ON ST. CLEMENT OF LODI, PRESBYTER AND CONFESSOR, AT LAUS POMPEIA IN ITALY,
ABOUT THE YEAR 400.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Laus Pompeia old and new; the deeds of St. Clement with St. Bassian, his bishop.
Clement, presbyter and confessor, at Laus Pompeia in Italy. (S.)
V. D. B.
At Laus Pompeia Laus Pompeia, a most ancient city, which they hold to have been built by the Boian Gauls Cf. Ughelli, in Zaccaria, Laudensium episcoporum series, pp. VII and 1., seems to have been made an episcopal see toward the end of the 3rd century Zaccaria, Dissertation 2, chapter I, no. 1, work cited, p. 65.. According to the Peutinger Table and the Itinerary of Antoninus it was 16 Roman miles distant from Milan Ibid., p. X., until in the month of June of the year 1111 it suffered final destruction at the hands of the Milanese Ibid., p. 59.. But in the year 1158 the emperor Frederick Barbarossa had a new city built [Morena, in Zaccaria, p. 62 and following, and in Muratori, Scriptores rerum Italicarum, volume VI, column 1011], which is about four thousand paces distant from the old one. The latter, which is now a village between the stream Lambro and the Adda, is called Lodi Vecchio Zaccaria, p. X; cf. Carta amministrativa del regno d'Italia, edition of 1813. and still shows the traces of a very large city; the former is Lodi, most celebrated for the victory of the emperor Napoleon, and lies on the river Adda between Milan and Piacenza. In the year 1163, a new church having been built, in the presence of the emperor Frederick and Victor the antipope, the body of St. Bassian, bishop and patron of Lodi, was carried with much celebration from outside the major church of old Lodi to the new Lodi Morena, in Zaccaria, p. 63 and following, and in Muratori, column 1121., and from this time the prelates of Lodi also sat here. And so, since St. Clement flourished at the end of the 4th century, and the ecclesiastical office of him began to be performed at the end of the 16th century, his life belongs chiefly to old Lodi, his cult to the new.
[2] St. Clement has been venerated on the present day at least since the year 1583, In the classical Martyrologies the name of St. Clement does not appear at all, nor in Calendars of any antiquity, so far as we know. But on the present day his name is marked in the Universal Martyrology of Castellanus, in the Italian Hagiology, in the General Catalogue of the Saints of Ferrarius, and in the same author's Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. And rightly; for, as Ferrarius has it Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, at the 17th of October, page 654., by Bossi, bishop of Novara, apostolic visitor of the diocese of Lodi, it was commanded that his birthday be entered in the tablets of the Church of Lodi and celebrated on this day. The very great praises of Francesco Bossi, previously bishop of Perugia, then, through the efforts of St. Charles Borromeo, translated in the year 1579 to the see of Novara, may be seen in Ughelli Italia sacra, volume IV, column 725, Coleti edition.. He was ordered by Gregory XIII to visit the dioceses of Genoa, Lodi, Borgo and San Donnino Ibid., place cited.; which office he performed among the people of Lodi in the year 1583, as becomes plain from what Zaccaria Laudensium Episcoporum series, pp. 92 and 93. has about the visitation of the body of St. Bassian. From this time, therefore, the cult of St. Clement grew stronger.
[3] whose eulogy Ferrarius composed. Altogether few things, however, have come down to us about this saint. From the monuments of the Church of Lodi Ferrarius collected these: "Clement, presbyter of Lodi," he says Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, p. 654., "flourished in holiness when St. Bassian the bishop came to Lodi. To him, since the city was without a bishop, it was divinely revealed that Bassian, then living at Ravenna, had been foreordained bishop by God, and he admonished the people to send there those who should bring him to Lodi. And when Bassian had begun his episcopate, he made Clement his intimate; and when he went to Milan to visit St. Ambrose the bishop, he took him as his companion. He at length, when he had served the Lord in all holiness, dying departed to heaven on the 16th day before the Kalends of November."
