Justina of Padua

ON ST. JUSTINA OF PADUA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR, AT PADUA IN ITALY,

perhaps under Nero or Maximian.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Justina, virgin and martyr, at Padua in Italy. (St.)

BY J. B.

§ I. The spurious Acts of the holy Martyr, her commemoration in the Martyrologies, and her sacred cult throughout Italy.

The more illustrious the cult of St. Justina, virgin and martyr of Padua, is, above all throughout Italy, as is evident, the more uncertain, nearly in the same measure, are the things commonly circulated about her life; Acts of the holy Martyr ascribed to St. Prosdocimus not because Acts of her, or titles at least in appearance suitable for winning them authority, are lacking, but because those Acts are in themselves faulty and worthy of no credence, while the titles, by which the more recent inventors of fables wished to commend their antiquity, are false and empty. Mombritius published the Acts of St. Justina of Padua in volume 2 of his Lives of the Saints; and indeed, if anyone should wish to trust those very Acts, they were written down by an eyewitness of the holy Virgin's martyrdom: for so their author addresses his readers at the end, at number 1: "But I beseech you, whoever shall wish piously and religiously to hear or to read these things, that you be mindful of this last of sinners, who in the name of the Lord was present at this passion." If you ask the name of this eyewitness, he is said to have been St. Prosdocimus, disciple of St. Peter, first bishop of the Paduans, who by his prayers obtained St. Justina from God for her parents, whom he had brought over to the faith of Christ by his labours; who cleansed her in the sacred font, taught her virginity and holy ways; who, finally, committed her to the earth when she had been slain for the faith of Christ. So indeed it is read in the Acts of St. Prosdocimus in the same Mombritius in these words: "But her passion (St. Justina's) the same holy man Prosdocimus wrote, and committed it to our memory to be kept"; which Acts some have fancied to be the work of St. Maximus, the next successor of St. Prosdocimus in the see of Padua. But neither do the Acts of St. Justina have Prosdocimus as their author, nor does his Life have St. Maximus.

[2] Baronius, in the Annotations to the Roman Martyrology on the 7th day of October, long ago rightly noticed neither in Mombritius, that several things occur in both sets of Acts which need correction. I bring forward a few of these. And first, the Acts of St. Justina, as they are read in Mombritius, will, I think, appear clearly to anyone who runs through them even cursorily, from the very style of writing alone, to be entirely unworthy of the holy bishop who is said, both by the wonders wrought by him and by the stream of his sacred eloquence, to have accomplished so much that he is held the Apostle of the Paduans and of the neighbouring towns converted to the faith of Christ: nay rather, they bear before them undoubted indications from which you would conclude that they were first written in the tenth century or later, perhaps after the finding of the body of St. Justina, of which later. Certainly the meagre manner of writing, the part of a verse, "and stretching her palms toward the stars," which is found at number 5, and the word Legenda, born only in more recent times, seem likewise to argue a more recent author: nor does what is related at number 6 appear credible enough, that the holy Martyr, after her side had been pierced with a mortal wound, fallen upon her knees, with eyes and hands raised to heaven, persisted in prayer for the full space of one hour. The same things are read in another copy of the Acts of St. Justina, the Vatican one marked 1190, which is everywhere similar to the Mombritian Acts; in this respect, however, less faulty than these, that nowhere are the Acts said to have been written by the author as an eyewitness.

[3] nor are they genuine in Peter of Equilio. Peter of Equilio, in his Catalogue of the Saints, book 9, chapter 32, presents the Acts of St. Justina somewhat differently, but drawn from a no less muddy source. He makes St. Justina the daughter of King Vitalianus, and writes that she suffered under King Maximian, the successor, as appears, of Vitalianus, St. Justina's father; who, coming from Milan to Padua, ordered St. Justina to be slain with the sword: but under the Roman emperors, as Baronius rightly observes, there were no kings or petty kings in Italy: and if the holy Martyr was slain under some Maximian, not a king or emperor, but the governor or prefect of some province in Italy or of the city of Padua, a new error will be found in the Mombritian Acts, which expressly relate that she suffered under the emperor Maximian; while the author of the Acts which Peter of Equilio had in his hands makes it nonetheless manifest, by his discordant manner of speaking, unusual among the writers of those times, that he was far removed from the age of St. Justina. I therefore gladly agree with Tillemont, who affirms in volume V of the Ecclesiastical Memoirs, page 140, that there is no antiquity or authority in the Mombritian Acts: he says moreover, from a certain manuscript, that even the very deeds narrated in the Acts argue a far more recent author, by which remark indeed he seems to have had in view the church of St. Justina raised by Opilio much later, and the long-standing cult of St. Justina in it, both of which are mentioned in the Acts. Now a few words on the Acts of St. Prosdocimus, falsely ascribed to St. Maximus, his successor.

[4] as neither are the Acts of St. Prosdocimus, ascribed to St. Maximus. Their author, in Mombritius, page 220 verso, begins the epilogue appended to the Acts with these words: "But after his death I, Maximus, his successor, elected by all the clergy and people, and consecrated by the Roman bishop, wrote all these things which I saw and heard concerning him." St. Prosdocimus is venerated on the 7th of November, on which day his Acts will be examined more fully: here it will suffice only to have pointed out, first, that in these Acts too Vitalianus, the father of St. Justina, is called King, which no one could ascribe to St. Maximus except wrongly; second, that these cannot be reconciled with the Mombritian Acts of St. Justina: in both St. Justina is said to have been taken from among the living before Prosdocimus, and indeed under the emperor Maximian: but his same Acts relate that Prosdocimus flourished already from the times of Claudius and Nero, who reigned about the middle of the first century of the Christian era; and so he without doubt did not prolong his life to the end of the third century or the beginning of the fourth, nor could he have committed to burial St. Justina slain under the emperor Maximian. Cavacius, in book 1 of the History of the Monastery of St. Justina of Padua, page 6, censures both sets of Acts with this judgment: "The Acts of Prosdocimus, which Maximus his successor wrote down, perished amid the frequent sackings and burnings of the city. Nor have the Acts of Justina the martyr, committed to writing by the same Prosdocimus, come down to us; but perhaps near the times of the Lombards some few and mutilated things were brought to our forefathers, who, adding to them the traditions of the ancients, produced the histories which are in our hands. In these nothing smells of antiquity, neither the style of ancient times, nor the words of Latin refinement; rather you would deplore a Latinity there collapsed."

[5] Those Acts of St. Prosdocimus and St. Justina, then, which were fastened upon Prosdocimus himself She is known almost only to more recent writers and upon St. Maximus, Cavacius too rejects; and deservedly: but he believed too easily, as indeed appears, that Acts of St. Justina had once been drawn up by St. Prosdocimus, and Acts of St. Prosdocimus likewise by St. Maximus. For let us grant that certain mutilated Acts, written in antiquity, came into the hands of those who committed to writing the Acts of St. Justina and St. Prosdocimus that are published today, although even this is in doubt; does it follow forthwith from this that they were composed by SS. Prosdocimus and Maximus? Or, if those men thought so, must we abide by their judgment in this matter? This opinion about Acts of St. Prosdocimus and St. Justina written by the aforesaid holy prelates seems to have been born from no other source than from the published Acts of St. Prosdocimus, written by a more recent author, who, had he been zealous for sincerity, as was fitting, would surely have been afraid to foist his own offspring, and a misshapen one at that, upon St. Maximus. The cited Cavacius likewise relates, at page XI, that two Sermons delivered on the solemnity of St. Justina are put about under the name of the same St. Maximus: "There are circulated," he says, "two Sermons under the title of Maximus, delivered on the solemnity of blessed Justina, which indeed smell of a pious author, but rather of later times and of a monk." Why does Cavacius not say here too that the Sermons were indeed once delivered by St. Maximus, but either perished or came down mutilated to posterity? Mention of those Sermons is made in the manuscript papers concerning St. Justina collected by the diligence of our predecessors, and the beginning of one of them is said to be conceived in these words: "Celebrating, most beloved brethren, the solemnity of the blessed virgin Justina, etc."; that of the other in these: "Most devoutly celebrating the feast day of the most holy virgin Justina, etc."; which are noted there as taken from the codex marked S. 91 of the Ambrosian Library: but to these the following observation is rightly subjoined: "There is nothing in these but the name of Justina; the rest, moral matter, can be applied to all the Saints: and without doubt supposititious."

[6] One alone, therefore, of the ancients, so far as I know, Fortunatus, bishop indeed of Poitiers in Gaul, and to the martyrologists, but born in Italy, made mention of St. Justina in the sixth century: first, in book 8, chapter 4, in Brouwer, page 190, with this verse:

Padua offers Justina, Chalcedon here Euphemia: Eulalia lifts her head from the city of Emerita.

But especially near the end of book 4 of the Life of St. Martin, in the same Brouwer, page 335, where he sings these things of her:

If the way to Padua lies open to you, you go on to the city; Here, I pray, kiss the sacred tomb of blessed Justina, Whose wall holds the deeds of Martin in pictures.

Of the more recent writers I find that several have celebrated the martyrdom of St. Justina in their writings: Bernardino Scardeone, in the History of Padua, book 2, class 6, concerning Girolamo Cattaneo, a monk of St. Justina, puts forth these things:

"He had written (as I hear) in an elegant style a Life of Blessed Prosdocimus and of St. Justina the martyr, and many other things which it has not yet befallen me to see." Pignoria, in the Origins of Padua, chapter 10, on Valerio Moscetta: "Only Giacomo Cavacio, our friend, a man of most pleasant wit, in his History of the monastery of St. Justina, affirms this (that a temple of Concord once stood in the very city of Padua), and after him Valerio Moscetta in the Life or Triumph of Justina, virgin and martyr." Likewise in chapter 13 he mentions Benedetto dell'Uva, who wrote on the Martyrdom of St. Justina. Finally Giacomo Filippo Tomasini, in the Life of Pignoria himself, says that he published at Padua in the year 1626 a Life of St. Justina, virgin and protomartyr of Padua: but since the labours of these men have not reached us, we are compelled to use the works of others, whom we shall indicate where the matter requires.

[7] of whom Chastelain records her twice No less than among the historians, there is silence about Justina among the ancient martyrologists: she has a place in some Additions to Usuard in Du Sollier on the 7th day of October. The Florentine codex has thus: "At the city of Padua, of St. Justina, virgin and martyr." Greven: "At Padua, of St. Justina, virgin and martyr. Who, sprung of royal lineage, when at the command of Maximian she would not sacrifice to idols, pierced in the side with the sword, obtained the glory of martyrdom." The Lübeck-Cologne edition has the same, and in nearly the same words; nor very differently the Viola Sanctorum. Molanus: "At the city of Padua, of St. Justina, virgin and martyr." Belinus, a Paduan monk of the Order of St. Augustine, agrees: so too, nearly, Galesini. Maurolico: "At Padua, of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, converted with her parents by Prosdocimus the bishop, pierced with the sword under King Maximian, who had succeeded Vitalianus her father": so Maurolico, as appears, from Peter of Equilio cited above. But, whether St. Justina suffered under Nero or under the emperor Maximian, there were then, as I have already pointed out, no kings in Italy. Hence she is announced somewhat differently in the Roman Martyrology in use today: "At Padua, of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, who, baptized by blessed Prosdocimus, disciple of St. Peter, when she persisted constantly in the faith of Christ, was run through with the sword by order of the governor Maximus and departed to the Lord."

[8] in the Roman Martyrology, Chastelain renders into French on this day the words of the Roman Martyrology just adduced, but adds in the margin: "From the 30th of November," or rather, if I grasp his meaning, the same as is announced on the 30th of November; on which day a certain Justina, virgin and martyr, is announced, but without place, time, or any added detail. Further, at the 30th day of November, concerning the Justina inscribed on that day in the Roman Martyrology, he notes thus: "Repeated from the 7th of October, where Maurolico, from whom this was drawn, did not mention her; but only today." Chastelain therefore thought, first, that St. Justina, virgin and martyr, commemorated without further detail on the 30th day of November in the Roman Martyrology, was taken from Maurolico. Secondly, that Maurolico mentioned St. Justina only once, that is, on the 30th day of November. Thirdly, that the same holy martyr is commemorated twice in the Martyrology, first on the 7th of October, and again on the 30th day of November. As regards Maurolico, it is clear from the words cited in the preceding number that he mentioned St. Justina also on the 7th day of October: and although both Maurolico and the Roman Martyrology mention a certain St. Justina, martyr, also on the 30th day of November, it does not follow from this that those who corrected the Roman Martyrology referred St. Justina to the 30th day of November from Maurolico, since Belinus and Galesini had also mentioned St. Justina on both days before them; nay, Baronius himself, one of the correctors, cited in the Annotations on the 30th day of November not Maurolico, but the old Roman Martyrology and old manuscripts.

[9] Galesini also, in his Annotations, praises the same records as Baronius, he does not approve: so that the correctors of the Roman Martyrology seem to have commemorated St. Justina on the 30th day of November from Galesini rather than from Maurolico; with this difference, however, that they announce St. Justina in no place at all, whereas Galesini announces her not at Padua but at Rome; and Tamayo, in the Spanish Martyrology, relying on his Flavius Dexter, tries to drag her off into Spain (whether rightly or otherwise I do not discuss). This appears certain, that the Justina commemorated on the 7th day of October seemed to Galesini to be other than that second one: further, that Belinus and Maurolico and the correctors of the Roman Martyrology were of the same opinion is far more probable than that all of them together fell into such drowsiness as to record twice St. Justina of Padua, well known to them, and never, so far as I know, venerated on the 30th day of November, but having suffered on the 7th day of October. For the rest, nothing appears incredible in this, that some St. Justina distinct from the Paduan one should at some time have been visited with martyrdom elsewhere than at Padua; as is abundantly clear, to say nothing of others, concerning St. Justina who suffered with St. Cyprian at Nicomedia. In a letter of Father Alexander Wiltheim sent from Luxembourg to Papebroch I read that in the past century, in the village of Viller-la-Rue, the head of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, brought there from Rome, was duly set forth for public veneration with great solemnity: but from so slender a notice of this matter I cannot make out whether she is the same whom Galesini announces at Rome on the 30th day of November, as does the Roman Martyrology too, but without place; or another, upon whom perhaps that name was imposed at the discretion of those who gave the relic.

[10] Ferrari, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, put together a fuller elogium of St. Justina, but her sacred cult adding something also about her cult: "Justina, virgin," he says, "daughter of Vitalianus, prefect or prince of Padua, and of Prepedigna his wife, begotten of them at nearly the end of their life at the prayers of St. Prosdocimus the bishop, was brought up in the Christian faith and cleansed in the waters by Prosdocimus himself. When her parents had died, as the persecution against the Christians was raging, she, returning from her estate to the city, was surrounded at the entrance of the bridge by the soldiers of Maximian the prefect, got down from her carriage, and, having prayed to God on her knees upon a rock (on which the prints of the Virgin's knees are said to be shown) that her virginity might not be brought into peril, was set before the prefect. He, when he could bend her neither by flatteries nor by threats to the worship of idols, ordered her breast to be run through with the sword; and she, praying briefly, with hands raised on high, gave up her spirit to God on the Nones of October. Her body was buried by St. Prosdocimus in the same Campus Martius where she died pierced through: in which place a notable basilica was afterwards built under her name, which the most wealthy Benedictine monks hold." He adds in the Annotations: "Further, the memory of this Virgin is celebrated, since her feast day is kept in nearly the whole Venetian dominion." How truly Ferrari said this will be shown both by what will be said later concerning the temples built in her name and the translations of her relics, and by what I now subjoin concerning her cult.

[11] above all throughout the Venetian The sermons which St. Maximus, the successor of Prosdocimus, is said to have delivered on her solemnity would give clear proof of the sacred cult paid to St. Justina soon after her martyrdom, were they not spurious, as I have already said: but although we are deprived of this support, the words of Venantius Fortunatus about her, which I transcribed above, abundantly prove the antiquity of her cult. The church long ago dedicated to her name by Opilio also proves it; but of this a fuller discussion will recur in §3 and 4. Meanwhile let us see in what places throughout the Venetian dominion she is now venerated. In the province of Aquileia, Charles de Saint-Paul, in the Sacred Geography, places, among others, these cities: Venice, Padua, Verona, Trent, which obeys its bishop under the protection of the count of Tyrol; and in that of Milan, Brescia, which is under Venetian jurisdiction. That St. Justina is venerated at Brescia on the 7th day of October with a double Office I learn from the Directory of that city for the year 1684; likewise at Trent in the same way, from the Proper of the Saints of the city and diocese of Trent of the year 1627; at Verona, from the ancient Monuments of the bishops of Verona and of other Saints whose relics are either preserved or whose temples are seen there, collected by Raffaele Bagata and Battista Peretti and put together by Bishop Agostino Valier, page 26. The Order for reciting the divine Office according to the rite of the cathedral church of Padua, published in the year 1684 under Gregorio Barbarigo, and likewise in the year 1699 under Giorgio Cornaro, bishops of Padua and Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, prescribes that the feast of St. Justina, virgin and martyr and patroness of the city, be celebrated with a double Office of the first class with an Octave.

[12] dominion she is From the Venetian Directory of the year 1683, moreover, I have it that not only is the 7th day of October kept as a feast by the Venetians in honour of St. Justina, but also that a solemn procession is held to the temple dedicated to her which she has at Venice: this the Venetian senate decreed in the year 1571 to be held perpetually every year on this day, on account of the most splendid victory which in that year the allied fleets of the Venetians and of other Christian princes, under the auspices of John of Austria, most happily won over the Turks at the Echinades islands on the very day of St. Justina: concerning which Pietro Giustiniani, in the History of Venice from the founding of the city to the year 1675, book 16, page 345 of the Strasbourg edition of the year 1611, writes thus: "After these things, the memory of so great a victory (there explained more at length) sitting in the minds of the fathers, a law was passed in the senate that, the day of St. Justina being entered among the feasts, every year the prince and the senate in the broad stripe and toga should go to her temple, there to render thanks to the divine clemency. Soon a coin was struck, on one side of which the virgin Justina remains engraved with an image of her body standing upright, with these letters written around: I will be mindful of thee, Justina, virgin." Cavacio explains the whole matter briefly in book 6, page 289 and following, at the year 1571, whose words I therefore transcribe here; from which we learn besides that St. Justina was then entered by the Venetians among the patrons of the Republic.

[13] "From a notable victory," says Cavacio, "as the year was drawing to its close, famous. the name and cult of St. Justina became more illustrious. The Turks, leading a very large fleet of two hundred beaked galleys and of smaller vessels, bore down at the Echinades islands upon the opposing fleet of the allies on the very day sacred to the virgin Justina. This fleet, assembled at the urging of Pope Pius the Fifth from his own ships, the Spanish, the Venetian, and auxiliaries, although it was smaller in the number of beaked galleys, yet far greater in the valour of its soldiers and in the equipment of all things, desired battle. The fight was fierce and long, above all between the flagship galleys, where on both sides the lives of the commanders, the victory and the fortune of Italy were at stake. It was doubtful, and the battle was renewed more than once on both sides, in which at length the leaders of the Turks were slain, and the other ships either burned or taken. One

Uluch Ali, the trierarch, escaped with five and twenty beaked galleys. Two things above all brought forth that victory: the wind, which at the beginning of the battle ceased to blow against the allies, and another, which arose from the West against the Turks; and six loftier beaked galleys of the Venetians, equipped with every kind of ordnance, which, going before each wing and the centre of the line, broke up the ranks of the opposing fleet with repeated blows of their guns. By that victory the Venetian avenged the wrong of the kingdom (of Cyprus) snatched from him, and drove off the ruin threatening all Italy. He likewise received the virgin Justina among the Guardians of the Republic, and decreed that every year sacrifice should be offered perpetually in her temple in the presence of the senate, and that silver coins should be struck, bearing the image of Justina and the inscription: I will be mindful of thee, Justina, virgin." Of this notable victory let these things suffice for now: more is said on this day among the Passed Over. Now of the sacred buildings and monasteries raised to St. Justina.

[14] Of these by far the most celebrated are the Paduan temple of St. Justina and the monastery of the Benedictine Order, A temple at Venice, of which, however, I have resolved to discourse nothing in this place, intending to do so more conveniently elsewhere, where the translations of the body of St. Justina, which rests there, will have to be treated. I begin with the temple which, as I have already said, was raised to her at Venice: its origin is adorned with added circumstances that are indeed wondrous, but not sufficiently established with certainty, as not rarely happens in these matters. It is the tradition of the Venetians that St. Magnus, first bishop of Oderzo and then of Heraclea, about the middle of the seventh century, either by his exhortation or by his labour raised eight churches at Venice; for which reason his feast is celebrated in them with great solemnity on the 6th day of October. "Among those churches," says Flaminio Cornaro, a man conspicuous in the Venetian Republic for his senatorial office and his learning, in volume XI of the Venetian Church illustrated from ancient monuments, page 199, "the sixth in order is reckoned which is distinguished by the title of St. Justina, martyr of Padua; for the same holy Virgin (as an ancient Lectionary of the ducal basilica relates), 'appearing to the holy bishop surrounded by a cloud, asked that a temple be built for her in the' Venetian 'city in the place where he should see a vine putting forth new fruit.' And so when the holy man had found at the furthest part of the city a vine sprouting new clusters, he had a church, established with the aid of pious people, built in that same place, which from its beginning was constituted the parish of the neighbouring houses." But although St. Magnus may have had that church founded, he will not so easily believe the apparition of St. Justina and the wonder of the vine sprouting in unwonted fashion who remembers how frequently in former times, above all with the lapse of time, circumstances were fastened upon the beginnings of churches and monasteries in which there was more of wonder than of truth. As for the Lectionary, although I would not doubt that it is ancient, since the praised Cornaro asserts it, I do not know whether it is ancient enough to prove a thing which must have happened as early as the seventh century.

[15] where a rock showing the prints of her knees is said to be preserved, Nor would I dare to establish anything more certain concerning the rock preserved at Venice in the church of St. Justina, on which St. Justina, when she was about to be seized by the soldiers and leapt down from her vehicle, implored the help of God on her knees and left the prints of her knees impressed; although this inscription is carved in the marble: "It has been handed down to us from the ancients by undoubted succession that this is that rock on which Justina the virgin impressed the print of her kneeling, made for the prayer she offered before her martyrdom; which we have caused to be placed here for the devotion of the faithful, 1462, on the 20th day of August." For since the Acts themselves of St. Justina were not written before the tenth or the twelfth century, and from tradition perhaps corrupted by the lapse of time, it cannot be affirmed with certainty that even the miracle itself ever happened; nay, Tillemont, praised at number 3, mocks it as worthy of Metaphrastes. As for the tradition on account of which that stone was set into the wall of the church beneath the pulpit in the year 1462, it could indeed be called ancient at that time; but it could at the same time have been born only from the written Acts of St. Justina or from the finding of her body, and have gradually found credence among the less cautious: and since these things happened many centuries after the martyrdom of St. Justina, that tradition does not have such force and authority that it would be wrong to call it into doubt. To this is added that nowhere, where the finding of the body of St. Justina or the restoration of her church at Padua is treated, is any mention made of that rock; so that it seems wholly unknown at what time it first came to men's notice and began to be celebrated in common talk. And if that tradition seemed undoubted to those who were the authors of placing the stone there, this proves their good faith, not the truth of the tradition.

[16] she has one dedicated to her, The Venetian church of St. Justina underwent many vicissitudes, which I draw together from the fuller narrative of Flaminio Cornaro, volume XI, from page 188. Having at first been only a parish church, it afterwards (at what time is uncertain) became a collegiate church, as Flaminio proves from a letter of Innocent III given in the 10th year of his Pontificate, of Christ 1207. Many centuries after it was founded, Hugolinus, Cardinal of Ostia, legate of the Pontifical See, consecrated it and adorned it with Indulgences in the year 1219, as an ancient inscription cut in stone testifies. By the end of the fourteenth century it had already passed into a Priory, and had as Prior, from the year 1390 at least to the year 1402, Andrea Parassu. Afterwards it passed to the Brigittine Order, which administered it in the year 1429. Not long after, with the assent of Nicholas V, it was granted together with a small monastery to the nuns of Blessed Mary of the Angels of Murano, through the care and zeal of Francesco Barbaro. These splendidly restored the monastery and entered it in the year 1453, and were enriched with privileges by Callixtus III in the year 1458. The care of souls was entrusted to a Chaplain-curate, whose election lies with the nuns, as the praised Flaminio likewise shows from the records he adduces. He adds finally that the temple of St. Justina in the year 1500 collapsed in great part, but, quickly restored by the pious liberality of several senators and of Girolamo de Zuane, was consecrated by Domenico Zono, bishop of Kissamos, in the year 1514 on the 14th day of May, not, as the inscription reported by Flaminio has it, "In the Year of the Lord 1522, on the second Sunday of May, the 15th day"; and that Perpetua Pasqualigo, prioress of the monastery, adorned it and gave it a more beautiful form in the year 1600. Flaminio rightly assigns the year 1514, the 14th day of May, to the consecration of the church of St. Justina, in which year the Dominical letter was A and accordingly the 14th day of May was a Sunday: whereas in the year 1522 the Dominical letter was E, and the 15th day of May was the fifth weekday after the second Sunday of the same month. But let these things said of the Venetian temple of St. Justina suffice; whoever wishes will find more in the praised Flaminio.

[17] At Ferrara too, which is a city of Emilia, St. Justina has a church dedicated to her: and at Ferrara in Emilia; Marco Antonio Guarini, in book 2, page 57 and following, on the Churches of Ferrara, writes that it was founded in the upper part of the city and in the district of the citadel of Tedaldo, toward the West, by the monks of Monte Cassino under the Pontificate of St. Leo the Third, who held the Chair of St. Peter from the month of December of the year 795 to the year 816, and united to the abbey of St. Justina of Padua; which indeed makes me judge that it was dedicated to this holy Virgin and not to any other of the same name, although Guarini does not assert it in express words. He adds that beside it two hospitals were raised for the care of the poor sick, administered for some time indeed with great praise for charity, but neglected in his own age: that the care of souls was always exercised in it, whose last rector died in the year 1583; but afterwards, on the occasion of the seminary raised by Paolo Leoni of Padua, bishop of Ferrara, in the year 1584, the care of souls was transferred to St. Mary the New and St. Blaise; and that the church is today subject to the parish church of St. Blaise.

[18] A monastery sacred to St. Justina occurs in Franciotti, On the Miraculous Images and the Lives of the Saints but a monastery at Lucca in Tuscany: whose relics rest at Lucca in Tuscany: he writes here, at page 503, that in the monastery of St. Justina at Lucca the head of St. Justina is preserved: but lest the reader should perhaps take occasion from this to confound two holy Virgins into one, he adds this in Italian: "Not indeed of her of Padua, in whose honour their church (that of the nuns of the Order of St. Benedict) is dedicated; but of the Antiochene, who underwent martyrdom at Nicomedia." In what year and by whom it was founded I do not know: but Ughelli speaks of it thus in volume 1 of Sacred Italy, column 826, where he treats of Baldassare, bishop of Lucca: "In the times of this bishop the nuns of St. Cerbo of the Cistercian Order came together into one community with the nuns of St. Justina in the year 1442." The monastery of St. Cerbo or Cerbonius was two miles distant from the city of Lucca; and, being about the year 1440 greatly diminished in revenues and in the number of nuns, it was transferred to the Franciscan Fathers by the authority of Eugene IV, as may be seen in the letter of that same Pontiff Eugene on the matter, of the year 1443, in Wadding, volume XI of the Annals of the Minors, page 445. Francesco Gonzaga, Minister General of the Franciscan Order, also mentions these things in his Work on the Origin etc. of his Order, printed at Rome in the year 1587, part 2, convent 21 of the province of Tuscany, page 246: but a double error has crept into that passage; one indeed, by which Friar John the Discalced is said, with the assent of Eugene IV, to have occupied the monastery of St. Cerbonius in the year 1540, which I have already said happened about the year 1440: the other, by which the Cistercian nuns are said to have been transferred to the monastery of St. Christina of the Benedictine Order: read "of Justinia," namely of Padua, from Cesare Franciotti.

