ON ST. SABINUS OF CATANIA, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, IN SICILY,
The eighth century advanced beyond its middle by about a decade.
SYLLOGE.
Sabinus, bishop and confessor, at Catania in Sicily. (S.)
BY M. S.
Catania, of which St. Sabinus was prelate, a most illustrious city, says de Grossis in his Catana Sacra p. 1., extends towards that quarter of Trinacria which is washed by the Ionian sea, St. Sabinus, bishop of Catania, in the Latin looking out between the South and the East, at the foot of mount Etna, which it lies under. And he adduces there many things which make for the splendour of this city, as may be seen in him. Our Elders have already brought into our Work some of its holy prelates, and first of all Leo, the successor of St. Sabinus, whose Acts at the 20th day of February Bolland illustrated with a Preliminary Commentary p. 22.; as also perhaps our Saint's predecessor James, whose deeds Papebroch illustrated at the 21st of March p. 357.: between these, St. Sabinus, according to all the Catalogues I have inspected, ruled the diocese of Catania as prelate, inserted in the Greek as well as the Latin sacred Fasti; his deeds indeed, or rather the principal parts of them, are hidden from us, as we lament together with Ottavio Gaetani, as we shall see below, but he has a most certain ecclesiastical cult, as I now go to show; and first, Gaetani, a very celebrated writer on the Sicilian Saints, often mentions him, and in the Chronological Index of the Idea Operis p. 75. the Saint
he asserts flourished in the year 760 under Constantine Copronymus, with which he agrees in the Sicilian Martyrology, having this: 15th of Oct. At Catania, of St. Sabinus, bishop and Confessor, under the emperor Constantine Copronymus. Similar things are had by Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, in these words: At Catania in Sicily, of St. Sabinus, bishop of the same city.
[2] as well as in the Greek But the Greek Fasti celebrate him at greater length: for Cardinal Sirleto announces this Saint in his Menologium in these words: On the same day, namely the 15th of October, the commemoration of our holy father Sabinus, bishop, who, desiring virtue, so advanced by vigils, fasts and other labours that he even worked miracles, and roused many to the pursuit of virtue and the contempt of this world, and when he had so lived, resting in peace, he commended his spirit to our Lord and Saviour. Similar things are had by the greater Menaea of the Greeks, as also by Maximus Margunius, bishop of Cythera; but differing from these, and celebrating him more prolixly, is the Menologium of the Greeks published by order of the emperor Basil, which consequently we set here in Greek and Latin, to weigh below its discrepancies from the others; it has, then, thus:
Τῇ ἀυτῇ ἡμέρᾳ Μνήμη τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Σαβίνου τοῦ Ἐπισκόπου. Ὁ Μακάριος Σαβὶνος, διὰ τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν ἀυτοῦ ἀρέτὴν, καὶ κατάστασιν ἐγενετο πρότερον Ἐπίσκοπος. Εἶτα τοὺς θορύβους τοῦ κόσμου καταλιπὼν, διὰ τὸ τῆς ἡσυχίας καλόν, έμάκρυνε φυγαδεύων ἐν ταῖς ἐρήμοις· καὶ τοσοῦτον ἠγωνίσατο πρὸς ἀρετὴν, νηστείαις, καὶ ἀγρυπνίαις, καὶ ἀσκήσεσιν ἑαυτὸν ἐπιδοὺς, ὡς καὶ θαυμάτων ἀξιωθῆναι πολλῶν· νόσους ἀπελάυνειν, λεπροὺς καθαρίζειν, δαίμονας διώκειν, καὶ προλέγειν τὰ μέλλοντα. Πολλοὺς δὲ ὠφελήσας, καὶ πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἐπιδοῦναι ποιήσας, διὰ τῆς διδασκαλίας ἀυτοῦ· καὶ γὰρ πολλοὶ προσήρχοντο ἀυτῷ χάριν ὠφελείας· καὶ πείσας ἀφείναι καὶ γονεῖς, καὶ ἀδελφοὺς, καὶ οἰκίας, καὶ τῷ μοναχικῷ βίῳ προσελθεῖν, καὶ Χριστῷ δουλεύειν, καὶ θεραπεύειν ἀυτὸν διὰ καθάρσεως, καὶ τῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν ἑργασίας, ἐν εἰρηνῂ ἐτελειώθη. Τὸ μὲν ἱερὸν πνεῦμα ἀυτοῦ παραδοὺς τῷ Κυρίῳ, τὸ δὲ τίμιον ἀυτοῦ λείψανον τῇ συγγενεῖ γῇ, ἔτι καὶ νῦν βρύον ἰάματα.
