Aldebrand

ON SAINT ALDEBRAND

BISHOP OF FOSSOMBRONE IN UMBRIA.

12TH CENTURY.

Aldebrand, Bishop of Fossombrone in Italy (St.)

D. P.

[1] Forum-Sempronii, an ancient municipality of the Romans, on the river Metaurus on the Flaminian way, commonly called Fossombrone, is distant from Urbino, (to whose Duchy it is reckoned) about eight miles, and from the times of Pope Symmachus, Although the series of Bishops uncertain, at the beginning of the sixth century, is known to have had its own Bishops, when Felicissimus and Innocentius Bishops of Fossombrone are found to have been present at three Roman Synods. The series thence is had neither continuous nor sufficiently certain. So that not even concerning St. Aldebrand, whom that Church venerates as Patron on these Kalends of May, is the time in which he sat found out. John Baptist Lando, created Bishop of Fossombrone in the year 1633, in the Catalogue which he submitted to Ferdinand Ughelli, to be inserted in volume 2 of Sacred Italy, places him and Richard in the 13th century, between Monaldus and Gentile: but by mere, as it appears, conjecture, and which it is not difficult, the calculations of Chronology being applied, to overthrow.

[2] There is extant a diploma of Pope Honorius III to Monaldus, and the autograph is kept in the archive of the Church, yet it is proved that Aldebrand is wrongly deferred to the 13th century, given in the 8th year of his Pontificate, which was of Christ 1224. There is extant to Gentile a Brief of Alexander IV given in his first year on the 2nd of the Ides of March, and so in the year of Christ 1255. How much before this one, how much after that one sat, is not known: yet it seems much if twelve or thirteen years by conjecture you interpose: but these as Richard could easily have filled, since he could not have been Bishop for a long time, whom most confess to have instituted his life from the order of St. Francis: so that they are too narrow for the Episcopate of St. Aldebrand we must necessarily confess, if we consider what in the Acts to be brought forth below in num. 4 is said, that, before he died, he had lived for the space of about a hundred years. It appears moreover from the same that he was elected in flourishing age, since he was Provost of Rimini and publicly preached to the people, in the square before the church, with so great freedom of speaking, that he had it necessary to withdraw himself from the eyes and hands of the raging crowd from the pulpit to the bell-tower of the church: which sufficiently argue a vigor of mind by no means senile, much less of decrepit age.

[3] Let us see therefore whether the light, which the people of Fossombrone deny, as he could have at the confine of the 11th and 12th century, we can find among the people of Rimini. Cesare Clementini, author of the History of Rimini book 3, thus writes of him. In the year one thousand one hundred nineteen Aldobrand, once Canon and Provost elected, according to the custom of the Chapter of Rimini, and afterward Bishop of Fossombrone, on the first day of May passing to the heavenly life, was enrolled among the Blessed. Thus he perhaps from the monuments of the church or city of Rimini itself: whom we can the more securely believe, the greater the gap at the confine of the 11th and 12th century the Catalogue of the people of Fossombrone exhibiting, affords a more convenient place for his however distant Episcopate. For between Fulcuinus, who in the year 1076 sent as legate to the Synod of Salona, there by the power made him by the Pontiff declared Demetrius King of Dalmatia and Croatia, as Baronius has; and Gualfridus, to whom Duke Guaimer gave four Castles in the year 1140, you will easily find forty years, which you may so attribute to St. Aldebrand, that elected about the year 1080, until 1119 he came: then either Gualfridus he had as successor, or some other before this one, whose name has fallen out.

[4] But if it is allowed to suspect, that Cesare, in noting the year, followed the somewhat older Rubeus author of the History of Ravenna, Rubeus from conjecture alone, from whom he seems to have borrowed the last lines, and corrected him in this only, that there he places his death, where Rubeus seems to place his election as Provost; and so this year you may say to be uncertain, you will be able to retain Aldebrand even for fifty and more years in the Episcopate. Rubeus certainly, for making in such a year mention of Aldebrand elected as Provost, nothing else moved, than the opportunity of the place, where he had described, how the order of the Canons of Porto Paschal II in the year 1114 confirmed, and four years after a Rule prescribed to the same by Peter of Ravenna: under which since the discipline of the new institution flourished, it was brought about that, adding him to the Porto Regulars, very many flowed together to the monastery of Porto, and gave themselves into the discipline of its Canons. But this when he had said, in the very year in which the founder Peter died 1119, he adds; Among these Aldobrand is read to have been, who born in the town Sorbetulo of Bolium or Galliata near Cesena, and instructed in Grammar, into the Porto monastery, that he might make greater progress in letters and piety, betook himself.

