ON ST. RODOBALD, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, AT PAVIA IN LOMBARDY,
IN THE YEAR 1254.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Of his cult, the time of his episcopate, and his deeds.
Rodobald, bishop, confessor, at Pavia in Lombardy. (S.)
BY J. B. F.
Ticinum, otherwise Pavia, a not undistinguished city of Italy, The Saint, whose memory and formerly the royal city of the Lombards, situated on the river Ticino, venerates among the various holy prelates of its church St. Rodobald, the second bishop of Pavia of that name, whom Ferrari in the general Catalogue of the Saints announces at the 12th day of October in these few words: At Pavia, of St. Rodobald, bishop. But in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy he celebrates him at greater length, and also composes for him a short elogium, in which, recounting the splendid deeds of our Saint, he expresses the time during which he ruled the said church and the year in which he departed from this life; but of this chronology we shall speak when we have treated of the cult of St. Rodobald. On the same day also Brautius, bishop of Sarsina, proclaims him in the Poetical Martyrology in the following distich:
Rodobald adorns the sacred buildings with relics, he is celebrated by a few martyrologists, Since he left the camps of the table for broad fields.
[2] The Reverend Father Romualdo of St. Mary, of the Order of Discalced Hermits of St. Augustine, in the first part of his Work published at Pavia in 1699, entitled Papia Sacra, composed a Hagiology of all the Saints resting at Pavia, in which he celebrates the memory of St. Rodobald on the 12th day of October thus: In the cathedral basilica, of St. Rodobald, bishop of Pavia, a man of exemplary abstinence, who, consigning to written monuments the sacred relics of the Saints resting at Pavia, sought out solicitously everywhere in the churches of the city with zeal of devotion, always strove to benefit his church with the greatest zeal he could: at length, illustrious with pastoral merits, he closed the period of mortal life on this day, called to the Heavenly Ones. Disagreeing with these authors, Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology adorns Rodobald not with the title of Saint but of Venerable, making the following mention of him: At Pavia, of the venerable Rodobald, bishop, the second of this name, who was celebrated for fasts and greatly devoted to divine worship and to searching out the relics of the Saints: his body is kept in the cathedral church. By marking our Saint with this title the praised martyrologist intimates that he was not sufficiently sure of his cult, since in his Preface to the cited Work he declares in express words that those men of whom there was indeed a most holy estimation at their very death, but whose cult he does not have altogether ascertained, he will call in his work neither Saints nor Blessed, but Venerable.
[3] Certainly the praised Castellanus seems to have supposed that our Prelate never enjoyed the honours of the Heavenly Ones he is venerated with an Office of double rite. from the fact that he found few martyrologists celebrating his memory, and also because the Italian martyrologists of the sixteenth century, Maurolycus, Felicius and Galesini, nowhere mention him. However it may be, that St. Rodobald is honoured every year by the church of Pavia with an Office of the double rite, as they call it, is asserted without doubt by Giovanni Battista de Gasparis, presbyter of Pavia, since he inserts his elogium in the Breviary of the Holy Bishops of the church of Pavia, which he published in the year 1651 without his name; in which Work he indicates thus in the Preface that he will set out the splendid deeds only of those bishops whom the said church venerates with the double rite: What I narrate in this Breviary I have gathered by long inquiry from several writers … I set forth here only the principal things, and only of those whose natal day the same holy church of Pavia celebrates under the double rite … The elogia of the remaining bishops shining with holiness, whom the same church of Pavia does not yet venerate with the divine Office, being passed over. The Reverend Father Romualdo, in the second part of the Work cited above, having completed the compendium of the Life of St. Rodobald, teaches us thus that his sacred body is regarded at Pavia with the veneration due to the relics of the Saints: Whose sacred body, buried with a great concourse of the people and the pious honour of funeral rites in the cathedral basilica, placed in a stone sarcophagus, at first at the altar of St. Ambrose, but now in the underground shrine, near St. Syrus, is honourably venerated. These testimonies of authors, whose credit seems in no way suspect, suffice us for saying that our Prelate enjoys both the title of Saint and the honours of the Saints, and therefore for granting him a place in our Work.
