Honoratus

ON ST. HONORATUS, CONFESSOR AND BISHOP, AT VERCELLI IN ITALY,

IN THE YEAR CCCCXV.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY

Honoratus, confessor and bishop, at Vercelli in Italy. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ I. The discovery of the bodies of Sts. Eusebius, Limenius and Honoratus beneath the pavement of the destroyed choir of the cathedral church of Vercelli. The title of St. Honoratus. His Life and elogium by Peter Galesini. The inscription of his name in the Roman Martyrology.

In the sixteenth century the Friars Preachers of Milan supposed that they possessed in their church of St. Eustorgius the relics of St. Honoratus, [When the cathedral church of Vercelli, whose new building Guy Ferrero had attempted,] bishop of Vercelli, whom they also said was a Milanese by nation; when at Vercelli the body of the most blessed man was discovered by chance [Cf. Aurelio Corbellini, Vite de' Vescovi di Vercelli, p. 13; Marco Aurelio Cusano, Discorsi historiali concernenti la vita de' Vescovi di Vercelli, p. 59]. The cathedral church, which had previously been a temple of Vesta, consecrated to divine worship by St. Eusebius the martyr under the patronage of St. Theonestus in the fourth century, but restored by St. Albinus in the fifth century and dedicated in honour of St. Eusebius, was drawing toward ruin. Wherefore, when in the year 1562 Cardinal Guy Ferrero had taken possession of the see of Vercelli, he resolved to rebuild it from the foundations. Using the art and labour of the architect Pellegrini, he had everything ready, when a dispute arose between him and the chapter, opposed to all his plans, the bishop wishing to begin from the choir, the chapter from the new church, in order to preserve the former choir, distinguished by certain privileges. It was not to be hoped that the chapter would retreat from its opinion. For which reason the bishop, warning no one, utterly demolished the choir one night in the year 1571. But the next day he offered 5,000 gold scudi for the new building; which sum however the chapter did not accept until four years later, when Ferrero had been succeeded by John Francis Bonomi, invested with the highest authority of apostolic vicar; who himself also promised 2,500 gold scudi, and the chapter as many for the construction of the new choir; concerning which matters in the year 1577, on the 29th day of March, a public instrument was drawn up.

[2] [was being rebuilt by the labour of Bonomi, bishop and apostolic vicar, there were found in the year 1575 beneath the pavement of the choir the tombs of Sts. Eusebius, Limenius and Honoratus,] Meanwhile, while this controversy was still seething, the old foundations of the choir were torn down, and the new work begun and slowly hurried on. But behold, beneath the mosaic pavement there appear three successive ranks of burial-places. Of which the two lower seem to have been of pagans; the third was manifestly Christian. For it had been built of white rubble-fillings with red crosses in four parts; and some tombs were of marble or other cut stone, with lids adorned with incised crosses and with writing of inscriptions. In this third burial-place or rank of tombs were discovered the tombs of Sts. Eusebius, Limenius and Honoratus. This discovery was not made in the year 1565, as by a typographical slip Cusano relates Discorsi, p. 58, and following him Peter Hyacinth Gallizia of Giaveno Atti de' sancti de' dominj della reale casa di Savoja, vol. II, p. 338, — for then hands had not yet been set to changing the choir, — but certainly after the year 1573, in which Goffredo Casalis declares that the labour was begun Dizionario geografico degli stati del re di Sardegna, vol. XXIV, p. 64, and indeed in the year 1575, when the pavement was being remade, as in another place, not in figures or signs, but in full words nell' anno mille cinquecento settanta cinque that same Cusano wrote Discorsi, p. 302. The holy bodies were enclosed in three principal chests; in the middle of which lay the body of St. Eusebius. The second, on the right, contained the body of St. Limenius, who sat at Vercelli between Sts. Eusebius and Honoratus; and the third, on the left of St. Eusebius, the body of St. Honoratus.