[3] [inserted in the sacred Fasti, he enjoys ecclesiastical cult at Catania and in its diocese:] Which, turned into Latin, are exhibited in the same place in this way: On the same day the commemoration of our holy father Sabinus, bishop. Blessed Sabinus, on account of his outstanding virtues and most upright character, was indeed first ordained bishop. But afterwards, when, from love of quiet, he loathed the tumults of the world, setting out into the desert far from all intercourse with men, he applied himself to acquiring virtues with such effort, giving himself to fasts, vigils, and exercises, that he merited to work many miracles, to drive away diseases, to cleanse lepers, to put demons to flight, and to foretell the future. And when he had profited many, and had so advanced those coming to him to virtues by his teaching that, having left parents, brothers, and home, they professed the monastic life and served Christ, and ministered to Him in purity and the keeping of the commandments, he departed in peace. Commending his sacred spirit to the Lord, and his precious Relics to his native earth: which to this present day send forth cures. So the cited Menologium, which also exhibits an icon of St. Sabinus, namely a venerable old man adorned with episcopal vestments, and holding a book in his left hand. But what most of all proves that ecclesiastical cult is duly shown to this Saint, and that throughout the whole diocese of Catania, as Innocenzo Massimo, bishop of the same city, strictly enjoined in the year 1627 in the decree prefixed to the Order of reciting the divine office and celebrating Masses, is the rubric of the following year, which the same Order prescribes for the 15th of October, the feast day of St. Sabinus, to be celebrated with Double rite: here, from first vespers, are the things which pertain to our Saint, entire: Vespers of St. Sabinus, bishop of Catania, Confessor, double. Prayer. Grant, we beseech. On the 15th, of St. Sabinus, bishop, Confessor, double. Lessons, which are had in the first place in the Common of a confessor pontiff. Mass. Statuit. Vespers of St. Sabinus, bishop, Confessor.
[4] The ecclesiastical cult of this holy prelate having been established, let us now see the things few, however, of the deeds of this illustrious which the skilful investigation of Ottavio Gaetani dug out of the darkness: he relates the following in the Work on the Sicilian Saints, volume II p. 3.: Of St. Sabinus, bishop of Catania and Confessor. In the margin he notes the year of death as 690, and dissents from the Idea of his Work, as also from the Sicilian Martyrology, in which he had noted 760, of which below. Sabinus was bishop of the city of Catania; the deeds of this Most Holy man have perished, but I shall by no means suffer his name to perish; testimonies about his holiness having been brought forward, which the times have left: by the writer of the Life of Bl. Leo he is adorned with this elogium: “Sabinus, a man conspicuous for merits, in faith, life, character a prelate worthy of God, whom not only all who were of his diocese, but also all the Sicilians venerated for his holiness, his course completed, departed from life, to possess in heaven eternal life with Christ.” This Life, from which that period was taken, Gaetani himself also published in print, and it is extant in him in the cited volume p. 9.. Further, the judgment which the said Gaetani passes on this biographer and his lucubration is of this kind: Truly this life, he says in the Animadversions on the life and deeds of St. Leo, at the place cited, was taken from the Greek by an ancient writer, a good one indeed, although verbose and florid, as the times bore. But he made it fuller, as he himself testifies in the prologue to the life, from which it is sufficiently established that this Latin writer or translator was a monk. And he designates his age in the same place in these words: From this (namely from the various languages which he enumerates) you may know the times of this writer, who I should believe lived after the Saracens had been expelled from Sicily by the Norman princes. Which de Grossis Catan. Decachord. X, col. 289. Burman edition, vol. X, part X., as also Pirro Sicil. Sacr., book III, col. 457. Burman edition, vol. X, part II., committed to writing happened in the year 1075.
