CONCERNING S. DEODATUS,
BISHOP OF NOLA IN CAMPANIA.
THE YEAR 473.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On the Saint's Life written after the translation of the body, and on the reforming of the order of his predecessors and successors.
Deodatus, Bishop of Nola, in Campania (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
The New Topography on the Roman Martyrology, published at Venice in the year 1609 by Philippus Ferrarius, was, so far as I know, the first in spreading the notice of this Saint throughout the Christian world, Compendia of the Life from Manuscripts, which had hitherto been confined to Nola and Benevento, two notable cities of the Kingdom of Naples. For there, under the name of Nola, the records of the Beneventan church being adduced, on the 27th of June, is placed "Deodatus, Bishop, disciple of S. Paulinus." Then the same Ferrarius, having published four years later a Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, under the note of the same day, from the monuments of the aforesaid Church, inserted a certain epitome of the Life: which being cited, Constantinus Ghinius inscribed Deodatus in the Birthdays of the holy Canons, published in the year 1622, adding that "on this day he happily rendered his soul to God about the year 451," which he did not find in Ferrarius. A similar epitome to that of Ferrarius of the Life was published in the year 1635 by Marius de Vipera, Archdeacon of Benevento, in the Catalogue of Saints whom the Beneventan Church celebrates with Double and Semi-double rite, the same complete in Ughelli and that from the Beneventan Library, in a Manuscript Codex on the deeds of the Saints, part 1, marked number 167, page 149. But probably distinct from this is the Lombardic Manuscript Codex of the Nuns of S. Victorinus of Benevento, whence Ughelli in tome 8 of Italia Sacra about the year 1662 drew the Passion of the holy Martyrs Felicitas and her Sons, quite different from that of Mombritius, and to be of use to us on the 10th of July; as also the Life and Acts which we shall presently give here, of S. Deodatus of Nola, whose body is extant at Benevento.
[2] The time at which this Life, if not first written, was at least transcribed into the aforesaid codex, is gathered clearly enough from these words at the end: "God has deigned to work many miracles at his intercession, transcribed in the year 1117, as even we today, by God's gift, perceive to be done, and the supreme Apostolic man Paschal almost daily does not cease to pour forth prayers at his sepulchre": namely when he celebrated a Synod here at Benevento in the month of April in the year 1117, as Franco of Benevento is the author, extending his Chronicle down to the 40th year of the same century. To this passage Camillus Peregrinus shows that the letters which Paschal wrote from Benevento to the Patriarch of Jerusalem were given from the 15th of the Kalends of April to the 7th of the Ides of August, not in the 15th year (as Tyrius, contradicting himself, will have it) but in the 17th; and so that the Pontiff was at Benevento almost four whole months in that year. And for this reason perhaps the Life was rewritten with that addition; but without the miracles, which are desired, without a special recounting of the miracles, in which is narrated that one which Ferrarius relates, namely that when the church was being consumed by fire, the sacristan praying at the tomb of S. Deodatus, the fire was miraculously extinguished at the appearance of a dove; and that when a certain Soldier (his name was Richardus) had seized the goods of that church, terrified by a menacing apparition of S. Deodatus, he restored all: which, whether they were thus written before or after the time of Pope Paschal, perhaps can be discerned from a collation of both Codices; meanwhile I would wish to receive entire that text also, in which the miracles are present, perhaps with another Prologue.
