ON SAINT SPECIOSA,
A VIRGIN AT PAVIA IN INSUBRIA.
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 7TH CENTURY.
Notice of the cult and life from Ferrarius; translation of the Relics into Saxony.
Speciosa the Virgin, at Pavia in Insubria (Saint)
G. H.
That Saint Speciosa the Virgin is venerated on this day with an Ecclesiastical Office among the people of Pavia, Ferrarius writes in the general Catalogue, and adds in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy that there is a manuscript Life among the nuns of Saint Mary of the Caps, which we have not yet been able to obtain, but in its place we give the Life contracted from it by Ferrarius himself, and it is of this kind.
[2] Speciosa the Virgin, sister of Saint Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia, most beautiful indeed in the appearance of body, and more illustrious in the virtues of soul, from infancy dedicated her virginity to Christ. Synopsis of the life from Ferrarius, But when her parents had betrothed her, unwilling, to a certain noble youth, and the time of the nuptials was at hand; Speciosa often invited her bridegroom to chastity, but in vain. Wherefore she, having recourse to prayers and fastings, prayed God that He would in some way provide for her virginity. The prayers were not in vain. For the bridegroom dies a little before the nuptials. And to Epiphanius marveling that she did not, as is wont to happen, grieve over the death of her bridegroom, but appeared most joyful, she set forth the cause of her joy: and leading a harsh life on herbs and vegetables, she was occupied in the contemplation of divine things; nor however, on account of her assiduous fasts and other macerations of the flesh, was her appearance changed. To the sick, whom she frequently visited, she ministered with her own hands. She helped with counsel all who came to her: Saint Epiphanius often consulted her. To whose prayers too, about to set out for Constantinople, he commended himself and his Church. This life, when she had prolonged it to eighty years, dying she exchanged for the eternal one on the fourteenth of the Kalends of July: whose body, sending forth a most sweet odor, was buried in the shrine of Saint Vincent the Martyr: now it is kept in the church of Saint Epiphanius together with the bodies of the Saints Luminosa and Liberata her sisters, among the Canons Regular. Thus there. Concerning Saint Luminosa we treated on the 9th of May, and we said that she does not seem to have been a Sister of Saint Epiphanius, but to have been joined to him by the bond of intimate charity. But the Sisters of Saint Epiphanius and Saint Speciosa were the above-indicated Liberata, who is referred to the 16th of January, and Saint Honorata, referred to the 11th of the same January: but Saint Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia, having died in the year 496, is venerated on the 21st of the said January: whose Life, published by Ennodius, also Bishop of Pavia, we gave from manuscripts, and we added the history of his Translation, from the Sidera of Christopher Brower, in which these things are narrated together with the memory of Saint Speciosa.
[3] The solemn fastings having been festively completed, divinely, as I believe, behold there was present the Presbyter of Landward, Bishop of Minden, most familiar to our Brother by the grace of fellowship: who, when he opened his mind to our Brother still wavering, solicitously inquired of him about all things, as if he felt the same as the other, Some Relics carried off and persuaded him to carry off the Relics of the most holy Father Epiphanius, and of the holy Virgin Speciosa, enclosed within one enclosure of the temple: that the time of the coming night, and not to be prolonged to another, was suitable for them. Without delay it was agreed: the apparatus necessary for this office having been collected through the day, the nocturnal silence assisting, they enter the church. Prostrate on the ground for so great a work, they accused themselves as unequal to it: nonetheless they begged pardon for the bold undertaking, commending themselves more attentively to their patronage, that they might either merit to be rewarded with their Relics, or, if they should not deign that, at least, protected by them without harm to themselves, might be piously removed from the undertaking. and translated to Hildesheim and Minden. And so, rising, they strove for a long time and with much sweat to open the sepulcher of Blessed Epiphanius; succeeding by no skill, though they spent all their effort. And so they opened readily the Tomb of the Blessed Virgin Speciosa. And so, fallen forward upon the pavement before the sacred Relics, and intent for a little while on prayer, rising and kissing them, they lifted them with hymns and praises: a part of which our Lord Otwin of pious memory, who by the zeal of our Brother assisted him in this, afterward translated hither together with the Relics of Blessed Epiphanius, the part which belonged to him being committed to the venerable Bishop Landward. Thus there. But above we related that the body of Saint Speciosa is still kept in the church of Saint Epiphanius, whence we judge that only some of her Relics were translated to Hildesheim and Minden: which is the more proved for this reason, that in the proper Offices printed in the year 1657 for the Church of Hildesheim no mention is made of Saint Speciosa the Virgin: but the feast of Saint Epiphanius is celebrated under a double rite on the 22nd of January, and he is said to have been translated in the year nine hundred and sixty-three; and, illustrious for miracles, religiously and honorably kept in the upper choir of the Cathedral Church.