ON ST. PEREGRINUS THE MARTYR,
BISHOP OF AUXERRE IN GAUL.
CENT. III
PrefacePeregrinus Bishop and Martyr at Auxerre in Gaul (St.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Auxerre, an Episcopal city of Gaul on the river Yonne, in today's Duchy of Burgundy, commonly Auxerre, was once called Autricus, whence also Mount Autricus adjacent to the city afforded burial to various of its Bishops. The first of these is believed and held to have been St. Peregrinus, sent thither by St. Sixtus the Pope, who confirmed by Martyr's blood shed the Gospel of Christ announced by him. His sacred memory is celebrated on this XVI of May, almost all the Latin Martyrologies, Sacred cult: also the ancient apographs of the Martyrology of Jerome with these words nearly: At Auxerre, in the village Baiacum, the passion of St. Peregrinus, first Bishop of that city. Almost the same are read in Rabanus, Ado, Notker, & in the MSS. of Arras, Tournai & Liège, & are perhaps Florus's in the additions to Bede. Usuard has these: At Auxerre of B. Peregrinus Martyr & first Bishop of that city, who punished by capital sentence, merited the everlasting crown. The same are read in today's Roman Martyrology, with these inserted, that he was sent by B. Sixtus the Pope into Gaul with other Clerics to fulfill the office of preaching. We omit other eulogies taken from the Acts, of which there are longer ones in a certain ancient MS. of the Queen of Sweden, which appears to have been written among the Fulda monks or somewhere on the Rhine: likewise in MS. Ado of the Church of the Morini and the monastery of S. Lawrence at Liège: and also in Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology. But in the Church of Chartres on this day is venerated St. Emanus the Martyr with the Commemoration of St. Peregrinus Bishop & Martyr. Wandelbert however, perhaps by some error, on the XVII of May or XVI Kalends of June, inscribed the same in his Metrical Martyrology.
[2] The Acts are given from MSS. The Acts of the Life & Passion of S. Peregrinus we had in many ancient and well-noted MS. codices, namely of Saint-Omer, Arrouaise, & Trier of S. Maximinus: also from the Beauvais one sent by Petrus Flovetus: & in a double of the Queen of Sweden from codices marked number 13 & 569, also in a certain illustrious Legendary of ours. The same finally from the Compiègne codex was sent in the year 1666 by Ludovicus Nicqueus, Celestine of Soissons: & the Auxerre Breviary, all moreover we have collated with those which Philippus Labbe published in volume 1 of the New library page 526 & following. The same but contracted are in the very ancient Breviaries of the Church of Auxerre, given to us by Petrus le Venier Penitentiary of the same Church, whose benevolence we ourselves experienced at Auxerre in the year 1662, & admired his illustrious library. Another Compendium of the Life, made by Petrus Calo, Compendia of the Life. we transcribed at Rome: which is plainly the same as exists in Vincent of Beauvais book 10 of the Speculum historiale chap. 75, & with few changes in the MS. of Utrecht of the Church of S. Salvator. But in itself more contracted has Petrus de Natalibus book 5, chap. 5, from which we give some things on the Translation of his body. There exists a History of the Bishops of Auxerre brought forth by the said Philippus Labbe, & published in the same New library: which on St. Peregrinus thus begins: The text of his Passion faithfully informs those wishing to know about S. Peregrinus, consecrated Bishop by the intercessions & at the same time the merits of B. Sixtus, Primate of the Apostolic See. Then are subjoined various things about the persecutions of Christians in Gaul, & especially those which were suffered at Auxerre under the Emperor Aurelian by SS. Priscus and his companions, whose Acts of martyrdom we give below on the XXVI of this month of May. And at length the compendium of the Life & passion of S. Peregrinus is appended.
[3] The time of this mission and martyrdom is variously assigned. And first the above-mentioned Vincent of Beauvais, Sent according to some by Sixtus I, in the indicated chap. 75 of book 10, places together in the title the Passion of S. Sixtus Pope I & Peregrinus of Auxerre, & in the text adds the Emperor Hadrian, of whom in the rest of the apographs no mention is made. We gave on the day VI April the Acts of S. Sixtus I Pope, and we said that he died Martyr under the Emperor Hadrian, in the IX year of his Empire, of Christ CXXVI. Antoninus followed Beauvais after his manner in the Chronicle part 1 title 7 chap. 5, & both Baronius at the year 142 number 12. Franciscus Bosquetus book 2 of the Histories of the Gallican Church chap. 1 asserts to be said, that by Sixtus the first were sent into Gaul Peregrinus, who sat at Auxerre; Genulphus, who [sat] at Cahors: but this latter to be attributed to Sixtus II, but rather by Sixtus II Pope, perhaps also the former ought to be. Certainly the most ancient Acts from MS. of S. Maximinus relate that S. Peregrinus was sent in the times of Valerian & Gallienus, under whom S. Sixtus II Pope presided over the Church from the year 255, until August VI of the year 258, as we have said in our Commentary on the first Roman Pontiffs before volume 1 of the Acts of the month of April. In the same way the History of the Bishops of Auxerre at the end of the eulogy adds, that these things were done with Gallienus & Valerian as Emperors, Aemilianus & Bassus as Consuls, that is in the year 259, in which Valerian is said by many to have been captured & led away. he came to Auxerre about the year 259. We judge however that S. Peregrinus did not die a Martyr in the said year, but began at Auxerre to announce Christ, & survived to the times of Claudius or Aurelian, who under that one led an army into Gaul with full power, & afterwards as Emperor went out to the same place, under whom Probus also & very many others were crowned at Auxerre by martyrdom. Another author of the said mission to be ascribed to S. Sixtus II is Robertus, or, by whatever name he be called, monk of the monastery of S. Marianus near Auxerre, in his Chronology published at Paris in the year 1609, who on page 43 relates these things: At Rome Stephen having suffered martyrdom, Sixtus, namely the second, succeeded into the Pontificate. He ordained B. Peregrinus the rest, which, he says, the History of his passion evidently declares. Behold two domestic witnesses, who that thing from ancient monuments of the Church of Auxerre are to be considered to have drawn together with the very Acts which are described by them. Ioannes Monchiacenus Demochares, & after him Ioannes Chenu in the Catalogues of the Bishops of Auxerre, while they seem to hold another opinion, perhaps under Alexander not Emperor, establish this last one. S. Peregrinus, they say, a Roman citizen, sent by Pope Sixtus to Gaul, Martyr under the Emperor Alexander. For who else is this Alexander but the son of Mammaea, who was the only one of that name among the ancient Emperors, assumed in the year 223, that is after the death of Sixtus I by ninety-seven years, & before Sixtus II was created Pope, by thirty-two years? What therefore? The way is shown by the above-cited Acts of S. Priscus the Martyr, but the Protector of the side of the Emperor Aurelian, in which is said the Emperor Aurelian, the companions of his ferocity sent across through all Gaul, & the country of Auxerre fell into the lot of the most impious Alexander, the Protector of the sacred side. This Alexander therefore, not the Emperor, but the Protector of the Emperor, on behalf of Aurelian the Emperor, whose orders he was executing, named somewhere Demochares may have found, and equally the times of martyrdom which we assign are confirmed.
[4] The previously cited Demochares & Chenu testify, that the body of S. Peregrinus Bishop of Auxerre is preserved in the monastery of S. Denis near Paris. Chenu adds that the feast of translation is celebrated on XI Kalends of September. On which day these things are read in the MS. Martyrology of the Brussels Church of S. Gudula: The body translated to the monastery of S. Denis The Translation of the bodies of SS. Hilary Bishop & Confessor, Innocent the Martyr, & S. Peregrinus Bishop & Martyr in the Basilica of S. Denis. Iacobus Brulius in the Theatre of Antiquities of Paris page 1107 mentions these sacred
bodies, & asserts S. Peregrinus to be Bishop of Auxerre. Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology on this XVI of May, after the explained martyrdom of S. Peregrinus, adds these things: Whose body exposed to wild beasts, when it had remained long untouched, by Angelic admonition by a certain Christian rustic according to his measure was tended to, then to Auxerre, after God had converted the storm into calm, was carried with the highest honor. At length by royal command, that the chief sanctuary of Gaul might enrich by his pledging, to the renowned monastery of S. Denis it was conveyed: where with the very Apostle of the Gauls and his companions resting, with becoming honor it is preserved, and perpetually enjoys the veneration due to its merits: Thus there. But somewhat differently this translation is reported by Petrus Calo, Vincent of Beauvais & in the MS. of Utrecht: from which we subjoin these things, although in them appears some confusion of times.