[19] likewise, as appears, a temple at Brescia, Since Justina is held in the greatest veneration throughout the whole Venetian dominion, and is also venerated in the diocese of Brescia, as was said above, I think that to her too were consecrated the monastery, church, and oratories of which Bernardino Faino makes mention in his enumeration of the churches of the diocese of Brescia, divided for clarity's sake into eight districts. In District IV, page 231, after mentioning the parish church of Salò, he continues thus: "Within the bounds of this parish are venerated: The Church of St. Mary with the monastery of the Carmelite Friars. The Church of St. Justina with the house of the Regular clerics of the Congregation of Somasca, etc." In District 8, page 282, he has thus: "Oratory of the Body of Christ and of St. Justina in the country district of Rho." On the next page: "Oratory of St. Justina." And again on page 316, among the monasteries of men of the same diocese, he lists the monastery just mentioned in these words: "Of St. Justina of Salò, of the Fathers of the Congregation of Somasca." Augustin Lubin, in the brief Notice of the abbeys of Italy, page 181, mentions thus a certain Abbey under the title of St. Justina (of Padua, or of another?) situated in the kingdom of Naples: "Abbey of the title of St. Justina in the kingdom of Naples, of which about the year 1599 the abbot was Girolamo Stranio of Alessandria; as

Girolamo Ghilini relates in the Annals of Alessandria at this year, number 14." Cavacio, at page 75, mentions a certain church which he calls that of St. Justina of Laurano. Muratori, in volume 3 of the Italian Antiquities, Dissertation 34, reports a Bull of Pope Gregory IV of the year 828, in which likewise mention is made of a certain church of St. Justina, beyond doubt the Paduan, in this manner: "And also (we grant and confirm to Milo, abbot of St. Justina) the church built in honour of St. Justina, virgin and martyr of Christ, in the township which is called Corrizza." Although this Bull seems fictitious, it is not certain, however, that its inventor intruded into it a church which existed nowhere.

[20] and other sacred places, in other places throughout Italy: In the same volume of the Italian Antiquities, column 35 and the two following, there exists a certain charter ascribed to the patrician Opilio and dated in the year 793; in which a certain chapel situated in the city of Bologna is said to have existed, sacred to St. Justina, given by the same Opilio to the monastery of St. Justina at Padua. The words of the charter are: "And one chapel with its plot and with all its appurtenances within the city of Bologna, which is built in honour of St. Justina, virgin and martyr." In the year 793 the monastery of St. Justina perhaps did not yet exist (which will be examined below), and so the aforesaid chapel could not then have been given to it by Opilio; but whether that charter be genuine or spurious, I would not dare to say affirmatively that its author was so shameless as to invent a sacred building of St. Justina which was never known to have existed either in his own age or in that of his forebears. The same sacred building, under the name of a monastery (unless a monastery was added to the chapel after the year 793 and before the year 828), Gregory IV in the Bull cited a little before mentions thus: "One monastery, dedicated in honour of St. Justina, situated within the city of Bologna, with its plot and with every house of its tillage, both in the city itself and outside, with cottages, houses, buildings, and with all things pertaining to it in their entirety." But by the name of monastery here perhaps nothing is understood but a sacred building, for whose upkeep, adornment, or use cottages, a house, etc. were assigned. Of this Bolognese chapel or monastery I have so far found no mention elsewhere; but it may easily be that it truly existed once; although no records of this matter that are certain and undoubted perhaps survive today. In part 3, volume VI of the Thesaurus of the Histories of Italy, there is prefixed to the books of Bernardino Scardeone on Paduan Matters a geographical map of the Paduan territory, on which I find two places that took their name from St. Justina: one is a village not far from the town which has the name of Campo San Pietro; the other is a valley situated toward the river Adige, not far from the town of Rhodigium, in Italian Rovigo.

[21] From what has been said so far it can be concluded without difficulty but she is venerated by the Paduans as patroness. that Ferrari rightly said, as I was saying above, that the cult of St. Justina has prevailed above all throughout the Venetian dominion: and as regards the Paduans, they are accustomed to have recourse to St. Justina, their patroness, as to a most secure protection, above all if some public calamity should chance to fall upon them: of which matter take one or two examples from Pietro Savioli's Treasury of the city of Padua, pages 22 and 25. In the former place he has thus from the city's Records: "In the year 1575, while provision was pressing on account of the pestilence in the city, the magnificent Provisors of health, assembled in the palace of the residence of the Lord Podestà in the month of October together with the magnificent deputies in the name of the whole council, unanimously made most humble vows to the Most High for the deliverance of the fatherland and the preservation of the living, promising that immediately, once the disease of the epidemic was spent, they would make three processions, the first of them to the church of St. Justina, the second to the church of St. Anthony, and the third to St. Prosdocimus, with all the people, with all possible devotion, and especially the most illustrious rectors and the magnificent deputies and provisors of health, with lighted candles of 3 lb. * each at public expense, and, Mass having been celebrated, would offer those candles, etc." In the latter place: "On the third day of June 1631 the vows of the citizens were offered to obtain the divine mercy for the universal welfare, promising five silver statues, of the value in all of one thousand two hundred scudi, to be offered in procession, with the clergy and people and the confraternities accompanying with candles at their own expense the most sacred Body of Christ: namely, one of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the church of the Carmelites; two to the church of St. Justina, representing St. Prosdocimus and St. Justina, etc." In Girolamo Rossi, volume 8, part 1 of the Thesaurus of the histories of Italy, page 887, Litanies are seen that were customarily recited at Ravenna before the age of Gregory the Great, in which among the holy virgins St. Justina is invoked in this order: St. Christina, St. Valeria, St. Eulalia, St. Justina. Gian Domenico de Rubeis, in the Monuments of the church of Aquileia, page 682 and following, mentions Litanies written in the tenth century in the diocese of Trier and given as a gift in the thirteenth century by St. Elizabeth, widow of the Landgrave of Thuringia, to the canons of Cividale, into which, as Fontanini testifies in the Commentary on St. Columba, page 99, St. Justina is inserted in this order: St. Eulalia, St. Christina, St. Columba, St. Margaret, St. Scholastica, St. Euphemia, St. Justina. That in both it is St. Justina of Padua who is meant may in any case be conjectured from this, that she is joined with SS. Eulalia and Euphemia, as was also done by Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, cited at number 6.

* of three pounds

§ II. The lineage and martyrdom of St. Justina. Whether others suffered together with her.

The Saint is said to have been born He who described the martyrdom of St. Justina only in the tenth or perhaps the twelfth century, as we have said, from some surviving tradition or other, probably a monk of the monastery dedicated to the same Virgin at Padua, had not very much to teach posterity about her. He writes at number 3 that she was of Padua: that she was sprung of noble lineage he indicates at number 2, when he says that she excelled among women of high birth by the fame of her splendid character: that her parents were followers of the Christian faith he has at the same number; but he seems not to have known their names: for otherwise scarcely any reason appears why, had he had them ascertained, he should nevertheless have declared nothing about them. A fuller notice of St. Justina is presented by the Life of St. Prosdocimus, the first bishop of the Paduans, as they say, falsely ascribed to St. Maximus, the successor of St. Prosdocimus. St. Prosdocimus, as is read there, first attached himself to St. Peter at Antioch; under the reign of Claudius (who reigned 13 years and 8 months from the year of Christ 41) he came to Rome together with St. Peter and his disciples Mark and Apollinaris. St. Mark having been sent to Aquileia and Apollinaris to Ravenna for the sake of spreading the faith, St. Peter destined Prosdocimus for Padua, when he was only twenty years old, where he acted as bishop, if one cares to believe it, for ninety-three years, one month, and fifteen days.

[23] of her mother Prepedigna and her father Vitalianus, Having entered Padua, he healed by the sign of the cross the sick whom he met: at that time Vitalianus, king of Padua, as the Acts put it, chanced to be held fast by a disease; and when the fame of St. Prosdocimus had reached him, he summoned him and asked that he would restore to him also the health he had restored to others; promising that, if he did so, he and his whole household would take up the Christian rites. The condition pleased St. Prosdocimus, and he instructed the king with his people in the doctrines of the Christian faith, cleansed him in the sacred font, and restored him to his former soundness. Having thence obtained a free field for spreading the faith, he brought Padua and the neighbouring places over to Christ. Meanwhile King Vitalianus and his wife, by name Prepidigna (others call her Prepedigna or Perpedigna), hitherto without children, were blessed with a female offspring, whom St. Prosdocimus, having washed her in the sacred waters, named Justina, and then fashioned in every virtue. Here, then, you have both the names of St. Justina's parents and her royal lineage, which the other, anonymous writer either did not know or at any rate passed over; whose bodies or ashes are still today kept with honour in the temple of St. Justina, as can easily be understood from what will be said at number 136 and following; and from which some probability does indeed seem to accrue to the assertion of the anonymous writer of the Life of St. Prosdocimus.

[24] who he was is not clear, Of this Vitalianus, from whom certain Paduan writers say that the families of the Vitaliani and the Borromei derive their lineage, I have nowhere found mention among the ancient writers. Julius Capitolinus, on the three Gordians, records a Vitalianus, prefect of the praetorian soldiers under Maximinus, slain by order of the senate, a cruel man and like Maximinus; whom there is one who supposed to have been the father of St. Justina, in manuscript Annotations on the Life of St. Justina, which have come to us I know not whence or from whom: but neither the character of that Vitalianus, nor the manner of his death, nor the reckoning of the time in which he was alive seems to allow that he should be called the father of St. Justina. For whether St. Justina underwent martyrdom under Nero, as the Paduan writers commonly hold, or under Maximian, as others would have it, her father, who died before her, could not have been alive under Maximinus. For Nero was taken from among the living in the year of Christ 68, Maximinus in 237; whereas Maximian Herculius was taken into partnership of the empire by Diocletian about the year 285. Much less does the reckoning of time allow that St. Justina's father was the other Vitalianus who is mentioned in the same place, and who lived under the emperors Honorius and Theodosius. Finally, it is further still from the truth that the Vitalianus who flourished in the time of the Goths under Justinian was the father of St. Justina, as, according to Cavacio, book 2, seemed to Cornelio Musso, bishop of Bitonto.

[25] But as for what you hear from the writer of the Life of St. Prosdocimus, that Vitalianus, the father of St. Justina, was king of Padua, a king of Padua, as they fable: ascribe it without hesitation to the bent of a fabulist: for it is customary and pleasant to men of this kind, in ancient and obscure matters, although they are for the most part destitute of all testimony, to use great names in order to stir the readers' admiration or to fetch splendour for their own affairs. Hear Cavacio, the historiographer of the monastery of St. Justina, refuting the fable of the kingdom of Padua in these words: "He (Vitalianus, to whom elsewhere he adds the name Justinus), the chief of the Paduan senate or of the highest authority with it, obtains among some historians, with little skill, the name of king, than which nothing is more inept, since from what has been said the opinion of a kingdom of Padua has been exploded, and it is plain (which he had proved a little before by adducing testimonies of the ancients) that the city had adhered to the Roman empire long before. But if, while their republic was flourishing, you read of scarcely any other king among the Italians after Porsenna, king of the Etruscans; and in Livy (Decade 3, book 7) Scipio affirms that the royal name, great elsewhere, is intolerable at Rome, to whom

with what ears would the Caesars, who aspired to the monarchy of the world, have received it?" Let St. Justina's father, then, if we wish to use a more probable conjecture, have been either governor of some Roman province, or praetor, or chief of the magistracy of Padua, or at least of the number of the more honoured nobles: but with what particular dignity he was distinguished, who could divine?

[26] We have already seen the writer of the Life of St. Prosdocimus in Mombritius talking nonsense: at what time now behold him at war with himself. About the middle of the first century of Christ, as follows from his words, St. Prosdocimus came to Padua, where he not only cleansed St. Justina in the sacred font but also committed her to the earth when she had been taken out of this life by martyrdom. But by whose order does he write that this was done? "But the most impious and most cruel Maximian," he says, "hearing of the death of King Vitalianus, burning with lust for the most blessed virgin Justina, entered Padua at a rapid pace, and, sending his soldiers, had the holy Virgin brought before him, so that, abandoning the worship of the Christian name, he might compel her to sacrifice to idols and might enjoy her bed. She, since she had come to love the delights of the eternal Bridegroom, and counted as nothing the splendour that was promised by an earthly bridegroom, gold, silver, men-servants and maid-servants, was tortured with divers punishments, and, wounded by a sword thrust into her side, happily departed to Christ. But Maximian quickly returned to Rome." Both the cruelty and the lust of Maximian Herculius, colleague of Diocletian, are most notorious from Lactantius, book On the Deaths of the Persecutors, chapter 8; and since the aforesaid author well knew that he had reigned in the West, he said that soon after the martyrdom of St. Justina was accomplished he set out for Rome, the seat of the Western empire: whence I scarcely doubt that by the name of Maximian he meant Herculius, the colleague of Diocletian: nay, a little below he expressly calls him the emperor Maximian: but since this man began to reign only as the third century was declining, how could St. Prosdocimus, even granting to Prosdocimus' episcopate not merely 93 years but many more, have buried Justina, slain under Maximian, and have written down her Passion, as he relates a little after?

[27] she underwent martyrdom, whether under Nero, Peter of Equilio saw this; and for that reason, describing the martyrdom of St. Justina in book 9, chapter 32, he says that Vitalianus, king of Padua and father of St. Justina, was succeeded by a certain Maximian, not that colleague of Diocletian, emperor in the West, but another and older one, of the same name as he, namely, and king only of the Paduan district, by whose order St. Justina was put to death. But that opinion about kings of Padua under the Roman emperors has already been exploded. And if you should wish to make this Maximian either governor or praetor of some province, or chief of the Paduan senate, or to adorn him with some other such dignity not royal, nothing indeed will stand in the way of some such Maximian having been able to exist in the first or second century of Christ; but it is neither to be affirmed nor necessarily believed without a witness. Some have substituted for Maximian the emperor Maximinus: but even so, in Cavacio's judgment, whatever true things are narrated of St. Justina collapse. For Maximinus, as Cavacio says, did not seize the empire before the year 236; to whose times St. Prosdocimus, having died about the time of Pope St. Telesphorus and Antoninus Pius, that is, when the second century of Christ had advanced to about the year 40, as the author of his Life writes, could not have reached. Cavacio, who supposes that Maximian was praetor of neighbouring Cisalpine Gaul, or some military tribune or prefect of a legion, sent by Nero to check the progress of the Christian faith throughout those regions, binds the martyrdom of St. Justina to the last year of Nero.

[28] or under Maximian, "That Justina suffered in the last year of Nero," he says, "we conjecture from the reckoning of the times from the arrival of St. Prosdocimus. He arrived in the 4th year of Claudius Caesar (so the author of his Life writes), from which to the last year of Nero 24 are counted. The Acts of St. Prosdocimus, whatever they may be worth, hint that she was born in the seventh or eighth year after her parents' conversion. That she suffered in her youth is testified by the relics inspected not many years ago, which show a slight body scarcely beyond the years of girlhood. And so if we give her an age of 16 or 17 years, we arrive at the time of the martyrdom, namely the year of Christ 68." So indeed Cavacio: but nothing certain occurs here either: first, because the opinion according to which St. Justina suffered under Nero was born only in a more recent age: certainly, at whatever time the Acts both of St. Justina and of St. Prosdocimus were written, the tradition seems to have then prevailed among the Paduans that she was believed to have suffered under the emperor Maximian; since the authors of both expressly name him. Next, it seems doubtful whether St. Justina and St. Prosdocimus lived in the same age; for no mention is made of Prosdocimus in the Acts of St. Justina to be published below; nay, although those Acts were foisted on St. Maximus, she is said at number 7 to have been buried not by Prosdocimus but by Christians in general. Thirdly, finally, it is not sufficiently clear, whatever Acts of slight or no credit may say, that St. Prosdocimus lived in the age of the emperors Claudius and Nero. "The Paduans," says Tillemont, volume 5 of the Ecclesiastical Memoirs, page 140, "make him their first bishop because they know of none older": he might therefore perhaps have lived in the age of Maximian, if the things narrated about his close bond with St. Justina are true. Nor indeed have I found the contrary established among the Paduan writers by an argument sufficient to remove all doubt on the matter. For these reasons, at the beginning of the Commentary, I placed the martyrdom of St. Justina under the emperors Nero or Maximian, but doubtfully.

[29] But if it be determined that she suffered under Maximian, and it be asked whether she fell at the end of the third century or at the beginning of the fourth, is uncertain: the place and manner of the martyrdom it seems more probable to Baillet that, on the hypothesis we have stated, her martyrdom took place rather at the beginning of the fourth century than at the end of the third: he so judged, as far indeed as appears, because he had read in Peter of Equilio that Maximian, when he ordered St. Justina to be killed, came to Padua from Milan; and since he resided there for some time before laying down the fasces of empire there in the year 305, it seemed probable to him that St. Justina's martyrdom could be fixed to the year 304, six or seven months before the empire was abdicated by Maximian. But the author of the Life of St. Prosdocimus writes that Maximian, when St. Justina had been slain, returned to Rome, and thus hints that he had come to Padua from Rome: while the writer of the Martyrdom of St. Justina is silent as to whence he set out for Padua: the slight and insufficiently consistent authority of these authors therefore causes this too to lie wholly hidden. On the other circumstances of St. Justina's martyrdom the authors agree, namely on the place and the manner of death. They say she was slain in the Campus Martius, which, having put off its heathen name, has put on the name of the Prato della Valle New Meadow, then indeed situated outside the city, where now a most wealthy temple dedicated to her is seen: and she perished, or rather began to live in heaven, with her breast pierced through by the sword. Scardeone says, book 2, class 6, that there exists in her temple an epitaph of the holy Martyr on a stone tablet, but, as can easily be gathered from what has been said, partly uncertain and partly false: it runs thus: "Here rests the body of blessed Justina, virgin and martyr of Christ, who was the daughter of Vitalianus, king of Padua, and was slain with the sword under the emperor Maximian, and buried by St. Prosdocimus; but afterwards, from the title of Concord, the Basilica was dedicated to Justina."

[30] Orsato, in book 1, part 1 of the Italian History of Padua, at the year of Christ 79, describes somewhat more distinctly the arena of St. Justina's contest and the place of her burial, not so doubtful. That others too suffered with her from whom take the following: "St. Justina, struck with a mortal blow, ordered herself to be carried from the bridge to that place in which, as the ancient tradition of the Paduans holds, a small chapel is seen, on the left side as one goes toward the gate of the city of the Ponte Corvo, so called from that bridge." The antiquity of this tradition I do not know: it does not seem, however, to have prevailed at the time when the Acts of St. Justina were written. Read number 6 of the Acts below; there indeed you will find that the side of St. Justina was pierced as she knelt: but you will not find that, having received the mortal wound, St. Justina wished to be carried elsewhere; nay rather, on the contrary, that she remained for an hour in the same place where she had received the wound, with eyes raised to heaven (although this, as we have said, seems little credible), and there gave back her spirit to God: neither Peter of Equilio nor the writer of the Life of St. Prosdocimus makes any mention of St. Justina being carried to another place when about to die: it seems more probable, therefore, that St. Justina, already lifeless, and the slayers having gone off elsewhere, was carried from the place of martyrdom to the place of her burial. And she was buried by St. Prosdocimus, as Orsato and others commonly write, in the Oratory which he had raised here to the Virgin Mother of God, not far from the place of martyrdom. For the rest, the same Orsato writes that rage was not then directed against St. Justina alone, but also indiscriminately against others who professed the Christian faith at Padua at that time, God, however, withdrawing St. Prosdocimus, bishop of Padua, from the swords of the persecutors for the good of his flock.

[31] the following history in some measure persuades. The biographers of St. Justina and of Prosdocimus say nothing indeed of that band of martyrs slain for the faith on the same occasion as St. Justina: yet the bodies of many martyrs found beside the same oratory of the Virgin in the nearby temple of St. Justina make the matter in some measure probable; and Cavacio, about to describe their finding at the year 1269, prefaces thus: "At that time above all we suppose the thing to have happened which, related among the Histories of this monastery and celebrated by ancient tradition among the citizens, yet through the fault either of the times or of the writers does not express the year in which it was done, although, written with the greatest good faith, it corresponds excellently with the place, the memory, and the things that followed." Then Cavacio follows out the history of the event in his own style: we here present the source itself from a manuscript, at whose end these words are subjoined: "History taken from the Chronicles of St. Justina of Padua of the Cassinese Congregation, otherwise of St. Justina of Padua, from the book whose title is: 'The Passion of Blessed Justina and the Life of St. Prosdocimus, as well as Legends of other Saints, of the monastery of St. Justina.' I, Dom Filippo of Venice, librarian, affirm as above." The title of the History is this: "History of the revelation of the holy Martyrs resting in the church of St. Justina of Padua before the choir, which revelation, namely, is celebrated (as a movable feast) on the Monday before the day of the Ascension of the Lord": and the history itself is conceived in these words.

[32] A woman of Verona, by the Blessed Virgin, There was a certain venerable woman, a native of the town of Verona, by name Jacoba, devoted to God, who from the earliest time of her youth began to serve the Lord. Persisting always in prayers day and night, she chastised her body with fasts and vigils, succoured the poor and orphans, and, persisting excellently in many other virtues, so passed through the age of youth. At length by the Lord Jesus Christ, before death

she paid the debt, she merited to be consoled with this revelation. On a certain day, then, after the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, hearing what indulgence from penalty and from guilt had been granted by the supreme Pontiff (Alexander III) at Venice on the day of His Ascension in the church of St. Mark the Evangelist, and confirmed by his successors, she desired to visit it. And so she many times purposed this in her heart, and longed with all her strength to fulfil it, and from her substance, which the Lord had bestowed on her, she prepared the necessaries. At last, one night before she was to set out on the journey, having finished the prayers which she was accustomed to offer to the most high God, she was taken with the slumber of sleep; and while all things rested in the midst of silence, and the night was making the journey of its course, there appeared the blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, accompanied by a multitude of angels, and, addressing her thus, said: "O woman, what are you doing? What have you been turning over in your mind? For I have perceived that you wish to travel elsewhere for indulgences. But arise more quickly, and go to the city which is called Padua, to the church of St. Justina: there through you the Lord Jesus Christ is about to show His glory to His faithful, and there you will obtain true indulgence."

[33] The woman, hearing these things, was astounded, thinking it was a phantasm, that relics of Martyrs and said: "Who are you, who even now do these things?" For she had not yet recognized that it was blessed Mary. The glorious Virgin answered her, saying: "I am the Mother of Jesus Christ; doubt nothing in me, daughter, but fulfil steadfastly what I shall say." The woman said: "Speak, my sweetest Lady, for thy handmaid heareth." Blessed Mary said to her: "There is indeed in that same church a certain circle before the choir, situated in the middle of the church, constructed in mosaic work, under which rest many bodies of Saints who merited to receive the crown of martyrdom for the faith of Christ; for whose merits and in reverence of whom you will there obtain a very great indulgence, you and all who shall flock thither devoutly and with contrite heart. Whence know that it pleases the most high God which * the birthday of those same Saints, who washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb and made them white, be solemnly celebrated in reverence and memory of them, and that their memory be kept for ever. Wherefore arise more quickly, and do not delay; do what I tell you, that the grace of God may be ever with you": and, saying these things, she withdrew herself from her eyes.

[34] The woman, roused from sleep and awakened in the morning, began to think and turn over in her mind this vision, lie hidden in the temple of St. Justina how blessed Mary had appeared to her; and so, pondering in her heart within herself, she was much astounded, and said: "Who am I, that the Virgin Mary, the Mother of my Lord, should deign to speak to me? Not indeed by my merits, but by her grace and for the sake of the revelation of these Saints." Behold, what great grace this devout woman merited *, while still in this wretched prison-house of the flesh, to be consoled with this revelation through so great and such a messenger, only because she daily rendered diligent service to the Lord and placed her hope wholly in Him, adorned with good works, according to that saying of the Psalmist Prophet: "Hope in the Lord, and do good"; for there are some who hope vainly in the Lord and do not at all act according to the works of goodness. But this venerable woman not only hoped but also did good, since she persisted assiduously in fasts, vigils, and prayers, and other splendid virtues. Therefore in her hope she found what she sought: she obtained what she desired, because she persevered in knocking, holding a burning lamp in her hands.

[35] And while she was thus at rest in her house, the blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her again in a vision, in the same form in which she had appeared before, she is taught; and, coming to Padua, admonishing her to fulfil devoutly what she had revealed to her. And rising in the morning from her bed, she remembered the vision, and, preparing for herself the necessaries and commending herself to the Lord, and invoking the Mother of God that she would deign ever to be present with her (what more?), she set out on the journey in peace. And drawing near to the city of Padua, before she entered, fortifying herself with the banner of the most exalted Cross, she commended herself to the Lord with her whole heart; for it was the Monday next before the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. And entering the city, breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, for very great joy at the wonderful vision, forthwith rebuking in fervour of spirit, she began to cry out with loud voices and to say: "O my sons, praise the Lord Jesus Christ, for He has deigned this day to visit His people in this city; arise, arise, leave your handiwork and practise the things of the Church. Arise, and hallow the church of St. Justina. Come and see the works of God, for they are wonderful. There truly you will obtain pardon of your sins with a contrite and humbled heart. Lift up your heads; behold, the kingdom of God has drawn near to you." And saying these things, she asked where the church of St. Justina was. For many, hearing this, mocked her as insane in mind, and held her up as a fool in their talk. And the boys, led by the example of their elders, harassing her, declared that she was out of her mind.

[36] she points out the place of the relics, Others, who had a sounder mind, asserted: "Perhaps God has inspired her; let us see what she says, and, if it be true, let us believe her." And saying this, they rebuked the others to be silent, and followed her, to see the end of the matter. But the venerable woman, as a vessel of the Holy Spirit, cared nothing for these things, as if she had not heard, and did not cease to rebuke them that they should hallow this day and cease from the works of their hands and hasten to the church. Having been told, then, where the church was situated, she hastened in haste, as if she were walking invited to heavenly joys. And when she saw the church, filled with immense joy, kneeling in the middle of the way, she began to bless God, and said: "Blessed art Thou, God of our fathers, in Thy gifts, who thus glorifiest Thy servants; strengthen me, and deign to carry out in deed what Thou hast revealed to my ears; hear me, good Jesus, ruler of my life, who livest and reignest blessed for ever." Having said this, she rose and made for the church; and as soon as she entered, she visited the holy altars, looking through the church to see whether she might see the sign which the Lord had shown her in the vision. At length, coming before the choir, she saw the sign which had been shown to her; and, that she might be certain of it, she bought twelve candles from a certain man who was then accustomed to sell them in the church for the sake of his livelihood, sitting at the basin of holy water, who sprinkled those coming to the church, asking alms.

