ON ST. JUSTUS OF TRIESTE, MARTYR,
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FOURTH CENTURY.
PRIOR COMMENTARY.
Justus, martyr at Trieste. (S.)
BY G. V. H.
§ I. Of the Acts of St. Justus; of the writers who mention St. Justus.
The city of Trieste, adorned with the triumphs of many holy martyrs, on the fourth day before the Nones of November celebrates the feast day of its great martyr Justus. The Acts of St. Justus at Venice, And though it rejoices in the honor of all its martyrs, it testifies that the memory of this St. Justus is most dear to it, both by the splendor and by the solemnity of the rite of celebration. For this Justus the city has not so much chosen as its special protector and patron as received him from a gracious Providence. The Acts of this holy martyr we approach for treatment with so much the greater eagerness as we seem to ourselves more certain of the sincerity of those same Acts. Since these had to be acquired with much labor,
we possess them so much the more gladly. For after we had sent a letter of supplication to the prelate who then presided over the church of Trieste, in which we humbly asked that, if anything from hoary antiquity concerning St. Justus were held in record, he would order it to be transmitted for insertion in this treatise in honor of this holy martyr, the answer was that absolutely nothing was to be found. Since I could not believe this, I went first to Venice, then to Trieste, that by inspecting the codices of the libraries with my own eyes and questioning learned men I might unearth from its hiding-place what I did not think to be lacking but to be hidden. And it came about as I had hoped. At Venice in the library of St. Mark I found the Acts of St. Justus and faithfully copied them; rejoicing in the discovery, I went on to Trieste, where, with God and St. Justus as my guide, I found a man who, animated with a zeal for St. Justus equal to my own, promised that he would send to me whatever he could find in the ancient codices, and he stood by his promises. For this man's honor, in token of a grateful spirit, I here set down his name, Peter Tomasin, doctor of Sacred Theology. How much I owe to his labor and zeal and his favorable disposition toward me, the whole course of this treatise will demonstrate.
[2] Those found at Trieste and Vienna seem sufficiently sincere, Among the very many things which, copied by his own hand, he transmitted to me, there are to be named already in this place the Acts of St. Justus from the Trieste copy, the same as those which I had transcribed at Venice. A third copy of those Acts I found at Vienna in Austria, in the Imperial library; so that the Venetian copy can be laid before the eyes of readers with the variant readings of the Vienna and Trieste copies. These Acts I hold to be very ancient and sincere, so that I judge the very order of the martyrdom to have been written down both from the public Acts and from eye-witnesses. The sincerity I restrict to that very order of the martyrdom of which I spoke, namely to the interrogations and answers, which present the judicial form and the sentiments customary to Christians in a manner most suited both to the persons and to the times, and to the sentence of the judge and the consummation of the martyrdom and the things that followed the martyrdom. For the proem, prefixed to the Acts themselves, as is usual, is not without a blemish. Of these things we shall have to treat in what follows.
[3] and they have already been committed to print. Our Acts were committed to print by Dr. Peter Kandler in his work entitled: Ad faustum ingressum illustrissimi ac reverendissimi domini Bartholomæi episcopi Tergestini, etc. Trieste, J. Papsch, 1847.. This book, written in the Italian language, I myself have not seen, but Dr. Peter Tomasin wrote to me that the Acts of St. Justus were inserted in it. You have shorter compendia of the Acts of St. Justus in Peter de Natalibus Book X. and in the Italian Hagiology Vol. II, p. 271. from the records of the churches of Trieste and Aquileia.
[4] Many have mentioned St. Justus. Finally, many more recent writers have mentioned St. Justus, of whom the aforesaid Peter Tomasin transmitted to me the following catalogue; but I myself could not read their books, except a few of which we had a copy at hand. Lodovico Zacconi, in the Compendium of the life of the saints, book II. Nicolò Manzioli in the Italian book entitled New Description of Istria, p. 18 Venice 1611, by Giorgio Bizzardo.. Ludwig Schönleben, canon of Ljubljana, in the work entitled Carniolia antiqua et nova, sive Annales inclyti ducatus Carnioliæ Ljubljana 1681.. Vincenzo Scussa, canon of Trieste, whose Italian opuscule under the title of Chronographic History of Trieste was edited by Francesco Cameroni, p. 32 ff. Trieste, Colombo Coen press, 1863.. Johann Weikhard, baron Valvasor, in the German work entitled Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, vol. II, book VIII, p. 518 ff. Ljubljana, in the year 1689.. Giovanni Maria Manarutta, of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, of the convent of the Discalced at Venice, under the name of Brother Irenæus of the Cross, in the Italian work whose title is Ancient and Modern, Sacred and Profane History of the City of Trieste, p. 429 ff. At Venice 1698, Girolamo Albrizzi.. Pietro Stancovich in the Italian work entitled Biography of the Illustrious Men of Istria, vol. I, p. 162 Trieste, at the house of Giovanni Marenigh, printer, 1828.. Giuseppe Mainati, of Trieste, sacristan of the cathedral church of Trieste: Chronicle or Sacred and Profane Historical Memoirs of Trieste Venice 1817., written in Italian. Felice Bandelli, presbyter of Trieste, in the Italian work Lives of the Saints of Trieste, in manuscript in the city Archives of Trieste. Antonio Luigi Tempesta, presbyter of Trieste: Life and Martyrdom of St. Justus, in Italian; which Joseph Krizman, presbyter of Trieste, turned into Slavonic Trieste 1878.. Peter Tomasin, presbyter of Trieste, in a work as yet unedited, Ecclesiastical History of Trieste and Istria.
§ II. The Acts of St. Justus are examined.
The Acts of St. Justus to be edited from three codices We edit the Acts of St. Justus, as was said above, on the authority of three manuscript codices. The first is the Venetian, the legendary of St. Mark, which Antonio Maria Zanetti in the year 1748 transferred from the upper chamber of the sacristy of St. Mark to the Marciana at the direction of the president of the library. The second, the Vienna codex, is of parchment in largest folio, of the thirteenth century, from the Imperial library. A copy of the third codex, which we have not seen, we received from the aforementioned Tomasin, who added this note: These Acts were written in the eleventh century in Lombardic script by the priest Prè L. of Conegliano. They were possessed by Aldrago Antonio de Piccardi, last of the bishops of Pedena in Istria (he died on the 13th of September 1789), and copied by his own hand he sent them to the city archive of Trieste; which our historiographer (of Trieste) printed in the Italian work: Ad faustum ingressum illustrissimi ac reverendissimi domini Bartholomæi Legat, episcopi Tergestini et Justinopolitani, S. Th. doctoris etc., etc., in ecclesiam suam Tergestinam, die 18 Aprilis 1847. I myself copy them from the original (Lombardic, or a transcript?), which is as follows. The Acts from the Venetian codex I copied with my own hand, and then collated, noting the variant readings, with the Vienna codex: to which we shall add the variant readings of the Trieste transcript.
[6] they bear before them the appearance of sincerity; The Acts of the martyrdom of St. Justus reproduce quite well the customary form of authentic Acts; and the things narrated about the execution of the deadly sentence are both most worthy to be believed, and could most easily have been heard and seen by the Christians of Trieste. They are moreover of great simplicity and of a candid and sincere spirit, such as befits a martyr. For which reason I cannot but acknowledge the sincerity of these Acts, which the church of Trieste, immediately after the glorious triumph of St. Justus, committed to writing either as excerpted from the judicial Acts themselves, or perhaps as the words and deeds of the martyr noted down by bystanders, together with the testimonies of contemporaries.
[7] but in the proem an error is found. But the proem which is prefixed to the Acts seems to be of a later age. For in it a blemish is detected, which could scarcely have been sprinkled into their writing by contemporaries. For it is said: In the times of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, in the fourth year of their consulate, the ninth of their reign, a persecution was made against the Christians. Now these notes of years do not agree among themselves, and yet they do not differ so much that the error cannot be explained and excused in an easy way. For the ninth year of the reign of Diocletian, which is the seventh year of Maximian, coincides with the consulate indeed the fifth of Diocletian, but the fourth of Maximian. Thus it comes about that the words of the Acts are true as said of one or the other, but false as said of both: for they state the true year of the emperor Diocletian with the true year of the consulate of Maximian.
