ON ST. GERMANUS, CONFESSOR AND BISHOP, AT CAPUA IN CAMPANIA,
PROBABLY IN THE YEAR 540 OR 541.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Germanus, bishop of Capua in Italy. (S.)
BY R. D. B.
§1. The cult of St. Germanus. The beginnings of the city of San Germano. Of the relics of the holy bishop. Are they at Piacenza today?
In the Roman Martyrology at the 30th day of October we read: At Capua, of St. Germanus, bishop and confessor, a man of great holiness: whose soul, in the hour of his death, St. Benedict beheld being borne by angels into heaven. St. Germanus of Capua is venerated on the 30th day of October, The name of St. Germanus occurs in the Ottobonian Martyrology Martyrology of Ado, pag. 686, Giorgi's edit.. But it is absent from the Martyrology of Ado: and if it is written in some manuscripts, by a more recent
hand, Domenico Giorgi says, it has been added Ibid., pag. 552.. The same holds for Usuard. That is, it is absent from the pure manuscripts made according to the earlier edition of Usuard himself and published by our Du Sollier. But in much more recent copies, both of Belgium and of Germany, St. Germanus of Capua is commemorated. And these manuscripts are similar to the later edition of Usuard; for the name of St. Germanus is not lacking from the manuscript of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which was augmented by Usuard himself and accurately published by Bouillart in the year 1718. That a great controversy was stirred up on this matter the learned reader is not unaware: it need not be renewed in this place. For whatever may be the truth of the dispute that arose between Du Sollier and Bouillart, this much stands, that the Martyrology of Usuard was reworked by its author after the middle of the ninth century; that in this second edition St. Germanus is mentioned; and that accordingly his cult had spread outside Italy in that age. In two English calendars also Hampson, Medii ævi Kalendarium, tom. I, pag. 458 and 470., of which the former, of Exeter, was written in Latin about the twelfth century, the latter in French about the fourteenth century, the feast of St. Germanus, bishop of Capua, is announced at the 30th day of October; likewise in the calendar of the York Missal of the year 1516; from which it is clear that in those times the feast of the holy man was received into the liturgy among the English. Add that mention is made of him at the same day by Peter de Natalibus in the Catalogue of the Saints, Maurolycus in his Martyrology, Chastelain in the Universal Martyrology, Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and Cardinal de Noailles in the Martyrology published for the use of the Church of Paris.
[2] But the cult of St. Germanus flourished especially in the city of San Germano. especially in a town of Italy Nor is it any wonder, since it drew its name from him, and was enriched with a part of his relics when the people of Capua were despoiled of them by the emperor Louis II about the year 872. We relate the first beginnings of this city, as being most closely connected with the cult of St. Germanus. All know that the monastery founded by St. Benedict on Monte Cassino was overthrown by the Lombards about the year 580, that its monks betook themselves to Rome, were there granted a dwelling near the Lateran basilica by Pelagius II, and after nearly a hundred and fifty years returned to their former habitation. Namely, at the beginning of the eighth century the abbot Petronax, taking it ill that the disciples of St. Benedict were exiled from Monte Cassino, established two monasteries on it, with the approval of the Roman pontiff Gregory II: one on the mountain itself, where St. Benedict had built his convent; the other near the castle of Cassino at the foot of the mountain, called by the name of the Holy Saviour Mabillon, Annal. Ord. S. Bened., tom. II, pag. 55, Paris edit. 1704.. In the same place St. Bertharius, abbot of Cassino, afterwards killed by the Saracens in the year either 883 or 884 [Acta SS., tom. IX of October, pag. 680; Pertz, Monum. Germ., Scriptt., tom. VII, pag. 610.], built a city, and, as the anonymous writer Chronicon Casinense, Mon. Germ., tom. III, pag. 229. called the Ignotus Casinensis and Leo of Ostia [Ibid., tom. VII, pag. 603. Cf. Muratori, Rerum Italic. Scriptt., tom. IV, pag. 310.] report, wished it to be called Eulogimenopolis, that is, the city of Benedict, but this, as Angelo de Nuce, abbot of Cassino in the seventeenth century, says Muratori, ibid., he did not carry through, or his successors did not observe it, probably because the distinguished relics of St. Germanus of Capua were held there in great veneration. On the other hand one reads in the Acts of St. Bertharius, written by Ignatius, prior of Cassino in the fifteenth century, and drawn from contemporary sources: And because Bertharius had received the greatest part of the relics from the most serene and most Christian emperor Louis, which he had taken from the city of Capua, and especially those of St. Germanus the bishop, whose body the same emperor had taken, he established that the city itself should be called San Germano Acta SS. tom. IX of October, pag. 672 and 675..
[3] which took its name from him, On account of this different manner of speaking it is difficult to say in what way the name of St. Germanus attached itself to the town. But it seems very probable that, when the fame of the translation of that holy bishop had spread far and wide, and peoples were arriving from every side to visit his relics and implore his patronage, they were inclined to say that they were going to St. Germanus, and that for this reason the name of St. Germanus was substituted for the name of Eulogimenopolis. But if the narrative of the Ignotus Casinensis and of Leo of Ostia is certain, it probably came about (as has obtained in countless places) that the spontaneous and popular name overcame the name given by the authority of the ecclesiastical or civil magistrate. This cult or veneration toward St. Germanus grew not moderately from that time, since the abbots of Cassino, on the one hand, almost from the times of St. Benedict [Ughelli, Italia sacra, tom. I, col. 571; Life of St. Benedict, by St. Gregory, in Muratori, Scriptt. Italiæ, tom. IV, pag. 202.], by the indulgence of the Roman pontiffs, ruled this region as if bishops, and provided for its spiritual needs; on the other hand, by ancestral reverence, as will be seen below, they could not but honor St. Germanus. Both piety toward the holy bishop and the authority of the monks of Cassino were most useful to the new town and the surrounding places. For when the most ancient diocese of Cassino, a good many of whose inhabitants were living forgetful of the Christian religion, had already for many years been without bishops, and no hope of obtaining one shone forth, little by little, once the town of San Germano had been built, Christian piety took excellent increase.
