ON BLESSED PACIFICUS OF CEREDANO, OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR OBSERVANT,
IN THE DIOCESE OF NOVARA IN INSUBRIA.
A.D. 1482.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
On his Life, translation, and cult.
Pacificus, of the Order of Friars Minor Observant of Ceredano in Insubria (Bl.)
D. P.
[1] Charles of Bascapè, Bishop of Novara, whom we saw above, by the mandate of St. Charles Borromeo had examined the cause of Blessed Gerard Tintore of Monza; in the year 1612 published his "Novaria," most accurately explained in two books. In the first of these, which is about the places of the whole diocese, under the Terminatione of Trecate, he treats on page 56 of the homeland of the aforetitled Blessed, set apart by an almost equal interval of five or six miles from Novara and Vigevano, but pertaining to the latter, and writes these things: Ceredano, because it is commonly called Cerano, Gaudentius Merula thought to have been the ancient town Acerræ, of which Polybius and others, writers of that Gallic war. But those speaking with full correctness at all times said Ceredano: Acerræ should rather be called a village bordering on this our one, which is commonly called Acere. But the village of Ceredano, as being nearer to the Ticino, seems to surpass the others of the same Terminatione in pleasantness: but it surpasses more, by the blessed man Pacificus, whom it produced, and whose body it holds. Charles having thus prefaced, wove further such a discourse about him. renowned in the Order for letters and offices,
[2] He is said to have been born of the Ramota family of this village. He was of the Franciscan Order: distinguished in doctrine and sanctity. He composed a book in the year 1473, in the IInd year of Sixtus III the Pontiff, on the Cases which they call cases of conscience, which from his name is named the "Summa Pacifica." Of him, as Preacher of the word of God and Apostolic Commissary, in the Pontifical indiction, which was called the Crusade, promulgated against the Turks, who occupied some shores of Italy; we read certain letters granted to the people of Ceredano, in the year of the Lord 1431, on the ninth day of September. in his homeland he is honored on June 6; His body, still compact in its limbs, is felt, clothed with the garment of the Order: and by ancient custom, on account of the fame of sanctity, it is kept on the altar of a chapel, which is joined to the greater church to the south; where it is honored with the prayers, vows, oblations of the Faithful as a blessed one, especially on the day after the Nones of June: on which day a great multitude gathers at Ceredano, for the sake of venerating and seeing the body. Yet the Head is lacking, which is kept on the altar of the greater church; and the finger of the right hand, which is said to be held at Mortara; the left arm too, which is reported to be kept in Sardinia, where the blessed Man ended his days, and whence the people of Ceredano formerly took care to have the body transferred, as their native solace and protection; in which place soon also they founded a Hospice of his Order.
[3] having died in Sardinia in the year 1482, Wadding transferred this whole passage into his Annals, at the year 1482; prefacing, that it is established to him, that he died in this year; and this from an old Register of the Observants, in which it is noted, that the Vicar general at Florence on the XIVth day of June, in this very year, constituted as Commissary of Sardinia Michael of Acqui, a most celebrated Preacher; on account, he says, of the death of Pacificus of Novara; named so namely in that manner, in which they are often accustomed, in designating someone's homeland, to use rather the names of cities than of towns. There is therefore no cause for honoring him on the VIth day of June, perhaps in January, because he died on such a day: but because then his body was brought to Ceredano, and probably received with a public procession, and placed by the rite of the Blessed on the altar. But in the preceding year, num. 7, the same Wadding had noted, how after the General Chapter of the Order at Ferrara, held on the XIIIth of March, Commissaries were instituted in the Roman Curia; there an Apostolic Commissary: for the other Provinces indeed, others; but for Sardinia, Pacificus of Novara. It would be altogether worthwhile to see the Letter, which he, now Apostolic Commissary, in this very year sent to the people of Ceredano; and to learn, from what place it was given, and for what cause. Meanwhile it is sufficiently understood, that he could not have made a long stay in Sardinia, who in the following year, perhaps scarcely half a year from the accepted Commission, was known at Rome to be already deceased. And moved perhaps by this cause Arthur of Monasterio inscribed him in the Franciscan Martyrology of the first edition, obscurely inscribed in the Franciscan Martyrology, on the XXIVth day of the month of January. But this however he changed in the second edition, but to what day he transferred him I have not hitherto found out: for the Alphabetical index of that edition deceives, in which is read Pacificus of Cerano Confessor at the island of Tertiaria, June 24: where what he wishes to be signified by the name of the island of Tertiaria, I confess I do not know. I know Terceira, in Spanish Tercera, situated in an almost middle space between Africa and America: but that Pacificus landed there, I nowhere read.
[4] from Gonzaga, not rightly informed: But do not wonder that Arthur in the aforecited first edition, commending Pacificus as celebrated for the praise of virtues and holy works; and in the Notes naming the Authors whom he followed; omitted Wadding, otherwise most diligently accustomed to be cited: for the VIIth volume of the Annals, whence Arthur could learn more certain things, first came out in the year 1648, by a decade later indeed than the first edition of the Martyrology; and the second followed this after 15 years; in which from Wadding the Author could, and probably wished, to emend the things wrongly written from Gonzaga, in the VIIth Convent of the Milanese Province, and from Baresso who followed Gonzaga.
[5] That Convent is of the city of Vigevano, to which, he says, the Hospice sacred to St. Anne, erected also at Cerano, and that which remains built at Gambolò, belong by full right. But in one of those towns, namely in that whose name is Cerano, the blessed Father Pacificus, formerly an alumnus of this Province, closed his last day; and in another chapel apart from the aforesaid hospice, he was entombed. Wherefore an Instrument being drawn up, both the Brothers and the people of Cerano came to this opinion, that his body, exhumed thence, should be transferred to the aforementioned hospice, to be entombed in a more honorable place. But that Gonzaga, although he was Minister general of the whole Order when he wrote, was not always faithfully informed, is plain from what has gone before; nor will it be less plain from another passage of Wadding, at the year 1474, where treating of the same Convent of Vigevano, he speaks thus num. 57.
[6] The Body under the altar in the chapel of the Minorite hospice, The inhabitants of this Convent had two hospices, in two neighboring towns, of Ceredano and of Gambolò; and in the first was entombed Blessed Pacificus, born of that town, but dead in the island of Sardinia, and transferred to Ceredano secretly in the little bundles of merchants, at the expense of the townsmen. They err, who affirm him dead in his homeland. While those who carried him were passing by Mortara, he raised his arm; which at length the Poor Clares of Mortara obtained, and have in great veneration. The Head, separated from the rest of the body, granted to the Confraternity of the Body of Christ. is honorably kept in the parish church of Ceredano. Often a contention arose between the Brothers and the Townsmen concerning the showing of the body: for the Brothers ceded the hospice and the adjoining chapel, under whose altar lies St. Pacificus, to the Confraternity of the Body of Christ, near the cemetery of the parish church; on this condition, that for the Brothers a house and church should be built in a more convenient place. Which the Confraternity promised, and fulfilled: but they were unwilling to give back the body. At length it was agreed that it should be closed with two locks, and the Brothers should have the first key, as the legitimate possessors; the second, the Confraternity, as guardians; and finally a monastery should be built for the Brothers at Ceredano.