[8] which is refuted and corrected; This error could easily have been committed, and is not of great moment, so long as these notes of years are considered in the mutual relation which the years of the consulate have to the years of the reign. But in truth a much graver error will emerge when the matter proposed is considered, namely the persecution decreed against the Christians. But it is well to copy out the whole sentence. In the times of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, in the fourth year of their consulate, the ninth of their reign, a persecution was made against the Christians, that if any Christian would not sacrifice to idols, he should be afflicted with diverse punishments. It is therefore a question of the most atrocious persecution of Diocletian raging through the West; for there follows at once: But at the same time there was dispatched, in the order of his turn, the most impious prefect Mannacius, a citizen of the East, that he himself might give orders throughout all the islands or consular cities. That persecution began with the overthrow of the church of Nicomedia on the feast of the Terminalia, on the seventh day before the Kalends of March, the two old men (Diocletian and Maximian) holding the consulate for the eighth and seventh time Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum, chapter 12 (P. L., vol. VII, p. 213).. On the next day an edict was published, by which it was provided that the men of that religion should be deprived of every honor and dignity, should be subject to torture, from whatever order or rank they came, that every action against them should have force; they themselves could bring no action for injury, for adultery, or for property taken away, and in short should have neither liberty nor voice Ibid., chapter 13.. A little later, the palace having been set on fire again, Galerius so exasperated Diocletian that he raged with unheard-of severity against the Christians, especially those of his household, sparing neither his daughter Valeria nor his wife Prisca. At that time also letters had gone to Maximian (Herculius) and Constantius, that they should do the same. Their opinion in such great matters had not been waited for. And indeed the old man Maximian willingly obeyed throughout Italy, a man not so very merciful Ibid., chapter 15.. Here therefore we have the persecution which under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian ran riot through Italy. Now these things were done when Diocletian and Maximian were holding the consulate for the eighth and seventh time, in the year of Diocletian's reign 19 and 20, of Maximian's 17 and 18, therefore in the year of the common era 303. The proem of the Acts of St. Justus therefore errs vehemently when it assigns the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian to the ninth year of their reign.
[9] what follows agrees sufficiently with history. What follows next, although from an unskilled writer, nevertheless agrees sufficiently with history. For from the East to the West this storm of persecution descended. Letters also had gone to Maximian and Constantius, that they should do the same Ibid.. In this sense, therefore, the words of the proem can be understood: But at the same time there was dispatched, in the order of his turn, the most impious prefect Mannacius, a citizen of the East. How general the persecution was is plain from the testimony of the same Lactantius, saying: So the whole earth was harassed, and, except for the Gauls, from the East to the West three most savage beasts were raging.
Not if I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths, A voice of iron, could I comprehend all the forms of crime, Could I run through all the names of punishments,
which the judges throughout the provinces inflicted on the just and innocent Ibid., chapter 16.. This universality of the persecution can also be indicated by the other part of the cited sentence, where it is said: that he might give orders throughout all the islands or consular cities.
[10] The name of the prefect is variously written. I find the name of the prefect written in many ways: Mannacius in the Venetian codex, Mannasius in the Vienna one, Munacius in the Trieste transcript.
Later writers have written variously Menatius, Manatius, Munatius. He then is reported to have given Eunomius as governor to Aquileia, and to Trieste Manacius or Mannacius, unless someone should contend that the latter is the same as that prefect of the East. Cf. Passion, no. 2, variant reading 18.
[11] In the Acts there are many signs of antiquity. Several things can be noted in the Acts which have the genuine face of that antiquity. First of all that phrase, armed with the sign of the cross on his forehead. For Christians from the earliest times and thereafter were accustomed to sign themselves publicly with the sign of the cross. This very persecution of Diocletian of which we are treating had its first origin from the disturbing of a sacrifice of Diocletian by the cross impressed by Christian attendants on their foreheads: they placed on their foreheads, says Lactantius, the immortal sign. By which act, the demons being put to flight, the sacred rites were disturbed Ibid., chapter 10.. This custom occurs so frequently in the Acts of the martyrs that it may seem superfluous to bring forward examples. Justus, asked whether he was a Christian, not only affirms it, but with a certain pious zeal for glory confesses that he has been a Christian from his parents, from boyhood. Then Mannacius asks whether perhaps the recent edict spread through all the provinces is unknown to Justus: which again agrees wonderfully with the beginning of the persecution. The sentence of the judge, by which Justus is ordered to be plunged into the sea weighted with masses of lead, reproduces above all a method of killing used in the persecution of Diocletian which Lactantius reports: With millstones tied to their necks they were plunged into the sea Ibid., chapter 15., and Eusebius: Other innumerable persons also, bound and placed in boats, the executioners cast into the deep sea Historia ecclesiastica, book VIII, chapter 6 (P. G., vol. XX, p. 754)..
[12] and the revelation of the martyr itself. Lastly, not even that lacks the mark of the time, which is narrated at the end of the Acts, that in the silence of the dead of night the body of the martyr Justus was sought along the sands of the shore (the martyr, appearing to Sebastian, had ordered this to be done), and was carefully buried in a hidden place on account of the mockery of the tyrants. For in this persecution the tyrants had this chiefly at heart, that no care should be bestowed on the martyrs, and that no honor should be rendered to the sacred bodies of the triumphant. For this reason at Nicomedia, even the bodies of the royal chamberlains, which after death had been committed to fitting burial, their own lawful masters judged ought to be dug out of the tomb and cast into the sea, lest anyone should in future adore them laid up in tombs, reckoning them as gods, as indeed they themselves imagined Ibid.. The governor of Alexandria used to say, as Phileas reports in Eusebius, that not even the least care should be taken of the martyrs, but that all should so think of them, so act, as if we were no longer men Ibid., chapter 10.. Hence, plainly, that savagery of the pyres, on which Christians were burned in crowds, hence that frequency of drownings, in which great multitudes of men were hurled headlong to be suffocated by the waters Ibid., chapters 6, 8, 11.. So that, if the solemn honors of the tomb were bestowed on a dead martyr, this sacred care may not inaptly be said to have tended to the mocking of the tyrants.
§ III. In what year St. Justus underwent martyrdom; of the place of burial; the finding of the body of St. Justus.
The opinion of Baronius concerning the year of martyrdom; Baronius in the Annals at the year 303, no. 123: There suffered also at that time, he says, Justus at Trieste under Munatius the governor. From whom others have departed, led by the authority of the Acts. Irenæus of the Cross and, cited in him, Nicolò Manzioli and Ludwig Schönleben ascribe the martyrdom of St. Justus to the year 289. We agree with Baronius and with him we think St. Justus was crowned with martyrdom in the year 303, although we do not regard that year as altogether certain: for the following year 304 may also fit. But this was not yet known to Baronius, since he was persuaded with all the learned that Diocletian abdicated in the year 304: for the book of Lactantius On the Deaths of the Persecutors had not yet been edited, from which it is plain that Diocletian abdicated the empire in the year 305.
[14] which cannot precede the year 303; That the martyrdom of St. Justus does not precede the year 303 is manifest. For we know from the Acts that the martyrdom of Justus took place in the times of Diocletian and Maximian, after the persecution had reached Italy from the East, and that this martyrdom fell on the fourth day before the Nones of November. Now these things cannot have happened before the year 303, nor after the year 304. For in the year 303, on the sixth day before the Kalends of March, the edict of persecution was published at Nicomedia, and the persecution began to thunder through the East: a little later it is extended to the West, letters being given to Maximian and Constantius. In the same year Diocletian came to Rome, to celebrate his vicennalia and to hold a triumph over the Persians. The day of the vicennalia was on the twelfth day before the Kalends of December. These being celebrated, he burst out from the city with the Kalends of January impending, on which his ninth consulate was being conferred on him. Then he contracted a slight but lasting illness. The summer thus having passed, he came to Nicomedia, a grave illness rising upon him. On the Ides of December he was believed to have died; but having lain unconscious he recovered his spirit, yet not the whole of it. For he was made demented, so that at certain hours he was insane, at certain hours he came to his senses. In the following year, on the Kalends of May, Diocletian stripped himself of the purple and became Diocles once more. Since therefore on the Kalends of May in the year 305 Diocletian and Maximian abdicated the empire, Justus could not have died on the fourth day before the Nones of November in the year 305, under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, as the Acts say; he could, however, have died under those emperors and on that day in the year 304.