[3] The body was translated from Nola to Benevento in the year 839, In the codex which we follow, the Translation from Nola to Benevento is said to have been made in the time of the most religious Prince of the city of Benevento, Sichardus. He held the Principate of the city scarcely six years, as is established from the Chronicle of Erckenbert, a contemporary writer, who narrates those crimes of Sichardus, by which he by no means deserved to be called Most Religious; but to be cruelly slain; which was done in the year 839, as the editor of the same Chronicle, the aforesaid Camillus, gathers in the marginal Additions. Vipera writes that the same Translation was made in the very year from the Virgin's childbearing 839, Gregory IV being Pope, and Ursus Elect of the Beneventan Church. Gregory was elected in the year 828, Ursus about the year 833, and both sat long beyond the aforesaid 39th year. But I think that the city of Nola lay at that time almost overthrown, under the power of the Lombards: since Nola then perhaps lay destroyed. for the body of S. Paulinus also is thought to have been carried to Benevento at almost the same time, whence afterward it passed to Rome. The same I would say of the city of Frequentum, whence the aforesaid Ursus also translated the body of S. Marcianus, Bishop of that city; and deposited it in the metropolitan Church, where he had placed the Head of S. Bartholomew, to be honored on the 14th of July, says Ferrarius, although he died on the 18th of the Kalends of the same. Hence a suspicion arises to me that this day is dedicated to S. Deodatus, not because he died then (for this is not said in the Life), but because he was then translated to Benevento.
[4] The first doubt, concerning the state of the city of Nola in the 9th century under the Lombards, Ambrosius Leo might perhaps resolve for us; if his books on Nola his fatherland, printed at Venice in the year 1614, were at hand: the second would be settled by the Epitaph of the Saint, if it were had entire. The Saint seems, while still Archpriest, to have set up a cenotaph for himself, But concerning this also, which Andreas Ferrarius, Canon Treasurer of the Church of Nola, published at Naples in the year 1644, in a little book entitled "The Cemetery of Nola," page 110, Ughelli is doubtful whether it be a Bishop's: for thus it is read at the right hand of that chapel which is called the Holy of Holies of Nola, in the major church, at the niche which contains the sepulchre: "Adeodatus the unworthy Archpriest of the Holy Church of Nola rests here." But just as the word "unworthy" sufficiently indicates, so it shows that, while still living, he took care to have it written concerning himself, which, after his death, and then of a Bishop, out of Christian humility; the rest of the stone left empty, that afterward the time of life and death might be inscribed: thus nothing prevents believing that the same S. Deodatus of whom we here treat took care to have this monument made for himself, when he was still a Priest: to whom afterward, when he had died a Bishop, those about to complete the epitaph, certain men made it a matter of religion for themselves to erase the words ordered to be carved so much earlier, before the Episcopate, and perhaps forbidden by the dying man to be altered; yet they added those things which should declare him to have been a Bishop, for they thus caused it to be further carved, with a notable eulogy of the deceased.
[5] "Beloved by God and men in the Priesthood (by which that I should understand the Episcopate, not the Archpriesthood, I can scarcely doubt), for he was truthful in speech, just in judgment, faithful in what was committed to him; he had in himself all that Christ loved, another completed it, as it is had faith, charity, and the rest: sweet and persuasive of good in his words: he always brought abundant gifts, when he entered into San Felice: at the time when there was none more precious than he (I think it should be read in full "more precious") a holy Priest lived all the days of his life, before ordination… (which words are wanting: but since they were still entire, they seem to have been transferred thence into the Life at number 5, and so can be further read) before ordination to the Priesthood thirty years, twenty after Ordination; in the Episcopate thirty, but mutilated at the end, and to be completed by conjecture. from birth eighty." Nor do I think this was the end of the Epitaph, but, after the custom, there was added the day and year of his death. The day I do not divine; if it was other than the 5th of the Kalends of July. The year I conjecture to have been thus marked: "In the Consulship of Leo Augustus, for the 5th time." For he alone held the Consulship in the year 473 and is inscribed in the Fasti. The writers of Nola and Benevento indeed state that Adeodatus died in the year 461, but deceived by a common
error, by which they thought that he immediately succeeded S. Paulinus the first of this name, whom alone they seem to have known, and who is established to have died in the year 431. They were ignorant, namely, of Paulinus the Younger, whom we now at last recognize as the immediate successor down to the year 442, He is wrongly believed the immediate successor of S. Paulinus the elder; according to his epitaph, by which he is said to have been deposed on the 4th of the Ides of September, Flavius Dioscorus being a most distinguished man. For this is Dioscorus Eudoxius, the sole ordinary Consul in the year of Christ 442. In that year therefore S. Deodatus succeeded Paulinus the Younger in the Episcopate, having until then been only Archpriest. The certain necessity of this correction is made for us by the age of the Emperor Valentinian (III, of course); who could first have been ordained about 442, who, born in the year 419, was only eleven years old when Paulinus I died; and yet concerning that Emperor it is read at numbers 2, 3, 4, that two years before Deodatus was ordained Bishop, he summoned him to himself and punished him with prison and then exile; but soon, having absolved him, besought him to free his daughter from a demon. But if the matter is said to have been done about the year 440, Valentinian was then twenty-one years old, and in the 37th year of that century joined with Eudoxia daughter of Theodosius the younger, he begot from her two daughters, Eudoxia and Placidia; of whom at least the first must then have been born; since indeed Hunneric the Vandal, when Rome had been captured, took her to himself as wife in the year 455.