[37] miracles winning the woman credence: When she had received them (the candles), she (the woman) set them round about the circle itself, unlit, and so prayed to the Lord, all standing by, kneeling in the middle of the circle before the Crucifix, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, king of eternal glory, I implore Thy boundless mercy that, if the things are true which Thou hast most kindly shown me in a vision through Thy glorious Mother the Virgin Mary, all these candles may be lit together in an instant." Scarcely had she finished speaking when all those candles were forthwith lit. As a flower is brought forth from a tree, so light sprang forth from them; and all the bells that were in the church, at God's bidding, gave forth sound of themselves, as if they were rung by others. The monks, hearing this, and above all those who had the care of the church, ran together to see this spectacle. They heard the sound indeed, but saw no one ringing. Whence they wondered not a little. And the bells rang of themselves as long as those candles were burning. The multitude, seeing these signs, praised God, saying: "For God hath visited His people." Also not a few, oppressed by various infirmities, restored to their former health, returned to their homes rejoicing.

[38] So greatly did this miracle, God assenting, please all the people, hence the day of the event is a feast, and such devotion grew in them, that this day is held as a solemn feast even to the present day. As this fame grew strong, the neighbours of the townships and castles, and also of the adjacent cities, hearing of it, devoutly drawn, flocked together in crowds, and very many diligently kept the night watches; and very often, so increased was their multitude, the church could scarcely *. The venerable woman, these things accomplished, not long after, acting confidently in the name of the Lord, rested in peace, and was devoutly buried by Catholic men, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom be praise, honour, and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. To these Cavacio, cited at number 31, adds: "The annual solemnity of this revelation is kept on the third day before the feast of the Ascension, which Ungarelli writes was called in his age the feast day of the foolish woman. Now it is kept only by the piety of the monks, but is otherwise almost unknown among the citizens. The same author relates that the sacred well (whose sign was the circle mentioned above) was covered over by the bishop of Padua with a marble frieze of excellent workmanship, lest it be trodden by the feet of those approaching, and an inscription was added: 'Here rest the bones of innumerable holy Martyrs.' The frieze exists; the inscription has perished.

[39] "The monks afterwards surrounded the place with iron gratings; and the place began to be held in veneration by the faithful. yet neither that age nor a later one dared to dig or open the well. But our forefathers, surveying the nearby places, found there a most ancient cemetery, in which tombs are seen like tunnels, and in these the bones of martyrs, of which we have heaped many above the mouth of the well, for consolation and to rouse the piety of those praying. The descent there is quite deep, and the place perpetually damp. Yet it breathes forth much holiness, so that no one going down there does not come up more devout toward the Saints of God. Some years ago the Most Serene Duke of Bavaria, Maximilian, when returning from Rome to his country, asked for relics from these, and received them." Of blessed (whether he rightly calls her Blessed, let him see to it) Jacoba I have so far found nothing, except a little in Scardeone, who writes that she departed by a holy end at Padua and received a tomb in our temple. And such indeed is the history of the finding of these Martyrs, although I would not wish to offer myself as surety for the several circumstances with which it is adorned; but since it is not clear whether they underwent martyrdom separately or together with St. Justina, or in what age, we have not dared to give them as companions of St. Justina either in this place or in the title of this Commentary. Let us return to St. Justina, from whom the digression was made.

* read: quod that

* supply: quæ meruit who merited

* opere in deed

* perhaps: illas them

* supply: capere to hold them

§ III. The temple of St. Justina founded by Opilio: at what time he flourished.

Of the temple of St. Justina, In §1 of this Commentary, number 14, mention was made of the temple which was formerly in the Campus Martius to the name of St. Justina

raised near Padua: if it was consecrated by St. Prosdocimus, as indeed his biographer writes, the cult of the holy Virgin must have taken its beginning soon after her martyrdom, or certainly not very long after it: but from what has been said, not even the century in which St. Justina offered her blood to Christ is established; and so, much less the time at which that temple was founded. The writer of the Life of St. Prosdocimus, who held that St. Justina was slaughtered by order of the emperor Maximian, says that the temple of which we speak was built under Constantine the Great, when peace had been restored to the Church, and this fits his opinion well enough; but what he says besides, that it was consecrated by St. Prosdocimus, who came to Padua in the fourth year of the emperor Claudius, or, according to Labbe, in the forty-fourth year of the common Christian era (unless this be an addition of a more recent hand), is plainly in itself incapable of being true. On his view, therefore, either the consecration of the temple of St. Justina, the upbringing of the holy Virgin, and the conversion of her parents to the faith must be taken away from St. Prosdocimus; or his arrival at Padua must be put off at least to the third century. Of those who believe that St. Justina suffered under Nero, or in the first or second century of Christ, some would have it that the temple was raised to her in the same centuries; others, on the contrary, as do those also who hold that she was slain under Maximian, contend that this happened far later.

[41] [whose epoch was not well ascertained even by the monks of St. Justina themselves.] What the monks of St. Justina thought on this matter in the sixteenth century is shown by a monument erected to him (as Sertorio Orsato writes, On the Monuments of Padua, book 1, section 1, page 14) on the walls of the great temple of St. Justina, at the right of the High Altar, in this form: "To the memory of the most illustrious man Opilio Piccauro, most noble Paduan, father of the fatherland and Roman patrician, who, when under the emperor Hadrian, about the year of Christ 137, by divine inspiration he had consecrated the old temple which was Concord's to St. Justina the Martyr, having added this most ample monastery from its foundations and enriched it with very many resources, willed to be buried in the most august chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary near blessed Prosdocimus; the monks of the Cassinese congregation, mindful, set this up, 1561." But more than one error is committed here: for, besides that Opilio was more probably neither a Piccauro by family nor a Paduan by fatherland, nor lived under the reign of Hadrian, nor finally was a monastery added to the temple of St. Justina from the first, which will be discussed more fully below, the year of the founding of the temple of St. Justina asserted in the monument rests only on that opinion or tradition by which St. Justina is believed to have suffered martyrdom in the first or second century of Christ; but this, as we said above, is wholly uncertain and not consistent enough, as follows both from the biographers of St. Prosdocimus and St. Justina and from the stone tablet which Scardeone writes, book 2, class 6, existed in his time in the temple of St. Justina, inscribed with the words transcribed at number 29: for since according to them St. Justina was visited with martyrdom when the third century was verging to its end, or at the beginning of the next, or under the emperor Maximian, and Hadrian flourished in the second century of Christ, it could not have happened, according to the same writers, that Opilio had the temple dedicated to her under Hadrian.

[42] But before I report the opinions of others on the time of the founding of the temple of St. Justina, its founder is said to have been a certain Opilio I shall bring forward a stone monument dug out of the ruins of the old temple of St. Justina, on which the opinion of the more recent writers chiefly rests, from Cavacio, book 1 on the Monastery of St. Justina of Padua, at the year 421, where he presents and describes it in these words: "But from the diptychs of the bishops we are called back by the piety of Opilio, a man of consular rank, who at that time raised the temple of St. Justina. Of him there is a memorial among us from a stone carved in ancient characters, which, dug out of the ruins of the old temple, we preserve. It runs thus: '✠ Opilio, V. C. and inl. pp. adque patritius, with God's help completed this basilica or oratory in honour of St. Justina the martyr, begun from its foundations. ✠' The stone is triangular, and presented a tympanum above the architrave over a marble doorway. The inscription itself is contained in a central circle which represents a laurel wreath. Outside the circle on either side is a cross, from whose arm hang smaller crosses and the Greek characters Α and Ω. These indicate, as they do its piety, so also a rude age, in which the cultivation of letters and the principles of architecture had ceased." The same inscription is reported by Scardeone, but with certain things wrongly changed. But Orsato, praised above, page 12, presents an image of the stone and inscription entirely similar to Cavacio's description. Scardeone, book 3, class 13, has pe for the particle &; for adque he has atque; and the word patritius he wrote patricius. The other words agree.

[43] There is indeed no doubt that that stone was long ago set somewhere in the fabric of the temple of St. Justina, from an inscription not ancient enough: to preserve for posterity the memory of its founder or restorer; but at what time? Since its construction indicates a rude age, as Cavacio admits, and, as Orsato testifies, departs from the ancient Roman elegance, even from this it is sufficiently apparent that the inscription cut on it cannot be referred to the first or second century of Christ or to the age of the emperor Hadrian. Orsato adds that in that same age the purity of Latin speech had not yet so declined that Adque inlustris should be written for atque illustris. Besides the title of inlustris or illustrious man, he is also distinguished by the title of most illustrious man or consular (for the author of the inscription could designate either by the letters V. C.) and of patrician: and these began first to be used in the times of Constantine the Great, as Orsato says in the History of Padua, page 138: this is true, that Constantine the Great devised a certain new kind of patricians, if we believe Zosimus, who writes thus in book 2: "Optatus too being ordered to be slain with him, who had obtained the dignity of patrician from Constantine. This title of honour Constantine had first devised, and had decreed by a law passed that those who had attained it should sit above the praetorian prefects themselves." From Constantine, then, the word patrician was the name of a new dignity and office; but it had been used long before, nay, even from the time of Romulus; as may be read in Pitiscus in the Lexicon of antiquities. The record of the deeds of Augustus in Gruter, page 230, has thus: "I increased the number of the patricians": Inscription 1, page 403, was dedicated to Cn. Domitius, who lived in the time of Vespasian and Titus, "enrolled among the patricians," to say nothing of others occurring here and there in the same Gruter. Similarly the title of V. C., or most illustrious man, was also used before Constantine: thus Caelius Urbanus, consul of the year 234, is called most illustrious man in the inscription which he set up to his father: thus it runs in Reland, in the Consular Fasti, page 172: "To C. Caelius Saturninus, V. C., praetorian prefect, C. Caelius Urbanus, V. C., consular, set this up to his father." More strongly, therefore, does Orsato deny that the inscription was set up to Opilio in Hadrian's times, on account of the title inlustris ascribed to him, whose origin, though not so well ascertained, authors nonetheless confess to have arisen later. See Panciroli on the Notitia of the Eastern empire, chapter 2, Boulenger on the Roman empire, book 2, chapter 21, Pitiscus on that word.

[44] [Peter of Equilio and the writer of the Life of St. Prosdocimus relate uncertain things about Opilio's age,] Peter of Equilio, book 10, chapter 33, wrote that the temple of St. Justina was raised by Opilius the patrician and consecrated by St. Prosdocimus; whence it follows that in his opinion it already existed in the first or second century of Christ: his words are: "At the persuasion of the blessed bishop (Prosdocimus) a certain patrician, by name Opilius, a Christian, erected a church in honour of St. Justina the virgin over her body, and beside it built an oratory of the blessed Virgin: which church together with the oratory Bishop Prosdocimus consecrated." But it seems to have been raised in the time of Constantine the Great, in the mind of the author of the Life of St. Prosdocimus, in which he writes thus: "But at the next time, the most impious emperor Maximian being dead, in this city of Padua a certain patrician by name Opilius, a most Christian man, warned by a divine admonition, built a church in honour of St. Justina, and near it made of precious stones an oratory in honour of St. Mary: which church together with the oratory St. Prosdocimus consecrated": although what is read at the end of the Life of St. Prosdocimus cannot be reconciled with these words, namely that the holy bishop died under Antoninus Pius, as was observed above. But the time at which St. Justina suffered is uncertain from what has been said before: and these assertions rest on no legitimate vote of antiquity, nor are their authors such that credence should be given them. A certain Opilius seems to have lived in the age of Antoninus Pius according to a certain inscription of Solothurn, reported by Gruter, page 87, number 4, and conceived in these words: "To the Goddess Epona, M. Opilius Restio, soldier of the 22nd legion Antoniana P. P. F., immunis cos., in charge of the Salens., at the village of Solothurn, gave and dedicated this on the 22nd day before the Kalends of September, our Lord Antonius Augustus 11 and Sacerdos 11 being consuls; he paid his vow willingly and deservedly." But the first words of it show that this man was a heathen; nor do the titles fit the founder of the temple of St. Justina.

[45] [whom Cavacio, having corrected the text of Cassiodorus, makes consul of the year 453] The more recent writers twist themselves variously, but with less success than effort, to divine who this Opilio or Opilius was, who is called the founder of the temple of St. Justina, or in what age he lived. The name of Opilio, most illustrious man and consul in the West in the year 453, colleague of Vincomalus, consul in the East, is most celebrated in the Consular Fasti, in the Acts of the council of Angers in Labbe, volume 4 of the councils, column 1020, and in the letters of Leo the Great in Quesnel, volume 1, from page 608 to 639; this man Cavacio makes not only the founder of the church of St. Justina, but also the son of Aetius, the most celebrated war-leader under Valentinian, who routed Attila, king of the Huns, on the Catalaunian plains, and was slain either by order or by the hand of Valentinian: the son of Aetius, namely, from Cassiodorus, book 1 of the Variae, Letter 4, where Theodoric writes thus of the father, not, as Cavacio says, the grandfather, of Cassiodorus himself: "The father of this candidate (Cassiodorus) under the prince Valentinian filled laudably the dignity of tribune and notary … but, as equal spirits are wont to choose * one another, he was joined in great friendship with the patrician Aetius for the aiding of the commonwealth, whom the then master of affairs (Valentinian) followed in every part of counsel on account of his wisdom and his glorious labours in the commonwealth. To Attila, then, mighty in arms, he was sent with the son of the aforesaid, Carpilio, on the office of an embassy, not in vain." These are the words of Cassiodorus, or, if you prefer, of Theodoric

published by Garet: but Cavacio holds that for Carpilio we must read Opilio, for this reason alone, that there is no mention of Carpilio among the writers, but much of Opilio.

[46] But he maintains that Opilio, consul of the year 453, founded the temple of St. Justina, from the said inscription and a charter of the monastery of St. Justina: because everything which the monument adduced at number 42 contains about Opilio fits Opilio, consul in the year 453, exceedingly well. "That Opilio," he says, "was a distinguished man and had previously discharged many magistracies is taught by the titles which are inscribed to him on the stone above. The title of most illustrious man is frequently read among the chronologers for those who obtained the consulship. St. Leo the Great gives the same to Opilio in the Letters which he issued during his consulship. The Acts of the council of Angers are also dated by the consulship of Opilio, V. C. I have him as illustrious from two Rescripts of the Augusti (Theodosius, Novel 35, and Valentinian, Novel 14), in which they call his dignity illustrious, while he was master of the offices. And although to one inquiring at what time he held the praetorian prefecture (for the stone expresses this dignity too) nothing has come up that satisfies the mind, yet when I read of him as consul, I infer for him also the praetorian prefecture and worthier offices, if any were conferred. The patrician dignity, which Zeno Augustus willed to be preferred to the other dignities, was given to those who had discharged the consulship or had administered the praetorian, the Illyrian, or the City prefecture. And so when the stone shows Opilio as patrician, you may believe the same man to have been praetorian prefect." And indeed, as Cavacio explains in more words, the most ample offices were owed to Opilio for his father's merits toward the Roman empire. To these, finally, are added old documents of the archive of the monastery of St. Justina, dated in the 15th year of Valentinian, by which Opilio bequeaths to the church of SS. Justina and Prosdocimus several estates, situated above all in the territory of Bologna.

[47] Cavacio's opinion has indeed a show of probability, but into Cassiodorus but nothing certain in which you may rest. That in Cassiodorus Opilio must be read for Carpilio, Onofrio Panvinio had already indicated before Cavacio in these words in his Commentary on book 3 of the Fasti: "But Opilio and Aetius the Younger, sons of Aetius, thrice consul, I have arranged from Cassiodorus as Western consuls." Cassiodorus indeed records Opilio as consul in his Chronicle; but whose son he was he declares neither there nor elsewhere: Panvinio, therefore, will have decreed on his own authority that he was the son of Aetius, the victor over Attila on the Catalaunian plains. Panvinio is mistaken in making Aetius, consul of the year 454, the son of Aetius, the adversary of Attila, who was slain by Valentinian in that same year: for Aetius, consul of the year 454, was not a Western but an Eastern consul, and the same who in the Alexandrian Chronicle, at the consulship of Monaxius and Plinta, in the year 419, is read to have been prefect of the city of Constantinople, praetorian prefect under Theodosius the Younger in the law of the Theodosian code on the imperial images, and to have been present at the council of Chalcedon in the year 451 together with Marcian Augustus, in Labbe, volume 4 of the Councils, column 575, as Pagi observes in the Critica: so that he could easily have been mistaken also when he called Opilio, consul in the West in the year 453, the son of Aetius, master of both services and victor over Attila.

[48] an error to have crept But as for what Cavacio says, that no mention of Carpilio is made among the writers, whereas there is much of Opilio; although the latter be true, the former he says more liberally than truly: for Gregory of Tours, in book 2 of the History of the Franks, number or chapter 8, from Renatus Frigeridus, mentions Carpilio, if not the son, certainly the father-in-law of Aetius: receive the words of both authors: "These things, then, being so set out" (you are hearing Gregory) "and completed in order, I thought it wrong to keep silent about what the History of Renatus Frigeridus narrates concerning the aforementioned Aetius (the vanquisher of Attila). For when in the twelfth book of his Histories he relates that, after the passing of the divine Honorius, the little boy Valentinian, when only one lustrum was completed, was created emperor by his cousin Theodosius, and that at the city of Rome the usurper John had risen up into the empire, and says that his envoys were scorned by the Caesar, he added" (namely Renatus Frigeridus): "'While these things were being done, the envoys returned to the usurper, bearing harsher commands: moved by which, John sends Aetius, who at that time had the care of the palace, with an immense weight of gold to the Chuni (or Huns), known to him from the time of his hostageship and bound to him by familiar friendship, with commands of this sort: that as soon as the opposing party should have entered Italy, they should attack from the rear, and he would come from the front.'

[49] does not seem, "'And because,' (so Frigeridus continues) 'many things are consequently to be recorded of this man, it is pleasing to begin with his lineage and character. Gaudentius his father, of the foremost rank of the province of Scythia, beginning his military service in the household guard, was advanced as far as the summit of master of horse. His mother Itala' (elsewhere Itela) 'was a noble and wealthy woman. Aetius their son'" (not the son of the Aetius whose lineage and character Frigeridus here describes, but of Gaudentius, contrary to what Pagi writes) "'from boyhood a praetorian, for three years a hostage of Alaric, thereafter of the Huns: after this the son-in-law of Carpilio, from count of the household guards he began to have the care of John's palace. Of middle stature, of manly habit, becomingly formed, so as to be neither weak nor heavy, alert of mind, vigorous of limb, a most ready horseman, skilled in shooting arrows, tireless with the lance, most fit for wars, renowned in the arts of peace, without any avarice, of the least covetousness, endowed with goods of the mind, not swerving from his purpose even at the urging of wicked men, most patient of wrongs, eager for toil, fearless of dangers, most enduring of hunger and thirst. To whom it is plain that it was foretold from his earliest age to what great power he was destined by the fates, to be celebrated in his times and places.'

[50] in which Carpilio has been put for Opilio, "These things the aforesaid historiographer," says Gregory of Tours again, "narrates of Aetius. But the emperor Valentinian, grown up, fearing lest Aetius should crush him by usurpation, slew him, though no causes existed." It has pleased me to transcribe these things here at length from the aforesaid authors, so that both Pagi and Cavacio might be refuted: Pagi indeed, in that at the year 454, number 2, he interprets those words of Frigeridus, "Aetius their son," as said of the son of the Aetius slain by Valentinian, whereas whoever weighs the words of the writers just praised will think with me that they are to be understood of Aetius himself. As regards Carpilio, the son of Aetius according to Cassiodorus, if Gregory of Tours and Frigeridus, praised by him, write truly, one will determine that he was born of the daughter of the Carpilio of whom Gregory speaks, Itala or perhaps Itela, married to Aetius who was slain by Valentinian, and that he was called Carpilio from the name of his maternal grandfather. However the matter may stand, it is at any rate plain that at least from the time of Gregory of Tours mention was made among the writers of Carpilio, either son or father-in-law of Aetius, and therefore that Cavacio is mistaken when he pronounces him wholly unknown to the ancient writers; and hence arises a strong suspicion that no error lies hidden in Cassiodorus where he mentions Carpilio. Nay, express mention of Carpilio, son of Aetius, is made in the Excerpts from the Gothic History of Priscus the Rhetor, who lived under Theodosius the Younger, among the writers of the Byzantine History printed at Paris in the year 1648, page 53, in these words: "When these had run through those who were wanted, Attila ordered Bigilas to set out without delay together with Esla, the Romans being notified that they should hand back all fugitives of the Scythian nation, as many as were in their power, from the time of Carpilio, son of Aetius, the general of the Western Romans, who had been a hostage with him."

[51] For the rest, I do not know what Pagi, praised above, means [Pagi says, without sufficient foundation, that he went to Attila together with Pope Leo:] when, into these words of Cassiodorus in the Chronicle at the consulship of Herculanus and Sporatius: "In this consulship Attila, his strength restored, entered Aquileia fighting with great force, with whom Pope Leo, sent by the emperor Valentinian, made peace," he inserts of his own after the words "with whom": namely "with Carpilio." For Cassiodorus' words hint nothing else than that St. Leo was the persuader of Attila to leave Italy and return to his own land: and if the companions of Leo going to Attila are sought, Pagi himself had given them at the year 452, number 5, from the Chronicle of Prosper, namely Avienus, a man of consular rank, and Trygetius, a man of prefectorial rank: so that it is a wonder that the same Pagi at the year 454, number 2, assigned to Leo as companions the father of Cassiodorus and Carpilio, son of Aetius. But you will say with Pagi: "From the praised Letter of Cassiodorus it is plain that the father of Cassiodorus and Carpilio, son of Aetius, having discharged an embassy to Attila when he was threatening Rome, brought back the news of peace." So it runs: the father of Cassiodorus and Carpilio wrested a peace, whether true or feigned, from Attila; but that this was done when, Aquileia having been taken, he was threatening Rome, is neither read in the cited letter in Cassiodorus nor proved by Pagi: Tillemont, volume 6 of the History of the emperors, page 147, thinks that it could have happened when about the year 450 he was invading the Gauls. But let us return to Opilio, founder of the temple of St. Justina, lest we stray too far from our purpose.

[52] Not a little weight would accrue to Cavacio's opinion but the charter, if, under the emperor Valentinian III, Opilio, who held the consulship in the West in the year 453, had bequeathed to the temple, or rather the monastery, of St. Justina some estates situated in the territory of Bologna, which is now to be discussed. Cavacio would have it that this happened in the 15th year of Valentinian, which was the year 439 of the Christian era; whence he might perhaps rightly contend that the temple of St. Justina had been founded a little before, if that donation could be proved by legitimate testimonies and records: but the records which Cavacio adduces on this matter are not free from suspicion of falsehood. There exist, he says, in the archive of the monastery of St. Justina old documents on this matter, taken from the autograph, in which among the other estates the following are recorded: Catinum, Litibanum, Vindemiolum, Casale Paulinum, and near the village of Quingetula, Columbianum, Granariolum, and others, but long since possessed by others, and not to be identified because their names have become obsolete. Why did Cavacio not produce Opilio's documents, so that judgment might be passed on their credibility? Had he done so, Giusto Fontanini, prelate of Ancyra, in the preface to the Commentary on St. Columba, number 3, would not have accused him here of slight sincerity. But what he himself did not do, Muratori did, after Angelo Calogerà, a Camaldolese monk, who published them in print in the year 1730, in volume 3 of the Italian Antiquities of the Middle Age, column 35 and the two following, prefacing this notice of that charter: "Here," he says, "we are dealing with a parchment marked, as it seems, many centuries ago in characters certainly very old, yet presenting nothing of an autograph."

[53] which Cavacio praises, Muratori presents the whole charter of Opilio: but it will suffice to transcribe it here only in part, so that anyone may easily understand, from the ill-cohering chronological notes and the barbarous style which is diffused through the whole charter, that it is wrongly ascribed by Cavacio to Opilio, Roman patrician and consul of the year 453. Receive, then, some of its first lines, from which you may form a judgment of the rest of its sequence. "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the reign of the most pious Augustus Constantine,

crowned by God, peaceful, great emperor, in the fifteenth year, under a day of the month of June, in the first Indiction. To the holy and worthy and thrice most blessed lord, or rather to the venerable monastery of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, where rest the body of St. Justina and of the Saints Prosdocimus, and many bodies of other Saints, built outside the city of Padua, where many things have been bequeathed by good men. I indeed, in the name of God Almighty, Opilio, patrician of the Romans, give to the aforesaid monastery, for offering and illumination, and for the eternal reward of my soul and of my late parents, present for present salvation: the reason of the great gift of the holy Scriptures moves us always to consider and dispose those things by which I may merit to earn for our souls and merits the retribution of the heavenly kingdom. We believe that we are moved without the Gospel reading by the following readings, and in this world to receive a hundredfold, and in the future to be partakers of eternal life, etc." And of the estates situated in the territory of Bologna, and enumerated by name above by Cavacio, these are subjoined a little after: "Casale, Vindemiolum, the village of Fraxinetus, Quingetula, Columbianum, Granariolum," so that Cavacio seems beyond doubt to be dealing with this charter.

[54] is neither of use to him, nor seems able to be held This charter neither seems legitimate, nor, were it such, would it be of any use to Cavacio: for in the year of Christ 439 there existed no emperor Constantine, and so it could not have been dated by his name. Cavacio indeed substitutes Valentinian for Constantine, but keeping the fifteenth year of his reign; in which not the first Indiction, as the charter has it, but the seventh was running. Moreover, Opilio seems by those words, "of my late parents," to indicate that his parents were already dead when he made his donation: but Aetius, Opilio's father according to Cavacio, was taken from among the living only in the year 454. Further, it does not seem legitimate: for you would hardly find an emperor Constantine the fifteenth year of whose reign ran together with the first Indiction. Giusto Fontanini, praised above at number 4, says it was dated in the year 733 under Constantine Copronymus: but the 15th year of this man, reckoning the beginning from the 31st of March of the year 720, on which the emperor was crowned by his father, Leo the Isaurian, began on the 31st day of March of the year 734: granted that in the year 733 the first Indiction was running. Then, how does it happen that in the charter the son Constantine alone is noted, and not Leo too, his father, who had not yet departed from among the living? How does it happen that, if it was written at Padua, whither Fontanini conjectures that Opilio had betaken himself, it is said to be dated not under Liutprand, king of the Lombards, who then had Padua in his power, but under Constantine, reigning in the East? Fontanini praises in support of his case another charter given by Paul I and reported by Girolamo Rossi near the beginning of book V of the History of Ravenna; but so far I have not been able to see it. For more on Opilio's charter see Muratori, who finally pronounces on it thus: "Add to these that the charter teems with too many errors, and lacks the place where it was written, and that other faults occur there which you might indeed throw back upon a single writer of the copy, but which do not cease to cast doubt of some ancient fabrication; and especially since others might contend that it should be called not a copy but the original charter."

[55] Bacchini, as Muratori reports, having attempted to reconcile the aforesaid charter with the year of Christ 733, to be held as legitimate. saw himself entangled in so many difficulties that he came down to another conjecture, namely that it was drawn up in the year of Christ 793 under Constantine, the son of Leo the Khazar and Irene. The first Indiction was indeed then running; but the year of Constantine, reckoning from when he was created emperor by his father, which happened in the year 776, was the eighteenth; and from the death of his father, who died in the year 780 on the 8th day of September, only the thirteenth, namely in the month of June, in which that charter is noted to have been given. But this conjecture suffers from this inconvenience too, that it is said to have been made under Constantine as emperor in the West; whereas in that year Italy was not in the hands of Constantine but of Charlemagne, who had set his son Pepin over Italy; concerning whom the Annals of the Franks in Duchesne, volume 2 of the writers of Gaul, page 22, at the year 781, have these words: "King Charles proceeded to Rome, and there his son was baptized who had been called Carloman, whom Pope Adrian, changing his name, called Pepin and anointed king over Italy." Pepin, king of Italy, died in the year 810, Charlemagne in the year 814: and therefore, if the aforesaid charter had been drawn up in the year 793, it would probably have borne in front the year of Charlemagne, or at least of Pepin reigning in Italy, and not the name of Constantine.

