Bernulf

CONCERNING S. BERNULF, BISHOP OF ASTI, MARTYR, PATRON OF MONDOVI, IN PIEDMONTESE LIGURIA.

NINTH CENTURY

Bernulf, Bishop of Asti, Martyr, Patron of Mondovi in Piedmontese Liguria (S.)

[1] Ferrarius in his General Catalogue thus begins this day: At Monte-Vici in Liguria, of S. Bernulf, Bishop and Martyr, Patron of that city: and notes that Monte-Vici, which is also called Mons-Regalis, commonly Mondovi, is a city by no means obscure in the Piedmontese region, S. Bernulf the Martyr once celebrated for its Academy, I add, and from the year 1388 adorned with an episcopal See. Ferrarius admits, however, that it has not yet been possible to know of which See S. Bernulf was Bishop. Ughelli, volume 4 of Sacred Italy, column 1519, discourses admirably on the origin of Mondovi, and at column 479 establishes S. Bernulf as the eighth Bishop Bishop of Asti of Asti in the same Piedmontese region, in these words: S. Bernulf, whom the city of Mondovi venerates as its patron Saint, was in the opinion of some a Bishop of Asti, and died for Christ at the hands of the Saracens, who then held Fraxinetum and other neighboring places, while he was visiting his Church: whose sacred relics rest under an altar in the church of Mondovi, although the manner of his martyrdom or the time at which he suffered is not established: it is established, however, that the Saracens flooded that region. Ughelli places S. Bernulf between Evasius II and Eilulf, of whom the former subscribed to a donation of the Emperor Charlemagne made to the Novalesa Abbey in the year 810, the latter countersigned a donation of a certain Priest named Dettoardo in the month of March in the sixth year of the Emperor Louis the Pious, that is, the year of Christ 819. His successor is said to be Roserius, of whom Ughelli has the following: the Saracens raging in the ninth century In the year 835, Roserius, when the Transpadane Bishops were preparing an expedition against the Saracens who had occupied Fraxinetum and vexed the Province with perpetual raids, having mustered forces from the territories of his Church, brought aid, and being more powerful than all, rendered the principal service in routing them. Returning thence to Asti, when he learned that Savona was being besieged by the same Saracens, he proceeded there with his men and liberated the city, but worn out by labor and age, he departed this life on the very return journey. Philibert Pignorius agrees with this in his Augusta of Turin, page 24, reporting the following: In the year of Christ 825, the Saracens so ravaged the shores of Italy with hostile incursions that even the Bishops were compelled to go to defend them; and among the rest, Claudius, Bishop of Turin, at the beginning of spring, hastened to drive them away with an armed force of Turinese, and was no less zealous with the sword than with the pen. So says Pignorius from the writings, indeed the very words, of Bishop Claudius himself: whom the writers of his time — Jonas, Dungalus, Strabo, and others — attacked as adhering to the iconoclasts. Meanwhile the times are shown in which the Saracens were raging, by whom S. Bernulf could have been captured and killed in hatred of the Christian faith, killed. especially if Roserius was made the tenth Bishop of Asti around the year 836, whose successor Stauratus would then conveniently be substituted, to whom the Emperor Louis II at Pavia granted ample privileges in the year 862, as the diploma published by Ughelli records. But the year 858 is given by Francis Augustin of the Church, Bishop of Saluzzo, in his Chronological History of the Piedmontese Region, chapter 11, but, which we find surprising, S. Bernulf is placed by him as the third Bishop of Asti, whose body lies in the Cathedral of Mondovi, formerly of the diocese of Asti. But the former account is supported by the Acts of the martyrdom of S. Bernulf, collected from various sources and written with great judgment by Philip Malabayla, Visitor General of the reformed Congregation Acts of martyrdom written. of S. Bernard of the Cistercian Order: whose Congregation's Abbot General was then Joannes Bona, born at Mondovi, and Consultor of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, a man celebrated for his learning, prudence, and humanity: by whom we too were aided in many things, both at Rome and after our return thence to Belgium.

ACTS OF MARTYRDOM

By Philip Malabayla.

Bernulf, Bishop of Asti, Martyr, Patron of Mondovi in Piedmontese Liguria (S.)