[5] the deeds of the prelate, to our Gaetani further proceeds, in the elogium which he composed of St. Sabinus, in this way: This writer has these things about St. Sabinus: That he was famous for the prophetic spirit Sabinus, dying, uttered these oracles, which we likewise translate into iambics.
When Sabinus, the upright Prelate of Catania, Saw this, the prophet, no liar, uttered these things: As soon, he said, as we have yielded to nature, Leo, an excellent pastor, will take up our part, And will holily feed his flocks for himself. A happy flock to a great healthful pasture. He will likewise shine with signs and miracles, So that glory may be lifted up to the King of those above. And he will set up a temple to the most invincible Lucy. When he had said this, a little after the old man dies: Commending his spirit to God the All-powerful, He flies away to the blessed seats of the pious.
Further, Gaetani, praising highly the lucubration of this anonymous poet, and certainly a Catanian, in the cited Animadversions, has this p. 11.: The writer is approved by his style and antiquity. For he lived before the year of Christ 800. Fr. Agostino Fiorito of our (namely Jesus's) society made the Greek Poem Latin.
[6] have come to our knowledge: Gaetani then concludes: To these, he says, add the Gallican Breviary on St. Leo: “Sabinus, it says, a holy man, bishop of Catania, departed to the Lord.” The rest we do not know. To recall the causes is most bitter. But what that Breviary is I do not now make out; and the cause why those illustrious records of the antiquity of the Sicilians perished was that most dire servitude of Sicily (the Saracens ruling there, and laying waste with sword and flame everything in their path) celebrated by most historiographers, whom anyone who desires to know it may, if he pleases, approach; we meanwhile shall pursue the things which pertain to our Saint; but in few words, since, having seen the source from which most draw their material, we shall set forth the same things: Rocco Pirro first mentions him in Sicilia Sacra Catan. Eccl. notit., col. 455., and asserts that he discharged the prelacy with great fame of holiness under the emperor Constantine Copronymus: but de Grossis treats of him much more prolixly in Catana Sacra, § XII p. 25., and notes that he succeeded St. James the martyr in the year 760 or the following; and with what virtues St. Sabinus became famous he declares in the same place, having thus on this matter: As he took up the episcopal fillets, treading the footsteps of his predecessor, he strove most of all to propagate the faith of Christ the Lord, and finally the veneration of the sacred images, which were then most of all assailed, with Christian liberty of speech, but above all with a blameless life. To these he subjoins that prophecy which we have just seen, and proceeds: Having said these things he rendered his soul to the Lord on the 15th of October in the year 778. Things consonant with these are had by Carrera's Pantheon Siculum, which, if you please, consult.
[7] nor is it beyond controversy at what time These are about the things which authors have committed to writing about this illustrious Bishop; Rader indeed reports, from the Life of St. Marcianus at the 15th day of October, in the MS. Annotations and illustrations, that a demon was expelled from a certain daughter by a certain Sabinus; but he himself does not know who that Sabinus was; for, having related the severe manner of living of this Sabinus, and the expulsion of the demon (go to the place cited, and to Theodoret in the History of the Holy fathers, printed at Paris by Guillaume Chaudière in the year 1570 p. 287.), he subjoins this: This man, because there is no mention of a bishop, perhaps was another, or was not known by Theodoret as a bishop, uncertain. Indeed, several things hint that this Sabinus was plainly other than the prelate of Catania Sabinus: for Theodoret himself, whose last year on earth, on the testimony of Feller in the Historical Dictionary, was 458, could not recount the deeds of our Sabinus, inasmuch as he was younger by centuries, nor could the prelate of Catania approach St. Marcianus, dwelling in Syria and living in the fourth century, and that frequently, as is hinted: for here is the beginning of the narrated matter, framed in these words: There was a certain man who used to come to him (namely Marcianus), and they called him Sabinus, who consumed his body with innumerable labours, etc.