[15] yet the year 303 is highly probable. This is why we have said that the assertion of Baronius does not enjoy entire certainty. Although we strongly approve it, we think nevertheless that it stands within the limits of opinion. We adhere to it because we judge it both consonant with history and more in keeping with our Acts. For the martyrdom of St. Justus seems to be referred to the very beginning of the persecution raging through the West. For after so many and so great deaths as had taken place in those years, after the fame of the martyrs had been spread in every direction, it is hardly understood how the judge could suppose that the edict of persecution was not yet known to St. Justus. This, then, is the reason I embrace for assigning the martyrdom of St. Justus to the year 303.
[16] St. Justus seems to have been buried at the Holy Martyrs. Now we must treat of the tomb of St. Justus. In the Acts we read that the holy martyr Justus, on the night following his martyrdom, appeared to the presbyter Sebastian and revealed to him that his body lay on the shore of the sea, wrapped in the sands, and that he should commit it to burial on account of the mockery of the tyrants. Sebastian goes round the houses of the Christians, rouses the faithful from sleep to seek the body of St. Justus with him. They seek, they find; and they laid what they had found in a tomb not far from the same shore where the body of the holy martyr was found. In seeking the place of burial, therefore, no great room for going astray is given. The aforementioned presbyter Tomasin taught us that there survives at Trieste a very ancient tradition, according to which St. Justus appeared to Sebastian in the place called Riva grumula. This part of the city of Trieste now, according to the same author, is on the shore of the sea, where the fishermen's boats put in, between the palace called Revoltella and the Josephine square (Piazza Giuseppina). Not far from the same place they say there was an ancient cemetery, in which the Christians in the time of St. Justus laid the bodies of the dead. In the street which is still named from the holy martyrs, near the modern parish church of the Blessed Virgin of Help (del Soccorso), commonly called at Old St. Anthony's, on the plot where there now stands the house by the name of Bordeaux, there once stood a little church at the Holy Martyrs, of such antiquity that some refer its construction to the times of Constantine the Great. It once belonged to the Benedictines of San Giorgio Maggiore of Venice, who had a hospice at Trieste, and afterwards belonged to the Mechitarists in the time of the emperor Charles VI: which the emperor Joseph II suppressed, and in the year 1790 it was levelled to the ground. In that place they relate that St. Justus was buried.
[17] Geminianus translated many relics of martyrs from Trieste to Grado. In the Altino Chronicle Archivio storico Italiano, vol. VIII, p. 122., book IV, there is read: For at that time it was enjoined by divine revelation upon a certain presbyter Geminianus that in the destroyed city of Trieste, between the walls of the church and the walls of the destroyed city, he should diligently seek out the bodies of forty-two holy martyrs: which having been found, with certain men of his province he should come to the destroyed city of the Aquileians. Searching for the relics of the saints, they found there the bodies of the holy martyrs Cantius, and Cantianus and Cantianilla; and also the bodies of the holy virgins Euphemia, Dorothy, Thecla and Erasma: all which relics, as had been revealed to him, carrying with them, they laid up most worthily, with the greatest honor, in the fort of Grado within the churches. Then there is appended a fabulous narrative of Venetians who set out for Rome that, with suppliant prayers poured forth, they might obtain from Pope Benedict that he should make the fort of Grado a new Aquileia, and establish it as the metropolis of all Venetia and Istria. Which, according to the author of the fable, was done, and the pontiff, the election being made by the tribunes and nobles themselves who were present with Duke Beatus, and the investiture being received also from the aforesaid duke, consecrated Paul, a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, as patriarch, and with the blessing of the pallium sent him back with them into the new Aquileia. So the chronicler of Paulinus or Paul, who, against the old custom, had himself ordained by Vitalis, bishop of Milan, with the Roman see by no means approving; whence it came about that Pelagius I, Roman pontiff, wrote of that Paul to Narses: By a shameful robbery, so to speak, he was in division not consecrated but execrated [De Rubeis, Mon. eccl. Aquileiensis, chapter 23, p. 206, letter II from fragment I of Holstenius.]. But this Paul or Paulinus, schismatic patriarch, according to the Chronicle of Dandolo was made bishop of Aquileia in the year of our Lord DLVII; he sat twelve years, as is gathered from Paul the Deacon Historia Longobardorum, book II, chapter 25 (P. L., vol. XCV, pp. 496, 497)., who says thus: Alboin therefore, entering Liguria, at the beginning of the third indiction, on the third day before the Nones of September, in the time of Archbishop Honoratus, entered Milan. Thereafter he took all the cities of Liguria, except those which are situated on the shore of the sea. But Archbishop Honoratus, deserting Milan, fled to the city of Genoa. Paul the patriarch also, having held the priesthood for twelve years, was withdrawn from this light, and left the church to be ruled by Probinus. That third indiction begins from the Kalends of September 559; in that year therefore Paul departed from this life: whence if you count back twelve years, you will find the first year of his episcopate 459, as Dandolo had written. In this space of time, therefore, which runs from the year 557 to the year 569, there took place what the same chronicler narrates, in the same fourth book, about the bodies of the holy martyrs translated by the presbyter Geminianus. Concerning which relics the same chronicler continues a little later, saying: This most holy patriarch laid up the bodies of the saints with honor in the same churches of the new Aquileia. In the church of St. Vitalis he entombed most worthily the bodies of forty-two martyrs. Here by right
and with reason it is asked whether the bones of St. Justus were translated to Grado along with these bones of forty-two bodies. But so great is the scarcity of ancient documents that we know nothing about this matter. He perhaps left the bones of St. Justus at Trieste. There are those who contend that Geminianus did not translate the bones of St. Justus, but left them laid up at Trieste. For when in the year 1859 a new marble altar was being erected in the cathedral of Trieste in honor of the Sorrowful Mother, there was found a very thin tablet of lead, hexagonal in form, seven fingers wide, three fingers high, on which the following was inscribed: Let it be plain to those who behold this that in this coffin are laid up the relics of the holy martyrs Zeno and Justina, citizens of Trieste: but of the third the most high God, who is the knower of secrets, retains the name: which, lest this city should be deprived of so great and such a treasure on account of wars and greedy desires, were secretly taken from the high altar of the church of the Holy Martyrs outside the walls of the city by the pontiff and worthy priests and have been safeguarded with the highest reverence in the present tomb, until it shall please the most high God. Hence some believe that the third, who is not named, is St. Justus himself. But, to say what I think, I am of the opinion that it can certainly be believed that Geminianus wished to preserve for Trieste, above all others, its own Justus, and did in fact preserve him. But I do not see by what argument I could prove that this third, of whom the leaden tablet treats with the name suppressed, is the holy martyr Justus himself. Further, this inscription of the tablet seems to indicate an age much later than Geminianus. Be that as it may, the city of Trieste glories in the relics of St. Justus, and with reason. But whether they were left by Geminianus in the church of the Holy Martyrs, or translated to another, safer place, I would not dare to decide. In the year 1040 St. Justus is read to be resting bodily in the episcopal church of Trieste, as will be plain later from the letter of the emperor Henry III to Adalger, bishop of Trieste.
[18] The body of St. Justus is now certainly at Trieste, The relics of the holy martyr Justus were found in the cathedral church of Trieste on the 17th day of April in the year 1624. We shall report the history of the finding as Peter Tomasin, priest of Trieste, handed it down to us, from the cited authors whom I do not have in my possession. Vincenzo Scussa in the Italian work entitled Chronographic History of Trieste P. 120., and the Carmelite Irenæus of the Cross (Giovanni Maria Manarutta) in Mainati in the work entitled Chronicle or Historical Memoirs of Trieste Vol. III, p. 224 ff., narrate from the historical manuscripts of Stephen Trauner, canon of Trieste, now lost, the following: Brother Rinaldo Scarlicchio, bishop of Trieste, of the Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis, was minded to know for certain whether under the altar dedicated to St. Justus in the cathedral church of Trieste the relics of this holy martyr truly lay buried, as ancient tradition held. For the testing of this matter, on the 17th day of April in the year 1624, he summoned the canons with the secular and regular clergy and men delegated by the magistracy into the cathedral church. Before them, the altar being moved from its place and the pavement taken up, digging was begun. First there was found a deep layer of earth, then a layer of gravel and of the shells of sea-mussels, last of all a thick and rough stone slab; on the removal of which there was found a stone coffin of rude workmanship. In this coffin, when opened, there was found a chest eaten away by long time, within which another smaller, silver chest was hidden, which the canons together with the Capuchins lifted out and carried to the nearby altar of St. Charles Borromeo. When it had been placed on the altar, Bishop Scarlicchio opened it, and found the relics of St. Justus, namely the head and bones. These were taken out and exposed for public veneration, the head in a silver frame, the rest of the bones in a precious cloth interwoven with thread of gold. Soon, with all the bells of the whole city sounding and the guns of war discharged, vespers were sung in solemn rite, with the hymn Te Deum laudamus. Then the bones, arranged in their former order, were buried in their former place, except for the bone of the shoulder-blades.