[5] But assuredly nowhere is it read in the Acts, that Aldebrand was among those, against the faith of the Acts, who held the form of life instituted by Peter; nor anywhere any mention of the monastery, but only is named, study in the Canonica of St. Mary in Porto, where then the seven liberal arts were taught. But this Canonica and the study in it could have been of a much earlier time; and to it afterward that Peter by a vow built a monastery, in which the old ones perhaps having lapsed, the new Canons, not in that secular form as before, but regularly should live; when now Aldebrand in his Episcopate of Fossombrone was passing about the ninetieth year of his age. Certainly there is no appearance of truth, that the Canons of Rimini, whom no one with foundation would say were Regulars, would have wished to seek for themselves a Provost from the Regulars: and if you should feign that they wished, they ought to have sought him from a Prior or Abbot, but not (as the Acts say) from the Lord Doctor of that place.

[6] I know that the Canons Regular of the Lateran Congregation in the past century obtained, that concerning him as their own, it gave them cause of venerating him as their own on the 10th of May. they could keep the Office on the 10th of May: because the monastery of Porto, in the year 1420 almost desolate, passed to the Canons of the rule of B. Augustine and of the Congregation and Religion of the monastery of St. Mary of Frisonaria, as the Bull has in Pennotto part 3 chapter 16, num. 4, of which Congregation the appellation at length ceased in the more splendid name of St. John Lateran. Nor do I wish to controvert that with the best right whatever Canons Regular, who lived in monasteries, afterward united to their Congregation, they number among their own. One thing I say, that for asking the Office for St. Aldebrand no other foundation is brought forth, than the authority of Rubeus; who after the Rule ordained by Peter, brings him into the monastery of Porto. But this foundation is none: because it fights with the Acts, of which Pennotto himself, Annotation 16 on the proper Offices of his Order, says, that the same distributed into three Lessons the people of Fossombrone use, in an idiom indeed less polished, but which by its barbarity savors much of antiquity: from which Acts we have now shown, that among the Bishops of that church no place is found for St. Aldebrand, if he be believed to have come forth from the institution of Peter of Porto, begun only in the 12th century; because thus he could not have lived a very long time in the Provostship and Episcopate, which yet the aforesaid Acts require.

[7] Nonetheless Pennotto insists in the aforesaid Annotation, and proposes an argument, and that from ancient pictures no better confirmed. which in his judgment removes wholly all doubt: There is extant, he says, even today in the citadel of the city of Fossombrone a most ancient chapel, preserved from the relics of the ancient church of Fossombrone: in which chapel the body of B. Aldobrand at first was buried. There is extant the life of the same Saint, painted on the walls of the same chapel in most ancient images, with the miracles wrought through him. But all the images present him with the inner habit white, and with a small and white biretta (which was the ancient habit of the Canons of Porto) even constituted in the Episcopal dignity, so that there is no more place for doubting, that he was truly a Professed Canon of the Monastery of Porto. But I from pictures of this kind understand nothing else, than that the Saint is expressed in that habit which at Rimini using he was Provost, perhaps also at Ravenna a Canon: which habit, even after the Rule prescribed by Peter, there preserved it is fair to believe. But just as the older Canons before Peter I will not say were therefore Regulars, because the succeeding Regulars retained that habit which they themselves had worn; so Aldebrand I will not believe by the indication of such a habit to be certainly claimed for the Regulars, while stronger reasons fight to the contrary and those inevitable; unless one wish to tear up the faith of the Acts, without which the assertions of later authors are of no faith.

