Minias

ON ST. MINIAS, MARTYR, AT FLORENCE IN TUSCANY,

IN THE YEAR 250.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Minias, martyr, at Florence in Tuscany. (S.)

BY B. B.

§ I. The Acts of St. Minias are not sufficiently trustworthy; a compendium of them from Giovanni Lami. The holy Martyr suffered under Decius and more probably without companions.

The Acts. The Acts of St. Minias, whom the Florentines venerate today with very great celebration, were published by Surius, with this title prefixed: The Martyrdom of St. Minias, soldier and Florentine martyr, by an uncertain author indeed, but written with learning, the style of the earlier history being changed, which exists in old manuscript books. Peter de Natalibus has the same, but contracted according to his custom, Book IX, chapter CVIII. Among our hagiographical manuscripts there are found one or two copies of the Passion of St. Minias, which we shall give below from the manuscript of St. Maximin of Trier, collated with the manuscript of Metz, as one of our predecessors noted. Two similar Passions were brought to light by Giovanni Lami from manuscript codices of the Laurentian Library Memorabilia ecclesiæ Florentinæ, vol. III, p. XLI. Florence 1758.. We have, besides, Notices on St. Minias the martyr, sent from Florence by Francesco Cionacci, as is clear from the following words attached to the bundle: To the most distinguished men, theologians and priests of the Society of Jesus, the Very Rev. Father Daniel Papebroch and his other helpers, Francesco Cionacci, humble priest of Florence, sends hearty greeting; and willingly transmits a certain gleaning from the slenderness of his studies to the very rich sacred vintage of their incomparable work on the Acts of the Saints. At Florence, the second day of the month of June of the current year 1693. Cionacci has laboriously and diligently brought together many things, of which we shall make frequent use in the course of this commentary. Tillemont Mémoires, vol. III, p. 331., not without a certain irritation, rejects the Acts, because they are rather recent, because they are woven of continual prodigies, because they begin with a gross chronological error: since they assert that SS. Lawrence and Sixtus suffered under Decius; which assuredly is openly false Cf. Act. SS., on the 10th of August.. With Tillemont agrees Giovanni Lami in his work on the Memorabilia of the Florentine church, as we shall say more fully at number three. Nor did Baronius make much more of the Acts, who at the year 254, number 29, reckons St. Minias at Florence among the martyrs crowned in Tuscany under Decius, adding nothing further. He is also passed over by Moroni, except that a few things are stated incidentally, in a paragraph on the town of San Miniato, in the territory of Florence. Nor would I wish to defend the credit of the Acts. Nevertheless, since they are not so very recent, nor altogether unlike others that are read here and there in our work, and are not rarely mentioned by Florentine writers, and finally are not very prolix, and moreover even Acts of lesser authority are sought among us and expected from us by learned men: it has seemed good to attach them to the preliminary commentary, that the reader himself may determine what they are worth. In the Annotations we shall weigh certain points in particular.

[2] probably written in the tenth century; In what century the Acts were written no one could easily say. Of Minias, says du Sollier in his Observation on the 25th of October Martyrologium Usuardi., I find nothing anywhere among the older writers, nor can I sufficiently conjecture whence Usuard took him; for it is not to be supposed that he saw the Acts published by Surius, who speaks so meagerly of him. Since we know from elsewhere that Usuard published his Martyrology, as du Sollier supposes, about the year 875 and 877; or rather sooner, namely in the year 859 or 860 and again between the years 869 and 877, as has been said by us elsewhere Vol. VIII of October, p. 85 et seqq.; the Acts of that holy martyr must be later than the ninth century. The above-mentioned Cionacci reports, from a manuscript booklet in which documents pertaining to the church of San Miniato al Monte are contained, that this church was founded, together with the monastery, by Ildebrand, bishop of Florence, of which man the first mention occurs about the beginning of the eleventh century, namely in the year 1008. In Ughelli Italia Sacra, vol. III, col. 47 et seq. there is recited an ancient writing, or diploma, by which it is proved that Hildebrand restored the collapsing basilica of St. Minias the martyr, and constructed a cenobium. The diploma is dated in the thirteenth year after a thousand of the Incarnation. In the eleventh indiction. Cionacci adds that Drogo was established by Hildebrand as first abbot of the monastery, who is read to have revised the Life of St. Minias; and Cionacci judges that this is the one that was put in print by Surius, and is accordingly to be ascribed to the eleventh century when already mature. But since, as I shall state more fully below, Sigebert of Gembloux plainly declares in his Deodericus that this man brought the Passion of St. Minias to Metz about the year 970, and since moreover our predecessors inform us that they received from that city the Acts which they collated with the Trier manuscript; it becomes probable that they are older than the said century, and were written at least about the middle of the tenth century.

[3] and a compendium of them, by Lami We have said that Giovanni Lami, a diligent investigator of the affairs of the Florentine church, holds the Acts of St. Minias in nearly the same esteem as Tillemont. For this reason I set down his words here: Since, he says Memorabilia ecclesiæ Florentinæ, vol. I, p. 589., it is most clearly evident that the martyr Mineas truly once existed, but by what contest his martyrdom was consummated is hidden from us: for no sensible man can give credit to his spurious and apocryphal Acts; it pleases me now to try whether I may succeed, having undertaken to illustrate the affairs of the Florentine church, in clearing them of dregs and purging them of the fables with which they teem, and in reducing them to a likely history. He then subjoins the following compendium: When the emperor Decius had stirred up a cruel persecution against the Christians, Bl. Mineas, a young Florentine distinguished by birth, professed the Christian law in his homeland, no less than many others, and his religion and piety had become known to the gentiles themselves. And on a certain day, as he was setting out to the suburbs of the city, the officers of the governor met him in the wood which is called Elisboth, and seized and held him, inquiring about his religion and name. And when they had learned that he was a Christian and was called Mineas, they presented him to the governor. To whom the governor said: Are you Mineas, the follower of a certain inept and vain Christian religion, who disturb the whole province by teaching vain things?

To whom Mineas answered: I am a servant of Christ. But you, unless you withdraw from the worship of the gods, will undergo perpetual burning. Then the governor said: Believe in our gods. Blessed Mineas answered: I believe in the living God, who made heaven and earth, and the sea and all things that are in them. Then the governor in anger ordered him to be hung on the rack and tortured, saying to him: If your God is stronger than I, let him free you from my hands. St. Mineas said: My God Jesus Christ, who does wonders, will not desert me. And the governor, inflamed the more with anger, ordered sharp stakes to be put under his nails, and all his fingers to be pierced; and blessed Mineas said: These are the works of your father the devil, which you do. Hearing these things, the governor ordered his officers to hang him up from the ground and to bind a huge stone to his feet. When this had been done, St. Mineas raised his eyes to heaven, saying with confidence: Lord my God, hear my prayer. Soon the governor ordered his officers to pierce his ears with sharp iron; which also was done. And because blessed Mineas endured all the torments patiently and eagerly and could not be overcome even in the least, the governor ordered him to be led to the temple of Mars, and gold and silver and gems and precious garments to be brought and to be placed in his sight, that he might be willing to sacrifice, and that his mind, which he had not been able to call back from the faith of Christ by his vain torments, he might at least be able to allure by the delights of the world to the worship of his gods, because he had loved him very much with an old friendship. When blessed Mineas had seen all these things, they were reckoned by him as dung, and he refused to offer sacrifice. And when the governor had seen this, he said: I order Mineas, rebel against our gods, to undergo capital sentence; and at once the officers took him and led him to the mountain which is called Florentine. And when they had come to the place, one of the officers, drawing his sword, cut off his head. And he suffered on the 8th before the Kalends of November, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory for ages of ages. Amen.

[4] composed from manuscripts. Moreover Lami accurately indicates the sources from which he drew the Passion of St. Minias. For assembling these things, he says Page 589, a., we used two Passionaries, Plut. XX, nos. 1 and 2, and others; the Laurentian Lectionary, in the same Pluteus, no. 5; the Lives of the Saints written by Blasius, in a codex likewise Laurentian, no. 6 in the same Pluteus; the Martyrology of Giorgio Antonio Vespucci in Laurentian codex no. 30, Plut. XXI; the Riccardian Italian Life of Bl. Mineas, Plut. O, row IV, no. 35; the Acts interpolated and published by Lawrence Surius; the Chronicle of Giovanni Villani, Book I, chapter LVII; two Passionaries and two Lectionaries of the archive of St. Mary of the Flower; the Stroctian Lessons published by Orlendi and made public again by us above; the Passionaries of the library of Santa Croce; the Chronicle of St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence; the compendium of the Life of Bl. Mineas written by Peter de Natalibus; the Lives written by Silvano Razi (Razi) and Giuseppe Maria Brocchi. Worthy of special mention is the writer praised by Lami in the last place here, namely Giuseppe Maria Brocchi, who has treated in express terms in the Italian language of the Saints and Blesseds of Florence Vite de sancti et beati Fiorentini. Florence, 1742.. The work consists of three volumes in quarto, and is very rare or at least very much sought after even at Florence. We very recently obtained a copy of it through the munificence of the Fathers Servants of the B. V. M. of Florence. The Life of St. Minias is found at the beginning of volume I Pages 17 – 30.. From which it is apparent how many monuments on their holy Martyr lie hidden among the Florentines, and how many writings have been heaped together; but are they more worthy of credit than our very Acts, which Lami holds as spurious and apocryphal?

[5] He suffered under Decius, That St. Minias suffered under the emperor Decius seems to be beyond controversy. The year is in dispute. By the witness of Lami Page 592, b., the Italian Riccardian Life, written as it seems in the fifteenth century, affirms that Bl. Mineas suffered in the year 250 of the common era; and rightly and probably indeed … Villani is mistaken, who defers it (the beheading) to the year 252; Giorgio Antonio Vespucci also errs in his Martyrology, which exists in codex 30 of the Laurentian, Pluteus XXI, when he records it at the year CCIIL. Here are his words. “On the 8th before the Kalends of November. In the city of Florence, the passion of St. Minias and his Companions, who suffered under the emperor Decius in the year of the Lord 248.” Baronius in the Annals mentions St. Minias under the year 254; Castellanus notes that he suffered in the year 251. Which discrepancy indeed arises from the years in which Decius held the empire, which different authors have stated differently. On which subject Petavius is to be heard Doctrina temporum vol. II, p. 187.: To the Philips (father and son) Victor, Eutropius and Onofrio attribute five years; Eusebius in the History and in the Chronicle, Epiphanius, Orosius, Cassiodorus and Baronius seven. The former would have the Philips die in the consulship of Aemilianus and Aquilinus, which is the year of Christ CCXLX; the latter in the consulship of the two Decii, which is the year of Christ 251. Again, Eutropius and Victor assign to Decius two years; this last however in the Epitome counts 30 months. Cassiodorus, 2 years, 4 months; Eusebius and Epiphanius, 1 year, 2 months… Assuredly the times both of these emperors and of those following have remained very obscure, partly from the scarcity of writers and ἀνιστορησίᾳ, partly from the disturbance of the consulships… We believe that not more than five full years with some months should be assigned to both Philips: for old coins assign the Sixth Tribunician power with the third consulship to Philip the father (Eckhel has the same Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, page 327., which he proves is also confirmed by Alexandrian coins); so that it appears that the Philips perished when the sixth year of the reign had already begun, in the consulship of Aemilianus and Aquilinus, in the year of Christ CCLXL. Finally Petavius, a little lower, on Decius: To whom indeed we assign two years with some months, namely 6, as Aurelius Victor is our authority. For in the year of Christ CCXLX, in the consulship of Aemilianus and Aquilinus, he began to reign, and he reached at least the end of the year of Christ 251, which he himself marked with his third consulship together with his son Etruscus. For Trebellius Pollio in the Valerians relates that the senate was convened by the authority of the emperor Decius in the consulship of the two Decii on the 6th before the Kalends of November, at which Valerian, being absent, was made censor; and Decius ordered this decree of the most illustrious order to be ratified. Wherefore toward the end of that year both Decii perished. Whence also Pagi (as Noris had already noted before him) at the year 251 of Baronius Annal., vol. II, page 570.: Because Baronius attributes seven years to Philip the elder, who only began his sixth, his chronology for ten years and more is altogether corrupted. Baronius, namely, trusted the writers mentioned above by Petavius, whose opinion he judged to be confirmed by an old monument that exists at Verona, written in these words Ibid., p. 577.:

IN THE YEAR OF CHRIST 253 THE EMPEROR THE DIVINE PHILIP THE ELDER AT VERONA AND THE YOUNGER AT ROME ARE KILLED BY THE GUARDS.