[6] Let Deodatus, then, be ordained Bishop in the year 442, having been consecrated Priest already from the year 422 by Paulinus I; but under his successor, one or more, and accordingly he died about the year 473, having discharged that office, he prolonged his life down to the 73rd year of that century: then S. Felix the younger could have succeeded him, at whose tomb these words are read in the aforecited Cemetery: "DEP. SANC. FELICIS EPISC. V. ID. FEBRS. POS. CONS. FAUS. FL. V. C." that is, when Felix II succeeded him, who died in the year 484. "The deposition of S. Felix the Bishop, on the 5th of the Ides of February, after the Consulship of Faustus Flavius, a most distinguished man," that is, in the year 484.
THE LIFE
From the edition of Ughelli, tome VIII.
Deodatus, Bishop of Nola, in Campania (S.)
BHL Number: 2135
[1] In so great a mystery, in so admirable a Sacrament, Archpriest of S. Paulinus, who could restrain his tongue, so as not to relate, for the edification of the faithful, the life and the eminent merits of B. Deodatus, Archpriest of the city of Nola? This man was Archpriest in the time of Paulinus, Bishop of the city of Nola: who, since he strove in every way to follow the rule of his Master, arrived at the summit of perfection by a short road. Having therefore entered the church of B. Felix the Martyr, he obtained heaps of divine charisms: for he was already Deodatus ("Given by God") in name; but he was much more illustrious in deeds, and wonderful in life. For the Spirit of God especially opened the eyes of his mind, so that he knew the things he had not seen; and the things he had seen, he readily disclosed: and thus by a prophetic spirit he excelled before all things. From which it came about he is wondrously approved by all: that, by the consent of all the Priests and Clerics, the administration of the whole Church of Nola, in collecting and dispensing the revenues, was committed to him: and thus in a certain manner he was a Bishop. For to him a multitude ran together for counsel; for relief, a not-to-be-despised throng of the needy and of widows assiduously flew, all of whom he relieved kindly with word and money: whence not undeservedly he was loved by B. Paulinus, then Bishop of Nola, and by the whole people.
[2] But the enemy of the human race, who often besets and besprinkles the paths of those who fear God with stumbling-blocks, by cunning fraud brought it about that certain men of iniquity began to vex him utterly; and accused him before b Valentinian, who at that time held the helm of the Roman Empire, that he did not conduct himself well concerning the affairs of the Church of Nola, accused before Valentinian of embezzlement, but assigned many goods at his own discretion and for his own use. When the Emperor learned this, excited by that lust of domination over the ministers of the Church which was in him, he ordered Deodatus, Archpriest of the church of Nola, to be brought to himself: to whom he said: "Unless you give satisfaction to those things which are proved against you by the testimony of many, know that you will altogether incur our indignation; and that you will without doubt undergo the punishments which you merit for such offenses." To whom Deodatus answered: "Far be it, O Emperor, that I should have devised anything either against the state of your Empire, first into prison, or that I should have converted the goods of the Church of Nola to other than pious uses, just as I learned to dispense them from my elders. Nor on this matter do I implore other witnesses than my fellow-citizens of Nola." But since it had sunk deep into the Emperor's mind that Deodatus had often openly cried out against his injustice c toward Ecclesiastics, and on account of this he suspected that he was devising something against the Imperial state, he immediately ordered him to be thrust into prison, saying: "Unless you reveal in order all the things which you have dared and devised against me, know that you shall perish of hunger in this prison."