[8] Ughelli published those Acts in volume 2 of Sacred Italy, and we give them from him: and at the same time we suggest that the ancient church, of which Pennotto makes mention, The body translated with the Cathedral in the year 1392. was begun to be built by St. Aldebrand himself, and afterward consummated by the Archpriest Thomas Accarigi: whose Archpriest's age, if it were demonstrated from elsewhere, would perhaps bring not a little light to this argument. Concerning this therefore from the people of Fossombrone themselves we shall await whether they can teach us, from the monuments of their Chapter, making some mention of that Archpriest. Meanwhile Ughelli says column 910, that the Canons of Fossombrone (who are eleven besides the provost) that ancient Cathedral, in the times of Boniface IX, while for the new city new defenses were prepared, demolished: and the church of St. Maurentius, which was in the Villages, they erected into a Cathedral: and to the same the monastery of St. Benedict, with a revenue which for the Episcopal

table would suffice, they annexed in the year 1392 on the Ides of January. and from his name called the Cathedral. On which occasion was translated also the body of St. Aldebrand; and from then or at least after the restoration of the said Maurentian church, made I know not when, it began to be called the Cathedral Church of SS. Maurentius and Aldebrand: and both to be reckoned by common right Patrons of it: in which also is celebrated the feast of St. Aldebrand translated on the 13th of March; but of St. Maurentius the Martyr, whose body is had there, on the 31st of August, according to Ferrarius in the Catalogue.

[9] The Acts when written. The Acts when they say, that Aldebrand himself the Provost therefore preached at Rimini, because then there were no Mendicant Orders, not only prove that he flourished before, but moreover demonstrate that they were not written before the beginning of the 13th century. But how long after the year 1200 they were written, who would say, unless he know, in what year the people of Fano occupied the city of Fossombrone, and thence carried off the bells as at the end of num. 7 is said? Meanwhile I would scarce doubt that all were written before the year 1300, of which an epitome you will find in Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, after the memory of St. Aldebrand, as Patron of Fossombrone, inserted in the general Catalogue of Saints, who are not in the Roman Martyrology.

ACTS

From ancient MSS. published by Ughelli.

Aldebrand, Bishop of Fossombrone in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 0243

FROM FERD. UGHELLI.

[1] Saint Aldebrand, born in a certain castle, which is called Sorbetulo de Boybo a or de Galiata, of Romagna near Cesena; and instructed in grammar, went to the Study b in the Canonica of St. Mary of Porto of Ravenna, of the Province of Romagna, His studies at Ravenna being performed, where then the seven liberal arts were taught. And then the Canons of Rimini, lacking their Provost, did, as the other Chapters of the said province of Romagna, he is made Provost at Rimini; when they lacked their Prelates: and so they went to the aforesaid Canonica of Ravenna, and asked of the Lord Doctor of that place a man, fit and sufficient for their Provost. Counsel and deliberation being had, they gave them St. Aldebrand, knowing him to be holy and pious, and in sacred Theology and c in the Decretals found sufficiently skilled; and with devotion and reverence they received him as their Provost. And since this was, that then there were no Orders of Mendicants d, therefore he himself preached to his people of Rimini.

[2] where on account of his freedom of speaking imperiled of his life, And once preaching in the square before the church of the Canonica of Rimini itself (which today is called Alogia) and especially concerning the village of Pataranias, and that unjustly and undeservedly they detained the port of Rimini and part of the said square, which were goods of the said Chapter of Rimini; they rose up with fury unanimously, and wished to seize him: but he fleeing from the f gallery g recovered himself into the bell-tower of the said Chapter, in which he stood through the middle of the day. And seeing the people persevering wishing to slay him, fearing death he sought withdrawal from the city of Rimini. And going out of the city, he found in the street before the monastery h of St. Gaudentius messengers destined on the part of the Chapter i of Fossombrone and the people, and they knelt and presented to him the election of the Bishopric of Fossombrone. and thence going out he is sought for the Episcopate, But he first gave thanks to God, received and accepted the said postulation, with the intent of caring for the souls of this people, as he says: He who desires the Episcopate, desires a good work. 1. Tim. 3.

