ON S. JOHN THE MARTYR,
TRANSLATED FROM CONSTANTINOPLE TO VENICE,
UNDER MAXIMIAN.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On the apocryphal Acts of S. Procopius wrongly applied to him; and on the Time and acts of the Translation, from an Italian print.
John Martyr at Constantinople, translated to Venice (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
According to the custom of the Patriarchal
Church of Venice, and also
by the indult of the Apostolic See, to celebrate
the Office of those Saints,
whose bodies rest in the churches of the diocese
of Venice, is prescribed
in the Order of reciting the divine office according to the rite
of the Church and diocese of that place: to this one now celebrated at Venice, which Order we have
printed by the authority of John Francis Morosini for the year
MDCLVII: and in this on this XIX of May, unless
it be transferred, is prescribed the feast of S. John Duke of Alexandria
the Martyr to be celebrated under the semidouble rite; because
his sacred body is preserved in the church of S. Daniel,
and all things are recited from the Common of a Martyr not a Pontiff.
The Mass Laetabitur, the Gospel If anyone will, the Oration, Grant
we beseech that by the intercession.
[2] Peter de Natalibus in his Catalogue of Saints (which
he composed about the year MCCCLXX, the Acts of S. Procopius applied, then Parish-priest of the Holy
Apostles in the city of Venice, then Bishop of Equilio
near Venice) on this XIX of May applies to the same S. John
which in Surius from the Greeks are had on the VIII of July at length
deduced, and presenting more the appearance of a pious tragedy than of true
history. In this epitome the still
Gentile name of the Martyr Neanias, the maternal lineage from the Chiefs
of Aelia, and the extermination of the Christians with the Prefecture of the city of
Alexandria committed by Maximian, the Victory gained
over the Saracens after Christ recognized from an apparition,
the idols of his mother Theodosia destroyed, the various tortures borne
under two successive Presidents, of whom the last was called Flavian;
then of very many soldiers converted by his example,
and the martyrdom of his mother and of twelve women companions,
are described in altogether the same manner and order,
as in the Acts of S. Procopius; this only changed, that the first
President in Equilinus is called Ultio, but in others Justus;
and for Alexandria of Syria, Alexandria
of Egypt seems to be taken; but the name of Caesarea
Philippi is passed over in silence, in which Procopius is said to have consummated his
contest, and Leontius to have held the Episcopate, named in the epitome fabricated under
the name of John, as if he had been Bishop
of Alexandria. Finally for that which is said of S. Procopius, that by
the sentence of the judge his head was cut off with the sword; of John
it is asserted, that by command of Flavian, with the sword in the throat
and a lance in the breast transfixed he consummated his martyrdom
on the XIV of the Kalends of June: and thus the entire Legend,
of which that is a compendium, we found under the note of the day
XIII of March (where perhaps it should have been written of May) in a certain
MS. Passional of the Camaldolese Hermitage; but the supposition being
then already noticed we would not copy it, more usefully occupied.
[3] From Equilinus shorter eulogies of the same S. John on
this day received, first Grevenus, and hence the eulogies taken. in the Additions
to Usuard printed at Cologne in the years MDXV and XXI; then
Witford, in the Anglican Martyrology of the London edition
of the year MDXXVI. Galesinius, whom Ferrarius follows in the general
Catalogue, has thus: At Alexandria in Egypt
S. John the Martyr, who under Maximian the Emperor,
bitter torments being exhausted, with a notable testimony of piety, He seems to be the Egyptian who is celebrated at C.P. on the 20th of September.
bore the crown. He adds in the Annotations that he
took these things from Greek tables. But those on this day
have no John, or another who could be drawn hither:
but well on the XX of September, in the Menaea printed and manuscript
various, they bid be commemorated the Contest of the greatest among
the Confessors John the Egyptian, whose liberty and
confidence of speaking not able to bear the impious * Maximian,
ordered him with forty others to be slain.
But where? When thou readest John the Egyptian, easily
wilt thou believe him to have suffered also in Egypt, perhaps thence brought from Alexandria on the 13th of March. and the body at Alexandria
to have been in honor, until thence it was translated to Constantinople.