But, as Petavius has it again in the place cited, the inscription is counterfeit and trifling, and Onofrio rightly neglected it [Cf. Onofrio Panvinio himself, Fastorum Book V. Comm. in Book II, page 260 et seq. Heidelberg 1588.]. For the reckoning of the years of Christ is not so old, which it is well established came into common use only after Dionysius, namely from Dionysius Exiguus himself in the sixth century, and in Gaul in the seventh century Art de vérifier les dates, page III.. Finally Petavius arranges the years of Decius thus Vol. II, page 297 et seq.: 249, the sixth year of the reign having already begun, Philip the elder at Verona, the younger at Rome were killed by the soldiers. Decius succeeded… In the year 250 Decius stirs up the seventh persecution against the Christians… Pope Fabian died a martyr's death in that persecution, on the 20th of January, having sat for 15 years… Year 251. At the end of this year both Decii perished. And a little more distinctly the Benedictines Art. de vérifier etc., page 344.: Decius succeeded Philip in the middle of October in the year 249; he perished at the end of November in the year 251. To which Eckhel subscribes almost exactly Doctrina Numorum, vol. VII, page 342 et seq.: in the year 249 Decius, having conquered Philip, is recognized as Augustus, at least with autumn already begun; … in the year 251, in a battle against the Goths at Abricium in Thrace … swallowed up by a marsh he dies … this took place after the month of October. Tillemont also fixes the beginning of the reign of Decius about the middle or about the end of the year 249, and its end a little after the 27th of October of the year 251 Mémoires, vol. IV. At the end, in the Chronology..

[6] more probably in the year 250; And to return to St. Minias, he does not seem to have suffered in the year 249, both because it is far more probable that Decius took up the empire about the month of October of this year, and hence that there was no time in which his impious designs against the followers of Christ could easily be brought to effect; and because we know of no one crowned with martyrdom under this persecution before Pope St. Fabian, who died for Christ on the 20th day of January 250; nor also in the year 251, when the ardor of the persecution had already cooled; it is moreover natural to presume that it raged in its first onset through Italy and the regions near the City, as the ecclesiastical writers also insinuate, since they ascribe nearly all the martyrs known by name to the intermediate year, namely 250, for which reason we judge that the contest of St. Minias also should be placed in this year. Nor should this be passed over, that the birthday of the holy Martyr, both in the Acts and elsewhere, is celebrated on the 8th before the Kalends of November, that is, the 25th of October; and if it really fell on this day, new weight is added to our opinion. For it seems certain that Decius was presented with the purple only in this month, and it does not appear that he defiled it with blood in the very first days, and that not at Rome but in a distant city; nor similarly in the last days of his rule and life, when he was engaged in Thrace against the Goths,

[7] whether with companions is uncertain. Some assert that others suffered with St. Minias, and this belief, as Lami says, already prevailed in the ninth century. On which matter it is pleasant to hear Orlendi Orbis sacer et profanus, second part p. 1142.: That many other Martyrs, both in the same persecution as St. Minias and in others, suffered at Florence for the name of Christ, at the place where there is now the church of St. Candida at the cross, commonly called al Gorgo, I admit with Giovanni Villani, Book I, chapter 57. Since however their names lie hidden, they report that formerly

the Martyrs were called Candidati, and that hence the name Santa Candida al Gorgo was given to the place, where there was formerly a celebrated temple of the Holy Martyrs. And that these completed their contest there separately from St. Minias and at a different time, we gather from the very ancient Acts of the aforesaid martyr Minias, which exist in a very old codex of Vallombrosa, in which we read: “but we believe that other martyrs also suffered at the place of the Gorge.” A very old Martyrology also of the Medicean-Laurentian library mentions Saints Turbolus, Valens and some others, who on the same day as St. Minias or a little after obtained the palm of Martyrdom in that place. Nay, it has been handed on by the testimony of a learned and trustworthy Friend that in the breviary of St. John Gualbert, on the 25th day of October, these words exist: “Of St. Minias with his companions.” This is also established by the authority of a very ancient parchment codex in the very celebrated library of the most noble man Carlo Tommaso Strozzi, patrician of Florence, number 746, in which there are 9 lessons with a prayer in honor of St. Minias, Florentine martyr, “and his companions,” which from antiquity used to be recited in the choirs of the Florentine churches. But Sirmond rightly notes: when they speak of companions only, it is uncertain whether they were companions of the contest or of the burial and memorial. The latter seems to me by far the more probable. For more, if you please, see the same Lami, in the place cited. Consult also Brocchi, who, although he did not have other sources than Orlendi, nevertheless records that St. Minias had seven companions, whose names have been lost See vol. I p. 23 et seq.; and he testifies that in the Breviary, which we have seen was used by St. John Gualbert, and which is older than the eleventh century, mention is made of St. Minias and his companions, yet the name of none of them is recorded. I would not therefore think that the number seven came to Brocchi from elsewhere than from a certain common report and an inscription of recent age, of which I shall speak at the following number. Certainly Orlendi, in the place above, although relying on the same ancient documents as Brocchi, only mentions companions, no number being added. Finally neither in Peter de Natalibus, nor in the ancient lessons recited by Orlendi, nor in the Acts to be published by us below, is any companion given to our holy Martyr. Whence also Baronius in the Roman Martyrology, on this day: At Florence the Passion of blessed Minias, soldier, who under the emperor Decius, contending outstandingly for the faith of Christ, is crowned with a noble martyrdom. Likewise Castellanus Martyrologe universel, 25 Oct. and Müller Algemeines Martyrologium, second part, on the same day. are silent about companions.

§ II. Whether the sacred body of St. Minias was translated from Florence to Metz in Gaul in the tenth century by Bishop Theodoric. What is to be thought of the relics in the church of St. Bartholomew or of Monte Oliveto at Florence.

That the sacred body of St. Minias remained at Florence, The sacred body of St. Minias is claimed on the one side in Italy by the Florentines, on the other in Gaul by the people of Metz, who contend sharply with one another. There stands in any case the presumption that the relics of the holy martyrs were generally buried first in those places where the contest took place, and are to be sought there, unless they are proved to have been translated from there either from the beginning or in the lapse of time. As regards St. Minias, there seems to be no doubt that his sacred body was deposited at Florence and preserved there for many centuries; nay, it is the tradition of the church of the aforesaid city, confirmed by unbroken testimonies, that it was at no time ever carried beyond the limits of the Florentine territory. Whence after the verification of the Holy Relics (whose Instrument I shall subjoin presently), made in the year 1667, the following inscription was set up in the crypt of the church of San Miniato al Monte, behind the high altar:

TO GOD THE BEST AND GREATEST

THE REMAINS OF SAINTS MINIAS AND HIS SEVEN COMPANIONS, WHICH THE COURSE OF SO MANY CENTURIES HAD BLOTTED OUT OF MEMORY, RESTING UNDER THE NEARER MARBLE ALTAR, AND LAID THERE FORMERLY IN URNS IN THE YEAR OF SALVATION 1013 BY ILDEBRAND, BISHOP OF THE FLORENTINES, THE GUILD OF MERCHANTS OF THE CALIMALA RESCUED FROM HIDING AND OBLIVION; AND HAVING VENERATED THEM WITH THE WORSHIP OF THE NOBLES AND THE PRESENCE OF THE VICAR OF FLORENCE, VINCENZO BARDI OF THE COUNTS OF VERNIO, IT RESTORED THEM TO THEIR FORMER PLACE, TO BE VENERATED BY THE PIOUS REMEMBRANCE OF POSTERITY, ON THE 4TH DAY OF JULY IN THE YEAR OF SALVATION 1667.

OF THE RELICS OF THE HOLY MARTYRS OF CHRIST MINIAS AND HIS COMPANIONS, WHICH WERE TRANSLATED FROM THIS ALTAR TO THE PRINCIPAL ALTAR NEXT TO THIS ONE, THE FRAGMENTS THAT REMAINED, ENCLOSED IN A LEADEN RELIQUARY AND LAID UP UNDER THE TABLE OF THIS ALTAR, ARE VENERABLY PRESERVED.

It will not be out of place to set down here what Orlendi has on these inscriptions: In the course of time, he says Orbis sacer et profanus, p. 1250., the same sacred relics were translated from the high altar of the confession (of the underground church) to two other altars erected on either side; and finally in the year 1667, on the 4th (nay, the 6th) day of July, they were carried back to the high altar, (this indeed is altogether otherwise, as will be seen from the Instrument recited in the following numbers) only a few fragments of them being left in the aforesaid altars placed at the sides of the greater. Credit is given to these things by two Inscriptions, of which one is affixed in the choir near the high altar, the other on the front part of the collateral altars. Brocchi in the Life of St. Minias reckons four urns, in which the relics were indiscriminately laid; perhaps because he added both leaden reliquaries to the two urns of which there is talk in the Instrument of the visitation, in which only the high altar was opened, or because he joins to these two the other two reliquaries which are, as will be seen below, in the church of St. Bartholomew. For the rest, I would not think that the Instrument was seen by the most diligent Lami, since I find no mention of it in the Memorabilia, no part recited. It is strange certainly: yet I would not readily believe that it was passed over by him on purpose, as not sufficiently favoring the Florentine tradition. However that may be, we publish the Instrument in print, perhaps now for the first time, from the papers of Cionacci, formerly, as I have mentioned, sent from Florence to our predecessors. It consists of as it were two parts: in the one the matter is the perpetual tradition about these relics; in the other the manner of the verification or visitation is described. It is of the following tenor.

