CONCERNING SAINT BASILIUS, BISHOP OF BONONIA IN ITALY.
IN THE FOURTH CENTURY
CommentaryBasilius, Bishop of Bononia in Italy (Saint)
The tables of the Roman Martyrology indicate the veneration of this saint on this sixth of March in these words: "At Bononia, of Saint Basilius the Bishop, who, having been ordained by Saint Sylvester, governed the Church entrusted to him most holily by word and example." In the notes, the tables of the Church of Bononia and Sigonius's book on the Church of Bononia are cited. Sacred veneration: This is a book on the Bishops of Bononia, composed for the benefit of Cardinal Paleotti, in which, after the account of Saint Faustinianus, whom we treated on February 26, the following is added: "Then holy Basilius is celebrated, whom we may conjecture to have entered upon the episcopate about the year 350. He could have been present at the Council of Rimini in the year 359, among the four hundred Catholic bishops of the Western Church who were deceived by the Arians. He also either began or certainly completed the basilica that had been begun by Faustinianus, The basilica of Saints Peter and Paul erected: and dedicated it to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, imitating Constantine, in the field outside the city which is now called the Piazza of Saint Stephen; and there he was perhaps buried, for he is not mentioned elsewhere. The Church celebrates his day on the eighth before the Ides of March." In the Archiepiscopal records of Bononia, compiled by the said Cardinal Paleotti, a Catalogue of the Bishops of Bononia is appended at the end, and the following is repeated from Sigonius: "Saint Basilius, Bishop, about the year 350. He either began or completed the basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, begun outside the city in the square which is now called Saint Stephen's: he died on the eighth before the Ides of March." In the Catalogue of Saints of Bononia then appended, he is placed among the Confessors at the year 350: "Saint Basilius, Bishop of Bononia." Ferdinando Ughelli in volume 2 of Italia Sacra, after Saint Faustinus (called Faustinianus by others), establishes Domitianus and Johannes, omitted by Sigonius, and then has the following: "Saint Sylvester raised Saint Basilius to the See of Bononia. He was present at the synod of Rimini, and administered the Church entrusted to him for about twenty years. He either built from the foundations or completed the temple of Saints Peter and Paul. For many report that Saint Faustinus laid its foundations. There, therefore, dying, he received burial in the year 350, where he is said to have lived; and his feast is celebrated on the sixth day of the month of March." The Synod of Rimini. But how could he have been present at the synod of Rimini, which was held in the year 359, if he had died nine years before? Sigonius also conjectures poorly that he was made Bishop about the year 350, if he was ordained by Pope Saint Sylvester, who died in the year 335. Ferrarius in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy substitutes Pope Saint Julius for Saint Sylvester, who sat in the year 350. But why should it not be said that he lived as Bishop from about the year 330 until the year 360 or 370, since nothing certain about the time of his predecessors is known, Time of his See. and Saint Eusebius, his successor, was present with Saint Ambrose, with whom he was on familiar terms, at the Synod of Aquileia in the year 381? Ferrarius further observes that Sigonius errs concerning the day of death of Saint Basilius, which he places on the eighth before the Ides of March, when he died on the day before the Nones of March, the day on which his feast is celebrated. But he may have inadvertently calculated the eighth before the Ides from March 6, as must be done in eight months. Brautius, Bishop of Sarsina, adorns him in his Poetic Martyrology with this couplet:
"Basilius, having built many and restored many more Basilicas, full of merits, migrates to the stars."
Masinus in his Bononia Perlustrata reports that the body of Saint Basilius is preserved in the church of Saints Nabor and Felix, Body preserved. which from the year 1300 was inhabited by Benedictine monks; but he adds that it was transferred from them to the Conventual nuns of Saint Clare in the year 1510.