Profuturus

ON ST. PROFUTURUS, BISHOP OF PAVIA IN ITALY,

IN THE SECOND OR FOURTH CENTURY.

Profuturus, bishop of Pavia. (S.)

BY G. V. H.

Uncertain in mind whether a place among the passed-over or among the saints distinguished by public cult suits Profuturus, at length, having detected at least a slender trace of cult, I have thought that his deeds should be examined among the Acta Sanctorum. St. Profuturus is celebrated by no calendars, but by ancient litanies, I confess nonetheless that the whole history of the man is wrapped in thick darkness, and perhaps not much light will be given it by this study of ours. No martyrologies, no calendars commemorate Profuturus of Pavia among the saints; neither is his feast day kept, nor has he an office or a commemoration among the sacred prayers. The only trace of cult I have been able to find are litanies, which they say exist or have existed in a book of litanies preserved in the archives of the cathedral of Pavia, according to Bossi in Giuseppe Bobolini, in the Italian work entitled Notices Pertaining to the History of the Fatherland; who in volume III, p. 15 (Pavia 1823–1838), having spoken of St. Obedianus, says thus: In a marginal note Bossi adds: St. Obedianus is found in the litanies of the octave of Good Friday.

St. Damian, St. Theodore, St. Profuturus, St. Litifredus, St. Obedianus, pray for us.

[2] and the more recent writers Bobolini, The same Bobolini in volume I, p. 30, note 2, writes: The church of Pavia does not celebrate an office in memory of this bishop Profuturus, nor of his successor Obedianus, although both are given the name of saint in the Chronicle of Parata. The Chronicle of Parata, as the most learned priest of Pavia Prelini informed me, to whose outstanding knowledge and excellent charity I must acknowledge as owing most of what is brought forward here about St. Profuturus, is a manuscript booklet of the library of the University of Pavia. This note being premised, let the text of Bobolini follow: The fourth bishop of Pavia was St. Profuturus (note 2), to whom since the catalogue of Beretta assigns five years of the episcopal see, he will have ended his course in the year 397, and was given burial in the church of Sts. Nazarius and Celsus, or of St. Inventius, according to the Chronicle of Parata (Capsoni, volume II, §47, p. 78.) To this he adds note 1, in which is the following: In which place Capsoni relies on the testimony of the Chronicle of Rodobaldus; but it must be noted that in the Comi exemplar it is in no way intimated that the body of St. Profuturus was buried in the said church of St. Inventius. That Comi exemplar of which Bobolini speaks, inserted in volume XXXV of the Rerum Ticinensium, which is a collection of manuscript opuscula made by Siro Comi, transcribed from the register of all the bodies of the saints and relics drawn up by St. Rodobaldus II, bishop of Pavia, in the year 1226, whose autograph has perished, belongs to the beginning of the fourteenth century. The church of St. Inventius is now utterly destroyed, nor is it established that the body of St. Profuturus was found when the church was being destroyed.

[3] Beretta, Now let us see what the catalogue of Beretta is, which Bobolini cited. That catalogue was inserted by Canon Alessio Beretta in an old manuscript register of the cathedral of Pavia, entitled Ordinances and Other Notable Things of the Cathedral Chapter from the Year 1461 to 1665. It is a catalogue of the bishops of Pavia, which Baretta himself testifies he took from an old booklet. Baretta died on the 17th of July 1591. Historians ascribe much authority to this catalogue, especially Capsoni and Bobolini, and in default of other more certain ones it remains the only monument, infected with a smaller number of errors, from which a list of the prelates of Pavia can be made. In it therefore the first bishops are noted in this order:

St. Syrus was bishop for 56 years.

St. Pompeius, 14.

St. Inventius, 39.

Profuturus, 5.

St. Hobedianus, 14.

These things were furnished to us by the most learned Prelini, priest of Pavia. It is worthy of remark that

in this catalogue Profuturus appears without the title of saint.

