ON ST. ELIAS, BISHOP OF SION, IN THE DIOCESE OF NOVARA IN ITALY.
CommentarySt. Elias, Bishop of Sion, in the diocese of Novara in Italy.
[1] Where the present-day dominion of the Duchy of Milan extends to the Alps, it contains various lakes, and among them the Verbanus, now called Lago Maggiore, from which, toward the West, a certain smaller lake is not far distant, commonly the Lake of Orta or of St. Julius, having taken its names from Orta, a little town, and from the island of St. Julius situated opposite Orta. In this island rests the body of St. Julius the Priest, whose Life we gave on the 31st of January, and treated at length of these territories. That St. Elias is venerated on this day in the same island Ferrari writes in the general Catalog in these words: Sacred cult At Orta, in the Island of St. Julius, of St. Elias, Bishop of Sion. Saussay has somewhat more in the Supplement of the Gallican Martyrology: At the island of Orta in the diocese of Novara, of St. Elias, Bishop of Sion and Confessor, resting there: who, having laid down his Episcopate out of humility, undertook the office of Priest in that place, and buried St. Audentius, shining with blessed glorification, with funeral rites. Carlo Bascapè, Bishop of Novara, and Count of Riviera and Orta, in book 1 of his Novaria, page 183, relates these things of St. Elias: In the place of St. Julius had succeeded Elias the Priest, who out of Christian charity received the body of St. Audentius (which his household, remembering the saying of St. Julius, an account of his deeds: transferred from Milan to the Island) and buried it beside St. Julius… his feast day is celebrated on the 6th of the Kalends of December. To Elias himself also a day is consecrated, the 13th of the Kalends of April, as to a hermit: but since over the altar dedicated to his name in the church of St. Julius there was an old image of him as of a pilgrim, a mitre was still placed at his feet, and under it these letters were written: ST. ELIAS, BISHOP OF SION: which indeed display an age of two hundred years. But whether he was a Bishop, and how, having left his Episcopate, he came here as into a desert, I have so far found nothing certain. I indeed learned from a Canon of Sion that Elias, Bishop of Sion, is held for a Saint, and is said to have been buried in the territory of Milan; although he is referred to much later times: but when I had had the catalog of those Bishops brought to me by another way, I found no Elias. So far Bishop Carlo. We assigned the death of St. Julius to about the beginning of the fifth century, in whose place, if Elias had succeeded, he would necessarily have lived in the same fifth century, which others below do not admit.
[2] Now Sion is an Episcopal city among the Alpine mountains on the Rhône, the capital of the Valais, The Episcopate of Sion: who have long since lived confederated with the Swiss, and reach as far as the borders of the territory of Milan. The catalogs of this Episcopate hitherto printed are very imperfect, and teem with many errors: in Claude Robert, in Gallia Christiana, the name of Elias is lacking; in the Sainte-Marthe brothers it has been intruded after Theodulus (who is set down as having died in the year 806) and Garinus, created Bishop from a Religious of the Cistercian Order, and buried in the monastery of the Valley of the Alps in the year 901. Meanwhile it is certain that the Cistercian Order was only begun by St. Robert, Abbot of Molesme, in the year 1098. After these things it is added in the Sainte-Marthe brothers: The 19th Bishop, St. Helias, of the diocese of Novara, rests among the Insubrians not far from Lago Maggiore, in a place named Orta, where also the body of St. Gaudentius is held in veneration. Then follow Manfred at the year 921, Villencus at the year 30, Amadeus at the year 40 of the same century. age uncertain. But in the little account of St. Helias, besides the reckoning of time, there are several errors: he does not rest in the little town of Orta, but in the Island of St. Julius, and perhaps in the County of Orta; nor is the body of St. Gaudentius there, who rests at Novara and is venerated on the 22nd of January, but that of St. Audentius, brought from Milan to the Island of St. Julius: finally, although these places are under the Dukes of Milan, yet the Insubrians did not formerly inhabit them, but the Lepontii, who have as neighbors the Seduni on the North and the Insubrians on the South: who, however, everywhere designate the inhabitants of the whole Duchy of Milan. Gabriel Bucelin, in part 1 of Germania Sacra, published the Bishops of Sion at page 58, and places Elias after William, who is said to have flourished in the year 1188, and Udo, made Bishop in the year 1194. And then it is said: the 27th Bishop, Blessed Elias, a most holy man, died in Italy. And then are set down Guarinus, formerly Abbot in Italy, and Landridus, made Bishop in the year 1216. Francesco Agostino della Chiesa, Bishop of Saluzzo, in the Chronological History, chapter 44, records the Bishops of Sion, and after the year 909 and Amiso places St. Helias, whose bones rest at Orta among the Insubrians. And then he subjoins Anno at the year 959.