ON SS. DECENTIUS AND GERMANUS: DECENTIUS, BISHOP, AND GERMANUS, DEACON, MARTYRS OF PESARO IN ITALY,
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY
Decentius, bishop, martyr, at Pesaro in Italy. (S.)
Germanus, deacon, martyr, at Pesaro in Italy. (S.)
BY R. D. B.
§ I. The time of the Passion of Sts. Decentius and Germanus. Their burial.
Sts. Decentius and Germanus suffered at Pesaro, Pisaurum, an ancient city of Flaminia, rises between Ariminum and Ancona, at the mouth of the Isaurus. Its beginnings go back to a colony led out by the Romans about the year 570 from the Founding of the City Livy, Histories, Book XXXIX, no. 44. Olivieri contends that this colony was led out a second time by Julius Caesar [Marmora Pisauriensia, no. 42, p. 126; Della fundazione di Pesaro dissertazione, p. 5] and for this reason was called Julia Felix, although John Vita denies this Antiquitates Beneventanæ, vol. I, diss. I, p. 33. Other men too have pursued the origins of Pesaro, for example Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. II, p. 857, Venice edition, 1717, in few words, and Joseph Colucci in almost a whole volume Delle Antichità Picene, vol. VI, p. 67 and following. Nor did Olivieri Ibid., vol. VIII, p. CLXXXVIII and following and Passeri Biographie universelle, under Passeri spare labour to exalt the glory of their native place. — Its first bishop Florentius is said in the records of Pesaro, on the testimony of Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. II, p. 857, to have flourished in the middle of the third century, and he does not seem to have had a successor before St. Decentius, whom they have sometimes called Vincent Mittarelli, Annales Camaldulensium, vol. III, appendix, p. 214 or even Diuncentius Olivieri, Della Zecca di Pesaro e delle monete Pesarese dei secoli bassi, p. LX. This name Decentius occurs unchanged in the most ancient monuments; and it was not infrequent in the first Christian times. But, as you may wonder, in a bull of Innocent III Mittarelli, Annals, vol. III, appendix, p. 214 and in some other public instruments he is called Vincent. What then? Without controversy St. Decentius is to be retained; and Vincent seems to have arisen from the popular form. The monastery, that is, where his remains rested, was called Sanctus Decentius, and in popular speech Santo Decenzo, or rather, the words being run together Acta SS., vol. XI of October, p. 631, Santodecenzo; whence arose the next form Sandiuncenzo, which is read on a coin struck at the end of the fifteenth century, except that it is called in Latin S. Diuncentius. When, therefore, men approached the notaries in the common idiom and said Sandiuncenzo, it was certainly natural that these should make from it the very celebrated martyr St. Vincent: and we are altogether persuaded that this or some other similar was the cause of that error or change.
[2] called bishop and deacon of Pesaro, Now in the Passion of Sts. Decentius and Germanus to be edited there occurs not even a word about their home, age, parents, virtues and preaching: from which it cannot even be drawn that St. Decentius was bishop of Pesaro, or that he was assisted
by St. Germanus as deacon: but in it, apart from some things about the burial of both martyrs, we read only that Sts. Decentius and Germanus, under the emperor Galerius Maximian and Pope Melchiades, were beaten with iron rods and strokes of stones until they failed. It became known however to Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. II, p. 857, on searching the historical monuments of the church of Pesaro, that St. Decentius was a Briton: in which Ferrari also read Catalogue of the saints of Italy, at the 28th day of October that St. Germanus was the uterine brother of St. Decentius and his deacon: which things have also passed into the Calendar of the church of Pesaro. But if some suppose that St. Germanus too was bishop of Pesaro Cf. Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. II, p. 857, this is less to be admitted, since in the Passion itself both martyrs are reported to have shed their blood for the faith of Christ in the same year and on the same day: which circumstances sufficiently indicate that St. Germanus was in no way bishop of Pesaro after St. Decentius. I am not unaware that Ughelli Ibid., place cited in the series of the bishops of Pesaro reviewed a certain Germanus: but he lived in the year 499 Ibid., place cited, when Christians were in no way harassed for reason of religion.
