ON SAINT TITIANUS, BISHOP OF BRESCIA IN ITALY.
AROUND THE YEAR 526.
CommentaryTitianus, Bishop of Brescia in Italy (Saint)
[1] Among the holy Bishops of the city of Brescia, Saint Titianus is venerated on this 3rd of March, inscribed in the Roman Martyrology with these words: "At Brescia, Saint Titianus, Bishop and Confessor." Galesinus has the same in his Martyrology. Saint Titianus is venerated on 3 March, But Ferrarius in his Catalogue of Saints of Italy adorns him with this eulogy: "Titianus, German by birth, conspicuous for learning and sanctity, was created from Deacon to be the fifteenth Bishop of Brescia by Pope Siricius, being substituted for Saint Vigilius. He shone among his other virtues for humility, charity, and piety. For he did not disdain to wash the feet of the poor, of whom he fed twenty-four daily, with his own hands. He repaired sacred buildings and adorned them with gifts. renowned for miracles: He was distinguished for miracles both during his life and after death. Among these, it should not be passed over in silence that he healed the Prefect of the city of Brescia who was dropsical. When a noble woman had at his prayers conceived and borne a son, and the child had died because she had not fulfilled her vow, the boy was recalled to life through the intercession of the holy Bishop. He predicted the day of his death long in advance. And when he had departed this life, appearing to a certain Abbess, he explained in what more honorable place he wished to be laid to rest. His body rests in the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian." Thus Ferrarius from the records of the Church of Brescia and the Annals of the same city. In the Martyrology of the Church of Brescia the following is found: "At Brescia, Saint Titianus, Bishop and Confessor, who was of such great sanctity that all who had sick persons brought them to Blessed Titianus. And he, laying hands on each one, by the grace of God bestowed health upon them. His body is held in the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian."
[2] His predecessor Saint Vigilius is venerated on 26 September; Ferdinand Ughelli, in volume 4 of his Italia Sacra, in the section on the Bishops of Brescia, asserts that he was the seventeenth Bishop of this Church and flourished in learning and holiness in the year 504, he held his see around the year 526 and that Saint Titianus, German by birth, the eighteenth Bishop, administered this Church in the year 526. The dates of his predecessors and successors agree, among whom Saint Paulinus, his nearest successor, is venerated on 4 March, and Saint Gaudentius II, the fifteenth Bishop, on 7 March; at which dates the chronological reckoning will be established. But in the said year 526, Pope Saint John I ended his life through the wasting of imprisonment under Theodoric, the king of the Arian sect; and between him and the aforementioned Siricius, who died in the year 398, there sat thirteen other Supreme Pontiffs. That Ughelli also counts Saint Titianus as the eighteenth Bishop we do not directly approve, on account of what we have said on 15 February in the Life of Saints Faustinus and Jovita, Martyrs, page 808, number 15: namely, that Saint Antigius the Bishop, should he be called the 18th Bishop? whose body was transported from Gaul during the time of the Normans, does not seem to be reckoned among the Bishops of Brescia, although he is placed sixth in Ughelli's Catalogue.
[3] Giovanni Francesco Fiorentini, in his Chronological Index of the Prelates of Brescia, places Saint Titianus the German as Bishop in the year 511. Why might he not have lived to the year indicated above, 526? But he continues: translated in the year 1302. His relics were transferred by Bishop Berardus from the ancient church of Saint Cosmas, which was attached to the Cathedral, to the new one in the year 1302, and enclosed in the high altar. From there, in the year 1505, Bishop Paolo Zane placed them in a cell which is on the left, in a most noble casket. It is celebrated on the fifth day before the Nones of March, and for the year 1302 it records the following: "Berardus Madius received the Augustinian Hermits into the city, built the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian with a monastery, the body of Saint Titianus having been translated thither, together with the sacred Virgins who had been dwelling near the cathedral church." Ughelli described the same things concerning Berardus Madius, with the words slightly altered. But in the eulogy of Saint Titianus, he changed the earlier account thus: "His sacred bones were transferred by Bishop Bernardus from the church of Saint Cosmas to the new Cathedral in the year 1302, and then Paolo Zane enclosed them in the high altar in the year 1505." Meanwhile he had previously indicated that the Cathedral Church, consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary assumed into heaven, was of ancient architecture but of exquisite elegance and beauty.
[4] Elias Capreolus, in Book 3 of his History of Brescia, also treats of the same Saint Titianus, in which that statement cannot be approved which alleges that he was educated and made Deacon by Bishop Saint Philastrius, he was not an alumnus of Saint Philastrius, who died around the year 390. Whence Ferrarius derived the claim that he was consecrated Bishop by Pope Siricius, which has been refuted. Bishop Rampertus, in his sermon on the Translation of Saint Philastrius, published by Surius for 18 July, mentions Saint Titianus and places him ninth after the said Philastrius. In the additions of the Carthusians of Brussels for 29 May, one reads of "Saint Titianus, Bishop." But of which Titianus it is to be understood is not added. Saint Titianus, Bishop of Oderzo, is venerated on 16 January, and Saint Titianus, Bishop of Lodi, on 4 May.