[5] When therefore he had thus remained exposed to wild beasts, on that very night the Angel of the Lord appeared to a certain rustic Christian of the same villa, saying: not without a miracle. Arise & with the two oxen which you have yoked to a cart, take the body of my servant Peregrinus, which lies there; & to Auxerre, whence he was Bishop, carry it. And when he said he did not know the way: Go, he said, & I shall lead you. So he did, & so by the nod of God from the middle of the night until the dawn he walked. But in the high morning meeting people on the way, he asked, whether he was going correctly to Auxerre: & they marvelling responded that leaving Auxerre, he had now approached S. Denis near Paris. At this he greatly marvelling proceeded, awaiting the divine will. At the same hour a voice in the dormitory of the monks of S. Denis sounded, saying: Arise & meet my servant Peregrinus, Bishop of Auxerre, who is coming: & at once with the bells of the church spontaneously ringing, the monks aroused running to meet S. Peregrinus, solemnly received him, Confused with the Roman Martyr, & having heard the event of the matter, placed him in a silver casket. The monastery of San-Dionysius King Dagobert first founded after the year 628; nor is it credible that the holy Martyr lay so long unburied: he could however have lain hidden buried in secret up to the seventh century, or even much longer, until the aforesaid rustic was bidden to take his bones away: there could in the very place of burial, with the body raised from the earth once things were peaceful, have been erected a chapel, in it having his cult; with which fading away, God deigned from the desolate place to take care to translate the sacred pledge. Which since it is still preserved at S. Denis, by no verisimilitude was it begun at Rome less than a hundred years ago to be believed, that the body of S. Peregrinus Martyr, which is held in the Vatican church, is the Bishop of Auxerre's, brought as a gift from France by Charles the Great to Leo IV, in whose Pontificate it must be that there was an oratory of S. Peregrinus there much earlier, which Anastasius testifies to have been augmented by him with sacred gifts. More verisimilarly a notable part of the Relics of S. Peregrinus, brought from Gaul by Charles IV the Emperor to Prague in the year 1373, is said in the Diary of the Prague church.
[6] But because S. Peregrinus, fired with zeal of faith, went to a place near Auxerre, famous for the cult & temples of idols, which was called Interamnus, today perhaps called les Isles, that is, Islands; to the Interamnenses in Umbria the occasion seems to have been given, of claiming him for themselves, & making him the same as the Roman Martyr, which Philippus Ferrarius testifies in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, after the eulogy of the Anconitan Martyrs S. Peregrinus & companions, & wrongly attributed to Interamna in Umbria. of whom below: for thus he writes: On this day the Church of Interamna recounted S. Peregrinus, Roman Presbyter & Martyr, whom sent by S. Sixtus the Pope into Gaul to preach, on the journey at Interamna having preached, and built oratories and cemeteries; and to Rome, after he had confirmed the Gauls in the faith, having returned, on the Appian Way crowned with martyrdom, & at S. Peter buried, he asserts. Similarly in the General Catalogue of Saints, who are not in the Roman Martyrology, when he had written; At Interamna of S. Peregrinus Presbyter & Martyr, he subjoins in the Notes, that he takes him from the tablets of the Church of Interamna, then he says: He suffered at Rome under Hadrian, as the monuments of the said Church transmitted to us hold, although the Acts in some are confused with the Acts of S. Peregrinus Bishop of Auxerre. We have no cause why we should make S. Peregrinus, who suffered at Rome with companions on XXV August, another from him whom in the same place to have had an oratory anciently, now wrongly to be confused with the one of Auxerre, we have already said. But the Interamnenses having no body or vestige of any Peregrinus, there is no reason why we should multiply synonymous Saints on the same day: for they are not even consistent in the title of Presbyter. Indeed Ughelli, alleging a certain old Calendar of Interamna, makes him a Bishop, & indeed the first of that city about the year 138; in which year namely Hadrian the Emperor passed from life, to which time Beauvais and after him S. Antoninus & Baronius attributed Peregrinus of Auxerre, because deceived by the ambiguity of the Pontificate, under which the Saint was sent into Gaul, they took Sixtus the first for the second. Ughelli asserts indeed, that mention of him is made in the Acts of S. Sixtus the first Roman Pontiff: but such Acts we have nowhere found; & if we found them, we should reject them as fictitious: since all antiquity knew nothing else about him, than what we gave from the Pontifical Catalogues on the day VI April.
[7] There is in Westphalia a most celebrated Abbey of noble Virgins, Essen, Whether companion S. Marsus. which today triumphs in the Relics of S. Marsus, given by Otto the third of that name the Emperor to that place. To which most religious Emperor it was solemn to translate the bones of many Saints from darkness into light with magnificent pomp, just as also the relics of this Marsus he piously inserted into urns of gold, both for subtlety of work and variety, and for splendor of gems worth seeing. Thus from the Tablets of Essen Theodorus Rhay in the Illustrious Souls of Jülich, Cleves, the Mountains &c. testify. But Ioannes Velden of the Saints of Westphalia, & Gelenius in the Fasti of Cologne, that this Marsus is held companion of S. Peregrinus, whom on this day Galesinius, Canisius & Ferrarius mention. But Saussay page 1240 inserted him in his Catalogue of Saints, whose day he did not know, adding that he is to be placed with S. Peregrinus on this day. To us no cause appears to join them here, this however we wished to indicate.
LIFE
From various MS. codices.
Peregrinus Bishop Martyr at Auxerre in Gaul (S.)
BHL Number: 6623
FROM MSS.
[1] At that time a, when the pestilential rage of barbarians had spread itself far and wide, & the published sentences of the Princes were so compelling Christians, that either they should pay due sacrifices to the gods abundantly, or altogether b vengeance decreed against them should run forth. And when so harsh a sentence had been promulgated, In the great persecution very few men were found, who would confess themselves to be Christians. But when this perilous most faithful Christians it was being announced to the ears of Sixtus the Pope of the city of Rome, asking that he should send such a man, who should illuminate by his eloquence the now extinguished lamp of faith, made Bishop by Sixtus II Pope: & should restrain the infidelity of the barbarians with the help of divine assistance. Then the said man Sixtus the Pope, conspicuous for highest sanctity, the great & illustrious servant of God Peregrinus, namely a Roman citizen, ordained Bishop, but Marsus Presbyter, d Corcodemus Archdeacon, established to be Levite, & Jovianus he assigned to the burden of Subdeacon e. Jovinianus also Lector, since he was eloquent in all things, with companions & in the divine Scriptures excellently learned, he set as their companion. Who afterwards at Autricus, in a place which at that time was not yet girded with the fortification of walls, by the persecutors f killed, consummated martyrdom. For these the worshipper of the highest God the most blessed Pope Sixtus of the city of Rome, with all confidence having led down to the marine port, the word of the Lord especially commanded them to preach faithfully unto death; that those whom the author of the evil seed with poisonous doctrine of his sprouting darnel was hastening to lose with bitterness, sent into Gaul, refreshed by the antidote of the divine cup they might recall to the original health.
[2] Then truly from them famed prayer to God is poured forth, to the begun work the happy serving favorable water follows them, & to the desired port g swiftly they arrive. But when on dry land their firm steps had now begun to walk, Lyons led even to Lyons they could not in any way hide themselves: chiefly fearing lest the opportunity of approaching to the predestined place not be granted them, & their arrival there could not be hidden: for most bitterly everywhere raged the unending and continual condemnation of Christians by the barbarians: & thence he came to Auxerre: and asked by the faithful brethren that they depart from the place, to Autricus by divine admonition they came undaunted; where then a great multitude of nobles, observing the vain cultures of the gods, was sitting closely packed. The athletes of God indeed, desiring to be drenched for the name of Christ in the wave of their own blood, continually preached the name of Christ. To the inquiring pagans they testified themselves to be Christians, & for the preaching of the divine word to have come there. Then truly the most blessed Priests, shining by preaching, & many converted, because of the assiduity of virtues, which through them divine power was exercising, whatever there was of the chief men of that place, flew together to the grace of Christianity. Soon also S. Peregrinus the Bishop, imparting to them the new teaching, building a church of small extent, builds a church: consecrated it to the name of Christ: at whose flashing eloquence, a very great multitude of people flocked to baptism.