[8] nor is it beyond controversy at what time It now remains that we examine when St. Sabinus began to govern the diocese of Catania: but this cannot be accomplished by so easy a business, since there is no agreement on that matter among celebrated Sicilian authors; for Gaetani relates that he flourished in the seventh century, others more commonly in the eighth: for he notes on this matter, and to the elogium of St. Sabinus composed by him affixes the year 690, and Gaetani holds it as the year of death, while, on the contrary, Rocco Pirro and de Grossis placed the beginnings of our Saint in the episcopate only in the year 760, from whom Gaetani himself too had not much departed at first in the Idea Operis, nor do I perceive what impelled him to change his opinion; since he did not express even a word from which it could be in any way drawn out; indeed, of three bishops succeeding one another in all the Catalogues of the prelates of Catania, very ineptly
the cited Gaetani arranges the chronology in his Work; here it is, taken from him in compendium: he notes in the margin that St. James, martyr, in order, as Pirro numbers, the tenth bishop of Catania, ceased to be among mortals, volume II (i), in the year 772; he was succeeded by St. Sabinus, for whom, in the cited volume p. 3., he makes the year 690 the last, while he has in the margin, in the same volume p. 5., that our Saint's successor St. Leo ceased to be among the living in the year 725.
[9] was created bishop: Further, of St. Leo alone Gaetani gave a reason why he arranged his age so, but relying, as he himself confesses, on bare conjectures: for St. Leo approached, as may be seen in Gaetani in his Elogium and in both Lives, the emperors Leo and Constantine; noticing which, the same Gaetani discusses at length who these Leo and Constantine are, in the Animadversions on the first Life, no. 12, and judges them to have been Leo the Isaurian and his son Constantine Copronymus, on account especially of certain remains of pagan superstition (which, however, he admits could have endured under the reigns of Leo IV and Constantine Porphyrogenitus); but Bolland opposes him in the Commentary prefixed to the Life of St. Leo on the 20th day of February, contending that St. Leo approached the emperors just mentioned, as we shall see more fully below: and since, if a St. James of this name of Catania at that time, as Papebroch speaks at the 21st day of March, sacred to James the younger, bishop, ever existed, Gaetani without doubt wrongly arranges the times, and likewise, as we shall presently say, unhappily marks the year of death of St. Sabinus, and elsewhere indulges in conjectures, it must now be inquired in a few words whether we can in any way establish the age of these prelates by safer records.
[10] although, considering the predecessors and successors To accomplish this, a torch is carried before me by the undoubted dates of two prelates of Catania; of the first, indeed, Julian, the 9th bishop of Catania in order according to the Catalogue of Rocco Pirro: for he subscribes the letter of the sixth ecumenical Synod of Constantinople, or, if you prefer, of the Roman one celebrated in the same year under Agatho, Supreme Pontiff, and inserted in the Acts of the Council of Constantinople, of the same Agatho and of the Roman synod of one hundred and twenty-five bishops (the words are of the title in Labbe vol. VI Conc., col. 677.), which was as it were the instruction of the legates who were sent to celebrate the sixth Synod, in this way: I, Julian, a lowly bishop of the holy church of Catania, of the province of Sicily, have likewise subscribed this suggestion, which we have unanimously constructed for our apostolic faith. So the diocese of Catania, in the year 680, in which the Synod of Constantinople, as is beyond controversy, was held, was governed by the prelate Julian; further, in the said Pirro, he was succeeded by James, whom our Saint succeeded, whom then St. Leo, and Leo the prelate Theodore followed, the thirteenth in order, about whose age again, since he was present at the Second Council of Nicaea, it is likewise established. The second Nicene and Seventh General Council was celebrated, as is agreed among chronographers, in the year 787, which Theodore, bishop of Catania, is read to have subscribed several times, as may be seen in Labbe Vol. VII Conc., col. 327 and 662..