[4] Capsoni, After Bobolini let us hear another historian of Pavia, of no low bench, of whom mention has already been made by Bobolini, I mean Capsoni of the Order of Preachers, who in his work entitled Memorie istoriche della regia città di Pavia, volume II, p. 78, says: St. Profuturus is the fourth bishop of Pavia whom Ughelli reckons, substituted for Inventius about the year 139, passing to a better life on the 1st of November in the year 144. By ill fate we have no writer who mentions him older than Gualla; for this man makes mention of him as it were in passing (book II, chapter 6), where he says that because of the Arian plague raging against the faithful the standard of Christ could not be raised at Milan, up to Profuturus, prelate of Pavia, ON THE WITNESS OF HIS SACRED HISTORY. Hence it is that the mention of Arianism made there could seem to someone a sign of the fourth century. Yet it is not of good norm to trust much in this Gualla, nor is it proved by this one instance that he attributed the name of Arians to idolaters… However others may think about the century, that the man existed is asserted by the most sincere document of all that we have in what concerns the succession of our bishops, a certain old register preserved by good fortune in the archive of the venerable chapter of our cathedral. Besides the fact that Gualla mentions HIS SACRED HISTORY or legend, now lost, there was no reason why Doctor Sonnani, most skilled in the ecclesiastical antiquities of Pavia, should charge Spelta with having created this Profuturus too along with the other supposititious bishops. This only is true, that no other memory of him survives, not even in the Nazarian or Inventian basilica, where the Chronicle of Rodobaldus says he is buried; and without doubt the author of Flavia Papia is in error, when in his fashion, in unpolished Latin, he left it written that there (in the Nazarian basilica Profuturus) "buried with solemn funeral pomp he rejoices to obtain an anniversary ecclesiastical commemoration." The author of Flavia Papia Sacra is Fr. Romualdo of St. Mary (Ghisoni), of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, whose complete text we shall give later.

[5] Gualla, The text of Giacomo Gualla, of which Capsoni speaks, here receive from the book entitled Historiae patriae, or Sanctuarii Papiae libri sex, book II, chapter 6: When the same holy prelate (Inventius) was going to Milan for the sake of secretly ordaining clerics, because of the Arian * plague raging against the faithful, which prevented there, up to Profuturus, prelate of Pavia, ON THE WITNESS OF HIS SACRED HISTORY, the raising of the standard of Christ and the establishing of the see of the pontificate, the Arians fall upon Inventius at his entry into the city itself. It is to be noted that Giacomo Gualla died in the year 1505, and that therefore a witness of the 15th century is held by us, to whom the sacred history of Profuturus was known; and these words, as Capsoni well observes, intimate a saint of whom this was the legend. From both authors, Bobolini and Capsoni, we learn what the modern people of Pavia know of their Profuturus, nor could those of Pavia, questioned by me by letter, indicate anything further. Now let us look at the writers of a somewhat earlier age.

[6] Ughelli, Marroni, de Gasparis, Ughelli in volume I of Italia Sacra, p. 1077: St. Profuturus was appointed in place of Juventius about the year 139, departed in holiness in the year 144, on the 1st day of the month of November, and was buried in the church of St. Juventius. The same St. Profuturus Fausto Antonio Marroni, in his commentary on the church and bishops of Pavia, p. 44, reckons in the fourth place in the corrected Ughellian series of the bishops of Pavia. Giovanni Battista de Gasparis, in the Breviary of the Saints among the Bishops of the Church of Pavia, in the index, at the end of the work: Catalogue of the other bishops of the church of Pavia shining with sanctity, whose divine office the same church of Pavia does not yet celebrate, of whom mention is made by Filippo of Ferrara in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, Innocenzo dalla Chiesa in the Life of St. Syrus, Giacomo Gualla in the Sanctuary of Pavia, Ughelli in Italia Sacra volume I, Guglielmo Molano in the opuscule Modo di visitar le chiese di Papia, the proper offices of the Lateran canons regular, Spelta in the Lives of the Bishops of Pavia, Stefano Breventano in the History of Pavia, Girolamo Bossi in the Diptychs of the Bishops of Pavia. St. Profuturus, 4th bishop, 1 November, from the year 139 to the year 144. His body in St. Inventius.

[7] Romualdo of St. Mary in the Flavia Papia Sacra We come to the Flavia Papia Sacra, by the Rev. Fr. Romualdo of St. Mary, of the Order of Discalced Hermits of St. Augustine, of whom passing mention was made above. This author treats of St. Profuturus most copiously of all, as one who, most knowledgeable in the affairs of Pavia and aided by most learned friends, collected almost everything that had been handed down to memory about St. Profuturus. It is useful to set first what Romualdo stated in his notices to the reader, page 10: (No. 4) The work, therefore, which we entitle Papia Sacra, we divide into four parts. In the first part you have a hagiology, in which through the several months the occurring birthdays of the saints resting at Pavia are contained each under its own (sic) day, where also the churches in which they are laid up are stated, on which we first bring forth suitable annotations, and thereafter on the saints themselves, following in this the method of the Baronian martyrology. (No. 5) In the second part you have a short history of each saint, with the authors noted from whom they were culled; beneath very many of which suitable annotations are added by which occurring doubts and controversies are explained. We have endeavoured with all zeal to write them more sincerely, nor have we relied, in composing them, on any but the more approved authorities. (No. 6) In the third, a list of all the partial relics of the saints which are preserved throughout the churches of the city, with notes on those churches of which treatment had not been made in the hagiology. (No. 7) In the fourth, the history of all the kings of the Lombards, etc.