[3] in all likelihood in the year 311 But if anyone asks of us in what year Sts. Decentius and Germanus underwent their glorious contest, the reply is not so easy; for according to the records of the church of Pesaro Ughelli affirms that they suffered for Christ in the year 303; whereas on the contrary in the Passion this seems to be referred to the year 313, under Pope Melchiades and the emperor Galerius Maximian. But if any credit is given to the Passion, it seems that one must say that both martyrs met death for Christ in the year 311: since in that year Melchiades began his pontificate and Galerius was taken from among the living. The day of the martyrdom is assigned as the 5th of the kalends of November in the same Passion: with which agrees the perpetual (if there is one) tradition of the church of Pesaro. Nor is this our opinion weakened by the fact that the persecution which Diocletian, at the instigation of Galerius Maximian, had stirred up against the Christians through the whole empire in the year 303 scarcely blazed in Italy after the creation of the Augusti in the year 305 [Lactantius, De morte Persecutorum, § XIII, col. 214, Migne edition; Euseb., Hist. eccl., Book VIII, ch. 14]: for it is established that, under the rule of Maxentius, in the year 311, in Umbria, which was part of Flaminia, there were several martyrs, among whom St. Venustian with his family, and St. Savinus, bishop Acta SS., vol. II of April, p. 542.
[4] and they were buried not far from the city. One reads also in the Acts of Sts. Decentius and Germanus that they were buried by the Christians in a marble chest not far from the city beside the main road; which place seems to be none other than the area where afterwards the church and monastery of Sts. Decentius and Germanus were built. And we may suppose that the sepulchral chest was preserved until a recent time: for Mittarelli, relating in the year 1758 by what means in the year 1623 the relics of Sts. Decentius and Germanus were found, adds: They are kept in a great sarcophagus of softer marble. The urn is old, adorned with a cross and the monogram of Christ, which are carved within a crown in the likeness of a disc, and at the sides two peacocks are seen Annales Camaldulensium, vol. III, p. 336: which inscription sufficiently indicates that the sarcophagus is of the fourth century: for the monogram of Christ is not found to have been used in Italy before the times of Constantine the Great, nor to have been much in use after the fourth century. Such is the opinion of Francis Zaccaria Latin Dissert. III, ch. III, no. 1, vol. I, p. 110 and of several recent learned men [V. D. B., De Phialis rubricatis, p. 146 and following. Home and Foreign Review, 1863, April, pp. 601 and 602; De Rossi, Letter on Christian monuments showing the fish, in the Spicilegium Solesmense, vol. III, p. 552; Inscriptiones christianæ, vol. I, p. 28 and following. Cf. p. 592, and prolegomena, p. 20; Diction. des antiq. chrétiennes, under Monogramme]. The remaining symbols indicate (so far as this kind of sign may be trusted) that Sts. Decentius and Germanus will rise gloriously from the earth on the day of judgment on account of the victory which they gained over the enemies of Christ. For the monogram of Christ carved within a crown is an image of the triumph gained over his enemies by Christ or his disciples Martigny, work cited, p. 415: as also the peacock, since its tail, lost each year with the leaves of the trees, as Pliny says [Natural History, Book X, §22, vol. IV, p. 241, Paris edition of Hardouin], is born again with the blossom, seems to be a sign of the future glorious resurrection of the elect [Aringhi, Roma Subterranea, Book IV, ch. 37, p. 326; Perret, Catacombes de Rome, vol. VI, description of the plates, p. 76; Martigny, Diction., under Paon, p. 500]. Over the tomb of Sts. Decentius and Germanus was built a church, and annexed to it a monastery, which Mittarelli [Vol. III, p. 335; Works of St. Gregory the Great, Book VI, epistle 36, vol. III, col. 832, Migne edition] and others suppose was erected by a certain John in the pontificate of Pelagius; the privileges and exemption of which monastery St. Gregory, the successor of Pelagius, defended with great alacrity against Felix, bishop of Pesaro. Afterwards, however, there was a long silence about it; which was first broken by Blessed Eugene III Annales Camaldulenses, vol. III, appendix, col. 464 in a bull of the year 1153, where he reviews it among the monasteries following the rule of St. Romuald. But in the year 1185 it was united to the monastery of St. Apollinaris at Ravenna, of the same order. The further fortunes of this monastery are recounted by Mittarelli Annales Camald. etc., in many places, Olivieri Ricerche de S. Terenzio M. protettore principale di Pesaro, note II, p. 181 and Bertuccioli [Patronato del comune di Pesaro sulla sacra immagine di Maria SSma delle Grazie, p. 95].
