Aemilianus

ON ST. AEMILIANUS, BISHOP, VENERATED AT FAENZA,

TIME UNCERTAIN

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Aemilianus, bishop, venerated at Faenza. (S.)

BY H. D.

[1] The ancient cult of St. Aemilianus. If only those things were to be brought forward concerning St. Aemilianus which have no doubt in them, our commentary would be very brief and meagre. For, omitting those things that need no proof, namely that in recent times his solemnity has been held celebrated among the people of Faenza, it is established by very few testimonies, and those not very old, that it was not recently introduced, but has been observed by them beyond the memory of men. Already in the year 1139, in a donation made to Farulfus, archdeacon of the church of Faenza, there occurs among the witnesses Ugo, priest of St. Aemilianus [J. B. Mittarelli, Ad scriptores rerum italicarum cl. Muratorii accessiones historicae Faventinae (Venice, 1771), p. 426.], who, twenty years later, in the year 1159, unless he be another of the same name, is called priest Ugo of the church of St. Milianus Mittarelli, in the work cited, p. 440.. In the year 1182, in a certain instrument of the chapter archive, the quarter of St. Aemilianus is named Mittarelli, in the work cited, p. 453.; and in the year 1191 Peter Archinola bequeaths goods to the church of St. Mary in Fermellino and the church of St. Aemilianus Mittarelli, in the work cited, p. 457, and in the following year from another instrument of the aforesaid archive we have this: We in the name of God, priest Guido of St. Simon, primicerius of the congregation of St. Aemilianus, and priest Aldebrand of St. Aemilianus… [Mittarelli, in the work cited, p. 457. On the congregation of St. Aemilianus G. C. Tonduzzi has a little, Storia di Faenza (Faenza, 1673), p, 17.]. Finally there is to be recorded the diocesan synod of Bishop Ugolinus, who was raised up in the year 1311, by which he commends that the feasts be celebrated of the blessed confessors Aemilianus the bishop and Rentius (rather Terentius) the Levite in the city and suburbs, at whose venerable bodies residing in their own churches the Lord daily deigns to show wonders Tonduzzi, in the work cited, p. 16.. And these indeed are the things than which I have found nothing older concerning St. Aemilianus in the monuments of Faenza, nor has the distinguished Francis Lanzoni, canon, most learned in the study of his native history, testified that he knows any; who also kindly communicated to us several things concerning the cult of the holy patron.

[2] Life by Peter Calo; It is helpful to review four chief Lives of St. Aemilianus, or rather the same Life reworked in various manners four times. The first is that which exists in the legendary of Peter Calo, of the Order of Preachers († 1348). Since one of ours has it in mind to discourse more amply on the author and his hagiographical work, I think that this one thing should be noted, that most of the Lives of the saints which Peter laboriously assembled were not conceived by him but only reworked or contracted [Meanwhile read Act. SS., Jan. vol. I, p. XX; July vol. I, p. * 60; Aug. vol. III, pp. 14, 717–18; Sept. vol. VII, p. 640; vol. VIII, p. 639; V. Bellemo, in Archivio Veneto, vol. XXXVI (1888), pp. 45–47.]. He did not therefore first write the deeds of St. Aemilianus, but it must be said that he had in hand an older Life, from which at length have flowed whatever things have been handed down concerning the saint. Since this has perished, we shall give in the first place Peter's little work from the Venetian codex of St. Mark IX, 20, foll. 282v–283v, which is the sixth volume of the legendary, on which read D. M. Berardelli [Codicum omnium latinorum et italicorum qui manuscripti in bibliotheca SS. Ioannis et Pauli Venetiarum … asservantur catalogus, in Nuova Raccolta d'opuscoli scientifici, vol. XXXIX (Venice, 1784), pp. 84–141. Compare Valentinelli, Bibliotheca manuscripta ad S. Marci Venetiarum, vol. V, pp. 297–99.]. It has its own laws of writing, of which this is the chief, that it generally wrongly doubles simple consonants, and removes one of doubled ones; it writes for example Aemillianus, vissere, millitans; turibus, sugestio, percusum, which, the reader once warned, we have silently emended.

[3] Life by an anonymous author; The second Life is anonymous, found nowhere except in those very well-known seventeenth-century collectanea of the Vallicella library, in the codex marked H 3, foll. 230v–231. It is part of an entire little codex (foll. 228–234) in which are contained a Summary of the Life of blessed Terentius, the Life of blessed Sabinus, the Life of St. Aemilianus, the Life of blessed Peter Damian, which are brought forward with the author's name suppressed and with no indication added from which you might gather from what book they were copied. That it is very ancient, since the phrasing, although simple, is yet not unkempt, I should by no means believe; but it seems a little older than Flaminius, of whom presently, who about the year 1533 reworked the Life of St. Aemilianus, and it is more likely that it, or another drawn up for the most part in the same words, was interpolated by Flaminius than that it arose from the Life of Flaminius, shortened here and there. If anyone should say that it existed, at least in this form, in the first years of the sixteenth century, when the people of Faenza, by a public vow, began to venerate with particular cult four patrons, whose Lives we have joined in one codex, I have no means of demonstrating that this is false. The anonymous author brings forward nothing about St. Aemilianus which you may not find in Peter Calo. Here and there too each sets out the same things in the same words, which is rightly thought a trace of a common source, since many things suggest that Peter was by no means read by the anonymous author.