[11] especially It is clear hence that the chronology of St. Leo (who, the Lives of the same Leo relate, was archdeacon of St. Cyril, bishop of Reggio) was wrongly arranged by Gaetani: for if St. Leo in the year 725, as he contends, approached the emperors Leo and Constantine (see his Animadv. no. 5, as also no. 12), and died, since no bishop sat at Catania between him and Theodore, nor was the see vacant, Theodore must already then, when he was present at the Synod of Nicaea, have been bishop sixty-two years, as will be clear to one entering upon the number; indeed, granted that St. Leo as prelate reached the last year of Leo the Isaurian, which, according to Pagi, and the Benedictines in L'Art de vérifier les dates recently published, was 741, certainly the duration of Theodore's prelacy seems prolonged too much, since, on the testimony of Pirro and de Grossis, the prelate Theodore was still among mortals at the beginning of the ninth century. But what further proves that St. Leo did not approach Constantinople while Leo the Isaurian and Constantine Copronymus held the helm of the empire, or die while they were reigning, are the signs of veneration and benevolence shown to this Saint by the emperors themselves: for here are the words of the Menaea pertaining to this, at the 20th day of February, as Gaetani exhibits them in the cited volume p. 6.: Which Miracle indeed (about Theodore the magician, with whom, the sacred stole being tied to his neck, St. Leo had entered the furnace, and, the magician being burned, came out wholly unharmed) when it had reached even to the furthest borders, and the emperors Leo and Constantine had heard of it, they order the holy Man to be summoned to them, and, taking hold of his feet, they adjured him to pray for them. And, as is subjoined, they dismissed him from them most honourably.
[12] of St. Leo Further, who would expect such benevolence from heretics of hardened front, persecuting all the most illustrious pastors of the flock of Christ with implacable hatred? But Gaetani replies to these questions in these words in the cited Animadversions: Certainly indeed, he says, I am not unaware that Leo the Isaurian, a heretic iconoclast, crowned many with martyrdom for the cult of the Holy images, but, terrified by fear, he could revere St. Leo, the worker of mighty miracles, just as he abstained from vexing with punishments John, bishop of Polybotus. But however the matter stands about John the bishop (which can be examined at the 4th or 5th day of December, on which he is read inscribed in the sacred Fasti, and whom the Menaea in Rader assert rebuked the impiety of the Isaurian at the former day), there is a wide difference between a bare cessation from punishments and those signs of reverence which the emperors Leo and Constantine are here read to have shown to St. Leo the prelate. Hence Gaetani, trusting less to the answer given, adds this further one, with which he would easily have me consenting, unless other things, and above the rest the duration of Theodore's prelacy, stood in the way, namely that Leo the Isaurian fell into heresy in the seventh year (rather, on the testimony of Pagi at the year 726, § X, the tenth) after entering on the empire. And thence Gaetani remarks that the things which the Menaea have about St. Leo could have happened before the Isaurian openly professed heresy and vexed the orthodox.
[13] the Wonderworker, As for what now concerns St. Cyril, prelate of Reggio, who Ughelli, Italia Sacra vol. IX col. 323., writes died in the year 586, if St. Leo was his archdeacon, as his Lives have it, he must without doubt have lived later, even if Gaetani's method of numbering the time were pleasing, as he himself also notices, since St. Leo would indeed have lived later than St. Cyril by almost a century and a half, granted that he reached only the year 725, which, how foreign it is to the truth, anyone easily perceives. In what year, then, did St. Leo fly away to the heavens? Bolland marked it fitly enough at the 20th day of February, when he contends that he departed from life about the year 780, Vol. III of Feb. p. 222, in the margin, and under Leo, son of Constantine Copronymus, and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Preliminary Commentary no. 4: but that Bolland did not hold this year as the certain year of death is sufficiently clear from the added particle about; and since Leo hid his heresy for four years, and meanwhile could thence show signs of benevolence and reverence to St. Leo, St. Leo could conveniently have approached the emperors Leo and Constantine in one of the immediately preceding years, provided it is not determined to have happened before the year 775, the first for Constantine the son, nor after 780, the last for Leo the father; for the emperor Leo favoured the orthodox in his earlier years, and only in the year 780, his last, declared war on the sacred images or their worshippers: let us hear Baronius's words at the year 780: But in the middle, he says, § III, of the week of the fasts, there were seized James the protospatharius, and Papias and Strategus, and Theophanes the chamberlain, together with other religious men, because they adored images. Then at last Leo, the son of the persecutor, revealed his hidden malice, etc. Consequently it must follow hence that Theodore, of whom at no. 10, when he was present at the Synod of Nicaea, had been bishop not 62 years, but, since St. Leo survived beyond the year 775, not much below or above a decade.
