CONCERNING SAINT CLAUDIANUS, CONFESSOR, BROTHER OF SAINT VIGILIUS, BISHOP OF TRENT, IN THE SUBALPINE TERRITORY,
IN THE FIFTH CENTURY
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Claudianus, Confessor, brother of Saint Vigilius, Bishop of Trent (Saint)
[1] That the holy Claudianus the Confessor is venerated with the rite of the double Office on March 6 in the city and diocese of Trent is evident from the Proper of Saints which Carlo Madruzzo, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Bishop of Trent, had published in print in the year 1627. But since everything is prescribed as being taken from the Common Office of Confessors who are not Bishops, The sacred veneration of Saint Claudianus: we learn nothing from it about his deeds. The same Saint Claudianus was inscribed by Ferrarius in the Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, and again in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy with some eulogy, drawn from the Acts of Saint Vigilius, Bishop of Trent. He is also mentioned by Tamaius Salazar in the Hispanic Martyrology in these words: "In Italy, Saint Claudianus, son of Blessed Maxentia, His name inscribed in the Hispanic Martyrology, and brother of Saints Vigilius, Bishop of Trent, and Magorianus, all of whom, sprung from the city of Coria among the Vettones in Spain, are venerated with due honor and celebrated with a Proper Office on account of their virtues and miracles." He asserts that he appends the Acts from Ferrarius, but with the first words changed. For Ferrarius begins thus: "Claudianus, a Roman," etc.; but Tamaius has: "Claudianus, a Spaniard by nation, drew his origin from the ancient city of Coria among the Vettones," etc. And the proof of this is drawn from the Pseudo-Dexter in the Chronicle at the year 419, which obtrudes the following: "Saint Maxentia, a Spanish woman of Coria, flourishes at Trent." Tamaius adds that Saint Claudianus should a fortiori be believed to be Spanish through his mother. But he will not easily find credence among learned men.
[2] We have certain manuscript Acts of Saint Vigilius written about five hundred years ago by Bartholomaeus of Trent, of the Order of Preachers, with which other manuscripts of the Cologne Charterhouse agree sufficiently, as well as others from the monastery of Saint Maximin, and those that Janus Pyrrhus Pincius published concerning the Lives of the Bishops of Trent in the year 1546; and recently Ferdinando Ughelli in volume 5 of Italia Sacra, Roman by homeland, but this incidentally and only about Saint Vigilius, whom he asserts to be a Roman by homeland. From Bartholomaeus of Trent I excerpt the following: "During the reigns of Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius the Great, a certain noble matron named Maxentia, of illustrious Roman lineage, arrived with her sons Vigilius, Claudianus, and Magorianus in the aforesaid city of Trent, and there, having become citizens, they served God most devoutly... When Asterius, the seventeenth Bishop of the Church of Trent, had died, Vigilius was elected by all, though strongly resisting, He accompanies his brother Saint Vigilius, Bishop of Trent. and was consecrated by the Patriarch of Aquileia. He then converted all who were still held by the pagan rite in the city, and founded a church in which he worked very many miracles through the sign of the holy Cross upon the blind, the deaf, the mute, the possessed, and others... There still remained for Blessed Vigilius one place in the mountains of his diocese, called Rendena, through which the river Sarca flows. Thither, with Julian the Presbyter and his brothers Magorianus and Claudianus, he came. All the faithful went out to meet him and, receiving the Eucharist from him, welcomed him with joy. Like a brave soldier, he broke the idol of Saturn, which had been placed on the estate of a certain rich man, and cast it into the Sarca... The crowd rushed together; he was overwhelmed with stones, and giving thanks, he migrated to heaven. His brothers and his other companions, having endured the stoning, earned the glory of Confessors." So much and more from Bartholomaeus.
[3] Pyrrhus Pincius more copiously pursues the deeds of Saint Vigilius in his first book, from which we excerpt the following few details that also pertain to Saint Claudianus: "Vigilius, a Roman by homeland, had as his mother Maxentia, an illustrious woman, born of a noble family at Rome; he had two brothers, Claudianus and Magorianus. Maxentia, as the sacred annals testify, Their arrival at Trent: in the time of the Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius the Great, whether by chance or by divine admonition, having left her homeland and crossed the ridges of the Apennines, wearied by the long and toilsome journey, at last arrived with her sons at Trent, where they were kindly received and all were granted the rights of citizenship... When Asterius had died, Vigilius was consecrated by the Patriarch of Aquileia, to whom he had betaken himself upon being summoned, and was unwillingly placed at the head of the Church of Trent. He, full of God and burning with the spirit, recognized it as his duty to labor that the public salvation of souls might be served. Wherefore he persuaded many who remained attached to the vain altars of idols to embrace the Christian rite; and so that they might be held more firmly by the worship of the true religion, he erected a temple in the city near the forum, dedicated to Saints Gervasius and Protasius, in which he healed the blind, the deaf, the mute, and the sick of every kind by the laying on of hands and by the sign of the Cross in the manner of the Apostles..."