[9] the ancient tradition teaches; The 4th day of July 1667. Before the Most Reverend Lord Vincenzo de' Bardi of the Counts of Vernio, archdeacon and vicar general of Florence, there appeared the Most Illustrious Lord Carlo, son of the late Mr. Tommaso de' Strozzi, Florentine senator, proveditor of the guild of merchants of the city of Florence, and briefly set forth how the magistracy of the said guild is patron of the church of San Miniato al Monte, and that it is ruled and maintained under its patronage. And how it was and is a public tradition that many bodies of saints rest in the said church and that relics are preserved there; which tradition is founded on excellent arguments, since the appearing lord himself asserts that he has seen very ancient monuments at the monastery of Monte Oliveto outside Florence, and in the archive of the Chapter of Florence, signifying this same thing, and in particular in a certain donation made by the emperor Lambert to the bishopric of Florence in the year of the Lord 898, on the 12th before the Kalends of June, in the first Indiction; where in the description of the goods it is said: “Which is surrounded on every side by the land of the same church of St. Minias, where rest nine bodies of saints etc.” In another like one of King Berengar, under the date of the Kalends of May 899 and in the 12th year of his reign, in the 2nd Indiction, at Pavia, it is also said in the description of the goods: “On every side of the land of Bl. Minias, in whose church eight bodies of saints rest.” And in another writing, in which Ildebrand, bishop of Florence, in the year of the Lord 1013 and of Henry, king of the Romans, on the 5th before the Kalends of May, the monastery of St. Minias (the passage is somewhat corrupted; yet it is not obscure what it means: namely it hints that the church collapsing from age was repaired, nay built, together with the monastery) a place once neglected and afterwards adorned, he says, “most precious gems, known before only in part by hearsay, more fully than we had heard, we found visibly laid up in the aforesaid church, yet not as was fitting; namely the memorable body of Bl. Minias, martyr, and of very many crowned with the same palm.” And in another concession made by Atto, bishop of Florence, in 1037, in the 11th year of the emperor Conrad, in the 4th Indiction, in the month of February, to the same monastery of St. Minias, where he says: “For although that place had been outstanding by the sacred merits of principal Martyrs, and conspicuous by the renown of miracles, nevertheless up to the times of Ildebrand of happy memory, the bishop, to whom I am third successor in the pontifical chair, it did not excel, as was fitting for such and so great Martyrs, in the renown of its ordering; the aforementioned prelate therefore decreed that a monastery should be made there, and brethren having been ordered in that same place under the custody of an abbot etc.” And in the Privilege of Pope Paschal II, under 1110, on the 5th before the Ides of January, in the 3rd Indiction, in the 11th year of his pontificate, directed to the abbot of the said monastery of St. Minias, it is said: “In which monastery indeed there rest the bodies of the holy martyr Minias himself and of many other Martyrs etc.” Arlingus, bishop of Florence, in his Privilege directed to the abbot of the said monastery of St. Minias, under the date of the 6th before the Ides of July 1246, in the 4th Indiction, says: “By the merits of this outstanding martyr Bl. Minias and of his seven companions, whose bodies rest there, whence not only does the same church shine and the city flourish, but the whole country is adorned, while they are propped by their aids and sustained by their patronages.” He says moreover that Giovanni Villani in Book I of the History, chapter 57, makes mention that Ildebrand, bishop of Florence, in the year of the Lord 1013 had the body of the said St. Minias placed under a marble altar in the lower part of his said church. From which and other things it is known that there were already in the said church many bodies of Saints, and especially that of St. Minias, and that the peoples with good reason showed great devotion in the aforesaid church; and the appearing Lord himself recalls that in a certain visitation of the said relics, made formerly, he saw some, but not of what kind and how much. But because in this mortal life we always continually experience the vicissitude of things, and since the monks who served God there have already departed from the said church and monastery, and the aforesaid church has taken another form, a fortification having been built there, and, as it is said, “sia stato a uso di Lazzareto (it was granted for the use of a Lazaretto, that is, of the plague-stricken),” and for this reason it is doubted that many relics of the said Holy Martyrs have been carried off, and for the duty of his office he desires that the said relics be verified, if they are there, and that provision be made, so far as can be, for the preservation and veneration of relics of this kind; therefore he earnestly requested the said Most Reverend Lord Vicar to go to the church itself, and to visit and verify the said relics, some upright men being applied together with the same appearing party, and to appoint the day of such access, and to determine whatever should seem fitting and opportune. And the said Most Reverend Lord Vicar General of Florence, having seen and heard the foregoing, giving assent to this pious and just petition, appointed the sixth day of this month, which will be feria

four, in the morning, for making such visitation and verification, where he ordered a blacksmith and a mason to be called, to be on hand for everything to be done there.

[10] yet it was not found there in the year 1667, as is evident from The 6th day of July 1667. The Most Reverend Lord Vicar General of Florence himself, for the purpose of visiting the relics that are said to be laid up in the church of St. Minias outside Florence, went to the aforesaid church, which is within the citadel, the Instrument of verification; today unarmed and not guarded by soldiers: where there were present also the said Most Illustrious Lord Senator Carlo de' Strozzi, proveditor of the guild of Merchants, patroness of the same church, Mr. Ferdinando, son of the late Mr. Orazio Fulvio della Rena, a noble of Florence, proveditor of the citadels, and Mr. Camillo … de' Paganelli, custodian of the aforesaid citadel and tenant of its goods; and proceeding to the high altar of the lower part of the said church, where the bodies and relics of the Saints are believed to have been, he saw the aforesaid altar, of marble and elegantly made, with a great table also of marble, which, although it is of great weight and difficult to remove, is nevertheless recognized as having at some time been removed and not very well set in its place; and since it is held for certain, and is easily perceived both from the writings laid up in the said citadel and from some recollection of the said Lord Senator Carlo de' Strozzi, that the relics of the saints exist under the said altar, and that in the middle of the front face of the said altar there is a square window, closed with a perforated iron plate, through which the interior part of the altar is seen; the said Most Reverend Lord Vicar ordered this plate to be opened and removed, that the master mason might enter by the small door and inspect with a light what was laid up there. The key, then, which is kept in the said citadel, and which the said Most Illustrious Mr. Carlo Strozzi, proveditor, had caused to be brought, the small door being opened and the plate itself removed, the said master mason entered, and there was seen at first sight a wooden tabernacle painted within in blue with stars, and on the doors the Angel and the Annunciate most holy Virgin on the outside, on the inside two figures of saints, and it seemed to all that the said tabernacle, worn away by age, had been put there from the upper side, while the marble table was removed, or when the altar was built, since otherwise on account of its size it could not have been placed and fitted there. On the surface of the ground, on the Gospel side, there were two sepulchral chests, one of marble, the other of stone; both covered also with marble and stone respectively; which chests or urns the said Lord Vicar ordered to be drawn out, that they might be inspected more closely, as was carried out; and it was seen that the marble urn was nine soldi of a braccio in height, likewise nine soldi in width, and about eleven soldi in length. The other, of stone, was eight soldi in height, with one soldo for the four feet by which it is supported, half a braccio in width, and two parts of three of a braccio in length. The urns being opened by the removal of the upper part of each of them, in each urn there was a small sepulchral chest of wood, stained outside with the color of walnut, with a crystal plate on the face, through which the bones were seen; the small chest that was in the stone urn was half a braccio in length; and the other laid up in the marble urn was also a little less than half. They did not have locks; but they were closed with sealed bands of paper. By command of the said Most Reverend Lord Vicar, the edges * having been taken away, they were opened; and both the said small chests were nearly full of fragments of bones without any inscription; and these being venerated as relics of saints, they were closed as before with similar paper bands fastened with Spanish red wax, a brief note of this visitation being placed upon them; and the said Most Reverend Lord Vicar ordered all things to be replaced in the state and places in which they were; and it was observed that there were holes in the said urns, by which they had at some time been closed with leaded irons, and the lids fastened to the rest of the body of the urn. The said mason, entering the aforesaid altar again, placed the small chests in the urns, and the urns in their places as before. Moreover the said Most Reverend Lord Vicar General of Florence, all the circumstances being weighed, declared that such sacred relics are to be venerated as such, as they were venerated in times past, although there are no inscriptions by which it may be known of what saints they are; and further for the security of the same sacred relics he ordered that the aforesaid urns be firmly closed with leaded irons and, as it is said, con spranghe de ferro with bars of iron, and that the small door before the aforesaid altar be closed with a stronger plate, or in another solid and elegant form, as shall seem good to the said Lord Senator Carlo de' Strozzi; and in the meantime he ordered this small door to be blocked with bricks and lime, as was at once carried out by the aforesaid mason, and all withdrew. At all which there were present, besides those named above, Sir Ricovero, son of the late Mr. Pietro Francesco, son of the late Benedetto degli Uguccioni, a noble of Florence, Mr. Filippo, son of the late Mr. Dino, son of the late Lorenzo de' Peri, citizen of Florence, and Mr. Marco, son of the late Mr. Bernardino Vincenzo de' Ducci, Doctor of both Laws and citizen of Florence, witnesses called and asked. (It was signed) C. Joannes Antonius Vignalius, Chancellor.

[11] since therefore Sigebert testifies From this Instrument, assuredly genuine and most faithful, it is indeed evident that there was an ancient tradition that the body of St. Minias (of this alone is our discourse) was preserved in that place; but it was not found in the year 1667, only two small chests nearly full of fragments of bones without any inscription. What then? Were the relics of the holy Martyr, as Baronius hints in his annotations on the 25th of October, translated into Gaul in the time of the emperor Otto? It is surely for us to elucidate this question, as far as may be. Of Theoderic I (Sigebert of Gembloux calls him Deoderic), bishop of Metz, from the end of the year 964 to the 7th day of September of the year 984, one reads in the new Gallia christiana Vol. XIII, col. 726.: Having followed the Emperor (Otto I), his cousin, into Italy, he stayed there for three years. Using this occasion, he collected many relics from here and there and had them transferred in the year 970 to the monastery of St. Vincent, which he had erected two years before on the island of that city (Metz) and adorned with magnificent buildings. Among these relics the body of St. Minias is reckoned. The testimony of Sigebert in the Chronicle at the year 970 is explicit, and is accordingly to be set down here in full: Deoderic, he says Migne. Patrologia, vol. CLX, col. 192., bishop of Metz, bound more closely than the others to the emperor by blood, affection and familiarity, while he served under him in the Italian expedition for three years, collected in whatever manner he could many bodies and pledges of saints from various places of Italy. First, from the Marsi, St. Elpidius, confessor, whose companion Eutychius the emperor himself had already carried away; from Amiternum, Eutyches, martyr, with relics of Maro and Victorinus, his companions; from Foligno, Felician, bishop and martyr; from Perugia, Asclepiotatus, martyr; from Spoleto, Serena, martyr, with Gregory of Spoleto, martyr; from Corduno, pledges of Vincent, martyr and levite, carried there formerly from Spain by two monks to Capua, and from Capua there; from Bevagna, another Vincent, bishop and martyr; from Vicenza, Leontius, bishop and martyr; FROM FLORENCE MINIAS, MARTYR; from the city of Todi, Fortunatus, bishop and martyr; from Corfinium, Lucy of Syracuse, virgin and martyr, formerly translated there from Syracuse by Faroald, duke of the Spoletans; from the Sabines, parts of the bodies of Protus and Hyacinth, martyrs. All these things, with part of the chain of St. Peter the apostle, with hair of the same, and the blood of St. Stephen the protomartyr, and part of the gridiron of St. Lawrence, given to him by Pope John, with many other pledges of saints, the prelate Deoderic transferred into Gaul in this year, and placed in the church of St. Vincent the martyr, constructed by him on the island of the city. I observe this one thing, that Sigebert clearly understands the body of St. Minias to have been translated, since he does not say pledges, relics, a part, but from Florence St. Minias, which manner of speaking he uses whenever he treats of a whole body. Moreover there exists a Life of St. Theoderic, by the same Sigebert of Gembloux, in whose chapter XVI, which is entitled: On his (Deoderic's) eagerness in searching out the relics of the saints, the same things are recorded but more fully worked out, with the Acts of the Translation added: Now, then, he says Ibid. col. 709 et seqq., let that page be brought forward, most fully drawn up by those who took part, concerning the translation of the saints. Then we are taught, of each of the relics enumerated above, how they came into the hands of Theoderic. But the names of some saints are passed over, and among these St. Minias. Sigebert however adds Ibid. col. 715.: This relation on the translation of the saints we have received from our elders. But why they made no mention of St. Fortunatus, bishop of the city of Todi, of whom Gregory inserted a memorable narrative in his Dialogue, and also of Minias the martyr, causes no small commotion to our minds. For we believe with true faith that the bodies of these too were translated from Italy to us by him. And we read that Minias, with Protus and Hyacinth and Bishop Vincent, was brought to us on the 6th before the Nones of July. The relics of Fidentius also and Terence, with Vincent, martyr and levite, Felician, Eutyches, Elpidius, Asclepiotatus and the chain of St. Peter, sent to us by him on the 18th before the Kalends of May, the very truth of the matter shows. Of these he also wrote down the passions (or Deoderic caused them to be written down) and noted the day of the passion or deposition; namely of Fortunatus the 3rd before the Kalends of July, of Minias the 8th before the Kalends of November, and of those others the 5th before the Kalends of October. Pledges also of Quintian, presbyter and martyr, from Altrum, a city of Campania, and of Florentius, martyr, from the fortress of Tile, the diligent lover of the saints transferred, yet he did not bring the deeds of their passion, reporting only the day of the passion; of Quintian the 3rd before the Nones of July, of the other the 6th before the Kalends of November. From these things it shines forth still more clearly that the body of St. Minias is in question; and moreover it results that the history of the passion or the Acts of the same were also brought into Gaul by Deoderic; which I would think to be the same as those we are about to give in print below. And if this is really so, it follows that they were written at least a little after the middle of the tenth century. Cf. n. 2.