[3] [with an inscription, from which the praises of St. Honoratus have chiefly become known.] On his tomb these verses had been inscribed, from which we have learned the chief parts of his Life:

PONTIFICIS SANCTI CINERES TENET HONORATI

ARCA HOMINIS VILIS QVÆ MANET INGENIO.

HVNC SANCTVM DOCVIT, NVTRIVIT PASTOR ALVMNVS,

EGREGIVS MARTYR, PRÆSVL ET EVSEBIVS.

EXILII POENAS ET CARCERIS ISTE SVBIVIT:

DISCIPVLVS CHARVS ET SOCIVS PARITER.

AMBO FIDE DIGNI, MERITIS ET NOMINE FRATRES,

CVM CHRISTO IVNCTI PRÆMIA SVMMA TENENT.

TERTIVS HANC VRBIS SEDEM TENVIT HONORATVS

ANTISTES, CVIVS SPIRITVS ASTRA TENET;

EVSEBIVS PRÆSVL PRIMVS, QVI MARTYR ALVMNVS,

CÆLORVM POSTQVAM REGNA BEATA PETIT.

HIC PATER ECCLESIAM DOCVIT HANC DOGMATE RECTO,

SERMONES COMPLENS ACTIBVS IPSE SVOS.

TERRIS AC CÆLO CONIVNCTVS VBIQVE MAGISTRO,

EVSEBIO CONSORS HIC HONORATVS ADEST.

[This chest, which remains by the skill of a humble man, holds the ashes of the holy bishop Honoratus. This holy man was taught and nourished by the shepherd and foster-father, the excellent martyr and bishop Eusebius. He underwent the punishments of exile and prison: a dear disciple and companion alike. Both worthy in faith, brothers in merits and in name, joined with Christ they hold the highest rewards. Honoratus held this see of the city as third bishop, whose spirit holds the stars; Eusebius was the first bishop, who, martyr and foster-father, afterwards sought the blessed kingdoms of the heavens. This father taught this Church with right doctrine, himself fulfilling his sermons by his acts. Joined everywhere, on earth and in heaven, to his master, Honoratus is here present as partner to Eusebius.]

(In the antepenultimate verse in the editions of Francis Augustine della Chiesa [Cardinalium, archiepiscoporum, episcoporum et abbatum Pedemontanæ regionis historia, p. 135], of Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. IV, col. 761 and of Cusano Discorsi, p. 59 one reads sermonibus, and in Cusano moreover suis in place of suos; it seemed to me that sermones should be written. Tillemont judges [Mémoires ecclésiastiques, note 54 on St. Ambrose, vol. X, p. 328, Brussels edition] that three inscriptions are contained in those verses, of which the second begins from verse IX or the word Tertius, and the third from Terris ac cælo; but this judgment has little probability.)

[4] [And so Galesini wrote a Life of St. Honoratus, which seems never to have been published;] When, therefore, those three tombs had been discovered, the minds of men could not but be vehemently stirred, above all that of Bonomi, a most holy prelate, a most prudent champion of Catholic piety and a most valiant asserter of the cult of the saints, who had also increased the cathedral church of Vercelli, though rich in holy pledges Cusano, Discorsi, p. 349 and following, with many relics brought from Germany and elsewhere Ibid., pp. 309 and 310. As he had formerly been a fellow student of St. Charles Borromeo, so to the end of his life he was his friend, often conversing with him and sharing his plans. The friendship of the same most holy man was enjoyed, giving his labour to him, by Peter Galesini, a native of Ancona, a diligent investigator of sacred antiquity [Argelati, Bibliotheca scriptt. Mediol., col. 2113; Tiraboschi, Storia della litteratura italiana, vol. VII, part I, p. 329]. The finding of so great a treasure, therefore, could not escape Galesini; who, wholly occupied as he was in collecting the memorials of the saints, was easily led to write up the deeds of St. Honoratus, collected up to then by no one. In the annotations, therefore, to the Martyrology which in the year 1578, three years after the finding of the bodies, he published at Venice, he wrote these things in speaking of St. Honoratus Martyrologium S. Romanæ ecclesiæ, notationes, p. 177: Whose Life we have composed from various monuments of the church of Vercelli. But this Life seems never to have been brought to light. Baronius in his annotations to the Roman Martyrology professes that he has not seen it; nor did Francis Augustine della Chiesa, Corbellini, Ughelli or Cusano employ it in composing the series of the bishops of Vercelli; nor did Ferrari use it in writing the Catalogue of the saints of Italy; nor did it ever come into the museum of our predecessors; nor did Argelati know of it, who reviewed the immense store of the books of Galesini in the Library of Milan; nor do I see it indicated anywhere else.