[3] And when there had been extinguished all culture of the gods, in the territory of that city, in the place which is called or of many nefarious things. Among which truly the temple of Eolercus, whom he had dedicated properly under the name of Jupiter, especially with the highest titles the pagans pursued, because that very temple greatly built shone forth. He goes to Interamnus, But when according to custom to its festivals the troops of the people had come, hearing these things the highest Bishop, moved by divine zeal, leaving at Autricus the entire office of brothers, that they might more fully confirm the work begun by him; he himself however with the greatest haste went to Interamnus, & boldly immersing himself in the midst of the throngs of pagans, Announcing Christ he is captured: began the Lord Jesus Christ with loud voice strongly to preach. But while he was preaching such things, the crowd stirred up by the goads of anger, said before the tribunal: When the entire sex without distinction according to the sanction of the Princes the ceremonies of the gods reverently performs, a certain man supervening now with shorn head, & now well advanced in age, has generated the greatest error in the people, wishing to institute a new teaching. For if to your Serenity's command it seems good, I cause him to be presented to you, lest with intervening space, with part of the people joined, dissension be made in the populace. Asked by the Judge, And when S. Peregrinus had been presented to the Judge, with poisonous and rabid sigh conceived, he said to him: Because in you, as I hear, the kindling of so great a contumacy has burned forth, that the cultures of the great gods by the boldness of your speech the haughtinesses of blasphemy are heaped upon,
we ask of you, of what place you are a citizen, & from what stock of family you descend, with the people present declare. S. Peregrinus said: I have no fatherland except Christ, nor any other name than Christian. He professes the faith: But truly, although unworthy, I profess myself Bishop & servant of Christ, for the sake of whose name to be announced to the Gentiles I have come even thus far.
[4] Then the Governor said to him. As is the custom of our religion, either pay due service to the gods, or certainly I shall torment you with great torments. He resisting & from the divine Scriptures damning them or their gods, the Proconsul ordered him, at the place i Baugiacus, shut in prison where at that time the most obscure custody was held, to be thrust bound into prison, & to be tormented with many injuries. He himself however among such bitter punishments did not cease to preach the Lord Jesus Christ to the soldiers. He converts many: To whose preaching therefore a double cause converted the multitude of the people, because he shone in virtues & eloquence. But when now for many days the harm of the squalid prison had claimed him for itself, nor yet had a capital sentence punished the man of highest sanctity, he is reserved for Caesar in that very dark custody.
[5] After several days however Caesar arriving there, attests to him publicly before the entire multitude, why he had been so anxious, that the change of countenance testified the sadness of soul. The Proconsul responded to him: According to your command all things stand by the help of the gods. Led to the Emperor, But now a certain man, named Peregrinus, desires to impart a new norm to the peoples, execrating the ceremonies of the great gods: he has publicly declared himself an enemy to the greatest gods, unhesitatingly affirming himself a Christian: whom even thrust away, & in the most obscure prison consigned, I have reserved for your clemency. And when at the command of the Emperor, with the office running through, the man of God led out from prison, had been presented to Caesar; he says to him: Many things nefarious are being announced to me about you: but truly also against our sanction & against the venerable culture of our gods to seek attempt of acting, whether they are false or true, declare. S. Peregrinus the Bishop responded: He professes the faith of Christ If those things which are preached by me the hardness of your heart received, they would not seem vain or superfluous: because he who testifies Christ the Son of God & the power of God, & Lord of all creation, against right & divine law as nefarious is judged.
[6] And when the man of God pursued these and similar things, the tyrant said to him: The dignity of your countenance forbids, that against you not according to your perverse I know not what doctrine our clemency should rage. But if you wish to recall yourself from this vain assumption, & to sacrifice to our gods, with great honors among us you shall flourish. S. Peregrinus responded: He despises the offered gifts: Your honors are perdition, your gifts indeed perpetual gehenna. I however invoke Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Redeemer of all, & unto death I do not tremble to preach. For your gods are mute simulacra, constructed of metals of gold and silver, which both lack voice, & cannot move with steps, are demons & proceeded from the father the devil: with whom also you, if you shall not have been converted to the Lord Jesus, He inculcates eternal punishments: & imbued with the wave of baptism, to eternal fire & perpetual torments shall be assigned. We however, although temporal punishments brought by you we suffer, are secure of the promises of the eternal King.
[7] When S. Peregrinus the Bishop had spoken these things, Caesar filled with great fury, said: Afflicted with various torments Not only does this man resist sacrificing to our gods, but truly even on us by the venomed hissing of his words has inflicted many injuries: therefore as a rebel and decrepit let him most justly be slaughtered. The sentence pronounced, by the soldiers beaten with fists & kicks, drawn from the presence of the tyrant, is consigned to the executioners. So the holy of God Peregrinus the Bishop among the hands of the lictors with the most grievous destruction is tormented: but when now nearly all his limbs had failed in the punishment, & the executioners saw they were profiting nothing in him; the sword being drawn by a pestilent soldier, he was punished by the head: He is beheaded, & afterwards by Christians secretly stolen away, on account of the rage of the raging pagan barbarians, he is said to have been buried. But the most blessed Peregrinus the Bishop was martyred on the day seventeenth of the Kalends of June, 16 May. with our Lord Jesus Christ supplying: to whom is glory, command, & power for ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
ON SS. PEREGRINUS, HERCULANUS AND FLAVIANUS
MARTYRS AT ANCONA IN PICENUM.
UNDER DIOCLETIAN.
PrefacePeregrinus, Martyr at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
Herculanus, Martyr at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
Flavianus, Martyr at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
D. P.
To Peregrinus, Bishop of Auxerre & Martyr, we subjoin another Peregrinus, but at Ancona in Picenum, who suffered under Diocletian with companions. These Ferrarius in the general Catalogue on the present XVI of May thus reports: At Ancona of the holy Martyrs Peregrinus, Herculanus & Flavianus, Cult & Church. and there annotates that he has them from the tablets of the Church of Ancona. They suffered under Diocletian, as their Acts (of which we received an example) declare. The bodies in the Church dedicated to S. Peregrinus, are interred. The same in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy asserts, that this Church is parochial & very ancient: but it ceased to be this, after in the year 1650 it was handed over to the Discalced Carmelites. Acts from MS. of Ancona. The Acts & miracles, copied from the archive of the Church of Ancona, were sent to us in the year 1649 by Henricus Lindanus, Presbyter of our Society, then Penitentiary of Loreto, as afterwards at Rome at S. Peter; who returning thence into his Belgium for some time labored in the Holland mission, then in Denmark died for the reduction of heretics at Copenhagen. In these Acts is not touched upon the martyrdom of SS. Herculanus & Flavianus, but their bodies together with S. Peregrinus's are said to have been found, & then at the intercession of them miracles wrought. That finding moreover, as will be said in the Appendix, pertains to the year 1224. The Compendium of the Acts, which the said Ferrarius asserts he produces from the monuments of the Church of Ancona transmitted to him, is of this kind.
[2] Peregrinus the Anconitan Deacon, born in the place Roselianus, in the time of the Emperors Diocletian & Maximian, by preaching converted many from the Jews & Gentiles to Christ. Compendium from Ferrarius. But accused before Anolinus the Proconsul, & led to him, when he had preached to him faith in Christ, & disapproved the cult of the Gods, using these words; The simulacra of the Gentiles are silver & gold, the works of men's hands, & what follows; after a long debate about the gods & Christ, on an iron grate with fire placed under he is ordered to be stretched and drenched with oil. Ps. 113. 4 But Peregrinus having prayed to God with these words, By fire you have tested me & iniquity has not been found in me: & those, Free me from the pressure of the flame which has surrounded me; that fire he overcame with no harm received. Ps. 16. 3, Eccli 51. 6 Wherefore Anolinus, when not once, but in vain, he had exhorted Peregrinus to the cult of the gods, fearing the edicts of the Emperors, if he should permit him to live, against him spoke a sentence of the head. With whom Herculanus & Flavianus, who converted by Peregrinus, in the confession of the faith were strongly persisting, by cutting off of the head obtained the palm of martyrdom. Their bodies buried by Christians, now rest in the Church dedicated to S. Peregrinus.