* otherwise: diligere to love

§ IV. The opinion of Orsato and of Fontanini concerning Opilio, founder of the temple of St. Justina, is refuted.

Orsato's opinion concerning Opilio, Sertorio Orsato wrote a twofold Work on Paduan matters: one published in print in the year 1652, which comprises the monuments of Padua in Latin; the other in the year 1678, which comprises the history of Paduan matters in the Italian tongue: in both he discourses of Opilio, the founder of the temple of St. Justina, but goes off into different opinions. In the former Work, page 13, subscribing to Cavacio, he ascribes the temple of St. Justina to the piety and munificence of Opilio, consul of the year 453, and makes Opilio the son of Aetius, the renowned general, interpreting Cassiodorus in the same way as Cavacio. "He had as father," he says, "Aetius, V. C., by the testimony of the same" (that is, Cassiodorus), "provided that, as the most accurate Cavacio cautiously observes, for Carpilio, which is faulty, you substitute Opilio." Then, having partly recalled the words of Cassiodorus transcribed at number 45, he proceeds in this manner: "Where it is not at all surprising if for Opilio the unskilled copyists of those times wrote Carpilio, deceived by the likeness of the words. For of Carpilio neither histories nor the fasti of those times have related anything, but of Opilio very much. For that he was consul with Vincomalus in the year of Christ 452" (rather 453, as Orsato himself writes elsewhere) "Marcellinus Comes and Cassiodorus and Panvinio unanimously testify: nay, the words of Cassiodorus are: 'Opilio and Vincomalus. In this consulship Attila dies in his own abode.' Which sufficiently indicate that the text of the Letter" (of Cassiodorus, in which is read Carpilio) "has hitherto been corrupt."

[57] the founder of the temple of St. Justina, I confess it: Cassiodorus in his Chronicle named Opilio, not Carpilio, as consul with Vincomalus: but by what words, pray, did Cassiodorus indicate that he was Western, or the son of Aetius? By the words, you will say, given at number 45, if they be restored to their genuine reading: but whether an error lies hidden in them is precisely the question here. On the contrary, what was argued above concerning Frigeridus and Gregory of Tours and Priscus the Rhetor persuades the contrary. Orsato will press again: "The man whom Cassiodorus in book 1 of the Variae, letter 4, called Carpilio, the same in book 5, Letter 41, he expressly called Opilio, writing thus: 'Opilio was indeed a man in abject times, yet chosen for the palace guard. Who could have grown much greater, had not loyalty lain under the most greedy barrenness of reward.'" I praise Orsato's diligence in turning over Cassiodorus: but I cannot agree with him when he affirms, or at least assumes, that in both places the discourse is about the same person. In that Letter Theodoric, king of the Goths, informs the Roman senate that he has raised a certain Cyprian to the countship of the sacred largesses; he commends Cyprian both by his private merits and by the splendour of his lineage: and this last he derives from Cyprian's father Opilio alone in these words: "He glories also in no meanest light of birth. For his father, as you remember, was Opilio, a man indeed in abject times, etc." From which you may understand that the Opilio of whom Cassiodorus speaks was no longer surviving among the living at the time when Theodoric wrote these things, and that, although he was worthy of greater splendour, he had not been raised by the unhappiness of the time to a higher grade of honour than the palace guard, which Theodoric a little below calls modest. Could this be said of an Opilio who had attained the praetorian prefecture, as Orsato would have it, the Roman patriciate, and finally the consulship?

[58] Let us now see what Orsato brings forward on this matter in the History of Padua written in the Italian tongue. is refuted, At page 136 he writes that the temple of St. Justina was founded and completed about the year 524 by an Opilio indeed, but another than the one who held the consulship in the year 453: for he does not think it probable that the latter prolonged his life up to the year 524, and that, weighed down by such great age, he was fit for and intent upon founding churches. Certainly in the year 524 a certain Opilio is read entered in the Fasti of the Consuls, the same perhaps of whom Athalaric, king of the Goths, speaks in book 8 in Cassiodorus, Letters 16 and 17. That he was consul in the West is plain from this, that Theodahad, king of the Goths in Italy, after Amalasuntha had been treacherously shut up in prison, ordered him to discharge the office of an embassy to the emperor Justinian: for you could not more aptly apply to anyone the words of Procopius in book 1 of the Gothic War, chapter 4, who writes thus: "Theodahad ordered Amalasuntha to be kept shut up here (in the lake of Volsinii), and, fearing, as happened, lest by this deed he should offend the emperor, he sent Liberius and Opilio, Roman senators, and some others, ordered to avert by every means his hatred, by affirming that Theodahad had inflicted no harm on Amalasuntha, although he had previously been most ill-treated by her." But that this man raised the temple of St. Justina at Padua is a mere conjecture of Orsato: further, it is strange that the same writer took Opilio, consul of the year 524, for the son of Aetius, slain by Valentinian about the year 453: for if it did not seem probable to Orsato that Opilio, consul of the year 453, prolonged his life up to the year 524, why did he not likewise believe it hardly likely that Opilio, the son, as he says, of Aetius, was at last raised to the consular dignity about 70 years after his father's death?

[59] As Orsato in the History of Padua dissents from Cavacio, so Giusto Fontanini, in the Preface to the Commentary on the Life of St. Columba, page 19 and following, dissents from both about the time as also that of Giusto Fontanini, who makes Opilio at which the charter praised above was given, and about its author. Of the time at which the charter was given, in Fontanini's opinion, we have already dealt above. But if you ask him who the Opilio mentioned in it was: it was, and beyond doubt it was, Opilio (not indeed the one whom Agnellus mentions, in Bacchini, in the Life of St. John Angeloptes; for he is older than the eighth century or the year 733), but some other of the number of the exarchs of Ravenna in the time of Constantine Copronymus, who, despising the commands of his iconoclast princes and anxious for his own safety, withdrew to Padua, and there after the said donation restored the church of St. Justina either in part or wholly, and wished it to be the preserver of his body after death. Why so? To speak briefly, his reasoning comes down to this: the subscription of the charter is this: "I, Opilio, glorious imperial patrician of the Romans": its author was therefore

patrician of the Romans. But patrician of the Romans was the title proper to the exarchs of Ravenna: Opilio, the author of the charter, was therefore exarch of Ravenna. And if you further ask Fontanini what place Opilio held among the exarchs of Ravenna, he answers that a place is due to him midway between Paul, killed in the year 726, and Eutychius, who was the last of the exarchs.

[60] to have been exarch of Ravenna about the year 733, This Opilio, patrician of the Romans, whom he says was certainly exarch of Ravenna, is known to Fontanini from no other source than the charter of Opilio praised above, and in addition another, of which a little below. But Opilio in that charter does not name himself exarch; nor, had he so named himself, would it be certain: for the credibility of the charter can deservedly be called into suspicion on more than one head, as I said above. It was therefore incumbent on Fontanini, before he demanded certain belief from the reader for his statement, to give proof from elsewhere that there existed at Ravenna in the year 733 an exarch named Opilio, successor of Paul and predecessor of Eutychius; which, as I think, he would beyond doubt have been eager to do had he only been able. Why then does he thrust upon us an exarch of Ravenna hitherto unknown to all? Nay rather, it is plain, both from other sources and from the inscription which Rossi brings in book 4 of the History of Ravenna, that Eutychius was already exarch to the Ravennates before the year 733: it runs thus: "While Lord Eutychius, most excellent patrician and exarch, governed Italy, on the 3rd day before the Kalends of February, Indiction XIV"; in which month of February the year of Christ 731 was running. Nor would it have been lawful for Opilio in the year 733 to write himself Roman Patrician, if this title had been proper to the exarchs of Ravenna, while Eutychius was discharging the exarchate. Although it does not even seem true that the exarchs of Ravenna were adorned with that title. For the inscription just reported does not assign it to Eutychius; nor does Anastasius in the Lives of the Pontiffs, who, treating of the Exarchs of Ravenna, of Romanus in Gregory; of Eleutherius in Deusdedit; of Isaac in Severinus; of Theodore in Theodore; of Olympius in Martin; of John in Conon and Sergius; of Theophylact in John VI; of John Rizocopus and Scholasticus in Constantine; of Paul and Eutychius in Gregory II; likewise of Eutychius in Gregory III and Zachary, calls them patricians indeed, but without this addition: of the Romans; although he repeats this title in full and expressly more than once where he speaks of Charlemagne.

[61] he contends in vain, Nor does Paul the Deacon, volume 1 of the Writers of Italian affairs, although he mentions Longinus in book 2, chapter 29 and following; Smaragdus in book 3, chapters 18 and 26, and book 4, chapters 26, 29 and 33; Romanus in book 3, chapter 26 and book 4, chapters 8 and 13; Gallicinus in book 4, chapters 13 and 26; Eleutherius in book 4, chapter 35; Scholasticus in book 6, chapter 34; and finally Paul in chapter 49 of the same book, all of whom were exarchs of Ravenna. I know that in Paul, book 4, chapter 40, a certain Gregory was called Patrician of the Romans, but he was not exarch of Ravenna; rather he commanded the garrison of Oderzo in the name of the Greek emperor. For there were still alive, when this Gregory was at Oderzo, as is plain from Paul, chapters 42 and 43, Agilulf, king of the Lombards, and, from Paul's chapter 51, the emperor Heraclius, in whose time Eleutherius held the exarchate of Ravenna, as is evident from Anastasius in Deusdedit. Some Gregory was indeed exarch of Ravenna, from the Privilege of the emperor Constans in Bacchini, part 2, page 285, but much later, about the year 666 and under Constans; whom the prelate of Ancyra, following Adrien de Valois, wrongly confused with the earlier Gregory, who was staying at Oderzo about the year 615, as Beretti teaches in the Chronographical Table of Italy of the middle age, number 80, which consult in volume 10 of the Writers of Italian affairs, column 159.

[62] nor does the charter of Gregory IV which he cites The other charter from which Fontanini had knowledge of Opilio, Patrician of the Romans (not, however, for that reason, as we have already said, exarch of Ravenna), is one given by Pope Gregory IV in the year 828 and printed in full in Muratori, volume 3 of the Antiquities of Italy, column 39 and the two following. Its characters, as Muratori testifies, are very similar to those in which the charter of Opilio, spoken of above, is drawn up: he says that a double copy of it exists in the archive of the monastery of St. Justina, one longer, the other shorter; both of which he presented to be recognized at a single glance, transcribing the longer whole, and enclosing in brackets whatever is lacking in the shorter and found in the longer. It is addressed to Milo, abbot of the monastery of St. Justina, given at Rome on the 12th day before the Kalends of July, in the first year of the same See, and the second of Lord Lothair, in the eighth Indiction. In it the Pontiff is brought in speaking thus of Opilio: "Since justly and reasonably your humility" (he addresses Milo) "have humbly asked of our Apostolate that, for the love of God and the remedy of our soul, by the authority of this our present privilege, as also by the authority of the Lord Lothair, emperor augustus, our spiritual and most beloved son in Christ, we should grant and confirm, namely, all the things and properties of the aforesaid monastery, whose church Opilius, Patrician of the Romans, founded, and there his little body rests in peace in the atrium of the same church above two columns, who also bestowed many gifts on the same monastery. And therefore by the present privilege we confirm, etc."

[63] This charter of Gregory IV, as also the preceding one, the same Muratori, a man exceedingly versed in many kinds of letters, has shaken with the battering-ram of criticism: proves it. hear him speaking: "What torments me here," he says after a few other things, "I am compelled to say openly, that so many faults come together in the text of this Bull that no one will readily accept it as legitimate merchandise. For besides the discrepancy detected between those two copies of one Bull, besides the affected mention of the tomb in which Opilius or Opilio, patrician of the Romans, is said to have been laid; and besides other things which I have no mind to pursue, an intolerable conflict arises among the chronological notes, which not even the most acute could remove. In the year 828, in the month of June, the first year of Pope Gregory IV was running. Into that year the eighth Indiction by no means falls, but rather the sixth. And again, these things are said to have been written Anno Domno Lothario, for Domni Lotharii, Secundo, which faulty formula (add also many other things contained in the course of the charter) does not smell well of the chancery of the Apostolic See, since there some honour was always paid to the Latin language and to Grammar. Moreover, it is beyond all controversy that Lothair I received the crown and name of the imperial dignity at Rome in the year 823. Therefore the second year of his reign by no means agrees with the 1st year of Gregory IV, or the year of Christ 828. Add that no mention is made of Louis the Pious, augustus, reigning with his son. In other charters it was by no means the custom to pass over his name. Perhaps too the fine of TWO THOUSAND MANCUSES OF THE BEST GOLD, half of which was to be paid TO OUR SACRED PALACE, is foreign to the custom of those times, since it concerned a monastery situated outside the borders of the Pontifical dominion, and possessing so many other estates not at all comprised in the territory of Bologna. These and other things, which I wish to let go ungreeted, make the credibility of this Bull too at least doubtful in my eyes."

[64] which he cites. Then, who was Milo, abbot of St. Justina, to whom Gregory gave that charter in the year 828? Since before Rosius, who held the see of Padua about the year 849, not even the monastery of St. Justina seems to have existed, as will be said below, and its first abbot under the same Rosius was Christian, than whom certainly Cavacio, the historiographer of the place, found none older. But these things have not been said of Opilio in order that we should deny that the temple of the holy Martyr was at some time founded or repaired by him: but so that it may appear that the time at which this happened is wholly uncertain, and that his patriciate and consulate are most probably fictitious dignities, which some fabulist or other fastened upon him in order that the origin of the monastery, as has often been done, might be rendered more illustrious. I say nothing of those who would have Opilio to have been of the family of the Picauri or the Picacapra, whom Orsato refutes in the History of Padua, page 137, from this, that those families derive their origin from the Transalgardi on the testimony of the Paduan genealogists: and the Transalgardi first fixed their seat at Padua under Charlemagne.

§ V. At what time the monastery of St. Justina was founded. A new temple dedicated to her.

To the temple of St. Justina It is equally obscure at what time a monastery was first added to the temple of St. Justina: the author of the Life of St. Prosdocimus, and from him probably Scardeone, Class 13, where he treats of Opilio, write that this was done already from the age of St. Prosdocimus, and that it was inhabited by sacred virgins: but so great an antiquity of that monastery lacks foundation, and is rejected by Cavacio, who confesses that he does not know the origin of that monastery. "We," he says, "although we would greatly desire antiquity, from which more dignity would accrue to our affairs, yet rather think that the monks obtained the temple of St. Justina only after Padua was restored, in the reign of Charlemagne." And a little below: "Let it therefore be attributed to the greatest antiquity that the beginnings of the monastery exceed even the records of letters": so he; yet bringing forward nothing in particular from which you might conjecture that the monastery of St. Justina was founded in the age of Charlemagne. If the charters put about under the names of Opilio and Gregory IV, in which mention is made of the monastery of St. Justina, were legitimate, it would necessarily have existed already from the eighth century at least: but since not a few things from what was said above weaken their credibility, I would not dare to affirm this either. Mabillon, in the Benedictine Annals at the year 870, number 21, makes Rosius, bishop of Padua from about the year 860, the founder of the monastery of St. Justina, from an instrument of Rosius himself; and because Cavacio gave it in a very curtailed form, he adds: "It would be desirable that Cavacio had reported it whole." Muratori satisfied Mabillon's wishes in volume 4 of the Antiquities of Italy, column 781 and the two following; from which, however, it is not certainly drawn out that Rosius founded it and handed it over to Benedictine monks. Here it is.

[66] "In the name of the Lord. In the reign of our Lord Louis the emperor, Rosius, bishop of Padua, son of Lothair, after he began to reign, in the twenty-fifth year, on the 6th day before the Nones of May, in the seventh Indiction, happily. The offering or handing over which I, in the name of God, Rorsus, bishop of the holy church of Padua, have been seen to make, with the consent and will of my advocate, by name Hercomarius, to the church of the holy and venerable Justina, or the hospice, which I myself ordered to be built from the foundations for the remedy of my soul, which is situated near the church of that venerable virgin Justina, in which her most holy body is seen to rest buried: where the venerable man Christian, priest, both elected and ordained by us

is seen to preside as abbot. And therefore I, the aforesaid Rorsus, now Pontiff, considering the mercy of God almighty and the remedy of my soul, I, Rorsus the bishop, offer and hand over according to the Salic law from the present day all my things which I am seen to have and possess at Monselice, or in the territory of Padua or in the county of Vicenza; I offer and hand them over to the aforesaid gracious place, and to you, Christian the abbot, or to the brethren who dwell living religiously in that hospice, that you may have from them food and clothing for your use, so that you may deign to pour forth prayers unceasingly to almighty God for me, an unworthy sinner, and may be able to serve in that venerable place.

[67] "That is, first of all I, Rorsus, humble bishop, offer and hand over my estate as is shown from his charter which is called Maserada, with the chapel which I myself built from the foundations and consecrated in honour of blessed Martin the confessor, with the homesteads and everything that is known to pertain to it; and likewise I hand over and offer my estate within the city of Padua with its oratory, which is dedicated in honour of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, with everything that is seen to pertain to the aforesaid estate or oratory. And also my estate at Cervarese, with its oratory, which is consecrated in honour of the holy Cross, which is situated in the county of Vicenza, I hand over and offer with all its adjacent things and appurtenances. These aforenamed estates in their entirety, as much as I am seen today to have or possess in my hand, I hand over and offer from the present day to the already aforenamed church of blessed Justina the virgin, or to the hospice, with all their buildings, and with woods, enclosures, gardens, plots, vineyards, fields, meadows, willow-beds, pastures and stallages, fruit trees, marshes, water-rights, streams, watercourses, mountain, plain, all in their entirety, tilled and untilled, as much as pertains to me, or as I am seen to have pertaining or possessed.

[68] "And I offer and hand over to the aforesaid venerable place likewise from the present day and hour, for my soul, my men-servants that he added and maid-servants, whose names are: Lupulus and Justiolus with his son, likewise Justolus, Rodulfus, Luvari, Petrus, Vidolus, Adam, Beffanius with his wife, by name Eta, Felicitas with her daughter, Gallidolus with his wife and his two sons, Riculfus, Regisilda and her daughter Rotruda, Willi, Juba, Rotruda, Altemanno with his wife Gaudencia and his daughter Ansperga, Liutecarda and her daughter Helmedruda, Radperga, Willi, Liuba with her daughters Egena and Vindelinda and Liucinda and Gisemperga, Justola, Regingunda, Agneola with her daughters Orsolana and Senatere, Unica, Fuscola, Gisemperga, and as many as shall have been born or begotten since they came into my power. These things written above, or chattels, whose names or places are read above, and wherever it has been possessed or devolved to me by title of ownership, and which I hold today from my hand by free title and sale and purchase, or by donation, and also exchange or gift, as I have them possessed according to my Salic law, I, Rorius the bishop, offer and hand over at present to the already aforenamed place for the remedy of my soul, and have reserved nothing thereof to myself.

[69] a hospice or monastery "I have professed, and indeed I offer and hand over the above-named things or households in such tenor that, if I, Rorius the bishop, which I by no means believe will happen, or any of my successors should wish to take back from that venerable place, or to oppose, the aforesaid things or chattels, whose names and places are seen to be noted above, or those who shall have been born or begotten of those same men, or from you, Christian the abbot, or from your successors, and if I, Rorius the bishop, or my successors should not have observed all things as is read above, then let those things or households, as is read above, come into the power of the king who for the time is seen to rule Italy. These things we have therefore affixed, so that my offering or handing over, I, Rorius the bishop as above, may remain inviolable and unshaken for perpetual times in that gracious place which is read above. Again, I will and establish that you, Christian the abbot, or your successors, from this present day, which is the sixth before the Nones of May, in return for that offering or handing over which I make today, must feed for me every day poor persons three in number, while I, Rorsus the bishop as above, shall live, and after my decease also; and on my anniversary, for the remedy of my soul, you must feed priests and levites three times, forty in number. And on another day, which shall fall after my anniversary, I will and establish that poor persons, one hundred in number, be refreshed there in the aforesaid place. And when those poor have been refreshed to satiety, let them render praise to God, and let it avail for salvation for my soul.

[70] an addition. "But if you, Christian the abbot, or your successors should wish to withdraw anything from the aforesaid alms which I establish to be given for my soul, or should neglect to do it, I reserve it to the judgment of almighty God, to whom all things are manifest, and from whom nothing is hidden. But I would not wish what I have willed, except that what has once been done by me with a good mind may remain inviolable for perpetual times. And I, Rorsus the bishop, am manifest, who lifted from the ground the page and the inkstand with the pen, and asked Ulfari the notary so to write, and offered it to witnesses to be confirmed, so that this donation or offering, as is read above, may remain firm and stable without contradiction of any man. Done in the monastery of St. Justina, in the name of God, happily. I, Rorius, though unworthy bishop, have subscribed with my hand to this offering or handing over made by me. I, Ercomarius, advocate, have consented and subscribed with my hand. I, Justinus, archdeacon, having been asked, have subscribed with my hand. I, Leopertus, priest and provost of St. Mary, have subscribed with my hand. I, Dominicus, priest and canon, have subscribed with my hand. I, Joannes, priest, have subscribed with my hand. I, Fradellus, priest, have subscribed with my hand. I, Justinus, priest, treasurer of St. Mary, have subscribed with my hand. I, Dominicus, priest, etc. ✠ I, Ulfari, notary, asked by the Lord Rorius, venerable bishop, have written and subscribed this charter, offering or handing over, and after its delivery have completed it."

[71] This charter of Rosius, by virtue of which, as Cavacio says at page 38, in the year 874; a portion of bread and wine was appointed by the Benedictine monks, even in his own age, every week for poor religious, and before the feast of the Lord's Nativity a banquet was provided for a hundred poor, displays indeed the barbarism of its century; but for the rest it agrees correctly with itself in its chronological notes: for Louis, the son of Lothair, was crowned emperor by Leo IV in the year 849; and so the twenty-fifth year of his reign came to its end only in the year 874, in which, the month of May having been reached, the seventh Indiction was running. Nor should it seem surprising that mention is made in it of the Salic or Frankish law, since this was brought into Italy under the Franks after the kings of the Lombards had been overthrown, and Rosius himself, as the Paduan writers maintain, was sprung of the Frankish nation. "That charter is by no means an autograph," says Muratori: "it is however a very old copy, so that perhaps a great part of the frequency of errors which occurs in it may be attributed to the unskilfulness of the copyist." Cavacio, at page 35, for the twenty-fifth year of Louis wrote the fifteenth, and affixed Rosius's charter to the year 870; which Ughelli too, following Cavacio incautiously, did in volume 5 of the enlarged Sacred Italy, column 428, where he also says that Rosius was made bishop of Padua in the year 861. But in Sigonio, On the kingdom of Italy, book 6, there exists a diploma of Louis the second, by which at the prayers of Rorius or Rosius the bishop he receives the church of Padua into his protection, dated on the 7th day before the Ides of February, "in the year, Christ being propitious, of the reign of the Lord Lothair, the Pious emperor, 26, and of Louis, most Glorious augustus, in Italy 6" (or rather 5), "in the 12th Indiction," which was the year 849.

[72] Further, from the same charter or testament of Rosius it is indeed plain but different from the present monastery of St. Justina: that he gave the hospice he had raised beside the buildings of St. Justina to certain monks (most probably indeed Benedictines) to be administered; but it does not become certain from it, as I was saying at number 65, that he raised for the Benedictines a monastery distinct from the hospice, of which no mention, at least no open mention, is made in Rosius's charter: nay rather, Gauslinus, bishop of Padua, speaks thus in the charter of which presently, so that he himself seems rather to have been the first to add it to the temple of St. Justina and to the hospice raised by bishop Rosius for the feeding of the poor, both half-ruined by the devastation of the Huns. Receive Gauslinus's charter from Orsato in the History of Padua, page 205: "In the name of the holy and Undivided Trinity. John, supreme Pontiff, governing the Catholic people of blessed Peter the Apostle, in the 6th year of his Pontificate, our Lord Otto the emperor reigning, in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 970, in the month of February, in the 14th Indiction. When I, Gauslinus the bishop, had come into the church of blessed Justina the martyr and of blessed Prosdocimus the prelate, and had seen there all the place round about desolate, and that there was no one there who might say anything, or prepare any reception for guests or the poor; then, the divine and mighty mercy inspiring me, as He Himself deigned to enlighten human hearts, so He deigned also to fill and visit my heart, that for love of Him and of all the Saints, and also of blessed Justina the martyr and blessed Prosdocimus the confessor, I should build a monastery for monks.

[73] but this seems "Then I gathered all the clergy, and all the nobles, and the whole people concerning that which the Lord had inspired in my heart, and it greatly pleased all. Whence with all the priests and the whole clergy, and with the consent of all the faithful, God helping, we built the monastery. And there I, Gauslinus the bishop as above, in order that the aforesaid monks who are to preside there may be able to be firm and stable, for the remedy of the soul of our Senior Otto, and for my soul, and that of all Catholics, and also for all who serve in this church, that they may have our writing firm and stable, so that those who shall come after us into this see may not destroy it, but rather strengthen it in the love of God; that they too, through the intercession of those monks, may be able to possess the heavenly kingdoms. Wherefore I, Gauslinus the bishop, with all the clergy and the whole people who are gathered here, beseech by the tremendous judgment of Almighty God and by His majesty, and also by the whole company of the holy angels, archangels,

patriarchs, prophets, Apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, and all the Saints, that no one impose any burden, any render, any molestation upon those monks, save the incense of prayer. But if anyone should do otherwise than we have read above, let him have his retribution before the tribunal of Christ on the day of judgment with Judas the traitor, standing there to give account.

[74] Gauslinus, bishop of Padua, "I, in the name of God almighty, Gauslinus, bishop of the church of Padua, we give and confirm to the monastery of St. Justina the virgin and St. Prosdocimus the confessor of Christ, not very far from the city of Padua, where the bodies of the Saints rest, for the praise of His Saints, for present and future merit, for the above-written emperor Otto, and for our duke, clergy, and people, that all may live faithfully in Christ, through whom those who serve, as is fitting, may be crowned in heaven, where we too, wretched sinners, clergy, people, and kinsfolk, may be able to have some little portion where all the great abide, God granting: we give and confirm to that church of St. Justina and of St. Prosdocimus the confessor of Christ, first of all the church of the holy Angel near the aforesaid monastery, with the tenant-farms and things which pertain to it, with the quarters and tithes, with the place which is called Prato Novo, and lands with vineyards at the place called Ruthena, the Braido of the monks, and one arch which the river Retrone runs through. And the church of the holy archangels, which is built outside the city of Padua in the place which is called Vantio, with its bounds; and the land which is called Senedo, with its bounds, that is, with the quarters and tithes. The church of St. Martin, which is built in the place called near Monselice, with the houses and tenant-farms which pertain there, and the men-servants and maid-servants who dwell in the above-written Monselice. And one estate in the place which is called Tribano, with its houses and tenant-farms which pertain there, with the quarters and tithes, and at Pernumia, at the head of the wood, and at Aire with the quarters and tithes.