[4] the monks of Cassino leading the way. Whoever wishes more about the town may go to Gattola and the others who have pursued its history [Cf. Gattola, Ad historiam abbatiæ Casinensis accessiones, part. II, pag. 747 et seq. Cf. Descrizione istorica del monasterio di Monte Casino, pag. 1 et seqq., Naples edit. 1775. Cf. Giustiniani, Dizionario del Regno di Napoli, tom. VIII, pag. 148 et seqq.]. There the cult of St. Germanus has by no means become obsolete; for in the liturgical Directory of that diocese of the year 1847, all clerics are ordered to keep his feast on the 30th day of October. Moreover the clerics of the town of San Germano itself are commanded to celebrate the feast of the holy bishop on the same day under the double rite of the first class with an octave, as their special protector; then, on the 26th day of the same month, to observe the dedication of the distinguished collegiate church of St. Germanus. Those monks of Cassino, who promoted the cult of St. Germanus in his town with such alacrity, could not but lead the people by their example within their own domestic walls. Of this ancient devotion, to be sure, very few old documents survive: for (if you only except the Life of the holy bishop written in two manuscripts), the editors of the Bibliotheca Casinensis have brought forward only three. Namely two calendars, of which the former, as recording the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, was not written before the year 1229: the latter, however, after the year 1323, since it presents the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. Now in the former calendar at the 3rd day before the kalends of November Bibliotheca Casinensis, tom. III, Florilegium, pag. 133., and in the other at the 4th before the kalends of November Ibid., pag. 137., one reads: Of Germanus the bishop. The third monument is a monastic missal Bibl. Casin., tom. III, pag. 174 and 176., which although it is said to be written in the common Gothic letters of the end of the fourteenth century, I judge nevertheless to have been originally composed long before, because in it there is no mention either of St. Bernard or of SS. Dominic and Francis: yet nevertheless later than the year 1087; for it prescribes a Mass to be celebrated in honor of St. Nicholas, whose cult began to flourish especially in the West after the translation of the year 1087.
[5] He is honored at Capua and in other places. Nor did the people of Capua keep the memory of their holy bishop less devoutly. And indeed his feast is celebrated in the metropolitan church of Capua and in the whole diocese with the more solemn double rite of the second class. In what way he was honored there in the remotest times the writers have not handed down to posterity. We know however that he was recorded in five Calendars of the Church of Capua, older than which Michele Monaco, most learned in the sacred affairs of that Church, does not seem to have found any. Of these one is later than the year 1087: for in it is mentioned the translation of St. Nicholas carried out in the year 1087; yet earlier than the middle of the thirteenth century, as not containing the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. The others seem to be of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Sanctuarium Capuanum, part. IV, pag. 401, 410, 420, 433.. There was also at Capua, at the time when Michele Monaco was writing, that is, in the year 1630, an oratory sacred to St. Germanus, situated not far from the bishop's house or episcopal palace Ibid., pag. 123.. Then there existed in the diocese of Calvi, subject to the archbishop of Capua, the church of St. Germanus a Palera in the year 1173, and of St. Germanus in Pizone Ibid.. He is honored also with ecclesiastical cult, as we gather from their Calendars, in the dioceses of Cales and Piacenza. Now we must speak of the relics of the blessed bishop.
[6] Louis II the relics of St. Germanus from the city of Capua He was buried (so says Francesco Granata, bishop of Sessa) in the greater church of St. Stephen in old Capua, where cult was paid to him for a very long time: then when the new city had been built, the sacred body was transported there, with countless miracles performed during those solemnities Granata, Storia sacra della Chiesa di Capua, tom. I, pag. 103 et seqq.. But afterwards, as we have said before, the body of St. Germanus was translated from Capua elsewhere. Namely the emperor Louis II, son of the emperor Lothar, and accordingly grandson of Louis the Pious, entered Italy in the year 866 [Leo of Ostia, lib. I, cap. 36, pag. 605; Muratori, Scriptt. Ital., tom. IV, col 312.]; where going round a number of cities, he stayed at Boiano for about eleven months Leo of Ostia, pag. 606., and having routed the Saracens, held Capua for nearly a full year Ibid., pag. 607.; from which, says Leo of Marsica or of Ostia, a writer of the beginning of the twelfth century Ibid., having taken up the body of blessed Germanus, bishop of the same city, he at last returned to Francia: having stayed in various places in those parts for about six years. To which words Angelo de Nuce adds in his Notes: With whose St. Germanus's head he enriched the new city of San Germano: thence so called, as tradition has it. Add Ignatius in the Life of St. Bertharius, relating, as we saw, that the greatest part of the relics of St. Germanus was given to the city of that name by Louis II. And so it seems manifest that the people of San Germano were at some time enriched with these sacred remains. But since historians afterwards are silent about them, affirming only that there of the holy
bishop a finger is devoutly preserved Descrizione istorica del monasterio di Monte Casino, pag. 32, Naples 1751., it must be judged that they were despoiled of so great a treasure. And certainly it is hardly likely that the town of San Germano received its name because it possessed a finger of the blessed man, a tiny part of his body: which, however, no one would wonder at if his sacred head had once been laid there, and afterwards lost in wars and devastations. Hence I consider that Louis II gave the head and certain other less principal parts of the holy bishop as a gift to the people of San Germano, but carried away the rest with him when he set out for Francia.
