ON SAINT IOAVA OR JOVINUS OF LÉON IN ARMORICAN BRITTANY.
Sixth century
PrefaceIoava, or Jovinus, of Léon in Armorican Brittany (Saint)
[1] The one whom the Acts of Saint Paul, Bishop of Léon, to be given on the twelfth day, call Johaevius — Albert le Grand, producing his Life from the ancient Legendary of the Church of Léon and other manuscripts on this day, in his volume on the Saints of Armorican Brittany, says he is called Ioava or Jovinus, and elsewhere more correctly writes Ioava — It does not appear that Saint Ioava died long before Saint Paul, places his death around the year 554, and says he was a Bishop of Léon appointed by Saint Paul forty years before the latter departed from life. From which number we shall indicate in the prolegomena to the Life of Saint Paul that twenty-one years must necessarily be subtracted. We doubt, however, whether Albert may be believed even concerning the remaining nineteen. For the aforementioned Acts, after narrating the consecration of Saint Johaevius and Tirnomallus, each of whom held the episcopate for only one year, add: after whose death the venerable man for a short time again devoted himself to his own office; but as his strength failed, he once more ordained a certain one of his own, Cetomerinus by name, to minister in his stead. Albert, however, when he says this man was consecrated in the year 566, interposes not a short time indeed, but a full eleven years between Cetomerinus, Johaevius, and Tirnomallus.
[2] Nor is there sufficient certainty even about the episcopal ordination of Ioava and the other two. For the Church of Rennes, nor was he a Bishop: which celebrates the feast of Saint Goluenus on July 8, says that he was immediately appointed as successor to Saint Paul: and I do not see why it should not be believed more than the Acts of Saint Paul, written so long after his death; especially since those Acts do not speak clearly about episcopal consecration, and can be satisfactorily explained as a vicarious administration of the episcopate transferred to them by Paul; which could have given occasion for those who had only been Vicars of Paul while he lived to seem to be numbered among the Bishops. but a Vicar of Saint Paul. Therefore, since no mention is made of these men as Bishops anywhere, and in the catalogs of Bishops by Claudius Robert and the Brothers Sainte-Marthe their names are entirely omitted, we have not dared to write Ioava as Bishop: content with the title of Saint, which besides the aforesaid Legendary is supported by two churches bearing his name in the diocese of Léon, his cult, one in the parish of Ker-iouen on the shore of the British Sea, seven French leagues from the city, as shown in the geographical maps, and the other of a village receding farther from the sea, which must be passed through when going from Léon to Brest (called Saint Iouan in documents, but in the description of the benefices of France, Saint Iahona); we would suspect that this second church was built over the sacred body first buried at that spot, if there were any basis for saying that the beasts drawing the sacred relics had crossed the river with it. Whatever the case may be, the body is then said to have been translated to Léon, and for that reason we are all the more surprised that no Breviary of that Church is cited from which it might be established that he is honored there with an ecclesiastical office.
[3] The parish of Brasparz, over which the priest Ioava presided, and the parish of Brasparz. lies about eleven leagues from the town of Saint-Pol-de-Léon toward the south, at the head of a stream which here is called the Faou, below the town of Faou (in the vernacular, le Faou), flowing into the Bay of Brest; from which town and from Brest itself, at nearly equal distances of more than three leagues on each side, stood the abbey of Sainte-Marie de Daoulas, whose beginnings are here commemorated, and which faces the town of Landévennec across the eastern part of the Bay of Brest. The miracle of the dragon carried away, and other things which are narrated as having been done by Saint Paul in these parts, are entirely absent from his Acts; and perhaps the dragons have been wrongly transferred here, on the occasion of the one which Paul is written to have expelled from the island of Batz on his first arrival, Whence the Acts? without any mention of the etymology derived from his staff. We would have preferred to give here only the text of the ancient legendary itself, not doubting that Albert inserted many things partly from his own chronology, partly from the Yves whom he cites, who wrote about the Bishops of Léon about two centuries earlier. But since we have nothing more genuine, we give this Life, such as it is, from Albert, rendered into Latin by John Colgan, with a few changes where it did not agree with the French. From this Life, moreover, the Lessons appear to have been drawn which the Church of Léon recites for the feast of the same Saint, after the reformation of the Breviary according to the decrees of Pius V and subsequent Pontiffs, after the Psalms of the second Nocturn, with a proper Prayer throughout the rest of the Office.