[3] These things Ferrarius copiously enough, that from such a specimen may be understood that history, Anolinus persecutor. into which so copiously are inserted words of Scripture, as if usurped by the Saint, long after the Martyrdom of him to have been written, not without rhetorical ornament. There were in the year of Christ 295 under Diocletian & Maximian as Roman Consuls Nummius Tuscus & Annius Cornelius Anulinus. And just as in Gaul & Spain there were Rictiovarus & Dacianus established by these Emperors as general persecutors of Christians, so also seems in Italy & Africa to have presided over the persecution of Christians Anolinus or Anulinus. Thus at Verona were beheaded SS. Firmus & Rusticus under Cornelius Annulinus, Consular of Venice & Istria. Thus the Proconsul of Africa Anolinus presided over the martyrdom of the Abitines suffered at Carthage: as we deduced these things at length on XXIII March at the Life of S. Proculus Bishop of Verona number VI. But if one and the same Anolinus has not been everywhere present, several from the same family could have been assumed. For that this was extended widely Baronius teaches in his Annotations on XXVIII July letter D.
[4] Ferdinandus Ughelli volume I of Sacred Italy, in the Preface to the Bishops of Ancona column 370, has these things: Patronage Ancona is enriched with spiritual goods. For in it for the protection of salvation many bodies of the holy Martyrs rest, who under raging gentility poured forth soul & blood: as Saints Peregrinus, Heraclius and Flavianus, who under Diocletian and Maximian, not so much commanding, as raging against the Christian people, gloriously ran the goal of martyrdom. Whose passion is held celebrated on the XVI day of the month of May. Iulianus Saracenus part 2 of the Notes of Ancona book 2 in the year 290, treats of the martyrdom of S. Peregrinus, & asserts that the Life of him is described in Greek, included in the chest, in which is held his sacred body; & that an apograph of it is preserved in the archive of the Conventual Minorite Fathers at Ancona in an ancient parchment Codex: whence when we wished to obtain the same, hope of obtaining the wish was made for us by R.P. Christophorus Ligneus of our Society Rector of Ancona, as soon as he should find a suitable scribe. Saracenus adds a compendium extracted thence, in which Rosolianum the place of birth is placed in Greece, where I willingly understand Magna Graecia that is Calabria, in which what today is called Roglianum IX P. M. from Cosenza to the south can be conveniently understood in this place: or also Rossanum, today still an Archiepiscopal city, near the sea by which Ancona is ascended, commonly called the Venetic gulf, also called by the ancients Ruscianum. against pestilence. Saracenus adds besides, that the Anconitans, on account of their city by intercession of these Martyrs freed from pestilence, in the year 1456 instituted
a solemn supplication, with the offering of a candle, & it was afterwards continued, & more solemnly in the year 1586.
ACTS OF MARTYRDOM
From the MS. codex of the Anconitan Church.
Peregrinus, Martyr at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
Herculanus, Martyr at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
Flavianus, Martyr at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
BHL Number: 6622
Under Diocletian the Emperor, & Anolinus the Proconsul, in the Doric city, was martyred a certain man named Peregrinus, Deacon and Levite of Christ, of the place Rosolianus. With many converted: And when B. Peregrinus the Levite of Christ was preaching faithfully the evangelical word in the barbarous nation, & many from the perfidy of the Jews & the error of gentility through the intervening grace of the Holy Spirit as quickly as possible to the Christian faith were hastening & being converted (from whom also many already to triumphal palms & the crown of martyrdom are shown to have come) it is indicated about him to Anolinus the Proconsul: who at once caused B. Peregrinus by his satellites to be apprehended, & shut in prison. Then while Anolinus was sitting before the tribunal, before his presence was offered B. Peregrinus, & the Proconsul began to say to him: We have heard about you, that you seduce the people of our nation, He is set before Anolinus, by converting it to the law of Christianity; from which you yourself stand a rebel to the laws of Diocletian the Emperor, & do not consent to his commands. B. Peregrinus responding said: The law of Almighty God & His Son altogether resists your laws. Following which faith of Christ I, esteem as nothing all your principate & glory: as it is written in the book of Psalms: The law of his God is in his heart, & his steps shall not be supplanted, & what follows. Ps. 36. 31 I have seen the wicked exalted & raised above the cedars of Lebanon: I passed by, & behold he was not, nor was his place found. But that what I say is true, you yourself Proconsul consider. Where are the Emperors, where are the Kings, & Princes of the earth, who were before you? Certainly as waves they have passed, like a dream they have vanished: now they are sought, & they are not.
[2] Anolinus the Proconsul said: In our presence you stand, & dare to speak these nefarious things, how much more absent have you spoken evil of us? B. Peregrinus responded to him, & said: Hear, Proconsul, what speaks my Lord God: He despises idolatry: When you stand before Kings & Governors, do not think how or what you shall speak, for you are not the ones who speak but the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in you: for everywhere the law of our God damns your evil deeds, & manifests the cruel betrayals to all worshippers of idols, just as the Prophet says; The simulacra of the Gentiles, silver & gold: but they are fixed on walls lest they fall; and if they fall, they cannot help themselves: & yet you say, these are our gods: similar therefore become those who make them, & all who trust in them, since unto the hatred of the living God, & deceptions of souls they have been made and error. Math. 10, Ps. 113. 4 Anolinus said: In what preaching of law therefore do you have confidence, & he professes Christ: that you contradict us? The Levite of Christ B. Peregrinus responded: In the law of the Gospels, in the preaching of the Apostles, & in the authority of Jesus Christ Our Lord, who to those not sacrificing, but unlearned serving Him purely according to the Christian rite, has promised eternal life, which He prepared for those loving Him from the origin of the world: & this is what the holy Gospel testifies to the just, saying: Come, Blessed of my Father. Anolinus said, I think you not unaware, Peregrinus, that whoever in this presumption persevere, are ordered to have their flesh torn by various punishments, & finished by an evil death, & to be exterminated from this life. The Levite of Christ S. Peregrinus without trembling responded: I Diocletian the Emperor, He spurns torments: & you, & all his Princes in this shall overcome, if I shall have endured the torments of this time. Then with me persevering unto death, manifestly the world shall see, that you in all things have been overcome, & that I in the strength of my Lord triumph. For our Master the Lord Jesus Christ commanded us this: Not he who shall have begun, but he who shall have persevered, shall be saved. And His Apostle to this exhorts us, confidently saying; The sufferings of this time are not worthy. Rom. 8. 18
[3] Anolinus said: Enough many words have we permitted you to make, now we wish you no further to proceed, but to respond to us in order. Whence have you come here, that you should betray your dignity? S. Peregrinus responded: In the Rosolanic place I dwelt, before I came to the Anconitan City. Where I have felt my dignity well to be advanced, He came to Ancona, amid your sufferings & punishments. For that you may know that I do not abandon the crown, which the Lord has prepared for me, therefore I do not seek the dignity of this world: since I desire to have that in heaven, which the just Judge promised to me on that day. But because the holy Gospel commands, that if we wish truly to be rich, we should love the true riches, that is the heavenly: therefore I have abandoned what is to perish, from which is acquired eternal life, & joys of exaltation are found to remain without end. Anolinus said: These are the words by which you have already seduced many, & into the damnation of punishments, as also yourself indeed, you have sent. B. Levite responded: Our seduction is eternal life, & triumphal glory. Whence whoever desires to have the heavenly & perpetual dignity let him believe confidently in Jesus Christ Our Lord, who came from heaven & clarified in himself all truth. For He has spoken these things to His disciples: Now I shall no longer call you servants, but friends. Then Anolinus burned with anger: who therefore commanded his hands & feet to be uncaled, & his sides to be burned with a burning lamp. John 1; 15. He is variously tortured, But the Blessed in these punishments rejoicing, said himself to be advancing, & said to Anolinus, that he should inflict on him crueler torments if there were any. Then turning to the East he prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ, that He should free him from those punishments, lest the elation of that son of the devil should overcome him. Which because they confounded the Proconsul, he began to exhort him, that now at last to his will he should accede, unless he wished to be finished by an evil death. To whom holy Peregrinus responded: It behooves me to resist your will, & to render faithful office to the will of Jesus Christ.