[14] and of St. James Now let us step to St. James, whom Rocco Pirro, as also de Grossis, contend sat under Leo the Isaurian, fitly enough, if anyone of that name was bishop between Julian and St. Sabinus. St. James the younger is venerated on the 21st of March, on which day Papebroch illustrated his deeds with a historical Commentary, as Bolland had foretold on the 20th of February in the Commentary prefixed to the Acts of St. Leo; but indeed Papebroch frankly confesses, § II, no. 11, that it is suspect to him that this James was prelate of Catania, and not without reason; since he judges that the Sicilian writers bring forward nothing from which they may prove that he held the fillets of Catania: let us hear Papebroch himself discoursing at the cited number: These things being so deduced, he says, we frankly confess that the credit of Ottavio Gaetani is suspect to us (or whoever else persuaded him to say that this man, namely James, whom the Greeks venerate on this day, was bishop of Catania in Sicily) when he cites the Greek Anthologion, as if there were read in it: “Of our holy father and confessor James, bishop of Catania”; we hold suspect also Rocco Pirro, citing a Breviary of the Greeks put into Latin, and from it these words: “James, martyr and bishop, from boyhood instructed in the institutes of the monastic life and sacred letters, presided over the church of Catania, when the impiety of the barbarians was raging against sacred images; for whose cult he did not hesitate most constantly to undergo exile and innumerable labours and tortures, worn out by which he rendered his soul to God.”
[15] perhaps For he cites in the margin the Menologium of Cardinal Sirleto: that one surely of which Henricus Canisius, having obtained an apograph, published it in volume II of the Antiquae Lectiones Vol. III, part I, p. 409. Basnage edition: in which, as we have seen, there is no word about Catania, none about exile and death: no more than in the Anthologion which we have, renewed by Arcudius according to the typica of the monks of Jerusalem, the Studites and the Holy Mountain, and printed at Rome in the year 1598. Papebroch proceeds in the two following numbers (to which, lest I do what has been done in the Work, I refer the reader) to demonstrate that the reasons of the Sicilians are not sufficient: but there is one thing which prevents me from candidly subscribing to Papebroch's opinion; here it is: Giovanni Battista de Grossis, when he recounts the deeds of this James, who is in his list the eleventh prelate in order (for he admits that Iwinus, Junius or Juninus, about whom it is not established for Pirro, flourished as the eighth bishop of Catania), asserts that he ruled the diocese of Catania from the year 730 up to 740, and proves that the opinion that James was bishop of Catania, namely in that order, sits deep among the people of Catania, when he reasons in this way in Catana Sacra p. 23.: Him (St. James) the Catanian
senate, in the year 1632, on the 12th day of August, so that even thus the fellow citizens might conceive an opinion worthy of so great a prelate, and be roused more vehemently to venerate him, took as patron, reigning together in the heavens, the same whom it had as prelate while he lived on earth.