[12] it by Bishop Theoderic, in the year 970 Since, by the witness of Sigebert, St. Minias together with Protus and Hyacinth and Bishop Vincent was brought to Metz, we think it worthwhile to set down what is read of these three in the page cited above. From which moreover it will be possible to judge (for they are similar) what took place in the translation or acquisition of the others. In the country of the Sabines (the words are those of Sigebert Migne, Patrol., vol. CLX, col. 714.), not far from the city of Rome, at about the fortieth milestone, the holy martyrs Protus and Hyacinth had been laid up in somewhat more negligent custody. These the abbot

of a certain monastery of St. Mary, which is called Farfa, when he begged our venerable pontiff (Deoderic) to become his intercessor before the emperor in his cause, because he knew that he was delighted by no gift so much, first offered a part; but afterwards, at the marvelous insistence of the lord prelate, he added whatever he could find of them; himself with his monks giving oath upon the holy Gospels that those bones were truly those of SS. Protus and Hyacinth. This was done after the Nativity of the Lord, when we were returning from Rome, in the vicinity of the city of Orte. And of St. Vincent the bishop, in the same place: The other St. Vincent (distinguished from the holy levite), the bishop, he obtained from a certain monastery in the county of Urbino, about the fiftieth milestone from Ravenna, near Pietra Pertusa, from the abbot, much worn down in necessary things, since he had nothing else to give for the relief of the place, first offering a part, but Bertraus being sent there and acting vigorously with much art. Of him we have written the passion. He was sent through Count Immo.

[13] brought to Metz; With what mind that venerable man (of whom there is mention among us several times among the Passed Over Acta SS., vol. IV of Jul. p. 348 and vol. III of Sept. p. 2., because his cult is not sufficiently established) so eagerly sought out the pledges of the saints is declared in Sigebert's preliminary note to the aforesaid page or relation Patrologia, vol. CLX, col. 709.: The Man of God (Deoderic), understanding that the purity of the inner man is more to be sought after than the superficial charm of outward beauty, took pains also in this to bring his work to perfection. Which anyone will easily be able to notice even in this alone, if he considers how great his zeal was for gathering together the pledges of the saints in this place (the Monastery of St. Vincent at Metz), that those dwelling there might both be fired to doing well by their examples, and if they were worn by any evils or dangers, might be defended by their present patronages. Yet on this head Theoderic is somewhat beaten by Muratori in Dissertation VII Antiquitates medii ævi, vol. V, col. 8 et seq.: There was then in those iron centuries an incredible greed for sacred relics; and thence again and again flowed those thefts and plunderings; and whoever could either snatch such sacred pledges from an enemy in war, or by fraud steal them from the unwary, thought that fortune smiled on him. And above all the bishops were accustomed to contend, and chiefly those of Germany, into whose region the religion of Christ, brought in rather late, had given no martyrs (which is not entirely true), each to adorn his own country and temples with precious spoils of this kind. For which purpose they used the authority of princes, prayers, money, violence and other arts. On this account Theoderic, bishop of Metz, once made himself famous, to omit the others. He was joined to Otto the Great, Augustus, by close affinity, being his cousin, and dear to him as few were, and together with him “served in the Italian expedition for three years,” as Sigebert writes at the year 969. He by no means suffered such great fortune to be idle. For by the witness of the same Sigebert, “many bodies and pledges of the Saints from various places of Italy, in whatever manner he could (Muratori adds: which (three) words are to be attentively noted), he collected. First” etc., as above at n. 11. And Muratori exclaims: See how many bones of saints from Italy alone one bishop, “in whatever manner he could,” scraped together in three years. But what these manners were, learn from this. While he was at Rome in the retinue of Otto the Great, and was present when the Chain of St. Peter was applied by Pope John XIII to a member of the emperor's household, who was tearing himself with his teeth, “Theoderic, bishop of Metz, seized that Chain, saying that he would not let it go unless his hand were cut off. At length the emperor, having settled the quarrel, obtained from Pope John that he should be given a link cut from this Chain.” The last words, slightly changed here and there, Sigebert has in his Deoderic Patrol., in the place cited, col. 712.. For the rest, these things have been twisted by Muratori more harshly than is just, nay more invidiously.

[14] which translation seems to be admissible, However that may be, it cannot be denied that in this question the testimony of Sigebert is very weighty, not to say decisive. For (as is said in the Notice in Pertz Monumenta Germaniæ, vol. IV, p. 461., from whose Monuments Sigebert was published in the Migne Patrology) he undertook to write the Life of Deoderic … led by piety toward the founder of the monastery of St. Vincent, and for this work he assembled whatever could contribute, ancient monuments, charters and privileges of emperors and pontiffs, the history of the translation of the relics collected by Deoderic in Italy written by his cleric, who had taken part in the events, gathered together in praise of the bishop and of the city of Metz. And Sigebert himself in the book on ecclesiastical writers Patrol., ibid., col. 587.: I wrote many short works when stationed at Metz in my early age, in the church of St. Vincent, for instructing the boys. I wrote the Life of Bishop Theodoric, founder of that same church and abbey etc. Sigebert moreover was born about the year 1030; he passed from Gembloux to Metz a little after the year 1048, and remained there until about the year 1071, when he returned to Gembloux, where he died at more than eighty years of age, on the 5th day of October in the year 1112 Ibid., col. 8 – 11.. He was therefore nearly contemporary with Theoderic, who died, as I have mentioned, in the year 984; and certainly he conversed with those who had been eye-witnesses of the translation, some of whom perhaps were surviving. Since, then, he writes so explicitly of the body of St. Minias, I do not see what could oppose his assertions. Especially since we have from the Instrument of the visitation recited at n. 10 that in the year 1667 no body was found, but two small chests nearly full of fragments of bones heaped together indiscriminately, without any inscription. Moreover it is clearly evident from the same Instrument that the place of deposition did not remain inviolate, and indeed concerning the great marble table placed over the altar, under which the holy pledges were reported to rest, which, although it is of great weight and difficult to remove, is nevertheless recognized as having at some time been removed and not very well set in its place; and again: It seemed to all that the tabernacle had been put there from the upper side, while the marble table was removed, or when the altar was built, since otherwise on account of its size it could not have been placed and fitted there. Finally: And it was observed that there were holes in the said urns, by which they had at some time been closed with leaded irons, and the lids fastened to the rest of the body of the urn. When, through whom, or in what manner these things happened or were perpetrated, is nowhere said. Nor should this be passed over, that in the donation of the emperor Lambert, of which, as of the following one, mention is made in the first part of our Instrument, nine bodies of Saints are read to rest in the church of St. Minias, and that indeed in the year 898; but in the other like donation of Berengar of the following year, that is, 899: eight bodies of Saints. Nor is it added in either place that among those nine or eight there is the body of St. Minias, although it seems that this should be supposed from the mind of the donors. But that in the Page recited in Sigebert it is not explained when or how Theoderic obtained the relics of St. Minias, this is perhaps because they had been carried off secretly or at least with few aware of it. Read Muratori in the place cited, where he frequently speaks of pious robbers, of bodies of Saints taken away secretly and by theft from ancient tombs etc. Whence also Cionacci in a manuscript codex has from Silvano Razi on the Saints and Blesseds of Tuscany, at the end of the Life of St. Minias, concerning the translation into Gaul: If the matter that is narrated is true (nor was it difficult), it will have been done furtively and secretly; which indeed is not out of keeping with those words of Sigebert. “In whatever manner he could.”

[15] since no solid reason opposes it. But let us see what the advocates of the opposite opinion object. The said Razi says that apart from Sigebert he has known no one who has brought forward anything similar; and that in the Gallic martyrology itself, in which there is treatment not only of the Saints of that region but also of foreign ones whose relics are preserved there, no mention is made of St. Minias. But in truth this argument is merely, as they say, negative; and moreover, if Razi understands writers more recent than Sigebert, it is false: he himself cites among others Baronius and Rinaldi, and others could easily be added. Razi further remarks that in the aforesaid translation there is question only of a part of the body; and this he proves first from Rinaldi, who in the compendium of Baronius writes that Theoderic carried into Gaul a link of the Chain of St. Peter and several bodies of Saints, that is, parts of them, collected from various places; Sigebert explicitly records that the body was laid up at Metz; secondly from the ancient custom of the church, by which whole bodies were never exhumed, but only parts of them, which were called a body (I omit to inquire whether and how far this was the custom; but even if we were to grant this to Razi, surely nothing would prevent us from admitting that Theoderic proceeded beyond, nay even against, the custom); but I have no doubt that Razi's assertion is false, and that such a custom never prevailed, at least where the question is of primary exhumation [Cf. Marchi, Monumenti delle Arti Christiane primitive, p. 255 et seq. Also p. 259. Rome 1844.]. Thirdly Razi proves it from the clear and constant tradition of the Florentine church, of which there is enough and more than enough in the Instrument of Visitation. And by this reason alone Brocchi in the Life of St. Minias attacks the translation to Metz, and from it with him Lami in the Memorabilia of the Florentine church Vol. I, p. 26 and 584, relying on the testimonies of St. Antoninus and Ildeprand. Wherefore, Lami concludes, Theoderic must have carried off only some part of the remains, not the whole body of the Martyr. But that same tradition lasted no less constantly in the middle of the seventeenth century, and yet the body of St. Minias was not found at Florence, as is clear from the Instrument so often cited. These things being so, the testimony of Sigebert stands, as it seems to me, unshaken, whence I would also think that the possession of Metz remains firm. Which is also mentioned and attested by Calmet in the History of Lorraine Histoire de Lorraine, vol. II, col. 96. Nancy 1748., and by the Benedictines of the congregation of St. Vanne in the History of the city of Metz Histoire de la ville de Metz, vol. II, p. 75. Metz, 1775., where these add that the Acts of many Saints, among whom St. Minias, were written by Theoderic himself, and that this is recorded by Sigebert in his life. See the place we have recited from Sigebert at n. 11; but the word wrote down seems to us rather to be interpreted in the sense that Theoderic procured copies of the Acts for himself, not that he himself composed the history of the passion. For the rest, in the catalogue of the abbots of St. Vincent

Gallia Christ. vol. XIII, col. 918 – 925., none of these is read to have undertaken even the least thing in favor of the relics of St. Minias; from which it may at least be conjectured that they lacked any special cult or veneration. The same results from Calmet and the Benedictines, who have recorded nothing of the holy Martyr besides the translation.