But that this same one be believed who to Venice
afterward was carried, it is necessary not only that on the XX day of September
his memory there was celebrated, but also on the XIII day
of March: since from the History presently to be given it is clear,
that for our John of whom we treat an annual festivity on such a day
was wont to be held. But what afterward moved the Venetians, that even
that day being passed over, and likewise the III day of July, on which among them
in the year MCCXV was made the placing of the sacred body, to Venice 1215, the 3rd of July. in that place where
now it is venerated, they should assume the XIX of May I could not easily say.
I suspect nevertheless that by reason of a certain building
to be constructed in honor of the Saint, as is said below number 8
the Body being brought to the monastery in the past XVI century, on such
seemed more opportune for the annual cult of the Saint, than the XIII
of March, wont to be occupied by the Lenten mourning.
[4] Further desiring to be informed more certainly of all things, I wrote
to Venice to him whose faithful service I had used in S. Anastasius,
R. F. Daniel Simonetti; and asked, not that the history
of the passion from the monastery of S. Daniel he should seek (for this none
there to be had genuine, it was already sufficiently agreed) but the history
of the Translation he should investigate, and at the same time of the present cult and state
of the sacred body should make me more certain. He did at length
what he had been asked, the excellent Father, through a noble man, in that
monastery a familiar, and to whom anything could be entrusted; and the desired
narration, and this besides from his hand
of the Divine John, at Venice in the church dedicated to S. Daniel the Prophet,
lies supine, in all its members whole
on the altar; with the head indeed toward the rising sun
turned to the Gospel horn of the same altar, but the feet
to the Epistle horn. There is a stone ark above the altar,
which holds another wooden ark, with vermilion on the outside
colored, in which lies the body. No door to either
ark: for their fronts not by a turning hinge
in the manner of little doors are closed and opened, but
through two channels on either side they are raised whole and
depressed. The front of the ark is of ebony, with precious little stones
inset; the front of the wooden ark of crystals.
The holy Head with a Venetian Ducal horn-cap is covered:
the breast with a band woven of gold with the needle, the whole body
with a silken cloth, and woven of gold in the Indian manner. The feet
bare, but covered only with a translucent veil, as also the face.
The teeth white with none lacking; and the flesh soft
to the touch. Further on the twentieth day of July, when of S. Daniel
the vigils are kept, and famous for miracles. the holy body is washed with odorous water
by a Presbyter, in the presence of another Priest, the Confessor of the Nuns:
which water then for pious uses, especially
for taking away the sicknesses of bodies, is distributed.
But in lapsed times the flesh diluted by the water was blackened,
and seemed to contract spots of a certain corruption:
therefore now only with soft cotton the flesh
is touched, which then put into water
renders the same venerable, as if it had immediately itself
washed the holy body. Very many through His saint
the omnipotent God wrought miracles, which to describe
would be long: in the history of the translation some are narrated,
and are confirmed by new ones, as the votive tablets, and other signs
hung at his altar testify. Wherefore in the greatest
veneration he is, and especially among those Nuns,
who say (which also in the history is narrated) that they are admonished
of imminent death by a noise emitted from the ark, in which
the holy body laid away lies. Thus he: now let us exhibit
the history of the translation itself rendered into Latin
from an old print, without the name of the printer prepared about the year
1516.
Annotation* yr. Maximinus?
THE TRANSLATION OF THE BODY
From an Italian print of about the year 1520 for the use of the Monastery of S. Daniel at Venice.
John Martyr at Constantinople, translated to Venice (S.)
FROM THE MSS.
[1] It is manifest and to the whole world most known, how
the Lord our God subjected the city of Constantinople
to the Latins: On account of the sins of the Greeks nor less
clear is it that that revolution is to be imputed to the wickedness
of the Greeks; who spurning the unleavened bread of truth,
presumed to confect the sacrifice in leavened bread,
saying that the Holy Spirit the Paraclete proceeds from the Father alone;
and to the holy Roman Church they denied
the due reverence and subjection, although
it represents Peter the Prince of the Apostles on
earth, asserting that it was not set over the Constantinopolitan:
in great contempt also they held
their Emperors, and against them repeatedly rebelled,
most cruel deeds and most wicked sins
from the lust of ruling committing. But the Lord, Constantinople taken by the Latins,
the supreme and supercelestial Judge, subverted the iniquities
of the infidels, slew most powerful Kings, the kingdom
of Canaan destroyed, and a stupendous and unheard-of Victory
gave to the Latins; subjecting to a small army
an infinite multitude of peoples, and to the generous
poverty of ours yielding their cowardly opulence:
so that it can be said, in the captivity of that city
was fulfilled the vision a of Daniel the Prophet, when
the city, adorned with the sanctuaries collected of almost all Greece,
and enriched with gold and most precious treasures,
was made into the plunder and prey of the Latins. b
[2] The Venetians, who had given the beginning c of so great a victory,
divided the empire of the city with the Franks, and the churches, To certain Venetians fell the monastery of Psychosostra.