[16] of our Saint De Grossis further proceeds, and brings forward the things which seemed to Papebroch insufficiently founded for admitting the episcopate of St. James in that order, and closes his period, as if fearing beforehand that St. James would be excluded from the number of the prelates of Catania, with these words: And yet from the MS. whose words I was copying above, this is especially established. The said de Grossis also mentions the same MS. when discoursing about Julian, the predecessor of James p. 24., having thus on this matter: The assumption of our assertion, from the MS. Catalogue of the bishops of Catania dug out of the Vatican Registers by the said bishop Cultelli, on which we lean as on a sacred anchor, claims credit and authority for itself. For when Vincenzo de Cultellis, the 71st, as de Grossis numbers, prelate of Catania, on account of certain discords between himself and the people of Catania, had gone to Rome in the year 1583, and had been detained there by the Pontiff for two years, Lest he should grow sluggish in idleness or sloth (the words are de Grossis's p. 270.), he undertook to search through the Vatican library, so that even thus he might bring into a list the recent and older prelates of Catania, which he also most diligently accomplished. That treasure was consequently discovered which Rocco Pirro lamented in his time could nowhere be found, though sought by him with the greatest zeal: but I greatly wonder that he neither made that Catalogue public, nor expressly set out the things which de Grossis borrowed from it about St. James; and since Papebroch appeals at no. 13 to the records of the homeland, I began to consider in my mind whether anyone had perhaps resolved his doubts.
[17] the dates of his predecessor, I betook myself therefore to the literary stock religiously preserved for composing the supplement of our Work, and, having searched through very many records which the month of March offers, I grieved that I was frustrated of my hope, and I perceived that none of the people of Catania had undertaken to defend the cause of this illustrious prelate, martyr and patron of theirs, to whom the senate was so greatly devoted in the year 1632, and had made our doubting Elders certain with the due records, as they requested: and since I do not know what that MS. Catalogue of which I was just treating contains about St. James, and the other things which we have seen are not such as to eliminate all doubt entirely, I still hang undecided, nor can I define anything certain for the episcopate of St. James: I am meanwhile the counsellor that the people of Catania instruct us in our doubts, and not suffer their illustrious prelate and patron (if he is other than James the younger, already brought into our Work at the 21st day of March) to be excluded from the Supplement of our Work.
[18] [more probably came to the episcopate when the eighth century was not yet at its middle,] The consequence, therefore, from what has been said above is that it cannot be accurately defined at what time St. Sabinus began to govern the diocese of Catania; yet that this was under the reign of Constantine Copronymus Rocco Pirro as also de Grossis not unhappily determine; for since in the year 680 Julian was present at the sixth Synod, and his year of death is hidden from the Sicilian writers, he could conveniently have reached the beginnings of the eighth century; indeed de Grossis, relying perhaps on the MS. Catalogue of Cultelli, contends that James, whom, as we have seen, he makes the successor of Julian, came to the fillets of Catania only in the year 730, and held them for a decade, or until the year 740: after which, since the people of Catania were without a prelate for twenty years, he judges that at length St. Sabinus was substituted for St. James by the auspicious acclamation of the whole clergy and people in the year 760 or the following, with which Rocco Pirro too had already before written agreeing things in his Catalogue of the same prelates (although he is silent about the year of death of St. James and the see's being vacant); and since very few things seem explored and certain to these writers, and, the two dates of which at no. 10 being set aside, most things ambiguous, nothing seems to stand in the way if we place the beginning of St. Sabinus's prelacy when the eighth century was not yet advanced to its middle part, being about to define more safely if anyone shall teach us, now ignorant, of how great authority the MS. Catalogue of Cultelli of the prelates of Catania is, and what can be deduced from it, or shall supply other ancient records, if there are any.
[19] and having done things illustriously up to his death The beginnings of our Saint's prelacy being thus determined, order would require that what he did as bishop be set forth, had I not already now warned the reader that we labour under the greatest penury of documents; but, apart from those few things which we have already seen in the course from Gaetani and de Grossis (namely that he was a Man conspicuous for merits, images with Christian liberty of speech, and venerable to all the Sicilians for his holiness), I have nothing else to record. But did St. Sabinus abdicate the episcopate? This is certainly hinted by the Menologium published by order of the emperor Basil and cited above, and the greater Menaea of the Greeks have that he withdrew into solitude, and declined the tumults of men: but although I am easily persuaded that this prelate from time to time, for the sake of preserving or renewing his fervour, sought solitude, and declined worldly tumults, yet why I should not assent that the same, having bidden farewell to the episcopate, constantly inhabited the desert, the threefold Life of St. Leo, who succeeded him, moves me: for in each of these St. Sabinus is recorded as attending to the episcopal office up to his last breath: here are the words of the Life written by a contemporary author, and given by us in Vol. III of February At the 20th day of Feb., p. 223.: When bishop Sabinus had died, says the said biographer at no. 2, and the inhabitants of this city were in tumult over investigating a successor who would be worthy of the office of the priesthood, etc. Similar things are had by the more prolix Life in Gaetani, as also by the iambic writer cited at no. 5, in these very words: As soon, he said, as we have yielded to nature, Leo, an excellent pastor, will take up our part.
