Nepotianus

ON SAINT NEPOTIANUS

PRESBYTER OF ALTINO IN ITALY.

V CENTURY.

Nepotianus Presbyter, of Altino in Italy (S.)

G. H.

The memory of Saints which we have hitherto referred to single days, drawn from four apographs of the most ancient Martyrology, can be not badly referred to under the name of D. Jerome, can be gathered from the deposition of Nepotianus on the day XI May everywhere appended at the end and noted by him from sure knowledge. He is referred to by S. Jerome in his Martyrology, For to this Nepotianus S. Jerome inscribed his second epistle on the life of Clerics and Priests, in which, as he had asked, very many things, pertaining to the right institution of their life, he luculently expounds with this beginning: in an epistle inscribed to him, You ask of me, Nepotianus dearest, by transmarine letters, and frequently you ask, that I should arrange for you in a brief volume the precepts of living, and by what reason he, who having abandoned the world's military service, has begun either to be a monk or a Cleric, may hold the right path of Christ, lest to the various diversions of vices he be snatched. How however Nepotianus the Presbyter observed his admonitions, the same Jerome indicates in epistle three to Heliodorus Bishop of Altino his uncle. and his epitaph, Of this his written epistle or Epitaph of Nepotianus the same Jerome in the Life or Epitaph of Fabiola or epistle XXX to Oceanus, thus mentions in the very beginning: Many years it is, since on the falling-asleep of Blesilla, Paula the venerable woman with the wound still recent I consoled. The fourth circle of summer rolls, since for Heliodorus the Bishop writing the epitaph of Nepotianus, whatever I could have of strength, in that grief I then consumed. and Notker, B. Notker Balbulus, in his Martyrology, written before about eight hundred years, on this XI May also, following the Martyrology of S. Jerome, adorns him with such an elogium: Likewise the deposition of Nepotianus the Presbyter, nephew of Heliodorus the Bishop by his sister. In the consolation of whose Epitaph S. Jerome turns the whole world, on account of the evils which happen in it and the calamities which befall, into mourning and lamentation, namely while human misery, by the example of Emperors and other Princes, is learnedly and ingeniously expounded. We omitting these superfluities, which can be read in S. Jerome, only those things, which pertain to Nepotianus, we excerpt.

LIFE OR EPITAPH

By the Author S. Jerome.

Nepotianus Presbyter, of Altino in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 6057

FROM EP. III S. JEROME

[1] Great matters small talents do not sustain, and in the very effort dared beyond their strength they fail: and the greater is what is to be said, so much the more is overwhelmed, who cannot explain the magnitude of things in words. Nepotianus mine, Singularly with affection loved by S. Jerome, yours, ours, rather Christ's, and because Christ's therefore more ours, has left old men, both wounded by the dart of his desire and broken by intolerable grief. Whom we thought heir, we hold a corpse. For whom now will my talent sweat? For whom will my little letters be eager to please? Where is that taskmaster of ours, and that voice sweeter than the swan's song? The mind is stunned, the hand trembles, the tongue stammers. Whatever I shall say, because he does not hear, seems mute. The very stylus as if feeling, and the wax somewhat sad, with rust or mould is overspread. As often as I strive to break forth into words, and over his tomb to scatter the flowers of this Epitaph; so often the eyes are filled with tears, and with grief renewed I am wholly in the funeral… Whatever from the Scriptures can be said about lamentation, in that book, in which we consoled Paula at Rome, briefly we have explained. Now to us by another path the same place must be reached, lest we seem to tread paths once trodden and abolished. translated to Christ and the Saints: We know indeed that our Nepotianus is with Christ and mixed with the choirs of Saints; what here with us he searched out at a distance on earth and sought by estimation, there seeing close at hand to say; As we have heard so we have seen in the city of the Lord of virtues, in the city of our God. But the desire of his absence we cannot bear, grieving not for his but for our turn. The happier he is, so much the more we are in grief, that we lack such a good… How much more do you both as uncle and Bishop, that is, both in flesh and in spirit father, grieve to be absent from your bowels, and as if torn from yourself sigh? But I beseech you to apply moderation in grief, mindful of that maxim, Nothing too much; and with the wound bound up a little, hear his praises, in whose virtue you have always rejoiced. Nor grieve that you have lost such a one, but rejoice that you have had such a one…

