ON SS. DIONYSIUS, CELSUS, AND MARCELLINUS,
MARTYRS LAID TO REST AT BOLOGNA.
A notice of them from Antonio di Paolo Masini.
Dionysius, Martyr, laid to rest at Bologna (S.)
Celsus, Martyr, laid to rest at Bologna (S.)
Marcellinus, Martyr, laid to rest at Bologna (S.)
G. H.
We join these Holy Martyrs together, not because they obtained the crown of martyrdom, having suffered together on this day, but because by Antonio di Paolo Masini, when Bologna had been surveyed, they are referred to this 12th of June, because some of their Relics are kept at Bologna, although they were brought there in different Churches, and at different times. Of these the first is S. Dionysius the Martyr, S. Dionysius, whose notable Relics were laid to rest in the church of S. John on the Mount, received from Rome under Pope Innocent X, on the 13th day of May in the year 1652, by the benefaction of Honoratus Montecalvus of Bologna, then Abbot General of the Canons Regular of the Lateran, through the intercession of Christiana Dogliosi, Marchioness Angelelli, and recognized under the deed of Julius Caesar Cavalla the Notary by the Lord Antonius Ridolfi, Vicar General of the Archbishop, on the 7th day of August of the year 1652; together with the Relics of S. Fructuosus the Martyr, reported on the 22nd day of January; where these things are more accurately explained by the said Masini. S. Celsus, The second is S. Celsus the Martyr; whose notable Relics nevertheless are laid to rest in the church of S. Martin Major, in the altar called of the Bovii. The third is Marcellinus the Martyr: whose entire jaw, by the benefaction of Ambrosius Landuccius of Siena, S. Marcellinus: Bishop of Porphyry and Sacristan of Pope Alexander VII, received from Rome, and under the deed of Bartholomeus Guglielminus the Notary recognized by the said Antonius Ridolfi, Vicar General of the Archbishop, on the 13th of June in the year 1661, and laid to rest in the Church of S. Maria of the Servites, in the major street. There are various Martyrs called by these names, whose sacred memory is celebrated in our work; but we do not wish to say anything by mere and wholly gratuitous conjecture; by which those who use it too freely in a similar case, having regard only to the name, must necessarily render the cult of the Saints whom they thus intend to illustrate uncertain and very perplexed. The memory of Celsus the boy, the Martyr of Milan, with S. Nazarius, is celebrated on this day on account of the finding and translation of their bodies, and therefore perhaps his cult was here noted: and S. Celsus the boy. not because the aforesaid Relic was believed to be his (for otherwise I believe their Birthday on the 28th of July should rather have been assumed) but lest that day be empty of the memory of some Celsus for the Bolognese: which nevertheless will not easily be approved by all.