ON ST. EUPHROSYNUS BISHOP
OF PANZANO IN ETRURIA.
CommentaryEuphrosynus, Bishop, of Panzano in Etruria (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[1] Philip Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints, who are not in the Roman Martyrology, The elogium from Ferrarius, on this day asserts that at Panzano in Etruria the feast of St. Euphrosynus the Bishop is kept. Panzano is moreover, midway on the road between Siena and Florence, distant on each side 16 miles, a town once walled, now those walls being ruined by the injury of the times open, in the middle of which still a tower is eminent, and beside it the church of the same town, in a most salubrious region, most fertile and most pleasant, and therefore set with many palaces of Florentine citizens as has been written to us thence: The same Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, from the monuments of the same church, proposes this elogium. Euphrosynus Bishop of Pamphylia (the city is unknown) having set out to Rome, while he was returning to his country, came into Etruria: where when between Siena and Florence he had fallen into the river Pesa, unfordable by the overflowing of the waters, he is said, fortified with the sign of the Cross, together with his companions to have crossed it. Compelled to halt at the camp of Panzano, there preaching the faith of Christ the Lord, he healed many sick by divine virtue. But when he had foreknown the day of his death, and had designated the place in which he wished to be buried, he departed from life; a church being built there in his name, which still stands.
[2] The same in the same words, but in Italian, wrote Francis Diaceto Bishop of Fiesole, in whose diocese Panzano is, Francis Diaceto being followed. in a dedicatory epistle to the Great Duke of Etruria Francis,
before the Lives of the Holy Bishops of Fiesole published in the year 1578, that is, 35 years earlier than Ferrarius would publish his later Catalogue, so that he seems to have had that author rather than the monuments of the Panzano church themselves before his eyes. And so to the common refuge of all the literate in the city of Florence, a man on all sides most literate, Dom Antonio Magliabechi, and the same most zealous in promoting this our work, I fled, as I am wont in similar cases on other occasions; and I asked through some Religious friend of the monastery of Passignano, nearer Panzano, that he should make me to have documents from the place itself concerning the Lives, miracles, cult.
[3] The province of having the inquiry to be made committed to him he willingly undertook, no written monuments in the place, and diligently executed, Dom Angelico Bigazzi, in the said monastery Lector of Sacred Theology of the Vallumbrosan Order: who as to MS. documents answered to this effect, after he himself had gone to Panzano, and through himself had diligently surveyed all things, and questioned the older inhabitants. I could see no memorial: for there is no inscription extant, neither within the precinct of the church nor outside, but neither among the inhabitants of the region: yet they assert that a certain supreme keeper of the Hospital of St. Mary the New of the city of Florence, born at Pisa, where also he is said to have died, stole a manuscript volume, in which were noted the Acts of B. Euphrosynus.
[4] the volume that was once there having been carried off MS. Namely under the dominion of the aforesaid hospital is the church of St. Euphrosynus, in which his body is said to rest, in the valley of Panzano toward the west, on the bank of the river Pesa, as in his epistle Dom Angelico observes. But the keepers of that Hospital being asked, whether they had the desired volume in their archive, denied that it was found in it: and so it only remains that at Pisa it be sought among the posterity and heirs of the ravisher, difficultly to be found, since not even the name of the family is betrayed: and so it only remains, let us hope that at some time it may be, that, if anywhere the book is still kept, its possessor led by conscience may cease to conceal it, and take care to send us a copy, at least to be inserted in the Supplement of the work.
[5] the feast on the 1st Sunday of May and the 3rd of November, Meanwhile from the aforesaid epistle of Dom Angelico we have, that twice a year the feast of St. Euphrosynus is celebrated, with a solemn Mass under the rite of a double, namely on the 3rd of November, on which day there is not a great frequency of the people; and on the first Sunday of May, with the greatest concourse. Therefore on this day rather than the former (which yet, as fixed, the natal, I would believe to be) I judge the annual offering to be made, in which, as the same epistle teaches, the Confraternity of Passignano offers 2 pounds of wax, the Confraternity of Panzano 4 pounds, with the annual offering of the neighbors. the Confraternity of the Land commonly called Greve 4 pounds, the People of Monte Radulsi 4 pounds, the People of the church of St. Martin 4 pounds, the People of Petriolo 4 pounds, the People of Monte Aleari (that perhaps which in the maps is written Monte Luco-Alenchi) offers money according to ability, the church commonly le Stinche likewise offers money.