[4] "For the supreme felicity of Vigilius there remained Rendena, a province indeed most rugged and not to be subdued without heavy toil... Vigilius therefore prepares himself for the difficult expedition, in which he perceived that much labor but more blood would have to be expended. In the province of Rendena, Wherefore, as if about to march into battle, having joined to himself in the peril Julian the Presbyter and his brothers Claudianus and Magorianus and other good citizens as a strong garrison, the city unwilling but God willing, he departed through the gate to ennoble the valley of Rendena with his slaughter... In a field there was a statue of exceptional size, made of bronze and wrought with great craftsmanship, They cast down the idol of Saturn. set up in the common name of all to Saturn, to whom the mountain people had been accustomed, by ancient and ancestral custom, to offer sacrifice. Those who had followed Vigilius set upon a splendid and memorable deed: they press the statue by force and, leaning on their shoulders, push it. Then the Bishop, author of so outstanding an exploit, with the help of Christian men, with great force thrust it out and broke it to pieces; and so that the memory of that idol might be utterly destroyed, he rolled it into the nearby river Sarca... Meanwhile, the crowd, aroused by the news of the statue's overthrow, rushed down and from all parts there was a concourse... all shouting furiously that the man who had violated the divinity of Saturn must be destroyed... and howling like wild beasts, using whatever fury supplied for the moment,
they seize weapons, rocks, and rakes... they hurl darts at his body, scatter stones, aim blows, vie to strike, Saint Vigilius is killed. to knock down the one who stands... Whence, although the people of Rendena assailed their Bishop with detestable ferocity, they nevertheless never saw him knocked from his stand: whom at last, diminished by the hurling of weapons and disfigured by blood flowing over his face and eyes, they buried under a heap of stones.
[5] But Claudianus and Magorianus, brothers of Vigilius, and the others who under his leadership had overthrown the idol of Saturn, Saint Claudianus with the others is in peril, terrified by the fury of the raging mob, earned the glory of Confessors. When news was brought to the city that the Bishop had perished among the rocks, having breathed out his soul, and that his companions, the survivors of so great a disaster, were trembling in the utmost danger, at such a mournful report there arose an outcry and a rush to the forum. A new grief seized the entire city, so that through every household there was weeping and clamor resounded... soldiers must be conscripted, citizens with a levy of young men must be sent to rescue the body and carry it on their shoulders into the city, and to protect his companions from further harm. While the leaders were occupied with these matters, there unexpectedly arrived letters reporting that after the slaying of the Bishop, the violence in Rendena had ceased and there was no further cause for alarm; from which the city, which had before been in turmoil, somewhat calmed down at this news. Meanwhile the companions of the Bishop, They carry the body of Saint Vigilius to Trent. whom the fury of the mob had spared, carried his body, filled with gore, through the valleys back to Trent... The city of Trent, rendered illustrious by the deeds of this Roman citizen and its own Bishop, left nothing undone in so great a crisis that might pertain to his honor... the funeral was borne through the city on the shoulders of the priests, and having been eulogized from the rostrum according to custom, they placed it in a tomb... And the temple that had formerly been dedicated to Saints Gervasius and Protasius was consecrated to Saint Vigilius with a changed name. So much from Pyrrhus Pincius. In the manuscript of Saint Maximin it is said that his companions received a shower of stones and a multitude of blows, but that none of them suffered the bruise of any wound, yet they did not lack the reward of the Confessor.
[6] These things from the Acts of Saint Vigilius, which are to be given more fully on June 26, when each detail will have to be examined more carefully, especially those that will be required for duly ordering the chronology. Saint Magorianus, the other brother, is venerated on March 15, and their mother, Saint Maxentia the widow, on April 30. It is fitting to conclude with Ferrarius, who adds the following about Saint Claudianus: "After the death of Saint Vigilius, having lived for some time at Trent occupied in works of piety, he was at last summoned from this mortal life to the heavenly one and fell asleep in the Lord on the day before the Nones of March." Nicolaus Brautius, Bishop of Sarsina, celebrates him in his Poetic Martyrology with this couplet:
"Born of a holy mother, he saw his brother precede him, Illustrious by martyrdom; he grieves to survive."
Note*Variant reading: "terrified."