LIFE
from the Lessons of the Breviary of Léon.
Ioava, or Jovinus, of Léon in Armorican Brittany (Saint)
Lesson IV
Joevinus, nephew through the sister of our most holy Father Paul, born in Ireland, was sent as a boy to him in Greater Britain to be educated; and under his tutelage so progressed in literary studies that he soon seemed accomplished in both philosophical and theological subjects. Then, when he had returned to his homeland at his father's command, Spurning the vanity of the world, his father bent all his efforts on giving him in honorable marriage; accordingly he studiously equipped him with a suitable retinue and secular pomp, which the youth only unwillingly tasted with the tips of his lips. Despising with a noble mind the fleeting pleasures of the world, the young man silently meditates, by God's inspiration, upon a stricter way of life. Hence, when he learned by reliable messengers that his uncle Paul had crossed over with twelve companions to the island of Ouessant, situated in the territory of Léon, and had chosen his abode there, he set sail from the nearest port, He becomes a monk: intending to cross over to it. But encountering an adverse wind, and his ship being divinely carried elsewhere, he landed on the shore of Cornouaille (not far from the district of Brest), and entering the nearest town, he met the Abbot Judulus, by whom he was both kindly received and willingly enrolled as a monk.
Lesson V
After completing the year of probation and pronouncing the vows of monastic profession, Consecrated Priest by Saint Paul of Léon, Joevinus, with the blessing of his Abbot, came to Saint Paul in Léon, who, after he had been trained for several years in his monastery on the island of Batz, finally ordained him Priest by his own hand, he himself having been made Bishop. He then sent him back to his Abbot, so that in the very monastery where he had first bound himself more specially to Christ, he might offer to Him the first-fruits of the unbloody sacrifice. Then, having undertaken the care of a certain parish church in the diocese of Cornouaille, He cultivates the parish committed to him. he set about tending with tireless labor the people committed to his care, and for the most part, by threats, persuasion, and example, rescued them from the blindness of pagan superstition and brought them into the light of unshaken truth. These achievements, which should have won for the holy Pastor the admiration and love of all, instead provoked in a certain powerful man in particular so implacable a hatred against Joevinus and the other Abbots and Religious that he thought day and night of nothing but their destruction.
Lesson VI
In order to accomplish this impiously, the villain attacks those sacred ministers one day when they were gathered together in one place, Whence, after his companions were slain, with a great throng of henchmen; he breaks down the doors, bursts into the church, and after putting the people to flight, he slaughters with his own hand the most holy Abbots Tadecus, who was celebrating the awesome mysteries of the altar, and Judulus, who was fleeing; while the rest of the assassins butchered most of the remaining monks: with Joevinus almost alone escaping the sword, to perform the funeral rites for his brothers. He returns to Léon: Since therefore he could not remain in that place in peace, he returned to Léon, and was numbered by Saint Paul among the Canons of the Cathedral Church, and finally, upon Paul's resignation, he was elevated to the height of episcopal dignity and consecrated by Saint Samson, then Archbishop of Dol. And recalled by the people of Cornouaille, he dies: He had barely completed a year in this office when, entreated by the people of Cornouaille to grant them pardon, and having set out to bestow his blessing upon them, he happily departed thence to his eternal reward, around the year of our Lord five hundred and fifty-four. His body, at a place divinely designated, His body, clothed in pontifical vestments and placed upon a new cart (according to the last wish of the dying man), was carried by the yoked beasts, under God's sole guidance, to that place in the territory of Agnensis is buried. where now stands a church, distinguished by his name and patronage.
PRAYER.
O God, who are the wondrous splendor of Your Saints, and who have consecrated this day by the death of blessed Joevinus, Your Confessor and Bishop: grant, we beseech You, that we may ever rejoice in his feast day, so that before Your mercy we may be protected by his examples and merits. Through our Lord, etc.
LIFE
written by Albert le Grand,
Rendered into Latin by John Colgan.
Ioava, or Jovinus, of Léon in Armorican Brittany (Saint)
By the author Albert le Grand.