[4] The cult of St. Rodobald being established, let us inquire into the time of his episcopate. The time of his episcopate, Ferrari in the elogium cited above asserts that our Saint was the fifty-third bishop of Pavia, and presided over the said church after St. Fulcus for twenty-five years, and at length died on the 4th day before the Ides of October after the year of Restored Salvation 1241, in the time of Innocent IV, Roman Pontiff, who administered the Church from the year 1243 until the year 1254. He followed in this chronology Antonio Maria Spelta, who in the History of the Lives of the Bishops of Pavia, page 327, affirms the same of Rodobald II. Twenty-five years of episcopate are also attributed to him by Stefano Breventano in the History of the city of Pavia, folio 47, and by Giacomo Gualla in the History of his fatherland, page 26; but each not without manifest error about the time of his life (as Spelta, Ferrari and Ughelli, volume 1 of Italia Sacra, in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Pavia, column 1100, noted before me), since they write that he entered on the episcopate in the year 898. With the praised Ferrari agrees Father Romualdo, who in the place cited just now has thus: At length, when the holy Prelate had laboured vigorously with such industry and zeal, both in solicitude for divine things and in care for human things, and had governed the church of Pavia most holily for twenty-five years, he was taken away at Pavia on the 4th day before the Ides of October.
[5] the year of his death, and an elogium, How much credit we owe to this Chronology is difficult to determine. Certainly Ughelli in the Catalogue of the Bishops of Pavia places St. Rodobald among them as the seventy-fifth, and the beginning and end of his episcopate in this
manner records: He from archdeacon of the cathedral rose to the see of Pavia in the year 1230. When he had done many splendid things, he added this worthy of memory, that he established an inventory of the Holy Relics of the city, lest forgetful antiquity should blot out their memory. He presided 24 years, and died in the year 1254, on the 12th day of the month of October, and was buried in the cathedral. With this author, whom we too follow until surer things become known, Giovanni Battista de Gasparis agrees in assigning the time of the episcopate and the year of death; but he acknowledges one bishop, namely Irenæus, whom Ughelli did not know (concerning this the note of the editor who reprinted Ughelli's Work may be seen), and then, after St. Fulcus or Fulco, the predecessor of our Saint, places Ardingus, of whom Ughelli says: After the departure of Fulco they relate that he was raised to the see of Pavia in the year 1230 and out of moderation of mind refused the burden; and therefore he calls Rodobald the seventy-seventh bishop. And since the praised author, as is established from his words cited above, gathered all the things which others have in scattered fashion, I shall subjoin his elogium as a compendium of the Acts.
[6] in which a few of his deeds are briefly described, Rodobald the second, distinguished by an extraordinary excellence of virtues, of Pavia, obtained in his Fatherland first the archidiaconal and thence the episcopal dignity, which he administered for twenty-four years with singular solicitude, most holily intent on feeding the poor, protecting widows, defending orphans, helping all the wretched; he lived not for himself but for God and for the flock entrusted to him, with a cheerful mind, to the last day of old age. His abstinence in drink and food was wonderful. While on the other days of the week he ate the slenderest food, and sometimes was content with vegetables, only on the fifth day did he refresh himself and his whole household with a single provision of dinner. Taught the Apostolic manners, he excellently expressed the Apostolic life by imitation. Assiduous in prayer, for the increase of the worship of God he accomplished many works with all his strength. He wonderfully increased the church of Pavia with sacred temples and cenobia; in which, revenues being added, he established new priests and new nuns. With equal piety and munificent liberality he gave as a gift the monastery of St. Thomas the Apostle to blessed Isnard, of the sacred Order of Preachers, to whom the blessed Prelate was joined by the bond of perfect charity: whose mutual charity, kindled with great ardour of spirit, greatly profited the Lord's field.
[7] Observing that the city of Pavia was very greatly made illustrious by various relics of the Saints, and the time of his death and his burial are related. he searched them out most skilfully in the several churches of the whole city: and, committing them to writing, he composed a very brief compendium of them: which, fortified by the credit of so great a Prelate, increased a greater cult of veneration for those same relics. To the same compendium he moreover added the churches built by the royal munificence of the Lombards, the sepulchres of the kings, and the most ancient origin of Ticinum. He enlarged the resources of his episcopate with the revenues of the town of Rozzasco and the castle of Porto Albera. At length, illustrious for holiness in things both divine and human, he passed to the Lord in the year above the thousand [] two hundred and fifty-fourth. Whose body, buried in the underground oratory of the greatest church, which is called the Confession of St. Syrus, is honourably guarded.*
Annotations[] Read the thousandth* (millesimum).