ON SAINT ATHANASIUS
ARCHBISHOP OF THE CORINTHIANS.
CENTURY X
CommentaryAthanasius, Archbishop of the Corinthians (S.)
G. H.
[1] Corinth, once the most noble and most known city of Achaia, was illustrious by an Archiepiscopal See: which with the rest of Achaia, the Peloponnesus, Epirus, Thessaly and Macedonia, according to the Notitia of the Roman Empire, Corinth under the Roman Pontiff was in Eastern Illyricum, and with the same was subject to the Roman Pontiff, teach Leo Allatius book 1 on the perpetual Consensus of the Western and Eastern Church chapter 9 and following, Carolus a S. Paulo in his sacred Geography and others; and is confirmed from the Acts of S. Lucas the younger, by us on day VII February illustrated. In these chapter 6 it is said that the Bishop of Corinth, when he was setting out to the Roman Pontiff, came to the hut of the said S. Lucas, offered gifts, of which (lest he should bear ill the rebuff) one coin was accepted; furthermore taught, how in the absence of the Sacerdos the Body of Christ without the touch of hands he should take the same Lucas: who flourished in the IX century of Christ, in which also lived S. Athanasius Archbishop of the Corinthians, sacred cult of S. Athanasius. who on this V May is recalled in the MS. Synaxarium of the Claromontane of the Society of Jesus at Paris, with this small encomium. On the same day Commemoration of our holy Father Athanasius Bishop of the Corinthians, who slept piously and holily in the days of the Empire of Basil and Constantine. Which same things, but on the fourth of May are read in the MS. Menaea found by Petrus Franciscus Chifletius at Dijon. time of the See. The indicated Basil and Constantine the Porphyrogenite brothers, sons of the Roman Emperor reigned from the year DCCCCLXXV together for fifty years, namely Basil up to the year MXXV, and Constantine up to the year MXXVIII. And these things on the time of the See and the cult of the said Athanasius: who in the MS. Calendar of Aquileia on this day seems by the error of copyists written Anastasius Bishop and Confessor.
[2] Godfrey Hermant, book 11 on the Life of S. Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria chapter 18, whether the head in the diocese of Tours not rather of this one than makes mention of a church dedicated to the same Saint in the diocese of Tours, where his head is believed to be had: which, he says, very verisimilar some judge, since the place once pertained to the rights of the Counts of Anjou, celebrated for transmarine expeditions. But to one considering the vivid integrity of that body which at Venice without the head is now shown incorrupt: should be believed of the Alexandrian one will rightly judge also of the head must be presumed, that it shared the grace of the same incorruption: and so hearing nothing such of that which is had in Gaul; but of that which to be had in Spain is said understanding, that besides the head also the tongue uncorrupted there is preserved; with us he will think to this rather than to that one the prerogative is to be attributed, that of the great Athanasius it may seem to be.
[3] But what if at the same time in which Peter of the title of S. Marcellus the Cardinal Deacon of the H. R. C. by Innocent III sent legate to Constantinople, took care that the body of S. Dionysius Bishop of the Corinthians be sent to Rome, as if it were of the Areopagite himself; so the head of Athanasius the Bishop found there or elsewhere, by similar error he himself or another believed to be of the Alexandrian: and so was excited then that church? We about the translation of Dionysius the Corinthian into Gaul, in the year MCCXV treated on his birthday VIII April: and from the things there deduced this conjecture can receive some strength.