§ II. Indulgences granted by Alexander IV to increase the cult of Sts. Decentius and Germanus. Their relics and Acts.
[Although the bull of Alexander IV, in which he grants copious indulgences to those stretching out helping hands to the church of Sts. Decentius and Germanus,] We gather that the people of Pesaro venerated Sts. Decentius and Germanus as saints from the remotest times not only from the tradition of that tract, but especially from the church built over their tomb in the sixth century (unless credit be given to the popular rumour that it was previously a temple sacred to the gods). Although therefore the inhabitants did not know in what place their sacred ashes had been laid up, yet no one doubted that they rested in their church. This is testified by Alexander IV, who in the year 1256 granted several indulgences to the church of Sts. Decentius and Germanus, considering, as he says, the distinguished merits of the good works of the holy martyrs Decentius and Germanus and of many holy bodies which he knew rested in the monastery beside the city of Pesaro. We judge that this rescript of Alexander IV, as being almost unknown and very old in comparison with others of the kind, should be made public from the papers of our predecessors. Yet I wish readers to be warned that I am somewhat troubled because in this letter the clause: Given at the Lateran, on the 5th of the kalends of January, in the second year of our pontificate and of the Lord 1256, is different from that which Alexander IV employed in his other letters, as may be seen in those which he gave to the monks of Vallombrosa In Lami, Deliciæ Eruditorum, vol. II, Part I, p. 279 and following, to the Friars both Minor Wadding, Annales Minorum, vol. I, p. 429 and following and Preachers Bullarium Fratrum Prædicatorum, vol. I, p. 266; where there is this or another such clause: Given at the Lateran on the ides of December in the first year of our pontificate. Then, since Alexander IV first sat upon the Roman chair on the 25th day of December of the year 1254, it is not understood how the 5th of the kalends of January of the year 1256 could fall in the second year of his pontificate, rather than in the third; unless some scribe afterwards added of his own: and of the Lord 1256. I am also troubled that Alexander IV granted to one and the same church, on one and the same day, so many indulgences of a hundred years, since this was then rather infrequent; and this is so true that Eusebius Amort, who above others wove a series of the indulgences granted in the Middle Ages, indicated only one of 100 years De origine etc. etc. Indulgentiarum, part I, section VII and another of 365 years given by Alexander IV Ibid.. Yet this kind of argument is altogether deceptive. For St. Peter Celestine granted an annual plenary indulgence in favour of his monastery Acta SS., vol. IV of May, pp. 493 and 519, and many other distinguished ones (as for those times) have been collected in volume VII of the Acts of the Saints of October Ibid., vol. VII of October, p. 1162 and following, omitted by Amort. We must be cautious, therefore, in rejecting extraordinary indulgences; for it is no less a vice in reprobating true things than in approving false. Receive therefore, reader, the letter ascribed to Pope Alexander IV.
