ON ST. MAGNUS, BISHOP OF MILAN,
BEFORE THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTH CENTURY
CommentaryMagnus, bishop of Milan. (S.)
BY C. D. S.
[1] [Of St. Magnus, whose ancient and constant cult is demonstrated by not a few calendars from the 11th century on,] That the cult of St. Magnus was long ago celebrated in the diocese of Milan is shown by the calendar written in a codex formerly of the canonry of Valtravaglia, which was written in the 11th century and is now kept in the library of the metropolitan chapter of Milan; in which calendar, at the kalends of November, there is marked: Deposition of St. Magnus, bishop, before the festival of All Saints [M. Magistretti, Manuale Ambrosianum ex codice saec. XI olim in usum canonicae Vallis Travaliae, part I (Milan, 1905), p. 104. All the manuscript documents cited in this and the following number were inspected, and what pertains to St. Magnus excerpted from them for us, by one of our colleagues while he was staying at Milan a few years ago.]; and in the same codex the greater litanies (fol. 171 and following), in which St. Magnus is invoked among the more illustrious prelates of the church of Milan. Besides, the litanies which are read in the codex of the Ambrosian library marked T. 96 sup., likewise of the 11th century Magistretti, vol. cited, p. 81., and those in the codex of the same library marked A. 1 inf., of the 12th century; the calendar in a Milanese codex written in the 13th century, which contains the work of Beroldus, a writer of the 12th century [Magistretti (M.), Beroldus sive ecclesiae Ambrosianae Mediolanensis kalendarium et ordines saec. XII (1894), p. XXI.], on the rites of the cathedral church of Milan Ibid., p. 12 and Manuale Ambrosianum, vol. cited, p. 149.; and the litanies in the Ritual of the sacraments, formerly of the church of San Lambertiolo, now a codex of the metropolitan church Magistretti, Manuale Ambros., vol. cited, pp. 149, 156, 159.. The same day, the 1st of November, is assigned to the festival of St. Magnus by the calendars of the Ambrosian Breviary published in the years 1485 and 1490, of the Ambrosian Psalter published in the years 1540 and 1555, and of the Ambrosian Missal published in the years 1548 and 1560 P. P. Bosca, Martyrologium Mediolanensis ecclesiae (Milan, 1695), p. 370.. In a more recent age, however, on account of its concurrence with the solemnity of All Saints, the festival of the holy bishop was transferred either to the 3rd day of November, on which day the Dominican Fathers, custodians of the church of Sant'Eustorgio, celebrated it in the middle of the 17th century Acta Sanctorum, May vol. VII, p. LXIV; Bosca, l. c., or to the 5th, which the metropolitan church of Milan had already chosen at the same time Bosca, ibid. and which Galesini and the Roman Martyrology preferred.
[2] The compass of a brief Life This notice of St. Magnus is handed down by the Life of the archbishops of Milan, which is read in four codices of the Ambrosian library [Marked A. 98 inf., 15th century; H. 87 sup., 16th century; N. 294 sup. and S. 89 sup., both of the 17th century. Cf. Analecta Bollandiana, vol. XI (1892), pp. 206, 341, 350, 368.] and in a certain codex of the Trivulzian library Marked n. 1340, 16th century.:
St. Magnus, by family of the Trincheri, twenty-seventh archbishop of Milan. He is elected archbishop of Milan by the chapter of the greater church of Milan and is confirmed by the above-mentioned pope Silverius. Afterwards, on the feast of Andrew in the year of the Lord 536, he was installed in his metropolitan see by the confanerii [Both Ambrosian codices of the 17th century and the Trivulzian: confalonerios; and they add Mediolanenses.], as is their right, and was honourably escorted to the aforesaid see, because So the same codices; the rest qui. there were then in the aforesaid family of the Trincheri So the same; in the rest it is omitted. very many doctors of laws and knights and warlike men. He was a man of great knowledge and virtue. He sat three years. In his time, after the above-mentioned pope Silverius, there sat Vigilius, the 64th pope, who sat seventeen years and six months. This pope Vigilius covetously contrived that the above-mentioned Silverius be sent into exile, so that he might succeed him; which also was done. At length, crushed, and likewise banished for the faith to Constantinople, he dies in exile. But blessed Magnus died on the kalends of November in the year of the Lord 538 Cod. Trivulz. DXXXVIIII.. He lies in the church of Sant'Eustorgio, at the high altar, which now belongs to the Friars Preachers Cod. H. 87 sup. praedictorum..