[16] [Was Bishop Theoderic deceived, thinking that he was translating the body of St. Minias?] By way of a conclusion we shall note one thing more. Sigebert relates in the Chronicle (see above n. 11) that Theoderic, among very many other relics of saints from Italy, brought to Metz from the Sabines parts of the bodies of Protus and Hyacinth; and more explicitly in the life of Theoderic (above n. 11) he narrates that those saints lay laid up among the Sabines, a region not far from the city of Rome, in somewhat more negligent custody; and that a certain abbot of the monastery of St. Mary offered a part of the bones to Theoderic, but afterwards, at the marvelous insistence of the lord prelate, added whatever he could find of them, and that the abbot himself with his monks gave oath that those bones were truly those of SS. Protus and Hyacinth. I for my part would think that those men so swore in good faith. Yet if their mind was (and so indeed it seems to me) that the aforesaid bones belonged to the very celebrated brother martyrs Protus and Hyacinth; it is certain that they erred, and hence that Theoderic too was deceived, when he thought that he held their relics; since very recently, namely in the year 1845, Father J. Marchi, S. J., found the intact tomb of St. Hyacinth, brother of St. Protus Gallia Christ. vol. XIII, col. 918 – 925., whence it is proved that no relics of the former (St. Hyacinth) existed anywhere outside the underground cemetery in which they were first deposited. As regards St. Protus, the said Marchi shows by solid reasons that his body remained intact in the crypt on the old Via Salaria still in the middle of the seventh century Arti primitive, page 253.; that it was afterwards translated to the basilica of the Savior beyond the Tiber; that then the head, torn from the rest of the body, was deposited with other remains by Leo IV (he sat from the year 847 to the year 855 Art de vérifier les dates, p. 271.) under the altar of the Holy Four Crowned Martyrs Ibid, p. 257.; and that at the end of the sixteenth century the bones of St. Protus (and, as they falsely thought, of St. Hyacinth) were carried from the said edifice of the Savior to the church of St. John of the Florentine nation on the left bank of the Tiber Ibid.. Theoderic could not, therefore, have brought back from the Sabines to Metz a part, assuredly a great nay the greatest part, of the body of St. Protus, which is proved to have been laid up in the church of the Savior until the end of the sixteenth century Vol. I, p. 584.; much less a part of the body of St. Hyacinth, which the aforesaid Marchi very recently found intact in its original burial niche, and of which discovery he himself has written a brilliant and learned history, from which we have taken these few things of ours. What then? Because the prelate of Metz was deceived in this regard, shall we say that he was likewise wrong in the rest? The conclusion would stretch too far. Recall what we have disputed above concerning the translation of St. Minias into Lotharingia, where we have mentioned many circumstances that lend no little credit to the fact; and on the other hand I see nothing that in particular draws it into suspicion of fraud.

[17] Of the relics in the church of Monte Oliveto. It remains for us to speak of the relics preserved in the church of St. Bartholomew de Castaneo, also called of Monte Oliveto, because the monks of this congregation withdrew to it in the year 1552 or 1553, when the monastery of San Miniato al Monte, which they inhabited, was enclosed in the citadel. For there are those who have written that the very body of the blessed martyr was translated at that time. To this pertains first of all a certain letter of Carlo Strozzi written in the Italian language, a copy of which, written out by the hand of Papebroch, I find among the hagiographical manuscripts of our predecessors, with this note of the same Papebroch: Letter of the most illustrious senator Carlo Strozzi, reported in his codex NN, f. 1. We think it necessary to set down a good part of it here. At the beginning it is related in a few words that St. Minias was crowned with martyrdom under Decius in the year 252, and buried on the Mountain near Florence. Then the Florentine tradition about the body of the blessed Man is set forth from the diplomas or charters of Lambert and Berengar, and also of Ildebrand and Atto, which are cited in the Instrument above. Then Strozzi proceeds, whose words I render in Latin: In the note-books of the guild of Merchants (to which that church was subjected in the year 1337, in which there were also made the railings by which the middle altar under the vault, that is, in the crypt, is surrounded) it is also read that the body of St. Minias is preserved under the said altar. But just as it is clear that the body of the glorious Martyr was laid up in that place, so it is obscure where it is found today. Sigebert in the Chronicle records that it was carried in the year 969 from Florence into Germany by the emperor Otto. The monks of Monte Oliveto, to whom the aforesaid church formerly fell, exhibit some relics which they claim are the body of St. Minias, and that it was translated from there by them to their new monastery in the year 1552, when the old one (namely San Miniato al Monte) was converted into a citadel. But in the said church of St. Minias, where that sacred body was believed to rest, a few years ago, under the procurement of V. A., * the archdeacon being present and another canon of the metropolitan chapter assisting, there were found two small marble chests full of bones; which I afterwards learned had also been seen a little before by the imperial commander (Capitan) Cinuzzi, who had charge of the citadel; and these relics are no longer believed to be those of other saints than St. Minias and his companions (le quali non piu credersi che siena d'altri che di S. Miniato e seu compagni). I for my part think thus, that fragments of the body of St. Minias exist in those three places; and that he was committed to the earth together with his companions, no inscription being added by which they might be distinguished one from another, in which manner very many may be found buried at Rome and elsewhere; and finally that this gradually gained strength, that those who had drawn away something from these pledges said that they had translated the body of St. Minias. I am of the opinion, then, that both the relics carried into Germany and the others which the Olivetan monks venerate in their church can belong to the holy Martyr. Thus far Strozzi, according to whose mind the body of the holy Man remained in the church of San Miniato al Monte; and parts are preserved at Metz and among the Olivetans. Cionacci agrees sufficiently, saying: These Olivetan Fathers carried with them both all the writings pertaining to the monastery and church, and the relics of St. Minias, which even now, that is, in the year 1692 or 1693, in which Cionacci shared his papers with the hagiographers, are exposed on the 25th day of October in their church of Monte Oliveto, taken I know not when or by whom from the altar under which they had been laid up. And more distinctly Giuseppe Maria Brocchi in the life of St. Minias, in Lami Arti primitive, page 253.: The relics of St. Minias and his companions are dispersed through very many churches dedicated to his name both in the Florentine and in the Fiesole diocese, and in particular many are shown for veneration (se ne venerano molte) enclosed in two small silver chests (which a few years ago I repaired by order of the most reverend Father abbot, Dom Miniato Scarlatti) in the church of Monte Oliveto, which is situated outside the gate of San Frediano, whither they were translated by the Olivetan monks, when they moved from the old monastery of St. Minias, that it might give place to the citadel which Cosimo I had decreed to be built. From these so explicit words of Brocchi we have clearly what relics are in the church of St. Bartholomew de Casteneo or of Monte Oliveto (which surely cannot be called the body); but we do not learn when, how or by whom, and whether they were really drawn out, nor even whether they belong to St. Minias rather than to the companions of his burial. Cionacci indeed would have it, but with what just right, that the underground altar was opened at the time of the migration by the Olivetans; and he considers this proved from the said Instrument, where the great marble table placed upon the altar is mentioned as having at some time been removed; but it is not said when or by whom: by the Olivetans? why not rather under Theoderic? It must be admitted, from what is said at this number, that the tradition of the Florentines concerning the perpetual preservation of the Holy Body in San Miniato al Monte is no little shaken; and on the other side that the translation to Metz is rendered more probable.

* from the Italian word Calimala, which is a kind of silk cloth.

* read VI.

* Canto, among the Italians, is a side, a corner; in Flemish Kant.

* Vostra Altezza, that is, your highness.

§ III. Of the very celebrated cult of St. Minias in Etruria. Churches dedicated to his name at Florence. The city of San Miniato. The feast and office of the holy Martyr, and two proper hymns. Lesser relics in many churches, and ampullae filled with his blood.

Cult. Churches, more than 40, dedicated to his name, The cult of St. Minias is very celebrated among the Florentines and very ancient. The memory of this illustrious martyr, says Lami Vol. I, p. XXIII., is observed by the church on the 8th before the Kalends of November; and his cult in Etruria is very old, as the temples raised in his honor testify, some of which, very ancient, exist. These indeed are: The church of St. Mineas on the Mount of the King, or Florentine Mount, near Florence, whose memory goes back to the age of Charlemagne, and which the Tuscans have always venerated with outstanding religion, and have increased with almost immense revenues by a praiseworthy prodigality. According to the custom of those times this had an adjoining hospice (of this church I shall speak in particular below). The church of St. Mineas inter Turres, which is at Florence, together with a parish, and indeed in that part of the city that is reckoned most ancient. Other churches marked with the name of this martyr are: The church with the convent of nuns at Florence, in the Via San Gallo, who, having at first had their monastery situated on the very Mount of St. Mineas outside the city, were then translated to the city hospice of the Ceppo, where a little before the girls of the Ceppo lived, and finally to that church, once a hospice of Christians. And in the rest of the Florentine diocese there exist or once existed altogether eighteen churches sacred to our Martyr, whose names and site and origin may be seen in the same Lami in the Memorabilia; in the diocese of Fiesole ten others; in that of Pistoia two; but, says Lami, in the very city of Pistoia also there was a church of St. Mineas in Curte, in which Bl. Atto, the bishop, was buried, if Ferdinando Ughelli is to be believed: for Francesco Forteguerri in the Life of Bl. Atto calls it the church of St. Mary in Curte. Perhaps they were adjoining Divinities.

In the diocese of Siena one, as also in those of Pisa and Chiusi; in that of Arezzo two. Lami further adds: There is no doubt that one also in the diocese of Lucca, where now is the city of St. Mineas (Sanminiato) in the lower valley of the Arno, a church built in honor of this martyr, existed from ancient times, and that that town borrowed its name from him; just as another town of the Florentine diocese, distant 14 miles west from Florence, is marked with the name of St. Mineas, commonly Sanminiatello, because a church sacred to the same martyr was built there; which church is called that of St. Mineas at Montelupo… Unless I am mistaken, the church of which we are treating is that which in antiquity was called that of St. Mineas in Quarto, in the diocese of Lucca [Cf. Repetti, Dizionario geografico della Toscana. Under Sanminiato. Florence, 1843.]. Finally in the diocese of Piacenza there is another church sacred to St. Mineas, or at least there once was; for the Castle of St. Mineas, which is in that diocese, can have claimed its name only from a church of this Martyr. And so in all there are at least forty-one churches in number. Whence Lami most justly subjoins P. XXVII.: So many churches, then, erected to the holy martyr Mineas, nearly all to be reckoned ancient, clearly demonstrate that the most illustrious Witness of Christian truth was venerated by reverent peoples widely in Tuscany and also outside Tuscany. Before we proceed further in reckoning up the testimonies on the cult, we think it worthwhile to explain somewhat more at length some matters regarding the outstanding church of San Miniato al Monte, which is surely by far the most splendid monument consecrated to the memory of the holy Man.