[75] from his charter reported here "And one estate with a dwelling-house, with a chapel which is built in honour of St. Mary the Virgin in the place which is called Macerata, with the houses, tenant-farms, quarters, tithes, and with all the things which pertain there. And the whole tithe which lies in the county of Vicenza in the place called Masone, with the chapel which is built in honour of St. Gall, with the quarters, tithes, and with all the things which pertain there. And one church, which is built in honour of St. George in the place called Robolone, with the lands and all the tithes which pertain there. And the whole tithe which the servants of St. Justina must give, whether in the mountains or in the valleys. All these things written above we will and confirm, those written above assisting, that that holy place may have and hold them for ever, so that those monks, with their abbot Ingelbert, may serve God and the Saints to the end of the world, all being removed who would break, contradict, or cause molestation or disturbance in this donation and confirmation. And let him hold on the day of judgment to what we have read above in this page. I, Gauslinus the bishop, have confirmed and strengthened with my own hand this page made by me. I, Martinus, archpriest, have consented to this page of offering and have written. I, Joannes, priest, m. I, Marinus, priest, m. I, Bonizo, priest, m. I, Albericus, priest, m. I, Rochero, priest, m. I, Dominicus, priest, m. I, Rozo, priest, m. I, Redaldus, priest, m. I, Joannes, deacon, m. I, Andreas, deacon, m. The sign of the hand of Joannes, witness. The sign of the hand of Bernardus, witness. The sign of the hand of Uldaricus, witness. The sign of the hand of Adam, witness. The sign of the hand of Luitprand, most noble. The sign of the hand of Albertus. The sign of the hand of Valentinus. The sign of the hand of Arduinus. All these, witnesses having been asked."

[76] Gauslinus, by the words transcribed at number 72, indeed hints clearly enough to have been the first to build that both the temple of St. Justina and the hospice added to it by Rosius (which Orsato writes, page 207, survived still in his own age, situated in the neighbourhood of the monastery of St. Justina) existed before he had taken up the episcopate of Padua; but in no way does he declare the same of a monastery of St. Justina distinct from Rosius's hospice: nay rather, since he says that he built it, with no mention, not even a tacit one, cast in of another founder; and since no certain and legitimate records seem to exist from elsewhere by which a greater antiquity of the monastery may be shown beyond doubt, it seems to have then first begun to be founded by Gauslinus. In the same way as Gauslinus, Burchard too, bishop of Padua, confirming in the year 1034 the goods conferred by his predecessors on the monastery of St. Justina, spoke, in Muratori, volume 3 of the Antiquities of Italy, column 203. Thus he speaks of Gauslinus: "This solicitude, then, the venerable Gauslinus, bishop of Padua, watchfully displayed, when above all the good things which he did he had no small diligence about those committed to him, namely about the church of St. Justina the virgin, which is situated outside the city of Padua, which formerly, as though destroyed and desolate, almost by all … for the love of God and the veneration of the same St. Justina he built a monastery there, and ordained an abbot and monks, and from the goods of the bishopric itself gave so great a donation that those serving God there might be able to live in some measure": in which words he too speaks of Gauslinus as if he had been the first founder of that monastery.

[77] about the year 971, And so judged Muratori, often praised, in volume 3 of the Italian Antiquities of the middle age, Dissertation 34, adding that at about that time various monasteries were raised, as among the Venetians, the people of Modena, of Reggio, and of Parma. And indeed Ughelli writes, volume 5 of the enlarged Sacred Italy, column 1200, where he presents the letters of foundation of the said monastery, that the monastery of St. George the Greater at Venice had its beginning in the year 982 from Morosini, a most noble citizen. Muratori himself, just praised, volume 1, column 1019 and following, reports the letters of John, bishop of Modena, drawn up in the year 998, by which he gives several possessions to the monastery of St. Peter founded by him in the suburb of Modena. And in volume 5, column 541 and following, he recites the foundation of the monastery of nuns of SS. Vitus and Modestus near Scantianum, now St. Thomas, made in the year 1015 by Teuzo, bishop of Reggio; although he thinks it was only restored by Teuzo. Likewise it is plain that the monastery of St. John the Evangelist was founded at Parma about the end of the tenth century, from the Life of St. John, the first abbot of that monastery, written by an anonymous monk nearly contemporary, which you have in the Fifth Benedictine Century, part 1, from page 717. Nor are these the only monasteries that were founded throughout Italy in that age: so that it could easily have happened that the monastery of St. Justina too then first began to be founded by Gauslinus, and that one should not certainly trust Mabillon in the Annals at the year 870, number 21, writing thus: "In process of time bishop Rosius, who entered upon the see of Padua about the sixtieth year of the ninth century" (rather perhaps 49, as we said above at number 71), "joined a monastery to the same basilica," unless by the name of monastery he understands the hospice raised by Rosius.

[78] not Anselm of Nonantola about the year 780, as Leandro Alberti says. Leandro Alberti, in the Description of Romagna, went into a wholly different opinion, approved, as I think, by no one. He would have it that the monastery of St. Justina at Padua was founded about the year 780 by Anselm, founder of the monastery of Nonantola, whose Life you have among us in volume 1 of March, from page 900, and in Mabillon, Fourth Benedictine Century, part 1, from page 4. So Leandro wrote from the Notices of Nonantola, but badly explained. Among the hospices raised by Anselm, a certain hospice of St. Justina is recorded in his Life in Mabillon, number 6, in these words: "Likewise that worthy father established another hospice from his own goods in the place which is called Susonia" (Lusorica is read among us, Cavacio reads Lusonia or Lusonici), "where he ordered an oratory of St. Justina the martyr to be made, in which also he wished monks always to be present, serving God and living without care." Leandro took these words as said of the monastery of St. Justina at Padua, but for too light a cause. For wherever that place Susonia existed, it ought certainly not to be ascribed to the Paduans without cause; nor is it certain that the words transcribed here deal with St. Justina of Padua; and, granting this, Anselm could have founded a hospice under her name elsewhere just as well as near Padua. But let it suffice to have discoursed on the origin of the most celebrated monastery which, when through the iniquity of the times it had swerved from Religious discipline, was reformed in the year 1409, by the merits of St. Justina and of the other Saints resting there, through Ludovico Barbo, as he himself writes in Pez, volume 2 of the Anecdota, part 3, page 270 and following, and then in the year 1504 became the head of the whole Cassinese Congregation, otherwise called from it that of St. Justina: whoever requires more may consult Cavacio, the elegant historiographer of the place. I meanwhile dispatch what remains concerning the church of St. Justina.

[79] This church, founded in ancient but nevertheless, as we have said, unknown times, [The older temple of St. Justina having been overthrown by an earthquake in the eleventh century,] no otherwise than Padua itself, from which it was not far distant, and which was not rarely worn down by disasters, as will be said in the following §, also underwent in former times various vicissitudes of fortune from the commotions of wars. Conrad, abbot of Ursperg, in his Chronicle at the year 1117, narrates that a huge earthquake happened on the third day before the Nones of January, by which many not only buildings but also certain cities in Italy collapsed. That the church of St. Justina was not (as appears) immune from it we learn from the author of the Finding of St. Daniel (which was treated among us on the 3rd of January, but from other authors, this one, of whom we are treating, not yet being known to our predecessors), who had seen the earthquake: the finding of Daniel happened under Ulderic, bishop of Padua, and John, abbot of the monastery of St. Justina, who in the Acts of the finding, volume 1 of January, page 160, number 7, from the Contests of the Martyrs printed among us, is wrongly confused with bishop Ulderic. And Ulderic or Uldaric sat at Padua from about the year 1061 up to the year 1090, as indeed Ughelli has it, volume 5 of the enlarged Sacred Italy, from the records of the church of Padua. For the rest, of the church of St. Justina shaken by the earthquake the author of the Acts of the said finding has these words: "For the church was outside the walls of the city, namely in the place, as is handed down, which antiquity called the Campus Martius; and the church was built

where the body of blessed Justina rests, and together with it those of many Saints. Which basilica in our time a violent shaking of an earthquake overthrew from its foundations, and compelled us to substitute another in its place, not very like it; for that one, supported on marble columns and adorned for a great part with marble slabs, and gilded, shone within after the likeness of the heavenly stars." So our manuscript, with which the same anonymous writer in Cavacio, page 18, agrees almost word for word.

[80] The anonymous writer adds to these some things from which you may understand in some measure what the appearance of the temple of St. Justina another was raised, to which at length and the chapel of St. Prosdocimus were at that time, although after many calamities. He proceeds thus: "Nor indeed is it surprising: since a most illustrious and most distinguished man, praetorian prefect, patrician, Opilio by name, building it with immense riches, gave it its finish. But we, set in great poverty, inasmuch as we had lately been besieged by the emperor" (Henry V, then hostile to the supreme Pontiffs Paschal, Gelasius and Callixtus) "and stripped of gold and silver, scarcely raised this one in the appearance in which it is seen. Beside this, in a most beautiful recess which faces the South, there is an oratory or temple of wondrous beauty built in honour of God and of blessed Mary ever Virgin and of very many Apostles, in which the body of St. Prosdocimus lies entombed; its walls from the ground all round are encrusted with various marble; while the upper part, which is closed by a vaulted arch, shines far and wide with gilding, and, painted in mosaic work, shows as it were a heavenly palace and the green meadows of paradise."

[81] Of the chapel of St. Prosdocimus, as still existing in his own age, in the sixteenth century there succeeded a new temple Scardeone treats in book 2, class 6, where he speaks of St. Prosdocimus: but in place of the old temple of St. Justina, of which the author of the Finding of St. Daniel speaks, there succeeded at the beginning of the sixteenth century another far more splendid, which is beheld still today not without the delight and admiration of those who look upon it. For since the old temple was already giving way and threatening ruin, and the affairs of the monastery were flowing more prosperously, the monks began to contemplate a magnificent building, more worthy of the Saints whose relics they kept with them, already from at least the fifteenth century as it verged to its end, as is gathered from a public instrument which is to be transcribed below at number 89: but both domestic hindrances and the death of Prelates interfered with the monks' plans for some years, until at length in the year 1501, Eusebio Fontana of Modena having been raised to the abbatial office, as Cavacio writes in book 6, hands began to be set to the work in earnest. The first year of the dignity entered upon by Eusebius was given to demolishing the old temple and carrying together the material for the new: and thence for many years men toiled with unremitting labour and the greatest expense at building and adorning the new mass; and at length Guillem Cassador, bishop of Barcelona, having come away from the synod of Trent, "to cure his health among us," says Cavacio at the year 1573, consecrated and dedicated the altars of the new temple.

[82] famous for its magnificence. Cavacio pursues all these things at more length in book 6; from whom, finally, at the year 1523, it is pleasing to subjoin the dimensions of the new temple of St. Justina. So he: "From the high altar, which faces the East, 332 feet are counted to the doorway. The middle transept, which presents the figure of a cross, runs out from South to North 228 feet. The breadth, where it is greatest, has 72 feet: where least, 40. The breadth itself varies where the lateral aisles are joined to the middle nave. Each angle toward the East is adorned by two chapels, toward the West by one only. All these are curved into an apse: the rest of the temple, running straight to the West, has six chapels on the South, six on the North. Huge quadrangular brick columns, which sustain the vault, have capitals and bases of Istrian marble. A cornice of the same marble runs round the whole temple, 9 feet broad, projecting 3. The style of the architecture is mixed, but inclining rather to the Corinthian. The capitals of the columns have the flower, abacus, volute and cymatium, although they do not have leaves. At the bases there are stereobates, which provide a footing, and stylobates, which make seats for those who are present at the divine office. The martyrium lies beneath the high altar, and is covered by a vault of the highest artifice. For it is not supported by bars or chains, but, almost flat, runs out a long way beneath a most vast weight." These are the dimensions of the temple; as for its ornaments, they are not easily described. But while these and other things were being done in the new temple of St. Justina in the succession of the times, more than one translation of the relics of St. Justina took place, of which we must now treat.

§ VI. The finding of the relics of the holy Martyr and of other Saints, and their translation into the old temple.

Formerly hidden What befell very many cities, that, fallen through wars, fires, discords, and other chances of fortune into various calamities, they often suffered great losses of sacred and profane things, the same befell the city of Padua also more than once. About the middle of the fifth century Attila, king of the Huns, intending to avenge the defeat received from Aetius on the Catalaunian plains, brought over into Italy an immense army of barbarians, and, having destroyed Aquileia, as Marcellinus in the Chronicle at the consulship of Sporacius and Herculanus, and other writers, teach, inflicted a like disaster on the neighbouring cities: that Padua was among these is read in the Ambrosian codex of the Historia Miscella of Paul the Deacon, book 15 (volume 1 of the Writers of Italian Affairs, page 97), in these words: "Moreover the savage enemy burned and destroyed many castles of the same region, the citizens having been slain or taken captive. Concordia, Altinum, and Padua, cities neighbouring Aquileia, he demolished after its likeness and levelled to the ground": but that it was afterwards restored under the auspices of Theodoric, king of the Goths, Cavacio writes, both because report so received it and because Cassiodorus says in the Chronicle at the consulship of Patricius and Hypatius that very many cities were renewed under his rule: and that the spring of Aponus (it is a village about six miles from the city of Padua) was restored by his order is plain from the letter of Theodoric himself on the matter, given to Aloysius the architect, which you have in the same Cassiodorus, letter 39, book 2 of the Variae. The same Cavacio supposes that it was worn down by a second destruction by the Franks, when Totila, king of the Goths, possessed Istria and Venetia, from whom it was recovered by Narses. A third disaster of the Paduans Paul the Deacon describes in book 4, chapter 24, in these words: "Up to these times the city of Padua, its soldiers resisting most bravely, rebelled against the Lombards. But at length, fire being thrown in, it was entirely consumed by devouring flames, and by order of king Agilulf was levelled to the very ground."

[84] The temple of St. Justina was then situated outside the city, through fear of impending calamities and so it is very credible that whatever in it was liable to flames then perished. At the beginning of the tenth century Italy lay open to the hostile incursions of the Hungarians, and Padua, as they say, or at any rate the territory of Padua, was exposed to their plunderings and burnings. Certainly that in that century the temple of St. Justina lay desolate the documents of Gauslinus, bishop of Padua, written about the year 970 and reported above from number 72, hint clearly enough, where these words occur: "When I, Gauslinus, had come into the church of blessed Justina the martyr and of blessed Prosdocimus the prelate, and had seen there all the place round about desolate, and that there was no one there who might say anything, or prepare any reception for guests or the poor; then, the divine and mighty mercy inspiring me, etc." These things it has pleased me to touch on briefly here for this reason, lest anyone, ignorant of the vicissitudes which formerly weighed upon the Paduans, should perhaps wonder that it was not altogether ascertained by the Paduans in what places the relics of St. Justina and of very many other Saints had been laid away, until at length in the year 1177, as will be said a little below, they came forth from darkness into light: for it is easy to suspect that already, perhaps from the times of Attila, the Paduans had entrusted to underground tunnels the remains of the Saints which were in their keeping, the memory of which the rubble heaped up on every side and the very length of time extinguished. Now let us see how at length the relics of St. Justina were drawn out into the open.

[85] Cavacio relates at the year 1174 that, a quarrel having arisen between Losco Transalgardino, the most powerful of the citizens, and Giordano Forzaté, an esteemed man of the monastery of St. Benedict, a certain retainer of Transalgardino set fire to the houses of his adversaries, which, falling with the help of the winds upon the neighbouring houses, the extent of the conflagration at last went so far that almost three parts of the city of Padua were burned down: but that from wooden it was soon made brick. As the city of Padua emerged from this calamity and was seen to return to its former splendour and dignity, its citizens began, says Cavacio, "more zealously to venerate God, the giver of all good things, and to search out the Saints, formerly their patrons and guardians. Suddenly a desire came upon noble and common men alike for the holy relics which, buried long ago behind the temple of St. Justina through fear of the barbarians, a slender report still retained. Nor did the outcome disappoint the public hope. For while in the year 1177 Gerard the bishop and the monks of St. Justina diligently searched for the relics buried among them, they most happily brought out of darkness the little bodies of three holy Innocents, and the remains of St. Justina, St. Matthias and St. Luke." We have the event written down in manuscript by an author who saw what he wrote, and transcribed from the codex of the Ambrosian Library marked G. 91. Yet we shall not present it whole here, because a great part of what the author praised there narrates pertains to the body of St. Luke, of which we shall have to treat on the 18th day of this month: but we shall excerpt what pertains solely to St. Justina.

[86] the year 77 having been reached, That the author whom I praise was contemporary with the event, and even an eyewitness, his very words show: for first, near the beginning of his narrative he speaks in this manner: "But most recently, in the year one thousand one hundred and seventy-four, almost all the dwellings of noble Padua, and also the movable things of its possession, are known to have fallen into ashes through the pestilence of fire." So likewise near the end of the same: "But the sound of the narrative, although it is by no means adorned with the setting of words, is nonetheless made clear by the proof of truth. For I myself, at the time of the finding of the Evangelist, very often directing my steps to his fragrant chest, beheld, unworthy though I am, the herald of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection, and eagerly considered the signs of wonders which God had then raised up there." And thus he speaks of the remains of St. Justina: after he has said that in the year of the Lord 1177, Alexander III being supreme Pontiff and Frederick emperor, on the Kalends of March the magistracy of Padua chose sixty men to be present at the search for the sacred relics, and that Gerard, bishop of Padua, at the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday that year fell on the 9th of March), together with lord Dominic, abbot of St. Justina, with very many clerics and laymen, made a beginning of searching out the relics, he says that two chests were first dug out, one of marble and the other of lead, which namely contained some remains of the holy Innocents slain by Herod.

[87] the Paduans bring out of darkness, Then he proceeds thus: "Rejoicing thus at the sight of these" (he means the bodies of the holy Innocents), "while they were busy with the search for the divine treasure, they then found the tomb of blessed Justina in the very midst of the cemetery beneath the altar" (beneath the traces of the ancient altar, says Cavacio): "from whose opening a wave of sweet odour spread through the air, as on the wing of the winds. For truly fragrant had been the little body of the glorious virgin Justina, who, receiving in the time of her girlhood the crown of martyrdom for her heavenly Bridegroom, merited to be gathered above the stars to the lilies of the virgins. And when the finding of so great a Virgin was known, all the bells of the city rang, and the people ran thither most devoutly with bare feet: and they gazed with awe upon the uncovered limbs of the Virgin." Nor further did this piety of the Paduans toward their holy Patroness lack fruit: for thus the anonymous writer proceeds: "In the glorious time, then, of her finding, the Divine mercy gave light to the blind who touched her tomb; and restored the withered also to their former health"; which, said in general, he then declares one by one in these words: "For a certain daughter of Simeon, who, lacking the use of her feet for three years, had been feeble, being carried on the sixth day before the Kalends of April to the burial-place of so great a Virgin, while she lay in her mother's lap and diligently gazed upon the resting-place of the holy Virgin, began to walk, contrary to her mother's expectation.

[88] "And when the fame of this miracle had come to the ears of Gagus, and see them made illustrious by miracles. desiring that his son, who was then withered, might be healed by the like medicine, he ordered him to be carried to blessed Justina. And when he had been brought, and had invoked the name of St. Justina, he is known forthwith to have partaken of health. Moreover a certain woman of St. Mary of the Prison, whose hand had been withered, when she urgently besought the power of the holy Virgin, is known to have been restored to health about the hour of matins. A certain young woman also from the edge of the Bridge of the mills" (it is a district of the city of Padua), "suffering from blindness, when she had been brought to the Virgin's tomb, trusting in her power, was forthwith given light. Moreover a certain woman from the town of Robolone" (perhaps the same place which on Orsato's Geographical Map of the territory of Padua is marked in Italian La bastia, or the rampart, of Revolon, and in Blaeu, Revolone), "deprived of sight, sought the threshold of blessed Justina, and there, having received sight, returned home magnifying the Virgin." Thus far the anonymous writer on the miracles then wrought by the merits of St. Justina; who from here turns his discourse to the relics of St. Matthias and above all of St. Luke, found afterwards. Yet what he subjoins a little after must not be omitted, that the relics of the holy Innocents and of St. Justina were established for the Paduans by the inscriptions attached to them: for thus he says a little below, treating of the relics of St. Matthias the Apostle: "And so the first bodies of the Saints were declared by individual titles." The day on which the body of St. Justina was found, Cavacio says, was the 14th before the Kalends of April, or the 19th of March.

[89] What further was done with the relics of St. Justina, or where they were then laid up, neither the anonymous writer nor Cavacio relates: the monks of St. Justina, yet it is scarcely to be doubted that, dug out of the cemetery, they were translated into the temple sacred to the holy Martyr: that the body of St. Justina rested there in the year 1476 is at any rate plain from an instrument of the same year, by which leave was given to the monks of St. Justina, who were contemplating the building of a new temple of St. Justina, to remove the chest of the body of the same Saint: thus it is given in Savioli, page 114, copied by him from the Records of the city: "1476. 14th of January, in the Council. In the name of the venerable religious monks of St. Justina a proposal of the tenor below written was put forward. The motion passes that freedom be given to the most religious men, the lords monks of St. Justina, to remove the chest of the most glorious virgin St. Justina from the place where it is at present, and to lay it again at the head of the place newly constructed beneath the High altar; with this, that they cause to be built anew at their own expense a stone chest, adorned and worthy, in which the body of the said glorious virgin Justina may be placed. Likewise that at the time at which they may also remove it, there be summoned beforehand the aforesaid Sp. sp. * deputed for public utilities and for the churches, and other citizens whom they shall think fit, who are to make an inventory of the body of the glorious Justina herself, and are to be present at the time of the placing of that body; and that of all these things a document be made by the chancellor of Padua for the perpetual memory of the matter."

[90] having first obtained leave from the city, From what has already been said and what is still to be said it may be manifest that the monks of St. Justina were not accustomed to make any change in regard to the relics of the Saints resting in their temple, except when leave had been sought and obtained from the magistracy of Padua, and in the presence of the city's deputies: it will be helpful to have observed here in passing for what reason this is done; namely, that the ownership of the bodies of the Saints resting there lies with the city, while the care of guarding them lies with the monks: what I have said is established from a public document drawn up in the year 1605, on the 26th day of November, and printed by Savioli, page 158 and following, in which, when Domenico of Cologna was asking that he might be allowed to insert part of the relics of St. Prosdocimus in a silver statue, these words are found: "Whence the said Reverend abbot set forth that it is his desire and that of his whole monastery to place a small particle or relic of the body of the glorious St. Prosdocimus, first bishop and protector of this magnificent city, in a silver statue, after the likeness of that of St. Justina, to the honour and glory of the Divine Majesty, and to the devotion and adornment of the city itself; but because such his desire cannot attain its due effect without the leave of those representing this magnificent city; since he knows very well that the city itself is the owner of the bodies and relics of the holy women and men placed in the church of his said monastery, and that the monastery is simply their keeper, and that without the assent of the city nothing can be removed or altered; wherefore he humbly asked, etc." I return to the history of the relics of St. Justina.

[91] in the year 1502 they translate into the altar of the old temple The leave which the monks of St. Justina had sought in the year 1476, as we saw a little before, to be able to translate the body of St. Justina from the place where it was in the old temple into its high altar, at length obtained its effect in the year 1502, under Eusebio Fontana of Modena, abbot of St. Justina, some sort of inquiry, however, having first been instituted by Pietro Barozzi, bishop of Padua, as to whether the bodies of the Saints which were thought to lie hidden there were truly contained in the old martyrium, as Cavacio writes at the year just mentioned: and when the chest had been found which contained the body of St. Justina, about which there was most anxiety, the rest was carried out by public authority, which, entered in the public records, Savioli presents thus from the city's Archive, from page 116: "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen: in the year from His Nativity one thousand five hundred and two, in the 5th Indiction, on Monday the 25th of July, on the solemnity of St. James, in the time of the dukedom of the most serene prince Lord Leonardo Loredan, renowned duke of Venice, etc.: the most illustrious lords Tommaso Mocenigo, praetor, and Andrea Venier, prefect, administering justice at Padua. In the church of St. Justina, before the most reverend father in Christ and lord Pietro Barozzi, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See most worthy bishop of Padua, the Reverend fathers Dom Placido of Verona, abbot of St. Sixtus of Piacenza, Dom Luciano of Parma, abbot of St. Benedict of Ferrara, Dom Sebastiano of Venice, abbot of St. Paul of Bergamo, Dom Giovanni of Venice, abbot of St. Benedict of Mantua and president of the congregation of St. Justina, Girolamo of Valenza, abbot of St. Euphemia of Brescia, Dom Andrea of Piacenza, Prior of St. Justina of Padua, Dom Eusebio of Modena, abbot of St. Justina, and also in the presence of the Sp. Sp. lords Girolamo degli Obizzi, a man of the equestrian order, Gabriele dall'Orologio, Giacomo de Leone, Doctors, and Alberto Trapolini, deputed for the public utilities of the Paduan commonwealth, Francesco da Lignamine, Girolamo da Ponte, deputed for the churches.

[92] "There were present also many other esteemed men and nobles, before the nobles of Padua summoned by occasion, or brought in by eagerness to see, or for the sake of devotion, among whom first of all the most esteemed knights lords Annibale Capodilista, Francesco Dotto, Scipione de' Sanguinazzi, Antonio Francesco de' Dottori, Girolamo da Grompo, Benedetto de' Dottori, Sigismondo Capodilista, Bonifacio Bonfio, Alessandro de' Dottori, Francesco da Sala, Niccolò Barisone, Girolamo de' Polcastri, Giovanni Andrea Ungarelli, Giovanni Antonio dall'Orologio. Of the sacred college of Doctors, the Sp. citizens S. Antonio Dotto, Naimerio de' Conti, Giacomo and Isacco, brothers, dall'Orologio, Marco Antonio de' Mussati, Obizzo and Giacomo Papafava, Luigi da Santa Sofia, Paolo de Leone, and Gabriele Savonarola. Lastly S. Melchiorre Lupati, scribe of the reverend lord Bishop, Antonio Filippini, Francesco da Prato, Agostino da Curtivo, Antonio da Concheelli, Giulio Salgheri, and Filippo da Bargazio, of the college and number of the notaries of Padua.

[93] "Since, on account of the rebuilding of the temple of St. Justina, on account of the building of the new temple, the relics of St. Justina which threatened ruin, it was necessary to remove and dismantle some tombs of the Saints, the tombs written below were opened: first of all a certain chest of hard stone, lying at the left or sinister side of the choir, going toward the chapel of blessed Luke, in which were found two small leaden caskets, in the larger of which were found bones divided and separated or disjoined, with three heads of human bodies, without one title of letters, which are said and affirmed to be those of SS. Maximus and Julian, confessors, and of Felicity, a most illustrious woman: in the other, smaller casket there were separated bones of a small body, without any trace of heads, consumed by the decay of so many years, which are said to be the bones of three Innocents, which bones the aforesaid St. Julian, having thrice returned from the sepulchre of the Lord, is said to have brought with him and placed in the church of St. Justina; the places of which Saints, where they rested, being unknown , Bernard the prelate, a good man, found out, Henry II * being emperor, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 153 (rather 1053). Beneath the choir, the heap of stones like a sepulchre lying upon four columns having been dismantled, there was found a chest of hard stone of about four feet, in which there was a certain leaden casket, on the top of which was the inscription 'Here rests the body of blessed Justina, Virgin and Martyr of Christ,' and in it were found bones disjoined and separated, with a human head, which bones are said and affirmed to be of the body of blessed Justina, daughter of Vitalianus, king of Padua, pierced through with the sword by order of the most impious Maximian, whose body St. Prosdocimus buried in the aforesaid church.