[1] Saint Iaoua, or Jovinus, was Irish by nation, and was the uncle of Prince Tinidorus, the father of Saint Tenenanus. His mother was the full sister of Saint Paul Aurelian, first Bishop of Léon: Iaoua's homeland, to hear whom, Iaoua was sent by his mother to the island of Britain, where he applied himself so diligently to his studies that within a few years he became a philosopher and theologian perfect in every respect. Having completed his course, he was recalled by his parents to his homeland; he obeyed, and having obtained leave from his uncle Saint Paul, returned to his father; who, admiring his learning and character, bent all his efforts on joining him in honorable matrimony. Therefore he clothed him in precious garments, attached to him a retinue and servants, Studies in Britain, ordered him to frequent the company of nobles and to make himself conspicuous in the world; but this holy young man, prevented by divine love, entirely shrank from such vanities; and although, so as not to cause his parents grief, he pretended to be worldly, he had nevertheless resolved to leave all things and follow Christ by embracing the religious state.
[2] Meanwhile he received letters from Greater Britain, by which he learned that his uncle Saint Paul, with twelve Priests, had crossed the sea and landed on the island of Ouessant off Armorican Brittany to dwell there. Monastic life in Armorica, Therefore he resolved to go there as soon as possible, leaving his homeland and parents behind; he orders everything to be prepared at the nearest shore, and one morning, pretending to go for a walk, he goes out with two servants, and boarding a ship, sets sail toward the island of Ouessant. The island was barely in sight when a storm arose and, driven from the port of Ouessant, they made land at the coast of the river Faou in unknown waters. There, meeting the Abbot Saint Judulus and being courteously greeted by him, they were received; who, when he understood their name, country, and purpose, ordered them back into the ship and conducted them to his monastery of Landévennec. When Saint Iaoua had dwelt there for some time, he dismissed his servants, sought the religious habit, and received it from Saint Judulus.
[3] After the time of probation was completed, in order to find his uncle Saint Paul, he set out for Léon; The parish of Brasparz. who, rejoicing to see his nephew in such a garb, kept him with himself for several years, conferred sacred Orders upon him, and, now that he was initiated as a Priest, sent him back to the monastery of Landévennec to celebrate there. There the Abbot Judulus, since the parish of Brasparz was in need of a Rector, chose Saint Iaoua for this duty, who both accepted it and proved himself well suited to it. At first he indeed found many difficulties there, the people being ignorant of Christian doctrine, and paganism full of superstitions still rampant throughout all of Cornouaille. But Saint Iaoua by word, example, threats, and prayers accomplished so much that he led them back to the right path, and, having expelled their wicked errors, made them partakers of divine grace.
[4] At that time there dwelt in the fortress of Kerar-Roue in Cornouaille a man named Aristagnus, a Christian of great eminence and high nobility. He had a nephew through his sister, the Lord of Faou, a man as hostile to Religion as his uncle was favorable. But above all others he loathed Saint Iaoua as much as he could, The Lord of Faou, because the latter was daily calling back one after another of his neighbors and subjects to the true faith by his sermons. This man dissimulated his impious desire for vengeance for the time being, but was no less eagerly watching for a suitable opportunity. In the meantime, informed that the heads of the monasteries of Cornouaille had convened an assembly not far from the boundaries and borders of his domain concerning particular business, and that among others especially the Abbots Tadecus and Judulus, together with Saint Iaoua, had gathered; having at last found the occasion, under a false pretense of religion, he gathers a band of armed men and leads them into the field.
[5] He slaughters Saints Tadecus and Judulus. He had reached the monastery where the holy prelates had gathered, when, breaking open the inner doors of the church, he puts the people to flight and slays the Abbot Tadecus, who was intent on the divine service, at the words "To us sinners also," before the altars, while the rest raged indiscriminately against the remaining choir of monks. Nor were those who fled spared: for the Lord of Faou struck down Judulus, who was fleeing toward Landévennec, through the head with his still reddened blade, God the protector of His own reserving Saint Iaoua for greater things. When he had escaped in swift flight to his parish of Brasparz, grieving over the slaughter of his excellent kinsman Saint Judulus, he paid the due funeral rites to the sacred remains of him and the slain monks.
