CONCERNING ST. MAURICILIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF MILAN.
AROUND THE YEAR 670
CommentaryMauricilius, Archbishop of Milan (Saint)
[1] Josephus Ripamontius, having extensively treated the deeds and death of St. John the Good, Archbishop of Milan, in part one of the Histories of the Church of Milan, book 8, transmits the following brief notice at the end of the said book about three successors: "After Bonus comes Antoninus Fontana, then after him Mauricillus, after Mauricillus Ampelius, all bishops of short tenure, and known for no other reason than their reputation for sanctity and vigilance." The said Archbishops have their veneration among the Lombards: John the Good on the tenth of January, Sacred cult: Antoninus on the thirty-first of October, Ampelius on the eighth of July, and Mauricilius on the thirty-first of March: on which day St. Mauricilius, Bishop and Confessor of Milan, is set forth in the Calendar of the Ambrosian Missal printed in the year 1560. He is meanwhile absent from the Martyrology of Peter Galesinius, who as Apostolic Protonotary subscribed on behalf of the most illustrious Archbishop the Table of Archbishops published by decree of the fourth Provincial Council in the year 1584, in which the following is read: "St. Mauricilius, illustrious for the renown of his very great virtues, eulogy: elected Archbishop by the Clergy with the highest unanimity and confirmed by the Pontiff, sat four months with great testimony of his sanctity. He died in the Lord on the day before the Kalends of April, buried in the church of St. Satyrus." The same is printed among the Synodal Acts of St. Charles Borromeo, part 2, page 840; and similar accounts are given by Joannes de Deis and Franciscus Besutius concerning the Archbishops of Milan, likewise by Ferrari in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, who also included him in his General Catalogue.
[2] Concerning the time of his tenure nothing certain can be established, because we said on the tenth of January that an accurate reckoning of time cannot be made for St. John the Good: time of tenure: his successor St. Antoninus was consecrated on the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist and sat three or four years -- authors vary: his successor St. Mauricilius is reported to have obtained his confirmation from Pope Adeodatus or his successor Donus. But Besutius establishes that he sat and indeed died in the year 667, when Pope St. Vitalian presided over the Church, which is not disapproved by us: because we said that St. John the Good appears to have departed this life around the year 659.
[3] Paul Morigius, in his Sanctuary of Milan, pages 54 and following, reports that the body of St. Mauricilius is still preserved in the church of St. Satyrus, brother of St. Ambrose, body in the church of St. Satyrus. and cites these words from the Vatican library: "Aspertus, having been created Archbishop, built a church in honor of St. Satyrus, brother of the divine Ambrose, and placed in it the body of St. Mauricilius the Archbishop." Ripamontius, book 9, page 600, asserts that Archbishop Anspertus established temples, which still remain, to the divine Satyrus and the divine Sylvester. Aspertus, or Anspertus, is reported to have been created in the year 870, and to have sat for thirteen years.