[4] Hearing these things, Anolinus again into the squalid & dark prison ordered him to be thrust, & for so very long with hunger & thirst he ordered him to be afflicted, Vexed by hunger he is again tortured. until he should be exterminated from this world. And when B. Peregrinus so harshly enclosed prayed God continually, that He should keep him constant unto death; the angered Proconsul again ordered him to be drawn out & beaten with cudgels, & his flesh to be torn with iron combs, in the meantime exhorting him with these words: Peregrinus, only say that you do not resist the laws & commands of Diocletian, & we shall release you, otherwise destruction & death's ruin is prepared for you. The Blessed responded, that he wished to imitate Christ Jesus in the passion, because he knew that thereby eternal life was being prepared for him: but for them so much greater torments He prepares, the more powerful they are. Hearing these things Anolinus ordered him to be hung on the rack, tortured, & lacerated, saying: Why foolishly do you persevere in infidelity? Be obedient to Diocletian's commands, & we shall cause you from that very rack to be taken down, for not otherwise shall you be able to escape our hands. And when B. Peregrinus was bearing all these things most constantly, having been taken down from the rack he again ordered him to be thrust into prison, & not after much time in the Anconitan forum he set him. Where when his constancy Anolinus could not bear, he ordered the Blessed in a Grate to be stretched, & burning coals to be strewn beneath, & he is beheaded. & oil to be poured over, that his whole body might be roasted. But with holy Peregrinus praying, the voracity of fire extinguished, & he remained unharmed. And when to the exhortations of Anolinus he refused, he was condemned to the sword; which brought to B. Peregrinus the highest joy, when he said he now desired to be dissolved, & to be with Christ: wherefore on XVII Kalends of June he was struck by the sword, & happily migrated to the Lord.
[5] The bodies of B. Peregrinus, Erculanus, & Fabianus, who at Ancona had built a Church to the honor of our Saviour, Fevers are cured, were found by certain Priests Vgo & Philippus, & by mason workmen who were repairing the church consumed by age. There was a certain man, named Ioannes, who while he was suffering from continual fever, vowed to God & SS. Peregrinus, Herculanus, & Fabianus, that when his body should lie on a bier lifeless, abandoned by physicians, to the aforesaid Saints it should be carried. He began to slumber, & thence awakened he could not only speak, but that to home by himself to return he was able, he constantly maintained. A certain very rich woman was held by great fevers, whose husband to the bodies of the saints Peregrinus, Herculanus & Fabianus carried her: with they pouring forth suppliant prayers, the woman as if into ecstasy caught up, heard: Know yourself by the merits of the saints Peregrinus, Herculanus, & Fabianus to have been freed. From that hour therefore she recovered from the infirmity. phrenesis, A certain woman had a daughter suffering from fever, who when she had fallen into frenzy against all the bystanders uttered insane words. The mother ran to the bodies of the Saints, & slept around their tomb, hearing, Return to your home, behold what you long since desired you obtain; your daughter has been made safe. And to her own returning, contraction, she found her daughter unharmed. A certain man for five years had been lame, & in such manner with hands contracted, that he could neither walk, nor do anything with his hands. When however he had heard the fame of the said Saints, by the hands of his domestics to their tomb he was carried: whose body, with a brief supplication performed, gout, was at once restored to health. A certain woman had incurred a gouty disease, on which disease to be healed she had spent everything on physicians, & by the hands of her domestics was forced to walk: when however she prayed to God, that by the merits of the aforesaid Saints He should free her, the entire pristine health of her body she received. dysentery, A certain little boy was suffering dysentery, emitting most foul blood through the rear: weighed down by which infirmity, for nearly nine days without food & sleep he led his life. At length by his parents to the bodies of the Saints brought, he began to sleep, & in that very sleep he cried out: Servant of God, Peregrinus, help me with your companions. And from then awake he took food, & thence was wholly freed.
[12] Energumens. A colonist of a certain Patrician, when from a fountain he drank water, a demon entered into him, & immediately began to vex him: but led to the monument of the Saints Peregrinus, Herculanus, & Fabianus, the demon with terrible voices began to cry out: Peregrinus, Herculanus, & Fabianus, why do you set me afire by your prayers? & at once leaving him, never afterwards dared to vex him. Similarly when another was returning from the bakery, the devil appeared in the shape of a wolf, preparing very many ambushes for him. When however he had come to a well,
he had arrived, together with the water he drank the demon itself. And when he had come to the house of his Master, the Master trusting in the merits of S. Peregrinus & his companions, to their crypt brought him. Where he tried to cry out, & to utter foul words. But God Almighty, through His Saints Peregrinus, Herculanus, & Fabianus, expelled him from that body, nor could the demon any longer vex the man.
APPENDIX D. P.
On the discovery & translations of the Holy bodies.
Peregrinus, Martyr at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
Herculanus, Martyr at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
Flavianus, Martyr at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[13] After a long space of time from the Martyrdom of the Saints, The year 500 wrongly ascribed to their Passion, their memory lost, the temple of the Saviour threatened ruin: but the prudence of the Priests Ugo & Philippus took care that it be made anew. And when the Basilica was being destroyed from the foundations for the cause of renewal, was found the tomb of the said Martyrs, & on the side these words inscribed: In the year of the Lord 500 in this church rest the bodies of the saints Peregrinus, Erculanus and Fabianus. Thus the epitome of the legend, together with the documents soon to be cited below sent to us by the most kind Saraceno on IX April in the year 1677, which he counted as the 77th of his life & had as the last, not long after at Rome, where he stayed, having died. The author of that epitome, in whatever time he lived, doubtless wrongly extends the letters A. D. D. (which alone are represented in the stone soon to be exhibited) for neither the Era of the years of the Lord, first thought up by Dionysius Exiguus in the VI century inclining toward the middle, before the VIII century began to be brought into use of public monuments, as we more fully demonstrate elsewhere, & learned men everywhere know. What therefore? Among various reckonings of years to be noted before the said Dionysius & long after used, from the more usual ones, appears to be numbered according to the era of Diocletian, among the Greeks especially, one was, which they called the Era of Diocletian or the Era of Martyrs, drawn from the day XXIX August of that year, in which the Emperor Numerianus was killed by his father-in-law Aper, & Diocletian, having killed Aper with his own hand, was named Emperor by the army, that is in the year of the common Era 284.
[14] According to this calculation, which is still in use among the Copts, Abyssinians & other Christian peoples through Africa, & noted year of Christ 784 in which the bodies were composed in one chest: the five hundredth Year of Diocletian, which we think was anciently signed on the chest, would have begun at the end of August of the year according to us 784, when the Era of Diocletian was still in use among the Anconitans, this is the more credible the more recent then & not everywhere received was the Christian Era, in writings public first beginning to be used by the Lombards, into whose ways that the Anconitans wished to pass over is the less to be said, because the yoke of these, under which for 21 years they had groaned (others count 46) they had cast off from the year 773, when they handed themselves over to the Roman Church; which itself had not yet accepted the use of the Christian Era. Thus the aforesaid composition of the Saints into one chest preceded the discovery, then in the church of S. Salvator, made by the Presbyters Vgo & Philippus, by more than four centuries. For Ioannes Picchi Tancredi in a letter, sent on these matters to the aforesaid Saraceno, then still a Canon, says that he has an ancient history of the city of Ancona, extracted from older writings which were preserved among the Relics of the Saints, by the diligence of the Magnificent Lords D. Franciscus Scalamonti, D. Iacobus Gualtruccus, & D. Iacobus Marchetti Workmen of S. Cyriacus in the year 1550, in which it is said, that the fabric of the church of S. Salvator, on the Kalends of April begun, in the year 1213; on account of discords arising between the Presbyters & Workmen, remained imperfect until II May of the year 1224 when the bodies of the Saints, found at the beginning of the building, were first laid under their altar.