[6] A beast sent in vengeance, But in due time God, the champion and avenger of His own, was present: for that furious Lord of Faou had scarcely quenched his thirst with the blood of so many innocents when, being possessed by a powerful legion of demons, he paid the penalties of his impiety, so that, turning from fury into madness, he could with difficulty be restrained, with difficulty be brought home. Nor was this enough: for a monster from the sea, more like a dragon than a fish, sprang forth and wrought such havoc at Faou that it spared neither men nor beasts, so that in a short time desolation was brought upon it — the fields deserted, goods and fortunes lost — all acknowledging the avenging hand of the Lord. By the counsel, therefore, of the leading men of that town, envoys were sent to Léon to Saint Paul, who at that time was renowned for his holiness in the monastery of Ker-paol, to come to the aid of those oppressed by calamity and console the afflicted.
[7] Moved by compassion, the Bishop bids them be of good courage, Paul of Léon about to destroy it, to prepare themselves for penance, and that he would come soon to remedy the situation. Having thus dismissed the envoys, he girds himself for the journey with several monks as companions. They were already passing through the parish of Plougarnou, and had turned aside from the road to a place which to this day is called Mouster-Paul, that is, the Monastery of Paul, for the sake of prayer. Then a young man of elegant form appeared resplendent before the eyes of Saint Paul and admonished him to proceed fearlessly on the journey he had begun, for everything would turn out as he wished. Then Iaoua, informed of his uncle Saint Paul's journey toward Faou, went out to meet him and found him at Coatgarz; where, after greetings and embraces had been exchanged on both sides, when Saint Paul noticed he was thirsty, He draws forth a spring; he turned to prayer and was heard from heaven. For Saint Iaoua, at his uncle's command, had scarcely struck the dry ground with his staff when a spring of the sweetest liquid burst forth from the earth, which refreshed them as they sang praises to the supreme Lord of fountains.
[8] They had already reached Faou when an innumerable multitude of inhabitants poured in from the countryside into the town; when Saint Paul beheld them, After performing the sacrifice, he delivered a sermon to them on the excellence of the Christian religion, which he concluded with these words: And indeed, so that you may know that what I have said to you thus far is most true, if you are led by repentance for your sins, if you renounce your superstitions, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, whom I proclaim to you, I command you to be immediately freed from that furious beast. He had scarcely finished when a unanimous cry of repentance greeted his speech. He binds the dragon; Saint Paul therefore orders Saint Iaoua to prepare the altar for sacrifice, and when the divine service was completed, filled with God, he went out of the church, addresses the dragon by voice, and commands it to come forth harmless. There was no delay; the execrable monster appeared, with gaping mouth, blazing eyes rolling in circles, and immediately prostrated itself at the holy man's feet. He binds his stole around its neck, orders his nephew to fix his staff in the ground, to which he also fastens the dragon, which neither resisted nor moved from its place, but was now as if tame and subdued.
[9] From there he visited the Lord of Faou, who since the slaughter of the Abbots Tadecus and Judulus had been possessed by the evil one and was tormented in a pitiable manner; he fortified him with the Cross, He baptizes the converted tyrant, expelled the demon and healed him, then instructed him in the salutary precepts of the faith, and he was baptized by Saint Iaoua, with Saint Paul assisting him in all things and imposing upon him his own name. By this example, the subjects of his whole household, moved to renounce paganism, were washed in the waters of baptism. The Lady herself, the mother of the recently converted Lord, scarcely able to contain herself, immediately dispatched a runner to Kerarroue to her brother Aristagnus, to announce these glad tidings to him, that her nephew was converted and freed from the demon. Cheered by this news, Count Aristagnus sent two of his nobles to Saint Paul and Saint Iaoua, asking that they not be unwilling to visit him; which they readily did, and accompanied by those nobles they set out thither as soon as possible.
[10] Upon hearing of their arrival, Prince Aristagnus, attended by a large retinue of his people, went out to meet them and orders the founding of the monastery of Daoulas. and received them most graciously, promising them moreover in the name of his nephew the Lord that, in expiation of the blood shed of the holy Abbots Judulus and Tadecus, he would found a monastery on the very spot where Saint Judulus had been slain; that he would also take care that it be consecrated to those two Martyrs as a perpetual memorial of the event, and be called Mouster Daouz-gloas, that is, the Monastery of the Two Wounds; with most ample revenues also added for the support of the monks to be placed there. Nor did the Lord of Faou object to his uncle's agreement, but entrusted the care of the work to Saint Iaoua, who accepted it no more promptly than he carried it out energetically. The monastery was completed within a few years and consecrated by the Most Reverend Bishop of Cornouaille, in whose church Saint Iaoua was also inaugurated as the first Abbot. Today the abbey is called that of Our Lady of Daoulas, in the diocese of Cornouaille, of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine.