[19] among which the church on the Mount stands out, both by its antiquity And first it is indeed very ancient. The suburban Monastery of St. Mineas exists on the Mount of the King, or Florentine Mount, or Mount of St. Mineas (for it occurs under this threefold name) with a church, which Charlemagne already mentions. It was called the Mount of the King, as it seems, because it belonged to the Lombard king as part of his private patrimony Lami, vol. II, page 1178.. Nay, it would not be absurd, in Lami's judgment Ibid., p. 1180., to say that that monastery was founded or restored and enlarged by one of our kings, and perhaps by Desiderius, whose veneration for the holy Martyr may be argued also from the fact that he either built or enlarged the town of San Miniato in the lower valley of the Arno. The antiquity of the monastery, and hence of the church or basilica, is especially proved from the Charter of donation made to the monastery of Nonantola (situated in the borders of the people of Modena and Bologna) and to its abbot Anselm, by Charlemagne, king of the Franks and Lombards, and Duke Nortepert, about the year 774 (Tiraboschi puts it: about the year 780 Storia dell' augusta badia de Nonantola, vol. II, p. 27.), published by Muratori Antiquitates medii ævi, vol. V. col. 647 et seqq.. Among very many other things there is given the monastery of St. Michael in the city of Fiesole and the monastery of St. Miniatus in that city, with their cells in that city or outside pertaining to them. There are not wanting those who have held this charter to be of doubtful credit, nay of none. Among these is numbered Tiraboschi, who reprinted it in a more correct form, although to him it is apocryphal, both because it is inscribed in the name of two donors, namely Charlemagne and Duke Nortepert; and because in the list of privileges granted by Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, which a monk of Nonantola composed in the year 1279, no mention is made of the aforesaid charter, while nevertheless the author of the list testifies that he had the original instruments of such concessions before his eyes: why then did he pass over speaking of the most important Charter of all? Tiraboschi supposes it was for this reason, that he did not see it, or if he saw it, he found it lacking in the due character or form of diplomas: the seal is missing; the subscriptions are missing etc. Wherefore Tiraboschi adds that the diploma, as a diploma, is apocryphal; although he holds that the goods that the monastery of Nonantola really possessed in Tuscany are reckoned in that writing Storia, in the place cited.. Muratori thinks somewhat differently: Whoever, he says, reads this charter, and reads it with an attentive mind, must either at once send it away among the apocrypha, or sit down in contemplation of it hesitant and doubtful. And I too have hesitated and still hesitate. Such a mass of goods, of estates and of churches, made over in one tenor and on one day to one abbot and one monastery, nearly exceeds belief. Next, this charter has none of the appearance of a genuine diploma; and everyone knows in what words and formulas kings and emperors have been accustomed to draw up donations and privileges. One may also wonder why Duke Nortepert should mix himself with the king in making such a donation. Muratori nevertheless adds: I would not dare to affirm that it is a supposititious offspring, both because, if the monks had wished to fabricate, diplomas issued by kings would have been easily at hand for them to imitate; and because in subsequent times no traces, as it seems, remained of such great wealth conferred on the cenobium of Nonantola in Tuscany; and hence for what use, I ask, would the monks have indulged in this imposture? Besides, who in later centuries would have thought up that County of Lucardo …, since ancient history has not even one word of it? (Of this County Muratori treated expressly in Dissertation XXI). For which reason a just ground of opinion is left that there is nothing of fabrication in that charter, and that it was as it were a private writing made by King Charles and Duke Nortepert. Finally Muratori suspects that such great magnificence of Charles toward Anselm, abbot of Nonantola, arose from this, that Anselm was of help to Charles in seizing the crown of the Lombard kingdom, and received as the fruit of his service well rendered that magnificent donation of so many goods. Which suspicion he then strives by many arguments to prove legitimate In the place cited, col. 650.. Nor is it an obstacle that in the Charter mention is made of the city of Fiesole and not of Florence. For it is certain that the city of Florence is meant, whether it was so written in the Instrument by error, or because Florence and Fiesole were confused on account of their proximity Lami, vol. I, p. 543.: for first of all it is unknown that monasteries of St. Michael and St. Mineas ever existed at Fiesole; whereas we have found that many churches sacred to the same saints, and very old ones, were at Florence. Next, at those times Florence was small and devastated with ruins, since the Goths and Lombards had raged savagely against it and nearly destroyed it. Whence that report arose that Florence had been overthrown to the foundations and wholly destroyed, which our historians have committed to writing; wherefore it was held all the more cheap; and perhaps it was considered no otherwise than as a suburb and portion of the city of Fiesole, until under the emperor Charlemagne it began to rise again and was enclosed in a short circuit and surrounded with walls. From this it seems to have arisen that even in later times the Territory of Fiesole and of Florence were confused: for I have seen many Instruments having thus: “Done in the judiciary of Florence or Fiesole [Cf. Repetti, Dizion. geogr. under Fiesole. Also the Acts of St. Donatus of Fiesole, bishop, vol. IX of Oct., p. 660.].” From these things the aforesaid Lami concludes in this manner Vol. II, p. 1182.: The first lords and patrons of this monastery, then, were the kings, then the monks of the cenobium of Nonantola, finally the bishops of Florence toward the end of the ninth century, by donation of the emperor Berengar. This moreover is most certain, that the church of St. Minias was restored at the beginning of the eleventh century by Ildebrand, bishop of Florence; I found, he says in his diploma of the year 1013 in Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. III, col. 47., a church situated not far from the city, dedicated in honor of St. Minias the martyr, in antiquity marked with the word Monastery, which, since I found it neglected through excessive age and nearly destroyed, I began anxiously to think how I could renew etc. It is evident both from this and from another diploma of the year 1024 that Ildebrand, besides the temple renewed almost from the foundations, also constructed a cenobium, and assigned to it a great endowment and revenues, that they might suffice to keep the temple in good repair, and that by them the monks, who professed the rule of St. Benedict, might be fed Ibid. col. 48 et seq.. And so much for the antiquity of the church of San Miniato al Monte. Whoever wishes to know more may go to Lami in the places cited.

[20] and by its magnificence. As regards its magnificence, it will suffice to have recited the following from the same writer Lami vol. II, p. 1192., who after noting that the church, just as it had been rebuilt and renewed by Ildebrand, still remains, its structure in no part spoiled, goes on thus: The church is divided into three naves, whose intermediate walls are supported by columns of marble and stone, with nine arches on either side resting on them. For the Presbytery or Tribunal rises above the confession, to which one ascends by two lateral marble stairways. And this, of marble, has its walls resting upon four marble columns of different colors; and behind the principal altar there are in the apse five windows covered with translucent and transparent stone. In the upper part of the apse and in the hollow vault, an image of Christ God between John and Matthew the evangelists, and to the left of the latter an effigy of Bl. Mineas, were skillfully worked in mosaic in the year 1297, as is read in the lower frieze. The choir is wonderfully encircled by a marble enclosure with tesserae and inlays, and at its outer left corner a pulpit skillfully sculpted of marble is raised on similar columns. And the pavement, marked off in the middle by a marble border, before the principal door, Joseph the Judge and Remetrius had made in the year 1207. The confession or martyrium lies under the presbytery, whose vaults are supported by thirty-six marble columns. Many windows, oblong and narrow, all of which were once closed with translucent stone, lend light from above to the middle nave. Before the confession on the larger pavement there is a little shrine, constructed of marble by Piero, son of Cosimo de' Medici (it is wrongly attributed to Cosimo the elder himself in the Inscription to be subjoined here), adorned with a terracotta ceiling and a panel. When it was erected and for what end the following Inscription will teach, which is cut in marble below the altar:

TO THE MOST HOLY IMAGE OF JESUS HANGING ON THE CROSS

WHICH

TO JOHN GUALBERT, A VIGOROUS SOLDIER,

AFTERWARDS FOUNDER OF THE MONKS OF VALLOMBROSA,

IN THIS MOST ANCIENT CHURCH OF ST. MINIAS,

AFTER HE HAD GRANTED PARDON WITH LIFE TO THE SUPPLIANT FRATRICIDE,

BOWED ITS HEAD AS HE PRAYED,

TOWARD THE BEGINNING OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY; *

COSIMO * DE' MEDICI, FATHER OF THE COUNTRY BY PUBLIC DECREE,

BUILT AND DEDICATED THIS DISTINGUISHED CHAPEL.

FROM WHICH,

BY THE EFFORTS OF LEOPOLD DE' MEDICI, UNCLE * OF THE MOST SERENE GRAND DUKE OF ETRURIA,

AND MOST EMINENT CARDINAL OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH,

IT WAS TRANSLATED WITH SOLEMN POMP AS WAS FITTING IN THE YEAR OF SALVATION 1671.

AT THE HIGH ALTAR OF THE CHURCH AND MONASTERY OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT FLORENCE,

THE ABBOT AND MONKS PLACED IT,

THAT THEY MIGHT PROVIDE FOR THE PIETY AND CONVENIENCE OF THE PEOPLES FLOCKING THERE.

LEST THE MEMORY OF THESE DEEDS SHOULD PERISH,

THE ROYAL LOVE OF COSIMO III, GRAND DUKE OF ETRURIA, TOWARD THE HEAVENLY ONES

CAUSED THIS MONUMENT TO BE SET UP IN THE YEAR 1710.

It is known that St. John Gualbert first professed the regular life in the monastery of St. Minias; and that afterwards, departing from it, he laid the foundations of the congregation of Vallombrosa. See his Acts Acta SS., vol. III of Jul., p. 313.. Since Giovanni Villani writes that Fiesole was captured and plundered by the Florentines in the year 1010, and that columns especially and marbles were carried off by them into their city, namely a little before Ildebrand rebuilt the church of St. Minias, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he used such spoils for this restoration. Assuredly, says Lami Vol. I, p. 1149., the marbles of that church are for the most part recognized as foreign, and the capitals of the interior columns, although all of the Corinthian or Composite order, yet all differ among themselves in size, form and carving, because they were extracted from the rubble and ruins of different buildings and transferred and converted into the structure of this temple. This is observed in other ancient temples of Florence as well. All of which things sufficiently declare with what magnificence, both exterior and interior, the edifice of San Miniato al Monte rises up. For the rest, similar things are recorded of this church in the present-day Itineraries of Florence, commonly Guide de Florence [Cf. Nouveau guide de Florence, par Frédéric Fantozzi, traduit de l'italien par d'Estre, p. 749 et seqq.].

[21] adjoining which was a monastery. It will be helpful to add from the oft-mentioned Lami P. 1196.: When the discipline of regular observance had failed among the monks, and they had been reduced to only five, Abbot Augustine renounced; and Pope Gregory XI in the year 1374 granted and gave the monastery and church, with all its goods and rights and every dominion, free from the jurisdiction of the bishop, to the monastery of St. Mary of Monte Oliveto, of the order of St. Benedict… And so, when the black-clad monks had held it through so many centuries, at length the white-clad monks succeeded in their place, and they continued to inhabit it until the year 1553, in which that place, surrounded with walls and fortifications by order of Cosimo I, grand duke, became a citadel, and the monastery was made a house of soldiers. Wherefore the monks were compelled to move from there, although they retained the ownership of the monastery all along, and one simple priest thereafter had care of the church. Finally the same Lami notes in another place Vol. I, p. 34.: The Monastery of St. Mineas is today (about the year 1758) possessed by the Jesuits, in which at stated times citizens gather and exercise themselves in pious contemplations and ceremonies. Not far from the church there occurs the gate of the city today called after St. Minias (Porta S. Miniato). Of another church situated within the walls of the city of Florence I have made mention above, San Miniato inter turres (S. Miniato fra le Torri.) This also is very ancient and distinguished, and surviving today, of which the same Lami treats more fully Page 34 et seqq..