[5] [the same man wrongly inserted at the 28th day of October in his Martyrology his name, which was read in the Eusebian Calendar at the 29th day: thence it was taken into the Martyrology of Baronius.] But if Galesini did not have this writing of his printed, yet he was unwilling that the memory of St. Honoratus should be omitted in the Martyrology which I indicated a little above. At the 28th day of October, then, he inserted the following elogium: At Vercelli, St. Honoratus, bishop and confessor. He, from his earliest age a disciple of the most holy martyr Eusebius, an imitator of his virtues and a companion of his labours, most closely joined with him by the bond of faith, in the Arian persecution dreaded neither threats, nor prison, nor exile: all of which he endured with the admirable virtue of a religious soul. And indeed with full right he gave him a place among those in heaven, since from before the memory of men the church of Vercelli celebrates his feast-day. For just as the church of Milan has its proper Ambrosian rite, so that of Vercelli used the Eusebian rite; but Bonomi, thinking it would be better if his church agreed more with the Roman, arranged in the year 1575 that the Roman rite should be substituted for the Eusebian Cusano, Discorsi, p. 311. Now in the calendar of that very old rite at the 29th day of October one reads Ibid., p. 316: St. Honoratus, bishop of the church of Vercelli. Add that his name comes in the ancient litanies of Vercelli before St. Duscelius or Caelius, his successor, and that his image is painted in its order on the walls of the church among the holy bishops of Vercelli Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. IV, col. 761; Cusano, p. 57. Wherefore he would greatly err who, since in no ancient martyrology does the memory of St. Honoratus occur, should believe that the cult of St. Honoratus was not in use before the finding of his body. Yet Galesini slipped, when (by I know not what distraction of mind) he marked the feast of St. Honoratus not on the 29th day of October, but one day earlier. This error Baronius too admitted in the Roman Martyrology; so that those who relate that the people of Vercelli now keep the feast of St. Honoratus on the 29th day of October, because the 28th is impeded by the feast of the apostles Simon and Jude Cf. Ferrari, Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, at 29 Oct.; Gallizia, and others, manifestly wander from the truth. Nevertheless, taking according to custom the Roman Martyrology as guide, we speak of him today. We now advance, then, to his deeds.

§ II. The training of St. Honoratus in the house of St. Eusebius: the monastic and clerical form of this school. The exile of St. Eusebius at Scythopolis; St. Honoratus's sharing in this exile.

[St. Honoratus, brought up by St. Eusebius of Vercelli, professed in his house with the other clerics the clerical and monastic life,] St. Honoratus must have been born about the year of Christ 330, as the course of his life suggests. That some Milanese said he was born within their walls we have already shown; that the same was born of the nobles of the city of Vercelli was related by Charles Bascapè in his Life of St. Gaudentius of Novara Cf. Cusano, Discorsi, p. 57: neither without ancient testimony. That he was trained by St. Eusebius of Vercelli is established from these words of the epitaph:

This holy man was taught and nourished by the shepherd and foster-father, The excellent martyr and bishop Eusebius.

