ON ST. LIBERIUS OR OLIVERIUS
PILGRIM AT ANCONA IN PICENUM.
13th CENTURY.
CRITICAL COMMENTARY.
Concerning the fabulosity of the Acts attached to him, his true cultus, and the probable conjecture about his age.
Liberius or Oliverius, Pilgrim at Ancona in Picenum (S.)
BY D. P.
[1] We exhibit several Saints of the city of Ancona
in this month of May. Of these the chief
is S. Cyriacus the Bishop,
Protector of the City, whose
Acts intricate with several errors we untangle
on the fourth day, S.
Cyriacus is followed by SS. Peregrinus,
Heraclius, and Flavian
Martyrs, under Diocletian and Maximian, of whose
martyrdom some Acts and some miracles from the archive
of the Anconitan Church we give on day May XVI. We have also
treated of the Saint Bishops of the same city Marcellinus
and Primianus, on January IX and February XXIII; and
of him born there and so also venerated S. Benvenutus Bishop of Auximum
on March XXII. But now S. Liberius
or Oliverius offers himself, on this May XXVII having his
veneration among the Anconitans, of whom Ferrari in the general Catalogue
has these things: "At Ancona of S. Liberius
Patron of that city." Cultus sacred And in the Annotations he says, that this he has from the tablets of the Anconitan Church,
of which he is Tutelary. Peter de Natalibus,
with one letter of the name changed, in book 11 chapter 130,
enumerating three hundred thirty-three Saints, of whose
life or deeds he could find absolutely nothing, except their names
alone and the days of festivities, or
even the places in which they suffered or without martyrdom died,
at number 155 says: "Libertus Confessor on the same
day (namely VI Kalends of June) at Ancona sleeps."
But Galesinius, with Peter alleged, and the Anconitan Tablets
cited, with the name even more changed; "At Ancona," he says,
"of S. Limbertus Confessor." More pleasing is what suggests
below to be praised Saracenus, the name of Oliverius, as
more genuine: which when commonly was said "Santoliverio"
gave occasion of twisting the name to Latin form,
as if the indistinct popular pronunciation should be explained
"Santo Liverio": which otherwise could be explained "Sant' Oliverio."
So conversely the Patron of Ariani S. Otto, commonly
called "Santodo," when he should be explained dividedly "Sant' Odo,"
was received by Ferrari as if it were said "San-Todo," and so S.
Todum he made, as can be seen on his day March XXIII.
[2] The same Ferrari already cited also asserts that he saw Mss. Acts
at Ancona. Mss. Acts And the often praised Henricus Lindanus,
when at Loreto he was Pontifical Penitentiary, sent
to us from the Anconitan Archive: from which also some
compendium published Ferrari in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy,
adding S. Liberius is the chief Tutelary
and Patron of the Anconitan Church. They themselves entirely
displease us, although, to win credit, at the end is appended
this kind of proof. "Jeremias Archbishop of Jerusalem,
Gregory Bishop of Exarchona,
and John Hermit Priest the Armenian, with
their consecration letters returning from Rome, to a Canon
of this Church faithfully interpreted the genealogy of S. Liberius and his life;
as received from an Armenian guest (as is pretended). the death of his sacred body
and revelation: also the arrival of the chest and miracles
of the holy Father in their writings they left."
You have the authors of all that is reported in those Acts, so
incongruous and insipid, that I scarcely remember to have read another more inept
fable; so much, as I shall soon show, everywhere appears
confusion of times, places, and persons: which whole at length
is resolved into the attestation of one Canon, perhaps a good
man, but most ignorant, and so simple, that he could
be induced to give credit to a narration so badly stitched together.
For who, I ask, is, and when did he live, the said Jeremias,
Archbishop or Patriarch of Jerusalem?
