ON ST. DOMNINUS OF BORGO SAN DONNINO, ALSO DONNINUS, MARTYR, IN THE DUCHY OF PARMA,
Under Maximian.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The memory of St. Domninus in the sacred Fasti, his flight, martyrdom, and sacred buildings.
Domninus, or Donninus, martyr, at Borgo San Donnino in the duchy of Parma. (S.)
BY J. B.
"Between Parma and Piacenza, on the Aemilian way," says Ughelli in volume 2 of the enlarged Italia Sacra, col. 62, of St. Domninus in the Martyrologies "in Cisalpine Gaul, or Cispadane Lombardy, is situated the city of St. Domninus (endowed with an episcopal see in the year 1601 by Clement VIII), which drew its name from St. Domninus, who, declining there the persecution of the raging Maximilian" (read: Maximian), "had borne the noble palm of martyrdom." St. Domninus is inscribed in Fiorentini's Hieronymian Martyrology on this day, but without a place, in this manner: "The birthday of St. Domninus the martyr." Likewise in the Martyrology of Rabanus, but with a somewhat fuller elogium: "On the same day," he says, "is the birthday of Domninus the martyr, who under the emperor Maximian was beheaded for the faith of Christ by order of the emperor himself. He after his martyrdom did many miracles in the healing of the sick and the weak." He is ascribed to the Italians in general by Wandelbert in the following verse:
And the Italians shine with Domninus, the illustrious martyr.
His older Acts, edited by Surius, but with the style changed, and written, as it appears, when the name of Borgo San Donnino had not yet prevailed, say that he suffered at the fifteenth milestone from Julia Chrysopolis, or the city of Parma, at the river Stirone, on the Claudian way: nor does the recent Roman Martyrology speak much otherwise, whose words are these: "At Julia in the territory of Parma, on the Claudian way, St. Domninus the martyr under the emperor Maximian: who, when he wished to decline the rage of the persecution, pierced through with the sword by his pursuers, fell gloriously."
[2] Usuard had long ago gone before the authors of the Roman Martyrology in almost the same words: memory, of the martyrdom "At Julia, on the Claudian way, St. Domninus the martyr under Maximian, who, when he wished to decline the rage of the persecution, being straightway pursued, and nevertheless struck with the sword, fell gloriously." The words of Usuard express the sense of the Acts concerning the martyrdom of St. Domninus and its circumstances too accurately for him to be judged not to have seen them. Rabanus also probably saw them, and drew thence what he narrates of the prodigies done by St. Domninus after his martyrdom. But what place did Usuard understand by the name of Julia, and the writer of the Acts by that of Julia Chrysopolis? Cellarius, in book 2 of Ancient Geography, chap. 9, gathers that the city of Parma was called Julia Augusta, and adorned with that title by Augustus Caesar, from this old inscription, which is in Gruter, page 492, num. 5:
Patron of the colony Julia Augusta of Parma. Patron of the municipalities of the Forodruentini and the Foronovani.
And that it was called not only Julia but also Julia Chrysopolis the anonymous Ravennate, who lived about the 7th century, writes in book 4 of his Geography, num. 33, in Porcheron, page 213, writing thus: "Likewise the city of Placentia, Florentiola, Fidentia, Julia Chrysopolis, which is Parma." With whom likewise Donizo in the 12th century agreed, in the Life of the countess Matilda, book 1, chap. 10, speaking thus of Parma:
It was long called Chrysopolis by the usage of the Greeks, In the Latin tongue this city sounds to be Golden, Namely the city Parma.
"Perhaps this name was given to the place," says Muratori in volume V of the Writers of Italian Affairs, page 354, in his Notes on Donizo, "when the Greek emperors ruled all Italy," namely in the 6th century under Justinian. Both the anonymous writer of the Acts and Usuard, therefore, seem to have understood Parma by the name of Julia: not that St. Domninus underwent martyrdom at Parma, but not far from there, namely at fifteen miles; and Usuard thought it enough to explain the place of the arena of St. Domninus, perhaps less known to him, not accurately and exactly, but somewhat more broadly, by the neighbouring and better-known city towards which he was going. Some indeed will have it that Borgo San Donnino was called Fidentia; which opinion its situation between Piacenza and Parma, and its distance of fifteen miles from the city of Parma, the number which in the Itinerary of Antoninus and in Ptolemy is placed between Fidentia and Parma, favour: but what they add, that Fidentia was also called Julia Fidentia, I have neither found in an ancient writer, nor do they prove it from anywhere else than from Usuard himself, who nevertheless, from what has been said, seems able conveniently to be so understood that by the name of Julia he wished to indicate not Fidentia or the very place of Borgo San Donnino, but Parma, in the sense just set forth.