[7] He is said to have taken them to Piacenza. But to what place Louis II translated the sacred remains of St. Germanus of Capua the historians have not handed down. The people of Piacenza indeed have for several centuries contended that the body of the holy bishop rests within their walls, but they cannot show this by ancient documents Campi, Historia ecclesiastica di Piacenza, tom. I, pag. 217 and 223.. At least no one denies that the bones of a certain St. Germanus were kept by the people of Piacenza, from before the memory of men, in the church which formerly belonged to the convent of nuns of St. Sixtus, of the Order of St. Benedict, and from the year 1112 to monks of the same Order [Wion, Lignum Vitæ, lib. II, pag. 199; Lubin, Abbatiarum Italiæ Notitia, pag. 300.]. For on its front was written this inscription Campi, tom. I, pag. 223.:
SACRED TO ST. SIXTUS II, POPE AND MARTYR, WHO RESTS HERE. WHERE ALSO THE BODIES OF THE FOUR HOLY INNOCENTS, OF FABIAN, POPE, OF TIMOTHY, SYMPHORIAN, MARCELLUS AND APULEIUS, MARTYRS, AND OF GERMANUS, BISHOP, MACARIUS AND FELIX, CONFESSORS, AND ALSO OF THE VIRGINS AND MARTYRS MARTINA AND BARBARA, WHO PROTECT THIS HOUSE AND CITY FROM HEAVEN, HAPPILY REPOSE.
[8] Where they are reported to have been discovered There is the further point that in the year 1501, when the sepulchres of SS. Germanus the bishop and Macarius were opened, the following instruments were drawn up, copied for our predecessors in the year 1752 from a parchment manuscript of the abbey itself Bibl. Royale de Bruxelles, Mss., num. 8926.:
In the name of the Lord, amen. In the year from the Incarnation of the same one thousand five hundred and one, the fourth indiction, on the fourteenth day of the month of April, in the church of St. Sixtus at Piacenza, in the presence of the noble men Lord Daniel Bagarotus, son of the late Lord Benedict, and Lord John de Siccamilicis, son of the late Lord Janonus, witnesses summoned, etc.; the reverend Dom James of Genoa, abbot of the monastery of St. Sixtus at Piacenza, being present and standing in the Tyboria or confessionals of the said church, and with him standing by Dom Jerome of Lodi, Dom Hilary of Piacenza, Dom John Evangelist of Bobbio, Dom Jerome of Varese, Dom Jerome of Piacenza, Dom Aloysius of Piacenza, Brother Damian of Honaria, professed monks of the said monastery, and a good many other monks and commissi : commanded certain masons present in that place that they should take apart the structure of the altar placed in the said spot, in the chapel situated at the head on the left hand. When this altar had been taken apart, and its masonry removed, there appeared the monument of the saints, of oblong form, of very hard flint, with four iron plates leaded to the four sides of the said chest. And concerning the aforesaid discovery the aforesaid lord abbot and monks asked me the notary to draw up a public instrument.
I, Augustine de Valaria, public notary of Piacenza by apostolic and imperial authority, extracted, finished, and thus wrote the above-written instrument, in the place and by the mandate of Lord George de Bilegno, public notary of Piacenza and chancellor of the episcopal court of Piacenza. I, George de Billegno, public notary of Piacenza by imperial authority, having been asked for the above-written instrument, fram. *, and I gave it in my name to Master Augustine de Valaria, public notary of Piacenza, to be finished and written, and so I subscribed myself; and chancellor of the episcopal court of Piacenza.
[9] in the church of St. Sixtus: In the name of the Lord, amen. In the year from the Incarnation of the same one thousand five hundred and one, the fourth indiction, on the fourteenth day of the month of April, in the place mentioned above and about the first hour of the night, in the presence of the above-written witnesses and of Lord Francis de Captaneis, priest, rector of the church of St. Mary in Burghetum, summoned as a witness, etc.; the aforesaid lord abbot together with the monks named above, and a good many other monks and commissi, ordered the monument of SS. Macarius and Germanus, confessors, to be opened, and in it were found two vessels, the one of glass, in which was the body of St. Germanus, and the other of earthenware, in which was the body of St. Macarius; which vessels with their relics, reverently raised with lights, the aforesaid lord abbot and monks carried into the sacristy of the said monastery and placed them there. And concerning the aforesaid they asked me the notary to draw up a public instrument.
The same subscriptions follow.
[10] which some deny But Ferdinando Ughelli Italia sacra, tom. IV, vol. 306. and Cristoforo Poggiali Memorie storiche di Piacenza, tom. II, pag. 351 et seqq., although they by no means deny that the bones of a certain St. Germanus were laid up among the people of Piacenza, nevertheless hold that the body of St. Germanus of Capua was carried outside Italy by the emperor Louis II; who, as Leo of Ostia says, having taken up the body of St. Germanus … at last returned to Francia. But (a point these writers do not attend to) Leo does not relate that the body of St. Germanus was translated into Francia, but only that Louis II took it up when he was returning into Francia. Moreover, even if that king, on leaving Capua, had the intention of bearing the relics of the holy bishop with him into Gaul, nothing certainly prevents his having changed his mind on the journey, by giving them to the nuns of St. Sixtus at Piacenza. Which is by no means incredible, since at the same time Angelberga or Engelberga, the king's wife Muratori, Antiq. Ital. medii ævi, tom. II, col. 454, Milan edit. 1739., spared no labor to enrich the monastery of Piacenza, built by her about the year 874, with sacred relics, for example of SS. Sixtus, Fabian, Marcellus and Apuleius Campi, tom. I, pag. 223 et seq.. And why the name of St. Germanus of Capua is passed over by contemporary writers, this is perhaps the cause, that the nuns' church of St. Sixtus was founded in honor of the Lord's Resurrection and of SS. Sixtus, Fabian, Marcellus and Apuleius, and not of our St. Germanus; or even that the body of the blessed bishop was not translated to Piacenza until after the consecration of the church. And it is sufficient to have set this forth.
