ON THE HOLY BISHOPS AND CONFESSORS
FLORENTIUS AND VINDEMIALIS,
CARRIED FROM CORSICA TO TREVISO.
LIKEWISE ON ST. VINDEMIALIS BISHOP,
MARTYR IN AFRICA.
FIFTH CENTURY
PrefaceFlorentius, Bishop Confessor, carried from Corsica to Treviso (St.)
Vindemialis, Bishop Confessor, carried from Corsica to Treviso (St.)
Vindemialis Bishop, Martyr in Africa (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
The March of Treviso, a province of Italy, once subject to the Lombards, now to the dominion of the Venetian Republic, owes its nomenclature to Treviso an Episcopal city ample and fortified: whose citizens among their Patrons venerate the holy Bishops Florentius and Vindemialis, At Treviso the bodies of SS. Florentius and Vindemialis. whose sacred bodies rest in the Cathedral church of St. Peter, enclosed in a marble chest. Of them this is read written there. The Relics of the holy Confessors and Bishops Florentius and Vindemialis. Some history of the Life and Translation, as if written by Titianus Bishop of the city of Treviso, The history of the Life and Translation is given from a MS. who translated those same bodies from the island of Corsica, we found in a certain MS. codex of the Queen of Sweden, which we give below. We found also a compendium of that Life in a certain MS. codex of the convent of Rouge-Cloître of the Regular Canons near Brussels: but that altogether the same Peter de Natalibus, Pleban of the Holy Apostles at Venice, then in the said March of Treviso Bishop of Equilio, edited in book 4 of the Catalogue of the Saints chapter 116, composed by him in the year MCCCLXIX and following: whose testimony in this matter we think to be more highly esteemed, because he wrote it there, where he could examine the truth of the matter more accurately and learn it more fully. But that compendium is of this kind.
[2] Florentius and Vindemialis Bishops, translated to Treviso rest. Of whom Vindemialis an African by nation, taught by St. Alpianus the Confessor, Peregrination from Africa to Corsica: came to the Order of the Presbyterate, thence to the Episcopate: where together with Eugenius by many miracles shown he converted a copious people. Then for the sake of peregrination coming to the island of Corsica, in the camps of Faunum and Vadum they snatched the people from the worship of a dragon, an orarium being tied to the neck of the serpent and itself plunged into the sea: and so the people converted they baptized. After which St. Eugenius staying there in the camp of Vadum rested in peace: death and burial, where also there is extant a well dug by him into the sea, beyond nature, emanating sweet water. But Vindemialis having returned to Corsica, there ended his life in peace, and is buried there: where also once Florentius the Bishop rested. But Corsica being laid waste by the Saracens, Titianus Bishop of Treviso going thither by ship, obtained the bodies of SS. Florentius and Vindemialis, translation to Treviso. and translated to Treviso deposited them in the basilica of St. John the Baptist. Which his successor Rotharius afterwards more honorably entombed in the greater church of St. Peter. Their feast is venerated on the VI Nones of May. These things there Peter de Natalibus, the translation to the Cathedral edifice of St. Peter by Rotharius the Bishop being added, which in the narration of Titianus neither is present, nor could have been present.
[3] We have a history of the island of Corsica, edited in Italian in the year MDXCIV by John Grossus, Peter Antony Monteggiano, Corsica under the Saracens in the 7th and 8th centuries. Marius Antony Cecialdus, and Antony Peter Philippinus: in which history it is said that Corsica was intercepted by the Mahometan Saracens in the seventh century of Christ, and detained under five of their Kings there dominating up to the times of Charlemagne the Emperor. Hence we easily gather at about what time the Bishops of the Church of Treviso Titianus and his successor Rotharius presided, Titianus and Rotharius Bishops of Treviso. especially in the great gap of the Bishops in Ferdinand Ughellus volume V of Italia Sacra, where the VIII Bishop Felix is placed in the year DXC, then the ninth Trivisius in the year DCCXXXIX, the tenth Fortunatus in the year DCCXCIX, the eleventh Adeodatus in the year DCCCXXVII. Someone is asserted by the same Ughellus to be the III Bishop Titianus about the year CCCC, to whom by him the translation of these bodies is attributed. But either he was about three centuries younger, or another than he is to be established a second Titianus, to whom Rotharius, omitted by Ughellus, was substituted: and thus Vindemialis could, as in the Acts is said, have been present in the year CCCCLXXXIV, under Huneric King of the Vandals, at the collation of the Catholic Bishops, disputing with the Arians about the orthodox faith.