[3] But besides, another difficulty arises here: for since the Aemilian way, in the Itinerary of Antoninus and the Peutinger map in Bergier, book 3, chap. 22, was led from Ariminum through Faventia, the arena Bononia, Parma, Fidentiola or Fidentia, to Placentia, and Livy, book 29, chap. 2, wrote of it: "The Ligurians being pacified, he" (Aemilius M. F. Lepidus) "led his army into the Gallic territory, and carried a road from Placentia to Ariminum, to join it to the Flaminian"; why is St. Domninus said, both in the Martyrology of Usuard and in the Roman, to have suffered martyrdom on the Claudian way, not on the Aemilian? Beretti answers, in the Dissertation on the Chorographic Map of Italy of the middle age, among the writers of Italian affairs in Muratori, volume X, num. 31 and 32, that that part of the Aemilian way which extends from Piacenza to the territory of Bologna, or as far as the river Samoggia, received (after the passing of the Lombard kingdom to the Franks, as he supposes) the name of Claudia: and therefore that the Claudian way, on which St. Domninus met death for Christ between Piacenza and Parma, was not that old Claudian way which lay between Rome and Lucca of Etruria, but the Aemilian, which ran from Piacenza as far as Ariminum, or at any rate
that part of it which, as I have just said, extended from Piacenza to the river Samoggia. Whatever is to be said of the time at which the part of the Aemilian way just mentioned began to be called Claudia, there are not lacking monuments of the later or middle age by which he strives to prove his opinion.
[4] He cites in the first place the Acts of SS. Liberata and Faustina (they are edited in our Work on the 18th day of January), in which the court of Genesina is indicated to have been situated on the Claudian way: near Parma. but Beretti himself places that place neither on the Aemilian way nor on the old and commonly known Claudian; then the Acts of St. Domninus; a charter of Benedict, bishop of Modena, by which in the year 1098 he gave to the monastery of Nonantola a portion of land whose boundary on the South was the Claudian road; a charter of the countess Matilda, by which in the year 1112, on the 8th day of May, Indiction V, she gave to the monastery of St. Benedict in the territory of Mantua, of the church of St. Caesarius situated in the territory of Modena between Modena and Bologna, the court of Vilzagara, whose boundary on the North was the Claudian way; finally, among some more recent writers, Muratori, in volume V of the Writers of Italian Affairs, page 361, num. 203, noting what follows on the Modenese road or way mentioned by Donizo in the Life of the countess Matilda: "But the Modenese road is the same as the Aemilian way carried through Modena, which nevertheless we call the Claudian, and not by a recent appellation, but by a very old one, as the ancient charters of the city show." Muratori adds that the Aemilian way seems to have been restored by some Claudius, and for that reason called Claudia. "The emperor Tiberius Claudius," Muratori further says, "in Reinesius, class 3, num. 80 of the Inscriptions, caused the Valerian way, restored by him, to be called Claudia. Why should not this same thing have happened to the Aemilian way?" Let the credit for the Aemilian way having been restored by some Claudius, and thence called Claudia, rest with Muratori; the monuments just cited nevertheless bring me to think that the name of Claudia was truly given in the middle age to the Aemilian way, by which it was carried from Piacenza into the territory of Bologna, for whatever cause this was done, and that Usuard adopted that manner of speaking from the older writer of the Acts of St. Domninus, and from him finally the authors of the Roman Martyrology; so that, if anything was sinned here by them, it seems to be referred not to the matter itself but only to the manner of speaking. But let us proceed from the Martyrologists to the Acts of St. Domninus.