[19] and there each year a part of the relics is exposed. That shoulder-blade or omoplate, placed in a reliquary in the month of February in the year 1700, a most beautiful work of gilded silver, is exposed each year on the 2nd day of November in the cathedral church of Trieste for public veneration. The form of the reliquary is triangular, with crystals inserted; on top rises a small statue of St. Justus. This finding of the relics of St. Justus was handed down to perpetual memory by the following inscription, which is read beneath the seats of the magistracy, a little before the altar of St. Justus, on the left:
WHOEVER YOU ARE WHO PASS THIS WAY
LET IT NOT PASS YOU BY
THAT UNDER THE NEAREST ALTAR
ARE LAID UP THE SACRED REMAINS OF THE HOLY MARTYR JUSTUS, OUR FELLOW-CITIZEN AND GUARDIAN,
FIRST FOUND BY RINALDO SCARLICCHIO, PRELATE OF THE SACRED RITES,
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO
AND RESTORED TO THE SAME PLACE
WITH THE REJOICING OF THE WHOLE CITY.
IT HAS PLEASED US TO FIX THIS MEMORIAL HERE
IN THE YEAR OF THE RESTORATION OF THIS CATHEDRAL
MDCCXXIV.
§ IV. Of the apparition of St. Justus.
Why the feast of the Apparition of St. Justus is celebrated. On the 27th day of June the Apparition of St. Justus is celebrated at Trieste with a proper office: from which, however, the historical fact of the apparition acquires almost no light. On the testimony of Irenæus of the Cross in Mainati Vol. II, p. 136 ff. (so M. Tomasin writes to me) there is read in an old book of the chapter, preserved in the archive of the canons: 27th of June, the apparition of St. Justus, martyr, patron, in the liberation of the city in the year of the Lord 1380. That is, in the year 1380, on the night of the 24th day of June. The people of Trieste took up arms and seized the governor's palace, and Donato Tron, the governor, and all of the Venetian name, struck down by this sudden revolt, they cast into chains, after first plundering their goods. Turning thence to the attack on both citadels (since they were held by a small garrison), those who were within having surrendered, they shortly reduced them into their power, and when reduced razed them from the foundations. So Marc' Antonio Sabellico [Rerum Venetarum ab urbe condita historia, Dec. II, book VII (Degl'istorici delle cose Veneziane, vol. I, p. 416).]. Then the patriarch of Aquileia, Marquard of Andechs *, being called in, received the homage of the bishop, the clergy, the nobles, the consul and the whole magistracy of the people of Trieste; who handed over the keys of the city into the hands of his marshal, Berchtold of Gottonesch. Exulting with joy at this event, the people of Trieste began to celebrate the feast of the Apparition of St. Justus. Which they perform with still greater gladness and solemnity since the French were driven from the city of Trieste by the English fleet on the 8th day of November 1813. For the French had changed the church of St. Justus into a granary, and its tower into a military fortress.
Notes* in others, Randeck
§ V. Of the cult of St. Justus, and of his church, altar, images and statues.
The memory of St. Justus in the martyrologies. It is remarkable that the memory of the renowned martyr Justus is not celebrated in the Little Roman martyrology which St. Ado copied at Ravenna, and it seems no less remarkable that the fame and Acts of so great a martyr did not reach Ado, since he did not bring Justus into his martyrology. He is also absent from pure Usuard, but he occurs more than once in the auctaria. Florentine: At Trieste, of St. Justus, martyr, under the governor Monatius. Belinus: On the same day, the passion of Blessed Justus, martyr, who was crowned at the city of Trigesina (another edition: Trigestina). Greven: At the city of Trieste in Istria, the heavenly birthday of St. Justus, a precious martyr, who under Diocletian and Maximian, having been sent to prison for the faith of Christ and led forth thence, was beaten with raw sinews, and finally, many masses of lead being tied to him, was cast headlong into the sea. Maurolico: At Trieste, of St. Justus, martyr, plunged into the sea after harsh scourgings, under the reign of Diocletian, under the prefect Manatius. Galesini: At Trieste, of St. Justus, martyr, who, under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, by order of the prefect Manatius, was subjected to the horrible torment of scourgings, and at length, as he persisted in the resolve of the faith, was plunged into the sea. Lastly, in the Roman Martyrology: At Trieste, the passion of Blessed Justus, who in the same (Diocletian's) persecution consummated his martyrdom under the governor Manatius.
[22] A church dedicated to him, which, repeatedly restored I do not doubt that at Trieste, immediately after the martyrdom of Blessed Justus, the public cult of the most holy martyr began, although certain documents of the cult from such great antiquity by no means survive. Frugifer, whom they make the first bishop of the city of Trieste (and he is indeed the first of those whose names are known), is said in the year 559 to have built two basilicas adjoining one another, of which he willed one to be sacred to the Blessed Virgin Mary assumed into heaven, the other to St. Justus. It is credible that in the running of the years the basilicas often suffered damage, and that therefore, after the fuller repairs of the church of St. Justus, a new consecration was necessary. For, so the distinguished Tomasin writes to me, Irenæus of the Cross reports, in Mainati, p. 206: In the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1262, the 7th indiction, on the 4th day of the month of November, this altar with the church (of St. Justus) was dedicated by the venerable father Lord Arlongus, by the grace of God bishop and count of Trieste, with four other bishops.
[23] and it was dedicated again. I have called this the new dedication of the restored church; for the emperor Henry III in the year 1040 wrote to Adalger, bishop of Trieste: To Adalger, prelate of the holy see of Trieste, and to his episcopal church built and DEDICATED in honor of Mary, the holy mother of God, and of St. Justus, the martyr bodily resting there. Bishop Henry also wrote in the year 1115: Arable land which belongs to me and to St. Justus, where he seems clearly to indicate St. Justus as the patron of his cathedral; as also at the end: He shall incur the anathema of almighty God and of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of Blessed Justus the martyr.
[24] At Trieste he is venerated with a proper mass and proper office. St. Justus is venerated at Trieste, the city which while living he enlightened with the lights of the virtues, which he sanctified by the death he met for the faith of Christ, and which, living in heaven, he has walled round with continual protection, with the greatest reverence and highest honor, with a proper office and mass, formerly indeed of the Aquileian rite, now of the Roman. We shall give both here. We wish also to set down here a monument of the cult offered to St. Justus from the diocesan synod of Trieste, held on the 20th of April in the year 1460, in which Antonio Goppo, bishop of Trieste, issued the following decree: We ordain and command that all presbyters having the care of souls be held and bound to announce to the people committed to them that they must keep the feast of St. Justus, martyr, our patron and protector, which we by these presents decree is to be observed on the day on which it occurs, namely on the second day of November. But on the day immediately following let the memory of the dead be celebrated.
[25] Instrument of the dedication of the church of St. Justus in the year 1585. In the year 1303, the intervening walls being destroyed, Rudolph, bishop of Trieste, made one church out of the two, of whom in the necrology of the chapter: In the year 1320 there died the reverend father in Christ Lord Rudolph de Rebecco, bishop of Trieste, who repaired the church. Finally, a new consecration of the church was performed on the 27th day of November by Henry of Wildenstein, of which behold the document
from Irenæus of the Cross in Mainati Vol. II, p. 161 ff.: In the year of the Lord 1385, the 8th indiction, on the 27th day of November, this church and high altar were consecrated to the praise and glory of God almighty and of the Blessed Mary ever virgin and of all the saints by the reverend Father and Lord in Christ, Brother Henry, by the grace of God and of the apostolic see bishop and count of Trieste, in which he laid up relics of the saints, namely of the wood of the holy cross, of the tomb of Our Lady, of Blessed Anne her mother, of Blessed Thomas the apostle, of Blessed Marcellus, pope and martyr, of Blessed Blaise, bishop and martyr, OF BLESSED JUSTUS, MARTYR, of Blessed Wenceslaus, martyr, of Blessed Procopius, abbot, of Blessed Vitus, martyr, of Blessed Juliana, virgin and martyr, of Blessed Margaret, virgin and martyr. But the title is noted as to the Blessed Mary ever virgin and the Holy Spirit. Likewise of the pillar of the Lord and of Blessed John and Paul, martyrs. Hence the dedication of the church is not celebrated on the feast day of St. Justus, but on another day, namely on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
[26] The latest restorations of this church. In the year 1724 the church was restored again, and finally in the last year, 1813. To this latest repair of the church the following inscription above the main door testifies:
UNDER THE FRENCH WHO WERE BESIEGING THE CITADEL
AND IN THE BATTLE OF THE AUSTRO-ENGLISH
IN THE MONTH OF OCTOBER OF THE YEAR MDCCCXIII
THE CHURCH, STRUCK BY THE MISSILES OF THE GUNS
AND ALMOST FALLING,
WAS RESTORED AT THE EXPENSE OF THE VENERATORS OF ST. JUSTUS
IN THE SAME YEAR.