[3] And confirmed by the Pope k he disposed himself to work good: and then he began a great church, because before it was small, near the well of that church; which being accepted he builds the Cathedral, which great church he consummated with part of the roof; but the remainder with the walls consummated Lord Thomas Accarigi, Archpriest of the Chapter of Fossombrone l: and on account of his sanctity besides he granted to the Bishopric of Fossombrone the Mass estate of Sorbetulo. Among other things thus he acted: a beautiful little chamber in his room he had, and by night between the bed and the wall on a bench and twigs clothed he lay. he lives austerely, Flesh he did not eat, wine a little he did not taste, haircloth he wore, for the most part he fasted, and with cellar open for the poor he stood; to the houses of the poor he sent foods: on festival days to the people of Fossombrone he preached. And once preaching there were many swallows in the church singing, so that the people did not hear him preaching: he commanded that they be silent, and they were silent. to the noisy birds he commands silence, Once a day he gave audience, so that anyone could narrate his necessary affairs. A meek man he was and gracious.

[4] Afterward coming to the want of death, because he had lived for the space of about a hundred years, and because he tasted nothing, a certain partridge n cooked in two platters was presented that of it he might taste: but he looked upon it, and the cooked partridge he restored to life, and remembering that he was not accustomed to eat flesh, over it with his hand he made the sign of the Cross, and commanded that to the forest o it should return; and immediately it revived, and departed alive, flying before those present and standing by. And immediately he asked for fresh cherries, and they presented them to him. In the infirmity of his death and before living in sanctity, he frees demoniacs, there went to him demoniacs and those vexed by unclean spirits: and he looked upon them, and with a smile with the sign of the Cross signed them, on account of which God dismissed them unharmed. Many from Ancona and from other places, burdened with diverse infirmities, went to him, and freed they departed.

[5] At length rendering his soul to the Creator, on the night before, before the Kalends of May at the matutinal hour, dead he is illustrated with miracles: three bells, which were in the bell-tower of the church of the Bishopric of Fossombrone miraculously, no one touching them by themselves rang in chant, according to the custom for the dead. And in the morning his body was placed in the church, and raining it did not rain over the half of the church, which half was then uncovered and not consummated: and so on the Kalends of May he was buried: therefore on such a day his feast is celebrated. his wine by his merit is increased, And the body being buried, the Canons ordained that drink be given to many, who had come from the city of Urbino, Cagli, and their County: and from one vessel of wine of the capacity of four quarters there drank fully two thousand persons. And the wine of the said vessel not failing, a certain one from envy said: o devil! what is this, that this wine is not diminished? And then the wine in the said vessel began to fail.

[6] his sepulcher coruscates with heavenly light: Two years being passed the Sacristan coming to ring Matins, heard in the said church an Angelic chant, on account of which he feared: but going to the chamber of the Lord Archpriest, he called him, and he came leading with him the Canons: and standing before the door of the church they heard the divine chant, and great lights they saw in the said church over the sepulcher at the foot of the church of the said St. Aldebrand, over which sepulcher the roof of the church was not consummated. And entering the church they saw no one and further heard; but a great light stood over the said sepulcher, and they thought it was day: and the hour was matutinal. And no one of them spoke, so they stood astonished; and they stood until day.

[7] Afterward thinking over the matter of the miracle, they translated the body of Aldebrand into the altar of a chapel, those carrying off something of the relics are divinely struck, which was near the great chapel. And then Paganuccius Masculi received a relic of his finger: and tarrying in his house immediately he felt a great infirmity in his body. Thinking of the deed, he carried back the finger: and standing before the altar of him with knee bent, visibly the said relic withdrew from his hand to its place of the body. And a certain one of Gubbio by night went to the lamp of the said altar, and took oil from it: and he stood losing his light and sense, nor could he go out of the said church. In the morning the Canons placed him before the altar, and immediately he received the light of his eyes. The people p of Fano conquered the city of Fossombrone, the bells carried off from his temple give no sound elsewhere. and for contempt carried off two bells from the church of St. Aldebrand; and placed in the bell-tower of Fano they did not ring. Seeing the miracle they carried back the said bells to their former place, and when they were in the middle of the bridge q of St. Cyprian, those bells which were upon the cart, began to ring.

ANNOTATIONS.

p Fano a city on the Adriatic sea, between Pesaro and Senigallia: it is distant from Fossombrone, an inland city, about 20 miles.

q The bridge of St. Cyprian I judge to be called some one paved midway on the journey over one of the rivulets running into the river Metaurus from the western part.