[94] "And in another chest, lying at the side of the aforesaid tomb beneath the choir, there was found one small leaden casket, and those of other Saints; inscribed with no letters, in which there were bones, without heads, of a small human body, which are said to be those of the Innocents: but

in that chest there were bones without a head, of a human body, without any memorial or title: namely, they are affirmed to be the bones of blessed Urius the monk, who translated from Constantinople to Padua and placed in the temple of blessed Justina the bodies of blessed Luke the Evangelist and of Matthias of the Apostles , where he too, serving God, was buried. And in a chest of hard stone shut up in the wall at the head of the church on the right side, there was found one wooden casket about six feet in length disjoined, with the head of a large human body, without any title or inscription, covered with a linen cloth of the freshest whiteness, which bones are said and affirmed to be those of blessed Arnaldo, abbot of St. Justina, who suffered under the tyrant Ezzelino. Which bones were placed in separate wooden caskets, wrapped in fine linen, shut and sealed with three seals: one of the Reverend lord bishop; the second of the abbot of St. Justina; the third of the Paduan commonwealth; and after the solemnities of the Mass they were carried in procession around the meadow of the valley, covered everywhere with cloths, the temporal and spiritual confraternities going before with banners, and all the clergy and the doctors of both schools with their Bavari *, and a copious multitude of people; and at last they were laid up beside the High altar, until, the church having been rebuilt, the aforesaid bodies shall be placed in their certain places, there to remain perpetually, A. L. O. D., that is, To the praise of almighty God.

Place of the Seal

"I, Zandomenico Spazzarini, Chancellor of the Magnificent Commune of Padua, son of the late Daniele, imperial notary, citizen of Padua, having been asked, have happily noted the foregoing: I saw and touched the aforesaid bones, I who in the year 1463 also saw and touched the bones of blessed Luke the Evangelist; and in faith of the foregoing I have subscribed myself, my customary sign and name being affixed, as Chancellor of the Commune of Padua."

[95] concerning which We have in manuscript a testimony of the same Spazzarini, chancellor of Padua, concerning the relics of the aforesaid Saints translated for a time into the High altar of the old church of St. Justina, extracted from the library of St. Justina in the year 1688, and sent here to our predecessors by Father Giovanni Battista Romagnoli of our Society; from which I have noted some readings, as they call them, variant: I found indeed more of this kind, but they did not seem to me of such moment that I judged the margin of the page should be burdened with all of them. Of the saints mentioned in it I subjoin a few things; namely of Maximus, Julian, Felicity, Urius, Blessed Arnaldo, Luke the Evangelist, and Matthias the Apostle. Henschen illustrated St. Matthias with a Commentary on the 24th day of February, where he treats in the whole of § IV of the relics of the holy Apostle dispersed through various places; and he mentions those of Padua at number 25, and observes that they were passed over by Scardeone, who in book 2 of Paduan Matters enumerates the principal relics of that city. For the rest, from what was said there it can be gathered well enough that there is no reason why the Benedictine monks of St. Justina should boast as though of the whole body of St. Matthias being kept among them, as Bucelin, in the Benedictine Sacrarium, says they do. Of the translation of St. Luke to Constantinople, whence his relics are said to have been brought to Padua, we treated in passing on the 9th day of May among the Passed Over: more will be given on the 18th day of October, on which he is venerated.

[96] individually The Life of Blessed Arnaldo Cattaneo, abbot of St. Justina, who died in the year 1255 in the prison in which the tyrant Ezzelino had ordered him to be shut up, written by a Paduan monk, his disciple, we gave on the 10th day of February, page 499; let him who wishes to learn more of him consult that place. Somewhat more must be said of St. Urius, who is said to have brought the bodies of SS. Matthias and Luke from Constantinople to Padua. Our Papebroch treated of him in volume 2 of March, page 610 and following, and had consulted only Cavacio in Ughelli, describing the finding of SS. Maximus, Julian and Felicity in the year 1048, Scardeone, Wion, and a manuscript codex from the Ambrosian library. And since he had been able to establish nothing certain about the age of these Saints, and had learned from Wion that on the same day, namely the 17th of March, sacred to St. Julian, St. Urius was marked in the ancient Calendar of the monks of St. Justina, he thought that one and the same man was to be understood under a double name, or under one name but corrupted: to this was added Wion's opinion about the relics of the Innocent Boys slain by Herod brought to the temple of St. Justina, which fitted Julian as well as Urius. Finally it seemed hardly probable to Papebroch that a Saint so solemnly declared (namely Urius, as Wion, though falsely, says on the 17th day of March, unless he were the same as St. Julian) should have been passed over in the Calendar, while another entered in it (Urius as distinct from Julian) should be wholly unknown as to who or what sort he was. For these reasons, I say, Papebroch, who could not see Savioli's Work, not yet brought out into the light when he was writing these things, confused SS. Julian and Urius.

[97] But if it had been granted to him to see these records, received later than Papebroch wrote those things, some things are here noted in passing. he would, as I scarcely doubt, have spoken otherwise; which Pieter Bosch already long before me indicated in volume 1 of August, on St. Maximus, bishop and confessor of Padua, number 12, page III: for not only from the document already adduced, in which in one chest the bodies of St. Julian and of three Innocents, brought, as they say, by him to Padua, and in another the bodies of St. Urius and of one of the number of the three Innocents (Cavacio writes, page 259, that in one stone chest the bones of St. Urius were found, and in another, likewise of stone, the bones of one of the number of the Innocents) are said to have been found, is it plain that the Paduans believed St. Julian to be one and St. Urius another; but also from the inscriptions which were found together with the bodies of SS. Julian and Urius. To St. Julian this was the inscription: "St. Julian was a most Christian man who, when he had many times visited the threshold of the sepulchre of our Lord, at length, bringing three Innocents with him, placed them in the shrine of St. Justina, where his body too rests in the Lord": and these words were found concerning St. Urius: "These (SS. Matthias and Luke), devoutly guarded in the church of the Apostles in the city of Constantinople, lord Urius, keeper of the church, seeing the savagery of Julian the apostate, successor of Constantine *, against the faithful (for the impious emperor raged not only against the living servants of Christ, but also took care to burn the dead, the crosses, and other images, lest anything of their memory should be left to posterity), by divine inspiration, the head of St. Matthias being left to Grusillus his companion, set them on a ship bound for Italy and brought them first to Venice, then to Padua, and devoutly placed them in the shrine of St. Justina, where he himself too, serving God, wished to be buried."

[98] I do not, indeed, offer myself as surety that everything just recited about St. Julian and Urius is true; are noted. for the elogia of these Saints produced just now are of an age unknown to me. Scardeone indeed supposes that they were composed as early as the time of Attila, when, through fear of him, about the year 452, the bodies of the Saints were hidden by the Paduans; but since the Paduans were afflicted with dire disasters not only by Attila, as we saw above, but also by Agilulf, king of the Lombards, in the year 601 according to Orsato, and afterwards by the Hungarians, it remains wholly doubtful, as Papebroch, praised above, rightly warns, at what time this actually happened: Cavacio refers the matter to the times of Rosius, bishop of Padua, who departed from among the living about the year 871. Yet it appears sufficiently from this that already then, when those elogia were first composed, the opinion had settled in the minds of the Paduans that St. Julian was one and St. Urius another. Meanwhile this too appears, for how light a cause Wion ascribed St. Urius to the Benedictines. As regards the relics of SS. Matthias and Luke translated, as they say, by St. Urius from Constantinople to Padua, I leave that to be discussed on the 18th day of October. St. Felicity has a place in our Acts in volume 3 of March, page 682; and St. Maximus in volume 1 of August, from page 109, where, since at number 13 our predecessors pledged their word that on this day the two translations, of the years 1502 and 1562, of several Saints, of whose number St. Justina is one, whose bodies rest in the temple of St. Justina, would be given, I shall now set forth the later one from Savioli in the two following §§, so as to redeem further the pledge given.

* Sapientes Sages, as they call them.

* read: ullo [any]

* read: incognita unknown

* others III, but properly II.

* read: Apostoli the Apostle

* supply: in qua extabant ossa in which there were bones

* or bandariis banners

* read: Constantii of Constantius

§ VII. The monks of St. Justina prepare themselves for the translation of the same relics into the new temple.

The bodies of St. Justina and of the Saints from the old In the year of the Lord 1562 the building of the new temple had already advanced so far that altars had been raised to the aforesaid Saints, and chests of varied marble prepared, in which they were to be laid up: and so Dom Pellegrino of Modena, abbot of St. Justina, set his mind to translating with solemn rite the relics of St. Justina and of the other Saints from the old temple, in which for that reason they had been deposited since the year 1502, into the new temple, and actually accomplished it in the same year, on the 15th day of March, Passion Sunday; "which day," says Cavacio, book 6, page 281, "has remained perpetually celebrated among the Cassinese Fathers: and we hold more celebrated the Sunday of Lent dedicated to the Passion of the Saviour, on which the translation of the Saints took place, and after the evening synaxis we go round the temple every year with the relics of the Saints." The series of the events, then written down and confirmed by legitimate testimonies, Pietro Savioli published in print in the Paduan Treasury, from page 120, from which we shall here reprint it. We also have the same in manuscript, but more briefly; and differing here and there from Savioli's account, but in matters of lesser moment. The manuscript account also has some things which are not found in his; such as what it narrates of the preparation of the ornaments, which I thought not of such moment that it must necessarily be transcribed here; such as that plenary indulgences were granted by Pius V on that day to those visiting the church of St. Justina; finally, that forty thousand men assembled for the solemnity, and any other things of this kind.

[100] of St. Justina Thus, then, it is read in Savioli, just praised: "In the name of God almighty. It is well enough established that St. Prosdocimus, promoted in the twentieth year of his birth by blessed Peter the Apostle to the episcopal office, destined for Padua, a most noble city, arrived there about the seventeenth * year after Christ, and baptized King Vitalianus, Prepedigna his wife, and the people of the city, converted to the faith of Christ; healing many oppressed by divers sicknesses, and doing other miracles in the name of Jesus Christ: who baptized the daughter of the king and queen, conceived after their baptism, giving her the name of Justina, and imbued her with the discipline of sacred letters; and she, adorned among women of high birth with the fame of a splendid character, throughout the whole course of her life

despising worldly delights, serving God almighty with mind and heart, underwent martyrdom as a virgin for Christ: for Maximilian *, the most impious under-caesar emperor, having heard of the death of King Vitalianus, entered Padua at a rapid pace, and, burning with lust for the Virgin, sent soldiers and had Justina brought to him, so that, the worship of the Christian name abandoned, he might compel her to sacrifice to idols, hoping in this way to enjoy her bed: and she, since she loved the delights of the eternal Bridegroom, making little of all that was promised her for an earthly bridegroom, gold, silver, men-servants and maid-servants, tortured with divers punishments, refusing to adore Mars, by order of the most cruel emperor, a sword having been thrust into her side, dying commended her spirit to Christ; whose body St. Prosdocimus received and placed in a worthy place." Some things in this history of St. Justina would call for observation; but since they have been discussed in the preceding sections, I refrain from repeating what has already been said. Thus, then, the Paduan records in Savioli proceed:

[101] "But Maximian being dead, Opilius the patrician, from the old temple a most Christian man, had the shrine which had been Concord's, endowed with many riches, built in honour of St. Justina, making near it an oratory dedicated to St. Mary, both church and oratory being consecrated by St. Perdocimus, who, having lived in the episcopate ninety-three years, one month, and fifteen days, wished to be buried there: Maximus, his successor in the episcopate, testifies that he partly saw these things and partly learned them from St. Prosdocimus." On Opilio and the temple of St. Justina founded by him consult §§3 and 4. Of the Acts of St. Prosdocimus fastened upon St. Maximus we have treated in §1, so that there is no need to linger longer here either. "Which things, it must be believed, were done by divine inspiration: for the divine Majesty willed that in that very shrine the bodies of Luke the Evangelist, Matthias the Apostle, Maximus the bishop, Julian the martyr" (who, however, below at number 105 is called confessor), "Arnaldo the abbot, Felicity and Urius, His friends, should be laid up and diligently and holily guarded: He likewise ordained that the bodies of three Innocents should be brought hither; which, long laid waste both by age and by the rage of barbarians, and most recently in the year from the Birth of Christ one thousand one hundred and seventy-four by fire (as documents existing in the archive of the monastery of St. Justina attest, as is reported)" (see number 86), "came, unknown, into the light by the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, so that the city of Padua might be preserved in gladness by their merits, in whom almighty God has done wonders, and most of all at this time, as is proved a little after, for the repressing of the hardness, or rather the madness, of the unbelieving. The devotion to these the monks of the Order of St. Benedict, living religiously in the monastery of the said place, preserved, and, being diligent, when the shrine was falling through age, ordered the bodies of St. Justina and of the others, of whom it is fitting to make mention a little after, to be guarded in the High altar, to be translated into the new temple which they had resolved to build at the admonition and exhortations of the city, as is provided in the records of the council under the year 1194.

[102] the monks, about to translate them into the new one, "Whence, mindful that it had been founded many years before, at length, by the zeal and diligence of the Reverend Dom Pellegrino of Modena, president of the Cassinese Congregation of the aforementioned Order and abbot of the same monastery, a most loving friend of the city of Padua and of the said place, the monks had it so built, everything being well disposed with such art and such order, that, a part being already magnificently constructed, it is easily shown that what remains, increased day by day, will be most illustrious; whence it comes about that, just as the city of Padua, adorned with the pleasantness of its places, with magnificently constructed buildings, with men endowed with virtue and prudence, and with a university flourishing in every science of letters, is deservedly numbered among the first cities of the whole world; so the temple dedicated to St. Justina in this same city, erected both by the devotion of the said Saints and by its own amplitude and wonderful artifice, cannot be held second among the most illustrious built in any city. Accordingly the most pious monks set up to Opilio the founder, father of the fatherland, and to Vitalianus and Prepedigna his wife, who died thirty days after him, the parents of St. Justina, an elogium inscribed in marble, to him on the right, to them on the left, of the High chapel of the new temple.

[103] order everything to be done to be written down. "Wherefore in the year from the Birth of Christ Jesus one thousand five hundred and sixty-two, Indiction V, under our Most Holy Lord Pius the fourth, supreme Pontiff, and the most excellent Lord Girolamo Priuli, renowned duke of Venice, the Reverend Giovanni Busdrago of Lucca, bishop of Argos, being suffragan and lieutenant in the episcopate for the most illustrious Cardinal Pisani: the aforementioned president being abbot, and under him Dom Celso of Verona and about eighty monks living religiously in the monastery itself; the most illustrious Lord Alvise Mocenigo, knight, praetor, and Girolamo Cicogna, prefect, ruling the city for the most illustrious Ducal Dominion of Venice; the magnificent Bonifacio Papafava and Francesco Capodivacca of the equestrian order, Antonio Vicoagere, Trapolino de Rustica, and Girolamo Polcastro, Sages, deputed for the utilities of the Commonwealth; Francesco Capodilista of the same equestrian order, Pietro Bagarotto, Battista de' Dottori, and Antonio Borromeo, being provisors of the churches of Padua: when the abbot, monks, sages, provisors, and the other fathers had decreed to translate the bodies of the Saints from the old shrine (for that the bodies themselves existed there, public documents drawn up both in the archive of the city's chancery and in the said monastery bore most true testimony) into the part of the new temple, founded to the honour of God under the title of the same St. Justina, magnificently built, to be laid up in chests of choice marble prepared for each, to remain there perpetually; considering that the divine Majesty, showing His piety and mercy in many things for the merits of His friends, will confirm the Christian faith and increase devotion to them, they judged it worth while that the things which were done and also confirmed from day to day should be reduced to writing through me, Giovanni Maria Mazzocco, chancellor of the city, for the perpetual memory of those who come after. D. L.

[104] "On Wednesday, then, the fourth day before the Nones" (the Manuscript has XI) "of March, on the 4th day of March of the year 1562, without the people's knowledge under the name of the Holy Spirit, a solemn Mass having been devoutly celebrated at the High altar of the new temple, the Reverend suffragan, the abbot, the most illustrious rectors, sages, provisors, and the other fathers who were present at the aforesaid, seeing that the people and a multitude of both sexes, already gathered in the temple for devotion's sake and flowing in from every side, was continually increasing, and judging the extraction of the Saints' bodies to be very difficult and dangerous, put the matter off till after None, leave being silently given to the people. On the same day, at about the twentieth hour, the aforesaid Reverend abbot, a Roman bishop named Capranica, who, on his way to the council of Trent, was being lodged in the monastery of St. Justina, clad in episcopal vestments, many monks going before with lighted candles and rendering worthy praises to almighty God, the magnificent lords Bonifacio Papafava and Francesco Capodivacca, named above, Giulio Bradiolo and Annibale Buzzacarini, skilled in both laws, the latter in place of Antonio Rustica, who was absent, the former in place of Girolamo Polcastro, the city's orator at the most illustrious Venetian dominion, sages for the utilities of the Commonwealth, the provisors of the churches, and many others following devoutly, came to the High altar of the old shrine; for it was established by a public document executed in the year 1502 from the Birth of Jesus Christ, drawn up in the book of the resolutions of the Commune, page 140, that the holy bodies named below had been laid up there in five caskets; the wall of the altar having been broken through at the right horn, for the covering could not conveniently be lifted, five wooden caskets, about five feet long, were found in it and, extracted thence, were carried into the new temple.

[105] "The first of these, bound with a cord and secured at the joint with three seals, the cases of the relics having been carried into the new temple, one bearing the image of St. Justina, another that of a bishop, the third the sign of the Commune of Padua, impressed in wax, had these words written on the cover: 'Of St. Justina, virgin and martyr.' The remaining caskets, secured only with the said seals, each had its own label on the cover. The second: 'Of St. Felicity, a woman; of St. Maximus, bishop, and of Julian, confessor.' The third, of three Innocents. The fourth, of St. Arnaldo. The fifth, of St. Urius. Then they came to the chapel dedicated to St. Luke; the cover of the chest, made of alabaster, having been lifted, there was found in it, and thence devoutly carried into the new temple, one leaden casket in the likeness of a coffer, about five feet long, closed only, with no cord and no seals, in which that the bones of St. Luke the Evangelist are contained most true testimony will be given by what will be adduced a little after. Lastly, the cover of the chest existing in the chapel of St. Matthias the Apostle having been lifted, there was found and thence extracted and devoutly carried into the new temple one wooden casket, similar to the aforesaid, with three seals only set on the joint, in which a leaden plate * with letters impressed, fixed on top, testified that the body of St. Matthias the Apostle was to be found. For the rest, because time did not suffice for opening the caskets and accomplishing other things, the aforesaid seven caskets, deposited in the vaulted place commonly 'called Below the Confession,' secured with two seals, one of the Reverend suffragan, who arrived while the aforesaid was being done, the other of the Commune of Padua, through me the chancellor, were guarded through the night by several monks, with candles lit on either side.

[106] on the following day, of each "Meanwhile a certain curious young man, having entered the altar from which the bodies of the Saints had been extracted, found, and caused to be shown to the aforesaid reverend abbot in the presence of the lords sages, provisors and others, one small leaden casket, about half a foot long, so closed and soldered that it could not easily be opened, in which three little balls were secured, wrapped in green silk cloth; and when these were unwrapped, in each there was a label in these words: in one, 'Of SS. Simon and Jude, Apostles': in another, 'These are relics of St. Luke': the words of the third, perishing through age, could not be read; which relics, it was asserted, had been laid there at the time of the consecration of the altar, and they were handed over in the same casket to Dom Celso the Prior to be guarded. But lest things worthy of memory be passed over in silence, the divine Majesty willed to show this sign first of all (as indeed they interpreted it) in His Saints. For when, the wall of the altar having been broken through, the bodies of the Friends of God began to be extracted, the sky being then clear and the sun bright, suddenly overshadowed by a cloud, snow, by no means seen this year in the city of Padua, began to fall from heaven, and, driven by the force of the wind through a window opposite the altar, which perhaps was then open, upon the bodies of the Saints and upon us standing by, truly appeared as manna. And when the holy bodies had been extracted, the sky and the sun appeared brighter: from which (for by Manum * Good is signified) it is to be believed that almighty God, for the merits of His Friends, will preserve the city of Padua.

[107] "On Thursday, the third day before the Nones of the same month, the Reverend abbot, the monks, sages, provisors, and the other citizens, desiring to see the bodies of the Saints and to show them to the whole people, standing by for devotion's sake, came to the place below the confession and ordered the caskets to be opened. In the leaden casket in the likeness of a coffer were found and seen the bones of St. Luke the Evangelist, without the head, concerning which a document in the city's archive

in the red book, folio 174, executed in the year from the Birth of Christ sixty-three above 1440 *, bears testimony. This likewise is confirmed by two elogia found in the casket itself, one in a glass and the other in a wooden little box, registered below: 'He who, filled with the Holy Spirit, wrote the Gospel, and set forth the Acts of the Apostles, as St. Jerome testifies, and died in Bithynia aged 74 years; whose blessed body, brought to Constantinople in the 20th year of the reign of Constantine, was kept in the church of the Apostles.' In another wooden casket like it were found the bones of St. Matthias the Apostle, without the head, with one elogium testifying this: 'This man, the Holy Spirit cooperating, Peter praying, was numbered in the happy fellowship of the Apostles.' The bodies of these, devoutly guarded in the church of the Apostles in the city of Constantinople, lord Urius, keeper of the church, seeing the savagery of Julian the Apostate, successor of Constantine" (rather of Constantius, the son of Constantine, at least the immediate successor) "against the faithful of Christ (for the impious emperor raged not only against the living servants of Christ, but also took care to burn the dead, the crosses and other images of the Saints, lest anything of their memory should be left to posterity), by divine inspiration, the head of St. Matthias being left to Grusillus his companion, set them on a ship bound for Italy and brought them first to Venice, then to Padua, and devoutly placed them in the shrine of St. Justina, where he too, serving God, wished to be buried. But the head of St. Luke is said to have been carried off by the emperor Frederick, called Barbarossa, and an Apostolic Brief, given at Rome in the year from the Lord's Nativity 1464, testifies that, brought to Rome, it is guarded there. Registered in the same Red book, page 174, etc." Baronius, in the Annals at the year 586, number 25, writes that Gregory the Great brought the head of St. Luke from Constantinople to Rome: whereas Frederick lived only in the twelfth century: but Peter de Natalibus too, book 9, chapter 79, holds the very translation of St. Luke to Padua for a fable. His words are: "Whose bones (St. Luke's), in the reign of the emperor Constantine, in the 20th year of his reign, were translated to Constantinople with the relics of Andrew the Apostle: although the citizens of the city of Padua fable that they have his body present, namely in the church of the holy virgin Justina." But these things are to be discussed more fully on the 18th day of October, sacred to St. Luke: I return to the instrument of the translation of St. Justina.

[108] "Another wooden casket, bearing the label of St. Justina, having been opened, of the cases and relics, another casket was found, of lead, about three feet long, with letters impressed on the cover, saying: 'Here rests the body of blessed Justina, virgin and martyr,' the sign of the Cross being impressed at each end of the letters; and when this casket was opened, there were found and seen in it the head and bones of the said holy Virgin, with one little silver box and an elogium confirming these things, of which mention is made in the document previously alleged, executed in the year 1502. These things having been seen with the greatest devotion, the casket itself was closed, bound with a cord, and secured with seals. In another casket were found the small bones of three Innocents, brought by St. Julian from the Holy Sepulchre of the Lord and laid up in the shrine of St. Justina. And the aforesaid holy bodies, long hidden, as was said above" (number 101), "the Reverend Gerard, bishop of Padua, secured in the year from the Birth of Christ 1177, and, placed in worthy chests, the monks diligently guarded them. Then the casket of St. Urius written below having been opened, the bones of St. Urius were found and seen, of which the elogium existing in it, and documents registered in the city's archive, bear true testimony. This friend of God, as has been said, placed in the shrine of St. Justina the bodies of SS. Luke and Matthias, brought from Constantinople."

[109] At whatever time, in the end, the Paduans may have obtained the relics of SS. Matthias and Luke, concerning which something is observed here in passing. there is no doubt that the account of the chancellor Maria Mazzocco on the matter, which you have above at number 107, swerves from the truth. For if it stands, the bones of St. Luke must have been brought by Urius from Constantinople to Padua in the age of Julian the Apostate: but it is established from elsewhere, from Procopius, a writer of that age, that the body of St. Luke, brought into the Constantinopolitan basilica of the holy Apostles by Constantine the Great, was preserved there at least up to the times of the emperor Justinian the Elder, that is, up to the sixth century: thus he has it in book 1 of the Buildings, chapter 4. "Constantine Augustus," he says, in Maltret's translation, "had built this shrine to the Apostles, and had consecrated it to their glory and name … But he had left no mark to testify that the Apostles lay there; nor did any place present the appearance of a repository of sacred bodies. But now, when Justinian was rebuilding this temple, the workmen, having dug up the pavement deep, lest anything should remain badly laid, saw three wooden coffins left there, signifying by their inscriptions that the bodies of the Apostles Andrew, Luke, and Timothy were within, which the emperor himself and all the Christians beheld with the greatest pleasure. These having been adorned with pomp and the celebration of a feast, and the accustomed honours having been duly paid, they committed the closed coffins to the earth again; and lest the place should lack a notable mark for remembrance and resort, they piously dedicated it to the bodies of the Apostles." Hence, moreover, it appears also that the relics of St. Matthias were not translated by Urius to Padua in the age of Julian. Let us hear what further Mazzocco relates.

[110] a legitimate inspection "In another casket," he says, "were found and devoutly seen the bones of St. Arnaldo the abbot, with one elogium on parchment manifestly expressing this: 'This servant of God, abbot of the monastery of St. Justina, in the year of the Lord 1230 obtained from Giovanni Dandolo, podestà'" (or praetor) "'and procurator of the Commune of Padua, with the leave of the council, the water now flowing through the monastery, as is attested at the end of the old statute, hanging by an iron chain, existing in the archive of the city: afterwards, by order of Ezzelino, a most cruel tyrant, thrust into prison, there serving God, held in chains for eight years and three months, he fell asleep in the Lord in the 70th year of his life.' Finally, another casket having been opened according to its label, there were found and devoutly seen three heads and human bones, which, that they truly were and are, one of St. Julian the martyr, another of St. Maximus, bishop and confessor, the third of St. Felicity, a most illustrious woman, the elogia found there most manifestly demonstrated: 'St. Julian was a most Christian man, who, when he had many times visited the threshold of the sepulchre of our Lord, at length, bringing three Innocents with him, placed them in the shrine of St. Justina, where his body too rests in the Lord. St. Maximus was a friend of God, the second bishop of Padua, successor of St. Prosdocimus. St. Felicity was an illustrious woman, devoted to God, dedicated with the sacred veil.'