[15] There still exist the foundations of both assertions, inscribed on stones, begun to be restored in the year 1213, first indeed in the arch of the major door of the church of S. Peregrinus with these words In the year 1213, Indiction XII, on the first day entering of April, D. Innocent sustaining the supreme Pontificate, Otto holding the Empire, Ugo & Philippus Presbyters, & Petrus with Dominicus Workmen from … the rest can be read no more, by conjecture however not improbable we could say, that the authors meant to indicate that from the foundations they began to construct this new church. But here the error of the transcriber is to be corrected, who finding the year of the Indiction noted xu (according to the manner of that age, in which was not used the ancient form of the letter V) thought it to be XII. But since Indiction XV does not fit the year 1213, but the immediately preceding one, it appears that the Anconitans equally as the Tuscans at that time were accustomed to take the beginning of their year from the feast of the Incarnation, the beginning of the common year, which we now have on the Kalends of January, anticipating by nine months. It was therefore the year both of the Pontificate and the Empire the fifteenth: for to Innocent III January, to Otto IV March gave the beginning, in one and the same year 1198.
[16] Witness of the other assertion is a stone, of which here you see the form & figure: the measure to be defined as three Roman feet in width, under the stone of the altar are found, two in height, wrote, asked in the year 1679, R. P. Christophorus Legneus Rector of the Anconitan College: who also being consulted about the form of the letters, whether it was such as we represent the type, or moreover (as Saraceno & others call it) Gothic; responded it altogether to be such, that is Latin, but degenerating; nor in any other sense able to be called Gothic, than that by which everywhere Gothic by the Italians is named, whatever in some way savors of barbarism.
Similar stones to this in ancient Italian churches perhaps not few one might find, if anyone wished to examine the altars: one I found in Seraphinus Esquirrus in the Sanctuary of Sardinia page 490: & it is altogether of that form & measure, which the ancient altars: for it contains only three Roman feet in length, two in height. Wherefore I doubt nothing, that also this marble tablet after the bodies of the Saints, which had lain hidden beneath, were brought forth, was conformed to the use of the altar to be dedicated to them, & that for no small time covered them (for the aforesaid measure agrees with that age, in which altars were less long, than now they are constructed) afterwards however when it seemed good to renew certain things in the aforesaid church, & namely to close with a wall its larger door, of which we have made mention; among other things also was destroyed the aforesaid altar, & its tablet was applied to adorning the front of the now closed door, as today is seen. But when the prior & more celebrated renewal of the church was being made, in the year 1224, & the bodies were found under that stone, this seems to have been still pure at least from letters, with a Cross at the top, & only with cross & lines sculpted: within which then by one and the same hand was inscribed a double title; first, within the inner lines, the same one which once had been expressed on the side of the old chest, which I read thus at length: ✠ In the year of Diocletian five hundredth, in this church rest the bodies of the holy Martyrs Pelegrinus, Erculanus, and Frabianus. To the outer & wider border however was inserted the notice of the discovery, thus to be expressed. ✠ Beneath this stone the bodies of the Saints were found, in the year of the Lord 1224, in the times of Pope Honorius, & Lord Frederick the Emperor, & Lord G. Bishop of Ancona, on the second day entering of the month of May, Indiction twelfth.
[17] In the explication of this writing, an expert chronologist will necessarily be offended by the number of the Indiction. For if (as from the title of the door, then when sculpted as it was placed, is rightly gathered) the Anconitans anticipated by nine months the beginning of the now common year; consequently in the month of May, in which the discovery happened, in the year according to them 1224, by us only the year 1223 is to be counted; & accordingly the Indiction was not XII, or rather 1223, but only XI: & unless we wish to believe, what is not verisimilar, that the Anconitans changed style in that very decade, which intervened between the laid foundations of the church & the discovery of the holy bodies; it must be said that some sciolist of the XV or XVI century (when perhaps first the door was obstructed, & with the old altar destroyed the stone was translated here) added to the number of the Indiction unity, which to him according to the use of his and our time seemed to be lacking. As regards the Bishop of Ancona, whose name by only the initial letter G. according to the manner of the century is found noted; similarly is noted in the Confirmation of the duodenary number of the Canons, in the time of G. Bishop, wrongly omitted in the Catalogues, made at Anagni by Pope Gregory IX on the Ides of July of the Pontificate year XII, which was of Christ 1239, with the Prior & Chapter of Ancona asking, in this manner: We to your requests with grateful concurring assent, the duodenary number of Canons, you son Prior being counted, which of good memory G. Anconitan Bishop established in your church, we confirm. And from this rightly Ioannes Picchi Tancredi advises that Ughelli is to be corrected, who that institution, made in the year 1226, attributes to Rufinus Lupatus, of the Order of Minors Anconitan Bishop, of whom beyond the year 1222 he found no memory, & to him immediately makes succeed Ioannes Bonus, in the year 1243; when from these two documents it appears, that between both intervened this Bishop G. namely William, Gregory, George or Gerard. And it is wonderful that Saraceno, having the already cited letter of Ioannes Picchi in his hands, into the same error with Ughelli struck, part 4 of the Anconitan Notes page 533.
[18] Furthermore from the time of the first elevated stone, the aforesaid bodies of the Saints rested within a stone chest, of form & measure similar to that, in which the body of S. Dasius the Martyr brought from Dorostorum the elders had laid. & placed within a marble chest We shall exhibit the form incised on copper on XX November, when he is venerated by the Greeks, also inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, but by error called Bishop, when the Greeks make him a Soldier, who prevented his fellow soldiers, that from the recruits one to Saturn should sacrifice, & for that cause was killed. But two chests those are marble, & quite beautiful; were once seen beneath niches excavated for that within the two first columns, sustaining the dome or cupola of the church: thus that they faced each other and the major door, as Saraceno says; with the chest of S. Dasius variously translated. in the year 1650 to the crypt or confession of the same church they were translated by the Discalced Carmelite Fathers; again to be translated elsewhere when the said Fathers, to whom the church of S. Peregrinus was conceded, shall have fulfilled their plan of building a new one. their clay statues, In the same church there were once seen also three statues made of clay baked & painted, all clad in Alb & Tunicles, as Deacons: who are believed everywhere to be the Saints Peregrinus, Herculanus & Flavianus: these however, together with the old tablet, representing S. Dasius as a young soldier, D. Christophorus Fiorani took away,
the last Curate of the church of S. Peregrinus, when from there the title of parish was being translated to the neighboring church of S. Philip Neri.
[19] The chest's inscription badly formed; The chest's inscription, with the same characters as those above, & thus formed about the year 1224, is this: ✠ The bodies of Peregrinus & Flavianus the holy Martyrs, who suffered on the XII Kalends of June in the year from the birth of Christ five hundredth, with the Relics of the Holy Innocents were translated here ✠. The authors of this inscription were doubtless deceived in two ways: first because the year, found on the side of the old chest, they believed to be the year of Martyrdom, when it ought to be understood as the year of translation; secondly because they interpreted A. D. as Year of the Lord. Of a third error Ioannes Picchi Saraceno accuses them, that through supine negligence they omitted the name of Erculanus. Whether this accusation is true, then only will be known, why without the name of S. Herculanus? when the chest itself shall be opened, & exhibits the limbs of three bodies: which if only two are found, it will be allowed to conjecture, that one of the three was reserved for some altar to be set up, & for that cause one name omitted. From this conjecture not far departs Saraceno, page 60 asserting, that the body of S. Herculanus perhaps was placed within the chest of S. Dasius: which conjecture whether is verisimilar in equal manner ought by the unsealing of the same chest to be proved, considering whether more than one body's bones lie hidden inside. For us it is enough, & to have set forth both the ancient veneration of the Saints, & the manifold translation of the bodies within the same church's space.
ON SS. VALENTINUS AND DAMIANUS
MARTYRS IN ABRUZZO.
CommentaryValentinus, Martyr in Abruzzo (S.)
