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.