[111] is held. "These three bodies likewise, hidden for a long time, were found in the year from the Birth of Christ one thousand and fifty-three, by divine revelation, by the Reverend Bernard, Prelate of Padua, for whose merits the divine Majesty then did many miracles; for, as documents existing in the archive of the aforesaid monastery testify, the blind had recovered sight, the deaf hearing, and others affected by divers sicknesses health. Wherefore, by divine Providence, Leo, supreme Pontiff of the Roman Church, came to Padua, was received by the prelate himself, and, staying at Padua for two days, in the shrine of St. Justina, where the bodies of the Saints found were venerated, a multitude of clergy and laity having been gathered together, he celebrated Mass, and restored to its former blessing the city, which was said to have been anciently bound in the bond of anathema" (it had been held fast in the bond of anathema for many years on account of heresy, as Scardeone writes in book 2, class 6, where he treats of St. Maximus, namely the Arian heresy, as Orsato says at the year 1053), "and confirmed the people in the faith, and canonized the finding of the Saints. Which nine bodies of the Friends of God, closed in the said caskets, were commended to several monks to be devoutly guarded in the place below the confession, with candles lit. And when the reverend abbot, the monks, sages, provisors, and the other fathers had decreed that the bodies themselves be laid in the middle of the new temple opposite the chapel dedicated to St. Luke, so that the people might see them and fulfil their vows, fearing lest something unseemly should happen while the caskets stood open, they willed that three or four monks and as many citizens should be in attendance, and that I, the chancellor, should undertake the charge of opening and closing the caskets.

* decimo septimo seventeenth

* read: Maximianus Maximian

* verissimum most true

* perhaps quæque? each

* lamina plate

* Manna

* read: MCCCC [1400]

§ VIII. The relics of St. Justina and of the other Saints are solemnly translated into the new temple.

From the 6th day of March the relics, in the sight of the people, Matters having been thus arranged, as we saw in the preceding §, nothing seemed wanting to prevent the solemn translation of the relics from being now set on foot. "On Friday, then, the day before the Nones of March, in the early morning, everything having been fittingly prepared, the caskets having been brought into the aforesaid place and opened, so great a multitude of people of both sexes ran together continually to see the holy bodies that, flowing in every day from morning till night, one could not give place to another. Hither the blind were led: hither the deaf: hither the dumb: hither came those vexed by demons and affected with other diseases, hoping through the merits of the Friends of God to recover their former health from the divine Majesty and to obtain their prayer: many, sincerely and devoutly imploring the divine help, obtaining grace through the intercession of those Saints, offered their vows daily. Among the other miracles in which almighty God, for the merits of His Friends (I shudder to relate it), manifested His glory: Sister Camilla, daughter of the most excellent Francesco Papafava, skilled in both laws, a noble of Padua, a professed nun in the monastery of St. Anne, of the Order of St. Benedict, through an unbearable pain in both her eyes deprived of light, then of voice, lastly of the use of her feet, so that she could neither see nor speak nor stand on her feet, having endured this infirmity a long time, so that the remedies and medicines given her daily, with the greatest pain of her body, by most excellent experts in medicine and surgery could not effect it, obtained it from almighty God.

[113] "For the aforesaid Sister Camilla, considering that her sickness was held desperate by all, not a few miracles happening meanwhile, having confessed and been contrite, and having devoutly received the body of the Lord, wished to be carried to the shrine of St. Justina; and having entered the place where the bodies of the Saints were found, devoutly offering her prayers over each one, when at the body of St. Justina, signing herself with the Cross, she had touched her mouth and eyes with them, being asked by the noble lord Bernardino Papafava, her paternal uncle, whether she had seen the head of blessed St. Justina, she answered: 'Missier sì' (that is, 'Yes, sir'); at which words uttered by her she, astounded, felt all the senses of her body stirred, and there and then (wonderful to say) she rose, with no one helping, walked by herself, saw and spoke. Having thus recovered voice, sight, and the use of her feet together, praising almighty God for having shown mercy upon her through the intercession of His Saints, she returned home rejoicing. Sister Barbara Leoni, a noble of Padua,

a veiled nun in the monastery of St. Anthony the Pilgrim, who because of a certain sickness had already for four years lost her voice, so that she could not speak, seeing that the care of the physicians profited her not at all, having had notice of the things which almighty God was doing in His Saints at the shrine of St. Justina, with mind and heart contrite resolved to come to the succour of the Friends of God, hoping that she too would obtain health; and having made prayers over each of the blessed bodies, and coming to the body of St. Justina, praying with greater fervour, when a certain monk had touched the mouth of the suppliant with the head of the said Saint, she immediately received her voice, and returned sound to the monastery, joyfully magnifying God. Sister Marina de' Fabrizi, a Venetian, a professed nun in the monastery of St. Matthias, suffering for twelve years from a pain of the stomach, so that she could not retain food, a nearly continual fever vexing her body, medicines and provisions profiting nothing, having understood the things which were being done by the divine Majesty in His Saints in the shrine of St. Justina, came to the bodies of the Saints, offering prayers from her heart, and at the body of St. Justina praying almighty God that through the merits of His Saints He would restore her health; and returning home immediately, she remained free.

[114] placed until the 14th day, "Which things, although they are known and manifest in the city of Padua and elsewhere, nevertheless the Reverend Suffragan, the abbot, the Sages for the utilities, and the provisors of the churches willed that a truthful process be drawn up, so that the things which almighty God had willed to do in His Saints might be made known to others, and that the unbelieving might believe that the intercessions of the Friends of God profit us much. Three notaries, then, the chancellor, and a scribe of the episcopal court, and I the Chancellor of the Commune, having been taken to write, by the Reverend Suffragan, in the presence of the Sages and provisors, not only the principals named in the process but also physicians and many others having knowledge being examined under the bond of oath, it was more than sufficiently proved that these things were and are true. Moreover, a certain Andrea Pulzato of the village of Maserada, of the vicariate of Conselve, of the diocese of Padua, dwelling in the district of St. An. in the house of Domenico Quarantaotto, unable to stand on his feet because of weakness of the sinews, labouring with this infirmity for ten years, begging through the city on crutches, came to the holy bodies, and praying earnestly there for the recovery of his health, in the sight of many, leaving his crutches, walked about the temple joyfully, having obtained his prayer. His depositions and those of the witnesses there present, examined at that time by me the chancellor and reduced to writing, prove this miracle done by almighty God through the intercession of His Saints. The divine Majesty did many other signs in His Friends, which are not written in the present document. And when the blessed bodies had remained in this place, shown to all, for nine days, the Reverend abbot, the Sages and provisors, wishing to lay them up in the chests already prepared, decreed that they should first be carried in procession round about the Meadow of the valley.

[115] on the following day they are carried round in solemn procession; "On Sunday, then, the Ides (15th) of March, in the morning, a solemn Mass having been devoutly celebrated at the High altar of the new temple, so great a multitude of people of both sexes was found both in the church and upon the Meadow of the valley, and awaited with such devotion, that nothing further could be desired; the temporal and spiritual confraternities going before, the doctors in both faculties and the whole clergy taking part in due order, the bodies of the Saints were carried in procession, devoutly and honourably, from the new temple round the Meadow of the valley, covered everywhere with cloths, the Reverend suffragan, the most illustrious rectors, the Sages of the Commonwealth, the provisors of the churches, and others almost infinite in number following, each in his place, with the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ; and they were brought back into the same temple, to remain there for some days, to be shown to the people, who most greatly desired this for devotion's sake; and the order of this procession is described a little below.

[116] "On Thursday, the 14th day before the Kalends of the said month, the Reverend Suffragan, and on the following Thursday, in their chests the abbot, the monks, the Sages, and the provisors named above, having come to the place below the confession, where the bodies themselves were found, everything having already been prepared, decreed to lay up the bodies of the Saints in their chests, to remain there perpetually. Each of the wooden caskets having been opened, then, the several bodies of the Saints were taken out, and, wrapped in silk cloth of red colour, were placed in as many leaden caskets, about three feet long, newly made, an elogium of each Saint, making mention also of the present Act, being enclosed in each casket. But before the said bodies were wrapped in the cloth, the Reverend abbot, with the consent of the fathers of the city there attending, willed that from St. Matthias three teeth and some small bones, and from the bones of St. Julian and of St. Maximus some relics, to be laid up in consecrating altars and tabernacles, should be extracted into separate little wooden boxes, consigned to Dom Celso the Prior to be guarded. Then the remaining two leaden caskets having been opened, the body of St. Justina from the one and the body of St. Luke from the other were taken out, and, each wrapped separately in like cloth, were laid back in their former caskets with a like elogium enclosed as with the aforesaid. From the body of St. Justina the Reverend abbot, with the consent of the same fathers, willed first to take out the jaw of St. Justina, still holding six teeth, to be laid up in the silver head of St. Justina, and also one other bone of the same St. Justina, to be laid up in another tabernacle.

[117] "And when the aforesaid nine leaden caskets, containing the nine bodies of the Saints, secured with a triple seal, they are enclosed, had been closed, bound with a cord, and fittingly impressed in wax with three seals, one bearing the sign of St. Justina, the second of the aforesaid suffragan, the third of the Commune of Padua, and had been put likewise into wooden caskets in the several chests for the sake of preservation, and when all the other things had been prepared, the Reverend suffragan and abbot, the monks with lighted candles rendering worthy praises to almighty God, the Magnificent Sages, the provisors, the fathers and the people attending and devoutly following, solemnly blessed each altar and each chest, dedicating each to each. Finally, under the name of the Saint himself, the aforesaid bodies of the Saints, each laid in the chest dedicated to each, were closed, a marble cover being set upon them, to remain there for ever, this order being observed: for in the choir of the new temple, at the High altar, that of St. Justina: on the right side of the choir, in the first chapel, the three Innocents: in the second, St. Arnaldo: in the third, in his former alabaster chest, St. Luke: in the fourth, Felicity. And on the left side, in the first chapel, St. Julian: in the second, St. Maximus: in the third, opposite St. Luke, St. Matthias: in the fourth, the bodies of St. Urius remained.

[118] excepting, however, part of the relics of St. Justina; "And on the ninth day before the Kalends of the same month, in the sacristy of the church of the old shrine, in the presence of the Sages, the provisors of the city and others, the Reverend abbot willed to place the jaw of St. Justina with five teeth, the sixth tooth separated from the jaw, and another bone, afterwards laid up in a tabernacle, diligently guarded and wrapped, in a silver head of St. Justina, closed and well secured by Bernardino the goldsmith. In the old shrine, then, the body of St. Prosdocimus remained, where it is to be believed that many other friends of God too are found, whose names are unknown through age. And the bodies of the Saints of whom mention was made above, to which a multitude of both sexes flocks daily for devotion's sake, imploring succour from the divine Majesty in the afflictions of their affairs, obtaining their prayers, and offering vows, rest in the new temple, magnificently constructed. And it is not to be doubted that, living now in paradise, they intercede continually for this their most dear fatherland and most devoted people before the Lord our God; whose name be blessed for ever and ever.

[119] at all of which, or some of which, those here named were present. "And at the aforesaid things, while they were being done as above, there were present, some at each, some at these, and some at those, the Magnificent lord Bonifacio Papafava, Francesco Capodivacca, knights, Antonio de Rustica and Girolamo Polcastro, who had returned to the city, Sages for the utilities of the Commonwealth, Francesco Capodilista, knight, Pietro Bagarotto, Battista de' Dottori, and Antonio Borromeo, provisors of the churches. And also the Magnificent lords Giovanni Zabarella, Ludovico Dotto, Gregorio de' Dottori, and Ludovico Leoni of the equestrian order, Gaspare Fabiani, Marco Antonio Zabarella, Marco Antonio Mussato, Transalgardo Capodilista, Giulio Bradiolo, Pagano da Rido, Giacomo Leoni, Annibale Buzzacarini, skilled in law, and Paolo Orsato in arts, Giovanni Barisone, Trapolino de' Trapolini, Zacco de' Zacchi, Lucillo Beraldo, Giovanni S. Vliana, Paolo Alvarotto, Giacomo Dotto, and Giovanni Antonio dall'Orologio, all of the college of Sages of the Paduan Commonwealth: the Reverend Francesco Zabarella, archpriest, the Magnificent lord Pietro Mazzoleli, rector of the lords Jurists, Bernardino Papafava, with Francesco and Marsilio his sons, and also Ludovico Buzzacarini, Matteo Vitaliani, Marco Antonio Cavallini, Pace dalla Scala, Doctors of Laws, Rambaldo da Rido, Alessandro Businello, Marco dal Sole: Giovanni Pizzacomino: Filippo Vitaliani, Andrea Bonfio, honourable citizens: likewise the learned notaries Giovanni Reffato, Pietro Antonio Garato, and Gaspare Mazzocco, Giovanni Battista Cremona, Pellegrino Galeazzi, and many others, both lay and clerical.

[120] Some inscriptions "These are the elogia found in the casket of St. Luke in a wooden vessel: 'That the memory of this most holy Luke the Evangelist may be left to posterity, we have judged it worth while to set out in a brief narrative what happened in our days. In the year of the Lord 1463, at which time in the gracious Venetian city the renowned man Cristoforo Moro was duke, and over this monastery presided the Reverend Dom Bernardo of Piacenza, who held under him nearly 70 monks, living in the observance of true Christian piety and of the religion of our holy father Benedict, reformed by the truly blessed man Dom Ludovico Barbo, two friars of St. Francis brought to Venice from the parts of Bosnia a certain body which they asserted to be that of St. Luke the Evangelist; but since for already a thousand years most certain knowledge had been held, from most illustrious testimonies of the scriptures, both Latin and Greek, that the same Evangelist was at Padua in the Justinian monastery, in order that the truth of the matter might be known, it was decreed by the renowned Venetian Dominion that his sepulchre should be opened, in which almost all his bones were found in a leaden casket, except the head, which the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, passing this way, is said to have carried off; and so all, perceiving the truth, glorified God, and the whole multitude of the people ran to that glorious finding, praising God, who had exalted this royal city with a worthy gift.'

[121] "The things written below were found in a glass vessel: found in the reliquaries 'Jesus. In the name of the most holy Trinity. In this most holy altar, dedicated to the honour of the most blessed Luke the Evangelist, are laid up the bones of the same Evangelist; which altar the Reverend Father in Christ Lord Marco Negro, bishop of Kotor, consecrated on Sunday the 2nd of the month of October, in the year 1465, and by the authority granted there by the Roman See, to those devoutly visiting this altar on the day of its consecration

he mercifully granted an indulgence of forty days, to endure for ever. Justina, virgin and martyr, queen of Padua.' A silver coin, with the impression of St. Mark on one side, the letters saying: 'S. Marcus Venetus.' On the other side, the most serene prince of Venice being impressed, the letters likewise saying: 'Francesco Foscari, by the grace of God duke of Venice.' What was written on parchment in the casket of St. Arnaldo is easy to read below: 'In the year from the nativity of the Lord 1502, Indiction V, on Monday the 25th of the month of July, on which the festival of James the Apostle was being celebrated, on account of the rebuilding of the temple of the holy Virgin and martyr, of the congregation of the same St. Justina of Padua observing the Rule of the Order of St. Benedict, which, since it was falling, was demolished; and since new foundations of the walls were to be made in the place where they previously rested, the relics of blessed Arnaldo, formerly abbot of this monastery, were taken out and venerably placed in the present chest, together with those of three Innocents and of others whose names are unknown through too great age: and they are written in the book of the life of St. Urius the confessor; by lord Pietro, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Padua and count of Sacco, together with Dom Giovanni Cornaro, abbot of St. Benedict of Mantua, President of the Congregation, with abbots and monks in copious multitude, and they placed them venerably in this chest, to remain until the completion of the temple beneath the High altar of the part of the church which was not demolished.'"

§ IX. The relics of St. Justina are taken out and solemnly brought back to their place.

The chest of the body of St. Justina, moved from its place from time to time, Although the relics of St. Justina had been placed in the year 1502 beneath the principal altar of the new temple with the intention that they should remain there perpetually, yet, while the monks of St. Justina continued to spare neither cares nor expense to increase the splendour of their temple, they were from time to time moved from their place for a short time. That this happened in the year 1572, as also in the year 1575, anyone will easily understand from what will be reported below. But especially celebrated was the extraction of the same relics from the principal altar, and their bringing back into it, in the year 1627, when the new choir of the temple of St. Justina was raised. I again report the matter from the Records of the city of Padua, which in Savioli (but not rarely sprinkled with errors), from page 178, run thus: "In the name of Christ, Amen. In the year from His most salutary Nativity 1627, Indiction XI *, on Wednesday the 7th of the month of April, at Padua in the church of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, after dinner, under the Pontificate of Urban VIII, supreme Pontiff, and the principate of the Most Serene Giovanni Cornaro, by the grace of God Duke of Venice, there being present lord Celso Compagnola, lord Ulisse Bragio, lord Niccolò Fasiolo, lord Francesco Sassonia, collegiate notaries, and Sebastiano Suttore de Pollis, and others, etc." (These are read there in Latin in just so many words; the rest in Italian, except the inscriptions.) "Since the reverend monks of St. Justina of this city, of the Cassinese Congregation, on the occasion of the new choir which they are building, had to remove from its place the present High altar situated at the head of the church and of the choir, and since they had already begun this work, they informed of the matter the most illustrious and most excellent Lord Girolamo Lando, knight, most deserving praetor of this city, and the Magnificent Frizzerino Capodivacca, knight, Zorzi da Lion, and Livio Zabarella, knight, decurions, and also Lord Antonio Polcastro, knight, Count Alessandro da Panego, Benedetto Salvadego, Doctor and knight, and Francesco dall'Orologio, decurions for the churches, beseeching the most illustrious, most excellent and magnificent lords to be pleased to be present at the beginning of the aforesaid work, for this reason, that beneath the said altar rest the bones of the glorious virgin and martyr Justina, patroness of this city.

[123] again in the year 1627, for the sake of building a new choir, "Which most illustrious and most excellent lords, the praetor and the decurions above-mentioned, together with the aforesaid lord knight Polcastro, the other colleagues, decurions for the churches, being absent on the city's business, betook themselves to the church of St. Justina, where they had the Reverend lord Modesto of Padua, most worthy abbot of that monastery, and lord Vitaliano of Padua, Prior, and the other priests of that monastery, who came to meet them, as companions and guides to the place where a small wall beneath the altar had already begun to be demolished, and a small hole had been made in it, through which appeared as it were signs of a certain chest; and before they went on to break it further, it was enjoined on me, Giovanni Antonio Campolongo, chancellor of this magnificent city, to describe the place and the form of the altar, which was of the usual height, and covered with a marble stone, and beneath the stone a hollow, within which, on either side, two stones showed on their faces the letters and memorials written below, namely. That which was on the right side bore this: 'The altar was moved and widened on account of the mass of the picture placed above, the body of this most holy virgin and martyr Justina, however, being untouched, in the presence of the rectors of this gracious city of Padua, Gregory the thirteenth being supreme Pontiff, Maximilian Augustus emperor, the most serene prince Alvise Mocenigo, the reverend lord Giuliano of Piacenza, abbot of this monastery, on the day before the Ides of February, in the Year of the most holy jubilee from the Birth, 1572.' On the other, fixed in like manner in the wall on the left, this was the inscription: 'The body of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, was translated by the Reverend Dom Pellegrino of Modena, abbot and president, and Dom Celso of Verona, Prior, of the Cassinese Congregation, abbot of St. Justina, from the old shrine into this hallowed place, with the greatest devotion of the whole Paduan commonwealth, the rite of a religious solemnity being observed, 1562, 15th of March. To God Best and Greatest.'

[124] it is taken out of the principal altar, "A large and most beautiful marble stone covered the monument; and that monument having been removed by the workmen at the order and in the presence of those above-written, the thin wall placed in front began to be broken, and in it forthwith so great an opening was made that a man could enter through it; and there appeared a chest laid up there, but it was not clear of what material it was made; and since it was necessary that it be dug out for the sake of the aforesaid building, the reverend Dom Marco of Ferrara and Dom Agostino of Mantua, priests of that religious order, clad for that reason in sacred vestments, went down into the sepulchre, and found a chest of cypress, of about one cubit and a half in length, whose bottom the length of time and the dampness of the place had rotted; which chest was lifted out with much devotion and many lights lit, and in it was found a small leaden chest, likewise of about one cubit and a half in length, on top of which were found various" (rosaries, as I think) "Angelic salutations and Lord's prayers, together with a coin not unlike that which is commonly called an Agnus Dei, and two leaden plates marked with the characters written below, with certain seals, as far as appeared and could be conjectured from threads, though corroded and rotten. On one face of the coin was this inscription: P. P. XIII. On the other: D. Felix Leonicenus. On the larger plate these things were inscribed: 'In the year of the Lord 1562 were translated the bodies of St. Justina, Matthias, Luke, and others, under the 5th day of the month of March of the aforesaid year; but in the year of the Lord 1575, on the 9th day of the month of December, the body of St. Justina was moved on account of the picture, under Dom Giovanni da Riva of Trent, Abbot. Dom Severino of Padua: Dom Daniele of Verona.' And on the somewhat smaller plate these words, in the same letters on both sides: '1575, I, Dom Giuliano of Asola, was present when this altar of St. Justina was uncovered.'

[125] and in the sacristy, "After this a small leaden chest was dug out by the reverend priests together with others, on whose lid these words are read inscribed in a circle: 'Here rests the body of blessed Justina, virgin and martyr.' Then a huge board was dug out by the same, which, as far as could be conjectured, was the bottom or base of the smaller chest, as also a stone somewhat smaller than the board, beneath the board, which seemed to have been an altar stone: and these having been placed not without devotion upon the High altar by the priests written below, the small leaden chest was lifted, in which, as above, the bones of the glorious virgin and martyr Justina were resting; and without delay, in the presence of the above-mentioned most illustrious and most excellent lord praetor and the lords deputies, with many lights lit, it was carried to the sacristy, where in the reliquary it was set on a somewhat raised bench, a carpet being spread beneath; and then in like manner the other things which had already before been placed upon the altar were lifted by the priests and carried into the above-mentioned reliquary, and there laid at the foot of the above-mentioned chest, together with the two leaden plates and the above-mentioned coins. The lid of the chest was also opened again, in which the relics of the most holy virgin Justina and a bronze tablet were seen, and the chest was immediately closed, everything being untouched. This done, it was covered with a carpet, and this was sewn on with a needle by the master lord knight Zabarella, deputy, and then sealed by me the chancellor with Spanish wax, secured with the seals of St. Mark, of the magnificent city, of the most illustrious lord praetor, of the said master lord knight, and of the same monastery. After this, veneration having been shown to the most holy body by the most illustrious lord, by the magnificent lords deputies, by Dom Modesto of Santa Croce, and Dom Daniele Vitaliani, Prior, and by the other priests, the door was closed and locked with two keys, which were offered to the most illustrious lord praetor. Then the door was secured with the seal of St. Mark, of the city, and of the most illustrious lord praetor, and so, things being left in the state I have said, they departed. The names of the reverend priests who were present at the event: Dom Daniele Vitaliani, Prior, Dom Marco of Ferrara, Dom Luigi of Padua, Dom Alessio of Vicenza, Dom Antonio of Genoa, Dom Benedetto of Naples, Dom Agostino of Mantua, Dom Tiberio of Padua, Dom Paolo of Bergamo.

[126] while the new choir is being finished, it is placed; "Thursday, 8th of April, 1627. The above-mentioned keys, handed over into the hands of the most illustrious lord Praetor, were deposited in the treasury of the Monte Santo in an iron coffer and locked in with two keys, one of which was offered by the deputies to the same most illustrious lord praetor, while the other remained with the magnificent lord Frizzerino Capodivacca, knight, the senior of the number of the deputies, who, when his office is discharged, must consign it to another deputy, likewise the senior. In the year 1627, on Saturday the 4th of September, after dinner. Since from the 7th day of April last the leaden chest containing the bones of the glorious virgin and martyr Justina, locked with keys and secured with the seals of St. Mark, of the most illustrious Lord Praetor, and of the magnificent city of Padua, of lord Livio Zabarella, knight, deputy, and of the monastery of St. Justina, had been deposited in the sacristy by the most illustrious lords rectors, the magnificent ones and the lords then deputed to the care of the churches; and since it was not lawful to enter the sacristy except in the presence of the above-mentioned most illustrious Rectors and deputies, the Father Cellarer, in the name of the reverend Dom Modesto of Santa Croce, abbot and president of this monastery, urged that by the most illustrious and most reverend

lords it should be opened, so that the workmen might measure both the leaden and the cypress chests. The same day. The most illustrious Lord Girolamo Lando, knight, praetor, and the Magnificent lords Decurions summoned by him, together with other noble men, came to the above-mentioned monastery of St. Justina of Padua, where first, at the order of the most illustrious and magnificent lords, the seals were recognized and removed by me the chancellor: the door having been opened, veneration having first been paid, the smith, master Luigi of Urbino, measured both the leaden and the cypress chest; and he also carried out a great stone (as it appeared, of the altar on which, in the old place, the above-mentioned leaden chest had been set) to be placed beneath the new altar, that it might serve for laying again the cypress chest, which was quite large, and then the leaden one: and when he, on returning, had again venerated the aforesaid holy relics, the door was once more locked with keys by the magnificent Zorzi Porini, steward of the city, and sealed with Spanish wax with the seals of St. Mark, of the most illustrious praetor and of the magnificent city; and so they went away together.

[127] "Tuesday, 5th of October, 1627. Since the building of the new choir had now been completed by the reverend monks of St. Justina, and when it was finished, the relics of St. Justina, as also the altar in which was to be placed the body of the glorious virgin Justina, martyr, patroness of this city, which was contained in the sanctuary of the sacristy of the same monastery in the leaden chest, sewn into a carpet and sealed with the seals of St. Mark, of the most illustrious lord praetor, of the magnificent city, and of the magnificent lord Livio Zabarella, knight, deputy, and of the reverend monks of St. Justina; the most illustrious lords rectors and the magnificent lords then deputed to the care of the churches having been requested by the reverend monks to deign to come to St. Justina to unseal and arrange the sacred relics, the whole assembly of the Lords Sixteen having first been invited by note for the 20th hour, the most illustrious lords rectors, together with the most illustrious and most reverend lord Cardinal Valier, bishop of this magnificent city, the magnificent lord Niccolò Trevisan, lord Giovanni Domenico Sala, lord Carlo Zacco, Count Alberto de' Conti, decurions, and also Marco Antonio Lazara, Adriano Capodivacca, Galeazzo dall'Orologio, knight, Lord Giovanni Antonio, Ottonello Descalzo, Doctor, Decurions for the churches, came to the monastery of St. Justina, whither not a few of the number of the Lords Sixteen had assembled: after they had come into the sacristy, the sanctuary there having been unlocked with keys, veneration having first been paid, at the order of the most illustrious Lords the aforesaid small leaden chest was lifted by the reverend priests of this monastery, clad in red stoles, and set upon a table, where the aforesaid seals, recognized by the most illustrious ones and found in their former state, were removed, and the carpet unsewn.

[128] "Then, the leaden lid having been lifted by the same priests, an inspection of them having been held, a white veil appeared, and this having been lifted by the most illustrious and most reverend Cardinal above-mentioned, another also was uncovered, of shot silk or cloth of violet colour, or of dried rose, but its colour faded, and as it were corroded; and this having been lifted, the most holy bones and the head of that glorious Virgin and Martyr were uncovered and seen; and when these had been looked upon with much veneration and devotion by the most illustrious and most reverend lord Cardinal, the most illustrious lords rectors, the magnificent lords deputed to the care of the churches, and the other reverend priests and the assembly of the Lords Sixteen, then the white veil was taken away by the most illustrious lord Cardinal above-mentioned, and the middle part of the cloth or shot silk of the colour of dried rose or violet: the other part could not be lifted, because it lay beneath the most holy bones of that Virgin; and it was laid aside in a pyx, which was handed to the most illustrious lord Giovanni Lando, paternal uncle of the most illustrious lord praetor, to be guarded by the most illustrious lord praetor until the division, which was afterwards made for devotion's sake. There was found in that chest an inscription cut on a leaden plate, of this kind (in Latin, namely): 'The bones and relics of blessed Justina, virgin and martyr of Padua, laid up by the most reverend Dom Pellegrino, abbot, and Dom Celso, Prior of the same monastery, with the consent of the whole Paduan Commonwealth: the supreme Pontiff Pope Pius IV reigning, and the most serene prince Girolamo Priuli of Venice, in the year of the Lord 1562, 15th of March.' Then again the relics and most holy bones were covered once more with shot silk, adorned for that purpose by the magnificent city with a toothed gold border, together with the arms of the most illustrious lord praetor and of Girolamo da Leze, captain, of the magnificent city in the middle, and of St. Mark above.

