ON ST. EUFREDUS, VENERATED AS A MARTYR,
AT ALBA POMPEIA IN INSUBRIA
PERHAPS IN THE 7TH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
The ecclesiastical cult of the Saint is certain; almost everything else uncertain.
Eufredus, venerated as a martyr, at Alba Pompeia in Insubria. (S.)
BY C. B.
Although none at all of the hagiologists, whether ancient or more recent, [The Saint, who, although inscribed in no ancient sacred Fasti, nevertheless certainly] if you except Ferrarius and Castellanus, who announce him today, anywhere commemorate St. Eufredus in the sacred fasti composed by them, yet that this our Saint — whose sacred body also rests there in the cathedral church, as we shall see below — enjoys ecclesiastical cult every year today, and that from antiquity, at Alba Pompeia, which is an episcopal city of the duchy of Montferrat in Insubria on the river Tanaro, and that he moreover has at Cherasco, a town seven Roman miles distant from there, a sacred building called by his name, is made credible by a writing found in the Protocol of Signor Teobaldo Reggio, notary of Alba, who probably composed it (see volume 1 of June of our Work, at blessed Theobald, number 3) as the 16th century was running out, and woven by Giacinto Baresiano into the Italian Life of Margaret of Savoy, page 153 and the three following. For that writing, which presents a catalogue or, as they say, inventory of the Saints whose bodies rest in the cathedral church of Alba, contains these following Italian words, which I put into Latin: There is moreover in the same place (namely at Alba Pompeia in the cathedral church, which is dedicated to St. Laurence the martyr) the body of St. Eufredus, martyr, who likewise (no otherwise, namely, than the Saint Frontinianus, who is mentioned before in the same Writing) is held as canonized; and, enclosed in the reliquary which is found in the sacristy of the said cathedral church, he is honoured with a feast and office, and that from antiquity, on the 11th day of October. At Cherasco there exists a church erected in honour of the said St. Eufredus, who shines forth in healing the possessed and the insane.
[2] enjoys ecclesiastical cult, Since Castellanus — who announces Eufredus in the county of Asti and not at Alba Pompeia, where he says his body is held in honour, without doubt because Cherasco, where from what has been said he has a sacred building called by his name, is situated in that county — does not distinguish the Saint with the title of Martyr, he probably did not have before his eyes that writing in which he is expressly presented with that title, as is clear from the words of the same writing just recited here; and certainly, if it be otherwise, he did not think it was to be followed. Nor is Ferrarius to be thought to have certainly used the same writing. For in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy he commemorates today these following words of St. Eufredus, martyr at Alba Pompeia, as he sets forth in the title — and he hands down things consonant with them in his other Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology: Eufredus, whom they relate to have been a Benedictine monk and unjustly slain by impious men around those places, is venerated as a martyr at Alba Pompeia, where his sacred body rests in the cathedral church. There exists at Cherasco (which town is distant 7 Roman miles from Alba) a sacred building dedicated to him: to which the insane, for whom he is invoked, are accustomed to be brought. For they say that God is very often made propitious to them through the intercession of St. Eufredus; and since these things, as will become plain to one who considers them, do not at all agree exactly with those which have been related from the said writing at number 1, the Tables of the church of Alba, from which he adds at the end that he drew them, were probably different from that writing; so that, since they nonetheless hand down exactly the same as it does concerning the ecclesiastical cult of St. Eufredus at Alba Pompeia and at Cherasco, this cult, which is certain even from the said writing alone, is surely further confirmed from those tables.
[3] Would that now, as the cult, so also the other things which pertain to St. Eufredus a Benedictine monk, as those things were held as ascertained! But, says Ferrarius in the Annotation appended to his words just transcribed here, his (namely St. Eufredus's) Life or Acts do not exist at Alba and Cherasco: therefore we have by no means written where and when he lived and was afflicted with martyrdom. So he; but although, for the reason which he here alleges, he did not commit to writing where and when St. Eufredus lived and then underwent martyrdom, and almost all the other things which pertain to this our Saint are either uncertain or even wholly in obscurity, can the time at which he flourished not at least be determined in some way? Ughelli, in volume 4 of Italia Sacra, column 402, beginning to speak of the cathedral church of Alba, affirms there that The bodies of the saints Eufredus, Cassian, and Frontinianus, martyrs, of Theobald, a citizen of Alba, and of Eufridus, a Benedictine monk, and of blessed Alerinus, bishop, as also of blessed Margaret, daughter of Amadeus of Savoy, prince of Achaia, … rest there. If therefore that writer is to be stood by here, it will have to be said that two Saints are preserved in the cathedral church of Alba, of whom one, named Eufredus, was a martyr, and the other, called Eufridus with a slight difference of one little letter, was a Benedictine monk.