Damianus, Martyr in Abruzzo (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
When Philippus Ferrarius in the year 1613 had given to light his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, & this his labor with great applause was being celebrated everywhere, Notice inserted to Ferrarius, not to the catalogue, it was easy for him, working on another Catalogue of Saints not expressed in the Roman Martyrology, of many not only foreign, but also Italian Saints to obtain notice previously desired; & their very Legends, to which in the Annotations he often appealed, as from his edition made in the year 1625 clearly appears. Not however thus could he obtain all things necessary or useful to such a work, but many continued to lie hidden from him, certain things even were brought later, than that he could in their place mention. Therefore in the alphabetical Index of Saints at the end of the second Catalogue, but to the index of the catalogue for 16 May you may find some named, who in the very context are not found, who with fuller notice were to be inserted into the second edition of the same Catalogue, if to it the author had proceeded. Thus in the just-said index are noted, besides others, Valentinus Bishop of Terracina & Damianus Deacon, Martyrs at Petra in Abruzzo on XVI May, the names indeed & rank of each in the church, & the title of Martyrdom & the appellation of the place, which the Legend expresses, signing for us; not however that day on which they are read or rather feigned to have suffered there; but on which he had been admonished that they are venerated, as one is willing to believe. He was ignorant that to the old appellation of Petra, succeeded the name of S. Valentinus: with which you will find that very place noted in the tablets of today's Abruzzo, on the river Pescara between Sulmona & Chieti, with nearly equal interval on either side of IX or XI miles.
[2] then to the Appendix of Ughelli That notice, outside its place thus proposed by Ferrarius, it is no wonder if Ferdinandus Ughelli missed, in the year 1644 preparing volume I of Sacred Italy and in it the Bishops of Terracina to publish; until admonished from elsewhere what was held in the Index, & he himself having obtained the Legend of the Saints already named at Rome, in volume V of the same work, which in the year 1653 he published, he subjoined an Appendix to the three preceding volumes; & advised that to column 200 of the first volume should be inserted among the Bishops of Terracina Avitus & S. Valentinus, who Avitus having died was elected Bishop, & on Mount Soracte by S. Sylvester the Pope was consecrated, by word & example the church entrusted to him strenuously ruled until the times of Julian the Apostate, under whom together with Ditamianus (he meant to write Damianus) his Deacon he bore the noble palm of Martyrdom: whose sacred relics in the town named S. Valentinus in the diocese of Chieti are venerated, with indication of cult in the town of his proper name. where also his MS. Life exists, written in Lombard characters, an exemplar of which, he says, we saw in the Vallicellan library, among the monuments of Cardinal Baronius. Of him also Ferrarius makes mention in the Catalogue on the XVI day of May. We also saw the said exemplar, by the singular benevolence of the Fathers of the Oratory having obtained the faculty of perusing all things, & whatever should seem good of transcribing: but before we saw it, we had another transcribed for us at Naples, from monuments once collected by Antonius Caracciolus the Regular Presbyter, & preserved in the Library of the Theatines, as they call it, of S. Paul.
[3] That Life is distributed into nine Lessons for the use of the ecclesiastical Office, of which the last two, where the Legend distributed in 9 Lessons. as alone written from more certain notice, it pleases here to give; about the rest afterwards to judge more conveniently. They are had under this new title, The Discovery & translation or miracles of the holy Martyrs Valentinus & Damianus: the style however is so entirely the same, that it cannot be doubted that one is the author of the prior ones & of these. Lesson VIII therefore is such. whence we know the bodies were recognized under the Lombards. After by divine ordination, the most glorious bodies of the holy Martyrs Valentinus & Damianus by the faithful were collected, & as in those times necessity incumbed, were decently consigned to burial; uncultivated & without veneration they remained until the times of the Lombards, when all Italy converted, all the men of that Province by baptism of Christ were consecrated. In those times finally with such peace all Italy was illuminated, that all citizens dwelt in their own possessions. At that time the City of Zappina was destroyed, & reduced into hamlets, & in all those hamlets there were no oratories except the oratory of S. Salvator, which was situated upon the river Pescara, where all the inhabitants of that Province assembled to hear the word of God, & there were buried all their dead. It happened however that men, not far from that church staying, brought a certain dead rustic, that in the same place they should consign him to burial. When however they had begun to go, a great rain mixed with hail so occupied them, that they could no longer proceed. And when they were placed in the article of death, that they could neither return home, with him resuscitated to those things dead. nor proceed to the church; by command & will of God, beneath a certain holm-oak they came; where long & much sitting, the rains more & more grew. Taking counsel among themselves they began to dig beneath that tree, that there they might bury the dead man. And when they had not dug much, they found a tomb, where the bodies of the holy Martyrs Valentinus & Damianus rested, & they found there an Epitaph above their breasts. A certain Priest however, who was leading the body of the deceased to the church, read the title, in which was written: Here rest the bodies of the holy Martyrs Valentinus & Damianus. Seeing these things they marvelled, & began to ask God, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, true God of true God; if these bodies which we see are of Saints, let this dead man rise, that your holy name be glorified forever. And when the bystanders had responded, Amen; immediately the dead man arose, & great serenity of heaven was made; therefore those men, when they had seen such miracles, were astonished and glorified God, & the holy Martyrs Valentinus & Damianus. Then some of them guarded the bodies of the Saints, & an oratory built over them. but others going through villages & Castles divulged all that they had seen. Then all the peoples of that region together gathered constructed above the sepulchre of the holy Martyrs a small oratory, & closed diligently their sepulchre. Then men began to construct small little oratories around the same oratory, & there dwelt in the same place.
[4] The race of the Lombards, dominating nearly all Italy, was converted to the faith of Christ in the VII century; & for two centuries held it with the title of Kingdom: in the 7th or 8th century: which then by Charles the Great extinguished, the Principalities were not extinguished, which the same Lombards held in the Kingdom, which now by one name is called Neapolitan, until the Saracens carried from Africa to Sicily and Calabria in the year 827 obtained it, & within 15 years occupying everything as far as the gates of the Roman city. These then, partly the Greeks, partly the Normans expelled: & these indeed, with the Greeks also driven out, subjecting Apulia, Abruzzo, Campania to themselves, gave beginning to a new Principality after the year 1040, in the beginning indeed grievous to the Church, afterwards however most useful, with affairs not only in Europe, but also in Asia strongly and happily conducted. Under these, counting now the fourth or fifth generation in Italy, in the XII century or even XIII was made the translation of the sacred bodies soon to be reported; & in the 12th or 13th century from which you may gather that the author of the life, who about this very Translation writes, as about a thing received only by tradition of the elders, is to be referred at least to the XIV century. Nor is there that for greater antiquity of the said Legend to be claimed should anyone be moved by the Lombard Character, in which to be written Ughelli testifies: for the use of this character flourished in the entire Neapolitan Kingdom until the begun printing, indeed in all writings of the Roman Curia even today it obtains, although with form much smoothed. Let no one therefore wonder if we judge, that an author so little instructed about the truth in those things which look to the Life and martyrdom of the said Saints, his own or others' inventions to those handed over for reading, who preferred to read a newly devised, rather than no history at all, of their Patrons: to which as it is rightly not given credit, so undeservedly would it be denied to the more recent memory of the discovery and translation just said. Receive this therefore from Lesson IX.
[5] The bodies of the holy Martyrs remained however as above to the times of the Normans: under the Normans translated to Castle Petra, when Trogisius an excellent soldier, one of the greatest Patricians of Normandy, the Castle of Petra & many other castles by lot and by conquest held. This Trogisius caused the bodies of the holy Martyrs Valentinus & Damianus to be translated, from the place in which they remained, to the Oratory, which was situated in the Castle of Petra; where innumerable virtues God daily deigns to show. With Trogisius dying therefore, & Robertus his son, & another Trogisius son of Robertus, Riccardus son of the same Robertus, a youth of preclear nature, by right & custom of the Normans, succeeded as worthy heir to the chief one. Who when he was a young man, in such audacity, nobility, prudence, & goodness shone, that through all Italy by all he was honored. In whose
times there was a certain man in a villa, which is called Licenosum, by name Atro, who for forty years had been vexed by a demon: he in fact the Demon, who possessed the said man, many sorceries & innumerable divinations through the same man practiced. where he, possessed for 40 years, For very often he caused himself to be bound, & by many bindings was not held: placed on a cart, by a hundred men was not pulled. When he wished, he entered a church; & when he wished, by many he did not allow himself to be drawn. He very often was led to the thresholds of the Apostles Peter & Paul & other Martyrs of Christ: but by none of these could he be freed. It happened however, that on a certain day the aforesaid demoniac of his own accord came to the oratory, in which the holy Martyrs were buried, packed with crowds of men & women. And when they had entered the church, where the holy Martyrs Valentinus & Damianus rested, the demon began to cry out & to say, happily freed. Valentinus, you cast me out: Valentinus, you cast me out. At this voice the Priests, who were present, with prayers & attestations began to insist. Then the demon, more sharply than he was wont, began to vex him: & dashed to the ground, vomiting he wallowed. Then with such stench the church was filled, that all the people thought they would perish. And when the Clerics, Te Deum laudamus had begun to sing, such a fragrance from the tomb of the holy Martyrs proceeded, that all who were present thought they were remaining in God's Paradise. He indeed returning to his home, on all the days that he lived, glorified God & His holy Martyrs Valentinus & Damianus.