despoiled and stripped of inestimable riches, left
to their own Priests and Ministers: who of these
the principal, equally as the palaces and public places of the city,
divided among themselves. And thus it happened, that a monastery
situated in the square which is called Pulchra, and
in Greek named d Psychosostra, as it were Saviour
of souls, fell to the part of two noble
Venetians, Marcus and Martinus the Gorzi brothers;
who gave it to John Prior of S. Daniel at Venice,
to be held in the name of the monastery of S. Daniel. Further
in the place of John there was constituted at Venice Prior a certain Roboaldus,
to inspect in person. There was on the opposite side of the said
square not far thence another church, in Greek
Theotocou, that is e of the Mother of God, named. When therefore
on a certain day, namely the thirteenth of March, the same
Roboaldus stood in the door of his monastery; he saw
approaching the church Theotocou and questioning the people,
what was there; he heard, that, From the church of the Mother of God near to this the body of S. John when
the Constantinopolitan state flourished, not only from the whole
city, but even from the surrounding cities and towns
the faithful were wont on such a day yearly, with singular
affection of religion, to run to visit
the body of S. John the Martyr. As the Prior Roboaldus
heard these things at once a thought came upon him,
by what means he might be able to obtain that holy body,
and translate it to Venice.
[3] Desolate was the monastery, of which had been the aforesaid
church, nor any one there, for the custody of that sacred
pledge, abode: the Prior of S. Daniel carries it off secretly. but its care had been committed
to a certain old man, who every evening closed the building
and betook himself to his own house placed far thence,
so that without the knowledge of this doorkeeper no one
could enter there. The Prior nevertheless, with zeal and desire
of obtaining his vow burning, taking with him
he entered, opened the most adorned chest of the holy
body, and wrapping it in a silken cloth
secretly transferred it to the monastery of Psychosostra, the chest
itself so composed leaving, and translates it in the year 1215 that the doorkeeper returning in the morning
in no wise observed that it had been moved.
Then at an opportune time he transferred into a ship the acquired
treasure, with the highest devotion and singular gladness
anointed in affection; yet so, that what the matter
was, he concealed from the sailors: and landing at Venice the
most holy body he placed in f the monastery of S. Daniel,
in the year of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ the thousandth
two hundredth fifteenth, on the third day of July.
In which monastery, through the merits and intercession
of the glorious Martyr John, the Lord God deigned
and deigns unto this day many and as it were
infinite miracles to work, of which some more select
we will recount.
[4] Let the first and the same the greatest be, that since
this most holy athlete of God was slain in the year of Christ
two hundred and eightieth g and ninth, for extolling
the merits of His most glorious Martyr and the instruction of our faith,
God willed to preserve whole
his most blessed body, still incorrupt, with an altogether admirable
fragrance of odor, the vicissitudes of celestial influences and planets,
by which human bodies are oftener
altered, Christ restraining lest they be able to corrupt
it. But the venerable nuns of this place,
through the merits of their and our mother the glorious Virgin
Mary, and of the divine champion and Martyr John, from the same
Saint received a very exceptional privilege,
and as I think h without example, that whenever
of any of them the extreme term of life is at hand, this to them
the Soldier of Christ signifies some months or days
before, and was wont to give a sign of imminent death to someone. as it shall have pleased. For his body in the church
is kept in a gilded chest, before which is stretched a grating,
furnished with votive offerings of silver, in testimony
of the miracles wrought by the intervention of the Saint.
When therefore one is about to die and to render her soul to the Father
eternal, this glorious Saint anticipates the appointed term,
with a certain sweet motion running through
the said offerings at the grating, and rousing a sound by no means
ungrateful: which hearing one announces to the other Sisters,
saying: Be ye ready: S. John has struck
the grating.