[4] But I am of the opinion that only one Eufredus, who was both a Benedictine monk and a martyr, or at least was held from antiquity for a martyr, which are brought forward here is preserved there, and that he is therefore wrongly divided into two by Ughelli through error; and to show that this view rightly sits with me, I first set out how that error probably crept upon that writer. I find only two Catalogues of the Saints whose bodies are preserved in the cathedral church of Alba, different from the one already supplied from Ughelli. Of these, the one, taken from the Protocol of Signor Teobaldo Reggio, notary of Alba, already praised at number 1, stands inserted, as I have already noted there, in the Life of St. Margaret of Savoy by Giacinto Baresiano, who published it, written by himself, in the year 1638, page 153 and the three following; the other is supplied in the chronological History of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, archbishops, bishops, and abbots from the region of Piedmont, by Signor Francesco Agostino della Chiesa, who published it, composed by himself, in print at Turin in the year 1645, page 179; and both list only one Eufredus, whose body they affirm rests in the cathedral church of Alba.
[5] are adduced, But the former distinguishes him with the title of Martyr (see the words of the Writing mentioned at number 1, transcribed here in the same place), while the latter calls him a Benedictine monk, no mention at all being made of martyrdom undergone by him; and since Ughelli, who published the praised volume IV of Italia Sacra only in the year 1652, most probably caught sight of those very two catalogues of the Saints who rest in the cathedral church of Alba, or of others not unlike them, he judged that Eufredus, who in the former of those Catalogues is called Martyr, was distinct from Eufredus, who in the latter of the same Catalogues is called a Benedictine monk; and hence probably in the catalogue which he supplies, mentioned above, of the Saints preserved in the cathedral church of Alba, he numbered two Eufreduses, of whom one was a Martyr, the other a Benedictine monk. But although, of the two catalogues just mentioned of the Saints resting in the cathedral church of Alba which guided Ughelli, the one calls the Eufredus whom it mentions a Martyr, the other a Benedictine monk, both nevertheless, as I have already said, list only one Eufredus preserved there.
[6] [suggest, he probably was, and perhaps in the 7th century migrated to those above.] Wherefore, since those two catalogues are to be stood by rather than the one which Ughelli supplies, it appears it must be believed that only one Eufredus, who was both a martyr and a Benedictine monk, is preserved in the cathedral church of Alba; so that, since our Eufredus, as being preserved in the cathedral church of Alba, as the things I adduced at numbers 1 and 2 prove, is without doubt not different from this one, he surely was both a martyr and a Benedictine monk, if the Catalogue praised above of the Saints resting in the cathedral church of Alba, which Francesco della Chiesa supplies, rightly calls the Eufredus whom it mentions a Benedictine monk; and that Eufredus is probably rightly called a Benedictine monk in that Catalogue is suggested by tradition; for this, as the words of Ferrarius recited at number 2 teach, expressly holds that Eufredus was a Benedictine monk. Now, since it is so, and the Order of St. Benedict, instituted in the 6th century, does not seem to have had houses before the 7th century in the parts near Alba Pompeia in which Eufredus is believed to have been slain by impious men, I have therefore signified above in the margin that he — whom nothing suggests to have lived after the 7th century either — perhaps migrated to the Lord in this very century. Besides, since the Saint is related to have been slain not for the faith, but only unjustly by impious men (see the words of Ferrarius transcribed here at number 2), and does not therefore seem to be held a martyr in the strict sense of the name, I have hence not called him a Martyr in the title, but have indicated that he is only venerated or held as a martyr.