To which cares he so responded that he merited to be called also a dear disciple in that inscription. There was then no more distinguished school in the whole world; about which a certain pupil, in a sermon on the feast-day of St. Eusebius which is read among the sermons ascribed to St. Ambrose, did not hesitate to speak out these things before the people of Vercelli Sermon LVI, nos. 3 and 4, Works of St. Ambrose, vol. IV, col. 720, Migne edition: From him, namely St. Eusebius, as from a certain most lucid fountain of virtues, this purity of the streamlets flowed forth. For because he was strong in the vigour of chastity, he established the commitment of virginity; because he gloried in the straits of abstinence, he introduced perhaps the service of monks; because he was endowed with the blandishments of gentleness, he stirred the affection of all the citizens toward God; because he shone in the administration of the pontificate, he chose several from among his disciples as heirs. Although therefore some leave to their children treasures of gold and silver, yet no one has left heirs richer than St. Eusebius; for all became priests or martyrs. For, to be silent about the rest, how admirable is this, that in this holy church he established that the same men should be monks who were clerics; and that the priestly offices should be contained in the same inner rooms in which singular chastity also is preserved; so that there should be in the same men contempt of things and the carefulness of Levites: so that if you saw the little beds of the monastery you would judge it to be after the likeness of the eastern commitment: if you beheld the devotion of the clergy, you would rejoice at the observance of the angelic order. All of which are plain and manifest except the little beds of the monastery; but since St. Martin of Tours brought these into the Gauls, and others elsewhere, it is understood from Gallican institutes [St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. eccles. Francorum, Book VI, ch. 26, col. 404, Migne edition] and others that they consisted in this, that around the bishop's bed there were in one bedroom, as in a singular safeguard of the chastity of all, many little beds of clerics; which clerics the Roman synod in the case of Symmachus calls concellanei, the Greeks syncelli. In this school of perfection, then, St. Honoratus had as companions St. Limenius, who preceded him in the see of Vercelli, St. Gaudentius, bishop of Novara, Exsuperantius, who with him followed the most blessed master into exile at Scythopolis and afterwards became bishop of Tortona, and also (as it seems) St. Dionysius of Milan [Cf. Tillemont, Mémoires ecclésiastiques, St. Eusèbe de Verceil, art. 16, vol. VII, p. 255]. The memory of the others has perished, unless it please us to admit all whom Goffredo Casalis will give Dizionario geografico degli stati del re di Sardegna, vol. XXIV, p. 244.

[7] [until at the end of the year 355 he followed St. Eusebius with other clerics into exile at Scythopolis, where he suffered much and was separated from St. Eusebius.] St. Honoratus professed the clerical and at the same time monastic life in so religious a society until the end of the year 355; in which year St. Eusebius, after all the tricks of the Arians at the council of Milan against St. Athanasius and the Nicene creed had been dissolved, was relegated by the emperor Constantius to Scythopolis in Palestine. Some presbyters and deacons followed him, and perhaps some other brethren, as appears from the letter of St. Eusebius to his people Baronius, Annales eccles., at the year 356, no. 93. Of these are known St. Tegrinus the presbyter Letter of St. Eusebius to his people, in Baronius, etc., no. 98, Exsuperantius [Sermon on the feast-day of St. Eusebius, among the Ambrosian sermons LVI, Works, vol. IV, col. 719], already praised, and St. Honoratus: for St. Gaudentius seems to have gone to St. Eusebius only at some time for the sake of a visit Acta SS., vol. II of January, p. 417. They stayed for some time in the hospice of the most holy man Count Joseph, who from a most stubborn Jew became a pillar of the Christians in those parts and whom for that reason Baronius inscribed in the roll of the saints at the 22nd day of July Ibid., vol. V of July, p. 238 and following. But very soon death snatched this defender from them: and thus Patrophilus, bishop of the town, wholly an Ariomaniac (as St. Eusebius loved to say), began to rage more freely against them. Because St. Eusebius and his companions had been unwilling to communicate with him and his followers even in common food and drink, in prison

or rather in a very narrow cage he had wasted them with hunger; but lest their death should be turned to a charge against him, on the fourth day he had brought them back to their former hospice. But the continued reverence of the people toward the blessed confessors the Arians could tolerate for scarcely about twenty-five days. And so they break forth anew, says St. Eusebius In Baronius, at the year 356, no. 98, and with a desperate band of many they come to our hospice armed with cudgels: through the enclosures of others they break the wall, and they reach us violently. Again they seize [me] and shut me up in stricter custody with only the very dear presbyter Tegrinus. Our brethren also, that is all the presbyters and deacons, they seize and shut up. After three days by their power they send them into exile in different places.

