ON ST. LIZERIUS, ROMAN MARTYR, AT VENICE IN ITALY,
AT VENICE IN ITALY.
Under Diocletian.
SYLLOGE.
The Saint's cult, age, martyrdom.
Lizerius, Roman martyr, at Venice in Italy. (S.)
BY J. B.
The most famous city of the Venetians not undeservedly numbers among its more illustrious ornaments the celebrated monastery of noble Benedictine Virgins called after St. Zachary. St. Lizerius in the monastery of St. Zachary, Sansovino, and Bozzonio following him, write that it was founded from the very cradle of the nascent Republic. Dandolo in his Chronicle, Ughelli, Mabillon and others put its foundation off to the beginning of the ninth century, under Angelo and Justinian, dukes of the Venetians; with whom Flaminio Corner, a Venetian senator, has lately sided. And just as to this day it surpasses the other monasteries of that city (as Ughelli and Mabillon relate) in beauty, nobility and antiquity, so it was repeatedly enriched with distinguished relics of the Saints; namely of St. Zachary the Prophet, a part of the wood of the Cross and of the garments of Christ and of His Mother, with many treasures sent to Venice by the emperor Leo the Armenian; likewise of St. Pancras, martyr, and of St. Sabina, virgin, which the supreme Pontiff Benedict III, a fugitive from the City to Venice in the year 855, sent as a gift to the nuns on returning to his see. That the body of St. Lizerius also was brought here from Rome, Sanudo and other writers of Venetian history have everywhere recorded.
[2] The epoch of this translation is hidden: that it preceded the year of the Lord 998, however, on account of relics brought there formerly from Rome, becomes plain from Sanudo in the Lives of the Doges of Venice at this year, where he relates that the emperor Otto III came secretly from Ravenna to Venice, and was conducted by night by Orseolo, the second of this name, doge of Venice, to St. Zachary's, to inspect the remains of the Saints laid up in that church; which he then enumerates one by one, reckoning the body of St. Lizerius in the second-to-last place. His words, because they are in part to be corrected, I render in Latin. The doge led (Otto III) by night to St. Zachary's, to inspect the bodies of the Saints which were in that church… And there were the body of St. Zachary the Prophet, the body of St. Sabina, the body of St. Leo the Pope, the body of St. Nereus, Mart., the body of St. Achilleus, Mart., the body of St. Lizerius, Mart., the body of St. Pancras, Mart. For they possess neither the entire body of St. Zachary, whose head they lack, nor of SS. Nereus and Achilleus (whose relics are also found elsewhere, as may be seen in tome III of May, page 6), but only a part; nor again the body of St. Leo the Pontiff, but of the hermit, carried to Venice from the island of Cephalonia together with his companions Gregory and Theodore. So says Corner, the illustrator of the Venetian church, in tome XI. Consult also, if you please, Cuper, tome IV of August, page 768.
[3] You would seek St. Lizerius in vain in the more ancient Martyrologies: he is venerated at Venice: among the more recent, Costanzo Felici inserted him in his Calendar at the 2nd day of October, where you would find nothing beyond the Saint's name and martyrdom. The Topography of the holy Martyrs of Christ, which Maurolico, abbot of Messina, published and annexed to his Martyrology, adds that the body of St. Lizerius rests at Venice in the church of St. Zachary. That the cult due to Saints was shown both to St. Lizerius and to the other Saints whose bodies or relics rest there is read in tome 5 of the Thesaurus of the Histories of Italy, part 2, page 66: The bodies which men venerate here are those of St. Zachary, of St. Pancras the Martyr, of St. Gregory Nazianzen (or not rather the hermit?), of St. Lizerius, etc. Corner, too, whom we cited, pronounces generally that “the bodies of the Saints, resting honourably from time immemorial at the altars of the church of St. Zachary, are venerated by the faithful of Christ, and the honours due to Saints are paid to them.” To these are added the Directories of the Venetian church of the years 1657 and 1683, in the first of which on the 2nd day of October, in the other on the 27th of the same month, the feast of St. Lizerius, martyr, is prescribed to be celebrated with semidouble rite and with the Office from the common of a Martyr. Which things, although they suffice to vindicate for Lizerius the title of sanctity and of martyrdom, nevertheless furnish scant knowledge of his deeds.