[4] Francis Maurolycus, Abbot of Messina in Sicily, in his Martyrology thus on the II day of May commemorates these Saints: Likewise of Florentius and Vindemialis Bishops, Mention in the sacred fasti: who crossing from Africa into Corsica, illustrious by miracles having died there, were translated by Titianus the Bishop to Treviso. Which almost the same are read in Constantius Felicius and Peter Galesinius: and more contractedly in Richard Whitford in the Martyrology printed in English at London in the year MDVI, and on the following day in Greven and Canisius. Ferrarius in the general Catalogue on this day has these things: In the island of Corsica, of the holy Bishops Florentius and Vindemialis, vexed under the Vandals. Which he explains more largely in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on the Kalends of June: but that of Florentius is not asserted in the Acts. To Vindemialis is added the companion Eugenius, which also Maurolycus noted in his Martyrology. But of his cult we have not yet read anything.
[5] Another than he is St. Eugenius Bishop of Carthage referred to the day XIII of July, by Ado, Usuard and in the Roman Martyrology, Another Eugenius Bishop of Carthage. nay also in the Gallican of Saussay, which deputed to exile, at the Albigensian city of the Gauls, that he made the end of the present life testifies Gregory of Tours book 2 History of the Franks chapter 4, and there are added to the same the companions Vindemialis and Longinus: among whom a holy contention arose, who should impose the sign of the blessed Cross on the eyes of one suddenly made blind; and Vindemialis Bishop Martyr in Africa. and it was agreed that these should hold their hands over his head, and St. Eugenius making the Cross over the eyes of the blind man should pray, straightway the pain being removed the blind man returned to his former health … But King Honoricus the Saints of God after many torments, after the racks, after the flames, after the iron claws ordered to be slain … But the holy Vindemialis he commanded to be struck with the sword, which also was fulfilled in this contest. These things Gregory of Tours. The memory of SS. Eugenius and Vindemialis is inserted on the Kalends of February in four apographs of the Hieronymian Martyrology, and in the MS. Martyrologies of Arras, Tournai and Liessies, to which is added Longinus, in the first edition of the Additions of Molanus to Usuard: which Canisius and Galesinius followed. Of St. Eugenius it will be treated July XIII: and then will be added, if any other things about Longinus occur.
[6] inscribed in the Roman Martyrology Concerning St. Vindemialis, on the occasion of the other Vindemialis, on this day these things are set in the present Roman Fasti. On the same day of St. Vindemialis Bishop and Martyr, who together with the holy Bishops Eugenius and Longinus, contending by doctrine and miracles against the Arians, is ordered to be beheaded by King Hunneric. These things there. Another therefore is this Vindemialis struck in Africa, whom Herrera in the Augustinian Alphabet inserted volume 2 folio 491, from Vindemialis the exile in Corsica, who there rendered an uncontaminated Spirit, and ended his life in peace: and so rightly Ferrarius referred this Confessor Vindemialis in the Catalogue of the Saints, who are not in the Roman Martyrology. But we grieve, that no mention of the martyrdom of St. Vindemialis the Bishop is made in Victor of Utica or of Vita, which also Baronius observed in the Annals year 484 number 68. Victor recounts book 4 the names of the Catholic Bishops, who came to Carthage by the precept of the King: among whom is found Vindemialis Bishop of Capsa in the province of Byzacena. In Victor of Utica two Vindemialis and Florentii Besides there were Vindemius of Altarita, Bishop of the Proconsular Province, sent into exile, and Vindamius of Lemsacta in Sitifensian Mauritania, a Bishop, so that any of these could be held the Vindemialis, who, as in the Life is said, preached first in the Faunensian or Sauvensian then in the Vadensian maritime camps of Africa, with the companion Eugenius; and could become more known, if from somewhere we were taught, in what part of the African shore those places are to be sought: or if were expressed the name of the island set against the camp of Vadum. Now all things remain obscure: because among several islands it is difficult to define which here is understood. There is recounted also by Victor of Utica Florentius Bishop of Nobagermania of the province of Numidia, and among those to whom Corsica fell for exile, Florentius of Semina: but it is uncertain, whether either of these died in Corsica; as also whether St. Florentius, who at Treviso is venerated with St. Vindemialis, lived in Africa and under Hunneric King of the Vandals.
