ON ST. OCTAVIAN OR OCTARIANUS, BISHOP OF COMO IN LOMBARDY,
ABOUT THE YEAR 680.
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
Octavian or Octarianus, bishop and confessor at Como in Lombardy. (S.)
BY V. D. B.
§ Sole. St. Octavian presided over the church of Como, while it adhered to the schism of the Three Chapters. On his cult and on the cult of others who died outside the communion of the church.
At the 20th of October, where St. John III, bishop of Como, was to be treated Acta Sanctorum, volume VIII of October, page 903 and following., we showed at length from monuments of the best stamp that this church, through the whole seventh century, was involved in the schism, [In the time of the schism of the Three Chapters St. Octavian presided over the church of Como.] commonly called that of the Three Chapters; and that within that time there lived St. Agrippinus, St. Rubianus, St. Adalbert, St. Martinian, St. Victorinus, St. John II, St. John III, St. Octavian or Octarianus, St. Benedict, St. Flavian, and Deusdedit or Deodatus; while he sat the schism was removed, but he, having obtained after death a fortune different from that of his schismatic predecessors, never attained ecclesiastical honours. We brought forward some things in that same place by which they might perhaps be cleared of formal schism, to speak with the theologians; and if these do not please, one must reflect that their cult is a particular cult; which, without injury to the sanctity and authority of the universal church, it is a clear matter that it can by error be paid to unworthy men, and Pope Benedict XIV above others agrees De beatificatione et canonizatione Sanctorum, book I, chapter 42, no. 13.. All these things therefore we can omit, considering it enough to send the reader to that commentary on St. John III.
[2] The dispute on his name; his family uncertain; his acts have perished. First Luigi Tatti Annali sacri della città di Como, volume I, page 702 and following. discusses at length the pontificate of St. Octavian or Octarianus; but all that he has is drawn from the general history of that age. But for that reason, since the church of Como was not then following the common way, nearly all that he relates, as far as it concerns St. Octavian, rests on no foundations. Nor is it strange that the good writer so wandered in this part from the path of truth, since in the seventeenth century, in which he wrote, there had not yet become known the documents by which it is now indubitable that the people of Como persevered in schism until the end of the seventh century; and thus in the midst of his dissertation Ibid., page 706. Compare Martyrologium Novocomense, page 231. he himself admits that the deeds of that saint have entirely perished and that the memory of his name alone survives. And indeed on this very form of the name the writers on the affairs of Como do not agree. Some, says Tatti Martyrologium Novocomense, page 231., and among them Ughelli Italia sacra, volume V, column 262, Coleti's edition., write Octavian for Octarianus, whom the ancient monuments of our church refute, in which he is always called Octarianus. But what those ancient monuments are is nowhere declared; and since the name of Octarianus is altogether unusual, I should prefer to adhere to Ughelli rather than to Tatti, although the learned man Cantù thirty years ago thought the latter should be followed Storia della città e diocesi di Como, volume I, page 144.. Ughelli relates that St. Octavian was by homeland a man of Como and sprung from the noble family of Satterapa Italia sacra, volume V, column 262.. But it is a very well known matter that the Italian genealogists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries honoured noble houses at their pleasure with all the best names; and rightly Tatti, treating of St. Octavian's family, wrote Martyrologium Novocomense, page 231.: We have received nothing on this from writers of better stamp; wherefore we judge this to be a fiction of more recent men.
[3] [About the year 670 he occupied the see of Como, and he was buried in the suburban church of St. Abundius.] St. Octavian would have ascended the see of Como in the year 668 and would have left it vacant by his death on the 23rd of October of the year 680, if one might believe Ughelli Italia sacra, volume V, column 262., Tatti Annali sacri di Como, volume I, pages 702 and 708. and Cesare Cantù Storia di Como, volume I, page 144.; but Tatti himself points out that this is mere conjecture. Yet it is probable that this bishop sat at Como about the year 670 or 680. For since it is certain, as we showed in the Commentary on St. John III, that Deusdedit or Deodatus flourished about the year 700, and St. Octavian occupies the third place before him in the most approved catalogues [Jovius, Historia Novocomensis, book II, in Burman's Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiae, volume IV, part II, column 102 and following; Ughelli, Italia sacra, volume V, column 261; Tatti, volume I, page 702; Cantù, Storia di Como, volume I, page 142 and following.], it is clear that one cannot depart far from this age. That he was buried in the cathedral church, after he had first repaired, or even raised from the foundations, many churches that were falling from age, Ughelli affirms, but without surety or witness. Nor is it credible that the body of St. Octavian was buried in the cathedral church, which has the patronage and title of the Blessed Virgin Mary; for in that age the custom of burying the dead within the walls of cities had not yet prevailed, as we have shown elsewhere by certain testimonies Compare Acta Sanctorum, volume VIII of October, pages 886 and 887.; and indeed we have a better witness in Tatti, since he declares that even in his age the body of St. Octavian was preserved together with the bones of several other bishops of Como under the pavement of the choir of the suburban basilica of St. Abundius Annali di Como, volume I, page 708; Martyrologium Comense, pages 230 and 231.. Jovius would have it that this was at first the cathedral church [Historia Novocomensis, book II, in Burman, Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiae, volume IV, part II, column 102 and following.]; but I do not know whether he could prove by any arguments that in the seventh century the principal church and episcopal see was placed outside the walls. I do not doubt that this basilica was at the beginning a cemetery basilica; whose fortune was then (as of so many other basilicas of the kind) various.
