ON ST. PRISCUS
OF NUCERIA OF THE PAGANS IN ITALY.
CommentaryPriscus, Patron of Nuceria of the Pagans, in Italy (S.)
G. H.
[1] Nuceria, a famous and ancient city of the Picentini,
praised everywhere by the ancients, Livy, Cicero, Tacitus
and others, called by later men of the Pagans,
perhaps because the Saracens, expelled from Sicily,
under Frederick II Emperor
dwelt in it: others may bring forward other causes; at least by this
surname it is distinguished from another Nuceria, the Patron of Nuceria of the Pagans is St. Priscus the Bishop a city of Umbria.
It is situated in that part of ancient Campania which now is called the nearer
Principality, near the mountain of the Hirpini beyond
the Sarno river, between Naples and Salerno, to which it is closer,
and to it as metropolis the Bishops of Nuceria are subject. The tutelary
Patron is St. Priscus, believed the first Bishop of the place,
to whom the Cathedral is dedicated, but at what time he lived
is not sufficiently established. Under the Emperor Nero in it were crowned
with martyrdom SS. Felix and Constantia, whose day
is celebrated on the XIII Kalends of October in the Roman Martyrology:
which is an argument that the Christian faith was then received in it.
Ferdinand Ughelli in tome VII of Italia Sacra, in
the Bishops of Nuceria of the Pagans, has these things about St. Priscus: St.
Priscus, the first Bishop of this Church, reported by Ughelli, is reckoned
to have been crowned with martyrdom under Nero, whose feast day is celebrated
on IX of May in the Roman Martyrology, about whom
Baronius in the Notes, and is the tutelary Saint. But
in today's tables of the Roman Martyrology no mention is made of this Priscus:
but well of those reported above SS. Felix and Constantius,
who suffered there under Nero. The second Bishop of this Nuceria
is established by Ughelli as Primerius, to whom St.
Gregory the Great directed Epistle 47 of book 2 of the Register:
and he still doubts whether he was Bishop of Nuceria in Umbria.
But granted he is left to this Nuceria, what space of five centuries
intervened, in which no Bishop is known to have sat there?
It seems therefore from mere conjecture
to be said that St. Priscus suffered under Nero. The same is mentioned by
David Romaeus on the Saints of the Neapolitan kingdom page 400
with these few words: and Romaeus. Priscus Pontiff of Nuceria VII Ides
of May.
[2] Antonius Beatillus of the Society of Jesus at Naples sent us
the Life of St. Priscus, Bishop of the City of Nuceria,
extracted from a certain old Lectionary of St. Matthew
of Salerno: Latin and Italian Life. he adds that it had also been printed at Naples.
But perhaps he understands it as translated into Italian by Paul Regio,
printed at Naples in the year MDCXXVII; by whom the Latin
author is called Brother Lucius Baldinus. A summary of this Life
was published from Paul Regio by Philip Ferrarius
in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy on the day VIII of May: where
in the Annotation he wonders that the time in which he lived was not
expressed, nor the Pontiff before whom he was accused
named. For these omissions are wont to render the history
suspect, especially if it contains improbabilities. Thus he,
[3] But that Brother Lucius Bandinus seems to have shrewdly
guarded against this, lest the things he so freely uttered as fabricated by himself
be reckoned not only improbable but plainly invented.
Therefore Ughelli prudently abstained from any mention of this
Life written in Latin and also translated into Italian, and
perhaps in place of the Roman Martyrology and the Notes of Baronius,
he wished to indicate the Catalogue of Ferrarius and his Annotation.
We do not judge those Acts worthy of the press and remove them from our work,
perhaps collected a thousand years after the Saint's death.
We warn however with Ferrarius that the sanctity of Priscus the Bishop
ought not to be called into doubt, since the Church of Nuceria
has always venerated him as illustrious in miracles
as the tutelary Patron, and dedicated to him the Cathedral Church.
The same Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of Saints,
who are not in the Roman Martyrology, has reported the same Priscus
on the day VIII of May: but Beatillus praised above warned
that he is venerated on the seventh of the Ides or day IX of May, as
Ughelli and Romaeus also indicated above: and Paul
Regio in the summary placed before the Life, asserts also that on day IX
of May he rested in peace.