[7] their feast in Corsica and the Nebbio Bishopric. He who wrote the sacred Chronicle and Sanctuary of Corsica, at the instance of the Observant Minors of that island, in Italian, and published at Florence in the year 1639 the Rev. Father Brother Salvator Vitalis of Marens, Theologian and general Preacher of the regular Observance in the Province of Tuscany book 4 chapter 1, writes, that the feast of the holy Bishops Florentius and Vindemialis the Africans is kept in Corsica, where they ended their life, every year, most of all at Nebbio, of which the Advocate and Patron is St. Florentius: even so far that the suburb of that very city even now has its name from him, and the same name had once the Cathedral of Nebbio, before the city was occupied by the Moors. But let them see,
says Salvator, those to whom it pertains to provide for the cult and honor of the holy Patrons and Protectors of the diocese, whether it would not be fitting, although the title of the church has been changed, to keep that feast with an Octave. Indeed when in that Cathedral I spoke to the people through Advent before the most Illustrious and most Reverend John Mascardus the Bishop, and saw there no chapel of St. Florentius, nor even an image, I greatly grieved that there so neglectfully was held that Saint, whom I held for certain to have lived and died there.
[8] For the rest what this author calls Nebbia, on account of the Episcopal See translated thither, is the city of St. Florentius, the translation to the Town of St. Florentius, distinguished into an old and a new borough, as Antony Peter Philippini teaches in the History of Corsica, described in Italian and printed in Gaul in the year 1594. For of old Nebbia, half a mile distant from St. Florentius, then when he wrote, there survived only traces in ancient ruins, with a church elegant enough of white and squared stone, which appeared to be the work of the Pisans. Of this church therefore the title, together with the Episcopal See passed to the church before called of St. Florentius: of which matter the beginning seems to have been given by that Bishop, who attributed to the people of St. Florentius the half of the circle or territory of St. Mary of Nebbio, comprehending about ten miles, about the year MD: which people the Genoese in the year MCCCCLXXXIII subjected to the Office of St. George first of all: whence it came about that the citizens of St. Florentius enjoyed many immunities, both in Corsica and at Genoa; and the place, in which before the coming of the Genoese nothing except an ancient tower was seen for the guard of the neighboring salt-works, before Nebbia began to be frequented, although in a less salubrious situation, the convenience of the washing sea inviting. Which since they are proved by the experiment of the eyes, with reason the aforesaid author wonders in the preface, how Thomas Porcacchius, in his description of the chief islands, removes the city of St. Florentius five miles from the sea. But from this the gulf of the near sea is called of St. Florentius by several. I understand moreover that there is someone who writes, that the ancient Christians of the place, the Barbarians rushing into the island, buried the chest of their holy Patron on the very shore, where it lay hid until lights appearing by night from heaven the posterity excited, began to scrutinize what was the cause of this miracle. Hence indeed someone else seizes the occasion, whence the bodies seem to have been carried to Treviso. of confirming the tradition of the people of Campiglia in Etruria, asserting that the body of St. Florentius, which among them is venerated, in its marble chest, was carried thither from the sea from Corsica. But we shall show May XV, that body to be rather of the Bishop of Populonia before St. Cerbonius. But the ancient celebrity of the place, called from St. Florentius in Corsica, makes likely to us, what Salvator says; that to that place destroyed by the barbarians Titianus of Treviso arrived; and from beneath the ruins of the destroyed church the Sarcophagi of SS. Florentius and Vindemialis sent out, as the following history explains.
