ON SAINT LITIFREDUS OR LIUTFREDUS, BISHOP OF PAVIA IN ITALY,
ABOUT THE YEAR 874.
Historical Synopsis.
Litifredus or Liutfredus, Bishop of Pavia in Italy (Saint)
[1] Pavia, anciently Ticinum, an illustrious city of Italy, on this day celebrates with Ecclesiastical Office under the double rite Saint Litifredus or Liutfredus, its own Bishop; whose unknown homeland, together with Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, Bishop Brautius of Sarsina extols in this distich in his Poetical Martyrology: Sacred cult.
"Among the virtues, patience alone could Make illustrious the Father of an unknown homeland."
His Acts and virtues are contained in this brief compendium in a printed booklet, Acts: entitled Breviary of the Holy Bishops of the Church of Ticinum, which in that very city of Ticinum was given to us by the author, a Canon of the Cathedral Church. The following is read there:
[2] Litifredus from boyhood gave the most brilliant indications of future holiness. As a young man, educated in sacred letters, he dedicated himself entirely to Christ. He bears injuries with great patience: Having obtained the Episcopate of the Church of Ticinum on account of his outstanding gifts of soul, he shone with remarkable splendor of piety, patience, and gentleness. In fear and justice he prepared his soul and humbled his heart to endure temptations. When a certain man well-disposed toward him, grieving for his lot, because he was vexed by many annoyances, said: "The good would live in peace if the wicked were removed from their midst," the most pious Pastor, illuminated by heavenly light, replied that the death of the wicked was not to be desired, since by their persecutions the good are tested, as gold in a furnace.
[3] Warned in his sleep, he translated the body of Saint Honorata, the sister of Saint Epiphanius (who as an infant had been handed over by the same Epiphanius to the equally holy Virgin Sisters, he translates the body of Saint Honorata: the nuns Luminosa and Liberata, to be educated in the monastery of Saint Vincent, and commended to Speciosa, who in her own house had a celibate spouse), having proclaimed a three-day fast and the heavenly vision having been made known to the people, from the same monastery of Saint Vincent to the old convent of Saint Mary of the Histories in solemn procession, on the day before the Ides of January. In this Translation God attested the holiness of the Virgin by a miracle. For at the entrance of the public courtyard near the Basilica of Saint Nicholas situated in the same courtyard, with the Clergy preceding with lights by placing his cloak on top he makes it movable: and the people devoutly following, the body stood still so long and immovable that those carrying the sacred pledge could not proceed further, until the holy Bishop placed his own cloak upon it. He sat for nineteen years, revered for outstanding piety and holiness, and on the eighth day before the Ides of March he rested in the Lord with a glorious end, in the year eight hundred and fifty, and was buried in the Cathedral under the sacristy beside Saint Armentarius in the same chest.
[4] So it reads there, to which similar things are reported by Stephen Breventanus in book 2 of the History of Pavia, chapter 21; James Gualla in book 2 of the Sanctuary of Pavia, chapter 3; Anthony Maria Spelta in the Lives of the Bishops of Pavia, number 34; and Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on this March 8. These generally assign only ten years to his Episcopate, and subtract from the year of his death, which seems to be established as the seventy-fourth after the eight-hundredth, or some one of the next following years. died around the year 874. For Pope John VIII, created on December 14 of the year 872, in letter 149, written in Indiction 11, the year 878, to John, Bishop of Pavia, indicates that the former had still been alive five years before. We give the letter itself in full, since it is brief, and it is as follows: "To John, venerable Bishop of Ticinum. The bearer of the present letter, coming before us, says that he was subjected to penance five years ago by your predecessor, the venerable Bishop Liuttfred, Having obtained John as his successor. for a certain matter, because he was present when a thief was killed by a woman: concerning which matter, let your fraternity look into it carefully. And if it is as this man asserts, on account of the mercy of the Lord, which is great, deal more considerately with him, and as the order of the case shall dictate, relax the restraint of canonical rigor; or if anything, which we do not wish, shall be judged impossible, let your fraternity take care to reserve it for our judgment with gentleness of spirit." So Pope John VIII, from which it is certainly established both that Saint Liutfred pronounced sentence on the case carried out in the year 873, and that in the year 878 John was presiding over the Church of Pavia, and consequently that Saint Liutfred departed this life in some intermediate year. Concerning the above-mentioned Saint Honorata we treated on January 11, and concerning Saint Epiphanius, Bishop of Ticinum, on January 21.