[22] Of the city of San Miniato of the Germans There exists in the Florentine territory a populous town, called San Miniato ad thedescum or of the German, S. Miniato al tedesco, for centuries now noble and celebrated for men distinguished at home and in war, which Gregory XV marked with both the name of city and an episcopal see on the 5th of December in the year 1622; and in our own days increased by a new splendor, since from it originated the stock of the family Bonaparte (so it is written), which, partly transferred from there into Corsica, brought into the light a war-leader whose equal you would not find, namely the emperor Napoleon I [Cf. Ughelli, Italia Sacra, vol. III, col. 269; Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastico under: Sanminiato; Repetti, Dizionario, geographico della Toscana; Guibert, Dictionnaire géograph.]. Some name as founder of the town the emperor Otto I in the tenth century, others Desiderius, last king of the Lombards, in the eighth century; nay, there are not wanting those who refer its origin to the Romans Moroni, in the place cited.. But Ughelli gives no credit to such triflers, as he calls them. He would believe however that before Frederick Barbarossa (who held the empire of the West from the year 1152 to the year 1190 Art de vérifier les dates, p. 444. it was built, and afterwards enlarged by him, in order to establish there a seat for his Germans, and since they frequently stayed there to render vicarial service to the absent emperor, the town drew from them the surname “ad thedescum.” This moreover is worthy of notice, that Ughelli in his treatment of the church of San Miniato makes not even a word of mention of our holy Martyr. More recent historians and geographers, who have looked into the matter more deeply, have thought otherwise. For there are recited in Muratori Antiquitates medii ævi, vol. VI, p. 405. Letters of John, bishop of Lucca, by which he establishes or confirms the Cleric Autchis as rector of the church of St. Minias in the place Quarto (so perhaps called because it was four miles distant from the very ancient parish church of St. Genesius Repetti, vol. V, p. 79.), in the year 783. They begin: In the name of God. In the reign of our lord Charles, king of the Franks and Lombards, in the year in which he began * Lombardy, the ninth, and so of his son our lord Pippin the king, in the second year of his reign, on the 17th before the Kalends of February, in the 6th indiction Cf. Art de vérifier les dates, p. 535.. Then there follows: It is manifest to me, John, bishop in the name of God, how before these years Bonushomo, Aidualdus (fourteen others are named) built from the foundations a church in honor of God and St. Minias in the place Quarto, and in that church and in everything pertaining to it, together with the license of the counsel of Balsarius of good memory, bishop of this church of Lucca, chose Nandolf as custodian and governor. And also that Bonichis the presbyter, together with the consent of Bishop Walprand, confirmed by a charter in the aforesaid church and in everything pertaining to it the Cleric Austripert as adopted son, heir and successor to himself. And afterwards the same Cleric Austripert by a charter in the aforesaid church and in the things pertaining to it ordained and confirmed the Cleric Autchis, his son, as rector and governor, but without the episcopal consent, for the reason that Bishop Peredeus of good memory, my predecessor, was detained in Francia in the service of the lord King, and the rest, by which the election of the Cleric Autchis is confirmed.

[23] and its primitive church. I omit to inquire who those Clerics are, father and sons, succeeding one another; for they do not pertain to our purpose. But first I shall note that those three named bishops of Lucca lived, Balsarius indeed in the year 700, Walprand in the year 742, that Peredeus succeeded the latter, whose place was taken ἀμέσως by John, the author of the Letters; and hence that the church of which there is question is older than the eighth century. Next, since, as Lami observes Memorabilia vol. I, p. 335., it is by no means established that another church sacred to St. Mineas existed formerly in the diocese of Lucca, except that from which the town of San Miniato took its name, if you except the church of St. Mineas in Faugnana (commonly Sanminiatello Ibid. p. XXVI., a suburb of the town of San Miniato; we can affirm with probability that the church of St. Mineas in Quarto, in that diocese, is this same church, and thus was built about the year 700. And after a few intervening words he adds: And so gradually and with the silent lapse of time, around the church of St. Mineas, situated on a hill on the left bank of the Arno, in the lower valley of the Arno, in the diocese of Lucca, and at a distance of 22 miles from the city of Lucca and from Pisa, and of 23 miles from Florence, various buildings were constructed; and at length the number of houses so grew in the tenth century that it bore the appearance of a town, and by the emperor Otto I, in the year 962, the town was surrounded with a wall and fortified, as Lorenzo Bonincontri of San Miniato writes with likelihood in the Annals and in the Sicilian history… It is reported that the ancient church of St. Mineas, which gave beginning to this town, is that which, now rebuilt and enlarged, is called that of St. Francis and is possessed by the Minorites together with an added monastery … and that St. Mineas was one of the patron Saints of that town is clear from the fact that in the seal of its Commune also an image of St. Mineas was engraved. Moroni and Repetti record nearly the same things in the places cited. Although in the city of San Miniato, besides the cathedral dedicated to the Mother of God assumed into heaven and to St. Genesius the martyr, there are many churches and oratories, none of these edifices is held today as sacred to St. Minias. The inhabitants in the year 1840 numbered 2500 Repetti p. 97.. If anyone wishes to know more of the affairs pertaining to this town, let him consult Lami, who has collected so many and so great things that in his Memorabilia they occupy nearly two hundred full pages Vol. I, pages 334 – 521.. And let this be said summarily of the cult of St. Minias in Etruria and in other neighboring regions. It remains for us to add some things from the martyrologies and other sacred calendars of that kind.

[24] Memorial in the sacred calendars. Usuard announces on this 25th day of October: In the city of Florence, the passion of blessed Minias, under the emperor Decius. And du Sollier observes: Of Minias I find nothing anywhere among the older writers, nor can I sufficiently conjecture whence Usuard took him; for it is not to be supposed that he saw the Acts published by Surius, who speaks so meagerly of him. But since, as we noted above at n. 2, Usuard published his Martyrology first in the year 859 or the following, and again between the years 869 and 877, and since it is clear from what has been said that the memory of St. Minias flourished in Etruria long before, nothing prevents Usuard from having taken him from there. The Calendars also of Florence, Pisa and Siena mark his feast on the 8th before the Kalends of November; and on the preceding day the Gallo-sæculum Breviary in Giovanni di Giovanni celebrates the Birthday of St. Minias. By the witness of Lami Vol. IV, p. 61 et seqq.: In the Laurentian library, Pluteus XVII, codex III contains a Psalter, and it is elegantly and ornately written. It is of parchment and has prefixed a Calendar, which can be called Florentine: for it indicates the feasts or Birthdays of many Florentine and Tuscan saints … nor is any saint mentioned who is later than the eleventh century. Lami adds: I would think that the codex was written about the middle of the eleventh century, but not before, nor after the end of that century, which is also proved in that place by reasons not to be despised. And in this Calendar, printed in the same Lami, there is: 8th before the Kalends (of November) St. Minias, Martyr, Chrysanthus and Daria. For the rest, all the aforesaid churches keep his office; nay, at Florence the vigil was once kept with a fast. In the Calendar of a missal of the ninth or tenth century, in the archive of the sacristans of St. Mary of the Flower, mention is made on this day of St. Minias, and in the margin of the page, in a later hand, say of the twelfth or thirteenth century, it is written that

a fast is kept on its vigil. In a Missal or Sacramentary for the use of a certain church of Florence, written in the fifteenth century, there is a Calendar in which there is marked on this day, the 25th of October: At Florence St. Minias with his companions Orbis sacer et profanus, in the place above, p. 1142 et seq.; and again in another codex of the end of the fifteenth century: The Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria (it is added in another hand) and St. Minias, Martyr Catalogus Bibliothecæ Laurentianæ vol. I, col. 179.. Outside Etruria and Italy the cult of St. Minias is not found to have flourished greatly; nor, what you may wonder at more, in the very city of Metz nor in the cenobium of St. Vincent do there appear traces of any moment of a special veneration shown to the holy Martyr, apart from what we have brought forward on the translation at n. 11 etc. The Roman Martyrology has this: At Florence the passion of blessed Minias, soldier, who under the emperor Decius, contending outstandingly for the faith of Christ, is crowned with a noble martyrdom.

[25] Office. Hymns. The Prayers and Lessons which the Florentine church once recited were compiled from the Acts; they were published by Orlendi Biblioth. Leopoldina Gaddiana vol. II col. 8 and 9. and then by Lami Orbis sacer et profanus p. 1142., and there is no need to set them down here. Lami however adds Vol. I p. 570.: I am not unaware that in the different Florentine Passionaries and liturgical books different Prayers and Lessons are found, each church arranging them at its will and pleasure; for otherwise so great a difference could not have arisen between them. In the papers of Cionacci we have the Office of St. Minias copied from a manuscript choir book which is found in the parish church of San Miniato inter Turres. From which we have thought it worthwhile to take the two following hymns.

Hymn at Vespers.

Likewise another hymn at Matins.

The feast is here for us On which Minias, dear to God, Received the prize of the kingdom After the race-course was won.

Hence let the quiet of sleep flee, Let the wakeful mind exercise itself In the praise of the Father himself, That he may defend us by his prayers.

May he drive back the wicked foe, May he give the support of peace, Cleanse our harmful excesses, Pour in sober morals.

O Minias most holy, Most courted by all, That they would wish to be with their companions In their own burial places.

Let the mouth of all be stopped Who speak wicked things against us, And let us, before the sons of men, Contemplate you, O lord.

Glory be to the Trinity, Assiduous praise to the unity, Whose mighty power Reigns through all ages. Amen.

By the two penultimate strophes there is manifest allusion to the claim of the people of Metz, who assert the body of St. Minias for themselves. For no other dispute at that time is known to have existed. For the monks who are said to have carried the Holy Body away with them, the Olivetans, moved from the original cenobium of St. Minias only in the middle of the sixteenth century. Cf. n. 17. For the rest, although the aforesaid hymns are taken from a choir book of San Miniato inter Turres, it becomes probable from the two strophes mentioned that the office was common to both churches, inter Turres and al Monte. Unless we say that the verses

And let us, before the sons of men, Contemplate you, O Lord

hint only this, that the holy body rests at Florence and that the holy Martyr is the patron of the city.

[26] Fragments of relics; ampullae. It can scarcely be doubted that in each church dedicated to St. Minias (we have seen above that they were about forty in number) some part of his sacred remains was venerated by the people. In particular these are recorded in the Memorabilia Vol. I p. 579.: Relics are religiously preserved at Florence in the church of St. Bartholomew of the suburban monastery of Monte Oliveto, in the church of St. Mineas inter Turres, in the church of the convent which bears the title of St. Mineas and is situated near the gate of San Gallo; to say nothing of the very ancient church of San Miniato al Monte, in which the very body of the glorious Martyr is recorded to rest. In the church also of the city of San Miniato a bone of this Martyr of the same name, the patron of the city, is kept (cf. n. 23); and an ampulla of his blood, as it is believed, was recently translated to the fortress of Lutiano in the Mugello. Of this Giuseppe Maria Brocchi relates as follows in the life of St. Minias, whose words I turn from Italian into Latin: In the parish church of San Miniato inter Turres, besides other relics, there are preserved down to our own times three ampullae filled with the blood of the holy Martyr (which still, and not without prodigy, is seen fluid and fresh): one of which, broken in part, was kindly given to me as a gift in the year 1734 by Antonio Fani, the presbyter rector of that church, that I might place it with the other relics of all the Saints and Blesseds of Florence which I preserve in the oratory built at my expense in their honor in the Mugello, on the ancient rock of Lutiano. Whence today only two ampullae remain in the church inter Turres.