[5] Incredible perhaps will seem to hearers a thing so
rare: A Novice unwilling to believe it in the year 1516 yet it is most true: which by a more recent
example we can confirm. In the sixteenth
year above the thousandth five hundredth, when a certain
girl received into the Order had entered the monastery,
and heard of S. John the Martyr from the Sisters,
how by a given sign he admonished them that some one
there was about to die; she smiled within herself, nor would she believe
those affirming. Then six years passed
without the death of any one; and when now a nun on a certain
night had risen to Matins, and these according to custom
being chanted she had remained in the church (for free
it is there for the Nuns whether they wish after the office to
return to rest or not) she found herself alone in the choir beyond
custom, the sixth year having elapsed she experiences it through herself. and for some time prayed. At length
the dawn coming and she wishing to depart, and making
before she rose the due reverence to the most holy Sacrament,
she heard a certain noise, sweetly
sounding to the ears. She paused, nothing of the Saint
thinking, and soon again perceived a similar sign: nor
did she leave the place before she had a third time heard struck
the coffin, in which lay the holy Martyr. Then truly
the truth being manifestly recognized, she was terrified; nor without
sake that sign had been given: wherefore commending herself to God,
she asked pardon of her past incredulity. Nor
long after it appeared that that sign had been by no means fallacious,
and one of the Sisters died; which seen she gave thanks to God,
who had given her with eyes and ears herself to apprehend
the truth, yet revealed nothing to anyone
before all had been fulfilled. In the same error
was a certain Religious of the Convent of S. Mary
of Charity, who on a certain day sacrificing at the altar, above
which the body of S. John rests, as also a Religious Priest. perceived the grating
struck; and wholly stupefied believed from that hour that
of which before he had doubted; and with the greatest devotion
finishing the Mass, to God and the holy Martyr thanks
he rendered for the consolation granted him, and from that
time he was most piously affected toward the athlete of Christ.
[6] A certain noble Matron; when she lay paralytic,
so that she could not even move a foot, caused
to be brought to her the coverlet, with which the holy body is covered;
and covering herself wholly with the same with most devout
tears, and supplicating the Saint, a paralytic woman is healed by the touch of his coverlet, she (which thou mayest wonder)
at that hour with a little help began to raise herself from the bed,
but on the following day by herself most freely
walked, whence both to God and to S. John she professed the gratitude
due. Another woman of equal nobility
lay at the extremity, swollen all over; whose infirmity
the physicians themselves confessed to be unknown to them.
A certain kinswoman of hers heard this, another cured by him through a kinswoman invoked a Religious of the said monastery,
and commended her to the holy Martyr,
vowing certain vows for the sick woman. Immediately
she began to be healed, and from day to day stronger
she shortly recovered. It was then said to her, what for
her that nun had done, and how by a vow
made to S. John she had recovered health. But
receiving such an announcement with laughter, and the Saint
despising, the unbeliever suffers a relapse. at once she felt her former
infirmity with the swelling return to her; and shortly into
such a state was she reduced, that she no longer bore the human form
any more, nor amid most acute pains and most grievous
torments hoped that she could live. Considering herself
such, she began to ask indulgence
of her incredulity, and to entreat God and His Saint
for the recovery of health, the vow which before
she had hooted at being confirmed: and forthwith she felt herself much confirmed,
and within a few days free from every ill,
through the merits and intercession of this glorious Martyr:
wherefore to God and to him thanks are to be rendered.
[7] A certain man no less noble by birth and office,
than illustrious in morals and works, likewise laboring with a pestilential fever, was afflicted
by a continual fever, whose malignity
livid spots scattered over the whole body indicated: and beyond the hope of cure seemed to be the offending humor,
because his most weak i stomach received no
medicines, but at once vomited them up again: whence
destitute of all strength, and blackening all over, and vehemently
inflated he was, when it pleased God His creature,
by the merits of the holy Martyr intervening,
to free. For turning a little to the rail k of the bed,
he merited to behold S. John himself altogether most beautiful
and most splendid as present:
and comforted by that sight, with much devotion
and faith to him he commended himself, a vow added if he should recover:
and at once nature began to be lightened, the depraved humors
being cast out which seemed to suffocate him:
and then by little and little he advanced to entire health,
to the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of His most glorious Martyr,
ever and by all to be glorified.