None of this name is found in S. Nicephorus in
the Chronology of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, who brought these
down to the seventh century: and although he had named several,
none of them could be believed to have come to Rome
for the cause of obtaining consecration. Nor among the rest of the Patriarchs,
whom we have collected before Volume III of May, can a place
be found for the same: who all in the Greek manner were elected
and consecrated, without any dependence on the Roman
Pontiff, some even openly schismatic. It remains therefore
that he was some Latin, after the kingdom of the Latins in
the East was constituted. But neither can this be said, because their
succession we have brought down to the XIV century and we have found no
Jeremias there. We have enumerated, also at the Life
of S. Angelus the Carmelite Volume 2 of May, in the Appendix, all
the Episcopal sees both of the Greeks and Latins under the Patriarch of Jerusalem,
nor have we found any Bishopric
of Exarchina. Although therefore many other things
did not concur to deny credit to that Legend; even
on these alone we would rightly fear, lest if some Armenians at some time
came to Ancona boasting themselves with such kinds of Titles, they were mere
impostors, for the cause of foul gain feigning themselves to be other
than they were, with that Hermit, as he said himself an Armenian, directing
the chorus of the whole comedy, who would have imposed on the Anconitans
with the same shamelessness of lying about the genealogy and life of S. Liberius,
unknown to them because he was a foreigner; which in a special
Treatise on the Bishops of Utrecht, we shall show, was done
at Utrecht by a certain Cleric, also an Armenian, who dared
to feign that their Patron S. Servatius (whose name,
like Liberius's, is Latin) was born in Armenia
from the kindred of Christ our Saviour, with the same faith with which once at Utrecht the genealogy of S. Servatius, and from
the cousin of S. John the Baptist's father, and that he lived more than
three hundred years. Which when Jocundus the Priest
imprudently brought forth into light, by Hariger an author
almost contemporary with him, he is said to have lied irreverently for piety.
[3] But although that Cleric had invented many incongruous things,
far more insipid here is this Pseudo-eremite, whom you can prudently believe
was not even Armenian, nor had any knowledge
of Eastern regions. indeed worse, For although Armenia,
which the Euphrates passing through divides into Greater and Lesser,
from the East indeed by the Caspian Sea and Media,
from the south by Assyria, Mesopotamia and Cilicia, from the West
by Cappadocia, finally from the North by Pontus and Colchis and Iberia
is bounded: our impostor makes it everywhere
surrounded by regions of Saracens, which thus he names, from
the East "Hus-Hus," from the West "Arabia," from the south
"Austriel," as one who did not know the location of Armenia. from the North "Heremoth": of which only
is known Arabia, by the interposition of all Syria and Mesopotamia
separated from the Armenians. Nevertheless between Arabia and Austriel
is placed a certain chief Saracen city,
named "Cerasmen" (about the Khorasmians, a Persian people toward Tartary,
once invading Syria and Palestine
is known, perhaps the host had heard something) which city
obeyed in Armenia itself twenty-four Kings,
crowned with diadems, magnificently very powerful, and in battle
defeated, with twenty-six thousand of his lost, is feigned to have fled
across Mount Taurus, until having traversed within one day
five hundred stadia, he came with a few into the most fortified
citadel "Amperthet." On such occasion is said the most holy
youth the King's son Liberius, long desirous
of visiting the Sepulchre of the Lord, of the Apostles Peter and
Paul and James, with the habit of a Pilgrim assumed, escaped
toward Jerusalem; and sought in vain everywhere,
near Jerusalem fell in with three of the faithful companions of his father,
sent to seek him through Germany, Spain,
Burgundy, Italy, and the whole Christianity.
[4] By their alms for three days sustained nor recognized, found
afterwards near Ancona, Many things here about the lineage, flight, and burial of Liberius, leading the eremitic life;
and being found and recognized by certain Armenian pilgrims,
going from Rome to Jerusalem, in their presence he began to fall sick,
and took the habit of the Crusaders, and at last
dying shone with miracles. So some of them are feigned to have remained
for the keeping of the holy body, others to have returned
to the King his father: by whom was provided a great marble chest,
everywhere engraved with the mysteries of Christ's life, which is reported to have been
of the works of the Four-Crowned,
"beside the river of Paradise, that is the Euphrates, which through
half a mile is distant from the city of Tevigna, in which S.
Liberius was born, and comes up to the river Jordan,
from which our Adriatic Sea departs."