[8] [Did St. Honoratus follow St. Eusebius into Cappadocia, the Thebaid, Alexandria, through the East and Illyricum? The end of the exile.] Whither St. Honoratus was then sent is unknown; nor is it altogether established, although it is very highly likely, that he followed St. Eusebius into Cappadocia and into the upper Thebaid: for three times the Arians changed the place of St. Eusebius's exile, not without divine counsel, that all parts of the East might behold with their eyes so strenuous a defender of the faith Cf. Tillemont, Mémoires ecclésiastiques, saint Eusèbe, art. 14, vol. VII, p. 253. An end was at last put to this banishment at the close of the year 361, when Julian the Apostate, succeeding Constantius, permitted all the bishops and clerics, exiles for the cause of religion, to return to their churches. Before he returned to Vercelli St. Eusebius travelled through Alexandria, Antioch, Cappadocia, the whole East, Illyricum and Italy, confirming the orthodox in the faith, bringing back the heretics to true piety or refuting them. Whether he had St. Honoratus as companion on that journey, neither do we know this with certainty: yet this is probable not only by conjecture, but also by the testimony of the epitaph, where the disciple is declared joined EVERYWHERE to his master and to have shared the punishments of his exile and prison. Those verses may be recalled to memory:

He * underwent the punishments of exile and prison: A dear disciple and companion alike…

Joined everywhere, on earth and in heaven, to his master, Honoratus is here present as partner to Eusebius.

* Eusebius.

§ III. Dissensions in the church of Vercelli after the death of Bishop St. Limenius. The letter and journey of St. Ambrose to the people of Vercelli. The election of St. Honoratus. His happy administration. Praises assigned to him by conjecture or error. Writings concerning him.

[After the death of St. Limenius, successor of St. Eusebius, the church of Vercelli is disturbed by two heretical monks and by some ambitious men grasping at the see, so that an election could not be held;] St. Eusebius then ruled his church peacefully, until in the year 370, on the 1st day of August, he exchanged the hardships and cares of this life for eternal rest and happiness. St. Limenius succeeded, a Greek by nation, but also a disciple of St. Eusebius; for how many years he held the see of Vercelli is not altogether established. Cusano declares that he died about the year 388; on the contrary Tillemont Mémoires ecclésiastiques, saint Ambroise, art. 77, vol. X, p. 110 and after him the Maurists Works of St. Ambrose, vol. I, col. 111; vol. IV, col. 1188 with John Villa Fasti della Metropoli etc., p. 42 about the year 396; but neither side relies on ancient and open testimonies or other indications of the times. Yet the Life of St. Gaudentius of Novara favours the latter, as we shall see very shortly. This is certain, that St. Limenius was present with St. Ambrose at the council of Aquileia in the year 381. When, therefore, the see of Vercelli was vacant, the gravest disturbances and divisions of spirits arose. The seeds of these indeed had long existed. For, as one reads in the Life of St. Gaudentius of Novara Acta SS., vol. II of January, p. 419, after the ancient enemy had perceived the people of Vercelli destitute through the absence of St. Eusebius their shepherd, he was seen to attack by certain malicious persuasions and by internal war the aforesaid church of God and all the people. But by the three years' labour of St. Gaudentius some remedy was brought to the evil. Yet this cure was not perpetual, new irritations supervening. Sarmatio and Barbatian, both monks of Milan, weary of the more severe discipline, had long since deserted their monastery and had in vain asked St. Ambrose for leave to return. Bearing this refusal ill, they began to rave against continence, fasts and other parts of the monastic institutes Letter LXIII of St. Ambrose, no. 9, Works, vol. III, col. [ , Migne edition], becoming (as St. Ambrose says On Ps. XXXVI, no. 49, Works, vol. I, col. 991) masters of luxury, sowers of incontinence, inciters of wantonness, detractors of modesty. The same vain-talking men came also to the people of Vercelli, to say that there is no merit in abstinence, no grace in frugality, none in virginity, that all are valued at equal price, that those are mad who chastise their flesh with fasts, in order to make it subject to the mind Letter of St. Ambrose cited, no. 7. Nor was this the only cause of the dissensions. There were also seething among the inhabitants feuds, exasperated by mutual injuries; and some rich men were on fire with desire to ascend the see of St. Eusebius and were dragging the people apart into factions. Certainly a certain wealthy man, twice married, seems to have been canvassing people. And for these and other causes it came about that there was no place for a quiet election, and that for that reason St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, put off betaking himself to Vercelli to create a new bishop. Meanwhile several complained that the episcopal see was vacant for so long. The charge of this vacancy was cast on the most holy metropolitan, in all likelihood at the instigation of Sarmatio and Barbatian.