[3] Meanwhile, while these things are being done, at Nola S. Paulinus d the Bishop, who was absent, having heard the news of the incarceration of his Archpriest, then he is sent into exile: flew to Nola. When this was announced to Valentinian, out of reverence for so great a man, he caused Deodatus to go out secretly from the prison, and to be carried off secretly into exile. Meanwhile the daughter of Valentinian e is seized by an evil demon: and thus for many days agitated by various frenzy, on a certain night her father, while he was held in slumber on his bed, heard as it were from afar a voice, threatening him with the fall of the Empire, and afterward death, unless he should desist from the unjust judgment undertaken against Deodatus. Terrified and awakened by this voice, very early in the morning he called his Counselors; but by the Emperor divinely terrified, and what had clamored in his ears through his sleep, he narrates in order, and so concerning recalling Deodatus from exile, there was a unanimous opinion of all the counselors.
[4] To the place of exile, therefore, were directed those who should recall Deodatus. When they had arrived there, and had set forth the mandates of the Emperor about leading him back to the court; Deodatus very gratefully regarded and heard them, hoping that the hour of his death had then come: and thus often on the journey he repeated those words; he is recalled, "In thy hands, O Lord, are my lots." But when he had come to the presence of the Emperor, while he himself and all who were present were astonished, the Emperor prostrated himself at the feet of Deodatus, beseeching that he would pardon him, and free his daughter from the demon as quickly as possible. S. Deodatus, perceiving the unhoped-for, gave thanks to God, saying: "If God be for us, who is against us? whose visitation is denied to no faithful one in tribulation, but continually consoles them by His mercy." and frees his daughter from the demon. Meanwhile the daughter of Valentinian was more dreadfully tormented than before by the demon, who lamented that he was tortured more by the presence of Deodatus than by fire. To whom S. Deodatus commanded that he should at once, by the power of Almighty God, leave the girl, which was done quicker than the word. The girl therefore being restored to health, the Emperor wished to enrich S. Deodatus with his riches, which he refused with steadfast spirit; asserting that he had more sumptuous treasures: and thus honorably dismissed, he returned to his own home, and with the immense joy of his fellow-citizens was received within the walls of the city of Nola.
[5] Where, having tarried two years f, S. Paulinus having departed this life, Deodatus is designated Bishop by the votes of all. At length made Bishop, he sat 30 years. Established in which office, he so strove to acquire the summit of all virtues, that charity, humility, and benignity strove in him in rivalry; and whatever can be desired in one who bears the care of souls. He lived in the Episcopate thirty years, twenty from his ordination to the Priesthood, and thirty from his birth to the Priesthood: and thus the course of his life in this mortal light was eighty years h: and he was buried at i the city of Nola, where for many years he shone with miracles; The Body is translated to Benevento. until, in the time of the most religious Prince of the city of Benevento k Sicardus, a certain Paldus l, a Noble of Benevento, built a church to his honor at the gate of the city: into which he obtained from the aforesaid Prince that his body should be carried. In which place God deigned to work many miracles m, at his intercession; as even we today, by God's gift, perceive to be done: and the supreme Apostolic man n Paschal almost daily does not cease to pour forth prayers at his sepulchre; that the more the hearts of the faithful, through the wonders of the Saints, may be excited to the love of God, who is blessed through infinite ages. Amen.