[4] booklet of miracles; To the anonymous Life which we are about to edit we subjoin a brief booklet of miracles, from that same Vallicella volume H 3, in which separately from the Life, namely at fol. 148, they are read among the miracles of the saints of Faenza Aemilianus, Sabinus, Nevolonus, Terentius, Peter Damian, blessed James (foll. 148–149); at the foot of which these words are read written: All these things were transcribed both from manuscript books which are preserved in the library of the Friars Preachers and from the history of the affairs of the Friars Servants which is called by them the Chronicle. Only of these saints are the miracles described in detail, while those of the others are not had. And in the Vallicella codex H. 8 1, fol. 379, written, as it seems, in the same hand as the above, there are these words: I miracoli fatti da san Emiliano, san Terentio, san Savino, da san Pier Damiano e da san Nevolono et dagli altri, eccetto dal beato Giacomo, son descritti da una cronica latina senza nome e scritta a penna e posta nella libreria de' frati di san Domenico in Faenza, dove si conserva come cosa degna di fede, e non ci e altra scrittura. [The miracles done by St. Emilian, St. Terentius, St. Savinus, by St. Peter Damian and by St. Nevolonus and by the others, except by blessed James, are described from a Latin chronicle without name, written by pen and placed in the library of the friars of St. Dominic in Faenza, where it is preserved as a thing worthy of belief, and there is no other writing.] So all, except the miracles of blessed James Philip of Faenza Act. SS., May vol. VI, p. 168., who had been of the order of Servants, were supplied by the codex of the Friars Preachers. We have sought the book in vain, nor is it a wonder, since in the year 1797 the whole library was wretchedly scattered. Ignorance, therefore, of the age both of the writing and of the things narrated is better than rash divination. One who compares this handful of miracles with those with which Peter Calo concludes the Life of St. Aemilianus will scarcely doubt that they flow from the same ancient Life which we miss.

[5] Life by J. A. Flaminius; The best known among those who wrote the Lives of the patrons of the city of Faenza is without doubt held to be the already mentioned John Anthony Flaminius, of Imola (c. 1464–1536), a man not uncelebrated in the reputation of letters [Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. VII, 3 (Modena, 1778), pp. 230–231.]. On what occasion or at what time he undertook to narrate the Life both of other saints and of St. Aemilianus, both he himself and others have told

[Act. SS., Feb. vol. III, p. 408, n. 12; Mittarelli, in the work cited, pp. 798–800; Fr. Lanzoni, San Pier Damiano e Faenza (Faenza, 1898), pp. 130–32.]. After he has said in the prologue, which begins thus: Divine providence, which has never omitted anything etc. Mittarelli, in the work cited, pp. 816–19, edited the whole Life., many things in accord with piety, he narrates in a few words, with the anonymous author, that St. Aemilianus, a Scot by nation, a bishop of an unknown see in his own country, returning from Rome, fell ill at Faenza, departed from the living, and was buried there near the church of St. Clement. There follows the history of the translation of the sacred body within the walls of the city in the times of the counts Bernardinus and Theodolinda, and a little bundle of miracles wrought by the intercession of St. Aemilianus.

[6] From what books as from sources he drew his matter, Flaminius omitted to indicate. He admits that few were at hand for him: Concerning whom, although we have not found many things that we could commit to writing, yet those that we shall report are of such a kind that they can abundantly testify to the man's brightness and holiness [Mittarelli, in the work cited, p. 816. That he had very old books from the archive of the church of Faenza he testifies, ibid., p. 807. Compare Lanzoni, in the work cited, p. 131.]. That he found nothing apart from the anonymous booklet which we are about to edit, or another very close to it and in one place or another somewhat longer, and then a small booklet of miracles most closely related to the one of which we have spoken, is so certain that it needs no demonstration. If therefore you except the prologue, which he took from his own store, Flaminius must be said to have copied the older Life, which he has transmitted to us in its entire wording, and scarcely polished in a few places.

[7] Life by B. Azzurini; The fourth Life of St. Aemilianus, written by Bernardine Azzurini, notary of Faenza (1540–1620), we have in that patchwork of chronicles and instruments whose name is Liber Rubeus, and which is kept in the library of the chapter of Faenza. Whatever is useful to know about the author, and many things about the sources of the book, have been diligently collected by A. Messeri [Chronica breviora aliaque monumenta faventina a Bernardino Azzurinio collecta, vol. I, among Muratori's Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, new ed., c. XXVIII, part III (Città di Castello, 1905), pp. IX–CLXXII.], so that we may be brief, and send the reader to the Life itself, which we edit, copied for our use by Canon Lanzoni from the Liber Rubeus (foll. 101v–104). He had Flaminius in hand without doubt, and already from the first words we hear Flaminius speaking. Yet for the most part he so departs from him that he must be said to have reworked another Life, certainly older than Flaminius but very close to his source; and although he did not always change the former phrasing, yet with a certain right he could affirm of the four Lives of the holy patrons which he inserted in the Liber Rubeus: he made, noted, composed and wrote them with his own hand (col. 108 b).

[8] It is to be noted that in two places of his book Azzurini spoke of St. Aemilianus, namely at foll. 101–104, where he produces the aforesaid Life, and at fol. 59, where under this heading: In the history of St. Aemilianus in the chronicle of Faenza, he narrates the storming of the city of Faenza. Further, this narrative in several things of less moment is a little more accurate than the history of the translation of St. Aemilianus as it is read in Azzurrinius; as regards the matter itself, it merits no greater credence. There is no leisure for discussing the capture of Faenza by Liutprand on the vigil of Easter, when the people were intent on the solemn baptism of the catechumens, nor does it seem worthwhile, since the people of Faenza transferred to their own city the very same things recorded by Paul the Deacon History of the Lombards, book V, c. 27, MG., Scr. rer. langob., p. 153. of Grimoald invading Forlimpopoli. I think it enough, then, that this passage of Azzurini should be disregarded, and several things excerpted from it relegated to the notes. The other we bring forward, the manner of writing having been changed for the convenience of readers, which we reduce to the common form.

