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.