[6] [may seem extraordinary, it is not on that account to be rejected, and it is recited in this place.] Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all the faithful of Christ and orthodox worshippers of the Catholic faith to whom these presents shall come, greeting and apostolic blessing in perpetuity. The Splendour of the Father's glory, who as he illuminates the world * with ineffable brightness, according to the Apostle who says: He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world. Who raises the hearts of the faithful upward to the Holy Trinity, that we may venerate one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in trinity and unity, has given us, by holding firmly to belief, his hope and confidence; that when we shall be before the tribunal of the true judge each one may receive his recompense, according to what the Apostle says: We shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, to receive according as we have done in the body, whether good or evil has been attempted. We ought to anticipate the day of the eternal harvest with works of memory; and in beholding earthly things to raise our minds to heavenly things, and to sow good fruits on earth, which, the Lord repaying, we are to gather again with multiplied increase in the heavens; holding firm hope and confidence by hoping, and firmly holding hope in the Lord: since he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly: and he who sows in blessings shall reap eternal life. Wishing therefore that the monastery of the holy martyrs Decentius and Germanus be frequented with fitting honours, and continually venerated by the faithful of Christ, to all and each who are truly penitent and confessed, and considering of good
works the distinguished merits of the holy martyrs Decentius and Germanus, and of many holy bodies, which we know rest in the monastery beside the city of Pesaro, on account of the devotion and religion of those holy martyrs, with pious devotion at the request (?) of all the faithful flowing together to the aforesaid monastery, to provide by Apostolic dispensation, and to cherish it with distinguished honours. First, to the honour and reverence of almighty God, and of the blessed martyrs Decentius and Germanus, and of many other holy confessors and virgins, whose bodies and relics we know through * many religious and other men, clerics as well as seculars, worthy of credit, to have been laid up in the aforesaid monastery on account of the religion of the true faith: who in the universal Church converted the people of the city of Pesaro to the baptism of the faith of holy Church, and with pious and devout mind received martyrdom in the times of the emperor Maximian. Whose solemnities are celebrated most devoutly in the said monastery to the honour and reverence of almighty God. At whose solemnities, and through their octaves, we confer a hundred years by the counsel of our brethren. Likewise we grant to the same monastery in the particular Lent, every day, fifteen years out of reverence for the holy martyrs. Likewise on the Tuesday after the feast of the Lord's resurrection, on which the feast of the dedication is known to be celebrated, a hundred years. Likewise we grant and give through all the Sundays of the month of May, the Ascension and Pentecost, a hundred years. Likewise on the festivals of St. Lawrence and St. Margaret, and also through their octaves, fifteen years. Likewise on each day of the whole year, feast-days and not feast-days, seven years and seven quarantines. Likewise on the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul a hundred years: and of the blessed Apostles Simon and Jude and of All Saints, trusting in the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and all the saints and in our authority, to those truly penitent and confessed we relax in the Lord the said indulgences from the penance enjoined on them. We admonish and exhort you all in the Lord, and enjoin it on you for the remission of all sins, that, such great benefits having been conferred on you by God, you bestow pious and welcome aids of charity for us, that by your assistance you may provide for the said monastery through the merits of those martyrs. Given at the Lateran on the 5th of the kalends of January, in the second year of our pontificate (and of the Lord 1256).