[9] various writers All who, apart from Flaminius and Azzurini, have praised St. Aemilianus in writings bring forward almost nothing that you may not read in Peter Calo. Peter de Natalibus contracts the history of his life and finding in his usual way Catalogus sanctorum, book X, c. 53., and finishes with these words: The hay having been removed, he ordered the place to be dug up. There he found the sacred body with an epitaph in which the aforesaid things were contained, and from the holy corpse there broke forth a wonderful fragrance. Lifted from there, it was carried to the church of St. Mary within the walls of the city and laid there with fitting honour, where it shines with miracles. In what respects this conclusion differs from the Lives soon to be edited appears at once. Since these things were most certainly not invented by Peter, they must be referred to another more complete exemplar or another recension of the Life [That he crossed the sea from that same island and visited the threshold of the apostles is plain; yet these words are read in none of our recensions.].

[10] who praised St. Aemilianus; What Ferrarius inserted in his catalogue about St. Aemilianus Catalogus sanctorum Italiae (Milan, 1613), pp. 695–96., he testifies that he has from the manuscript Monuments of the church of Faenza and from Peter in the Catalogue, book x, c. 53, and they are already known from what has been said. Books and manuscript codices were most diligently searched by R. M. Magnani, a pious man renowned for erudition, though little skilled in the critical art, in order to compose a brief Life of St. Aemilianus [R. M. Magnani, Vite de' santi, beati, venerabili e servi di Dio della città di Faenza (Faenza, 1741), pp. 15–19; compare pp. 1–4, 72–74.]; the Life is followed by a history of the finding and of those eight miracles of which we have already spoken. He pillaged Flaminius, Peter of Equilio, Azzurini, Tonduzzi above all; he added very little concerning the more recent veneration of the saint. Those who afterwards printed the Life of St. Aemilianus either followed Magnani or made Flaminius himself Italian. One may rightly abstain, then, from bringing these forward [Of no moment are the things brought forward by Tanner, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica (1748), p. 10, who learned from Dempster that St. Aemilianus also wrote several books.].

[11] Yet there must not be passed over in silence the manuscript history of Faenza, or Memorie storiche di Faenza, Marcellinus Valmigli; which the priest Marcellinus Valmigli († 1877), formerly keeper of the library of the city, compiled with enormous labour and zeal in fourteen volumes [An index compiled by Anthony Verna has been added. G. Mazzatinti, Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d'Italia (Forlì, 1896), p. 244.]. Whatever has been preserved of the history or cult of St. Aemilianus in the passing centuries he diligently assembled, vol. I, p. 62 and following, p. 115 and following; vol. VII, p. 160 and following; vol. XI, p. 64 and following; vol. XII, p. 148 and following. But since he rests only on the testimonies already adduced, it is easily understood how much weight his opinion has concerning the death of St. Aemilianus in the reign of Agilulf († 615) and concerning the hiding of his body at the end of the eighth century. From chronicles and instruments he excerpted various things on the fates of the relics of St. Aemilianus, which we shall bring forward in part in their place.

[12] of all of whom there is one source, From what has been said it is gathered that each and all of the things written about the life, finding and miracles of St. Aemilianus flow from one and the same source, namely a Life scarcely different from the others that we have, of which not only do the chief lineaments appear clearly but we also have the words for the most part unchanged. It must now be said briefly whether and how far it seems composed according to the norm of history. That a long space of time intervened between the saint's death and the finding of his body, and, what follows from that, the writing of the deeds, we gather from the mouth of the hagiographer himself. He had no ancient writings in hand, since he neither makes mention of these nor are the things he brings forward such as you would think were drawn from a document worthy of belief. For, omitting those things that are most commonplace and prepared by rhetoricians for praising any pious prelate, we learn only these things of Aemilianus: that he was a Scot by birth, that he was a bishop, that he went to Rome, that he died at Faenza. That all these things were handed down to those who came after by word of mouth when the veneration of the holy prelate had been interrupted and neglected in oblivion, no one will fail to wonder. That the saint came from Scotia or Ireland is probably to be held as a kind of commonplace, since it is proved by many examples that it is a settled custom of the hagiographers of Emilia and neighbouring regions to represent their patrons as foreigners [F. Lanzoni, in Rivista storico-critica delle scienze teologiche, vol. I (1905), pp. 481–82.]. Nor did they ineptly imagine that Aemilianus was a Scot, since it is established that the Irish in every age were renowned for zeal for pilgrimage. Concerning the episcopate of St. Aemilianus you may rightly doubt, since it has not been reported where he had his see, and we know that it is the settled way of hagiographers rashly to assert that any unknown saints were either bishops or martyrs. Nor is the mention of the Roman journey of great moment, since they devise that so many saints went to Rome who never went to Rome [On these read J. Zettinger, Die Berichte der Rompilger aus dem Frankenreiche bis zum Jahre 800, Römische Quartalschrift, 11th Supplementheft, Rome, 1900, 112 pp.]. There is nothing therefore to be found in the Life of St. Aemilianus which you would not think rightly reckoned among the commonplace and vulgar.

[13] and that lacking credence. Would that the things narrated concerning the finding and first translation of the saint's body were truer. But in vain, if I am not mistaken, would you pursue what fact underlies the little story. For, not to speak of the fact that no trace of Count Bernardinus and his wife Theodelinda is found anywhere else [On the Bernardini, counts of Cunio, read the annotation on Peter Calo, below, p. 294.], the laughable little fable of the slap portentously given to a man, in the place where the body lay hidden under hay, and another no less ridiculous about the oxen standing motionless until the prince should settle a great estate on the saint as a dowry [Something similar is told in the Translation of St. Mercury to Benevento, BHL. 5936.], persuade us that the whole history was thought up by an idle brain. From these things it prudently follows that everything pertaining to the Life of St. Aemilianus and the beginnings of his veneration is plainly hidden from us.