[5] various Acts The Acts of his martyrdom Surius edited from an ancient codex on the 9th day of October, but with the style changed, and they are far more ancient than the rest: the same, but written in the genuine style, we have inserted in two ancient parchment codices, the Fulda one, marked QMS. 6, and the Trier one of St. Maximin, marked QMS. 7. Besides, a similar manuscript copy of the same Passion, transcribed from the Utrecht codex of St. Saviour. The Passion of St. Domninus from the Fulda codex, a comparison of it having been made with the Trier one, I shall reprint below. Next to these comes another Apograph, taken from the manuscript parchment Legendary of the Most Eminent Cardinal Barberini, at the end of which these things are noted: "In the Ambrosian Library, in codex N. f. n. 275, an almost similar life is contained in Greek, which book was bought in Calabria." Far more prolix than these, and so also more recent, are two Passions of St. Domninus, one taken from the collection of Fr. Gallonio, whose beginning is: "At the time when Diocletian, having taken the empire against the authority of the senate," etc.; and the other from the library of Santa Croce of the convent of St. Francis at Florence, whose opening is this: "The glorious soldier and martyr of Christ Domninus, a Roman by nation," etc.: finally we have also another, Italian, taken from the Annals of the city of Parma, by the author Pietro de' Natali, bishop, as is indeed read in its title, of Aquileia; but I think it should rather be read of Equilio. But of so many manuscript Passions of St. Domninus none is sufficiently ancient to claim certain credence for itself. Those which are strong in antiquity above the rest do not exceed the 6th century, whereas he suffered martyrdom at the end of the 3rd century or the beginning of the following: for each of them calls Parma Chrysopolis, which name, as we showed above, it seems to have received only when the Greek emperors were ruling in Italy; yet they are older than the ninth century, in which Usuard lived, and the arena of St. Domninus, as I shall show below, was already called from the same Saint Borgo San Donnino, from which name each of them abstains. Hence what is to be judged of the rest, and of those which Surius, Pietro of Equilio, Mombritius, and Pico in the Theatre of the Saints and Blessed of Parma published in print, can easily be determined.
[6] of not sufficiently approved credit, the time Such is Baillet's censure of the Acts of St. Domninus edited by Surius, that if you take away from St. Domninus his name and martyrdom, scarcely anything certain about him remains: nor are they approved much more by Tillemont, volume V of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 136, both on account of the injurious speeches which they contain, and on account of the prodigies in which there is no appearance of truth. Let us see what the Acts, whether those of Surius or others, relate of St. Domninus, and let us begin to discuss them. Of what country St. Domninus was, neither his older Acts nor those of Surius declare. He is called a Theban in the title of his Italian life, written by Pietro de' Natali: on the contrary a Roman in the Florentine codex of the convent of Santa Croce. Equal credit is owed to both; or rather none to either; for since the Saint's fatherland was unknown to the older writers of his Acts, or at any rate suppressed in silence, it does not appear whence it became, or could have become, known to more recent ones. That the martyrdom of St. Domninus happened under Maximian is the one voice of all; but in what part of his reign? At the end of the 3rd century, or at the beginning of the 4th, in which first, public edicts having been promulgated, raging began through almost the whole Roman empire? According to the Fulda Acts, in the sixth year of his reign Maximian betook himself from Rome to Milan, and there ordered that, if any were found worshipping Christ, they should be tortured with torments: and thence, not long after, he went away into Germany with part of his army. So the Fulda Acts, num. 1. They then add that Maximian, while he was staying in Germany, ordered some Christians to be put to the supreme punishment on the 8th before the Kalends of September; whereby it came about that five hundred Christian soldiers, deserting Maximian, resolved to hurry from Germany to Rome; of whom some were captured and slain; but some, among whom was St. Domninus, escaped his hands: but soldiers sent to pursue St. Domninus overtook him at the fifteenth milestone from Parma on the Claudian way and, as they had been ordered, beheaded him.
[7] Maximian set out from Italy into Gaul in the year and the kind of death, 286, and, the Bagaudae having been conquered, in the year 287 and the following he stayed commonly at Trier, although expeditions against the barbarians and the business of the empire called him elsewhere from time to time: at which time he very probably ordered some Christians, as the Fulda Acts of St. Domninus speak, to be killed in the bounds of Germany; and perhaps already from the year 287, after the Thebans had been killed in the year 286. For although neither the Fulda codex, nor that of St. Maximin of Trier, nor the Barberini mention Theban soldiers, but only some Christians killed by Maximian in the bounds of Germany before St. Domninus, Pietro de' Natali in the Italian Life of St. Domninus, the Passion of St. Domninus from the collection of Gallonio, and the Florentine codex of Santa Croce nevertheless do so; so that he seems to have fled from Gaul into Italy in the year 287 and to have been put to martyrdom there according to the codices just cited: but about the year 290 according to the older Acts, that is the sixth year of Maximian, counted from the year 285 or the following. Pietro de' Natali in the Life of St. Domninus says that he was killed about the year 295; the Florentine codex of Santa Croce in the year 306. Baronius in the Annals refers his martyrdom to the year 303. Chastelain in the universal Martyrology refers the same to the year 304; so that nothing certain can be established about the determined year in which the martyr fell. And as regards the kind of his death, he was pierced through with the sword according to Usuard and the Roman Martyrology; or rather, as the finding of his body afterwards made shows, he ended his life with his head cut off, as the Fulda Acts and those of St. Maximin of Trier have it. And of the place in which he died it has already been said above that he fell indeed in that place which is now called Borgo San Donnino, that is, on the Claudian or Aemilian way at the river Stirone, at the fifteenth milestone from Parma; but that the place itself was not expressed by name: so that by the name of Julia not Borgo San Donnino but Parma must be understood in the anonymous writer of the Passion of St. Domninus: for Borgo San Donnino was not called Julia Chrysopolis, but Parma: nor, if he had understood Borgo San Donnino by the name of Julia, would he have placed the arena of this Saint at the fifteenth milestone from Borgo San Donnino: but Usuard and the Roman Martyrology, since they say that he was killed not at Julia but near Julia, seem to indicate nothing other than, as is expressly added in the Martyrology, in the territory of Parma.