[7] The same are venerated on the 28th and 29th days of October. Moreover from the most ancient time their feast is kept on the 28th day of October, the feast-day of Sts. Decentius and Germanus, in the church near Pesaro of which they are titular patrons; but through the whole diocese this holds on the following day, on account of the concurring solemnity of the double rite of the second class of Sts. Simon and Jude. Yet in the proper Offices of the diocese of Pesaro at the 29th day of October there is read only this proper collect: Grant, we beseech thee, almighty God, that the festive solemnity of thy holy martyrs Decentius and Germanus may gladden us: that we may glory in the feast-days of those on whose suffrages we rely. Through the Lord, etc. The rest is to be taken from the Common. But after the prayers and antiphons in the litanies, whether greater or lesser, there occur concerning the holy patrons of Pesaro the following: Ant. "O saints, elect of God, Decentius, Germanus, Heraclian, Nicholas, Sanctes, Peter, James, Mark and Cicco, Michelina, Seraphina, once our fellow citizens on earth, now patrons in heaven, together with Felix, Mustiola and Emygdius, intercede for us." V. God is wonderful in his saints. R. And holy in all his works. Let us pray: O God, who didst bestow on thy saints Decentius and Germanus, Emygdius, Heraclian, Nicholas, Sanctes, Peter, James, Mark and Cicco, Michelina, Seraphina, Felix and Mustiola the copious gift of grace for coming to this glory, grant to us thy servants pardon of our sins, that by the interceding merits of thy saints we may merit to be freed from all adversities. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
[8] Their relics were found in the sixteenth century and lost in the nineteenth. But in the year 1625 Thaddeus III, abbot of the Camaldolese of Pesaro and afterwards abbot general of the whole Order, desiring to exalt the bodies of the saints laid up in the church of Sts. Decentius and Germanus, gave diligent labour to digging them out, and he found in a marble sepulchre the bodies of Sts. Decentius and Germanus, and in another lesser sepulchre the relics of Sts. Vitalis, Fabian and Sebastian, martyrs, and also of Sts. Stephen and Boniface, confessors: which sacred pledges, on the 29th day of October, were first exposed to the veneration of the faithful, then laid up again. This from the surviving papers of our predecessors: with which Mittarelli agrees, saying: Thaddeus III, a nobleman of Pesaro, abbot of St. Mary of the Angels of Pesaro, grieving at the obliterated memory of Sts. Germanus and Decentius, patrons of the city of Pesaro, whose bodies were resting in the suburban church of the monastery dedicated to their name, which had once been attached to the abbey of Classe, and now to his monastery of Pesaro, among the first cares of his government thought the search for their bodies not to be despised, which too he happily found, after much diligence applied, laid up in a certain wooden casket. Having held a conversation with the bishop of Pesaro, he familiarly showed him the casket and the attached parchment page, which gave assurance that these were the relics of the aforesaid holy martyrs. But because the characters of the page could scarcely be made out on account of the length of time, he sent it to Rome to students of sacred antiquity, who pronounced that it was a certain monument of the existence of those sacred bodies. Wherefore on the day appointed, with solemn apparatus, the same relics were exposed to the devotion of the peoples. On that occasion the church was restored by the abbot, who ordered the place of the confession to be honoured from then on by continually burning lights. On that very day a pontifical Mass was sung, and a public procession held in their honour; the whole city flowing together Mittarelli, Annal. Camald., vol. VIII, pp. 274 and 326. Elsewhere the same Mittarelli narrates that Abbot Thaddeus translated the bodies of Sts. Decentius and Germanus, which were preserved in the confession at the level of the church, above the level of the presbytery, to which one ascends by two stairs on either side Same work, vol. III, p. 336. The urn, however, adorned with the image of animals, could be seen only through an opening, as the eyewitness Antony Francis Zaccaria wrote in the year 1742 Excursus litterarius, p. 10. But when in the year 1808 the tract of Pesaro had been annexed to the kingdom of Italy, and the abbot of the Camaldolese of Pesaro, Donatus of Cremona, perceived that impious hands were being laid on the churches by the new government, he zealously applied his labour, with the help of the lay brother Terence Giandoni, to placing the relics of the holy martyrs in safety. But this attempt turned out less happily for Donatus: for when he was carrying the relics of Sts. Decentius and Germanus, placed in two cases, across the river Po to Cremona, the small boat and the sacred relics themselves were sunk, the waters rising unexpectedly Bertuccioli, place cited.