[4] To him God revealed that St. Bassian was to be elected bishop The first part of this eulogy is a faithful abridgement of what is read in the Life of St. Bassian. For it is related there Acta Sanctorum, volume II of January, p. 224. that, the see being vacant, three-day rogations were instituted by the people of Lodi according to the laws then in force Cf. Zaccaria, work cited, p. 68.. To whose devotion, the divine hearing being kindly inclined, to Clement, a venerable presbyter of the same church, while he was committing his limbs to rest, their petitions were announced by the divine kindness in these words: "Know that Bassian, distinguished with heavenly gems, is divinely to be set over you, who, already secure of his own salvation, does not cease to pray for the excesses of others, and strives to form in honest morals many of the people of Ravenna, among whom he serves as a soldier of God." "Then Clement," the biographer goes on thus, "rejoicing at the revelation, summoned religious men of the clergy and people and reports what he had heard. At once they choose two who were strong in eloquence and conduct, through whom they confidently bear a sacred embassy to the man of the Lord." There follows then the narration of the vision of St. Bassian, who learned from heaven that these men were coming to him, and of his coming to Lodi and his episcopate. But although many things occur here which, as pertaining to the manner of electing and enthroning bishops of old, are of the greatest importance, as Zaccaria observes Ibid., place cited., we nevertheless pass them over as contributing less to the praises of St. Clement.
[5] revealed between the years 373 and 378. And from this is understood in what age that holy presbyter lived; for since, as is drawn from the cited Life Acta Sanctorum, volume II of January, p. 226., St. Bassian obtained the see of Lodi on the last day of the year 373, or on the first day of the year 378 according to the lessons of the second nocturn recited on his feast Ibid., place cited., or on the last day of the year 376 according to an old inscription In Zaccaria, work cited, p. 92., or finally, as Ughelli Ibid., p. 90. and Zaccaria Ibid., p. 92. would have it, on the first day of the year 374, or lastly (so that we may have a Sunday for the enthronement and at the same time adhere rather to the custom and tradition of the Church of Lodi than to the numerals which are in the Life) on the first day of the year 377; everyone will gather from this that the birth of St. Clement is to be referred at least to the middle of the 4th century.
[6] [And at Milan with St. Bassian at the tomb of St. Ambrose he sees, by divine gift, a deceitful merchant detected] The other part of the eulogy was not composed so faithfully by Ferrarius. For as Ferrarius speaks, you would think it treated of visiting St. Ambrose while he was still among the living. But the matter stands otherwise in the biographer of St. Bassian, who speaks thus Acta Sanctorum, volume II of January, p. 225.: "In the following time also," namely after the death of St. Ambrose, "while St. Bassian was setting out for Milan in order to ask for the suffrages of that same kindly confessor, it came about that, on entering the city, he saw a man deceitfully weighing with a balance, and a little Ethiopian in one pan. The holy man asked God that others too might be witnesses of this thing. Prayers therefore having been offered to God, the heavenly kindness granted to Clement the presbyter and Elbonius the deacon to see that very thing which it had granted the holy father to see. At once St. Bassian admonished the deceitful merchant and converted him to God." But these things again, to be pursued more fully by us
are not.
[7] after the year 397. Further, since according to Henschen St. Ambrose died in the year 398, or rather, according to the Maurists, the editors of his works, and Sassi Archiepiscoporum Mediolanensium series, volume I, p. 89., in the year 397, from this one may establish another limit which St. Clement reached. Wherefore at the beginning we referred his death to about the year 400; although nothing prevents extending his life somewhat further too. We have been unable to gather more about this saint. For to the letters which we long ago sent to Lodi there has been no reply up to now. For the rest, since Zaccaria himself inserted nothing about his cult or memory, even in passing, into his work on the bishops of Lodi, and since Ferrarius, to whom the tablets of Lodi lay open, is so meagre, I should not believe that more is known to the people of Lodi about St. Clement than what we have handed down.