[14] Of the relics A few things must be added about the relics of St. Aemilianus and the cult with which the people of Faenza followed him. That his body was translated in the year 1468 into a new monument, adorned with carved marble, is established from the chronicle of Anthony Ubertellus (in Valmigli, vol. XI, p. 64), which he seems to have learned from the inscription of the urn itself: By a new translation in this tomb the bones of St. Emilianus, bishop and confessor, rest, 1468, 24 April. In the year 1782 Bishop Vitalis de' Buoi a recognition of the sacred relics

instituted, and found them wrapped in green cloth in two wooden shrines, with an inscription on a lead plate: body of St. Emilianus, bishop [The said Canon Lanzoni has written that the instrument of this recognition has perished, but that mention of it is had in the Cronaca Peroni.]. The church of St. Aemilianus having been suppressed [It was suppressed by decree of Napoleon I in the year 1805; in reality, however, not before the year 1809.], the sacred bones were placed by Bishop Stephen Bonsignore on 5 June 1809 in a private chapel, and from there, with the assent of the supreme pontiff Pius VII, by a rescript given on 21 June of the same year, they were solemnly translated on the next 5 November to the cathedral church. There is to be seen even now in the chapel named after St. Aemilianus his marble tomb, skilfully carved, and on the wall, at the right horn of the altar, the title: The bones of St. Aemilianus, heavenly patron, from the shrine which our forebears dedicated to his honour in the fifteenth century, it being converted to other uses, Stephen Bonsignore, bishop of Faenza, duly translated and brought to the altar on the Nones of November in the year MDCCCVIIII [A. Strocchi, Memorie istoriche del duomo di Faenza (Faenza, 1838), pp. 19–20. Writing these things to us from Valmigli (vol. XI, p. 64, note), the already praised Canon Lanzoni adds: “Il Valmigli racconta che quando fu abolita la chiesa di S. Emiliano il rettore d'allora mutili l'avello vendendo la pietra che ne formava la parte anteriore, e pero oggi rimangono solo le altre tre sopra descritte che si trovano nel duomo, come ho detto. Quella pietra venduta trovasi ora presso le suore del Corpus Domini di Forli. E una lastra di marmo bianco, distinta in quattro medaglioni. Nel primo sono rappresentati due coloni e due mani che escono di mezzo alle nubi e poggiano sul capo dei medesimi (il ritrovamento del corpo). Nel secondo il corpo di S. Emiliano sopra un carro portato processionalmente alla chiesa di S. Maria. Nel terzo una capella e una tomba ai piedi della quale pregano varie persone d'ogni ceto. Nel quarto e rappresentato il miracolo che commincia” [“Valmigli relates that when the church of St. Emilian was abolished, the rector of that time mutilated the tomb by selling the stone that formed its front part, and therefore today there remain only the other three described above, which are found in the cathedral, as I have said. That sold stone is now found with the Sisters of Corpus Domini at Forlì. It is a slab of white marble, divided into four medallions. In the first are represented two farmers and two hands which come out from the midst of the clouds and rest on their heads (the finding of the body). In the second the body of St. Emilian on a cart, carried in procession to the church of St. Mary. In the third a chapel and a tomb at the foot of which various persons of every rank are praying. In the fourth is represented the miracle which begins”] Pietro Ruffo (below, mir. 1).].

[15] of the churches, That a church of St. Aemilianus existed at Faenza already in the twelfth century we have said above Above, n. 1.; there is talk of it again, if I am not mistaken, on other occasions, and certainly in the year 1365, in an instrument of the monastery of Sts. Lawrence and Hippolytus Mittarelli, Annales Camaldulenses, vol. VI (Venice, 1761), app., p. 513.. In the following century it was renovated at the expense, as it seems, of the Della Valle family, whose coat of arms is seen carved on the vaults [Magnani, Vite de' santi, beati, etc., p. 19. The following from the instrument of the visitation by de' Buoi, bishop of Faenza, carried out in the year 1775, we have received from Canon Lanzoni. “La chiesa di S. Emiliano sembra a tre navate per due colonne che la dividono. La porta della medesima e di legno… Esistono due altari, maggiore l'uno e laterale l'altro a mano sinistra nell' ingresso della chiesa… La di lui (altar maggiore) mensa e di legno miniato da un bravo soggetto di Ferrara, morto. Unita all' altare trovasi scolpita in mezzo l'immagine della S. Vergine e a cornu evangelii l'immagine di san Luca evangelista e in cornu epistolae di san Girolamo e sopra vi e l'urna contenente il corpo di S. Emiliano, in cui rappresentasi la di lui invenzione …” [“The church of St. Emilian seems to have three aisles by reason of two columns that divide it. Its door is of wood… There are two altars, one the high altar and the other a side altar on the left hand at the entrance of the church… Its (the high altar's) table is of wood, painted by a skilled person of Ferrara, now dead. Joined to the altar there is found carved in the middle the image of the Holy Virgin and on the gospel side the image of St. Luke the evangelist and on the epistle side that of St. Jerome, and above it is the urn containing the body of St. Emilian, on which his finding is represented …”] The instrument is kept in the archive of the bishopric.]. Another church in the territory of Faenza dedicated to St. Aemilianus is commemorated by Magnani, in Quarada sulla collina sotto l'arcipretado della Pideura e la cura di Pergola [at Quarada on the hill under the archpriestship of Pideura and the cure of Pergola] The same, ibid..