[20] deeds, in the same century advanced beyond Hence, therefore, although I would not deny that our prelate was held by love of solitude, yet it must follow that he, as his holiness bids us believe, applied himself with no less vigilant care, and in person, to the salvation of the sheep committed to him, until, heavy with old age, brought to his last, and famous for the prophetic spirit with which he foretold Leo as his successor and his virtues, he rendered his soul to God. But in what year? Those who have treated of the prelates of Catania dispute about it, as has already been seen above; for Gaetani notes the year 690 in the margin, from whom de Grossis, differing not a little, expressly asserts in these words that St. Sabinus ceased to be among mortals in the year 778: Having said these things, he rendered his soul to God on the 15th of October, in the year 778. Pirro, however, although he does not mark the year of death, nevertheless has in the margin that the same 778 was the first for St. Leo Sicil. Sacr., col. 455.. But that St. Sabinus reached that year is forbidden by the things which we have already discussed above about St. Leo's approach to the emperors Leo and Constantine; for although we taught that this approach is not to be placed in the year 725, in which Leo the Isaurian had not yet proscribed the cult of sacred images, having begun it in the following year, and judged that it should be deferred to after the year 775, to the reign of Leo IV and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, yet that it did not happen later than the year 780 is made evident from Leo's death in that year. For since St. Leo, whose predecessor was St. Sabinus, certainly did not prolong his life beyond the year 780, indeed perhaps died a year or two earlier, how could St. Sabinus have reached the year 778?
[21] about a decade beyond the middle, he seems to have ceased But since neither could Bolland, illustrating his Life with the Preliminary Commentary on the 20th of February, ascertain the initial year of St. Leo in the episcopate, nor can his prelacy, on account of the outstanding celebrity of his name made illustrious by remarkable miracles, be circumscribed by a few years, if we determine that he governed the diocese of Catania illustriously for about twenty years, we think we shall not stray much from the truth by conjecture; for since records which in any way demonstrate our Saint's last year on earth and St. Leo's first in the episcopate are wholly lacking, it is necessary that we cling to the more likely conjectures; wherefore we judge that our Saint entered the heavenly mansions when the eighth century was advanced beyond its middle by about a decade: hence, on the hypothesis that St. James was truly the predecessor of St. Sabinus, it follows that our Saint was crowned as Prelate with the fillets of Catania for more than ten years; but if no James sat as bishop at Catania at that time, nothing forbids St. Sabinus having been bishop from the year 730, since de Grossis neither duly proves that the see was vacant for twenty years, nor does it seem conformable to the truth, as is clear from what has been said.
[22] to live. But whether St. Sabinus became famous for continual miracles from his death, and indeed up to the present day, and whether the remains of this illustrious prelate were exposed to public veneration, I have nothing from which to pronounce definitely: the Menologium of the emperor Basil cited above asserts it indeed in these words: Bl. Sabinus … departed in peace. Commending his sacred spirit to the Lord, and his precious Relics to his native earth: which to the present day send forth cures. Nevertheless, since all the Greek as well as Latin documents which I have consulted about St. Sabinus are silent here, and none of the Sicilian writers hints anything similar, I have found nothing by which to establish in any way the assertions of the Menologium as regards the Relics of our prelate; the Menologium of Sirleto cited at no. 2 indeed agrees somewhat, if you look at the miracles, with which it is certainly not my mind to deny that our Saint became famous, but Ottavio Gaetani, the indefatigable investigator of these things, could detect none in particular; indeed the same candidly asserts that his deeds perished through the injury of times or wars, and he declares that only those few things which we have already recorded above came to his knowledge.