The form and exterior and interior state, such as we now behold it (in the year 1880), the cathedral church of Trieste gratefully owes to Matthew Raunikar, bishop of Trieste.
[26] Of the apse and altar of St. Justus and the mosaic work with the saint's image. Now we must treat of the apse where the altar of St. Justus is, situated to the right of the principal apse, which was formerly the basilica of St. Justus, and whose upper part is adorned with mosaic work which some ascribe to Frugifer, the first bishop. On a gold ground, there is depicted in small colored glass stones the Saviour, having on his right St. Servulus, on his left St. Justus, standing in a form full of majesty, with red boots, wrapped in an ample Greek pænula of green color, holding in his right hand a cypress branch, his head adorned with a sacred nimbus and with these words SCS. IVSTVS St. Justus. Above, this inscription runs round the segment of the semi-dome:
† It is clear that God reigns here in majesty through the age. Behold Christ walks upon the asp and the basilisk.
This is the first and oldest image of St. Justus. The lower apse is divided into six parts by six columns of precious marble, between the capitals of which columns there is read the monogram of Frugifer in this form, drawn for me by Peter Tomasin:
[28] The history of the same St. Justus depicted. Between the columns are six panels painted in fresh plaster *. In the middle is St. Justus; on this side and that are ten paintings reproducing the history of the life and death of the same martyr, a work of the fifteenth century. The figure of St. Justus, faithfully imitating the upper one of which we have spoken, stands in youthful form but in a dress different from the upper one, with red boots indeed, a green tunic, a toga red and white within, with a yellowish border; in the left hand he carries the city of Trieste, as it appeared in the year 1590, in the right a palm. These panels the chapter of the cathedral church resolved in the year 1703 to conceal, and it ordered the painter Antonio Panza to paint the life of St. Justus in oil colors. He did as ordered, the price of 50 florins being paid: and his new panels were placed over the old ones on the 7th day of August 1704. But in the year 1840 a new choir was built where, in the fifteenth century, there had also been depicted on wet plaster the Blessed Virgin conceived without stain, surrounded by all the saints of Trieste, among whom was St. Justus. An image of this painting, drawn on paper by the painter Gaetano Merlatto, is preserved in the antiquarian museum of the city of Trieste. The choir being built, the panels of Antonio Panza, removed from their places and hung in the new choir, restored light and view to the ancient paintings.
[29] The restoration of the vault. Now the mosaic work which decorates the upper apse had begun its fourteenth century, and age was threatening ruin. Moved by the impending danger, the magistracy of Trieste voted 2824 Austrian florins, 42 kreuzer, for restoring the work. The repair was begun on the 12th day of June 1877, and was completed on the 8th of June 1878, with the happiest success. The memory of the event is preserved by two inscriptions, composed by the knight Attilio Horti, librarian of the city.
1. NEL MDCCCLXXVIII
FU RINNOVATA QUESTA VOLTA
CUI SI ADDOSSA INSIGNE MOSAICO.
2. IL CONSIGLIO MUNICIPALE TRIESTINO
PER MANTENERE ALL'ETA VEGNENTI
L'OPERA DELL' ARTE ANTICA
IL RISTAURO DECRETO
L'UFFICIO EDILE
FELICEMENTE ESEGUI.
In Latin you might put it thus:
1. In the year 1878 the vault was renewed to which the remarkable mosaic work adheres.
2. The council of the municipality of Trieste, to preserve for coming ages the work of ancient art, decreed the restoration; the office of works happily completed it.
[30] The altar of St. Justus, of silver, then of marble, In this apse which we are describing the altar was of wood. But when the relics of St. Justus had been found by Bishop Scarlicchio, as we narrated above, the citizens of Trieste contributed so great a sum of money that a silver altar was constructed. When this was sold for the restoring of the church in the year 1724, a marble altar was erected, with a wooden statue of St. Justus. On the back of the altar, an opening closed with a grating offered to view the weights to which St. Justus had been tied when he was plunged into the sea.
[31] which is renewed and adorned with a statue of St. Justus and a painted image. Moreover in the year 1855, when the archduke of the house of Austria Ferdinand Maximilian, having fallen from his horse, had got up with his life barely saved, the magistracy of Trieste, as a perpetual memorial of the life preserved for the most dear prince, not without suspicion of a prodigy, a life which he was afterwards, as emperor of Mexico, to lose by so mournful an end, decreed that a marble altar be erected to St. Justus in the cathedral church. The form of the altar was drawn by the magistracy's architect Bernardo. The altar with the statue of St. Justus in Carrara marble was made by Giovanni Dosigo, a Venetian. In what they call the antependium of the altar, reliefs represent Francis I, emperor of Austria, with the archduke Charles Louis, visiting the sick Maximilian. The statue of St. Justus carries a weight in its hand. The statue and reliefs are the work of Lodovico Ferrari, a Venetian. In the presbytery, opposite the episcopal throne, there is seen an oblong painted panel, the work of the celebrated painter Benedetto Carpaccio, of Capodistria, in which is represented the Blessed Virgin Mary sitting with the infant Jesus, angels standing about; on her right stands St. Sergius, on her left St. Justus, carrying a laurel in his left hand, in his right the city of Trieste, in the form in which it was seen in the sixteenth century.
[32] Two other statues of St. Justus. Now let us go out of the sanctuary and investigate the external documents of the cult of St. Justus. Outside the cathedral, in a niche above the door of the bell-tower, stands a stone statue of St. Justus, which has suffered great injuries from time; in the right hand it carries the city of Trieste, a palm in the left, the work of a hand of the fourteenth century, and hardly of an artist. Another statue of St. Justus also stood in a niche of the wall to the left of the main entrance, similar in form to the former, made from the wood of a tree which the French cut down in the year 1811, that they might have a freer view over the sea. In the year 1877 it was moved from its place.
[33] Of the images of St. Justus And these are the things which we had to say of the churches and altars of St. Justus. Apart from these, M. Tomasin affirmed to us that no churches or altars of St. Justus are to be found at Trieste, none in the whole diocese of Trieste; and to him we gratefully attribute nearly all that we have written about these matters. For although we ourselves beheld many of these things with our own eyes, yet we wish it to be testified, with great thanksgiving, that we owe the exact narration of the facts to this man; to whom we owe moreover what we are now to write about the images of St. Justus on seals and coins and other things.
[34] on coins A silver coin of Ulrich de Portis, bishop of Trieste (1237–1255), preserved in the antiquarian museum of Trieste, shows on the reverse St. Justus in a tunic, holding a palm in his right hand, a book in his left, between two towers; near the head of the saint a star is seen. Altogether the same image is had on the reverse of a silver coin of Leonard II, bishop of Trieste (1260–1262), preserved in the same museum; and again the same on a silver coin of the city of Trieste preserved in the same museum, of the year 1268.
[35] [and] The seal of Brother Nicholas de Carturis, of the Order of Friars Minor, bishop of Trieste (1409–1417), preserved in the monastery of the Order of St. Benedict called of the Scots at Vienna in Austria, drawn in the Italian book of Orniteo Lusanio (Giuseppe Andrea de Bonomo) on the coins of the bishops of Trieste, p. 12, represents the Mother of God with the infant Jesus sitting on a throne, on whose left stands St. Hermagoras, on the right St. Justus, holding in his right hand a laurel, in his left the city of Trieste.
