Vincent

CONCERNING SAINT VINCENT,

BISHOP OF CHIETI IN THE ABRUZZI.

A notice from the Calendar of that Church. The translation of his body to Magdeburg and thence to Wrocław.

Vincent, Bishop of Chieti in the Abruzzi (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

Lucius Camarra gave to the Roman press, in the year 1651, "Teate Antiquum," illustrated in three books; and promised to give likewise in three books "Teate Sacrum"; where the second chapter of book 2 would be inscribed, "Concerning the holy Bishops of the Church of Chieti." While the Teate Sacrum of Lucius Camarra is awaited Whether this second work of that learned and accurate Author saw the light, or is to see it, while I more anxiously inquire (but inquiring I learned at last that it never came forth), there came into my hands another Writer of the same subject, Geronimo Nicolini, who embraced both subjects in three books in Italian, published at Naples in the year 1657; but without any mention of Camarra, of whom it is understood from the Dedicatory that Geronimo had no notice; in which he commends the labor laid down by him for his fatherland in that matter, of writing about which it had hitherto occurred to no one to think. The Second book treats of the Bishops, the third of the sacred places in the city and diocese. And in the second, after the Acts of S. Justinus, the first Bishop and Patron, have been set forth in seven Chapters (who, having died on the 1st of January, his feast is now kept on the 14th of the same), between him and S. Quintus, subscribed to the Roman Council of the year 500, Nicolini recounts ten names, each noted with its days, as of Bishops of Chieti, of whom all notice is had solely from the old Calendar of that Church; and among them is S. Vincent, on the 6th of June.

[2] Calendars of this kind of particular Churches, especially old ones, such as this is, deservedly have great weight with those who understand that thence is sought a most certain testimony of cult, established from time immemorial. they are given from the calendar, adduced in Italian by Geronimo Nicolini, Yet because on this day S. Vincent Bishop of Mevania is venerated, I should vehemently suspect that this day was chosen on account of the synonymy, if I saw the same generally done in the others named in the same place. But since something altogether different is done in nearly all the rest; I am induced to believe that this day is as proper to the Chietine one as to the Mevanian. Nicolini does not indeed explain whether, in that Calendar, to each name is added the title of Bishop of Chieti; nevertheless, that he found it so there the matter itself indicates, since he sets them forth as such. Nay even, that order in which he recounts them, which follows neither the Alphabet nor the Calendar, he must either have found joined to the names, or the names themselves described separately according to it: in which, since various ones have hitherto been passed over by us, it pleases to name them here in the same order, with the day added to each. They are then:

[3] S. Flavianus on the 24th of November, whose body lies in the church of S. Justinus under its own altar; the names of the 10 old Bishops, so that he cannot be confused with S. Flavianus of Antioch, although this one rests at Giulia-nova of the diocese of Chieti, carried thither from Antioch by the Empress Galla Placidia.

S. Syrus, on the 15th of May, whose synonym, the Bishop of Genoa, is venerated on the 6th of July.

S. Sampson, on the 27th of July: by which name Italy knows no other, Gaul the Bishop of Dol, on the following day, the 28th.

S. Zeno, on the 6th of August; certainly most diverse from the one of Verona, of whom we treated on the 12th of April.

S. Pamphilus, on the 7th of September; on which day Capua too has a synonym.

S. Leo, on the 13th of March. Several holy Bishops named Leo, even Roman ones, Italy knows, yet none on such a day: as neither does there occur any other

S. Severinus, for the 21st of April; nor S. Germanus, for the 29th of October.

To these succeeds the now-named S. Vincent, on whose account we have touched these things; and then S. Urbanus, on the 23rd of November, whose body it will be more readily believed was placed under the altar at Bucchianico, by Peter Salpensus the Prelate, in the year 1243; than that the body of S. Urban the Roman Pope, of whom we treated on the 25th of May, was translated thither, although the common people so think.

[4] But what at last of S. Vincent, on whose occasion we have brought forth these things? of whom the penultimate is S. Vincent: Hitherto altogether nothing, except the bare notice of the name from the aforecited Calendar. Yet it will profit to have deduced these things; both that, whether in the course of the following months, or in the Supplement of those already passed over by us, the reader may be referred hither, as often as those names, each to be commemorated on its own day among the Passed-over, shall occur; and that occasion may be given to those curious about the affairs of Chieti, and likely perhaps to dig out something of more distinct memory from the well of antiquity, of supplying the defect of our insufficiency; and of suggesting to us in addition what they shall have found, who shall by no means with ungrateful silence overwhelm the name of him through whom we shall have profited. Meanwhile perhaps the "Teate Sacrum" of Lucius Camarra will come forth; and, if nothing else, it will at least give the original words of the aforecited Calendar; about which our reflection will more securely turn, than about the same words translated into another language.

[5] Meanwhile, as I was preparing the Norbertine Analecta for this

very day, whose Relics in the year 1145, I had to take in hand the Chronicle of Magdeburg, written on parchment in the 13th century, and to be surveyed more diligently. There at the year 1145, which was the 8th year of the Reign of Conrad; the 6th of his Empire; but the 4th of Frederick the Archbishop; in which he came to Magdeburg to celebrate the Nativity of the Lord, then beginning the year for the Germans, and held a Court or Assembly of the Princes, I read thus: There was present also at the same Court a certain Prince of Poland, by name Peter, a most devoted follower of the Christian religion, who, to propagate under his Principality the cult of the Catholic religion, asked that some gift of the Relics of the Saints be bestowed on him by the now-named Bishop, and through the intervention of the King obtained it. For by the common consent both of the Bishop and of the Canons, there was given a great part of the Relics of S. Vincent, Bishop and Confessor, probably brought from Italy by Otto the first, founder of that Archbishopric, nay even of the city, with the other Relics of which it is agreed.