[10] [St. Ambrose writes to them to turn from himself the charge of the delayed election] I would not wish in this place to treat of the authority of the prelate of Milan. John Villa in his excellent book on the metropolis and metropolitan of Milan Fasti della metropoli e del metropolitano di Milano, Milan 1830 clearly shows after others that in the later fourth century the bishop of Milan exercised metropolitan authority over the churches of Liguria, Aemilia, Flaminia and of the Venetiae; which was not then the name of a city, but of a region: and first of all that Vercelli was subject to him; which is established especially from the letter of St. Ambrose soon to be cited. When, therefore, those sad tidings had reached the ears of the most blessed man, he wrote to the people of Vercelli a truly pastoral letter; to which he prefixed this unusual greeting Letter LXIII, Works, vol. III, col. 1189 and following: Ambrose, servant of Christ, called bishop, to the church of Vercelli and to those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you from God the Father and his only-begotten Son be fulfilled in the Holy Spirit. Then he begins thus: I am consumed with grief, because the church of the Lord which is among you still has no priest, and alone now of all those of Liguria and Aemilia, of the Venetiae or the other neighbouring parts of Italy is in want of such an office, which other churches were accustomed to seek for themselves from her, namely the church of Vercelli, joyfully receiving bishops from there; and what is more shameful, your striving or obstinacy, which brings the hindrance, is ascribed to me. For when there are dissensions among you, how can we either decree anything, or you elect, or anyone agree to take up among those at variance this office, which is scarcely sustained among those in agreement?

[11] [and to exhort them to agree on a bishop worthy of the monastic see of St. Eusebius.] Then he exhorts them to the concord which formerly appeared in the election of St. Eusebius, a Sardinian, setting before them that Christ ought to be in their midst. Afterwards he inveighs against Sarmatio and Barbatian, worse than Epicurus. Their doctrine refuted, he goes on to declare what endowments are to be required in a bishop and how great a danger exists if an unworthy man be elected or a worthy one not obeyed: that the election therefore should be divine, and by no means procured by riches or factions; nor, to have a twice-married man elected against the canons and the law of St. Paul, can his own election, made against the canons, be proposed as an example, in which indeed the pressure of the people prevailed, approved by the judgment of the Western bishops and the imitation of the Eastern. But if, he then says, in other churches so great consideration is given to ordaining a priest, how great care is demanded in the church of Vercelli, where two things seem to be required equally of the bishop, the continence of the monastery and the discipline of the Church! For Eusebius of holy memory first in the regions of the West joined these things, different from one another; so that, placed in a city, he both held to the institutes of the monks and ruled the church with the sobriety of fasting. For much help accrues to the grace of a priest if he binds the youth to the pursuit of abstinence and to the norm of integrity, and makes those dwelling within the city renounce the use of the city and its manner of life. And how great men bishops ought to be he teaches by the examples of St. Eusebius of Vercelli and of St. Dionysius of Milan; and finally he goes on at length to say that it is necessary that the Christian people itself should be distinguished by the splendour of all kinds of virtues.