[16] of the feast and other things Of the vow by which in the year 1512 the people of Faenza bound themselves to St. Aemilianus together with Sts. Savinus, Terentius and Peter Damian, there has been talk more than once, both by others [Tonduzzi, Storia di Faenza, pp. 600–601; Magnani, the work cited, p. 3; Lanzoni, San Pier Damiano, c. VII.] and by ours Act. SS., Feb. vol. III, p. 415; July vol. VII, p. 155.. They did not cease to keep his feast as of precept, until on 13 September 1643 the number of feasts was reduced by Urban VIII, and of the feasts of the four saints only the day of St. Savinus was ordered to be retained Lanzoni, San Pier Damiano, p. 110.. Solemn supplications of the secular and regular clergy and of the confraternities to the churches in which the bodies of the aforesaid saints lay were also held every year, up to the year 1767, when it was granted by Clement XIII that in their place there should be recited in the mass a prayer of thanksgiving Lanzoni, in the work cited, pp. 111, 127.; which is still observed on the sixth day of November, which is sacred to St. Aemilianus [In the Liber Rubeus, fol. 187, an instrument brought forward by Azzurini begins with these words: In the year 1500, on the 6th day of the month of November, of St. Emilianus, in the name of Christ. Amen.].

[17] pertaining to the saint's cult. St. Aemilianus is venerated today as a lesser principal patron of the city of Faenza, and his commemoration, as also that of the other three patrons, is made in the suffrages of the saints Lanzoni, in the work cited, p. 147.. His office is celebrated in the whole diocese from the common of a confessor bishop, without any proper lesson, not even in the second nocturn. Indeed in the year 1716 R. M. Magnani had composed lessons on St. Aemilianus and the other three protectors, and His Eminence Cardinal Julius Piazza, bishop of Faenza, had seen to it that they should be approved by the Congregation of Rites. But since the most eminent prelate died in the year 1726, they never came into use Magnani, in the work cited, p. 4.. Which those who have read the above will think little to be regretted.

I. LIFE AND MIRACLES OF ST. AEMILIANUS

Aemilianus, bishop, venerated at Faenza. (S.)

From the Legendary of Peter Calo (=P). Compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 2.

On St. Emilianus Emilliano and so thereafter P..

[1] Emilianus was from the parts of Scotia; who from the beginning eunte P. of his age, serving as a soldier for the Lord, showed by pious indications of works of how great merit he would be with him. So when by the merits of his manner of life he was praiseworthy in the mouth of all and was thought by all acceptable in the sight of his Creator, and had been promoted to a P. sacred orders by common desire and the assent of all, at length, the grace of the Holy Spirit cooperating, he took up the office of bishop; in which, living happily for some years and concluding a good beginning with a better end, like a faithful and prudent servant he panted annellabat P. ever more urgently for better services of his Lord. And he decided to visit the thresholds of the holy apostles and to mortify his own flesh by the difficulty of a long and heavy journey. For the labours of this world, if they are faithfully borne tollerentur P. for Christ, check the motions of the flesh, strengthen the spirit, extinguish vices, reinforce virtues and in many ways open the way of salvation. For since the spirit lusts against the flesh and the reverse, the suggestion of the ancient enemy is by no means wholly cast off, unless its assault is cut away by the works of spiritual virtues. So setting out on the road he had decided on, with divine grace favouring, he came to Rome and asked for the long-desired suffrages of the apostles and other saints. After a little, desiring to return regendi P. to his country and to rule the people committed to him, having set out amid very many labours and the difficulty of the journey, he reached Faenza. And when the Lord wished to spare his labour and to give him the longed-for reward for his earlier services, he was held by a grave languor in that same city, where after not many troubles of his infirmity, commending himself to his Creator and the holy apostles, he happily passed from the world, He dies at Faenza. and with the blessed angels obtained a heavenly seat. The people of Faenza, knowing his holy life and happy death, desiring to pay due honour to so great a father, buried his body with great honour at the church of St. Clement the martyr outside the walls of that city [The church of St. Clement, which Azzurini asserts lay near the village of Castagnetolum (below, p. 297), was handed over in the year 1074 by Wibert, archbishop of Ravenna, to the monastery of Bifurcum. Mittarelli, in the work cited, p. 405; compare pp. 398, 655.]; where the Lord Jesus Christ deigned to work many wonders to his praise and glory. But his body was for many times unknown, and not celebrated with due honour.

[2] The city having been destroyed by the Lombards, At the time when Liutprand, king of the Lombards, took up arms with an abundant army against the Romans and decided either to occupy or to subjugate to himself all cities resisting him, Faenza was a mighty and strong city, which Fabrius, consul of the Romans, built hedifficavit P. in a beautiful and most fertile situation, and named it from his own name Faventia [The origin of the city of Faenza, which he asserts was first called Flavia, Tolosanus in his Chronicle, c. I, derives from Flavius, a noble and very rich Roman; which was then called Faventia because the citizens favoured all and especially the Romans. Mittarelli, in the work cited, pp. 12, 195.], and surrounded it with walls and towers and strengthened it as a safe refuge, filled with warlike citizens, who drew their origin from the stock of the Romans and defended Roman liberty against all men with all their strength. So the aforesaid king, recognizing that it resisted him wholly, and distrusting because he could not take it by force, since he could not by strength, strove to attack it by guile and cunning. So when on the holy Saturday of Easter Compare above, p. 291, no. 8. at the church of St. Mary outside the gate the sacred sacram P. bapti〈sm〉 was being performed bapti P. and all the people had come there according to custom, the aforesaid king with an army prepared occupied the city, and, sending armed men in some through the Flaminian gate, others through the Aemilian gate, he seized the walls and all the fortifications, with no one resisting, and made a very great slaughter of the terrified preteritorum P. citizens running up without arms, and the enemy, confident of victory, go up to the walls, they overturn from the foundations the towers of the city, the houses and palaces in which the city excelled, and holding divine and human things alike they joyfully lectanter P. cast down churches and hospices. So having gained this victory and the city having been wholly destroyed, they took themselves from there to other places. The sepulchre of St. Aemilianus lies long hidden; On account of this ruin of the city, as those who had known the matter died out, the body of blessed Emilianus was long unknown and not duly honoured; not long afterwards, when the citizens of Faenza who had been left from the destruction to their own homes