[11] The people of San Germano, since they no longer had any relics of St. Germanus, Now the people of San Germano lost the finger of their patron, which they had held for several centuries, at the end of the eighteenth century. For the most reverend Lord Carlo de Vera, the present abbot of Cassino, wrote to us on the 16th day of December 1867: The distinguished treasure of this relic, whether of the head or, more probably, the finger of St. Germanus, most carefully preserved for several centuries in the collegiate church dedicated to his name, was at last lost at the close of the last century, when the soldiers of the French republic, invading the regions of Italy and especially these southern provinces of ours, were seen to overthrow all things human and divine and to seize everything precious. For then the sacred vessels and the ornaments of the altars, the silver reliquaries, and whatever there was of gold or silver were taken away, the bones of the saints being scattered, and for the most part every hope being removed of recovering them, or at least of restoring them to their former authenticity. So the matter stood until the year 1846, when the most reverend Fr. Dom Joseph Frisari, to whom at that time the government of this convent and diocese of Cassino had been committed, having found a favorable opportunity in the general gathering of all the abbots of the Cassinese congregation for the general chapter, begged the abbot of the Parma monastery of St. John the Evangelist, Dom Ildefonso Varzer, to obtain from the Church of Piacenza another distinguished relic for our church of St. Germanus. And after no long delay, his wish granted, he received as a gift half of a rib of St. Germanus the bishop and a good many small bones, drawn from their authentic places; which the most reverend abbot himself enclosed with his own hands in a new silver reliquary, and which are religiously guarded up to the present in the above-mentioned church, and are exposed every year to the veneration of the people. So far the most reverend abbot Dom Carlo de Vera, to whom we offer the greatest thanks.
[12] they received others from the people of Piacenza, With what rite the body of St. Germanus was brought up from the crypt of his chapel into the upper church, and one bone separated from the sacred body, is told by Ildefonso Varzer, in a letter given on the 13th day of June of the year 1846 to the most reverend Abbot Frisari. This letter, written in Italian, I render in Latin: Having arrived at Piacenza, he says, I went to the most illustrious Nasalli, the vicar general, and we took counsel that the sacred body should be brought up from the crypt and, carried by two priests, be transferred into the upper church. While this was being done there were present the most reverend Lord Nasalli, the canons, the custodian of the relics and the episcopal chancellor; who drew up an instrument and ordered that it be subscribed both by me and by the parish provost with five wardens of the fabric, two priests, two witnesses, two clerics and two beadles, and others of either sex standing by. After prayers had been said first, a craftsman opened a casket one cubit * and a third long; which we found divided into two parts, with the names of SS. Germanus and Macarius the hermit added. Each part contained a crystal tube wrapped in a blackish cotton cloth, and that damp, about one palm long, and seven fingers in diameter, with a lid likewise of crystal. The officer in charge of guarding the sacred relics first drew out and opened the tube containing the relics of St. Germanus, then poured out all the bones upon a white paper. A rib which ought to have been whole was divided into two parts, one of which was set aside with four or five little bones, like hazelnuts, two or three others being stored away in a reliquary.
[13] as an epitaph witnesses. Then all the remaining bones, more or less large, together with the dust, were enclosed anew in the same tube. The tube itself was closed, and replaced as before: the casket also was shut and leaded anew and with prayers replaced in its former position: then the sepulchre was covered with a stone, and with keys placed crosswise on top, finally walled in. The half of the rib, together with the little bones drawn from the relics of St. Germanus, and enclosed in a pyx, wrapped in cotton, were delivered into my hands, secured with a seal. Afterwards in the chapel at Piacenza a marble was erected, and these words were inscribed on it:
FROM THE BONES OF ST. GERMANUS, BISHOP OF CAPUA, WHICH REST IN THIS CHAPEL, A PARTICLE OF THE THIGH, AT THE REQUEST OF THE CITIZENS OF SAN GERMANO IN THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES, AT THE FOOT OF MONTE CASSINO, WITH THE ASSENT OF ALOYSIUS OF THE COUNTS SANVITALE, BISHOP, WAS GRANTED BY THE PROVOST-PARISH PRIEST AND THE WARDENS OF THE ADMINISTRATION, TO INCREASE DEVOTION, ON THE 5TH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF JUNE IN THE YEAR OF RESTORED SALVATION 1846.
From what has been argued so far we rightly gather that, from ancient times right down to our own age, no despicable ecclesiastical cult has been paid to St. Germanus of Capua. Now let us treat of his biographer.
Annotata* i.e. crypts, in the speech of Piacenza
* i.e. lay brothers
* perhaps formavi
* braccia
§ II. Of the Life of St. Germanus. When he was bishop of Capua. His embassy to Constantinople and his death.
St. Germanus, in a Life written before the year 874, St. Germanus of Capua, like many other holy bishops of the same age, obtained no writer of his deeds either contemporary or nearly so. The Life which survives was gathered long after the blessed man's death, from old or contemporary historical monuments, sometimes wrongly understood, by a writer who confesses that nothing but a compilation has been made by him: Concerning whose St. Germanus's life or acts, since the series of writings has, through certain persons who bore it along, brought down some things to our memory, I have depicted them, collected in my own style. Among these writers are to be counted the Roman pontiff St. Hormisdas, and St. Germanus himself, or another bishop of the same name, and his companions, the legates to Constantinople for extinguishing the schism, and also St. Gregory the Great. And if the biographer at any time erred, this is to be attributed neither to bad faith nor to sloth on his part, but rather to a scarcity of documents. In reporting miracles he is so sparing that he presents only one, taken from St. Gregory the Great, namely that Paschasius, deacon of the Roman Church, was freed from purgatory through his intervention; nay, he even says: Whether indeed so great a man shone with the signs of any miracles, old report has by no means brought down to our knowledge. The age of the writer, however, a man certainly of little letters, seems to be definable by no indication. But it is manifest that he lived before the year 873 or 874; otherwise he would have mentioned the relics of St. Germanus carried off in this year by the emperor Louis II. We shall publish this Life below from a manuscript of the monastery of Cassino of the eleventh century Bibliotheca Casinensis, tom. III, pag. 307; cf. pag. 254., collated with the editions of Mombritius Vitæ SS., tom. I, pag. 327. and of Michele Monaco, who used a manuscript of the monastery of St. John at Capua Sacrarium Capuanum, pag. 99..
