ON S. JAMES THE DEACON,
MARTYR AT BERGAMO IN ITALY.
A.D. CCCLXXX
CommentaryJames the Deacon, Martyr, at Bergamo in Italy (S.)
G. H.
The proper Offices of the Saints of the Church of Bergamo we have, by Sixtus V the Pontiff in the year MD LXXXVII approved, and at Bergamo in the year MDCX printed, and again with new faculty reprinted at Rome in the typography of the Apostolic Chamber in the year MDCXIV. In these is prescribed the feast of S. James
the Martyr, under a double rite to be celebrated, with these at the Matins' second Nocturn to be recited Lessons.
[2] James the Martyr, at Bergamo of noble parents born, and in the liberal disciplines instructed, with affability and the charm of his speech, Eulogy from the breviary. before the faith of Christ he received, to all amiable and pleasant was. Wherefore him God's benignity long in the error of infidelity to remain wished not. For when once a Presbyter, in an assembly of Christians on the truth of the faith and the false cult of idols disputing, he had heard; with the Christian religion's desire inflamed, to Christ his name gave. By the Sacrament of Baptism then initiated, so much in Christian piety he advanced, that to the Clergy of the Church inscribed, of the Archdeaconate's honor he was deemed worthy. At that time when the Arian heresy widely its venom diffused, and at Bergamo to forty of the chief Clerics in the church butchered had been; James, by the brethren's slaying not at all terrified, but to them himself as a most firm wall opposing, both privately and publicly the Catholic faith with the sacred Scripture's and the Fathers' testimonies confirmed. By which defenses not only the Catholics in the faith he retained, but also many heretics from the Arians' deceits to the Church recalled: which thing their hatred the more against him stirred. And so a conspiracy against him made, James in the temple and pulpit to the people preaching the head with a cast javelin they wound: and soon by them thence cast headlong, and with knotty cudgels bruised, with martyrdom is crowned, on the fourth Nones of May in the year of Salvation three hundred eighty. His body the Catholics honorably with psalms and hymns in S. Alexander's basilica buried: where with many miracles to the Catholic faith's confirmation day by day he is illustrated.
[3] Thus far the Ecclesiastical Lessons: to which another monument of antiquity we adjoin, an epitaph at his tomb once placed, and by Ferdinand Ughelli volume 4 of Italia sacra in the Bishops of Bergamo printed with these words. Here rests B. M. James, Epitaph, Cleric and Deacon of Bergamo, who Christ preaching, for the hard of the impious heresy chastisement, by the Arian crowd with cudgels struck, from the pulpit cast out, a Martyr is made on the IV Nones of May, in the year of human Salvation CCCLXXX and of his Deaconate the XX year, and of the impious Valens of the Catholics persecutor the XIII: and in the sacred Cathedral of D. Alexander church he is laid. Is venerated S. Alexander the Martyr, the chief Patron of the people of Bergamo, on the day XXVI of August. The year of Valens the Emperor in the Epitaph placed, better in the Lessons omitted is, because he two years before was in battle against the Goths slain.
[4] A third testimony we bring forth from the Vineyard of Bergamo, by Bartholomew de Peregrinis, Presbyter and citizen of Bergamo, and the Vineyard of Barthol. de Peregrinis. in the year MDXLV written: in whose part 1 chapter 8 these are handed down: This thereupon vineyard, for years two and fifty and more, remained without a cultivator Bishop, on account of the persecutions of the infidels. There followed moreover B. James, Archdeacon and Canon, who when before of this Vineyard a destroyer he was, was made a most brave defender and faithful cultivator. And the Bergamo Church most holily for years twenty governing, those forty Clerics of Bergamo, the church to D. Alexander dedicated guarding, into the pristine regular and Apostolic life he restored, who afterward together all by the heretical Arians were slain. But this James, on account of this not at all terrified, against the Arians themselves constantly contended, and at length for the faith of Christ cruelly was slain, in the year of human Salvation CCCLXXX on the fourth of May, and in the same church by the Catholic Christians was laid. These things from the book third of the Chronicles of Lord John Maria of Milan Canon Regular. Which also in the book third on the Antiquities and deeds of the Saints of Bergamo the history is had. Thus there.
[5] Thus far of the more ancient writers the fountains I have shown, from which others their rivulets derived: and such may be reckoned M. Antony Benalius, in his on the Life and deeds of the Saints of Bergamo Commentaries, which John Antony Guarnerius the Canon polished, augmented and edited in the year MD LXXXIV. Where of S. James the Martyr the Life is, after the manner of an Oration Panegyric largely deduced: but to the history nothing is produced, which is not sufficiently accurately in the already given monuments set forth. In a like almost manner in Italian edited Marius Mutius in the History of the Saints of Bergamo in the year MDCX, and MDCXXI printed; and Cælestinus of Bergamo, Presbyter Capuchin part 2 of the quadripartite History of Bergamo, in volume 2: where near the end he adds, The body translated in the year 1219. that the burial of S. James from the memory of men had fallen, and the sacred body a long time was hidden, which at length in the year MCCXC was revealed, and with three other bodies found. Presided then over the Church of Bergamo Robert Bungus the Bishop, who to the honor of the four Saints in the Cathedral church an altar erected, and in it the four bodies deposited. Seems Galesinius to this translation to have looked, while in his Martyrology, from the Annals and tables of Bergamo, on the day XXVI of April these things he writes: At Bergamo the translation of the holy Martyrs Projectus and James. Of these Projectus by others Projectitius the Martyr is venerated on August XVII.
[6] Finally when in the year MDLXI the church of S. Alexander was destroyed, the Clergy with the Relics of the Saints, and again in the year 1561, among which also of S. James were, migrated into the church of S. Vincent, which even now Cathedral persists. Moves a scruple Cælestinus, as though wrongly in his age, above is reported S. James from the false cult of idols to the Christian religion converted, as if at that time Paganism had been extinguished. There is in the same Alpine dominion with this diocese of Bergamo the Trentine territory, in which in the year CCCXCVII by the Pagans were slain SS. Sisinnius, Martyrius and Alexander, whose illustrious Acts we give on May XXIX. They remembered S. James the Martyr Ferrarius in the general Catalogue and another of the Saints of Italy, Nicolaus Brautius in the Poetic Martyrology, Ughelli in the Description of the city of Bergamo, where S. James butchered in the year CCCLXXXIV he writes. the time of the slaying.
[7] Indeed I know not on what foundations such a chronology relies, by which after Julian the Apostate's slaying, so much of audacity to have been to the Arians in Italy is believed, that under the most pious and most Christian Emperors Valentinian (for Valens his brother an Arian only the East's churches troubled) Gratian, Theodosius, of this kind, a crime they are believed in the church to have perpetrated. If any such thing under Constantius were said done about the time of the Milanese conventicle, and the year CCCLVI, much more verisimilarly it would appear. Yet nothing to change I wished: for since the impious Constantius to the churches everywhere all Arian Bishops took care to be set over, could the Arians' faction, while lived they, still strong have been, even many after his decease years; and whom on the people of Bergamo he himself had imposed, to the year CCCLXXX or even CCCLXXXV life to have prolonged. Thus in the year CCC LXXIII, dead at Milan Auxentius, that there was a tumult about the election of a successor we know, the Arians striving, that someone of their party be elected.