returned and the city was growing, Bernardinus, an illustrious count, with his noble wife Theodolenda, was ruling that city kindly [We have said that there was no count of Faenza by name Bernardinus. Azzurini (Lib. Rubeus fol. 59), by what right I do not know, writes Bernardinus de Cunio. Cunium was a fortress near Faenza. See the Chronicle of Tolosanus, in Mittarelli, in the work cited, pp. 51–52. The name Bernardinus occurs not only from the thirteenth century among the counts of Cunio (Mittarelli, pp. 171, 289, 298, 320, 322), but also among the ancestors of Count Alberic of Cunio there is found a certain Bernardinus who lived in the years 1043–1089, and another of whom there is mention in the year 1190. G. Solieri, Alberigo da Barbiano (Iesi, 1908), pp. 17, 19,]. Then certain citizens, wholly ignorant of the holy body, built a heap camulum P. of hay in the place where the sacred body lay, as if in a free and lawful spot. There, while two men were conversing, one of them, uncertain so P., felt that he had received a great blow. And when he was reproaching his companion with insults, and asking why he had struck him so severely, the companion answered that he had neither struck nor written twice P. seen any of the strikers. And as they talked together and wondered at what had happened, the other complains that he has received a greater blow than the first. And when he too who had first been struck seemed to have struck him as if in vengeance et se id fecisse videretur [so P., and he wholly denied that he had done it, and saw that no one was present round about, stupefied they judged that it had come about not without cause. So going to the aforesaid count they reported everything to him in order. He, believing it a great miracle, went to the place with the greatest veneration and had it dug. The attendants, not digging much, found a great stone and saw a sepulchre below. And when the stone was lifted they found the body of St. Emilianus fragrant with wonderful sweetness, as if it had been laid in spices. Hearing this, the count and countess, and rejoicing with authority auctoritate P. in so great a miracle, ordered it to be placed on a wagon, the oxen harnessed, and carried within the city to the church of St. Mary not far from the praetorium of their so P. consul. And when the oxen had gone forward a little, at once, divinely terrified, they fixed their step and by no urgings ostaminibus P. or proddings would go further. The countess, understanding that these things did not happen contingeret P. without cause, said to her husband that the saint does not wish to enter the appointed so P, perhaps better constituta. basilica without a dowry. And at once they most devoutly give him a holding manse P.. The oxen began cooperunt P. to go at a moderate step. The clergy celerus P. eius [so P. ] and people, running together with hymns and praises, offered praises to God, and with great honour they devoutly laid the body cor P. of the saint in the aforesaid church in a marble chest; where by his merits the Lord works very many miracles up to the present day.

〈Miracles.〉

Iacintus Ruffus of Faenza, who visited the church of the said saint rather frequently, went out of devotion to St. James, as he had vowed. And as he was crossing a certain river with companions and sailors, all were in peril of death, namely of shipwreck, but when he had called on p… word uncertain in the photographic copy. blessed Emilianus all were freed. And hearing of the saint where he rested, and hearing also various miracles about him, they gave thanks to God and promised reverence to his saint.

A certain poor little woman of Faenza had lost the use of her whole body through infirmity, except her hands and tongue. She, lying once before her door in a little bed and seeing a multitude of people going to St. Emilianus and returning, cried out exclamabant P., saying: “O blessed Emilianus, you work so many miracles in the name of Christ, why do you not allow me to come to visit your body?” She, praying thus, was at once freed, and on the next day with her neighbours and her offering she went to St. Emilianus and gave him thanks for her deliverance.

A certain woman from beyond the mountains, Ossma by name, from a woman, a demoniac for ten years, with her husband, had sought through various tracts of land the patronage of various saints. At last, hearing the report of blessed Emilianus, they scarcely at length came to St. Emilianus and she was fully freed. From this miracle the people gave thanks to God and ad P. extolled St. Emilianus in many ways.

from a nobleman, A nobleman nobis P. of the fortress of Soraloli rather Solaroli. was a demoniac, and coming to the body of St. Emilianus he was fully freed. And he gave a certain possession as dowry and benefice.

from a maidservant, Certain nobles of Faenza had a demoniac maidservant, and, not wishing to have such a one, they gave her to St. Emilianus. He, not wishing his maidservant to be a demoniac, freed her.

from three other A woman of the fortress of Soraloli rather Solaroli., a demoniac, came with vows and tears to blessed Emilianus and after the seventh day was fully freed [Chronicle of Tolosanus, cc. XXXVII, CL, in Mittarelli, in the work cited, pp. 40, 140.].

women A woman of the parish which is called Chatena The parish of St. Stephen in Catena exists even today., full of demons, hearing of the miracles of blessed Emilianus, took herself with rapid step to his body. From which with weeping she said that she would never withdraw, unless nixi P. he first freed her. Blessed Emilianus, hearing her prayers, freed her after XX days.

he expels a demon. A certain man of Faenza had betrothed a girl as his wife; seeing that she was greatly vexed, believing that it was some other infirmity in her eam P., yet at the urging of her neighbours he led her to St. Emilianus; and the malignant spirit, showing itself there and crying out and ad P. blaspheming St. Emilianus, left her, freed by his merits.

From the codex of the Vallicella library H3. Compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 4.

Life of St. Emilianus.