* Year 1003.

* Rather Piero, son of Cosimo.

* paternal uncle

* took

PASSION OF ST. MINIAS, MARTYR.

From the Trier manuscript collated with the Metz manuscript. Likewise from the Codex of the Laurentian Library no. I, Plut. XX, in Lami, vol. III, page XLI. Surius has the same, with the style changed.

Minias, martyr, at Florence in Tuscany. (S.)

BHL Number: 5965, 5968

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

St. Minias, undaunted before Decius, confesses Christ; In that time ^a, in the reign of the most impious emperor Decius, who ruled for one year ^b over the Roman state, a most savage persecution arose against the Christians. And at that time the most blessed Sixtus ^c, bishop of the city of Rome, together with Lawrence his archdeacon, had gone before to martyrdom, and the Christian religion began to be disturbed. And when this impious emperor Decius had arrived in the city which is called Florence, the officers, going out of the city, found a man setting out to the suburbs of the city; to whom they said: Of what religion are you? He said: I am a Christian. And they said: By what name are you called? And he said: By what I received when reborn from the sacred font, I am called Minias ^d. Then the officers seized him, and dragging him to the palace, and one of the staff announced to Caesar Decius what had been done. Then the emperor ordered him to be set before his tribunal, and said to him: Are you Minias, a follower of some Christian, inept and vain religion, and do you disturb the whole province by teaching empty and perishable things, and by bringing injuries and insults against our gods? St. Minias said: I am the servant and prisoner of Christ: but you are the emperor Decius, who to the injury of the living and almighty God bend your knees (before) deaf and mute idols and adore them, who can profit neither themselves nor others; and unless you depart from their worship, perpetual burning will torment you alike. And the emperor said: Minias, take counsel for yourself. And St. Minias answered: Do you say this to me rejoicing? But for you there will never be eternal joy. The emperor said: Let a cruel and most evil beast be brought in, that it may devour him. St. Minias said: Lord God, be my helper; and do you leave me, Lord God of my salvation. And when he had completed the prayer, the beast, a leopard, was killed ^e.

[2] thrown into a burning furnace, he is in no way hurt; Then the officers of the emperor said to St. Minias: You are the one who do evil by your sorceries and do not believe in our gods. St. Minias said: Believe in them yourselves, enemies (of God), believers in the devil, whom my God and Lord Jesus Christ has sunk in the lowest deep. One of the officers reported to the emperor, and the emperor ordered him to be presented to him, and said to him: You are also the one who stood before me a little while ago and now from somewhere you have met me. St. Minias said: I have already told you that I am Minias, soldier and servant of Christ ^f; when I went out of the city your officers found me in the wood which is called Elyzaboth ^g, they questioned me and I answered them that I am a Christian and believe in the son of God and in Jesus Christ. Then the emperor Decius in anger ordered him to be sent into a furnace of burning fire, and said to him: Do you believe in our gods and sacrifice to them, and whatever you ask I will give you. St. Minias said: Your gold or silver, your bronze or wealth, is nothing. I believe in the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them; who freed the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, and Susanna from false accusation, and Daniel from the lions' den. The emperor ordered that with two carts a heap of wood should be made and the furnace kindled with fire; and he ordered him to be stripped and anointed with oil and sent into the fire. But the Angel of the Lord went in to him, and the fire did him no harm . The Angel of the Lord said to him: With a visitation the Lord has visited you, and he himself has sent me to you, that you may be able to endure the torments that are brought upon you, and today the Lord will crown you with his own hands. And the Lord's boy Minias, bending his knees, said: I give you thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, who have deigned to send your angel that you might comfort me your servant, that I may be able to endure the torments that are brought upon me. Ananias, Azarias and Misael praise you together, O Lord; through you they do not feel the fire, because in the furnace of fire you were hurt, the fourth in number, who are able to free from the oven of burning fire. And he signed his forehead with the sign of the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then all the fire was at once extinguished, so that not even the warmth of the burning remained. The blessed soldier of Christ, Minias, went out from the fire set free.

[3] [thrown to a lion and then tortured on the rack, he proclaims Christ the more freely;] And the emperor Decius, seeing what had been done, said: Let there be brought in a beast more horrible than all beasts, that it may devour him, and we shall overcome him. And at once a cruel lion was prepared. And when blessed Minias had seen it, the sign of Christ made against it , in the twinkling of an eye the beast itself was killed. Then blessed Minias said: In nothing do I fear your beasts, enemy of God, son of the devil, dwelling-place of Satan. My Lord Jesus Christ is able to free me from your hands, for he lives and reigns for ages of ages. Amen. The emperor Decius said: Minias, sacrifice to the gods whom we worship, and you will free yourself from torments. St. Minias said: I do not fear your torments; I do not dread your beasts, I do not shudder at your fire; for your torments, like feathers on water, seem light to me, and the very torments you prepare for me you yourself will undergo forever and to the age of ages without end. Then the emperor Decius, exceedingly angered, began to rage, and ordered him to be presented to him. He himself also, sitting at the tribunal and breaking out

said to the Man of God: Believe me, unless you sacrifice to our gods, you will not be able to escape horrible torments. The Saint of God said: Do what you will. Then the emperor ordered him to be hung on the rack and tortured. And he said to him: If your God is stronger than I, let him free you from my hands and from these punishments. St. Minias said: My Lord Jesus Christ will not desert me, who alone has done great wonders and will do innumerable ones forever. The emperor said: And do I not do wonders, and how does my power seem to you? St. Minias said: I can narrate the truth; he himself is witness *, and sacred Scripture, the Law and the Prophets, in which you believe, affirm it. The emperor Decius said: I believe the law of Moses and the prophets; but of your Christ, in whom you believe, if you know anything truer, narrate it. Minias, soldier of Christ, answered: He gave light to the blind, healed the paralyzed, made the lame walk, cleansed lepers, cast out demons, raised the dead, freed a woman from the flow of blood, commanded the winds, walked with dry feet on the water of the sea, with two fishes and five loaves satisfied five thousand men, without little ones and women, and of what was left over from the fragments they gathered twelve baskets. For what is easier than to tell his innumerable benefits? Hand and sense do not suffice to set them forth, he who lies in nothing. Then one of the emperor's officers said: I think we are defeated.

[4] more cruelly tortured, But the emperor ordered him to be taken down from the rack and said to him: I for my part do not lie. St. Minias answered: Say, emperor, what wonders do you show? The emperor Decius said: Bring him before my presence. When this had been done, he ordered sharp wooden stakes to be driven under his nails, and all his fingers to be pierced. But St. Minias said: You do not do wonders, but practice and do the works of the devil your father. Then the emperor said to his officers: We are wearied. His officers said: Lord emperor, if you think of anything, command that we still apply other torments. The emperor said: Hear me, Minias, sacrifice to our gods; if you do not sacrifice I will kill you with various punishments and tear you apart. St. Minias said: And what sort are these torments? And if you wish to do anything else, do it. And the voice of an angel came to him: Do not fear, Minias, for in all these torments the Lord Jesus Christ will comfort you. The emperor Decius said: Sacrifice to our gods. Minias said: Hear me, emperor: my hope is in the living Lord. The emperor said: This Lord of yours, of whom you speak, will not free you from my hands; let not vanity seduce you, which hastens to destroy. St. Minias said: Christ, the Son of God, who taught me, he himself will free me from your hands. The emperor said: I see you are of beautiful aspect; take counsel for yourself lest you perish. St. Minias said: My God is the defender of my soul. The emperor said: Fill a pot with lead, and put it boiling into his ears, that when his Lord calls him, he may not hear. And the officers did as had been commanded them, and said to him: Minias, we grieve over you, and we suffer with you. Why do you not believe and sacrifice to our gods? St. Minias said: You, with him whom you worship, shall perish together forever. And stretching out his hands to heaven he said: You, Lord my God, do not put your help far from me. Then the emperor ordered Minias to be hung up and a great stone to be tied to his feet. St. Minias, when he had heard these things, raised his eyes to heaven with confidence, saying: Lord God, hear my prayers.

[5] he is freed by an angel. In this place the Lord Jesus appeared to him in the likeness of a young soldier and said to him: Do not fear, Minias, for as feathers on water, so light are the torments to you. And he was filled with exceedingly great joy. The officers of the emperor saw and reported to him: Lord emperor, there was standing by him a young man in a white garment, and his face shone like the sun in its strength. And the emperor stood in the palace, thinking within himself what sort of torments he might make, in order to overcome the Soldier of Christ. And the emperor's officers said: All the torments that your power commanded we have done, but they have moved him not at all; command what we should do. The emperor said: Pierce his ears with sharp iron and soon he will be disturbed. One of the officers came to him, saying: Minias, by no torment are you disturbed. The Saint of God said: Although I should undergo innumerable torments, what I have once seen I shall not be able to deny. The emperor said: And what is it that you have seen? St. Minias said: A holy Angel. Do what you have begun to do, son of the devil, doer of crime, brother of Satan.

[6] Finally, after he had likewise withstood blandishments, he is beheaded. The emperor said to his officers: Let us gather a multitude of gold and silver and gems and silk and set them in the midst of the temples of our gods, and let (Minias) come; when he has seen all these goods, he will consent to our words; and what we could not do through torments, it may (come about) that he consents through blandishments. When this had been done, they brought him ^h, and the emperor said to him: You see all these goods; choose for yourself one thing that is best, and believe in our gods, and live. St. Minias said to him: Your gold and silver are nothing to me, like dung that lies in the road. Your gods are blind, without soul, deaf and mute. Then the emperor's officers said: Lord emperor, think what we should do with him. The emperor said: I have prepared many torments for him, and they have harmed him not at all. St. Minias, raising his eyes to heaven with confidence, said: Lord God, be my helper; my soul has thirsted for you, how manifold also my flesh, for your enemies seek my life. When the emperor had heard these things, he ordered him to be beheaded, saying: I order Minias, rebel against our gods, to undergo capital sentence. And the officers of the emperor led him, and the Angel of the Lord went before them until they came to the mountain which is called Florentius ⁱ, in the place where it pleased God. One of them, drawing his sword, cut off his head; and the Angel of the Lord without doubt received his soul. His body was deposited and laid up by the Christians ^k on the 8th before the Kalends of November ^l, in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor, praise, power and dominion and rule for ages of ages. Amen ^m.

ANNOTATIONS.

to their homeland and hence to themselves, if thence our most holy Champion had come to Florence. However that may be, nothing is mentioned in our Acts of the origin of St. Minias. Certainly the name is not Latin; the ending betrays a Greek origin. And the learned Berlin professor W. Pape in his vocabulary among Greek proper names reckons Wörterbuch der Griecheschen Eigennamen. 1842 edition. Under Μινύας. Μινύας Minyas, under whom, he says, the Minyae Μινύαι, a people of Aeolic stock, migrated from Thessaly to northern Boeotia, and founded the kingdom of the Minyae, whose metropolis was Orchomenus. I do not know why Lami, although the name seems to him also to be Greek, perpetually writes Mineas, while all others write Minias. In Pape's vocabulary there occurs, but with a question mark attached, Μινήας (?), a man's name inscribed on a certain Ephesian coin, but Pape thinks that Μίννος should rather be read.

* believe

* twelve carts … to be heaped up.

* to him

* who should comfort

* that

* who are able

* horrible

* leocordius

* by the sign

* made

* you are

* have you thought of anything? Command

* beautiful

* harmed him

* disturb you?

* much gold and silver

* Florentinus