CONCERNING SAINT FIRMIAN OR FIRMIN OR FIRMANUS, ABBOT.
CommentaryFirmian, or Firmin, or Firmanus, Abbot (Saint)
[1] Among other records which the Reverend Fathers of the Theatines, or Clerks Regular, communicated to us at Naples in the year 1661 with the greatest benevolence, collected from various places all around by Antonio Caracciolo, was the ancient Martyrology of Pleschion, written in Lombardic script on parchment: from which, for this day, besides various Martyrs The name in manuscript Martyrologies of whom we have treated above, we have transcribed the following: On the same day, the birthday of Saint Firmian the Abbot. The same, and indeed him alone, Saint Firmian the Abbot, we found inscribed in an ancient manuscript Calendar which was prefixed to the works of Saint Isidore of Seville, preserved at Rome in the Vallicellian library of the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory. In a manuscript Martyrology of the Medicean library of the Grand Duke of Etruria we read as follows: Likewise, of Saint Firmin the Abbot. From another manuscript Martyrology of Florence belonging to the most illustrious Charles Strozzi, and in the Martyrology printed at Florence in the year 1486 by
Francis de Bonaccursiis the Priest, we have transcribed the following: Likewise, of Saint Firmin the Abbot, a man of great holiness.
[2] Behold the ancient testimonies of the veneration of Saint Firmian or Firmin the Abbot: but to which Order or region he is to be ascribed is not added in the said Martyrologies. Galesinius was the first who reports him with a place attached, as follows: In the territory of Amiens, of Saint Firmin the Abbot and Confessor. In the Notes, Galesinius indicates that he has these things from a Calendar of Amiens. whether he lived at Amiens Baronius trusted Galesinius, and with the same words, omitting the name of Confessor, inserted him in the Roman Martyrology; and in the Notes he added the following: Concerning him, the Calendar of the Church of Amiens, and other old monuments of the same. We have Breviaries printed for the use of the Church of Amiens in the year 1550 and 1554, whose Calendars for this March 11 are blank. But on the Kalends of September the feast of Saint Firmin the Bishop and Confessor is celebrated, and on September 25 that of Saint Firmin the Bishop and Martyr, and on the Ides of January the feast of the Finding of the same Saint Firmin, in both cases with an Octave, or as it is there called a Septave, because the solemnity is concluded on the seventh day. Furthermore, when we consulted Ecclesiastical men of Amiens, we received the response that nothing is known about Firmin the Abbot. Meanwhile, on the authority of the double Martyrology already cited, the same Saint Firmin the Abbot is inscribed in the monastic Martyrologies by Wion, Dorganius, Menard, and Bucelin, as also in the Gallican Martyrology by Saussay, with this amplification: At Amiens, of Saint Firmin the Abbot, who cultivated the monastic life most holily, and after he had begotten many sons for Christ under regular discipline, having completed his pious labors, he rested happily in the Lord. We have omitted the place in the title, fearing lest Galesinius, whom the rest have followed, may have fallen into error on account of Saint Firmin the Bishop of Amiens.
[3] or rather in Picenum Other thoughts, to be compared with the Martyrologies written in Italy related above, are suggested by Ferrarius both in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy and in the General Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology: in the latter he has these few words: In Picenum, of Saint Firmanus the Confessor. In the former he reports somewhat more in these words: Firmanus, born at Fermo in Picenum, flourished with admirable holiness, mentioned by Saint Peter Damian? who was enrolled among the Confessors not by solemn rite, but only by the erection of an altar or chapel. Saint Peter Damian makes mention of him, before whose times he lived. In the Notes to the General Catalogue he adds that he is reported from the Records of certain Churches, and that he is called a native of Fermo, although he is in no way described in the Records of the Church of Fermo. Saint Peter Damian treats of him in Opuscule 6 to Henry, Bishop of Ravenna, where in chapter 29, concerning certain holy men who then flourished, he writes thus: Indeed in our age blessed men, namely Romuald of Camerino, Amicus of Ramibona, Guido of Pomposa, Firmanus of Fermo, and very many others of holy life: upon whose venerable bodies, by the authority of the Priestly council, sacred altars have been erected, where indeed the divine mysteries are offered as miracles require. Baronius, having adduced that passage in his Annals for the year 993, number 8, asserts that to grant permission by synodal decree for an altar to be erected over the body of the deceased was itself equivalent to numbering him among the Saints: so that an anniversary commemoration might be held for them. Of these the first seems to be Saint Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese Order, who died in the monastery of Castro de Valle in the territory of Camerino: in whose Life, written by the same Peter Damian and illustrated by us for February 7, it is said at number 105 that five years after the death of the holy man, permission was given to the monks by the Apostolic See to construct an altar over his venerable body. This was done in the year 1032. But in some editions of Peter Damian, Rondaldus is read for Romuald, as if he were another from Saint Romuald. Likewise he who is named in second place, Amicus of Ramibona, reported by Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy for November 2, is called of Arabona from the Arabona Abbey in Picenum. But Saint Guido of Pomposa, Abbot, died in the territory of Ravenna in the year 1046, either the day after or the day before the Kalends of April, unless this day be that of the Translation, which we shall examine in that place. In that century, therefore, Saint Firmanus lived, who seems to us to be called of Fermo because he lived as an Abbot somewhere in the parts of the March of Fermo (as Peter Damian calls it in the Life of Saint Romuald, number 53) or (as Saint Antoninus calls it) in the March of Fermo, above called Firmianus and Firminus, and by all reported for this March 11.