[12] [St. Ambrose then goes on to Vercelli, where by the consent of the people and the election of the clergy he creates St. Honoratus bishop, about the year 396.] By these things St. Ambrose prepared his way to the people of Vercelli; to whom, as we learn from the Life of St. Gaudentius of Novara, he went. For there we read these things Acta SS., vol. II of January, p. 419: Not long after the miracle of the fire extinguished by the sign of the cross, when the most blessed man, the ornament of the churches, Ambrose, pontiff of the holy church of Milan, had hastened to the city of Vercelli on account of a certain dissension of the people, and, like the sun lighting up the whole world with its rays, had left there the lasting concord of peace, he hastens to return to his own see. He passed therefore through Novara: on which occasion he foretold to St. Gaudentius that he would be bishop, and St. Gaudentius foretold to him that he would die not long afterwards. And indeed, as the biographer goes on Ibid., p. 420, not long afterwards, according to the prophecy of Blessed Gaudentius, St. Ambrose passed by a glorious death to the Lord. But since St. Ambrose died at the beginning of April in the year 397, on that account we said above that the Life of St. Gaudentius favours those who refer the dissensions at Vercelli, the death of St. Limenius and the election of St. Honoratus to the year of Christ 396. For it seems hardly likely that the see of Vercelli was vacant for several years; for at that time it was held a long space of time if a see was some months without a bishop. St. Honoratus therefore seemed of all the most worthy to succeed Sts. Eusebius and Limenius; either requested by the people and elected by St. Ambrose and other bishops of the province and the clergy of Vercelli, or elected or proposed by these and approved by the acclaim and assent of the people. Rightly therefore St. Maximus of Turin, who flourished before the middle of the fifth century, partly copying the words of the sermon ascribed to St. Ambrose and already adduced above at no. 6, said in

his other sermon or treatise on St. Eusebius Homily LXXIX, in Migne, Patrology, vol. LVII, col. 419: He left several disciples as successors of his priesthood, namely Sts. Limenius and Honoratus. St. Honoratus plainly did not disappoint the hope conceived of him; since in the sepulchral inscription he is made equal to his master St. Eusebius, and is also adorned with this encomium:

This father taught this Church with right doctrine, Himself fulfilling his sermons by his acts.

[13] [St. Honoratus is present with the dying St. Ambrose and administers viaticum to him.] From then on St. Honoratus seems to have cultivated a singular friendship with St. Ambrose. Certainly he was present with the most holy metropolitan when he, about the beginning of the month of April of the year 397, fell into the grave illness by which he soon died. To the holy prelate, lying in a portico, there had hastened not only his deacons Castus, Polemius, Venerius (who after St. Simplician succeeded St. Ambrose) and Felix, who was afterwards set over the church of Bologna, and his notary Paulinus, who wrote the Life of the most blessed man at the urging of St. Augustine, but there came also St. Bassian, bishop of Lodi, and likewise St. Honoratus, designated by God to fortify the wonderful man with viaticum for his last journey. Which thing is established by the testimony of Paulinus the notary: Honoratus also, he says Before the Works of St. Ambrose, vol. I, col. 43, priest of the church of Vercelli, when he had settled himself to rest in the upper part of the house, three times heard the voice of one calling him, and saying to him: "Rise, make haste, because he is about to depart." Coming down, he offered the saint the body of the Lord: which being received, when he had swallowed it, he gave up his spirit, carrying with him the good viaticum; that the soul, refreshed in the strength of that food, might now rejoice in the fellowship of the angels, whose life he lived on earth, and in the company of Elijah. These things took place in the night-time between Good Friday, the sixth day of the week, and Holy Saturday of the year 397, the feast-day of the holy man being inscribed in the martyrologies at the 4th day of April. St. Honoratus lived thereafter until the year 415; in which year, as is written in an old painting of the church of St. Eusebius, St. Caelius or Ducaelius succeeded him Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. IV, col. 761. And that he departed from among the living on the 29th day of October and was laid in the basilica of St. Theonestus, afterwards called of St. Eusebius, we have shown above.

