito Zacchini Secretary of the church, witnesses called and asked. The note and record of me Evangelista Matuliano, Notary of the aforesaid matters asked.
[8] Moreover for the greater security and reverence of the aforesaid Relics, the aforesaid chest, sealed as above, was lifted with due veneration by a certain Brother, in the sight of the Reverend Lord Abbot and many Brothers, and the Magnificent Lords aforesaid taken-on, only the Magnificent Lord Giovanni son of Jacopo the Curate being absent, who afterward came up. Then all the openings of the aforesaid lattice were stopped with plaster, and again is more firmly sealed, so that the chest cannot be inspected within: and the same plaster being again spread over the whole lattice, there was impressed in three places the greater seal of the Chancery of Bologna, in which are seen two little lions, one holding a banner marked with a Cross, the other a similar banner with the word "Libertas" inscribed. Of which again I Giovanni Evangelista as above made a public writing &c. ✠ And I Francesco Fani, Professed in St. Proculus's, transcribed the present copy from the original, brought into the house of Lord Vincenzo Matuliano, a Bolognese Noble of our Parish of St. Proculus, in the year 1624. Thus far the copy sent to us, without any mention of the Relics inspected more closely; since their box was not only not unsealed, but not even brought out of the chest; so that nothing here can be said about the number or quality of the bones contained within. At least the Heads ought not to be reckoned among them: for these must have been long since set apart by the Abbot John, since they are even to this day publicly exposed by the Monks, on the aforesaid day of the Translation, a plenary Indulgence also being proposed from the largess of Gregory XIII, the heads being kept outside it. signed on June 30, 1584, as Masini teaches.
[9] To the same altar so composed there was lately added a rather elegant ornament of plaster, by the care, for his piety toward each St. Proculus, of the Most Illustrious Count Valerio de Zanis, embracing each wall, within which the chest with the altar stands; with two most beautiful statues, designed by Guido Reni the excellent painter, which the same Zani signified were to be formed to apply their backs turned toward each pillar sustaining the middle arch; but the greater part being already sculpted, it was not worth while for their sake to make the whole work new. It will be more satisfactory to insert into the paper, otherwise here to be empty, a repeated mention of those two tombs, The new ornament of the altar of which above I made mention, treating of St. Proculus the soldier; and teaching how the name of Proculus, as ancient, so was usual among the people of Bologna. There exhibited them to us the distinguished work of the Most Illustrious Count Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Canon of Bologna, sent here as a gift and lately brought, whose title is the Felsinian Marbles: in which on page 383 I find also a fuller illustration of the said sarcophagi composed by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Abbot Antonio Felice Marsili, Archdeacon of the Metropolitan of Bologna. And Malvasia indeed ended his day, in the very year in which I write this, 1693; yet his singular affection toward this work is gratefully to be commemorated; why are two other Sarcophagi here added? by which he also wished inscribed to my name another most elegant little work of his, to which he gave the title Pantheon in Pindus; because with most elegant Epigrams he sings the more famous Saints throughout the year. Moreover where, and by whom these tombs were found, the title indicates, affixed in the very place where they now stand, of this kind. The marble sarcophagi of Q. Veneus and Statia Marcella, after about one thousand four hundred years, drawn from his own fields, adjoining the castle of St. George, Philip the Senator Cospi, providing for the ornament of his country and house, took care to be transferred hither, in the year 1681.
[10] These things set out for the sake of friends, and for the honor of the name of Proculus, I pass to St. Proculus of Interamna; inasmuch as he was believed to pertain to the people of Bologna. But although it pertains to December 1 to define, whether one or several Proculi are to be given as Bishops of Interamna; anticipating, however, I here signify, that I incline rather to suppose there was only one; and that he was the disciple and Levite of St. Valentinus the Martyr, who suffered in the year 273; who, [To the people of Interamna there seems to have been only one Proculus in the year 273.] together with his Companions Ephebus and Apollonius, took care of the burial of his Master and Bishop; he himself then, with the same Companions, crowned with Martyrdom, and perhaps never consecrated Bishop; because in the time of persecution it was not so easy, one being slaughtered, soon to bring the provincial Bishops from the vicinity to ordain another. Yet I think he is commonly held a Bishop, because at least, the See being vacant, he bore its vicarious care, until he himself too was seized. To invent another second one from this there is no necessity, since the sole faith given to the apocryphal Acts of St. Proculus of Bologna, as of Interamna, introduced two:
[11] From this faith, however, it proceeded, that when at Interamna in the year 1605 the bodies of the Saints Valentinus, Proculus, Ephebus, and Apollonius were found; the people of Bologna, however, reckoning him their own: the Canons, desiring also to have something of the body of Proculus, as they had now persuaded themselves, the Second; acted through Cardinal Francesco Rapaccioli, given to them as Bishop from the year 1646, that from Cardinal Ludovisi, then also Archbishop of Bologna, he might obtain the cranium or part of the head, as Jacobilli writes in the Catalogue of the distinguished Relics of Umbria page 54. But he is mistaken, when he says his body is held in the church of St. Paul; they obtained for them a part of the head. which, when Masini reprinted his Bologna about the year 1666, that is five years after the publication of the 3rd Volume of Jacobilli, was still held in the church of St. Proculus. Francesco Angeloni, Author of the History of Interamna published in the year 1646, to Proculus going from Narni to Bologna (for he too adheres to the fabulous Legend) names a certain Volusianus, who received him coming to Interamna in hospitality; and cites Bolognese Lectionaries, in which it is held written, that the same Volusianus gathered part of the shed blood in a little vessel, and with it returned to Interamna: Is the blood also which is there his? which blood became renowned there by many miracles, and namely by the illumination of a blind man, and the cure of a woman suffering a flux of blood; which I would prefer to refer to St. Proculus of Interamna, either the successor or vicar of St. Valentinus.