[8] There was brought to the monastery, where he rests,
which also afterward was done. But the time of probation
being finished, when the Mother of the monastery together with
her Chapter wished, that the same girl by the bond of sacred
Profession should bind herself; there invaded her at once a most cruel and
most bitter infirmity, namely a perpetual fever, then
paralysis, at the last finally a most fetid wound and
horrible to see appeared on the back of the poor little one: who not even
ceased not with a terrible wailing to attest the vehemence
of the torments by which she was tortured; nor could she
either by another be moved by a light touch, or be to herself
within the cloister, by reason of a certain building
to be constructed in his honor, because not yet was it
in a sufficiently decent place. But when in such a state remaining
the girl, unexpectedly heard the procession
and the chants of the nuns, piously bearing the sacred body;
from those few, who had remained with her, she asked
for a singular favor, partly in the translation of the body that they should carry her to the door of the place where
she lay, so that more conveniently she might hear the sweetness
of that chant; or rather from devotion toward
the Saint, so that health being obtained from him she might be able
to make her Profession. And so the most holy
body passing thither, she supplicated as devoutly as she could,
that he would free her from so great a calamity. Nor much after
she began to walk a little, but very imperfectly,
in the manner of infants forming steps step by step,
and sustaining herself by a staff. On a certain day therefore,
when the poor little one not yet well healed remained in her little cell;
she understood, that at that hour was opened the chest
of S. John, partly in the showing of him. and therefore the whole college of the Nuns
hastened to the choir, that those most holy
members they might behold, she alone remaining in the cell.
But at length the same desire of seeing increasing more vehemently,
she took the staff, the accustomed support of her weak
members; and began also thither
to make her way, whither the others had gone before, not without confidence
of obtaining entire health. But when she came
to the entrance of the choir, she saw conspicuously the Martyr
standing in Ducal habit, and with a face above the rays of the sun
splendid: whence wholly trembling from awe, and inflamed
with love, no word at all could she
utter as she desired; but when for some
time she had so stood, she began to move herself and
to walk toward the sacred deposit. But when she
came hither, the holy Martyr disappeared; and she remained
full of joy; and dissolved into most devout tears,
ardently she asked full health. A wondrous thing! The Sisters rising
from that place, there rose also that girl;
and casting away far the staff, erect she walked
and free, feeling no pain at all. All present were astonished,
so great a miracle being seen;
and the mind being raised to heaven they rendered immense thanks to the eternal God
and to His most devout servant, so great
gifts bestowing on those invoking his patronage. But
lest miracles of this kind be multiplied to infinity
(for innumerable could be told but with weariness of the hearers)
one more I will narrate and will finish.
[9] It happened to a certain nobleman that for certain causes he had to set out
into the kingdom l of Cyprus; where when he was he took a wife,
and some time being passed cheerfully
with her and all his fortune he returned into his country. Another at last a paralytic now dying is preserved,
After a longer course of time happily spent,
since nothing is stable in the world, changed
also was the joy; because before they had reached
the senile years, the woman seized by paralysis, was fixed to her bed;
and the ill advancing for the worse, nor the medicines
helping anything, at length to the extremities reduced. There was
to them in the monastery, where the holy body rests,
commanding that with faith they should place it over the sick woman.
Which when it had been done, a little after the aforesaid
sick woman saw come to her two most splendid young men:
whom as best she could she asked who they were.
But one of them answered; SS. John and Daniel appearing. I am John, and
this my companion Daniel, and we have come to help thee.
Then she thanks being given commended herself to them,
and within her mind conceived certain vows, and amid
these the vision disappeared. But she daily more confirmed,
at length came to the monastery, narrated what
had happened, fulfilled the vows, to the praise of the eternal God,
and of His most sweet and our mother Mary the Virgin,
and our advocate S. John the Martyr, and patron
and defender S. Daniel the Prophet, whom we pray
that they protect this city and the whole Christian
people from every ill, and intercede for the infidels,
that these also may know the truth, which
is Christ. Amen. m
Annotationsa I know not
what vision the author indicates, unless perhaps he looks to Chapter 5, where
to Balthasar King of Babylon is foretold his kingdom to be divided, and
to be given to the Medes and Persians.
m There was added:
Here ends the Legend of the holy Martyr the Lord John, with his Translation from Constantinople to Venice, and a few some of his miracles, to the praise and glory of himself. Amen.