[15] he is said to have been a legate to Constantinople. Now this Life of St. Germanus is very meager: for in what year he was born, what functions he discharged before the episcopate, how long he governed the Church of Capua, and other things of this kind, you will seek in it in vain. Yet from that writing it has become known to us that he had as father Amantius and as mother Juliana, most illustrious and powerful citizens of Capua, and that after the death of his father he paid out his riches to the poor, his mother not resisting. It also reports that St. Germanus was one of the legates whom St. Hormisdas, Roman pontiff, sent to the emperor Justin I, that ecclesiastical affairs at Constantinople might be the more easily set in order. But this narration, which greatly pleased Baronius and a good many others, is altogether uncertain. Certainly in contemporary documents of the greatest sincerity a certain Germanus is said to have been one of those pontifical legates; but in none, so far as I know, is he stated to be bishop of Capua. Baronius Annales, at the year 497, num. I. moreover adds that he was the same bishop Germanus who discharged an embassy on behalf of St. Anastasius II, Roman pontiff, to the emperor Anastasius at Constantinople. Andreas Thiel Epistolæ Romanorum pontificum, tom. I, pag. 618 and 843. seems to have taken a better road, partly accepting and partly rejecting the opinion of Baronius. For it seems to him by no means certain that St. Germanus of Capua together with Cresconius were sent as legates by St. Anastasius II, in the cause of the Catholic religion, to the emperor Anastasius in the year 497; since St. Germanus was not at that time bishop of the people of Capua. For he is said to have been promoted to this dignity after Alexander Michele Monaco, pag. 100. Granata, Storia sacra di Capua, tom. I, pag. 99., whose immediate predecessor Constantine sat among the Fathers of the Roman council celebrated in the year 499, in the times of Symmachus, Roman pontiff Labbe, Conc., tom. IV, col. 1315.. But the same Andreas Thiel, assenting to Baronius, is of the opinion that that Germanus who had already been legate to the emperor Anastasius was also sent by St. Hormisdas to Justin I, as being plainly versed in the ecclesiastical affairs of the East on account of the first embassy. The cited author seems to suspect Op. cit., pag. 618. that this Germanus was bishop of Pesaro, and one of the fathers of the Roman council of the year 499 Labbe, Conc., tom. IV, col. 1315.. Nor can that view be called absurd. Wherefore, since it is very doubtful that St. Germanus of Capua acted the part of the Roman Church in the name of St. Hormisdas, and since this embassy has been related at length by Baronius and other writers on ecclesiastical affairs [Baronius, Annal. eccl., at the year 549, num. II et seq. Labbe, tom. IV, col. 1469 et seqq. Hefele, Concilien, tom. II, pag. 672 et seq., edit. 1875. Thiel, pag. 831 et seqq.], we are of the opinion that it should not be inserted in our Acts. We wish however that the reader be advised that already in the ninth century it seemed to learned men, such as Hincmar, that St. Germanus of Capua had discharged this embassy Acta SS., tom. I of October, pag. 93 and 156..
[16] He was bishop of Capua The beginning and end of his episcopate are neither noted by the biographer, nor can they be certainly determined from other historical monuments. Most writers indeed consider that he was already bishop in the year 519 [Baronius, Annales, at the year 519, num. II et seq. Michele Monaco, Sanct. Cap., pag. 107. Labbe, Concil., tom. IV, col. 1417.]; but for this one reason, I believe, that they think him to be that bishop Germanus whom St. Hormisdas sent as legate to Justin I. But that this has not been established for us, we have said before. Indeed in the year 524 another bishop was governing the Church of Capua, if it is true (as Muratori relates) that in this very year St. John, Roman pontiff, with lay companions and with the bishops Ecclesius of Ravenna, Eusebius of Fano, Sabinus of Capua and two others, was sent to Constantinople by Theodoric, king of the Goths Annali d'Italia, tom. III, pag. 340.. In fact neither is Sabinus found anywhere among the bishops of Capua, nor do Anastasius the Librarian Liber pontificalis, pag. 190, Vignoli edit. and the author of the Historia Miscella In Muratori, Rerum Ital. scriptt., tom. I, pag. 103., whom Muratori cites, mention any other companions of St. John than laymen. But the cited author is more strongly supported by the writer of the Historia Cæsarea, whom, as contemporary, Papebroch valued highly when he was explaining the Acts of St. John the pope at the 27th day of May Acta SS., tom. VI of May, pag. 702.. For that writer, naming Ecclesius, Eusebius and Sabinus as companions of the blessed pontiff, adds that Sabinus was a Campanian bishop. Papebroch adds however: The Church of Capua knows no Sabinus .. nor does Ughelli report anyone of this name among the other bishops of Campania Ibid., pag. 703.. But Muratori's view is not wholly overthrown by these words, since the writer of the Historia Cæsarea is not an author to be despised, and the annals of the bishops of Capua seem very obscure.
[17] between the years 524 and 541. Now it must be disclosed what we can bring forward as certain on the times of St. Germanus. Ancient catalogues of the bishops of Capua being wanting, only three documents are at hand for us which shed any light. For we dismiss, as less sincere, the Lives of St. Sabinus, bishop of Canosa Ibid., tom. II of February, pag. 324., and of St. Placidus, martyr Ibid., tom. III of October, pag. 120 and 141.; in which they are reported to have been on familiar terms with St. Germanus. The first document is the Acts of the Roman Council of the year 499, published by Labbe and others: where Constantine, bishop of Capua, is shown among the Fathers. The second is the Life of St. Benedict composed by St. Gregory the Great, and copied in part by the biographer of St. Germanus: in which the holy abbot is related to have seen, in the monastery of Cassino, which was not founded before the year 529, the soul of St. Germanus being borne by angels into heaven. Moreover it is established from elsewhere that St. Benedict died on the 21st day of March in the year 543. The third monument, finally, is the epitaph of St. Victor, bishop of Capua, composed in these words:
VICTOR EPISC. SEDIT ANN. XIII. DIES XXXVIII. DEPOSITUS SUB DIE IV NON. APRIL. ANN. XIII. P. C. BASILI V. C. INDICTIONE SECUNDA [Victor, bishop, sat 13 years, 38 days. Laid to rest on the 4th day before the Nones of April, in the 13th year after the consulship of Basilius, clarissimus, in the second indiction] Michele Monaco, Sanct. Cap., pag. 91. Acta SS., tom. VIII of October, pag. 83.: which signify that St. Victor was made bishop on the 24th day of February of the year 541, and departed this life on the 2nd day of April of the year 554 Art de vérifier les dates, pag. 336, edit. 1773.. To sum up, then, this one thing seems to be what must be said, that St. Germanus, placed over the Church of Capua after the year 525, died not before the year 529, nor after the 24th day of February of the year 541. Some, however, judge that he was bishop up to this year 541.