[14] Several less certain things are related about St. Honoratus. The people of Vercelli report in praise of St. Honoratus [Cf. Cusano, Discorsi, p. 58; Gallizia di Giaveno, Atti de' santi de' domini della R. casa di Savoja, vol. II, p. 336] that during his episcopate St. Julius the presbyter and St. Julian the deacon preached the word of God in the diocese of Vercelli. But in the Life of these, which has been edited in these our Acts at the 31st day of January Acta SS., vol. II of January, p. 1100 and following, nothing is found about this preaching at Vercelli, invented only for this reason, that an account might be given why the feast of St. Julius has long been kept there on the 19th day of January and that of St. Julian on the 31st Cf. the Eusebian Calendar, in Cusano, Discorsi, p. 312. They affirm moreover that the labours and cares of St. Honoratus were greatly increased because Vercelli was laid waste in the wars of Arbogast and Theodosius: but this devastation seems to rest only on conjectures Cf. Casalis, Dizionario geografico etc., p. 250 and following. St. Honoratus is also said to have been a friend of St. Paulinus of Nola; but for no other reason than that Paulinus, the notary and biographer of St. Ambrose, who (as we have seen) mentions him, was for some time believed to be the same as the bishop of Nola Cf. the Maurist editors of the Works of St. Ambrose, vol. I, cols. 45 and 46. But since in the epitaph St. Honoratus is said to have fulfilled his sermons by his acts, and since he had above all to fight against Sarmatio and Barbatian, enemies of virginity, fasting and the severe life, for that reason he is praised in the liturgical lessons because he shone forth with the splendour of all the virtues, not ceasing from prayer, abstinence and fasting, fervent in spirit, of a most pure soul and the deepest humility [Gallizia di Giaveno, vol. II, p. 336. Cf. Ferrari, Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, at 29 October]: to which praises add all the rest, or those without which no one is a saint. Cusano also declares that the authority of St. Honoratus availed much that St. Simplician, designated by St. Ambrose himself, should succeed this most holy bishop in the see of Milan; and that this is established from several memoirs written by hand. But why are these memoirs not produced? In all likelihood they rest only on conjectures.

[15] Who have principally written about him. Brief Lives of St. Honoratus exist in the Lives of the bishops of Vercelli of John Baptist Modena; in the Lives of the bishops of Vercelli, that is, of Eusebius and his successors, of John Stephen Ferrero; in the Catalogue of the saints of Italy of Ferrari and in the Hagiologium of Italy, which is almost a second edition of the same book; in the Ecclesia Vercellensis of Alexander Mella Arborio; in the History of the cardinals, archbishops, bishops and abbots of the Piedmontese region of Francis Augustine della Chiesa; in the Lives of the bishops of Vercelli of Aurelio Corbellini; in the Elogia and poems of the holy bishops of the church of Vercelli of Charles Sarteri; in the Italia sacra of Ughelli; in the Historical Sermons on the bishops of Vercelli of Marco Aurelio Cusano, in the Acts of the Saints of the dominion of the house of Savoy of Peter Hyacinth Gallizia di Giaveno; in volume XXIV of the Geographical Lexicon of the dominion of the kings of Sardinia of Goffredo Casalis, and in several Italian, French and German hagiographical or ecclesiastical collections and lexicons. Tillemont too wrote of him, far the most diligently of all, but scattered about, in his Memoirs. But most of these we have already adduced. That we have frequently used in this sylloge the letter of St. Ambrose to the people of Vercelli, which some would have not to be genuine, and the Life of St. Gaudentius of Novara, which was not written before the seventh century, we have not done imprudently. For Tillemont in the Mémoires ecclésiastiques, the Maurists in the edition of the Works of St. Ambrose and Hermant in the Life of St. Ambrose have so dispelled all darkness from that letter that its sincerity now altogether shines forth. But in truth the Life of St. Gaudentius is more recent, yet not lacking in authority, inasmuch as it was written according to good documents; nor have we taken anything from it which is not supported by other monuments.