ON SS. NICEPHORUS THE BISHOP AND MAXIMILIANUS THE DEACON,
OF HUMAGUM AND PETINA IN ISTRIA.
CRITICAL COMMENTARY.
On the Acts of St. Gerontius of Ficocle and St. Nicephorus of Antioch, fabulously fitted to this Nicephorus.
St. Nicephorus, Bishop, of Humagum and Cittanova in Istria.
St. Maximilianus, Deacon, of Humagum and Cittanova in Istria.
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
[1] Petina, commonly Pedina, to the ancients Pitinum or Pucinum, an Episcopal city of Istria under the Patriarchate of Aquileia and the Dominion of the Austrian nation, from the shore of the Adriatic sea toward the North is distant XXX miles. This Ferdinand Ughellus, tome 5 of Italia Sacra, says is of most ancient institution, as being from the time of Constantine the Great: yet the names of the Bishops are hidden, until Ursianus, who (as the same Ughellus says) subscribed the Roman Council under Pope Agatho in the year DCLXXX. To Ursinianus is subjoined St. Nicephorus, The cult is proved, Confessor and Bishop of this See, whose body rests in the maritime town of Omagum, distant XXX miles from Petina; but the arm is had at Petina. At what time he lived and his acts are unknown. So Ughellus column 451 and following. Ferrarius in the general Catalogue on this XXVIII of May, from the Tables of the Church of Humagum and Petina relates these things: At Humagum in Istria, of the holy Confessors Nicephorus the Bishop and Maximilianus the Deacon of Petina. There is cited a Life from the tables and monuments of both Churches by Nicolaus Manzolus the Jurisconsult of Capodistria published at Venice, The Acts are omitted, namely in that little work which is entitled the Description of Istria, and which contains also the Lives of other Saints of that region collected in Italian. We received it by the kindness of Joannes Ludovicus Schonlebius Archdeacon of Lower Carniola, but again, this little Commentary being composed, from our eyes I know not how it vanished. Ferrarius in the Appendix to the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy page 816 extracted thence some history with such an Annotation: Although this history may deservedly seem suspect to someone, because making no mention of time it seems to narrate certain improbable things, yet it pleased to relate it in a few words; thinking I should do an acceptable thing, if, where accurately written things are lacking, whatsoever could be had be related. We, the curious reader being sent away to Manzolus and Ferrarius, prefer with Ughellus, who wrote forty years later, to say, that his Acts, namely the true ones, are unknown.
[2] because taken from the Acts of St. Gerontius of Ficocle, For it is certain to us, that the fabulous Life of St. Gerontius of Ficocle, of which we treated on May IX, was fitted to this St. Nicephorus; and indeed especially in that which it has most absurd, which not without some blushing we touched on, at number 8 of our Commentary on that Saint, concerning the two nieces, cherishing the holy old man as once the Shunammite David, and the innocence of so extravagant a deed proved by miracles; when namely at the command of him ordering the wild geese, falling from the midst of their flight to the ground, permitted themselves to be driven like sheep; and a ray of the sun, like a pole, received the pall of the Saint. Only an accusation of Nicephorus is said to have been brought to the Patriarch of Aquileia, whereas Gerontius is read to have been accused to the Roman Pontiff: and for the miracle of the pregnant hinds, offering their udders to those thirsting on the way, which is ascribed to Gerontius; of Nicephorus it is narrated, that going to Aquileia, the tradition being added of two fountains, at Piquentum, a very old town of Istria, by the sign of the Cross and prayer he raised up a fountain for the people, laboring with the greatest scarcity of waters, and imploring help from him whom they had known as a holy man: which fountain still remains serving many mills, a chapel there in his name being built by the people of Piquentum. Which also at Covedum not far from the Trieste borders he effected: where lodged, when a bear had devoured the mule, by which the holy Bishop was conveyed, he ordered it to be led to him by two virgins his nieces; who bidding it to come to the Bishop, it obeyed forthwith; and doing the things commanded it by the Bishop, the little burdens wont to be carried by the mule being placed on it it carried, following the Bishop… and by his death at Omagum: But when the Saint returned to Petina, at Humagum, together with Maximilianus the Deacon, falling sick in a short time both departed life, whose bodies at Humagum are hitherto kept: and a feast day is kept there and at Petina, where the hand of St. Nicephorus is had, on the V Kal. of June. So he from that Life, which (as I said) appears to be taken from the Life of St. Gerontius, with some proper traditions of St. Nicephorus added, of which traditions a monument are the aforesaid two fountains, most certain witnesses of the popular tradition concerning his sanctity, to whom they are ascribed. But Piquentum is, in the maps, Pinguentum, and Petina is distant from it toward the North 15 miles, and on the longer circuitous land journey to one seeking Aquileia it had to be passed, as also the Trieste Borders, near which it is to be sought. Covedum the maps do not express. But however the Saint at some time went to Aquileia, he seems to have returned by sea, since he died at Humagum, a maritime town, distant nothing more from Aquileia than Petina.