[18] Several things are less correctly attributed to him. Not only an excellent bishop, but also a man of letters he has seemed to some. For St. Germanus is reported by Baronius and others to have written a number of excellent letters to St. Hormisdas, when he was discharging the embassy on his behalf at Constantinople. But since it is less established for us that the blessed bishop discharged this function, we send the reader who wishes to know these writings better to Baronius, Labbe, Andreas Thiel and others. Michele Monaco also judges that St. Germanus sent a letter to St. Remigius of Reims, because Hincmar in the greater Life of St. Remigius said: This blessed Pope Hormisdas sent Germanus, bishop of Capua, whose soul St. Benedict saw being borne by Angels into heaven, to Constantinople to the emperor Justin on an embassy. He directed his letter to blessed Remigius for the curing of a demoniac girl. But Michele Monaco erred: for Hincmar relates that St. Benedict, and not St. Germanus, sent a letter to St. Remigius on the curing of the demoniac girl Acta SS., tom. I of October, pag. 72 and 156.. Nor did Platina turn aside less from the truth, where, reporting the deeds of St. Gelasius, he said: There were also in the early time of this pontiff (Gelasius) Germanus and Epiphanius, of whom the one was bishop of Pavia, the other Campanian. These greatly aided Italy, vexed by the Barbarians, by their authority and holiness, softening the hearts of the barbarians by prayers and blandishments De vitis Romanorum pontificum, pag. 63, Cologne edit. 1626. For St. Germanus was not bishop of Capua at the time when Gelasius held the Roman see, since the latter had already died before the year 497. But it is manifest that Platina here took St. Germanus of Capua for St. Germanus of Auxerre, who undertook a journey into Italy, and after he had freed not a few captives from their chains,
departed this life among the people of Ravenna Acta SS., tom. VII of July, pag. 219.. St. Epiphanius of Pavia, in the time of St. Gelasius the pope, himself also devoted effort to redeeming captives Ibid., tom. II of January, pag. 372.. These matters having been discussed, we place before the reader's eyes the Life of the blessed bishop.
LIFE OF ST. GERMANUS, BISHOP OF CAPUA
from a Cassino manuscript collated with the editions of Mombritius and Michele Monaco.
Germanus, bishop of Capua in Italy. (S.)
BHL Number: 3465
aFROM MSS. AND PRINTED EDITIONS.
St. Germanus, born in Campania Felix, As the land of Campania is rich in bringing forth fruits of many kinds, so in each age, made fruitful by the seed of the heavenly word, it has produced men of commendable life, like a manifold harvest. Of E A. whose company most blessed Germanus, like a certain om. A. quoddam B. most brilliant star set in addictum A. the earth, in the compendium epitome B. of all the virtues came forth præditus B. virtutum-prodit om. A. and shone to the very summit of holiness. Of om. A. whose life or acts vel a. om. A., since the series of writings has, through certain persons who bore it along referentibus A., brought down some things to our memory, I have depicted them eam … collectam A., collected in my own style depinxi A., adding nevertheless in their proper places those things also which the blessed pope Gregory, that most delightful and illustrious doctor suavissimus a. p. d. om. A., related of this excellent man in his om. A. dialogues, inserting interseranda A. them om. A. just as they had been fuerunt A. arranged by him. Blessed Germanus, then, born of a father Amantius and a mother Juliana, citizens of Capua, very illustrious and powerful according to the dignity of the world, not without a certain presage received such a name, as one who was soon to love all with a brotherly charity. In short, from boyhood devoted to all the goods of a praiseworthy life, but in primis tamen A. especially om. A. to charity, which is the root of all goods, he began studebat A. to show, not sluggishly, in the love of his neighbor in proximi c. d. n. s. o. om A., with what intentness in add. A. he burned with the love of God admodum add. A: for since he extended the branches of his charity to all ostenderet A. with wondrous mera A. purity, he began with the highest zeal to spend himself on the care of feeding the poor, and to provide them with coverings, or whatever things were necessary. Now it came about that his father Amantius, passing migrans B. from this world, left all his resources derelinqueret suas A. under the authority of his son. Germanus, however, remaining with his widowed mother, began to test pertentare A, B. his mother's mind animum A. on contempt of the world and the renunciation of all things.
[2] beneficent to the poor with wondrous liberality, What more? The good mother, lending her assent to her son as he urged heavenly things assensum cœlestia A., entrusted to the judgment of Germanus whatever he wished to do, promising nevertheless that she would comply in all things. But he, who had earlier pios A. spent the fruits of his wealth with a lavish outpouring, advanced, growing little by little, to the point of selling the patrimony of all his property and distributing the price received through Christ's poor pro C. pauperibus A., or rather of giving it to Christ himself in the poor. Nor did he allow himself to bestow only a part, without letting go even the whole for a dwelling retributione A, B. in eternal life: reckoning in om. A. his mind animo suo A. that to be held habere A. as lost which he had not placed in the cloister of the heavenly treasury. Stripped in such a way, then, of the hindrances of this om. A. world, he began to run the way of the heavenly path all the more freely, as quantum B. nothing nihil ei A. of the world's ambition was left over supererat A. by which he could be slowed: to apply himself to holy scilicet A. reading, to be free for prayers, to give his effort to vigils, to mortify his body with vigils jejuniis A, B., to offer a victim to the Lord dicto A. Deo se B. always by the practice of continual compunction.