[11] When affairs at Faou were thus settled, Saint Paul returned to Léon, bringing the dragon with him; and when he had reached the small wood which lies between the parishes of Lan-paol and Guicmiliau, and carries away the dragon with its young, two men sent to him by the inhabitants of Faou met him and announced that nothing had been accomplished unless he would also remove, along with the dragon, a new young one which had recently appeared and was threatening the neighbors with equal calamities. Therefore, releasing the dragon, he commanded it to bring its young one to him and to harm no one. The dragon obeyed, and (wonderful to relate) presented the young one at the holy man's feet in the forest, which to this day, in memory for posterity, is called Gaotar sarpant, that is, the Serpent's Wood. Thence, having brought both serpents to his chief monastery on the island of Batz, he bound them to a post in a secluded place, where, harming no one and deprived of food, they gradually died and were cast into the sea. Furthermore, in remembrance of so great a miracle, that island was called in Breton Enes-Baaz, that is, the Island of the Staff, situated opposite the parish of Roscoff.
[12] When the monastery of Daoulas was completed, Saint Iaoua gathered a considerable community of religious there, with whom he led an exemplary and entirely perfect life. But the enemy of the human race, the devil, envied this, Iaoua becomes Abbot of Daoulas, who, bearing with indignation that he was being driven from those borders by the frequent sermons of the holy man and others, made Saint Iaoua's task there so burdensome that, bereft of all quiet and patience, he was compelled to resign the rectorate of Brasparz and to leave the care of the abbey of Daoulas to Tusuranus, the son of Aristagnus; and when he had instructed him in the manner of governing his parish and monastery, having taken leave of his people, he retired to Léon. It cannot be said how greatly Saint Paul rejoiced at the arrival of his nephew. He therefore used him as a coadjutor for his reward, created him a Canon in the Cathedral Church, and finally, worn out by old age and desirous of solitude, he resigned the episcopate to him.
[13] Then Bishop of Léon. But first the Canons were asked to render their judgment; they did so, and received Iaoua as Bishop of Léon. Therefore, Iaoua set out for Dol and was consecrated by Saint Samson, Archbishop of Dol and Metropolitan of Brittany. Meanwhile, as Saint Paul led a solitary life in the monastery of Batz, Iaoua summoned Saint Kenanus to himself, whom he appointed both Priest and Canon, and then gave him the parish of Plou-kerneau to administer, with great fruit obtained. While Saint Iaoua governed his episcopate diligently, the people of Cornouaille, who by their depraved morals had compelled him to leave his former office, bore his absence grievously; for from the time he left them, such a famine followed for three years that they were forced to seek provisions from the remoter parts of Brittany. They noted that this great plague had arisen from their recent ingratitude toward Saint Iaoua; He frees the people of Brasparz from barrenness; therefore they sent several envoys to him at Léon of the Osismi, asking in their name that he forgive them and deign moreover to visit them, and having given his blessing, to wish them well. Saint Iaoua, having laid aside all memory of injuries, at the counsel of Saint Paul visited them, and by his very arrival alone freed them from the scarcity of food; for scarcely had this holy man poured forth his prayers when, as the earth and trees grew green again, an abundance of all things followed.
[14] At last, after so many labors endured for the glory of God, And dies piously, he was seized with a violent fever in the parish of Brasparz, and within a few days was deprived of all his strength. Three days before his death, his fatal illness was revealed to Saint Paul in the monastery on the island of Batz, as also to Saint Kenanus in Plou-Kerneau. Kenanus immediately went to Saint Paul, by whom he was at once sent to Brasparz to bring aid to the holy Bishop in his last moments and to arrange his funeral. Saint Iaoua was wonderfully consoled by his arrival, and fortified by him with all the Sacraments of the Church, he blessed those present; he commanded moreover that his body be placed on a new bier, and that wherever the beasts should stop during its conveyance, he should be buried. After this, raising his hands and mind to heaven, he gave back his soul to his Creator on the second of March, around the year 554. His washed body, clothed in pontifical vestments, was placed on a new bier, as he had commanded, and entrusted to the beasts to convey wherever they wished. These therefore kept to the great road of Brasparz, He is honored with a church, until, stopping at Porz-arr-chraz, the bier was shaken with such a crash that it was thought to be broken. But the beasts, advancing about five hundred paces, in a broad place released the shattered tomb, where a most august church was erected in his name, in which he was buried. The relics of this holy man were afterward translated to Léon and preserved in the Cathedral church, whose diocese he had governed for a year and seventy days.