THE LIFE
By the Author Titianus Bishop of Treviso.
From the MS. Codex of the Queen of Sweden.
Florentius, Bishop Confessor, carried from Corsica to Treviso (St.)
Vindemialis, Bishop Confessor, carried from Corsica to Treviso (St.)
Vindemialis Bishop, Martyr in Africa (St.)
BHL Number: 3053
BY THE AUTHOR TITIANUS FROM A MS.
[1] When a universal Synod was being gathered at Carthage by King Honoricus, 670 Bishops sent into exile by Huneric King of the Vandals: from all the kingdoms and islands which under his rule at that time were, on the day of the Kalends of February; six hundred and seventy Bishops were equally gathered into one, about to contend for the faith of the holy and individual Trinity; whom he himself, deceived by the perfidy of the Arians, ordered all to be condemned to exile; of whom the Bishop of Carthage Eugenius and Vindemialis, of the highest knowledge and the highest sanctity, among others shone forth, and the faith of the holy and individual Trinity inviolably with a most constant voice taught. For which matter expelled from their own seats, for the cause of peregrination they flew to the parts beyond the sea, following the Apostolic example: To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Phil. 1, 21 But of Florentius and Vindemialis, although their birth, life, and passing flourished otherwise; yet to us the Lord their venerable bodies, at the time when He willed, revealed: and for the protection of this city and the safety of the inhabitants, The bodies of SS. Florentius and Vindemialis brought to Treviso. from the most distant parts of the lands, by divine piety to send us their bodies He deigned. And as from the inhabitants of that land we learned, where the bodies of the Saints rested; with all fear and trembling we approached the tombs of the Saints, and with all reverence the relics of the Saints thence we took up, and to the ship we conducted: and with the intercession of the blessed Confessors of Christ to the Treviso soil even we arrived, and there God having mercy with the highest reverence, with worthy honor, the bodies of the Saints we placed.
[2] Therefore the most blessed Vindemialis was born and nourished on African soil; SS. Vindemialis and Eugenius illustrious by miracles in Africa but taught by the blessed Confessor of Christ Appianus the Bishop, and imbued with heavenly conversation, faith and religion, he obtained the dignity of the Presbyterate, in which worthily serving God he came even to the burden of the Episcopate: where also in the parts of Africa together with Eugenius many signs through them magnificent and innumerable the omnipotent Lord deigned to work. Then truly both for the cause of peregrination and of preaching, for the love of Christ they came to the island of Corsica: where while they perpetually preached the faith of Christ Jesus our Lord, that they should depart from the most vain worship of idols, and not consent to the savagery of the Arians; imbued with heavenly mastery and divinely inspired, they refused all worship of idols, and that whole assembly delivered itself perpetually to serve the Lord alone; and Corsica, they convert very many. and to His only Son and the Holy Spirit, namely the perpetual Trinity, without any ambiguity, He helping, to serve they profess. But Saint Vindemialis, returning from the aforesaid parts, and going round the maritime shores, advancing beyond among the stormy waves, even to the camp of Sauve came, together with the most holy Eugenius; with whom also he did many miracles in the parts of Africa and at Carthage: and thence coming even to the camp of Vadum, in those parts a very great multitude of people by his preaching for the Lord Jesus Christ they acquired.