[3] he is created bishop of Capua, While he was leading his life in such exercises, on the death of the bishop Alexandro add. B. of the same Church of Capua, he was elected by the consent of all to the pontifical honor. And although he tried om. A. out of humility humanitate A. om. A. to resist obsisteret A. with all his strength, yet the will of the Lord, who had prepared him for this very thing, was fulfilled: and he accepted the honor of the bishopric episcopatusque A., with all striving for it amitentibus lætantibusque A.. Raised, then, to the episcopal dignity Tum vero episc. d. s. A., he began to show himself to the flock subjected to him in such a manner that, except for the fatherly concern which he carried out with the highest zeal for the souls committed to him, in all else he presented himself to all as a common and om. A. as it were in nothing unequal fellow servant: by no intermission abandoning that work familiar familiare A. to him, to which he had applied himself from his earliest age, namely the care of the poor.
[4] and he is sent as legate to Constantinople, At the same time, when Theodoric was reigning at the city of Rome and in the bounds of all Italy, and was presiding by right om. A. of power over both his own people, that is, the Goths, and also the people of the Romans, the emperor Anastasius having been killed at Constantinople by a stroke of lightning, who quod A. stained himself om. A and many peoples of those regions with the contagion maculavit A. macularat B. of the Eutychian heresy, Justin, by the assent of almighty God, a preserver of the Catholic religion, took up the empire. When he was bearing the concern of restoring grandem A. the universal faith, he sent legates to Rome to Hormisdas b, at that time pontiff episcopum A. of the same city, through whom he also directed to him suæ ei A. the text of his belief incredulitatis A., begging with the greatest intentness that he would direct to him men most learned in Catholic assertion, so that he might cleanse languishing Greece from the filth Græciam hæresi in linnone A. of the aforesaid heresy. The Roman pontiff, then, having held with per Romanum pontificem et A. the assent of King Theodoric a priestly et sacerdotum A. council on who chiefly should be sent to bear defendenda A. the admonitions of salvation to the eastern peoples, this opinion pleased all hæc s. o. A., that no one else could more worthily fulfill the office of an embassy delegationis A. of this kind than Germanus, bishop of the city of Capua. The venerable bishop was immediately summoned to the City: and without delay, taking in his company two priests of the Roman Church and two deacons c, he took to the road. But how great perils of the sea's waves he sustained on this journey, by what dangers he was harassed, being eager for brevity, I omit omnino A. to recount retexit A.. All these things, however, he bore with a glad mind, provided only he might come to the aid of the perils periculo A. of souls: nor did he fear to undergo any bodily loss whatever, who panted to drive off the shipwreck suffragium A. of troubled minds turbatarum m. a. A..
[5] where he settles the Catholic peace. At length, when he had drawn near to the royal city, he was held d in such love and veneration by all that Justin Augustus, attended by a countless in misericordia A. multitude of his army, came out to meet him, not only with the priestly assembly or ac A. John e, bishop of the same Church, but also with om. A. crowds of monks and other religious, and atque A. led him om. A. with hymns and spiritual canticles for a distance of some alia A. miles right into the city with exultation in exaltationem produxerit A.. Such grace, then, was divinely bestowed on most blessed Germanus that, although incassum add. A. the accomplices of Acacius Acacium cum pluribus A., who had been thrown down from the episcopate ejectus episcopatu A. of the same royal city, tried to resist retinere tentaverit A. tentaverint B., yet all om. A. alike returned to the splendor of the Catholic faith, leaving behind the darkness of errors. In which matters how greatly blessed Germanus then shone with the light of knowledge or of holiness, if anyone carefully attends intendat A., he evidently recognizes agnoscet A..
[6] the deacon Paschasius Whether indeed so great a man shone with the signs of any miracles, old report has by no means brought down to our usque ad. n. A. knowledge. But why do we seek the wonders of outward works, when we hold tenemus A. certainty about interior miracles miraculorum A., which are surely more excellent? Since Quandoquidem A. namely om. A. it is far more excellent to raise by a saving word morbo A. a soul dead by the death of sin than to restore life to a lifeless body. As many souls, therefore, as the venerable man iste add. A, B. rescued from eternal death by his saving teaching, by so many miracles the more glorious gloriosis A., as if he had produced outward signs, does he stand before the inner judge. Although in this account relegatione quæ Pasch. A., which is to be appended om. A. concerning Paschasius f, deacon of the city of Rome, a great miracle and merit of this man has been declared in the fact that he was able either to see the soul of that same minister, or to obtain obtineret A. divine mercy for his remission per e. remissionem A.. Paschasius, in short, deacon of the apostolic see, whose most correct and lucid books on the Holy Spirit Spiritu S. A. exist among us, was a man of wondrous holiness, devoted especially to works of almsgiving, a cherisher of the poor and a despiser of himself g: but this man, in that contest which took place, the zeal of the faithful blazing up, between Symmachus and Laurence, chose Laurence for the order of the pontificate facta-Laurentium om. A. degit A., and though afterwards overcome by the unanimity of all, nevertheless persisted præstitit A. in his opinion up to about the day h of his ipsius add. A. death, loving and preferring him whom qui A. the Church by the judgment of the bishops refused to have over præesset A her i.