[3] just as the Acts of St. Nicephorus Martyr of Antioch. But that the people of Humagum or Petina, destitute of the true and proper Acts of this their Patron, permitted those Gerontian things to be imposed on themselves, received from Ficocle, situated on the opposite shore of the Adriatic, he will the less wonder; who shall have seen Ferrarius on December XXX page 812 treat of St. Nicephorus Martyr Patron of Petina, as a different one, from the monuments of the Church of Petina and the History of the aforenamed Manzolus, a similar epitome being adduced of those things which we gave on February IX concerning Nicephorus and Sapritius, of whom this one unwilling to forgive the offense to the other, left the palm of martyrdom also cast away from his hands to be taken up by the other. But these things are proposed by Ferrarius under this variety only, that the things which were done at Antioch, under the same Emperors Valerian and Gallienus, are transferred to Sablonicum, a city known to none of the ancients. Then the people of Petina add, that the Body honorably buried by the Christians, afterward Constantine the Great placing it on a ship, with lights and Clerics accompanying, there ordered a basilica which should be the Cathedral to be built, where the body of the Martyr, carried in his ship the winds of their own accord impelling it, should have rested. Which when it had landed on the shores of Liburnia and Istria, and to Petina, then called Pentapolis, against the stream had carried the sacred pledges; there a Church granted to a Bishop was built, they were fitted to the other Patron of the people of Petina. in which the body of St. Nicephorus is hitherto kept and venerated. For he is the Tutelar and Patron not only of that city, but also of the whole diocese. So Ferrarius closes his epitome, in the Annotation subjoined likewise acknowledging, that the Acts offered to him need some emendation; and leaving it to the people of Petina themselves to be proved, so great an antiquity of their Episcopate, since of this matter nothing is read in grave authors. A little before, that is page 811, the same Ferrarius had treated of the same Saint, excusing that he had not yet seen the Acts: but there he adds, that the same who is venerated at Petina, also in the Church of Aquileia and the whole of that diocese is celebrated, and in the tables of the same Church is noted, on December XXX wont to be honored.
[4] That two Nicephori are venerated by the people of Petina, and indeed both as Patrons, perhaps brought from Sabiona. one a Bishop on this XXVIII of May, the other a Martyr at the end of the year, if we ought to believe it; we shall be able also by conjecture to opine, that one of them (uncertain at what time or how) suffered Martyrdom at Sabiona, in the County of Tyrol, a city of Raetia, once Episcopal under the Patriarch of Aquileia near Brixen, which succeeded it in the Title; whose body then either submerged in the river Eisack flowing into the Adige, and by this carried into the Adriatic sea was borne to the shores of Istria; or rather, the persecution ceasing, was conveyed by ship; but the Acts being lacking the Acts of Nicephorus of Antioch were fitted to him. Whatever it be, it appears sufficiently by this example, that the Istrians had little explored, what they assumed about their Saints too lightly to be believed: of whom therefore we should have nothing to say, were not, as all the rest are uncertain, so on the contrary the cult certain, as we have already shown. We await however for January IX, or December XXX, that someone make us thence more certain, that the bodies of two Saints Patrons of the same name are really had and venerated as different: for deservedly we fear, lest here some confusion lie hidden. We desire also concerning the body of St. Maximilianus to be more distinctly informed, if it can be done.