In such a chest remaining there, when the Royal envoys had asked from the Anconitans
that the body of their lord's son be placed; they
are said to have brought the matter to the supreme Pontiff Gregory
the most holy, namely the first: who ordered the Armenians
to be sent back empty, and the body to be placed in the place which to
today is called Peneclaria. Notwithstanding which, the father is said to have ordered, that in any city fortified of his royal
power, a Cathedral or Conventual
church should be fabricated: and with the authority of the Roman
church previously had, in honour of S. Liberius
it should be dedicated.
[5] But after Attila devastated the suburbs of the city of Ancona,
and under the ruins of Peneclaria the holy body had long lain hidden;
likewise about the translation he feigns, to a certain religious woman appearing Liberius
ordered, that he be sought by Bishop Thraso under a fig tree,
with the sepulchre penetrated by its roots. Then indeed the body found
and placed on a wagon, and drawn by two heifers,
came to a mountain, where stood an old chapel of S. Lawrence,
of the right of a certain matron
very powerful and Lady of the whole March, named
Maximilla. She with the heifers prostrating themselves there of their own accord, as if to lay down
their burden; and herself and that chapel
with all her possession is asserted to have given over to S. Liberius,
and there with new work to have constructed the Cathedral. and about the chest brought by sea from Armenia, But when
the chest, worthy of receiving so great a treasure, was being sought, is said to have appeared
floating on the sea by Angelic guidance the Marble
one, which long before in Armenia the King his father had caused to be made:
which that it might be feigned more probably, was said above, that Liberius's
fatherland was near the Euphrates, and that this river comes
up to the Jordan, but from this it goes out into the Adriatic sea.
But the Mediterranean sea, of which one bay
between Italy and Illyricum comes by the name of the Adriatic, has no
connection with the Jordan, which loses itself in the dead sea;
but the sources of the Jordan, where they look most closely toward the Euphrates,
are distant from it about two hundred Italian miles.
[6] No less enormous is the interval of times confused here.
For the holy Four-Crowned, sculptors indeed
were distinguished, but about the year CCCIII suffered
martyrdom at Rome, under Diocletian and Maximian, with enormous confusion of times, as we read
in the Martyrology on day November VIII; and Armenia they probably
never saw. Attila, King of the Huns, in the year
CCCCLI with Aquileia overthrown only touched the borders of Italy, by S.
Pope Leo persuaded to retreat back where he had come not without a miracle.
But although the Gothic King Totila (whom
someone could suggest should be substituted) heading for Rome,
also depopulated the March, this he did about the year
DXLIII: when already 33 years before had died
Thraso, Bishop of Ancona, whom the writers of that city
with whom Ughelli establish to have died in the year DX. The Anconitan
March, formerly called Picenum, both a new name
and a particular Lord first received, under the Lombards
in the year DLXXIII, only until then to Emperors and Kings
subjected, like the rest of Italy. S. Gregory was first
made Pontiff in the year DLXXXX. In the preceding century the Saracen Arabs had begun
to become known indeed, but from Christianity,
which they had embraced, they were first led away by
the impious Mahomet in the VI century, and then they became troublesome to the Christians;
but their power only grew strong after the age of S. Gregory.
[7] We were at Ancona in the year MDCLX, and on day December III
we examined the Cathedral, and there under the choir we saw
three stone chests fenced with gilded grating; of which one
was said to be of S. Cyriacus, another of S. Marcellinus; but the middle, and the impudent fable about the chest.
of enormous dimension in every part, of S. Liberius: but
we saw nothing in it of that Evangelical engraving, which the Acts
so prolixly describe. On the contrary Julianus Saracenus, Canon
and Dean of the Cathedral Church, in the Historical Notices
of the city of Ancona published at Rome in the year MDCLXXV, page
73, ingenuously confesses, that this chest has nothing engraved
that smacks of Christianity; but in one of its ends thus
is read: "I.L. GORGONIVS. V. C. EX. COMITE LARGITIONVM
PRIVATARVM. EX. P. PRÆT. FIE. SIB. T. IVS."
which he orders to be read entirely thus. "Julius Lucius Gorgonius
most illustrious man, from Count of Private Largesses,
ordered the title (or tomb) to be made for himself." Counts of this kind
we know first from the Theodosian Code: so we judge
the chest was made in the V century, not in Armenia, but in
Italy; we only inquire when it was brought to the church,
and the bones of S. Liberius enclosed in it. But this can be said to have been done
before the year MCCLXX, when the Anconitan Cathedral, which
had borne the title of S. Lawrence until then, began to be renewed under
the title of S. Cyriacus, as the said Saracenus narrates page 177.
