ON ST. OPILIUS, DEACON AND CONFESSOR, AT PIACENZA IN ITALY,
IN THE 5TH CENTURY.
SYLLOGE.
Of the cult of the Saint, his deeds, and the time at which he is believed to have flourished and died.
Opilius, deacon, conf., at Piacenza in Italy (S.)
BY J. B. F.
Piacenza, a noble episcopal city of Cisalpine Gaul on the river Po, St. Opilius at Piacenza on this day with a proper Office, venerates St. Opilius on the 12th day of October with an Office of double rite, as is clear from the proper Offices of the church of Piacenza, approved at Rome by the Sacred Congregation of Rites on the 23rd of March in the year 1602 and the 15th of April 1603, and printed by order of Claudio Rangoni, prelate of the same church, in the year 1635, where at the 12th of October a double Office of St. Opilius is prescribed, and it is added: He rested in the Lord on the fourth day before the Ides of October, his whole face shining in a wonderful manner, and his body (which was honourably laid in the Church of blessed Antoninus, which he had served so assiduously and holily) breathing forth a most sweet odour. Ferrari also celebrates the memory of our Saint at this day in both his Catalogues of Saints. And in one of these, namely the General, he does it in these few words: At Piacenza, of St. Opilius, deacon. But he gives more in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy; but these I shall presently set before the reader to be read from the Office from which he drew his. Châtelain, who makes no mention of St. Opilius in the Universal Martyrology, celebrates him in the Supplement of the praised Work not on the twelfth but on the first day of October in the following words: At Piacenza on the Po, of St. Opilius, deacon, whose body rests in the church of the said city dedicated to St. Antoninus. We do not follow the praised Châtelain, who probably drew this from the Index to Ferrari's Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, where our Saint is noted on the first day of October, in assigning the day of his death; but, adhering to Ferrari, who, both in the General and in the Particular Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, rightly announces St. Opilius at the twelfth day of October, as we have just seen, we say with the proper Offices of Piacenza that our Saint exchanged mortal life for immortal on the same day of October.
[2] As for the deeds of St. Opilius, Pietro Maria Campi relates them in many words in the first part of the History of Piacenza, which is here described, written in Italian; but since the praised Campi narrates without surety no other illustrious deeds of our Saint (if you except certain miracles wrought after his departure from this life, which move the reader to laughter rather than piety) than those which are contained in his Office, I have not thought it necessary to reprint his composition here; take now the illustrious deeds of our Saint which are recited in the cited Office, whose fourth and fifth lessons are composed thus: Lesson IV. Opilius the deacon, given to piety from his earliest age, was renowned at Piacenza: he was present at the translation of the body of St. Antoninus the martyr, discharging the office of acolyte. As a youth he was so kindled with divine fire that his mind meditated on nothing but heavenly things. He was held by so great a longing for the church of St. Victor, which is now called that of St. Antoninus, that he scarcely ever departed from it, serving God day and night with fasts and supplications, very often also passing whole days fasting; the things which his mother sent him to restore his strength he bestowed with a willing mind on the needy, using another far more excellent food, pious meditation and assiduous reading of the sacred letters.
[3] he is venerated every year. Lesson V. With how great humility and meekness, and also patience and vigilance and the other virtues he shone, can scarcely be set forth by any speech: for he was to be admired by all for his singular virtues. When once he was praying in his little cell, Gelasius, his younger brother, saw a multitude of angels speaking with him, and at the same time heard a voice: "Suffer the little ones to come to me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." And St. Opilius was illustrious for signs and miracles; for he healed the sick, cast out demons from the bodies of men, and did many other things wonderfully, by which God willed his holiness to be known. Finally the blessed Man, heaped with the merits of good works, rested in the Lord on the fourth day before the Ides of October, his whole face shining in a wonderful manner, and his body (which was honourably laid in the church of blessed Antoninus, which he had served so assiduously and holily) breathing forth a most sweet odour. The memory also of his translation, which was formerly performed solemnly in the same church by Fabrizio, bishop of Piacenza, is recalled there every year on the sixth day before the Ides of May. So much in the Office, on which I observe the following. Of St. Antoninus the martyr, here mentioned, it has been treated by us at the 4th day of July; of St. Gelasius, the younger brother of our Saint, at the 4th day of February. Fabrizio, who is here said to have translated the body of St. Opilius with a solemn feast, by the witness of Ughelli in the Catalogue of the bishops of Piacenza, tome 2 of the Italia Sacra, col. 233 of the newest edition, occupied the chair of Piacenza from the year 1476 to the year 1508.
[4] Let these things said about the cult and deeds of our Saint suffice. The time at which he flourished It remains that we investigate at what time St. Opilius made the church of Piacenza illustrious both by the ministry of acolyte and by that of deacon, and at what time he was translated to a better life. In the cited Office we read that he was present at the translation of the body of St. Antoninus the martyr, discharging the office of acolyte; but no chronological note is to be found there by which the time at which those sacred remains were solemnly elevated could be determined. Similarly, the Acts of St. Sabinus or Savinus, bishop of the diocese of Piacenza, published in our Work at the 17th day of January, testify that the body of St. Antoninus was found by this holy prelate and translated with a solemn feast; but the same Acts in no way express the time at which this translation was celebrated. From these, therefore, we can define neither the time nor the year in which our Saint discharged the office of acolyte under St. Sabinus. If, however, credit is to be given to the writers who have mentioned this holy prelate, he was, as has also been said in the place cited above in our Work, a contemporary of St. Ambrose, and,
after he had ruled this church for about 45 years, passed from this life towards the end of the fourth century from the birth of Christ. Hence it follows that St. Opilius, whom it is now established to have exercised the office of acolyte under St. Sabinus, adorned the church of Piacenza within the aforesaid years of the fourth century.
[5] Let us now inquire into the time at which our Saint exchanged mortal life for immortal. Among the writers and is believed to have died. who have mentioned St. Opilius there is no agreement about the year in which he was translated to a better life. Ferrari, in the Annotations to the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, asserts that our Saint died about the year 420: Châtelain notes in the margin that he ceased to live about 410: Pietro Maria Campi, whom we praised above, writes that he passed from this life in the year of restored Salvation 450, and of his age 41 (Campi errs here; St. Opilius died more advanced in age, if he was still among the living in the year 450, since it is established from what has been said that he exercised the office of acolyte in the 4th century). To which of these writers, who allege no authority of any ancient monument and no reason for this chronology, one must now assent I would not dare to indicate. Meanwhile it is certain that St. Opilius died after St. Sabinus, since his younger brother Gelasius, who, as may be seen in our Work at the fourth day of February, departed from this world while our Saint was still living on earth, not yet having become a youth, was buried by St. Maurus, the successor of St. Sabinus, who, as has been said in our Work at the 13th day of September, left the see of Piacenza vacant by his death about the year 430. Hence, therefore, we conclude that St. Opilius ceased to live in the fifth century: but because we cannot determine the year of this century in which he received the eternal reward of his labours in heaven, we have assigned the death of our Saint in the margin to the 5th century.