[36] on seals. The seal of the episcopal curia of Trieste, under Bishop Angelo Canopeo (1370–1383), shows St. Justus standing in the middle, with nimbed head, in toga and tunic, bearing in his left hand the cathedral of Trieste, in his right a palm. The personal seal of Bishop Angelo Canopeo, which is seen on a certain reliquary preserved in the antiquarian museum of Trieste, represents St. Justus with nimbed head, in tunic and toga, holding in his left hand the city of Trieste, in his right a palm.
[37] Another marble statue of St. Justus. At Trieste in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which Bishop James Ferdinand Gorizutti consecrated on the 11th day of October in the year 1682, and which then belonged to the Society of Jesus, and is still called on the lips of the people the church of the Jesuits, above the high altar there are six marble statues, three on either side of the tabernacle, of which the middle one on the left is St. Justus in toga and tunic, bearing a palm in his right hand. On a side altar of the same church, the second from the left, there is a panel representing the holy patrons of Trieste, among whom is St. Justus.
[38] An image of St. Justus in codices, Further, images of St. Justus are found in the codex of Eufrasia de Bonomo, abbess of the Order of St. Benedict, in which she wrote out in Italian the lives of Sts. Justus, Servulus, Lazarus, Apollinaris, Justina and Zeno, with the addition of their images. St. Justus, clothed in a red pænula, carries a palm in his right hand, Trieste in his left. In the cited work of Orniteo Lusanio, p. 28, there is found a woodcut which has in the middle the arms of the city of Trieste, supported on the right by St. Sergius, on the left by St. Justus: he is barefoot, clothed in a cuirass and toga; with his left hand he supports the aforesaid arms, in his right he carries a palm and the city of Trieste: at his left foot stands a weight.
[39] in books, In the Italian work entitled Chronographic History of Trieste, by Canon Vincenzo Scussa, which Francesco Cameroni edited in folio form, illustrated with lithographic pictures, there is found one which shows the martyrdom of St. Justus, invented by the painter Giovanni Gatteri, drawn by A. Marangoni, put on stone by Colombo Coen. There is seen at a distance Roman Trieste, on the sea many boats
of Roman type; one looks out upon Mannacius in a boat with his men, next to whom in a small boat are two soldiers, two rowers, and two lictors who are hurling St. Justus, bound and bearing weights at his neck, into the sea.
[40] in silk textiles, Moreover a most beautiful image of St. Justus is depicted in colored silk thread on the great standard of the cathedral, which in the solemn procession of the feast of Corpus Christi is carried by a patrician of the city of Trieste, and is accustomed to hang in the cathedral church near the throne of the bishop above the seat of the consul of Trieste. In the middle of the standard there are seen the arms of the city of Trieste supported on the left by St. Sergius, on the right by St. Justus, who carries a palm in his right hand.
[41] on wet plaster, Finally, in the vestibule of the domestic chapel of the villa which Baron Pasquale de Revoltella built near Trieste, on each of the two walls on either side of the entrance, Matthias Trenkwald, director of the Academy of Prague, painted on wet plaster, on the right St. Servulus, on the left St. Justus, with outstanding art and workmanship. St. Justus stands, with red boots, a green tunic, a red toga adorned with a yellowish border, his head nimbed, holding in his right hand the city of Trieste, a palm in his left.
[42] etc. In the church of the Capuchins which the Rev. Fr. Peregrine of Friuli built in the year 1870, there hang twelve panels painted by Pompeo Randi of Friuli, on which are depicted the saints of Trieste, among them St. Justus, in the form in which he is in the apse of his church, described above. If you add to these two little images on the title-pages of two booklets on St. Justus, drawn by Ferdinando Quaiatto, curate of the church of Santa Maria del Soccorso at Trieste, showing St. Justus booted, in tunic and toga, with nimbed head, carrying a palm in his right hand, Trieste in his left, you will have come to know absolutely all the images and statues of St. Justus, on the testimony of M. Tomasin. And let these things suffice concerning the cult and honor of St. Justus. Now we proceed to the Acts of the martyrdom.
Notes* fresco.
THE PASSION OF ST. JUSTUS, MARTYR.
Justus, martyr at Trieste. (S.)
BHL Number: 4604
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
This Passion is edited from three codices, namely: 1. the Venetian, from the library of St. Mark, Cl. IX, c. 28, of parchment, in largest folio, of the twelfth century. — 2. The Trieste transcript. — 3. That of Vienna in Austria, from the Imperial library, of parchment, in largest folio, of the thirteenth century.
In the times of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, in the fourth a year of their consulate (q.a.) anno quarto 2., Under Diocletian and Maximian St. Justus is brought before Mannacius, the ninth of their reign (imp. i. n.) omits 2., a persecution was made against the Christians christianis 3., that if any Christian would not sacrifice to idols he should be afflicted with diverse punishments. But at the same namque 2, 3. time there was dispatched in the order of his turn vicissitudinis 2. the most impious prefect Mannacius Munacius 2; Mannasius 3., a citizen diœcesis 2. of the East, that he himself might give orders throughout all the islands or consular cities. At the city of Aquileia (c. A.) Aquileiensem c. 2. he appointed a governor by the name of Eunomius, a man devoted to the images in simul. 2, 3. of the pagans. But in this city of Trieste of the province of Istria, which is in the neighborhood vicino 2, 3. of the city of Aquileia Aquileiensis 2., Mannacius Manacius 2 and so thereafter. was appointed to the magistracy (in m.) magistratus 2.. Now there was in the same city b a certain man by name Justus, non tantum nomine sed omni opere justus adds 2. fearing from infancy the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; who omits 2. persevered always in fasts and alms. Hearing of his fame, the aforesaid magistrate Mannacius, sending a decurion of the city to him, ordered him adds in 2, 3. to be presented before his consistory.
[2] and questioned in the consistory he confesses Christ. When he had come into the midst of the consistory (m. c.) medio consistorii 2., he armed his forehead (a. f. s.) armatus in fronte 2. with the sign of the cross (s. c.) omits 3.; and thus he was questioned by him: Are you a Christian or not? The man of God Justus answered thus firmly: I am a Christian from my parents vel adds 2. from my infancy. The magistrate Mannacius said: Do you not know, or is it perhaps unknown to you (i. t.) t. i. 2., that the most pious Augusti have commanded throughout all the provinces that all Christians are to sacrifice to our gods, but that whoever is a despiser shall receive a capital sentence? St. Justus said respondit 2.: I never refuse to sacrifice, but to God the Father and to his Son (D. P. F. e.) Dei Patris Filio 2. Jesus Christ. Indeed I cannot offer any other alicui 2. sacrifice, except to him omits 2., the Lord God (D. D.) Domino Deo 2. of the Christians. The magistrate Mannacius said: Do you not know how many have been evilly slain for the Christ whom tu adds 2. you speak of? St. Justus answered: And I frequently beseech our omits 2. Lord Jesus Christ for this, that I may merit to become one of them. The magistrate Mannacius said: Do not be as those fools stultus 2. were too; come forward and offer incense to the gods, that you may be loved by in 3. all. The blessed Justus of God answered: A greater love than this I have nowhere found omits 2., nor can I ever find, except that I show to Christ the king of heaven an unmoved immolem 2. faith (e. f.) omits 2. and am loved by him or by his angels. The magistrate Mannacius præfectus et adds 2. said: As I see, you have set your mind on dying most terribly punished, just as the others did. The blessed Justus of God answered: I have told you once already and I will say it again, that quod 2. this I long for and hoc adds 2. desire, if the Lord Jesus Christ hoc adds 2. permits me. The magistrate Mannacius said: We order you to be thrust back degere 2. into custody, that you may reconsider with yourself what is fitting for you omits 2, 3. for your safety.