[3] Among these were very many, who by the fallacy of their own and most vain sense, the Creator of all things being left, in a certain cave an execrable beast and to all sufficiently hateful, adored: and the blindness of their heart by a conceived dementia, by a most vain and most wicked rite, to the same dragon daily victims and sacrifices offered after the use of the Pagans. the dragon accustomed to be adored with divine cult. Which the most reverend men when they had discovered, namely the cunning of that ancient serpent, who had seduced the first man the protoplast, and from the beginning always by his fallacy had drawn the human race into the worship of idols; groaning and imploring the mercy of God, that just as He deigned to free Daniel from the lake of lions, where on account of Bel he had been put in, who also killed the dragon, freeing the Babylonians from his worship, whom he himself killed; so also these too His servants, through the virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ, He would deign to free from the servitude of this most filthy and most wicked spirit, through the name of the Lord, in whom all adverse power is overcome and conquered, as the Lord in the Gospel speaks: If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Be lifted, and be cast into the sea. Luke 17, 6 Amen I say to you, that whatever you shall ask in my name, it shall be done for you. armed with the sign of the Cross they eliminate it: And so intrepid and armed with the little sign of the Cross of Christ, having all confidence in the Lord, hesitating nothing, prayer being first made with fasting, to the cave, in which the beast lay hid they approached; and supported by supernal aid, most valiant warriors, not girt with sword or arms, but fortified with the little sign of the holy Cross, their venerable hands upon the beast they put; and an orarium being drawn off about the throat of the most savage serpent it was knotted, and the dragon from the cave in which it lay hid was cast forth. O wonderful power of Thine, O Christ, in whose virtue Thy servants two crushed at once two dragons! for in the effigy of that dragon that dragon had stuck, who conquered by Thy virtue, on account of his pride was cast from the heavens. But when Thy worshipers and the preachers of Thy holy name, for Thy love about to fight, went forth; that dragon who all the days of his life had eaten earth, Thy holy name being invoked, departed, so bound with fiery chains, that even unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ he had power of harming no one: and so bound in the deep depth of the sea they commanded him to dwell, where there was no habitation of men, nor had he power of harming anyone any more.
[4] But exhorting the people that they should remain in the faith of the Trinity, and depart from the most vain worship of idols, and separate themselves from the Arian heresy, Eugenius dies and instantly adhere to the holy purpose, and finally lead the people into the way of truth; within no long space they gained many souls for Christ the Lord. Where also the holy man Eugenius even to the end of his life served Christ the Lord, and stayed in an island near the camp of Vadum, distant two miles thence: illustrious by miracles after his death, where also he ordered a well to be dug for himself of wondrous depth which is utterly unusual among us, that in the midst of the sea sweet water is had. Which is rather to be reputed to his sanctity, than to the nature of the place itself: as also St. Vindemialis in Corsica where also his venerable body rests: at whose tomb many and innumerable miracles through him the omnipotent Lord deigned to work. But Saint Vindemialis, withdrawing from the aforesaid camp, hastening to Corsica, serving Christ the Lord, there in the holy purpose rendered an uncontaminated spirit.
[5] But how the body of the most blessed Confessor of Christ came to this city, After this captured by the Saracens, to all faithful in Christ we desire to narrate. Because after we had discovered by the report of many Corsica captured by the Saracens and many churches of God destroyed from the foundations; I Titianus, Bishop of the holy Treviso church, by the divine nod came to the aforesaid island: where both from the sailors and from the inhabitants of that place we learned, where the bodies of the most blessed Confessors of Christ placed in sarcophagi had been, of Vindemialis namely and Florentius the Bishops. the bodies of SS. Vindemialis and Florentius are translated to Treviso. A three-day fast being performed, with great trembling and reverence we approached the tombs: and thence lifting their bodies to the ship even we conducted, by their interceding merits: and to the Treviso soil, God having mercy, we arrived, and in venerable places, where now they rest, God permitting, we placed them in the basilica of Saint John the Baptist, where even today through them the omnipotent Lord has deigned to work many and innumerable miracles, to whom is honor and glory through infinite ages of ages.