[7] by his prayers he frees him from purgatory. When he, then, had died in the times of Symmachus, bishop of the apostolic see, a demoniac touched his ejus A. dalmatic laid over the bier, and was immediately healed salvatus A, B.. But after much time, the physicians prescribed to blessed Germanus for his bodily health that he ought to bathe k at the Angulan Baths turmis A.. On entering om. A. the same Baths turmas A. he found the aforesaid deacon Paschasius standing and in attendance sibi add. B. in the heat; at the sight of whom he was greatly afraid, and asked what so great a man was doing there. He answered him: "For no other cause have I been assigned to this place of punishment except that I took the side of Laurence against Symmachus; but, I beg you, entreat the Lord for me sed-deprecare om. A.; and by this you may know that you have been heard, if on returning here you do not find me." Concerning this the man of the Lord Germanus bound himself in prayers,
and after a few days he returned, but no longer found the aforesaid Paschasius in the same place. By which In quo add. A, B. deed it is plainly given to be understood of how great merit before God Dominum A. the venerable Germanus stood, who by his powerful prayers was able to cleanse emendare A. even a soul released from the body of the guilt of sin.
[8] the soul of St. Germanus borne into heaven But now let us come venimus A. to his glorious death, wondrous mirabili A. to hear of, the like of which simile unquam A., so far as we can recall, no nulla umquam om. A. old reading has ever disclosed: in which it is manifestly shown that the souls of the saints in quo etiam sanctorum animæ A, as soon as they are stripped of the flesh, enter heaven monstrantur A., and with how great glory they are borne there by Angels is displayed: and let this be published by so great a witness that no one, even om. A. an unbeliever, can in any way doubt of this unde hoc A.. So when most blessed Germanus, walking from virtue to virtue, was growing, and had now arrived at a very advanced age, full, as Scripture relates, of days, that is hoc est om. A. of good works, leaving behind the whirlwinds of this world he happily passed to the joys of the heavenly kingdom. His wondrous ascent into the heavens most blessed beatus B. father Benedict l, separated from him by nearly fifty miles, beheld, contemplating est A. it with spiritual sight spiritu A.. That this may be more fully known, the very order of the narration from the Life of the same ejusmodi A. father must be set down. At a certain time, then quodam temp. it. A., the deacon Servandus m, abbot of that monastery which had been established in the parts of Campania by Liberius et Libero A., once a patrician, had come according to his custom to the venerable Benedict, for the sake of a visit: for he frequented his monastery, so that, since this man too abounded influebat A. in the teaching of heavenly grace, they might pour out to each other the sweet words of life, and might taste by sighing at least, since they could not yet do so perfectly, the delightful food of the heavenly fatherland.
[9] St. Benedict But when the hour of rest now demanded that they should yield their limbs to sleep, there was a tower n set in the midst, which overhung the roof of the whole dwelling; in the upper parts of this tower the man of the Lord Benedict placed himself, and in its lower parts se add. A. the deacon Servandus. In which om. A. place, namely, a passable per hunc A. ascent joined the lower parts to the upper: and before the same tower there was a wider dwelling, in which the disciples of both were resting. And when the man of the Lord Benedict, while the brethren were still resting quiescentibus fratribus A., intent on vigils, had anticipated the times of the nightly prayer, standing at the window and entreating the Lord almighty, looking up suddenly at the dead hour of the night he saw a light poured fuscam A. from above put to flight all the darkness of the night, and grow bright with such splendor that that light, which had shone out in the darkness, overcame the day. And a very wondrous thing followed in this vision: for, as he himself afterwards told, even the whole world, as if gathered under one ray of the sun, was brought before his eyes. While the venerable father was fixing infigeret A. the intent gaze of his eyes on this splendor of flashing light, he saw the soul of Germanus, bishop of Capua Germani animam Capuani episcopi A., being carried in a fiery sphere by angels into the heavens.
[10] knew it by divine revelation. Then wishing to bring a witness of so great a miracle to himself, he called the deacon Servandus again, twice and thrice by his name nomen A with a great cry: and when he had been disturbed by the unwonted cry of so great a man, he went up, looked, and saw only a small part of the light. To him, amazed at so great a om A. miracle, the man of God narrated in order what had fuerunt B. taken place, and at once sent word to the castle of Cassino to the religious man Theoprobus, to send that same night to the city of Capua Capuam A., and learn what was happening about Germanus the bishop, and report it. And it came about that ut A. the one who had been sent found the most reverend reverendum A. man Germanus the bishop already dead: and inquiring precisely, he learned that his death obitus A. had taken place at the same moment at which the man of the Lord knew of his ascent. Almighty God Dominus A. willed this to be shown by so fit a witness for this purpose, that it might become plainly known to all that this venerable man had done some great thing bonum add. A. in his hidden life. Behold with what glory of sublimity he went out of the world, who quia A. with the whole effort nixu A. of his mind looked down on the perishing things of the world: behold how flashing and splendid he made for heaven, who, placed on earth in body, clung in mind continually continua A. to heavenly things: lo, he who always blazed with the flames flammæ A. of charity in the love of God and neighbor, with what brilliance of light surrounded circumfulsus A. he entered the secrets of heaven. Lo Et A. he who, still held recens A. by the chain of the flesh, was present in heart with the citizens above, with what dignity of their ministry ministeriis A. he was carried up to the realms of the fatherland gratiæ add. A. above patria A.. What worldly sublimity ever, what deceitful glory of those who reign can be compared to this true glory? What pomp of triumphing tyrants can even in some degree be matched with this triumph? They, drawn in gilded aurati A. chariots, to perish forever perpetius A., are borne into fires urbibus B.; this man, carried by angels, is sent into heaven to enjoy it perpetually. They, savage through the deaths of many, are dragged off to the darkness of eternal punishment. This man, many having been freed from death, is led to the rest of eternal light. They, after the gladness of fleeting pleasure, the nether regions will swallow up deglutiunt A, B., to weep without end. This man, after abstinence and lamentations, joys that will never end have received [ad quæ nos faciat pervenire Dominus noster Jesus Christus qui cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivit et regnat Deus per infinita sæcula sæculorum add. A.]. Amen om. B..
ANNOTATIONS.
* quam si, Subiaco cod.
* æternum, Subiaco cod.