ON SAINT MAURUS THE LIBYAN,
ROMAN MARTYR, DEPOSITED AT GALLIPOLI.
UNDER NUMERIANUS
CommentaryMaurus the Libyan, Roman Martyr, deposited at Gallipoli (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Gallipolis, or Callipolis, an Episcopal city of Italy in the territory of Otranto, on the Ionian sea, joined to the continent by a small Isthmus, and for the great part walled with crags, and difficult to storm, The church and Abbey of St. Maurus: has a church sacred to St. Maurus the Martyr, in whose territory toward Neretum, commonly Nardò, is a church and consistorial Abbey dedicated to St. Maurus; where the Abbot has the use of the mitre and crozier with the right of conferring Minor Orders. Near to this monastery is a most high mountain, with a crypt there extended to a thousand paces, in which at various times some led the eremitic life. There is venerated St. Maurus the Martyr on the first day of May, cult May 1: with a great concourse of those coming from everywhere, as we learned from a letter of Cosmas the Archpresbyter of Galatone, sent in the year 1644 to the Monastery of Westphalia, to the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Fabius Chisius, then Bishop of Neretum and Apostolic Nuncio to the tract of the Rhine, and Legate for the peace of Münster, afterward the Roman Pontiff, The Life translated from the Greek. called Alexander VII, who transmitted to us the said letter, together with the Life of St. Maurus adjoined. This is drawn from a most ancient Greek Menology, written on parchment, and by Martinus Vincenti, Archpresbyter of the land of Galatone, most skilled in the Greek tongue, in the year 1603 turned into Latin. This Life therefore, from the very paper given to us by Alexander VII, we have printed, and it is of this kind.
[2] Maurus was born of most noble and Christian parents in Libya: under the Empire of Numerianus he flourished, setting out from Libya to Rome. and from a tender age in sacred letters was nourished and instructed. But while still a youth he lost both parents: who having resolved to distribute his paternal and maternal goods to the poor, to seek out far regions. And having set out to Rome to the Princes of the Apostles, detained by Celerinus the Duke, he is crowned with martyrdom. and compelled to sacrifice, he perseveringly remained in the faith of Christ. Therefore he underwent martyrdom, and remained long unburied. But his companions, who from Libya had followed him, faithful of Christ, stole the body of the holy Martyr. And seeing the winds prosperous to their navigation, placing it in a chest, and a ship being received, carried first into the Tiber, then to the sea; they began to sail toward Libya, their own and his country. the enemies pursuing the body in vain, Which when it had been reported to Celerinus, he ordered an armed bireme to sail out to pursue them, that he might sharply punish their temerity (since they had despised his authority). But after a long pursuit, into a place of Italy, which the Lombards had inhabited, and especially into the place which is called Ortholithon, which in Latin sounds Straight-rock, the small ship with the relics of the Martyr and his companions first, and then the bireme were carried by wind and waves: but the Libyans, who had first touched land, having a little opportunity of time, taking up the chest, in which the relics of the Martyr were placed, fleeing through the steeps of the mountain or ridge (speaking after the manner of the place), come to a certain cave, where they hid themselves and the chest with the relics of the blessed Martyr. But the soldiers of the bireme a little after pursuing betook themselves to the same place; and when they had found the companions there they slew them, and the Relics of the blessed Martyr (as had been enjoined them) they attempted to burn. it was carried to Callipolis. But against the remains of the servant of God, the fire forgot its force: for it harmed nothing the holy body. These things performed, the ministers of the devil resolved and began to return to their leader and prince at Rome: and when they had come to the island of the city of Callipolis (near which City these things were done) in the sea with the whole bireme they were submerged, not otherwise than Pharaoh, when he pursued the people of Israel into the Red sea, was submerged. The noble citizens of Callipolis therefore, the truth of the matter being known, there built a temple to the honor of the holy martyr Maurus, and to the praise of the Most High God: and there his body is preserved, and of his two companions, who for his relics there died, and on the Kalends of May his feast is celebrated, as the Greek or Eastern Church has been wont and is wont to celebrate.
[3] Thus far the Acts, which leave us in doubt, whether the Martyr's proper name was Maurus, or by the people of Callipolis ignorant of him, was fitted from the common name of the nation: but the mention of the Lombards inserted in them, by a notable parachronism (because several centuries after Numerianus their name first began to be heard in Italy) manifestly teaches that they were composed plainly in the Middle Age. The use of the Greek tongue at Gallipoli. If we obtain the Greek, it will be added at the end. Meanwhile note, that that most high rock or mountain named Ortholithon overhangs the sea, and is the boundary of the dioceses of Neretum and Gallipoli. But the Emperor Numerianus succeeded his father Carus with his brother Carinus in the year 283, the following year being slain he had Diocletian for successor. There once flourished in the Church of Callipolis the use of the Greek tongue, and afterward it long had it in custom, now to create a Bishop of Greek origin and nation, now of Latin by turns. Its Bishops Ughellus enumerates in volume 9 of Sacred Italy.