[8] and accompanying it Having narrated the death of St. Domninus, the older codices add only one or another prodigy wrought by him; although they do not keep silent that he shone in general with many others also. The first will not easily find credence among the learned; inasmuch as it is of such a kind as they know to have been attached to many other Martyrs also from a too simple and inept understanding of pictures, or from the position of their bodies in the tombs being badly explained: for painters are accustomed from time to time to paint the trunk of the body with the head joined in the hands, to indicate that the Saint whose image they exhibit was deprived of his head: it also happened from time to time that the Christians laid out in their tombs in the same manner the bodies of Martyrs deprived of their heads: whence a rude and simple posterity not seldom seized the handle for feigning prodigies, as if the Martyrs, already deprived of their heads, had carried their heads to this or that place. Similar to these is the first prodigy which those codices or older Acts relate of St. Domninus, when they say that St. Domninus took his cut-off head into his hands and carried it across the river Stirone. But for the other, in which a sick man was healed, and a horse carried off from the same man by theft was restored by the help and merits of St. Domninus, let the credit rest with the authors. And here indeed the older Acts stop: but the more recent ones record many more both circumstances of the martyrdom of St. Domninus and prodigies afterwards done, of which we must now treat.
[9] miracles not sufficiently certain, The Florentine codex of Santa Croce relates prodigious circumstances of the martyrdom indeed, but little probable, and not recorded by the older ones: if anyone wishes to hear it, at the fifteenth milestone from the city of Parma there lay beside the river Stirone a certain pleasant little wood, thick with trees. Having entered this
St. Domninus spent some days in it in prayers, fasts and tears, and meanwhile was made certain of the martyrdom impending over him by an angel who appeared to him: accordingly he distributed his goods to the poor who passed that way; nor was this one kind of beneficence enough for him: a certain wretched man had contracted the contagion of a rabid dog, for whom Domninus poured out prayers to the Lord: having poured water or wine into his cup and made the sign of the cross, at the bidding of a heavenly voice he held it out to the wretched man; and when he had drunk from it, he presently returned to a sound mind: this prodigy, done in the presence of many, was followed by the conversion of many pagans to the faith of Christ. Somewhat later the soldiers of Maximian, having found St. Domninus there and dragged him thence onto the public road, beheaded him, though he had shortly before been summoned once again to the Heavenly ones by a heavenly voice, all who were present hearing it. The codex mentioned above adds concerning his burial: But the Christians, who had come to know the way of salvation through him, a revelation having been made to them from heaven, venerably committed the body of the glorious Martyr to burial, just as it lay, in a stone sarcophagus laid in with many spices, no trace remaining above the ground.
