ON ST. SALVINUS, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, AT VERONA IN ITALY,
PERHAPS IN THE YEAR 562.
SYLLOGE.
The sacred cult of the Saint, his memory in the sacred Fasti, his distinction from St. Sylvinus, the time of his death uncertain.
Salvinus, bishop, confessor, at Verona in Italy. (S.)
BY J. B.
Aloysius Lipomanus, bishop of Verona, of St. Salvinus, bishop, in the Proem to volume IV of the Lives of the Saints collected by him, explaining what cause he had, when so many prelates had made his see illustrious by the holiness of their life, for recounting the deeds of St. Zeno alone, says that he did this because the Life of none of them is described by any certain man, but all are put forth as published by uncertain authors. Nay rather, the histories that are had of them are so full of barbarism, of such rusticity and inelegance, that to read them is not merely a grievous penance but the very greatest shame. No one, therefore, will wonder if we bring forward, concerning the deeds of St. Salvinus, nothing but very few things, and those such as can be said of almost any holy bishop. These, such as they are, will be supplied by the short elogium composed for him by Agostino Valier, to be subjoined a little below.
[2] venerated today at Verona, But if the injury of times has abolished the deeds splendidly done by St. Salvinus, it could not abolish the memory of his holiness: for a marble tablet is seen in St. Stephen's, which Scipione Maffei, Verona Illustrata, part 1, book XI, page 342, conjectures was made in the eleventh or twelfth century or perhaps even much earlier, which by name numbers St. Salvinus among the other Saints whose sacred remains were preserved in that church: and in the year 1503, since the Veronese were venerating their holy prelates, thirty-six in number, rather negligently, it was decreed by a synodal constitution, and strictly commanded, that wherever the diocese of Verona extended, ecclesiastical persons of both sexes should celebrate the thirty-six holy bishops with a double ecclesiastical Office, in all future times, every year, devoutly, solemnly and inviolably: Gian Matteo Giberti likewise, bishop of Verona, with the approval of the supreme Pontiff Paul III, decreed that the religious of both sexes of his diocese should have in their sacristies or choirs a tablet of the 36 holy bishops, and in celebrating their feasts should follow the custom and practice of the cathedral church, as may be seen in Raffaele Bagata and Battista Peretti, compilers of the Monuments of the Church of Verona, folios 1 and 2 verso: and that St. Salvinus is held in their number the same compilers sufficiently reveal, when they afterwards treat of St. Salvinus and of each of the thirty-six holy bishops of Verona.
[3] The elogium which Agostino Valier composed for St. Salvinus in the sacred Fasti is of this kind: Salvinus, bishop of Verona, was a man to be compared with all the bishops of this city in every kind of virtue. All the desires by which men are tossed in this life as by certain waves he subdued with great spirit. Humility, the chief of the Christian virtues, he loved most of all; by assiduous fasts and prayers he calmed all the impulses of nature; he obtained such a fame of holiness that he was already held by all to be a divine man. There was in him a very splendid intellect, excellent learning, sweet speech, most gentle and placid manners. He died on the fourth day before the Ides of October, and was buried in the Basilica of St. Stephen; in which his body is preserved under the ark of the Holy Seven Brothers, Martyrs, on the testimony of Panvinio, book 4 of the Antiquities of the Veronese, chapter 4.
[4] From this source Galesini, who first inserted St. Salvinus in his Martyrology, drew what he wrote of him: mention, from St. Sylvinus, likewise bishop of Verona, Galesini was followed by Baronius in the Roman Martyrology, Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology; and the words of the Roman Martyrology indeed are these: At Verona, of St. Salvinus, bishop. But Baronius, in the Annotations which he subjoins to the Martyrology at this day, changed St. Salvinus into Silvinus, citing the ecclesiastical Tablets of Verona and the book of Agostino Valier on the ancient Monuments of the bishops of Verona, for what reason I surely do not know; the same Tablets were beyond doubt consulted by Agostino Valier, Raffaele Bagata and Battista Peretti, praised above, by Galesini, Onofrio Panvinio, Ughelli, and Giovanni Battista Biancolini in the Italian Work which he entitled Historical Notices of the church of Verona; and yet you will find Salvinus constantly called Salvinus by these, but nowhere Silvinus or Sylvinus. Castellanus, however, in his Universal Martyrology, following perhaps the Annotations of Baronius just cited, names Sylvinus not only the bishop venerated today by the Veronese, but also him who is venerated on the 12th of September, brought into our Work at that day, and in the Index of the Saints he suspected that the same man is venerated at Verona both on the 12th of September and today.
[5] distinction and death. But this suspicion is opposed by the common opinion of the Veronese, supported probably by immemorial tradition, by which they are believed to be different: it is opposed both by the day of death of each and by the place in which their bodies are preserved: Salvinus died on the 12th day of October; the other on the 12th of September. The body of St. Salvinus is preserved in St. Stephen's, that of St. Sylvinus in the church of St. Peter in the citadel: the latter indeed is said to have been first buried in the church of St. Stephen; but this he has in common not with St. Salvinus alone but also with very many other prelates of the church of Verona, nor is it therefore enough to make us believe that only one bishop is signified by both names, however akin. There are indeed, on Biancolini's testimony, volume 1, page 105, those who say that the body of St. Salvinus, buried already from the year 670 in St. Peter's, was translated from there to St. Proculus's. But these are abundantly refuted by the marble tablet of which at number 2. It is opposed by the different elogium which Agostino Valier composed for each Saint: namely he praises St. Silvinus because he converted to the faith of Christ a great part of the city, which was estranged from Christian piety, of which no trace appears in the elogium of St. Salvinus. It is opposed, finally, by the age in which they lived: since a whole century intervened between the death of Salvinus and that of Silvinus; if, however, Biancolini rightly wrote, in volume 1 of the Notices of the Church of Verona, pages 170 and 172, that Salvinus died in the year 562 and Silvinus in the year 670: for Biancolini brings forward nothing certain on this matter, nor do I think it will easily be found elsewhere.