[3] double. More briefly two other codices of the Ambrosian library, of the 15th century Marked D. 26 inf. and H. 56 sup.: Blessed Magnus, twenty-seventh bishop of Milan, by nation a Milanese, of the Trincheri, in the year of the Lord 536, sat three years. He died on the kalends of November Cod. H. 56 sup. Obij〈t〉 in kall. decembris. in the year of the Lord 539. He lies at Sant'Eustorgio at the high altar of the Friars Preachers in the city of Milan.
[4] In what years he sat is not altogether certain. According to these, then, Magnus sat from the year 536 to the year 538 or 539. But our Papebroch, since he did not know the narrative just recited, supposed that he departed from life in the year 529 or 530 Acta Sanctorum, May vol. VII, p. LXIV.. He was led to this opinion because on the one hand it is certain that Datius, Magnus's successor, died in the year 552, which Bolland Acta Sanctorum, January vol. I, p. 970 (Commentary on St. Datius, nn. 21, 22). and Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. IV, col. 57. demonstrated; and on the other, in the catalogue which a certain codex of the Ambrosian library of the 11th century presents [Formerly marked P. 246, now C. 133 inf. Cf. Analecta Bollandiana, vol. XI, p. 275.], the same Datius is read to have sat twenty-two years Acta Sanctorum, May vol. VII, p. LXIV.. But in the same catalogue Magnus is read to have sat thirty years Ibid., which can by no means be reconciled with the number of years assigned to Datius. For in a double letter written by Cassiodorus in the name of king Theodoric between the years 507 and 511 [Cassiodori Varia, I. 9 and II. 29 (ed. Mommsen, among MG., Auctores antiquissimi vol. XII, pp. 18, 63).] Eustorgius, the second of that name, namely Magnus's predecessor, is mentioned as still living. Papebroch therefore thought that XIII should be read for XXX, but by mere conjecture, deduced from the fact that Eustorgius, according to his calculations, and those themselves not sufficiently certain, died about the year 518. Since, then, an error must have been admitted by a scribe either in the number of Magnus's years or in that of Datius, or even of Eustorgius II Cf. B. Oltrocchi, Ecclesiae Mediolanensis historia Ligustica (1795), p. 264., and no probable reasons are available from elsewhere by which we may be able to clear up the matter, we are compelled to leave it in uncertainty. Nor is it of any help for determining the age of St. Magnus more closely that the letter of St. Avitus, bishop of Vienne Epist. 12, otherwise 10., is read inscribed to a certain Magnus in the Sirmond edition. For this, according to the evidence of the codices, was directed not to that Magnus, bishop of Milan, but to a certain uncertain bishop, by the name of Maximus See Aviti opera, ed. R. Peiper (MG., Auctores antiquissimi vol. VI, 2), p. 45..
[5] On his relics. Of the deeds of St. Magnus nothing has been handed down to us distinctly besides general praises. Of his sacred remains, however, Michele Caffi recorded these few things in his little book on the history of the church of Sant'Eustorgio Della chiesa di Sant' Eustorgio in Milano (Milan, 1841), p. 2.: Among the relics which are still kept in this church there come especially to be mentioned the bodies of SS. Eugenius, Corona and Victor, and also of Eustorgius I and of Magnus, of neither of which latter two, however, does any epitaph exist. These two ancient bishops of Milan … in the year 1249, as Gaspare Bugati of the Order of Preachers wrote in his as yet unpublished Istoria del convento di St. Eustorgio, were translated from the place in which they had been laid in an all too humble burial, through the efforts of Leo da Perego, archbishop of Milan 1241–1263, into a bipartite marble ark, which, marked with no inscription, he placed beneath the high altar consecrated by him, in that situation which was anciently called the Cemetery of the martyrs. An indulgence granted by pope Innocent IV on the occasion of that translation is reported in the Bullarium Dominicanum, vol. I, p. 180. Then, in the year 1558, at the time when Bugati was composing the aforesaid history, when a new high altar had been built in place of the old one, that marble ark in which the bodies of the saints were contained was placed beneath it. Over this second translation presided Melchior Crivelli, bishop of Tagaste. In this place the saints still rest; for although the plan of instituting a solemn translation has been raised more than once, the matter has not so far been brought to effect.