[10] the first finding of the body, and the church; The body of the holy Martyr lay in that place, as the Acts of the Florentine codex go on to narrate, for about thirty years, unknown to all: but when these had rolled by, in the time of Constantine the Great it pleased God, a heavenly light having been sent down there, to make it manifest to the faithful. The bishop of Parma was therefore summoned (the first of the bishops of Parma known by name was Philip, who sat in the year 362 according to Ughelli), who, since he had been divinely taught (as the praised Acts again say) that the body of a certain holy Martyr would be found in that place, having dug up the soil to a depth of three cubits, uncovered a stone tomb, and in it the body of the holy Martyr, fragrant with a wonderful odour, carrying its head in its hands, and as fresh as if the Saint had then for the first time undergone martyrdom. There was also present a writing, traced, if one cares to believe it, by an Angel's hand, and containing the History of the holy Martyr. He laid the body, lifted from the earth together with the sarcophagus, in a church dedicated to the holy Martyr, and willed that that place should thenceforth be called by the name of St. Domninus. Very many prodigies are said to have been done at that time through his merits, and in those Acts there is related the prodigy which I recounted above at the end of number 8 from the older Acts. Almost the same things are related by the Acts taken from the collection of Fr. Gallonio, and also published in print by Mombritius, although in these the prodigies are not so greatly multiplied, and only this (not a history written by an Angel's hand, but) an inscription is said to have been found in the tomb: "Here rests the body of the holy martyr Domninus:" but before giving credit to these things, anyone not easily credulous will, not undeservedly, require more luminous witnesses indeed. This is the first finding of the body of St. Domninus, and the first church dedicated to his name.
[11] As the course of time increased the number of prodigies and benefits conferred by God on mortals through the merits and intercession of the holy Martyr, its finding the cult and veneration of the holy Martyr likewise increased, not only of the natives, but also of those coming thither from abroad, so that the ancient church of St. Domninus seemed unequal to holding the number of those flocking thither, as both sets of Acts say. It therefore seemed good to the natives to build a more ample church for the holy Martyr: but meanwhile, through the length of time, it had come about that it was doubted in which part of the old church the body of St. Domninus lay hidden: at length, they say, it was revealed again and again to a certain priest that it lay in the middle of the church: therefore the bishop of Parma is summoned to search for the sacred remains: the soil is dug up in that place where the aforesaid priest had divinely understood them to lie, while a multitude of the people meanwhile prayed in the nearby church of St. Dalmatius for the happy success of the search for those sacred relics. God heard the common prayers; the tomb of the holy Martyr was uncovered, and at once the report of the matter called forth a multitude of the people from St. Dalmatius's to the church of St. Domninus; and while it was hastening in a crowd to the church of St. Domninus across a wooden bridge laid over the river Stirone, the bridge broke from the excessive weight, and very many were cast headlong, among them a woman near childbirth: but it was granted to the prayers and merits of St. Domninus that all escaped from so great a danger without being even slightly hurt.
[12] After this, say the Acts in Gallonio and Mombritius, the second; the bishop, with great devotion, together with the votive assent of the clergy and people, elevating the most sacred relics of the martyr Domninus, translated them to the place in which they are now venerably laid up; the stone which lay at the head of the holy Martyr being reserved as a testimony for the veneration of the faithful peoples; on which also was written, as has already been said: "Here rests the body of St. Domninus, martyr." For from that time the same place was increased by a multitude of peoples, and became more distinguished by the name of St. Domninus, by whose benefits the same place is venerably adorned with fertility of crops and wealth of goods, fruitfulness of offspring and abundance of trade, and, what is greater, with those faithfully coming there from diverse provinces to honour the Martyr. The church of the holy Martyr also, extended over more ample spaces, and with its ceilings and walls becomingly adorned with varied kinds of painting, shines resplendent. The Florentine Acts, more liberal here as elsewhere, after their fashion, in piling up prodigies, add that when venomous and rabid animals were infesting the territory of St. Domninus, and the help of the holy Martyr had been solemnly invoked by the same bishop, this voice was heard from his tomb: Whoever shall come to the oratory specially dedicated to my name, and, having first devoutly offered prayers before the altar, shall reverently receive a draught of my chalice, shall be able to be freed from the aforesaid sickness; and that the people experienced this in very fact.
[13] in the thirteenth century At what time, or under what bishop sitting at Parma (for only in the year 1601 was the Borgo of St. Domninus given an episcopal see, as I said above) these things happened, the praised Acts are silent: but Ughelli teaches it in volume 2 of the enlarged Italia sacra, column 174, writing thus of Opizzo of Parma: Opizzo was a most eloquent man, most skilled in both laws, and shrewd and prudent in handling affairs, devout toward the divine worship and the cult of the Saints: for in the year MCCVII he translated the body of St. Domninus with solemn pomp into the town of Borgo, which thence received the name of the town of St. Domninus. Pico, page 224 of the Theatre of the Saints and Blessed of Parma, agrees with Ughelli in the Italian Life of St. Domninus, adding that the remains of St. Domninus, enclosed by Opizzo in a new marble chest and laid beneath the altar of the rebuilt church in the year 1207, remained there until the year 1448, in which they were translated into a new marble chest, more august than the former, to the place where they are seen even today: and that then indeed that tract, which had formerly got the name of the old castle, began to be called the Borgo of St. Domninus out of the natives' devotion toward their Patron, as, he says in Italian words, the two writers of his Life, citizens of Borgo San Donnino, related at length, who many years ago, in a style good enough indeed but with greater affection, explained at length the deeds and monuments of the glorious Martyr. Pico here in all likelihood indicates the authors of the Acts which are found in the Florentine codex and in Gallonio and Mombritius: whence it is further clear that they composed their lucubration on St. Domninus very late, that is, not before the year 1207, and moreover more out of affection toward the holy Martyr (which fits the author of the Florentine Acts above all) than out of the truth of things.