[5] Concerning the Translation of the bodies of Saints Armentarius and Litifredus, Bishops, there is an account in the said Breviary of the Holy Bishops of the Church of Ticinum, The bodies of Saints Armentarius and Litifredus, which we insert here, because formerly, when we were publishing the Acts of the Saints of the month of January, on whose thirtieth day Saint Armentarius is venerated, we had not yet obtained them. They are as follows:
The bodies of Saints Armentarius and Litifredus, Bishops of Pavia, having lain for a long time in a chapel erected beneath the sacristy by the second Saint Crispinus in the basilica of Saint Mary of the People, and the same basilica having been deconsecrated by age in the year fifteen hundred and seventy-five, the same chapel remained uncared for. When, however, the Clerics admitted to the service of the Cathedral had learned from the elder Ordinaries that the body of Saint Armentarius lay hidden there, cleaning the chapel, they placed lights on his feast day out of veneration. When Bishop Fabritius learned of this, at the urging of the Clergy of the Cathedral Church, visiting the same chapel with Pastoral solicitude and examining it most diligently, he saw near the pavement a marble stone. Taking this as a sign to dig up the earth, he ordered it to be dug, and when a marble chest was uncovered, he sealed the chapel and departed. The next day the Bishop returned, by Bishop Fabritius, and as the chest was uncovered, experts in the Annals of Ticinum came forward, affirming that in the chest of Saint Armentarius the body of Saint Litifredus, the first of this name, was also deposited, proving this from annals, histories, and authentic writings: that if there were not two bodies, the body of Saint Armentarius would by no means be in that chest. The work begun was completed, and when the chest was opened, a sweet fragrance was wafted forth, and the Bishop, looking in with the Clergy and Patricians, saw that the sacred bones which lay within indicated two distinct bodies, and these were clearly confirmed to be two bodies buried in ash and haircloth by the readers of bodily dissections called for this purpose. Then the Bishop with the Ordinaries and Mansionaries, placed on the main altar, having carried them with the greatest solemnity into the church, venerated them placed upon the greater altar. While a proper altar was being erected, those holy pledges remained visible to the entire populace for several days; and a great multitude of people, moved by the fame of this event, gathered there, eagerly striving to touch those sacred pledges with rosaries, chaplets, and clean handkerchiefs, they are renowned for miracles: and many who were sick with various diseases were made whole and healthy.
[6] When this was done, the Bishop with the Clergy, the assembly with an innumerable multitude of people, with a procession of Patricians arranged, proceeding solemnly with hymns, musical songs, they are carried with solemn pomp to their own altar in the year 1636: trumpets, and lights, translated the sacred bodies, placed in a leaden casket within the same marble chest in which they had been found, to their own altar in the Cathedral, on the ninth day before the Kalends of May in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-six. There, when the Bishop had completed the solemnities both of Masses and of Vespers, and the relics had been honorably placed, vows were offered by all who implored their help. On the following day of the same year, a devout young woman, in the eighteenth year of her age, devoted to the Saints, drawing water from a well, being unable to plant her foot on the polished and moistened marble (because it was then raining), slipped into the well, which was fifteen cubits deep. As she was falling headlong, imploring the help of the Virgin Mother and of the Saints Armentarius and Litifredus, the danger of drowning was averted. she seemed to be let down by the rosary which she wore around her neck, because the day before it had been sanctified by the touch of the sacred Bodies. Standing in the well, she found that she had the rosary in her hands. The young girl cried out, and the source of her cries was unknown. The mistress of the house and neighbors rushed to her, and extracting her unharmed, proclaiming God wonderful in his Saints, they fulfilled their vows.