[1] St. Aemilianus, a Scot by nation Blessed Emilianus was born in Scotia; of what kind he was from the beginning of his age and with how great a natural character he was endowed, one may conjecture from what followed. So almighty God, that he might at some time be as a bright star in his Church, conferred on him such great grace that by elegance and charm of character he was lovable to all, and such a cultivator of religion that by the judgment and consent of all he was thought worthy to be promoted to holy orders and to become a minister of Christ. In which ministry he advanced so much in a short time that his city elected him as bishop for itself with the highest consent. Promoted to that dignity he held nothing more important than with the highest vigilance to direct all care to his flock, that he might render a people acceptable to God, zealous for the salvation of all by word and example. His own flesh, lest he should find it rebellious against the spirit, he subdued assiduously by fasts, stripes, vigils and prayers; but, the Holy Spirit leading him so Flaminius; codex ducere., he began to 〈be held omits codex; I have supplied it from Flaminius.〉 by a wonderful desire to set out for Rome, to visit and adore the sacred church of the prince of the apostles and the other places of the saints besides. he sets out for Rome; So he set out for Rome; having stayed in the city only so long as he could sufficiently satisfy his desire, he determined to return to his country, to his flock. When he reached Faenza, either broken by the labour of the journey or because God had decreed to enrich that renowned city with so great a treasure and to fortify it with a great protector, he could not go further. For he fell into sickness: and perceiving that the end of his life had come, he said: “This is my rest for ever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it.” Ps. 131, 16. So, his sickness Flaminius, codex valetudine. gradually growing, in a few days, panting for the reward prepared for him, he gave back his blessed soul to heaven. When the death of the holy prelate was heard of, the city of Faenza, from which God did not allow the dignity and merits of so great a man to lie hidden, carried him out in a worthy funeral, and followed him with fitting honour, and buried him at the church of St. Clement, which was then outside the walls of the city; where God made him shine with miracles.

[2] Then came on the calamitous times of the Lombards, in which, when Liutprand their king had taken the city by guile and overthrown it with enormous slaughter of the citizens, the veneration of the holy prelate was interrupted and given over to oblivion, so much so that it was unknown where he was buried. But after a long time, the city having been restored, the principality of the city came to the illustrious Count Bernardinus and his renowned wife. In his rule God wonderfully disclosed the place of the sepulchre. When two men were conversing together in that place, they say that a blow was struck on one of them; which he, taking it ill, thinking it struck by his companion, because he saw no one there except him, began to assail him with insults. But he denied the deed. And while they disputed, he who was suspected was struck by a more vehement blow. Wherefore both, seized with stupor, since they saw the striker nowhere, at length he is found in a wonderful manner; judging it to be some great portent, at once reported it to the aforesaid count, who, thinking that something divine lay hidden in that place, immediately sent men to dig the ground, and an enormous rock was found, which being lifted a sweet odour exhaled, surpassing all spices. When this was announced, the city went out in troops to the spectacle, to transfer the sacred body into the city. So with the highest reverence it was placed on a wagon and brought into the city. But when they drew near to the church of St. Mary On the churches of St. Mary, below, p. 297, note 3., to which it was being carried, the oxen, as if terrified, could be urged by no goads to go further. Then the count's wife Theodolinda, divinely warned, who was religious and fearing God, turning to her husband said: the relics of the saint are translated. “This saint does not wish to enter this church without a dowry.” At once therefore they appointed a great estate as dowry to him, and at once the oxen began to go forward. And brought into the church with hymns and canticles, it was placed in a marble sepulchre, where God again made his saint illustrious with many miracles.

Miracles of blessed Emilianus after his death [in another order, which is noted by the numbers set beside them, the miracles are read in the codex.].

[2] Aemilianus by a wonder takes a pilgrim across a river; A certain man of Faenza, by name Peter Ruffus, was most devoted to St. Emilianus. It happened that, as he went toward Galicia to St. James the apostle of Christ, a river met him so swollen with waters and waves that for him using word uncertain. the boat no hope or means of either returning or crossing was left. In this peril, turned by prayer and tears to St. Emilianus, he was brought unharmed with his companions and boat to the other bank of the river.

[7] he restores a poor little woman crippled in her limbs; A certain poor woman of the same city was so held by infirmity that she could move nothing except her hands and tongue; one day, when she was staying in her little bed, which she had placed outside the door in the road, so that she might ask alms from the people whose way lay there, going to the church of St. Emilianus, seeing the throng of the city, she cried out, saying: “Blessed Emilianus, who through the power of Christ work so many miracles daily, why do you not allow me too to come to your blessed body?” A wonderful thing and always to be recited to the praise of God: at once she rose, her sinews and bones returning to their accustomed joining, and she began to walk on her feet, and, all seeing it, went straight to the church of the saint, and giving thanks to the author of her health she humbly offered the gifts that she could.

[1] A certain woman from beyond the mountains, Officia by name, who for ten years had been afflicted by a demon with various troubles, when she had travelled many tracts of land with her husband, seeking a remedy for her health, and had received no help in any place, the report of the miracles of blessed Emilianus growing, came at length to his venerable body, and there she was freed from the demon.

[3] There was a certain nobleman from the Fortress of Solarolum [Chronicle of Tolosanus, cc. XXXVII, CL, in Mittarelli, in the work cited, pp. 40, 140.], which is not far distant from the city of Faenza, who had been seized by a malignant spirit. He was led to the church and to the body of the same saint; and when he had stayed there for three days, with many who were present seeing it, he was freed. This benefit having been received, lest he seem ungrateful, he gave some acres of land as a gift to his church, and gladly went back to his own home.

[4] A certain woman, Maria by name, from the same fortress of Solarolum, she too agitated by demonic vexation, when she had come to the saint's church, after the seventh day went away freed.

[5] Another woman of the parish which is called Catena was full of demons. She, hearing the report of the miracles of blessed Emilianus, was brought to his body, and there, after the twentieth day, she was made free from the invasion of all those demons.

[6] A certain man of Faenza had taken a girl to wife. When he had her in his house, he saw that she was vexed by various seizures. What this might be, he did not know the cause of them. At the warning of neighbours he brought her to the body of St. Emilianus. There the malignant spirit showed itself, and it was firmly known that those seizures came from a demon, which had lain hidden before. And the husband, commending her to blessed Emilianus with prayers and tears, brought her back home unharmed.