[6] And the same gift was translated, with the greatest mourning of the citizens, from Parthenopolis (Magdeburg), on the 9th day before the Kalends of June, which was the day of the Lord's Ascension (for Easter had then been celebrated on the 15th of April), but was brought to the destined place on the 8th day before the Ides of June, the translation at Magdeburg into Poland, which is his natal day; and was received with the highest devotion of the aforesaid Peter; so much so that he first released all the captives of his power, and thus, the Primates of that land being gathered together, met it becomingly. He also sent back the bearers, magnificently re-gifted, with presents sent also to the Bishop, most honorably to their own homes. And that the Saint himself greatly loved this his translation, is made known there by frequent miracles down to the present.

[7] Matthias of Miechów, in book 3 of Polish affairs, chapter 14, when he had narrated how Boleslaus Duke of Poland set out into Dacia, against Henry who had killed King Abel his brother, concerning Count Peter, having taken with him Peter of Dacia, who afterward was called Piotrek the great Count of Skrzin; adds: This is Peter, on whom, for his merits, dexterity, and faith, Boleslaus conferred the County of Skrzin with many other possessions, giving to him in marriage Maria, Princess of Russia, sister of Jaroslav Duke of Vladimir. founder of 77 churches This is he who in Poland built seventy-seven churches, of cut and hewn stone. This is he who built and endowed two monasteries, one of Nuns of the Premonstratensian Order, in the village of Chalinc of the diocese of Vladislav, which in course of time he translated, on account of a more fertile soil, to the town of Strzelno, of the same diocese of Wrocław; the other monastery outside the walls of Wrocław at S. Vincent's, which he abundantly endowed, and of the monastery of S. Vincent at Wrocław: and introduced the Premonstratensian Brethren, newly propagated. He bore for a device, on a white field, a figure similar to the capital letter K, having in the front part three strokes, in the likeness of a sign; but above the helmet he bore a Swan. But now the Polish Nobles of that lineage bear only the Swan for their arms. Other illustrious deeds and the manner of the death of this Count will be told later.

[8] In chapter 17 of book 3 the same Matthias, the death of Duke Boleslaus, met in the year 1140, having been narrated, and the election of Vladislaus, who afterward deprived of tongue and eyes and his machinations against his brothers, to deprive them of the portion of the dominion assigned to each by their father; says that Peter, the great Count of Skrzin, often drew Vladislaus aside by honest persuasions, that he should not act against his own flesh, nor disinherit his brothers. But the Duke, both for that cause, and instigated by his wife, more sharply moved by a certain jesting reply of Peter jesting with him, committed to the Soldier Dolysz, dear to the Duchess, whom that same jest seemed to brand for impure commerce with her, that he should secretly seize Count Peter for punishment. And so, an opportunity being seen, that Peter was giving his daughter to Jaxa Duke of Zarbia at Wrocław, and had promised games of spears with a prize set forth for the victors; without these he is said to have seen and spoken, as if to the game of spears Dolysz came up with frequent suppliants, and, Peter being seized, offered him bound to Duke Vladislaus. Who, the truculent and implacable woman urging, was deprived of sight, his tongue being cut out and his eyes dug out. Yet the historians of the Poles say, that during the whole five years in which the aforesaid Peter survived, he miraculously regained both speech and sight. Having died (in the year 1149, as I shall soon show) he was carried back to Wrocław, and entombed in the middle of the choir of S. Vincent outside the walls of Wrocław of the Premonstratensian Order. Afterward his wife was added to his ashes, concerning whom rhythms of this kind seem to have been composed for the tomb.

Here is laid Peter, supported by Maria his wife, With shining marble, Father William carrying it out.

[9] That Peter, as is reported, a salutary satisfaction having been enjoined on him at Rome by the Penitentiary, most deserving of religion. greatly augmented the churches magnificently constructed and sumptuously erected in the kingdom of Poland, from the money formerly of the King of Dacia: of which some in these our times (Matthias was writing in the year 1500) appear and are seen to view; but certain structures of the buildings, through the courses of times, have been changed. Many of them are soon enumerated, whose site and names it will be permitted to read in Matthias: for us it is enough to have explained who Peter was, and in what place he deposited the Relics of S. Vincent, a monastery of the Premonstratensians having been founded under his name; and also concerning the Premonstratensian Order who perhaps will rejoice to read their first Colonies in Poland noted here. For the rest, it makes for knowing the year of its foundation, that the same Matthias says that Vladislaus, Count Peter being mutilated, began to drive his brothers out of the kingdom, whom also he besieged in the castle of Poznań, despising the excommunication therefore pronounced against him by the Archbishop of Gniezno: but not with impunity. for whom he founded the monastery of S. Vincent in the year 1146 For the Princes, taking counsel from desperation, made an irruption into the drunken army, and thus the siege was raised. Vladislaus fled into Germany: whither also the fierce Queen betook herself, having obtained nothing less than what she had aspired to. And these things were done in that same year 1145, in which Peter, certainly cured by a miracle, came to the Assembly of Magdeburg; so much so that the cause of his coming seems to have been to obtain help from the Emperor for his brother Princes, against such unjust machinations: since indeed the year next following, 1146, is reckoned the first year of Boleslaus the Curly: died 1149. which same can be reckoned the first of the aforesaid foundation, after which Peter still survived down to the year 1149.