Who finally after the Epitome of the Acts reported from Ferrari, and
the evidence of imposture indicated, modestly concludes, that
the whole narration about S. Liberius needs much correction.
O if of that mind were all, whose traditions we are forced in this
work to examine! But of great minds and ones giving nothing
to prejudices and affections is that sincerity,
which we can wish, but not hope in Saracenus's antagonist,
who as on him so on me has poured forth his bile in more than
one little book, on account of S. Cyriacus, not believed Bishop
of Ancona, indeed not even of Jerusalem, for that
age in which the Invention of the holy Cross is mixed in, but for another
much earlier. But on account of some patrons of bad causes,
and their invectives and scoffs, shall I cease
to eliminate from the Lives of Saints fables, however received with the favor
and applause of the common people? I do not judge that this would please
God and the Saints; and therefore I shall persist in the way begun, only with silence
henceforth opposing famous and contumelious little books.
[8] The whole matter seems to look to the age of Gregory X, But what concerns S. Liberius, all things considered,
I see nothing in this whole hodge-podge except the names
of Pope Gregory and King John, to which I can with
some likelihood of truth adhere. Gregory I say, not
the first, but the tenth of his name, who from the year MCCLXX
to MCCLXXVI ruled, when already for many years reigned in
Armenia Haytho otherwise called John. To this conjecture
favors the mention inserted in the Acts of the habit of the Crusaders,
which before death the Saint took: for of these the Order
(however some make it ancient) is said to have begun in the year
MCCXVI, and been confirmed in the year MCCXLVII in
the Catalogue of monastic beginnings, which from a Ms. we have inserted
into our Chronological History of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem,
before volume 3 of May. With these things established it will not be unlike
the truth, that Liberius, or (as Saracenus suggests) Oliverius,
while pilgrimaging arrived at Ancona, while he was heading
to the Holy Land or coming from there, and there in the suburbs
died and was buried: whose afterwards shining with miracles
body the citizens wished to translate, with sitting on Peter's
Chair the said Gregory, or even with him permitting; and at the same
time as if divinely, not by sea brought, but
by the receding sea uncovered, was that great chest, which for himself
as a tomb the said Gorgonius once had prepared,
in the age of the Theodosian Emperors or even Constantinian;
and on this occasion is seen opportunely offered,
and as it was so was used, with their elders not daring to
inscribe anything for the Saint unknown to them; whose posterity, as the rest could be
mendaciously thrust on, it is wonderful that anyone dared
to feign, that that chest, which they saw on three sides
rude (for one end, in which is the said inscription,
is hidden withdrawn from the eyes of the common people) was at some time engraved
with the mysteries of Christ's life, with no trace of them appearing there.