[9] Their Acts are not sincere. It remains for us to show that the Passion of Sts. Decentius and Germanus is not a little faulty. For it is related in it that Sts. Decentius and Germanus shed their blood for Christ in the year of Christ 313, in the time of the emperor Galerius Maximian and in the 5th year of Pope Melchiades. With the year of Christ 313 there agrees the time of Melchiades, who on the sixth of the nones of July of the year 311 began to rule the Roman Church, and in the year 314 departed to the heavenly life Papebroch, Conatus ad Catalogum Rom. Pontificum, p. 46*; but the time of Galerius Maximian conflicts with it, who about the beginning of the month of May of the year 311 departed from among the living Art de vérifier les dates, p. 348, edition of 1770. The year 313, therefore, is to be struck out; for which you will not do badly to substitute the year 311, which in the ancient catalogues of the Roman pontiffs is distinguished as it were by the 8th consulate of Galerius Maximian and the pontificate of Melchiades. Nor can the year 313 be defended by saying that the nephew of Galerius Maximian, Galerius Maximinus (otherwise, but by mistake, Maximian Lactantius, De morte persecutorum, ch. 18, col. 224 and following, Migne edition,) was invested with the imperial dignity up to the year 313: for he, as being emperor in the East, never had the people of Pesaro subject to him, and he closed his life before the 5th of the kalends of November of the year 313. Add that at that time, by the edict of Constantine the Great, it was lawful for all to profess the Christian dogmas openly [Euseb. of Caesarea, Life of Constantine, Book II, ch. 24 and following; Baronius, Annals, at the year 312, no. 64], and thus it is less likely that Tarsus, on whom the office of judge rested, pronounced capital sentence against Sts. Decentius and Germanus, accused of a foreign religion. Moreover it is narrated in the Passion that the Christians of Pesaro, when they had been informed of the killing of the two saints, rose up against Tarsus the proconsul, and killed him with thirty of his soldiers, and destroyed his house of the castrum, above and without, and walls of great height from the foundations: which by no means accords with the gentleness of spirit of the Christians, such as it still was at the beginning of the fourth century. Moreover that circumstance is taken from the Passion of St. Apollinaris, bishop of Ravenna; from which it had also passed into the Acts of St. Veranus. For it is written in the Acts of St. Apollinaris: The Christians, seeing such impiety (the killing of St. Apollinaris), were moved, and rushing upon the pagans, there was so great a collision that suddenly the Christians killed more than two hundred most impious men Acta SS., vol. V of July, p. 347. As also in the Acts of St. Veranus, a companion of St. Apollinaris, who is said to have been killed by Riccus and Astulf, the Christians … flowing together from every side laid hands on Riccus and Astulf and burned them together with all their house and household and offspring, except those who had already received the faith Ibid., vol. XII of October, p. 788. And these circumstances especially move me to judge the Passion of Sts. Decentius and Germanus a product of either the thirteenth century or the following. For, since at that time the monastery of Pesaro was united to the Camaldolese monastery of St. Apollinaris in Classe at Ravenna, and thus the Passion of St. Apollinaris was without doubt read aloud in both monasteries, and in that age scarcely anyone in Italy would bear unavenged an injury done to himself or his own, it is easily understood how the people of Pesaro thought it an honour to themselves to imitate those of Ravenna in taking vengeance for the killing of their saints.
Annotationsread sol mundum*.
wrongly et*.
PASSION OF STS. DECENTIUS AND GERMANUS
From vol. III of the Annales Camaldulenses at the year 1145, p. 335.
Decentius, bishop, martyr, at Pesaro in Italy. (S.)
Germanus, deacon, martyr, at Pesaro in Italy. (S.)
BHL Number: 2115
FROM THE PRINTED TEXT
Sts. Decentius and Germanus are crowned with martyrdom at Pesaro and buried. Then Tarsus the proconsul a ordered the soldiers that they should lead Sts. Decentius and Germanus outside the city, without the knowledge of the Christians, and beat them with iron rods and strokes of stones so far until they failed in death, and cast their bodies into the sea. The soldiers at midnight bound the holy martyrs and led them outside the city, and did as had been ordered.
But the sea cast out the bodies of the saints on the shore between the stream which is called Gelica and the mountains. When morning came, all the things that had been done to the holy martyrs were made known. Then the Christians rose up b against Tarsus the proconsul, and killed him with thirty of his soldiers, and destroyed his house of the castrum, above and without, and walls of great height from the foundations. And the Christians took up the bodies of the holy martyrs Decentius and Germanus, and embalmed them with spices, and buried them in a marble chest not far distant from the city beside the main road. The holy martyrs Decentius and Germanus were martyred on the 5th of the kalends of November in the city of Pesaro, the Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom is honour etc. Decentius and Germanus died in the year of Christ CCCXIII c, in the time of the emperor Galerius d Maximian, and in the 5th year e of Pope Melchiades, on the 28th day of October in the city of Pesaro, and in the place where now is built the church of Sts. Decentius and Germanus; which church on the Tuesday after the feast of the Lord's Resurrection was consecrated to God and the saints, and dedicated to the said holy martyrs.