[15] The Church of Léon celebrates the feast of Saint Ioava, or Jovinus, on the second of March. Whence the Acts were obtained. The ancient Legendary of the Cathedral itself contains nine lessons, from which what we have written was for the most part drawn, but above all from a certain very ancient manuscript communicated to me by the late Lord Vincent le Grand of Kerscao de Kerigouval, in the month of May of the year 1623, in which are contained the deeds of the Bishops of Léon, published by the noble and discreet Lord Yves le
Grand, Canon of Saint-Pol-de-Léon, Rector of Plounéventer, Almoner and Ordinary Councillor of Duke Francis II, in the year 1472.
AnnotationsON THE MANY HOLY MARTYRS SLAIN IN ITALY BY THE LOMBARDS, AROUND THE YEAR 579.
Preliminary Commentary.
The many Martyrs slain by the Lombards in Italy (Saints)
[1] The irruption of the Lombards, who came forth from Pannonia, into Italy, and their savage cruelty against holy persons, churches and monasteries, and even against the tombs and bodies of the Saints, we have treated at length on February 9 before the Life of Saint Sabinus the Bishop, Section 9, page 318 and following. But that the Lombards were so called from the longa barda, that is, the long axe or spear, Martyrs slain by the Lombards, which they used in wars, we have demonstrated on February 14 in the second Life of Saint Antoninus, Abbot of Sorrento, page 796. Concerning the Martyrs slain by these Lombards in hatred of the Catholic faith, the following is read in today's Roman Martyrology: In Campania, the commemoration of the eighty holy Martyrs, who, when they refused to eat meats offered to idols and would not worship the head of a goat, were most cruelly slain by the Lombards. The story of the martyrdom is described by Saint Gregory the Great in Book 3 of the Dialogues, chapters 27 and 28, partly 40 peasants, and he divides the Martyrs into two classes: the first consists of forty peasants refusing to eat meats offered to idols. In the second class was a very great multitude of captives refusing to worship the head of a goat. Peter de Natalibus alone reports these in Book 3 of his Catalog, chapter 167, and asserts that they suffered on the 6th of the Nones of March: partly very many out of 400 captives, concerning whom Hermann Greven writes the following on this day in his Additions to Usuard: Likewise of the many Martyrs out of a number of four hundred: concerning whom Gregory reports in Book 3 of the Dialogues, chapter 28, that when they were urged by the Lombards to worship the head of a goat consecrated to the devil, a very great multitude of them, refusing, was slain by them. The same things are read in Molanus in his additions to Usuard published in 1568. Concerning the same, Maurolycus writes: On the same day, of the nearly four hundred Martyrs, slain by the Lombards while devastating Italy, as Gregory reports. Constantius Felicius and Richard Whitford have similar accounts in their Martyrologies, the former published in Italian, the latter formerly in English. Thus Peter de Natalibus also calls them nearly four hundred Martyrs. And our ancient manuscript codex of these Dialogues of Saint Gregory has that there were nearly four hundred captives, of whom a very great multitude was slain. But on the other hand, in the printed editions published by Gillotius, Pamelius, and others, one reads that there were nearly forty captives, the reading "four hundred" being relegated to the margin as a variant, and finally entirely omitted in the edition of Sixtus V. On their authority Galesini thus has: On this same day, of the holy Forty Martyrs, or at least 40. who, driven by the Lombards to worship the head of a goat, and most firmly detesting it, were cut down. Baronius, joining to these forty another forty peasants from the first class, considers that eighty were slain in all. But Saint Gregory records nearly forty, or, as others have it, four hundred captives in the second class, and of these only the greatest multitude, not all, were put to death by the sword. The titles of the chapters in Gregory are these: of the first, "Concerning the forty peasants, who because they refused to eat meats offered to idols, were slain by the Lombards"; and of the latter chapter: "Concerning the multitude of captives who, because they refused to worship the head of a goat, were slain." Whether from the word "multitude," which is then called "the greatest," if it be compared with the number of forty peasants reported in the first chapter, it does not rather suggest that the captives were nearly four hundred rather than not yet forty, we propose for the judgment of others.