[8] in the first part So Romualdo in the Hagiology, page 126: On the Kalends of November. In the church of St. Inventius, of St. Profuturus, bishop of Pavia, who after the same St. Inventius in the order of the episcopate ruled the same church for five years. In a note he adds this: Of Profuturus the bishop. Of him the Breviary of the holy bishops of Pavia, in the index at the end; Girolamo Bossi in the Diptychs and Lives of the Bishops of Pavia; likewise in the manuscript on the Roman Empire, in the year 139; Antonio Maria Spelta, History of the Bishops of Pavia; and Petragrassa, Sacred Laurels; Guglielmo Molano in the book on the way of visiting the churches of Pavia.

[9] and the second. The same Romualdo in the second part: 1 November. Of St. Profuturus, bishop of Pavia, in St. Inventius (From Girolamo Bossi in the Diptychs and Lives of the Bishops of Pavia. Likewise, where he treats of the Roman Empire under the year 139. And Petragrassa, Sacred Laurels, and Spelta). Profuturus, bishop of Pavia, had his origin at Pavia. After Inventius the First, disciple of the divine Syrus, illustrious for apostolic signs, had departed from among the living, namely in the hundred and thirty-ninth year, the clergy and people, diligently busying themselves at once with electing a new prelate, took up to the episcopal office by unanimous vote Profuturus, a man of outstanding and proven virtue, who, showing forth the same imitative way of life of his holy predecessors, should instruct his flock with equal zeal, piety and sanctity, and what he promised in name, he should be in deed, one who would profit all. So holding the fourth place in the pastoral burden after Syrus, Pompeius and Inventius, he busied himself to emulate in everything the better gifts of the same men, showing himself to his flock such as the electors had vowed. With the exemplary goodness with which he shone and the eminent doctrine in which he was strong, powerful in work and word, he busied himself to fulfil the pastoral ministry without omission. Earnestly desiring to fatten the sheep entrusted to him on the most fitting pasture of the divine word, he was accustomed to hold very frequent sermons to their assembly; which office of preacher he pursued with his whole being to the very end of his life. And eager to profit not only his own flock but also that of Milan, he often ordained clerics secretly at Milan, as his predecessor Inventius had more than once done there. And so that effective confirmation might be added to the oracles of his voice, he likewise showed his people the living examples of the saints, and committed to writing with great spirit the deeds of some of them, to be read through by the same again and again. He likewise wrote many sermons and homilies, and as long as he lived on the pontifical seat, he truly seemed to have wonderfully profited all as each and each as all. And finally, when he had acted as bishop in his church for a full five years, snatched from among the living, he acquired for himself the fruit of blessed eternity, in the hundred and forty-fourth year, on the Kalends of November, having chosen for himself a tomb in the then cathedral basilica of Sts. Nazarius and Celsus, near his predecessor Inventius, where, buried with solemn funeral pomp, he rejoices to obtain an anniversary ecclesiastical commemoration.

[10] At what time St. Profuturus flourished is uncertain. In the third part, where he treats of relics, Fr. Romualdo refers back to the Hagiology for the entire bodies resting in the church of St. Inventius, page 35. These, then, are all the things which Fr. Romualdo collected about St. Profuturus. The sources from which he drew he faithfully indicates; and they are for the most part printed books, of which we have inspected with our eyes those that we have with us, and the rest we leave to the good faith of the author, which is certainly reliable enough. I wonder why in this place he has not cited Giacomo Gualla, whom nevertheless he testifies in his notices to the reader that he called to the aid of his work. For this Gualla, as we heard Capsoni advising above, read the sacred history of St. Profuturus, now lost. Which would have been of great moment on this account, because from this single word we learn that there once existed a legend, as they call it, of St. Profuturus, or a sacred eulogy, such as is commonly written of the saints who are venerated. Besides these things which we have faithfully collected, we have been able to scrape together nothing whatever about St. Profuturus. As to the period of the holy bishop, whether his blessed death is to be referred to the second century, namely to the year 144, or whether he fell in the midst of the Arian disturbances in the fourth century, in the absence of further documents we refrain from inquiring.

* so the edition.