[4] whose passion under Maximian Herculius. Somewhat better known is the epoch of the martyrdom, although nothing certain is available to us from which we might determine its year exactly. For if we listen to Ferrari, of whom below, he suffered under the emperor Maximian, that is to say Herculius. For the other Maximian, surnamed Armentarius, had not seen Rome, the arena of St. Lizerius, except after he invaded Italy with an army gathered against Maxentius, intending to assault the City in vain, as Lactantius witnesses in the book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter 27; nor ever afterwards, as the remaining course of his Life discloses; whereas St. Lizerius is related to have entered upon the contest for the faith at Rome in the presence of Maximian himself. Whether he suffered in that most dire persecution which, begun under Diocletian about the beginning of the fourth century in the East, and taken up without reluctance by Maximian in the West, was prolonged until his abdication, or before it, I do not decide. The first is rendered in some measure probable, if what Ferrari says is true, namely that St. Lizerius suffered at that time when Christians were being tortured daily. For up to that time Diocletian had not stained his hands with the blood of the just, says Lactantius, chapter 9. And Maximian Herculius, although fierce by nature, is not read to have inflicted daily, and so frequent, punishments on the Christians at Rome before that time.
[5] Ferrari has described it; Concerning the Saint's martyrdom Ferrari says much in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, of which this is the sum. St. Lizerius, a Spaniard by race, served as a soldier at Rome under Maximian, being held among the first commanders of the army. Admiring the constancy of the Christians who were dying daily for the faith, he is fired with a desire for martyrdom. He therefore goes to Justin the presbyter, is instructed, and is cleansed in the sacred waters. Presently he distributes his goods to the poor, and exhorts to constancy those detained in prisons. The emperor hears of these things: threats, blandishments, blows he applies in vain, and he commits Lizerius to prison until he should come to his senses. Meanwhile the father of St. Lizerius in Spain is informed of what is being done at Rome: he flies swiftly to the city, to prevail upon his son, partly with prayers, partly with tears, to obey the emperor: the son refuses to do the emperor's bidding. And so, as he was hanging up while his belly was cut open, the father fell half-dead to the ground: but, roused by the prayer of his Son, he is converted to Christ, and together with his Son, nails being driven into the brain through the ears, he completes martyrdom. Their bodies were buried by the Christians: but the body of St. Lizerius, carried to Venice, rests in the church of St. Zachary. That some, and indeed the chief, heads of this narrative are true I do not at all doubt; but I should not dare to offer myself as surety that false things have not been mixed with the true.
[6] For Ferrari writes that these things were drawn from the monuments of the church of St. Zachary, but certain martyrdom and from the Saint's passion lately published at Venice. But whether he saw those monuments himself, or cited them only on another's faith, the most illustrious lord Corner, praised above, and our Janning cause me to doubt. For the former, treating of Lizerius on page 322, speaks thus: That Lizerius, a Spaniard by race, consummated martyrdom at Rome under the emperor Maximian, Filippo Ferrari relates, who in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy brings forward his life at some length from the monuments (as he himself says) of the church of St. Zachary, where his body, carried there, rests, and from his passion published at Venice. If the Lord Corner had seen Acts of St. Lizerius in the Archive of St. Zachary, he would surely have cited them in preference to Ferrari, nor would he have used a parenthesis of that kind unless he had doubted the truth of the matter. The nuns assert besides (on the same witness) that various relics of other Saints are in their keeping. If you require documents, they are said to have been consumed by fire in the year of the Lord 1106. The same flame may easily have consumed the Acts of St. Lizerius too, if there were any. Janning also saw the relics of the Saints at St. Zachary's in the year 1686, concerning which (he says in his Itinerary) They can prove nothing in writing, alleging that a fire consumed everything. What they affirm, they affirm from bare tradition, etc. Did the Acts of St. Lizerius alone escape the flames of the fire, while all the others perished?
[7] he has coupled uncertain circumstances. As to what concerns the Passion of St. Lizerius which Ferrari says was lately published at Venice, it is not ancient enough to merit of itself certain and undoubted faith, unless perhaps it rests on more ancient and more certain documents. From it, however, Ferrari seems to have derived most of the circumstances of the Passion, who in the Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology writes at the 2nd day of October in this manner: Of Lizerius, Mart. From the Tables of the Venetian church, to which his body was carried from the city of Rome and laid in the sacred church of St. Zachary. Presently subjoining: He, a Spaniard by race, suffered at Rome as a young man under Maximian, together with his father, as we read in his Passion lately published at Venice. But there will perhaps be someone to whom that opportune arrival of an anonymous father from Spain in the City, and whatever is built upon it, may seem to carry something of the fabulous about it. Nor again would I easily say who the Justin the presbyter is by whom Lizerius wished to be instructed and baptized. There flourished indeed at Rome, as the third century was already growing old, a Justin the presbyter (as the Acts of St. Lawrence teach, tome V of September, page 471 and following), celebrated for instructing and baptizing unbelievers, soldiers too; but he, Ferrari himself not dissenting, obtained the palm of martyrdom under Claudius II, who held the helm of the empire about the year 268, and so could not have reached the times of Maximian's reign. Let these things be said for no other reason than that the reader may pass judgment according to his own prudence on the various circumstances of the martyrdom related by Ferrari.