[129] together with some coins "This done, the most illustrious lord praetor with his own hands placed upon the shot silk the silver coins written below, namely five: three of the Thirty-six men, one of the most serene Sebastiano Venier, the rest of the most serene Alvise Mocenigo, with memorials of the happy victory of the crusaders, and two of the Eight Men with this inscription: 'I will be mindful of thee, Justina, virgin,' one of which was struck under the most serene Da Ponte, the other under the most serene Cicogna. In the name of the city a bronze plate was placed there with the arms of St. Mark, of the most serene prince, of the most illustrious lords rectors, and of the city, of the magnificent lords then deputed to the care of the above-mentioned churches, with this inscription: 'To God Best and Greatest. In the year from the Virgin's child-bearing 1627, on the Nones of October, Urban VIII being supreme Pontiff, Giovanni Cornaro prince of Venice, the body of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, which rested beneath the High altar, was translated into this more august one, with the assent of the most illustrious lords Girolamo Lando, knight, praetor, and Girolamo da Leze, prefect; the work being urged on by the four City Men Niccolò Trevisan, lord Giovanni Domenico Sala, Carlo Zacco, Alberto de' Conti: the four for the care of the Sacred buildings Marco Antonio Lazara, Adriano Capodivacca, Galeazzo dall'Orologio, knight, Giovanni Antonio, Ottonello Descalzo, Doctor: Giovanni Antonio Campolongo, Chancellor of the Magnificent Commune of Padua, subscribed.' On its back were cut the arms and names of the magnificent lords written below, of the number of the magnificent Lords Sixteen: Albertino Miagara, Doctor, Count Bartolomeo Cittadella, knight, Camillo S. Vliana, Z. Francesco Zabarella, Annibale Papafava, Francesco da Lion, Giacomo Borromeo, Vincenzo Dotto.

[130] and inscriptions "Then by the reverend Dom Daniele Vitaliani, Prior of the said monastery, were placed the memorials written below: one bronze plate inscribed with these words: 'In the year from the Virgin's child-bearing 1627, on the Nones of October, Urban the Eighth being supreme Pontiff, Giovanni Cornaro prince of Venice, the wall which blocked the view into the sanctuary having been removed, and the seats which adjoined it having been turned round to the head of the sanctuary, the picture having been raised higher, and the High altar which was beneath it demolished, the body of St. Justina, Virgin and Martyr, which rested there, was translated into this more august one by the most reverend Dom Modesto of Santa Croce, of Padua, abbot of this monastery and general president of the Cassinese Congregation, otherwise that of St. Justina, Dom Daniele Vitaliani of Padua, Prior, assisting, with the assent of the most illustrious rectors Girolamo Lando, knight, praetor, and Girolamo da Leze, prefect, in the presence of the magnificent Decurions Niccolò Trevisan, Giovanni Domenico Sala, Carlo Zacco, Count Alberto de' Conti, and also of the Magnificent Marco Antonio Lazara, Adriano Capodivacca, Galeazzo dall'Orologio, Ottonello Descalzo, decurions for the churches; the Reverend Dom Isidoro of Cologne, Girolamo Spinelli of Padua, Lorenzo of Genoa, Cherubino of Bologna, abbots, assisting: Dom Cirillo Bellafino of Padua, cleric.' Likewise a silver coin of the value of one scudo, on one face of which two circles were drawn: in the upper were cut these words: 'The most reverend Dom Modesto of Santa Croce, abbot of St. Justina and president of the Cassinese Congregation': in the other circle, somewhat smaller, these: 'St. Justina, Virgin and Martyr of Christ, pray for us.' In whose middle was cut the image of St. Justina leaning upon the arms of Santa Croce. On the other face of the coin there were likewise two circles: in the first were read these words: 'Dom Daniele Vitaliani, Prior of the monastery of St. Justina': and in the other: 'St. Justina Vitaliana Borromea, pray for us.' The middle of the circle was occupied by the image of St. Justina, leaning upon the arms of the Vitaliani family. 1627.

[131] they are enclosed again in their chest: "There was placed also another coin of the same value, on one face of which were inscribed these words: 'The Reverend Dom Girolamo Spinelli of Padua, abbot'; the other bore the arms of the Spinelli with this inscription, 'St. Justina, pray for us,' and the image of St. Justina leaning upon the same arms. A third likewise of silver, of the same value; on one face of which these words: 'Dom Cirillo Bellafino of Padua, candle-keeper of St. Justina'; and on the other the image of St. Justina, leaning upon the arms of the Bellafino, was seen cut, with the words related above added: 'St. Justina, pray for us.' These things having been accomplished as narrated above, and in the presence, likewise as above, at the order of the most illustrious, most excellent lords rectors and of the lords decurions, the same chest was girded in its length and thickness with bronze plates four fingers broad, which master Pietro Zucchi, coppersmith, dwelling opposite St. Urban, had made by order of the lords decurions; and these having been bound tight with very thick bronze wire, and master Francesco, tinsmith, having been called, with tin prepared for this purpose, there were impressed upon the bronze plates the arms and seals, first of St. Mark, of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Cardinal, of the magnificent city, and of the most illustrious lords rectors: and lastly with the arms and seals of the monastery and of the above-mentioned Dom Daniele, sprung of the Vitaliani family. This done, the chest, secured afresh in this manner with seals, was deposited and locked in the sanctuary by the reverend priests: one of the keys was handed to the most illustrious lord praetor, the other to lord Niccolò Trevisan, the senior of the decurions.

[132] "6th of October, 1627. The most illustrious lords rectors above-mentioned and the magnificent decurions betook themselves together early in the morning to the church of St. Justina, and then, carried from the sacristy into the temple and when they had entered the sanctuary, veneration having first been paid, the above-mentioned chest was lifted by the reverend priests in their presence, and carried with the greatest veneration into the church, splendidly adorned everywhere with hangings for that purpose, and set upon a lofty stage prepared for it, covered with silk velvet (which was of crimson or purple colour); the guarding of which the city entrusted to the magnificent lords Count Silvio da San Bonifacio, Ascanio Zabarella, Scipione Papafava, prefect, Count Leonello da Lion, who with a company of halberdiers kept watch over the guarding of the most sacred relics until the next day at about the 21st hour; and after they had been present at the sacrifice of the Mass, the most illustrious lords Rectors and Decurions departed. The abbot above-mentioned too entrusted the guarding of the most holy relics to the reverend monks of the same monastery written below: Dom Daniele Vitaliani of Padua, Prior of the place, Dom Vitaliano Arcioni of Vicenza, dean, Dom Davide Fortezza of Padua, dean, Dom Ottone degli Oddi of Padua, dean.

[133] on the 7th of October they are carried round in solemn procession, "7th of October, 1627. The most illustrious lords rectors, the most illustrious auditors and decurions, and the most excellent lords of the court of the most illustrious lord Praetor, accompanied by a great number of noble men, came to the church of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, where, first the most holy Sacrament having been adored, and veneration shown to the most holy relics above-mentioned, and the Holy Mass heard, there was begun a most solemn procession, which the magnificent lords Stefano Dottori

knight, and Borromeo Borromei, appointed to this office by the magnificent lords decurions, directed; by whose ability and prudence it was carried out in the highest order and tranquillity, going round the whole Meadow of the valley, which was excellently adorned and covered with white cloths, as were also the houses of every private person; whence very much was added to the majesty of the procession, at which the most illustrious lord Cardinal Valier, bishop of the city, was present with the reverend Chapter and the reverend lords canons of the cathedral church; and it proceeded in this order, etc." There follows in Pietro Savioli at this place a long series of the confraternities, schools, religious families, companies of soldiers, musicians, abbots, clerics, and nobles accompanying the procession, and of the ornaments of various kinds carried in it, which I did not think it worth while to insert here one by one. I shall add here only what the Paduans did near the end of the procession and when it was over.

[134] and in the High altar of the new choir "The procession having been gathered into the church in the order above-mentioned, and the chest having been placed again by the same priests upon the stage, veneration having first been shown to the sacred relics, the Holy Mass was begun, which the most reverend Dom Bonifacio Sanguinazzo, archdeacon of the cathedral church, sang with most solemn music: and when this was finished, by order of the above-mentioned most illustrious lords rectors, of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Cardinal, and of the magnificent decurions, the body of the same glorious virgin and martyr Justina was lifted from the stage by the reverend priests and monks of the same monastery, clad in surplice and stole, and carried into the choir, where, in the presence of the above-mentioned most illustrious rectors, the most illustrious and most reverend lord Cardinal and the magnificent lords decurions, it was placed in the sepulchre of the High altar, prepared for this purpose and adorned with various pictures of angels, to whose wall at the sides, and beneath the stone where the most holy relics rest, the following memorials were committed: 'The altar was moved, etc.' 'Likewise the body of St. Justina was translated, etc.'" (as at number 123, which consult) "which memorials, as they were found in the old place committed to the wall at the sides, so they were placed in the new also in the same order as was said above. To these, however, were added the following: first a leaden plate inscribed with these words: 'To Justina, Virgin and Martyr of Jesus Christ, offspring of Vitalianus and Prepedigna, dweller in heaven, queen of this earthly province, and divine guardian, the Venetian commonwealth, the city of Padua, and the Vitaliani family commend themselves and their own, that by her intercession she may make them safe here and sharers of glory there. Dom Daniele Vitaliani, for devotion's sake, 1627.'

[135] "Moreover a marble tablet, whose inscription is this: are laid up again. 'In the year from the Virgin's child-bearing (1627), etc.'" namely the same which was transcribed at number 130, except, however, what is said there of Isidoro of Cologne, Girolamo Spinelli and the other abbots, of whom there is no mention here in Savioli. Let us hear the rest. Thus the account of this translation proceeds: "Which two memorials were laid up beneath the stone where the leaden chest was deposited. Further, the memorials inscribed on leaden plates, which were two, and the silver coin" (see number 124) "had already before been deposited by the most illustrious lord praetor in the above-mentioned chest for the perpetual memory of the matter, of which mention was made in the Document of the 7th day of April last. Note that the leaden chest, as was said above, was placed upon the stone where the larger tablet is, on which in the old place too the same chest had been set. Then the coverlet woven of cloth of gold was taken away, and the leaden chest was enclosed in the small cypress chest prepared for this, which small chest was covered with the golden coverlet, and this with a linen one; and presently the workmen, material for this having been prepared, began to stop up the same sepulchre, namely with a huge marble stone, which was most solidly cemented with poured lead, and on the lead the seal of St. Mark and of the magnificent city was impressed. This accomplished, the most illustrious lords Rectors, the most illustrious and most reverend lord Cardinal, the magnificent lords decurions for the churches, and the magnificent lords above-mentioned, to whom the care of guarding the relics had been entrusted, departed." To these are subjoined those who were constantly present at this business: Dom Luigi Savonarola, Luigi Reato, Dom Federico Papafava, Dom Celso Campagnola, Dom Ulisse Braga, Dom Francesco Sassonia, Giacomo Giacometti, Sebastiano Bollis, Dom Giovanni Pietro Trevisan, Dom Niccolò Rimondo. Finally, more than eighty thousand men, counting strangers, country folk, and natives, are said to have assembled for this solemn procession.

[136] Not only were the bones of St. Justina laid again in the year 1627 in a more adorned place in the new temple, On occasion of the same new choir but the monks of St. Justina also willed to provide for the memory of her parents Vitalianus and Prepedigna. This was beyond doubt done by the monks of St. Justina from the supreme veneration with which they are borne toward the Saint; and so, since this too redounds in some way to the cult of St. Justina, it has seemed not beside the point to subjoin here also the series of the event, transcribed by Pietro Savioli from the Archives of the city of Padua, from the same, from page 170: thus, then, he has it: "1627, Indiction X, on Thursday the 5th of the month of August, at Padua in the monastery of St. Justina, and in the chamber of the very reverend Prior written below, there appeared before me the notary and the witnesses written below the very reverend Father Daniele of Padua, Prior of the monastery of St. Justina, and handed to me the notary the writing below of the finding and laying up * of the bones of Vitalianus and of Prepedigna his wife, the parents of St. Justina, to be registered in the Acts of me the notary for the perpetual memory of the matter, a like copy of which exists in the archive of St. Justina, in the presence of:

The Rev. Father Giacomo of Padua.

The Rev. Geminiano of Padua.

The Rev. Aurelio of Bergamo.

"To God Best and Greatest. In the year from the Virgin's child-bearing 1627, on the Nones of October, Urban VIII being supreme Pontiff, Giovanni Cornaro prince of Venice, the wall which blocked the view into the sanctuary having been removed, and the seats which adhered to the wall having been turned round to the head of the sanctuary, the body of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, which rested there beneath the High altar, was translated into this more august one by the Reverend Dom Modesto of Santa ✠ Croce, of Padua, abbot of this monastery and general president of the Cassinese Congregation, otherwise that of St. Justina, Dom Daniele Vitaliani of Padua, Prior of the said monastery, assisting; with the assent of the most illustrious lords Girolamo Lando, knight, praetor, and Girolamo da Leze, prefect; in the presence of the magnificent lords Decurions Niccolò Trevisan, Giovanni Domenico Sala, Carlo Zacco, and Count Alberto de' Conti, and also of the magnificent lords Marco Antonio Lazara, Adriano Capodivacca, Galeazzo dall'Orologio, knight, lord Giovanni Antonio, Ottonello Descalzo, decurions for the churches.

[137] of Vitalianus and Prepedigna, "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In the year from His salutary Nativity 1627, in the 10th Indiction, on Saturday the 8th of the month of May, at the sixteenth hour of the same day. Urban VIII being supreme Pontiff, Ferdinand emperor elect, Giovanni Cornaro prince of Venice, the Reverend Dom Modesto of Santa Croce of Padua, abbot of the monastery of St. Justina and president of the Cassinese Congregation, otherwise that of St. Justina of Padua, Dom Daniele de' Vitaliani of Padua, claustral Prior, in the presence of those written and subscribed below, etc.: Since in the prosecution of the building of the new sanctuary and of the magnificent temple of the above-mentioned St. Justina the stalls of the monks were to be carried to the furthest and higher part of the sanctuary, it was necessary also to remove the statues of Vitalianus and Opilio, which were set on the two columns nearest the golden altarpiece, on either side, namely on the right and on the left, because the aforesaid stalls somewhat obstructed the view of them, so that they might be placed elsewhere when the work was finished. For which reason, in the course of the work, since the inscription of the marble tablet set beneath the bust of Vitalianus signified that the pious bodies of him and of Prepedigna his wife, parents of St. Justina and first-fruits of the Orthodox faith in the whole Venetian province, rested there, they were found behind that tablet. And since the wooden chest in which they had lain for sixty years and more had been consumed, the Prior of the cloister, who was anxiously present at the work, another to be made in which the same bodies might be preserved, and the workmen meanwhile to cease *.

[138] the bones of the parents of St. Justina "The place of the tomb just mentioned, existing in the right column, was raised up from the ground to a height of about twenty feet, so that the ascent to it was not easy; the small casket having been made, the Prior ordered Dom Marco of Ferrara, monk and priest, to climb the ladder and inspect the place; and when he had found very many bones mixed with sand in it, the Prior himself immediately followed, and both, as conveniently as they could, with their own hands searched out the bones, dug them out of the sand, and placed them in the new small casket. Among these bones two heads were found, one of a man, the other of a woman, with some teeth in the jaws still standing so firmly that they could not have been pulled out except with the greatest force. This small casket at length, filled with these venerable bones and sealed with iron nails, the Prior thence carried to his own chamber on the day, etc.: There were present at this matter many, both monks and also laymen, who will subscribe to this page in faith of our truth. I, Daniele, the aforesaid Prior, etc. I, Dom Clemente of Gravina, dean, saw with my own eyes, as is contained in the above-mentioned writing. I, Dom Marco of Ferrara, affirm as above. I, Dom Arcangelo of Padua, affirm as above. I, Dom Claudio of Padua, affirm as above. I, Dom Giovanni Domenico of Padua, affirm that the content of the above-written writing is true. I, Dom Liberio of Padua, affirm as above.

[139] "When, therefore, the work of the sanctuary was now nearly finished, were moved from their place, and a high niche had been built, distant from the ground just as much as the other was distant; since the small casket just mentioned, as one that was too broad and thicker than it should have been, was not suited to the niche, the Prior had a new one of larch made, of a breadth of about one foot, a height of two, and a length of two and a half, in which he laid up again the venerable bodies of the same spouses Vitalianus and Prepedigna, the parents of St. Justina; and having sealed it likewise with iron nails, the same Prior with his own hands placed it behind the same marble tablet of the inscription, beneath the marble *. Likewise the bust of Vitalianus, in the same year, under the same princes, on the 28th day of the month of July; on which day the Prior, before the small casket was sealed with nails, put into it a leaden plate engraved with these words. Namely: 'The bust of Vitalianus, most just governor of Padua, having been removed from the former brick column of this sanctuary, so that the seats turned round from here might be set there, the most Christian bodies of him and of Prepedigna his wife, the parents of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, were found behind the marble tablet of the inscription, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1627, on Saturday, the eighth day before the Ides of May: Urban VIII being Supreme Pontiff, Ferdinand emperor, Giovanni Cornaro Duke of Venice. The Rev. Dom Modesto of Santa Croce of Padua, abbot of this monastery, and president of the Cassinese Congregation, otherwise that of St. Justina, Dom Daniele de' Vitaliani of

Padua, Prior of the cloister, mindful of ancestral and native piety, having long given them hospitality with himself in his own chamber, laid them up again with his own hands in the year as above, and on the 28th day of the month of July.'

[140] "And that full knowledge may be had of such great bodies, namely of Vitalianus and Prepedigna, and given a new chest. and that we may not seem to have passed over anything that pertained to the present business, we have judged it worth while to append to this our page the inscription of the marble tablet, so often named above, which is as follows: 'To Vitalianus, governor of Padua under the emperor Nero, and to Prepedigna his wife, whom St. Prosdocimus baptized in the 17th year after Christ, the parents of St. Justina, virgin and martyr, whose bones, found together with the body of their Daughter in the old shrine in the year 1177, and there hitherto diligently and holily guarded, have been translated into the most illustrious part of this temple, the most pious monks set this up, 1561.' All the above-said I, Daniele of Padua, humble Prior of this monastery of St. Justina, have written and subscribed, and have asked others who were present at the laying up again of the said bodies of Vitalianus and Prepedigna to subscribe, in the year 1627, on the 28th day of the month of July. I, Dom Daniele, the above-said Prior. I, Dom Marco of Ferrara, affirm as above, and was present at the above-said. I, Dom Giovanni Domenico of Padua, Doctor of Pontifical law, was present, and affirm as above. I, Dom Arcangelo of Padua, affirm as above. I, Dom Giacomo of Padua, affirm as above. I, Dom Liberio of Padua, was present, and affirm as above."

* read: X

* repositionis laying up

* read: cessare jussit ordered to cease

* supply: busto collocavit placed it beneath the marble bust.

ACTS

Of slight credit and spurious, from Mombritius. The lineage and martyrdom of Justina.

Justina, virgin and martyr, at Padua in Italy. (St.) BHL Number: 4573

By an Anonymous writer.

St. Justina, Since the holy Raphael deigns to exhort us not so much to set the works of God in a hidden place as rather to spread them abroad openly for the glory of God, admonishing and saying: "It is good to hide the secret of a king ^a; but it is honourable to reveal the works of God": and since, as not to give credence to things known is a mark of unbelief, so it is envy to be unwilling to proclaim things known for the edification of the Saints: nevertheless, not so much trusting to my own strength as helped by the grace of God and by your holy prayers, I shall set forth to you yourselves, without disguise, the history of the blessed martyr Justina, whom our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to consecrate among us as His martyr beneath His altar for the protection of our faith. Let no one, indeed, suppose that the things which were done, as we have said in preface, in her holy passion are recited to this end, as though we seemed to add anything to the glory of the blessed martyr Justina: since we can confer nothing on her, either by keeping silence about ourselves or by speaking. The very miracles of her virtues, needing no proclamation of human tongue, have assuredly gone forth everywhere with a thundering trumpet; but we wish only to show with gladness the obedience of our devotion, for the receiving of its reward. Fearing also what we read was terribly said by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself: "If you shall hold your peace, the stones will cry out ^b." But I beseech us , whoever shall wish piously and religiously to hear or to read these things, that you be mindful of this last of sinners, who in the name of the Lord was present at this passion ^c and have proclaimed it to you.

[2] sprung of a noble lineage, In those days blessed Justina, sprung from Christian parents ^d, was supported among women of high birth by the fame of a splendid character: in whose mind Christ set the earnestness of holy religion and the sober summit of wisdom as a dwelling worthy of Himself. Who would not wish and strive to please by the witness of the holy Virgin and handmaid of Christ, who so advanced the nobility of proud blood by humility to glory that she merited to become one chosen of the heavenly fatherland? Truly a temple worthy for the Lord to dwell in was that holy body of so many and such great merits, adorned with divers pearls, chastened by fasts, ever refreshed by prayers, most clean in purity, so that the greatness of such prudence, shining with a twin lamp, might give forth more light. Truly Justina by name and by merit, who, while she is fed by the dignity of her name, so merited also the crown, so lives, that she cannot lose what she is called ^e. Illustrious by noble power, more illustrious by divine religion: a chaste mind held the palm.

[3] seized by the soldiers of Maximian While, then, she was staying in the regions of Venetia, in her own fatherland too, at Padua ^f, Maximian, then most savage, came to those parts, and ordered a tribunal to be prepared for him in the Campus Martius ^g, that there the sacrilegious emperor might slay the Saints of God ^h. Hence the most blessed Justina at that time, when, going up into her vehicle from her estate, which is called by the name Vitelianum ⁱ, she was hastening to visit the servants of God, is suddenly seized by the soldiers, and, having been set down, is presented with most rapid speed to the most cruel Maximian, as the emperor had commanded them. And while her spirit within was panting strongly, she was asked by the girl who had gone with her why her spirit was troubled; and the girl answered her: "Truly, my Lady, I see your face reddening and your colour changing." And blessed Justina, looking round and seeing them running toward her with all their strength, tried to take to flight, thinking that they were lying in wait for her for the defilement of lust. And at the narrow place of the bridge, which is built of marble, not far from the city of Padua, they shut her in. And having got down, she began to be in agitation and to cry out with tears, and to say: "Help Thy Handmaid, set in this strait, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God." And when she knelt on the marble of the bridge, it was found as soft as if it were earth melted by fire.

[4] And while they dragged her forcibly and cruelly with all their strength, having been seized, so that, when she was dragged out, a deep hollow from both knees appeared in the marble ^k. And seizing her, they presented her with most rapid speed to the most cruel Maximian; and it is said that this is Justina, who confessed herself a Christian with all her strength. Whom the emperor thus addressed: "Declare your name by which you are called, and your condition." To this blessed Justina answered with a cheerful countenance: "I am a Christian." The emperor Maximian said: "I ask you rather about your name, and you pour into our ears these things which we do not wish. Tell your name before you die." To this blessed Justina answered: "I have already told you, I am a Christian: but as to your asking further about my name: I am called Justina." The emperor Maximian said: "What sect do you follow?" Blessed Justina answered: "I worship my Lord Jesus Christ, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them: for to deaf and dumb stones, which are the works of men, I do not sacrifice." The emperor Maximian said: "Why do you refute my sayings with prolixity of words? Come forward and sacrifice to the great God Mars, if you wish to take thought for your tender youth." Blessed Justina answered: "I have already said that I am a Christian, and I renounce all the pomps of the devil. I offer myself as a sacrifice to Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who said: I am the way, the truth and the life: he who believes in me shall not die for ever. These things He promised with a most thundering voice to those who believe in Him: whose true promise is held by me, and no one will be able to tear my fixed mind from His love.

[5] "For it is one thing to converse with God, another with men. when she would not sacrifice to Mars, But if you have any exquisite torments, make haste to exercise them on the Handmaid of Christ. Why do you delay? For I long to depart to Him, my Lord Jesus Christ, who deigned to consecrate me from the very cradle." The emperor Maximian said: "Sacrifice, and you will escape torments; or know that you are to be put to death by the sword." Blessed Justina answered: "I give thanks to my God, who deigns to accept me, His unworthy handmaid, as a victim, and not to sacrifice to your demons; nor do I consent to your vain flatteries. But this I ask of my Lord Jesus Christ, that He deign to enrol me, His servant, in the number of His handmaids. And this I beseech you, that you carry out the torments which you are disposing for me. For I too am ready to endure all things for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ. And why should I dread this contest, since my Lord Jesus Christ is known to have poured out His blood for the whole world?" Then the most cruel emperor, angered, pronounced sentence with sacrilegious mouth, saying: "Justina, who has long lain hidden, and asserts herself bound to the Christian religion, and has refused to obey our commands, we order to be put to death by the sword."

[6] she was struck with the sword, When blessed Justina had heard this, she cried to the Lord with repeated voices, saying: "I give Thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, who hast deigned to enrol me, Thy servant and martyr, in Thy book. Now, if it please Thee, and the sentence which the most impious emperor has pronounced is true, let the mystery of my confession appointed in this place, to which I am devoted, be swiftly accomplished, and receive Thy handmaid into the bosom of Him who sits enthroned, O Christ, my light, precious pearl, whom I have loved, whom I have longed for, whom I desire to see, King of all ages, who reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit." And when the prayer was finished, as she knelt with knees fixed on the ground, the executioner plunged the sword into her side: for one hour continuously, with eyes raised to heaven, and stretching her palms toward the stars ^l, all standing by, she thus prayed to the Lord: "Lord Jesus Christ, receive my soul into Thy rest, for I have loved Thee, I have longed for Thee, and I desire to be Thine own, and Thee alone have I loved, my Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world, and I have sought no lover besides Thee; may I find Thee alone, may nothing besides Thee meet me." And signing herself with the banner of the cross, and with her own hand signing her whole body with divine crosses, she sent forth her blessed spirit ^m.

[7] and was honourably buried by the Christians. Her the Christians, venerating her with the ardour of faith and for the passion of a worthy Martyr, embalmed her venerable little body with spices, and laid it within a cemetery worthy of God, about more than a thousand paces from the city of Padua, where to the present day the mysteries are celebrated in her name. To this threshold of the blessed Martyr a Catholic and most worthy crowd comes together in humble piety, and is eagerly roused to the praise of God and of the crown of the blessed martyr Justina, and venerates almighty God. These things have been told by us, few out of many, rarer out of dense, better known out of certain, which our pen has been able to make plain to all concerning her blessed Passion, and to commend the Legend to religious breasts rather with desire than with weariness: whose memorable birthday we keep ⁿ on the day of the Nones of October, which our Lord Jesus Christ consecrated to His Martyr, to whom be honour, glory, and power without end through all ages of ages.

ANNOTATIONS.

* read: tam so much

* vos [you]