[14] of Borgo San Donnino, so called long before: That the Borgo of St. Domninus was formerly called the old castle, let the credit rest with Pico: but that the name of St. Domninus was given to that town only from the year 1207 or later seems foreign to the truth. For although I cannot say at what time that appellation first took its beginning, there are nevertheless not lacking monuments much older than the thirteenth century in which it is found so called. I pass over the Acts published by Mombritius, as also those which are inserted in the Florentine codex of the monastery of Santa Croce, in which the use of that name is traced back as far as the fourth century and the age of Constantine the Great. Liutprand, a writer of the tenth century, in book 1 of the Affairs of the emperors and kings, chapter XI, makes this mention of the Borgo of St. Domninus: He (Lambert, king of Italy) had already come to Piacenza, when it was announced that they (Marquis Adalbert and Count Hildebrand) had pitched camp beside the river Stirone, at the Borgo in which the body of the most holy and precious martyr Domninus is laid and venerated. There is also in Ughelli, in the Series of the Bishops of Parma, columns 148 and 149, a charter of Charles the Fat given in the year 880, by which he confirms the Borgo of St. Domninus to Wibodus, bishop of Parma. Likewise another in Campi, book 1 of the Ecclesiastical History of Piacenza, given in the 17th year of Louis the Pious, of Christ 830, in which mention is likewise made of the same: so that there seems no doubt that the name of the Borgo of St. Domninus was in use much earlier than the thirteenth century, and from what has been said it is clear that for many centuries already the body of St. Domninus was not only kept there but also honoured with signal veneration by the faithful. According to the Acts hitherto praised, the church was built for St. Domninus in the time of Constantine the Great, but restored and enlarged in the thirteenth century: but to the Florentine Acts there is added at the end a certain shred, exceedingly fabulous, in which Charlemagne is said to have raised a new church to St. Domninus.
[15] This, as to substance, is roughly what it contains: When Charlemagne, after conquering Desiderius, king of the Lombards, was hastening to Rome and passing through the Borgo of St. Domninus, certain fables about Charlemagne, his horse stood motionless at the place where the body of St. Domninus lay (for his church was then destroyed, as indeed is read there): but the king, ignorant of the cause of the matter, is taught by an angel that the body of St. Domninus was entombed there, and was to be laid in a more honourable place: for which cause Charles, the body of St. Domninus having been dug up, ordered a magnificent church to be built at his own expense: and then, having proceeded to Rome, he was honourably received through the favour of St. Domninus, and was enriched with the right of electing the Roman Pontiff himself and of ordering the Apostolic See, and that with the will of all the Cardinals and of the whole council; and with the right of investiture of bishops and archbishops before their consecration, and finally was adorned by the Romans with the title of emperor. But the fables already thrust earlier into the Acts of St. Domninus, whether by the same man or by another, numerous enough indeed and palpable, ought to have sufficed the author of this shred. He adds besides that Charles ordered a chalice to be made, in which a tooth of St. Domninus was set, and that the power was divinely granted that those who drink from it should have no danger of harm from rabid dogs: he adds finally that that chalice was once stolen by robbers; but at the river Stirone, where the martyr had been slain, it could not be broken by any blows of hammers: but the robbers, of body
compelled by pains sent upon them, brought it back to the place from which they had carried it off: which things, if they are true, I regret were not consigned to writing by a more approved author.