[2] Therefore our Nepotianus too, like an infant wailing and a rude boy, loved from boyhood by his uncle Heliodorus suddenly to us as if from Jordan is born. Another perhaps would write, that for his welfare you abandoned the East and the desert, and me your dearest companion you nursed with the hope of returning, that first, if it could be done, you might preserve your widowed sister with her little one;

then, if she should refuse the counsel, you might at least preserve your most sweet nephew. For this is he, of whom I once prophesied to you; Although a little nephew hangs from the neck. as a soldier he lives holily: Another, I say, will report, that in the palace military service, under the cloak and white linen, his body was rubbed with hair-cloth; that standing before the powers of the world he bore a face livid with fastings; that still under another's garments he served another, and to this end had a sword-belt, that to widows, orphans, the oppressed, and miserable he might come to aid. To me are not pleasing these delays of imperfect service of God, and Cornelius the Centurion, as I read righteous, I hear at once baptized. Acts 10 Yet let us approve as some cradles of nascent faith, that he who under foreign standards was a devoted soldier, should be granted the laurel, after he has begun to serve under his own King. and his property distributed to the poor, With his belt laid aside and dress changed, whatever was of camp peculium, he gave out to the poor: for he had read: He who wishes to be perfect, let him sell all that he has, and give to the poor and follow me. Matt. 19, 6 And again: You cannot serve two Masters, God and mammon. Except for a cheap tunic and equal covering, by which with the body covered he might exclude the cold, he reserved nothing more for himself. Matt. 6, 24 His dress itself, following the custom of the province, was notable neither for cleanliness nor squalor. And while he burned daily either to go to the monasteries of Egypt, or to visit the choirs of Mesopotamia, or surely the solitudes of the islands of Dalmatia, which are distant from Altino only by a strait, he did not dare to desert his uncle the Pontiff, seeing in him so many examples of virtues: and having at home from where he might learn, in one and the same person both imitated the monk and venerated the Bishop: nor, as is wont to happen in most, had assiduity made familiarity, familiarity contempt of him; but so he revered him as a parent, so admired him as if daily he were beholding a new one.

[3] Why many words? He becomes a Cleric, and through the usual grades is ordained Presbyter. Ordained Presbyter: Good Jesus! what groans, what wailings, what abstention from food, what flight of the eyes of all! Then for the first and only time he was angry with his uncle: he complained that he could not bear it, and the youthful age incongruous to the Priesthood he objected. But the more he resisted, the more he stirred up against himself the studies of all; and he merited by denying, what he was unwilling to be; and was the more worthy, the more he proclaimed himself unworthy. We saw a Timothy of our time, and grey-haired in wisdom, and elected by Moses a Presbyter, whom he himself knew to be a Presbyter. So Clericate, understanding it not honor, but burden; he had as first care, excels in every virtue both abroad, that by humility he might overcome envy: then that he should give in himself no story of obscene rumor; that those who carped at his age, might be amazed at his continence. To succour the poor, to visit the sick, to call to hospitality, to soothe with caresses, to rejoice with the rejoicing, to weep with the weeping: he was the staff of the blind, the food of the hungry, the hope of the wretched, the consolation of the mourning. Thus in single virtues he excelled, as if he had no others. Among Presbyters and his equals first in work, last in order, whatever good he had done, he referred to his uncle: if anything had perchance turned out otherwise than he had prepared; he said the other did not know, that he himself had erred. In public he knew the Bishop, at home the father; he tempered gravity of morals with cheerfulness of brow, you would understand joy in laughter, not cackle. Widows and virgins of Christ to honor as mothers, to exhort as sisters, with all chastity. Now indeed when he had betaken himself home, and with the Cleric left outside, as at home with the Bishop. he had given himself to the harshness of monks. Frequent in prayers, vigilant in praying, he offered tears to God not to men: he tempered fasts after the manner of a charioteer for the weariness and strength of the body. He attended his uncle's table, and so tasted whatever was set forth, that he both fled superstition and preserved continence.

[4] His talk through every banquet was to propose something from the Scriptures, to hear willingly, to answer modestly, to receive right things, not sharply to refute wrong, to teach rather than conquer one disputing against him; and with native modesty, which adorned his age, what was whose simply to confess, and in this manner, by declining the glory of erudition, he was held most erudite. That, he would say, is of Tertullian, this of Cyprian, he brings forth opinions of authors, this of Lactantius, that of Hilary: thus Minucius Felix, thus Victorinus, in this manner Arnobius spoke. Me also, and S. Jerome, because for the sake of his uncle's fellowship he loved me, sometimes he brought into the midst: and by assiduous reading and long meditation he had made his breast a library of Christ. How often did he by transmarine letters beg, that I should write something to him? How often did he set before me the nightly petitioner from the Gospel, and the woman appealing to the harsh judge a widow? And when I refused more by silence than by letters, whose letter to him he highly esteems. and by the modesty of being silent suffused the modesty of him asking; he opposed his uncle to me as intercessor, who would both more freely ask for another, and out of reverence for the Priesthood more easily obtain. I did therefore what he wished, and in a brief booklet consecrated our friendships to eternal memory. Which received, he boasted to have surpassed the wealth of Croesus and the riches of Darius: he held it with eyes, with hands, in bosom, in mouth. And as he frequently turned it over on his bed; the sweet page often fell on the breast of the sleeper. If indeed any of the strangers, if any of friends came, he was glad of our testimony about himself, and whatever was less in the little work, with measured distinction and variety of pronunciation he made up for: so that in his reciting it, he himself either to please or displease daily was seen. Whence this fervor, he burns with love of God and desire of Christ: except from the love of God? Whence the indefatigable meditation of the law of Christ, except from the desire of Him who gave the law? Let others add coin to coin, and choking it in a purse, hunt the wealth of matrons by attentions: let monks be richer than they had been seculars: let them possess wealth under poor Christ, which under wealthy devil they had not had; and let the Church sigh those rich, whom the world held before as beggars. Our Nepotianus trampling gold, pursues little papers: and as he is a despiser of self in the flesh, and walks more adorned by poverty, so he investigates the whole adornment of the soul.