[4] [His cult was spread by Bishop Carafino and restricted by the Sacred Congregation of Rites.] Of the cult of St. Octavian we have found these things.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, as is known from the new Topography of Ferrarius to the Roman Martyrology, the people of Como reckoned among the saints their first twenty-two bishops, but attended only ten with an ecclesiastical office Compare Acta Sanctorum, volume II of September, page 541.. But when Lazzaro Carafino in the year 1626 ascended the see of Como, to occupy it until the year 1665, he himself put much labour into extolling the honours of his church Tatti, Annali di Como, volume I, passim.. Among these he also took care, and indeed before the year 1651, that those twelve holy bishops also should be venerated with a proper office through the whole diocese. This institution was in use for some time; but it did not please the Sacred Congregation of Rites, which wished the feast of this bishop, and at the same time of many others, to be kept in the basilica of St. Abundius alone, as Tatti is witness in a book published in the year 1663 Ibid., volume I, page 708.. Hence the same Tatti, after he had written in the Martyrologium Novocomense, which he brought to light in the year 1675 Martyrologium Novocomense, page 231.: At Como in the church of St. Abundius outside the walls of the city, of St. Octarianus, bishop and confessor; who, governing the flock of the Lord entrusted to him by both spiritual word and the example of a most upright life, attained eternal rewards in heaven, at once added in an annotation: The Offices of the Saints of the church of Como treat of him on this day, on which it venerates him in the basilica of St. Abundius, where his body is preserved; so that the cult was then confined to the one church of St. Abundius. But the changes did not stop there. For in the Order of Como for reciting the divine office and celebrating Mass for the year 1847 there are proclaimed the following feasts of the holy bishops of Como, to be celebrated through the whole diocese, 26th of February St. Flavian; 2nd of March, St. Prosper, and the 8th St. Provinus; 8th of April St. Amantius; 22nd of May St. Eusebius; 3rd of June St. Adalbert, the 5th St. Eutychius, the 17th St. Agrippinus and the 22nd St. Exsuperantius; 5th of July St. Adalbert and the 7th St. Consul; 31st of August St. Abundius; 1st of September St. John I and the 3rd St. Martinian; 3rd of October St. John II, the 8th St. Felix, the 11th St. Eupelius, the 20th St. John III, the 23rd St. Octarianus and the 30th St. Benedict; 26th of November St. Flavian II; and finally 16th of December St. Rubianus. Now when and by what authority that cult was restored through the whole diocese of Como escapes me. Certainly it is generally to be supposed that these things were done lawfully; but since, as the last century was slipping to its end, the bishops of Lombardy were ordered to dare many things that were not contained within the limits of their ordinary power, nothing certain may be established in this place. Further, all those saints are venerated with the rite of a double and most have proper lessons in the little book called of the Saints of Como; St. Octavian or Octarianus, however, is not in this number, on whose feast indeed the lessons of the second Nocturn are said from the common, in the second place, and the Mass Sacerdotes. But whatever be the origin and force of these things, since the cult of St. Octavian was once approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites at least for the church of St. Abundius, it was not permitted us to abstain from reporting his name in our Acts, whose institute it is to speak of all who are venerated in the Catholic church, by public authority prescribing, permitting or tolerating it.
[5] [Writers who treat of St. Octavian. The church of St. Abundius still exists; but the monastery has ceased.] And by these things, unless I am mistaken, I have sufficiently hinted what opinion stands in my mind concerning the praises of St. Octavian; wherefore nothing else remains but to mark at the end of this commentary the writers whom Tatti indicates as having treated of him Martyrologium Comense, page 231. and whom we ourselves have not mentioned. These are Feliciano Ninguarda in the Description of the city and suburbs, where he treats of the church of St. Abundius; Filippo Archinto in the List of his predecessors; Lazzaro Carafino both in the Diptych of the bishops of Como, no. 20, and in the Catalogue of the saints and blessed whose bodies rest in the city and diocese; Filippo Ferrari in the New Topography to the Roman Martyrology; Francesco Ballarini in the Chronicle of Como, page 2 and page 3; Roberto Rusca in the Antiquities of his family, book I; and Lelio Fravezzi in the Perpetual Diary of Como. By way of a finishing stroke we shall add that the church of St. Abundius, in which St. Octavian was buried and rests, still exists Millin, Voyage dans le Milanais, volume I, page 332.; but that the monastery which was joined to it was abolished by the French, occupying Lombardy at the end of the last century and instituting this new province according to the laws of liberty (as they called it) Cantù, Storia di Como, volume II, page 491.. From this it surely could not but happen that the cult of St. Octavian was diminished; but as long as the building of St. Abundius rises, the memory of that bishop will not altogether perish.