John

CONCERNING SAINT JOHN,

BISHOP OF VERONA IN ITALY.

A compilation from Augustinus Valerius and other more recent writers.

CENTURY IV.

John, Bishop of Verona in Italy (S.)

G. H.

Among the very many Saints, and chiefly Bishops, whom the Church of Verona has had and venerates, was S. Alexander, related by us on the fourth day of this month of June. But now on the sixth of the same month is recalled the memory of S. John, of whom the Tables of the Roman Martyrology thus have: At Verona, of S. John the Bishop. Memory in the calendars: Galesinius in his Martyrology adds, "and Confessor." But Baronius in the Notes, "concerning him also the tables of the Church of Verona." The Acts, as also of the other Bishops of Verona, the Most Reverend Augustinus Valerius, Bishop of Verona and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, embraced in few words. Galesinius indicates similar things. And Augustinus Valerius himself, on folio 39, concerning S. John Bishop of Verona, published this eulogy.

[2] Eulogy. John, Bishop of Verona, successor of S. Maurus, a man endowed with holy morals, it has been handed down to memory, excelled in the most noble art of feeding souls. The man of God left a perpetual memory of his name in the minds of men. He took care that the body of S. Maurus, whom he succeeded, should be buried in the basilica of S. Stephen. He died on the 8th day before the Ides of June; he was buried in the same basilica of S. Stephen. The same Valerius, on folio 4, The body in the church of S. Stephen from an old table on parchment in the sacristy of the Church of S. Stephen, says that in the altar of S. Maurus is kept the body of S. John Bishop of Verona. In the same place Francesco Corna testifies, that in the church of S. Stephen lie the bodies of SS. John and of twenty other Bishops of Verona, whose names are expressed.

[3] in the chest of S. Maurus Then on folio 8 Valerius adds these things: In the chest of S. Maurus, which is in the crypt or Confession of the same church, is a leaden plate cut with these letters: The bones of the holy Bishops of Verona, Maurus and John, as the writings report: which, formerly deposited with wonderful diligence and honor in the opposite place, almost consumed by the moisture of the rising earth of the nearby cemetery, were translated hither with the altar in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and forty-eight. translated in the year 1548 And these very venerable bones, when at first uncovered they had given off no odor, while they were again moved, gave off a wonderful odor, which not all perceived. Yet the Lord willed that it should be perceived by John, the Archpriest of that church, who was moving them, that they might be kept with greater care: and that a greater miracle might appear, with a wonderful odor, since he himself had perceived nothing of odor while he opened them: as the Archpriest himself, a man of proved and blameless life, often asserted while he lived, and afterward left attested in writing. Thus Valerius, subjoining these things: Francesco Corna asserts that in the altar of S. Maurus is the body of S. John Bishop of Verona. Finally in the Index of Relics on folio 87, he again confirms that the Body of S. John the Bishop is in the church of S. Stephen.

[4] The time of his See. Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy copies the eulogy from Augustinus Valerius, adding that he was the 10th Bishop, and notes these things: Although the time at which SS. Maurus and John lived is by no means handed down in the monuments of the Church of Verona: yet from the fact that they held the See after S. Zeno, we can, at least lightly, conjecture that S. John flourished about the last times of Diocletian and Maximian. The Acts of that S. Zeno we illustrated on the 12th day of April, whom some have called a Confessor, others a Martyr. Onuphrius Panvinius in book 4 of the Antiquities of Verona, chapter 7, among the ancient Bishops places these three; Zeno, whom he says lived in the year 250; and that Maurus succeeded him, and died on the 21st of November; then John, and that he died on the 6th of June, and both buried at S. Stephen's. Finally Ferdinand Ughelli in the Bishops of Verona places as successor of Zeno S. Proculus, whose Acts we illustrated on the 23rd day of March, and we determined that he flourished in the fourth century; which same we judge can be said of SS. Maurus and John, who are placed by Ughelli as successors of Proculus.