II. LIFE OF ST. AEMILIANUS

from the Liber Rubeus of Bernardine Azzurini. Compare Preliminary Commentary, n. 7.

Aemilianus, bishop, venerated at Faenza. (S.)

Life of blessed Emilianus, bishop, protector of Faenza, of Scotia.

[1] Prologue. Although I have not found many things that I can write about blessed Aemilianus, protector of our city of Faenza, which was a singular kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, yet the things that I am going to narrate will openly declare of what kind and how great was the holiness and greatness of this most holy bishop.

[2] The saint's country, Blessed Emilianus was born in Scotia, who in his adolescence and youth showed such integrity of life and character that he became pleasing to the most good God, and was adorned with the priestly ministry. Promoted to that ministry, he bore himself so holily and piously that he was appointed bishop with the highest consent by his city, in which grave and arduous office he showed himself a true shepherd and father. The holy minister of Christ, the Holy Spirit leading him, the Roman journey, was seized by a wonderful desire of visiting the thresholds of the apostles, and of adoring besides the other places and relics of the saints. So he went to Rome, where he stayed as long as he could carry out this desire of his. But returning to his country, when he reached Faenza he fell into a sickness; and the most holy prelate, knowing that this sickness was unto death and that he had come to the end of his life, said: “This is my rest for ever and ever; here will I dwell, for I have chosen it”; and death. and the sickness gradually growing more severe, a few days later he gave back his soul to Jesus Christ our Lord. Ps. 131, 16. When the people of Faenza heard of the death of the pilgrim prelate, they buried him most magnificently, as befitted pastoral dignity, near the church of St. Clement Above, p. 294, n. 1., where our Lord Jesus Christ has made him renowned by miracles up to the present day.

[3] Faenza having been taken, His sacred body was translated into the city of Faenza in this manner. The aforesaid church of St. Clement at that time was outside the walls of the aforesaid city in the suburb named Castagnetolum, and the cruelty of the Lombards was raging, who laid waste almost all Italy, whose king (Eliprandus was his name), leading a great army with him, tried to take the fortified, wealthy and warlike city of Faenza, and what he could not do by force he determined to do by guile. So when on the holy Saturday of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ Above, p. 291, n. 8. in the church of blessed Mary, which was then outside the city [Better in another place of his book (fol. 59) Azzurini speaks of two churches of St. Mary, one outside the gate, the other within the city, which was situated not far from the praetorium of the consul.], the whole people of Faenza had come according to custom to the consecration of the water of holy baptism, and were intent on it, behold, the enemy Eliprandus, two gates of the said city having been taken, namely the Flaminian and the Aemilian, sent in soldiers, who, not sparing churches, monasteries and sacred communities, plundered and overthrew the city with great slaughter of the people of Faenza running up without arms. the relics lie hidden; After the departure of the cruel and sacrilegious enemy, the few citizens who survived began to restore the city, and while the calamities of the aforesaid Lombards lasted, the body of the blessed bishop Emilianus remained hidden and unknown, without worthy celebration. After many years, the city of Faenza having been rebuilt and filled with inhabitants, the lordship of that city was held by Count Bernardinus and his most excellent and most devout wife Theodolinda, under whose administration our Lord Jesus Christ willed that the interrupted honour of his prelate should rise again and that his holy body, lying hidden under hay, grown there, as I judge, and not, as is said by some, cut and laid by, should be found. Above that very place, under which rested the sacred bones of Emilianus, two certain soldiers were speaking to each other, of whom one was struck with a blow. He, thinking that the blow had been dealt by his companion, began to reproach him and to treat him with insults; amid which insults, behold, the reproached companion is assailed by a sharper blow. Wherefore the aforesaid soldiers were amazed and held by horror and began to look around, and could see neither the striker nor anyone else, whence they supposed that something great was portended and signified by the blows received, as was indeed the case. under Count Bernardinus They at once reported such a wonder to the aforesaid Count Bernardinus; who thought that some divine thing was hidden in that place. At once he sent men, who dug that part of the ground which the soldiers who had been struck showed. Where they dug the ground they found an enormous rock, and when it was lifted a most sweet odour of odours broke forth; which was immediately reported to the said Count Bernardinus. And when the matter had been spread through the city, the whole city went out and flew to that place, to bring the most sacred body within the city, and all the clergy was present. Placed on a wagon with the greatest reverence, it was brought into the city; which, when it was near the most ancient church named of St. Mary, they are found. which was then the cathedral of Faenza, or in the place commonly called il trebo de fichi the crossroads of the figs That is, il trivio de' fichi in the present-day language., which was situated not far from the praetorium of the consul, to which it was being carried, the oxen, terrified, even if urged with goads, could not go further. Then the aforesaid woman Theodolinda, divinely warned, seeing this, thus said to the said count her husband: “My count, this saint does not wish to enter this church without a dowry.” Count Bernardinus assented to so pious a counsel; for a dowry they gave a great estate, whence the oxen began to go forward, and brought into that church with hymns, canticles, prayers and supplications, it was laid in a marble sepulchre, in the year 1468, on the twenty-fourth of April, as can be seen on the said sepulchre by all.

[4] Miracles. From that sacred body very great miracles have been done, and many of them, some of which I shall narrate to the honour and glory of so great a saint and the splendour of our city [The miracles, wholly the same as Flaminius has in Mittarelli, in the work cited, pp. 818–19, narrated by Azzurini in a slightly changed style, we omit.]. … There are not lacking countless other very great miracles, which I do not report, for those related above show how great this confessor is with God, and with how great a patron and protector our city of Faenza is guarded, which has always had him propitious in its needs and calamities, and for that reason by a public vow has willed solemnly to worship and venerate him Above, p. 293, n. 16., as it will always do, for ages of ages. Amen.