[9] We have given on May XXV the Acts of S. Gerius, Patron in Mons-Sanctus,
a town of Picenum or the Anconitan March. when also S. Gerius could have lived, He son
of the Count of Lunel in the Province of Languedoc set out for Rome,
and from there making his way to Antona, died, and did not arrive
at S. Liberius, in whose company he had decided to go to overseas
places, and to visit the boundaries of our Saviour's nativity
and passion. Which appears can be referred
to the XIII century of Christ, at which time the Holy Land was still
partly under the Latins, and a great many
pilgrimages were instituted there from our West. Long before also
there had been proper Kings in Armenia and frequent incursions
of Saracens suffered, we gather from Clement Galanus
in his Conciliation of the Armenian Church with the Roman, printed by the Congregation
de Propaganda Fide in the year MDCL, where
it is said in chapter 19, "in the XI century, on account of hostile
incursions of the Saracens, the Cathedra of the Armenian Patriarchate,
from the city of Vagarsciabat of greater Armenia, was translated to Sebasta
of Cappadocia under the dominion of the Greeks." and held an Armenian King, commonly called Friar John. But in that age, not only were the Armenians professing union
with the Roman Church, with the Friars Minor preaching among them with most ample faculty, as can be seen
in Wadding in the Annals: but they also had Kings
so pious, that one of them, Haytho, never wished
to be crowned, but rather took the habit of the Friars Minor,
and was commonly called Friar John, as testifies,
he who describes his various fortune, the contemporary author
Marinus Sanutus, in book 3 of the secrets of the Holy Land part 13
chapter 2 at the year MCCXCIV. From him not greatly differing
S. Antoninus Part 3 title 34 chapter 3 §15: "The King," he says,
"of Armenia John … from great devotion entered the Order
of Minors; but because against the kingdom
infidels … rose up … inflamed by zeal of faith,
he took up arms with his habit; and he puts to flight and prostrates very many
infidels, and at length by the infidels
was killed." Even more his nephew of the same name as his grandfather did,
confused badly with the former by Antoninus; who leaving the kingdom to his son Livon, or
(as Antoninus calls him) Leo, in Cyprus
with the name Macarius took the Premonstratensian habit,
and is numbered among the Blessed of that Order on December XI.
It would not therefore be very incredible, that some son of the said John,
with the habit of a pilgrim assumed, and the name of Liberius
or Oliverius, near Ancona died, in the time of Gregory
X, and not long after death, on account of the opinion of holiness, was
translated to the new Cathedral. The Acts seem compiled in the 15th century,
[10] So tradition would have mixed truths with falsehoods, until the time
of the Council of Florence, celebrated about the year MCCCCXXXVII;
when with the union of the Eastern Churches with the Roman
constituted, some Jeremias elected as Patriarch of Jerusalem could
have come to Rome, to acknowledge the primacy of the Apostolic See,
with Gregory the Bishop from Acre, and John
the Hermit Priest the Armenian, in the place of his Catholicus (as
they call him) or Patriarch, about to profess the same obedience.
The same could have taught the Anconitan Canon many things about the father
of Liberius himself: but such a man, and truly an Armenian, could not
have invented so many absurdities as we have reported above.
Wherefore, unless you say that the Canon himself from his own brain
invented all things, he must have been deceived by someone,
who never truly saw Armenia. More certain light
upon these conjectures will be brought, by whoever shall take care to give us
the chronological series of the Greek Patriarchs of Jerusalem,
after the city was again lost, whence we shall learn, whether truly
there was at that time some Jeremias among them. At the end
the Anconitan Canon adds, "that in the time of the Imperial
siege, when the Anconitan city by the pressure of the Germans
was so urged, that there was no trust of escape, [in which also the liberation of the besieged city is wrongly ascribed to S. Liberius.]
unless the mercy of God from the merits of B. Liberius were present:
on a certain day, when the solemnities of this holy Confessor
shone, in this manner from imminent peril
was she snatched from heaven. There appeared to the hostile troop certain
banners over the Episcopal church, and through the whole
mountain on which it is placed, papilions and tents
and a multitude of men, also weapons of war:
at the sight of which the besiegers turned to admiration,
with no one pursuing they fled, and so
Ancona was wonderfully freed from the siege by the merits of blessed Liberius."
But neither do these things deserve credit: for
in the previously praised Saracenus throughout book 6 of part 2 are produced
whatever could be found about this siege
testimonies of contemporary authors, both Greek and Latin;
among whom is Nicephorus Choniates, and John
Cinnamus, and Antonius Constantius of Fano's Ms. Anconitan
Chronicle in the Vatican Library under number 3636,
prolixly describing all that there happened (the deeds were done in the year
MCLXII) and nothing similar is found; but all other things about the causes
of the siege being lifted, although to extreme hunger and despair of things
the city was reduced, with Christian Archbishop of Mainz directing the Imperial
forces and the Venetians blocking the sea.
The same also page 130 alleges some Latin
Prayer about the praises of S. Liberius, without his mentioning
any benefit, on such an occasion conferred on the Anconitans by their
Patron. Hence from the time of such a siege
nothing can be had, by which our previous conjectures may be weakened
about the age of S. Liberius.
May V: 28 May
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