[16] More certain are the things which Peter de Natalibus, who occupied the see of Equilium in the year 1372, writes of that chalice in the Italian Life of St. Domninus, namely that it had been salutary to men and cattle against the bites of rabid dogs, through the merits of St. Domninus, right down to his own age, various buildings sacred to St. Domninus. if a little blessed wine were drunk from it, and that in the rite which was then observed by the priests of the Borgo of St. Domninus. Puccinelli, in the Chronicle of the Florentine abbey, page 26, mentions a monastery of St. Domninus (situated by the walls of Pisa, as Lubin has it in the Notitia of the abbeys of Italy, page 297), whose church, restored almost entirely from the foundations, Giuliano de' Medici, archbishop of Pisa, consecrated in honour of St. Domninus, martyr, on the day before the Kalends of December in the year 1627; in which, he says, there is kept with singular devotion the chalice in which poison was given to St. Domninus to drink (which, however, I have not read of him elsewhere), likewise wonderfully salutary against the bites of rabid dogs; formerly indeed preserved in the Cathedral church of Pisa, but on account of the discords of those with whom the administration of the alms lay, translated by public decree into the aforesaid church. Fiorentini, in his Annotations to the Hieronymian Martyrology at the 9th day of October, says that there is also a church dedicated to St. Domninus at Lucca in Tuscany. An Oratory of St. Domninus near Chiusa on the river Nicave is mentioned in a diploma of Louis the Pious given in the year 823 in favour of the church of Modena, in Ughelli, enlarged Italia sacra, volume 2, columns 95 and 96; where I judge that mention is most probably made of the Domninus with whom we are dealing, on account of the Saint's celebrity throughout those neighbouring tracts. Masini, volume 1 of Bologna Surveyed, pages 483 and 484, at this day, records various churches and altars dedicated to his name at Bologna or in its neighbourhood; where he also relates that relics of the same martyr are preserved in the churches of St. Stephen and of St. John in Monte. Beretti, in the Chorographical Table of Italy of the middle age, mentions an office for his feast approved at Rome and printed at Parma in the year 1607; which things I think suffice for a judgement to be made of the celebrity and cult of this holy martyr throughout Italy. One thing finally, before I put an end to this Commentary, I add here from the Annotations on the Life of St. Lucian, by Odo I, bishop of Beauvais, who lived in the times of Charles the Bald, in volume 1 of January: that it is read in the Life of St. Lucian inserted in the codex of St. Maximin that St. Lucian, when he was making for Gaul through Italy, was cast into prison either at Parma or at that place which was afterwards called the Borgo of St. Domninus, and was led out thence by St. Domninus: but this had no place, whether Lucian came into Gaul under Pope Clement or in the times of the emperor Decius; for Domninus flourished under Maximian, as we have from what has been said hitherto; nor is he known ever to have been in those places, except when he ended his life by martyrdom.
PASSION OF ST. DOMNINUS
By an anonymous author.
From the Fulda codex, marked Qms 6, collated with the Trier codex of St. Maximin, marked Qms 7.
Domninus or Donninus, M., at Borgo San Donnino in the duchy of Parma. (S.)
BHL Number: 2264
Maximian, having published an edict against the Christians, In the time of the emperor Maximian there was raised a persecution a upon the race of the Christians, a great persecution b. And he raged against those who were meditating to separate themselves from the sacrilegious worship of demons c; he had given in command to all the prefects that if anyone had been found d practising the Christian invocation, he should be punished with many torments and diverse tortures, and with capital sentence; while these things were being done, in the sixth year of his reign e, setting out from the city of Rome, he came into the city of the Milanese; again he gave in command to all that, wherever there were Christians worshipping God, they should be tortured with many torments, and, threatening many stripes, should suffer them, so that he might recall the whole people to the worship of his Gods; at the same time, setting out from the borders of Italy with one part of his army, he came into the borders of Germany, and while he was staying there, he found there some who had resolved to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all their strength; who, when they had been questioned, answered with one mouth f and said: We resolve to be servants of Christ; the emperor Maximian answered: Of what Christ do you speak? But the Saints answered and said: We speak of Christ the son of God; the Emperor said: Of what sort of Christ do you announce this? Of him who was crucified by the Jews? He could not free himself from them, and what sort of confidence have you in him, who could not at all rescue himself from their stripes; but, crucified by them, hung upon the wood and, scourged, lost his life by the iron, and was buried in a tomb?
[2] But the Saints answered and said: Most cruel Emperor, puts some of these out of the way in Germany: and tyrant against God, if you knew the gift of God, you would not dare to speak such blasphemy against the Lord; for that our Lord Jesus Christ was an earthly man, and came down to earth through the womb of the Virgin Mary, and did many wonders before the chief priests and their people, who before all raised the dead, cleansed lepers, cured paralytics, and put demons to flight in the twinkling of an eye g; the sick and ailing, who were not able to raise themselves from their beds h, he made all whole by the word of his mouth: Hearing these things, the emperor in the wrath of his fury ordered his Gods to be brought, and said to them: Come, adore my Gods, who have such great patience toward you, and offer them sacrifice and incense; that you may not, tortured with evil torments and stripes, be assigned to capital sentence. But the Saints said: Know this, most wicked emperor, we do not worship your Gods, who are able neither to move with a step nor have breath. Nor can they furnish any good to themselves, and how can we adore them, we who are already assigned to serve our Lord Jesus Christ? Then the emperor, filled with anger, ordered them to be seized and all of them to be beheaded on the 8th day before the Kalends of September.