[6] Under the high altar of the same church there is seen placed a wooden statue clothed in pontificals, representing St. Euphrosynus, a statue under the altar with relics, beside which are seen three caskets, in which are deposited many relics of the same Saint (as is believed) by the hands of a certain Bishop of Fiesole. These if they were opened, there would probably be found in them some writing, through which perhaps many other things, and the time of the elevated or translated body we would learn; or at least whether truly these be the relics of the Saint himself, or of others. For also many other relics in the same church are honorably preserved, as the same writes who above, the specification of which we shall be glad to learn; and a certain elder, who dwells near the church of St. Euphrosynus, testified that he had seen the pavement of one chapel of the church of the same Saint excavated by the command of a certain Bishop of Fiesole, in which the body of St. Euphrosynus was believed to rest: but that nothing was found except certain fragments of columns and capitals, which are still preserved: so that it seems uncertain, nay wholly unknown, around this many votive offerings: in what part of the church the holy body itself is hidden, if it is not in the aforesaid caskets under the altar: around which many and diverse votive offerings hang partly expressed in colors in certain little tablets, by which are indicated various graces received from God by the merits of St. Euphrosynus, partly in certain very small seal-like images: besides several bundles of candles, offered by the faithful of Christ, in honor of the Saint himself.
[7] Not far from the church is a wood, in which gushes a perennial fountain, adorned with four columns, and not far off a fountain, supporting a rude arch: which fountain is believed to be sanctified by the same Saint, who at it rested and from it drank: and therefore there is a concourse there of the faithful even from thirty miles, that they may draw water salutary for curing fevers and other diseases. with the trace of a foot and of the loins in stones: After half a mile from that fountain, in the public path are seen two stones, of which one received the image or form of the foot of B. Euphrosynus, while he was returning from the Roman pilgrimage: the other, placed opposite the first, still preserves the form of the loins of the same Blessed one, who wearied from the journey lay down upon it. In the church of St. Leolinus nearer to the church of St. Euphrosynus there is found and honored his stole of a violet color, on the ground woven with gold and various colors, his stole in the church of St. Leolinus: which I saw with my own eyes and touched with my hands. But of all the premised things four witnesses of that region and the Parish-priest of St. Leolinus made me more certain, when I personally went to them, and to the church of St. Euphrosynus, that with all greater diligence I might satisfy your most pious will to the glory of God and St. Euphrosynus; again and again asking our Lord Jesus Christ, that he may enroll yourself among the Saints in the heavens, for whom you most strenuously labor on earth. From the Monastery of Passignano, on the Kalends of August 1676.
[8] Thus far Dom Angelico, from whose religious diligence I have also learned that St. Leolinus, who is this? whose parochial church is had near Panzano, is solemnly venerated on the 24th of November, not only there, but also in another situated on the public Roman way near the town called la Castellina del Chianti, and there on the high altar is becomingly seen a painted effigy with very many votive offerings hung around on account of the frequency of miracles, especially concerning the possessed and sick children. If anyone suggest more concerning him, we will return thanks: for no Saint of this name, either in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, or in other calendars do we find: only the topographical and alphabetical indices, prefixed by the author to the Catalogue, name St. Leolinus, Bishop of Padua, whose body in a proper chapel, the day is unknown. Ughelli in the Bishops of Padua writes that he presided 12 years after Suaderus, and died in the year 240. Scardeone, Suaderus being omitted, substitutes the same to St. Syrus until the year 232; neither notes the day; only indicates that there is extant for him a sacred chapel outside Pratum-vallis, where he was buried in a stone ark, and now is commonly called Violinus: nay also of St. Leolinus at Pratum vallis, among four of many remaining Hospitals, one is named by the same Scardeone, in book 2 of the antiquities of Padua class 5 toward the end, and soon in class 6 in the order of the Bishops referring him as the twelfth.