[2] Baronius calculates in his notes that the year of the slaughter was five hundred and seventy-nine. For, he says, Saint Gregory affirms that they suffered about fifteen years before, reaching to the time around the year 579 when he was writing these things in his Dialogues, when he was in the fourth year of his Pontificate, which is established from Book 4 of the Dialogues, chapter 36, where, treating of the pestilence which occurred in the first year of his Pontificate, he testifies that it had happened three years before that time. If, therefore, from the aforesaid year 579 to the fourth year of Gregory's Pontificate you count those fifteen intervening years, you will find that they consummated their martyrdom at the said time. So writes Baronius in his Notes, who in his Annals at the same year 579, numbers 9 and following, inserted this slaughter of the said Martyrs from the said Dialogues, and at number 12, concerning the Lombards, adds: As for the idolatry of certain Lombards of this kind, by which they venerated the head of a goat in sacrifice, there is a complaint of the same Pope Gregory to Queen Brunhild of the Franks concerning certain Christians persevering in the same error. But hear his words: This likewise we exhort, that you should restrain the rest of your subjects under the moderation of discipline, that they not sacrifice to idols, not become worshippers of trees, not offer sacrilegious sacrifices of animals' heads: because it has come to our attention that many Christians both attend the churches and, what it is unspeakable to say, do not withdraw from the worship of demons. So writes Gregory, and from him Baronius. Ferrarius also treats of the same Martyrs in the Catalog of the Saints of Italy, and wonders whence the Roman Martyrology received that these suffered in Campania, since Saint Gregory at the cited passage makes no mention of Campania. More safely, Whitford and others report that they suffered in Italy.
ACTS OF MARTYRDOM.
From Book III of the Dialogues of Saint Gregory.
The many Martyrs slain by the Lombards in Italy (Saints)
In our own times it has happened that even cities and persons of secular life, of whom nothing of heavenly glory could seem to be presumed, when occasion arose, attained the crowns of martyrdom. chapter 26 chapter 27 For about fifteen years ago, as those testify who could be present, forty peasants were captured by the Lombards and were compelled to eat meats offered to idols. Forty peasants refusing When they strongly resisted and refused to touch the sacrilegious food, the Lombards who held them began to threaten them with death to eat offered meats, unless they ate the things sacrificed. But those men, loving eternal life rather than the present and transitory one, remained steadfast in faith, and in their constancy were all slain together. What then were these if not Martyrs of the truth, They are slain by the sword: who, lest by eating what was forbidden they offend their Creator, chose to end their lives by the sword?
At the same time also, when the Lombards held nearly four hundred other captives, they sacrificed the head of a goat to the devil in their customary fashion, dedicating it to him by running around in a circle and with an abominable chant. chapter 28 And when they themselves first worshipped it with bowed necks, Very many refusing to worship the head of a goat, they also compelled those whom they had captured to worship it in the same manner. But from among those captives a very great multitude, choosing rather to press on to immortal life by dying than to hold on to mortal life by praying, refused to comply with the sacrilegious commands and scorned to bow to a creature the neck which they had always bent to the Creator. Whence it came about that the enemies who had captured them, inflamed with great wrath, slew with the sword all slain by the sword. whom they did not have as participants in their error.
What wonder then if, when a time of persecution had burst forth, those could have been Martyrs who even in the very peace of the Church, by ever afflicting themselves, held to the narrow way of martyrdom; when, upon the outbreak of a moment of persecution, even those merited to receive the palms of martyrdom who in the peace of the Church seemed to follow the broad ways of this world? Nor yet do we hold what we say about these chosen men as if it were already a rule for all. For when the time of open persecution breaks forth, just as many who seem contemptible in the peace of the Church can undergo martyrdom, so sometimes those fall into the dread of doubt who were previously believed to stand bravely in the peace of the Church.
But those of whom we spoke before as having been able to become Martyrs, Martyrs made in the peace of the Church. we confidently affirm; because we have already gathered this from their end. For they could not have fallen even in open persecution, of whom it is established that to the end of their lives they persisted in the hidden virtue of the soul.
Annotations* variant: firmly
* variant: forty
* variant: weakness