[3] [Shut up in prison he prays to God; again he confesses Christ, is tortured, is condemned.] Now when the blessed Justus was being shut up in prison, on bended knees he besought the Lord (d. D.) D. d. 2., saying: O Lord Jesu Christe adds 2., who for the human race, sent from heaven by your Father omits 2., descended to earth and through the womb of the virgin Mary omits 2. willed to be born God and man, and have shown much multa 2. and omits 3; et 2. infinite infinita 2. mercy mirabilia 2., as holy Scripture (s.S.) sacra S. tua 2. admonishes and teaches us, I beseech you to give perseverance to me as I contend certam 2. for your name, as you did to those who went before prædecessoribus 2. me, who suffered for your name, whom I believe to have been placed by you (a te) esse 2. in your paradise. So too I, strengthened by you, am prepared to suffer, because I believe you, together with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, to be the king of heaven. And as he persevered all night n.t.) t.n.2. in prayers, on the next day at dawn Mannacius ordered him to be presented before his tribunal. When he had come, the magistrate said to him: What have you thought concerning your safety? The most blessed Justus answered: Do not think that I act senselessly. My mind is with me, and I am prepared to die, and my body is prepared to suffer diverse punishments (d. p.) diversis pœnis 2. (pati p. e.) par. e. p. 2. rather potius 2. than to withdraw from the Lord Jesus Christ, my benefactor. Then the magistrate Mannacius ordered him to be stretched out and beaten with raw sinews. As he was being beaten, raising a great voice to the Lord, he said: I bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, because now I have known that you have deigned to hear me. I beseech you, Lord, that in all things you may bring to completion the course of my contest, that I may merit to have videre 2. the mercy of your godhead, that I may exult with your holy martyrs (m. t.) t. m. 2.. Hearing this, Mannacius smiled subridens 2. and omits 2. said: You seem to be seized by omits 2. great madness (o. e. v.) e. v. o. 3., who seek to abandon this light of pleasantness and wish cum adds 2, 3. to die wretchedly by diverse torments. Come forward, et adds 2. sacrifice to the gods, that they may be favorable to you again propitientur 3. and that you may be in friendship with the emperors, like all those too who have assented to them, and who, fulfilling their precepts and offering sacrifice to the gods immolaverunt 3., have obtained their favor. The holy Justus of God omits 2. answered: Hear and believe me when I say that quoniam 2. you are not to believe that this will be done by me, because I have already despised the world and have rejected the vain images, which are as nothing. For the very ipsos 2. emperors of whom you speak are also with me as (m. ut) me quasi 2. nothing, because, unworthy though I am, I have acquired the friendship of my Lord Jesus Christ, with whom I shall quickly exult in his paradise with the holy martyrs. Then the magistrate Mannacius in anger dictated this sentence against him: Justus, the author of the crime of sacrilege, not assenting to the precepts ad præcepta 2. of the emperors, as he is worthy omits 2. to be visited with an evil death, we order to be plunged into the depth of the sea mari 3., with weights pondere 2. of lead tied ligatis 2. to omits 2. his neck and omits 2. hands and feet.
[4] Weighted with masses he is cast headlong into the sea. Taking him, the attendants compelled him to walk. And as the saint of God was thus omits 2. being led, he himself gladly carried for himself the weights of lead (gaudens-port.) ibat gaudens. Ipse sibimet p. port. pl. 2., bidding farewell valefaciens 2. to his brethren or faithful friends who were in the city civitatem 3., and as if called invitatus 2. to a banquet so he walked with haste. And when he had come to a certain remote place beside the shore of the sea (l. m.) m. l. 2., they tied his hands and feet and neck to the lead with an immense rope, and they placed posuerunt 2. him in a very small boat, and brought him out to the deep sea pelagum 3.. But he was singing a hymn to the Lord, saying: Lord, you have become est 3. my helper; you have turned my mourning into joy for me; you have cut up my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. Then the blessed Justus poured forth a prayer to the Lord dicens adds 2.: Lord God almighty, merciful Father of your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, who have not remembered rememoratus 2. my iniquities iniquitates meas 2., who will the repentance of the sinner, that he may be converted from the unjust way and live in your
will, who crowned the twelve apostles and sent them through the whole world to preach you, the provider and saviour of our souls: I beseech you therefore, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, who are mighty to save: receive accipere 2. the trust which you have committed mihi adds 2.. And so, Lord, into your hands (m. t.) t. m. 2. I commend my spirit. And the prayer being finished, the attendants cast him into the sea. And as he went down into the depth of the sea, at once the ropes themselves with the lead were broken apart disrupti 2., and the sea brought eduxit 2. his body to the shore of this omits 2. city of Trieste, before the sun declined to its setting c.
[5] He is buried by the presbyter Sebastian. But on that night a certain presbyter, Sebastian by name, was admonished through a vision, and Justus the martyr said to him sanctus ad. 2.: Rise in this hour, and you will find my body on the shore of the sea, out of the water, wrapped volutans 2. in the sand. Gather it up omits 3. and bury me with diligence in a hidden place (in o. l.) omits 2. on account of the mockery of the tyrants confusionem et adds 2.. The most blessed presbyter Sebastian, rising by night and going round the houses of the faithful, announced to them the body (eis c.) domos fidelium 3. of the most blessed holy martyr Justus. Going out, they all began to search around the shore of the sea. When they had found d him, they gave thanks to the Lord. And gathering up his body, et adds 2. embalming it with spices, they wrapped it eum 2, 3. in worthy and very precious linen cloths, and buried him not far from the same shore where the body of the holy martyr was found. And all after his burial (p. s. e.) postquam sepelierunt eum 2. gave thanks to the Lord, that quia 2. they had been held worthy to entomb the holy (sanctum-tumul.) pro sancto corpore b. m. J. revelato sibi invicem gratulari. body of the most blessed martyr of Christ Justus that had been revealed to them. Now the most blessed Justus suffered on the fourth day before the Nones nonis 2, nonos 3. of November, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory, might and power for ever and ever. Amen.
NOTES.
THE OFFICE OF ST. JUSTUS ACCORDING TO THE AQUILEIAN RITE.
Justus, martyr at Trieste. (S.)
FROM PRINT.
This office was copied out for us by Peter Tomasin from an old manuscript breviary according to the Aquileian rite, of the fourteenth century. The lessons, as being taken from the Acts (the Trieste text), we shall pass over. The said breviary is preserved in the diplomatic archives of the city of Trieste, as the same Peter Tomasin affirmed to us; on whose good faith we bring to light the office such as we received it, the barbarity of the style untouched.
At First Vespers.
Antiphon. Let the children bring forth praises, rejoicing, and the innumerable peoples of the nations praising the Lord, whom my soul praises in the psalm, that we may place those of the holy martyr Justus * in that place in which he flourishes and cherishes us, in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Hymn.
The sacred festival is here, On which the soldier of heaven Faced dangers enough For the sake of the rewards above.
The decree of the law of most wicked Princes was raging hot; In dumb shrines they compel men To burn foul victims.
In the territory of Trieste A renowned martyr shone forth, From the flower of boyhood Just in deed and in name.
Then the impious Manacius, Hearing the fame of salvation, Shuts up in a gloomy prison The martyr, worn with thongs.
The champion stood firm, Spurning the threats of the tyrant; With kindly voices he sang Thanks to the eternal Judge .
At the Magnificat. ℣. Pray for us, blessed Justus.
℞. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Antiphon.
The bright day shines, On which the martyr is raised on high, And through eternity rest Is prepared for the just man. Let us magnify God And let us praise him, Who exalted holy Justus, And conferred upon him the true Rewards of the crown.
Another antiphon.
The bright day shines, Magnified by Christ, And greatly dedicated By the martyrdom of St. Justus. Venerating this day of the martyr of Christ, friends, Behold, O saint, through whom the enemies perish. All the people of Trieste recall this precious day, Through which they know themselves to overcome the deceitful one of the devil. We ask, do you piously render us to the pious Christ, patron Justus, and our soul, through the gifts of the crown.
Prayer. O God, who love justice, and whose face beholds equity, graciously grant us by the merits and examples of Blessed Justus your martyr so justly to live that, intent on the works of justice, we may come to the glory of the just. Through the Lord.
At Compline.
Chapter. The just man, though he be overtaken by death, shall be in refreshment.
Hymn.
Then the frenzied Manacius, Belching, gave sentence, Ordering that under a heavy weight His wearied neck be pressed.
Then, under a linen sail, Bound to a mass of lead, It bound fast his kindly shoulders, Sunk to the bottom with garboso.
His sacred little body The water casts up on the shore; Sebastian the priest Commits the martyr to the tomb.
To God the Father be glory, And to his only Son, With the Spirit the Paraclete, Both now and for ever. Amen.
At the Nunc dimittis. Antiphon. Give praise in hymns, people of Trieste; and let those conquering through you, O pious Justus, * be able to conquer the columns of the enemies.