[3] Now at that time there were many Christians there, about five hundred in number, but St. Domninus, fleeing into Italy, among whom was St. Domninus, the first chamberlain, by whom the emperor was crowned daily, and who himself kept the emperor's crown: having therefore called together all the Christians who were of his number, he said to them: Dearest Brethren, see the sacrilegious man, who neither fears God nor takes any care for his soul, that he may free it from the lower hell: but he is filled with all malice, and the operations of the devil are conceived in his heart; and he is already so seized that through all the days of his life he cannot free his soul from the hand of the devil; see that hell is open to him, and all the ancient iniquities and those which before were gathered into the world with all evils, the devil and ancient serpent has placed in his power, so that he never remembers to free or save his soul; and as i he has been crowned emperor among men, greater torments are due to him. Hear me therefore, dearly beloved Brethren; I give you counsel; since we know that every man is to die, let us flee from his snares to where we can be hidden. And all five hundred men resolved to take refuge in the city of Rome. k
[4] is seized, and beheaded, Then they say to the emperor: Hear us, most wicked emperor: we whom you behold are to serve the almighty God, and the Lord Jesus Christ his son, whom you are not worthy to see, nor his glory. But know this too, unjust and most wicked emperor, that we do not worship your Gods, nor consent to your deceit: for there is a God in heaven whom we worship, whom we are assigned to serve with a sincere mind, who knows our hearts and our mind. He can furnish us help in your torments; we hope with devout mind to receive from him the remedy of health l. Hearing these things, the emperor Maximian in the wrath of his fury ordered them to be beheaded. Then some of them were seized, and in his presence m he ordered them to be slain. But St. Domninus, setting out with some multitude in order to hasten to the city of Rome — and as they set out, some by the Flaminian, some by the Aurelian, some by the Claudian way n, they fled from the sight of the fury of the most wicked prince. But the most blessed Domninus went by the Claudian way: and when he had come to the 12th o milestone from the city of Julia Chrysopolis [p], the agents of the impious emperor Maximian overtook him near the river which is called the Stirone, in the middle of the public road which is called the Claudian. There the agents of the most cruel emperor cut off his head with the sword: but St. Domninus, taking up his head from the ground with his hands, also crossed the river Stirone, and carried his head about a stone's throw [q], and there laid it [r] to rest, where his body now remains whole and inviolate [s]; where many sick from diverse places, the Lord co-operating, received the care of health from him; and there his works flourish to this present day.
[5] He shines with miracles. And after this, while many sick from diverse provinces, hearing of his miracles which he was doing, came running to his oratory, all were saved: and St. Domninus furnished them with benefits and health, among whom came one sick man, tying up his horse, and having entered before the sight of St. Domninus he began tearfully to ask and to beseech his benefits for the tribulation and sickness or ill-health which he had, that he would deign to grant him the help of his salvation; and he suddenly received his former health. Then, going out joyful, he did not find the horse which he had left: again he went in before the sight of the aforesaid Martyr, throwing himself prone on the ground, and began to ask with tears, saying: Alas! holy Lord, I ran to your benefits: does it please you that I should suffer these things? Going outside he looked toward the public road, and saw that man who had carried off the horse returning swiftly, who, calling him back, delivered it into his hand and leapt away. Then that sick man, who had been made whole, began to give thanks to almighty God and to St. Domninus the martyr all the days of his life. These things were found out by us in the beginning: but after this the Lord was working many things there through his servant, if they had been written one by one. And St. Domninus was beheaded [t] on the nones of November [u], our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom be honour and glory. Here ends the Passion of St. Domninus, martyr.
ANNOTATA.
p. See the Sylloge, number 2.
q. See the Sylloge, number 8.
r. In the Trier codex eum is lacking.
s. The Trier codex has nothing about the body of St. Domninus.
t. The Trier codex has: was laid to rest.
u. Trier: on the 8th day before the Ides of October. The Barberini codex: on the 7th day before the Ides.