[1] That a Saracen fleet in the ninth century after the birth of Christ sailed from Spain to the coast of the Ligurian Sea, The Saracens occupy part of Liguria: and having made a landing, stormed the town of Fraxinetum near the city of Nice, and having established their headquarters there, held that same Ligurian coast and the sea itself in terror for a long time, is established by the testimony of many historians. But in what manner the same Saracens advanced into the interior of Liguria, and for how long they raged there, the martyrdom of S. Bernulf, of which we have undertaken to treat, seems to require that we explain briefly. Fraxinetum was a town having behind it a harbor of considerable length and safety, and above it a mountain or cliff on which S. Hospitius had led a hermit's life. Whence a fortress placed on the mountain was called Saint-Hospitius, but after the Saracens had been defeated and expelled, because in that conflict the multitude of those who had fallen furnished new material for tears and sighs, it was commonly called San-Sospir:

and the town itself is no longer called Fraxinetum but Villefranche. From this place, therefore, which besides other advantages was made safe by a vast forest, the Saracens not only ravaged the nearby villages or strongholds, but also Nice itself, Sospello, and the other places between the sea and the Apennines, first plundering them, then allured by the sweetness of plunder they sought Tenda, situated at the foot of the Apennines: from which, through the Alps, by the road called the Col overhanging them, observing that a passage into sub-Alpine Italy lay open, strengthened by new reinforcements and having crossed the Col itself, they descended into the plain of the Ligurian Vagienni below.

[2] There, with the Kings of Italy occupied elsewhere, and the peoples without a leader daring nothing, in the place of the city now of Mondovi they became so powerful that, having passed beyond the river Ellero, by which the foot of that mountain is washed on which four centuries later Mondovi was founded, near the little river Poliola, about a mile distant, they established a garrison for their new nation; that is, having built a fortress there so large that it could continuously hold at least five hundred soldiers; they build a fortress: and so strong and fortified that it was equal to any attacks of enemies and to sustaining a long siege. In the middle of this, for a watchtower and last refuge, they raised a very high tower, which, when the fortress itself was finally stormed by the neighboring peoples, roused at last by the continual disasters and perpetual sacrileges, and the Saracens slaughtered to a man, remained intact, as evidence of the matter rather than for any use, whence it is still called the Saracen Tower.

[3] From that fortress, therefore, they continually raided the surrounding region for many years: hostile above all to men and sacred things, and not only devastated nearby places with plundering and fires, by these the Novalesa monks were killed but sometimes inflicted the same destruction on more remote ones. For having reached the Novalesa Abbey, they made Martyrs of Christ of all the monks who had remained (for most had hastened to flee to Turin with the more precious furnishings). They also so devastated the city of Alba the city of Alba devastated, that, since its Bishop was compelled to cultivate the earth with his own hands to obtain his livelihood, Pope Benedict VI, so that that Church might rise again to its former state, united it to the Church of Asti.

[4] By these enemies of Christ, therefore, S. Bernulf was crowned with martyrdom, as the constant tradition of that region attests: S. Bernulf killed with others, according to which some other faithful were also killed for the name of Christ by the same Saracens: whose names have been lost. But the bodies, together with the body of S. Bernulf himself, were at that time buried in a certain chapel, constructed near the same little river Poliola. bodies in a chapel; But when very many citizens of various cities of Cisalpine Gaul, in order to avoid civil discords and the perpetual disasters arising from them, as well as inhabitants of some neighboring places, joined together into one people at that mountain, then called Vici, afterwards Regalis; the same sacred bodies were translated to the principal church at that time, one day to become the Cathedral, then placed in the altar of the church. and placed under the high altar; with only the head of S. Bernulf stored away in the sacristy with other relics, to be displayed on appointed days and shown to the people approaching to kiss it.

[5] Not content with this, the people of Mondovi built and dedicated a new church under the invocation of S. Bernulf himself: a church erected to him. at which especially his solemn feast would be observed, as of the Saint whom they had chosen as their special Patron: and this not only because they possessed his Relics as a firm pledge of hoped-for patronage; but also because, while as a good Pastor of that region he visited his flock, he had consecrated their land with his blood. his feast celebrated on March 24: That this happened on the twenty-fourth day of March the Calendar of an ancient Breviary indicates: in which on that day his feast is appointed to be celebrated annually, as of a holy Bishop and Martyr.

[6] That he was a Bishop of Asti should be held for certain: the Bishopric of Asti, for the city of Mondovi itself with its entire diocese, up to the year thirteen hundred and eighty-eight, was subject to the Church of Asti, both in spiritual and temporal jurisdiction and dominion.

[7] Imitating the example of their ancestors in venerating S. Bernulf, their descendants, a silver statue in the church of the Blessed Virgin of Vico. when the Blessed Virgin at the same part of Vico (for its buildings or blocks are not in close proximity but are inhabited in scattered fashion), which is properly called Vico, exhibited her image, celebrated and venerable throughout the whole Christian world for the unheard-of frequency and magnitude of its miracles; they had a silver statue of S. Bernulf himself, of nearly life size, skillfully made, and with a particle of the Relics of the same Saint, and with a silver statue of S. Donatus also, of equal height (because their Cathedral is dedicated to God under the name of this Saint), they offered it to the most Blessed Virgin of Vico: so that by this pious offering they might earn the favor of both these holy Bishops, their particular Patrons, and of the same most sacred Virgin, the common Advocate of Christians.