Prayer. O God, who drew the blessed Justus your martyr, that he might attain the glory of the just, to your conquering Son our Lord Jesus Christ, grant us, we beseech you, by his merits to come to the same who draws us to you, who with the same God the Father.
At Matins.
Invitatory. The King of the just whom Justus enjoys; * let him praise in the kingdom of life with integrity.
In the First Nocturn.
Antiphon. This blessed man, Justus by name, a man of wisdom, bound to the law, knew how to live without guilt.
Antiphon. Against St. Justus the people meditated evil things, because a pious mind ordered Justus to turn himself toward the stars.
Antiphon. To the Lord Justus cried with blessed voice, and from the mountain of God he was set upon the way into this valley.
After the first lesson. ℞. In the time after the birth of Christ there reigned Maximian and, with the Cæsar as colleague, Diocletian; in the city of Trieste, their star of the sea was St. Justus: * a martyr, a wise man, just.
℣. He desired to be a martyr for Christ, but the magistrate Manacius stood in the way with blandishments as a lamb. * A martyr.
After the second lesson. ℞. Very many, believing him holy, entreated Justus on bended knee; obeying Christ he committed himself to the world in the deep, and to you among the saints: unto the eternal commands of the Thunderer. ℣. You who, scorning death, underwent it for the kingdom of Christ, rejoice in the heavens with the just, faithful Justus Unto.
After the third lesson. ℞. When the saint was borne in this city of Trieste x, in the city he founded the light of justice, the summit of faith, Manacius the governor soon, an heir of the pit to be endured, being armed against his Christ: with a grim scourging then the unworthily worthy martyr is struck, longed for by all with kindness. ℣. He does not fear Christ, who was threatened. With a scourging.
In the Second Nocturn.
Antiphon. Justus who loved Christ the sun of justice, know, you pious ones, that God has made him wonderful.
Antiphon. He ruled the house of the Lord by the virtue of faith, who with the shield of faith judged, and was sending a star to the stars.
Antiphon. Glory, praise and honor, O Christ the Lord, and a crown, granting heavenly gifts through the merits of St. Justus.
After the fourth lesson. ℞. The man of the Lord Justus, safe under the covering of faith, not hesitating to venerate this crucified Christ: before the prefect he answered with right spirit. ℣. Being questioned he was persuaded by the right of faith, with a sound mind indeed despising vain idols Before.
After the fifth lesson. ℞. Then that tyrant Manacius shut up the holy man, secure, in prison: with him a high light shone, and held Justus at prayer when he was led from prison. ℣. He ordered him to be afflicted with his raw x sinews: praise Christ the Lord, this one crucified, of Justus. With him.
After the sixth lesson. ℞. The true love of Christ so profited this Justus, who desires nothing in life except heavenly things alone. ℣. He gave himself in the body to Christ, whom he worshipped as crucified, the cross of death a just gain for the name of Christ. ℞. Choosing on this account to lead the heavenly life. Glory. * Choosing.
In the Third Nocturn.
Antiphon. Justus of Trieste loved heaven; O blessed Justus, on whose account future nations believing in Christ are reborn.
Antiphon. St. Justus now rests in safety in death, who never withdrew in heart from Christ the Lord.
Antiphon. On his head you have placed a stone, the highest hymn, as a crown you have ever been beautiful.
After the seventh lesson. ℞. After neither punishment nor the promise of a loving voice could prevail against the truly guiltless Justus: the governor wishes to bring the strong man over through love. ℣. He Jesus Christ alone, whom he proclaimed fixed on the cross, and he despises the foulest gods, fixed in his soul. Him.
After the eighth lesson. ℞. Therefore the governor condemned the aforesaid Justus, blessed through the ages, and also bound him with an iron bond: submerging him with lead, giving him to the depth of the sea. ℣. This prudent man, while he thus greatly suffered, was praising in hymns Jesus, wounded for the crime of the world. Submerging.
After the ninth lesson. ℞. Justus, bound through his limbs with ropes and lead, the wave of the sea freed from the bottom of the deep; * to the blessed martyr the grace of God gave to be worthy of the trophy. ℣. When through the whole night the sea had endured to hold the chains. ℞. The impious one ordering then in the time of night that Justus be slain, yet his worthy limbs were for a worthy tomb.
Or. ℞. The Lord Christ gave a sign by a voice of holiness that it was safe, and he disclosed holy Justus freed from the flesh and commanded the holy Sebastian by night in secret that, as he sought, this learned pontiff found the body of Justus. ℣. Then the same happy and faithful band of Christ knew this made known from heaven to be very well known and satisfied in all things.
At Lauds and the Hours.
Antiphon. In heaven reigns eternally he who above all things ever holily worshipped Christ, Justus the blessed martyr.
Antiphon. This most just man served the Lord always, rejoicing in Christ, and reckoning this only justly.
Antiphon. Justus always kept vigil to the Lord, for whom God has now prepared a kingdom without end.
Antiphon. He whom they bless, who lives for ever, rejoices with Christ; in this martyr life is above the stars.
Antiphon. Your people rejoice in worthy hymns, O pious Justus, strong victor over all enemies, that we may praise together with you.
At the Benedictus. Antiphon. This unconquered saint, the blessed martyr, who living to the Lord and ever blessing him, for whom he lost this life by martyrdom, cast into the sea, now blessed above the stars, may he, being good, deign that we come to the eternal age.
At Second Vespers.
Antiphon. In the commandments of God St. Justus here exceedingly worshipped him often in hymns.
Antiphon. He, the standard-bearer of virtue, did not fear to take up the chalice of salvation, Christ.
Antiphon. He, afflicted for Christ, is now exalted in the heavens, as befitted such a one.
Antiphon. St. Justus kept his eyes ever upon him, that he might possess him.
Antiphon. From the depth of the sea shines the day of this saint, whom God snatched from it.
At the Magnificat. Antiphon. Christ the Lord has made Justus wonderful with the just and with all the saints above the stars, a possessor of blessedness: and let us also be magnified, that without end the patron himself may help us with his blessing.
Notes* perhaps read meritis locemur
* transcript: gratis.
* transcript: judicis.
* vincente?
x codex: fererretur.
x transcript: crucis.
THE OFFICE OF ST. JUSTUS ACCORDING TO THE ROMAN RITE.
Justus, martyr at Trieste. (S.)
FROM PRINT.
From the Proper of Trieste. All from the common except the following.
In the First Nocturn.
Lessons. Fratres Debitores, from the common of several martyrs, with the responsories of one martyr.
In the Second Nocturn.
Lesson IV. Justus, born of Christian parents at Trieste, a city of the province of Aquileia, under the princes Diocletian and Maximian, flourished in fervent charity toward God, in outstanding mercy toward the poor, and in every kind of virtue. Summoned by the prefect Manatius, who had received from the same princes the mandate of killing any who refused to venerate the false gods, he freely answered that he professed the Christian religion, and venerated Christ Jesus, true God and man, and detested the empty gods of the nations.
Lesson V. And when the governor had been able to move Justus from his holy resolve neither by promises nor by threats, he ordered him to be thrust into a dark and foul prison, where with continual prayers through the whole night he besought God that he would deign in his supreme compassion to bring him to the palm of martyrdom. On the following morning, led out of prison, he is brought before Manatius, and remaining manfully in the same resolve of venerating Christ the Lord, and refusing to sacrifice to the false gods, he was ordered to be stripped and beaten with dreadful scourges.
Lesson VI. But when the governor perceived that he endured the violence of the torments not only bravely, but even with an eager spirit, moved by anger he orders that, heavy masses of lead being tied to his neck and hands, he be plunged into the sea. When Justus heard this, having bidden farewell to his brethren, himself taking up the weights by which he was being pressed down, hastening as if about to go to a banquet, he proceeds to the shore, and being placed there in a small boat, and carried out to the deep and cast into the depth, pouring forth prayers to God and giving him thanks, he consummated his martyrdom on the fourth day before the Nones of November. It is also said that the saint on the same night appeared to a certain presbyter by name Sebastian, and commanded him to bury his body, already driven to the shore with its bonds broken, and that this was done with honor, many Christians coming together.
In the Third Nocturn.
Lesson of the holy Gospel according to John: At that time Jesus said to his disciples: Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain…, with the homily of St. Augustine on John, Tractate 51.
Prayer.
O God, who strengthened the blessed Justus your martyr in his passion with the virtue of constancy, graciously grant that we who celebrate his feast on this day may also enjoy his fellowship. Through.