[6] These are the things which about those Martyrs we think more certain to be held & able to be believed. All the rest seems fabricated For when their bodies are said to have lain hidden without honor until the times of the Lombards, which the discovery of them sufficiently declares, not under ruins of any church, or within a place preserving traces of human habitation, but under an opaque tree: and when besides the bare names with the title of Martyrs nothing in their chest the Priest present at the discovery read; nor can it be presumed, that so fabulous, as I shall soon say, a Passion was written in older time, when still the bodies without cult lay hidden; the consequence is, as I admonished above, that they should be considered also gratuitously fabricated, even if otherwise in them there are some things which could have verisimilitude, if they rested on a more ancient and better foundation. in the beginning indeed with some appearance of truth, Such is the beginning of the whole Legend, asserting that in the time of Constantine the Great at Terracina in Campania flourished a noble pair of Christian spouses Clarus & Flavia, from whom were born successively Valentinus, Fabricius and Florentia: of whom the latter was given to a noble husband, of those one after the death of the parents the care of family affairs took up, the other and that the firstborn devoting himself wholly to sacred studies, ordained by Bishop Avitus, succeeded him in the year 324, in which on Mount Soracte is said to have lain hidden S. Sylvester the Pope: the same then now Bishop from Procla a poor widow, asking alms, the infant Damianus to be educated took up, & adult & best instructed, made him & had him as his Deacon, until the time of Julian the Apostate, that is to the year 361. To which if alone were added, in the proceedings indeed with evident imposture, that with Julian restoring gentilism, by idolaters, also in Italy raising horns, or by the Priests of idols killed tumultuously the Saints, or even by some Imperial Prefect under another pretext than religion delivered to death were narrated, & that thus written anciently, were said to have been preserved in churches, preserving their bodies and memory, they could have seemed certainly known.
[7] But to those who do not fear to feign, so much is wont to be lacking notice of true history, as was done in the Passion of S. Cyriacus, by imitation of which at least verisimilar things they may say; as boldness is present, by which they presume without contradiction to be received whatever they shall have feigned. Therefore they easily betray themselves by mixing those things, which if they be examined do not even have the appearance of verisimilitude. See please what about the fabulous passion of S. Cyriacus under the same Julian at Jerusalem, we said on IV May; & applying the same here understand, that similar is the passion of Valentinus & SS. Damianus, & thence learn to estimate the rest. There is described therefore here Julian the tyrant, plainly such as Diocletian was, to send edicts through the entire Empire, by which to be afflicted with death are ordered as many as shall have refused to sacrifice to idols, & to execute these Dukes, Prefects, Tribunes, Counts in every direction to dismiss: from whom Campania ordered to obtain Ausidianus, & coming to Terracina, denounced by Vrsacius & Irenæus Valentinus, feigning Julian's persecution other than as it was confessing the faith & in vain beaten, with the arms of the ministers dissolved during the beating, together with Damianus made by him to argue cast into prison; whence with bonds loosed led out by an Angel & in other cities ordered to preach, after three days came into the County of Valva and the city of Corfinium, where Irene the hemorrhagic widow Valentinus healed, & four thousand men converted: & therefore by the Pontiffs of idols with his Deacon beaten, dragged, & half-alive outside the city left, & again healed by the Angel, crossed even to the river of Pescara in the place which is called Pons-marmoreus, & there a paralytic healed, before sunset came into the great city Zappina, across the river Orta, between the Pescara and the Cavinus rivers, all idolatrous: where when he had begun to preach, by Demetrius the Proconsul summoned, & referring it to 14 February, resuscitated his dead son; & with him with a household of four hundred persons, & with two thousand of those who had seen the miracle, baptized, churches built, Clergy ordained, again held with his Deacon by the Pontiffs of the temples, was outside the city in the neighboring forest, near a great rock beheaded, & left unburied, on XVI Kalends of March in the times of Julian the Emperor.
[8] Ferrarius saw the day of Passion XIV February taken from S. Valentinus the Roman Presbyter, as everywhere with other Saints Valentini done: & therefore none of that day, although in the Legend expressed, account he thought to be had by him; perhaps he saw many other things, on account of which he would have said, if to the Catalogue of Saints of Italy with a fuller eulogy these Abruzzo Martyrs he could have inserted, that their Life needs much correction, as about some others he said. Certainly consulting ancient and new Geographers, he would not have doubted that the city Zappina, & it great and having a Proconsul, is a mere and pure fiction. Ughelli prudently kept silent about Zappina, & by ascribing to the city Zappina. knowing it could not be, that such & so great a city, so close to Rome, if truly in the nature of things it had been, of Pliny and others' notice would have escaped; the birth, Bishopric, age of Valentinus, & predecessor Avitus he reported. But since from the same source proceeded these things, & the latter are most evidently false, no greater faith can be had in one than the other: & therefore about Avitus & Valentinus he ought not except under correction to have made mention in the Appendix; & the Terracinenses in our judgment will do well, if content with Savinus, whom for the year 313 in the Roman Synod under Melchiades suggests Optatus of Mileve; & Felix, contemporary of Pope Damasus & in this one's life recorded; they confess all their older Bishops to be unknown to them, nor allow their catalogues to be increased by Avitus & Valentinus, as contemporaries of S. Sylvester.
ON SS. AQUILINUS AND VICTORINUS
MARTYRS IN ISAURIA.
CommentaryAquilinus, Martyr in Isauria (S.)
Victorinus, Martyr in Isauria (S.)
G. H.
Isauria, a region of Asia, is part of southern Galatia, bordering Pisidia, where also is the city Isaura, in the Councils called Isauropolis: for Ilvarius at the first Constantinopolitan, & Athius at Chalcedon were Bishops of Isauropolis as participants. In this Isauria, either region, or perhaps even city, flourished these two Martyrs: from whom three apographs of the Martyrology of Jerome thus auspicate this day: XVII Kalends of June in Isauria of Aquilinus, Memory in ancient fasts Victorianus; which the same are had everywhere in all Martyrologies printed & written by hand, with today's Roman Martyrology. Usuard writes these things, also in the first place: In Isauria the province natale of SS. Aquilinus & Victorianus, whose deeds are had. The same are read in Ado & others: & in Petrus de Natalibus toward the end of book XI; where he enumerates Saints, whose deeds he could not obtain; meanwhile no. 141 he relates these things: Aquilinus & Victorianus Martyrs, whose deeds are had, in Syria, indeed Isauria, the province they suffered XVII Kalends of June. In a similar way as here for Isauria, is written Syria, so also elsewhere Isauria, Esaurea & Caesarea is read. As also for Victorianus, Victorinus, Victurinus & Victoriana is found. They are separated in the most ancient MS. of Echternach by the common particle elsewhere from the three Martyrs, of whom we shall soon treat: who, with the said particle elsewhere omitted, in other apographs of the Martyrology of Jerome to these two are joined, & one or another in other Fasts, as will soon appear. In MS. of Tamlachta are indicated Aquilinus & Victorinus; as also in the Gellonensian volume 13 of the spicilegium edited by d'Achery. In MS. Florarium on the day XVI March, are reported SS. Aquilinus & Victorianus Martyrs, whom we then deferred to this day. Are also these two Martyrs Aquilinus & Victorianus on the day following XVII May, inscribed in the ancient Martyrology of Cassino written in Lombardic character. also 17 May, Likewise on the day XIV June in the ancient Calendar before the book of S. Isidore on Ecclesiastical Offices, & 14 June. preserved at Rome among the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory. The Acts indeed cited by Usuard & others citing him, have nowhere hitherto appeared.