ON SAINT MAURELIUS
BISHOP OF IMOLA IN ITALY.
CommentaryMaurelius, Bishop of Imola, in Italy (S.)
G. H.
Forum-Cornelii a city under this name was most known to ancient writers, then Imola called, in Aemilia between Bologna and Faenza situated, and is under the Metropolis of Ravenna Episcopal. Ferdinand Ughelli in volume 2 of Italia Sacra refers its first Bishops, S. Cornelius, around the year CCCC chosen; S. Projectus, to whom XXIII September is sacred; and third S. Maurelius, who he says lived in the year DXXXII, and was crowned with noble martyrdom, Time of the See, and the tyrant unknown: his body is preserved in the Cathedral with the Relics of S. Projectus, to which these and that were translated thereafter he writes, from the place where they were previously preserved, by Bishop Mainardinus, as soon as he obtained the See of Imola, perhaps about the year MCCX or somewhat later. He testifies moreover the same Ughelli that his feast is celebrated on May VI, and that of him treats Ferrarius. Whose, without mention of Martyrdom, is this eulogy, with cited the office of the Imola church.
[2] Maurelius citizen of Cornelii (which city is named Imola at this time) elevated to Episcopal honor before S. Projectus, so administered the Imola church, that having departed life, holy he was always held by that church and is venerated. Body in altar. His body in the Cathedral church under the high altar is preserved by ancient tradition. His Acts however and the time in which he lived cannot be known. Ferrarius then notes, it is read from the tablets of the same church, made for sacred use, that the body of S. Maurelius rests in its own altar: and that on this day he is venerated as Protector of the city. cult of Protector. The same Ferrarius, in the general Catalogue of Saints, again celebrates S. Maurelius the Bishop of Forum-Cornelii in Aemilia, and Protector of the same city, and notes that mention of him is made in the office of the said church in the Lessons of S. Peter Chrysologus: his Acts however have perished. S. Peter Chrysologus is venerated on December III. Brautius the Bishop in his Poetic Martyrology thus celebrates him:
He added to citizen, the love of Pastor for fatherland: So that as citizens, so also he loved his sheep.