[5] In comparison indeed of the foregoing, the things we are about to say are slight: but even in small things the same mind is shown. For as we admire the Creator not only in heaven and earth, sun and ocean, elephants, camels, horses, oxen, panthers, bears, lions; but also in tiny animals, the ant, gnat, flies, little worms and the like kind, of which we know more the bodies than the names, and the same skill in all things we venerate; so a mind devoted to Christ, equally in greater and smaller is intent, knowing that even for an idle word an account is to be rendered. Therefore solicitous if the altar shone, if the walls without soot, if the pavements wiped, solicitous in the adornment of the church, if the doorkeeper frequent at the door, veils always in the doorways, if the sacrarium clean, if the vessels brilliant and to all ceremonies pious solicitude was disposed, no less, no more did he neglect the duty: wherever you sought him, in the church you would find him… The basilicas of the Church and the assemblies of Martyrs he overshadowed with various flowers, and the foliage of trees, and the tendrils of vines; that whatever pleased in the church, both in arrangement and in sight, would witness the labor and zeal of the Presbyter. Macte virtute! whose such are the beginnings, what will be the end?

[6] O miserable condition of human, and without Christ vain is everything that we live. Why do you withdraw, why do you tergiversate, my speech? as if we could put off his death, and make life longer, so we fear to come to the last. All flesh is hay, and all its glory as the flower of hay. Where now is that decorous face, where the dignity of the whole body, with which as with a beautiful garment the beauty of the soul was clothed? It was withering, in his last sickness joyful, alas! with the South wind blowing the lily, and the purple of the violet was passing gradually into pallor. And when he burned with fevers, and the heat drank up the springs of the veins, with weary breath he consoled the sad uncle. His face was joyful, and with all weeping around, he alone laughed: to throw off his cloak, to extend his hands, to see what others did not see: and as if rising to meet, to greet those coming. You would understand him not to be dying, but to be migrating; and changing friends, not leaving them. Tears roll over the faces, and with the mind hardened, I cannot dissimulate the grief I suffer. Who would believe that at such a time he was mindful of our intimacy, and with soul struggling knew the sweetness of studies? Taking his uncle's hand, he dies mindful of S. Jerome; This tunic, he said, which I used in the ministry of Christ, send to him most beloved by me, in age my father, in fellowship my brother: and whatever was owed by you to your nephew of affection, transfer to him, whom you loved equally with me. And then with such words he failed, handling his uncle's hand in remembrance of me. I know that you would not have wished thus to prove the love of citizens toward you, and to have sought rather the affection of the country in prosperous things: but a duty of this kind in good things is more pleasant, in evils more grateful. The whole city, all Italy mourned this man: the earth received the body, the soul was rendered to Christ. You sought a nephew, the Church a Priest. Your successor preceded you. What you were, he after you in the judgment of all merited: who consoles his uncle, and so from one house a double dignity of Pontificate has gone forth, while in one is rejoicing, that he held it: in the other mourning, that he was snatched away that he might not hold it. There is a saying of Plato, that the whole life of the wise is a meditation of death. The philosophers praise this and lift it to heaven. But much more strongly the Apostle: Daily, he says, I die through your glory. 1 Cor. 15 For one thing is to attempt, another to do; one to live about to die, another to die about to live. He is about to die out of glory, this one dies always to glory… we have only as gain, by which we are united to the love of Christ. and commends the memory of the deceased. Charity is patient, is kind: charity envies not, does not perversely, is not puffed up: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things: charity never falls away: this always lives in the breast: through this our Nepotianus absent is present, and through such great spaces of lands the divided he embraces with both hands. We have a hostage of mutual charity. Let us be joined in spirit, let us be bound by affection: and the fortitude of mind, which the blessed Pope Chromatius showed in the falling-asleep of his brother, let us imitate in his son: let our little page sing of him, let our letters sound of him: whom in body we cannot, let us hold in remembrance: and with whom we cannot speak, about him let us never cease to speak.